Recent reviews by HeadUp

Though I will attempt it, it's tough to put into words how deeply ingrained the legacy of classic Looking Glass titles like System Shock and Thief are to both my taste in games and my mental models of what makes them great. I remember playing the original as a teenager and being blown away by the immersion mechanics like sneaking, climbing, hacking, and evasion, the audio logs with their unforgettable Aeon Flux-esque portraits, and iconic SFX / BGM (produced by the amazing Terri Brosius) so good it drove me to learn how to pilfer the game files in order to incorporate samples into trance albums (who remembers eJay?) that I would sell to classmates as burnt CDs in my HS cafeteria. My 18+ year career in design has roots in experimentations in Photoshop 6.0 chopping up the menu's UI and using sprites of the neon in-game computer panels into PHPBB forum signatures. The game, along with the remnants of my early creative output, have become like tears in rain. But that rain nourished something that has taken root, and what made System Shock 2 such a worthwhile title back then is present in plenty of titles that have been released since then.

But what makes a game worth buying again? Or, if you weren't lucky enough to experience the original when it first came out, why play a classic game knowing it will have dated mechanics or graphics compared to modern titles?

The answer to the first question will depend on how long ago you last played SS2. If you haven't played it in many years, you owe it to yourself to take a trip back in time - the original is preserved here in a fashion Nightdive Studios is well-known for. They make it playable on modern machines and upgrade the graphics from potato mode, sometimes sprinkling in nuances for the savants, but otherwise not messing with the source material. To witness the game with a level of consistent improvement to the visual fidelity, it will light up that part of the brain that says "whoa, this is just how I remembered it" without reminding you how clunky and ugly that actually is today. If you have played multiple versions of SS2, including the original when it became available on Steam, which already has visual fidelity mods (nowhere near as consistent, but higher-poly perhaps for some models), and have revisited the title a few times? Depends on how big a fan you are. The Vault should have been called the Time Capsule, because flipping through the old booklets and Prima strategy guide feels like a trip back to the early noughts. I'm taking this as an opportunity to roll the OSA melee build I've always shied away from, but otherwise, I have some doubts I'll want to play all the way through to completion in lieu of waiting for the full remake.

The answer to the second question, whether you should start here if you've never played, or just wait for the remake? I would highly recommend you start here! The game is in it's best and most presentable state here, faithful to the original, with core mechanics that age more like fine wine than many games of this age, and with a story that is still so worth playing through to the end. Going toe-to-toe with The Many and SHODAN, unraveling the story, and experiencing the perils of the VonBraun are not to be missed for any fans of immersive sims, sci-fi RPGs, and classic PC games. Play it this way first so that the remake can (hopefully) electrify it the way the System Shock remake did to its original.

I highly recommend KCD2, especially to immersive sim fans, for its gorgeous graphics, historical setting, and game mechanics blending classic RPG elements with accessible realism. As many have cited, and perhaps highlighting how ahead-of-its-time the first installment of KCD was, the sequel manages to build on a solid foundation that forces a layer of thinking to quests rarely seen in modern games (to the point its roots in classic RPGs become clear), and grants the player ample freedom in HOW to complete those quests.

GRAPHICS (Run on 2023 Razer Blade 16 w/ RTX 4090)
Despite being built on the same heavily-modified Cry Engine technology as the first game, which was also visually-astounding when it was released, KCD2 is a beautiful game to behold for its lush forests and fields, arresting architecture, and, yes -- mud, dirt, and filth. Characters look a bit sharper this time around, with lots of unique faces that exude personality. At times, overly mechanical animations or blank facial expressions work to betray scenes of compassion or tension, but most of the time they carry things along well enough. As a player who really appreciates taking in the scenery, exploring, and looking for details, I can say KCD2 is one of the prettiest games out today.

STORY
Without spoiling the events of KCD1 or KCD2, you play as Henry of Skalitz ca. the late 1400s, the son of a blacksmith whose Bohemian village is attacked by the Hungarian King Sigismund, and forcing Henry to survive in a dangerous and, at least initially, unforgiving world. KCD2's story picks up with familiar characters from the first game, and while skipping the first won't prevent you from enjoying the story, this one relies on it a little more than other games. Things go to ♥♥♥♥ fairly quickly, and the player is again introduced to the region from the ground floor, maybe even the basement, or more fittingly, the dungeon. While the player's actions can influence the story, and some quests are time-sensitive with real consequences for tardiness, in my experience it still follows a somewhat linear course and is impacted more by what quests you don't complete rather than choices made during dialogs, or based on how you completed those quests.

