GOG Patron
whatever you do, go into this experience with open eyes. as a Bloodlines game? this is an unmitigated failure. that game already died though - 6 years ago, when Hardsuit Labs collapsed. this game should be examined on it's own merit. so, on it's own merit? this is one of the most fun games i've played in over a decade. this is NOT Bloodlines - this game is Prototype. yup, you heard me. this game is a true power fantasy, where you're unleashed on a city of helpless and hapless worms, lambs to the slaughter. you're a demigod, an apex predator, and Seattle is your playpen and sandbox. the movement in particular feels INCREDIBLE in this game, bounding rooftop to rooftop in single bounds is a joy and tickles the whole "the floor is lava" part of my brain for traversal challenge and mastery. also, the stealth is great - it's not an immersive sim, but you can absolutely completely avoid combat with rooftop perching, telekinesis, sound traps and timing. a very, VERY pleasant surprise. hold your heads high The Chinese Room - you did GREAT, and you should be proud of delivering the impossible :)
pretty much the title. if you're at all a fan of Castlevania games, ESPECIALLY Aria of Sorrow or Order of Ecclesia - BUY THIS GAME NOW. you can thank me later. superb pixel art, a good story, fantastic locations, phenomenal level design and a wonderful soundtrack combine into an unabashed love letter to the classics.
so, this game has a two person dev team - i commend them for shooting their shot, and i commend them for hanging out on the Steam community forums and taking feedback. unfortunately, they released a game that's broken at high resolution, high refresh rate and anything approaching high end (for context - R7 5700X, RX 7900 GRE, CPUs a little under recommended and GPUs a little over). if you're at 1080p with a very modest system, you *might* be ok. if you're anything approaching recommended, stay away for now i fear that this game is borked enough that it constitutes a serious epilepsy risk. "stutter" is how the experience is described, but that doesn't quite capture the magnitude of the problem - it's as if the game internally runs at 30fps, uses framegen to render up to 60, and the framegen frames are 3 frames too slow and out of sequence. it's consistent judder that's headache inducing. for what it's worth, i like the atmosphere of the game so far, what little of it i was able to play. sincerely wish the devs the best in fixing their game.