Funny how a game that, in my opinion, has barely anything memorable by it’s own terms, has been responsible for spawning a whole video game genre. A genre that has been quite remarkable in the past decade or so.

I feel that spawning such an influence makes Dear Esther worth of analysis, even if that analysis is more focused on Walking Sims as a genre. I can’t help but wonder how special might have been those few devs who played this back in time and decided to follow the same formula for their own games. Something makes me think that probably, the main source of inspiration for both Dear Esther and other walking sims comes from outside of the game industry. I dare to say that the main source might come from literature. Specifically, post-modern literature, from the likes of Joyce, Faulkner, Virginia Woolf. The use of stream-of-consciousness and inner monologue, the fragmentary storytelling, the use of multiple perspectives, the pacing, the meta-narrative elements at times, the impossibility to tell wtf is going on (therefore, the idea is to go for a kind of experience that is not meant to be understood but simply felt); it’s all there. Of course, this kind of game can be easily linked to games like Myst, Riven, and such. But Dear Esther removes any kind of puzzle, leaving the gameplay at a minimum degree. The only mechanic here is just walking. It’s all about exploration. A veeeery slow exploration. Luckily, later walking sims incorporated different mechanichs and gameplay possibilities.

The only memorable thing about Dear Esther seems to be the concept –which wasn’t really all that well executed- and the atmosphere – just at a few times –, but that seems to be enough to put this game in a glorified place.

Ion Fury left me speechless

Procedes to write the longest review ever

Seriously, Ion Fury is so perfect that i can’t even. I’m pretty sure this would’ve been my child obsession if i’d played it in the 90’s. I’m pretty sure that Ion Fury is seductive enough for everyone just by it’s visual aspect. That whole cyberpunk/neon bisexual lightning/retro-futuristic/80’s sci-fi aesthetic might be something pretty common in videogames and culture as a whole nowadays, but one can’t resist it’s charm. And to see that it has finally made it’s way not just into a random FPS, but as one of the kickstarters of the whole Retro-FPS revival, and all of this in what makes the comeback of the glorious Build Engine after more than 20 years... well, it’s just something way too big.

Rarely something so promising manages to fit the expectatives. Ion Fury actually surpasses them. This game is essentially a masterclass in atmosphere, gameplay, and level design. As for the atmosphere, this game goes for completely different direction compared to a game like, let’s say, Dusk (But you can also count Blood, Cultic, and even Quake). And i’m not just referring to the most obvious difference which is the strong differences in their respective themes. What i mean is that a game like Dusk, even if it’s not a survival horror game or anything like that, it is still supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, at times. It’s still obligated to make the experience not entirely pleasant. On the opposite, Ion Fury is pure sci-fi bliss, pure joy, pure pleasure. It’s a fun time from beginning to end. This, concerning the atmosphere, is posible not just because of the visuals, but also because of the music.

Music here deserves it’s own paragraph. The correlation between the FPS genre and electronic music has been explored before, obviously (Unreal comes to mind), but Ion Fury should be consider as a true paradigm. It’s a really eclectic mix of synth sounds. It can sound badass without relying on heavy guitars, it can also sound groovy, and at times it can sound like something out of the Robocop or Terminator soundtrack. It’s nice blend of styles from the 80s, like synth-pop and new wave, and also styles from the 90’s like house music, trance, and such. To put it simple, it’s one banger after another.

Let’s talk about level design. In terms of concept/art/aesthetic, you have 7 different episodes or “zones” as they are called in the game, comprising between 3 and 6 maps, altogether creating a single long campaign, because there’s some kind of narrative progression here. First zone is probably the most iconic of all, and it’s based on the futuristic city of Neo D.C. The second zone is pretty much a mix of some city maps and a few, let’s say, “tech-bases”. Third zone, one of the best of the whole game, happens inside a large building, pretty much in the style of Die Hard. Episodes 4, 6 and 7 are essentially a bunch of tech-base levels. Episode 5, one of my favourites, is a mix of different ideas: A natural environment during daytime, a sewer level (probably one of the best sewer levels of all time), and a fantastic spooky mansion level (i just love the spooky mansion theme in shooters, Blood and Hedon are some other examples). If i can make any criticism is that, overall, it feels like there are too many tech-base maps, but this is only a superficial and very subjective nitpick, since all of this maps are actually pretty good and it’s pretty hard to tell which one you would leave out of the game. It’s just a matter of theme/concept, which comes down to a matter of how and why certaing textures are chosen.

