Now Playing: Hi-Fi Rush

Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm-based action game in which you play as Chai, a young, wannabe rock star. When his cybernetic surgery goes wrong, Chai is labelled a defect and hunted by the evil Vandelay Technologies. In terms of gameplay – with its combos, parries and special attacks – Hi-Fi Rush is very reminiscent of games like Bayonetta or Devil May Cry.

But if, like me, you start trying to play it like one of those games, you might struggle. Because Hi-Fi Rush is very much a rhythm-based action game. You don’t just have to hit the right combos – you have to hit them in line with the beat. Your overall grade for each combat encounter is determined by three values – Score, Clear Time and, most importantly, Just Timing – how in tune with the beat you were. And everything is in tune with the beat, not just your attacks – jumps, dodges and parries also align and can help you boost your attack and chain together your beat combo from one enemy to the next.

Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game that has you tapping your foot in tune with the music, not just because the music is a perfect fit for the action, but because it helps you get into the flow of the underlying beat. Whilst playing Hi-Fi Rush I developed an unconscious habit of tapping my fingers in tune to the beat even when I wasn’t playing it.

Combat can feel a little messy whilst you try to get ‘in tune’, but there is a helpful beat guide that you can put on the screen to learn. Once you do get the hang of it, however, you’ll discover that Hi-Fi Rush has a very fun, creative and stylish combat system. It does not, I admit, have as much depth or variety as the aforementioned Bayonetta or DmC games, but there’s enough here to keep you engaged throughout the entire game and the extensive post-game content.

You won’t just be fighting throughout each level, as Hi-Fi Rush also has a fair amount of platforming. Like the combat though, the world also moves in beat to the music, so timing jumps from one platform to the next, or ascending in an elevator isn’t just about going from A to B, it’s also about keeping the rhythm going.

You may play as Chai, but you won’t be on this adventure alone. You’ll encounter some new friends as you go who you can call upon to join you in battle, and each partner has a special skill that will be useful for dealing with specific foes. They can also join you for partner combos and parries as well as some wonderfully animated special attacks.

There are several boss fights in the game, all of which offer a varied experience. There’s also special enemies that can initiate ‘rhythm attacks’ in which the action is temporarily paused as you have to parry or dodge several attacks in timing to the unique beat of the attack. It might sound a little strange, but it makes perfect sense once you’ve done it a few times and it’s another reminder that Hi-Fi Rush is as much a music rhythm game, as it is an action game.

Visually, the world and characters of Hi-Fi Rush are absolutely gorgeous and exceptionally animated. It really does feel like you’re playing through a Saturday morning cartoon. The game is fun, and it feels like a labour of fun – it’s the kind of game that you can tell the developers had a real blast putting together.

The main story will probably take you about 12 hours or so but there’s good replay value in the form of collectibles to find (but not a ridiculous amount) and secret areas you can only unlock on your second run. There’s also plenty of post-game content and challenges to undertake. These can, admittedly, feel a little bit of a grind though, so I didn’t finish them all.

Hi-Fi Rush is the kind of game I want to see more of. It’s a smaller scale and (presumably) smaller budgeted original title that doesn’t outstay its welcome. It may be fun and intentionally tongue-in-cheek, but that doesn’t stop it from hitting a few emotional beats too. It mixes up the levels and environments and has a decent selection of enemy types.

Overall, I really don’t have much, if anything, to criticise about Hi-Fi Rush. The visuals, animations and sound are all excellent. The gameplay is fun, clever and engaging. If I were to criticise something it would be that the combat options are somewhat limited as you’ll likely unlock all of your combos and most of your special attacks long before you reach the end, so there’s nothing really new to explore on a replay or in the post-game challenges.

But aside from that, Hi-Fi Rush is easily one of the most fun and refreshing games I’ve played in years. If you love video games – and particularly the arcade style games of say, the Dreamcast era, then it’s the kind of game you really have to check out. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

9/10

Gallery: Forspoken

Now Playing: Mass Effect 3 Remastered

This one has been a long time coming. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to revisit Mass Effect 3. But I felt like enough time had passed that I was ready to tackle it. And maybe it wouldn’t hurt so bad this time. And, honestly, it didn’t. This edition of the game includes all of the DLC and extended ending content. I still don’t think the ending is good, but it’s certainly better than how the game released.

