aspro said:

Heh heh.  Yeah, I remember all that, and what you are talking about.  Maybe we should have two threads for big games, one for folks who have finished, one for those who have not (for the pre-gmae hype etc...)  I mean, we are here to talk and when it comes to finished games all we say to each other is "wink wink" and "nudge nudge".

We have spoiler tags or something. Dvader uses them in the SMG2 thread.

Damned if I know how to use them. Normally it's okay but this game in particular, it's all about the absurd and unexpected.

Okay I've collected and refined my impressions so far, as well as filtering spoilers out.

Played almost 4 hrs of this at the weekend.

It's oh so sweet. The opening had my jaw on the floor, the music, the directing, the cutscenes, the graphics. Visually it looked so much better than the first game it looked incredible.

Then the game sort of dipped for a while. It's not consistently polished, there are some assy textures, copious amounts of slowdown - in the cutscenes of all things!

The first proper level was average at best. The first proper boss, was irritating as hell. Suddenly the game felt like the first No More Heroes, warts and all.

There is no open world in this game, there is this map and it's so hassle free to use it actually feels pretty amazing - a mark of how shitty the N64 openworld of the first game was.

At the same time you lose something by cutting out the overworld, you lose a sense of cohesion, of progression. When you are selecting levels off a list you get that.

If you remember the first game, it wasn't until Shinobu that the game lit up for me. In the technically shoddy game, among the boring side jobs, you were suddenly in this pitched battle that felt more like a lightsabre dual than any other game. There was a rhythm to it, there was strategy involved, it was a badass pitched battle.

I got to that point in NMH2 with a similar boss.I got beat down probably 6 times or so but kept coming back for more. This was EXCELLENT fun.

It's almost impossible to talk about why this game is so awesome without spoiling the fun for everyone else coming into the game. It's best played with no foresight. Unfortunately I spoiled some of the game for myself by watching videos.

The game is just outrageous at times, when it pulls the unexpected out of its hat as a complete suprise it can have you grinning from ear to ear. When it's mundane, it's mundane, but when it's at its best it had my jaw on the floor on several occasions.

And giggling like a schoolgirl at other times, so much so I had to pause the game.

Some of the dialogue, the lines uttered by the characters are just RIDICULOUS. Ridiculously cool, quoteable and unexpected - these guys should be making films. Most good games have wow moments, some of the freaking dialogue here are wow moments.

I started playing as Shinobu. I thought I would hate these sections as I wanted to play as travis, but her two levels are so far the best of the bunch. Her animation is particularly great. It reminds of when you first saw the 3D Prince of Persia doing his thing in the Sands of Time. It's archaic now but the impact then is the same thing I feel about Shinobu.

She jumps as well, adding some verticality to the levels, a boss fight has you going up and down in a large chamber with tiered levels. One of the levels reminds of call of duty, starting from a low point and working your way upwards, seamlessly whilst being able to see where you started. Holy hell one of her levels is huge and you can see the cliffs in the vista and there are no loads. Very impressive.

The combat is the same as the first game for the most part. I was worried it was going to be cannon fodder but the difficulty ramps up and once you save there is no quitting levels. You can't go back to the overworld to power up or buy a new, stronger sabre. You just have to plug away at that boss and use all your skill. Which makes it very satisfying.

There is this move that is freaking awesome, where you swish the remote to use whilst running. It's as powerful as a charged slash and saps your batteries just as much.

At first I was thinking that this was no better than the first game only with slightly improved visuals. But the more I play the more memorable the game becomes and it's not saddled with the horrible overworld and boring minigames of the first game.

The game just hits you with so many memorable moments -gah! - can I spoil them for you or what? I have to say something. Well, I'll just say that they play subtle homages to a couple of well know franchises as well. And ----- GAH! I can't say or you guys will kill me.

Oh and the 8-bit minigames are excellent, there are even some really addictive

You could release this stuff on wiiware and it would be worth owning.

Oh yeah and the graphics can still look like ass on an HDTV.

Oh oh! The finishing moves are totally awesome

It's not quite QTE and it's not quite gameplay. Sort of reminiscent of Madworlds over the top finishers but more cool and awesome. That perfect punctuating moment on a boss well beaten.

One more thing. In design and polish terms, it still feels like these guys are lagging a fair few steps back from the best - Capcom/Platinum. Which still leaves this franchise in the "COULD be amazing category".

But creatively these guys are unrivalled. I can only imagine what would happen if you paired off their creative team with an actually awesome - technical developer.

Another thing is that with the first game it was all original. Here, cause its a sequel there are many familiar elements, like the transitions and saving and fighting and even a few characters. You know all this already so that stuff doesn't feel fresh, it's the unexpected stuff which hits you.

One more thing, technically this is only 75% of the way there. It feels like a third game is needed to finally nail the experience as it should be.

Games like Shattered Memories, Dead Space Extraction and Red Steel 2 have raised the bar in terms of what I expect from a 3rd party on wii in terms of polish.

Since playing more though, I can say it gets more polished as it goes on and is a great effort from Grasshopper.

The opening is about the best opening to a game I can remember.

It would be like starting a Star Wars game with a battle against Darth Vader.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

I beat two more bosses. This is infuriating! I can't talk about the game because of spoilers.

It was awesome fun. One of the bosses chased me around a tree, it was f****** hilarious and I had to break out a new  weapon to keep the boss at a distance.

Then this other boss had these like magician moves and there were rocks crumbling and stuff. So good.

