The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This game is amazing 

Game no: 507
Genre: Adventure 
Platform: Nintendo Switch 
Release Date: 2023 

Ok my last game played was around 50 days ago so my review is going to be a bit rusty. But during that time I played only one game everyday for a couple of hours without fail. That game is The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (ToTK). 6 years ago when Nintendo release Breath of the Wild it was one of the best games I've played that year. Granted it did made the top 10 (Number 5) but it wasn't the best game of the year. I still enjoyed it immensely. Now with the sequel, I thought there is no way I could enjoy this game more. Man, I love to be proven wrong 

This game is a continuation of the first game where you Link and Zelda explore the caverns underneath Hyrule castle and awaken a new evil and with that you are trust into the adventure of your lifetime. Typical Zelda fashion you have no weapons, all your heart containers are gone and basically they strip you out and it is up to you to go explore. The starting stage which is the sky island provide a good tutorial for you to discover you new abilities to start you adventure. Gone are the old abilities of bombs and platforms and now we have 4 new abilities which is recall where you rewind some item for 30 seconds. Ascend where you go up if there is a surface to go up to (Good for exploring caves). Fuse, where you take an item and combine it with you weapon and shield which give s you
higher stats and finally the main ability which you will use 70% of the game and practically can brake the game if you know how is Ultrahand. What makes this game different is the Ultrahand ability where you can combine items to make a device or structure such as a boat, or a bridge to name a few. Complimenting the Ultrahand is items called Zonai devices. These devices which are dispense in capsule form will help you design items such as cars, planes, boats and weapons. Basically the possibilities are just limited from you imagination. If you can think it, you probably can design it. There is a lot of YouTube clips showing players design crazy contraptions such as drones, tanks and robots.

Once you leave the sky island and fall down from the sky to the ground. You are free to do whatever you want. There are main objectives in the game but the game won't rush you to complete them. It is up to you to do it in your own pace. For me every open world game I have a way of playing it. First, find all the map towers to unlock the map. Once you know where everything is you can start your journey. The thing with the game that it rewards you for just going one direction. Let say you want to explore something and then suddenly you see a shrine in the horizon so you will stop what you'll doing and head there but along the way you see a cave that you want to explore. So you'll put a pin in the shrine and go to the cave. The choices of what to do is just endless and it is not bound
on a straight a clear path. So after I unlock the map, I will spend my time just wondering around finding shrines. Shrines are use to upgrade your hearts or stamina. In this game you are going to need stamina because there are a lot of things that is going to need climbing, swimming or gliding and most of the time you end up dying because the lack there of stamina. Hearts in this game is an after thought since even though there are 40 hearts in the game. If you don't have at least 20 you are better of running to safe distance or using your Zonai devices to kill them since this game is punshing. One hit and usually it will be game over 

So returning besides the Shrines are they weapons degradation. Everything breaks after time(even the Master Sword but that is more of a cooldown). Cooking which this time gives you bonus stats if you cook them correctly. Gear that will help against the elements and lot of lots of things to collect. What is different this time is the amount of things you can explore. Besides the sky island which you need make a flying device and have enough battery to fly up there (which you get by mining) and the ground the explore. There is also a new area call the depths. These are holes scattered through out Hyrule and when you fall down it will be a pitch black worth of nothing. Literally you can't see anything until you light it up with a bulb plant of find one of hundreds of lightroots. These lightroots will illuminate the area which will make exploring easy 

So lets get to my review why I say this is the best game I've played this year. The main reason is because of the hacks I guess. The version that I am playing of the game has the ability to multiply items
by just doing a couple of steps. I don't say this game is not enjoyable without hacks but once you unlocked unlimited inventory in the game. This game just opens up. You can spawn multiple resources to get your battery charge up. Truffles to get full health with extra hearts when cooked 5 at a time. Unlimited amount of money from selling cooked meat or anything else you find. Basically this game skips the mundane stuff of having to mine or gather resource. I've got enough resource to just auto build a sky bike and just roam around the depths for days opening all light roots. I cooked a lot of truffles to help me beat Ganon at the end since it gives me extra hearts. Basically if they gave the players unlimited resources you can practically enjoy the game. Not to say the game is broken with these hacks since you have to still play the game properly to unlock the full story. But it so fun having not to worry about it. The only thing that I can't multiply is bombs and arrows. Those I need to find or buy them in the wild.

