Marvel's Spider Man PS4 Review

Marvel's Spider Man is a action-adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man inspired by the long-running comic book mythology and adaptations in other media.

In my younger days where the stuff like comic books, TV stations and other types of media had introduced me a superhero related franchises that caught my attention as a kid back then.
Marvel Comics is one of the American comic books brand was founded in late 30's by Martin Goodman, while sharing with the well-known key people like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and Stan Lee was responsible behind the successful superheroes like Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Captain America, and of course your friendly-neighbourhood Spider Man that everyone had talked about which is the reason why it got so popular back from 60's to nowadays.

Spider Man is a main poster boy of whole Marvel Comics was well known for his web-slinging action such as saving the people lives from broken buildings, chasing after the thugs, fighting against supervillains, and so many responsibilities that made him becoming the most recognisable superheroes of all-time.
The success of Spider Man comic book series had spawned with many film adaption, TV series, Toys figures and merchandises, and of course the video game series.

I grew up watching many of animated and film series relating to Marvel's franchises especially with both Spider Man's 1967's and 1994's animated series, and Sam Raimi's Spider Man film trilogy which is the reason why I liked the character as a whole that is quite amazing in my opinion.
I remember playing the games for my Gamecube based on Sam Raimi's film trilogy films such as Spider Man (2002) which is a decent web-slinging title, while the Spider Man 2 (2004) was heavily improved over the previous original being regarded as one of the best game in the series, until I just find out there is a recent Spider Man game just came out exclusively for PS4 in 2018 which many gaming press labelled the game as not just being the one of the highest-rated Spider Man game, but also fastest selling superheroes games of all-time which many had argued it's miles better than the previous entry of Spider Man games.

It's been for 16 years since I've played two of the Spider Man games on Gamecube, so I decided to pick up a copy of Marvel's Spider Man for PS4 which I've bought it out from Ebay for £12 thanks to Playstation's Day of Plays sales as I was expecting the game itself to be just as amazing depending on how many the numerous of quests, tasks, collectables, and many activities you have completed throughout the game and how is the story went on whole game had turned out to be, so the answer is yes I have enjoyed the new Spider Man game thanks to spectacular storylines, memorable cast of heroes and villains, large open-world area to explore, amazing fighting mechanics, and tons of replay values is what made the game amazingly fun to play.
Marvel's Spider Man on PS4 is definitely a better superheroes titles for Playstation consoles which I didn't expect the game was created by a team behind Ratchet and Clank and Resistance series which are also a great video game franchises, but I got to say this game is the one of the Insomniac Games's strongest title that bought out so many things to offer that they put up many efforts on their project turned out to be very successful at the release.
         
So without go further do, lets start the review.



Presentation

The game focusing on the event of criminal attack that takes place in New York City was responsible by the crime lord named Mister Negative who threatens to release a deadly virus as well as plotting to seize control of New York City's criminal underworld, so it is up to Spider Man to confront Mister Negative as well as protecting the city while dealing with the personal problems of his civilian persona as Peter Parker.

The story in the game is quite straightforward to follow the plot as a whole. You have Peter Parker, which we already know he's Spider Man in entire entry, had troubled with his many personal responsibilities such as working with respected scientist Dr. Otto Octivius in Octivius Industries, assisted with his ex-girlfriend Mary Jane Watson who works with Daily Bugle as reporter, and supporting his Aunt named May who volunteers at the F.E.A.S.T homeless shelter run by philanthropist named Martin Li which is the reason he struggles to balance his superhero and personal lives.
His mission brings him into conflict with several supervillains such as longtime foes Kingpin and superpowered gang Inner Demons run by Mister Negative who begin dividing the city as well as corrupting innocent people in the city.
It makes the story quite interesting when the person had to make two decisions whether is to protect the city as a superhero or helping out with the supporters as a normal guy which I really liked how the entire plot went well in the game.

I got to say most of the characters in the game is actually great. I really liked this version of Peter Parker in the game has cooler personality during the conversation between the characters, as he had a brighter look on his face that made him quite friendly with supportive characters.
I also liked him as a Spider Man sharing with his awesome humor and being energised superhero who spent most time to save a lot of people in the city which delivers his enthusiasm well in the whole game that made the character quite recognisable.
Then you have other character in the game such as Miles Morales which also delivers his interesting event that has happened in the game, so you may know him from the animated film such as Spider Man: Into the Spider Verse which is cool to have him being included in the game.
Then you have Sliver Sable who is the leader of private military company Sable International being hired by New York Mayor named Norman Osborn to stop Mister Negative and his terrorist group known as Inner Demons.
I got to say the game had a tons of villains on each acts such as the big fat bold head Kingpin, sparkling Electro, big boulder dude Rhino, the green stinger Scorpion, the flying Vulture, the wave blasting Shocker, skilled hand-to-hand combatant Taskmaster, the obnoxious wannabes Screwball, and the freakshow Tombstone in which I am so impressed to see any of the games that has large cast of villains.
I also wanted to give credit to two of the best villains in the game are Mister Negative who has ability to use his mind control power and healing touch which I think this character is actually pretty good in the game, while Dr. Octopus is by far one of the greatest villain of whole Spider Man universe that totally steals the show.
He's one of the character that taking revenge on New York Mayor's lies that he fully despised him which is the reason why his performance is quite chaotic due to his mechanical arms that affected his personal behaviour.

The presentation in the game is fully well done for its overall city environment. It has 6 to 9 districts such as Harlem, Upper West Side, Central Park, Upper East Side, Hell's Kitchen, Midtown, Greenwitch, Financial District, and Chinatown.
It has tour attractions and landmarks such as Avengers Tower, the Wakandan Embassy, the Sanctum Sanctorum, the law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Alias Investigations, the superhero cleanup company Damage Control, the Roxxon Energy Corporation, and Empire State University, as well as real-world locations such as the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower, Madison Square Garden, and Chrysler Building which I find these locations pretty interesting to explore throughout the game giving a nice view of whole city centre of New York.


Overall, it has terrific story, great cast of characters, and impressive presentation design.



Gameplay

The game contains 3 acts with 44 missions including story and sides quests, and citywide activities included in the single player campaign, so you take control of Spider Man in the open-world area where you need to complete all the objectives that was marked on the map screen.

Spider Man has ability to swing through the city buildings by holding the right trigger button, but letting it go will stop you swing. Your swinging speed will able to travel faster depending on your altitude, so you can also tap the X button to zip forward to build up your speed, but it also can lose momentum when swinging.
You can shoot a web at certain ledges by holding left trigger to swing up across building faster which is useful for most of the stealth missions.
Spider Man can also climb walls by pushing left thumbstick next to the building wall, so you can lower yourself down by holding left trigger while on top of the ceiling, and you can run across the wall or building quicker by holding the right trigger for sprinting.
For fighting mechanics, you will start off with basics attack by tapping square button few time to perform combos which your combo system points will be added on your hit score.
You can perform air combo by holding square button will launch enemies into the air, while continuing to attack them while in the air.
You can evade the enemy's projectiles by pressing the circle button to dodge when your Spider sense appears on Spider Man's head, but doing a perfect timing will make you perform a perfect dodging causing Spider Man to hit enemy with web.
You can throw objects at the enemies by pressing both shoulder buttons together causing Spider Man to toss items at enemies.
Spider Man can shoot webs by tapping right shoulder button to tied up your enemies, as well as using the web gadget attack can be pressed with triangle buttons such as impact web that causing enemies to launch towards walls, electric web stuns the enemies, web bomb to stick more than 3 or 4 enemies, spider drone to shoot laser, trip mine that ties enemies together, suspension matrix that makes enemies float up high, and concussive blast that pushes enemies backwards.                     
Spider Man can perform a variety of moves such as web swing that swings enemies in circle, swing kick that drop kicks enemies while swinging, yanking enemy's gun to disarm their weapon, throwing rockets at enemy, long range strike that leaps towards them, and many moves which can be shown on move lists at the pause menu.
To keep you mind that each of the skill trees may require skill points to unlock by completing quest will reward you with skill points depending on your level XP system, as well as gadgets may require tokens which you will need to complete the citywide activities to gain tokens to unlock your mods.
Leveling up your character will improve upon your fighting skills the more you become a experienced fighter which really helps your fighting gameplay style for most quests.

