And old school FPS (or TPS if you want) that feels like the first Half-Life, but with exacerbated issues of Half-Life. I havent played this before so this game is quite new to me, but based on other reviews Im not the only one experiencing fatigue from the gameplay. The graphics here are fine for a game thats from 2002. The sound is also fine, with decent dialogue available in game. The story is set in an alternative reality where the first world war never ended, has lasted 50 years and is still going. There are 2 sides fighting - Russo-Mongols and United States of Western Europe. You fight for the USWE of course, and your goal is to kill the leader of the Russkies. There is also a theme of corporations making money at war, but its not written in very well. Its fine to support and guide gameplay, but nothing more. The gameplay however..... You have a limit on certain weapons you can carry, its a decent limit, but a limit non the less. You can go through the game either with first person or third person mode, but in TPS mode the crosshairs of your weapons will jump around quite a bit as you fire. Even in first person view I often found the spread/accuracy of my weapons to be pretty bad. The damage they did was also sometimes questionable. But thats not the annoying part. You know that old school gaming grind, where unless you know the game very well, youre going to die a lot? Well, theres plenty of that here. The F5 is used often. It boils down to whether you like struggling to get that sense of achievement by navigating a grueling game. I get my sense of achievement elsewhere, so I dont like this type of gameplay. Its not a problem of realism, as some people claim. Its a problem of not knowing what to expect. So, if youre fine with the "trial and error" gameplay, you can give this a go. Otherwise, look for something else.
The game is a continuation of the original Alan Wake. Its continues the story of the protagonist where he is trying to defeat his "evil counterpart", which was created in the previous game. Now the graphics, general gameplay, sound/visuals are pretty much the same as the previous game. But there are quite a few things it does differently. This is no longer a horror game, but an action/adventure game with horror elements. The game shifted focus from having limited supplies, enemies attacking out of the blue, linear levels and suspension elements to having more open field maps, plenty of weaponry/ammunition (new weapons added), clearly visible enemies (some new enemies), more combat sequences and a story arc more akin to a heroes quest/journey. There are some horror elements within the game, but the feel of the first game has clearly moved away from that. This is also depicted in the art style which is now less gray and dark and has become more colourful. The story tries to primarily wrap up the events of the first game. Its not bad, its just simple and limited in terms of storytelling compared to the first game. One thing people should know is that this game has only 3 maps/areas and you have to complete them 3 times because of plot reasons. It works, its not dragged out, but one should know what one is getting into. There is also an arcade mode, but we all know were not playing this game because of an arcade mode. So how does this compare to the original? Well, unless youve played the original game, you wont really be able to appreciate whats happening here. Youll understand it, but you wont have investment. While the plot here is much more condensed compared to the first game, I liked it more, because there were less loose threads in it. The shift in gameplay was also more enjoyable compared to the monotony of the first game. But ultimately, the only reason you really have to play this game is to finish what was begun in the first. As a standalone - no.
This is a story driven adventure game. Its set during the 80's. You play the role of Henry, someone who becomes a seasonal firewatcher at a national park. While watching over the park, you interact with a woman named Delilah over the radio and share experiences about different things. There arent a lot of gameplay elements. You walk from A to B and interact with some objects, mostly read notes and communicate what you see/find to Delilah. The game is driven primarily by its atmosphere and aesthetics, which are created via visuals, soundtrack and some naration elements. This type of game doesnt need many gameplay elements, it can be fine with a good atmosphere and story. And while the atmosphere does really work well, its the story thats dissapoints. While the game has nice narration, nothing really goes anywhere or developed in any meaningful ways. Character development, plot, interactions, non of them really have a satisfying culmination or ending. I finished the game with strong feelings, but when I asked myself what was the journey about, I couldnt really understand. Feelings for feelings sake. Im not going to spoil any plot here, but I want people who are interested in these kinds of products to understand that if they get invested here, they might actually get dissapointed with the product in the end. And thats a shame, there was quite a bit of potential. Its around 3 hours long, so if you want something just to kill the evening, this might be a good choice, although somewhat expensive. But if you are looking for something satisfying storywise, look elsewhere.