In the end I spend more than 230 hours in this game. I did all I need to do. Did all the main quests and completed 80% of the side quest. I manage to finish 134 out of the 152 shrines and after getting the end credits I am content. I played one of the best games ever made and I don't think that Nintendo can make something special like this again. This game deserve the S Rank and also a top 3 spot in my game of the year. Will it be number 1, wait and see.

Nobodies: Murder Cleaner

Playing a game for work

Game no: 486
Genre: Adventure (Point and Click) 
Platform: PC
Release Date: 2016

I usually don't play this types of game. The last was I think Full Throttle and Grim Fandango but I have to play this game for work which is checking the translating in my native language is working with the game (I am going to say 95% working with some minor changes). So since I played the game with walkthrough might as well I count is a Game Finished 

You played as a cleaner and your job is to disposed of bodies that the assassins left for you to clean up. There are 11 missions and you need to do make sure that nobody notice that anything was moved (if you want a better achievement, or you could leave to the next mission your choice). The art style is hard drawn which I really appreciated but there is limited movements in each frame

What I like about this game is that some of the puzzle are really fun. There are minigames to play like safe cracking or moving a car in trash compactor. And that's where it ends. Without our pager (which gives us clues on what to do) this game is really hard. The thing about this game is that, there is a specific way on how to solve a puzzle and if you don't meet the requirements you'll be stuck and you probably have to repeat the game again. Which makes it a bit frustrated. The missions get more complex each stage we past and by the end it is a complex sequence that you need to fulfill to finish the game 

In the end this game is fun for those who like point and click adventures. The story is nothing to riveting but it is serviceable. Without the walkthrough you can take hours to solve something but in fact you can finish the game in less than 1 hour. I give it a B-Rank.  

Stray

Eventually the cat mechanics will bore you 

Game no: 483
Genre: Adventure 
Platform: PS5 
Release Date: 2022

Stray is a game where you play as a cat in a post apocalyptic setting where humans are gone and robots have taken over. You are task to explore the world and figure out how to escape. That basically it this game basically lets you do cat things. From a guy who has 5 cats it is true to what it says. The cat can do almost what a cats does which includes, sleeping, scratching the carpets and sofa, drinking and doing cat things. The only thing that it can do is lie flat on the belly and wait for someone to give him a rub.

This game is a linear game where every time you reach a new area you are task to do some fetch quests in order to progress further. While the areas are small, there is no map and you can get lost pretty easily since everything looks the same (neon red and dark). You have a robot companion that helps you along the journey but it's basically a one sided conversation because the cat doesn't talk. The robots however provide some good inside with limited amount of dialogue given. There are also the bad guy, the look like those small leech creatures from Half-life where they will latch on to you until you die. So there are moments where you need to escape from a horde of them and that is trilling since you only have a split second to think about the next move. 

The issue with this game is unless you are really invested in the story, there is really no incentive for you to stay on. The cat mechanics after a while become a bore to me and it's doesn't help that the environments doesn't tell you what to do and leaves you guessing what is next. On a side note of the story, I still don't get it after finishing the game. It left me with more questions than answers which I really don't like in a game without any narration. But that's how it was design was I can't fault them on that. 

In the end, Stray is a great cat simulator game. You'll grow to love the cat and want to root for him but the gameplay is not that fun. Good thing is that this game is short clocking in under 4 hours or 7 if you want to explore everything. I'll give this game a B-Rank and it is a good play for one weekend  

The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe Edition

This game is so meta 

Game no: 481
Genre: Adventure 
Platform: Nintendo Switch 
Release Date: 2022

What I can say about this game. This game where every choice don't matter and you are just a part of a sick joke which is this game. You try your best to find an ending but there is none. Honestly this game is a bunch of branching paths and with each branch you are treated to one of their 19 endings and after you end the game. The game restarts you back at the same point with minor difference. You think you are getting something new but in the end you'll end up where you start with. 

