Video Game Review #216: Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption

PlayStation 3

Nostalgia Factor:

When I first played Red Dead Redemption back in 2010, my only opinion of the game was that it was kind of like Grand Theft Auto, but in the Old West. I liked the game, but it never really stood out to me as something all that original or different.

I recently played Red Dead 2 back in 2019, and that game made me completely change the way I looked at the Red Dead series. Since that game is a prequel to the original Red Dead, I decided to return to the original game to see how the two tied together.

Story:

The main character of the game is John Marston, a former outlaw who is being forced against his will to take down two of his old associates – Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella. Marston is injured after unsuccessfully trying the direct approach with Williamson, who attacks him and leaves him for dead. Marston is taken in and nursed back to health by a local woman named Bonnie MacFarlane. While he is recovering, Marston helps Bonnie and her family with problems on their ranch.

It is from this ranch that the real game begins. Taking control of John Marston, the whole Old West opens up before you. You can take on missions for characters, gamble, hunt, explore the land, go out and interact with strangers, and do random good deeds for the NPCs that inhabit the world of the game.

Red Dead succeeds in its world building. Sure, you can focus solely on the main missions and finish the main quest in a couple of days, but you’d be missing out on half the fun of this game. Encountering random strangers and experiencing unpredictable Wild West related shenanigans are what really makes this game fun.

If you’ve played Red Dead 2, this game feels a lot like a continuation of that game, even though it was created almost 10 years before it. Really, the writing and storytelling from the Red Dead team is top-notch. The characters feel real, the setting is authentic, and there is just enough emotion packed into the game to make it more than just a “GTA clone.”

Gameplay:

The first thing I noticed while playing this game is just how faster paced it is than Red Dead 2. That game tends to focus more on providing a realistic look at the Old West, to the point where it drags and becomes tiresome in parts. That does not happen here. Everything moves along at a very quick pace. The conversations, the missions, the traveling (you can fast travel at will to almost any location in the game), the combat, heck – even the speed at which your character runs and walks. Everything is faster.

Basic gameplay consists of marking a mission on your map, and riding a horse to the mission marker. Along the way you can encounter random events like NPCs getting attacked by wolves, robbers attacking a caravan, or ambushes from bandits set up on the road. The unpredictability of the events in this game is sure to keep you on your toes.

Missions include everything from herding cattle, breaking horses, robbing trains, pursuing outlaws, collecting bounties, and of course – getting into gunfights. Combat in this game is simple to the point of almost being too easy. All you have to do is draw your gun and it immediately locks on to the nearest enemy. My combat strategy involved locking onto an enemy, shooting once or twice, letting go of the draw button so my character would lower his weapon, and then immediately drawing it again so it would lock onto the next nearest enemy. Rinse and repeat.

This game does have a Dead Eye mode, and I found it to be very helpful. What this mode does is slow everything down so that you can lock onto multiple enemies at the same time. Hit the fire button, and down go your enemies. The game insisted that there was a Dead Eye meter, but if there was one I could never find where on the screen it was located. I tended to simply use the Dead Eye over and over again until I couldn’t anymore. Trust me: you can use it a LOT in this game. I’d clear entire areas before my meter (wherever it was) would run out. Dead Eye mode combined with the game’s auto-lock on aiming meant that I was rarely challenged as I played this game.

My main complaint about the game is the same one that I had the first time I played Red Dead back in 2010: the horseback riding! You spend so much time in this game riding from mission to mission on horseback. It gets real tiresome real quick. Fast travel helps with this, but almost every mission starts with you and another character riding horseback next to each other while you head to the next marker. Again, this gets real old real fast. I mean, after playing Red Dead 2 where you ride on horses for hours at a time, this complaint seems minor. But it is something I have to bring up.

Graphics:

I expected this game to have aged poorly, but to my surprise it did not. I mean, of course it isn’t going to look as good as its next-gen sequel, but you can’t really hold that against it. This game was amazing looking back when it first came out, and as it stands it is still very good looking.

Sound:

Red Dead checks all the boxes for sound quality. Good voice acting, good music (in fact, the music seemed more noticeable to me than Red Dead 2’s actually), good atmospheric sounds effects. When you’re on the MacFarlane ranch for example, you hear horses neighing, cattle mooing, crickets chirping, the wind blowing. It all sounds very real.

Overall:

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this game after playing its sequel, but for the most part it delivers! It’s fast paced, fun, humorous, exciting, while also managing to feel very grounded and realistic at the same time.

I definitely didn’t appreciate this game as much as I should have when I first played it in 2010. This game is much more than just Grand Theft Auto in the Old West. This is a very complex and intricate open world game that was well ahead of its time. There is so much more to do than just ride around and do missions and shoot people. There is a whole world out there for you to explore, full of things to do and people to meet.

I’d definitely recommend this game to anyone willing to give it a try. If you’re worried it will feel like taking too many steps back after playing its groundbreaking sequel, you can stop worrying. This game still holds up. It’s still really good. It also gives you closure on what happens to Marston, his son, and all the other characters that were left standing at the end of Red Dead 2.

As a standalone title, Red Dead Redemption is a great game. Combine it with its sequel and you get something iconic. If I were forced at gunpoint to tell you which game is better, I would begrudgingly give that title to Red Dead 2. I felt more of a bond with Arthur Morgan than I did John Marston, and I don't feel as if this game ever quite hit the same emotional chords as its sequel. But the fact that it comes so close, despite its age, should tell you all you need to know about it.

