Lyadh
2010
The city of Moscow left scorched by nuclear holocaust was no longer a livable space, even if it was possible to deal with the hordes of deadly mutants the air itself turned toxic and forced everyone deep underground. And even in these underground Metro Tunnels of Moscow, the human spirit still perseveres, they want to live like they always did and bring with it all the good and bad. The hope for the future even in this irradiated wasteland not letting go of the very things that makes us human, and on the other hand reigniting a century old deadly conflict of ideologies. Stations putting up an united front against all the odds to protect everyone and people dedicating themselves to looting and senseless violence.
Seeing it all in our journey to protect our home station and by extension the entire Moscow underground Metro against the Dark ones who seem to be affecting our strongest asset our minds, but in all this comes a question of the human soul, in all that a need to go forward and a call to answer to maybe grasp something exceptional or maybe human nature will foil us again.
Metros atmosphere and story does an incredible job of putting forward these themes in a surprisingly complex system of internal politics underneath a hostile world.
And all this works despite the gameplay’s attempts to break my will to continue playing, it tries to be a cinematic linear experience but it doesn't have the chops to produce the cool moments and setpieces needed for that to work, it just breaks up the gameplay again and again for dull moments like turret sections, following someone for extended periods of time, or pressing switches. The cutscenes breaking up the flow is all the more weird because Artyom is a silent protagonist in cutscenes and dialogue but he speaks in chapter transition screens? Why give him a voice but notably voice him in sections where his input would have elevated the scenes, its a weird compromise that feels like the worst of both worlds. And I can say that for the game play as well, the gameplay has the jank of something more open, expansive and ambitious but wants it to feel like a curated linear experience.
There’s some good systems here and there. The guns feel nice to shoot and have instant impact, the enemies when placed in a well calibrated manner makes for a very fun and tense experience, if you play on Ranger Easy or Hardcore, otherwise it's kind of easy and the enemies bullet spongey . But that’s the issue, it's extremely poorly balanced, the ammo is meant to be rare but on some levels I would get a ton and other times I won't get any. Same for gas filters I was softlocked multiple times because I couldn't take off my mask during certain sections and when I actually needed it was empty, in fact there was a section where I died cause the game just wouldn’t let me put on the gas mask.
And the less said about the stealth the better, the game doesn’t have a stealth system, it just pretends it has one. Sometimes enemies will be alerted from far beyond and with random shit. It just doesn't work in any capacity beyond just hope you don’t run into the enemies, you have no stealth tools, environmental interaction is minimal and it’s just not enjoyable when enemies don't even have a cooldown.
The world does call to me, I will be back in the Metros to play Last Light but I would love to never face the amoebas ever again.
Seeing it all in our journey to protect our home station and by extension the entire Moscow underground Metro against the Dark ones who seem to be affecting our strongest asset our minds, but in all this comes a question of the human soul, in all that a need to go forward and a call to answer to maybe grasp something exceptional or maybe human nature will foil us again.
Metros atmosphere and story does an incredible job of putting forward these themes in a surprisingly complex system of internal politics underneath a hostile world.
And all this works despite the gameplay’s attempts to break my will to continue playing, it tries to be a cinematic linear experience but it doesn't have the chops to produce the cool moments and setpieces needed for that to work, it just breaks up the gameplay again and again for dull moments like turret sections, following someone for extended periods of time, or pressing switches. The cutscenes breaking up the flow is all the more weird because Artyom is a silent protagonist in cutscenes and dialogue but he speaks in chapter transition screens? Why give him a voice but notably voice him in sections where his input would have elevated the scenes, its a weird compromise that feels like the worst of both worlds. And I can say that for the game play as well, the gameplay has the jank of something more open, expansive and ambitious but wants it to feel like a curated linear experience.
There’s some good systems here and there. The guns feel nice to shoot and have instant impact, the enemies when placed in a well calibrated manner makes for a very fun and tense experience, if you play on Ranger Easy or Hardcore, otherwise it's kind of easy and the enemies bullet spongey . But that’s the issue, it's extremely poorly balanced, the ammo is meant to be rare but on some levels I would get a ton and other times I won't get any. Same for gas filters I was softlocked multiple times because I couldn't take off my mask during certain sections and when I actually needed it was empty, in fact there was a section where I died cause the game just wouldn’t let me put on the gas mask.
And the less said about the stealth the better, the game doesn’t have a stealth system, it just pretends it has one. Sometimes enemies will be alerted from far beyond and with random shit. It just doesn't work in any capacity beyond just hope you don’t run into the enemies, you have no stealth tools, environmental interaction is minimal and it’s just not enjoyable when enemies don't even have a cooldown.
The world does call to me, I will be back in the Metros to play Last Light but I would love to never face the amoebas ever again.
2014
This review contains spoilers
Ah, Alien Isolation I wanted to love you but you wouldn’t let me.
Being hunted by a predator, through the width of an unknown and hostile space station, where the only way to progress is to come out and enter the very area it stalks makes for one hell of a horror game sell. Especially since I have heard for years how intelligent the Alien in this game was.
I was one of the rare existence who played the game before watching the movie(s) , but I didn’t finish it back then, I didn’t even make it past the first quarter of the game at that time, I didn’t drop it for any particular reason, just got distracted by something else.
But this time I was ready, watched Alien and Aliens to prepare, (Alien is pretty great) and now with enough context and excitement I headed in again.
Games dont really need to look better than this
The game started and I was hooked, the Nostromo-like ship I was in at the start I just loved looking around it. It was the ship I just saw in the movie, the game does a fantastic job of translating the movie’s feel into the game itself. Even after landing on the Sevastopol Station , the game did a great job of expanding on the already fantastic aesthetics of the movie. CRT’s everywhere and all the tech has a solid, cube like look to it, with blinking lights everywhere, 80s vision of the future. They had access to the original art for the movie and made something amazing out of it, the art direction is both unique and having such a strong backbone for the graphics and being technically one of the best looking if not the best looking game of its time means this game has aged phenomenally well visuals wise. The station feels like it's active and has been active, the smoke coming out of the pipes, something in the station is always in motion, no part of the station lacks detail, even in the lockers to hide in, there’s variety in what you find stuck inside the locker wall. The lighting that moves between clinical looking hospital like and the yellow hue of the star. The effects are another part of the game that stands out to me, the thick smoke, the fire, and even the dust particles moving around inside this station is what completes Alien Isolation’s visuals. Moving through the numerous dark corridors and hallways of the stations as the light of my flamethrower turns the environment, a shade of orange I thought “ Do games really need to look better than this ?” . I mean the game does use some tricks, turning off all the post processing can show the game’s age a bit, it uses both film grain and chromatic aberration heavily, but why would you when it’s so tastefully implemented. The game uses a lot of fog everywhere dunno if it's a thing to hide rendering or just a choice on the designer’s part and its Anti Aliasing is kinda awful and these 2 are the only technical complaints I have about it.
