It’s quite the task to discuss The Last of Us Part II without spoiling anything. This review will attempt to dissect Ellie’s journey as vaguely as possible. I hope to explore the game’s narrative, themes, and characters in another article at another time.

I’m gonna be honest, I am a huge fan of the original The Last of Us. I had ridiculously high expectations for The Last of Us Part II when launch night arrived. I harbored strong feelings towards Ellie and Joel, but I didn’t believe their story required further exploration.

Does The Last of Us Part II need to exist? Well, after I finished the game and the credits rolled, I had mixed feelings about the whole experience. It took me a couple weeks to really solidify how I felt about the game. Let’s jump into my spoiler-free The Last of Us Part II review.

Driven by Violence

The level of violence in The Last of Us Part II is uncomfortable and often revolting. It’s shocking in the early stages of the game, and then, as the game continues to pour more on you, it begins to normalize. Several-dozen, dismembered zombies and humans later, I grew numb without realizing.

I started wrapping up the game’s narrative and decided this game was too much; that it went too far. Honestly, I wanted to give up on the game altogether. Even so, I powered through and then it was over. Was the violence showcased in this game worth it? No. But that’s the point. It’s supposed to make the player feel uncomfortable about what they’re doing. It fits the narrative Naughty Dog has created and pushes the theme of hatred forward. You’ll find out what that means once you’ve played a few hours or so.

Cut Spleens and Cutscenes

The gameplay in The Last of Us Part II is immediately recognizable to players who played through the first game. This game takes what you know and adds more depth, reworking mechanics while leaving others alone. You can now “go prone,” which basically means you can crawl on your belly to further avoid detection. You can do almost everything while you’re prone, including using every weapon in your arsenal. It’s this console generation’s equivalent of realizing you can finally use your sword while riding Epona in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It’s going to be difficult to go back to the original game without this feature in it.

Ellie can now also jump when you press a button. This mechanic is mainly for traversal, but it can also be used to dodge some attacks (not the best way, but it sort of works). If you really want to avoid damage, the newly-added dodge is the best way to do this. You can dodge almost anything during combat if you get the timing right. This is just as welcomed as going prone, making encounters much more fluid and satisfying. Dodging is required, especially on the higher difficulties where enemies are more intelligent and resilient.

As for weapons, there are several additions which I won’t go into. What I will say is that there are more upgrades to weapons and quite a few more character skills this time around. You can pick up training manuals that add more ability paths, each with their own set of related abilities, such as stealth and explosives paths. It’s likely that you won’t unlock them all on your first playthrough or even your second. This adds a whole other level of customization to your first playthrough.

Crafting is also back, with some welcomed additions, such as arrows. The amount of resources that are available will depend on the difficulty level you pick, which can be changed and customized at any time in game.

The best way to play The Last of Us Part II is on the two hardest difficulty levels. The game’s AI is programmed to throw more at you: they check around obstacles, look under vehicles, and flank you. There’s an added layer of suspense and danger, especially on Survivor. If you can handle it, I’d recommend playing on Survivor for the optimal experience.

You’ll be spending a large number of hours in combat, discovering new ways to maim and kill, but this game isn’t just about killing things and getting better at it.

Cutscenes are back, but they’re not always as obvious or jarring. They’re interwoven into the gameplay so seamlessly that there are times you don’t realize that control has been taken away. Part II is the closest that games have come to blending the medium with the film medium. Gameplay and cutscenes are still pretty distinct, but they coexist so much better than in the first game.

A Tale of Many Zombies

At first glance, The Last of Us Part II’s story isn’t that complex. Without going into detail, I’ll just say that it’s a revenge story at its core. If you look back at the first game, the story wasn’t that complicated either. The Last of Us is about the characters and their interactions, their relationships. What Naughty Dog really nails is how the story is being told through the characters, environment, and the actors’ performances.

Even the way that the world is designed tells a story. Some areas are more subtle, with the placement of bodies or the way props are placed. Other levels are more in-your-face about what happened there. Make sure to explore the environment to pick up extra resources and items. Collectibles are back, as well as documents that reveal side stories and also supplement the plot. They’re optional but provide interesting insight into the game’s world.

I felt some things that I’ve never been made to feel while playing any game. The feelings of anger, loss, and numbness hit me hard at different points in the game. There were a couple of times I had to take a break from playing just to process some of what happened.

The performances in particular are a huge highlight in how the story is presented. Every actor brings their best in realizing Ellie, Joel, Dina, and the rest of the characters. The animators in particular deserve high praise for translating the actors’ work into even small movements and expressions.

