World of Warcraft classic

Here's an other old one that's getting a translation. Even though it's in a way 16 years old, it is now also a year old. This is a game that was originally released in 2004 and after a huge amount of updates and expansions has changed quite a bit. The version that World of Warcraft (WoW) classic is on is from 2006, so just a little bit before The Burning Crusade expansion. 

The story

The story in the original WoW is a lot more simple than it is compared to a lot of it's later expansions. We have seen a lot of expansions where the whole expansions is focused on a single story and later on we've had stories that span expansions. Originally there was no real big story arc that you work your way through but there is still a backstory to this world (of warcraft). The main story is a battle between the two factions, alliance and the horde. Even though this doesn't much show in a grand story line, it does still show in some areas and in pvp. The addition of actual storylines I think is good because it can keep me interested much better than classic. 

Gameplay

In classic you can clearly see that it was originally released in 2004. Even though the gameplay can be quite boring at times, it still brings out challenges that are difficult to find in a game these days. This includes quality of life issues that make the game harder to play, but also just the difficulty of combat where you can't just run though zones like these days. And since this is a patch from 2006 that is being played, it means that the developer had 2 years to fix on some of these quality of life and even balance issues but it took many more years since those issues were addressed, a lot longer than it took a lot of addon makers. 

The Audio Design

Is one of the best things in this game and compared to a lot of other games. The orchestral music that plays from time to time is a beautiful thing that you could listen to forever.

Open world

The world in this game is called Azeroth and it is open. You have the chance to explore the continents of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and both of those places have a lot more smaller zones to conquer. The world takes a long time to fully explore, especially when you can only get a mount when you are level 40 (when the max level is 60) and even then you probably can't afford it right away. Thus a lot of the exploring is done on foot which can get quite boring when you have to travel to the other side of the continent to meet an NPC who might not even want to meet you. A bunch of people had said that the world seems larger without a mount and not being able to freely fly around, unlike in later expansions, but sometimes I just don't have to time to spend all day walking to the next zone. Later expansions have brought a lot of solutions to these issues and not everyone has liked those solutions but personally I feel like life is much more enjoyable the faster travelling to somewhere is. This is also true in real life. 

The review

Even though I did not play WoW originally and only started during the launch of Wrath of the Lich King, I still felt a little nostalgic. The game has changed so much since those days and being able to go back to places that have been completely changed since felt great. Playing the retail version of the game is much smoother than compared to classic but it also feels less rewarding. Maybe it has to do with the amount of content. When in retail you achieve something it feels like you are no closer to your goal but in classic, even finally getting that first mount felt so rewarding. I kind of hope that Blizzard will take classic in the same direction as Jagex has taken Old school runescape, or at least add those quality of life additions that we have seen in later expansions, while still keeping the gameplay of classic as it is. 

Even though I enjoyed classic, it wasn't as smooth going as retail and a lot of other games are these days. 7/10

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a game that was released in January of 2019 and it is one that the fans, myself included, had waited for a very long time. And after such a long wait, as the last official release, Kingdom Hearts 2, was released in 2005,  I have to say I was a little bit disappointed. The story follows a boy names Sora in countless Disney worlds that he and his friends Donald and Goofy are trying to save. Now this is something that I already wrote about in Finnish a year ago but it is now a much more better fit since it's actually a game from last year. This will be more or less just a translation of the original one but I will try to still keep it fresh. 

The Story

The story of the Kingdom Hearts (KH) franchise is one of the most complicated ones that there is out there so I am not going to get into details but I'm still going to try my best to make sense of it all here. The first two parts of the KH franchise were quite well connected to each other. Even when there were spin-offs between them, the story was still told quite well in KH2 where it was told that Sora had gone on an adventure and lost his memory in-between and is trying to regain them and understand what is going on. Between KH2 and KH3 there has also been some spin-offs, but it wasn't explained that well as to what had happened before, only in the form of flashbacks at some point of the KH3 story and starting of the game you are quite clueless. To properly understand what had happened prior you would need to play KH 3D on nintendo 3DS. I did play it but not enough to actually get to any of the story stuff that would be needed for this game. I mostly enjoyed the main releases of the franchise but it was quite difficult since right from the beginning all I was told that I need to regain my strength, again. 

The story of the game itself isn't that good either and this is a game that is supposed to be very story based. At times the story does not seem to progress at all and for certain characters it seems like it is going backwards. In previous games the travelling between different Disney worlds had been tied into the overall game quite well but not in this one. All that is said is that you need to gather your strength so go out there. I did some research beforehand to see what the stories of these new worlds were like and when comparing to the game, worlds like that of "Tangled" the story was almost identical compared to the movie and had nothing to do with the overall story of Kingdom Hearts. It is also said that this would be the last game of the series where Sora is the main character which would be such a shame since KH3 did offer an ending to the story but not really closure. 

I am aware that there is a new game that has since been released but I am unaware of that game affects the story, since KH3 left such a bad taste in my mouth that I had no interest in the new one. 

Gameplay

The playability of KH3 was quite good. The combat was for the most part quite smooth. KH3 took a lot of the mechanics that had been in previous games and made them better. Previous games had quite a few of different ways of getting through different levels, KH3 brought all of the together and enhanced them. The maps were also a lot more open. In previous games the worlds were divided into a lot of smaller areas whereas in KH3 the worlds were almost one continuous level. This might also be thanks to the advances in technology. The playstation 2 probably wouldn't have been able to handle all those big worlds as one but the playstation 4 definitely could. The travel between the worlds was also opened up a lot. Whereas in previous games you would fly a linear map, almost like a rail shooter, in this one you have there large areas of space where you can fly wherever you want and have lot more to do rather than just travelling to the next world. 

Open World

As I already mentioned the worlds have been opened up a lot. The maps have always been quite linear with the possibility to always go back to do something you had missed and this is still true but the feel of the maps is much more open. The addition of the open world space is an interesting one but it felt like it didn't really bring much more to the game. It felt a little bit like it only added some more collectibles, this is a good way to make the game longer to complete 100% but also a little bit lazy one. There were also challenges in the space part but I didn't really get into them enough to know what they were truly like. 

Comparison to the previous one

I feel like this review has been nothing but this so far so lets keep this short. Technically speaking it is a lot better than previous ones but that is to be expected when comparing a PS4 game to a PS2 game. As for the Kingdom hearts part, a lot of things had been improved upon, but the story definitely was not one of them. Then again in the first two games the story was still quite simple, whereas in this one, after all the spin-offs the story has gotten so complicated that only few can understand it. 

The review

After a wait of 14 years the expectations were big but this game didn't really deliver. Even though beating enemies is fun and maybe even the most fun it has ever been in a Kingdom Hearts game, it felt like it was completely without meaning. 14 years would be more than enough to add to game more than just more collectibles and an open world but apparently not.

as previously mentioned, only one part of the game can't save it completely 6/10