Reviews Rate the game you finished/retired

[Ge0force]

In this thread you can rate the game you finished or stopped playing for whatever reason. Please be sure to mention:

• The title of the game and the platform you played it
• What kind of game it is (unless it's a well known AAA-game, you don't need to explain GTA5 )
• The things you liked and disliked about the game
• Your final score (for example 7.8/10)

This thread may help other members to decide what game to buy or play next.

Virtual Ruminant made a nice spreadsheet with the games in this thread.



Here's my first contribution:




Finished: Yuppie Psycho (PC)

Yuppie Psycho is the latest horror game from the creator of My Count Lucanor, and combines stealth and puzzle solving with a great story and charming pixelart. You play as Brian on his first workday in one of the biggest companies in the world. The building he works in is weird to say at least: there's blood and dead bodies everywhere, your chief is some kind of Napoleon who rides on a horse and your first assignment is to kill a witch who has been terrorizing the building for years.

What I liked:

• Story, characters and dialogs are very well done
• Creepy atmosphere and level design
• Multiple endings

What I didn't like:

• Some of the puzzles are hard to figure out what to do
• The last part of the game could have used a few more checkpoints

Conclusion: the game was a great experience for me and is very recommended!
Score: 8.1/10

 

[Joe Spangle]

Opus Magnum (PC)

A really nicely presented puzzle game about combining little blobs, or elements to create chains of molecule like things. Its got a bit of a story to it where you are an alchemist working for some dude and tasked with creating these various chains. Its fairly light on the story side and the meat of the game is progressing through increasingly more complex puzzles.

I love the start of each level where you have to work out how to convert your starting element into the required end product. You do this using a series of piston arms to move the blobs around, combining them with others. Its like a little machine automation game.

Only stopped playing due to Death Stranding taking up all my time. I'd give it 8/10

 

[Prodigy]

Finished: Ghost of Tsushima (PS4)

Open world, third person action adventure (RPG?). Mongols attack the island you are on, and you have to claim it back. Story starts simple but gets better as it continues, but never gets amazing. It has a couple great side quests as well though.

What I liked:

• Beautiful open world, with great lighting and amazing grass. (ugly textures and repeated buildings though)
• Fun Combat system, where you have stances for different enemies and tools
• Main story was alright, with a few great side quests.
• Unique setting.
• Main story kept me interested.

What I didn't like:

• Many missions are the same find brother/sister etc... follow footprints, and kill enemies.
• Combat is fun, but is really easy- I had everything I needed before act 1 was finished.
• Very Janky (especially for a 1st party game), had two missions where I had to reload to continue, things like no rag-doll on bodies means enemies clip through many objects and can float on a cliff by their foot.
• Stealth feels barebones
• Animations especially in cutscenes feel for stiff with jump cuts.
• Filler collectibles like fox dens, bird following etc... fun for the first 10 times but then becomes a chore.

Score: 7/10

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Carrion (Game Pass PC)

It gets by on the strength of its concept, but otherwise is a fairly standard metroidvania, so you won't see anything particularly mind blowing here.
That said biggest criticism is that it really could use a map of some kind; the navigation at certain points is needlessly frustrating in figuring out where to go.

6/10

 

[C-Dub]

Death Stranding (PC)

I'm glad I waited for the PC version this. The game has been a spectacular demo of technology, and Kojima Productions originally wanted the PS4 version to play at 60fps, so I feel like I'm playing it as the creators intended. And boy, is it good.

I had some misgivings about it which still stand after the game released - Kojima bringing his friends and actors into the game to be face-scanned characters takes me out of the experience a bit. "Oh, that's Norman Reedus. And that's Geoff Keighley. Gillermo Del Torro too!" Some of the things that I like about games and animation is that recognisable faces aren't part of the experience; everything is bespoke. I don't deny that talented actors can make you forget they're acting, but I feel in a videogame, just like in animation, putting real faces into it is immersion-breaking.

And the plot is bonkers. It kinda makes sense in the bounds of its own fiction, but it is absolutely bananas. It feels like this is the game Kojima wanted to make with MGS5 - a lot of the style, imagery and art direction is taken from that game almost wholesale and used in Death Stranding, only without the constraints of the MGS series holding it back. It embraces the supernatural without bullshit, it doesn't feel like it has to give a straight answer to every question (though the game does answer a lot of them), yet maintains that signature MGS style in the process. It's almost uncanny at how like MGS it is and isn't.

It doesn't stop with the plot or the aesthetic of the game. The gameplay, too, also builds on Kojima Productions' previous work, yet feels distinctly different. What's new, and amazing, is that Kojima Productions have managed to create compelling gameplay around fetch quests and basic item delivery quests. Each journey feels perilous, with the world and its inhabitants out to kill you and steal or destroy your precious cargo. It's basically delivery quests with actual depth, and that's amazing.

I mentioned the world and its inhabitants. It's got that signature Kojima detail - lots of different ways to deal with challenges. Do you sneak? Run and gun? Or just run? All are valid, and each have their own consequences tied to them.

But despite all of this, the bit that stands out the most to me in Death Stranding is the community. The game is about bringing people together to achieve a common goal, and the system of contributing materials to roads or building little structures to help yourself and other players out is a masterstroke of design. The amount of times I was exploring the world and bumped into a rain shelter or a zip wire that was pretty much perfectly placed. And since I spent a lot of my time building roads which were then shared with thousands of other players, I received a lot of "likes" from them that showed they appreciated what I'd built. It felt good to know I was helping someone, somewhere.

And this gameplay ties back into the game's theme of people staying connected. If we bunker ourselves down and allow ourselves to be divided, that will be our inevitable decline. But if we work together, stay connected, "become whole", we can accomplish great things.

9/10

 

[Ge0force]

Horizon Chase Turbo

Very well done retro racer with gameplay similar to classics like Outrun. Besides becoming first in every race, you have to collect fuel canisters before you run out of gas, and you need to collect coins to unlock more races and cars. If you don't like this, you can pay classic championships or endurance races as well.