Final Score:

A-

If you liked this review, please check out some of my other video game reviews:

Red Dead Redemption 2

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Horizon Zero Dawn

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Dan's 2019 Movie Rankings: The Top 10

Now that I’ve posted the 10 worst movies I watched in 2019, it is time to move on to the 10 best! Without further adieu, I present to you:

#10:

Interstellar

I’d first seen Interstellar a few years ago, but at the time I didn’t really think anything of the movie. I thought it was long and boring, and I probably fell asleep at some point during it. Not so in 2019! I came into this movie knowing that it would be a slow burn. I made sure to pay attention to the details this time around. The wormhole, the time distortion stuff, the space travel, the science… all that stuff is right up my alley and I just ate it all up this time around. I also found myself very interested in the dynamic between Matthew McConaughey’s character and his daughter. Can you believe that the normally unshakable Dan actually shed some tears at a few points during this movie? Well, it happened.

I can’t say I fully understand what happened in this movie, but in a way that is one of the cool things about it. I don’t plan to watch this movie anytime soon, but I am sure I will return to it in a few years. Now I know specifically what to watch for the next time around.

#9:

The Perfection

This movie is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. Does it deserve to make anyone’s top 10 list? Most critics would probably say no, but I am not most critics. I thought this movie was fun and original with a lot of unforeseen twists along the way. Expect to be grossed out. There are a few uncomfortable scenes in this movie, but I am weird and I like it when movies make the viewers uncomfortable. Anyone can make a funny or a feel good movie. Not everyone can pull off stomach-turning and also make a really good movie at the same time. But they do here!

#8:

Green Book

Due to all the accolades this movie received, I fully expected to like Green Book when I sat down to watch it. Surprise, surprise: I did. I don’t know what I can say about Green Book that hasn’t already been said about it. It’s a feel good movie. It’s well acted. It’s well filmed. It moves along quickly and never drags. You have a vested interest in the characters and their journey. The friendship between the two leads feels very real. I had a good time watching this movie.

#7:

Lion

I think this movie suffers from “January bias” as I watched it very early in 2019. I watched this film and I absolutely loved it, but now that a whole year has passed since I saw it I can barely remember anything except for the very basics. Indian boy falls asleep on a train, gets separated from family, gets adopted by Australians, and uses Google Earth as an adult to find his hometown. It is an inspiring and heartfelt movie. Man tears once again were shed. I remember being very happy I watched this, and at the time thinking that this could be a contender for best movie I watched of the year. Well, it didn’t quite reach those lofty heights (partially due to the aforementioned January bias), but it did manage to reach #7 on this list.

#6:

What We Left Behind

I have seen plenty of Star Trek documentaries in my time, but this one has to be my absolute favorite. It is made with a lot of heart and passion, and it shows. What We Left Behind offers an in-depth look at one of the most underrated Star Trek series, in my opinion, Deep Space Nine. Characters are interviewed, plots are analyzed, episode themes are discussed, and perhaps most importantly: the movie gives us a look at what DS9 would look like if it were to be brought back for a season 8. Excellent documentary, and I can’t encourage enough Star Trek fans to check it out. Heck, even if you don’t like Star Trek, this film might make you want to give DS9 a look.

#5:

Titanic

This movie has won one of my movie rankings in the past. Wouldn’t it have been a hoot if it won again? Obviously, that didn’t happen, but I stand by the fact that this is one of the greatest movies ever made. I know it has a lot of naysayers, and I know that people like to mock the movie for its “cheesy” romantic storyline. I, however, don’t give a flying fuck about any of that. Mock me all you want, I think this is an epic movie that has it all. It is filled with moving, touching scenes, an uplifting romantic story, high-flying action, tragedy and memorable characters that you both love and hate.

I will defend this movie till the day I die.

#4:

Enter the Void

Enter the Void is a bloated, overly long, sometimes boring, sometimes repetitive film that I should probably hate. But I don’t. There’s something hypnotic about this movie. It had me completely in its grip for the entire duration of its 3-hour run time. My attention span is notoriously short. I can barely make it through an episode of Stranger Things. So how did this manage to keep my attention for 3 hours? The movie is a trip, that’s how. This sounds really cliched to say, but I think of Enter the Void as more of an experience than a movie. The whole thing makes you feel like you are on some kind of drug. The colors, the hallucinatory way the movie is filmed, the flashbacks. All these things hit you, and they hit you hard. This isn’t a movie for everyone, however. It is very bleak and touches on a lot of traumatic subject material. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart. But I loved it. I don’t know if I will ever watch it again, but I loved it.

#3:

Knives Out

This movie was a pleasant surprise. I knew what to expect coming into Knives Out, but the whole “British-style whodunit mystery” genre isn’t really my thing. It won me over, though with its intriguing setup and its big, memorable cast of characters. I quickly found myself becoming invested in the murder. I became invested in the family. My mind went in a hundred different directions trying to figure out what was happening. And then the movie throws a wrench into things and tells you who committed the murder pretty early on. But things aren’t as clear cut as they seem…

*cue dramatic music*

I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t seen it, but you really need to watch this movie. If I thought it was terrific, and I am not even a fan of this kind of movie, you’ll probably love it too.