MECHANICS - EXPLORATION
In KCD2, you have a couple ways of getting around, starting with your two feet. There's a forced first-person perspective (not counting inventory player view and photo mode) and fully rendered body to look down at, and animations that make it clear whether you're standing or crouched and sneaking, but unclear whether you have your weapon drawn unless you look down or at the GUI, expanded but still rooted in Oblivion-esque nostalgia and its corresponding rigidity. There are horses, which you can buy (or steal, but still have to jump through hoops to claim as your own), or sell, which give a much-needed boost of speed, storage, and protection. Compared to gorgeous horse renderings in everything from RDR2 to the Assassin's Creed series, and seeing as KCD2 does not feature a third person view while on horseback (except in the menu or photo mode), only a close look at the mane with visible corners to the texture in first person, they sadly are not the best in show. Fast travel is also present, largely unchanged from the predecessor, complete with a gamepiece-like player indicator and beautifully, comically-rendered maps dripping with medieval style. Random encounters also make a return - I skipped or evaded most of these, died often when I failed the throw to skip, and mostly saw them as an inconvenience. With controller support, which is how I played most of the game having played KCD1 on PS4 Pro, you can easily play to your preference.

MECHANICS - SPEECH, STEALTH, & COMBAT
Much of the game's action involves one of these three mechanics, and KCD2 goes even further to reinforce this by offer players three outfit presets which can be used to optimize Henry for the task at-hand, one of a few welcome QOL improvements from KCD1. As the game progresses and you complete different missions involving these skills, you start to feel like you're living a double or triple life jumping between different classes in society, groveling to a noble before turning around and condescending in front of peasants. Speech options and difficulty are impacted by reading, investigation, your outfit, skill progression, faction alignment, and many other variables. Rarely does Schnapps-scumming feel like a necessity. Stealth is one of my favorite mechanics in KCD, offering you an easy if not abjectly immoral path to fame and fortune - in KCD2, it feels like more of a requirement in many quests than it did before, and it's more costly to eschew. Combat in KCD2 is quite similar to KCD1, challenging to get comfortable with, but empowering once you get the hang of it. Fights are often frantic and thrilling, leaving your heart pounding after the dust settles and forcing you, especially when outnumbered, to consider alternatives to spilling blood.

SOUND
The score and sound effects are all pretty superb. I found myself whistling the tavern BGM while going about my daily chores, only to Google the specific track and find how many other players loved the music in KCD2. Not only does it help immerse the player in the era with the clang of the blacksmith's hammer on hot steel and the squelching clop of horseshoes in mud, it gives the game its personality in compliment with Henry's affable, throaty voice acting performance. The peaceful breeze makes the sun almost feel warm on your face, while the eerie misty breeze makes your hair stand on end anticipating a twig snap that might betray the next ambush.

WHAT'S MISSING?
While there is a wide variety of things to see and do in the quests, some of them started to feel a little too linear in terms of design and how they are completed, even with the freedom players are already granted. If you spend enough time thieving and pawning your loot, you can build up a tidy bit of wealth, but without much to spend it on besides horses, armor you don't decide to steal, or a permanent room in a tavern so you can access your loot chest almost anywhere, it feels like something is missing. The player can call many places home, but can't do anything further to develop or customize that home - owning a manor or even a castle would have been cool, many locations in-game lend themselves to this. If a KCD2 expansion (or sequel) were to introduce base-building or deeper survival mechanics, even in the vein of Fallout 4, you'd get a meaningful sense that Henry was progressing beyond being servant to a noble to begin to approach a peer. If KCD2 allowed you to indirectly influence quests and objectives, say, by raiding or robbing an adversaries supplies, messengers, etc., it would extend that unique layer of inquiry and experimentation that KCD encourages to more strategic and tactical levels.

THE VERDICT
If you're a fan of immersive, historical, story-focused RPGs, KCD2 is an absolute must-play. It takes what made KCD1 so memorable and makes it even better, with an interesting cast of characters, somewhat varied options for role playing, and satisfying game mechanics that thrill, challenge, and above all, force you to think a little more.

Nobody Wants to Die has all the trappings of a retrofuturist noir mystery and despite its rather brief runtime manages to deliver a few really enjoyable and memorable moments that will leave you wanting more. Some players, myself included, may walk away hung up on a few questionable design and narrative decisions, but for fans of the various genres being mashed up there's a compelling reason to dive into the "shell" of Det. (ret?) James Karras and go out on the beat in the game's gorgeous rain-drenched NYC megalopolis.

