Shenmue III Review – Pained Nostalgia

Publisher: Deep Silver

Developer: Ys Net

Release: November 19, 2019

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: PC

After a successful Kickstarter campaign backed by almost 70,000 fans who longed to see Ryo Hazuki’s journey continue, developers Ys Net and Neilo created a new Shenmue game – one that would feel right at home on the Dreamcast. Shenmue III provides a deep well of nostalgia for fans returning to the series, but also feels dated and desperately needs to evolve in key areas. It is a game that time forgot, a new experience that stubbornly clings to its retro roots and ignores most innovations that shaped interactive entertainment for the last 18 years.

Picking up exactly where the last chapter left off, we see young Ryo and his new friend Shenhua Ling emerge from a cave to continue tracking Lan Di, the man who killed Ryo’s father. This opening moment flashes fool’s gold in front of players, with a scenic walk backed by stunning visuals. You see highly detailed textures, lushly populated storefronts, and lightning that makes Bailu Village look like one of the most tranquil places on the globe. The world looks great, but is the only part of the game that is truly modern. The gameplay that follows screams of the early ‘00s and can be downright awful – not just from how old it feels, but also how poorly conceived it is.

While I had some fun ignoring Ryo’s bid for revenge to dabble in a nice selection of side activities (such as catching ducks or collecting capsule toys), the critical path suffers from monotony. This is primarily due to an overreliance on talking to civilians to uncover the path forward. Shenmue III struggles with how it implements conversations, and yet that’s what you do most of the time. The dialogue is stilted, lines are repeated, and some responses don’t line up with the question at all. Ryo’s line of questioning also makes him sound like the world’s worst detective. “I’m looking for some thugs. Have you seen them?” “Do you know where I can learn kung fu?” Get used to hearing him ask about these things for hours on end.

When Ryo isn’t engaging in these maddening exchanges, he’s training to improve his skills – not just to take on Lan Di, but those pesky thugs and plenty of other threats. He gains experience and levels up by sparring against other opponents and by practicing on training dummies. Despite the exercises being incredibly boring – like squatting in place for a minute – the skills you collect provide a nice pursuit of power. If you take the time to train extensively, you can basically break the game balance and become a monster of a combatant, which I found to be worthy of my time in light of the suspect combat system.

Battles are more fluid than in Shenmue 1 and 2, allowing you to initiate special attacks with a click of a button, but don’t expect every hit to land – even if you punch someone square in the face. All too often, I would knock an opponent down, circle around to get behind them, and then perform another devastating blow that, despite hitting the target spot on, didn’t do any damage or stagger them at all. It’s like I didn’t even deliver it. The targeting lock also has a mind of its own, losing track of your opponent when he falls. These inconsistencies can be infuriating, especially since you may need to stop retrying a battle to buy more food to restore your health, which could also mean you need to take on a job or be forced to gamble to have the requisite funds.

Some of the mission designs are clearly used to halt player progress, such as being forced to earn enough to buy a bottle of wine or a book. Earning this money sometimes falls onto dumb luck at the casino or completing mundane jobs over and over again. Inconsistency is everywhere. You can sometimes fast travel to speed up the clock to reach a story moment, but not always.

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Shenmue III is often frustrating, but I still enjoyed my time in Bailu and the other locations Ryo eventually visits. The freedom to explore and do what you want still holds plenty of fun, and the world is charming; it has its own vibe, flair, and pacing. I just didn’t like it when Ryo would talk or fight, which just happen to be what Shenmue III’s critical path is mostly about. It also has plenty of QTE moments, which are oddly the most polished and fair part of this experience. In these moments, Ryo skillfully ducks and weaves out of the way of punches and obstacles, and should you happen to miss a button press, you immediately get another shot. They’re fun to watch and don’t punish you.

I also enjoyed the journey that Ryo and Shenhua took, even though little progress was made in the overall story. Fans knew this going in, however, as director Yu Suzuki stated Shenmue III only gets us through roughly 40 percent of Ryo’s tale. We’re not even halfway through this epic idea yet. Despite having many issues with Shenmue III, I’m glad I returned to this world. It scratched an itch I didn’t know I had, and periodically showed me why it was an important game back in the day. But it mostly reminded me of why a third entry didn’t release for almost two decades.