The real shortcomings in this department are 2 things, the human characters aren’t that well done, not bad for their time but definitely not on par with the rest, there is a stiffness with the character animation, poor lip syncing and animations.
But that’s not my main problem with the visuals, that would be the lack of variety, after a point the environments of the game started to blend together for me, they didn’t really switch it up with different styles to different floors, I mean it does have variety but that comes too late in the game, when you have already backtracked through the station once.
Sevastapol is never quiet
But the sound design, that’s one thing that never got old, the station is always filled with sounds of machinery and the systems running, every area is filled with hum and buzz. And when there are weird noises around you it's hard to tell if it’s because the Alien’s nearby or because this station is falling apart. Everything has a nice tactile feel to it, the machines work loudly which makes the interactions both satisfying and nerve wracking as you know the alien will hear the sound and come to investigate. The sound effects are layered and immersive and the music reminds me of the movie in bits and builds up tension in other parts but never overtakes ambience. It can get scary enough in the right conditions that I hid even when there was no actual threat present in the area.
The enemies both the Alien and the Androids, always kept me on edge, and a lot of it was due to the sounds they made. The Androids also look creepy as fuck.
The station was already fucked, the Alien was still the worst thing that could happen to it
The overall atmosphere is enhanced by everything surrounding the presentation, Sevstapol and Seegson are no Weyland Yutani, with constant cost management and corner cuttings, they are much less the inhumane evil of Weyland Yutani, but when shit goes fucky there’s a more mundane reason to it all, it's clear humans are working on this ship, greedy humans always looking to one up one another but humans nonetheless. But this has caused the ship which was already in an awful condition before the arrival of the Alien to become hostile even without its presence, the humans have formed groups attacking and warning anyone they see, everyone is on edge. The androids which have some awful programming due to the mentioned cost cutting are quick to attack humans due to just about anything, a problem known much before the alien threat materialized. Things were so bad the whole station was decommissioned days before we arrive.
Too long, Too one note
But I will stop my praise there. By the time I was done with the game I was exhausted, annoyed and bored with the game. This game is too frustratingly linear progression wise and lacking in depth gameplay wise to carry a game for this long. For exactly half of the game I kept thinking “I should be near the end now”, let's get the Alien praise out of the way, the AI of the Alien is great for a large part of the game I was always on edge thinking where the Alien could be, its erratic way of moving around the areas, its patience in sniffing out it’s Prey, and the way it tries to fool the player into thinking its leaving before jumping back down, all of its activities , its heightened senses and its ability to learn makes this a game of nerves and outwitting the opponent.
There’s basically nothing to interact with in the environment that won't progress the story, yes there are vents and and some panels controlling minor parts of the environment. But that’s it you can't turn off lights, you can’t hack anything the environment to work differently, pick up and throw items, move anything in the levels, or even fucking jump. Sneaking around in locations already decided for you, for over two dozen hours got boring in less than half that time, also the Alien being that hard of an opponent while being great at the start slowly got annoying. While hiding in a locker you can't do anything, if I could check the map, listen to voices or anything that would have made parts of the game significantly less dull. As the game went on I got more and more frustrated with this awful shallow stealth system and as my frustration grew I got caught by the Alien more and more and I wasn't scared of the Alien any longer, only annoyed at losing a few minutes of progress and then the game went on for several hours more. And when this game loses its ability to scare it loses its gameplay hook.
The gameplay loop is simple and the only thing separating it from being a chore is the fear of the Alien lurking (and the tactile feel of working the machinery do be kinda satisfying), explore, hide, do minigames and qte’s for 25 Hours while nothing happens to shake up the gameplay vast majority of the time, like new more fun things are there in later parts, combat and more enemies different environments but its too little too late.
The robots are creepy for a bit but they are even less engaging than the Alien, and even when they felt like a breath of fresh air after so many Alien encounters, but even this section went on for too long.
This might be the single worst paced game I have completed, it's almost twice as long as it needs to be and there’s multiple sections of this game that I thought the game would be better off just getting rid of.
And the story itself takes all the way to the last parts of the game to get going fully which is a shame cause I actually like it a lot, I feel like MArlow the game’s antagonist is a really well written character, the whole thing is well written but stretched too thin.
There’s a good well paced game in here somewhere, that game is not this, it's always disappointing to see a game that has so much going for it just completely fail at parts to the point of getting in the way of what is clearly good about it. Its a marvel that Alien Isolation exists, I will never give this game the time of day ever again.
Being hunted by a predator, through the width of an unknown and hostile space station, where the only way to progress is to come out and enter the very area it stalks makes for one hell of a horror game sell. Especially since I have heard for years how intelligent the Alien in this game was.
I was one of the rare existence who played the game before watching the movie(s) , but I didn’t finish it back then, I didn’t even make it past the first quarter of the game at that time, I didn’t drop it for any particular reason, just got distracted by something else.
But this time I was ready, watched Alien and Aliens to prepare, (Alien is pretty great) and now with enough context and excitement I headed in again.