Which is a good thing, I guess, but it also means that anyone playing ME3 for the first time this way probably won’t quite understand why it was so hated at release. Because the extended ending took an ending that was absolutely terrible and made it ... just kind of bad. Let’s be clear – it’s still not good, but it’s not quite the vicious kick in the balls the original release was.

I remember back then when most people said it was only the ending that was bad and the rest of the game was fine. I disagreed then and I still disagree now. Mass Effect 3 has a lot of problems beyond the ending. The opening is, in many ways, just as bad as the ending. It feels rushed, abrupt, like you’re simply being railroaded from one point to the next – Earth, Mars, The Citadel – with major plot points either poorly explained or not explained at all.

The Crucible is the ultimate ass-pull, but it’s one I could get behind if it was properly set up or introduced. ME3 doesn’t even try. Nor does it explain why Cerberus now has a massive army and fleet which doesn’t exactly make sense for what has previously been portrayed as a clandestine, cell based organisation. But you know, I can live with that too. It certainly gives the game a little more enemy variety.

What really strikes you during the opening though is the lack of interactive dialogue. Not only do you have less options when you do get some, but a lot of dialogue in ME3 isn’t interactive at all. You just sit back and listen as Shepard responds without any input. And then we have the absolutely awful ‘dream’ sequences which . . . no.

It’s clear that ME3 has stripped any semblance of being an RPG away in favour of a more linear, third person shooter experience in which you’re not really a part of the story, you’re just along for the ride. And Shepard? Shepard is no longer your character. I already wrote a lengthy post about this back in July 2014, so I won’t repeat myself here.

The game does pick up though, most notably in the Tuchanka quests. That’s easily the best part of ME3, although the Rannoch stuff is a close second. Those parts of the game, even if the gameplay aspects aren’t great, are at least very satisfying from a narrative perspective because they’re dealing with events and characters and plot threads established all the way back in ME1 and they can be resolved in multiple and satisfying ways. They’re exactly what I wanted all of ME3 to be.

Unfortunately, once you’re past those the quality noticeably drops. Everything feels rushed again and you’re led through a series of linear missions that feel like glorified horde mode maps in which you just fight mindless waves of mindless enemies. Kai Leng is one of the worst and most embarrassing villains I’ve even seen. I don’t mind the Illusive Man plot in the sense that his motivations and actions (minus the massive army and fleet) do fit the character – he doesn’t just want to destroy the Reapers if he thinks he can control and utilise them.

That’s why I don’t mind the ‘Control’ ending as an option, even if I’d never pick it. It, to me, is the true renegade option because it’s exactly what Cerberus and the Illusive Man wanted, albeit not with Shepard at the helm. Don’t get me started on Synthesis. That shit is completely f**king stupid even with the expanded ‘explanation’ provided in this edition. It feels like it’s the option the developers really wanted us to pick given it requires the highest ‘war score’ but it’s so poorly explained and makes such little sense that why would anyone want to?

It’s also only set up at the very end of the game. At least Control is established earlier on, Synthesis is just tossed in like this grand, supreme idea but it doesn’t make any f**king sense. Speaking of war score or war assets or whatever you want to call it – what a f**king waste of time. I remember prior to release when we all thought ME3 would have a wider scale, more elaborate take on the Suicide Mission of ME2.

Where your choices determines not only if you’ll win but what the cost will be – not only who lives or dies but what races survive. But hey, if you can’t be so elaborate, then at least the war assets factor into the ending in some way, right?

Wrong! They really are just for a score that unlocks the three endings. If you think you might at least see some of those assets appear in cinematic scenes or whatever, think again. Imagine if you saved the Rachni and then you at least got to see a scene of a Krogan squad being saved by Rachni allies? Wouldn’t that be fun? Or when I secured the loyalty of some mercenary groups. What if they showed up at a key point and helped turn the tide? Give me f**king something. Anything.