Score: 6

Summary: After 18 years, Ryo is back and he hasn't learned a thing in his time away.

Concept: A sequel 18 years in the making that feels like it was made 18 years ago

Graphics: The world is filled with details and scenic shots. Character models range from realistic to cartoony, but they all mesh somehow

Sound: Music loops too quickly, and some of the voice acting made me cringe

Playability: Conversations are repetitive and often pointless. Combat is clunky and inconsistent. QTEs and minigames are sadly the most polished parts

Entertainment: Exploring small towns is still fun and rewarding until you have to engage in battle and dialogue. Then it falls apart

Replay: Moderately Low

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Superliminal Review – A Matter Of Perspective

Publisher: Pillow Castle

Developer: Pillow Castle

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PC

Our dreams are often thrilling, arresting, and terrifying – sometimes they are all three at once. Superliminal is a puzzle game that attempts to explore those feelings and the fuzzy logic that only exists inside our dreams. Impressively, it evokes many of the emotions we have while we sleep. Unfortunately, using dream logic to solve real puzzles also provides its fair share of frustrations.

Superliminal is a first-person puzzler that plays with forced perspectives. One of its strongest gimmicks is how it allows you to use your perspective to manipulate objects. For example, if you hold an apple close to your face it looks bigger than it actually is. In Superliminal, you can use this to your advantage, so when you hold small objects up close they actually do become larger. This works both ways, and I got a real thrill out of plucking giant houses off the horizon to shrink them down so I could set them on a table as if they were a doll’s accessory. This perspective manipulation mechanic is really neat and I had fun shrinking big objects down so they could fit through tiny holes and enlarging small wedges of cheese to create ramps up to second-story doors.

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As Superliminal progresses, its puzzles naturally evolve. However, things are rarely what they seem, and developer Pillow Castle constantly plays with your expectations. For example, at one point I reached for a box only to watch it disintegrate in my hands. Some of Superliminal’s levels aren’t puzzles as much as they are interactive optical illusions and the environment will shift and warp as you move. These moments are neat, but they can also be disorienting, like when you walk through a doorway and suddenly find yourself falling through the floor.

Exploring Superliminal’s illogical spaces is novel, unfortunately, it also leads to one of the game’s biggest flaws: it is sometimes hard to know what the game is demanding of the player. At one point, I got stuck in a looped hallway. Every time I tried to leave the area I found myself reenter the same space. I ultimately solved this puzzle by touching a certain object each time I passed by, but the game never communicates why I had to do this or how that allowed me to progress. Many of Superliminal’s puzzles offer clever solutions, but I was occasionally stuck in an obtuse situation that left me scratching my head even after I’d stumbled through the solution.

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This entire trippy experience is wrapped around a loose narrative about waking dreams. As the game opens, you “awake” in a clinic ready to participate in an experimental dream therapy program, but it quickly becomes clear that you are trapped inside your own mind. The clinic’s founder, Dr. Glenn Pierce, occasionally sends you cheeky messages that poke fun at new age therapy and ultimately encourage players to see the world from a different perspective. Superliminal humor is fairly inoffensive but the jokes don’t always land, and the story fails to leave a lasting impression.

On the whole, that’s how I feel about Superliminal. When Superliminal’s mechanics work, I felt like I was participating in a magic trick, but when they didn’t I felt like the developers were playing a trick on me. I was both amused and frustrated while playing Superliminal, but didn’t think much about the game after its credit’s rolled. Like a fading dream, Superliminal is also a bit ephemeral.

Score: 7.5

Summary: Superliminal is a puzzle game that attempts to explore those feelings and the fuzzy logic that only exists inside our dreams.

Concept: Manipulate objects to change their size and navigate a surreal, dreamlike space

Graphics: Superliminal’s world is simple and clean, and these orderly environments help sell the illusion of being trapped in a dream

Sound: There isn’t much of a soundtrack, but Superliminal’s ambient tones create an eerie mood

Playability: Interacting with objects requires only one click; most of the challenge comes from moving items around the environment

Entertainment: Puzzles range from clever to obtuse, and exploring these impossible spaces is incredibly compelling

Replay: Moderately Low

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Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Review – A Turbulent Thrill Ride

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Respawn Entertainment

Release: November 15, 2019

Reviewed on: Xbox One

Also on: PlayStation 4, PC

A raw, untamed power courses through Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Much like a Padawan in training, this game is a student of the Force, not a master. The lightsaber is used skillfully, twirling in exhilarating ways to chop down Imperial troops, and the Force flows into acrobatic movements, but the Padawan’s motions are rough and unrefined. This inexperience fits with the story of a Jedi losing touch with the Force, but is more of a reflection of Jedi: Fallen Order missing a coat of polish.

