Shenobi
1987
If you rated this less than five stars, Lester must have beaten you at the Joust consistently. It's okay, you just chose not to SKATE. <3
1998
I didn't think they could make this game better until someone came along with a patch for this via emulation that allowed you to advance text quickly. Literally the only thing keeping this from being a perfect game for me back in the day, especially with those really long cutscenes with intense dialogue toward the end of the game.
2017
This review contains spoilers
Spoilers below are marked for anyone who wants to go in blind and just wants to know whether it's a worthwhile roguelike Metroidvania. The short answer is: YES.
I don't get the hate. It's hard, but it's fun. You get a lot of new unlocks for future runs just by trying to play through the game like any normal Metroidvania and it pays off eventually.
The Megabeast can be an RNG nightmare (like he was the first time I fought him), but once you've got some experience under your belt and realize the power of certain orb combinations and abilities, you can do some very quick work to it. Took me eight tries before I finally beat him (I think I got to him four times out of the eight runs).
Notable spoilers below for anyone interested (including how my first victory run went), but to close this out, I just want to say that as a fan of Metroidvanias and generally less of a fan of Roguelikes, this treated me right. If you're on the fence, wait for a sale and give it a go. It's 13 bucks normally and I think goes on sale for 33% during Steam seasonal sales.
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SPOILERS
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-- More of the game is unlocked after you beat the Megabeast several times. It's daunting but if you dig roguelikes, this is a game that metes out newer areas and bosses each time you make any significant progression.
If you're wanting some general advice, consider the following:
-- Donating scrap in multiples of whatever number is at the bottom of each deity's name yields you boons that can be used to make life easier.
-- Rate of fire is VERY useful and should never be overlooked when the opportunity comes to boost it.
-- In my case of success against the Megabeast, I had an orb that turned scrap into nanobots that would both shield me and attack monsters that got near, and ALSO had an ability that made each monster I killed into a nanobot.
Did I spend some time farming to prepare for the fight?
You bet.
Did it pay off?
After destroying one closest faces while carefully dodging some spewage, I spent the rest of the time just doming the center of the boss while my nanobots ate any minions that came by and turned them into more minions. I never got hit once.
I read afterwards that there is a way to beat the game without even fighting the Megabeast, but I haven't had the opportunity to try and figure out how to do it yet, so I look forward to coming back and sorting that out and maybe giving the Megabeast a few more whacks.
Good times.
I don't get the hate. It's hard, but it's fun. You get a lot of new unlocks for future runs just by trying to play through the game like any normal Metroidvania and it pays off eventually.
The Megabeast can be an RNG nightmare (like he was the first time I fought him), but once you've got some experience under your belt and realize the power of certain orb combinations and abilities, you can do some very quick work to it. Took me eight tries before I finally beat him (I think I got to him four times out of the eight runs).
Notable spoilers below for anyone interested (including how my first victory run went), but to close this out, I just want to say that as a fan of Metroidvanias and generally less of a fan of Roguelikes, this treated me right. If you're on the fence, wait for a sale and give it a go. It's 13 bucks normally and I think goes on sale for 33% during Steam seasonal sales.
------------------------
SPOILERS
------------------------
-- More of the game is unlocked after you beat the Megabeast several times. It's daunting but if you dig roguelikes, this is a game that metes out newer areas and bosses each time you make any significant progression.
If you're wanting some general advice, consider the following:
-- Donating scrap in multiples of whatever number is at the bottom of each deity's name yields you boons that can be used to make life easier.
-- Rate of fire is VERY useful and should never be overlooked when the opportunity comes to boost it.
-- In my case of success against the Megabeast, I had an orb that turned scrap into nanobots that would both shield me and attack monsters that got near, and ALSO had an ability that made each monster I killed into a nanobot.
Did I spend some time farming to prepare for the fight?
You bet.
Did it pay off?
After destroying one closest faces while carefully dodging some spewage, I spent the rest of the time just doming the center of the boss while my nanobots ate any minions that came by and turned them into more minions. I never got hit once.
I read afterwards that there is a way to beat the game without even fighting the Megabeast, but I haven't had the opportunity to try and figure out how to do it yet, so I look forward to coming back and sorting that out and maybe giving the Megabeast a few more whacks.
Good times.
2021
EDIT: Just noting that no updates have come since June of 2021 still, so if you're seeing this review and reading it all the way through, be aware that nothing has changed and on top of that, their website that's supposed to have game details on it (accessible from the "visit the website" link on the Steam store page) takes you to a dead site that says the account for said site has been suspended. Caveat emptor, original review below.
