Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 - Review

Another year, another Call of Duty game.  I have bowed out the last while from playing them, as one of the small percentages of people who enjoy playing the campaign and not multiplayer I have found them to be mediocre at best.  I was excited this time around due to the name Call of Duty Modern Warfare, which for me had some of the best storylines and an all-round enjoyable game.  Plus I loved seeing Captain Price on the box art, thinking how does he look so young?  I got a copy with the latest PlayStation 4 I picked up and was excited to play it.


I love a good slice of Apple Pie, sometimes just by itself and other times with custard.  I like to be sweet with a slight hint of bitter flavouring. Sadly, I have had many any Apple Pie that is too bitter and a bit hard to digest at times.  Playing Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2019 I found myself asking was this a tasty sweet piece of pie or a very bitter one?

Story 

Just like in the previous Call of Duty games you get to play as different characters which really helps mix things up and increase suspense and anticipation.  The game starts with you taking control of 'Alex', a CIA operative and his team trying to recover a lethal gas from Urzikstan.  Unfortunately, they get hijacked and everyone is killed apart from poor old Alex. Then we see Sergeant Garrick and Captain Price try to foil a terrorist attack in London.  Back to Urzikstan, we see Freedom Fighters Farah and Hadir trying to push an evil Russian General out of the country.   All characters end up coming together to help defeat a shared set of enemies.  I know it is an odd thing to complain about but I didn't know it was a reboot until I started the game. I wish this need to reboot everything would stop especially as they could have just created all-new characters rather than trying to entice people with nostalgia.

Overall the story is good, with a few weak points near the end of the game.  There is a mission called Highway of Death which received quite a lot of backlash as they have essentially taken something historic, changed the names and switched the bad guys to the Russians.   A little embellishing is fine but this went way beyond that and felt a little in poor taste.

Visuals

The visuals in Infinity Wards latest installment are nothing short of breathtaking, and easily the best in the series.  The world feels real and very dangerous, often creating a very claustrophobic environment.  This is particularly true of the missions set in Urzikstan, and the one in London which, while being a big city, feels really congested.  The weapons and character designs are sharp, realistic and help create an almost cinematic world.

Overall the visuals are spot on with rarely any issues and certainly helped enhance my overall experience. 

Music 

The soundtrack has a mix of moaning strings to help create an intense atmosphere and a distinct middle eastern sound which worked really well.  The composer is Sarah Schachner responsible for;

Assassin Creed Origins and Unity, Anthem, and Call of Duty Infinite Warfare.

The sound is just shy of two hours and features some great tracks, my favorite being; 'Modern Warfare Main Theme', 'Highway', 'Know Your Enemy', 'Old Comrades', 'Rooftop' and 'Threat Assessment'. Overall it was a good soundtrack but certainly doesn't stand out as much as the previous Modern Warfare games.

Gameplay

The gameplay is fast and furious with little time to catch your breath, and that's a good thing. In some previous Call Of Duty games, you can easily play it safe and take your time, this time you are pushed to move up and move on.  Clearing any area of enemies doesn't mean one still can't sneak up from behind and clock you in the back of the head or shoot you dead.  

In a similar fashion to most first-person shooters, there isn't really a cover system.  While at times this can make things dicey it also adds to the excitement.

The weapons sound, look and feel great.  Sniper rifles feel powerful and require a little patience to get good shots, especially long-distance ones.  The Molotov cocktails are quite fun but one miscalculation and you will be turned into barbecue.

Rather than one final mission to pull everything together the last few all felt like one giant final mission, this stopped the gameplay feeling rushed. While it was very dark I enjoyed the mission where you play as a young Farah try to help her and her brother avoid being caught by soldiers.

Overall the gameplay was really entertaining and is much closer to the feel Modern Warefare 2 provided then some of the newer games in the series.

Final Thoughts

So, after almost ten hours how did I feel.  Pretty good.  I definitely had some issues with the story but as a whole, it was pretty solid and has already sent up the sequel Spec Ops.  The visuals were amazing and some the most realistic I have seen in a shooter in a long time.  The music was spot on and helped make a tense environment even more so.  The gameplay was strong and occasionally stuff but never stopped being fun to play.  Overall this one just slides in with 4 out 5

Far Lone Sails - Review

Sometimes there is simply not enough time to play all the games I want to and games from last year don't get played until the following one.  Far Lone Sails has been on my list of games to play from last year and I just got around to playing it. It was the art style that drew me and I knew I just had to play it.