Even with the extended content, the ending of ME3 still feels abrupt, weird, nonsensical and rushed. There’s no proper epilogue reflecting on what you did or the choices you made. No, it’s not as terrible as at release but it’s still pretty bad. You know, I thought I’d gotten over my anger towards ME3 but I’ve now realised this review has turned into another directionless rant.

I think I’ll stop here. I’m glad I played ME3 again, I guess, if only to remind myself of the things I did like about it. Because there are some genuinely great moments in ME3. It’s a shame the rest of the game, the ending in particular, is so bad or lacklustre in comparison. I’m not going to say this ‘remastered’ edition is bad because I think, overall, new players will probably enjoy it. But they’ll never know what it was like. They’ll never understand the anger or the pain.

5/10

Starfield: First Impressions

I was wary of Starfield. I had two key concerns – bugs and writing. The last major Bethesda game I played was Fallout 4, a game that was broken as all fuck on release. Crashes. Bugs. Broken quests. Would Starfield do better? I mean, how could it do worse? And then we have the writing – Bethesda have always been good with their world building and lore (at least as far as the Elder Scrolls series goes) but their quest and (most notably) character writing has always left something to be desired.

Even Skyrim, a Bethesda game I have a lot of love for and sunk 600 hours into – not to mention 100 hours in the (heavily modded) VR version – is plagued with some very mediocre writing. Bland characters. Bland quests. Fallout 4 wasn’t just bland – it was bad. I’ve heard some of the DLC was an improvement, but I never gave it a shot.

I’ve now played Starfield for 30 hours and I feel ready to share my initial impressions. In terms of bugs, I’m pleased to report that Starfield may just be the most polished Bethesda game yet. That’s not to say my experience has been entirely bug free – oh no, this is still a Bethesda game, after all. But thankfully these bugs have been minor and easily resolved with a simple reload. Nothing broken. No crashes. PC performance is good but not great so there’s certainly room for some improvement there.

The opening few hours are slow (gameplay) but engaging (story). There’s a lot to learn, but I don’t think Starfield does a perfect job of managing your progression through the early content. It doesn’t explain everything well, and some things it doesn’t explain at all. This is a game where you’ll need to be willing to experiment to see what works and what doesn’t.

To address my other key concern – the writing – Starfield may be Bethesda’s best work yet. Once again, they nail the world building and lore. I love the history, the factions and the style. But the quests I’ve completed have also been really engaging and, somewhat surprisingly, the main quest (so far!) has been too. In previous Bethesda games, even when the side / faction content has been decent, the main quest has been terrible (Oblivion is a perfect example). Starfield – at the moment – feels like it’s knocking both out of the park.

And the characters! Actual characters?! In a Bethesda game?! And not just main / companion characters – even minor characters feel well written and are interesting to interact with. Even random, ‘radiant’ quest characters I’ve encountered have a remarkable degree of thought put into them.

Facial animations are good – for a Bethesda game. I mean, this ain’t exactly Cyberpunk 2077 quality, but given how many characters there are, I’m still quite impressed. And the VA, right across the board, has been excellent. And ‘impressed’ is how I’d sum up my time with Starfield thus far. The more I play, the more impressed I am.

The scope of the game is massive. The attention to detail is staggering. The combat is really good – even if the AI (and pathfinding) could use a little more work. I can spend hours customising my ship and I’ve not even touched outpost building yet. I understand some people may be disappointed that Starfield isn’t as seamless as something like No Man’s Sky but to be frank, I don’t see the two as remotely comparable.

In fact, there’s nothing that’s really comparable to what Bethesda have achieved with Starfield in terms of the sheer amount of content, quests, characters, combat, customisation, RPG mechanics and locations. Nothing even comes close. Such ambition – and the fact that they appear to have pulled it off – is to be applauded.

No, it’s not perfect. Yes, there are limitations. And I’m already making a list of quality of life improvements / mods I’d want. But I’ve never played a game quite like Starfield. It feels like something special.