Trepang2 PS5 Review

 

Trepang2 is a indie action-FPS game was released in 2023 for PS5, XSX/S, and PC. It was developed by Trepang Studios and published by Team17.

The 1st-person shooter had became a huge thing from the early 90s to mid-2000s, so we have games like Doom, Quake, Unreal, Goldeneye 007, Halo, Battlefield, and Call of Duty are the prime examples of revolutionised the genre for its innovative gameplay design, new 3D graphics engine, over-the-top campaign action, and of course has the best multiplayer battles for both the local and online modes that changed the gaming industry forever.

The others also shared the great campaign with the heavy emphasis on storyline and narrative such as Half-Life, Bioshock, Deus Ex, The Chronicle of Riddick, Far Cry, and Metroid Prime are just as quite recognisable to get gamers to enjoy the full single-player story.

There's one of the FPS series that caught my attention such as F.E.A.R which is a action-horror shooter, a genre that combines with the twos fitting elements together of the action-shooter and psychological horror.

Not only the game had experimented two of these genres together, but there are some earlier FPS titles had did it way ahead its time like the System Shock 2 and Doom 3 are more of the horror-focused approach than the traditional action-shooter which brings the new style of FPS genre, which is why it influenced F.E.A.R series to create a good mix of shooting action and several of disturbing ghost-horror elements which has an quite unsettling moments especially with the mysterious looking girl is kinda creepy in the game's sequences which is why it made the series quite scary, but also quite memorable back in the mid-2000s.

I was hoping for the F.E.A.R series to make a comeback, but unfortunately it's not gonna happen since the third title in 2011 which unlikely they ever gonna make the forth game of the series sadly, so what are the alternatives to this particular series? well there's one of the indie title that took the inspiration of the FPS era of mid-2000s, so that is Trepang2.

I've just discovered this game off from mostly on gaming sites, as well as some Youtube trailers of game's footage from publisher's or developer's channel and I was really impressed with the style of the game kinda gives me the vibes of the F.E.A.R and Doom series in terms of gameplay design and presentation settings.

I've just picked up a PS5 copy of this game to see if this is anything good to play with, so I'll be covering several of the parts in the game that are just doing right and some others are not so good about it.

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

Presentation

The game starts off with the person called subject 106, yeah that's the name of the character you're playing as, but anyway you just got out of the prison and being recruited with the team under the Taskforce 27 has given your mission task is to destroy the company under the Horizon Corporation.

There's not much of a story in the game beside being tasked to destroy the corrupted companies that wields a large amount of military personnel while hiding inhumane experiments behind their doors, so it's kinda sounds like it's from a sci-fi b-movies that to do with the human cloning and experimenting creatures, but as a indie video games it's pretty sounds okay throughout the game's campaign, but not clearly the best ones in my opinion.

The subject 106 is just a simplified silent protagonist which I really liked his black combat suit and wears orange goggles seems to be really awesome in some concept art, as well as most of the crew units of Taskforce 27 and Horizon Corp has really cool looking military suits and these head-lights helmet...looking really good in the single-player game, and oh what about these weird cult-members wears creepy-looking faceless mask...yeah enough said.

The game also shares with insane-looking boss characters such as the Mothman is look like a skeleton with pairs of larged demon-wings, the enforcer has ability to teleport and summon a wave of cultists to fight you, the Patriarch the cult-leader dressed in royal suit wearing a golden-triplets faceless mask, the flesh golem is basically a deformed creatures with multiple heads and has heavy hands, the Cycle 107 kinda look like a Capcom's R.E's Tyrant wield with samurai sword, and of course you have the Horizon Corp's leader Anton Lazar is basically looks like DC Comic's Lex Luthor running with the company HQ as CEO are responsible for creating the sadistic experiments that harming the human environments. 

     

The presentation in this game is pretty remarkable in many single-player levels. I really liked the crude design of environmental settings that delivers a aggressive tone of the game itself. Stuff like you have Site 14 which is a prison cell facilities where you need to escape from the pitch-blacked prison, the Pandora Institute is one of academy building organisation with many top-tiers rooms and rooftops, the Iron Dragon Data Center is a place that has computer server facilities, the Jorvik Castle is a palace where the cult-members had lived inside the dark medieval themes, the Oil Rig is a warehouse with bunch of cargo stuffs, the Unidentified Structure has broken looking factory that are completely abandoned, and there are the Crash Site filed with scrappy planes and particles scattered around.

Despite being an action-FPS game, there are some of the haunting encounters in some missions such as the whisper which suddenly surprise you with jumpscares and teleport you back to the bathroom if it catches you, the pair of phantom will chase you at the very end of the first backrooms section, and finally these floaty ghost monster will chase and hurt you when you're get close to them, so it may be not quite as scary compared to F.E.A.R series which has really creepy stuff in the single-player game, but anyway they still did a good job with these segments which are completely fine as it should.   

Overall, it has an okay storyplot, but has awesome enemies and bosses, and remarkable presentation settings. 

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, it has 5 main missions as well as the 6 side-missions where you take control of Subject 106 in 1st-person perspective, as your main goal is to beat the entre level throughout the game as well as defeating several of bosses.  

Pushing the left stick control to move the player, where as pushing the right stick control uses as the camera aiming movement to freely look around.

Pressing the cross button to jump over the gaps, and the circle button uses as the crouch to duck down the player for taking cover behind the objects or double tapping the circle button uses as slide through the small gaps from below.

Pressing the left thumbstick button allowing the player to sprint through which are also temporarily depletes your stamina bar till it get automatically recovered in 5 seconds.

You fire the weapon by pressing the right trigger button which attacks and damages your enemies, and you can attack them in close-combat by pressing the right thumbstick button for melee attack them.

You can reload your weapon or swap it with the different weapons from the ground by simply pressing the square button, and you can cycle to the next weapon by pressing the triangle button.

You can toggle or hold to zoom in by pressing the right d-pad button to toggle in which I've preferred having the zoom in toggle or hold with the left trigger instead, so this uses for mostly the weapons has ability to zoom in and shoot in longer range distance.

