I’ll never forget the excitement I had when I finally received that email from Blizzard. I had been accepted into the Hearthstone closed alpha in late 2013. I felt so privileged, so “in”. I had been following every announcement and update. I watched every clip from the charismatic Ben Brode, Hearthstone’s original game director. For months, nearly all of my gaming time went to Hearthstone. I didn’t have a proper gaming PC or console, and Hearthstone was one of the few games that would actually run on my chunky white-plastic Macbook.

I had almost no experience whatsoever with DCCGs. I hadn’t played many physical TCGs either, other than Yu-Gi-Oh. Hearthstone launched me into a new obsession that lasted years. I played Hearthstone regularly, passionately, for at least four years straight. I watched hours upon hours of tournament footage and Hearthstone Twitch streamers. I put in my time on the ladder, grinding my way up the ranks with Face Hunter and One Turn Kill Druid. Eventually, the burnout finally caught up to me, and I took a big step back from Hearthstone, but I would still return periodically to catch up on new content. I’ve always enjoyed the PvE solo adventures too. Sadly, they haven’t released any new new solo adventure content since 2022.

Late 2022 is also when Hearthstone began to experience significant decline in player engagement. Ben Brode left the Hearthstone team in 2018 to start his own development studio (Second Dinner, the studio behind the formerly-popular Marvel Snap), and fans grew tired of Blizzard’s increasingly aggressive monetization.

Still, Hearthstone dominated the online card battling scene for years, peaking in 2018 with over 100 million registered players. That’s insane. If the peak Hearthstone player base was a country, it would be the 17th largest country in the world by population today. Hearthstone was not only the most popular DCCG, it was one of the most popular F2P games from any genre. Just about any studio with a valuable IP was trying to put together some kind of card battling game to emulate Hearthstone’s success. Wizards of the Coast responded with Magic Arena, Konami responded with Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, and many other studios attempted and failed to grab a slice of the DCCG pie — Elder Scrolls: Legends, Gwent, and Legends of Runeterra, just to name a few.

Hearthstone was king, and it managed to remain on that throne for a long time, which is no easy feat in the oversaturated F2P market. But why was Hearthstone so popular? How was it able to hold the attention of so many gamers for so long?

Polish.

There were a few bugs that needed to be worked out in Hearthstone’s alpha and beta, but by and large, Hearthstone launched as an incredibly polished digital card game experience. The game just worked on multiple platforms, including mobile. I used to love playing Hearthstone on my old chunky iPad.

The game’s art is pristine. The music is great. The variety of game modes has continued to grow and grow. It seems like the Hearthstone devs have tried just about everything under the sun. During the game’s peak, each release of new cards was surrounded by so much hype. The game is incredibly kinetic – when you play a card, you can almost feel that digital card slamming onto the board. Sound effects and/or voice acted one-liners trigger with every card played. The “game board” designs not only give you something to look at while you wait for your opponent to finish their turn, but you can interact with various objects along the periphery. If you click on certain objects enough, the objects might break or even trigger an animation.

Hearthstone’s level of polish and production quality set the standard for DCCGs. What else gave Hearthstone such an edge?

WarCraft lore.

I don’t have access to Blizzard’s data, of course, but I have to imagine that a significant chunk of the World of WarCraft playerbase at least dabbled with Hearthstone to see what all the fuss was about. I never played WoW much myself, but I’ve played through the WarCraft 3 campaign multiple times. WarCraft lore runs deep, and I’ve spent hours reading lore articles online. Blizzard has invested a lot into their WarCraft universe, and these familiar names and characters brought instant value to Hearthstone.

It’s hard to describe the giddy triumph of slamming down Ragnaros the Firelord onto the board, watching him obliterate your opponent’s Archmage Antonidas with a fireball while screaming “DIE INSECT.” I can’t tell you how thrilling it is to drop the nasty combo of Force of Nature and Savage Roar to smash your opponent’s dome for lethal damage, while spamming Malfurion’s obnoxiously pompous “a natural mistake” emote of course.

It’s likely that many DCCGs failed to survive because they lacked the benefit of recognizable names and characters. The foundation of WarCraft’s rich lore set Hearthstone apart from competitors. Still, there’s one very obvious factor that has contributed to Hearthstone’s success.

Money.

Of course, whenever a game comes out on top in a competitive market, the impact of the almighty dollar cannot be understated. Those who have money make money. Activision Blizzard had plenty of money, and they were making even more, year after year.

In 2018, Hearthstone’s peak year, Activision Blizzard had a net revenue of $7.5 billion. They spent $1.06 billion in sales and marketing that year. Granted, much of these marketing dollars went to Black Ops 4, Overwatch, Candy Crush, and World of WarCraft, but a sizeable chunk of these advertising dollars fueled the Hearthstone craze. I remember seeing Hearthstone ads all over the place during these early years.

The combination of sublime production quality, WarCraft lore, and fat stacks of marketing cash is what propelled Hearthstone to the top and kept it there for so long. Today, the reigning king seems to be Pokemon TCG Pocket, but we’ll see how long that lasts. The attention of span of many gamers today seems to be getting shorter and shorter. There are more games to play now than ever before, and TikTok (or your short form video reel platform of choice) is not only competing for time that might be spent gaming, but it’s doing something to our brains that affects our ability to stick with something long term. Marvel Snap’s time in the spotlight seemed dismally short.

Today, Hearthstone continues to be a major player in the genre. New and exciting games will come and go, but I doubt any DCCG will ever match the massive hype and lengthy reign achieved by Hearthstone. It will be remembered in gaming history as one of the greatest F2P games of all time.

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Are real time battles the future of the Pokemon franchise? I hope so. I was very excited when I first heard about this massive shift in gameplay for a game series that’s had turn-based combat since before many gamers today were even born. Real time Pokemon battles? I can’t believe it. I used to have “real time Pokemon battles” with my nerdy friends on the playground in 4th grade just using our imaginations. I never thought we’d actually get to experience a bonafide Pokemon game like this.

The Pokemon franchise moves and adapts very slowly, like an oil barge. When Mario 64’s success spawned a host of copycat games attempting to capitalize on the full-3D revolution, every Pokemon fan waited with baited breath. When would we get a fully 3D mainline Pokemon game? If you count Pokemon XY as being “full 3D” (released in 2013), we waited 17 years. Wow. 17 years for the franchise to finally release a fully 3D mainline Pokemon game.

Thankfully, in recent years, the franchise has been bringing us new and interesting Pokemon experiences at a much quicker pace. Legends: Arceus brought us a fantastic real-time catch mechanic, Legends: Z-A has brought us real-time battles, and Pokopia (which I’ve yet to play) has proven that the cosy game hype train is still chugging along.

GAMEPLAY

The real-time battles are the main selling point of this game. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Will the battles be fun? Will they be clunky and weird? I think they pulled it off quite well, though the real-time elements certainly do change the nature of Pokemon as we know it. Legends: Z-A is likely not welcome in the broader category of “relaxing Pokemon games,” since quick timing and full attention are required. The added stress of real-time gameplay may turn some long-time Pokemon fans away, but I welcome this change fully.

It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but the battles are a real thrill. There’s a challenge to getting all of your attacks off quickly while keeping up with what your opponent is throwing at you. Some battles seem to happen in the blink of an eye. There were few times my Pokemon would get completely obliterated by an opponent’s Pokemon, and I had to press X to “pause” just to figure out what happened before I send in the next Pokemon.

Powerful moves have longer cooldowns, which means you’ll need to cycle between two or three different moves if you want to maximize your damage output. In traditional Pokemon games, your water Pokemon can ride through most of the game with just Bubblebeam or Surf. You typically don’t need more than one water move, and you can fill your other move slots with a variety of different move types. In Legends: Z-A, your water Pokemon will likely need two or even three water type moves if you want to maintain maximum STAB damage against a fire Pokemon, for example. Once you use your best water move, it will remain on cooldown, and you will need to use some other move.

I do miss the excellent catch mechanic from Legends: Arceus. They’ve partially retained the same pokeball throwing physics, but it’s noticeably altered. It doesn’t feel quite right. The pokeball’s trajectory feels less like a proper throw and more like a weak toss. You can’t adjust your aim once you’re locked on, which means you can’t raise your aim slightly to adjust for long distances. If you lock on and throw, and you’re too far away, you just miss. It’s very disappointing. I really don’t understand why they altered the best feature from Legends: Arceus. Bring back the good throw.

I have mixed feelings about another significant change they’ve introduced with Legends: Z-A, but I can at least understand it. Gone is the challenge of trying to lower a Pokémon’s HP as much as possible without knocking it out. In Legends: Z-A, if you do knock out a Pokemon, they give you a “catch window”. For a few seconds, before a knocked out Pokemon disappears, you can toss a pokeball. You only get one catch attempt during this “catch window,” so there is still some benefit to whittling down a rare Pokemon’s HP and chucking ultra balls without knocking it out. Still, this feels like one more bit of Pokemon DNA that has been lost. C’est la vie.

In the wild zones, there are aggressive Pokemon that will attack you, but the level of threat is significantly reduced compared to Legends: Arceus. It’s much easier to evade. Exploring the rest of the city is fun as well. There are ladders and lifts and complex scaffolding structures (parkour anyone?) that give you access to the rooftops. Many of the rooftops are interconnected, and in the mid to late game, you’re given an ability which gives you even more mobility and access to the array of rooftops in Lumiose.

Normally, I don’t fuss with camera modes, but this game has a great camera mode that can play different kinds of music to elicit different reactions from each of your Pokémon. They developed animated reactions (a happy dance, a battle pose, and a sleepy time pose) for every single Pokémon in the game. This is an incredible feat for 230+ Pokémon.

The primary gameplay loop is the Z-A Royale. You enter “battle zones” at night to challenge other trainers in order to earn enough points for your challenge ticket. Once you earn your ticket, you’re matched with another trainer for an opportunity to advance your rank. The battle zones are a real highlight for me. You can try to land sneak attacks on the other trainers’ Pokémon, which is quite fun, but it does feel SO cheap. It feels a bit like cheating. There’s no honor in the battle zones, only tears.

I was quite enjoying the steady progression through the ranks, but there’s a Deus ex Machina moment which disrupts that progression. It’s a bit spoilery, so I’ll say no more here. If you want to know more about this and my thoughts on how they could’ve approached this differently, see my “spoiler talk” section at the end of this post.

The mega Pokemon battles make up another big chunk of the gameplay loop. They are similar in some ways to the Noble Pokemon battle sequences in Legends: Arceus, but they’ve made some welcome changes. The battle area is much larger, giving you more space to maneuver and dodge, and there’s much more time to sneak in your attacks between dodge rolls. I really enjoyed these mega Pokemon battles, but they do get a bit repetitive and fatiguing towards the late game. Mega Banette in particular was a frustrating battle for me until I realized how to spot the real target among the fakes (look for the um, purple sparkly stuff).

This game is very well balanced, unlike many previous Pokemon releases that are either too grindy or far too easy. As expected, the battles are fairly easy in the early game, but the level of challenge slowly increases as you progress. I did no grinding, I used every XP candy I found, and I was about the same level as my opponents in pretty much all of the major battles. There was one notable difficulty spike in the mid to late game where I barely managed to survive a few promotion matches. Thankfully, three more wild zones opened up after those battles, and that allowed me to catch several more Pokemon which earned me quite a bit of XP. If you have a solid team composition and can fire off your Pokemon attacks quickly, you shouldn’t encounter too much difficulty.

VISUALS

I have not yet taken the plunge by purchasing a Switch 2, so I played the OG Switch version of Legends: Z-A. I was expecting a broken, ugly, and laggy pile of jank, like Scarlet/Violet. Likewise, the poor visuals in Legends: Arceus nearly ruined that game for me. Thankfully, Legends: Z-A is a huge step forward on all accounts.

Within the first 20 minutes, I noticed much better lighting, better environments, more detail, and smoother performance. Many textures are still noticeably low res, but passable. Honestly, I’d rather have a smaller but more detailed world (with a higher number of textures and assets) than sprawling bald landscapes like in Legends: Arceus. I think that’s how Game Freak managed to get Legends: Z-A running acceptably on the OG Switch. The city of Lumiose and it’s environments are small and contained, which allows for this kind of (low resolution) detail:

Legends: Z-A revisits the region of Kalos, which is inspired by France. The “Frenchness” of the game is not quite Expedition 33 levels, but they still created a nice atmosphere. The game’s UI is also quite nice. It’s very clean, simple, and easy to use.

The game runs well and is very stable on the Switch. I only encountered one small visual bug — at one point in the game I was able to clip into my Feraligatr:

MUSIC

This may be one of my favorite Pokemon soundtracks in recent years. Obviously, nothing will ever come close to matching the nostalgia-fueled obsession I have with the earliest Pokemon soundtracks, but the music in Legends: Z-A earns very high marks.

There are loads of great battle tracks for sure, but it’s the lush orchestral tracks that really caught my ear. The French palette is evident, featuring touches of jazzy percussion, horns, clarinet, and even some accordion. The light mood and subtle bounciness reminds me of the score from Pixar’s Ratatouille.

STORY

Pokemon games have not typically had very good story content, but Legends: Z-A breaks the mold. I was pleasantly surprised by the writing. I kept thinking to myself, “This writing is… actually good?” I laughed out loud at some of the jokes. There were several genuinely funny moments in the story. Most of the dialogue is natural and believable. Characters can be a bit zany at times, but they’re at least consistent. This is one of the most immersive Pokemon stories I’ve experienced yet.

I find the setting to be interesting — a city’s residents attempting to live in harmony with both trained Pokemon and wild Pokemon. The “holo tech” plot device is revived from Pokemon XY and serves its purpose well. I like the interesting cast of characters. Instead of the wholesome father-figure-type Pokemon professor we’re used to, we’re met with Mable, a flustered Pokemon research director equipped with plenty of flippant sarcasm. Your colleague, Naveen, is unapologetically deadpan and somewhat “Eeyore-ish”. It’s refreshing to encounter these characters in a franchise that’s been oversaturated with overly affirming “nice guy” and “nice gal” types.

The writing is much better than what we’ve seen in many previous Pokemon titles, but there are still a few quirks and oddities. The wild areas are filled with aggressive Pokémon, yet you will still find random people just standing around handing out potions or selling ice cream and galettes.

Early in the game, there are invisible walls that block your access to portions of the city. I’m used to having my access blocked in Pokemon games, but in Legends: Z-A, there are no story reasons given for this lack of access — no sleeping Pokémon, no wiggly tree, no thirsty guards, no artist drawing footprints. You’re just… blocked. I almost look forward to the bizarre gimmicks they come up with to block the player character’s access.

People are so nice and generous in Lumiose, it almost feels like you’re in the Truman Show. People are constantly just giving you stuff. “Here, have some potions.” “Here, have some pokeballs.” “Here, have my entire 401k.” There’s even some dude that goes around and collects all of the pokeballs from your missed throws and then gives them back to you for free like some kind of pokebutler. It’s nice, but it’s just so much that it begins to chip away at the immersion a bit. Maybe I’m jaded, but no city is that generous.

I struggle with anime and video games that try to force completely unnecessary duels at the most inopportune time. It’s crisis mode, time is of the essence, but instead of just acting logically and rationally to solve this problem, first we must BATTLE. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.

The story is strong for most of the game, but things do get a little shaky towards the end. There are a few nonsense plot moments. I remeber a few lengthy casual conversations happening during a crisis while active threats are literally just standing by and waiting patiently for the conversation to finish. That “Saturday morning cartoon” vibe starts to creep in a bit in the game’s final moments. I do address a few issues I have with the ending in my “spoiler talk” section below, if you’re interested.

Overall, I enjoyed this Pokemon story much more than I expected. The ending has plenty of epic moments and a satisfying conclusion, and I hope we continue to see this level of competent writing in future Pokemon releases. If you’re a fan of the franchise, don’t skip out on Pokemon Legends: Z-A.

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SPOILER TALK

WARNING: Spoilers ahead. Only proceed if you’ve rolled credits on Legends: Z-A.

I’ll admit I was both relieved and disappointed when my rank jumped from rank V all the way up to rank F. It’s a huge jump though, 16 ranks. The task of going from rank Z all the way to rank A is both daunting and exciting. Initially, I felt like the challenge of rising up through all 26 ranks was taken away from me, but I will admit, the battle zone and challenge match loop does get fatiguing by the end of the game. I imagine grinding all the way through 26 ranks would be way too much, but I do have an idea for how they could’ve approached this problem differently. Instead of skipping 16 ranks, why not host a special tournament or two that gives trainers the opportunity to advance several ranks in one day. The winner’s rank could advance with each round in the tournament. This would speed up the rank progression process without making the player feel like they didn’t earn it.

In the final scenes of the game, Taunie (or Urbain) makes some very odd decisions. First, challenging the player character at the worst possible time comes off as insensitive, if not borderline absurd. The tower is about to explode, and you want to battle to determine the best trainer in Lumiose? Get your priorities straight, Taunie. When the player character wins, Taunie still calls dibs on the privilege of mega-evolving Floette anyway. What gives? Not only did we fight a pointless battle in the middle of a time-sensitive crisis, but now you won’t even honor the result of the battle? Oof.

I think it would’ve made much more sense for the big match with Taunie to occur before the tower crisis begins. Even so, in the moment when it needs to be decided who will accompany Floette, the player character could offer to relinquish the Floettite to Taunie, even though Taunie lost the battle. Taunie is the de facto leader of Team MZ and has a stronger bond with Floette. It makes perfect sense, but they completely missed this angle. The player character could win the right to accompany Floette, yet willingly lay it down. Rather than feeling like you’ve been robbed, you instead have an opportunity to be selfless hero.

What do you think? Do you like the original ending? If not, what would you change?

A friend gave me access to the alpha for Valve’s new third-person shooter MOBA, Deadlock. I haven’t really dipped my toes into the waters of online multiplayer gaming in a looong time. I’m getting older and my reflexes and dexterity just can’t keep up with this new generation of young gamers. Their brains have been even more hardwired for gaming and technology than us aging millennials. Still, I was curious about Deadlock (Valve is still making games??), and I gave it the ol’ college try.

The game is still in early development, but I am very impressed. The style, the art, the fantasy steampunk vibes, the music, the smooth gameplay — this game may actually have what it takes to carve a niche for itself in this insanely competitive multiplayer gaming market.

I played League of Legends for years before hanging up my multiplayer hat and settling in for the much more peaceful life of single player gaming. I wouldn’t say that I was good at MOBAs or shooters, but I was certainly capable. I loved the strategic gameplay and the team-based decision making, especially when you’re playing with a full squad of decent human beings (which is unfortunately quite a rare feat to accomplish nowadays). I dabbled in Overwatch, which only had minor MOBA elements, but I completely missed the boat with Battleborn. It’s sad that Battleborn was overshadowed by Overwatch, because Battleborn was a true MOBA shooter hybrid like Deadlock. The timing wasn’t right for Battleborn (or the marketing), but Valve seems to be making its own attempt to bring new life to this hybrid genre with Deadlock.

I see some similarities between Deadlock and Smite, but Smite never seemed to ascend as a major player in the genre due to mismanagement from Hi-Rez (and a lack of marketing resources). It’s very difficult to grab the attention of the multiplayer market. In the rare case that a game does grab some attention, expectations will remain very high. Valve has released a few duds in the past, but they do still have a strong multiplayer pedigree: Counterstrike, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, and Left 4 Dead. One of the reasons that I actually gave Deadlock a shot was because of my trust in Valve, their creative and talented developers, and their ability to innovate stale genres. That’s why I believe Valve may have what it takes to punch through the glass ceiling with Deadlock.

It’s hard to predict which games will find their time in the spotlight. So many expensive projects lately have just been dead on arrival or shut down prematurely. If Deadlock also fails to grab any attention from multiplayer gamers, I won’t be surprised, but I will be disappointed. There’s something charming and unique about Deadlock. This one doesn’t feel like just another soulless (pun intended) trend chaser. There’s creativity here that deserves some recognition, at least. I would hate to see just another swing and a miss. Thankfully, there’s already plenty of buzz going around. There’s been no announcement about a release date, but some are speculating a mid-2026 or late-2026 open beta.

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Nostalgia Factor: So massive. Nostalgia fueled review incoming.
Difficulty: Easy. The standard difficulty mode will not give you much trouble. Lack of ammo becomes an issue in the harder difficulty modes.

Note: The original DOS version of Chex Quest is definitely the best way to play this game. Unfortunately, the HD remake does not capture the same experience as the original.

My friends over at SuperPod Network have a game-of-the-month club. We nominate and vote on a game that all of us will play together, and this month’s game was CHEX QUEST. I have been dismally busy lately, but I forced myself to make time for Chex Quest, because it’s one of my most cherished childhood games.

I was 8 years old when I first noticed the “FREE CD-ROM GAME INSIDE” graphic on a cereal box when I was following my mom through our local grocery store. She saw my eyes light up. I miss those days when they included some kind of free toy or gimmick in cereal boxes. A free computer game was definitely over the top, but kudos to the Chex marketing team. My mom was a fan of freeware games too, so we bought the cereal and installed Chex Quest as soon as we got home.

