What Games Have You Completed? (2020 Edition)

24-09-2020 11:22PM

Finished Tell Me Why there. Nothing good to say about it really. Easily the worst thing dontnod have done. Added nothing to the 'universe' they seem to want to create around these games.

All I'm left with thinking is 'tell me why' I finished it :rolleyes:

One particular dialogue with Eddie sticks out late on

you can tell him it was you who killed your mother and he lets you walk out of the office cool as you like when the least you'd expect is a don't ever tell anyone else about that

The Phantom Pain · 24-09-2020 11:55PM

Deleted User wrote: »

Finished Tell Me Why there. Nothing good to say about it really. Easily the worst thing dontnod have done. Added nothing to the 'universe' they seem to want to create around these games.

All I'm left with thinking is 'tell me why' I finished it :rolleyes:

One particular dialogue with Eddie sticks out late on
you can tell him it was you who killed your mother and he lets you walk out of the office cool as you like when the least you'd expect is a don't ever tell anyone else about that

Still wanna play it but don't think it's available for PS4 yet.
To be honest i'm itching for a LIS season 3 despite my issues with the second one.

wotzgoingon · 25-09-2020 05:16PM

[Xbox]

The Outer Worlds

Really good game. I enjoyed the 30 odd hours I spent playing it. I will pick up the DLC at some stage.

CastorTroy · 26-09-2020 01:00PM

Mario 64 on Switch.

Yes the camera could be frustrating but I find the game really holds up today once you get used to it.

K.O.Kiki · 26-09-2020 01:18PM

Panzer Dragoon Remake (PC)

... how did I never complete this as a kid, that was easy.
Also a bit abrupt. Definitely would've been miffed if I'd paid full-price for this in the 90s, but at 20 quid I can give this a pass.

Temptamperu · 26-09-2020 05:40PM

Ghost of Tsuchima
Mafia: Definitive Edition

Retr0gamer · 28-09-2020 12:19PM

GAME|PLATFORM

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing|PC
Gato Roboto|PC
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker|PS3
D|PC
Dragon's Lair|PC
Return of Egypt|PC
Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue|PC
Florence|PC
Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3: The Answer|PS2
The Last of Us: Left Behind|PS4
3D Dot Game Heroes|PS3
Black Mesa|PC
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei: Megami Tensei |SNES
Rusty's Real Deal Baseball |3DS
Donkey Kong Country 2 (102%) |SNES
Picross: Lord of the Nazarick |Switch
Pharaoh Rebirth+|PC
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2|PC
Megaman V|NES
Halo 2|PC
Sonic Adventure 2|PC
Mini Metro|Android
Halo 3|PC
Vermintide 2|PC
Bangai-O Missile Fury|XBox 360
Professor Layton and the Curious Village HD|Android
Final Fantasy XIII-2|PC
The Last of Us Part 2|PS4
Ace Combat 7|PC
The Room|Android
Halo Combat Evolved - MCC|PC

Halo Combat Evolved - MCC

Showing it's age now. Not a fan of the anniversary addition graphics. The overly specular bump mapping ruins the look of the original game. And they ruined the look of the original game by porting the broken PC version which looks terribly flat with the original's bump mapping not working properly. It's a decent fun shooter until you end up getting to the library and going backwards through every level and it becomes a whole lot of no fun at all. A game of two halves. Still prefer it to Halo 2 but it's Halo 3 where the series shined and got really good. Bit eye opening how bad the original script is with jokes that come across very juvenile. Probably seemed cool at the time.

dreamers75 · 28-09-2020 12:24PM

Metro Last Light
Only took 3 years or so and I finished it mainy as Exodus was only €15 on Steam last week. Good game dont really recall the 1st half of the game/

Horizons Zero Dawn
Easily one of the best games I have played in years, excellent combat and decetn story. Sadly performance on PC wasnt great but the patch that came out the day after i finished it makes it run a lot better.

