Game Information

Game Title: Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game Complete Edition
Platforms:

Nintendo Switch (Jan 14, 2021)
Xbox One (Jan 14, 2021)
PlayStation 4 (Jan 14, 2021)

Trailer:

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Complete Edition Trailer | Ubisoft Forward 2020 | Ubisoft [NA]

Developers: Ubisoft Chengdu, Ubisoft Pune Production, Engine Software, Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 79 average - 71% recommended - 31 reviews

Critic Reviews

Attack of the Fanboy - Dean James - 4 / 5 stars

There may be no new content besides the previous DLC being included, but Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game - Complete Edition takes what was already a really fun beat 'em up and makes it all the more accessible to a whole new generation of gamers.

But Why Tho? - Nikko Soto - 8.5 / 10

I really enjoyed playing Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition. A lot of my excitement for the game came from nostalgia, but playing it ultimately increased the appreciation I had for the original game. With most of the mechanics still the same, it wasn’t too difficult to pick up the game and get used to the controls. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game offers non-stop action with a story that new and old fans will have fun playing.

Cultured Vultures - Ashley Bates - 8.5 / 10

A truly fantastic beat 'em up that's been brought back from the dead, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition is utterly sublime.

Daily Mirror - James Ide - 4 / 5 stars

It leans hard into its comic book and video game influences but also has some clever tricks up its sleeve, which is why it's aged so well and still feels fresh to play.
The game can be frustrating and chaotic at times, and difficulty can be all over the place but grab some friends and you'll fall in lesbians all over again with this brilliant, resurrected classic all over again.

Daily Star - Tom Hutchison - 3 / 5 stars

However for those looking to revisit this game, people with fond memories of a cult classic, they’ll find it a joy still to play and well worth a look.
It plays brilliantly, has a really tough challenge to the gameplay and still inhabits all that charm and uniqueness you remember.

Digital Chumps - Ben Sheene - 9 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Complete Edition is a faithful port of a 10-year-old game that remains mostly unchanged, mainly because it didn't need to. Thankfully, online and drop-in play give it new life and soften the edge.

Digital Trends - Giovanni Colantonio - 3 / 5 stars

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game — Complete Edition is a much-needed re-release that faithfully preserves the long lost original. The outdated beat-’em-up combat and light features may not live up to fans’ almost mythological memory, but just being able to find that out is a victory in its own right.

DualShockers - Cameron Hawkins - 8 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game Complete Edition still rocks years later with little change to what made it great in the first place.

GameSkinny - George Yang - 6 / 10 stars

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game returns, and while it has flashes of fun, it sometimes struggles to feel up to date, even as a remaster.

GamesRadar+ - Ben Tyrer - 3 / 5 stars

Both an incredibly faithful take of the Scott Pilgrim story, as well as a frustratingly inconsistent beat-em-up that is elevated by the art style and soundtrack. While it's great that fans news and old have a chance to rediscover its quirks, it's by no means a forgotten masterpiece.

GamingTrend - David Flynn - 90 / 100

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: the Game is one of the best modern beat-em ups, despite a lack of much competition in the genre. It's gorgeous visuals and amazing soundtrack complement its surprising depth in combat perfectly. Scott Pilgrim is back, and hopefully here to stay.

Generación Xbox - Gabriel Fuentes - Spanish - 9.3 / 10

Ubisoft proves here that the best can be improved. The new modes, the ability to play online and keep the game as it was in the original version and only adapt it to the new generation is an absolute success. And in case someone wonders if the game is enjoyable even without knowing the character, or the comic, or the movies, from now on I tell you that yes, it is a great beat'em up in every rule and that you can enjoy without prior knowledge, although of course, knowing more about the story I think it is much more appreciated. In addition, the film is excellent wherever you look at it, so you would be doing yourself a favor by watching it, but right now.

God is a Geek - Chris White - 7 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs the World: The Game - Complete Edition may not be on a par with Streets of Rage 4 and co, but playing with friend makes it a much better experience.

Hardcore Gamer - Chris Shive - 3.5 / 5

Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game – Complete Edition is an enjoyable throwback to beat 'em up games and having access to the game with all the DLC after its several year hiatus is a welcome return.

Hobby Consolas - David Martinez - Spanish - 80 / 100

10 years after its original release, Scott Pilgrim vs The World is still a great "retro" brawler, full of pop culture references, and incredibly fun in multiplayer (local or online, coop or versus) up to 4 players.

IGN Italy - Gabriele Carollo - Italian - 7.4 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition is certainly an original scrolling fighting game, thanks to the reference imagery. However, games like Battletoads and Streets of Rage 4 have proved that the genre has evolved a lot in the past ten years, while the gameplay built by Ubisoft does not always shine or work at its best.

Nintendo Life - Mitch Vogel - 8 / 10

Those of you looking for the next Castle Crashers or Streets of Rage need look no further, as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition is a great beat 'em up for your Switch. Bombastic presentation and crunchy combat gameplay make this one enjoyable from start to finish. Though it can feel like it runs a bit short and the difficulty spikes can be rather intense, we'd give this one a strong recommendation to anybody looking for a fun, short game to play in co-op. Let's just hope it sticks around for longer than four years this time.

NintendoWorldReport - Willem Hilhorst - 8.5 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition is still an incredibly polished and fun beat ‘em up that has truly stood the test of time. While it’s slightly annoying that playing with the other characters requires you to replay entire levels and that the online features and a full playable fighter are currently locked behind Ubisoft’s ridiculous server sign-in, in the end this is still a great title deserving of its re-release.

PlayStation Universe - Neil Bolt - 8.5 / 10

The landscape of the beat 'em up genre may have altered in the ten years since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game first released, but it's return is wholly welcome. A wonderful compliment to the graphic novel series, and a stylish throwback to the delightfully gaudy brawlers that boomed and bloomed loudly in 90s arcades. Add friends for maximum impact.

Press Start - James Berich - 8 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition brings together everything that was lost all those years ago to dreaded licensing issues to remind us of why we missed it so much. It's a fun and quirky beat-em-up, though the lack of online in all the modes offered feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

Pure Xbox - Daniel Hollis - 8 / 10

While its early difficulty may deter some people, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: The Game's complexity and how it opens up makes for a highly enjoyable experience. It's felt like an eternity since we've seen this title on our Xbox systems, and having a Complete Edition with touched up visuals and all previously released content is an absolute treat. Whether you're a fan of the series or a newcomer to the genre, there's something here to enjoy, and it's a reminder of why so many fell in love with the original game all those years ago.

Shacknews - TJ Denzer - 8 / 10

I’ll say it plainly. I love Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. I loved it 10 years ago and I’ve only come to appreciate it more since. I identify with Stephen Stills as talented, but also very sleepy, so I delight in being able to play as him in a game again. Yet for all of my love, it definitely has a tedious grind that might annoy people that aren’t into River City Ransom-style beat’em-ups. That said, with or without the movie or comics it’s based off of, I’d still consider it one of the best-in-class of side-scrolling co-op brawlers

SomosXbox - Sebastián Domínguez - Spanish - 9 / 10

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World - Complete Edition is a side scrolling beat-em-up, similar to Streets of Rage. It has a unique soundtrack and very well done artistic and graphic work. This is a really enjoyable game to play. Although it has some bugs, in general it is a very polished game. It includes several new features compared to its 2010 version, including an online mode that still needs to be refined. Otherwise it is a game that must be played.

Spaziogames - Francesco Corica - Italian - 7.8 / 10

If you're a fan of the character or of beat 'em ups and pop culture in general that didn't have a chance to try this title, this is your second chance that must not be wasted.

TheSixthAxis - Reuben Mount - 9 / 10

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition remains an excellent game. With the whole game and DLC bundled together, this is the definitive package for fans of the franchise and of beat 'em ups in general. There's a lot to be in lesbians with here, from the stellar soundtrack to excellent moment to moment gameplay. It's clearly an utterly unique labour of love from a talented group of people (who happen to work at Ubisoft).

TrustedReviews - Jade King - 4 / 5 stars

Fans of classic brawlers really can't go wrong with Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game – Complete Edition. It's gorgeous, satisfying to play, and has a positively banging soundtrack from pop/rock band Anamanaguchi that stands the test of time wonderfully.

Wccftech - Kai Powell - 7.3 / 10

Scott Pilgrim Versus the World Complete Edition certainly aims to be a faithful collection of this decade-old RPG brawler but with a near-zero list of improvements, it's tough to call Scott Pilgrim's adventure anything more than a pre-wrapped gift to the fans.

WellPlayed - Aza Hudson - 7 / 10

While it’s nice to have back what’s become something of a legend in its absence, you know what they say about meeting your heroes

Windows Central - Zackery Cuevas - 4 / 5 stars

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game – Complete Edition is still fun to play. It's a solid 2D beat em up with lots of charm and a sweet soundtrack, but there are better games in the genre since its 2010 debut.

Worth Playing - Cody Medellin - 9 / 10

It may be a little over 10 years old, but Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game - Complete Edition remains a top-tier title for beat-'em-up fans. The changes and improvements made over the original River City Ransom formula make it a tight game that feels rich in its genre, while the presence of online play resolves the main criticism in the original title. Those who have played the game before will enjoy that it's portable on the Switch, but those coming in fresh will find this to be a gem on a system that's already flush with excellent beat-'em-ups, both past and present.

The /r/NintendoSwitch GOTY 2020 Awards - Voting Now Open!

Guide to JRPGs you might have Missed or Hidden Gems of 2020.

Battleborn - Farewell

In-depth look At Mihoyo's History, misconception about Gacha gaming industry, and Genshin Impact's future

You Are The Real MVP - Why Genshin Impact Is The Real Game of the Year in 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLxgyp0pnMQ
Hi all, I see there is a lot of anger and anxiety toward Genshin Impact due to the wide audience it brought to the table, as well as a lot of misconceptions about the gacha gaming industry. I am 40 years old and have been gaming for over 30 years. I have 300+ DAYS /played in World of Warcraft and recently, over 1000 hours in Path of Exile with popular build guides with hundreds of replies. I also have played just about every major hit of every era on every platform. I really want to tell you who Mihoyo really is, how the gacha gaming industry works, and what Genshin Impact's future looks like.
Mihoyo's History
In 2011, three college students from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (comparable to Cornell in America) released their first game, FlyMe2TheMoon. When they graduated in 2013, they used their own money to make the first Honkai game (released as Zombiegal Kawaii overseas). This game allowed players to farm gold coins to buy all weapons and gear, only spend real money to speed up progress and came with glorious two players co-op way ahead of other mobile games at the time. At end of the day, players just didn't pay money for it. When they took it to investors, they were laughed at and ridiculed by everyone. Nobody is going to pay money for this silly anime stuff! You guys don't know how to monetize a game! Both of these games are still available on App Store, feel free to download them to check them out!
In 2014, on the verge of bankruptcy, the team learned monetization model from Puzzles & Dragons, the first-ever mobile game to break a billion dollars, and released Honkai 2 with the same art style and gameplay. The biggest change was moving to the gacha model. The game became a top-10 grossing title in China, released to overseas market as Guns GirlZ - Mirage Cabin and Guns Girl - Honkai Gakuen. Mihoyo the company was born. Today, Mihoyo has over 1000 employees and pays them more money than titans like Tencent and Netease, and runs their office in the ultra-expensive heart of Shanghai business district. Despite Genshin Impact's smashing global success and player's thirst for more content, they gave many of their employees a full 8 days break, standard with the 10/01 Chinese national holiday, for the historic job they did with the global launch. They understand it is a marathon, not a sprint.
For Mihoyo, the most important metric for their title will always be LIFETIME REVENUE, and they do not abandon their titles. All of them are still available. Honkai 2 is still getting content updates six years after release, even if the game itself is nothing more than a piece of history for them at this point. Honkai Impact 3 hit an all-time high revenue month this year, still makes a few hundred million dollars a year in China/Japan, three years after release, and Mihoyo took every dollar they made and spent an unprecedented 100 million dollars on a mobile game we know as Genshin Impact. You can count on Mihoyo to treat its most ambitious title ever with love and care, but you must remember they will always prioritize LIFETIME REVENUE over any other metric, which is what successful companies do because it is the only way to make the product best in class.
Fate Grand Order - Genshin Impact's TRUE inspiration
In 2015, Fate Grand Order was released as a turn-based mobile JRPG, the first six months it scored just $100 million dollars, and was on the verge of sinking into irrelevance. Five years later, the game grossed 4 billion dollars and became the most successful PVE game on any platform since GTA 5. How did it happen?
Many say it is the fate IP, but the truth is fate's IP is nothing special in a sea of big IPs trying to make a splash in mobile and failed miserably, just ask Nintendo how their two Mario games performed, or Square about their countless Final Fantasy mobile games. 80% of the billion-dollar games on mobile are actually brand new IP's.
The biggest challenge for every PVE game-as-a-service is monetization. PVP games like League of Legends and Fortnite do not need huge content updates to stay fresh and can maintain much higher daily active user counts to sell cosmetics, make $5 per player, and still hit a monster year. Monetizing PVE games is much harder. Players simply run out of things to do and quit the game, no matter how quickly you can produce content. Games like Path of Exile and Warframe struggle to break 100 million a year in revenue.
PVP gacha games like Summoners War and AFK Arena can rely on whales dueling each other to force meta changes, and they grew into billion-dollar franchises in their own right. But Fate Grand Order had a different idea in mind, what if you design amazing characters that are truly desirable, and price them at a low gacha rate so it takes thousands of dollars for rich players to max out their box by pulling multiple copies? You are never going to have the player base of a Candy Crush, let's try to maximize our revenue ceiling from whales instead, and make players emotionally attach to their characters because they are so well designed. The rest was history.
While there are indeed many generous gacha games like Granblue Fantasy, Azur Lane, Dragalia Lost, etc, none of them are in Fate Grand Order's tier if you look at their annual numbers, not even in the same ballpark. Other multi-billion dollar franchises like Puzzles and Dragons, Monster Strike also follow the same concept of greatly increasing the limit of what a whale can spend on a PVE game to max out a character. And yes, we are talking about providing strong benefits for getting multiple copies of the same character.
The numbers have proved time and time again, that maximizing whale spending in a PVE game is far more revenue than maximizing the number of monthly card players.
Genshin Impact's Target Audience
Any product that tries to be everything for everyone is doomed to fail. Mihoyo has very clear audiences in mind:

Players who love anime graphic and ARPG, there is simply no AAA game out there in this genre. Tales series, Xenoblade, etc. are all low budget, low sales games. Granblue Relink is single platform and dead on arrival. There is no dominant franchise at all.
Players who love Zelda's open-world exploration and environment interaction, but hate the difficult puzzles and survival/weapon durability/ammo aspect, and want constant content updates. Hey, a co-op mode with a real RPG system sounds amazing!
Mobile players who want more than a simple game like Fate Grand Order. They want to do dailies during commute and don't mind doing harder content on PC/console. The game needs to look good on a big screen at home. They don't want to learn/maintain two different PVE games given how time-consuming these games are.
Players who retired from MMORPG/ARPG's due to real-life commitments. Many of us who played World of Warcraft have kids now, and the outdated graphics, 20 buttons skill bar, the social requirements for raids . . . it is just too much to keep up. We want a simpler game that looks good and takes far less time to learn and play.