So this is a horror-story driven action-adventure game. You play as a guy called Alan Wake, a writer, you go to a place called "Bright Falls" on a vacation, but thins go .... wrong. Now the premise and develpments in this game are quite interesting and are its strongest points. I dont want to spoil anything, but I must say I found the presentation quite original. The story progresses through cutscenes, in-game dialogue, notes and some others things. It does have some loose ends both throughout the story and during its ending, so I cant really praise it too highly. Voice acting and sound are good. Graphics are dated, theyre not bad, just noticeable for a 10 year old game. What is pretty weak here is the gameplay mechanics and controls. This game is made for consoles and it shows. Having 1 button for both sprint and dodge should tell you what to expect here. In regards to gameplay, it works fine while its focus is to progress the story. But as soon as it puts an accent on action it shows how limited it is in its scope and that its not really that fun. This occurs in the later 3 episodes when they start giving you a lot more guns and you have to fight way more often and much larger groups. I didnt have any issues for the most part, I always had enough weaponry and tools. But it just felt kinda forced, like they ran out of meaningful storytelling that they could do. In the bonus missions the gameplay becomes especially painful without a clear story-arc to sustain it. I didnt even bother finishing the last bonus chapter as I kept diyng on a pseudo-hamster wheel. So if youre in it for the story, you will probably get some joy out of it. Otherwise you wont find much.
A FPShooter/Slasher with a focus on carnage. You play as a immature, witty character whos goal is to kick ass. Throughout the game there are 80+ weapons. Sidearms, grenade launchers, swords, chainsaws (there are several!), etc. You also level up and get points to put into passive upgrades for the character and some skills. On top of that you collect certain relics which you can add to weapons to customize their strengh. Stuff like chargeable shotguns, dual wielding uzis, acid spitting grenade launchers, freezing chainsaws, you get the drill. There is a story, but you wont get much out of it unless youve played the previous game and even then it is kinda weak and ends with a cliffhanger. There is dialogue and cutscenes for the main game, plus stories you collect for more details about certain events and characters which led up to the events of the game. If youre in it for the story, you will be dissapointed. But the story is kinda a side note to the main point of the game, which is to slaughter. The soundtrack, sounds, visuals, everything works well to give you a feel of total mayhem. There is also co-op and its quite fun. With the available customization you can go melee, skill power, weapon, elemental damage builds and so on. What I can note is that the balance is not "intricate". Maps use a random generator and minions often have random stats. On higher difficulty settings it turns into somewhat of a mess. Its quite different from the 2013 version of Shadow Warrior, so if youve played that dont expect the same here. I was put off a bit by this in the begning, but then came to appreciate it for what it is. I personally got bored of Doom 2016 after 3-4 levels and didnt finish it yet. This game I played through around 4-5 times as of this review. So, it says something about its appeal. If you like anything FPS related, have a crude sense of humour and like constantly getting stuff for upgrades, then youve found your new home.
I got it for free and wanted to see how bad it was based on the review score, but couldnt even do that. Tried installing it several times on GOG galaxy and offline mode, tried using compatibility mode, but it just freezes on loading screen. On top of that, I couldnt even delete the game properly. If I tried deleting the game file, it kept telling me the files were being used. Took me several PC restarts until I finally decided to get rid of it for good. And after that an uninstallation program found residual files of the game in Windows Registry. GOG ..... I like you guys a lot, but these kind of issues shouldnt happen if it says windows 10 is supported. I will not spend an absurd amount of time trying to get this to work, because its not worth it, but it still sucks I couldnt even see how bad this game is supposed to be. At this point its just an eye-sore in my virtual library.
A side scrolling adventure game that has an art style and scenery going for it. Unfortunately, it doesnt have much else. The story is confusing, underexplored and ends in a kind of cliffhanger. The gameplay is kind of boring by itself and doesnt really tie in well with the story in a meaningful way. I played this in Russian, so the voice-acting and sound was fine for me. The game is also short. Like, 3 hours tops if you fiddle around with the puzzles too long. Now, I welcome such a thing as I feel a meaningful short experience is better than a dragged out broing one. Considering the games substance, its hard to say whether its a plus or a negative here. If youre in the mood for some interesting atmosphere, I think this could be worth it. Otherwise, not much going for it.
