Hobbes 最近的評論

UPDATE : They fixed Baltheus. Yes. Fixed. Not Nerfed. We'll discuss what they -did- nerf a bit later.

Is it hard? Yes. Is it -inaccessible-? Not any longer. The changes made to Baltheus have seriously taken the sting out of getting over the chapter 1 hump (which is where a lot of more casual players would be tapping out). More people getting their ass kicked by the Sea Spider and IBIS is a -good- thing, because by those points you have the -correct- tools to reliably handle those bosses.

Baltheus needed -fixing- and hard. Not because the boss was inherently difficult beyond the overload of hard tracking spamfire, but because at that point in the game your toolbox was -extremely- limited and your options were lacking. People who faceroll the game with twin Zimmermans are going to see their OP build get nerfed soon enough, that makes me somewhat smug for the fact I'm closing on NG+ and I didn't -need- to use a crutch build.

"Git gud" to all of you running 2x Zimmerman and 2x Songbird. Your time is coming.

This game can still get you killed before you even begin a mission through sub-optimal parts choices, and for all the bravado of people suggesting you can win with any configuration? The answer is no, no you can't, not unless you're doing something really sketchy to the game code. It's already been proven that you can't no-hit this game (Balteus pretty much removes that idea from the off) and I suspect even no-death true "S" runs are going to take time before we see unedited footage showing that someone has mastered the art of zen in this game.

The first two chapters are still an unenjoyable mess, not least because critical component unlocks are gated off until you get into Chapters 3 and 4. Once you -have- a diverse enough toolset to start really experimenting with builds that suit you, the game improves -drastically- and goes from "Meh" to "OUTSTANDING"


To respond to the most typical arguments -

"It's not for you" - Gatekeeping is a terrible look, and whilst I entirely agree there's a space for these games to exist, if the skill requirement wipes out the majority of the people before they get to the "meat" of the game, that's overtuning. We saw that back in the day with World of Warcraft and TBC and it took them multiple adjustments to dial in the difficulty so that there was a space for -most- skill levels to participate.

"Git gud" - has become so toxic that at this point it no longer qualifies as a means of argument, it has no place in any community and needs shooting with fire. If that's your sole response then perhaps Gaming as a -whole- is no longer for you. Go touch grass.

And anyone running dual Zimmermans are automatically disqualified from having any opinion, regardless of which NG+ you happen to be on. Go sit in the corner and wait for your crutch to be kicked out, then we'll chat.


1.02 has changed the calculus quite a bit, with Balthus no longer being a total wallblock that sanded off a lot of players unwilling to run crutch builds or being willing to find ways to cheese out the mass of spam that Baltheus threw about. He's a legit boss now as opposed to just a dumb, unfun mass of grind.

I am -less- happy about the nerfs to Sea Spider (they were kinda unwarranted though I suspect they're laying the ground for a Songbirds nerf), and Ibis really didn't need modifying as at that point you -have- the toolset to cope with what's being thrown at you and by this point you've learned the cadence the game expects from you.

However....

Much like others, I absolutely do not recommend it to AC fans (it's not a proper AC game imho), and I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone who plays a turtle in DS, you -have- to be fast and able to avoid lots of tracking fire or you're going to have a very, very bad day.

Note for the comments section

If you're going to leave a comment, make sure it has something constructive or useful to add, otherwise your comment doesn't get to stick around. Free speech doesn't apply here. My house, my rules.

Why would you do this to me?

I HAVE A LIFE. THERE'S THINGS I NEED TO DO THIS YEAR.

THEY'RE NOT NEXT YEAR PROBLEMS. THEY'RE THIS YEAR PROBLEMS. I WANT TO DO SOMETHING ELSE.

... and I can't.

Put a fork in 2023 for gaming. BG3 just ended the conversation on PC.

The protag unironically listens to Limp Bizkit in 2023

Put your brain in neutral, imagine it's a bit like some FF version of Nioh and you're going to be in for a ride.

Being a rockband slaying demons to heavy metal in a deckbuilder roguelite. This has all the ingredients for greatness. The graphics are not amazing but they are -very- good. The music is top notch, the atmosphere gets you really invested.

... And then you see what the devs are doing to the game in the name of balance. So far every change has been made with the intention of reducing the power capability and ease of use of characters deemed "too capable" (That is to say, you can finish a run with them).