#2:

Aliens

I have already seen this movie a handful of times in my life, but I’ve never appreciated it as much as I did in 2019. I put it on in the dark, by myself, with headphones on, and I quickly lost myself in the world of the film. Everything about Aliens is near-perfection. The characters, the cinematography, the action, the suspense, the acting. It’s phenomenal. Paul Reiser’s character Carter Burke is one of my favorite villains of all time, and then of course you’ve got Sigourney Weaver as the legendary Ellen Ripley. These two actors alone would have been enough to carry this movie, but then when you throw in people like Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, and Michael Biehn…. game over, man. Game fuckin’ over.

One of the best action movies ever made, and one of the few sequels out there that’s actually better than the original film. I actually watched this movie twice last year, and NO other movie I watched can say the same thing. I can’t sing the praises of this film enough.

#1: 

Avengers: Endgame

It feels anti-climactic to put this giant blockbuster as my #1 movie, but what can I say? I thought this was a great film. Not only is Endgame a fast, exciting, action packed movie that is an absolute blast to watch, but it brings a certain sense of urgency and emotion to the table that is rarely seen when it comes to superhero movies. I laughed, I cried, I was on the edge of my seat the whole movie. I kept having to wipe the tears from my cheeks, even when there wasn’t anything emotional happening on the screen. I was just SO into the movie, in a way that I’ve never been into a movie before. 10 plus years of interconnected Marvel films were all leading up to this point. The payoff did not disappoint.

Right now, I am watching all the Marvel movies in order. I’m up to Age of Ultron, in case you were wondering. But I can’t wait, and I mean I SERIOUSLY can’t wait until I get to Endgame again. It might just win my 2020 ranking too!



Honorable mentions:
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie
Roma
Blackkklansman
Moby Dick (the Patrick Stewart version)
The Hate U Give
Blue Ruin
Cabin in the Woods
Requiem for a Dream
Evil Dead 2
Joker

For a complete index of all of my past blog entries, including movie rankings, television show discussions, and video game reviews, click: 

>HERE!<

Video Game Review #215: Super Contra

Super Contra

Arcade

Nostalgia Factor:

Slowly I make my way through the Contra Anniversary Collection for the PS4. Next up: Super Contra. This game was released for arcades back in 1988. None of the local arcades in my area carried this game and I was never able to play it as a kid. Turns out, this was probably a blessing in disguise because I did not care for this game one tiny bit. It is by far the weakest game on the Anniversary Collection that I have played to date.

Why does Super Contra suck so bad? Let's explore that, shall we?

Story:

More shooting, more blowing stuff up. The aliens that you defeated in the last game are back, and it is time to defeat them again. The action starts in an urban area and moves into the jungle, and eventually into the alien's lair. Kill the big bad alien, win the game. There are a few cutscenes at the beginning of the game, which shows us that Super Contra does indeed have something vaguely resembling a storyline going on, but it is 100% secondary to the game's action. Trust me, NO ONE cares about this game's story.

Gameplay:

While I enjoyed the NES version of Contra more than the arcade version, that doesn't mean that I thought the arcade version of the game was crap. Super Contra, however, is absolute crap when held up against its NES counterpart, Super C.

Everything that previous Contra games did successfully, Super Contra manages to undo. The controls aren't as tight. Your character is bigger, which means it is harder to maneuver around obstacles and to avoid enemy fire. This also makes your field of view much smaller. Your weapon selection sucks. You never know which weapon upgrade you are about to pick up, since they aren't as well-labeled as they are in the other Contra games. I accidentally picked up that shitty ass laser more times than I could count, hoping it was the spread gun. The spread gun isn't even as helpful here, since its range during the overhead stages is so pitiful. It isn't much help during 2D stages either. This game bombards you with so much crap at all times, I could never hang onto any weapon upgrades I happened to pick up because I was constantly getting killed.

Which brings us to the game's difficulty. Most people like to complain that the first Contra game was sooooooo hard. While I can see where those people are coming from, I never particularly had a problem with the game's difficulty level. Things are predictable. There are patterns to recognize. If you play it slow and safe, you should for the most part be okay. Not here. Not with Super Contra. You are under constant enemy fire. Stop to breathe for a second and you are dead. Enemies randomly spawn in front of you, behind you, wherever is the most inconvenient for you. They come from above, they come from below. Sometimes they're even firing at you before they've even come onto the screen. Like I said, the character you control is much bigger and less maneuverable than in other Contra titles. Your field of view is a lot smaller. Dodging attacks is much more difficult in this game. I got absolutely destroyed as I played this game. DESTROYED! It didn't seem to matter how cautious I was, I couldn't make it more than a few seconds before getting killed.

I'm up for a good challenge, as long as it is a fair challenge. I considered both Contra and Super C for the NES to be fair challenges. This game, however, is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. There is simply no avoiding getting killed sometimes, no matter how cautious you are. There is just so much that can kill you, with so little wiggle room to avoid certain death. The first time I played Super Contra, I burned through all my lives and continues on the game's first stage. Seriously, the first stage! And I didn't have much more luck the next time through, or the next. I hate that the Anniversary Collection only lets you continue three times, no matter how many credits you insert. In the arcade, you can just keep feeding the machine coins and keep playing, no matter how bad you are doing. Why would they limit you to three continues for the home version? As if the game wasn't hard enough. Doesn't seem quite fair to me.

