Titanfall 2

7.5/10

So, Apex Legends came out this year and was suddenly very popular. I'm not really into battle royale games, but I decided to give it a try. I find myself confused and out of practice. The training map is very minimal, there's no solo mode and I'm forced to play with strangers. I don't understand why developers try to force people to play in small team games where teamwork is super important. In my experience (DOTA, DOTA2, Overwatch, ...) teamates end-up blaming each other and it gets ugly fast. I find myself wanting for a traditional deathmatch / team-deathmatch. Even if like the battle royale gameplay in Apex, I can appreciate the mechanics, the guns, the characters. I find out that Titanfall 2 which was also developed by Respawn and released in 2016 is on sale for 8$(CAD) I decide to give it a try.

I used to stick to steam mostly and I'm not too familiar with the origin store. I see there's the base game for 8$ and 4-5 DLCs for 30$. It turns out that those DLCs are cosmetic only, there's no extra campaigns or maps. I buy the game, I download it and then I try the campaing.

The campaign of this game is short but amazing. After the first few missions each mission brings its own gimmicks and it really keeps the game fresh. There's a lot gameplay mechanics to tinker with. The main character is very mobile, a bit like Lucio in Overwatch. There are lots of guns and of course there are the mechs. I would say its the best single player FPS campaign I've played since DOOM 2016.

After finishing the campaign I take a look at some multiplayer on twitch and it looks amazing but the skill ceiling seems pretty high. This is not the simple deathmatch game I was looking for.

Destiny 2

6/10

So I tried Destiny 2. The trial. I looks like a decent game.

But I'm not hooked.

• The jetpack is disappointing.
• The intro is annoying I think, (just get me in the meat of game already).
• I felt like I was just wearing what ever has the bigger numbers number.

If I compare it to other similar games:

• Warframe has better movement.
• Mass Effect has better RPG elements.
• Borderlands has better guns
• And all of these have meaningful choices.

Maybe I'll come back to it at a later date if it bundles all its expansions together with a giant price drop. Its not like don't have hundreds of unfinished games on steam already.

Update:

I got to try the first campaign of the game for free (no DLC). I would have tried more strikes but the rewards were insignificant, my level was capped at 20 and power at 265. The game teases mechanics which don't really make sense at the beginning of the game. Like upgrading your guns, why is it so expensive to upgrade low level guns / armor? Would have been fun to be able to carry some gear from early in the campaign to later in the game. No wonder people say the game starts at the end-game.

The campaign is ok, the voice acting is good. It seems a decent game but it's not ground breaking. I don't feel like buying DLC right now, not sure if I would enjoy the end game anyways.

Usually games introduce mechanics as you progress, not sure it's a good strategy to keep everything for the end.

I updated the review with a score since I played the whole base game.

Medal of Honor (2010)

4.5/10

The first thing I noticed was that my character was slow, I double checked the controls, but that was it. The fastest way to move around is to slide, by sprinting and pressing the crouch button. With some semi-automatic guns and shotguns I noticed the game would not allow me to shoot as fast as I want. Its the same toggle button to crouch, prone or get up, so sometimes I would go from crouching to standing up by accident. The controls are not horrific, but the object of the game is running around and shooting people so the controls for that should be spot on.

At some point in the game (on PC), you have to press and hold the key "4" to launch a missile to complete an objective. I had to look online.

The game bugged on one of the checkpoints at the end of the game, my character would die in an infinite loop.

Now a few war FPS games do that: infinite spawns of bad guys until you advance to the objective. This encourages the player to ignore enemy fire, advance (in a suicidal manner) and then kill the enemy. And I think that's stupid. There only a few of those in the game but then a again, the whole campaign is super short ...

The story is not amazing. The whole campaign is linear, the only freedom you have is shoot even if your team told you to wait (at least its not game over if you do manage to kill all the enemies anyways. The whole thing lasts between 4 and 5 hours. It could have been faster if the protagonists knew how to run and without the infinite spawns.

Borderlands

7/10

This apocalyptic first person shooter with RPG elements showers you with randomly generated and often over top guns. The story and the world are engaging, there's coop multiplayer, bosses and lots of fun to be had.

I tried the sequel also but found it was not as good.

Doom (2016)

8.5/10

Doom is back! How will you react when demons start spawning non stop around you? Where will you run? How will you explode them?

The single player campaign features, suit and gun upgrades as well some kind of perk system.

