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Death Note (2017)
A one-time watch if you ignore the source material
This adaptation of the smash hit manga only follows its source material on the surface. Everything in the movie is completely changed (and Americanised?), with the standard Hollywood formula.
If you watch the movie comparing it with the manga and even the anime (which I really loved), you will be outraged or heavily disappointed. I tried to set aside my expectations and watched the movie and reviewed it on its own merit. Sure, it did not have the mind-bending twists of the manga/anime. But what is shown is pretty good if a tad predictable. For me, it was a decent one-time watch on a lazy afternoon.
TLDR - If you feel that this adaptation sucks and the manga/anime are far superior, you are right. But if you are able to ignore the source material and keep your expectations low, the movie is ok and worth a one-time watch.
Haseen Dillruba (2021)
Starts off strong but loses its momentum
To give the positives first -
* Taapsee Pannu plays the same character from Manmarziyaan and previous films, which is fine.
* Harshavardhan Rane does his best with the role he's given.
* Other actors - Aditya Srivastava, Ashish Verma, Yamini Das, Daya Shankar Pandey, Alka Kaushal as and Amit Singh Thakur perform great as side c
* The real star here is Vikrant Massey. He is the typical "nice guy" who goes crazy when faced with rejection. He scared me with his performance. That's how good he is.
Now to come to the negatives (heavy spoilers here)
* The storyline could have been far better. It's poorly executed. Character development is pathetic and regressive. There are so many plot holes in the movie such as -
* Why did the inspector only interrogate Taapsee's character throughout the movie and not conduct a proper investigation by questioning the family members, friends, neighbours and colleagues?
* Why would Taapsee's character, someone who is shown to be brash and independent from the get go, stay with her husband (VIkrant's character) even after he tries to injure her and even kill her?
* The forensic guys did not check that the dead body and the hand do not match as both men are physically different. Even a simple fingerprint checkup would have exposed the mismatch.
* How is Vikrant's character able to escape and swim despite suffering from shock, and acute blood loss after having his hand cut off?
* Despite knowing that Taapsee manipulated the results of the lie detector / polygraph test, the police still let her go.
Luke Cage (2016)
The first 7 episodes are decent, but the show takes a nosedive and falls flat. Hopefully season 2 fixes the flaws
Luke Cage is the third show in the Marvel-Netflix partnership after Daredevil and Jessica Jones. While the first two shows were good, this one falls behind. To be honest, I had watched Iron Fist before this and though that show had problems it was actually good and I actually enjoyed it more than this one. I don't care if anyone else thinks of me as a troll or lacking taste etc. NOTE - Do watch Jessica Jones before Luke Cage. So to start the review - + Mike Colter is awesome as Luke Cage. + The first 7 episodes are actually good. + The supporting characters and the supposed villains are very well written characters - Pop, Mariah, Shades, Cottonmouth. + Cottonmouth was actually a decent and complex villain, but....
- He is killed off in the 7th episode, the show pulled a Far Cry 3 on us...
- Diamondback is lame and almost cartoonish villain. His motivations and the story take a complete nosedive.
- Luke Cage's power is inconsistent because the story demands it. He can easily knock out thugs even in injured state but struggles against Diamonback.
- Despite having 13 episodes, we still don't know Luke Cage's full origin, half the things were TOLD to us instead of SHOWING us. We never saw Luke Cage's father and how he shaped Luke, we never saw Luke as a military man or a cop, we never saw him stealing the car for which Diamondback went to jail etc.
- The final fight between Luke Cage and Diamondback looked and felt like a B-grade Bollywood movie with the lame power armor Diamondback fighting Luke Cage.
The Flash (2014)
Season 1 - awesome. Later seasons - meh...
Season 1 of The Flash was awesome with everything needed in a Sci-fi superhero show - a good story with proper mix of action, mystery, drama, a likable lead and side characters and an awesome villain. This show was the reason I started watching Arrow.
Sadly the later seasons, don't match up despite the expanding on the concepts of time travel, the multiverse, and the annual crossovers with the other Arrowverse shows.
This show falls prey to the CW Arrowverse tropes way too much plus the problems of its own such as -
a. The characters keeping secrets and behaving like idiots just to create cheap drama.
b. Time travel is used way too much, thankfully season 4 has stopped this trend.
c. Barry's abilities are inconsistent just to create cheap drama and (maybe) due to budget problems.
So if you really want to enjoy this show just turn off your brain and go along as it doesn't always get better.
Legends of Tomorrow (2016)
So effing good!!!
The first season had some good episodes but ultimately sucked because of romantic melodrama and a lackluster villain.
The second season did not take itself seriously, removed the romantic melodrama characters and improved on its villains, which ultimately became a fun ride.
The third season continues the charm so far, with the right mix of drama, action and comedy.
If you have watched the S3 and its midseason finale SPOILERS...
ALL HAIL BEEBO, BEEBO LOVES YOU!!!!
Arrow (2012)
Oh boy...
S1 and S2 weren't perfect but compared to the where this show is now, they look like masterpieces (Even S3 if you skip the OLICITY parts). This show really should have ended with S5 as it made the most sense.
- OLICITY.
- Everybody keeping secrets again and again till it becomes irritating, behaving like an idiot, any character development is retconned for sake of cheap drama.
- Characters face little-to-no consequences for their actions.
- F***ing OLICITY.
Fukrey Returns (2017)
A little too long, but still retains the charm
Here's my short review of the movie -
Acting - Varun Sharma as Choocha is the highlight of the movie (as expected). However, the real highlight is Pankaj Tripathi as Panditji with his English one-liners and his interactions with Choocha. If Fukrey 3 is made, I wouldn't mind if these two were the only main characters. Rest of the cast gives a good performance, they feel like real people stuck in a bizarre situation again.
Songs - OK. The first movie's theme song is used again. The songs are mostly used in the background, which is fine, not chart busters for me.
Cinematography - Delhi is shot very well and its many sides are explored. No complaints there.
Story and direction - The most important parts of a movie. A story can be good, but in the hands of a bad director, it can suck. Thankfully this one doesn't. Director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba and writer Vipul Vig have done a brilliant job. However, the movie does drag in the second half somewhat as I felt it could've been half an hour shorter. Fukrey Returns somewhat falls into the sequel trap where it tries to tell too many stories at once, I felt the first movie was still a better story because it was simple. However, it still manages to be entertaining because of the actors and writing.
TLDR; version - Choocha and (now) Panditji are awesome, rest of the cast gives a good performance, the story is good for the most part but could have been half an hour shorter, the songs are good, but not as good as the first one. 7/10
Dead Space 3 (2013)
Third time's NOT the charm
Dead Space 1 - Where I was terrified ALL THE TIME. I literally had to mute my speaker sometimes so I could keep my sanity and play. The only irritating stuff was Isaac being a tank sometimes and shooting the asteroids mission.