The Phantom Pain · 29-09-2020 12:38AM

Life is Strange season 2.
The Outer Worlds.
Far Cry: New Dawn.
Goat Simulator.
A Plague Tale: Innocence.
Until Dawn.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Freedom Cry DLC.
Control.
One Night Stand.
The Division 2.
Batman.
Star Wars, Jedi: Fallen Order.
Assassin's Creed II (Ezio Collection).
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.
Batman: The Enemy Within.
Battlefield V.
MediEvil PS4 remake.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Fallout 76.
Mafia III.
Star Wars Battlefront II.
Mafia II Remastered.
The Last of Us Part II.
Call of Duty: World War II.
Erica.
Watch Dogs.
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood (DLC)
The Wolf Among Us.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: Claptastic Voyage (DLC).
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: The Holodome Onslaught (DLC).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019). Completed and platinumed. This is one of the best games I’ve played this year (and it was released last year!) It has a very impressive campaign and I don’t normally say this but I wouldn’t have minded if it were longer. Every mission is memorable and distinguishable from one another. The levels feel more open, reminiscent of a Battlefield campaign where there are multiple paths to your goals and you can run from building to building bashing in doors and windows as you go. The graphics and sound are excellent and the guns feel weighty and impactful. The AK47 in particular has never felt better in the series and I imagine it’s even better in multiplayer.

The different character perspectives make the linear world feel bigger and more important than the character you are playing as. Nice to see more prominent female characters too. Farah, a rebel leader and ally, is by far and away the most interesting and realistic of the cast, and I wish I was playing as her during the Alex sections - he hijacks what is essentially her story in order to appeal to the dude-bros.

That being said, it still felt like Infinity Ward was looking beyond their dude-bro fanbase for the most part i.e. no cheesy backstories about so-called failed manhood. No headache inducing Michael Bay explosions. No excessive “breach!” sections followed by slow motion room clearing.

Much has been said about the more “mature” approach it takes to warfare than in previous games. Obviously, the moment you include any western setting in violent turmoil caused by a foreign entity you’re going to generate controversy, and that’s exactly what Infinity Ward set out to do when they used Piccadilly Circus as the basis for a terrorist attack, preying on the fear and paranoia of the UK government and its citizens. Despite the try-hard attempts at being deliberately provocative throughout the campaign, I do appreciate how finely crafted such segments are and they are at least more tasteful than ‘No Russian’ back in MW2 (although the weird strain of anti-Russian sentiment is ever present in the series).

Also, when the title for this instalment was first announced I, like many others, laughed at its supposed desperation. Having played it now it makes perfect sense why Infinity Ward chose it: “modern” warfare is always changing and what was considered modern back when COD 4 was released is by today’s standards very much old warfare which is simultaneously fascinating and scary.

Really the only negative I have isn’t actually about the game itself but about its pre-install which is stressful for no good reason. The amount of hoops you have to jump through just to play this thing feels like an insensitive prank on behalf of Activision. Additionally, I would have loved to explore the multiplayer more but I simply could not justify keeping a game that takes up nearly 200 gb on my hard drive. I like to float between games so a file size of that magnitude is unacceptable. Other than forking out the cash to increase storage space, this won’t bother you if you only play Call of Duty – which I bet is exactly what Activision was counting on with a file size that ridiculous.

Pre install hoopla aside, this is the first COD in years I would say is worth full price for the campaign alone but only if you generally like COD campaigns. If you don’t, this won’t change your mind but IMO is still worth playing at a heavily discounted price.

The Phantom Pain · 29-09-2020 12:40AM

@Gamer Bhoy 89 How did you get two columns on one table?

wotzgoingon · 29-09-2020 12:45AM

The Phantom Pain wrote: »

@Gamer Bhoy 89 How did you get two columns on one table?

Put this between what you want in a separate table: |

First Game | Platform

The Phantom Pain · 29-09-2020 12:50AM

wotzgoingon wrote: »

Put this between what you want in a separate table: |

First Game | Platform

Test | Test
Test | Test |

Thanks, looks like it works.

Kingp35 · 29-09-2020 10:23AM

Sephiroth_dude · 30-09-2020 12:25AM

Metro Exodus - Ps4
Devil may cry 5 - ps4
Yakuza 6 - ps4
FF7 Remake - ps4
Mafia 2 - ps4
Uncharted: The Lost Legacy ps4
The Outer Worlds - ps4
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order - ps4
Trials of mana - ps4
Judgement - ps4
Ghost of Tsushima - ps4

Mafia - ps4

Mr.Fantastic · 30-09-2020 08:31AM

Think the true ending is behind ten successful runs have managed three so far

the art style and the connection to Greek myth is great, The combat is a just one more go variety aswell, legit addictive.

Currently still playing the above, Greedfall and I just downloaded Tony hawks 1 and 2 remake which even with a short go of it, its hitting the nostalgia part of my brain, even if THSP3 was my first real one I played by myself.