I had to resort to using save states and reloading every time I would die. Eventually I made it to the end of the game and beat the final boss. Mission accomplished. Yay? If only that mission had been any fun whatsoever.

Graphics:

The game looks.... okay. I guess. It lacks the charm of the previous Contra titles. It has some nice background design to its stages, but overall it looks very bland and boring to me. While I won't say the game is ugly, there is absolutely nothing to get excited about here.

Sound:

Not to sound too repetitive, but I am going to say the same thing about the game's sound that I said about its graphics: they don't suck, there is just absolutely nothing to get excited about here.

Overall:

Ugh. I really wanted to like this game. I thought I would, too! I turned it on with high expectations. Those expectations were quickly shattered into dust.

There is almost nothing good about this game. I can't praise its visuals, I can't praise its control, I can't praise its sound, I can't praise its difficulty level. I can't even say the game is any fun to play. Seriously, this has to be the most un-fun game I have played in recent memory. It is terrible. I even tried to give it one quick replay before writing this review, to see if my mind would change at all. I couldn't do it. Just making it through the first stage of the game was too much of a chore. When I died and lost all my continues on the second stage, I said screw it. Not worth my time.

I hate to say this, but Super Contra isn't worth yours either. Skip this game. There is nothing to see here, unless you're simply curious to see the Contra series at its all time low. I'd rather play a couple of D- games like Primal Rage or Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics more than this. That shows you how bad it is. There is only one place you can go that is lower than a D-, and I don't give this grade out very often.

Final Score:

F

Hey! While we're on the subject of crappy video games, here are some reviews for a few other titles that I did not care for:

Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics

Primal Rage

Mortal Kombat (arcade)

Mortal Kombat II (arcade)

The Wolf Among Us

Dan's 2019 Movie Rankings: The Bottom 10

2019 is officially in the books. You know what that means: it is time for my end of the year movie ranking! You don’t have to hide your excitement: I know that this is something that everyone has been waiting for with bated breath. Since I am a lazy son of a bitch who doesn’t feel like taking the time to individually rank all 97 movies I watched in 2019, I am going to take the easy way out and just do a bottom ten and a top ten. I hope you’re okay with that because that is what I am doing and nothing is going to change my mind.

We’re going to start at the bottom with the ten worst movies I watched in 2019. These aren’t necessarily movies that came out in 2019, but they are movies that I simply watched at some point during the calendar year. For suspense’s sake, I am going to do my ranking from #10 to #1, with #1 being the worst movie I watched of the year and #10 being the least offensive of the 10 worst movies I watched. Now that we have that cleared up I am going to begin. Okay?

#10: A Silent Voice

I’m not going to knock this movie too much, since I feel that I didn’t give it a fair shake. Most people I know really like this movie. I came into it with an open mind. Based on the description of the movie and the fact that many people say it is emotionally hard-hitting, I expected to love it. I don’t know what happened, but my interest in A Silent Voice waned just a few minutes into the movie and I found myself looking at my phone, browsing Facebook and playing games while the movie played in the background. Seeing as how this is a subtitled film, it would be an understatement to say that I missed a LOT of what was going on because I wasn’t reading what anyone was saying.

I will give this movie another shot at some point in the future, because I do feel as if it is something I would enjoy. But as far as my 2019 viewing experience goes, this was one of the more forgettable films I watched all year.

#9: Apostle

This movie falls under the same kind of generic umbrella as A Silent Voice. Cool concept. I’d heard a lot of good things about the movie. I came into it with high hopes and expecting greatness, but instead found myself losing interest and looking more at my phone than the movie itself. This isn’t necessarily the movie’s fault that I didn’t have a good time with it. My attention span is notoriously short, and I should have done a better job at following things, but for whatever reason, I did not. Could be because the movie sucked. Could be because I wasn’t in the right frame of mind at the time to watch it. The only way to find out is to watch it again at some point in the future. Will I though? I don’t know. Life is too short to waste on something I didn’t even enjoy the first time around.

#8: Tomb Raider

Now that we’ve got a few movies I can’t remember out of the way, time to move on to things I actively didn’t like. While this movie is certainly better than the Angelina Jolie movies that came out in the early 2000s, that doesn’t mean it is any good. I wouldn’t even say Tomb Raider is necessarily that bad, just disappointing. Being a big fan of the video games, I was looking forward to Tomb Raider’s turn from the ridiculous to the more realistic. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The movie comes across as generic, uninspired, and terribly boring. I found myself struggling to power through this movie. I ended up pausing it a bunch of times while I went to the bathroom and did things around the house. A movie should have taken me about two hours to watch ended up getting stretched out to about four hours. How sad. I had heard good things about this movie and was looking forward to a decent game-to-movie adaptation for once. Guess I’ll have to keep waiting.

#7: Under the Shadow

I’m all for new experiences and the premise of this movie had me intrigued. It is a supernatural horror story set in Tehran, the capital city of Iran. A woman and her daughter are haunted by a supernatural entity while the city is being bombed. Sounds interesting right? Turns out that the movie is horribly, horribly boring. Nothing scary happens. Nothing exciting happens. I watched this movie with a glazed over look in my eyes, waiting and wishing for something, anything to happen. It never did. Seriously, I almost died watching this movie. I now know where the term “bored to death” comes from. From people who watched Under the Shadow!

