First and foremost, I held off on this big time because of the reviews. I finally researched it, and the issue was fixed quickly. As of this review, there are toggles (default off) for data collection. If the possibility of you opting in to send user data is a problem, skip it. Otherwise, this has been an absolute blast. With how big it is, a review at 100% would be a long time out for me, but I'm far enough along to know I love how they translated the pen and paper experience. There is a ton of variety, it walks you through the pathfinder ruleset in an engaging way (I have not played Pathfinder to know it beforehand, but do have experience with TTRPGs), and it all clicks together pretty quickly. I will say that the character creation is very overwhelming if you don't know anything about Pathfinder, but I've yet to run into a situation on normal difficulty where not min-maxing has damaged my experience, and I've come across plenty of challenge without it clearly stemming from just picking what seemed fun. Character stories are some of my favorite bits in terms of story. It does a great job of creating personality for the different companions and meaningful background. The world lore is great, The main story does a fine enough job of making decisions worthwhile and pushing you forward in play, and it branches off from traditional fantasy in a few different ways that add excitement. I'll definitely update my review in the future if I have more to talk about or subsequent playthroughs reveal something that affects the score, but I feel these are key points that need to be shared since a developer mistake that has been corrected is what most people are going to see.
This might be an "early access" title, but it's easily a full game, and one that is more in-depth than just about any other zombie experience on the market. I'll get the bad out of the way first. I want NPCs. Just basic survivors that solo players can recruit on their own (or dispose of if so inclined), and kind of build up a little community. it doesn't need to become a world builder or anything, but just some stuff to help with the loneliness of it outside of playing online would be great. Heck, give us pets, while you're at it so we can get the I am Legend experience. Other than that, I absolutely adore it. Graphics: The isometric perspective and simple, yet effective, graphics are charming, and the amount of detail put into the environments really makes the game world come to life. It won't satisfy people who need 4K garlic bulbs in the latest AAA hit, but that isn't a bad thing. Gameplay: The gamplay is exceptional, and it's what surprises me the most. It's so in-depth, and every little detail is thought out. Firearms are a good example of this. You don't slip a randomly loaded mag into your gun and get it done. You have to open the box of ammo, fill the magazine you (hopefully) have in your inventory, insert that into it, and then rack it. That goes for simply pressing the reload button too, but without all the menu clicking. Death is permanent, but you can make a new character in the same persistent world; so, you might just bump into all those beginner characters you lost in your first two hours of play assuming they were bitten before death. lol. I can go on for hours, but I won't. A lot of fun is found in learning the mechanics and dying because you didn't think to disinfect a wound before bandaging or actually bait a trap you needed food from. Performance: This is great. I haven't had slowdowns or frame drops. No glitches or crashes. My fans kick on in high-pop areas. You can also mod it very easily, and the devs encourage it.
First, I loved what I got to play. It reminded me of Runescape mixed with Fallout and a hardcore survival game. I got to play one in-game day very well and was hooked, and the second day intrigued me even more. So, why the negative review? It kept disabling my laptop's screen after the first day and a half and ran my system extremely hot. This is despite exceeding the requirements by a fair bit. Four times, I had to perform a battery pull to get my screen working again. Mind you, I could hear the game running, and when I would hit escape, I would hear it pause. Since I have a dual-card system, I figured it might be using my integrated graphics instead of the ol' gaming graphics card that exceeded requirements dramatically. Following all of the support page's known fixes for screen issues, there was no luck. Four times, I was forced to open my rig and remove the battery to get my display functioning, again. In the end, it wasn't worth continued tries. No game is. I understand "jank". I'm a fan of many janky games, and I'm especially easy on indie devs (a trait I will be overcoming after this). I read the reviews and expected a great experience with a little poor optimization. I had no idea THIS was "poor optimization". It's not jank. It's poorly done, and it's unacceptable. I'm not running it on a potato, and it performs admirably on games far more demanding. I'm sure a lot of the glowing reviews are by people who have had a great time, and that's something to consider, because I loved what I did get to experience. Maybe it's hardware-specific issues that I experienced, but either way, that leaves the chance that another buyer might have the same hardware and experience the same thing. So, 1 star, and that's purely for how great the initial experience was. Take a risk. You'll get something great, or something that is infinitely infuriating.
