jonesey46 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (Re)Achieved - Human Fall Flat 💯 DLC Factory DLC Thoughts A new level was added to Human Fall Flat, this one following an industrial theme where the objective is to make your way round a factory. Like all other levels I played this entirely in co-op with my girlfriend. We always do a blind playthrough first so we can figure out the level together, then we usually do a quick run through to clean up the miscellaneous trophies that I probably missed. This level is split into two parts, the objective of the first part is to gather moulds for smelting machine so you can make a lever. This part has 4 branching puzzle gauntlets and at the end of each one, there is a mould which you put into a machine and this machine smelts that part of the lever, once you've gathered all of the moulds and parts you combine them all to make the lever and move on. The second part of the level is straight forward and doesn't have a unique element like the first part. Trophy wise there's the standard 'complete the level' trophy, then there's one for completing the first half of the level without turning the lights on, easy peasy as long as you know not to turn the lights on before hand! And there's also a trophy for throwing 4 radios off the map, there's usually a collectible one like this in all the maps. And that's it! Super easy and can be done in 20 minutes. I'm always impressed with the DLC levels in this game cause there's always that unique element that I would have never thought possible. I've come to realise now that if you can think it, you can probably do it in Human Fall Flat. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 Platinum #167 - Mass Effect 3 Introduction And here we have it, the final part of the trilogy. I had heard bad things about this game when it came out, and even had a friend who was a huge fan of the series explain why the ending was so bad to me. But now, 8 years later, I've played it myself and I won't lie; tears were shed. Story After the events of Mass Effect 2 (specifically the Arrival DLC), Shephard returns to Earth to warn the council about the incoming invasion of the Reapers. Due to Shephard's reckless behavior and allegiance with Cerberus, the council are apprehensive to trust Shephard. But, just as they are making their case, sure enough the Reapers arrive and attack the shit out of the planet. After making a desperate escape with old pal Admiral Anderson, Shephard boards the Normandy once again and embarks on a mission to save the galaxy and destroy the Reapers. Gameplay Mass Effect 3's gameplay is largely the same to Mass Effect 2's, although noticeably smoother and more responsive. Because of this I'm going to keep this section relatively short, as I'll mostly be covering the same ground I covered in my Mass Effect 2 post. Thankfully one major change in this game over 2 was the citadel. We finally have a large Citadel to explore again! Although not as large and impressive as the Presidium in ME1 it's a huge improvement. There's multiple sections to explore and an actual reason to visit often too, as crew members will request dock leave and there's usually someone needing something from you. Bioware also had the kind graces to take out that God awful resource minigame from 2. This time when you're navigating your ship on the galaxy map, you can send out a little pulse from your ship to look for resources but when you do this, the Reapers become aware of your location and will chase you down. If you can leave the area then you're fine but if you get caught it's game over. The Normandy is almost identical with the addition of the war room. This room has a dedicated comms area, and a galaxy map that lists your assets and galactic readiness to fight the Reapers. Speaking of which, this is the main objective of the game. Gather assets to fight the Reapers. The main questline follows Shephard going to various different planets and gathering the support of different species. Whilst the side missions will have you gathering smaller resources. All of these tally up though and the success of the final mission is dependent on the amount you have. This game was just one big giant fan service. Every mission you do will somehow lead you to meeting an old acquaintance from the previous 2 games, even though its completely improbable. But you know what? I didn't hate it, I pretty much had a smile on my face throughout this entire game because I just couldn't help it. It was so nice to see all these characters again, doing their own thing and happy to see me too. I felt like the character interactions in this game were much more meaningful because they were final. Do not get me started on the quest where you meet Garrus at the citadel and shoot bottles together, holy crap I think I might start crying again. Having all these moments with each of the characters meant so much to me, so any negatives surrounding this game just didn't bother me, cause it was worth it for those little moments. Platinum Thoughts This was probably the easiest out of the three. In order to get the platinum you will be playing the game extensively and experiencing everything it has to offer. You'll also do it a second time on Insanity difficulty just like the last two games but you'll need to complete every side mission this time to get a particularly annoying trophy out of the way. Other than that there's various combat related trophies that are simple to get providing you have the right equipment, none of them are class specific like they were previously. And of course lets not forget the galactic readiness app! There's a trophy for getting 100% galactic readiness, you do this by playing a minigame on the Mass Effect website that allows you to increase your galactic readiness, which was effects on the ending. All you have to do is select each part of the map on the minigame, wait a couple of hours and then do it again until you get 100%, once you sync it up and load the game, the trophy should pop. It's super easy and doesn't require much effort, but that doesn't stop it from being dumb and pointless. There ARE multiplayer trophies but you don't have to actually play the multiplayer because each of the trophies have single player requirements also, and you only have to meet one of the requirements to get the trophies. I like having the option because even though I've heard good things about the multiplayer for this game, I doubt it would be populated enough to go the distance with those trophies. It also means that when the severs eventually go down, the ME3 platinum will still be obtainable (providing the minigame stays up). Summary I loved this game and I didn't hate the ending like everyone did. I of course had access to the extended cut which was released after all the fan backlash Bioware got, so I didn't experience the ending in its original form. So in my humble opinion, I believe this was a fitting end to the trilogy and I enjoyed it very much. For anyone who wants to know, I chose the Synthesis (green lol) ending because I couldn't bare the though of destroying the Geth after freeing them. I have been told multiple times on the internet that I was wrong to choose that ending because the hivemind has decided the Destroy (red lol) ending was objectively the right ending to choose because reasons and there's no nuance what so ever. Also for anyone interested here is my ranking of the trilogy: 1. Mass Effect - Just can't beat the proper RPG nature of this one. 2. Mass Effect 3 - Loved the character interactions more than anything. Was satisfied with the story. 3. Mass Effect 2 - Great game but felt like a diversion in the grand story arc. Best Bit The wonderful and tear-jerking interactions with the characters Worst Bit Enemy variety was a little lacking Arbitrary Rating 9/10 - Just like the other 2 games! --- DLC From Ashes This DLC has a quick defend the base type mission which was fine but the main draw of this DLC was to introduce the Prothean companion. That's right! The long dead Prothean race that gets mentioned all the time! Javik went into stasis when the Protheans fought the Reapers tens of thousands of years ago and has now been awoken by Shephard to help him fight the same threat! Javik is a really cool companion and although his back story is completely unbelievable and far fetched, I enjoyed having him around. Leviathan This DLC revolves around a Subnautica style mission where you pilot a deep dive exosuit and descend to depths of a water planet to find a long lost race of aliens that fought the Reapers many years ago. This DLC was quite forgettable to be honest and any lore it added I felt was unnecessary. Omega We finally get to return to Omega and help one of the best characters in the Mass Effect series, Aria. This DLC is very linear and straight forward with a few missions revolving around killing everyone involved in taking over the Omega from Aria. Citadel This is it. The best DLC I have ever paid money for. Citadel has Shephard returning to the Citadel for some routine repairs on the Normandy and some well deserved dock leave. Whilst having some dinner with Joker, someone attempts to take down Shephard and you uncover a bit of a conspiracy involving an evil clone. Shit gets weird but once you wrap all that up you get to have a party at your apartment. This is the most heart warming thing ever. You invite everyone round, including all companions from all three games and have a party, chat to each other, have drinking competitions, sex up your romance interest etc. It's an amazing bit of fan service and a really good send off for all the characters. This shit will have you crying your eyes out by the end. There's also a new area of the Citadel to explore which includes a casino and a combat training area which adds a bit of replayability. --- And there we have it. The complete Mass Effect trilogy. I had a great time playing through this legendary series and I might end up picking up the Remasters that are coming out next year and go full Renegade this time, cause I couldn't help but always go Paragon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 14, 2020 Author Share Posted December 14, 2020 Platinum #168 - The Crew Introduction I started The Crew in 2014, shortly after it came out and while Ubisoft was still fooling me into buying their games. I played a bit of it but ultimately left it behind when better games came along. Which is exactly why I bought it, as a time waster until something I really wanted to play was out. Well, here we are in 2020 and I thought it was high time I cleaned up the trophy list. Although hesitant at first due to many platinum breaker glitches I was glad I did go back to it, as I had a great time with it and I can safely say it's the best driving game I've played since Burnout Paradise. Story Troy Bakers brother gets died and Troy goes the jail time, FBI call and say "hey, you go undercover to clear your name dawg". Gameplay It's a driving game so there's not much to say. The main selling point of this game is that the open world is the entirety of the United States. You can drive anywhere you want, including a very scaled down version of the town you grew up in (if you grew up in America that is). This concept alone is what made me buy the game, because I quite liked the idea of getting a fast car and going on a road trip through the USA. And you know what? It's pretty good for that. The novelty never wore off and it was always my favorite part, driving through the country side with my own music playing. And as sad as it sounds, it kept me from going crazy during COVID lockdown. Being unable to actually go anywhere, travelling around the States in The Crew scratched that itch for me. So the game plays out like this; you go undercover and you have to work your way up the ranks of the gang. There's 5 regions and you have to race a bunch of people in each and then take down the leader of that region to earn the next rank. Rinse and repeat for each