Nightdive Studios did an excellent job in faithfully recreating the 1994 classic into a magnificent game. However, like the original, System Shock Remake doesn't do a good job of telling you where to go and what to do. I found myself using a walkthrough on my first playthrough because I was completely lost. I suppose that's the appeal of the game; to make you feel like a rat in the maze. For newcomers who have never played a System Shock game, may I suggest the following steps: 1. Majority of the in-game codes are random. No 2 playthroughs use the same codes. Be sure to jot them down manually. 2. Every level of the Citadel requires you to lower the security level (destroying the security cameras and CPU nodes) by 0% 3. After destroying the CPU nodes, jot down the number that appears on the screen. Do this for the other 6 levels. This will save you a lot of time. 4. Spend a good amount of time recycling every junk you see lying around for in-game currency to upgrade your weapons 5. Stick to only one melee weapon, which is the laser rapier 6. Tempting as it is, do not hoard every single weapon in your inventory, Have at least 1 melee, 2 handguns, and 1-2 SMGs 7. I recommend starting with the lowest difficulty settings for each criteria (enemies, mission, cyberspace, puzzles) because the game be unforgiving 8. Save often! F5 (autosave) is your friend Besides the lack of an Objective tab, System Shock Remake is a beautiful game and it's highly recommended to Sci-Fi/Cyberpunk fans and shooter fans who want a good challenge.
At first glance, Frostpunk looks like a typical RTS but as time goes on, you will learn that the mechanics are unforgiving and cruel. We play games to be away from the real world but Frostpunk is a constant reminder of real-world problems like climate change, gathering resources, amputees, hunger, and many more. It’s so depressing! It feels like the player has to have PhD in Add Maths or Politics before jumping in because there's so much micromanagement involved. For example, heating the main generator is not enough; you must reheat other buildings individually. This is a stupid mechanic. Why can't they all heat up together? Notification is totally absent in Frostpunk as it does a terrible job of letting you know when your people are dying or your toilet needs more heat. Gathering resources is a pain as well. It's no cut-and-dry process but involves building more than 3 buildings just to collect coal. You need a coal mine, gathering post and god knows what else. It feels like the game designers didn’t take the time to do the maths in Frostpunk and instead they were winging it. There’s nothing cohesive about the gameplay; everything is all over the place. Even when you win the campaign, the game treats you like a loser. It’s hard to recommend Frostpunk because it’s definitely not for everyone. If you have the patients of a saint and love micromanagement to a T then this game is for you. But if none of this excites you then forget it.
Back in 2007, the reviews were harsh towards the game and it was responsible for the firing of game editor Jeff Gerstmann at GameSpot because he too didn't like the game (although it was not revealed until 2012). I thought they were exaggerating but after playing it recently, I concur with the reviews. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is quite bad. While the controls are responsive for the most part, the cover mechanics feel clunky and the AI are brain-dead. Your allies rush straight for the enemies and vice versa. Unbelievable! The game tries to be edgy by having 2 annoying and unlikeable characters but it doesn't work. It's not like Tony Montana from Scarface where you root for him even though he's ruthless; Kane & Lynch have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. They're badass but dumb, and they're so angry all the time and they do stuff without thinking ahead. The levels are not fun either with little to no memorable moments. The graphics look dated as well. It doesn't hold up as much as the sequel Dog Days, which I recommend getting. Feel free to skip this mess and go straight for the sequel as it has little to no continuity except for the anti-heroes.
Inner Chains is the brainchild of Tomasz Strzalkowski, who was involved in developing the Painkiller series. This game is his first attempt in moving from being a level designer to a game designer and the result shows; it's not that great. The plot is really confusing and poorly written. You're some guy in this Lord of The Rings-esque universe and when you accidentally fall down from a cliff, you're labelled as a heretic and everyone wants you dead. It makes no bloody sense! The first level feels like a tech demo more than an actual level. I initially wanted to stop playing until I reached level 2. That's when the game picks up. Like Painkiller, you get these super cool weapons like an electric gun, a flamethrower (my favourite) and a needle gun. But unlike Painkiller, you don't kill enemies every 5 seconds. Instead, there's only a few of them and each can only be killed with a specific weapon. Despite the cool weaponry, Inner Chains has terrible combat system. Enemies are dumb and they take a lot of hits even when you shoot them in the head. The one aspect I enjoy is discovering stone tablets, which are scattered throughout the game. Each tablet reveals a letter in the alphabet and the more you find, the easier it is to read the encrypted messages that are plastered all over the walls. I thought it was kinda neat. The saddest part of Inner Chains is its length. I finished the game in 4 hours. It ended with a crappy boss fight and ending. What a ripoff! I understand this is a Kickstarter game but still, I expected more. It seems the developer Telepaths Tree has given up on this game as their website is no longer in service and their Twitter hasn't been updated since 2017. Such a shame because Inner Chains had great potential. It seems they sacrificed functionality for beautification, which they achieved successfully as the environments look terrific. I only recommend Inner Chains if you want something new and different. Otherwise, stay clear off it.
Army Men RTS is either one of the easiest or the lamest real-time strategy games you will ever play. Either way, I enjoyed it immensely. As a fan of Army Men, it was such a treat to be playing a game in this genre featuring Sarge, Riff, Scorch, Hoover, Thick, and Vikki. Unlike other Army Men games that's brutally difficult with lack of checkpoints, RTS is very forgiving. Sure, it gets more challenging in later levels but overall, RTS is a very easy game to play. The controls may not be ideal for experts as it's too simplistic but again, great for beginners. Several complains I have is the missed opportunity to play as the Tan Army. There are only 15 levels and you can only as the Green Army. The lack of the series' main antagonist General Plastro is also disappointing. Instead, you have this forgettable main villain that does nothing and once you've beaten the game, you get a truly unsatisfying ending. Such a bummer! Regardless, I highly recommend Army Men RTS to anyone who likes the genre.
