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Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag builds on the foundations of its predecessor to set its story in the Caribbean and put the focus on pirates and naval warfare. Black Flag’s many mistakes are old ones in the franchise, with the game being dragged down by clunky stealth, weak combat, and a repetitive mission structure, but this time the story could have used a little more ambition as well.
The protagonist this time is the pirate Edward Kenway, who one day gets stranded on an island with the rogue Assassin, Duncan Walpole. When Edward learns Walpole is carrying money, a quick chase and a furious brawl follow, which end up with Walpole’s death. Edward, then, decides it’s a good [...]
Astral Chain is a curious action game, in which you basically control three characters at the same time during combat, but “action” is only a small part of the gameplay. The game is constantly mixing genres to try to offer something new, but suffers from too many underdeveloped ideas, and a story so shallow that makes Bayonetta’s feel like a masterpiece in comparison.
In Astral Chain, the protagonist – which we can name and choose the gender, but has no personality or voice whatsoever – controls a monster called Legion, which is connected to them by a special chain. The characters live on an artificial island called The Ark, which was built to protect humanity from the sudden [...]
Experimentation is a common ethos in The Legend of Zelda series. Whether it is by introducing the third dimension in Ocarina of Time, changing exploration in The Wind Waker, or shaping the gameplay according to the peculiarities of the console with Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, Nintendo developers are always demonstrating a clear desire to evolve the franchise by testing ways to modify its elements without changing what defines it. With A Link Between Worlds, a sequel to the classic A Link to the Past for the Super Nintendo, the aim of the changes is to decrease the linearity of the adventure, allowing greater control over what to explore.
The protagonist is again Link, [...]
Based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s most famous work, Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor is a game that fails to harness its own potential. While the case for its main story is hopeless, being shallow and very repetitive, when it comes to gameplay it actually presents a great new idea, but keeps sabotaging it with systems that enter in conflict with each other.
Shadow of Mordor’s story takes place between the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, when Sauron regains control of Mordor, expelling the men of Gondor from the region. The protagonist is Talion, a ranger who was guarding the gates of Mordor when Sauron’s forces stormed the place, murdering him along with [...]
Horizon Zero Dawn is a competent open-world action-adventure that has a strong start and great art direction. If it doesn’t reach the heights of its peers, it’s mainly due to its disjointed narrative and serious dissonances between gameplay and story.
The world of Horizon Zero Dawn is full of bestialized mechanical monsters: robots that look and act like tigers, buffalos, alligators, and even dinosaurs. The protagonist is Aloy, a young female hunter that grew up as a pariah because of the circumstances of her birth. When the mechanical menace becomes unbearable, however, Aloy is finally welcomed to her tribe and is tasked to save not only her people but the entire [...]
The traits of the classic Greek hero differ substantially from the ones of a contemporary one. While the latter is tied to the morality of their society, the former is in no way concerned with notions of right and wrong: their vocabulary, instead, circles around the concept of glory. Kratos, the protagonist of God of War, is one of those heroes. He massacres the innocent, commands vast armies, scales titans, escapes from deadly traps, faces colossal monsters, and even attempts to kill a god. He does terrible things, there is no doubt, but also incredible things.
God of War begins with its most fantastic battle: Kratos needs to eliminate a huge Hydra that is sinking ships in [...]