clydon65
This didn't really feel like a game. It was a one of a kind experience with hints of familiarity of all over but it never really tried to be like anything else. Its story while confusing at first, was eye opening and hit me hard in so many ways, death - this inevitable thing that all of us will experience, while its threat is always looming, we are still lucky to have it. Because if we were these perfect beings with immortality controlled by some perfect plan, then we really aren't ourselves. The world while simple looking, becomes complex. The characters, while seemingly random, all have depth. The gameplay seemingly straightforward evolves into a multi-genre multi-dimensional experience. And the player's goal changing as Nova grows by those she's impacted by around her. I feel lucky to have played this game and I really hope that these developers get the recognition they deserve for creating this impactful gaming experience.
These games are just a joy to play. I love exploring around finding upgrades and solving puzzles. This Supraland entry was a tad shorter and more to the point, but I felt still had the same charm the first game had, with many of the same mechanics. While the upgrades didn't feel exceptional at times, I still thought that made some of the puzzles more difficult and really caused you to think. On the other hand, once the main story was complete and the secondary objective was revealed, I didn't really have it in me to go through and do cleanup to scrape out an upgrade I'd need to complete the second "act". Nonetheless I'll always pick up these games when they're released. It scratches a unique itch that many other games fail to scratch.
I had highish hopes for another South Park game after playing Stick of Truth a while ago and after hearing this is where a lot of Trey and Matt's time was going in between their Paramount specials, but was sorely disappointed when I saw a shoddily made action game with very minimal story/writing/comedy moments. I played on Hard mode to challenge myself, and found chapters 1-3 to be a breeze. Then I got to chapter 4 and wasted hours having to restart it cause I kept dying so much, pretty insane difficulty spike for such a short game and kinda crazy that you have to replay through about 30-40 minutes of content each death. Once I found a build that worked for me and engaed with some of the matchmaking, I finally passed chapter 4 and believe it or not actually started to have a bit more fun. The revival system, aiming, and ability usage was still super janky and kept me consistently frustrated however. Overall, I'm glad I forced myself to beat this cause that chapter 4 was truly a challenge, just not a pleasant or rewarding one - but I won't be missing this one.
2020
This review contains spoilers
Cyberpunk was a behemoth of a gaming experience. The first time you play as Johnny and start blasting corpo's heads off with his pistol instantly made me feel the intensity immediatley. The writing I would say is definitely a standout - most if not all of the characters are really well written and have clear growth through their individual storylines. I ended up doing the path with Panaam but ended up giving my body to Johnny because I felt that he really would do better with my body than I would be able to do in the remaining 6 months. While it was such a tough decision to make, I really felt like the story had led me to believe that he was ready for the responsibility. Amazing writing. I played on hard mode for most of the game (minus one moment I'll touch on) and boosted my cool/tech to max, focusing on sneaky pistol play and using a silenced pistol to headshot enemies making my way through areas unnoticed. It was a very satisfying way of playing, until some of the boss fights. I felt like they ended up being really unbalanced especially Adam Smasher's fight. I never had the need to spend a ton of money on armor, so when I got to him I got downed in two hits. I don't think I would have been able to beat him on Hard in any way without reloading to an earlier save (not doing that) so I bumped it down to normal for that fight. I'll also say that I kinda wish you had to go seek out new quests or objectives without the map telling you where exactly to go to start new ones. It broke my immersion to open up a map, and select an undiscovered objective, then nav to it when I feel they could have had these quests be ones where you encounter naturally or have someone call you. Also those three %s on the menu screen kept throwing me off. I never really knew what exactly I needed to do in order to progress in any of them, thinking they were the main 3 storylines or something, so I just did every quest that was on the map and most of the filler quests really felt unnecessary and unmoving.
A charming little escape room that didn't really require too much brain power. Ended up getting through it in ~ 2 hours without any assistance. The visuals were nice and the alchemy component was a neat twist on the genre. I don't feel like I had too many points where I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing and most of the time to move past that I just needed to look around a little more. Everything felt really intuitive which cant be said for many escape rooms. Only downside was the ending felt weird but other than that a fun quick game.
I thought the story of this game was intriguing and almost comforting in a way despite it being about rats and death, but it lacked depth and complexity. Definitely falls in the bucket of "game you complete in a weekend and never really think much about again". You're really forced to stealth around for much of this game, but it never feels too difficult and there are plenty of tools at your disposal but its almost like you never really engage with half of them. Some of the characters are cute and charming, like the main relationship between the MC and Hugo. I hope the sequel builds upon some of the interesting mechanics debuted here.
This review contains spoilers
I remember playing this game around its release and having been very new to the RPG genre at that point as well as very young, much of the nuances went over my head. This playthrough felt vibrant in its world, it felt like all my choices had consequences no matter how small, and at times felt like a genuine challenge. Also having been more familiarized with the world of the Witcher, I do feel like I understood much much more of what was going on politically, who all the players were, and where we were. I ultimately let my heart guide me with many of the choices I made, I went with Iorveth and sympathized with Saskia's cause and ideals, felt betrayed by the sorceresses (Sile + Philipa) and ultimately spared Letho at the end. Knowing this game's successor and predecessor well, this game felt more involved with worldbuilding and story than the gameplay itself, though there are places to explore and things to do - it is still very linear and ultimately limited in its scope. It almost keeps the story on track that way which I appreciate.
