Reviews Rate the game you finished/retired
- Thread starter Ge0force
- Start date
Finished
Lovely game. Fantastic design, great music, interesting story, many moments are quite surreal, cool world building. Only negative is that the pacing can be a little off sometimes and the gameplay can get repetive.
Score: 8.3/10
Lovely game. Fantastic design, great music, interesting story, many moments are quite surreal, cool world building. Only negative is that the pacing can be a little off sometimes and the gameplay can get repetive.
Score: 8.3/10
Finished Creaks (Amanita Design, 2020)
The ground starts shaking, light bulbs are breaking - and something rather unusual is happening right behind the walls of your very room. You gather your courage and slowly descend into a world inhabited by avian folk and seemingly deadly furniture monsters - but all you need to find your way back home are your wits and a little light.
Pro:
As with almost any Amanita Design release, getting the 110-page-strong digital art-book DLC is money well spent to gain an insight of how this game was quite literally planned and made on paper.
5/5
The ground starts shaking, light bulbs are breaking - and something rather unusual is happening right behind the walls of your very room. You gather your courage and slowly descend into a world inhabited by avian folk and seemingly deadly furniture monsters - but all you need to find your way back home are your wits and a little light.
Pro:
- Amanita Design's knack for top-end picture-book quality hand-drawn illustration and animation make this latest puzzle game of theirs a visual feast once again. It's not the crazy, bright, random wackiness of Botanicula and CHUCHEL though. With the exception of the wonderfully peculiar hidden collectible mechanical paintings, the colors are earthly and muted and the atmosphere is cozy (despite the vague theme of night-terrors).
- The puzzling is almost retro in its simplicity. A couple different objects with nicely deterministic and predictable mechanics, fixed movement on a grid, pressure-plates on the floor, switches on walls. In many ways, the essence of this game is the polar opposite of CHUCHEL. In CHUCHEL, the game wants you to enjoy the crazy-funny animations while you figure out what any object in a given scene does by trial and error. Here, you're taught the mechanics of a new game element in one or two tutorial puzzles and then you're challenged to apply what you learned to more complex situations.
- Fantastic original soundtrack by Joe Acheson aka Hidden Orchestra.
- During my play-through, I found two bugs, which disappeared when restarting the current puzzle (the game checkpoints before every single one and unlocks them for level select as you go). But honestly, I have nothing. If you like puzzle games, and if you like what you can see in screenshots of the game, you will like this.
As with almost any Amanita Design release, getting the 110-page-strong digital art-book DLC is money well spent to gain an insight of how this game was quite literally planned and made on paper.
5/5
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COLLECTION of SaGa FINAL FANTASY LEGEND
I had always had a genuine interest in trying FF Legends (aka the original saga games).
This version is just running the original ROMS (both the English and Japanese versions), with a few additions (mainly high speed mode, and for some reason you can play it in portrait mode).
Now, with that said, this version has a huge problem. The original games were GameBoy games so the text in the games is very sparce. So in order to learn the mechanics you were expected to read a manual that came with the game.
The problem here is that the game doesn't provide you that info (there isn't either a manual or some info in the "launcher" of how to use them) so I had to google how the classes and character progression worked (it's not really a problem but there's a couple of things that are worth searching).
As far as the individual games go:
FF Legends (SaGa):
The first one, off this one is rough at times it feels more like a prove of concept than a full game. The plot is simple: go to the top of the tower and learn the secrets of this world.
The game offers you 3 different classes:
Also, weapons have limited uses spells too (but those are replenishable when you rest).
In theory if a party member dies too many times you lose it forever and need to get a new one (I say in theory, because I never reached that situation.)
FF Legends II (SaGa II):
Compared to the previous game it has some semblance of a story and feels more cohesive.
It really feels like a full game (for what an 8-bit handheld jrpg can be).
The story gets started because you have to find your long lost father. Each of the places you visit has a theme going on (that kind of happens in the first, but you visit so few areas)
This game includes a Memo that has all the info you've collected for things you might need to know.
This game shows you the stat games at the end of the fight (which is a welcomed change).
This game includes a new class and has some adjustments to the already existing ones.
FF Legends III (SaGa III):
The last of the 3 games. This game, I believe, was made by a totally different team and it shows. It plays more like a traditional JRPG. With a traditional leveling system.
The game keeps the class system but with a few twists. You start with a party of two humans and two mutants. That you can, if you want, transform into monster or robots (and back again) if you consume their drops. That said I didn't feel the need to experiment with it, but I guess it can add some depth to the system.
The story plays a bit with time travel which is kind of interesting.
With all that said, I have no idea how to rate these games. I mean they're good, as far as 8 bit JRPGs go but they're products of their time.
I had always had a genuine interest in trying FF Legends (aka the original saga games).
This version is just running the original ROMS (both the English and Japanese versions), with a few additions (mainly high speed mode, and for some reason you can play it in portrait mode).
Now, with that said, this version has a huge problem. The original games were GameBoy games so the text in the games is very sparce. So in order to learn the mechanics you were expected to read a manual that came with the game.
The problem here is that the game doesn't provide you that info (there isn't either a manual or some info in the "launcher" of how to use them) so I had to google how the classes and character progression worked (it's not really a problem but there's a couple of things that are worth searching).
As far as the individual games go:
FF Legends (SaGa):
The first one, off this one is rough at times it feels more like a prove of concept than a full game. The plot is simple: go to the top of the tower and learn the secrets of this world.
The game offers you 3 different classes:
- Humans (M/F): this class doesn't level up in anyway but rather it requires you to buy certain items that will rise your stats.
- Mutants (M/F): This class levels up more like a SaGa class, (i.e. by using them). They will randomly learn spells, and replace some that you have equiped (the game doesn't tell you, so you might no realise you've lost a skill you wanted until it's too late).
- Monsters: The most interesting class. They don't level up but rather will evolve by eating the enemies meat (that's dropped by monster enemies), there are some tables in the internet that will teach you how it works, you might want to check them since certain meats might downgrade your monster.
Also, weapons have limited uses spells too (but those are replenishable when you rest).
In theory if a party member dies too many times you lose it forever and need to get a new one (I say in theory, because I never reached that situation.)
FF Legends II (SaGa II):
Compared to the previous game it has some semblance of a story and feels more cohesive.
It really feels like a full game (for what an 8-bit handheld jrpg can be).
The story gets started because you have to find your long lost father. Each of the places you visit has a theme going on (that kind of happens in the first, but you visit so few areas)
This game includes a Memo that has all the info you've collected for things you might need to know.
This game shows you the stat games at the end of the fight (which is a welcomed change).
This game includes a new class and has some adjustments to the already existing ones.
- Humans: they work similarly to the previous game, except for the fact that they now level up by using them.
- Mutants: Work similarly to the previous game, but now you know that the skill you will lose will always be the last one on your list of skills, so you can always put as the last the ability you care the less about.
- Monsters: They work exaclty the same.
- Robots: Their stats, are tied to their equipment (weapons go back to their full number of uses upon rest).
FF Legends III (SaGa III):
The last of the 3 games. This game, I believe, was made by a totally different team and it shows. It plays more like a traditional JRPG. With a traditional leveling system.
The game keeps the class system but with a few twists. You start with a party of two humans and two mutants. That you can, if you want, transform into monster or robots (and back again) if you consume their drops. That said I didn't feel the need to experiment with it, but I guess it can add some depth to the system.
The story plays a bit with time travel which is kind of interesting.
With all that said, I have no idea how to rate these games. I mean they're good, as far as 8 bit JRPGs go but they're products of their time.
Finished Unpacking
Not that much to say about it tbh. What you see is what you get. Grab items from your moving boxes and place them on the correct shelves and whatnot. Still, it's more enjoyable and addictive than some might think. And the art is excellent.
I think they could have done a bit more with the puzzle elements of fitting everything where it needs to be. As it stands the only challenge was a handful of times where I didn't know where certain items belong. Maybe they could have done a bit more with the story aspect too?
Pretty funny to see that their previous game was Assault Android Cactus as the games are pretty much polar opposites.
Rating: Good
Not that much to say about it tbh. What you see is what you get. Grab items from your moving boxes and place them on the correct shelves and whatnot. Still, it's more enjoyable and addictive than some might think. And the art is excellent.
I think they could have done a bit more with the puzzle elements of fitting everything where it needs to be. As it stands the only challenge was a handful of times where I didn't know where certain items belong. Maybe they could have done a bit more with the story aspect too?
Pretty funny to see that their previous game was Assault Android Cactus as the games are pretty much polar opposites.
Rating: Good
Love that moment when I read about interesting sounding games I never heard of, check PC gamepass, and it is there, all ready and willing and waiting to be downloaded. Thanks for the tip .)
Finished a New Game + of Resident Evil 5 (monthly retro)....
I like this one, its built on the success of 4 with the same mechanics pretty much, has a decent story, introduces Sheva to the cast list who accompanies Chris Redfield through an African adventure. Usual Resi nonsense to be found with ridiculous set pieces, irritating quick time events and funny gameplay moments. I was playing a second (or third) playthrough and so had unlocked most weapons and some funny outfits, Sheva was in a business suit and Chris was dressed like Lord Humungus from Mad Max. Its fun. Maybe feels a bit clunky at times but thats part of its charm.
