Deus Ex: Mankind Divided PS4 Review

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a FPS Role-Playing games for PS4, XBONE and PC, which was developed by Eidos Montreal and published by Square Enix. It is sequel to 2011's game called Deus Ex: Human Revolution for PS3, X360 and PC, but also available on Wii U along with multiplatform consoles as Director Cut in 2013 release.

I remember playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution on my PS3 since 5 years ago, so it wasn't my favourite FPS shooter on my list, but it's still plays okay because it does have really great presentation, outstanding graphics design and decent combat gameplay which I had fun playing and sometimes the game can be quite frustrating for most of the missions, but overall it's better than the original 2000's game Deus Ex in my opinion. I've decided to play the 2016's sequel for my PS4 to see if this game actually becoming good as the Human Revolution and so far I actually liked this game a lot better than the previous game because I felt the both main and side mission are quite entertaining to play and the combat gameplay are just like the Human Revolution, but slightly more polished combat systems makes easier to play. The graphics are still outstanding for most of the game's design and I find the story in the game is pretty okay in the whole because it's not quite sounds strong as the previous game, but offers interesting narrative and conversation dialogue that made the storyplot sounds pretty decent overall.


Without go further do, let's talk about the game's overall.



Presentation

This game sets two years after the event of Human Revolution. It's starts off with augmented security offer Adam Jensen now working with the special interpol unit, Task Force 29, to capture terrorist group of augmented humans. After the mission from Task Force 29, he returns to Prague to meet his Juggernaut contact, Alex Vega giving Jensen a mission task just right before they got caught in the blast of terrorist's bombing, but they got survived after the terrorist's attack. His task is to make investigation that linked to terrorist's bombing and confront those who are behind the attacks in Prague.

I actually found the story is pretty interesting to hear the conspiracies theory that involves hiding behind the secrets that really affecting the human mankinds, but it's good to hear the character's investigation that brought out the information to find out what really happened to human's world. I also liked the dialogue conversation between the characters that brings out the extra plot in the game and the main protagonist Adam Jensen is quite a cool character with his awesome long-coat, futuristic sun-glasses and his badass aug-technology that made him look great, but he's lacked of his personality as he looked quite strict with the supporting characters during the conversation, which is okay for story's presentation. I also liked the looks of the stealth-kills animation where Jensen performs two types of melee attacks on their enemies, but it's seems too simple compared with the previous game that has more variety of melee attacks during the stealth-kills animation, but still it's pretty brutal at the same time in the game. The weakest point was the game's ending kinda feels empty that didn't give a proper story's conclusion and the length of the game is kinda short compared with the previous game doesn't mean the story sounds bad overall.

Overall, the story has interesting plotlines, the main character are quite decent and the cutscenes are quite cinematic especially with stealth-kills animations.



Gameplay

The player takes control of Adam Jensen to complete the each main and side-missions in the game.

The combat gameplay are slightly more polished than the previous game. It has some of the useful types of weapons such as pistol which is a basic weapon to use, but you can also modify this weapon with the silencer making it less noisy to shoot and changing the different types of bullets such as EMP bullet are useful for temporary disable security objects. The combat rifle are great for long-range distance, but you can also use anti-armor bullets are used for damaging enemy's armor, turrets and security robots which works really well with some different types of bullets. The shotgun works with the close-range combat, while sniper rifle are used for long-range distance, but allowing to give instant kills on the enemies. Most of the weapons in the games has amazing aiming controls and shooting accuracy making it more polished combat gameplay. You can perform two types of stealth-kills such as putting the enemy to sleep or instantly kill them, so putting the enemy to sleep are lot more quieter than using the instant melee kills for the stealth gameplay. In stealth gameplay, the player will see on the radar which actually tells that there are enemy nearby, so if the enemy did see you in the unauthorised area then they will fight you as hostle. You can hide behind the cover that prevent enemy caught you in action, so you will notice the yellow indicator on the screen which tells you that the enemy will able to notice you in the area before the fight starts. I say the stealth gameplay are very challenging for some missions which increases the fun factor of the single-player campaign.

