**This review is based on my Steam review** KONAMI brought us a game that we will be talking about for years. For a mainstream game its story is surprisingly deep, extremely twisted and totally unpredictable (though you may have a feeling you know how the story will evolve, but nope). For a mainstream game its story is not one dimensional - it has multiple meanings which leads to multiple endings. Maybe you read that the game is so-called woke but I do not want to get into it. Just know, it is not true. The game, at first sight, tells just a story about a girl who is not quite happy with her family, but no, the main themes lie somewhere else. Gameplay-wise, the game is ALMOST a typical Silent Hill game, which is good. However, this almost is critical, but I will come back to it later. Exploration, keys, notes, everything is fantastic. But the best parts are puzzles. Very nicely designed, thoughtful and easy to understand but quite tricky to complete. The level design is fantastic and despite the fact the game takes place in one rural Japanese town, the environments are variable and provide always something new. The combat system takes an inspiration from the Soulslike subgenre. I must say it fits survival genre very well. The combat is very punishing and difficult on hard (did not play on easy yet) and it takes time to get used to it. Give it some time and you will understand the rhythm, which is its key element. Then you will know when to dodge, when to use hard attacks, etc. The game could provide a little bit more types of enemies, but at least you can focus on the movements of the existing types. It is a crucial factor in combat here. I liked also how the game handled boss fights. Graphics and music are also top notch. Fantastic vistas, tight streets, unsettling otherworld, from simple horror sounds to beautifully haunting ending credits theme. Graphics and composers gave all of their hearts into the game. But now it is time to come back to the ALMOST. Silent Hill f has one big, very big problem. Handholding. The series /or at least its best entries/ known for a great immersion consisting of the character itself making notes on the map and nothing else has turned into an abortion that literally - at same places - tells you to go through the door you have just opened. I am not kidding. GO THROUGH THE DOOR. What the hell has happened that we have fallen from the infamous piano puzzle in Silent Hill 1 to a game that thinks it needs to tell you to go through to a door because, I don't know, it thinks you are that stupid? I really do not know what is going on here. What the hell the developers thought? That the players would just stand and stare at the opened door? Or refund the game because the game did not tell them that they were supposed to go through it? While Silent Hill f is a bright example that AAA gaming can still be an 'art', it is also a game that represents everything bad with modern games. Objectives in Silent Hill are nonsense. You are not supposed to know what to do before the event even happens (meaning like some objectives here - Find a way to open the gate - even before you see any gate!). Players do not need the game to tell them they need to find a way to open the gate. When they finally appear in front of the gate, they will know what to do, because it is LOCKED and the only way forward is through the gate. Or you have a door locked by three sockets. Players know they need to find three things that fit the sockets. The game does not need to tell them and throw them away from the immersion. That ruins the game completely! You are not supposed to have the lifeline in a form of a text, you are not supposed to have your back secured by the game that pushes you forward and thinks instead of yourself. This is not how Silent Hill worked and is supposed to work. Listen, I have nothing against helping players with hints or objectives, but only when it is not mandatory. Silent Hill f needs options allowing players to experience classic Silent Hill, because not only Silent Hill f deserves it but mainly we players that have been with the series since 1999.
Crystal Dynamics began its rebooted series with a mediocre Tomb Raider. The game is stupid. Yes, I thought it was stupid the first time I played it and I still think it's stupid now, a decade since the release. Then Rise of the Tomb Raider was released and finally I saw a very good Tomb Raider game. Less handholding, better level design, more interesting environments and it was also quite lengthy. However, Crystal Dynamics' effort reached its peak with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, with the last game of the Survivor trilogy. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is truly an unique game. It shows Lara making mistakes but by not doing any stupid things like before. Here it's much more believable. The game's level design is fantastic, with big hubs and nice dungeons. This game also shines when it comes to immersion as it can be as immersive as you want it to be. Almost no handholding, everything is up to you how who you deal with challenges which you can find in both - jumping sections and puzzle sections. However I am not talking about the base version here, the best puzzles and parts came with later updates adding new challenges and interesting side missions. And this version is here to grab on GOG. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the best game in the series. Period.
