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This user has reviewed 12 games. Awesome! You can edit your reviews directly on game pages.
MDK

One of the best games of its decade

Murder Death Kill. Mission: Deliver Kindness. Max, Doctor, Kurt. Mother's Day Kisses. It's never been clear what exactly MDK stands for, but what is clear is that MDK is probably one of the best shooters of the 90's, heck maybe even one of the best games of that decade. Coming out in the post-Doom and post-Quake era of gaming, MDK set out to do one thing; shake things up. So in today's review I'm taking a look at one of my all-time favourite games, Shiny Entertainment's 1997 masterpiece MDK. Dr. Fluke Hawkins, the genious who many disregarded as a raving madman and exiled to a space station surrounding the Earth, was the first one to discover the energy beams coming towards our planet. Then one fateful day it happened. The stream riders, a species of aliens never before seen in our galaxy, invaded the planet with massive city-sized tanks that began leveling entire countries to the ground. A time of crisis indeed. But the doctor had an ace up his sleeve. His cybernetic dog assistant Max and his janitor Kurt Hectic, who he outfitted with a tight androgynous kevlar "coil" suit, complete with a built-in parachute and sniper helmet (with detachable machine gun). It is now Kurt's mission to deliver kindness to the invaders and destroy the minecrawlers before they reach the remaining cities on Earth. MDK's story is directly tied to its gameplay, and doesn't have much of an impact on the overall game save for its core mechanics. Each stage begins with an airdiving sequence towards a minecrawler, in which you have to avoid a trackling laser and homing missiles, while gathering supplies that Dr. Fluke is dropping in after you. The trick here is just to take as little damage as possible before the stage begins. After this initial airdiving sequence you find yourself at the minecrawler, where you will have to traverse multiple areas before reaching the minecrawler's commander, who often serves as your boss fight for that minecrawler. There are 6 minecrawlers in total with a 7th level taking place at the Streamriders' home planet where you have to face down with the final boss, the Streamriders' feared leader, Günther Glut. While this means the game is somewhat short, each of the levels are divided into multiple arenas, each presenting a unique challenge and often connected via tunnels or roads that can provide fun minigames such as a snowboarding cruise. The game is probably one of the least repetitive I've played in terms of gameplay, given that the levels provide you with multiple types of challenges that not often can be solved by simply shooting everything (although this game IS a shooter so you will be doing a lot of it). One of the most groundbreaking aspects of the gameplay though is the sniper helmet you are equipped with. Taking your machine gun and attaching it to your helmet, the gun converts into a sniper rifle that can take several kinds of ammunition and can zoom in at extreme distances without losing clarity. MDK is probably the first shooter or 3D game of its kind that I know of that allows you to do this, and it's an incredibly impressive feat at the time. There is also an incredible attention to detail in the damage you can do to enemies. Shoot an enemy in the foot, and he will drag it around while bleeding, shoot an enemy in the chest and he will fall over and die, shoot an enemy in the head and it pops off, giving you an insta-kill. Sniping is a little clunky given it takes away a lot of mobility from you but it makes up for it in the sheer damage and accuracy you are given in return. The amount of powerups on display is also impressive. And your suit must be implanted with a tracker of some sort because Dr. Fluke will constantly drop supplies for you wherever possible. The super chaingun will upgrade your machine gun with massively increased damage output, but has a limited ammo supply. Hand grenades can be used for a lot of purposes but are really useful for blowing up the numerous grunt factories you'll come across as well as tanks and tougher enemies. The world's smallest nuclear bomb is exactly what it is, except you'll use it for opening door locks. The world's most interesting bomb is also exactly what it is and will draw all enemies in an area towards it before exploding and killing all of them. The tornado is a more advanced bomb that functions similarly to a frag grenade, being a literal tornado that spreads exploding fragments upon detonation in a whirlwind like pattern. The thumper is a hammer-like contraption that causes a minor earthquake. The decoy is a crude puppet of Kurt that somehow fools the aliens who will gladly chase and fire at the decoy instead of you while it's active. There are other fun powerups as well like the Earthworm Jim powerup which launches cows at enemies, and there are also multiple types of sniper ammo