Looking at the level design In terms of pure gameplay, Ion Fury can proudly say that it’s a singular case of an FPS with no bad maps at all. Even the most iconic games of the genre might have a couple of bad maps here and there, but truly, Ion Fury has none. For sure, there might be a few mediocre ones – And i’m sure that’s mostly determined by some repetitive themes – but objectively, there are no shitty enemy placements, no convoluted mazes, no annoying puzzles, no dark places. Simply, there’s no bullshit here. There are simple maps aswell as some bigger and more complex ones. Yet you’ll never feel lost, you’ll never be wandering around looking for a hidden switch. Except, of course, if you’re looking fot the hardest secrets, of which i’ll talk later.

As for the combat, i just have to agree with Civvie about the comparison with Shadow Warrior. Ion Fury’s difficult is not as hard as Blood, and not as easy as Duke Nukem 3D. Instead, it’s actually something pretty close to Shadow Warrior. Weapons are tight, featuring the best pistol ever introduced in a FPS, an excelent shotgun, and some very interesting dual sub-machine guns. It’s also interesting how the chaingun is introduced as the most powerful weapon here. Explosive weapons, on the other hand, well, they could’ve been handled a little bit better. Bowling bombs take some time to get used to, but they end up being the best of the bunch, a very interesting concept all in all. The grenade launcher is ok, but has some problems with the aiming. Clusterpucks, i rarely used them in my entire gameplay, given how hard they were to figure out for me. But the three explosive weapons share the same problem: The unpredictability of the splashing damage. Sometimes you might want to use one of these to deal with a group of weak enemies that are practically tied to each other. Given that case, there are chances that you might only kill the enemy who actually hitted the explosive, with almost no splash damage to the surrounding left. That’s a little janky.

I guess my biggest nitpick with this game is the -sort of- imposibility to reach a 100% at the end of every episode. First of all, Killings are pretty much imposible to do in a 100%. There will always be a single enemy that didn’t spawn correctly when it should, for some unknown reason. And if that’s not the reason, then the counter is broke, or maybe deaths by enemy-infight don’t count. Idk really. And second of all, secrets, which are probably some of the hardest to find i’ve ever experienced in any FPS. They tend to be a lot for every map, and sometimes they are so hard to discover, that it feels a bit excessive, to the point where it kinda goes against having fun. But of course, if you’re able to deal with your OCD, none of these should be a real problem. Actually, i did two consecutive full playthroughs of this game (something i can recall doing just a couple times in my whole life), the first one exploring all of the secrets, and the second one only going for those i remembered. Naturally, the second was a lot more fun.

Ion Fury is so good that it even has a good sewer level. Does it get better than this?

Technobabylon encompasses many of the biggest problems that modern point n’click adventures are facing currently. I’m going to talk about what i consider are the key aspects of every good point n’click adventure and why Technobabylon fails at all of them.

First of all, the story. Or to be more specific, the way the story and the gameplay merge into each other. Not sure why but at some point of recent history, point n’click games slowly started to shift into a Visual Novel direction. I mean that, of course, in a sarcastic way, since they are obviously not Visual Novels per se. But they started to focus way too much on this awful balance where scripted sequences and excesive dialog started to overshadow the actual gameplay. Technobabylon is one of these games. It feels like an interactive film with a pixel art aesthetic. You have sequences that are soooo long that, when it comes the time to actually “play”, you feel completely disengaged from the experience. After that, it get’s really hard to find the will for solving a puzzle. The story should be told through gameplay –which of course require scripted sequences almost in every case – and they should never feel like you’re watching a movie, playing a mini game in between, and then catching up with the movie again. This way of telling the story just ends up taking the agency away from the player, which is the last thing you want in a videogame.

