Games You Beat in 2025: Year of the Backlog

[toxicitizen]

Assassin's Creed Origins

 

So, I actually beat the main game years ago but I was underleveled for the DLC (and stubbornly refused to use the level boost), so I just got frustrated with it and stopped. But now a combination of factors made me return to it. 

 

Ubisoft finally added Steam achievements support to AC Valhalla, so I finally bought it and Odyssey. Then there's AC Shadows that's looking really good and making me want to catch up with the series. And finally, that one area in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle reminded me of how much I love Egypt as a video game setting, so it made me want to fire up AC Origins again.

 

Anyway, so I picked up right where I had left off: working on completing the base game's map until I was high level enough to tackle the DLC. I had been working on it on and off since October, and now, after having almost doubled my initial playtime, I'm finally done.

 

 

Goddamn, this game is so needlessly massive. I wasn't kidding about my playtime. The main game took me about 50 hours to beat. My current playtime according to Steam is 94 hours. And over half of that extra 44 hours was spent just running around the base game's map and clearing out all those question marks. Both DLCs probably took me less than 20 hours combined. I could've probably done it a little faster because early on I was also doing all the minor side-quests on the map but at some point I found out they weren't actually required for anything, so I stopped. They were by far the most time-consuming thing and kinda sucked anyway.

 

The DLCs were alright. The first one, The Hidden Ones, is basically more of the same. Kill some dudes to draw out your real target, etc. The second one, Curse of the Pharaohs, leaned more heavily into fantasy and was surprisingly meaty. I really enjoyed that one. By the time I reached it, I was ready for the game to be over but it never really overstayed its welcome despite the amount of content there is to get through. I still cleared all the question marks in every single area even though they weren't required for achievement purposes.

 

So yeah, feels good to have finally completed this one. Now one of my gaming goals for 2025 is to do the same for Odyssey and Valhalla.

[TheMightyEthan]

TIL there was DLC for Origins.

 

*Edit - Wait, never mind, I was thinking of Mirage, I knew about Origins.

[MetalCaveman]

Star Fox 64

 

As fun as I remember, also, I'm way better at it now than when I originally played it aeons ago lol, took me about an afternoon to get both endings.

 

Grade: A+

[TheMightyEthan]

Metaphor ReFantazio

 

117 hours later and man, great game. I don't have a lot specific to say, if you're familiar with the last few Persona games it mostly follows a similar structure, though in an industrial fantasy land instead of modern Japan. There are a few changes, like the "Personas" work differently, and everyone can switch now instead of just the MC, but for the most part if you like Persona I would definitely recommend checking this out.

 

Grade: A+

[TheMightyEthan]

Platform 8
 

This is a sequel to Exit 8, a Japanese game where you're caught in a purgatory of a repeating train station, except this time it's on a train instead of a station. Weird/creepy shit happens, and your goal is to get all the way through 8 iterations. It's a neat little game, but Exit 8 was better.

 

Grade: C+

 

Fort Solis

 

This is one of those "investigate a deserted sci-fi installation" games, but it's really well executed. I can't really talk much about the gameplay without spoilers, but it's tense and interesting throughout. I had a lot of fun with it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes that kind of thing. And it's short, only 4 hours!

 

Grade: A

[TheMightyEthan]

Severed Steel

 

This game is basically Superhot x Mirror's Edge x Hotline Miami. You're blazing through levels, wall running and sliding and leaping through the air, going into bullet time and blasting the shit out of guys. It's completely frenetic and crazy and so so good.

 

Grade: A+

[Mister Jack]

Thank Goodness You're Here!

 

This is the most British game I've ever played. I'm not even sure how to describe it. I guess by some definitions you could call it a walking simulator because all you do is go around and slap things, but it's just so bizarre that I don't think words alone can do it justice. You play as a tiny British salesman on a business trip who, after his meeting is delayed, decides to go for a walk around town. From there, people ask you to help solve their problems and apparently you can't say no (or anything at all) so the rest of the game is you helping people with their first world problems. Sounds boring except that for every problem you fix you tend to break ten more things and you get to watch the town descend into chaos because of your well-meaning actions. Plus, some of these problems are solved in some truly outlandish ways and in the process you can go anywhere you please in town, including right through the houses of total strangers. These people are FREAKS too. Honestly I should just shut up and let the trailer speak for itself.

