In other game threads I'll post a 'thoughts and impressions' of a game, either when I beat it or I'm done with it.

However I'd still like to keep a catalog of my reviews (and have somewhere to post non-gog ones) and link them accordingly. These links will get updated later with their appropriate links or with the review I wrote on it.

140
A Virus Named Tom
Advent Rising
Alien/Zombie Shooter 1
Bionic Dues
Blackwell Bundle
Blackwell Epiphany
Braid
Chronicles of Riddick
Clarc
Cyberpunk 2077 (PC v1.63)
Dark Cloud 2 (PS2)
Decker - incomplete game
Defender's Quest
Deus Ex - Human Revolution
Diablo 3 (Console)
Drod (all of them)
Drox Operative
Embers of Mirrim
Escape Goat 1+2
Fairy Fencer F Advent Dark Force
Grid Defense
Hacknet
Hammerwatch
Hexcells
Horizon Zero Dawn
Human Resource Machine
Infinifactory (newer)
Is it wrong to pick up girls in a dungeon - Infinite Combat
Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light
Lara Croft GO
Last Evil
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver
Little Inferno
Long Live the Queen
Lost Ruins
MagicMaker
Middle Earth : Shadow of Mordor
Nier Automata
Nox
Pixel Piracy
PixelJunk shooter
Psychonauts
Puddle
PuzzleBots
Raptor: Call of the Shadows
RAYMAN RAVING RABBIDS
Rebel Galaxy
Rebel Galaxy - Outlaw
Recettear
Remember Me
RetroGrade
Ring Runner: Flight of the sages
Ronin
Saints Row 3 (PS3)
Saints Row 4 (PS3)
Shenzhen IO
Skyrim (PS3)
Skyrim (PC)
Skyward Rogue
SoulCaster 1&2
Space Colony HD (unfinished)
Space Pirates And Zombies
SpellForce - Platinum
WitchSpring 3 - Re:Fine; The Story of Eirudy
Super Hexagon
The Outer Worlds
TIS-100
Titan Souls
Tomb Raider (<i>2013</i>)
Torchlight
Triple Town
Tyrian
UnEpic
Unmechanical
Uplink
Va11 Hall-A
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
WindForge

More to be added and updated later, perhaps grabbing my reviews I put on GoG's reviews on individual games.

Also my GogMix!

note: If I say the audio/music is sufficient it might be the music was awesome, but didn't stand out as bad as some of these I am writing on the spot from memory, although I try not to do games that are that old; Usually I prefer to write reviews immediately after finishing the game, but I didn't plan on doing this until starting a little while ago. So some of this is a little less professional than I'd like. But I'll re-look at games breifly to get screenshots and get familiar once more with how the music was. To note, so some of them are AWESOME! If you have the soundtrack for Escape Goat 2, go listen to it! Same with Transistor.

there's also your Hacknet review.

Remember me... 10x more combat than there needs to be, too much emphasis on it, especially invisible fuckers and QTE sections that I sorta hate. The linear climbing/moving around the environment is similar but not quite as painfully obvious as Nathan Drake in his uncharted games, but it's pretty bad especially in a couple places.

Graphics: Pretty damn good. Although some of the extra details I can't make out very well because there's no time to make them out. On the other hand the artwork on the walls, billboards, ads, etc are good. I wish multiple times though I could go into first person view and LOOK at stuff, like postit notes that were sprawled all over something, or read small signs with the text to see what it said.

Audio: Good overall, music is similar to Deus Ex Human Revolution, although not quite as good. The voice acting is good. Sound effects are sufficient, although the game glitched on me turning the sound off a couple times, and minimizing while playing a video will cause the audio to play 2 copies overlapped making an echo, but that's mostly avoidable.

Mechanics: Fighting is very similar to Assasin's Creed moreso than Arkham Asylum. Although only 2 buttons are actually used in combat, and alternating them makes move combinations which you have up to 4. Oddly it's so easy to mess up a combination and it start over, especially if you get tapped by an enemy. Remixing memories is... interesting, although you do one a couple hours in, and then you do a bunch more near the end of the game. Moving in a memory involves spinning the analog stick much like you'd manually turn a cassette tape to get to just the right moment to do a splice or cut.