I was completely enamored. I hadn’t really played a proper FPS game other than Faceball 2000 for the SNES (if that counts). I had no idea what Doom was or that Chex Quest was actually just a total conversion mod of Doom. Today, I’m convinced that Chex Quest only works because it’s “Doom for kids.” My parents were cautious about which games I was allowed to play when I was young, so most shooters were out of the question. However, Chex Quest was intentionally non-violent. Instead of killing or destroying the alien Flemoid invaders, your Zorch weapons merely teleport the Flemoids back to their own dimension.

The game itself is a solid 5-level Doom mod campaign. It’s very short, compared to Doom’s 27 levels, but that didn’t stop me from playing this game over and over again with my childhood buddy, Peter. Chex Quest also thrived because schools latched on. It’s a free and non-violent game, and Chex was stirring up a bit of marketing hype. “Yeah, that’s right, we put a VIDEO GAME in a cereal box. We’re pretty cool, aren’t we, kids? Now be a good boy and girl and eat lots of Chex cereal.” Chex Quest became a staple in school computer labs. After school, my buddy and I would race to the computer lab to see who could finish a speedrun of all 5 levels of Chex Quest first (our moms both worked at the school, so we had time to kill at the end of the school day). We knew all of the shortcuts and secret areas. We must’ve completed this game at least a few dozen times each.

The common failings of early FPS games are present here – it’s easy to get lost, there’s a lot of repeated sprites and textures, and the aged graphics will be hard for some gamers to stomach if they don’t have nostalgia for that era of gaming. But, Carmack’s Doom engine is pristine. I don’t need much convincing to play a total conversion Doom mod. Chex Quest in particular has the quirky draw of being a game about a collective of cereal people defending themselves from cereal eating slime creatures.

The animated intro included on the CD-ROM version (sorry, it’s not included in the DOS freeware version found online) is laughably primitive, but when you’re 8 years old with limited exposure to video games, it’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen. I watched it over and over again. The game creates a surprisingly effective atmosphere. The soundtrack is a vibe (make sure you select SoundBlaster in setup.exe), and the sound effects cover a wide range. Typically the Flemoids are cute and strange, making hilarious noises, but there were a few noises that scared me a bit as a kid. The final level has an intensity to it that you won’t find in educational games from that time.

I discovered in college that Digital Cafe also made Chex Quest 2: Flemoids Take Chextropolis. It’s more Chex Quest, and there are some interesting new elements and levels, but you can tell that development was rushed. Some members of Digital Cafe also released Chex Quest 3 as a service to die hard fans, but nothing quite matches the hype of the original.

Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed in the HD remake of Chex Quest. Maybe they’ve made improvements since I first gave the remake a spin, but I encountered far too many issues. The armor HUD takes up an absurd amount of the screen, the new cartoony art style just doesn’t match the charm of the original sprite graphics, many of the animations are clunky and awkward, and the audio mixing is all over the place (some sounds are too loud, some are too quiet). The dark sections of the game are way too dark, especially since there’s no flashlight, and many of the enemies and doors are bugged. It’s clear that Carmack’s Doom engine does the real heavy lifting for the original Chex Quest, and the HD remake lacks this polish.

Do yourself a favor. Boot up DOS Box and a free copy of Chex Quest and experience this unique slice of gaming history. Last night, I took my time and finished all five levels in about 40 minutes. After all these years, the nostalgia still runs deep, and the joy is still there.

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Nostalgia Factor: Low.
Difficulty: Easy. The real time action sequences offer a new kind of challenge.

I’m very mixed on how I feel about this game. On one hand, Pokemon Legends: Arceus has introduced some of the most interesting and addictive gotta-catch-em-all gameplay I’ve seen yet from the Pokemon franchise. On the other hand, Legends: Arceus scores very low marks in two categories that are critically important to me and many other gamers – graphics and storytelling.

But first, let’s begin with this game’s main strength, the gameplay. The first thing you’ll notice as you’re working your way through the tutorial content is that catching Pokemon in this game is a real-time activity. And, it’s fun. You can tell they invested a lot of time in refining this catch mechanic. You can run, you can crouch, you can hide in tall grass, and when you’re ready, you wind up to throw, aim, and then release. You can even use the left trigger to lock onto targets, which is something they carried over into Pokemon Scarlet and Violet.

At first, this takes some getting used to, but after some practice, I became very confident in my ability to snipe unsuspecting Pokemon with a Pokeball from a distance. The trick is to aim slightly above your target, as gravity begins to pull the ball downward when thrown from a longer distance. The sound effects and the little trickle of fireworks becomes an addictive ritual that keeps you chucking balls over and over and over again. Yet, as great as this catch mechanic is, it does grow a bit stale after about 20 hours of gameplay. There is a lot of catching to do in this game.

Initially, I didn’t understand the Pokedex system and thought I had to catch 25 of each Pokemon in order to complete the Pokedex entries, but you only have to gain a certain amount of “research levels” from various categories in order to hit the required research level (level 10). For example, I caught Bidoof six times, which earned me six research levels, since that research task has a bonus. I also defeated Bidoof four times, and that earned me three more research levels. One of the six Bidoof I caught happened to be a “large specimen”, which earned me one additional research level, bringing his total research level to level 10, thus completing the Bidoof Pokedex entry. It’s unnecessarily complicated, but as you begin completing entries, you’ll get the hang of it.

At first, the familiar completionist siren call of checking boxes and watching bars go up pulled me in, but after dozens of hours of repeating this same activity, just with different Pokemon in different locations, this experience started to feel hollow. The catch mechanic is fantastic, but it just wasn’t enough to carry me through a 25-30 hour Pokemon game that’s missing some core features that I’ve come to love from the franchise. Plus, the weak graphics and storytelling do not help in carrying the repetitive gameplay across the finish line.

I will say, I loved the crafting feature. This is one way that you are rewarded for exploring the Hisui region. You can collect apricorns and special stones that you use to craft all kinds of different Pokeballs. You can collect herbs and berries to craft your own potions, which you can later upgrade to more powerful potions. There’s a big variety of other craftable items as well that you can use to help lure Pokemon, stun Pokemon, or battle Pokemon.

The battles are still turn based, so it does pull you out of the real time flow a bit when a Pokemon wants to battle. The way battle stats are calculated is also very wonky. They certainly were shaking things up with this game. I knew something was off when a level 2 Buizel was still doing notable damage to my level 14 Oshawott. A level 46 Staravia used Quick Attack on my level 44 Espeon which took away 60% of its health. I know Espeon is no tank, but still, a Quick Attack from a similarly leveled Pokemon should not be doing that much damage. I actually checked an online Pokemon damage calculator, and in Sword and Shield, this same move from Staravia would only take away 20-25% of Espeon’s health, not 60%. Expect battles to feel very different.

The agile and strong moves are an interesting addition, but I’d be lying if I said I understood the convoluted turn order system at all. I honestly just muddled my way through battles, with very little desire to fully comprehend how this absurd turn order nonsense works. (Here is a link to a thorough breakdown of how this system works for those that do want to understand).

There is a sense of danger in this game that’s never been present in a Pokemon game before. Pokemon can actually attack you — not just your Pokemon, you. If you don’t throw out one of your own Pokemon to intercept an attacking wild Pokemon, you will take damage. After 3-4 consecutive hits, you will black out, losing some of your items and respawning at the nearest camp. It’s easy to run away from attacking Pokemon, but still, this ever-present threat from aggressive wild Pokemon adds a welcome intensity to the franchise.

Later in the game, you get access to rideable Pokemon that greatly increase your speed and mobility over all types of terrain. This makes ingredient gathering for crafting much more enjoyable. It also reduces the threat from aggressive wild Pokemon, as it becomes much easier to escape.

You’re able to fast travel between camps you’ve unlocked within a main area, but you’re not able to fast travel between the main areas, which is very frustrating. If you’re in the Obsidian Fieldlands, and you’re ready to jump over to the Coronet Highlands, you can’t just zoom out on the map and click on a new location. Sorry. You’ve got to first fast travel to a camp, speak to the Professor, ask to return to the village, then immediately leave the village, which brings up the map again so you can select Coronet Highlands as your new destination. Each of these steps has its own loading screen as well. This is unconscionable for a modern game. I really do not understand why they designed fast travel this way. Someone please explain it to me.

There’s a move tutor in the village that essentially replaces TMs. There are no TMs littered throughout the region, but you can pay to teach your Pokemon all kinds of moves. There’s also a kiosk that sells you rare stones and other evolution items, but you have to grind out Merit Points by finding lost satchels. Finding satchels is tedious, and I find myself missing the thrill of exploring caves and hideouts, hunting for valuable TMs and evolution stones. The convenience of the Move Tutor is nice, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve been robbed of an important aspect of Pokemon gameplay.

I will say, one convenience I really appreciated was having access to more than one Eevee in this game. There’s at least one Eevee that spawns in the Obsidian Fieldlands. I was able to catch several by leaving the area and returning, so that the Eevee would respawn. I was finally able have more than one of my favorite Eeveelutions on my squad – Sylveon, Flareon, and Espeon. I was too lazy to go for a Glaceon too.

In addition to the main quest, there are loads of side quests in this game. After major milestones in the main quest, more side quests are unlocked and their markers appear. It can be a bit overwhelming. Some of these side quests are clever and fun, but many of them just feel like busy work, with cookie-cutter NPCs and minimal story content. The rewards for completing these quests are often not worth the hassle, so I just gave up on the side quests after a while.

There are some refreshing challenges in this game. The real-time noble Pokemon battles are quite fun. It’s the most action oriented Pokemon gameplay the franchise has seen yet, other than Legends: Z-A, of course. Battling the noble Pokemon requires carefully timed dodging and throwing projectiles at your opponent. A few of these battles could use some tweaking, but most are designed well. The time distortions are also very intense. Sometimes multiple high level Pokemon will just zap into range and start attacking you simultaneously. It’s a proper challenge that requires some quick decision making and intentionality.

Towards the end of the game, there are some very exciting battles that bring some challenge as well. During a particular quest, there’s a massive level 70 alpha Pokemon blocking your exit. It feels a bit like a mini boss. There’s also a tough 1 vs. 3 trainer battle in the late game. That’s right, you get one Pokemon, and your opponent fields three Pokemon at once. Not fair, by any means, but still a very fun challenge.

Unfortunately, the game’s visuals are a major weak point. Even though I was able to find a few scenes in Legends: Arceus that didn’t look too bad, by and large, this is one of the ugliest games I think I’ve ever seen from a major franchise on a Nintendo console. I played Pokemon Violet before tackling Legends: Arceus. I was very hard on Scarlet & Violet’s horrid visuals in my review, and yet, after playing Legends: Arceus, I can see that Scarlet & Violet’s visuals were actually an improvement over Legends: Arceus. The pop-in is atrocious, textures look horrid from many angles, and there are loads of copy-paste assets in the main village.

I mourn that this game had to come out on the Nintendo Switch. If they could’ve dressed up this 3D world for a more powerful system, this game would easily be an 8 out of 10 for me. When you’re spending this much time frolicking through a digital landscape chucking Pokeballs at anything that moves, the environments have to be breathtaking.

Skyrim came out more than 10 years prior to Legends: Arceus. The Switch port of Skyrim is no showstopper, but the environments look magnificent compared to the bald and lifeless topography of Legends: Arceus. I’m not sure how much blame can be assigned to the Switch’s limitations, as Breath of the Wild is proof that Switch games can look incredible in spite of the system’s limitations.

Some credit where credit’s due, the evolution animation is probably the most epic evolution sequence in the entire franchise. Wow! Also, the battle animations look fantastic, the best I’ve seen yet. Kudos to the team that developed the battle animations. I love the historical theme of the game, which seems to be inspired by the Republic of Ezo (now called Hokkaido), circa late 1800s based on some of the technology available (Professor Laventon has a primitive camera similar to this one). It’s such an epic concept and theme. I just wish this game had the visuals to support it.

Late in the game, you gain the ability to fly, and the scenery is… laughably bad:

Thankfully, not ALL of the game looks that bad. There are at least a few spots in this game that manage to portray some decent visuals:

I don’t have too much to say about the game’s music. It’s a bit of a mixed bag. There are some decent tracks, and there are some tracks that make me scratch my head. The Jubilife Village track is woefully bland and repetitive, especially since you hear this track more than most other tracks. It’s just the same three chords repeated over and over. There’s a handful of the odd, bouncy and and slightly funky or jazzy tracks that I’ve come to expect in recent Pokemon games.

I was expecting a period appropriate soundtrack, since this game takes place in a historical era. Instead, much of this soundtrack just sounds completely out of place, using a lot of modern instrumentation and even some quirky synthesized instruments. I think this soundtrack would’ve been so much more effective if the composers primarily utilized historical instruments like the shakuhachi, the shamisen, the koto, the biwa, and taiko drums.

The game’s story may be the most frustrating element for me. I’ve grown used to the typical overly-affirming Pokémon plot and writing, but what I find so frustrating is that this story actually has potential to be good. There are enough interesting themes and pieces of narrative here to make a great story, but the writing just bungles the execution.

From the start, we’re met with some challenging questions about whether or not Pokemon should be feared as monsters or valued as friends and partners. Irida doesn’t believe it’s right for Pokemon to be trapped in Pokeballs. Some Pokemon are even revered as gods. These are fantastic starting points for some engaging dialogue, but the writing is just so clumsy. Early in the game Professor Laventon, who is supposed to be an authority on Pokemon, says that “Pokemon are terrifying creatures.” OK, I can accept that this may be the general perspective for the people of Jubilife Village. This sets up a great opportunity for some story beats to help demonstrate that Pokemon don’t have to be feared. This could become a recurring theme throughout the game. Wouldn’t it be great to watch these characters slowly develop and change their mindset about Pokemon over time? But, not much later in the game, Akari just randomly blurts out, “We need to stop fearing Pokemon!” Ah, OK, so much for subtlety. Not even an hour into the game, we’ve already burst that bubble.

What’s ironic is that, in spite of this exhortation from Akari, Pokemon have never been more threatening or terrifying than in this game. My youngest daughter was so frightened when a Shinx chased her and launched electrical attacks at her. She did not like that at all. Alpha Pokemon have these menacing red eyes, their own intimidating backing track, and they make frightening sounds when they spot you and charge at you.

I was initially very confused when trying to figure out how Pokeballs work in Legends: Arceus without the advanced technology found in the mainline Pokemon games, but I found a video that provides an adequate explanation. Powerful stones have always played an important role in Pokemon games, and it seems that the stones used to create these primitive Pokeballs interact with the Pokemon themselves, allowing them to shrink down to fit inside the apricorn container. When you first arrive in the region, Professor Laventon seems to convey that no one else is capable at catching Pokemon, and yet, you encounter plenty of strong trainers late in the game with plenty of Pokemon that they’ve captured. These kinds of inconsistencies become more noticeable as you progress through the game.

I can’t tell if there are translation issues, or if they’re intentionally trying to use strange grammar and phrasing to indicate some sort of historical dialect. Whatever the case, there’s some very odd lines. There’s a lot of talk of death and danger of death. It seems at times that they’re trying to posture this as a more mature Pokemon game, but the rest of the writing does not follow through. Still, in spite of the disappointing writing, there are a few strong moments and some thought provoking lines. It’s not all bad.

I have more thoughts about the game’s story, but it’s major spoiler town, so I’ve moved those paragraphs to the end of this article (after a spoiler tag).

Overall, I enjoyed the first half of my time with Legends: Arceus. The incredible catch mechanics alone are enough for me to encourage any Pokemon fan to at least give this game a few hours of your time. Unfortunately, I hit a wall at about 20 hrs of gameplay. I reached a critical mass of disappointment with the writing, the graphics, and the repetition. At that point, I just wanted to get through the rest of the main quest and move on.

I was very surprised to see such favorable ratings on Metacritic. I’m guessing that when this game came out, critics and fans were swooning over the excellent catch mechanic and the move towards more open-world exploration. Perhaps over time, some others have also realized that Legends: Arceus feels like half a game. It’s got a great catch mechanic, sure, but just one major town, bland and empty environments, and heaps of repetition. It’s rare for me to skew on the negative side of a Metacritic rating, since I tend to be so positive about games (because video games are AMAZING), but I really struggled with the later chapters of this game after the initial excitement wore off. Catching hundreds of Pokémon over and over again might be enough for some, but not for me.

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Warning: major story spoilers below.

Most of my objections to the story in Legends: Arceus have to do with the game’s final moments. This is when the writers really jump the shark. After quelling the fury of several noble Pokemon and receiving an overload of positive affirmation from your colleagues, the player character is suddenly hit with one of the most absurd cases of narrative whiplash I think I’ve ever seen.

Out of nowhere, Commander Kamado shifts from singing your praises as Galaxy Team’s newest member, recommending you for multiple difficult missions, to accusing you of turning the sky red. This crucial moment is supposed to be received in all seriousness, but I actually laughed out loud. I laughed. It was such an unexpected and poorly written plot twist. It was just completely unearned. This kind of dramatic character betrayal could be executed well with the right build up, with some subtle hints, perhaps a behind the scenes conversation between Kamado and some of his elite guards as they express their concerns and doubts about yoy, but no. This scene slaps you in the face and is clumsily executed, just like the rest of the story.

To add insult to injury, Akari has a look of joy on her face when she learns that you’re being banished from the village without trial. The sky is red, dissonant piano chords are sounding, and Akari has a huge grin on her face. This is obviously an oversight. It HAS to be, and yet, I can’t blame her. I laughed at the absurdity of all of this too.

There are some inconsistencies in this final sequence. I’m no longer trusted. I’m banished from the village, and yet, I still get access to my pasture of Pokémon? Hmm. I can tolerate Saturday morning cartoon plot, which seems to be par for the course in Pokémon games, but at least the mainline games can deliver a proper build up and finale without the whiplash of flawed writing. As events unfolded, I kept saying to myself, “What? Huh? Why?"

Nearing the climax of the finale, the clan leaders believe that Sinnoh is about to come through the portal. This entire game, they’ve been clamoring for a chance to meet Sinnoh. And yet, when it seems that Sinnoh is about to come through the portal, they say, “We need to close the portal!” Why? Is Sinnoh evil and dangerous now? I thought you wanted to meet Sinnoh. This inconsistency could easily be explained with some clever dialogue, but clever dialogue is in very short supply in Legends: Arceus.

I really struggled with the concept of catching these godlike legendary Pokemon. I understand that’s what Pokemon games are all about, catching epic Pokemon, but once they started introducing these god-tier legendaries with such weighty lore, it’s been hard for me to follow. After all of this hype from the clan leaders about this god-tier Pokemon coming through the portal, this derpy kid in a hat just walks up and catches the god of space with an ultra ball. At least Palkia wanted to be caught, for some reason. Both Palkia and Dialga were transferred to my pasture after I caught them. It just felt so… wrong. There they are, the gods of time and space, just chilling in Pasture 7 next to some Bidoofs. This derpy kid caught these foundational Pokemon gods and just carries them around in homemade Pokeballs on his belt. It all just feels like a dorky middle-school power fantasy.

The postgame has it’s own twists and turns, and they really try to pull on your heartstrings at the end, but for me, it just felt empty and forced. It’s probably because these writers lost me halfway through with their sloppy writing. They just didn’t earn my engagement. Once the suspension of disbelief was shattered, I was a lost cause. I wasn’t able to recover. Hopefully you enjoyed the ending more than I did.

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Nostalgia Factor: Very high.
Difficulty: Not as difficult as Gen 1, but there are some surprising difficulty spikes and a big grind at the end.

I recently played through Pokemon Crystal again with my daughters. I had forgotten just how many new features and upgrades G/S/C brought to the Pokemon franchise. Gen 2 is an absolute whopper of a Pokemon game. Not only did they bring us a whole new Johto adventure with this release, they managed to pack the Kanto region into the game as well. Gold and Silver clocked in at 710 KB (and Crystal at 976 KB), significantly more game data than Pokemon Yellow’s 504 KB.

The list of new features and improvements is very long. They added a day and night cycle with day and time sensitive events. For example, the bug catching contest at the National Park is only held on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Lapras only appears on the lowest level of Union Cave on Fridays. The new Pokegear includes a radio with multiple stations and a phone that can call various trainers you meet on your journey. They may call you for a rematch or to give you an item they found or to let you know about a swarm of a certain type of Pokemon.

Gen 2 also added Pokemon genders and breeding, a variety of berries with different effects, loads of new types of Pokeballs crafted from apricorns, better item management with bag compartments, held items like Charcoal that buff a Pokemon’s attacks, and the super rare and differently colored shiny Pokemon. They split the special stat into special attack and special defense. Trainers have unique names like “Bugcatcher Wade” instead of just “Bugcatcher,” and there are loads of new moves, new TMs and HMs, mystery gifting, and just so so much more.

