Recent reviews by geøstigma

The Good, the Bad and the Undead is a hardcore, Multiplayer FPS PvEvP game with amazing audio, a rather unique setting, and hands-down, the most infuriating gunplay I’ve ever had the opportunity to try. How come I’m recommending it? Well, you’ll have to read the rest of the review to find that out.


TL;DR

Pros:

• Lack of information - the game rewards you for paying attention
  
• Incredibly simple, super-effective stealth system
  
• High risk – high reward gameplay
  
• Lots of tools with different uses
  
• Graphics and art direction
  
• Audio design

Cons:

• Poorly optimized
  
• Medium to long-range weapons are unimaginative
  
• Game feels like it’s lagging even when it’s not
  
• Ranged damage can be incredibly inconsistent
  
• The game can and, usually will punish you severely, when its servers are having problems

So, I played Hunt for 191 hours at the time of writing this review. I’ve had the privilege of having many of my friends interested in this game so I always had a party to play with. It’s been a great time and frustration all in one package but, overall, the good times outweigh the bad ones.


HUNT: Showdown is a pretty straightforward game. Collect the clues, slay the monster and, extract to cash in their bounty. The problem is, extracting alive with the bounty is not going to be easy as there will be up to 11 other players and they’re all hell-bent on doing the exact same thing.

The best thing about this is actually the lack of information about other hunters. You will never know if you’re alone in a server or how many hunters are there. The game will never tell you if another hunter died, has another teammate or if they’ve left the game. The only way you can make sure that someone is dead is if you personally kill them.

More often than not, you’ll have to force your way out of the zone and battle multiple enemies to cash in your bloody prize. On the other hand, if you’re the one who’s stalking other players, clever use of stealth, the game’s amazing audio design, positioning, and your tools will help you take your target(s) down and claim the bounty for yourself. That’s why it is generally a good idea not to be stingy when it comes to your hunter's equipment and loadout, before accepting a contract.


Make sure you can take the hit and live through so, get at least a first-aid kit with you. Melee weapons are also a must-have as they’re the best way to quickly deal with the monsters without alerting other hunters to your presence.

You could also bring dynamite sticks and bundles, Molotov cocktails, or frag grenades. There are various trip mines, barb-wire spools, vials of poisonous gas, and jars with venomous insects. What you bring is completely up to you, but keep one thing in mind - should you die, you’ll lose everything!.

Your hunter, his guns, tools, and consumable items – they'll be lost forever. You won’t get the money back, and you don't get the opportunity to retrieve them. Starting all over again is the only option.


Hunt: Showdown's gunplay feels uninspiring and somewhat inconsistent at times. Keep in mind that I’m talking only about the handguns and the rifles of Hunt: Showdown.

Pretty much all of the game’s rifles are little more than copy-pastes of another. Sure, they have slightly different statistics like effective range and damage values, but most rifles and handguns in this game feel very similar. You'll notice the differences, but it will take you a significant amount of time to do so.

On top of that, weapon stats are kind of arbitrary.

• Damage can rarely be trusted.
  
• Muzzle velocity is hard to go by and you’re better off trying to get a feel for a gun by yourself.
  
• Rate of fire is often useless as many guns can only fire a single bullet before they need to be reloaded.

A point-blank shotgun blast will occasionally forget to kill the target, while shots from far away can do wonders. However, that's the intended mechanic due to the pellet spread. Take it or leave it.


All of the rifles need precisely two body shots to get a hunter to 0 HP which means that, no matter what rifle you pick, you will need the exact number of bullets to kill a hunter. It also means that every hunter with a single-shot weapon is likely to follow the exact same playstyle: tag the target once with a rifle from a distance and then close in to finish them off with a pistol.


Hunt also has several rather interesting weapons. Namely, those are crossbows and, unsurprisingly, they’re my weapon of choice. They’re hard to master but if you manage to do it, you’ll get to wield a frightening weapon and become a deadly, silent stalker.

An upper body show with a crossbow will take down any player from up to 47 meters. Sure, you have to consider the bolt’s trajectory and the movement of the player. You must compensate for the projectile’s arc, and keep in mind that it won’t pierce any surface. But should you hit them, they'll either be dead or bleeding heavily.