I got to say I really liked the size of the open-world maps giving more variation of exploration and discovering where you can able to greet the people in the city centre, going up to rooftops and towers for beautiful landscape view, swim around the sea for fun, and taking selfies on photo mode where you can edit your own personalised photographs which I finding it cool.
There are several of citywide activities that keeps you very busy with the game such as collecting souvenirs from bagpack, taking a photo of building attraction, chasing down pigeons, helping Harry's favour through research stations, capturing enemy bases in many waves of enemies to fight, locating Black Cat's figurines, and completing a task challenges such as chasing drone, disarming bombs, taking down enemies without being caught in stealth, and fighting with the enemies in combat battle which rewards you with tokens so you can able to spend and unlock your mods for gadgets and suits.
I got to say I really enjoyed several of the activities that I can spend time having fun to swing around the city to find objects and completing a certain of the tasks which really adds my experience that feels very rewarding in the game.
While I really enjoyed all the challenge activity tasks, the issue I have problem is that it is ridiculously difficult to achieve gold award for some tasks, so I did manage to get both bronze and silver to gain few tokens, but I was aiming to get even more tokens which took me 20 to 30 times retries to get a gold award to gain 3 more tokens depending on how faster can you beat in time limit or gained a higher score as possible which I finding it quite frustrated that made me skip the task for not being able to achieve gold award doesn't mean it ruining the whole challenge mini game.

There are several of story and side mission that are pretty solid like battling against supervillains, doing stealth investigation, hacking the security modules around the building, fighting with Mister Negative and his Inner Demon gangs inside the train station, activating all surveillance towers, finding missing student, taking down snipers, solving puzzle mini game from Octivius Industries, and there's plenty of all missions that are actually fun to play.
Aside with Spider Man, you get to play as two of the supportive characters like Mary Jane Watson that are heavily focused on investigation like sneaking into somebody's office room in art museum and examine the hidden top secrets in Oscorp building, while Miles Morales are more likely focused on stealth where you need to sneak to next area without getting caught by guards in action, so best to keep an eye on enemy's indicator during the stealth mission. 

The character's controls feels very fluid for its web swinging through city building and being able to climb and running up walls which I had no issue with the responsiveness.
The actual gameplay itself is played absolutely amazing for its combat system thanks to skill tree upgrades, web gadgets, and engaging fighting techniques feels very responsive and playable for most part and I got to say the quick time event does have a best looking sequences for most of the action packed scenes where you had to press and tap the button that appears on the screen feels very engaging for most part.
Along with the amazing combat gameplay, I do find some enemies have overdone the blocking, as well as some cheap counterattack which took me about 15 to 20 seconds to finish them off that I never liked compared with killing off other enemies that takes less than the 10 seconds which is fine, so far I've managed to enjoy the game thanks to large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and of course the boss battles are pretty outstanding that keeps the game well entertained.


Overall, it has large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and boss battles.   



Graphics

The graphics is stunningly beautiful for its environmental design thanks to large open-world details and sharper textures on building surfaces which I got to say it is genuinely spectacular to see things in the game.
I really liked the draw distance, the visuals, and the animation for most levels which feels very polished for AAA games that gets everything right like you can able to see things from the landscapes, the lighting and shadowing on some areas, the weather system effects that is quite dynamic, and the structure itself is well built that made the game quite appealing.
The character's model is looking fantastic for its facial animations and motion capturing movements that looked pretty terrific on most of the cutscenes and in-game design which I got to say it is the most impressive game I've seen on the Playstation hardware.


Overall, it has beautiful environmental design, polished visuals and animation, and fantastic motion capturing system. 



Music and Sounds

I really liked the epic original soundtrack in the whole game feels very like the Marvel's films such as Marvel's Avengers and Sam Reimi's Spider Man trilogy which is the reason why its sounded heroic and fascinating at the same time during the cutscenes and in-game action.
It was composed by John Paesano, who previously worked on his score behind Gran Turismo Sport and Detroit: Become Human, did a remarkable job of making one of the most memorable soundtrack in whole game.
I also liked the sound design for most part in the game with well crafted sound effects and atmospheric noise from city centre, and then I got to say I liked the voice performance for several of casts that did absolutely a cracking job in the game.


Overall, it has epic soundtrack, well crafted sound design, and cracking casting performance.



Special Features

The game comes with extended 3 DLCs which introduced new quests and different storyline. It also has photo mode with customisable edits, collecting cool souvenirs, and unlockable suits.


Overall, it is a fantastic content.



Advantages


Terrific story and characters

Impressive presentation design

Larger open-world map

Numerous of activities and quests

Amazing combat gameplay

Beautiful graphics

Epic original score

So many content



Disadvantages


Enemy's cheap counterattack and over blocking.

Very difficult to earn gold award on challenge task.



Final Verdict


Presentation 9/10 -  terrific story, great cast of characters, and impressive presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - large open-world map, numerous of activities and quests, combat system, and boss battles.

Graphics 9/10 - beautiful environmental design, polished visuals and animation, and fantastic motion capturing system.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic soundtrack, well crafted sound design, and cracking casting performance.

Special Features 9/10 - extended 3 DLCs which introduced new quests and different storyline, photo mode with customisable edits, collecting cool souvenirs, and unlockable suits.



Overall 9/10 - Marvel's Spider Man is a groundbreaking superheroes title that is amazingly fun.
This is one of the game that got everything what we wanted from the developer teams that brings many features and content thanks to fluid combat, open-world exploration, great missions, and tons of story and characters is what makes the Marvel's Spider Man a all-time greatest game in the series since Spider Man 2 (2004).
I highly recommend all to pick up a copy for PS4 for less than from £17 to £15 of this quality superheroes games with fully completed content is worth for your time.

With great power comes great responsibility, I really liked the game.



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God of War (2018) PS4 Review

God of War (2018) is a Action-Adventure game only for PS4, which was developed by Santa Monica Studio and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It is a sequel to 2010's God of War 3 originally released for PS3, and also for PS4 as remastered version.

Back in my old days in 2011 when I finally had finished my course from my college and then on my birthday, I had finally getting my hands on with the PS3 during a summer holidays where I can spent time playing several of titles that I am looking forward to play it, but there's one of the HD collection that caught my attention was God of War Volume 1 which included both the original God of War and God of War 2 that is originally released on PS2 getting a full HD treatment including full 1080p resoulution, running on 60 FPS, and improved visuals. Then I got finally to play God of War 3 on PS3, and also the two downloadable PSP games on my PS Vita such as Chain of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta.
I got to say I really loved God of War franchise because it is one of the most acclaimed action-hack 'n' slash series had won over several of game awards and sold over 32 million games with strong sales figures led the success into many sequels, spin-offs, and other media.