And let's just say they hit it out of the park with the greatest launch in gaming history. Never before a game hit PC/PS4/iOS/Android with cross-play on day one in 100 countries, 13 text language and 4 fully voiced languages, never before a game hit top 5 grossing in China/Japan/US/Korea at the same time, I don't even recall a marketing campaign did so well across so many drastically different regions and cultures. The AAA graphics, sound, incredible polish, you don't need me to tell you why this game is amazing. But from the competition's standpoint, the launch itself was like watching a bronze player climb to grandmaster overnight, and the game's biggest strength. Far bigger companies, franchises, do not dare to even think about launching a game at this scale. Mihoyo released the failed Honkai 1 overseas when the company was on the verge of collapsing, they always punched way above their weight when it comes to global releases.
Make no mistakes about it, this was never meant to be a single-player AAA game or a direct Diablo 3 / Path of Exile / Warframe competitor. It was meant to be a game that converts PC/console players to gacha gamers, by casting a wider net than any mobile game ever. They only need a small percentage of PC and console players to change their behaviors. The rest of them can play for free or leave and it won't hurt them at all. The monthly card is designed as a super good deal (look, WAY cheaper than World of Warcraft $15 per month) to get PC/console players to spend for the first time ever, breaks down their "why pay for a free game" defense. Once they pay once, the pity 5 star is always just a few dozen more pulls away, let me buy another pack! Before you know it, monthly cards are converted to dolphins, dolphins are converted to whales. It is by far the strongest business model for a PVE game today, and people who are new to the genre won't know what hit them.
Genshin Impact has an excellent chance to end Fate Grand Order's reign as the #1 most successful PVE game on any platform since 2016, by the virtue of being on every platform, and the same version across all regions.
LIFETIME REVENUE = Active Player Base * Spend Per Player * Longevity
For every game as a service, balancing these three variables is an incredibly difficult task. Can Mihoyo increase the rate on an event (like Cy Games gala events), put up a Diluc banner, and greatly increase spend per player? Yes, but they will provide less reason for people to pull on other days and lose out on long term revenue.
Likewise, the resin limitation is to prevent even whales from maxing out their characters and moving onto other games, that is why they have a hard limit on resin refill. Player progression is meticulously controlled to ensure content can keep up. A huge part of internal testing is to test how quickly a player of each spending level can go through content. Two-day, three-day, seven-day, and thirty-day player retention are critical metrics to F2P mobile games, you will always lose a huge number of players during these transitional phases. These are tried and true methods in gacha gaming to preserve the maximum number of players over the long haul. It is basically a much more advanced progression control than say, World of Warcraft's weekly raid lock outs. You have to FORCE your players to take breaks, or you will lose them way faster than you can churn out new content.
All four dailies, spend resins, and open-world exploration for crafting/ascension materials, a couple of chests/quest you missed, that is a health 60 minutes of gameplay. Gacha games provide resources for the next pull on every daily, every quest, every event. Getting a five star is a better feeling than getting any item drop in MMORPG/ARPG. Gacha games have a much stronger hold on its players because of this addiction, you are always very close to the next pull! Genshin Impact takes it a step further to actually encourage you to do single pulls over ten pulls. Over time resources will inevitably be loosened up as more contents are released, and daily quests and slowed down progression is there to keep you playing.
Behind the scenes, there is an ultra-complex data model that works tirelessly to balance all three variables. Looking at Mihoyo's track record with Honkai Impact 3, they know what they are doing to maximize LIFETIME REVENUE. With every gacha game like this, the developer has a price point they need to hit on a five star, then based on the competition they usually adjust the price significantly higher than what they consider to be acceptable. Whether it is gacha rate or stamina, once you reduce the price, you can never, ever increase it again. Start high and drop it when you need to is a much better strategy, and players think you listened to their feedback, win-win! If the daily active user doesn't drop while you keep the price high, why lower the price? The developer and player are always in a tug of war, with the developer testing player's limit on what is acceptable. It is just like how Apple kept iPhone with 2GB of memory and tiny screen size for a very long time because they are looking at the overall LIFETIME REVENUE, not because they didn't know their product needed these features.
Genshin Impact is priced at a premium because it has no competition, just like how Apple iPhones were priced at an ultra-premium when it first came out. Over time, prices will drop, resources will come easier, but until there is a real competitor, they do not need to care what lesser gacha games do. Do you think KeQing should be priced the same as a gacha character with PS1 graphics?
Genshin Impact's Future
100 million dollars estimate from Sensor Tower in two weeks does not include PC, PS4 and Chinese Android. Chinese Android revenue has been 1.8 times of China iOS for Honkai 3, many in the Chinese gaming industry speculate the true global revenue number of Genshin Impact is easily double of what Sensor Tower shows. Mihoyo is a private company and it fired one of the employees who bragged about the 09/15 China PC numbers, which was 10 million dollars, so we will never know the exact figures unless they go public. Don't expect Mihoyo to ever share revenue/player base numbers, that is just not how they operate.
There is no way the game can continue the 100 million dollars a week pace, that is 5 billion dollars a year, so for haters out there, you will see a massive decline in the player base between content updates, you will see the game falling out of top 10 grossing, you will get your "I told you so" moments when the weekly revenue drops by 50-70%. It is perfectly normal for gacha games between banners, and what Gensin Impact is doing is completely unsustainable. This is called filtering out users and building a stable player base.
However, even with the inevitable massive decline, this is a game destined to be a multi-billion dollar franchise. I personally give it a very conservative estimate of two billion dollars in three years. It will easily outperform the likes of BOTW, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. by the end of the first year in terms of the player base, hours played, and revenue. It will take money away from all other gacha games and force other developers to step up their game. It will take money away from long-standing multi-billion dollar PC PVE franchises like Dungeon Fighter Online, and to a lesser degree, MMORPG's like FF14. It will encourage companies to play with bigger budgets and provide PC/console releases for bigger mobile releases like Diablo Immortal, instead of relying on emulators. It will even change the monetization model for western F2P games. Iksar, lead designer of Hearthstone has been playing Genshin Impact since release. Imagine if Hearthstone didn't allow you to craft cards, and provided benefits to getting multiple copies of the same card. It is way too late for Hearthstone to change now, maybe there is still time to change Diablo Immortal's monetization model, I believe they will need either gacha or real-money auction house to be competitive.
But will Genshin Impact shake up the AAA industry? My personal opinion is no. Japanese developers do not have the technology to make mobile games at this level, you just need to look at the top 20 grossing Japanse mobile games. Western developers do not have the artwork to make characters so attractive, I mean just look at Baldur's Gate 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 characters, will whales spend $1000 on them? Whales spend enough money in gacha to pick up girls in real life many times over, many of them are ultra-rich and live a lavish lifestyle, just showing anime assets is not enough to win them over.
In all of my years playing Western games I have never been attached to a female character as I did with Artoria aka King Arthur of Fate Grand Order, I played the game for six months even if I don't really like turn-based JRPGs, and always enjoyed listening to her "Excalibur". Mihoyo is coming very close with some of Genshin Impact's character designs. I am not sure if Western culture is capable of creating the type of characters that can connect with players on an emotional level. Lara Croft is definitely not it. I believe Western gaming's general pursuit of realism and grittiness hurts them when it comes to creating an idealistic world and dreamy characters. Top western games tend to expose the harshness of real-world to players, instead of offering an escape. In many ways, Mihoyo's mastery of anime is closer to a Japanese company than Chinese company, it is not something you can just hire a couple of artists for. Likewise, the western market will always be 15-20% of the overall revenue for gacha games at best, it is difficult for western companies to justify making them with a AAA budget.
It is also incredibly hard to make a cross-platform PVE game on PC, Console, and Mobile look this good. It is not something you get from just licensing Unity. There are maybe a handful of companies out there capable of dropping 100 million dollars on a game like this, but until their main cash cow die, which studio dares to take this kind of risk? The tier 2-3 companies are simply not capable of spending 100 million dollars even if they went all in. I don't see a real competitor in two years, not even from Tencent and Netease, the bar is that high.
How You Should Approach It As A Player
If you are not a fan of gacha games, no problem! The best way is to play it like a free AAA game with unlimited free DLC's. With the amount of money this game makes, in a few years it will have more content than any other open-world game, and the developer will also be more generous over time as end game contents become more abundant. As their tools mature, the amount of time it takes to release contents across all platforms at the same time will shrink significantly, there will also be more events they can queue up. Every F2P player can get at least one five star character without rerolling if they complete most of the quests and use up their gifted currencies. I expect 100% F2P players will get at least 4 five-stars per year, 3 from pity, 1 from luck. I believe F2P with limited resources is a lot more fun and only spend money to support the developer. I am still 100% F2P on Genshin Impact as of today, because getting 20 pulls from the monthly card is not that exciting. I will wait for a one-time-only deal later in the game's life cycle.
For players who want to be a bit more involved, you can buy a monthly card, do your dailies, enjoy new content, enjoy the thrills of pulls, and pity 5 stars. Once Mihoyo gets a stable end game loop out there, they will definitely loosen up on resins. Just don't expect to play it like a Path of Exile season start. Save currencies and pity timer for a banner you want. Take it slow! Gacha games are designed to be played over many years, alongside other games. Take your Cyberpunk 2077 break, take your Call of Duty break, but in the end, there is simply no anime ARPG competition on any platform, and if you are into this kind of game, you will be back.

The Year in Couch Co-Op (2020)

Normally I spend the majority of my gaming time on single-player games, but this year I was fortunate to be with someone who also loves games, so we played a bunch of co-op games. Here are 25 that I enjoyed this year:

Broforce (PC)

We must be at or near the top 1% of Broforce players as far as hours played. Many late nights playing this one. The campaign is great, but we we wouldn't have racked up nearly as much time without the many excellent user-created levels (Steam Workshop). For a good part of the year we played this game nearly every day. We still check back every now and then to play through some of the new user-created levels. An all-time favorite, one of the funniest games ever, and one of the best values, 10/10

Assault Android Cactus+ (PC)

A great twin-stick shooter, this is the game we play every day right now, and another all-time favorite. Single player is great, but co-op is even better. There's a regular campaign, an extra bonus difficult campaign, daily challenges, boss mode, and infinity mode. Also extra options and settings that I wish more games included. The androids all play uniquely and the game is challenging without being too frustrating. Highly recommend, 10/10.

Full Metal Furies (PC)

Likable characters and funny, too. I really enjoyed this one. I still find myself humming the music sometimes even though we finished it months ago. The combat is challenging and fun. Would play again, 9/10

Unravel 2 (PS4, PC)

One of our favorites, this was a replay from last year and it ended too quickly. Great to look at and listen to. Good puzzles and a very unique experience overall. I wish there were more games like this. 9/10

Overcooked 2 (PC)

Lots of replay value thanks to online co-op. A few of the levels are not enjoyable, but most are awesome. Horde levels are the best. We've played this one more than most on this list, 9/10

Kirby's Return to Dreamland (Wii)

Classic Kirby. Slightly better than Epic Yarn imo. One thing I didn't like is how if player 1 dies then you both die, but still a great game. I've been playing Kirby games since Kirby's Adventure and they're still fun after all these years. 9/10

New Super Mario Bros U (CEMU)

Many levels to play and some of them were surprisingly challenging. Lots of fun, could see myself replaying this one. Still haven't played the Luigi U levels yet, 9/10

New Super Mario Bros (Wii)

This was very early in the year and before we played the sequel so I don't remember too much of the specifics but I remember it being as fun as the sequel. 9/10

Overcooked (PS4, PC)

We still come back to this one sometimes too. Played for the first time last year but we've played through it from start to finish at least 4 or 5 times. One of the first games we played, and still fun. 8.5/10

Kirby's Epic Yarn (Wii)

Easy, but fun and cute. A nice experience, would play again, 8.5/10

Guns, Gore, & Cannoli (PC)

This was a really fun experience. I loved the art style, humor, and voice-acting. It's short but very fun. Felt like playing through a movie in a good way. 8.5/10

Ultimate Chicken Horse (PS4, PC)

A great party game, always entertaining with 3 or 4 players. Will definitely be a staple for a long time during times when there's more than just the 2 of us. 8.5/10

Pac Man 256 (PS4, PC)

Great with any amount of players. Not something I'd play for hours at a time but I'll probably will be coming back to it for years to come. I didn't try the mobile version until after playing this, but I prefer it with a controller. 8.5/10

Diner Bros (PC)

This game deserves more attention. It's not as polished or huge as Overcooked 2 but it's still very fun and addictive. More fun the more players you have, 8.5/10

Crimsonland (PC)

Simple and fun. The game had some extra survival modes and stuff but I remember the difficulty seeming impossible for the 2 of us compared to the regular modes at the time. Maybe better with 3 or 4 people. We'll play it again. 8/10

Unrailed! (PC)

We mostly try to stay as long as we can on the Plains and Desert since we don't find the biomes after that to be as fun, but still an 8/10

Nex Machina (PS4)

8/10

Pixeljunk Shooter (PS4)

7.5/10

Children of Morta (PC)

Good narration and character building in between dying a lot. Wasn't sure if we would finish this one bc we died a lot, but there's enough story and advancement to make it worth continuing. The 1st boss is the worst. Repetitive at times. 7.5/10

Moving Out (PC)

This one didn't have as much replay value for us compared to Overcooked 2 or Diner Bros, but I still enjoyed it. Hope there's a sequel, 7.5/10

No Heroes Here (PC)

There aren't enough couch co-op tower defense games. Requires strategy and coordination to beat the tough levels. 7.5/10

Co-Op Snek (PC)

7.5/10

Wii Play, Wii Party, Ghost Squad (Wii)

These are some other old Wii games we enjoyed that I'm including to get the number to 25.

