There's mods that make you buy the original game, just to play the mod and this imo, is one of such mods. To me is among the best Doom 3 mods I personally know. It totally reaches and sometimes even surpasses Doom 3 quality. It feels more like a official DLC than a free mod made by fans. Phobos is a Doom 3 mod but is not exactly like Doom 3, is something more and even thou happens during the mars demon invasion, you see it through the actions and eyes of a different protagonist. This mod also has a tad different mood to Doom 3, so may surprise some Doom 3 fans, is still a action horror game and you will still shoot demons and zombies but there's also a deeper story in this, way deep than what is done in Doom3. Is a complex story with profissional voice acting and all. Phobos even takes heavy inspiration from the style of Frictional Games, games like Soma for example. Just this last fact, imo should be enough to make some people think is worth playing this, I hope. Phobos is also divided in episodes, but unlike Half Life 2 the third episode is already out and the fourth one, is on the making and the quality of the other three imo is so high that I'm sure the fourth episode will be as good if not better.
A very cool 2.5D game akin to the game "inside" with some cool ideas of its own. The puzzles aren't very hard thou a few can be unintuitive, at lest they were to me, the game can also be a tad frustrating in some parts and I found it to very short but was fun enough for me for as long it lasted, so if you liked inside I personally recomend buying this game, thou don't expect the exact same experience from this.
Just like Arcania (previous Gothic 4 ) that uses the same engine, this game seems to have been designed for something greater but the devs ended not reaching 20% of what they wanted to do, is like everything was rushed and half backed, feels very unfinished. But despite this is playable and can be fun, is also a game with a somewhat mature story and themes, is also a game with very black and white choices no gradation, choices that many times feel forced. About the gameplay is somewhat similar to Arcania, thou the RPG system is a tad more developed, but in all is still a simplistic action RPG.
This is a very strange game, is a bad game, in so many aspects but is also a fun game to play!? I can't just put my finger on it, the story is not it, is very simplistic, the RPG system is pretty bare bones, perhaps is the combat and the level design, I really don't know, but it made me finish it more than once. It also looks surprisingly good for the age, but as a few graphical bugs two that unfortunatly are unsolvable, like the "advanced shader" for faces is broken so turn that off and some water puddles reflections are also broken, but despite all this I pressed on and add fun untill the end. I will not say it is so good that you should buy it I will just say that, if you buy it and you know about its shortcomings you will probably have fun with it. Btw this game despite the new name, is still connected to the Gothic universe, but as a Gothic game is totally trash, is not even in the same league as the other, but if you excuse that connection and donpt mind the other issues I talked about, you may have fun with it, I did.
First I most say, I have this game on Steam not here, so this is a review of the steam version but I'm assuming they are the same. This game, is obviously heavily inspired on Max Payne gameplay, but with worse story, presentation and less budget, than the game it copies from. It also has a more advanced engine, but a very buggy one. Again In terms of gameplay, is a copy from Max Payne, third person, many guns, slow motion effects and shoot dodge mechanics. The story/characters presentation is obviously inspired on Max Payne 2, but the story itself, is nothing to write home about, is B-movie stuff, no where near the story quality of Remedy writers. In technical terms, like I said above the engine they used, is obviously more modern, it supports real time lighting and shadowing, Max Payne 1 and 2 MaxFX engine, is static/baked shadows and lighting, but this game tech, more modern or not, unfortunately has a serious problem in modern machines, sometimes the real time shadows, totally stop working, they are gone and personally, I was not able to find a fix for this yet. So because of the somewhat Max Payne like fun gameplay, I give it 3 stars but be aware of the technical issues.
I got this game for free but even so I cannot in good conscience say this game is worth it, I finished it in 27 minutes and some of those minutes were loading screens... The graphics aren't bad, but today, any game looks good and graphics, to me, aren't everything anyway. About the game, is a very basic first person, point and click game made on Unity, if you know the very first Dark Fall point and click game? Is like that but way more basic and simplistic.
I have the original game and was unable to play it, why, because of the, at lest to me, atrocious M&K controls, the mouse sensativity even at max, was like driving thought molaces and the water controls, were specially frustrating. Btw don't know about gamepad controls, because I don't use gamepads, so they could have been better but not usefull to me. I was about to totally give up on the game but I could see a potencial good game, behind this bad M&K controls, so knowing about the remaster, I came to look at the store page, after reading the controls were improved, I bit the bullet and bought it and man, i'm so happy I did, because to me the game improved leeps and bounds! Now was so nice to navigate and play, the ingame M&K controls became way better the user interface navigation as well, now supports mouse control, just this two things brought a huge smile to my face. Another thing that I knew would be better, was the graphics and they did improved some things, specially the real time lighting and shadows, yes the characters are still low poly and the animations are still janky but what do we aspect? Is a remaster of a old game not a full remake ala Black Mesa. To finish I will just say again, If not for the remaster, I would never play this game, in its original state and it would stay idle and forgotten in my library, like many other games with atrocious M&K controls, so to me, what the remaster did, was bring this fantastic game to more people, not only those that have pacience enought, to suffer throught the old bad M&K controls or perhaps if the gamepad controls are better, like to play with gamepads.