 

 

Edited February 2 by Mister Jack

[Mister Jack]

Mouthwashing

 

I sure picked a hell of a game to follow up on one of the silliest games I ever played. Mouthwashing is bleak. Very bleak. The premise is a commercial space freighter gets into an asteroid collision and the crew is now trapped on a dead ship in the middle of space with rescue unlikely. Food and water supplies are dwindling and the cargo hold is full of nothing but thousands of boxes of mouthwash with just enough alcohol content to get a person drunk if they're determined. The story jumps back and forth in the timeline, leaving you to gradually piece together what happens to the crew as they begin to despair and give in to their darker impulses. A line that is repeated more than once in this game is "I didn't believe people are defined by their worst moments." Are they, though? That's something they leave you to ponder. Some of the implications about what these people do to each other is absolutely vile and since they're all trapped on a spaceship together it's impossible for anyone to run away from their worst moments. It's presented to you through surreal segments full of psychological horror. There's no monsters on the ship other than the ones that already exist inside the crew but you'll be running from them anyway. It's like you're playing a David Lynch film. That's the best comparison I can think of. It deserves the praise it's been getting, but don't expect to be in a good mood when you finish it.

[toxicitizen]

Yakuza 5 Remastered

 

Finished it two weeks ago but I immediately jumped into Rebirth and that first week I couldn't be bothered writing my thoughts because that was time I could spend playing Rebirth instead. Then I kinda forgot about it. I'm not joking, either. I literally finished Yakuza 5 like 15mins before Rebirth finished downloading.

 

Anyway, it was pretty good. It was also very long but it never overstayed its welcome. Mostly because every time you switched protagonist it was like playing a completely different game. You start out with Kiryu and he's a taxi driver now, so naturally you end up getting sucked into the street racing world with drifting and eurobeat music.

 

Then the next character fights like 78 dudes at once while breaking out of prison only to immediately get into a high-speed snowmobile chase followed by a fist fight with a giant bear. Then you spend the next 5 hours in a little mountain village playing a survival/hunting roguelike minigame. Then it's time to play as Haruka, Kiryu's adopted daughter, and she's training to be a pop idol so now the combat has been replaced by a rhythm game. Did I mention that this game is fucking bonkers? I can easily see how someone might just bail when they get to the Haruka chapters but it just made me love the game even more. This is the most unapologetically schizophrenic game I've ever played and I loved it for it.

 

Overall, it did the multiple protagonist thing much better than Yakuza 4 but the story ended up feeling a lot less cohesive as a whole. Yakuza 4 kept me on the edge of my seat for the most part and it was only the finale that was a bit underwhelming (I still can't get over how our heroes' big plan was "We don't understand what's going on or know what to do, so let's just put that big pile of money on top of Millenium Tower and beat up whoever comes to get it"). Yakuza 5 was kind of the opposite. The story was so meandering and full of distractions that by the time I was on the last protagonist I had basically forgotten how things had started out with Kiryu at the beginning. The finale itself was much more exciting, although it did end rather abruptly.

 

Anyway, that's now all the PS3 games done. That took me way longer than I expected but I can finally play Yakuza 6 and then move on to the Ichiban games. I'm almost caught up!

[MetalCaveman]

Star Fox Adventures

 

Better than I remembered, but also kinda bad lol, some of the parts I recall being super frustrating (like the test of strength in Lightfoot village) were way easier this time, while the bomb puzzles were as annoying as always.  

 

Gameplay holds up better than expected, except for some things. Trying to aim the fire blaster feels like you're fighting against the staff itself, really frustrating, specially with how many timed puzzles require that you hit targets with this thing. Not being able to jump down while climbing rock walls gets annoying real fast, more so if you  make multiple visits to the store. Not having proper camera controls is also quite the choice, specially when Assault does have the option to use the C Stick as a normal right stick camera control.

 

I actually didn't remember that moment with Scales lol, was actually looking forward to that fight and then... Nothing.

 

Grade: B+

[MetalCaveman]

Star Fox Assault

 

Shorter than I remember, but still pretty fun. Really appreciate that it uses the C-Stick as a right stick camera control instead of some other weird control setting lol.