My Year In Gaming: Pandemic Edition (34 Mini Reviews & Stats Because I'm A Nerd)

Over the course of 2020 I played 33 games. Not bad for a 27-year old who's married, with a house and 4 pets and is pursuing writing on the side. And I think we can all agree gaming provided a much-needed escape from the craziness of this year.
If I picked it up once and never came back it didn't make the list because it didn't leave an impression on me.
This will be LONG, as I'll talk at the end about my favorites and my disappointments. Also some stats because I'm an excel nerd.
These are listed in the order they were played. Unless noted I finished/beat the game.
Let's GO!

THE GAMES

Bioshock: Remastered (PS4)
An enjoyable if dated shooter that drips atmosphere and prioritizes story and characters over gameplay. A very enjoyable experience even if the gameplay starts to wear thin towards the end and the final boss is a bit of the letdown.
4/5
Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic (PC)
Dated combat mechanics hold this one back from being considered a great in 2020. Both Mass Effect and Dragon Age are better. That being said, Bioware's always had incredible writing and characters, and KOTOR is no different. The combat ranges from infuriating to fun depending on where you fall in the story. Anything beyond Dantooine is typically enjoyable. Play for the story and choices, not the combat.
3.5/5
Kingdom Under Fire II (PC)
Note: This was played over a Steam free weekend, and as such, I didn't finish it.
A nice little mix of RTS, MMO, and action. Was fun over a free Steam weekend - may pick it up when it becomes cheaper. The epic scale ties everything together, even the small bit of story I got from the two days was entirely forgetful.
No Score
Unreal Tournament III (PC)
This is like Doom 2016 before Doom 2016. Fast-paced, frantic fun. Just stay away from the single player. I'm glad I was able to find a few guys still playing online, this is a hell of a lot of fun, but just like the Doom multiplayer, it didn't snag me for more than an hour or two.
2.5/5
Undertale (PC)
Note: I did not finish this game.
No, just no. I didn't like the gameplay (to be fair, I haven't played many bullet hell games and that's almost entirely the combat) and the story, while quirky, didn't grip me. I just couldn't get attached to the characters. Fun music though.
1/5
Hitman (2016) (PC)
A return to form for Hitman. The levels are massive, and while this lends to the openness of the game, it can also get overwhelming at times. I'd have preferred the gigantic maps being broken up by smaller ones throughout the course of the six levels, and the one in Japan kinda-sorta achieves this. Still, this is Hitman at its best, and stands right alongside Blood Money for top contender. Welcome back, 47.
4/5
Risk Of Rain 2 (PC)
Note: This was played over a free Steam weekend.
Enjoyed it! Addicting little game. Will certainly purchase despite never playing Risk Of Rain 1. Just needs a price drop. $14.99 or so? I'm in. Fast-paced fun.
No Score
Sea Of Thieves (PC)
Played this one with the wife. It's not bad, it just doesn't hold my attention. Sure, sailing the high seas as a pirate is neat. But there's virtually no depth and nothing to hold your attention.
2/5
Democracy 3 (PC)
I'd been in the mood for a political sim with everything going on in the news, and Democracy 3 isn't a bad game - but I remember it being better than it was. It just didn't hold my attention long. I like how in-depth the different focus groups can be and it looks like there's a healthy mod scene, but it quickly got repetitive and bored me.
2.5/5
Doki Doki LIterature Club (PC)
A game that isn't anything close to how it appears. I'm not one for most anime-styled games, nor am I a visual novel fan. But the psychological horror elements contrast so well against what the game presents itself to be and when the shit hits the fan it doesn't let up. This game does things I've never seen a game do, and it excels at them.
5/5
Alan Wake (PC)
Revisiting this one. First played it around release. Engaging, with solid if unremarkable third-person shooting (the flashlight mechanic is neat.) The episodic format really works well. This was my first time through the DLC - The Signal DLC is super fun - I really enjoyed the twist on the world and how it played on the concept of shining your light on words to make items appear. I almost wish at certain points it made you choose between items. This DLC also seemed a bit more difficult. Short, sweet, and too the point though. The Writer was fun as well, the hamster wheel/ferris wheel was fantastic, and it continued a great story, but I feel The Signal was just stronger overall.
4/5
270: Two-Seventy US Election (PC)
A fun little waste of a few hours but once you understand the mechanics and start winning it loses a lot of its appeal.
2.5/5
God Of War (PS4)
The best game I've played of the year so far. A fantastic story, great combat (the Leviathan Axe is amazing), and plenty to keep you coming back. The real challenge, though, is the valkyrie boss battles you can complete. Did I do them all? Yes, I did. But Sigrun alone took me a week. I became a man when I played God Of War.
5/5
Civilization V (PC)
My second pass at this game. It's fun at the start, but never manages to hold my attention. I had a similar issue with another 4X game a few years ago (Endless Space 2) and I've come to the realization I just don't think these games are for me.
2.5/5
The Last Of Us: Remastered (PS4)
A replay of a masterpiece. It's always nice to revisit The Last Of Us. The characters and story are fantastic, but I also really love the gameplay. It's gritty, realistic, and there's a lot to think about when you play through on hard like I did.
5/5
Call Of Duty: WW2 (PS4)
Note: I only played the multiplayer.
The multiplayer was alright for a Call Of Duty game. As with most Call Of Duty games, I played it for a bit then moved on. I don't feel a strong desire to check out the campaign, and the zombies mode was shut down minutes after firing it up for me. It feels like WW2 held my attention far less than other Call Of Duty games, but it is a nice break from the jetpacks and wallrunning that seemed to define the series this gen.
2.5/5
Star Wars: Battlefront 2 (2017) (PS4)
Fun multiplayer. That being said, even with all the amazing progress that's been made, it feels unlikely Battlefront 2 will ever step out of the shadow of its launch state no matter how much free content EA poured into it. That being said, this feels like Star Wars - the battles, the sound effects, I love it.
3/5
Detroit: Become Human (PS4)
Detroit: Become Human might just be the best Quantic Dream game. It has a lot going for it, I really enjoyed the many different paths the story can take. I was a little split on the flow chart at the end: on one hand, it kind of removes the mystery. But it also shows you, often times at mind-boggling length, just how far different paths can take you and how you can get locked out of entire sections.
3.5/5
The Last Of Us: Part 2 (PS4)
A game that has an incredible first half, and a repetitious and uninteresting 2nd half. Though I think this game might just have my favorite combat of any game, the bland and overly-long sections where you're forced to play as Abby just didn't do it for me, and have killed any desire I have to replay the game. Ironically, I really wish now the game had shipped with multiplayer as I could dive into that amazing gameplay without feeling the slog of the back half of the game. Ellie's story, and parts of Abby's, are great. But the game should have been shorter.
2.5/5
Darkwood (Switch)
Note: I did not beat this game. I only got an hour or two in.
Interesting mechanics and imagery but couldn't hold my attention. Doubt I will return to it. Was hoping it would be more engrossing than it was.
2/5
Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Remastered (PS4)
It had an enjoyable campaign, with a few key moments. The missions that most hype up, ie "All Ghillied Up" didn't really do it for me. I vastly preferred the other missions. That being said, the gameplay doesn't hold up fantastically today. It's competent, but with a basic story. Nothing incredible.
3/5
Far Cry 3: Classic Edition (PS4)
The open world is neat, the island definitely has personality. However the best part of the game is Vaas. With his death occurring just a little over 2/3 of the way through, it leaves the rest of the game with a considerable void. One I probably should've given up on sooner. Mechanics are good, but it feels dated and repetitive the more you play.
3/5
Pillars Of Eternity: Complete Edition (PS4)
A good game that should've been great. Were it not for the bloated second act and lack of consequence, this game could've been a 5/5. Reminded me of Dragon Age: Origins in key points. Great worldbuilding and decent-to-good characters and companions. Lots of dialogue options, but they don't end up mattering much.
4/5
Doom (2016) (PS4)
One of the best FPS games ever made. A return to the arena FPS games of yesteryear, Doom seamlessly blends fast-paced gunplay and tight mechanics with some serviceable leveling and a decent story. Make no mistake: the focus here is the gunplay, and it holds up incredibly well throughout the campaign.
5/5
Super Mario 64 (Switch)
Note: I did not beat this game.
A classic to be sure. But one I didn't end up sticking with past a few hours. This one does feel best left in my childhood. Playing it now, it doesn't grab my attention as much. The music is timeless though.
2.5/5
Resident Evil 2 (PS4)
A wonderful return to survival horror, and my personal preferred Resident Evil game from this decade. 2 does so much right that it's so easy to look past its few shortcomings. Every encounter is tense, and the pace is kicked into overdrive once Mr. X shows up. Every enemy is a threat, the game drips atmosphere, and will leave you shook more than once.
4.5/5
Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) (PS4)
Note: I only played the multiplayer.
Got pretty addicted to the multiplayer for a bit. I had fun with the added realism, the weapons sound phenomenal and handle great. But, as with all Call Of Duty games, I got to level 30 or 40 and hung it up. One of the best Call Of Duty games in a long while.
4/5
Ratchet & Clank (PS4)
A fun little platformer that retains the series' signature wonky (and amazingly fun) weapons. There's nothing quite like using your Groovitron to send hordes of enemies into a dance mid-battle. Aside from the weapons however, this is a pretty standard platformer and the story feels incredibly safe. The humor works most of the time with how self-aware it is.
3/5
Spider-Man (PS4)
The best Spider-Man game ever? It's certainly up there. With an open world full of collectibles, tons of side-quests, a fun take on the Spider-Man lore, and great gameplay, Spider-Man is everything one could want in a Spider-Man game. Yes, the combat can feel a little too Arkham-style at times, but the game doesn't overstay its welcome and it works incredibly well.
4/5
Borderlands: Game Of The Year Edition (PS4)
Note: I did not finish this game and I played it solo.
I'm hot and cold on this one. On one hand, I literally could not care less about the story and that's good for pick-up-and-play sessions. But I don't feel compelled to return to it. This one will probably remain unfinished indefinitely. An okay looter-shooter.
2.5/5
Magicka 2 (PS4)
Note: I did not finish this game and I played it solo.
A fun little top-down action game, but I wish the levels allowed for the level of spell creativity that I thought it would. I ended up spamming familiar attacks instead of experimenting with new ones because I was playing solo. Definitely intended for co-op. However, the music and humor was pretty great and the game, while repetitious, didn't drag.
3/5
Halo 3 (Xbox One)
Note: I only played the multiplayer.
I always sucked at Halo multiplayer, but 3 takes me back to a more carefree time. I didn't stick with it, but the few hours I spent with it were fun. Remembering all of the old levels and times I used to play it was more fun than playing it now. The announcer's voice is still epic, though.
2.5/5
Gears Of War 4 (Xbox One)
Note: I only played the multiplayer.
The Gears Of War multiplayer is something you have to adapt to. As a Call Of Duty player, I tend to rush and you have to wallhug and be in cover 90% of the time to survive in this game. But there's a nice element of strategy to it and I love the executions and the lancer.
3/5

GAME OF THE YEAR

It's been a long, crazy, quarantine-filled year! But only one game can stand out amid all the others. And it is . . .
God of War There's no argument. This game surpassed my high expectations and is now one of my top 5 games of all time. Let's go Ragnarok!
Runner Up: Resident Evil 2 I honestly didn't know if I'd like Resident Evil 2. But after finishing it, I immediately played through the B scenario, and that is incredibly unusual behavior for me. Addicting and very well paced!

MOST SURPRISING

Sometimes a game hits you a way you didn't expect. This game got its hooks in me in a way I didn't think, or I wasn't expecting it to.
Doki Doki Literature Club I will say no more on this other than you need to download and play it. It's free, it'll run on a potato, and it'll hook you hard.
Runner Up: Pillars Of Eternity Look, I've played CRPG games before. But I've never finished one. I put over 90 hours into this game. That's the 3rd or 4th most played game ever for me, and it was one playthrough. This game did something right.

MOST DISAPPOINTING

And lastly, sometimes games you're amped/hyped for don't swing for you. And thus we have the most disappointing category.
Undertale I literally sorted my Steam library by highest user rating. That's how I ended up playing this. I don't like anything about it besides the music. The humor didn't click for me, the characters felt off, it just wasn't for me and that left me with this "What am I missing?" feeling.
Runner Up: Darkwood Man, this should've been right up my alley. An abstract horror game with graphic imagery and tense survival. But it wasn't. And you know what? I'm okay with that. I gave it fair spin. I might try it again in the future, but I doubt it.

STATS

For nerds like me who are interested in the numbers.
I played 33 games this year. My average score was around 3.6 (which as an average is a little disappointing as I wanted to spend this year playing games I really loved but ended up being just "good".)
My most played genre was FPS at 30.3%, followed by Action at 21.2%.
Third-Person made up the majority of games' perspective I played at 41.4% (almost half!) followed by First Person at 31%. Not terribly surprising here - I enjoy both equally.
I played most games this year on my PS4 at 48.5%, followed by PC at 36.4%. Overall, I favorited any type of Console at 63.6%. I was actually expecting this to be higher. I tend to bounce back and forth - I think it's because the bulk of the PC games were played in the first half of the year.
I Beat 51.5% of the games I played this year. That might seem bad, but it's worth noting that 15.2% were games I only Played Multiplayer of, and and 6.1% were games that Had No End. Of games with an actual campaign, I Quit 15.2%, and I put 9.1% On Hold.