The meat of the narrative is experienced through Ellie’s eyes; her thirst for revenge comes into direct conflict with her sense of identity and her desires. There are some bold shifts in Ellie’s character, with further insight into her past and what brought her to where she is in Part II. Joel is softer in this game, but the repercussions of his actions aren’t far behind. Everything that took place in The Last of Us has consequences, and nearly every important thread is addressed. You’re most likely not going to be happy with some of the events that take place, but this game doesn’t care.

Although some of the new characters, Laura Bailey’s in particular, are incredible, Troy Baker and Ashley Johnson have a chemistry as Joel and Ellie that can’t be outdone. There’s something so uniquely dynamic and interesting about their relationship; it’s further pushed and complicated in this sequel. Some of the biggest character payoffs come from the interactions between these two, just like in the original game. I have to say though, Shannon Woodward as Dina is my favorite addition to the cast. There’s color added to the game that only she and her character could bring to life.

Overall, the narrative of this game is bold and often unpredictable. It has a lot to say about humanity’s worst but also about its best. It’s a story that’s well worth experiencing at least once through.

So Pretty You Could Frame It

The Last of Us Part II is one of the most gorgeous, detailed, and best-running games I’ve played. Once the game loads your save file, there are no load screens while you play. Some are disguised by crawling through gaps or in-world events, but they’re seamlessly woven in.

There’s not much negative I can say about the graphics or performance of this game on the PlayStation 4 Pro. I don’t think I experienced any frame rate drops or really any problems with performance. There were several glitches that I ran into, but they were only visual.

I have to say that some of what Naughty Dog accomplished with character models is insane to me. Video games are pretty sneaky about having some things happen off screen because they’re so difficult to animate. In Part II, muscles tighten up and glisten with sweat in a way that’s almost too realistic. This is the first game where I’ve seen a shirt being taken off without any clipping or weird visual quirks.

As for the environment, I added some extra hours to my playthrough just by taking in the amount of detail in everything. Where other developers would create one or two items (such as a lawn chair), sprinkle them throughout the game, and call it a day, Naughty Dog decided they’d make five to seven different versions for just one area.

This has to be the single most detailed game that exists up to this point. Nothing out there compares; nothing comes even close. You may spend just a few seconds in one area and miss most of what is there. This amount of quality and polish isn’t necessary. The game would still get the message across if there was less to look at, but it adds so much more depth and realism to the world. It’s no wonder this game got delayed several times and took over half a decade to make.

A Score to Settle

The Last of Us has one of my favorite soundtracks in gaming. It sets the tone for the original game and presents some memorable themes as well. With Part II, Gustavo Santaolalla is joined by Mac Quayle, who wrote scores for TV series such as Mr. Robot and American Horror Story.

Sadly, this soundtrack is lacking the magic that the original had. There are more atmospheric songs than I would like, and while these songs enhance the game experience enough, there are fewer high points here. It’s a decent soundtrack, but I wouldn’t say it’s that special. There is one song that plays during the credits that you should stick around for, just a heads up.

I could spend a while ranting about the sound design in The Last of Us Part II but I’ll just say that it’s visceral and potent. Every weapon has a distinct sound that you will begin to recognize as your play time begins to add up. Striking enemies with any weapon produces some of the most satisfying, yet horrific sounds I’ve heard in a game.

The environment isn’t to be beat in the sound department, with whooshing gusts of wind, the sounds of insects and birds, and water crashing or smoothly trickling. My favorite sound has got to be the crunching of snow underneath Ellie’s feet.

Enemies also scream in agony, slowly choke on their own blood as they die, and call out their comrades’ names as they see them perish. You can easily gauge where enemies are located or what direction they’re rushing you from as well. It’s better with headphones than with a surround system.

The Last of Us Part II Is Crushing

This is a journey you’re not going to forget; it’s one that’s going to stay with you for a long time. There are some questionable decisions that characters make, but it serves to show the unpredictability and flawed nature of human beings. The exploration of humanity through a more pessimistic lens may be overbearing for some players, but it’s appropriate given the story that’s presented. This game wants to ruffle some feathers, and that’s okay.

The Last of Us Part II is one of the most complete, ambitious single-player games I’ve played. And despite all the doom and gloom, it’s fun as hell to play. If you’ve played the original, this is a must-play game on every level. If you haven’t, go back and play the first game. There is a short recap in this game that catches up new players if you really don’t feel like waiting.

