This is one of my favorites of the entire franchise. Like the white door it is one of the best places to start just be aware that the challenge here lies mostly in how well you communicate with your partner. If you want a spectacular puzzle Co op I strongly recommend Portal Two. Most of the rusty Lake games will let you deduce what you're supposed to do but this is the only of them so far That does not require you to get on their warped wavelength in order to do so. One of the players is in the past which looks very much like what we're used to from the series the other is in the future where they go for 3D and have a reasonably free rotation around a cube that has something on each of the sides. You don't have to worry about figuring out which of you gets to do which since about halfway through it swaps anyway. I love that they take these big swings and I think most of the time it really works for them. It was very cool to see some of the classic elements of this rendered in three dimensions and it looks great although I do think a little bit is lost in it not having the banal pastel style that we're used to has always been a wonderful contrast to the disturbing material and atmosphere. This one does let you do one of the most repulsive things so far. It was cool to get more about Albert and Rose. There is some new lore material and as usual you won't be lost just confused which you still will be if you play every single one of these. I was quite pleased to see the return of some familiar themes such as great exploration of the fact that what we do now can really affect how the future plays out. And doing so by literally having you separated chronologically is clever. If they make another one of these I think it would be good to have multiple difficulty settings. If you only play through this once which of course many will you might feel like there's not much content for the price. And once you have gone through it all that's left are alternate Ones. Three total.
The first six of these came out before Rusty Lake Hotel and you can definitely see that that one was a massive step up for the franchise. However like all other entries that I've played so far and on the date that I submit this there's only three that are out that I haven't gotten around to you can technically play this before anything else. Sometimes certain elements might be given away in one of these if you play one of the later ones before one of the earlier ones but it doesn't spoil the experience because there's still so much that is not revealed. The short length of these do mean that they can't quite build to a emotionally engaging conclusion the way that everything that came after those 6 did. I will say they do a great job on the settings and they play with perspective yet again. This also has by far some of the most messed up stuff including what you are called upon to do to complete the game to other living things sometimes humans. The last three came out after hotel and are probably my favorites of the 9. The last one has some of the most complex involved puzzles of the franchise so far an I absolutely loved it. The first half dozen of these do a lot to make up for those shortcomings and really none of them are so long that you have a risk of tiring of them. That is good because they made what seems to me an arbitrary decision of forcing you to play these in release order rather than dip in and out of the different ones. I could understand this better if they kept to a close continuity and you would be missing stuff but several of them don't even have characters in common. Once you have completed all of them at least once you can replay them in any order that you feel like so that's good at least. Other than that this is about what we by now expect from the franchise so you probably know if you've played at least one of these and some of them are free if you'll like this and others. It is worth noting that the visual quality is altered from originals.
In some ways this feels like a slight step back after some entries in the franchise that really took chances and went places. But of course it does because this is a remake of what I understand to be one of their first maybe even the first game they made. And considering that it's actually deeply impressive. Parts of it get very involved and complicated not quite as much as Rusty Lake Paradise but fairly close considering that this is an escape room game where that one is somewhat more open. There was time travel in cube escae paradox and this one goes for a compelling perspective switch mechanic. In both cases it enables them to do things that they wouldn't be able to otherwise including really opening things up so that you find yourself in a more complicated setup. There is not an awful lot of interaction with other characters and you don't get to do all that many of the morbid things that are still present yourself. Does this does feature incredibly disturbing material including stuff where they do take something where used to and just mess with it ever so slightly. That is one element of these that I continue to be deeply impressed by. In this one they use the human eye in ways that are quite upsetting albeit subtle. You know those gooey things that we all have and use on a daily basis. There is less plot and lore than in a number of the other entries. It does have poetry and symbolism and there is a lot to chew on here. I left it feeling quite fulfilled. My money had definitely not been wasted in the slightest. And since this is free I am of course referring to the fact that I spent time on this and time is money. There continues to be a certain Logic to all the puzzles logic that you simply have to get on the same wavelength as the developers in order to deduce. Not moon logic and nothing is truly just unfair. You definitely do not want to brute force this like if you need to take a break from it do so but it'll take forever to brute force. Amazing game
A large part of the way whether or not you get into this game is what you expect out of it. I will briefly cover the negatives first and then detail that. The controls are clunky making parts of this unnecessarily frustrating and tougher than it should be. One thing about this I will not miss is aiming the crab jump . Sometimes you'll wish checkpoint saves were more frequent . There are times where this is basically trial and error. Where it's unlikely that you'll get 100 Percent into the groove before perishing at least once. At that point you might be able to recognize the pattern and be able to get through that chunk without further problem and then it starts over in the next section. then there are the aspects where it is a matter of expectation. This has minimal narrative and context And while puzzles have a sense of accomplishment and progress they largely lack challenge. if you can get past these things this is truly incredible. It is rare for a video game to make me feel as small as this did when that's what it was going for. There is a not insignificant amount of weapons grade nightmare fuel here. You deal with creatures from the deepest darkest recesses of the ocean and some of them are so much bigger than you that it is genuinely hard to fathom. The game play is sufficiently straightforward that you pick it up almost immediately and yet over the course of it this ends up feeling complex for what it is. basically if it's moving there's a decent chance you can possess it, only ever won at a time, some of them have one ability each and you can possess without getting your diver close if whatever else you're possessing gets close. Sometimes this enables you to access new areas and sometimes you are using them to get past some other dangerous thing either by destroying it or feeding it. I won't give away what the ending is but I will say I loved it. You do have to fill in some blanks but if you're willing to there's a good chance you'll love this like I did.
