Review the game you finished recently.

[DF-1]

the order 1886:

1)not just too many QTES, but BADLY done QTEs.
2) forced slow walking for immersion that just is just stupid and also badly done. walk from point A to point B with no story, dialogue or anything. walk slowly because F you thats why.
3) 0 replay ability. uninstalled it after I beat it (and platniumed it) will never install again.

and the story didn't really engage me or make sense until the ending.

overall 6.5 or 7 / 10 (which is also the games length in hours )

Dont pay a penny over 10 dollars for it.

 

[M76]

the order 1886:

1)not just too many QTES, but BADLY done QTEs.
2) forced slow walking for immersion that just is just stupid and also badly done. walk from point A to point B with no story, dialogue or anything. walk slowly because F you thats why.
3) 0 replay ability. uninstalled it after I beat it (and platniumed it) will never install again.

and the story didn't really engage me or make sense until the ending.

overall 6.5 or 7 / 10 (which is also the games length in hours )

Dont pay a penny over 10 dollars for it.

If it's that bad why do you give 7 out of 10 for it? Anything above 5 should be pretty good, with 5 being average or middle ground.

 

[M76]

Tomb Raider (2013)



I decided to give the TR reboot another shot, since I didn't finish it when it was new. I got to maybe 25% of the way, and never continued. I was actually never a big fan of the original games. I never ever finished any of them. Not because of what they represented, I was the first to embrace the idea of a female action hero, among my school friends. But the game had too much jumping trial/error for my liking. And it was too difficult for primary school me.

Giving a second chance to the new game however, turned out to be a good idea, as I enjoyed it much more this time, even the parts that I managed to beat in 2013.

My biggest problem with the game back then was QTEs, and I'm not saying they're not a problem anymore, but I've seen worse, much worse since then, so it didn't bother me all that much, since the QTEs in TR are actually quite relaxed compared to some shit I encountered. They can actually be successfully completed on a first try. Most QTEs on other games can only be finished by memorizing when the QTE will happen, and what you have to do.

Still even if they're not badly done here, QTEs are a cheap way to get out of creating actual dynamic game mechanics. And to force the player onto a single path, that you can't deviate from. Which is very apparent in this game. It's completely linear apart from some extra optional explorable "tombs", and every problem has only a singular solution.

So you're not really battling the environment in the game, but trying to figure out what the hell was the level designer thinking at this particular point in the game. So even if a solution to a problem is completely logical and should work, it won't unless it is the solution set in stone by the designer of the game. It would've been so much better if the game was a sandbox environment, where every solution would work for any particular problem that is allowed by the game mechanics.

Anyway that's about the only bad thing about the gameplay that I can think of. Apart from that it's very engaging, fast paced, and well balanced (not too easy, but not overly challenging either) The ranged combat is pretty good, the close quarters combat is not so much.

The story while not ground breaking, provides a pretty OK background. I actually found the scattered logs and the ruins on the island much more interesting. Who built all those contraptions and when and how.

Another interesting thing about the game is that you, the player, as Lara Croft seem to find the hardest possible ways to get from point A to point B in the game. This is even acknowledged by the game at one point, which could be considered kind of a fourth wall break. Because sometimes it doesn't make sense, that seemingly the only way to your destination is doing a ton of actobatics, rock climbing, and heavy lifting. Yet when you get there the place is crawling with enemies. "They must've found an easier way"

This immediately brings me to the next immersion breaking element of the game for me. That in order to do the shit that is being done by Lara during the game, she must be a professional rock climber, sharp shooter, artistic gymnast, weightlifter, and a bunch of other things to be able to pull off these stunts. Yet she's portrayed as a while pretty but completely average girl physique wise. This just makes me mad. Just make her look the part is what I mean. That alone would make me look past many of the game's other flaws. But this "average girl beats down dozens of men, breaks down doors, and easily moves bells and other contraptions that seem to weigh hundreds of pounds" shit is got to go.

Anyway getting side tracked here a bit. Back to immersion breaking elements. One other thing I noticed in the game, that there are these old ruins in the game, that stood for centuries, or even millennia, but all of them decide to fall apart at the exact same time when you arrive. It's OK if it seems like a random occurence, But to have hundreds of things collapse exactly at the moment you finished using them, is a bit too much for me, and makes me think theatrics. That I'm not in a living breathing world, but in a fake world built only for my benefit.

The graphics of the game sometimes looks very good, but there as some neglected parts as well. What I noticed however. Is the that regardless being an older game, and having a hi-end GPU, the fps regularly dips into the unpleasant domain. It's not unplayable, but I expected to play a 2 year old game maxed out on a 980TI with the FPS never dipping under 50. Yet by the looks of it I barely average 30.

+

• Environment, and I'm a sucker for the hints about the history of the island, my favorite are the WW2 bunkers and radio tower ruins, but the shipwreck beach is quite something too
• Jumping and climbing everywhere is fun
• breaking down doors and other obstructions by pulling on it with a rope is strangely empowering.
• continuously escalating action and having to do more and more demanding stuff
• weapon and ability upgrades

-

• QTEs
• Linear maps
• single solution problems
• making you waste skill points on useless low tier skills to open up higher tier skills
• lower fps than expected
• there is no problem with making a female action hero do hardcore stuff, but please also make her look the part, otherwise it's like casting Gal Gadot as wonder woman. Wait, that actually happened The entertainment industry still has a long way to go
• only 10 hours to finish

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 8/10
story/atmosphere: 7/10
gameplay/controls: 7/10

overall impression: 7/10

So it's quite an enjoyable game, if you can pick it up on sale go for it. It's actually very much like Mad Max, minus the driving part, so if you liked that you'll most certainly enjoy this too.

 

[evilwon]

Fallout 4 -

Not even sure how I rate this game overall....lets run through some non-spoiler thoughts.

Pluses - Had fun killing the Super Mutants. I think listening to them is just as much fun as killing them. Actually, removing a limb from any threat is always a blast. Shooting threats in the face with a nuke boy or missile works as well. Potentially endless quests. The first time you run into a legendary/alpha deathclaw and crap your pants. The second time you run into the legendary deathclaw and know how to handle it.

Minuses - in the end, all of the choices suck and you probably will not care about any of the factions. Way too easy to (forever) sidetrack off into side missions.

I've got about 80 hours into the game and there are still things I want to go back and try out but I'm too burnt out after trying to get to the end of the story line.

Things I want to go back and do:

Level up so I can make some syringes and play with the syringe rifle. That has all sorts of fun / nasty potential. Watch some videos on it and prepare to laugh.

Finish the Witchcraft Museum. No spoilers but don't go there unless you're prepared. That is all I will say.

Go back and destroy (kill everyone) in the rest of the factions. Seriously, they all suck and I've laid waste to two of them already.

For that matter, go back and take MacCready and just go on a killing spree. You'll understand when you run into him. The other companion I'd probably advance further is Cait - just for pure fun and she likes raising hell as well.

Game rating - while the graphics are better (should be), the story just is not as compelling as Fallout: New Vegas or even Fallout 3. I would give those to a 9/10 and a 8.5/10. This is probably a 6.5 or 7. There are some fun spots to find and go through but nothing that really screams at me for other play through to see how it ends if I choose a different faction. I can already guess (probably pretty accurately) how it ends, so why not just go cause some chaos?

 

[toddw]

RISEN 3

PLUS:
Music. Spot on. Genre leading in most instances.
Graphics: I played the Enhanced Edition. Graphics were well done with the various environments.
Quest / fetch: If you like that sort of game, it’s done really well here.
World is detailed and intricate and rewards the player for exploring

MINUS:
Horribad dialog. Not voice acting, dialog. Unfortunately, this can impede your immersion in the game. Seems like such an easy area they could have addressed.
Quest / fetch: If you don’t like that sort of game, then Risen isn’t for you.
Graphics. Shouldn’t be possible to run up a tree then fall off and die. Minor glitches.

