Ultimately, AMFP just lacks much that I could recommend it for. Linux version ran well after turning Adaptive Vsync off. There's very little gameplay to speak of - puzzles are mostly "find the 1 thing I can interact with to continue", the levels are linear with little exploration, there's no real interaction with the monsters other than turning off your lamp and/or running away, and that's the entire game. It's successfully spooky earlier on, but there's so little danger the tension doesn't last. AMFP sometimes nails the feeling of being trapped in a massive, incomprehensible, terrible machine, but most of the time it just feels like crawling around a bunch of dark, repetitive rooms full of the same pipes, boxes, and clutter; there are a few standouts like the cathedral, but most places feel much like any other place. The slideshow-like conveyor belt sequence near the end felt particularly "video-gamey" and definitely did not have the desired effect so close to the finale. Audio, voice acting and dialogue are good, and the story is serviceable if a bit predictable, and it drags on after the midpoint reveal. I don't regret playing AMFP, but SOMA's better in every way - story, atmosphere and environmental design, actual decisions to make, at least *some* gameplay, and especially the philosophical questions and existential horror that stayed with me long after playing. AMFP, by contrast, is darkness, loud noises, gore, a story of monologues and notes, and not much more. Unlike SOMA, you can get the full experience of AMFP by watching a video, and that's really what kills it for me. Maybe worthwhile on sale for fans of Frictional's other games. Otherwise, probably just skip it.
1st the good: The visuals are great - clean, striking, just waiting to be trashed by explosions, bullets, & telekinetic powers; piles of clutter blast across the room with every impact, chaos in the orderly halls of the FBC. Details humanize the FBC & add life to an otherwise stark place. When Control works, it WORKS, & luckily Go-go-gadget-blunt-force-trauma is as effective as it is satisfying. <3 Dr. Darling. Ran on Linux Proton 9.0-3, DX11. Unfortunately it doesn't always work, & by the time I beat the game & DLC I felt more frustrated than satisfied. My core issue is the difficulty scaling/balance: It sucks, as soon as Control runs out of new enemies to intro. Tougher ones (& most bosses) are identical, just with more HP & damage. HP bars and levels are distracting & unimmersive but without them it's impossible to tell what identical enemies are more of a threat. Astral Spikes are only scary until you realize how easy they are to ignore. Launch >> everything else, as raw damage is king & they don't scale enough with enemy HP. The gun is trash except Pierce/Charge. Some mods help, but too late to matter; most are garbage, especially the stupidly specific DLC mods, & they make for awful, needless inventory management. Missions aren't worth the travel time; Countermeasures too, unless you abuse the free reroll to get good rewards for the area you're already in. Puzzles suck; the solution is often right next to it, or characters just say it out loud. Overall I found the story contrived & "tell don't show". Jesse's too happy risking her life for cardboard cutout characters who kidnapped her brother, like the "badass" Marshall who doesn't do 1 cool thing the entire game, or Arish who claims to be busy while rooted in place parroting the same lines again and again. The map (terrible, doesn't even reflect reality) is the only thing usable on the move, leaving me stuck in a menu for 2' of audio or Trench/Marshall/Wake/Board talking vaguely over a repetitive slideshow.
As an avid AC fan, I once tried to play every flying game I could, particularly PS1 & 2 games. Most had long since faded into obscurity while AC reigned supreme, & I soon realized why: most of them SUCKED. PW... is not one of those games. It's also not AC, and that's great. It blows my mind that all of this was made by 3 people. I haven't had as much fun on a first-time play of a game in YEARS as I did with PW. Some highlights: Hardpoints add choice & much-needed versatility; no more getting stomped because I flew an attacker for a strike mission & got jumped by a boss. Battles are insane; so many enemies, tracers, missile trails, & explosions that I can't even see and my GPU is melting. Airships add variety to air combat and actually make MLAAs viable for once. A guns-only superplane is a baller design choice. The AOA limiter is ridiculous & silly & I love it. I would die for Prez. It's not perfect: Bad menu controls, little mission variety, no time pressure, no grades/unlocks to drive replays, minimal cutscenes or flair, no hangar ammo counts, poor weapon balance, tons of spelling/grammar errors, subtitle mismatch, bad line reads, uneven story writing, framerate chugs in big fights, all skins unlock all at once; files (lore dumps) are VERY uneven on who gets one, when they unlock, & how much they reveal; the unique credits dialog - the ONLY reward for beating Merc - is unintelligible due to the music, etc, etc. Merc also kinda blows: already long missions become grueling spamfests with too few unique additions; extra aces are just a name - with no dialog, bios, skins, or even extra $, they're just a nuisance; missions give the same meh reward & even playing all lower difficulties doesn't net enough $ to afford the Mk.1, which is basically essential for Merc. Small issues that just pile up & hurt replays, easy to fix if only PW ever got updated. Still ABSOLUTELY worth a buy, even at full price. Runs great on Linux w/ Proton 9.0-2 & "protontricks d3dcompiler_47"