There are a few personal nitpicks about the story that I can make, but they’re nothing that make the game any less amazing. When it comes down to it, The Last of Us Part II is the most near-perfect game I’ve played. Go out and get yourself a copy if you haven’t already. And maybe some tissues; you will probably need them.

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Nathanael Hueso

Word player, note manipulator, and logic breaker. My favorite game is The Last of Us. I’ll argue with you about it all day. Try me. “To the edge of the universe and back, endure and survive…”

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Destroy All Humans! Review — Ancient Aliens

Posted on July 27, 2020 by Zachary Kauz

Destroy All Humans! Review — Ancient Aliens

Whether it be due to a growing discontent with the trend-obsessive AAA industry or the fact that we are running out of unimpeachable masterpieces to reissue, the remaster-and-reboot initiative has cast a much wider net in recent years than it did during the PS3/360 generation. Where once it was only critical darlings or striking commercial successes that got an honorable makeover, companies like Devolver Digital and THQ Nordic have made it their goal to gauge interest in old IPs by bringing them to the present. Twelve years after the franchise reached rock bottom, Black Forest Games’ Destroy All Humans enters the field aiming to reinvigorate an unabashed cult classic.

Let’s Do the Time Warp Again!

Promotional image of the player's protagonist lifting a cow through telekinesis — Radiation not always included. Image courtesy of THQ Nordic

Destroy All Humans is an incredibly faithful reboot of the 2005 original, rebuilt from the ground up in a shiny new engine while retaining its level design and dialogue. It is at once a strange mishmash of PS2-era third-person shooting, stealth, and incredibly light exploration flourishes, but also a game that holds its own identity fifteen years later. There’s a distinct brand of chaos upheld when conflict is at its peak. Albeit in fairly simplistic forms, Destroy All Humans covers enough gameplay types in quick succession to make it an easy, amusing ride, wrapped in a mischievous tone that’s tough to get angry at.

At its core, it’s a third-person shooter emboldened with an eye catching premise and lively weaponry. You are extraterrestrial nihilist Crypto-136, stranded in late 1950s America after your ship crashes. With the public already eager to declare anyone a Communist threat, your presence isn’t exactly greeted with open arms. Your intergalactic emperor Pox (legitimately voiced by Invader Zim) wants you to harvest human brains but said ambitions quickly turn into an all-out war. As you leap across a broad map of the United States, you distribute propaganda, steal technology, and snatch bodies under the veil of mass destruction.

Trapped in the odd time warp of old game preservation, the Destroy All Humans reboot lacks the open-world or co-op of its original sequel from 2006, but it for the first time gives the franchise a distinct visual style. Compared to the plain textures of the original, Destroy All Humans is now enlivened with a slightly cartoonish tint and motion captured animations. Crypto bounces across the screen in a fittingly rubbery fashion and objects like radioactive cows burst with bright hues. Strangely enough, a majority of the frame rate drops occur in cutscenes where character models also push past the uncanny valley and into Black Hole Sun extras. On a base PS4 however, the frame rate is consistently smooth during gameplay making your jetpack flight more majestic and the mobility of combat more satisfying.

Taking Flight and Taking Names

Promotional image of Crypto at a county fair,using the Zap-O-Matic to fire his weaponized electricity — Image courtesy of THQ Nordic

There isn’t much more to combat than point, shoot, and jetpack out of the way, but the game greatly benefits from an arsenal all its own. The Zap-O-Matic stays with the player throughout the game’s entirety, which has unlimited ammo but an extended recharge rate. The targeting from one enemy to the next can get overcrowded but this is mostly surmounted by the electrical forces stringing enemies together, damaging them all simultaneously. Despite being your prototypical weapon, I relied on the Zap-O-Matic throughout the game as the most satisfying form of crowd control. The tendency of enemies to attack from all sides keeps the Zap-O-Matic from being a “press-to-win” function but it makes aiming a bit more of a generalized process.

You are soon rewarded with a Disintegrator Ray and Ion Detonator (the flamethrower and grenade launcher equivalents respectively), not to mention a certain type of probing tool to round out your layout. Conservative upgrades are available for each but the general balance makes it likely you will use special weapons to their brink (they run out of ammo fairly quickly) and then bring out the old reliable Zap. Destroy All Humans speaks in enemy quantity rather than strategy, but this tendency lands better on the PS4 than it did for PS2 as enemies can truly dominate the screen and shuffling around them can make for a winningly kinetic experience.

