Gravity Rush 2 PS4 Review

Gravity Rush 2 (A.K.A Gravity Daze 2 in Japan) is a action-adventure game for PS4, which was developed by SIE Japan Studios and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is a sequel to original 2012's Gravity Rush for PS Vita and remastered version for PS4 in year 2015.

It's been for like 6 years ago since I've played the first original game which is definitely being one of my favourite, but most technically impressive game on the PS Vita's hardware. It has decent storyline, memorable protagonist, epic action packed gameplay filled with missions and exploration, and gorgeous visuals that made the game so amazing, but its a shame that the original game didn't deserve much attention to western audiences due to PS Vita's poor hardware sales which led the game only sold few copies in worldwide, while the PS4 remastered version was sold lot less compared with the PS Vita version. Despite the poor sales, it gained cult following regarding the fanbase and few playstation owners did managed to enjoy their experience meaning that the Gravity Rush is a fantastic game that not many of people have played or heard of game before. I decided to give a try with the sequel for my PS4 which is a game that never got made for the PS Vita as it is a depressing news for PS Vita owners who enjoys the original game are not able to play the sequel on their handheld system unless they need to buy the PS4 hardware to play this game.

My thoughts on this game is really amazed me that the game is a bigger improvements over the first original meaning that the Gravity Rush 2 has pushed forward for its more in-depth storylines, some new cast of characters, bigger open-world exploration, newer fighting abilities, and more single-player missions with 20 to 40 hours long which is two times larger than the predecessor. The development teams has managed to add more content of the game to give a brand new experience for the fans of the series will able to be satisfied with this quality PS4 game. Regarding with the improvements, the game plays outstanding with great combat gameplay, impressive flying mechanics, entertaining single-player campaign with epic story missions and cool side-missions, and easy to explore worlds. I really loved the game's cel-shaded visuals, charming soundtrack and appealing presentation that adds the magnificent overall of the game.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

This game takes place after the event of the first game and a prequel anime called Gravity Rush: The Animation Overture.
Its starts off with Kat and her partner Raven and Syd began to investigate the incident involves in the floating district of Neu Hiraleon, while they been encountered by mysterious androids before they being sucked into a gravitational vortex and transported to a different world.
When Kat and Syd arrive in the Banga Village to meet with the woman named Lisa as the leader of the Banga Village and being befriend with the girl named Cecie as they work in Mine places to collect Gravity Ore to sell to unscrupulous trader named Vogo Sun. After rescuing Cecie from the mysterious creature named Navi, Kat has finally regains her gravity power and reuniting with her cat named Dusty as she continues to working with Lisa's job, while she finally starting her quest at the city of Jirga Para Lhao.

I find the story in the game is starting off really good where Kat and Syd has dressing up as mine workers before they been encountered by the storm which led them into escape before being rescued by Lisa. As continues to follow the story further, there are a great storylines in each story mission such as battling with Vogo's step-brother named Fi through competition matches, protecting the poor people from military forces, why Raven becoming Night-Gale, and going back into Hekseville again which started to become more interesting as the story filled with light and dark moments that fits the emotions of the storyplot.

I find Kat is surprisingly entertaining in regards of her cool special powers abilities and great personalities that kept her interesting, while I also liked Raven for her edginess and kick-ass appearances. There are some side-characters in the game such as Cecie which is heartkinded girl as being a great friend with Kat and Syd is being a decent police-officer, while I do find Lisa is being too harsh with Cecie at the start which takes awhile for her to get used too, and Vogo is just seems to be very dodgy person when its comes to his trading business. There one of the most annoying character in the game that I can't stand is Kali Angel, who replaced Kat as a City's Hero of Hekseville. It seems that you cannot really trust Kali's ignorant facial expressions during the story dialogue and you can really tell how much shes talking like a down right bitch as she is nothing but equivalent to most of the bratty kids from cartoon shows. One of the villain that actually pretty good is Dr. Brahman, a scientist who designed a city-wide, robotic, Nevi defense system and becoming mayor of the city as being a mad scientist who plans to use the crystal-induced powers of his kidnapped daughters to destroy the peaceful city. As a villain, he acts like he pretending to be a Mr nice guy in whole story, but he has a wicked darkside of his event which made him look terrifying than most of the video game evil scientists.

What I've liked about the presentation was that it has mixed between the actual cutscenes and comic-book style sildeshow with text dialogue which kinda feels like watching most of the awesome superhero movies due to great art style and colourful environment details in the game. I also liked the open-world scenery that takes place in different locations, so you have sites places like Lei Elgona is where poor village people lives in broken houses, Lei Havina is filled with rich assholes has quailty fountain areas and big huge mansion, Lei Colmosna has variety of bazaars and shopping areas, Auldnoir is just quiet peaceful old town, Pleajeune is kinda has "Las Vegas" vibes to it with bar shop and ferris wheel,  Vendecentre is larger downtown area of Hekseville which is similar to french city, and Endestria filled with factory work places. Each of the sites are really fun to explore around which gives a stunning atmospheres to look at and how amazing the places look in the game.


Overall, it has great story, entertaining characters and stunning presentations.


Gameplay               

This game features 27 story missions, 50 side missions and 20 challenge missions for single-player quests.

You take control of Kat has her ability to control her gravity power and your aim is to complete all the objectives that been added on mission list. You are able to explore the whole area to search for missions to choose from, collecting gems to power up your abilities and discovering new things such as warphole which allows you to fast travel through the sites, so you can also check out the map screen to help you navigate the certain things that you want to visit.

On combat gameplay, Kat has basic attacks which is used for close-combat system, while increasing the power bar which allows her to perform special attacks giving instant kills to enemies, and you can also pick many of objects by using stasis field which allows you to throw objects at the enemies which is handy for the combat system that you can quickly able to attack the foes. She has ability to use gravity power for flying in the air, walk on walls and slides, so her flying mechanics allows her to fly around the city which is quickest way to travel around faster than using on-foot movements and I do find walking on the walls is kinda cool which changes the different camera angles of areas. I also liked the gravity slides which allows her to sliding through the levels, but I do find the sliding controls is little bit wonky which takes sometime to get used too, but playable at the same time. You can also perform gravity kick at the enemies while activating the gravity power in the air, so it can be locked on with blue-circle symbols which helps you able to aim at the foes easier, but having the issue with using the gravity kick is that it can be went off-tracked when failing to use flying attack on the enemies at the wrong target is kinda bit annoying, but practice makes perfect when getting used with the gameplay controls. The game also introduces the two new abilities that allow you to change fighting style such as Lunar style which is useful for Kat's speed and her ability to jump higher, while Jupiter style are used for heavy destructible allowing her to perform powerful attacks which adds the variety of fighting style gameplay. Going on power-up menu which gives you options to upgrade your fighting mechanics such as basic attacks, gravity attack, special attack, gravity slide, stasis field, and evasion which improves your certain of skills such as more combo attacks, adding capacity of stasis field's objects, reducing your gravity restoring time, and theres many more to unlock your abilities which really made Kat becoming powerful fighter. Completing many of the missions including story, side and challenge which gives you kinds of rewards such as obtaining more gems from challenge missions and increasing capacity of your health bar from both story and side missions depending what missions you are playing on. You can collect talisman from the Mine ore area which is additional special items that allow you to add different effects to Kat's arsenal of weapons and powers which is very useful for combat gameplay, and you can also head to fortune places where you can craft your own talisman by combining resources together to make it more up to date.

I'm completely satisfied with the combat gameplay as being a solid overall with brand new fighting styles, ability to add and crafting talisman, and upgrading the fighting skills which makes the gameplay quite acceptable for the playability. I really enjoyed playing most of the story mission which involves protecting people in town from the bad guys, fighting with epic bosses, and completing challenge tasks from the dark gravestone. Some of the side-mission has funny segments such as delivering stinky-box to Lei Havina, doing crime investigation in Vendecentre, working with film directors to become film star, and preventing drunk old man from entering bar shop, while challenge mission involves silly mini game like attracting the fans with your disguised costume, delivering newspapers, sliding race, and bringing customers to food shop which is really fun to play that keeps me playing more and more. The things that I don't like about the game is the stealth mission where you have to reach the destination without getting caught by enemy nearby, but the issue is that you could get easily caught by the enemy at the far distance which makes it even frustrating to play, so it took me awhile to complete the stealth mission. The game also features motion controls scheme just like the first original game, but I do find it completely useless when playing on PS4 controller which can disrupts your gameplay controls when playing on mission, so I didn't have problem with using the motion controls when playing the first original game on the PS Vita, but still it wasn't easy to play with the PS4 controller for motion controls scheme which makes it feels quite wonky.
You can also turn off the motion control through the control option menu which might help prevent the motion control being used in the game.

