SuperScabs
2022
The bigness and breadth of the open world set this apart from the other games in Fromsoft's lineup, but everything else has been done better in the other games. If you just want more of what you know and love this still nails it, but I rarely found myself as surprised as in other games in the series. Also I realize I just like tighter games like Demon''s Souls and Bloodborne. It's nice to have the option for 100 hours, but right now I feel like I never wanna touch this one again.
A collection of stories about the staff, similar to Portal 2 final hours with some more flashy effects. A nice vague overview of the development, but unfortunately nothing particularly deep, I found the actual commentary for the game far more insightful. It's harmless though, just somewhat unremarkable.
Decadently detailed environments make it worth it for me. Only real gripe was that I wish I could've skipped the DLC missions. The story is actually pretty well paced outside of those.
2021
Less bad, but also less good.
Please emulate the original 999 or play it on a DS. This is the WORST way to experience the game. It is designed in every way to utilize two screens and is integral to the way the story is told. For VLR this is perfectly fine though.
Biggest surprise of 2021, that I played anyway. The base game is a very generic action game with minor platforming, exploration, and combat. What ties it all together is teamwork.
Each aspect of the game has an element of team building or team management layered on top. The levels have you commanding your teammates to bypass environmental hazards or carve out new paths. In combat you can chain attacks together by issuing commands to your teammates. While just moving from place to place, whether through the environments or just hanging out on the ship, you're given opportunities to converse with your teammates. You'll basically spend most of the game herding cats until you actually earn the game's namesake. By the end you'll have grown so much you don't even have to tell them what to do.
Biggest gripes were mostly minor, but dragged the game down a significant degree. For one narrative beats drag on for WAY too long. In one of the last pivotal emotional sequences a character had made their point, but just kept repeating themselves, killing the moment. This is really emphasized in the ship discussions where you talk about an object you found and it unlocks a private discussion with a member of the team. The conversations go on for ever, but it's compounded by the fact that there wasn't much budget for the scenes. They look like robots in what should be some of the most emotional beats in the game, a concession of course, but it hurts the game nonetheless.
The last thing kills me though. You can't pick your battle music for the huddle. I heard Bobby McFerrin five times before I got anything that actually had me pumped. Just letting you pick a battle setlist at the music player would've let me get Kickstart My Heart at least once. Never heard it in ANY of the huddles through the whole game. Supremely disappointing even if minor.
It's a lovely time sans those issues. The narrative nails the team dynamic that made the films work. It owes a lot to those movies, but manages to set itself apart by gamifying team building. I also really dig the costumes. They look like cheap knockoffs at a glance, but they make a lot of practical sense. Groot has a handle apparatus for rocket, Quill's big arm pads are literally battle armor, and Gamora's ninja suit accentuates her skills much more than the skimpy film outfit. Biggest surprise to come out of 2021 and definitely my GOTY.
Each aspect of the game has an element of team building or team management layered on top. The levels have you commanding your teammates to bypass environmental hazards or carve out new paths. In combat you can chain attacks together by issuing commands to your teammates. While just moving from place to place, whether through the environments or just hanging out on the ship, you're given opportunities to converse with your teammates. You'll basically spend most of the game herding cats until you actually earn the game's namesake. By the end you'll have grown so much you don't even have to tell them what to do.
Biggest gripes were mostly minor, but dragged the game down a significant degree. For one narrative beats drag on for WAY too long. In one of the last pivotal emotional sequences a character had made their point, but just kept repeating themselves, killing the moment. This is really emphasized in the ship discussions where you talk about an object you found and it unlocks a private discussion with a member of the team. The conversations go on for ever, but it's compounded by the fact that there wasn't much budget for the scenes. They look like robots in what should be some of the most emotional beats in the game, a concession of course, but it hurts the game nonetheless.
The last thing kills me though. You can't pick your battle music for the huddle. I heard Bobby McFerrin five times before I got anything that actually had me pumped. Just letting you pick a battle setlist at the music player would've let me get Kickstart My Heart at least once. Never heard it in ANY of the huddles through the whole game. Supremely disappointing even if minor.
It's a lovely time sans those issues. The narrative nails the team dynamic that made the films work. It owes a lot to those movies, but manages to set itself apart by gamifying team building. I also really dig the costumes. They look like cheap knockoffs at a glance, but they make a lot of practical sense. Groot has a handle apparatus for rocket, Quill's big arm pads are literally battle armor, and Gamora's ninja suit accentuates her skills much more than the skimpy film outfit. Biggest surprise to come out of 2021 and definitely my GOTY.
