You've probably heard that this is a mix of Metroid and Dig Dug, and while the Metroid elements are greatly overstated, they do exist, and there's a bit more to it than just that. You're digging your way down a shaft, and as you do, ground dug and enemies killed remain that way in the main shaft. On your journey to the bottom, you'll be looking for materials, which you sell on the surface for money, which, aside from being currency, also acts as your experience; the more you bring in total, the more the town develops, and the more upgrades you can buy. It's a rewarding system that prioritizes making the right choices, but at the end of the day, you will be able to buy every upgrade with plenty to spare. You have a lantern that gradually consumes fuel, as a sort of timer, but if it runs out, you just can't see as well, so minerals will be harder to find; you're never left blind or killed from your lantern going out. The game's deceptively tricky; you have to be careful how you dig in order to make sure you can get back up to the surface easily. There's a minimap that points out landmarks, such as caves and teleporters to help you, as well, and it will also point you in the direction of your next main objective. As for the rest, the music, story, and graphics are all decent, but nothing too outstanding. The theme is both Wild West and Steampunk, which is an unusual mix, and it works well enough. The different minerals that you find look neat, and it's fun seeing which you'll dig up next. Perhaps more importantly, the visuals do a good job of telling you what you're looking at, so you're never just banging on random blocks, hoping that something will happen. It's a pretty short adventure, so if any of this sounds appealing, it's certainly worth giving a try.
I really enjoyed this Adventure, and I'm very glad to have been able to experience it, but it's not without its flaws. It's mostly a 3D Platformer with an extremely heavy emphasis on exploration and puzzles, so it's really not even something I'd consider to be under the Action umbrella. At the beginning, you're dropped onto this beautiful island with relative freedom for exploration and completing objectives, and it is WONDERFUL. Puzzles were usually solid (you always have a few duds), and sometimes, the challenge was figuring out what the puzzle was, moreso than the solution, which was a neat approach. Later on, though, the game corrals you in, occasionally throwing up hazards that actively prevent exploration, and these segments were a bit of a drag, not even necessarily because they were all bad, but because of the incredible shift from the first area. There were even points that made me feel tired; drained; unwilling to really explore and find all of the hidden collectibles. That could be what the developers were going for - and that's all I'll say about that for the sake of avoiding spoilers - but I did still have to play it. Controls were occasionally clunky, and I fought with the camera, but it's mostly functional. But every time, I was trudging along, I'd find something that reminded me why I like this so much. The visuals are absolutely GORGEOUS, which alone were worth the trip. You get to experience beautiful ruins, a full day-night cycle, billowing storm clouds, murky underwater chasms, and much more! The music went back and forth between a little pretentious and artsy; and lovely and fitting, a la ABZU, so while some of it stoked my cynicism, it did have points where it did a good job. The story is told surprisingly clearly, despite there being no text or speech, and while it's a little basic, and the ending causes the entire adventure to make no sense, I was definitely moved at the end, and that's not something that I say often.
This is a First-Person Puzzle game, but at the time of this writing, I haven't played Portal, so my review is going to be based on its own merits. With that out of the way, this makes its way from simple to complex, but does it gradually enough that you don't ever really get left behind, and there is no need for any real tutorial. There are cubes of several different colors, and each does something a bit differently. Most of their parameters are pretty easy to figure out, and they're introduced very well, so you actually are figuring things out. The actual puzzles are also often very thoughtful; they begin with simple objectives, like getting to the door, but later, you'll be sending balls through obstacle courses, mixing colors, and more. The actual puzzles take some effort to figure out, and you might have to experiment a little until you get it. My mind isn't wired for puzzle solving of this nature, but the game helped to develop that part of me, at least a little. There were only 2 puzzles that I really hated, and from what I've been reading, I'm not alone on at least one of them. It wasn't enough to ruin the experience, though; I'd still recommend this. The visuals were very simple, but they did a good job not only creating an environment that was easy to understand, but also develop a bit of lore, even if you never learn much about it. The music and sound were decent; they did their job. There was a story, and while I didn't care all that much about it - I was in this for the puzzles - it did keep me guessing until the end, and most of my guesses were wrong, for whatever that's worth.
