Last game you finished, tell us about it

[No_.ne]

The Last of Us Part II

I do think they took the central theme of revenge a tad too far though. Narratively speaking, the final chapter was entirely redundant imo.

As someone who did not like this game, yeah, that's pretty much my entire issue with the game. The structure (the way the story's arranged, so to speak) and the final chapter just being a "Oh, in case you missed it, this is what the rest of the game was trying to say, but here, have some extra misery sprinkled on top!"
The first game was, atleast for me, an extremely good example of a story that completely sidestepped ludonarrative dissonance (yeah yeah overused phrase, whatever). In the ending, I knew that Joel was a bad person doing the wrong thing, but that doesn't matter because Ellie mattered just as much to me and I'd have done the exact same thing and a part of me empathized with Joel. There was no disconnect between me and him.

The second game to me just felt like it was an exercise in ludonarrative dissonance. Goes without saying that this is just my take on what the game was trying to do but the gameplay and story structure make it feel like the game is funneling you towards enjoying hating the "enemies" as much as Ellie does, try and recapture that feeling of agreeing with Joel and then punishing you for it by pretty much straight up saying "Revenge is bad!". It wants to be a waterboard, a constant barrage of misery and then say "See? You get lost in the revenge but hey, she sucks and you should rethink you agreeing with her!"
But the thing is, I never felt that way. Ludonarrative dissonance can't be enforced as a weapon to make the player think when I'm actively spending most of the playtime looking at the screen, seeing Ellie doing something morally reprehensible and just going "Oh damnit" and feeling I needed a break. You can't punish me for enjoying something that I am actively hating. But I'd have been fine if the game ended when they get to the ranch. NOPE, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, AND DAMN SHE DOES THE EXACT SAME SHIT ALL OVER AGAIN WOOHOO! It just makes the rest of the game even more futile.
I liked Abby's branch of the story. It was good. I think its placement being altered could've benefitted the game but that's an exceptionally minor nitpick.

I'm basing what I felt like in the context of what the first game did for me but it's the sequel and I think that's more than fair. It made me feel one with the character and made me tackle the fact that I am okay with and support what is objectively bad for the entire world. It made me tackle that issue on my own terms and it's something that I'm still thinking about to this day. This game only ever made me feel like it was trying to bait me into agreeing with the character and while they stand with a "boo" sign hidden poorly behind their back and all it did was make me feel bad, but it just didn't do it for me. Yeah, revenge is bad, I know, but since that's not something you made me think about, was all I got out of this experience just nothing but a constant barrage of shit that made me feel like shit?

I think the gameplay is the only part of that game that's actually enjoyable enough to make that point stick. The only way I can really describe it is "crunchy". Easily the best gameplay that one of the narrative blockbuster Naughty Dog games has ever had, and the enemy chatter actually does at time succeed at make you feel bad for enjoying the game so much. IIRC they'll call out each others' names and shit, and that felt like a much better executed microcosm of what the rest of the game was trying to do (make you enjoy revenge and then call you out for it).

Still pretty much the best-looking game released for the PS4 imo. Damn this game is pretty

 

[JDR13]

But I'd have been fine if the game ended when they get to the ranch. NOPE, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, AND DAMN SHE DOES THE EXACT SAME SHIT ALL OVER AGAIN WOOHOO! It just makes the rest of the game even more futile.

Yeah, I thought Tommy showing up and convincing her to go after Abby again was a real stretch at that point, hence the final part being redundant.

Still, I can't penalize the game much for it because I enjoyed the change of location and the encounters in the endgame. If I was a story > gameplay guy it probably would have mattered a lot more to me.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I liked the final act for two main reasons.

They show Abby significantly different than previously. Emaciated and weak from being starved by the slavers. That moment really hit for me, seeing her tied up there, hardly distinguishable from any other slave.
And the second reason is, I liked the very final flashback scene when they show that Ellie was very close to forgiving and patching things up with Joel, and that's when they robbed her of him. That entire flashback I felt was heartwarming and motivated the whole revenge arc.

But I do agree that all in all, it's nothing really original or anything. It's a story as old as time, but just told for characters I really liked from Part 1.

 

[num4!vr34umu5t4r!]

