It's a bit hard for me to name games to directly compare Ctrl Alt Ego to, but when it comes to the feeling it's gameplay (though not its style or story!) evokes, I'm most reminded of the old Thief games or Deus Ex, in the best possible way. Just like in those titles, most missions could be solved by just barging through, but the real fun lies in exploring every nook and cranny of a map and finding new solutions to get past enemies. You could just get a shotgun upgrade and fire at an enemy bot, but you could also use your telekinesis power to shift an armed mine in its path, or crawl into the vents above it to drop the vent cover on the bot's head. Learn to teleport, or just turn invisible and sneak past. Hold a crate in front of you so it doesn't sense you. Take over a harmless "pup" bot and use that to explore. Take over a serializer bot, slurp up a heavy item, then spawn it above other enemies to crush them. Or don't bother going past the enemy in physical form at all and hop your way through door locks, security cams and random possessable electronics until you find your target that way. It all feels very loose and free with no "right" solution to any given situation. For maximum fun, I'd recommend using the Load function only sparsely and just going with the flow of whatever mess happens! The possession mechanic is, of course, the central element and synergizes best with a stealthy approach. It serves as a puzzle solution, as a means of saving, of scouting ahead, of recovering after your current vessel is destroyed and also as a way to fast travel. Where in other games you might have to backtrack, here, any previous location in the level is just a hop away. Overall, I had great fun with this game and if any of the above mentioned appeals to you, I can heartily recommend it!
Definitely the best game The Brotherhood has released so far, surpassing the already strong previous STASIS. Beautiful and creative locations that are a joy to explore and a story that, while it did lose me a bit in the middle by juggling so many strands, actually manages to come together again perfectly in the end. The puzzles are also great for the most part and keep pixel hunting to a minimum by showing interactable locations and restricting item use to zoomed-in screens. There were a few instances where I would have wished for some feedback from trying to use the wrong item or from using an item that needs something else first. (Why could acid dissolve rusted metal before, but this specific rusted door wants a different item? Why can I use the microphone here, but can't talk into it?) Overall though, I only had to check the guide very rarely. Also, Moses is by far the best character and I love him.
Hollow Knight's game design borrows heavily from the Soulsborne titles and will, for the most part, scratch the same itch, if you are a fan of those games. Sadly, it doesn't combine the moving parts quite as elegantly as especially the later, more polished Soulsborne games did. One big issue is the placement of fast travel points and shortcuts in relation to difficult sections of the game. You will often find savepoints in very easy areas, yet find yourself taking needlessly long and difficult routes to get back to a boss. There is a fine line between "challenging" and "wasting the player's time" and this game sadly often stumbles over to the latter side. The second issue is that this being a Metroidvania title means shortcuts often require certain skills to open. You may often find yourself grinding through a hard part of a level, only to find the shortcut back locked by some blockade you cannot deal with yet. Both issues on their own wouldn't be so bad, but together they combine to cause quite some frustration. That being said, the rest of the game does make up for this. The art, music and setting are nothing but gorgeous, the combat and movement feel fluid and engaging. With just a few little tweaks to the level layout, this game could have been perfect.
It's not a very long game, but one could just as well say that it doesn't overstay its welcome. Every level brings something new to the table and the game never feels padded with excessive backtracking or repeating puzzle mechanics. The puzzle difficulty strikes a nice balance, being just challenging enough to be interesting, but not so much that it would disrupt the flow of the game. Personally, I would have loved to get a little more story though - a lot of things seems like they should come to some conclusion at the end (like a certain reappearing character, an obvious common theme in enemy design or things happening in your apartment), but they just... don't. Maybe something for a DLC?
For me, at least, this game was much scarier than the first Amnesia title. While The Dark Descent had its horror highlights mostly in the first half of the game and got less horrifying towards the end, A Machine for Pigs starts out slowly in the first half and then cranks up the horror as you proceed. I also very much liked the industrial setting, which I found to be more threatening than the old castle. It does have a very different feel to it, compared to the first one, mostly due to having less focus on item-based puzzles - personally, I didn't miss them, but depending on what aspects you liked in the first Amnesia and Penumbra, you may feel different. Only negative point for me is the extremely linear level design, which makes the experience feel rather artificial at times. -1 star for that.
