I did consider 5.5, because it is mediocre, but just a tiny bit above.yeah definitely lower than a 6
Edit: Changed the score.
Reviews Rate the game you finished/retired
- Thread starter Ge0force
- Start date
Edit: Changed the score.
Finished Telling Lies (Sam Barlow, Half Mermaid, Furious Bee Limited / Annapurna Interactive, 2019)
Four private lives. One big lie. Search through secretly recorded video conversations to discover the truth.
Pro:
3/5
Four private lives. One big lie. Search through secretly recorded video conversations to discover the truth.
Pro:
- Being a sequel to "Her Story", it makes this modern take on the full-motion-video game genre no longer unique, but still pretty original. I have not played "Her Story", so it was a quite unique experience for me.
- What this game lacks in gameplay (there barely is any you could really call that - literally all you do in this game is search for videos by keyword, then watch them), it makes up in production and acting. Safe for a few exceptions, all the videos convincingly look like surveillance footage and the acting performances of the whole cast are equally convincing.
- Literally all you do in this game is search for videos by keyword, then watch them. You will get to watch roughly 60 or 70 of them before you get to the point where the game tells you "time to wrap it up", but the game contains about three times as many, so there is some replay value / optional content (and an achievement) in finding them all, but that is it.
- Ultimately the story that emerges as you put together the puzzle of the videos is not particularly interesting or original, certainly nothing I will remember for long.
3/5
With Elden Ring releasing, I thought I would write a little about why I am not a fan of the From Software games. It’s not as simple as me finding the games too hard per se as XCOM and Darkest Dungeon are some of my favorite games.
I understand that my complaints are the exact reasons why many other people like the games. Anyway:
- Checkpoints and repetition. My main sticking point. Rather than feeling ”I’m gonna get the bastards this time” after a defeat, it’s more like ”You really want me to do that exact same shit again?”. XCOM and DD circumvent this by using random levels and by allowing for a huge amount of variety in skills and loadouts. Of course, the intricately connected worlds of the Souls games is one of the selling points so it is what it is. But I do think they could have been more generous with bonfires without hurting the experience. And while you might get more options of what skills and items to use later in the game, that selection is very limited early on.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown does use custom built levels and I could see myself enjoying a souls type game using a similar system. Super Meat Boy is also an example of a hard and repetitive game that I enjoy because the levels are so short and the restarts so quick. Nuclear Throne is a game that is insanely hard yet I still love it, along with a number of other real time roguelites and of course multiplayer games. Again, the difference is in the variety. - Lack of direction. This can be a good thing. It is used to fantastic effect in something like BotW or survival games. But combined with a high difficulty and a lack of saves or checkpoints and lack of an open world it just doesn't work for me. When I don't know whether a certain path is too hard for my character level at the moment, or whether there's a trick or strategy for proceeding that I haven't found, it just becomes an ambiguous mess and the excitement of exploration is ruined by the constant roadblocks.
- Art direction. A grotesque and intriguing dark fantasy masterclass taking inspiration from the equally excellent art of Berserk and Beksinski. This is the main reason why I'm still tempted to play Bloodborne.
- Combat. It just feels really heavy and satisfying. Even though the turn on the spot movement is a somewhat jarring contrast to the excellent attack animations.
- A lack of direct story. The right decision for those games.
It does seem as if Elden Ring fixes some of my issues. I might get around to playing it at some point, but not anytime soon.
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- Thread Starter
- #904
Finished Ori and the Will of the Wisps
This will be the shortest review ever: Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the most enjoyable, beautiful, exciting and charming games I've ever played! If you haven't played it yet, go do so now! You can thank me later...
Score: 10/10
Finished Gathering Sky
Beautiful artistic "flying simulator" where you have to guide a group of birds throughout a painted fantasy world. On your way you encounter different objects you can interact with, to create graphical or sound effects. Feels a bit boring in the beginning, but the later levels are very well designed. The dynamic violin music is amazing. Recommended if you're in the mood for a relaxing experience.
Score: 7.0/10
This will be the shortest review ever: Ori and the Will of the Wisps is one of the most enjoyable, beautiful, exciting and charming games I've ever played! If you haven't played it yet, go do so now! You can thank me later...
Score: 10/10
Finished Gathering Sky
Beautiful artistic "flying simulator" where you have to guide a group of birds throughout a painted fantasy world. On your way you encounter different objects you can interact with, to create graphical or sound effects. Feels a bit boring in the beginning, but the later levels are very well designed. The dynamic violin music is amazing. Recommended if you're in the mood for a relaxing experience.
Score: 7.0/10
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Finished: Dying Light 2
I finished Dying Light 2 few days back. A total of 86 hours, completing all the side quests and activities I could find. So DL2 is longer than DL1 and its expansion combined.
Overall, I liked the game a lot - in some ways it's a significant improvement over DL1, in others a minor regression. I'd say I still sort of prefer the first game, but it's very close. You can tell they rewrote and reworked a lot during development, some of the seams show, sometimes the quest log doesn't accurately reflect what happened, and the dialogue doesn't quite make sense from time to time in terms of consistency. There are some weak side missions, but there are also some great ones. I've rapped (miserably), talked about classics of world literature, experienced what it's like to be a post-apo postman, learned details about goats I didn't need to know (did you know goats have rectangular pupils and a much wider angle of view?), investigated various crimes (like stealing a bag of flour)..
I did everything right to get the best conclusion (no guide used), and then came the last choice in the game, when
I appreciate the inclusion of interactive dialogue and branching choices in this game - in any game - but I wish the choices were less vague/more clear. Sometimes I've made a choice and Aiden has said or done something different than I expected/anticipated.
I have to mention the soundtrack. Olivier Deriviere did another excellent job ("There is Hope, "Empowering Yourself", "Breath of the City", "Be at Peace"...) and elevated the whole experience significantly for me. Lot of people hate on this game's story but I found some moments emotional and quite liked lot of the characters here.
A technical note in conclusion - the game didn't crash the whole time I was playing it and I didn't encounter any major bug, just the typical open world glitches like a zombie stuck half in a closet or an annoying icon in the HUD that shouldn't be there. RTGI is amazing despite the light leak issue at night (vegetation flickers and DLSS - which is a must - makes it worse). PC version in general has been great as far as my experience is concerned.
I am looking forward to the expansion, hope it will be at least as good as The Following for the first game.
8.5/10
I finished Dying Light 2 few days back. A total of 86 hours, completing all the side quests and activities I could find. So DL2 is longer than DL1 and its expansion combined.
Overall, I liked the game a lot - in some ways it's a significant improvement over DL1, in others a minor regression. I'd say I still sort of prefer the first game, but it's very close. You can tell they rewrote and reworked a lot during development, some of the seams show, sometimes the quest log doesn't accurately reflect what happened, and the dialogue doesn't quite make sense from time to time in terms of consistency. There are some weak side missions, but there are also some great ones. I've rapped (miserably), talked about classics of world literature, experienced what it's like to be a post-apo postman, learned details about goats I didn't need to know (did you know goats have rectangular pupils and a much wider angle of view?), investigated various crimes (like stealing a bag of flour)..
I did everything right to get the best conclusion (no guide used), and then came the last choice in the game, when
I decided to try to save Lawan (I naively assumed that I would either sacrifice myself to stop the bombs and save her, or manage to save us both and somehow defuse the bombs). Then I rescued Lawan and could only watch the missiles fly (I thought to myself as I watched them in the air, "now would be a good time to detonate them"), only to have half of Villedor apparently leveled.
Oh well, at least Lawan is alive, Mia might survive, and Hakon and I headed out of town to learn how to surf as we agreed at the beginning of the game. Plus, X13 with its megatons of supplies and food is intact, which may provide a huge help to the survivors of Villedor in the future.
Had I chosen not to attempt to save Lawan, I would have gotten the "best" ending - Villedor would not have been hit by missiles, Frank, the survivors, and the Nightrunners would have taken control of the city, and I would have left accompanied by Lawan, who was saved by Hakon.
Oh well, at least Lawan is alive, Mia might survive, and Hakon and I headed out of town to learn how to surf as we agreed at the beginning of the game. Plus, X13 with its megatons of supplies and food is intact, which may provide a huge help to the survivors of Villedor in the future.
Had I chosen not to attempt to save Lawan, I would have gotten the "best" ending - Villedor would not have been hit by missiles, Frank, the survivors, and the Nightrunners would have taken control of the city, and I would have left accompanied by Lawan, who was saved by Hakon.
