Review Archives (All Reviews)

You are currently looking through all reviews for games that are available on every platform the site currently covers. Below, you will find reviews written by Suskie and sorted according to date of submission, with the newest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

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	Jet Force Gemini review (N64) Reviewed on August 03, 2008 I’m generally okay with fetch quests – hell, half of my N64 career was positively made of fetch quests – but Rare bumps it up a notch. They obscure some of the Tribals from regular view. The others are thrown out into the open, where they’re more likely to get killed by stray gunfire. What’s worse is that worlds are divided into districts, and you’ve got to collect all of an area’s Tribals before you leave. If an area has ten Tribals and you save nine, you can’t come back later and rescue the one that you missed. You’ve got to get them all in one fell swoop. It’s not simply tiring – it’s exhausting.	2.5/5
	The World Ends with You review (DS) Reviewed on August 02, 2008 The game kept going, for much longer than I had anticipated. Here, Neku finally met his arc and became a likeable character … and my adventure was far from over. It is here that you will actually start caring for Neku as a character, and it is here that The World Ends with You truly begins. How clever you are, Jupiter. You present us with an evolution in character most would save for the very end, and you just keep on going.	4.5/5
	The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess review (GCN) Reviewed on July 24, 2008 There comes a point when Link gains the ability to transform at will, which does wonders to rid Twilight of its biggest flaw. Not only does this keep the game from forcing players into lengthy non-human segments, but it allows you to more delicately appreciate the simple joys that the wolf provides, like following scent trails and digging holes through walls. It is at this point that the wolf mechanic works for the game, not against it, and that’s when Twilight becomes the full-blown masterpiece it was meant to be.	4.5/5
	Half-Life 2: Episode Two review (PC) Reviewed on July 12, 2008 Nearly every sequence takes you by surprise, and keeps you glued to the screen until the action is resolved. There is a helicopter chase. There is also a genuinely horrifying introduction to the Advisor, the only “true” Combine creature we’ve seen so far. Trusty robotic ally Dog has his moment in the sun, only before you finally reach White Forest and come to the realization that the game isn’t over yet – in fact, the most intense, exhilarating, large-scale battle the Half-Life series has ever seen is still just around the bend.	4.5/5
	Team Fortress 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 06, 2008 Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have many maps, and of them, only about three or four are particularly popular. Yet they are so carefully designed, and inspire so many different approaches for both offense and defense, that in a way it doesn’t matter, because each game is completely different from the last, and all match each other in sheer intensity.	4.5/5
	Half-Life 2: Episode One review (PC) Reviewed on July 05, 2008 If one thing really makes Episode One worth playing, it’s the connection to Alyx that starts thin but grows progressively stronger before the game’s three hours are up. In Half-Life 2, she was little more than a forgettable supporting character. In this episode, she’s at your side for the entire game, and provides both a surprising amount of battle support (it’s virtually impossible for her to die, so keeping her alive isn’t a concern) and a pleasant boost in morale. The Half-Life series has you doing a lot of cool things, so it’s nice that someone is finally acknowledging your heroics.	3.5/5
	Half-Life 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 04, 2008 Valve’s objective was to simply provide an FPS experience that surprises you around every turn and never stops entertaining. It works – every chapter in Half-Life 2 feels completely distinguishable from the last, and yet there isn’t a level in the game that I didn’t enjoy. Other developers should study Half-Life 2, because it’s a perfect example of how one game can so cleanly fit into a single genre, and at the same time constantly feel like something different.	5/5
	Half-Life: Blue Shift review (PC) Reviewed on June 09, 2008 If Blue Shift were merely a simple rehash of everything we saw in Half-Life, I’d be cool with it, since I adored that game and would have loved to see more. But this expansion lacks many of the masterful touches that made Valve’s first-person shooter stand out so much. Level design is straightforward, mechanical, and lacks imagination; way too much of the game’s first act is spent wandering through some nondescript sewer system, turning wheels and pushing buttons and swimming down canals and all that. The game does eventually pick up a bit, during a semi-cool run through a train yard sporting a number of mildly exciting skirmishes with your old military opponents, but even here, the game lacks the energy and knack for big, “epic” moments that the original (and even, occasionally, Opposing Force) did so well.	2.5/5
