#and the cutscene at the very end where they’re making fun of bruce for working too hard

[goatsghost]

i just try to play gotham knights in peace, and then my dad has to bring up that jason looks like ray liotta. and now i have to pause to look up who that is, only for my dad’s girlfriend to agree and now i have to explain that jason is usually supposed to be pretty but they fucked it up for some reason but everything’s okay now because my dad’s gf is on my side

[flowers-of-io]

I’ll kick the hornet nest and say Witch Queen got a downer ending, but it’s, ah, a subtler failure that took us over a year to realise? At least that’s how I read it: we technically win, but really, what have we achieved? The Traveler is back (but our faith in it is cracked; it had done the unthinkable, and now we can’t be sure if it won’t leave again), the Lucent Hive are subdued (but they still have the Light; they’re still our greatest enemies, blessed by our god), Savathun is dead (but she is our only viable source of intel on the Witness, and we won’t survive this war without her knowledge, so we’re inevitably gonna crawl back to her for help eventually). We’ve won, but at what cost? We’ve also done the unthinkable; we’ve still killed Ghosts.

But I agree, TWQ is not out Darkest Hour. It’s a bit of a different story altogether; it’s not about losing completely, it’s about a victory that tastes like a loss.

I LOVE Lightfall’s downer ending, I love how Caiatl says, “We’ve just lost”, and I love how gut-punchy it is, how the Traveler is the cost we pay and how we have to choose between it and Ghost. The final mission is a BLAST. Caiatl’s presence in that story is incredible. The fireteam dynamics between her, Nimbus and Osiris (and Rohan) are perfect. And I had fun playing through Lightfall! I really really did! At first I was extremely surprised to see the overall negative reaction to it when I finally emerged from my gamer zone and checked social media. Beyond Light and Witch Queen and Forsaken before that were emotional rollercoasters; I cried during Witch Queen; my guts still twists when I think about Forsaken. It was nice to have some fucking levity in this game for once. I love Nimbus and what they bring to this story so much, especially paired with their very real grief over Rohan (which is palpable, but not stifling; it makes them determined rather than apathetic).

I also think this is Lightfall’s problem.

Maybe it’s just me, but… I don’t really feel the stakes? The story opens with a huge space battle scene, we watch Guardians get literally sliced into ribbons, we see Osiris just fuck off Light knows where, we see the Traveler do the sonic blast and it’s intense and insane and then there’s the Witness standing against it and holding its own with nothing but a gesture. We leave the battlefield and go to Neomuna, yes, but all the while we’re there, the battle is still going on. Remember how the HELM’s windows shut in the first cutscene? Well, the shutters lift in the last one and the crew is still standing there. Not much time has passed! If I were to estimate, it’s been a few days, maybe five at most, certainly less than a week.

But then we’re in Neomuna and it’s just an action-packed adventure complete with a Strand obstacle course and getting Neomuna’s systems back online or whatever, and that whole Vex mission in Radiosonde that has nothing to do with the main plot, like… That’s fine. That’s fun. But it doesn’t work in a tense, clock-is-ticking story where we’re supposedly doing all we can as fast as we can to fend off Calus while up there Guardians are holding off against the Witness and getting sliced to pieces. It doesn’t feel like the Darkest Hour because it’s… not particularly dark? Other than the first Radial Mast mission where Caiatl saves our ass, Rohan’s sacrifice, and the final stand against Calus, I don’t really feel the urgency or any sense of pervading doom that we should be feeling considering what the stakes are. It’s an action movie! When I saw that first Lightfall title card revealed back in 2020, and especially the name, I was like, oh fuck. But the ‘Light fall’ we got is 85% a Bruce Willis movie in vapourwave and it just clashes so weirdly with that 15% that is actually unfathomable sacrifices and a gruelling failure.

I don’t know if that’s the reason for most of the criticism Lightfall gets (and I don’t necessarily care what reddit thinks), but that’s what I think is my problem with it.

(Also gosh the CloudArk stuff and lorebooks being pandemic-era fiction… I didn’t think about it before but I CAN SEE IT omg)

I think with Lightfall like. It's fun. I had a good time. A blast, even! Especially with the gameplay, even when I got frustrated because I was playing Legendary and I'm not a good gamer.

It's action movie fun. Which is what it intended to be, really, from all the tropes and the pacing of it. But it got bodied with sudden roadmap changes and Witch Queen as video game Oscar bait.