I appreciate the inclusion of interactive dialogue and branching choices in this game - in any game - but I wish the choices were less vague/more clear. Sometimes I've made a choice and Aiden has said or done something different than I expected/anticipated.
I have to mention the soundtrack. Olivier Deriviere did another excellent job ("There is Hope, "Empowering Yourself", "Breath of the City", "Be at Peace"...) and elevated the whole experience significantly for me. Lot of people hate on this game's story but I found some moments emotional and quite liked lot of the characters here.
A technical note in conclusion - the game didn't crash the whole time I was playing it and I didn't encounter any major bug, just the typical open world glitches like a zombie stuck half in a closet or an annoying icon in the HUD that shouldn't be there. RTGI is amazing despite the light leak issue at night (vegetation flickers and DLSS - which is a must - makes it worse). PC version in general has been great as far as my experience is concerned.
I am looking forward to the expansion, hope it will be at least as good as The Following for the first game.
8.5/10
Finished Horizon: Forbidden West (PS5)
Decided to play through the main missions before continuing with Elden Ring (will be going through side content in the PC version, whenever that comes out).
The game is solid, feels like a more refined version of Zero Dawn, but that's it. I found the story to be mediocre and uninteresting (Zero Dawn didn't have a great story, but was more interesting). Great graphics, great environment density, good level design. Combat is much of the same from ZD with some new abilities and ways to approach the enemy, like flying on machines. But still, there isn't really much innovation, but the game is just at the edge of not feeling like "just another open world game", but only barely.
Somewhat letdown, wanted more innovation, kinda letdown by the graphics in certain places too, I did play in performance mode (60 fps, because 30fps/4k felt bad), so the gameplay videos Sony showed must have shown 4k mode.
The game is overall solid, has a good foundation and does the things it is trying to do, well, but felt like Zero Dawn 1.5 in many ways, like a bigger Frozen Wilds. The characters in the game was at least interesting and had some history to them.
Score: 7.8/10
Decided to play through the main missions before continuing with Elden Ring (will be going through side content in the PC version, whenever that comes out).
The game is solid, feels like a more refined version of Zero Dawn, but that's it. I found the story to be mediocre and uninteresting (Zero Dawn didn't have a great story, but was more interesting). Great graphics, great environment density, good level design. Combat is much of the same from ZD with some new abilities and ways to approach the enemy, like flying on machines. But still, there isn't really much innovation, but the game is just at the edge of not feeling like "just another open world game", but only barely.
Somewhat letdown, wanted more innovation, kinda letdown by the graphics in certain places too, I did play in performance mode (60 fps, because 30fps/4k felt bad), so the gameplay videos Sony showed must have shown 4k mode.
The game is overall solid, has a good foundation and does the things it is trying to do, well, but felt like Zero Dawn 1.5 in many ways, like a bigger Frozen Wilds. The characters in the game was at least interesting and had some history to them.
Score: 7.8/10
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I'm just going to cross post my impressions on this
So yeah I dropped it, f*ck MarioI am playing Super Mario 64 for the first time ever.
Yes lttp doesn't even begin to cover it, but I'mma say it
This camera SUUUUUUUCKS
Precision platforming is more of a guess or a suggestion than anything else. This is rough going man
- Thread Starter
- #908
Finished Star Wars Squadrons (Origin)
Star Wars Squadrons does a great job making you feel like you're in the middle of a Star Wars movie. The ships and environments are very well designed, and the large scale battles are visually impressive. Sadly, the story campaign was more frustrating than fun for me to play. In most of the battles, lots of enemy ships and turrets are firing from you from every direction. While you're often locked on at a single enemy, it was very hard for me to focus on that enemy and avoid the other lasers at the same time. The fact that the radar is 2D while you're fighting in a 3D game world doesn't help either. When I finally finished a story mission, it felt more like luck to me than skill. Meh.
Score: 5.5/10
Star Wars Squadrons does a great job making you feel like you're in the middle of a Star Wars movie. The ships and environments are very well designed, and the large scale battles are visually impressive. Sadly, the story campaign was more frustrating than fun for me to play. In most of the battles, lots of enemy ships and turrets are firing from you from every direction. While you're often locked on at a single enemy, it was very hard for me to focus on that enemy and avoid the other lasers at the same time. The fact that the radar is 2D while you're fighting in a 3D game world doesn't help either. When I finally finished a story mission, it felt more like luck to me than skill. Meh.
Score: 5.5/10
Finished Perspective (Widdershins / DigiPen Institute of Technology, 2012)
The earliest from the collection of student games that DigiPen released for free on Steam. A mind-bending puzzle platformer built around orthographic projection that has you guide a two-dimensional pseudo-sprite player character through three-dimensional maps by moving the camera in 3D space and thus changing the 2D "level" the character is navigating in.
If you had trouble imagining what that previous sentence meant, just download the game right now, it's free after all, you'll get it in 30 seconds.
Pro:
5/5
The earliest from the collection of student games that DigiPen released for free on Steam. A mind-bending puzzle platformer built around orthographic projection that has you guide a two-dimensional pseudo-sprite player character through three-dimensional maps by moving the camera in 3D space and thus changing the 2D "level" the character is navigating in.
If you had trouble imagining what that previous sentence meant, just download the game right now, it's free after all, you'll get it in 30 seconds.
Pro:
- Mindbogglingly original
- Super fun
- Free
- Nothing. Did I mention it's free?
5/5
Finished Scanner Sombre (Introversion Software, 2017)
"Sense the darkness".
Pro:
If the promotional screenshots or trailers speak to you at all, I can recommend getting it when it goes on sale - the MSRP is already pretty low, but it often goes for 50% or more off even that.
4/5
"Sense the darkness".
Pro:
- Proof that you can still innovate in the walking simulator genre simply by picking your scenario right: Modern-day spelunking with laser-scanning equipment. You literally get to walk the point-cloud visualization of the cave you find yourself in as you're scanning it.
- Refreshingly minimalist approach to the story aspect of walking simulators: No voice-overs, just occasional bits of internal monologue displayed in writing on the screen.
- Personally I felt that the scenario and the mechanics are a bit wasted on a pure walking simulator - all the ingredients for a stand-out first person puzzler are here, but they go largely unused.
-
The story twist is overly melodramatic, and I guessed it completely correctly within the first 30 seconds of the game.
If the promotional screenshots or trailers speak to you at all, I can recommend getting it when it goes on sale - the MSRP is already pretty low, but it often goes for 50% or more off even that.
4/5
Been playing Kingdom Come: Deliverance but since Elden Ring launched im probably not going to play anything else for a while so my thoughts on it are.....
KC : D - Visually stunning, story driven RPG set in Medieval times. You play as Henry, a good lad who goes on a journey of self discovery and improvement to resolve a conflict. There is lots of RPG stuff and some good quests that offer a variety of ways to complete. The world is impressive with some lovely visuals. I liked that Henry starts as basically a peasant so you are rubbish at combat (and everything else) but as you practice you get better and gain stats and skills. The combat system takes a bit of getting used to but after a while it clicked and felt satisfying. Lots of townspeople to meet and places to explore. Does a good job of offering up a lot to do. Overall its a good game.
8/10 - hope to get back into it after Elden Ring.
KC : D - Visually stunning, story driven RPG set in Medieval times. You play as Henry, a good lad who goes on a journey of self discovery and improvement to resolve a conflict. There is lots of RPG stuff and some good quests that offer a variety of ways to complete. The world is impressive with some lovely visuals. I liked that Henry starts as basically a peasant so you are rubbish at combat (and everything else) but as you practice you get better and gain stats and skills. The combat system takes a bit of getting used to but after a while it clicked and felt satisfying. Lots of townspeople to meet and places to explore. Does a good job of offering up a lot to do. Overall its a good game.
8/10 - hope to get back into it after Elden Ring.
Finished
Very interesting game with the concept tha tif you blink your eyes, time moves forward in the game, the game tells you the life story of a boy nicknamed Benny. Nice art design and nice music. If you don't have a webcam for blinking or get tired of it, you can blink by clicking left mouse button too. Overall a great game with a interest, but sad story. Quite short, took me 2-3 hours,
Score: 8/10
Finished
Fantastic point and click game. Fantastic design, great music and decent puzzle-like point and click gameplay, perhaps very basic point and click gameplay. Short, but great, took me around 2-3 hours.