As individual battles rage on, expendable cops and soldiers give way to armored vehicles, turret systems, and what I’d estimate to be 50 ft. tall robots. Dashing away from enemy fire and hitting them from any direction you can are the means for success. Enemies truly only differ in amount of health and what type of gun they fire, but they do leverage each other’s presence to become a potentially overwhelming force. Enemies are always charging forward whether it’s in their interest or not and the cannon fodder never stops flooding.

Eat Your Heart Out McCarthy

Promotional image of Crypto snatching an NPC's body as a disguise — Image courtesy of THQ Nordic

The jetpack isn’t meant to take you to the stratosphere and instead allows you to hide away from enemies at the top of storefronts and glide to different elevations like an ugly Mary Poppins. The ability to scout humans from above truly comes in handy during body snatching missions. Much of the game is spent infiltrating county fairs and military bases by sneaking up on the right kind of civilian and snatching their likeness with the press of a button. Finding the right victim is very intuitive- you hijack a scientist to enter labs or a general to reach the depths of an army base. The biggest challenge comes from taking their form without getting caught by bystanders. Hiding behind a strategically placed boulder and aiming at the NPC is normally all it takes but the visual language is subtle enough to make some careful angling necessary. In most cases, getting caught amidst body snatching means game over (the game is nothing if not linear), but the checkpoints are very generous.

Once you are in the body, you rather metaphorically keep possession of the likeness by scanning other NPCs’ thoughts. Alongside newly animated cutscenes, this is where much of the game’s humor manifests. A joking disclaimer about the humor of Destroy All Humans only being up to the moral standards of 2005 prefaces the game, but barring some candid gender-neutral anal probe discussions, most of the humor stems from very breezy satire of the 1950s. I physically laughed once at an NPC’s internal monologue about them totally not knowing what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, and the mild prodding at overbearing American masculinity and Cold War paranoia is sustained by charming voice acting.

The game’s sardonic streak most strongly manifests in interactive cutscenes where in the body of a politician or general, you choose dialogue to appease the petrified public. You could clinically describe the satire as simple and certainly unsubtle but the game’s ultimate ambition here is to slip into a pastiche of 1950s horror and educational videos and it approximates it very lovingly. I was also pleasantly surprised by how few times I was confronted by the same piece of character dialogue over-and-over again, and much of the game’s personality blossoms from here. Destroy All Humans’ tone may not raise the bar for its medium, but it’s the right tone for a game whose loftiest goals are just to make you chuckle. The campaign experience is unanimously solid, it’s just the game’s willful constraints that hinder long-term enjoyment.

Suburb Time and the Living’s Easy

Promotional image of Crypto walking towards the camera underneath some palm trees — Image courtesy of THQ Nordic

The biggest flaw with Destroy All Humans is the limited depth of its mechanics. The game is mostly divided into three modes- on-foot shooting, stealth, and UFO piloting. Environments are stand alone, connected by the menu screen’s map interface. Your UFO offers the most freedom for destruction, but maps are still condensed to what would have been a PS2-era appropriate size. It is undeniably fun to excavate a city’s buildings with your Death Ray. However, it’s generally just a fifteen minute process that regenerates once you leave the level. The original developer of Destroy All Humans (2005) Pandemic Studios partially made their name on unbridled urban destruction. Fifteen years later, their model remains fun but short lived.

Destroy All Humans’ ability to make escort missions and defending stationary objects remarkably painless is a double-edged sword. Destroy All Humans doesn’t really minimize frustration through innovations in AI or combat, it’s mostly just a very easy game. It probably best fits a tween demographic, as the humor is too sordid for youngins and the game is fairly simple for seasoned players. It is cackle-inducing to trigger a barbecue stove explosion from a distance to take out enemies, but unlike a similar operation in Hitman, it’s all artifice. You aim at the stove from a shielding distance, hold the square button, and the deed is done. Gameplay can just feel a bit too automatic to truly stimulate beyond visual absurdity. The ability in the original game to strike civilians with a dancing fever so they didn’t notice you was both a hoot and an added strategic measure for handling getting caught by enemies. Here, it’s just a diverting trinket.

This overprotective effect also makes the secondary objectives of taking out enemies in a certain way or body snatching a certain amount of times fun but instantly attainable. Returning to sections of the map opens up additional challenges involving racing against time, brain scanning against time, and UFO blasting against time. Adult players will likely feel that the game’s training wheels are permanently affixed. The additions made to Destroy All Humans are heartfelt and well-integrated, but sit squarely within the original game’s confines. For those who have played the original game and enjoy it (like myself), it’s a detailed, sturdy remake. The game on its own merits, however sticks out a bit in 2020, not just for being unique.