AVERAGE:
Voice Acting. I didn’t find the actual voices an issue, but as mentioned the script was painful at times.
Acquiring items/loot: First third of the game I didn’t like it, but as I played I appreciated the fact I had to actually “look” for items, instead of the usual acquiring by merely walking over them. However, the drawback is I found myself constantly clicking for fear of missing something. I liked that they didn’t dumb down exploring and finding items, but at the same time Important items can be easily overlooked. As such, expect to find things occasionally in areas you’ve already combed over.
Combat. I hated it a first… until I figured it out, then it was okay. Yes, I had moments of aggravation and/or camera issues, but it was the exception not the norm. There are those that hate Risen combat but I’m not among them.

CONCLUSION:
If you’re the type of gamer who appreciates well-designed areas to explore--and likes getting rewarded for doing so with additional quests and loot, then Risen 3 is most likely right for you. The Risen series seems to be a love it or hate if affair. For me, I think Risen does just enough to keep me playing each new installment, and number 3 is no exception. It wouldn’t be RPG GOTY but it would garner a nomination and maybe even make runner up. Piranha Bytes knows how to build beautiful worlds and design quests, now if only they were just as good when it came to creating stories and English dialog translation.
This review is from playing the PC version Enhanced Edition with the 3 DLC. I recommend this game @ 75% off and get all the DLC. It’s cheap now, and makes the game more complete.

Non-spoiler tips:
Pay close attention to the map, the topography sometimes shows clues while exploring, Don’t forget to look up occasionally.
Get monkey trainer and listen for other monkeys!
You may wish to choose a difficulty above normal otherwise you’ll have tons of spells and items to assist you that you’ll never need to use. If you’ve ever played a Risen or Gothic game in the past, then strongly consider playing on Hard. I would consider normal to be too easy for seasoned players.
I read a few steam guides “what players needs to know” before playing and I’m glad I did. I didn’t see them as spoilers but rather information that helped me get the most immersion from the game. YMMV.

 

[harmattan]

Pillars of Eternity

Been playing it over the past two months, finishing this weekend.

Pros

• Very good story, strong dialog, and adult themes.
• Battle mechanics are very well done for a D&D-style RPG
• Music is classic Baldur's Gate fair - terrific.
• Great moral choice options that actually affect the story

Cons

• Graphics and animations, although obviously done with love, are rather 2001. I know it's supposed to be the "story that counts", but I just couldn't get over the simplistic visuals compared to something like Divinity OG which has a good story AND good graphics. Maybe this makes me a "shallow" gamer... I don't know.
• I found the inventory, map and "homebase" interface quite cludgy. Some of this was obviously because they built a shell interface and tacked on features as the Kickstarter ramped up.
• Lines in your quest log just seems oddly ordered and unclear.

Meh

• Voice acting is very good in some spots, downright amateur in others.

All in all, I'd say 7.7/10. I do think the game strongly appeals to nostalgia for older D&D-style games e.g. Divine Divinity, Baldur's Gate etc., and kudos to the team for putting out a good game on a relative shoestring. However, take away the sheen of nostalgia and the underdog developer story, it's "only" a decent RPG with a good story and several detractions.

 

[scojer]

I've been clearing my backlog over the past several months. Here they are, in no particular order, with a thought or two on them.

Wolfenstein: The New Order and Old Blood.

Wow. I loved this game and the prequel. I'll admit; when this was first announced way back in the day, I was very skeptical on how it would play out, by them changing it from not only a WWII formula, but fast forwarding it to the 60's and creating a setting that could be a plausible outlook on what would happen if the Nazis weren't stopped. Astounding gunplay, locations, and pretty much non-stop action, I couldn't put this down. The only con I have, is the game killed my graphics card. Literally. I had to bake it to bring it back to life. I'm on a GTX 570.

SOMA

This game I played it as soon as I bought it. I didn't let it go to my backlog. When I found out that Frictional was making another game, I watched very few trailers, because I didn't want anything spoiled for me. I liked Amnesia, but found it tedious, and not very scary, I never felt like I was in danger, knowing I could easily run from the creatures and hide from them. In SOMA though, I found out, that it wasn't so simple. If I did run, I had to make sure that I didn't run into a door I closed behind me earlier, because I wouldn't open it in time and got caught. Not only were the enemies smarter, they were scarier too with a few more variations. Also, the storyline, although a little cliche, was very, very well done.

Dead Space 3

The first dead space I loved, except the clunky controls. The second one, was great, but they veered away from the horror. This one, they just went batshit crazy with the storyline, and it seems that they just wanted to throw us into a place we haven't been before, and the very end was a huge letdown. Not the way I would of expected them to possibly wrap it all up. I don't think anyone seen it ending with sentient moons feeding on planets. Pros: Solid mechanics already proven from the prior two installments. The crafting system was semi useful. Cons: The storyline. Made me lose all interested in possible future installments. The crafting system, was under utilized.

F.E.A.R.
This was maybe my fourth playthrough of this game. I play it maybe once every couple of years. The gunplay is still some of the best that is out there, the storyline is phenomenal. (this is the first one I'm talking about), and it had amazing potential for the future. But, as the review right above, sequels don't always turn out that great. Project Origin was good. Don't get me started on 3. All 3 had going for it was it was fun. That is it. Back on this one though, if you haven't played it, play it!

DOOM 3

I haven't played Doom 3 since, well, 2006 or 7? Been a long time. Back then, I was only able to play at 640x480 and with everything turned to low/off and it looked terrific (to me) back then. I got invited to the Doom Alpha, and it made me want to replay 3. Boy, it looks a lot different now, especially with the mods. I played through, after work, its dark out, and with headphones on. Sure, there was a lot of action, but when there was no gunfire, the overall ambiance was just drowning, machines and steam everywhere, a constant hum, your ears are raped the entire time, the sense being overloaded. The sound design was very, very well done. Creepy whispers randomly, screams in the far off distance, that, more than the gunplay kept me going. The sound just made me feel dreadful, and I wanted to overcome that sensation. So, I did.

Alien Isolation

This game was mostly great. Graphics were wonderful, sound and mechanics were good, and at first, the Alien was scary as shit. I never knew where it would be, and I would try to sneak around the androids, when all of a sudden I heard the thumping of the Alien and, next thing I know, its tail went through the chest and the hand is covering my face.

Then, I got the flamethrower. From that point on, it was just too easy. I tried so hard not to use it, but, something in my brain made me just light the alien up everytime I seen it. Overall, I liked the game, especially the length. I was expecting to finish the game in 3-4 hours. It took me over 12, my first playthrough.

That is all for now, I got a PS4 and beat the uncharted series and until dawn. I'll write about those later. Thanks for reading!

 

[Aisorik]

Bloodborne - it's great. I like it more than Dark Souls but I can understand why others wouldn't. It's more linear, and a lot of mechanics (stats, weapon upgrades, etc.) are relatively streamlined. Love the aesthetic, although I do wish there was more of it. For example, there's a seaside town likely inspired by Innsmouth, but it's a fairly small area with little to do.

 

[madFive]

Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

Just finished this one last week - great game! U-Play won’t tell me how much time I put into it, but I think it was at least 80 hours, probably more like 120h including the AFK time to get more money.

Graphics: 10/10. One of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played. Loved the Victorian London setting, the breathtaking skyline views, and the overall atmosphere. Just this aspect alone makes it worth spending tons of hours in the game just enjoying the scenery.

Stability & Performance: 9/10. Ran smooth as butter on my GTX970 (1080, maxed except only 2xAA), well smooth most of the time... I had a few instances of it randomly becoming a slide show and requiring restart, one instance of significant graphical artifacts requiring restart, and a couple crashes to desktop. Overall these few occurrences spread out over 100 hours of gameplay weren't too bad.

