I don't even know where to start! Not only do you get a perfect Arcade emulation (down to the option allowing you to insert coins manually) of a REALLY AMAZING game with an equally amazing soundtrack, it also includes different variants of the game, and is packed with TONS of quality of life improvements, DIP switch settings, bezels, configurable sound output, scaling options and so so so much more. AND IT'S JUST $8! Don't get me wrong, this is an outstanding package on its own, but I have seen so many Arcade ports where you get so much less for thrice the price. If you even remotely like Arcade SHMUPS, do yourself a favor and buy this. Even if you're not very good with Bullet Hell, there are Rewinds, Assist modes and more to make it VERY enjoyable. See, I didn't know where to start and now I don't know how to end it. Buy the game. Have fun!
With a strong comic style and elements from the Lovecraft mythos, this old-school FPS has a strong (yet also campy) first impression. And it doesn't end there. Killing enemies reward XP, which in turn grants Level Ups. These can be invested in upgrades of your weapons as well as skill abilities - cigarettes to slow time, voodoo dolls to hurt enemies, etc - which differ between the two playable characters. So there is a lot of variety in gameplay and the guns feel satisfying and paired with nicely laid out enemy encounters, the game is very solid. The game spans 5 episodes, each with about 5-6 levels (I didn't count to be honest) and all areas are nicely varied. From old towns to industrial areas, sewers (of course), an old ship, a very atmospheric farm and much more. Near the end, things get very surreal as well, but I don't wanna spoil it. But it has its drawbacks, too. The difficulty isn't consistent. The game spans 5 episodes, each with a boss at the end. Maybe it's just me, but I found the bosses of episode 2 and 3 MUCH harder than all those which came after. And even outside bosses: Near the end of episode 4 I found myself constantly low on ammo and health while previously breezing through the game. Aside of that there were some performance issues in the larger levels presumably caused by the massive amount of gibs which never despawned. More or less a first world problem I only noticed due to high refresh displays. So if your target is 60 FPS, you're probably fine. So take this with a grain of salt.
After GOG removed my review because it was apparently not constructive enough, I will do my best to be very constructive. Blade Runner - Enhanced Edition is currently riddled with bugs and blurry backgrounds (which lose detail) as well as interpolated cutscenes which - for all intends and purposes - look worse than the "ScummVM version" which GOG sold for nearly 2 years before stealthily replacing it with this piece of... software. My constructive suggestion is to stick to the ScummVM version that you can still access when buying this - which sends (part of) your money to NightDive. And if we think about that constructively, then that money should be going to the ScummVM devs, considering their work was so much better.
If the second game was a mindless looter shooter, this one is a mindless arena shooter. Not a bad one, but compared to the first (i.e. SW 2013) this one barely feels like a game anymore. Gone are levels that were actual locations with tasks, story beats, variety. But there's a grappling hook now. Because that's what everyone else does.
Being a solo dev myself, I have a lot of respect for Bright Memory: Infinite. And aside of that, it's also a lot of fun. The mix between guns, your katana and exo arm powers offers a lot of variety in the extremely fluent combat that makes you forget the limited enemy variety and the linear level progression. Yeah, it may not be the deepest experience, but it's thoroughly well made and enjoyable. It may have taken me only 2 1/2 hours to finish, but I enjoyed every minute and considering how much fun the gameplay is, I could see myself replaying it, getting the rest of the achievements and beating the game on a higher difficulty - both things I rarely do. Infinite also fixes the most glaring issues of the original Bright Memory where the action was often badly readable and I often ran straight into my death. Not so much here. Infinite is extremely busy visually, but where you're supposed to go and how to get there is always clear. There is platforming, wall running and none of it is frustrating. The story of the game is... hard to follow, considering that it plays mostly in dialogues during the action. So maybe I missed a few important bits, but what I did get didn't even explain half the things that were going on. Yet, the game plays it completely straight and I love that. :D
I can imagine that players coming from Binding Of Isaac may be thrown off by this game, but by itself this is a really solid title and deserves more praise than some of the other reviews let on. Taking place in the world of Binding of Isaac, it tells the story of Bum-Bo who got his coin stolen by a monster and now he's on a quest to get it back. Simple. As is the gameplay which is essentially a "match 4 (or more)". Depending on which symbols you match up, you can do attacks, block, stall and fuel your spells which are character specific and expanded via shops as the game progresses. Enemies eventually get more tricky in their strategies as well. So what seems easy on the surface gains in complexity, but not so much (from what I played so far) that it becomes overwhelming, even if you're not into Puzzle games (like me). I'd almost call it a "Casual Puzzler", but I have not made it far enough in the game to properly judge that. Due to the random nature of your board, the battles will of course also take random turns which sometimes results in battles not being entirely fair. But that goes both ways and in the end it balances itself out again. The cardboard visuals are really charming - especially in motion - the music is just on the same level as Binding of Isaac and the cutscenes short but funny. Bum-Bo is a simple but likeable character and if you like Puzzle/Match-3 games, I think you will enjoy this one.
As a big fan of the works of Lovecraft, I found Dagon to be a fantastic, immersive and faithful interactive retelling of the short story. The voice acting was excellent and the audio ambiance framed the narration very well. In terms of gameplay, there isn't much. And Dagon did not set out to be more than being, as written before, an interactive story which takes about an hour to finish. You click to proceed through the events - there are no puzzles, no action scenes, no decisions. However there are tidbits of trivia hidden in many of the scenes, which sometimes take a keen eye to uncover. And for fans of Lovecrafts work, these are really, really cool. All in all, I thoroughly recommend Dagon for fans and those who might want to become one themselves. For the asking price of FREE, you can't do anything wrong here.
As a fan of those TRON-like computer worlds, RECOMPILE immediately caught my attention. And after blazing through the entire game in just a few days (12h of playtime in total), I can say it was a very satisfying and absolutely beautiful experience. That isn't to say that the game is without flaws. The lines between genres blur a lot these days (a good thing), but I (personally) hesitate to call the game a Metroidvania. Yes, you do need certain abilities to make progress in specific areas, but the way the game was laid out, once you know in which order to tackle the specific areas, you can finish each of them 100% in one visit. And if you're not a fan of backtracking, that's a good thing. But I can't help that it gave the levels/areas and your abilities a more "scripted" feeling (if that makes any sense). Not linear, but not exactly organic, either. So I'd call it a Metroidvania-light (your mileage my vary). And this "light" continues throughout the rest of the game. The combat is a bit clunky (no firing while jumping), but once you get used to it, you want more. But apart from the security sector, enemy encounters are also very... "light". Same with the puzzles. Those logic puzzles are very interesting, but can often be solved with brute forcing or short-cut via your hacking ability. There's never a puzzle which really commits hard on one or the other. All that being said however, the world in which RECOMPILE takes place makes up for all of its shortcomings. The virtual world inside the mainframe is absolutely beautiful and as you discover logs which slowly reveal the story of the outside world, its characters and the AI which connects it all together. And just for that, RECOMPILE is absolutely worth it.