There are also variations of the crossbow, and with the introduction of custom ammo, they're deadlier and more versatile than ever!

Then there are weapons like the LeMat Mark 2, a pistol with a shotgun shell at its core, perfect for close-quarter and pushes, or when an enemy manages to corner you. Guns like Nitro Express rifle which is a slug-firing shotgun, more experimental weapons like the ridiculous Bomb Lance or the Mosin-Nagant Avtomat...


If that’s not enough for you, pretty much every weapon in this game comes in a couple of variations. There are shortened versions that sacrifice power but take less space in your inventory. Some have custom reloading mechanisms. Others come with melee weapons attached to them. If you can’t aim with those terrible iron sights, pick a dead-eye or marksman variant of your favorite weapon and add some proper optics. The options are numerous.


What really sticks out like a sore thumb is the game’s performance. With two generations of stronger-than-required hardware, I’m struggling to maintain a satisfying framerate in this game without even maxing its graphical settings. And I’m not the only one. In fact, it keeps getting worse with every update!

Although very rarely, the game will sometimes simply choose not to work. Objects will appear as muddy blocks, or placeholders, or fail to load entirely making it impossible to navigate as I keep bumping into the trees, mud hills, random objects, and partially rendered t-posing monsters.


Another minus to the game, even though I appreciate the vagueness when it comes to certain aspects, the game really should improve on team communication. Mainly, the ping system. It’s just bad and needs improvement.


Last but not least – microtransactions.

It’s not like you’re forced to get them but the game is obviously made with some of them in mind. Acquisition of legendary items and hunters (basically skins) and additional hunter slots is incredibly slow and I’m pretty sure the microtransactions are to blame. It’s a AA, premium-price game with a bunch of paid DLC to it.

To be fair, the game does allow for Blood Bounds (the premium resource) to be farmed but the process is very slow.


If you can keep your cool in what's basically a "permadeath PvP" game, when it starts to stutter, fails to load, or pulls a cheap one at you; give it a try. It may not be perfect but it might be exactly what you're looking for.

Gothic is the kind of an old-school RPG that makes you realize why older generations of gamers can be so nostalgic and passionate about the games from the past.

It was surprisingly enjoyable and because of that, I’m confused about how a game like this managed to hide from me for all these years. I’ve only picked it up and started playing it for the very first time in December of 2020, nearly 20 years after its release, on the day that Steam Winter Sale has started so, this is a 100% nostalgia-free review.


TL;DR:

Pros:

• A sense of progression unlike any other
  
• Well-crafted and truly open world
  
• Climbing system - I simply love it!
  
• Very interesting exploration
  
• Choices and consequences
  
• Replayability
  
• Enemy A.I.
  
• Mods

Cons:

• Very unstable on modern systems. Expect frequent crashes/freezes
  
• Inventory system is a single vertical column with well over 30 items at times
  
• Controls are ridiculously outdated although not horrible. Will requires some mental readjusting

At the beginning of the game, my character was presented with a very basic task – deliver the message to the Fire Mages.

This is everything that the game asked me to do. As it is tradition with good RPG games, you’re not forced to do what’s asked of you straight away – in fact, the game very much encourages the player to go out and explore the world. Combine these two and you’ll understand why it took me over 20 hours to do what I was initially tasked with.


To be fair though, even if I wanted to complete the main quest straight away, I probably wouldn’t be able to as my character was broke, uninfluential, pushover nobody, trying to figure out how things work in this new world that he was cast in.

I remember being extorted for protection money, mugged when I attempted to lie and said I didn’t have it, and even bullied for refusing to hand it over. I’ve been made to carry the water around for peasants in the rice-fields and beaten when I forgot to do it, restricted access to certain places or service from certain people because I simply wasn't worth their time.


Combat was to be avoided at all costs and when inevitable, tactics had to be employed. While hunting for food, carefully approaching and isolating my prey from the rest of its pack was the only way to have any chance of winning the fight and exploiting the beast for its meat and other prized resources.

