Go into Lake Ridden with the right expectations, and it is a rewarding experience. The art is lovely without being sensationalist. The pace is a slow and steady, with some really great puzzles that are not obvious, so you have to think, but also are not so hard they become frustrating (plus, there is a handy hint system that absolves the need for external help). Some of the dialogue is iffy, and the visuals do have this annoying feature where your screen zooms slightly whenever you run your avatar (presumably to simulate leaning forward while you run) that makes me occasionally nauseous. It's not perfect, but if what you're looking for is a relaxing world full of puzzles and magic, Lake Ridden is a treat.
I found this game very satisfying to play, even if the ending was a bit anticlimactic. The world-building is exceptional, and they bring in survival elements just enough to make the world realistic, but not so much as to stress you out. The result is a very peculiar mystery that slowly unfolds in a dazzling winter wonderland, with all kinds of goodies to search out. The landscape is beautiful, the driving mechanics are fun, and the puzzles at time can be quite challenging - the mechanics pad is especially bewildering. It's not the strongest narrative, but the use of ancient folklore is pretty cool, and the narrator has the perfect voice. The whole thing feels like a season of Fargo, and that's a good thing. I very much recommend this experience.
What a fantastic experience. Edith Finch is an elegant piece of story telling. The world you explore is strange and curious, drawing the player in to explore. Although you never meet any characters directly, the backstories are incredibly deep, and where Edith Finch excels is the creative ways it tells each person's story. From living a graphic novel to seeing a story in a flipbook, it give you enough agency to feel in the story while immersing you in a well-told campire narrative. And the visuals in this interactive -- truly one of the most beautiful examples I've seen yet of digital art. Took me about 3 hrs to finish, but as soon as I did I wanted to start over from the beginning. It's the kind of story you want to return to a few times a year, just to relive it again, like a favorite novel. Everyone should walk the Finch house. Do it in one sitting, with headphone for that moving music, and let the narration sweep you away.
The unnecessarily underrated addition to the BioShock story, I enjoyed this playthrough immensely. Yes, the story is not quite as strong or surprising as the original game, but the voice acting is phenomenal and it really does fill out the Rapture world and events. The new areas are awesome, and the new combat styles are super fun. By the end of the game, I was pretty much only using drill slam, rocket spears, heat-seeking RPGs, and phosphorus buckshot. The combat is very satisfying, but the world is fun to explore to and see how many traps you can set up while your Little Sisters are gathering. And the game avoids BioShock's one misstep. I found the battle against Fontaine at the end of BioShock both inconsistently over-the-top and not particularly interesting - I beat him the first attempt. I dislike games having some ur-boss at the end. So I was glad that Sofia Lamb is not the final boss. Instead, the game ends with an awesome, chaotic, deathmatch style free-for-all (Prey 2017, take note, this should have been how you ended your game as well). There is no good reason to not play this if you liked BioShock. It is significantly shorter in my experience; BioShock took me about 30 hours, wheres BioShock 2 took me only about 20. But I enjoyed every minute. One caveat is that, while I bought BioShock and BioShock Infinite on GOG, I bougth BioShock 2 on Steam because that is the only way to get Minerva's Den. It's silly that 2K didn't upload that DLC to other venues. So decide whether you really want access to Minerva's Den or not when deciding where to get it.
As far as I can tell, this whole experience was created by Matt Clark with the help of a few friends and family members. Given that this is a one-person project, it's pretty darn cool. The game is deliciously creepy, especially in the opening moments. The art is fantastic, the ambiance and sound really set the mood, and it's a clever mystery, with lots of educational moments spread throughout the game world. This is point and click, which means there is a bit of pixel hunting. For the first half of the game, I didn't mind this at all, especially as new areas keep opening up. It's fun to figure out how to climb into the barn, or to creak around Emma's trailer out in the marsh. The first set of puzzles isn't too hard, and clues are ready to come by. But as the game progresses, the puzzles become much more intricate, and start depending on you taking real world notes on what goes where. It was at this point I wish the game had gone to a more automated approach, with the avatar taking notes for me. I had to look up some stuff that I didn't realize I needed to write down. The result is a bit too much backtracking in the late stages along with a lengthy collect-a-thon as you seek all the requisite ceremonial elements. Still, it's a greally good example of how to create a creepy horror game in a point and click format. It's fun, it's educational, and it was clearly a passion project. I'm a fan, and I look forward to trying The Dark Path!
A good point-and-lick horror adventure can't be beat. Unfortunately, Stasis is a hard game to praise, excelling in some things and not in others. The art direction in this experience is incredible; terrifying in its beauty. I just love the lights passing through the stained glass near the end. The world-building is fantastic, and it can kill your avatar. You can even kill yourself! It's bold and disturbing. And the overall story is fairly good. But the gameplay is so counter-intuitive. Forward progress is rarely obvious. In one sequence, you need to figure out that you need to run a loader by finding a dead body and tearing its eyes out. The means to do this requires some really careful scruitinizing of a pda and a lot of backtracking. Most of the puzzles are like this: lots of backtracking and looking around the screen carefully for anything that is possibly clickable. After awhile, this gets really tedious, and the puzzles cease being fun to solve. It's a shame for an experience with so much potential. Also, the dialogue writing is pretty bad, which is not good for a dialogue heavy game, both spoken and written. Most of the dialogue feels like it has the same "voice," making all the characters blur together. It's a beautiful experience, and I love the isomorphic perspective and the horror themes, but Stasis misses a lot of what makes point-and-click puzzles so much fun.