Control DLC:AWE
Won't say too much not to spoil it , but gives an element of horror to control more so than the base game, Worth playing for any fans of Alan wake. Tad short though the main quest a lot more than the foundation I found, and seemed less tied to the main story than the previous DLC.

Gamer Bhoy 89 · 30-09-2020 01:21PM

GAME Mafia: Definitive Edition
PLATFORM Xbox One

Beat it on Classic difficulty.

Good game -- plays well, but I kind-of wish someone else developed it. Something about it seemed a bit clunky - I couldn't put my finger on it. Ran into a few glitches as well but nothing game-breaking (cars colliding with nothing, and there was also one instance where an A.I.-controlled car I was chasing fell through the ground, causing me to fail the mission).

I have to say, Hangar 13 aren't the best. But other than my complaints I mostly had fun playing it. It was nice to play an open world game that wasn't covered in collectibles and icons, and was also linear. I'm on free mode now - gonna see if I can be bothered picking up everything else I missed but I doubt I will.

Games Beaten in 2020 So Far
GAME|PLATFORM
STAR WARS JEDI: FALLEN ORDER|XBOX ONE
MY FRIEND PEDRO|XBOX ONE
UNTITLED GOOSE GAME|XBOX ONE
FLOWER|PS4
CASTLEVANIA: SYMPHONY OF THE NIGHT|PS4
NBA STREET|PS2
FINAL FANTASY VII: REMAKE|PS4
STREETS OF RAGE 4|PS4
ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS|NINTENDO SWITCH
THE LAST OF US: REMASTERED|PS4
THE LAST OF US: LEFT BEHIND (DLC)|PS4
POWER RANGERS: THE MOVIE|SEGA MEGA DRIVE
FINAL FIGHT|NINTENDO SWITCH
THE LAST OF US PART II|PS4
GHOST OF TSUSHIMA|PS4
UNCHARTED: THE LOST LEGACY|PS4
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER|PS4
TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER 1+2|PS4
MAFIA: DEFINITIVE EDITION|XBOX ONE

da gamer · 01-10-2020 03:15PM

Star wars jedi fallen order - PS4
Gears of war ultimate edition - Xbox one
The witcher 3 - PS4
Hellblade senuas sacrifice - Xbox one
The walking dead michonne - Xbox one
Rage 2 - PS4
Sniper elite 4 - PS4
Call of duty modern warfare remastered - PS4
Pes 2019 - PS4
Shadow warrior 2 - Xbox one
Final fantasy 7 remake - PS4
Burnout paradise - PS4
Streets of rage 4 - Xbox one
Blair witch - Xbox one
Doom eternal - PS4
Wreckfest - PS4
Pes 2020 - Xbox one
The last of us part 2 - PS4
Sherlock holmes crimes and punishments - PS4

Doom 64 - Switch

soloJennie · 01-10-2020 09:17PM

Diablo III
Dungeon Siege I
FIFA 19
INSIDE
Plants vs. Zombies I

The Phantom Pain · 04-10-2020 03:43AM

Life is Strange season 2. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
The Outer Worlds.
Far Cry: New Dawn.
Goat Simulator.
A Plague Tale: Innocence.
Until Dawn.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Freedom Cry DLC.
Control.
One Night Stand.
The Division 2.
Batman.
Star Wars, Jedi: Fallen Order.
Assassin's Creed II (Ezio Collection).
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.
Batman: The Enemy Within.
Battlefield V.
MediEvil PS4 remake.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Fallout 76.
Mafia III.
Star Wars Battlefront II.
Mafia II Remastered.
The Last of Us Part II.
Call of Duty: World War II.
Erica.
Watch Dogs.
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood (DLC)
The Wolf Among Us.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: Claptastic Voyage (DLC).
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: The Holodome Onslaught (DLC).

Borderlands 3. Completed and platinumed. It’s a mixed bag with moments of greatness and frustration taking turns on a dime towards the second half. If you’re already a Borderlands fan you will definitely enjoy it although you may have issues with the story due to a late game plot development that literally comes out of nowhere.

The game peaks in its first half where you’re rewarded with tons of great loot. Weapon variety is so vast you’ll welcome the hoards of enemies thrown at you to give you a chance to try them all. Some of the perks on the legendaries are so good that you can play with them for a very long time before having to discard them when your level can no longer justify holding on to it (farewell my beloved Speedloadin' Hellwalker). The bosses are also initially varied and memorable.