Score: 8.5/10
Very interesting game with the concept tha tif you blink your eyes, time moves forward in the game, the game tells you the life story of a boy nicknamed Benny. Nice art design and nice music. If you don't have a webcam for blinking or get tired of it, you can blink by clicking left mouse button too. Overall a great game with a interest, but sad story. Quite short, took me 2-3 hours,
Score: 8/10
Finished
Fantastic point and click game. Fantastic design, great music and decent puzzle-like point and click gameplay, perhaps very basic point and click gameplay. Short, but great, took me around 2-3 hours.
Score: 8.5/10
I retire Amid Evil
Maybe it's a bit paradoxical, but the reason I stopped playing this game instead of finishing all the levels is not because I didn't like it, but because it just started to feel a bit monotonous. Each individual piece of this game is good. It looks breathtaking, creating a visual look that evokes old FPS games like Hexen, while adding a very new and modern touch, aided by excellent use of RT effects.
The weapons are all very distinct, and feel great to use, even if they do lack a bit in sheer impact. This is made up by the great enemy reactions, though, so that every hit on an enemy still feels impactful.
The levels are all pretty complex, even to the point that you can easily get lost. That's also one of my big criticisms with this game. I don't mind FPS games with complex maps, but then I'd also want the game to provide me a nice map so I can see where I have already been and where I should look next.
It's just that the episodes of this game (3 levels + boss fight) end up feeling so incredibly samey. Sure, at first you think the enemies are different, but they all fall into clear categories. You have fast, weak enemies, string, slow enemies, and the occasional miniboss who moves slowly and does lots of damage. And you just defeat them all by spamming attacks.
Maybe I'll come back to this game when I feel that itch for some classic FPS gameplay again, but right now I think I had my fill.
Maybe it's a bit paradoxical, but the reason I stopped playing this game instead of finishing all the levels is not because I didn't like it, but because it just started to feel a bit monotonous. Each individual piece of this game is good. It looks breathtaking, creating a visual look that evokes old FPS games like Hexen, while adding a very new and modern touch, aided by excellent use of RT effects.
The weapons are all very distinct, and feel great to use, even if they do lack a bit in sheer impact. This is made up by the great enemy reactions, though, so that every hit on an enemy still feels impactful.
The levels are all pretty complex, even to the point that you can easily get lost. That's also one of my big criticisms with this game. I don't mind FPS games with complex maps, but then I'd also want the game to provide me a nice map so I can see where I have already been and where I should look next.
It's just that the episodes of this game (3 levels + boss fight) end up feeling so incredibly samey. Sure, at first you think the enemies are different, but they all fall into clear categories. You have fast, weak enemies, string, slow enemies, and the occasional miniboss who moves slowly and does lots of damage. And you just defeat them all by spamming attacks.
Maybe I'll come back to this game when I feel that itch for some classic FPS gameplay again, but right now I think I had my fill.
Finished
A really fun, nice, whodunnit where you know you did the murder from the start and you try to help that character get away with it (you did it). It's a timeloop game, so every time you fail at getting away with it, you start over again, but learn what not to do and it's really nice that you see what you did when you fail, so you don't do it again. Get's a bit repetive after a while, but it's a fun, intriguing small game (2 hours or so).
Score: 8/10.
A really fun, nice, whodunnit where you know you did the murder from the start and you try to help that character get away with it (you did it). It's a timeloop game, so every time you fail at getting away with it, you start over again, but learn what not to do and it's really nice that you see what you did when you fail, so you don't do it again. Get's a bit repetive after a while, but it's a fun, intriguing small game (2 hours or so).
Score: 8/10.
Finished
Fun, cute, super weird game. Again, super weird game, but cute and fun. Biggest negative is parts of the gameplay that I found frustrating, like fighting and climbing. Hard to describe what the game is about becuase it's a super weird game, but I guess it's about friendship.
Score: 7.4/10
Fun, cute, super weird game. Again, super weird game, but cute and fun. Biggest negative is parts of the gameplay that I found frustrating, like fighting and climbing. Hard to describe what the game is about becuase it's a super weird game, but I guess it's about friendship.
Score: 7.4/10
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- Thread Starter
- #917
Finished Neversong
I'm a huge fan of Pinstripe, the previous game of this developer, but I didn't enjoy Neversong at all. The story didn't grab me, the platforming is frustrating, the puzzles are way too easy and there's way too much running back and forth between area's you've already visited. Even the boss fight are bad, the final boss most be the most boring battle I've played in many years. Last but not least the game has no options other than volume controls. You can't even change the language of the game, which forced me to play it with a rather bad Dutch translation (a baseball bat is translate with the word for the animal hanging upside down in bell towers for example). Meh...
Score: 4.8/10
I'm a huge fan of Pinstripe, the previous game of this developer, but I didn't enjoy Neversong at all. The story didn't grab me, the platforming is frustrating, the puzzles are way too easy and there's way too much running back and forth between area's you've already visited. Even the boss fight are bad, the final boss most be the most boring battle I've played in many years. Last but not least the game has no options other than volume controls. You can't even change the language of the game, which forced me to play it with a rather bad Dutch translation (a baseball bat is translate with the word for the animal hanging upside down in bell towers for example). Meh...
Score: 4.8/10
Finished
Really fun golf game. For a golf game there is also a huge amount of story in the game. You play as an astronaut playing golf in a destroyed planet earth. There are 35 levels and they are all varaited and lots of fun. Graphics are gorgeus and the music is very nice. The golf gameplay is basic, aim, decide strength and then kick the ball. Took me 1.5 hours to play through with a bit of achievement hunting. What I dislikes is that I would have wanted more content and there is some dead time with the astronaut having to fly or walk slowly to the golf ball each time which was a bit annoying.
Score: 8.5/10
Really fun golf game. For a golf game there is also a huge amount of story in the game. You play as an astronaut playing golf in a destroyed planet earth. There are 35 levels and they are all varaited and lots of fun. Graphics are gorgeus and the music is very nice. The golf gameplay is basic, aim, decide strength and then kick the ball. Took me 1.5 hours to play through with a bit of achievement hunting. What I dislikes is that I would have wanted more content and there is some dead time with the astronaut having to fly or walk slowly to the golf ball each time which was a bit annoying.
Score: 8.5/10
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- Thread Starter
- #919
Finished Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus
Very decent turn-based game in the Warhammer 40k universe. Unlike most games in the genre, command points aren't a fixed number tied to each character, but can rather be collected on the playing field and by using special spells or equipment. This works really well and make the battles exciting from start to end. The game also doesn't have fixed "classes", but every character can learn skills from each of the six skill-trees.
There are also lots of weapons, armor pieces and special abilities to unlock by doing missions. These missions contain battles, glyphs and story events. The glyphs let you pick between a few symbols, resulting in positive or negative effects on your party. After a while you'll learn what each glyph does which helps you to make the right choice. Sadly this isn't the case for the story events, which also let you pick between several actions you can take. Most of the times, the actions and consequences didn't make sense for me. I have been punished several times for picking the "cautious" option for example. The game also becomes slightly repetitive in the end, because the amount of enemies and environments is rather limited.
Despite these flaws, I had a lot of fun with this game. Mechanicus is definitely worth playing for fans of turn-based strategy games and/or the Warhammer universe.
Score: 7.4/10
Very decent turn-based game in the Warhammer 40k universe. Unlike most games in the genre, command points aren't a fixed number tied to each character, but can rather be collected on the playing field and by using special spells or equipment. This works really well and make the battles exciting from start to end. The game also doesn't have fixed "classes", but every character can learn skills from each of the six skill-trees.
There are also lots of weapons, armor pieces and special abilities to unlock by doing missions. These missions contain battles, glyphs and story events. The glyphs let you pick between a few symbols, resulting in positive or negative effects on your party. After a while you'll learn what each glyph does which helps you to make the right choice. Sadly this isn't the case for the story events, which also let you pick between several actions you can take. Most of the times, the actions and consequences didn't make sense for me. I have been punished several times for picking the "cautious" option for example. The game also becomes slightly repetitive in the end, because the amount of enemies and environments is rather limited.
Despite these flaws, I had a lot of fun with this game. Mechanicus is definitely worth playing for fans of turn-based strategy games and/or the Warhammer universe.
