An intentional throwback to Sega Genesis platformers of old, albeit with a modern Conan-esque soundtrack. Volgarr combines the slash-while-moving swordplay of Rastan with the double-jumping of Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts with the precision jumping of Castlevania and adds its own spear weapon that's a combination distance attack and platform creator. "Dying is fun because Learning is fun" is the mantra of Volgarr's gameplay. Excellent level design meets you every step of the way through 6 levels jam packed with platform and enemy placement puzzles that will challenge your skills and ingenuity just as much as your reflexes. Fortunately for modern gamers you get unlimited lives... on the easy path. But once you truly master the stages you'll start finding lives in treasure chests that will allow you to tackle the 6 additional harder stages in an attempt to reach the true ending. But once you run out of lives, you're back to the easy path. The only downside to this game for me are occasional puzzling graphics design choices. For example, the level one boss has a 2-frame swing attack that can hit Volgarr mid-air, but lacks even a "whoosh" effect to indicate where the danger zone ends. This ain't Trine, if you're ready for a gameplay-over-graphics platformer that will challenge you every step of the way, I highly recommend Volgarr
There is a huge gulf in quality between shmups like Raiden, designed and playtested for the arcade, whose commercial success is measured by repeat customers, and PC-exclusive shmups like Raptor. These are ports of 4 classic arcade shmups, albeit with the difficulty toned down a bit (5 lives, no option to change) and a strange autofire that shoots fastest when you AREN'T holding down the fire button(?) Changes aside, these are excellent shmups that will devour hours and hours of your time if you devote yourself to high scores and the elusive 1-credit-clear. Be warned, credit-feeding your way to the end credits in an arcade game is like playing through an FPS using the God cheat. You'll only rob yourself of the real experience
The original System Shock was a landmark title, merging twisted cyberpunk horror (originating the concept of message logs from dead crewmembers as a horror device), with Die Hard-style missions, and an escalating sense of power as your cyborg Avatar gains increasingly ridiculous cybernetic modifications like jetpacks. System Shock 2 came along and introduced gamers to the horror of performing janitorial maintenance on a busted ship while being hassled by respawning zombies and all you have to fight them off is a gun made of futuristic play-doh. The horror of a mad computer using viruses to turn human crewmembers into invisible mana ray monsters is replaced with the usual alien hive absorbing humanity, the mission design is 1 step forward, 2 steps back (the entire first half of the game is spent repairing a broken elevator), and instead of every cybernetic upgrade being a new toy to play with, they've been reduced to abstract stat upgrades in an action game (unless you pick up one of the super rare OS upgrades that can let you do things like learn to swing a wrench with an overhead swing!) This game stops being scary after the first hour and quickly gets annoying. The entire point of the Dark Engine and its AI was for the player to be avoiding fights, and in this game half the fights are mandatory. Play the first 2 Thief games if you want the dark engine at its scariest. The ending will have you flipping your keyboard in rage.
Amazing game that brings all the nervous tension of the stealth genre while removing the worst of its problems. The premise is simple: any enemy can kill you with one hit. You CAN fight your way out of being spotted, but it isn't likely so you need to be smart and plan your route. On the other hand, revival is near-instantaneous, so mistakes won't cost you a half hour of progress. As for the violence, it's not presented as Postal-style luridness. It's more of a panicky "I need to clear this room before the guy with the shotgun spots me and OH NO THAT GUY'S NOT DEAD YET!" Cactus' best game to date and the gameplay gives AAA stealth games a run for their money. Highly Recommended.
