The good
- good backstory
- nice side quests that do not feel like fetch tasks, and make replaying levels interesting
- each family member has distinct playstyle
- idea of playing as a family, and unlocking abilities that help other family members
- enemies are not repetitive
- game is not grindy
- good for short sessions
- no microtransactions

The bad
- last boss is not well designed
- multiplayer only on local network or Remote Play
- one optional quest is bugged, and people may repeat the same map dozens of times without getting needed quest item

Conclusion:
It's really nice rogue-lite game, where we play as a family whose duty is to fight with the corruption. Game is generous in amount of gold we receive after the run. Each run takes ~30 min, so it's good when we don't have much time. It also has co-op mode, but it's coach only (or through Steam Remote Play). I played it on XboX Game Pass, so could not try how it works.

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Story:

We play as the children of Morta - guardian family who's task is to defend world from the corruption that spreads from the mountain every x generations. At first we can play only as a dad and oldest daughter (melee / bow characters). Soon other members of the family join us, after they are shortly introduced to the story. When back home (hub area) family members interact with each other, which allows us to learn a bit of their backstory and motives. It does make game more personal, than usual "restart the game after each death with character of your choosing".

We need to free 3 spirits of Morta, which will allow us to go to the mountain and destroy the source of the corruption. Along the way we learn what started the corruption. There are no choices to be made in this game, but there are small optional quests that can be completed. And they unlock NPCs who can stay in our house as a guests, giving us some bonuses

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Gameplay:

Upgrades bought in the hub area are permanent, so we start each run a bit stronger. It's not possible to change weapons, only do slights changes how they work with runes found on the maps. Experience points are earned per character, and unlock both new abilities for character and passive perks for the whole family.

There is easy to read mini map and bigger overview map of the dungeon. Each stage has 2 - 3 maps after which we fight sub-boss or main boss. Beating main boss unlocks next area. It is possible to repeat previous levels as many times as we like, if anyone is interested in some grind or achievements.

Enemies are of good variety - melee, ranged, sorcerers, special. Each family member plays a bit different which in combination with enemies makes each combination a bit different. Archer is good on long distance and can move around while shooting, but it drains energy. If energy drops to zero we can shot but not move around. Fire mage can't move when shooting, but there is ability to place decoys and main attack can push enemies away. Hammer user attack on short distance but also on big angle + it staggers enemies and adds them armor. So they can munch through waves of mobs easily.

Side missions are optional, and game does not punish players for ignoring those. They do add more depth to the story, so are well worth doing.

We keep all gold on death, which can be used to upgrade perks (attack power, defense, health, crit hits etc.) in the hub area. Gems are found as enemy drop or on corpses around the map, and used to open chests or buy items from vendors.

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Technicalities:

Graphic - ⭐️⭐⭐ - detailed and fitting to the game atmosphere

Music - ⭐️⭐☆ - music is ambient and not really memorable

Bugs - ⭐️⭐⭐ - I didn't encourage anything big. Just this one quest that is more of achievement hunter problem

The good
- good level design
- bosses fights are well done
- game is not grindy
- not microtransactions

The bad
- texture of one cargo container is not loading properly
- some platforming sections are clunky with controller
- game has no map at all. Which makes it confusing to navigate at the start
- countering mechanic feels bit off, and we are getting hit when it looks like we dodged attack at the right moment

Conclusion:
It's good hack&slash with bit of metroidvania. Not worth playing for the story, but good as easy slay-enemies position.

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Story:

Fury, the third rider of the apocalypse, is sent to catch seven deadly sins that escaped their prison. Along the way she's able to understand her own shortcomings, and able to overcome her temper to do some greater good.

Story is set after Darksiders 1 where War is sent to recover Armageddon seals, and Darksiders 2 where Death is sent to fix War's mistakes. And acts as set-up for Darksiders 4, where we will play as the last rider - Strife. Story is not amazing, but fits into previous two game lore, and fills some gaps of what and why things are happening. Why Heaven is on war with Hell over the earth, and how forces that are supposed to keep balance between the three acts.

Just like in previous two games are accompanied by the Watcher - spirit that see if we don't break any "laws", and we meet Vulgrim that acts as a seller and fast travel network. They don't have much to say in this game, and Watcher is rather uninteresting.

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Gameplay:

Similar to previous Darksiders games or DmC Devil May Cry. We slash through enemies with various weapons, get power ups to unlock new paths and progress the plot. Fury main weapon is whip which works well on close / medium distance + boomerang-thing for long distance. Later we unlock fire daggers, ice sword, power hammer and lighting lance. Each weapon can be used to solve simple environmental puzzles required to progress the game, and to unlock new paths - lightning power allows us to glide upwards in air currents, ice to walk on the water and do a wall jump, power hammer to hit switches and stick to crystal surfaces, and fire allows to burn spider webs blocking the path. All this makes it bit pointless to look around the map early on, as we are often blocked by obstacle we can't pass.

There is no map at all, so we are forced to fumble around levels, looking for right path to take. Enemies drop souls that are used to buy consumables or armors at Vulgrim. It is also possible to find soul crystals around the map. While we do keep crystals when we die, "free" souls stays where we were slayed. And require us to go back to the area and collect them. But we don't lose anything, so game does not punish players for dying

Element-specific weapons aren't more powerful than basic attack, so they are rarely used. Game relies heavily on dodging, but at the same time basic version is not forgiving. And we often get hit when we think dodge was timed well. It is alleviated with passive perk that rise dodge window by 25%, but it's annoying at the beginning. It is not required to use combos to get better results, and wrath and havoc attacks are not powerful. Especially havoc form attacks feels pitiful - we are transformed into big demon, that deals tiny amount of attack. Only perk is that we are invincible for few seconds.