Jedi: Fallen Order reminds me of Naughty Dog’s first Uncharted game: an ambitious action experience that was just a little off in its delivery. Respawn has made a game that is every bit as ambitious, and despite showing a little sloppiness in execution, is an enthralling and fully featured Star Wars experience, hitting with a commanding bang in its cinematic presentation, environmental exploration, and journey shared between a Jedi and his droid.

The first shot of the game sets the tone for the entire adventure. We see a junkyard filled with giant derelict starships being dismantled by the Empire for parts. TIE fighters roar into view, and the camera pans to show the immense scale of this sequence. The detail showcased in this moment is impressive, looking like an expensive shot from a new Star Wars film. The orchestration that swells is also reminiscent of John Williams’ work, again making it feel like an epic cinematic experience.

Just when it would seem Respawn is following George Lucas’ formula, the soundtrack switches to something different with a throaty alien singer that doesn’t sound like typical Star Wars. We then meet protagonist Cal Kestis, who is listening to this strange song through a pair of headphones as he works. This moment screams of something new, which Jedi: Fallen Order embraces fully. As the game unfolds, you see stormtroopers, a few familiar faces, and a Jedi learning the ways of the Force, but we see these iconic elements through the lens of new characters, worlds, and story ideas.

Cal is immediately likeable as a conflicted soul, and is brought to life wonderfully by actor Cameron Monaghan. Cal’s cohort, a droid named BD-1, is equally as fun to get to know, resembling a friendly lapdog more than any other droid in Star Wars. They have a playful banter and experience hardships with one another, and their bond forms the foundation for a hell of an adventure. They explore ancient shrines looking for clues that could hold the answer to resurrecting the Jedi Order. The mystery keeps the story engaging, as does the well-defined threat of the Inquisitors, Jedi-slayers who are hunting Cal and always seem to be one step ahead of him. Excellently penned flashbacks are sewn into this nicely paced narrative to add extra dimensions to the characters and conflict at hand.

The one area where the story stumbles is in revisiting previously explored worlds for narrative reasons. As exciting as it is to dive deep into Dathomir’s witch tombs or see the untamed beauty of Kashyyyk, the reasons to return to these planets often seem like a bit of a stretch. The thinking is along the lines of “The door’s locked. Oh well. Let’s leave and see if we can find a way to open it on another planet.” That said, I enjoyed veering off of the story path to explore worlds on my own, since players can freely go to whichever one they want.

Jedi: Fallen Order’s most dynamic and entertaining quality is exploration. Cal begins with basic human abilities, but quickly remembers how to run along walls, double jump, and use the Force to push and pull objects. He taps into his gifts to navigate treacherous ground in finely crafted open environments filled with soaring verticality, snaking paths, and plenty of thrilling platforming and combat challenges. Cal’s acrobatic movements are reliable and easy to read, and should you fall, the game doesn’t punish you. You just take some damage and get another shot. Most of Cal’s actions fit into the Jedi playbook, but Respawn went a little too far in its attempts to create dynamic action, like lengthy Super Mario 64-like slippery slopes and odd gelatinous bouncy pads that don’t really scream “Star Wars.” It gets a little too gamey in these moments.

Although you spend some time retracing steps through environments, shortcuts are placed in convenient spots and most areas are filled with secrets galore, such as additional stim canisters, outfits and ponchos for Cal, and paint schemes for BD-1 and the crew’s ship, the Stinger Mantis. The stim canisters are incredibly valuable, as the game is challenging (even on the default difficulty) and I usually found my health to be in the red, hoping another checkpoint was nearby.