So far I really liked the game and its still playable for most part.

Overall, it has massive exploration, solid combat gameplay, and great story and side missions.           


Graphics

I was very surprised that the open-world design is much larger than the first game with great draw-distance and huge amount of environment which made the whole game looked quite bigger for PS4 titles. Most of the environments has well detailed city buildings, mansions, houses and palaces is looking spectacular in open-world areas, and it has colourful cel-shaded effects and bold looking animation that gives a anime style look on the game which makes it look beautiful to see how amazing the game looked. The character animation is looking fantastic in the game due to great use of facial animation and their appearance that adds the personality of the character development which makes them even look interesting. 
Its a big improvement over the first original which proves the sequel is doing a much better looking than was before.

Overall, it has huge open-world design, spectacular environments, and amazing animation style.


Music and Sounds

I got to admit the game has the best soundtrack of the modern gaming. The original musics has shares with catchy jazz and orchestrated style genres which really fits the game's personality such as action sequences, story cutscenes and in-game area. There are some of the music track are kinda reminds me of most of the movies from the past such as Forbidden Zone sounded similar from the Harry Potter films, Lei Elgona has Ennio Morricone vibe, and Old Town of Auldnoir is kinda sounds just like from Studio Ghibli's films, so these are the reasons why the original soundtrack in the game is Just sounds fantastic. It was composed by Kohei Tanaka was known for his musical scores for anime television series, OVAs, films, video games and tokusatsu series including Gunbuster, Sakura Wars and One Piece.

The sound effects are just sounds epic for whole game due to use of realistic background and environmental sounds effects from the open-world area, and atmospheric noises that fits really well in the game. The voice acting for most of the characters in the game didn't really speak with the actual language, so instead it was spoken in mixed between Japanese and French fictional language which makes it sounds bit more ancient, so it didn't really bothered me at all because that what the game is supposed to be sounds like.

Overall, it has fantastic original soundtrack and epic sound effects. 


Special Features

This game features unlockables Kat's costumes (including free DLCs costume pack) and room appearences, new DLC episodes such as Raven's Choice where you can play as Raven, collecting gems and talisman, and side-missions and challenge missions.

Overall, its a descent selection of all special features.




Advantages

Stunning presentations with great story and characters

Solid combat gameplay with newer fighting abilities

Numerous of missions to play

Huge open-world levels with bigger explorations

Gorgeous visuals

Fantastic original soundtrack
         
             

Disadvantages

Gravity kick went off-tracked

Wonky motion controls

Weak stealth missions



Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 - Great story, entertaining characters and stunning presentations.

Gameplay 9/10 - Massive exploration, solid combat gameplay, and great story and side missions.

Graphics 9/10 - Huge open-world design, spectacular environments, and amazing animation style.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - Fantastic original soundtrack and epic sound effects.

Special Features 8/10 - Descent selection of all special features


Overall 9/10 - As much I've liked the first game, this sequel is technically superior to the original game which deserves much credit for being two times larger and better than was before. I had fun playing over 20 to 40 hours of this epic action-adventure which gives me a motivation to enjoy my overall experience due to numerous of missions to play, newer fighting mechanics, more in-depth storylines, and bigger open-world environment what really makes this game an enjoyable.

Gravity Rush 2 is one of the best, but most underappreciated playstation exclusives that not many people have played it, so if you're the fan of this genres or the series in particular then this is must play game for all serious video game collectors out there becuase it's beautifully made cult following titles that everyone should able to enjoy these type of game.


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Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Collection PS4 Review

History of Shenmue series:

In case you been wondering what I'm talking about the game that involves finding sailors, collecting toy figures, going convenience stores, working at harbours for forklift job, learning martial arts techniques, dealing with thugs, finding clues, one special girl in dreams, playing Lucky Hit gambing, discovering the truth behind mysterious mirrors, so it is Shenmue as being one of my all-time favourite video game series that defines gaming genres. It was created by Yu Suzuki, a same creator was known for his SEGA's arcade classics such as Space Harrier, After Burner, Outrun, Hang-On, and Virtua Fighter.
 
I've been a long time fan of the series when I first remember the first game came out for the SEGA Dreamcast in early 2000's. I just came over to my cousin house, who has the copy of the game, to play our first open-world experience to discover the mysterious storylines, memorable characters, cinematic presentations, interactive gameplay filled with battle system, QTE events and open-world exploration, and realistic looking graphics that really made the game so much special for Dreamcast titles. The game was well received that the game is been credited for pioneering several game technologies as original open-world city game before the idea was popularized by games such as SEGA's Yakuza series, while QTE Events was also popularized for later games such as Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. It is considered to be most expensive video game ever developed, but also being listed as the greatest game of all time. I was so happy that I really enjoyed my experience of the first game that bought a smile on my face and then I had a chance to play Shenmue 2 on Dreamcast which was released two years later after the first original game and then got later ported to Xbox Original. It is also well received by critics and fans as I really liked the sequel for bigger open-world exploration, epic QTE actions, newer characters, and great storylines, but it's kinda shame that the sequel got end up with commercial failures due to game's poor sales which led the developers team into development hell when working on another sequel. It took too long for the fans of the series are kept begging SEGA for the another sequel to be happen until Team Yu has finally revealed the Shenmue 3 in year 2015 as making a huge return of the beloved franchises. After the kickstarter crowdfunding success which has raised over $6 million as sixth highest-funded campaign in Kickstarter history, the upcoming game was going to be released in year summer 2019. After the Shenmue 3 announcement, SEGA has finally brings the HD Collection of two of the masterpiece titles for modern PCs and consoles such as PS4, XBONE and PC in this year. I finally got the copy of these legendary HD collection for my PS4 and had a chance to beat the two of the game in 10 days, so let's move on to my video game review.


Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Collection PS4 Review:


Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Collection is a video game compilations of classic Dreamcast titles, and it is a open-world adventure games for PS4, XBONE, and PC was published by SEGA. The first title was originally developed by SEGA AM2 for SEGA Dreamcast in year 1999-2000, while the sequel was released in year 2001 for SEGA Dreamcast and then got later ported to Xbox Original in year 2002-03. These games has finally ported later for PCs and consoles in this year, which was been done by d3t Ltd for HD remasters.

I was so glad that SEGA has finally brings the two of the legendary titles to modern day PCs and consoles, so these HD ports include new graphics and control options, improved user interfaces, and has options to choose Japanese and English voices. So far, It's still plays like the original classics and I had a chance to play the whole two games in every 4 hours a day. I've notice the differences between the original version and HD ports was the game been displayed on 16:9 widescreen, so you have the options to choose between the original graphics from the Dreamcast version, while HD version has hi-res mode and bloom effects which improves the use of textures and colours to make it look suitable for HDTV. Having the updated controls and user-interface which adds the suitable playabilty for both modern PCs and consoles players. It worked really fine for whole two games which I am happy that I didn't experienced the problems of the single-player gameplay besides there are some minor bugs on cutscenes and audios which can be found on the first game regarding the Day 1 patch updates, but I hopefully it can be fixed later for another patch update. So far, it plays well and I really enjoyed the HD collection of these two games as my second time playing since the original Dreamcast version.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

In the events of first Shenmue that takes place in Yokosuka, Japan, it starts off with 18 year old teen martial artist named Ryo Hazuki came running back to his family's home until he finally discovers his father Iwao Hazuki battles to fight with mysterious man named Lan Di, who is the leader of Chi You Men and threatens Iwao for Dragon mirror. After Lan Di has knocking down Ryo and Iwao, he also confronting Iwao for murdering man named Sunming Zhao and instantly kills Iwao with his finishing blow. The day after the event of Iwao's death lying on Ryo's arm, he swore to avenge his father death as his quest to investigating the mysterious mirrors, while finding a same man that killed Iwao in whereabouts. The second game focuses on the continuation of the story, as focuses on Ryo Hazuki has finally arrived to Hong Kong to find the person named Lishao Tao to find out the whereabouts of Yuanda Zhu, a martial arts expert who sent Ryo's father a letter warning him of Lan Di's intentions.

