Beyond the digital gate

This channel is all about racing and slightly less so about racing games – mostly as I can’t afford the cars that I want or indeed the lifestyle that would allow me to drive said cars in a style I wish.

But today I thought I’d rattle through what probably takes up more time on my PlayStation than racing actually, and that’s RPG (no not Retail Price Guarantee), it’s the business of being someone else – and not Sir Stirling Moss – and going on grand adventures.

The common recipe for the below is:

• Largely open world sandbox approach to gameplay
• Graphically great – i.e. grand vistas, I like to explore worlds!
• A patient plot, something I can come back to once tooled up
• Chapters - with the above, I can complete a quest overnight.
• Generally third person, and generally not weaponised in the traditional sense (i.e. Guns)

And so to a potted review of sorts, pull up a beer, sip a chair and we’ll begin.

Witcher 3

Old boy tooling around on a horse taking all that is unholey, and a redhead.

This by far is my “if I could have one game and replay it like it was new” game. 

The world is both huge and open, so much to see and do – the decent sized city you get into is just awesome. What’s more, it’s a game that traveling point to point is fun in too. Many times I jumped off my horse and just ran cross-country to my next destination, and that nearly always yielded a cool monster or similar to deal with.

The plot was something that was great, right up until the end. I’ll not spoil it but will say that the logic of how they converge a really well branched (and consequential) story into very few endpoints meant things got a bit clunky. I didn’t mind it but towards the end, my gaming nights were 80% cut scene as I recall.

Lots of folks don’t like the combat system. I wasn’t fazed and I don’t think that was because I’m a gaming demi-god (though I suppose that didn’t hurt) but more so I used a tried and tested, “get in hit monster xyz with powered up whatever and then step back out of range” – and this last point is I think how I survived many a battle.

Character-wise, this is a strength of this game. Not only is your character possessed of dry humor the interaction with other characters is executed really well - time and again. Meeting someone early in the game affects how things play out when you meet them later. Pro tip, being a murderous psychopath doesn't always play out for the best.

Did I mention it was beautiful? It really is. Oh and Gwent can poke off. I tried the in-game game and it’s not for me.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Amazonian chick finding herself, and a lot of loot, in a world that's managed to surpass charge cycles on batteries.

Originally when I saw this I thought it was more platform than RPG - reviews talked about it just being a loot trail. If that's the case then I guess I like loot trails!

Not sure if the world is bigger than Witcher3, I think it's certainly more varied. And as I think about it, I collected everything except some mugs in that game (yep, mugs). So a well-executed game too.

Graphically it's probably a notch up on Witcher3 thinking about it. Although the whole robot animal thing smacks of a dev team that couldn't nail animal motion so just went and made them not-real off the bat. 

Overall though the vista and fauna were great and a beautiful place to explore.

The plot wasn't the best really. Working towards a final boss, making it a bit platformy and really I think the story wasn't it's strongest thing, though the character development of the main character was great. Don't really recall any other characters in the game, so there's that.

A pleasure was exploring the abandoned cities - I'll skip past the realisation somewhere in the game that there's no way the cities and especially the rusty stuff would still be there after so many years exposed to the elements. Exploring live cities though, yeah not so much. Trying to recall why, and I think they were a bit of a non-event in this game. Pretty though!

Combat, a nice combination of melee, ranged and traps. It's very cool building up an environment that you fall back into when fighting a larger robot and the traps start go off. In that respect, it's a good game for the hunter aspect.

Overall, I think I sound negative to this game, I'm not as it was awesome, though I've not bought the add-on DLC, as I think I'm done with it as a game...

Elex

Captain Cranky is upset with the world at large.

Except for the chick he gets jiggy with (got a trophy for that!)

I courted this game for ages. The price never seemed to drop to a reasonable price considering it gets mediocre reviews at best. Talk of poor visuals, mechanics and lore issues (apparently) abound, putting many off.

And for sure the graphics are a generation behind Horizon and the combat isn't a patch on Witcher3, but it's a great game, I spent a very long time in this world.
You see, it's a blend of three of the giants, Witcher, Horizon and Skyrim, how?

The world is actually very similar to Horizon, it's a post-apocalyptic world with abandoned buildings and rusty cars. I'd grant that like Horizon it's hard to reconcile the condition of the world with the degradation of society, but it's perhaps not as bad as all that in Elex. But it's not Horizon, the graphics aren't anywhere near as good - though they're not bad at all.

