Unfortunately Adam West does not make an appearance in this game, but do not worry your pretty little heads because the game is still fun. A lot of fun. And very atmospheric... and tentacles... Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! For the sceptical gamer I must implore that a leap of faith be taken, for our lord Azathoth will bring untimely death and eternal doom to the foes who dare keep him in his slumber. You see, I'm a big Lovecraft fan and I've played all Lovecraftian games that have come my way - including board games. However, when I heard about a fishing game... ugh... seriously, fishing? Of all things?!? I was not sure I could push myself to getting this one... BUT... the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive that I thought I'd take the leap, and boy am I happy I decided to do so. In Dredge you are a fisherman who's just crashed into some rocks at an archipelago. You wake up in an island called Greater Marrow, and the local mayor provides you with a new ship, and the deal to supply the town with fish to pay your debt off - at that point you learn the last fisherman left without a trace. However, not everything is what it seems and things get really spooky when the night comes down. I won't spoil the story, but I think it's really good. It's told in a rather unusual, passive fashion; so pay very careful attention to all the messages and diaries you find, as the lore lies in them. Thus, rather than the story unravelling through scenes as you make progress, you'll have to put together clues, letters, and memories and build your own version of it; I like how they don't fill in all the gaps and details, leaving certain things open for you to ponder about. The game excels in pretty much every department. Dredge is very polished; the comic-like art is very fitting and gorgeous, the atmosphere is simply spot-on, oozing Lovecraft like very few do, and it's all accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack. The game mechanics are very simple: in order to fish you need to get to an area where there's fish and you have to press the right key at the right moment; it's one of those "click when the dot is in the right spot" kind of puzzles. Catching fish will help you get money and solve some puzzles that will unlock more pursuits/quests. In addition to this you have passive resources like using your trawl net while sailing and catching crabs that will provide you with extra money. Your boat starts off quite limited though. It's slow, there isn't that much storage, and your fishing capabilities are limited to coastal fish. In order to overhaul the ship you'll have to gather different resources from shipwrecks and completing quests, which you do by fishing... you can see the classic boardgame dependency circle at work here. There is more to it, like the risks and differences during nighttime, but I don't want this to sound like an instruction manual; you can discover the rest yourself. The game loop is very addictive and I couldn't put it down until I completed most of the side-quests and saw both endings. I did play it with both DLCs; The Pale Reach and The Rig. Even though the price is individually steep-ish, I would definitely recommend them. I think the quality of the content justifies the money spent on them. If in doubt, you can always play the base game and buy them later if you fall in love with it. If I were to fault Dredge on something, that would be not having a more Dunwich-like town and overall vibe. I thought the weather was too friendly at times and I would have loved an almost non-stop rain, mostly grey/dark days, and pretty much no sign of the sun. Also, more fog... ph'nglui... Seriously, bring on the fog... mglw'nafh Cthulhu... Day and night... R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!! I want an eternal night... I got the game and both DLCs on a discount for £23ish and got roughly 25h of gameplay. Excellent value for money if you ask me. 9 tentacles out of 10.
In The Drifter you'll play as Mick Carter; the homeless person the plot revolves around. Because the story is excellent and full of twists and turns, I will keep this review spoiler free, even if that means being vague and not going into details. Take my word for it though; if you like P&C this one will not disappoint. The development of the story is not easily predictable and it keeps evolving until you can see it in its full glory. So much so, that in the last chapters I got the feeling that I was playing a completely different style of story than when I first started the game. The voice acting is brilliant if you can tolerate the Australian accent. Mechanics-wise we have a very simple interface to keep track of story progression, inventory system, and different icons when hovering items that can be interacted with. Sometimes you'll click once to describe the object, and then the next time you hover the icon will change if a new action is available. So it's all lean and as simple as it gets. That doesn't mean the puzzles are not difficult, though. The grizzled gamer will find an enjoyable challenge in The Drifter. Failing some of these puzzles will result in death and having to retry them. And let me tell you, the developers made sure you wouldn't just brute force through these; I had to look up the solution to a couple of them and I rarely give up on puzzles. I wish all point and click games used the Broken Sword approach; have the option to request a couple of hints, and if you still can't solve it, just give me the solution. If I had to point out flaws, I would say some of Carter's voice acting is too over the top and overtly dramatic at times. The dialogues repeating after dying can get tiresome if you fail as much as I did at some of them; omitting the last few would haven been a better approach. However, keep in mind this is me nitpicking rather than a serious flaw will deter your experience in any way. 9.5/10. A must-buy for fans of the genre.