Story: Decent, although confusing. Although the forced unskippable cutscenes when you have something you already watched. On that point load times are something like 20 seconds if you die and have to reload an area.

Annoyances: Collectables are strewn about. Hard enough to find them, although the upgrades usually you have a 'hint' as a picture of the 3D area that you need to go find the item at; It often feels like they are being clever when they give you a hint you can't understand. Unfortunately if you go in the wrong door too soon you'll be unable to access it ever again. A few times combat didn't end when the enemies were defeated forcing me to reload the last checkpoint. So there's that. Invisible enemies, too many battles, cooldowns upwards of 2 minutes (which can be made faster but that's all during combat).

Like Toren I wouldn't play this again.

Graphics: 5/5
Music/Audio: 5/5
Mechanics: 3/5
Story: 3/5
Annoyances: -4

Final: 12/20, 6/10, 3/5

MAGIC MAKER (updated from gog review)

Particles, customization, and satire, all this and more; Real fun...

Oh you wanted a full review? Okay then:

The game starts you off unemployed, in order to make money to pay the rent you get hired by wizards to be a 'guard'.

You can choose any mission type you want, although the harder difficulties are labeled by a Piece of cake, to a RIP tombstone as the difficulty. Missions range from investigating an area, to collecting sand. Every area you have to beat the boss of the level in order to escape. Once you unlock an area, you can replay it multiple times.

Magic and item customization is rather simple, you have materials you can insert into your robes, wand, 2 spells, and an artifact you can carry around that gives you a boost. Materials are Labeled from A-F. Each material has a spell/wand effect, and a robes effect. You can also choose your spell/wand to be an enchantment which gives certain passives a larger boost, but a number of the materials seem less useful as they don't do damage. Materials you un-attach go back in your inventory, so feel free to experiment. Often if you get a newer version of a material, you can click 'upgrade' and the highest version will replace the current one. Quite Convenient! You can even name your own equipment, or just use the random button a few times and a decent name will populate.

The art style is simplistic, seemingly circles and triangles at locations to give the characters shape. Okay it's a little more than that, although seemingly a little paper-like, it's definitely no south park. In many ways it's better, although simpler.

There is no economy system (although you can create materials at one stand); As such you can customize the looks of your character almost right away with a large variety of fun clothes, styles and colors.

There's several references to Hogwarts and the Harry Potter books, general satire, and is very light hearted. Expect it to be a decent time waster, but you may get bored after 6 hours.

On the other hand if you finish the game and want more, there's a Newgame Plus mode. Harder levels, but more powers you can pack on your wand/robe/spell to make some truly powerful casting! Going through the game a second and third time take considerably less time than the original. Expect an hour or two per additional run.

"I'm sorry, I don't do impressions. My training is in psychiatry."

Sorry. :P Couldn't resist.

Well i already added it to my list so it's one less game i have to re-check if i did do a review already or not.

Note: I beat the game a month or two ago, so it's not as fresh in my mind as it could be.

Escape Goat

Game in which you are imprisoned in a tower where you are turned into a goat. No one can leave, and if anyone does somehow leave then the entire tower will crumble. That's the short of the story.

The game is heavy on platforming and puzzle elements where the room will change, opening some spots while closing others. A few parts in the game are heavily timing based which although annoying aren't unbeatable.

Graphics: Pixel graphics, although clean and simple, it's sufficient for what it wants to convey. Although much easier to see what you are doing than in the second game which uses more lighting and newer 'prettier' graphics.

Audio: Sufficient. On par with playstation games, and I'm thinking of Symphony of the night.

Music: I can't say I ever got bored of a particular piece of music, so that means during my play-through it wasn't the same single song or short loop that would get under your skin. The music is very similar to modplug music, and reminds me a lot of Xixit.

Story: Minimal. You get small bits and pieces as you get more sheep, but there's no real surprise.

