Played using Feb 2017 update, the latest as of writing this This is one of the most broken (if not THE most) games I have ever played. Characters, textures, models, animation rigging, you name the asset, it can disappear, at any time, for any reason. Stuttering during almost every transition and animation. Depth of field effect that blurs everything and leaves crucial items like TEXT FOR INTERACTIONS illegible, but can't be turned off in options. Music that cuts out when pausing the game, and when watching the unskippable "last time on..." sequences, leaving those scenes much like The Mummy 2017's trailer. And the absolute most broken, non-aesthetic problem with this game, being completely unable to move during investigations. This alone makes finishing episodes, let alone the full game, actually impossible. I managed to get up to midway through episode 3 just by interacting with what I could see on-screen until hitting a point that required me to link 2 points of interest from opposite sides of a room. How exactly am I supposed to do that when I can't move manually, and one of those points is off-screen? Needless to say, even without the myriad other problems people have mentioned, do not pay for this abomination, even on sale.
Tech notes: Unity engine so no custom resolution tweaking, native resolution is slightly blurry and one room in the game has horrible stuttering, no sound and can easily crash the game if you stay in there too long. The ability to rebind keys to something other than the insane default layout is nice though. I'm not one for "art" games, but Limbo is well designed, fun, tightly paced and pretty replayable. The puzzles and platforming have a good ramp up in both difficulty and complexity/precision, right up to the very end of the game. While Inside is in some respects technically amazing, especially given the engine they're working with, the gameplay only occasionally ramps up in fits and starts, then goes right back down again. They decided to put more emphasis on story and atmosphere and while that's fine, it hurts replayability quite a bit when for large stretches you're just running to the right and looking at how giant the scenery is. That's something that works precisely once and when the effect wears off, you're just running to the right, doing nothing along the way, something that rarely happened when playing Limbo. The best puzzle Inside has occurs halfway through the game, which makes it even more disappointing that they created such a fun movement/interaction system and didn't do a whole lot with it. What should have been 2 thirds of the way through the game ended up being the very end (because of the story), right when a whole lot of new puzzle possibilities open up. They give you a new "toy" to play with, and then almost as soon as you start enjoying the new gameplay it ends, not giving you anything harder or more complex than before. Despite this disappointment, it's still a good game. While optional, some of the puzzles to reach collectibles are pretty cool and the animation quality alone deserves a lot of attention. People underestimate the power of body language to make a world relatable even when nobody in it has a face or much of a voice.
None of the Stan Bush songs that are heard during the game are included in this soundtrack. I understand that it's difficult from a licensing perspective but those songs added a lot to the game, especially Warrior.
Symphony is a scrolling shooter that moves with your mouse movements. You have a set play area, the ability to mount your upgradeable guns to fire at any angle you want and every level is based on your own music, similar to Audiosurf and Beat Hazard. At times this works extremely well, when other factors aren't butting in to ruin it. The neon look is nice at first, though after a while things can get a little illegible with so many same-coloured objects and explosions on-screen. Then you have the menus, which have to be some of the most poorly designed user interfaces I've ever seen. No matter where you are, even if you're 3 menus deep and about to start a song, if you right click at any time you'll go straight back to the main menu. There is no "back" button when browsing music so you need to change the "filter by:" option to reset back to the top folder level every time. There's also a big chance that if you accidentally go back to the main menu at the wrong time, all of your progress goes away. If these were the only issues, this would still be a four star review but unfortunately, this game takes the "Look! It's MUSIC(TM)! TEE HEE!" stupidity to an extreme. All generic score pickups are crotchet notes. Most large enemy attacks are crotchet notes. Bonus score pickups are joined crotchets. They couldn't be happy with just that either, so at random times when playing (and a lot at the start) the developers are perfectly happy to wrench control of the game away from you in the name of "story" ala Ubisoft to have some awful, unskippable dialogue before a boss fight that invalidates your score unless you play the song again. There's no option anywhere to turn this off. They even have a button in the menu so you can always look at the "plot item" because again, just like Ubisoft, they think this trash story (that nobody even wants in the game) is so compelling that there's no way you wouldn't be invested in it. Just imagine if Audiosurf or Beat Hazard did this.