8/10
I like this one, its built on the success of 4 with the same mechanics pretty much, has a decent story, introduces Sheva to the cast list who accompanies Chris Redfield through an African adventure. Usual Resi nonsense to be found with ridiculous set pieces, irritating quick time events and funny gameplay moments. I was playing a second (or third) playthrough and so had unlocked most weapons and some funny outfits, Sheva was in a business suit and Chris was dressed like Lord Humungus from Mad Max. Its fun. Maybe feels a bit clunky at times but thats part of its charm.
8/10
I disliked a lot of things about this game, but as an overall package, I enjoyed it nonetheless mainly because I played in CO-OP with a friend. If I had to play this alone then I would probably dislike this game. Also, the mansion DLC was pretty cool.
Its definitely got its flaws and the Companion A.I is frustrating at times, i played as Sheva and It was like Chris was an excited puppy always surrounding me and getting in the way. I still like it though.
(although i like all the Actiony resi games - 6 is the best
Yeah, the mansion DLC is my favourite thing about RE 5.
Thanks to DLC, we also got this masterpiece.
Finished Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Very well designed hybrid between a visual novel and "escape room" game, where nine people wake up in a strange building and have to complete different puzzle rooms in order to escape. After each room, everyone must choose to ally or betray the people they played with, which affects the number of points that is shown on everyone's bracelet. If someone gets 9 points, that person can escape. If someone gets zero points, that person dies.
The story events and their outcome are based on the choices you make in the game (ally/betray, the people you team up with etc). To get the "real" ending, you have to explore all different story outcomes. While you discover something new in each storyline and you get new puzzle rooms each time, it does become a bit repetitive after a while. It took me over 30 hours to get the true ending, and I'm pretty sure I'd enjoyed the game more if it was 10 hours shorter. The true ending is also rather complex, I had a hard time following what was really going on. Despite these issues, this game is definitely worth playing because it does so many things right
Score: 8.1/10
Very well designed hybrid between a visual novel and "escape room" game, where nine people wake up in a strange building and have to complete different puzzle rooms in order to escape. After each room, everyone must choose to ally or betray the people they played with, which affects the number of points that is shown on everyone's bracelet. If someone gets 9 points, that person can escape. If someone gets zero points, that person dies.
The story events and their outcome are based on the choices you make in the game (ally/betray, the people you team up with etc). To get the "real" ending, you have to explore all different story outcomes. While you discover something new in each storyline and you get new puzzle rooms each time, it does become a bit repetitive after a while. It took me over 30 hours to get the true ending, and I'm pretty sure I'd enjoyed the game more if it was 10 hours shorter. The true ending is also rather complex, I had a hard time following what was really going on. Despite these issues, this game is definitely worth playing because it does so many things right
Score: 8.1/10
Without spoiling for others, I'll say the true ending moment is a bit muddled (along with a lot of translation), due to being played on one screen. The true experience is the DS version.
Very good summary :
Finished(?) Diablo III : Starter Edition (First 3-4 hours of Diablo III)
Now I can see why it is derided among ARPG fans.
The skill system just unlocks for you and you can't customize characters to much extent. Difficulty is way easy for normal, I was just standing normally while a boss attacked me and it did like some 10% damage. Loot is ok. Not impressed with enemy variety. Story and tone is meh.
I think I should try other ARPGs.
Bright Memory Infinite. Took me a couple hours to get through it. Like the first BM, this one’s pretty decent looking, although Shelia’s character model looks a bit off. Especially in the early cinematic where she’s lounging around in her super short jean shorts. Legs just look a bit…long.
But hey, we’re here for the gameplay. Come to think of it her face is a little eh. Like tremendous detail in the environments, but her face didn’t get that same level of treatment. Anyways, the game plays very well and your upgradeable abilities are fun to wield. Over the course of the game you’ll collect the usual lineup of guns, all of which sport an alternate fire mode. The sword is kinda the star of the show. Infinite now gives you the chance to block/deflect incoming damage.
Unlike the original, Infinite adds a good number of mini bosses, and a couple standard bosses, to deal with. There’s even a brief driving section. Your car has a gun mounted to it, but oddly enough I couldn’t freely aim with it.
Unfortunately I encountered quite a few fatal errors, as my game crashed a good five or six times. Worst crash was right after beating the final boss. Sadly the game didn’t save after that part, so I wound up YouTubing the last cinematic,
It was fun for a couple hours. As a freebie for BM owners, it’s worth a play. For anyone who hasn’t bought the game yet, I think don’t think it’s worth $20.
Wait for a sale. 6.5/10
But hey, we’re here for the gameplay. Come to think of it her face is a little eh. Like tremendous detail in the environments, but her face didn’t get that same level of treatment. Anyways, the game plays very well and your upgradeable abilities are fun to wield. Over the course of the game you’ll collect the usual lineup of guns, all of which sport an alternate fire mode. The sword is kinda the star of the show. Infinite now gives you the chance to block/deflect incoming damage.
Unlike the original, Infinite adds a good number of mini bosses, and a couple standard bosses, to deal with. There’s even a brief driving section. Your car has a gun mounted to it, but oddly enough I couldn’t freely aim with it.
Unfortunately I encountered quite a few fatal errors, as my game crashed a good five or six times. Worst crash was right after beating the final boss. Sadly the game didn’t save after that part, so I wound up YouTubing the last cinematic,
It was fun for a couple hours. As a freebie for BM owners, it’s worth a play. For anyone who hasn’t bought the game yet, I think don’t think it’s worth $20.
Wait for a sale. 6.5/10
Finished Call of Duty: Vanguard-Campaign (PC)
Visually really great, some spectacual set pieces, nice sound and decent gameplay. However I did not care about the story at all, it was also a very short campaign (6 hours or so) with 9 missions. If you have played other CoD campaigns Vanguard will feel the same, not much difference here. The foundation is solid, but not much difference from other CoD campaigns, which drags it down.
Score: 7.5/10
Visually really great, some spectacual set pieces, nice sound and decent gameplay. However I did not care about the story at all, it was also a very short campaign (6 hours or so) with 9 missions. If you have played other CoD campaigns Vanguard will feel the same, not much difference here. The foundation is solid, but not much difference from other CoD campaigns, which drags it down.
Score: 7.5/10
Finished Amnesia: Machine for Pigs
I can see why so many people were disappointed with this game, since it's rather different from the first Amnesia game. Like Dear Ester, Machine for Pigs is a "walking simulator", but with a horror theme and a few monsters you have to avoid.
This said, I really enjoyed the experience. This is mainly thanks to the sublime level design; especially the underground factory is very well designed, with it's huge working machines and creepy atmosphere. The sound and music are also excellent, playing this game in a dark room gave me the shivers more than once.
Only flaw for me was that the notes scattered throughout the game didn't make any sense for me, perhaps because English isn't my native language. But the dialogs and level design makes it clear enough what's going on. Definitely worth playing!
Score: 7.9/10
I can see why so many people were disappointed with this game, since it's rather different from the first Amnesia game. Like Dear Ester, Machine for Pigs is a "walking simulator", but with a horror theme and a few monsters you have to avoid.
This said, I really enjoyed the experience. This is mainly thanks to the sublime level design; especially the underground factory is very well designed, with it's huge working machines and creepy atmosphere. The sound and music are also excellent, playing this game in a dark room gave me the shivers more than once.
Only flaw for me was that the notes scattered throughout the game didn't make any sense for me, perhaps because English isn't my native language. But the dialogs and level design makes it clear enough what's going on. Definitely worth playing!
Score: 7.9/10
Retired Mordheim: City of the Damned
I hate to be that guy who plays a game for over 50 hours and gives it a negative review anyway, but hear me out. The reason why I've spent so much time in this game is because I really loved the concept: a Warhammer game with 1st person turn-based combat, melee/ranged/magic attacks, lots of buffs/debuffs and special moves, different classes with deep RPG stats and huge maps filled with loot. This could have been one of the best Warhammer games ever, but several poor design choices turns it into a highly frustrating experience that is straight up unfair.
First of all, everything you do depends highly on RNG. Get ready to miss attacks and parry's with high accuracy over and over again, resulting in painful defeats for your high level characters. This wouldn't have been a problem if you could just retry the mission, but no, there's a high chance that a defeat results in a permanent handicap or even permdeath.
While I love a good hardcore experience where every move needs to be considered carefully, the defeats in Mordheim often feel unfair. You can only see enemies in your line of sight, so any moment you can be taken out by enemies waiting for you around the corner. This problem becomes completely absurd in the library story mission, which is filled with teleport pads. My level 8 warband leader was taken out with 3 critical hits in a row by an enemy guarding the destination area of a teleport path, resulting in a permdeath. There was literally NOTHING I could have done to prevent this. This is extremely frustrating, especially because it takes A LOT of time to level up a new leader.
Another huge problem is that the enemies always seem to be a lot stronger than you are. And once an enemy sees you, all other enemies are coming directly towards you. Because of this, the only safe strategy to beat a map is to keep all your characters together, or you'll be wiped out in no time. To make things worse, in the story missions new enemies spawn endless until you've completed certain objectives. This makes it very hard to complete a story mission for the first time, since you have no idea where to go or what to do. But you'll be punished with permdeaths and handicaps anyway when failing.
It's really sad to see how a game with so much potential became a source of frustration because of bad design choices. Therefore I really can't recommend it.