This game is narrated by a British person which is actually fun to hear but after a while it gets boring and repetitive since you keep repeating the same actions over and over again. So in the end I beaten the game around 6-7 times and watch the rest of the ending on youtube. There are a lot of ways to get the ending but I was bored from the repetitive gameplay. In the end I give the B-Rank 

Until Dawn

Choose your own horror story adventure

Game no: 478
Genre: Adventure 
Platform: PS4
Release Date: 2015

A year ago a group of friends went to the mountain and two of them disappeared. Now a year after the group of friends return to the scene to honor their memory. After that that when thigs start to go crazy 

Until dawn is a choose your own adventure where the controls are only moving using the right stick. Picking up items using X and R2 and QuickTime events using button prompts when you are in a tense situation. Other than that the game doesn't let you deviate to much from the script. There are branches of options to choose from which will effect the outcome of the story and each choice you make is a butterfly effect (a concept where they try to tell you over and over again). This game was meant to be replayed again after you finish a run. But even though the story is interesting in the first half, once you get to experience the story again there is no reason to come back to it. You'll probably will want to reply this only to try to save the people you lost (that apparently is the good ending) 

The things that I like is the storyline and the gameplay method. You really just can play this game lying on the back of the chair and just relaxing. As for the horror elements I am going to say that once you know what is the McGuffin is. You won't be scared. There are a lot of jump scares but you can probably see it a mile away. The lore doesn't make sense (or probably I didn't get all of the clues of it to make sense) but it's a game so is either you enjoy it or you don't. 

I manage to finish the game until the end credits with only 3 out of 8 survived (I was an error in my part). Play this game with someone if you like scary movies and you want an interactive experience. I will give this game a B rank.   
 

Firewatch

First game of the year 

Game no: 444
Genre: Adventure
Platform: Nintendo Switch 
Release Date: 2016

It's been a while since I have actual write about something. So I am a bit rusty. But let's start. Firewatch a game by Campo Santo is about how running away from your problems just is not the way to handle any solutions. The story is about Henry who wanted a change when his wife who was diagnosed with dementia is left with her family and he takes a job in the remote wilderness to just run away from the situation. 

Gameplay is easy enough consist for going from point A to point B to settle any tasks that is given by the only other person that you never see, Delilah. The controls are easy enough with some light action but that is now why the game is regarded so highly. What makes the game great is actually the story between Henry and Delilah and the mystery surrounding the game itself.

The story itself is so engaging and there is a mystery surrounding the park makes you want to continue to play the game to find what happen next. The interaction between the two characters over time made you feel that you develop a real connection between the two of them. The park is also is character by itself. There is a lot to see but nothing to do. Like in real life I guess. You'll spend time walking and admiring the sights and sounds. 

The map is big and there is a lot of see. And there were the problem comes in. You'll spend a lot of time backtracking from one end to another end which makes it a little tedious because the walks are long and it is easy to get lost in the woods. Other than that the story what turned out to be an awesome mystery happen to be just a series of unfortunate events combined with coincidences that just happen to involve the two characters. What I didn't like is in the end there is any big payout of seeing both characters together. We get to hear about Delilah but in the end this game was not to fall for her or to know her story. She really just didn't exist and just was there to push us along. I think that is why the game won a lot of accolades among people. I really makes you think. As for me, open ended stories like this really sucks. But on the plus side the game is really short 

So I finish the game until the end credits and I will give it a B-Tier Rank. The game was okay and even though there is nothing worthwhile to mention. I was there for the story and that is it. 

Toem

A very relaxing game 

Game no: 434
Genre: Adventure
Platform: Nintendo Switch  
Release Date: 2021

What is it about?
You are an adventurer who is asked by your grandma to take an adventure 

What I liked?