Bioshock will take you to the fictional city of rapture; a libertarian utopia built away from oppressive governments that thieve your money just because they can. Unfortunately, this dream of freedom has been shattered by the usual suspects and you're about to find out what happened. I will start by saying that I loved the story, the artwork is astounding, and, while too arcade-like, the gameplay is fun and allows the player to customise their combat style. However, there are a few bugs that can cripple the experience and nearly made me quit: Firstly, on the wharf level, you need to take the pictures of 3 spider splicers. Somehow, I missed one and it wouldn't respawn, so I had to choose between a) restarting the level and saving once I got the camera to ensure I didn't have to redo all of it again, or b) try to glitch my way via console. There are different solutions online on how to enable the console, but this is what worked for me: copy the existing shortcut in the game folder and add the --console flag to the executable call. While in-game, press tab and type Ghost. Move past the wharfmaster. Once you're back on track, type Walk in the console to go back to normal. Secondly, the game crashes to desktop quite a bit on the last few levels, so quick-save regularly for your own sake, because the game won't do it for you. How is this a remastered version? Was the original version so f*cked that this feels good in comparison? Letting players soft-lock themselves is neglect of the highest order. This was diagnosed and resolved back in the 80s, when Maniac Mansion came out and players found they couldn't finish the game if they hadn't selected the right party. We're on the 21st century now, and it seems that modern day developers have forgotten the basics. It's ok if something's slipped through the cracks on release, but once you know about the issue, fix it FFS. 8/10. Would certainly recommend buying it for the story, but be aware of the bugs.
This is a fun game that shows its age but still manages to deliver fun. The proposition is interesting; you're playing either as Billy or Padre: the antagonists in the game. Basically, Padre believes Billy's murdered his brother and is out for revenge. CoJ is a rather linear adventure game. Much like CoJ: Gunslinger the story is chopped into independent chapters that you play as independent sections. Before you buy, word of warning: there are bugs in the game, crashes to desktop, and some systems are clunky. So make sure right away that your system runs it properly. The most serious issues I've encountered were easily solved by loading the last save, alt+tabbing, or increasing the mouse dpi (more about that later). The game itself is fun. When you're playing as Padre it's shoot, shoot, shoot. You can go into slow motion to shoot the foes around. You can use fanning to shoot a single gun very quickly, or equip both guns and go nuts shooting left and right. There's a handful of guns you can use, but it pretty much boils down to pistol, shotgun, rifle with a few variations each. I enjoyed the gun play very much and it's the highlight of the game. In addition, you'll go through all the classic sights in the old west: typical cowboy town, train robbery, mines, countryside, stagecoach chase, horse riding... You name it, it's in there. Billy is a different story. He's living the most Kafkian existence imaginable, so he's constantly sneaking or on the run; it's definitely not as much fun. Not all is good, though. The game has a few moments were you want to slit your wrists. e.g. eagle mountain. The whip-swinging was not working well in a specific point. I couldn't figure it out even after watching footage. I still don't know how I got through, but I nearly gave up on the game. The duels were a nightmare at first, because my character would not unholster his gun. If it happens, try alt+tabbing or increasing the dpi on your mouse. Not mind-blowing, but good. 7/10.