	Half-Life: Opposing Force review (PC) Reviewed on June 08, 2008 My least-favorite segment of Half-Life was the journey through the border world Xen at the end, only because the human factor had been taken out of the equation, and battling the far less intelligent alien grunts got old after a while. Much of Opposing Force more or less feels like that entire sequence, only set in the Black Mesa facility itself. The good news is that the action is kept fairly interesting throughout thanks to some new (tougher) alien baddies to fight (whom I later learned are not from Xen, but from… uh, somewhere else). The game is simply never as exciting or action-packed as the original often was.	3.5/5
	Half-Life review (PC) Reviewed on June 01, 2008 There’s a surprise around every corner, be it a new enemy, a new platforming challenge, or some new method of simply scaring the piss out of you, like watching a scientist get sucked into a hole in the wall, only to see him re-emerge in pieces a moment later. Take out any five-minute segment of Half-Life and it probably wouldn’t seem like anything particularly special – you have to play it all at once to fully understand just how well each piece compliments the next, how it all adds up to one nearly seamless FPS experience with rarely a single dull moment, or even one that feels like what you’ve already been through. It is truly greater than the sum of its parts.	4.5/5
	Grand Theft Auto IV review (X360) Reviewed on May 22, 2008 This isn’t the GTA I “know and love.” It’s a new GTA, one that I know better and love more dearly.	4.5/5
	Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword review (DS) Reviewed on May 18, 2008 With Dragon Sword, Team Ninja has taken a game known for brutal, in-your-face action and made the switch to a control scheme that is far more unconventional and alien to those experienced with Ninja Gaiden. It could have been a disaster – that it’s actually a relatively smooth, entertaining action game (on a handheld, no less) should serve as a testament to the skills the team possesses, especially in an area as potentially hostile as DS development.	3.5/5
	Sins of a Solar Empire review (PC) Reviewed on May 02, 2008 It’s not uncommon for a game to end with hundreds of ships on screen at once, engaged in constant combat while each player struggles for dominance. Frankly, the hours you’ve invested in this game only help to heighten the emotions brought about from this final conflict’s outcome. The disappointment can be overwhelming; that you could come this far and fail at the last second doesn’t seem possible. On the other hand, the sense of satisfaction gained from a narrow victory is one of the most gratifying I’ve yet to experience in a game. Either way, it’s an epic fight.	4.5/5
	Assassin's Creed review (X360) Reviewed on April 23, 2008 Altaïr’s actions are divided between socially acceptable and socially unacceptable, and you can switch between the two with the right trigger. Unfortunately, Assassin’s Creed is one of those sandbox games where the “cops” (i.e. the guards) want to kill you for every little thing that you do. And since all of Altaïr’s best and most convenient abilities are considered suspicious behavior, expect to attract quite a bit of attention from the local law enforcement. This includes the act of running, which evidently is a sin punishable by death.	3/5
	Dark Sector review (X360) Reviewed on April 10, 2008 There are countless ways to kill your enemies in Dark Sector. Most of them involve the glaive, and all of them end with a splash of fresh, juicy meat.	4/5
	Mass Effect review (X360) Reviewed on March 21, 2008 I completed Mass Effect in little more than twenty hours, which may seem like a travesty when compared with many other successful RPGs. But Mass Effect’s amazingly involving methods of storytelling are truly unmatched, and with rarely a moment that isn’t spectacular, BioWare has (regardless of length) skillfully crafted one of the most compelling RPGs ever made.	5/5
	Popful Mail review (SCD) Reviewed on March 15, 2008 “Eat this, cookie face!”	4.5/5
	Star Ocean review (SNES) Reviewed on February 28, 2008 Ratix Farrence and Milly Kiliet had only known these spacefarers for a matter of hours, yet already Ronixis Kenni and Iria Silvestoli were risking their lives for a pair of complete strangers. They were breaking Rezonian protocol and pulling their ship out of the station where they were currently under hold. Their destination: Planet Stream, gateway to unlimited passage through time and space. It was a dangerous operation, but the fate of an entire civilization was at stake.	5/5
	Undead Line review (GEN) Reviewed on February 19, 2008 It’s hard to play a fantasy-based shmup like Undead Line without (a) recalling that horrible Square NES release King’s Knight and (b) laughing. Even if one of these games turned out to be good, I will always think the idea of a shooter set in medieval times is silly, especially when it comes to projectiles. The armor clad hero of Undead Line	1/5
	Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare review (X360) Reviewed on January 29, 2008 A world map hovers on screen and whirls around until the Middle East pops into view. The screen zooms in to a city along the west coast of Saudi Arabia, possibly Jiddah. We’re taken in closer, to the computerized image of two figures carrying an immobilized President Al-Fulani. A moment later and you’re looking through Al-Fulani’s eyes as he’s being thrust into the backseat of a car. As you’re driven through the war-torn city, you can do nothing but watch as masked terrorists fire guns, raid hom...	5/5

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