I liked:

• Tight controls
• Over 100 tracks, themed with locations from all over the world
• Great soundtrack
• Lots of unlocks and upgrades
• Short races
• Leaderboards for each track and online/offline multiplayer

I disliked:

- You can make many races rather easy by playing upgrade races from future locations first

Score: 9.0/10; Very recommended!

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Finished Carrion (Game Pass PC)

It gets by on the strength of its concept, but otherwise is a fairly standard metroidvania, so you won't see anything particularly mind blowing here.
That said biggest criticism is that it really could use a map of some kind; the navigation at certain points is needlessly frustrating in figuring out where to go.

6/10

That largely matches my thoughts. I feel like there needs to be some sort of Rogue-lite-esque naming for Metroidvania-lites. It's a bit tough to argue it's not a Metroidvania if you simply think of it in bullet points. Yup, you get abilities. Yeah, there's optional upgrades if you backtrack. It's an open world based on a hub area. Your character grows (literally!) as you play.

But all that said it's designed in an extremely linear way. Outside of popping back into the hub to then enter a new area there's no actual designed backtracking as you steadily move forward. I didn't pick up on there even being optional upgrades if I had returned to the previous areas until near the very end of the game and realized Containment Unit was something tracked on the level's summary board thing.

Thus the lack of a map rarely was a problem with there being only two reasons I could have benefitted from one: When returning into the hub the game sometimes is real bad at making you aware where the next entry point is, and in one late level I completely missed a door that was blended into the background too much for me so I wasted 15 minutes scouring every area going back through all the rooms trying to figure out how to progress (and if there were a map I'd assume doorways would be shown on it).

My other main complaint for the game is the combat can just feel quite random and ultimately doesn't feel particularly great. I never had a good sense how much damage things would do as sometimes I'd get shot and lose a pip of health and other times I'd look and I'd lose six pips. Fire had a similar random damage speed. But also just grabbing people, things, whatever was just messy. Shield guys in particular would either block me 100% or while scrambling around them I'd sometimes be able to grab them. I just never knew.

The more I think about the game the more frustrated I get remembering it. But it's not some horrible game! I think the 6 out of 10 is completely fair. It just has some flaws.

 

[spiel]

Finished The Messenger. My wrists are hurting.

Would have been an easy 10/10 for the hilarious writing and solid action-platform gameplay, but I spent the second half of the game almost perpetually angry.

• I hate insta-kill spikes/floors, because I'm not the best at games, and unfortunately The Messenger has several sections set above bottomless pits. Upon death you are returned to the last checkpoint (which can be a few screens away) meaning you have to repeat brain-dead platforming sections until you finally return to the actual spot you were having trouble with.
• There was a lot of backtracking for not a lot of payoff.

The final boss fight was great, though! Story wrapped up nicely too. So I think it was worth all the frustration.

Final score: 8/10

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Took me 6.6 hours. I liked it a lot. The gameplay was quite fun and the upgrades were really nice. My problems is pretty much that the game needs a map, had to check a walkthrough on YT to see where to go. But when the monster got really big it was kind of difficulty to move it, especially through tiny vents and grabbing enemies that had those red shields was quite annoying at times, especially those damn flame throwers, fuck the flame throwers. Didn't rreally care that much for the origin of the monster and the ending was kinda "meh". However, the graphics, sound and gameplay overall made the game very good and fun for me.

Score: 7.5/10

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Gears 5 (Game Pass PC)

It's really just more Gears.
You've played this all before, even past the first couple of hours there is just nothing new here. It's all quite tired at this point.

5/10

 

[Ascheroth]

A Short Hike

Pretty, great music, full of adorable characters and super fun exploration and traversal in a map that has just the right size. Finished it in one sitting.

10/10

Skautfold: Moonless Knight

Another solid entry in the Skautfold series. Back to a metroidvania-lite again. Fun combat and bosses, neat "metroidvania-upgrades", story continues to be interesting.

8/10

 

[mssq]

The Gallery - Episode 1: Call of the Starseed

You can feel that this is earlier VR title with some jank and technical problems but under that there is dark atmospheric world, intriguing story with pretty decent puzzles. The first episode is really short though so hopefully the second episode has little more meat on the bones.

Oh and the ending of the episode is pretty damn cool but that's honestly mostly because VR can be so immersive.

7/10

 

[curi0usBystander]

MO: Astray

A platformer with slight puzzle elements and cool bosses. I liked that you learn about the world by reading your enemies minds (kind of).

I disliked that, moslty on the early game before you can double jump, since you have to aim the jumps some times it's hard to know if you'll reach an area or fall to insta death, but it's not that much of a big deal.

7/10

 

[unknownhero]

sniper elite 3

Would have finished it but I got tired of fighting a tank near the end of every level. It was not necessary for that. stealth mechanics are kinda bare bones and the loud action felt stiff.

7/10

 

[gabbo]

Call of Juarez

Certainly some interesting ideas and the story was worth playing, but the mechanics let the game down and it becomes a frustrating slog for stretches.
By modern standards, average, maybe a 6 out of 10, mostly because the bow was awesome and putting an arrow in an outlaw's face at close range is just murderous joy

5.5-6/10

 

[Milena]

The Last of Us 2 (PS4)

I didn't particularly like this game. I haven't felt such a strong disconnect with the actions of a character in videogames since the ending of Mass Effect 3.
I don't want to spoil anything and I won't go into details, but I don't think the game did a great job in making me emphatize with some characters.
A problem that I never had in The Last of Us: while Joel did some awful things along the way, I always understood his point of view and what motivated him.
In contrast, multiple times throughout The Last of Us 2 I refused to carry out some of the forced actions at first, even resulting in game over screens.

