Review – Thief of Thieves Season One

A cocky thief in training is sent by her mentor, a Master Thief on a simple heist, but when things get heated, he sends he away to Italy, to learn from one of the best and maybe, maybe, become the Thief of Thieves.

The Good

  • Unique Look: I really like comic books style cutscenes, they bring the best of that medium into the gaming world. They’re easier to make, the details are crisp and awesome and you get the chance to discover an artist you didn’t know about before. But Thief of Thieves goes a step further and wraps the in-game look & feel in the same art-style, not only having consistency between cutscene and game but also making it so the transitions between the pages and the game feel incredibly natural.
  • Detect…Thief Vision: I really like the intuition aspect of it, where a press of a button identifies things in the environment, almost like highlights on a page, this great overlay of white lines and scribbles describe people and objects. Kinda feels like what a thief would have, just this clear paper with names and such they could lay on top of some blueprints to mark important things.
  • Weird…but cool: Love the theme song, just a cool beat and the characters reciting the elements of a good heist. It’s simple, it’s weird, but catchy as all hell!

The Bad

  • Flat and Bland: God I dislike these characters. There’s no depth to them and despite the good voice acting they’re completely one-note, characters built around a single personality trait, no nuance. Celia is Cocky, Chip is Nerdy, Redmond is secretive. That’s it, that’s all you need to know.
  • In Perspective: You know, forced camera angles work really well for certain game but they’re horrible for stealth. So many times, I wanted to know what was going on beyond my current position but the game kept the same zoom levels hiding details the character would and should be capable of seeing. At point you can switch to a different angle, but the usefulness of that is limited as hell. Zoom was the key element here, zoom. And it’s not.
  • The Bad kind of Stealth: Inability to defend yourself, guards that take you out in one go, cover and darkness that only sometimes works, incredibly annoying security-bypassing minigames, Thief of Thieves just wants to make stealth, the core of its gameplay, as boring and as uninteresting as possible for you. Midway through the first couple of missions I was unimpressed going towards nodding off to sleep, and it didn’t get better.
  • Cheap Security: I could’ve rolled this one into the previous point but I wanted to focus on this a little bit more. Whoever decided that things keep moving, characters and guards can still find you and even kill you while you’re stuck in a cutscene, deserves a very special place in hell. So many times, I got through security, got to a cutscene and saw people that had nothing to do with the cutscene walk into the shot and suddenly spot me, because of course they would in that situation. It’s nightmarish, and so common and so incredibly infuriating.

Gallery/Trailer

Review – Project Nimbus

The world ended, blew itself up in war. Now, some live on floating cities while others waste away on the surface. In this post-war world, conflict is once again rearing its ugly head. This is Project Nimbus – Complete Edition.

Good

  • Fast, Fast, Faster!: Project Nimbus is a fast-paced mecha combat game. On every given mission you’ll be flying around zipping around avoiding missile barrages and other weaponry while you try to pick off other enemies and take care of mission objectives, which might include a one on one duel with another ace pilot. The gameplay is fun from the start and the more you advance, and the more you improve, the better and more fun it becomes.
  • The Path to Ace: Project Nimbus is easy to learn but the controls and gameplay are so deep it takes a lot to master them but it’s so satisfying to progress and improve your piloting skills. At the start you’re taking tons of fire and missiles, but by the end you’re likely to be taking out entire battalions without so much as a scratch on you, just on skill alone.
  • Battles of the Goddesses: Hands down, the best moments in this game are the two one-on-one duels between the two female protagonists. These battles take the best of the game and turn the dial to eleven and force you to act far more strategically than in other circumstances.
  • Conflict on All Sides: The best thing about the Project Nimbus storyline is that much like the way the Gundam anime series do it, they tell the story from all possible angles, switching your point of view character every few missions so you learn what’s happening on the other side of the war. This in turn makes the characters much deeper and complex, and shows that it’s not a simple case of good guys vs bad guys.
  • Down to the Wire: Some of the best missions in Project Nimbus are those where you have a time limit or a health bar for something you have to protect. It turns the intensity up quite a notch and just makes the win feel that much more exciting.
  • Mecha Goodness: I love the mechas in this game. All of them. Well, not the first one you run with which is kinda boring and low-spec but once you get the prototypes and the Skull Squad convertible fighters, then things get really fun and really over the top and awesome.