Storyline & Characters: 7/10. The characters were generally likeable, and the story was thin but compelling enough. And I was very glad to see the modern-day parts that are shoe-horned in like in all AC games, were only cut-scenes. Didn’t require the user to actually play them and didn’t take up too much time. So that’s a pretty big plus over Black Flag in that regard (haven't played Unity yet). Overall no huge complaints - the storyline of Syndicate just gets out of the way and lets you enjoy the gameplay. Oh, and I was also rather offended by a certain historical character I was forced to do missions for in the game, but that’s a fairly minor nit-pick.

Game Play: 8/10. Not too much to complain about here - the game is very highly polished from a long evolution of AC games. My only real complaints stem from it being over-polished to the point of being nerfed and over safety-oriented. It becomes very difficult to descend from certain areas because the game snaps you onto the surface you’re on and won’t let go. If I want to jump 20+ feet from a building and take my chances on how much damage it will do, I should be allowed to do that! In most cases the “hold down the button” to force it to do those moves negated any time savings. There are a few other issues similar to this where the game makes assumptions on what you want to do, and stream-lines those actions to the point of taking away too much manual control. They boil down to a few very infuriating quirks in the game-play, but I won’t bother spelling out any more of those right now.

Economy, Social Features, & Repetition: 2/10. I won’t count these in my main score, but some last gripes about the game-play would be that the play time is over-inflated with tons of scavenger-hunt type elements. There are several sets of collectables for you to find throughout the city, and while this is a fun chance to explore the map, the tedium sets in rather quickly when trying to collect them all. You can buy maps that will show you where all the items are, but the worst thing about the game is that some of the loot maps are only available in the in-game store via paying real money to get U-Play bucks to buy them. And there are certain equipment items that can only be unlocked by finding those scavenger hunt items you have to buy the map for. So… you can either pay real money to get the maps, or tack on several dozen more hours of game time just hunting down all those items without a map. I still say this tactic by Ubisoft is very underhanded, and we should vote without wallets to discourage this practice in the future.

Overall: 8.5/10. I definitely loved the game, mostly for the amazing visuals and atmosphere. Looking forward to playing the game again once all the DLC is out and on sale in a single package.

 

[Poordevil]

Dragon's Dogma PS3

I really started this game up as a filler until Dark Souls 3 drops. As it turned out I really enjoyed the game. In fact it has become one of my favorite western style RPGs along side Gothic 2 and 3 and Risen1.

Dragon's Dogma hit a number of sweet spots gameplay wise for me. Exploration was excellent, plenty of cool locations to discover and loot to find. The combat and upgrading your abilities was very fun. It is more of an action driven RPG than story driven, which I really liked. I thought the art style was very appealing, not too cartoony with good looking armor and clothing. Enemies were varied. I think any enemy you can think of was somewhere in this game, some so large they could be climbed and attacked.

The lighting and the day night cycle was another high point. The sun actually rises, courses across the sky and sets, creating actual morning, daylight, dusk and nightfall. Best rendition of real life day night cycle I have seen in a game. The game warns you to be careful about being caught out in the wilderness at night, but really there is no way to avoid it. Traveling by lantern light when it is pitch black out is a whole other dimension of travel, lol.

My biggest gripe with the game were the technical issues. It is a good looking game but the PS3 doesn't run it at a very good clip. It wasn't unplayable but I did have to get use to less than peppy frame rates. The menu system was not the most streamlined and what's more it needed to be opened and used frequently.

Overall though the game was a blast. Capcom did a great job offering up a Japanese take on the western style action RPG.

 

[jbltecnicspro]

Doom 3 (original 2004 version)

The good:
- Very good environments, even to this day. I still felt like I was traversing a living, breathing Martian research facility.
- Audio logs were well done and I thought the back story was interesting.
- Graphics are still amazing to behold, especially considering the game is now almost 12-years-old
- Pacing near the end of the game is excellent
- High-tension moments that still had me at the edge of my seat

The bad:
- Some cheap enemy encounters
- Low sample-rate audio (mono 22khz, really?)
- Some levels seem to drag, near the beginning/middle of the game
- No one is playing multiplayer - at all
- No COOP - a travesty, in my opinion (there are coop mods though, I believe)

Overall - still a great game that didn't get much love from the fans. I think it's terrific though, if played in short (two-three level) sessions. Otherwise it just wears on you because its formula gets repeated to infinity.

 

[jbltecnicspro]

DOOM 3

I haven't played Doom 3 since, well, 2006 or 7? Been a long time. Back then, I was only able to play at 640x480 and with everything turned to low/off and it looked terrific (to me) back then. I got invited to the Doom Alpha, and it made me want to replay 3. Boy, it looks a lot different now, especially with the mods. I played through, after work, its dark out, and with headphones on. Sure, there was a lot of action, but when there was no gunfire, the overall ambiance was just drowning, machines and steam everywhere, a constant hum, your ears are raped the entire time, the sense being overloaded. The sound design was very, very well done. Creepy whispers randomly, screams in the far off distance, that, more than the gunplay kept me going. The sound just made me feel dreadful, and I wanted to overcome that sensation. So, I did.

Holy crap, how did I miss this?! Back in the day, I had an eMachines laptop with a Radeon 9600 and only 64MB of VRAM. LOL - it was 640x480 low for me. Even then it struggled in some areas too.

 

[M76]

Grand Theft Auto V (2013/2015)



That was the long haul. Honestly I never thought this day would ever come. But today I finally beat the game. At least the story mode. I think this is the longest it ever took me to finish any game. The journey started about two and a half years ago, in 2013 September, on a PS3. But the console controls made me quit about 10% into the story, and I never went back. I decided to wait for the PC version.

But before moving on, a few words on the last gen version. The graphics was actually pretty good, and the biggest perk of that version is that it came on BD. Man I don't know why PC releases still use fucking DVDs when you can pick up a BD drive for the cost of a game. So it shouldn't be a big investment for a gamer. GTAV PC came on no less than 7 DVDs, and it literally takes hours to install, this is just unacceptable by my standards.

Apart from that quibble though the game is technically flawless as far as I see it. But it's not perfect. The physics engine in it is starting to show it's age. It's almost exactly the same as it was in GTA3. I hope the next GTA will use softbody physics instead of rigid bodies with fake deformation on the vehicles. But still the driving in GTA is one of the best in it's genre. In fact it's so good, that it has inbuilt driving aids to make less able players comfortable, while at the same time make driving game enthusiasts like me frustrated. Why not put an option in the game to disable these aids?

My main issue with the game, and the reason why it took so long to finish is the story. After GTA IV I thought they can't make a less inspired less immersive story up. But I was wrong. I don't understand why the main stories are so bad, when both the Lost and Damned, and especially Ballad of Gay Tony were very very good. The main story is too loosely connected. There is no real storyline just a series of jobs after the trio is formed. I admit until Michael, Trevor and Franklin team up it was somewhat interesting, but after that not so much. And the characters can't keep me interested on their own merit, since they are completely unrelatable. A lunatic murderous psychopath, a small time crook, and a backstabbing ex-bank robber? I couldn't care less if they all died a horrible death at any point in the game.

The only thing that kept me somewhat interested were the comic relief moments, and missions. But we get less and less of those in GTA it seems.

And the missions were mostly very generic. Not much variety, and the final last mission of the game was really really disappointing. It was very easy comparatively, just a generic assassination mission. There were tons of more interesting missions during the game. Probably the only ones worth mentioning are the heists. Those were good I admit.

And as far as side things go, it's great that you can buy things over the internet in the game, and buy property, but until the last big job, you don't have enough money to waste on bullshit. And after the last job I wasn't inclined to go back to the game to buy stuff. What's the point? I'm not going to use it for anything anyway.

Let's see the pros and cons.

+

• Huge explorable environment, with beautiful graphics
  
• Good physics
• Some good comic relief missions
• Crew banter

-

• Uninteresting story
  
• Unrelatable characters, I never thought Niko Bellic will be a positive example
  
• not enough money until the end to "go and have fun"
  
• not nearly enough side activities, means the environment just sits there with nothing to do in it.
  
