This First-Person Shooter-RPG is fun...damentally broken; I've never seen so damn many bugs in a 3D game before! Despite that, most aren't game-breaking, and I did enjoy it quite a bit; it eschews Fallout's usual dire atmosphere, and the writers decided to just have some fun with it. The story's alright, but the best part is just breaking the earth in your hands, so to speak, whether that be combat, conversation, or just exploration. The RPG elements seem to be streamlined just a bit; it's totally reasonable to have a lot of high-level skills by the end, and perks come around a lot more frequently. It has a neat Wild West atmosphere to it, too. that I wasn't expecting. So, despite being extremely buggy, it's definitely worth a play; some of the laughs you'll have will even be intended by the developers!
Much like its two predecessors, though with a few new elements, like how decking works. The decking wasn't quite as good; it's now a point-and-click stealth kind of deal; you know how well action sequences work in point-and-click interfaces. The characters are mostly likeable, and the story is good until the very end, where it goes OFF THE RAILS. Well, at least the series is consistent. It is exhausting, though; there is a LOT of reading and dialogue between missions, so pacing is absolutely glacial until that runs out. Still, with writing this good, I can't complain too much. This is my least favorite of the three, but still very good.
This is a Tactical RPG, and by that, I mean that you have a lot of role playing, and the battles are Turn-Based Strategy, not unlike the original Fallout. If you're unfamiliar with the world of Shadowrun, it takes place in a cyberpunk dystopia with humans, elves, dwarves, orks (that's how they spell it), and trolls; not something you see every day. It's oddly prophetic, too; I'm not sure how long the tabletop RPG has been around, but the first game on the SNES came out in the '90s, and had concepts like the Matrix and hacking bank accounts. Here, specifically, the writing is very stylish and pulls you right into its world. The plot is cool to start, even if it does go COMPLETELY off the rails in a way that doesn't really fit the tone. The skill trees had me like a kid in a candy store; I usually see one focus and want to stick with it, but I wanted melee and guns and chi and decking. I ended up focusing mostly on guns and decking, and that's a pretty solid combination; there are a few missions where you'll need to enter cyberspace, and it's best if you use your own character. If you don't have what you need for a mission, though, you can always hire other shadowrunners, and there's a pretty decent variety. Like any good cyberpunk game, you can also add cybernetic enhancements to your body, though it weakens any magic you might be using, so there's a neat balance to strike there. The tactical combat adds a really cool feel to a lot of the missions, and aside from a few frustrating moments toward the end, they're all very reasonable. If you want to get into the world of Shadowrun, this is a great entry point!
This plays a lot like its predecessor with a few tweaks to the combat, which is still just enough to get the job done; drawing your sword certainly works a lot better. It is also nice to do some more monster hunting than usual, too; the story focuses a bit less on politics and more on finding someone who's gone missing. That's actually not quite right; the politics are about the same, but SO MUCH MORE monster hunting has been piled on top of that. The maps are absolutely enormous, and the content goes on for DAYS. Some of you might be salivating right now, but it was just too much; instead of having a more focused experience, like in its predecessor, it just aims to have as much content as possible. If I were really invested in that content, that'd be great, but as with the first game, I usually didn't care much about what I was doing. The writing hasn't improved all that much; it's the third game in the series, and I still don't care all that much about the protagonist or any of his friends. Again, it wasn't bad; there's just too much here for what I'm getting out of it; tons of quantity with just decent quality. A little over 50 hours in, I just decided it wasn't really worth it. I did really like the visual design of the world - it was like something right out of my childhood nightmares; absolutely stunning - but that on its own wasn't enough to keep me going as long as I'd need to to finish it.
This is easily my favorite of the 3 Witcher games to date, and I'd say I enjoyed my time with it, but it was just fine. The combat wasn't bad, but it was a little sluggish for my liking, and switching swords only really happens when it feels like it; I'd sometimes have to tell it 3 or 4 times in a row before it'd happen. This was definitely streamlined from the first game, which isn't bad, but I didn't dislike the researching elements. I would've liked more big monster battles in this, too; the first big monster you fight is really exciting, and after that, you don't really get much of anything else like it. For a game about a monster hunter, that was a bit underwhelming for me. The writing still wasn't great; it kept telling me that Geralt hates politics, but you keep getting forced into political involvement. Sure, these things can happen, but why write it that way? More than that, none of the characters really hooked me, and most of the time, I wasn't really invested in any of the things I was doing. Now, I love Mega Man, so that's not a dealbreaker on its own, but if the gameplay isn't that interesting, either, then what's left? My favorite thing about the game was seeing all the different armors on my character, and that should be pretty telling. The game isn't bad at all, and of the 3, it's the only one that I finished, but I didn't think it was outstanding, either.
The game started off pretty strong with an exciting opening and once it explained how the combat system worked, I was pretty into it; people complain about the combat a lot, but honestly, it's not bad. Fighting is a bit more engaging, because instead of just mindlessly clicking on enemies, you have to pay attention to what you're doing; this results in combat that isn't just trading numbers. The research and alchemy stuff is cool, too; you can read books that teach you about monsters and how to brew different concoctions to help you out in battle. Problem is that your potions are toxic, even the ones that heal you or help resist poison; they have this neat system that you're actively punished for using. I could live with that, because I very rarely use consumable items in games, anyway; I just got unbelievably bored with it all. Witchers are monster hunters that alter themselves with mutagens, and that is SO cool! It'd be even cooler if I didn't spend more time having the game drag me into talking to people, only to tell me that I didn't have enough information to talk to them after a long conversation, and to come back when I've properly prepared; why did it insist I talk to them right away, then? For that matter, if Geralt hates politics and is a monster hunter by trade, then why am I getting so involved in politics and spending hours and hours without even a mention of a monster, much less a fight? The writing's not that good, either; conversations are often incoherent, and lead places that don't jive with the dialogue option I'd chosen. I remember choosing a seemingly innocuous option that led to a sex scene followed by a collectible nude card. In any other game, this might be weirdly misogynistic, but I started to lean into the absurdity of it all, like you would with something like Duke Nukem or .hack, but even that wasn't enough to keep me going in the end.