VISUALS 9/10
The first thing you will likely notice about this game is the gorgeous visuals, especially its rendition of a future New York City that blends the rainy evergloom of Ridley Scott's LA in Blade Runner with the verticality of Luc Besson's Fifth Element, with hints of Fritz Lang's Metropolis and yes, more than a few nods to Ken Levine's Rapture in the BioShock series. If you're the kind of player who likes to move slowly through your game environments admiring the work of the level designers, you will love this game for the gorgeous vistas - the buildings and vehicle design is especially sweet. It's like multiple theses in fine art were channeled into the game world, with gorgeous architecture that manages to retain those few subtle details that make it feel like it could have once been the NYC we know rather than some generic future city. However, the closer you admire the details, the higher chances of noticing tiny anomalies that tear you from the uncanny valley, like how the windshield wipers of your flying car act more to hide and show a layer of sploshing raindrops rather that clearing them away only for more raindrops to accumulate. When you stop to admire the moody rays of what little sunlight filters through the arcology in the distance, you see a layer of buildings above and wonder where all the rain is coming from. Still, from the gorgeous neon flashes of the omnipresent technology to the menacing glow of the flames of riotous revolution, this game is eye candy to be savored.

GAMEPLAY 6/10
You'll see a lot of reviews deriding this game and many like it as a "walking simulator" with a few bells and wistles. While that criticism oversimplifies how players move through the game, you shouldn't expect a bunch of gunplay, complex puzzles, or tense chase sequences. You will be combing through crime scenes, reconstructing the events using a combination of QTE and a handful of "classic" futuristic detective tools including a UV lamp that looks like an opthalmoscope and an X-ray powered magnifying glass, along with time-limited dialog responses and a few "key decisions that will affect the gameplay" or something to that effect. It wasn't entirely clear how my choices impacted the outcome, other than to unlock additional dialogue options and determine which one of what seem to be multiple possible endings. I sometimes really craved some of the gunplay and chasing that was missing clicking to pull a trigger to no avail, but I can understand and maybe even admire the bold decision to focus the gameplay and not bring in more mechanics that might muddy things up. That said, I found the gameplay itself to be the weakest point of Nobody Wants to Die, outshined on all fronts by the visuals, audio, and the themes. You are encouraged to follow a set path when surveying the crime scenes, such that you can't really uncover key clues before their turn, which totally discourages exploration. Even when explained in its neat little sequence, it feels confusing though it's difficult to separate what was done by design from what just feels awkward. The use of very clear UI icons means you are never wondering where to go to interact next, but as a result you pay less attention to the beautifully-detailed environments. While understandably the devs don't want players completely confused as to what to do, the hand holding felt a bit to heavy.

NARRATIVE 8/10
At its best, this game makes you feel like you're playing out a musty paperback pulp science fiction novel from the mid-20th century, where time, culture, dress, cars, architecture, and music all stood still for centuries in the game's retrofuturist world. It handles immense concepts about life, longevity, and how power corrupts, which the ideas themselves evoke and provoke very interesting thoughts and questions if not managed by the narrative. However, the narration also stumbles at a few points, leaving us in the dark for a little too long before lifting back the curtains where a longer game would take what it reveals and immerse the player in it more, allowing them to affect it and see more of the outcome. They payoff feels puchy, but getting there I was often a bit confused as to what was going on and what happened. I get it that it's a mystery, but even some of the revelations and resolutions feel more like vagaries and plot holes...or maybe setup for a sequel? It's at its worst when it leans too heavily into the tropes of the genres at play, especially noir, or spends way too long forcing the player to their knees in a fit to cough up yet another pint, ho hum. You do grow to feel something about the protagonist and his supporting cast, especially regarding their former lives, the "grade" of their "shell" and the pains of "desynchro" but you barely spend enough time with them before the game rolls the credits...then again, if it leaves you wanting more, does that make it a bad story? And bonus points for randomly littering some environments with great books like Meditations, though I'm not sure what would have made the book's owner a stoic otherwise.

SOUND 8/10
A lot of reviewers will rightly call out the game's sound as one of its strengths. I definitely think the music, environment and voice acting are all very solid across the board, but I think it also played it safe where it could have done more. The signature whiny brass and harrowing orchestral flourishes of classic film noir are here in spades, and while a few tunes really did stick in my head for hours after one or two play sessions and gave my evenings a bit of extra mood when the game really had me the most engrossed, I couldn't help but notice times when it felt repetitive or cliche when it was meant to drive home a much heavier sentiment. Those mournful moments of loneliness, tenderness or sorrow, where the player might have shared in the heartstring plucking of flashbacks of love lost feel like missed opportunities where in the aforementioned precedents like Blade Runner or Fifth Element the soundtrack pulled you deeper into its world without knowing it until you notice your eyes beginning to well up from what the vibe just conjured up out of your subconscious. The sound could have been used to build a greater sense of dread, or flesh out the world more where the neon signs and advertisements only take things so far on their own. Still, it supported the narrative well throughout and rarely fell flat.