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Combat isn’t the central focus of Jedi: Fallen Order, and I was surprised (and pleased) that Respawn didn’t throw in encounters just to up the intensity at times. Stretches of play are without them and that pacing works well for the adventure aspects. Battles are where the biggest thrills and problems reside. Swinging the lightsaber feels damn good; it’s fast, powerful, feels dangerous, and delivers big results, like slicing rampaging beasts clean in two. Respawn’s decision to make combat more of a defensive game also pays dividends in terms of strategy and flow. I like that the fights are deliberately paced, and allow for multiple targets to be engaged at once, such as exchanging lightsaber blows with a purge trooper and then in between swings using Force Push to send a rocket back at a stormtrooper. You don’t just run into a room and start swinging. You strategize and pick at enemies carefully. Timing parries can be tricky, but should you succeed, reward you with a big hit or instant kill that looks amazing.

The combat ideas are sound and lead to some awesome moments that make you feel like a true Jedi, but the enemies can throw kinks into your plans, as some of their movements are not telegraphed well, and you sometimes see animation hitches that can’t be predicted, and make parry efforts next to impossible. Additionally, archers and snipers sometimes freeze up and won’t fire at you, leading to a strange showdown where nothing is happening for 15 to 20 seconds. More troubling, I ran into numerous issues with BD-1 not healing me, although Cal audibly calls for it. Having this happen against the grueling end-game bosses was somewhat maddening. Given how many ledges are in most worlds, don’t be surprised if a combat encounter is interrupted by Cal getting knocked off a cliff and then magically reappearing to lock sabers again. It’s jarring, and speaks volumes to the combat being a little rough overall in terms of Cal's base movements. The visuals, while stunning in composition, can sometimes be affected by texture pop-in, lighting not displaying correctly, or enemies quickly dropping into place as a door is opened.

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Despite these numerous little problems, Respawn’s maiden voyage with Star Wars is largely a success. I couldn’t put this game down, both for the thrill of exploring and wanting to see where the story took me next. The inspirations taken from Dark Souls, Uncharted, and Metroid Prime unite to create something unique that just happens to work incredibly well for this beloved license. Like most starships in this universe, Jedi: Fallen Order could use a little polish, but the rust doesn’t hold it back from roaring with excitement.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Respawn Entertainment's maiden voyage with Star Wars is largely a success, but it's a little rough around the edges.

Concept: A journey of discovery unfolds in a sprawling, open-ended adventure that succeeds in both story and action

Graphics: The amount of detail on display in every area is incredible. However, enemy animations can be tricky to read, and some texture popping occurs

Sound: The orchestrated score, BD-1’s unique chirps, and all of the voice work are superb and make for a hell of an aural Star Wars experience

Playability: Traversal is slick, allowing players to run along walls, double jump, and using the Force to pull a vine to them with ease. Lightsaber combat is fluid and intense, but feels a little unpolished

Entertainment: Jedi: Fallen Order tells a new Star Wars story and takes players to new places. It sits nicely alongside the Rebels and Resistance TV shows, which also dare to be different

Replay: Moderately High

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Need For Speed Heat Review – The Return Of The Reboot

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Developer: Ghost Games

Release: November 8, 2019

Rating: Teen

Reviewed on: PlayStation 4

Also on: Xbox One, PC

The Need for Speed franchise is back from a brief hiatus after the failure of 2017’s Need for Speed Payback. During that time, developer Ghost Games has refocused and concentrated on the series’ core: cops, high speeds, world exploration, and customization – with a hokey story thrown in for old times’ sake. Need for Speed Heat has its flaws (its cop integration could be better), but it’s a rousing return that delivers on many of the franchise’s touchstones.
 
While the story of street racers going up against corrupt cops is forgettable, the day/night cycle that governs your activities is appealing. You earn money during the day and reputation points at night. You need both currencies to progress. Cops are more active at night and take chunks of money and rep if you’re caught. Meanwhile, you earn progressively more rep for stringing races together and attracting police attention, so it’s fun to tempt fate with “one more race” before parking it for the night at the nearest safe house. 
 
Even with the threat of arrest, the police in NFS Heat take a slight backseat to racing other street racers (online or A.I.). The cops can be formidable, marshaling ramming trucks and more to bring you down, but they’re easy to escape when they chase you in the middle of a race event. Also, they are only a nuisance now and again because there aren’t enough set-piece moments to amp up their power and presence.

