JosephS
Bio
I like videogames so some of my reviews are sorta generous. My rating scale is basically Industry Standard, over 3 stars I didn't regret the time playing it, under 2 stars I probably did.
I like videogames so some of my reviews are sorta generous. My rating scale is basically Industry Standard, over 3 stars I didn't regret the time playing it, under 2 stars I probably did.
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Only played a few minutes of this celebrated "modernized" gzdoom shooter. Mechanically this is a much more vanilla doomlike than the presentation would have you believe, but it's tuned opposite of what makes doom gameplay interesting. Hitscan enemies slide around the map at random(?) and play audio barks, you keep up sustained hits with your chaingun to stun them and prevent damage. There's also an incredibly bad feeling quick slide kick maneuever, and some nice feeling knockback/knockdown behavior on enemies with melee.
In addition there's a lot of really bad fluff here -- at least in the first map, there are various interactables to flesh out the world but they do nothing and are placed unnaturally. There's no versimillitude in box colliders that play animations.
In addition there's a lot of really bad fluff here -- at least in the first map, there are various interactables to flesh out the world but they do nothing and are placed unnaturally. There's no versimillitude in box colliders that play animations.
A lot of people talk about this game in terms of what it brings to the AAA open-world format, but I think the opposite lens is a lot more interesting:
What's the popcorn-ification of dark souls like? Real good!
Feels like a game a kid would design. The map zooming out trick is probably the best single idea in the last decade of game design. Mini dungeons as farcry base style riffs on the same types of enemies are great. The length and difficulty curve are really fun too -- why not have like 30 more hours of increasingly difficult bosses after a game with any sense would have ended? Often very long winded but delightful throughout.
Small disclaimer: I had the benefit of playing through this entire game with no responsibilities, through (almost the entire) gap before starting a new job, which I think helped me appreciate some of the excesses -- long stretches of (very good!) filler content, sometimes without warning, might deflate a player who is in a hurry to get to the next real thing.
What's the popcorn-ification of dark souls like? Real good!
Feels like a game a kid would design. The map zooming out trick is probably the best single idea in the last decade of game design. Mini dungeons as farcry base style riffs on the same types of enemies are great. The length and difficulty curve are really fun too -- why not have like 30 more hours of increasingly difficult bosses after a game with any sense would have ended? Often very long winded but delightful throughout.
Small disclaimer: I had the benefit of playing through this entire game with no responsibilities, through (almost the entire) gap before starting a new job, which I think helped me appreciate some of the excesses -- long stretches of (very good!) filler content, sometimes without warning, might deflate a player who is in a hurry to get to the next real thing.
This game is so cool. A super earnest top down freelancer-like with an audatious licensed soundtrack. Some people say this game is like "freelancer + an adventure game" but at least as far as I got there are no actual adventure game mechanics, just an almost monkey-island fanart style structure for interacting with shipyards (including monkey island style jokes.) Fwiw this is great, I'm totally charmed by it.
Three stars, though, because there's not really all that much to playing it. This is a problem with more grown up space sims too -- nominally you're doing exciting things (smuggling, scavenging, navigating, dogfighting) but ultimately you're just flying half circles and watching healthbars or timers tick down. The most you can hope for is a really interesting economy, but at least as far as I got (to the half million + ships, maybe under halfway thru?) that's pretty flat too.
Everything moment to moment is incredibly competent -- it's polished and most actions feel great. But it's ultimately not a game about doing anything, just passing time.
Three stars, though, because there's not really all that much to playing it. This is a problem with more grown up space sims too -- nominally you're doing exciting things (smuggling, scavenging, navigating, dogfighting) but ultimately you're just flying half circles and watching healthbars or timers tick down. The most you can hope for is a really interesting economy, but at least as far as I got (to the half million + ships, maybe under halfway thru?) that's pretty flat too.
Everything moment to moment is incredibly competent -- it's polished and most actions feel great. But it's ultimately not a game about doing anything, just passing time.