After quite a lot of exploration, tough as nails combat, and running errands, I managed to amass enough wealth to trade in and buy the very first set of “armor” or, should I say protective clothing, and a decent weapon for my character. Immediately, I went to test those out in the battle and was amazed by the huge difference they made in combat. It was the excitement of notable progress and I loved it!

I was excited to go out once again, pass the thresholds previously guarded by the undefeatable enemies and see what the game had in store for me. Small prey was no longer an issue as they could now barely scratch me through my protective clothing while my sword made short work out of them. I was able to take on and fulfill some of the more daring tasks and, generally, things started moving at a very satisfying pace. However...


It wasn’t long before the game found a way to restrict my progress again and make me look for additional ways to push the limits of my character’s powers even further. I started encountering new, stronger enemies and realized that some of the areas where I wasn’t supposed to go yet had a greater number of beasts that I didn’t have a particular problem dealing with when they were fewer or on their own but, in groups, they posed a formidable threat.

In other words, Gothic kept things from stagnating. By design, the game made sure that constant improvements and character development were necessary for progression.

Instead of scaling the enemy levels, gear and attributes as my character gained power, the game chose to have areas of the map specifically made for progression and exploration at, or above, certain levels. The areas were not being re-populated with new, stronger versions of the same enemies either. This made grinding for all of the necessary XP and resources impossible and, instead encouraged exploration of new areas and exploitation of new enemies for the same purpose.




Gothic is old. It’s so old that there’s a chance that it’s older than some of you who are reading this. As we all know, old games can be hard to go back to and, even harder to get to work properly.

When it comes to visuals, the game shows its age. I’ve modded it with an HD texture pack and made a ReShade[reshade.me] preset to make it much better looking for my playthrough.

There are guides on Steam that will give explain how to give Gothic an HD touch if you’re thinking about giving it a go. I’ve used this one.


Still, not everything can be fixed like the graphics. For instance, the game uses a highly unorthodox UI and control scheme. For starters, it was never meant to be played with a mouse. Fortunately, those of you that prefer to use a mouse can still do it as the game has been patched over the years.

You can even use a program like AntiMicro[sourceforge.net] or something similar, to map the keyboard keys to a controller and enjoy Gothic on your TV while relaxing on a couch. I’ve tested it and it works great!

Visuals can be fixed and you can get used to the controls but, there’s still a problem with the game that’s far more severe than the previous two and that’s crashing and freezing. It WILL happen so make sure you save a lot and have multiple save files at all times.


I’ve managed to greatly reduce the number of crashes by running the game as an administrator, in compatibility mode. Windows XP, Service Pack 2 worked well for me but, depending on your system, you might have to use something else. Experiment until it doesn’t crash (as often) anymore.



Undoubtedly, this game is not as easy to get into, and it will be even harder for some people than it was for me. A tough love for sure, but love nonetheless and that’s precisely why I’d encourage every RPG fan, young and old, to give this classic a go – chances are, if you’re into RPG games that you’ll love Gothic as much as I did and for the price they’re asking, you really have nothing to lose.

Normally, I'd stay away from anything that's as text-heavy as Disco Elysium is but, for whatever reason, the moment I laid my eyes on this game, I knew that it would be something that I don't want to miss.


Pros:

• This is an actual, full-fledged RPG. Not just a game with character progression.
  
• Stellar writing.
  
• Fantastic visuals.
  
• Although lacking in quantity, there is no denying the quality of the soundtrack.

Cons:

• For a game with mostly pre-rendered background drops, this one is unusually unstable and choppy.
  
• Despite all of the choice and consequence mechanics the ending seems to be mostly pre-determined. However, this is not really a huge deal as it’s the journey that counts, not the destination.

First of all, let me say that Disco Elysium is NOT a game for everybody despite it being nothing but good through and through. This is an EXTREME example of a niche title and if you don’t know what you’re getting, I ask of you to do your research and see what the gameplay is all about before being pissed off about the game being too slow or text-heavy.

Just to make sure that we’re on the same page I’ll make it crystal-clear that Disco Elysium is primarily text-based. You will read a lot and then read some more until you move through the world so you can read something new.

