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Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 61
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)


February (18 Games Beaten)


March (10 Games Beaten)


April (7 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (4 Games Beaten)


61. Medal of Honor: Vanguard - Wii - June 14



Given that the news lately has put me in a "shoot at Nazis" sort of mood lately, I figured I'd finally play Medal of Honor: Vanguard. I'm a big fan of pre-modern BS Medal of Honor series, and I'm also a big fan of the Wii, so I was looking forward to this one. While it's not god awful, it's not exactly an exemplar of the first person shooter genre on the Wii.



Both the PS2 and Wii versions of the game received mixed reviews, and after playing it myself, it's not hard to see why. The visuals aren't exactly what I'd call impressive even in the context of the Wii's graphical capabilities, and the AI is even less intelligent than the current presidential administration. Every enemy knows exactly where you are when you come out of cover, totally destroying my suspension of disbelief, and none of them have any sense of tactics; they just stand in the same place and periodically pop out of cover to shoot with no regard for the fact that you're standing there pointing a gun exactly where they're going to appear.



Personally, my biggest complaint is the the controls and the lack of customization options. I normally love shooters on the Wii. Motion controls are my jam. That stops being the case when you don't let me adjust the sensitivity. The options menu lets you tweak the gesture sensitivity, but if you turned off the optional gestures (swipe the nunchuck left to change weapons, swipe it up to jump, swipe it down to crouch, etc), that's a moot point. It didn't let me adjust the aiming sensitivity at all, and that's the single biggest determining factor in how comfortable a Wii shooter is for me to play. I got used to the fixed sensitivity, but that's a big minus in my book.



Fortunately the gameplay itself (once you get used to the aiming sensitivity) does a lot to redeem the game. It's just like every other WWII Medal of Honor game that you've ever played, but that's pretty much exactly what you want. You play Medal of Honor for consistently awesome Nazi killing, not for innovation or variety. It would have been nice for Vanguard to have had online multiplayer back when the Wii still had online capabilities given how robust Heroes 2's 32-player multiplayer was, but that's much less important to me than it is to most folks. The single player is fun, and the characters aren't horribly annoying. That's pretty much all it takes to make me happy.



Medal of Honor: Vanguard isn't one of the best FPS games on the Wii, but it's still a good bit of fun if you're into World War II era games. It doesn't make full use of the Wii's visual capabilities like Conduit 2 or Metroid Prime 3 did, and the control customization is basically non-existent, but all in all, it's still a pretty good time although I'd pay a maximum of $5 if I were to hunt down the game today. It's also not a long game and well divided for bursts of play; the campaign is cut into four operations with two or three levels each. HowLongToBeat suggests roughly four hours to complete, but I took closer to six hours probably. Granted, I suck at shooters, but still, the point is that it's not a long game, so game fatigue isn't a concern here. If you're into Wii shooters, check this one out, but don't go in expecting a masterpiece, and don't overpay.

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 62
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)


February (18 Games Beaten)


March (10 Games Beaten)


April (7 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (5 Games Beaten)


62. Medal of Honor Heroes 2 - Wii - June 12



Releasing in the latter half of 2007, Medal of Honor Heroes 2 was the second Medal of Honor game developed for the Wii following Medal of Honor: Vanguard. Set during the Battle of Cherbourg immediately following the D-Day invasions of Operation Overlord, you play as an OSS operative on a mission to investigate secret German projects in the area. The narrative is pretty standard stuff for Medal of Honor, but the gameplay is a ton of fun, and that's really what matters here.



For the most part, the gameplay is extremely similar to Medal of Honor: Vanguard, but there are some key differences that put Heroes 2 a cut above in my opinion. First and foremost, the unnecessarily gimmicky motion gestures are gone. Do you REALLY need a motion gesture to jump or crouch? I'm totally cool with motion gestures for melee attacks and reloading, but Vanguard was just excessive with it. It also gives you a few more customization options for the controls with a WELCOME sensitivity setting. Overall, it plays like Vanguard, but the little changes here and there really give Heroes 2 a much more refined feel. Visually, however, there aren't a lot of changes. It looks like it has a little more polish overall than Vanguard did, but aside from some slightly more detailed textures, it's pretty much on par.



