The latest game from Sucker Punch punch promises a beautiful open world, compelling story and brutal gameplay and honestly it pretty much delivers on all 3. But why the heck don’t I like it!
Lets start with my thoughts on Sucker Punch games (I also like the film). I absolutely adored the first 2 Infamous games, so much that I platinumed both games which involved 2 play throughs for both. They put an entirely different spin on the sandbox games that had become so popular in the 2000s and they just lit my torch….strange simile there. It was gritty super hero madness and it was FUN. Unfortunately second son and first light did not have this affect, yes i tried and played both and unfortunately I just found them utterly boring and repetitive. So I’d been let down by this company that started so great, but now they promise a game which looks to be a blend of Sekiro (haven’t played it yet but know what it involves and I’m excited) and classic Ubisoft, it should be a match made in heaven.
Unfortunately much like the last instalments of the Infamous series I’m just finding it really boring. I’m switching between Medium and Hard mode to find the balance that I want and quite honestly neither feels right. If I want to play a game that’s all about parrying and dodging and avoiding 1 hit kills then I’ll just carry on with Souls 3 or Nioh. I know that this the main issue here, no games are living up to Fromsoftware’s mighty standard and (as pre-warned by Luke) it ruins other games.
So I switch down to medium to just have ‘fun’ with it and I just don’t. I don’t want to help some random bloke find parents, or avenge a village, or even chase a fox! It’s not to say the combat is bad, it’s really not, because when I pull off a parry or take down a heavily shielded enemy with a few swings of my sword I am very satisified. I’m riding around this quite beautiful landscape but I don’t really want to get involved in what it has to offer, is this another Red Dead 2?
What can save me from not totally loving the combat is a gripping story, or at least side quests and NPCs you actually want to interact with. Take Odyssey for example, it hasn’t exactly got the deepest of combat systems but that game had me hooked for 70 hours because of the quests and world. Tsushima hasn’t done this yet. I know it’s not just me who feels this way….I’ve heard people say that chapter 2 is a slog, or it gets better towards the end, or whatever. Ultimately I’m right at the beggining and I’m bored, and there’s a huge risk it’s not going to get much more exciting. It boils down to what I want to spend my free time on as an adult (admittedly it’s increased since lockdown/furlough) and Ghost doesn’t seem to warrant 30 hours of my time, yet.
I want to love it, I want to be invested but I’m just not, it’s not quite one thing or another and it just seems to fall flat in the middle. I hope this changes when I try it again, as I do love the aesthetic and the themes it sets…..but I just want EXCITEMENT. I’ll keep ya posted.