The interface is hugely improved, the Pokedex is easier to navigate, the full color graphics on the Game Boy Color are a massive upgrade, and even the chiptune music is notably more textured and not so harsh sounding. The new dark and steel Pokemon types are probably the most significant additions in this generation. The Pokemon types would remain fixed until Gen 6 introduced the fairy type. New dark types include the fan favorite Umbreon, as well as Houndoom, Murkrow, Tyranitar, and Sneasel. Some favorite new steel types include Skarmory, Steelix, and Scizor.

The most surprising feature of the game is the massive amount of post-game content — you can explore the entire region of Kanto after you’ve conquered Johto. It’s a condensed and simplified version of Kanto, but still… You can battle all 8 Kanto gyms while tackling some additional story content. Plus, Gen 2 features one of the best post-game battles in the entire franchise (if you don’t care about spoilers, click here). Get ready to grind up some levels for that battle, if you’re up for the challenge. Yeesh.

If you liked Gen 1, Gen 2 is more of the same, but with a heck of a tune up. When it comes to nostalgia, I still favor Gen 1, in spite of its flaws. And yet, many consider Gen 2 to be one of the greatest if not the greatest in the entire Pokemon franchise. Critics raved over Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal when they launched.

As much as I love that they crammed a condensed version of Kanto into the post-game, it does seem that the initial Johto adventure is a bit truncated. The main adventure just feels a bit short. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Some players may even prefer this. The routes and caves are a little shorter, a bit more manageable, and there are not as many trainers to battle along the way. One of the common complaints about Gen 1 is that some of those routes and caves are just miserably long with way too many trainers. In Pokemon Crystal, I battled just about every trainer in the game, and my Pokemon were about level 33 by the time I reached the Elite 4. In contrast, my team in Pokemon Yellow was about level 52 by the time I reached Indigo Plateau. Unfortunately, the grind to get your team up to a decent level for the Elite 4 is bad in both Gen 1 and Gen 2.

I still have my old Pokemon Gold cartridge somewhere in the garage, but my daughters wanted us to play through Pokemon Crystal for our recent playthrough since you can play as a girl, Kris (her canon name). Other than the grind, which may just be par for the course for old school RPGs, there are a few more frustrations with Gen 2 that keep me from giving this game a 10 out of 10. Unlike Gen 1, there’s a notable lack of staple TMs in Johto. Pick your Pokemon team carefully, and double check their movesets on Bulbapedia, because the TMs for Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, or Flamethrower do not exist in Gen 2. These moves can only be learned at great cost from a move tutor after you’ve already defeated the Elite 4.

There’s a notable lack of fire Pokemon in Johto as well. Unless you pick Cyndaquil, your only other fire Pokemon options are Growlithe or Ponyta. My daughters BEGGED to pick Chikorita (even though I don’t typically run grass Pokemon in my team comps). We picked up a Growlithe as soon as we found one and evolved him into Arcanine about seven badges in with a Fire Stone from Schoolboy Alan. But, Arcanine never learned any other fire moves. We were stuck with lowly Ember as our only fire move for the Elite Four, since there’s no Flamethrower TM in the game. In the postgame, there’s a move tutor in Goldenrod that will teach Flamethrower, but it takes 4000 Game Corner coins (which are very difficult to come by unless you drop about 80,000 Pokedollars on coins). Oof.

We learned later that if you don’t evolve your Growlithe, he’ll learn Flame Wheel at level 34, which is a bit better than Ember at least. Growlithe does learn Flamethrower on its own at lv50, but by then, the game is nearly over. By the time I had finished rounding up all the badges in Kanto, my team was around level 52. Ponyta isn’t necessarily a better alternative, since it will also be stuck with Ember until it learns Fire Blast at lvl 53 (if you don’t evolve to Rapidash). This kind of stinginess with TMs and powerful moves was a bit frustrating.

It’s also a common complaint that some of the new Pokemon are only found in the post-game. I would’ve very much liked to have some of these new Pokemon on my team before rolling credits. I want to enjoy each game’s new Pokemon as much as possible instead of just encountering them late in the game with only a few hours of story content left.

Additionally, I just didn’t find the main story of Gen 2 to be as engaging as Gen 1. Nostalgia is likely at play here, since I’m more nostalgic for Gen 1, but after recently playing them both back to back, Gen 1 has the edge. I’d go into more detail about this, but I want to avoid spoilers. There are still some very memorable and epic moments in Gen 2 for sure, and I very much enjoyed playing it again. It’s still very high on my list of favorite Pokemon games.

I highly recommend that any die hard Pokemon fan play through every mainline Pokemon game, starting with Gen 1. Just be sure to take breaks in between so you don’t get “Pokemon fatigue.” These games are all very similar after all.

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Nostalgia Factor: High. I love me some Halo and have been playing since 2001.
Difficulty: Medium. Notably more challenge than other Halo campaigns.

After the controversy surrounding Halo 5, Halo Studios (formerly known as 343 Industries) had a lot of work to do in order to regain the trust of the Halo fanbase. Thankfully, Halo Infinite is a big step in the right direction with some well executed new ideas.

Visually, this is the best looking Halo game yet. The textures and models are crisp and clean. The terraformed surface of Zeta Halo is mountainous and woodsy, reminiscent of the Pacific Northwest. It’s a gorgeous environment to explore, and there’s more explorable terrain than we’ve ever seen before in any Halo game. There are a few other “biomes” on the surface, but I do wish they would’ve utilized them more. Most of the map consists of the woodsy mountainous biome, and it began to feel a bit samey after a while.

The Forerunner structures have never looked better. It’s a huge highlight of the game for me. The Conservatory in particular looks amazing. My eyes just feasted on the subtle blue hues, the reflective shiny metal surfaces, and all of the intricate details of the Forerunner technology. Also, I’m glad that they fixed the HUD issues from Halo 5. The overlay is now much more subtle and was not an issue for me at all. They’ve even added the option to completely turn off the HUD overlay in the settings (without having to find a skull first like in Halo 5).

The cinematics are well acted and directed, but the visual quality is a noticeable downgrade from Halo 5’s cinematics from Blur Studio. It’s hard to match the award winning work of Blur Studio. I’m guessing Blur was either unavailable or just too expensive. When you’re the best at what you do, more and more big money clients start knocking at your door, and prices go up. I will say, the in-engine cinematics featured some of the cleanest transitions I’ve ever seen. The switch from 3rd person cinematic to 1st person gameplay is insanely smooth. Very impressive.

Halo Infinite also features some of the best Halo gameplay we’ve seen since Bungie’s exit. I’ve reached a point now where I’m satisfied enough with the gunplay that I’m no longer making obsessive comparisons to the Bungie Halo games. I think we’ve finally arrived. It feels like heresy to say that Halo Studios has matched Bungie’s impeccable gunplay, but differences are barely discernable anymore.

Halo Infinite brings a significant shift in genre as well. Instead of a purely linear campaign from one corridor to the next, Infinite plops you onto a huge open world chunk of the ring to explore. There are some initial limitations due to terrain, but in the late game you can go anywhere and do anything. You can capture FOBs (Forward Operating Base) and enemy outposts, you can hunt down high value enemy targets, you can scavenge equipment and spartan cores for upgrades, or you can rescue captured marines. They’ve also scattered loads of audio logs across the map, containing bits of lore. I knew almost nothing about Halo Infinite when I started playing, and I was pleasantly surprised by this new approach to the franchise.

The grappleshot is easily my favorite new feature, hands down. It is so fun to use. You can climb just about anything with the grappleshot. You can latch onto trees or a wall or the ceiling like Spider-man and launch yourself through the air. Aside from Halo 2’s dual wielding (which I hope they’ll bring back some day), the grappleshot may just be the best gameplay feature introduced to the Halo franchise. There’s so many ways that you can use the grappleshot to your advantage. You can latch onto enemies, zip towards them, and then crush them with a hyper-accelerated melee attack. That maneuver alone is some of the most satisfying 1st person gameplay I’ve experienced in a long time. Playing the campaign, I would sometimes get myself into trouble because I just wanted to grapple-punch as many enemies as possible whether it was strategically viable or not. WORT WORT WORT.

In addition to grenades, which are always fun, there are now various explosive objects called fusion coils scattered all over the place. You can pick them up and throw them, or shoot them from a distance to inflict extra damage on any enemies standing nearby. These fusion coils really come in handy when you are low on ammo with your back against the wall. They’ve also fixed one of my biggest pet peeves from Halo 5 by adding various ammo refill crates throughout the campaign. I love using UNSC weapons (especially the Battle Rifle), but I never had enough ammo to use the UNSC weapons for very long in Halo 5 because I would quickly run out of ammo. Halo Infinite solves this issue perfectly with the addition of these ammo refill crates.

I do still miss the plasma rifle, and dual wielding. I know there are balancing issues for multiplayer, but can we please bring back dual wielding and the plasma rifle in just the campaign? Pretty please? The pulse carbine is another disappointing replacement for the plasma rifle. Unfortunately, Halo Studios continues to experiment with or remove cherished weapons from the franchise, which frustrates veteran Halo gamers that have been playing since 2001.

However, I do appreciate some of the changes. It’s great that you can refresh plasma weapons by simply walking over discarded plasma weapons that are lying on the ground. This fully charges your current weapon, instead of requiring you to hunt around for another plasma weapon with more charge. I also like the new Disrupter pistol. It’s hilarious watching grunts spasm and fly across the room. The satisfying crunch sound they’ve added whenever you eliminate an enemy is another helpful change. Additionally, there’s a little red ‘X’ that flashes over that enemy, giving you both an audio and visual cue to signal that enemy’s demise. It helps you save ammo, and now you’re not left wondering whether or not you finished off that jackal sniper off in the distance.

Infinite’s pacing starts a bit slow, especially if you dive right into exploring the map and conquering side objectives. It’s great fun at first, but the completionist in me wanted to mark off every little icon that popped up before tackling the next major campaign mission. Eventually, after becoming quite fatigued from the repetitive grind of trying to conquer the entire map, I decided to just power through the main quest objectives and finish the campaign. These story missions are very similar to previous Halo campaigns in terms of level design and pacing. Unfortunately, the early story missions are still a bit slow, but the late game missions are pure thrill. You can tell they prioritized development time for the game’s final missions. If you find yourself starting to lose interest in the open world objectives, sprinkle those side missions into your Halo Infinite experience with care, and don’t be afraid to simply focus on the main story.

As much as I love the addition of the open world elements, I do think there’s still room for improvement. The variety of side content was a bit lacking. After wrecking three or four Banished outposts, it all began to feel very copy-pastey. I kept spotting the same reused 3D assets, and I grew tired of completing the same tasks each time. The side content does at least provide some extra content for the gamers who just want more Halo, and there is plenty of content. Infinite’s campaign clocks in at 12-20 hours, which is the longest Halo campaign ever released.

There is a satisfying sense of progression as you conquer more of the map. You unlock more weapons and vehicles, and you can fast travel to any FOB you’ve claimed to reload and resupply. In the early game, FOB pit stops are essential, and in the late game, FOB pit stops turn you into an utter juggernaut. You take your pick from a huge cache of different weapons, and you can load up your vehicle of choice with marines sporting rocket launchers and sniper rifles. After I unlocked the sniper rifle and rocket launcher equipped marines, I just started obliterating enemy camps.

There are segments in the game that require you to power up a bridge or a gravity lift by finding a “power seed”. I’m still mixed on whether or not this is a flawed bit of game design or not. So many games have some kind of menial task like this baked into the gameplay, but typically, these tasks are added in sparingly. Doom has keycards and locked doors, and now Halo has… power seeds, I guess? I think the amount of power seeds I had to find was just beginning to encroach the threshold of annoyance.

The rescued marines that populate your FOBs are a nice addition, but they can be very buggy sometimes. Sometimes they will follow you into areas that they can’t escape without a grappleshot. I always feel bad leaving them behind, but there’s nothing I can do. You guys will be fine, right? Much too often, a marine will stand right in the middle of the vehicle drop zone on the FOB deck, getting crushed to death by the incoming vehicle. Great. I had to adopt the habit of physically pushing the marines out of the way before calling for a vehicle. Speaking of bugs, I once accidentally drove a warthog off a bridge that wasn’t extended — oops — but my checkpoint set just as my warthog began to fall, so I got stuck in this death loop for several minutes until the game finally spit me out at a previous checkpoint. Warthogs get stuck on rocks much more often than I’d like. Sometimes you can just punch them until they dislodge. Try not to accidentally kill your marines though. They’re very good at getting in the way.

Halo Infinite brings some refreshing challenge to the normal difficulty mode. Up until now, normal has been quite easy, with only a few difficulty spikes here and there. In Infinite, I found myself stuck at a few spots, having to look up boss guides for some help. The bosses can be pretty tough if you don’t know what you’re doing. Thankfully, this game gives you the tools to rise to the challenge. The spartan upgrades are fun at any point in the game, but they are practically a requirement in order to defeat certain bosses. Some bosses really push you to think strategically, looking for any advantage or beneficial cover.

The story of Halo Infinite has some highs and lows, but overall, I feel like they successfully pivoted from the controversial Halo 5. I missed out on the “Hunt the Truth” marketing campaign zeitgeist, so I didn’t have to endure that rage inducing bait-and-switch nonsense, but I was still deeply dissatisfied with Halo 5’s cliffhanger ending. Since taking the reigns, Halo Studios has become notorious for playing fast and loose with beloved franchise characters.

I’ll be careful to avoid major spoilers here, but let me say this. Halo 4 has an extremely emotional ending, which I thought was a redeeming strength of that game. Halo 5 then gives you a nasty case of emotional whiplash which cheapens the powerful ending of Halo 4. Halo Infinite proceeds to whip the car around again before finally coming to rest in an acceptable state. But, after all of that — after enduring this chaotic trilogy from Halo’s new lorekeepers — I find myself emotionally exhausted. At least they’ve now arrived at some sense of equilibrium. They have now officially achieved a “soft reboot” the franchise.

I do love Halo Infinite’s handling of Master Chief. He’s back in his rightful place as the primary protagonist of the game (no Jameson Locke to be found). Halo has returned to its roots, featuring the solo heroics from our beloved lone Spartan, which is a key facet of the Halo DNA that once made this franchise great. Master Chief is back to his old shenanigans. I love it when he punches stuff. It makes me laugh every time. This is my favorite scene from any Halo game, ever. Chief is looking at a terminal…

Chief: “It’s locked down. Requires a hack.”
Companion: “Ok. And you can do that?”
Chief: “No.” **punches terminal

He just punches it. I love it. Somehow Chief’s one-liners and his 90’s action hero antics are able to transcend any accusations of cringe. The Chief is just plain cool in every way. In Infinite, he can also be a little unhinged at times, and I love that too.

The audio logs scattered throughout the game begin to piece together what happened after Halo 5. It’s a very anticlimactic way to resolve such an epic cliffhanger, but at least there’s resolution. I gobbled up each and every UNSC log directly related to the events of Halo 5, but if I’m honest, I quickly grew tired of any logs related to the new enemy faction. I will say, the enemy chieftain easily has the most impressive sounding “orc voice” I’ve ever heard. His voice actor, Darin De Paul, has delivered an absolute masterclass with this performance. I don’t understand how he’s able to do that with his voice. It’s incredible. That being said, I really struggled to engage with any of the story content related to the new villains. It just didn’t draw me in.

Master Chief has a new companion that I just adore — they’re so positive, delightful, and smiley. Within minutes, they became one of my favorite characters from the whole franchise. The writers also expertly handled Chief’s dialogue. There’s a surprising amount of character development for the Chief, considering his stoic disposition. The writers tip toe up to the line of oversharing, for a character like Master Chief, but they don’t cross it, and the subtle emotional depth we’re exposed to doesn’t feel forced. The Chief says just enough, without saying too much, which would’ve otherwise betrayed his character.

There’s a peculiar plot device they use to deliver a few story beats. They introduce data echoes, these little chunks of residual data that convey thoughts, feelings, and dialogue from a key character. I suppose they had to invent some way to dump exposition considering the circumstances, but I found this to be pretty weak sci-fi writing. There was virtually no attempt at an explanation to provide a plot bandaid for tech-savvy sci-fans. Umm, OK, I guess fragments of digital code can somehow float through the air like little wisps of vapor? It does not make any sense to me whatsoever. I wish they would’ve spent a little more time developing that particular point. Even a half-hearted attempt to patch up that weak plot device would be helpful. Maybe they’ll develop that more in the next Halo game.

I also wish they would’ve injected some story content into the side missions. Even just one or two additional named characters and a few 30-60 second cinematics would help to pull some of the repetitive side quests along. Imagine with me, instead of rescuing a bunch of nondescript marines that you could care less about, you rescue an ODST named Micah that has a distinct face and some dialogue even. Micah could make several appearances, and he could call in on the radio to check in. Micah could help rally and lead the rescued marines at the FOBs. Micah could even join you as a companion NPC on a mission or two, swapping some lines of dialogue.

Also, imagine with me, a rescued UNSC tech named Sarah that randomly pulls up in a Warthog with a few marines when you check into certain FOBs. She could manage the FOB terminals to make sure everything’s running smoothly, and she helps to configure and explain your Spartan upgrades. She could even bring you an extra Spartan core that she found. Wouldn’t that be nice. Gee, thanks Sarah! This is the kind of narrative depth that the side content desperately needs to avoid feeling like a long list of chores.

The music of Halo Infinite is solid, but not high on my list of favorite Halo soundtracks. It must be so difficult to compose for Halo. You get to utilize legendary motifs from O’Donnell and Salvatori’s body of work, but you’re left with the challenge of trying to make something new and fresh that still sounds like Halo. Gareth Coker, known for his work on Ori and the Blind Forest, filled the role as lead composer. Joel Corelitz and Curtis Schweitzer also contributed.

I think my disappointment with this score comes from how understated it is. Several tracks are either decidedly minimal in order to mimic the more primitive Halo: Combat Evolved sound, or the tracks are just lacking. Many tracks sound incomplete, like they just need more. They sound a touch dry and empty to me, especially after taking in Halo 5’s soundtrack which is incredibly full and powerful with multiple layers of instrumentation.

I think I appreciate the atmospheric tracks the most, during the more restful moments of the game, though I do wish these tracks would cue more often as you explore Zeta Halo. The nature sounds are nice, but I spent way too much time traversing the surface of the ring listening to nothing but the sound of a vehicle’s engine and some wild animal noises. Without music, exploration can feel empty and lifeless.

Overall, in spite of some flaws, I still very much enjoyed my time playing Halo Infinite’s campaign. I can envision room for improvement, but I’m very excited about this new direction for the series. I’d love to see the open world concept developed even further. Heck, maybe they’ll even add some RPG elements to Halo 7, and we’ll be able to earn valor or XP or something with every enemy eliminated. The epic and lengthy finale of the campaign more than makes up for any early pacing issues, and I feel confident in saying that Halo Infinite is the best Halo campaign yet from the post-Bungie era.

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Not too long ago a friend invited me to come check out the new Pokemon TCG league at Cade’s Dice and Decanters, Sundays at 2pm. I had dabbled a bit with the Pokemon TCG after playing through Pokemon Trading Card Game (the video game) for the Game Boy Color. I really enjoyed the mechanics of the classic Pokemon TCG, so I bought a bunch of cheap bulk cards off eBay for my daughters and I to mess around with. We made a bunch of decks and learned to play against each other.

Stepping into the Blackwater League at Cade’s was a new experience for me, but I was welcomed warmly, and I quickly found a place in this gaming community that has grown so quickly in just a matter of months. At first, I realized that I still had a lot to learn, but Professor Aaron and the knowledgeable Pokemon TCG veterans in the league were always helpful and encouraging. It didn’t take long for me to learn about the latest cards and strategies and begin to see some more wins with my Okidogi ex deck.

Obviously, winning is fun, but there’s such a strong sense of community in the league that losing can be fun too. I’ve made friends, and we’ve shared a lot of laughs over some great matches. There’s never a shortage of fun banter and chatter, and we always celebrate with each other when someone rips open a pack with a huge hit. We have a regular who has pulled so many gold cards in the store, we’ve started saying he’s got the “Midas touch.”

Blackwater League has a variety of different types of events. My favorite is the Tournament of Champions, which happens every 6 months. It’s a Standard format slugfest, usually four swiss rounds, with best of one matches. The top four finishers of each Tournament of Champions will become the Blackwater League’s “Elite Four” until the next Tournament of Champions. Players in the league can challenge the Elite Four in order take a spot for themselves. They’ll have to beat each player of the Elite Four in succession without losing. It’s a tough challenge, but it’s generated some really exciting matches.

If you’re not looking to jump right into the more competitive events, there are loads of casual tournaments as well with a variety of fun rulesets. Raids are a great cooperative team challenge against a raid boss Pokemon, excellent for beginner players, and there are plenty of opportunities for open tables, deck building, trades, and friendly matches. I’ve been very impressed with the intentionality to help younger players find their footing in the league. I believe there’s even a mentorship program in the works for those who could use a little help getting started.

I’ve been extremely impressed with the Blackwater League, and I recommend it highly. If you are local to the Milton area and have even a little bit of interest in diving into the Pokemon TCG, drop by the Blackwater League at Cade’s Dice & Decanters. There are plenty of friendly faces who would love say hello and help get you started on your Pokemon TCG journey.

