Recent reviews by CannonFodder

edit 2024-05-17:
* In-game purchases operate on Premium Currency model, not cash.
* Character purchases, if done singly, cannot be covered by the smallest currency purchase, and buying two leaves you with leftovers.

Original review continues below, rating unchanged.

* Battle pass was downplayed until after the review embargo was up.
* The presence of Denuvo was sneakily added to the Steam page less than twelve hours AFTER the review embargo was up, and by accounts, the review copies were all on console.

These two things make for some very suspicious behavior from Capcom in general, and hard to trust them on anything going forward, even if the game itself is as excellent as the rest of the reviews on the internet make it out to be.

This version of the game, two years, and one month after launch, feels like a game does at launch. All the bugs and weird interactions in game, combined with the lack of specifics on game mechanics outside the game, makes it feel like I am playing an open-world RPG right at launch.

Which makes me wonder: They've clearly been expending effort, but some things are still very busted. So did Cyberpunk release two years too soon, or have they just been doing a whole lot of vigorously treading water so they don't drown until they can sell their DLC later this year?

It's fun and all... and then you get Abby, and she just breaks the game over her knee. Seriously, she's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ overpowered, it's not fun playing anyone else anymore.

Let's be real here: Assuming control of a cat and getting to do/be adorable/butthole cat things is like, 50% of the draw here. While the platforming is simple without being dumb, the pace feels a little bit uneven, with a preponderance of collectibles and sidequests on the front end, tapering off on the back half. Maybe they were trying to discourage spending time in the back half to get you to the end quicker? We may never know. Solid 8.5/10, watch your cats try to interact with your cat.

I may never finish this game. And you know, I think I'm okay with this. It probably helps that I got it on sale during Summer. The time that Artyom spends with Anna is so heartbreakingly beautiful and poignant, that after finishing the CASPIAN level, I don't have the heart to continue. Everyone is happy and celebrating, nobody is getting shot at, and Anna is deathflagging so hard, I don't have the heart to see what happens next. So I will leave them, in that happy moment, frozen in time.

Technically-speaking though, this is a disappointment for me. I had been missing playing a stealth game, and as you know, this game came out on The Other Game Store with an exclusivity period. And man, did it scratch the stealth game itch good. Hopefully I can come back to this game some day, when the rest of the world is less-depressing. But for now, I will let those two enjoy their little slice of virtual paradise.

If you ever knew what it was like to be eight years old, and read the instruction manual on the brand new game you heard about by reading in a magazine, lit only by the streetlights as you drove home, this game is for you.

If you're younger than that, this game is very good, but the punch in the nostalgia this game delivers isn't going to resonate quite as much.

I can't say more, it would spoil everything. GOTY 2022.

It's a third-rate knockoff of Doom Eternal/Titanfall with none of the carefully-balanced mechanics or regard to how movement affects event triggers, bulked out by Serious Sam-style bullet sponges.

For context:
Shadow Warrior '97, I got the demo on a demo disc and then played over and over until I knew everything back to front.
Shadow Wariror 2013 was a great game, I loved every moment of that. The ending was wonderful.
Shadow Warrior 2 was less-good, but I do love me a fast-talking protagonist, but the ending was crap and I still want to know what happened to Kamiko.

But this game is just a lot of flailing around with ideas stolen from other games with no regard for how it all gets put together. As someone who used the katana far more than the guns in the previous two games, I especially do not appreciate the marginalization of the katana in this game. But mostly I am aggravated by the copying of Titanfall 2 movement without regard for if you move too quickly and hit multiple voice line triggers before the previous one has finished playing out. Or cutscenes, for that matter. In short, the game wants you to barrel around at high speed, except when it doesn't, then you need to stop and stand still, and that feels really bad.

Sayonara, Lo Wang. I'll watch the Let's Play instead.

7.5/10, no crouch button in a horde shooter with friendly-fire options? How the arse am I supposed to keep from accidentally getting in the way of my teammates' line of fire?

Definitely movie-authentic, my local Alien/Aliens nerd wholeheartedly gives it his endorsement for getting the pulse rifle sounds correct.

EA and Respawn don't give a hoot about this game anymore. They are continuing to sell it even though the multiplayer servers are under DDOS and therefore unplayable. Public statements by Respawn are that there are only TWO developers still working on this game, and they are completely unable to do crap for crap about the multiplayer servers. God help you if you pay anything more than $5 for this game, because that's all it's worth for the excellent single player campaign.

I love this game to death, my playtime isn't reflected because I just launch it straight out of Origin to bypass a step and a launcher, but I will not stand by EA's and Respawn's lousy support.

I've not been able to watch or even background listen to any of my favorite streamers lately, because they're playing Hades. And when I see or hear THEM playing Hades, it makes me want to shut off the stream and go play Hades myself, even if it's only just to soak in the decadent basslines of the combat music blasting half-muffled while paused. I can honestly say it deserves every bit of praise it has garnered from critical reviews. Hats off to everyone at Supergiant.