to pick up such as sniper grenades which explode when hitting enemies, homing sniper bullets and homing sniper grenades, and mortar grenades, turning your sniper into a grenade launcher. You can also call in an air attack by Max, but this only works in open spaces. There is also numerous healing items to pick up, healing different amounts of health. A candy will heal 1% of health up to 100%, an apple will heal 10% up to 100%, a turkey will heal 50% up to 100% , the vial will bring your health to 100% if it is below it, and finally the monkey box (it will make sense when you see it) will boost you up to 150%. If I were to have any criticisms of the gameplay, then it would be that the game feels a bit too short. After the 7 levels the game offers, you're presented with a music video by French pop rock artist Billy Ze Kick, who does a cover version of "Non Non Rien N'a Changé" by Poppys set to probably one of the coolest music videos ever. I think a lot of the game concepts in MDK are presented but never fully explored further. Powerups such as the world's most interesting bomb only showing up probably 2 times over the course of the entire game, making it feel very underutilized and not fully realized, and the thumper powerup never really feels like it does anything specific for the game and feels kind of pointless. The game itself is very dense though and the amount of variety does make up for its length, I just wish that some parts of the game were further realized and that there was more to it. But of course if you finish a game and wish there was more of it, then that's definitely a good thing. The controls can also feel a bit clunky to use as even though you can map the buttons to a WASD layout, the left and right keys are still used to move you around during airdiving sequences, which can be a little awkward. Otherwise, the game controls really well and plays pretty much like a third person Doom most of the time, with your chaingun automatically aiming at any enemies in front of you. Graphically MDK looks amazing for its time. It's sort of drenched in this really cool dark gothic Giger-esque cyberpunk style that is still extremely unique to this game. Few games of this era look as downright cool as MDK and it pulls off a lot of things that for the time were rather unique such as large open areas, reflective surfaces, a ton of unique textures and shaded polygons, and it has a style that is very much born of mid 90's 3D limitations with its sharp and pointy polygonal geometry. Most impressively it's used actual motion capture for Kurt himself, giving him very natural movement and animation. Kurt is actually a sprite during most of the gameplay save for the airdiving sequences and post-level tunnel sequences. The game was actually made mostly for software rendering, which makes it even more impressive as even in software mode the game looks absolutely stunning at times. It did require a FPU at the time though and was pretty much made for the then recent MMX processors. Using 3DFX Voodoo hardware acceleration doesn't really do much other than allowing the game to run smoother, and doesn't really give that much of a graphical improvement. Same with the Direct3D mode which actually is kind of broken on modern PC's due to lack of legacy support for older DirectX API's. I had to make a fan patch for Steam based on the GOG release which uses nGlide emulation, since the Steam release ships with the broken D3D executable of the game, which I find strange as using the software rendering exe would be more stable. The game has gorgeous backgrounds as well, giving each level a unique theme and feel to it. It's very easy to remember distinct areas and each minecrawler. Sound-wise the game isn't lacking either. Tommy Tallarico is providing a soundtrack worthy of a Tim Burton movie which does fit the strange, alien and gothic looking landscapes of the game perfectly. Another impressive feat is that instead of relying on CD redbook audio which would've meant the game required the game CD inserted at all times, it streams the music off the hard drive which is very unique for the time. Interestingly the PS1 version of the game does stream the music from redbook audio which gives it slightly higher quality than the PC version though the PS1 version is not as graphically impressive, using a lot of lower resolution textures. I also love the sound design in the game, with aliens taunting you, whimpering as they quiver in fear when you're bombing them, and shouting at you when they attack. All in all, MDK sounds as good and unique as it looks. In conclusion, MDK is arguably one of the most solid 3D games of the 90's, with a distinct visual style that hasn't aged as badly as it may look at first. Despite its short playtime, it's an incredibly rich and diverse experience and if you have never played it, I highly recommend you give MDK a try. SCORE STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 8/10 GRAPHICS: 10/10 SOUND: 10/10 TOTAL SCORE: 9/10

