tl;dr: -Awesome music, atmosphere and world building -Amazing mechanics and gameplay systems -Simple plot -Clumsy writing and voice directing -Horrible performance issues *Get on sale. This game is fun and the systems in place are great to screw around with (StealthGamingBR showcases this). But this doesn't excuse the poor optimization issues that plagued this game since launch. The patches since then has remedied this issue to an extent, but it hasn't made the maximum system requirements list any more justified. WITH a gtx 1060, your rig will suffer trying to run the Void engine, which is just an "enhanced" version of idTech 5. GTX 1080 recommended. With performance issues aside, the atmosphere of the locations you visit in this game are excellent. The music fits well with the kind of culture they are trying to get at here, and I'd say it's flawless if the people residing in these places had European accents or something. Suspension of belief is barely needed despite that. The plot is simple and effective. Blamed for murders that you didn't do, you become victim to a coup planned by a crazy witch who claims is of royal blood. You take revenge on the people who were a part of the coup throughout the game, either violently or not, and set the score. The writing for the characters' dialogue is a bit on the uncanny side. The main thing that does the writing injustice is the fact that the main cast (Meagan, Emily, Corvo) do not emote. For Corvo, its understandable, he's been through some sh**. Emily has been through **** too, but being less experienced than Corvo, I think she could've had a bit more character to her rather than have her be another deadpan assassin. Meagan is just deadpan, and some lines she says seem to be written playfully sarcastic, but she delivers them like any other line she says.
Hollow Knight is one of those Dark Souls-like 2D platform Metroidvania games that people go crazy for, and sh** are they not getting crazy enough for this one. This is an excellent Metroidvania that starts out slow and atmospheric, though picks up by the end and leaves you wanting more. Once you get into the rhythm of this game, the soundtrack, the combat, and the art all pull you into this desolate and abandoned underground kingdom waiting to be explored filled with monsters waiting to be hunted, and with map design that is just so elaborately put together like an Avant Garde painting for gaming, and it just – Mmm! It just hits you right in the “good game” bones. MMM! And this for $15? A f***ing steal. You’d feel like a criminal playing this game, but then you’d forget about it, because the game is so goddamn good. Pros: – Excellent Map Design – Great Soundtrack – Simple yet Polished and Fast Paced Combat – Great Ghibli-esque Art Style Cons: – Simplified combat mechanics may be daunting for some – Slow Start (but I’m not complaining) The combat can be a bit too simple at times when looked at; small and medium sized enemies are taken out with the step-in-hit-step-back tactic all too well, and some players may feel it to be a bit repetitive. I can see someone arguing that there is no real point to the enemies, as the player could always skip over them; no EXP to be gained here. However, I found no problem with the enemies being obstacles in a platforming game, that you can apparently get rid of if one would. The start of the game is slow, and upgrades would only come in a trickle, which would also daunt the impatient player. 9.1/10. Buy the damn game 2 times, it should not be $15 (don’t actually, just buy their merch or something).
Let me just say up front that the game’s pixel art and map design is fantastic. The game borrows Dark Souls map tropes, like unlocking doors to make way to shortcuts to later areas as well as subtly hinted backtracking opportunities. The pixel art backs up the polished combat and the serviceable movement. I, personally, can’t wrap my head around why the plot captivates others. To me, it all seems like average fantasy fodder; while it does, in fact, present a grim atmosphere, I feel as though I’ve seen it many times before, so then I see it as bland and void of unique character or personality. Therefore, I don’t feel obligated to 100% the map. Then again, I haven’t even bothered to read the item descriptions because I was so jaded by the presentation, so don’t take my word for it if you find it enjoyable after all. Pros: - Excellent Map design - Good Combat - Serviceable and Simple Plot (on the surface maybe) Cons: - Bland-ish Exposition, Dialogue, and Atmosphere (“grim”) – Some subtle combat elements Neutrals: - Good but Slightly Forgettable Soundtrack The combat is impactful, especially when you finish off an enemy, in which your sprite momentarily freezes upon the finishing off an enemy. The problem with this little tick is that your sprite is the only thing on the screen that stops, so when you finish off an enemy and another one is approaching you, you’d have no way of dodging the attack in that moment. This would be especially irritating for a player who’s in a pinch for health and ends up dying due to this effect. The soundtrack was good when I was listening to it, but as of this writing, I cannot remember a single track that was in the game. Just letting that out there. 7.4/10. Get it. It’s cheap and good.
A Hat in Time is FAR FROM a disappointment. It was promised to be a homage to the 3d platformers of yester-year during its Kickstarter campaign, and by god did it deliver AND some. With controls that are tight with a technically adept camera to back it up, scenarios that are overall fun to play through and experience, and a soundtrack that supports the game’s goofy and light-handed vibe yet hides surprising and epic jabs of chiptune and rock in its sleeves (some tracks, I think, are not allowed to be as good as they are, I swear to god), this is a definite buy if you were into Yooka Laylee at first, then played it, then realized it was garbage, then threw it in the can and said to yourself “if only there was something else to quench this god-awful thirst for an actually good platformer that doesn’t waste your time”. Pros: - Controls and godlike movement (double jumps, air dives into belly slides, air dive cancellation…) - Soundtrack - Character and general charm Cons: - Too short - Too DAMN short - Current mod support incoherency This is worth noting: this game was too short for what it was going for, and certain parts might have needed some more time baking in the oven. So, naturally someone would want to do more with the game, and the good news is that the modding scene is thriving quite well. The bad news is that its only present on the STEAM WORKSHOP; I don’t think GOG Galaxy will be receiving its own version of the Workshop anytime soon, so GOG users are unfortunately left out of modding privileges as of writing this review. If you don’t care for mods and are quite satisfied with keeping the vanilla game and doing repeated runs, then buy it on GOG. But if you want to consider modding the game, buying the license to play it on Steam is a valid choice. It’s a huge and sour let down that there was no mention of this by the devs, and as of now, there is still no mention of this on their social media pages. Either way, buy the game when you can. Its a treat.