Second of all, exploration and world-building, which i found probably the most terrible in the case of Technobabylon: There’s no sense of exploration at all. Technobabylon plays mostly as a collection of third person “Escape the room” mini games. You “escape” one of these “rooms”, then comes a loooong video, and then you’re in the next room. There’s no way of going back to the previous room, or finding your own way into other rooms. It’s already hard to connect with a game that decides to tell it’s story through long sequences instead of letting the player slowly unfold the narrative interactively by themself. It’s even harder to get inmerse in it’s world when there’s not really a world to explore, nothing to actually discover. This genre is actually called “Graphic Adventure” by many. How am i supposed to feel like i’m playing an adventure when there’s no exotism, no sense of discovery at all?

Third, the puzzle design, which is some real thrash in the case of Technobabylon, and extremely determined by how awfully this game manages in the two aforementioned aspects. I’ve played games with a questionable puzzle design, which were still worth the try because they had a good story (which didn’t overshadowed the gameplay) and they offered an interesting world to explore and get inmersed to. Actually this is what happened with many of the 90’s classics of the genre. In the case of Technobabylon, there are times where you have to learn some specific mechanics that are just not really intuitive. Other times you are supposed to “choose” how to solve the puzzle but in the end the result will be exactly the same, therefore making that freedom of choice completely useless.

These three aspects sums up what i think are essentially the gaming side of a point n’click adventure, which are all handled pretty badly in Technobabylon. To make it even worse, Technobabylon’s story doesn’t really feel that interesting to be honest. Or maybe it doesn’t feel that interesting per se because of some really poor writing (dialog feels as cliché as possible) which is also performed by some of the worst voice-acting i’ve witnessed in recent times. All of this by supported by some really uninspired art, which becomes straight out bad in the faces of the characters appearing during dialog, which is a standard for Wadjet Eye but this time, particularly, feels specially annoying. Ok, i’m going to consider my harshness with the art deparment to be extremely biased by how bad i found the writing and gameplay here. What the ilustrators and artists did here is not really that bad.

Of course, i’m aware that Technobabylon holds a strong reputation. I’ve had a few discussions here and there about why i dislike this game so much. It’s not about the game being too “story-based” – Anyway what was the last point n’click game that wasn’t strongly story-based? Maniac Mansion? -. Also, it’s not about not featuring extremely hard moon logic puzzles. Actually, i think both Gemini Rue and The Blackwell Series are pretty good examples of modern games that are heavily driven by it’s story – to the point of becoming straight linear games at times, but in a good way-, also featuring a very simple, yet engaging, puzzle design. It’s not about difficulty. It’s about the game being a game, and not trying to be something else, like a movie. Ultimately, the biggest mistake of Technobabylon is failing at giving the player the feeling of being inmersed in an adventure, and in the end, trying to be something that is not.

I really loved the overall concept and the atmosphere. The game should also be noted for it’s way of creating suspense and, therefore, engagement with the player.

However, the story ended up being a bit of a let down, frankly. Even if i was already aware that this wasn’t supposed to be a horror story, the small bits of spiritism, ouija and such, left me waiting for something a lot bigger than a simple teenage love story. It could be argued, anyway, that this isn’t just a teenage love story, but also a story about growing up, about a decaying family, about how things were in a different time, and so on. Still, the implication of something out of the ordinary left me expecting for a build up or climax that never happened.

I would be lying if i said i didn’t had a great time playing it, anyway, and the whole criticism about the story (which i somehow agree) could probably be dismissed by making a point about this game being another case of “style over substance”.

Also, i think the depiction of the 90’s is just masterfully done. It’s not just about representing that grungy aesthetic that has trascended over time as the book cover for the 90s, it’s also about showing how adults were at that time, how the consumerism from the american suburbs was at the time. Adding those bits of nostalgia in this misterious ambience was a great decision. In that sense, this game acts almost like an etnographist from the future. I would even say that this is what stuck the most in my mind about this game.

