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Jessica - Where the Book Ends (15 KP) rated Ready Player One in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Ready Player One

Ernest Cline | 2011 | Fiction & Poetry

8.9

(161 Ratings)

Book Rating

Honestly, I’m not really sure where to start with this review. I guess I need to preface by saying that I wanted to like this book. I mean REALLY wanted to like it. I love video games, I love the 80’s and the idea of living almost exclusively in virtual reality sounds like an amazing combination for a story. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me… at all. I totally respect that there is a HUGE following for this book, and I am sooooooooooooo glad that so many people loved this book. I think that’s great. I really wanted to like it.
The author’s writing style was the biggest problem for me. The book started off strong for the first couple of chapters, but then became a huge info-dump for about 6 chapters. Then it would get interesting again, and then another mega epic info-dump was upon us, until about the last 6-8 chapters. It was great that the author wanted to give detail to world build and help you become part of the book/game, but at times it was just too much for me.
I also found that the author did a poor job of explaining what life was like outside of the major cities, it was almost as if we were supposed to just know that it was a wasteland. The author also was not consistent with their acronyms (GSS, PVP, MMO, etc). He would use the acronym and provide no explanation, and then the next page he would spell it out with the acronym, and then the page after that it would be spelled out with no acronym… It was all over the place.
The other glaring issue for me was the fact that Wade was fighting the sixers and their huge corporation but then was trying to find the egg and in the end became the head of a super-mega-corporation. It didn’t jive for me at all.

Kudos

KalJ95 (25 KP) rated the PlayStation 4 version of Vampyr in Video Games

Jan 6, 2020 (Updated Jan 6, 2020)

Vampyr

2018 | Action, Role-Playing

7.5

(15 Ratings)

Video Game Rating Watch

Narrative is often surprising and gripping. (1 more)

I would play a sequel.

Graphics are terrible. (2 more)

Atrocious controls.

An absolute bore most of the time.

No bite, no good.

I saw Vampyr advertised a long time ago at several game conferences, with the promise of a complete Vampire experience, never seen before in video games. Already, I was salivating. Vampyr looked fantastic in its early stages. Combat looked fluid and balanced, the protagonist looked interesting enough to keep the story flowing, and Gothic London looked bloody beautiful. Where did it all go wrong?

Vampyr is a mess, from its clunky controls to its basic, bland combat. The game in it's current state is unfixable, starting with the graphics. How did any developer think this game looked ready to play? London's gloomy, black hearted environment is so breathtaking at times it feels like a support character. Thank god as theres no other interesting ones around. Character animations are abysmal, so much so they look around ten years old. Whats even more strange is the trailer released a while back shows a different game altogether. That one looked brilliant, which makes me wonder if downgrades were made.

Vampyr is such a mixed bag of narrative vs gameplay. The game of a doctor who is turned into a vampire is often so gripping in premise, especially at the start and end, that I would honestly like to know where this story will go. Should it have a sequel?

Absolutely not.
Gameplay is frankly the worst aspect of Vampyr. Jonathan Reid feels awful to control, even robotic at times. Combat is just as cyborb-ish. Yes, there are some interesting components to keep the fighting fresh, but it all feels like a chore rather than anything fun. As a vampire, making some awful decisions to feed his hunger should bring a moral dilemma to the gamer, but you couldn't care less. And that is what completely pins everything together with Vampyr.

I just didn't care.