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Nostalgia Factor: Couldn’t be any higher. Massive nostalgia at play here.
Difficulty: The most difficult and grindy Pokemon game. Expect some challenge.

I still have my translucent purple Game Boy Color and the Pokemon Yellow cartridge that my parents bought me when I was 10 years old. I realized recently that I was the same age as Ash Ketchum when he began his Pokemon journey. The first video game I truly obsessed over was Kirby Super Star for the SNES, but the first RPG I truly obsessed over was Pokemon Yellow. I honestly have no idea how many hundreds of hours I clocked on that cartridge, at least 500 hours. I wouldn’t be surprised if I spent over a 1000 hours grinding levels and catching them all. I did it too — I caught all 150 Pokemon and completed my Pokedex, thanks to some trades and some help from friends. The Prima Official Strategy Guide I carried around with me almost everywhere was worn and creased from heavy use. Sadly, my cartridge battery died several years ago and all was lost. RIP. Thankfully, the memories live on.

My daughters also love Pokemon, and a few months ago we embarked on a quest — to play every mainline Pokemon game, starting with generation 1. We, of course, chose to start with Pokemon Yellow, because who doesn't want Pikachu following you around the whole game? My daughters loved it. We took turns passing the controller at times, but I had to take charge during some of the more challenging cave mazes and Team Rocket hideouts. I had almost forgotten how difficult this game can be. Every 10 minutes or so they would ask, “can we check on Pikachu again?” When you check on Pikachu, an animation pops up that indicates your friendship level with Pikachu. My girls also took turns nicknaming all of the Pokemon we caught.

About 90% of what you love about Pokemon games today started right here in Gen 1 (Pokemon Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green too, a Japan only release). As a kid, I named my character Ash, of course. I had already been sucked into the anime-turned-Saturday-morning-cartoon that aired on Kids WB. I was blown away by the endless adventure in Pokemon Yellow — catching Pokemon, raising Pokemon, battling Pokemon, challenging gym leaders, running away from a gazillion zubats in Mount Moon.

I’ll never forget the first time I entered Viridian Forest as 10 year old. I was terrified, nearly paralyzed by the uncertainty and the suspense. What wild Pokemon would I encounter next in the tall grass? What if I cross another trainer’s line of vision as I turn this corner? Every battle thrilled me. Over time, I gained confidence as a Pokemon trainer. My Pokemon grew stronger. I accumulated more badges. I caught legendary Pokemon. I had endless conversations with my friend Michael on the playground at recess. We swapped stories, we compared Pokedexes, and we bought into all of the classic 90s Pokemon myths, hook, line, and sinker. Life was very different back then when you didn’t have regular access to Google to confirm or deny random myths about video games.

Michael once told me that if you knock out enough Zubats in the caves, it will decrease your encounter rate. I heard elsewhere that pressing up on the D-pad + B at just the right time during the Pokeball throwing animation would guarantee success. Also, it was just common knowledge that Mew was definitely under that random truck in the secret area near S.S. Anne. Of course, this was all absolute nonsense, but we didn’t know any better. It was fun to swap rumors though. Thankfully, we had heard enough reports from friends who had corrupted their game data with the infamous MISSINGNO that we resisted the urge to try to trigger the glitch. Still, half of the 90s Pokemon rumors centered around this mysterious glitched Pokemon. It’s Pokemon’s own Polybius.

Finally, after burning through many AA batteries for my purple Game Boy, I crested the hill of Indigo Plateau. I conquered the perilous Victory Road, and I completed the game after what felt like an endless string of near impossible battles. My poor under-leveled Pokemon were so saturated with revives and hyper potions by the end of it, I don’t know how they ever recovered. The excitement and warm fuzzy feelings from this adventure have never left me. I will forever cherish my many hours spent playing this wonderful, wonderful game.

I wish I could say that I experienced that same level of joy and excitement when playing through Pokemon Yellow again recently, but unfortunately, it’s not possible to be a kid again. Life was so simple back then. However, I did still enjoy playing the game again, and most importantly, I absolutely loved sharing this experience with my daughters. They’ve loved our time playing Pokemon Yellow together as well.

I wish I could give this game a perfect 10 out of 10, but there are some key flaws that keep this game from reaching that level of prestige. While I do really appreciate the challenge this game brings, the encounter rate is just downright atrocious in some areas of the game. The caves are especially heinous. They are very maze like, and it’s hard enough to navigate your way through the puzzles without encountering a zubat every 5 steps. Thankfully, the max repel items are a huge help if you can afford them.

The fact that HMs can’t be removed from a Pokemon’s moveset is another sore point. Thankfully, they add this option with the Move Deleter NPC in Gen 2, Pokemon Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Item and Pokemon management is also obnoxiously limited. Your backpack fills up very quickly, and if you’re not constantly offloading items onto your PC in the Pokemon Center, you’ll find yourself three floors deep in some cave, unable to pick up items. If your Pokemon storage box fills up while you’re out in the wild on the hunt, you simply are not allowed to catch any more Pokemon until you return to a Pokemon Center to switch boxes using a PC. It’s incredibly annoying. I suppose I should cut Game Freak some slack, since their programming team was able to fit this massive RPG adventure into a tiny 504kb package. It’s some kind of wizardry, I say.

In spite of the space limitations on the cartridge, the sprite work in this game is very well done. The pixelated world may appear primitive to modern gamers, but I think there is still a lot of fun to be had exploring Gen 1’s Kanto region, encountering all kinds of Pokemon and trainers. The story is classic and revered because of nostalgia, but there’s not much too it. It’s a very simple premise. The game focuses less on narrative and more on player choice and exploration.

Junichi Masuda’s soundtrack for the Gen 1 games has achieved immortal status. Even though there are a few tracks that lean a bit too much into that childish and annoying nursery rhyme vibe, the rest of the tracks are truly exceptional. I wonder if Masuda ever anticipated that these melodies would live on for decades to come? We continue to find motifs and melodies from this original Gen 1 soundtrack in new Pokemon releases, re-orchestrations, and remixes.

With so many feature upgrades and fixes that come in later Pokemon games, it’s hard to say that Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow is the best Pokemon game, but it’s certainly my favorite Pokemon game. It will always be #1 in my heart. Even though it may be difficult for some modern gamers to play through this original generation of Pokemon without the heaping dose of nostalgia that drives us aging millennials, I strongly recommend giving it a go. You may just find yourself sucked into another grand adventure.

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Nostalgia Factor: None.
Difficulty: Expect a few difficulty spikes, but the normal difficulty mode is manageable for most experienced RPG gamers.

I am utterly blown away. I initially wasn’t sure how to receive all of the GOTY hype for Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, but now, after having dumped 50 hours into my own playthrough of this incredible game, I can say with full certainty that the hype is warranted. This game is truly a work of art. Roger Ebert and others may disagree, maintaining that video games are simply a product or a service and cannot be art. The debate continues, but I can’t think of a better game to represent video games as art.

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve played a proper turn based RPG, but it didn’t take long for me to get completely absorbed in Expedition 33’s gameplay mechanics and battle system. I wouldn’t blame anyone for feeling overwhelmed by the massive amount of pictos, weapons, skills, enemy attacks, character builds, combos, synergies, and strategic angles this game offers. I’d heard plenty of praise about this game’s story, visuals, and music, but I was surprised by the well designed gameplay. There’s enough strategic depth here to satisfy the nerdiest of turn-based-RPG nerds.

At first, I was intimidated by the parry and dodge mechanic, as someone who can admittedly be a bit difficulty-averse. But, a few hours in, I picked up quickly on reading enemy attack patterns, and I was able to dodge at least half the time, which is enough to get through most of the game with a bit of leveling. Some have tried to label Expedition 33 as a “soulslike RPG” because of its dodge and parry combat. Several of the staff have claimed inspiration from the Dark Souls series, but I think most soulslike diehards would not agree with that label. At first, I found the combat to be stressful, but by the end of Act II, I found it thrilling. Consider me a convert. I may even dabble with a true soulslike game at some point in the future.

I really appreciate how quickly the characters move when exploring the game world. The running speed is fast enough that exploration doesn’t feel like a chore. The grapple points are also really fun to zap towards. The animations are so quick and kinetic, combat and movement in the game always feels great, except for the rare instances of platforming. Thankfully, those sequences are optional.

There are some significant difficulty spikes in the game. There’s a tough two-phase boss at the end of Act 1 with a VERY annoying insta-kill attack that I just couldn’t seem to dodge. Thankfully, you can retry any battle as many times as you’d like until you get those attack patterns down. There’s another huge difficulty spike with a tough boss in the middle of Act 2. I read an unhelpful comment from a random redditor that made me laugh, “It only took me 10 attempts to beat this boss. It’s not that hard.” Ha. Ha. I was so shaken and frustrated by this boss that I ended up over-leveling myself in preparation before facing him again. I ended up cleaning his clock the second time. If you’re having a tough time, you can completely rework your character builds at any point in the game, and you can always just grind out a bunch of levels.

Speaking of character builds, there are so many viable build paths for your squad. Some opt for basic balanced builds with high versatility, others commit to the one-trick-pony high-crit builds that can be very effective. At first I was overwhelmed, but after a bit of research, I became obsessed with maximizing my team. Some players opt for more balanced builds with a lot of versatility. If you’re interested, I’ve listed my character builds at the end of this review. Check it out for some ideas if you get stuck or need some direction.

The visuals in Expedition 33 had me gawking at my little monitor for long periods of time. When I first took control of Gustave in the opening sequence, I must’ve spent 15 minutes just taking in every exquisite detail — the gorgeous city of Lumiere, the rooftop garden, the fantasy steampunk aesthetic (or is it Frenchpunk?), the clothes, the flowers, the architecture, the designs on the doorways, the vine covered arches, the reflections in the puddles in the cobblestone streets, and of course the gorgeous chiaroscuro lighting. They really pushed the detail in the 3D models and environments. I’m amazed at how well they rendered the characters’ hair. Realistic hair can be a real challenge for video game developers, but Sandfall Interactive have nailed it. This game also features some of the best looking water I’ve seen in a game. It’s amazing what the right artists can do with Unreal Engine 5.

Everywhere I went in this game, my eyes struggled to take it all in because there’s just so much to appreciate. The colors and designs have been cranked to 11. It’s such a feast for the eyes. Once the game opens up and you’re free to explore the game world, you’re met with a stunning variety of skillfully designed environments that remind me of Salvador Dali’s surrealism, with a touch of H.R. Giger. Many of the enemies in the game are reminiscent of H.P. Lovecraft’s imaginings as well. I’d have to double check this with an art history buff, but Expedition 33’s design gives off Impressionist era vibes, aside from the fact that they’ve pushed for so much detail. Still, the world is just so dreamlike and otherworldly. It’s incredibly imaginative. I also love how this game fully embraces its French identity. The game is very French. The little touches of French culture and clothing and design just adds to the game’s unique charm.

The music really grew on me. At first I wasn’t paying much attention, but over time, I began to develop deep appreciation for the game’s soundtrack. This is actually Lorien Testard’s first major composition project. Wow. He absolutely nailed it. I would not have been surprised if someone told me the composer was an experienced 30 year veteran. Sandfall Interactive found some of Lorien’s work on Soundcloud and recruited him for the game. What an incredible debut. There’s quite a variety of different sounds and genres, but the bulk of the soundtrack features deeply emotional orchestral arrangements with haunting melodies, lovely vocal work, and some very memorable motifs that will stay in your head for weeks. I’m still humming these melodies, long after finishing the game. The sound design and sound effects are also top notch. Every slash and smash and hit is deeply felt and very satisfying.

Amazingly, this soundtrack is over eight hours long. That is so much music. For comparison, Final Fantasy XV’s huge soundtrack is just over five hours long, and Yoko Shimomura even had some support from four other composers. Lorien is the primary mastermind behind Expedition 33’s 154 tracks. How long did poor Lorien go without sleep? He composed these tracks over a five year period, and I have to wonder how many gallons of café au lait he chugged to keep himself going all those late nights in the studio. This is not just an ambitious project for a composer’s first major work, this is the stuff of legend. I can’t wait to see what Lorien composes next. I’ll be following him closely.

Expedition 33’s story is beyond captivating. I haven’t been this engrossed in a video game story in a long time. The gameplay, the visuals, and the music are fantastic, but it’s really the story that has me head over heels for this game. Even if you’re a bit anxious about the dodge and parry combat, if you love story-driven games, you must push through in order to experience this incredible story. Take advantage of the story mode if you’d like.

I had a hard time choosing between English voice acting and French voice acting. I listened to a preview of both on YouTube, and both are excellent. I ended up choosing French, because it felt like the more immersive choice. I’m glad I chose French. I think it’s the right call, unless you are averse to subtitles. The French language is just so beautiful, and the voice actors delivered such passionate and convincing performances.

The writing team is very patient in revealing bits and pieces of this world’s lore. It’s refreshing to see a story unfold without resorting to a huge exposition dump in the first 20 minutes of the game. The story certainly has a heavy tone. I consistently experienced that wringing out of my emotions as the game’s events just twisted my heart like a sponge, over and over. I became so attached to and invested in these characters. Thankfully, there are several moments of comedic relief that give you a chance to laugh and recover.

The excellent writing from Jennifer Svedberg-Yen and her team strikes a careful balance — the narrative pushes the bleeding edge of complex storytelling without becoming unnecessarily convoluted. The game’s mind-blowing climax is followed by a very lengthy epilogue that continues to slowly reveal answers to all of your burning questions. After finishing the game, I spent hours digesting what I experienced, reviewing lore, and theorizing online with others. The narrative complexity is so well executed that you just want to hit new game plus right away so you can take it all in a second time.

This game challenged me with one of the most difficult in-game decisions I’ve ever had to make. I just stared at the choice dialogue for 10 minutes, paralyzed by the choice, completely unsure of myself, questioning and agonizing over everything I had just experienced. It’s brilliant. I’m both flustered and amazed that this game was able to afflict me so deeply with such a difficult choice. If you’re interested, you can read a full write up of my thoughts about the game’s endings here, but please do not read this until after you’ve played the game for yourself.

Sandfall Interactive seemed to come out of nowhere. Expedition 33 is a quintessential passion-project success story, a true diamond in the rough. Guillaume Broche formerly worked for Ubisoft, but he left Ubisoft in order to create a JRPG that felt fresh and different. I’d say he definitely accomplished that goal. He gathered a core team of about 30 developers, including a few other former Ubisoft employees. They recruited much of their team through social media, and many of them had little to no experience developing games before Expedition 33.

They all worked unpaid until they were able to secure funding from Kepler Interactive, a new publisher that wasn’t formed until a year after Sandfall Interactive was founded. Kepler bought into Guillaume’s vision, a gutsy move for sure, but what a provident investment that turned out to be. Expedition 33 has already sold over 5 million copies. Sandfall’s recent thrust into the limelight is heartwarming because of their humble beginnings, but they’ve also worked incredibly hard to make this game a reality. I’m just thrilled that I was able to enjoy the fruit of their labor. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic, but I believe Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a bona fide chef-d’œuvre, a masterpiece, and I can’t recommend it more.

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My character builds:

To avoid spoilers, I’ll simply refer to the characters by the first letter of their name.

V — I found this build online, described as “unga bunga” (inanely simple), but I love it. It carried me through the second half of the game. This build requires Dualiso (at least level 4), which can be obtained in Forgotten Battlefield (middle of Act 2). Dualiso allows V to take an additional turn after a basic attack. I loaded up V with pictos and luminas like Combo Attack, Energising Attack 1 and 2, and Attack Lifesteal, so that every time he uses his basic attack, he gains AP and heals. Energising Start and Energising Turn are also helpful. Once V is charged up with 9 AP, simply use Phantom Stars or End Bringer. By the end of Act 2, V was able to use Phantom Stars or End Bringer every turn for consistent damage.

L — I also found this great build online, which seems to be the best strategy for unleashing Elemental Genesis as quickly and as often as possible. You’ll need Benesim (at least level 10), which generates one earth stain at the beginning of each turn. On L’s first turn, Benesim will generate an earth stain. Use Wildfire, which burns enemies and generates a fire stain and a light stain. On L’s second turn, she’ll gain an additional earth stain, leaving her with two earth stains, one fire stain, and one light stain. Use Thermal Transfer to consume both earth stains, allowing L to take another turn (and if enemies were burned, gain 4 AP), which leaves her with a proper stain setup to use Elemental Genesis.

If for whatever reason, your stains get messed up, you can still use Mayhem or start the process over to setup for Elemental Genesis. While saving up skill points to unlock Elemental Genesis, Mayhem is a great stop gap. Just spam skills that generate lots of stains and use Mayhem as often as possible. To maximize Elemental Genesis, use pictos and luminas like Energising Burn, Energising Start, and Energising Turn.

S — I was lazy and didn’t bother to research optimal builds for S, but I did settle on prioritizing All Set, one of the best support buffs in the game. I loaded up S with Energising Start 1 and 2, and Energising Turn so All Set would be ready to go on turn 1. Similar to V, I also used Combo Attack and Energising Attack to help ramp up AP for S on turn 2. I typically saved my gradient attack charges for S, because Shadow Bringer loads up an enemy with tons of Foretell, which can be followed up with Twilight Dance for insane damage.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead.

Do not read ahead until you’ve completed the entirety of Expedition 33’s main story. You’ve been warned.

Ok. You’ve finished the game? Now tell me, which ending did you choose? It’s the question everyone wants to ask their friends once they’ve all completed Expedition 33. It’s one of the most difficult in-game choices I’ve ever had to make in a video game. Since the game released, countless debates about the two endings have populated forums and threads and social media posts.

The Verso ending (fighting as Verso) is commonly accepted as the “good ending” for several reasons. The Dessendre family finally gets to move on and grieve properly. The fragment of Verso’s pour soul finally gets to rest, and the tormented painted Verso gets to disappear as well. Of course, the world of young Verso’s canvas completely disappears as well, but painted Verso has a little buddy-buddy farewell powwow with Monoco and Esquie. Sciel even looks at Verso with some semblance of understanding. Lune is the only one who is fully displeased with Verso’s choice. This ending is bittersweet, but there’s minimal tension.

On the other hand, Maelle’s ending (fighting as Maelle) features a deadpan zombie-like Verso that sees Maelle’s painters eyes, a reminder of her power and control over him, everyone else, and the entire canvas. This brief vision in grim black and white is accompanied by what’s called a “horror stab” sound effect, a dissonant and frightening staccato burst from string instruments. Even though the head writer, Jennifer Svedberg-Yen, claims that neither ending is better or worse or “canon”, the inclusion of this shocking “horror stab” definitely skews Maelle’s ending and explains why so many are leaning towards Verso’s ending.

In spite of the difficult tension of Maelle’s ending, I’m convinced it’s still the right choice, for several reasons. Let’s first address the flaws of Verso’s ending:

1.Young Verso’s beautiful canvas world, and everyone in it, is erased.
All of the beauty, creativity, and imagination of young Verso is wiped away, but most importantly, sentient creatures and humans (I suppose we can classify the residents of Lumière as humans?) cease to exist. The premise of the painters’ creative power is very unusual and difficult to grasp. They are deeply flawed humans with god-like power to create entire worlds full of fully sentient creatures and humans. This is a recipe for disaster. It’s reminiscent of Greek mythology, which is full of disaster. The Greek gods were not classified as human, but they were very much affected by anthropomorphic flaws like selfishness, greed, and jealousy.

The crux of the debate about these two endings seems to boil down to the question of just how “real” the people of Lumière are. My position is that the people of Lumière are more than just a young boy’s imaginings. Because of the incredible power of the painters, these sentient beings are as real as can be, at least those created by young Verso and those born naturally from within the world he created.

2.Painted Verso pulls everyone else down into his nihilistic despair.
It’s no secret that painted Verso is tormented. It’s a classic case of imposter syndrome. He was given the real Verso’s memories, but the knowledge that he is in fact not the real Verso is a heavy burden to bear. Poor painted Verso has borne this weight for decades of Lumière time. In his conversations with others, there seems to be a sliver of hope that he may find joy in life again, but he may also just be putting on a brave face for the sake of his fellow expeditioners.

The one positive of Verso’s ending is that painted Verso himself gets to actually receive the peace of death, so to speak. He’s been trapped in this corrupted existence for far too long, plagued with an unnatural immortality. I completely understand why the painted Maelle and Clea (and Simon too) wanted to be “gommaged” (apparently the proper French is gommed). Aline should not have created these fascimile versions of her children. Surely, you’d think the Painters Council would maintain rules and boundaries for painters that would forbid this kind of dangerous use of their powers. Maybe we’ll learn more about the Painters Council in a future Clair Obscur game. Aline was the head of this council at one point. She definitely should’ve known better.