Now I remember this was the bomb back when I was a kid. The possibility to go from clubmen to robots within a single game was awesome. A lot of people I am sure still look at this game from those rose coloured glasses. I dont think I personally got to play it that much so I wanted to give it a try. Heres what I can say: The visuals from the game are kind of worse than Age of Empires, the game it is copying in a way. If you will adjust your expectations, it wont bother you that much, but it will matter later on. The sound and voiceacting is alright, cant complain about anything there. Not amazing, but that part wont bother you. The interface is pretty bad and outdated by todays standards. Its clunky, hard to understand what works with what and what counters what. Unit control and movement feels clunky as well. Comparing to AOE again, it is definitely inferior. The campaigns are rather diverse and interesting. There are 4 centering around different eras, from Stone age for the greeks, to digital era for the Russians. They can be quite entertaining. If not for one thing ... The gameplay sucks by todays standards. Now, you collect resources, build a base, build an army, wipe the other guy out, simple as that. The formula is fine, its implementation though .... You will usually have a large supply of resources available, so that is never a problem. It will, however, take time to build up a force capable of disrupting, defeating an enemy in any significant way. If you take into account all of the aforementioned issues, it doesnt make the process all that fun. But thats not the worst of it. The AI cheats horendously. I heard it doesnt even use resources to produce units and buildings. If thats the case, the gameplay turns into a slog. The combination of time sink with trial and error approach some missions force you to take, I honestly cant recommend this to anyone today who wishes to just have some fun.
A first person shooter with a loud and stealth approach. It works fine. Gameplaywise nothing will surprise you, but thats not its main focus. One of the games strong points is its comic book style appearance, which works really well. There are several different instances which you go through, so there will be variation. There is not a lot of detail, though, so you will not be enjoying the sights for long. The main point of the game, the story, fell kinda flat for me. The game is somewhat based on a comic book, XIII. I dont know anything about the comic, so I cant judge how close it is to the source material. The story begins action packed, with you not knowing who you are and trying to piece things together. Things develop rather quickly and you soon know who are your allies and who are your enemies, but the main gripe here is, nothing is explored deeply. Youre briefly introduced to good guys and bad guys and are told go. Your enemy is an organization called - the XX (the twenty). You even fight a few individual members of the XX as bosses in certain missions. But none of them are deeply explored, you know little to nothing about them, so their effect is very weak in terms of storytelling. You start out eleminating them one by one, but later on in the game you simply have most of them behind bars because the plot development demands so. And that shallowness persists throughout the entire game. Whats also quite disspapointing is a cliffhanger ending. It amazes me that the game devs created such a surface level storyline and had such weak character development, but still had the balls to end the game on a "to be continued...". Not like you will be too invested to be dissapointed that much. Despite all of its shortcomings, it was still entertaining, just be aware of what yorue getting into. For its price, its worth it.
An ARPG with an interesting premise, but a flawed execution. The setting, visuals, sounds are quite nice. The environments are good looking and there is a decent emphasis on story here. While it is not groundbreaking, it was still quite pleasing to have, unlike say Torchlight, where it just said go kill X. Your village (hub) can also be upgraded by collecting resources. While the concept is fun, the progress can seem somewhat slow at times. The skillsets are alright, not hing too fancy. Loot system is somewhat average. You have a certain tier of weapons that suit different playstyles and you upgrade by getting loot of the next tier sets. There are different stats, but it feels kind underwhelming. Now what makes the game flawed are several things. Firstly, the bugs. I had bugs where I couldnt move items into my storage and they were duplicating themselves, as well as instances where when I wanted to assemble a legendary item, the game froze. I somehow got around those and they are the only ones that come to mind right now, but that was pretty gamebreaking for me. The combat system is not fliud. You dont feel as you are really hitting enemies, just trigerring hitboxes. You can evade here as well, but the implementation is a mixed bag. I evaded attacks at point black range while I was rolling and sometimes while rolling away the enemy still hits me. Speaking of enemies, theyre not properly balanced. While there is a decent variety to them, which is nice and keeps the game fresh. Fighting them can be frustrating as some of their mechanics are not fun to play against. I played this game while listening to different things so it went by quite alright, but if I was solely focusing myself on it, then Im sure I would have gotten tired of it. So if youre not a big fan of ARPGs, skip.
