April 2020 update
- good co-op implementation
The bad
- clunky controls and awful camera movement with mouse
- annoying QTEs
- unlocking weapons is really grindy
Conclusion:
Good enough co-op game to play with someone. But otherwise is skippable, as story is shallow, controls clunky, and game not scary. 4 stars are here for co-op implementation.
Story: Someone infects city with virus that turns people into zombies. Such innovative... oh wait. Whole story is about "stopping crazy person from turning whole world into zombie land". Boring.
Gameplay: We walk around, shot zombies in the head, do some QTEs, pickup junk. Only thing worth mentioning is that game really feels like previous gen port, so controls with keyboard and mouse are really clunky. But using controller makes you miss a lot when shooting. So there is no "proper" way to play it. Co-op works really well though, which was surprising for such an old game. No connection problems, exchanging items in inventory works perfectly, and it doesn't feel like one player is "main" and second is just walking turret. When playing in SP 2nd player role is taken by bot that works well enough. Checkpoints are frequent enough to not feel penalized for dying. Game is linear, and there is chapter selection in the menu with option to see which collectibles were missed.
Graphic, music, bugs: Graphic is dated, and it's obvious it's previous gen game. I didn't see any big bugs, just some QTEs that feels "unfair". Plus bad mouse acceleration that can't be turned off.
Dishonored: Death of the Outsider (Q3 2017) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆
Action Stealth16 hours + 4 for achievements | 28 of 30 (93%)
- highly customizable UI and difficulty options
- well designed levels
- both stealth and kill approach are rewarding
The bad
- no minimap
- it's hard to browse abilities to pick, as they are put on long list that is not sortable
- textures are ugly up close
- delusion of choices
- gear upgrades do not give much of an advantage, and majority feel useless to begin with
Conclusion:
I didn't even play Dishonored 2 yet (which is this game predecessor), and it already feels like AC - the same reused mechanic with different setting to justify releasing the same game again. Plus this time it's not possible to 100% game in a peaceful way. Not all tasks have peaceful solution, so sometimes we are forced to kill certain NPC.
Story: Game takes place after Dishonored 2. And as game title indicates - it's about death of the Outsider. Plot is straightforward and without big revelations. And have yes / no choice at the end. So plot is not game strong point.
Gameplay: Gameplay is the same as in Dishonored 1, only that we have different set of powers. Teleport (that works in a bit annoying way, as we need to click double to move), seeing enemies / objects through walls, and camouflage. New skills (quiet run, higher jumps, no dogs alerts etc.) are acquired by finding bone amulets. It is possible to craft them as well, but game does not give notification about it. So I missed it completely. We collect junk (just like in Prey...) that gets converted into coins. Gear upgrades are bought in black market shops, but it all boils down to bigger stack of single use items. Nothing interesting really.
We can pick up contracts on each mission that acts like side objectives. But they are really simple - like "kill dog and burn it's body" or "find this person and drop them inside this crate". More of making game feels longer than it is in reality, than some well-designed side quests. Some of the contracts can't be completed in a peaceful way, and we need to kill someone. So it's not possible to get "complete all contracts" achievement for people that'd want to play only in no-kill way.
Tbh game was made by the same developer as Prey, and it feels like it shares a lot with it. Similar to how Assassin's Creed games share basic mechanics. So may be that they re-used assets and ideas heavily between different games. For example interface customization is nearly identical in both. Same as collecting junk in environment to get materials. Only that Prey felt fresh. And Dishonored feels like re-used game with some Prey perks. How long can you use blink to move between ceiling lights inside or balconies outside, to go behind enemy to kill enemy, before you get bored? I didn't see many environmental ways to kill enemies to make it more interesting. And ability to camouflage as enemy to go and kill another is not really interesting.
There are only 3 small levels, with 4 buildings that can be entered. That may explain why they did not add minimap - to try masking how tiny world is. It is possible to enter buildings in at least 3 different ways, and there are some hidden passages inside to move around. So they are well designed to give some replayability. But still - are really tiny.
Graphic, music, bugs: Textures are fine from afar, and blurry up-close. I didn't encounter any bugs.
- battles are really fluid and cinematic after we learn how to play
- lore is interesting
The bad
- no indication in which chapter we're missing collectibles
- enemies can interrupt our combos, but we can't do the same to them
- maps are tiny
- camera work during encounters can be annoying, especially in the last boss fight
- there is always not enough healing items, and there is no way to effectively regenerate health
Conclusion:
It's obvious game was made by Japanese people where there is some weird sexual notion every 5 minutes. Bayonetta is solid hack & slash (or spectacle fighter as a sub-genre of slasher), that has some weird camera work and tight timing of attacking / avoiding enemies. It's good, but surely not for everyone.
Story: Bayonetta travels to recover lost memories, and understand why hordes of angels decided to attack her. It's hack & slash, so there is not much more to it. Just a background to kill hordes of enemies. There is no deep plot or big revelation.
Gameplay: TPP slasher like DMC or Darksiders. We get bonuses for making long and complicated combos, not getting hit, killing enemies in certain way etc. There are few alternative weapons, techniques, and accessories to unlock. Game is grindy, and it's not possible to unlock everything during one gameplay. Chapters are made from corridor levels, there is no open-map approach to traveling.
We have standard weak / heavy attacks that can be combined into combos, extra attacks, torture attacks (that looks like taken from bondage / BDSM community). Each unlocked weapon has some distinctive traits, and for example ski-boots allow us to move around faster and freeze enemies in combos.
It is possible to replay level but we don't get information where are missed collectibles. Camera can work wonky during boss encounters. I believe game is hard to play with K+M, as it was sometimes annoying to play with controller, for which it was designed.
Graphic, music, bugs: Music is nice, but feels bit repetitive. Graphic is fine but shows it's age. And I didn't encounter any bugs.
Side note
Started to play Age of Wonders 3 now, and from what I saw D: DotO I may skip Dishonored 2 for now.. I don’t want to re-play “the same” game again, in a short span of time.
I should have time this month to make post about my PC. I bought it in January, so like 3,5 month ago. And still did not have time to do any benchmarks.
Metro in London starts to get crowded again, even when they didn’t officially lift any restrictions. I hope it will not lead to another wave of sickness…
Have you played the other Resident Evil games? Did you play RE5 entirely co-op?
Why did you play Death of the Outsider before Dishonored 2? Dishonored 2 is on my to play list. I really liked the first one.
I tried getting into Bayonetta once and after an hour it didn’t seem like it was for me. The gameplay and humor did not appeal to me.
No, it’s only RE game I played. I know first games were more on scary side though, while later are more action oriented. And yes, whole co-op. I also tried to play SP by replaying some chapters later.
Honestly I thought Outsider connects D1 with D2. Plus I looked on HowLongToBeat, saw that this standalone game is shorter than D2 and installed it. I did not really check which game was first xD
Yeah, humor is really weird and many will not like it. Just like with Borderlands for example. I played Borderlands to have co-op shooter. Not for humor as I find it it unfunny.