I popped this in after completing Watchdogs (gave it 8/10 cool game). The graphics are ok. This feels like the game that transitioned laura to full circle Drakes Uncharted. Tonnes of QuickTime events, scripted scenes and white paint telling you where to jump up. I played for about 15 minutes and the entire thing was on rails apart from a little section where I had to jump from a ledge onto a crane to raise a flaming bunch of garbage. It was insane but slick in it's execution. The early game is sectioned off so it auto saves often which means that there is not much freedom to mess up during this early tutorial section. We will see if it opens up as we go along.
Even in the early game there are popups for progression for basically doing nothing - wish I could turn these off. This is a bad sign but I should not be surprised as this game probably started this modern trend. I even took a look at the achievements which was basically "kill 30 enemies", "craft 20 weapons", "hunt 2 large animals". lol, this game feels like it is going to be a gigantic waste of time. But we will see.
The game is pretty straight forward with lots and lots of little cutscenes/QTEs as I mentioned before. The game funnels Lara into a constant mix of awful situations. There is jump paint, animals to harvest, scrap to collect so you can upgrade weapons and skills. The skill tree is gated so that you cant "over power" anything too soon. In so doing it ends up being a liner checklist of things to click on - which sucks.
It's a collect-a-thon game that is fluid and most jumps are easy to make without worry. The game feels like Uncharted + Horizon Zero Dawn mixed with Banjo Kazooie. This is why I play on easy. The bow feels nice. I am mostly using the bow. Silent and deadly.
The game is good, the flow is good, the bow is deadly. Some areas have a bunch of enemies but not to an extreme. The game flows nice without many road blocks in the way. Its just one torture scene after another. I dont know how laura or any woman could survive this all. But this is video game logic.
I like the sections with fire. Fire in this game looks really good. Though the fire sections are few and far between - they are impressive to look at. The game does not balance very well for the bow, so you might get forced to use the guns in a few spots - especially if you are not efficient with your arrow consumption. This is disappointing because I had planned to use the bow throughout my entire play-through.
Conclusion
Good game. 8.5/10. Worth the time. Innovative. Nice set pieces, nice fire. Lots of stuff to collect. I might buy Rise of the Tomb Raider to see if it holds up. The game is fun on easy with nice set pieces and not too much bloat. Would recommend. Must have in any collection. Going to play Aliens vs Predator next.
Strategy
Play on easy, bow and arrow all the way. I completed the game first time with a 75% completed. So the game is not a collect-a-thon. You can replay the game afterwards to collect everything you missed if you so desire. Playing bow only feels good and is a bit more stealthy if thats what you are into. I only upgraded the bow to 100% and ignored everything else. Had 5000 scrap left over in the end.
Right off the bat, Halo4 is certainly a pretty game. An "A to B to C" shooter with big set pieces and beautiful sky-boxes everywhere. From what I have played there is not much to it. I keep running out of ammo which forces me to pick up strange enemy guns. The vehicles are not fun to drive. Every texture is meticulously crafted but the game just sends me from place to place to push a button, shoot some baddies, press another button, watch a cut scene with in world babble then repeat. Things are happening and only this one guy and his Ai can stop it. Doesnt make much sense.
This is my first halo game so I have no reference point. This might be how they all are. I do get lost in some of the more open areas. Not sure if it is because of the seamless textures or poor level design but the solution seems to always involve going up to the highest point. I will have to see how the rest of the game unfolds.
Halo 4 is pretty but its not a fun shooter. 7 out of 10. I am going back to FarCry 3. Might come back to it later. This is when I started playing several games at a time because playing multiple levels of hal04 back to back can really numb your skull.
Picked this up again and it's still boring. At this point I try to avoid enemy waves by throwing a grenade then running past them. The UI message telling to swap to another weapon looks exactly like the pick up weapon message. So I end up confused with in a fire fight.
I will have to pull out a new game from the stack because this is not worth my time. Pretty but dumb sci-fi.
Conclusion
Boring game. I give it 5/10. Even playing on easy it was just like watching a movie with annoying shooty sections.
How it ended
I just stopped playing the game at a random level. I am not even sure how far I was into the game. I took the disk out and placed it back in storage. Maybe I need to play an earlier ODST, H3 or Reach.
Do not let your self get stuck in a down mood for too long. There are things you cannot control. Forces that have no steering wheel and you are in the passenger seat. I just have to let it run its course while keeping track of everything else that needs to be done. There is always other things to do. Spinning things around in your head for too long is only going to make you forget the other things. It is a form of procrastination. Get other stuff done before they pile up. It will make you eel better and regain focus.
It seems like nowadays its much harder to be a true evil-evil group. A truly evil-evil person/group has to be devious and plan every aspect to avoid getting caught or just fkitall. While a Good-Evil group is legally evil, persistent and makes up all sorts of memes to justify the evil that they commit. If you are caught being evil-evil you go to jail. if you get caught doing good-evil you change the topic. Good-evil is at a epic high right now. You see it movies, Israel, foreign policy, Ai, its all over.
With all the terrible things happening in the world it is important to keep working on the things that you can control. Keep creating, keep moving forward. Stay in control of your reality. Sail your ship away from the rocks. You are your navigator. Even when everyone else is heading towards a precipice you do not have to follow the script. God and time.
Its a fun family film with the usual ups and downs. I did not find the theme song very good. The audio in the first sections is on the loud side but it settles down after that.
Not much to say, the film progresses similar to the first movie with a few cameos. Modern movies try too hard to impress.
Conclusion
My rating 6/10. Jan thought the first movie was better. I thought it was ok.