A quick lowdown of the game based on my experience: Pros: + Beautiful graphics + Terrific H.P. Lovecraft mood + The main protagonist has a great voice Cons: - Game design is all over the place - It's like the designers can't decide if they want Call of Cthulhu to be Myst, Mass Effect, or Outlast. One moment it's a puzzle game, next is a stealth game, next is RPG, next is an FPS. What the hell?! - Cruel checkpoints - When you miss a certain item/event that will trigger the ending you want, you cannot revisit it unless you restart the whole game. That's stupid! If only we can manually save our game! - Lack of jumpscares - The game is eerie but not scary. I want CoC to make me jump off my seat but it didn't happen. Booooo! - Characters come and go - A lot of NPCs you meet tend to die too soon so you don't have time to connect with them, which is disappointing. - Broken sanity system - Unlike Dark Corners of The Earth or Eternal Darkness, this one doesn't do a good job of making the protagonist feel scared or losing his mind. You have all these stats that you unlock in your inventory that don't mean anything to me. I don't want to read that I'm scared; I want to feel scared! Despite all the criticism, I for some reason keep coming back to Call of Cthulhu time and time again. Both the atmosphere and level design grabs me in a way that no other single-player games do, so I guess that's a good thing. If Cyanide Studio were to make another Cthulhu-related game, I suggest they read my cons carefully and execute those ideas well. Also, please stick to one genre.
From the developers of the not-so-impressive Darkness Within games comes yet another not-so-impressive game called Conarium. Although it's a huge improvement in terms of aesthetics, the game itself is quite boring. As a Lovecraftian fan who enjoys playing other Lovecraftian games, I was expecting Conarium to be an immersive experience but it did not deliver. The beautiful graphics is a camouflage for hiding its shallow gameplay experience. No, I did not expect it to be an action game but I did not expect to be reading boring journals and hearing people talk so slow like they're high on something. I don't think the Şamlı brothers know exactly what they want to achieve with Conarium in terms of game design. It's like they can't decide if they want to make a horror game, an exploration game or a puzzle game. It's all over the place! The only good thing I like about Conarium is the soundtrack and the level design. Both are beautifully crafted in their own right but the game itself is not interesting at all. They keep jumping from one character to another (I lost track of who I was in the game) and the storytelling is poor. Would I recommend it? Not really. If you want to see what Unreal Engine 4 has to offer, give it a go but if you're expecting a deep immersive Lovecraftian experience, I'd say skip it. Get Call of Cthulhu 2018, Dark Corners of The Earth, or Prisoner of Ice instead. Pros: + Beautiful graphics + Great soundtrack Cons: - People talk like snails - Not Lovecraftian enough - Very boring experience - Too many journals to read
I admit that I initially did not like Quake 4 as I was still comparing it to Quake 1 at the time (in terms of Lovecraftian continuity) but since then, it has slowly grown on me. In many ways, it's better than DOOM 3 due to its non-stop action, no-nonsense game flow and in-your-face massacre. It's also cool to interact with other NPCs; you feel like you are part of an awesome team as you kill Stroggs along the way. Aside from the visuals, which is what I always love about the id Tech 4 engine, you can see Raven Software did their best to make Quake 4 a better experience than DOOM 3 and it shows. However, as much as the gameplay is fun, Quake 4 lacks any replay value. Sure, you may be enticed to relive the story mode again on harder difficulty level but you wish that the developer would've added some unlockables (eg. new skin, new modes, new weapons) and collectables (eg. messages, dog tags, runes) but they didn't. What a wasted opportunity. Despite this flaw, don't let that stop you from playing Quake 4. If you're looking for an FPS game that takes place in a sci-fi realm mixed with a no-thinking man's attitude, then this is for you.
Let me start by saying Strafe is pretty epic. The gameplay is a throwback to classic games like Quake, Doom, Heretic, and Painkiller. I've always loved that "no thinking man's game" concept where you shoot first, ask questions later and Strafe is no exception. However, I was very confused the fact that you have to start all over again when you die. There's no save points or checkpoints. That's when I realized Strafe uses Permanent Death (or permadeath). I know this feature exists in some games but never as the main feature. It's normally an optional thing for very hard mode fanatics. I'm not one of those people and so therefore, this feature sucks! I hate it. The devs should let the player have the option of turning on or off permadeath like in We Happy Few. I really love the aesthetics of Strafe but it's too bad this stupid feature ruins the experience for me. Until the devs update the game to make permadeath optional, I cannot recommend Strafe to anyone. Sorry!
Having never played Penumbra or Amnesia games before, I played SOMA with zero expectation. And to my surprise, I was blown away. Plot-wise, the game starts off really well and it progresses on like that. It constantly keeps you guessing on what's going to happen next. You may have a lot of unanswered questions as you play but just keep moving and things will make sense later on. For the gameplay, it works well except for the stealth mechanics. I like the idea of hiding from enemies but the problem is that there aren't any hiding spots. In a typical survival horror game, environmental objects like beds, lockers and desks can be used to your advantage but in SOMA, you have nowhere to hide. Even when you try hiding behind a giant pipe or desk, the enemies will always see you. What a terrible flaw. Thankfully, the story, atmosphere and soundtrack help to compensate the poor stealth mechanics. By the end of the game, I was completely starstruck by the twist ending and the whole experience. To all horror fans who want a rich narrative game in an somewhat unconventional sci-fi FPS world, this is for you.
