Lt Sylar

I picked this game up free with Xbox Gamepass and gave it a shot. On the surface, this game is awesome. The concept is phenomenal, the graphics are charming, the gameplay took a second to get used to but is fun, the replayability is insane, if tedious. For about an hour I had fun. Then I noticed a huge flaw. The goal of the game is to go through levels in a dungeon to get to a boss. The more rooms you find, the more loot you get. The more loot you get, the stronger you are for each boss room. Great in concept. The problem lies in the implementation. The enemies drop hardly any money, grenades or keys. Why is this a problem? You need a combination of some or all 3 to fully explore all rooms in each level. It was annoying trying to go everywhere and see everything only to realize I didn't have enough of the right materials to progress. I could have gotten past minor annoyances like bad grenade throw mechanics (half of my throws were fails due to bad bounces or incorrect targeting) or losing all my loot and starting over the next time I go through a level if I didn't start back at level 1 of the next dungeon with 1 or less of grenades, keys or $. It may seem like a minor, petty complaint but to me, enjoying Metroidvaniaesque games like Shadow Complex, Dust: An Elysian Tail, the original Metroid and Castlevania games or even dungeon crawlers like Torchlight and Diablo, this game with so much potential fell short due to limitations. In my opinion, giving limits to the player is never a good idea.

I didn't have many expectations other than being a cloud and raining on things. What I found was fun, unexpectedly innovative and addictively enjoyable gameplay. So many interesting levels to play, fun secrets to uncover and the new game plus added even more replay to an already full game. I loved the game so much I bought the DLC. I haven't smiled so hard playing a new game in a loooong time. I would highly recommend this game to everyone and their mother. I'm going to get my wife and daughter to play this game too.

Tl; dr- You will most likely not enjoy this film. As a long time fan of the books, having read all of them several times each, I had high expectations for this movie. When I heard about the movie being made, I got excited. When they made a release date public, I marked my calendar (including each time the movie was postponed). With that said, I'm only 26 minutes into the movie and I'm already disappointed. There are SO many changes that either completely disregard the personality of the characters in the books or are entirely unnecessary additions that were inexplicably included for some unknown reason. I intend to finish the movie but I'm dreading it. At this point all I can do is ignore my innate tendency to constantly compare every little detail (as I did with other book to film adaptations such as Harry Potter and Twilight) and just imagine this film version of the Artemis Fowl universe as another entirely different universe in a (vast?) multiverse of Artemis Fowl. The few redeeming qualities this movie possesses are the casting choices and the graphics. Unfortunately I'm not sure those alone will help distract me from the obvious disappointment in my heart. I'm only giving this review 2 stars instead of 1 because I hope that the dream to bring Artemis Fowl to film won't die with this poor first attempt. It deserves better. Edit: I finished the movie. Unfortunately I am still disappointed. Artemis was too whiny, not calculating enough and they rushed his relationship with Holly which made it feel fake. Mulch for some reason narrated the entire movie. Much like Harry Potter's movie adaptation, it appears as though this cinematic universe takes magical creature/person secrecy as seriously as (insert extremely over the top exaggerated comparison of your choice). My opinion of this movie stays at 2 stars. I really hope there will be a remake.