In 2018, I was looking forward to get a copy of God of War (2018) for my PS4 at day one release, but unfortunately it didn't happen till I finally got it for £10 in 2020 thanks to Playstation's Days of Play sales.
I been spent playing the game through single-player campaign just over 3 hours a day which I've already find out the game took 20 to 30 hours to beat depending on quests and explorations throughout the game.
After beating the whole game, I am very happy to say that I really loved this game. It is one of my number 1 favourite PS4 game that I ever played entirely, no bullshit because it is truly a masterpiece that is definitely a most recommendation to all PS4 owners will able to experience a such powerful storylines, incredible relationship between father and son, beautifully made presentation and visuals, and total non-stop brawling adventures filled with many fantastic quests and battles that what I consider the game as the enormous piece of art that proves the single-player gaming aren't dead in modern gaming putting the companies like EA and Activision into wall of shame for relying on bad practices of microtransactions and season pass, which Sony's God of War is all about a fully completed single player action with more content included in the game that is worth adding it to your gaming collection.
                   

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



Presentation

The game takes place in Norse mythology set in ancient Norway in the realm of Midgard, where as the previous game were loosely based on Greek mythology.
The story focuses on former Greek God named Kratos and his young son Atreus (aka BOY!!!) following the cremation of Faye (Kratos' second wife and Atreus' mother) who is sadly passed away.
Kratos and Atreus sets off their journey to highest peak of nine realms to fulfil her request that her ashes be spread.
Along with journey, Kratos kept his secret of troubled past from his son, who is unware of his nature, and battling against monsters and gods of the Norse world.

The story in the game is definitely what made the game so special that involves a long journey between the father and son made promise to free Faye's ashes at the place where gods rules the realms, while Kratos is avoid sharing his story to his son related to his past history that involve Greek war as a Spartan. You can really tell he is completely fed up being part of Greek God that brings him lot of his misery times which is the reason why he kept his past life private to prevent his son from becoming one, so this is what made the story so powerful that the former God himself will not make his same mistake from what he did in the past.

Kratos is one of the badasses that starting out as cruel and wicked spartan from previous game to becoming more matured warrior dealing with his past. He is one of the character making a connection with his son to getting to know each other during the journey. I really liked how Kratos calmly controls his son when Atreus had problem with his current situation that troubled him, so as you can see that he is trying to be a good father who cares his son's feeling what makes the relationship between the father and son quite important in the game.
I got to say Atreus is the BOY!!!! yes everyone, he is one of the most useful sidekick that really helps his father a lot to fight against the foes with bows and arrows, a clever with discovering the script messages, and asking the questions, but he also struggles with his cocky behaviour on some part in the story but not very much because he is still has the heart with his father for most part that made him quite special and I also liked how Kratos calls him BOY!!!! in every lines is kinda awesome.
There are some supportive characters that are also great in the game such as Freya who is a witch-doctor that helps Kratos and Atreus on their Journey. Then you will have the headless old guy named Mimir who is quite talkative in whole Journey which I finding him quite entertaining with his every humorous lines.
You have the dwarfs brothers such as Brok and Sindri, who are blacksmiths, are also quite humorous. Sindri is somewhat annoyingly class has perfectly delivered his joke and Brok is a foul-mouthed grumpy blue guy with comedic sense which I finding these brothers are sure funny bastards.                I got to say the villain such as Baldur is sure one tough asshole always like interfering Kratos's Journey putting up a very best, but most brutally battle sequence between these two are actually quite awesome to watch and play at the same time. I wasn't expecting to see the skinny ass dude is quite strong with small muscle could take on big huge guy which is ridiculously insane and he is also quite a crackhead that threaten to kill not just Kratos, but also a small child that made Baldur a memorable villain.
Then you will also have Baldur's twin nefuews such as Modi and Magni who are also targeting Kratos, but I got to say I really liked their insulting jokes on Atreus's mother that kinda really pissed off the little kid that made me laugh the lot during the battles.

The whole presentation in the game is very well done for its choice of location that took place in Norway. I really liked the old fashion Scandinavian themes of these ancients places filled with tall huge statues, abandoned palace with broken man-made pillars, old scriptures written on stones, art style drawned on walls, and etc.
Each of locations has different environmental settings that fits really well in the game such as Alfheim has Lake of Light and Freyr's Temple filled with many trees and branches as well as sea lakes, Vanaheim filled with gardens and fields, Helheim is a nightmarish places with many dead creatures, Muspelheim are firey places with volcanoes and ashes, and Midgard is one of the largest regions with huge islands to explore such as woods, towers, mountains, and temples which I got to say I really liked the overall concept that is so different from the previous games.

Overall, it has perfect storylines, awesome cast of characters, and well made style of presentation.



Gameplay

In single player campaign, you take control of Kratos, while Atreus controlled as A.I Assistant, in third-person perspective with over the shoulder angle instead of the fixed camera from the previous game, so you will have a map locations with the 17 chapters in total and large chunk of side quests to complete.

Controlling Kratos will allow him to sprint through the area, jumping across the platforms, climbing up walls and chains, lifting up and breaking heavy objects, turning switches and interacting the objects to loot items like currency and materials.
Kratos has the Leviathan Axe as the primary weapon which you can attack in horizontal and vertical, but you can also throw axe in far range which can easily freezes enemies and objects, while it magically summoned back to his hand similar to Marvel's Thor's hammer.
Kratos can also use his fist to punch and throw enemies as well as lifting heavy objects, and you will have a shield that blocks the enemy's projectiles as well as parrying to deflect their moves too.
You will obtain the later weapon at the middle of the game such as Blade of Chaos which is a twin blades originally from older God of War games that allow you to perform a fiery spinning attack which is much more quicker compared with the slow, but powerful axe.
Kratos will perform a melee finisher when the icon appears while enemy are being weakened will allow Kratos to tear them apart in gruesome way such as ripping their heart out, opening up chest, stomping their face, and so many finishing animation.
Once you filled enough orange meter bar, you will be able to activate rage mode which makes Kratos's fists much stronger allowing him to attack enemies faster in limited time.
Kratos also commands his son to shoot arrows that kills or stuns enemies depending which arrows he uses during the battle.
There are a blacksmith's shop that Brok or Sindri can help you choose your own choice of armours, runes, pommel, and weapon upgrades as well as giving you an option to sell some valuable items and materials. 
You can customise Kratos armours and slots in which you can see his list of stats that relying on health, strengths, runic, cooldown, luck, and defense. Each of chest and wrist armours including expansion slots will increase some of your stats that made him stronger, but there are some of them will decrease some stats depending what armours and slots you are using with to add on.
The Kratos weapons will have 2 slots that allow you to perform different variety of runes moves such as shockwave attack, spinning attack, charge attack, ice beam, activating power up, fiery blast of energy, and slam attack, while Atreus can summons a cast of spectral falcons, stampede, crows and elk.
Once you're beating the quest or defeating the enemies then you will be awarded with XP points that you can spend it on upgrades that improves your fighting skills such as frezzing burst, precision throw combo, returning whirlwind, grinding storm, Leviathan's fury, agile strike, countering strike, fury strike, spartan stomp, rushing chaos and so many moves that may requires the weapon upgrades from the blacksmith's shop.

Aside with the combat gameplay, the game are involved with exploration where you can able to discover the unvisited area, collecting loots such as power-ups and currency, talking with the people like Brok and Sindri for favours or question, reading on the script walls, and of course sailing with the boat.
The best part in the game is the puzzle aspects that involves opening new passage such as doors and elevators which requires 2 or 3 switches to be activated as well as evading the deadly traps like spikes, blades, flames, and any hazardous objects that gets in your way while finding way to unlock the new area in the game.
You have twin blade that uses for swapping the green light from first to second orbs, locking on cogs with axe to prevent bridge from moving, mix and match the rotation of script, breaking all the hives together without regenerating, matching the 4 symbols of season, stabbing the icy patterns with the special tool, and there's many more puzzle solving which I think the game did a remarkable job of having a riddled puzzle that unlocks a certain of places is what made the game quite unique.

