God of War III: Remastered

Rating: 8.7

Happy Price: 39.99

Gameplay

This is a great blend of puzzles, platforming, and action intertwined in an excellent narrative that leads to a fantastic conclusion of the epic God of War. This is not a story, but instead an epic. The sense of rage inside Kratos and his enemies have been building since the first installation of the series, and the writing makes a point to address this. It creates a sense of immersion and emotion while gameplay is occurring.

Combat

The combat design is the focal point of the series, and obviously for this game. There are a wide range of weapons at your disposal that all have different purposes, but the control scheme for them is similar, allowing for quick mastering of combos and giving the player freedom to use different weapons against different enemies without the hindering feeling of not knowing how to use the weapon due to lack of experience. The animations associated with the attacks are viscous and every movement has this sense of rage and purpose behind it. The emphasis on this really makes you feel invested in Kratos and compliments the narrative perfectly. The strong emphasis on the particle trails and effects of special attacks with each weapon make them feel entirely different and unique. God of War still remains on top of the industry with its combat design.

Boss Battles

Each boss battle feels different and every boss requires a specific way to defeat them. There are three tiers of boss battles: Epic, Mini boss, and sub-boss. Epic bosses are the duels with the gods/titans themselves. These are hard and require the player to learn how to win. This is reminiscent of boss battles of the 16/32 bit era games. You die at first, but soon get the hang of what you're suppose to do. Playing a game that keeps this tradition alive is refreshing and I'm glad a studio is keeping this aspect of games alive. 

Mini bosses are more about coordination and skill. When introduced to a difficult character like a cyclops or a cerebrus for this first time is daunting and intimidating. It's usually a one on one duel at first, so the player can learn how the enemies behave. Typically it requires hack, slash, block, dodge, repeat for an extended period of time to win these. As you progress through the game, sometimes you might be introduced to multiple cerbri or cyclopi at one time (not sure if those are words). 

Sub-boss battles usually involve a few stronger than normal characters on screen at a time surrounded by grunts. For example three sirens that have a special power along with 7 or 8 grunts in a battle. These are difficult, you might die once or twice if not careful, but its a great way to introduce new enemies and keep things interesting. 

Artwork

Animation

The animation stays at a fluid 60 fps. This game plays beautifully. I never experienced any frame loss or a processing issue with too many enemies on screen. In the battle with Hercules, there are roughly 30 characters on screen, 20 of which are active enemies. Couple that with the complex environment and the AI, its an attribution to both the developer and power of the PS4 that it was able to stand up to that much data being passed. 

With the amount of enemy types in this game, there are hundreds of different animations going on. Grunts, cyclops, cerebrus, minotaurs, sirens, the list goes on and on. There are unique types of enemies which require completely different animation sets. There wasn't much cheating going on here as you see with some games, where they can implement the same animation data with similar model types. Each set is unique, because it had to be. 

Environments

The outside environments are gloom and dark, as it should be in an apocalyptic environment. The inside environments on olympus was grand and expensive, as they should be when you are navigating the living spaces of the gods. The environments are beautiful in their own way. There was a great attention to detail to things like gears moving and other mechanical mechanisms. There wasn't a detail untouched with the environment. I tried to look for things that looked lazy or time saving, but couldn't find anything. This is different than open world experiences where dungeons or other environments seem repetitive. This is the advantage of linear games, art can be planned properly and is done correctly.

Summary

If you've played this on the ps3 version, you don't need to spend money on this game. It's the same game, and even though the graphics are improved the game is the same and the fun level is the same. However if you did not play the ps3 version, this is a must buy. The series remains the best action platformer out there. Piggy backing off of greek mythology adds a great narrative that is immersive and interesting. It's a great game.

  

Rocket League

Rating: 8.5

Happy Price: 9.99

Gameplay

Destruction derby meets arena soccer is the best way to describe rocket league. It's physics based gameplay adds unpredictability and awesome gameplay moments. The player has the ability to alter the angle of their car and change speeds fluidly which creates many different ways to attack the ball. Fly in the air with your rocket booster, hit balls out of the air with the tail of your car, and or just bump straight into it. Depending on your skill, the game will be played differently.

Driving

Driving mechanics are pretty simple, but the advanced part takes time to get skilled at. On ps4 its R2 to accelerate, L2 to brake, X to jump, X twice to double jump, and X twice quickly to leap or dodge in the direction desired. You can jump in the air and use turbo to rocket boost, but physics make this difficult to master. Once its mastered, you will undoubtedly be the best player in a session as you will have many more opportunities to hit the ball.

Strategy

Teams that work together usually win. Most of my affairs are fairly one sided. The team that works together always seems to prevail. The best teams usually have one guy hanging back and keeping the ball in play, and two wing players that attack the ball. The goal is to center the ball at a low velocity, this allows the defender to rush in with a great angle, or the other attacking player to have a shot on goal. Teams that usually fail are the ones that have all three players attacking the ball. Strategy is simple. 

Physics

The physics of a car hitting a round object make this game what it is. Players hitting the ball at different velocities at different angles at the same time cause for the ball to pop up in the air open for any player with the right skill to attack and score, or completely wiff and open the whole side of the field for an inferior player to score. There is a huge risk and reward theme and this game, and most players go for the risk. I tend to capitalize on other's mistakes and take advantage of easy scores, and that is completely fine with me. I've had multiple MVP's and hat tricks playing that way. The game also operates at 60fps but usually runs at 40 fps on the ps4.

Customization

This is what keeps me playing. Unlocking new cars, paint, decals, and all the other good stuff rewards me for having fun. There isn't criteria for unlocking these things that are made known to the player, they are just unlocked for playing and its usually a pleasant surprise. The ability to make your car unique and show off different hats that are probably earned for doing difficult things (but nobody actually knows) adds an element to the game that isn't necessary for it to be fun, but is essential to keep the player from turning the game off.

Some of my footage

Conclusion

If you're bored and short on cash, definitely a game that should be picked up. There is a season mode if you don't like playing online. Online play is insanely fun and simple. Not a must buy, there are much better games out there. Currently my time is split between this game and Witcher 3 depending on how my day is going. At times I find it to be more fun than Witcher 3, but not necessarily a better game.