Score: 5.2/10
I hate to be that guy who plays a game for over 50 hours and gives it a negative review anyway, but hear me out. The reason why I've spent so much time in this game is because I really loved the concept: a Warhammer game with 1st person turn-based combat, melee/ranged/magic attacks, lots of buffs/debuffs and special moves, different classes with deep RPG stats and huge maps filled with loot. This could have been one of the best Warhammer games ever, but several poor design choices turns it into a highly frustrating experience that is straight up unfair.
First of all, everything you do depends highly on RNG. Get ready to miss attacks and parry's with high accuracy over and over again, resulting in painful defeats for your high level characters. This wouldn't have been a problem if you could just retry the mission, but no, there's a high chance that a defeat results in a permanent handicap or even permdeath.
While I love a good hardcore experience where every move needs to be considered carefully, the defeats in Mordheim often feel unfair. You can only see enemies in your line of sight, so any moment you can be taken out by enemies waiting for you around the corner. This problem becomes completely absurd in the library story mission, which is filled with teleport pads. My level 8 warband leader was taken out with 3 critical hits in a row by an enemy guarding the destination area of a teleport path, resulting in a permdeath. There was literally NOTHING I could have done to prevent this. This is extremely frustrating, especially because it takes A LOT of time to level up a new leader.
Another huge problem is that the enemies always seem to be a lot stronger than you are. And once an enemy sees you, all other enemies are coming directly towards you. Because of this, the only safe strategy to beat a map is to keep all your characters together, or you'll be wiped out in no time. To make things worse, in the story missions new enemies spawn endless until you've completed certain objectives. This makes it very hard to complete a story mission for the first time, since you have no idea where to go or what to do. But you'll be punished with permdeaths and handicaps anyway when failing.
It's really sad to see how a game with so much potential became a source of frustration because of bad design choices. Therefore I really can't recommend it.
Score: 5.2/10
Finished Yesterday (Pendulo Studios / Focus Home Interactive, 2012)
A mystery / detective point and click adventure. Get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries and encompasses the mundane, the supernatural and the occult - told in a flurry of flashbacks and changing perspectives.
Pro:
I recently found a very sweet deal for the sequel/prequel/spin-off "Yesterday Origins" and then of course had to play the game that inspired it as well. To be honest, I was ready to be disappointed, but the game managed to be quite interesting thanks to its hint-system and being short and to the point.
3.75/5
A mystery / detective point and click adventure. Get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries and encompasses the mundane, the supernatural and the occult - told in a flurry of flashbacks and changing perspectives.
Pro:
- Despite being assembled from well-known tropes, the story is never predictable
- Very fine-grained checkpointing auto-save system that lets you revisit pretty much every scene
- Very fair built-in hint system that is carefully designed to nudge you towards progress without outright spoiling the fun, and a hotspot-highlighting feature for people (like me) who don't like pixel-hunting
- Part of the reason that the story is unpredictable is that some of the twists and turns are outright absurd
- The same goes for some of the puzzles - the game is not afraid to deploy some classic "adventure-game logic"
- Very short net play time (4 hours), but unless you abuse the hint feature, the puzzles will keep you busy for probably twice as long
I recently found a very sweet deal for the sequel/prequel/spin-off "Yesterday Origins" and then of course had to play the game that inspired it as well. To be honest, I was ready to be disappointed, but the game managed to be quite interesting thanks to its hint-system and being short and to the point.
3.75/5
I finished Metroid Dread on the Nintendo Switch ( nice and sparkly OLED too)
After some time away from it, I really gotta say this is easily the best 2D Metroid game of all time for me. I understand that it's probably not as universally accessible as something like Super Metroid was, which was both much easier and slower paced and methodical. However, I personally like the direction that Mercury Steam has given the series, beginning with Samus Returns. Where that game was quite flawed due primarily the limitations of the 3DS, having to even use the touchscreen for important functions due to a lack of useful buttons, with the Switch they finally have a game on a proper gaming device and it's running at a smooth 60 FPS too (though there was some late-game scenes where the fame rate drops a bit).
Dread continues the direction the series took with Fusion, where Samus isn't always fully in control and must occasionally face enemies much stronger than her. In Fusion, that was SA-X, an X virus clone of herself. Due to the events in Fusion, she's deeply vulnerable to the ice beam that SA-X fires and so every time you see the character, it's a deeply memorable and scary moment. But for all the effective use of SA-X, it was still just a bunch of scripted moments. Dread takes up the idea, and transforms it into the EMMI encounters: machine predators, completely invulnerable, but with a clearly marked area where they may hunt Samus. The game forces you to enter that area repeatedly to traverse the world, and each time it's a nerve wrecking experience. That is, until Samus always find a method to destroy the EMMI, turning the hunted back into the huntress.
Aside from the EMMI sequences, Dread has plenty of other boss fights too, and I really liked all of them. Super intense experience and getting all the upgrades over time is just as satisfying here as it was in all previous games. Even some nice new abilities with the Aeon stuff .
Really hope Mercury Steam gets to make more of these. Brilliant game, and loved every moment of it. My only wish would be to give the game more optional areas to allow better exploration, but after some thinking, I'm not sure there's a way of doing that without undermining the great pacing the game has.
After some time away from it, I really gotta say this is easily the best 2D Metroid game of all time for me. I understand that it's probably not as universally accessible as something like Super Metroid was, which was both much easier and slower paced and methodical. However, I personally like the direction that Mercury Steam has given the series, beginning with Samus Returns. Where that game was quite flawed due primarily the limitations of the 3DS, having to even use the touchscreen for important functions due to a lack of useful buttons, with the Switch they finally have a game on a proper gaming device and it's running at a smooth 60 FPS too (though there was some late-game scenes where the fame rate drops a bit).
Dread continues the direction the series took with Fusion, where Samus isn't always fully in control and must occasionally face enemies much stronger than her. In Fusion, that was SA-X, an X virus clone of herself. Due to the events in Fusion, she's deeply vulnerable to the ice beam that SA-X fires and so every time you see the character, it's a deeply memorable and scary moment. But for all the effective use of SA-X, it was still just a bunch of scripted moments. Dread takes up the idea, and transforms it into the EMMI encounters: machine predators, completely invulnerable, but with a clearly marked area where they may hunt Samus. The game forces you to enter that area repeatedly to traverse the world, and each time it's a nerve wrecking experience. That is, until Samus always find a method to destroy the EMMI, turning the hunted back into the huntress.
Aside from the EMMI sequences, Dread has plenty of other boss fights too, and I really liked all of them. Super intense experience and getting all the upgrades over time is just as satisfying here as it was in all previous games. Even some nice new abilities with the Aeon stuff .
Really hope Mercury Steam gets to make more of these. Brilliant game, and loved every moment of it. My only wish would be to give the game more optional areas to allow better exploration, but after some thinking, I'm not sure there's a way of doing that without undermining the great pacing the game has.
Finished Batman: Arkham City - Game of the Year Edition (Rocksteady Studios / Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, 2012)
Arkham City. The new maximum security home for all of Gotham City's thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, the sequel to Arkham Asylum introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe.
Pro:
By all objective criteria that I can come up with: Great game. Still would recommend to anybody to try if they haven't played it yet, even if I ended up grudge-playing it towards the end.
3/5
Arkham City. The new maximum security home for all of Gotham City's thugs, gangsters and insane criminal masterminds. Set inside the heavily fortified walls of a sprawling district in the heart of Gotham City, the sequel to Arkham Asylum introduces a brand-new story that draws together a new all-star cast of classic characters and murderous villains from the Batman universe.
Pro:
- It's hard to overstate how incredibly well this game still looks despite being 10 years old now. The PC port featured every bell and whistle that Rocksteady and technology partner Nvidia could throw at it at the time, and while it was very taxing on the PCs of the time as well, it really shines on modern equipment - so much that it outshines games made years later.
- Production values and presentation are what you would expect from a big WB AAA title: Huge, and flawless. The only thing that I don't have unreserved praise for is the music, which I thought is a bit too generically bombastic. Too many full choirs over epic string staccatos.
- Main story is as good as it gets in the superhero genre, although I felt that Arkham Asylum's was a little more quirky and interesting.
- Catwoman. Purrrrr.
- This game has too much of everything. Too many collectibles, too many side-missions, too many upgrades, too many combos, too many combos of combos. Even the default controller layout is overloaded. I was struggling to remember buttons and mechanics through my whole playthrough, even though I was playing the game daily at the end to try and forget as little as possible. And this isn't just a quality of life complaint. It really turned a game that by all rights should have been really enjoyable into something I eventually just wanted to end.
- The hardware-accelerated PhysX support does work on modern GPUs, but can cause issues with hangs and crashes. The software-rendered physics look just as good in my opinion though, not a huge loss.
- Config file editing is required to remove a 60 FPS cap in the game engine (the dreaded Unreal Engine 3 "bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE"), recommended even if you play on a 60 Hz display, since the game can get overzealous with the capping. Let vsync cap it instead.
By all objective criteria that I can come up with: Great game. Still would recommend to anybody to try if they haven't played it yet, even if I ended up grudge-playing it towards the end.
3/5
Final Fantasy V (Pixel Remaster)
When I originally played this game (in the GBA version to be precise) it wasn't my favorite, it didn't quite click with me. That was mostly because compared to it's predecessor and successor the story seems to take a step back, which makes sense the cast ot the other two games is massive compared to this one. The main party is only made up of 4 members (well, 5 since one will be replaced later in the story).