Nightdive did a fantastic job keeping the core of SS while adding polish and accessibility for modern audiences, but unfortunately that holds SSR back in some ways due to preserving 30-year old design. The levels are mazes, and no, explaining that away in a one-off audio log doesn't help. Environments are extremely square, like something out of Minecraft, with terrible readability due to the flashing lights, shiny materials, and bright colors coating every single surface. Citadel feels much less like a real place than the Von Braun. The 2D-3D transition was unkind to enemies, leaving them more goofy than horrifying. Cyberspace is floaty and unsatisfying, and issues with input and momentum made it frustrating. There are no choices (even in upgrades) or other RP elements, inconsistent consequences for death, wonky physics and jittery ragdolls, multiple reused bosses, no real replayability, and the final boss uses completely different mechanics from the rest of the game. Like I said, warts and all. There's a lot of it I loved though: No objectives, markers, or NPC ordering you around, at least for the 1st 2 acts: explore, gather info, and decide for yourself what to do next. Thankfully the map and marker system is great, and there's not so much vertical overlap it becomes useless. I never had to use the wiki to progress. Most weapons are useful, and each has unique mechanics that give them different utility in combat, which is good because your weapon choice is the only RP you get. The animations are fantastic, and the opening sequence in your apartment was a great addition. SSR is colorful and weird, and that's great. The OG was great for its time and has its moments, the remaster is expertly done, but I don't think SSR holds up as well overall compared to SS2. 3/5 game with an extra star for the quality of the remaster. Still worth a play to experience history with a fresh coat of paint. Some stutter on transitions, runs great otherwise on Linux w/ Proton 6.3-8.
My feelings on SOMA changed a lot over the course of my playthrough. Initially, I was fully invested in the survival horror gameplay, immersed in the oppressive deep sea atmosphere. This atmosphere is excellent and ever-present, and the descent into the abyss later on is as awesome as it is terrifying. As I neared the middle and end though, the simplicity of the gameplay wore thin and I was ready to be done with it. The actual game consists mostly of avoiding monsters as you locate the objective or exit to the next area; it's not a game with much "game" and has very little replay value, in my opinion. But after SOMA was over I realized that it had left me with lingering doubts that gave it surprising staying power in my mind. The abyss and deep sea monsters certainly contribute to the horror of this game, but SOMA's big scare came in a different form: existential dread, which only really settled in well after I put the game away. It presented me with situations that forced me to evaluate my own definitions of consciousness, humanity, life, and what makes a "good" life. As time went on, I became less and less certain of my choices. Though the gameplay itself is flimsy, I admit that the story wouldn't work as well in another format, as participating in these events from Simon's perspective and making these choices for yourself are essential to the experience. The ending is a tragedy; based on what we know about the world and Simon's character, we see that it couldn't have possibly ended any other way, but Simon couldn't, and that hurts. It's not perfect, but overall I enjoyed it and don't regret my purchase. I still recommend SOMA for its story, though anyone seeking a deeper gameplay experience should probably look elsewhere. Runs flawlessly on Linux with native support, which is always greatly appreciated.
Last Light was my intro to Metro, and while I'll prob play the rest for completion's sake, I can't say I'm impressed by it. It's not all bad: The environments are really detailed, and can still be colorful and interesting for a game isolated to underground tunnels and a destroyed, overgrown city. Clearly a lot of time was spent worldbuilding the competing factions, their homes, and their struggles to survive and dominate. The interactive UI is cool, as are the sections that finally open up a bit for exploration and scavenging. If Metro would just let me off the leash more than 5% of the time, I might actually enjoy it. But I couldn't get into it. I made it halfway and dropped it for a full year before I got motivated to finish it just to make room on my SSD. It's a post-apocalyptic, survival-horror FPS just like STALKER, but lacking the subtlety or mystery, so it plays more like Slav COD. The atmosphere may be there, but there's just no quiet time to experience it. LL's a linear sequence of setpieces linked by combat encounters and broken up by brief sections where you can wander around and interact with the locals. It all feels so heavily scripted, and I can't say it ever got me to care for any of these NPCs. So much time is spent being led by the nose, herded to the next objective by another NPC; I was constantly reminded that I was playing a game. The factions in Metro follow the "various flavors of terrible people I would never want to side with" school of thought vs STALKER's "all of you actually have good points about the Zone and I'm really not sure who I should support". The issues I had with 2033 - mindless QTE, overly flashy setpieces, NPC following, railroading, dumb factions, unlikable 1-D characters, and obvious binary moral choices - are worse in LL, and no real improvements to make up for them. Runs ok on Linux. Stutters like a mf, an issue apparently shared across all OS's, and the constant flashing definitely hurt my immersion and enjoyment.
