Destiny 2: Lightfall Review - Hits And Misses

Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
Platform: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Stadia, PC
Publisher: Bungie
Developer: Bungie
Rating: Teen

Long-running living games are complicated beasts to wrangle and expand in new directions. After so many years, game modes, prior changes, and unique audience groups, a game like Destiny 2 must cater to many masters. That challenge is keenly felt with Destiny 2’s latest expansion. Lightfall is the penultimate chapter in the storytelling arc that has been underway since the original game’s launch in 2014. It misses the mark as a narrative and in a few other key ways. But as a gradual evolution of what has come before, it brings a lot of important additions to the table.

Lightfall’s meandering and poorly explained plot does not offer a solid first impression. Attempts to nod tonally to ‘80s action flicks mostly fall flat, trying and failing to muster a playful vibe at odds with the impending apocalypse. A new core character and vendor, whose dialogue is even more irritating than the combined lot of early Destiny 2 leads, dramatically exacerbates that tonal misstep. After several missions that tease big revelations, the story closes with little payoff, putting players right back where it started in the opening cinematic.

The city of Neomuna on Neptune is colorful, but vacant and void of life. It lacks the sense of discovery and exploration that characterizes the best destinations in the game. However, the distant planet houses some enjoyable combat locales and activities, including invigorating public combat spaces, new enemy configurations, and the most dangerous non-boss enemies the game has yet introduced, in the form of the Tormentors – a great challenge, whenever they show up.

The poor taste left behind by Lightfall’s struggling campaign is gradually alleviated by much of what the rest of the expansion offers. The new Strand subclasses take a while to wrap one’s head around but eventually emerge as incredibly rewarding and powerful. Strand abilities lead to a more mobile and controllable battlefield, dramatically expanding the available playstyles in the best of ways.

Major quality-of-life improvements also make a big difference, even if some systems still need tweaking. The long-awaited approach to loadouts is excellent, letting you set up numerous builds to flip between on the fly – both for function and cosmetics. A new approach to mods is easier to grasp for newcomers to build-crafting. Alongside adjustments to how artifact unlocks provide new abilities, and continual additions to each subclass’ options, the capability to tweak and experiment is much more enjoyable than it has been previously.

New commendation and guardian rank systems are good additions, but both feel too prescriptive and limited to be meaningful. Guardian ranks demand too-specific tasks that don’t represent what they purport to do – express a given player’s experience and expertise. And commendations are a fun idea supporting improved community expression, but in practice, players are mostly just spamming them out without consideration.

Other endgame and investment-oriented activities fare much better than the campaign. Stellar extra missions offer new challenges and locales, like the thrilling hidden quest for the Vexcalibur exotic. On that note, several new exotics add much to the sandbox experience, making me eager to chase them down. The latest raid offers an intriguing core mechanic and a unique visual palette that blends organic and tech-infused looks into a cohesive style. And the new seasonal content, focused on Earth’s final defense against invasion and destruction, is engaging and fun.

I may have found the campaign uninspired and its legendary difficulty a slog characterized by bullet-spongey foes. But an expansion to a game this big is more than just its opening story. Lightfall sets up some strong possibilities – narratively and in the gameplay sphere – for a rewarding year of adventure ahead. Despite some frustrations, Destiny 2 continues to make strides in catering to a diverse player base characterized by disparate desires. Lightfall is hit and miss, but any stumbles shouldn’t be enough to derail players’ enthusiasm for continued adventure or the excitement of seeing the epic conclude over the next year.

 

Score: 7.75

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Bayonetta Origins: Cereza And The Lost Demon Review – A Worthy Apprentice

<p><img src="https://ift.tt/8FtP3oX" width="800" height="450" alt="Bayonettta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon review" typeof="foaf:Image" class="image-style-body-default" /></p>

Reviewed on: Switch
Platform: Switch
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Platinum Games
Rating: Teen

