Recent reviews by ɠųąཞɖıąŋ ąŋɠɛƖ!

(mini-review)

I bought this game for $2.50.

The game is attractive, and at least initially, quite stylish. Unfortunately, the puzzles are generally nonsensical. They neither promote the story's resolution, nor do they often make any sense in and of themselves. The game is also short and can be solved in under an hour. However, the most damning sin the game commits is that it has perhaps the worst, most unsatisfying ending ever. How bad is the ending you ask?

I bought this game for $2.50. I want my $2.50 back.

Avoid this game.

4/10.

(mini-review)

The trailer is fantastic and uplifting. The game's potential is tangible. The game itself is a buggy mess. Game play is extremely lackluster.

That's about it.

Avoid this game.

3/10.

(mini-review)

For Amnesia-lovers, a new horror experience rolls into town.

Hey, get your peanut butter out of my chocolate! Very creepy game that marries the atmosphere of FEAR with the vibe of Condemned. Unfortunately, this title is *begging* for an interactive, online multiplayer mode where you compete against one another. Maybe Friday the 13th game will scratch that itch. Too bad there is so little content. The ending is kind of out there and weakens the entire presentation, and the story can get a bit hackneyed at times but the game has enough severe frights and disturbing content to make it a worthwhile purchase!

Worth a look, if you can find it on a Steam sale for cheap!

7/10.

(mini-review)

Disappointingly difficult to run at first, the game seemed to possess an endless litany of graphical glitches. I posted on both Steam and iD forums and the constant rejoinder was that my computer "sucked" and that the problem was on my end. Two months later, they issued a patch and all my problems vanished. It's a shame the patch arrived late because the game is beautiful and now runs well even on modest systems. While the game lacks any deep storyline and has an abomination of an ending, the smooth and silky gunplay, coupled with the beatiful vistas make it a sufficiently worthwhile buy.

Worth a look.

7/10.

(Note: I completed the game, logging 24 hours on a prior jewel-case playthrough.). The scariest first person shooter I've ever played. Yes, I've been exposed to Undying and I've had my fill of Outlast, or Doom 3. Sure, Metro 2033 had its moments and Singularity could be creepy at times. I'm sure many will remind us of Amnesia but the king of FPS horror games is still the cerebral and immensely rewarding System Shock 2. While the graphics are already sorely outmoded, the musical score and sound design are still top notch and better than many games that are almost 20 years newer.

A spiritual predecessor to Bioshock, developed by the self-same Irrational Games, System Shock 2 predates its successor in the provision of one hellishly devious plot twist that sets up the game's true villain. The frailty of the main character and the utter isolation in such a hostile environment does much to sustain a brutal sense of dread throughout the title.

Consequently, you're immersed in a powerful and overwhelming atmosphere. The game has mutliple RPG upgrade paths, modifiable items, breaking weapons and open, non-linear levels. While the plot is a bit hackneyed, it does have an excellent villain and an interesting plot twist that is sure to please. The game has coop and will now run on effectively any system, including Mac OS X! From a time when first person shooters were challenging, deep, as well as atmospheric, System Shock 2 is both a classic and a must buy.

Highly Recommended.

9/10.

This game is a bad joke by every definition. While the graphics aren't completely outmoded, prepare yourself for visuals that would feel right at home during 2008. Literally. Voice acting is God-awful. Characters are creepy automotons with some stalker-ish characters like CreepyJessica asking if you like her rear end while she takes her time to save you from a pack of zombie-wolves (yes, zombie wolves --- wth?)

The game maps are horrendously linear and absurdly small. Weapon ammunition is limited in order to amp the feeling of powerlessness but the weapons themselves feel underpowered and worthless compared to...get this... a karate kick. There is no dedicated dodge key and instead you have to time the forward movement keys to avoid some attacks. Puzzles are brutally stupid and often make no sense.

Oh and the story...where do I start. The story is nonsensical and designed for morons. You spend a good 10 minutes collecting "data samples" with a magical device that can analyze ANYTHING from giant mutants on a beach about a quarter of a city block in length, while your boss stands 50 feet away demanding what's taking so long. You reach into mutated, infected biomatter with your bare hands without fear of contamination but apparently everyone else is infected by the merest scratch.