It a simple game where you have a camera with a digital camera and take pictures of things you find interesting 

There are a lot of point of interest and everyone will send you for tasks 

Clothes that have different functions open stuff in the environment 

The game is short and sweet 

What I didn't liked?
Some pictures you don't have a clue what do you need to find. So you'll end up running in circles trying to find the right picture.

Status: Finish the game until end credits

Fun Factor: A great game to play and relax

Detroit Become Human

 500th game played since 2010

Game no: 414
Genre: Adventure  
Platform: PS4
Release Date: 2018

What is it about?
In the distant future Andriods are use for most of your everyday task. But then something happen which will cause a chain reaction that will change everything

What did I liked?
You decide on what is the outcome of the story. You play as 3 characters each with a different view on the story
I love Kara story the most because she is just trying to survive
Connor story is also fun. Especially the investigating part 
You are allowed to kill your characters early in the game which will cause you to have to play the game again to get the better ending 
The graphics is amazing. The models looks almost lifelike 

What I didn't liked?
Markus story among the 3 is the weakest but he is the main part of the story 
You need to pick the right choices of the good ending and most of the choices will lock you into something you can't undo. Most of them have a split second timer so you need to do split decisions 
The walking better than the two previous games but is still clunky 

Status: Finish the game with the good ending for all 3 characters

Fun Factor: Love this game. But once you got the good ending I really don't feel like playing anymore

Journey

Playing a second time, still gives me the feels 

Game no: 411
Genre: Adventure  
Platform: PS4
Release Date: 2012

What is it about?
You play as a traveler who needs to reach to the top of the mountain 

What did I liked?
Looking at my old review. It was very short. But this game is amazing. You have one two buttons and there is no other indication on what you should do but just move forward. 
You will just know what to do by heart. Which is amazing for a game without any instructions. 
You travel alone but sometimes when you are lucky there will be another person joining you online. The best part is you don't have any way of communicating with them only through beeps and boops. But it does make your journey more meaningful and special
The end part of the game is hard. It like are you going to give up but you plow through

What didn't I liked?
Nothing this is an amazing game.

Status: Finish the game

Fun Factor: It can't be my game of the year because it was already is. But it's on top of there. Amazing game 

Batman The Enemy Within

This game is so boring. Not as good as the first one 

Genre: Adventure

Platform: Nintendo Switch 

Release Date: 2017

What is it about?

The continuation of the first episode. Bruce is struggling to be two different personality and trying to fight to save his city 

What did I liked?

The storyline sometimes it's servicable

The part where you are Batman 

What I didn't liked?

The story is so boring. I mean I keep falling asleep everytime playing this game 

The Telltale engine is a old engine. Which makes the game is clunky and controlling it is not fun 

The puzzle are okay but I find it tedious

The part where you are Bruce sucks and it's not fun 

Status: Finish until episode 2

Fun Factor: Well the main part of the game is fun. And the game it is not. If you like batman play the Arkham Series 

Outer Wilds

This is one of the best experience in gaming I've ever had

Game no: 354

Genre: Adventure
Platform: PC
Release Date: 2019





What is it about?
You play as a space explorer wanting to explore the solar system. The only catch is you have 22 minutes before the whole universe implodes. Think groundhog day in space

What I liked?
There is no objectives. No mission. Nothing. Once you are given the spaceship, you are free to go anywhere you choose. But in real life. Space could be dangerous. Here are the list of things that can kill you in space
- Running out of oxygen
- Getting pulled in the sun gravitational field
- Park on a planet only to be warps to the other side of the solar system with no way of getting back
- Spaceship damage
- Space suit damage
- Drowning

You slowly explore the planets and try to figure out what causes the time loops. Once you explore the clues will build up and it will unlock the secrets of the game
The feeling of discovering something new for the first time. It's a feeling that cannot be replicated.
Each planet has different gravity and physics which you need skills to navigate in zero gravity
This game makes you think about it even after you stop playing. I'll always think on what is the next path of exploration to go.
Controlling the spaceship is satisfying. Landing is always a challenge

