pibli
2023
What a snoozefest. This game “just works” and does nothing else past that. The characters have no personality. The worlds feel lifeless because of the braindead NPCs. The writing feels like a first draft with no interesting dialogue, but at least the voice actors do the best they can with what they were given. To add on top of that, the main story seems to think you’re getting a sense of wonder from the mystery behind the relics you collect and the characters have the audacity to constantly question if you actually care about solving that mystery, which is HILARIOUS because it gives you no reason to care for even a second.
As if this wasn’t a bad enough start, the gameplay itself is a bore too. The gunplay is passable at best. The “choices” you’re given pretty much always let you succeed, so there's no tension because there's no risk of failure. The exploration consists of nothing but walking around empty planets and moons between several loading screens. This is a video game - not a real-life space mission; you can't expect walking around a barren, procedurally-generated level to be the least bit engaging. The cities you visit are the most generic, uninteresting environments. Just as one example, Neon is supposed to be your typical cyberpunk city overrun with crime, poverty, and corporate control. Cool. But where's the crime? Where are the bad living conditions? Where are the emotions from NPCs that detest all this? You couldn't have had NPCs do random crime to each other or, better yet, to the player? The best of this that I saw was during the corporate side quest when the employee you replaced confronts you, but even that was over quick and wasn’t that memorable.
And to the BGS employees who are responding to the reviews: look, we get it. You spent years working on this new IP expecting people to love it just like with Fallout and The Elder Scrolls only for people to shit on it relentlessly. That hurts, and most of us understand it wasn’t your fault but the fault of the people who led the project. I just hope BGS takes this as a wakeup call that you can’t expect adoration if you don’t put in the effort to offer an enjoyable experience to your audience.
As if this wasn’t a bad enough start, the gameplay itself is a bore too. The gunplay is passable at best. The “choices” you’re given pretty much always let you succeed, so there's no tension because there's no risk of failure. The exploration consists of nothing but walking around empty planets and moons between several loading screens. This is a video game - not a real-life space mission; you can't expect walking around a barren, procedurally-generated level to be the least bit engaging. The cities you visit are the most generic, uninteresting environments. Just as one example, Neon is supposed to be your typical cyberpunk city overrun with crime, poverty, and corporate control. Cool. But where's the crime? Where are the bad living conditions? Where are the emotions from NPCs that detest all this? You couldn't have had NPCs do random crime to each other or, better yet, to the player? The best of this that I saw was during the corporate side quest when the employee you replaced confronts you, but even that was over quick and wasn’t that memorable.
And to the BGS employees who are responding to the reviews: look, we get it. You spent years working on this new IP expecting people to love it just like with Fallout and The Elder Scrolls only for people to shit on it relentlessly. That hurts, and most of us understand it wasn’t your fault but the fault of the people who led the project. I just hope BGS takes this as a wakeup call that you can’t expect adoration if you don’t put in the effort to offer an enjoyable experience to your audience.
2023
This review contains spoilers
I've only played a bit of the original and SS2, but overall I had a blast with this remake.
Good things
- The original’s intro cutscene where you hack into and get captured by TriOptimum was turned into a great gameplay sequence that really immerses you in the world
- The art style uses modern lighting, geometry, effects, etc. but with low-res/pixelated textures. I've seen a lot of people comment about how they didn't like it, but I was a fan of the fact that adds a bit of a retro feel to an otherwise modern take on an old game
- I only crashed once and didn’t have any major bugs. The worst bugs I remember were with the ragdoll physics which were at best funny and at worst made me think there was an enemy when it was actually dead
- The atmosphere is always creepy and unsettling but never on the level of something like a horror game
- There’s a good variety of weapons. Since you have limited inventory space and can run out of ammo fast if you’re not careful, it was fun to have the game force me to change up my loadout and playstyle
- SHODAN is a fantastic villain. She has control of the entire space station, so you’re always on edge about what she’ll do to stop you
Mixed bags
- I like that the levels are big and feel claustrophobic since it matches the atmosphere, but they’re so dense and interconnected that it gets to the point of feeling like navigating a labyrinth. I get that the premise is literally “you’re lost on an unfamiliar space station” but it can be too much at first. As I kept playing I got better at navigating new territory, but it’s still a pain. The Storage level is a prime example of this problem.
