I’m Kinglink and it’s September 2021, which means it’s time for the Humble Choice September 2021 Review.
We have 13 games and, as always, I played each game for an hour and now am here to tell you all about them. Let’s just get started.
PGA Tour 2K21. I think a lot of people are expecting me to tear into this game. But that’s not what I do, PGA Tour 2K21 is a golf game and that could be my review. It perfectly bookends every point I would make about this game.
Read More »There has been a recent resurgence in all forms of media where creators want to repackage 90s nostalgia to sell to customers while doing minimal work. Whether it’s a classic television show. a popular movie, or just the aesthetics, this is a common approach to creating new content while not giving the audience anything new or different than the original content.
Dodgeball Academia could be in that category. It’s clear the game is heavily inspired by a classic NES title, Super Dodgeball and it would be easy for someone to create a clone of that classic game and sell it for twenty or thirty dollars.
That’s not what Dodgeball Academia is about. While Pocket Trap, the developers of Dodgeball Academia are fans of Super Dodgeball, Dodgeball Academia is more of a love letter or an homage to a classic title showing what can happen when nostalgia is only the first step of a project.
Read More »Omno is a lovely game. Rather than teach the player from the first moment, it promotes a sense of exploration. The main character is a silent onion-headed avatar, in a new land, filled with creatures and puzzles just waiting to be discovered.
Omno evokes comparisons with Journey due to the style, and gameplay. It’s a serene journey that avoids combat, while still giving the player a fantastic sense of wonder as they explore each new area and land. It combines music, graphics, and gameplay to evoke the sense of the unknown throughout.
Omno’s focus is on minimalism, using only a few words to teach the player the basic mechanics of the game, whether it be a button press required or a new ability. Throughout the game, players will earn four different abilities, such as a fast dash allowing players to cover distances in moments.
Read More »I’m Kinglink and that’s right, it’s time for the Humble Choice August 2021 Review.
It’s my birthday month, and as a present, I got a Humble Choice with 2 games I already own. But that’s not a bad thing because they’re two of my favorite games and I get a chance to discuss them. It may even have changed my opinion on one.
As always I play the Humble Choice games for one hour, and compile my opinions, who I think should play them or enjoy them and who should skip. With that said, let’s get started with the first game I already own, and the biggest game this month.
I’m Kinglink and it’s time for the Humble Choice July 2021 Review.
Once again I’m back after playing each game for an hour, and I should be able to tell you who is going to enjoy each title, and who might want to skip them. It’s a strange month so let’s just get to the games and talk about them. Starting with a major franchise…
Yakuza 3 Remastered. If you’ve been a Humble Choice member for a while, you’ve probably already seen Yakuza 0, Kiwami, and Kiwami 2, which was the first trilogy of Yakuza games for the PC. It appears that trend is continuing, with Yakuza 3 Remastered this time.
I’m Kinglink and let’s talk about the Yakuza Franchise, particularly the Kiryu games, which I lovingly call the Kiryu Saga.
Though I’d like to explain this concept of this series quickly. The quick backstory is after finishing both Yakuza 3 and 4 I wanted to make a video but hadn’t finished the entire series, there was a lot to talk about such as the Tojo Clan’s place in the series, or Kamurocho’s evolution, but I couldn’t talk about the entire franchise.
I also often get questions about where to start the series on any of my Yakuza videos so I figured this might be a good topic.
Red Dead Redemption 2 feels like Rockstar has turned a corner, but it might not be the corner fans were hoping they would turn.
Rockstar’s previous titles, both Red Dead Redemption, and Grand Theft Auto series had a lot of variety. Grand Theft Auto 3 through San Andreas focused on a satirical open world where the player could create his own brand of havoc. Grand Theft Auto IV created a more simulation-style game though fans had mixed reactions, though generally negative.
Then Red Dead Redemption moved back to allow the player to create their own fun, and Grand Theft Auto V returned to the satirical style Rockstar was known for.
I bring all of this up because Red Dead Redemption 2 is another attempt like Grand Theft Auto IV where the goal is to create a more realistic game. Part of the reason is while crime and urban gang life can be satirized very easily, westerns are no longer as common in pop culture, and while there have been amazing comedies in the genre, like Blazing Saddles, Rockstar made the assumption most fans would prefer a serious take on the western formula.
Read More »Magrunner: Dark Pulse is a first-person puzzle game that has a gun that has two fire modes. If it sounds like I am trying to make Magrunner: Dark Pulse sound like Portal, that’s because I am. If you think that comparison is unfair, give me another paragraph.
Similar to Portal, the main player is placed in a number of tests where they have to solve the puzzle to exit the room. The game starts to move away from the test chamber progression in the second Act and ultimately has the player fighting… well in this case it appears to be Cthulhu.
So not everything is Portal here, and it is lacking some of the best parts of that comparison, having neither a charismatic villain such as Glados or a focused and humorous story, but Magrunner has clearly learned about game design from Portal as it tries very hard to imitate that formula that still remains one of the strongest puzzle games ever made.