With that being said, if you’re someone who appreciates a true RPG gameplay with insane character creation, customization, and development in a world where everything your character does, says, and (quite literally) thinks, has a significant impact on the way the story develops, look no further and get Disco Elysium at full price because these developers deserve it!


In Disco Elysium, your character has a total of 24 unique skills grouped and governed by four different attributes: Intellect, Psyche, Physique, and Motoric.
Those 24 skills can be increased based on how developed the governing attribute for that skill is.
So for example, a total of 5 points in Psyche will allow you to level the psyche-based skills up to 5 times.

On top of that, you can contemplate on certain things by acquiring thoughts as you progress through the game, engage in dialogues, observe the world around you or simply level up some skills past a certain point.


A combination of these abilities, skills, and thoughts will directly impact the way your character experiences and interacts with the game world and its inhabitants.

So, for example, a character focusing on Intellect will be able to have a high Encyclopedia which will allow them to produce massive amounts of information about pretty much everything regarding the game’s lore.

This knowledge can be very useful when talking to people, exploring the world, and working on your police case. But here’s where it gets interesting...
Level up your Encyclopedia for too much and your character becomes so knowledgeable that he’s boring both you, the player, as well as the NPC’s that he’s talking with. He’ll be constantly providing so much info on the most trivial and uninteresting topics that you might be tempted to skip through (although I really don’t advise this as it’s all part of the game’s design) and the characters around you might find it annoying which will impact their disposition towards you.

Furthermore, the game will present you with unique skill-based dialogue options that might seem like a good pick but, because your skill is too high, those might actually backfire on you at times and piss-off certain NPC’s.


Real choice and consequence system unlike any you’ve ever seen (or have you?) tied directly to the character progression system. If that’s not the foundation for a fantastic and unforgettable role-playing game, I don’t know what is.

Despite its seemingly pre-determined ending which feels a bit off in what is otherwise such a vastly branching game, Disco Elysium’s journey makes it all worth it and leaves me wanting for more.

In many ways, it reminded me of one of my favorite games of all time, an RPG which raised the bar for me to an unreachable level which is yet to be surpassed, and only certain titles like this one ever come close to – Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. If you’re a fan of that one, you will most likely share my enthusiasm and love for this game so, by all means, get it.


P.S.
Disco Elysium – The Final Cut has been announced and it promises an expanded world, more quests, NPC’s to chat with while taking advantage of the “full voice-acting", controller support, and additional language options so, if you’re not aching to play, maybe get it to support the developers but wait for that version to go live?

The less you know about Outer Wilds (OW), the better your experience will be. To put it simply, if you like exploration and adventure, stop reading, buy it, and embark on this unique and unforgettable journey during which when is just as important as what and how.

Also, here's a link for my Echoes of the Eye DLC review.

Pros:

• Unparalleled sense of adventure and exploration.
  
• No hand-holding. Every agenda is player-driven.
  
• Great, cleverly-told story.
  
• Nice visuals.
  
• Great soundtrack.

Cons:

• Some problems with input. The controller needs a bit of tweaking to work properly. Fixed in one of the updates.
  
• No photo-mode in a beautiful game such as this one is a real shame.

Consider these neutral points as well:

• It is basically a Walking Simulator (but an exceptionally good one).
  
• A lot of achievements are silly, and you'll mostly get them by accident.

Due to the nature of this game, it is hard to write about it without spoiling stuff. It would take away that sensation of experiencing places and events for the first time, and eventually figuring out something for yourself. These eureka moments are precious, and they make you feel really good once you eventually manage to make stuff happen.

Also, keep in mind that once you've figured out how things work, and completed the game for the first time, you're basically done. While you can go for different endings, they can all be obtained relatively quickly (in roughly 15 minutes), because of the way that OW handles progression.
Even if you start a completely new game, it won't change your experience, as it's not the main character who learns new things, but the player themselves. Unless you suffer a memory loss, I'm afraid you won't be getting your typical "replay value" out of OW.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667165296

While this is an open-world game, don't confuse it with others of this time. There's no hand-holding, no quest markers, and in fact, I'd say that there is no quest, to begin with. Your only "objective" is to explore the system, its planets, and everything else that you may find within it.
With that being said, I'll try to explain how the game plays, without talking about a specific puzzle or location. I want you to go in as blindly as possible, and feel as I've felt, piecing everything together as you make your way throughout the game.

