I wish I could say that I beat three games in three days but the reality is that it took me four days. It's still an impressive completion rate though. It was a good call juggling those three in particular because of how diverse they were. You got a first-person shooter, a platformer, and a third-person beat 'em up. It cuts down on controller cross-contamination. For instance, in Bioshock Infinite, going down the sights is on R3, but in Metro, it's L1. Play too many FPS's at the same time and the controls start blending together.
The first one I beat was Puppeteer. The game was too easy. The basic mechanics are fun so I wish the level designs were more devious. It feels like a beginner platformer. While the presentation is charming, it's definitely overwrought to the point of annoying. I wish they would just shut up and let me play already. It's a good game, but with better clever design and a pared down presentation, it could've been something outstanding. The game is beautiful though and the motion blur is so natural. I think Japan Studio is on the right track to return to their former glory.
Metro started out great but then straddles the line between open-ended stealth sandbox and linear corridor shooter. The game is most boring when you're fighting against monsters. It reminds me of Doom. You just back up and strafe while emptying your clips into them. There's enough tools to switch it up like with molotovs, grenades, and mines, or long distance sniping, but once enemies are alerted, they run after you in a straight line.
The game is at its best when you're in a large environment with a bunch of humans and you take them all out stealthily. The level design gives you a bunch of alternate pathways to sneak up on mofos and you have to get creative to take out multiple dudes at once. Nothing like throwing a knife and executing a guy from behind at the same time. Game was a little easy on Normal. I have no idea what Ranger Mode is like, but I could pretty much take out everybody with headshots by crouching in the darkness.
The last stand took me about three retries to figure out. It's kind of refreshing for a game to not explicitly tell you what to do but annoying as well. The game is a mess visually on the PS3. I don't know if it fares any better on the PC, but there are instances where there are too many high contrast and shader packed areas where I can't see for shit. In the end, it was a decent game. If I had a nickel for every time I mistakenly threw a grenade instead of a knife... I probably would've had a dollar.
Next Up: Devil May Cry, Binary Domain, and Saint's Row 2.
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