Dead Space 2 - Isaac has a voice, improved movement and combat. Though not as terrifying as the first, still has its memorable moments - the opening sequence, Nicole hallucinations, facing the Stalkers the first time, return to USG Ishimura, the infamous eye drill sequence, and the unexpected ending - the action is balanced quite well with horror and it is my favorite in the trilogy.
Dead Space 3 -
THE BAD AND THE UGLY- It's NOT A HORROR GAME ANYMORE. The only horror you experience is the jump-scare one - the Necromorphs who weren't there before surprise attack you either from a vent, snow or wherever; which if you have played the first two games, is pretty annoying. Even if Dead Space 3 is your first game, you will get bored of this mechanic because it happens EVERY 5-10 MINUTES.
Mission structure - Fetch/fix an item/machinery, kill the necromorphs which are too many this time, join with your group for a few minutes only to go back and repeat. Optional mission structure - find resources, kill necromorphs, repeat.
The story is bad but with a good twist, the characters are pretty idiotic and bland, except for Isaac and Carver, the military no-nonsense playable co-op guy. Ellie, the one-eyed girl from DS2 serves as Isaac's love interest (why?!!!) and is pretty boring despite being a bad-ass in DS2. The main villain is boring.
I hated the sound in the game, since there are so many necromorphs this time and repeat every 5-10 minutes, the sound gets irritating.
Not everything is bad though.
THE GOOD-
Crafting stuff and collecting resources. Yup Cash and power nodes are gone. You can craft health items, suit upgrades and the best - you can CRAFT YOUR OWN WEAPONS. While the know-how takes some time to get used to, it is the best thing I would say about this game. Assault rifle with rocket launcher? Plasma cutter with cryogenic torch to freeze enemies? Ripper with acid damage? Why not!!! Though you can only carry two weapons this time, mixing and matching weapons gives you the advantage.
Scavenger bot to collect resources.
The graphics are superb and the game is well optimized except for very rare frame-rate issues. The voice acting is good.
The prologue chapter.
The first half of the game, while not high on horror is okayish because it takes place in spaceship and some parts in outer space, which kind of reminded me of DS2.
The first optional mission is actually good.
The new necromorphs are actually pretty cool, the Fodder looks similar to the Thing from the John carpenter movie of the same name and the Feeder, a variation of the Packers except these are humans who have eaten necromorph meat and become one. Even the Snow Spider is cool.
While I haven't played the co-op, I watched the YouTube playthroughs and it actually looks good.
The Awakened DLC- though it has problems such as how exactly are the necromorphs alive despite the Brother moon being dead etc. But it is memorable because of human enemies especially the Cult leader who is way more interesting than the one in the main game. Hallucinations return and are pretty cool and in one of them you fight Carver or Isaac depending on who you play as. My only gripe - the DLC is too short and there are no new weapons or suits to unlock.
Final review - Play the prologue chapter, skip the story after reaching the snow planet and just play the epilogue Awakened DLC, which is about 1-1.5 hours long. Craft weapons all day long. Huh...
Arrow: Lost in the Flood (2016)
Felicity!!!!
Felicity Smoak - the first fictional character I grew from being fond of to wishing that she would die. Hate the character, not the actor.
I actually liked her in Seasons 1 and 2 and even Season 3 despite her crying almost all the time and the Oliver - Ray love triangle.
But S4 Felicity is a completely different person from S1-S3 Felicity. She is an emotionally abusive sociopath and a complete hypocrite - its OK for her to lie to Oliver, but if he does the same, she goes all self-righteous.
She blows up a whole town with a nuclear missile and doesn't even cry or become berserk. Instead we get Smoak family drama featuring Curtis. A nuclear bomb just blew up 20 minutes ago and she is fighting with her mom!!! She even lets her ex-boyfriend die a horrible death instead of mercy killing or letting someone else mercy kill him.
Other outright stupid stuff - Oliver and Diggle find Thea in the underground Fallout 4 town and she is brainwashed into killing them. Oliver using his power of speech convinces Thea to fight back and stop Anarky, a 20 something who is able to rig the whole town to blow and capture Ruve and Darhk jr despite security forces looking for him and even Malcolm aka "I was Ra's Al Ghul". Thea accidentally blasts the town. Anarky holds his own against suddenly incompetent-at-fighting Oliver and Thea. It's like he was trained by Deathstroke, Ra's and Batman/Nightwing. Ruve dies and Darhk jr is saved by Oliver and co.
Well this proves it, no one in their right minds would want to live in Star city.
Booze Traveler (2014)
A must watch
Booze Traveler is hosted by the immensely positive and likable Jack Maxwell as travels around the world to try out new drinks and have fun. Despite the name, the show not only explores alcoholic drinks but also the culture of the region or country. I've only watched three episodes as of now. The production quality is superb and even the strictest of teetotalers will like the show. Suffice to say it is a must watch.
PS: Favorite moments- where Jack drinks a concoction made from sweet potatoes which are fermented by chewing and spitting them out.
- where he drinks the Turkish national drink Raki.
- where Jack drinks the Queimada after the Celtic fire ritual.