My 1st STALKER game. Its story and quests are basic, in a world populated by interchangeable, 1-dimensional characters, with voice acting ranging from okay to laughable - and yet, somehow, I became totally immersed in STALKER's world. To me, the focus of the game isn't really on the characters or the story - the main character is actually the Zone itself. The Zone feels alive, full of visible and invisible dangers that will kill the unwary in an instant, but it just as easily plays host to the quiet moments: Simply walking from place to place, exploring the world, feeling the melancholy of solitude. Seeing the decay of what used to be home to thousands of normal people, now home only to corpses and monstrosities. Slowly picking my way through anomalies in search of artifacts, the beeping of my detector and a handful of bolts guiding my way one cautious step at a time. Clearing a pitch-black cave one corner at a time, leaning forward in my chair anxiously expecting a mutant to leap out of the darkness at any moment. Hearing the distant boom of an Emission and dropping everything to sprint for the nearest cover, hunkering down as the storm rages and reality collapses around me. It just WORKS. After playing all 3 games, I find Call of Pripyat to be the most polished, "definitive" version of STALKER, and the best vanilla experience. If you're unsure about STALKER or only have time to play one, try CoP. If STALKER sounds like exactly what you're looking for, however, I strongly recommend playing the whole series in release order. STALKER is hard, but fair. It punishes the careless and overconfident, but it also rewards the cautious and thorough. It's not for everyone, but if that style of gameplay appeals to you like it did me, then you'll probably have a fantastic time as well.
Comparisons to DUSK abound, and with good reason. DUSK is still probably the better title overall, but that is no discredit at all to HROT. HROT was clearly made with a lot of care, and it’s a delightfully weird game with its own distinct personality. HROT's shooting and movement are rock-solid, and I found usefulness in each of the game's weapons. HROT's merits don't end with gameplay, though. The game’s limited color palette can be off-putting but it's thematic as hell, promoting an atmosphere as heavy as depleted uranium. Combining these visuals with excellent level design, the missions remain both readable and memorable. HROT makes quite a few references to Czechoslovakian history and culture, which is both interesting and unique for this kind of game. It balances atmospheric horror with absurd or outright plain silly humor, and is a ton of fun to play. The 1st episode is a gritty battle through a run-down post-Soviet city culminating in a boss fight against Klement Gottwald, former leaderof the Czechoslovakian Communist Party, now reanimated and sporting robot spider legs. And what was my reward for conquering this darkness? A beef stroganoff recipe, of course.
“Cozy management game about ferrying spirits of the dead to the afterlife” captures the essence of Spiritfarer rather completely. Very pretty, with smooth visuals, sound, and gameplay. Chill, can even be played without a mouse. Spiritfarer does well in portraying death, in many of the forms it can take and the myriad of different ways it affects us all. Regardless of your background, there’s likely to be at least one of the spirits whose story resonates with your own personal experience, and I think that’s why it’s as popular as it is. I, for example, hated Jackie for his apparent arrogance, but ended up more sympathetic to him than pretty much any other spirit by the end of his arc. A very likeable spirit I met early on left me without saying goodbye, and the void left by their passing was something I would feel for many hours after. It's not flawless. The minute-to-minute gameplay borders on tedious. I wish that the game gave more of some spirits’ stories (apparently the art book of all things contains some rather crucial, missing details). The quality/depth of their writing also varies, sometimes substantially. Spirits rarely interact with each other, and even then usually only in very generic ways, which feels like a missed opportunity and makes them feel more 1-dimensional and less like living... dead?... people. The art is fine, but I can't recall ever being blown away by it. SPOILERS: But. By the end of the game, I've succeeded in helping these people make their peace and move on. Their houses remain, empty, their owners gone forever. But they're not the only ones who need help. One spirit remains. You can delay, remain on your big, empty ship for as long as you want to, but the end result is inevitable. The moment I saw this, felt this feeling, the game's potential was finally realized. I could keep playing as long as I wanted to. But at some point, I had to move on.
Nothing terribly wrong with IR, but it also brings nothing worthwhile to the table. The "unique" premise adds nothing to the experience but the occasional shitty one-liner. Visuals may be clean and smooth, but everything looks and feels like Play Doh. Enemies are soft and harmless. Guns & sounds totally lack any impact. They also don't autoreload when empty - a choice that works in a tactical shooter like SYNTHETIK, but here along with lengthy reloads that take too long to register as complete, it kills the pace. I might switch weapons instead, but then I just get to stand still after every battle to reload them all. The upgrades are also lukewarm. The tree, including unlockable "classes", consists mostly of incremental stat boosts, w/ only the active abilities offering any real for alternative gameplay. I used 1 medallion for my entire playthrough because nothing else seemed interesting or more useful. Scrolls SUCK. Many have only downsides, and they're completely random - no way to avoid bad ones, no way to strategize and try for specific scrolls to go with a desired build. An easy improvement would be to offer the player a choice of 2+ scrolls whenever they pick one up. I beat the 1st pyramid just to see if the 2nd would offer anything new, but it looks like more of the same. I hate leaving games unfinished, but I feel that whatever IR has left to show will just not be worth my time. Overall, I would describe Immortal Redneck as floaty, shallow, and repetitive. If you want a retro FPS, play DUSK, Ultrakill, or HROT. If you want a roguelike FPS, play SYNTHETIK or Nightmare Reaper. I could only recommend IR as a mindless time-waster, and even then I still wouldn't buy it.
