Absolutely unforgivable. You can select one of 5 preset configurations, but a big FU from the developers if you desire (or you have finger/hand/wrist injuries like me and NEED) something that has been a standard feature for, what, 30-40 years of PC gaming? Cheap, stupid SOBs. Back to emulators!
The story and visuals are good, but none of it matters to me because combat is pretty much trash. You tap rapidly to throw little balls, hold down to charge big balls. That's it. Training is over, go home. Since this is a game set in a CYBERIZED SYNTHBODY GAME WORLD where an entire continent on an alien world has apparently become a place for people to log into virtual bodies to act out their dreams, the technology level is like Ghost in the Shell. So I was hoping for, oh, some technologically advanced weapons? Nope. And all the GAME can say is that the girl is in a class of her own with balls *snicker*. Truly something else. Glaring writing oversights aside, skills are pathetic and underwhelming, items don't do squat other than +1 defense/health/armor/etc., and it is truly an astoundingly large miss in game design. For comparison, the original Zelda had the sword with THREE attack (slash, charge, circle attack) plus bombs, hookshot, angry fairies, etc. I mean, COME ON!!! You're not even going back before 16 bit nostalgia, and 8-bit is kicking your ass!
...than the original Painkiller. I like some of the weapons in this game better than Daniel's weapons in the original Painkiller, much more organic and high-poly with better animations. Levels didn't seem quite as memorable, though that may be because the original was my "first impression". You know, the doom of most sequels ("hey, this isn't the way the first one ______!") Belial was also forgettable to me, more of a "Hey, didn't I just shoot all your brethren in the first game? So why aren't you DEAD?" But hey, nobody plays games like this for the story, just point and shoot. Simple things can be good! (Looking at you, ASCII-based RPGs) I have always been EXTREMELY upset I couldn't play all the levels in both games with the ENTIRE weapon set, Painkiller's weapons and Overdose's. That would be friggin' epic like Unreal Gold (if you cheat, at least). Sadly, this addon is totally independent of the original and never the two shall meet code-wise unless there's a mod somewhere I'm not aware of. So five stars for the weapons and more stuff to shoot, four for the levels and four for very, VERY short length. 4.333 stars overall.
Yes. It's a thing in this game, but somewhat hidden. I mention this because I didn't buy this game for about 7 years because "5 weapons? Laaaame..." It IS somewhat annoying that your third fire usually uses one of your primary AND secondary ammo. Stake gun is ASMD mode: fire a grenade with secondary and then fire a stake THROUGH the grenade - boom, makeshift rocket launcher! The Shuriken Launcher is neat, but costly: launch lightning by HOLDING secondary and hit primary so both fire buttons are pressed down together. The entire magazine is fire as a lightning turret! In Battle out of Hell, the SMG fires flame grenades as its combo mode, and the Bolt Gun is just a really difficult Stake Gun combo (shoot the grenades!) Rocket Minigun doesn't have a combo, and the Shotgun Freezer is what you would expect (freeze enemy then use the shotgun to shatter them is its "combo"... :P)
If you have ever gotten mind-blowingly furious over the stupidity in our world, these games might, heavy on the MIGHT, be for you. Be warned, there is no nudity but a TON of crude humor, cussing, and ludicrous amounts of violents. On the other hand, you're in a nightmare, so the things your "killing" aren't lifelike at all. Which is kind of the point: there isn't one except to blow off steam in what is essentially Wonderland + lucid dreaming + firepower. If you're easily offended, please go away and make yourself miserable somewhere else, the rest of us have enough problems. If you want point-click-BOOM ad nauseam, this is for you. As for the humor, it's aimed at literally everyone. Liberals, conservatives, Trump, Biden, COVID, vaccines and mandates, panicky sheeple, lockdowns, "science", fridge-logic video games, the fourth wall, etc. If the violence and cussing doesn't bother you, it's actually is pretty funny in a lot of ways. The reason is simple: the jokes are NOT mean-spirited and insulting, and a lot are pretty spot-on. One final "warning" (FEATURE!): the game makes use of a crap-ton of stereotypes to poke fun at. So you gotta ask yourself just one question: are you someone who wants to die popping an aneurysm over enforcing politically correctness so you can feel morally justified, OR... do you wanna laugh at it because none of it friggin' matters? DO NOT PLAY IF YOU CAN'T LET GO OF INCONSEQUENTIAL MATTERS!!!
Okay, so I have Outward and The Soroboreans DLC, but not Three Brothers since: A. Most people said that the Three Brothers DLC sucks B. It has co-op that requires Galaxy to connect (DRM, does nobody remember direct connection via IP addresses!? ipconfig) C. Three Brothers is $20. This shit is $40. I've already spent that, so screw this update that has DRM, is overpriced, and requires a crummy DLC instead of the GOOD DLC THAT I ALREADY HAVE!!! The Soroboreans adds more anyway, Three Brothers is just a way to build your own castle and town... after waiting a year or so in-game...