The story is the traditional final fantasy fare, find the crystals (which will give you new jobs/classes) and save the world/s. I mean, sure, the characters get some development but It always felt a bit less. That said they seem to have way more expressive characters, they seem to love to make them emote (mostly with a surprise/shock face) constantly. You could say that this game feels more goofy, but I kind of like it (even if it gets a bit excessive at times)
Anyway, where this game shines is in the combat system. This game is FFIII on steroids. In both games you get jobs as the story progresses (with a couple of hidden ones). But whereas in FFIII there was really not a single incentive to level up old jobs when you get newer and better ones in this game there is a huge incentive. Leveling up (jobs) allows you to do two things.
The first (which is not obvious earlier on) is that all of the stat bonuses (but not the penalities) and the passive skills of a mastered class will be carried to the starting job, the freelancer (that technically it's not a job). Meaning that the most useless class becomes the most powerful later in the game.
The second, which is the meat of the game. All classes have one ability/skill (except for the freelancer that has none) which is fixed and then they can equip a second skill, that can be from any of the previously unlocked skills. To put an example, if you level up the white mage to level 3, any other classes can equip the level 3 white magic. That adds a ton of flexibility to the system.
As for this pixel remaster, this is the first time that an "HD" version has actually a cohesive style (if you ignore the default font and replace it for one that fix better) which is nice. As all the other pixel remasters it includes an orchestral soundtrack, which is very good, auto-battle,minimap with the chest in the area, and the option to quick save in any place (+ the autosave on every load).
This version loses the post-game dungeon and post-game jobs that were added to the GBA/mobile/steam versions, and while that was one of the post-game additons that I liked from the re-releases of old FF games, I don't think it will matter much in the end.
8/10
When I originally played this game (in the GBA version to be precise) it wasn't my favorite, it didn't quite click with me. That was mostly because compared to it's predecessor and successor the story seems to take a step back, which makes sense the cast ot the other two games is massive compared to this one. The main party is only made up of 4 members (well, 5 since one will be replaced later in the story).
The story is the traditional final fantasy fare, find the crystals (which will give you new jobs/classes) and save the world/s. I mean, sure, the characters get some development but It always felt a bit less. That said they seem to have way more expressive characters, they seem to love to make them emote (mostly with a surprise/shock face) constantly. You could say that this game feels more goofy, but I kind of like it (even if it gets a bit excessive at times)
Anyway, where this game shines is in the combat system. This game is FFIII on steroids. In both games you get jobs as the story progresses (with a couple of hidden ones). But whereas in FFIII there was really not a single incentive to level up old jobs when you get newer and better ones in this game there is a huge incentive. Leveling up (jobs) allows you to do two things.
The first (which is not obvious earlier on) is that all of the stat bonuses (but not the penalities) and the passive skills of a mastered class will be carried to the starting job, the freelancer (that technically it's not a job). Meaning that the most useless class becomes the most powerful later in the game.
The second, which is the meat of the game. All classes have one ability/skill (except for the freelancer that has none) which is fixed and then they can equip a second skill, that can be from any of the previously unlocked skills. To put an example, if you level up the white mage to level 3, any other classes can equip the level 3 white magic. That adds a ton of flexibility to the system.
As for this pixel remaster, this is the first time that an "HD" version has actually a cohesive style (if you ignore the default font and replace it for one that fix better) which is nice. As all the other pixel remasters it includes an orchestral soundtrack, which is very good, auto-battle,minimap with the chest in the area, and the option to quick save in any place (+ the autosave on every load).
This version loses the post-game dungeon and post-game jobs that were added to the GBA/mobile/steam versions, and while that was one of the post-game additons that I liked from the re-releases of old FF games, I don't think it will matter much in the end.
8/10
Finished Trine 2 - Complete Story (Frozenbyte, 2011)
Trine 2 is a sidescrolling game of action, puzzles and platforming. You play as one of the three heroes who make their way through dangers untold in a fantastical fairytale world. Each hero - a wizard, an archer-thief and a knight-in-armor - has their own set of abilities and skill-tree.
Pro:
Everyone loves Trine and so do I. For some reason I left this half-finished in 2014 and now it's gone from my backlog and added into my personal catalog of best-of-2010s-gaming.
4/5
Trine 2 is a sidescrolling game of action, puzzles and platforming. You play as one of the three heroes who make their way through dangers untold in a fantastical fairytale world. Each hero - a wizard, an archer-thief and a knight-in-armor - has their own set of abilities and skill-tree.
Pro:
- Everyone who played the first Trine knew that the (then) modern remix of The Lost Vikings had legs for a sequel or two, and Frozenbyte happily agreed. Gameplay is essentially unchanged and so is the presentation, and both were - and still are - great.
- Roughly twice the amount of content compared to the first Trine.
- The main game is really all about letting players cheese their way through every level like they please. The real hardcore puzzle challenge, where you're meant to find a very specific - and tricky - solution, is in getting all the optional collectibles. I really like this design choice and often wish more puzzle games would follow it, particularly puzzle games built around a physics engine.
- The Goblin Menace DLC strays a little from the last bullet point in Pro and puts some roadblocks in the player's way that require a specific strategy (and set of skills from the skill tree) to solve.
Everyone loves Trine and so do I. For some reason I left this half-finished in 2014 and now it's gone from my backlog and added into my personal catalog of best-of-2010s-gaming.
4/5
Finished
About a week ago, forgot to write it here. It's yet another great and addicting racing game from Playground. Only negative is that I wish there were more innovation/new stuff, felt they played it a bit too safe with this game.
Score: 9/10
About a week ago, forgot to write it here. It's yet another great and addicting racing game from Playground. Only negative is that I wish there were more innovation/new stuff, felt they played it a bit too safe with this game.
Score: 9/10
Finished Darksiders 3
It happens more and more often that sequels are dropping a lot of the things that made the original games unique, and copy stuff from other popular games instead. Darksiders 3 is doing this as well, lots of it's gameplay elements are literally copied from Dark Souls.
While I truly regret this design decision, I have to admit that Darksiders 3 is much, much better than I expected. While the game has several flaws - especially the camera and story/character design - most other things are very well made.
First of all, the game world is incredible, with clever level design and beautiful graphics with bright colors. The combat is great as well; the arcane system that gives you special attacks when you time your evasions right works really well, and thanks to the ability to switch between 4 secondary weapons with unique moves the combat never grew tired on me. I also really enjoyed most of the boss battles, which are very engaging and require a unique strategy to beat them.
Despite it's flaws, Darksiders 3 is a good game that's definitely worth playing. I hope we'll get a sequel some day, and that the developers will combine the strong elements from this game with the best things of the first two games.
Score: 7.9/10
It happens more and more often that sequels are dropping a lot of the things that made the original games unique, and copy stuff from other popular games instead. Darksiders 3 is doing this as well, lots of it's gameplay elements are literally copied from Dark Souls.
While I truly regret this design decision, I have to admit that Darksiders 3 is much, much better than I expected. While the game has several flaws - especially the camera and story/character design - most other things are very well made.
First of all, the game world is incredible, with clever level design and beautiful graphics with bright colors. The combat is great as well; the arcane system that gives you special attacks when you time your evasions right works really well, and thanks to the ability to switch between 4 secondary weapons with unique moves the combat never grew tired on me. I also really enjoyed most of the boss battles, which are very engaging and require a unique strategy to beat them.
Despite it's flaws, Darksiders 3 is a good game that's definitely worth playing. I hope we'll get a sequel some day, and that the developers will combine the strong elements from this game with the best things of the first two games.
Score: 7.9/10
Finished
Managed to get 3/4 endings, one of them the canon ending. Really great, interesting and fascinating time loop story game. Was really interesting to find stuff out and the mystery behind everything was also really nice. What drags it down is somewhat mediocre combat (bow and arrow) and a bit janky gameplay/movement. However, the game's main focus is definetly the lore and story, finding out everything which the game did perfectly. Super interesting and captivating storytelling with lots of loose story threads that was very fun and interesting to solve.
Score: 8.6/10
Managed to get 3/4 endings, one of them the canon ending. Really great, interesting and fascinating time loop story game. Was really interesting to find stuff out and the mystery behind everything was also really nice. What drags it down is somewhat mediocre combat (bow and arrow) and a bit janky gameplay/movement. However, the game's main focus is definetly the lore and story, finding out everything which the game did perfectly. Super interesting and captivating storytelling with lots of loose story threads that was very fun and interesting to solve.
Score: 8.6/10
Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion
Very charming game where you're a turnip who hasn't been paying taxes so you must work for the mayor to repay them.
It's a very simple game, with simple puzzles and simple combat but charming all the same (the music is also pretty good)..
The story gets darker and out of control, which I did enjoy.
It's also a very short game, which is nice for a change.
8/10
Very charming game where you're a turnip who hasn't been paying taxes so you must work for the mayor to repay them.
It's a very simple game, with simple puzzles and simple combat but charming all the same (the music is also pretty good)..
The story gets darker and out of control, which I did enjoy.
It's also a very short game, which is nice for a change.
8/10
Retired S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster is an excellent remaster of a game that didn't age very well. It's a great nostalgic experience for fans of the original game, but barely fun for new players. This is because S.W.I.N.E. has way too many flaws to be enjoyable nowadays:
Tldr: only buy this if you're a fan of the original game. Everyone else, go buy C&C Remastered instead if you want to enjoy a good classic RTS.