Score: 7.4/10
Finished Epitasis (Epitasis Games, 2019)
Budget Talos Principle - (much) shorter, (a lot) easier, (somewhat) less impressive looking, but still enough to scratch that first-person puzzling itch. Good introduction to the genre for beginners. Great soundtrack. Buggy achievements, sadly.
3.5/5
Budget Talos Principle - (much) shorter, (a lot) easier, (somewhat) less impressive looking, but still enough to scratch that first-person puzzling itch. Good introduction to the genre for beginners. Great soundtrack. Buggy achievements, sadly.
3.5/5
Finished
Beautiful game with a beautiful told story full of happiness and sadness. Almost cried a few times. Took me 8.5 hours to play through. Your character is given a brush and your job is to use the brush to give the world colors and use colors to overcome obstacles on your journey. The world is really well built with lots of interesting characters, My negatives is that the jumping gameplay and the movement can be a bit "stiff" and annoying sometimes. Otherwise, great, wholesome, sad game about using a brush to overcome obstacles and giving the world some colors.
Score: 8/10
Beautiful game with a beautiful told story full of happiness and sadness. Almost cried a few times. Took me 8.5 hours to play through. Your character is given a brush and your job is to use the brush to give the world colors and use colors to overcome obstacles on your journey. The world is really well built with lots of interesting characters, My negatives is that the jumping gameplay and the movement can be a bit "stiff" and annoying sometimes. Otherwise, great, wholesome, sad game about using a brush to overcome obstacles and giving the world some colors.
Score: 8/10
Gorogoa. Finished.
I hated every minute of it. It never clicked with me. There was too much trial and error while solving the puzzles. Too much zooming and clicking to find the interactable elements in the pictures. There was never the feeling of having accomplished something while playing the game.
I hated every minute of it. It never clicked with me.
There was too much trial and error while solving the puzzles. Too much zooming and clicking to find the interactable elements in the pictures. There was never the feeling of having accomplished something while playing the game. 
Finished Californium (Darjeeling, Nova Production / ARTE France, 2016)
French Dick.
Pro:
2.5/5
Also finished Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive, 2010)
Tomb Raider, but it's a 2.5D twin-stick shooter with occasional puzzles and optional co-op.
Pro:
Skeptical? The game retains one of the nice things about its PSN/Xbox Live Arcade heritage: A free playable demo on Steam, so you can try before you buy.
4.5/5
French Dick.
Pro:
- Story and setting are heavily inspired (but no direct adaptation) of various Phil K. Dick SciFi stories and the game pulls it off convincingly for the most part. The presentation is also well done, even if the promotional materials suggest a much bigger game world than the game actually features.
- Despite its rather grandiose self-description, this is just a hidden object game in an eccentric coat of paint. And the gameplay gets old really quick even though the game is just about three hours long.
2.5/5
Also finished Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light (Crystal Dynamics / Eidos Interactive, 2010)
Tomb Raider, but it's a 2.5D twin-stick shooter with occasional puzzles and optional co-op.
Pro:
- Presentation is to the point, but also pretty lavish for a downloadable game from 12 years ago - as a consequence, the game still looks rather good today. The music was too bombastic for my taste, but the game plays just as well with the music turned off.
- Gameplay is great - the physics-based puzzles, the puzzle platforming and (and this is the major part of the game) the twin-stick shooting, all of it is tight, easy to pick up and challenging enough even on easy difficulty (in fact, I would suggest any first-time players to go with easy difficulty for solo runs).
- Nothing really. Personally I would have liked more puzzling and less twin-stick shooting, but that's just a personal preference.
Skeptical? The game retains one of the nice things about its PSN/Xbox Live Arcade heritage: A free playable demo on Steam, so you can try before you buy.
4.5/5
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Finished
Very mediocre game, but just fun and solid enough to play through the story, which also was quite uninteresting, so it was basically the gameplay that made the game interesting and fun enough to play through the story. The main missions are stuctured pretty boring and uninteresting, the graphics flet somewhat all over the place, some beautiful locations, other locations being not much good looking. The loot system was good and the skill system was good, actually liked progressing in the game.
The biggest cons are the very boring structured missions. And the game feeling like a long wave horde game, a lot of waves of enemies coming at you in every missions, like just to drag the campaign out as much as possible.
If I come back to it, it won't be for a long time.
Score: 6.5/10
Very mediocre game, but just fun and solid enough to play through the story, which also was quite uninteresting, so it was basically the gameplay that made the game interesting and fun enough to play through the story. The main missions are stuctured pretty boring and uninteresting, the graphics flet somewhat all over the place, some beautiful locations, other locations being not much good looking. The loot system was good and the skill system was good, actually liked progressing in the game.
The biggest cons are the very boring structured missions. And the game feeling like a long wave horde game, a lot of waves of enemies coming at you in every missions, like just to drag the campaign out as much as possible.
If I come back to it, it won't be for a long time.
Score: 6.5/10
Souls games and to some extent sekiro are odd with the normal area designs because once you reached a boss and went through the route, that route becomes "useless" and they make you waste time traveling through it again for nothing, because of the souls system, most people just skip enemies to get back to their soul/boss fight.
With Elden Ring releasing, I thought I would write a little about why I am not a fan of the From Software games. It’s not as simple as me finding the games too hard per se as XCOM and Darkest Dungeon are some of my favorite games.
I understand that my complaints are the exact reasons why many other people like the games. Anyway:
The good parts:
- Checkpoints and repetition. My main sticking point. Rather than feeling ”I’m gonna get the bastards this time” after a defeat, it’s more like ”You really want me to do that exact same shit again?”. XCOM and DD circumvent this by using random levels and by allowing for a huge amount of variety in skills and loadouts. Of course, the intricately connected worlds of the Souls games is one of the selling points so it is what it is. But I do think they could have been more generous with bonfires without hurting the experience. And while you might get more options of what skills and items to use later in the game, that selection is very limited early on.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown does use custom built levels and I could see myself enjoying a souls type game using a similar system. Super Meat Boy is also an example of a hard and repetitive game that I enjoy because the levels are so short and the restarts so quick. Nuclear Throne is a game that is insanely hard yet I still love it, along with a number of other real time roguelites and of course multiplayer games. Again, the difference is in the variety.- Lack of direction. This can be a good thing. It is used to fantastic effect in something like BotW or survival games. But combined with a high difficulty and a lack of saves or checkpoints and lack of an open world it just doesn't work for me. When I don't know whether a certain path is too hard for my character level at the moment, or whether there's a trick or strategy for proceeding that I haven't found, it just becomes an ambiguous mess and the excitement of exploration is ruined by the constant roadblocks.
For disclosure on how much I played; I reached the Capra Demon in Dark Souls 1. Absolute show stopper, especially after already being worn out from stumbling around endlessly in the Darkroot Garden and New Londo Ruins. In Dark Souls 3 I only reached the High Wall of Lothric before I was done.
- Art direction. A grotesque and intriguing dark fantasy masterclass taking inspiration from the equally excellent art of Berserk and Beksinski. This is the main reason why I'm still tempted to play Bloodborne.
- Combat. It just feels really heavy and satisfying. Even though the turn on the spot movement is a somewhat jarring contrast to the excellent attack animations.
- A lack of direct story. The right decision for those games.
It does seem as if Elden Ring fixes some of my issues. I might get around to playing it at some point, but not anytime soon.
Sekiro is better at this because traversal is quick and maps are generally small, not to mention checkpoints are close to the bosses, it feels more organic, some areas have interesting enemies that you need to overcome to get to a mini boss but other areas often feel like "fillers" with the fodder enemies, sure that's just how most video games are but when the game consistently make you redo areas and running past them, it can take you out of the experience, but everyone got so used to it, I personally don't mind it because it's part of the punishment/risk, but if you watch streamers play these games, outside of fighting bosses, you see them running and skipping enemies an awful lot, and I just find it odd because you no longer engage in fighting but instead you're trying to save time with running/rushing through an area, unless you need to grind for souls. While in other games it feels more natural because once you beat an area you won't need to see it again.
Sekiro is my favorite FROM game because of the QoL decisions and good checkpoints, and having a ton more quality 1 on 1 miniboss/boss fights instead of going through an awful big area of uninteresting enemies everytime you die.
It is also a lot worse because of the Death = 1/2 XP, no take backs, nothing to buy with XP. You need to grind your XP point to completion before facing a boss, or accept losing it. With the occasional "fuck you" of the <=30% chance to not lose XP, that tends to trigger when you need it least. No Ring of Sacrifice. So it trades a kind of tedium for another, compared to Souls.