It was certainly too long. Probably because I don't like this particular gameplay style (the main thing I didn't like about The Last of Us 1 as well), but I could have done with less combat and stealth encounters.

Graphics were ok, sound design was great (but next time please less bone-crunching), soundtrack was not memorable for me, unlike the first game.

I did like in particular one part of the game and some characters, but I can't say much without spoilers.

Overall, 6-7/10 (depending on which part of the game we're talking about)


Children of Morta (Steam)

On almost the polar opposite of TLoS2, here is my Steam review for Children of Morta:
This is a really beautiful and wholesome game. I don't particularly love rogue-like games, so this liter version was much more to my liking. As you still keep the exp and money even if your character dies, the game keeps a feeling of constant progression and never feels frustrating.

Gameplay itself is fun and each Bergsons has distinct abilities and skills, so I was never bored, despite facing the same enemies multiple times (there are 3 main areas, each with 2-3 dungeons).
The game kinda punishes you for selecting the same character over and over, so you'll have to level several (if not all) family members along the way.

I loved the narrator's voice and the little story bits each time you returned to the house. I was also really impressed by the art style, great job there!

All in all this is very good game and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a more relaxed rogue-like game with a nice story.

Overall, 8/10

 

[Linkark07]

Persona 4 Golden (PC)

I'm going to rate the Steam version, because the quality of the game is still excellent. Overall, it is an excellent port. There are some flaws, like the video quality or the Japanese dub sounded weird, or that sometimes FPS dropped, especially when you were going to start an All-Out Attack. Glad this game came out, and looking forward if Atlus ports Persona 3 and Persona 5 Royal. Persona 3 is an instabuy if they port Portable (most likely) or port FES and add FeMC route (less likely). Persona 5 Royal is another instabuy.

Overall: 9/10. The game has aged well.

 

[MJunioR]

I love Destroy All Humans. I'd say that DAH 2 is easily on my top 10 PlayStation 2 games, maybe top 5, even. The original game, though, not so much.

You see, the first DAH never felt like a full game. It's "small", or better saying, it's the standard console AA experience from the PS2 era, and the remake feels no different. Unfortunately, or not, the Black Forest team made clear that they were remaking that same experience without major changes other than in the graphics department (and a new mission that was scrapped from the original game), as well as some gameplay tweaks, and that's what they have done. Is it worth it? If you have nostalgia for the series, of for these kind of games from three generations ago, yes, it's. Now, otherwise, it might be a 50% off pick for later. It's good to see Crypto back, now I at least hope to see a remake of DAH 2 - that's where the fun is at.

[UWSL]What's good about it?[/UWSL]

• It plays well, using a gamepad everything felt really smooth
• Graphic-wise, it's pretty decent
• Doesn't overstay its welcome like many games from the era did
• Challenges can be fun
• Crypto
• Good regional pricing deserves a shout out

[UWSL]What is not?[/UWSL]

• Repetitive mission structure
• Almost no variety of NPCs
• Spikes in difficulty
• Stuttering issues every now and then

Score: [UWSL]7.0 / 10[/UWSL]

 

[MJunioR]

Incredible. Originally, I was a bit skeptical of DS but with the PC version being announced almost right after the PS4 version launched last year, and since I absolutely love MGS, especially MGSV, I ended pre-ordering it during this year's Summer Sale.

The game is simply great, and I loved almost every minute I spent on it - be during a struggle to climb a windy, rocky mountain, or while reading some emails you get from connecting with people in the game, or from story bits. I really enjoyed it.

[UWSL]What's good about it?[/UWSL]

• Graphically impressive
• Amazing soundtrack, I can't take Anything You Need from my head
• Loved all main characters, especially Deadman
• Upgrading your equipment and properly getting ready for a delivery really makes a difference
• The whole online system is great. It felt good knowing that a bridge you built, or a ladder you placed somewhere helped someone
• BT encounters can be insane and exciting

[UWSL]What is not?[/UWSL]
[UWSL][/UWSL]

• The final two chapters could've been shorter
• Why there's no option to play music while I'm driving?
• Lack of variety during interactions: I don't know how to properly explain this, but how many times I heard the same line when I was liking someone's else structure, or when soothing BB? How many times I saw the same scene after completing a delivery for I really wish there was more variety to small things like this.
• Combat. DS isn't a combat-focused game, and I have really mixed reactions to the forced combat situations the game throw you in. Boss fights, with exception of one specific battle, aren't interesting at all, and I wish the whole deal with MULEs and terrorists would've been further explored.

Score: [UWSL]9.0 [/UWSL]/[UWSL] 10[/UWSL]

 

[Mivey]

I recently finished Firewatch

Campo Santo greatly improves on the tried and true formula of the Walking Simulator, by making it into a Hiking Simulator, where in addition to just merely walking about, you can also jump over logs, jump down long falls, abseil down a wall, climp up a wall, fall down a wall, use an axe pulaski to open paths through thick roots and bushes.

But more seriously, the biggest innovation in this game is surely the radio. You point at various objects you see in the world, and get to start a dialogue with your fellow Firewatcher. While the surface plot is, initially, just about the duty of a lone firewatcher, trying to save a bunch of annoying teens from starting a forest fire, it quickly becomes more personal. I don't want to spoil the surprise here, for any who might not have yet experienced this game, but I really loved how the plot kept your on your feet, and how it reacts beautifully to all the weird crazy things you might end up doing in the game. I am not sure I would really call this an "adventure game", for that the experience isn't really as cerebral or about solving puzzles. But that's ok, Firewatch doesn't need to be put into some box, it's doing its own great thing.

Really hope Campo Santo will go back to making games, instead of "just" helping out with Valve in general. Valley of the Gods looked amazing.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Retired Sunset Overdrive (Game Pass PC)

I can see why some people like this; certainly the traversal mechanics are fairly unique and rather satisfying.
Aside from that though it's just another typical open world action game, and I'm sick to the back teeth of them.
More minor, but the aesthetic doesn't do much for me either.

