18 Apr 2023

LTTP: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) [PS5]

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Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was a defining moment for first person shooters; single player and multiplayer shooters wouldn’t be the same after this seminal game launched. It effectively kicked off the annual Call of Duty franchise we know today. It was so iconic that Activision-Blizzard decided to remaster the game in 2016 and reboot it in 2019. The reboot managed to reinvigorate the franchise’s multiplayer and successfully launch a battle royale in Warzone, but the campaign didn’t hit the memorable marks that I was hoping for.

I have to admit that I actually finished the campaign months ago and completed two other games before realizing that I didn’t jot down my thoughts on what I played. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare’s campaign leaned in on its blockbuster Hollywood depiction of war with unrealistic outcomes the nuance of a sledgehammer wielding gorilla.

This Call of Duty: Modern Warfare campaign tried to be more subtle and nuanced, but it still comes off clumsy and, frankly, forgettable. They tried to play between the lines of morality and deeper character motivations, but it didn’t manage to strike a memorable note. Who are the bad guys? How are people radicalized? Playing as a small child to save their brother from a superhuman invader by attacking and hiding three times doesn’t help me understand the situation any better. 

I played the game on the PlayStation 5 in 2022, and it’s still holds up quite well. The presentation and feel of the game was a step above of any other Call of Duty title to date; probably only outdone by its 2022 sequel, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. 

Bombastic spectacles were still present, but they were less ridiculous and entertaining than those found in the original Modern Warfare. They were trying to highlight the complications of identifying the enemy in this reinvented Modern Warfare title where battlelines are blurred and battlefields are much smaller in scale. Breach and clears were a punctuation point in the 2007 game, while it was — annoyingly — the point in the 2019 game. Creeping through buildings, to clear them out room by room is not my idea of a good time. Perhaps they were trying to convey that fact, in which case, they succeeded.

I was very curious what Infinity Ward would bring to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Choosing to reboot a beloved game was a very deliberate act to stir up excitement in a very long running franchise. I understand why they though it was a good idea to update Modern Warfare and actually have it reflect what warfare means in the 2020s. However, I think it’s trying to take itself seriously and created an even bigger tonal gulf between the campaign and multiplayer halves of the game. It’s ridiculous, but not in a good way.

Verdict:
I didn’t like it

Ratings Guide

11 Nov 2022

LTTP: Resident Evil 2 [PS5]

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I played the original Resident Evil 2 on the Sega Dreamcast of all consoles. It was my second Resident Evil game after finishing Resident Evil: Code Veronica on Sega’s impressive 3D console. In fact, the only reason I even played Code Veronica was because of a school friend who bought his Dreamcast for the exclusive. My impressions of the original RE2 were not as glowing as I hoped. I was coming from a game that refined tank controls and generationally superior in every technical aspect. 

I recall finding it neat that it had two playable characters, but at the same time, I was disappointed that I was essentially playing the same 10 hour game twice. Coming from the 20 hour epic campaign of Code Veronica, it felt like things were wrapping up as soon as things started moving. 

I’m the weirdo who would have preferred a remake of Resident Evil: Code Veronica over Resident Evil 2. With that in mind, I still recognized Leon and Claire’s first adventure has its place amongst fans of the franchise and video games at large. I was curious if I would enjoy the remake more with a fresh new coat of paint and a revised perspective many years later.

The remake’s philosophy seemed to have been: “Keep the spirit and hallmarks of the original while modernizing just about everything that makes sense.” Third person over the shoulder camera established in Resident Evil 4 made its return. I found the first person camera in Resident Evil 7 fine, but to me, it doesn’t feel like a Resident Evil game unless its in the third person. 

A generous checkpoint system, friendly controls, and melee counter options gave Leon and Claire more fight and capability than ever, but they were still bound by the confines of the original’s design. They could jog and jump down in this game, but a 3 foot gap was too much to handle. They still had to re-arrange giant bookshelves just so they can build a makeshift bridge across the library’s second floor.

I was generally impressed with how the game looked technically; I was playing the PS5 upgraded version at 120FPS mode. My only gripe was with the screen space reflections which were a distraction. I would have switched on the ray tracing mode to fix those flaws, but the performance issues in that mode deterred me from staying with that mode.

I was also a fan of how the zombies, police station, and just about everything aside from Leon and Claire looked. I found both protagonists looked and sounded derpy with their awkward lines. Ada Wong and just about every other character came across fine, but Leon and Claire were a couple of awkward fools that didn’t quite grasp the gravity of their situation. 