#6: I Spit on Your Grave 3: Vengeance is Mine

I thought the first two movies in this series were great, which is what makes the third installment such a disappointment. I expected dark, gritty, and horrific from this film. What did I get? Stupidity. Sure there are some cool deaths in this movie, but after the over-the-topness of the first two films in the series, they seem tame in comparison. Why make a movie like this if you aren’t going to try to outgross the one before it? Failure! Even on its own merits this doesn’t stand as a decent film. I repeat: Failure!

#5: The Dark Crystal

I absolutely loved, LOVED the Dark Crystal Netflix series. When I finished the last episode, I sought out the movie to watch it immediately. I mean, I’d seen the movie before, but it was a while ago and I knew absolutely nothing about the world of the Dark Crystal back when I first watched it. Truth be told, I didn’t like the movie the first time I saw it, and even now I still don’t like it. In fact, I may like it less now than I did the first time! What happened? I don’t know. I think it is the tone of the movie. The show is a lot more bright, colorful, and optimistic, whereas the movie is all doom and gloom. I was not a fan of the shift in tone. What the heck happened between the events of the show’s season 1 finale and the movie??? Clearly, the Skeksis won the battle.

As a movie, it really isn’t that exciting at all. The storytelling of the film is quite poor actually, and pales in comparison to what you see on the show. Things look cool, but aside from the visuals, this is actually a pretty terrible movie. What a disappointment after I loved the show so much.

#4: Zombi2

I’m a weirdo who likes uncomfortable things that make your skin crawl. In fact, the main reason I watched this movie is because I’d heard it was gory and disturbing. No one told me it would be cheesy, boring, and awful. I must have sat there with a WTF is this shit look on my face as I watched Zombi2. It is sincerely one of the worst things I’ve seen in my life. The storyline is incomprehensible, the acting is terrible, and absolutely nothing that happens onscreen is enough to hold my attention. Most B movies at least have the courtesy to realize they're B movies. Never happens with Zombi2.

If there had been some gross, disturbing stuff (as advertised!) perhaps the movie would have kept me interested. Maybe back in the 70s I could see why this would be controversial, but nowadays you’re going to have to do better if you want to shock me. This movie is extremely dated and just flat out bad.

#3: Ma

This movie started out okay, I guess. I kept holding onto hope that it would improve with time, but just the opposite happened. The twist of the movie: stupid. The acting: bad. Few movies make me shake my head in disbelief at their stupidity like Ma does. The whole thing is just pointless and DUMB. It’s like the makers of the movie had an idea of what they wanted to do, but failed miserably at the execution. This is a complete waste of time. Do not watch.

#2: Velvet Buzzsaw

On paper this sounds like an entertaining movie where haunted paintings torment people in an art gallery. Cool cool. Why not give it a shot?

The movie itself, however…. dear god it is terrible. The people in this movie are horrible, pretentious, and almost comical in how awful of human beings they are. I sympathized with no one in this film and was actively hoping for all their deaths. Which is one of the big problems with this movie. It is too much setup and not enough horror and mayhem. I kept thinking “when are people gonna start dying? When is the killing gonna start? Why are these people still alive?” The beginning part of the movie is dragged out for SO LONG!! Well over an hour. Too long, if you ask me. I just wanted these awful people to die and instead the movie kept forcing us to spend more time with them and their awfulness. I will never watch this movie again. I advise you to stay away as well.

#1: The Fountain

Here it is: the worst movie I watched in 2019. Visually, this movie does a lot of things right. There are some cool special effects and some nice outer space segments to look at. That’s the only redeeming thing about this movie, however. The plot is completely incomprehensible. Nothing makes any sense. There are three different storylines going on at the same time, but the connection between these stories are never explained. Is this the same guy? Is there some kind of reincarnation thing going on? What’s the deal? Don’t know, because it is never explained. It’s like the people who made this movie decided to just throw a bunch of random unconnected crap at the viewer in the hopes that some gullible-ass people would eat it up. And those people exist, too. They sit around and theorize about the movie. They sing its praises because of how "artistic" it is.

Well guess what? That doesn't fly with me. Make some damn sense. And if you aren't going to make sense, at least be exciting or entertaining. This movie is neither. I was bored to tears watching it. A complete and utter waste of time.

Next Page: The Top Ten

Video Game Review #214: Abzu

Abzu

PlayStation 4

Nostalgia Factor:

I recently re-subscribed to PlayStation Now for one month. One of the things I like about this service is that it gives me access to a bunch of smaller indie-type titles that I never would have gotten the chance to play otherwise. In fact, I have already taken full advantage of this. Just the other night I was looking for something quick and relaxing that I could complete in one sitting. After doing a little research, I decided to settle on Abzu.

I didn’t know much about the game, other than that it was underwater and it was supposedly very atmospheric and artful… and most importantly it could be beaten in one sitting. Perfect! How would I like it? Let’s find out.

Story:

I don’t know if this game really has a concrete story per se. There are cutscenes in this game where things happen, but there is no speech or text. Nothing is ever explained. You swim around, explore, touch things, and look at murals that don’t really mean anything without the proper context. Lots of magical shit happens, like environments shifting and your character getting transported to mystical landscapes. This sounds incredibly lazy from my end, but I really don’t know how else to describe this other than that things happen and nothing is explained. I think that the intent of the game is that things are up to your interpretation. Normally I am not a fan of this particular method of story-telling, but it is fine here. You play to experience the game’s atmosphere. Everything else is secondary.