The story in the game has just caught my attention that how interesting the storyline of both game is to know why the cold-blooded killer demanding for the mirror and kills Iwao instantly which adds the mysterious of story plot as Ryo has to start investigating with people in the street knows about the incident and what they witnessed which gives a clue to find out where the killer whereabouts in Japan. Its a really depressing to see Ryo had promised to seek revenge which won't be easier for him unless he can get support and advice from someone who knew his father. It is good to know what the mirror is all about, which brings more in-depth mystery to make the story elements sounds more interesting. 

Despite the well written story that made the game quite special, I find Ryo Hazuki is one of the most memorable video game characters of SEGA's franchises regarding his cool personality, being talented fighter, and his appearances that made him so great in the game. Most of the supporting characters are also quite amazing in the game, so in the first game it has Master Chen, Fukuhara, Nazomi, Goro and Tom that gives a helpful advice to Ryo, while Guizhang are also a helpful partner that helps Ryo to fight with gangs in Harbour. In second game it has female biker named Joy and little street kid named Wong, while street gang leader Ren is another supportive partner helps Ryo to investigate Chi You Men's gangs while seaching for Zhu's whereabouts. Ryo can always get advice from the female teacher of Man Mo Temple named Xiuying Hong that teaches him with Chinese Kung Fu. There's one of the special girl dresses up in orange named Shenhua that appeared in Ryo's dreams in the first game and you can able get to know about her in second game once you had able to progress through the story.

The game also featured the villains in both games such as Lan Di as the lead villain of the game, while the first game has Mad Angel's gangs and that crazy golem guy named Chai, while the second game has weird woman named Yuan and the big fat guy named Don Yiu which I was really surprised how awesome the cast of the villains that featured in the game. 

The game's presentation is full of amazing to see how atmospheric both of the games was which filled with beauty and magical of China and Japan cultures. The first game that takes place in Japan has great street houses filled with neighbours, convenient store that has items to buy, the streets has vending machines to drink and toy capsules machine to collect figures, antique shops where you can buy moves scrolls, the bus stops that you can use it for travelling, arcade places that you can able to play your favourite SEGA's arcade classics, and the harbour that you can able to work there as forklift job. In second game that takes place in both Hong Kong and China, it has larger areas where you can visit to the tea shops, antiques shops, Kung Fu stores, Guest Houses for sleepover, gambling area where you can able to win and earn money, and temples to learn Chinese Martial Arts. The game's atmospheres has the use of date, time and weather system in the game which allows the weather to be changed differently such as rain, snow and sunlight, while the date and time can also effect with day and night time for opening and closing stores, and bedtime which made the whole game quite realistic at the times in early 2000's and I also liked the use of the cinematic design for both cutscene and in-game conversation dialogues that fits well for the game's presentation, but it does have minor problem in first game with cutscene bug where it got stucked on wrong places, but it can be fixed by quitting the game first, load the same save data again, and then repeat the same process to prevent the same cutscene bug that got stucked last time, so I'm pretty sure it can be fixed later for another update patches which is no problem.


Overall, it has outstanding story, memorable characters, atmospheric presentation and in-game's systems.



Gameplay

In both game, you take control of Ryo Hazuki has his goal to complete his quest by following the task which can be written on his notebook for important clues, so you are told to investigate with local people to find out the incident that was linked to Chi You Men's gangs related. Sometime it's takes awhile to get used too depending on which people can able to give you a information for newer clues or some other may not able to know what you're asking a question, so once you get the information from people then the newer clues can be added to your notebook so you can able to go specific places that the clues been written on the notebook such as sneaking into Warehouse to find important person and visiting gang's homes to interrogating gang member for information that been linked to Chi You Men's whereabouts. The clues are also involved with puzzle solving such as finding important items that can be found at different rooms, so you can able to find newer items by interacting the objects such as drawers, closets, boxes, cabinets and shelves to retain the items that you are searching for such as key to open doors, collecting cassette types to gain information, and opening secret paths with special items.

Besides the investigation gameplay segments, the game also involved with fighting gangs which can be played on different sequences such as QTE events where the command buttons can be appeared on the screen as the player has to quickly press the correct command button to avoid accidental during the fight sequence, but also has epic escaping, chasing and balancing sequence where you have to survive through without botching up the QTE gameplay, so if the button been pressed incorrectly which leads into epic fail sequences in the game. The basic QTE is pretty straightforward which you can only press the single button, but in the second game which introduces advanced QTE which shows the directional button and 4-buttons on the screen, but you need to quickly press the correct button in right timing as what it been shown on the QTE display which makes it quite hard, but really adds the game's challenge, so be careful when playing the game with QTE sequences. The game also has 3D fighting system similar to SEGA's Virtua Fighter, so you will have basic punch, kick and throwing button to attack your opponents, while you can able to dodge them by pressing the sidestep button. You can also perform different fighting moves which you can able to check it out on the list of fighting moves on the menus which helps you to learn the moves. You can also add your new moves from the shops that sells fighting scroll or obtain it from the someone that teaches you the Martial Arts which improves Ryo's fighting style in the game.

These game has open-world gameplay where you can able to explore the whole city area as you can also spent time to do whatever you want such as going to convenient store to buy items which also involves winning prizes, playing SEGA's classics from arcade places, winning money prizes from lucky hit, arm wrestle and street fight club, earning money from job places such as forklift job in Japan and lifting boxes with team workers in Hong Kong, collecting figures from toy capsules machine which you can able to sell those to pawnshop store in Hong Kong, and there's many places to visit that made the game quite unique for Dreamcast titles.

So far, the whole game are actually worked well for HD ports as the developer team are trying to make these game staying original as possible. I had no problem with the gameplay especially with updated controls which makes the character's movements and camera system easier to control on my PS4 controller. Controlling the characters is worked fine for most of the part such as walking, running and interacting stuff, while I find QTE event are quite simple for most action sequences. The fighting mechanics is just like the SEGA's Virtua Fighter with unique fighting style and simple fighting controls are worked well for battle gameplay. I had fun exploring around the areas with brand new discoveries, meeting with people, going to places to visit and have fun on open-world levels. I do like the puzzle aspects and searching for clues in the games which really motivates me to progress through the game's story.

Overall, it has outstanding open-world exploration, excellent battle gameplay, epic QTE events and puzzle aspects.



Graphics

To me, it didn't change the whole game a lot, but still remains a same original look of the game. For HD ports, I'm glad that the game runs on 16:9 widescreen to make the game look wider and I did notice that both of games has improved the use of shaper hi-res textures, bloom effects and colours environment that made the game look suitable for HD standards, so I'm happy that the development team trying to make the game look cleaner and fresh for modern PCs and consoles.

Despite the improvements, I really loved the scenery environments of trees, flowers, waterfall, city building, sea water and houses which adds the past nostalgia of the game. The weather system is quite well done with realistic looking rain, snow and sunlight, and I finding the use of day and night time system which has great use of contrast on skybox from blue to black. The character's design seems to be ageing well for today standards regarding the use of facial animation and body language which adds the personality of the game.

As I said earlier, it doesn't mean the game is all been re-made because its just a straight up HD ports of both games, but having with great resolution size, acceptable colour schemes and sharper details on the game is to make it look suitable for HDTV as trying to make the game look neater with less pixelated, so you have the options to change the graphics between the classics and HD for your suitable preferences which was featured in options menu along with selectable screen size between 4:3 and 16:9. 

Overall, it has stunning environments, great weather system, day and night contrast, and ageing character's design.



Music and Sounds

I got to admit that Shenmue has the greatest video game soundtrack ever made. Most of Japanese composer did a fabulous job for whole game which really fits well on game's presentation to express so many emotions in both games, so it has both Chinese and Japanese feelings of orchestrated soundtrack, while some of them has jazzy and catchy tunes in some different parts of scenes. The sound effects is quite atmospheric for most parts such as the sounds of waterfall, jingle sounds on convenience store, the sounds of vehicle in streets, and crowd noises that really fits well for whole open-world area. I also liked the chime sounds of QTE events which really helps me to navigate the right button on the screen.
You have the selectable options to choose between English and Japanese voices for in-game cutscenes and conversation dialogues, so I do find English voice acting considered cheesy in comparsion with Japanese voice which sounded more acceptable overall, but I had to give credit to Corey Marshall did a decent job for voicing Ryo Hazuki which sounds lot better than most of voice cast in English dub.
Then again, there are some minor audio bugs on first game as well which has few missing sound effect and bit muffled voices during cutscenes, but I'm pretty sure it can be fixed again with another patch update which is no problem.


Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, atmospheric sound effects, and chessey English voice acting.



Special Features

In Shenmue 1, you are able to unlock 70 men battle and having ability to transfer save data over to second game allowing to retains the move scrolls, toy capsules and etc. While Shenmue 2 which lets you unlock your favourite SEGA's arcade classics, mini-games and etc. on Shenmue collection menu. On the game cases, you'll have reversible game cover which lets you switch over the cover of the game and it also including the double-sided poster of Shenmue 1 and 2 HD collection inside the game cases. Both of the games contains trophy achievements which also adds the player's experiences levels.


Overall, it has unlockables content, ability to transfer save data, reversible game cover and double-sided poster.   

                              

Advantages

Outstanding story

Memorable characters

Atmospheric presentation

Excellent gameplay

Aged graphics

Fantastic soundtrack


Disadvantages

Some minor bug on cutscenes and audio from first game



Final Verdict

Presentation 9/10 - outstanding story, memorable characters, atmospheric presentation and in-game's systems.

Gameplay 9/10 - outstanding open-world exploration, excellent battle gameplay, epic QTE events and puzzle aspects.

Graphics 8.5/10 - stunning environments, great weather system, day and night contrast, and ageing character's design.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, atmospheric sound effects, and chessey English voice acting.

Special Features 9/10 - unlockables content, ability to transfer save data, reversible game cover and double-sided poster.


Overall 9/10 - Shenmue 1 and 2 are still my all-time favourite Dreamcast games, but these HD collection are still deserves to be masterpiece for the fans of the series can able to get their hands on with these most ironic classic titles for PC, PS4 and XBONE, while it can be difficult for the newcomers of the franchise, but I'm pretty sure they might able to give these game a second chance since these game hasn't sold well on the Dreamcast release along with Xbox Original in year 2000's. I'm so happy that SEGA has finally give these game a re-releases to revive the series again and I'm hopefully to look forward to see a another Shenmue game for summer 2019. If you're into with slower-paced open-world adventures then go buy these legendary collection because it deserves more love and passions.

I wanted to thanks all of Shenmue fans community for supporting the wonderful franchise to keep the series alive and I also wanted to thanks SEGA for bringing these classics back to modern day gaming, and very special thanks to Yu Suzuki for bringing the franchise back in business.

Shenmue 1 and 2 HD Collection is still amazing video game compilations and it is a worth for your collection, so have a good luck finding sailors around.   




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Top 5 3D Platformer Games

Last year, I've recently made my own favourite top 5 2D platformer games on my gaming blog, so if any of you haven't seen my top 5 2D platformer games that I've made it last year, please go check it out on this link below:

https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/top-5-2d-platformer-games.html

Okay, moving on this topic right now.

We all know that 3D platformer has revolutionised the gaming industry due to success of the game titles from the mid-90's that becoming a huge pioneer of the genres. The game such as Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot, Sonic Adventures and many of the 3D platformer titles that made our gaming childhood so amazing at times. I had fun playing different kinds of 3D platformer titles when I was younger back in my days and this genres is so much different from the 2D platformer genres that features third-dimensional perspective in which has unique 3D gameplay style, creative level design that allow players to freely explore around, puzzle-solving aspects, and cartoony graphics design that appeal to all younger audience. I decided to make my list of favourite 5 game that I really enjoyed the most for the replay values, gameplay and presentation, so here is my top 5 3D Platformer Games.



5 - Rayman 2: The Great Escape

Ubisoft had proper nails it with this amazing series was known for goofy characters, wicked sense of humor, and epic platforming adventures. The developer team wanted to move forward from the 2D game with 3D perspective for the sequel of first Rayman's title. The game takes place in a world called the Glade of Dreams where it been invaded by armada of interstellar Robo-Pirates, who led by the villain named Admiral Razorbeard. The main hero Rayman, who are being locked in the prison, have managed to escape from the pirate ship along with his friend Globox, but as it both turns out got separated at the end after falling from the ship. He continues to set his quest to find Ly the Fairy, who was held captured by Robo-Pirates, and his missing friend Globox in lost whereabouts.

I find the presentation of the game is really quite fascinating that puts a positiveness of the dark storyline and memorable characters that really fits the whole series well. I love the style of cinematic design with silly gibberish voices (while PS1 version uses english spoken language) and great story dialogue that kept the game quite interesting. The game has gloomy environments and cartoony graphics design that gives a game more rich looking 3D title that really adds the game's atmosphere. Controlling Rayman is quite straightforward which he has ability to jump, use helicopter hair, his fists can be shot with energy orbs, and swing over large gaps using Purple Lums which adds the benefits of gameplay style. The game is really fun to play because of platforming adventures segments has flying rocket barrels where Rayman uses the barrels as flying rocket to reach at new areas, the giant plums that bounces through the lava stages, and riding on metal chair through laser lines where you have to evade the hazards objects. Then you will have an epic boss battles such as one eye magician where you have to jump on head-skull, the ice guardian where you have to swing with purple lums without falling into ground, and evading the head pyramid creature on lava stage which gains more variety of platforms.

This is by far not just the best sequels in the series, but definitely being the best 2D to 3D transitions of gaming. The game was available on various of versions such as N64, PS1, Dreamcast, and PC, while its also been ported to GBC as Rayman 2: Forever, PS2 as Rayman Revolution, DS as Rayman DS and 3DS as Rayman 3D.



4 - Crash Bandicoot: Warped

      

During the console wars in mid-90s where the first Playstation was hit the market in year 1994, at the times where Sony did not have their own video game mascots until Naughty Dog came over to join Sony to develop their own 3D platformer title called Crash Bandicoot which was commercially successful at the game's release has sold over 6 million units as being the eighth best-selling PlayStation game of all time. The successful of first game has spawned with numerous of sequels throughout the series, so my favourite Crash title on the series was Crash Bandicoot: Warped for PS1 and also available for PS4, XBONE, Switch and PC as part of HD remastered collection called Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy. The game takes places after the events of previous titles. The main villain Dr. Neo Cortex has landed onto the Earth and unleashes an evil entity known as Uka Uka, which is Aku Aku's evil twin brother, who joins with Cortex and plans to gather powerful Crystals which allowing them to use their energy to take over the Earth. It focuses on Crash and his sister was been informed by Aku Aku, who already senses his brother's evil plans, orders two of them to stop Dr. Neo Cortex and Uka Uka from gathering the powerful crystals by collecting themselves.

I say this is a better sequel to the previous two titles with more variation of gameplay including new levels, more Crash's abilities, and mini-games that made the game worth playing. You take control of ether Crash or Coco to complete throughout the stages by collecting gems, crystals, fruits and relics, and heading to the finishing line. The whole levels are filled with hazardous objects and enemies, and it also has bonus areas where you have to complete through the area and collect everything as possible which makes the game quite challenging to play for all experienced players due to excellent level design choices. What made the game quite fun was the mini-game segment such as jet ski stages where you had to sail through the sea to the goal, motor-bike stages where you had to race against opponent to head at the finishing line with 1st Place rank, and dogfight stages where you take control of fighting plane to take down those enemy's planes which made the game quite fun to play.  Despite the awesome gameplay, I really liked the whole presentation which offers comedic characters with wicked personality, very simplistic and easy to follow storylines, different sets of locations and of course hilarious Crash Bandicoot's funniest death animations that made the game quite entertaining.

This is by far one of the Naughty Dog's finest 3D platformer titles for the Playstation system in mid-90s which is recommended for all fan of this genres, but you can also play it on PS4, XBONE, Switch and PC version through HD remastered trilogies.



3 - Banjo-Kazooie

   














After the success of Nintendo's Super Mario 64 has spread the influence to developers team to make their own 3D platformer title. Rare (A.K.A Rareware) made their own 3D platformer title which is very similar to Super Mario 64, so here are Banjo-Kazooie for Nintendo 64 which was released in mid-90's, and it was also released later for Microsoft's Xbox 360 as downloadable HD title and Xbox One as part of the Rare Replay collection.