region. You start off in the East Coast and then make your way to the Midwest, the South, Mountain States and then finally the West Coast. Most of what you'll be doing in missions is races, but sometimes you get a different style of mission like a takedown or driving through boxes to collect shipments. The driving in this game is fantastic, however I'm no expert so take what I say with a grain of salt. Cars always feel fast and handle well. As well as the 5 regions, there's also 5 car specs. These include; Street, Dirt, Performance, Raid, and Circuit. These cars handle differently and are useful in their own specific scenarios and races. There's a bunch of cars in the game, all licensed, and each time you buy a car, you also have access to all the specs it's available in. So you could theoretically start and finish the game with the same car. I actually had the car I started with in the endgame because I just kept levelling it up, it was the Nissan 370Z and it pretty much carried me through the game. Levelling up cars works differently now than it did from release, but basically everytime you complete a race, or event or whatever you get a random part for the car your driving that is guaranteed to be equal or better than what you already have. So whatever you're driving, you're always levelling up. I thought this was a decent system although it completely negates any part customization as you're always just equipping the next bit with the highest number. It's worth mentioning there are also bikes in the game but in my 100+ hours with the game I never bothered riding one, so I can't comment on how they are. Platinum Thoughts Whoo boy this one is a doozy! There's a lot to get through here so I'm going to break it down as best I can. Long story short, this is a long and grindy platinum. And one you might not even get due to a couple of platinum breaker glitches. This game is online-only, and you cannot start the game over as your save is server side and linked to your PSN. Meaning if you get one of these glitches, that's it, game over, no going back. Back in the day people were able to get in contact with Ubisoft and get them to reset their save for them but no chance of that now as they are no longer supporting it. THIS IS WHY YOU DON'T MAKE ONLINE-ONLY GAMES! Anyway... Playing through the story, levelling up your car and reaching level 50; This is the most straight forward part of the run as you're just doing the missions and levelling up as you go. Collectibles; There's a couple of collectibles in The Crew, one being radio towers. I mean, I can't believe Ubisoft managed to put radio towers that reveal your map in a fucking driving game! Other than that there's car wrecks which unlock unique cars and landmarks, of which there are 242 of. These are just little spots on the map that show off a building or a statue that is actually in the real world USA. Platinum medals on all story missions; Playing through the story events once isn't enough, you also need to get the highest medal on each event. Thankfully these missions don't scale to your level so once your top level with some amazing cars, you can breeze through most of these and nab the platinum medal in no time. Unfortunately, this is the main trophy that is glitched. Once you've done all of them, it can glitch and stick on 97% in your stats. Unfortunately if you get this, there's nothing you can do. Thankfully, I didn't get this! Multiplayer; One of the main aspects of this game is the multiplayer, allowing you to form a crew with 3 other friends. Trophies relating to online include playing 50 online events, taking part in the 'raid' races, one of which has you driving a circuit round the entire map and can take up to 4 hours! Placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd as part of a crew which is a nightmare to arrange with this games terrible matchmaking. And earning 100,000 reputation points which you have to do within 30 days, because the points reset every month. It's grindy to say the least. Miscellaneous Trophies; Most of these are actually quite fun and just require you to change your paint job or test drive the most expensive car. One trophy however has you doing the Indy500 as it requires you to do 200 laps round a certain speed dome. This is kind of mind numbing but you chip away at it anytime you like, you don't need to do it in one. And finally, the mile grindage!!!!; As if you haven't suffered enough! Get in your favourite car, slap a rubber band on your controller and go do something more productive. One of these trophies requires 5,000 miles! After doing everything above, my most driven car only had a bout 2,000 miles on the clock! Ridiculous! Summary A ridiculously grindy and glitchy platinum with some awful matchmaking that will make you rip your hair out. But in all honesty, I had an absolute blast playing this game and was glad I'd taken the time to 100% it. Best Bit Driving the entirety of the USA Worst Bit Horrendously grindy, and a few platinum breaking glitches that are just straight up unacceptable Arbitrary Rating 8/10 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 6 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Platinum #167 - Mass Effect 3 Summary I loved this game and I didn't hate the ending like everyone did. I of course had access to the extended cut which was released after all the fan backlash Bioware got, so I didn't experience the ending in its original form. So in my humble opinion, I believe this was a fitting end to the trilogy and I enjoyed it very much. For anyone who wants to know, I chose the Synthesis (green lol) ending because I couldn't bare the though of destroying the Geth after freeing them. I have been told multiple times on the internet that I was wrong to choose that ending because the hivemind has decided the Destroy (red lol) ending was objectively the right ending to choose because reasons and there's no nuance what so ever. I wouldn't say I hated ME3 when I first played through it the first week it game out, but I was disappointed with the original ending (pretty much to scale for the Game of Thrones ending). The series is fantastic and was quite a journey to play through, but they kind of just phoned it in at the end. The revised ending was better and gave you more closure. Still one of my favorite game series and it looks like they are making a ME4 now ?. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
realm722 Posted December 14, 2020 Share Posted December 14, 2020 4 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Platinum #168 - The Crew -snip- Absolutely incredible job with this man. I too was intrigued by The Crew since the notion of driving around a shrunken down version of the US really appealed to me (and I waited until The Crew 2's much easier plat to fully dive in, heh) But to get a sub <1% plat like this given all the grind, online, and potential for utter rage if the game had glitched out on you... def one of the most impressive additions to a collection. Well done and look forward to future reviews, seems like you have a number to get through given you platted this back in August! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 I've been working on some posts offline cause my internet is down. I'll get them posted as soon as I'm back up. One is for Resident Evil 7 which looks like my longest post yet as I go into all the DLC. Such an amazing game with so much content! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 (edited) 22 hours ago, Grotz99 said: I wouldn't say I hated ME3 when I first played through it the first week it game out, but I was disappointed with the original ending (pretty much to scale for the Game of Thrones ending). The series is fantastic and was quite a journey to play through, but they kind of just phoned it in at the end. The revised ending was better and gave you more closure. Still one of my favorite game series and it looks like they are making a ME4 now . I do not trust that Mass Effect 4 announcement at all! Bioware is a shell of what it used to be and although I did get goosebumps hearing that music and seeing Liara in the trailer. There's no chance the game will hold a candle to any of the original trilogy. 19 hours ago, realm722 said: Absolutely incredible job with this man. I too was intrigued by The Crew since the notion of driving around a shrunken down version of the US really appealed to me (and I waited until The Crew 2's much easier plat to fully dive in, heh) But to get a sub <1% plat like this given all the grind, online, and potential for utter rage if the game had glitched out on you... def one of the most impressive additions to a collection. Well done and look forward to future reviews, seems like you have a number to get through given you platted this back in August! Thanks a lot. I started the game back in 2014 so playing it now and attempting the platinum felt like I had nothing to lose, I mean its on my profile anyway right? Better at 90%> than 15%. But man I was so chuffed when those glitched trophies popped and I knew that I was in the clear. I may have platinum'd this back in August but to be honest, I've been back at full time work since then so I've not been burning through the games the same speed I was when we were in lockdown. I plan to be caught up before the end of the year so you might see 3 or 4 going up at the same time ? Edited December 15, 2020 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 15, 2020 Author Share Posted December 15, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (Re)Achieved – Control 💯 DLC Altered World Events DLC Thoughts I really like this game, so I’m always excited to play new content for it. AWE links the world of Control with one of Remedy’s older games, Alan Wake. Now, as Alan Wake is an Xbox exclusive, I have never played it, although I always wanted to and was very intrigued by it when it released. Because I’m not familiar with Alan, this DLC and its story was slightly lost on me. I did however still enjoy my time with it as I really like this game and I’m in AWE of its world… Get it? Altered World Events can be started at any time, just like the last DLC it integrates with the main game, rather than having a separate menu. I love that and always will. So, I booted up my platinum’d save file and got an alert of some goings on in an area of the Bureau I’ve not visited yet, the investigations sector. This sector has been closed off due to a breach of some kind. As Jesse you must make your way in, explore the altered world events this sector was investigating and neutralise the threat. One of those Altered World Events is the event surrounding the plot of Alan Wake. I think it’s cool they have linked them together like this and I think the premise of Control can be used in so many creative ways. But again, as someone who has not played Alan Wake, it was kind of lost on me. Just like the last DLC, this one includes several new documents to collect that explore more of the lore of Control and some of Alan Wake. There’s also a few side missions which relate to objects of power, which were my favourite from the main game. And a new weapon form, this time your service weapon takes on the form of a sticky grenade launcher. I found this very useful and fun to use, but as always, the difficulty of this game always takes me be surprise cause it’s always harder than it feels it should be. I’m sure this isn’t exclusive to the DLC, but I feel it’s worth mentioning; There’s been a bunch of accessibility options added (which don’t turn off trophies) that make the game considerably easier like invincibility and one hit kills. I like to think I’m decent at games and I found this game quite difficult so it’s nice that these accessibility options will give everyone a chance to play this amazing game, regardless of difficulty. Looks like that’s it for the additional content for Control, so lets hope they get working on the sequel! I love the world they’ve created here and can’t wait to experience more of it. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 fixed format issue from update Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 (edited) Platinum #169 – A Way Out Introduction The studio behind this game also made Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, a game which I absolutely adored when I played it on the PS3. It seems this developer are making a stand for couch co-op experiences, believing that playing a game with a friend or loved one sat next to you is the most fun someone can have with a game. I applaud them for this as there aren’t many studios making games like this. In comes A Way Out, a game that I wanted to try as soon as it released but was always apprehensive due to it’s price. I managed to pick it up in a deep sale recently, so me and the girlfriend sat down and played through the thing in one go. Story Vincent and Leo are in jail, it’s sometime in the 70’s I believe. They become friends when they both learn they’ve ended up in jail because of the same person. They both hatch a plan to break out of jail and track this person down to get their revenge. Gameplay A Way Out is a purely co-op experience. It can be played online with someone but the developers specifically encourage playing it with someone in the same room as you. It’s a third person adventure game that’s not too dissimilar to a walking simulator, as there aren’t many mechanics to play with aside from interacting with objects and the occasional button mashing. This doesn’t mean the game isn’t engaging though and there is a lot of fun to be had when figuring out a puzzle or scenario with your partner. Towards the end of the game it does turn into a little bit of a third person shooter, but the section doesn’t last long enough to really be critiqued. There’s also driving sections, a boat section and even a skydiving section. A Way Out starts in a prison, naturally. Once you get out, it’s countryside’s, cityscapes, and eventually jungle environments. The game is really varied which was a surprise, as both me and my girlfriend were under the impression the entire game revolved around breaking out of prison. I think we had the best possible experience with this game, and it seems that under different circumstances, you might think this game was bad to mediocre. We had little to no expectations, we weren’t aware of the scope of the game or story and we had each other in the same room. Because of these circumstances, we had a great time and we both think very highly of this game. Platinum Thoughts The platinum for this game is super easy and can be done in one playthrough. I intended not to use a guide for the first playthrough but after having a quick peek and seeing no spoilers what so ever, I thought it couldn’t hurt to just get it all knocked out in one go. There are missable interactions throughout the game that offer up trophies, and without a guide, luck or sheer intuition, you probably will miss them. A lot of these interactions take minutes to complete and then you can just continue on with the story. Summary As said above, my girlfriend and I had a really great time with this game and were really taken aback by how good it ended up being. A really nice co-op adventure to experience with someone you’re close to. And I can’t say anymore without going into spoilers so here goes; Spoiler We did not see the twist coming at all! It totally took us by surprise, and it’s not cause this game is masterfully written or anything. I believe it’s because we were sat next to each other, we care for each other and we both grew an affinity for the character we were controlling. For the record I was controlling Vincent, and my girlfriend was Leo. When it was revealed that Vincent was an undercover cop I actually felt like I had betrayed my girlfriend. Throughout most of the game we were laughing and making jokes, but in the final confrontation, when one of you HAS to die, the room went really quiet and both of us were fairly uncomfortable. It was a very interesting effect the game had on us, and one that wouldn’t have worked if we weren’t in the same room. So I tip my hat to this game because it did something I have never experienced before. I recommend this to any couch co-op enthusiasts. Best Bit Engaging co-op gameplay and story Worst Bit Gameplay wise it isn’t great and the voice acting is a bit off. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 Edited December 16, 2020 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 16, 2020 Author Share Posted December 16, 2020 (edited) Platinum #170 – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Introduction Carrying on with my run through of the Resident Evil franchise, I found the gold edition of 7 for a good price and decided that would be the next one to play. I came to understand that playing these games in chronological order would be pointless as each game has its own centralised story with only references to the wider universe. 7 is notorious for being the scariest of the bunch, due to it’s first person perspective so I was excited but a little reserved. Story You play as Ethan Winters and after finding out that his girlfriend who has been missing for 3 years could still be alive, he jumps straight into his car and makes his way to the Baker mansion in Dulvey, Louisiana. Upon entering the mansion, it doesn’t take long to find Ethan’s girlfriend Mia, but it becomes very apparent that something horrible has happened to her during her time here. As Ethan, your job is to escape the Baker residence, find out what the hell is going on, and save Mia if you can. Gameplay Resident Evil 7 makes a big departure for the franchise as it is entirely in first person. However, this game is actually a lot more like classic RE than the previous few games were. Instead of being non stop action, this game follows a much more survival horror path, with various puzzle elements throughout. Like classic RE, you start out with nothing and you slowly build up an arsenal of weapons and equipment. You have an item box which you can store things in and you need cassette tapes to save (on harder difficulties). Enemies move slowly and come at you one at a time. Bosses are unique and have specific ways of beating them. You have a limited inventory space and will honestly spend most of the game managing it. Puzzle items need to be collected and combined to open new areas of the mansion. If not for the first person perspective, this would almost look like a remake of RE1. It’s those specific reasons why I absolutely love this game. Much like the RE1 and RE2 remakes, you need to think about what you are going to do next. You need to carefully consider what items you take with you. And much like the older RE’s, it has loads of replayability. Playing the game over and over again and vastly improving your runtime. The enemies you face in this are not zombies, but instead mould monsters. They come from the substance infected people create, and they form into these horrific mounds of black goo. They kind of look like Venom from Spider-Man. They’re cool but aside from bosses, they are the only enemies you fight in this game, which can get a little boring. When first starting this game I was apprehensive about it’s length. Being set in a mansion, I thought “how long could this game be really?” but it really took me by surprise just how much of an adventure this game holds. I will say that unfortunately, once you get to the tanker, the game loses it’s steam a little. Much like when you get to the Labs in Resident Evil 2. I had a ton of fun running through this game multiple times on different difficulties and with different weapons. So much so that I believe the replayability of a Resident Evil game should be a deciding factor on if it is good or not. Platinum Thoughts Resident Evil 7 has a typical RE trophy list requiring multiple playthroughs, some under unique circumstances, as well as collecting all types of collectibles and carrying out various actions. There’s a few non-missable trophies relating to the story and there’s a trophy for each of the two endings. You’re required to beat the game on Madhouse which is the hardest difficulty, it can be tricky in certain areas but it’s mostly manageable. You’re also required to complete the game in under 4 hours, using only 3 healing items, and opening the item box only 3 times or less. These do not have to be done in one go although it’s actually quite simple to combine them all on the easiest difficulty. It is a little complicated and requires a bit of planning but I feel the platinum in this game is well worth going for. Summary I really enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 7, made more enjoyable by the amazing DLC that was released for it too. It goes back to the classic style of Resident Evil and ditches all that action packed nonsense for a well-paced and thrilling adventure. I felt the first person perspective didn’t detract from the Resident Evil formula at all, in fact I actually think it amplified most of what makes Resident Evil good. And the story was just as wacky as ever with an even amount of horror and camp. Best Bit Class RE gameplay focusing on horror and puzzle solving Worst Bit Lack of enemy variety Arbitrary Rating 9/10 --- DLC Banned Footage Vol.1 The first DLC contains 2 challenge modes and also a small story chapter. The first challenge mode, Nightmare/Night Terror, is like a Call of Duty zombies mode where you have to fight off hordes of enemies in the basement of the Baker Mansion. As you fight enemies you earn scrap which you can use to buy weapons and resources. A very fun mode that can be quite challenging until you get the hang of it. The second challenge mode is a twist on the main campaign, it’s called Ethan Must Die. You start with a knife outside the mansion and your objective is to kill a boss in the greenhouse, but you can’t just wander in with a knife. So you have to search the house for supplies and once you’re kitted out you can take on the boss. Supplies come in breakable crates and are completely random. No two runs are the same. You also have to do this in one life as there are no checkpoints, if you die, you start again. A very challenging mode that is frustrating but so rewarding once you get the hang of it and complete it. Lastly there’s Bedroom, which is a short story chapter explaining what happened to the poor camera man at the start of the main campaign. Banned Footage Vol.2 Banned Footage is back with 3 more modes to play. Yet again there’s two challenge based modes and one short story chapter. The first challenge mode is 21. This mode will possibly make you rip your hair out! It’s black jack and both you and your opponent are hooked up to a machine that can cut off your fingers. Every round your bet is one and with the use of trump cards you can increase it. If you lose the round, you lose the amount of fingers equal to your opponents bet and vice versa for your opponent if you win. It’s a fun mode but once you beat it, you’ll unlock a more difficult version and once you beat that you unlock another version that is harder still. The hardest version has you facing 10 opponents in a row and you need to survive til the end to beat it and get the trophy. This can take up to an hour, maybe longer to beat. So it was perfectly normal for me to jump up and down with joy when I finally beat that last opponent. The second challenge mode is Jack’s Birthday which is actually just fucking hilarious. Jack sits at a table and you need to make your way around the course collecting food to feed him, you combine different foods and spices to increase their point rating. Once you feed him enough the mode is over and you get a score. It’s super simple but a nice little challenge. Lastly there’s Daughters. A short story chapter explaining some events prior to the main game. Super short and hardly worth the effort to be honest but it offers a little bit of back story so its not overly unwelcome. End of Zoe I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say