What I didn't liked?
You really need to read a lot and sometimes you'll miss clues from the a couple of days ago.
The answer lies in the clues but eventually you'll miss out on something which makes exploring the same thing over and over again tedious. Since you don't know where to go.
22 minutes of exploring is frustrating when you find somewhere new only to have a couple of minutes before the loop restart. Some places takes forever to go to since a couple of planet conditions needs to be met and its very difficult.

Status: Explore all the main location and once I am done. I just youtube the ending. It was very satisfying to watch.

Fun Factor: Definitely one of my best game I've played so far. I stopped due to my impatience but I would like to visit it again one day

The Get Out Kids

One of the good adventure games I've played for a while

Game no: 335

Genre: Adventure

Platform: iOS

Release Date: 2019 

What is it about?

A point and click adventure about a couple of kids who wants to have some midnight fun 

What I liked?

The story is interesting. Made me want to finish the game 

The gameplay is simple enough and each chapter is around 5 minutes 

You can't go wrong with the gameplay.. Is all trial and error

What I didn't liked?

The story really doesn't make that much sense. 

The ending was cut short. It seems like they run out of funding. 

Some puzzle they don't give you what do you need to do. You just have to trial and error

Status: Finish the game 

Fun Factor: A enjoyable game from start till the end. Nothing much more to add than that

Sneaky Sasquatch

An awesome game but fundamentally flawed in certain aspects

Genre: Adventure
Platform: iOS
Released Date: 2019

What is it about?
You play as a Sasquatch who tries to get food and save the park while staying away from the rangers

What I liked? 
The gameplay is fun. You can gather food, ski, race cars, canoe, dig for treasure
The sneaking mechanics is great
Using coins to get extra items to advance the story
The open world map is filled with hidden secrets

What I didn’t liked? 
The controls is a bit sensitive. Controlling the car sucks
The game stop being fun when we need to grind for cash... everything needs cash to advance and that requires a lot of grinding which kind of sucks

Status: Played 5 hours of it and gave up when I saw I need a lot of coins to grind

Fun factor: A great game if you don’t mind the grind

Batman the Telltale Series

Play as Batman from a different angle

Game no: 298
Genre: Adventure
Platform: PS4
Year Released: 2016



What is it about?
Play as Bruce Wayne and Batman where his choices effects the future outcome of the game.

What I liked?
Telltale take on Batman as he starts out on his first year as the Caped Crusader is a fresh story
The choices you make really effect the gameplay
Detective mode that requires you the solve the crime is surprisingly fun
The Batman suit and the Batmobile design looks futuristic

What I didn't liked?
The Telltale engine sucks balls. It's 7 year software that requires updating. The game engine causes clunky controls, which makes action feels janky
Act 3 and 4 was a bore and in slowly pick u steam in Act 5
Quicktime events sucks
Everyone seems whiny in this game

Status: Finished all the episodes. Got my second platinum

Fun Factor: A good game with a decent storyline. If you want to play as batman, better go to the Arkham series

The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

Another spectacular Switch game

Game no: 284
Genre: Adventure
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Hours played: 75+ hours





What is it about?
Nintendo has rework the Legend of Zelda formula where you are free to do anything in the game until the final boss battle.

