Recent reviews by Thonkeline

Fun, but not a masterpiece by any respect. Has some interesting ideas but the story is okayish at best. (7/10)

Really good. Super addictive and fun, but it does feel like every run is a flush build at some point. Could be a 10/10 later. (9/10)

Enjoyed this one quite a bit, but there were a few things keeping me from totally loving it. I think the crafting mechanics and upgrade system left a lot to be desired, and most upgrades felt far too minor and incremental to feel like they were really doing much of anything. Despite that, I still found the combat to be decently fun, as the air dodge mechanic made combat feel fast paced and exciting, even though I'm not really sure why such an important ability is put as part of a side quest rather than just being part of the main questline. By far the best part of the game is the SCP like documents scattered across the Bureau. Each one gives just enough information to feel substantial, while still being odd and strange enough to build on the existing mystery, and it seems like the writers had an absolute blast writing them. The main story was good for video game standards, but that isn't a particularly high bar to clear. I liked a lot of the ideas Control was working with, and the underlying lore is fascinating. However, sometimes it was a bit difficult to tell what was happening, and this seems partially intentional even if it was hit or miss for whether or not I enjoyed it. I liked the ending, especially since I'm always a fan of a good ol' fake ending credits scene. Overall the game was quite fun (7-8/10)

really really enjoyed it. Its clear that IO learned a lot from Kane and Lynch 2 about making realistic outdoor spaces. Each map is super well crafted to facilitate interesting and varied approaches, and the silent assassin ruleset is strict enough that it forces you to get creative to get the best rating. I had a particularly cool mission today where I was able to open a door by blowing up a fire extinguisher I pulled off a wall, and it made me feel super smart. Hitman is full of these types of interactions, and is really well designed to give you plenty of opportunities to get creative. Each kill I got over the trilogy felt my own strategy I made, but also the story missions in each level were a super nice way to get myself unstuck, or to have some more variety in what I was doing in any particular place. Overall super enjoyed it (9/10)

One of the most fun games I've ever played. Super mechanically satisfying. This game is fantastic to put on a podcast to and grind ILs. I like that each level is easy to finish once, but difficult to finish quickly. Every level being relatively short meant that routing never felt overwhelming or like there were too many options to consider. I didn't care much for the dialogue. I completely ignored the story, and don't really feel like I lost out on anything. I liked neon white better as an abstract game than I did as a narrative experience, and its clear from the fast forward features that I am not alone in that assessment. To be honest, the game is so fun that even if the dialogue was absolutely abhorrant it'd still be one of my favorite games ever. (10/10)

Venineth is a game that's difficult for me to write about because really it feels like two games stacked on top of each other. The first of these games is a hyper aesthetic game about exploring an alien world, and the other is a 3d precision platformer marble game. Unfortunately, the second of these types is both the majority of the game, and not very fun. I would have much preferred a short experience, with a loosened focus on precise jumps. The moments where Venineth gives you a wide open area to roll in any direction you want are by far the best part, as the visuals and soundtrack make the game feel perfect. I especially love the choice to not use any english text in the game, including in the options menu. Venineth runs on Unreal Engine 4, which the devs haven't used to make the game look realistic, but instead hyperreal. Most areas in the game are stylized in a way that doesn't necessarily look realistic, but rather looks like how we emotionally feel when exploring an unknown space. Unfortunately, even the graphics have a few flaws, as quite a few places in the game have either low resolution textures, boiling artifacts, or texture flickering, all of which distracted from the vibe the game was attempting to elicit. Moving on to the precision platformer stuff, I feel that it substantially took away from the experience of the game, as the feeling of frustration from failing a jump distracted from the experience of exploring a strange and alien world, and also many of the smaller details added to make the game look pretty ended up causing the marble to behave strangely in ways that are very frustrating (I had many, many times where I flew off into a pit because of hitting some small piece of angled geometry). Overall the game was interesting, but I wish it had been more focused on the exploration aspects. (6/10)