• scripted chase sequences
• on rails missions

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 9/10
story/atmosphere: 3/10
gameplay/controls: 8/10

overall impression: 7/10

It's hard to recommend this game wholeheartedly. It shows nothing new over GTAIV, it's more of the same, with less interesting characters, story and missions. But much better graphics, and environment.

 

[horrorshow]

Yeah, the install process for GTA V is RIDICULOUS.

 

[Domingo]

I'm always surprised games are still released on disks in general. None of my local stores carry them and most of the online sales just offer download codes.

 

[M76]

It's still good for those who have data caps on their internet, or very slow connections. But I personally would be fine if there was no hardcopy included. Maybe only for collectors editions.

 

[M76]

Star Wars - The Force Unleashed II (2010)

I believe this game in itself is a good testament of why Lucasarts needed to go. Of course I'm sad because I still remember their past glory with games like X-Wing, Tie Figher, Dark Forces, Jedi Knight, and I could go on for pages with great games they published or produced in the past. But the cold hard facts are that they were on an all time low for years. This game is a very good example of what kind of crap they put out occasionally.

First thing you have to know is that the game is riddled with game breaking bugs. One of the bugs is when the game simply shows a blank screen instead of a cutscene. Sometimes you can hear the sound, but usually there isn't even that. And since they "cleverly" removed the option from the menu where you could replay cutscenes, if this bug comes, then you're screwed out of a part of the story. Or if you're feeling lucky you can replay the level and hope this time the bug doesn't show its ugly blank face. This game has something in common with Double Agent because again I had to watch the ending cinematic on youtube. Because I refused to replay the final bossfight in hopes of actually getting the cinematic the second time.

The second annoying bug is when all map textures turn to black. They'll have the rbg color 0,0,0. Not even lighting changing that. So when that happens it's impossible to tell apart the floor from the walls in the game. And since you can't find your way you're screwed again, you have to restart the level, and cross your fingers.

Another bug I successfully met, is on a specific level. It goes like this: If you die on this map, just once, then at about three quarters into the level, there will be a power cell that you supposed to pick up, but it won't be active. You won't be able to interact with it. Even if you died at the very beginning of the level. So the only way to beat this bug, is to restart the level, and reach this part without dying even once, easy-peasy .

So enough about bugs, now let's move on to the things why the game sucks regardless of being buggy. My ever recurring fad: It's 4 hours long, and even half of that is made up by overscripted bossfights. In the first game bossfights were fairly normal hack&slash battles, I know I criticized that too, but compared to this it was way better. Here most of the enemies are not even reachable by conventional means. So you defeat them by following a stupid script in the game. There are no strategies or any individuality, just have to follow the instructions to the letter.

And after the very moving story of the first game, this one basically has no story to speak of. Of course in 4 hours of gameplay there is not much story you can include, but what little there is is absolutely weightless and pointless. And then the ending screws the stakes in the arse, because from now on it seems anyone can be revived.

About the only good thing remaining from the first game is the fast paced fluid gameplay. But nothing else, they even removed the combo system, I know I did say that I hated that too, but at least it gave some means to use tactics. Now every enemy apart from basic stormtroopers can only be defeated by following one method. They kept the skill system, but now it's only there to upgrade the skills you already have. Like making force lighting more effective.

Another thing that warrants a few words is level design. Which is extremely stupid and crap. One great example is when you're moving trough the engineering deck on your own ship. It's like everything is put there for your entertainment only. This type of map design would've been ok in a 2D scrolling platfrom game in the early nineties. You have to destroy things in your own ships engines to actually move forward WHAAAAT? Logical right, your crew also destroys half the ship when they want to reach the other side of the deck, that's how things are done here. And how did enemy soldiers and sith warriors get inside if even you can only get in, by blowing shit up? As far as I know there is no teleportation in the star wars universe. And the funniest thing is that all the catwalks are arranged in a way, that you can just reach them by performing a double force jump. I imagine the recruitment process for the engineering crew for such a ship: "- Are you a master Jedi Knight? -Nope -Next please" Or how else would the crew move around?

And one final thing that annoyed the shit out of me is Kota. He's constantly micromanaging you, telling you how to do even the most basic things. He doesn't shut up for five seconds. Like he has nothing else to do. It's probably there so average Joe doesn't even have to use his brain to remember the objectives, since he's being told everything all the time. One of the worst parts was when you have to charge a bunch of power cells with force lighting to defeat a boss, but Kota keeps yelling at you through the radio, that you're doing that in vain because you can't damage it. Oh shut the fuck up I don't want to damage anything I want to charge the damn thing.

I'm not saying that the first game was a masterpiece but it was enjoyable in it's own way, it had a decent story, that kept you on your toes all the way, but this one? It is like the horse in the collection of a veterinary college, demonstrating all conceivable illnesses.

+

• Fast paced, fluid gameplay

-

• Level design
• Nothing story
• less than 5 hours play time, and that includes all the replays due to bugs. And this is a full price game.
• Regardless of its length the fighting becomes repetitive since you can only defeat every enemy one way
• Scripted boss fights
• Constant hand-holding
• Bugs, upon bugs, upon bugs
• Stupid ending

Score: 2/10

 

[Braamer]

Scathing review ^^^ and you still completed it. I would have ditched it well before completion if I felt that way about it.

 

[M76]

XCOM 2 (2016)



The only reason I haven't finished this game earlier is because I was playing the shit out of it. I'm nearly at 100 hours and that's a lot by my standards. There are probably no more than a dozen games that I reached 100 hours playtime with since I started playing videogames in the late 1980s.
So I didn't finish it because I kept re-starting the game to try different difficulty settings, and different strategies, until I finally settled on a playtrough that I decided I'll take to completion for the first time.

So this last weekend I beat the game for the first time after 90+ hours. When you can probably finish it in 20. The game requires a specific mindset to play, which is planning to fail and accepting losses. None of which I'm great at. I hate to fail even more than I like to succeed. So I kept save whoring until I got the most favourable outcome to each encounter in the game.

But let's not get ahead of myself here. The game is a turn based action game, which is an interesting genre for me. When I was younger I hated it, and now it's one of my favourites if it's done right. And this one is leaning towards done right, but it still has a few things that made me rage quit a few times, hence the save whoring approach.

So as I mentioned there are two ways to play this game successfully: Save whoring, or planning to fail. The first one is self explanatory You choose an action, and if the outcome is less than satisfactory you re-load and try a different approach to the problem. That's what I choose for my first complete playtrough but even now I'm in the process of playing the game in ironman mode, honing may skills on planning to fail.
What that means is that you must expect every action in the game to fail. Even if you have a 95% shot at an enemy, you must have a safe plan B in place in case it fails. So for example if you have only one enemy left, and one of your soldiers has a shot at him with a very high chance of hitting, but the soldier is in a vulnerable position. Then you must not attack, you must plan for the shot not succeeding. That's what I'm very reluctant to do. I always liked the fast and aggressive approach to games and not the slow and cautious one. But even when planning to fail there are occasions when the game will screw with you. For example I've had three over 90% shots fail in a row. That's something you just can't expect. And in ironman mode that can have grave consequences literally.

The great thing in the game is the variety. Since apart from a few key missions all the rest are procedurally generated, so most missions will be unique no matter how many times you play the game.

One of the things I hated most in the game is that the only thing that matters when taking shots at enemies is the cover they're behind. Line of sight has no effect whatsoever. This makes seemingly easy shots where the line of sight to an enemy is clear and it almost seems he's standing right in front of your soldier fail regularly. While other shots with numerous obstructions succeed. Actually there is one thing that matters, high ground. Which gives a huge advantage to aiming, almost an unnaturally big one.