Game of Thrones: The Winds of Winter (2016)
Epic
All hail the Lioness Cersei Lannister, the First of her Name, The Queen of Andals and the First Men, and the Protector of the Seven Kingdoms. Her words, "When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die" in Season 1 stand true even now. Project Burn Them All finally sees the arrogant High Sparrow burning up along with Margaery whose spider sense was rightly tickling but it was too late as she urged everyone present to get the hell out only to be blocked by the Faith Militant. Other casualties – her brother Loras who just confessed to his sins and joined the Faith Militant, foolish but lovable daddy Mace Tyrell, "always no.2" Kevan Lannister, his son Lancel "now-a-brunette" Lannister, who fails to stop the wildfire and Pycelle the farter who is mercilessly butchered by Qyburn's little "birds". Tommen commits suicide and his funeral is coldly brushed off by Cersei. Also, Septa Unella (that Shame nun) is tied up and kept alive to be tortured (or worse) at the hands of FrankenMountain. At the Twins, the Freys and the Lannisters celebrate as Walder Frey boasts that all his enemies are dead before he is told to shut up by Jaime, who is continuously eyed by a serving girl. The next day as Walder Frey is having lunch, that same girl serves him pies made from the remains of his sons and reveals herself to be Arya Stark, who used Littlefinger's jetpack to arrive from Braavos. Smiling, she slices his throat and plots further targets. In Winterfell, Davos forces Melisandre to reveal the truth about Shireen to Jon and asks him to leave so that he can kill her. Mel argues that she brought Jon back to life and that he needs her when Westoros v White Walkers starts. Jon banishes Mel from the North and he and Davos both warn her not to come back. Jon and Sansa make up and pledge to stay united, though with Littlefinger in the mix, that won't happen. He reveals to her his desire, which is – unsurprisingly, rule the Seven Kingdoms with Sansa as his queen. He claims that she is better off as his consort than following her half-brother. Everyone –Wildlings, Northeners, Knights of the Vale- are arguing in the hall when badass Lyanna Mormont steps up, taunts the Northeners who didn't support Jon & co during Bastardbowl, and proclaims Jon Snow the King in the North. Everyone follows to do so except Littlefinger who eyes Sansa with an "I told you so" expression. L + R= J CONFIRMED, as Bran goes off solo in another time travel adventure where the conclusion of the Tower of Joy reveals what everyone was hoping for and kind of considered the legitimate No.1 fan theory. Too bad Benjen Coldhands leaves citing that the Wall does not let dead things pass and coz he is half dead. Jaime, Bronn and the Lannister army travel to King's Landing to fight against the High Sparrow and are shocked to see the city in ruins. Jaime officially hates Cersei as he realizes what she has done when she is crowned the Queen. Jaime as Valonqar = 99%. Lady of Thorns Olenna Tyrell plots her revenge with Ellaria and Varys, who has travelled back using portals to offer Dany's help. Trust Diana Rigg to make ven Dorne look good as she shuts up the Sand Snakes. Danaerys dumps Daario while ordering him to keep peace in Meereen on Tyrion's counsel. She and Tyrion have a pep talk where she confesses to using Daario as a boy toy and fears about the future now that she is FINALLY leaving Meereen. She names him Hand of the Queen, her second-in- command and they proceed to sail towards Westoros to kill men in iron suits and conquer the Seven Kingdoms along with Yara & Theon Travelling Company and Dorne? (The red sun is the Martell sigil, right???).
PS - Sam, Gilly and Little Sam reach the Maester's Citadel in Oldtown where Sam cums when he sees the huge library. To conclude, this episode is the best episode and season finale till date even surpassing the previous episode Battle of the Bastards, The Door, Hardhome and the Red Wedding. Can't wait for the next season.
Game of Thrones: Battle of the Bastards (2016)
Predictable yet awesome
Wow... This episode is near perfection. Sorry but for me nothing can top Hardhome (as of now).
1. Meereen - Dany's story is resolved rather quickly as she defeats the former masters and their navy with the help of her dragons and her new army. Yara and Theon come later offering themselves as allies. Dany agrees provided the Ironborn change their ways under Yara's leadership.
2. Winterfell - The Bastard bowl ticks almost all the fan predictions and theories.
Rickon Stark and Wun Wun die at the hands of Ramsay - Check. Jon & co are badly outnumbered and almost defeated - Check. Littlefinger arrives with the Knights of the Vale and saves the day at the last moment - Check. Jon takes Ramsay prisoner and reclaims Winterfell - Check. Ramsay is eaten alive by his own hounds/bitches who are released by Sansa- Check.
It is still bloody good and awesome.
While the Battle of the Blackwater and Night's Watch vs Wildlings made war look almost glorious, Bastard Bowl truly shows the ugly side of war with countless deaths and soldiers surviving due to pure luck regardless of combat skills. The cinematography, special effects (especially when Dany's dragons burn down the Harpy ships) and action (way better and more realistic than 300) are PERFECT. Every crew member has worked hard and it really shows.
Game of Thrones battle sequences are always great and this one takes the top spot (Hardhome really wasn't a battle).
+ Dany finally about to head to Westoros. REALLY. + Bloody good battle. + RIP Ramsay Bolton. GOT lost its Joker. His last words to Sansa, "I'm a part of you now" are chilling. + Darth Sansa.
- Predictable outcome. - Btw, when did Jaime tell Tyrion the truth (he killed the Mad King and saved King's Landing)?
Game of Thrones: No One (2016)
The show can shock even when it doesn't want to
I was angry at first after watching the episode - the promo hype led to this? But after calming down and thinking too much I actually found the episode really good.
Here's why:
1. King's Landing - It may seem anti-climatic but Cersei played her ace move i.e. FrankenMountain too soon and now must resort to other measures to fight back. Wonder what the "old rumor" is about? - the Mad King's wildfire caches, Tyrion being alive, Gendry(?) etc....
2. Riverrun - It may seem anti-climatic at first because Jaime reverts to his old self, but guess what, Jaime used his reputation as a dishonorable man to stop the siege without violence except Blackfish's death, whereas Blackfish was willing to let his men die to keep his home. Very GoT. Bonus - Bronn calls Podrick a pimp and wants Jaime + Brienne = <3.
3. Meereen - Its established that too much drunk Tyrion is incompetent Tyrion.
4. Somewhere in Westoros - The Hound declares his eternal love for chicken again and joins BWB (Brotherhood Without Banners) to fight the White Walkers. No Lady Stoneheart. Eh, who cares? The books are the books and the show is the show.
5. Braavos - I was like "WTH" after watching it because none of the theories were true, but I realized that Arya was behaving like a fool deliberately in the previous episode to draw the Waif out, she just didn't expect to get stabbed. After she was, she decided to go through with it anyways by going all Assassin's Creed across Braavos with the Waif following her Terminator style. Arya then becomes Daredevil again and kills the Waif and plants her face in the Hall of Faces. As for Jaqen letting her go, she did give a life to the Many-faced god and fulfilled her debt. This may be just bad writing, but hey, you can believe what you want.
NOTE- if this episode proves anything, stop being a GoT fanboy/fangirl and that not all theories come true.
The Flash: The Race of His Life (2016)
Is this the finale?
Is this really the finale? OK the good first: 1. Everyone already guessed it, but the reveal that the man in the iron mask was the real Jay Garrick aka Henry Allen's doppelganger was actually cool.
2. Grant Gustin's acting is superb. He can emote really well.
3. Everyone goes back home.
The REALLY bad: 1. Zoom wants to destroy every other Earth except Earth-1. What happened to conquering other Earths and living like a king? And his death is a cop out.
2. After it is established that Zoom/Hunter can travel between multiple Earths, the team's best plan: TRANQ HIM AND SEND HIM BACK TO EARTH 2. Wow.
3. Continuing the above, the team carried the plan without Barry. Why? Everyone was afraid that he would do something rash, so Henry tranquilized him and kept him in the STAR LABS cell. And Zoom took Joe as he went back.
4. Stupid Barry Allen. Even though Grant is a good actor, his character Barry is really stupid.
This is the guy who gave up his powers willingly to a psychopathic murderer even after having no reason to, acted arrogant despite facing similar situations in the past, "the speed force is with us" and in the end decided to save his mother by traveling back in time and messing everything up even after making peace with the original decision in episode 21.
Reason: because his daddy died.
Solution: Just go back in time and save your dad and then kill or defeat Zoom by using the time remnants/speed clones.