Gameplay:

I don’t think it would be horribly inaccurate to describe this game as an underwater version of Journey. These two titles share a LOT of common traits. Things begin with you being dropped right into the game with no direction whatsoever. It’s up to you to figure out where you are supposed to go and what you’re supposed to do next. As far as I know, there is no death in this game. You simply follow the direction the game vaguely guides you, solving easy puzzles and opening up new areas.

Controls are pretty simple to get a hang of, but I did find myself running into issues with the camera from time to time. It was nothing game breaking for me, however. At most it was just a minor nuisance. But still, a nuisance is a nuisance.

On the whole, Abzu isn’t a very long game, nor is it very challenging. You don’t fight anything. You don’t die. You just explore and solve puzzles. I don’t think it told me my total play time at the end, but it couldn’t have been any more than three hours, and that is a generous estimate.

I’ve seen better gameplay. I’ve played games that are more “fun” than this. What makes Abzu work is the sum of its parts. Maybe the gameplay on its own is nothing to write home about, but factor in the graphics, the sound, and the overall atmosphere of the game and you’ve got something special.

Graphics:

Don’t let this game’s screenshots fool you. If you’re just looking at still images from the game, Abzu looks like nothing special. This is a game that you have to see in action to appreciate. Although the characters and the environment are very simplistic, they are also very colorful and well-animated. The whole world of Abzu comes to life like nothing I have ever seen or experienced in a video game before. Picture an underwater version of the Wind Waker world while tripping on LSD.

It feels cliché to describe the game as magical, but I can’t think of any other way to say it. I have never been as in awe of a game as I was with this one. There are so many WOW moments where I found myself absolutely mesmerized by what was going on onscreen.

I would hardly ever recommend a game to someone based solely on its graphics, but Abzu is so breathtaking that I wouldn’t feel guilty in doing so.

Sound:

Abzu’s music and sound effects match everything happening onscreen to a T. While it is impossible for the game’s sound to be as magnificent as its graphics, it is still pretty darn good. The majority of the game takes place underwater, so expect to hear a lot of splishing and splashing and that hard to describe hollow echoing sound that you hear when you put your head underwater.

The game’s music is very subtle, matching the calm underwater tone of the game. When magical things happen onscreen, the music picks up and crescendos appropriately. I can’t say much other than that the game’s music and sound effects work in tandem with the game’s graphics to create a truly stunning atmospheric experience. Do yourself a favor and play this in the dark with your headphones on.

Overall:

I expected this game to be a quick, fun, inoffensive time. While it is all three of these things, it is so much more at the same time! I had no idea how magical the world of this game would be when I started playing it. I found myself getting pulled into the world of Abzu almost instantly. 

Although the game is short, I found myself completely absorbed the entire time I was playing it. Usually I don't like games that don't have clear and defined storylines, but I found myself so charmed by Abzu that I didn't even care about its abstract/nonexistent story. 

I don't know how else to describe Abzu other than as an experience. It's unlike nearly every video game I have ever played, with the exception of Journey and a small handful of indie titles. Be warned though, this game may not be for you. If all you see if my positive final review score and you don't read anything else, you may come into the game expecting something that it's not. Abzu is different. It's not "instant fun" like Super Mario or Sonic the Hedgehog. If you come into the game expecting something like that, you will be disappointed. This is an excellent game, but it isn't necessarily its "fun factor" that carries it - it is everything. The atmosphere, the graphics, the music, the sound effects, that sense of wonder as you see the game's magical creatures and landscapes unfold in front of you.

I couldn't have asked for a better way to kick off my month-long subscription to PlayStation Now.

Final Score:

A-

If you liked my review of Abzu, check out some of my other game reviews:

Journey

Rime

Flower

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Inside

Re-Review #9: Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil 4

Gamecube

For my initial review of Resident Evil 4, click

>>here!<<

I first played and reviewed Resident Evil 4 for this blog about four years ago. Honestly, I didn’t have any plans to replay it as soon as I did. But a conversation at work about whether or not this game was as good as I remembered prompted me to come back and play it again. Would I still like Resident Evil 4, or would I find that nostalgia had clouded my judgment?

Long story short: this is still an excellent game. Maybe nostalgia does play a bit of a factor, but I think that I would have liked this game no matter when it was created. I will admit I had my doubts at first. When I pulled out my gun and tried aiming it at an enemy’s head, I ended up failing miserably and getting hit multiple times. I almost died before I had even gotten to a part of the game that any reasonable player would deem difficult. My first thought was to blame the controls and refer to the game as “clunky”, but the more I played, the better I became at aiming. The combat system seemed a little outdated to me at first, but I became a master in no time.

Graphically, everything holds up more than it has any right to. This game looks so good! I find it incredibly hard to believe that this is 14 years old. The characters are well-designed. The environments are detailed and atmospheric. I like the lighting effects. I love how all the enemies respond to damage in different ways. Shoot them in the leg and they drop to one knee. Shoot them in the head or upper torso and watch them stagger back. You can take out limbs. You can even shoot the weapons right out of your enemy’s hands!