You can wield two of the weapons by pressing the down d-pad button allowing you to use dual-weapons which deals with double damaging attack.   

You can also throw grenades by pressing the left trigger button in which I've changed it to right shoulder button instead, so these grenades can be used as throwing weapon which makes the heavy explosive damage against the enemies.

You can use cloak system to temporary make you invisible for 3 seconds by pressing the right shoulder button in which I've replaced it with the right d-pad button instead, so these cloak device will prevent you from getting caught in action during the stealth mode.

You also have ability to use focus by pressing the left shoulder button which allowing you to temporarily slow down the enemies for 20 seconds, so this will allow you to quickly defeating them much faster during the shoot-outs.

   

So far, I heard some of the console players had an issue with replacing the button mapping controls in the option menu which unfortunately its been stricted to the default button that's already been mapped, so the best solution is to re-map one of the action button with the down d-pad button then replace others with un-mapped button, but I know it's sounds complicated because I'm the only lucky person who got the button mapping control working fine which took me about 5 mins to deal with these default button control settings.

I am hoping the developers should able to address the button mapping configuration issue without putting any restriction to default, so that they can enjoy the game with their different button control settings.

Aside with the controls, the combat gameplay is excellent in the single-player game because you have plenty choice of weapons that are actually pretty good such as you have pistol which is perfect for well-balanced only does a decent damage, the sub-machine guns and assault rifle has the good range of mid-distance with fair amount of shooting damage just shreds your skin off, the shotguns has short-range but also deals wicked damage just makes the enemy's limbs and armors blowned off in pieces, the sniper-rifle uses the zoom-in target are perfect for headshots in one kill, the grenade launcher does give a heavy impact damage to enemies with huge explosives, the bolt-gun makes really impactful explosive damage with 3-shots that can explode, and the best of all is the mini-gun which makes a severe damaging shots which is effective against the heavy-duty armored enemies.

The best part is that you can add the attachments to these weapons on the green crate if you found the attachment case items in some levels, so what it does is to add the variations such as turning shotgun into inflammable stuff that can set enemies on fire, using the silencer on pistols just makes the firing sounds less louder to prevent alerting enemies nearby, the assault rifle will have 3.5 scope which you can toggle the scope aiming for perfect targeting accuracy, and there's plenty more of cool attachable stuffs can be found in some areas. 

I got to say that I really liked the choices of throwing weapons like grenades which makes a exploding impact on heavy-duty armored enemies, the inflammable bottles will set the enemies on fire, the knives and tomahawk are effective with small armored enemies, and these flashbangs will temporally make these enemies blind in 10 seconds.

Each of the enemies are very good in the single-player action, so you have one of the enemies will wield with swat shield as their defense weapon, the others wore heavy-duty armors to reduce their damage, the squad enemies will have their snipers to shoot you at long-range distance, the specialist has ability to counter-hack your hacking objectives, the bunch of cult-guys will throw their inflammable bottle at you, and there are zombies will attack you with their melee as well as puking you with the acids.    

I got to say the whole single-player campaign mission are very good indeed because you have 5 really great main missions and 6 awesome side-missions to play which keeps me very busy with the the game, so you have really great segments in some missions like fighting with the Mothman in underground of Pandora Institute, surviving the waves of hordes while hacking the system in Gunnarson Complex and Iron Dragon Data Center, having a over-the-top shootouts against cult-members in Jorvik Castle, stopping the unidentified flying objects with the firing turrets in Oil Rig, and there are some spooky stuffs like in Unidentified Structure where you're in the pitch black bottom room haunted by floating ghost, and there's a two part in Site 83 where you don't want to get caught out by the creature called the Whisper will surprise you with unexpecting jumpscares, and you will also entered into the weird psychological stuff in creepy yellow rooms followed by multiples of dark shadows which they got the stuff pretty right in the single-player campaign, but sadly it suffered with ridiculously short-length of playthrough which takes about 5 to 6 hours to beat the entire game, so it's quite a shame for those who likes playing a longer single-player campaign will not likely to be satisfied with the short-playthrough.

I wish they could have added 5 more main missions to expand the play-length would have made it bit better, so stay tuned for the future additional story DLC are still in the development, but overall I did manage to enjoy the single-player action with plenty of good stuff to play.          

There are one of the game mode called combat simulator where you have two tasks such as the horde mode where you had to take out the waves of enemy hordes till you've reached at very end of last wave, where as the endless mode are basically survival mode which you need to survive the waves of enemy hordes till you're been defeated.

I find these combat simulator quite fun to play which are reliant on scoring system and time record, so just love spending time blasting the f**k out of these guys to get a highest score as possible is what made the combat simulator quite entertaining. 

The one downside is that it's quite a bummer for not including a multiplayer mode because this FPS game should have deserve a local split-screen and online multiplayer battle could have made the game better, so that people can enjoy blasting each other in deathmatch or go on full co-op together in horde mode would have been sounds really great idea, but no this game have missed out the multiplayer mode which seems to be quite unfair.

I was hoping for devs to consider adding the multiplayer for the future update when the time is right for them to create it.         

 

Overall, it has excellent combat gameplay, very good campaign missions, and has fun combat simulator mode.

Graphics

The graphics in this game is pretty solid especially on 9th gen console. It had a amazing environmental design in some areas such as the places in Pandora Institute and Gunnarson Complex where you see a reflecting floors, glossy doors, sharper texture details on surfaces, and shares with decent lighting levels is just looking spectacular.

I also liked the large areas of Jorvik Castle filled with man-made structures, fountains, and huge pillars sharing with the shadow effects around the room are just looking quite amazing.

I wanted to praise the game for its particle effects when destroying the objects like books, glass, and woods just flown around, and I really liked how these weapons made multiples of bullet-holes on walls turned everything cracked and these weapons are also really good with the destructible stuffs when destroying some of the surfaces in some areas are incredibly impressive for game's design.

The best part in this game is the level of gore system similar to earlier FPS titles like Soldier of Fortune, Cold Winter, and of course F.E.A.R in terms of bloody violence content where you can blow the enemy's limbs and heads off with heavy shotgun, grenades, and mini-guns just made their particles of bodies splattered everywhere while the pool of blood leaves on the floor just proves the awesomeness of the game's ultra-violence action.