Score: 5.0/10
S.W.I.N.E. HD Remaster is an excellent remaster of a game that didn't age very well. It's a great nostalgic experience for fans of the original game, but barely fun for new players. This is because S.W.I.N.E. has way too many flaws to be enjoyable nowadays:
- The pathfinding is the worst I've ever seen in an RTS game. Even when micro-managing every unit individually, they are getting stuck together or making large detours around each other.
- Units are transferred from one mission to the next one, while you only get a very limited amount of credits between each mission to buy new units. This means if you loose too many units in a mission, it's impossible to finish the next mission with your remaining units. This is just bad game design.
- There are only vehicles in the game, no infantry or flying units. Units also don't have vulnerabilities for certain other units.
- The enemy AI is almost non-existent. Enemy units just come towards you in a straight line when they see you.
- The campaign missions lack creative ideas and become repetitive very soon
- The voices of the units with their fake accents are extremely annoying, and there's no in-game music (or it's bugged for me)
Tldr: only buy this if you're a fan of the original game. Everyone else, go buy C&C Remastered instead if you want to enjoy a good classic RTS.
Score: 5.0/10
Finished The Inner World (Studio Fizbin / Headup Games, 2013)
Clumsy 15 year-old orphan Robert is thrown head-first into adventure when a bird steals his stepfather's necklace and Robert gives chase. In the process, everything he thought he knew about himself, his family and the strange place he lives in unravels - and, together with young rebel Laura, he ends up on a quest to right a great wrong - and save the world.
Pro:
This was painful to play, but I did it for the sake of backlog cleanup. What's worse, I also own the sequel and will have to play that at some point, too. Seriously: Don't trust the Steam reviews on this one. This game is for a special audience. If you're not part of that audience, you will not have a good time. Not even ironically.
2/5
Clumsy 15 year-old orphan Robert is thrown head-first into adventure when a bird steals his stepfather's necklace and Robert gives chase. In the process, everything he thought he knew about himself, his family and the strange place he lives in unravels - and, together with young rebel Laura, he ends up on a quest to right a great wrong - and save the world.
Pro:
- Presentation is fine for what it is, and the voice acting is good.
- Fair and fine-grained hint-system that will get you through the whole game without a guide if necessary, but will not spoil even one detail more than needed.
- The writing is a medium-grade disaster. The world-building is haphazard and contradictory, the conversations with NPCs are tediously long, for the most part boring and often only tangential to the puzzles. The player character is an outright idiot, and not of the charming kind. The puzzles are, without exception, the worst kind of point-and-click bullshit logic contortions imaginable. At several key points in the story, the solution you're working towards is a looney-tunes-cartoon moment that you have no chance of guessing at. It dawned on me about 30 minutes in: This is a German point-and-click adventure. Which, to the initiated, is as much of a warning label and red flag as German porn.
- A lot of voice-over lines apparently were lost at some point during development or recording and are simply missing. I counted approximately 30.
This was painful to play, but I did it for the sake of backlog cleanup. What's worse, I also own the sequel and will have to play that at some point, too. Seriously: Don't trust the Steam reviews on this one. This game is for a special audience. If you're not part of that audience, you will not have a good time. Not even ironically.
2/5
Chorus
To keep it simple: Bad storytelling with a couple of decent moments, but very fun arcadey gameplay.
The long version:
Plot wise, this is obviously a lower budget game. You get a couple of cutscenes involving the main character for some key moments, but most of the story is told via voice over while looking at the ships. Voice acting varies from “good enough” to “really bad”, but all of that was expected.
Where the game fails is in delivering a cohesive story. It starts somewhat interesting with a sci-fi setting but heavily mixing in more fantastical elements. But then it completely loses itself in the middle. It tries to introduce way too much stuff for the time/budget, and the editing and dialog writing leaves a lot to be desired. The main story is very “over-dramatic” and it takes itself way too seriously. I also found some continuity issues depending on the order of some side-missions.In the end I gave up trying to follow the plot. The final sequence/mission gets a lot better though.
But then there is the gameplay, or more specifically, the combat. It’s very arcadey. And actually very fun. You switch between three main weapons (gatling gun, missiles and lasers) and after getting the main ship you start to get a few powers to use. It isn’t super in-depth or anything, but I enjoyed it very much for the length of the game. The non-combat sections drag it down somewhat because of an over reliance on using your “senses” (witcher-sense in space) to follow trails, find objects, etc, but nothing terrible.
Structure wise you fly around 4-5 large maps going after main or side objectives. There are also some random events but they are very limited. Upgrades are more or less straightforward if somewhat uninspiring. But you can combine some special ones to get more boosts.
Finally, the game leaves on a high note. The final sequence/mission is actually very fun to play and even the story gets a little together. Steam says it took me 15 hours, I think doing almost everything.
—
So is it worth it? I left wanting to play it more for the combat, but the story side left a lot to be desired. I think at $40 is a tough sell, but with a decent discount there is a very fun arcadey shooter here.
Tip #1: Get your main ship as soon as possible.
Tip #2: Use drift way more than I did.
7.3/10 - but it depends what you are looking for: Story or a shooter.
To keep it simple: Bad storytelling with a couple of decent moments, but very fun arcadey gameplay.
The long version:
Plot wise, this is obviously a lower budget game. You get a couple of cutscenes involving the main character for some key moments, but most of the story is told via voice over while looking at the ships. Voice acting varies from “good enough” to “really bad”, but all of that was expected.
Where the game fails is in delivering a cohesive story. It starts somewhat interesting with a sci-fi setting but heavily mixing in more fantastical elements. But then it completely loses itself in the middle. It tries to introduce way too much stuff for the time/budget, and the editing and dialog writing leaves a lot to be desired. The main story is very “over-dramatic” and it takes itself way too seriously. I also found some continuity issues depending on the order of some side-missions.In the end I gave up trying to follow the plot. The final sequence/mission gets a lot better though.
But then there is the gameplay, or more specifically, the combat. It’s very arcadey. And actually very fun. You switch between three main weapons (gatling gun, missiles and lasers) and after getting the main ship you start to get a few powers to use. It isn’t super in-depth or anything, but I enjoyed it very much for the length of the game. The non-combat sections drag it down somewhat because of an over reliance on using your “senses” (witcher-sense in space) to follow trails, find objects, etc, but nothing terrible.
Structure wise you fly around 4-5 large maps going after main or side objectives. There are also some random events but they are very limited. Upgrades are more or less straightforward if somewhat uninspiring. But you can combine some special ones to get more boosts.
Finally, the game leaves on a high note. The final sequence/mission is actually very fun to play and even the story gets a little together. Steam says it took me 15 hours, I think doing almost everything.
—
So is it worth it? I left wanting to play it more for the combat, but the story side left a lot to be desired. I think at $40 is a tough sell, but with a decent discount there is a very fun arcadey shooter here.
Tip #1: Get your main ship as soon as possible.
Tip #2: Use drift way more than I did.
7.3/10 - but it depends what you are looking for: Story or a shooter.
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Finished The Forgotten City...
Liked it a lot. Blasted through to one of the endings in about 6 hours. Very nice solve the mystery game with an interesting time loop mechanic. Looks pretty nice (if not a bit shiny), Voice acting is good enough (not amazing but wasn't off putting). The level is varied and there is a lot to mooch about discovering. Overall a good game and worth the asking price.
8/10
Liked it a lot. Blasted through to one of the endings in about 6 hours. Very nice solve the mystery game with an interesting time loop mechanic. Looks pretty nice (if not a bit shiny), Voice acting is good enough (not amazing but wasn't off putting). The level is varied and there is a lot to mooch about discovering. Overall a good game and worth the asking price.
8/10
Finished Stealth Bastard Deluxe (Curve Digital, 2012)
A game about getting to the exit.
Pro:
Just get this game whenever it's on sale (like right now), unless you hate platforming and puzzles with a burning passion. Had a great time and might even come back to it eventually to gradually inch closer to 100% completion.
4/5
A game about getting to the exit.
Pro:
- Minimal, but effective and funny presentation
- Has all of the platforming: Skill platforming, speed platforming, puzzle platforming, and, indeed, stealth platforming
- Good length: A brisk 6 hours if you just want some fun and get to the exit without a fuss, four times that if you go for collectibles and the time-trial challenges (and the secret levels unlocked by them)
- Working Steam leaderboards despite the game's age
- Level editor included
- Music gets repetitive - too few tracks. I turned it off eventually and only played with sound effects, which incidentally sometimes helps with the gameplay anyway
- Server for sharing user-created levels directly in-game seems permanently offline
Just get this game whenever it's on sale (like right now), unless you hate platforming and puzzles with a burning passion. Had a great time and might even come back to it eventually to gradually inch closer to 100% completion.
4/5
"Don't Feed The Monkeys" is a quite interesting spy/time management game, too bad the pace is so slow and the gameplay so defined by being at the right spot at the right time I doubt I'll try a replay immediately.
Finished
Liked it a lot, better than 4 and 5. Not as good as 3, but it was close, so Im happy what 343 managed to do with it. Interesting story, good gunplay, the ring (open world) was better than I expected, great music, nice graphics, grappling hook was great. The new characters (Weapon, Echo-216, the enemies) were really good and interesting. Lots of philosophic thinking in the story. Only thing negative was somewhat the optimization and that the open would could have used some more varation in the environments and activties. Overall I really enjoyed it. Looking forward whatever 343 has planned next for Master Chief.
