So after I initially waited 9 months to finish the base game, you'd think I would have finished the smaller expansion in much less time. However, Hearts of Stone delivers a story & experience that's in no way watered down from the original game. I started this in Oct 2017, put it off because once again I just didn't want the game to end. Only finished it today Jun 2020. Naturally I have a hole in my heart now, the sinking feeling that I'll never experience this again despite knowing I can replay it, only to end up feeling the same again. All I can say is that if CD Projekt Red never ceased to amaze with this game. This is an expansion that feels like a game on its own. I'd say imagine what they could do if they made an entire game but we already know how that goes. This is a testament to the level of talent & dedication they put into their work. Heart of Stones is also a stand alone expansion, you don't really need to play the base game to get into it but naturally it would help greatly if you do. The narrative in this strips away your sense of power, making you feel like you've been pulled into a current & you're along for a wild ride. The characters they introduce will have you hating them & feeling sorry for them. Sometimes vice versa depending on how things go. The area it was lacking was mainly gameplay. It does introduce some new upgrade system & enchanting? But I didn't bother much with this. Since I was able to use my vanilla save, I already had most of the gear I needed. Although you do get some armour & even weapons that seem to be pretty good comparing the stats. Otherwise, it doesn't really change up much. You'll do all the same sword dancing, you'll Aard & execute much like the vanilla game. Fortunately, the narrative is so good you easily disregard that. Definitely worth playing if you've finished the base game. I loved it. Save for a few moments where a group of enemies wail on you, it's otherwise a great addition to an already great game.
I know a game is good when I get near the end & feel a need to stop. Finishing it, no matter how much is left to do, means the game, for the most part, has ended. I had it on day 1, played for a good month or so. Then I stopped because I didn't want the game to end. Finally, I gathered up the courage & finished it, roughly 9 months later. The game is by no means perfect & it has its faults, but it's an experience I'll almost never forget. Usually when a game is forgettable, it's because it's crap, with this, there's so much story that you do end up forgetting some of it, especially if you take as long as I did to finish it. This is by no means a bad thing but proof to how much content they put in... & how bad my memory was. The open world in this is massive. It starts you off in a place called White Orchid, which you think "hey this is pretty big" but then it's kind of a tutorial zone. The other zones seem overwhelmingly big. The story is astounding. Bear in mind; I played 2 but not 1, so I had a reasonable understanding of what was going on. But, it’s a pretty good standalone story. The role-playing mechanics were really good because of how it affected both narrative & game play. Narrative wise your choices affected the outcome of quests & even had consequences that affected the world or NPCs. Gameplay wise you had skills & gear to 'mutate' your Witcher for your play style. Visually at the time, the game was pretty good although it wasn’t the best or even much better than other games, but if you plan on playing it today (i.e. 2020+), I highly recommend a mod like The Witcher 3 HD Reworked Project. Audio was exquisite, the music is addictive & the ambience in this game is complimented by it really well. It helped authenticate the different atmospheres while exploring & questing. My main gripe was Roach & how poorly he handled. Often, it was better to walk than to ride. Since my words are limited all I can say is The Witcher 3 really earned its ratings.
Point & click games are games I’m never fond of. I only ever gave The Walking Dead games a chance because I was watching the show & wanted to see another aspect of the story as well as see what all the fuss was about. Even though I still don’t really like the genre, I am still enjoying The Walking Dead. I enjoyed Season 2 a lot. While the gameplay is annoying & boring, the narrative is what really makes this worth playing. I loved that it didn’t try to limit itself too much, Telltale did a good job at making sure it wasn’t watered down just because you were playing as a child. It conveyed the harsh realities that 1 might have to face if the world collapsed, regardless of the aspect of fantasy in this game. If anything, that’s something The Walking Dead kind of stays true to, focusing on the people more than the walkers. A lot of season 2 does that. While it revolves around Clementine primarily, it still shows you how survivors have to deal with things, the decisions they have to make & the rifts it can cause between them. Gameplay unfortunately is a letdown. It’s not necessarily bad per say, just not really a focus & inevitably makes it more of an interactive movie than an actual game. Most of the gameplay is delivered in the form of quick time events with very little moments of full player control. There are some audio improvements over the previous title but in general I didn’t have any noticeable problems here. No sudden cuts and dialogue interruptions were far less yet they were more seamless than before. Visually there’s improvements as well but as a standalone; they are comic book style visuals. That said, the game looks great. I wanted to play 1 episode, take it in and maybe play another the week later. Unfortunately, I couldn’t wait so I ended up playing 1 day, which is why I’m thankful I waited for the full release instead of the episodic nonsense.