Also, as someone who went from the second instalment and the Presequel straight to this, the visual and quality of life improvements were instantly noticeable. It’s more sophisticated and modern in how it enables the player to navigate its systems, showing Gearbox has clearly taken note of their contemporaries. It’s also very, very pretty.

…but then the second half of the game happens where you start to feel the padding of its length, and the hoards of enemies become a chore to clear rather than a test of your capabilities. This is partly because the enemy spawning becomes excessive but also because as enemies grow stronger (spongier), levels become more important than the parks on the gear which means if your weapons are two or three levels below it’s not as effective.

And it has to be said: this is one of the most poorly optimised games I have ever played. The graphics are constantly loading in, the fast travel load times are way too long and you’ll never be able to play without the nagging thought that you are one game breaking bug away from ruining your progression. My anger at the amount of times I had to quit the game and restart from a checkpoint due to a progression breaking bug was only intensified by how long it takes to load into the game in the first place. One of the side missions has the cheek to mock broken, early access microtransaction fuelled games. At least those games are early access. What’s Gearbox’s excuse?

On that note, at least the humour is not as obnoxious as before but I will say this: there is a moment where Claptrap (the traditional comic relief character in a game full of comic relief characters) goofily dances with and, in turn, cheers up a wheelchair bound woman who is initially angry at her predicament. Moments like this show what the writers are capable of when they’re not embarrassed to show a little bit of heart. It shows they can write touching stories that are also funny. If the series can home in on that going forward I think the overall tone would be so much better.

So yeah, you’ll love it if you’re already a Borderlands fan and I’d say it’s a great jumping in point for newbies due to its quality of life improvements but if you didn’t like the previous games you will almost undoubtedly hate this one.

Borderlands 3, Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot (DLC). Completed, got 100% trophies. I can’t really say much without spoiling it for those who haven’t played Borderlands 2 but will say if you liked Handsome Jack you will like this. If you didn’t the story will make you groan despite the gameplay loop still being enticing enough to keep you playing. I’m in the latter camp.

Borderlands 3, Bounty of Blood (DLC). Completed, got 100% trophies. Interesting story and characters with a more balanced tone to fit its cowboy western setting but the world is padded out with too many ‘challenges’ and the map was annoying to trudge through.

Borderlands 3, Love, Guns, and Tentacles (DLC). Completed, got 100% trophies. This is the best of the DLCs, firing on all cylinders with the best characters and locations. It does contain the hardest boss in the game though which if you’re not a fan of platforming will be frustrating at first but nothing the average gamer can’t overcome.

Borderlands 3, Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck (DLC). Completed, got 100% trophies. Largely pointless. The side missions and challenges were fun and I like the Kreig character but the bosses sucked. There is a boss involving a train – let me be more specific - there is a boss that is literally a train and will have you scratching your head as to whether this is supposed to be funny or not. If it’s not supposed to be then it’s a really bad boss fight. If it is supposed to be humorous then it’s not funny and it's a bad boss fight. The final boss was so lazily designed and repetitive and had no thematic point when you consider what the story is about. When I first saw his health bar and how spongey he was I rolled my eyes. Worst part I was playing the DLC blind like I do with any game so I missed a related trophy that required me to replay the boss again. If I didn’t clear it so (relatively) quickly I wouldn’t have bothered with the trophy. The only DLC for the game that I would say is skippable.

da gamer · 04-10-2020 02:16PM

Star wars jedi fallen order - PS4
Gears of war ultimate edition - Xbox one
The witcher 3 - PS4
Hellblade senuas sacrifice - Xbox one
The walking dead michonne - Xbox one
Rage 2 - PS4
Sniper elite 4 - PS4
Call of duty modern warfare remastered - PS4
Pes 2019 - PS4
Shadow warrior 2 - Xbox one
Final fantasy 7 remake - PS4
Burnout paradise - PS4
Streets of rage 4 - Xbox one
Blair witch - Xbox one
Doom eternal - PS4
Wreckfest - PS4
Pes 2020 - Xbox one
The last of us part 2 - PS4
Sherlock holmes crimes and punishments - PS4
Doom 64 - Switch

