Really intriguing piece of video game history, it's a shame that way too much of its aspects aged poorly. As far as I can tell some of its sections were considered atrocious even when it was released. Even though the world is quite interesting, you'll often end up cluelessly running around looking for something you accidentally missed, or trying to make sense of a puzzle. And let's not talk about the horrible FPS parts. Some people consider the combat sections equally bad - but I think they at least seem to have some potential and organic integration into the game. Checking it out is cautiously recommended.
I can clearly see the inhuman amount of effort, planning and ideas that went into Daggerfall - and why it's an important piece of video game history. But I unfortunately couldn't enjoy it as a game. The Unity Engine remake seems lightyears more accessible, perhaps I'll give it a chance one day.
Far from flawless, and it's obvious why many people despise it for being a Deus Ex game. Even if you don't have negative biases, there are quite some design issues and awkward solutions here - but a lot of charm as well. Give it a chance when it's discounted - you may end up positively surprised.
Oblivion offers you a lot of awesome things, but a lot of awkward stuff as well. The roleplaying is sometimes nuanced and fun, sometimes it's shallow and non-existing. Some of its systems are completely broken and laughably exploitable, some of them aged surprisingly well. Objectively... the game is a mess, let's admit that. But I have to admit that, from time to time, I find myself once again re-installing it, starting a new character, and finding new ways of having fun with it. In my book, that deserves 5 stars regardless of the flaws.
Simplistic, yet focused gameplay, nice aesthetics and music - technically I don't really have anything to complain about. What I sometimes find a bit frustrating/repetitive is how you start the game every time all over again (even though over time you get some cool gears that help you along your journey). That's my only complaint. Highly recommended to check out when it's on a discount.
Those who have played and loved this game in their childhood (when it originally came out in the early 2000's) may probably more indulgent with it, but without the nostalgia glasses Splinter Cell clearly shows its age and lots of design issues that mostly comes from the fact the third person stealth genre (and the Splinter Cell formula) was quite young around that time. Pros: -great voice acting (mainly from Michael Ironside) -considering its age, the graphics often look pretty cool -funny NPCs encounters -occasional cinematic moments -the overall writing is decent Cons: -frustratingly inconsistent AI which sometimes follows annoying, scripted events, sometimes it just goes into the odd territory (like a guard noticing a turned off lamp even though he's looking into another direction and the door is closed) -unreasonable design decisions like the doors players cannot close (but the doors themselves keep closing, which can be often annoying), or the artificial shooting inaccuracy -boring, linear level design -gameplay heavily relying on trial and error -awkward controls/platforming
Sludge Life is an exploration platformer with a silent protagonist who can earn the respect of the graffiti tag artists living in the Sludge (it's optional though, 2 of the 3 endings don't need you to do that). If that catches your imagination, you'll probably love the game a lot - if not so... I guess you'll find it boring and pointless. Worth to mention though - from a certain point of view - the game is both shallow and deep. Shallow, because the characters you meet have only a few lines - and that's their story. But the game is deep as well, because there are lots of crazy and fun ideas going on, and the more you explore the more you can connect the dots. While not much will react to your presence and actions in any meaningful way (except the other tag artists), the platforming is really well done and you can have lots of fun while exploring every inch of the environment (it's not that big though, but the verticality is amazing). What else can be said? Sludge Life is the kind of game you can easily finish in an afternoon (all 3 endings), but can re-play it from time to time, because visiting its world is a lot of fun. One last thought: just as a previous reviewer has already mentioned, the ingame To-Do List is broken - it doesn't work. Didn't hurt the experience for me, but it's a bit odd. Seems awkard being left in the game broken.
While Symphonia has really nice art design and music (two aspects everyone obviously praises), a good couple of its platforming sections are also surprisingly creative. I think the choice of theme itself is already worth to appreciate, but it's good to see there were some nice ideas related to the gameplay as well. Also, as some reviewers have already mentioned, the game is practically unplayable without a controller. You can find the the keys on your keyboard, but the control scheme is just insane. I understand if the developers are planning to focus on consoles (if a more expanded version will ever get an official release, perhaps), but the fact that how simple setting up a proper control scheme with the Unity Engine is just makes it way more confusing. Last, but not least, there were a few parts where hitboxes seemed weird, or the foreground strangely hid traps, etc. - but overall Symphonia is an admirable project. (Since I'm incredibly inexperienced with using controllers, I can't really tell how well implemented the controls are - seemed a bit confusing and not quite responsive a few times though)