Yet Destroy All Humans’ presentation is strong enough and its gameplay so resoundingly capable that if the mere possibility of throwing radioactive cows at enemy soldiers appeals to you, the campaign’s nine hours of unrelenting anarchy won’t make for a bad $30-40 spent. As an advocate for Black Forest Games’ Fade to Silence last year, the studio has moved from a game that was punishing and rugged to one that is polished and very easygoing. As a way to escape humanity, you could do worse than destroying it.

This review of Destroy All Humans is based on the PS4 version. A review code was provided by the publisher.

Zachary Kauz

Enjoys paying less than 20 dollars for a game, especially when it is one people have forgotten about. Wants to be a character in the next Jet Set Radio and hopes you enjoy the site. Has a pet rabbit he nurtures and takes photos of. Still pushing for a Stuntman Ignition remaster 11 years later. Still hasn’t played Fortnite.

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Desperados III Review – The Greatful Eight

Posted on July 16, 2020 by Brandon Pero

Desperados III Review – The Greatful Eight

Because of a lack of mainstream publicity, it’s hard to see Desperados III being considered as one of the best games of 2020 by the end of the year, but there’s no question in my mind that it deserves to be in the conversation. Mimimi Games did very little in terms of new ideas and instead expertly perfected and utilized a plethora of old concepts. With the exception of some rare inconsistencies and bugs, Desperados III tells a story of revenge complete with interesting characters to help carry a diverse and engaging gameplay experience.

The Perfect Strategy Game

Strategy games, both real-time and turn-based, operate on the edge of a cliff where backing up with simplistic and repetitive mechanics often leads to boredom, and taking the extra step too far by including too many complex mechanics sends the game flying off the edge with nothing to really grab hold of. Desperados III balances on this cliff stiff as a plank while juggling on a unicycle. It includes five characters with four different skills each and a huge emphasis on stealth. Mimimi Games goes to great lengths to manage how you use them, which leads to endless unique situations where the same characters and abilities still provide compelling experiences. The developers take great care to consistently ask questions like, “What if this character wasn’t able to use this ability?” or, “How would this combination of characters play out?” You’re consequently forced to think about alternate approaches to situations in order to remain hidden throughout the game. This way, when the final levels hit you, you’re completely prepared to manage all of the characters and their abilities at once with dozens upon dozens of enemies in various formations waiting to shoot you down.

These enemies serve as the most significant indication of just how much thought was put into the level design. All enemies follow pretty consistent paths that give them vision over certain parts of the map. Like the previous Desperados games you have access to each enemy’s cone of vision, complete with a solid part where the enemy can always see you and a striped part where you’re still hidden if you stay crouched. The game then comes with some rules. Implicit rules, such as grounded enemies having striped vision on a two-story balcony and no vision of a three-story balcony, give Desperados III plenty of “Aha!” moments that spur you to think creatively and learn throughout the game. Explicit rules, like hiding in bushes conceals you as long as you’re crouched, coat the gameplay with inherent difficulty that makes every level progression like carving further into a juicy steak. With these rules as a base, every situation has been designed fairly and given tremendous consideration. This is often evidenced by the small things that you don’t notice. For example, you may not have noticed how convenient it is that an enemy is just barely out of another enemy’s sight, or how a wagon just happens to be right there to give you cover, allowing you to make good on a planned kill with more ease. While some situations require a rare level of timing and positioning, nothing is impossible thanks to these smart decisions.

Perhaps you can take out a group of three guards, but can you take them out and drag their bodies into a nearby bush before another guard rounds the corner? If you can’t, you better believe that the alarm will go off, spawning a fresh batch of enemies to deal with. Maybe you can take out the guy rounding the corner first so that he’s not an issue anymore. Well, there’s another guard on a balcony who has constant vision over that guard. Okay, now the approach is to kill the guard on the balcony first, kill the guard rounding the corner, then kill the three guards with a synchronized attack. Unless, of course, you can find a way to take all five of them out at the same time, or lure someone away from their usual position, or distract some of them, or simply sneak past them without them ever knowing you were there. This is a rather simple example that you may encounter less than halfway through the game, and it only gets more intricate the further you go.