The game focuses on Bear named Banjo and his sidekick bird named Kazooie as they set their quest to prevent Witch Gruntilda's plans to switch her beauty with Banjo's sister, Tooty. The game involves collecting jigsaw pieces to open up new level by completing challenges like solving puzzles, jumping over obstacles, collecting items, and defeating opponents which uses a similar manners as the Super Mario 64. Banjo has his ability to use his punching, jumping, rolling and swimming, while Kazooie uses her ability such as flying, shooting eggs and giving Banjo a boost which adds the variety of 3D gameplay style. The game has over 9 levels with interesting sets of locations such as mountain, snowy, desserts, beach, halloween, and many more places to explore the 3D world goodness. This N64 classic has incredible graphics for the systems hardware filled with colourful environment and scenery, smoother character's animation and really good use of special effects that shines the 3D platformer titles for N64 library.

At the game's release, it was a critical and commercial success which sold over 1.8 million copies, and they called Banjo-Kazooie a worthy successor to Super Mario 64. It was followed by later titles such as Banjo-Tooie as the being the last game on N64 which were also receiving a same praise as the original, and until Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts on X360 which unfortunately it didn't give a series any justice, poor Banjo-Kazooie had a rough times on Microsoft's consoles, so I wish Rare could come back to Nintendo once again.



2 - Sonic Adventure

I grew up playing classic Sonic games back in my days when SEGA bought out their legendary hit title for SEGA Genesis/Megadrive, so that was Sonic the Hedgehog, a 2D platformer game that became worldwide successful and gaining universally praised by critics and fans calling it the greatest game of all time. The success of the first game has spawned with numerous of sequels, spin-offs, animated TV series, and mechandises which makes Sonic becoming a popular video game mascots behind their competitors Nintendo's Mario.
There's one of the game that been transitioned from 2D to 3D for SEGA Dreamcast in 1998, so that was Sonic Adventure which is a 3D platformer game that you take control of Sonic and his friends in their quests to collect the seven Chaos Emeralds and stop Doctor Robotnik from unleashing Chaos.

Each of the playable characters have their own special abilities and storylines throughout the game. The game was mixed between open-world elements where you can able to explore the different locations and action stages is where you have to complete the stages depending which characters you playing as, so there are objectives on each characters such as Sonic, Tails and Amy must reach at the goal, Knuckles must find three missing crystals of the Master Emerald, Big must retrieve his pet frog by using his fish-rod, and Gamma must fight his way through stages using his weapon. There are some decent mini-game segments on this game such as rail-shooting where you have to take control of Tails's fighting plane before reaching to Dr. Robotnik's aircraft, The racing in twinkle park where you have to race through the stages at the end, and Sandboarding or Snowboarding part is where you have to evade the hazardous objects while reaching at the end.
Despite the game has open-world elements and action stages, there are one of the place at Chao Garden where you can spend time petting and interacting with little virtual pet named Chao, so what really made the game interesting is that you can able to transfer Chao through its VMUs unit which allows you to play mini-game called Chao Adventure which involves Chao walks through a course to evolve and improve its skills, and there are a mini-game competitions called Chao Races is where Chao has to beat the race for its performance.

I find the game quite epic is due to fast-paced gameplay style, excellent level with great objectives, cool storylines, and some decent characters except the god awful Big the Cat didn't impressed me at much, but the whole game are quite fun to play on SEGA's last consoles. I really like collecting Chaos emeralds, exploring the whole levels, spending time with Chao, playing some mini-game, and has great action including the boss battles. The best part of this game is the rocking soundtrack by Crush 40 has made the best soundtrack in Sonic series that fits the action packed 3D platformer title.
I know most of the people argued that the game hasn't aged too well for long time after the game got ported to later console platforms, but Sonic Adventure is still remains to be a all-time classics that defines the Dreamcast's system library.



1 - Super Mario 64

Super Mario are always been one of the most ironic video game franchises that changed gaming industries throughout the year. It is a huge landmark of platforming genres which was created by Nintendo's most legendary creator Shigeru Miyamoto who was known for his work of Mario, Zelda and Donkey Kong franchises. Back in 80's when NES hits the market in Worldwide, there was a game that made the system popular was Super Mario Bros is a simple 2D platformer that became commercially success that helped the NES becoming a best-selling system of third generation era. The success of Super Mario Bros has spawned with numerous of sequels, spin-offs, animated TV series, and mechandises which makes Mario a most beloved video game mascots in history. There is one of the game that blew me away when I had Nintendo 64 as Christmas gift in my mid-90s days, so that was Super Mario 64 is a 3D platformer which was one of the first Mario game that been transitioned to 3D world. Looks like Princess Peach been kidnapped by King Bowser once again and the plumber hero named Mario has to set his adventure to rescue her again, yeah just like every of Mario games.

You take control of Mario in a 3D world which can be controlled with N64's analogue stick which utilised the 360's degrees movement, and your goal is to rescue Peach by collecting stars throughout the objectives and beating the bowser, so you can able to access new levels and areas in Peach's Castle, but you can also search for the hidden stars at the Peach's Castle. This game featured with 15 levels that has 6 stars each to collect, so there are lot of memorable locations such as Bob-Omb Battlefield, Whomp's Fortress, Jolly Roger Bay, Cool, Cool Mountain and many more to explore. The whole presentation of the game is quite well done with different sets of locations and scenery which fits well for Mario's titles. There are some of the memorable side-enemies in the game such as Goombas, Koopas Troopas, Bob-Omb, Big Fish with Sunglasses and Piranha plant, while most of the side-boss characters such as King Bob-omb, Big Boo, Big Bully, and all others are quite looked amazing in the game. I find the gameplay is very straigntforward which helps me to learn how to use Mario's moveset such as triple jumping, backfilp, acrobat, and dive forward which adds the newest techniques for 3D platformer titles. I love exploring around the levels which encouraged me to find hidden secrets, collecting stars, puzzle-solving and battling bosses that adds the fun factor of the game, and I liked visiting most of the levels that takes place in hot, icey, sandy, watery, and gloomy environments which makes the atmosphere quite amazing for N64 titles because Nintendo's development team knew how to fit the whole game well regarding the limitation of N64 cartridge. The game has the best original soundtrack ever on Nintendo's library making it the most memorable video game music in history.

Super Mario 64 is regarded as being the most revolutionised game of 3D genre has spawn the influence to different video game developers such as SEGA's Sonic Team, Naughty Dog, Insomniac Games, Crystal Dynamics, and many more. This is must own game for every video game collectors to experience the 3D platformer goodness on N64 system.



Honorable mentions:

Jak and Dexter
Ratchet and Clank series
Spyro the Dragon series
Super Mario Galaxy 1 & 2
Sonic Colors
Sonic Generation
Sonic Adventures 2
Conker's Bad Fur Day
Banjo-Tooie
Sly Cooper series
Ape Escape 2
Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko


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The Evil Within 2 PS4 Review

The Evil Within 2 (A.K.A Psycho Break 2 in Japan) is a survival horror game for PS4, XBONE and PC, which was developed by Tango Gameworks and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is a sequel to 2014's game The Evil Within was originally released for PS4, PS3, XBONE, X360, and PC.

3 years ago, I have reviewed the first The Evil Within, which I've regarded the game as being really good horror game for modern day gaming, so if you want to check out my review on The Evil Within, the link is down below:

The Evil Within PS4 Review: https://zeeshanmirzasblog.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-evil-within-ps4-review.html

Okay moving on this game now. My thoughts and final opinion on this game has turned out to be a amazing horror experience. Many fans of the survivor horror genres have argued that the sequel are far more better than the originals due to improved character's development and storylines, soild atmospheres and much larger gameplay design that made the game quite entertaining, so the answer is they are absolutely right and I actually prefer this sequel over the original. The Evil Within 2 has given me a positive impressions that the game has to offer, so I was amazed that the creator behind Resident Evil series did such amazing job of how his development team can keep up with the project that turned into a finest horror game of this generation.

So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

This game takes place after the events of the original game. The story focuses on main protagonist named Sebastian Castellanos who had left his police department after his terrifying experience of Beacon Mental Hospital. Due to loss of his family has caused his regular lifestyle to becoming alcoholic and pissed off until he was approached by his former partner Juli Kidman, who currently worked with MOBIUS, reveals to him that his daughter Lily is still alive which he never believed her until he was been taken to secret MOBIUS facility and accepted Kidman's help that lead him into the STEM system entering at nightmarish locations that filled with horrid creatures, so his mission is to search and rescue his lost daughter.