But, Aline was not in her right mind. She was crushed with grief, and in her grief, she created corrupt painted versions of Renoir, Verso, Clea, and Maelle. They should not have been created. Their very existence itself is broken and flawed. They seem unable to fully experience the joy of existence that those in young Verso’s Lumière get to experience. This is an important distinction. The people of Lumière were created from young Verso’s pure and loving imagination, but Aline’s fascimiles were created from a dark place out of a selfish and unhealthy desire. They were corrupted from the start. Even though I wish that painted Verso could fully accept himself just as he is and try to rediscover the joy of living in Lumière, I understand that he cannot. Painted Clea, Maelle, and Simon also wished for gommage in the end.

However, the fatal flaw of Verso’s ending is that he forces this gommage onto all of the people of Lumière, for whom it is entirely unnecessary and even horrendous. In my view, this is the true horror of Verso’s ending, even though the tone of the cinematic hides it well. Ultimately, painted Verso decided that what was best for him was best for everyone else in Lumière too.

But what about young Verso’s soul fragment? He’s tired of painting, isn’t he? He wants to stop sustaining this world, and he wants to cease to exist just like painted Verso, doesn’t he? Perhaps not. As some have pointed out in online discussions, painted Verso asks young Verso a leading question, “You’re tired of painting, aren’t you?” A leading question prompts or encourages a desired answer. It’s unclear exactly what young Verso’s soul fragment truly wants in that moment, but it’s possible that he was influenced by his corrupted counterpart. Painted Verso has become so troubled at this point, he is neither stable nor reliable. In fact, he’s been a notorious deceiver that has tested the trust of the other expeditioners multiple times. He may mean well, but his manipulative behavior becomes more evident towards the end of the game.

What if there’s another option, other than just giving up and ceasing to exist? The difficulty with this end-game choice is that it’s an extreme A or B ultimatum. No compromises or middle ground options are explored. Obviously, the developers fully intended for this final decision to be provocative. The whole point is to create a difficult scenario that generates a whole spiral of debate and discussion. They’ve succeeded tremendously. But thankfully, we are still free to elaborate and explore other options ourselves, at least until a sequel is produced that might provide more information.

What if Maelle could help young Verso rediscover the joy of his painting, a Lumière without the constant war between Renoir and Aline? Instead of asking a leading question, “You’re tired aren’t you?”, Maelle could offer to give young Verso a break, a proper rest, instead of a permanent gommage of his beloved world. Isn’t Maelle also contributing a piece of her soul to this canvas as she begins to rebuild Lumière? This would lighten the burden on young Verso, allowing him a chance to recover. I don’t see why this couldn’t be a possibility. Clea herself said, “Every Canvas has its own rules.” In Maelle’s ending, she takes charge of her brother’s childhood canvas to preserve and protect the beauty of his creation. Most importantly, Maelle is preserving the sentient life that young Verso created.

We can learn a lot about young Verso’s desires from some of his dialogue throughout the game:

• Young Verso says about his world, “this place was made to bring joy, not pain.” That’s exactly what Maelle intends to fix. She wants to restore the joy to Lumière. Painted Verso simply wants to erase it.

• About Clea, young Verso says, “Why would she paint these things? Eating the world… eating our world… We used to have fun here, together… I wish we could still have fun, sister.” Clea may have outgrown young Verso’s canvas, but Maelle is ready to step in. She’s ready to restore the fun.

• “Stop her paintings from erasing any more.” This may be the most revealing quote from young Verso about what he actually wants. He does not want his world to be erased.

• “She manipulates, frightens, controls… Fear is her weapon. Will you put an end to her night?” Another clear request from young Verso. Put an end to the darkness, the night, the fighting, the constant war between family members. The war is now over, and Maelle chooses to restore Lumière to its former glory.

• “The beast is no more… I can sleep again… dream again… Where shadows fall and monsters flee, in dawn’s embrace, the soul set free. May she never paint her horrors here ever again.” This raises interesting questions about how soul fragments typically reside in a painter’s canvas. It seems that they are able to sleep within the canvas. Perhaps the faceless young Verso looks so gloomy because of the constant war that has robbed him of true rest within his canvas. What if Maelle could help him discover how to dream again, instead of simply being erased by painted Verso?

Let’s address what’s wrong and what’s right with Maelle’s ending. Much of Maelle’s ending is wonderful. Lumière is thriving. Many if not all who were erased have returned. Maelle has fostered a wonderful and joyful city. She’s finally given the people of Lumière the life that young Verso would’ve wanted for them. Some even suspect that the young boy that sits with Maelle in the theatre is in fact young Verso’s soul fragment fully restored. He is smiling and enjoying his painted world once more, with his sister by his side.

But, there is one major flaw — painted Verso does not seem to be full of joy. It does seem that Verso has been allowed to age naturally, as indicated in the above quote. He does appear to be a bit older, but it’s hard to tell due to the black and white. One thing is clear, however. We do not see painted Verso smile. The most common interpretation of Verso’s troubled look and the brief flash of Maelle’s paintress eyes is that Verso is still constantly reminded that Maelle is sacrificing her health outside of the canvas in order to be present inside the canvas.

Maelle is clearly trying to help painted Verso to accept himself and to find joy in his existence in Lumière, but Verso is unable to accept how Maelle has chosen to live out her life within the painted world. However, the ending is very open ended, and I do think that Verso’s great concern is misplaced. Maelle is still free to decide at any point in the future to take breaks from the canvas in order to visit her family and to recover her health. After all, Maelle said to her papa, “I’m not giving up on you.” We have reason to believe that Maelle may indeed exit the painting to visit Renoir some day, trusting him to not destroy Verso’s canvas.

Time passes differently inside the canvas. Renoir and Aline were in the canvas for decades of Lumière time, yet when they finally exited the canvas together in Verso’s ending, they seemed fine. After all of that concern about her health, Aline seemed to recover well, at least in appearance. It seems reasonable to me that after painted Verso and Gustave are able to fully live out their lives and die of natural causes, it would be an opportune time for Maelle to take a break from the canvas to be with her family and recover physically. She would still be free to check in and visit Lumière anytime she pleased.

There are some interesting quotes from Clea that provide some helpful context on Maelle’s choice:

• ”I was perfectly fine leaving Maman here to work out her sorrows. And if you insist on staying too, well, that’s your choice.” Obviously, Aline’s example is not one to follow, but Clea respecting Maelle’s choice is significant. Even though Renoir only wants the best for his family, his controlling nature only exacerbated the family drama. He finally seems to relinquish control in the end, allowing Maelle to make her own choice.

• “Aline would rather lose herself in make-believe than face reality. It’s a drug she’s unwilling to resist. Don’t make the same mistake.” Clea condemns her mother’s fake fascimile family, but she gives Maelle some crucial advice — don’t make the same mistake. This implies that Maelle does indeed have the option, and hopefully the capability, to pursue a balanced healthy interaction with Verso’s canvas.

• “Don’t let his [Renoir’s] fear end up controlling you… It’s not selfish to make your own choices, sister. You’ve made great strides since I saw you last.” This is probably the greatest in-game affirmation of the Maelle ending. She is celebrated for making her own choices and not giving in to fear. It seems that Clea may have some hope in Maelle after all.

• “The only thing you owe them is to live a life you enjoy.” Unfortunately, painted Verso still seems to be struggling with this endeavor, to allow Maelle the freedom to live a life that she enjoys. She has incredible powers. She can live an entire lifetime within Lumière if she so desires. If Renoir and Aline can duke it out in the canvas for as long as they did and still recover well upon their exit, then Maelle is free to enjoy plenty of time in Lumière. If only painted Verso could understand and accept that.

It’s interesting, Clea has her own issues for sure, but she may just be the most level headed of the Dessendre family. Her affirmations of Maelle really opened my eyes about Maelle’s ending. Even though the developers seemed to present Maelle’s ending unfavorably, I wonder if this was intentional. I wonder if they were trying to obscure the true canon “good ending,” offering one last challenge for those willing to dig through the game’s dialogue to discover a positive way to view Maelle’s choice.

Much thought and review has led me to believe that Maelle’s ending is in fact the only “good ending.” After considering these other possibilities, Verso’s erasure of the entire canvas seems more and more like the true “bad ending.”

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Thanks for reading.

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Nostalgia Factor: Low.
Difficulty: Easy. The normal difficulty level is well balanced, but still quite easy.

This will be a shorter review, as I don’t have as much to say about Halo Wars 2. It is another Halo RTS game designed to be played with a controller, which has its pros and cons. I explored this more in my review for the first Halo Wars, but in summary, an RTS designed to be played with a controller will by nature lack some of the features and strategic depth that a mouse and keyboard RTS can offer. Still, for what it is and for what it sets out to be, Halo Wars 2 is quite good. Like its predecessor, Halo Wars 2 continues to be a great entry point for those interested in exploring the RTS genre.

Unfortunately, after the release of the first Halo Wars, and in spite of the success of the game, Microsoft dissolved Ensemble Studios, the legendary developer that brought us the Age of Empires series. About five years later, 343 Industries reached out to Creative Assembly, the studio behind the Total War series, about collaborating on a Halo Wars sequel. The result, Halo Wars 2, has been well reviewed by most critics, but the response from players has been on the lukewarm side, with an average user score of 6.5 on metacritic. I’m very puzzled by this.

After playing both Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 in succession, I saw improvement in nearly every category. Obviously, a game released in 2017 is going to have significantly improved visuals compared to a game released in 2009. The core gameplay feels very similar, but with some welcome improvements. The story is leaps and bounds better in Halo Wars 2, and I much prefer Gordy Haab’s soundtrack for Halo Wars 2. And yet, the original Halo Wars continues to boast better average scores on metacritic.

I’m honestly not sure why this disparity exists. After playing both games back to back, I enjoyed both, but I much prefer Halo Wars 2 for many reasons. My only guess about the reason for this disparity is that the release of Halo Wars in 2009 had much more favorable timing. Some fans of the franchise may also be looking at the original Halo Wars through rose colored glasses. Nostalgia is a powerful force, for sure.

Interest in the RTS genre also cooled significantly after StarCraft 2’s dominance began to fade. The timing for Halo Wars 2 was just not favorable. MOBAs like League of Legends peaked during the mid to late 2010s, and the MOBA genre absorbed a significant chunk of the RTS player base that favored mechanically challenging micro-heavy gameplay. There just wasn’t much interest left for a more casual RTS like Halo Wars 2. I haven’t been able to find much sales data on Halo Wars 2, but my guess is that the game did not meet sales expectations for Microsoft. It also seems unlikely that we’ll see a Halo Wars 3. The only communication we’ve received from 343 was a confirmation in February 2021 that there were no plans for a Halo Wars 3.

Even though the Halo Wars saga seems to be dead in the water, Halo Wars 2 is still worth a playthrough. There’s much to appreciate, especially the massively improved story, characters, voice acting, and writing. Reviews seem to be mixed on the character redesigns, but I very much favor the new character designs in Halo Wars 2. I think the fact that I lack Halo Wars nostalgia helps me to appreciate the new character designs.

In the original Halo Wars, the story and writing is the game’s biggest weak point. There’s a subtlety and a nuance that’s just lacking in the story and the writing. In Halo Wars 2, however, the writers got my attention immediately, even before the first cinematic had finished. After only a few minutes of Halo Wars 2, I was already more invested in these characters than I was after playing the entirety of the original Halo Wars. The Halo Wars 2 writing team absolutely crushed it. In fact, they actually redeemed all of these characters for me.

Within minutes of watching the opening Halo Wars 2 cinematic, there was a subtlety and a nuance that immediately restored my interest in these characters. The characters suddenly felt real. No longer were they cardboard cutouts of cheesy military sci-fi stereotypes. The Spartans actually have names, personality, and an important role in the story. I have nothing but high praise for the writing and characters in Halo Wars 2. Plus, Blur Studio has brought it once again with some of the best cinematics I think I’ve ever seen. I still can’t fathom why Microsoft hasn’t yet just thrown a bunch of money at Blur Studio to make a feature length animated Halo film. I’d watch it.

Halo Wars 2 brings some notable improvements to the core gameplay as well. They’ve added an additional resource, power, which you gain from generators on your base, or by capturing power nodes on the map. In addition to some well designed campaign objectives, they add some fun optional mini-objectives. I like how the game feels much more kinetic, with tasteful screen shakes and high quality sound effects. Every explosion has such an impact. I really enjoyed the addition of boss fights to the campaign. I found it thrilling to watch all of my units take on one super beefy enemy unit with seemingly endless HP. The game’s balancing is nowhere near the level of balancing achieved in a classic like StarCraft: Brood War, but the rock-paper-scissors balancing between infantry, vehicle, and air units is a welcome development for this franchise.

I did encounter a strange graphical glitch. The foliage on some maps would flicker horribly. It was very distracting. There’s an option in the game’s settings that completely disables all foliage, but thankfully, I was able to find a better fix online. It’s only for PC, and it’s not particularly simple to implement, but it’s better than completely disabling foliage altogether.

I still haven’t attempted to play either Halo Wars game with a controller, but there are still some gamers out there that actually prefer to use a controller to play these games. I much prefer to play on my PC with a mouse and keyboard. However, even when using a mouse, I did discover a few quirks. If you’re not careful with your clicks, you might accidentally garrison one of your Spartans into a structure, where they’ll remain until you find them. I really wish they would’ve put a little more thought into some of the control and functionality. I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to add some code so that marines or other basic infantry are the first in a default unit order to enter a garrison while having multiple unit types selected.

The campaign felt a touch short, and as much as I enjoyed it, I did not opt for the DLC missions. I found it very frustrating that the DLC missions were not included in my Game Pass for PC subscription. I did notice that the Halo Wars 2 Complete Edition was recently on sale for $15, but I decided the few extra campaign missions weren’t worth the expense. I settled for watching some YouTube coverage of the DLC missions.

Sadly, the game ends with a post-credits cinematic cliffhanger, and we may never see a resolution for it. 343 is just racking up abandoned cliffhanger endings for the Halo franchise. Still, the base game is definitely worth a playthrough if you have Game Pass. Though, with the recent price hikes, maybe it’s a better deal to just catch the complete edition on sale. Maybe some day we’ll even see a Halo Wars 3… though, probably not.

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ALL UNITS. LOCAL UNITS.

Nostalgia Factor: Low.
Difficulty: Easy with a few random difficulty spikes.

I never thought I’d get to play Halo Wars! It was ported to PC in 2017, but even for the current standalone price of $20, my interest in playing this game just wasn’t high enough for me to justify dropping 20 cR. However, I finally decided to pull the trigger on the Game Pass for PC free trial. I initially planned to try out Game Pass in order to play the Halo Infinite campaign, but I also saw that both Halo Wars and Halo Wars 2 were available on Game Pass. I read somewhere online that I should play these games before playing Infinite, for story purposes, and so I did.

As a massive Blizzard RTS fan, it was very tempting for me to simply peg Halo Wars as “StarCraft lite” with a Halo skin. But, after these initial impressions faded, it became clear to me that there’s enough unique RTS DNA here to warrant Halo Wars some proper recognition. First, I have to give credit where credit’s due. Halo Wars is a functioning RTS game on a console! This is significant. Yes, the PC version is absolutely the best way to play this game, in my opinion, but the fact that such a competent RTS game designed for a console even exists is incredible.

This is not a hot take — RTS games do not belong on consoles. RTS games have thrived on the PC since the 90s for a very good reason, the mouse and keyboard. I agree with this sentiment from a random redditor, “I’d sooner chop my hands off than play an RTS on console.” And yet, Halo Wars for the 360 sold very well, and complaints were reasonably minimal about using the Xbox 360 controller to play an RTS game.

Granted, Halo Wars is decisively limited in features in order to make this innovative control scheme even remotely manageable, but Ensemble Studios accomplished what they set out to do. They did it. They made a half-decent RTS game for the Xbox 360. There are even some Halo Wars fans that prefer to use their controller to play Halo Wars instead of using a mouse and keyboard on PC. Now, that is unconscionable to me, as someone who grew up playing games on mouse and keyboard, but I do recognize that this is just my own aging millennial preference.

Halo Wars has succeeded where StarCraft 64 failed. The absurdity of StarCraft 64 will never cease to amaze me. It must have been an attempt at a greedy cash grab for Blizzard to give some poor developer the impossible task of porting a very complex RTS game to the extremely limited Nintendo 64. And yet, even though it was a commercial failure (mostly because the N64 lacked online functionality), StarCraft 64 is still remembered somewhat warmly by retro gamers as a curious failed experiment. They almost did it. Reviews from the few and the proud that actually attempted to play StarCraft 64 are mixed. Some appreciate the ingenuity of the controls that made the port even possible, but others only remember the suffering of trying to play StarCraft using an N64 controller.

StarCraft 64 walked so Halo Wars could run. Halo Wars succeeds as a console RTS because it was designed as a console RTS. If Halo Wars were designed for PC and then ported to the 360, I don’t think it would have seen the same commercial success. I think the timing of its release was fortunate as well. The RTS genre had cooled significantly in the mid 2000s after the hype of WarCraft 3 had begun to fade. StarCraft 2 would bring the genre back into mainstream relevance once again in the summer of 2010, but not before Halo Wars grabbed its own slice of the pie in 2009. Even though StarCraft 2 is an objectively better game in every aspect, Halo Wars filled the gap between WarCraft 3 and StarCraft 2 well and still provided some unique and interesting RTS gameplay.

The visuals of the game are a strength. Even though the isometric perspective is very unfamiliar for those used to the first-person perspective of the mainline Halo games, Halo Wars still looks like Halo. Ensemble Studios have done an excellent job at capturing much of the visual style of the Bungie classics.

Because of the console-focused design of the game, the intentional simplicity has it’s pros and cons. There are a few pros. It’s an RTS that’s fairly fluid and playable using a controller, and the game serves as an excellent “baby’s first RTS game” for those unfamiliar with the genre. Unfortunately, the cons are many. The gap in features and functionality between Halo Wars and classic RTS games for PC may be too much for some die hard RTS fans.

The game has just one resource, “supplies,” which are delivered from the UNSC Spirit of Fire, a support vessel in orbit, to the supply pads that you construct on your ground base. Supplies from the Spirit of Fire do not deplete like StarCraft’s mineral deposits. Each base has four fixed turret locations per base. There are no construction units to control or manage. Some units are more utility focused, but all units you create can attack. There’s a population limit of 40 units, with some individual units (like the Scorpion tank) carrying larger population values.

Similar to WarCraft 3, most of the units in Halo Wars are fairly tanky. However, I was disappointed by how weak the marine squads are in Halo Wars. In the StarCraft campaign, you can just spam upgraded marines and brute force your way through most of the early missions, but marines are one of the weakest units in Halo Wars unless you can garrison them in a structure.

Not being able to select where your base is positioned is an unfortunate restriction. Each map has pre-determined locations where you can call down a new fire base from orbit. Each base has a set number of attached pads for constructing buildings as well. There seems to be very little strategic importance in choosing which building goes on which available pad, other than positioning your most important buildings on the pads that are furthest away from the enemy base. I really missed having the freedom of choice in constructing buildings wherever I want. Choosing specific locations and customizing your base is a core part of RTS gameplay. Of course, any kind of precise positioning would not be feasible when using a controller, which is why these limitations exist in Halo Wars.

It’s a very simplified RTS. There’s less to build, there’s less to manage, and there are fewer decisions that need to be made. Does this make the game less fun? For some, it does. At first I struggled with these limitations, but I was eventually able to accept that this game is not StarCraft. Overcoming that mental block helped me to appreciate Halo Wars for what it is. Yes, it’s simpler. Yes, it lacks much of the functionality of a Blizzard RTS game, but there are still many unique strengths to appreciate, and I enjoyed my campaign experience. There are some very well designed campaign missions with a few clever twists and some unique objectives.

I did have a surprisingly hard time with mission four, Arcadia City. I did not expect such a difficulty spike so early in the campaign. I was still learning the basics of the game and testing out the various units, but my biggest problem was that I had no idea that you could repair the cargo ships with the Spirit of Fire abilities. I had to open up the controls settings to figure out what I was missing. I also learned that, yes, you can use control groups.

For experienced RTS gamers, the normal difficulty is going to be too easy for most of the campaign. Once you get a handle on the game, you may want to bump up to heroic difficulty. I dabbled a bit in the skirmish mode against the AI, and the Legendary difficulty AI is no slouch, though I’ve yet to find an AI that can match the difficulty of StarCraft and WarCraft 3’s AI.

Aside from the limited gameplay, my only major complaint with Halo Wars is the story. After finishing the campaign, I can’t really claim even one character, other than the nondescript Spartans, that I found interesting or memorable. The writing at times can be very bad. The script for the cinematics is filled with cheesy one-liners. Most of the characters default to a moody gruffness that just gets fatiguing after a few missions. Yes, I know that there’s a war going on, and I can’t expect these characters to shine and sparkle like they’re on an episode of Leave It to Beaver, but even just a little bit more character depth would’ve been a nice reprieve. Even characters that are allied with each other seem to slip into this overly combative dialogue with each other.