Deliver us the moon - Xbox one

Retr0gamer · 04-10-2020 03:26PM

Mal-Adjusted · 04-10-2020 10:13PM

Another update

GAME|PLATFORM
Final Fantasy X|PC
Medal of Honor: European Assault|XBOX
Project Gotham Racing 2|XBOX
Indycar Series|XBOX
Medal of Honor: Rising sun|Xbox
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis|XBOX
Red Faction|PC
Red Faction II|PC
Sin Episodes: Emergance|PC
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault|PC
Rise of the Tomb Raider|XBOX 360
Prince of Persia: warrior Within|XBOX
Enter the Matrix|XBOX
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind|PC
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West|XBOX 360
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines|XBOX
Shellshock: Nam'67|XBOX
Medal of Honor (2010)|XBOX 360
Medal of Honor: Warfighter|XBOX 360
King Kong|XBOX
Dead or Alive Ultimate|XBOX
Dead or Alive 2 Ultimate|XBOX
Men of Valor|PC
Final Fantasy XIII|XBOX 360

Dead or alive 2 Ultimate.
Much nicer looking than the first game, moves flow into one another a lot smoother than the first game and overall it just feels better.

Men of Valor.
I really wanted to like this game, and it does so many things well with the setting and visuals but it has awful design decisions just comming out the ass, mostly regarding issues with health and health regeneration as well as enemy spawn points and awful, awful checkpointing.

Final Fantasy XIII.
I finally went back to it and powered through. It has plenty of issues but to be honest, they are massively exaggerated by people. Honestly, it's grand... not terrible but not very good either.

Retr0gamer · 04-10-2020 11:09PM

Mal-Adjusted wrote: »

Final Fantasy XIII.
I finally went back to it and powered through. It has plenty of issues but to be honest, they are massively exadurated by people. Honestly, it's grand... not terrible but not very good either.

And the sequels get waaaaay beter. FFXIII-2 is a great game but FFXIII-3 is a real under appreciated gem.

04-10-2020 11:10PM

Another one from gamepass for me, Night in the Woods. This has serious charm and humour and I loved the art style and script. The dialogue between Mae and Gregg especially was great. **** those mini games though, the rogue-lite one on the computer was tough but I had to get my partner to help with the guitar hero one and we took 2 buttons each to cheese it.

Mal-Adjusted · 04-10-2020 11:33PM

Retr0gamer wrote: »

And the sequels get waaaaay beter. FFXIII-2 is a great game but FFXIII-3 is a real under appreciated gem.

That's good to know. i'll probably check them out at some time. I bought XIII-2 at the same time as XIII for about €3 and it's sitting in a shelf somewhere.

By the by...

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Finally completely one of my great gaming sins, never having completed this game. Glad I did as it lives up to the reputation of being an extraordinary game. An absolute masterclass in RPG and level design. There's so many options to role play, so many ways to approach each level and it's just so much fun to sneak around and plan out how your character will develop. The sci-fi conspiracy theory story serves its purpose and is equal parts enjoyably silly and at other points very on the nose.

Quite simply one of the absolute best games of all time.

Delighted more people are experiencing this. It's been my favorite game for two decades. Tell me, what ending did you go for? and did you

save Jock from the helicopter explosion?

Retr0gamer · 04-10-2020 11:36PM

GAME|PLATFORM

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing|PC
Gato Roboto|PC
Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker|PS3
D|PC
Dragon's Lair|PC
Return of Egypt|PC
Shin Megami Tensei: Synchronicity Prologue|PC
Florence|PC
Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3: The Answer|PS2
The Last of Us: Left Behind|PS4
3D Dot Game Heroes|PS3
Black Mesa|PC
Kyuuyaku Megami Tensei: Megami Tensei |SNES
Rusty's Real Deal Baseball |3DS
Donkey Kong Country 2 (102%) |SNES
Picross: Lord of the Nazarick |Switch
Pharaoh Rebirth+|PC
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2|PC
Megaman V|NES
Halo 2|PC
Sonic Adventure 2|PC
Mini Metro|Android
Halo 3|PC
Vermintide 2|PC
Bangai-O Missile Fury|XBox 360
Professor Layton and the Curious Village HD|Android
Final Fantasy XIII-2|PC
The Last of Us Part 2|PS4
Ace Combat 7|PC
The Room|Android
Halo Combat Evolved - MCC|PC
Deus Ex|PC
Panzer Dragoon|PC

Panzer Dragoon

I think the team that did the best they could with this remake with the material they had. Panzer Dragoon was more a tech demo for the saturn and felt rushed and wasn't that great a rail shooter. It seriously needed a visual overhaul and looks great although I had loads of tearing as I couldn't turn on v-sync. Gameplay is very faithful to the original which is both a good and bad thing. If you are good at the game it will only last about an hour with the final stage being the only real challenge and not much scope for replayability.