I am one of those strange people who love Bounty Bars, recently I found out they released a cookie version.  They are perfect, soft, full of chocolate and coconut, and right now are up there as my number one junk food.  Playing Far Lone Sails could this be my new tasty thing?

Story

The game opens on the character Lone kneeling in front of her fathers grave, then she gets up and the journey begins.  Lone will use her and her father's locomotive to traverse a world that has been ravaged by some natural disaster.  While there is a story it is very subtle and most questions you may have won't be answered until the last third of the game.

Overall the story is engaging and has great way of pulling at your heart-strings.

Visuals

The visuals used in Far Lone Sails are amazing.  The world feels unforgiving and a shell of its former self, but even with that there is some beauty left.  There is the occasional sighting of animals, an orange sky as night approaches, or the green light of your locomotive.  There is something amazing about seeing capsized ships and old buildings of a forgotten world.  

Overall the game is a visual masterpiece that had me hooked the whole time, this alone was enough for me to make it worthwhile playing Far Lone Sails.

Music 

The sounds used in Far Lone Sails include jazz, country, and something else almost whimsical.  The music is composed by Swiss composer Joel Schoch, and this is his first video game soundtrack.

The soundtrack runs at just under an hour and features some great tracks, some of my favorites being; 'Coloured Engine', 'More to See', 'Inconvenient Circumstances', 'Sun Down', 'Drive It', 'Half', 'Lone Sail' and 'Warmth in the Cold'.

Overall the soundtrack is really great and helped keep me and Lone entertained.

Gameplay

Lone takes control of the locomotive (featured above) and has to keep it chugging along.  The locomotive needs power to fuel the core, it needs to be powered on and often you will need to release the steam valve. There is an emergency stop button so you can jump out and collect supplies, everything can be used for fuel.  Initially, you don't start with sails but get them installed later, they really help increase your travel speed.  There will be a few more upgrades later including a welding torch and water hose.  

Considering you are exploring an almost dead world there is something peaceful about it all.  Even when there are small light puzzles I never felt overtaxed in any way.  I think I felt that way due to the locomotive being the only thing that really felt alive, apart from Lone herself of course.

Overall the gameplay is simple, but so much fun and helped me really immerse myself in the world. 

Final Thoughts

So, after just over three hours how did I feel?  Blown away.  The story, while very minimal was great and the ending really got to me.  The visuals are stunning and the music works perfectly.  The gameplay works and I don't really remember having any issues.  This one gets 5 out of 5

Control - Review

Remedy Entertainment has been making great games for years, classics like the Max Payne series, Alan Wake and Quantum Break.  When Control was released I knew I had to play it, even before I knew much about it.  I recently picked it up and could not wait to try it!


Something I tried in the last couple of years is Portuguese Custard Tarts.   They are exactly what they sound like, sweet and tasty (unless you don't like custard). They are small yet so satisfying and filling.  Playing Control I found myself was this the small perfect sized treat I needed?

Story

The game has you take control (no pun intended) of  Jesse, a woman who has walked into the Federal Bureau of Control to find her brother Dylan.  Strangely the building is oddly quiet and very quickly she goes from trespasser to Director of the Bureau!  This happens all in the first fifteen minutes and it gets a lot crazier from there.  The duty of the Bureau is making sure that certain powerful artifacts are kept under lock and key, sort of like the TV series Warehouse 13 but way more intense.  That's all you are getting.


Overall the story is fantastic, with many twists and turns and would be very curious to see if Remedy will do a sequel or not.

Visuals


The visuals in Control are great...kind of.  The world feels cold and dark and this is amplified being sent in an old building with old technology.  The building is not always as seems and can shift, sometimes without warning.  There is a sprinkling of art deco style visuals with some really cool supernatural backdrops.  It is worth noting that I played this on the XBOX One, I found the frame rate and general refresh rate could be quite poor at times which was very jarring and pulled me out of what is generally quite an immersive world.


Overall the visuals were great but could have vastly been improved by increasing the frame and refresh rate.  I am generally not overly picky about things like this but was bad enough that I had to mention it.



Music


There was no doubt at any point that I was playing a supernatural style game, especially when it came to the music.  There are eerie and often unnerving tracks that helped put me on the edge of my seat. The soundtrack was composed by Finnish composer Petri Alanko (Alan Wake, Quantum Break) and Danish composer Martin Stig Anderson (Young Blood, Tomb Raider, Wolfenstein, Limbo).


