... moreso than Myst's actual sequels by Cyan, this game as extremely well done. If you like Myst, you'll enjoy this: - Puzzle solving at your own pace - A bare, but serviceable story (less is better in my opinion for games like these) - Puzzles find the perfect balance (i.e. not so simple that you can just "pick up the thing then put the thing in the shiny hole", but not so obtuse that you would NEED a walkthrough) In fact, I HIGHLY recommend you don't look up a single puzzle. Everything is solveable, if you just try and think a little outside the box (think of what you have in your inventory, think of where you've been, did anything change that could help now, etc). Many puzzles I'd get stuck, go take a break, and when I came back it became obvious. While Myst had "more worlds" they were all just point/click images. Quern has two fully explorable areas (I don't want to say worlds, but you'll see what I mean without spoiling anything). Surprisingly, this game crushed my computer, even though I could handle Doom 2016 (on low... to be fair), so I played this game on medium, because some of the areas are quite beautiful. Moreover, this game had MORE puzzles than Myst, and none of them felt like filler. Extremely well thought out, well paced, well designed. Well done devs. While the game still has bugs, the devs seem to be quite vigilant in fixing them. (I made a post on the steam forum (which is more lively), and the dev responded to me that same day saying he would be pushing a fix in the next day or two. Definitely pick this game up if you're an old Myst fan, or if you're new to this type of game, and are able to think critically/like puzzle solving, this is definitely worth getting.
I heard this game was bad before they fixed it up, but I only ever played it after this. So this game is 'Good', not great, but still worth a try if you like masochistic platformers. Art/Environment/Atmosphere: The enemies are interesting, the kills are fun, the excessive blood is fun, getting killed has multiple animations. Headbanging after slaying a boss is also cool... because why not. Basically, the aesthetic of the game is excellent, and has (had?) a lot of potential. Gameplay: The controls are fluid and responsive*. Mind you, they are not "tight", because the devs added delays to your attacks on purpose. I think games are better when the controls are made as player-centric as possible, and the difficulty should come from your enemies/situations (like Hollow Knight). Here, it's still on you to be good, however, the extra delays can get frustrating: swinging your sword has a bit of a timer, trying to block after attacking has a bit of a timer... And in this game, split-split-seconds are required, and if you mess anything up, you can be dead extremely quickly. Bosses are challenging, and once you learn their pattern, you can flawless them, however, you will die a lot. Again, you can die in an instant, and missing a single block (which is a fraction of a second) will make you dead. Luckily, respawn points are placed to avoid repetetion (there's always one before a boss, which would have been extremely frustrating if it wasn't). With regards to checkpoints, dying happens frequently, so I'm glad the game doesn't force you to waste too much time from death to restart (it's about a second). So this promotes "try again" gameplay. Combat is relatively simplistic, but there's enough there for it to not be too boring. With some more time, this game could have expanded on its hubworld (done something with the village/crone), perhaps added powerups, more exploration of levels. And honestly, if the controls were made more responsive, it would have been better.
Firstly, check if your PC can run this, mine chugged, even on low. On highest settings, this game will be extremely pleasant to look at. But if you're running an older PC, the gameplay itself will still hold up with the "low" settings. The game can get very intense... combat is fun, not so complicated that you'll need to go looking up moves (Bayonetta), but not so simple that you can just mash buttons (also Bayonetta... badum-tsh). The enemies make you vary up your strategies, and the bosses themselves are pretty good. What I mean though, is that the environment/sound/atmosphere gets very intense. They do a good job emulating various nightmare scenarios... and they don't do this just by throwing up jump scares and using "scary monsters", there are a lot of well done segments. This isn't a "fast" or "fluid" game, but perhaps like that by design. That's not to say that combat is clunky, but just that navigating the environment feels a bit dated. Overall, this is a really good title, and for the price you pay, it's definitely worth it.
and, it's good! However, for me, Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast is still my fav star wars action game... there's just something about that Unreal engine, despite being 2 years older, it looked/played better. Anyway, how was my experience with RC, I thought it was good overall. There were some excellent sections that were genuinely tense (end of chapter 2 comes to mind). I haven't played the third mission yet (Kashyyk), but I'll be getting to it soon. The enemy AI is decent, the squad AI is good, and the shooting feels OK as well (which says a lot, considering a lot of games from that era have extremely dated/clunky shooting). Storywise, the clone wars are kind of meh, but the game did a decent job to vary the gameplay so you're not just fighting droids the whole game. Overall a positive experience... kind of a 3.5/5 for me, so 4 stars does the game more justice than 3. If you've never played it, it is still worth a try even this late.