 

Aparoid infection is still super creepy, specially the Corneria boss fight, still hits hard after all these years.

 

There are some issues though, voice acting is a weak spot, Peppy went from cartoony old guy voice to monotone apathetic old guy voice lol, graphics also look like a downgrade from Adventures, and (this is just me lol) I much prefer the Arwing from Adventures over this one, Adventures has a more practical look and feel to it, Assault just kinda has pointy stuff everywhere and doesn't really land, just hovers in place.

 

Grade: A

[Thursday Next]

On 2/2/2025 at 10:10 PM, Mister Jack said:

Thank Goodness You're Here!

 

 

I played this on a flight, love the surrealism. It smacks of the animation bits in Monty Python. Has a little bit of untitled goose game vibes too.

[MetalCaveman]

P.N. 03

 

This was... something lol, the most positive thing I can say is that some of the ideas present here went on to become Vanquish, and that one's cool. Oh, and I guess the Papillon suit is kinda neat.

 

The controls are awkward, even for a GameCube game, some enemies and bosses move way too fast for how slow the aiming is, environments are empty and barren and not in a GameCube era kind of way. The story is pretty much non-existent:

"Here's your next mission" 

"Will you tell me about the target?" 

"No" 

"OK"

 

The last boss is a nightmare too lol, overall, not recommended unless you really, REALLY want to see what came before Vanquish.

 

Grade: D-

[MetalCaveman]

Area 51 (PS2)

 

Took a bit of time to get used to the controls, using R2 to aim, L2 to jump and L1 to crouch feels weird but after my brain adapted it wasn't so bad lol.

 

The story is fun, silly, cheesy and cool, it really throws every Area 51 conspiracy theory at you lol, there's government experiments, alien weapons, a virus, a fake moon landing, a secret underground base, everything!   Voice acting is neat (except for a VA that aged like milk), David Duchovny voicing a character that's involved with alien stuff, that just feels right.  

 

There were only two alien weapons but they were fun to use, and one of them has infinite ammo so that's always neat, just wish you fought more grey aliens. Alien monsters, infected mutants and humanoid soldiers are cool and all, but greys should be more common as an enemy type in a game like this.

 

Grade: A

[toxicitizen]

On 2/14/2025 at 7:23 PM, MetalCaveman said:

P.N. 03

 

This was... something lol, the most positive thing I can say is that some of the ideas present here went on to become Vanquish, and that one's cool. Oh, and I guess the Papillon suit is kinda neat.

 

The controls are awkward, even for a GameCube game, some enemies and bosses move way too fast for how slow the aiming is, environments are empty and barren and not in a GameCube era kind of way. The story is pretty much non-existent:

"Here's your next mission" 

"Will you tell me about the target?" 

"No" 

"OK"

 

The last boss is a nightmare too lol, overall, not recommended unless you really, REALLY want to see what came before Vanquish.

 

Grade: D-

 

Oh man, I remember renting this back in the day and actually beating it. Even back then I could tell this wasn't very good lol.

[MetalCaveman]

Def Jam Vendetta

 

For the longest time, I was sure this was the sequel to Fight for New York, turns out it's the other way around.

 

One of the most frustrating fighting games I've played, mostly due to how hard it is to actually end a fight, you can't just beat the crap out of your opponent you need to win through pin, submission or knockout, but pin and submission rarely work, and knockouts only work under special circumstances, combine this with an awkward control scheme and the result is an annoying nightmare.

 

Not something I would recommend. I have fond memories of Fight for New York, so now I'm curious as to how that one has aged.

 

Grade: D-

[toxicitizen]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

 

Finished it about a week ago. Overall, my thoughts are basically the same as with Remake. It's very good and I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent with it, however it feels like a bloated mess. Rebirth in particular feels like it doesn't really have a plot of its own. You've got the party deciding to chase after Sephiroth at the end of Remake and in this one they mostly just do that. Like, I would struggle to explain the plot of just Rebirth to someone that hasn't played the original or even just Remake. It doesn't really stand on its own in any way. Almost like the story of FFVII doesn't really suit itself to being expanded to a full trilogy!