Clair Obscur
Finished it the other day after about 35h but left some side areas and sidequests unfinished so i think 50h is reachable. For me the artstyle and story were top notch, towards the end they went philsophical and shit but for the most part was really good. As for how the game looks, the beginning is a bit misleading, the prologue and first area are just plain vanilla but when the world opens up, most zones look insanely good.
I read many pray the chars, i dont know, for me they just kept on whining and whining and whining that i didnt really care for anyone in the end. I like how they also put alot of funny stuff into the game, many jokes around and just silly things with Esquie and the gestrals and so on.
As for the combat it reminded me of the one from Marvel Midnight Suns somehow with its limited use of skill in the fights, didnt really need much thinking just some changing of starting skills depending of enemies.
Overall good game even for one who doesnt like jrpgs and it definitely looks, plays and feels like an AAA. I dont know how really small and indie the studio is but its amazing what they did so i guess the sales are deserved.

 

[wolfgrimdark]

Yea going into all these threads

Finished Bloodlines last night, another midnight gaming night as I've been obsessed with completing. No difficulty sliders which made it rough but while I am not good at dodge and reflex stuff I am patient with stealth. I had to put some extra points into stealth but it was a literal undead saver for me, making it so I could finish the game. Glad I had been hoarding experience points so I could try out different things when I got stuck. I maxed out strength, melee, brawl, potence, scholarship, and celerity. Persuasion was at 9 when I finished. Also had some points in stealth, locking picking, and research.

My main weapons early on were fists, then a sledgehammer, and finally a very powerful katana. I avoided ranged. Only time I really used a gun was with Mandarin to shoot out some devices he was using to do experiments. I only lost a masquerade point once, which I fixed later, and I kept my humanity maxed out, only losing two points once - damn guard doing werewolf blood quest at the clinic.

I sided with the Anarchs. In the end Nines, and Isaac, were the two most decent Kindred I met, both Anarchs. Beckett was okay too.

I only had one quest completely glitch (Chasity quest for Velvet) but found a work around online to get the fat guy out of the booth.

Even with it's age, and needing an unofficial patch, the experience itself (if perhaps not the game itself) was 10/10 for me. Loved every minute ... almost. Some of the stealth stuff was annoying especially before I realized how good stealth got with more points in it. Bloodbuff helped till I could add more around mid-late game.

The only odd thing, or maybe illogical, something ... was that I was a fledgling. Yet for anyone who has played the game you know the things you do ... those are things even an elder vampire might find hard. I took down Primogens, wiped out entire bases, got demons, and the list goes on and on. It really makes me wonder who my sire was as they must have had some damn powerful blood ... but if so why were they embracing a human in some cheap hotel room

Lastly, I thought this would be very unlikely based on lore, but the driver you get at the end. He made me think he might be Caine, pretending to be a Joe Smoe vampire watching from the side lines. I mean you need some entertainment when you live forever and obviously he would not want anyone to know he was around. I googled it and to my surprise saw this - guess my instincts weren't so bad after all.

Cab Driver

The cab driver was found in Los Angeles during the events surrounding the discovery of the Ankaran Sarcophagus in late 2004. Little is known about him, except that he and Smiling Jack know each other. It is strongly implied that the taxi driver may be Caine, the first vampire and ancestral sire...

whitewolf.fandom.com

Pure awesomeness! I so want more like this.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Neverwinter Nights

Well, I finally managed to play through the whole original campaign. And I do have a revised review of the negative one I initially wrote. It's a lot less negative, but most of that is because I finally stumbled on a very overpowered class build that managed to speed through a whole lot of filler combat. A lot, especially in Act 2, which is where 3-4 of my previous attempts at playing this always collapsed.

(I wanted to also maintain my original review, so it's at the end of this.)

But there's also some good stuff, especially with particular quests in the second half of the game. I was indeed surprised how decently fun these were; along with the overall adventure of dungeon diving. That was probably another thing that made me have more fun than previously; just taking the game as more of a dungeon-crawler adventure, with much more focus on combat than on story, dialogue and choices&consequences.

I still maintain that the combat is way too slow, but probably there's way too much of it. And only thanks to the cleric build did I manage to speedrun through most of it; due to all the buffs I was able to cast on myself. It also made the whole game considerably easier than my rogue builds. So much so that it feels like it's completely unbalanced. And this was on hardcore D&D difficulty. I think maybe 1-2 fights made me have to slightly be more careful, but otherwise I just steamrolled everything.

In terms of the story and narrative structure, it's very repetitive and formulaic; especially how each act is laid out very similarly. In each one you start in some new town, and have 3-4 adjacent areas that you explore in order. With very similar narrative hooks, especially for Acts 1 and 2. It was impressive how similar they are. It also didn't help that the main plot until that point is so slow and takes so long to get going.

