At first glance, I took Leap of Faith to be another cookie-cutter AVN. Implausibly buff guy manages through improbable circumstance to meet up with girls and have the option to hook up with them. Sounds like the usual trope, right? Not so much. This game touches on a whole range of sensitive topics, and is seriously emotionally impacting. I defy anyone with any emotional connection whatsoever to get through playing this and not be touched by it. If you feel emotions strongly, this game might well cause you to need a day or two to recover. Other reviews have already touched on much of the themes, so I am loathe to repeat that, but I think what I noticed most was that this is a blend of two very different concepts, without feeling forced. On the one hand, the AVN trope - everyone's good looking, often not wearing too much, mid-twenties, there's quite a bit of sex if you choose - and then there's the entire rest of the game, which is deep, well written, emotionally charged, vivid character building, and filled with humour and sadness. The sex scenes often feel fitting and meaningful instead of forced. There are some scenes where the writing is worthy of philosophy, of deep inner awareness of mental health and self-reflection. The music, even the cut-down list that makes it into the game, is absurdly well scored for each moment; and there are quite some moments. Would I change anything? Well, I hope for the days where these adult games mature, pun intended, into working for all audiences, rather than so often just the male heterosexual, but I would caveat that by saying this is an indie dev who nevertheless created nearly 30k renders for just this set of character arcs, so I also understand the constraints that multiple protagonists and even more arcs would impose. The latter chapters are a little less well-structured vs the opening, and a few plot elements are easy to miss, but it's minor stuff. This is, as will become clear if you play it, one hell of a story.
This is probably one of the most fun post-apocalyptic games I've played in a while. Countless little scraps of lore, excellent if somewhat predictable story with enough twists and reveals to stay interesting (avoid spoilers; it's worth it for your own guessing and theory-crafting as the story unfolds), beautiful attention to detail and world-building, and a protagonist that is actually really likeable for once. Aloy does risk being a bit of a Mary Sue at times, but remains down to earth throughout, and the power fantasy aspect is a refreshing change from endless hobbled anti-heroes. Personally I'd suggest playing on Story or Easy to avoid the (many, many) robot battles outstaying their welcome as you level up across the tribal wasteland, but it's a glorious romp either way, with delightful little elements of skill in taking down the larger challenges. Equipment choices let you really customize and approach combat in a variety of ways, from stealth to heavy combat to more tactical hunting. The robot types are varied enough, and there's just enough sci-fi to keep the game interesting. The PC port is generally excellent, optimized pretty well, and the game well worth your time. The DLC integrates nicely into the flow of the main game, rather than feeling like some random tacked-on entry, and has some of the best terrain and animal detail I've seen. If I have any critiques, the controls end up requiring you to hold buttons down consistently to accomplish basic tasks, but aside from that, the experience was a blast start to finish. I'd have liked a bit more story and a little less open-world as the world itself does risk becoming a little rinse-and-repeat after a while, but there's just enough detail scattered around to keep exploring interesting. I can only hope Forbidden West's port is as good and makes it to GOG to complement Zero Dawn.
The fundamental problem with Vampyr is the game doesn't know what it wants to be. It's got RPG & storytelling components, interactions with people, but strongly encourages you to kill characters before you've even unlocked hints about them because you desperately need the XP. It has a bizarre design choice where you have to kill Citizens for XP, while the game lore suggests vampires can blend in, drink blood without killing their victims, alter memories, and... well, none of the things you get to do as the protagonist. It spends too much time trying to make clever statements, and not enough time actually producing good gameplay value. The combat is clunky, and most of the time you will be under-levelled unless you go full psychopath re Citizens. Add to that enemies respawning immediately after you die, and you have a recipe for endless tedium of re-attempting the same fights getting one-shot you for the slightest error. This isn't fun, just a new way to create repetitive strain injuries. When an enemy made a jump attack, missed me due to dodging, then we're yanked together because of hit boxes (and then I die anyway!), I'd had enough. To add insult to injury, there are no saves; any errors you make due to the incompetent game design, bugs you encounter, or just happen to walk into an area that is vastly over your level and trigger consequences you cannot possibly do anything about yet - sorry, you get to start the game again. Roguelikes usually have the courtesy of being short gameplay loops for a reason. For a game that allegedly revolves around story & choices, most of the characters are breathtakingly shallow. Once you've exhausted a few hints & investigations, they're just taking up space in the background. Coming from real vampire games like Masquerade, it feels lacklustre & no time really spent on what being a vampire can be about. It's just not a satisfying game. Play on Easy, get a mod for full XP start, or just spend your valuable time elsewhere.