A terrorist group leaks information of a secret base in an arctic location, so they can lure Chris Redfield and CreepyJessica to a radio-silenced area. Redfield and Jessica find the base but it turns out it was all an elaborate ruse to actually lure Jill Valentine and some pudgy Redshirt into a derelict ship...how exactly? How was Redfield's signal drawn there? Why not just capture Redfield and bring him to the ship? I mean, you're going to build a BASE in the ARCTIC so you can trick two different agents onto a ship thousands of miles away. Wait, what?

And that's just the first quarter of the short, uninspired, ridiculously-plotted game.

People will argue that this game was a DS/Gameboy game and that its limitations are born from that. My rebuttal is that iOS has plenty of full-fledged games with better graphics (Infinity Blade III), better gameplay (Implosion) and better voice acting/plot (Republique) than this normally 30 dollar crapshow. I suppose if the game was priced like an iOS title, at 5-10 dollars, it might be worth it but not at that price. What a ripoff.

Not worth the time. You'll find better games elsewhere (including other RE games).

5/10.

(mini-review)

A fun little minigame that would work well on iOS. As a PC game, despite great graphics, excellent atmosphere and some legitimate scares, the game feels superfluous. Everything you saw in the original Slender, is present here...just...prettier. The game loses its intensity as multiple villains are introduced and by the time the ending credits roll, you realize you've been roped in by excessive promises to experience a really weak ending.

A scary game for the first hour. Not much after that. Worth the purchase for 3 dollars or less.

Not worth the time. You'll find better games elsewhere.

5/10.

(mini-review)

(Note: I have the game on iOS and have logged additional hours there also. - I consider this game to be far better on iOS due to the platform and game-time opportunity.)

Regicide is a polished, well-assembled, turn-based strategy game set in the Warhammer 40K universe. With a great musical score and absolutely top-notch graphics/aesthetic design, Regicide uses chess rules combined with an expanded TBS framework to provide an interesting twist on turn-based warfare. It is important to clearly underscore that the Regicide graphics are the finest representation of space marines and the Warhammer 40K universe ever presented within video gaming. While the game is very tightly assembled, the game does lack a significant amount of depth. A game with vehicles, and multiple upgrade options, as well as races would do a lot to justify its 30-40 dollar price.

Still, for a chess-TBS hybrid set in the Warhammer 40K universe, Regicide is a worthwhile diversion.

Worth a look.

7/10.

(mini-review)

Not quite the great TBRPGs of bygone eras (Wasteland 1, Fallout 1, Fallout 2), Wasteland 2 is still a fun, expansive game with a lot to appreciate. A significant amount of varied locales, lots of hidden secrets, interesting loot and some defining character choices comprise this well-assembled roleplaying game. The graphics are sometimes a bit lacking and the game bogs down at times as you often wade through pointless turn-based combat without real, meaningful context, a powerful story, or even a defining purpose.

Still, the tongue-in-cheek game is fun at its core and scratches a particular kind of TBRPG itch that isn't easily scratched. Not worth 30 or 40 dollars but definitely a steal for 20 bucks or less.

Recommended.

7.5/10.

The game is too hard. Period. Too. Hard. Red Hook, fix your stupid game. And before any idiots chime in to QQ "Get gud", understand that you can have a team too strong for a level get wiped because you miss your attacks 8-10 in a row. Or enemies attack on luck rolls 2 times in a row. If your enemies dodge EVERY attack and you dodge NONE...and RNG bites your face...that's not "gud", that's luck.

Fix your game Red Hook, and maybe I'll change the review.

****Edit Review****

Red Hook finally made some key changes to the game. Primarily with the addition of Radiant Mode which is their version of "easy" mode. Radiant mode is still one of the ten hardest games ever released but at least it's not as blatantly, shamelessly, brokenly unfair. The game is beatable now. Which is good because the game mechanics are rock solid and the art/voice acting are probably some of the finest in a dungeon crawler I've ever seen.

Additionally, the game dropped on iOS and while most people complain about its performance, the game seems to run quite decently on my iPad. Overall the game controls/UI need some work and it would be nice if they could fiddle with the aspect ratio to use more of the screen. Still, coupled with Radiant mode, the 5 dollar iOS game has upped my total hours to approximately 50+. Not bad for a total expenditure of 35 USD. This game has toppled Hearthstone as my go-to couch game and for that, I'm raising the review a point and making a conditional review score change.

Worth a look.

7/10.