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Was very skeptical, didn't really find what I saw from videos from the PS4 version to be particularly interesting, but I took the risk and pre-ordered the Steam version and Im happy I did. I loved it, fantastic game. The story was less confusing and wacky than I expected which is good and I really liked the story overall with what the Death Stranding is, beached things and so on. Cliff (Mads) was amazing, such a tragic story, but I liked that he got to know who Sam was in the end, think I teared up a bit. Deadman (Guillermo), Sam (Norman), Fragile (Lea), Die-Hardman (Tommy), Mama and Lockne (Margery) etc. and the rest did a great job with the acting.

The gameplay was really engaging and fun and the environments are gorgeus, traveling by walking in the world was incredible. Only thing I didn't really enjoy which I found to be a bit repetive and annoying was avoiding BTs (beached things) and the rain (timefall). Also getting through the snow was a bit annoying, but snow is snow.

Connecting the world, upgrading stuff, using the different objects to traverse the world was an overall huge joy for me. It took me 34 hours to complete the game so I will definetly be back in the future and some point to do some of the orders I didn't do as they weren't required for the story to progress, like the Hermatic Grenade trial and orders like that.

Overall, a huge suprise, Kojima Productions and the actors and actresses did an amazing job.

Score: 9/10.

 

[Alexandros]

Finished


Was very skeptical, didn't really find what I saw from videos from the PS4 version to be particularly interesting, but I took the risk and pre-ordered the Steam version and Im happy I did. I loved it, fantastic game. The story was less confusing and wacky than I expected which is good and I really liked the story overall with what the Death Stranding is, beached things and so on. Cliff (Mads) was amazing, such a tragic story, but I liked that he got to know who Sam was in the end, think I teared up a bit. Deadman (Guillermo), Sam (Norman), Fragile (Lea), Die-Hardman (Tommy), Mama and Lockne (Margery) etc. and the rest did a great job with the acting.

The gameplay was really engaging and fun and the environments are gorgeus, traveling by walking in the world was incredible. Only thing I didn't really enjoy which I found to be a bit repetive and annoying was avoiding BTs (beached things) and the rain (timefall). Also getting through the snow was a bit annoying, but snow is snow.

Connecting the world, upgrading stuff, using the different objects to traverse the world was an overall huge joy for me. It took me 34 hours to complete the game so I will definetly be back in the future and some point to do some of the orders I didn't do as they weren't required for the story to progress, like the Hermatic Grenade trial and orders like that.

Overall, a huge suprise, Kojima Productions and the actors and actresses did an amazing job.

Score: 9/10.

The funny thing about Death Stranding is that when I first saw footage of it my initial thought was "what is this delivery shit, where's the action?". By the time I was nearing the end of the game my thoughts were "what is this action shit, let me deliver stuff"

 

[Mivey]

I quit Fe

This game is absolutely beautiful, I really like its visual design, even if the bloom they use by default is a bit too heavy for my liking, The only problem is the developer seems to have no clue how to make an interesting video game out of their world.

The "singing" mechanic never feels interesting, it's just pressing a button to "make thing happen". The idea to use the Right Trigger analogue info (how much the trigger is pressed) feels super uncomfortable, and even in the four hours I played, I was just doing random things until "it worked". Beyond the singing, it just seems to be about slowly unlocking the standard movements you have in every 3D platformer. The issue is that most of the game is just about traversal, so hiding all the useful movements make the game really boring, and in my time playing Fe, it never recovered from that.
It's a nice and interesting world, but I can't be bothered to continue playing this game. The devs should have just made a nice animated movie or something, don't have the impression they really know how to put useful, and entertaining interactivity into this world.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

I quit Fe

This game is absolutely beautiful, I really like its visual design, even if the bloom they use by default is a bit too heavy for my liking, The only problem is the developer seems to have no clue how to make an interesting video game out of their world.


The "singing" mechanic never feels interesting, it's just pressing a button to "make thing happen". The idea to use the Right Trigger analogue info (how much the trigger is pressed) feels super uncomfortable, and even in the four hours I played, I was just doing random things until "it worked". Beyond the singing, it just seems to be about slowly unlocking the standard movements you have in every 3D platformer. The issue is that most of the game is just about traversal, so hiding all the useful movements make the game really boring, and in my time playing Fe, it never recovered from that.
It's a nice and interesting world, but I can't be bothered to continue playing this game. The devs should have just made a nice animated movie or something, don't have the impression they really know how to put useful, and entertaining interactivity into this world.

At four hours you had to be getting pretty close to being able to finish it, weren't you? It's a fairly short game overall.

 

[Mivey]

At four hours you had to be getting pretty close to being able to finish it, weren't you? It's a fairly short game overall.

Maybe? I unlocked the glide ability, and I realised how I really saw no point in continuing with this bore-fest.
Reminds me that my timer on Steam might be wrong due to card farming. Perhaps I was closer to 2 - 3 hours.

 

[Wibblewozzer]

Maybe? I unlocked the glide ability, and I realised how I really saw no point in continuing with this bore-fest.
Reminds me that my timer on Steam might be wrong due to card farming. Perhaps I was closer to 2 - 3 hours.

That could make more sense. I estimated my completion time at around 3 hours so being at 4 meant you either were just lost and meandering a lot (quite possible in this game) or you were doing a lot of extra collecting.

Well, if you ever decide to return just to get it out of the way EA actually published some guides for all the crystals so you can gather them quickly and just be done: Fe - An Official EA Site - News

 

[fantomena]

I retired Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance HD as part of Kingdom Hearts 2.8 HD Final Chapter Prologue via Xbox game pass. 2.8 HD contains Dream Drop Distance HD, Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Pass (a 2 hour prologue to KH3) and X Back Cover (2 hour movie).