So far what I've noticed about the story perspective is somewhat different from the first game. I gotta be honest with the story of the game are actually bit better than what I've expected because the storyline has interesting dialogue that keeps the game's story going forward as long as you can able to get used too by watching more important cutscenes that keeps getting far better and better. I was surprised that they managed to improve the character's development that keeps them more interesting. Sebastian Castellanos is quite aggressive than was before which he looked like a pissed off version of Sad Keanu and then it has Juli Kidman haven't changed a lot since the first game, but they still managed to make her personality quite decent to keep it more ongoing throughout the story. Most of the villains in the game are surprisingly better than the first ones. It has crazy middle-aged emo named Stefano Valentini and demonic priest named Father Theodore are the main highlights of the whole game, while I don't recall Sebastian's wife Myra a villain which she was already being cursed by the Theodore's evil power which led her into a monster, but she still aims to protect Lily by keeping Sebastian away from her, while he sworn to save his daughter by getting her out of nightmarish places that don't belong here.

The presentation of the game are just gory as the first game. It mixes between survival and psychological aspects of the game that filled with disturbing settings of the environments and hallucination effects that makes the game feels more delusional and terrifying to look. It's feels like I'm inside of dark places that I cannot able to escape from the nightmare places that filled with dead corpses, blood-shattered floor and sadistic medieval themes which adds the genuine game's atmosphere.       

Overall, they have improved the story and characters, and of course it still has gruesome presentation. 



Gameplay

You take control of Sebastian Castellanos to complete each chapters to progress throughout the story.

This game features a larger levels of the game which you can able to explore any of the areas, so you can able to search for collectable items, objectives including side-missions, and resources such as hints which can be appeared on the map options.
I believed the controls scheme is somewhat newly updated, so your sprint and sneak button are now placed onto thumbsticks button which makes it easier to control, but you can always set to classic controls from the option menu depending on your suitable playstyle.
Your character can able to sprint by pressing run button to evade from the enemy nearby and you can do stealth by pressing the sneak button to avoid getting caught by enemy nearby which you will able to notice the eye symbols on top of the screen describing how the enemy reacted to noise of footsteps and noisy environment, but you can also distract them by throwing bottles in random places. Using the flashlight will help able to help you through pitch black area and you have communicator device which allows you to spot the hidden signals nearby for its new location and revealing voice documentary.

The combat mechanics has selection of weapons and performing melee attacks. The handgun pistols are pretty basic for its balanced range, the shotgun can give a heavy kills in close range, the assault rifle and sniper rifle are acceptable for its long range and flamethrower allows you to burst fire at the enemies causing to burn them alive. The crossbow weapons has the variety of bolts such as explosion, shock, smoke, harpoon, and freeze which are very handy for its in-game battle. You can perform the melee for its close combat, while its also worked for the stealth attack. Once you have collected the materials such as gunpowder, metal, herbs, nails and others you can able to craft your bullets and bolts for your certain weapons, while you need to craft herbs to create medical items which restores your health bar. After collecting the weapons parts and green gels, you can use them through the Sebastian's office in which you can able to upgrade your weapons through workbench allowing to improve your fire rate, reloading time, firepower, and accuracy throughout your weapon selection and the green gel can upgrade your character's abilities through customisation seating which allows you to select these 5 divided trees to improve your health, stealth, combat, recovery and athleticism that benefits your character's abilities.

So far, the combat mechanics is quite playable at the times which I didn't have any problem in the game. The weapons are quite useful for its survival with acceptable aiming controls, great shooting collisions and fine melee hit detection that made the combat gameplay plays good. The character's movement are also great for its both stealth and lethal purposes especially with having an options to change controls types for its preferred gameplay style. Upgrading the weapons and abilities can be also rewarding which helps the player to make them stronger and powerful. I really enjoyed exploring around the levels which adds the new discovery in the levels, the side-missions are also pretty good, but it's kinda bummer that it only has 3 side-missions, so I wish they could have added more side-missions in the game would have been nice. The whole action in the game are very entertaining when fighting with bunch of monsters including boss battles that keeps you satisfied with this game. There are options to change perspective from Third-Person to First-Person view, but I finding the FPS view is bit clunky compared with Resident Evil 7, so I kinda prefer playing The Evil Within 2 with normal third-person view. 
I'm very glad that the developer teams did keep up with this project that made the game really fun to play.

Overall, it has larger levels, great combat gameplay and entertaining battles.



Graphics

The game was running on STEM engine which uses a heavily modified version of Id tech 5. It allows the graphics engine to render a better texture mapping, environments and the use of animations. So far, the character's animation is looked quite realistic for the newer title, as you can see their facial features and body movement is just amazing in the whole game. The level environments are quite detailed in the game as you can see the whole design of houses, buildings and others has great use of textures mapping to make it look more clearer. I also loved the gory special effects that has blood splatted everywhere on the floor and it also fills with the body organs of dead corpses that are really terrifying indeed and it has the variety of illusion effects for its psychological purposes to make you feel even more mindf**ked in the game. It's very well done for its quality graphics that looked even better when running on 4KTV which adds the full crispy look of the game itself.


Overall, it has realistic character's animation, clearer environments, and terrifying special effects.       



Music and Sounds

The music is quite similar to the first game as it did such a good job for its composing the original soundtrack. It adds the mood of the game which features a sinister music part for its darker sequences and some are a bit calmer music in different cinematic part. I'm surprised that the cover version of Duran Duran's songs Ordinary World was featured at the end credits is sounds pretty good to listen. I say I really liked the dark atmospheric of sound effects which fits really well on the darker settings of the game as you can able to hear the hellish background voices of monsters and some of them are disturbing shock screams which adds the horror creepiness in the game. I also liked the part where I get chased by the crazy ghost bitch that really scares the shit of me with my PS4 controller, so that means you can able to hear her voice through the speaker which is kinda impressive for the horror titles. I believe the voice cast has improved over the first originals, which adds the character's personality and it uses the better dialogue to keep the story more interesting which gets the whole job done right.


Overall, it has great music, hellish sound effects and improved voice over. 



Special Features

The game featured with Last Chance DLC pack which features burst handgun and other items. It also has new game plus, 2 mini game mode such as score attack and gallery shootout, and FPS mode through updatable patches. You can also earn a collectables in single-player campaign such as figurine, sildeshow photos and others.


Overall, it has DLC pack, collectables, mini-game, and new game plus.



Advantages

Gruesome presentation

Improved story and characters

Great combat gameplay

Large levels to explore

Realistic graphics

Impressive music and sounds

Decent special features



Disadvantages

Clunky FPS Mode

Short side-missions



Final Verdict


Presentation 7.5/10 - Improved story and characters, and gruesome presentation.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - larger levels, great combat gameplay and entertaining battles.

Graphics 8.5/10 - Realistic character's animation, clearer environments, and terrifying special effects.

Music and sounds 8.5/10 - Great music, hellish sound effects and improved voice over.

Special Features 8/10 - DLC pack, collectables, mini-game, and new game plus.


Overall 8.5/10 - The fans of the genres will able to enjoy their horror experience of this excellent sequel to the first original. I was satisfied with the dialogue plot and character's development which makes a magnificent improvement that keeps the story ongoing. Due to gruesome presentation which features psychological themes and delusional scenes that made the game quite bloody fun to watch and I was impressed with the use of combat gameplay and larger levels which fills with entertaining boss battles and exploration for newer discovery. So far, its genuinely a better sequel of the series and I hope the creator will able to make another The Evil Within game in the future. If you're into with the horror genres for gaming then go buy this game.


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Sine Mora EX PS4 Review

Sine Mora EX is a Bullet-Hell Shmups games for PS4, XBONE, Switch and PC, which was developed by Digital Reality and Grasshopper Manufacture, and published by THQ Nordic. It is a extended version of the original Sine Mora was originally released for X360, PS3, PS Vita and PC in 2012 release.

I've always been the fan of the shoot em ups genres with bullet-hell elements where it had games like Radiant Slivergun, Ikaruga and DonPachi, but Sine Mora is a interesting 2D shoot em ups title that really shines the modern day bullet-hell genres. This game is surprisingly decent for all the fans of this genres will able to experience the epicness of the whole game which adds the magnificent overall of this quality title. The EX version has introduced the new game modes that been added to this game such as challenge mode, local 2-player co-op, and versus mode. I've enjoyed hell of this game that filled with massive gameplay design, dieselpunk presentations, intense boss battles and spectacular visuals that really keeps me playing more and more. Despite the game has quality gameplay, great visual concepts, and newer game modes, the story and characters are kinda not the best part of the game, but it's not that terribly bad for the shoot em ups title regarding on unbalanced plot and forgettable characters.

So without go further do, let's start the review.