this is my favourite part of the whole RE7 package. End of Zoe is set after the main campaign and follows what happens to Zoe after Ethan leaves with Mia. She succumbs to the virus but her ol’ uncle Joe, who lives off the grid in the swamps, catches wind of whats happened and sets out to save her. Now, Joe is an ex-boxer which means his greatest weapons are his fists! That’s right, this whole DLC centres around unarmed combat and it’s fucking brilliant. I was taken aback by how much it works. You can gather up scrap to make spears and throwing knives, which are helpful for dealing with Crocodiles and distracting enemies but for the most part it really is just you and your fists. Right at the end of your first playthrough you unlock a power fist which is so much fun. This power fist can then be used on subsequent playthroughs to make things easier. For a game with no unarmed combat what so ever, it’s inclusion in this DLC almost makes it feel like a whole new game. I really was surprised by how fun it was. Not A Hero And lastly, we have the DLC centred around Chris Redfield (finally!). This DLC ties up a loose end after the main story and it follows a more action based military style formula. As Chris you have access to a pistol and a shotgun which you can upgrade and over the course of the DLC you will acquire cool gadgets like night vision goggles and a gas mask. Ammo is plentiful so don’t be afraid to shoot everything you see. Much like End of Zoe, this DLC chapter almost made me feel like I was playing a different game. It definitely succeeds in making you feel like a badass. It was also a really nice stress release just blasting everything away after all the suspense of the main game and all the other DLC. --- This post might end up being my biggest yet but with the wealth of quality DLC included in this game it’s no wonder. Honestly, hats off to Capcom for really knocking it out of the park with the DLC and innovating at every turn. Its almost bittersweet because RE2 remake didn’t have the same quality DLC. Let’s hope for a repeat of this with Resident Evil 8 in 2021. Edited December 16, 2020 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted December 16, 2020 Share Posted December 16, 2020 8 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Platinum #169 – A Way Out This is one of the few story based games I got my wife to actually play with me. The gameplay wasn't too challenging and the story was pretty good for how short it was. 7 hours ago, jonesey46 said: Platinum #170 – Resident Evil 7: Biohazard Been waiting to see your thoughts about this. I still haven't purchased the DLC as I've read mixed things about it. I might get it and as much as Vol. 2 sounds sucky, it actually doesn't sound too bad to me if it's just turn based luck and I can play it more casually. I still need to play the game on Madhouse at some point and maybe during that time work on the DLC if I end up getting it too. I probably shouldn't wait until next October to play it again. I really liked the Not a Hero DLC except for the stupid little things that jump at you like facehuggers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 17, 2020 Author Share Posted December 17, 2020 15 hours ago, Grotz99 said: This is one of the few story based games I got my wife to actually play with me. The gameplay wasn't too challenging and the story was pretty good for how short it was. Haha I've been training my girlfriend for years now. Initially started out with cutesy co-op adventures, or story based games and slowly introduced her to more complex stuff. Now, she's put 150 hours into the Witcher 3 and is currently playing Cyberpunk 2077 (I think she likes it more than me). She's come a long way ?. Quote Been waiting to see your thoughts about this. I still haven't purchased the DLC as I've read mixed things about it. I might get it and as much as Vol. 2 sounds sucky, it actually doesn't sound too bad to me if it's just turn based luck and I can play it more casually. I still need to play the game on Madhouse at some point and maybe during that time work on the DLC if I end up getting it too. I probably shouldn't wait until next October to play it again. I really liked the Not a Hero DLC except for the stupid little things that jump at you like facehuggers. Honestly I was so impressed with the RE7 DLC, like it just feels like they knew they had a great basis of a game with the main campaign, and then just twisted that and experimented with it. Not a Hero and End of Zoe seriously felt like a whole new game. And all the challenge modes were challenging enough but no so much so that you end up rage quitting. I see people had a lot of issues with Ethan Must Die but I honestly didn't find it that bad and there's some great videos online covering it. 21 was definitely the outlier I felt, cause a lot of it is based on luck. Especially 21 Survival+. Sometimes the cards just don't go your way (kind of like real life 21) but nothing beat the rush of winning against that last opponent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 Right, I can't put it off any longer. So here we go... I just want to put a little disclaimer here before I get into it. I'm going to be mostly negative about this game and I'll go into my reasoning for the most part. I just want to make it abundantly clear that I DO NOT believe any of the issues this game has stem from its representation of minorities. I've voiced this opinion elsewhere but I just want to state it here! The representation of all the different people in this game is one of the things I praise it for, because we need more of that in the world. Games are not power fantasies purely made for one type of person. Every person, no matter who they are, deserve to be respected and represented in all forms of media. Toxic, transphobic, racist, homophobic pieces of shit have made discussing this game impossible. For the longest time I was scared to share my true opinion of this game and for a while, I actually started to convince myself that I did like the game, out of fear of being lumped in with those degenerates. Well, I've come to realise that that's not a healthy way to live ones life. The internet is always going to be full of these awful people and sadly, there's fuck all we can do about it. I am going to be 100% honest here and I'll also be going into full spoiler territory throughout so I won't be putting any spoiler tags down. You have been warned. Platinum #171 - The Last of Us Part II Introduction I've said many times that The Last of Us is my favourite game of all time, or at least second cause Half Life still remains #1 most of the time for me. So, it's a no brainer that I would be hyped for this game. Thinking about it I think this is my most anticipated game of all time. I've been excited for a lot of games in my time, but if we're talking strictly sequels; Dead Space 2, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Borderlands 3, to name a few. But none have matched the level of hype and excitement this game brought with it. Since 2013 I have probably played The Last of Us 20 times, maybe more. I also have a tattoo on my right arm dedicated to the game. It's Ellie's dagger with the words "Endure & Survive" wrapped around it (original, I know...). I had just started seeing my current girlfriend around the time this game had come out and, despite not being much of a gamer, I convinced her to watch me play it. After the first scene where Sarah dies, she was crying her eyes out. It was then she learned that games could be more than just shoot the thing, jump on the thing etc. Since then she's watched me play countless games and got invested in a fair amount of them. We have two cats named after characters from games (Atreus, God of War and Deacon, Days Gone). What I'm getting at here, is that The Last of Us is something I hold close to my heart. The Last of Us Part II absolutely knocks it out of the park for a lot of people, and I'm really happy for those people. Naughty Dog outdid themselves in every department, no doubt. The game just wasn't what I expected, nor was it what I wanted. Now, that doesn't mean I believe I'm owed a different game. Quite the opposite. This is the game Naughty Dog wanted to make, and hats off to them, they made it. I can't fault them for it. I am an individual person, for my needs to be met by a multi-million dollar company making products that will be played by millions of people, is impossible. And I'm fully aware of that. When I finished this game, I got on with my life. Sure, I was upset, but at no point did it cross my mind to sign some dumb petition, shout slurs at people on reddit, or send an actor death fucking threats. The game let me down, but those people let me down even more. Ok this is getting long for an introduction. Hopefully you understand my position and where I'm coming from before we move on. Story Synopsis: Set 4 years after the events of the first game, Joel and Ellie have settled in the community of Jackson and life seems to be going pretty well. Soon before long, someone turns up to Jackson to cause Ellie a lot of pain. This spurs Ellie to go on a revenge mission to Seattle, to find who wronged her, and kill them by any means necessary Actual Story Discussion, Spoilers From Here on Out (Also I'm assuming you're familiar with the story so I'm not going to explain everything in detail): So first and foremost lets get the big event out of the way, Joel's Death. I was fine with it. I was upset because I cared for Joel and really liked him as a character. But I was okay with it because I was motivated to get revenge as Ellie. I loved Ellie a great deal too, and it was comforting to still have her, and be able to play as her. I don't think Joel deserved 'a heroes death' whatever that means because it's the apocalypse, people die in stupid and often gruesome ways all the time. Also, it's no secret that Joel had done some shady shit in his past, so he definitely had it coming. Then we play 3 days worth of Ellie's story. Odd because on my way to the aquarium I thought that the game was reaching its conclusion, which if that was the case, this would be a short ass game, but alas, I had no idea what was coming. The switchover happens and I am not happy. Why the fuck would I want to play as this character? Especially as we were just getting to a pivotal point of the story! I start picking up parts and supplements and come to terms with the fact that I am with this person for a decent amount of time. I trudge through to get back to the theatre so I can find out what happens but as I play more and more of Abby I begin to not care anymore. Granted I did have fun with Abby's gameplay segments, but I couldn't get invested in any of her story (apart from Owens story, who is the only character I like in this game, I'll get to that later). I mean the Rat King fight is easily the best part of this game, it was like something out of Resident Evil and it was fucking awesome. Now, after my tunnel vision lifted. I started to understand why we were playing as Abby, and it became clear to me what this game was trying to tell me. I won't go into all that cause it's been discussed ad nauseum. I understood it, but I still didn't like it, and as I said above, I no longer cared. By the end of Abby's segment, the game had beaten me to a pulp. I just wanted it to be over. I already didn't like Abby and all her friends, but when the perspective shifted, it made me not like Ellie and all her friends. Which I suppose is what the game sort of wanted, but maybe not the exact effect it was going for. Granted when we control Ellie again and we go to California, there was some part of me that was happy to be controlling her again. But ultimately I didn't care anymore and just wanted it over and done with. We get to the final confrontation and as Ellie is holding Abby underwater, I hope that she lets go, which she does. It seems a lot of people wanted Ellie to go through with it, but in my opinion, if that's what you wanted at the end, then you didn't get the point of the game. And I hate saying that, I hate it when other people use it as a defense for people that didn't like the game "well, you just didn't get it" as well as "you obviously didn't play it". The credits roll and I'm angry. I feel hard done by. I hate it and everything about it. But then I calm down and move on with life. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not get this game out of my head. I started to read analysis reviews, I started watching videos and as time went on I started to come to terms with it all. I started to understand it much better. I started to see the whole experience in a new light. And I actually started convincing myself that "maybe I did like it? Maybe it wasn't that bad?" 3 months had passed by this point and I decided to run another playthrough in order to get the platinum. I play through the game with this new perspective on things. The game can no longer hurt me cause I know everything that happens and I have come to terms with it. But that was it's downfall. I was no longer emotional so as the game progressed I was able to take things exactly as they were without letting my emotions interfere. And that's when the penny dropped, that's when I realised that I truly didn't like this game, I truly did not care for it or any of it's characters, even ones I had previously loved like Ellie and Tommy, and no amount of videos or essays were going to change my mind. See, as I reflected on that second playthrough, I thought "what was the point of it all?" And I can't think of answer. As far as I'm concerned, the whole experience was pointless. I think my main issue with the game is its characters, as most of them are actually just pointless. Most of them serve very transparent purposes, and those are to further the conflict of Ellie and Abby and to drive home the point of revenge solves nothing, every story has two sides blah blah blah. Dina exists to get pregnant and to set the stakes at their highest when Ellie walks away from her. Tommy literally only exists cause he's the only one that can convince Ellie to leave for California. Lev only exists to show humanity in Abby and make her more empathetic. Jessie is just a sperm donor and they kill him off first chance they get. Mel exists to be a pregnant woman for Ellie to kill. Anything else those characters do in the game isn't important to the plot, they're just there, wasting everyone's time. So many plot points rely on these ultimately pointless characters. Take one out and the whole things comes tumbling down. Owen was the only character in this game that I thought had a convincing story and a satisfying arc. He's the only one that felt real and human to me. I think I've covered everything there, without going into full on raving lunatic rant mode. Lets move on. Gameplay Hats off to ND, they improved the gameplay of the first game ten fold. The combat in this game feels real, visceral, actually quite disturbing at times. Which is obviously its intention. Much like the first game we have access to an array of weapons that the main character keeps in their backpack. You can have one short gun and one long gun equipped and if you find holsters out in the world, you can have two of each equipped. Ellie has a lot of the same weapons from the first game, it's Abby that gets all the new and exciting stuff. Ellie has Joel's revolver, a 9mm pistol, a shotgun, her trusty bow and arrow and even a silenced sub machine gun right at the end. Abby gets her hands on a single shot rifle, a crossbow, flamethrower and a hunting pistol, among others. Guns feel real when you fire them and the sound of the bullets when they hit their target almost makes you think Naughty Dog actually shot real people in a sound booth to get the realest possible sound. Crafting returns with a few more options. As well as crafting medkits and bombs, you can now also craft alternative ammo for your guns like incendiary ammo for your shotgun or explosive arrows. Your characters still juice up on supplements to improve their skills and the skill tree is a lot more in depth now with much more meaningful upgrades instead of just more health/more ammo. Stealth is a lot more involved now with realistic AI that will search you out much more efficiently than in the first game. They've also introduced dogs which can sniff out your location and despite how the game makes you feel, it's in your best interest to kill those fucking dogs, cause they are the most annoying enemy in the game. This game is long. Like, really long. Unfortunately though, gameplay only takes up a fifth of your time. Most of it is just walking and talking, or Cutscenes. So many cutscenes. Bias or not, I really do think this game is too long. I do want to point out that when you first reach Seattle as Ellie, there's a bit of an open world area which you can explore at your own pace. Since this is so early in the game I thought these sections would pop up a bit more, but they never do. It's the only one, the rest of the game is super linear. I just found that really weird. Let's face it though, this game could have been a 2D sidescroller and I still would have bought it (no offence to 2D sidescrollers). The story is what was important here, gameplay was simply the icing on the cake. Platinum Thoughts Platinum is straight forward with a hell of a lot of collectibles. It requires at least 1 and a half playthroughs to upgrade both characters to the max. Your first playthrough will have you checking every nook and cranny for all the collectibles, parts and supplements you can get your hands on. No difficulty trophies this time which is nice, meaning you don't have to beat it on the 27 different difficulties like you did in the first game. They've since added Grounded and permadeath but that's DLC, so it doesn't count for the platinum. Summary Naughty Dog have done it again and despite their dodgy working practices, they definitely have shifted the industry of story telling games forward. I was disappointed, but a lot of people love the game and I think it deserves all the recognition it gets. If they make a The Last of Us Part III then I don't know what they'll do with it. If I understood the story of this one correctly I strongly believe Abby's story has been told and Part III should continue Ellie's story. If Part III includes Abby then I have either completely misunderstood Part II or they do it out of spite to all the haters, which would obviously be a really petty thing to do. Never the less, I believe Naughty Dog should only make Part III if there's a story to tell and it's 100% what they want to do. And I believe that is exactly what they will do. Best Bit Graphically this game is outstanding, as well as acting, sound design and gameplay elements. Worst Bit Hugely disappointed by the story. Game is way too long. Arbitrary Rating 5/10. The game plays well but that isn't what I bought it for. --- Right, I am DONE talking about this game. I would quite happily leave it behind now and never think about it again. DONE. Please be reminded that all of this is 100% my opinion and I hope I've explained myself enough that you understand my thoughts and position. I will not partake in any arguments in this thread but I will happily discuss any points you would like to make in a civil manner. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (Re)Achieved - The Outer Worlds 💯 DLC Peril on Gorgon DLC Thoughts I liked The Outer Worlds enough to buy the DLC on day one. The game lacks in a lot of areas, but the dialogue and player choice aspect was absolutely nailed, and I love it for that. Peril on Gorgon doubles down on that by offering plenty of new NPC's with loads of new branching conversations, as well as 4 different endings to the brand new story, with a few different ways of getting to them. All that is facilitated by a new planet (or asteroid rather) to explore, Gorgon. Peril on Gorgon integrates with your existing game and can be started around half way through the main campaign. As someone who had already platinum'd the game, I loaded my save before the point of no return of the campaign, and picked up the new quest line from there. The DLC starts by finding a severed arm which holds a cryptic message, this message leads the player to the asteroid of Gorgon. Gorgon is home to an abandoned research facility, where a corporation primarily made Adrena-Time. A drug which heightens the users movement but has serious side-effects. You meet a woman named Minnie who wants you to investigate exactly what happened on Gorgon and why the corporation abandoned it. This leads you on a galaxy trekking investigation and where you end up is entirely based on what you choose to do. Unfortunately, it seems the developers had the brilliant of idea of adding more combat into this DLC, as I found myself in a lot more gunfights than I'd hoped. As mentioned in my main post on The Outer Worlds, the combat is easily the worst part of the game but seemingly the developers thought adding more, would solve this problem. Not only did they add more, but they also made it harder, or it certainly felt like they did. I died a lot in this DLC, so much so that I resorted to making sure to always talk my way out of conflict, or stealth through areas where combat was unavoidable. I think I even turned the difficulty down to easy cause I just wasn't having fun. There's a few new weapons added in the game, including unique science weapons, but as stated before, I can't bare the combat so I never bothered using them. I doubt they would have been any good though. Fortunately, as I said above, the dialogue is still king here and you can pretty much talk your way through the whole DLC. As the main quest line is set up like an investigation, it's just super fun making your way around and questioning people about what they know. Slowly piecing the puzzle together. The story is done really well, and there's 4 endings you can get depending on what you choose. Due to the trophies requiring all 4 endings to be carried out, I did indeed witness all 4. Something I wouldn't have done without trophies, at least not straight away. Because of this I had to carry out an ending that I would have never thought of otherwise. Just goes to show how genius the writing team is and how much they think and plan out. I think for fans of the base game, Peril on Gorgon is a no brainer as it fleshes out the world a fair bit and gives a good amount of content in regards to quests and dialogue. But for anyone who wasn't overly sold on the game, then give it a miss or wait for a sale. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Copanele Posted December 18, 2020 Share Posted December 18, 2020 7 hours ago, jonesey46 said: TLoU2 snip Here just to say that it's one of the best "in my opinion" reviews that I've read. Don't care much for the game, but I just liked how you underlined everything that you liked/disliked and your general feeling about it. Especially given the notoriety of this game 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 18, 2020 Author Share Posted December 18, 2020 5 hours ago, Copanele said: Here just to say that it's one of the best "in my opinion" reviews that I've read. Don't care much for the game, but I just liked how you underlined everything that you liked/disliked and your general feeling about it. Especially given the notoriety of this game Thanks. That actually really means a lot to me. It took a lot for me to finally write everything out about how I felt about this game but I'm glad I've done it. I feel I've given the topic so much thought since June that this is actually one of my most articulate posts. Everything is still so fresh in my mind where as some games I write about, I forget most of them even a few days after finishing them! ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 21, 2020 Author Share Posted December 21, 2020 (edited) 💯 100% (Re)Achieved - Minecraft Dungeons 💯 DLC Jungle Awakens and Creeping Winter DLC Thoughts Here's a strange bundle of DLC for you. Jungle Awakens releases with no trophies, then months later Creeping Winter releases with a big bundle of trophies for both of the expansions. I don't think I've ever seen that before! I didn't pay anything for both of these DLC packs because I bought the Hero Edition of Minecraft Dungeons when it released, giving me instant access to both DLC packs. I didn't play Jungle Awakens when it released because without trophies, I didn't feel any urgency to check it out. But when Creeping Winter released, the girlfriend and I picked up our controllers and dived back in. First thing we noticed was the changes made to the home base. There were new merchants and there was a bit of a change to the way buying loot worked. Now, I imagine this was changed by way of free updates, rather than behind the paywall of the DLC, but I'll go into it anyway. So before you had a blacksmith and a trader, who you could buy gear and artefacts from respectively. The cost was always a flat rate dependent on your level, and the loot was always random. Now though, there are several traders, all doing different things. Firstly the blacksmith now upgrades your gear, rather than selling you new stuff. You can give him one of your current items and after completing 3 missions, the upgraded item will be ready. This is great because I had to part ways with a lot of decent gear before, now I don't have to! Second, the trader has been replaced by the Village and Luxury merchant, who sell items of varying level to you. There's now a mystery merchant who sells loot boxes with random stuff in them and finally the gift wrapper, which allows you to gift items to any players in your world, as previously there was no way of doing this. The camp seems to be working much better now than before. Both Jungle Awakens and Creeping Winter offer up 3 new levels each. As you'd imagine each DLC pack is themed by their namesake and offer up new mobs and gear that match those themes. Compared to the main game I found these levels to be much more intricate, and therefore more fun to play. Visually there has been some improvements too. To the general level design but also to particle effects and the like. The DLC has nothing to shout about really and is just more of the same. With some nice quality of life and visual changes which has rolled out through updates. I like this game a lot and I'm quite happy to continue playing whatever they release next. They've already announced 4 new DLC packs which will release over the next year. Once the season pass for those goes on sale I won't hesitate to jump back in. Edited November 8, 2023 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted December 21, 2020 Author Share Posted December 21, 2020 Platinum #172 - Gris Introduction This game came heavily recommended on here by a few people, but it was @PhantomFear94 that inspired me to play the game for myself because everywhere I looked, he was there, singing its praises ?. Story A woman named Gris loses her ability to sing and is dropped into a world without colour. She must embark on an adventure to restore colour to the lands. Gameplay Gris is a 2D platformer with stunning visuals. The entire game looks as if it has been hand drawn and it is breathtaking. Gameplay wise it is a very simple game and doesn't pose any sort of challenge. The game can be enjoyed by anyone and is intended to be an experience, likened to Journey. You start out in a hub world, which has paths leading to 4 distinct levels. However due to your limited abilities, you only have access to one level at the start. Each level gives you a new ability, allowing you to move forward to the next level. These abilities range from turning into a stone to destroy the ground below you, double jumping, swimming and finally being able to sing again which gives life to plants, opening new paths. The levels have distinct themes and visuals. These levels include a desert filled with windmills, a lush forest, underwater caverns, and a world with buildings made of light. The word hipster comes to mind when playing this and I don't want that to come off as bad. Sometimes we need a little bit of artistic game design in our lives, just like we sometimes need a nice cosy beanie to warm our heads, or a cup of freshly ground coffee cause the instant stuff just doesn't do the trick. Everything about this game is gorgeous, from it's visuals to the music. You can't help but be in awe of it all. Trophy Thoughts A very easy platinum and one that currently sits at over 55% achieved. Most trophies are awarded naturally for playing through the game but there are a couple relating to collectibles. All collectibles can be cleaned up after finishing the game as all levels are open to explore. There's also a few relating to specific encounters; not being bitten by the Eel that chases you in a certain section often gives people trouble, but it's nothing that can't be bested after a couple of tries. Summary A beautiful game that everyone should play. A simple 2D platformer with stunning visuals and an amazing soundtrack. It's a wonderful experience from start to finish. Best Bit Visuals and soundtrack Worst Bit Cleaning up collectibles at the end might be tedious for some Arbitrary Rating 9/10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted April 14, 2022 Author Share Posted April 14, 2022 Thinking of reviving this thread. A lot has happened in the last 16 months. I gave up trophy hunting at the start of 2021 but only made it to around May (sigh...), I guess some habits are hard to kick. The exercise wasn't completely pointless though! My approach to trophy hunting has definitely changed. I no longer treat it like a full time job. Which was the initial intention. My completion percentage took a massive nose dive when I quit, because I was playing a game, completing the main campaign and then moving on. Leaving most of them at around the 30% mark as I just unlocked the trophies I unlocked, without trying. My percentage has risen almost back to where it was when I quit, but it's been a slow process and like I said, I haven't been focusing on it like I did before. The percentage raise has just been a by-product of me playing games and platinum'ing them as I go. So what's changed? Well, in the real world I got married, I bought my first house, and just recently I found out my wife and I are having our first child. Pretty scary right? It's like I just did an Any% speed run of adult life and made pretty good time. In the gaming world, quitting trophy hunting was honestly the best decision I made, even if it didn't last long. Because, instead of focusing on games I'd already played intending to 100% them, or only playing new games that I knew I could 100% in decent time, I was able to forget all that and really try out some new experiences I'd never even dream of playing before. In the last year and a bit I have played so many games that have become my favourites of all time. Seriously, if I were to do a top 100 games list, about half of them would probably be games I played in the last year. (Oh wait, I actually did do a top 100 games list which you can view HERE on ggapp.io. Enjoy!) So as for this thread; I'm going to keep the format the same but I'm not going to write about every game I complete. As I struggled to do that even when I was taking this shit seriously. I think I'll just write about a game if I feel like it. For instance, I'm playing through Sekiro at the moment, and I definitely have some thoughts I'd like to share about that! I haven't been very active here lately but I have been posting my gaming thoughts on the r/Games sub-reddit, specifically in the 'What Have You Been Playing' threads that go up every week. So if you browse Reddit, you might see my posts pop up there (username: u/reissykins). And also you can follow me on the previously mentioned ggapp.io. It's a useful site for tracking the games you're currently playing, here's my profile for those that care: https://ggapp.io/jonesey46 It's been nice writing this out like a little diary. I've also read some of my old posts back and I think it's nice to have a log of your thoughts to go back to. I look forward to posting my thoughts on games in the future, and I hope you enjoy reading them too. See you around. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted May 3, 2022 Author Share Posted May 3, 2022 (edited) Platinum #232 - Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice Introduction If you'd have asked me a year ago, "if you were to play Sekiro, would you platinum it?" the answer would almost certainly be 'absolutely not'. FromSoftware's games have a reputation surrounding them, a reputation that often precedes it if I'm honest. These games are hard and not for everyone. But I think that's bollocks. Not that they aren't hard or anything, they most certainly are, and Sekiro is probably the toughest of the bunch. But these games can be played by anyone, and with enough patience and practice, be bested by anyone. Either that or I'm a fucking gamer god and I can't even fathom what life must be like for you scrubs. I'm willing to bet it's the former though. Maybe. Story Holy shit, I can actually write something here for this one. Unlike all of FromSoft's other modern games, this one actually has a direct story involving a protagonist that actually has dialogue! Crazy right? You play as the Wolf, a shinobi warrior whose soul purpose in life is to protect the Divine Heir. The Divine Heir has access to blood that grants the power of immortality and everyone wants a taste. As the Wolf, you must ensure no one gets this power. Gameplay Unlike previous FromSoft games, there's not much room for experimentation when it comes to combat in this one. You really do have to learn how to play this game on it's own terms, and it doesn't really budge. The Wolf has a katana and a shinobi prosthetic device with various functions that can be found, bought and upgraded. Sword combat is the main event and it's the thing you'll be doing most of during your time with the game. Enemies don't have traditional health bars, they do still have them but they rarely play a part in combat. When you enter combat with an enemy, your main goal is to wear down their 'posture'. You do this by clashing swords, deflecting their hits with a well timed parry, or just plain slicing them in the torso. Once their posture is depleted they open up for a deathblow and this kills them... Usually. Bosses tend to have very strong posture and require more than one deathblow to finish the job, this works like traditional boss phases. Much like the Dark Souls games, it's generally a good idea to only take on one enemy at a time in this as it's very easy to be overwhelmed and destroyed in seconds. Deflecting and parrying is a huge part of this game and that can be intimidating but once you get the hang of it, it really is a lot of fun. You may have seen Sekiro be referred to as a rhythm game before, and while that statement has become a bit of a meme, it's not entirely wrong. Learning bosses attack patterns and deflecting them perfectly as they come in is so rewarding and can make you feel incredible. Sekiro really asks you to focus on it, in a way that only Doom Eternal has asked of me before. The shinobi prosthetic is a very important part of the game and while you could play the entire game without using it (in combat) it's a very useful tool and can save you from avoidable deaths. The prosthetic can be fitted with different tools such as a shuriken thrower, a flamethrower, a firecracker launcher and many others. The application of these tools is limitless, it really comes down to how creative you are with it. Another big departure from previous From games is how death works. Whenever you die, you actually get a second chance and can come back right then and there to continue your slaying. Die again however and you die for real. Every time you die for real, you increase the chances of Dragon Rot happening, which is a disease that affects NPCs and also reduces your chance of getting 'Unseen Aid' which is a blessing that prevents you from losing your money and XP upon death. It can seem unfair at first because it seems like you're being punished for dying. Not to fret though, as Dragon Rot can be cured by using a specific item, of which there are plenty, so no need to worry about it. Aside from combat you'll be moving around the world. Generally speaking though you're only moving and traversing areas to get to the next combat bit! Your prosthetic arm has a grapple hook attached which is used to traverse rooftops. The Wolf moves pretty fast and movement feels fluid. The world of Sekiro is gorgeous, which is to be expected when talking about a FromSoft game. Some areas really are visually stunning though and beautifully complement the boss fights that take place in them. Trophy Thoughts Sekiro happens to be one of From's most straightforward platinums, surprisingly. There's no covenant item grinding thank Christ. However there is definitely some XP grinding in order to acquire all skill points. Most trophies come from defeating the bosses on the main story path and then there's a few optional boss trophies thrown in for good measure. 