Act 3 is considerably better, starting from the Uthgart encampment. There's a few good quests along Act 3, starting with a trail that you play through as defense for the accused. That was a very night touch to get me in a good state. Finally a good quest that involved no combat; just talking to people. And then there's a timetravel quest' that was also quite fun. And finally the final act was also pretty decent. I loved the small narrative hint right towards the end, where it heavily implies other mirrored planes of existence being under similar threats to your own. I love that sort of thing, where the game hints at what else might be out there.

Once I accepted it for what it was, the dungeon-crawling aspect was also decently fun. Especially with the cleric build that was also able to open 99% of locks. I usually have a thing with wanting to cover everything, and that build really allowed me to do that. And also not need to individually break every lock, but instead unlock them as multiples at the same time. I can honestly say this build was a better rogue than my previous actual-rogue build.

The landscape was probably another great detriment to the game. Due to the way the landscape is laid out, as obvious pieces connected together to form larger land masses, it really kills any naturalism of the environment. And it all ends up looking very samey and uninspired. I don't think I noticed one vista that impressed in the slighest. This approach probably speeds up development of new content, but the quality of that drops considerably. Immersion is also very low due to this. But it's obvious this wasn't their first priority. It's obvious the main campaign is more of a demo of what the toolset allows for. And considering the amount of expansions and other fan content out there for NWN, you can't really disagree with that from that point of view.

The music, while decent for the most part in terms of environmental songs and themes, also has the unfortunate issue of being very little of it? Or at least the combat music, especially. I feel I heard the very same combat song on loop for the whole playthrough. Not sure if it's a bug or if there's really just one, but that's all I heard throughout. Of course, this is probably the first rpg where I also listened to other media while playing through this. I usually do this more for mindless games, like Diablo and Path of Exile, but I constantly felt the need for distraction through this playthrough. As I mentioned there's just endless amount of filler combat in it, and I didn't feel like quiting another playthrough. This was going to be it.

All in all, it was better towards the end, but the glaring issues are still there. Now to see about the expansions to it.
As for this, I'd probably rate it as a 6/10. And a very reserved 'recommended'.

 

[txa1265]

Avowed

Started on day of release, and finished last week with 115 hours total. Yes, 115 hours for a single play through. I tend to be a completionist and wanted to maximize upgrading weapons and armor as much as possible - by the end both of my slots were wand & grimoire fully upgraded with armor as well.

Starting end of last year I replayed both POE 1 & 2 in preparation, loved both (hadn't played since launch for both) and was excited for Avowed.

I've made it clear how much I love The Outer Worlds (and that it took me 60-80 hours each time), so it is not surprising that I love Avowed - self-contained story, plenty of exploration, fun non-quests to come upon in the world, no-fetch side quests, and on and on. You can't romance but through actions and dialogue you clearly influence relationships with your companions, and them with each other.

I'll replay if there is an expansion, but thing about playing it so much is that I won't jump back into another play through. I struggled with what to play next but ended up grabbing Clair Obscura since it was 20% off on GMG and going to have a go at that.

Avowed ... 8/10.

 

[num4!vr34umu5t4r!]

Dragon Age Veilguard

Definitely no goty material but pretty enjoyable if you are in the mood for a no brainer rpg, i thought it was a short game but took me around 60h with almost all sidequests completed. Felt like an ok combo of DA2 and Inquisition, story and villain was even more uninteresting than DA3, from the 7 team mates just 2-3 ok, the rest were meh; if you hated iron Bull, wait til you see the qunari companion in this one, almost broke spacebar, couldnt hit it fast enough to skip all "their" bullshit lines and quests .

Game looks good as well, most of the areas are nicely done, some quite impressive like the necropolis or grey wardens HQ but the areas have some kind of progression with most shit locked or unattainable til you progress the story or unlock the companions, really annoying sometimes and they force you to revisit the areas a couple of times; dont know what happened with the npcs, they all look very cartoony, although i gotta give them a thumbs up for the hair physics, quite impressed how it moved on some hairstyles.

Story was meh but some interesting things happen and if you do some sidequests, you learn a ton of interesting lore shit about elf origin, titans, blight and how everything is connected.
I enjoyed it like i said but i dont think this game needs to be taken serious, its very cinematic, combat with the slim skills and useless skill tree is a joke, with the mage and laser attack feels like you are in a shooter, writing is worse than poor, no crafting and so on.... seems like a game you play to relax. Nowhere near Origins.

ps inquisitor (on the right) put on some weight since DA3

 

[SveNitoR]

I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda a few days ago. Pretty good game, though the ending was a bit uninspired. The fighting was way better than the original trilogy, but the story and companions less good.

