261 Reviews liked by kaprikornus


This review contains spoilers

The purpose of a critique is to take something apart to reveal a flawed construction or a shaky foundation, so it’s with some reluctance that I take on a modern classic with only an arm full of rocks to break the windows. I may have personally found this game to be a slog, but its straightforward action doesn’t actually have any fundamental problems. It tells a story with a lot of twists and turns, it develops its characters, there really doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with it. So, here’s the brick I intend to throw at it:

What is Nier: Automata about? Not in terms of plot, what are its themes and core ideas?

This question probably sounds insane. How could you not pick up on its absurdist ideas? How could you not notice how existentialism is core to its central conflict? Well obviously, I did, but the ridiculousness of the question is exactly my point. Nier: Automata leaves so little to the imagination, so little for you to wonder about and consider on your own that it ultimately works against its own interests. Naming someone “2B” in an existential game is a pretty cheeky move, and naming a traitor character “A2” starts to get into eye-rolling territory. When the two protagonists who work for an inscrutable authority wear blindfolds, and the one who left the organization has her eyes open, it's just painfully on the nose. Introducing the machine-fighting heroes as androids themselves, and having them state “There’s no actual meaning behind anything machines do” within the first thirty minutes signposts the direction of the plot so clearly that it kills the intrigue. Examples like these are dotted all over the game, like how the moral absoluteness of Yorha has literally made their base viewable only in black and white, and how most secondary characters are named after philosophers who tangentially relate to the game’s themes. These details don’t draw you in and spark your imagination, but simply highlight how this was written by someone who didn’t want the time they spent reading philosophy to be wasted on people who wouldn’t pick up on messages less subtle than a chainsaw.

This sort of approach affects the gameplay just as much, with the most notable example being how the endings are paced. The first “ending” takes about ten hours to reach, but this is more of an intro than anything. The plot goes on to be resolved in the subsequent endings B through E, with the B ending being the second longest with a run time of six hours. During this time, you play as the sidekick 9S instead of 2B, and essentially replay the entire game with minimal changes other than a repetitive hacking minigame. The purpose was to force players into recognizing all the plot/character details they may have missed the first time around, grinding players’ faces into the story to ensure that they did not miss absolutely anything. Replaying games can be great, and picking up on details you missed is fun, but hiding the resolution to the story behind a boring replay is excessively self-indulgent on the behalf of the developers. This is incredibly damaging to its overall replay value, even when there wasn’t much to begin with, considering how the combat is similarly concerned with ensuring even the least attentive players see everything. The action is very simplistic, and the combination of strong upgrade chips and consumable items only incentivizes players to thoughtlessly break through the game rather than mentally engage with it.

That’s really what all these little nitpicky rocks pile up to become. I may have loved its style, its fashion, its sense of humor, and how it actually tried to do something philosophical, but a game that tries to be about philosophy, yet doesn’t let players think on their own, has an unavoidably detrimental irony. It’s a game that misses its own point, not letting people uncover meaning in a game about uncovering meaning. Even so, the character drama still works. The combat is still fun to watch, and for people who haven’t been exposed to this sort of topic, it wouldn’t feel as patronizing. Most people don’t replay games at all, so even the repetition I found to be so gratuitous could have been an eye-opening experience. Nier: Automata still stands tall in spite of my little complaints, but it’s not exactly a house I want to live in. Some asshole broke all the windows.

Every skin in this game costs 99 cents, and you need to get 50 coins in order to unlock the characters. Each run will give you about like 10 coins, and you can get ten more for watching a thirty second ad. The game still gives you ads without any rewards, and the game also controls like shit. What's somehow even more surprising is that the game LITERALLY OVERHEATED MY PHONE. How a game this bad was made amazes me.

when John Muramasa said "where there are full metals i slay them where there are daemons i slay them. mine is the way of the muramasa" i cried

Q1K3

2021

I initially tried to complete this without a mouse, instead using the nipple on this Thinkpad. This was pretty miserable but worked up until I ran out of ammo on the nailgun, when I realized this game does not allow pressing number keys to switch weapons and I didn't have a proper scrollwheel. At that point I had spent too long trying to complete it in my silly way to not finish it, so I went and grabbed a trackball mouse to do it in a much easier but still kind of silly way.

Anyway, the technical achievement is the main point of focus here but the vibes were still impeccable and this was a really cool take on a couple levels of an old favorite.
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Despite Backloggd showing this as a Windows game, this is a purely in-browser game

its fun, reminds me a lot of syndicate but more single character focused which i really like. its a bit janky and poorly balanced (trust me once you get the machine pistol or s&w autopistol you really dont need any other gun, i beat hard without ever buying a primary weapon) but for my weird standards thats not a negative.

A revolutionary game in story telling. Does so much with so little. Level design has been artfully extracted from the darkest recesses of a rats brain and extrapolated into an fps and as a result is labyrinthian enough to make a minotaur grow annoyed. But the story is so fascinatingly layered, and really sets the stage for the rest of this trilogy.

he exhibits behaviors highly typical of myself

No more than a time killer, but a good one at that. I've always loved quick-reaction games, personally, and this does a simple, yet still very good job. There are of course some things that can be drastically improved in my opinion, such as the graphics (edit 2022-12-15: do not stand by this, the simplicity is fine) and the music, but all I feel matters in this case is that it's fun.

