Fox N Forests may not have the most creative name for a game, but it's tied in with the stroyline and it's about a wise old tree/magic seeds you collect and a magical weather season's changing crossbow weapon. From there we get a mix of a game I bought on Android that's called "Chronology" relating to the weather changing crossbow except Chronology used a timepiece instead of a crossbow and that forwarded/reversed and returned time back to normal to provide a route alternative to pass areas otherwise inaccessible. That's basically the premise with this game but regarding the seasons, you change the sesonal weather to freeze waterfalls etc to progress through otherwise inaccessible landscapes, the weapon is otherwise just a single shot simple crossbow weapon at the starting level with a swipe action from I have played so far any way I've not gone to far into the game yet, but I will eventually. The game plays in a 16bit retro pixel graphics art form with a nostalgic and catchy theme track that's 16bit chiptune style. It's got some minor retro-esque themes for the character conversation which to be honest can drag a little having to read that much text becomes somewhat tedious at times before moving into the game or when your chatting to a character you meet along the way etc. Otherwise your getting a simple pick up and play platform game with a retro 16bit theme that is very well polished, maybe a a little lite on the action in parts where there seems to be a bit too much landscape and background artwork taking up that screen real estate versus enemies to combat, it would certainly benefit from a few extra enemies in places that seem a little hollow at times, but this can be forgiven. The music is great pretty catchy in fact and the attention to artwork detail is above average, the game also has native gamepad support which is ideal if your looking for console type games for PC then this title is one to add to your collection for sure. But don't expect too much from Fox N Forests yes it is detailed to an extent yet still somewhat simplistic but it does make it comfortable for all to play and despite any flaws which aren't many then what is there to play is very well crafted and therfore it does hit above it's weight for what it aims to acheive. A total scorefrom me of 4.0 out of 5.0
Hands down one of the very best platformers that has ever been created, with a truly incredible level of detail and oozing with nostalgic throwback from one liner jokes to bone crunching bullet thumping action and futuristic weaponry, you cannot ever go wrong in buying this game it is up there in the top 100 all time greatest platformers very easily in the top 25 is more likely. The gameplay is fluid and the action is fast paced and 100% none stop, it's hilarious bullet blasting mayhem at it's finest, with a soundtrack that is as good as the game is to play. The gore level is through the roof so it's not for the younger kids but the language is kept family friendly throughout. It's difficulty level is very high on the bosses which are absolutely beastly each and every one of them will chew you up and spit you out if you let them, but you'll love every second of this entire game from it's amazing attention to detail graphically and throughout the visual side to it's amazing soundtrack it's all perfect there's nothing to complain about with this one it is worth every single penny of it's price. Let's just hope they make more like this or at least a number 2 or 3 of Huntdown I own the Android version of the game but I am so impressed with it that I thought I'd give it my attention here as well for those who don't know just how fine of a game they are potentially missing out on here. This may not be suitable for young children but for the rest of the world your looking at pure gold dust here.
It looks pretty good albeit in a good for generic style, but the reality is that the controls are a bit difficult to use either the rotational aiming element for your diagonal shots or your moving to align to fire is not really easy to pull off, and it's a bit too fast paced to combine this targeting system with regular directional firing, and this makes it it's therefore nice to look at but feels a nightmare to play. You'll have to mess around mapping the controls for some controllers because alternate layouts will require manual changes. It's not really that fun to play either it's pretty repetitious in nature/gameplay style and the enemies seem relatively generic looking, it just doesn't offer anything at all that's new to an already extremely over saturated genre. 3.8 out of 5 for it's graphics would be about right, but then only 2 out of 5 for the rest of the game due to it's difficulty level as a result of a cumbersome control system, which just makes it feel mediocre at best. It is cheap to buy but you feel it's a waste of money shortly after because your probably never going to feel a strong enough urge nor any form of meaningful nor memorable connection to this game to warrant wanting to play it more than once or twice in your life.
The concept for the game is good it's definitely a thing that can and will work if implemented a little better by spending time with making it feel less on rails when your turning, which I have to say if your mapping to gamepads the only way for that to work any way is via steam gamepad input mode from what I found. It's basically budget wipeout by an indie dev, music is good and tries and does for the most part reminisce those games like wipeout and it does that extremely well. weapons are minimalistic though and it needs a lot more weapons as your stuck with next to none at all. The action would be excellent if it felt less like it was driving assisted all the time and more like your actually driving the vehicle your self It's old and it needs a great deal more polish to make it feel complete and more natural to play instead so 3 out of 5 mainly for it's aesthetics and the effort.
The graphics are superb and the sound is crisp but the controls just feel like some complete and utter un-usable rush job mess, if you dare to use a thumbstick/analogue controller good luck to you because you probably won't land a single jump, or jump in the right direction sideways for eg. goes forward? The complaints online also state it's just as bad with a dpad, this game was also made for consoles initially upon it's release all 3 in fact were and they all used gamepads/controllers natively so really remastering it in HD and adding support for controllers should have meant perfectionism not a completely broken control scheme. It's a crying shame because it is otherwise a beautifully done remaster, fix the controls you fix the game you fix the game you've got a hit, but your running out of track trying to keep this gravy train running, because it just isn't playable with the much needed gamepads and controllers it is intended for. The warning here is not to buy it until they fix the mechanism of controlling it so you can jump and land/point in the correct direction and not miss the platform every time, it's totally un-usable for gamepads and I am in no way exaggerating that. mouse and keyboard use may very well be fine? But gamepad and controller users are feeling completely abandoned and let down by the developer and the mess that it is. And if I hadn't paid next to nothing for it on sale I'd have asked for a refund outright. Total view an extremely disappointing 1 out of 5 due to controls, otherwise 4-5 out of 5 would be applicable.
I've finally managed to get a very short time in on the games first level, I persevered with the controller setup in many GOG games I find any kind of none defacto gamepad a real pain unless it's made to be played with one natively. Even then there are some games rejecting certain gamepads and unfortunately the age of RTCW means it won't conform to use gamepads in a native way so the the way to force these games into using gamepads is Steam (I know) add your games by the add a non Steam game and choose WASD to gamepad and map with that, AntiMicroX for me does not work for this game in Windows 11 but Steam Input WASD does work. Any way for what I have played it is relatively fast aced and quite hard to master the aiming when mapped as it is swift like a mouse obviously for the view controls being bound to the mouse, but it is a good game for it's time and has reasonable graphics for that time to, although it's struggling to hold up to other games of today the graphics are acceptable. It's shoot first or be shot gameplay style with a high level of challenge.... on the Hardcore setting of difficulty only a few shots really and your dead meat. The weapons are pretty basic in the first stage obviously they would be, they will improve as you progreess they pack a light punch nothing overly beefy really, I do like the era/thematic setting and the locations which find you facing off against the N@zis in a WWII timeline. It does draw you in and you keep wanting a bit more but it can be frustrating with that difficulty level and a low hit count before death even on easier settings it's quite hard. It's a straight forward pick up and play slayem and mahem game making a bold attempt for it's age at trying to be a cinematic epic of sorts, although it's nowhere near the modern versions of the game reboot/s in respect of that, they are amazing comparitively, but you can see where it's spawned from and it's a gem of an old game.
