A walking sim with a visual style reminiscent of Bioshock, a suspenseful atmosphere and a few chase sequences thrown in to prevent boredom. Beautiful use of the Unreal 4 engine (one of the best I've seen). Story is engaging, but without the sequel that is promised by the cliffhanger ending, much of it remains confusing even when it's over. Worth picking up at a discount for those who like to wander & explore for a few hours without (too much) pressure. 6/10 Be aware that some of the visuals are gruesome and the game is very demanding to run.
How to do a lot with a little. You'll re-traverse the same territory over and over, whether completing the (short) main story, or grinding any of the repetitious side quests. Flashy Arkham-style combat combines well with Assassin's Creed-style stealth, but the lack of variety to the missions and areas can make the late game a chore. Graphics and production values are among the best of its time, though, and if you love hunting and defeating an endless stream of orc captains (using a framework called the Nemesis system), then the positives far outweigh the negatives. Plus the game can be completed in 30-40 hours, a rarity among more recent sandbox / open-world games. 7/10
Takes the original FPS formula of Shadow Warrior's 2013 reboot and makes it a hub-based looter-shooter with (Galaxy-only) co-op. Gameplay is insanely fun (rivaling DOOM 2016), the soundtrack is first-rate, and the graphics are generally good (distance textures are low-res tho). But the same levels are repeatedly - REPEATEDLY - re-used over and over, advanced character builds are based around an RNG crafting system, and the story is - kinda bad. Flawed but fun. 6/10
(I've never played the original Thief games) Good stealth mechanics and level design, but environments feel tight / narrow. No fast travel anywhere means you'll be running the same routes over and over just to get to places. I enjoyed the story and its cryptic ending. The biggest crime is that the loot is very underwhelming; in a game ostensibly focused on stealing big prizes and important stuff, 90% of the loot is silver knives, gold teacups & saucers, brass candlesticks etc. The Bank Job DLC (included) starts to tap into the franchise's potential with tons of cash and some rare jewels, and the Moira Asylum level has some great atmosphere, but the actual thieving in Thief is meh. 6/10
They character-assassinate Thomas Wayne and mess up Vicki Vale (in a big way). As Batman, you suit up, and - talk a lot. Even worse, your choices don't matter. Tales from the Borderlands and The Walking Dead were WAY better on all fronts. Skip this trash even if it's free, it'll waste your time.
I like Gwent - both in TW3 & the online game - but this takes the fun and makes it a grind. You'll spend most of the time running around a 2D map looking for resources. Boring. The rest of the time you'll be playing Gwent. Fun, right? Well, sort of. I'd estimate one third of the Gwent matches in Thronebreaker are "regular" Gwent matches: 3 rounds of play using the deck you've built. The rest are custom story or puzzle matches, which feature unique decks and rules that have nothing to do with your deck or its synergies. Further inhibiting player freedom, puzzle matches only offer a single route to victory. Compounding the restrictive Gwent play, there's no manual save, only an autosave. The choice-laden story is decent and the presentation is good, but if Gwent is what you're after, go play the online multiplayer game, you'll have more fun. I did, anyway. Incredibly disappointing.
+ Great story, well-told + Great vocal cast + Great atmosphere - Useless crafting - Tons of back-tracking - One level of difficulty. Accept it, or quit – or activate cheats, which were added after release as a quick way to shut people up who were complaining about difficulty. - Cheap boss design. The second Tommasi boss fight is straight-up bs. - The Anchor boss is still broken. - Dark Souls’ style checkpoints. - Confusing level design. You can frequently see where you want to go on the map, but no idea how to actually get there. - Side-quests can require specific skills to complete – skills that are acquired later in the story. The game does nothing to tell you this. Try over and over to complete a specific mission, only to look it up online and discover you have to abandon it for now b/c you don’t have the right skill / talent. - Visually boring. It’s nearly all grey concrete office space. - Slow texture stream-in. Can take 30 seconds or more for textures to fully load (game was installed to an SSD). - I don’t have a ray-tracing gpu (RX 5700XT). The graphics are terrible. Reflections are badly glitched; reflective surfaces are covered in a grainy shimmer (disabling Global Reflections while maxing Screenspace Reflections helped, but didn’t solve the problem). The light balance is off; brightness is over-driven in well-lit areas, but it’s hard to see in dark areas. Even hair (for example, Emily Pope’s) is oddly grainy. (Yes, I turned film grain off.) Anti-aliasing still leaves jagged edges everywhere. Facial animations are very good, though. Been a fan of Remedy’s since the original Max Payne game. Control is another great addition to the unique collection of stories that their games tell. And it does tie in with other Remedy games (Quantum Break and Alan Wake). But even with all the talent, and the attention to detail, Remedy continue to produce brilliantly flawed games. Control is, unfortunately, not an exception.
Smooth, fluid, colorful and violent - with a good story, too. Some shortcomings in weapon and enemy variety can be overlooked, because otherwise Shadow Warrior is everything an fps should be. Total size on my hard-drive: 14 GB + Mobility is excellent. Movement is quick and smooth. + Great story. + Graphics are fantastic, especially for a game from 2013. + Great optimization. + Katana gameplay is violent and gory. + Fantastic soundtrack. + Excellent level design. + Good use of environmental hazards (exploding barrels, cars etc.). + New Game+ mode. +/- Guns are meh. They get the job done, but that’s all. +/- Default key-bindings are odd. Any key combo that require a double-tap PLUS a tap of another key is an instant point off for me. Keys are rebindable, though, and there is full controller support. +/- The humor is straight-up 80’s action-style cheesy humor. And there are way too many Wang jokes. It didn’t wear on me, but could be annoying to some because it’s present right up to the end. - Enemy variety. It’s not good. And the beserker is easily one of the most annoying enemy types I’ve EVER encountered (the old “only weak spot is on their back” schtick, except getting the beserker to turn can be tricky). - Lack of bosses. There are a few, sure, but the majority of the game is horde mode. A more difficult encounter usually means an increased amount of enemies. - Level design might be good, but it’s easy to get confused about which way to go. Sometimes you’ll find yourself going backwards through a level because the door you entered looks just like the one you’re supposed to use as an exit. - Lack of direction through a level also means it’s easy to mistakenly advance to the next part or even exit the level when all you wanted to do was look around for secrets. The fluid gameplay and funny dialogue is hard to resist, though, making Shadow Warrior an easy recommendation for fps fans. A reminder of just how memorable good games can be. 9/10
Compared to the first game, Dishonored 2 has a little bit worse story but better level design and gameplay mechanics, so on balance it's just as good as the first game. Clockwork Mansion and Stilton Manor are some of the best levels I've experienced in any video game. If stealth-action is something you like, don't hesitate to get this game.