Presentation

This game takes place on the planet of Seol which features two different storyplot. The first plot focuses on father bent on taking revenge on the Empire that executed his son for being the sole pilot that refused to drop a nuclear bomb during an attack on the Enkies, while the second plot features the last survivors of the Enkie race also plotting revenge on the Empire for destroying them.

The story in the game features a narrative text that adds the plot of the game, but I finding the story is very confusing to read which they been putting too many details rather than making it simple which causes the reader having difficult to understand the whole story of the game. The characters in the game are rather bit mixed overall, some are okay and some are not quite memorable. I really liked their appearances, but it kinda lacks personality in the game.
I really liked the idea of the dieselpunk theme that made the concepts very interesting for level design and presentation. It has the mixed of rusty looking environment and dark settings, but some are quite beautifully made that fits really well for this type of game. Each of the stages taking place in different areas like the sea ocean, fiery factory, neo-tokyo styled buildings, and others.                 
I got to be honest with most of the boss characters are looked incredibly awesome and the player's ship is looking quite amazing which are very well designed indeed.

Overall, a kinda mediocre story and leading characters, but has cool concepts, awesome boss characters, and impressive settings.



Gameplay

This game features story mode including 2-player co-ops, arcade mode, challenge mode, score attack mode, boss training and versus mode.

You take control of playable pilot ship to complete 7 of the stages throughout the progressing story. The pilot ship has basic attack which shoots normal firing at the enemies and you can also attack them with sub-weapons depending which pilot you're playing as in the game, so it has 2 drones firing, huge laser, homing firing missile, and others useful sub-weapons types. You can also slowdown the enemy's pacing by using the time ability which slows down the enemy's projectiles, but it can easily drains the time capsule so use it wisely. These collectable power orbs can also upgrade your firepower, increasing time capsules and bombs which are very useful to improve your player's playability. Your ship does not have the traditional health bar, but instead plays on the aspect of time limit which continues to tick downwards, so your ship can be damaged by the enemy's projectile which decreases your time limit until it reaches zero meaning you'll die in the game if reached zero, but your time can be increasingly extended by killing more enemies or collecting the time extension orbs, but it's not just those projectiles can decreasing your time limit, it can also lose your weapon abilities too which forces you to collect your weapon power orbs before it can disappeared quickly. The enemy's ships can shootout many of the projectiles which made the player's ship impossible to evade, which takes sometimes to get used too once you've learned how to beat the level without making any of mistakes. On local 2-player co-op, the second player's ship has ability to shoot their firing in different direction by using the right stick and using the shields to protect the first player's ship from the enemy's projectiles. Depending on difficulties, the normal mode which features 8 continues, while harder ones only featured 5 continues making the game becoming a quite of challenge.

So far, I find the game are very playable which keeps me very satisfied with the levels and boss battles. The player's ships are handling well that keeps the controls very smooth and responsive. I really liked the use of time ability which benefits me to evade those enemy's projectiles and the weapons are really well done for both main and sub weapons especially with using weapon upgrades which makes the player's ship even stronger. Shooting multiple of the enemy's ships can rewards experienced player with massive score points which can be added to online leaderboards as being the top player of the whole game. I've also enjoyed arcade mode, score attack mode and challenge mode are surprisingly hard to play, but also added the fun factor of bullet-hell experience to the game. You can also enjoy the versus mode with your friends through 3 competitive matches. It's kinda bummer that it didn't featured the online co-op mode which could have made the game also fun.

Overall, it has great gameplay mechanics and fun game modes. 



Graphics

These graphics are significantly gorgeous for it's modern day shoot em ups standards. The whole environments in these levels are beautifully detailed running on 3D backgrounds of dieselpunk style building and colourful scenery objects that really adds the game's personality. The animation on most of the 2D ships design and level environments are also well done showing how spectacular the game looks and I also love the use of the special effects on the enemy's projectiles are quite bright and heavy at the same time making it easier to see these patterns during the in-game action. The game also runs on 4K native with 60fps from the PS4, XBONE and PC versions giving a perfect picture quality of the game for your 4KTV standards. 

Overall, it has detailed environment, cool animation and heavy use of special effects.



Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack are mixed between synth and industrial of 80's electronic music that adds the mood of the diesel-punk setting, so it was composed by Akira Yamaoka, a Japanese composer behind Silent Hill, did a fine job of making soundtrack for this type of game. The game does have quite atmospheric sounds in the whole levels adding a variety of background noise and other kinds of sound effects which they did get a job done. I find the voice cast quite mixed overall which didn't fit well on their character's role regarding the emotionless voice quality and generic dialogue in the game's storyline.

Overall, it has decent soundtrack and acceptable sound effects, but the voice acting could have done better than this.



Special Features 

The EX version introduces new local 2-player co-op, challenge mode, and versus mode, while it's retains the arcade mode, boss training and score attack mode which adds the newer edition of this game. 

Overall, a great updated features to this game.



Advantages

Diesel-Punk styled presentation

Cool game modes

Great gameplay mechanics

Challenging levels and boss battles

Spectacular graphics   

Decent soundtrack

Local 2-player co-op



Disadvantages

Mediocre story and characters

Where is the online 2-player co-op (WTF!?)

Generic voice cast



Final Verdict


Presentation 6.5/10 - mediocre story and leading characters, but has cool concepts, awesome boss characters, and impressive settings.

Gameplay 8/10 - great gameplay mechanics and fun game modes.

Graphics 8.5/10 - detailed environment, cool animation and heavy use of special effects.

Music and Sounds 7/10 - decent soundtrack and acceptable sound effects, but generic voice acting.

Special Features 8/10 - new local 2-player co-op, challenge mode, and versus mode, while it's retains the arcade mode, boss training and score attack mode.


Overall 8/10 - It's a solid overall game that I'm enjoyed the whole game with clever gameplay style, unique levels and challenging boss battles that really adds the fun factor of the game. Being the bullet-hell shooter is a way to go that gives a player a new experience of the shoot em up genres. I wish they could have been done better on the story and characters to make it not downright confusing, so I hope they can improve it in the future sequels. 

So far, Sine Mora EX is still a total overlooked gem that deserves another pick ups for your video game collection.



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Top 5 Video Game Controllers

Yeah, we all know video games from the mid-80's to early 2000's shares with the greatest controllers they ever invented for the gaming generations. These are the video game controllers are considered to be revolutionary and the most common for the video game technologies that we all need it to plug it into the systems and start playing the most of the titles which heavily designed for its suitable gameplay style and quality standards. I'm focusing on the controllers that are innovative, built quality, reliability and playable, so I decided to make my 5 favourite video game controllers that I really liked the best and why is it so great.

So here is my top 5 video game controllers.




5 - Nintendo 64 Controller

     


















Nintendo's previous console such as Super Nintendo was the widely successful system on the 16-bit era due to killer game titles and powerful 16-bit hardware that blew every gamers mind. They later revealed their 64-bit console on the fifth generation console era was Nintendo 64 is one of the third home console that not just blowing them away with the powerful graphics and launch titles, but introducing the weird looking M shaped controller which features D-Pad, C-Buttons, Shoulder buttons, A, B and Z buttons and of course the analog stick which was designed for most of the 3D platformers and FPS games. Most of the gaming magazines in the mid-90's praises the controller for its control elements and designs.

I find this controller considered to be a great example of the 64-bit gaming, as this controller is quite comfortable to hold and it's very easier to use for its playabilities. For examples, both the analog stick and C-Buttons is perfect for the games titles such as Super Mario 64 was known for the smoother control schemes making Mario easier to walk and run in 360's degrees, and using the camera system to give player freedom to look around the whole level environment. The FPS games such as Goldeneye and Turok that utilises the control stick for the suitable aiming control and the C-Buttons is to move around which is excellent for the right hand player, while using the D-pad is for the left hand player. The best part of this controller is the slot underneath where you can add accessories such as rumble pak that allow the device to make shaky vibration feedback during the gameplay and using the memory pak is to store save files. 

This controller has inspired the video game companies such as Sony would later releasing their newly designed Playstation controller for the PS1 known as the Dualshock controller which featuring two analog thumbstick and built-in vibration feedback. Nintendo 64 has the most impressive video game controller for the fifth generation console era which is surprisingly playable for most of the 3D game titles for the N64 game libraries. 



