I want to be honest with you guys: When a grenade crashed through the kitchen window of Jack Boyd in a short comic scene because I could not do enough good for the mafia, I cheered. Game over. Finally. As a game, "This Is The Police" is terribly boring. It consists of dragging policeman cards on policeman squares - and of waiting. After two hours I had seen everything. After ten, I wanted a different job. The secret of the other big bureaucracy simulator, "Papers, Please", is this: Papers, Please is an ingenious puzzle game even without its decision making about life and death. "This Is The Police" is a simple strategy game with a mean death spiral. Maybe that would not be so frustrating if the game had anything important to say. But it does not. The main messages of this game are: "Politicians are evil, perverted and corrupt", "The police is obedient to organized crime", "Only heroes are true men" and so more cliches like that. If I wanted to read about dumb stereotypes I could just turn on Facebook and read some comments. I don't really need this game for having that kind of experience...
Even though I remember this game's original release I never actually played it. Therefore I had the rare opportunity to play it nonbiased. After my playthrough I can conclude that you don't need nostalgic transfiguration in order to be able to enjoy Outcast. Even though the technical problems, massive glitches, bugs and jolty controls almost drove me to the brink of insanity I still managed to enjoy the game quite a lot. As Sci-Fi fan I really enjoyed the idea of a parallel universe. But what made me like the game most was its love for details: the teasing of clumsy Talanans (in a humorous way of course), or that moment when an alien bird attacked me throwing rocks. Somehow the game managed to constantly surprise me over and over again. Sadly, nowadays that has become very uncommon.
I really tried, but I couldn't achieve to feel frightened or anxious while playing this game (except for maybe two or three jumpscares). Seeing the style and hearing about the misterious story of this game, I actually thought it might be promising. But as it turns out it is just a nerve-racking, and boring walking simulator. Sure, it has some disturbing pictures to offer, but it's far away from causing discomfort like movies as Mullholland Drive. Also, a few more gameplay elements would have been good for this game. Solving 2 puzzles, hiding 3 times, run away 4 times. That's it. That itself resumes prefectly what Neverending Nightmares has to offer. It could have been so much more than that, though. And even though it's supposed to be a horror game, it fails at the most important point: it is NOT scary at all. Good thing is, that this nightmare is over very quick, as it has a very short playthrough time.
The Pit is an extremely challenging and unbelievably ugly piece of a game. Nevertheless it is pretty fun to try this challenge over and over again, just to progress a bit further than the last time. This game really gives you no break. Relentlessly it tries to kill you in all sorts of cunning and unexpected ways. Even a backpack full of food, ammunition and medicine doesn't mean you are safe. Around the next corner there could still be a robot that beats you silly. In the pit everything tries to kill you! If something kills me, for a second I need to hold myself back to not punch my screen. And after that, I try it again, because this kill motivated me even more. Maybe this time I am finally going to find a shotgun? Or a power armor? Or the radio control for that cunning robot. I nearly always play as an engineer, mostly because I can't stand not being able to open a closed ammunition box or those cryo-stasis devices. Other than that the graphics are extremely ugly, even for a retro-style indie game. Sound FX and backround music are pretty weak and boring too. The balance is pretty good, even though some weapons are too strong and some too weak. Atmosphere and controls are awesome, same as the amount of weapons and extras you can get. The level design is pretty disappointing. At least every run will generate new levels. The enemies are pretty cunning too: the will always try to sneak up from your blind spots. Other than that, they are pretty stupid.
Ouch! Well, that was a bad call... The idea sounded so good: Take an old-school-shooter, produce a remake and start surfing on that retro-wave we are all experiencing these times, to bring back that nostalgic feeling we all know. Unfortunately not even the biggest craving for nostalgia will be of any use, if an unfinished game of such poor quality is released. If you hanker for the gaming-pace and the freedom of a 90s shooter, you better start searching for the dusty originals. Don't waste your time playing this mess...
Retro games on Kickstarter are very popular these days, but FTL is the best proof that"old-school" or "retro" does not have to be automatically bad if the developers know what it takes to make a good game. FTL turns out to be a very challenging and complex "Roguelike" game; despite its simple UI. Also, the Advanced Edition shows that Subset Games knows how to keep their fans happy: The new elements blend brilliantly in the game. As FTL-pilot you get more variety, more gameplay depth, more fun - and the best is: the expansion is for free!
With a subtle combination of special abilities I may force all enemies to their knees and survive the tactical battles without big losses. In the following text windows I click on the answer that I think in this situation may be the only correct one... and may quite easy lose some of my carefully and costly leveled favorite heroes. Without warning. Just like that. How do they dare to do this to me!!!11! But as much as I was shocked, I surely will remember this situation for months. Because it happened all of a sudden. And because I could have prevented it. Or at least, that's what I think might be the case. I can't really tell, because the game will leave me uninformed until the very end. The Banner Saga will not appeal to everyone: It is painfully unfair, has a unique but also very unusual graphic style and does not tell his fantasy story about refugees in any spectacular cutscenes, but in soundless text windows. But it is also an unforgettable experience - if you really engage the challenge.
What a pity... This surreal game could have been so much more. Instead it feels like a copius-told Sci-Fi story forced into the "frame" of a video game, which was then stretched to the maximum possible lenght. Now that I have played it, I remember numerous passages of the game which could have been deleted from the final product without experiencing big losses in the gameplay experience. I would have preferred a much shorter playthrough time instead of repeating those countless, redundant and replacable jumping levels or solving "puzzles" on the Kindergarten-difficulty-level...
Sadly, I didn't get the panic attacks I paid for. This sequel provides discomfort instead of pure terror. Fans of Dear Esther could like the intelligent entangled story plot with its poetical allegories (I don't). To be fair, this kind of story-telling is rare enough in gaming as well as extreme terrific experiences are. People expecting “Dark Descent 2” will be disappointed for sure. Anyway $20 are far too much for just 4 hours of gaming. Pros: + Very good sound effects creating a great atmosphere. + Feeling of anxiety until around mid-game. + Nice dia- and monologues. + The “enemy” stays mysterious until the end Cons: - Ridiculously easy riddles. - No inventory system. - No “mental health status”. - Extremely short. - Plot sometimes a bit too vague due to poetical allegories of the Dear Esther-creators. - The “enemy” is unseizable and therefore appears to be unimportant for too long. - Very vague and interpretable ending.