On the dialogue tree, your character has to make decisions by selecting each of the conversation dialogue-lines, so it's entirely up to you to pick the ones is right for the game's story which increases the story experiences.    

This game has several of the places to explore such as houses, hotels, bank, station, pubs and so on which are good for finding collectables datas, newspapers, ebook, and variable items. You can also hack some of the devices to gain infos, shutting down security cameras and obtaining codes to unlock doors, so I say the hacking gameplay are quite harder to trackdown the systems, but still it's quite challenging for those who enjoys collecting stuff. You can go to the store to purchase and sell the variety of weapons, bullets, computer software equipment, energy cell and health item which are very useful for some in-game missions. You can also use praxis kits to upgrade character's augmentations such as adding capacity of health and energy, abilities to lift heavy objects, using eye visions to scan the areas, making character's jump higher, adding more space on weapon and items inventory, and plenty of cool stuff that really enhanced the gameplay style.

Overall, it has entertaining missions, polished combat gameplay, great use of stealth mechanics, impressive hacking mode and some cool upgrades that made the game enjoyable.


Graphics


I say the graphics in the whole game are absolutely fantastic with glossy visual effects that has great use of textures details and the environment level design are well made for most of the buildings and places that has amazing backgrounds of the streets, pubs, houses and hotels which I believe the developer team wanted to make the level environment look bigger in the whole game. The character's design are looked realistic because you can see their facial expressions and body language are actually pretty more accurate and real alike as it's looked really good on the both cutscenes and in-game missions.

The graphics are much improved over the Human Revolution just to keep the game up to date. Overall, it offers fantastic visuals, great environment design and realistic character's models that made the game looked spectacular in general.


Music and Sounds

It really has upbeating industrial soundtrack mixed between electronic and ambient really sounds good in the whole game as it fits for gameplay missions and cinematic presentation adds the overall atmosphere. They did a amazing job with the sound effects of background sounds, ambient noise, gun shots and all of the sound work are sounds quite stunning and the voice cast did a great job of their character role that really fits the tone of voice as it's sounds really good on the character's dialogue.

Overall, it has stunning soundtrack, fantastic sound effects and great voice cast for their character role.


Special Features

This game has two side-stories downloadable content (via Jensen's stories) such as System Rift and A Criminal Past, and it features mini-game mode called Breach to complete the numerous of challenge which are quite cool to enjoy these features in this game. You can also check extra menus to see some of the cool trailers and behind the game scenes.


Advantages

Impressive presentation

Polished combat gameplay

Awesome stealth mechanics

Brutal melee kills

Outstanding graphics

Stunning soundtrack

Cool special features



Disadvantages

Short length campaign

Terrible ending



Final Verdict


Presentation 7.5/10 - Interesting plotlines, decent character and badass stealth-kills animations.

Gameplay 7.5/10 - Entertaining missions, polished combat gameplay, great use of stealth mechanics, impressive hacking mode and some cool upgrades.

Graphics 9/10 - Fantastic visuals, great environment design and realistic character's models.

Music and Sounds 8.5/10 - Stunning soundtrack, fantastic sound effects and great voice cast.

Special Features 7.5/10 - Three DLC content, mini-game mode and some extras.


Overall 7.5/10 - This is actually an enjoyable FPS game that has impressive missions, great combat and stealth gameplay, fantastic graphics design and interesting story that I finding it more entertaining. The game suffers short-length campaign and poor endings choices are not the best part of the game, but still this game offers exciting mini-game and three side-story DLC content to enjoy, so if you're the fan of this series or FPS role-playing genres in general then this game is definitely for you to pick up and play.


