The gameplay, story, setting, graphics, atmosphere, music, sound design and character design are all on point for Metro Exodus. It is unfortunately let down by a few bugs and poor design decisions, but still absolutely worth your time and money. Its amazing how all the different mechanics interact and weave into the main story to make a compelling playthrough, and it is one of the few games I found that I could play almost non-stop. The stealth is top-notch. It gave me early Theif vibes, sitting in the darkness, listening to bandits talk to themselves, or listening to them lose their s**t as I went full batman and picked them off silently one by one. Having the last enemy surrender to you is just the icing on the cake, when they realise that you've taken everyone out and haven't taken a shot. The story is really well told and acted, and the characters seemed human, and believable, unlike the woke trash we get in most games these days. Some bugbears though. I played through first time on Ranger Hardcore on a controller, as this honestly feels like the way the game is intended to play (minus the controller). However, it also bought me face to face early on with the true boss of the game, the autosave system. Note you can save in other game modes, but in Ranger Hardcore, you're reliant on the autosave system which goes from being ridiculously generous to amazingly stingy. Once you know how to work with it, it's not too bad. But losing a whole bunch of progress due to a BS death since you got stuck on a piece of scenery, and on Ranger Hardcore you die from one to two hits, can get pretty old. The stealth can also be a bit hit and miss. I've had times when I was sure I'd be spotted, and just breezed by, and times where I was hidden in complete darkness, around a corner and got one shotted in a second. Which, with the autosave system, can be really frustrating (on Ranger difficulty). Still, absolutely excellent job by 4A games, must buy if you're looking at it.
I have tried to complete this on radiant difficulty multiple times. After one too many party wipes, dusting myself off, saying, ok I'll just start from scratch, the RNG is so F******D most of the time on the harder dungeons. People say that the Hag is the easiest last boss, but I lost my best party, and my best heroes to her, and only ONCE was that due to actually battling her. Other times, it was down to some BS combination of BS that has finally made me want to put this BS game down and tell the developers where to shove it. If you value your sanity, avoid.
It's been said a million times but if you've played and enjoyed the original fallouts, and wasteland 2, this pretty much takes that formula and improves upon it a lot. I don't often give 5 stars but this definitely deserves it. At first, I did find the overtly cartoonish art-style to be a little grating, but came to like how it juxtaposes the overt horror of the wasteland with its over the top sense of humour. The story was great, the pacing was good, the combat is fun and overall it was a really enjoyable ride from start to finish. I found myself actually thinking about certain decisions to make in game, trying to understand my decisions from an in-game perspective, and it must be saying something that a simple video game can be that thought provoking. I just found the atmosphere, story, and general hands off character development of my rangers (no cringey by the numbers backstories where I have to sit through boring exposition of some character trying to get me to care about them, ala baldur's gate) , really drew me in. My only gripe is the pretty much non-existent stealth system, which I feel could have been improved, and sometimes bad pathing from AI triggered combat encounters at the worst of times. Also, it can be a little janky trying, for example, to quickly use sutures to stop companions from dying from bleeding post combat, and unfortunately cost me a follower that I would have liked to take to the end game but couldn't! But apart from this, I really liked the game and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the setting, or just a fairly long time-sink, that's also enjoyable!
This is a great game, but marred by some issues. Great atmosphere, the story is passable, and the puzzles (most anyway) require a little head scratching. However, the game requires A LOT of backtracking, and this forced me to go through a walkthrough towards the end, as I was more sick of backtracking than anything else. Also, some puzzle designs are fairly obtuse (the maze is infamous), which are only made worse by all the backtracking. A couple I could not see how you would have arrived at the solution through logic alone, so was glad I had the walkthrough. Other than that, a well put together game, and great for when you want something slow paced but engaging nonetheless.
One of the best games I've played recently. The tension, hope, overcoming the odds, beautifully scored and a joy to play. I don't play a huge amount of games, and binged this one over three nights. Well worth it!
This game scratched an itch I didn't know I had, being a point and click adventure game which captures the essence of movies like alien, event horizon and games like dead space and system shock. It starts really amazing, with incredible atmosphere and a fully realised game world that draws you in. Unfortunately, I found after just a few hours I was groaning at the site of yet another PDA to read and puzzles do become very formulaic, with more often than not you are getting through on trial and error rather than thinking logically. The puzzles aren't that challenging, just obtuse sometimes. Having said that, I got it on sale for next to nothing, and it provided more enjoyment than much else I can get for the same price in the real world. I think the devs did an amazing job, but the gameplay needs more work for longevity. Still, very keen to try the sequel/prequel.
Honestly, I do not know why people enjoy this game, or any in the series for that matter. It's not that I haven't given it a fair go, I've had X2 on steam for years, and every time I boot it up, I shut it down soon after. I thought I'd try and see if it was its age that stopped me from enjoying it, so I gave X3 TC/AP a go, and have been trying to play it for over a month now. What I have come to realise is the X series are just bad games, pure and simple. It only warrants one star as I can see there is a modicum of passion on the developers behalf. It's such a pity, since the concept is great, but after a while I see that, while the fanboys say it's the greatest thing in the world, there's so much wrong with it. I've even tried enjoying it from a 'so bad its good' perspective - but honestly - it's just plain bad. Where to begin? The fanboys, who I can only imagine enjoy being bored and confused, rate it very highly - despite its unengaging gameplay, wall to wall jank, confusing interface, lack of direction, cliff like learning curve etc. etc. - these high ratings just serve to reinforce developers decisions to keep releasing these ultimately flawed and unfinished games. Check out reviews for X4 if you don't believe me. What's passed off as 'difficulty' and 'realism' I now see as laziness and poor design that ultimately makes a very frustrating and unenjoyable experience. Games should be difficult BY DESIGN. They have a steep learning curve BY DESIGN. The X series games are difficult, frustrating and boring due to LACK OF DESIGN. Staring at an uninteresting screen, carrying uninteresting cargo for uninteresting people is an ultimately uninteresting experience - and that's once you get past the unintuitive and frustrating controls and menus. Unfortunately there's too much to say against it to fit here. So put simply: DO NOT BUY THESE GAMES. Unless, of course, you are a sadist who enjoys being frustrated, confused, bored and supporting lazy, unfinished games.