Games dont really need to look better than this
The game started and I was hooked, the Nostromo-like ship I was in at the start I just loved looking around it. It was the ship I just saw in the movie, the game does a fantastic job of translating the movie’s feel into the game itself. Even after landing on the Sevastopol Station , the game did a great job of expanding on the already fantastic aesthetics of the movie. CRT’s everywhere and all the tech has a solid, cube like look to it, with blinking lights everywhere, 80s vision of the future. They had access to the original art for the movie and made something amazing out of it, the art direction is both unique and having such a strong backbone for the graphics and being technically one of the best looking if not the best looking game of its time means this game has aged phenomenally well visuals wise. The station feels like it's active and has been active, the smoke coming out of the pipes, something in the station is always in motion, no part of the station lacks detail, even in the lockers to hide in, there’s variety in what you find stuck inside the locker wall. The lighting that moves between clinical looking hospital like and the yellow hue of the star. The effects are another part of the game that stands out to me, the thick smoke, the fire, and even the dust particles moving around inside this station is what completes Alien Isolation’s visuals. Moving through the numerous dark corridors and hallways of the stations as the light of my flamethrower turns the environment, a shade of orange I thought “ Do games really need to look better than this ?” . I mean the game does use some tricks, turning off all the post processing can show the game’s age a bit, it uses both film grain and chromatic aberration heavily, but why would you when it’s so tastefully implemented. The game uses a lot of fog everywhere dunno if it's a thing to hide rendering or just a choice on the designer’s part and its Anti Aliasing is kinda awful and these 2 are the only technical complaints I have about it.
The real shortcomings in this department are 2 things, the human characters aren’t that well done, not bad for their time but definitely not on par with the rest, there is a stiffness with the character animation, poor lip syncing and animations.
But that’s not my main problem with the visuals, that would be the lack of variety, after a point the environments of the game started to blend together for me, they didn’t really switch it up with different styles to different floors, I mean it does have variety but that comes too late in the game, when you have already backtracked through the station once.
Sevastapol is never quiet
But the sound design, that’s one thing that never got old, the station is always filled with sounds of machinery and the systems running, every area is filled with hum and buzz. And when there are weird noises around you it's hard to tell if it’s because the Alien’s nearby or because this station is falling apart. Everything has a nice tactile feel to it, the machines work loudly which makes the interactions both satisfying and nerve wracking as you know the alien will hear the sound and come to investigate. The sound effects are layered and immersive and the music reminds me of the movie in bits and builds up tension in other parts but never overtakes ambience. It can get scary enough in the right conditions that I hid even when there was no actual threat present in the area.
The enemies both the Alien and the Androids, always kept me on edge, and a lot of it was due to the sounds they made. The Androids also look creepy as fuck.
The station was already fucked, the Alien was still the worst thing that could happen to it
The overall atmosphere is enhanced by everything surrounding the presentation, Sevstapol and Seegson are no Weyland Yutani, with constant cost management and corner cuttings, they are much less the inhumane evil of Weyland Yutani, but when shit goes fucky there’s a more mundane reason to it all, it's clear humans are working on this ship, greedy humans always looking to one up one another but humans nonetheless. But this has caused the ship which was already in an awful condition before the arrival of the Alien to become hostile even without its presence, the humans have formed groups attacking and warning anyone they see, everyone is on edge. The androids which have some awful programming due to the mentioned cost cutting are quick to attack humans due to just about anything, a problem known much before the alien threat materialized. Things were so bad the whole station was decommissioned days before we arrive.
Too long, Too one note
But I will stop my praise there. By the time I was done with the game I was exhausted, annoyed and bored with the game. This game is too frustratingly linear progression wise and lacking in depth gameplay wise to carry a game for this long. For exactly half of the game I kept thinking “I should be near the end now”, let's get the Alien praise out of the way, the AI of the Alien is great for a large part of the game I was always on edge thinking where the Alien could be, its erratic way of moving around the areas, its patience in sniffing out it’s Prey, and the way it tries to fool the player into thinking its leaving before jumping back down, all of its activities , its heightened senses and its ability to learn makes this a game of nerves and outwitting the opponent.
There’s basically nothing to interact with in the environment that won't progress the story, yes there are vents and and some panels controlling minor parts of the environment. But that’s it you can't turn off lights, you can’t hack anything the environment to work differently, pick up and throw items, move anything in the levels, or even fucking jump. Sneaking around in locations already decided for you, for over two dozen hours got boring in less than half that time, also the Alien being that hard of an opponent while being great at the start slowly got annoying. While hiding in a locker you can't do anything, if I could check the map, listen to voices or anything that would have made parts of the game significantly less dull. As the game went on I got more and more frustrated with this awful shallow stealth system and as my frustration grew I got caught by the Alien more and more and I wasn't scared of the Alien any longer, only annoyed at losing a few minutes of progress and then the game went on for several hours more. And when this game loses its ability to scare it loses its gameplay hook.
The gameplay loop is simple and the only thing separating it from being a chore is the fear of the Alien lurking (and the tactile feel of working the machinery do be kinda satisfying), explore, hide, do minigames and qte’s for 25 Hours while nothing happens to shake up the gameplay vast majority of the time, like new more fun things are there in later parts, combat and more enemies different environments but its too little too late.
The robots are creepy for a bit but they are even less engaging than the Alien, and even when they felt like a breath of fresh air after so many Alien encounters, but even this section went on for too long.
This might be the single worst paced game I have completed, it's almost twice as long as it needs to be and there’s multiple sections of this game that I thought the game would be better off just getting rid of.
And the story itself takes all the way to the last parts of the game to get going fully which is a shame cause I actually like it a lot, I feel like MArlow the game’s antagonist is a really well written character, the whole thing is well written but stretched too thin.
There’s a good well paced game in here somewhere, that game is not this, it's always disappointing to see a game that has so much going for it just completely fail at parts to the point of getting in the way of what is clearly good about it. Its a marvel that Alien Isolation exists, I will never give this game the time of day ever again.
2021
Unsighted is a fun game.
But there's so much in this game that could have elevated the experience if it was just a bit better, for starters the game is really visually inconsistent. The enemy design, a lot of the environments, visual feedback for parry timings and attacks are all great, but every time a character appears close up it breaks down a bit, the designs are conceptually fine, but when they move the body parts seem to be not synced, hair, clothes and arms moving independently of each other. The cutscenes are also visually boring, and in reality they don't look great, often facial expressions are done poorly. Which means the emotional and frequently melodramatic scenes are all the more annoying to watch.
The game's writing in general doesn't do a good job of selling it's titular mechanic, the characters are all one note who seem to be doing nothing while the clock runs out, there's no sense of urgency in how they behave, they don't go through any notable story or character arcs or have any memorable interactions with the player character. Which means often I found just saving characters that were most useful without any regard for anything else.
The progression through the game also seems separate from the timer, its just another metroidvania but with just a timer attached to it, well the progression and combat are generally great however.