The game also has a pretty good research / base building / resource gathering aspect to it. The just of it is that you need to make contact to certain areas of the world. And the more areas you contacted the more income you'll have monthly. But there are also random scanning sites providing various things when completing them. The problem with that is the game throws at you a lot of time sensitive missions that you have to do right away you can't delay them one second. So it happens very often that you just have a tiny bit left to complete a scan, but you have to leave to do a critical mission, and then fly back again to complete the scan, wasting a lot of time in transit. And it's also annoying when you're trying to finish a scan and there is only a tiny bit left to it, but everything seems to happen then. So the scanning will be interrupted half a dozen times within the last day of it. I wish they would've made it so that you can finish a scan if there is less than 1 day left of it, before going on time sensitive missions.

Speaking of missions that main types of missions in the game all follow one of the following templates:

• Raid - You clear enemies defending a convoy to seize resources
• Destroy node - You must destroy a computer node before the timer runs out
• Defend node - You must defend a computer node before the aliens destroy it
• Access point - You must hack workstation / crate before the timer runs out
• Retaliation - You must rescue / defend civilians from an alien strike
  
• VIP extraction - You must escort a civilian to an exfil point on the map.
  
• Rescue - You must free a prisoner and then escort them to the exfil point
  
• Assassination - You must kill / capture an enemy collaborator
  
• Sabotage facility - plant explosives at a designated point on the map, and then call of extraction

I hope I didn't leave anything out. And of course there are the non procedural story missions besides of these. The rescue / assassination missions are usually timed too. But in general timed missions are the worst since you can't be too cautious if you expect to reach the objective in time. That's where the ranger phantom ability comes in handy so you can have a scout unit you can send forward without fear of running into an alien ambush blindly.


Let's see the pros and cons.

+

• Procedural non repeating missions
  
• Lot's of ways to go about building your base and strategies
• Variety
  
• Good atmosphere mainly due to the narration of the characters, I especially like the autopsies : gruesome but strangely rewarding, and I don't just mean the actual technological rewards.
  
• Not much story, but it provides a satisfactory backdrop

-

• Line of sight not taken into account when calculating aim penalty.
  
• Too many interruptions on the main map.
  
• due to the procedurally generated maps the same mission can end up being much harder/easier depending on your luck
  
• too much micro management necessary for everything (staffing engineers, assigning soldiers, gear, upgrades, loadout, research, and so on)
  
• last mission has a lot of bugs, and the enemies spawned are different each time, again making the mission either much harder or much easier depending on pure luck
  
• failure/success is at least half part luck

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 6/10
story/atmosphere: 8/10
gameplay/controls: 10/10

overall impression: 9/10

No further comment necessary I think.

 

[MavericK]

Doom (2016)


+Great gunplay, fast gameplay in general, throwback to days of old
+Amazing soundtrack
+Lots of value with collectibles that actually help you in game, plus SnapMap

-MP kinda sucks
-Backtracking in maps can be tedious, and sometimes you end up not even being able to get back to where you need to so you have to replay the whole level
-Could use more enemy variety, every single enemy was a remake from the old game
-Became fairly predictable and repetitive near the end



10/10 would rip demons faces in half again

 

[Domingo]

Uncharted 4

+ Amazing graphics
+ Great storytelling and acting
+ Fitting conclusion to the series
+ Enjoyable new mechanics

- Motion blur is overdone and it's only 30fps
- A lot less action and a lot more climbing
- Shooting mechanics not quite "right" forcing more attention to stealth and melee spam
- Replayability seems limited thanks to the plot to game ratio being nearly 50/50

I'd give it an 8 out of 10. It's arguably the worst actual game of the series, but the overall package makes that less noticeable. It walks the line between something like Heavy Rain or MGS4 while retaining most of the elements that made Uncharted great.

 

[M76]

Alan Wake (2012)

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, in a processor demonstration held by Intel at the IDF 2006. They showed a then unnamed game under development by Finnish developers Remedy. The fathers of Max Payne. They introduced it as the first game to not only use, but to require multi-core processors. They said it will fully benefit from 4-cores, and require at least a 2-core CPU to run. Of course we all had single core processors back then, so many people were concerned, or outraged, seeing the price tag on a quad core or even dual core CPU. But everyone had one thing in common. We were all amazed at the real time weather effects and realistic tornadoes they showcased. I won't be reviewing that game today. Because that game was never released.

Instead more than half a decade later, they released something that is curiously similar to the concepts they showed back then. This is the game I'll review.

And so what happened to that original game that would've blown our minds? Well it was devoured by greed. Microsoft could write enough zeros on a check, that made Remedy forget about their principles. And so by changing some aspects of the story and removing the most forward looking features from the game, they created Alan Wake. A game that was XBOX 360 exlusive for almost two years. In layman's terms Remedy have sold their souls. So much so, that they even declared that there will be no PC version of the game, because it wouldn't be good if not played from a couch, so it will be exclusive to XBOX360. So that's how a game proudly demoed on a PC became XBOX exclusive.

But later in December 2011, they decided, that after sinking the knife in the back of the PC gaming community, they now want to milk them for some money as well. You guessed, they announced they'll be releasing a PC version after all. But don't think for a moment that this PC version has anything to do with the one they demoed on a Quad Core processor back in 2006. No this is a cheap port of the XBOX360 version. This means that the graphics is dated, and there are no real time weather effects and tornadoes here. This is a console port where they didn't bother to add any value as "remedy" for the stab in the back. Even with all the overhead created by the PC drivers and APIs. The game only uses ~300MBytes of memory on a PC. The apologists will say that's because Remedy can optimize, but you don't need to optimize a game to run on 300mbytes of ram in 2012, everyone had multiples of that in their PC. This is simply a game tailored to the capabilities of the XBOX360.

With the knife in my back, I had the bleakest views of the game from the get-go. And seeing the poor graphics didn't help either. And on top of that I realized that the game is completely linear. Every fibre of my body told me, to not waste my time with it, just quit and forget. And had I done that I would've had no regrets at that point. But now I know that there is one saving grace for the game, the story.

So after the story started to become apparent the knife slowly halted it's twisting. And some other good aspects of the game come to the surface. Like the battles, with "monsters" I say battles, for they really felt more than just simple fights. You can only kill enemies in the game, if you break away the darkness protecting them with some sort of light source. And this lead to very interesting tactical dilemmas in the game. You can't just go guns blazing and be done with it, you have to formulate strategies to take down enemies. Killing enemies in the game is rewarding in itself, since it means your strategy was good.

Another strong point of the game is the soundtrack. It has some amazing original music, by the Poets of the Fall, and some other great tracks as well. I'll be eternally thankful to them, for introducing the music of Anna Ternheim to me.


+

• Interesting and original story, you truly want to explore it, you can't foresee the twists
• Gameplay (fighting)
• Music

-

• Graphics looks dated, the only thing makes it look better than the console version is the higher resolution and better filtering algorithms
• Linear corridor maps all the way.
• There is no variation in opponents, all the same henchmen from beginning to end
• The view is from a weird rotated angle, so in order to go straight you have to look to the side slightly. I always kept bumping into things or walking in a zigzag even after hours of play, it's so unnatural.
• I didn't much fancy the ending.
• The game ends unexpectedly, there is no indication that you're nearing the end, even the final bossfight is so easy that I thought that it was just a test or a first phase, and the real task comes only after, and then the end credits started to roll.

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 3/10
story/atmosphere: 9/10
gameplay/controls: 7/10

overall impression: 7/10

It's an enjoyable, and addictive game due to the story, but the technological leaps they teased with are nowhere to be found. This is not the game to boost the sales of quad-core processors. The only company I despise more after this is Papyrus entertainment (now iRacing), who truly only view gamers as coincows to milk for money. They even threatened modders with legal action who dared improve their games without them getting a piece of it.

 

[MavericK]

I started (and finished) Firewatch yesterday.

Not going to go into it too much because it would spoil it, but honestly I was pretty disappointed with the ending and ultimately it made the whole experience feel sort of meaningless. They developed the characters but didn't really play into that development much other than in some dialogue, which ultimately had no effect on the game whatsoever.