This has all the strengths of the Rusty Lake franchise games that came before it, other than challenging you with the puzzles that has(it's quite easy), and it being somewhat less morbid than a number of the others. I would be really bothered by this if I didn't think other things made up for it. Honestly, I think a strong case could be made that this is somewhat like the first Portal. The entire thing feels to some like a tutorial. And certainly this could easily be your first brain teaser. As well as your introduction to this universe. As always I would recommend buying on sale but then this series gets a very attractive reduced cost bundle every so often. Some have taken issue with the repetitive nature. And it is definitely true that there is not as much variety or breaking of the format here as one might wish and as they've done in some of the others where they've also for example structured it over multiple days. Personally I thought there was enough. And it is also worth noting that it is purposeful. You play as Bob Hill who is in a mental health institution. It has been arranged so that his daily life is predictable. We're not meant to think of it as thrilling. And the dreams really help break things up. The split screen is yet another example of the developer experimenting and as usual it works really well. Their bread and butter are escape rooms so this is not the first time that they put the player in a small confined space that we're going to find claustrophobic. But being able to see just how limited you are in where you can go really hammers that home. It also means much less clicking to get to where you know you have to go to proceed. The monotone voices are as carefully chosen imo as the black and white color scheme during his day. It reflects his sadness. The ending that you're likely to get on an initial play through is pitch perfect if you ask me. I feel like each of these is better than the last. So glad to see this level of creativity rewarded.
Whilst the developers were perhaps exaggerating somewhat when they referred to this as the most innovative shooter in years, it definitely does go far in that direction. The game play strikes a great balance between being very easy to quickly get into and deceptively complex. This is one of those cases where minimalism and streamlining were the exact right choices and make it better and not worse. If it's black, it's a weapon, you can hit someone with it or shoot someone with it, and throw it, red guys will kill you if you don't do it to them first, if it's white it means you can't pass through it. No hud, no reloading, you can only carry one weapon at a time and it's the one you see on screen. You die from one bullet but so do they. If you're not moving then everything else either isn't or is only moving really slowly. The story is compelling and explor ing important themes. I really appreciate that it does not break the format, switch perspectives or introduce things like cutscenes. I understand some people hate how short this is and certainly if you only play the story then yes it is over very quickly. And if you're just not the type of person who's going to play the challenge modes and Endless then for sure it might be frustrating. If I had gotten this at anything other than a tremendous discount I probably would have felt like my money was wasted - but then under those circumstances I always do so I guess that doesn't count for much. The graphics are stylized in a way that both make it unique visually and also serves as commentary. I will not elaborate on that; I'll just say I was very satisfied with the answers to questions that I got over the course of this. Honestly the one negative that I do agree with is that the physics for throwing can lead to frustration because they are simply not completely dependable. That is a problem for something that is such a big part of this. That's the one reason this is not getting a perfect score. Worth your time for sure
How closely this aligns itself with the movies varies between being a strength and a weakness of it. It is definitely the former in how much this feels like playing one of them, and the latter in how much it just recreates visuals from them without getting to a point where they particularly make sense. Without a doubt it is fun to get to play as one of the three sides, and they do a remarkable job of making the three of them feel even, considering one has no ranged attack and another is a human facing extraterrestrials. It does mean the Predator moves slowly and the Marine spends a lot of time getting his hand on guns that frequently boil down to different ones that fire bullets it just varies how fast, accurate and powerful they are. There is no story here, just a series of levels. I will say they did a good job choosing who goes where of the three. The Predator goes through a jungle and caverns. The Alien a temple. The Marine a colony. And all three, various human facilities for research and the like. This is incredibly intense. The replayability is increased by three things: the randomization where you won't know exactly where enemies are placed or if you're facing three Marines each wielding pulse rifles or one wielding a smart gun. Second is the bonus levels, where you get to go through a level as a different species than normally, and the Predator may have a grappling hook and the Marine a jet pack. And finally cheats. A bunch of them feel like it's just that developers playing around with code until they found something they wanted us to experience as well but then you do have stuff like sniper munch which enables the Alien to head bite at a wonderfully ridiculous distance. Graphics, music and sound design are very good for the time. Skirmish/coop mode are a ton of fun. Basically there is an endless stream of Aliens and one or multiple players are Marines or Predators fending them off. Being facehugged is appropriately terrifying, You'll never forget that!