What is there to say that hasn't been said already? Mirrors edge feels like a game far ahead of its time, and its only once you see the small blemishes on the outer edges of the game that you perceive it as dated. Its clear from playing it that the devs spent most of the time and budget of the game its most important aspects: the mechanics and the artstyle. The bright artstyle gives the game's city an stylishness to it that feels fitting for the game's tone, but also presumably cuts down on the performance hits that come from having a darker city with more shadows that need to be rendered. Making a game that looks this good while running on ancient hardware is a true technical feat, and it still looks great to this day. The mechanics have also been fine tuned to create a great sense of momentum, and the moments I enjoyed the most were the moments where I was able to chain multiple moves together. Another aspect of the game I really enjoyed was its length. You make progress in mirror's edge very quickly, and tend not to get stuck for very long. My playthrough was only around 4-5 hours, which I much prefer to a longer, but less polished 8-9 hour game. The 4-5 hours here are the best material they have, and everything else has been thoroughly sanded away. (8/10)

Playdead's style is one big tradeoff. On one hand, being restricted to only moving back and forth with a limited set of actions is quite limiting from a gameplay perspective. From an art direction standpoint however, this choice ends up paying massive dividends, and allows Inside to be a remarkably beautiful game. There is a keen eye for shot composition which gives every scene a fantastic sense of place. Playdead have a masterful control over shadow, and every environment has fine tuned lighting to maximize atmosphere. Another advantage of Playdead's style is that the limited set of actions makes it much easier to make high quality animations. The animations in Inside are some of the best I've ever seen in a video game. Every single one has such a strong sense of momentum, and there are so many tiny details that add to the animations (A great one being the slight bending of the knees when the player swings on a rope). The death animations are particularly gruesome, and made me feel genuine fear from how much I did not want to see what new way they'd find to absolutely eviscerate the player character. The soundtrack fits the vibe perfectly, and understands when to leave things quiet. The game ends with a narrative slam dunk, securing itself as a modern day classic. (10/10)

The latest game from Strange Scaffold (developers of "El Paso, Elsewhere"), I Am Your Beast is an action packed addition to the first person speedrun genre. The player run speed is really fast, and makes the game feel absolutely breakneck at points. I'm not sure exactly how, but it seems like there are some aim-assisting features built into the game to make sure that close misses still hit. Its done in a way that makes you feel like a much better shot than you actually are, without being super noticeable or distracting. The game's primary gameplay loop is: kill a guy -> pick up his gun -> shoot it until you run out of ammo -> throw it at the next guy -> take his weapon -> etc., in a way very reminiscent of Superhot. The constant switching between weapons keeps the gameplay feeling super fast and frantic. I also really enjoyed the sections in between the levels where I got to hear from the protagonist, Harden. None of these story sections have majorly important plot points. Instead, they serve as charming little in between moments to catch your breath, and the individual lines of dialogue are written and performed very well. The only part of the game I really didn't like was the challenges. The challenges are alternate ways of beating levels, which could have worked quite well. In practice they end up being very irritating because there is no time pressure to complete them fast. This makes it so the best way to complete them is to go slowly, which is less fun to me. (9/10)

Indika is a game I wish I could have given a higher rating, because the things it does well it excels at. Indika's graphics are truly beautiful, and there were multiple times at the beginning of the game I paused just to take a look at the pretty vistas. Indika's graphics look fantastic due to both powerful technology, but also a really fantastic choice of setting. The 19th century Russian countryside makes for a great setting, with dark, shadow infested interiors, and blindingly bright snowy exteriors, and the moments where the game switches from one of these types of environment to the other are some of my favorite. With these exceptional graphics, however, comes a cost. I regularly had moments where my 1% lows dipped into the 10-20 range, particularly when loading new areas or cutscenes, and this made the game experience occasionally feel horrible. I'm sure I could have tuned my graphics settings to get better performance, but having to make those kinds of sacrifices takes away from one of the best aspects of the game. The voice acting and performances of each of the characters were very well done, and the two main characters have quite a lot of chemistry. I have relatively mixed feelings on the story. Indika tells the story of a nun cast away from her convent in order to deliver a letter, and much of the game is about Indika's own doubts and insecurities. Indika is one of the first games I've played in my backlog journey where I've felt like it could have been longer. The ending feels somewhat abrupt, and it didn't feel super satisfying, because many important ideas that were set up earlier in the story didn't feel like they were really resolved in a satisfying way. Indika is interesting and worth talking about, but is also undeniably flawed. (7/10)