Critics scored Heroes 2 about the same as they did Vanguard for the most part, but Heroes 2 added a lot as far as gameplay is concerned. First and foremost, it went from Vanguard's 0 player online mode to an impressive 32 player online play. That would be a pretty large game in your average first person shooter today let alone more than a decade ago on a console infamous for its "seriously what was Nintendo even thinking?" online framework. More important to me personally was the addition of "Arcade Mode." This allows you play through the single player as an on rails shooter rather than a tradition first person shooter. Not only does this make the Wii version of Heroes 2 stand out among the Medal of Honor franchise but it takes advantage of the Wii's greatest strength - the Wiimote. I've said since the console was first revealed back in my middle school days that the Wii is the supreme home console for rail shooters, and Heroes 2 proves my point. That game mode, while not appealing to some, doesn't get nearly enough credit.



Medal of Honor Heroes 2 still doesn't really exemplify what a great Wii FPS game can be, but it's without a doubt a much more competent endeavor than Medal of Honor: Vanguard was. Pretty much every aspect of the game is an improvement over Vanguard in some degree, and while that varies from the marginally improved visuals to the dramatically improved gameplay options and modes, everything has been improved at least a little. It maintains a general sense of mediocrity, but that doesn't mean that it's not a fun time for those of us who love shooters on the Wii. It's definitely a better game than Vanguard, and if you only get one of the two for your Wii, this is absolutely the Medal of Honor game to go with.

Elkin on summer vacation now.

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Elkin on summer vacation now.

Yep...

1. Antarctic Adventure (Famicom)
2. Nuts & Milk (Famicom)
3. Commando (Atari 2600)
4. Binary Land (Famicom)
5. Devil World (Famicom)
6. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
7. Popeye (NES)
8. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
9. Ys: The Vanished Omens (Sega Master System)
10 Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (Famicom)
11. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
12. Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
13. Otenba Becky no Daibouken (MSX)
14. Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
15. Mahou Kishi Rayearth (Game Boy)
16. Wabbit (Atari 2600)
17. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
18. Warpman (Famicom)
19. Final Fantasy (NES)
20. Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (Famicom)
21. Arcade Archives: Moon Patrol (Switch eShop)
22. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
23. Arcade Archives: Ninja-Kid (Switch eShop)
24. Shining in the Darkness (Genesis)
25. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Gate of Doom (Switch eShop)

Well, this is one of the stranger releases I've come across in recent years. Allow me to explain. Gate of Doom (Dark Seal in Japan) is an isometric brawler, released in the arcades by Data East in 1990. Emerging during a generational transition, the game couldn't have been (effectively) ported to 16-bit systems and the CD-dominated era was still years away. Thus, Gate of Doom languished in the arcades (okay, technically it was a downloadable Zeebo title in Brazil at one point, so I've read). When Data East Arcade Classics hit the Wii in 2010, Gate of Doom was frustratingly excluded even though its sequel Wizard Fire (Dark Seal II) found a home on the compilation. Fast forward to 2018. North America finally receives a proper non-arcade version of Gate of Doom as part of Johnny Turbo's Arcade series. Johnny Turbo, as you (probably don't) know, was the terrible cornball mascot for the otherwise excellent NEC TurboGrafx-16. So what's the connection between ancient Data East games and an obsolete Turbo mascot? I don't know. But here we are. And Johnny apparently has plans for several more Data East re-releases. I approve.

Gate of Doom is a "beat 'em up" in the absolute loosest sense of the word. The game features no punching, no kicking, no grappling, no combos, no hugging, no kissing. All four playable characters are instead endowed with a simple long-range attack and (conditional) magic abilities. Of the foursome, I gravitate towards the Egyptian(?!) wizard, Freya, as I've always had a penchant for playing as female characters. She apparently possesses the most powerful spells. Rounding out the roster are a knight with crushing physical attacks, a speedy ninja, and a bard who's impervious to poison.