Playing through Resident Evil 2 twice wasn’t satisfying. Claire’s playthrough was faster and had a handful of interesting moments, but it didn’t warrant retreading so much of Leon’s adventure. I understand this was a relatively novel idea when the PlayStation version debuted, but I’m just not a big fan of having to go through games multiple times to unlock true endings — especially when the differences aren’t enough to warrant it.

When I was in the thick of it, creeping by a licker because I was low on resources or just jetting through the station because Tyrant was nearby, I was loving every second of Resident Evil 2. The game was in its element and executing on every level. It’s unfortunate that there was just a tad too little of it and the experience was watered down with the Claire playthrough. 

Verdict
I liked it

Ratings Guide

13 Mar 2022

LTTP: 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim

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Third time’s the charm with Vanillaware and I. I tried Odin Sphere, but found the original PS2 release onerous to play. (The remaster was only marginally better.) I didn’t like Dragon’s Crown Pro either so I really didn’t pay much attention to 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim until I started seeing the praise and noticing that it wasn’t a beat ’em up game like their previous works. I was cautiously optimistic so I put it on the watch list and finally picked up a copy during Boxing Day 2021.

I generally like the look of VanillaWare games despite their grotesquely proportioned women. Things were looking up for 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim though; it only had one character was stupidly busty. The rest of the cast was fine, but a majority of them weren’t instantly memorable. Generic anime high schooler was a very common through line.

VanillaWare aren’t a big budget studio and they tend to wring out a lot of use with what they make. With Odin Sphere and Dragon’s Crown, the backdrops, character animations, and gameplay ideas were reused to their breaking points. Unfortunately for beat ’em up styled games, that breaking point hits me very fast. 

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim mitigated wearing out their assets in a few ways. Firstly, they developed a story that justified the need to see events from different character’s perspectives. They made it actually interesting to revisit areas to reveal meaningful story tidbits. 

Secondly, they metered out exposure by splitting up the gameplay and story segments and then gating progress based on the different characters and battles. Subdividing the story into different character arcs may have been a source of frustration early on, but it ensured I wasn’t burning out on any one thing too quickly; they saved me from myself and I ended up appreciating it.

The story started off quite slow and reserved. After the tutorial and character introductions were out the way, the pace and science fiction tropes began flowing. The tropes may sound like a knock against 13 Sentinels, but there were so many of them that it somehow all gelled together to create something that compelled me to come back to on a nightly basis.

I was initially invested because of the strategy gameplay scenarios, but by the end, I just wanted to know how this wild story pieced itself together. I was content with the ending and even got a tiny bit misty eyed with some of the revelations and moments in the epilogue. 

I had reservations about the size of the cast. I thought I would lose track of storylines and wondered how many of them would resonate. As it turns out, if you spend enough time steeped in this game (just over 30 hours), you get to know everyone and everything rather well. Thankfully they included an easily accessible events timeline and information files that I could peruse at any time for a refresher.

I don’t think it’s a controversial opinion, but I despised the selfishness of Megumi Yakushiji.

Whenever I feel a strong negative reaction to a character’s actions, and discuss hypotheticals with my fiancee about a character’s decisions, I praise the writers for making me care enough about their story. While her choices ended up working out, her motivations were not just and nobody will ever call her out on it — in fact, she gets a very happy ending which upon reflection, sends the message: Obeying talking animals and shooting your friends with mystery bullets always pays off.

The gameplay half of this game was very straightforward, but I felt like I broke it from the get go. As soon as I was able to generate A.I. controlled interceptors and sentry turrets, I kept dumping upgrade points into it and then kept spamming them in battles. I S ranked every mission except for the last couple on the first try. I figured the game would force me to change tactics at one point, but it turns out that investing in drones, chainsaw swords, and EMPs was enough to bulldoze everything. Don’t get me wrong, I still found it satisfying to stomp through the hordes of enemies, but I was hoping for a bit more variety in the objectives. 

I ended up liking 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim quite a bit, but when I evaluate its component pieces, I realized a lot of what I liked about it was in the cutscenes and story payoffs. The strategy gameplay missions were serviceable if not repetitive. The adventure/story segments were not interesting mechanically often exposed the limits of asset variety as well. What made this game work was how the gameplay, story, and mysterious context of everything melded together to deliver an experience that warranted all that repetition. Intrigue and curiosity took me a long way with this and thankfully for me, I had boatloads of both.

Verdict:
I liked it

Ratings Guide

18 Aug 2021

LTTP: The Last of Us Part II

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Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us Part II was a fitting name for the sequel to the PlayStation 3 classic. Sometimes sequels shake things up or dramatically evolve from one instalment to the next, but not this franchise; it was cut from the same cloth. It evoked similar feelings of despising and pitying the protagonist. It smothered us with stories of humans being absolutely awful to each other. And it gave us plenty of opportunities to dispatch or sneak by infected and humans alike. 