The game is well executed for its combat system, puzzles, exploration, and numerous of quests that is perfectly well made without any of issues with the controls and gameplay design that feels quite flawless for most part.
I got to say I really liked the epic boss battles in each quests is quite satisfying for its overall difficulty and has it own battle strategy is what made the game quite fun.
It is a non-stop brawling action that never gets bored off easily with aggressive A.Is and responsiveness that couldn't stop you from fighting them is what made the game overly epic.


Overall, it has fantastic combat system, unique puzzles, great exploration with many quest, and epic boss fights.



Graphics

God of War definitely has the best looking graphics of all PS4 libraries. I was so impressed with the cinematic design feels very realistic on each sequences and I got to say the character model is looked amazing for motion capturing technologies feeling much more natural and more substantial than most of the PS4 games that you have ever seen adding the character's personality and development is the reason why it looked so amazing.
The environmental design on whole open area feels much authentic for its a opened level design, heavy textures on surfaces like runes, towers, walls, and houses, the draw distances on landscapes, the reflecting visuals and lighting effects, the animation sequences for gore, and many more designs that is almost feels like a next-gen than the current ones which I think it is the most graphically impressive of all PS4 libaries.

Overall, it has excellent cinematic design, amazing character model, and authentic environmental design.



Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game is sounds incredibly stunning mixed with orchestral and folklore style that is so like Scandinavian culture that fits well at the set of the game that takes place in ancient Norway.
It was composed by Bear McCreary, who is responsible for composing some TV series like Battlestar: Galactica as well as some video games titles like Dark Void, did a such an incredible job of making one of his strongest works of all video game soundtracks.
The sound effect is quite perfect for most part in the game such as sounds design, ambient noises, and great use of sound technology for cinematic purposes, and then I got to say the voice cast such as Christopher Judge did a magnificent job on his role as Kratos as well as the child actor Sunny Suljic did well with his role as Atreus which is the reason why their performance is quite powerful.
Then you have Jeremy Davies did a role on Baldur, Alastair Duncan as Mimir, Danielle Bisutti as Freya, and best of two are Troy Baker and Nolan North did a role on Modi and Magni.


Overall, it has stunning original music, perfect sound design, and powerful voice role.



Special Features            
  
The game has downloadable digital comic book, new game plus, digital art-book, and DLCs.


Overall, it's a great overall features.




Advantages

Perfect story

Memorable characters

Fantastic combat gameplay

Unique puzzles

Epic boss fights

Excellent cinematic design

Amazing graphics development

Incredible original soundtrack

Strong voice role



Disadvantages

None at all



Final Verdict

Presentation 10/10 - perfect storylines, awesome cast of characters, and well made style of presentation.

Gameplay 10/10 - fantastic combat system, unique puzzles, great exploration with many quest, and epic boss fights.

Graphics 10/10 - excellent cinematic design, amazing character model, and authentic environmental design.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - stunning original music, perfect sound design, and powerful voice role.

Special features 10/10 - downloadable digital comic book, new game plus, digital art-book, and DLCs.



Overall 10/10 - God of War is one of the Cory Barlog's biggest masterpiece that I highly recommend playing it on PS4.
The game featuring a powerful story between father and son, well built gameplay design with many combats and quests, quality looking visuals, stronger cast performance, and has replay values which is the reason why the single-player gaming never dies had finally proves everyone wrong.
God of War is the best example that is considered legendary in my opinion because it's one of the game that tries to redefine my top favourite PS4 libraries that you should go out and buy it from online or physical store for less than £15.     
So I was hoping the developer team will consider making another God of War installiment for PS5 in possibly future perfect, so what are you waiting for BOY!!!!? just go get a God of War and play it on your PS4.


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Horizon Zero Dawn PS4 Review

Horizon Zero Dawn is a Action-RPG game originally released for PS4 in 2017, while it was later confirmed for PC release in possibly 2020. It was developed by Guerrilla Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment.

A talented developer was made responsible for their outstanding FPS series such as Killzone which had caught my attention back in my younger days when I had a PS3 console, so I was blowned away with epic over-the-top campaign, innovative graphics design, and addicting online multiplayer matches which I fell a love with the series during the PS3 era.
As I moved on with the PS4 era, I've began to watch Sony E3 live conference 2015 to see the exciting upcoming titles that I'm looking forward too, so the game that gives me a eye-catching moment is Horizon Zero Dawn that been shown on live shows as a gameplay demo footage which I was impressed with the looks of the game because it's different from the Guerrilla's previous development titles filled with gorgeous graphics aspects and actual gameplay performance in which made me wanted to play this game for the future release.

The game finally got released in 2017 as I originally planned to pick up the copy of Horizon Zero Dawn, but it didn't happened till I finally got the copy as in 2020.
I been spent playing the game for over 3 hours of play a day which I already know the game has bigger campaign filled with many quests and exploration that extends the overall play length and it took me 3 weeks to finish the whole game.
So far, I spent my wonderful times of playing the game through many of main and side quests that I had really fun exploring the new areas, collecting resources and materials, fighting off heavy-duty machines, tracing paths using focus devices, upgrading weapons, and levelling up abilities.
You have great objectives, decent combat system, and amazing boss battles will also satisfy the fans of the genres that seeks epic adventures and challenging missions.
I also find the story and presentation is actually pretty done a solid job which starting out with good opening scenes and introducing protagonist, while the rest of it focuses on longer additional dialogue conversation and gathering information which I understand it adds the overall in-depth plot, but I finding it quite over done that sometime it gets pretty slow in half-way doesn't mean it's a bad thing in the game.
Aside the great story, the characters are actually pretty good especially with playable protagonist which I think it done a remarkable job in whole game.

Is Horizon Zero Dawn a greatest PS4 titles? let's find out the positives and negatives of the game itself.

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



Presentation

The game takes place in 31st century where most of the humans lives in tribal-like populations, while the world fills with machinery like creatures.

The story focused on Aloy who are being raised by the outcast named Rost. As a child, she discovers a abandoned place where she obtains the focus, a AR device that gives her ability to access the stored information that is related to one of her past relative from 100 years ago.
After growing up her age, she is now a hunter who joined the Nora tribe which she aims to protect the mankind's homeland, while battling against the cultists members and robotic machines as well as continuing to discover her past identity.

The game actually tells the story that explains Aloy discovered the device that had the stored recordings of the past history that already happened in 100 years ago which is the reason why Aloy wanted to find out her identity that is related to her past mother who is the US scientist behind Zero Dawn project and how the world was being completely destroyed, so these are the plots predicts the future that affecting the earth that been overtaken by the horrible corrupted machines hurting the mankind.
I got to say the story is actually great because of learning all about the backstory involves projects and getting to know with protagonist's identity that really caught my interest in the game.
I got to say Aloy is actually solid character for its delivering her brave personality and powerful fighter in which she is one of the female protagonist that can able to train and fight against the foes.
I also liked some of the side characters in the game that are also done a decent job, so you have Nil the Carja solder who invited Aloy to raid the bandit camps, Varl and Sona of Nora tribe members swore to avenge Vala's death, Erend the Oseram captain who searches for his lost sister, and Sylens the Banuk traveller who helps Aloy to discover the truth behind the machines.
Then you will have the evil tribes known as Shadow Carja which is led by the corrupt leader named Helis is one of the villain that threatens to attack several of tribes (e.g Carja, Nora, and Oseram) and conquer the homeland.
I got to say I really liked the concept of the machines that is just almost like the animals in robotic figures, so you have Watchers, Strider, Grazer, Scrapper, Broadhead, Lancehorn, Sawtooth, Bellowback, Glinthawk, and there's plenty of more robotic species found in every locations.