Mechanics: Solid. Although keyboard is sufficient for play, a controller feels better. The goat can jump, ram forward, and set down/recall a mouse. In rare instances with a magic hat, he can swap places with the mouse.


Escape Goat 2

More of the same as above. You (the escaped goat) returns (for... some reason?) Except the story is more fleshed out. More goats and characters will appear you can talk to who give you a little more of a story, but the story doesn't really change.

Graphics: Prettier. More defined, looks more like a 360 game.

Sound/Music: Sound is more of the same. Music is a bit more suped up though. More synthy, more piano, more zen-ish. You can just lose yourself to the music. Another soundtrack I'd recommend to just listen to if you feel like relaxing.

Mechanics: More of the save as above, except that there's a few new powers. You can summon multiple mice at once (and even switch between them with the hat), as well as having gravity change for the mouse with a specific hat. Otherwise, it's nearly identical to Escape Goat 1

Annoyances: The ending boss is the only section of the game that I recall giving me issues. Mostly it's a matter of solving how you need to deal with the serpent/snake. Annoying, but beatable with time, or watching someone else do it so you know how you are suppose to manage those levels.

Beyond the final boss there were 2-3 levels that are just annoying based on super precise platforming. Thankfully these are optional rooms you don't have to complete every room to beat the game.

Lastly the lighting added to the game makes some areas a bit darker and it's less obvious what you can go to, and what you can't go to (in some cases).

SoulCaster

You arrive on an island and wake the curse on it. In order to survive you take up heros whom you can call forth to fight for you.

SoulCaster is a pixel-art tower defense where you control a wizard (who can move/walk/etc) who summons souls/warriors on the fly to fight for him, then can recall them.

Graphics: Simple 2D sprites. Very reminiscent of old NES/SNES Final Fantasy games, or Bomberman.

Music: Upbeat, calm, and sufficient for the game.

Sound: Simple and appropriate.

Mechanics: Those you summon can't move, only attack. You can summon the ranger/Archer who has the highest attack and damage, but no health. The warrior who has lots of health and defense, but no range. Finally there's the.. err... dwarf who throws Molotov cocktails and does AOE damage (and also explodes on death). You can summon the same soul multiple times so you can have 5 archers, or 2 warriors in front and 3 archers.

As there's only three classes the hotkeys for them are Q W and E, while R recalls them. This lets you dedicate one hand to moving the wizard, and the other with summoning. Space will use up a scroll which does massive damage on the entire screen. Should one of the summons die, they will revert to a spirit form and go back to you over something like 5 seconds, while if you recall them they return immediately.

Other than collecting loot and moving, the Wizard can't attack or otherwise defend himself beyond moving.

Story: Fairly good. Your companions tell you of what's been going on and why the curse is here, as well as your need to stop it. It feels fleshed out enough. The game can be beat in about 2 hours.


SoulCaster 2

This is more of the same. I got halfway through before having my fill of the game(s) as a pair. The graphics are slightly updated but otherwise it's pretty much as above.

Puzzle Bots is a point&click disguised as a puzzle game. You control little handheld tiny robots that the inventors have made. Throughout the game you'll find out what is really going on as other toys are found just laying outside, and the robots escape their little enclosure.

Graphics: Looks somewhere between pixelart, and MSPaint art. While well done, it has a very indie feel to it all. The resolution of the game is set at 640x480, so be mindful of that.

Sound/Audio: Decent music, upbeat and a bit Jazzy. Voice acting is good enough.

Mechanics: These robots are intended for a variety of tasks. Variety meaning they are all good at one thing each. One can move massive heavy objects, one can move and manipulate objects. One can swim in water and move objects (and throw bombs) etc. When you have multiple robots you switch between them at various points in order to do something. One robot might move a platform while the other picks up a key at the top of some object, then come back down and open the door. The tutorial for each robot is decent enough, and appears more puzzle-like until you start noticing things that it's actually a point&click game.

