Metal Gear Revengeance:
I always had the hardest time trying to get into this game. For two years now i was occasionally playing and re-playing demo on 360 every few months only each time leaving completely confused by it.
Now that i started playing full game, i realize it's not me. It's the game.
Revengeance makes a number of weird showstopper design goofs right from the get go. Not just for an action game which demands a lot more from both designer and player but these mistakes are so basic and "videogames 101", it's baffling.
For one, camera is completely busted and unplayable in default state. It starts to move on it's own when not asked and stays completely still when you want it to move. Camera thinks that putting a main character on aesthetically pleasing 3/4 position on screen and keep an angle that is strictly horizontal more important than you know, SHOWING ME WHAT I AM FIGHTING.
I generally never touch right stick to realign the camera and usually rely on camera AI and use manual locking-on if i stop seeing any enemy. I expect the game then to lock-on to some enemy and show them to me. Even since lock-on was invented in Ocarina of Time "lock-on" function was meant to inform the game that i want this particular enemy to stay in my viewpoint at all times.
In Revengeance "lock-on" is not even a recommendation for the game to change the angle. You can lock-on and the camera will ignore it and refuse to show me locked-on enemy or ANY ENEMY for that matter. What's the point of lock-on in this game then if it literally does nothing and actively ignores the function it was invented for?
Thanks to me playing on PC i was able to
mod the game and "fix it".
I also personally dislike how main character is so squirrelly and moves semi-randomly in the middle of his attacks. How am i supposed to properly position myself if Raiden constantly moves all around the place? Also the way how you magnetically snap to enemies Batman-style is yet another way how this game thinks it knows better than you, along with camera with attitude.
Another problem is timing for parrying. It's kinda insane. I am used to parrying at the last possible moment from other action games. But in Revengeance this doesn't work because you have to get into parrying stance FULL SECOND before an attack. I expect the game to be faster than that and parry at the last third of a second and it fails and i take damage. Because i am too fast.
Also having to attack for parrying and having automatic snapping on to enemies basically forces you to mindlessly spam light attack. Maybe that's exactly what they wanted to do?
Another problem is enemies that shoot at you from distance. How are you supposed to take no damage if when i am fighting some group of dudes three new guys appear across the stage and start shooting at me? Ninja run at them? Okay, but then previous group of dudes start shooting at me. And when i run up to new guys i have to stop ninja running and can take cheap potshots. It seems like the solution is to constantly cause parry QTE during which you are invincible but it feels so dumb.
The problem with shooting enemies becomes 10 times worse when they have RPGs. Then you just die. Unless you do stupid "stealth" option to dispatch them one-by-one which feels like a complete lip service and feels completely alien in this game.
This game is one of the very few action game that doesn't make enemies more passive when they're out of camera viewpoint. In other action games camera AI and enemy AI synchronized to always give you a fair challenge to avoid attacks coming from blind spots. Revengeance ignores that established convention, so there will always be tons of bullets and rockets flying at you from offscreen.
Attacks that cause you dizzied and force you to do wiggle stick QTE are plain annoying. Attacks that shoot 100 hundred rockets at you at once and you are supposed to use blade mode to cut them in air are baffling too, because how am i supposed to get them all in blade mode without just spamming light attack in random direction?
I really hope i can jive with the game more than i am right now.
Game is praised for it music, but so far i only liked
Mistral theme. Previous boss track where i fought Metal Gear Rex was just some generic buttrock with some dude screaming something unintelligible.
Metal Gear Solid V:
Got the first "ending". It was stupid and bad.
Then the game kinda falls off even lower.
Cue 30+ hours and 50 side-ops later i reached second ending. It was so unsatisfying and completely pointless.
Then yet another 10 hours later i reached final mission with Quiet. It was enraging because you HAVE to have completely upgraded rocket launchers or you will die. And i entered this mission without knowing that so for a few days i tried to do this mission without upgraded rocket launchers which was a exercise in frustration. I couldn't even exit the mission to do it at later time more prepared because for this mission (and this mission only) option to abort mission is disabled. This is ultimate bullshit.
At least gameplay is still very good and redeems everything else.