The combat is my favourite part of the game and the boss fights are highlights, all the boss fights are unique and creative, forcing you to move around and play evasively, mixing around long range and melee attacks, while they dominate the arena. Even then the Parry seems a bit too strong for this game, not only does it deliver often times a one hit kill attack, it also refills your stamina bar completely.
On the progression front, the game has some great tools, i wish the fairy robot with me wouldn't tell me how to use them all the time, but other than that just remembering the places where you could use the new tools you found is a fun experience, and the dungeons themselves are generally great, opening shortcuts, figuring out puzzles, getting through bosses in these areas is when the game is at it's peak. Though the fact that the game doesn't really have a moment of awe while discovering a new area where music and visuals come together perfectly puts a bit of a damper on things.
My final complaint is with the last dungeon of the game, the tedious back and forth this area requires is even more unfun due to the timer ticking down while doing it, it's frustrating and boring busywork and not clever puzzle solving.
Overall though I still think it's an alright game, deserving of a positive rating, it has a solid core with major issues plaguing it, will be very interested in seeing what the developers come up with next.
But there's so much in this game that could have elevated the experience if it was just a bit better, for starters the game is really visually inconsistent. The enemy design, a lot of the environments, visual feedback for parry timings and attacks are all great, but every time a character appears close up it breaks down a bit, the designs are conceptually fine, but when they move the body parts seem to be not synced, hair, clothes and arms moving independently of each other. The cutscenes are also visually boring, and in reality they don't look great, often facial expressions are done poorly. Which means the emotional and frequently melodramatic scenes are all the more annoying to watch.
The game's writing in general doesn't do a good job of selling it's titular mechanic, the characters are all one note who seem to be doing nothing while the clock runs out, there's no sense of urgency in how they behave, they don't go through any notable story or character arcs or have any memorable interactions with the player character. Which means often I found just saving characters that were most useful without any regard for anything else.
The progression through the game also seems separate from the timer, its just another metroidvania but with just a timer attached to it, well the progression and combat are generally great however.
The combat is my favourite part of the game and the boss fights are highlights, all the boss fights are unique and creative, forcing you to move around and play evasively, mixing around long range and melee attacks, while they dominate the arena. Even then the Parry seems a bit too strong for this game, not only does it deliver often times a one hit kill attack, it also refills your stamina bar completely.
On the progression front, the game has some great tools, i wish the fairy robot with me wouldn't tell me how to use them all the time, but other than that just remembering the places where you could use the new tools you found is a fun experience, and the dungeons themselves are generally great, opening shortcuts, figuring out puzzles, getting through bosses in these areas is when the game is at it's peak. Though the fact that the game doesn't really have a moment of awe while discovering a new area where music and visuals come together perfectly puts a bit of a damper on things.
My final complaint is with the last dungeon of the game, the tedious back and forth this area requires is even more unfun due to the timer ticking down while doing it, it's frustrating and boring busywork and not clever puzzle solving.
Overall though I still think it's an alright game, deserving of a positive rating, it has a solid core with major issues plaguing it, will be very interested in seeing what the developers come up with next.
2014
Easily the best time I had playing Classic Doom yet, Going Down both as a Doom Wad and as a one person creative endeavor is about as close to being ideal as it can get.
A remarkably cohesive piece of work, described as chaotic evil by the wad author Cyriak Harris himself, the wad carries a mischievous spirit , but at points he can turn it into malice.
The two main characteristics of this wad is the combat, Cyriak loves using a small compact area as his playground, where any action you take can and will cause enemies to ambush you or appear in an area you have to go back to, keeping the player consistently paranoid about doing anything in this map as any interaction could mean lurking death for the unwary. This feeling is enhanced by Cyriak's music which sounds like someone organizing a circus in my head where you should be really careful if you want to check behind the stages or you might not come back alive. As more and more enemies get released the game seems just gets more chaotic and increase my heart rate. And sometimes he just lets open the floodgates, hundreds of monsters at a time when he seems to get tired of playing with the player. There are 2 fights in this set that I would say straight made me break through my Doom skill ceiling and because of how fun the design is I enjoyed the failures as well.
The other characteristic is the weird humour mixed with his eye for detail, easily the best looking Vanilla Doom wad I have played, Cyriak creates believable environments with stock Doom 2 textures, the whole idea of this wad is funny in a way, Doom guy going down floor to floor clearing demons. One floor might be an office building where a Baron of Hell jumpscares you from behind the boss's chair or Doom guy might decide to take the emergency exit to the roof to call his mom. It's just this weirdness that makes the whole thing so charming.
There's endless creativity here, while similar no two levels are truly the same and while not every level hits the same peak, their sheer uniqueness ought to win you over. One level you might be crawling through the vents of a building to get around the monsters, another one where there might be a elaborate key hunt through an area. Dont worry none of these are boring, Cyriak always does more with his concepts than it seems he can on first glance.
Then there is the last third of the map, there are sections here that are genuinely jaw dropping not only for Doom but for any FPS campaign I have played, I wont spoil what happens but fair to say, if you made it that far things will only get better, more insane and definitely harder.
A remarkably cohesive piece of work, described as chaotic evil by the wad author Cyriak Harris himself, the wad carries a mischievous spirit , but at points he can turn it into malice.
The two main characteristics of this wad is the combat, Cyriak loves using a small compact area as his playground, where any action you take can and will cause enemies to ambush you or appear in an area you have to go back to, keeping the player consistently paranoid about doing anything in this map as any interaction could mean lurking death for the unwary. This feeling is enhanced by Cyriak's music which sounds like someone organizing a circus in my head where you should be really careful if you want to check behind the stages or you might not come back alive. As more and more enemies get released the game seems just gets more chaotic and increase my heart rate. And sometimes he just lets open the floodgates, hundreds of monsters at a time when he seems to get tired of playing with the player. There are 2 fights in this set that I would say straight made me break through my Doom skill ceiling and because of how fun the design is I enjoyed the failures as well.
The other characteristic is the weird humour mixed with his eye for detail, easily the best looking Vanilla Doom wad I have played, Cyriak creates believable environments with stock Doom 2 textures, the whole idea of this wad is funny in a way, Doom guy going down floor to floor clearing demons. One floor might be an office building where a Baron of Hell jumpscares you from behind the boss's chair or Doom guy might decide to take the emergency exit to the roof to call his mom. It's just this weirdness that makes the whole thing so charming.