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Shantae and the Pirate's Curse PS4 Download Digital Review

Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is a 2D platform game which was both developed and published by WayForward Technologies and it is a sequel to 2010's game called Shantae: Risky's Revenge for Nintendo DSi. This game was originally released in 2014 for Nintendo 3DS and it was later ported to Wii U, XBONE, PS4 and PC in between 2014 and 2016 release.

I really enjoyed playing Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut on my PS4 last year because it has simple storyplot, amazing protagonist, solid gameplay and decent graphics that made the game so stunning to play, so if you haven't seen my previous review from last year, please check it out on the link down below before reading this game review:

https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/shantae-riskys-revenge-directors-cut.html


I've decided to purchase this game from PS Store for £5 because of the stunning Easter sales that reducing the price cost. So far, I finding this game lot better than the previous installment Shantae: Risky's Revenge - Director's Cut because it has impressive presentation, solid graphics, better stages to explore, useful pirate's items, amazing boss battles and slightly longer than the Risky's Revenge which adds the greater improvement to make the game even better and enjoyable.

Without go further do, let's talk about the game's overall.



Presentation

After the events of the Shantae: Risky's Revenge the part where Shantae has lost all her Genie powers after defeating her counterpart. This game takes place in Scuttle Town, After she has dealing with Ammo Baron in the morning, she returns back home and takes a bath until she was been approached by her nemesis named Risky Boots who blamed Shantae for stealing her henchmens and her belongings, but they have discovered the dark magic that puts a curse on tinkerbats turns into evil cacklebats. Risky believes that her former captain Pirate Master, who was sealed away long ago, is attempting to revive himself. Risky takes Shantae to the quest to destroy the dens of evil, recover Risky's lost pirate items, and retrieve the Dark Magic that inhabiting the Cacklebats.  

I'm pretty impressed with the story overall where Risky, who used to be Shantae's rivalery, are no longer being enemy in the game which is kinda interesting to hear the villains in most of the films, TV show, and video games series decided to help with heroes rather than being evil in the story aspects. The story is easier to follow as it has useful dialogue box to read on the cutscenes to hear the plotlines and the character's animation on the slideshow shows their amazing humour during the cutscenes and I really liked most of the characters in the game are quite memorable in the whole game. It has the same town area from the Risky's Revenge, but most of the islands are well presented because it has stylish level sets of deserts, snows, forest, seasides, undergrounds and graveyards are looking spectacular in the game.

Overall, it has fabulous storyplot, awesome characters, great style of cutscenes and well presenting area.


Gameplay

Shantae's goal is to find dark magic and defeat the dens of evil in order to defeat Pirate Master.    

Like from previous game it did retains the same 2D Metroidvania gameplay style as the previous game. Her main attack is her purple hair as whipping weapon, but despite losing her ability to use genie power she now uses the Risky's lost items which can be found in dungeon stages. Using the Risky's items is very useful for most of the stages; for instance the pistols are good for long range attacks, the pirate hat are used for gliding through the level, the scimitar allows player to break rock-solid objects on ground floor, the boots allows player to dash through the stages that can break through walls and cannon are used for triple jumping which most of the Risky's items works really well in the levels. You can also use the various of special items, such as pike-balls which rotates around the player, the bubble can be used as shields to reduce getting hit by enemy's projectiles, the monster milk which increases the player's damage attack and health items such as potion and food which increases the player's health icons. Special items are very handy for most levels and boss battles, so you can purchase these items from the shop in Scuttle Town. In the shop, you can purchase the character's new moves such as backflip which allow player to evade the enemy's attack, recovery which allows player to recover from being knocked out by enemies and power kick that uses the higher offensive attack on the enemies. You can also purchase the new upgrades for whipping attack and risky's attack items allowing to increase more damage attack which helps the character's abilities to become even faster and stronger during the gameplay. You can also improve character's health by collecting squid's heart from the different levels and hand it over to squidsmith place to add character's capacity which makes the player lasted long during the gameplay.