There's been multiple posts, not just by myself, on the fact the other characters need -major- buffs, and in some cases total reworks to make them substantially useful. What do we get? More nerfs to key carry characters (Roxy, my poor sweet girl, what have they done to you?!?!?). The new characters added do not pick up the slack and with the tight action economy, often form traps for new players to end up wrecking their run.


They added a new guitarist who uses the power of thunder to gradually accumulate power in the form of electrical charges on all band members, this sounds like a good idea EXCEPT the card which simply MOVES THE BUFF ONTO THE GUITARIST TO ENABLE HER ABILITIES COSTS YOU A FULL ACTION POINT OUT OF THE LIMITED POOL OF 4 WHEN YOU START. Considering a lot of attack spells use 2AP, guess what, most of your turn is eaten simply to make a weak attack A LITTLE BIT STRONGER. THIS IS NOT GOOD DESIGN.

The problems are prevalent in just about every character, and the one or two characters that enabled game winning configurations have now, or are in the process of being smacked about to the point they're as functionally useless as the other band members, thus ensuring that getting past the first boss is nothing short of a miracle.

THIS IS THE OPPOSITE OF ALL THE SUGGESTIONS MADE BY THE PEOPLE WHO BOUGHT AND ARE PLAYING THIS GAME.

I get it. I do. You're a developer, you have a vision for your game. Into the Stars had this vision too, and guess what, NOT ALL VISIONS ARE GOOD ONES. They wrecked their game by being blind to feedback and you're trashing what was an incredible concept by DOING THE EXACT SAME THING.

Stop being precious, when a thing is not working it's not a sign of weakness to ADMIT YOU MIGHT JUST BE A LITTLE BIT WRONG ABOUT THE DIFFICULTY TUNING.


WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

GAMES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE CHALLENGING. THIS IS THE EQUIVALENT OF WHAT BUNGIE HAS DONE WITH LEGENDARY LOST SECTORS IN LIGHTFALL. THIS IS A SANDPAPER D*LDO WHICH GETS RAMMED INTO YOU SANS LUBE ALL IN THE NAME OF TRYING TO BE SUPER TOUGH ON THE PLAYER. PRO TIP. NOT EVERY GAME NEEDS TO BE DARK SOULS ON COCAINE. THEY REALLY DON'T.

SLAY THE SPIRE IS BOTH ACCESSIBLE AND CHALLENGING, AND THEY DO NOT CARE IF YOU COME UP WITH BROKEN BUILDS TO BULLY THE GAME WITH. IN FACT IT'S EVEN ENCOURAGED. LEARN YOU OVERLY PRECIOUS EGOTISTICAL CREATIVES. LEARN FROM OTHERS SO YOU DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES!

... Okay

Breathe.

I'm cool. I'm cool.


So I beat the third boss thanks to a friend I made (HEY PEACHWISE, IT WORKS. WAY TOO EFFECTIVELY. ROXY LEVELS OF BROKEN!) . Turns out it's easy as long as, and this is the amusing bit, you can find a very specifically busted combo on one specific hero. Even then the route to it involved converting electrical charges into power buff stacks and abusing the stance that does 1+(power stacks) damage PER CARD left in your hand at the end of each turn.

I fully expect this particular broken combo to get nerfed, since the developers appear to be against the idea of finding broken combos to bully their game with. The more damning aspect of this is that -one- character did 60% of the damage. Two of them did less than 20% -combined-, and sure, the tank probably shouldn't be doing damage. The the Rage Guitarist ABSOLUTELY SHOULD AND THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE HORRIFIC ECONOMY ON MULTIPLE CARDS THAT THE GUITARISTS HAVE FOR THE LOVE OF AIESHA BALANCE YOUR DAMN ENERGY ECONOMY AND RECOST YOUR CARDS APPROPRIATELY.

Yes. This game absolutely needs -the biggest- balance pass imaginable, and in the most part it needs heroes being "lifted up" as opposed to playing whackamole with whatever just made the meta.


... Go fsck yourself.

Verdict: Hell no, to the no no no, hell no...

I desperately wanted to like this game. FTL but with slick graphics and a chance to play in a non-linear fashion? Sign me up.

The reality of this game is depressing. Like. The kind of depressing you see in British Newspapers when they run a story on a "Christmas Camp" being run in a city for about fifty quid a pop and what you get for your money is someone fresh from the unemployment queue stuffed into an ill-fitting Santa outfit, the food provided is a couple of Tesco Value Mince Pies and a glass of cheap Prosecco. Not the good stuff, I'm talking the three quid a bottle nasty alcohol you might prefer to wrap in brown paper.

