Review: Spider-Man (2018)

Spider-Man has been my favourite superhero since a young age, as he was for many other youths. A broke, clever young man putting everything good in front of him before himself. Growing up it was inspiring, and when the games of his adventures feel into my lap, I was ecstatic; the first two games on the original Xbox still being a highpoint of my childhood, with Breaking and Entering being my top pick for "Love It But Hate It" level (seriously though, I still see those computers in my nightmares), and need I say anything about pizza deliveries? I'm listening to a loop of the theme as I write this intro!
There has been plenty of buzz over this new addition in a long string of disappointing games, and some of you may be worried about the hype currently around it, or the extremely high ratings.
I am here to say this; Spider-Man deserves every drop of praise.

You play as a slightly older Peter Parker, shortly out of university and working with Doctor Octavius on limb replacements. But late as ever, Spider-Man is taking down Fisk and opening New York to a new wave of peace and safety...for a time.
The story is surprisingly well written, planned and thought out extensively, with a serious amount of plot correctional pivots; when one bad guy ends and just as you forget about the calm before the storm, Peter is brought back to reality that his work will never truly be done. There is one tiny plot hole when it comes to one of its antagonist (two significantly at that, one disappearing right near the end), but can be easily overlooked with all the happenings at the time. The game sets up so many different plot points that saying there's going to be a sequel would be an understatement. But I'll have to digress to avoid spoilers, but I will say; each Act left me in awe.
Gameplay wise, the game is phenomenal: the team behind Insomniac Games have clearly shown a level of love for this project as not only are the controls familiar to the old retro players of the movie era, but it also creates its own stance; web slinging and swinging is beautiful, and creates a realness to the physics and how Spider-Man traverses, but it doesn't end there. Stunts to perform, speed boosts by slinging yourself on anything that your web can cling to, using your enhanced strength to leap into the air, or simply taking the subway, every single way to get around is enticing each and every time. The combat is a fighters dream as combos and using every ability under your belt will become a necessity the further you progress. Gadgets you unlock along the way will also play a role in how you fight, both creatively and in desperation. While it can get repetitive once you figure out how to quickly defeat each style of opponent (flying, weapon based, shield based, tank, vehicle, etc), it no less detracts from how each fight can be similar or give you the opportunity to test your new play style. There are plenty of side missions and extra actives to take part in as well; disrupting Fisk operations, chasing pigeons, collecting smog reports, taking down criminal bases, not to mention Crime activities. Spider-Man hears a call for help on his on-board scanner and rushes to help; car jackings, robberies, police stand offs, hostage situations, bomb threats, the list of what you can do goes on, and all of it randomised.
All of this, every bit of it, built in a realistic, Marvel style New York world.

Voice acting was excellently done all around, even by background characters. Yuri Lowenthal as Peter Parker is something I never expected, but something I never wanted more until now. He absolutely nails the role in both the silliness, the quips and the serious moments. Nothing felt overdone, every single person helped immerse you into this world.
Every single supporting role was excellently done, and I must say, that Short Order Cook was by far my favourite cast role.
Sound effects were incredible, musical score was enchanting, the graphics were downright beautiful and lifelike, there is nothing more I can say on this game that can praise it enough.

I did come across a few bugs here and there; performing stunts and hitting the ground causes a slight delay in transition and can make for some awkward transitioning, and my personal favourite is performing into the water and rolling like Sonic across the waves. There has also been some cutscene awkwardness where character models haven't fully loaded their scripture, but I have no experienced them so I cannot put them into judgement.

While there can be some issues with the repetitive gameplay at times, if you've ever had a love of Spider-Man games, or superhero games in general, this is the time to come back. Even if you don't like superheros or fighter games, I implore you to give this game a try. It has small issues, but those issues are just that; small. After 30+ hours of the game, I am left wanting so much more, and even if you manage to not do everything in the world, you'll still get a chance after you complete the story.
As I said earlier, to expect a sequel after this game would be an understatement. There is a reason it is doing well in reviews, selling incredible amounts of copies, and showing gamers worldwide that a good story is still something to not turn your nose up at. Spider-Man is a must buy game for any PS4 owner and definitely a great starting point for those considering to get one. This is everything I've wanted in a Spider-Man game...although I do miss the pizza deliveries.
Insomniac, I eagerly await to see what you do next. Thank you, and all the kudos to your team.