Hope the rumours are true that the same team is remaking Panzer Dragoon Zwei as that is one of the all time great rail rail shooters.

quokula · 05-10-2020 02:41AM

Spiritfarer
You are the spiritfarer, roughly analogous of the river styx boatman of Greek mythology, taking recently departed spirits aboard your boat, seeing to their needs, and laying them to rest when they are ready. This mostly plays out in crafter-gatherer gameplay, where you sail your boat around a map getting the resources to meet the needs of each character that boards your boat. You get to know the characters, details of their life, and how they died. Nothing is ever too explicit, details are generally left open to interpretation. Thanks to brilliant animation, sound effects (there is no voice acting but the character's personalities come through surprisingly well in their grunts and gasps) and one of the best soundtracks I've come across in a game for years, you really come to care for these characters as you feed them and house them and generally care for them in their final days. And when that final moment comes, it can really hit hard in a way few other games do. One character's arc in particular made me turn off the console and just sit and contemplate for a while.

It's not without missteps however. The early characters seem much more fleshed out than most of the later ones who can seem more one dimensional. This isn't helped by the increasing complexity of the crafting as you go along. In the early game you're growing a particular vegetable or cooking a particular meal for a particular passenger, and they're always present in your mind. In the later game you can be searching for resources, mining, logging, milling, smelting, smithing etc. for so long that you start to forget about the passengers you're doing it for and you lose some of that connection that the game is so good at creating early on. The grind got to the point where I was just pleased to get it over with by the end, which is a pity after such a strong start. I'd still recommend it despite that though, there's not really any other game like it.

The Phantom Pain · 05-10-2020 07:00AM

Life is Strange season 2. | Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
The Outer Worlds. | Borderlands 3.
Far Cry: New Dawn. | Borderlands 3, Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot (DLC)
Goat Simulator. | Borderlands 3, Bounty of Blood (DLC)
A Plague Tale: Innocence. | Borderlands 3, Love, Guns, and Tentacles (DLC)
Until Dawn. | Borderlands 3, Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck (DLC)
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Freedom Cry (DLC).
Control.
One Night Stand.
The Division 2.
Batman.
Star Wars, Jedi: Fallen Order.
Assassin's Creed II (Ezio Collection).
Ni No Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom.
Batman: The Enemy Within.
Battlefield V.
MediEvil PS4 remake.
Life is Strange: Before the Storm.
Fallout 76.
Mafia III.
Star Wars Battlefront II.
Mafia II Remastered.
The Last of Us Part II.
Call of Duty: World War II.
Erica.
Watch Dogs.
Watch Dogs: Bad Blood (DLC)
The Wolf Among Us.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel.
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: Claptastic Voyage (DLC).
Borderlands, The Pre Sequel: The Holodome Onslaught (DLC).

Dishonoured (Definitive Edition). Completed and platinumed. I’m a Dishonoured/Arkane studios fan and wanted to add the first one to my collection. It’s a good game and to be fair if I had played this when it was first released I would have said it was fantastic but knowing what’s to come and knowing what Arkane are truly capable of leads me to conclude that this is a great game… that you should totally skip and play its sequel instead.

I know seems daft to recommend skipping an enjoyable game simply because its sequel is better - I wouldn’t say the same of Uncharted 2 just because I personally think Uncharted 4 is the best of the lot but that’s because its predecessors are integral to Nathan Drake’s character development. Uncharted 4 is merely a resolution of Drake’s journey so you can only truly appreciate it if you’ve played the previous games. The same can’t be said for Dishonoured. The story is so basic that Dishonoured 2 literally sums it up in one minute during the opening credits and it’s also the exact same story line done better in Dishonoured 2. The sequel is just so superior in every creative aspect (not technical, but more on that later) that it doesn’t feel like a sequel but an outright do-over that renders its predecessor obsolete.

The main character, a mask donning assassin and also bodyguard to the empress he is avenging, doesn’t speak so his character “development” is done through the low/high chaos morale system i.e. non lethal versus lethal approach. If you play high chaos you’ll encounter more guards, rats and “weepers” (plague infected zombie-like victims). Characters will change how they interact with him and they can live or die depending on the level of chaos. The chaos system is one of the defining features of the Dishonoured series and encourages multiple playthroughs but because (Corvo) is voiceless here we never get his perspective on things, he is only viewed through the lens of others.