What did I do?
This game is amazing. The things I did from start till the final confrontation with Ganon are
- Visited 96 out of 120 Shrines
- Climb all of the towers to uncover the full map
- Hunt a lot of animals
- Gather a lot of herbs and fruits
- Cut trees
- Make a campfire
- Swim and Fish
- Cooked a lot of food
- Find a lot of arrows bows and swords
- Do a lot of side quest
- Find the master sword and master shield
- Defeated all the Devine Beast
- Snowboarding
- Parasailing
- Fought a couple of easy bosses (cyclops with one eye)
- Found 40 out of 900!!! korok seeds (or I should say poop)
- Rode a horse, bear and deer
- Fought a lot of enemies
- Got snow, rubber, lava, heat, ninja, climbing and original blue clothes
- Got full stamina
- Climb every mountain

What did I didn't do?
(These are things I didn't do that I found from watch youtube)
- Fought a Lynel and some stone bosses
- Capture and tame a horse from the stables (I walked most of the way)
- Found all clothing
- Vistied 24 more shrines (most of these are shrines are quests)
- Bought a house
- Farm rupees
- Found a warp medallion
- Explore Hyrule Castle
- Find legendary ingredients
- Get full hearts

What I liked?
- The game doesn't have a set of rules to follow. You can go anywhere you can see in the map. Which is awesome. Discovering new areas with different objectives is really fun
- Climbing anywhere (as long you have enough stamina) is fun. It never gets old and it does require you to plan you climb, especially if you fall down a gorge and you have to climb up
- The story is nice, I can see what motivated link to go and beat ganon.
- Some shrines are cleverly design. Even fighting in the shrines are fun
- Paragliding is fun and shooting an arrow in slow is awesome
- The sheikah slate provides a certain strategy in handling the land. Unlimited bombs are awesome
- Fast travel is great but walking any seeing the sights is better
- Each of the clothing response differently for the environment

What I dislike?
- The weather elements. Rain makes it harder to climb. Thunder just make you into a target due to the metal you are holding
- Some weapons are useless against bosses. The bosses are downright hard
- The blood moon that respawn enemies. Which I didn't like since sometimes I just want to explore the world
- The fact that there are not waypoints proves very difficult in navigating Hyrule.
- Collecting 10 fire lizards (that was a chore)
- Fighting the Guardians is damn difficult
- Dying a lot (but you get to start it again right away

Overall: This game can be finished in 1 hour or 100 hours. No matter what, you will have a great time doing it. Nintendo managed to make a Zelda game that anybody can pick up and play (This is my second Zelda that I've actually won). I felt that I already experience what the game is offering to me and I don't need to 100% it (unlike Mario Odyssey). I probably won't revisit Hyrule again anytime soon. Probably in a couple of years and I also am not keen to buy the DLC is anyway

Status: Finish the game with
- 21 hearts (out of 27)
- Full 3 circle of stamina
- Conquer the 4 Divine Beasts
- Finish the main quest
- 100 Normal Arrows, 80+ Fire, Shock, Bomb, Ice and 10 Guardians Arrows

Fun Factor: Spectacular. If you have a Switch this is a must play game. Take your time, enjoy the view

The Legend of Zelda - Link's Awakening

A fun game if only I am good at it.

Game no: 235

Genre: Adventure 

Platform: Game Boy

  

Let me rant the issue with this game first. Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with this game. This game is beautifully made. Is a great game but this game is not meant for me. The reason is that the early Zelda games you are required to explore the area and explore to find what to do next. The issues for me are:-

- You'll end up wondering around no knowing where to go. It has a map but doesn't have a waypoint system. Maybe I am just spoil in game design. But I really don't want to waste my time finding the next thing to do. 

Now that is done. Back to the review

Does this game holds up?

- Every Zelda game is a masterpiece (expect for Zelda II). So this is also amazing 

- You explore an island where you need to get 8 musical instruments to wake up a fish in order to escape the island. 

- Classic Zelda gameplay where you explore 8 dungeons and defeat their bosses with the dungeons special weapons 

- The only Zelda game with a Platforming stages. 

- This game is out of the Zelda canon since there are a lot of other characters that are in other Nintendo franchise such as Mario and Metriod. 

Status: Played until the 2nd dungeon and then got lost... So just watch the YouTube long play. The guy finish the game in 4 hours 30 minutes

Fun Factor: Spectacular... One of the Game Boy gems. I feel kind of bad that I can't enjoy the game properly. There is a DX version for the Game Boy Colour. hopefully I'll download a guide to play