I still play the original Resident Evil games about once a year. However, finding titles that bring that type of gameplay in an appropriate, non-blatant-rip-off way is basically impossible. Tormented Souls did that. It's not free of flaws (neither were the Resident Evil and Silent Hill games that inspired it). Acting is bad like in the 90s, and the rest is detailed later. Graphics: They're beautiful. Some people don't like how the MC looks compared to everything else, but uh, I ain't complaining ;D Everything is highly detailed and adds this brooding atmosphere to every inch of the game. 10/10 Controls: They're what you expect from the games that inspired it. However, they're more interactive. Instead of just combining things in your inventory and "talking" to doors, you actually get a little hand to grab and manipulate the pieces of various items and insert them into things, blah blah. This adds a massive amount of variety to puzzles when they could have easily copied what came before and got away with it. Puzzles: I usually skip this bit, but it's important for the genre, and Tormented Souls kills it. Some are hard, but I found that anytime I was stuck it was because I didn't pay attention. The aforementioned control additions to the original formula also opened up room for unique and immersive puzzles such as using door knockers a specific way, listening for heartbeats with a stethoscope, etc. 10/10. Enemy/Weapon Variety: This is a little weak. Most enemies just look like the same thing. You have scrawny weirdo walking, scrawny weirdo in a wheelchair, scrawny weirdo stuck to a wall, and so forth. The weapons are pretty limited too. However, what is here works very well. Story: It doesn't have the in-depth lore of the games that inspired it, but it also only has one entry. There is plenty of lore to be found, though, and it's all pretty interesting stuff without being derivative. If you don't dig the genre, pass. Otherwise, you're in for a treat
This was one of my first GoG games purchased. Honestly, if I'd had known anything about the refund policy back then, I'd have tried within the first thirty minutes to return this. I get it. It's more of a sim than a game (supposedly). I just think it's executed horribly. First, the controls are the most atrocious thing I've seen in gaming. They're finnicky, there are way too many context sensitive sub-uses, and you need practically the whole keyboard just for the basics. That's just on-foot btw. Get ready to learn it all over again for each vehicle. The "bootcamp" is also horribly crafted and you mostly have to wing it. Now for gameplay...There's gameplay? The intro is a 5-minute jeep ride listening to horrible voice acting on a boring backdrop of okay texture work. Then the fun begins. Dive into the grass, your squad runs off without communication, run through a barren town and maybe get two bad guys while you search for your team. Struggle with the controls to get in a vehicle. Fail. I understand slow and realistic. This was just AI gone wild while you're forced to follow the rules. Gunplay? That too is ruined by the controls, and I must say, the praise it gets for realism in this department is...odd. The guns handle like the soldiers have macaroni arms. Come on now. Be honest and hop off its erm...yeah. Vehicles? Oh yeah. You can fly a super realistic chopper...If by flying you mean wrecking it for two hours because the controls are horribly designed. Graphics: I'm not a graphics hound. From DOOM to modern beauties, I can usually find even the simplest graphics charming in some way. This is just hideous, and I have no idea how people have praised it. If you're the type to go to airsoft fields and annoy everyone while you rant like your granpappy does about The 'Nam, you'll love it. You'll feel pride as you conquer the nonsensical controls to navigate this boring and hideous landscape. If you want to play a game, go with literally anything else.
Like the idea of large-scale multiplayer war games complete with tanks, speeder bikes, and wacko Star Wars mounts? Hate the idea of listening to some tween tell you how great your mom is in a completely inappropriate fashion? BF2 2005 has you covered. It lacks the graphical beauty of the EA reboots, but the graphics do bring the multitude of Star Wars locations to life in surprisingly high detail. Plus, there are numerous graphical overhauls available if you search for them. I recommend watching any "X Best BF2 2005 Mods" video on YouTube to find stuff that's right for you. Gameplay wise, you're set. Combat feels like it has weight to it, having a tie-fighter blow up right next to you as a rebel flies into your capital ship and blasts it to bits will give you shell shock, and there are plenty of units, weapons, equipment, and vehicles from the Star Wars universe to immerse you and keep the experience fun. My only issue with gameplay is that a controller, while technically able to work, doesn't have enough buttons and there are no streamlined pre-configs to set things up like they were on console versions. However, you can't forget about the briefly mentioned mods. Playing in the clone wars and galactic civil war eras is great, but even though the movies are questionable, it is nice to add the First Order era on a whim and feel like you're in a whole new game. Along with graphical overhauls, new game modes, map packs galore, etc, you won't have to worry about running out of content to play. It's not as tight and modern-fps-y as the second reboot, but it does so much more in terms of satisfying the local-play crowd, and I couldn't recommend it enough. Plus, NO DRM OR EXTRA LAUNCHERS!!! I already owned it on Steam, but the opportunity to own it and know it was mine was well worth buying it a second time.