Overall, it was a nice experience. And considering how short it is (3-4 hours), there are no excuses for not playing it.

If you’re interested in reading my take on the original content, you can check my entry of the 2013 version of The Stanley Parable.

Now for the new content: I feel like i might have played it at a very bad time. This edition was my first experience with The Stanley Parable, and i loved it, but maybe playing the new content right away wasn’t a good decision. I just felt it like it was, let’s say, too bureaucratic. Like, collecting figurines? It’s a bit of a change in terms of gameplay, which is not a good or bad thing by itseld, but I don’t know, i just didn’t vibe with it. Still, there were a few good ideas here and there, and also, i can’t help but feeling that idea of expanding on something to the core of wasting it and making it tiring is actually the concept that consciously drives this whole expansion. So maybe i was supposed to feel this way. I guess i’ll have to give it another shot in the future.

It’s really hard to say anything new or interesting about a game that has been so discussed since it’s first release. I think that it’s intentions are pretty clear, and therefore you have two ways of understanding it’s goal: a. The game is either way too obvious about what it’s trying to do or b. The game should be celebrated for it’s clarity on communicating an idea. No matter which concepts we chose to express what it’s trying to do, whether we chose to consider it a critique of gaming industry, a reflection of the nature of gaming development and video-games itself, about the relation between the author and the player, about freedom as a whole: The point is that we all get it, we all know what’s going on here.

It was just a matter of time until videogames reach the moment in their history where they finally become meta. Velazquez did it on paintings; Shakespeare, Cervantes, and many others did it on literature; Orson Welles, Truffaut, Fellini and others did it on cinema; and, even if i suspect it wasn’t truly the first (don’t know, really), we can say that The Stanley Parable did it on videogames. My aforementioned examples on this subject might seem too academic but the truth is that during the last few decades, these concepts have been applied in mainstream media too. An example that comes to mind ws Wes Craven’s New Nightmare, and i’m pretty sure this happens more oftenly in comedy. So my point about saying that it was simply a matter of time until this happens in video-games, is to say that we, as avid media consumers, have been exposed to such ideas for years, and somehow, the logical conclussion is that somehow we should’ve become slightly desensitized to the surprise effect.

Yet, The Stanley Parable works. It doesn’t only works but is also an absolute masterpiece. And probably this works also because it’s not reliant on the surprise effect, considering that the trick is revealed pretty quickly. It’s comedic not just because of the joke but also because how much it overuses the same trick. In a way, The Stanley Parable is an exploration about how many times a joke can be told and still be funny. And of course, the existential dread is there. But in the end, which one weights more than the other, if the tragedy or the comedy, ends up being a subjective matter. And for me, it’s definitely the comedy.

Honestly, this expansion isn’t as bad as everyone’s making out to be. Of course, there are a few bad levels here, but there’s plenty of ok ones. But for sure, this is not like Duke It Out in DC by any means. And in my opinion it shares the same main problem of Wanton Destruction (which is a slightly better expansion, one that’s worth recommending in my opinion), which is having some kind of artificial difficulty in progressing troughout the map (like an absurdidly well-hidden key) in many levels.

This one was way better than i expected. Of course, there are some noticeable flaws. The most notably being the fact that most of these maps had a single moment that left me wondering what should i do next in order to progress. A moment that feels like artificially difficult to get through, like a key hidden in an unimaginable place. It might be a little bit intentional too, since most of the times, the solving of these situations would come by twisting the logic of the map a bit, kinda thinking outside the box. It feels kinda forced, and the biggest problem is how it breaks the flow of the gameplay. Some maps felt unfinished, there were also many rooms with no purpose at all. The re-skin of the enemies was not only unnecessary, but also a downgrade compared to the originals, specially considering the new sounds they come with, which were really annoying. And it’s kinda hard to say that there were any fightings or encounters that could be qualified as “memorable”.

But, i have to say that, despite all these problems, i still had a lot of fun. The layer of most of these maps is, for the most part, well done. The locations they represent are actually very well portrayed (whether it’s an airplane, a train, a hotel, etc), and that’s probably the most memorable aspect of this expansion. The sense of progression from one map to another, thematically, is very nice too.