This is the first of a cluster of (great) 90s beat 'em ups to feature a medieval setting, as opposed to the tired urban environments. Also present are some very light RPG elements (armor and status effects, primarily) -- I'd be tempted to call this sort of game an "RPG 'em up" but I don't want people to hate me more than they already do. Gate of Doom may have nothing on the Capcom brawlers to follow, not to mention the god-tier best-in-genre Guardian Heroes, but it's a valiant start. The stages themselves look pretty cool, if not predictable: castles, dungeons, and the like. Interspersed between stages are some cheesy cutscenes, where a king urges the player to move forward and recover the sacred relics. Though this is an isometric game, movement is eight-directional and "normal" (none of that Landstalker crap). Progression is perfectly linear, though one may choose to stop and raid treasure chests. Combat is fairly shallow, primarily just button-mashing. Foes are your typical fantasy fare: skeletons, goblins, bats, and so on. Enemies can technically be avoided, though combat is usually a worthwhile endeavor as it aids in filling the magic gauge. When the gauge is full a powerful spell can be unleashed. What results depends on what's displayed on the continually page-flipping "spell book" in the screen's corner. There are the standard fire and wind types of attack, but also some bizarre ones that transform the player into a giant rolling ball or a Medusa head. Each stage concludes with a boss, naturally. Expect to see dragons and other monstrosities, even a copyright-infringing "Beholder." These battles are kind of terrible, really, as bosses are hard to damage and have about a million hit points apiece. Also, magic is not available during these skirmishes, a sloppy mechanic reminiscent of Zoom's Lagoon.

Visuals are pretty standard, and the screen tends to get quickly cluttered with enemy sprites. By default the game's display is a pseudo-CRT screen which charmed me so much I didn't bother to change it. The sound design is more humorous than anything, as digitized speech takes center stage and foes are prone to emitting death screams upon defeat. If there's anything resembling a competent soundtrack I can't hear it under the din of battle.

Ultimately, what we have here is a pretty standard "kill everything" quest with some nice swords & sorcery window dressing. I'm not complaining though; if anything I'm overselling this a bit as I'm a sucker for anything medieval fantasy. That said, while Gate of Doom is a fun romp, and probably worth the eight bucks admission, it simply lacks the style and pizzazz of its successors.

1. Antarctic Adventure (Famicom)
2. Nuts & Milk (Famicom)
3. Commando (Atari 2600)
4. Binary Land (Famicom)
5. Devil World (Famicom)
6. Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
7. Popeye (NES)
8. Super Mario Land (Game Boy)
9. Ys: The Vanished Omens (Sega Master System)
10 Ys II: Ancient Ys Vanished - The Final Chapter (Famicom)
11. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
12. Lunar: The Silver Star (Sega CD)
13. Otenba Becky no Daibouken (MSX)
14. Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
15. Mahou Kishi Rayearth (Game Boy)
16. Wabbit (Atari 2600)
17. Kirby's Dream Land (Game Boy)
18. Warpman (Famicom)
19. Final Fantasy (NES)
20. Transformers: Convoy no Nazo (Famicom)
21. Arcade Archives: Moon Patrol (Switch eShop)
22. Gremlins (Atari 2600)
23. Arcade Archives: Ninja-Kid (Switch eShop)
24. Shining in the Darkness (Genesis)
25. Johnny Turbo's Arcade: Gate of Doom (Switch eShop)
26. Front Line (Atari 2600)


Front Line comprised one-third of the "holy trinity" of one-man-army run and gun arcade ports available on the Atari 2600, alongside Commando and Ikari Warriors. This Taito classic was first to arrive, both in the arcades (1982) and on this particular console (1984). Truth be told, I've never been much of a fan of the original, due to its wonky rotary dial controls, so the presence of a joystick kicks this port up a notch immediately. Note that this particular version was handled by Coleco, and was thus also available on the ColecoVision. Cue the conspiracy theories about Coleco purposefully crippling their Atari releases so consumers would turn to their brand of hardware instead.

This is a delightfully simple experience. Traverse four stages of rough terrain, reach the enemy base, and annihilate it. On the way, kill or be killed. Like Front Line's contemporaries, the four available "stages" are really just seamless sections of one long singular level. There's a forest, brushland, desert, and the enemy fort, all differentiated by immediate, conspicuous, and garish changes in background and scenery. Shooting and movement is eight-directional and relatively smooth. All sprites seem to move at the same speed, so yes, it is possible to outrun enemy bullets in Atari-land. Unsurprisingly, the protagonist of Front Line is equipped with both bullets and grenades (squares and somewhat different looking squares). What's odd is that the weapon is swapped automatically based on the given scenario. It's an inconsequential cosmetic change, but I appreciate the effort.