Theory: Season 3 opening will probably be based on the Flashpoint Paradox, where Barry's mom and dad live happily but he and Iris are not a thing, and the world is messed up. Barry realizes again that he messed up and try to fix it with Batman or Arrow. The Reverse Flash returns and this time it will be Eddie not Eobard who is the bad guy.
Game of Thrones: The Door (2016)
Hardhome pt 2
WOW...
This episode was almost perfect...almost because there are too many things going on:
1. Littlefinger is back. He meets Sansa and Brienne and goes all weepy and confesses that he knew all about Ramsay but underestimated Sansa's ability to handle him. He also offers the Knights of the Vale for the upcoming Bastard Bowl but Sansa rejects him, which is a stupid decision since they need an army to fight the Boltons & co. Sansa sends Brienne to have her grand-uncle the Blackfish who has retaken Riverrun (the story is different from the books) while she and Jon will try to convince other Northern houses to back them up. Will Brienne face off against Jaime when he comes to Riverrun? That would be interesting...
2. Having her sight restored, Arya is given an assignment. She has to poison an actress in a satirical play about the War of the 5 Kings and take her place. While scouting her target, she realizes that history is truly written by the winners as her family is constantly mocked throughout the play. She hesitates because the actress is a good person, but Jaqen lectures her that death comes for all and if she truly wishes to be a Faceless Man(?), she has to kill regardless of morality. As if she isn't already a killer...
3. Lord Friendzone Jorah the Andal reveals to Dany that he is going to become a stone man soon and that he loves her (again). She orders him to seek the cure and return to her when she will conquer Westeros. Let's get out of Meereen first, Mother of Dragons.
4. Tyrion decides to seek spiritual help to handle things in Meereen after things have cooled down (for now) and meets with Red Priestess Kinvara who is totally hot and cunning btw. She agrees to his T&Cs before Varys starts mocking her about Melisandre and Stannis. She "burns" him by almost revealing his tragic past and Varys totally freaks out, which is pretty rare. She still agrees to Tyrion's T&Cs before leaving with a smirk on her face. Damn...
5. Kingsmoot aka Ironborn Parliament takes place and Yara positions herself as the Queen along with Theon's support. But Euron steals the show by revealing that he did kill Balon and he will seek Dany as his wife and her army and dragons and conquer the 7 kingdoms. He is voted King by the majority and after a drowning ceremony he is crowned. It is revealed that Yara and Theon and their supporters have stolen the best ships and fled. Euron vows revenge. Please no Dorne again...
6. Bran and his visions. WOW. If the episode had been only focused on this, it would have been 10/10. The reveal that the CHILDREN OF THE FOREST CREATED THE WHITE WALKERS.... OH YEAH.
Bran tries to go solo and stumbles upon the army of the undead and The Night's King and his 3 Horsemen (Jon killed one of them in Hardhome). The Night's King touches him and he wakes up with fear. Bloodraven reveals that the WW army is coming for them, the cave cannot protect them anymore.
Bran and Bloodraven are on another time buddies trip where we see kid Ned leaving off to become Jon Arryn's ward and Robert Baratheon's best bud. In the real wold aka the present, the WW army arrives and Meera and the Children hold them off for minutes at the most. One by one the Children die and Meera kills 1 Horseman with a Valyrian spear similar to Jon (Star Wars theories anyone?). Hodor is scared but as Meera tries to wake him up Bran is able to control Hodor in the present while simultaneously staying in the past vision. As Hodor, Bran, Meera and the last Child leave, Summer tries to hold the undead off but dies too.
Dead direwolves - 3 (I still believe Shaggydog is alive until proved otherwise).
The Night's King kills off Bloodraven, while still in a vision with Bran, is aware of the outside world and his death seconds away. He dies, disappearing in a haze. The last Child sacrifices herself (itself?) to allow Bran, Hodor and Meera to escape. Hodor holds the door as Meera runs off carrying Bran while screaming, "Hold the door!!!". It is revealed that Meera's screams along with Bran being in the past, caused Wylis / Walder to go mad become HODOR = HOLD THE DOOR.
WOW.
+ Hodor... let me wipe the manly tears. + RIP Bloodraven aka Brynden Rivers aka Three Eyed Raven aka TARGARYEN BASTARD. + BRAN CAN CHANGE THE PAST (The Mad King theory makes sense now). + Kinvara is HOT. + Hopefully Dany will leave for Westoros this season.
- RIP Summer. -Poor Jorah. -Too many story arcs in this episode.
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
The only good thing was Hawkeye
You don't even know what the hell is going on in the movie, too many plot points going at the same time...
1. With the creation of Ultron - Tony trying to be a peace keeper, Bruce warning him but still helping anyway. 2. JARVIS becoming a god. 3. Forced romance between Natasha and Bruce Banner. Zero chemistry, romance with Steve or even Clint would have been better, these guys are soldiers like her, she can relate to them better. 4. Hulk vs the Hulk Buster Iron Man. 5. The beginning of the conflict between Captain America and Iron Man. 6. Why didn't Quicksilver just speed in and grab Hawkeye to safety instead of becoming a bullet sponge and dying? He's the fastest guy in the MCU right?
Which made it look like the movie was just a setup for Civil War.
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton aka Hawkeye was the only good thing in the movie. Period. The time at the farm with his family and his funny yet inspiring speech at the end were the only good things in the movie. The action was mind-numbing at best and myself like "why" at worst.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (2004)
Flawed story but the bad-ass Prince kicks ass!!!
WW (Warrior Within) takes place 7 years after the events of SOT (Sands of Time), it is the 2nd game in the Sands of Time trilogy. The Prince is now a shadow of his former self: he hasn't shaved in ages, he sports tattoos, curses "bitch" at a scantily clad woman who tries to kill him and screams when he kills enemies. The Prince is not out to save the world, he's out to save himself at the cost of anyone who gets in his way.
The reason: Dahaka. A mythical beast who is the Guardian of the Timeline is trying to kill him because of the events of SOT – in the end, the Prince altered the Timeline making sure that events of SOT never took place at all (he remembers everything though). The Prince reasons that if he journeys to the mysterious Island of Time and stop the Sands of Time from ever being created, the Dahaka will leave him alone.
Similar to SOT, WW takes place in confined environments where you as the titular Prince use acrobatic skills to navigate the environment from A to B. Unlike SOT however, WW is a semi open-world, there is no linear path and you have to backtrack quite a lot.
While this may sound boring, due to the time portals scattered throughout the island, you travel between the past and the present, the familiar areas change and become more challenging and interesting. WW's platforming is more slower and requires more patience in some sections especially with the discs of death and sword and spikes from the ground. However the sepia toned Dahaka chase sequences are superb and bring the much needed thrills, as you free-run for your life to escape the seemingly immortal beast who has chased you throughout the years. The dark environment fits the game perfectly. However the camera still acts funny sometimes.