4 gamers found this review helpful
Messiah

A flawed but unique experience

Warning: There will be SPOILERS in this review. As far as game developers go, I am kind of sad Shiny Entertainment aren't around anymore. Back when I was young, they made some of the most interesting, impressive and awe-inspiring PC games of all time. After getting their start with Earthworm Jim, the team developed the enormous cult classic MDK which released in 1997 to glowing reviews (and low sales figures). Their games always had a very quirky feel to them and often a dark sense of humor. Today I'm going to take a look at a game that to me embodies everything Shiny Entertainment represented back in those days, before they fell down into the black hole of developing nothing but movie tie-ins. Ladies, gentlemen and everything in between, I present to you: Messiah. Bob is a working class angel, a cherub, who is given a pretty huge task by his father, the creator. Earth has become a bit of a cesspool as of late and is in need of some cleaning, so he sends Bob down to deal with it. Of course, once you're there, a few issues present. 1. You're a tiny cherub with no means of defending himself. 2. Society seems to be at war with a race of cannibalistic mutants. 3. A dark figure named Father Prime is trying to open a portal to hell. So things seem to be a bit more challenging than anticipated. But Bob is given a very useful ability. He can possess any living being and use them as a second skin. And that's where Messiah begins and its main gameplay element is introduced. Messiah is a game that can be rather deceiving. On the surface it might look like a third person shooter, much akin to Shiny's previous game MDK, but the reality is that Messiah is really a puzzle game at heart and approaching it in any other way will make it insanely hard to progress in the game. So the open nature of the game is in of itself deceiving as the puzzles really only have one solution most of the time and it is more than possible to absolutely ruin any progression if you do something wrong, so saving often and having multiple saves is a must in this game. The game will often put you in a hub of rooms where you will need to possess various types of humans to progress, and may have to kill some people or use stealth to achieve your goal. The game never holds your hand, never tells you the solution, it will drop hints in the environment but other than that, this game is truly more a test of your brain than your reflexes and I hesitate to call it an action game because while it has the elements of one, I spent most of my time in this game just trying to figure out how to proceed. In that sense I would more call it an adventure game in the guise of an action game. The game also rather insidiously messes with your expectations of what it might be. It puts you in control of an angel, a baby even who looks rather innocent but requires you to do a lot of horrible things during the game, creating a very strong contrast with its diaper-clad hero and its themes. During the latter part of the game you're even required to infiltrate a night club in a red light district, filled with drug addicts and prostitutes and strippers. The game is definitely not what I would call child friendly, but it does have a lot of things I think more mature gamers would enjoy. Messiah is a game that surprisingly doesn't take itself too seriously. Sure, it creates a gritty dystopian future where people no longer have a sense of selves, but are just workers and cops, but at least it has fun with its setting, puts humor where it is needed and gives the different human types enough personality to stand out. My favourite moment is when Satan is revealed to be the main villain but his broadcast is broken when his imps, who are quite hard to control, start messing with his stuff. Moments like these feel very typical of Shiny's style and the mix of humor and a very dark and bleak setting feels like a continued exploration of similar themes from MDK (which I will get more into whenever I review it). The gameplay mostly revolves around the main possession mechanic that is pretty much introduced the moment the game begins. You will need to possess various humans with different jobs/roles to access new places, for instance only workers can operate machinery or only commanders can access high security areas. Different human types will also react differently to seeing you depossessed. Cops will shoot at Bob if he's not in disguise and will continue to do so if they see him possessing someone. Scientists, workers and other non-aggressive human types will leave him alone though and mostly just act with curiousity. The game puts a lot of attention to details like these which helps a lot in just making the world feel like it's real and developed. It's not exactly Deus Ex levels which I find a bit disappointing, I would certainly have loved if Messiah had some RPG elements where you could talk to people while possessing certain humans. I feel there's a lot of unexplored potential here, so this game could really benefit from a modern remake in my opinion. Despite the somewhat unexplored potential in the game, the game does feel pretty deep for a game of its time. Like I said it's not exactly Deus Ex levels but compared to Shiny's previous game MDK it's a huge step up and a rather different game in tone from that game. But what it does have in common with MDK is probably the enormous variety in gameplay elements. There are moments where you need to shoot everything in sight, moments where you need to be stealthy, and levels that are so straight forward you're pretty much just looking for the way forward. The game's early levels surprisingly proved the most difficult for me. The latter part of the game is actually fairly easy and straight forward and by then you will be fairly attuned to Bob's abilities and the various human types of the game and their roles in society. Story and hints are usually relayed to you through regular messages given to you when your head is ringing, first presumably from God and then later from Satan. The game's environments consist almost entirely of urban landscapes, exploring various complexes and buildings set to the backdrop of a dystopian city, with some architecture (possibly intentionally) reminiscent of the buildings we saw in their earlier game MDK. The first part of the game largely explores a major human city where there's a bit of a war going on between the upper class of people and a race of mutated cannibalistic humanoids called Chots. This conflict dominates large parts of the early game but is never revisited once you've beaten Father Prime (which only happens in a cutscene, kinda sad they never developed a full boss fight there...) which