I believe this game started the "empty tank" trend. These can be found lying around the battlefield. Hop in one and your protagonist becomes slightly more mobile and can take an additional hit before expiring. There are enemy tanks to contend with too, naturally. I'm amused by the fact that the "final boss" can only be damaged by thrown grenades but not the tank's weaponry. Seems realistic.

Graphically, the game holds up pretty decently, with the rocks, trees, water, cacti, and so on all standing out well against the backdrops. There's no music to speak of, just "Atari explosions" and the rhythmic beat of heroic footsteps. Difficulty can be altered slightly by derping with the switches on the console itself, by altering how many enemy sprites will appear per "screen." There's also a two player mode, but it's alternating and thus rather pointless. Just pass the joystick, man.

My only gripe with Front Line has to do with the size of hitboxes. They're too big. The resulting problem has little to do with "pure combat" (you're an easy target, thus so are enemies) but the fact that it's so easy to get stuck on the scenery. Ever seen a supersoldier foiled by a two-foot bush? You will.

Overall, a noble outing from Coleco. Some would argue that the soon-to-follow NES conversions of games like Commando and Heavy Barrel make something like Atari Front Line all but obsolete, but I'll always appreciate the brevity, unpretentiousness, and quiet dignity of the Atari classics.

prfsnl_gmr wrote:

BoneSnapDeez wrote:Elkin on summer vacation now.

Yep...

Games Beaten in 2018 So Far - 63
* denotes a replay

January (16 Games Beaten)


February (18 Games Beaten)


March (10 Games Beaten)


April (7 Games Beaten)


May (6 Games Beaten)


June (6 Games Beaten)


63. Pokemon Quest - Switch - June 15



Pokemon Quest is the game that no one asked for, no one really wanted, but most of us are enjoying nonetheless. It was a bit of a surprise announcement at Nintendo's E3 conference, and what was more surprising to most of us was that it launched on Switch several weeks before launching on mobile as the game seems to be developed with mobile in mind given its freemium model.



Pokemon Quest is a strategy...ish...game. You can have a party of up to three Pokemon each of which knows one or two special moves in addition to the default attack. You use these Pokemon to battle wild Pokemon on your "expeditions" to explore a bizarrely cube-shaped island. You can buy decorations that have various effects with tickets, and you get an allowance of tickets every 22 hours as well as a new Pokemon friend that wanders into your camp every 22 hours. You can get more tickets by completing some quests, and cooking with ingredients that you find from defeating wild Pokemon can attract new Pokemon to your camp. There's also a paid aspect to the game that can get you some paid DLC decorations that have some REALLY good effects, but those are totally unnecessary to complete the game. They just make it a hell of a lot easier. If you want to go all-in, the combo pack that gives you all of the extra content plus a bonus is $30. A little steep for a F2P game, but if you think of it as a $30 game instead, it seems a bit more reasonable (although still a little overpriced in my opinion).



Inevitably, you'll hit a wall where you just aren't strong enough to progress. It's at this point that some grinding becomes useful, and I don't just mean experience grinding although that's certainly part of it. Each Pokemon can equip up to nine power stones that boost either HP or attack strength, and the number of slots increases as the Pokemon's level goes up with the ninth slot not unlocking until you hit level 100. These power stones are random drops from defeating wild Pokemon and completing expeditions, so that's the second benefit of grinding after experience. The other benefit is grinding to stockpile ingredients that you can use to cook more (and better) recipes to attract stronger Pokemon to your camp. You may find a Pokemon that's a higher level and/or has better moves that you want to put in your team, or you may end up using the new Pokemon as training fodder for the Level Up training which gives the trained Pokemon experience in exchange for sacrificing the Pokemon used to help with the training.



Since grinding will be necessary especially if you plan to dive into the postgame content, it's an absolute godsend that there's an auto function. If you press up on the D pad when you get into an expedition, your Pokemon will act on their own. This can make it EXTREMELY useful for grinding as long as you pick a stage you're a bit overpowered for because you can have your Pokemon pretty much grind on their own while you go do something else be it clean or play another game. One more benefit of grinding for ingredients and cooking to get Pokemon to use in training is that it gives you an opportunity to find an elusive shiny Pokemon. While they're MUCH more common in Pokemon Quest than in the main series game - I played for around 40 hours and found three or four in that time - they're still a pretty special occurrence when one wanders into your base camp.