In Dishonoured 2, Corvo (and Emily, the canon protagonist) are voiced and this makes a huge difference to their characters. High Chaos Emily, in particular, becomes more vindictive to the point that even her seemingly good actions are always undercut with dialogue that reveals sinister motivations. So in Dishonoured 2 not only are your choices shaping the world around you but they’re also shaping your character.

The best aspect of Dishonoured is its “play your way” approach to missions. That level of freedom, the way you can cleverly combine your supernatural powers and equipment, the way it gives you choices you don’t even know you have until you ask yourself, “can I do this?” and to your delight the answer is always, “yes”. This, alongside the chaos system, gives it tremendous replayability. All of that is present in Dishonoured 2 with the added bonus of missions like A Crack in the Slab where you have to navigate two timelines to figure out the best way forward while being very aware that whatever you do in the past, god or bad, affects the present (I know Titanfall 2 did this. D2 did it better), or the Clockwork Mansion that contorts itself at the click of a switch changing how you can move through it – which in turn legitimises the ‘no powers’ run.

There is one standout mission in the first one that turns the gameplay on its head by having you engage in social stealth rather than action stealth. You have to blend in at a masquerade ball, establish who the target is and take her out without ruining the party - and the target is randomised depending on how you do it. This level gives you a glimpse of the true greatness of Dishonoured 2 where nearly every mission is as inventive.

Technically, it’s better optimised than Dishonoured 2 but that’s largely because it’s so ahead of its time that it has strict technical limitations on a platform that cannot accommodate its ambitions. For instance, in Dishonoured 2 you could seamlessly navigate one big level and when you were done exploring there you were done. In Dishonoured 1 you can travel back and forth between another section of the same map but that other section will be locked behind a loading screen, which I could not be bothered to sit through unless a side mission took me there.

Art design is subjective but the constant grey/blue palette made the world seem absurdly bleak and depressing even in low chaos. Dishonoured 2 has way more variety in location, colour and even day/night cycle. The steampunk inspired world felt more real, like I was only uncovering a small part of it whereas Dishonoured feels like a “sandbox”.

Like I said, there isn’t anything "wrong" from a gameplay perspective, it’s Dishonoured for goodness sake. However, it does have a quality of life oversight that’s just so hard to believe… a stats screen... that you can’t view until the end of the mission. Now this may seem like first world problems but if you’re going for a ‘ghost’ / ‘clean hands’ run (no detection/no kills) in a stealth game it is vital that you can view the stats screen whenever you damn want. The detection system is not always clear like Dishonoured 2 and it’s very easy to kill someone without knowing.

For instance, if a swam of rats spawn and devour an unconscious body you left behind even though you’re far away and long gone at the time that’s classed as a kill. Knock a body out and he rolls over later face down? He’s suffocated, that’s a kill. This means you have to double check that a body is still alive and reload whenever in doubt about detection. The game turned into a save/load simulator during my first playthrough all because of no stats screen. It’s highly likely I was reloading unnecessarily but I couldn’t take the risk, and there’s no ‘quick save’ feature either which means I was overwriting manual saves I rather wouldn’t. Dishonoured 2 has ‘quick save’, just sayin’

Given that the missions are long on your first playthrough requiring you to go through multiple areas with loading screens you have to hope and pray that the stats screen at the end shows a nil kill count because there would be no way of knowing where the potential kill was.

I sound like I’m negative on this but I’m really not – I want to stress this is a very good game, you’ll love it, but Dishonoured 2 makes it completely unnecessary. You should only play this if you’re a die-hard fan who cannot get enough. If you’ve not played Dishonoured before please avoid until you’ve played Dishonoured 2. Let the fabulous sequel be your first impression of this awesome series.

Azza · 05-10-2020 09:59AM

Can't say I quite agree with Dishonored 2 rendering the first obsolete. I enjoyed both, though I did play them in order of release.
Have just installed Death of The Outsider, I hear its overall its quite good with one outstanding level but overall doesn't reach the standard of one or two.

Retr0gamer · 05-10-2020 10:03AM

I think you might have ruined it on yourself with the save scumming. I did a pacifist run with a few... accidents. But the game is lenient enough that you should be ok with a few deaths. I never paid to much attention to the unconscious guards health.

PC definitely had quick saves as well.

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