leaves it feeling somewhat unresolved. It quickly becomes obvious though that a lot of the mutants you meet in the game, ranging from Chots to Behemoths are really just results of Father Prime's experiments, so it makes sense that once you've beaten him, they become less of an issue. Later on it becomes a bit unclear whether Behemoths are considered enemies or allies of the cops in the game, given that you'd usually find them in highly secured areas, typically locked up and if you possess them and walk around, cops will usually just ignore you but they will still fire at you. I guess it could imply that they know something is wrong when a Behemoth is loose but still... it was a bit confusing. The latter part of the game sends you into a place called Sex City where your goal is to infiltrate a night club called Club Kyd (very likely named after Jesper Kyd who made parts of the game's soundtrack). Somehow from there you make your way into a millitary installation and to the Earth's moon where Satan is waiting for you. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, probably cause it shouldn't, but the absurdity of this happening just kinda feels right in this future dystopian city you're in. Combat in Messiah is actually pretty straight forward, and at times required to progress in the game. The game will use an auto-targeting system where you aim in someone's general direction and a reticle will appear on them to signify you are locked in on them. The targeting also works likewise for enemies and if an enemy is locked in on you, you will see a similar reticle appear on your body to signify where you are being shot from. I noticed some issues getting a lock on enemies that were too far away in some parts, though this is rarely an issue due to the scarcity of the battles. The main challenge comes from how you manage your resources in a level and which of the humans you should get rid of and which you should keep and use given how the different groups will interact and how people will react to seeing you outside a body. The weapons in the game are pretty varied. You'll mostly see the shotgun which seems to be standard issue for most cops, but there's also machine pistols (typically carried by Commanders but also some heavy cops). There's also a flamethrower in there because... why not. One of the more notable weapons later in the game is the Maser, a plasma weapon distinctly designed to combat Behemoths who carry pretty bulky armor, but is practically useless against humans (though it does a good job knocking them down for a few secs). Just like people, the weapons are treated more like tools in this game and the Maser comes into play during a section where you're tasked with getting through a bunch of Behemoths. Using the Maser makes this a very easy task but attempting it without it, even by possessing one of the Behemoths, makes it a suicide mission. The controls can take a bit of getting used to. I would recommend mapping the game to use a more appropriate WASD setup, just keep in mind that the game might feel a bit weird at first since moving the mouse also moves your character's direction. There is a freelook button but it's not possible to move while holding it, and it's not possible to move around in first person either (unless you're possessing a rat or crawling through a duct) which would've been neat. During platforming sections I noticed that Bob's flying mechanic takes some getting used to as I died a lot not being able to reach other platforms. Keep in mind that in order to fly you have to rapidly tap the jump button, not holding it down or tapping it slowly like I assumed. Graphically the game looks absolutely amazing for its time. On modern system the legacy support is kind of terrible though and sometimes models will glitch out and warp a bit at certain angles, but the environments are absolutely gorgeous, and the game has a very distinct dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere that is so thick you can slice it. The costumes for the various models also makes it very clear what type of human they are. Cops are dressed in protective gear, radiation workers wear radiation suits, scientists have... scientist apparel, Chots are dressed in body suits with gas masks, workers wear overalls and wield welders and welding goggles and strippers, prostitutes and such are very obviously of that profession. The amount of variety in the game is surprising at times, especially in sex city where there are at least 2-3 unique prostitutes/dancers and you'll sometimes come across female cops and cops with riot shields. I can't really find much to complain about with the graphics, for the time this game was state of the art and as a I recall even shipped with some graphics card at the time. The game also has amazing sound. The soundtrack, which was made by Tommy Tallarico Studios, Jesper Kyd and others, is mostly ambience and while in most games I am not a huge fan of this style, here it makes total sense as it builds up the atmosphere in the world you're in and since most of the game is spend just exploring, using your brain and figuring out how to work the world around you, a less intrusive soundtrack is actually welcome. There's also a lot of great voice acting, with Bob seemingly voiced by a toddler (who does a pretty good job) and all of the humans will say little things now and then, often somewhat humorously. During combat there's some heavy industrial metal playing, by the band Fear Factory, which fits those situations as it really gets your adrenaline going. There is an option for disabling Fear Factory's music during combat but I highly suggest leaving it on as it adds a lot of welcome diversity to the game's soundtrack. As a note, it seems the GOG version of the game has some Spanish speech on the included soundtrack which is at times really distracting and pops up seemingly at random. I tried googling this but found no other mention of it so either there is no fix for it or people just don't care. It's not a major issue, and I haven't tested the Steam release for it, but something to be aware of. All in all Messiah is a really quirky, really fun, and really REALLY challenging game due to how it constantly catches you off guard. But you'll not likely ever play anything like it again and despite its flaws, I highly recommend playing it at least once. Getting it running on modern systems can be a bit of a hassle but I think it's worth it. It offers a massive world to explore, absolutely unique gameplay both for its time and even today, and if you love other Shiny games like MDK, Sacrifice and Giants: Citizen Kabuto, then you owe it to yourself to play it. SCORE STORY: 8/10 GAMEPLAY: 7/10 GRAPHICS: 10/10 SOUND: 10/10 TOTAL SCORE: 8/10

