I guess it's what you'd call a looter shooter, procedural generation in levels doesn't really add much and side missions are repetitive but they're satisfactory justifications for causing wanton destruction so they get a pass there, it all looks great too. Regardless of how the levels are put together the combat at its core is a whole lot of fun! The way chunks of your enemies get blown and cut off, the way they stagger if hit in weak spots or with something strong enough, the quality of the gore. The katana type weapons in particular are great fun to use with their feel when slicing through enemies and impressive damage output. You also have a few melee skills and can also double jump and dash around to make encounters more interesting. The enemies you face put up a fight and are varied enough, though you'll definitely notice some reskins. The encounters are likely random as far as I can tell as well, so you do also lose the benefits of these being hand made. There were only really 4 fights you could call actual bosses, and 1 was a variant of the previous boss, 1 was a much bigger version of a regular enemy and the last one was a bit too easy. Like other looter shooters you'll have a lot of weapons that fall into the usual archetypes (melee, pistol, shotgun, full auto, launchers, snipers). However, instead of having multiple copies of the same weapon with different bonuses and debuffs, each weapon has 3, rarely 2, slots that you can place randomly dropping upgrades into, that can usually alter weapon stats and sometimes how they behave. It's an interesting take on the system and being able to decide what way to improve a weapon on the fly is cool. Was a lot of fun overall and I'd strongly recommend it if you like looter shooters and wise-cracking Ninjas.
An isometric RPG with a heavy dialogue focus. The gameplay consists entirely of exploring the world, talking to characters and interacting with elements in the environment, and this never stops being interesting thanks to how amazingly good the writing is. Nearly ever line of dialogue is perfect, most being highly amusing and a number also hold great emotional weight and effectively further your intrigue into the world and its characters. The game’s cast of characters is large, and of them each unique and highly interesting to interact with in their own ways. It’s an absolute must play for anyone who loves story and character driven games, the role-playing side of RPGs or anything and everything that’s Disco as hell.
A murder mystery that has you prancing around its beautiful open world to hunt down the truth. I never thought a design choice like that would've worked well for this sort of thing, but it really does. The world is large enough to have plenty of interesting things to see, but you also don't have to spend too much time walking from one end to the other and you'll quickly run into clues to move your investigation forward wherever you go, especially at the start. It can almost feel like the game is leading you to them subtly, even though most are attainable in any order. There are optional collectibles strewn about that give tidbits about the world too. You can eventually acquire movement abilties to make your journey's quicker and also reach new heights. It actually makes this feel like fun enough platformer. The characters central to the crime to end all crimes are diverse and interesting in both appearance and personality, it's really a pleasure to interact with them (though some of them can be bastards), and they do a great job of helping you learn more about the bizarre world you're going to be saving. And probably make you wonder if you should be saving it. The setting of the game is unique to say the least, with some elements bordering on (or probably being) cosmic horror, but not used in the way those elements usually are. These islands are weird indeed. It's a really unique experience overall, would strongly recommend it to anyone into murder mysteries, weird settings or just things with loads of style.
Another chapter in the Higurashi series of visual novels, it's another deeply interesting mystery that expertly plays with your emotions and expectations, ultimately leaving you deeply intrigued and hungry for more (and possibly emotionally broken). A fair warning, this and all the other PC releases are missing content present in the console versions that can do a lot to enhance the experience, though the 07th-mod can get them for you. Outside of that caveat, strongly recommend it for those into horror and uncovering mysteries, this should really be played after the ones before it though.
A third person shooter. Help a mad scientist, his janitor, and his dog fight off an alien invasion. The presentation could bring to mind silver age comic book era works, the dialogue and writing is passable and the humour can be hit or miss really. The characters are decent but there isn't really much to them. The bizarre visuals of the aliens and the locations fascinating and the soundtrack is pure awesome. It tends to switch suddenly between areas, jarring but you get used to it. The gameplay is okay. The 3 characters have different mechanics. Kurt has a parachute that lets him glide and soar in updrafts, a machine gun for close to mid range encounters, some items he can pick up and use, and his famous head mounted sniper rifle for taking out targets at long distances or with high need precision. Max lacks Kurt's ability to snipe or glide, but he can have a jetpack, and just boasts insane amounts of firepower instead. Gunning stuff down is okay, aiming is near automatic so most of your work with both in most battles will be trying not to get hit, which is enjoyable enough. The doctor's levels involve some item hunting and platforming, made annnoying by how he's the least agile of all 3 characters. His primary weapon isn't that fun to use compared to the other 2 either. His levels were tolerated in my case. It's unfortunate they make up 3-4 of the 10 possible levels. Every character's levels involve puzzles in some form, and some can be difficult to figure out unassisted. It can be decent fun and is somewhat unique, but you aren't likely to miss out much if you don't play it.
A first person shooter. Fight for your survival as you get to the bottom of the horrid actions of a strange cult. In terms of plot, there isn't really much to see. What is there just gives a decent amount of context at least. There aren't any characters to speak of and the protagonist himself barely has anything to say, but that wouldn't be a problem with this sort of game. The combat is just really fun. You move incredibly fast, you have insane air control, your weapons are all useful and feel satisfying to use. Each episode has a different pool of enemies and they all put up a good fight in different ways. The levels have interesting layouts and are still hard to get lost in without a map, even the massive ones, and have plenty of secrets for the observant player to sniff out. The maps in each episode all stick to a general theme, and the horror aspect of the game becomes more evident as you progress. Your battles are also augmented by a killer rock soundtrack that really helps get your bloodlust going. It's a lot of fun to play overall and I'd highly recommend it to fans of first person shooters, especially the 90s variety.
A first person fantasy RPG. Help your protagonist recover his lost memory and uncover the secret of the dastardly plot afoot in the subterranean city of Arx. Plot gets the job done, sidequests aren't fantastically written but give you interesting enough things to do, combat is basic and there is a decent number of combat encounters so it won't become pain. Once you get over slightly tricky magic controls, the system is pretty interesting. Spells are made of runes that are logically combined, have a wide array of uses and are very powerful. Easily the best part of the game. Exploration is useful as always, but also mandatory in some places, clues and critical items can be kinda hard to find if you're not careful. Ditches any kind of soundtrack in favour of ambient sounds, which work as good mood setters and backdrops to your activities. Voice acting can be a mixed bag but is decent overall. It’s a pretty interesting game with some flaws overall, and would definitely recommend it to those into older RPGs, immersive sims, or fantasy games in general.