I may be a little biased, having played the 'immersive sim' games before I even realised they were even called 'immersive sims' (talking 2002 onwards). To be honest, Prey starts out intriguing but a little flat. But as soon as I started to notice the call backs to the classics such as the shock series and even with a plotline that echoes the transhumanism of Deus Ex, it really kicked up a notch... And about two-thirds of the way through starts to fall flat again, as you can basically see the plot line rolling itself out. But honestly, Arkane have done a great job of coming close to capturing that sense of dread and excitement I felt playing System Shock 2 or Bioshock for the first time, and no studio has really captured since. The atmosphere is great, and the station can be really fun to navigate once you've opened it up. My only gripe is that I am starting to get tired of the whole US-centric historical art style these 'immersive sims' always go for - It is starting to feel to me like what wall-hugging mechanics became to shooters - more of a 'art deco influenced design... check!' - why not try, for example, the brutalist style for a change... Maybe minecraft's already tried that... But I digress... The story, while slightly predictable, especially if you've played similar games, was good enough to keep me hooked. There is a pervading sense of mystery, and the thought that there is something bigger going on behind the scenes is somewhat artfully peppered throughout. Makes it worth it for the playthroughs to see if you can pick up the bread crumbs. The bad is only minor annoyances, but I will say this - There were some points when I felt like the game was pushing a bit of a social agenda. Not that I necessarily disagree, but I play games to escape reality, not feel like reality's being surreptitiously wafted under my nose, especially when it feels like it's been shoe-horned in - at least that's how it 'feels' - not saying it is. Other than that, great game!
This was the first game I had bought in a while where I didn't do much research nor read that many reviews, my decision was based purely on the subject matter (Edo period Japan), and the fact that I hadn't played a tactical game in a while, and was feeling a bit soft-headed. Much to my surprise it was actually a throw-back to the old Commandos games, the first of which I played ages ago and absolutely loved. This is a great update to the Commandos style formula - in brief, it's using a small squad with varying and complementary skills to tackle espionage/infiltration style missions. Each mission boils down to a multitude of interlocking puzzles to solve using the unique skills of your squad members, either by incapacitating or avoiding enemies - and the result is incredibly challenging and addictive gameplay. It's a good feeling when you've set up the perfect ambush, considering all enemy patrol routes, accounted for noise and viewing distance... you set it off and appreciate the silence of zero alarms once the dust and blood settles... only to have it shattered by that pesky civilian you ignored who proceeds to ruin about 20 minutes of hard work! Annoying, but still, if you're chasing the satisfaction of executing and reaping the rewards of perfectly laid plans, this game delivers. The only reason I've dropped a star is due to the games' story - it's fairly predictable, there's little character development and it's pretty unengaging. To be honest, I don't think it needs a great story - that's not the point of the game, but it's nice the developers tried to link everything together. Sometimes the controls can feel a bit janky, but compared to Commandos are a dream. Other than that, there's not much to say - shadow tactics is nearly flawless... in short, buy it, and encourage more of this type of game! By the way, if you don't like save scumming, there's a simple solution. Don't do it... but let all of us other mere mortals enjoy saving if and when we wish.
The developer gets points for polish. The cut scenes and voice acting, for the most part, are of a very high standard. The world they've crafted is rich in lore, and makes you feel like you're exploring the fantasy equivalent of the old silk road, starting from the arabian desert, continuing through the deep forests of central asia and on to the mountain fortresses of ancient China. It's a refreshing change from the Tolkien-esque and Western-European centric fantasy we're shovel fed. Not saying that's bad, but it is nice for a change. The combat system is unique, which makes it more than your typical ARPG. You have four characters to control with different specialisations and skills. Switching between them is easy and this opens up a lot of tactical play. You can freeze targets with your demon, then debuff their defences with your warrior, damage them with spells for the killing blow - all in a matter of seconds. I recommend playing the game on hard, as I think this is the difficulty the game was intended for... expect to die alot, but it is a more rewarding experience as it requires you to think more tactically about encounters. However the game really starts to really drag. There are a lot of labyrinthine areas to explore, and if you play on hard the game can take awhile. I still have 3 acts to go and am approaching the 30 hour mark - but I've esentially lost interest in the game. I realised I had to put it down when it started to feel more like a job, and it can get very frustrating with the amount of backtracking you have to do. I think the developers tried to pad out gameplay as much as possible - e.g. one area has you go all the way to the top of a level, just to go all the way back to the bottom to be told to go back to the top. I've docked two stars for this. It would have been so much better as a tighter, more focussed experience, but I feel the developers tried to pad things out too much with (some) cheap puzzles and pointless backtracking.