The frame-rate performance in this game are incredibly smooth with 60 fps that are ridiculously fast and stable with no signs of slow-downs which is amazing to see this kind of FPS game that are all about being a fast-paced shooter and over-the-top action just runs really well on PS5, and I was hoping the same goes with XSX/S (mostly X model) just ran well as the PS5 version in terms of performance and resolution.

Overall, it has solid visual design, smooth frame-rate performance, and has ultra-violence gore-fest system.

Music and Sounds

The game sure does have a wicked metal soundtrack similar to other FPS game such as Doom Eternal and Prodeus in which it made these soundtrack starts off bit settled synth when no ones around in the level yet until the kickass music starts kicking in with shredded riffs and chaotic drums when the enemies showed up for action just adds the game's badassery that makes you want to blow their limbs and head off clean.

It was composed by Brandon McKagan just really nails the heavyness level of the game's soundtrack just delivers the excitement of game's fast-paced action.

The sound effects are mostly great in this game with weapon's booming noises, the ambient sounds from the background noises in surrounding areas, and of course the part where the floating ghost comes near you just makes it everything goes mute till you killed them to bring the normal sound back are just well-designed.

The voice acting in this game sure really does enjoy delivering really cool use of F-bombs in every sentence, so f**k yeah I really love the edginess feel of the game.

Overall, it has wicked metal soundtrack, great sound design, and insane amount of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast.

Special Features

The game does comes with unlockable weapons and items on the supply crates when completing the higher difficulty on campaign, and you also can unlock the cheat menu which is pretty cool to have it in the game.

You can also gather collecting multiples of documents, PDF, photos, and etc in every levels which is fine.

I also wanted to mention that the game does comes with season pass which includes new survival mode and additional story missions to be released in this year, so the season pass cost £9 which is a little bit too much but this may going to surprise you with these new content to this game.

Overall, a really great content. 

Advantages    

Remarkable presentation settings

Excellent combat gameplay

Very good campaign action

Fun combat simulator mode

Ultra-violence gore-fest

Wicked metal soundtrack

Cool use of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast

Disadvantages

Short-length playthrough

Button-mapping settings has an issue

Lacks multiplayer mode

Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - okay storyplot, but has awesome enemies and bosses, and remarkable presentation settings. 

Gameplay 8/10 - excellent combat gameplay, very good campaign missions, and has fun combat simulator mode.

Graphics 8.5/10 - solid visual design, smooth frame-rate performance, and has ultra-violence gore-fest system.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - wicked metal soundtrack, great sound design, and insane amount of F-Bombs by edgy voice cast.

Special Features 8/10 - has unlockable weapons and items, cheat menu, collectables documents and infos, and has season pass which includes survival mode and additional story missions. 

Overall 8/10 - Trepang2 is a fun and over-the-top FPS game that does the job well done. I never got disappointed with the single-player missions are packed with epic bosses, great combat system, and intense shooting action is what made the game quite fun to play, even though its pretty too short but I'm really sure they will soon gonna release an additional story DLC to expand the playthrough length would help the game quite a bit.  

I also did however enjoyed the combat simulator where you had fun blasting many waves of hordes are also quite fun too, but I wish they should have added the multiplayer modes would have made the game bit better.

That being said, I really liked the game so far which I did not regret playing it which I'm sure they will consider making a future sequel to deliver more awesomeness like the original game has to offer.

The physical copy is cost between £25 to £35 for both the PS5 and XSX/S (X model), where as the digital releases are usually cheaper on PCs for £25 on Steam as comparison with the Consoles are just for £30 on PS Store and Xbox Store. 

I say if you really love the style of FPS action, then it's worth to go check it out and play some gory-action madness.      

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Ghostrunner PS5 Review

 

Ghostrunner is a 1st-person action-platform game was originally released in 2020 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC, and was later released on PS5 and XSX/S in 2021. 

It was both developed by One More Level and Slipgate Ironworks, and both published by 505 Games and All in! Games.

There are a lot of the FPS stuff nowadays that always about gun-shooting action instead of coming up any new ideas, so if you're one of the people are kinda got bored with the traditional shooting action, but wanted to focus on different style of game that involves heavily focused more on melee sword-fighting and cool platforming action then let me introduce the Ghostrunner.

It's a 1st-person action game with the combination of Platforming and Hack N Slash which seems to be an interesting title that I'd like to give a shot, so I decided to get a PS5 copy of this title to see if this game is anything good to play.

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

Presentation

The game is set on somewhere in futuristic settings. So you're basically the Ghostrunner, an tech-enhanced superhumans who awakens with no recollection. He was contacted by the Architect, who established and ruled Dharma Tower, have order the Ghostrunner to free him from the Keymaster named Mara, who betrayed him in a coup that destroyed most of the Ghostrunner units. 

The story in the game is rather kinda mixed in my opinion because I find the plot and narrative throughout the game is kinda sounded like the low-budget Sci-Fi b-movies, so all you hear the story is to go on the mission and defeat the Keymaster to set the Architect free, and also you may hear some of the Architect's conversation about the Keymaster's leadership that could rule the cyberworld city and blah and blah.

I wasn't got into with the game's story as much beside I think I really liked the Ghostrunner as a protagonist because the way he talks with his gruffy tone and seriousness, and I got to like his super-suit appearance with the leather-jacket hoodie, metalic-arms, the futuristic black-mask, and of course his razor-edge samurai-katana which is quite tough as a chad.

The presentation is looking decent for the settings choices which I really liked how the environments are designed to be very cyber-punk themed.

Stuff like you see the futuristic city-buildings, backstreets, rooftops, factories, has neon-light signboards, and some warehouses which I find these concepts design for the game's presentation is very well done.

I also liked the enemy's types of units which shared with really cool armors and metallic suits, and I got to say these bosses are looking awesome in the game, so stuff like you have Hel which has ninja-like mask, blackened-red and white suit, and has long-pony tail, but due to her unstable personality which she can't filter her emotions just to make her colder approach.