This review contains spoilers
For a sequel to a game I don't think was ever expected to get a sequel, it's pretty good! It definitely has that VLR problem of weird retcons to fit the plotting, but overall that plotting is good. More importantly everything is wrapped up nicely by the end, at the very least they learned their lesson from VLR.
Most importantly it fixes up the somniums which were by far AI's weakest element. They're nothing to the level of ZE's puzzles, but they're just good enough to keep you engaged. Somniums in the first game were usually set where a murder occured or something else just as plot intensive. They didn't give us any deeper insight into the persona of the characters. Now they expand on a character's struggle with their persona or some other inner turmoil. Amame's was particularly great.
The biggest question I have now is if they're gonna go for a third? This was definitely a budget production. The amount of asset reuse, while intelligent, was quite abundant and very noticeable. So I'm going to predict that this has a reasonable chance at a profit. With that I really want to see them finally do something with those multiverse teases. He's done it before plenty of times now, but I really think there's a great opportunity to be subversive here. More than in just an Ever17 sense. To ask how truthful can we be when interfacing with art? The plants are there in both games, especially if you got that secret route. I hope they take the opportunity to do something really weird.
Most importantly it fixes up the somniums which were by far AI's weakest element. They're nothing to the level of ZE's puzzles, but they're just good enough to keep you engaged. Somniums in the first game were usually set where a murder occured or something else just as plot intensive. They didn't give us any deeper insight into the persona of the characters. Now they expand on a character's struggle with their persona or some other inner turmoil. Amame's was particularly great.
The biggest question I have now is if they're gonna go for a third? This was definitely a budget production. The amount of asset reuse, while intelligent, was quite abundant and very noticeable. So I'm going to predict that this has a reasonable chance at a profit. With that I really want to see them finally do something with those multiverse teases. He's done it before plenty of times now, but I really think there's a great opportunity to be subversive here. More than in just an Ever17 sense. To ask how truthful can we be when interfacing with art? The plants are there in both games, especially if you got that secret route. I hope they take the opportunity to do something really weird.
1998
I promised myself to play the originals before trying the remakes (except for RE 1) and I'm glad I'm doing that because this held up really well. It doesn't hold a candle to REmake, but as a well paced horror action romp it's delightful.
It's just as charming as I'd remembered, though still lacking in all the same ways. The puzzles are great, even if largely disconnected from the narrative. It's more of an interactive puzzle book with a simple Agatha Christie mystery to string it through. It's not nearly on her level of complexity, but at least everything serves its small purpose. In the original trilogy it's the one with the smallest scope and the fewest plot holes. That's good enough for me.
Also those tacked on cutscenes are horseshite.
Also those tacked on cutscenes are horseshite.
2022
This review contains spoilers
Erasure: The Game
2012
Please make this the cover art for all versions, thank you.
2014
Coming off of something very long and convoluted this was refreshing. So small and simple and true. A raw little window into the mind of the creator illuminated by wonderful flourishes. Just wish it wasn't so buggy. I did need to reset it several times just to get through.
2016
I've had this forever, bought it on release I think. Just could never get into it due to the difficulty, but I decided to give it a genuine attempt today. It's pretty good!
If played on the higher difficulties, it's a game that is more about mitigating damage than it is about thriving. Things are going to go wrong, no way around it, figure it out. I just wish there was a bit more meat on it then. It feels like a smaller, tighter Frostpunk, but without the moral implications. A bit more of a narrative, a connection to your crew, and these decisions might feel more impactful. As is, when my characters cannibalize someone, it's just a question of how much their stress meter will go up. Still a simple fun way to kill a few hours, pick it up for $5 bucks or less.
If played on the higher difficulties, it's a game that is more about mitigating damage than it is about thriving. Things are going to go wrong, no way around it, figure it out. I just wish there was a bit more meat on it then. It feels like a smaller, tighter Frostpunk, but without the moral implications. A bit more of a narrative, a connection to your crew, and these decisions might feel more impactful. As is, when my characters cannibalize someone, it's just a question of how much their stress meter will go up. Still a simple fun way to kill a few hours, pick it up for $5 bucks or less.