I have 240h in Sekiro, and somehow I still hate it
Finished
First of all, this game is really good looking, the graphics are great and so is the shooting itself, it's solid, but the game is also very difficulty, I played it in solo, but it's clearly created for coop (supports online coop and couch coop).
The game could have been really great, but the gameplay loop makes the game repetive, boring and monotonous. The world is huge, the world design is great, but most of the time I spent minutes just to run from a to b to talk to an NPC and between a to b you just shoot enemies, most of the times enemies comes in waves, making it boring and difficulty. You can't really "run", it's more jogging, no running.
The game just drags out due to the long time between a to b, I ended up with speedhack and HP cheat (difficulty).
Other than that, the upgrades are nice, the different weapons are nice and the music is decent. Story wasn't all that interesting. Might come back in the future for some side missions because the world is beautiful and level design is great. Lots of details in the environments.
Score: 7.8/10
First of all, this game is really good looking, the graphics are great and so is the shooting itself, it's solid, but the game is also very difficulty, I played it in solo, but it's clearly created for coop (supports online coop and couch coop).
The game could have been really great, but the gameplay loop makes the game repetive, boring and monotonous. The world is huge, the world design is great, but most of the time I spent minutes just to run from a to b to talk to an NPC and between a to b you just shoot enemies, most of the times enemies comes in waves, making it boring and difficulty. You can't really "run", it's more jogging, no running.
The game just drags out due to the long time between a to b, I ended up with speedhack and HP cheat (difficulty).
Other than that, the upgrades are nice, the different weapons are nice and the music is decent. Story wasn't all that interesting. Might come back in the future for some side missions because the world is beautiful and level design is great. Lots of details in the environments.
Score: 7.8/10
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Finished
Actually a quite fun game. It has 8 chapters, every chapter has it own smaller region it takes part in, but you can swim in all the regions whenever you want, so like one big piece of open world. The game has really nice graphics, good voice acting and a decent story (for being a shark game). The missions objectives are not that good or variated, you basically swim around killing/eating humans and different fish, collectibles you also can find and eat, you level up by aging which gains you more strength, abilities and growing your shark to be bigger. The gameplay loop is a lot of fun during the first 5 chapters, but get's quite repetive and stale during the last 3 chapters, otherwise, a fun game that I recommend.
Score: 8/10.
Actually a quite fun game. It has 8 chapters, every chapter has it own smaller region it takes part in, but you can swim in all the regions whenever you want, so like one big piece of open world. The game has really nice graphics, good voice acting and a decent story (for being a shark game). The missions objectives are not that good or variated, you basically swim around killing/eating humans and different fish, collectibles you also can find and eat, you level up by aging which gains you more strength, abilities and growing your shark to be bigger. The gameplay loop is a lot of fun during the first 5 chapters, but get's quite repetive and stale during the last 3 chapters, otherwise, a fun game that I recommend.
Score: 8/10.
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Borderlands GOTY Enchanced
Borderlands has two major aspects that are meant to be the major focus. There's loot, and then there's co-op.
The looting is decent enough. The amount of drops thankfully aren't excessive, though the inventory space still feels too limited considering there's only one small stash hidden away in one of the DLCs. And the single column inventory feels like an clumsy outdated relic at this point. The gunplay is hit and miss depending on what weapon you use. I'll give them a pass on that considering the nature of the game, though I don't think I'll ever use a rocket launcher here again. Most of the guns feel good though.
It should be pointed out that I played solo. And that is clearly not how the game was intended to be played. It is a co-op game at heart and no doubt a lot more engaging that way.
The environments are ok I guess. But they all look like the same desaturated wasteland with few interesting landmarks. Look at Mad Max for a lesson in how to do a wasteland with regions that still feel distinct and fun. This is not Mad Max.
It gets especially awkward as toward the end of the game they throw in aliens fighting your normal enemies, something seemingly inspired by Halo. But all it does is to remind you of how much better Bungie did it. For the most part Borderlands just plops down a bunch of enemies in some generic environment and calls it a day.
But let's be real, I already knew going in that this wasn't going to be some masterpiece of game design. What I actually wanted was a podcast / chill out game. And for that, it works. The story takes a back seat which is how I want it. The gameplay is engaging enough but not so much that I can't focus on my podcast. So I'm happy. I reckon there isn't much reason for most to go back to BL1 now that BL2 and Destiny exist though. The Division being my own favorite in the genre.
The DLC might be worth checking out too. I did play through some of the Dr. Ned DLC and that was among the better parts of what I played.
Rating: Decent
Borderlands has two major aspects that are meant to be the major focus. There's loot, and then there's co-op.
The looting is decent enough. The amount of drops thankfully aren't excessive, though the inventory space still feels too limited considering there's only one small stash hidden away in one of the DLCs. And the single column inventory feels like an clumsy outdated relic at this point. The gunplay is hit and miss depending on what weapon you use. I'll give them a pass on that considering the nature of the game, though I don't think I'll ever use a rocket launcher here again. Most of the guns feel good though.
It should be pointed out that I played solo. And that is clearly not how the game was intended to be played. It is a co-op game at heart and no doubt a lot more engaging that way.
The environments are ok I guess. But they all look like the same desaturated wasteland with few interesting landmarks. Look at Mad Max for a lesson in how to do a wasteland with regions that still feel distinct and fun. This is not Mad Max.
It gets especially awkward as toward the end of the game they throw in aliens fighting your normal enemies, something seemingly inspired by Halo. But all it does is to remind you of how much better Bungie did it. For the most part Borderlands just plops down a bunch of enemies in some generic environment and calls it a day.
But let's be real, I already knew going in that this wasn't going to be some masterpiece of game design. What I actually wanted was a podcast / chill out game. And for that, it works. The story takes a back seat which is how I want it. The gameplay is engaging enough but not so much that I can't focus on my podcast. So I'm happy. I reckon there isn't much reason for most to go back to BL1 now that BL2 and Destiny exist though. The Division being my own favorite in the genre.
The DLC might be worth checking out too. I did play through some of the Dr. Ned DLC and that was among the better parts of what I played.
Rating: Decent
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Quake
I have never played this game before. I bought it on GOG several years ago, but never tried it out.
I can see how this revolutionized the FPS genre back in 1996.
That said....
Episode 4 is filled with bullshit! All the previous episodes had great momentum, where you almost always was on the move forwards, noting where the locked doors were and then chased down the keys, before accessing the next area until the level was complete. Great momentum!
Then episode 4 happened.... Mazes, spawning monsters everywhere in already cleared areas of the level, bullshit traps (disappearing floors over lava pits? Really????), the obnoxious slime monster that jumped all over the place, making it impossible to target, then blowing up in your face...
I can see why episode 4 is so divisive, after such a joyful experience before it.
All in all! A true classic!
I don't know if I'll give the expansions a go, or go straight to Quake II (which I only ever played the demo of back in the day).
8,5/10
I have never played this game before. I bought it on GOG several years ago, but never tried it out.
I can see how this revolutionized the FPS genre back in 1996.
That said....
Episode 4 is filled with bullshit! All the previous episodes had great momentum, where you almost always was on the move forwards, noting where the locked doors were and then chased down the keys, before accessing the next area until the level was complete. Great momentum!
Then episode 4 happened.... Mazes, spawning monsters everywhere in already cleared areas of the level, bullshit traps (disappearing floors over lava pits? Really????), the obnoxious slime monster that jumped all over the place, making it impossible to target, then blowing up in your face...
I can see why episode 4 is so divisive, after such a joyful experience before it.
All in all! A true classic!
I don't know if I'll give the expansions a go, or go straight to Quake II (which I only ever played the demo of back in the day).
8,5/10
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- Thread Starter
- #931
Finished Dark Souls 3
This was my 1st game on the Steam Deck, and the 4th time I've finished Dark Souls 3; after spear + faith, STR + heavy weapon and a magic build, I did another playthrough with a DEX build. I've tried dual wielding but that wasn't my cup of tea, so I played the rest of the game with a sharp infused Katana. I had tons of fun with this build, Dark Souls 3 is definitely one of the best games ever made!
