1274 out of 2020 is a decent score though.

I’m really enjoying it. Combat is really good, I’m not leet combat so suits my ability

Accidentally shooting an explosive arrow at a bear. An understated piece of slapstick.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

Shame it wasn't a panda what with all the shooting and leaves.

Excellent stuff. Top of the class pls.

This is not as bad as I thought it might be. I wasn’t sold completely before I played it and that intro section is Ass Creed leaves of shonk cutscenes and bollocks play sections but now, well, it ain’t that bad.
The graphics are fine (not as beautiful as it’s first showing suggested) but the stuff falling through the air - be it leaves, blossom, smoke, dust, fireflies or whatever else they wanna chuck about - is far too overdone. It also only looks fine once you’ve gotten going - the transition animations are - again - AC levels of not working, leaving you lurching from one movement style to another with little subtle intermediary actions. There’s definite heart here though and a clear pride in the game that shows when you play, and I’m not sure I’ve the stomach for 30 or 40 hours of it but it’s got me for a while yet.

Taking the above into account, I’m aware that the production values of tlou2 have probably spoiled me a little bit, but that’s where we’re at now. The bar went up another foot and really Sony should have looked a little more at what they had and probably flipped the releases. This would have much less of a shadow to stand in if they had.

It’s definitely too broad but then most big budget stuff is. The world would have benefitted from being smaller, denser and more polished and I t definitely doesn’t feel like a ‘real’ place like the maps in any of the recent Ass Creeds, tlou2, or rdr2 do. I’ve been using fast travel too which I’d never normally do at all so yeah it’s doing something a bit wonky.

It’s by no means bad though but more focus on a smaller area would have totally helped it out.

I’m binning this despite quite liking erm .... erm... some of the lighting effects during woodland walks.  

Generally, it’s just really rotten and suffers from a lack of project management and misplaced ambition.  It feels like a game that’s been made by a group of eager owners and directors sitting in a room and thinking of a game type and subject that they could make rather than a game that they want (and are able) to make.  
The budget and team experience clearly isn’t advanced enough to make a mid sized open worlder such as this.  Nothing in it is quite good enough and is so Assassins Creed it may as well be an off shoot.  This is not meant as a compliment.  The story, characters, acting, animation, cut scene direction, world building and set piece direction are all straight out Ubisofts manual of ‘Open World game design rule 1’ - which as a reminder seems to basically be “let’s cram it all in but this time in a map twice as big as it should be as marketing have told us that’s a seller and, if there’s time, we’ll fix it at the end so at least it’s sort of cohesive, oh look of course there’s no time to fix it so let’s ship it and, you know, this happens with every game we make you’d think we’d learn with our project planning a bit by now”

If you’re going open world then try make it feel a little organic,  I’ve literally been to places of interest that are marked on the fucking map as places of interest but there’s no interaction possible at these places of massive fucking interest so then I move down to the next map marker where a badly animated and shoddily acted npc tells me of something horrible that I must follow them to.  It’s time for us to traipse back up the path for 5 minutes to the massive place of interesting interest that I’ve just been to under my own steam due to it looking a bit more interesting then the shitty rocks and storm of floating leaves (that you don’t interact with) that seem to cloud every potential vista only now (and wait for this) I’m able to interact with.  This interaction will take the form of only one type of mission climax.  It is to be finished by having a staged fight that is absolutely as exactly the same as every other mission or side quest I’ve so far taken part in. This surprising sword fight will be with a group of mongol enemies that are made up of 2 or 3 archers, 3 shield men, 2 men with swords who refuse to fucking use them unless I’m falling through the air unable to respond as I’ve been knocked back by either 1 of the 2 spear men who literally flash a bit red before theY lash out or 1 of the 2 big grunt men with their big shields and big clubs who also sparkle a little bit red before they strike.  This will play out in exactly the same manner as every other surprising sword fight I’ve encountered so far.  It’s actually just about bordering on rancid.

I can’t clamber through the scenery in an organic manner, it’s a complete mystery whether you’ll be allowed to clamber over that chest high rock or if instead you’ll have to take the boring meandering path to another identical rock that can be climbed over.  I either bump into invisible walls at the edge of cliffs or I’ll tumble from a small drop when this invisible wall suddenly fails and I’ll instantly die where I land, though if I jump from a roof of the same highs that has clearly been programmed as SAFE TO JUMP FROM, well then I’ll be fine. The plot seems to involve honour and dignity and protection and all the other things we white Americans boys hold so close to our hearts and there’s a dead dad too that we miss because we’ve been told about it in a flashback 30 minutes into the start of a game when I’m still trying to find my bearings in the current setting.

It’s shit, I knew it would be and now I’m just a little disappointed with myself.  I completely ignored that bollocks motorbiking zombie game that came out a while back because I knew that would be shit and I knew this game was basically that but with horses for motorbikes, mongols for zombies and dead dads for for dead wives.

I'll take two

It is hard to disagree with uncle's diatribe against Ghost; god knows it is the most blandest and non-interactive open world ever created.  But if I could defend one thing it would be the combat. The further you go into the game, the more varied it becomes. Sure, there is an initial sameness to the groups of enemies you encounter. But by Act II, things get spiced up a bit with Mongols who throw flashbang grenades at you, causing momentary panic as it white-outs your vision. Flame sword guys are added to the mix, along with rudimentary incendiary cannon guys too. It makes for some heady encounters.

One neat trick it pulls is that the deeper you go into the game, the tougher the grunts become. But not in a numberwang Ass Creed kind of way, (oh these bad guys are clearly 3 levels above me cos it says so on the icon emblazoned above their heads!) - but by adding extra armour to their character models and giving them beefier weapons. If an enemy looks meaner, it's because they are meaner.

Tonight my attempted assassination of a camp guard went awry, and the whole base was alerted to my presence. I quickly had to revert to Plan B. Which involved  shooting explosive arrows into the onrushing Mongol horde, rushing through their burning ranks to take out the archers lurking at the back, before turning my attention once again to the spearmen, dispatching them with a typhoon kick that hurls them through the air which gave me the time I needed to mop up the remaining swordsmen and assorted stragglers.

By the time I took out the next base, I had a charm that made my arrows silent, allowing me to snipe my Mongol friends from afar with a few well aimed shots from my longbow.

The design of the open world is not organic, but by Christ, the combat sure is.

I gave up when I stumbled upon the flashbang men whilst out and about on a journey to the next uninteractive bit.  It’s such a chore of a place to get about in - there’s no nuance in control to either Samurai man or his horsey (run! or strooooooolllllll) that’s it’s just a bind to get around and, even if you are killed in one of the rando battles, you just get plonked straight back to where the battle was in your previous go but now the fight - that at least broke up the monotony of tedious world movement - has been removed entirely.  You died!  BUT DON’T WORRY, You also WIN! So carry on unimpeded as you are a strong and noble gamer boy and we want to appeal to you and your fragile sense of self worth which we will never ever question because we know you are noble and thoughtful but also strong and deadly just like your little samurai man.

Reads like an 8

https://youtu.be/lX_m84FcQII

Version 1.1 update adds free dlc including new separate 2 player and 4 player story modes.

Here's Yung with more deets.

https://youtu.be/J_4ryh03HQI

Might pick this up once it becomes a PS Hit.

Likewise, and on PS5 not OG PS4...

Can lend ya TLoU2 once I'm through with it. And Spidey, but only PS4 version atm - likely PS5 version tho (but rumours the OG game is download not disc?)