The biggest change however is the combat system. I love it. The new free from fighting system has you hack and slash, block, counter attack, throw and strangle enemies who attack you simultaneously in groups. You can even wield secondary weapons (temporarily) by stealing from enemies and acquiring them by destroying weapon caches. There are around 50 secondary weapons and many hidden ones too (not sure of the number though). You can even use your acrobatic abilities and the environment to your advantage in combat. The variety of enemies is amazing and it is satisfying to kill them all. Also great are the boss fights which require you to use all your tactics. The game doesn't shy from violence, all fights are bloody gorgeous.
And you of course have the Sands of Time to undo your mistakes should you make too many. You also gain new Sand Powers such as the Sandstorm which can instantly kill enemies but deplete all your Sand Tanks. NOTE: compared to SOT, you only have 6 Sand Tanks, you cannot upgrade for more.
The game has two different endings depending whether you have all the health upgrades and obtained the Water Sword or not. Both are pretty good but only one of them is canon and continues into the Two Thrones.
Technically the game is superb, I liked the soundtrack, heavy metal guitar with Arabian sounds in between. It suits the game. The graphics are good (though some glitches and pop-ups occur) but the cut-scenes are bad, they look as if they were made in the 1990s.
The story is much darker than SOT, but also full of plot holes. The character Kaileena, is pretty annoying at first but not bad to look at(Monica Bellucci was the character's model and voice actress), you eventually warm up to her, though I don't understand why the Prince would fall in love with her.
1. Dahaka's weakness is water, yet it manages to arrive at the ISLAND of time!
2. How the hell the Prince not know this and survive for 7 years?!
3. If Kaileena created Shahdee, why does not she destroy her if Shahdee tries to boss around and even tries to kill her?
4. If Shahdee is out of time, why does the Dahaka not try to kill her too?
5. The Prince uses the Mask of the Wraith to become the Sand Wraith and travels back in time to stop his past self from killing Kaileena. The Dahaka then kills his past self, how is he still alive?
6. In the "bad" ending, the Dahaka kills Kaileena and takes the Medallion of Time from the Prince's breastplate. Therefore preventing the Sands of Time and the Artifacts of Time from ever being created. But Kaileena's death was supposed to activate the Sands of Time, that would mean that the events of SOT never happened (again). But when the Prince travels back to his home he sees war. What the hell is going on?!
7. If the Sands are created because of Kaileena's death, how is the Prince able to use the Sand Powers in the past where Kaileena isn't dead?
Anyways to conclude this review, the game gets an 8/10 for superb combat, platforming, graphics, and kick-ass soundtrack. Try not to think too much about the story and cut-scenes though.
This War of Mine (2014)
Interesting concept marred by serious frame rate and slowdown issues
This War of Mine is a different game. It focuses on the civilian experience during the war rather than soldiers killing each other endlessly. Here you have various civilians trying to survive the siege in the city by any means possible.
Yes, by any means - be it resorting to bartering with others, stealing supplies and even killing. The game doesn't hesitate to show the brutal effect of war on the people trying to survive it, complemented by chalkboard black and white visuals and a depressing soundtrack.
The game plays in two phases. During the day your band of playable civilians are stuck inside for the fear of soldiers and snipers. You have to go ahead and make the best of situation, building stuff such as beds, chairs, rainwater harvesters and even firearms and reinforced doors. Each civilian has a unique skill; a cook will use less materials while cooking, while someone skilled in bargaining can buy more stuff at lower prices from traders etc. All the characters have various emotional and physical states, they can get tired, hungry, wounded, depressed and even suicidal. Some are substance addicts. They may even fight amongst themselves. Your job is to make sure that they survive.
During the night, one character can scavenge for resources while others can sleep or be on guard (or no one leaves). You can hunt for resources in abandoned houses or steal from other survivors, who may or may not harm you. The resources are scarce and you will have to make heavy decisions - a book can reduce depression but can also be used as a fuel for heat or food; the old man begs you to not steal his wife's medicine, but you need that to heal your characters or they will bleed and die. Every decision has a consequence and affects your characters. Yes, YOUR characters. That's how immersive the game is.
However the game is not without its flaws.
The game has a raid system where your house gets raided for resources by rival gangs. This is completely off game, meaning you have no idea when this will happen and you cannot play this. The chances of successful defense depend on which character was assigned as a guard, the availability of weapons etc. Not being able to play defense sucks; if the game developer did not hesitate to show the brutal effects of war, why was this element not playable, was it because of time constraints or lack of skill among the staff? who knows... and this would have been more heartbreaking because we know that the most of the raiders are just civilians like our characters, trying to survive.
Now why did I give the game 6/10 if the gameplay is good, the graphics and the soundtrack suit the environment? Frame rates that's why.
I was able to play the game flawlessly on my laptop the first few times. I don't know what happened, but the game started to behave abnormally later when restarted from the checkpoint (I believe it was Day 14 in-game). The frame rates decreased and the game slowed down (it was that bad). Creating a new save, resolution reduction, changing the settings so that the game runs on my graphics card and later changing it to run on integrated graphics instead, running in compatibility mode; nothing worked and ultimately I had to uninstall the game. I read online for the solutions, and read that many people have experienced this issue.
So that is my review for this game: Interesting concept and gameplay marred by serious slowdown and frame rate issues.
PS: my laptop config - Windows 8.1 64-bit, i5-4210U CPU @ 1.70 Ghz 2.40 Ghz, 4 GB RAM, x64 based processor.
Bãhubali: The Beginning (2015)
A milestone in Indian cinema
Baahubali: The Beginning is an Indian bilingual epic historical fiction film directed by S. S. Rajamouli, produced by Shobu Yarlagadda and Prasad Devinini.
The film features an ensemble cast of Prabhas, Rana Daggubati, Tamannaah Bhatia, and Anushka Shetty in lead roles while Sudeep, Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishnan, Nassar, Adivi Sesh, Tanikella Bharani appear in supporting roles.
The story explores the themes of politics, honour, love, betrayal and kingship. However it is the film's WEAK point. Like many South Indian masala movies, we have a righteous hero and the crowd who worships him and a villain who is oppressive and ruthless. Despite the simplicity of the story, director Rajamouli knows how to hold the audience's attention and the film rarely has a dull moment.
Prabhas is the lead character of the movie and he has double role as the titular character Amarendra Baahubali and Shivudu/Shiva, who is Baahubali's son. His performance is good but as the characters of Baahubali and Shiva are almost the SAME (strong, powerful, and charming), it feels as if Prabhas is playing the same character with slight differences. Rana shines as the villain Bhalla Deva. The standout characters in the movie are Rajmata Sivagami, the de facto ruler of the ancient kingdom of Mahishmati, played effortlessly by Ramya Krishnan, who manages to evoke fear and respect at the same time, the warrior slave Katappa played by Sathyaraj, who is honour- bound to an oppressive man and Aslam Khan, who is a weapons merchant and warrior played by Sudeep, who becomes Katappa's friend, despite only appearing in one scene.