47 gamers found this review helpful
Redneck Rampage Collection

Quirkiest shooter I've ever played

It's that time again, kids. No... not THAT time. No, it's time to look at yet another game using the famous Build engine and today we're taking a look at one of the more... quirky games to use this engine. Yeah. Quirky. I think that word perfectly sums up this game. Imagine, for a moment, if you will, that you're a redneck named Leonard living with your brother of... questionable intelligence, in the fictional town of Hickston, Arkansas when suddenly one day aliens invade and steal your prize pig Bessie and your town fills up with clones of an old Coot and a fatass named Billy Ray. Yeah, that's kinda what you're dealing with here. A full scale alien invasion in the heart of southern America. And just like any self-respecting 'murican you of course go on a rampage. A... redneck rampage if you will. So yeah, this is where I normally get the story bits done with and start discussing the gameplay. Now, being a build engine game you'd expect the game to play basically like Duke Nukem 3D right? Well... kind of but remember how I said this game was quirky? Yeah... For starters let's discuss the weapons... The weapons don't really handle like any other shooter I've played. Your starting gun is the revolver which feels really powerful despite its lackluster damage. It doesn't really work that well against most enemies but it has its uses for sure like shooting switches or smaller enemies. But you quickly replace it with the double-barreled shotgun which fires one barrel if you tap the mouse key, and both barrels if you hold it down. It's kinda strange to see shotgun firing being implemented like this, but you kinda get the hang of it after a while. It's a good close quarters weapon but does less damage over distance. After a while you pick up some dynamite which has an insanely short fuse (seriously, you can blow yourself up WAY too easily in this game), but has a ton of use in the game for blowing up walls and such in classic build engine fashion. The "huntin'" rifle is probably the coolest weapon in the game though it feels less like a hunting rifle and more like a bloody AK-47 with an insane amount of recoil and sounding like an automatic sniper rifle. It does have really good range though, and firing in short bursts is really recommended... The crossbow doesn't really fire arrows cause... why would you do that when you can use it to fire dynamite at enemies. I mean, it just makes more sense, right? The ripper saw I never used mostly cause it's just... kinda useless. Or I just suck at using it. Whichever you prefer. The alien arm gun is... an alien arm gun. You pick it up from fallen aliens after blowing them up. It shoots what I imagine are lasers at your enemies and is honestly one of the most powerful weapons in the game and you'll probably need it a lot for that reason during the later levels of the game where you'll be facing a lot more of the more powerful enemies. The powder keg is probably one of the most useless weapons in the game next to the ripsaw if only cause it's more likely to blow YOU up than the enemies. Even more so than the dynamite.And then there's the alien teat gun. You strap on machine gun titties. I'm not kidding. Sadly these only show up at the very end of the game so their addition is a bit wasted. To sum up the weapon selection I think it goes pretty much how the rest of the game goes. There's a lot of cool ideas and they feel really unique and memorable to use, despite their quirks and flaws. Now with the weapons out of the way we can get to the really fun stuff. How you stay alive in Redneck Rampage. You see... in Redneck Rampage you don't heal via medkits or stuff like that as in more traditional shooters. No, you heal by consuming alcohol and food. Here's the thing though... these things affect you negatively. The more alcohol you drink, the more inebriated you become until you eventually can't walk straight. And the more you eat, the more bloated you get until you get really explosive farts that propel you forwards. This really adds a very unique dynamic to the game's entire flow where you are really given incentive to not get injured too much as in order to stay alive you have to do things that could make the game more difficult if you soak up too much damage. So playing the game like a trigger-happy amalgamation of Rambo and Arnold Schwarzenegger with a murderboner is actually kinda not recommended given you take damage very easily and it's more important to be aware of your surroundings and taking it slow. At least in my experience. Alcohol typically comes in the form of whiskey and beer, with food being pork rinds (which you consume directly when picking up), cow pies (comes in packs of 6), and Goo Goo Clusters, which is probably one of the weirdest product placements in any video game ever. I mean, I get the connection. They're rednecks and Goo Goo Clusters is a candy from Nashville. But seeing a real life product in a game where all the other consumables are not branded, it just feels strangely out of place. In either case, Goo Goo Clusters function largely like the nuclear health from Duke 3D and boosts your health beyond the maximum 100. There are also other items that affect your ability to survive such as the moonshine which for a limited time boosts your speed and resets your alcohol and gut meters upon finishing and using toilets in the game will empty your gut and make you fart free until you stuff your face again. Like I mentioned earlier, this does add a lot of strategy to the game regarding how you stay alive as food will lower your alcohol meter slightly, but alcohol can often be