Souls can be traded for skill points as well, and put into health, attack or arcane category. Attack bumps basic attack power, while arcane bumps havoc form and counter attack damage. There are no skill trees or other complex statistics. Shards can be put into a weapon (both basic and elemental), and give active bonus for weapon in use + passive bonus. And this is important, as buff to dodge window is obtained by putting specific shard into *any* weapon we own. So in general it's good idea to put all available shards into weapon, even those we never use. As only then they will give passive bonuses. Shards are upgraded by the Maker in the Forge, with use of angelic / demonic artifacts. After beating the game I had enough artifacts to fully upgrade 3 shards, out of 6 that can be equipped. Any more would require to grind for gold to buy them from Vulgrim.

Encounters are fluid, and there is good variety of enemies. Only problem is with already mentioned dodge window. Bosses are well-designed and not really frustrating. They all follow attack pattern that can be learnt, and don't act like last boss in the Bloodstained - too fast and too random.

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Technicalities:

Graphic - ⭐️⭐☆ - graphic is good. It is not striking or flawless, but it fits into the game style

Music - ⭐️⭐☆ - music is fitting, and sound effect are well made. Voice acting is also on good level. At lest in English version, polish (that I turned on by mistake) was more than bad

Bugs - ⭐️⭐☆ - nothing game breaking, just some badly loading textures or some clipping through textures

19,5h 88/378 The good
- it's possible to switch between old and remastered graphic in 1st and 2nd game
- multiplayer works without problem
- 3rd game gives opportunity to see conflict from both Earth and aliens perspective
- variety of weapons, and most of them feels interesting. They also vary how they work between games
- good variety of enemies
- remastered games get a lot graphical details and looks really good

The bad
- when player is killed in co-operative game camera turns into kill-cam mode, but it's not possible to move it around
- so many games, and the same copy-pasted enemies in all of them
- it's not possible to sprint...
- in first two games one fraction feels like zombie-brainless-fodder enemies
- plot is basic and average
- AI that accompany us is uninteresting
- driving mechanic and physics is on the Borderlands level. Which is not a compliment
- some missions are broken, and need to be played in one session. If we try to beat a mission, close the game and return to it later - game will crash
- setting feels like copy-pasted from Ringworld books
- some games have problem with sound mixing, and some sounds are silenced. It is very noticeable when switching between old and new graphic version, as it also changes version of the soundtrack

Conclusion:
Games available when I played: Reach, CE,2:Anniversary, 3. For achievements I added up those available in games I played in. In total whole collection has 700.

Seeing how many people wait for next Halo game I expected more. And get mediocre plot with uninteresting characters, killing the same enemies over and over again and no interesting game mechanics. So meh. It could be amazing when games were released, but now it's just mediocre.

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Story:

Aliens wants to activate Halo - huge ring that will kill all life in the galaxy. And we need to stop them! Hurr hurr. Nothing interesting. It gets better in 3rd game, when we learn a bit of history from the alien race perspective. But otherwise - boring and predicable. Right after we stop one Halo from destroying life in the galaxy - it turns out that there is yet another one that needs to be destroyed.

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Gameplay:

Pure FPS. There are no RPG or strategy elements here - no inventory, stats, planning etc. Game focus on running through corridor levels, and killing everything in front of us. We can occasionally use ground or flying vehicles to move faster in open areas. There are no decisions to make, and there is always only one path in front of us.

There are no special abilities, we can't even sprint in those games. In first and 3rd it's possible to grab devices that will give us temporary shield, turret, decoy etc., but I was often forgetting I even have those. There are grenades, but they are either overpowered or under-powered, depending on the game.

There are three fractions - humans, aliens and zombie-aliens. We play as human, that is heavily inspired by Warhammer 40K - bulky and with super strength, use standard human weapons shooting bullets. Aliens use plasma weapons, have cloaking devices and sometimes heavy melee attacks. Zombie-aliens take whatever is on the battlefield and use it to shot us. It is visible how weapons change through the series, like plasma pistol that shots pink needles goes from simply following target a bit, to needles that act as small homing missiles. Changes are not huge though. But enough to make each game weapons feel a bit different. It is possible to dual-wield smaller firearms, but not all games allow to reload both main and secondary weapon.

Cortana is AI that gives us tips or tell where to go. Though her design in uninteresting, and often feels more like bother than actual help on the way. Especially when she talk too much. We are occasionally accompanied by other soldiers, but they are dumb and die easily. Enemy AI is fine, but nothing amazing. I liked best most basic alien infantry units, that start to run around in panic when we shot them. Though they were sometimes "forgetting" we are there, and were just standing without doing anything.

Driving mechanic is truly awful, with either feeling that cars drive on the ice, or just lose connection to the ground without a reason. Flying mounts are not better, but they are used way less. So it's not as much noticeable.

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Technicalities:

Graphic - ⭐️⭐☆ - it is obvious first games are old, as graphic is ugly. But remastered versions look good. But when texture maps are more detailed - actual collisions maps are left unchanged. So it's possible for enemies clip through the wall, as they don't detect texture that is more bulky than original.

Music - ⭐️⭐☆ - weapon sounds are good, but overally music is average. And there are some problems with mixing in older titles.

Bugs - ⭐️⭐☆ - the serious one is not being able to progress with story, if game is closed and then resumed between specific missions. Some smaller are with fact game doesn't record correctly which levels we beaten along with gameplay time, so we may beat whole campaign and see "9 out of 11 completed".

And I need to leave this one here :D