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Palm City, which has Miami-like city streets, industrial areas, and broad hills made for drifting, contains more than just race events. Finding collectibles and performing mini-challenges like smashing billboards, going through speed traps, and taking on technical time trial courses dole out rewards. Money and reputation multipliers are also passively earned when joining an online crew. The more everyone races the more everyone earns.
                 
Need for Speed’s gameplay is centered on arcade racing, but I enjoy how it still demands a racer’s touch. The plethora of events in the world are suited towards different styles of racing such as drifting and long high-speed sprints, and so are the cars’ basic driving characteristics and upgrades. I liked having to change my driving mentality and car depending on the circumstance. There were times when I could out-muscle the competition by the sheer superiority of my cars’ horsepower. However, the more satisfying moments were when I won with an underpowered car because I knew how to race the course according to my ride’s characteristics.
 
For example, high-end speed isn’t as important in a circuit race filled with tight turns. Instead, I cornered correctly to win. Conversely, the long sprint races are about maintaining top speed over long distances with drifting required around the tighter corners. You have more time to make up lost ground, but there’s also more traffic to plow into.
 
Overall, Heat does a great job balancing numerous factors to keep the racing flowing and exciting. Traffic density, what you can/cannot crash through alongside the road, the ability to cut corners when necessary, and even a little bit of rubberbanding, all come into play but don’t drag the game down or make it frustrating.

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Car part upgrades run the gamut of standard (crankshaft, exhaust, etc.) to very useful, such as auxiliary parts that weaken the police’s radar. Upgrades like tires and suspension are also instrumental in shaping vehicle characteristics to make them more suitable for specific race types – a nice component in step with the gameplay. Cosmetic changes like editable decal layers and underglow effects are also worth spending in-game money on (there are no microtransactions), helping make your investments feel worthwhile. Overall, I liked upgrading existing cars in my garage (and therefore become more attached to them) as well as having to buy new ones occasionally to keep up with the game’s difficulty.
 
Need for Speed has meant different things over the years, but Heat is a good all-around representation of the franchise. The police could be a little more prominent, and the world – while well stocked – isn’t as interesting as Forza Horizon’s, for instance, but NFS Heat is the best iteration since Ghost Games’ reboot in 2015.

Score: 7.75

Summary: There's plenty to do in Palm City – night or day – in this solid entry in the series.

Concept: Palm City hums with activities set in the day or night while corrupt cops keep a lookout.

Graphics: NFS Heat pops with neon splashes and water-slicked streets. Best of all, the game is consistently smooth.

Sound: Small touches, such as being able to customize your cars’ exhaust sound, and the fact that your character actually speaks during cutscenes, are very welcome.

Playability: I enjoy that different kinds of cars are suited to specific types of races, which changes how you approach driving and upgrading them.

Entertainment: The game’s day/night structure is part of a compelling structure that makes NFS Heat a solid entry in the franchise.

Replay: Moderately High

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Pokémon Sword & Shield Review – Maxing Out The Pokémon Formula

Publisher: The Pokemon Company, Nintendo

Developer: Game Freak

Release: November 15, 2019

Rating: Everyone

Reviewed on: Switch

Throughout the history of the Pokémon franchise, each entry has introduced incremental new features and experimented with new mechanics to support your primary goal: traveling the world in search of the rarest and most powerful creatures. Pokémon Sword & Shield carry on this tradition, debuting a new wide-open area and supersized Pokémon in battles, without sacrificing the elements that made the series such a hit in the first place. While not every aspect of this new generation is perfect, Pokémon Sword & Shield bring several crowd-pleasing elements to deliver an outstanding new installment.

Despite the technological leap forward and the aforementioned experiments, the core tenants of the Pokémon series remain intact. You choose a starter Pokémon in your small hometown, then venture across the region and collect new monsters in a quest to defeat eight powerful trainers and gain access to the final challenges. Finding the right combination of Pokémon for pivotal battles remains fun, and I still get a kick out of creating overpowered teams through stat-boosting items and move-teaching TMs that let you bend the rules.

