Technical problems aside, I had a pretty good time with Inversion. Out of all the firth person sci-fi military shooters I've played, this one wears its influence (that being Gears of War) openly the most. Staying behind cover and inching forward after each wave of enemy is cleared is essential to surviving in this game since you can get taken out in a matter of seconds from enemy fire, sometimes even when you're hiding behind pillars and barricades.

There's far too many cutscenes and reused bosses, but the gravity powers are neat. Being able to grab enemies and smash them into the ground or throw them back at each other is a lot of fun. I especially liked the gasoline bubbles, even if they are just another form of exploding barrel. I didn't find the heavy power to be very useful beyond the occasional instance of using it for puzzle solving or creating new cover to hide behind.

Vanquish is absolutely wild. The amount of bullets flying in all directions at any given time is insane. Playing the game as intended by sliding around from cover to cover and using your slowmo ability by dodging, sliding or meleeing enemies will inevitably lead to damage being taken and even a few (or a lot of in my case) lives lost.

I wish the health system was a little more clear since sometimes I'd have full boost meter and still die instantly to an explosion, and other times it'd just put me in a critical state. Also another small problem I had was the walking bits for dialogue exposition. The story is crazy and fast paced, but it isn't THAT deep. Trying to give the player these slower moments in a very arcadey style shooter is a bit disjoined.

I also didn't end up sticking with any of the more gimmicky guns like the saw blade shooter, aerial lock on bow, or energy ball blaster. An assault rifle, heavy machine gun, and rocket launcher worked great, especially with the upgrade system where picking up duplicates and upgrade cubes would increase their power, ammo pool, or other attributes to the weapons.

Overall though, very fun shooter that flashes that Platinum level flair in its cutscenes and pure spectacle during gameplay.

This game absolutely rocks. Other than a kind of slow and boring turret escort mission and an abrupt ending, the game moves so quickly, helped by its 5-6 hour campaign. The story is serviceable.

Gun selection is small, but there's some really cool ones, especially the designs of them. I especially like how some of them seem to alter their appearance with upgrades. The cover based gameplay is given a little shakeup too compared to normal Gears of War type combat with hiding vertically on ledges and shooting up or downward. The small shift in gravity and perspective leads to some creative enemy disposal methods like tossing a grenade up, or just climbing over the ledge and punching the guys in the face.

The star of the show though is the jetpack which is so cool. After being given the ability to fly, levels open up and let you boost around freely in the skies and land on the ground to just take in the landscapes. While I wish more levels took advantage of this, I think the novelty of some large scale base siege set pieces is neat. Taking out turrets around and then flying into the base to wreck it and its forces from the inside is such a huge power fantasy. I like this one a lot, might not go back to it anytime soon, but I'll definitely be thinking about it for a while.

I had a lot of high hopes for Hydrophobia: Prophecy. The character design, unintentionally funny dialogue and voice acting, basic military shooter story, low review scores, and gimmick of water physics manipulation really checked every box of what I look for in my firth person shooter games.

The only box it didn't check though was it being actually fun to play. Most of the game is spent scanning way points on walls with a scan pad, then doing Batman Arkham City style wavelength puzzles, and finally doing a bit of Uncharted style scripted climbing sequences, finished off with a little underwater swimming sections. The first 2 chapters (out of 3) have very same-y environments, filled with a lot of elevator shafts and air vent crawling.

When you do get to do shooting, combat feels very bad with your starter charge pistol ammo being the best in the game. I had no incentive or reason to use any other ammunition until the final (and only) boss which suddenly asks the player to use the electric ammo. You also don't even get your water powers until the last 10 minutes of the 3 hour campaign.

I didn't like this one very much... But I will say the water physics are very impressive. The way the amount remains consistent when filling a room up or emptying it out into an adjacent room does showcase some quality engineering.

F.E.A.R. made me afraid. Not of the scary ghosts, but of every combat encounter. I would say I played most of this game incorrectly since I have a certain way of going through shooters. Run and gun, blast up the ass fast action. While you can get away with doing that to an extent, you can't do it forever as you'll soon feel yourself hurting for medkits and armor very quickly.

It's been said before, but the enemy AI really is the number one reason to play this game. They'll split up to flank you, run forward when they have you cornered, liberally throw grenades to flush you out, and overall just making each encounter a very dynamic experience. It's not fast paced at all, which is something I had to adjust to after playing Vanquish. There isn't even a single boss, which isn't a problem, it's just something to keep in mind going into this.

The story felt very "part one" though, seeming more like a setup for potential sequels. It's delivered well enough, but the big bad guy is tossed aside during the last chapter in favor of establishing a new threat that, judging by the cover of each game going forward, will be causing problems here on out.

I like this one though, it left me wanting to see where the series goes. I might even try out those DLC campaigns while I'm at it. (Also I lied, the scary ghosts scared me as well.)

Back Alley Chronicle is a real mixed bag. On one hand I love how detailed the environment is with all the individual NPC's you can interact with (some sporting funny objects for heads,) the fully packed details at each booth, the use of warm colors and nostalgic filter bringing back memories of Summer vacations long since past, and the dynamic music that plays as you get closer to and further away from the broccoli band. It's all such a mood, and the added inclusion of a first person view really helps you get fully immersed in this quaint little Japanese book fair festival. The last act of the game is also such an unnerving and surreal experience that sort of comes out of left field since up to that point the game had no real hint of existential horror to it. I loved it mostly; more on what pulled me out of it at the end.

My biggest problem with the game though is the bulk of the main gameplay content is doing fetch quests around the single map of twisting and looping alleyways. At the halfway point of the game, the major questline becomes retrieving 7 books for someone, only to find out each NPC that has one requires a separate fetch quest for you to perform to get that single book from them. Some are easier than others, but it doesn't detract from how repetitive it all ended up feeling, along with the occasional bit of running around unaware of what to do to progress.

Coming back to that part about the ending, I unfortunately encountered a major technical bug at the very end (along with many other soft locks throughout my playtime) that prevented me from finishing on the current build, but I was able to see it through to the end on the beta branch. Because of that I don't fully know how the story wraps up since the characters only said "I've arrived" and "Forgot," but I was able to see the credits roll at least.

Despite all that though, I still think this is pretty great, and with time and updates could really wow me. The dev already promises on the Steam page that there'll be more chapters to come, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what else happens with this little sweet indie game.