This entry in the Ghost Warrior series drops the open-world from 3, thankfully, because that world was devoid of personality and anything happening. Contracts takes the Hitman and Sniper Elite approach by dropping the player into a very large map for each stage and lets the player accomplish tasks and attempt challenges. This "sandbox" feels like the hall monitor decided to broaden their territory and decides how everyone should have fun. The challenges range from entertaining to attempt, to downright grueling and honestly destroyed my morale. Unlocking new gear and skills requires completing levels and challenges, which can be a little frustrating. Unfortunately the levels aren't interesting enough to want to return to, and are actually barely interesting enough to want to finish the area you're in. The snow landscapes look good, and there's plenty of enemies to have fun watching the bullet cam with, but the turrets and annoying challenges may frustrate or turn people away. But the sniping mechanics being less hand-holding is a nice little feature, though I feel the red diamond should be brought back as an accessibility option, of which there are none available. If you feel like you need another sniper game, and don't feel like returning to a Sniper Elite game for whatever reason, then I guess this is okay.
Ghost Warrior 2 puts the focus on the sniping, where it should be, while making the swap to CryEngine. The graphical fidelity strangely doesn't match up to Crysis: Warhead, which predates this game. The game has good voice-acting this time around, and good audio design, but the bullet cam is still boring compared to the x-ray cam of Sniper Elite. It feels like it's stuck back in Max Payne without giving us the Pointman ability to slow time for ourselves. The AI is pretty much as broken as previously, but now the physics are wonky, and my game crashed a couple times while playing. It's hard to recommend unless you somehow liked the original game and want a small improvement, because that's what this is: a small improvement.
This shooter sometimes seems to forget the focus was the sniper, and plants you in the shoes of someone else from time to time. Maybe it's because the developers know the bullet cam is boring compared to Sniper Elite, and the graphics are muddier than the swamps in Dead Island: Riptide. The sniping mechanics are fun, the other shooting mechanics less so. Stealth can be too easily broken, AI is basic and pretty dumb as a result, the story is about as bland as Soldier of Fortune: Payback, and it's a toss-up between which is worse; the dialogue, or the voice-acting.
The story, dialog, and optimization are so awful, and the only thing worse is the gameplay itself
This game lets you live out your Batman power fantasy in the best way, remembering that Batman is the best detective ever, and lets you use his vast array of tools while you listen to his deductive reasoning, and the sounds of bones break from your infamous Bat Elbow Drop. Glide your way to victory and explore Arkham (if you haven't already) because this is one of the all-time best Batman games ever.
An excellent homage to supernatural thrillers with bizarre characters, this game provides a true horror experience and you will enjoy every moment of it
I just recently got into this series and am loving it for its uniqueness and how it dares to do so many different things. The world itself is basic in how formulaic fantasy JRPGs were at that time, but the strength of these games lies in the gameplay itself. The movement is fluid, the combat is easy to get a handle on, the boss battles make you modest again if the power against regular enemies gets to your head. These Ys games are definitely worth the time of any JRPG fan looking to try something refreshingly different.
I jumped into this gothic tale for the first time thanks to GoG, many years after Soul Reaver on Dreamcast pulled me into the Legacy of Kain fandom. This game was a struggle because of its limited tech, top-down view, basic combat system, and general unforgiving nature of the game itself. But it's definitely something that I enjoyed as an elder emo and fan of the Legacy of Kain IP. I would love to see Defiance and Blood Omen 2 get remastered like Soul Reaver did, and to see this game get a complete remake but in a visual style to match the graphics of the remasters.
This itty bitty point and click story within Lovecraftian mythos isn't particularly strong or compelling but if you enjoy classic point and click adventures, you'll find yourself right at home.
This retro point and click adventure isn't particularly scary but it really digs into the Lovecraftian mythos in an interesting way, and though the game could use some updates for modern hardware, it's an enjoyable experience for fans of classic point and click games.