The kind of place where you enter full of hope but you leave full of disappointment. The kind of place that intrinsically makes your Christmas worse. That's Trigon. This game has the shell of a much better game (FTL) and then adds some interesting ideas of it's own before throwing everything in the bin by balancing the game using the tried and tested method of rolling dice to work out what stats to assign it.


Would you like to know just how useless this game is? Let me count the ways, the first patch basically halved evade chance because, and this is no word of a lie, the game was sending out enemy ships which had nine, ten, even more levels in the Hyperdrive engine, along with a max level autopilot. The net result of this was the ship had an evade chance *well* into the 70% range, and that's before any of the (hilariously overpowered in the main) abilities were factored in. Once you add those, you could comfortably push OVER 100% Evade.

Yes. Over 100%, this game ensures you get all the Evade for your money. Then, in a further insult to the game balance, your weapon accuracy is solely dependent on your opponents evade chance. There is no balancing factor such as weapon accuracy. Beam weapons simply "Ignore" evade chance and hit regardless, and all other non hitscan weapons are strictly modified by the opponents evade chance. This means it's entirely possible for the vast bulk of your weapons to miss maybe four in five shots?

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

Even with the Evade Nerf it's entirely possible on "Easy" (That's the biggest lie I've heard this year, this game has an easy setting - Nope. It has a "The RNG hates you" and a "The RNG and the developers hate you" setting) to get ships with well over 50% evade, IN THE FIRST SECTOR.

As for the hitscan weapons, it's possible I've yet to unlock some magical unicorn beam that utterly keks enemy ships regardless of their ridiculous BS evade magic, but the beams I've unlocked so far have all been AMAZINGLY energy inefficient and terrible at penetrating shields.

So you might hit something, but good luck cracking even a 20 point shield with beam weapons.

That's before we get into the insanity that is the Teleporter system (which can teleport YOUR crew back with the enemy crew AGAINST YOUR WISHES and if the ship then blows up, well, gg to your crew). These are things FTL did not do AND WITH VERY GOOD REASON. FTL had a meta, and it had balance issues to be sure (you could do some heinous things with zoltan overshield combined with 4 shield pips thus rendering it nigh impossible to get into your ship without the enemy fielding omega grade weaponry), but this game? This game decided to look at FTL as it is now, the balanced package that it is and go...

Nah fam. I want none of that.

I got through the first campaign post patch by simply loading up the ship with four Blaster Turrets (L3, which for some reason means they eat less energy as they get more powerful - lolwut?) and a gunnery officer that could double ROF for 30 seconds. The net result was HUMAN GUNSHIP GO BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

And it'd melt through 300 hull in about 10 seconds. Realtime.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?

Now for the final insult. The second campaign puts you in the Ekari ship, which sounds fine until you realise it has no sensors at all. None. Not even for seeing inside your own ship to figure out where fires and hull breaches are.

At this point I just took one look at the game and went "Bugger this" and closed it.

I want to like it. There's some genuinely interesting stuff in here. But the game balance makes Wargaming and their approach to balancing Carriers on WoWS look positively accomplished.


In six months this game might, MIGHT be acceptable if the devs put their backs into it and overhaul most of the game. Not limited to - Weapon design, shield design, teleporter mechanics, NPC ship spawn configurations, the fact you can be stuck in a lengthy chain-battle loop if the game rolls bad RNG for you, the gate bosses overscaling, the bounty mechanic as a whole and the stations where you rely on even more RNG to not get terrible weapons, a fact that gets WORSE AS YOU UNLOCK THINGS.

... So yeah. If they spend six months retooling the game to work? We'll be in business.

Until then? F**k that. Honest to god. F**k that.

Verdict: How about "no"? Let's settle on that. You useless janky ass piece of RNG laden clickbait.

So the takeaway from the review if you want the TLDR is that this game is essentially hard drugs mashed into fine powder, turned into code and then slapped into a sci-fi Empire Builder that can be summed up as "Chess Sudoku in Space"

I think that's really all that needs to be said about this one. Want more? Fine. This is a game where you have "perfect information" about your moves. There's zero randomness beyond the research trees which are semi-randomly rolled before the game begins, and even that can be countered somewhat by the choices you make in selecting your council and your "talents".

Everything you choose is within your control. Everything you decide, you've got no random factors at work here, even the forebear ruins are set up in such a way that they are "Resource free" and you can delay their choice for later if you're missing a specific racial option.