I really liked the overall settings of presentation which is looking spectacular on each locations. It is based on states of America that is being renamed in maps such as All-Mother Mountains (Cheyenne Mountain) is the Nora's worship place, Devil's Grief (Denver, CO) is a ruin site in Sacred Lands, Meridian (Eagle Canyon, UT) are the city of the sun where Carja tribes lives in, and Sunfall (Bryce Canyon National Park, UT) is capital of Shadow Carja.
The mountain places like Mother's watch and Banuk Encampment are icy and cold places filled with snows and frosty, the canyons places like Morning's watch are quite hot and sandy, and Forrest places like outside of Meridian Village are quite greenery filled with trees and flowers which I think these concepts in the game look well presented that is looked different from the real-life world.

While the game does have interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design, I do find the additional dialogue is seems kinda too much during the conversation between the characters so I fully understand these dialogue trees is trying to increase the in-depth plot, but it's makes the dialogue conversation quite too long because it has about 6 to 7 dialogue options to select to ask question that doesn't mean it's going to affect the overall story itself once you have to get used with the slower paced conversation.


Overall, it has interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design.



Gameplay

In single player game, you take control of Aloy in third-person perspective open-world map where you get to explore and uncover the new areas, so you will have map inventory that helps you to locate by placing the maker as well as it has the several icons that indicates stuff like mains, sides, enemies, items, and etc.
Aloy has her ability to hide under the grass during the stealth, swim on water, climb on walls, parkour platforming, roll dodge, and best of all the focus device that allows you to scan on species, tracking down footprints, and collecting information from documents which I finding the devices is very useful for most of the mains and side quests.
You have list of weapons to use in combat gameplay such as bow that shoots in long range, so it had three types of bow that has different variants of arrows items such as hunter arrow deals low impact and tear, fire arrow brings fire damage over time, hardpoint arrow has stronger damage and tears easily on machine's parts, precision arrow are very effective for sniping, harvest arrow are weaker but removes machine's parts that can be looted, shock arrow that stuns machines, and freeze arrow that froze enemies in which these of the arrow variants can be effective on ether human enemies or machines that they are being venerable.
There are some useful weapons can be purchased from merchants such as forgefire are used for close range attacks deals medium fire damage, icerail deals high freeze severity, rattler that shoots 5 bolt projectiles, ropecaster is a tool to pin down targets, slingshot that shoots 4 types of bombs, and best of all the tripcaster that placed shock traps on ground allowing to stun on machines which these are all weapons are worked effectively well in combat battles and exploration.
You can also perform melee weapons such as spear which I think it worked better on stealth attacks, while using it as basic melee attack during the combat battle which I got to say it does have some ups and downs.
I finding the spear weapon as a melee combat is quite unbalanced with damages depending on which machines you're fighting with and some of them are kinda much easy to kill machines, while the others doesn't take much damage which I think that it could have been better if the game has more melee weapons to purchase rather than just being stuck with same ones which is the reason why it wasn't good as the main weapons that worked pretty well for its more variations and upgrades.         

During the exploration, you will have a full list of quests that you need to complete the task which has main quest which focuses on story campaign, while the side quest and errands are just the extended mission with extra tasks that don't mainly focus on story but it also rewards your player's experience. Then you have the cauldron is just a special dungeons which rewards you with adding new tools to your arsenal, the bandit camps is the mission where you had to take down the enemy's bases, and hacking the tallneck to expand the map locations.
Along with the mission quest, you can spend time killing the machines, hunting down real animals and collecting every materials and resources that really helps crafting your ammos and travel bags, while it also works with upgradable pouchs that gives more spaces on your inventory screen which requires rare items and some resources to develop.
After beating the quest will award you with skill points which you can use them on inventory screen to improve your ability skills such as shooting with 3 arrows, balancing aim while standing on ropes, increasing strike attack, reducing your visibility to enemies, faster reload, more concentration, overriding machines, and healing your health faster which really benefiting your player's performance.

I was impressed with the choice of combat gameplay that I can able to fight off machines and being able to perform stealth mechanics quite well thanks to variety of weapon's ammunition offers solid collision detection on enemies and I also got to say the playable character just controls well in the game for its smooth aiming precision and climbing ability, but I wish they could have improve the melee system to balance out the damages and speed that would have it made it better.
Most of the whole quest in the game are outstanding because it has great selection of mission objectives like completing the competition to become Nora Brave, tracking down the killers using focus device, confronting those who commit crimes against humanity, helping person to seek revenge, and searching for people went missing in which these are the types of mission objectives that I had spent my fun on amazing game for over 3 hours a day without any disappointment thanks to 30 to 40 hours of play length that keeps you busy with the game well.


Overall, it has outstanding quests with full of exploration, smooth player's controls, and great combat system.



Graphics

I got to say the Horizon Zero Dawn had the most incredible graphic design in modern video game.
I have never seen anything amazingly to see how the PS4's powerhouse can able to manage such quality AAA game like this.
The character's animation looks very real for having impressive body figure for its movements and facial expression offers well made lip syncing during the dialogue which really shows how realistic these characters had looked in PS4 standards.
The whole environments of map design is incredibly photo-realistic of having a bloomy special effects in some areas, the lighting effects are quite effective for real-time weather system, and the visuals on some surfaces like water and grass are very detailed with sharp textures and the use of animation.
It ran on 30fps of full 4K resolution making it the most beautiful game of all Sony's exclusives in which I considered it a biggest technical achievements of one of the Playstation's hardwares.


Overall, it has incredible character's model, photo-realistic environment design, and great use of visual effects.



Music and Sounds       
           
The original soundtrack is epicly amazing by Joris de Man, who is responsible of composing soundtrack for Killzone series, which proper nails with the orchestrated folklore music that is kinda mix of James Cameron's Avatar and the CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 which is the reason why it sounded pretty epic in whole game.
I also wanted to praise the sound design in the game for its ambient sounds in some areas and some background effects are kinda sounds pretty damn good in the game. I got to say the voice cast in the game such as Ashly Burch (Aloy), JB Blanc (Rost), Crispin Freeman (Helis), Chook Sibtain (Olin), and Lance Reddick (Sylens) is sounds remarkably fantastic for bringing their strongest role of their characters.

 
Overall, it has epic soundtrack, impressive sound design, and strong voice role.



Special Features

The game does have new game plus mode as well as how many quests and discoveries have you completed which really adds the replay value, and it also included the expansion DLC called The Frozen Wilds contains new storylines, characters, and area which you can purchase it from PS Store as DLCs or get it physically as the complete edition.


Overall, the features is a amazing package to this game.




Advantages


Stunning presentation design

Interesting story and characters

Outstanding quests with full of exploration

Fluid combat system

Photo-realistic graphics design

Epic original soundtrack

Excellent features (Including DLCs and new game plus)



Disadvantages


Very slow and long dialogue conversation

Unbalanced melee damage attack




Final Verdict


Presentation 8.5/10 - interesting story, great cast of characters, and the stunning presentation design.

Gameplay 9/10 - outstanding quests with full of exploration, smooth player's controls, and great combat system.

