The game itself is good, Cold Fear has a very unique concept for any game, let alone a horror title, because it takes place on a ship. The monsters and gameplay are similar to that of the Resident Evil games and the game has you encountering keys and different clues to make progress. It's a fine game, but at the time it was bogged down by some really bad technical problems and the like, this independently of the PC version or what not (that had its own fare share of issues). Now GOG has released this version with numerous fixes, widescreen support (up to even 4k wtf?) and the game has recieved tons of tweaks and QoL to make it as playable as it's ever going to be; they even added all of the game's languages, so thanks so much for that GOG!. On top of that, GOG has also made sure that the title is being sold for less than 10 buckos, which is pretty crazy on its own. Cold Fear is far from being a perfect title, it does have some annoying difficulty spikes and the saving system can be a tad bit frustrating at times causing you to lose some pretty significant chunk of progress if you're not careful. But this version is as good as its ever gonna get, and frankly it's a good game that deserves to be played by more people.
Man... it was such a great game. I remember the build up, opening the pages in the magazine (back then I rarely checked online, wasn't allowed) and there I saw it, BATMAN! In all its glory, the graphics looked insane, next gen, I knew with my Wii I could never play it. Eventually I got a 360 that didn't last long (darn RROD) but it let me play this masterpiece, I remember distinctly getting it even before reading reviews or getting previews, I hadn't gotten the magazine yet. And what a game... everything, the atmosphere, the voice acting, the narrative, the pacing, the level design. I remember loving how the whole asylum was intricate and complex but there was a genuine reason for being there and you always knew where to go next, at the time I always got lost in games -literally-. I also loved the combat, so simple, yet so satisfying. Remember having multiple moments throughout the game were I wanted the combat to evolve into a very specific thing (like Batman using the gargoyles to dangle from them like a bat for example) and the upgrade path fulfilled my expectations tenfold. Heck, I even remember loving the images in the skills and upgrades. The had collectibles too, lots of riddle trophies, which I didn't like at the time because there were simply too many and I was too young to understand the mechanic; but I do remember the audio logs though. The audios were tracks from each of the villains, all of them scattered around the island, some telling stories, others giving you glimpses to the villains personalities. It was a glorious time and a wonderful game. Now I've played the game a multitude of times, completed it multiple times, gotten the 100% achievements multiple times. Naturally, a lot of the novelty has worn off, but I still think this game holds up beautifully, it's a stark reminder of how this franchise started and one that still recaptures in a lot of ways what made it great back then. 100% recommend it.
There's a lot here to like and I think it displays an awesome amount of effort and resources, it really showcases what wondorous things the community can create but... At the same time it takes too long to get going man, and I don't like that I can't fast forward the dialog using any other keys other than clicking. The writing is good, it's funny at times, really crazy in some cases, I like the characters I met, but the gameplay... It takes a long time to get going and in a lot of cases the game is pretty reserved with its weapons, ammo, enemies, missions, it continually felt like it was holding back, and I don't know if this is because the mod wanted to artificially prolong its stay or if it was a deliberate intention related to the game's pacing. Either way, it goes on for too long, it takes a while until you start fighting any enemies that aren't rats, and when you do fight those enemies, they end up being leeches and mites, like... literally. I don't know, I just didn't like it after a while, then I blew up in a subway station and I notice I was frankly quite bored so I called it quits. Maybe people with longer patience than me can stand it for a bit longer, not me.
Loved what Flying Wildhog did with this franchise, thought all these games were really silly, gory, satisfying to play. Then they took a break after the second one, like a loooong break, about six years or so and came up with Trek to Yomi, Evil West, and this game right here. Now this title is kind of a follow up to the second game? Has the same voice actor, familiar characters, but everything clearly also had this intention of being a fairly different experience both narratively and gameplay wise... Lo Wang's personality is a bit more tone down and dumb here, less in a way that I personally find fun and more in an annoying way to a degree, but this improves significantly when a returning character shows up about halfway through. Then there's the gameplay which is much different than previous games, before it felt slower and a bit more chaotic, here it feels like they attempted to streamlined a lot of elements of how you even choose your weapons and use them and took a lot of lessons from Doom Eternal. So a lot of the times you'll be playing in enclosed arenas switching weapons to hit the right enemies in their weakspots, performing finishers than in turn also provide you with even more elaborate -but temporary- weapons, and the whole game just oozes more of the identity of that game, rather than its original idea. I think a lot of the criticisms come from that, it's different, but not a bad title imo.