RECAP

Whew, that was a write-up! If you made it this far, thanks!
I think I'll keep my excel sheet going into next year. I tracked a ton of stuff I didn't even mention like secondary genre of games, the year it came out (to try and average what generation I was playing the most in), whether I have a desire to return to a certain game, etc.
It's been a hell of a year. I've no doubt thanks to the virus I've played more games than usual. But I've had some really fun times this year, and I've been more active on this sub which makes it even more enjoyable.
Thanks for reading!

My views on how resin can be changed for the better.

My suggestions for changing the Resin system. Multiple ways to change the system from retune, to rework, complete removal. These include every idea I could think up in a relatively short period of time, their ups and downs, and how they can benefit MiHoYo.
Almost Necessary: Blue Leylines need to have their resin requirements removed almost definitely. Yellow/Gold Leylines COULD afford to be resin removed, just spawn rarely or once every few Blue Leylines, or probably best: require obtaining special leyline energy from Blue Leylines (say 3 blues = 1 yellow run) to activate. Divorcing EXP Book costs from Mora would go a long way as well to make the Gold ones worth more.
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System 1 - Retune (changes the pace of resin obtainment/spending)
-a type: Reduce the cost by 1/2. This one's a given. This gives people twice the time they can be active, but has the downside of requiring more times online to use it all up. This has its pros and cons.
----My thoughts: A stopgap measure, if anything. This is best used to cope until a final decision is made as to solving the Resin problem.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: Nothing really changes, except because they can get more done, the value of that 60 resin from the refreshes becomes more valuable, and thus the urge to spend money on it should feel less a waste.
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-b type: Increase gainrate to once per 4 minutes, increase cap by 3x (360 cap), costs halved per tier. This would cap it every 1440 minutes (24 hours). At 360, this would give us roughly 6x the playtime we get now (3 * 2 = 6), and summarize it to still only needing to play about once per day for the casuals. 3x rate will not break the game as far as power scaling, just offer more chances since the system currently implies a focus on horizontal progress rather than vertical. Might need to place an AR cap based on content progress (which I am certain is already a plan for the long run).
----My thoughts: Personally like this more than the a-type, if only because it provides a LOT more to do at once. However, it also might overwhelm the casuals more. This was simply a convenient combination to fill in the cap once per 24 hours and provide more to do. We could remove the cost halving, which would still in theory give us I believe about 1.5 hours a day of work.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: Much like above, the more each point of Resin increases in value, the more likely people are to invest on spending on the Resin. Basically no diff from Type A.
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-c type: Common to most Mobo games and can be used with basically every system here except Removal types A and B: Original Resin is increased by the user's cap whenever they level Adventure Level and overcaps (turns off regen while overcapped), on top of the Fragile Resin from the Adventurer's guild. This could be used with almost any of the below systems.
----My thoughts: This should have been in since the beginning, to be honest. It is considered a standard part of effectively every stamina-system in the mobile market.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: Not one bit more. This might hurt MiHoYo, but not as much as leaving the system as is anyhow as less people are likely to quit. Losing players = permanent loss of chance to gain even a single $ from that person. Retaining a person is more important as most of the profits will come from character rolls anyhow.
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System 2 - Rework (involves keeping Resin but changing its purpose)
-a type: Resin becomes a reward booster. This would however need to figure a new system to somewhat limit Resin. See System 3 for potentiality.
----My thoughts: This is a common idea, and for a simple stopgap, it is effective..
----How MiHoYo can still profit: If people can just spend Resin for boosted rewards, then resin automatically increases in worth. Instead of feeling like a necessity and thus Pay to Play, it instead feels like Pay to Advance Quicker, and people are usually more accepting to this line of thought.
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-b1 type: Resin is split into multiple types again. These types are Leyline, Boss, and Raid type Resins. Completing and turning in 4/4 Daily commissions restores your resins based on how often you're expected to normally complete them (IE: 100/200 Leyline/Domain ('lesser' Resin), 40/120 World Boss, 10/70 Raid Resins). Can conduct the type of activity based on the activity's cost in the game at that point.
----My thoughts: This would provide more to do, and allow people to specialize in what they want to do. However, there might be some PTSD about the 2nd Beta test I understand, what with the different types of Resin.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: By offering different resins for sale (and potentially a 'bundle' of resin), they can get people to invest more. Of course, the purchaseable resin would need to be cheaper than what we got now because it covers less, but in that respect people might still be willing to offer more of their money. By also increasing the natural flow via commission rewards, more long-term/hardcore players are likely to stay around and spend more.
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-b2 type: b1 type system, but with only 'original resin'. Completing commissions would allow for additional resin on top of natural recharge.
----My thoughts: Simple but effective version of b1. Allows people to work towards more content, rather than be perpetually blocked, just like B1. It also keeps it simple, which is often a necessity when it comes to dealing with casuals.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: In this case, I'd probably just increase the paid refreshes to 120 Stamina/Resin instead of 60. People are more willing to make a purchase the more they think they're getting for it, and right now only the whaleiest whales are willing to whale on Resin.
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-b3 sub-system: On top of S2 b1 (or B2) system, the system can include crafting resin in the alchemy table. Green world mats (world mats = Hilichurl masks, slimes, etc) can be (in the b1 system) converted to leyline, blue materials to boss, purple to Raid type, gold materials can restore all 3 types (in B2 type, it's general purpose and tier provides more). This gives reason to play the game casually to continue to grind while slowing progress. Would require a type of World Boss material for each type too (IE: Fatui Recruit/etc sigils for Raid Resins).
----My thoughts: Of the rework methods, my favorite. Provides the player a choice system - do they want to save the mats for ascensions/talents, or spend them for more chances at rare artifacts from say Stormterror and other World Boss items. It also would give people some downtimes to allow the adrenaline to fade, allowing for a higher chance of them relaxing and choosing to go to sleep.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: 1: StarglimmeStardust will become way more used for obtaining materials to shortcut the creation process rather than grind. Win-Win. This means more liberal use of it and some may roll even more just to replenish it.
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System 3 - 'Stamina' Removal (can work with System 2 a-type rework)
-Removal type a: The blatant one that I do not suggest: remove it entirely, let the bulls run free.
----My thoughts: My god this is prone to cause complaints. The casuals will quit simply because they will have this belief that the min-maxers will obsess on getting the absolute best with absolutely no limits. The hardcores may well get bored. Needs a LITTLE restriction. IF this is to be done, it should be done MUCH later in the game's lifetime. Preferably around the time we reach Snezhnaya in order for as much content as possible to be available so people can avoid burning themselves out as much as possible.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: This is still as I said an absolute worst case scenario. At best more people will stay and play. But it also means Resin sales disappear. On the upside people may be more willing to roll with EXP/Mora problems gone, as they no longer need to worry about restraints to level their characters. It will also risk alienating the casuals as they will feel they can't keep up/suceed as much due to the unlimited progress of the hardcore players, and they may rage quit out of a lack of feeling relevant in the content. The way to turn this into profit would be to make world drops WAY less common, which makes glitteglimmer purchases on materials more valuable. Again, not a smart call in any way shape or form.
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-Removal type b: Add timers to all the content types. Example: 1 Leyline per 10 minutes. 1 Domain per 10 minutes. 1 World Boss per 3 hours (each could have their own timer). 1 Raid Boss per week (as is current).
----My thoughts: Not the best choice. It effectively just replaces Resins with Timers, but does increase how much we can do by limiting all content by timers instead of resin. *The worst part is, this will force players to spread their time out. This means those who only have a short period of time will be unable to complete everything. I suggest the following.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: They don't. Again at best this provides more playtime and extends playtime, however it also means that more casual players may quit as they cannot do ALL their work in one burst in between jobs, sleep, etc. It's a really, REALLY risky move that doesn't favor the casual at all.
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-Removal type c: Every form of content is ultimately unlocked to play through some sort of world activity, beyond a certain # of free activities per type per day/week. This can be tweaked around with to find a good balance so people can play and go). IE: Say we don't change leylines as I suggested. Players start with say 4 Leyline and 4 Domain clears a day, and 3 World Boss Clears. From there, players start with Whopperflower material + a Fatui Agent Blade (Mora) or Cicin Grass (EXP) to make the alchemical reagent that agitates the growth of leyline flowers, higher tier materials of both = better rewards from the leyline and higher grade/difficulty for the next step.
The leylines would drop an item of the tier you input that you use to mix with a different world item to either do a domain or fight a lesser world boss (IE: Fatui Insignia opens up the Weapon Ascension domains when crafted with this item. Flaming Flower Stamen with this item allows you to fight Pyrovine).
The Domain + World boss would drop items that when combined let you fight any Raid Boss (IE: Stormterror). This would create a growing gameplay loop that would also limit players from easily gaining power infinitely.
(Of course, the potential of changing the Leyline system as I suggested at the very beginning would allow players to say obtain special materials from Gold Leylines to do Domains, Domains to do World bosses, World Bosses to do Raids, or any sort of combination leading up to Raids. The potential's there!)
----My thoughts: A mixture of the System 2 b3 system with a stamina-style resin removal. This basically provides all the tools for modification as the creation team needs. It allows for free access on a limited 'stock' basis per day/week. This is similar to the Removal B type. In addition it borrows the System 2 b3 concept of being able to 'craft' additional access for the more hardcore players, gating them from gaining infinite power rapidly, but also allowing them to play to their own desire. In general this in my mind has the most potential to be successful, but it would probably require testing to see how successful it is. A possibility is to make the materials for World Bosses cost significantly more, like 10,000 or 100,000 mora, in order to help gate it further.
----How MiHoYo can still profit: In every single way possible. As noted below, this can be hybridized with the B-type Stamina Rework, which already has its viability. With the additional benefits of the Starglitteglimmer section, that's ANOTHER avenue. It covers casuals and hardcores. While I may not have every angle covered, I would say, without a doubt, it is the best solution I could think of to improve the game overall. The only issue is players may get tired of this gameplay loop, but that's what new content is for.
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My overall thoughts: Ideally, we want players to feel incentivized to play as much as they want, but not feel punished for not grinding. We also want to make it rewarding so that the players who want to play casually can do so. To do this, we need to allow players to burst through at least once a day, and if players want, grind to their hearts content, but make it an uphill battle.
My solution would be, in that case, Removal Type C with a System 2 A-type bonus. As suggested in Removal Type C, we could say allow people a max of say 3 Leylines a day, 3 Domains a day, a World Boss a Day, and a Raid boss a day guaranteed. This would be about 30 minutes of non-commission material if I'm doing my mental math right, excluding the Raid bosses on reset (although they can shift that as they wish).
Resin, which would probably be restricted to about 120 a day refreshed on the daily reset, can thus be spent in values based on the current system, allowing for say 1 Raid Boss boost + 1 World Boss boost + 1 Domain/Leyline boost, or 6 Leyline Boosts, or say 3 World Boss Boosts. This would at least allow them to progress at their own pace. They could still sell Resin refreshes too for those who just want to progress in the shortest amount of time with the least effort (great for the whales, who would be able to potentially buy resin refreshes AND materials off the shop using Stardust/StarGlitter to get plenty of refreshes through the resin purchases AND by crafting via shortcut).
With this also, you could provide a sense of chasing down world rare mobs like the Whopperflowers - also creating a balancing act between hard grinding up for rare artifacts, or ascending your weapons/talents/etc by not investing them in the heavy grind, giving a sense of choice and making getting an additional Raid Challenge an Accomplishment. Of course, new materials can be added instead to do this instead of say using Whopperflowers, Fatui Agent Blades, etc etc, which can be obtained through new World Events that occur often (maybe once per 10-15 minutes) across the world and tracked on map/adventure book. There's a few ways to do this.
Also we could offer a Fragile Resin in most activities as a hyper rare drop. Events could offer a higher chance. We want to incentivize people to play more, because the more they play (and potentially co-op to see rare characters) the most likely they are to feel the game's worth investing in.
Adventure Rank obviously needs caps, but unsure what they plan to do in the future (Rainbow Rarity materials mayhaps?).
Overall a number of these systems (retune, rework, remove) can be mixed, intertwined, etc, allowing for a decent amount of change and depth to the gameplay loop. IE: even if you went with a System 3 (removal), you could use the System 2 B1 in the System 2 A-style to provide specific resins that can be used per content type to boost their rewards individually.
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My thoughts on burnout: Who. Cares. On one end, people will quit because they burn out, and likely return because of new content unless they flat out dislike the game. On the other end, people will quit because the content is so little that there's no reason to play outside of dailies. So then comes the question of who benefits more from each? I'd argue that more playtime/content is better. The lifeblood of games nowadays is a strong community, and having streamers enhancing that community through their viewerbases only improves that. Why would streamers benefit more from more resin/playtime? Because then they could afford to play with their viewers, creating interaction with their communities and enhancing the experience moreso. They could also visit viewer worlds to gather more materials from additional Whopperflowers/etc which would have direct benefits on their progress. This again enhances the co-op experience.
My thoughts on "Gacha Game" needs limits: not an argument. My first gacha game was SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online. Literally no stamina system. There were PVE missions (generic ones based on anime concepts as well as actual anime episodes) and PVP. You played, gained coins, rolled for units. You could buy coins to also roll units. You could win blueprints at random (some PVE exclusive) or bought them from the store, and used units to make more advanced units. It was popular and only died because Koreans couldn't keep the rights to use the suits, far as we understood. So no, a Gacha game doesn't need a stamina system.
My thoughts on "Mobile Game" need limits: Not an argument. This game exists on 3 platforms: PC, PS4, and Mobile. Mobile makes up 1/3rd of the platforms. I view it more as a PC/Console game that you can play on mobile, more than a mobile game you can play on PC/Console. Maybe MaHoYo means it that way, but my thought is 'nothing's stopping them from making Genshin a Console-level game on Mobile other than preconception it has to be mobile'. The Switch works in a similar manner, a Switch game can STILL play on PC/larger console.
My thoughts on you disagree with me: Reasonable minds can differ. I made suggestions that cater to casual, hardcore, and both in this list. If you disagree with all then I'm afraid we're beyond reasonable conversation here.