Bioshock has all the great story-telling and immersion of Half-LIfe, combined with the brilliant RPG/FPS elements of System Shock 2. The voice-acting is what really makes this game work; it makes Rapture seem so alive thanks to the constant chatter of its characters. There are tons of things to explore that are not required, and the system of collectibles is fairly complex. There's EVE, ADAM, scrap, weapons, weapon upgrades, plasmids, tonics, different kinds of ammunition, and more. The world of Rapture is just so lovingly rendered too. I got my game from GOG. I just played the original Bioshock, didn't touch the remaster after everyone said it was full of game-breaking bugs. So far, my experience of the classic game has been amazing. My only suggestion is to make the controls .ini file read-only, so that if you do have a crash it doesn't reset your settings. A must play for any fan of the interactive arts!
Outlast 2 is a tough game to review, because there are elements it does so well, and others it doesn't. The net gain is hard to weigh, but I ultimately think it's worth playing if you like the original. What it does well: - Environment design and atmosphere. This game is unbelievably creepy. The shift from the insane asylum to a forest full of demented villagers is perfectly executed, and everything looks even better when night vision is on. This game is jaw-dropping in its horrorific detail. - Expanded mechanics. Now you can hide underneath non-designated hiding spots, thanks to a crawl addition to the game. There are more designated hiding spots as well, including wardrobes, barrls, and tree stumps. The sound mic on the camera is a sweet bonus. What it doesn't do well: - Expanded mechanics. Everytime I hide in the new designated spots, I get found. When I try to crawl to a non-designated hiding place, they catch me before I get there. If you add mechanics to a game, you have to create contexts where utilizing these tools is worth it. Also, you still can't throw objects to distract enemies (as in SOMA), which wasn't necessary in the original but would definitely have enhanced this game. - Too many chase scenes, not enough hiding, little opportunity to escape. What made theo riginal game so great was the hiding and hoping not to get caught. Or if you did get caught, trying to escape and hide before they catch you. This time around, I felt most encounters were just forced chase sequences. Hiding doesn't matter, and the escape route is forced, unlike in the original where how you try to escape is somewhat up to you. This undercuts the central mechanic of these games. The tension comes from trying to sneak around and hoping to not get caught. Just chasing the player all the time gets tedious after ahwile, and is far less scary. Still worth playing, but definitely not as anxiety-inducing as the original.
I nearly thought Limbo was a perfect game: stunning visuals, fantastic gameplay, and wickedly difficult puzzles. The one drawback of Limbo is that the controls are a bit tough to handle. There are so many precision jumps required in this game, and I missed nearly all of them several times. In a game, if the player knows what they need to do, but can't do it because of the controls, that's a poor design. I love Limbo, but the controls really made it difficult to do things. Inside totally took that to heart, and features one of the smoothest gameplay experiences I've ever had. The controls are so seamless I almost forgot about my keyboard, it's that easy to control the avatar in this game. And what visuals. It's haunting, heartbreaking, and eye-popping all at the same time. I don't know what any of it means, but I couldn't wait to see what was around each corner. The only downside to Inside (ha!) is that it has traded controls and scenery for the brilliant mechanics that made Limbo so great. The puzzles in Inside are far less interesting, and most of the situations were pretty standard for platformers, other than the weird mind-control sequences. Hopefully the next game from this team will combine the best of both games. Still, Inside is really worth playing. It's like an incredible animated film that you get to be a part of. Exceptional camerawork, great lighting, ominous color scheme, and the weirdest ending in recent memory for a video game.
Without a doubt the most original platformer at the time of its release. Limbo employs an astonishing physics system that allows for gorgeous, haunting visuals combined with really challenging, head scratching puzzles. The truly standout puzzles are the 360 degree rotations of the map, something I've never seen before in a platformer. You die A LOT in this game, but the exceptional autosave makes that a feature, not a bug. Graphics are minimalist but chilling, and the sound design is first-rate, providing an oppressive background noise alongside the occasional terrifying sounds (e.g. the buzzsaw revving up). The only drawback is that the controls are not as responsive or precise as they should be for a platformer this complex. Made me feel in a few places like I was back with the frustration of the original Metroid. When you require players to make precise movements without warning, at least give us a means to control our avatar with precision. Still, the touchy controls are worth the annoyance for the spectacular gameplay. There isn't much story here - just a boy trying to escape Limbo, but the ending is absolutely satisfying if you really pay attention to what is happening. It's NOT a happy ending, although it is an ending exemplifying closure. Highly recommended, especially on sale.