Most of the cinematics are very well animated, especially for a game released in 2009, but there’s this intense and overly serious tone that dominates the storytelling. This game just drips with an undesirable 80s action movie vibe — the military stereotypes, the forced intensity, the edgy juvenile quips. For example, there’s a scene in which Sergeant Forge says to a Covenant Elite, “Why don’t we put the lady down and talk about this, man to freak?” Later, Forge says to a colleague, “Lady, I haven’t got all day. You want to be rescued or not?” Some people may enjoy that kind of dialogue, but I can’t help but cringe. It’s a bit of an immersion killer when these attempts at witty banter just fall flat.

The Prophet of Regret is another weak character in Halo Wars. He is the textbook petulant whiny boss archetype. I don’t remember being annoyed with the portrayal of his character in Halo 2, so there’s definitely something off about his character in Halo Wars. The UNSC Spirit of Fire’s AI, Serina, often sounds more like a character from Mean Girls than an advanced military AI construct. I understand that Halo AIs are very anthropomorphic. Each AI has a unique personality with quirks, and I like that. I like Cortana’s unique personality and quirks, but Serina vacillates between sarcastic British executive and angsty school girl. I just struggled to find traction with that character. Too often, the main characters in this game are unnecessarily harsh or mean, for no reason at all, and it left me not really relating to any of these characters except for the mostly silent Spartans.

Halo Wars is a prequel that takes place long before the events of Halo: Combat Evolved, so color me surprised when a particular alien species makes an appearance in the campaign. Make sure you play the first Halo game before playing Halo Wars. There are several story elements in Halo Wars that will spoil some epic reveals in Halo: Combat Evolved. Initially, I was scratching my head as to how and why they would incorporate some of these story elements into Halo Wars, but they do manage to provide a satisfying plot bandaid that dodges any potential story issues. Even though I’ve been pretty hard on the story and the characters, I can still say that there are a few really strong moments in the story that make the campaign worthwhile, in spite of its flaws.

I have mixed feelings about the soundtrack from Stephen Rippy. It doesn’t measure up to the timeless Halo scores from O’Donnell and Salvatori, but it’s a solid offering nonetheless. There are a few familiar Halo themes sprinkled throughout. Most of the tracks have a nice chill vibe, though one or two tracks dip into a less desirable sound that I can only describe as “something you’d hear on the easy listening music channel that comes with your parents’ basic cable subscription.”

Ensemble Studios, the legendary developer behind the Age of Empires franchise, also brought us Halo Wars. Unfortunately, Ensemble was shut down by Microsoft shortly after Halo Wars released. Ensemble spent a lot of time on a project that was codenamed “Titan,” which would’ve been a Halo MMORPG, but Microsoft shut the project down and then shuttered Ensemble Studios. They offered Tony Goodman, the founder of Ensemble, the opportunity to buy back the studio, but he declined.

Thus, Halo Wars became the swan song for a legendary studio responsible for one of the greatest RTS franchises ever made, Age of Empires. Even though Halo Wars is not my favorite RTS, I can still appreciate the unique role it plays as a console RTS forerunner (haha, pun intended), and I still enjoyed my time with the game.

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Nostalgia Factor: Medium. Big time Halo fan.
Difficulty: Easy to Medium. Expect a few difficulty spikes on Normal if you’re playing the campaign solo. The CPU allies don’t help much.

I have been wildly curious about Halo 5 for years now. Ever since I finished playing through the Halo Master Chief Collection (PC, 2019), I didn’t understand why Halo 5 was never ported to PC and included in the collection. Apparently, you can play Halo 5 on PC using Xbox Game Pass Cloud Streaming, but I ended up trading my old Nintendo 2DS for an Xbox One on Facebook Marketplace. My first proper Xbox. The controller was really banged up, and the console burped up a cloud of cigarette smoke when I booted it up for the first time. It smelled like an ash tray for weeks. Nice.

A few hours in, I couldn’t really understand the hate for the game. For the most part, the graphics look great, the cinematics are impressive, the gameplay still isn’t Bungie smooth, but it’s notably better than Halo 4. I made note of several nit-picky annoyances which I’ll get to later, but I hadn’t really encountered any issues that seemed to warrant the amount of negativity that Halo 5 has garnered for itself. Halo 5 has the lowest metacritic user score of any Halo game, currently at 6.4 out of 10 as I write this. Compare that to ODST’s 7.7 and Halo 4’s 7.1. I had friends tell me to just skip Halo 5 entirely, they hated it that much.

I think one of the reasons I enjoyed Halo 5 more than your average bear is because I played this game from within a pure void. I played this game for the first time in the year of our Lord 2025, ten full years after the game’s release. Even though I had heard plenty of feedback from other Halo fans, I had completely missed the Halo 5 marketing campaign, the buildup, and the “Hunt the Truth” zeitgeist.

After finishing Halo 5, I did some more digging, and it turns out that many from the Halo community attribute Halo 5’s poor reception to the massive bait and switch marketing campaign. I watched these teaser trailers for myself after finishing Halo 5, and now I understand. These confusing and misleading teaser trailers sell a very intriguing and ambitious concept for a Halo game, and yet almost none of the content in these trailers actually appears in the final game. There’s this epic scene in a trailer featuring Locke and Master Chief that must’ve been stripped out of the final game. I imagine 343 made significant changes to the story during development. It also didn’t help that the game launched in a poor state, riddled with bugs.

Since I missed all of that hullabaloo, I had zero expectations, and I was able to enjoy the Halo 5 that was released. It’s not great, compared to Bungie’s Halo classics, but it’s not bad. There are certainly some strong moments in the campaign worth experiencing. I didn’t have that nagging sense of being robbed of the Halo 5 that could’ve been, nor did I feel the frustration of being sold something completely different than what was advertised. Also, I purchased a digital version of Halo 5 for dirt cheap. I imagine those who paid full price felt a greater sting of disappointment. At launch, Microsoft even sold a $250 Limited Collector’s Edition. Talk about buyer’s remorse.

Putting all of that aside, let’s address the Halo 5 that was actually released. The graphics of Halo 5 are one of the game’s strengths. Even though I found the environments of Halo 4 to be more interesting, Halo 5’s visuals are still very impressive. The Forerunner world, Genesis, is absolutely gorgeous and worth the price of admission on its own. The cinematics are also quite good, though I did find the opening sequence introducing Fireteam Osiris to be a little juvenile and over the top. The absurd action sequences are a bit reminiscent of Power Rangers choreography or some kind of wild action anime opening sequence. I like an epic action sequence as much as the next guy, but I can also tell when subtlety gets thrown out of the window. It starts to tickle the cringe meter a little bit.

I did notice some performance issues on the Xbox One. Enemies in the distance are downscaled to very poor resolutions, and their animations flicker at very low frame rates. I bet a Halo 5 port on the PC would look amazing, but I’m not sure if there’s enough interest for Microsoft to justify the expense. I imagine the performance issues are why Halo 5 was the first mainline Halo game to release with out any kind of splitscreen co-op or multiplayer. This also did not help with the game’s reception.

As soon as I saw the new Halo 5 HUD, I groaned. It’s terrible. The classic Halo HUDs were minimal and effective. Halo 4 introduced a somewhat invasive HUD to add immersion to the player’s perspective, but Halo 5 is just ridiculous, especially when you play as Locke. So much of the screen is blacked out. It’s not the worst HUD I’ve ever seen (cough, cough, Chex Quest HD), but I found it to be very distracting. The only way to turn it off is to find and activate the blind skull in mission 5 which disables the entire HUD, not just the annoying blacked out corners.

Even though I like the high detail look of Halo 5, I do now understand some of the complaints about 343’s art style. The added detail can be too busy at times, and it can be hard to spot enemies. The gray Promethean soldiers blend in too much with the frequently gray or muted backgrounds in the game. My eyes would get fatigued. It’s essentially Where’s Waldo: Halo Edition. I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally nuked Vale (the red Spartan) with a detached Splinter Turret because she looks so much like the Prometheans.

The gameplay of Halo 5 is a bit smoother than Halo 4. I doubt that 343 will ever be able to match the perfected feel of the Bungie classics, but I was plenty satisfied with the more polished gunplay of Halo 5. I really enjoyed blasting through walls with the new Spartan Charge ability. I liked watching Chief punch stuff, which he does a lot in the game. Even though Master Chief’s playable missions are rare, the Argent Moon mission is one of my favorite missions from the whole Halo franchise. The pacing of Halo 5 is pretty intense. There are some classic corridor shooter sections sprinkled in here and there, but much of the campaign’s design leans into these large arena style battles, with multiple waves of enemies surrounding you from multiple sides. I really appreciate the amount of verticality and the many different angles you can utilize to attack an enemy position.

Depending on your preference, the wonton chaos will either be thrilling for you or fatiguing. It’s definitely an adrenaline rush. If you’re able to play through the campaign with a group of friends, there’s plenty of opportunity to refine your squad strategies and to support each other with clutch revives. When playing solo with the AI controlled allies, it can get really frustrating at times, as they are not very helpful. They often die needlessly, they’ll shoot each other, they’ll chuck grenades at the wrong time. I nearly died when one of my allies threw a grenade right at me. Once when I was driving a ghost, Tanaka jumped right in front of me and died instantly. Nice one, Tanaka! At least the AI controlled allies will always run straight towards you if you get knocked down and call for a revive. I once stupidly marched straight towards two huge turrets and died very quickly. I spammed the X button to call for a revive, and one by one, each of my CPU allies also ran straight into the turret fire and also died — a full team wipe. I got a good chuckle out of that.

I do wish they would’ve toned down the dialogue from your allies in battle. While it’s nice to hear some kind of banter, I felt a little patronized by the frequency of the “atta boys”. Nice kill! Great shot, Chief! Nice one! If they were only sprinkled in here and there, it would be a great effect, but there’s just too much. The overload of positive affirmation makes me feel like I’m on an episode of Daniel Tiger instead of on a mission with battle-hardened Spartans.

I found it disappointing how rare UNSC ammo is in the campaign. At the start of each mission, you’re equipped with your standard human weapons, but you burn through your ammo almost immediately, and then you’re forced to use Promethean or Covenant weapons for the rest of the mission. In the cinematics, the Spartans are always featured with their UNSC weapons, which just rubs salt in the wound when I don’t get to use these weapons for very long. I understand there’s limited human presence in the campaign for story reasons, but it’s not hard to write in ways for UNSC weapon caches or drops to make an appearance in the campaign. As much as I like using some of the Promethean weapons, I felt like I was forced to use them for most of the campaign, simply because it was all that was available much of the time.

For the most part, the game is well polished after years of patches and fixes. The only real glitches I encountered were at least humorous. I once died in Sunaion — I was smacked by a Hunter into the sea — and my rag doll body just clipped through the surface of the water. Poor Locke just flailed helplessly as he fell into an endless void for what felt like an eternity until the game finally respawned me at the last checkpoint. Also, towards the end of the game, I defeated a pretty tough boss and then I was suddenly crushed to death by this random ramp bridge thing that appeared out of nowhere. So I had to fight the boss all over again. That was frustrating.

On a side note, Halo 5 is the first mainline Halo game to be rated T for Teen by the ESRB. Halo Infinite followed suit and is also rated T for Teen. I think Halo has always been a more accessible franchise, considered to have a “soft M” for Mature rating compared to other games that put much more weight into that M rating. As a father of two young gamers, I’m always a fan of more accessible games, but I also understand that some die hard Halo fans are disappointed in this significant change to the tone and content of the franchise.

The game’s soundtrack is very good. The new composer, Kazuma Jinnouchi, employs the classic Halo themes well. There are some strong original tracks from Jinnouchi, but I don’t think that any Halo score will ever measure up to the legendary greatness that we had with O’Donnell and Salvatori. Jinnouchi’s score is very emotional, which is great, but sometimes it feels like too much. Maybe the game’s relentless pace is at fault here, but there are times it feels like the score lacks subtlety. I think a few more “breather” moments would help those epic themes stand out a bit more. On another note, the sound design of Sloan’s voice is incredible. It’s one of the coolest voice effects I’ve heard in any sci-fi, even Star Wars. Kudos to the sound design team.

The story is really where Halo 5 loses a lot of steam. In a void, when isolated from the bait and switch marketing, and disregarding the cliffhanger ending, the story is fine. It’s honestly not that bad. Apparently, Halo Infinite is a “soft reboot”, and the story pivots hard into another direction. Even though the end of Halo 5 feels like a setup for a direct continuation of that story, it doesn’t seem that we will ever get to see that content. If the team did indeed make significant changes to the original Halo 5 story during development (which would explain the disparity with the marketing materials), then it wouldn’t be a surprise if 343 just ran out of time and had to cut the game short, hoping to finish the Halo 5 storyline with DLC or a direct sequel. But, likely due to the unfavorable response from the Halo community, Microsoft seems to have abandoned any plans to directly follow up on Halo 5’s story.

Even though I mostly appreciate what Halo 5’s writers were trying to do, there were a few head-scratcher moments for me. I distinctly remember a scene in which Roland (the UNSC Infinity’s primary AI) quickly explains a bunch of sci-fi jargon related to the Guardians, but after re-watching that cinematic a few times trying to wrap my head around it, that brief but crucial scene comes off as a massive plot bandaid. I think they speed through that scene so quickly because they don’t want you to spend too much time thinking about some of these new sci-fi concepts they’ve hastily introduced. The Halo franchise has typically had strong sci-fi writing, but Halo 5 definitely has some weak points.

I’m being very careful to avoid spoilers here, but let me say this. Halo 4 has an extremely emotional ending, which I thought was a redeeming strength of that game. Halo 5 then gives you a nasty case of emotional whiplash which cheapens the powerful ending of Halo 4, in my humble opinion. I remained hopeful in my playthrough of Halo 5, giving the benefit of the doubt to 343, but after hearing reports that the cliffhanger ending does not really get a satisfying conclusion, I now understand why some Halo fans advised me to just skip Halo 5 altogether.

One of the primary complaints about Halo 5 is the scarcity of Master Chief. For 12 out of 15 total missions, you play as Jameson Locke instead of Master Chief. Now, if Locke were actually an interesting character, I may not complain so much, but I did not find Locke’s character to be nearly engaging enough to justify turning the Master Chief, Halo’s iconic hero, into what is essentially a cameo role. Locke is… just dull. He’s your typical tough guy, with very little emotional depth or range. Without much time for any real character development, Halo 5 just throws you into a fast paced thrill ride with seven new Spartans.

I did not watch Halo: Nightfall, and I have not read any Halo novels or consumed any other Halo media outside of the mainline games. I know absolutely nothing about these seven new Spartans except for Buck, who was featured in ODST. Honestly, I loved seeing Buck again in Halo 5, but I was still disappointed with what felt like a cheapening of the Spartan role. Let me explain. In the first Halo, Chief was thought to be the last Spartan left. This was very late in the Human Covenant war after many Spartan casualties. Chief was often surrounded by vulnerable marines which made this lone Spartan seem like some kind of a demi-god. Even though the novels explained the presence of other Spartans after the events of the first Halo game, Bungie managed to maintain this ominous presence of Master Chief, a lone Spartan, throughout Halo 2 and Halo 3.

Outside of Halo 4’s Spartan Ops mode or the spin-off Halo games (Spartan Assault and Spartan Strike), Master Chief remained the big chief of the franchise. But the main story of Halo 5 is absolutely drowning in other Spartan characters. We have two full squads of Spartans getting a lot of time on screen, plus Sarah Palmer. Chief no longer feels like the dude. He barely feels special at all. The Spartan role is beginning to feel less like a superhero and more like your run-of-the-mill soldier.

Ultimately, with all of these issues aside, I’m glad I played Halo 5. There are still some great moments in this game, even if the larger storyline introduced in Halo 5 has essentially been abandoned. If you’re able to separate yourself from the considerable drama surrounding the game, Halo 5 is a solid campaign. Even if some of the game’s issues do weigh you down, you may still find some satisfaction in completing this major entry of the franchise anyway.

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Nostalgia Factor: High. I played so much Halo back in the day.
Difficulty: Easy to medium. Normal difficulty is usually manageable.

Not too long ago, I pulled the trigger on a purchase of the Halo Master Chief Collection on PC. I had an amazing time burning through the original Bungie Halo campaigns… and Halo 4. There is, of course, a big dose of nostalgia contributing to my reception of these games, but I still believe that the Bungie Halo games are some of the best sci-fi FPS experiences of that era. On the whole, I scored the entire collection 9 out of 10, but I’ll also be giving a brief mini-review and score for each game in the collection.

Halo: Combat Evolved — 9/10 (Xbox, 2001)

I grew up playing Halo: Combat Evolved, which most just affectionally call “Halo 1” or “the OG Halo.” My friends and I used to host the most epic Halo LAN parties. We’d hook up four Xboxes to a network switch via ethernet cables, and we’d have four dudes per TV crouched around four massive chunky CRTs in my friend’s basement. It was absolute nirvana for a nerdy high school gamer in the early 2000s. Someone would buy multiple 24 packs of Mountain Dew and we’d drink Dew and play 16 player splitscreen Halo from 7pm until 10am — all night, 15 hours of Halo bliss. Our favorite modes were free-for-all Slayer or 8 vs 8 capture the flag, at Blood Gulch of course. We had some truly great times together. The memories of those Halo parties continue to hold a special place in my gaming heart.

Oddly enough, until I had recently purchased the Master Chief Collection, I hadn’t yet had a chance to play through the entirety of the original Halo single player campaign. I never owned an Xbox, so I only played Halo with friends. I remembered bits and pieces from the campaign, but when I finally got to sit down and play through the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign in its entirety, I was thrilled. I loved it.

Sure, you could probably raise some complaints about sci-fi tropes or some bad level design, but even in spite of a few flaws, the first Halo campaign is still a great experience. I’m a sucker for even half-decent sci-fi stories, and Halo’s lore and core storylines are well constructed. The Master Chief and Cortana characters do a lot of the heavy lifting, with excellent performances from voice actors, Steve Downes and Jen Taylor. The Covenant aliens are also very well designed and fun to interact with. The sounds they make in particular are a real highlight (WORT WORT WORT). There are some great shootouts and action moments throughout, though I did find the pacing to be problematic in a few sections of the campaign.

While Halo helped push the FPS genre forward in many ways, there are still some noticeable pitfalls of early-3D game design. I got lost more often than I’d like to admit. Even with the updated graphics, some of the levels are just confusing and unintuitive. There were a few long stretches between action sequences where I was just trying to figure out where to go next, and that really disrupted the pacing of the game for me.

Some of the levels feature large open areas, which are fun to explore (when you’re not getting lost), and I just absolutely adore the core concept of Halo. Warning, some mild story spoilers ahead. The Halo series is named after the Halo ringworld, a mysterious inhabitable megastructure in space, similar to other sci-fi megastructures like the Dyson Sphere or the Alderson Disk. Even with the aged original graphics, I am always amazed by the well designed skybox that constantly reminds you that you are, in fact, exploring the inside rim of a giant terraformed ring in outer space. I don’t really know how else to describe it, other than to say, it’s just… cool. It really is. The Halo concept is really cool, likely inspired by Larry Niven’s Ringworld.

The soundtrack from Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori easily rests towards the top of many lists that rank the greatest video game soundtracks of all time. Of course, almost everyone can recognize the iconic monastic-sounding title theme, inspired by classic Gregorian chant. You’ve got loads of other great tracks as well, including “Bravery, Brotherhood,” “An End of Dying,” and “Unless You Mean to Shoot,” just to mention a few.

Halo 1 is where it all started, and my nostalgia and appreciation runs very deep. It set the foundation for the rest of the series to build on. If you’re going to dive into the Halo campaigns, it’s best to start with Halo 1. You’ll want to begin there for story purposes, and it also may be difficult to come back to Halo 1 after playing more recent Halo campaigns which are much more polished.

Halo 2 — 9/10 (Xbox, 2004)

There’s less to say about Halo 2. It remains an excellent continuation of the story of Master Chief, though Halo 2’s campaign spends more time with the collective of alien races known as the Covenant. You even get to play a portion of the campaign from the perspective of the Arbiter, a Covenant Elite. The main lore also goes a bit deeper into the origins of the Halo megastructure, but to avoid heavy spoilers, I’ll say no more. If you’re a fan of some decent sci-fi lore, you’re going to enjoy the ride.

Halo 2 brought some improvements from Halo 1. Of course, DUAL WIELDING is a huge highlight. Bungie’s 1994 classic, Marathon, is claimed by many enthusiasts to be the first shooter that introduced dual wielding, though Goldeneye 007 was my first experience firing two weapons at once. There’s just something about dual-wielding that triggers a flood of dopamine in the brain. It’s FPS nirvana.

Halo 2 was also the first Halo game to offer online play through Xbox live, which was a massive milestone for console gamers. For me personally, as a gamer who still prefers couch co-op and huge LAN parties in my living room, it was difficult to watch multiplayer gaming slowly change from an in-person group activity to an isolated activity, connected only through the internet. The way I see it, it’s like comparing a face-to-face meeting with a Zoom video call. It’s not the same. But, regardless of how I feel, online gaming has exploded into a multi-billion dollar industry. In the early 2000s, new levels of online competitive play became possible, and Halo 2 was at the forefront of this sweeping movement. The way Halo 2 handled matchmaking, lobbies, and clans was quickly replicated and adapted by many other online games.