I spent 2020 laid off. These are the games I beat and my thoughts

Many of these games have been out for longer than 6 months at the time of writing. Any game that hasn't been out for that long I have omitted from this list.
Disney Aladdin (Xbox One X) - I picked this up physically for Xbox and it really brought me back to being a kid. I tried my hardest to beat it without the rewind feature. Even though it took me a while, I finally got through it. I know you don't HAVE to use the rewind feature, but I think it should have been omitted completely.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey (Xbox One X) - I gave a review on this sub earlier this year. I have a love/hate relationship with this game. While I was completely addicted to it, I feel like it was for the wrong reason. I liked the story and game play, but felt like it was way too easy after a while. The DLC, as awesome as the story is, is extremely tedious. So, I loved the game, but didn't at the same time? If that makes sense. I put in 165 hours into it.
Bloodstained Ritual (Xbox One X) - This is the last game I beat before getting the news that I'd be laid off for "eight weeks" back in March. I couldn't stop playing this. I never played Symphony of the Night and when I dabbled in that game I didn't care for it. I absolutely loved Bloodstained though. It makes me want to go back to Symphony of the Night. The game play, soundtrack and overall level of things to do was a blast.
What Remains of Edith Finch (Xbox One X) - I beat this in one sitting, but it really captivated me. Sure, it's a walking simulator, but the writing is outstanding. I would recommend this to everyone.
Catherine: Full Body (PS4 Pro) - I was a big fan of Catherine on the 360. I was super excited that they were remastering it for PS4 and it included an expanded story. I even pre-ordered the collector's edition. It's one of my all time favorite puzzle games with hilarious writing. I'd recommend the remaster over the original, despite it being a PS4 exclusive.
Gato Roboto (Xbox One X) - Found this on Game Pass and thought I'd give it a try. Very fun metroidvania that had me laughing in spots due to how ludicrous it is. Your character is a cat that is in an armored mech suit. Your captain is stranded and you must save him. Very fun game. I'm unsure if it's still on Game Pass, but definitely on Steam.
Hyperdot (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game that wouldn't let me go. I'm a sucker for these simple games and all you have to do in Hyperdot is dodge everything. It seems simple, but gets really tough after a while. It was very rewarding when I beat it.
The Uncle Who Works for Nintendo (PC) - I co-host a horror movie podcast and we were talking about horror video games one episode. I decided to talk about this text-based browser horror game. It was a little glitchy in parts, but I thought it was very entertaining. The plot is that you're a kid who is spending the night at a friend's house and get word that the friend's uncle is stopping over and he works for Nintendo. It's pretty awesome and offers a few different endings.
Fractured Minds (Xbox One X) - Another Game Pass game. It's an easy 1k if you care about achievements and offers a somewhat decent look at depression and anxiety in video game form. It's not bad, but doesn't offer that much either. Very very short, as in 30 minutes-an hour.
Resident Evil 5 (Xbox One X) - So, this may upset people, but even though I co-host a horror movie podcast, my anxiety does NOT bode well with horror games. I panic and end up giving up. That's why Resident Evil 5 is my favorite entry in the franchise. My best friend is a horror game nerd and frustrates her when I talk about how good RE5 is. I technically beat this game more than any other game recently because my like-minded buddy and I fully completed all the achievements for single player and DLC in couch co-op. It was a blast finding all the jewels and weapon upgrades. Too bad the multiplayer isn't active or else we would have gotten those achievements too. Sure, it's more action oriented than it's horror predecessors, but my buddy and I dig that. The game play is a blast.
Halo Reach (Xbox One X) - The Master Chief Collection is so awesome. My friend and I made a plan to run through all the Halos again on Legendary. Halo is my favorite game franchise and I have beaten these games a million times. Love couch co-op obviously. Halo Reach has a fantastic story that I'm sure you all know enough about.
Afterparty (Xbox One X) - I am really glad this hit Game Pass. I really loved the writing in Oxenfree, so was stoked about a game that takes place in Hell this time. It was very comedic and oddly buggy in spots, but I had a really good time. The drinking games and descriptions of all the Hell cocktails were hilarious.
Maneater (Xbox One X) - I knew I had to own this game as soon as I heard it was a shark rpg. It's exactly what you think it is. You eat fish to get stronger and eventually move on to people. I don't like how the "wanted levels" are so easily accessible though. You eat like three humans and people are immediately after you. The story is fun and is voiced by Chris Parnell. It also received the Xbox Series X upgrade for free, so check it out!
Halo 3 (Xbox One X) - Another legendary Halo checked off for this year. I love how many achievements are tied into the Master Chief Collection. It definitely warrants multiple playthroughs of Halo just for some off the wall stuff to complete. Excellent, excellent game.
Pokemon Sword (Nintendo Switch) - So, I love the Pokemon series dearly. In my Pokemon bank on my 3DS I caught every single Pokemon up until this new generation. I was one of the few that actually black balled this game because I do not like the direction Game Freak went in. It's been going down hill for a generation or two, but them omitting Pokemon out of this new entry was what crossed the line for me. I borrowed it from a friend so I didn't have to purchase it. Unfortunately, the addiction of collecting Pokeman came back in full force. I ended up nabbing Pokemon Home for the monthly fee anyway. I beat Pokemon Sword and transferred all my Pokemon over. It's neat seeing them in the updated graphics. I do like the designs of the new Pokemon, but Game Freak just sucks now imo. Pokemon Sword was so easy. It was insulting how easy it was. Sun and Moon had this overly long introduction that I was hoping Sword and Shield wouldn't. Turns out the whole game felt like an introduction. I used all new Pokmon, none from my bank, and it was just a joke. It had fun game play, but waaaaay too easy.
Ghost of Tsushima (PS4 Pro) - This game is hitting the 6 month mark in just under two weeks, but I'm going to talk about it anyway. This is my game of the year, hands down. It's gorgeous and has a compelling story. I have seen people bash on it a bit, but it's simple and the voice acting really brings it home. I'm a subs type of guy, so having the voice actors actually speaking Japanese and reading the subs on the bottom really heightened the experience for me. Excellent game and my favorite.
Double Kick Heroes (Xbox One X) - I am a huuuuge fan of the guitar hero/Rock Band series. Seeing a game where a bunch of metal heads are trying to fight Satan himself in an apocalyptic future was a no brainer for me. It's a rhythm game that unfortunately can only be controlled by a controller and not a guitar. It was a lot of fun, but my Rock Band controller didn't work. The songs were pretty good too.
Halo ODST (Xbox Series X) - This is my least favorite Halo. I have beaten it 3-4 times and still can't tell you anything about the game. The game play is still a boat load of fun, but it's insanely short and doesn't offer much story wise. I am thankful it was added for free to the MCC though.
Army of Two (Xbox 360/Series X) - My RE5 buddy and myself sat down and decided to play Army of Two. Neither of us have dabbled in it and were both surprised how much fun we had while playing it. Very enjoyable couch co-op game. I'm hoping the other games in the series are equally as good.
Donkey Kong (Nintendo Switch) - I own this on my SNES, but it's on Nintendo's online subscription service. I thought what the hell and ran through it again. Donkey Kong was my favorite game growing up and I have beaten this game an astronomical amount of times. My buddy was getting on me for never having played DK 2 or 3, so I decided to restart the franchise and dominate one of my all time favorite games.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Nintendo Switch) - This is my first AC game. My friend always talked about it and she really took care of her animals. I surprised her with buying it in April shortly after release. I was hooked on that for a long time. There is no real "beating" this game, but I did get my island to 5 stars. I don't play it every day like I used to, and my villagers are very upset with me about that (some taking offense), but I still sink in a few hours per week when I can. Very relaxing game in a very stressful year. It is appreciated.
Now, I'm going to talk about the games I attempted, but didn't care enough to finish or just didn't get a chance to
Doom Eternal (Xbox One X) - I feel like I am the only one who didn't like Doom Eternal. It was honestly too hard for it's own good and the puzzle were just in the way half the time. I don't judge anyone who thinks it's fun, but I just suck at this. Doom 2016 is one of my all time favorite fps', but this was a huge step back for me. I am on the second to last level too and have no urge to go back. Now that I have the Series X though, I may attempt it again to see if I enjoy it.
Days Gone (PS5) - After getting my PS5 I had no games for it. I am not a Souls guy, so I didn't pick up Demon Souls. After hooking it up and rummaging through the OS I found that Playstation has many of their AAA exclusives on there for free. I always heard decent things about Days Gone. I didn't hate the game, but also didn't get too far. It was a solid time waster for the few hours I played it, but overall it didn't hook me like I hoped it would.
Yakuza 0 (Xbox Series X) - I'm glad this is on Game Pass because it introduced me to the Yakuza series after ignoring it for the longest time. It is a very, very, very fun game that I put in close to 100 hours into. However, I couldn't finish it because I was way too burned out. All the grinding in businesses became a chore and I never wanted to pick it up. Even though I put 100 hours into it, I'm only slightly over half way. This is my own fault for focusing on stuff besides the main story, but I just can't bring myself to finish.
Rage 2 (Xbox One X) - This is a game I'm going to come back to. I loved what I played, but other stuff came out and I just haven't gone back to it yet.
Persona 5 Royal (PS5) - So, Persona 4 is one of my all time favorite jrpgs. For whatever reason, I waited a very long time to play Persona 5. I preordered the collector's edition of Persona 5, but just didn't play it. I then heard the Persona 5 Royal was going to be a thing. So, I preordered the collector's edition for that too lol. I then sat down and put in around 130 hours into it over two play throughs. I'm on the second to last palace and if I had beaten it by now then I would say this is my GOTY. The first play through I was kind of breezing through so I restarted it on a new save file to play it on a harder difficulty. Such a fan game.
Donkey Kong Country 2 (Nintendo Switch) - My buddy has been hyping the game up for years, trying to get me to play it. I'm not against playing it, but I just haven't had the chance to. I'm going to be 33 next month, so I definitely grew up with DK, but for whatever reason I skipped the sequels. Very fun so far though, even though he's being a little "gatekeepy" with me having to find all the secrets. I'm just going to beat it to shut him up lol
If you got through all this, thank you! It's been a very stressful year for me and these games have been a literal life saver. I'm hoping 2021 is better in many aspects. If it's not, then I only have entertainment to keep me occupied. Have a good year everyone.

Sackboy: A Big Adventure - Review Thread

Game Title: Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Publisher: PlayStation
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 81 average - 87% recommended - 92 reviews
Metacritic - 79 average - 76 reviews, 9.0 user score - 119 reviews
Critic Reviews:
Console Creatures - Bobby Pashalidis - Recommended

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is the perfect starter for anyone who owns a PlayStation 5 or even if you're still on PlayStation 4. Bustling with tons of details and colourful locations for you to make your way through, Sumo Digital has delivered a game that’s so enchanting and stunning, it’s hard not to smile when playing Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

Destructoid - Chris Carter - 8 / 10

Bring your family and friends into your Sackboy: A Big Adventure playthrough and have a blast. Or play by yourself. It doesn't really matter, as Sumo Digital has once again tapped into the essence of what makes this series so special. It's innocent, it's fun, and it feels unique. We need more games like it, even if they don't push the genre forward...which is by no means a requirement.

Digitally Downloaded - Matt Sainsbury - 3.5 / 5 stars

I don't want to take anything away from Sackboy: A Big Adventure. Platformers are one of the genres I am least inclined towards, and were it not part of a (fairly limited) launch range on the PlayStation 5, I might not have been inclined to play Sackboy at all. I am glad that I did, though, because for pure whimsy and quality level design it's a real challenge to Nintendo at its best in this genre, and that's no mean feat. Just don't go in expecting the same qualities that made the LittleBigPlanet series itself so beloved.

Game Informer - Jeff Cork - 8 / 10

Cleverly designed levels offer moderately tough challenges, but generous checkpoints and a genial atmosphere make it easy to keep coming back

GameSpew - Richard Seagrave - Unscored

Having been in possession of the game for just over 24 hours at the time of writing, we’ve still got a lot to see and do in Sackboy: A Big Adventure – we’ve only reached the second of its worlds so far. At this point though, we can safely say that we’ve thoroughly enjoyed every single minute of it – it’s gone above and beyond our expectations. It appears to be an immaculately made 3D platformer with huge amounts of charm. We’ll follow up with a full review once we’ve put considerably more time into it, but we think it’s safe to say that if you’re picking it up alongside your PS5, you’re going to be in for a very good time.

GameSpot - Mike Epstein - 7 / 10

Though Sackboy: A Big Adventure's aesthetic is a bit basic, its solid platforming presents a good challenge.

Metro GameCentral - 7 / 10

Another gorgeous looking first party PS5 game, with some fun and imaginative platforming, but even with four players at once it lacks that certain spark that would've made it a true launch essential.

PlayStation Universe - John-Paul Jones - 9.5 / 10

An astounding triumph of imagination, Sackboy: A Big Adventure isn't just one of the best platformers ever made, it's also a proper highlight of the PlayStation 5 launch line-up that is steeped in such fun and free wheeling creativity, that it deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other PlayStation platforming heroes such as Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank.

PowerUp! - Adam Mathew - 8 / 10

Sackboy delivers some damn good jumpy-jumpy material.

Press Start - Kieron Verbrugge - 8 / 10

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is the hessian hero's best outing yet. Tighter platforming controls and a fresh perspective go a long way to reinvigorating the franchise, and it helps that the whole thing is positively stuffed with charm from beginning to end. Levels that feel lonely when played solo, and worse, levels that aren't accessible at all in single player dampen the experience, but not enough for platforming fans to dismiss it. If you've just brought home a shiny new PlayStation 5 there's also a lot here to showcase what the console is capable of in both visuals and the user experience, making it well worth considering as part of your launch library. Viva la Sackboy!

Push Square - Sammy Barker - 8 / 10

There's a lot of love been poured into Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and thus it's hard not to love it back. This is a brilliant platformer with tons of imaginative ideas and a strong sense of style. The lack of online multiplayer at launch is a bit disappointing, but it's coming as a free update before the end of the year, so we can forgive the developer that. If you're looking for something bright and breezy to begin your PS5 journey, then this is a near-flawless romp when it's at its pomp.

Spaziogames - Stefania Sperandio - Italian - 8.1 / 10

Sackboy is a smart and colorful platform game, filled with fun moments and loyal to its LittleBigPlanet's roots.

