I'm trying to make an effort to post more on my blog, but wasn't sure what to write about as there's not much happening right now. But then I thought, just tell people what you're up to....so here's a look at what is eating up most of my time so far this month!
I bought a couple of games that I've been wanting to play for a long time, but one was taking forever to go on sale and the other wasn't availableon Xbox...until last week, when it suddenly appeared from nowhere! The latter is of course, Death Stranding, the latest game from Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima...and as a fan of those, especially MGS5, I've been interested to see what happens when he has full control over his creative vision!
So now I'm about 8 hours in, and I haven't been disappointed! Although I can see how this game won't be for everyone, for me it's one of the best triple A game titles I've played in years, mainly because it doesn't feel like a triple A game! Let me try and explain...
The gameplay feels like something you would get in an indie title, only with the shine and polish that a bigger game can afford to splash out on. Wandering around big, beautiful...but empty...landscapes, struggling to climb hills and deliver mail does not initially sound like something that would be mainstream in any way...
But add a large spoon of sci-fi weirdness, throw in some Dark-Souls type multiplayer interactions, and a sprinkle of Kojima magic, and the game somehow manages to live up to any expectations you might have had coming from the Metal Gear series..
I'm not going to go too much into plot details too much or anything right now, as … 1) The more you don’t know going in the better the experience will be and 2) I've only just started really…….but I'm enjoying playing as Norman Reedus delivering packages in a post apocalyptic America more than I probably thought I would have...and the way the game is telling me more and more of what's actually going on as I play through it is keeping me interested way more than anything else in recent years. I think it's my favourite since Red Dead Redemption 2!
I'm also loving the sense of community I'm feeling from the structures, messages and packages you can find from other players...who you never see or interact with directly, but you still feel as if you're rebuilding the world together with them as you discover roads, bridges, messages of encouragement, etc. A truly odd but wonderful experience! I'm looking forward to sinking a lot more time into...especially since I've just picked up my first vehicle which is already making things a lot easier!
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The other game I've been wanting to get into is RoboCop : Rogue City....a game which is definitely nowhere near as polished as Death Stranding, but which hits the whole 'being RoboCop' thing so much on the head, that you can forgive it almost anything.
Right from starting the game up, it oozes '80s atmosphere, with the streets you end up walking having just the right gritty-but-with-neon feel. As you stomp around as Murphy, the weighty feel of your legs just seems right, and his voice is perfect too, as Peter Weller reprised his role for the game!
The game isn't perfect....some of the voice acting can be a little too over-the-top, and sometimes seems just wrong for a character...and there can be a fair bit of jank as scenes load in, with textures popping in and graphics not looking quite right. But as I mentioned previously, it just gets so much of the atmosphere right, you can forgive its faults.
The music, the satirical humour, over the top gore, the environments...everything just feels like it's a direct follow on from the RoboCop movies. It could be argued that it relies a bit too much on the films for it's story, but so far I've been enjoying my play through. As well as following the main missions, you can do a bit of 'serving the public trust' as you deal with people's problems that send you off on various side missions to find lost vehicles, or tell a crminal that hands himself in that he can't get the reward money....that sort of thing....
Again I'm only a few hours in, but so far it seems like I'm probably going to be sticking with this until it's finished, which saying as someone with a backlog as huge as mine, is saying something!
Anyway, that's enough rambling on about the games...I'm going back to playing them now! I hope I've inspired you to go try them yourselves, as from what I've played of them so far, they both seem very worthy of the attention!
I'll catch you back here soon when I find something else to ramble about!
Later, Stuffers!
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