The idea of simultaneously and directly controlling two characters isn't new (The Adventures of Cookie & Cream and a minigame from Nintendo Land come to mind) but remains criminally underutilised, and it's also the only thing Brothers has going for it. Brothers is a very short and light adventure/puzzle game with a few set-pieces, a simple but reasonably effective story and nice visuals. If you can get it for 5 or 10 dollars then I'd say it's a good deal but just know that the only reason it gets away with not letting me say "you don't really do much of anything" is the single-player-coop aspect. Most of the puzzles are very simple, as you only get one button per character and the solutions are easy to figure out. Since Brothers is so reliant on its story, the replay value is 0. Once you're done, there's no reason to go back as the levels are often painfully linear and most of the fun of controlling both characters is in specific, one-time scenarios. The games I usually compare this kind of thing to are Journey and Limbo, not only due to the short length and focus on atmosphere but because the base gameplay stands up on its own, and had me enjoying myself even during a second playthrough. To me, a game's quality is not just the first experience with it but being able to come back to it later and get the same enjoyment out of it again and again, which also makes it a better value proposition. I can't see that happening with Brothers. I don't hate it or anything but I just want some more meat on the bones of these brothers. BACK TO ROLLERCOASTER TYCOON 3 FOR ME
Yes, the movement generally feels good, there's no loading time whatsoever, it's got a good visual style and good music and it's a great idea for a game. That's all well and good, but what about trivial things like replays, the level editor or even being able to see your times on a level instead of looking at an empty leaderboard graphic? Well you're in luck, because they removed those features from the description so you wouldn't have to worry about them not being in the game! It's not an inferior version if you don't know what you're missing! It's a good thing that seeing your time on a level isn't important enough to put in a game that gives extra score for beating levels quickly, intends for people to beat each others' times and has a general "speed-run" nature, but I digress, those are TRIVIAL problems! It's not like those missing features were core to the game and its replay-ability or anything! 20 dollars! Also, in the early levels, it's way too easy to get to the front of the truck "herd" and have to sit there and wait for it to drive to the finish because you've run out of floor. Air control is pretty crappy too, considering how much manoeuvring takes place in mid-air.
At least in the steam version, that "deluxe edition" character shows up on the character select screen along with 2 silhouettes of the other "extra" characters, prompting you to buy them before you even start playing the game. This game hasn't even been out for a day and there's dlc, a.k.a. "We made this during development and then cut it out of the game so we can sell it back to you."
An interesting take on action-strategy that generally works but some of the mechanics could have used some more development time. Technical note: 30 fps lock Outside of fights, time moves normally and Ronin is functionally a stealth game. Get seen or trigger an event and the action starts. It's turn-based, and has you leaping around with limited abilities as you dodge gunshots, trying to carefully position yourself so that enemies will miss as you get within melee range. This proves to be tricky as you have to ensure you're not shot by one of the other 5 people in the room while you kill the first one. Even so, it's mostly fun and very satisfying to do well. Pulling off a sequence like that isn't helped by the controls however, which for a game like this need to be tight, responsive and consistent. Instead, clicking a button to perform a specific action will occasionally do something else, jumping and grappling often have a mind of their own when dealing with walls, ceilings and pretty much any obstacle and close shaves become much more of a gamble when the hitbox sizes are unclear. All of that might sound frustrating - which it can be - but "might" turns to "definitely" when you add the forced "hints" that show up during almost every combat turn, throughout the whole game. There are 15 in total (more on that below) and they repeat endlessly. You can't turn them off, they're always noticeable and half of them aren't even real hints. The developer wanted to be "cute" and wrote obnoxious and sarcastic things like "These hints are really helpful" and "There is no way to turn off hints". Well, you know what Tomasz? Yes there is. I made a steam guide showing how to do it and then after a week it mysteriously disappeared, so to anyone wanting to turn them off, my guide video is still up here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8wNt44GBw8) In short, if you can handle some frustration and think this game sounds interesting, get it on sale. There isn't a ton of content.
Copied from my steam review (29 November, 2013): A very fun and enjoyable electronic music-themed platformer. Most levels have rhythm-based obstacles and the difficulty is fine, not hard but not easy either. The few boss fights this game has are very well-executed and great fun to beat and the soundtrack is nice. Unfortunately 140 is extremely short and took only an hour to beat (that's with mistakes too) and while it does have a "hard" mode unlocked after completion, (flipping all the levels to progress to the left instead of to the right and no checkpoints) I don't think I'll be playing that part as I've already seen everything the game has to offer. Overall it's ok for the price (1-2 USD on sale on steam) and I'm glad to have played it despite its length.
As others have said, this demo is pretty cool. The interaction is similar to doom 3 and there are many things to interact with. It has a high-res look that becomes sort of low-res at close range, possibly due to using original assets but I think that actually looks interesting and strange. Occasional bugs and one crash aside, this has a ton of potential. However, fair warning, from looking at their kickstarter page it appears they WILL be putting backers into the game, at a fairly low price point too. From such a beloved and highly regarded series this is pretty disappointing. Yes, I think the demo is great and after playing it I was excited for the full game. Now, knowing that all it takes to force people playing to see some random idiot or stupid meme is $350, not so much.