Then finally Mara is kinda has the vibes of Marvel's villain like Dr. Octopus, judging with her mechanical tentacles attached on her back, and she also does a lot of crazy electrifying all over the stage which is one insane boss character.

   

Overall, an below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.

Gameplay

You take control of Ghostrunner in 1st-person perspective, as your main goal is to beat the entire stage by defeating many of the enemies and being able to reach at the destination point that leads you to the next stage. 

To keep you in mind, my control configuration is played differently so if any of you have played the game with the default controls please don't get mixed up with my configuration choices while I'm reviewing the game.

You move the player with the left stick control while using the right stick control to use camera movement to look around. 

You interact stuff like opening doors with the switch by pressing the cross button which I've changed it to square button. Pressing the right shoulder button to jump which I've changed it to cross button, so you can use these jumps which allowing you to jump on platforms or jump towards a surface or wall which makes you automatically run across the wall, as well as doing the wall jumps which you can jump off from the wall while you're running on the wall.

Pressing the right thumbstick button to crouch which I've changed it to circle button, so you can also use these couch action to slide forward or slide down the slopes.

You can perform the dashing moves by pressing the left shoulder button which allowing you to use dash to reach the long-distance platforms or evade the enemy's projectiles.

You can also hold the dash button to perform sensory boost which allows you to slow time and useful for dodging left and right to avoid incoming attacks or jump away from the platforms to avoid hazardous objects such as electricals or fire. 

Pressing the left trigger button which uses as the grappling hook allowing you to attached on grappling spot which indicates the blue-rounded symbols on the above.

Hitting the right trigger button uses as the melee sword attack which uses to slice off the enemies or you can also use the sword to parry the enemy's melee attack or projectiles close to you when pressing the right trigger button in right timing. 

Pressing the left thumbstick button to use skill moves which I've changed it to right shoulder button, so these skills move will allow you to perform various of 4 skill moves such as the blink will enables you to target multiple enemies at once and kill them with single attack, the tempest allows you to use a blast to kills enemies or deflect projectiles, the surge which highlight an enemy and attack them with your ranged projectiles, and finally the overlord allows you to take control of enemies causing them to attack other enemies. 

You will able to gain the upgrades throughout the game which you'll have access to the calibration panel by pressing the touchpad button, so you'll have the list of available upgrades front of you and assign the ones you want to use.

Stuff like you have additional charge, cooldown system for faster re-charge, reflecting enemy's projectiles, absorbing projectiles charges the focus meter, the enemies are outlined for better visibility, the time moves slower during sensory boost, the blink has a significantly longer range, killing 2 or more enemies at once with tempest, the surge's wave travels much faster, and many more varieties of upgrades which improves upon your abilities and skills throughout the game. 

I say these controls are pretty straight-forward to play because all you do is to run, jump, slide, and of course dash which these of the movements are worked really smoothly to learn many of the manoeuvring techniques which requires to use these for being able to reach higher platforms and gaps, evading many hazardous stuff like grinds, electrical currents, and fires, and trying the best not to fall off the stage.

I really liked how the game like this involving the stunts-platforms where you can run across the wall and swinging around with the grappling hook just feels really fun to play this kind of game.

The combat system is well designed which requires you to learn how to slice and parry against the enemies are really dead on simple to play, so it's not really complicated at all.

I also liked using these skills which works very responsive because I really liked using these skill power just takes the advantages to defeat the enemies pretty quickly.

The upgrades are also quite useful because you really need these to enhance your player's abilities to perform better on the combat and skills just adds up the beneficial of the player's play-ability.

What makes the game quite challenging to play is mostly one hit death, a term where you really need to survive the fight against the enemies or some platforming stuff that has hazardous obstacles around it without taking one damage from them, so if you do get hit by the projectiles or obstacles then you're dead in action.

It makes you repeat the multiple attempts to solve the problem which it may going to frustrate most of the casuals players who really hated some of the tedious parts in some stages are filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal with in regards of aggressive enemy's A.I are being a cheap with attacks and some time the platforming design can be too complex for them is because this game is about learning all the trials and errors that you really need to get used with the game's design choices that requires you to play perfect at this game without making many mistakes, but thankfully it has the checkpoint system where you don't have to start the stage over again so instead it takes you the spot to continue where you're left off which really helps the player. 

You can also set the difficulty to assist mode where you can change stuff such as the game speed which you can slow down the game to give you more time to react, adding extra life to make mistakes less punishing, and shorten your cooldown ability time which may going to help beginners to enjoy the game quite more.

What I liked about the game is that you have each of the enemies that shares with their combat and abilities such as one of them has pistol, the other has auto-rifles, the big security guy uses their plasma shield to use it as defence or push the player off, the cyber-like samurai are really good at parrying and makes counter-attack, the reckless guy will make a launch jump at you from long-distance, the long-legged robot fires with horizontal-beam at you, and many more foes does a insane projectiles and melees which I see why the game is tough as nails, but also provides a really good challenge throughout the campaign.

Overall, it has well-designed combat and has good platforming design.

Graphics

The graphics is looking quite solid for the 9th gen title, as you see the visuals quality are actually looking incredible when playing on the PS5 consoles.                         

The level environments are sure quite big with great depths of height to make the whole game feels more like the platformer.

The textures are in sharper details on surfaces, it has the rain effects at the outside of the city and streets, the lighting effects made a good mix of bright and diming in some areas, and of course they made a details on the draw-distance are looking very good to keep the background environments look fine and crispy.

I also liked the use of the special effects on enemy's projectiles and some hazardous obstacles are quite easier to spot the dangers in surrounding areas.

The character's model is quite amazing throughout the game with good responsive A.I behaviours with their walking and running animation, and I really liked how they designed them to look quite so good in the stages.

