IMPORTANT!!! Annoying stuttering with this game can be easily solved by modifying this config file: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\Documents\Mars - War Logs\graphicconfig.txt Change the REFRESHRATE parameter according to your monitor refresh rate. (I get 80fps on a RTX2080 OC Super at 3440x1440) Surprisingly enough for an old game, this one supports ultrawide resolution so kudos to Spiders for not being lazy as most AAA video game developers. BUGS: I fell off the world once and had one game crash. Other than that I had no technical issues at all. It took me 41 hours in Extreme difficulty to finish the game with most of the secondary quests cleared. There's a lot of backtracking and enemies respawn often, this can be annoying if you don't like the combat (cause stealth is not always an option). I like this kind of sci-fi story, it is well narrated and interesting enough to keep me glued to the controller till the end. About combat, even if mechanics feel dated, there is one thing I really liked: If you are facing several enemies at a time, they won't take turns to give you time to react, they will attack you with no mercy even if that implies to hurt their own teammates, so you can take advantage of that, give orders to your companion and most of all use your brain and plan accordingly before fights. I have to say I liked it: it's short, it's cheesy and it's fun. The most important thing to me is that Mars Wars Logs has soul, that old RPG flavor that is more and more difficult to find nowadays.
This is not acceptable in modern games. You can play normally on ultra-wide screens but videos will be stretched. I tried Flawless Widescreen but does not work properly with this version of the game. On the other hand, there are not many videos in this game so it's just annoying, but this discourages me from buying other Wolfenstein games that I know are more story-focused.
I have a pretty modern gaming pc but when I try to play some old games like BioShock 1 and 2 sound simply does not work properly. This worked for me (Windows 10): - Find the file Bioshock2HD.exe in your installation directory (ex. C:\BioShock 2 Remastered\Build\Final\Bioshock2HD.exe) - Then right click on it, select Properties, Compatibility - Check the "Run thist program as an administrator" This way you can launch the game using your shortcuts or the GOG launcher. I also had 4 crashes at the entrance of the "Hall of the Future", 2 of them forced a full system reboot!!! So save often would you kindly?
1st playthrough 40 hours on Goblin difficulty with a controller. I liked stealth and level design. I disliked combat and storyline. THE GOOD + Superb stealth gameplay that keeps you in the edge of the seat (which is very welcome cause the simplistic swordplay sucks) + You get to play as a "nimble but mean" goblin. You can't kill heavily armored enemies with your dagger but you can spit on their food for extra fun! + You can create clones, which is a pretty interesting and versatile mechanic (e.g. Use clones to attract an enemy to a certain position, instead of the classic stone) + I was very impressed and surprised when the guards found me when I was well hidden in a locker. Smart NPC's are hard to find and always welcome. + Great Level design, lots of verticality and incredible amounts of possible routes to achieve your objectives. + No bugs nor crashes at all THE BAD - Probably you will end up save-scumming like hell. Styx is hard and unforgiving but it doesn't feel fair sometimes (e.g. Most levers can be activated without alerting guards, but some will get you killed just because, happy reloading) - Bright control sucks. They took the "master of shadows" thing to the extreme and most of the levels are too dark, forcing the use of night vision intensively, or too illuminated and you won't be able to differentiate the spots where you can hide safely. - Fighting enemies face to face is heavily discouraged, the fighting mechanic is limited to smash one button to parry until you are prompted to kill. - No cinematics, even the end of the game is narrated through low budget comic-style images. - Level recycling, nothing new for the last half of the game. THE STYX Story was not so compelling to me: no background was given from the start due to "amnesia"... lol! So no motivation, just go sneak-kill-steal to your heart's content and hopefully have fun. I found the story twist interesting enough to keep me playing till the end and... no spoilers!
Perfect platformer, as hard as they come yet very fair cause Ori's maneuverability is flawless. Beautiful graphics and stunning soundtrack all wrapped up in a heart touching story. For me it's perfect in any sense I can think of. Totally recommended! (20 hours played on Steam)
THE GOOD: A heartwarming story immersed in a quite grim world, beautifully presented with simple but effective enviromental puzzles. While graphically it's gorgeous, is the sound of this game what have impressed me the most: I've choosen French language (because immersion) for my first playthrough (19 hours) and I'm very impressed with the French voice actors team. Dialogs feel so organic that I could believe the characters are performing in real time according to my actions and even some enemies have nice details like asking for merci when I'm about to... dispatch them. I also like the way instrumental music is used as a powerful tool to rise tension while you are facing swarms of ravenous rats and I love little details like the agitated breathing of Amicia when she is hidding and some enemy soldier gets too close. THE BAD: This is me being extra picky: 1. It makes no difference if you try to sneak alone or if you bring your full party with you. 2. You can sneak behind a soldier with a lightning torch in hand totally giving away your position and you won't be detected. Things improve a lot in later chapters where enemies come in bigger packs, then you will be thankful for these exploits. THE UGLY: As of june 2020, the game still has a bug in Chapter 6 where Milie opens a chest for you and you get stucked inside a tent. You will need to try to walk backwards, strafe, stand up and crouch, restart the game, Alt+tab out and back... or any mix of the above to escape. It is a real shame since it is the only technical problem I have found in an otherwise flawless game. If you are playing at 3440 x 1440 you will see the image "boxed" (black bars each side of the screen). I'm guessing this wont bother many people but its always better to know. Since the beginning I fell in love with characters and story. Hopefully we'll see more of these short and sweet linear storytelling games that leaves you with a wonderful experience to remember for the rest of your life.
Remastered version of the game is bugged AF. Had a hard time figuring out how to fix the sound, only thing that worked for me was to disable all sound output but my earphones. Half an hour later it stopped reading input from my gamepad... I had to reboot the system to fix this! and guess what, no sound again and this time my old trick does not work.
THE GOOD: this game really shine thanks to the impressively creative puzzles. I'm not too fond on this kind of games yet I found myself really amazed while trying to solve most of the challenges. Wall-walking mixed with some switches create so much freedom to explore in every direction possible that I felt my poor brain cracked open several times during my playthrough. THE BAD: Very short! On top of that there is one certain chapter that feels completely disconnected from the rest of the game. The new chapter found in free DLC compensate a little for this issue. THE UGLY: only one little bug that froze my game and made me restart chapter 5.