- The enemy AI is… fine. It’s nothing special and has its moments where it forgets how to path properly
- The weapons are cool and each one serves its own purpose, but a lot of them feel like they have no impact. The enemies don’t react much to getting hit by them until they die… as in they will gib if you hit them right with certain weapons. Besides, this game isn't primarily a shooter, so I'm a bit more forgiving about it.
- Just like the original, this game doesn’t have a mission log or waypoints on normal difficulty (what I played on). You get all of your objectives from audio logs or incoming calls. I didn’t mind the lack of waypoints, but sometimes I would forget what I was supposed to do, so having at least a mission log would have been a good QoL addition. Also, from what I understand, you can get waypoints if you set the difficulty of missions to easy when you start a new game.
Bad things
- In my opinion, the cyberspace hacking sequences range from boring to tedious. Plus they were sometimes nausea-inducing. I didn’t like any of them.
- The final boss fight is disappointing and not very fun. This is mainly because it forces you to use a weapon that you only get in this fight and because it combines the cyberspace enemies with normal movement mechanics from physical space instead of cyberspace’s normal 6DOF movement. I wish they’d gone the route of Black Mesa (the Half-Life 1 remake) and completely redesigned this last part, but I’m more forgiving about it since I get that would take a lot of time and effort to get right.
Good things
- The original’s intro cutscene where you hack into and get captured by TriOptimum was turned into a great gameplay sequence that really immerses you in the world
- The art style uses modern lighting, geometry, effects, etc. but with low-res/pixelated textures. I've seen a lot of people comment about how they didn't like it, but I was a fan of the fact that adds a bit of a retro feel to an otherwise modern take on an old game
- I only crashed once and didn’t have any major bugs. The worst bugs I remember were with the ragdoll physics which were at best funny and at worst made me think there was an enemy when it was actually dead
- The atmosphere is always creepy and unsettling but never on the level of something like a horror game
- There’s a good variety of weapons. Since you have limited inventory space and can run out of ammo fast if you’re not careful, it was fun to have the game force me to change up my loadout and playstyle
- SHODAN is a fantastic villain. She has control of the entire space station, so you’re always on edge about what she’ll do to stop you
Mixed bags
- I like that the levels are big and feel claustrophobic since it matches the atmosphere, but they’re so dense and interconnected that it gets to the point of feeling like navigating a labyrinth. I get that the premise is literally “you’re lost on an unfamiliar space station” but it can be too much at first. As I kept playing I got better at navigating new territory, but it’s still a pain. The Storage level is a prime example of this problem.
- The enemy AI is… fine. It’s nothing special and has its moments where it forgets how to path properly
- The weapons are cool and each one serves its own purpose, but a lot of them feel like they have no impact. The enemies don’t react much to getting hit by them until they die… as in they will gib if you hit them right with certain weapons. Besides, this game isn't primarily a shooter, so I'm a bit more forgiving about it.
- Just like the original, this game doesn’t have a mission log or waypoints on normal difficulty (what I played on). You get all of your objectives from audio logs or incoming calls. I didn’t mind the lack of waypoints, but sometimes I would forget what I was supposed to do, so having at least a mission log would have been a good QoL addition. Also, from what I understand, you can get waypoints if you set the difficulty of missions to easy when you start a new game.
Bad things
- In my opinion, the cyberspace hacking sequences range from boring to tedious. Plus they were sometimes nausea-inducing. I didn’t like any of them.
- The final boss fight is disappointing and not very fun. This is mainly because it forces you to use a weapon that you only get in this fight and because it combines the cyberspace enemies with normal movement mechanics from physical space instead of cyberspace’s normal 6DOF movement. I wish they’d gone the route of Black Mesa (the Half-Life 1 remake) and completely redesigned this last part, but I’m more forgiving about it since I get that would take a lot of time and effort to get right.
2022
Stick to the base game. Don't waste your time with this VR mode. It's completely broken and only worth playing if you want to laugh at the glaring problems with this awful port.
Most of the controls are standard gamepad controls mapped to VR controllers' buttons. Action- and motion-based controls (you know, the whole point of VR) don't work half the time.
Most of the controls are standard gamepad controls mapped to VR controllers' buttons. Action- and motion-based controls (you know, the whole point of VR) don't work half the time.
