NightmareModeGo
BACKER
2008
This review contains spoilers
Still holds up.
Should've been called "Dead Wife".
Should've been called "Dead Wife".
'Tis still a grand game, Arisen.
They say the sequel will be here erelong.
They say the sequel will be here erelong.
2010
Gnome jumpscare got me again 13 years later.
2023
I've never eaten my words faster. Going from the reveal trailer that had me cringing and reluctantly talking about maybe giving it a go, to falling in love almost immediately.
It's not fun when you're playing a Castlevania and just feel bored. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what it was about this, but it just didn't hit the way the others have for me.
The DSS system is cool but feels underbaked. Most of the combos seem useless, and just trying to get cards for it is tedious. Nothing screams "Castlevania" like exiting and entering a room again and again to kill a single enemy while hoping for the RNG to be nice to you.
Honestly feels more like a fan game.
The DSS system is cool but feels underbaked. Most of the combos seem useless, and just trying to get cards for it is tedious. Nothing screams "Castlevania" like exiting and entering a room again and again to kill a single enemy while hoping for the RNG to be nice to you.
Honestly feels more like a fan game.
2006
It just plays like total shit. I've seen the old trailers showing fake gameplay, I knew it would never be like that, but deary me it is miles away from what they promised.
Guns are somehow inaccurate, and yet also able to kill a dude by shooting vaguely close to his body. Sword fighting is a case of praying that the game decides whether or not to recognise that you moved the wiimote and nunchuck. They put checkpoints at the start of unskippable minute long cutscenes and then throw you into these bullshit sword fights that skill doesn't seem to enter into. It's maddening.
When I felt like I was nearing the end I did a quick google to see just how much I had left, and said "FUCK OFF" out loud when I saw that I was a quarter of the way through, and my playtime was only two and a half hours. I would have bet you money I'd sank ten hours into it easily.
It's a disappointment in every way, and despite featuring plenty East Asian actors, feels racist in a way that's hard for a man of my intelligence to articulate. Please avoid. Don't let curiosity get the better of you like it did me.
Guns are somehow inaccurate, and yet also able to kill a dude by shooting vaguely close to his body. Sword fighting is a case of praying that the game decides whether or not to recognise that you moved the wiimote and nunchuck. They put checkpoints at the start of unskippable minute long cutscenes and then throw you into these bullshit sword fights that skill doesn't seem to enter into. It's maddening.
When I felt like I was nearing the end I did a quick google to see just how much I had left, and said "FUCK OFF" out loud when I saw that I was a quarter of the way through, and my playtime was only two and a half hours. I would have bet you money I'd sank ten hours into it easily.
It's a disappointment in every way, and despite featuring plenty East Asian actors, feels racist in a way that's hard for a man of my intelligence to articulate. Please avoid. Don't let curiosity get the better of you like it did me.
I kill monsters.
2016
I was hoping they'd had to get creative to make this work, but it's the same game as usual with a new skin slapped over it.
I'd assumed there would be grunts and gestures, some cool rudimentary communication. But instead there's just a full new language based on Proto-Indo-European words. Which is impressive in itself, but again only adds to the feeling of it being the same game reskinned. Everyone can just talk to each other. No misunderstandings or confusion. Might as well be in English.
I'd assumed there would be grunts and gestures, some cool rudimentary communication. But instead there's just a full new language based on Proto-Indo-European words. Which is impressive in itself, but again only adds to the feeling of it being the same game reskinned. Everyone can just talk to each other. No misunderstandings or confusion. Might as well be in English.
1999
This is great. I spent all these years hearing about how terrible it was, and I have to assume most of it was from folk regurgitating AVGN patter without playing it. Same thing they did for Simon's Quest.
I was tearing up when Reinhardt prayed for Rosa's soul. How could I hate this?
I was tearing up when Reinhardt prayed for Rosa's soul. How could I hate this?
Much more linear than the dev's previous games. It felt like your path was always a straight corridor of embalming the bodies and figuring out the possessed one, with only a slight sidestep every now and then to get a new ending.
Good fun with some great scares, but just feels much smaller overall compared to The Subject, Kohate, and Our Secret Below. I'm looking more for puzzles, but the gameplay loop of this is just the embalming over and over. Very little to actually figure out.
Good fun with some great scares, but just feels much smaller overall compared to The Subject, Kohate, and Our Secret Below. I'm looking more for puzzles, but the gameplay loop of this is just the embalming over and over. Very little to actually figure out.
2019
Extremely fine.
