William Saw
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MonsterVineLatest Reviews
It’s hard to believe Final Fantasy VII Remake came out nearly six years ago, bringing the first part of the trilogy project to life. Since then, we’ve reviewed Remake, Intermission, and Rebirth, but it was about time for a refresher.
Visually, Atelier Firis is stunning with a mix of animated and in-game cutscenes to flesh out the dialogue and story. The cutscenes are voiced but speaking to townspeople occurs in speech bubbles and text reads. The music isn’t very memorable thus far, but this could change as the story progresses...
The combat in The Technomancer plays in a tactical fashion, punishing players for relying too heavily on attacks and instead encouraging a nuanced approach that caters to the situation at hand. Three combat styles (Warrior, Rogue, and Guardian) are available for use during battle. The Warrior stance offers effective crowd...
The developers award more savvy thought-out approaches with optional challenges, such as obtaining a briefcase within the level, achieving a no-kill, or “x” amount of steps but I was merely satisfied enough making it to the end. So here lies the dilemma. For a series that touts its creative freedom...
The mystery and intrigue of the narrative and solving the levels themselves were competent enough and can be seen in the ‘off-the-beaten path’ secret levels. These secret levels flip the script with its ‘this is not what it seems’ moments. For example, in one of these instances the game only...
The music and washed aesthetic look also create a convincing setting, layering with the narrative in an effective manner. In the environment, there are several supernatural cues in the world of Arcadia Bay that made me do a double take, at times blurring the lines between the real and surreal....
The controls are simple and the difficulty of learning the mechanics aren’t too hard to grasp, even for the casual or non-gamer. However a caveat of my experience so far leads me to conclude that the controller is preferable to the keyboard and mouse despite mappable keybindings. I wholly believe...
The driving segments are nicely matched with the set piece moments in Sleeping Dogs, enabling Wei Shen to hijack the pursuers’ car or ram a police vehicle off the road. Vehicle gunplay starts from tense slow-mo moments and ends in cars going out in a fiery blaze of glory. All...
Granted, Kinect controls have its hitches and that’s a noticeable detriment to the game when it necessitates accuracy. A lot of the mini games relegate themselves as repetitive toss fests and with no on-screen indicator besides your virtual hand; it’s hard to see where throws ultimately end up. I found...
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days
Although, Kane & Lynch 2 feels kind of uninspired on the gameplay front, the presentation itself shines through. It’s intentionally bad, like low compression quality YouTube videos bad. But it serves to portray a gritty documentary style perspective, not obtained if you turn off steady cam. The color separation, MPEG...
Battlefield: Bad Company attempts to come onto its own with a refreshingly funny, down to earth narrative to contrast the serious nature of other war based shooters. This is evidently seen in the subtle organic feel of the characters of Bad Company, tending towards a down-to-earth portrayal of soldiers. Players...
Also, there is a deep reverence to The Beatles history found throughout the game. Players can collect photographs and unlock rare videos documenting The Beatles. For example, there are archived recordings featuring audible chatter of the four between the ins and outs of each track. While these additions are minor...