The frame-rate and resolution quality in PS5 is bang-on 4K with locked 60fps on ray-tracing mode delivering a best visual quality, where as the performance mode goes up to just locked 120fps without running on 4K which you may going to lose a bit of the visual quality but also quite playable, so to be honest both of these settings are just plays absolutely fine with no sign of slow-downs whatsoever which seems to be a great news for the PS5 version, where as the XSX/S are completely different depending which model you're playing on, so on the X model which you still have the same configuration as the PS5 but its nowhere near consistent in terms of frame dips on the ray-tracing mode where as playing the performance mode are quite playable but doesn't adds-up the visual quality, and I got to say the S model are looking quite rough with the performance and visual quality just doesn't seem to play well as the X model.

I believe the PS4, XBONE, and Switch are running on between 720p and 1080p resolution but the frame-rate are kinda bit rough to play it on 8th gen with the 30fps, so it's better off playing on the 9th gen system and PCs just performed better than these version, so sorry 8th gen.        

Overall, it has solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.  

     

   

Music and Sounds

The music in this game is actually sounds pretty good with synth-wave beats soundtrack which kinda gives us the style of the 80s cyber-punk themed.

It was composed by Daniel Deluxe did a remarkable job of adding the upbeating synth-wave to its action. 

The sound design is stunningly quite amazing with the environmental noises and has the surrounding atmospheric sounds throughout the stages are just sounded great on the audio sound system equipment goes thumping about everywhere.

The voice acting is pretty okay on the dialogue conversation, so to be fair on this I say the voice of the main protagonist is sounded quite better than the rest of the cast of generic supporting characters are not nearly sounded as great. 

Overall, it has really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.

Special Features

The game does come with extra DLCs campaign called "Project Hel" where you get to play as Hel in 7 campaign stages, and you can also participate with two extra modes such as kill run where you had to race through the stages within time limit, and you have wave mode where you had a task to beat all 20 waves of enemies using the randomised upgrades.

Overall, an impressive additional features.

Advantages

Cool main protagonist

Decent presentation settings

Well-designed combat and has good platforming design

Solid visuals

Really good soundtrack

Disadvantages

Below-averaged story

Some tedious parts in some levels

Final Verdict

Presentation 7/10 - below-averaged story, but has cool protagonist and decent presentation.

Gameplay 8/10 - well-designed combat and good platforming design.

Graphics 8.5/10 - solid level environments, amazing animation and some good special effects.

Music and Sounds 7.5/10 - really good soundtrack and amazing sound design.

Special Features 8/10 - has DLCs campaign and two game modes.

Overall 8/10 - Ghostrunner is a very good 1st-person action-platformer that does the job well done, so you got fun and challenged campaign filled with great combat gameplay, good platforming action, and of course dealing with the tough as nails enemies that keeps you busy with the game just for solid 7 to 10 hours length of playthrough.

Even though the story is not the strongest point of the game, but what really makes the game matters is all about having a good single-player campaign with unique combat abilities and skills to learn, and has the learning curves to find it's way to solve the platforming stages filled with many enemies and obstacles to deal is what makes the game plays really fun. 

       

The game is actually pretty cheap on physical copies which you can get it on the PS5, XSX/S (X Model), and Switch in between £15 to £25, where as you can get it digitally for PCs and consoles platform just for £25.

I say this is definite a buy for those who are interested in playing the action-platformer in 1st-person perspective will likely to give this game a go and see if they can enjoy this style of unique game.

Hopefully I will consider getting the sequel in near future and see if it's doing anything good as the original in terms of levels, combat, and platforming that has to be well structured and enjoyable to play.

 

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Resident Evil Village PS5 Review

 

Resident Evil Village is a Survival-Horror game was released in 2021 for PS5, PS4, XSX/S, XBONE, and PC, and then it got later ported to Switch in 2022 as cloud service version.

It was both developed and published by Capcom, and it is a sequel to the 2017's previous title such as Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.

Previously, I've already covered my review on Resident Evil 7: Biohazard for PS4 which I described it as the return of the Survivor Horror roots since after the previous entry such as RE 6 which was absolute nothing but a dog shit, so thankfully the RE 7: Biohazard just got everything right to create what makes the franchise quite successful back in the old days of gaming. 

I had a blast of playing RE 7 which delivers many great stuffs in the game such as showdown with Jack Baker breaking through the walls, and that crazy bitch surprises you with unexpected jumpscares just adds up the overall scare-fest level. 

The darker tone setting of presentation borrows the influence from 70s horror film like Texas Chainsaw Massacre in terms of crooked-looking house and the insane villains.

The gameplay mixes with the survival and puzzles that keeps you busy with the game to progress throughout the story campaign is what makes RE 7 just stepping in the right direction.

As I previously enjoyed the RE 7, I was hoping to look forward with the another RE games which is why I've bought a copy of RE Village for PS5.

Yes everyone, I've already talked earlier about that I've finally got a PS5 Slim last week ago which is why I am here to make my very first PS5 review that I'll be covering today.

So what is my thoughts on RE Village? well it's all depends on how are these story, gameplay, and presentation went, so is it another good RE games out there or is it not just what I've expecting from the title.

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

Presentation

The game sets in 3 years after the events of RE 7, so it started with Ethan Winters, an main protagonist who survived from the Baker's house incident from RE 7, had been settled living with his wife Mia and 6 month daughter Rosemary until the house invasion had happened when Chris Redfield and his team came breaking in and kills Mia in cold blooded, and kidnaps Ethan and his baby daughter being transported in a van.

After the collision crash, Ethan wakes up on the outside of the village and began his journey to search his baby daughter, as well as uncovering the truth from Chris's action behind the house invasion incident. 

The opening scene in the beginning of the campaign is quite unexpected with brutally of teams starts breaking in Ethan's home and showered the f**k out of his wife with multiples of bullets, and knocks Ethan down unconsciously when he's trying to protect his baby from Chris and the teams.

This turns out to be sounds shocking to you fans which you did not expect your all-time favourite hero from the previous RE games had turned out to be bad guy in the game...well there's no explanation what was the main reason he did all that reckless shoot-out which remained mystery, so that's really getting very interesting stuff going on in the game.

First of all, I never been a fan of Ethan Winters as a faceless main protagonist, but in this game his character's development seems to be more of the same with no significant changes whatsoever meaning it's still has the same less emotions characteristics and lacks strong personally just like from the previous game.