Game is good, I mean... it's a simple, run of the mill, very violent and silly Soldier of Fortune game, sadly the game has severe issues running above 60fps, and the game lacks any sort of fps limiters or vsync settings, so you'll probably be running the game at above 60fps which will in turn break the game. If you want to experience this title you should use RTSS or your gpu control panel to limit its fps to 60.
I think the game itself is a wonderful time, an enjoyable romp filled with classic throwbacks to Sci-fi action movies and comics from the 80's. The pixel art is gorgeous and the gameplay is satisfying, varied, and fun. Each level follows an archetype where you're collecting secrets, switching between many weapons your enemies drop (some which are devastating and are hidden) and there's a challenge to each level of killing every enemy, getting the briefcase (an item a dude who always runs away has in each stage) and the final challenge which is beating the level without dying. What makes the title so unique though is that each level also has its own boss and every area in the game where you're bounty hunting is always themed after a particular gang, so it's always a surprise to see how the final boss of each level and area looks like and plays. You also get three characters that mainly play the same way but with some differences, like one has a gun that does more damage, another one throws some kunai knifes that have a pretty fast firing rate, another one has a pistol that shoots in bursts. It's a nice way of adding variety and you can change between these three characters at any point. But the game does have a very annoying problem and that is that, even on the easiest setting, this game is brutal, the whole philosophy of the game's design is to be as challenging as possible and some of the later stages and bosses are grueling on any of the difficulties you're choosing to play. The hardest mode of the game, for example, makes it so you don't even have a health bar and you die in a single hit, and the whole game has this ideology motivating many of its encounters and design, so overall, even if the game has difficulty settings, it ends up being a very challenging game. I think this is an issue because the game shouldn't have an easy mode if it isn't easy, right? Otherwise what's the point? Normal is a challenge, hard is plenty difficult, and the last difficulty is only for those who have the patience to bang their heads against the wall repetitively. The game does have a "cheat menu" build in it, but you have to 100% the game to get it on your chosen difficulty level, and you can't change this midway through... which also begs the question... why even have a cheat menu in the first place? But beyond that I think it's a great game, the pixel art is fantastic, music is great, gameplay is brutal but very fun, and I really, really like the simple but enjoyable narrative. It's one of those games that tells its story as you play and it's all done mainly through worldbuilding and enviromental storytelling, so I like that as well.
Nightdive sadly didn't make a one by one remaster of the first Blood game (they're making that on the 4th of december of this year with their "Refreshed supply" version). However! This is still an incredible release in its own right of one of the top three build engine games released back in the golden era of first person shooters, right alongside Shadow Warrior & Duke 3D. This one also includes the extra chapters that weren't developed directly by Monolith, and I think those are alright, but naturally the meaty six chapters are the real deal of this package. All of them are quite distinct, each level understand building up to some incredible set pieces and cool moments and the arsenal is, well... incredible, simply incredible. Build engine titles always had good weapons, but this one falls just right a bit higher than Duke for me personally. Duke had some incredibly situational weapons, but Blood flows with its arsenal, the napalm launcher is a joy to use, the dynamite (despite having a reduced range in this version) still packs a punch, and I adore the shotgun, tommy gun, and the vodoo doll; really, I just love every weapon the game has, I just don't want to enlist them all. I understand the critscisms surrounding this release specifically because a lot of its minor innacuracies compared to the original really do amount to an inferior version in a lot of aspects, but for those that aren't as passionate about some of those details will still find some amazing value here. Game features multiple difficulty levels, and even a custom one that works just as well. This can be a brutal game even on the normal difficulty setting, but the easier settings are properly balanced imo and work well in providing you with a fast paced, albeit, relaxed experience. Definitely recommend it, even with the new one releasing in less than a month.
Aspyr did the bare minimum here to get the game running, there's been multiple reports both here and on Steam about crashing issues and technical problems, but they've moved on to yet re-release more games with the most minimal effort. As for the game? This game was never really good outside of presentation alone, the more you play the more design issues start showing up. There's hardly any sort of encounter philosophy or rationale behind each fight you have, later on you get a particularly egregious swamp level that essentially boils down to running away from enemies you can't even see, and the camera does no favors to mitigate any of these problems. I don't know... I think people remember this fondly from their childhood, but this is one of those games you want it to be a lot more than what it is. Beyond the visuals and the cutscenes, there's frankly not much here for you to enjoy.