The combat is very similar to Witcher3, it's monsters all the way (plus some dudes). And something I really liked was that early on when you've got nowt but a stick you're going to get your ass handed to you on a regular basis. Basically, until level 10 you're going to learn to run away, or run in, get the loot and run out. It made combat all the more tense. Sadly even late in the game, I found the timing of hit & roll just too hard to get right so regularly got cleaned up. By then ranged weapons were possible so I was pretty much a badass. Don't think this will be fluid combat though.

And the world reminded me of Skyrim, something (you'll see below) with Skyrim is that you have more of a to-do list (they all have this) and spend an inordinate amount of time traversing the world getting to the next thing, and that travel is a key part of the game. It's the same with Elex. There is fast travel but it's not overly easy to find the teleporters, so you end up walking a heap, which is OK as that's a good part of the game really.
So, a good compromise game that if you've played the other three you should enjoy, just don't expect any forgiveness on the way through...

FarCry (3&4&Primal)

Rinse and repeat sandbox + tooling up until you're a one man army.

I really liked FarCry, but I doubt I'll buy any more versions. The problem I have is that all three I've played were pretty much exactly the same. Start with little more than the means to shoot and escape, do some missions get a bigger weapon to earn more points, tool up and eventually be a one-man army that you can swagger into any situation and gun everyone down.

The worlds are great, they really are. Jumping in cars and driving around, or grabbing a microlight is great. And the first lonely night in Primal was exceptional, I hid on a rockface as wolves circled me - the fear was real. But then later in the game when I had the triple bow, the bomb dropping owl and the meth head sabretooth I was invincible. And it's the same with 3&4 actually, though less sabretooth.

And whilst the world was good, it wasn't really a world like Elex, Witcher3, Skyrim and indeed Odyssey, it was more a large valley or two. I never really felt I was in the wilds, much more a story in a sandbox. And to be frank, once you've taken out a few bases it's really a case of more of the same - and that's why it'll be a long time until I buy a later version...

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag

Jack Sparrow simulator.

This is a game that's really not that big in some ways. The actual environment is mostly water it seems and the story itself wasn't massive. But the game is vast. Avast game in fact, lol.
But seriously, it's in here as it is a great game. I think though it's in need of context. You see this is the first game I bought going into a Christmas break to play through with my daughter. The recipe was to have her sail and move around the world followed by handing over the controller and "look away" - in which I did the nasty. And this worked really.

Graphically it's a great game, lots to see and explore. And a nice touch is sometimes you come across an island (albeit a small one) that has no mission on it, just a bunch of ruins to explore.

Combat was (at the time) one of the better Assassin's Creed implementations I think. AC2 was "The Claw"(TM) insofar as it was every button all the time. I struggled with that but not this game. Tooling up never got out of hand, but having said this I certainly found the later missions a lot easier.
Storywise, if they ditch the animus (or whatever it is) junk all the better - sure it accounts for multiple deaths and sort of a plot line, it's just not needed, and if you're trying to make something believable don't have someone go back in time and wipe out more people than cholera.

Skyrim

Ancient game. In every sense.

This is the only game I've bought twice, and to some extent regretted it both times.
Skyrim is amazing, the wilderness, the dungeons, the characters, everything - I've even modded the game on PS4 to be beautiful.

But, for some reason (and I'm not alone in this) it's a game that requires more persistence over enjoyment. Multiple times I've started this game with intents of finishing it, but always I get sort of what feels about 1/3 of the way through and just stop playing it. It's not like I'm putting in epic hours and get bored with it.

It's just a game that "I need to sit down and put some time into". And for some reason I never do, I've put more into other games too.

So what is it about the game. I think the first time I played it I summed it up. I never went and attacked the first dragon. Consequently, I pretty much ended up being an NPC wandering around and doing nothing. Subsequently, I've done better, but really this game seems to encourage settling down and starting a farm or something. Mundane. And I think that's it, there's no excitement of what happens next, it's not quite enough plot to draw you in, not quite enough character to bond and not quite enough of anything to keep you going back.
But it's a great game and no doubt I'll buy it for my PS5 when it comes along!

Red Dead Redemption (the first one)

Emotional drama with a six shooter.

This game affected me emotionally more than just about any other I've played.
I'll not spoil the ending, if you've not played it, go buy a second-hand PS3 and get this game, it's worth it. But, in the ending I was deeply upset. Fantastic.

