If you enjoy Crysis, then Warhead is a must. It has better balancing, more variety to the missions, and a fantastic final battle. I have twice as much time in Warhead as I do the original game. Also, it's better optomized; I only had a couple crashes to desktop with Warhead (as opposed to the dozens with Crysis before realizing it was the autosaves). Excellent DLC that feels like a sequel!
Crysis was groundbreaking for its day, providing large-scale arenas with lots of dynamic elements - explodable and throwable environments, lots of enemies with sophisticated AI, and a cool set of gadgets on a nanosuit without the complexity of games like System Shock 2. The story is nothing particularly imaginative, but any game that has combat in zero g is worth a romp! Yes, the game crashes. It's not well-optimized for all the assets it has in play, no matter your hardware or graphics settings. It has something to do the the save system; the game saves ALL its save files -- quicksaves, autosaves, chapter saves, everything. I was able to play through by periodically deleting old save files, just keeping the last two or three and the chapter saves. I also found that the game would crash if I quickloaded, so I just made sure to always play until I died and let the game reload me. I also avoided too many quicksaves, relying on the autosaves which are plentiful. This allowed me to get through to the end, although like everyone my frames dropped a bit on the final showdown. Still, overall it was a very smooth experience, especially once I figured out the trick with deleting the save files. Hope this helps others enjoy the game!
Kholat has suffered some negative reviews, mainly due to a tedious "enemy" mechanic in the game, but it's actually a lovely walking sim mystery. Kholat immerses the player in a graphically stunning winter landscape, complete with textured sounds and a chilling soundtrack. The task: locate clues to piece together the story, in the form of journal entries, articles, Soviet reports and some very nice Sean Bean narration. It's peaceful, surreal, and features some nice touches of magic and weird psychology to keep a player on their toes. I enjoyed this enormously, and it took me about 5 hrs to find everything and finish the final Act of the story. Does it have an annoying enemy mechanic? A little bit. But it's also a mechanic that is easy to learn, and once you do the "shadows" cease to be any serious concern. You learn to find stuff in an area to save your game so as to not lose progress before trying dangerous routes. Basically, don't let the orange mist catch you, and don't let rocks fall on your head. It's really not that difficult, just takes a few minutes to get the hang of. So don't let the negative reviews scare you off. Kholat is an excellent addition to a game library for players who also enjoyed Kona, Someday You'll Return, SOMA, Deliver Us The Moon, Through the Woods, the Vanishing of Ethan Carter, or Firewatch. It isn't quite as sophisticated as some of those titles, and it certainly is not survival horror (there's no crafting element, and no hiding/sneaking mechanics). But players who like these other titles should definitely give Kholat a chance.
Alien Isolation is an incredible experience in immersion, stealth, and survival horror with light crafting options (similar to Resident Evil games). The world-building perfectly recreates the feel of the original Alien film, and it terrifies. Unfortunately the story doesn't hold up, so don't go into it for that. Go into it for the music, the puzzle-solving, the incredible environment, the frantic rush from one save point to the next. It's incredibly satisfying, and its Hard and Nightmare modes truly live up to their names. The DLC is very, very good, so get the collection. The Survival maps provide a good 20-25 run throughs each as you try to learn the layout, find the optional objectives, and then finish hitting multipliers and bonuses. The re-creations of the original movie are really convincing, even featuring the movie's original cast providing fresh dialogue. But the best of the lot are the two Salvage maps, which at your best take a good 2.5 hrs or so to complete and offer tons of replay value. I wish the team had made more of these Salvage maps. Probably the best Alien game ever made, it's a must own if you like immersive world-building, stealth, or survival horror video games.
The Evil Within 2 is what it sets out to be: a Resident Evil-like game with fresh imagery and gameplay. It's solid enough, with some good survival horror, some good action horror, and phenomenal acting and world-building. It's a bit overly cinematic, which is not that much of a problem in the first two thirds, since there's so much to do and explore. But the final third of the game felt to me ilke just one long movie that required me to click on my mouse or E button every so often. That got a little boring, to be honest. The game has a good story, but the gameplay in the final third of the game is very anticlimactic. Definitely frontloads the most interesting gameplay. Also not particular scary. The imagery is creepy, and the sound design downright terrifying, but it never really creates that sense of dread and vulnerability that makes survival horror such a copelling genre. Because of the RE roots, at the end of the day TEW2 wants to be an action game. But it's fun, and a solid 20+ hrs of great entertainment.
Unlike the Two Colonels, which is mostly cinematic sequences and on-the-rails gameplay, Sam's Story gives you a nice big world to work with, some great mission sequences, and some of the best combat in the whole franchise. If you're pinching pennies and trying to decide between the DLC, this is the one to get. It's not perfect, and the story ends somewhat unsatisfyingly, but the campaign proper is just endless fun. Be prepared for some tough batwing encounters though! Didn't die in this campaign except for the batwing battles.
It's a solid DLC, but it's only about 3 hrs long, and half of that is taken up with cinematic sequences. It violates the Half-Life rule too much (never take your avatar's agency), but everything is gorgeous, and it fills in one of the more enigmatic relationships in the original game. Worth playing if you're going to do Exodus in the first place.
If you love Metro, then you gotta play Exodus, especially the enhanced edition. Although the world is bigger and more open, in some ways that makes the gameplay a little too similar throughout the game, with less creativity than the originals. Yet the combination of gorgeously rendered landscapes and compelling storytelling makes this an always engaging, and quite satisfying adventure. Make sure to get the DLC, and enjoy an above ground tromp trough an apocalyptic wasteland!
Alba is a charming, relaxing feel good experience where you play as a young girl determined to save the wildlife preserve near her grandparents' home. For enjoyable, soothing process-oriented gameplay, Alba is really satisfying. You birdwatch, you pick up litter, you chat with locals, you try to solve gentle puzzles, and all in a gorgeous and playfull artsy world. It's not a game; it's a heart massage. The only downside to Alba is that its underlying message is a bit of a one-dimensional reminder that corporations ruining our wildlife areas are bad. The characters are hardly surprising or inspiring in this way. But if you appreciate that this was clearly made for younger children, then it's easy to set aside the drama and just enjoy the fun, sweet tasks the journey presents.
Dishonored 2 takes everything Dishonored does, and finds ways to improve it. From little quality of life changes like spring and lean toggles, to a much deeper crafting tree in abilities, D2 creates endless possibilities for playstyles as the player makes decisions on what to collect, where to explore, who to spare, and which mission goals to accomplish. The world has incredible detail, and the voice acting is as strong as the original. The ending is a little weak, and there are a few places where the level design falters, but on the whole I found the D2 experience immersive, engrossing, and utterly rewarding. Highly recommended.
