Gramotek
4 reviews liked by Gramotek
Elden Ring
2022
A game so good and well made it ruined my love for video games for over a year. Finishing this blackpilled me to the entire medium. The industry is in a state of too big to succeed as far as I am concerned. I have been wailing at the constant state of disappointment in the gaming industry for close to a decade and this game showed me how great and imaginative games use to be in a way that completely changed my feelings to the medium as a whole.
Pistol Whip
2019
I lost 20lbs pretty much just playing this and Synth Riders, so I'm biased but this is definitely a must have for VR.
Until You Fall
2020
Incredibly uninspired roguelite that both has no personality with the same few generic mobs and bland locations repeated ad nauseum absent of any reason to care about what's happening, and that leans into the worst traits of roguelites (many of the upgrades you find on runs amount to just soullessly making numbers go up; an over-emphasis on grinding for meta-progress).
I like the physicality of VR enough that maybe I'd be able to forgive some of these problems if the actual moment-to-moment gameplay was more enjoyable, however; turning round and moving towards enemies feels very awkward, any time you're fighting more than one enemy at once is hell as the game simply isn't built for it, due to this previous problem any time there's more than one enemy near you there's a constant anxiety that the game will make the second enemy engage you in the middle of combat, too often the combat feels like random flailing when you're not being asked to actively parry, occasionally attacks just won't register, once dodging is introduced to the mix it's far too easy for the dodge and parry indicators to be lost amongst the visual's intense love of bloom.
I didn't play much and it's possible some of these problems improve after a while, or that some of the later content is more engaging, but wow this experience sucked.
I like the physicality of VR enough that maybe I'd be able to forgive some of these problems if the actual moment-to-moment gameplay was more enjoyable, however; turning round and moving towards enemies feels very awkward, any time you're fighting more than one enemy at once is hell as the game simply isn't built for it, due to this previous problem any time there's more than one enemy near you there's a constant anxiety that the game will make the second enemy engage you in the middle of combat, too often the combat feels like random flailing when you're not being asked to actively parry, occasionally attacks just won't register, once dodging is introduced to the mix it's far too easy for the dodge and parry indicators to be lost amongst the visual's intense love of bloom.
I didn't play much and it's possible some of these problems improve after a while, or that some of the later content is more engaging, but wow this experience sucked.
This review contains spoilers
This is a game website, but that game easily could be a movie and nothing would change. We call it a "telltale game", but at least in a real telltale, your choices matters.
The only relevant choice in the entire game is the last one, and the game makes a real good job to make it very clear, that kill an entire city (and possibly continuing to
destroying other places) to save 1 person is the good ending decision, and let her die is the bad one.
The maximum this game deserves is 3.0, but the ending and the absolute zero relevance to all the choices you did, gave the game -1.0, and, in the end, i even think is too much high.
The only relevant choice in the entire game is the last one, and the game makes a real good job to make it very clear, that kill an entire city (and possibly continuing to
destroying other places) to save 1 person is the good ending decision, and let her die is the bad one.
The maximum this game deserves is 3.0, but the ending and the absolute zero relevance to all the choices you did, gave the game -1.0, and, in the end, i even think is too much high.
