The Calm Before The Storm
For a normal person, this time of year is just summer. For a video game blogger who delights in hyped-up new releases and regularly fails to exercise restraint in the face of The Next Big Thing, this time of year presents the rare opportunity to dive into the backlog, or—and this is my personal favorite—replay old (and not-so-old) games.
These next couple of weeks exist as the calm before the storm, which begins in early September when Starfield kicks off a cascading deluge of major AAA releases, all of which will surely dominate my gaming time for the foreseeable future. For those of us unable to play Baldur’s Gate 3 at this moment (in my case due to my PC not being able to run it natively and my reticence around paying for a cloud gaming service), the late summer doldrums are a gift to those who relish in re-evaluation, frequently seeking time to answer questions like, “Is X game as good/bad as I remember?”
In the face of this mountain of potential time-suckers, I figured I would use these final summer months to return to familiar experiences and see if my views on any of them have changed at all.
As fleeting as time may seem, a lot can change in a matter of years. What we value, what we admire, what we despise; a person’s point of view can shift at any moment, or evolve over the ages…We should [revisit older] video games, but not just at a surface level, like comparing graphics or a lack of voice acting. It’s incumbent upon us to examine what ideas hold up over time, if we unfairly overlooked creative ideas of the past, or if we ignored certain flaws that become more apparent over time.
Gears of War 2
Had you asked an 18-year-old Sam Martinelli to name the best Xbox 360 game (and potentially best shooter of all time), he would have said Gears of War 2. The sequel to 2006’s Gears of War finally convinced me to purchase an Xbox 360, and it 100% lived up to the hype, with strikingly good graphics, sharp mechanics, an engaging narrative about war and sacrifice, and some of the best multiplayer gameplay of its era.
So many of my fondest 360 memories stem from my time with Gears of War 2. I remember completing Horde mode with several of my high school friends on a random Friday night (we were definitely the COOL kids, you know) and feeling like we climbed a mountain together. I remember looking up all the different possible executions and trying to perform each and every one of them in online deathmatch. I remember playing through the single-player campaign on my own in a matter of days, and then instantly attempting to do the same in co-op.
After nearly 15 years of calling Gears of War 2 one of my favorite titles ever made, I decided to revisit the planet Sera and see if it still felt good to kick some Locust ass once again. My friends, it felt better than ever…though not every part of this experience is quite as good as I recall.
Is Gears of War 2 Still Good?
Let’s start with the good: the actual gunplay in the Gears of War franchise remains unmatched among third-person action games, and the minute-to-minute gameplay in Gears 2 still feels great to play all these years later.
The slow sojourns through obliterated landscapes and H.R. Giger-inspired underground lairs still dazzle me (especially with the Series X’s visual and performance enhancements), and the cinematic boss battles and action sequences for the most part feel like they would still exist in games made today.
Additionally, I’ve always loved Marcus Fenix’s gruff, tough-guy one-liners, and the chemistry and genuine friendship he has with the other Delta Squad members (particularly Dom) give each battle added gravitas.
Where Gears of War 2 Doesn’t Hold Up
In terms of the bad: Gears of War 2’s story straddles the line between serious subject matter and supposedly edgy shock value, and some of the latter peeks its head out too often. The narrative covers a handful of pretty heavy topics (torture, suicide, euthanasia) and attempts to handle them with some level of care, but the actual writing fails to do anything with these subjects beyond horrifying the player.
A teenage version of me lacked the wherewithal to analyze video games in such a way; the adult version of me does not, and I can’t just wave it off as a product of its time (though, honestly, it is).
Final Thoughts
Overall, I still love Gears of War 2, and this playthrough confirmed its place as an all-timer for me, warts and all. Much like many of my other favorites from that period in gaming (e.g. Super Mario Galaxy, Halo 3, Fallout 3), it has solidified a spot in the replay rotation for the foreseeable future, and hopefully I can find time to try the co-op again at some point.
Gears of War 3
Interestingly enough, I had largely forgotten almost everything about Gears of War 3 not long after I played it, despite buying it during a midnight launch (remember those?). My hype level for Gears 3 matched that of its predecessor, yet most of the main story failed to stick in my memory, with almost every major action sequence and story beat lost amid the constant whirlwind of the college junior’s lifestyle. As a result, my brain registered Gears of War 3 as a disappointment.
After completing my replay of Gears 2, I felt compelled to finish Marcus Fenix’s saga again, but this time with brand new eyes. I’m no longer some 20-year-old drinking cheap beers on weekends, reading Marx for the first time, gearing up for a semester abroad in Australia, and wondering if I even still cared about video games anymore.
Replaying Gears of War 3: The Good
Replaying Gears 3 was a fascinating experience for a number of reasons. For one, the game holds up far better than I expected, both mechanically and narratively. What I previously considered a lackluster conclusion to an epic trilogy now appears nuanced and even a little profound.
The game contains some incredible story moments and dialogue exchanges, including a beautiful and simultaneously heart-wrenching conversation between Marcus and Anya at the end, where Marcus isn’t fully sure if anything of the world he once knew still remained. Humanity now has a chance at a better tomorrow, but Marcus knows the truth: the hubris of the COG led to the Locust War, and humanity will continue to suffer the consequences of that hubris for decades to come.
Replaying Gears of War 3: The Bad
On the negative side, something clicked early on for me: I don’t enjoy fighting the Lambent (glowy versions of the Locust that emerge from giant stalks that pop up out of nowhere) nearly as much as the Locust, and I especially dislike how often the game devolves into mowing down waves of Immulsion-infected humans, who just charge at you like zombies. My favorite part of the combat in the Gears franchise involves taking cover and choosing your shots and movements carefully, and all of that goes out of the window when the zombies come for you.