Pokemon Quest was a huge surprise for me. I wasn't a big fan of the art style at first, and the gameplay took a couple levels to grow on me, but once I was hooked, I was hooked hard. The $0.00 price tag is certainly appealing, but if you really love the game, don't feel bad about buying some of the DLC. It may be a bit steep with regards to price, but for those of us for whom the game just "clicks," it might be a game worth spending a little money on. Either way, if you have a Switch or, once it releases for Android and iOS, a smartphone, it's definitely worth downloading since there's no cost to download.

1. Ultima V - PC
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC
7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC
8. Pools of Darkness - PC
9. Gateway to the Savage Frontier - PC
10. Treasures of the Savage Frontier - PC
11. Champions of Krynn - PC
12. Death Knights of Krynn - PC
13. Dark Queen of Krynn - PC
14. Into the Breach - PC
15. Lords of the Realm - PC
16. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - PC
17. Lords of the Realm II - PC
18. The Alliance Alive - 3DS
19. Shattered Steel - PC
20. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - PC
21. Battletech - PC
22. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part I - PC
23. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part II - PC
24. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Switch
25. Pillars of Eternity II - PC
26. Dragon Ball FighterZ - PS4
27. Detroit: Become Human - PC4
28. Call of Duty: United Offensive - PC
29. The Last of Us - PS4

After I saw the footage of a red headed woman murdering a bunch of religious zealots in a variety of fun and impactful ways in a post apocalyptic wasteland I new I had made a mistake in skipping The Last of Us. So I decided to rectify that. I originally passed on it because it looked like "yet another zombie game" in that glut we had a few years ago. And while it is a zombie game, it's as much a more standard post apocalyptic story, examining humanity in a world where society has broken down. Zombies are just the catalyst. And finally, it's a major example in the "Dad Game" genre, where you play the role of someone who grows into fatherhood, as part of the devs making penance for the fact that they've missed out on being proper fathers to instead focus on work.

The Last of Us involves a zombie outbreak that is probably the most plausible; a mutant strain of Cordyceps fugus, which in the real world is a parasite amongst insects and screws with their internal chemistry, is able to affect humans, and in the process of replacing their brain tissue causes them to become vicious. After the initial intro that sets up why Joel is biter and cynical you flash to 20 years later, in a world where small enclaves of people hold out against the hordes in the wilderness that can spread fungal spores through saliva (i.e. bites). Joel is now a grizzled survivor and gets tapped to escort a girl named Ellie who is seemingly immune to the infection; the hope is that she can be used to create an immunization and thus allow society to come back. Initially your job is just to get her to the hand off point, but naturally events happen and you end up having to take her all the way. Along the way the two of you grow closer, and eventually forge a parent child bond.

Now, the strongest part of the game is the storytelling. The plot is well crafted and extremely well delivered. The characters growing together is not just being told to you; there's a lot of little things and the various stages of their relationship are all believable. One thing that helps is some really good facial mocap, as well as some good voice acting. The heavy parts are delivered well, and you could easily turn this game into a TV miniseries adapting the plot without losing much. While you will probably see all the story beats before they happen (because they're all standard for the general story genre), they are still impactful due to the relationships you build with the characters.

The gameplay is unfortunately the weaker part of the game. There's some stuff that is just infuriating, and other parts that are only mediocre. The parts that do story through the gameplay were honestly my favorite parts. Segments where you are walking through the wasteland and talking with other characters and exploring the ruins of society, as well as parts where you are just traversing physical obstacles allow for more of that character and world building, which fuels into the game's strong point. By contrast, the combat is half the time blah and the other half intensely frustrating. You tend to bounce between two types of enemies. The first is the zombies; these come in a few forms. Your standard shuffling zombie make up the majority. They run at you and try to eat your face, and go down relatively easily, though they frequently can get in a hit and slowly wear you down with attrition. The other one (not counting the third boss-type) is the clicker, which is an advanced stage zombie that has a mushroom replacing its head, making it blind. Instead it uses echo location, and so they become the centerpiece of a stealth focus. The other part of that is that they can't be stealth killed without spending a consumable, and if they're active the only way to take them down without getting instant killed is with your guns (or get super lucky with a melee weapon and swing at the right time to win priority). Early game these guys require stealth, because your pistol isn't good enough to take them down. But the regular zombies are a pain in the ass to deal with stealth wise, because they like to randomly rotate and see you and trigger everyone else coming after you. Later game you have enough good guns to go loud when necessary.