Graphics 10/10 - incredible character's model, photo-realistic environment design, and great use of visual effects.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - epic soundtrack, impressive sound design, and strong voice role.

Special Features 9/10 - expansion DLC and new game plus.



Overall 9/10 - Horizon Zero Dawn is a Guerrilla's strongest AAA title making it the most beautiful Action RPG on Playstation's system.
I am so glad that the developer team behind Killzone series just made a such terrific game that offers a gorgeous looking graphics design, soild story presentation, stronger character role, numerous of mission quests with lots of explorations, well executed combat gameplay, and higher replay values which is the reason why I've enjoyed it for over 30 hours length of amazing adventures.

I cannot wait to see Guerrilla's another Horizon sequel for PS5 in possibly the future release which I am excited for it, so for any those who are searching for quality Action RPG title (such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wilds and The Witcher 3), then this game is for you to play which is worth for less than £10, so I'll say buy it. 



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SONY Playstation 5 Reveal (My Reaction and Thoughts)

After watching the hour of exciting live event that was happen on June 11th, the moment of truth from SONY has finally revealed their true form of next-gen console which is SONY Playstation 5. Yes everyone, this is real thing that we been waiting for months to see what the actual console looked like in final design.
I want to share my reaction and thoughts on this piece of technology that brings the power of 8k gaming in holiday 2020.
I've already learned the hardware specs that was already confirmed back in Spring 2020, so the system uses AMD's Zen 2 with 8 CPU cores running at 3.5 Ghz, AMD's RDNA 2 GPU running at 2.23 GHZ, 10.28 TFLOPS, real-time ray traced rendering using GPU's hardware acceleration, new 3D audio technology based on Tempest Engine, 16GB of GDDR6 SDRAM with 448 GB/s bandwidth, 825 GB of custom based SSD storage, removable storage such as user upgradable internal and expansion NVMe M.2 SSD or external HDD, and Ultra HD Blu-ray disc drive.
After learning all the hardware specs that SONY has already confirmed for PS5, we get to see a complete design of new PS5 console that is showed off on the live event video, so my thoughts on the PS5 console design is looking lot different from the previous consoles, so I got to say it is amazing to see how nicely the PS5 design looked because it has router-like console design with stormtroopers themed colour and more curvy look which gives a very futuristic feel on the console that is looking very attractive.
I also got to say the DualSense controller for PS5 is looking good for its colours and features, but I find the overall design is kinda bit too big to hold just like most Microsoft's Xbox controller, but don't get me wrong because it's still a positive controller which features 6 axis motion sensing, 2 analog sticks, 2 analog triggers, 2 pressure sensitive buttons, 10 digital buttons, digital D-Pad buttons, and 2 point capacitive touchpad.
Its one of the SONY's first controller to include strong haptic feedback for better in-game feedback, adaptive triggers for responsive and accurate resistance play, and has built-in microphone and integrated speaker that does not require additional microphone and headset like the PS4 controller which I think it's sounds pretty cool that is the best way to improve our gaming experience.
                 
I also wanted to talk about the games reveal that is shown on live events coming to PS5 such as we getting a another Horizon sequel called Horizon Forbidden West, we looking forward to see another horror title like Resident Evil 8 Village, the full remake of Demon's Souls, another racing installment such as Gran Turismo 7, the Shinji Mikami's title Ghostwire Tokyo, Abe's new adventure like Oddworld Soulstorm, Square Enix's Project Athia, and two of the Insomniac Games's titles such as Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart and Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales which I think these games are looking spectacular on the actual trailer that made us want to go and pick up the new system at launch.

After talking my positives on SONY's new system, I also wanted to talk about 3 things that worries me the most is SONY did however already confirmed the development of the backwards compatibility for PS5 that allows you to play your favourite PS4 games libraries, but it is not 100% cleared because they didn't tell exact details about how PS4 games plays and runs on the PS5 consoles and will all the PS4 games libraries work which is concerned me the most because the PS4 had lacked the ability to play any previous generation software (such as PS1, PS2, and PS3) due to complex hardware architecture had struggled to run the older playstation games, but I was hoping for the PS5 will feature a fully backwards compatible program that all the existing PS4 games can work normally on the system.
I also wanted the PS5 console to support the region free imports that allow you to play all US and Japanese games which is a huge benefit to all video game collectors that loves collecting games that are exclusively released in one country.
I was hoping the actual price will be confirmed pretty soon because I was expecting the system cost around £499 which is my personal guess, but we don't know for sure because it might be just as expensive as the PS3 price launch in 2006, so these are the 3 important things that I wanted to share my concern before ordering the new Playstation console at launch release.

So far, I believe SONY had done better than what Microsoft already presented on their livestream called Inside Xbox last month which is nowhere near as good as SONY's live reveal because it lacks many variation of presentation and gameplay footage which is the reason why Microsoft made a false gameplay advertising for Xbox Series X as opposed to SONY's PS5 live event did showed off their games nicely which is the best way to attract more attention to hardcore gaming fans.
I'm very glad that it has the number of AAA games to look forward and the console looks pretty amazing the way it designed for the new system, so hopefully SONY will able to succeed their next console wars in 2020.   



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SEGA Game Gear Micro? WTF is this? (My Reactions and Rant)

Before I begin my ranting on this little piece of device, I wanted to share the small history of SEGA's 8-bit handheld called Game Gear which was released in early 90's. It is a portable system that is quite similar to SEGA's home console from the mid-80s such as Master System featuring full-color backlit screen with a landscape format, mono speaker, and supported over 4096 colors palette, but also requires 6 AA battery of 3 hours play. 

After the release of SEGA Game Gear, the system itself had less successful which SEGA had failed to beat their rivalry against one of the Nintendo's best-selling devices for handheld marketing is Game Boy had sold 10 times better than the SEGA's handheld device due to price cost is £50 cheaper came with individual or bundled with games. 

Game Gear are also been hurted by its primary focus on its home console systems especially with SEGA's add-ons for Genesis/MD and developing 32-bit system such as Saturn which is the reason why SEGA had declined the handheld gaming. 

Despite lacking success, the system had fair share with memorable titles such as Sonic the Hedgehog (8-bit conversion), The GG Shinobi, Land of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse, Mega Man, Tails Adventures, Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible, Puyo Puyo, and Shining Force Gaiden.

While system was praised with number of libaries and colourful graphics, it was heavily criticised for its bulky design and weaker battery life which is unfavourably compared with Nintendo Game Boy had longer battery life and compact design.

To tell you the truth, I had nothing to against SEGA's portable technology because the system aren't as bad as many critics says because I want to give SEGA Game Gear a credit for its backlit screen which is innovative at the time where you can able to play handheld gaming system without relying on playing on the lamp or sunlight to being able to see the games easily on the screen and the use of colourful graphics that utilised the color palettes making the game very appealing for the handheld system instead of using dull green screen like Nintendo Game Boy, so that a two cool features that the Game Gear had included on the system.

Okay, going back to my reaction and rant on the gaming news, after I've read the SEGA's big announcement celebrating their 60th anniversary on June 4th, while they working on Fog Gaming Technology for SEGA's Arcades, they had revealed their miniature portable system which is Game Gear Micro, yes everyone SEGA had made their tiny little portable console that is scheduled for release in Japan on October 6, 2020, while worldwide release has yet to be announced soon, as it comes with 4 different colour variants and 4 separate games out of all 16 games libraries. 

Each units measuring 80 mm × 43 mm × 20 mm size of the system with a 29 mm screen display, gives you an option to use 2 AAA battery or powered with USB cable, has headphone jack and magnifying accessory that is attached on system screen to display bigger size. 