In a lot of ways this is fairly minimalist. You can pick it up and play almost immediately there's very little to keep track of. It's laser focused if you will on themes, puzzles and atmosphere. It is true that the brain teasers here are definitely not as straining for you to figure out as in other games. In some ways this resembles the Portal games, but that isn't one of them. I don't think that's a problem but it is definitely something that you should know before spending any money on it. Basically you are running and jumping your way through a series of levels, any one of which you can replay at will. There are environmental hazards, levers to pull, switches to stand on. And that's where your cloning gun comes in; you cannot get very far in this without making duplicates of yourself, and in quite a few cases, you will have to directly sacrifice them. As such it is not necessarily challenging from a gameplay perspective but from a moral one. The further you get into this the more blood on your joystick hand. You might find yourself purposefully treating the copies as disposable and wonder why you ended up thinking of them like that. It might even happen not very long after you start playing. And after all we do not currently have human cloning in the real world so how did you become used to it so quickly? In this way it uses the mechanic remarkably well to explore this; this is something only the medium of games can do. It is different if you're just watching someone else do something. Controls are easy to understand and responsive; anytime I failed in this it was my own mistake not a flaw with the game. The music always fits and the retro graphics help put distance between you and all the gore heightening aforementioned exploration of ethical issues. This does a great job exploring what it does to people and society when science is used without any ethical constraints. It has a dark sense of humor but also a heart. The satire has real bite to it. Fun meta jokes.
I'll try not to restate what I said in my reviews of the first 2 and instead focus on how this builds on them. Similar to Hotel this is set over multiple days in a row. Where that one was a bunch of individual rooms this one is set on an island, the titular Paradise. At first it looks like you have a lot of freedom of movement but that is purposefully deceptive; a major theme here is the illusion of choice. It doesn't take long before you can access most areas and so each level sees you visiting the different ones, dealing with the recurring cast of characters that you all have some personal relationship with, and witnessing the distinct difference that the plagues cause. It's used rather well. The fact that you are essentially the prodigal son makes it more emotionally engaging; you're not just delivering room service like in the original. And while I admire the ambition of the second one I did think the ensemble cast got to a point where at least I couldn't keep track of everyone much less get involved in their lives. The drip feed of information for the mystery is enhanced on account of this creative decision. I really badly wanted to find out the truth and I was quite satisfied with it. There is an air of Grecian tragedy here. You will see at least some things coming but you are powerless to stop them. This one further fleshes out the core concept of the franchise up to this point and answers at least one burning question. It does not bring in new features the way that Roots introduced drag, albeit I did appreciate the increased number of voice lines including in puzzles. This one also does better at not having too many times where you end up trying to manipulate one thing with the mouse and accidentally doing another. There is still room to improve but maybe they got all the way there in one of the ones to come after this one. And certainly there was never a time where I accidentally screwed up the solution on account of two items being too close to each other.
This adorable little game could easily be the entry point for anyone who has never played a video game in their life especially if they already are an environmentalist or someone in their life might want to turn them into one. The puzzles are never difficult and there is no penalty for taking your time it has no fail state and anything that you do need to do that requires timing you get infinite attempts. With this I'm referring to the minigames of tennis and golf. In both cases it's to move timed explosives from one place to the next. To get the only real criticisms out of the way early there is a slight input lag perhaps especially when it comes to the ax and other swinging which takes some getting used to at least, for the aforementioned parts. Turning the camera also feels slightly awkward and I think it would have been doable to simply program it to move as you do since this isn't really a game where the player gets that much out of moving it independently. If nothing else maybe there could have been a setting to toggle whether it moves when you do. Given the length you'll want to get this on sale. This is one of those cases where it could have had a longer lifespan if it featured a level designer complete with online sharing feature and maybe some difficulty settings. I don't think those would have been difficult to get in there, for example you could add a time limit to each level. Maybe you say that the player has to redo an entire level if they spend too many movements getting to the end. As it is this doesn't really have anything to offer for people who only play video games for a significant challenge. And I'm not saying that as a criticism because that clearly wasn't what they were going for just as a heads up. Everything in this is wonderfully cutesy. You're always helping and receiving assistance in return from other critters and it's hard not to get invested in completing a level when it starts with one of them in some form of distress or trouble.