Anushka Shetty plays Devasena, Shiva's mother who has been imprisoned for 25 years by Bhalla Deva. Her performance is good despite limited screen time, and Tamannaah plays warrior Avantika whose mission is to rescue Devasana, she also plays the love interest to Shiva. Tamannaah, who is known for her glamorous image impresses with her action skills.
The action scenes are epic and the cinematography showcases the beautiful world perfectly. The VFX department supervised by V. Srinivas Mohan has to be mentioned because they have done a great job, the film often exceeds Hollywood movies in certain scenes. The special mention has to be given to the mountain climbing sequence where Shiva sees visions of Avantika and the battle in the second half of the movie where Baahubali and Bhalla Deva lead forces against Kalkaya king.
The background score fits in perfectly, it is neither distracting nor "invisible". However the film could do with less songs and especially the "Banohari" item song which was not required.
Despite its flaws, the film more than makes up for it in sound, camera-work, and action sequences. It is a definitive must watch and a milestone in Indian cinema.
PS – Special mention has to be given to the ending of the film which will be make your jaw drop. It is the perfect way to keep the audiences excited for the sequel which will arrive in 2016.
Jade Empire (2005)
An underrated and overlooked gem
Note: This review is for the Special Edition of the game released for PC and Xbox 360.
Jade Empire is the type of game you can start playing on a Sunday morning and continue to play till it gets over, no matter the time it takes to complete. It took me 40 hours to complete the game (that's how big it is).
Anyways the games starts with a character selection (as do all the RPGs). You can choose the character gender, character class, but you cannot customize the character in detail.
To summarize the story: You are the last of the Spirit Monks, an order dedicated to the Water Dragon, a spirit who guides the dead to the heaven or hell. The Emperor killed the Water Dragon and used its spirit to become powerful and end the drought that affected the Empire 20 years ago. Your Master, who is revealed to be the Emperor's brother, saved you as an infant, fled away and trained you. He gets kidnapped and you have to rescue him. The dead don't go back to being dead and instead become ghosts going mad. Your objective is to rescue your Master, help the spirit of Water Dragon and end the destruction caused by the ghosts.
Since it is an RPG, you can choose to be the good or the bad guy. Similar to KOTOR, you have the Open Palm (similar to the Light Side of the Force) and the Closed Fist (the Dark Side) morality system, which is pretty black and white with very few gray shades. Be good and honorable and you get Open Palm points; be a jerk and you get Closed fist points.
The story is good and the cast of supporting characters are interesting as well as annoying, but not boring (Kang, Zu, Black Whirlwind are my favorite supporting characters). However the story after Act 5 becomes too cliché, melodramatic and the twist in the tale (your master is the bad guy and most of your supporting characters are related to each other in some way) felt unnecessary. Also the romance system feels unnecessary and I avoided that. However the side missions is where the game shines. There is much variety to them and greatly expand the universe of the game.
The fighting game play is pretty varied. You can choose from various martial arts styles, weapons and magic styles and even transform into an animal demon or ghost. Your three attributes are Health, Chi and Focus which can be leveled up. Health is self explanatory, while Chi is used for magic spells, healing yourself and dealing more damage with weapons and martial styles; Focus is for using weapons and entering slow motion where you can deal more damage and become faster. Your followers have various skills (you can only choose one follower at a time) and you can command them to fight alongside you or enter support mode, where they won't fight but your attributes will be recharged over time or you will deal more damage with various styles.
The game boasts of a real time fighting system, but that is simply not the case. It is simply an evolution of the turn based combat from KOTOR. During the fights, your character doesn't do what you want him/her to do or does it seconds later, after your previous moves have been completed. The fighting is pretty good though and you will love it. The abundance of various styles is overwhelming at first, but soon you will pick your favorites and master them. The enemies are varied, ranging from bandits, assassins, royal guards, animal demons, goblins, spirits, ghosts, cannibals and even stone men.
If I really had to nitpick, there are no cheat codes for the game and that this is not a complete open world game - There are only two areas to explore - a small town and a big city (which is actually pretty small). You cannot visit certain areas you have finished and the last part of the game blocks you from exploring. Compared to KOTOR, this is a disappointment...
I highly recommend installing the Jade Empire in Style mod when playing a new game. In addition to adding various new styles and armor sets, it also fixes the fighting and the style points system and makes game play more fun. I wouldn't go back to the "vanilla" version of the game after playing this mod.
So to summarize the game:
The Good-
Soundtrack, graphics, fighting game play (especially after the Jade Empire in Style mod), characters and side missions.
The Bad-
The cut-scenes (badly rendered and you cannot skip them). The Boss fights (the Emperor, your Master and Death's Hand are easily defeated, whereas the Lotus assassins and animal demons and spirits are much tougher. The only boss fight I enjoyed was Raging Ox and Kai the Serpent). Black and white morality system. Story goes for a toss in the last few hours.
