I like old games, top down shooters and aliens. By all means I should love this game but its just terrible. To its credit: the controls are fine and can be remapped. Considering its age, the game also looks really, really good. But its just neither fun nor a challenge. The respawning aliens wander around the level aimlesly until you get very close and then just run at you in a straight line. They are only ever a threat to you when they suddenly pop into the screen right before you as you walk forward. And thats just cheap because it forces you to either advance very slowly or take damage. Just stay away, I regret even having paid 59 Cents for it.
Dragonfall was a fantastic game because it had writing on par with the better shadowrun novels. The characters and NPCs felt alive, the enemies felt like a threat and the runs usually came down to either doing something morally wrong or not getting paid (as much). As PutCashIn mentioned in his review, the plot is terrible. As a western foreigner in the close-knit Hong Kong underground community the player is immediately being trusted, made the unquestioned leader of the group and being told the nightmares of any cardboard NPC in range. And all of that after the game goes to great lengths to tell you that the main character can't even speak the language properly. As for the mission Design: On every run I made so far I felt dissatisfied by the choices in dialogues when it came to resolving the run. I also felt that my options to explore the level and find alternate solutions were not very well implemented. In generel they were to easy to come by and had little to no effect on the outcome of the run. Now, on the upside the game actually made the matrix scenes fun and and tried to improve a number of other aspects such as drone variety and cyberweapons. But yet again these new elements feel somewhat unrefined. To summarize: The game could have been good if more effort had been put into it. Unfortunately basic mission design and writing can't be patched.
Let me start out by saying that I have encountered no game-breaking bugs. The only time a crash occured repeatedly, was when hundreds of items were crafted over a short time. Almost everything in the game is incredibly fitting. The backgrounds, the music and the design of the world blend together to create a wonderfull frame for flying around in your own airship and exploring flying islands via your grapple hook. Which by the way feels and works exactly like the ninja rope in worms. BUT the game is missing a lot of polish. For example: When mining with the jackhammer, the mouse pointer has to be exactly over the block you want to mine. If it isn't, it doesnt work, even if the animation hits exactly the spot you want to mine. Even airship building has its little glitches. Finally let me mention the thing which is flawed beyond patching: Combat. It simply isn't fun. The enemys are either much too strong or patheticly weak. The AI is very predictable and can easily be tricked. Also, Airship-Combat is a joke. Simply fly into the blind spot of the enemys turrets and stay where you are. They won't try to move so that they can shoot you. With all this being said, I have put more hours into this game than into terraria, which I have owned for a few months now.
From the get go, The Pit delivers an addicting experience. Your small colony on the edge of known space is suddenly struck by a deadly plague and the only cure might be at the bottom of an old, long forgotten alien facility. After choosing one of three characters, the marine, scout or engineer, you will move, plunder and kill your way through 30 levels. The environment changes as you descent. From rough caves to grey metal floors to greenish, rounded walls the game gives you a very fine sense of progress. This is also true for the enemies. As you go deeper, they get bigger and nastier. This game really is about resource management. Shooting every last security bot with your shiny laser rifle will mean you have no ammo left once enemies with a high damage resistance start to show up. On the other hand, killing every creature with your trusty but weak melee weapon will make you run out of healing items extremely fast. Thus you have to guess what weapon is the right one in a given situation and if you can get to the next healing station before you die. And in case you didn't know, death is permanent. Since every playthrough will take about 10 hours, you will start to care about your character. You will always be at the edge of your seat, wondering if the next room contains a new and desperately needed weapon or a crafting station. Of course this means that the game is, quite often, very unforgiving and sometimes simply unfair.