My thoughts on Game Gear Micro reveal is kinda disappointing because I never liked the way SEGA had designed the system so super tiny that is smaller than my hands. 

The biggest issue is that is not the only the portable system that is so small to hold, but it is a 1 inch size of the screen is looked terrible for Game Gear games that makes it so difficult to play a handheld system with tiny screen making it harder to read text, see surroundings during gameplay, and it makes your eyeball painful when playing games with shrinking display which I didn't like it at all.

There are all 16 games been confirmed on each units can only get 4 pre-installed games such as Outrun, Columns, Sonic, Gunstar Heroes and more of them which is fine, but the issue is that having 4 games separately on each units is not worth for £40 which is seems to be wasting money, so I am not gonna buy all 4 systems to get all 16 games that adds up to £160 is not worth for paying penny.

It would have been sounds better if SEGA could have made the system a bit bigger almost like the original with better screen size, loaded with all 16 games in just one system rather than separating games in each units, and the pricing point should have been worth cost between £40 to £50 at release. 

So far, it looked pretty bad in my opinion, so I wish SEGA could have done something better than this because that poor Game Gear didn't deserve this kind of awkward thing. 

I hope they working on Saturn or Dreamcast Mini in sometime future and please SEGA don't make a same mistake as you just revealed the Game Gear Micro. 

If you like to check out the gaming news about Game Gear Micro, link in the below:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2020/06/03/new-game-gear-fog-gaming-reveal-what-is-sega-doing/#6ba313f0435b

    

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The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds 3DS Review

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is a open-world action-adventure game only for 3DS, which was developed and published by Nintendo, and it is a direct sequel to original 1992's title A Link to the Past for SNES.
It's one of the sequel had retained a similar formula as the early Zelda game with fully top-down perspective, while introducing a newer element that been added to this game.

I've been a long time fan of the Zelda franchises since my childhood days where I grew up playing games like A Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time, The Windwaker, and Twilight Princess. As a grown adult, I recently enjoyed the first original Zelda game on the NES at the time when I had NES classic mini with built-in 30 games as my Christmas gift back in 2018.
After experiencing my previous fun of my 3DS system which I've been busy spending time of collecting more 3DS games last year, it took me awhile to get a copy of A Link Between Worlds which I been searching everywhere on online stores like Amazon and Ebay for cheaper sales, so I can now finally gets a hands on with this game which I've spend for a weeks of fun of playing on my 3DS.
A Link to the Past on SNES are always been one of my all-time favourite in Zelda Franchise, but will this game on the 3DS considered another Zelda's masterpiece? the answer is yes everyone, it is a pure perfection of the whole 3DS libraries that definitely deserve a must own for entire 3DS owners will able to enjoy their full Zelda experience filled with epic open-world adventures, clever puzzle-solving, has selection of items, full exploration with over 15 different locations in 2 different kingdoms, and cool boss battles is what makes A Link Between Worlds on 3DS a terrific successor to one of the greatest original SNES game of all-time.

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


Presentation

The game takes place after the event of A Link to the Past. It is set in between the Hyrule and Lorule as the story explains the ancient Hyrulean legend tells of the events where the evil was been defeated by legendary hero and being sealed away by the Seven Sages, while the Triforce was divided into three pieces to prevent evil from returning again.
The game focuses on silent protagonist named Link who sets out his adventures to restore peace to the kingdom of Hyrule after the mysterious sorcerer Yuga captures Princess Zelda as well as seven sages and then escapes through a rift to the ruined world of Lorule.
After obtaining a magic bracelet from the merchant named Ravio, he gained ability to merged onto walls which allows Link to reach previously inaccessible areas and travel between Hyrule and Lorule.

I got to say the story in the game is done absolutely fantastic with interesting timeline settings that falls between the events of Link's Awakening for GB and the original Legend of Zelda for NES.
As the story goes on, I really liked the idea of having the story involves the evil who had stolen the hyrule princess and seven sages which allowing him to resurrect the demon king Ganon which makes Yuga one insane menace did a vile things in the game.
Most of the plot points in the game are not very complicated to follow once you're getting used with how the story works when reading the entire dialogue in the game which is the reason why the storylines are done such a incredible job.
You have a ironic characters like Link who is a huge adventurer and experienced fighter that fights off against the evil and saving a hyrule that made him becoming the legendary Hyrule warrior which is the reason why Link being ranked as one of the greatest video game heroes of all time making him a notable recognisable icon in gaming.
We know Zelda is one of a memorable princesses in the whole franchise as we liked her for its calm personality and also a friendly to her long-time hero Link which is the reason why they listed her as a most beloved video game princesses.
I got to say that I wasn't disappointing with the Yuga as a villain in the game because he is just an evil as any of villains in Zelda franchise. He just likes to make trouble against people in Hyrule and had an obsession with his painting which made him quite disturbing to watch as well as you see him turning his head with his smirky face while he's holding his portrait on his hand, god that's one crazy dude there.
He kinda reminds me of Kefka from Final Fantasy 6 in terms of design. He had sinister looking face paint, long-dreaded hair, and his crooked dress that made him quite appealing which is the reason why the villain is actually amazing in the whole game especially with his final true form had a similar concept as the Ganon from A Link to the Past.
Then you had a merchant named Ravio who dressed up in funny bunny costumes which I don't find him quite annoying as the others do in different Zelda game (hey I'm watching you Tingle and you too Navi).
He was a bit unfair at the beginning in the game until he's becoming much more loyalty to Link in the middle once you get used with this character.
Lastly you have a Lorule princess named Hilda which is kinda look like a Zelda's dark sister (not to be confused with two of the aunts from Sabrina the Teenage Witch are also shared a both names which is weirdly coincidence) who trying to help Link finding way of saving Zelda and seven sages in Lorule world.

The game's presentation still retains a same location as the ones in A Link to the Past. In Hyrule world, you have lake hylia which has huge amount of lake and windmill house, the central Hyrule has Link's house, the castle, and blacksmith's places.
Kakariko Village are more like a village places filled with chicken farm, small shops, bee keeping, and elderly's homes.
Eastern place filled with series of rocks, the lost woods is the place where master sword being located in, the Sanctuary is a cathedral near close to graveyard, and watery places with sea creatures in Zora's Domain, While Lorule world takes place in alternative universe making it more darker version of Hyrule location which I think it replicate the game nicely from the 1992's original SNES title giving it a full nostalgia look of the classic Zelda game.

Overall, it has fantastic story, memorable characters, and incredible overall presentation.