The game starts you blind with a random rolled set of planets but you can scan all of these BEFORE you commit to any definite moves, more to the point, you can use Left Click "Hold" to pin a potential colonisation option to the planet you're looking at, and the game will then helpfully show you all the possible links you've got available should you chase that option down. You can effectively blueprint your empire MULTIPLE steps in advance before you put resources on the board.

This is genius.

This game is more akin to space Chess. You only commit to a move after you've thoroughly researched your options and then decided which represents the optimal strategy for your current set of circumstances. If you can set up neat closed loops which feed into each other and create small clusters of prospering planets, that's awesome. If you have to gamble by activating planets at the edge of your vision, then that is something you have to contend with but the game is and I am quick to emphasise this - NEVER unfair.

Nothing is a matter of chance, only calculated risk. If you screw up, it's always because you made a mistake in your placement of your slipways, or because you didn't optimise your industries. Planetary projects do a lot of mid to late game heavy lifting, often giving you access to resources on planets that might still be in desperate need of that last push to Prosperous or even Legendary.

The best part is the default game can be over with in as little as an hour once you get the core beats down pat and you settle into the very easy to learn but horribly tough to master systems that are "Expand, exploit, extend". With no enemies to randomly mess with these three interlocking arms, you are perpetually on the lookout for the next resource zone to consume for your burgeoning empire.


This is a game where everything *fits* as well. Research is uniformly useful, some more situational, some more universal, then there's event nodes which can yield *powerful* leapfrogs in terms of handing you free tech and free constructions, giving you the ability to bend the rules of those constantly growing slipway networks. Asteroids initially get in the way, but in a busy civilisation can be popped for massive quantities of money, there is so little *waste* in this game it immediately puts me in mind of Threes on mobile.

It's that good.

If you're at all strategy minded and you want something to break your brain. Get this game. Seriously. It's worth the money.

Verdict: Essential

This is a game about the very first stages of humanity, this review will not hold your hand. Imagine if you will, that you are a primate, about to begin the very, very first stages. You are blessed with a stick, a rock, and the power of the Ook. This is your journey. The review is written with this in mind. I've racked up some hours playing this game BEFORE it finally arrived on "The proper store". I feel it is right I give the developers their money for providing one of the most unique experiences I've had the pleasure to be engaged in.

Without further ado...


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Oh god.

I had such high hopes going into this one. It had everything *on paper* that should have made it interesting. An Event Horizon style setting with a proper Dark Souls approach. Firm but fair melee fighting with a dash of ranged combat using energy mechanics that recharged with melee which means you were not overdependent on the whims of the ammo gods (HELLO REMNANT) and thus needing bosses to spawn copious adds to throw ammo at you. Nor did it put you in the unenviable position of throwing you into situations where you had to edge forward gently and watch what you pulled lest something pulled one shot nonsense out of the rear end (HELLO IMMORTAL UNCHAINED).

So this should have done the trick, right? RIGHT?

No. Dear god no. The jank. Dear gods below the jank. The jank when you hit the jump button and it feels like the jump is completely divorced from your movement speed. The jank where stamina regen seems to work entirely on it's own ruleset and if you get stunned IT WILL NOT RECHARGE until your stun animation completes, thus potentially stunlocking you indefinitely if you have the temerity to raise your shield because bosses naturally can chain heavy attacks as if they're nothing.

Normally you expect this. This is fine.

WHAT YOU DO NOT EXPECT IS THE FIRST BOSS TO HAVE A ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ FREEZE AURA THAT MEANS ANY KIND OF CLOSE-IN COMBAT SLOWS YOU TO A CRAWL WITHIN FIVE SECONDS. FORCING YOU TO PLAY CATCHY MONKEY OVER TWO VENTS AT OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE ROOM AS YOU DESPERATELY WARM YOUR TINY FRAIL BODY BEFORE DUCKING IN FOR ONE OR TWO HITS.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!?!

The second boss, which is just as obnoxious has a giant leap that chunks your stamina if you block and has really dodgy hit detection if you try to block, and then can follow it up with a 360 degree AE attack that IS NOT TELEGRAPHED AT ALL. HALF OF THE BOSS ATTACKS ARE NOT TELEGRAPHED WHATSOEVER

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!?!


The fact you start with zero levels in *anything* yet you're going to have to invest hard and fast otherwise even the most rudimentary gear is going to leave you walking along at the speed of an asthmatic warthog and then when you jump SUDDENLY YOU'RE AT FULL SPEED AGAIN WHICH REALLY THROWS YOU OUT WHEN JUDGING PLATFORMS.