First off, I don't like point and click games. Full Throttle is a lot different, though, and boy did it make an impression! I got a demo of it back in the mid-90s that ends right after you get out of the bar -> fight the other biker on the road -> move the jump ramp into position. Now I get to finish the whole game! I think it really got me when I couldn't figure out how to get past the barkeep until you learn how to target his nosering. The cutscene of the main character grabbing the barkeep's nose and ring and slamming it into the bar just hit a chord with me (it was a crummy day anyway, and there was a bully around that time but no nose ring...) Plus I dunno why, but I started laughing maniacally while learning the controls as I kept accidentally (then purposefully) making a super-tough biker dude continually say: "I'm not putting my lips on that!" I'm glad this is here, I never really like Curse of Monkey Island. My demo copy got thrown out because the disk got infected (unofficial CD with a bunch of shareware demos I and a friend swapped back and forth because he had a CD-RW drive while mine was just a standard CD-R(ead-only)). What memories - that CD also introduced me to Wolfenstein 3D, BioMenace, Monster Bash, Raptor: Call of the Shadows, and eventually a little game called Doom!
I remember first turning on a computer I built around early 2008. I had been interested in open world games since Far Cry 1 on PC, and when I booted this up it didn't disappoint. I started in a bunker, emerged, and ruins of a small series of buildings are in front of me with an encampment. A dead tree was off to my left and I turned in time to see crows fly over a field with lightning strikes in the far distance. I dearly love this game, and mods make it sooo much better. A lot of features were cut from the game, like "blowouts" (waves of radiation and psionic energy emissions from Soviet experiments under Chernobyl, no more spoilers), and mods that add them in really raise immersion: there's nothing like crawling into the attic of an abandoned cottage and eating canned food during a lightning storm, while listening to invisible Bloodsucker mutations move about in the dark and counting your bullets to determine if you can kill it for its precious body parts (for ammo and food) or if you'd be better off sleeping and healing, then running for your life the next morning if the monsters are still around. I did get sick of the difficulty and played most of it with a trainer. The levels aren't huge like Far Cry 1's, but there are so many ways to die (especially instakills by invisible Anomalies) that you MUST move slowly in a lot of areas, and larger maps might be a burden instead of a blessing. Still, if ever a game needed a remake and expansion, this would be it! Heck, what about a game where the Zone never stopped and has expanded to encompass most of northern Ukraine and southern Belarus? Make a HUGE game like Just Cause 3 or something like that! Just one tip: if you find a way to kill the Duty Faction guy who says "Get out of here, Stalker", DO IT. I must have heard that around two thousand time, and I may be undercounting... or, you know, mod it out. Shooting him was a lot more fun, though... you'll see...
I really enjoy Elex and Elex II - no other game essentially plays as "Conan the Barbarian found jetpacks and laser rifles". After the novelty wears off, though, there are some things I hate. First, everything single thing is STILL stat-locked like the last game. You can get the best weapons in a couple hours of new start, but it will be a month of grinding before you have the stats to wield them. Second, by the time you can wield the best weapons you have stats that allow you to essentially one-shot just about everything with a broken rusty hat pin. BORING. Clerics were my favorite in the first game. They've essentially sacrificed everything and are a depressing, dying breed in this one. MAGIC STILL SUCKS HORRIBLY. Outlaw skills still suck, Clerics literally have NOTHING now but a Last Stand and Resistance skill, Albs and Berserkers rule overall. NO SUMMONING. At least you can kind of renew magic in the field without potions. Finally, things just seems a lot more empty and depressing than the last game. I really enjoyed Elex 1, as I have Aspergers and I really felt like I could connect to Jax on feelings. I loved a "Cold" playthrough, being "Emotional" for no apparent reason really seemed like art imitating life. I also remember the levels, hunting in desert, lava field, the frozen North, seashores, etc. Elex II feels different. More compressed. Ruins don't feel handcrafted and are smaller, I don't get the sense I am running through a post-apocalypse, just copy-paste buildings and environments. Hell, even the first game had irradiated apartments that had gotten partially submerged in a swamp along with a factory at the bottom of a waterfall in a giant sinkhole. This is: fields with grass (Berserker everywhere), fields with snow (the North which is like 45% of the game), and a pile of scrap (Outlaws). That's the entire game. THERE ALSO AREN'T ENOUGH MONSTERS! Elex 1 was special, even the desert was interesting. This... got the jetpack right.
Review: WTF?! In length: Other reviewers aren't kidding, even with a full time job you can finish it in one evening. No replayability AT ALL, no New Game Plus, no keeping your weapons and unlocks, NOTHING! If I had to guess, they were behind their release date due to 2020 and such, and simply said "Screw it, throw out the 90% of the game we planned and just release what we have, polish and grind away all extra content that could cause bugs, and give the players a refurbished demo." Damn this, I pre-ordered it. I want a refund. Shadow Warrior 2 was a pseudo-open world game, random missions, unlocks, etc. In this game you have nothing redeeming, number of weapons was cut by nearly 2/3s (only 7 now), no special attack, etc. Most of the weapons are one-use items or timed-use you get from finishing moves. You have a freeze grenade, black hole grenade, health boost, dual miniguns (that don't fire as fast as a single machine gun from some games), and the best two: swarm missile launcher and a bladed eye drone boomerang thing. Which unfortunately you won't be able to use more than half a dozen times in the game. Well, all they can do to me now is say no to my refund request!