You'll start Outer Wilds with no information whatsoever. There's no tutorial, and from the moment you open your four eyes, and make the first of your many-to-follow first steps, your job will be to figure out what exactly is your job. Confused? Good, because learning about the world and what is going on is pretty much a major part of this game.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667165233

Once you've figured out what to do, you'll need to tackle the enigma of how to do it. Puzzles in this game require only one thing: knowledge about how they work.
There is not a single situation that requires anything other than information gathered throughout your journey. This means that you will never lack a particular gadget, item, or ability to proceed forward.
All the equipment you'll ever need will be available from the moment you enter your ship and equip the suit. Learning how to use some of it, like the "Little Scout", which is a small launchable drone that takes photos, illuminates dark areas, and warns you of various environmental hazards, might take a bit longer to master. All of i's functionality is available from the get-go, and there will never be any upgrades, but it is up to you to play with it and discover all of the ways in which you can use it.
If you're hitting a wall, you're simply missing some info on how to get over it, or maybe make the wall go away? Don't worry, you'll understand eventually...

And this leaves us with when to do certain things, which is of immense importance in this game. In the Outer Wilds, there's a flow of time, and you're not the center of the universe. Our protagonist, the Hearthian hatchling, is stuck in a 22-minute time loop that restarts every time he dies.
During that time, a lot of things will happen, and they are, for the most part, important for whatever your goal may be at that point. Specific things and places will be different depending on when you're visiting them. Events are constantly unfolding, regardless of whether or not you're there to witness them.
I'm really tempted to say more about it, and if you're someone who played the game already, you know exactly what is on my mind right now. However, let's just leave it at that.

https://sp.zhabite.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2667165269

After you've learned what, how, and when, you can actually try and do what must be done. I did it, and I greatly enjoyed every moment in this wonderful and absolutely charming world.
It goes without saying that I find the game fantastic, and therefore would recommend it to everyone who appreciates adventure and exploration with no hand-holding.

Keep in mind that despite being exceptionally made, this is basically a walking simulator, and besides some lightweight platforming, you'll be walking, flying, and reading for most of your time in the Outer Wilds.
All of these things are not really my preferred game aspects, but somehow, the way that they're put together perfectly in the Outer Wilds made this journey one that I will hardly forget.

Just like what and how you play, when you play it will also have a say in how you perceive it. Fallout 2 is ancient and playing it in 2020 for the first time was, unfortunately, nothing but tedious.


I usually open up my review with a quick pros/cons list but, during my playtime I haven't found a single redeeming aspect to this game, a single thread of sufficiently interesting that would make me want to push it further and see it, if not to the end, then at least to the next area. Everything about it made me want to stop playing it and so I did.


I have to admit that I've heard nothing but good things about this game from everyone who played it back in the day so naturally, my expectations were above average. Of course, I was fully aware that the game is well over 20 years old so I maintained a dose of healthy skepticism which didn't do much to soften the inevitable blow of disappointment.

I'm sure that there is a good game to be had for the fans of the genre and that my disliking of the FO2 is most definitely subjective but, there are lot of things about this game that are just objectively bad, and here are some of them.


For a game that is still praised as one of the best role-playing and sandbox games of all time, I was really disappointed to realize that my Intelligence/Charisma sweet talker wanna-be build was utterly useless for the entire time that I've played this game.
It forced a very linear (yes, linear) opening which clearly favored unarmed, brawler-type Strength/Endurance character. Not once was I able to utilize my wits or charm to complete a quest or avoid a fight.
The game successfully forced me down a path that I hoped to avoid completely and did that in seconds after I spent around 20 minutes in character creation, learning about skills, stats and perks and envisioning what type of character I want to play.


Speaking of fighting, if I'm to guess based on the intro, it seems like there's going to be a lot of it. This would be OK if what I experienced wasn't as dreadful.
For the most time (at least initially), my (as well as enemy's) attacks would simply miss which resulted in many turns of pointless clicking that have equal chances of making me win the fight or lose the game.