I kept hearing about this: it's weird; it's like Twin Peaks; it's one of the greatest stories ever told! I like Twin Peaks, and I love weird; sign me up! It started off well enough with a psychological dissection of Tom and Jerry (yes, that Tom and Jerry) played completely straight; it set a great tone... that was swiftly abandoned for... ever play 3D Zelda game where the humor is largely relegated to characters flailing their arms and going, "WUUUUoouuuuugh!!!"? It's that kind of "quirky". The actual story rides the line of reality for a while, but has horror sections that are somewhat explained at the end, but mostly exist to give it some actual gameplay with not quite enough thought as to how they fit in; the climax is so out-of-nowhere-off-the-rails that it could've been written by a completely different person. The characters aren't charming or interesting in a way that matters, and conversations are just awkward. A lot of times, the audio cues make no sense; you'll be discussing a grizzly murder and some goofy whistle song would play or something equally weird or inappropriate to the tone. It doesn't come off as weird or subversive, so much as extremely amateur; my lady and I used to love renting the worst horror movies we could find, and we'd usually enjoy them, but this just falls off the end of the scale. The worst part is that I learned most of this by watching a longplay; the PC port is a broken mess that frequently crashes to desktop. It took me an hour just to get it to run, 2 more hours to tweak it to the point where I could pass the intro, and before the end of the first chapter, I gave up, because I couldn't get past a certain cutscene, and it wasn't one of the more infamous crashes, so no help online. It plays well, at least; I was surprised at the mechanics, because Third-Person Shooters almost never feel good to me, but this felt alright. Still, I couldn't possibly recommend this on any merit.
Even if you know nothing about Vampire: The Masquerade, even if you're new to WRPGs, and even if "living out your vampire fantasy" sounds silly, give this a try! The gameplay has a lot of variety with melee combat, gunplay, stealth, lockpicking, hacking, conversation, and more, and in most situations, you have a lot of viable options from those. The basic mechanics are a little janky, but it's totally competent; I usually have a low tolerance for that kind of thing, and I had few problems after the first hour or so. Dialogue choices do sometimes impact your future, but choices are usually pretty obvious, and you're not likely to screw yourself over for later, if you use your head. The writing is excellent, too, and the characters are great; I found myself very attached to a lot of them. You also choose sides in the main conflict, and they're framed in such a way that any of them could be a justifiable choice; not just to see what happens if you side with them. The character creator is cool, too; you have several different clans from which to choose, each clad in hilariously turn-of-the-century outfits. The music isn't maybe something I'd listen to out of context, but it's very stylish, and sets the atmosphere extremely well. It's very approachable, which makes it a great WRPG for beginners, but it's still engaging enough to keep the veterans coming back for more!
I went into this just expecting a good Point-and-Click Adventure up to the usual standard put forth by Wadjet Eye, and what I got was a masterpiece; Wormwood Studios created something absolutely incredible here. You've seen post-Apocalyptic before, but never TRULY post-Apocalyptic; you quickly discover that humanity is absolutely gone, and long enough that the robots left behind aren't confident in their true origin. What follows is a deeply philosophical view of religion, practicality, the nature of authority and its responsibilities, and so much more; I could feel the thoughts burning in my head as I processed all of the possibilities, and everything that was put forth here. In addition to the general writing, the characters are also excellent; for the most part, the game plays it straight, and even the wise-cracking sidekick had the perfect tone that made him likeable, rather than obnoxiously out of line. Even the NPCs had some absolute gems among them that worked together to build this unbelievable world. The art direction is also a thing of absolute wonder. The post-apocalypse is a rust-colored desert, eventually leading to a rust-colored city, but there's a sort of ruined beauty in it, too. What really struck me was the character designs; everyone's a robot, so they had the potential to all look very different from each other, and they took advantage of that! A robot can look like anything, and here, there are dozens of intriguing designs, even if the majority are just silent passersby on the streets. For some reason, a lot of it reminds me of SaGa Frontier, and from me, that's high praise. The music is largely atmospheric, but it's still music, and you'll notice it's there; the soundtrack is just lovely! If you like Point-and-Click Adventures, I'd absolutely recommend this.
From the look of this and probably a lot of word of mouth, you might think that this leans heavily on nostalgia, but it actually stands on its own as an excellent Point-and-Click Adventure. I don't like Maniac Mansion; I've never liked Maniac Mansion, but this really surprised me. The puzzles are mostly logical, and do a good job of making you feel like a detective; it's like Deja Vu from the MacVenture games, except that it won't screw you over, and makes a point to tell you that right at the beginning of the game. There are some stretches with little to no guidance, and the in-game hint system occasionally doesn't help at all, but in this day and age, you can always just find a walkthrough; it's a lot better with that than a lot of games in the genre. You can also play on an easier mode with fewer puzzles, if that's not your thing. The writing is great; the humor is off the wall and despite that, the actual plot isn't super wacky, but something that held my interest as it unfolded. The final stretch, in particular, was something incredible that I never saw coming, but the clues were there all along, so it wasn't just trashy shock value. The characters are all great, too, and the voice actors did a great job fleshing them out. The soundtrack was extremely stylish, and absolutely something worth listening to out of context. The visuals were great, too; you can see some of that here on the store page, but there's also some great lighting and some beautiful sunsets. I'm a big fan of the genre, and I've played quite a few of these, but this one stands out strongly among them.