This game really exemplifies the term "walking simulator" as well...holy shit. At least it was short I guess...?

Overall...6/10 just because it was different than other games and not completely awful.

 

[zamardii12]

Doom (2016)

Ripped Imp in half with my bare hands.

10/10

Would rip again.

 

[Domingo]

Gears of War Remaster (PC version)

As a fan of the original, I had a fun time with it. That said, it doesn't feel like much of a real remaster. You have to compare it directly with the old version to notice the difference in graphical fidelity. It advertises that the game can run in 4K mode, which is 100% true. However even a GTX 1080 can't pull 60fps at that resolution. I think that's a little odd considering the many more graphically intensive games that can. Performance is generally strong, but there are portions of the game that bottom out to <30fps no matter what kind of hardware you have. They're few and far between (especially in action sequences) but they are there. This version includes all of the original game's DLC content, which is probably the best chapter in the game. It's also only $30, which isn't horrible. I don't really understand why they didn't include all 3 Gears games, though. Especially since 2 and 3 never made it to PC in the first place.

I'll give it a 6/10. It's a good game that feels like a money grab even at $30.

 

[M76]

Shadowrun Returns (2013)


(disclaimer: I originally posted this review 2013. 08. 13. on a now defunct site)

This game is a true Kickstarter success story, it raised almost five times the goal amount. And the developers delivered on their promise. They created an awesome game, this is what every kickstarter should be like. Of course I'm not saying that every game should be in this genre, but that every game should be this well put together, and delivered on time.

The game has a lot of common things, that are not so common to appear in a single game. It has Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Trolls, Orks, magic, spells, shamans, swords, all the ingredients of a fantasy game. But wait a minute, this is not a fantasy game, it's cyberpunk game set in a dystopian Seattle in the future. So these Dwarves are not limited to wielding war axes, but a shotgun wielding Ork is just as common a sight in the game. And of course there is hacking too. To me this is a truly awesome premise. What is better than having a cool looking shotgun wielding Ork hacker as your character?

The game is a classic rpg game, with isometric view, and turn based combat. If you knew Fallout 1, 2, or Jagged Alliance, you'll feel right at home with this game. But first thing's first, did I mention cool looking? Yes because the avatars of characters are not fancy 3d models, but truly classic 2d artwork. And they're beautifully made. Unfortunately the same cannot be said to the character's 3d representation in the game world, but this is conveniently masked by the limited ability to zoom in the game world. So you only see the characters from a bird's eye view, and from there it's really not as distracting, that they don't look much like their avatars apart from some exceptions.

The game has an extensive skill tree, that looks alarming at a first glance, but you get your bearings in a few minutes, and realize that it's really straightforward, and you'll only be upgrading a few of the skills depending on what direction you want to take your character. In my case I choose to be an Ork, with a keen ability to wield a shotgun, but later went on to add hacking to the resume as well. In most games I was never comfortable with choosing characters from other races because of their uncanny valley looks, but here the avatars are so well made that I didn't have that problem at all. And there is plenty of choose from as well.

The possibilities are numerous, you can be a close combat specialist, or choose to use ranged weapons. But you also can become a mage, or a shaman. And there is another specialization that allows you to use military drones in combat. And of course there is the hacker, but since hacking or decking as they call it here, is only useful in the matrix (if you're sighing now I have to tell you that shadowrun used the term long before the movie) there is not much point to develop your character to be a pure hacker.

Let's speak combat. As I mentioned it's turn based, that means each of your characters have a specific amount of action points to be able to perform things. And after you used up all the action points, or decide that you don't want to use any more, the controls are turned over to the enemy and it does the same. So it's a strategic game first. You have to position your squad in the right positions to be able to attack the enemies but still be fairly well protected. It's not wise to have one of your squad run out of action points in the middle of the battlefield. And there are dozens of offensive, and defensive spells and abilities that you can use, so the game is a tactician's paradise.

Curiously I read opposing statements in reviews about the actual difficulty of the game. According to eurogamer it's almost impossible to fail any fight in the game, while according to kotaku the combat is very difficult. In my opinion it's neither. It's certainly not very hard, and if you take the right characters and equipment on missions, then it's much closer to the easy side. So eurogamer has more truth to their story, but it's certainly not impossible to fail, if you're a little careless.

I haven't mentioned the way you recruit your crew before missions. Well actually for the beginning of the game you only get one or two guys to work with you and you can't choose them, but later it works like this: They throw a certain amount of money at you plus what you saved from earlier and you try to hire the best squad of runners possible. You can hire 3 people max, or you can even go in alone, but that's pretty much suicide even on the early missions. But you can save money if you go in with a three man squad instead of a four, but it's only recommended in the first few missions. The smart thing to do is to bring two tough combat characters, and two support guys who can cast spells from the background. But of course there are other ways to succeed as well, this is the strategy I used. Like in Jagged Alliance all mercs come with their own gear, but you can also give them other stuff from your stash. But contrary to that game, here the mercs are usually better equipped than you so you can't really give them much, apart maybe from medkits.

I also want to say a few words about hacking, becaue of it's unique nature. When you enter a computer system your avatar is transferred to a virtual world that looks much like the geth conciousness from mass efffect. Here you combat IC's and Intrusion detection programs much the same way as in the real world, but instead of real weapons you use attack programs. And another good thing about hacking it that usually while one or two characters are tied down within the matrix, the others have to defend them against real world threats. So in this case the turns are alternating between the real world and the virtual world.

As for the story, you get a pretty long campaign shipped with the game, and it's very well written, unfortunately due to the indie nature of the game there is no voiceover done for the game, so you have to read everything. Usually that's a big negative for me, but not this time. There are no walls of text in the game and the conversations are written better than many books I read, so it's like reading a good book. Especially because on occasion you don't just get said text, but a written description of events/characters as well. It's a small thing but it truly gives life to the 2d avatar drawings they almost get off the screen. And the story itself is interesting as well, from a simple whodunnit premise it grows into I won't tell you what, but it truly gets greater in scope.

Apart from the great potential to replay the game with a different character, the developers also have great hopes of the community. The game is shipped with a fully featured editor, that can be used to create your own story campaigns, for others to play out. Much like in real life role playing. I hope there will be a constant flow of decent stories from enthusiasts. And the developers are hard at work at new campaigns as well.

Another aspect of the game worth praising is the music, there aren't many tracks, but there are truly some great dramatic tunes in there, that fit the cyberpunk setting very well. It's similar to DeusEx, that had very good moody music as well.

But as I use to say there are no perfect games, and this one is not perfect either. Apart from the lack of voiceover, and the not so great graphics, there are a few problems worth a mention.

During combat sometimes the game just pauses for a few seconds during the AI's turn. It not happens often but it seems like the game froze , but it continues after 10-15 seconds. The save sytem is checkpoint based, which is a bummer, It wouldn't be hard to have a normal save system in a turn based game, since there are no dynamic things in it. Anyway saving is limited to the start of each level. (There are usually 3-4 levels within a mission) But the biggest problem with the save system I found out the hard way. It turns out if you load an earlier save that means you discard all saves that are newer than the one you're loading, there is no going back after loading an earlier point in the game.

The view is fixed, you can zoom in or out slightly but you can't turn it around, which means that some parts of the levels are always hidden from view, and there are no see trough walls as a help either. You have to fiddle blindly sometimes.

It's easy to mistakenly move your character to an enemy instead of attacking it, this is especially true when you're in the matrix. Looting and using things in the game world is difficult as well, it's really hard to click on the small icons, because they tend to disappear from time to time.

The mercs or runners you recruit have no personalities like in Jagged Alliance, they don't make remarks, their only trait is their avatar, and of course their abilities.

+

• 2D Drawings
• Story
• Perfectly balanced combat
• Truly immersive world mixing fantasy elements with cyberpunk
• Great writing
• Straightforward and easy to use UI.