<p>Few games in recent memory etched a permanent smile on my face the way Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon has. This prequel to the Bayonetta series rewrites its mature-rated stylish combat within the whimsical pages of a storybook, spinning an endearing yarn of a young witch fighting to prove herself while forming an unlikely friendship. The result is an eye-catching, unexpectedly dense adventure that has more charm than it knows what to do with.&nbsp;</p> <p>Despite arriving only a few months after Bayonetta 3, Cereza and the Lost Demon doesn’t feel like a throwaway side project Platinum Games slapped together. This top-down action-adventure game is a substantial romp that follows a 10-year-old Cereza, still training to become a full-fledged Umbra Witch. She wants to gain enough strength to free her captive mother and ventures into a forbidden fairie forest to chase a tantalizing vision promising power. Cereza can only manage to summon one demon, Cheshire, for protection, whom she binds to her cat doll. However, she doesn’t yet know how to return him to the hellish realm of Inferno. Thus, the reluctant partners are stuck together and must cooperate to survive the forest.&nbsp;</p> <p>Bayonetta Origins’ story is my favorite of the entire franchise. It’s heartwarming, humorous, coherent (especially welcomed coming off the last game), and it has the emotional depth to provide substance to its eye candy. I loved watching Cereza and Cheshire’s relationship blossom over the course of the adventure as the insecure witch tries to prove her worth to the skeptical monster. The plot takes some unexpected yet well-earned turns, and the performances – Cereza’s in particular – are wonderful. I especially loved the narrator; her warm delivery and smile-inducing impression of the gruff Cheshire rekindled the long-forgotten joy of being read a fun bedtime story. If you combined Bayonetta’s lore with the whimsy and heart of a Winnie the Pooh story, you’re not far off from what Cereza and the Lost Demon offers.&nbsp;</p> <iframe width="560" height="315" frameBorder="0" allow="autoplay" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/49Of9OJ_Pmc" width=""></iframe> <p>I enjoyed navigating the duo through the well-designed platforming and puzzle challenges. You control both characters simultaneously, steering Cereza with the left stick and Cheshire with the right. It’s unwieldy at first, but it soon becomes second nature. Plus, you can recall Cheshire to the doll at will, so I mostly explored solo until I needed him. The tag-team-focused obstacles challenged my thinking, reflexes, and dexterity without ever becoming too complicated or tedious. Fun challenges and setpiece moments include having Cheshire run on hamster wheels to transport Cereza across platforms or using him to step on blocks that reveal a hidden path for her to cross gaps while pursued by a death trap. These sequences only appear once, making me excited to see what ideas the game would concoct next.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>Combat is the centerpiece of Bayonetta, and while you won’t be executing dozen-hit combos and screen-filling special attacks, Origins’ battle system makes the most of its relative simplicity. Cheshire executes single-button combos, while Cereza can only bind enemies in place using magic vines. Navigating two characters on a busy battlefield made me cross-eyed sometimes, but I like the unique strategy of dodging foes to tie them down before tearing them to shreds. Unlocking each character’s skill trees adds small but meaningful layers that deepen combat by adding executions, counters, evades, and longer combo strings that rely on button timing rather than combining inputs. The action evolves at a good pace without going mechanically overboard.&nbsp;</p> <p>Additionally, incorporating the abilities of Cheshire’s elemental transformations, such as using a grass form’s vine to yank down airborne targets and a water form that fires powerful streams, is a blast. Although I grew weary of the smaller, random encounters, the larger arena battles that throw several enemy types with different elemental vulnerabilities kept me engaged. A sprinkling of grandiose boss battles, including a titanic final bout, evoke the chaos of the main series in a good way without becoming as sweat-inducing. In fact, I rarely used health and magic potions for the majority of the experience. I’m fine with that, as the difficulty has enough spice without compromising Origins’ more relaxed vibe.&nbsp;</p> <section class='type:slideshow'><figure><img src='https://ift.tt/zSDLubE src='https://ift.tt/NxoOJn2 src='https://ift.tt/QyLosOF src='https://ift.tt/1n48M9y src='https://ift.tt/wJhiKc8 src='https://ift.tt/li5CS0f src='https://ift.tt/gazFVi8> &nbsp; <p>Simply looking at Bayonetta Origins is a colorful treat, thanks to its painterly art direction that evokes games like Ōkami. The forest looks fantastic, and a melodic soundtrack filled with lovely tunes, cute sound effects, and Zelda-esque piano jingles makes this world feel even more magical. I enjoyed revisiting parts of the sprawling map to unlock new areas and solving simple yet satisfying puzzles using Cheshire’s abilities.&nbsp;</p> <p>Getting lost can be easy, unfortunately, but the game compensates by clearly marking collectibles and even guiding lights to save points. Collecting dozens of wisps, the lost souls of departed children, became my favorite pastime due to the cute personal bios that unlocked for each of them. Even smaller interactions, like playing a rhythm mini-game to grow flowers, shattering crystal dandelions for currency, or shaking bushes for potion ingredients, feed into a playful atmosphere that almost makes the forest feel toylike.&nbsp;</p> <p>Much like Cereza herself, Bayonetta Origins doesn’t look like much on the surface, but I smiled more and more as its potential bubbled up to the surface. This is an exceptional and refreshing change of pace for the franchise, and you don’t even need to be a fan of the series or the action genre to enjoy it. Don’t underestimate what this pint-sized spellcaster and her demonic partner have to offer.</p>

Score: 8.75

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Before Your Eyes Review – An Emotional, Eye-Opening Experience

Reviewed on: PC
Platform: PlayStation VR2, PC, Mac, iOS
Publisher: Skybound Games
Developer: GoodbyeWorld Games
Rating: Everyone

Blinking for the first time in Before Your Eyes is a genuinely magical moment. I don’t mean hitting a button to close your virtual eyes. Through the power of a webcam, Before Your Eyes tracks when you blink which allows you to progress through a wonderful narrative adventure title from GoodbyeWorld Games. It may seem like a novel gimmick on the surface, but the mechanic is used so inventively that it meaningfully enhances the already powerful storytelling that fans of narrative adventure titles would be mistaken to write it off as a shallow trick.