There is over an hour of music, my favourite tracks included; 'counterfeit', 'portam ad inferno', 'voces ignotas', 'and soror et frater'.  Overall it was a good soundtrack that helped create a creepy supernatural feel.

Gameplay

I have always enjoyed the gameplay in Remedy games but it feels like this time they really pulled out all the stops.  Jesse uses a special gun that, through upgrading, can morph back and forth and you never need to collect ammunition, which is pretty handy.  Each of them feels distinctly different and can be more or less effective against certain enemies.  Each of them can be modded and upgraded quite easily using items you collect naturally through playing.


The weapons are good but the abilities are even better.  My two favorites without a doubt were launch and levitate, they do exactly what they say on the tin.  Combining these two abilities along gun variants is so much fun, there are also skill trees to help improve them further.


The enemies are varied which helps stop the game from feeling repetitive, some are a lot easier to kill than others.  The difficulty never seemed unbalanced or unfair no matter what was being thrown at me.


The game map is quite large so making use of control points is key otherwise you will spend a lot of time running.  The map can be a little awkward to work out at times but as a whole, it works.


There is not only the main story to focus on but a slew of side missions wish to offer a little break from the main dialogue with some great rewards.


Overall there is little to nothing to complain about in relation to the gameplay, I enjoyed myself and can see myself replaying Control in the future.





Final Thoughts

Well, after fifteen hours of playing how did I feel?  Pretty damn good.  The story was strong and interesting, the visuals were good but a little more of investment could have made them great. The music was exactly what it needed and the gameplay was fantastic.  Overall this one gets a solid 4 out of 5

FEIST - Review

Fresh off the back of playing Wilmot's Warehouse, I was curious to check out some of Finji's other games.  FEIST was one that really grabbed my attention due to its art style which is reminiscent of games like Limbo and Badlands. I decided to download it for iOS as it had been some time since I played a game on there apart from Boom Beach.


I am one of those few people who really like Bounty Bars, but not the dark chocolate ones.  In honesty, I love a lot of coconut flavored treats, and there seem to be few coconut things I haven't tried, some of which have been horrible. There is a Bounty Bar knock off that Aldi sells called Romeo Bars.  They are pretty good, but they just ain't Bounty Bars.   Playing FEIST I found myself asking was this as good as a Bounty Bar or a poor imitation?

Story

The game starts with a bunch of large lumbering hedgehog looking creatures moving through the wilderness.  One of them has a small wooden box on their back.  The camera then pans to a tree with a wooden crate hanging from a tree, this is where the story really begins.  After escaping you get to take control of a dust bunny style creature, his mission is to chase after and save their friend from the creatures.

Overall there is little to no story is FEIST and the small bit you do glean comes from short cut sequences showing the creatures moving through the wilderness and showing the differences between them.  The story itself isn't the important thing, it is the journey itself.

Visuals

I cannot overstate this enough, the visuals (even on a mobile device) look amazing.   The creatures you are following and the smaller enemies in the game are all black with the exception of their eyes which are red.  The northern lights coloring shines through the backdrop of each level, sometimes it becomes more pronounced and other times it turns to a simpler lighter shade of green.  There was one point, in particular, I really had to take a moment to admire the beauty of the game - the starlight was reflecting off a body of water and it looked amazing.  

Overall the game is visually stunning and helps show you not only the beauty of nature but also the darkness that can hide within it.

Music

The soundtrack for the game is very eerie and really works well with the visuals used in it and if nature was to have a dark soundtrack it might sound like FEIST.  The soundtrack is composed by Swiss composer and musician Tomek Kolzynski.  This is his video game soundtrack but has provided music for a number of other projects, albums including, Popple Music, Igloo, & Drama, and Vastzapinside.

The soundtrack runs at around ninety minutes, some of my favorite tracks include; 'After A Long Night', 'Down By The Lake', 'A Bad Hair Day', 'Dwellers in the Dark', and 'Ruins of the Past'.

Overall Kolzynski's soundtrack is perfect for this game and would be worth listening to even if you decide not to play it.

Gameplay

The game at its core is about strategy, how to get over obstacles, how to beat enemies and sometimes how to avoid them altogether.  The game is also a side scroller, you have left and right move, jump and pick up.  The on-screen controls work well for the most part but later in the game can be a little over/under sensitive ending in a few unnecessary deaths. 