To pull off puzzle-like circumstances such as this, showdown mode becomes an integral component to the game. Taking down multiple guards at the same time is difficult when constantly switching between characters and choosing abilities, so showdown mode allows you to pause time (except on the highest difficulty) and plan out several actions that are executed simultaneously. This opens up tons of new situations that the designers could play around with, knowing full well that with showdown mode, players can make previously impossible challenges as easy as pressing enter. The door is then open to brand new challenges that push showdown mode to its limits.

While this all certainly covers the fundamentals of the various intricate systems present, this just begins to scratch the surface of the experience. In everything I saw, I only ran across a few puzzling issues. The game focuses heavily on quicksaves and quickloads, so if you screw up, you can immediately step back to your save and try again. When doing this to retry something that will cause an enemy to search the area, including a nearby bush you may be hiding in, you get a glimpse at how truly random and frustrating the AI can be. You could try it once, watch an enemy search the area, accidentally screw up, then reload your save to try again. When doing this, you’ll often find that the enemy’s search path the second time through is different. They may even decide to suddenly search the bush you’re sitting in, even though they didn’t the first time. This can lead to bouts of constantly reloading, hoping for an outcome where the enemy doesn’t search the bush you’re sitting in. You’ll also find yourself pulling your hair out at times when you’re reminded that your character slows way down when you stand within a guard’s eyesight. While the level design was thought out to a considerable degree, the same can’t quite be said about these strange aspects.

Additionally, there are one or two enemies throughout the game that are bugged and can see you in bushes. It’s likely an extra script or something wasn’t attached to this enemy the same way it was attached to all the other ones during development, which is a simple mistake that’s glaring when it happens in the middle of the game. Desperados III does great work creating tension and forcing concentration, and when the game suddenly breaks like that, you’re left very on-edge and frustrated. Other than that, the experience is pretty much entirely bug-free, and you’ll feel compelled to forgive the few bugs you run into because of the overall experience.

A Complimentary Western Tale

The storyline then takes this experience and puts a strong exclamation point on it. Is it a story that’ll be adapted by Steven Spielberg anytime soon? Pft! Hell no. It’s a simple revenge story where John Cooper puts together a band of misfits to take down a wealthy bastard with too much power named Vincent DeVitt and an old nemesis named Frank. It even has trouble sticking to this basic premise, as it’s difficult at times to pin down who the true main character is. In chapters I and III, it’s made perfectly clear that it’s John Cooper, but in the middle, the game tries to give more of the spotlight to the other characters- Doc McCoy, Kate, Hector, and Isabelle. This fails miserably, as John Cooper suddenly fades a bit into the background and we’re still left with little character motivation for Isabelle.

However, it does perfectly what a game story is supposed to do: it gives context to the gameplay. In fact, it does this better than most games on the market. The story and your party’s circumstances directly affect which characters are present for a mission, which abilities those characters have, what the mission objective is, and how you approach the mission. Maybe the narrative dictates that one of the characters is passed out and you have to worry about carrying them through the mission. Maybe you’re without weapons because they were confiscated for some reason. Maybe a couple of the characters start together in one part of the map and another combination of characters starts in another. These all go on to spawn a lot of the gameplay systems previously mentioned.

The characters have a decent hand in all of it, too, especially since the narrative does a decent job of putting them at the forefront. One of the best details in this regard is the way the story unfolds throughout a level. Characters talk to each other as you reach certain checkpoints, and these short conversations reveal more about their relationships and how each one belongs in the situation. Further context comes from the snappy voice lines that come when you choose a character, select a new destination, or pick an ability. The variety keeps things from getting stale, and each level comes with its own new voice lines that fit the story properly. Thankfully, this and the fitting sounds design help distract from a lackluster soundtrack that can get a bit stale.

All of this culminates into Desperados III, a brilliant effort with little to complain about. In fact, there’s so much to praise that I insist you go and play it for yourself to truly do the game justice. We didn’t even get to touch on swimming, climbing things, footprints, longcoats, achievements, or special challenges, all of which open up new doors that will leave you playing this game for up to sixty hours without ever getting bored. What more could you ask for from a game?

This review of Desperados III is based on the PC version. A review code was provided by the publisher.

Brandon Pero

Brandon is a young writer who loves going deep into games to explore meaning, purpose, and life. He believes that there’s nothing better than getting lost in a world full of characters to love and lessons to learn. He has a special place in his heart for single player games such as Mass Effect and Life Is Strange, but he also blows off some steam playing some of his favorite multiplayer games, like Paladins.

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