I tried sneaking past the enemy and quickly realized that I was missing out on important XP since “ghosting” the area and bypassing it's patrols and traps (which I hoped to but wasn't able to sabotage and rearm to my advantage) did not count as an accomplishment, only bloodshed awarded XP at this point.
I tried attacking from stealth hoping for a boost to my hit or crit chance but it seems that it is not how FO2's stealth was designed to work, so I did what the game wanted me to do. I fought.

When I lost a fight, all it took was a simple load and some hope to get a better throw in a boring game of chance next time.
However, winning the fights was just as taxing as I'd have to use my Doctor and First Aid skills to heal my wounds which, you guessed it, had their success rates based off percentages. It's literally “keep-clicking-until-it-eventually-work” system and it did nothing but waste my time. It did heal me tho. Occasionally...
Some other skills like lock-picking are even worse. You simply spam the skill until you either successfully pick or jam the lock. Should you jam it, you may reload a quick save and try it again...



All in all, I really don't like it and these things, in my honest opinion, are nothing but flaws. When added to and combined with some oversights like:

• dated controls
  
• inability to edit or even see default key binds (or did I somehow completely miss this?)
  
• unintuitive shortcuts
  
• vertical, tubular inventory that displays only a couple of a few dozen items at a time
  
• the fact that you can use a number hotkey to choose a dialogue option but the options themselves are marked with bullet-points instead of numbers so you have to count which one is which if you want to use a shortcut at which point it's hardly a shortcut anymore...

So no, I would not recommend Fallout 2.
Unless you want to “wrap-up” the franchise or you're a fan of the world and setting there's literally no reason for you to play this instead of another, better executed cRPG like Divinity Original Sin, for example. Also, I've heard good things about thematically similar games named Underrail and Wasteland but, haven't got to actually play them so, maybe check those instead?

The Forest is all about surviving and getting out alive but, now that I finally did it, I can't wait to get back to it in the upcoming sequel!


Pros:

• Exceptional exploration with no hand holding.
  
• Caves that are better dungeons than those in most RPG games.
  
• Ambient audio.
  
• The forest can really look gorgeous.
  
• Unpredictable A.I. makes the natives look and feel threatening
  
• Simple but functional crafting system.
  
• Original and fun inventory design.

Cons:

• Impolished/buggy.
  
• Could use more hotkeys.
  
• Enemies in the caves should respawn.
  
• Enemies in the middle of my base should not.
  
• Items respawning in the same place are easily exploitable and kind of silly.

What you're probably thinking is that The Forest is a survival focused game where you're supposed to build a fort and simply persist. Cant blame you for I was under the same impression until I got my hands on the game.
While survival can be the name of the game, me and my friends led mostly nomadic lives, building only what was necessary to spend the night while catering only to the most basic needs and staying constantly on the move throughout the peninsula and its network of underground caves in pursuit of our goals.
It is up to you to choose how you want to play and set your own pace for exploration as The Forest's gameplay is flexible and free-form. I'd say it was more of an adventure than a survival game for most of us but, that does not have to apply to you and your band of brothers.

Personally, I enjoyed the exploration the most and can't even remember all of the times that The Forest left me gasping in amazement. Successfully navigating through and surviving the perils of the cave systems felt like a rewards of it's own to which the frequent “lore chunks” and occasional gear upgrades were more of a cherry on top.
The lack of hand holding greatly amplified the reward and the experience for me as everything we did, every cave that we successfully navigated and went through felt like it was 100% our doing as there were no “arrows” guiding our way to take the credit, and the moderate consumption and distribution of previously prepared rations encouraged us to embark on another expedition and conquer the peninsula and all of it's nook's and cranny's, one by one.


Other than exploration, there's also a simple yet sufficient base building aspect to The Forest.
Cutting down trees to make walls and huts, getting familiar with, harvesting and eventually cultivating local flora (and even some fauna) comes with advantages of their own – as well as the consequences.
Sure, it's great to have a place called home but should you stay in it for too long and make a ruckus while doing it, be prepared to deal with your new and openly unhappy neighbors.