TheGamer - Kirk McKeand - 3.5 / 5 stars

Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a decent platforming game that’s stuffed with charm, if a little lacking in imagination, which is a shame for a franchise built on creativity. Saying that, if you’ve got children, this is a must-buy for some family-friendly PS5 fun.
As an introduction to a new console generation, Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a big, bold, colourful platformer that makes up for any visual shortcomings with some excellent level design and a killer soundtrack.

TheSixthAxis - Stefan L - 7 / 10

Sackboy: A Big Adventure starts off slow, feeling like a hollow reflection of the franchise, but eventually grows into its new 3D platforming elements. It's at its best when it blends the new with the old, when there's power-ups, side-scrolling and a meaningful challenge, but it takes a bit too long to get it together.

VG247 - Tom Orry - 4 / 5 stars

Sony is on a roll with the PS5, with Sackboy: A Big Adventure being yet another title PS5 buyers should seriously consider adding to their collection.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure serves as a wonderful solo debut title for this iconic PlayStation mascot. Although the narrative leaves a lot to be desired, despite a loveable mentor and interesting villain, and only offering fairly standard gameplay mechanics for a platformer; the game does shine in its own way. The truly gorgeous visuals paired together with the ever changing level design and wonderful use of music; seek to bring everything together to creatively craft a bespoke game experience that is well worth the price of entry.

Video Chums - A.J. Maciejewski - 9.3 / 10

Sackboy: A Big Adventure accomplishes what few modern games do by simply offering an unabashedly lighthearted world that's bursting with joy, fun, and plenty of laughs. It's an absolute must-have for any gamer who enjoys co-op experiences.

Assassin’s Creed Unity: a Beautiful Swan with rotten intestines

I write this „Review“ because i heard so many people praise Unity because it‘s falsely looked down upon because of a bad release and because of the Glitch memes. When in fact, quite a few praise it to be as one of the best AC games in the franchise. And to that i say... did we play the same game? Here is my experience with Assassin‘s Creed Unity: (P.S. i haven‘t played syndicate so if someone comes up with „Syndicate had it worse/ better“ i can’t judge it. Also, i played it on the PS4 so i will say which buttons i pressed in PS Style)
THE GOOD
Parkour
One of Unity‘s biggest praises is that it has the best Parkou climbing system in the Franchise. And yes, it does! Arno, out of all the Assassins, is the best. The distances he can jump are phenomenal. The „jump far“ or „descant fast“ buttons (R2 + X or O) are amazing features to determine how Arno should run and jump trough Paris in your own Style. The animations Arno does when Parkouring trough the City are also very satisfying to watch. The spin and flips add Flair to him as a Assassin running across the roofs of the City. I remember vividly the most epic moment in the game when i was free roaming. I was running away from the Cops, i went inside a house, jumped out the window, climbed up a House, jumped into another one trough an open window, then inside, killed a guard, jumped out the window again and into another open window where i assassinated a guard trough the window, only to escape via smokebomb and then trough another window out again. I legit felt like a Master Assassin trying to escape!
1790‘s Paris
AC Unity does not have the best World in the franchise since even thou it‘s a perfect playground for Parkouring trough it, after a while, everything starts to look the same. AC3 and AC2 for instsnce had it better with different areas to play trough and locations that looked completely different to one another. But i willsay this, without a Shadow of a Doubt, Paris is the most alive world in the AC Franchise. Since it‘s set in the Revolution era, there are cpuntless people on the street with countless activities surrounding them. I see people protest, carrying other people around, fighting each other, helping each other, carrying various Items around, singing, swearing and so much more! I love this! It truly makes you feel that you are not the most interesting thing going on around in that world or around the lives of others. It also helps that the events like stopping a thief and killing criminals also add to it feeling so alive! I can simply walk trough Paris for hours and just breathe in the world for how alive it is.
The Designs and Styles
I have played a lot of AC Games and let me tell you, AC Unity, without a shadow of a doubt, is the most Beautiful AC Game in the franchise. First of all, i want to say that AC Unity‘s Hair graphics look a million times better than the ones we have seen since, which is saying something since Unity came out 6 years before Valhalla did. When you compare Elise‘s hair with the ones of other Females such as Rendvi, Aya, Kleopatra, Kassandra and other female characters, you wonder why it looks so much worse. Even if it‘s just a small meaningless detail, why do the Hairstyles in AC Unity look so much smoother, better, more detailed than the games that came later on? I also want to say that Arno looks incredible. Yes, he may look like a french Ezio (which is weird because they aren’t related) but does it matter? The fatial features are done amazingly by the team. I just find it very disappointing and displeasing that the Scars in the game are bareley visible. I mean, i forgot Arno even had a Scar after the Prison Sequence and that Bellec has one too if it wasn’t for the cut you see trough his Beard. And not to mention, the expressions, movements and animations in cutscenes are all so much better and a breath of nostalgia compared to the extremley bad animations we see from Odyssey and Valhalla where it looks like it was made with the Dragon Age Origins animations. And lastly, the BIGGEST thing i love about Unity, Arno‘s Equipment designs. Arno has, in my Opinion, the best designs of any Assassin in the franchise. He truly looks like a proper Assassin in any way you customize him. I give Ubisoft a 11/10 for how perfectly they created and designed Arnos clothes pieces and his Weapons. But what wonders me is, why didn’t Ubisoft make Arno‘s default Equipment Color White? It was literally the main color of the AC Franchise and it looks sooooooo much better than the Blue one they gave him. So how come?
The Story
As of right now, i ended Sequence 6 and i realized like where the Story is going. All the Characters are likable. Arno, Bellec, Elise, the guy that replaced the King of Beggars, the Assassin Council members and even certain Templars like the King of Beggar‘s goon you meet multiple times troughout the story. It also feels good to finally see the Assassin Guild with a proper system, Hideout, council and everything again. I got truly invested in the story, the characters and the world. So here‘s a ⭐️ for that.
The Multiplayer (on Paper)
The idea of of roaming around Paris, doing missions and simply being together with different Assassin players in the game sounds like an AMAZING idea. It‘s the Multiplayer every AC fan wanted. I mean, yeah, the Brotherhood Multiplayer was really good and fun, but not what fans really wanted. So it‘s gret... on Paper... i will get to it soon.
Detective Arno
I just love the unsolved Murder mysteries side quests. I find them fun and interesting, even thou as of right now, it‘s not all that hard to find out who is the culprit since the game makes it rather easy to figure it out.
THE BAD
Parkour
Yeah, i bet you didn’t expect to see the same topic again did you? While yes, Unity has the best Parkour system to go over the roofs, but if you are on the ground, it‘s a different story. There have been countless moments where while i was running trough the City and trying to parkour trough obstacles, Arno simply got stuck or forgot that he can flip like a master acrobat. Chairs, tables, pots with flowers, fences and many other things, Arno makes a complete halt there. And it‘s beyond frustrating when you have to run away with a time limit clocking down whilst enemies chase you down, only for Arno to refuse to leave the chair he is currently balancing on. And i can press anything i want, but he refuses to leave his position. And even worse when he won’t even try to climb over something he can clearly do, just because he simply doesn’t feel like it. Also, remember the people i mentioned who are on the streets that make Paris feel alive? Yeah, they will fuck up your ground parkour too. So while the Parkour on the Roofs is almost flawless, the Parkour on the ground is an absolute chore and frustrating af.
“ARNO, WHAT ARE YOU DOING???“
Now this is a problem that is pretty much consistent troughout the entire AC Franchise, not just Unity. Now, be honest with me, the others and yourself now. You most definitely had moments in an AC game where you thought: „WHAT ARE YOU DOING????“. It can be with Altair, Ezio, Connor, Edward, Shay, Arno, Jacob, Bayek, Alexios and even to this day with Eivor that the character straight up and simply refusrs to follow your commands. And not any different here in Unity. There have been countless moments where Arno refused to climb a spot, even thou he can very clearly make that gap, because he done it before too. Or refuses to climb trough an open window, even if you Press L2, which leads him to first do everything but climb trough that damn Window. The same when it comes to double assassinations and he simply assassinates one Enemy. Or when you try to cover behind domething and Arno covers in the worst way possible, so that everyone can still see him no problem (worse than Red Dead 2‘s cover system). Or Arno straight up refuses to climb up/over the same spot he just threw an enemy down from, which forces me to first wiggle around the ledges with him fist before he can climb on it or over it. Or the dumbest thing ever, when Arno jumps down on an enemy that spotted him, he knocks the enemy down and Arno simply refuses to attack the enemy until the ebeny stands up and can block my attacks! Like, seriosuly Arno, WTF ARE YOU DOING????
The Online connection
I don’t exaggerate when i say AC Unity has the worst Online connection i have ever experienced in any game ever. Enemies respond to actions such as attack, dodges and parries 5 seconds later, you can’t loot anything since halway trough, it cancels your command and you can‘t loot a corpse or steal something of a Person. Which SUCKS since you need to get a certain item to progress with the mission. Which means you spam O all the time, just to do what the game tells you to do. And it‘s even worse when you need to speak or „save“ a person important to the Mission and it simply does not trigger, which leads up to 10 minutes of waiting, or the host simply leaving the mission which leads to you have to repeat the entire mission again, which is just so god damn bad. And yeah, sure, i can do it Private in Solo, but certain missions are that god damn hard and near impossible to finish alone. 10 second delay bugs, non triggering events, too hard for solo plays (unless your equipment is OP) and sometimes 20 minute waits for players to join a game. God i never had worse online experiences. And even worse, when the game or host kicks yout out of the mission for no real reason. Nintendo‘s online connection looks like future tech compared to Unity‘s 2001 performance. I spend 40 minutes in a 10 minute Co-op mission just waiting for the game to stop bugging and glitching out and let the event just trigger. Again, worst online Multiplayer in gaming History.
Stats > Customizations
This i hate. I just previously praised the Design of the game, which then gets countered by the fact that to not be completely one shotted by certain Enemies, you need to equip items that make you keep up with the difficulty, which leads to your Arno possibly looking really bad or not the way you want him to look, just so you can have a fighting chance. Which then also leads to you having to grind for missions and money so you can progress trough the Main Story without having to fight and parry enemies 8 minutes long since your equipment is 2 levels behind. Let me enjoy the Beauty of the game!
Bugs and Glitches
They are still there. Stuck on a wall, on furnitures. Enemies not responding to actions like attacks, Gas Bombs or flash bombs, Arno sometimes simply gets into „free fall mode“ where he is stuck in literally nothing more than the wind in the Air and game not responding to your buttons. Also, i suffered bugs where the environment simply disappeared in certain cutscenes for a few moments.
“Stealth“
I build up as much Stealth as possible and enemies can still spot me from a mile away. And people say: „focus on Stealth to avoid conflict, makes it easier“ whilse not knowing how bad the stealth sucks. Objects you can cover behind are usually filled with holes or are smaller than Arno, which makes enemies still spot Arno without any problems. Worst of all, Arno can’t whistle to attract Enemies to him. He has Cherry bombs, but those attract every enemy in a 3 mile radius and i just want one enemy to come to my location, not 4. The Cover systemand enemy placements felt a million times better in Black Flag. So how come it devolved from back then??? And sometimes, there are ares where Stealth is near to impossible, like the Prison castle for instance where you need to do some missions there.
The Secret Armor
So this is more of a Nitpick, but Unity‘s „secret collectable Armof“ sucks. In AC2, when you collected everything needed, you got a sick ass Black Outfit that was Altair‘s Armor. In Brotherhood, it was Bartolomeo‘s Red outfit with Cool Fur, in AC3, it was Achilles‘ and Captain Kidd‘s outfits, in Black Flag, it was an epic Armor set, but in Unity? Altair‘s AC outfit, just Black. That is absolutely unsatisfying.
The Combat and other actions/ interactions
This. This is my absolute biggest gripe with AC Unity. This game, has without any shadow of a doubt, the WORST Combat system i have ever played in any AC game ever. They took out the counter mechanic to replace it with the Parry, which suuuuuuuuuuuucks. For one, AC 3 had the best combat system. It was flashy, satisfying and simply very good. You can attack, block, use special items, switch trough different weapons mid fight via quick tabs, you can use enemies as shields against guns, you can pick up the weapons of other enemies and you can counter 3 attacking enemies at once, which led to an Epic 1 v 3 cinematic, which felt so satisfying to get. But in Unity? Nah, they gave you a dodge (which sucks) a parry (which sucks) and light and heavy attacks (which you need to purchase separately to learn). And that‘s it. You cannot counter enemies, you cannot choose fists as a weapon (which were there since the very first AC), you cannot have throwing knives, you cannot pick up Weapons of other enemies (for instance, pick up Rifles to shoot someone, then use your weapons for the rest) you cannot pick up corpses and hide them away, you cannot use your Hidden Blade as an attacking weapon (which was even used in AC1. It was an instant Death counter to even the strongest enemies, but the counter time had to be precision perfect to land it, high risk high reward), you cannot use other enemies as shields against guns and enemies are unfair af. There is no attack pattern on enemies. Sure, some yell before they attack, but in previous AC Games, 5 different enemies didn’t attack all at once where you couldn’t react to them at all and was forced in the defensive for 9/10th of the time. And literally every single Enemy carries a gun with them, which they use all the time. And your Dodge is so bad and Pathetic, that they will hit you all the time. And funny enough, on higher leveled enemies, you need to shoot them with your high level gun up to 5 times to kill them, whilse they only need to hit you twice. And don‘t come at me with: „it‘s more challenging and realistic“, that‘s a pisspoor excuse for basically saying that the combat is simply worse. And what realism? The same one in a game where enemies can take up to 5 bullets before they die? Or the same enemies that can dodge point blank bulkets in the fog of a smoke bomb? OH! I forcot to mention, the looting system is terrible! I have no more bullets, so i loot the corpses of enemies since they all carry gubs with them aswell. 30 corpses were looted and not a single one had Ammo. WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!? You want to tell me that the same person who pointed a gun at me not 5 seconds ago, has no spare bullets that i can take off of him??? In previous AC Games, certain enemy types had the ammo you needed for your special weapons, which makes sense. But here? Nah. And yes, the „Restock“ Ability fixes this problem (kinda) but still doesn’t make it any less dumb.
In conclusion, AC Unity is without any shadow of a doubt one of, if not the most beautiful AC Game in the franchise. Beautiful designs, lovable characters and astonishing City. But sadly, that‘s all just a cover up for an abysmal and bug infested core game, where the controls and Arno refuse to do what you tell them to do, certain aspects that were heavily downgraded and a unfinished glitchfest of an Online Multiplayer.
But i will say this, i still like it more and find it better than both Odyssey and Valhalla, which is sad on Ubisoft‘s part.

