You see these type of “spot the difference” games dont work when sasuga unreal engine farts out visual and audio glitches onto my screen. “Has this room always been this bright? Has the rolling trolley always been silent?” Well these are going to be the most subtle anomalies you’ll come across, and they’re not even intentional. Also thanks for a ‘game over screen’ that is functionally identical to just failing the loop?
Idk, it’s not as bad as my review makes it out to be, but I cant type without sounding mad after playing an unreal engine game.
P.S. the unreal engine info’s source is that i made it the fuck up

Very fun and well written and atmospheric, but man that shooting feels so heavy and sluggish, and maps are not fun to slowly walk through back and forth as you complete your objectives. The imps were almost completely useless for me, they either got killed immediately when I needed help, or blocked the way, or in the case of the gunner, shot me in the back or just shot the wall next to me.

The good though, the Darkness and Jackie are performed brilliantly, and the story is genuinely pretty good for a shooter. The game has a lot of surprises I did not expect. I am always a fan of an actual dial-able phone in games (like Silent Hill Shattered Memories) and I thought the little things they did with the subway and taking the train and asking for directions, and following signs made the world feel more alive. Shame that when you get above ground, there is not really much to interact with.

I know some of my issues with shooting and general combat get improved in the 2nd game, but I think I remember that the city is not as interesting to interact with and unfortunately I do remember that the game is very short. A shame we will probably never have the third game to cap off the story of Jackie. Jackie and Adam Jensen are peas in a pod that way, I suppose.

Finally, yes I did watch all of To Kill a Mockingbird in Jenny's apartment. She fell asleep before the opening credits even ended. Talk about a terrible film-watching partner.

Dark Days: This is a really lousy experience. Essentially an “escape the room” game with a monster in some of the areas, Dark Days fails to deliver both interesting puzzles and tense scares, and its narrative suffers the classic pitfalls of indie-tier junk.

It opens with a jumpscare, not the most clever but certainly an effective one, as a monster in your front seat lunges at you while you're driving. Jade, your rambling character, pulls over at a motel and shenanigans begin, including introducing a monster who attacks when you “stare” at her. It's a fine concept, but this gal is WAY too sensitive because just having her on screen for an instant is enough to prompt her wrath. It's not very hard to manipulate, though; when you hear her breathing, you can just clam up and wait her out if you want. She'll go away and you can get back to looking for fuses or keys or whatever. You can also just look at walls and strafe when you know she's behind you. By her second encounter she was already no longer frightening to me.

That's the whole game: find the item(s) to escape the room while the monster waits for a reason to kill you, then repeat that a dozen-or-so times. Jade will be speaking to herself the entire game (and cannot be fast forwarded), awkwardly saying nothing to the men speaking to her at various points, and you'll learn a story about some cursed place in the desert and how Jade's wife is sickly. Is it interesting? Absolutely not, my brain was completely off for this game, and my subconscious/muscle memory still managed to get through this mess in under two hours. I love when the bad games are brief.

I won't spoil it, though I sort of will, when I say it ends in exactly the manner you'd think an indie game would. Apparently this game supports VR and I could see the horror working out better there, but even then it's so brief with zero replay value, what's the point? It's cheap, but it's not worth it at all.

I do not recommend Dark Days. It's a waste of time and hard drive space.

Really impressed right off the bat - Stop Dead has a killer aesthetic, great feeling parkour (which is good, cos if you stop moving at any point you will die). For those Mirror’s Edge sickos out there looking for their next fix - though in truth is more predicated on its on the fly combat puzzles. You force pull weapons, objects, RED BARRELS toward you, then dish them out strategically against the much stronger, more numerous baddies.

You will die, over and over, best to just accept it as part of its rhythm. Initially struggled with this, the cool self made set pieces are a destination not the journey. Short, distinct levels and scenarios - could be a race to the finish, could be a wave survival - the basic ingredients work whatever their configuration. At time of writing it is in Early Access, which presumably amounts to a few more levels being still in the pipeline. The only real telltale in my experience is how it almost completely eschews context & narrative framing - neither a strength or a weakness, honestly - it just is what it is, a perfect pick up title (specially on Steam Deck). Stop Dead only got on my radar because of a PC Gamer winter sale reccomendation list, and thank fuck for that - passing on the good will here 🤌

[pre 1.0 release review]
The game is 100% doable solo, even Program X.
Definitely better for those who want to focus more on gameplay.
Multiplayer is either too chaotic or too easy, while running solo lets you have more freedom and control of the match.
Definitely feels pointless after the first few reborns you do, since nothing changes besides cosmetics.