The natives will take actions proportionate to yours (or so it seemed to us) so if you desecrate their hunting groves or over-expand into their territory, be prepared for more than a couple of sleepless nights. Also keep in mind that violence breeds violence so, if it's not necessary or in self-defense, try not to cast the first stone. Cowering in the nearby bushes or simply running away is probably the best option - unless you crave bloodshed.

One last thing to mention is that, unlike most games dabbling in the survival genre, The Forest actually has the beginning and the ending. It even provides the player with optional activity that will encourage exploration and investigation which I highly recommend doing as it will shed some light on the history of the the land and events that took place there.
Whether it's a good story or a mediocre one, well, that's up for you to decide but I can say that I really liked it and that it definitely wasn't a bad one. Those of you who liked “LOST”, the TV show, you will most likely appreciate this one. Bullsh!t ending not included.


Still having doubts? I say pick it up!
Support the small, creative team and help them make a sequel worthy of The Forest. I personally can't recommend it enough.

Brief and simple but rather interesting, well written/narrated and the most important thing for me - thought provoking.

The Fall is a simple game that successfully blends lite elements of genres like Metroidvania with old-school point & click games. You'll be walking around and solving point & click style puzzles for the most of the game. Expect to see a bit of action here and there and very few platforming segments as well. Still, if you're getting The Fall, the story should be your primary reason to do that.

Keep in mind that this is a very short experience (3-4 hours of leisure play) and even though I've enjoyed it, I would advise waiting for a discount to get it.
It's also supposed to be a trilogy so you'll need to get the sequel (last one is still not available) if you want to hear how the story ends but should you decide to play through only the first, ending should be satisfying enough or at least that was the case for me.

While it's true that this game didn't deliver as philosophical story as it's predecessor did and the optimization really ruined some parts of it, it's unfair to judge it by those things alone and overlook all of the amazing things that Deus Ex: Mankind Divided has to offer.

Pros:

• Fantastic gameplay
  
• Insane replayability
  
• Truly dynamic problem solving
  
• Great level design
  
• Satisfying and rewarding exploration
  
• One of the best soundtracks ever
  
• Beautiful graphics
  
• Excellent story

Cons:

• Optimization sucks
  
• Abrupt ending
  
• Some achievements are semi-bugged

Depending on who you ask, DE:MD might come off as a fantastic game or one to be avoided. The latter usually coming from people unhappy with the way it ended or the fact that there's a micro-transaction store in the game's pause menu.
Should you ask me , I'll tell you that the game is fantastic and if you enjoyed the gameplay of the previous title, you most definitely need to play this one. The micro-transaction store was so irrelevant that I completely forgot about it and never felt like I was missing on anything.

There are so many ways to go through the game and all of them are equally fun. Exploration and experimentation is rewarded and encouraged as the game will reward you XP for pretty much anything you achieve.

• Hacked a door panel or found a password for one? Here's some XP!
  
• KO guards? Headshot them from afar? Destroy a turret or hack it so that it does your dirty work for you? Here's more XP!
  
• You found a ventilation shaft, climbed up high, found a secret spot or remained completely undetected? Here's a big, fat XP boost for that!

Personally, I started another playthrough the moment I finished the first one and it felt like most of the things were completely new, simply because I chose to play it differently. Even now, after playing through it for at least 5 times and getting 100% achievements, there are still some items that I never figured the use for!

Keep in mind that as good as this game is, the optimization is awful. My rig easily runs it at silky smooth frame rate with everything maxed most of the time but sooner or later, frames can dip to 30 and lower. Turning off V-synch helps achieve much better performance and higher frame rates but also makes an awful lot of screen tear so, remember this if you're trying to optimize the settings.

The thing with the story is that you don't get as much freedom as you had in the HR. Compared to it, you're not that much playing but just going through Adam's story and no matter what you do, it all comes to the same conclusion in the end.
The ending itself wasn't bad. The story that led to it wasn't either. The way I see it is that it's simply not as philosophical as HR was and it failed to go over the expectation bar that HR set ridiculously high.

The story DLC's are called "Jensen's stories" for a good reason. They're good but short standalone stories/missions that offer a couple of hours of leisure gameplay and some additional insight into the world of Deus Ex and the game's protagonist - Adam Jensen. Keep in mind that these do not impact the outcome of any segment of the main game.