Usually when the words “turn based” are linked to a game, I fully neglect it. I hate turn based games. What’s the point in having all these cool skills & attacks if I can’t use them freely? Transistor found a way to make it fun & may have even piqued my interest in turn-based games. Which is no surprise considering they made Bastion, the game that made me never look down on Indie titles ever again. Transistor combines the strategic planning of turn based combat with real time combat. Although most of the time I found myself using the planning mode which stops time to allow you to pick which attacks you’ll use. Enemies don’t get this option either. So, it creates a more action focused experience, thankfully. What I really liked here was how different abilities had 3 types of effects, active effects, upgrade effects & passive effects. E.g the ability, Crash; its active ability was your normal attack. The upgraded effect would come into play if you slotted into another ability. The passive effect would give a passive ability if you slot it into a passive slot. This REALLY took an interesting approach to the RPG mechanics that I personally never saw before. There’s a lot of combos to try. To my surprise I found myself experimenting a lot throughout the game, only finding that right combo about an hour before finishing the game. Death isn’t instant, instead, you lose a random ability. This keeps you on your toes. It added a reasonably organic level of difficulty. To top it off, those abilities you lose are inactive until you interact with 2 access points; save points where you change your abilities. This really helped encourage versatility & I loved it. The narrative is just lovely. Music is astounding. Visuals are gorgeous. GoG have a ridiculously stupid character limit on reviews. So, all I’m able to say is, the game is stunning in every way possible.
Walking simulators are usually unappealing to me. But something about this title was very alluring. When you first set foot in the game, you’re almost instantly hooked into a remarkable story. The narrative is delivered in really creative ways. You mainly play as Edith who’s returned to her family home to learn more about the supposed curse that surrounded all her ancestor’s deaths. Each story is delivered in a unique way. Some through the eyes of children and wild imaginations leading to playing as animals, others through the eyes of grown-ups dealing with traumas. The gameplay isn’t a setback as is the case with some walking simulators. The narrative is so captivating you almost forget how bare it is. You move the analogue stick or press RT every now and then to interact with something. You’ll climb, walk, chop fish heads off, take pictures and even swim or fly at times. It finds ways to add new diversity to navigation and storytelling. Each room and portion of the house is almost treated like a different level, in part because each room you visit embodies each family members personality in some way. Some rooms have photos and taxidermized animals for a hunter, another room has trophies and awards for a particular family member who was a child star. It’s this diversity that helps keep things fresh as you play. Visually the game looked great and the UI or icons weren’t obtrusive. Things were kept simple yet obvious enough to guide you through. It felt very eery playing this game. I was uneasy & constantly expecting a jump scare. This is where they did really well to hook you in and make you feel like you were experiencing the same feelings that Edith was when she exploring the home. I didn’t have high expectations for this, although my expectations weren’t low either, but I’m certainly glad I added this to my completion list. The narrative is amusing and gut wrenching. By the end of the story I felt myself longing for more and saddened by the end.
This had a funny story that wasn’t cringy. It was amusing from start to end. While there’s no voice acted dialogue; it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Every character in the game was really likeable, even the “villain”. It gives off an Adventure Time vibe with Mira being the only human among a town full of sentient(idiotic) animals. The gameplay was simple. You really didn’t do a lot apart from move a hole around, swallowing up items & animals. I think my sadistic side enjoyed that the most. The problem-solving part of the game wasn’t difficult, it was pretty easy but still managed to convey creativity. The gameplay managed to retain its fun until the very end. Visually, the game looked as good as I expected. There’s a good amount of visual direction that doesn’t hold your hands but guides you reasonably well. It looked about as silly as you’d expect it to. Music was really nice and serene. It had upbeat moments, slightly tense moments, ominous moments but mostly peaceful moments. Again, there’s also a lot of good feedback & direction here to keep you guided and of course assist the humour. There isn’t any obvious replay and continuous value after completion. I grabbed it on sale for about $10 au but it will only last you up to 2 hours. While the experience is good and worth playing it, it might not offer much value. If you’re okay with a game lasting 2 hours, the price tag is fitting, if not, wait for a sale. I personally feel it could have lasted longer but because I had no issues with the game at all, I can easily say I was satisfied. I didn’t find myself laughing much, but I still found the game very amusing. I knew I was going to like the game when it made its first appearance but I didn’t think I’d enjoy it this much. If you’re looking for a game where you can just kick back and have fun, no thinking, no stress or no egotistical challenges overcomes so you can pretend it makes you a better gamer; then Donut County is definitely going to fulfill that.
I really liked how Project Warlock was able to keep things old school while making things fun as well. It really brings you back to those DOOM days and even Hexen despite my time with the latter being very short. I played it on normal, (I thing, I can't remember despite finishing it recently.) But even then it was challenging enough. Gameplay was all about the reaction because the controls are very basic, it relies mainly the typical 'strafe and shoot like a madman' style of play which made it kind of fun. There's moments where it can get crazy though and you're just firing all over the place. The upgrade system was a bit average though and I found myself very rarely using any of the Warlocks magic until I unlocked the skill to regenerate ammo. There a level that was pitch black and required you to use your light skill which was kind of nice but otherwise after that, no other skills are used or required apart from the ammo 1. It was a fairly balanced game. I had a lot of lives but was still running out of ammo and mana so I had to vary my weapon choice a lot. The music was freaking awesome, definitely gonna listen to the soundtrack in my free time. Sound effects were really good. Old school but they sounded impactful and enemy sounds were varied. The visuals were great, some of it gets a bit repetitive and re-used both for enemies & levels, but otherwise it looked good. Pixel graphics without the lazy approach. It performed really well on my 2700x and 980ti as you'd expect it to, but towards the end at the final boss it had a few hiccups and massive fram dips/freezes. Overall I had a lot of fun playing Project Warlock. I'd recommend it if you're looking for some good nostalgia without having to deal with the frustrations that came with some of the old school games. At <$20AU and up to 8hrs of playtime, it's pretty good value too.