I really liked the exploration in the game because it is fun to explore every area like searching for key to gain access to the next level, finding secrets inside the cave, collecting the important items to give someone and collecting dark magic which increases the amount of fun factor. Visiting a same island again does adds the replay values if the player wanted to search more newer area, so you can also check the map screen which helps the player to look around the stages. This game does have really good puzzle solving in most of the dungeons stages, but the game however does have some annoying parts where player gets instantly hit by some dangerous hazards and sometime the player did tends to fall off the stages which takes sometime to get used with harder level design. I say each of the boss battle are quite epic which makes the game so entertaining to play.

I believe this game has longer-length than the previous game and it also has pirate mode which the player still retains most of the pirate items from the start which makes the game slightly easier and it's great for the speedrun walkthroughs.

Overall, It has great combat items, solid controls, impressive puzzle-solving, excellent exploration and epic boss battles.


Graphics

The graphics are looked the same from the previous game, but still has the fantastic character's sprites for 16-bit standards, the level environment has stunning look of landscape and scenery, and the visuals are very colourful and detailed.

This game does not have screen-size options which is quite shame that I always prefer set it to 4:3 resolution to make the game look right, but instead its on 16:9 size. To be honest, I did notice some of the graphics that did got polished on textures and filters to make the game look cleaner in HDTV, but it's still look nice in overall.

Overall, it has excellent character's design, well detailed environment, and nice visuals effects in whole.

  
Music and Sounds

I got to say that the whole arabian style soundtrack are by far the best in the game. It was composed by Jake Kaufman, who was known for composing music for Shovel Knight, Contra 4 and Ducktales: Remastered, adds the amazing catchy music on each levels as it's sounds good as the previous installment.  I still liked the 16-bit style sound effects and simple voice effects for characters which is sounds much clearer for console version.

Overall, it has terrific music and great sound effects.



Special Features

This game has two unlockables such as pirate mode and wallpaper art and it does have trophy achievements to earn the player's experience. Unlike the Risky's Revenge, it has no unlockable costumes which is quite shame and it would have been nice to add more unlockable content in the game,

Overall, it has two unlockables, but lacks of more unlockable content in the game.



Advantages


Fabulous story

Memorable characters

Solid gameplay

Has replay values

Excellent exploration

Fantastic graphics

Terrific soundtrack


Disadvantages


Some frustrating hazards

Lack of screen size options

Not enough unlockable content



Final Verdict


Presentation 8.5/10 -  Fabulous storyplot, awesome characters, great style of cutscenes and well presenting area.

Gameplay 8/10 - Great combat items, solid controls, impressive puzzle-solving, excellent exploration and epic boss battles.

Graphics 7.5/10 - Excellent character's design, well detailed environment, and nice visuals effects in whole.

Music and Sounds 8.7/10 - Terrific music and great sound effects.

Special Features 5/10 - It has two unlockables, but lacks of more unlockable content in the game.


Overall 8/10 - I felt that this sequel offers better gameplay overall, the presentation keeps the story and characters more interesting, the music were the best part in the game and the length of the game is somewhat bit longer compared with previous installment that keeps the game in the right direction. This is definitely must play for the fans of the 2D platformer genre, so this game was still available to purchase on Steam, PS Store, Xbox Live and Nintendo eShop as downloadable game.



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Top 5 2D Platformer Games

2D Platformer are always be one of my favourite video game genres of all time. It was one of the most popular video game genres back in the retro gaming days era, which has most of the memorable Platformer games titles such as Super Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castle of illusion, DuckTales, Adventure Island and Bonk, while today's modern Platformer games has Rayman Origins, Braid, Limbo, Fez and Super Meat Boy. 2D Platformer is all about simple two-dimensional gameplay, colourful graphics, appealing video game characters, challenging levels, collecting power-ups and memorable gaming tunes that made the genre so good in gaming. 

Today, I'm going to make my top 5 favourite 2D platformer games that I really liked on my list.