I just couldn't get into the game at all, played for about 30-40 min, but nothing was motivating me. The KH series is weird for me. I bought KH1.5+2.5 HD on PS4 and enjoyed the first game, but have yet to beat the last boss, have yet to try 2, but then KH 2.8 HD and KH3 popped up on Xbox game pass and since they will leave at some point I decided to play them. I had fun and finished KH3 a while ago and Birth By Sleep - A Fragmentary Pass, but have zero motivation and interest in DDD for some unknown reason. Tried playing it many times, but just can't get into it.

I assume the more modern design of KH3 and A Fragmenty Pass is why I finished them and had fun with them. And I assume I managed to play the first KH game because it was my first time with the series, so the older games might simply not be for me.

If KH2.8 ever ends up on PC I will use cheats to finish them, but it's not a big deal as I have no clue what the story is about.

At least I spared money as I had 2.8 HD on my PSN wishlist, but then it showed up on game pass so I decided to play it there.

 

[bobnowhere]

Carrion - Short and sweet metroidvania-like. You play an escaped genetic creation trying to reach freedom. It can be difficult to work out what to do at times and when the monster grows very large fine control can be a bit unwieldy. Interesting mechanic where the monster has different abilities at different sizes requiring you to trim down or bulk up for various situations. Fights range from sneaky stealth to just random panic mashing! ★★★ 1/2

Iron Danger - Stunning looking and sounding RPG with a completely unique fight mechanic. You can freely wind time back and forward during fights to fine tune/edit your tactics. Die? Wind it back and put in a dodge or block. Controls aren't that great, selecting things is a little haphazard, clicks aren't always recognised, selected the right character finicky etc... Sadly it bombed hard and the story ends on a sequel hook unlikely ever to be realised. ★★★★ 1/2

 

[spiel]

Dropped Underhero. I've spent 10 hours on the game, am this close to the final boss fight, but I can't take it any longer. Was hoping for a short, focused experience but the game becomes a chore midway.

Combat: you start with a stamina bar with 7 points, and attacking costs 3-5 points depending on the weapon. You also get a shield to block enemy attacks, but if you time it right, you get a parry. Stamina regenerates over time, or through dodging/parrying enemy attacks. It's an interesting hybrid of real-time and turn-based systems.

But as enemies become stronger (read: tankier) it becomes a loop of waiting for stamina, attacking, waiting, attacking. Late mid-game I upgraded my stamina to 11 points but the rate of recovery was still the same. Furthermore, I was seriously struggling with the parry timings. Attacks are visually choreographed but there's a 2-3 second delay between the tell and the attack. The shield also isn't instant; I've encountered many moments where it looks like I've put up the shield in time, but the projectile landed anyway. (To be fair, the last part is probably on me; I am not a skilled player.)

So I did enjoy the combat initially but it turned into a slog as encounters started to take longer.

Platforming and level design: puzzles are the standard fare of switches and looking for keys/items to unlock gates. This also means a lot of pointless backtracking across rooms that have no business being this big. Controls are serviceable. It's not as tight as say, Hollow Knight but luckily this isn't a precision platformer.

The worst bits were water sections because the character moves like a snail in water. There's an entire world revolving around the gimmick of raising/lowering water levels and I groaned when I saw the size of the map. I think it was at this point when the tedium really set in because combat and movement were so slow.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Assemble With Care (Apple Arcade)
Very very simple puzzle game (think of the room but really simple) but a nice distraction and has some charm

Retired What The Golf (Apple Arcade)
Got bored of this in less than an hour. That may be a little harsh, but it already feels like the game is embarrassingly easy with no challenge at all.

Finished Mosaic (Apple Arcade)
Basically a walking simulator around the themes of the mundanity of modern life.
I like the theme but sadly it was just rather dull I’m afraid

 

[MJunioR]

Another great game I've finished this month. Persona 4 took me 52 hours to beat, and it was a fun journey. Some things annoyed me, and I'm not a fan of the whole soundtrack, but there's a lot to love in the game still. The port is okay-ish, I actually got surprised by some of the praise it received all things considered.

[UWSL][UWSL]What's good about it?[/UWSL][/UWSL]

[UWSL][UWSL]- The main characters are all great, and their events are well done[/UWSL][/UWSL]
[UWSL][UWSL]- Atlus simply can't do wrong regarding atmosphere in their games[/UWSL][/UWSL]
[UWSL][UWSL]- Planning your day, when to go to the TV world, etc, all fell very natural[/UWSL][/UWSL]
[UWSL][UWSL]- While the story isn't the best, the pacing is really well done[/UWSL][/UWSL]
- The persona fusing system is fun to mess with once you understand it

[UWSL][UWSL]What is not?[/UWSL][/UWSL]

• Side quests are extremely generic - go back to dungeon x and get item x, or talk with this character for two or three days, etc.
• Most S-Links for non-playable characters are meh
• Not really a con, but the combat system is so "standard"
• For some reason the JP dub felt really low quality at times; Yukiko's Palace was awful

Score: [UWSL][UWSL]8.5 / 10[/UWSL][/UWSL]

 

[Stevey]

Pretty short but the price refelects this.

Really good "classic" FPS

Better soundtrack than the recent DOOM games

 

[gabbo]

So Lust for Darkness was .....a game.
It's got the same puerile "this is edgy and'mature' take on sex and genital monsters that Agony (A game I never played, but whose trailers imply) seem to have, with less a deep seated and angry misogyny and more a misguided understanding of interesting gameplay or what aspects of other media and stories make them 'mature'. At least it looked good and the other dimension had a really tangibly squishy, 'covered in goo' feeling. But then, I guess there are a subset of people for whom Giger is the epitome of artistic sexual commentary. but instead of man melding with machine we get man melding with.... hp lovecraft's old gods?