Score: 8.5/10
Liked it a lot, better than 4 and 5. Not as good as 3, but it was close, so Im happy what 343 managed to do with it. Interesting story, good gunplay, the ring (open world) was better than I expected, great music, nice graphics, grappling hook was great. The new characters (Weapon, Echo-216, the enemies) were really good and interesting. Lots of philosophic thinking in the story. Only thing negative was somewhat the optimization and that the open would could have used some more varation in the environments and activties. Overall I really enjoyed it. Looking forward whatever 343 has planned next for Master Chief.
Score: 8.5/10
Finished Anodyne (Analgesic Productions, 2013)
An action-adventure game styled to look and feel like a Game Boy Color game, approximately in the style of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You explore and fight your way through nature, urban and abstract themed areas in the subconscious of the player character, "Young".
Pro:
This is a game made by two high-school students in the span of ten months during their final year in school, and it very much plays like one. Now, everything is relative. If this were a free game I found randomly on newgrounds.com, my reaction would be "good effort, not my thing though". But it is game that retails for $9,99 undiscounted and I still paid $3 for. It's not worth either. I honestly fail to see what any of those surprisingly many people who gave this a positive review on Steam and GOG saw in this game. Without a doubt the worst game I played this year.
2/5
An action-adventure game styled to look and feel like a Game Boy Color game, approximately in the style of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening. You explore and fight your way through nature, urban and abstract themed areas in the subconscious of the player character, "Young".
Pro:
- Presentation is fine for what it is, apart from the music
- Grating music
- Terrible platforming
- Too stingy with hints, but you could chalk that up to being faithful to a 90s gaming experience
- Story and flavor text that is so vague and obnoxious, the game would honestly be better without any
This is a game made by two high-school students in the span of ten months during their final year in school, and it very much plays like one. Now, everything is relative. If this were a free game I found randomly on newgrounds.com, my reaction would be "good effort, not my thing though". But it is game that retails for $9,99 undiscounted and I still paid $3 for. It's not worth either. I honestly fail to see what any of those surprisingly many people who gave this a positive review on Steam and GOG saw in this game. Without a doubt the worst game I played this year.
2/5
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Finished
Not as good as their previous game, Abzu, but still fun and decent. The gameplay was fun at the start, but got repetive quite quickly. However I enjoyed the world and traversal, the boss fights were cool and the story was quite generic, but enough interesting to keep going forward. The main focus of the game is definetly traversal with the use of the bow and it was not always easy, it did require some skill at times. The main negative is that the gameplay loop was very repetive and generic. Other than that, it was quite decent fun.
Score: 7.5/10
Not as good as their previous game, Abzu, but still fun and decent. The gameplay was fun at the start, but got repetive quite quickly. However I enjoyed the world and traversal, the boss fights were cool and the story was quite generic, but enough interesting to keep going forward. The main focus of the game is definetly traversal with the use of the bow and it was not always easy, it did require some skill at times. The main negative is that the gameplay loop was very repetive and generic. Other than that, it was quite decent fun.
Score: 7.5/10
Finished The Magnificent Trufflepigs (Thunkd / AMC Games, 2021)
All the gameplay of a treasure-hunting / metal-detector simulator combined with a typical walking-simulator-style narrative experience told in voice-overs. "A game about trying to find something".
Pro
Definitely not recommendable at the suggested retail price, but okay for 70% off or better if what you're looking for is a relaxing 2.5 hours and a story that you can just let wash over you without leaving too much of an emotional impact.
2.5/5
All the gameplay of a treasure-hunting / metal-detector simulator combined with a typical walking-simulator-style narrative experience told in voice-overs. "A game about trying to find something".
Pro
- There isn't that much of a technical challenge to simulating the experience of standing in / walking through a field in the English countryside on a nice summer's day, but the game throws what it can at it, and it does look pretty nice - nicer than most simulator games that feature the same gameplay at least.
- Good music and ambient sound effects contribute to a nice, relaxing atmosphere that I found enjoyable.
- Good voice acting that often manages to distract from less-than-stellar written dialogue.
- Storywise, literally nothing happens. The shallow character/s don't go through much of a transformation either and end up as unlikable as they start out. Now all of this could be intentional, but the game's trailers do their best to strongly suggest something different, so much so that I call bait and switch.
- Very short (2.5 hours for a single run, twice that if you new game + to find every possible item hidden in the fields - I found 35 out of 50 in my first run).
Definitely not recommendable at the suggested retail price, but okay for 70% off or better if what you're looking for is a relaxing 2.5 hours and a story that you can just let wash over you without leaving too much of an emotional impact.
2.5/5
Finished Yakuza 5, while I enjoyed some of the character stories, I don't really care about them enough for the most part, I think these games have becoming a bit "bloated", the content are interesting but not enough for me to do them, and I'm not really into the main story being told through several characters, so Yakuza 4 and 5 are probably the weakest for me.
Moving on to Yakuza 6, and so far so good, there're a lot of QoL upgrades and the graphical update is nice, and looked much better than Kiwami 2 on the same engine imo.
Moving on to Yakuza 6, and so far so good, there're a lot of QoL upgrades and the graphical update is nice, and looked much better than Kiwami 2 on the same engine imo.
Finished The Gunk on Game Pass. Took me 7.5 hours to get all achievements
The good
The good
- Atmosphere and environment design. I could take a screenshot at every camera angle and the screenshot would still look good
- Gorgeous graphics
- Good music
- Animation of the gunk
- Voice acting
- Puzzle design is basic in most areas. They get the gist right, eg. how the suction system can be used in multiple ways, but I can think of a few more ways to expand the usage as well as making use of the gunk in level design
- One of the combat mechanics is underused
- Limited enemy variation
- Game is too easy. It is nearly impossible to die
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Also finished The Gunk on Gamepass. Not much more to add to the previous review, but here is my super thoughtful and elaborate one:
Meh.
It isn’t a bad game, but it doesn’t do anything particularly well either. It looks and sound good, but platforming is very limited (you can only grab marked edges for example) and combat has a total of three enemies types and very few encounters.
More importantly the charm of the Steamworld games is nowhere to be found.
Since this is gamepass only on PC, the simplest way to check if you like the game is play it for half an hour or until you get the blaster upgrade. After that I think the game introduces one or two small gameplay mechanics and all your upgrades are optional. Levels get a bit better… but not by much. So what you get in the beginning is more or less what you will get for the rest of the game.
Took me about 5 hours to complete, trying to find all the materials for upgrades (I think I missed one or two by the end), but *not all achievements.
Port is very basic. It runs well but is capped at 60 fps and only a generic “graphic quality” setting. No way to turn off motion blur or anything else in game.
6.0/10
Meh.
It isn’t a bad game, but it doesn’t do anything particularly well either. It looks and sound good, but platforming is very limited (you can only grab marked edges for example) and combat has a total of three enemies types and very few encounters.
More importantly the charm of the Steamworld games is nowhere to be found.
Since this is gamepass only on PC, the simplest way to check if you like the game is play it for half an hour or until you get the blaster upgrade. After that I think the game introduces one or two small gameplay mechanics and all your upgrades are optional. Levels get a bit better… but not by much. So what you get in the beginning is more or less what you will get for the rest of the game.
Took me about 5 hours to complete, trying to find all the materials for upgrades (I think I missed one or two by the end), but *not all achievements.
Port is very basic. It runs well but is capped at 60 fps and only a generic “graphic quality” setting. No way to turn off motion blur or anything else in game.
6.0/10
Finished
Took me 23 hours, but a bit less (was afk for at least 2 hours). The game is difficultty to score because it does a bunch of things really well, but other things felt mediocre or off. The good things first. The art style makes the graphics, everywhere in the game, look absolutely gorgeus. The music is fantastic. The world-building and level design is great. What I did not like about it was the story, it felt confusing, messy, with lots of loose ends, lack of back story, there are 8 chapters in the game and it felt like every chapter restarted the story from zero, felt really odd, ending was odd as hell (some people call it "anime trope"). The characters you meet during the game were decent, but they lack a back story.
The gameplay was decent, but the combat system was just okay. Your main weapon is a pan you can upgrade for more damage, it really only had 2 attacks (light and heavy) and felt borign and uninspiring to use. The other weapons are different guns (also boring to use) and 3 different from of bomb (standard, remote, flying). Overall, the gameplay was okay, nothing special.
In other words, great music and graphics, good level design and good world-building. Negatives are a repetive and boring combat system, okay gameplay and a messy and cofusingly told story.
Score: 7.8/10
Took me 23 hours, but a bit less (was afk for at least 2 hours). The game is difficultty to score because it does a bunch of things really well, but other things felt mediocre or off. The good things first. The art style makes the graphics, everywhere in the game, look absolutely gorgeus. The music is fantastic. The world-building and level design is great. What I did not like about it was the story, it felt confusing, messy, with lots of loose ends, lack of back story, there are 8 chapters in the game and it felt like every chapter restarted the story from zero, felt really odd, ending was odd as hell (some people call it "anime trope"). The characters you meet during the game were decent, but they lack a back story.
The gameplay was decent, but the combat system was just okay. Your main weapon is a pan you can upgrade for more damage, it really only had 2 attacks (light and heavy) and felt borign and uninspiring to use. The other weapons are different guns (also boring to use) and 3 different from of bomb (standard, remote, flying). Overall, the gameplay was okay, nothing special.
In other words, great music and graphics, good level design and good world-building. Negatives are a repetive and boring combat system, okay gameplay and a messy and cofusingly told story.