Yeah, I think it could have used a breather to bond more with Rohan especially, but there was in-game justification for going fast and I'm sure the format A Destiny Expansion(tm) limited the team. We saw it bad in Witch Queen's seasons, and Bungie acknowledged that yeah the seasons structure was limiting them. As someone who works in software dev, nobody likes having to make things worse. But it happens a lot. Sometimes in really bullshit ways that the software folks wouldn't expect to be that level of bullshit, let alone anyone who isn't working with the software day in and day out. And by bullshit I mean "massive overhaul of the entire system just to make one tiny change" kinds of bullshit. Again, nobody likes it. I promise you.

Back to Lightfall. It's a fun action movie. It's also the plot point we'd been hurtling towards since Witch Queen, and probably even well before that: The Darkest Hour. We're struggling to use this new power in time, the mysteries around us have unraveled but in the end it's too late for us to get the upper hand, and it nearly costs us everything. In the year beforehand, we'd been losing in one way or another at the end of the seasons: Crow kills the Psion, our rituals fail to stop Calus, Eramis gets away, Rasputin dies. The Witness accesses the Traveler.

What it also does is it sets up the rest of the year for our Triumphant Finale. We get a thread to follow - how to get into the Traveler - and chase it through the year, alongside other threads like what the Veil is and how we're gonna deal with Xivu Arath. As of the end(ish) of Wish, we've got our answer and are primed for The Final Shape as our finale.

But first we had to have The Darkest Hour. Which, in the short term, being what it is, is a bummer. No getting around it. It's also part of why comparisons to Witch Queen went awry, IMO.

Witch Queen is, as I said before, the Oscar bait, insofar as an MMO looter-shooter has Oscar bait. It puts the tangled web front and center instead of tracing one thread and then zooming out to show the whole thing. It's more philosophical in nature, sitting back and asking us whether we think we're special and what really separates us from one of the enemies we hadn't forged alliances with yet: the Hive. And, of course, if we'd noticed the puppetmaster behind it all. It ties up the question that's been going on since Forsaken: are we the bad guys? (No, not really, we're struggling to survive the way everyone else is. Which, nobody else we've been fighting is really "the bad guy" either.)

It's a really good storyline! I loved it, even if, honestly, I didn't like the gameplay as much as Lightfall. I think it's earned its good reviews and positive reception.

But it is the Oscar bait. And unlike Lightfall, its plot role didn't require the same downer ending. It could sprawl, and honestly? I don't think it would have worked as our Darkest Hour. Not without screwing up the story and making a jumbled mess. Seriously, I don't think Destiny's "everyone gets a second chance" philosophy would have carried well at all if The Darkest Hour was when the Hive got Ghosts. Instead it would have reinforced our misconception at the beginning of Lightfall - that we are the sole rightful Lightbearers and that the Hive getting the Light was a wrongdoing.

Destiny did need something between Witch Queen and The Final Shape. And they moved things - but announced it less than a year before Lightfall released. At their big press conference-y deal, but still. Limited time for folks to get the news.

And then it came out and it was an action movie, not Oscar bait. But it followed Oscar bait, so that's what the expectation was.

Personally, I'm fond of, say, Moonlight. Fantastic movie. Beautiful and heartfelt. I enjoyed it and I think it is worthy of its high praise. But if you ask me what my favorite movie is, I'll say it's a tossup between Pacific Rim and Mad Max: Fury Road. They fit different niches in the cultural ecosystem - Moonlight isn't a bad Pacific Rim and Pacific Rim isn't a bad Moonlight. Not unless you pit them against each other despite their vast differences.

Also I remember there was lots of complaining about how empty Neomuna was at first, but everything about the CloudArk and especially the lorebook is such early pandemic-era fiction.

Lightfall is a good action movie. Witch Queen is good Oscar bait. Both of them have their strong points and weak points. There are technical factors that limit things. There are other external factors that limit things (looking at you, upper management).

It's fair to critique a story but like, I dunno. Bungie's devs, writers, and artists aren't idiots or evil or out to get you specifically. Lightfall is fine but you can't - and shouldn't - expect it to be Witch Queen.

Please, for the love of everything holy, don't let us repeat the nasty bitchy maelstrom we got around Lightfall. Or I'll start shitting in ovens.

[bestfungames1]

New Post has been published on https://bestfungames.com/marvels-avengers-review/

MARVEL'S AVENGERS REVIEW

69

MARVEL’S AVENGERS REVIEW

Marvel’s finest have never looked or sounded this good, but their best efforts feel in vain.

