Biomutant has one of the most tedious, and uninviting opening sections I've played in recent memory. At an hour in, I was ready to turn it off. It feels almost as a bad as a MMO tutorial at times. However, the graphics, music, and world were just charming enough to keep me going, and I'm glad I did. Once the game opens up, and you're free to craft weapons, fight battles without the intrusive tutorial, or be stopped ever 30 seconds and have the camera ripped away from you control, the game actually becomes OK. Not great, but OK. I've put just under 8 hours in now, and here are my initial impressions. - The K+M controls are pretty bad. It never felt like Biomutant was intended to be played on anything other than a controller. I've tested the game with my Xbox 360 pad, and Dual Shock 4, and both work as intended. It feels considerably better to play with a controller. - The combat is slippery, and for the most part anemic. As cool as the custom crafted weapons are to look at, none of them feel especially good to use. Even the "heavy" weapons that appear to have some weight and momentum to swings still feel underwhelming due to the poor audio and feedback. - The music is nice, albeit poorly implemented. I like the music, but when you enter a city, for example, the way the tracks are mixed is distracting and amateur. - The game runs great for me on my old GTX 970. I get occasional frame drops on MAX, but this HUGE open world doesn't chug even on my older hardware. - The character creator is really cool. Classes feel distinct. - Crafting is satisfying, both visually and systemically. - The story seems fairly basic, but the different clans are neat. Seems like Ottomans vs Japanese? - The presentation is a mixed bag. The narration is fine, but there's WAY too much of it. - There is a lot of heart poured into this game, but it still suffers from undercooked gameplay, and can be boring. I SUGGEST WAITING FOR SOME UPDATES AND A SALE.
Cyberpunk is my favorite genre. Blade Runner is my favorite movie. I love Rutger Hauer. I bought this as soon as it released. Observer is not a very good game - and it's actually quite boring. - The controls are sloppy and unreliable (remapping does nothing...) - The memory sections are linear and uninspired - the devs think loud noises and visual distortion are a substitute for a well written memory - The jump scares are lame and cheap - The voice acting, including Hauer, is all over the place. Some lines are fantastic, others feel like outtakes that were left in - The detective elements are shallow and repetitive - Chromatic abberation removal must be added to your Scalability.ini - The default FOV is low, and you have to manually add the function to your engine.ini file + Observer is a really good looking game - the art direction and environmental story telling are both quite impressive + Occasionally, the voice acting is superb + Cool cyberpunk themes and an interesting story Overall, this is a big disappointment for this me. Definitely recommend you wait for a sale.
This is basically a translation of the old Japanese PC release from 2006. As most fans know, Raiden 3 is a good shooter. If you've enjoyed Raiden games in the past, you're probably going to enjoy R3. The ONLY reason I'm writing a "review" is to call attention to the lack of graphical options in this release. This game is locked at its original, standard definition resolution and lacks any advanced graphic tweaks. No AA, no filtering, and no high resolution support or scaling. As far as I'm concerned, that's unacceptable for a port in 2014. Luckily, GOG is classy enough to offer a money back guarantee. Give Raiden 3 a shot, if the low res graphics are a deal breaker, let GOG know. If not, then you're in for a solid vertical shooter experience.
Tried and true design, player character creation is deep enough. Game looks and sounds great. I'm having at least $20 worth of fun with this $15 game.