The single player campaign is also excellent, and O’Donnell and company have delivered another instant classic soundtrack. There’s a climactic moment towards the end of the campaign that originally featured a few tracks from Breaking Benjamin and Incubus. And yes, these tracks did in fact play in-game in the original version of Halo 2. We don’t really see licensed music much in modern game campaigns today. I imagine these two tracks were excluded in the anniversary edition due to licensing issues, but I think I prefer the Misha Mansoor tracks that took their place in the updated soundtrack, “Breaking the Covenant,” and “Follow In Flight.” Discovering these tracks actually sent me down a deep music discovery rabbit hole. I just devoured the entire catalog of Misha Mansoor’s instrumental metal side project called Bulb. If you’re a fan of instrumental metal riffs and jams, you should check it out.

I also want to note, I was particularly impressed with the cinematics in the remastered Halo 2, from renowned Blur Studio based in Los Angeles. They look absolutely stunning. Wow. Very very well done. The cinematics may be a big factor in why Halo 2’s storytelling is my favorite in the whole series.

Halo 3 — 9/10 (Xbox 360, 2007)

Halo 3 followed hot on the heels of Halo 2 and is considered the peak of the franchise’s commercial success, selling over 14.5 million copies. The next best selling Halo game is Halo: Reach, selling nearly 10 million copies. The gaming industry has exploded in growth since 2007, so these sales numbers don’t raise any eyebrows compared to modern day juggernauts like GTA 5 or Mario Kart 8, having sold 215 million and 77 million copies respectively. Sales data back then is a bit of a wild west as well, and sources vary. But according to some sources, in 2007, Halo 3 was only barely outsold by the #1 best-selling game that year, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. This breakthrough success established Halo 3 and the Xbox 360 as a major player in the industry.

Halo 3 brought continued graphical improvements, with more power available on the new Xbox 360. Halo 3 has been praised for its fantastic lighting which has helped the game to age quite well. Microsoft did not completely overhaul Halo 3 for the Master Chief Collection, opting instead to make simple upgrades to resolution and framerate. Fans seem to be mixed on how well Halo 3 holds up when compared to the graphical overhaul that the first two Halo games received. Some don’t really notice much of a difference, which may be where I land, since I don’t remember feeling like Halo 3 was too far behind the rest of the collection. Others wish for the full remaster treatment for Halo 3.

Halo 3 introduced loads of new equipment — the trip mine, the bubble shield, a deployable cover, a flare, a radar jammer, just to name a few. There’s also a new category of weapons called support weapons, including the heavy machine gun that you can just rip off of a turret mount and carry around like an absolute menace until the ammo runs out. You can also wield a flame thrower, or the LAU-65D missile launcher, which is helpful in taking down some of the new vehicles added to the game.

The Forge enabled players to edit or create their own multiplayer maps, which further strengthens Halo 3 as the fan favorite for multiplayer across the entire franchise. Halo 3 had a strong campaign as well with some truly epic moments, but ultimately, it’s Halo 3’s refined multiplayer that carried the torch for this iconic stalwart of the Xbox 360. Many online players continue to favor Halo 3 as the peak Halo multiplayer experience.

Halo 3: ODST — 9.5/10 (Xbox 360, 2009)

In my humble opinion, Halo 2 has the best storytelling and lore dumps, Halo 3 has the best multiplayer, and Halo: Reach has the most polished campaign, but ODST is my personal favorite Halo game for one specific reason. ODST has dark, moody vibes for days. Cue the rain sounds, cue the thunder in the background, cue the sad woodwinds and the brooding sax solo drenched in reverb, and we’re ready for a film-noir-esque trek through the ruins of New Mombasa.

ODST is a very different kind of Halo game. You do not play as Master Chief, and the Chief doesn’t even make an appearance in the game. You play as an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, and your vulnerability is apparent from the start. I had to adapt my play style. As a Spartan, you have more freedom to run all over the battlefield, absorbing damage with your energy shields. As an ODST, you’re no slouch, but you’re no tank either. It’s crucial to utilize cover and stealth as much as possible in order to avoid taking too much damage.

ODST utilizes even more open area map design, which is a shift from the typically linear corridor designs we’ve seen in the series up to this point. I appreciate this design focus, but the maps can feel very empty in some stretches of the campaign. This may be due to the limited development time (since ODST was developed in only 14 months), but enemy encounters can feel a bit sparse in some sections. I often got lost as well, especially in the darker areas of New Mombasa. Thankfully, there’s a fantastic chill soundtrack from O’Donnell and Salvatori to enjoy while trying to figure out where the heck you’re supposed to go.

ODST was actually conceived as a much smaller project. At the start, it was intended to be a short 2-3 hour mini-campaign (likely to be purchased as DLC for Halo 3), but the momentum of the project led to the decision to develop ODST into a standalone game.

Even though ODST does have its issues, its unique strengths carry enough weight for me, and ODST remains my favorite Halo game to date.

Halo: Reach — 9/10 (Xbox 360, 2010)

Prequels can be tricky. Some video game prequels absolutely nail the assignment, as some of the most critically acclaimed games ever made have been prequels. But, it’s not uncommon for prequels to fall short of expectations either. Halo Reach definitely lands the plane and is one of the best prequel games I’ve played. It’s a bit of a swan song for Bungie, as this was the last Halo game they developed before splitting from Microsoft. After Halo Reach, Microsoft retained the rights to Halo, and Bungie began developing Destiny as an independent studio.

You can tell Reach was a passion project for Bungie. This was a final love letter from this team that had invested more than 10 years into five fantastic Halo games. There’s an emotional component to Reach that just hits different. Even though I still cherish Halo 2’s storytelling, Reach is clearly the most polished Halo campaign that Bungie produced. There’s a high level of strategic depth, immersion, and realism.

Some of the new features in Reach were well received, like the sprint ability, assassination animations, and the jetpack (in the single player campaign at least), but some changes to core Halo gameplay were panned. Reach removed dual wielding, added weapon bloom (meaning your accuracy decreases the more you fire), and the addition of jetpacks and some other armor abilities significantly disrupted the tightly balanced multiplayer that Halo 3 had achieved. After a few months of frustration, many online players bounced from Halo Reach and returned to Halo 3’s lobbies.

In spite of some frustration with a few core gameplay changes, Reach’s excellent single player campaign is still held in very high regard.

Halo 4 — 8/10 (Xbox 360, 2012)

I was nervous when I first booted up Halo 4. So many die hard Halo fans advised me to just skip this one. I knew that Bungie had moved on and had no involvement in Halo 4’s development, but how bad could it be, really? The first 30 minutes of the game were a bit of a shock to me, as it just didn’t “feel right”. The movement, the gunplay, the physics, the art style — enough was different that I could tell something was off. I honestly don’t understand why 343 Industries didn’t just use the engine from Halo 3 or Halo Reach as a boilerplate.

After the initial shock of accepting that the Bungie era of Halo games was gone forever, I honestly enjoyed Halo 4 more than I thought I would. The game really isn’t that bad. In fact, if you simply play this game in a void without comparing it to its predecessors, it’s a solid sci-fi shooter. Yes, the enemies are way too bullet-spongey, and yes, the weapons aren’t well balanced (a few of the weapons feel almost useless), and yes, some of the story beats are incredibly convoluted and hard to follow at times, BUT, I found myself thoroughly engaged with the gameplay and the story content in spite of these flaws. Some have criticized the visuals of the game for being overly-complex, but I actually appreciate the detail. The graphics are a strength of Halo 4, in my humble opinion. There’s enough sci-fi eye candy to pull you through the jarring transition from Bungie’s near perfect gunplay to 343’s poor imitation.

Since I came to many of these Halo campaigns much later than other Halo gamers, I can understand the prickly response from the Halo community. I think being somewhat fresh to these campaigns has made it easier for me to adapt and to accept these less than ideal changes more readily. I was still able to glean quite a bit of enjoyment out of Halo 4.

Now that I’ve finally procured myself an old Xbox One, it’s time to dive into Halo 5 to see if that game’s campaign is as bad as everyone keeps telling me it is. Wish me luck.

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Nostalgia Factor: None.
Difficulty: Easy.

It certainly took me long enough to get around to Mass Effect, but alas, I have installed Mass Effect Legendary Edition, and I have completed the first game in the series. So many of my friends have been urging me to play Mass Effect for years. “Oh, you like sci-fi RPGs? You liked Knights of the Old Republic? You need to play Mass Effect.” I thoroughly enjoyed playing through KOTOR and KOTOR 2 years ago, but it only recently clicked for me that BioWare is the genius developer behind KOTOR and the Mass Effect series. Casey Hudson served as Game Director for both, and it’s easy to see the similarities and overlap between the two.

My first impression of Mass Effect, only a few hours in, was very positive. I was very impressed with the Legendary Edition’s updated visuals, I was immediately intrigued by the characters, and I was eating up every bit of dialogue. When I arrived at the Citadel, my codex exploded with lore drops, so I spent a full hour just devouring the incredible lore in this game. If you’ve been following my gaming journey, you know that I love good lore. There’s so much well written lore in this game, I became a bit overwhelmed. Drew Karpyshyn and his writing team have gone above and beyond with this series. Drew was also the writing lead for KOTOR, and you can certainly see similarities in the writing style.

Drew and company wrote 400,000 words and more than 20,000 lines of spoken dialogue for Mass Effect. This is a massive undertaking in 2007. Mass Effect was one of the forerunners in featuring this level of depth in game development — even though it’s pretty much just become the norm for AAA games these days. To quote IGN’s Justin Davis, “Games are just impossible to make now.” The standards of game development have just been raised so high this past decade. It took a team of 120 developers four years to make Mass Effect for the Xbox 360. Today, it takes five, six, or even seven years or more for a large team to make a AAA game. Rockstar has been working on GTA6 for 10 years. This is a legitimate problem that the video game industry is struggling to navigate. Games have just become so huge, so detailed, with so many branching paths and characters and dialogue trees, the investment and the risk of making games like this is becoming untenable. The standards of game development just continue to be raised, and Mass Effect was one of the early games that started this arms race.

The well-crafted story is easily the greatest strength of Mass Effect. If you love a good story, if you want to get lost in a well-crafted sci-fi world with interesting planets, races, and characters — Mass Effect is right up your alley. The voice acting is top notch. The cutscenes are very well done. I really have very few complaints about the writing and the story.

Perhaps my only complaint in this area is that the romance component feels forced. It’s not clear which lines of dialogue are intended to be flirtatious. I was just trying to show basic kindness to all of my crew, but I somehow ended up in an awkward love triangle confrontation in the middle of the game, forced to choose between two characters that seemed to think I was making advances toward them. I have no idea how I arrived at that point, and it all felt shockingly sudden. I was confused and disappointed by that abrupt disruption to the game’s otherwise excellent immersion, so I just finished the rest of the game in full bachelor mode. Apparently, the romance component is more developed in Mass Effect 2.

The writing and story alone is enough for me to give this game a strong 8 out of 10, in spite of some notable flaws in the gameplay. The 3rd person shooting gameplay is serviceable, if not a bit dull and repetitive at times compared to more polished shooters. I found the cover mechanic to be clunky and a little frustrating. Each battle environment is also constructed a little too obviously with objects to take cover behind. This is another ding in the game’s immersion, as these objects just feel like props littered across each area. This makes some areas of the game feel more like a paintball arena than an alien world. That being said, there are also some portions of the game that are very well designed. There were several times throughout my 55+ hour playthrough that I had to pause and just take a minute to take in a gorgeous environment. There are many many moments like this — pure galactic planetary wanderlust.

Mass Effect provides you with unlimited ammo for each of your weapons. This is mitigated by each gun’s heatsink capacity, which can be overloaded if you fire continuously. This was interesting at first, but I eventually grew tired of not being able to go full-guns-a-blazing when needed in the heat of battle. Managing ammo instead of heatsink capacity is a much more interesting game design in my opinion. Kudos to BioWare for trying something different here, but it does seem they reverted back to a standard ammo system in Mass Effect 2.

The inventory in Mass Effect is not a strength. I quickly became overwhelmed with multiple duplicate copies of various weapons. There’s a huge variety of different weapon names and levels, but there are only four different weapon types — pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, and sniper rifles. All of the various named weapons only change the stats for that weapon type. There’s barely any difference among the majority of the assault rifles in terms of gunplay and feel. Sorting through all of these weapons and equipping the highest level items on seven different crew members quickly became a tedious chore. Please, my kingdom for an optimize-all button. Selling items is also not very streamlined. Towards the end of the game, many players will hit max credits from selling all of the loot, so any loot you gain after that point feels meaningless. I ended up converting most of my excess loot to omni-gel, which is a resource I don’t think I used even once in my entire playthrough.

Initially, I really liked the Mako sections of the game. Quite often, you’ll be plopped onto the surface of a planet in your M35 Mako Infantry Fighting Vehicle. It’s a little tank thing with six wheels and propulsion jets. It’s slightly more wonky to control than the Warthog from Halo, but I find this to be more endearing than problematic. It’s fun using the jets to hover a bit or to blast forward. The coaxially-mounted machine gun and 155mm mass accelerator cannon are definitely a highlight of the Mako gameplay. It’s an absolute thrill blasting Geth soldiers with the cannon and watching them flail about like ragdolls after being launched from the explosion.

Unfortunately, there’s just not enough variety of terrain in the Mako sections to keep it interesting. There are loads of side quests on loads of planets that all start to feel very “samey”. The gameplay loop is much too similar for many of these side quests. There’s just too much repetition — land on a planet, enter the outpost, shoot the bad guys, return to the Normandy, rinse and repeat. Aside from the Citadel and the six core worlds, there are 28 additional planets you can explore. Yes, 28 planets. Unfortunately, these planets all have similar surfaces. There are only four or five different varieties.

If you commit to all of the side quests like me, you’ll get that sense of déjà vu quite a bit. I’d say about 90% of the enemy outposts on these planets share the exact same layout, give or take some crates on the inside that are arranged in a different pattern. It’s almost like there’s some space corporation with a monopoly on planet exploration manufactured buildings. That’s why each research facility or enemy outpost shares the exact same copy-paste shape and layout. Honestly, if they wrote that into the lore, it probably wouldn’t bother me so much. I think 28 explorable planets is just way too ambitious. The quality of the side content is significantly weaker than on the core worlds. I think I prefer quality over quantity with most things in life. That being said, it’s clear that BioWare focused their efforts on the core game worlds, which are much more developed and thus much more interesting to explore. I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the core worlds, especially the gorgeous stormy-tropical Virmire and the mysterious Ilos.

There are additional planets that you can’t explore with the Mako, and some poor bloke had to try to come up with interesting text descriptions for over 200 total planets. I’m a massive lore nerd, and even I became fatigued after reading a dozen or so of these planet descriptions. It does make this game world feel that much larger. Though, I do wish they would’ve adjusted the physics of the Mako to match the gravity level for each of the explorable planets. Each planet’s gravity feels exactly the same, in spite of the vastly different gravity levels in the planet descriptions. Am I being too picky? This is a game originally released in 2007 after all.

On foot, many environments are somewhat linear, and there’s not much to look for in terms of loot. You don’t loot the bodies of fallen enemies, and you don’t search half a dozen empty containers in every room like in Bethesda RPGs, but there are at least a handful of crates scattered throughout each area of the game. I do like that the loot crates are highlighted by a cursor as you approach, which helps them to stand out from the decorative assets that can’t be interacted with. Instead of lockpicking, some crates must be bypassed. I quite enjoyed the bypass mini-game. It’s a bit like a circular version of Frogger or Crossy Road. You have to advance an arrow through each outer ring, dodging the moving obstacles, until you reach the center. It’s fun at first, but it does lose its luster after 50 hours of gameplay.

One last complaint about the gameplay — Shepard’s movement speed is super slow. I have this same complaint with so many games from the 90s and 2000s. Why did game developers insist on such slow player movement? Thankfully, if you enable the console, you can use the ‘SetSpeed 5’ command to speed up Shepard’s movespeed. Unfortunately, you have to punch this command in each time you load into a new area.

I did encounter some bugs. I got stuck in walls and behind objects a few times. I had to use the no clip console command, “ghost”, to get unstuck. The command, “walk,” disables no clip mode. Only once, when I exited the inventory menu, Shepard got stuck in a hilarious pose. My companions would occasionally jitter around with janky movements, but thankfully, none of these bugs were critical or game-breaking.

The Legendary Edition release improved 3D models and texture resolution. They added real-time reflections, they fixed some bugs, and they added a photo mode, among many other changes. But, some fans of the original trilogy were not thrilled with the changes made to the game’s lighting. The original games featured very high contrast lighting. This “chiaroscuro” lighting style is moody and intense, but you do sacrifice some detail when heavy shadows swallow up half the screen. The Legendary Edition flattens much of that extreme contrast, allowing more detail to be seen, but at the cost of the original style and intensity. The colors are definitely more rich and vibrant, but I can understand the complaints about the game feeling less cinematic. It looks a bit more like a well-lit television studio set, like you’re on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Legendary Edition also reduced some difficulty on a few tricky missions. I still encountered a few difficulty spikes in the early game, but on the whole, it did feel like the game’s normal difficulty mode was on the easy side. Most of the game was a breeze. Feedback on the changes in Legendary Edition remains mixed. I can understand both sides of the debate. There are some scenes in the original games that were much too dark, but they may have overcompensated by reducing contrast too much. In general, gamers don’t really do well with any kind of change when it comes to their favorite games, so the debate continues.

The soundtrack by Jack Wall is another strength of the game. Most of the tracks are a perfect blend of nostalgic sci-fi synths and modern orchestral sounds, but there are a few tracks that feel a bit underdeveloped. It was reported that additional composers had to be brought in to help finish the score towards the end of the project. There are a few tracks that sound a little cheesy, a little dated, like something you’d hear at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe in Disney’s World’s Tomorrowland. Shout out to any Disney World fans.

Ultimately, in spite of a few notable flaws, Mass Effect still earns a strong score because it features some of the best writing I’ve seen in a video game in a long time. Sci-fi concepts like “mass effect physics” and “element zero” are obvious plot devices, of course. It’s science fiction. There’s always some suspension of disbelief required to engage with the content. But, the best science fiction writers are able to articulate these concepts in a way that seems plausible, at least to someone without a PhD in theoretical physics. In the very least, if you wrap a bizarre sci-fi concept in enough clever jargon, as the Mass Effect writers have, it makes it a little easier to maintain that suspension of disbelief. That’s why I’ve continued to devour every little bit of Mass Effect lore in the codex. It’s just so well written. I highly recommend Mass Effect for any sci-fi RPG nerds like me.

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Nostalgia Factor: Low.
Difficulty: Very hard. The RNG can be very punishing.

Oblivion had a massive impact on me. It caused me to go back and give Morrowind a proper shot. With loads of mods, Morrowind can still be a great experience for some, though an early 3D game from 2002 certainly has its frustrating quirks. Feeling quite brave after revisiting Morrowind, I decided to go back even further to 1996. I saw that Daggerfall Unity had made this old classic much more playable on modern systems.

There were many features about Daggerfall that piqued my interest. I’d heard over and over again that Daggerfall remained the largest open world RPG every made.

Morrowind’s world map is 10 sq mi, Oblivion and Skyrim are ~15 sq mi each, the Witcher 3 – 20 sq mi, World of Warcraft – 80 sq mi, FF15 – 700 sq mi, LOTR Online is a whopping 30,000 sq mi, but Elder Scrolls II Daggerfall still takes the cake with a world map that is 62,000 sq mi. It’s absurd. It’s hard to fathom. Daggerfall boasts 15,000 cities, towns, villages, and dungeons. Here’s another way to think about it. It takes about 2 hours to walk across the entire Skyrim world map, and it takes almost 70 hours to walk across the Daggerfall world map.

Of course, when you learn that nearly the entire game world within Daggerfall is procedurally generated, it’s easier to accept the size of the game. And, unfortunately, the procedurally generated content of the game is a double edged sword. It’s both the most fascinating aspect of the game, and also the most miserable aspect of the game.

I played the Alpha release (0.10.4) of Daggerfall Unity, which was very smooth and stable. They’re on version 1.0 now, so they must’ve smoothed out pretty much any conceivable bug at this point. I don't remember experiencing any notable bugs in my playthrough, other than just one minor glitch that occurred when I died from sickness during travel. For some reason, the death cinematic played four times in a row. I must've reeeally died.

Anyway, within my first hour of gameplay, Daggerfall taught me some brutal lessons. This game is hard. I am not a hardcore gamer by any stretch, but I do usually avoid cheats whenever possible. I lasted until I encountered my first Lich in Direnni Tower at only level 7. I then quickly took advantage of the console commands to get past the Lich. Sorry friends. I am way too lazy to grind levels in an RNG dominated game like Daggerfall. I used the set_walkspeed and set_runspeed commands liberally so my character would move much faster through this massive world. Also, the ‘reveal buildings’ command came in handy too. I have to give props to the few and the proud that are able to grind through to the end of this game without cheats. That is quite a feat.