Then you have the returning character such as Chris Redfield, as you may know him as the major important character from the previous entries of RE series. 

His appearance in the game are described as much darker and more sinister in contrast to his previous heroic portrayal in the series which I really liked the new changes on his character's role in RE Village a lot better than he was previously appeared in RE 7: Biohazard. 

The game also shares with many great villains that are quite just as likable, so stuff like you have Hammer-wielding asshole Karl Heisenberg, haunting ghost-like Donna Beneviento and her creepy doll Angie, supreme leader figure Mother Miranda, three crazy witches Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela, and of course everyone had talked about the tall-gigantic woman that breaks the internet after watching the trailer such as Lady Alcina Dimitrescu which I got to say it's clearly the best and most recognisable female villain in RE series...seriously no joke, I swear to you guys may going to agree with my view on this 9 foot-tall madam with big-long claws and the scary expression on her face.

I also liked several of the monstrous creatures like warewolf-like mutants, mold-infected human with mechanical modifications wield with scraped-metal axe, fungy-like zombie with claws and teeth, slow vampiric creature wield with melee sword, giant old-brute wield with large war-hammer, bat-like creature flying everywhere outside, mutated soldier wield with arm-mounted drills, and of course mechanically-modified creature with huge propeller stuck on the head, which I considered these concept design looking quite remarkable that fits really well in the game's settings.

The presentation in this game is actually does gives me sorts of Resident Evil 4 vibes to it in regards of these locations and environments are looking quite similar in both.

You have outside of the villages that are looking so abandoned and completely wrecked which really shows that there are many of poorly conditioned houses, churches, and graveyards just really adds up the game's creepiness.

I also liked three of these locations such as Castle Dimitrescu which are cloudy and gloomy at outside of the castle, and I really liked how they designed the castle at outside view just looks like it came from the Bram Stoker's Dracula, where as inside of the castle are described as dark and medieval with old-looking fashioned rooms and halls.

Then you have crooked-looking Beneviento house which appears to be unsettling and has disturbing stuff going on which I considered this ugly looking house as nothing but a most haunted places in this particular location.

Finally you have Heisenberg's factory filled with dark industrial room and has gritty environments all over the places.

Overall, it has brilliant story, incredible presentation settings, and terrifying villains and creatures. 

Gameplay

In single-player campaign, you take control of Ethan Winters in 1st-person or 3rd-person perspective depending on which are these two options suits your playstyle in the game, as your main goal is to rescue his kidnapped baby daughter but in order to do that you must complete several of objectives to progress throughout the game such as puzzle-solving, gathering info from documents and diary, collecting keys and items to gain access to new area, and of course defeating many bosses. 

Pushing the left stick to move player around, while the right stick are used as camera movement.

Pressing the left thumbstick to make player run, and pressing the right thumbstick is to make player crouch down can be used for stealth play.

You can interact and pick-up the objects by pressing the cross button, when the cross button symbol appears on the screen.

You can also go on the inventory screen by pressing the triangle button which takes you to the inventory stuff which allows you to equip and examine weapons and items, as well as re-organising stuff to fit in space for many weapons and items that you've picked up recently from. 

You can set 4 each of your weapons by highlighting them with short-cuts which allowing you to quickly cycle your weapons by hitting the d-pad buttons, so that you don't have to go back to inventory screen to equip others.

Holding the left trigger to make steady aim while moving around the targeting cursor with the right stick control, then shoot it with the right trigger to shoot down these enemies, but you can also reload the weapon by hitting the square button just in case if your ammunition rounds is quite bit low.

You can avoid enemy's melee attack by hitting the left shoulder button to defend yourself from taking damage, and you can use your first aid bottle by hitting the right shoulder button to increase your health when your health is been lowered down. 

You can gain access to your map screen by pressing the touchpad button will display full maps of the locations which helps you navigating the stuff like where you supposed to go and finding a way get to the new area.

You can also save progress by going to the safe room which can be located on your maps, so pay closely attention to the map which also has icons displayed. Once you're in the safe room, you can use the typewriter object which allowing you to save the game which you can always continue the game where you left off for later play, so thankfully you don't really need the ink item in order to save progress because you can save anytime you want in the game. 

So far, the controls in this game works really smoothly because I had no issues with the character's movement and camera system, as you can always change the control settings on the pause option menu such as your look sensitivity control and button layouts preferences to suit your play-ability.

The best things about the PS5 controller is that your adaptive triggers actually uses for the pressure sensitivity which means it's designed for the specific parts in the gameplay element that really adds up a new ways of experiencing to play PS5 games.

For example: when equipping the pocket knife which are lighter melee weapon made your adaptive triggers quite loose, while changing it to other weapons like pistols, shotguns, and rifles that made your adaptive triggers quite tighter to press, so it's like you're pulling the trigger from the gun on your hand just adds up the realism to the combat gameplay which worked really amazing for most of the part. 

It made really good rattling noises on the right trigger when using the machine-guns, and of course pushing the right trigger half-way hard with the pistols just seems to be very responsive which is why I'm amazed with the innovation that's being included on the 9th gen controller.

The gameplay as a whole are just plays great in terms of survival, combat, exploration, and of course the game's difficulty challenge. 

Having to play on casual mode are acceptable for beginners who aren't to keen with the challenge but rather focusing mostly on the story sequences, where as the standard mode delivers a decent challenge without being too difficult to complete, and lastly the hardcore mode is more of the full-on survival root which reduces the amount of resources and making the most of the enemies much tougher and difficult to fight are the best recommendation for most experienced players who loves to participate a bigger challenge.

The mix of combat and survival are nicely balanced as you may need to use some of the survival tool in order to survive in the game such as your weapons and ammunitions which you'll need these to fight off against these monsters when they get too close to you, but don't try to waste many ammunition otherwise you're screwed unless you can only use these when it's necessary, if left no other choice but to fight instead.

Same goes with the health items which you can only use it once if you think you really need to increase your health, so do it wisely or else you'll have no left to use it.

The stealth is the best way to avoid contacting with the monsters or other threats because sometime you don't really want to waste your time fighting with the enemies so much, as you're trying to get to the new areas, so you can hide inside the long furniture, under the beds, and behind the objects like boxes and walls are the best way to prevent getting caught in action.