The smaller enemies can often be avoided, however, doing this too often can end up with you running from a vast number of them trailing behind you.  The main enemies/bosses need to be defeated, they can be tough but using traps and throwing rocks and a bit of tree will eventually take them down. The final enemy was a particular pain as it involves you playing ping pong with balls of light.

The games work but can feel overly fiddly at points, especially when it comes to jumping.  One part in one of the end chapters had me pulling my hair out (which is a mean feat with the little nubs of hair I have), you had to jump from one branch to another. Simple? No.  It was necessary for you to jump in the opposite direction and then back up to get to the next branch, it might hard to read but far harder to actually do it.

Overall the gameplay is mostly solid, the awkwardness of the controls could be just due to it being on a mobile device, but if that was the case it should have been tested a little more first.

Final Thoughts

So, how did I feel after almost five hours?  A little mixed.  The story was lacking but that wasn't really a big deal, the visuals were amazing and were certainly the highlight of the game.  The music was really good and certainly helped enhance my overall experience.  What let the game down at times was the gameplay, simple things could be overly awkward and the controls were not always as responsive as they could have been.  Overall this one gets 3 out of 5

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture - Review

Everybody's Gone To The Rapture is a game I heard about a long time back and had download it last year from the PlayStation Store.  My better half and partner in crime Nollsy played it a while back and kept saying how good it was, and that I needed to play it.  Finally this week I got around to playing.


I am on a semi-diet so I shouldn't be talking about chocolate but screw it. I love, I mean love, Cadbury's Caramel Bars.  It's smooth on the outside, has a bit of bite to it and then has a soft centre filled with caramel.  Playing Everybody's Gone To The Rapture I found myself asking did this have the right kind of bite and still have a soft centre?

Story


When it comes to talking about the story I will be pretty brief to avoid spoilers. You take control of a character (who they are is never established) who enters the fictional picturesque town of Yaughton, in Shropshire.  It seems like all the inhabitants are gone, the only signs of life or that life was there are echoes/memories of people's conversations and of course the dead birds everywhere.  It is about discovering what happened to the inhabitants of Yaughton and what, if anything, will happen next.


Overall the story is amazing - it starts slows and really builds up. I enjoyed the ending and wonder what it would be like playing the game with the knowledge I have now?

Visuals


The visuals are really something and remind me of quaint English villages.  There is countryside and nature all around you in Everybody's Gone To The Rapture.  I found myself getting lost while playing simply because I was taken aback by the picturesque looking village.  It is a shame that The Chinese Room and SIE Santa Monica Studio did not have a bigger budget as it would really have helped sharpen up some of the visuals.


Overall the game looks amazing and was certainly nice getting lost in Yaughton for a few hours.


Music


If quaint English villages had a soundtrack it might sound like Everybody's Gone To The Rapture.  The music is quite calming, and certainly has a very spiritual feel to it, there are moments where the music intensifies but only for brief appropriate spells.  The composer is UK based Jessica Curry who created the video game soundtracks for; So Let Us Melt, Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs and Dear Esther.


The soundtrack comes in at around one hour and really does fit the game perfectly.  Normally, I list out my favorite track but this time I can't as I find it to be one giant track. That isn't to say it all sounds the same, far from it, but each and every track is as important the next.  Overall a brilliant well-crafted soundtrack that could be appreciated even if you haven't played the game.

Gameplay


The game is an adventure exploration game, about following and finding the hidden stories and memories in Yaughton. Outside of the directional movement, the only other control used is the tilt mechanism in the controller.  I found this to be a little awkward on occasion and if anything pulled me out of the story rather than suck me in further.  It wasn't too bad overall but a simple button pressing mechanic or quick time event would have been sufficient.


Similar to TellTale's The Walking Dead, Erica or any other games of this caliber, the story and gameplay are hugely linked making it difficult to get into too many specifics.  The game leads you around by getting you to follow balls of light which take you to point to hear different things, you can break free from this and take your own path.  Be warned though, it is possible to get lost and can take a while to find your glowing balls of light.  The balls of light glitched a few times for me meaning I ended having no idea where to go next which was a little frustrating.


Overall the gameplay (and story) are great with really very few complaints or at least not enough to stop me enjoying my experience.





Final Thoughts

So, after seven hours of play how did I feel? Enthralled. The story is amazing, the visuals and music really help bring the little town of Yaughton to life. I had some qualms with the gameplay but nothing that would put me off my experience.  Overall, this one gets a 4 out 5