Ant-Man (2015)
Marvel delivers yet again, though not on the same scale
Ant-Man. A man who can shrink to the size of an insect. Yes, that's right. And he communicates with ants and acts as their leader. After showcasing various colored aliens, a talking raccoon and a lovable tree (later a plant), viewers who were sceptic will be pleasantly surprised as Marvel delivers yet again, though not on a same scale. Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) vows to go clean and stop breaking into places and stealing s**t. That doesn't work out and he is forced to resort to burglary (not robbery, mind you) which brings him in contact with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas), a famous but reclusive scientist and his estranged daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) who want Scott to save the world and stop his former protégé Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) – by breaking into a highly secure research facility and stealing s**t. That's the crux of the story – a heist movie with a comic book twist, where the hero saves the world. Nothing new about that, right? But
It's so much more than that. The story is about the relationship between a father and his daughter, as showcased by the strained relationship between Hank and Hope, who hates him for his withdrawn nature and for lying about her mother's death; and Scott and his daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson), who thinks the world of him. It is also about redemption, as Scott desperately seeks to change his ways to be with his daughter, but gets caught in the same cycle of self-sabotage and Hank who wishes to reconnect with his daughter while trying to save the world. The film also deals with legacy as Hank wants Scott to become the next Ant-Man and avoid his mistakes. Aside from being emotional, the film also is genuinely funny, with Paul Rudd and Michael Pena as his sidekick Luis stealing the spotlight with their comedy skills. Paul lights up the screen with his goofy nice guy portrayal (he is known for his comic roles), and Michael Pena charms you with his funny recollections and accent. Michael Douglas on the other hand plays his role as a grumpy old man and provides a few laughs. Corey Stoll is a tremendous actor, and brings everything he's got to Darren Cross/Yellowjacket, but as has been the case in some of the previous Marvel movies, the villain is ultimately somewhat lackluster and wants for dimension and development (Loki is still the best Marvel villain). His motivations, though clear, are ineffective, often occasionally verge on silly. Having said that, Cross actually serves to "sell" us on the idea of a tiny soldier. He sweeps us up with his unabashed enthusiasm for the idea and becomes another tool to coax the audience into embracing the notion of a hero the size of an insect. As for his alter ego, Yellowjacket is the catalyst for some inspired fight sequences. In fact, the action is one of the Ant-Man's greatest assets. It's innovative, often side-split-tingly funny in one moment and strung with tension the next, and is entirely motivated by story and character. The fight between Ant-Man and Falcon at the new Avengers headquarters is funny and exciting. The film has also has heist sequences but they aren't as nail-biting like the Ocean's series. Oh, and the final fight has Thomas the Tank Engine. Enough said. The film has tons of Avengers references such as when Dr. Hank Pym mocks the Iron Man suit technology and states that they are too busy because they are dropping cities from the sky (reference to Avengers 2). There is also a Spider-Man reference in the end of the movie (yay!) confirming that the wall crawler will be making an appearance in Captain America: Civil War (2016). More references are hidden throughout the movie and are fun to think about. The film is however not without its flaws. Some scenes will feel clichéd, like the training montage and the final heist sequence falls flat despite being fast-paced. And the other members of Scott's thieving group aren't well developed and are stereotyped as the hacker and the getaway driver. Despite its flaws, Marvel delivers another strong standalone film with Ant-Man. As is typically the case with the studio's offerings, Ant-Man works as a showcase to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also delivers a straightforward, fast paced entertainer. The film doesn't require much pre-existing knowledge about the previous movies on the viewer's part. Stylistically one does feel Edgar Wright's (the director is famous for his "Cornetto trilogy") original concept, but the movie belongs to Peyton Reed. The affection these creators have felt for the characters is felt by the audience too. And that is what makes this movie special.
PS: There are cut scenes during the middle and at the end of the credits in a typical Marvel fashion. Watch out for those too.
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain (2015)
This is a GOTY contender?!!! What the hell!!!
MGSV TPP begins 9 years later after the events of GZ, as Big Boss (now Venom Snake) reawakens after his 9 year coma and escapes the hospital he was taken care of when XOF forces attack, including Quiet, the mute sniper we encounter later in the game, the psychic Tretij Rebenok (young Psycho Mantis) and the Man On Fire (reanimated Volgin now with fire powers). Snake is aided by the mysterious Ishmael and Revolver Ocelot, his fr-enemy from the previous games in what is hands down the best opening chapter for any game. It is nail biting tense and sadly the rest of the game doesn't match up especially after Episode 2 which is after you rescue Miller and go on a vengeance mode by Fulton extracting soldiers and upgrading your Mother Base. The story feels like it was made up alongside the game play and no one objected Kojima's decisions in the writing and editing department. Because the story missions feel like stand alone chapters with no common thread, you don't even know what happened to the main objective later. "The life and times at Mother Base" if I may. Nothing makes sense and the ending throws more plot holes than resolving them (too much of retcon) and the story and game feel incomplete (Episode 51 anyone? and where is chapter 3: Peace?), which is a shame because this is (or may be?) the last Metal Gear game directed by Kojima.
And by the way Quiet is not even important to the story (you can choose not to meet her at all or kill her after the boss battle and if you save her she will die after chapter 40 or 41). And episode 46? never mind... and Skull Face is such a lame villain that he doesn't get a boss fight. Period.
But the game does have its shining moments. The game play is a successor to GZ with many enhancements. You can run, crouch and crawl and use stealth or full on assault (or mix them up) to complete your objectives.
The iconic cardboard box returns as the ultimate stealth tool with a few improvements. For example you can now stand up and run and crawl when inside the cardboard box, burst out and aim and shoot or do your CQC and you can even attach posters which have different hilarious responses by the enemy.
You can also enhance Snake's prosthetic hand with various capabilities like a sonar detector, rocket launcher wrist and upgradeable battery to shock enemies and knock them out. Also present is the gun customization option where you can create your own custom guns.
The enemy AI is brilliant and they WILL give you a hard time. Additionally the day-night cycle and weather system affect you and the enemies as well making infiltration easy or hard.
You can Fulton extract every single enemy and assign them in various teams, animal/bird/insects for your own personal zoo, materials containers, vehicles and tanks for you to sell or use, this gives you various upgrades and advantages. For example my Intel team, when leveled up would give me early warnings about enemy FOM (field of movement) nearby and weather changes allowing me to plan my next moves easily.
But the biggest game play changer is the Buddy system, where you can have one of the four "Buddies" assist you in story missions or side ops or just free roaming. The buddies are really helpful (Quiet is a buddy too) and give you many advantages in the battlefield. One my "buddies" is D-Dog and he is the best!!! He can smell out enemies, animals and plants, marking them out for you, bark to distract enemies or outright kill them too.
The graphics are seriously good and the draw distance is amazing. The game is a perfect PC port and runs smoothly on my 4GB RAM and i5 processor (I am playing this on High settings). The soundtrack by Ludvig Forswell is amazing and suits the game. The voice acting is top notch and Troy Baker is the best of the whole bunch as Revolver Ocelot. Kiefer Sutherland IS Big Boss/Venom Snake, but he rarely talks. But it is the game play where the game truly shines.
Sadly while the game play is great, the open world is not. It is barren and empty and there is nothing much to do after Fultoning or destroying everything. Wild animals rarely appear and there are no opposing forces other than you (even MGS4 had it better with an ongoing war despite not being open world)and not even any civilians around. There is barely any difference between most of the story missions and the side ops. And the vehicle controls are bad and seem more like and after thought. You cannot ride a helicopter and there are no motorcycles, only jeeps, trucks and tanks. Snake cannot swim and there are no boats or ships.
Oh and the boss battles fall way short. Its not that these fights are bad, they can get pretty tough especially the Skulls unit, but if you are expecting another Psycho Mantis (missed opportunity here), Laughing Octopus, The End, The Boss (you get what I mean), you will be disappointed.
To summarize, while there is a great prologue chapter, great game play, quirky enemy AI, great graphics and soundtrack; the repetitive mission structure (fulton extract everyone and chapter 2 is a mess), a barren open world, tough-but-not-epic boss fights and a bad story which creates more plot holes hold it back and you truly feel the phantom pain what could have been...