Gameplay

You take control of the hero Link in top-down perspective as your main goal is to save Zelda and all seven sages by defeating bosses in each dungeons that been marked on the map.
The top screen of the 3DS shows the full gameplay action with UI's life bar and magic meter, while the bottom screen of the 3DS shows the overhead map which helps you locate the area where you left off making it easier to navigate.
You will have sword as a main weapon and shields as a defense item, so you'll use them to attack the enemies by pressing the B button, while holding the B button lets you perform swinging spin attack in 360 degrees. You can also defend yourself by holding the R shoulder button to weld your shield which prevent enemy damaging you with their projectiles.
You will have a selection of items where you can buy or rent items from the Ravio's shop, but you still need to collect rupees before you're start purchasing stuff in the shop. There are useful equipments that you will need it for not just exploration, but also the dungeons might come in useful such as bombs that opens up new passage, boomerang that stuns enemies, bow that shoots far-range, fire-rod that melts icy objects, ice-rod that froze enemies, the hammer thats pounding the obstacles, the hookshot that helps you transport to special surfaces or grab objects, the lamp that lights up the dark area, and it also introduces two new items such as sand-rod that creates the blocks of sand and tornado rod that launches you up in the air in which these are the items that leads you to the next area of location.
There are gears of items that may improve your player's ability such as pegasus boots that allow you to sprint through the level in high speeds can also break into weak walls, gloves such as power gloves or titan's mitts which lets you lift up a heavy objects, the Hylian shield that works effectively on enemy's magic attacks, there are two different of tunics such as blue mail which reduces the damage when hit by an enemy by half while the red mail offers even more greater protection than the previous tunics, and Zora's flippers that lets you swim around the water.
Once you obtained three pendants that leads you to weld and use master sword which is the strongest weapon to use in the game. You can shoot the beam from the sword in far-range distances which can only work if your health meter are fully replenished, but you can also upgrade your master sword by obtaining the master ore item where you can take it to blacksmith to upgrade your sword ability, so your master sword becoming even stronger that works effectively against big tough enemies.
You will need a empty bottles that you can fill a different kinds of potions from the Witch's shop which requires three monster's organs to create and purchase the potions you want to add on your item such as red potion that adds half of your health, the blue potion that adds full health, the yellow potion that made you temporarily invulnerable to damage, and the purple potion that damages all enemies nearby, so this should help you using these during the battle.
Aside with the weapons and items, you can explore around the overworld which has over 12 to 16 different locations to visit, so you can able to discover a hidden secrets in caves, accessing through portals that leads you to two different worlds, obtaining heart container item that upgrades your health capacity, collecting 100 lost maiamai, talking with villagers for help or info, playing mini games such as rupees rush and octoball derby, and being able to find dungeons that was marked on the map that really keeps you busy with the game even more the longer you play which is the reason the game has a great amount of overall play length.
Inside the dungeons level where your main goal is to defeat the certain boss to rescue sages that was stuck on the portrait, you are being required to beat the puzzle solving aspects that leads you to the next area.
Some of the puzzle solving involves hitting the switch to open up blocked doors, merged onto moving walls, walking across the narrow bridge, switching between red and blue paths, placing two of the eyeballs on the objects, walking around the dark areas, and avoiding trap's projectiles which is done pretty amazing for its puzzle design, but there are some of the segments that are done actually clever in the game such as walking on the invisible bridge, finding a way to get past of invisible walls, setting the thief free from the prison without getting caught in action, finding the two different hidden paths in skull woods, evading from floaty hands, creating pavement rock to walk across using ice-rods, and there's lots more cool stuff that increases the overall fun of the game.
I got to say several of the enemies are actually done good, so you have jumping skeleton that evades your attack, the buzzy blob will electrocute you when hitting them, the icy statues will leap you off the edge of the platform, the round creatures that steal your rupees, the jellyfish beetle will bounce you off when attacking them, the round-eye bat flying around you, the eyegore will run approach you in close-range, and there's more of them had their own variation of ability and attacks.
               
So far, I really pleased with the overall gameplay design that is played brilliant as the 1992's original SNES game.
It retains the same formula as the classic Zelda game in terms of top-down perspective filled with many exploration, obtaining items that are come in useful, fighting out tons of bad guys, helping villagers in need, joining mini-games activity, visiting two different worlds with many locations, and the best of all is the dungeon stage offers a impressive puzzle solving and has shares with epic boss battles such as Moldorm, Margomill, Zaganaga, Knucklemaster, and best of all Yuga that keeps the game entertaining thanks to enemy's patterns system. 
The combat gameplay worked absolutely flawless when it comes with numerous selections of items like sword, shields, bow, hammer, rods, bombs, boomerang, and hookshot which is worked effectively on not just any of puzzle solving, but it worked well against any types of the enemies which is the reason why it made the game quite simple to use.
I also liked the wall merging mechanics where you can able to walk through on the walls which I think it's pretty innovative for Zelda series that bought many of wonderful ideas that been featured in the game.
The only minor issue that kinda annoying is that your equipment items that you rented are likely being taken back to the same store which forcing you to re-pay it again which is kinda sucks, but gladly it didn't hurt the game's overall if the shop owner Ravio had to change his mind later part in the game, so it's not a bad thing. 

Overall, it has brilliant gameplay design, tons of explorations, clever puzzle solving, and epic bosses.



Graphics

The graphics is looking phenomenal when its comes with 3DS's stereoscopic 3D. The level environments on most of the locations is looking damn amazing with vibrant details on buildings, objects, trees, and rocks to make the game look nice and cartoony to fit well on Zelda universe.
I also liked the use of visual effects on lava, lakes, and sands with many uses of particles that looked pretty good in some locations. My favourite part in the dungeons is the dark areas where you had to use the lamp to light up the rooms, but in some areas without lighting up really shows the hidden invisible walls which it really shows how well animating the game looks in terms of lighting design and I got to say the floating objects looked pretty awesome on draw-distance in some dungeons and caves especially having the 3D effects turned on is looking spectacular to see things in the game.
The character models is looking quite terrific on the 3DS system with facial expressions and whole animations just looked so adorable on character like Link and Zelda in general.

Overall, it has amazing level design, impressive visuals effects, spectacular 3D environments, and terrific character models.



Music and Sounds

I really liked the Zelda soundtrack in general especially with their signature theme song in every Zelda games which is the reason why it sounds really catchy that made the whole series quite memorable. 
This game still retains the same soundtrack from the original game with incredible re-arrangement, as well as some newer music are been added to the game which did a fabulous job in the whole game.
I also give the game credit for the best sounding design on the 3DS because of the sound effects are mostly just like the originals with recognisable chimes sounds and jingle effects when obtaining items
and solving problems like opening block doors and open up blocked caves, but I also liked the atmospheric noises in the game with the sounds of winds, lavas, and waterfalls, and then it has a grunting voices from the enemies which I got to say its sounds remarkable.

Overall, it has recognisable soundtrack and best sounding design.


Special Features

The game has new difficulty option called hero mode which most of the enemies deal four times more damage making the game even harder to beat, but it also adds replay value which is welcome edition.
It also features streetpass challenge called Shadow Link battle where the player been encountered by shadowy figures comes from other 3DS devices leading to battle against each other and then the game also shares with cool easter eggs referencing to familiar classic games in the series.

Overall, it's a great overall content in the game.




Advantages

Incredible presentation

Brilliant gameplay design

Tons of exploration

Clever puzzle solving

Epic bosses

Terrific graphics design

Recognisable music and sounds

Replay values



Disadvantages

The item that you rented more likely to taken back to store after death




Final Verdict


Presentation 10/10 - fantastic story, memorable characters, and incredible overall presentation.

Gameplay 10/10 - brilliant gameplay design, tons of explorations, clever puzzle solving, and epic bosses.

Graphics 9.5/10 - amazing level design, impressive visuals effects, spectacular 3D environments, and terrific character models.

Music and Sounds 10/10 - recognisable soundtrack and best sounding design.

Special Features 9.5/10 - Hero mode, Shadow Link battle, and Easter eggs.



Overall 10/10 - This game is a truly masterpiece that is definite a must buy for all 3DS collectors. It filled with many incredible stuff that the fans of the series should able to experience their Zelda universe featuring excellent storylines, innovative gameplay, outstanding exploration, and has replay values which is the reason this game is being one of my favourites on my 3DS libraries.
The Legend of Zelda are always been a strongest video game franchises that is so massively popular over a decade because we all know Nintendo is one of the top-dog company that shares with the unique creative ideas and pushing many talented developers to create the greatest game of all-time.    The price wise is fairly decent enough to pick this copy for less than £15 thanks to Nintendo Selects discount. 

         
       
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