The turn-based battle system is simple and engaging thanks to tons of distinct Pokémon and moves to experiment with. While Sword & Shield deliver a mostly traditional experience, the new Dynamax mechanic adds new wrinkles. It allows one of your Pokémon to grow enormous once per battle for three turns. During that time, it’s bigger and more powerful, and I love the strategy it adds of choosing the right time to spend your Dynamax. Your A.I. opponents don’t put as much thought into their Dynamaxing; their patterns grow predictable, and surviving is just a matter of being prepared to weather the storm.

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While the Dynamax mechanic has the potential to disrupt the flow of any battle, it doesn’t factor into most encounters, since it can only be used in gym battles and select other situations. I’m glad it can’t be used in every battle (compared to previous generations’ Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves), because it feels special and never becomes routine. When Pokémon grow into giants, the sense of scale is impressive, and the power they wield is amazing thanks to over-the-top animations showcasing the more powerful attacks; watching a giant fist plummet from the sky to obliterate your opponent never gets old.

After Sun & Moon did away with traditional gym battles, Sword & Shield bring them back. Gym battles take place in a sports arena with a screaming crowd that reacts to the action on the field, which is awesome and feels like a big event. But outside of the Dynamax mechanics, the battles play out the same as previous entries. Before you get to the gym battle itself, you must complete a gym challenge. These pre-battle tests task you with solving puzzles, battling a gauntlet of trainers, or other unique assignments. While I generally enjoyed them all, my favorite was a pachinko-meets-pinball minigame where you steer a capsule to navigate through a downhill maze.

While the plot is silly and the twists are visible early on, I love the way Sword & Shield introduce recurring characters throughout the adventure. Having the league champion pop up throughout the story, or running into the gym leaders in places other than the gyms makes your eventual encounters with them that much more impactful.

If you feel like breaking away from the linearity presented by the gym challenge, spend a few hours in the Wild Area. It provides a vast expanse full of different biomes and a fully controllable camera, and it breaks up the pacing. When you step into the immense Wild Area, the possibilities feel endless. You can wander and explore to your heart’s content, discovering an impressive spectrum of monsters to add to your party. However, once you really dig in and encounter higher-level Pokémon there, the façade of freedom and openness falls apart. Gym badges dictate the level of Pokémon you can to catch, a restriction that’s understandable early on when I can’t catch a level 26 Onix before I even reach the first gym. But being unable to even throw a Poké Ball at a level 56 Gyarados during my preparations for the final gym battle is annoying.

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Despite this frustration, I still enjoyed exploring the Wild Area for hours. Finding new Pokémon to add to my team is thrilling, and the new Max Raid Battles, which pit four trainers against a powerful Dynamaxed Pokémon, are a great way to play with others cooperatively and bag some rare Pokémon in the process. This area is impressively large, but it feels barren. However, with so much terrain to explore and Pokémon to catch, I didn’t mind the empty space. An area like this is a dream come true for fans, providing a sense of wonder and exploration unlike what we’ve typically seen in the series – plus it’s a great place to grind to level up your party.

Unfortunately, you won’t find every species of Pokémon in the Wild Area or in other parts of the game, as Game Freak cut a large chunk of them from these titles. It’s disappointing to have so many classic and fan-favorite creatures missing from this game’s Pokédex, but with hundreds of creatures to catch and add to my party, it didn’t significantly impact my experience.

Pokémon Sword & Shield are strong first attempts for the series’ full transition to consoles. While some frustrations hold it back from true legendary status, this new generation proves the Pokémon franchise is still great more than two decades after its debut.

Score: 8.75

Summary: Pokémon Sword & Shield deliver a new generation of creatures to capture throughout a consistently enjoyable adventure.

Concept: Introduce a new region and generation of monsters to a home console for the first time in the Pokémon series

Graphics: With big towns and bigger Pokémon, the sense of scale is impressively displayed with crisp graphics. The moves have never looked better, but the animations are still behind the times

Sound: Sword & Shield’s town themes are among the series’ best, but the digitized Pokémon cries and lack of voiced lines feels more antiquated with each passing entry

Playability: Pokémon continues to be one of the most approachable role-playing series thanks to an easy-to-navigate world, simple turn-based battles, and a friendly difficulty curve

Entertainment: The compelling formula of simultaneously building your collections of monsters and gym badges has proven timeless, but the new additions and enhancements show Pokémon isn’t done evolving

Replay: Moderately high

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