Word of warning, Ubisoft seems to be the publisher of this game, regardless of what the store page says. However, you don't need their rubbish software to play it. Call of Juarez Gunslinger takes us back to the wild west following the steps of Silas Greaves, mighty bounty hunter. Along the way you'll encounter the classic legends such as the Dalton brothers, Jesse James, Yves Guillemot... You know, all those filthy, good-for-nothing scoundrels that were leeching off hard-working citizens and were later on romanticised by Hollywood and shills. While this is not a quadruple... *dramatic pause*... no, quintuple-A quality video game, it's fantastic and I absolutely recommend it. The gameplay is fun, the narration's got a pinch of humour, and it's got some truly challenging fights. There are 3 game modes: Story, Arcade, and Duels. Story is self-explanatory; it has replay value, as you can upgrade your skills with XP and change your playstyle. Arcade is about shoot, shoot, shoot and trying to max on points by chaining as many kills as you can. Last, but not least, duels will give you 5 lives and you need to get through a series of duels and get the highest score... Of course, "AAA" will be the top scoring player everywhere. Something I'd really like to highlight about CoJ:G is the fact that you can find what they call "nuggets of truth" with the real stories or known facts about these characters and other miscellaneous aspects of the old west. This is a really neat feature, as at least the ones I found tend to stick to facts and present them to the player - no lecturing or politicised discourse. As the one negative point, I want to bring up that the story telling sometimes interferes with the player. If I'm fighting a bunch of enemies and in the meantime the narrator and other characters are talking, either I'm going to listen to the story and mess up the gunfight, or I'll focus on the fight and not really pay attention to whatever they're talking about. 9/10
How do you summarise a game you can sink 100s of hours in in 2k chars? Thanks to GoG we're about to find out. Cyberpunk is probably the best game I've ever played. The story is better than anything Hollywood has done since the 90s and the game depth is incredible. I've completed this game twice now, DLC included (keeping the 3rd run for the time the sequel comes out). Cyberpunk 2077 is the embodiment of the phenomenal Neuromancer books into a video game (or close enough). During your exploration of Night City you can hack enemies, enhance cyber-implants to increase specific stats, create your preferred character build, confront rogue AIs... all this while experiencing one of the most compelling stories ever starring in a video game. While I don't want to spoil any of it, the characters are well-thought and their personalities quite deep; even the secondary ones. And they come with superb voice acting; seriously, everyone is spot on. In addition to the main story, throughout the game you'll have optional, secondary storylines you can chase. On top of that, you have the third tier quests - of which there are a tonne of - that have simpler, shorter stories; completing these will help your character level up and earn some extra eddies(money). Regarding gameplay, creating your own builds and synergising it with the right cyberware implants is just too much fun. You can't have all perks equipped, so you need to pick and choose. e.g. If you are all about hacking and stealth, then you probably won't fully develop body strength perks or gun-related skills. However, all trees have amazingly fun perks you'll want to try at some point. You can craft guns, gun-mods, and hacks. Some will inflict additional effects or damage, such as setting enemies on fire. It's got quite some depth, so more to play with! I can't finish without mentioning Night City. It's gigantic and gorgeous, buzzing with life, and I felt exploring it was a unique experience. 10/10.
How do you summarise a game you can sink 100s of hours in in 2k chars? Thanks to GoG we're about to find out. Cyberpunk is probably the best game I've ever played. The story is better than anything Hollywood has done since the 90s and the game depth is incredible. I've completed this game twice now, DLC included (keeping the 3rd run for the time the sequel comes out). Cyberpunk 2077 is the embodiment of the phenomenal Neuromancer books into a video game (or close enough). During your exploration of Night City you can hack enemies, enhance cyber-implants to increase specific stats, create your preferred character build, confront rogue AIs... all this while experiencing one of the most compelling stories ever starring in a video game. While I don't want to spoil any of it, the characters are well-thought and their personalities quite deep; even the secondary ones. And they come with superb voice acting; seriously, everyone is spot on. In addition to the main story, throughout the game you'll have optional, secondary storylines you can chase. On top of that, you have the third tier quests - of which there are a tonne of - that have simpler, shorter stories; completing these will help your character level up and earn some extra eddies(money). Regarding gameplay, creating your own builds and synergising it with the right cyberware implants is just too much fun. You can't have all perks equipped, so you need to pick and choose. e.g. If you are all about hacking and stealth, then you probably won't fully develop body strength perks or gun-related skills. However, all trees have amazingly fun perks you'll want to try at some point. You can craft guns, gun-mods, and hacks. Some will inflict additional effects or damage, such as setting enemies on fire. It's got quite some depth, so more to play with! I can't finish without mentioning Night City. It's gigantic and gorgeous, buzzing with life, and I felt exploring it was a unique experience. 10/10.