Right from the get-go you know what kind of game this is going to be. The shootout in the village is one of the more iconic moments in the history of the series, and it sets one heck of a tone that only takes off from there. Every area I’d enter, every scripted battle I’d encounter, every boss I’d fight, I'd just think to myself: man this is iconic. Perhaps this is indeed nostalgia speaking, but I didn’t think there was a bad spot in the entire game. Every time I’d enter a new area I’d be like “oooh, this part!” or “I forgot about this part. Awesome!” Resident Evil 4 is just so darn fun to play. Even the parts of the game I remember as “bad” parts, like the Krauser battle or the area with the disappearing insects are still fun as hell.

Resident Evil 4 is one of those rare video game anomalies where everything comes together in a near-perfect fashion. The story, the action, the graphics, the setting. It just works. I fully expected to return to this game and be able to nitpick things about it that I didn’t like or I didn’t think aged well, but that didn’t happen. It’s hard for me to find any faults with this game. I could say that the story isn’t very deep, but honestly I don’t even care. Once you start playing this game, the pure fun factor of it is what draws you in and keeps you playing. To me, Resident Evil 4 is an all-time classic. My replay of the game only further cemented its place in my mind. I love it and I don’t think I’m ever going to not love it.

Final Score:

A+

(again)

All of my Resident Evil reviews:

Resident Evil: Director's Cut

Resident Evil 2

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil (GC remake) 

Resident Evil 4

Resident Evil: Revelations

Resident Evil 2 (PS4 remake)

Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

Video Game Review #213: Toy Story

Toy Story

Sega Genesis

Nostalgia Factor:

I have been dreading playing Toy Story. I remember renting this game from Blockbuster Video when I was a kid. I had the game for three days. Three long, brutal days. I played this game nonstop the entire weekend. I remember the game being incredibly challenging. You have a limited amount of lives, and once you run out of lives you have to start the whole game over from the very beginning. This game is tough, and I ended up dying and having to restart the whole thing quite often. Quite often.

I did end up beating the game, but it took a LOT of hard work and dedication from yours truly. After that three day weekend, I never played Toy Story again. This game came out in late 1995. Let's say I didn't play it until 1996. That means that 23 years have passed since I last played Toy Story.

I don't remember much about the game, other than it being extremely challenging. Aside from that, I couldn't even remember if the game was any fun or not. So, was it? Let's find out.

Story:

This game closely follows the plot of the Toy Story movie. If you have seen that movie, absolutely nothing here will surprise you. If you have never seen Toy Story, what the heck are you doing here? Go watch Toy Story!

All jokes aside, I am actually very impressed by how well they captured the spirit of the movie in this game. Toy Story rarely veers from the plot of the film. As far as movie-to-game video game adaptations go, this is easily one of the most faithful I have ever seen.

Gameplay:

For the most part, this is a 2D side-scrolling platform game. I say for the most part because there are a few exceptions to this rule. We’ll get to those later. But first, the basics.

Taking control of Woody, you must navigate your character through 18 different stages. Woody moves left and right. He jumps, he ducks, he uses a whip to tie up his enemies. You begin the game with three lives, however in the options menu you can adjust the amount of lives to anywhere between one and five. Just move it up to five and do yourself a favor. The difficulty of the game stays the same, you just get more attempts this way. And you are going to need every one of them.

Most of the platforming stages, the goal is very simple. Just make it to the end of the stage and you’ll move on to the next one. Some stages, you will have “goals” to accomplish before you can move on. For example, in the second stage Andy is returning to his room, and you have to guide all of your fellow toys back to their original positions (where Andy left them) before he arrives. There are a few boss stages where you have to square off against Buzz Lightyear. There is a “stealth” stage where you have to sneak through the arcade while avoiding getting trampled by paper airplane throwing kids. In my most hated stage of the game, you are trapped in the claw machine while Sid is attempting to fish Buzz Lightyear out from a sea of squeaky alien toys. You have to use your whip to launch these alien toys into the claw, knocking Buzz from its grip. Sounds simple enough, but the thing moves so fast and there is almost no margin for error here. This stage wrecked many a playthrough for me. I’d come into it with full lives and the extra continue that I’d earned, and I’d end up burning through all these lives and having to start the game over again. Definitely a frustrating stage.

The rest of the game isn’t that difficult, but it is still pretty tough. Just keep at it and you’ll be a pro in no time. A little trial and error goes a long way.

As I mentioned earlier, there are a few stages that are not 2D platform stages. One of them takes place from the first person perspective. You have to rescue eight alien toys that have gotten caught in the inner workings of the claw machine. I had no idea the Genesis could handle a 3D environment like this, but it does a fantastic job. I am sure I was awed by this stage when I played it as a kid. There are a few “chase” stages where you zip through the level while riding on the back of fellow toys. You just have to move around and avoid getting hit, which is easier said than done. The other variant stages take place from an overhead perspective where you control an RC car. Basically all you have to do is make it to the end of each “track” while on a timer. You can replenish this timer by picking up fuel containers that are intermittently strewn throughout the stage. I found these stages to be a bit frustrating, but they aren’t that bad when you get the hang of how the RC car handles.

Graphics:
This game’s color palette is a lot darker than I remember, but it still looks pretty good, especially when you consider the game’s age. I can’t believe it is 24 years old! All the characters are accurate representations of their film counterparts. The animations are a bit rigid, but oh well. It is not like this ruins the game or anything. The level design is solid. Andy’s room looks like Andy’s room. The arcade looks like the arcade. So does Sid’s house. The 3D first-person stage looks awesome, as I already mentioned above. I don’t think this is the best looking Disney game out there (Lion King, Aladdin, and The Jungle Book all look better in my opinion) but it still looks pretty darn good.