One side note: I didn't completely finish the game because I was unable to beat the Younger & Elder Prince boss fight at the end of the game. I can't remember having much trouble with this boss in my previous runs, but I've noticed two differences with the YouTube video's I watched today: first of all, I constantly lost focus on the boss after he did his teleporting thing. This resulted in the boss teleporting somewhere behind me I couldn't see him, and finishing me off with a single hit that I couldn't block. An even more annoying issue was that in the 2nd phase, the pillars in the room didn't seem to protect me against the magic attacks. I'm not sure these issues are a result of playing the game on the Steam Deck, but after more than 20 tries I didn't manage to get the boss below 50% health in it's 2nd phase, so I quit.
Score: 9.5/10
Finished Aperture Desk Job
I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it's definitely the best "tutorial" for new hardware I've ever played.
Score: 10/10
Retired GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
Great Tower Defense game, the only reason I've stopped playing is because there's way too many content - which is something that I don't even see as a negative, I just have too many other games to play.
In Gemcraft, you have to use gems to give your towers and traps special attacks. For example, a green gem gives poison attacks that ignore armor, and a blue gem slow the enemies down. You can upgrade your gems with gems from the same color to make them stronger, but you can also combine them with gems from a different color. In the previous example, this would result in a tower that both slows down and poisons enemies.
This concept works really well, and there are tons of levels with unique challenges and ideas. By playing them, you can collect orbs to upgrade several aspects of the game. While this makes the experience rather grindy, these upgrades only work in basic and survival mode. Each level also has a challenge mode where you need to survive all waves without game-wide perks and upgrades. Some of these levels are really challenging, but I ended up enjoying them the most.
Great game, very recommended for fans of the tower-defense genre!
Score: 8.1/10
This was my 1st game on the Steam Deck, and the 4th time I've finished Dark Souls 3; after spear + faith, STR + heavy weapon and a magic build, I did another playthrough with a DEX build. I've tried dual wielding but that wasn't my cup of tea, so I played the rest of the game with a sharp infused Katana. I had tons of fun with this build, Dark Souls 3 is definitely one of the best games ever made!
One side note: I didn't completely finish the game because I was unable to beat the Younger & Elder Prince boss fight at the end of the game. I can't remember having much trouble with this boss in my previous runs, but I've noticed two differences with the YouTube video's I watched today: first of all, I constantly lost focus on the boss after he did his teleporting thing. This resulted in the boss teleporting somewhere behind me I couldn't see him, and finishing me off with a single hit that I couldn't block. An even more annoying issue was that in the 2nd phase, the pillars in the room didn't seem to protect me against the magic attacks. I'm not sure these issues are a result of playing the game on the Steam Deck, but after more than 20 tries I didn't manage to get the boss below 50% health in it's 2nd phase, so I quit.
Score: 9.5/10
Finished Aperture Desk Job
I'm not gonna spoil anything, but it's definitely the best "tutorial" for new hardware I've ever played.
Score: 10/10
Retired GemCraft - Frostborn Wrath
Great Tower Defense game, the only reason I've stopped playing is because there's way too many content - which is something that I don't even see as a negative, I just have too many other games to play.
In Gemcraft, you have to use gems to give your towers and traps special attacks. For example, a green gem gives poison attacks that ignore armor, and a blue gem slow the enemies down. You can upgrade your gems with gems from the same color to make them stronger, but you can also combine them with gems from a different color. In the previous example, this would result in a tower that both slows down and poisons enemies.
This concept works really well, and there are tons of levels with unique challenges and ideas. By playing them, you can collect orbs to upgrade several aspects of the game. While this makes the experience rather grindy, these upgrades only work in basic and survival mode. Each level also has a challenge mode where you need to survive all waves without game-wide perks and upgrades. Some of these levels are really challenging, but I ended up enjoying them the most.
Great game, very recommended for fans of the tower-defense genre!
Score: 8.1/10
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- Thread Starter
- #932
Retired Ageless
Initially I was very charmed with this puzzle platformer. You play a girl who gains the power to change the age of plants and animals, which also changes their behavior. A young tree can be used to catapult yourself through the air for example, while older trees can lift you up with their roots. This mechanic works very well and is used to create some clever puzzles in a beautiful pixelated game world.
Sadly the controls and hit boxes aren't as good as they should be. As a result, I often knew how to solve a certain puzzle, but it still took me lots of tries to execute it correctly because my character did something else than I intended.
While this is only slightly annoying during the puzzle sections, this becomes a huge problem in the "escape" sequences where you are being chased by fast moving deadly objects. Not only are these sections ridiculously difficult compared to the rest of the game, but they are also very frustrating because of the controls and hit box issues. While I loved the escape sequences in the Ori games, they made me uninstall Ageless out of pure frustration. Such a shame...
Score: 4.9/10
Initially I was very charmed with this puzzle platformer. You play a girl who gains the power to change the age of plants and animals, which also changes their behavior. A young tree can be used to catapult yourself through the air for example, while older trees can lift you up with their roots. This mechanic works very well and is used to create some clever puzzles in a beautiful pixelated game world.
Sadly the controls and hit boxes aren't as good as they should be. As a result, I often knew how to solve a certain puzzle, but it still took me lots of tries to execute it correctly because my character did something else than I intended.
While this is only slightly annoying during the puzzle sections, this becomes a huge problem in the "escape" sequences where you are being chased by fast moving deadly objects. Not only are these sections ridiculously difficult compared to the rest of the game, but they are also very frustrating because of the controls and hit box issues. While I loved the escape sequences in the Ori games, they made me uninstall Ageless out of pure frustration. Such a shame...
Score: 4.9/10
Finished Halo Infinite (343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios, 2021)
Stop the fight, for it is finished.
Pro:
Fans of classic Halo should avoid this (along with Halo 5 Guardians - the Master Chief Collection has you covered) and people who don't know or care about classic Halo, but like open world shooters, should play Far Cry instead.
Didn't try the multiplayer.
2/5
Stop the fight, for it is finished.
Pro:
- The combination of a large open world segment and classic linear story missions creates the longest Halo single player campaign to date.
- Some vehicles that didn't get a lot of love in previous Halo games can now be used to full effect and for as long and as often as you like - if you grind enough to unlock them all that is. I did, and I had some fun - rolling up with a tank and four marines equipped with enhanced weapons on an enemy outpost can result in some spectacular action - but it inflated my playtime to a humongous 60 hours total.
- E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g else. An incomplete selection of low points:
- As of this post, the game is still unfinished. The single player campaign is literally single player - coop isn't implemented yet. And a level select to replay campaign missions (and their locations, and collectibles, some of which aren't accessible through the open world) was only patched in literal days before I finished the game.
- The story is a wretched mess of terrible characters, horrible voice acting, and some of the worst dialogue writing I ever had to suffer through in a video game. And it steamrolls right over the last remaining intact bits of the classic Halo scenario and ensemble. I literally can't put into words how absolutely awful and outright annoying it is. It's the J.J. Abramsification of Halo. If Halo 4 and 5 left the series out in the desert, this one is the tumbleweed rolling by its desiccated corpse. Throughout playing this game, I wished I could have played the events preceding the start of this game instead, which here are only hinted at in flashbacks and collectible audio logs.
- The open world most closely resembles a Far Cry (3 and newer) game - in size, scale, mechanics and pacing, but with much worse performance and a lot more bugs. And as if it wasn't bad enough that 343 turned three quarters of a Halo game into Far Cry with a Halo skin, it is, in fact, inferior to Far Cry. And that includes the visuals.
- The linear campaign missions are even worse: Rather than the carefully designed and balanced enemy encounters of the classic games, you get the same dumb and buggy AI mobs that you get in the open world, which are equally likely to trip over themselves or unfairly gang up on you. The level design is beyond bad: Boring corridors indoors, and sloppily done outdoor areas with poor enemy placement - so sloppily and poorly done in fact, that in one particular case, you can skip almost every enemy encounter by just hugging the level edge. And also boss fights, which are hard (on heroic difficulty or higher), but unsatisfying to beat.
- Just so many little things that should have been caught and fixed in testing but were not and just make playing the game more annoying, like the default controller layout sharing the same button for picking up a weapon and reloading it - and picking up takes precedence over reloading. And the borderline-broken checkpoint system, which is a complete departure from classic Halo and is pretty much guaranteed to surprise-discard large chunks of progress when quitting the game (pro-tip: Do not ever quit the game during the last campaign mission).
Fans of classic Halo should avoid this (along with Halo 5 Guardians - the Master Chief Collection has you covered) and people who don't know or care about classic Halo, but like open world shooters, should play Far Cry instead.