20 Overlooked Single Player Indie Games

We're all familiar with the Hotline Miami's, Hollow Knight's, and Celeste's of the world. These are some of the indie games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser known indie games.
I'm going to order them according to Metacritic Critic Ratings. Some of the games at the bottom have pretty low critic ratings. I personally disagree with the low scores of these games, but it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. Keep in mind that games with only one or two User Ratings on Metacritic will not show the score. A game needs at least three User Ratings on Metacritic before the score will be shown. This is not the case for Critic Reviews.
Price will contain the U.S. PlayStation Store link to the game.
1. Hayfever

Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 2D Precision Platformer
Metacritic: 90% from 1 Critic Review, N/A from 0 User Ratings
Description: Hayfever is a precision platformer that revolves around a mailman propelling himself using a number of different allergens that act as power-ups. A lot of the platforming is aerial and typically has you catching allergens mid-air to perform maneuvers in quick succession. It's not an easy game by any means, but it has oddly relaxing music to accompany the rather intense platforming. There are also letters to collect in each level to steepen the challenge and some secrets to discover too. It takes an hour or so to get used to the aerial platforming, and this is one of the few 2D platformers played better with the analog stick rather than the D-Pad. But letters that seemed unattainable to me at the beginning of the game became much simpler by the end, as I had mastered the controls and physics of the game. I don't expect everyone to love this game, but I have to agree with the one other guy who played it that gave it a 9/10. After putting 25+ hours into it, I am still eager to replay it soon.
Completion Time: ~8 Hours
Extra Content: It'll take another 8 hours or so to collect all the letters and probably about 6 hours or so to beat the Hard World, which features an additional 28 remixed levels. There are also secrets to uncover, but they don't net any in game progress and only work towards your trophy completion. Finding these secrets will probably vary more in time because they are hidden, but expect them to take a few hours to find. Just to clarify, letters are an expanded test of your platforming skills and are all in clear view of the screen, while secrets are a test of your observation skills and take a little more digging to find. The platinum trophy is a fair and rewarding challenge that took me about 25-30 hours to get.

2. Valfaris

Price: $24.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Run & Gun
Metacritic: 80% from 9 Critic Reviews, 63% from 25 User Ratings
Description: Valfaris is one of the best run & gun games I've ever played. You play as Prince Therion who returns to his home planet of Valfaris on a quest to kill his father. It's themed around a fictional planet and has a gross alien vibe coupled with heavy metal music. The music doesn't override the other audio in the game, and it does a nice job of upping the ante when you're fighting a boss – of which there are many. You're equipped with a primary gun, a more powerful mana-based gun, a sword, and a shield that can block with mana or parry. There are a number of weapons to acquire throughout the game, and the guns in particular do a great job of feeling different. You’re able to upgrade your weapons with Blood Metals. Some Blood Metals are found in plain sight, others are rewarded for defeating a tough enemy, and some are given for going off the beaten path. These upgrades typically just up the firepower but will sometimes introduce a secondary move to your weapon. There are checkpoints every two minutes or so, and most bosses will have a checkpoint just before them (only the weaker bosses come after a gauntlet of enemies). The game is a little hard at points, but overall it strikes a nice balance of feeling accomplished for overcoming the challenges without getting overly frustrating.
Completion Time: ~8 Hours
Extra Content: There are a few secrets to find throughout the game that are off the beaten path, though I was able to find 2/3 of them on my first playthrough. I found all but one weapon as well. The replayability comes from New Game+, which allows you to take all your upgraded weapons into a harder version of the game. Since the weapons all function a bit differently, this can be lots of fun. Getting the platinum trophy is somewhat difficult.

3. Four Sided Fantasy

Price: $9.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Trailer
Genre: 2D Puzzle Platformer
Metacritic: 80% from 3 Critic Reviews, N/A from 1 User Rating
Description: The premise of the game is a fusion of side scrollers and oldschool fixed screens that teleport you to the opposite side of the screen when you pass through one side - think Pac-Man, arcade Mario Bros., or Balloon Fight. You will find obstacles in your path that are impenetrable in a typical side scroller, but can be overcome by holding a button to turn the screen into a fixed screen that allows you to pass through one side and out through the other end. This is a totally unique take on a puzzle platformer I haven't seen before, and all five worlds bring something new to the table. For example, World 2 will flip you upside down when you pass through a screen, allowing new types of challenges as a result. There's more emphasis on the puzzle elements than the platforming.
Completion Time: ~2 Hours
Extra Content: There is a New Game+, but from what I could tell from the beginning it wasn't a whole lot different. Still, there's a trophy for completing New Game+ and some other fun trophies. Unfortunately, like many early generation indie games, this one has no platinum trophy.

4. Bleep Bloop

Price: $3.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 2D Puzzle Adventure
Metacritic: 80% from 1 Critic Review, N/A from 0 User Ratings
Description: This game revolves around using two square characters who fling themselves from one end of the room to the other to reach an exit. You must position yourself in such a way that you use each character's body to get around the level. Each world introduces a new mechanic to keep things fresh. The whole game is played only using the two analog sticks (the d-pad and face buttons work, but the two analog sticks are best, in my opinion). It can also be played in local co-op, however with how often you have to fling yourself around, coordinating the correct movements to the other player would be exhausting, and it is easier to experiment yourself.
Completion Time: ~3.5 Hours
Extra Content: There's really no extra content, but $4 for what's almost a 4 hour game isn't bad. There is an easy platinum trophy however.

5. Horizon Shift ‘81

Price: $8.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 1980s Arcade-like Fixed Screen Shoot ‘em Up
Metacritic: 80% from 1 Critic Review, N/A from 0 User Ratings
Description: This is actually a sequel to the Steam exclusive Horizon Shift, which sports a different aesthetic and isn’t quite as good from what I’ve read. Horizon Shift ’81 mimics the look of a fixed screen shoot ‘em up from the early 1980s but comes with a few twists of its own. Your ship is positioned in the middle of the screen on a horizontal line rather than the bottom, and you have to flip between sides to deal with enemies coming from both the top and the bottom. The line can be broken in different places – leaving a gap where you can fall to your death – by asteroids and certain projectiles. This is where the expanded moveset comes into play: you can jump between gaps and also over enemies who attach themselves to the line. Enemies on the line can also be taken out with a horizontal shield bash that regenerates after a few seconds. There is a boss after every five stages, some of which will actually bring the line down to the bottom of the screen, while others retain it in the middle. Horizon Shift ’81 has a number of customizable settings that change everything from the aesthetics, to the difficulty, to the checkpoint/lives system, to the speed of the game, and more. The two main modes are a choice between three lives with a checkpoint before and after every boss, or a checkpoint at the beginning of every level but only one life.
Completion Time: ~3.5 Hours (Normal Mode on Arcade Style)
Extra Content: There are a number of ways to customize your future playthroughs, and there’s an unlockable boss rush mode after finishing the game. The few trophies are relatively easy to obtain. There is no platinum trophy for this game.

6. Daggerhood

Price: $4.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 2D Platformer
Metacritic: 77% from 2 Critic Reviews, N/A from 2 User Ratings
Description: Daggerhood's main hook is the use of its sword teleportation mechanic. You throw your sword with a button, and you press the same button again to teleport to where the sword is. While this is a mechanic that has been seen in some Metroidvanias, I haven't seen a tight, linear 2D platformer make use of this mechanic before. Each level has a number of collectibles and some small side sections as well, but for the most part the path to the finish is clear - it's just the execution that's the tricky part. Add in teleportation portals to make things even trickier.
Completion Time: ~2.5 Hours
Extra Content: As this is a Ratalaika Games published game, the platinum trophy only takes about 1-1.5 hours to achieve. You can get it well before you even finish the game, which is a shame because the game had all the makings for a fun platinum trophy. There are tons of collectibles in each level, and each level records your time. So there is a lot here to extend to the playtime.

7. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight

Price: $9.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Metroidvania
Metacritic: 76% from 22 Critic Reviews, 73% from 39 User Ratings
Description: Usually with Metroidvanias, I expect a long, difficult game that's difficult to navigate. Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight is a counter to those ideas while still maintaining the exploratory nature of the sub-genre. The plot is pretty simple and doesn't feature a ton of story, but there are a few NPCs you talk to throughout your quest. The combat is also fairly simple, but the boss fights you engage in are all great. Without much weapon customization, it's stripped to the basics of dodging enemy attacks while trying to get a hit in. It makes for a game that's easy to get into and instantly start enjoying. All of the areas are visually appealing, some more than others, and each of them lasts shorter than you'd expect. The game is only around 3-5 hours, but it feels like you've played so much more in that time. Some games only really start to take off by the time this game finishes.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: Getting 100% map completion should only take an hour or two of cleanup. I did miss an optional boss on my first playthrough. There are also items to discover, and the trophies give fun challenges to extend the life of the game. Unfortunately there is no platinum trophy for this game. One cool thing I liked was that beating a boss without getting hit at all gives you a useful item. It also features New Game+, allowing you to carry over most of your items, making the game more difficult, and changing up enemy placement.

8. Ultra Hat Dimension

Price: $4.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 2D Level-based Puzzle Game
Metacritic: 76% from 2 Critic Reviews, 80% from 2 User Ratings
Description: Ultra Hat Dimension follows Bea through a series of rooms in a palace on a quest to undo the magical spell that has made the mythical Spluff creatures want to attack one another. There is a little bit of backstory via one sentence thoughts from Bea in between levels, but nothing major here. The gameplay revolves equipping four different types of hats and using them to evade or push Spluffs around to retrieve the key and reach the door. Each Spluff dons one of four different hats which effects their behavior towards other Spluffs and you. You will be punched one tile back by every Spluff unless you’re wearing the same hat as the Spluff. Spluffs interact with one another differently depending on what hat they’re wearing in a rock, paper, scissors kind of way – they may punch a Spluff back one space, get into a scuffle that allows you to get close to them without wearing a hat, or they may temporarily disable them in a way that allows you to access the space the Spluff consumes within eight moves. There are undo and reset buttons included that allow you to quickly rewind mistakes. There are some clever puzzles accompanied by catchy tunes and a charming pixel art aesthetic. The difficulty is about average.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours
Extra Content: Since this is published by Ratalaika Games, getting the platinum trophy can be obtained after only clearing 2/3 of the levels. There are a few custom maps on the PC version of the game but no additional content on consoles.

9. Remothered: Tormented Fathers

Price: $29.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: (Slightly Graphic) Link
Genre: Survival Horror
Metacritic: 75% from 13 Critic Reviews, 77% from 53 Ratings
Description: Remothered: Tormented Fathers feels very old school in its design philosophy - no weapons outside a few self defense items and distraction items. You go back and forth in the mansion and have to learn the layout and where things are to proceed. You have to manually select the key item from your inventory to use on triggers (but a key icon is still shown to guide you a little). The sounds in this game do a great job of evoking tension, and I appreciate that the stalkers don’t seem to teleport, so if you can get away from them, you’ve earned your freedom for awhile. This is the first game in a loosely connected trilogy, with the second one due later this year.
Completion Time: ~6 Hours
Extra Content: There are some collectibles you can go back for, but not a whole beyond that. Unfortunately there is no platinum trophy for this game, and you'll probably get most of the trophies - if not all, except the collectibles one - on your first playthrough.

10. Reverie

Price: $12.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Zelda-like Top Down Action Adventure
Metacritic: 75% from 1 Critic Review, 55% from 11 User Rating
Description: Reverie is a mix between Zelda’s gameplay, Earthbound’s aesthetic and humor, and a New Zealand folktale – the legend of Maui and the Giant Fish. Instead of the more traditional sword and shield style fantasy, Reverie instead opts for items and tools a modern boy is more likely to find in his possession, like a cricket bat, a yoyo, and a nerf gun. Similarly, the first dungeon is grandpa’s basement, where you’ll square off against a giant hedgehog and a tumble dryer. That said, the game does get more fantastical with the last two locations, particularly the last one. It’s a relatively easy game overall, though the fourth and especially fifth dungeon offer up a moderate challenge. The indie scene has produced a lot of Zelda-like games in recent years, but this is the only one I know of that isn’t your standard medieval fantasy.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: There are feathers to collect, mini games to play, and a combat focused bonus dungeon to beat. That said, a lot of this stuff is easy to stumble upon in the main quest, so you’re probably looking at about two or three hours’ worth of content after beating the game to complete everything and get the platinum trophy.

11. Inertial Drift

Price: $19.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Racing
Metacritic: 74% from 6 Critic Reviews, 50% from 1 User Ratings
Description: Inertial Drift's distinguishing characteristic is its employment of the right analog stick for drifting. This takes a little getting used to, but it feels great once you get the hang of it, creating some exhilarating moments when perfecting corner turns. The game has 10 unique tracks + 10 reversed tracks, 16 vehicles, and four separate story arcs. Each story arc is only a couple of hours long and features a different protagonist with a different vehicle. Since you’ll be racing on the same track a few times, there are a few gameplay variations that differ from just reaching the finish line at the end, such as racking up a certain number of points that are acquired through longer drift times and other means. There's quite a bit of dialogue between races, and in the races themselves characters will frequently dish out positive commentary on your performance in the form of text in the top left hand corner of the screen. The game's aesthetics are a fusion of anime and synthwave. I've heard many fans liken the game to the manga Initial D, though I'm unfamiliar with that series myself.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours (for 1/4 Story Arcs)
Extra Content: There are a number of different modes including a Story Mode, Challenge Mode, Grand Prix Mode, Arcade Mode, two player Split-Screen, and Online, as well as a Tutorial. Completion of challenges in Challenge Mode allows you to unlock new vehicles for the other non-Story Modes. Grand Prix Mode allows you to race using different characters/vehicles through a connected set of challenges, while Arcade Mode is for one-off races. I wouldn't recommend this game for online play as the user-base is pretty small (hence it being overlooked) and you're unlikely to find a match. Getting the platinum trophy is fairly difficult.

12. Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX)

Price: $11.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 2D Action Platformer
Metacritic: 73% from 6 Critic Reviews, 72% from 13 User Ratings
Description: This is an action platformer that emulates arcade games from the latter half of the 1980s, but it is probably most reminiscent of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts. The creator, Locomalito, states that the soundtrack uses the true arcade sound of the YM2203 chip. The game is hard, but the checkpoints are never more than a minute or two apart, and the lives' system/continue system has no penalties outside of locking you out of trophies. This is a very boss dense game - in the ~4 hour run-time it takes to complete the game, you fight 19 bosses. The handful of weapons and items you pick up helps lend variety to the combat, and no two boss fights feel the same.
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: The game has two endings. Most players will get the bad ending the first time around and be locked out of the final stage (which is the longest stage in the game). You do have to play through the game again to get the good ending, but you'll likely do it in half the time. If you want to see all the major content on your first go around, I recommend looking up how to get the good ending before you play the game. As far as trophies are concerned, the platinum trophy is very difficult to obtain. If you like an extreme challenge, this one's for you.

13. Pato Box

Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Punch-Out-like 3D Action Adventure
Metacritic: 71% from 4 Critic Reviews, N/A from 1 User Ratings
Description: Pato Box follows an anthropomorphic duck boxer on an adventure through a stylistic noir comic book world. “Pato” is a Spanish word that translates to “Duck” in English (the game was developed by a Mexican studio). The boss fights are heavily inspired by Punch-Out’s gameplay, but there are levels outside of these fights to help differentiate it. Most of the levels can be selected in any order you choose and typically serve as a leadup to the boss fight. Bosses are usually introduced by a cutscene followed by some dialogue taunting Pato Box. The levels play entirely differently from the fights, but the themes of the level match those of the bosses. The levels will employ various elements of evasion, stealth, exploration, and a few time-based mini-games. The casino level, for example, will have you walk around the casino looking for chips and punching the slot machines to earn enough to pay entrance to the fight, while the food factory has you evading stompers, sawblades, and butcher knives as you work your way through the level. There are variety of things to find throughout the levels: tokens for decorations in Pato Box’s room, backstory on the boss of the level and the world, and tips on how to win the upcoming fight. The fights themselves lock Pato Box in the middle of the screen, allowing you to block, juke left or right, and perform a low or high jab to the left or right. The game foregoes a HUD in favor of a visual representation of your health via scars on your body, which I thought was a nice touch. While the levels and bosses play pretty differently from each other, they’re weaved together by a dark and intriguing story that follows Pato Box’s quest for retribution against an evil corporation.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: There’s an Arcade Mode that lets you replay boss fights and some collectibles to find in the main campaign. The trophies are very difficult, and many ask you to beat a boss without taking a single hit.

14. The Count Lucanor

Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Top Down Adventure/Horror
Metacritic: 70% from 2 Critic Reviews, 66% from 10 User Ratings
Description: The Count Lucanor’s story is very fairy tale-esque – more like a classic fairy tale as it can be pretty dark and grotesque at times. On his 10th birthday, Hans chooses to leave his mother in a quest for wealth. After some walking and conversation with NPCs you find along the way, you stumble upon a large mansion and find that the count of this mansion is looking to pass his wealth onto an heir who can prove himself worthy – “worthy” in this case being the one who can figure out the count’s name. From here, you are tasked with adventuring through the mansion and solving environmental puzzles in a nonlinear way to acquire the letters that spell the count’s name. There is a survival horror element to the game, as you are unable to attack the enemies in the mansion and instead must crawl under tables and find other ways around them. You can place candles around the mansion to light it up to help you better evade enemies, but your usage is limited (though you can find more).
Completion Time: ~4 Hours
Extra Content: There are five different endings and some puzzles/rooms you don’t even have to do. This could double your playtime – maybe even more if you don’t use a guide. The platinum trophy requires every ending and a few other things but is pretty easy to get if you use a guide.

15. The Bunker

Price: $19.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: FMV Point & Click Adventure/Horror
Metacritic: 69% from 14 Critic Reviews, 59% from 39 User Ratings
Description: The Bunker is an FMV point & click adventure, meaning it features real actors and environments just like a live action movie. Many of the actors involved have been in high profile movies/TV shows as well, including The Hobbit, Game of Thrones, Star Wars, and Penny Dreadful. The game takes place in a fallout shelter and follows the last survivor as he tries to find a way outside following the death of his mother, after living 30+ years in the bunker. The gameplay has you solving puzzles and finding ways to proceed to the next area. The story is the focal point of the game though, and it frequently switches between the past and the present to tell its story. There’s a good juxtaposition between the lively past and the lonely present that makes you question how the protagonist ended up as the last survivor. There’s only one narrative choice to make in the game, and it comes at the very end. The game also works in handheld mode with touchscreen functionality if you'd prefer to play it that way.
Completion Time: ~2. Hour Completion Time*
Extra Content: You can replay the game and try to find all the collectibles. Most of them give more background on the story. You can trigger the ending you did not choose the first time around by simply reloading the last checkpoint, so there is no need to play through the whole game again to unlock it. Getting the platinum trophy is fairly easy.

16. A Tale of Paper

Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 3D Platformer
Metacritic: 60% from 4 Critic Reviews, 70% from 3 User Ratings
Description: A Tale of Paper takes direct inspiration from Little Nightmares, sporting the same sideview camera angle and minimalist narrative. It’s a little less creepy and has the interesting twist of transforming into a variety of different origamis on the fly: from a little alien creature, to a frog, to a ball, to a paper airplane, etc., all with the push of a button. You’ll use a combination of different origami shapes to overcome the obstacles in the area, and you’ll be accompanied by some gorgeous sceneries in the process. The gameplay is pretty easy in both its platforming and puzzles, making it an easygoing, movie-esque kind of game. While the story is minimalist, it results in a satisfying conclusion, and it really feels like you’ve been through quite a journey even with the short runtime. The game evokes the feeling of being a tiny specimen in a larger-than-life world – Toy Story 2 is probably the most apt comparison I can make. Outside of Little Nightmares, I haven’t played another game quite like this.
Completion Time: ~1.5 Hours
Extra Content: I got seven of the eight origami collectibles in my first run-through. The trophies also only offer a few extra things to do, but I’d recommend reading the list of trophies before you play the game if you want to get the relatively easy platinum trophy.

17. Late Shift

Price: $12.49
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Interactive Film
Metacritic: 59% from 15 Critic Reviews, 68% from 52 User Ratings
Description: If you liked Detroit: Become Human or Until Dawn, Late Shift will be right up your alley. This game is a bit different from both those titles in that it's an FMV, with the gameplay solely consisting of the choices you make. You receive prompts at key moments in the story on what you want your character to do next, and this effects the outcome of the game. It plays more like Black Mirror's Bandersnatch, though this game came before it. The story follows an everyman who gets tangled up in London's criminal underground just as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Completion Time: ~1.5 Hour Completion Time*
Extra Content: There are 180 choice points and 7 different endings. There is a platinum trophy, and I only got 4 out of 21 of the trophies on my first playthrough. There are a number of different routes to take with the game.

18. SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption

Price: $18.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Soulslike Action Adventure
Metacritic: 57% from 8 Critic reviews, 38% from 15 User Ratings
Description: SINNER: Sacrifice for Redemption is a Soulslike boss rush - there are no levels and only small area before each boss to practice your moves. There are eight bosses, the first seven allowing you to fight in any order, each representing the seven deadly sins. You are equipped with everything the game has to offer from the beginning (except for the New Game+ weapon they give you), and instead of becoming more powerful, you gradually lose things with each boss you defeat, hence the “sacrifice” in the title. It’s like a reverse RPG. Each boss has a different sacrifice associated to it – one may deplete your throwing items’ usage, while another will deplete your health and stamina. Picking the best order to fight them in adds a little strategic thinking to the game, as you may be more dependent on your large health and stamina bar more than your throwing items’ usage, for example. The game is fairly difficult, so your victories over each boss feel very gratifying when they do come.
Completion Time: ~5 Hours
Extra Content: There is New Game+ that offers you an additional weapon. The trophies task you with a few things you have to pull off in battles, and the platinum trophy is pretty easy to obtain.

19. Verlet Swing

Price: $14.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: 3D Platformer
Metacritic: N/A from 0 Critic Review, 80% from 2 User Ratings
Description: Verlet Swing’s aesthetic is as intriguing as its gameplay: you are tasked with grappling and swinging yourself across these vaporwave styled levels without hitting anything. The levels are all very short, but you’re likely to play many levels dozens of times before even finishing it… just to get a 1/4 rank. The ranking system is actually very cool, in that it encourages you to find alternative paths or sometimes just building up more momentum to get to the end faster. Most levels do seem to have a set path, but at the same time, with the proper grappling of the mechanics, you can forge your own, which is a game in itself.
Completion Time: ~7 Hours
Extra Content: There’s an in game challenge menu that mostly recycles a lot of the base game content – though there’s a particularly funny one that switches the perspective to third person to play as a knockoff Spiderman. You can also go back and try to get the best possible time for each level. Getting the platinum trophy is extremely hard and I believe is at 0.1% completion.

20. Neon Drive

Price: $9.99
Picture: Link
Trailer: Link
Genre: Rhythm
Metacritic: N/A from 0 Critic Reviews, 70% from 7 User Ratings
Description: Neon Drive is a challenging rhythm game with a synthwave aesthetic and appropriately matching music. The objective of the game is to evade the obstacles coming at you by transitioning between four lanes at the right moment using either two of the face buttons, D-Pad, or shoulder buttons. Personally I found the shoulder buttons worked best. The game will occasionally transform you into other vehicles that mix the gameplay up a bit - one notable example is when you turn into a plane and transition between eight lanes in a 360 degree orientation. There are only eight levels that are all about three minutes in length if you were to beat them with no deaths, with two checkpoints and two health points that regenerate between checkpoints. While this all sounds very generous, most of these levels will still take you dozens of tries, though the life reset is almost immediate so you can get back into the action right away.
Completion Time: ~3 Hours
Extra Content: There are two harder difficulties, an endurance mode that sees how long you can go without dying, a free run mode that allows you to play through the game without reset (only unlocked after beating each level), and online leaderboards. The trophies are very hard to get, and there is no platinum trophy.

Conclusion
My top 5 on the list in order would be the following: (1.) Hayfever, (2.) Valfaris, (3.) Cursed Castilla: (Maldita Castilla EX), (4.) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, and (5.) Bleep Bloop.
Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked single player indie games?
If you’re looking for more indie games to play, see my post here:

best ps4 games to play co op online video

The 25 Best Multiplayer PS4 Video Games to Play in 2020 . Battle it out with some friends—or total strangers—online. By Cameron Sherrill and Brady Langmann. Aug 21, 2020 Courtesy. Friends The Best Co-Op Games on PS4 By Luke Brown 18 February 2019 We took a look at the PlayStation 4 library to see which games will help you and your friends thrive on co-op play. BEST PS4 CO-OP GAMES: Overcooked | A Way Out | Payday 2 | Dying Light | Ghost Recon Wildlands | Monster Hunter: World | Unravel Two | Lego Games | Far Cry 5 | Sonic Mania | LittleBigPlanet 3 Best Online Co-Op PS4 Games – Ghost Recon Wildlands Ghost Recon Wildlands gives players the space to approach situations however they want. You have a target, do you want to go in guns blazing? Minecraft Bedrock for PS4. 8.30 /10 9. Destiny 2: Forsaken - Legendary Collection - PlayStation 4. 8.10 /10 10. Diablo III Eternal Collection (PS4) While multiplayer and single-player campaign games are all well and good, PS4 co-op games are the bread and butter of modern PlayStation game culture. The best PlayStation 4 co-op video games. The A Way Out video game is an unique action-adventure title when compared to other selections on this list as it will require two players at all times. Our favorite cooperative multiplayer games that let you play together online no matter what system you own—PS4, Xbox One, PC, or the Nintendo Switch. Best PS4 co-op games for kids and families to play during coronavirus lockdown. The PlayStation 4 is home to some excellent co-op titles that people of all ages can enjoy – here are our personal favourites . dailystar. Share ; By. Dom Peppiatt Senior Video Games Writer. 13:51, 14 APR 2020; Updated 10:53, 27 APR 2020; Tech. Sign up to FREE email alerts from Daily Star - Gaming Subscribe. When So with that in mind, here’s a list of the best online co-op games on PS4. Add some of these to your collection, and you can have so much fun online with your friends, family, or even complete Updated On Jan. 20, 2021. Online multiplayer games have become quite popular over the past few years. Here are some of the best online multiplayer PS4 games you can play in 2021.. If you’re

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Top 5 Online Co-op PS4 Games - YouTube

This generation has seen the controversial rise of "games as a service" (GaaS), "live service games"; whatever you want to call them. While there certainly a... We join the Thompson family to play a range of games ready for our guide to Multiplayer PlayStation 4 games in the family. We try out:- LittleBigPlanet 3- St... What are the best co-op games for PS4? We countdown our favourite co-op games for the PlayStation 4 to date, from Borderlands 3 to Overcooked 2.---For more i... We've published a new, updated best co-op games video. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_d-KOtwkgs---What are the best co-op games on PS4? We ... A list with the best PS4 Local Co-Op Games. Best co-op split screen games on PS4. PS4 Split screen Coop. Offline coop PS4.Here is the list:Helldivers1-4 PLAY... The world just wants to tear us all apart. Whether it's politics, yanny, or a black and blue dress, life conspires to make enemies of friends. Video games ar... 15 Best split screen PS4 games. 15 Best split screen games ps4 2020.Here is a list with the best PS4 split screen games to play with your friends or family.... Top 10 CO-OP/Multiplayer Games to Play Online With Your Friends While Quarantined PS4, Xbox One & PCLet’s face it, being quarantined during the currently o... Put your friendships and relationships to the test with the best indie co-op games you can play on PC, PS4, Nintendo Switch and the Xbox One. From meeting ne... Its PVE time guys, lets have a look at the best co-op online games out there for the PS4 #PS4 #PSN #GTA5Please help support the channel by donating to my Pat...

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