You can meet up with the big fat Duke which can be found mostly in safe room and places, so you can able to trade stuffs like upgradable weapons which improves upon your weapon performance such as firing rate, power, and reload speed, and then you have attachable items that attached onto your weapon like keeping your aiming steady and adding scope to increase zoom-in distance, and lastly some resources like health and ammo items may come in handy.   

I also loved the exploration in the game is because I really liked how they designed the level environment to be larger than the previous games, so you can use exploration to discover collectable treasures and valuables, uncovering different discoveries, and some interesting stuff going on in these villages and other locations.

What makes the game quite enjoyable is the several of fantastic segments that doing the game's justice, so you have some of the decent puzzle-solving aspects such as changing and placing the portraits, re-arranging the statues, swing the flames left and right to light-up candle, play the notes correctly shown on the paper, shoot 5 bells in room, and many more puzzle stuffs that unlocks the un-reveal paths, as well as obtaining the key items that lead you to the new rooms.

My favourite part of the game is the creepy doll house event that kinda gives me sort of the Konami's cancelled P.T Demo of Silent Hill vibes to it in terms of settings and atmospheres where the whole doll house are fully cursed with disturbing stuffs going on such as the light generator just shuts off loudly, hearing little girl laughing in background noises, the radio shatters up like mad, and of course one f***ed up part in the game that I never forget is the ugly-looking deformed baby start chasing you around the rooms is the moment that I finding it quite terrifying, damn that larged deformed baby is sure one ugly mother-f***er.

I also did enjoy the showdown with the bosses are the best thing in the single-player campaign, so you have Lady Dimitrescu where not only she chases you with her deadly claws, but for later part where she's also turned into the final true form which you had to fight her at the rooftops, and then you have Heisenberg which not only he uses his heavy melee weapon, but also has ability to use his power that gathers his scraps to create his defense shields and armor, and of course the throwing attacking weapons, so these are the boss battles that I finding it quite entertaining to play.

I wanted to point out one of the criticism which is a Chris's mission are rather being too short because as I really liked having him as playable character in this story campaign start kicking all the creatures asses, as you can only as him just for half an hour mission which is not quite enough for those who really liked Chris from the previous RE games are expecting his mission to be bit more lengthy, so I wish his mission in the story campaign could have done a bit longer than the half an hour would have made it quite better in my opinion.   

As I did enjoy the single-player campaign, I also had a Gold Edition which Includes the extra Story DLC titled as "Shadow of Rose" where you get to play as Rosemary Winters entering her frightening nightmarish campaign, and you also got the mercenaries mode which is a score attack mini-game where you had to defeat all the enemies to gain more scoring points in time limit, and also I did mentioned the 3rd person perspective mode which are only featured on the gold edition version.   

You can also get a VR mode for free from the digital storefront, so you can able to enjoy playing the new VR mode on single-player campaign if you have the PSVR 2 headset which I also heard many good things about having to play the horror title with the VR headset delivers the new ways to gain the VR horror experience.  

Overall, it has responsive controls, challenging mix of combat and survival, great puzzle-solving, and of course enjoyable boss battles.

Graphics

The overall visual is surprisingly outstanding for the 9th gen system like the PS5 console makes the use of the ray-tracing technologies.

This will allow the system fully rendering the multiples of real-time techniques such as ray casting, photon mapping, and also capable of simulating a variety of optical effects such as reflection, refraction, soft shadows, and other types of effects are really designed to create the photo-realistic design for 9th gen consoles.

In this game, the environmental design of some buildings like Castle Dimitrescu which shares the great use of sharp and bold textures mapping on the walls, objects, and structures that are sometime shiny and smooth or others can be hard and solid just seems to be very well detailed. 

Stuff like you have the shiny floors, wavey puddle of water, smooth looking dinning tables, and those objects like wine glass and bottles are the prime examples of using the ray-tracing technologies that adds up the realism of game's design.

The lighting and shadow effects are quite spot-on where you see bunch of the light candles and chandeliers in some rooms just made it quite brighter where as you can see the dark shadows in corridors that are being reflected by surrounding like windows and objects just makes the good balance of the overall brightness and contrast level.

The character's animation is looking quite top-notch using the quality motion capturing system that made not just only the digitized movement and motions that delivers the great level of body and facial figuring technology, but the details that's been added on the characters are very much more of like a real people is just rather looking impressive throughout the cinematic sequences and real-time in-game playthrough. 

The frame-rate on each consoles has different advantages depending on which platform you're playing on, so for the PS5 and XSX/S both of them has two options like performance mode or ray-tracing mode.

The performance mode runs fully on 60fps delivering a smoother gameplay, where as the ray-tracing mode are mainly focused on full graphical power giving a console a full advantage of rendering a visual techniques.

To be quite honest, the performance mode is actually did a good job on both consoles with no slow-downs whatsoever but the visual quality level may not look as crisp, where as the ray-tracing mode are also did good too with the graphical level term but I also heard it ran mostly better on XSX/S (X model) takes the advantage of being able to run on between 55 and 60 fps, where as the PS5 just ran on between 50 and 60 fps, so to be fair it doesn't seem to really affecting on your experience which you may likely to enjoy the game in both ways.

I also wanted to point out that some say the S model of Xbox Series are looking quite bad in comparison with the X model are way better for the frame-rate and graphical level, so it's better off playing on the X model of Xbox Series instead.                    

Overall, it has outstanding environmental design, amazing character's animation, and stable frame-rate performance. 

 

Music and Sounds

The original soundtrack in the game is stunningly fantastic for most of the part. There are several of the soundtrack that are pretty strange but also quite an interesting choice for this type of horror game like "Village of Shadows" and "The Duke" are kinda gives me sort of Danny Elfman vibes to it, where as the others like "Promensons-nous dans les bois", "A Bad Feeling", and "Crisis" just sounded like it's belongs to other horror games that sounded quite similar like Konami's Silent Hill and Red Barrel's Outlast which really fits well on some chase sequences and in-game action.