I get that the folks at Epic Games wanted to subvert expectations for the big finale, but these sections just suck the unique fun out of the experience and turn everything into a bad Dead Rising knockoff.
That said, I’m much higher on Gears of War 3 now than before. What it does well, it does very well, with some of the most polished gameplay and visuals of the 360 era and a compelling plot that rivals any other major AAA game of its time. Still, the parts that sucked in 2011 still suck in 2023, and I can’t deny that.
Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End
Admittedly, I didn’t get around to playing any of the Uncharted games until the pandemic started. While the first three games in the series have their moments, they left me unfulfilled and confused as to how these had ever been considered the best the medium had to offer. Uncharted 4, however, made me see the light, as it actually presented a compelling narrative about the nature of thievery (as well as the fundamental lack of trust among thieves) and actually took protagonist Nathan Drake to task for his past behavior and generally cavalier attitude towards making secret cities collapse with no consequences. Drake is still largely the “hero” of this story, but at least his lesser qualities are addressed at all.
The Power of Silence in Uncharted 4
My thoughts on Uncharted 4 haven’t changed all that much after playing the PS5-upgraded version recently. It’s still a banger, but I did notice a few details this time around that had eluded me earlier. For example, the game follows a similar intrepid adventurer vibe as its predecessors for the first two-thirds of the experience, until Nathan’s wife Elena confronts him about the lies he told her about this endeavor.
Obviously, the story takes on a different mood after this moment, but I now noticed the lack of inspiring musical cues after that scene when Nathan and Sam are exploring Libertalia together, as well as the slightly more tense nature of the dialogue between the two of them. The same goes for any chapter where Nathan doesn’t have a companion character; he’s forced to climb mountains and solve puzzles in complete silence, almost as if he’s using this time for self-reflection.
The Pros and Cons of Combat in Uncharted 4
Additionally, my second playthrough of this title – especially after replaying the Gears games – confirms for me that the Uncharted franchise never had particularly good shooting mechanics, even if 4 is a major step above the earlier games.
What makes Nathan Drake’s final adventure work on a mechanical level, however, is the added focus on stealth and the increased acrobatic possibilities with the grappling hook. As a result, the best combat encounters begin in hiding, as they allow the player to scheme their own way against each combatant, and the worst encounters involve classic, video game-y shootouts.
Should You Replay Uncharted 4?
Still, Uncharted 4 largely holds up, and the scripted action segments remain thrilling (the final showdown in particular rules). The improved graphics and framerate on PlayStation 5 enhance the experience in obvious ways, so much so that I’d definitely recommend a revisit for those who have only tried the original version. Is it an all-time great achievement of gaming, as many heralded it to be in 2016? No, but it remains a great example of how to do cinematic, linear adventure games right.
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages
Anyone who knows me understands that The Legend of Zelda is my favorite video game series. Still, a handful of franchise entries just don’t click with me for whatever reason, and one of them for a long time has been 2001 Game Boy Color title Oracle of Ages. I tried it on the 3DS a decade ago and fell off before even reaching the third dungeon, mostly because I felt much of its overworld puzzle structure was obtuse. Once it dropped on Nintendo Switch Online last month (along with its partner game Oracle of Seasons, which I played and enjoyed last year), I figured it was time to give Ages another shot and force myself to play it all the way through to the end.
Unsurprisingly, I like Ages more now than I did previously, mostly due to the dungeon and overworld design. While I still find some of the progression-based puzzles a little tedious, I relished in exploring a 2D Zora’s Domain, going back and forth in time to complete certain dungeons, and the boss battles, all of which are puzzle-based. The fact that such a complex game could have existed on the Game Boy Color is a marvel, even if many frustrations are baked into the design (I can’t stand how often I have to pause to switch items).
Some of the Best Zelda Dungeons
Ages may have some of the best 2D Zelda dungeons ever made. The dual-era nature of the Mermaid’s Cave, the layered design of the Moonlit Grotto, the labyrinthine layout of the Ancient Tomb, and the classic water-level mechanics of Jabu Jabu’s Belly make for some incredible challenges and brain-busting puzzles.
Even though I prefer the action-based gameplay of Oracle of Seasons, I can’t deny Oracle of Ages’ great dungeons, some of which are comparable in philosophy to some of the finest in the series, though not always in execution (again, the limitations of the Game Boy’s controls make fairly simple tasks unnecessarily challenging).
Ranking Oracle of Ages in the Legend of Zelda Series
Despite a more pleasurable experience this time around, I still don’t view Oracle of Ages as highly as most other Zelda games. That might be more a testament to the quality of the franchise than anything else, but I just didn’t feel the magic of Ages that I do every time I even think about Ocarina of Time, Tears of the Kingdom, The Minish Cap, and even Skyward Sword. Both of the Ages titles feel more derivative of previous Zelda entries than anything that came after, making even some of the more refreshing parts of each game feel less exciting. Still, finishing Ages for the first time was more than worthwhile, even if it still misses my top ten games in the series.
Another Look Never Hurts
As fleeting as time may seem, a lot can change in a matter of years. What we value, what we admire, what we despise; a person’s point of view can shift at any moment, or evolve over the ages. As a result, revisiting older works of art has been a staple of intellectual evaluation for enthusiasts of cinema, music, television, and every other medium, particularly as a way to see if the broadening of one’s understanding of a medium (or of other worldly matters) affects how they view objects of the past.
We should do the same with video games, but not just at a surface level, like comparing graphics or a lack of voice acting. It’s incumbent upon us to examine what ideas hold up over time, if we unfairly overlooked creative ideas of the past, or if we ignored certain flaws that become more apparent over time. I love replaying old games for this very reason: maybe, just maybe I’ll like something more now than I did before. Maybe I’ll like other works less, but that’s a risk I’m willing to take.