I gave PA1 a 3/5 star... to me, it was a very mediocre experience. Some good puzzles, and a largely unsatisfying story which had some potential. You don't need to play PA1 before you pick this game up, since PA2's story basically could have been the first game. It is better paced, and better told. PA2 still has the same clunky problem with dialogue (hard to skip through it quickly, and some awkwardly slow transitions), but again, you're getting this game for the puzzles. The puzzles are also of higher quality... which should be the only thing that matters. Again, I got this game on sale, and can definitely recommend it at the sale price. PA2 is the better game, and concludes properly. If there is a sequel, hopefully the devs continue to streamline the game and further refine the puzzles (of which in this game, had a very good selection: very few obtuse puzzles, and I can't remember any puzzles that were poorly explained like the first game had).
The game had a few puzzles, but felt like a worse version of Dr. Layton. Mind you, I got it for very cheap on the sale, so I can definitely recommend it at a sale price. If you like solving puzzles, this game has some good ones (to it's compliment, way fewer "filler" puzzles compared to layton). However, unlike Layton, this game sometimes poorly explained its puzzles, and not in a "think about the question from a different perspective" kind of way. Moving around the map/talking to people can feel a bit clunky, and the story overall doesn't even get resolved... I'm fine with the "Fargo" feel to the game (starting out light-hearted, getting a bit darker), but the game never resolves... I know there is a PuzzleAgent2, but this is not some awesome grand story that needs multiple games, they really should have wrapped it up. So there it is, get the game if you want to solve some puzzles. Just a very mediocre game overall.
...all I can say is that this game left a bad feeling in me. I left before the war ended, but I had family that stayed in Sarajevo throughout, so I can safely say that I know what actually went down. This game didn't leave me feeling sad because of the atmosphere or story, rather, it left me feeling angry, and here's why. This game felt wrong, it felt like it was made by someone who only saw the war in the news, and then used Hollywood movies to fill in the blanks to create a "compelling narrative". To me, this game trivializes the war, and uses it to sell a "realistic war-time" game to people who have never experienced an actual war. Millenials born in America will play this game, and get the completely wrong idea, even though I don't think the devs were maliciously trying to revise history. Honestly, they should have just created a completely fictional war, in a fictional country, and left it at that. Perhaps I am biased, but they used "Sarajevo", and going through this game was like listening to someone try to tell you how your own house looks, except they just change everything and anything at their whim. I tried giving the game a chance (on Steam), playing through it, but this is not what Sarajevo was. In terms of fiction, the story is serviceable. In terms of mechanics/gameplay, I didn't find it compelling.
Firstly, the art-style, the music, the tight controls, the little secrets, the interesting and extremely varied enemies... this is an awesome game, and I want Cuphead 2. Reading some User Reviews, I want to make this clear. This is NOT Super Mario Bros, not even close. If you want to compare this to a classic game, compare it to Contra -- Megaman would be the next closest, but it's not really appropriate. The game is quite challenging, but the devs mitigate the frustration in smart ways (quick restarts, progress meters let you know how far you went, and the tight controls remind you that you are ultimately your own worst enemy). The game does a great job by not recycling enemies, and mixing up a few "plane" levels with the more numerous "ground" levels. Here's how this game is: There are 3 worlds (each with an overworld that allows you to pick where you go), where you need to defeat 5 bosses. Each boss has multiple stages where he'll transform into something new, and each individual stage has its own variation as well, so nothing is ever exactly the same. There are also 2 run and gun levels in each world... these play like a contra level, where you are actually platforming, and the game does a good job keeping things interesting -- the level design is quite well done. Finally, each world has a mausoleum where it is more of a jumping mini-game... to me, this should have been thrown into the levels somehow as it's a little too simple. This would have been a perfect game if they somehow combined the "run and gun" levels with a boss fight at the end. I like the idea of going through a level to meet the final boss for a battle. (Mind you, each level/boss fight is very difficult, so there would need to be checkpoints before the boss fight to account for this.) So maybe Cuphead 2 will implement this. But there you have it. A great game, oozing with style and well executed overall. Pick it up if you want to support more games like these.