This First-Person Shooter is on the twitchy side, but unlike in Doom and its ilk, you have mouselook, checkpoints that both heal and save, and an unbelievable arsenal. In the base game, you only have 5 weapons, but not only does each one feature alternate fire with completely different ammo, they also fit together like the pieces of a puzzle. Despite having so few weapons, the game is designed in a way that makes them count, so few, if any, get neglected. This comes bundled with the Battle out of Hell expansion pack, which adds 10 new levels and 2 new weapons, which are even better than the ones you'd already had! The weapon design is very creative, and even though you don't have as much variety as in a lot of Shooters, what you have remains consistently both fun and useful. The levels are mostly designed well; they're not labyrinthine, and you usually have something guiding you on top of that. Occasionally, you'll get one that's really frustratingly designed. Or a boss fight; the final boss fight of the base game is INFURIATING. Overall, though, there's a lot of fun to be had, if you're into the visceral. The visuals look good, and while it's not a neon explosion, there's enough color that it doesn't look like it's made of mud and stone. There's a lot of variety in enemies, too; it's rare that you run into the same ones in even 2 different levels. The story is what it needs to be, and doesn't go much beyond that, but creates a decent lore, and your main character is a good, gruff tooth-kicker. The music is... well, if you've ever listened to a Rock station in 2004, it's that; not much more can be said. The sound effects are pretty good - many guns pack that cathartic punch - but I did notice that some of the grunts were from other Shooters I've played, but it's been so long that I don't remember which ones. Overall, if you like First-Person Shooters, you'll probably have a great time with this.
The '90s had a lot of FMV games, most of which were cheesy, even back then, and have visuals that have aged like bread. This isn't quite one of those games; I was surprised at how well a lot of the visuals held up. Yes, there are lengthy video sequences when you go ANYWHERE, but to me, there's a sort of charm in that. You can also skip them by clicking, so if it's not your thing, no need to worry. This doesn't just ride on that novelty, either; while most of the puzzles aren't really that complex or challenging, the tasks are interesting to complete, and go well with the story. You're a young prince, trying to rally all humanoid and dinosaur species together to fight against a group of what I think is more aggressive dinosaurs - it doesn't really explain that very well - but to that end, you explore different valleys, finding different groups of living beings, and convincing them to band together. Yes, you will be doing a lot of the same things (giving mushrooms to brontosauruses, giving nests to the triceratops, etc.), and some people might call that "repetitive", but I like to think of it as consistent in this case; there are new experiences to be had in each valley, to keep things fresh, but when you arrive, you at least have a basic goal in mind, and a good idea of how to go about it. What I found really neat was that each valley has an overworld map, which can be used to travel quickly, but also tells you just where you are, and how to get back to things you've already found. The game is nobody's masterpiece, but I feel like it does a lot of unique, interesting things, and that was enough for me. I've always wanted one of these kinds of games, but didn't have a good enough computer when they were relevant, and now that I can finally play them, this did not disappoint.
This might be one of the best Point-and-Click Adventures I've played; it's at least a top favorite. From before I even started the game, the main character resonated very strongly with me, and that never really stopped. I'm far from the emotional type, but in this particular adventure, I was like a puppet, dancing at her whims, so maybe whatever that was is coloring my opinion of the game, but I just couldn't stop playing. The story had me hooked from the very beginning, and the further it went, the better and more bizarre it became. Saying much more would probably spoil the experience, but it is quite a ride! The meat of it was pretty good, too. You had good characterization, a protagonist with a very interesting backstory, nice visuals, and fitting music. The writing was mostly very good, but for a game that takes place in 1995, there are a few phrases that are a bit anachronistic; nobody talking like they just fell out of a Doggo meme or anything, but they weren't anything I ever heard anyone say in the '90s. Nothing too jarring, though, and a younger player might not even notice. The puzzles were great, too; not all of them were spectacular, but there were quite a few gems that weren't the straight-up moon logic of yore, but were tricky enough that it was satisfying to solve them. There was also at least one that my lady got sucked into while watching me play, and we both simultaneously felt like idiots when we figured it out, so it has those, too. I'd recommend this to all Adventure fans, even if you might not like it as much as I did, but if you're looking at this thinking, "She's SO COOL!" then pick it up; you'll probably love it!
I got this for free, or I otherwise wouldn't have played it, which would've been a shame, because it's quite good. It's a lot like the first Zelda meets Mega Man; the game is split into several different stages, and you can tackle them in almost any order you like. You can create a linear progression for yourself, fighting bosses as soon as you're able; or you could opt to finish all of the stages, maxing out your lifebar and gathering up all of the special attacks, before tangling with most of them. There isn't a lot of combat; some stages have no enemies at all, but challenge you with environmental hazards, instead. You explore these areas, trying to find everything hidden within them, but most of all, the rune at the end. Some of these challenges are poorly designed, leaving you to wonder just how to avoid the hazards, but for the most part, they're pretty reasonable. Boss fights are similarly a mixed bag, and for the same reasons. The visuals are beautiful, and impressive, considering that they're all hand-drawn, and animation is very fluid. The main character is great, too; she's a stout Viking warrior with an axe! The story is told via narration in a Scandanavian language with subtitles, and my favorite thing about this is that the pronunciations are actually correct. A pet peeve of mine is hearing the same terrible mispronunciations of Yggdrasil, Bifrost, and myriad others again and again. If you're going to use these elements, take the 5 minutes needed to at least research them! Anyway, as a mythology buff, I was impressed, learning a few tales that even I hadn't known. It's woven very well into the story, too. Tone is also impressively consistent; it's not so full of itself that it's corny, but it doesn't make any unnecessary attempts at humor, either; it's just a nice, serious story. The music is so-so, but it at least lets you know it's there, and the voice acting suits the experience very well; I love the way that Thora speaks.