I also lost 40 minutes of my life playing the minigame jobs. There is this game where you fit tiles into a square. I'm useless at it but ridiculously addicted to it.

Wow.

So then.... gah, another awesome thing I can't talk about. You have this sureal battle in a field. Then they started offering up revenge missions. Remember in the first game you would drive to some location, have some crappy one hit death timed mission and fail it. Then have to drive all the way back to do it again?

The Revenge missions here are awesome fun. For a start you just select them off a list. Secondly there are no one hit deals here, so far. And the locations are new stuff that doesn't appear in the single player. It actually takes you to different parts of the city, even interiors that you've never seen before.

Some missions are kill everybody, others are assasination missions where there is one dude to kill, with protection. It gets heavy here as they put me inside a saloon of sorts with descructible furniture. And then they dumped the brutes on me, massive guys with big health bars.

I should mention the artificial intelligence, it's not super advanced but it had definetely moved on from the first game. They don't sit around waiting for their turn to fight, if there is someone behind you he will attack. Sometimes they grab you from behind like in Streets of Rage and the guy in front pummels you. Also, you get dizzy really easily here and knocked flat on your ass a lot. You have this estascy gauge which is like the special move bar in a Marvel vs Game and when it fills up you unleash these amazingly fast attacks.

It looks amazing, it's sensory overload as Travis skips about tearing these guys to pieces, your eyes can barely keep up. What makes it more fun is that it's on a timer and the bad guys run for it when you go into that mode. Last night I was near the end of my estacy and was chasing down this brute who was eluding me. Right when my gauge was about to run out I sliced that fat bastard in two. It was so satisfying.

Also, now you can switch between weapons on the fly and they all have a real meaningful effect on the combat. If you equip twin blades they are shorter so your reach is less, yet because you have two, you land more blows and can fill your estacy gauge further.

I bought this long beam katana, like the long sword in Monster Hunter, it has a huge reach but it's slow and cumbersome to use. Yet it keeps some baddies at arms length and was crucial in beating one boss.

I then played more of that godamn addictive tile mini-game and still couldn't beat it.

It's here when I realised that this game is so much better than the first. It just cuts out all the BS, no boring mini-game jobs, no horrible overworld. It cuts the fat and you're left with one scorchingly satisfying sequence, one after the other.

Then I went to this mission in a parking lot, I had to kill all the baddies but it was like an endless slog as they kept replacing and replacing the enemies. Visually the game gets more solid as it goes on, it was looking pretty swish. And even though there were too many enemies they gave you lots of pick-ups and boosters to finish them off.

Because it was an open level, there were no camera problems, no caught on scenary problems. Just deliciously satisfying bloodshed. Having blood in this game makes a real difference, it's like a fireworks explosion when you finish a guy.

And the motion controlled moves are so fun.

Then out of the parking lot I entered a grocery store, and they had descructible shopping carts filled with cans that scattered all over the floor when you knocked them down. And then up top to this boss fight, which looked be-autiful.

This game gets better and better. Damned thing is that I can't tell you why without spoiling the impact of the things they throw at you. It's great stuff.

When it comes to describing this game the same words keep popping up: satisfying, visceral, irreverent, ridiculous, cool and most of all FUN.

For more reviews and impressions check this page.

angrymonkey said:

You've convinced me to get the game gg!

I'm sure I'll unwrap it at some point....

bugsonglass said:

so far the game hasn't grabbed me like the first one did which (if you read my impressions in the relevant thread) was by the balls from the beginning and didn't let up until the end.  

 Sin and Punishment 2 impressions NOW.

bugsonglass said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

bugsonglass said:

so far the game hasn't grabbed me like the first one did which (if you read my impressions in the relevant thread) was by the balls from the beginning and didn't let up until the end.  

 Sin and Punishment 2 impressions NOW.

 i will try to finish this first.  sin and punishment is too punishing for a sinner like me.

NMH2 is seriously starting to piss me off.  Why are there no assassination jobs?  How am I supposed to make money to buy clothes and naomi's katana upgrades?  I don't even get money from the ranked fights.  game is broken i tell you,

 Use the damn continues.

About NMH2, I will wait until it drops in price. Galaxy 2 is releasing next week and I am still playing sin and punishment 2. I do not want to play too many games after each other while I still am playing the ones I have.

Should have released the game in January of February in Europe. 

bugsonglass said:

Iga_Bobovic said:

 Use the damn continues.

About NMH2, I will wait until it drops in price. Galaxy 2 is releasing next week and I am still playing sin and punishment 2. I do not want to play too many games after each other while I still am playing the ones I have.

Should have released the game in January of February in Europe. 

 it won't be long, the game even released at a reduced price, about £25.  it will be down to £18 in a week.

i still can't understand how they screwed up the european release

 Well their logic is:

Our game are selling bad in the States and doing somewhat better in Europe. 

You know what?! Let's close the European publishing branch.

They deserve to get bankrupt!

Played about six hours today...  a mini marathon and I feel like playing some more.  The game is really hitting its stride as far as the main plot and the ranking missions are concerned.  I have just done my first mission as shinobu, it was great.  The best thing was seeing her in the shower when you save.  That has got to be the finest digital ass crack ever.  so much better than the much publicised sylvia digital ass crack which came earlier in the game and even better than the digital ass crack from the first episode of the animatrix (which held first place until now).

I'm still not pleased about not being able to make any money in this game and miss buying all that stuff from the shop like i did in the original.  seems such a waste as there is so much stuff to get.  i can't even afford the sword upgrades from naomi.  very annoyed by this