Maybe i was in a perfect moment for playing this expansion, or maybe my initial expectations were really low, but the truth is that i have a nice time playing it. If you liked the original Shadow Warrior, and you’re in the mood for some more of that stuff, this is definitely what you need.

I started playing this game without knowing that it was essentially a metroidvania FPS (a concept so simple yet so unexplored), and it was also another game from the developer of Shrine.

Both things hitted as good surprise once i started playing the game. It’s really great to see how Scumhead, the developer, has found a whole aesthetic of it’s own, and slowly has coupled it with a more mature gameplay.

Vomitoreum strength is not really at it’s gunplay, but mostly about the other mechanics, and of course, the exploration. Also, it’s a fairly short game, so there’s no excuses in giving this game a try.

And for sure, i’ll love to see some other develoepers exploring the idea of a metroidvania FPS.

Pros:
- For the most part, this was an excelent Wad.
- I really dig the epísodic structure. That was actually one of the reasons why i liked the first Scythe so much. Scythe II goes further on the idea, dividing the wad into more episodes but with fewer levels. It works great in my opinion, and as far as i’m concerned, this has proven to be influential in some other modern wads. This is probably the most positive influence that Scythe and Scythe II had left in the Doom community.
- The later maps, aesthetically, are probably some of the coolest depictions of hell in any Doom wad.

Cons:
- From map 22 onwards, the wad is almost exclusively composed of slaughter maps. I dislike slaughter maps intensely, therefore, the wad is completely useless from this point onwards for me. Anyway, i felt like IDDQD-ing my way through these levels, just to confirm that i cannot understand why on earth this kind of maps exist. Even less, why are they so popular within the Classic Doom community. Of course, i was aware that this wad was going to feature some of these maps, but still, i hate the trend that this WAD (alongside Alien Vendetta) imposed for the following years of filling the last third with pure slaughter maps.
- Nazis are a pretty bad inclusion, honestly. Excesively overpowered. I have to recognize, anyway, that the concept of map 15 is still well executed, and could probably be cited as an early precursor of Survival Horror-inspired Wads. Those flying Barons are probably terribly hard to kill too.
- Map 14 is a complete abomination. Excluding the Slaughter maps, this is not just the worst map here, but also one of the worst Doom maps i’ve played in recent times.
- I kinda dislike this wad’s obsession with mancubi at times.
 
It's a bit sad how the last third kinda watered down my whole consideration for this wad. Even more: Everytime i go through a couple of slaughter maps i end up feeling so exhausted and overwhelmed, to the point of not playing another Doom wad for months.

Call me a lunatic, but i'm pretty sure that if Thimbleweed Park would have been released in the 90s, it would be definitely considered as one of the greatest point and click adventures of all time.

If i could imagine a reason why Thimbleweed Park was a succesful game, one loved by many, that reason would probably be because of how good it is in creating a world of it’s own. This is not just pure atmosphere (which could be considered an aesthetical effect) but also because of how well written everything is. I feel like the obvious inspiration on X-Files and Twin Peaks is not just a matter of aesthetic and/or themes; actually i feel like the whole storytelling flows pretty much like a TV Series. The story being divided into episodes and the recurrent flashbacks are a proof of that, plus the emphasis on character development aswell as a couple of minor plot-twist. I don’t recall another point n’click adventure game being so effective in mimicking so many TV tropes. Also, i think that bitter sense of humor is worth of some compliment. But what really inspires me about Thimbleweed Park is it’s gameplay, and that’s my main focus in this review.

The game was promoted mainly as a spiritual succesor of Maniac Mansion. It’s an interesting fact that, considering Ron Gilbert’s involvement in many of the most succesful point and click adventures of late-80s/early-90s, this game was instantly attached to Maniac Mansion (which wasn’t really the most succesful graphic adventure of that period). But as an advertising campaign, it couldn’t be more truthful.