more potent. You also have mainstay items like the "vacuum hose snorkel" which lets you breathe underwater and the "hip waders" which allows you to effortlessly walk through mud or... mud-like substances. The game's enemy roster leaves a little to be desired. For like 50% of the game you're mostly fighting the same two clones of the old coot and Billy Ray, with the occasional space hulk and space vixen thrown in. The old coot just shoots at you with a revolver while spouting to "get off his land", Billy Ray will attempt to get rid of you using his trusty ol' shotgun while being generally impossible to make sense of what he's saying (I think he asks how I'm doing at times...). The space hulk will generally just shoot lasers and throw mines at you until you die (which is pretty quickly if you don't dodge his shots). It's important to blow him up since he will get back up if you don't. And doing so allows you to pick up his arm gun. The space vixens are some of the nastiest enemies in the game and will try to lure you in with a sexy voice and laughter that just made me cringe a bit. I don't really get the humor behind these and I'm pretty sure they're just there as an attempt at having some adult humor but in all honesty they just make me really uncomfortable but... well... then the game decides to give them machine gun titties and I'm totally on board again, so it's cool. You also have enemies like the poop imps (yes), which throw shit at you. Is it their own shit? Are they throwing their own flesh at you? This is raising way more questions than I dare to think about and they all involve feces so let's just swiftly move on... Another enemy that kinda made me cringe a bit was the rabid dogs. When you kill them they let out a really sad whine and it made me feel really bad for killing them. I am glad the game didn't shy away from this but it does feel a little fucked up to be killing someone's pet. Then again, they are rabid so hopefully I'm doing them a favour... You also have the occasional mosquito to deal with but other than that there really isn't a huge variety to the enemy roster in this game and it does make it feel extremely repetitive at times. I'm thinking they did this to have more non-hostile entities in the game like pigs, cows and chickens. Cause... I guess the aliens were only interested in YOUR pig. The level design is simultaneously some of the best I've had the pleasure of playing and some of the worst I've encountered with probably the worst example being the sewers early in the game. This level almost single-handedly killed the entire experience for me as I was stuck for HOURS upon HOURS trying to find the way out until I caved in and resorted to a walkthrough (which didn't help much in all honesty). This level is just designed by a complete twat who expects far too much from the player. I think there was a similar puzzle near the end where I was completely stumped and I have no idea how they expect players to even be in the mindset for stuff like this. At times the game relied entirely on the player completing infuriating jumping puzzles, solving switch puzzles from hell or going through mazes. But then again you have so many memorable locations like an insane asylum, a meat packing plant, aforementioned sewers (like it or not, I will never forget them), a trailer park, a drive-in theater, a huge ass mansion, old ruins and so forth. This game really nails having memorable levels and I definitely feel like I remember more from this game than I do from Shadow Warrior. If anything cause a lot of the levels use exclusive textures that helps give each level its own unique tone and feel. So when the game wasn't making me pull my hair out I was legit enjoying the level designs. Graphically, Redneck Rampage looks really good for its time. There's an insane amount of detail in the textures, to the point that at times it's almost an early example of a photorealistic look. It has a very muted realistic palette that kind of offsets the cartoony designs of the models. And as mentioned, a lot of the levels feature unique textures and atmospheres that help give the game a ton of graphical diversity. I don't think I ever was bored playing this game and I was always looking forward to what I would see next. I also really love the sound. The voice acting is superb with lines like "your ass is grass and I'm the lawnmower" really legit cracking me up and the weapons all sound powerful and beefy. The soundtrack is also incredible featuring a nice selection of psychobilly artists like Reverend Horton Heat and Mojo Nixon, with the latter easily having my favourite songs on the soundtrack. My only real gripe is the 8-track limit to the game's soundtrack but given the songs are really good and fit the mood of the game it can be excused. I am eternally grateful to this game for introducing me to the amazing thing that is "You can't kill me" by Mojo Nixon. So... all in all Redneck Rampage is a bit of a mess. But it's an insanely quirky mess and it was REALLY hard to put down once I got into it. Some of the stuff in it like the space vixens and rabid dogs sat a bit wrong with me and left me feeling a little confused as at times the tone is a bit all over the place and I'm never quite sure if it's satire or just the devs putting something in for the sake of it being redneck-related, but for every time it does something that doesn't quite fit in, it succeeds in making you feel like it never takes itself too seriously, very much like Duke Nukem 3D. If I could compare it to anything I would compare it to being at a convention. Sure, it may be infuriating at times and testing your patience, but at least you're surrounded by pigs in shit.