Score: 7.8/10
Retired Paper Mario: The Origami King (Nintendo Switch)
I really wanted to continue playing the game, I liked the graphics, the story, the music and the level design, but the gameplay and combat was just utterly boring and repetive, the same thing over and over, no form of progression or anything. Like you could skip every damn non-required battle and the only thing you will miss is a bunch of coins you use to shop.
My time is limited, not gonna spend it on games I find boring.
I really wanted to continue playing the game, I liked the graphics, the story, the music and the level design, but the gameplay and combat was just utterly boring and repetive, the same thing over and over, no form of progression or anything. Like you could skip every damn non-required battle and the only thing you will miss is a bunch of coins you use to shop.
My time is limited, not gonna spend it on games I find boring.
Finished: The Gunk
The essence of mediocrity. It has nice graphics. It works, no bugs. But the gameplay mechanics are bland. The story is unremarkable. Characters do not leave any lasting impression. Music put me to sleep.
If it was longer than the five hours it was, I would not bother finishing it.
5/10
The essence of mediocrity. It has nice graphics. It works, no bugs. But the gameplay mechanics are bland. The story is unremarkable. Characters do not leave any lasting impression. Music put me to sleep.
If it was longer than the five hours it was, I would not bother finishing it.
5/10
Retired Titan Quest: Anniversary edition
Titan Quest is a decent Diablo clone, but it's not as much fun anymore nowadays. The quests and dialogs are mediocre and the options to build your character are very limited compared to recent aRPG's.
What made me quit the game is the lack of challenge in the campaign, which is WAY too easy. Every enemy and boss can be killed without effort, which makes the game incredibly boring after a while. I'm aware that there are higher difficulties available after finishing the game, but it makes no sense to force me to play through the entire game on super easy difficulty first. Meh.
Score: 5.0/10
Titan Quest is a decent Diablo clone, but it's not as much fun anymore nowadays. The quests and dialogs are mediocre and the options to build your character are very limited compared to recent aRPG's.
What made me quit the game is the lack of challenge in the campaign, which is WAY too easy. Every enemy and boss can be killed without effort, which makes the game incredibly boring after a while. I'm aware that there are higher difficulties available after finishing the game, but it makes no sense to force me to play through the entire game on super easy difficulty first. Meh.
Score: 5.0/10
4/10
Mediocre and short (3.5 hours) FPS. Dumb AI. Bulletsponge enemies. Scarce ammunition. High recoil weapons. Boring level "design". Boss fight was just a lame wave based fight.
The positive reviews for this game are misleading. Seriously, where are the Half-Life vibes mentioned in many reviews? The only positive thing is the price.
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My thoughts on all games I finished over the last two months:
Kathy Rain: Directors Cut
The developer Clifftop Games went back to their first game, and gave it some general refurbishment. It supports 16:9 ratios now, from 4:3 previously. Lot of small puzzles have been changed here and there, lots of new effects and the ending has been especially revamped. Overall, it's a welcome upgrade, though one that I feel doesn't really change much. The non-DC version was already great and I don't think the changes introduced here are really all that vital. I do hope it sells enough and we see more Kathy Rain games in the future, as the story is quite complete but leaves the possibility open for more adventures that our heroine Kathy Rain and her dorky friend could go on.
Industria
A really great game in the vein of Half Life. Graphically it's also really amazing at times, even though the ray tracing support has been a bit overhyped. The game has incredibly poor performance with it, even on a 2080 TI at 1400p, it barely stays over 40FPS. And honestly, the results are just baffling. Many objects are ignored by the ray tracing, leading to the paradoxical situation that things look more realistic with it off. Other times it's pretty clear they didn't provide proper pre-rendered shadows in some places. You'd need to play with a weird mix of ray tracing on and off to get a consistent look through the game. GIven that, I feel it would have been much smarter not to bother with this tech in the first place.
The actual story of Industria is really quite captivating, though I wasn't really a fan of the ending or lack thereof.
Black Mesa
Played this to prepare for Half Life Alyx (which I started playing last week). Overall, Black Mesa is visually quite stunning and provides a great view into how the Black Mesa laboratories could have looked like if Half Life 1 was remade with modern tech. My biggest gripe with the game is how it just continuously manages to overstay its welcome. Less is often more, and I wish the group of fans that made this game would have had a better understanding of this.
Overall, still a great game though. I loved their imagined version of Xen. It really feels magical in a way future Half Life games, with their dreary, run down buildings set in an unnamed Eastern European country, never really do.
Half Life Episodes 1 & 2
Taken together, I really liked these two DLCs, they form a nice little "mini campaign", close to half the length of the game's main campaign. I really liked the s section where you get to ride the buggy. It felt like an improved take on the jet car thingie you ride in Half Life 2, except it doesn't drag on for half as long. The mission where you need to play tower defense with the Hunter storming was close to being annoying, but just easy enough to avoid that.
Of course there's no ignoring the fact how it literally ends on a huge cliffhanger, one that continues to be unaddressed for nearly 2 decades now. Kinda hope with the success of Alyx, that Valve picks up the story again. I know people have been waiting for a third game for so long, but I don't think it would take something so magical to just end the story, at least end the story of Gordon Freeman.
Impostor Factory,
The third game in the "To The Moon" series, following "Finding Paradise". Where the previous two very much looked like typical RPG Maker games, with this one I'm impressed how many custom tiles and pixel sprites Freebird made for this game. It's still pretty clearly an RPG maker built thing, but it looks very bespoke and manages to feel really spooky at times.
This game takes a much, much darker tone then the previous games, and that's saying something when you talk about a series that is about death and finding meaning in your last moments left on Earth. It mostly provides a lot of (much needed) backstory, but it does leave open what will happen next in the game. In a way, it's pretty obvious what will happen, so maybe it is a bit elegant to end the series like this.
Kathy Rain: Directors Cut
The developer Clifftop Games went back to their first game, and gave it some general refurbishment. It supports 16:9 ratios now, from 4:3 previously. Lot of small puzzles have been changed here and there, lots of new effects and the ending has been especially revamped. Overall, it's a welcome upgrade, though one that I feel doesn't really change much. The non-DC version was already great and I don't think the changes introduced here are really all that vital. I do hope it sells enough and we see more Kathy Rain games in the future, as the story is quite complete but leaves the possibility open for more adventures that our heroine Kathy Rain and her dorky friend could go on.
Industria
A really great game in the vein of Half Life. Graphically it's also really amazing at times, even though the ray tracing support has been a bit overhyped. The game has incredibly poor performance with it, even on a 2080 TI at 1400p, it barely stays over 40FPS. And honestly, the results are just baffling. Many objects are ignored by the ray tracing, leading to the paradoxical situation that things look more realistic with it off. Other times it's pretty clear they didn't provide proper pre-rendered shadows in some places. You'd need to play with a weird mix of ray tracing on and off to get a consistent look through the game. GIven that, I feel it would have been much smarter not to bother with this tech in the first place.
The actual story of Industria is really quite captivating, though I wasn't really a fan of the ending or lack thereof.
Black Mesa
Played this to prepare for Half Life Alyx (which I started playing last week). Overall, Black Mesa is visually quite stunning and provides a great view into how the Black Mesa laboratories could have looked like if Half Life 1 was remade with modern tech. My biggest gripe with the game is how it just continuously manages to overstay its welcome. Less is often more, and I wish the group of fans that made this game would have had a better understanding of this.
Overall, still a great game though. I loved their imagined version of Xen. It really feels magical in a way future Half Life games, with their dreary, run down buildings set in an unnamed Eastern European country, never really do.
Half Life Episodes 1 & 2
Taken together, I really liked these two DLCs, they form a nice little "mini campaign", close to half the length of the game's main campaign. I really liked the s section where you get to ride the buggy. It felt like an improved take on the jet car thingie you ride in Half Life 2, except it doesn't drag on for half as long. The mission where you need to play tower defense with the Hunter storming was close to being annoying, but just easy enough to avoid that.
Of course there's no ignoring the fact how it literally ends on a huge cliffhanger, one that continues to be unaddressed for nearly 2 decades now. Kinda hope with the success of Alyx, that Valve picks up the story again. I know people have been waiting for a third game for so long, but I don't think it would take something so magical to just end the story, at least end the story of Gordon Freeman.
Impostor Factory,
The third game in the "To The Moon" series, following "Finding Paradise". Where the previous two very much looked like typical RPG Maker games, with this one I'm impressed how many custom tiles and pixel sprites Freebird made for this game. It's still pretty clearly an RPG maker built thing, but it looks very bespoke and manages to feel really spooky at times.
This game takes a much, much darker tone then the previous games, and that's saying something when you talk about a series that is about death and finding meaning in your last moments left on Earth. It mostly provides a lot of (much needed) backstory, but it does leave open what will happen next in the game. In a way, it's pretty obvious what will happen, so maybe it is a bit elegant to end the series like this.
Finished Twin Mirror (DONTNOD / Bandai Namco, 2020)
Journalist Sam Higgs returns to his former home and workplace, a small mining town in West Virginia, for the burial of his friend and ex-coworker Nick - a painful situation, complicated by the fact that Sam was more or less chased out of town two years prior, after his reporting about the hazardous working conditions in the mine contributed to its closure. And if all of that were not enough adversity already, his old imaginary childhood friend, who is a tad more real to Sam than imaginary friends usually are, makes a reappearance...