VERDICT 7.5/10
A compelling but brief look into a gorgeous retrofuturist cybernoir New York City where death is cheated on a macro scale and society teeters on the brink of collapse. Fans of cyberpunk, noir mystery, detective games, narrative-focused games and the like will find the game is worthy of your hard earned dollars. If you are only partially sold, it's still worth wishlisting and picking up on sale for a rainy weekend romp.

The summer of 1997 for my brother and I was a special summer, spent in a rural area with little to do, a handful of N64 cartridges and about 1 hour each per day of gaming time. That time was spent almost exclusively in the jungles of the lost land, and when it was time to put the controllers away, we just went out back and stalked our 5 acre property with nerf guns and bows and arrows continuing the adventure in our imaginations. It even inspired me to write my earliest and only stab at fan fiction (if you're reading this, be thankful it never saw the light of day)!

Many years have passed, but those fond memories of the summer of Turok never fade, and the dark tribal techno earworms of the BGM still thrummed in our subconscious. When Nightdive's remaster of this beloved but aging series came out, I jumped aboard, and revelled in the nostalgia for a level or two. It wasn't until recently, that I decided to commit to a full playthrough, in keeping with revisiting and defeating various books (It, Jurassic Park, Eaters of the Dead) and games (Thief, Jedi Knight, and System Shock series) that I loved as a kid but never properly finished without the aid of cheat codes.

The remaster is both sharp and responsive, a lot of fun to play with a controller, and graphically true-to-the-source material for better or worse (here's wishing for a proper Nightdive remaster as they are doing with the System Shock series). The experience brings you right back to your Airwalks, Jncos (or Pipes) with chain wallet and necklace, KoRn tee shirt and backpack emblazoned with Hot Topic patches, I felt the adrenaline rush akin to a can of Surge or a run of the modern Doom series as I zipped around the map blasting away with my favorite weapons, including the combat shotgun, grenade launcher, alien weapon, and the OP chronoscepter.

For those who never grew up playing N64, this is one of the better FPS games of the era, overshadowed by Goldeneye 007 which feels clunkier and less of a pleasure to revisit when ever I attempt to on Switch or anywhere that doesn't have that wonky original N64 controller. The story may feel bare bones without the companion comic book that came out along with the game's release, but the tone remains perfectly preserved - angsty, brutal, and cathartic.

Sorry, maybe it could be passed off as poor marketing communication and a gulf of player expectations, but this just doesn’t cut it. I enjoy Air and Sea in the campaign, although it really isn’t actually introducing anything new. I was appalled at how weak the new Rangers are in this “expansion pack,” compared to CoH1 and CoH2:AA. Like they got purposely nerfed before release. The bug fixes feel a lot more impactful in my replay of the campaign and skirmishes, more than any of the content here, which mostly feels non-essential.

A sprawling and addictive game that draws you in with its tentacles until you're powerless to resist. Very much like what your first proper tabletop campaign ought to feel like, and while it could never account for every possible idea it gets pretty damn close, forcing you to evaluate, strategize, and best of all, staying true to the soul of the genre of role playing by offering so many ways of dealing with the many challenges the game throws at you. That goblin over there? You could try to convince him you're a fellow miscreant and allow you to pass. You could wait in hiding until he's strolling near a cliff and give him a good shove. Or you could try any other dozen options, the real question is more, what would your character do? This is likely what makes BGIII so special as a relatively small island in the vast ocean of DnD content, but also as a modern installment in a legendary old school RPG series that has inspired countless titles since their original release.

While the graphics are generally pretty gorgeous, a fine iteration on the Divinity engine despite it's striking similarity in terms of the core gameplay model to older titles from Larian Studios, the control scheme feels cumbersome and camera issues hamper exploration. There are areas of the experience that feel rather caught up between eras of gaming between BGII and DOSII where BG3 should have been allowed to advance things even further. For this reason, on the basis of controls, despite some cheeky nods to the tabletop, this fails to fully capture the essence of the tabletop nor the exploratory freedom of other big RPGs.