I admit it, I do not own a GOG version and I will not buy this game again for its full price. I have it on Steam and I spent with the game several nice dozens hours. I will eventually buy it on GOG - my favorite place actually - but maybe like for 50% off. Clair Obscur is an unique game when it comes to its dreamy atmosphere and an unique battle system. However being unique does not automatically equal being good, let alone perfect. Clair Obscur is a cinematic game - it relies on cutscenes - however it tries to be sad in every bloody cutscene, in every bloody moment so awfully hard, that sooner or later it will get on your nerves. Yeah, the world ain't a happy place, but why the characters have to act as if the game was a soap opera? Everybody cries, everybody looks sad, everybody has a gloomy look. IMHO it's just too much for its own good. Yeah, Clair Obscur tries hard to be as emotional as it can get whenever it is possible, but it overdoes it. The battle system, cursed yet interesting. IMHO if it is something turn based, it should rely on statistics, or vice versa, if it is action based, players' reflexes should be the main key to success. Clair Obscur wants to mix both worlds together while maintaining both worlds equally important. There had been turn based games when players' input mattered to some degree but it always was just to make the system a bit evolved, or to spice combat up. If you failed, it did not mean the end of the world. One example for all - The Legend of Dragoon. However, if you fail in an action segment in Clair Obscur, it often means death, or a significant damage to tell that real-time actions in a turn-based system aren't just an add-on. If only the action based parts did not have such a significant impact, I would have liked the combat much better. Basically, the atmosphere and the combat are two things I wanted to comment on, because these are two key elements of the game. Otherwise, the game is pretty linear, it has not that much interesting level design, it contains optional superbosses, several awful minigames that feel totally out of the place (really, if your game is not a platformer, why is one of the minigames based on platforming?!) and several not that interesting (and frankly, pretty short) sidequests. But to end on a positive note, the music here is absolutely phenomenal. Easily, one of the best soundtracks ever made for a video game! 83%
When I was a little boy I played Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver on PS1 and I felt in love with the game. Never played the PC version up until this point, but back in the day I cared about Soul Reaver a lot. A fantastic atmosphere, great puzzles, interestic gameplay mechanics. An instant classic. But just like every other who finished the game also I was frustrated by the abrupt ending due to which the story felt unfinished. Believe me or not, I have been waiting for playing the sequel - Soul Reaver 2 - to these very days. I had bought the GOG copy a long time ago but merely for collecting purposes. Somehow I just did not feel to play it. However, after all those years I just stopped caring about the unfinished experience I had x years ago. When this remaster was announced tho, I immediately felt this would be finally the best opportunity to play it and finish the story once all for all. - The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver - Still a good game, however today the game feels too archaic. The level design - once praised - now seems too restricted. Also the game now seems much shorter than back in the day. But still it is an OK game. No wonder compared to modern games, but for what it is, it is still good. Unfortunately the game was butchered by added map and quest log which completely destroys the original vision - you had one quest - to stop Kain and was up to you how you would achieve that. Completely usesless and immersion-breaking. - Soul Reaver 2 - Oh boy, this hurts... I have been waiting for two decades for this? Only three old glyphs and no new unlockable, no boss fights except the final boss fight during which Raziel cannot be harmed (wtf?), no metroidvania, no fast travel, brutally exhausting backtracking, no way to grab enemies and throw them on spikes. Gameplay-wise Soul Reaver 2 is very disappointing. The only gameplay element worth mentioning are puzzles which are pretty enjoyable. However, Soul Reaver 2 has a great writing, almost theatrical, perhaps overdramatic sometimes, but definitely unique. Also travelling between eras was a very good idea. When it comes to atmosphere, Soul Reaver 2 is again a top notch game. But overally the whole game feel even more unfinished than the previous entry. Dumbed down gameplay mechanics (you now also have a quest marker showing you where to go...) and underdeveloped combat, level design and elements (why do you even need the fire element??) are but only one side of a coin. There is also the other side, which once again means an abrupt ending and unfinished story. Yes, even sequel ends on a cliffhanger, even a worse one than Legacy of Kain´s. What a mess... - Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1+2 Remastered - This is a disappointment. I think the remasters of Tomb Raider are great. Tons of new objects, great lighting, amazing textures. They did amazing job there. However none of it is present in this remaster. This is a very subtle remaster with only several touches here and there. There are only few examples of new good textures. The vast majority is about having low res textures, but a bit different from the original ones. Forget the quality level of Tomb Raider I-III Remastered or Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered. This effort is like one or two levels below them. At least if textures were without faults but many times you can find new textures not properly aligned while the original textures aligned properly are. A very mixed bag. Also they disabled the mouse cursor in Soul Reaver 2 which sucks.
I have really no idea why the score is so low. This is one solid effort which runs and looks better than the Complete version that was released on GOG years ago. I spent in NWN2 Complete 286 hours and I will never come back to it because Dungeons & Dragons Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition is just a superior version. The questionable controls have been fixed. While you have still 3 camera modes, the only mode you should use is strategic mode while changing camera movement to WSAD and checking FREE CAM. With this combo you will have the controls you are used to from, for example, Dragon Age. Now the controls are much tighter and precise. Also, this is not a remater but an enhanced version of the original release. For a project like this it is actually enough to have better AA and much sharper textures. The game look definitely better than the old version as I have both installed and compared. Yes, there are still some texture flickering which they will hopefully fix. Neverwinter Nights 2 is the only oldschool CRPG that got to the quality level of Baldur's Gate 2 and with its great expansions this enhanced collection is a definitive version to play those gems. The only downside is what is actually pretty typical for Aspyr. I just hate how they cannot do a nicely looking and compact UI. I just hate their approach to enhancing UI -> bigger fonts. Yes, small fonts are not good for eyes, but if you make the font bigger and the windows not as big, the original compactness falls apart as now you have to scroll the menus up and down while originally you could see all the menu elements immediately. Also the main menu UI was much nicer in the OG. That is why I rate this enhanced edition 4/5 despite the fact the games are 5/5.
I was worried that Nightdive might add some so-called "quality of life" features that plague many modern games—like quest markers, mandatory minimaps, non-toggleable map icons, or other forms of handholding, not to mention constant quest update notifications—but thankfully, none of these are present in this great-looking remaster. Thank God! Thank you, Nightdive, for this beautiful work. I finally feel like a player again—actually playing a game. The game looks better than ever and runs flawlessly! The original was an instant classic, and this remaster is set to become the definitive version of System Shock 2.
This Croc. He is a legend among the Gobbos as he is their saviour. He saved them during his trip through several worlds where he was founding keys, opening door, fighting bosses and collecting precious gems. He cannot do a lot, just jumping and swimming. He is good at that tho. The more worlds he explores, the more difficult his trips becomes. But he does not mind at all because the journey is pretty linear so he does not get lost at least. He likes his journey and enojys it to the fullest.
While I appreciate the effort put into this remaster, I have a few problems with it. 1. Absolutely no k+m support 2. No FOV slider Croc is an amazing game and this remaster contains really nice graphics, plus I love how the game looks in retro mode with CRT filter. Fabulous!! However, it really sucks that this game is gamepad-only and that we cannot adjust the FOV.
The original PC version suffered from wobbly geometry which was inherited from the PS1 version. Now that they have fixed it, we have the definitive version of Dino Crisis! Thank you GOG!! If only you fixed the same geometry problem in Resident Evil 3, that would be amazing!