4 - SEGA Dreamcast Controller

     



















In the between the late 90's and nearly early 2000's, SEGA has released their final home console for the sixth generation console era was the SEGA Dreamcast. After the successful U.S launch of the Dreamcast in 1999, Sony was later released in the year 2000 with their second home console for the sixth generation console era was Playstation 2 has sold many of the units as becoming one of the best-selling game consoles of all time which kills the SEGA's hardware sales and causing SEGA to discontinue their hardware in 2001 due to financial losses. Despite the poor hardware sales and short life-span, Dreamcast has regarded as being creative and innovative which shares with excellent game titles and online play that made Dreamcast quite memorable.

What really made me like about the Dreamcast is the controller which is similar to SEGA's early 3D controller for the SEGA Saturn. It features 3D control stick, bulky looking d-pad, 4-colourful buttons and 2-analog triggers. I know some of the gamers had an difficult with using the Dreamcast controller is because of the wire is below the controller instead of top, so to me I didn't have problem with it because you can always stick the wire to the top ones behind the controller. I really liked the overall design of the controller with sturdy grip which is suitable for big handed people, nicely round-shaped 3D stick with precised rotation controls, curved-shaped triggers is easier to press down without slipping off your finger, the d-pad and 4-buttons is very well designed. It includes the VMU slot where you can insert your VMU memory unit which not only to just stores save files, but allows you to transfer mini-games and using in-game features.   

I finding the controller is quite impressive for most of the 3D game titles such as Sonic Adventure and Jet Set Radio is because of the 3D control stick are very responsive and less sensitive. The d-pad is perfect for most of the 2D fighting game titles like Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Street Fighter 3 which enable me to execute the fighting moves. The 2-analog triggers is worked well for racing game titles like Daytona USA 2001, SEGA Rally Championship 2, SEGA GT and Metropolis Street Racer with better use of acceleration. The VMU is quite handy for in-game features such as Resident Evil: CODE Veronica and Dino Crisis which can display the player's health condition, and the game such as Power Stone and Sonic Adventure has the transferring options which lets you play some of the mini-games on the VMU unit. This controller is surprisingly innovative which was later influenced the Microsoft's Xbox controller which included 2-memory slot unit and the VMU is also influenced the GBA's link cable for the Nintendo Gamecube in the year 2002.




3 - SEGA Saturn Controller (Model 2)

               














After the success of the predecessors SEGA Genesis/Megadrive, SEGA had then finally released the SEGA Saturn in the year 1994 as Japan release to complete against their rivalry Sony Playstation. Unfortunately Saturn did not meet with the sales expectations after its surprise May 1995 launch in U.S and it is considered a commercial failure due to expensive price, difficult development and lack of third-party support which led SEGA Saturn being discontinued in year 1998. The system was known for arcade perfect titles and well received IP's series that the system was known for in mid-90's. The games like Nights into Dreams, Panzer Dragoon, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Cop 2, SEGA Rally Championship, SEGA Manx TT Superbike and SEGA Worldwide Soccer 97 that made Saturn so great at the time.

Since my younger times where my brother have swapped my Saturn with the Nintendo 64 in mid-90's, but now then I'm very glad that I've bought back my Saturn back in two years ago, so I could able to play my childhood gaming console again. At the start, I never impressed with the Saturn's Model 1 controller is because its has flimsy d-pad, flat shoulder buttons and awkward grip-design which making it difficult to play due to design flaw, but I'm glad that SEGA had later made an improvement with the Saturn's Model 2 controller which features a nicely round-shaped d-pad and 2-clicky shoulder buttons, the grip-design on the Model 2 is much better in comparison with Model 1, and I also liked the 6-buttons which has 3-bigger ones on below and 3-smaller ones on top is definitely top-notch. The reason why I've liked this Saturn's Model 2 controller is because it's kinda feels like the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive 6-button controller and it worked perfectly for most of the fighting games titles such as Virtua Fighter 2, Last Bronx, Fighting Vipers, Street Fighter Alpha 2, Marvel Superheroes and X-Men: Children of the Atom is because of the 6-buttons controls and the build quality of the controller is quite solid overall. It's definitely by far one of the SEGA's best controllers ever made and this is most recommended for all Saturn's owner, who did not own the Model 2 controller, definitely must own for your collection and have a fun arcade experience in your home.




2 - Sony Playstation Controller

            

Sony always made their best controllers in the video game industries. In 1994, PS1 was released as part of the fifth generation console era and it is a main rivalry to their competitors such as SEGA Saturn and Nintendo 64. The console was highly praised for its various games libraries, groundbreaking graphics, CD format that can push the whole game into 700MB CD in comparsion with N64's cartridge based format, and innovative controller including Dualshock version which led the Sony's first consoles as regarded being the best system home seller of fifth generation console era. The success of the PS1 has spawned with later consoles such as PS2, PSP, PS3, PS Vita and PS4.

What really made Playstation Controller so special is the standard version from the 1994 which is similar to SNES controller, but features 4-simple geometric shapes button, added a second pair of shoulder buttons for the index or middle fingers and the grip-handles for making it easier to hold controller. Sony was later released the Dual Analog controller in the year 1997 which added the two thumbsticks, while they later redesigned the controller in 1998, as it become Dualshock which added the build-in rumble feature. Dualshock 2 for PS2 was released in early 2000's was almost exactly the same as the previous DualShock, but also forward compatible for the PS1 console. In 2007, Dualshock 3 is the first wireless controller for PS3 which features built-in battery which can be charged with USB cable, it introducing the Sixaxis motion controls which adds the force feedback, it also added the analog L2/R2 triggers, and the Home button that lets you access to your PS3's home menus. In 2013, the PS4 has Dualshock 4 which was different from the previous dualshock controllers. The start and select button were being removed, instead it been replaced with built-in touch pad on the front of the controller which can be clicked, the option button is to pause menu, and the share button which allows players to upload screenshots and videos from their gameplay experiences. The controller grips are much larger than the previous ones, the analog L2/R2 triggers are slightly curved and they added the new feature on the controller such as lightbar on top of the controller which is used for motion controls purposes, the mono speaker on the centre of the controller and the headphone jack on below the controller which is used for online chat.

So far I really liked the all of the Playstation controllers is because I liked the design of the controller especially with the PS3 controller are one of my favourite controller of the Playstation's console families is due to better battery-lifespan which can be charged up to 12 hours, the reliability of the controller is definitely a trustworthy that didn't breakdown at all, and the whole design of the controller is just a classy as the PS1 and PS2 controllers. I also liked the PS4 controller for its build quality and stylish design, while the PS1 and PS2 controller is quite revolutionary at the times, but the PS3 controller is still the best of all Playstation's console families. Overall, the Playstation controllers is perfect for all video game genres including FPS, RPGs, Fighting Games, Racing games, and Arcades. If you're looking for a finest video game controller outthere, then this is highly recommended for you to try this badass out.



1 - Super Nintendo Controller

     













In the year 1990, Nintendo kicked off with their 16-bit powerhouse was Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is main rivalry to their competitors SEGA Genesis/Megadrive making it a second console wars between Nintendo and SEGA trying to complete each other with their marketing campaign and killer titles. This system was a global success, becoming the best-selling console of the 16-bit era due to powerful 16-bit hardware system was capable of producing graphics and sound co-processors and has top-quality games titles. It also praised the innovation of the controller which features simple d-pad button, select and start button, 4-colourful buttons and 2-shoulder buttons making a most appealing video game controller of early 90's.

Super Nintendo is one of my all-time favourite systems ever that lives up in my childhood gaming. I was really got impressed with this legendary controller that plays perfect for most of the games titles. This controller grip has dogbone shaped which I feel it's fits well on my hand while holding it and these 4-colourful buttons and shoulder buttons are easier to press while playing the SNES classics such as Super Mario World because I can hold the Y button to run with my top of thumb, while I can able to press the B button to jump with my middle of thumb which gives the player a significant playability skill for its gameplay style. The games like Starfox which I can able to press the L/R button for barrel roll with my index finger, while in Super Mario Kart and F-Zero which allows me to perform cool vehicle drift. This controller is very unique and special that really defines the video game controllers and it is suitable for most of the game's genres such as 2D platformer, Run N Gun, Beat em ups, JRPG, and 2D fighting games. This is by far one of my favourite video game controllers of all time and if you grew up with retro gaming controllers then this controller is for you to try it out because now you're playing with super power.




Honorable Mentions:

Gamecube controller
NES controller
ATARI 2600 controller
Xbox controller
SEGA Genesis/Megadrive controller




If you like my recent blog, please hit like and comment below for further questions.


This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.