2016
Even as a free game, this really isn't worth playing. It's 15 minutes of mind-numbingly easy puzzles with one somewhat challenging puzzle at the end, followed by an elevator ride in 1960s Aperture where you literally just stand there and do nothing. It makes no sense to call this a Portal game since there are no portals. There's hardly any physics, so you can't toss cubes to put them onto buttons, making placing them more tedious than it already is. The writing is trying way too hard to imitate Portal's humor, but it falls flat.
Especially with how great Portal Stories: Mel was, I was excited to try this game, but it left so much to be desired.
Especially with how great Portal Stories: Mel was, I was excited to try this game, but it left so much to be desired.
2016
TLDR: It's by no means a system seller and it has it's fair share of problems, but if you have a VR headset, this is a must-play at a deep discount.
I have mixed feelings about this game. On one hand, this is one of the best VR experiences I've had. It makes you feel like a badass action star like in the Matrix while you dodge or block bullets from multiple angles. On the other, it's really short and has a lot of poorly implemented mechanics.
First of all, the main game is only a couple hours long. As much fun as I had, asking $25 for this game is ludicrous, especially with the problems I'm about to point out.
One of the first things you'll notice if you have a smaller VR space is that the game doesn't accommodate for you whatsoever, so you'll struggle to reach to areas and items that should normally be in reach. I don't know how many times I hit my desk or bed frame trying to reach outside my guardian boundary. To make matters worse, the only movement that exists is roomscale movement, as well as very limited teleportation, which is hardly worth considering as movement. Each level is divided into a handful of "stages" that you will be teleported to, but only after you complete the current stage. That's why I say teleportation might as well not be considered movement; you have absolutely no choice in where to teleport.
Once I finished the main game and moved onto the challenge modes, this game really showed its flaws. I've had multiple times where I've died because I was having trouble picking up an item that was highlighted to say that would pick it up when I press the grip. I've also died multiple times because the item I tried to pick up was right next to another item I didn't need, even though the item I was expecting to pick up was highlighted.
I've also read some posts saying that the dev team removed an important plot point in the story because it contained sensitive content. I played this game long after this change happened and haven't looked too far into this situation, so I don't have much context for this. However, I will say that it's disappointing that content was removed when a simple prompt asking the player if they're fine with sensitive content would suffice, especially since this game is already so short.
I have mixed feelings about this game. On one hand, this is one of the best VR experiences I've had. It makes you feel like a badass action star like in the Matrix while you dodge or block bullets from multiple angles. On the other, it's really short and has a lot of poorly implemented mechanics.
First of all, the main game is only a couple hours long. As much fun as I had, asking $25 for this game is ludicrous, especially with the problems I'm about to point out.
One of the first things you'll notice if you have a smaller VR space is that the game doesn't accommodate for you whatsoever, so you'll struggle to reach to areas and items that should normally be in reach. I don't know how many times I hit my desk or bed frame trying to reach outside my guardian boundary. To make matters worse, the only movement that exists is roomscale movement, as well as very limited teleportation, which is hardly worth considering as movement. Each level is divided into a handful of "stages" that you will be teleported to, but only after you complete the current stage. That's why I say teleportation might as well not be considered movement; you have absolutely no choice in where to teleport.
Once I finished the main game and moved onto the challenge modes, this game really showed its flaws. I've had multiple times where I've died because I was having trouble picking up an item that was highlighted to say that would pick it up when I press the grip. I've also died multiple times because the item I tried to pick up was right next to another item I didn't need, even though the item I was expecting to pick up was highlighted.
I've also read some posts saying that the dev team removed an important plot point in the story because it contained sensitive content. I played this game long after this change happened and haven't looked too far into this situation, so I don't have much context for this. However, I will say that it's disappointing that content was removed when a simple prompt asking the player if they're fine with sensitive content would suffice, especially since this game is already so short.
2015
The Swindle is a fantastic concept. It has a solid core idea, simple but tense stealth mechanics, and an interesting artstyle, all of which should've made it a great stealth games. But like others have said, despite all that, it feels sloppy. I can accept when I made a mistake and lost a level when it's on me, but a large majority of my failures in this game were solely because the game controls horribly.
It really sucks because I found EVERYTHING about this game's concept great, but its execution is just plain frustrating.
It really sucks because I found EVERYTHING about this game's concept great, but its execution is just plain frustrating.