By Robert Zak September 07, 2020

As the Marvel’s Avengers campaign ends, to be replaced by samey missions, it reminds me of the dual identity of so many superheroes. Avengers straps on its tightest, glossiest spandex for the campaign and dazzles with its moves, but once that adventure ends and it returns to the daily grind of a multiplayer-oriented endgame, it blurs into the crowd. Inoffensive, yet indistinguishable but for its famous superhero superstars.

The frustrating thing about Marvel’s Avengers is that for the first few hours, you see hints of what it could have been—a visually spectacular and satisfying adventure—but then a functional, unoriginal loop of missions takes over, and you realise that that’s the actual game you’ll be spending most of your time with.

The campaign offers a simple story, following future Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan as she seeks to reassemble the Avengers following a disaster that creates a wave of new superheroes labelled as ‘Inhumans’. You’re pitted against floating-head-with-tiny-limbs, MODOK, who’s intent on wiping out all Inhumans with the help of AIM’s Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini and her army of robots.

A pretty regular Marvel setup then, and beautifully written, animated, and voice-acted throughout. I found myself actively looking forward to the cutscenes and snippets of in-game banter.

R relationship between Bruce Banner and Kamala Khan unfolds beautifully. Banner’s unsure body language and mix of irritation and avuncular care he shows towards Khan—whose chirpy teenage optimism is just what 2020 needs—is a masterclass of voicework and mocap. It also elegantly addresses the fact that, to a 30-plus curmudgeon like me, the fresh-faced Khan can be kind of annoying, but her convincing character arc soon gets me completely onboard.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

Given the amount of big names the campaign has to introduce, it’s understandable that not all the relationships get the same level of attention, but each character still entertains as you bring the Avengers’ floating command centre back to life. The villain MODOK, with his pustulent, hypertrophic head that seems to swell up with every scene, is brilliantly brought to life. The performance turns one of Marvel’s goofiest-looking heroes into a memorable, eerily soft-spoken villain.

However, once you’re aboard the Avengers’ Chimera ship, it becomes a little too obvious that you’re being roped into the publisher’s long game. You walk around on deck as your Avenger of choice, picking up time-limited challenges from vendors, buying gear using real or in-game currency, and using a map to freely drop into missions set across several biomes around the world. Some you do solo, others you do alongside up to three other Avengers, who can be controlled by AI or online players. I’d play with others where possible, and it speaks to the simplicity of the missions and combat that there’s not too much need for communication or a balanced squad.

I did get to play online alongside Hulk wearing a Hawaiian shirt and fedora though.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

PERFORMANCE

I’ve been reading a a little bit about performance problems on PC, but can say that my experience has been mostly stable. There were a couple of odd bugs during the campaign that forced me to restart the game, and multiplayer matchmaking has been very slow from my experience, forcing me to give up after minutes of waiting multiple times.

The combat is a curious mix of classic brawler moves like juggling, suspended aerial attacks and light-heavy combos with the counter-and-dodge-based style of the Arkham games (there’s even a move where you jump over a shielded enemy’s head to break their shield). Little icons on the edges of the screen tell you how close a missile or laser is to blasting you away, while enemy melee attacks are telegraphed by coloured circles, which let you know whether to dodge or parry them. Get enough attacks together, and your rage meter fills, letting you unlock spectacular special moves like Iron Man summoning his Hulkbuster mech, or Ms. Marvel turning into a long-limbed giantess resembling a wacky waving inflatable tube girl.

The icons give you a lot to think about while filling your screen with a confetti of mechanised enemies and special moves executed by your fellow Avengers, and it doesn’t always feel like you—or even the game itself—can keep up. A couple of dozen hours in, I’ll still often dodge instead of parrying when the enemy attack circle is white (dodge for red, dammit!), and that all-important telegraphing of enemy moves isn’t entirely consistent, and the camera’s a little too close for comfort – great for ogling Hulk’s slabs of back muscle, not so great for managing space in a scuffle.

Playing as the speedsters of the group, Ms. Marvel and Black Widow, feels much better than Hulk, whose lumbering style doesn’t sync well with the already slowish animations and floaty jumping physics. High-flyers Iron Man and Thor, meanwhile, definitely offer a buzz as you can freely swoop into battle from way overhead of your buddies. Unfortunately finer aerial maneuvering and attacks are fiddly and much weaker than melee. It may be fun to fly, but the action’s really on the ground.