5 - Prince of Persia 

       

Prince of Persia is one of the greatest video game franchises that I really enjoyed playing those excellent titles. The original game was first released in 1989 for Apple II and later ported to various of console platforms, which was created by Jordan Mechner who was known for his first game Karateka. It is one of the 2D platform game that featured rotoscoping for the cinematic animation, which I can considered this game's genre as cinematic style platformer. The player controls an unnamed Prince has his goal to rescue Princess from the Jaffar in 60 minutes before the time runs out. 

I'm very pleased that this game focuses on cinematic approach for its game's presentation which was very different from the traditional 2D platformer games. The player's controls plays really well where Prince has the ability to run, jump, climbing and ducking throughout the levels and these levels are full of deadly hazards such as spikes traps, deep pits and guillotines, which adds the challenging difficulty. It has fluid combat gameplay where Prince has the ability to slash and parry against the enemy, which controls really well in the game. The graphics are very innovative with the use of the rotoscoping which gives the character's animation more realistic look for the character's movements and the level design has colourful environments, well detailed stages and it runs smoothly in the whole game for most of the console platforms. 

This game has inspired many of the 2D platformer games such as Flashback and Another World. The game's success led to the sequels such as Prince of Persia 2, Prince of Persia 3D and two of the sub-series such as The Sand of Time and 2008 Reboot-title Prince of Persia.   

4 - Rayman Legends

Rayman is one of the Ubisoft's best platformer series that offers the amazing titles such as original 1995 Rayman, Rayman 2: The Great Escape, Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc and Rayman Origins. My favourite Rayman's game title is definitely Rayman legends for various console platforms because I felt this game is the strongest titles in the series which offers magnificent features for modern days platformer.   

This game brings a funny sense of humor, cool characters, and fantastic story that made the presentation so entertaining to watch during the cutscenes. It has over epic 120 stages to play including 40 unlockable stages from Rayman Origins. The gameplay has fluid controls, wacky stages, several of hidden secrets, very helpful assistants, superb boss battles, 4-player co-op, and what made the game enjoyable is the rhythm based levels is where the players have to collect all of yellow lums in the right rhythm while the background music plays the awesome cover soundtrack of Hard Rock band such as RamJam - Black Betty, Survivor - Eye of the Tiger, and Anti-Social - Trust that gives high overall atmosphere of the game. The graphics has richer art style of the whole game with cartoony character design, colorful stages with some of great layouts and backgrounds, smooth animation and nice visuals, which made the best graphics for modern days gaming. 

Rayman Legends is one of the best sequel in the series that everyone, who are the fan of the platform genre, must play for multiplatform consoles. 

3 - DuckTales: Remastered

I really liked watching the 80's cartoons show in my childhood, especially with DuckTales is one of the Disney's classic animation TV series that everyone loves in late 80's. It has great characters, catchy theme song and it has tons of good sense of humors what makes this TV show more memorable, but with the success of TV show led to Capcom's 1989 video game DuckTales for NES which was known for unique levels, tight control, highly challenged gameplay, and it has the best soundtrack of all time. It gained positive reviews from the critics, and it was the commercial success, which sold million of the copies becoming Capcom's highest selling titles for their platforms. In 2013, Disney Interactive Studios and Capcom announced the remake of original NES titles called "Ducktales: Remastered" was released in August 13th, 2013.

I'm very glad that the developer team Wayforward Technologies did a fabulous job with the remastered version which offers such improvements over the original 1989 game for NES. It featured more presentation with storytelling cutscenes and featuring original voice cast from the TV series is just like watching the original TV series which adds the overall story development. This game retains the same style as the NES version which made the gameplay feels like a classic 2D platformer game. The player have abillity to jump by using pogo stick which lets you jump multiples times on enemies, objects and hazards and you can also hit objects by swinging the pogo sticks like a golf club sticks which is quite innovative for platformer genres and it has amazing levels to explore which is great for finding secret places in the levels, collectable treasures, and some important items to collect in the stages. I really enjoyed the boss battles because it's makes the game more challenged and fun to play.