At first glance, Bridge Commander is an interesting fun take on the Star Trek & capital ship command genre, yet it quickly pales in comparison to other games even of the same era. Your bridge crew are incompetent; you have to manually pilot the ship to achieve any useful outcomes, which makes a mockery of the command aspects of the game that the initial tutorial spends ages pointing out. Yet there is no stick support, which leaves you punching the keyboard trying to control the myriad aspects of a starship while trying to fly as well. People tout mods without mentioning the little detail that the major mods that remain 20 years later will break or dramatically alter the single player campaign. On normal difficulty I found that the combat was pretty random. The same scenario could play out with my ship getting destroyed or easy victory, with little to suggest what if any startling command I had displayed. In other words, random chance and whether a torpedo impacted appeared to matter more than any player agency. The lack of intra-mission save points makes repeating the same annoying mission sections deeply frustrating. The game is desperately lacking information to make clear why you're succeeding/failing. The most aggravating aspect is that it has such potential even in 2021. It needs a flyable control scheme, crew AI that understand 3D and support you by doing something useful, and perhaps most of all a plot that was more in-line with what Star Trek was about, instead of thrusting you into repeated one-sided combat. Other games do space combat better and the developers had an opportunity to make starship command be more than just shooting stuff. Klingon Academy does the single player and control schemes far better (and it's a crying shame that that gem isn't available on GOG). Starfleet Command does the capital ship command & control better. I-War offers more realism in the flight models. I really tried hard to like this game, but it's just not that fun.
Control is a good game, blending a superb light horror story with interesting if repetitive gameplay. As a shooter alone, the game lacks; its health mechanism is clunky, and the level design & graphical style obscures too much for competent gunplay, but I don't think one plays Control for the shooting alone. The protagonist, played perfectly by Courtney Hope, finds herself drawn into the Bureau and the catastrophe that has unfolded inside it; what I love most about the story, from all of its subtle horror & quirky 1960's aesthetic to the various lore strewn about, is that her circumstances slowly evolve from 'I'm unexpectedly locked in here with you' to 'you're locked in here with me', and it makes for a truly fun time, worth every little exploration & interesting corner. It's by no means perfect. I deducted one star for a couple of reasons; the first is technical. Even at Ultimate Update 2, the occasional crash mid-boss-fight and needing to use mods to fix texture loading isn't the best experience. When I had to keep entering a menu to just read a combination on a whiteboard, it got more than a little annoying. The other is down to a few frustrating design decisions (many of which can be modded around). The health pickup system and lack of any real shield/cover/dodge in early game makes for a lot of annoying deaths, not least when Jesse gets stuck on many of the destructible parts of the world. The boss fights are mostly poor; built around specific concepts that require you to tailor your approach to what the dev had in mind; one of the expansion bosses can really only be beaten one way and only with the right mods. To Remedy's credit, there is an Assist set of options that can even make you immortal to just enjoy the game and get through these, but it's testament to the game being better at telling a story than at providing quality, varied & heavily tested gameplay. All that said, I'd buy a sequel in a heartbeat. It's a protagonist & world I'd love to revisit.