Not particularly scary, or 'mature', but it wasn't overly offensive either in any sense, it just wasn't much fun. Once the eldritch horror took over it kind of stopped being interesting and more of a crappy puzzle game with the occasional naked angry monster of nondescript gender that would shriek and run directly at you.. This was something of a walking sim with puzzles, but with walking sims either the world has to keep you engaged in the story or the other way around. In this, the gameplay was lacking and neither the world nor story really kept me engaged, even for a short 5 hours.

I suppose I could give it like a 5/10, because I got it free for kickstarting their next game and it shows that with some serious effort at building out the actual gameplay, there could be something there. I'd like to see them build more of a game on the initial ideas here. As is, I'd say skip it, wait to see if they build a better game next time.

4.5/10

 

[Ge0force]

I've spent many hours in This War of Mine, because I loved the combination of base building, crafting and (stealth) exploration. I had high hopes for Frostpunk, but although it's a very good game as well, it wasn't as addictive for me as This War of mine.

Frostpunk is all about base building; which buildings and research will you do first, and which path will you take to keep people happy. Most choices are straight forward: if you're running low on coal, you need to research coal mines. If you need wood, you build a wood saw etc. The devs did a great job to keep you busy all the time, although some of the events are hard to complete if you don't know they are coming.

I've enjoyed the trial and error during the first scenario, which is the best by far imo. I've played the other 3 non-DLC scenarios as well, but while they require a complete different approach, it wasn't very exciting for me anymore. I've tried to add some extra challenge by playing on hard difficulty, but then lots if people were getting sick despite heating their homes and work places, which was more frustrating than fun for me.

Conclusion: a good and innovative game with lots of buildings and upgrades. But it lacks the depth and variety to keep me excited until the end. Still worth playing tho.

Score: 7.9/10

 

[bobnowhere]

Halo 3 (MCC) - Did play this many moons ago on 360 but barely remembered any of it. Misses the awesome cinematics and varied environments of Halo 2, seems like a step back. ★★★ 1/2

Kids - Is it a treatise on peer pressure? A demonstration of going against the flow? A suggestion to eat more fibre? A short somewhat interactive animation that will leave you asking questions. ★★★

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

I gave up on Sludge Life.

Sludge Life is an open-world, first-person comedy platformer with an aesthetic heavily inspired by a certain genre of late 90s 3d action game (think Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio). Gameplay is very simple, run and jump around the world, find every taggable surface, spray your tag on it.

The whole game felt to me like it was pitched to, and ultimately rejected by Adult Swim Games (actually it's published by Devolver "Epic Bacon Games" Digital). As you make your way through the game you happen upon some comedy bit literally once a minute at least, unfortunately it all fell flat for me. Wasn't a fan of the looks either.

Remember Jazzpunk? That was a comedy first person game actually published by Adult Swim Games which I liked a lot. This game is really similar in a lot of ways, except not funny to me at all. I could see people who click with the game's looks and the jokes really having a blast with this one, so YMMV. You can get it for free on EGS until 5/28/2021 (not a typo, they really are giving it away for a year).

2/5

 

[MegaApple]

Finished ALAN WAKE
Rating : Must play

Reminded me heavily of older action games (surprisingly a lot of RE4). This one got collectibles so right, almost felt like Doom's secret hunting.
Story is really smart, with parallel narrative that is only possible in video games. And very smart use of cliches.

Lot of HEART and SOUL was put in the game and it really shows. You rarely get it in big-budget spaces these days outside of few EU and JPN game studios.

If you are playing, PLEASE PLAY THE SPECIAL EPISODES AS WELL. Ep 2 esp. is goddamn brilliant. The last section was one of the coolest uses of light I've seen.

There is a LOT of associated media around AW, including a whole prequel mini-series (which is up on YouTube).

 

[Ge0force]

I've enjoyed Escape from Tethys because the game does many things right: very nice and colorful 8-bit style pixel art, a wonderful soundtrack, lots of upgrades and secrets to discover and a wide variety in enemies and bosses. Some people in the user reviews on Steam complained about the controls, but actually liked them. Especially later in the game when you've unlocked how to dash and float in the air, you can breeze throughout the game world without any frustrations.

The major thing I didn't like is the huge amount of backtracking. Each time you unlock a new ability, you're supposed to return to every area you've already been, to see if you can reach a new area now. Although you can see the undiscovered places on your map, it's not possible to place markers on the map, so unless you have a very good memory (which I haven't), you need to check all these places after every upgrade. The game only having 5 different tile sets doesn't help either. I usually don't use guides when playing games, but after discovering the 4th upgrade, I got tired of backtracking and I used a map to see where I should go for the next upgrade. I never had the urge to do this in the other metroidvania's I've played.

Another (minor) complaint is that most of the bosses can be cheesed by using the beam subweapon. Too bad, because these bosses are well designed.

Conclusion: an enjoyable game to play if you like metroidvania's, but there are better games in this genre.

Score: 7.1/10

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Little Orpheus (Apple Arcade)

A charming albeit very basic platformer.
I recommend playing this in bursts (each episode is ideal for a commute or similar) beyond that it gets repetitive fast, and to play with a controller, as the touch controls are finicky and will let you down in certain situations.

Best way to describe the game is that is plays similar to Limbo, but the puzzles are much more basic. It's a bit slow to get going and didn't start to pick up imo until about chapter 3.
The best thing about this by far though is the banter between the main character and his interrogator, it's charming and more often than not left me with a smile.
Sadly, it doesn't stick the landing and has an ending that just sort of happens and stops the game, leaving you feeling "wait what? That's how it just ends?"

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Necrobarista (Apple Arcade)

This was a big disappointment for me, as I was really looking forward to this one; plus given the very positive reviews for this I imagine I'll be in the minority of my impressions too.

Quite simply, the story just didn't work for me.
To me it felt that there was too much of a (deliberate?) lack of context for explaining many concepts of the world or for character's backstories for most of the running time. It doesn't feel like things come together until much further down the length of the game that by that point it just felt rather late. It's possible some of what I'm looking for is in the side content, but that shouldn't let the main path suffer.