There's endless creativity here, while similar no two levels are truly the same and while not every level hits the same peak, their sheer uniqueness ought to win you over. One level you might be crawling through the vents of a building to get around the monsters, another one where there might be a elaborate key hunt through an area. Dont worry none of these are boring, Cyriak always does more with his concepts than it seems he can on first glance.
Then there is the last third of the map, there are sections here that are genuinely jaw dropping not only for Doom but for any FPS campaign I have played, I wont spoil what happens but fair to say, if you made it that far things will only get better, more insane and definitely harder.
This review contains spoilers
Every Fromsoft game I have played before Sekiro, I have always felt like I have had nothing to add to the discussion, its like someone had already talked about exactly what I wanted to say about it before I even played that game.
Sekiro is different, mostly because the part that is most discussed about this game, the combat, I found pretty milquetoast, with all enemies having clear tells and perfect ways to counter every move. Swordman after swordman after swordman got boring, vast majority of the enemies in areas are dealt with similarly same for a lot of the mini-bosses in those areas. I just found the whole thing really easy till the very last stretch of the game, with general parry timings and block-parry-block maneuver being pretty overpowered throughout and most of your enemies lacking any of the mobility you have. I wont say the game doesnt try to mix things up with faster enemies but parry spam never stops being viable with the regular enemies.
The later bosses more or less fix my issues with Isshin in particular being what I wanted from this game's combat from the start, with unpredictable combos likely to break your posture, and what seems like a never ending variety of attacks.
About Sekiro's level design, there's something from Souls I really miss, progressing through areas in a slow calculated way, in vast majority of level exploration in Sekiro I was never in any danger when I didn't put myself in it, safety was always one grapple away. The levels never really surprised me, the ambushes that were there never made me panic because of how easy it was to deal with, there was no slow crawl to the idol as I carve out my path through the world, the enemies just there as a way for me to get stronger on my way to the boss more or less lacking their impact on my journey. The one encounter that stands out to me is crossing the bridge with the gunners shooting at you that reminded me of what I like about level exploration in Fromsoft games.
Now I am not saying that the way Sekiro provides a path for you to zoom to the bosses is bad but it is not my proffered approach to levels. but finally some praise is in order I faced some challenge in the enemies in return to Ashina castle and how it has changed from my first time through is great. Senpou temple's vertical design is also a treat to traverse. And finally Fountainhead Palace gave me a satisfying taste of the Souls flavour I was craving all playthrough long. The lack of dogshit boss runs is also appreciated.
What I heard less of when it comes to Sekiro discussion online is the story and storytelling, both of which are really effective, Wolf having an actual character and choosing to follow the path he believes in after a lifetime of following orders.
In a collapsing world of a typical Fromsoft fashion, where everything seems to be falling apart due to greed and hatred, where groups chase immortality without any mind to its consequences, dooming people to their deaths, while dooming themselves to a stagnant parasitic life.
In all of these the bonds Sekiro, a name given to Wolf by Isshin, a man who seems to be above the schemes of his kingdom Ashina that surrounds him. The relationship Sekiro forms first time, since being a war orphan and minus the toxic technicalities of his relationship with his adoptive father Owl, stands as a highlight. His relationship with Kuro, his master and the one who's dragon heritage is much sought after feels especially sweet.
And in the end when to give Kuro a normal life Sekiro sacrifices himself, I felt a pang of sadness. It is pretty common to sacrifice yourself in Fromsoft games' endings. For what is the greater good, he throws away his life, and for the first time this sacrifice hits.
Sekiro is different, mostly because the part that is most discussed about this game, the combat, I found pretty milquetoast, with all enemies having clear tells and perfect ways to counter every move. Swordman after swordman after swordman got boring, vast majority of the enemies in areas are dealt with similarly same for a lot of the mini-bosses in those areas. I just found the whole thing really easy till the very last stretch of the game, with general parry timings and block-parry-block maneuver being pretty overpowered throughout and most of your enemies lacking any of the mobility you have. I wont say the game doesnt try to mix things up with faster enemies but parry spam never stops being viable with the regular enemies.
The later bosses more or less fix my issues with Isshin in particular being what I wanted from this game's combat from the start, with unpredictable combos likely to break your posture, and what seems like a never ending variety of attacks.
About Sekiro's level design, there's something from Souls I really miss, progressing through areas in a slow calculated way, in vast majority of level exploration in Sekiro I was never in any danger when I didn't put myself in it, safety was always one grapple away. The levels never really surprised me, the ambushes that were there never made me panic because of how easy it was to deal with, there was no slow crawl to the idol as I carve out my path through the world, the enemies just there as a way for me to get stronger on my way to the boss more or less lacking their impact on my journey. The one encounter that stands out to me is crossing the bridge with the gunners shooting at you that reminded me of what I like about level exploration in Fromsoft games.
Now I am not saying that the way Sekiro provides a path for you to zoom to the bosses is bad but it is not my proffered approach to levels. but finally some praise is in order I faced some challenge in the enemies in return to Ashina castle and how it has changed from my first time through is great. Senpou temple's vertical design is also a treat to traverse. And finally Fountainhead Palace gave me a satisfying taste of the Souls flavour I was craving all playthrough long. The lack of dogshit boss runs is also appreciated.
What I heard less of when it comes to Sekiro discussion online is the story and storytelling, both of which are really effective, Wolf having an actual character and choosing to follow the path he believes in after a lifetime of following orders.
In a collapsing world of a typical Fromsoft fashion, where everything seems to be falling apart due to greed and hatred, where groups chase immortality without any mind to its consequences, dooming people to their deaths, while dooming themselves to a stagnant parasitic life.
In all of these the bonds Sekiro, a name given to Wolf by Isshin, a man who seems to be above the schemes of his kingdom Ashina that surrounds him. The relationship Sekiro forms first time, since being a war orphan and minus the toxic technicalities of his relationship with his adoptive father Owl, stands as a highlight. His relationship with Kuro, his master and the one who's dragon heritage is much sought after feels especially sweet.