2023
One of the most unique approaches to a video game ever. I was initially thrown off by essentially playing translator simulator but they actually made this in such a way that decoding a foreign language feel rewarding with enough puzzle and exploration elements thrown in there to make for a pretty engaging experience. I finished it in one sitting, crazily enough. What kept me engaged though wasn't just the mechanics but the worldbuilding. Meeting each new group of people with their own distinct culture and language made me wonder how they all ended up in one huge tower together... and who was at the top? Ultimately, didn't need much help on this game either with the exception of one somewhat BS puzzle right at the end where they were looking for "brother" instead of "man" as the answer to an already vague puzzle. Really loved this game though minus that one very minor hiccup.
2024
What a special, special game. You can really tell just how much thought and effort went into the puzzle and game design, the graphics, the secrets, the atmosphere. It was a pretty quick beat but I think for a game like this where its up to the player to decide just how much effort they want to put into exploring and collecting eggs, I think it was fitting to keep it short. There are some pretty horrific and pretty beautiful beats thoughout the game and it always kept me on my toes. I don't think I ever needed to do any backtracking where it felt tedious and it almost started to feel like most of the puzzles were solving themselves. That doesn't mean that I think the puzzles were easy, but rather the game does such a good job of teaching you what you need to do without telling you explicitly. I don't think I would change a thing about this game and I look forward to returning to it to try to get more eggs in the future.
Platforming was really satisfying, I'd even say more satisfying than LBP3. Loved looking over the level for secrets and trying to get the best time on the Knitted Knight Trials. From a gameplay perspective this game really killed it. Highlight of the game though - gotta be the soundtrack. Throwing in licenced music to some of the stages and making the obstacles and enemies in the game physically react to the beat fully immersed me in some of the levels. The world variety wasn't too diverse but ultimately they managed to make each individual stage in each world feel unique so big plus on the game design. I enjoyed going for more collectibles and outfits then randomly setting my appearance. Really like that they added in a surprise me option. Story was lackluster but the game wasn't about story less so theming and platforming.
The first entry of the Ace Attorney series for me to try out, I was instantly gripped by the mixture of evidence based deduction and reasoning in the form of a visual novel. The first episode had me fully invested as it felt the stakes were high and the culprit and antagonists were unlikable it really caught my attention early on and I really liked the way that each mystery began to unfold. However, the story really starts to drag and take its time in the fourth episode where episodes became twice as long with the investigation taking as long as each trial. The final trial was good, but took way too long. The characters grew on me and the twists were good, although I almost have fatigue after this first game in the series. I should hope it is a while before I make a return, but once I do return I suspect I'll enjoy the reintroduction.
2023
Dredge is all about atmosphere. The simple yet detailed environments, poly graphics, deep fog, and diverse soundtrack really add to this mysterious experience where you don't really know what's lurking around the corner or what screwed up item you might unearth from the deep. The story doesn't really get too detailed, but I'm sure it's there if someone wanted to dissect every little comment someone makes. The gameplay itself is pretty straightforward - but navigating the challenges of each environment provide enough diversity where each main zone feels different. Other than its short length, the only downside for this game is the fact that when you die, there is no death animation of the ship sinking - you just cut to a black screen that says you capsized and you can immediately start back from the last time you docked. It almost ruins some of the challenge in avoiding all obstacles because the punishment is so small.
2014
This game is incredibly charming and creative. Each level's theming and atmosphere felt so distincltly different and scratched my creative brain in just the right way, the platforming is also pretty fun. But honestly the standout of this game was the soundtrack. Each level's soundtrack fit perfectly and had an awesome mix of original music and old hits. Overall, this isn't a pretty long game and some of the platforming does end up getting repetitive (it's a pretty simple game). I wanted to try out some of the player made levels but it turns out the servers have been down for years now, so that's a huge piece of history and effort lost, bumping this game down significantly for me as I don't think the short story mode captures the whole of this game and I don't bother to engage in the level maker.
2017
Snake Pass is a unique game, I don't think there is any other game where you have to carefully manage your long body and use its slithering capabilities to navigate a course and for that I will give it its flowers. The controls and technique does take a hot minute to get used to before things click and the game actually starts feeling doable, but that learning curve is definitely something. It's hard and frustrating and sometimes unforgiving at first, but once that click happened it felt like the rest of the game was a breeze. And yes, it is a unique game in its mechanics, but who was asking for something like this? I had fun and I'll give it some credit, but I'm ultimately glad it's over.
2020
This game is the reason 3D platformers are the way they are. The first of it's kind, Super Mario 64, got so much right when there was no blueprint to work from. For that reason alone does it deserve legend status. The movement (for its time) is crazy for what you're able to do and chain together, let alone in a 3D space. The worlds all have such a unique feel to them making you want to go explore every corner for a red coin or a star. The puzzles are doable, yet when you get one you've been trying to figure out it fills you with accomplishment rather than facepalming that you missed it. The last 10 or so stars for me, I personally found very challenging to scrape together which added to the accomplishment of clearing the game. While the first half of the courses are indeed very iconic, the latter half are much more difficult and choosing to engage with the harder courses surprised me by how difficult and frustrating the ending of this game could be. I think it did reveal a few flaws in the movement towards the end for me. Trying to move the other direction often had Mario move in a circle to get to that direction, causing him to fall off many platforms a substantial amount of times. In a modern game, this probably wouldn't be an issue, but you also can't blame the clunky controls because it really was the first time something of this scale was done in a 3D space - they got it right for the most part. Hard to not give this one a 5 star rating from me, even if parts were frustrating due to the controls.