The game has the old pixel hunting flavor you can get, it is pretty much an old point anclick design with an improvement in graphics which is all well and good, unfortunately it is grinding on my nerves, first yoou have to re-search multiple time because some items only become available after certain points in the progression, forcing you to pixel hunt several times in the same room, pressumably to prevent a fail state, but that is just not fun and secondly I got to the point where you have to brew the potion and even though I try my best to not overstirr it it always blows up on my face when you have to stirr it 2 cw 3 ccw 4 cw, this just gave me a head ache, and I just can't deal with it anymore, I lack the skills to complete such simple task so yeah, if you like point and click is worth to check it out, but I can't really give it a real review
Is a solid CRPG, with simple graphics, little to no music and combat mechanics that are simple compared to others like baldur's gate, in fact, I think it feels like a slow paced diablo But don't let the simplistic nature of the design deceive you, it is actually a pretty enjoyable game, and here are some good points about it: - your skills and spells use mana and act on cooldowns, no need to rest to refresh that high level spell that can only be used once per battle - all the characters have a minor healing skill that helps to keep them alive in a pinch, and outside of combat you regenerate health pretty quickly - There are different paths on the skills trees, and the game encourages you to choose a playstyle, make that glass cannon or a tank that regens faster than he takes damage - There are walls of text to read, I like when game embelish their descriptions, for me this certainly makes up for the simplistic graphics - Related to that is the story, from the very beginning you start questioning if you really are part of the good guys. more than once I wondered if my actions could have changed the outcomes of certain events, probably not, but is a good illusion of choice and consequence - And I make up for the lack of music just by playing a random playlist on the background In the end I think is a hard sell for newcomers, but a nice library addition for fans of the genre
Ok, I'm 65 hours in, near the final chapter I assume, but I think I've seen enough, I can't recommend this game enough, I usually get tired of a game after the 30 hour mark, but not on this one - Graphics are nice, they are consistent and fit pecfertly for the whole high fantasy and simetimes I just stopped to admire the view while listening to the awesome.. -Music, the music alone sold me on this one, as soon as the main menu appeared I was awe struck by the performance and sat there, listening to the title music for a couple of minutes, and that wazs not the last time it happened, some times I was walking around and suddenly had to stop to listen to the beautiful singing - The battle mechanics are interesting, you need the synergy of your character abilities to pull some crazy damage, unfortunately you are not able to change your active skills mid-battle and this limitation on skill slots gets in the way if you want to equip an item that grants you a new skill or two - There is a huge amount of puzzles and riddles, this game wants you to read the lore and pay attention, and I love it for it, few puzzles are difficult and the most difficult of all is totally optional (to me it was the one with the horses in Harkyn's place), take notes!! Ok, I woulñd like to talk more about the great momets in my playthrough, but character limitation forces me to skip to the bad things - The game crashes, it has crashed on me around 10 times, it's no more than an annoyance to me since I save frequently (don't play with the "save anywhere" turned off!!) - even with my fairly capable machine the fps drops sometimes, again, it means nothing to me, but I can only imagine the pain for someone with a less powerful pc - later in the game you'll fight undead that automatically revive under certain circunmstances and if they do so while there's another skeleton on top of them they might become invisible, it was hilarious but that's the closest to a glitch I have found so far
Ok, after 4 hours I'm not sure I wantt to go back into the game, the dry humor is ok, it works to set up the main character as a cynical vagrant that is looking for fortune and the world is fantastic, the idea of who knows how many "chosen" have been is nice, and the voice acting is great, I párticularly like how the main character delibers his sarcasm with the utmost apathy That said, the game suffers on other departments, specially in the combat, melee combat is too dangerous for the bard, even if you time well your blocks. The ranged combat is dreadful, the bow is slow and sometimes the character get "stuck" pulling the string without firing. the minios sometimes stand there doing nothing even if you order them to attack and the damage they do is minimal, the dog is a great companion, but he tends to get KOed with a single hit, it is obvious that the combat is centered in having your companions distract the enemy while you take shots at them, but the aforementioned problems with the bow turn the whole thing into an exercise in frustration the controls are also a mixed bag, it's good that you can press a button to access a ring of commands to quickly change weapons and summons, is even better when the game pauses so you don't have to worry about being ganked while doing so, but I believe this mechanic would have been even better if you could select things with your mouse too, and talking about the mouse, why are the camera controls not tied to a mouse button? Oh and before I forget, if I try to skip the intro movies the game crashes leaving me with a locked screen where I cannot access any other program except the start menu and the only solution is to reboot the PC, the game also crashes upon quitting, fortunately without the annoying screen issue The voice acting and the writing make the want to love it, but it has too many issues for my liking
Well, I'll be damned, I wrote my review for this on the "standard" game page so I'll just post a rundown an expand on some things I couldn't say because of characters limit: Overall the game is good, it has an untasty flavor of "souls" that makes the first half of the game very difficult and frustrating, but the more you play the better you get at it and the last boss is a joke compared to a cluster of ramdom mobs in the crucible I only got 1 crash during my playthrough and an annoying bug where my axe was automatically changed to the mallet for some reason, other that it was a smooth sail The story is another "back story" and doesn't expand much on the story of the first game and only adds more factions to keep track of, and Fury as a character is very dilikeable during most of the game, I mean, if anyone has the right to be an entitled piece of shit is Death since he represents the end of all things (We really need to expand on the character limit and an "edit review" button around here)