And in the end when to give Kuro a normal life Sekiro sacrifices himself, I felt a pang of sadness. It is pretty common to sacrifice yourself in Fromsoft games' endings. For what is the greater good, he throws away his life, and for the first time this sacrifice hits.
Ah Classic Doom, despite playing majority of Doom1 , Doom 2 and TNT Evilution I couldn't really finish any of them, at one point I was bored, frustrated by the obtuse level progression or the game just felt too long, I wont say that Plutonia has none of those problems, a few of the levels are bland and some of the traps can feel unnecessarily mean.
But I did it, beat all of Plutonia pistol start on Ultra violence and had a great fucking time, I hate the mean starts in some of the levels but when I had weapons and ammo and saw a trap I got a wicked grin on my face equivalent to Doom Guy picking up a new weapon. The combat design is mostly excellent showing the strength of Doom 2 monsters in a way the base game never did. Especially Revenants and Archviles. Countless times dying to the Revenants homing missile and Archvile's fiery sightlines, I was forced to learn how to deal with them, maybe even git gud. The Archvile usage as both a regular enemy and something that stays out of sight and acts as a hazard resurrecting fallen enemies is especially noteworthy. I love the way Plutonia mixes up monsters there's rarely a time where it's 1 boring enemy you have to deal there's always a variety of projectiles coming your way to kill you especially in any open and larger fights.
I also like how it mostly ditches weaker weapons like the pistol and pump action shotgun, giving you heavy ammunition with shotgun shells and rockets, the Rocket Launcher is basically your main weapon for half the maps.
I appreciate the length and pacing of the levels as well shorter and on the intense side very often, there's not much boring downtime.
After Plutonia I feel like I understand classic Doom better, I have certainly gotten better at the game and I can see the intricacies in weapon balance and monster design that makes Doom 2 an enduring legend to this day.
But I did it, beat all of Plutonia pistol start on Ultra violence and had a great fucking time, I hate the mean starts in some of the levels but when I had weapons and ammo and saw a trap I got a wicked grin on my face equivalent to Doom Guy picking up a new weapon. The combat design is mostly excellent showing the strength of Doom 2 monsters in a way the base game never did. Especially Revenants and Archviles. Countless times dying to the Revenants homing missile and Archvile's fiery sightlines, I was forced to learn how to deal with them, maybe even git gud. The Archvile usage as both a regular enemy and something that stays out of sight and acts as a hazard resurrecting fallen enemies is especially noteworthy. I love the way Plutonia mixes up monsters there's rarely a time where it's 1 boring enemy you have to deal there's always a variety of projectiles coming your way to kill you especially in any open and larger fights.
I also like how it mostly ditches weaker weapons like the pistol and pump action shotgun, giving you heavy ammunition with shotgun shells and rockets, the Rocket Launcher is basically your main weapon for half the maps.
I appreciate the length and pacing of the levels as well shorter and on the intense side very often, there's not much boring downtime.
After Plutonia I feel like I understand classic Doom better, I have certainly gotten better at the game and I can see the intricacies in weapon balance and monster design that makes Doom 2 an enduring legend to this day.
2015
Honestly speaking the cards were stacked against Yakuza even before I started, I don't like cutscene heavy games and I don't like Beat em Ups. So the fact that I came out of this game really liking it speaks to it's strength, the game's story building up to it's climax is incredibly engaging. Giving us reveals in a well paced manner while having some of the incredibly entertaining and well written characters in insane situations.
The combat was also fun I could button mash my way to victory a lot of the time but the heat actions and animations look and sound great and is incredibly fun to pull off.
The subquests are also great , weird and almost always hilarious. Randomly coming across them is always a treat.
I am not really a fan of the minigames though or the Cabaret or Real Estate side stories, they feel kinda tedious and time consuming to do.
The game also stumbles at the ending, with constant cutscenes and enemy encounters that were straight up tedious and unfun, the bosses somewhat made up for it but the fact that I had to go through an Hour long cutscene at the end also soured me on the ending a bit cause I also have some problems with it's story.
Overall though this game is great I put over 60 Hours in it and I had something fun to do throughout it's runtime and the story was engaging from the start.
The combat was also fun I could button mash my way to victory a lot of the time but the heat actions and animations look and sound great and is incredibly fun to pull off.
The subquests are also great , weird and almost always hilarious. Randomly coming across them is always a treat.
I am not really a fan of the minigames though or the Cabaret or Real Estate side stories, they feel kinda tedious and time consuming to do.
The game also stumbles at the ending, with constant cutscenes and enemy encounters that were straight up tedious and unfun, the bosses somewhat made up for it but the fact that I had to go through an Hour long cutscene at the end also soured me on the ending a bit cause I also have some problems with it's story.
Overall though this game is great I put over 60 Hours in it and I had something fun to do throughout it's runtime and the story was engaging from the start.
2022
It’s rare I have so much positive and negative to say about something but that does make Cultic an interesting game to talk about, Cultic is a retro first person shooter developed by Jason Smith and published by 3D Realms, the first 10 levels of which are now available. The game starts with you waking up from a grave after being left there for dead by a dangerous cult, ready to take revenge. He did not practice safe sects.
The visuals of this game stand out even among the retro shooter space , the game has a limited colour palette that looks like Rust in an abandoned building, the textures have plenty of detail, the walls that are falling apart, the dirty floors really sell the feeling of the space being abandoned, and left to the weathers.
Most of the lighting is really well done, the dithering and post processing does not get in the way of the visual clarity that the game has, the visuals really add up in creating a pretty distinct atmosphere and environments fitting in perfectly with the tone of a journey of revenge against Cultists who are tempting forces they should not. The horror influence is really well done in terms of the visuals, the bodies lying about going through caves, crypts and abandoned mines.
Though the darker parts of the game, if you don't use your lighter, looks like a poorly compressed video where the enemies seem to float on nothing, the limited colour palette really hurts the look here. Also the arms are fucked like dude does he have broken bones in there, the two handed weapons look like they are being held by an alien in human skin.
I have less positive to say about the sound design of this game though, the best thing about it is definitely the weapon sounds. The loud and impactful noises of the weapons, the boom of the shotgun, the three bursts of the pistol, the powerful shot of the Lever Action everything sounds great. If I had once criticism in this department it would be that I would have loved the dynamite noises to be louder, an earth shattering boom if you will, but yeah in general the sound design makes the weapons feel nice and satisfying to use.