I would buy a sequel if they ever developed one.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

Plants vs Zombies

A game I played in bits and pieces on my phone ages ago, but never all the way to the end.
Well, it's not a long game but I made it to the end. And wouldn't you know it that they even made a great final boss fight for it.
A lot of fun with this one. It's no wonder it was milked to death after this first game.

A 10/10 for what it is.

 

[JDR13]

Plants vs Zombies

A game I played in bits and pieces on my phone ages ago, but never all the way to the end.
Well, it's not a long game but I made it to the end. And wouldn't you know it that they even made a great final boss fight for it.
A lot of fun with this one. It's no wonder it was milked to death after this first game.

A 10/10 for what it is.

I enjoyed PvZ quite a bit too. There were a bunch of us here playing back when it was released.

The boss must have been added later. It wasn't in the game when I played it.

 

[danutz_plusplus]

I enjoyed PvZ quite a bit too. There were a bunch of us here playing back when it was released.

Yeah, it's a very smart and fun one. I played it every now and then but never made it to the "campaign end".
But there's a whole lot of more content after you're done with that. Even besides just replaying the campaign with slightly altered mechanics, restrictions and increased difficulty.

The boss must have been added later. It wasn't in the game when I played it.

Really? Interesting. This is the one I'm referring to.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSxUHLwz-sk

 

[JDR13]

Really? Interesting. This is the one I'm referring to.

Yeah, I don't remember that at all. I looked it up, and it seems he was always in the game, so I guess I never finished it.

 

[JFarrell71]

I finished Mass Effect: Andromeda a few days ago. Pretty good game, though the ending was a bit uninspired. The fighting was way better than the original trilogy, but the story and companions less good.

I would buy a sequel if they ever developed one.

Supposedly there's a Mass Effect in development, but who knows with Bioware these days.

 

[Carnifex]

I finished the base game of Persona three: reload yesterday. What an excellent time I had with this, from start to finish it's a total joy to play. You balance time between exploring a dungeon and then working on social aspects with teammates and civilians, which in turn create or boost personas that you can form and use. You've options for how to tackle the game, I used a healer early on yet benched them when their damage just wasn't what I needed it to be.

My nemesis was the Reaper and, in the end, I wound up fighting him like five times. Near the end of the game it became apparent that fighting this guy was an easy way to level personas and teammates that might have gotten left behind. I savored each fight with this character, every battle was tough because of his multiple moves/turn and often being so unpredictable. The final two battles were long and tough, one had me baffled for a bit, until I worked up a persona that could actually do the fight.

I have the expansion yet might hold off on it for now, depending on if it's a continuation or reset. All in all, if you enjoyed other Persona games, I give this one a high recommendation!

 

[Lakorus]

The other day I finished Druidstone. As I wrote earlier here I enjoyed it quite a bit: Post

The story is not very remarkable but keeps you going. There is one nice twist:

Spoiler: Spoiler

One main character is the warden, who is spawned by the forest and is supposed to protect it. The problem is that he can't remember how and why, though he's supposed to. It turns out that the illness that has befallen the forest is affecting the spawned wardens as well. You meet several deranged ones including a nihilistic one who actually wants the forest to die. He then turns into a mini-boss who you encounter twice

 

[Carnifex]

I picked up Druidstone recently and truly look forward to playing it!

 

[Lakorus]

Enjoy it! It is a fun game with bite-sized missions. I found it nicely challenging on normal - though I do have quite a bit of experience with tactical battle games, I usually don't go the extra mile analyzing the mechanics for super powerful combos and such. Depending on your expertise, you might even want to start on hard mode.

 

[Philistine]

Finished TLOU2. My immediate impression was: wtf was the point of all that? Technically it's excellent so I'd score it 4/10, vs a 6/10 or so for the first one. Ellie in this game is an alien to me. In the first game I hated Joel but at least I understood him, Ellie in this one have no clue other than just insane. She needs to be locked up before she hurts anyone else.

 

[JDR13]

Dead Island 2

Fun ride. I wouldn't put it in the top tier of zombie games, but it's close. Definitely worth playing if you like the genre.

I held off getting it for a long time because it wasn't from the original developer of the series, but it was better than the first game in almost every way. There's a decent amount of content too. I logged 63 hours according to Steam with the main game plus both story expansions.

It does get repetitive after awhile though, and I was ready to move on by the time it was over. I felt like the first half was better, and I enjoyed exploring their versions of places like Beverly Hills, Bel-Air, and Venice Beach.

If you're a story person, skip it. It's not worth playing for that. If you'd enjoy dismembering a large variety of zombies in some pretty cool locations, go for it. I played though it solo, but you can also play co-op.

7.5