After 35 hours I finished my first playthrough, I started in Challenging difficulty because I'm a veteran of the series and let me tell you, at times I wanted to just quit, but I kept going and at the end it gets quite satisfying. But since it borrows too much from other genre it will probably disappoint a lot of fans of the series There are some significant changes this time around, some good, some not so good, and most of them are just "soulslike inspired": - The dungeons are gone, now is just a variety of zones interconected with lots of secrets and shortcuts that will be available after gaining new abilities (nice), but there are some zones that will fill you with rage (at least there is nothing like blight town) - The combat is still fast paced and the game is not shy to throw groups of enemies at you, but since this is now a souls-like enemies hit like trucks and they can stun lock you so if you get surounded you are as good as dead - healing is a bit different, now you have one use items with a cooldown or an amulet (flask) with a set amount of charges that recharge after death or by killing enemies (no, this doesn't make the game easier beacuse you have to stop attacking or moving to heal, and even in classic mode that's half a second where you will be open to get oneshoted - And the most important and frustrating changes of all, the manual saves are gone, only checkpoints this time, i,e: I forgot to fight an optional boss before facing the last sin and now I'll have to play the whole game all over again if I want another chance at it, and I forgot to fight it because it was mentioned at the beggining of the game, but since there's no map or journal to keep track of quests I totally forgot about it My advice: Soldier on past the frustration and you'll find the joy of being a dodge master even by sound alone. And get used to the axe of scorn because is faster than the mallet and you can break through the defense of enemies without charging the attack
30 hours and I'm done, not excatly completed since by the end I was so fed up with the collectathon that I just went straight to the end line, the story was good, graphics are good, there's an issue with the game in which you cannot put shadows on max and have to turn on v-sync or it'll get stuck on a white screen, other than that the game worked flawlessly for me, for M+KB the controls are tight, the combat is fluid and there are lots of side activities to do, some more fun than others Overalll is a little heavy on the colllectathon for my liking, but it was great fun where it mattered
After 6 hours I finished and I must say the game is good, would I recommend it? yes, if you catch it at a discount, is simple, falls on the easy side, the story is serviceable, and has a bunch of little charming details, with an exploitable jump so you can make your own fun. Graphics: as you can see from the screenshots it is for the most part like an old SNES game with some decent sprite work and a good variety of locations Sound: again, the sound desing is very evocative of the era, there's no voice acting and the music fits perfectly with some catchy tunes (reminds me a bit of Earthbound) Controls: the controls are simple, and if you plan to paly it with a gamepad I suggest you to use the D-pad since the sticks can make it feel too responsive Mechanics: This is really where the game shines, it plays like an old Legend of Zelda, but without the mountain of gadgets, instead it focuses more in well timed jumps with your weapon doubling as a tool. It goes like this: go into dungeon, jump a lot, grab some keys, open doors, battle a boss and claim your rewards to open new paths in the overworld (you can easily travel to certain points with teleporters) The game feels too easy at times since there are checkpoints inside the dungeons and if you die you just respawn at the last checkpoint you activated with full life without losing your progress, ah, and you don't take damage if you fall into a bottomless pitsin case you miss a jump, I guess it is a bit balanced with the plethora of traps waiting for you and the scarce means of healing. To tell the truth my absolute favorite part was to try and exploit the jump to cheat the puzzles, it was quite entertaining and when it worked it was glorious (you can return to the entrance of the dungeon at any time in case you get stuck) The story is a bit dark with some colorful NPCs sprinkled around the world, you can see the plot twist coming from miles away and the ending is a cliffhanger, but overall it was ok
The graphics still hold up for the most part, the story is interesting and the gameplay loop is basic , but effective: stumble in the dark looking for key objects while the occasional monster pops up to try and get you rid of your buttocks, after some key hunting you enter a scripted sequence that transitions to a new area of the castle and start all over again. But the sound design is where the game shines the most, it is absolutely fantastic, audio hallucinations will accompany you through the whole game and it's a huge part of the "horror" aspect The random monster spawn means that you may or may not see a monster through entire sections of the game, but at the same time it keeps you on edge, and unlike penumbra all you can do is run and hide The lack of map can be disorienting in the latter part of the game where pitch dark-same looking corridors are the norm, but I'm glad the devs sticked to the "minimal aid" philosophy which not only helps stretching the length of the game but also makes you feel ever more helpless I'll probably never play it again because I'm a spineless coward and my stress levels went through the roof after half an hour of gameplay, which made my play sessions incredibly short and I had to drag myself through the whole thing at the slowest pace, but still, I consider Amnesia a lifetime experience that clearly inspired countless horror games over the past years and probably will keep doing it in the future
I barely remember playing the original, as I consider the second game a better experience that said I like this demo, runs smoothly on my machine with max settings, I love the blend of modern graphics with old textures (you have to get really close to noticeand it reminds me of modern retro shooters, specifically of WRATH) it's very atmospheric and the gunplay is not bad nor impressive, but I assume the game willl be more focused on the resourses managemment I only got a bug with my demo where I was slowly strafing left without pressing anything, I had to close the game and unplug my gamepad to fix it (my gamepad works fine on every other game btw) No crashes (for now) I died after a while but I think I'll jump back in to see if I can get further
