Adam Jensen returns after Human Revolution for another adventure. The game plays much like its predecessor, streamlined plenty of places, but don't expect any revolutionary leaps in any parts of the gameplay experience. The graphics look nice, and the voice acting remains fine. The main hub of Prague is daunting to navigate at first, but quickly becomes familiar territory, with nice shifts between night and day depending on where you are narratively. I feel like the story might be less interesting this time around, or maybe that's the rosy red glasses of nostalgia for Human Revolution talking. Sure there were stakes and such, but everything just felt a bit less relevant to engage with. Still, if you liked Human Revolution and want more of it, this does it quite fine to follow up after it. It does nothing spectacularly well, but it doesn't do much which would make you want to abandon it, except maybe that lack of feeling of the stakes in the story.
I really wanted to like this game. I love metroidvanias, and the pixel art and ability to switch the palette was a big plus for making me pick this up. The third star of this review is earned through the pixel art and aesthetic alone. However, the game often feels like it is deliberately wasting your time. Enemies take just a few too many hits to be worth dealing with. The game stutters slightly every time you pick up an item. The map is large, but wholly forgettable, many rooms presenting neither challenge, nor something interesting. And the wall-jump functionality in this game may have caused me more deaths than the enemies did. The progression is pretty much exploring all rooms, hoping to find a container to have more currency. Find the correct merchant to get the progression item, repeat. There are some sequences which try to break things up, but even they end up feeling plodding and out staying their welcome before they're done. Put together, it makes for something that looks like it should be awesome that just feels somewhere between "Bad" and "Meh", which is a real shame. For a positive experience, going to arcade mode and taking the speed run option gives you a much better experience, as you mostly want to ignore enemies, don't need to explore and there are no bullet sponge bosses. So yeah, the game boiled down to a <10 minute experience is much more satisfying than the 4-ish hour slog I played first.
Interesting game taking cues from The Sentinel. Gameplay invites you to either go explore using one of several robots you can control, but also frequently allows you to navigate through parts of the game without actually lugging a body around. The game is very physics based, at times almost encouraging you to break the physics of the game to your advantage. At times this works a bit to its detriment, making it a bit wonky to navigate around. I was a bit surprised at the length of the game. First pleasantly, but nearing the end it was starting to wear out its welcome. Apparently there's also a procedurally generated mission generator which I have yet to play with. In summary: If you want to have interesting mechanics rarely seen, some good geek humour and a sandbox like game with some challenges in navigation, this is a great game. If you prefer a traditional FPS, or much more in the way of content than 10ish types of actors and items, you might want to look elsewhere. All in all, great experience from a 2 man development team. Frequently adding updates.
The combat is quite good, though at times it felt a bit BS. It is pretty much what you need to progress and finish the game. The main story is maybe a bit on the meh side, but very well directed, made me want to stick around to see how it played out. But everything around it. Yeah, this game gives you 2 districts of well and beautifully fleshed out Japan with lots of side activities to engage in, including arcade games, darts, a rhythm game or two and so much more. Add to that side stories with somewhat quirky characters and situations, and the entertaining reactions your character has to these situations. It took me around 42 hours to finish the game with 23% completion. Great place to just go back, hang out in, eat, drink, go for entertainment. Only reason for the 4 instead of 5 star review is, that some scenes did drag out a bit much, even for dramatic flair. Running around trying to progress the story if that is what you want can be a bit of a drag, and as noted, the combat can get a bit frustrating. Well recommended, if you just want a well fleshed out place to hang out, consider this 5 stars.
Let me start off by saying, if you don't like picross, or you can't stand visual novels, this game will do nothing to persuade you. That said, this contains a fair story which ties up nicely over 4 chapters, giving you a bit of dialogue and story progression between picross puzzles. The puzzle solving itself is fine, I would've liked an Undo button. A few times I had to restart a puzzle because I'd made a bad logic call but couldn't remember how things looked that bit back. Likewise I at times had trouble distinguishing the colour change in the numbers when you'd solved a block, making me take a bit more time to parse what I was seeing. Other than that, this is a nice collection of Picross puzzles ranging from 5x5 to a few around 20x15 at the end, with a story to keep you moving on for just one more puzzle. Apart from the 4 cases there's also a bunch of unlockable bonus puzzles. All in all, if you're looking for a game to scratch a Picross itch, this will do just fine.
As it says...It's...fine. Graphics are quite good but unmemorable. Sound is...okay I guess? Level design is...serviceable, I might be able to remember some of the settings in a year, but...probably not. The storyline is throwaway but okay. Best thing is the gunplay which is the the upper end of average as long as you don't feel like the game really wants you to play stealthily. Oh and nice touch with the bonus levels as throwback to the old Wolfenstein. Too bad they managed to make it an altogether slower and less fun affair than the original. Play this if you liked New Order and don't feel like going through that game again, or if you just want another beige shooter. But honestly, if you want all out action, or a good stealth experience, there are many better out there.
This game features a unique world with a very quirky sense of humor. I just replayed it after so long, expecting it to not hold up anymore, but apart from a few control niggles and some slightly hard to read level design, this game still plays quite well. I was surprised to realise how little had actually changed for the sequel. BE WARNED THOUGH: You need a controller to play this on a modern system. I remember finishing it on Mouse+Keyboard last time around, but with Windows 10 it seems there is noticeable mouse lag, to the point of rendering the game unplayable. So if you have a controller, and want to dive into an older 3D platformer with a ton of personality, this is a great gem to try out.
The art style is interesting and fun. The music is probably good if you like that kind. However, the gameplay feels like an early 2000's flash game and kept reminding me of how many much better 2D platformers I have on my backlog. The penultimate world really bothered me, and the final one was just the straw that broke my will to finish the game. That combined with a mechanic wherein you can't replay levels, meaning if you decide to go for completion, you'd better do it in one shot, or start the entire game over. A resounding "Meh!" from here. The game isn't dross, but compared to all the other great things out there, there's nothing apart from the art style which makes this stand out either.
I'll gladly admit I'm a sucker for platformers. And I love the exploration and unlocking of new abilities often found in metroidvanias. Got this on sale expecting to have an okay time with it. I did not, however, expect to get engrossed enough to immediately want to dive into the unlocked game modes at the end of the game. The graphics and sound evoke nostalgia for a system I never had when growing up. The gameplay is smooth and precise. Rarely did I feel I took damage because of bad mechanics or cheap enemies. There's plenty of challenge to be found, but very little of it felt cheap. The mechanic of starting from the beginning on every death seemed daunting, until I realised that apart from buying power between lives, your unlocked shortcuts stay open making death not that punishing, as long as you made a bit of progress in your last run. If you have a liking for platformers and for exploration I can wholeheartedly recommend this. Do note though: That filling in the bestiary is required for unlocking one of the extra modes. So if you want that, make sure to finish it before facing the end boss.
