Often times in equal parts is this game overly dour and depressing, and its pacing glacial and prose overwrought. It had been awhile since my last VN and I admit my tastes in media have changed quite a bit, so getting through this was somewhat of an ordeal. But, unlike many others with innumerable dead ends, recycled scenes and poorly thought out minigames, the linearity of Fata Morgana means you won't need to follow a guide (though there are annoying QTE-like choices that aren't properly signalled) and it is a pure reading experience, so I appreciated the ease of getting through it (esp for getting achievements naturally). Still, there are times I put it down for extended periods. The central mystery of who the protagonist is, why the haunted manor is the way it is and how all these threads of fate tie together is strong, and you realize there are yet mysteries within more mysteries, half-truths and tragic misunderstandings. The title of the game is a clue to this. Still, as compelling as the narrative is, the often recycled music and lack of scene variety (though what there is is generally excellent, as are the character designs) does little to propel you forward. You'll be confused, shocked, touched and elated all within a chapter, but it can be patience testing. Things will not be soon revealed until the very last lines are drawn over your screen. It is a *very* long title, even accounting for reading speed, and the included side stories means you have a very long read ahead of you. It is ultimately a confidently told story about humans at the very best and at their very worst, the horror of one's inescapable circumstances, of very real and fantastical curses, suffused in gothic dread. *Played the Dreams of the Revenants Edition on PS Vita
A lot of firsts in this DOOM game. It saw the debut of the idTech 6 engine under the stewardship of new technical leads at a post-Carmack id Software. It arguably kickstarted the new wave of boomer shooters now prevalent in the indie space. It carries the tone and visual design of DOOM 3. Yet, it updates the gameplay and worldbuilding with modern trends like being lore heavy, but only if you want it to be in the pause menu, or RPG-lite character skills and enhancements over time. The last two points I'm not too terribly keen on, but for those wanting more character in a post-Wolfenstein TNO world of "first person shooter, but also a story", this gives some of that, and grinding for skills does give the game an extra sense of progression beyond simply collecting coloured key cards and seeing the end of the level. Arcade Mode also adds some replay value, to say nothing of the MP modes. I've gotten the platinum on PS4 and did really enjoy my time with it while double dipping on Steam. Not sure I'll be doing that again here, but it is well worth playing for any who still haven't checked it out. I greatly prefer this gameplay wise and aesthetically to Eternal as, being older now and with less time to 'git gud', I find the latter a bit too frenetic and ironically, restrictive, despite the plethora of movement options and the higher skill ceiling attainable in that title. Lastly I will say that 'The Dark Ages' looks right up my alley with its - quite literally - more grounded gameplay and pseudo melee combat system, so I'm glad id aren't double dipping on what made Eternal so popular (yet divisive), but trying something a little bit more deliberate. So that's where I'm coming from. Play this!
Bastion was one of the first games I'd booted up on my then newly-built, first-by-my-own-hand gaming PC circa spring 2011, and it blew me away. The combination of art, story, music and mechanics was hugely impressive. No, it wasn't much of an RPG, so I feel that tag is a bit disingenuous, but then again genres are fluid anyway and as we've come to see from this studio's later output, genre-bending is what they do best so this is, for all intensive purposes, a pure action game. There's not a whole lot else I might write that others haven't already; the game has aged like a fine wine and I feel anyone who wanted to play it likely already has. It's a 2.5D isometric hack and slashy experience where the narrator has quips for many actions that you do, set in a diesel-punky fantasy world on the brink of a reset, with lush hand-painted visuals. Darren Korb's soundtrack still haunts me to this day. Does it hold up as well now upon a revisit? Probably not, but I still hold fond memories of this game all the same. Save for a misstep with their follow up, Transistor (2004) - which to be fair is my own problem as I could never quite get on with its mechanics and expected something different from its sci-fi world - Supergiant has and likely will consistently deliver interesting and polished experiences for years to come. Hopefully not a 'Bastion 2: The Bastioning' anytime soon, but then that wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, I suppose.
Really fun. Has some difficulty spikes as to be expected with old school shooters. It's more satisfying than the new games by Machinegames, in my opinion. Graphics have aged well, mechanics are still solid and storytelling reminds me of Raiders of the Lost Ark in a good way. Took me about 8 hours to clear the game. A helpful tip: First get the RtCW Unofficial Patch by Knightmare. Then, be sure to go into your config file, find and change this value: /r_primitives 2 For some reason the game still has frame drops on modern systems when trying to max it out, but the above fixes that. The patch is for proper widescreen scaling. There is something called the Venom mod out there, but it may alter the OG experience too much, which still stands fine on its own.
Where Dragon Age was looking back to BioWare's Infinity Engine days, Jade Empire was experimenting with a non-Western fantasy template, something still highly rare in gaming today. In the place of turn based, D&D influenced rulesets, Jade Empire attempted an action RPG hybrid, and succeeded for the most part while failing in some critical respects. Where Mass Effect took from KotOR's crew template and sci fi quarters, Jade Empire put you in a distant, imagined Asian past with a similarly interesting party. The obligatory binary morality system is still in place, but is cleverly reinterpreted here, with a more satisfying thematic unity. Sure, it still boils down to a Light/Dark path with corresponding powers and content, but it still shook up the system. BioWare's coup de grace has always been (again, in my opinion) its excellent supporting cast. They may not tell the most original or well paced stories, nor have the most unique settings to place their games in, but their character writing is usually quite good. They are archetypal here as well: you'll have all the token Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic/Good/Evil party members. The cast in JE aren't the strongest amongst BioWare's classic roster, but they are still fun to adventure with and a couple are quite memorable, without spoiling anything.
It's not perfect. In fact, its classic Double Fine: make a mechanically sound but slightly unsatisfying game around a great and outlandish concept with wonderful humour, warmth and idiosyncrasies a plenty. Is it an old school adventure game with inventories, puzzles and an emphasis on characters and plot? Is it a platformer with challenging jumps, drops and things to collect and sights to see? It's mostly both of those things, while lacking in some other aspects, but it's more than worth the sum of its parts. In short, you've seriously got to play this.