 

Like, don't get me wrong, a ton of stuff happens throughout the game but none of it really drives any kind of overall narrative forward. Then again, who is going to play this without being already super invested in FFVII? So it's probably not that big of a deal. And I don't want to sound overly negative, either. After all, this is a game that took me 120 hours to get through without ever overstaying its welcome. I completed all the side-content I could find in every single region before moving on and I never got sick of it. The first couple weeks, I couldn't wait to finish work so that I could fire up the game and lose myself in it until it was time for bed. It's been a while since a game took over my life like this. I think the last one would have been Witcher 3 when I finally got around to it a few years ago.

 

The only time the game lost any kind of Steam was when I got to one of the last chapters and unlocked a bunch of end-game side-quests. I gave them a shot but most of them were such an insane difficulty spike that I figured they were meant for post-game/hard mode. So after taking a few days off out of frustrating, I just moved on with the main story and finished the game because I only had a week left until Monster Hunter Wilds.

 

I think I'll have to replay the original before part 3 because I'm kinda baffled that two games into this trilogy we're still only at the end of disc 1. Maybe less happens in discs 2w and 3 than I remember? I thought disc 1 ended when you left Midgar until I looked it up, so it's not like I have super clear memories of the original. Either that or part 3 is going to be absolutely massive. And I'm having a hard time picturing how they could possibly top Rebirth in that regard.

 

 

 

Monster Hunter Wilds

 

I mean, technically I did roll credits on the main story but unlike Monster Hunter World, the story in Wilds only covers Low Rank. So basically I only finished the tutorial and the real game begins now. And thank god because while I can appreciate what they were going for, some aspects of the story mode were kind of a misfire. What made me fall in love with World was the gameplay loop: going into a zone, tracking the monster, finding it and getting into a long fight to finally take it down. But the story mode in Wilds kinda throws all of that out the window.

 

All of those elements are still there but when doing main story quests, you constantly get stuck into "slow walking" sections where you mount auto-rides you to the next objective while characters talk. It got old pretty fast. And after a while it got kinda comical how you kept randomly running into monsters on your way to various places. Like, most of the main story quests go down like this : get sent to investigate location XYZ -> ride 2 mins to get there -> oh no big monster in the way! -> kill it -> teleport back to camp -> mission accomplished!

 

Some of the set pieces are really cool and there's some pretty awesome cutscenes in there but I feel like there's some improvements to be made in how they tackle story in future Monster Hunter games. Meanwhile, in High Rank/post-game, my current main objective is : "investigate stuff and level up your hunter rank" and this is the most excited I've been to play since the game came out. Especially since most of the low rank monsters were complete pushovers. Like, at one point you fight a monster that's obviously a pretty big deal and very important story-wise. But I only figured out that it was actually the final boss when it turned out to take much longer to kill than everything else up to that point. And sure enough, credits rolled after that fight.

 

But calling HR the post-game isn't really accurate. I beat the story mode but I haven't beaten the game. Like, obviously most of HR is going to be stronger versions of monsters you've already fought but the very first one you fight is actually brand new at that point. So the game definitely still has a few surprises in store and there's still some story content here and there, it's just less of a focus. But I can already tell that going forward it's going to be closer to the World gameplay loop I loved so much. And the additional freedom given to you in HR means that the seamless world gets to shine even more. Like, the biggest selling point of the game is that the various zones are now all connected into one seamless world (although it is not an open-world game by any stretch of the imagination) but the story mode just kinda railroads you through it without letting you explore much. I really don't get what they were thinking lol.

 

So yeah, the game itself is pretty great but the story campaign is more uneven. If you're considering this as your first MonHun game, you might be better off grabbing World or Rise for cheaper to get a better sense of the core gameplay loop. Especially if you're on PC since that version of Wilds kinda runs like ass. Although weirdly enough, that hasn't been a problem for me ever since I switched from DLSS to FSR3. I even get to turn on frame gen. It's baffling to me that I get better results with AMD tech on my Nvidia card but it made the game go from sub-60fps to ~100fps. There's some visible ghosting at times but I'll gladly take that in exchange for a smoother experience.

Edited Wednesday at 10:39 PM by toxicitizen

[Mister Jack]

17 hours ago, toxicitizen said:

I think I'll have to replay the original before part 3 because I'm kinda baffled that two games into this trilogy we're still only at the end of disc 1. Maybe less happens in discs 2w and 3 than I remember?

 

Disc 3 is just the crater/endgame so yeah.