Oh yeah, and if you don't put lots of points into health, stamina and load early on good luck actually managing to dodge with any of the stuff, because blocking is out, not only does the game have the nerve to apply chip damage on any significant blow (because it's clear the game doesn't actively want you to turtle up), blocking will EAT your stamina for breakfast.


The maps are a mess of tangled platforms, sudden drops and areas which make no functional sense, a portal is placed in a location which is a complete nightmare to get *out of* and requires multiple deaths before you realise you need to strip off so you can get enough speed to just about get on top of this TINY ledge AND you have to hit it at the right angle so you can fall down on the platform on the opposite side. I am sure the grip elevators were placed for this purpose but because you cannot control yourself in the air, using them is SUICIDE.

WHO THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA.

Dark Souls was a mastery of architecture, it didn't need to tell you where to go because the game organically led you from place to place and offered mysteries that gently guided you from location to location. This hellhole is a rats nest of tangled corridors which switch back on themselves. This is Blighttown, but repeated infinitely and in the worst possible way.

THIS IS NOT GOOD MAP DESIGN. AT LEAST REMNANT PLACED A BEGINNING AND AN END ON THE MAPS AND GAVE YOU A ROUGH DIRECTION AND KEPT YOU GOING IN IT. THIS IS A LABYRINTH WITH NO EXIT EXCEPT WHEN YOU FIND THE NEXT ABSURD BOSS BATTLE.


Five hours. And that was about the longest five hours of my life. This was five hours of gaming constipation. It was uncomfortable, it made me grit my teeth, it was about as pleasant as forcing a tall boy beer can through something NOT DESIGNED FOR PURPOSE.

Speaking of which, I hit the third boss at the five hour point. I suspect it's supposed to be a take on Ornstein and Smough, but when both of the bosses can throw out projectiles (one of which is a massive AE bomb) and then switch effortlessly between smashing your face in or raining death and destruction from afar, it sortof ruins the whole "Tag-team" vibe, because you can't work out where the attacks are coming from. THEY'RE COMING FROM EVERY DIRECTION AND THEY CAN ONE SHOT YOU.

This game can quite honestly get f**ked.

Verdict: How about no? How about f**k no. Yeah, let's settle on that. NICHT ACCEPTABRU

Written for Balance Patch, if you'd like to see more of their work, follow the link in the italics

Death Stranding proves several things. Firstly - Hideo Kojima can exist (mostly) outside of the Metal Gear Solid IP. There's still some of the basics that desperately cling to the core mechanics that I swear you could say "This is a Kojima game" but he seems to be finding his way out of those. Secondly - He can tell intimate stories at the same time as he paints big grand messages about humanity in general. Most critically - The PC version is the definitive version but even then it misses one or two things that would have made this and perhaps all flavours of Death Stranding absolutely ideal as an experience.

Let's start with the good, because there is an awful lot to love about this game, and there is a lot to understand going in if you're interested in Death Stranding.


Death Stranding is one part walking simulator... WAIT. WAIT. DO NOT LEAVE THE REVIEW... by Walking Simulator I do not mean things like Gone Home, where you prod around a house in the hopes of pleasing Ben Kuchera. Here I mean "Spintires on legs". You have to get from A to B on feet, and unlike any game before it, that means traversing terrain.

Terrain that changes on a centimetre by centimetre basis. It can be smooth, firm dirt one moment, and then boggy, stamina sapping moss the next. It can be littered with rocks that try to trip you up, it can be flat, it can be steep, it can be a rushing river complete with varying speeds of current that you have to ford. This doesn't change too much even when you have access to vehicles, since the added size means paths you'd easily traverse on foot become inaccessible on vehicle and you switch from picking routes through harsh terrain to having to plan your routes and taking longer, detoured paths through easier terrain to accommodate your larger hauls.

In between making those deliveries and fighting and mastering the terrain, the occasional flashes of MGS genetic ancestry show through when you encounter the primary enemies of the game (BTs) and the secondary enemies (human foes), the game gives you free reign in how you tackle these foes, either opting to speed away from them or stealthing past them or in the later stages, opting to apply stealth takedowns or even just go loud and tackle them directly. The fact the game forces you to act from a position of weakness to begin with is a good choice as it means that when the tools are finally provided, you feel liberated, and you do not feel that shooting is your default option, there's "always another way" and you'll often switch up your approach depending on the challenges put in front of you.