Larn

1986

Played the NLarn remake.
Pretty underrated game, unique main concept (your daughter's ill and you need magical potion to cure her, but the potion's extremely expensive and you need to make money with dungeon crawling) a shame it's not as big of a name as other roguelikes of the time. Bit easy by comparison though.

The game is kinda meh by today’s standards but that soundtrack fucking bops too damn hard for 1987.

Let it not be said that the Dragon Slayer games aren't creative. Unfortunately, the concepts in these games just don't land the execution.

Like its predecessor, it again plays with non-linear gameplay concepts, but this time it lets you build a custom party (with tons of classes) to dungeon crawl with. Having your party follow you around just doesn't make for very good combat, especially when that combat often consists of just getting swarmed by enemies. The dungeon crawling itself also gets repetitive quite often. I do need to note that the music is fantastic and it's a shame that the rest of the game just doesn't come together well.

One of the first of its kind, this is a community continuation of the original Savage game. It's an RTS which you can assume control of any character and go into a first person shooter, way ahead of its time and quite fun!

Welcome to Babbdi — Token here!
— This review is final, and my score will not change whatsoever.
Babbdi is something that cannot be explained through a video or a review. Play this once, and only once; if you do go back, make sure it counts. The atmosphere is truly unmatched in Babbdi, and it starts to make you think a lot about the world itself. No matter how much you explore, it'll never be enough and most likely outcome will be, "I want more of this." Babbdi doesn't need a sequel at all.

[7/10 - Good] | (Game is literally free)
Full review here: https://youtu.be/Ee1nprhyKYo

Original Steam Review
https://steamcommunity.com/id/tokenmcpe/recommended/2240530/

ULTRAREBOOT (x3)Hola, mi amigos. Forcetony Rebootano here.
— Review was formulated based on an unbiased opinion regarding on my experiences with boomer shooters.
— The game is in early access, and content is subject to change.
Force Reboot is a great case of mixing both two formulas that worked well and were turned into a nice movement shooter, It's got its ups and downs, lefts and rights, horizontals and verticals. Eventually, after finally beating the 3rd stage, I've never felt such immense joy in my life; it overall made me cry... If you're coming here after finishing [post void] or ULTRAKILL then you'll certainly love Force Reboot! Don't wait for a sale; buy the game full-price because it's worth it! (because I said so, 100% — so GET THE DAMN GAME ALREADY...)

[8/10 - Great] | (Game was bought at a full price)
Full video review here: https://youtu.be/E25UoXntB_I

Original Steam Review
https://steamcommunity.com/id/tokenmcpe/recommended/1766010/

Survival horror is a genre I have never viewed as my favorite despite my consistently great experiences with these games. From the thrilling scares to great soundtracks and simple gameplay progression, survival horror has evolved over the years but retains much of what makes the genre so special. Crow Country is the most recent spiritual successor to this genre, being a stellar callback to the horror games of the 90s both in look and play and also making creative choices that make it stand out more.

The game's plot has you playing as agent Mara Forest as she is sent to the titular Crow Country amusement park to locate its owner Edward Crow. From here you set about exploring the amusement park to progress all while fighting a series of increasingly grotesque monsters. The game takes a lot of its inspiration from Resident Evil with the loop of solving puzzles and collecting key items being a staple of this genre. Outside of the usual items one would collect, such as ammo and health, there is also a load of secrets one can uncover that give both upgrades and new weapons.

One of the best aspects of survival horror is exploring every facet of a space whether it be a mansion or a space station. Slowly learning the layout of the amusement park and how it intertwines with the different parts of it is an immensely satisfying feeling. Each bit of progression in the game also causes the status of the rooms to change to be more dangerous so you are always left on your toes especially if you want to comb areas. The basic controls for the game are fine allowing you to line up your shots so as not to waste ammo. I played this game on a keyboard and I would recommend following the game's recommendation and playing with a controller as that will surely lead to a more satisfying experience. I got used to the controls after some time but I never fully felt as in control as I would have been if I used a controller.

The game is a pretty simple entry into the survival horror genre it being pretty easy in both the combat and puzzles. I would say the base difficulty was a little too easy with there being only a few moments where I felt stressed for ammo and health pickups. This also leads to the game not being super scary for me but it still succeeds in setting an unnerving tone throughout. The game is getting a Hard Mode in the future which will hopefully add to increasing the tension. For the most part, the puzzles are fun to solve and not too difficult either. There were a few cases where the solution to a puzzle is found on a note that is located somewhere else resulting in some backtracking and also requiring you to see the note in the first place. One puzzle I had to look up simply because I could not find the note that would give me the answer. This highlights a problem I have where the notes are collected in handbooks found in save rooms. I do not know why these notes could not be simply viewed from your inventory screen as it saves you from having to go back several rooms to read a note.

One aspect of the game that stands out the most for me is its very unique art style. Every part of the game looks like it is part of a plastic toy set with many of the character models looking like a Playmobil figure. This look creates a lighter tone for the game overall and is one of my favorite-looking games I have played all year. Despite its soft look, the art style is used effectively in creature designs making it hard to comprehend exactly what you are looking at at times.

Crow Country is a stellar survival horror game and one I could easily recommend as an entry point into this genre. As soon after I beat it the first time, I quickly did a second run to achieve the highest rank possible. My second run showcased how optimized the game's progression making it ripe for speedrunning. I also loved seeing all of the foreshadowing the story presents early on basically spelling out many of the late-game moments early on. This has been my favorite game to come out this year so far and one I could not recommend enough for fans of the genre.