It was composed by Shusaku Uchiyama and Nao Sato did a fabulous job of capturing a daunting level of scares throughout the game.

The use of sound effects did a splendid job on ambient sounds and background noises just makes the use of 3D audio technologies which allowing the player being able to hear the surrounding stuffs like the footsteps, dropped objects, and of course the sounds of the screaming and laughing voices coming from the other rooms just adds up the unsettling level which proves the overall sound design is indeed very good for the 9th gen standards. 

The voice cast did a excellent job on their character's portrayal especially Maggie Robertson's performance on Lady Dimitrescu are sounds really amazing in the game. 

Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and excellent voice performance.

Special Features

The gold edition includes Shadows of Rose DLC story, the mercenaries additional orders which includes more new playable characters, 3rd-person perspective mode, and of course online-only game such as RE: Re:Verse.  

You can also get the VR mode off from PS Store as free DLCs are recommended to those who had PSVR 2 headset may going to experience the single-player campaign using the VR headset.

Overall, an absolute solid content for gold edition and including the free DLCs VR mode.

Advantages

 

Incredible story presentation and settings 

Terrifying villains and creatures

Challenging mix of combat and survival 

Great puzzle-solving  and enjoyable boss battles

Fantastic soundtrack and sound design

Disadvantages

Unlikable main protagonist

Chris's mission in story campaign are too short 

Final Verdict

Presentation 8.5/10 - brilliant story, incredible presentation settings, and terrifying villains and creatures.

Gameplay 8.5/10 - responsive controls, challenging mix of combat and survival, great puzzle-solving, and enjoyable boss battles.

Graphics 10/10 - outstanding environmental design, amazing character's animation, and stable frame-rate performance.

Music and Sounds 9/10 - fantastic soundtrack, very good sound design, and excellent voice performance.

Special Features 9/10 - Gold Edition includes Shadows of Rose DLC story, the mercenaries additional orders which includes more new playable characters, 3rd-person perspective mode, and online-only game such as RE: Re:Verse.

The free DLCs VR mode are also welcome too.

Overall 8.5/10 - As much I've loved the RE 7: Biohazard back then, the RE Village is another great entry that does the series a justice thanks to story campaign, presentation settings, gameplay design, and of course the overall scare factor just got the whole game right that the fans of the series are likely to enjoy another RE entry. 

I am very glad that Capcom has started to improve the franchise since the early 2010s where games like RE 6 and other stuff are going full-on action-oriented which doesn't seem to satisfy many the horror fans who never really liked how the series went onto different direction doesn't seems to work well, so Capcom had decided to make the U-turn by going back to the main horror roots that is what made the franchise quite success back in the 90's era which is why we had RE 7 and this game is the huge step-forward for the franchise.

That being said, RE Village is a very good horror title for 9th gen system which is definite recommendation to buy it especially the Gold Edition in which you can get it physically on PS5, PS4, XSX/S, and XBONE for between £20 to £30 so be sure to get it in brand new condition because you really need the DLCs code voucher for Gold Edition to unlock it all, and you can get it digitally on PCs and Consoles just for between £40 to £45. 

For those who owns the Switch console are likely to play it on cloud services using the eShop's launcher application, but sadly I also heard it's quite poorly optimised due to it's running on the cloud services requires heavy use of internet connectivity makes the game ran very buggy, so it's best not to play it on the Switch and stick it to the other platforms like the Playstation, Xbox, and PCs are better ways to play and enjoy the game.  

So hopefully, I will look forward to get Resident Evil 4 Remake in sometime future.

  

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Finally got my PS5 (Breaking News)

 

Yes everyone, I just finally got a PS5 slim off from retail store such as Argos thanks to yesterday's sales deal cutting down prices from £480 to £420.

In case you've been wondering about what really took me so long to get a new system in my home after 3 years since the console launch release, so let's get started with my PS5 journey.   

First of all, I remember at the time when the horrible pandemics had already happened back in 2020, and after the system had launched in winter holiday I've began to notice the console shortages drama had happened when companies like SONY had shipped a small numbers of units which is not quite a lot on online retail store are the reason why it had sold out pretty quickly, and for those who wanted to get a hands on with the original PS5 console which unfortunately it filled with so many scalpers especially on online stores like Ebay or Amazon goes up to higher than the original price which led many consumers with disappointment when they cannot afford it with their budget.

It took about 2 years after the system launch release to restock more units, so that many consumers wouldn't had to go through with the console shortages and scalpers drama bullshit.

I wasn't really entirely being ready to get a original PS5 console because the system is quite big and bulky which is really going to be a real pain in the ass to fit on my TV cabinet, so thankfully around a year later when SONY had launched the slim version at the winter 2023 had shrink the console a bit little, so they'll be a chance for me to get a slim PS5 console in near future.

In around this year when the PS5 Slim had gone on sales deal at limited time in some retail stores like Amazon, Very, HMV, GAME Retail, and Argos, so I had to rush to get one off from Argos before the sales deal lasts which I am happy to say that I finally got my PS5 slim making it my very first 9th gen console to own.

I had the reason to have a PS5 Slim is because not only just the size of the console is quite compact and easy to fit in my TV cabinet, but also this system has 1TB SSD internally which is kinda sounds a bit tad too short but also 200GB bigger than the original PS5 console which has 800GB SSD...well you could say it's better than having a low storage capacity, so you could also have an options to add SSD M.2 slot inside the system up to 8TB size or use external SSD or HDD devices plugged with the USB connector to free up the space for games that you have installed.

Most of the PS5 consoles are also has the ability to play most of the PS4 games both physically and digitally as backward compatibility which is a great for those who really like to revisit their favourite past PS4 games.

Lastly I'm looking forward to collect many PS5 games that I really want to look forward to play such as mostly both the 1st and 3rd-party titles available on this system, as well as the upcoming titles that I don't want to miss out which I had the reason to own my PS5 slim.

      

I will consider making my future blogpost to cover further more details about owning the system as part of my "5 reasons" series pretty soon, as well as my very first PS5 games review which I'm hopefully to get that covered pretty soon, so stay tuned gamers.         

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.