2010
The more I think about this game the more I regret not having played Max Payne - that’s not necessarily a complement. From my understanding in 2012 Max Payne was basically Remedy’s whole identity. Reading from this game, it’s a fact they must have resented. Being unable to escape their past successes, literally trapped by a fiction. The thesis of this game presents that they needed to balance the strengths of their Max Payne past while moving into new territory. It’s an interesting conflict, but not one I think is handled the most deftly here.
While I haven’t played it, the slow motion shooting of Max Payne has been acclaimed for decades. An appropriate fit for a hard boiled neo-noir. Alan Wake’s main mechanic is using light to dispel enemies' shields to make them vulnerable to gun fire. While perhaps thematically appropriate, gameplay wise it just communicates that they wanted to use flashy gun play because that’s what they know. That and some awful platforming leaves this game coming off as more confused than intentioned.
Don’t get me wrong this somewhat matches the theme. Them messily trying to balance their past and present, but the result ends up being more frustrating than insightful. The shame is that the game gets this a bit right with Alan having the stamina of an eighty-seven year old man or, very appropriately, an unathletic writer. He runs out of breath in about five seconds flat and while it’s frustrating, it’s a beautiful subversion that annoys me in just the right way.
Now let me be clear, I enjoyed this game immensely. I played it one episode at a time over the course of about two weeks and it felt like cozily throwing on an episode of Twin Peaks. I have a particular fondness for mountain towns, and while I don’t think they capture it as well as Twin Peaks, America through the lens of Fins was bound to be fun. I mean so many games have trouble tying their setting into the subtext, but Bright Falls is beautifully realized here. A somewhat removed place where shadows of industry loom heavy beneath the enclosing mountains just as Alan is being shadowed by promotional cutouts, posters, and rabid fans of his ended book series. It’s whip smart stuff. Alan Wake’s greatest flaw then is that it’s a game, not a show.
The strength of many games tends to be their ability to place you in a world as an active participant. This is best done through gameplay, but many games are content to use flashy graphics to overwhelm you into immersion, Alan Wake is unfortunately no exception. While I had a lovely time, I can’t find a way to intelligently resolve Remedy’s own conflict about being caught between the worlds of film/TV and computer games. Though rest assured, I am going to play ALL of their remaining games in the coming weeks.
While I haven’t played it, the slow motion shooting of Max Payne has been acclaimed for decades. An appropriate fit for a hard boiled neo-noir. Alan Wake’s main mechanic is using light to dispel enemies' shields to make them vulnerable to gun fire. While perhaps thematically appropriate, gameplay wise it just communicates that they wanted to use flashy gun play because that’s what they know. That and some awful platforming leaves this game coming off as more confused than intentioned.
Don’t get me wrong this somewhat matches the theme. Them messily trying to balance their past and present, but the result ends up being more frustrating than insightful. The shame is that the game gets this a bit right with Alan having the stamina of an eighty-seven year old man or, very appropriately, an unathletic writer. He runs out of breath in about five seconds flat and while it’s frustrating, it’s a beautiful subversion that annoys me in just the right way.
Now let me be clear, I enjoyed this game immensely. I played it one episode at a time over the course of about two weeks and it felt like cozily throwing on an episode of Twin Peaks. I have a particular fondness for mountain towns, and while I don’t think they capture it as well as Twin Peaks, America through the lens of Fins was bound to be fun. I mean so many games have trouble tying their setting into the subtext, but Bright Falls is beautifully realized here. A somewhat removed place where shadows of industry loom heavy beneath the enclosing mountains just as Alan is being shadowed by promotional cutouts, posters, and rabid fans of his ended book series. It’s whip smart stuff. Alan Wake’s greatest flaw then is that it’s a game, not a show.
The strength of many games tends to be their ability to place you in a world as an active participant. This is best done through gameplay, but many games are content to use flashy graphics to overwhelm you into immersion, Alan Wake is unfortunately no exception. While I had a lovely time, I can’t find a way to intelligently resolve Remedy’s own conflict about being caught between the worlds of film/TV and computer games. Though rest assured, I am going to play ALL of their remaining games in the coming weeks.
2001
Neon, filth, and 2000s ass slow-mo. This one gets by entirely on charm and it has it in spades. The actual narrative is nothing to write home about. The devs knew this, so they had a ball coming up with action setpieces to hang off a basic revenge story. It's not well balanced and the level design isn't going nuts, but it has the cool factor and I think that's all it needed. That being said, it will be served greatly by a remake. Tighten up the story, add some nuance, refine the gameplay, and they could really have something here. Just keep James McCaffrey; dude carries this game's narrative.