Players take on the role of Benjamin Brynn, a lost soul who has already passed on. At the beginning of the game, you encounter a canine ferryman who forces you to relive the events of Ben’s life, beginning at birth. This is all to impress a being called the Gatekeeper who wants an honest assessment of the kind of person Ben was.  

By blinking when prompted, you’ll jump days, weeks, and sometimes years forward in Ben’s life. I’m impressed by how the game accurately recognizes eye-tracking. I never had an issue where a blink didn’t register or my camera needed recalibration. I also never felt disoriented or uncomfortable playing using eye tracking, but those factors will vary by person. On that note, it’s good that there’s an option to play the entire game using traditional mouse clicks, but I think you’d be doing yourself a major disservice in doing so.

Having played Before Your Eyes twice, once using blinks and the other using the mouse, I think the story loses a fair bit of its magic when playing with solely traditional control inputs. Closing your eyes, then opening them to a brand-new scene creates the awesome sensation that you’re reliving a life through an old-school View-Master toy. Ben’s memories are fleeting, and the mechanic sells that point perfectly. Yes, I was occasionally disappointed after I blinked involuntarily and advanced the story sooner than I would have liked. However, I didn’t mind it for long because I found that doing so lends to the game’s dreamlike quality and the sensation that even cherished memories eventually fade even – when we hope that they won’t.  

Some of my favorite moments involve closing my eyes to better eavesdrop on hushed conversations or so my childhood bestie could leave a heartfelt note embarrassment-free. It's also just more fun to "look and blink" instead of pointing and clicking on objects. Even while playing with your eyes, you still use a mouse for other actions like connecting stars in the night sky to write a cosmic message or to keep in rhythm with a piano tempo. These interactions are largely basic but are still delightful.  

No matter how you play, Before Your Eyes’ story is a heartfelt tale that had me close to tears at several points. Despite its pleasantly whimsical veneer, the narrative’s themes of depression and existentialism hit hard, as does understanding life’s meaning from the perspective of a person who, despite having a great family and being born with prodigious gifts, struggles to find personal fulfillment. The writing is earnest and thoughtful, and the story takes some unexpected turns culminating in a bittersweet final message that lands harder than I was prepared for (in a good way). 

A great story needs good characters, and Before Your Eyes has that in spades. Ben’s parents, a caring yet demanding mother and a lovably goofy father, are sweethearts. The same goes for Chloe, your mischievous neighbor who comes off as a genuinely endearing kid you can’t help but want to impress and hang out with. I was surprised by how attached I became to the cast in such a short time, but the superb performances and well-written dialogue do their job and ingratiated me to the characters.   

Throughout the story you’ll make some choices, but I was disappointed in how little they impact the overall narrative. Don’t stress too much over whether to sneak out with your friend or get much-needed sleep for your big piano recital; this is one of those games where you’re merely choosing what colors to paint the road as opposed to creating whole new paths. Since the game only takes about an hour or so to get through, it’s worth replaying just to see a few of those scenes, but I wish my decisions had more weight given the large number of choices presented.

Before Your Eyes’ story left me reeling by the end, and it’s a memorable journey worth going out of your way to play. You rarely get a lot of first-of-a-kind experiences in games anymore, and Before Your Eyes largely nails the execution of its primary hook. It’s a concept I’d love to see further explored in a follow-up, and I couldn’t be happier that something like this exists.

PlayStation VR2

Before Your Eyes is now available in VR for the first time, exclusively on PlayStation VR2, and it is the best place to play it. Everything Marcus wrote about the game above – it being a heartfelt and truly novel experience – applies to the PlayStation VR2 version, but every aspect is improved by the new perspective. It’s one of the few PlayStation VR2 games that takes advantage of the hardware’s eye tracking and it works great. I personally encountered issues playing with a webcam in the past, but I never encountered a single issue on PlayStation VR2. It also doesn’t require initial calibration. It just works immediately, and continues to work, letting you focus wholly on Benjamin Brynn’s story. Beyond the blinking, though, being able to look around the environments makes everything feel more impactful and real. The structure of the game, where you as the player character are sitting in one place as you move through life, is perfectly suited to VR. It’s also not a long experience, so the nausea potential is very low. You should play Before Your Eyes if you can on whatever platform you can, but if PlayStation VR2 is an option, then that is absolutely the route you should take. Plus, no one will be able to see you cry if you’re wearing a headset. – Kyle Hilliard

Score: 8.5

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Concept: Relive the memories of a troubled child prodigy by using your actual eyes to blink forward in time

Graphics: The visuals trade realism for colorful stylization, and it’s fitting for the dream-like premise

Sound: The voice performances are excellent, and made me grow attached to the small cast faster than expected

Playability: Provided your webcam works, the blinking mechanic works great and is used ingeniously during certain moments. Playing with a mouse works fine but doesn’t capture the same magic

Entertainment: Before Your Eyes is much more than a neat gimmick. It offers a wonderful method of interacting with a touching and impactful story that’ll stick with you long after the credits roll

Replay: Moderately High

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