By contrast, the human enemies are much more standard. The combat is never satisfying; you generally will stealth kill several before you get boxed in and then need to trade cover shots at each other using anemic feeling weaponry. The other thing that annoyed me is I'm using dual analog controls to try and do very precise aiming; I missed a ton of shots because I was off by a millimeter on my aiming. I compare it to Horizon Zero Dawn, where you aren't trying to hit a tiny target at long range, which was much more suited to the shitty precision of dual analog. An annoying part of the human enemies is that in many segments they tend to come in waves, and if you finish a wave in a bad spot the next wave immediately spots you. Fortunately, the game is extremely generious in its quick save system (which is also nice for when the super zombies instant kill you), even saving in between waves and reloading with them reset so you are hidden and they aren't fully alerted, so you can try again without getting screwed over. The sheer number of human enemies at times strains credulity, given the setting and the various explanations as to why this particular group is antagonistic against you. You would think that after you kill the first ten that maybe they just cut their losses, rather than sending in more into the meat grinder. It's a video game trope, but it sticks out more here because it's at odds with the story.

The other thing to note is the game very much is on the survival side of survival horror. Your max ammo capacity is small and you never get much ammo to begin with, so you never feel like you can just rambo stuff. Which is appropriate for the setting, but again has a bit of cognitive dissonance when you kill a bunch of pistol toting enemies but only one drops three bullets and the rest drop nothing. If this were a TV series there would be less enemies that take more shots fired to kill (with many being misses) to maintain the scavenger feel.

The good definitely outweighs the bad, and I'm definitely glad I played. It looks like they've made the combat more serviceable in the second game based on the trailer, so I'm looking forward to that. And I'm most interested to see what the arc is going to be, as things are wrapped up pretty cleanly by the end of the first game.

1. Ultima V - PC
2. Ultima VI - PC
3. Might and Magic VI - PC
4. Realms of Arkania: Blade of Destiny - PC
5. Pool of Radiance - PC
6. Curse of the Azure Bonds - PC
7. Secret of the Silver Blades - PC
8. Pools of Darkness - PC
9. Gateway to the Savage Frontier - PC
10. Treasures of the Savage Frontier - PC
11. Champions of Krynn - PC
12. Death Knights of Krynn - PC
13. Dark Queen of Krynn - PC
14. Into the Breach - PC
15. Lords of the Realm - PC
16. Dark Sun: Shattered Lands - PC
17. Lords of the Realm II - PC
18. The Alliance Alive - 3DS
19. Shattered Steel - PC
20. Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition - PC
21. Battletech - PC
22. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part I - PC
23. Pillars of Eternity: The White March Part II - PC
24. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon - Switch
25. Pillars of Eternity II - PC
26. Dragon Ball FighterZ - PS4
27. Detroit: Become Human - PC4
28. Call of Duty: United Offensive - PC
29. The Last of Us - PS4
30. The Last of Us: Left Behind - PS4

Left Behind is a short piece of story DLC that comes bundled in the PS4 release. It's set during a specific time skip of the original game, but half of it is also flashbacks to Ellie before the start of the base game. The flashbacks are done entirely as the exploration story stuff that was so good in the base game, and it continues to be excellent here. It gives you another look into Ellie and I now have a greater appreciation for the E3 TLOU2 trailer, so it's recommended playing. The parts set during the time skip are more of the same in terms of the explore a bit, then deal with some zombies, then more explore cycle of the base game. One new thing that is pretty awesome is they finally had segments where both zombies and humans show up; you can exploit this to severely reduce the odds against you, as the enemies tend to attract the zombies and they kill each other off. The whole thing clocks in at a couple of hours, and it's worth playing for the flashback parts alone.