-

• No voiceover
• Save system
• Sup par graphics for the characters in the game world
• Control issues
• The rest of the bugs and annoyances I mentioned
• The game is perfectly linear, no room for arbitrary exploration

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 7/10
story/atmosphere: 10/10
gameplay/controls: 9/10

overall impression: 9/10

This game is the proof that there is still hope for truly good games to be made, that are not crafted for corporate profit, but because the developers truly wanted to make it, and make it good.

 

[Armenius]

Shadowrun Returns (2013)


(disclaimer: I originally posted this review 2013. 08. 13. on a now defunct site)

This game is a true Kickstarter success story, it raised almost five times the goal amount. And the developers delivered on their promise. They created an awesome game, this is what every kickstarter should be like. Of course I'm not saying that every game should be in this genre, but that every game should be this well put together, and delivered on time.

The game has a lot of common things, that are not so common to appear in a single game. It has Elves, Humans, Dwarves, Trolls, Orks, magic, spells, shamans, swords, all the ingredients of a fantasy game. But wait a minute, this is not a fantasy game, it's cyberpunk game set in a dystopian Seattle in the future. So these Dwarves are not limited to wielding war axes, but a shotgun wielding Ork is just as common a sight in the game. And of course there is hacking too. To me this is a truly awesome premise. What is better than having a cool looking shotgun wielding Ork hacker as your character?

The game is a classic rpg game, with isometric view, and turn based combat. If you knew Fallout 1, 2, or Jagged Alliance, you'll feel right at home with this game. But first thing's first, did I mention cool looking? Yes because the avatars of characters are not fancy 3d models, but truly classic 2d artwork. And they're beautifully made. Unfortunately the same cannot be said to the character's 3d representation in the game world, but this is conveniently masked by the limited ability to zoom in the game world. So you only see the characters from a bird's eye view, and from there it's really not as distracting, that they don't look much like their avatars apart from some exceptions.

The game has an extensive skill tree, that looks alarming at a first glance, but you get your bearings in a few minutes, and realize that it's really straightforward, and you'll only be upgrading a few of the skills depending on what direction you want to take your character. In my case I choose to be an Ork, with a keen ability to wield a shotgun, but later went on to add hacking to the resume as well. In most games I was never comfortable with choosing characters from other races because of their uncanny valley looks, but here the avatars are so well made that I didn't have that problem at all. And there is plenty of choose from as well.

The possibilities are numerous, you can be a close combat specialist, or choose to use ranged weapons. But you also can become a mage, or a shaman. And there is another specialization that allows you to use military drones in combat. And of course there is the hacker, but since hacking or decking as they call it here, is only useful in the matrix (if you're sighing now I have to tell you that shadowrun used the term long before the movie) there is not much point to develop your character to be a pure hacker.

Let's speak combat. As I mentioned it's turn based, that means each of your characters have a specific amount of action points to be able to perform things. And after you used up all the action points, or decide that you don't want to use any more, the controls are turned over to the enemy and it does the same. So it's a strategic game first. You have to position your squad in the right positions to be able to attack the enemies but still be fairly well protected. It's not wise to have one of your squad run out of action points in the middle of the battlefield. And there are dozens of offensive, and defensive spells and abilities that you can use, so the game is a tactician's paradise.

Curiously I read opposing statements in reviews about the actual difficulty of the game. According to eurogamer it's almost impossible to fail any fight in the game, while according to kotaku the combat is very difficult. In my opinion it's neither. It's certainly not very hard, and if you take the right characters and equipment on missions, then it's much closer to the easy side. So eurogamer has more truth to their story, but it's certainly not impossible to fail, if you're a little careless.

I haven't mentioned the way you recruit your crew before missions. Well actually for the beginning of the game you only get one or two guys to work with you and you can't choose them, but later it works like this: They throw a certain amount of money at you plus what you saved from earlier and you try to hire the best squad of runners possible. You can hire 3 people max, or you can even go in alone, but that's pretty much suicide even on the early missions. But you can save money if you go in with a three man squad instead of a four, but it's only recommended in the first few missions. The smart thing to do is to bring two tough combat characters, and two support guys who can cast spells from the background. But of course there are other ways to succeed as well, this is the strategy I used. Like in Jagged Alliance all mercs come with their own gear, but you can also give them other stuff from your stash. But contrary to that game, here the mercs are usually better equipped than you so you can't really give them much, apart maybe from medkits.

I also want to say a few words about hacking, becaue of it's unique nature. When you enter a computer system your avatar is transferred to a virtual world that looks much like the geth conciousness from mass efffect. Here you combat IC's and Intrusion detection programs much the same way as in the real world, but instead of real weapons you use attack programs. And another good thing about hacking it that usually while one or two characters are tied down within the matrix, the others have to defend them against real world threats. So in this case the turns are alternating between the real world and the virtual world.

As for the story, you get a pretty long campaign shipped with the game, and it's very well written, unfortunately due to the indie nature of the game there is no voiceover done for the game, so you have to read everything. Usually that's a big negative for me, but not this time. There are no walls of text in the game and the conversations are written better than many books I read, so it's like reading a good book. Especially because on occasion you don't just get said text, but a written description of events/characters as well. It's a small thing but it truly gives life to the 2d avatar drawings they almost get off the screen. And the story itself is interesting as well, from a simple whodunnit premise it grows into I won't tell you what, but it truly gets greater in scope.

Apart from the great potential to replay the game with a different character, the developers also have great hopes of the community. The game is shipped with a fully featured editor, that can be used to create your own story campaigns, for others to play out. Much like in real life role playing. I hope there will be a constant flow of decent stories from enthusiasts. And the developers are hard at work at new campaigns as well.

Another aspect of the game worth praising is the music, there aren't many tracks, but there are truly some great dramatic tunes in there, that fit the cyberpunk setting very well. It's similar to DeusEx, that had very good moody music as well.

But as I use to say there are no perfect games, and this one is not perfect either. Apart from the lack of voiceover, and the not so great graphics, there are a few problems worth a mention.

During combat sometimes the game just pauses for a few seconds during the AI's turn. It not happens often but it seems like the game froze , but it continues after 10-15 seconds. The save sytem is checkpoint based, which is a bummer, It wouldn't be hard to have a normal save system in a turn based game, since there are no dynamic things in it. Anyway saving is limited to the start of each level. (There are usually 3-4 levels within a mission) But the biggest problem with the save system I found out the hard way. It turns out if you load an earlier save that means you discard all saves that are newer than the one you're loading, there is no going back after loading an earlier point in the game.

The view is fixed, you can zoom in or out slightly but you can't turn it around, which means that some parts of the levels are always hidden from view, and there are no see trough walls as a help either. You have to fiddle blindly sometimes.

It's easy to mistakenly move your character to an enemy instead of attacking it, this is especially true when you're in the matrix. Looting and using things in the game world is difficult as well, it's really hard to click on the small icons, because they tend to disappear from time to time.

The mercs or runners you recruit have no personalities like in Jagged Alliance, they don't make remarks, their only trait is their avatar, and of course their abilities.

+

• 2D Drawings
• Story
• Perfectly balanced combat
• Truly immersive world mixing fantasy elements with cyberpunk
• Great writing
• Straightforward and easy to use UI.

-

• No voiceover
• Save system
• Sup par graphics for the characters in the game world
• Control issues
• The rest of the bugs and annoyances I mentioned
• The game is perfectly linear, no room for arbitrary exploration

Scoring card:

graphics/realization: 7/10
story/atmosphere: 10/10
gameplay/controls: 9/10

overall impression: 9/10

This game is the proof that there is still hope for truly good games to be made, that are not crafted for corporate profit, but because the developers truly wanted to make it, and make it good.

I just picked up the complete Shadowrun bundle on the Steam sale. Plan to install and play this weekend.