2 gamers found this review helpful
Duke Nukem 1+2
This game is no longer available in our store
VVVVVV

Hard but fun

VVVVVV is brutally difficult and you are very likely to die a LOT in this game. So it is good that the game gives you infinite lives or else it would've been extremely punishing. That being said, none of the deaths feel cheap as the controls are so simple and tight that the deaths feel entirely like your own fault and you CAN get very good at this game by playing it a lot. The graphics are really good and highly reminiscent of oldschool C64 graphics, and the chiptune soundtrack is easily the game's best feature as you'll definitely keep playing just to hear all of it. It's extremely catchy and really well made. Definitely a game I recommend for people who want bragging rights since I consider anyone who has completed this game a true gamer.

1 gamers found this review helpful
Daikatana

Needs a remake

Daikatana is a pretty groundbreaking title when you think about it. It was really the first game that attempted to be a co-op FPS/RPG hybrid long before this became popular with games like Borderlands. It was just a shame that the technology at the time wasn't ready to handle the ideas that Romero had, coupled with a really delayed development. But I can see where he wanted to go with the game and that he really tried pushing the FPS genre forward, and personally I find the game more fresh and interesting than Quake 2 as it has a lot more variety to it. It also has a lot of voice actors from Deus Ex which I love so it's not really that bad of a game, it just has some glaring flaws that I think if had been fixed, we would've had one of the most original titles in years. Definitely a game that is begging for a remake...

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