4 endings to be seen but 3 can be seen with a simple save back up right before the ending, allowing you to knock those 3 particular trophies out in a few minutes. The 4th ending requires a choice to be made during a specific story moment which actually cuts the game short. This can be done in NG+ which you'll need to do in order to get the 'defeat all bosses' trophy anyway. Other than that, you're required to acquire all skills and upgrade all prosthetic tools which can be a little grindy but nothing too taxing. A day at the beach compared to grinding out Proof of a Concord Kept's in Dark Souls 3. Summary Despite being tough as nails, this is a game that any action game fan should play. Combat is intense and feels immensely rewarding to pull off. It has all the charms of a FromSoft game but without any of the Dark Souls baggage, resulting in a pure and hyper-focused experience that cannot be matched. Best Bit Incredible and satisfying combat Worst Bit Demon of Hatred. Seriously, fuck that guy. Arbitrary Rating 10/10 --- Like Thanos in Infinity War, acquiring the platinum for Sekiro has completed my FromSoft infinity gauntlet. I now have unlimited power and with the snap of my fingers I can tell everyone to 'git gud'. If anyone is interested, now that I've played and platinum'd all modern FromSoft games, here is my ranking; 1. Bloodborne 2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 3. Dark Souls 4. Elden Ring 5. Dark Souls II 6. Demon's Souls 7. Dark Souls III Edited May 3, 2022 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grotz99 Posted May 4, 2022 Share Posted May 4, 2022 Welcome back dude! Glad to hear that your time away gave you a new outlook and it looks like you took full advantage of that. My thread has been pretty dormant as work has gotten me pretty busy, which is 100% on a computer now a days so I usually want to spend less time behind a keyboard. I can see where you went through a stream of what I would consider 3rd or even 4th string games that actually mostly sit in my backlog right now, at least you knocked out the stories and should not be ashamed of that. Sometimes its the trophies that hold back great games. 9 hours ago, jonesey46 said: 1. Bloodborne 2. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice 3. Dark Souls 4. Elden Ring 5. Dark Souls II 6. Demon's Souls 7. Dark Souls III This is pretty surprising, I don't think Sekiro was that well received overall, even from me, although it had the most satisfying combat. You either had super flashy looking and amazing parrying or ate the dirt pretty quick. The other Souls Fromsoft games give you lots of chances to cheese/coop/outlevel the fights (outlevel probably is just from Elden Ring). That being said, yes Bloodborne is still the best, great environment and combat. Also after recently playing Demons Souls for PS5, mostly coop, that game is probably more up there for me too (even if magic users are bullshit). I still need to go through Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 as I didn't finish them, but every time I think of playing Dark Souls on my fat PS3, I cringe, the choppiness killed it for me. People are going to want to argue about Elden Ring, but I think you placed it in the right spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted May 4, 2022 Author Share Posted May 4, 2022 6 hours ago, Grotz99 said: Welcome back dude! Glad to hear that your time away gave you a new outlook and it looks like you took full advantage of that. My thread has been pretty dormant as work has gotten me pretty busy, which is 100% on a computer now a days so I usually want to spend less time behind a keyboard. I can see where you went through a stream of what I would consider 3rd or even 4th string games that actually mostly sit in my backlog right now, at least you knocked out the stories and should not be ashamed of that. Sometimes its the trophies that hold back great games. This is pretty surprising, I don't think Sekiro was that well received overall, even from me, although it had the most satisfying combat. You either had super flashy looking and amazing parrying or ate the dirt pretty quick. The other Souls Fromsoft games give you lots of chances to cheese/coop/outlevel the fights (outlevel probably is just from Elden Ring). That being said, yes Bloodborne is still the best, great environment and combat. Also after recently playing Demons Souls for PS5, mostly coop, that game is probably more up there for me too (even if magic users are bullshit). I still need to go through Dark Souls and Dark Souls 3 as I didn't finish them, but every time I think of playing Dark Souls on my fat PS3, I cringe, the choppiness killed it for me. People are going to want to argue about Elden Ring, but I think you placed it in the right spot. Thanks! It's good to be back haha. I plan on getting back to a couple of those games where I only played the story and moved on, particularly the Tomb Raider games as I really enjoyed them. However, their trophy lists are a little intimidating. As for Sekiro, I think it depends on who you ask. For me it's a lot like Doom Eternal, you have to play the game by the rules it sets for you otherwise you're going to have a bad time. Like you said, the Souls games offer a lot of variety and a lot of ways to take down bosses and enemies, which allows for a broader audience of players. Sekiro has one way and if you don't vibe with it, it just isn't going to work out for you. I had reservations before going into Sekiro. I was worried the game was going to be too hard for me and with a lack of options, maybe I'd just bounce off it. But thankfully, I managed to engage with the games systems pretty quickly and before long I was doing bosses hitless (not without many failed attempts beforehand mind you). It's an exhilarating feeling taking down bosses because you know that you bested it fair and square. With Dark Souls and particularly with Elden Ring, can you really say you beat even half of those bosses fairly? Well, of course you did because those games offer you a wide variety of options and any one of those options is perfectly viable. However, someone who takes down Malenia with Moonvale and Mimic Tear will have a much easier time than someone using only a two handed greatsword. I guess my point is, there's no cheesing in Sekiro. You know that when you face a boss, you pretty much have the exact same resources that everyone else did. Beating a boss under those circumstances is much more rewarding than beating any of the bosses in Elden Ring. If I'm honest as time goes on I think Elden Ring will slip down that list. It's world is incredible and those first 40 hours exploring was some of the best moments I've had in gaming in years. But the latter half of the game takes a fucking nose dive in quality. And I don't think I'll ever be able to play the game again because exploring won't have the same affect as it did the first time. If I do replay it, I'll be skipping over half the content and only doing the dungeons that lead to gear I want, and then the legacy dungeons for the actual real content. Where as Dark Souls and Bloodborne are infinitely replayable. Elden Ring still has a recency bias though so expect to see a lot of defenders. Coming to this series late means I never had to suffer the performance of the PS3 versions. I've heard Blightown becomes twice as scary when you can't see anything and everything is moving at 10FPS ?. As for Demon's Souls, the remake is enough for me. No chance in hell will I ever play the PS3 version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted June 9, 2022 Author Share Posted June 9, 2022 Platinum #237 - Quake Introduction I never thought the first PS5 platinum post on this thread would be fucking Quake but here we are. In fact, looking back on the PS5 platinum's I've achieved there's probably a lot I could say about some of them, particularly Resident Evil Village, Kena Bridge of Spirits, Bugsnax, Elden Ring, definitely Returnal and hell, even Watch Dogs Legion. But I digress, let's talk about Quake. Lovingly remastered by the absolute geniuses over at Nightdive Studios who always do amazing work when it comes to their remasters. It runs like a dream, textures look lovely and crisp and it comes with a bunch of well done dualsense features that actually add a lot to... *opens Google in another tab* ...a 26 year old game! Story It's essentially the same as Doom. Gameplay You know the drill, its a boomer shooter. The campaigns are split into episodes and each episode has multiple levels, or rather 'maps' as they're often known. You get a bunch of guns like a shotgun, some form of machine gun, in this case a nail gun, a rocket launcher and some other variations. Your objective is to get to the exit, usually you have to pick up key cards along the way to unlock doors and of course, shoot everything in sight! It's like Doom! But actually real 3D. That all sounds reductive but in all honesty Quake is a blast. Yeah it is very similar to Doom, but it's made by the same people so what do you expect? ID software are the granddaddies of the boomer shooter and Quake is up there as one of the best. Trophy Thoughts This one looks intimidating and it's no wonder, boomer shooters have a reputation for being very difficult. But honestly? This is actually pretty easy, there's just a lot of game to get through. Your biggest challenge is beating all the campaigns on nightmare mode which is the hardest difficulty. Health is capped at 50 and everything else is set to hard. So enemies hit hard and take a lot to go down. Thankfully though, this game is very generous with ammo and health and with the ability to save whenever you want (including a quicksave and quickload button, which is a godsend) it's actually really manageable. There are 5 campaigns total which adds up to a lot of levels! That's the hardest thing about Quake, the sheer amount there is to chew on. Worth mentioning is the fact that you can select Nightmare difficulty right from the start. None of this, unlock it by playing it on normal first or anything like that. Unfortunately I didn't know this when I first started so I ended up playing the main campaign twice when I didn't really need to. Like I said above, nightmare isn't terrible so if you're gonna play this, just start with nightmare and save yourself some time. Aside from that, there's a few miscellaneous trophies that will take a few minutes each, providing you're following a decent youtube video guide . All in all, not a difficult list. They could have easily asked us to complete each level 100% with all kills and secrets but they didn't. The guys and gals at Nightdive do a good trophy list I'd say. Summary Quake is a classic and if you're into boomer shooters you should definitely give it a try. The remaster is very well done and it plays great on PS5. Best Bit Dualsense features really add a lot to this classic from 1996. Worst Bit When going for platinum there is a lot of levels to get through. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 --- I also got the platinum for Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number recently which took months! I could probably write quite a few rageful words about that game but I'll spare myself the misery! I also got the platinum for Telling Lies on my quest to play (and platinum) all of the Annapurna games. Trophy hunting aside I've been enjoying my third playthrough of Death Stranding, this time on the Director's Cut. I've also recently picked up Stardew Valley again and I'm slowly making progress on that, hopefully one day I can get that elusive platinum. I also recently got my hands on a gaming laptop and with Half-Life being one of my favourite games ever, I just had to play Black Mesa (the fan made remake of Half-Life). It's been incredible so far, I'm so impressed with how carefully it's been remade. As for my next platinum I'm a bit of a loss, not really sure what to play. My trophy advisor says Sackboy A Big Adventure is the easiest platinum for me to go for next so I may do that. As I said above I'm slowly making progress on Stardew, but I'm also chipping away at Enter the Gungeon, it will be a banner day when I get the platinum for that. Such a hard game but so much fun. Anyway, thanks for reading! See ya! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted June 13, 2022 Author Share Posted June 13, 2022 (edited) I have been well and truly rumbled. I decided to give Mein Leben on Wolfenstein 2 another go after not attempting it for at least 2 years, things were going well until this fucking shit ^ I wasn't even mad, I just laughed. Edited June 13, 2022 by jonesey46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonesey46 Posted October 4, 2022 Author Share Posted October 4, 2022 (edited) Platinum #257 - Ashen Introduction Right, straight away lets get the Dark Souls comparisons out of the way. Yes, this game is a lot like Dark Souls, sometimes to its detriment. However, despite the similarities, I believe Ashen stands on its own and it comes with that nice cozy feeling that almost all Annapurna published titles come with. Story I wasn't joking, this game is a lot like Dark Souls. When it comes to story, it relates to Dark Souls on two accounts. The first being it's ambiguity, the second being the subject. Essentially, there's a war between light and dark. The Ashen is a big bird that dies and so darkness has taken over, it's your job to restore light to the world. That's a gross oversimplification and I'm probably wrong in all honesty, but that's what I got from playing it twice. In typical Dark Souls fashion, there's A LOT more story and lore there, but you have to go looking for it. I wasn't overly engaged by the story, it certainly isn't Ashen's strong point, so I never did any deep digging like I did for Bloodborne or Dark Souls 1. Okay, by my count I have typed the words 'Dark Souls' 7 times. I need to try and be more creative in my description, so references to "it" are now banned. Gameplay Umm... you know... it actually plays a lot like... Umm... Fuck. Ashen is a semi-open world action game. Though quite large, the world itself is actually quite linear and mostly similar looking through out. It has that 'earth recovering from an apocalypse' vibe to it. That isn't to say it isn't gorgeous though, because it absolutely is! And the music definitely helps set the mood. Oh yeah, this is a cozy™ game. Combat is the meat of this game and much like... other games in the genre... it's stamina based. Everything you do in Ashen consumes some of your stamina bar such as sprinting, attacking and dodging. Stamina regenerates when not doing any of these actions. As well as a stamina bar, you also have a health bar (obviously) and getting attacked reduces this bar! Mental right? But don't fret! You have an Es... erm I mean, a Crimson Gourd! Your Crimson Gourd regenerates your health when you drink it, but you only have a limited amount and these replenish when resting at a bon.. um I mean, Ritual Stone. There are also consumable items that can regen your health or stamina but they do not replenish in the same way as the Gourd. Ashen doesn't have a traditional levelling up system. Instead, you level up your health and stamina by completing quests! This is a really interesting way of doing things as it makes doing side quests a top priority. You can also level up health and stamina by finding feather collectibles out in the world. These are quite well hidden but only offer a miniscule increase, so while nice, they're not entirely necessary. Your character has room for a one handed weapon, a two handed weapon, a shield AND a lantern. These can all be equipped at the same time and swapped to using the D-Pad. There isn't a weight limit to worry about either so you can equip whatever you fancy. There are armors in the game and these do affect movement but often its a trade off between having higher defence / lower stamina regen, for example. There are plenty of weapons in the game but I found them all to be too similar to really bother experimenting, the weapon I had at the start of the game carried me through to the end. The actual weapon itself isn't overly important, upgrading your weapon of choice is what makes a difference. Weapons can be upgraded using sou... Scoria, which is the currency you gain from killing enemies. When you die, you drop all of your Scoria and you have to make your way back to the place of your death to recollect it. If you die on the way, it's gone forever. When starting Ashen, one of your first objectives is to find a settlement known as firel... Vagrants Rest. This is the home base for the whole game where all your merchants, quest givers and upgrade stations will reside. You will be back here often and as you complete quests, the settlement grows. At first it's a patch of land with nothing on it but by the end it's a bustling town with buildings and the like all around. It's a really neat part of the game and it's nice to see the progress you're making manifest itself in such a rewarding and tangible way. A crucial part of this game is that you can actually play it in co-op! When out in the world you will often be joined by an NPC from the village. This can either be an AI or, if you have the necessary settings turned on, a real life human being. The game is built around it being co-op so while you can solo everything, it's advised that you don't. Don't sniff at the AI though, it really can save your bacon in a tricky situation. There are five bosses you will face on your journey through Ashen, and considering the genre, that's a very small number. However, the game is quite short and relatively speaking five is probably a decent number, still, I wouldn't have minded an extra boss or two. I did notice a bit of a steep difficulty curve near the end of the game and it does seem sudden, but on normal mode it shouldn't be anything to worry about. Children of Sissna mode however... Well, we'll get to that in the next section. Trophy Thoughts Ashen stands apart from most other games published by Annapurna, in that it has DLC and it also has a very rare platinum (on PSNProfiles at least). This is mostly due to the Children of Sissna difficulty mode, which oddly enough unlocks half way through your first playthrough, not at the end. That's kind of strange right? Anyway... Most of Ashens trophies just require you to play the game through. Complete all character side quests, collect crafting recipes, kill bosses etc. and then defeat the final boss on Children of Sissna mode, which is just a roundabout way of saying complete the game on said difficulty. So what's special about Children of Sissna mode? Well, the game remains completely unchanged aside from one crucial factor, your health and stamina bar is reduced to a third of what it is on normal mode. This turns even the most basic of enemies into a diabolical threat as almost every single enemy in this game can and will one shot kill you. The final two bosses? Forget about it. It's honestly tear your hair out frustrating. I have no shame in admitting that I did indeed, resort to cheese tricks and exploits to beat the final two bosses, as well as the DLC boss on this mode. I did it all legit on my normal playthrough and I had no interest in putting myself through that with only a third of my health. No thanks. Summary Ashen is a fantastic title that in my opinion stands up in the genre as a genuine contender, albeit a smaller, indy contender. It uses all the conventions of the genre but shakes it up enough to make it interesting and not derivative. All that with an interesting art style and nice soundtrack to give those cozy vibes. While the difficulty curve can give you a bit of whiplash near the end, and throughout when you're playing on Children of Sissna mode, I believe the game is absolutely worth your time if you're a fan of the genre. It's not perfect by any means, the combat definitely has some issues and they rear their head quite often on the aforementioned hard mode but the game more than makes up for those shortcomings in its world and atmosphere alone. Coming from a studio who have never developed a game before this, I think its downright impressive. Trophy hunters... Do what you gotta do, but I don't think a great game like this should be avoided because one particular trophy might give you a hard time. One thing I think is worth Mentioning is price. I think this game is way overpriced for what you get, base game and DLC. Full price this game is £32 which is honestly eye watering. I think £20-£25 would be much more appropriate. Thankfully, this game is available on PS+ Extra which is how I accessed it. I have also noticed that the game and DLC goes on sale quite often and it often goes below 50% off so if you're looking to purchase I'd definitely wait for one of these sales. Best Bit World, art style and music all make for a delightful adventure. Worst Bit The unbalanced nature of the Children of Sissna mode. Arbitrary Rating 8/10 DLC Nightstorm Isle The only expansion for Ashen sees you boarding a boat and charting the unknown seas to reach a forgotten land, known as Nightstorm Isle! Your objective is to kill the elder dark god Riak and free a spirit from captivity. The DLC includes three-ish new areas and one super hard boss to top it all off. There are some new enemy types to deal with and the environment is slightly different to what you're used to on the mainland but other than that, it's more of the same! There are some nice new armors to collect and there's even a trophy for getting them all. There is also a trophy for defeating the boss on normal mode and Children of Sissna mode so it's worth doing that on your CoS playthrough of the main game. Overall I enjoyed the DLC for it's additional 'more of the same' style content but ultimately it doesn't offer all that much and if bought at the full price of £7.99 it's an absolute rip off. Better waiting for a sale and getting it at £1.39, like I did. --- Phew! That was honestly really tough to do without mentioning Dark Souls after that first paragraph. I'm actually quite proud of this one. Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well? My next planned post will be about Hollow Knight! Which, during my hiatus became my absolute number one favourite game. I'm doing the North American stack because I love it so much and just wanted to do it all again. I missed my chance to do a post about it the first time round whilst on my hiatus but now I'm excited to tell you lot how much I love this game and what it means to me. See you around. Edited October 4, 2022 by jonesey46 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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