Disclaimer: I've finished all 3 Penumbra games on steam. In fact, I own all Frictional Games on steam except for Amnesia: The Bunker. The Penumbra games are a fantastic series of story-driven, horror-themed, first-person adventure games. It's got a bit of lovecraft and plenty claustrophobic psychological horror, none of which would feel as good if they didn't come with excellent sound effects and music. The story is brilliant, and as the player solves puzzles, more bits of it will unravel, keeping you engaged from start to end. Without spoiling anything, Overture starts when you receive a letter from your unkown, long-lost father telling you to get some documents from a bank safe. Looking at these, you decide to go to Greenland and see if you can figure out what happened to him and why he vanished. Soon you'll find yourself trapped in an old mining complex where very insteresting things are happening... The sequel, Black Plague, resumes right were the first one left and adds a couple changes in the game mechanics: there's no combat & you can now rotate objects, both of which are very welcome since the combat in the first game was clunky and trying to be precise when putting down objects was mission impossible. There's a bigger chunk of the story in this second game and it brings the whole plot to a closure. Unfortunately, the third game, Requiem, is a toothless Penumbra. They stripped the game out of any stress, tension, and horror, and proceeded to leave the player with a puzzle solving game. Now, it's not terrible, but it's a huge disappointment considering the legacy that preceeded it. I do not recommend this last entry, as it's a waste of your time. Overall, the game stands the test of time, the graphics never put me off, and while the controls beg for a remastered version, you're going to love this. This trilogy pack is an absolute bargain. If you're into horror you can't go wrong with this. Even at full price it's a no-brainer. Final score: 9/10.
Wow. Just wow. This game's blown my mind on so many levels... Highfleet is a blend between command room strategy and live, 2d ship combat. Sprinkle on a bit of RPG, high-quality, evocative dieselpunk theme and an engaging story, and you're in for success. The premise is very simple: you need to take Khiva in order to negotiate peace. It won't be easy though; enemy strike groups are stationed across the map and will jump you the moment the opportunity arises. How you reach Khiva is up to you. You can choose a stealthy approach or a full-frontal confrontation; maybe something in between. On your journey you will meet Tarkhans (think warlords) that you can bring to your side and will aid you in different ways. Intercepting and decoding enemy communications will be key to devise the right plan. The game does quite a few things as you can see, but all it does, it does right. The strongest aspects are the strategy, immersion, and combat. Some elements are less in-depth (RPG & story), but they still shine through. It took me a lot of trial and error to succeed and make significant progress. Fuel management, for example, is paramount and nothing will stop you from miscalculating and leaving your fleet stranded in the middle of nowhere... 2 or 3 times... it happened to a friend. Ok, ok, I've lost track of how many times I had to restart the campaign until I finally managed to complete it on normal difficulty. Don't let this put you off though; it's a fair challenge, and learning all the systems and nuances is what makes the experience so immersive and enjoyable. And for those out there who are creative, there's a shipworks area where you can design your own ships and use them in the campaign. Ur and Khiva aside, everything else is dynamically generated, so every campaign will be different. I payed full price for this game and it's worth every penny. No doubt I'll be back for more on hard difficulty after designing a few ships of my own. 10/10.