Modern Family: The Closet Case (2015)
More like a filler episode but still retains the charm
Alex is having problems with her boyfriend Sanjay, whereas Luke is more interested in meeting her cute college friend. In the end however Luke chooses to support Alex; we realize Sanjay broke up with her, despite both of them deciding to try out a long distance relationship (End of Episode 1). Not that their breakup is odd (well, there was no chemistry), but that it was hurried up. But we do get some sweet if awkward moments between Luke and Alex (instead of the usual Haley and Alex sisterly love). Plus it gives Alex more screen time now that she is home (at least a few episodes).
Meanwhile Haley and Dylan are back (again!), and they want to move in together, and Phil agrees to it, despite Claire's objections. Over the course of the episode he realizes his mistake, but blunders again as he allows them to unofficially live together. Why can't Phil be a strict parent like that time when Haley got kicked out of college?
Meanwhile Mitchell has received a job but it involves working with his father's arch nemesis Earl, the owner of Closets, Closets, Closets, Closets! Naturally Jay is angry and hilarious moments take place between the three of them.
Manny is having problems with Carly, his cheerleader, which makes Gloria nervous and there is a funny and heartfelt banter between her and Cameron about whether to let children deal with disappointment or to protect them from hostilities of the outside world. But it fails to make a connection to the audience as there is too much going on in one episode.
To summarize: + Alex gets more screen time. + Awkward brother-sister love. + Arch rivalries, Rolodex and deals (hehe).
- Alex's breakup with Sanjay. Felt more like the writers were bored with him or didn't know what to do with the character. It was hurried up. - Haley and Dylan (again!)- there is no chemistry this time (or maybe I am bored), and Haley is back to her old self. - Phil can't seem to get his act together.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005)
Still one of the best stealth games around
I've been playing video games for a long time and this game has always made me happy no matter how many times I play it. Let's begin shall we...
Chaos Theory begins with political tensions between both Koreas, China and Japan due to its formation of ISDF (Information Self Defense Force) which is a violation of the WWII Constitution by Japan. You return as Sam Fisher, a Third Echelon Splinter Cell agent, who has to sneak around, interrogate, find information and stop the impending war.
The story feels more like a realistic spy thriller. The story is not emotional like the Metal Gear series, but it does have its twists and turns. Players who have played the previous entries will recognise and be shocked by the actions of the returning characters. On the fun side, there are no cutscenes during missions but the interactions between Sam and his team is really humorous at times as everyone makes fun of Sam being too old for this stuff, even Sam himself. The game is filled with various easter eggs such as the previous Splinter Cell game posters, some guards talking about Prince of Persia (another game by Ubisoft), and classic Nokia phones as the computer screensavers. RIP Nokia...
The graphics and voice acting is top notch, aside from from one or two pop ups. However the cutscenes look aged even for a game this old. Michael Ironside really does Sam Fisher justice, too bad he is replaced by Eric Johnston (who is good, but pretty unrealistic as Sam is supposed to be in his late 50s and in Blacklist he looks like in his late 30s-early 40s). The soundtrack by Amon Tobin really fits the atmosphere and it feels like a noir spy movie.
Regarding the gameplay, Ubisoft really nailed it (pun intended).
+ Each mission is different and you SHOULD do the side missions, they help in making the current mission a little easier. + Aside from the light meter, the new noise meter analyses the environmental sound and also how much noise Sam makes. + The pistol this time has a portable EMP inbuilt which lets you disable lights and other electronics temporarily, a "peaceful" alternative to shooting stuff. + Detailed acrobatic movements and animations. The split jump is fun and Sam automatically stares at the nearby enemy and his sneaking movements change when really close to an enemy. + The enemies are tough. At the highest difficulty they can easily kill you with 2-3 shots. Be careful! + The Bank of Panama is my favourite mission :-) + Love the trial and error stealth mechanics. (Really do). Discovering alternate routes never gets old. + I actually liked hacking and lockpicking.
However the game does have its flaws - No reward such as new weapons or stealth techniques for doing side missions. - The noise meter is sometimes erratic. - The weapons are ridiculous! No zoom in for precise shooting for pistols and the rifle recoil is ridiculous. - The best part of the game was when I discovered REMOTE hacking in the LAST mission. I hadn't read any wikis and it wasn't even in the training videos. I guess that's my fault but it should've been mentioned in the game. I played the game again armed with this new technique (hehe)
However, the positives outweigh the negatives and I still consider this game to be one of the best stealth games ever. Full 10/10.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013)
Different than the ones before it, and for a good reason
Let me just state that though I'm familiar with Metal Gear series, I've only played MGS4, MGRR and the prologue demo Ground Zeroes. Let's get to the point then...
Set couple of years later after the events of MGS4, Raiden aka Jack is now a cyborg ninja employed under a private security company. War economy has ended after the fall of the Patriots AI, but many private military companies are still fighting and now using cyborgs. Raiden gets brutally defeated after failing to protect the prime minister during a simple mission which of course goes awry and gets a new body.
The story focuses on Raiden's efforts to stop the ones responsible and his morality which is basically hypocrisy as he considers himself a sword of justice and talks loudly about it, but is still "Jack the Ripper" who loves killing as pointed by the bosses in the game. The scene where Raiden sheds it all and confesses to becoming Jack again is powerful but slightly cheesy. Many characters are present but the story is rushed (no long cutscenes) and the only memorable characters for me were the boy who is saved by Raiden, the Doktor, Jetstream Sam aka the guy who defeated Raiden brutally in the beginning of the game and taunts Raiden the most and Sonny who is grown up and is a machine genius. The story length is about 5-6 hours which is somewhat short but decent enough.
The gameplay is totally different from the previous games, where stealth was the key to success. Now you as a cyborg ninja rely on your sword and awesome moves and weapons to finish the task. The game is all hack and slash but with a few stealth elements thrown in, noticeably the return of the all mighty cardboard box and drum roll, which I didn't like because they don't fit in perfectly and there is no reason to use them. But the slow motion Blade mode where you strategically dismember the enemies and steal their life force and the later unlocked Ripper mode aka the rage mode are pretty cool. Even there is a training mode, there is no survival mode.
The boss fights are amazing and even though it's hack and slash, each boss fight feels different and more dangerous as you mix and match tactics and weapons to defeat them. After defeating each boss you gain their weapons (pretty much like MGS4). The best boss fight for me would be against Jetstream Sam, the Sundowner and the final boss fight against the Senator who transforms into Broly the Super Saiyan without the hair (just kidding, but he does become monster like).
The graphics are pretty good but the PC port is bad because even if you change the resolution and frame rate according to your system, you have to lower those because certain boss fights don't progress, which is pretty weird and irritating (especially the final boss fight which is pretty good, but gets hampered due to such issues). And I'm not the only one with the issue.
The soundtrack fits the atmosphere perfectly and especially during boss fights but its not something I would download for listening again.
To summarize, the game is worth your time if you want a decent story and great gameplay. The only reason I give this 8/10 is due to the graphics issue on PCs and no survival mode.