More of a minor quibble, but the mechanics within the 3D exploration space aren't really explained at all, and you're left to figure out the resource gathering and side story unlocking features on your own. This is pretty minor though given how little of that there is though.

 

[fantomena]

Finished


It was a decent game, but not as great as I've read other peoples impressions of it, I think it something with the combat "pacing" and the lack of environment variety. However, I don't regret buying it and playing through it. The graphic still is great, the narrating is great, the music is nice and the different upgrades you can do is nice. Sadly, for me, the game wasn't really that interesting and somewhat repetive (a lot due to the combat "pacing" and lack of environment variety). However I can see why some really enjoy it.

Score: 7.5/10

 

[Ruprit]

Finished - Machinarium

Genre - Point and Click, Puzzle

Platform - PC (Steam)

Playtime - ~4 hours

I have owned the game and enjoyed the soundtrack since its release, ten years ago, but never actually played it. Machinarium never outstayed its welcome and, more importantly, the puzzles and their solutions felt natural. I liked that the game took you on a short journey following a nameless robot who interacted with a cast of expressive characters (loved the band) in a beautifully drawn world rather than moving you to rooms with increasingly more challenging puzzles.

Having said that, I did have to refer to a guide a couple of times and it was down to my lack of repeating specific actions or not realizing something can be interacted with.

It was a great game with even better music.

Score - 8/10

 

[fantomena]

Finished Hot Lava (PC)

Or at least every coruse except for 3 chase courses which were just annoying (they were long, basically all the levels in the group into one with no checkpoints so if you touch the ground you have to restart from the beginning). It's a fun game, a mix of parkour and the game "the floor is lava". The game is divided up in different themes (groups) that gives the game a lot of variation, playground, basement, school etc. and such with 5 courses each with different difficulty levels and one last which is a chase course (described above). The more difficulty courses had a more non-linear path so at first it can get a bit confusing where to go. There are also collectible (cards) you can get and different challenges you can do to acquire more stars (find the gold pin, don't die, complete under a certain amount of time etc.).

There are 6 main themes/gorups of levels. The rest are groups made by the community which Klei has curated to put into the game, butg you can also play non-curated community courses.

So the game's negative are annoying and frustrative chase courses and uneven difficulty (I sometimes felt that beginner courses were more difficulty and confusing than intermediate and expert courses.

Score: 8/10.

 

[sk2k]

Kentucky Route Zero
Not recommended.

Act I was good with its mysterious tone...and then came Act II. I was bored to death after the first act and had to force myself to play trough the game. The dialogues were often long and most of the time meaningless and trivial. I did not care about any of the characters. They switched the playable character too often. The whole game was a like a series of boring short stories thrown together.
Music and art style were fine.

 

[fantomena]

Retired Below (PC)

The minimalistic world design is great, the graphic style is really nice, the music is nice, the combat and gameplay is decent and the "mysterious" of the world is intriguing. However, the game is a roguelite and Below does not fit being a roguelite at all which is why I quit. There are 20 floos/levels in the game and each floor takes between 5-40 min to get through dependiing how fast you are. If you are for example on level 17 and die you start from the beginning again and that really sucks. The game is very slow paced which is the opposite of what I want from a roguelike and roguelite game, those games should be fast-paced and easy to pick up and play for some minutes and then put down like Isaac, Gungeon, Dead Cells, Hades, Dicey Dungeons and so on. This game is not like that. There are also just 1 "boss" that I found and that's it.

The game was really good during the first 10 floors or so then it got just boring and tedious. The great minimalistic world design and graphic style helped to get through some of it and the somewhat decent combat and gameplay and I did unlock some shortcuts to some floors. But damn, Below should not have been a roguelite, it's too slow and it takes too much time to get through the floors/levels to not become boring and tedious after floor 10.

I really wanted to finish it and I was on the last floor, but then I had to Google and find out what to do next and apparently I have to collect a bunch of shards/crystals or whatever you wanna call it to complete a crest/symbol and to do that I have to go through all the damn floors all over again and check every cover of the game and that's when I gave up.

The game would have been far better if it wasn't a roguelite, faster paced and fewer floors/levels and each of the floors would have been more varied and denser filled with more stuff.

Score: 6/10.

 

[MJunioR]

I expected nothing, and now here I am, extremely surprised with MAFIA III.

I avoided the game for years, knowing the development troubles and overall reception the game got on release, I just hoped that I would be able to complete it after letting it in my backlog since release. One of the biggest reasons I decided to give it a shot, actually, was that 2K gave its three DLCs away by upgrading everyone's copy of MAFIA 3 to the new Definitive Edition. I head that the DLCs were actually decent, so at least a reason to try it out.

Now, what I found in MAFIA III is a technically flawed game but looking over its technical issues, it's amazing. The game story mode is fun thanks to the "boss fights" and set pieces - sure, the game becomes very linear in those, but I don't mind it at all, it has a banging soundtrack and Lincoln Clay is an amazing character. Chasing after a guy with Vito while Palisades Park plays, or heading to the last mission of the game while this one here plays were simply greatly crafted, special moments.

As for the game itself, surprisingly enough I don't have many complaints. Stealth works (most of time), shooting and driving with a KB/M are great and New Bordeaux is a step up over Empire Bay. Of course, I can't ignore MAFIA III's biggest complaint - repetitive gameplay. In order to take the main bad guys of the story, you will need to take control of districts. To do this, you do need to do a series of things: going after informats, killing racket bosses, invading places and breaking certain objects, etc. Unfortunately, it's undeniably bad - it becomes very repetitive mid way and you are forced to repeat this a lot since you only unlock the main enemy once you do enough damage to his business.

