Jens

Platinum #211: Shing!

Guess it's better to start with a little disclaimer, out of fairness. I bought this game blind, I only got it because the name was mildly amusing to me. I was expecting something like The Messenger or Guacamelee, Platforming + Combat. But it really wasn't, and therefore I went in disappointed from the start. That really dropped my overall enjoyment, not the game's fault though.

It's a super simple beat'em up, like old NES games, Streets of Rage for example. You walk from left to right, beat up all enemies, continue, rinse and repeat. That's basically it, there's close to no variation at all. The game offers you two different control schemes. Using the right analogue stick for attacks - don't use this one. It's the most tedious thing ever, stick to buttons if possible! I really hope the PS4 got that control option patched in too...

It's just very, very basic. The humor didn't land for me, it gets repetitive real fast, enemy patterns were more annoying than challenging and the combat didn't really get satisfying. But once I got my head in the game, shook of my disappointment and started focusing I stopped hating it, it was passable by the end.

It's very short (7 levels, roughly 15-30 minutes each) and can get slightly challenging, especially in some challenge rooms. Mastering levels is fairer than one might expect. You need to beat the level quickly, while taking little damage and earning a certain amount of "battle style points". Thankfully you don't need all three at once, and you can restart checkpoints when you feel like having screwed things up. Mastering levels worried me, but I did all of them first try after beating the game. If a noob like me can do it, you can do it too

Dunno. If you just want a retro beat'em up, maybe. It's on sale somewhat frequently, currently at 5$ even. If you know what you're getting into and like this kind of game you might actually get something out of it. But if you need a bit of fresh gameplay changes here and there, Shing ain't your Thing.

Well, why not. Let's see how long this keeps being fun for me  Might be interesting to see whether my short and long term opinions on games change or not.

Platinum #211: Darksiders Genesis

I only picked this game because I had a bit of PS Now left after purchasing one month for FF7. I got close to buying Darksiders Genesis a few times already, but I was never sure enough. It had the vibes of a quick Darksiders-cash-grab, it could've easily been trash. That's what PS Now is for though, so I gave it a whirl and it was surprisingly decent!

You can mostly play it in two different ways. It's either an isometric hack&slash or - in my case - a twin stick shooter. There's pretty much one character focusing on one style of gameplay. Nothing stands out immensely, but nothing was trash either (except for some late game challenges...). It's an absolutely alright gap-filler for sure. I wouldn't have regretted a purchase, at least in a sale. You do have do backtrack a bit which might turn a few people off, but I didn't mind it. It had a bit of a Metroidvania thing going, you got new upgrades to collect previous upgrades you couldn't reach. Other than a few minor exceptions it wasn't terribly long or difficult, took me roughly 35 hours to complete.

One thing I couldn't test was coop, but I'm imagining it being pretty good. It's online and offline, and to me it seems like it'll be easy to drop in and drop out of. Doing some chapters alone, some together, simple but effective. It will also help with one or two of the tougher challenges in the game.

The only thing I really disliked were some of the platforming challenges. It suffers from all the isometric-platforming-issues you could imagine. That could get annoying at times, but it never makes you lose much progress. And the story is mostly serviceable, after a while I barely paid attention to it

tl,dr: If you have PS Now / see it in a nice sale it's worth a shot, at least if you like this kind of game. If you look for something to play with a friend I recommend it no matter what!

I almost forgot about it, I suck!

Congrats on getting your guide published so super quickly my friend! I'm currently hiding Cris Tales from Marcia because I can sense puppy eyes in my future once she sees it  But now I know exactly where to find everything we'll need. Thank you for your efforts buddy!

To my bunny brothers and sisters out there!

Farewell Star Ocean, I never want to see you and your son ever again.