Didn't try the multiplayer.
2/5
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- Thread Starter
- #934
Finished Barro
Barro is a very simple 3D racing game. You can race with 4 different vehicles on a dozen of similar looking tracks, trying to improve your time on the leaderboards. But that's all this game has to offer: there's no career mode and nothing in-game to unlock.
The track design isn't very good; steep hills are often followed by sharp turns that you can't see until it's too late. The physics are terrible, hitting another car or the side of the road makes you spin around like a plastic toy on ice. And an all time low is the abuse of achievements; playing the game for 10 minutes unlocks over a hundred achievements with names based on the ASCII table.
The only positive that I can come up with is that it runs great on the Steam Deck. Definitely not worth paying for.
Score: 2.0/10
Barro is a very simple 3D racing game. You can race with 4 different vehicles on a dozen of similar looking tracks, trying to improve your time on the leaderboards. But that's all this game has to offer: there's no career mode and nothing in-game to unlock.
The track design isn't very good; steep hills are often followed by sharp turns that you can't see until it's too late. The physics are terrible, hitting another car or the side of the road makes you spin around like a plastic toy on ice. And an all time low is the abuse of achievements; playing the game for 10 minutes unlocks over a hundred achievements with names based on the ASCII table.
The only positive that I can come up with is that it runs great on the Steam Deck. Definitely not worth paying for.
Score: 2.0/10
Finished Strange Horticulture..
Very nice little point and click/mystery puzzle game based around owning a 'shop of plants' where you identify plants using a guide book and solve a bit of a mystery. Has a nice game loop including working out plant types from clues in your guide book, tagging them, solving light riddles and clues on a overworld map screen. There are characters that develop the story.
Its well made, fairly chilled and kept me interested for the 6 or so hours it took for the main story. Nice turn of pace from Elden Ring.
7/10
Very nice little point and click/mystery puzzle game based around owning a 'shop of plants' where you identify plants using a guide book and solve a bit of a mystery. Has a nice game loop including working out plant types from clues in your guide book, tagging them, solving light riddles and clues on a overworld map screen. There are characters that develop the story.
Its well made, fairly chilled and kept me interested for the 6 or so hours it took for the main story. Nice turn of pace from Elden Ring.
7/10
I retire Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers for the 3DS .
While I mostly enjoyed the game, it's ultimately a bit too old school for me once the difficulty ramps up a bit, by which I mean the devs basically start cheating and expect you to know certain enemies have death blows that can kill you on one hit. To which you can defend by using very particular items, and so forth. The problem with your MC dying is that the game doesn't have a simple retry option, you literally just start from the last save.
I don't regret having played the game, it's an interesting glimpse into the SMT / Devil Summoner universe, and the gameplay loop is ultimately pretty neat, just wish the difficulty could have been toned down a bit, specifically allowing for the MC to be killed and revived like any other character. As it stands, it's a bit too hardcore for my tastes.
While I mostly enjoyed the game, it's ultimately a bit too old school for me once the difficulty ramps up a bit, by which I mean the devs basically start cheating and expect you to know certain enemies have death blows that can kill you on one hit. To which you can defend by using very particular items, and so forth. The problem with your MC dying is that the game doesn't have a simple retry option, you literally just start from the last save.
I don't regret having played the game, it's an interesting glimpse into the SMT / Devil Summoner universe, and the gameplay loop is ultimately pretty neat, just wish the difficulty could have been toned down a bit, specifically allowing for the MC to be killed and revived like any other character. As it stands, it's a bit too hardcore for my tastes.
As I've warned people, it is a product of its time.
I should've been more specific and said it's an SMT product of its time. Or, just an SMT product. Those games can be an acquired taste.
I didn't like Soul Hackers after a few hours, and I think I've felt the same way about every game made by Atlus prior to Persona 3.
- Thread Starter
- #938
Finished Call of Cthulhu
Decent detective/horror game that has several flaws, but does lots of things right as well. You play a detective who tries to find the truth behind a deadly fire on a mysterious island. By talking to the local folks, finding clues and investigating crime scenes, you discover that some creepy "occult" stuff is going on.
I really liked the characters and most of the story; only the last few chapters became a bit confusing for me with several voices speaking in your head. The crime scene investigations are very well done and most of the puzzles are fine as well, with exception of the annoying monster encounters.
While this is obviously a low budget title, the design of the environments is very good. Lots of locations on the island have a creepy atmosphere, and I really enjoyed exploring it. While far from perfect, this game is definitely worth playing.
Score: 7.6/10
Decent detective/horror game that has several flaws, but does lots of things right as well. You play a detective who tries to find the truth behind a deadly fire on a mysterious island. By talking to the local folks, finding clues and investigating crime scenes, you discover that some creepy "occult" stuff is going on.
I really liked the characters and most of the story; only the last few chapters became a bit confusing for me with several voices speaking in your head. The crime scene investigations are very well done and most of the puzzles are fine as well, with exception of the annoying monster encounters.
While this is obviously a low budget title, the design of the environments is very good. Lots of locations on the island have a creepy atmosphere, and I really enjoyed exploring it. While far from perfect, this game is definitely worth playing.
Score: 7.6/10
Finished
Amazing game, gigantic game (was much bigger than I thought), great music, great gameplay, very interesting world and very fun to explore. The only negative I have is that many of the cellars/smaller dungeons looked the same, a bit of stuttering at the start of the game and the enemy and boss design didn't reach to Bloodbornes level, but otherwise, an amazing game.
Score: 9.1/10
Amazing game, gigantic game (was much bigger than I thought), great music, great gameplay, very interesting world and very fun to explore. The only negative I have is that many of the cellars/smaller dungeons looked the same, a bit of stuttering at the start of the game and the enemy and boss design didn't reach to Bloodbornes level, but otherwise, an amazing game.
Score: 9.1/10
Finished
That was quite good. A bit annoyingly hard in the final levels. I'm especially glad the the final level was actually split into several parts, otherwise it would have been impossible.
Finished the story in one sitting, and I actually felt that I had had enough when it ended.
The story... was a bit more disturbing than what I had expected.
7,5/10
That was quite good. A bit annoyingly hard in the final levels. I'm especially glad the the final level was actually split into several parts, otherwise it would have been impossible.
Finished the story in one sitting, and I actually felt that I had had enough when it ended.
The story... was a bit more disturbing than what I had expected.
7,5/10
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Finished Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate (Armature Studio / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 2013)
The Ba(ck)t(rack)man returns in: Batroid Yawnia.
Pro:
I really like metroidvania style games, particularly modern 2.5D ones in the style of Shadow Complex, but this game demonstrates every mistake you can possibly make while designing one. Barely had any fun and was very glad when the credits rolled.
2.5/5
The Ba(ck)t(rack)man returns in: Batroid Yawnia.
Pro:
- The usual Batman story beats are there and the game hits them well enough - although in the end, it barely amounts to more than a small postscript to the events of Batman Arkham Origins.
- Also returning is the voice talent from Batman Arkham Origins for Penguin, the Joker and Black Mask, and their monologues are pretty much the highlight of the story aspect of the game. Catwoman also returns in this one, but unfortunately she doesn't play her charms nearly as effectively as in Arkham City.
- Batman as a 2.5D metroidvania is a great concept ...
- ... which unfortunately the game implemented pretty terribly across the board. The level design is visually samey and boring, the layout is confusing and the in-game map is one of the worst I have ever seen in a video game, and definitely the worst I have seen in a video game made in this century.
- On top of all that, the design of the campaign is also quite bad. It tries to offer a non-linear approach to the story, giving the player the choice in which order to tackle the three main locations of the game. But to make that work, it sends the player on huge stretches of backtracking through the levels, where literally nothing happens (except the player inevitably getting lost because the level design is so confusing and the map is so terrible).
- The game withholds some collectibles (and associated achievements) from the first playthrough to entice players to use the New Game + mode.
I really like metroidvania style games, particularly modern 2.5D ones in the style of Shadow Complex, but this game demonstrates every mistake you can possibly make while designing one. Barely had any fun and was very glad when the credits rolled.
2.5/5
Finished
Somewhat dissapointing, expected a bigger "Outlast"/"Amnesia" sort of horror walking sim, but it was not that. It is a very generic, linear walking sim with very few horror elements other than a few "jump scares". Story is interesting at the start, but becomes very "oh that story again" halfway through. Very little interactivity too. I recommend the game for people who haven't really played any walking sim before and find games like Outlast too scary.