Also:

• Boss fights
• Amazing graphics and polished environments
• A story which does not get in the way.
• Lots of demons
• Many secrets

There's a demo here:  http://doom.com/en-us/demo

My only complains are that multiplayer DLCs are sold separately and that the game often encourages using melee attacks which I think slows down the run and gun gameplay.

I felt quite satisfied after the single player campaign and did not try the multiplayer part of the game yet. I would say the single player campaign is worth it on its own.

Judge Dredd: Dredd vs Death

6.5/10

I bought the game a long time ago, at time when I could not resist buying games below 5 dollar on Steam. I never played the game for a long time: I checked the reviews soon after, they were very bad. Its been more than 10 years since the game was release now. How was it? I think its good.

Its a first person shooter(FPS) with a linear campaigns, challenges, and coop/versus multiplayer. I think it compare quite well to other games released in the same period(But reviewers at the time did not seem to agree). If you can enjoy simple first person shooters I think you can enjoy this game.

My complains are: On PC the jump button does not seem to work all the time, the game is short and the bosses are sometimes stupid.

Bioshock

Note: this is a review from 2010 that was is lying around on my computer (I have a few of these).

6.5/10

Bioshock is an "horror" FPS. You get to play with gunz and powers. You get upgrades and more guns/powers as the game progresses.

The gameplay is fun in the beginning but it gets repetitive. The story and setting are very good. When you die you respawn and I think its humiliating, I would rather reload and find a way to win. Overated. I will not try the sequel.

Note: The second game in the series seems too similar to the first one and seems a waste of my time, but I might try Bioshock Infinite some time

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Campaing

5.5/10

Linear war themed FPS.They try to change the gameplay a little once in while, but its always very short. There was an open map, once (but it was divided in three linear sections). There was some freezing to death, once. There was some racing, once. You get drive and/or shoot from a vehicle once in while.

The story makes no sense if you think about it more than 20 seconds.Sometimes I'm shooting and an ally will jump in front of me.

There are many games like this nowadays so I can't recommend you to buy this one over an other one. The gameplay is a bit simpler than other similar games: you can't be prone and scopes only have one zoom. The destructibility of the environment is amazing however.

Borderlands 2

5/10

I really liked the first borderland game. It was always fun to find better awesome crazy guns. Somehow I can't be bothered to finish the second installment in the franchise. The core gameplay, which is pretty much almost the same as in the first game, is just not fun anymore. I would rather replay the first game that I already finished 2-3 times than continue the quest-line in the second game.

Things I Did Not Like

1. It takes 1 minute to get into game. There is a series of slash screens, then a "press a key to continue" message and then game pauses and shows a "Searching for DLC" message for 30 seconds. I have no DLC installed, what the hell.
2. Guns are lacking. I only found one orange weapon and a few purples, and they sucked, because they are a lot of bad weapon mods into the game. Some are written in red and you won't know what they do until you check online. For example one weapon, makes your character throw an explosive while reloading. The reloading is automatic by default and I killed myself once with a rocket laucher and that weapon mod, I had ducked for cover after launching the last rocket ... Also this weapon mod will waste any ammo in the magazine if you reload early.
3. It feels like you are always reloading. Some guns consume 2 or 3 bullets per shot in the magazine and the magazines are very small. Some actions interrupt the reloading and you end up restarting the reloading animation.
4. Some zones have ammo crates everywhere but other zones will make you run out of ammo. 
5. Somehow the quest marker did not always work correctly for me.
6. The "Badass level" system is not as cool as the equivalent system in the first game.
7. For some unknown reason, after doing a series of actions (activating ability, reloading, throwing grenade) pressing the shift key does not make my character run, and it must be released and pressed a second time. Annoying when there is a grenade next to you.
8. Many guns have very bad iron sights. With some your target is completely covered by the gun while you are aiming correctly.
9. Often the enemies are all hidden in building before you reach the location, Then a first wave spawns from different doors. Then a second wave, and then a third wave. Its a pain and I hate spawning. I often found myself thinking "Are you done now? Can I move on?". If only they would all spawn at once then they would make great grenade targets. Also even if you don't leave an area that is not separated by loadings, all the waves will be reset after a certain amount of time. So if your doing many quests in an area you might end up fighting the same waves in the same areas multiple times as you are going back and forth between quest objectives. I really really hate spawning. The first game had similar spawning too but I did not find it as aggravating.

Otherwise the story and characters seem interesting, the music is good. Its just not fun for me to play.