Despite this, since being a part of Early Access from the beginning, I am blown away by the full product. The new difficulty options, additional races and classes, controller support, updates to the game, QOL improvements, and of course, the full story are all major reasons to take the plunge if you've been sitting on the fence waiting to see if the final product is worth it. Definitely recommended.

While there are plenty of things I would call out and/or suggest to the devs to improve the product, in my opinion as a single player focused gamer, the Italian Campaign alone is worth purchasing the game for and thus why I'd recommend it to others. After participating in the Campaign Beta and awaiting the finished product, at launch, I was playing through it feverishly only to drop it after taking Rome for the first time, and then returning more recently for a replay of the Italian Campaign on a higher difficulty before and after Emerald Bear, the third round of updates and refinements following launch.

Why I'd recommend it:
- Classic COH gameplay is here - it's fun to play, shorter play sessions are satisfying, and what makes it one of the best WWII games and RTS's in existence remains largely intact
- Unit banter is on point as always, and while the bickering of the Allied generals gets tiresome fast, the characters that narrate the action are entertaining
- New types of companies to explore like the US Special Forces and UK Indian Artillery Companies, while legacy factions like US Airborne and German Wehrmacht are largely familiar
- The Campaign map adds a new layer of strategy, building on CoH2's Ardennes Assault DLC and taking it new directions in ways that give more freedom but also feel a lot lower-stakes (or less stressful at least)
- Skill points can be used to customize your Company more than ever before, you can lean into what makes the company unique, or counter-balance it with armor, or make it more or less a Campaign map raider
- Italian resistance plays a unique role in both the campaign map and the actual missions, you can unlock valuable support by aiding their cause
- Command queue now gives you soooo much more control over your troops, tho in some cases it can make things a little too easy

What I wish was better or present:
- Despite purported improvements in pathfinding, you still have a lot of units getting stuck, turning into a ratking, or requiring more hand-holding on where to go
- As a history buff, I think it was a missed opportunity not to allow some form of playthrough according to the historical events - and it's currently very difficult to attempt a playthrough in this way because of the game systems
- Some Companies feel very absent - namely Canadians and British SF (I know the units are technically available, but it deserves to be done as a proper Company, just like US SF), hope these might enter the fray in a future update
- US Airborne feels too samey to previous inceptions, doesn't feel unique to either theater covered this time around, whereas previous they felt appropriate for Normandy or the Ardennes, here they just seem kinda generic and lack any theater-specific flavor
- Not enough of a challenge on the Campaign map aside from enemy Companies trying to Skirmish - these become so repetitive due to only a few different maps and scenario types being shuffled at random, you may often be inclined to auto-resolve when you just want to advance to your turn
- Weather/natural catastrophes like volcanos, mud, gas leaks, bad seas, scorched earth, etc. absent, there's no sense of the passage of time even though the weather and seasons had a huge effect on the real campaign - would have even been cool to have to manage the liberated Italian civilians and deal with things like sickness/disease and providing aid or they might sour to the Allies or something

The bottom line:
It has plenty to offer, and there's likely something that will scratch that WWII RTS itch and keep you hooked. There may not be enough as if now to truly sustain players more than the classics and surpass the successes of COH 1 and 2, but knowing that more is likely in the works for COH 3, I am having fun and looking forward to more.

With all the incredible mods offered by a very active community, you are able to render nearly any conflict in the 20th century onward (not to mention a number of other fictional universes), and with enough time and patience learning how to use the Editor (where I've spent 99% of my 1600+ hours making the missions I want to play for myself, then sharing them back w/ the community), this is as close as you can get to a DIY tactical first-person shooter. I love reading about historical conflicts, then rendering them in Arma 3, researching the units, and getting creative with the tools to bring ideas to life. Mods like Faces of War, Unsung, and CUP offer expansive options for WW2, Vietnam, and the GWOT, respectively. If you enjoy building mechanics similar to Fallout 4, you will find scene-building in the Editor to be addictive. If you saw a photo of a modern combat zone only to realize it was actually a heavily-modded screenshot from this game, you will find yourself tumbling down the rabbit hole. My only complaint is that the AI can be a bit stiff, even with mods, when it comes to CQB and vehicle control. A small price to pay to be able to easily bring your game ideas to life and actually play/share them.

Approachable, addictive, fun. Those are the three words I have for this game after just a weekend. I'm sure that as the modding community masters the game's built-in terrain and object tools, there will be a galaxy of content and a plethora of jaw-dropping accomplishments in virtual urban planning. Hats off to a game dev team that seems to really be in touch with their players.