 

[Airtrack]

Witcher 3 Blood and Wine

Not sure how they made it look better than the original but it's a lot brighter and colourful!
Menu system is so much better and the bosses are tougher.
Still wish you could talk to the main characters after beating the game.

Now in withdrawal just like with Game of Thrones =/

Awesome awesome game.

 

[chenw]

I just picked up the complete Shadowrun bundle on the Steam sale. Plan to install and play this weekend.

Just letting you know that, if you find yourself confused between "why can't I save now? I could a minute ago" conundrum, you need to have all of your characters stationary (IE, if you recently told your main PC to move, everyone on your team would have to move with you to the point where everyone has arrived at their destination and stops moving). You can't save the game if there is anyone in the middle of moving, but you can save in the middle of combat (during your turn).

 

[Morlock]

Resident Evil Revelations 2

I just finished RER2. I really enjoyed it. Definitely renewed my interest in RE after the steaming pile of shit that was RE6. My favorite RE game by far, but I'm a new convert; I started with RE5 (good), then played RE6 (really wanted to like it, but have little but contempt), then Revelations 1 (good), then Revelations 2 (better). I tried the RE1 remaster, but it was way too clunky for my taste. I'm looking forward to RE7, the RE2 remaster, the RE3 remaster if they make one, the Code Veronica remaster if they ever make one, and the fan remaster of RE4 (if they ever finish it, which I doubt; I don't know how long I'll be able to wait on them before I break down and play RE4 with just the village re-skin - it's looking like it's going to take them years to finish at this rate).

As for RER2, it's a solid action game with a side of horror. I think they should move the Revelation lines to the forefront, instead of relegating it to a lower-budget side line. Beef the series up a bit, give it more story, the cutscene/voice acting/mocap love that RE6 got, and I think you've got a real winner. Innovation is over-rated, I enjoy these games for the immersion and the story.

Don't get pissed off with the stupid flamethrower sequence early on and switch over to "casual" like I did. I would have enjoyed the game more on normal difficulty, I think.

 

[Morlock]

I Am Alive

I finished this a couple years ago, I'd guess, but I highly recommend it anyway. An odd little gem of a game. I installed it, played it for a few minutes, hated it, and uninstalled it, cursing whoever designed such a broken PoS. Much later, someone on the webz (maybe at RPS?) sang its praises, and I decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did, because once you figure out how the game works, it can really suck you in. It's almost a puzzle game, in that you have to replay the segments just so to beat them. The climbing is really well-designed, and is the feature "puzzle" format.

 

[Morlock]

I was very skeptical on how it would play out, by them changing it from not only a WWII formula, but fast forwarding it to the 60's and creating a setting that could be a plausible outlook on what would happen if the Nazis weren't stopped.

Yes, cybernetic dogs, hulking space-marine-like iron man nazis, 50' tall nazi robots, huge nazi robot quadrupeds, kilometer-high nazi castles...very plausible.

 

[Nenu]

Freecell.
A bit boring tbh, cant seem to lose.
Started playing a couple of weeks ago, 84 wins, 0 losses.
Next.

 

[Lifelite]

Rocket League (if it counts as finishing)

I have 400 hours in the game and I'm still no where close to being tired of playing it.

This is probably the best simple game I've ever played in my life....even better than snake on Nokia phones!!!

 

[Airtrack]

Mirrors Edge Catalyst

Never played the first but this one looks nice but no story line. Basically just run away and only fight when the door won't open until you defeat the enemies.
No replay value at all but the running mechanics are pretty good

 

[M76]

Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force (2000)

Your very own Voyager Episode

Yep, that's right, that is what this game is. At least it felt like that for me. Through the whole play-through I felt like I was taking active part in a real episode of the show. And one of the better ones at that.

However I wouldn't recommend the game to someone who is not a devoted Voyager fan, because that's the real value in it. The references to the show, and the characters that we became so fond of in seven years. And almost all the major characters appear in the game, voiced by the actors who actually played them in the series, so that's a big plus. Usually they don't pay attention to this in VG adaptations. Especially in a game this old, when the budget of video games were a fraction of what it is today.

If you haven't played the game back when it came out, and you're a big fan of the show, I'd recommend that you give it a try, even though the graphics are dated. But hey, its a fair price to pay to be able to roam freely in voyager's corridors (this feature only becomes available after you install the latest patch for the game) Also if you can look past the graphics there is a very decent storyline, which would've made an excellent two-hour episode for the real show too.

Unfortunately the game-play can be a bit boring at times towards the end, but its worth fighting your way through, for those very special Voyager moments.

8 out of 10

 

[scojer]

Thief (2014) I enjoyed it, almost as much as dishonored. It was a decent storyline with some nice nods to the original. It was a bit too hand-holdy for me though. 7/10

Far Cry 4 - This was a freaking blast! It was everything Far Cry 3 wanted to be but better. Great gameplay, great voice acting, and just had a blast the whole time. 9/10

Killzone Shadow Fall - Killzone has been hit or miss with me, this was dirt cheap so I got it. The story was alright, a little slow paced. The graphics were great. I did not like the ending though. I haven't tried the multiplayer. Based on SP alone: 6/10

The Order 1886 - Great graphics, those alone are 9/10. The game play was fun, a bit clunky on the climbing side. The story line though, it was short, but paced well. They had so much potential though. I was so excited when the crate was pried open revealing the vampire inside, but sorely disappointed when the credits rolled and that was THE ONLY ONE you see the whole game. They would of been fun to battle against. I hope they make a sequel. If so, this game gets an 8/10. If not, 6/10.

Uncharted 4 - The second best in the Uncharted series yet, next to Uncharted 2. Very well done plot, great graphics, have you seen those sun shafts? Especially when smoke goes through them! 9/10

 

[M76]

Far Cry 4 - This was a freaking blast! It was everything Far Cry 3 wanted to be but better. Great gameplay, great voice acting, and just had a blast the whole time. 9/10

Somehow I totally forgot about this game, when it came out I had dual 290X cards in crossfire, and it ran like shit, totally unplayable, it was actually slower with crossfire enabled. And I'm not someone who'd lower graphics settings, no way. So I put it aside and forgot. I might re-visit it, but I already have a lot of games in my backlog.

 

[zamardii12]

Resident Evil Revelations 2

I just finished RER2. I really enjoyed it. Definitely renewed my interest in RE after the steaming pile of shit that was RE6. My favorite RE game by far, but I'm a new convert; I started with RE5 (good), then played RE6 (really wanted to like it, but have little but contempt), then Revelations 1 (good), then Revelations 2 (better). I tried the RE1 remaster, but it was way too clunky for my taste. I'm looking forward to RE7, the RE2 remaster, the RE3 remaster if they make one, the Code Veronica remaster if they ever make one, and the fan remaster of RE4 (if they ever finish it, which I doubt; I don't know how long I'll be able to wait on them before I break down and play RE4 with just the village re-skin - it's looking like it's going to take them years to finish at this rate).

As for RER2, it's a solid action game with a side of horror. I think they should move the Revelation lines to the forefront, instead of relegating it to a lower-budget side line. Beef the series up a bit, give it more story, the cutscene/voice acting/mocap love that RE6 got, and I think you've got a real winner. Innovation is over-rated, I enjoy these games for the immersion and the story.

Don't get pissed off with the stupid flamethrower sequence early on and switch over to "casual" like I did. I would have enjoyed the game more on normal difficulty, I think.

They're re-releasing Resident Evil 4 later this year. If you thought REmake was too clunky RE 2 will be more of the same.

 

[scojer]

Somehow I totally forgot about this game, when it came out I had dual 290X cards in crossfire, and it ran like shit, totally unplayable, it was actually slower with crossfire enabled. And I'm not someone who'd lower graphics settings, no way. So I put it aside and forgot. I might re-visit it, but I already have a lot of games in my backlog.

You should! Once I started I couldn't stop, I had that much fun. The only other far cry to do that was the first one. The levels in Shangri-La were my favorite though. Ubisoft really knows how to tell stories.