I came into this expecting a 3D Super Metroid, and what I got wasn't quite that. Combat isn't terribly complex, but it is challenging, and that's a step up from most Action-Adventure titles already. There are a lot of comparisons to Zelda, but motion is fluid (including pushing blocks!), platforming requires skill, and it isn't so heavily structured that it suffocates the whole adventure. There will be areas that you can't reach initially, but more often than not, there's some sort of logical reason for it; some obstructions are from abilities that you don't have just yet, and to describe others would be a massive spoiler. It was genuinely a joy to explore, collect new abilities, and use them in combat or platforming. Admittedly, money is a bit tight, and there aren't really any good spots to grind, so buying all skills and garb will be a bit of a strain. The visuals are nice, if a little plain. There's a neat desert area with some strange vegetation and lightning strikes everywhere, but visual design doesn't stray terribly far from that; it's at least consistent. The ruins have some neat patterns on them, I suppose. There isn't all that much of a story, not that it needs it; the only real scenario thing that bugs me is the vista points. These are spots where your character stops to admire the scenery with a certain camera angle. The game finds these to be extremely important; while they don't actually do anything, they are marked on your map, and counted as something to find in underground segments. The thing is, though, that there isn't anything really all that special to look at, and this is from someone who is aesthetically driven. The game also has some weird glitches, though that's understandable, when you consider that the developer went under just before launch. I didn't encounter anything too devastating, though, and you shouldn't let that hold you back, if this seems interesting to you; it's really good!
Gomo is a very charming Point-and-Click Adventure. If that doesn't interest you, then you're better off avoiding this one. It's very simplistic in that each screen is relatively self-contained, and that your inventory is relegated to 3 items at a time, and you'll rarely reach that. There aren't even that many places on each screen that you can stand. The puzzles aren't too difficult, but there are a select few that will require more thought than "click thing at other thing". Pixel hunting isn't a big deal, since you usually get a curly arrow when you can interact with something. I didn't run into any glitches, either The setting is what sells me; it reminds me of one of those old European cartoons that used to air late at night back i the '70s. It also reminds me of that Wallace and Gromit film, A Grand Day Out. Though the game is extremely linear, it takes you on a pretty wild ride, and if you're into that sort of thing, this will probably scratch your itch. The humor didn't exactly have my lungs aching, but it gave me a good chuckle now and then. It's niche, but I really enjoyed it.
Are you ready for a Point-and-Click Adventure with a sense of humor as warped as the artstyle? The writing is pretty solid, and the characters are all likable... the ones that are supposed to be, anyway. Of course, the star of the show is our heroine, Edna, who I liked from the very beginning. She has a cute voice, and speaks with such sincerity that I can't tell if she's being a smartass, or if she's actually crazy, and I think that was the intent. In some games of the genre, it's a chore to look at ever last speck of dust, for fear of missing that which lets you move forward, but in this, just the things that come out of her mouth alone make it a pleasure. Some of the jokes might come across as insensitive about mental health, but this isn't the kind of game that wants to make a statement; it wants to make you laugh. As someone who does suffer from illness, though, I was still able to turn my brain off and laugh along; there's nothing that's outwardly inflammatory, but do keep this in mind when considering your purchase. You'll run into some moon logic puzzles, for sure, but they at least play out in an entertaining way. Fortunately, there aren't any real action sequences or anything that can't be circumvented with a walkthrough, so frustration will be minimal, should you choose to go that route. That said, SAVE OFTEN; there are a number of game-breaking glitches that I ran into - very strange ones, too - not the least of which is that, for my copy at least, the end credits never appear. I got to see the last screen and listen to the credits music, but no actual credits, and the game didn't end, and since ALT+F4 doesn't work, I had to use Task Manager to exit the game from this. I was still able to get through the game just fine, though, so it all worked out fine, and I'm looking forward to playing the sequel.