It's got some good characters, and great face models that really sell the idea that these people are completely fucked, but serviceable gunplay and a hollow open-world just feel tacked on and unnecessary. You spend most of your time running between fast-travel points because traversing the city itself is just so boring. There's nothing going on. No cool wee moments to stumble into.
The overall narrative doesn't feel cohesive. There are many threads that are kinda linked, but quickly fray away to nothing and never seem to appear again. What seem to be big decisions often resulting in character deaths do little to nothing for the actual story. Accidentally killed one of a warring father and son? No biggie, either will do the exact same job for you afterward. These, once again, have no impact on the ending.
I don't mean it as a crap pun, but the game is just very shallow in general. However, for some reason I had a decent enough time to feel like this deserves a 6. Maybe it's Charles Reed's dry wit and sarcasm, or just the cool weirdos you encounter, but there was something here that kept me coming back.
It's got some good characters, and great face models that really sell the idea that these people are completely fucked, but serviceable gunplay and a hollow open-world just feel tacked on and unnecessary. You spend most of your time running between fast-travel points because traversing the city itself is just so boring. There's nothing going on. No cool wee moments to stumble into.
The overall narrative doesn't feel cohesive. There are many threads that are kinda linked, but quickly fray away to nothing and never seem to appear again. What seem to be big decisions often resulting in character deaths do little to nothing for the actual story. Accidentally killed one of a warring father and son? No biggie, either will do the exact same job for you afterward. These, once again, have no impact on the ending.
I don't mean it as a crap pun, but the game is just very shallow in general. However, for some reason I had a decent enough time to feel like this deserves a 6. Maybe it's Charles Reed's dry wit and sarcasm, or just the cool weirdos you encounter, but there was something here that kept me coming back.
2017
Played through again for the first time since launch, and for some reason I enjoyed it a lot more on this run.
Maybe I autopiloted my way through last time. But now I was suddenly noticing wee things, and putting theories together, and marvelling at how well it portrays scale.
I am fully on board for the sequel.
Maybe I autopiloted my way through last time. But now I was suddenly noticing wee things, and putting theories together, and marvelling at how well it portrays scale.
I am fully on board for the sequel.
2014
The cool novelty wears off far too quickly, and after a wee while you're not even playing a skating game anymore. It hits a wild difficulty spike in the second last zone and becomes a precision platformer that frustrated me to the point of just admitting defeat.
Hopefully the sequel improves on my issues and offers more ways to get through levels.
Hopefully the sequel improves on my issues and offers more ways to get through levels.
The game is broken. Seems to start with behind the scenes type stuff that should be an unlockable after completion, and then throws us into what feels like the halfway point and we're just supposed to know what's happening.
I scoured the city for 5 hours trying to make progress, and couldn't find a single mission trigger. It's a shame this was free, because I can't call it a cynical cash-in, but it definitely is that in spirit. Fans of the films, please avoid.
I scoured the city for 5 hours trying to make progress, and couldn't find a single mission trigger. It's a shame this was free, because I can't call it a cynical cash-in, but it definitely is that in spirit. Fans of the films, please avoid.
2021
I was convinced I knew what this game was by the 20 hour mark, even with the erratic pacing, then it suddenly takes a very weird turn and had me feeling like I'd missed hours of events and story all through to the credits rolling.
I'm sitting here in a B&B at 1am feeling pretty deflated because it's left me with more questions than I thought I'd be holding. I really loved these characters, and there is no sense of payoff for most of them.
I don't know what else to say. I'm not sad, just kinda annoyed. Clearly the devs were going for something different to what I expected, which would be fine if that was a realisation I had in the first few hours, but for it to only hit in the last quarter of the game is disappointing shit. Some of the lushest pixel art I've ever seen, mind you.
I wish it had hit me like it did others, but it veers off the tracks too often for stuff that feels pointless. There's a lot of love and heart in here, but for me the foundations slowly crumble beneath that, and it never makes it to the station.
I'm sitting here in a B&B at 1am feeling pretty deflated because it's left me with more questions than I thought I'd be holding. I really loved these characters, and there is no sense of payoff for most of them.
I don't know what else to say. I'm not sad, just kinda annoyed. Clearly the devs were going for something different to what I expected, which would be fine if that was a realisation I had in the first few hours, but for it to only hit in the last quarter of the game is disappointing shit. Some of the lushest pixel art I've ever seen, mind you.
I wish it had hit me like it did others, but it veers off the tracks too often for stuff that feels pointless. There's a lot of love and heart in here, but for me the foundations slowly crumble beneath that, and it never makes it to the station.