Bad

  • Lock Awful: If there’s one thing in this game that threatened to ruin my fun is how finicky the lock on function can be. It’s so easy to lose your lock that it really gets silly, especially with multiple enemies or during those really fun one on one duels.
  • Bad First Impression: The first few missions don’t really sell you on Project Nimbus. You’re piloting a boring mech in some very dark environments where enemies are so far away from you they’re just red outlined bits in the distance. Personally, I’d have done away with these missions and skip ahead to the Mirai launch mission, where things really get interesting.

Review – Vaporum

What would you do if you shipwrecked, lost your memories, were the only survivor and the first thing you saw was a gigantic steampunk tower? Me, I’d start trying to hitchhike another ship, but in Vaporum’s protagonist’s case, he thought entering the ominous structure would be the best choice. How did it turn out? Play to find out. Continue reading Review – Vaporum

Playing Octopath Traveler – The Narrative Issue

I bought Octopath Traveller on release for my Nintendo Switch and still haven’t finished it, not because it’s an exceedingly long game but because it takes effort for me to keep going. Continue reading Playing Octopath Traveler – The Narrative Issue

Rezzed 2017 – Games Higlights – The Best of the Rest

Last day of my Rezzed 2017 coverage, before we return to our normal programming of rants, annoyances and reviews…plus the occasional short story when something bad happens. To recap, this week I spoke of my experience at Rezzed this year, and on Wednesday I told you about the games I saw on the sessions I booked with the Square Enix Collective, Bandai Namco and R8 Games.

Remember I mentioned that I booked few interviews and slots so I could go exploring? Well that’s what today’s about, the fun things I saw on my own at Rezzed 2017. Continue reading Rezzed 2017 – Games Higlights – The Best of the Rest

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Puzzling

I received my Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Friday and the moment I was done with work, I started playing and have done so every moment I can. I sincerely love the game and if this feeling I have while playing it carries to the end of the game, then we’ll have a new number 1 Legend of Zelda title in my Top 5.

For me, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a joyous experience, and no matter what, not even if I’m constantly dying to that one sneaky enemy that circles around the group and kills me from behind, or I fall off a massive height because a storm came in and made me slip on a giant climb, I’m always smiling.

This is the last day of me sharing the joys with you and I close it off with a fantastic one: The Joy of Puzzling. Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Puzzling

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Battle

I received my Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Friday and the moment I was done with work, I started playing and have done so every moment I can. I sincerely love the game and if this feeling I have while playing it carries to the end of the game, then we’ll have a new number 1 Legend of Zelda title in my Top 5.

For me, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a joyous experience, and no matter what, not even if I’m constantly dying to that one sneaky enemy that circles around the group and kills me from behind, or I fall off a massive height because a storm came in and made me slip on a giant climb, I’m always smiling.

So, for the next few days, I’d like to share with you some of that joy, without spoiling anything and tell you why it’s so good for me. Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Battle

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Exploration

I received my Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on Friday and the moment I was done with work, I started playing and have done so every moment I can. I sincerely love the game and if this feeling I have while playing it carries to the end of the game, then we’ll have a new number 1 Legend of Zelda title in my Top 5.

For me, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a joyous experience, and no matter what, not even if I’m constantly dying to that one sneaky enemy that circles around the group and kills me from behind, or I fall off a massive height because a storm came in and made me slip on a giant climb, I’m always smiling.

So, for the next few days, I’d like to share with you some of that joy, without spoiling anything and tell you why it’s so good for me. Continue reading The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – The Joy of Exploration

Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – A Link to the Past

Tomorrow’s the day. Can you hear it in the distance, the countdown to the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild reaching its end? Is the theme song of Terminator 2 playing in your mind as it is in mine? No? Oh well.

Tomorrow I’ll probably hold off on any article until I receive the care package and set it all up for an unboxing video, so let’s use today to reveal the number 1 entry in my Top 5 The Legend of Zelda titles, one that those who know me will undoubtedly predict.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Continue reading Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – A Link to the Past

Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – Link’s Awakening

This is the week, just counting the days now until my Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrive on my doorstep and I can immerse myself in the open world Hyrule Nintendo crafted this time around.

In the past three weeks, I’ve told you about numbers 5, 4 and 3 on my top 5 Legend of Zelda games and this week you’ll have the last two, one today and the other on Thursday.

Without further ado, here’s number 2:

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Continue reading Countdown to Nintendo Switch – Top 5 Zelda – Link’s Awakening