But in a game so much about fan service, there’s something to be said for making each superhero feel unique, even if that is at the expense of balance. The characters move and attack just like you remember from the movies or imagine from the comics, right down to the disinterested way Hulk toe-pokes chests open. During these little moments, and amidst the on-screen muddle when you string together a bunch of counters and executions before letting rip with a hero’s special move, the superhero fantasy successfully shines.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

The bigger problems come later. Missions may be set all over the world, but levels themselves are sparse expanses of snow/forests/city where you hunt for crates hidden in metal bunkers guarded by faceless robots, before proceeding to complete a main objective—destroying a few structures, or holding onto some control points, Battlefield-style.

The game tries to spruce things up with awkward platforming segments and hunts for SHIELD stashes (essentially a slightly better stash among endless stashes), but they’re visually ugly and unvaried, in stark contrast to the elegantly animated and designed superheroes that run around them.

Also, for some reason the ‘Power’ level required for various missions is all over the place, greatly restricting the amount of missions you can tackle. I was quite up for a boss-fight mission that SHIELD offered for their daily challenge (which improves your faction rank with SHIELD, which lets you buy locked-off gear yada-yada), only to find that I was dozens of levels below being able to do it. These are the kinds of things that can be smoothed out over the coming months, but as things stand a good chunk of the endgame remains level-gated.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

Back aboard the Chimera, the metagame of daily challenges, endless gear upgrades (with daily ‘specialty’ items) and missions becomes particularly noticeable post-campaign. Without the more bespoke campaign-specific missions and story to break them up, the monotony begins to set in, and while there is an obsessive feedback loop to repeating missions, upgrading your gear, and improving your character in perpetuity, you don’t even get to see these gear upgrades. The only aesthetic changes are different costumes, which are a hard to find, and otherwise locked behind higher levels and real-world currency.

There’s nothing too egregious about the microtransactions, which are purely cosmetic and also include emotes, nameplates and execution animations, but there’s nothing particularly satisfying to work towards in the endgame either.

Perhaps a fleshed-out single-player campaign will never be enough to satisfy Avenger’s marketing aims. The story is worthy of Marvel’s movie canon, but it’s too short and ends up being a shiny wrapper for what’s currently a rudimentary game-as-service.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

This comes with the caveat that it’s just getting started, and there have been plenty of online-oriented games that started slowly. There’s enough button-mashy mileage in the combat system, especially as new heroes get introduced as DLC, but it’s the mission design and loot loop that let it down. It’s just not strong or varied enough to justify the long-term investment the game wants from you.

Not that justification beyond a 14-hour campaign and ‘it’s your favourite superheroes and they look amazing’ is needed for a day one purchase, based on the game’s early sales. But if Marvel’s Avengers wants to keep loyalists sweet and expand its player-base, it needs a lot more flesh on its vibranium skeletal armature. If only the game could carry some of its narrative prowess from the campaign over into the endgame.

[blackbatpurplecat]

My Thoughts on Injustice 2

Watched Injustice 2 last night. Yes, watched, not played. After all, the story is the most interesting thing about this sequel no one really asked for, isn’t it? And what did I think of it?

Well.... I was... kinda disappointed.

Be warned, SPOILERS AHEAD!

First off, what’s the story: Some time’s gone by since Injustice and Superman’s incarceration. His allies went into hiding, and Bruce Wayne’s still working on restoring people’s faith in their safety and in heroes. But when Brainiac attacks Earth, the good and the bad must join forces to stop him from destroying their planet. Even if that means freeing Superman...

Sounds like a cool setup! But the execution is not on Injustice levels. The probably best part about the game is the voice-acting! That was absolutely solid! I can’t remember one line that sounded off. I applaud the voice-actors for this. Apart from the voices, however, the whole thing is hit-and-miss in my eyes.

I already didn’t like the new creepy animation in the trailers. In the game, it does have its moments though. Sometimes, the characters look and move almost exactly like real people. But a split second later, they look off again, cold and have the deadest eyes you can imagine. What also doesn’t help is the “camera” work!

They apparently were SO proud of their real life like animations that they kept cutting to extremely awkward close-ups. Whenever a character was talking, you could bet your ass that any moment you would be counting their eyelashes. That was really distracting and killed the scenes’ mood. It’s hard to get invested in the story’s thrill or characters’ emotions when you’re uncomfortably close to a dead face.

