I originally got Evil Within at release after months of being hyped by its trailers and teasers. I am a big fan of Resident Evil and I was excited to see what a new series could do in the survival horror space. I mostly came out of the game confused and not very positive. It was years before I decided to give it another shot. The first thing i'll say is this: This game takes a lot of time to grow on you. Its better to go in with expectations of its faults so that its best aspects can truly shine. My biggest gripes are that the story feels pretty nonsensical for several chapters and it wasn't until several chapters in that a lot of elements fell into place to give context to what was happening. This is a psychological horror and many of the threats are based in the games reality but the narrative progresses a bit too slow to give you satisfying reveals that you can relate to what you are experiencing. I also don't like the leveling system. It makes sense for the time to include an upgrade system for improving your guns performance but I hate that you need to use resources to increase ammo inventory. You can seriously hurt your experience if you don't know what to upgrade. Finally, I am not a fan of the hiding and stealth mechanics. They are linked to some of the most unfun chapters in the game and honestly they feel pretty undercooked. If you can look past these things, the game is a great addition to the survival horror genre. The story does become interesting by the end and it gives the game some replay value to find the last few documents and rewatch cutscenes under a different context. Combat is fun and I love the variety of weapons. The star of the show is the crossbow and every bolt type feels meaningful and strategic. The monster designs are top notch, and there are some beautiful visuals that give the game a unique atmosphere. You are also getting a lot of content when accounting for the DLC and challenge difficulties. Its well worth the price of admission.
Out of all the resident evil games, this was the one I never actually played. I did play the remake however I was disappointed by its approach in length and level design. This version of the game is not only longer, but is much more in the spirit of resident evil with its explorable maps and resource management. While I think this game starts to lean a bit too much into action, it still manages to be scary with Nemesis being a credible and persistent threat and the art direction and music is some of the best in the series. I love seeing more of raccoon city, and this game gives you a better idea of what the outbreak really looked like beyond the halls of the RCPD station. If you are a fan of the series this is an easy recommend, and I hope we somehow get more of the old RE games on GOG
I generally get really frustrated that most dating sims are linear VN. Dokyusei gives you a lot more agency thanks to the fact that you can walk around town and randomly chance across the girls which helps every encounter feel special. I think most of the routes are well written, the characters are all likable and fun, and I was generally invested throughout both runs of the game. I recommend playing on normal since the game loses a bit of its magic once you see behind the scenes on how everything works, but go to easy if you are having trouble finishing a route. Definitely worth the price of admission.
I have never played a game that manages to juggle extremely fun gunfights with slow burn horror as well as this game. Absolute steal and should be bought by anybody who is a fan of either genre
The game is playable and its charm shines through, but there are too many technical issues to not warn people about them. You will experience game breaking bugs throughout the game and getting past them is a puzzle in itself. I wish this game would get a patch or something to fix them, but atleast you can find ways around these bugs so you aren't completely stuck. Just save often and look up your issues and you'll be golden
This game felt nearly lost to time. Finally this classic can be bought and owned as a long overdue addition to my library. Dino Crisis is an amazing take on survival horror, bringing a mix of Resident Evil and Jurassic Park. The crafting mechanic and ammo economy is especially interesting, where you essentially sacrifice healing for firepower. The puzzles are really fun, the map is cool and filled with charm, and the game has a lot of exciting set pieces and memorable moments that I'm looking forward to reliving. GOG deserves so much praise for bringing this game back to modern audiences for an affordable price. This industry wasn't built to keep games alive, but I'm glad that work is being done to save these classics so that they may be rediscovered and cherished.
I'm not too big on ARPGs but I do enjoy them occasionally. Tourchlight 2 is pretty light and offers a quick rewarding gameplay cycle with how fast you level up and get gear. I like to play it when I know its going to be a short gameplay session since even an hour of play can be rewarding. Its biggest flaw imo is how you can butcher a character build early on in your first playthrough, but that is fairly minor with how easy it is to progress on any playthrough. Would recommend if you are lookin for something light
Before anything else: Yes the story is good and the game is very provacative. I really enjoyed myself when the narrative was in full swing and could appreciate the odyssey that I was taking part in. This is enough for some people and if you are fine with playing walking simulators then this is probably the best the genre has to offer. But I am not a fan of walking simulators and this is undoubtably one. The gameplay has been reduced from previous frictional games and it doesn't help that this is hardly a horror game. The monsters pose little threat to you, there is no resource management or combat, and the inventory has been streamlined so you don't have to ever think about it. To me, these elements do the opposite and make it harder for me to get immersed because I don't feel like i'm interacting with the world in a meaningful way. The game does offer alternative moral decisions and a lot of voice acting which does give the game some replay value but I still have no desire to return to the game and see what I missed. If the monsters had better AI or acted more agressively, and if you had better ways to interact with them outside of your usual running and a few gimmicks then I probably wouldn't have been so upset that it doesn't have the usual mechanics of a survival horror. If there were more puzzles with harder difficulty I might even forgive the weak monsters, but really I just felt like the game was a slog. Again, this game is going to work for some people, and I can imagine that a person who usually isn't good with horror would be able to handle this. The story can be intersting enough to hide its faults, and if anything i'm glad this game exist since it was clearly made with passion and creativity. I just wish that the underlying game was more appealing.
Metro 2033 Redux is a nice blend of survival horror and action shooter. The campaign will be a mix of scavenging for ammo, health and weapons and sneaking through or fighting off the monsters and people of the metro. The game is divided into levels and they all feel pretty distinct and fun. I find the gameplay pretty engaging though it took some time to get used to the keyboard mappings, though you can remap them. The game puts heavy emphasis on immersion which can be seen in one of the difficulty options completely turning off the hud. The game is more than playable with this, but I do recommend learning the controls first. The game looks phenominal for its time and still holds up pretty well today in terms of its environments and art direction. The only thing holding me back from 100% immersion is that I don't speak russian but the english dub is fine. You'll spend some time in several different outposts on your journey and its always a treat to see how humanity lives in the post-apocolypse. I only had 1 performance issue with the game and that was with PhysX. Whenever it was on my pc temps would shoot up way higher than I would expect out of a game this old. Just turn it off in the games settings and your game should easily perform on the higher settings. 100% worth the money, I'd recommend getting the collection if it is on sale
I can't really say much else that other people haven't already. All versions of Bioshock are poorly optimized for PC and there isn't much movement from fans to create some kind of patch. The stability of the game was so bad that I took a 5 month break from the game since I didn't want to deal with it. There are remedies to help, but don't go in without expecting instability