The enemies though could use some tweaking the cultists are basically just groaning and moaning with no other audio or sound they get boring to listen to, even their burning noises aren't really that notable, they also make no noise before shooting they just shoot, there’s a distinct lack of personality in these enemies which are the most numerous in the game. Enemies like the ghosts make no noise at all which makes them an annoying and tedious enemy to deal with in most situations, the Harvester is an enemy that does it well however it revvs it’s chainsaw to shows that it’s here to fuck you up. The skeletons with their clacking bones are probably my favourite sounding enemies, but most of the other enemies don't have a single memorable sound.
The soundtrack on the other hand is really good, there's some nice variety, the more tense tracks and the combat tracks complement each other nicely and there’s some tracks good enough that I would listen to them on their own and think of the fights. Though sometimes the tracks can be a bit too overpowering over the environments, and can make it hard to find the last remaining enemy in a fight.
This game takes a slower pace compared to a lot of these shooters. Your movements feel weightier and you can't zoom across the massive maps, your progress is slow and steady, it’s not spray and pray you have to make your bullets count and aim straight and make those heads pop with a wet crack.
This game has some of the most insanely satisfying headshots I have seen, the head is broken open as it sprays blood high and the body drops and the fact that the game slows down for a second during some of these headshots to let you fully savour this gory carnage is just perfect, it’s hard to say how much I love the gore without sounding like a psychopath but man I will never tire of seeing these brain splatter into thick soup.
The game with its weapons does a good job of incentivising these headshots as well with its powerful lever action rifle that kills the standard suite of cultists in 1 shot no matter the distance. Shooting anywhere but the head is just wasting bullets, this holds true for most enemies and most weapons. Aim high, keep note of your environments and even though the movement is weighty doesn't mean you can't jump above guys with shields and shotgun blast them, moving and jumping around is pretty essential in taking care of groups of enemies. Also essential is taking note of lanterns and barrels that can decimate the cultists, the lanterns especially are really useful in your journey of decimating the entire population of the religious sect.
This game oozes enough Blood to make mediaeval headsman nauseous and I don't just mean the copious amounts of gore in this game, the 1998 game Blood was a heavy inspiration for this one or I can say this game feels like it has Blood’s blood. If I have to compare the flow of the combat to Blood it’s basically in that game you clear areas room by room chucking dynamite around corners cause the cultists would be hitscan and kill you in seconds after spotting you, whereas in Cultic you take your Lever Action of Sniper and then snipe all the enemies you can see even a single pixel of.
But there are certain more powerful enemies you can't down with a single shot like this Marvel Comics reject or the harvesters, to beat those you need to keep moving around. The Harvesters especially with their chainsaws, mines and bear traps are an especially fun and tense enemy to deal with.
Another thing I thought about in this game is that while every weapon is great some feel a bit redundant, like the Sniper Rifle FG42 we already have a long range weapon in the Lever Action why not just add a scope to it using the skill tree, we already have a pistol with high rate of fire burst why have the Sten then and not create a better pistol using the upgrade tree. The one thing that surprised me was that all the weapons in this game so far are grounded in reality.
The story is also pretty good, I like how they contextualize some of these creatures in the plot, talk about how the cult took over these places or even the cult struggling to control their own beasts definitely the most surprising part of the game for me, though I do wish the the character you play as had some character to himself too.
But if I want to speak about my primary issue with this game for that I will have to go into spoilers, E1M6, a level I consider to be one of the worst in any boomer shooter I have played, this level has enemies spawning in a few waves until a Tank appears as the boss, so what’s wrong with this?
It’s a sudden, abrupt and poorly done difficulty spike, in this level enemies spawn in waves and after you defeat these enemies a tank this in and of itself is a fine concept, the problem comes with the removal of checkpoints or saves at any moment in this whole part. Meaning in this section which is a massive difficulty spike you have to go through the whole fight again and again all 7-8 minutes of it. Before that you could quicksave anytime and there was frequent checkpoints, the game is at its best when you can plan with the enemies in front of you picking and choosing from a distance what to do , the one major problem with enemies rushing you from all directions in this game is that the enemy audio alerts straight up suck, the growling of the cultists is inaudible in the thumping music that plays in this section and no muting the music isn't a solution, the Ghosts also spawn which I have already complained about. So you have to Jump around looking in every direction like you are a Multiplayer COD tryhard. Any semblance of playing methodically is gone. It’s going from basically no deaths on Hard to a bunch of deaths in a poorly balanced stream of respawning enemies, you cannot lower the difficulty either.
The tank itself is a pushover as the dev themselves mentioned in the steam thread I made about this level and I think it’s just plain bad and uninteresting as a boss if it needs to keep spawning enemies behind you to maintain any semblance of tension in the whole thing.
It’s a long tedious repeat till you get to the shitty tank fight and if you die in that phase have fun doing it all over again, the dev has said that it’s meant to be a difficulty spike and it’s one the most poorly done ones I have seen and no other parts of the game reach this difficulty level and I hope this was the worst Cultic had to offer.
The final boss in Cultic feels similar to the tank, a pushover where the game needs to spawn enemies to make sure you face even a minute challenge cause the boss itself couldn't be made to be challenging or engaging.
So yeah overall Cultic can be great, I hope there are more enemies and weapons introduced in the later episodes of the game and some better boss fights but the base of the game is strong, the combat and the movement feels really good. The problems I have definitely don't ruin this experience. As it stands the experience feels pretty satisfying overall as well for the price I paid for it the quality and length already make this game a good value.
2020
From what I saw of Prodeus before I actually played the game, nothing particularly impressed me but it reviewed highly and as a fan of the genre I felt like this will be worth a shot.
On the surface Prodeus seems very standard and underneath?
It's the same, very standard.
If I could use one word to describe the game it would be 'fine', the enemies and weapons are modeled beautifully but they are pretty generic, there's nothing imaginative about Prodeus' arsenal and the weapons in the game are downright mediocre, sure they can cause enemies to burst in a fountain of blood but they don't sound that punchy.
The soundscapes in general seems mediocre from enemy sounds to the environmental audio to the music there's nothing remarkable about any of it. Which is a shame cause I am a huge fan of the composer Andrew Hulshult.