Part II felt instantly familiar as someone who replayed The Last of Us via its remaster last year. There were evolutions and expansions on ideas, but it largely played the same on Hard difficulty. Snuffing out infected and humanoid enemies alike without expending too much resources would often yield even more resources. It all quickly snowballed the two protagonists into powerhouses. Being careful paid off too much in this case. 

Ellie was a playable character in The Last of Us, but she wasn’t a full fledged playable character with her own skill tree. Ellie starring in the Part II was expected, but her sharing the spotlight with Abby, the daughter of the late surgeon that Joel killed in that Colorado hospital operating room, was a bit of a surprise. She had her own story, skill tree, and set of exclusive weaponry. 

The two protagonists were more capable than ever having remembered that they were humans that could go prone and crawl through grass like Metal Gear’s Solid Snake. They could even shoot while on their backs which gave me Metal Gear Solid V vibes. New gadgets and skills mixed things up a bit, but they weren’t enough to stave off the familiar feeling of it all. The characters continued to consume decades old pills or “supplements” to expand their skill trees in-between firefights involving makeshift bombs and Molotov cocktails. Fighting off infected felt as natural as swimming (which you can now do) while human enemy behaviors stood out like a sore and inadequate thumb in 2021. Many of these issues exist in newer full-fledged stealth games, but I was hoping Naughty Dog made further advancements in that area.

I was also disappointed by two new enemy types: the dogs hunting along with humans and the Stalker from the infected ranks. They were annoying to deal with and didn’t really pose the interesting threat that the developers intended. I see how these two can seriously ruin someone’s day in the higher difficulties, but on hard difficulty? They were either silenced unceremoniously, lured into a makeshift bomb or greeted with a shotgun blast to the face. Yeah, the game is still very violent.

The Last of Us was violent and occasionally cruel, but I felt Part II was very violent and often cruel. Abby and Ellie were monsters in their own way and they displayed it often in both gameplay and cutscenes. They were born into a world where the most monstrous survive and where restraint and compassion often leaves you lying in a pool of your own blood later down the line. The story’s twists and turns didn’t surprise me, but its expansiveness did. It felt like they made two games that joined at a single event before concluding with yet another decision made by characters that I personally did not agree with, but understood. 

The developers sprinkled minute and overt touches of humanity amongst the enemies this time around. Enemies would often call each other by name. They’re often heard discussing plans for their own communities and the threats they faced. And by the time the player swap occurred, it was apparent that people were just trying to survive and many of them were following orders to ensure the survival of their friends and family. I’m not sure what it says about me, but I didn’t change my approach even after these details were made very apparent. You could say I just played my side’s role to the extreme, but I just wanted to loot in peace.

Exploring the environments was the highlight of the game for me. I tried to explore every nook looking for “environmental story telling”. The hotel and the basement floors of the hospital were my favorite spaces because they told epic tales from the early days of the outbreak. There were dozens of tiny awful discoveries through the course of the game, but the one where this small town’s greatest archer drugged his friends and neighbours and locked them in a spore infested mechanic’s office stuck with me. The brilliant touch was me stumbling across this hell room first; before piecing together the journal entries and notes to discover the grim reason for this room full of infected. 

I’m glad I chose to wait a whole year before playing The Last of Us Part II. In that time, the PlayStation 5 launched and a free PS5 update unlocked the framerate to 60 FPS among other tweaks. The game ran extremely well on Performance mode; I’m certain it’s playable at 30 FPS, but I’m opting into the 60 FPS life when I can. The animations were top notch and was a technical highlight. I don’t know how they kept everything looking so smooth and responsive. I didn’t feel like I was waiting for actions to play out. 

The Last of Us Part II wasn’t a wild or earth shattering sequel like Uncharted 2: Among Thieves was, but Naughty Dog did just enough to keep me locked in. I want them to shake up the gameplay systems for the next game, but I don’t know what that would look like. All I know is that this loop of seeking out supplements and silently snuffing out humans and infected is well worn territory. I wasn’t bored or tired of it by the time credits rolled, but I don’t know if I can tolerate a third installment of the more of the same on the gameplay front. 

As for story? Questions linger. What are the fates of the survivors? Will there be a bitter sweet ending one day? Is there hope in this world or will humanity be doomed to succumbing to barbarism? Only Naughty Dog knows and I’m looking forward to finding out how it all unfolds.

Verdict:
I liked it

Ratings Guide

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