It has memorable levels from the original game, such as Amazon, Himalayas, African Mines, Transylvania, and of course the Moon is one of the best level in the game. I really loved the hand-drawn characters, smooth animation, some decent visuals and colorful details which made the graphics look stunning in the whole game and it has same catchy theme music from the TV series along with the original soundtrack in the levels are sounds pretty outstanding especially from the moon stage has the best video game soundtrack in history. 

DuckTales is one of my favourite Disney's video games that never disappoint me, so these are must play for the fan of the 1989's original NES game.    

2 - Sonic the Hedgehog 2 

Sonic the Hedgehog series is the most memorable video game franchises by SEGA, so we all know that lovable Blue Hedgehog is the fastest video game characters in gaming history. 

The first Sonic the Hedgehog game for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive was a commercial success and one of the best platformers games on 16 bit system which praised for faster 2D gameplay, graphics visuals, soundtrack and memorable stages. The success of the first game led to 1992's sequel called Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was also best selling game for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive and gained positive review by most of the video game critics.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 offers amazing improvements over the 1991's original game. It had fantastic zone stages to play, superb gameplay mechanics which introduces Sonic's new ability such as spindash, 3D special stages to collect chaos emeralds, and you get to play as Tails (first apprentice on Sonic 2) for both 1 or 2 player co-op and VS battle. I felt the gameplay is more fast-paced than the first game and the level stages are slightly more exciting to play which increases the game's atmospheres. The boss stages is very entertaining for most of the zones which increases the gameplay's challenge and I had to admit Dr Robotnik is one of the best villain in the Sonic series. I loved the 3D special stages that blew my mind to see how SEGA Genesis/Megadrive was capable of running 3D environment on 16 bit system and I love collecting so many rings to earn chaos emeralds, which it felt this is lot better than the special stages from the first Sonic game.

If you're the fan of the Sonic series then this is definitely must play for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive collectors. 

1 - Super Mario World

Super Mario series are always be the most ironic Nintendo franchises that gained popularity in gaming worlds. It's starts off with 1985's Super Mario Bros for NES was the commercial success and becomes most influential platformer game that defines the game's genre. The success of Super Mario Bros led to many sequels and adaptations into a television series, an anime, and a full-length feature film. We all know Mario is one of the Nintendo's most beloved video game mascot in gaming industries.

In 1990, Nintendo has bought Super Mario World for SNES was the first Mario game ever released for 16-bit system. The first player controls Mario, while the other controls Luigi has their goal to rescue Princess Peach from their nemesis Bowser once again. The player must navigate through the overworld map which has selectable levels, fortresses, ghost houses and other map icons to complete.

The gameplay plays like the original Super Mario Bros, but introduces new moves and power-ups such as spin jump which are used for break blocks beneath them and cape feather allows them to fly and glide above. The game also introduced new character Yoshi which has ability to eat most of the enemies and spit out the shell. It has several of secrets which unlocks the new path in the overworld map which is a newest thing for the Mario series. It has simple controls to use, linear levels with many great challenges, the map are great to explore, outstanding power-ups and epic boss battles that made this game so nostalgia. The graphics are very appealing for 16-bit system which offers more variety of colourful environment, simple character's design, well-built level design, great animation and impressive visuals that aged really well. 

This is one of my favourite 2D platformer game on my list and this is highly recommend for most of the Super Mario fans.      

Honorable Mention:

Super Mario Bros (Including Super Mario All-Stars)

Yoshi's Island

Yoshi's Story

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sonic Advance 2

Castle of Illusion: Starring Mickey Mouse

QuackShot

Aladdin 

Wario Land 4

Alex Kidd

Cool Spot

Limbo

Thomas Was Alone

LittleBigPlanet 2

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