Story: Feels very childish of a story, almost storybook not only in the graphical representation, but also with the plot. If it were a book or movie, it would have a G rating. Although the plot is simple, and family friendly it also means it's a good starting point if you wanted to teach the adventure games to your kids (while not having the absolutely obsurd logic of Lucas Arts games).

TIS-100

This game reminds me of the x86 Assembly Language. When I was a teenager (14 or so) I spent a lot of time doing assembly language programming (enough to write a small compiler). Most of the instructions are similar and playing/programming felt like slipping on some old comfortable slippers I'd forgotten. It helps that it starts up and feels like an old DOS computer from the 1980's.

Suggested you read the manual first, the TIS-100 has 10 instructions for you to use and master. They are relatively easy, but in combination with the puzzles you can seriously do a lot more than you'd ever thought you could. Add to that you have each processor working in parallel so you can have one doubling a number while the other one gets you the difference of it before passing it to the output. One of the hardest puzzles include making a sorting routine with such limited space for instructions and logic. But don't worry most of the puzzles slowly ramp up in difficulty helping you build the tools needed to solve later problems.

Hidden in each puzzle is a broken processor which stores a dairy of sorts which is the story, of the growing obsession that your uncle had of the machine. Reading it is interesting but not required for play.

If you are having trouble with the puzzles, it might be worth it to go to YouTube and watch some videos on computer programming fundamentals which would explain the high level logic of how some of this stuff works, then condense it to the problem at hand.

Perhaps the biggest downside to the game is the total lack of music. But if you put something on in the background, it will be much easier for you to play.

If you want to try programming in general, or are a programmer, I'd recommend this; If you can't use the BASIC's PRINT command in old Apple/Atari computers then you might give this a pass.

Human Resource Machine

This game is very much like TIS-100, in that you are doing programming. However it can be done entirely with the mouse.

Graphics: This has a very similar look and feel to their previous game Little Inferno, and is cute. Well animated, and otherwise just bleeds with ambiance. It almost has a paper cutout look similar to South Park, but a lot more polished. It also feels a bit like flash with parts of their bodies being attached in a skeleton to the body. Still it's presentation is verging on joyful, and childlike.

Sound: Simple, be it from the sound of the bell from the elevator to the talking from your bosses that sound not too unlike Pikmen where certain syllables have a simple sound. Depending on the location background ambient noise will also be present, like the rain, or telephones ringing softly as though they are 3 rooms away.

Voice Acting: Funny when present, generally in a few cutscenes involved in the story.

Music: A variety of musical tracks. From New Age, to jazzy upbeat, to heavy 80's synth music, it's generally relaxing and goes on for long minutes at a time with background noise mixed in. It's never too upbeat, but you could just zone out for an hour and listen to these while taking a nap or trying to relax if you need. Seriously, if you can just listen to this in the background sometime when you need background noise.

Mechanics: This is the meat of the game. As mentioned it's programming, but you drag and drop the commands of what you want to do. Drag the commands up and down, or the resulting end of jumps. You can leave labels in the program, but these are not typed in, they are drawn in (hand written). You can step through the instructions, backtrack, or zoom through and watch him work at full speed.

Each level (being a year of employment) going up to the 41st floor can be beaten with 2 extra objectives, namely making it as fast as possible (fewest instructions run) and the shortest (fewest instructions total). You also have 3 slots for your script so you can do both or even experiment without losing your previous work (Much like Zachtronics games).

I'd have liked to see a few more commands to make smaller more useful scripts, namely another different comparing jump, and maybe something to convert numbers to characters and vise-verse, but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Story: The overall story of a robot invasion is a bit funny, But is the least important aspect of the game.

Graphics: 5/5
Sound: 5/5
Music: 5/5
Voice: N/A (Just not enough to make it worth scoring)
Mechanics: 4/5
Story: 3/5

Final: 22/25, 8.8/10, 4.4/5

This is my favorite topic.

Are you finding it useful? I do have a ton more to post before I'm up to date. I've got to boot up Toren again so I can recall exactly what I disliked about the game, but I'll get to that soon enough.