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I know this is currently in Early Access, but just playing this for a short time, there's a lot of issues.
1. Running jumps off ledges in this game are of the kind where you're not completely sure where the game is going to assume you've gone too far and drop you off the ledge instead of letting you jump. These games always feel awkward to me because I end up falling at points where I normally would expect to be able to jump.
2. Although the art style is nice, the style gets in the way of the gameplay at times. Sometimes foreground objects completely obscure your sight to enemies, hazards, and projectiles. Some hazards aren't obvious because the game does little to make them visible -- an example of this is the wooden platforms you find early on that will have spikes rise out of them occasionally.
The spikes rise about half the height of the platform, have no sound effects on rising, and are the same color as the platform itself. You will inevitably land on one simply because you aren't noticing them.
3. Monster behavior for six of the first seven monsters I met has almost zero dependency on the player. Most of them just wander aimlessly, hopefully getting lucky by just accidentally running into you before you can get enough swings in to kill them. The slimes on the ceiling will at least fall if you're close enough, but that's the end of their interest in you. The bees are evil bastards that will shoot perfectly accurate projectiles that will seek you out and usually hit you mid-jump, knocking away most of your progress up a series of ledges that were already difficult to navigate because of the jump mechanic. Haven't reached the first boss, so I can't speculate as to whether this gets better or not.
4. You can't drop through ledges with a down-jump. This isn't a game breaker by any means, but it seems really weird when you can jump up through a ledge to reach the top of it, but have to walk off the side in order to get down to a lower level.
5. I feel like there's no real sound representation in this game. Be it music beyond some ambience, or sounds from creatures to represent their presence or their awareness of you -- it just feels really quiet and empty other than you slashing bushes and other objects.
6. Just a weird observation -- they give you the ability to equip hotkey items to use to heal or buff yourself as needed, but the game pauses while you're in the inventory menu anyway and allows you to eat those healing items there. I mention this because there's a distinct delay where you're stuck in the eating animation before you heal when in the game itself, but eating an item in the inventory menu doesn't penalize you at all, so why would you ever want to eat during actual gameplay?
-- In all, the game has some questionable design choices and it's already one month past the projected release date out of Early Access. The last update came back in June and was just a bugfix for a UI issue. I feel like either the devs might be hitting some walls or outside problems, or this could be a game that's being walked away from with whatever profits can be salvaged. I hope it's not the latter, but I guess we'll see.
If you see it on sale with a deep discount (like I did when I picked it up), check the discussions and dev activity to see whether it's still being updated before you decide on making that purchase.
---------------
I know this is currently in Early Access, but just playing this for a short time, there's a lot of issues.
1. Running jumps off ledges in this game are of the kind where you're not completely sure where the game is going to assume you've gone too far and drop you off the ledge instead of letting you jump. These games always feel awkward to me because I end up falling at points where I normally would expect to be able to jump.
2. Although the art style is nice, the style gets in the way of the gameplay at times. Sometimes foreground objects completely obscure your sight to enemies, hazards, and projectiles. Some hazards aren't obvious because the game does little to make them visible -- an example of this is the wooden platforms you find early on that will have spikes rise out of them occasionally.
The spikes rise about half the height of the platform, have no sound effects on rising, and are the same color as the platform itself. You will inevitably land on one simply because you aren't noticing them.
3. Monster behavior for six of the first seven monsters I met has almost zero dependency on the player. Most of them just wander aimlessly, hopefully getting lucky by just accidentally running into you before you can get enough swings in to kill them. The slimes on the ceiling will at least fall if you're close enough, but that's the end of their interest in you. The bees are evil bastards that will shoot perfectly accurate projectiles that will seek you out and usually hit you mid-jump, knocking away most of your progress up a series of ledges that were already difficult to navigate because of the jump mechanic. Haven't reached the first boss, so I can't speculate as to whether this gets better or not.
4. You can't drop through ledges with a down-jump. This isn't a game breaker by any means, but it seems really weird when you can jump up through a ledge to reach the top of it, but have to walk off the side in order to get down to a lower level.
5. I feel like there's no real sound representation in this game. Be it music beyond some ambience, or sounds from creatures to represent their presence or their awareness of you -- it just feels really quiet and empty other than you slashing bushes and other objects.