To be clear, let me explain: there's a total of nine districts that need to be taken - you unlock three through story missions, and the remaining six are unlocked by taking down their bosses. Each district has two sub-bosses, that only appear when you finish their business. Once you destroy their places / do enough damage and kill both, then a third, bigger boss will show: you take him, usually through a more linear battle and give the district to one of your underbosses. Do this six times. Fortunately, since I was playing on PC, there's a very handy mod that just balance things out, requiring less damage to unlock the sub bosses, and this mod just makes the game much better.

Another thing that helps with the repetitiveness is the DLCs. I finished two out of three, Stones Unturned and Sign of the Times. The first turns MAFIA III in a linear shooter, and adds an one-time access island inspired by Vietnam. The second adds a cool, but still linear investigation process as Lincoln fights a cult. The final non-optional mission of this DLC is particularly great. You can access the DLCs after you unlock the first three districts (again, these first three are done in story missions so no grind required) and they help to distract a bit.

Before I post the pros and cons, I must also give a shout out to how Hangar 13 used the game radio besides its great soundtrack. I can't say much without spoiling, but make sure to hear the livetalks / shows, The Hollow Speaks and Native Son.

[UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]What's good about it?[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]

• Amazing setpieces through the entire game starting with a hell of an introduction
• Solid gameplay elements such as shooting and driving
• Insanely good soundtrack
• Lincoln Clay and John Donovan are great characters, their chemistry as a duo carries the entire Stones Unturned DLC
• I really enjoyed the story
• Solid DLCs which now are free for owners of the game

[UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]What's not?[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]

• The repetitive gameplay loop is a major flaw
• Lots of technical issues: I probably had 10 crashes in my 27 hours with the game, plus having to restart every now and then as mission triggers might bug randomly
• Why the fuck there isn't a manual save system? Sure, the checkpoint system works very well, saving after almost everything you do including during missions but still
• Meh upgrade system; upgrades are unlocked by giving districts to underbosses, which can turn on you depending on how you distribute the remaining districts and make a mess of your character since some upgrades (health, ammo) are much more important than cars, for example.

Score: [UWSL][UWSL][UWSL]9.0 / 10[/UWSL][/UWSL][/UWSL]

 

[Joe Spangle]

Incredible. Originally, I was a bit skeptical of DS but with the PC version being announced almost right after the PS4 version launched last year, and since I absolutely love MGS, especially MGSV, I ended pre-ordering it during this year's Summer Sale.

The game is simply great, and I loved almost every minute I spent on it - be during a struggle to climb a windy, rocky mountain, or while reading some emails you get from connecting with people in the game, or from story bits. I really enjoyed it.

[UWSL][UWSL]What's good about it?[/UWSL][/UWSL]

• Graphically impressive
• Amazing soundtrack, I can't take Anything You Need from my head
• Loved all main characters, especially Deadman
• Upgrading your equipment and properly getting ready for a delivery really makes a difference
• The whole online system is great. It felt good knowing that a bridge you built, or a ladder you placed somewhere helped someone
• BT encounters can be insane and exciting

[UWSL][UWSL]What is not?[/UWSL][/UWSL]

• The final two chapters could've been shorter
• Why there's no option to play music while I'm driving?
• Lack of variety during interactions: I don't know how to properly explain this, but how many times I heard the same line when I was liking someone's else structure, or when soothing BB? How many times I saw the same scene after completing a delivery for I really wish there was more variety to small things like this.
• Combat. DS isn't a combat-focused game, and I have really mixed reactions to the forced combat situations the game throw you in. Boss fights, with exception of one specific battle, aren't interesting at all, and I wish the whole deal with MULEs and terrorists would've been further explored.

Score: [UWSL][UWSL]9.0 [/UWSL][/UWSL]/[UWSL][UWSL] 10[/UWSL][/UWSL]

Finished Death Stranding last week and these are pretty much the same as my thoughts on it.

Really loved it, probably my GOTY.

I do think id like to play it through offline though, or if there was a mod to limit the structures of others in my game.

 

[C-Dub]

A fun little VR puzzler. It has the trappings of an escape room game, but the polish is exceptional. Some people may balk at £25 for a 3 hour game, but I've played some cheaper escape room games that just aren't good: the puzzle design is trash, the games aren't ever updated for newer hardware and crashes or game-breaking glitches are common. What you're paying for in The Room VR is polish. and it more than earns its value on that metric alone.

The meat of the game, its puzzles, are awesome. I feel VR is used well just on the basis that there's a lot of tactile puzzle solving, while the 3D effect creates the sense of scale and place that you expect from an escape room-type title. Puzzles aren't too challenging, with Fireproof games opting to trade obscurity and difficulty for puzzles that keep the momentum of the game going. You won't find yourself stuck on any one puzzle for long. However, the sheer quantity of them, and how varied they are, keeps you entertained.

This is a great game to demo VR to people. The locomotion is all teleport-based, but the sense of place and object interaction saves the immersion-breaking teleportation. Plus there are a few moments where you change your size, or change your perspective, and that really captures the reality-breaking immersion of being transported to another world that VR promises.

My only gripe is I wish the story was a little stronger. They had a plot, and it's functional, but none of the story beats really land with any impact. Events just happen and you watch as they do. A shame, but a small gripe considering everything else.

Overall, I'd recommend this. Fireproof games continue to make strong puzzle games, and The Room VR is no exception.

8/10

 

[AHA-Lambda]

Finished Next Stop Nowhere (Apple Arcade)

Mechanically it's very much a small scale Oxenfree/Afterparty like affair.
It's an enjoyable enough romp if unspectacular, it's square in the middle between Oxenfree and Afterparty for me.
All that said, it has a surprisingly high amount of technical annoyances for a mobile title (e.g. dropped audio lines, navigation by touch is wonky frequently letting the character do something else, crashes to home screen), nothing game breaking but enough to be a noticeable annoyance.

Finished Neo Cab (Apple Arcade)

Really enjoyed this, reminded me of a better sci-fi version of Night Call. Interesting world and interesting characters, a couple of whom you can't just help but hate in an engaging way.