Maniac Mansion is well known for being the game that spawned a revolution within graphic adventures, by adding the point n’click interface and the verb system. These two inclusions basically defined the canonical gameplay for the genre. From that point onwards, Maniac Mansion has been fairly cited for these introductions. I feel like Maniac Mansion has always been credited for it’s influence, but never really appreciated enough as a game by itself. Maniac Mansion’s main features, compared to other classics, are essentially two: minimal storytelling, and most importantly, a brilliant puzzle design (in my opinion, one of the best of all time). Both elements were heavily correlated. The puzzle-design made a strong emphasis on freedom, not only because you could choose characters with unique habilities, but also because a lot of it’s puzzles could be solved in multiple ways, also having different endings. These freedom was also possible because the story provided almost no restrictions, it was only just a couple of tropes serving as an excuse for the gameplay.

It’s kinda curious to see how, considering Maniac Mansion’s influence, none of these elements were taken into consideration in the development of the adventure genre. On the opposite, the narrative became the dominant element, puzzles becoming more or less a requirement to make the story go forward. Also, when considering games based on comedy, you can notice how puzzles started to play mostly as a joke, therefore relying more and more on moon logic, to the point where they became imposible to solve without a walkthrough. Of course, all of these elements where the basis of the most glorious days of point n’ click adventures, aswell as the causers of their downfall. One can’t help but thinking what would have been if there were just a handful of games with enough marketing taking the simplicity of Maniac Mansion as their basis. Probably wouldn’t have changed a thing but whatever.

I feel like Thimbleweed Park’s attempt at being the spiritual succesor of Maniac Mansion can be summarized pretty much as an attempt of incorporating Maniac Mansion’s puzzle design into a more complex and developed story (This, of course, if we only focus in the correlation between gameplay and narrative, because there are obviously many other aspects to be compared). At times, it definitely succeeds at doing so. Other times, while still being great, the restrictions imposed by the story become very obvious. And one specific part of the game (episode) just feels very underdeveloped when it comes to the puzzles.

A lot has been said about how many things are left unexplained, about how many incongruences there are, and of course, many things have been said about the ending (which i’m not going to spoil, but i have to say that i’m okay with it). Of course, this game is the attempt of picking some key aspects of the Maniac Mansion style and mixing it with a more complex storytelling. But the fact that this game leaves so many things unexplained is, once again, the definitive proof that they were understanding the story as a mere excuse for the gameplay. Or, at least, that they consider gameplay as something equal or even more important than the story. And i applaud that, because that’s a brave design philosophy, specially within this genre, where the opposite idea has slowly degenerated in a market filled with visual novels disguised as graphic adventures.

There's definitely a consensus within the classic Doom fans, that Plutonia is, by far, the best official wad ever released. And of course, i agree. I mean, seriously, this wad it's just perfect, it created a whole new gameplay standard for wads to come, it even created it's own style. Ever hear someone using the term "Plutonia-like" when describing a certain encounter on a whole different wad? That's because Plutonia spawned a style of it's own, or at least a couple design tropes.

I read somewhere that Plutonia is essentially what Doom 2 would have liked to be, and i couldn't agree more on that statement. It actually borrows a few concepts out of some flawed Doom 2 maps and it makes them so much better. The typical example would be how Odyssey Of Noises (MAP29 from Plutonia) takes it's inspiration on Downtown or Industrial Zone (both from Doom II) and it just ends up being not only the best city based map, but also one of the favourite maps by a large part of the Doom-fans community. And there are other examples too. But don't get me wrong: That's just a little of what Plutonia does, because most of the time is actually introducing many new concepts in level design (The Hunt, for example) instead of just paying a homage to previous maps.

While i feel like TNT gets a little too overhated at times, it is true that most of it's levels are pretty unremarkable, when they are not down right bad. However, i remember having a good time playing the first half of it. There were some nice maps at the beginning for sure, and one in particular (Wormhole) stuck in my mind as one of the most interesting maps i ever played when it comes to old-school vanilla doom. But still, it's pretty hard to celebrate anything about TNT, specially when the first wad to be compared with will always be Plutonia.