Spider-Man: 9/10

Review - Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker

Over the years of this website, I have written many reviews about the Naruto UNS series. I hold fond memories for some, and terrifying memories for others, so naturally, when I heard of a new Naruto game coming out, I wasn't too highly impressed at this move.
On closer expection, the gameplay and synopsis was enough to draw my attention and begin this review you are reading. So, what of Naruto to Boruto?
It's almost like enjoying spicy food and trying something stronger; you're enjoying it but you're still in pain and it hurts the more you chew.

Naruto To Boruto: Shinobi Striker takes place during the Boruto era, where your customisable character is the protagonist; you are an unnamed Shinobi in the Leaf Village for the World Tournament. After being shown around by Konohamaru, you are free to play with the modes and explore what you can. Sound effects are well sourced and are clean, and the musical score is finally, fiiiinally unique to the game. While it does remind me a little of old school Runescape, as a long time Naruto game user, this was a wave of fresh air. Graphics look quite clean and bright and characters almost resemble oil paintings. This can be a little offputting with the character models (Personally speaking Sakura looks a little...off), but this will soon become easily avoided.
Voice acting is decent enough; the player characters sound fantastic and the older characters sound well toned. With all that aside, lets look at the big attraction: gameplay.

The VR Missions are training missions you can run solo or with a group of four friends; missions are unlocked the further your level grows or by meeting key characters in the HUB world. They range from escort, defend-your-position, and boss fights, all within ranks of difficulty, fighting against AI opponents. You gain more time the faster you complete events in these missions. 
From here, you have the Online portion of the gameplay being Open Match or Tournament Mode. Similar modes are shown in both of these options: Bases (King of the Hill), Defend, Capture the Flag and Free Fight mode. It's a little disappointing that the modes shown in both Online and VR are incredibly similar and show little variety. Free Fight is fun and can take a lot of time to master, but I expect many gamers to grow tired of both Online and VR fighting very quickly.

Players also have the opportunity to customise their character; starting off with chosing your home village, you can choose your outfit. Other accessories must be bought with coins collected or earned in gameplay or accessed by random luck. During gameplay, players will achieve scrolls of varying value. The higher value scroll, the better equipment you're more likely to unlock. This does limit some progression; players will have to use the undesired clothing to gain an advantage than what they'd prefer to wear. Perhaps they unlock the robe they're after but the colour is off, or they want a hairstyle but it costs 3000 coins that they'll have to grind for an hour or two to get.
Customisation, additional missions, even the core gameplay for what slim story is thereof being a ninja in the Naruto universe, all of it is a grind.
I do have to give the developers a little credit when it comes to Scrolls; as of writing, there are no microtransations for Scrolls. While there is a few costume DLCs (show me a Naruto game in the last decade that doesn't), I am oddly impressed by this lack of corporisation from the developers and publisher. 
The amount of customisation is extensive; players can mix and match abilities (two Ninjutsu, one ultimate ability, one tool and a substitute), weapons (depending on your class) and players also earn new abilities with Mentors: using the VR Master, players can unlock and choose from twenty tutors across the generations to learn new abilities. Although I must admit I'm a little disappointed none of the Sanin make an appearance in the list.

This brings me to glitches and hoo boy is there plenty, at least on the Xbone version; any sort of gameplay online will result in a coin toss of being Kicked To Dashboard or simply freezing. VR and especially Tournament mode are riddle with this glitch. The loading screen will often cut to black and either time out or result in a KTD, and main gameplay has its own bugs; players can randomly die for no reason, or fall off the boundaries. Players also cannot mix and match classes: an Attack class cannot have a sword, Defence cannot use specific Ninjutsu, etc.
The biggest annoyance is the wait time for matches. After timing myself for two hours, I was able to play three seven minute matches, four of the matches glitched out and resulted in a KTD, and another four simply timed out. This doesn't even begin with the servers for an online only game being down on release day. On a positive note, as of writing, the game has received a patch of 15.91GB.
Wow. I mean at least they're addressing the issue in force!

While I've highly enjoyed this new breath of fresh air into the Naruto game genre, I am utterly disappointed in how it has turned out. New models, new gameplay style, a variety of maps in the lack of modes, but still so much progress that needed to be done. If it wasn't for the glaring issues, bugs, and general player needs, this game would definitely be able to score much higher. But I simply cannot. For full price, a lack of modes, a lack of stability and just general lack overall in most departments, I'd even advice longtime fans of the show to be careful buying this game. I hope this new patch fixes a lot of issues the game has, but I write the view for the first hand experience.

A breath of fresh air to the series, but in need of extra love.

Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker - 6/10