Speaking of emotions, the sequel can’t really deliver on them. While you had quiet moments, well-written character developments, and chances to connect with the characters in Injustice, Injustice 2 fails in those departments. There are only 2 very good scenes between Batman and Superman where you catch glimpses of who they once were, glimpses of their lost friendship and partnership: when Supes lifts the table cloth off the JL symbol and at the end, when they’re talking about how they miss their old selves and each other. Those two scenes were beautiful! The game finally made you feel something on a deeper level - but you won’t get any more scenes like those, even though the cutscenes in movie form are around 2h 30min long. 

You’d think that it’d be enough time for depth, especially when you remember that part 1 wasn’t even 2 hours long and yet so entertaining and satisfying. But nope, Injustice 2 feels both rushed and patted at the same time. After the plot kicks off, it takes around an hour for plot advancing stuff to happen. Uuuuugh. They reduced characters talking to each other, reflecting on their actions, and simple bonding but stretched out moving those characters from one location to another. Also the pacing can be pretty off. You’ll get some awkward pauses now and then, often before a scene cuts to the next shot - but not fast enough.

Hmm, what else...

Harley was the most fun in this! Her scenes with Black Canary and Arrow were awesome and just the best. I wanted more of those.

Some suits looked okay, some looked horrible. Especially Batman’s suit was WAY too bulky, there is no way he could have moved in that thing. And why does Superman need armor? Why couldn’t they make up their mind about Aquaman’s shirtlessness?! What kind of dominatrix mask was Selina wearing?! Why add pink and blue to Harley when she’s only wearing black and red?! What the flying fuck was that Joker design???!!! SERIOUSLY, WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK?????? If Scarecrow had gassed me, THAT Joker would have been my worst fear as well! That design was terrible!!!

The music was generic and completely forgettable. I don’t remember any melody or theme. But I DO remember how it kept on booming during a scene that was intended to be emotional. Man, those loud clashes in the background didn’t go well with the compassion we were supposed to feel... Apart from that, you’ll soon forget that there even IS music.

And what really got me angry was that the game doesn’t follow its own canon! Right at the beginning, we get a completely superfluous flashback to that vomit stain rape result Damian leaving Batman for Superman. In the comics, Bats’ team and Supes’ team clash at Arkham; we see a kid Robin side with Supes and kill Nightwing because Damian is the biggest piece of arrogant shit ever, but in Injustice 2, only Batman, an adult and extremely annoying Robin, and Superman meet at Arkham, Robin kills Zsazs and after Batman wipes the floor with him, he leaves with Supes. It was one of the most emotional scenes in the books, how could the makers forget it?! They remembered that Green Arrow was from another world/dimension but not what Robin looked like or why/how he took Supes’ side? 

And again, why did we need that flashback? It’s not like it’s there to get players up to speed about what happened in the comics because there are so many other book references that clearly show the game expects you to have read them.

Now what I liked and appreciated is that you can actually pick a side towards the end of the game; either you’re siding with Batman which results in Superman being stripped off his powers and being sent into the Phantom Zone (but we won’t find out what they did about Brainiac and the lost cities) OR you’re siding with Superman to see him kill Brainiac, take over his ship, and enslave the entire universe - including his cousin Kara and Batman. THAT was a very dark ending that gave me the chills. Well done!

Now, the most important question you’ve all been asking yourselves: WHAT’S IN IT FOR US BATCAT SHIPPERS???

Nothing.

BatCat talk to each other maybe twice and it’s only battle tactics. Hell, they never even look at each other. And when you beat the Arcade mode as Batman, Catwoman doesn’t appear nor is she mentioned in his ending. You beat the game as Catwoman and her ending shows us BatCat kiss only to have Selina getting bored and leaving Bruce to go back to stealing. The End.

WOW, what a horrendous ending! Injustice did a way better job back then! Even though BatCat didn’t get back together at the end, her Arcade mode ending at least implied that they’d find their way back together eventually. The sequel alludes to Bruce bailing her out of prison after the ending of the first game and BatCat seeeeeem to be together again but I’m not sure about that because they never interact or actually talk.

All in all, I think it’s a pretty mediocre game. The story is very interesting and bears LOTS of potential but it didn’t get me as engaged as its predecessor. The characters’ interactions which made Injustice such a good game were completely glossed over. Now they feel rather two-dimensional. The Arcade endings were quite nice; some were good and hopeful (OMG HARLEY!!!), some were sad and dark. They balanced each other out rather well. The animation.... well, that’s probably a matter of taste but to me, it was too distracting way too often.

If you want it, go ahead and get it but I would strongly advise you to wait until it’s on sale. Injustice 2 really isn’t a game you HAVE to play.