Keri Honea's Reviews
If you're looking for a visual novel that has more to do than "press X to choose," then go on ahead and pass 7'sCarlet by.
I honestly dislike coming down on a game, because I know the developers behind it usually put their hearts and souls into their finished product. Perhaps if they baked their ideas a bit longer, fine tuned the controls, and fixed some of the latency issues (especially with loading), Divide could have been the big sci-fi adventure they clearly aimed for. But as it is, I was only relieved it didn’t take too long to complete.
Even if the controls on the PS4 weren't so terrible and I could have finished the game on the console, the story and puzzles in the rest of The Book of Unwritten Tales 2 still would have brought the game down. If I was reviewing the game on the PC, I would give it a higher rating because the game was playable. It's an absolute shame that I had to finish the game on the PC due to the control difficulties, but maybe it was trying to do me a favor and save me from the rest of it.
I’m looking forward to Platinum Games returning back to what they do best—creating original games with unique settings and fast character-action with crazy combos to learn. They can certainly make these licensed games look fantastic, but nearly everything else they leave little to desire.
Visual novels are an underappreciated niche of gaming to be sure, but games like this don’t do the genre any favors. This might have been fantastic as an anime series, but the lack of real choices in how the story goes kind of kills the interactive vibe a visual novel is supposed to have. Even though the text messages and phone calls alter the story, the length of the full story, complete with monotonous gameplay, doesn’t make replaying it for all the endings very enticing.
As a fairly big defender of the "walking simulator" genre, I feel really let down by Dear Esther. It needed more of something, whether it be a better story, more gameplay than wandering, or more interaction with the island. Definitely needed more than a feeling of "huh" when it ended.
√Root Letter has many interesting ideas, but they never fully gel together at the end. I had high hopes after the first couple of hours of gameplay, but it was hard to continue after determining I did not like Max at all. It was even harder to like it after learning who Aya was. Perhaps the multiple endings do make it all easier to swallow and there is something mind-blowing within, but I doubt many will feel enticed to replay to find out.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIII undoubtedly has a cult, niche following, as games don’t usually receive that many sequels without such a following. However, this is one niche that is as obscure for newcomers as it is deep, and it’s certainly an instance where real-time strategy simply does not fit on the console with a controller. If you’re a fan of this series, save yourself from grief and pick it up on PC.
I am seriously envious of my friends playing this game who aren’t having issues (mostly PC players), because I see glimpses of the greatness Cyberpunk 2077 has in store. Once CD Projekt Red works through these crashing and glitching issues, and maybe moves the console version of the game into at least a beta phase, it could be fantastic. I, for one, am looking forward to replaying the game with all new choices when Cyberpunk 2077 is fit for console launch.
In the end, after figuring out every Chapter was essentially second verse, same as the first, I stopped exploring. I stopped trying to get better gear. All I needed was enough food to keep me alive as I sail from one island to the next, climbing towers, activating beacons, rinse, and repeat.
I can appreciate what Ubisoft Reflections was trying to attempt with Grow Home, but perhaps it should have been left as an experiment or a demo instead of as a game. Its appearance is intriguing, I'll give it that, but appearance doesn't make it any less tedious or frustrating. I noticed on Metacritic that several people have loved it, but for me, it was absolute torture.
Instead of capitalizing on it, 343 Industries failed both Halo fans and potential new fans with this collection. As a huge Halo fangirl myself, it absolutely breaks my heart to see Halo tarnished in this fashion. This should have been a solid slam dunk for 343, not an utter disappointment.
Overall, First Light reminded me how much fun it is to spend time in an inFamous game, but I would have preferred a bit more originality with the mini-games and some life in the once vivid game world of Seattle. This standalone prequel is a nice touch for fans of Second Son, but there's absolutely nothing within to entice series newcomers to jump in.
Shenmue III deserved something better. The developers should have found a way to meld what makes Shenmue distinctly Shenmue with bringing the game mechanics into 2019. I’m all for remasters of old games and keeping those same clunky mechanics with those old games, including the punishing difficulty. However, I want my sequels to old games to adapt and grow with the times.
As it is now, it’s a bit half-baked and feels rushed. Perhaps the forthcoming DLC will improve upon it, but it’s too much of a shame that we don’t have a more robust product now.
I can't see me playing a Special Mission each day, but that's because I'm not sure I can spend more time with this unpolished hulk. As much as I've been clamoring for another action WH40K game since Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, it pains me to say this one does not fill that void. Deathwing has so much potential sitting there with the Dark Angels alone, not to mention roaming a Space Hulk, it's an absolute shame it falls short of the Emperor's expectations. I've been looking forward to this one since I first saw it at several E3s ago. Too bad it's as void and as lifeless as the derelict ships of the Space Hulk itself.
It is known how much I adore LEGO games, but these last two have been glitch-filled messes. I can't recommend this one at all, even to those who loved the first one, until TT Games puts out a hefty patch to resolve these glitches. LEGO Marvel Super Heroes 2 isn't unplayable by any stretch, but it's a downright frustrating adventure with these game-breaking issues. Ye have been warned.
It’s really surprising that a game could be configured so well from PC to console and yet fail in so many other areas under the hood. InXile has the controls, menus, and navigation down pat for console, but it needs more tweaking in its engine before this game can be recommended to anyone. I hate giving this score for Torment, especially knowing that it’s a patch or two away from being a shining cRPG example on the PS4.
If you enjoyed these games the first time and just want more Trophies for your collection, then by all means, jump in a second time. But if you missed LEGO Harry Potter back then, it’s far too rough to come back to now. TT Games has improved their games so much since these, and the LEGO Harry Potter Collection has too many problems, old and new, to recommend to Harry Potter fans.
While there are plenty of co-op only titles on the console, most of these were built with consoles in mind and therefore had devices in place to make a mandatory teamwork experience a smooth one. It doesn't take long to see that Warhammer: The End Times – Vermintide for PS4 was certainly not constructed with consoles in the forethought; it's quite the afterthought, and it painfully shows. Stick to the PC for this one.