As a game it's great, the environment isn't huge but it's big enough to go trail riding and enjoy the virtual outdoors. The horse mechanic is good enough to enjoy galloping about and there's plenty to see. Even on a PS3 now the graphics really aren't that bad. Better than Elex on the PS4 for example.

And as it's a western it's all about shooting old guns, and it's done really well. There's no overkill going on, and in fact, it's easy to get yourself into a wanted status if you go on a killing spree. So for a hired gunman, this is probably the least violent out of all here I think.

Did I mention the story? Arguably one of the best character creations in digital form with great dialogue and everything you'd expect of a tired cowboy.

Side missions aren't the best, I lost count of the number of people that I was supposed to save and either shot them (insta-wanted) or was too late. But the main story was good, though putting next mission waypoints on the other side of the map, every, single, time was a drag after a bit.
I've seriously considered playing through this again, maybe, I'm not generally into that but I really did enjoy the story on this one.

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey

A very large psychotic killing spree across a very large swath of ancient Greece.

This is the current game for me. I started it, then waned a bit but over the last week have got back into it. In fact, I've done that a few times. I think the challenge is to stay engaged and as contracts constantly spawn it's easy to get tied up in minor skirmishes and lose track of the story. Realising that I've taken to exploring islands and when I get over that go and do a few main mission quests, and that seems to be working.

And what of the environment? Totally amazing is what it is. I knew it would be of reasonable size, reviews said so and Black Flag wasn't half bad. But this is another league altogether. You simply have to accept that you'll not be able to take in the entire world in high definition, HDR res, let alone remember every little town, side street, house or camp. If I had a gripe there's no lock to walking, so every time you stick forwards to move through a town you end up running through the lives of lots and lots of local Grecians. I suppose it would have been great to be able to buy fish at the market or clothing, but equally, I get the vastness of this game and the distraction from the main business of being a mercenary wouldn't have been ideal.

And the combat, it took a while to get good - not as long as Elex I might add, but now I'm at a point that I can give some serious grief to a group of soldiers and expect to walk away (just). Getting a spear and realising just how good it is was a real bonus. But you are a complete psychopath, wandering into a camp and wasting the lot of them is both fun and a bit troublesome, to be honest.

Sailing seems to be less of the focus than Black Flag but still important, it's how you get to the islands of course. I've not over-engineered my boat for example so tend to avoid most conflicts on the waves, maybe into the future. But really, what with some of the other plot lines it's almost like another game anyway, I've got more than enough going on and will complete many more quests before I get back to boating...

Did I mention this game was pretty? It's really, really pretty.

Honorable mentions

Generation Zero
Playing through with a learned friend, I think it has all the right ingredients with a sprinkling of "effing hard" to top it off. Not sure I'd want to play it single player and feels designed for more.
Still, enjoying it - we think it's not a long game though, although we are stretching it out! No spoilers but I'm interested in the story on this one. Graphics, great, but repetitive building designs show it's budget'ness. Robots are awesome.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands
Played a very short amount of this. Plotless I think, but great sandbox approach. If I can I'll co-op play this with someone to get the most out of it. Looks good, if not great.

Assassin's Creed Rogue
Like Black Flag without the pizzaz. It felt forced and frankly, was hard work. Never completed this game and doubt I will. Don't get this and Black Flag!

No Mans Sky
Like most, the scar tissue of pre-order has never healed. I think it's probably a great game now, but really I can't bring myself to start yet again with it. Really, sort of an RPG, but no tight plot that I could see and a big focus on resource harvesting.

And what's next?
I think Fallout4 for sure, it's on crazy sale now and is in the same genre, and then there are upcoming games such as Jedi Fallen Order (amazing, pre-order available with no actual in-game footage), Outer Worlds and a tentative maybe on Cyberpunk 2077 - I think the hype on this last game might push it into the NMS camp of pre-order hype vs. reality...

And... thinking about it, what would I recommend?

• Best story - Witcher 3
• Best visuals - Odyssey (probably), close second Horizon Zero Dawn
• Best avoid - (outside of the honorable mentions) it pains me to say Skyrim, all of them
• Best use of three weeks of your life - Probably Elex actually, though Witcher3 consumed me too. And why? Witcher3 is a story that I think deserves savouring like a wine over longer, Odessey really is far longer and without depth. And the rest wouldn't last that long for sure.