Read More »Resident Evil 2 is a remake of a classic survival horror game from 1998, but fully remade and released in 2019. It’s changed from the fixed camera angles of the original to a third-person view which is more familiar to players of Resident Evil 4 and beyond.
As a remake, Resident Evil 2 had a massive legacy to live up to. Resident Evil 2 was quite beloved, and the fact is, the remake has captured much of the classic design and style while still creating an improved experience for players.
The story in Resident Evil 2 is similar to the original. Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy arrive at the police station in Racoon City and must try to find out what’s happened and escape with their lives. Players can choose either character to start with, and both characters will have a slightly different path through the police station, though mostly it’s due to a different key being available to Claire and Leon as well as which secondary character they meet.
The combat has also been improved, with the third person over the shoulder view being preferable to the strange fixed cameras of the original game, and the less said about the tank controls of the original game the better.
However, the combat in Resident Evil 2 is not what players might expect. Zombies are aggressive and players have limited resources to engage enemies. I found on my first playthrough with Leon where I tried to shoot zombies I needed to get out of the way in the head, I was quickly running out of supplies.
This creates a more tense situation, but after checking online I found that the better solution was to shoot zombies in the leg. On the second playthrough with Claire, shooting zombies in the leg, and I was suddenly swimming in ammo by the end of that playthrough. This is something that bothers me though because it feels wrong to not teach players the right way to play your game.
If the designers wanted the leg to be a better spot to hit, that is fine. However, correcting the players’ misconceptions is important. Shooting zombies in the head is a pretty universal trope, feels like the game designers were purposefully hiding something that could have been shared. Or perhaps the leg takedowns are an unintended benefit.
Much of Resident Evil 2 is about traversing the map and trying to solve small puzzles while dealing with the horde of zombies, and in this Resident Evil 2 does well. The tension of the mounting horde is great, and the enemies who harass the player both feel dangerous, and manageable at different times, and players get the feeling there is danger around any corner because there usually is.
The bosses too are great, even if it’s mostly the same enemy attacking the player over and over. The feeling of a growing power differential between the player and the boss as it grows and becomes overwhelming is incredible and it’s a highlight of the entire game.
One of the best parts of the original Resident Evil 2 was the ability to replay the game and see the same story with the other player. This is possible in Resident Evil 2’s remake, however, I find this to be the big problem with Resident Evil 2. I played as Leon the first time through and experienced the game as it was meant to be. I was quite excited to play through the game a second time as Claire and see what has changed.
The fact is, not much has changed in the second playthrough. Claire entered through a different door, and there was a small amount of content to get to that door. As mentioned the Claire and Leon have different keys so there’s approximately ten percent of the game that Claire sees that Leon won’t, and visa versa.
The problem is for much of the rest of the game, Claire goes through very similar motions as if she was playing through the main story. Claire has to open the same doors she would and fight the same bosses.
Claire and Leon fight the same three of the same bosses in the same arenas. While both characters have different weapons, it’s not a big enough change to make it a different experience. Both characters do have a fourth boss that is unique to their playthrough and there is a final boss, at the end of the second playthrough, but having to fight the same bosses, characters, and enemy on a second playthrough doesn’t make for a better experience.
What’s worse is that Claire and Leon rarely cross over. I believe they only have three scenes where they can even see each other, and that limited amount of connection is made even weirder at the end of the adventure where they look at each other like they have made a connection. Granted they both survived through horrible circumstances, but the way the playthroughs are set up and the limited time that our characters have spent together really make this a strange system.
And I realize that Claire and Leon were both playable in the original game, but in 2019, I would expect this to be improved. Imagine if Claire saw some sign of Leon or Leon saw signs of Claire as they progressed through the game. If the second playthrough had some moments where players would remember what happened on their first playthrough, or puzzles that had already been solved instead of made harder, players might have thought fondly of their original time.
Instead, the second playthrough gimmick feels like a weak experience when it should have been one of the strongest parts of the game.
Ultimately Resident Evil 2 is a great game. It reminds people why this series was thought of as the very best in survival horror. It’s a perfect example of how to remake a game and please both fans and new players, something that other games struggle with
Though I do think that Resident Evil 7 is my favorite game in the series so far, but Resident Evil 2 is solid, if flawed.
On my arbitrary scale of arbitrariness, I’ll give this game a
It’s solid, but the second playthrough dulled the excitement of the first playthrough. I felt like I was experiencing the game on a slightly different difficulty, not seeing a second story. And I even found the second playthrough a bit easier at some points.
If you enjoyed this review and want to see more from me, including more in-depth reviews of select games, check out my youtube channel at youtube.com/c/KinglinkReviews.
I’m Kinglink and it’s time to do the Humble Choice June 2020 review.
As always, I’ll go through each game from this month and give my opinions on them, tell you what I liked, didn’t like, and who should check it out. There’s a lot of variety and it appears to be a good month. Stick around until the end and I’ll give you the top and bottom 5 games of the month.
I have chapters enabled so if there’s a specific game you want to hear about, you can just jump to that part of the video. Let’s get started.
Kinglink Reviews 