I really wanted to love Battletech. It's a really interesting universe and the game seems to have nailed the actual aesthetic of giant robots punching each other. Unfortunately that's all it does; it's a shame that the execution of the actual game is so poor. A thread-bare boring storyline, a design that loves to waste your time, lack of any sensible tutorial, badly explained mechanics, poorly thought-through UX and 'story' mission design pulled straight from some sadistic DM's handbook. It... just isn't that fun. I kept playing after the first few priority missions, hoping the game would pick up, become interesting. It doesn't. It's just the same grind, over, and over, and over. Watching endless loops of your ship travelling, waiting for mechwarriors in the medbay, incredibly long loading screens - paint drying is giving the game good competition at times. When you're finally in the game proper, you'll have seen the entire mission range of possibilities in perhaps eight hours. Expect to see it repeated, a great deal. Aside from the occasional amusing soundbite from one of the mechwarriors (Glitch I'm looking at you), the game feels completely soulless. Even the maps seem built to drain your soul with monochrome planet surfaces that are endless seas of red, or grey, or white. Design feels like a design-by-committee mess. It can't decide if it wants to be a story-driven RPG, a roguelike, a top-down strategy game, or a mobile port cow-clicker. That this is from the same developers that created Shadowrun: Hong Kong beggars belief. I don't know if they simply tried to take on too much, or whether they just threw so many game elements in they figured 'something here must appeal to everyone' but the game sorely needed greater focus. The game is not without its merits. I suspect if you just want to play some skirmishes and see some mechs shoot each other, it's got a lot going for it. It's just there's little beyond that.
I didn't really know what to expect from Dex. An unusual mix of side-scrolling, RPG, and cyberpunk that nonetheless not only works, but is enormously good fun. Once you get used to the side-scrolling controls, Dex takes you into a world that is perhaps a little cliched, even predictable in places if you're familiar with the genre, but we get so little in the way of decent cyberpunk, I can't help but fall in love with it. It simultaneously manages to take me back to old days of Beneath A Steel Sky and more recent and more combat-oriented games such as Deus Ex or Shadowrun. That alone is to be appreciated. The characters and voice acting are well done, particularly for such a small studio, and the game helps you build your blue-haired protagonist & beautifully voiced Dex your way. Do you favour stealth and alternative entrances or combat and out-and-out slugging? Silver-tongued dialogue or brute force? The missions are nicely varied both in content and approach, giving you a real chance to tailor the resulting experience to a given style and role. The soundtrack is wonderful, and really helps build that dystopian vibe. While small, the wonderful world built has nothing spare about it - everything ends up having a purpose, which is a joy to encounter as you progress further into the game and go 'oh, so that's what that is for'. I'd like to see more of this, please, Dreadlocks. Even just more of the same would be just fine.
Rebel Galaxy is not terribly deep, and this is not merely a pun on its navigation. You won't find the likes of X3's intricacies, or Freespace 2's excellent plot, or 3D flight at all, but what is there I would describe as a fun Han Solo or Firefly simulator in partial 3D with a distinctive Southern US twang. Dropping you into a distinctly rusty end of space, the relatively thin plot is a convenient excuse for you to make a great deal of money and convert that into better equipment, larger ships, and more pretty explosions. The combat is satisfying if not sophisticated, and not since Freespace 2 have I had as much fun with beam lasers and cannon fire glittering inbetween the stars. Each outpost within each system is its own little political microcosm which produces and imports certain goods, but can vary due to being at war, or in famine, or in a tech boom etc. You can gain reputation with factions around the systems by doing missions for them, or just interfering as you see fit. Respond to a distress call, help out a trader under attack, and Citizenry will gain some reputation and the trader will give you some money. You can trade with that trader directly or you can go the route of the pirate, demand they hand over their cargo, or destroy a relief ship on the way to a famine-stricken world and thereby inflate food prices higher. The choice is yours & as a playground, Rebel Galaxy is quite interesting if a little static for those looking for true sandboxes. Great if shallow fun for a few days. Some finishing tips: Hull and equipment in it are unlinked; you can finish the game in a corvette or a dreadnaught; just a matter of how much firepower you have in turrets vs speed. Missions are where the money and rep is; just beware escort and protect missions that might intersect unfortunately with the game universe's varying behaviour. Get Rank 8 with Merchants Guild to get EMP ablation. If you hate the music, you can hook custom soundtracks (but I loved the themes).