The levels are long boxy tech bases which reminded me heavily of Doom 2016s levels but these levels felt like they went on for longer with very little variety, it's just techbase after techbase all of which look boring and the dull colour palette definitely doesn't help that feeling.
If I have to summarise my issues it's the fact that the game has no identity I can point to as it's own, it neither has an atmosphere unique to it, nor any story to speak of. It doesnt even have any memorable boss fights it's just straight up one encounter to the next for 10 hours but it doesnt do much to spice up this structure with anything.
On the surface Prodeus seems very standard and underneath?
It's the same, very standard.
If I could use one word to describe the game it would be 'fine', the enemies and weapons are modeled beautifully but they are pretty generic, there's nothing imaginative about Prodeus' arsenal and the weapons in the game are downright mediocre, sure they can cause enemies to burst in a fountain of blood but they don't sound that punchy.
The soundscapes in general seems mediocre from enemy sounds to the environmental audio to the music there's nothing remarkable about any of it. Which is a shame cause I am a huge fan of the composer Andrew Hulshult.
The levels are long boxy tech bases which reminded me heavily of Doom 2016s levels but these levels felt like they went on for longer with very little variety, it's just techbase after techbase all of which look boring and the dull colour palette definitely doesn't help that feeling.
If I have to summarise my issues it's the fact that the game has no identity I can point to as it's own, it neither has an atmosphere unique to it, nor any story to speak of. It doesnt even have any memorable boss fights it's just straight up one encounter to the next for 10 hours but it doesnt do much to spice up this structure with anything.
1997
Frogger is likely the worst platformer I have ever had the displeasure of playing. I don't mind platformers being unfair if they arent a complete waste of time, and there's not many games that respect the player's time as little as frogger.
With a few fails in each level the game sends you back to the start of the level, the goal of each level is to collect 5 frogs and you have to keep repeating it till you can get all 5 without dying too many times. Add to that the fact that there's a timer so often you have to just jump in and make your way through trial and error cause there's barely enough time to learn how the hazards work.
Not only does the game not let you see more than a feet at a time due to the tiny field of view making you unable to see the dangers, there are certain platforms that would randomly kill you, and there's some rng involved with how the paths of the hazards will cross over with yours.
I cant tell if this design is pure malice or incompetence or mix of both, like there are turtles that would go underwater 1981 fucking 1981 frogger figured out how to show that they were about to go down.
I will say it was not all bad the jump of the frog in this game feels weighty and satisfying, I like the visuals and general presentation and if you cheat in infinite lives some of the levels can actually become fun to play.
But is that worth going through this game?
No, absolutely not! There are levels that take more than half an hour to beat while the music loops and you go insane trying over and over again only to die to random bullshit, do not play this game.
With a few fails in each level the game sends you back to the start of the level, the goal of each level is to collect 5 frogs and you have to keep repeating it till you can get all 5 without dying too many times. Add to that the fact that there's a timer so often you have to just jump in and make your way through trial and error cause there's barely enough time to learn how the hazards work.
Not only does the game not let you see more than a feet at a time due to the tiny field of view making you unable to see the dangers, there are certain platforms that would randomly kill you, and there's some rng involved with how the paths of the hazards will cross over with yours.
I cant tell if this design is pure malice or incompetence or mix of both, like there are turtles that would go underwater 1981 fucking 1981 frogger figured out how to show that they were about to go down.
I will say it was not all bad the jump of the frog in this game feels weighty and satisfying, I like the visuals and general presentation and if you cheat in infinite lives some of the levels can actually become fun to play.
But is that worth going through this game?
No, absolutely not! There are levels that take more than half an hour to beat while the music loops and you go insane trying over and over again only to die to random bullshit, do not play this game.
1995
Good combat and a really interesting story marred by janky movement and swimming and some really awful levels and enemy spawns.
The story itself while good I didn't like it as much I thought I would starting off but Durandal remains an amazing character.
The story itself while good I didn't like it as much I thought I would starting off but Durandal remains an amazing character.
2022
I like the presentation except the fact that a game that looks like that has no reason to drop below 30 fps. That's not to say I don't like how it looks this new gen of PS1's wobbly textures usage is great like Lost in Vivo, Loveland and this. The things that look great with that is surprisingly both living things and metal, it's adds an ominous feel to metal architecture and on the other hand makes the living surfaces feel like they are breathing. The sound design is also great, I like how the fishes sound and the environment sound also makes it great. I dont get the whole game as a whole really but it's musings on choice made it an interesting thought experiment at times, the dialogue of the different fish and their reasons for choosing or even reactions to your own choice is great. I don't get how it ties to the overall imagery and the ending that well. The endings are wildly different does it mean that choices don't matter cause you wont know where it leads or that they do matter a lot but there's nothing you can do about it.
2020
This review contains spoilers
I don't get all the imagery in this but the main thing the game's trying to show seems clear to me, this one is surprisingly fun to play, it's gameplay loop of finding office furniture that's actually flesh is great, in the end the timers, the consistently deteriorating condition of the news anchor just shows that his time in this world is up. He has cancer and before he dies he wants to look for one good story, one that will make people remember him. Thats a great contextualisation of the gameplay loop, but what is the reason behind the way this destruction is presented, maybe it's just abstraction cause killing people in an office is too shocking or edgy for the actual narrative.
The game also ends on a really chilling line and something I have thought of before. "No one will care about my Death if I don't prove to them that I lived" They say people die 2 deaths 1 when they die physically and another when no one remembers them.
The game also ends on a really chilling line and something I have thought of before. "No one will care about my Death if I don't prove to them that I lived" They say people die 2 deaths 1 when they die physically and another when no one remembers them.
1996
TN Too much time spent looking for switches rather than playing the game
2017
Wasnt expecting to like it at all but I enjoyed it a lot, great atmosphere, the soundtrack is great, the sound design is amazing, the grotesque creatures chasing you are gross and creepy in right doses, the chases and them just looking around for you while hunting around is based as fuck. I am not the biggest fan of this kind of gameplay but I liked it regardless, only reason I am not rating this higher is cause the last part felt rushed. The final monster the Lady was very meh, not exactly scary and the ending feels kinda off. I felt the rest of the game a very twisted representation of childhood fears, with themes of gluttony as well and while the hungers scenes where the protag eats living things are there before the ending is kinda too over the top.