Sound:

Everything sounds exactly as I expected it to coming from a mid-90s Sega Genesis movie-to-game adaptation. Canned, tinny character voices when you make a menu selection. Remixed tunes from the movie. I particularly like the “You Got a Friend In Me” rendition that the game uses. Thank god I do, because they use it a LOT in this game. Other than that, nothing about the game’s audio really stood out to me. I guess that is a good thing because if it sucked I would definitely remember!

Overall:

Turns out I didn’t have much of a reason to dread playing this game. It is difficult, there is no denying that. But despite its difficulty the game is actually quite fun. Right from the get-go I became invested in Toy Story, and I ended up having a pretty darn good time with it. In fact, even after beating the game I still get urges to go back and play it again. To me that is the mark of a truly great game. Well, I don’t know about “truly great” but this is certainly one of the better 2D platformers I have played in recent years.

Not only is the game fun, but it also stays true to the spirit of the Toy Story film. I played this game the same day I finished watching the movie, and I have to say that I was impressed by how closely the game stayed to its source material. Of course, playing this game will never substitute for the experience of actually watching the movie, but all of the major points of the film are covered by the game. If you have never seen the movie, but have played this game – and then someone asks you to recap the movie for them you would be able to do so just from playing the game.

All in all, this was a surprisingly fun title. Not to say you don’t hit a few ugly spots along the way (I’m looking at you, claw machine!) but it is still pretty entertaining. I’d recommend this to not only Toy Story fans but fans of 2D platforming games in general. It is one of the best movie adaptations the Genesis has to offer.

Final Score:

A

If you liked my Toy Story review, please check out some of my other game reviews:

Aladdin

Dynamite Headdy

The Jungle Book

The Lion King

Tom and Jerry: Frantic Antics

Re-Review #8: Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series

Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series

PlayStation 3

For my initial review of Game of Thrones, click

>>>here<<<

Recently I wrapped up playing Doom and I found myself in need of a new video game to play. With the holiday season coming up, I didn’t want to start a new game that I would get distracted from, and as a result would take me forever to beat. I figured this would be a perfect time to replay a game I had already reviewed. Something quick and easy. The game I settled on was Game of Thrones: A Telltale Game Series for the PS3.

I played this game a few years ago and I had a pretty good time with it. I love Game of Thrones. I have always enjoyed Telltale’s games. A Telltale game set in the universe of Game of Thrones? Sign me up! My previous game ended with Rodrik dying and Mira getting executed in King’s Landing. Grim stuff. I figured I’d make new decisions this time around in order to get a different ending, so that is what I did.

What I like about this game is how authentic it is the Game of Thrones universe. Everything from the graphics, the presentation, the music, the opening credits, and the voice acting feels true to the spirit of the show. I think the more hardcore of a fan you are (not only of the show but the books as well), the more you will appreciate just how authentic this game is. House sigils, character references, tie-ins to the main GoT plot… it is very clear that the makers of this game did their research. Another thing to admire is that this game does not take any liberties with the main GoT plot. You’re not going see events of the series changed in anyway. Like, you aren’t going to see Tyrion Lannister getting naked and smearing peanut butter all over Margaery Tyrell. The events of the game run concurrent to the events of the show, mainly focusing on new or minor characters. You will indeed bump into established GoT characters like Jon Snow, Tyrion, Margaery, and Cersei, but none of your interactions with these characters will bump them off their pre-established canon path.

This game feels very high-stakes, which I think added to my enjoyment of it. House Forrester is literally fighting for its life. You always feel like every decision you make in this game carries a certain amount of weight with it. I would say that I was on the edge of my seat as I played, but that would be a bit of an overstatement. One thing this game has going against it is its very slow and deliberate pace. I guess you could argue that the makers of the game are only following in the showrunners footsteps, but god dang do things move slowly sometimes. I understand that House Forrester is never referenced in the show or the books (albeit one tiny sentence in A Dance with Dragons). The house and the major characters that make up the house have to be introduced. I get it. But there are times when this game moves painfully slowly, and this is an issue I haven’t noticed in other Telltale Games.

While I am bitching, let me also mention that the game is still just as glitchy as it was the first time I played it several years ago. You’d think some kind of patch or update would have been offered by now, but no. Several times throughout the game I would hear the characters talking while nothing happened on the screen. There were a few instances where I thought I was going to have to turn the game off and turn it back on again because the action was freezing on-screen and nothing was happening for long chunks of time. Luckily the game never actually froze completely. If I just let it sit, it would eventually work the bugs out and start working again.

Complaints aside, I had a pretty good time with this game. It tells an original, high stakes story set in the world of Game of Thrones. There is a small amount of fan service with some of the recurring character cameos, but it is nothing too over the top or eye roll inducing. Any fans of the TV series or the books should check this out. If you consider yourself a hardcore fan, then I would say you NEED to check  this out. Just don’t expect a solid resolution to the events of the game. Apparently a sequel was in the works, but was cancelled when Telltale went under. Maybe someday we’ll get the solid, canon ending we were hoping for. Just be prepared when you start playing this that you may not get the ending you feel you want or deserve.

Final Score:

B

It got an A- the first time and a B the second time. I guess that means this game averages out to a B+. I feel I overrated the game the first time and I don't think it is worthy of the plus, but I guess it will just have to do.