Pro:
I enjoyed the game well enough - the story is not nearly as ambitious as the bigger, more well-known DONTNOD productions, but to me that's fine - I was never bored. For people who like DONTNOD-style choice/consequence games and also enjoy a bit of a classic crime / investigation drama, I would recommend considering a purchase at 65% off and strongly recommend at 80% off or more.
3.5/5
Journalist Sam Higgs returns to his former home and workplace, a small mining town in West Virginia, for the burial of his friend and ex-coworker Nick - a painful situation, complicated by the fact that Sam was more or less chased out of town two years prior, after his reporting about the hazardous working conditions in the mine contributed to its closure. And if all of that were not enough adversity already, his old imaginary childhood friend, who is a tad more real to Sam than imaginary friends usually are, makes a reappearance...
Pro:
- The slick, TV-like presentation that was already on display in Tell Me Why is repeated here, although on a smaller scale - the locations are smaller and there are less details to take in, objects to explore and flavor text to read. There are also hints of influence from Remedy Entertainment games, most visibly in the design of the player character and his "mind palace" - both reminded me a lot of Quantum Break. Quantic Dream's Detroit: Become Human also seems to have been an influence.
- The reduced amount of objects to look at and read about make for a more focused experience.
- The game attempts to be a psychological profile of the player character and a classic Whodunit-crime drama set in a scenario inspired by the Opioid epidemic of the late 2010s in the U.S.. Unfortunately the story of Sam's imaginary friend - at least to me - did not turn out to be particularly interesting, and the crime drama not very thrilling. Together with the presentation, this game really turns out to be the equivalent of a made-for-TV movie - by no means bad, but also not very memorable or inspiring.
- Fans of choice-and-consequence games will appreciate that there are a plethora of different endings to experience, but at the same time be disappointed at how little difference they really make to the story.
- Combined with the relatively short playtime (6 hours for a blind playthrough, something like an additional 4 to go back and mop up all collectibles / achievements), this game seems overpriced - although the production value invested into the pure audiovisual presentation probably justifies it.
I enjoyed the game well enough - the story is not nearly as ambitious as the bigger, more well-known DONTNOD productions, but to me that's fine - I was never bored. For people who like DONTNOD-style choice/consequence games and also enjoy a bit of a classic crime / investigation drama, I would recommend considering a purchase at 65% off and strongly recommend at 80% off or more.
3.5/5
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Finished
Last game I finish in 2021. Pretty good game, gorgeus graphics, great music, lots of weapon and enemy variety. However, I did not like the map all that much and also disliked the "floaty" gameplay and combat, it was okay, but the movements was too floaty for my tastes.
Score: 7.9/10
Last game I finish in 2021. Pretty good game, gorgeus graphics, great music, lots of weapon and enemy variety. However, I did not like the map all that much and also disliked the "floaty" gameplay and combat, it was okay, but the movements was too floaty for my tastes.
Score: 7.9/10
Finished Alien: Isolation (Creative Assembly / SEGA, 2014)
In 2137, 15 years after the events of the original Alien film, Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, learns that the flight recorder of her mother's ship, the Nostromo, has been located and is being held aboard Sevastopol, a Seegson Corporation space station orbiting the gas giant KG-348. Christopher Samuels, a Weyland-Yutani android, offers Ripley a place on the retrieval team so that she can have closure regarding the fate of her missing mother. But upon arrival at the station, things immediately go awry ...
Pro:
During my playthrough, I went from being amazed (at the start) to annoyed and disappointed (40-60% in), to thrilled and excited again (last 4 hours). A game as exotic and strange as a Xenomorph in many ways, whose designers took a lot of risks and unusual approaches, some of which paid off, some of which did not. Still very happy to have played it and pretty confident I will give it one or two replays in the future as well.
EDIT: Forgot to mention - there is an essential mod available for the game, made by one of the original developers, which adds temporal anti-aliasing and thereby improves the already impressive visual quality to near perfection. I used it during my playthrough and you really do not want to go back to vanilla after having played with it: Alias Isolation on Github
3.5/5
In 2137, 15 years after the events of the original Alien film, Amanda Ripley, daughter of Ellen Ripley, learns that the flight recorder of her mother's ship, the Nostromo, has been located and is being held aboard Sevastopol, a Seegson Corporation space station orbiting the gas giant KG-348. Christopher Samuels, a Weyland-Yutani android, offers Ripley a place on the retrieval team so that she can have closure regarding the fate of her missing mother. But upon arrival at the station, things immediately go awry ...
Pro:
- The presentation of this game is brilliant and recreates the style, fictional technology, architecture and sound design of the Alien movie from 1979 to an incredible level of detail. The space station Sevastopol is the true star of this game.
- Fantastic atmosphere that manages to bring a similar level of thrill and horror to a video game as the movie did.
- The enemy NPCs all have distinct AI and act according to their own agenda and with randomized starting parameters, so that every situation and every load of a save game will play out slightly differently.
- The game has a very odd, protracted difficulty spike right in the middle, where the player is confronted with the aforementioned unpredictable enemy NPCs to such an extent that failing repeatedly is pretty much unavoidable - even on the lowest difficulty setting. In consequence, the immersion and sensation of playing a part in a horror movie completely evaporates and instead it feels like playing a badly balanced escape-the-monster-style horror game, with an unfairly restrictive save system.
- Some of the game's systems are very unintuitive (such as the objective marker that's built into the motion tracker device), some are outright bad (the level maps), some are unusual (the crafting system) and all of them are insufficiently explained / tutorialized.
- The game tells a great story which would probably make for a serviceable movie script, but then hides collectibles in such a way that requires straying off the linear progression of the story and extensive backtracking, which immediately turns into a chore and once again, destroys all immersion.
During my playthrough, I went from being amazed (at the start) to annoyed and disappointed (40-60% in), to thrilled and excited again (last 4 hours). A game as exotic and strange as a Xenomorph in many ways, whose designers took a lot of risks and unusual approaches, some of which paid off, some of which did not. Still very happy to have played it and pretty confident I will give it one or two replays in the future as well.
EDIT: Forgot to mention - there is an essential mod available for the game, made by one of the original developers, which adds temporal anti-aliasing and thereby improves the already impressive visual quality to near perfection. I used it during my playthrough and you really do not want to go back to vanilla after having played with it: Alias Isolation on Github
3.5/5
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Finished The Uncertain: Light at the End
I really enjoyed The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day and I liked this 2nd game in the series as well. The story and characters are very decent, and the game world is well designed for such a small team. I'm looking forward to the final game, where we'll hopefully learn what actually happened. Recommended!
Score: 7.9/10
I really enjoyed The Uncertain: Last Quiet Day and I liked this 2nd game in the series as well. The story and characters are very decent, and the game world is well designed for such a small team. I'm looking forward to the final game, where we'll hopefully learn what actually happened. Recommended!
Score: 7.9/10
Finished Darksiders 2 Deathinitive Edition
I was surprised how much I ended up liking this game as I played it again over the holidays. I gave the original release a try years ago after finishing Darksiders 1 ( and liking it a lot) and I was super annoyed by that game's focus on loot and just how boring it felt and looked. The remaster makes the often very dark and colourless game look much more interesting and the combat feels fun again. No clue what they tweaked there, but it worked.
The game has a ton of side content, but given the bad experience I had before, I just wanted to focus on the critical path for now, lest the game starts annoying me again. And at least the main story bits were really neat and very creative. I enjoyed how it kept introducing new mechanics and ideas just up until the very end of the game.
Ultimately, I would say this game isn't quite as fun as the first game was, though it does a decent job of giving the Horsemen and the world of Darksiders some much needed background lore. My only criticism might be that it's a bit unclear how the plot of Darksiders 2 fits into the first game. Death wants to undo the sin of his bother War by returning mankind, and it seems he succeeded. So why exactly did that never come up in the first game?
I rate it Five out of Seven Seals.
Looking forward to Darksiders 3 next.
I was surprised how much I ended up liking this game as I played it again over the holidays. I gave the original release a try years ago after finishing Darksiders 1 ( and liking it a lot) and I was super annoyed by that game's focus on loot and just how boring it felt and looked. The remaster makes the often very dark and colourless game look much more interesting and the combat feels fun again. No clue what they tweaked there, but it worked.
The game has a ton of side content, but given the bad experience I had before, I just wanted to focus on the critical path for now, lest the game starts annoying me again. And at least the main story bits were really neat and very creative. I enjoyed how it kept introducing new mechanics and ideas just up until the very end of the game.
Ultimately, I would say this game isn't quite as fun as the first game was, though it does a decent job of giving the Horsemen and the world of Darksiders some much needed background lore. My only criticism might be that it's a bit unclear how the plot of Darksiders 2 fits into the first game. Death wants to undo the sin of his bother War by returning mankind, and it seems he succeeded. So why exactly did that never come up in the first game?
I rate it Five out of Seven Seals.
Looking forward to Darksiders 3 next.
Finished Fortified
Note: finished all maps on normal difficulty with the soldier class
Decent hybrid between a 1st person shooter and tower defense game. Defeat waves of Martian invaders using diverse weapons and towers, and prevent them to destroy your base. While not as polished as the Orcs Must Die games, Fortified is still a lot of fun and definitely worth playing.
Score: 7.6/10
Note: finished all maps on normal difficulty with the soldier class
Decent hybrid between a 1st person shooter and tower defense game. Defeat waves of Martian invaders using diverse weapons and towers, and prevent them to destroy your base. While not as polished as the Orcs Must Die games, Fortified is still a lot of fun and definitely worth playing.
Score: 7.6/10