Score: 6.5/10
Somewhat dissapointing, expected a bigger "Outlast"/"Amnesia" sort of horror walking sim, but it was not that. It is a very generic, linear walking sim with very few horror elements other than a few "jump scares". Story is interesting at the start, but becomes very "oh that story again" halfway through. Very little interactivity too. I recommend the game for people who haven't really played any walking sim before and find games like Outlast too scary.
Score: 6.5/10
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I finished Darksiders 3
The third game in the series, this time with Fury as the protagonist. Like Darksiders 2 before it, this too is merely a prequel to the first game. Detailing what happened to our furious Horseman (or should it not be Horse-Woman ?) after War foolishly called for the Apocalypse before the Seventh Seal was broken. We even have a cameo of War in this game, though sadly he's only seen very briefly.
The rest of the game is about Fury being sent out to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins. During her journey, she finds out that something is off about her missions.
I liked the story overall, it explains what happened to the last humans on Earth. I kinda wonder though how this really fits in with the ending of Darksiders 2, though, where seemingly all of humanity was restored by the sacrifice of Death. Going by the Wiki, Darksiders 3 came before, so that hasn't happened yet. I guess a future Darksiders 4 or something could clear that up.
As for the gameplay, it's basically a Soulsborne -lite. Tough encounters, you lose all your souls when you die and need to go back to the spot where you were killed, and all enemies respawn when you die. Worked out pretty well, though I do think the open world nature did detract from the formula a little bit, making the big fights feel less like set pieces but more like mini bosses who aren't that important in the grand scale of things. Both 1 and 2 were better in that area.
But overall it's still a pretty enjoyable game, I just hope the next big game can go back to copying classic Zelda games and dungeons again. It worked so sell in the first two games, no need to copy From games now.
I rate this game 5 out of 7 Deadly Sins.
The third game in the series, this time with Fury as the protagonist. Like Darksiders 2 before it, this too is merely a prequel to the first game. Detailing what happened to our furious Horseman (or should it not be Horse-Woman ?) after War foolishly called for the Apocalypse before the Seventh Seal was broken. We even have a cameo of War in this game, though sadly he's only seen very briefly.
The rest of the game is about Fury being sent out to hunt down the Seven Deadly Sins. During her journey, she finds out that something is off about her missions.
I liked the story overall, it explains what happened to the last humans on Earth. I kinda wonder though how this really fits in with the ending of Darksiders 2, though, where seemingly all of humanity was restored by the sacrifice of Death. Going by the Wiki, Darksiders 3 came before, so that hasn't happened yet. I guess a future Darksiders 4 or something could clear that up.
As for the gameplay, it's basically a Soulsborne -lite. Tough encounters, you lose all your souls when you die and need to go back to the spot where you were killed, and all enemies respawn when you die. Worked out pretty well, though I do think the open world nature did detract from the formula a little bit, making the big fights feel less like set pieces but more like mini bosses who aren't that important in the grand scale of things. Both 1 and 2 were better in that area.
But overall it's still a pretty enjoyable game, I just hope the next big game can go back to copying classic Zelda games and dungeons again. It worked so sell in the first two games, no need to copy From games now.
I rate this game 5 out of 7 Deadly Sins.
Finished Golden Axed: A Cancelled Prototype
Not much to say about this. It's a one level vertical slice of a game that never was. The controls were not even properly set up for a keyboard when launching the game, so I had to quit, configure the controls(from what I guess is a Unity menu), and restart the game. The demo can be described at best as "adequate".
5/10
(I'm attempting to clear out some of the shorter experiences from the old backlog...)
Not much to say about this. It's a one level vertical slice of a game that never was. The controls were not even properly set up for a keyboard when launching the game, so I had to quit, configure the controls(from what I guess is a Unity menu), and restart the game. The demo can be described at best as "adequate".
5/10
(I'm attempting to clear out some of the shorter experiences from the old backlog...)
Retired Armor of Heroes
Another free game from the SEGA celebration 2 years ago.
A simple multiplayer game with top-down controlled tanks.
Next!
3/10
Another free game from the SEGA celebration 2 years ago.
A simple multiplayer game with top-down controlled tanks.
Next!
3/10
Finished/Retired Streets of Kamurocho.
A nice beat-em-up reskin of Streets of Rage with Kiriyu and Majima as protagonists.
A fun short experience. I suspect this is the best of the 4 free Sega games from the 60th anniversary..
7/10.
Finished Samorost 1
You can really see the beginnings of Machinarium in this one. Short and to the point.
5/10.
A nice beat-em-up reskin of Streets of Rage with Kiriyu and Majima as protagonists.
A fun short experience. I suspect this is the best of the 4 free Sega games from the 60th anniversary..
7/10.
Finished Samorost 1
You can really see the beginnings of Machinarium in this one. Short and to the point.
5/10.
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Finished
Another walking sim with horror elements that I've wanted to play. This one was better than Maid of Sker and is mainly made by 1 person. Took around 2.5 hours to play through. Some beautiful sceneries in the game, but blurry textures when you get up close. Good level design, lots of verticality, there is one path (1 ending), but to get to that path there are often multiple other paths. Not much interactivity here, but you can walk around and pick up certain objects like barrells and crates, destroy them or use them to reach heigher places in the game to grab collectibles, making the game more interative than most walking sims, really, sorta reminds me off Half-Life's interactivity, but still far from that.
Story was very interesting and the ending explained everything and was done well. My main negatives with the game is that you can quite easily fall into different places that doesn't have a way up again (I at least didn't find any way up), making you stuck, so you have to reload the game. Another is the chasing events, there are a few events where a character is chasing you and in the middle of that you often have to solve a puzzle, which was really annoying and frustrating, thanksfully there is an accessbility option in the game, making the character chasing you dissappear after 1 min.
Didn't find the game scary at all, the chasing events was more frustrating and annoying and other than that the game was so dark most of the time I had to turn up the contrast.
Overall a very interesting, good looking walking sim, looking forward to the 2 other games in the Horror Tales series.
Score: 8/10
Another walking sim with horror elements that I've wanted to play. This one was better than Maid of Sker and is mainly made by 1 person. Took around 2.5 hours to play through. Some beautiful sceneries in the game, but blurry textures when you get up close. Good level design, lots of verticality, there is one path (1 ending), but to get to that path there are often multiple other paths. Not much interactivity here, but you can walk around and pick up certain objects like barrells and crates, destroy them or use them to reach heigher places in the game to grab collectibles, making the game more interative than most walking sims, really, sorta reminds me off Half-Life's interactivity, but still far from that.
Story was very interesting and the ending explained everything and was done well. My main negatives with the game is that you can quite easily fall into different places that doesn't have a way up again (I at least didn't find any way up), making you stuck, so you have to reload the game. Another is the chasing events, there are a few events where a character is chasing you and in the middle of that you often have to solve a puzzle, which was really annoying and frustrating, thanksfully there is an accessbility option in the game, making the character chasing you dissappear after 1 min.
Didn't find the game scary at all, the chasing events was more frustrating and annoying and other than that the game was so dark most of the time I had to turn up the contrast.
Overall a very interesting, good looking walking sim, looking forward to the 2 other games in the Horror Tales series.
Score: 8/10
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Finished
www.gog.com
A short platformer with beautiful artwork and lovely music. The experience was quite short, with a few tricky platforming parts, but the game was quick to restart if you died.
The control scheme using keyboard was borderline unplayable, but using a controller made it completely fine.
6/10
Symphonia
Symphonia Demo is available here In the realm of Symphonia, music acts as a source o
A short platformer with beautiful artwork and lovely music. The experience was quite short, with a few tricky platforming parts, but the game was quick to restart if you died.
The control scheme using keyboard was borderline unplayable, but using a controller made it completely fine.
6/10
- Thread Starter
- #949
Finished Ring of Pain
I finished this game last year, but decided to play it again on the Steam Deck since the game got a bunch of (free) updates. Glad I did, because the new cards allow even more different strategies and lower the need of certain cards to be able to beat the game. Definitely one of my favorite card battle games ever!
Score: 8.8/10
I finished this game last year, but decided to play it again on the Steam Deck since the game got a bunch of (free) updates. Glad I did, because the new cards allow even more different strategies and lower the need of certain cards to be able to beat the game. Definitely one of my favorite card battle games ever!
Score: 8.8/10