6. Just a weird observation -- they give you the ability to equip hotkey items to use to heal or buff yourself as needed, but the game pauses while you're in the inventory menu anyway and allows you to eat those healing items there. I mention this because there's a distinct delay where you're stuck in the eating animation before you heal when in the game itself, but eating an item in the inventory menu doesn't penalize you at all, so why would you ever want to eat during actual gameplay?
-- In all, the game has some questionable design choices and it's already one month past the projected release date out of Early Access. The last update came back in June and was just a bugfix for a UI issue. I feel like either the devs might be hitting some walls or outside problems, or this could be a game that's being walked away from with whatever profits can be salvaged. I hope it's not the latter, but I guess we'll see.
If you see it on sale with a deep discount (like I did when I picked it up), check the discussions and dev activity to see whether it's still being updated before you decide on making that purchase.
2003
I enjoyed this when I played it, but have to classify it as abandoned -- one of the levels near the end of the game in the GameCube version had a bug where upon dying, I would spawn and immediately fall through the platform to my death again...and again...and again. After losing all my lives I had stocked up, I will ill-motivated to give it another go.
At least it was fun up to that point.
At least it was fun up to that point.
1997
This was the second password system I ever cracked in a game (the first being Road Rash 2).
Also, the game was fun and full of wonderful creepiness for its time.
Also, the game was fun and full of wonderful creepiness for its time.
2010
Got this on Steam when it came out because I thought it was one of the coolest ideas ever, as someone who loved DDR/ITG/Stepmania.
The game was completely off-sync when going through tracks. I (and a number of other people) contacted the developer about this and they said they were working on fixing it.
SPOILER/NOT SPOILER -- It never got fixed. What wasted potential.
The game was completely off-sync when going through tracks. I (and a number of other people) contacted the developer about this and they said they were working on fixing it.
SPOILER/NOT SPOILER -- It never got fixed. What wasted potential.
1986
It probably doesn't help that I came back to this via emulation after growing up with NBA Jam: Tournament Edition on the Genesis. It just looked unpleasant overall compared to other games for its time and wasn't particularly fun like NBA Jam was for me.
2006
Average Game of the Year for 2006, with nothing particularly outstanding about it but also nothing particularly bad about it beyond being a little too easy.
First half of the game: 4.5 stars. Second half of the game: 2.5 stars. If I wanted to backtrack and be frustrated about it, I'd play a bad Metroidvania.
I think the first half of this game is really well done. The second half just felt more like a corridor shooter and put me off a bit. Here's to hoping RE8 is entirely in the style of the first half of the game.
2001
Not as great to play now, but for its time, what a fun game.
2012
The saddest part about this game is that it had a lot of potential but never really got enough of an audience to have an opportunity to be an interesting/good game. Multiplayer was essentially a sparse experience altogether. The objectives were not always logical in some levels, which certainly didn't help it.
This could have been a wonderful predecessor to Dead By Daylight, albeit with unique monsters and not horror movie villains.
This could have been a wonderful predecessor to Dead By Daylight, albeit with unique monsters and not horror movie villains.
2005
Probably one of the easiest SRPGs ever. The "tactics" of it is very minimal, as the difficulty just isn't really there. I still enjoyed it a lot, though.
2020
So, PS4 controller doesn't work with a game on PC that is listed as part of the "PlayStation Talents" program during the opening splash screens. Actual KB/M controls are pretty awful and unmappable, too. Hold RMB to aim with your gun, press LMB to shoot, but use WASD to aim. It's like they tried to replicate the authentic feel of bad controls with...bad controls. Great job, guys. No way I'm finishing this because it's an act of the gods to shoot an enemy in a remotely timely fashion. One star for atmosphere and nothing else.
Original review follows.
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Keeping this in the backlog for now and not giving it an actual rating yet, but I figured it's worth noting for anyone who is considering buying this on Steam -- PS4 controller's L and R triggers do not register with the game, which means you can't aim and fire your weapon without putting some extra work into reconfiguring stuff.
Will post a real review eventually when I get back to it and manage to actually kill an enemy (and hopefully play further).
Original review follows.
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Keeping this in the backlog for now and not giving it an actual rating yet, but I figured it's worth noting for anyone who is considering buying this on Steam -- PS4 controller's L and R triggers do not register with the game, which means you can't aim and fire your weapon without putting some extra work into reconfiguring stuff.
Will post a real review eventually when I get back to it and manage to actually kill an enemy (and hopefully play further).