I can only rate it highly because it's fun, not based on some sci-fi racing nonsense, and involves racing. GoG's racing backlog is more anemic than its genuine horror backlog, and out of the few racing games present, 90% are just random garbage. This one is actually a racing game, and it's actually fun. Need for Speed Underground? Lol. No. Forza? Nah. I wouldn't even say it's as good as San Francisco Rush or Rush 2049, which were pretty bare-bones arcade racing games. However, on a platform devoid of good racing experiences, this one's fun, and that's all it really needs to be with the bar set so unbelievably low. I'm telling ya. GoG could use something like Rush 2049, maybe NFS Underground if they could wrestle the license away, or just literally any praised racing game. I'm surprised some of the good little-dev games haven't gotten on here, but this will do until the day comes, and at 59 cents on sale, you really can't complain. It's like discount NSFU.
If not for one major problem, I'd easily rate it a 4.5-5 star game. I was going to leave a 1-star review purely due to the issues and how inflated the reviews are, but the game doesn't deserve that. Let's start with the positive, and while I could write pages upon pages of hype for this game, I'll keep it to a general overview. Story: It's great. It engages the player to care about what they're doing, but it's not intrusive and takes a backseat after the intro. Visuals: Beyond having better graphics than most 2009 games I've played, it's simply designed well in a visual sense. Walking into Nazi territory and having everything take on a black and white filter with just the red of blood or Third Reich symbols shining through is brooding and oppressive, but once you liberate an area, the dynamic flood of bright, vibrant colors completely changes the tone and makes everything come to life in so much detail. Plus, the game isnt afraid of nudity and gore; things surprisingly missing from Saints Row and similar style games with edgier themes. Controls: When you do something in this game, it not only looks great due to stellar animation and knowing just how much to over emphasize certain things, but it feels great. From driving to shooting and scaling Paris's beautifully-crafted buildings, it's a treat that makes you feel a part of the action. So, what's the problem? GoG put in a hotfix for the multicore systems problem that works, but didn't bother removing the pointless text in the InputTemplates file and apparently some other less common configs; you'll need to delete everything under Other Gamepads if you want to use a controller. It takes thirty seconds after figuring out the problem. Should you have to do that, though? I'm really tired of going on an hour-long scavenger hunt for 2002-2010 games sold on here when the fixes are always simple things they should have done, and I can only imagine how you feel if you've never opened a config file before.
First, I'd give this a 5-star rating everyday of the week if not for some of the setup issues. The atmosphere is tense and makes you want to turn it off, but the powerful story, well-designed characters, and excellent pacing keep you moving forward. The combat functions well; even if it's not on par with a modern twitch shooter, its slight clunkiness adds to the tension since you're not really able to run through it DOOM style or anything. Speaking of combat, the balancing act that comes from mixing plasmid powers and firearms or melee adds a ton of room for creativity, and the game gives you plenty of hands-on lessons on how to get started combining the two for crazy effects, but it doesn't take away your room to find things out on your own or annoy you with tutorials that take you out of the game. They're introduced in natural ways. This goes for exploration, too. There is an objective arrow, but it turns off and sends you off on your own frequently. This forces you to explore and figure out what to do next, but for straightforward objectives, you're not left constantly backtracking or wasting time. Now for the bad. You must use the Win7 compatibility setting. I originally spent three hours trying to get my resolution to fit my screen, and when I would get that, it would crash. Then, audio didn't sync with the visuals when I finally got in-game. These issues were resolved once I switched the compatibility settings in "Properties". Alas, I did't attempt that until after I'd left it on my shelf for about 2 months out of frustration. Despite a poorly labeled requirement that should be an easy fix, having Bioshock DRM free is amazing, and it runs and looks even better than it did back on the Xbox. If you like horror, this is one of the few horror titles GOG offers that is a must-buy.