I found myself just beaten into the ground by this game’s brutal RNG. The random dungeons are so long and can be very difficult. For the Werebeast quest, I spent HOURS wandering the random assigned dungeon looking for the quest objective to no avail. I eventually gave in and used the tele2qspawn command to take me directly to the quest objective I needed.

If you like having seemingly endless content, Daggerfall may be for you. It seems virtually impossible to run out of things to do in this game. So many NPCs offer some kind of quest. Every city is huge, and even the smaller towns all over the world map are still quite large compared to some of the coastal towns in Morrowind.

I do need to give credit where credit is due though. Daggerfall has moods and vibes for days. Dungeon crawling is very spooky and tense. That’s an area where the RNG strengthens the experience. I never knew what to expect. The soundtrack is plenty effective as well. The ambient sound effects (all the roars and howls and groans) really keep you on edge. I’ll never forget the first time I traveled to Daggerfall. I approached the city at night to find the gates closed, and then nearly jumped out of my seat when I heard "VENGEANCE" blasting through my computer speakers.

I wasn't sure how much lore to expect in Daggerfall, but I did enjoy the story. Morrowind really stepped up the lore game for sure, but Daggerfall builds a strong foundation. The lore is the biggest reason I wanted to give Daggerfall a shot anyway, and I'm glad I did. I enjoyed hearing names and items mentioned in Daggerfall that have been sustained in the lore through all of the Elder Scrolls games.

Daggerfall has some strengths for sure, but this game has just grown so long in the tooth, it will be very difficult for most gamers to engage without a hefty dose of nostalgia. 1996 was a long time ago. As a 90s kid, I try my best to be an advocate for older games, but Daggerfall is just so far removed from Skyrim, I find it hard to encourage younger gamers to give it a shot. Unless you’re a die hard fan of the Elder Scrolls series and you need to check this one off your list, I’d pass on Daggerfall and just settle for watching entertaining YouTube playthroughs.

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Nostalgia Factor: None.
Difficulty: Easy.

I really did not expect to enjoy this game as much as I did. I heard about Infinity Nikki on a gaming podcast I listen to regularly. Their initial description of the game didn’t really appeal to me. It’s a fashion focused fantasy game in which customizing outfits forms the core of the gameplay, but they gave such high praise for the game’s visuals, I figured I’d give it a try. Heck, it’s free. Why not?

As soon as I booted up the game for the first time, I was stunned by graphics. It’s clear this game is meant to be accessible to a wide audience on a variety of devices, so of course it’s not going to compete with recent graphical showcases like Alan Wake 2 or Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. But, for a multi-platform F2P game that needs to run on iOS and Android devices, this game looks incredible.

The lighting looks fantastic. I remember getting distracted for a full minute or more just taking in the sight of the sunset’s reflection off the river. I sometimes just can’t believe how far games have come, that even a F2P gacha pseudo-mobile game can look this good. Even if you only have the faintest curiosity about this game, at least give yourself 15 minutes to explore and take in the town of Florawish. It is such a well designed village. It’s pure serenity – sooo cozy and chill. It’s like something out of a dream.

I tend to be a task oriented gamer. I need engaging quests and gameplay, or else I eventually lose interest in a game, but I was completely content to just wander around and explore the gorgeous and surreal 3D fantasy environments they’ve crafted in this game. When you boot up Infinity Nikki for the first time, you may need to play the new tutorial intro, “Sea of Stars,” but it’s relatively short, and it does a great job of showcasing the game’s visuals.

In addition to the well designed 3D environments, this game has a massive collection of customizable clothing items. Last I checked, there were over 40 outfits and over 2000 customizable clothing items. I haven’t acquired even a small fraction of these items, and to be honest, this is not a game feature that appeals to me, but the clothing items I have seen are impressive and fun to sort through. I’m not usually one to spend much time in character customization tools. I rarely get invested in choosing outfits and clothing items, but I will say, this game brought this out of me more than any other game I’ve played. I actually did spend a little time dabbling in my wardrobe, putting together an outfit I liked for Nikki. My daughters, on the other hand, have just started playing this game, and they’ve already spent more time browsing their wardrobe options than doing anything else in the game.

Like two peas in a pod, the game’s cozy aesthetic is perfectly complimented by a super chill and just downright lovely soundtrack. I have a weak spot for calming and atmospheric game scores. Inon Zur’s Fallout 4 is one of my favorite soundtracks of all time for this reason. The Elder Scrolls series and the Final Fantasy series also feature some great soundtracks that are right up my alley. After only a few minutes of exploring Florawish, I knew that I would be adding many of these tracks to my gaming music Spotify playlist. The music really helps to reinforce the relaxing vibes of the game.

I wasn’t as impressed with the story of Infinity Nikki, but I wouldn’t say it’s a bad story necessarily. It’s fine. The game’s story is reminiscent of a fantasy slice-of-life anime. The fashion “stylist with magic powers” premise is a bit odd, but it works. I wouldn’t say it’s for me, but I can appreciate the originality. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this fashion wizard concept used in games or movies or TV before.

There’s quite a bit of dialogue in the game. The English voice acting is solid, but I ended up switching to the Japanese audio with subtitles, which tends to be my preference. Some of the story and dialogue could be a little bland, but there were still some surprises and some good moments here and there. Later in the game the story and the dialogue can get pretty… abstract and weird, which is also very “anime”, if you know what I mean. If you’re not sure what I mean, I’ve noticed in some anime that the dialogue (especially towards the end of a series) tends to push more into lofty and poetic concepts. Conversations tend to be filled more with dramatic sounding prose than practical and clear speech. There are times I’m just like, “what?” What are you saying? Anime fans may be able to relate.

The main quest took me about 20 hours. Honestly, after a few hours I just kinda rushed through the rest of the main quest. The game was losing me pretty quickly after the thrill of exploring Miraland faded a bit. I wanted to finish all of the main quest so I could preview the game before setting my younger daughters loose to play the game for themselves. But, if you’re having a great time with the game and want to keep going, there are loads of side quests and collectables and additional content, over 60 hours worth of total content. Most of the content I played was well developed and well executed. There were only a few moments that tickled the cringe meter a little, though there was one notable scene towards the end with some baby Faewish sprites that just seemed very underdeveloped. It was an odd scene to say the least. It felt off.

The gameplay is a notable weak point of the game. There are lots of 3D platforming challenges. They’re not great. It’s not Nintendo quality Mario platforming, but it’s fine. The floating ability is fun to use. Nikki has some kind of magical orb projectile attack, but combat is a little cumbersome. She always fires the orb in whatever direction she’s facing, and getting her positioned just right is a little wonky. I often found myself having to run towards enemies just to aim properly, which is not ideal. I later settled on kiting much farther back away from enemies in order to give myself room to run forward and aim without getting hit. You can also hold the attack button and strafe left and right before releasing your attack, which is nice. Later in the game you unlock the ability to control your little cat companion, Momo. I thought controlling Momo was much more fun than controlling Nikki. Really, the most enjoyable part of the gameplay is simply exploring the world and tracking down resources or whim stars. There are over 360 whim stars scattered throughout Miraland.

I found myself repeatedly frustrated with the menus. The game’s menus are honestly just insane. F2P gacha games tend to have crazy menus in general for some reason, but Infinity Nikki is on a whole new level. There are so many different currencies, resources, collectables, tutorials, quests, challenges, and about 500 menu tabs for all of this, with menus inside of menus, inside of menus. Just about every menu option will torture you with those little red dots. Each time I booted up the game I would spend much more time than any person should have to spend clicking on all the menu items in order to make the red dots go away. This is even more obnoxious if you play with a controller. I tend to be a bit of an OCD gamer so red dots drive me nuts. I have to make them all go away.

Even though Infinity Nikki is a gacha game, the gacha mechanics weren’t really a problem for me at all. I had no interest in collecting all of the extra outfits and clothing items, and I easily made it through almost all of the main quest without having to even think about using some kind of premium currency. If you have enough practice ignoring gacha mechanics, and you just want to complete the main story, you’ll be fine. They give you a fairly healthy amount of free items. I didn’t spend a dime on this game. I never spend money on F2P games. It’s a point of pride for me actually. Although, I did once let my friends pressure me into buying a battle pass for Fortnite.

I did repeatedly run into server connection issues while playing. Even though I almost always had a healthy ping of ~40ms, I’d see that “Reconnecting” screen pop up at least once or twice each gameplay session. The Infinity Nikki servers must be held together with shoe string and duct tape or something. I got used to it, but this drives my daughters nuts for some reason. “Dad, what’s happening?”

I should clarify, I technically didn’t finish the entire main questline. There’s a miracle outfit that you have to craft in order to fully conclude the main quest, but the needed materials for that outfit require much more time than I’m willing to commit to this game, so I decided to call it quits at that point. There are some special required materials that can only be gathered by defeating the sovereign stylists of each region. While this seems simple enough, even getting access to the sovereign stylists requires you to defeat over 60 stylists in styling challenges. That is… a lot. Also, some of these styling challenges have very high style point requirements, which may or may not require tons of grinding or *gasp* spending real money on premium currency in order to unlock high value clothing items. No thanks.

I felt like I had enough closure with the pseudo-ending cutscene that I did get to see, so I decided to call it and wrap up my time with the game. Maybe someday I’ll head back to Miraland and grind out all of those styling challenges, but for now, I’m satisfied and ready to tie a bow on this very unique gaming experience.

EDIT, JULY 2025: A few weeks after I decided to move on from Infinity Nikki, I felt an urge to go back and play some more. I think I just really missed being in this gorgeous game world, listening to the amazing music. The story really isn’t much of a pull, but I think I wanted some more closure and a little more time with the game, so I decided to see just how difficult it would be to grind out those styling challenges after all. It did take quite a while, but it wasn’t as bad as I initially thought. You do need to upgrade all of your Eureka, and you need to have at least a decent 4 star outfit for each of the styling categories, with some if not most of the pieces upgraded. I used quite a bit of the diamonds and vitality energy crystals I had accumulated in order to accomplish this.

I did complete all of the styling challenges, I gathered all the necessary items, and I did craft the Miracle Aurosa outfit in order to see the full ending of the main campaign. Honestly, maybe I just needed a little break from the game, because I did enjoy this process as I chipped away at this massive quest a little at a time. I’ve also returned to the game every time they’ve released new content. They include a small one to two hour story quest with each monthly season that they release. Sometimes these quests are nothing special, but the Danqing Island quest was quite good. I really enjoyed exploring this ancient China inspired content, and even though the story was all over the place, I continue to enjoy my time exploring the world of Infinity Nikki.

EDIT, NOVEMBER 2025: Paper Games just launched a huge content update which they’re calling “version 2.0” of Infinity Nikki. They’ve introduced Itzaland, a whole new region to explore filled with new creatures (Shroomlings!), environments, puzzles, whim stars, and story quests. They’ve dropped new content on the regular since launching Infinity Nikki, but this release stands out for sure. They even managed to get Idina Menzel (Frozen’s Elsa) to sing for their awkwardly translated but still epic title track! It’s a jam for sure. Most notably for me, they’ve introduced three new ability outfits that have improved the gameplay big time. The archery combat is a huge upgrade, the sticky claw is essentially a grapple that is surprisingly smooth (who doesn’t love a good grapple in a game?), and the gigantification furry suit outfit adds some interesting new mechanics as well. The story is still not a big draw for me, but there are noticeable improvements nonetheless. I enjoyed blasting through this content, and I look forward to seeing how they continue to improve the game with future releases.

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Nostalgia Factor: Medium. This game had a big impact on me years ago.
Difficulty: Medium. Certain areas on the map can be difficult without the right gear and skills.

(Mild story spoilers ahead) I’ll never forget the feeling of walking out of Vault 101 for the first time. It’s one of the most terrifying and awe-inducing gaming moments in my gaming memory banks. Not only was Fallout 3 my first Fallout game, it was really my first ever post-apocalyptic game. I was SO cautious during that first hour of gameplay. I was on high alert. Every creature terrified me. I nearly had a panic attack when I first encountered a giant ant in Grayditch.

Fallout 3 just hit me at a perfect time in my gaming journey. I was still relatively young and relatively fresh to immersive 3D adventure games. Morrowind was my first Bethesda RPG experience, but Oblivion and Fallout 3 are the games that really sold me on the Bethesda RPG formula. You know a game is great when the game world just sucks you in and feels so real. It’s all about immersion, and even in spite of it’s age, Fallout 3 does a great job of pulling you in.

The gameplay loop of Fallout 3 is not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re a fan of the open world Bethesda RPG formula like me, you’ll feel right at home in the Capital Wasteland – story rich quests, shooting, looting, lockpicking, terminal hacking, repairing weapons and armor, skills, perks, well developed dialogue options, and eight interesting companions to adventure with. A core strength of Fallout 3 is the huge 3D world you get to explore, a depressing but fascinating post-apocalyptic version of Washington D.C. Everything is distressed, rusty, dirty, old, and either long forgotten or inhabited by some kind bizarre post-nuclear gang or faction.

I do miss the simple karma system of Fallout 3. Nearly everything you do as you interact with the inhabitants of the Capital Wasteland affects your karma as the Lone Wanderer. If you choose to help people, save people, offer resources to those in need, you gain positive karma. If you harm the innocent, or steal, or if you just choose to be an obnoxious presence in the game, you gain negative karma. As you progress in the game, depending on the actions you’ve taken, you’ll receive karma levels describing your status. Defender, Peacekeeper, Protector, and Hero of the wastes are some good karma levels. Vault Outlaw, Plunderer, Capital Crimelord, and Wasteland Destroyer are negative karma levels. Three Dog, the host of Galaxy News Radio, periodically updates his listeners on your latest ventures, and your karma level directly affects what he says about you.

Many Fallout fans prefer the more nuanced reputation system introduced in Fallout New Vegas, so I’m probably alone in preferring the simplicity of Fallout 3’s good or bad karma system. There’s pros and cons for sure. Fallout 3’s karma system makes it much easier to be a squeaky clean lawful good hero archetype, which is how I typically like to roleplay in RPGs. You don’t really get this level of good-guy-ery in Fallout New Vegas or Fallout 4. Those games tend to leave you with some measure of moral grey discomfort, even if you’re trying to play the hero. You can easily be a complete slimeball in any Fallout game if you so desire, but Fallout 3’s karma system seems to provide much clearer feedback about your accumulating goodness or evilness.

The gunplay in Fallout 3 isn’t spectacular by any means. Most players rely more on the clever V.A.T.S system instead. If you’re primarily a first person shooter gamer looking for a smooth RPG shooter, Fallout 3 may be a frustrating experience for you. Thankfully, Fallout 3’s great story and strong RPG elements help to carry the game along.

Visually, Fallout 3 is… just OK for a game released in 2008. Compared to graphical juggernauts from that time like Crysis Warhead and Metal Gear Solid 4, Fallout 3 is a bit pale in comparison. Thankfully, there are loads of mods that can improve your experience. Also, the well designed creatures, characters, and environments keep the game interesting, in spite of the middling graphical fidelity. Exploring the devastated and super mutant infested National Mall of Washington D.C. alone is worth this game’s price of admission. By the way, the Fallout 3 GOTY edition will occasional go on sale for only $5 on Steam. The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Museum of History, and of course the Capital Building are some of my favorite locations in the Mall to explore.

The vast majority of Fallout 3’s original score is oppressive and stressful, which is very effective at adding to that feeling of tension as you explore. There are a few musical moments of relief in some of the atmospheric tracks you hear when wandering the surface, but by and large, the vibe remains dark and heavy. Of course, you can always turn on your Pip-Boy’s radio and enjoy some chipper 40s and 50s retro classics when the brutality of the wastes gets to you. I found myself turning on my radio for some relief when exploring the maze-like underground metro transit tunnels.

Fallout 3 was Inon Zur’s first major score for the Fallout series, unless you count often forgotten Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel. I much prefer the more balanced sound that Inon offers in his Fallout 4 soundtrack, which is one of my favorite video game soundtracks of all time, but there are still some great moments in the Fallout 3 score. The now iconic main theme music is especially epic and worth a listen even if you don’t play the game.

Other than the excellent retrofuturistic Americana style that Fallout has become so well known for, I believe the biggest strength of Fallout 3 is its incredible story content. In the great debate among Fallout fans about which entry in the series is best, one of the arguments I’ve heard against Fallout 3, is that its writing and story is inferior to the more complex narrative of Fallout New Vegas. I do agree that New Vegas added a lot more complexity and nuance to the storytelling, but I don’t agree that one story is necessarily better than the other. I think it just comes down to preference. I think the writing and story in all three of the major Fallout releases is worthy of high marks. The excellent writing is one of the reasons I continue to obsess over every major Bethesda Studios release (except Starfield, I haven’t played that one yet).

I’m committed to avoiding spoilers, so I won’t go into detail about some of my favorite quests or story beats, but there are many many great moments in this game. Time and time again, I found myself in awe of what I was experiencing. There’s so much ingenuity, cleverness, and humor for you to discover and experience for yourself. There are raw emotional turns in the story that will live in your memory for years.

There was some trepidation among Fallout fans when Bethesda purchased the Fallout IP from Interplay. Oblivion was wildly successful, but some fans still weren’t sure if Bethesda would be good stewards of the franchise. To this day, there are still some hardcore holdouts that prefer the originals over the modern Fallout games, but I think the sales data and the GOTY awards speak loud and clear. I know for me personally, Fallout 3 improved and corrected just about everything I didn’t like about the classic Fallout games. I strongly prefer Bethesda’s touch on the franchise, and at this point, it’s rare to meet a Fallout fan that has even tried playing Fallout 1 or Fallout 2.

Because of Fallout 3’s age, some may be waiting for the inevitable remaster. Oblivion just received a gorgeous looking graphical face-lift, and I can’t imagine that it will take long for Fallout 3 to receive the same treatment. But, if you don’t mind dealing with some unexceptional 2008 graphics, get yourself a copy of Fallout 3 GOTY edition on sale, and you’re in for a great time.

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Nostalgia Factor: None.
Difficulty: Easy.

My first experience with Slime Rancher was an absolute rush. I played for nearly 4 hours that night and couldn’t seem to get enough. The tutorial helped me to pick up the game mechanics quickly, and it didn’t take long for me to get fully immersed into the addicting gameplay loop.

There’s been a massive influx of farm sim games that have flooded the gaming marketplace ever since Stardew Valley captured the hearts of millions of gamers with it’s cozy brilliance. I had heard about Slime Rancher on several occasions, but I hadn’t given it much thought until I saw my niece and nephew playing the game. Every farm sim that’s been released post-Stardew Valley can’t escape the inevitable comparisons. Additionally, every farm sim now requires it’s own unique twist or a high level of excellence in order to break through the noise.

Slime Rancher’s unique twist on this genre is in the name. You are, quite simply, a slime rancher. You’ve traveled to a far off planet filled with wild slime creatures of all kinds, and one of your many goals is to corral and feed these slimes in order to harvest their “plort”. The game devs have put forth some effort to avoid the mischaracterization of plort as “slime poo,” but they’re fighting an uphill battle. Plort absolutely just seems like fancy slime poo to me, which I find hilarious, and it doesn’t bother me at all that Slime Rancher is essentially a grand poop scoop adventure.

The huge variety of different slimes and slime foods and critters and plorts makes for a fun discovery process. (Mild gameplay spoiler ahead) However, I felt like I had already cracked some code in the game fairly early on by going all in on rock slimes and heart beets, which produced decent value plort in large quantities. I quickly maxed out all corral upgrades and personal equipment upgrades after about 6 hours of gameplay. I continued to unlock new areas with currency and by feeding the giant slimes, but the game’s luster began to wear thin at this point. I seemed to have plumbed most of this game’s depth, and I had no desire to continue the grind that would be required to unlock the entire map.

Visually, the game is no show-stopper, with lots of dull browns in the early sections of the map, but the excellent design of the slimes and critters deserves high marks. The slime animations and sounds are smooth and convincing. The slimes feel so alive and are fun to interact with. Some portions of the map are much more interesting, with rich vibrant colors that give off that otherworldly vibe.

The story is a bit of a low point for me, and it’s the reason that this game just doesn’t have the legs to carry me any further than the 6-8 hours of fun I experienced. If you know anything about my taste in games, story is prioridad número uno. The story is very minimal in Slime Rancher. The background lore is delivered through electronic messages (a sort of inbox in your house) and notes that have been left behind by the former owner of the ranch now under your care. Normally, I gobble up this kind of lore in any game, but there’s such a lack of foundational story here, these notes just feel like empty flavor text. Most cozy game farm sims are very strong in story content, whereas Slime Rancher is lacking.

The music is solid. The background tracks are suitably chill and relaxing, though I will say the ranchy western feel is not my usual cup of tea. It’s not a soundtrack I’ll be adding to my Spotify playlists, but it’s effective and genre appropriate for a game titled, Slime Rancher.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable 6 to 8 hours of fun discovering the unique game mechanics of Slime Rancher, but the lack of engaging story left me wanting more. If you don’t mind a superficial story, and you really like to engage with sandbox open-world farm sims, you should give Slime Rancher a go.

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