On the other hand, the "booster DLC's" are so bad and not even worth considering as they're basically paid cheats that can be used on a single playthrough only and then they're gone forever. Basically a one time booster pack. In my opinion, these things have no place in single player, or any type of game for that matter.

Contrary to the popular reception, I enjoyed the arcadey challenges of the Breach.
The idea behind it is great and it's not the first time that we see that these types of games attempt something like it (think Dishonored's "Duwall City Trials" or Thief's Challenge Mode).

The problem with the Breach (in my opinion) is not that it offers micro-transactions, but the fact that most of the people automatically think that they're mandatory for progression. It was called "Play to Progress" on multiple forums but that's not true at all.
I've played through the entire Breach and completed all of the side missions without spending a single cent in the game while still managing to hoard ridiculous amounts of rather unnecessary ammunition, consumables and weapons.

It is very much a challenge mode. It is never supposed to be easy and I believe that if people approached it with this in mind, they would be able to experience and enjoy this game mode.


So all in all, for me, this game is allround fantastic. I'm not bothered by the frame drops that much or the optional micro-transactions as simply playing through the game provided enough resources to do everything that I wanted to (and much more).

Fans of Deus Ex should play it but also keep in mind that, story-wise this is not the same thing as the previous entries were. It's a much more straightforward, terrorism themed game with not much of a focus on the usual DE stuff like the Illuminati and shadow government.

It plays similarly to games like Vampire - The Masquerade: Bloodlines, Dishonored and Thief series so, if you enjoy any of those, DE: MD is the game you should check out!

The game seems great and polished, pretty much exactly the same as RE2 Remake.
However, that's exactly the reason why I won't be getting this one at full price. It doesn't really feel like a new game but a story DLC instead. Unless it turns out that RE3 has more mechanical additions/differences from it's predecessor, I'll wait for at least 50% discount.

Fantastic game, even better than I remember it from back in the day. However, Okami is still almost 20 year old and that should be taken into account if you're thinking about playing it.

Pros:

• Wonderful presentation.
  
• Gameplay elements that you won't see anywhere else.
  
• Open world (hubs) with so many things to do.
  
• Rather childish but pretty interesting story.

Cons:

• 30 FPS lock.
  
• Could use quite a bit more controller customization options.
  
• I'm aware of the game's age, but the object pop-up is unbearable.
  
• A lot of dialogues - none voiced.
  
• Combat is too low-stakes and easy. It could have been amazing...

The bottom line is that the game is great but shows the signs of old age. If you're the type of gamer that can't deal with stuff like FPS lock, a lot of loading screens or the lack of spoken dialogue, pass on Okami unless you have a strong case of nostalgia.


If you wanna give it a go but don't know what it is, think what would happen if Zelda was made by Hideki Kamiya, the same guy that brought us Bayonetta and the original Devil May Cry, among other games. And what do we end up with?
A very interactive and (somewhat) open world (hubs actually) that you explore as a wolf that uses discs, swords, whips and a painting brush to annihilate demons that you can later pee and poop on to humiliate and steal their teeth (yeah, and we thought Postal 2 took it too far), but that's fine because they're evil demons.

Exploration comes first so you'll have to use the aforementioned painting brush to overcome numerous environmental puzzles. Without spoiling too much, the brush is, of course, magical and can be used as both weapon and a tool to overcome roadblocks and manipulate the environment and trust me when I say that there are a lot of things to do with it.


Other than the gameplay, the overall presentation is worth mentioning as it is simply beautiful.
Even now, almost 20 years later and the fact that a lot of environment is made with sprites rather than 3D models (or perhaps precisely because of it), the game manages to look amazing thanks to it's creative and rather unique visuals. Everything looks like it's drawn on a piece of parchment thanks to the thick outlines, cell shading and the screen filter. It might look weird and blurry at first but you'll most likely love it after a while.


So, it's a beautiful, old and flawed gem well worth it's asking price in my opinion and a must play for anyone who likes Zelda and similar games. Keep the flaws I've listed in mind and if they don't seem like a deal breaker to you, go ahead and get it!