Low Roar is an *inspired* choice of backdrop for the music in this game, their extensive use as the soundtrack for this game proves to be borderline addictive, and makes you wish there was a mobile option to generate music on your travels so you could have the music with you all the time, and not just when the game decides you are worthy of it. The sound backdrrop is always on point, with the environment here always offering subtle cues as to what is going on, your suit even giving you the appropriate notifications as for things like Timefall, and Mule/Demens camps being suitably tense when their communications sound like demented, digital howls.

And then there's the graphics...

Hoo boy. At Ultra/1440p the graphics are flat out bonkers. With no 30fps cap as with the Playstation you are treated to a smooth, polished experience where you can be more precise, where there is no judder, no frame hitches, and where the game feels like it was meant to be experienced all along. The scenery is, and always has been flat out gorgeous but the extra smoothness means it just -feels- so much better. There's a few *minor* improvements here and there, the biggest of which is the colour balancing has been adjusted and that lends itself to a better contrast on the PC, but outside of that it's the performance where things are most keenly felt.


No in game sound player for "on the move" is an issue... sometimes I'd like to listen to Low Roar when I'm hauling stuff. Timefall is punishing on your *unupgraded* structures. If you want anything to live longer than a week or two realtime, make sure it's upgraded. Don't worry too much about ladders and climbing poles whining about the fact they're going to rust to death, you can always put down fresh ones.

Oh yeah, and vehicle physics can sometimes fall apart and be made of jank. So there's that. Whilst the "on foot physics" are a thing of beauty, the game doesn't handle wheels quite as gracefully, I've had a few cases of my truck doing... interesting things on account of being in places where the wheels have decided to have hot, heavy intercourse with a large boulder.

I suspect that the game expected you to run the vehicles on mostly flat ground, not try to run them up snowy mountains. Fools. Of course we're going to do that!


This is *not* a game for everyone. Even MGS fans should be careful since this is a departure from the standard Kojima fare, you're going to spend most of your time "Not killing" and instead trying to pick your way through horrible terrain making sure medication gets to really out of the way places. If the human version of Spintires sounds like your thing, then buy this without hesitation, otherwise, make sure to watch a few youtubes of _actual_ gameplay. The story is very much in the Kojima wheelhouse and you'll know what to expect (no, I'm not spoilering any of it here, go in blind and strap in for one of his wild rides).

Verdict: Essential. If you're in to hauling stuff and Hideo Kojima

Written for Balance Patch, if you'd like to see more of their work, follow the link in the italics

It's three hours of mildly competent sci-fi followed by an hour of metaphysical hand-shandy. (Go look the term up, giggle, then come back). If Bioshock infinite is how you want to spice up a low rent version of Event Horizon then sure, go for it but as far as I'm concerned this is basically Tacoma but with a few puzzles and an animated protagonist (which right away puts it above Tacoma).

The story is a really low budget version of Event Horizon (instead of a rescue mission, instead it's "Send out a bunch of completely unprepared scientists to go poke a potentially doom-scale event with a stick because WHY THE HELL NOT") and the inevitable happens, everything goes horribly wrong, people die and you get to play budget HAL-9000 and try to stop the ship from falling apart whilst figuring out how the doom-event keeps trying to pick on the one STILL LIVING person who eventually goes "I'M GOING TO NOT ONLY POKE IT, I'M GOING TO HUG IT."


Allow me to reference Laurence Fishburne when he realised what happened to the Event Horizon: "I have no intention of leaving her, Doctor. I will take the Lewis and Clark to a safe distance, and then I will launch TAC missiles at the Event Horizon until I'm satisfied she's vaporized. F*** this ship!"

That is the correct route when dealing with something that clearly intends to do horrible things not only to you but quite possibly your species. IF SOMETHING IS GOING "BRING HER" OVER AND OVER YOU DO NOT OBEY. YOU RUN LIKE BINGO.

A good plot needs you to suspend disbelief. For the first half, yes, it worked, it actually worked pretty well, but once the reveal happened and the protagonist decided to hug the idiot ball, well, things started falling apart fast.

Games like these -live or die- by their narrative. It's what sells these story centric games. It's not like most others where you're pitted against the puzzles set by the designers (the puzzles here are pretty pumpkin spiced latte) and the graphics, whilst pretty, are not blow your socks off. This was designed to tell a story, so it gets judged on that in the main.

The ending made me a very annoyed Tiger. People do not hug the thing which clearly has bad intents, if they do, they're morons.

GAH.

Verdict: On sale, sure, why not. Not on full price. Good god no.