(Reviewed on version 1.0.0.1.1) At first glance, Project Warlock may seem like a quick cash-in on many people's fond memories of the 90's, but look a little deeper and you'll find a game that'll satisfy a rather wide audience. Shooting feels great. All weapons have the right amount of animation frames and their sound effects pierce through your headphones, in a good way of course. There's an equally sizeable cast of enemies, (with some cool attention to damage models, with some enemies even having multiple phases as they lose body parts. Yuck.) There's a lot of gibbing to go around in this game, and it's glorious. None of that would amount to much, however, it the level design wasn't on par. While the gunplay, magic and light RPG elements present in this game echo classics like Doom, Hexen or even Witchaven, the actual level design tripped is pure Wolfenstein 3D and Rise of the Triad. Spanning 60 levels across 5 episodes, there's only so much you can do with a completely flat-type of level design. You look for color-coded keys and activate a series of switches while fighting each episode's unique set of enemies, and with each episode having its own vibe and distinctive look, you'd be forgiven for not noticing the repeating patterns. The RPG elements that let you go back to your Workshop, and level up your basic stats and choose one out of two upgrades for each one of your weapons, or to buy spells, feel a bit tacked on. The game needs some work on the framerate, which is pretty inconsistent. There are clipping textures here and there and I fell through the floor once, during the final boss. And this game is REALLY dark. It does detract from the action when you have to hold the Light Spell button down after every single enemy killed so that you can aim properly again. Project Warlock is a good-ol' time, worth it's price for the 5-hour, challenging adventure it provides. It needs some work on the technical side and it's repetitive, but it rocks in short play sessions.
The words "atmosphere" and "immersion" get thrown around quite a lot these days, but not many games managed to envelop themselves around me quite like >observer_ does. So as an experimental way of utilizing the video game media to provide a one-of-a-kind, surreal experience, this game succeeds by a long shot. But unfortunately, >observer_ is comprised of many elements that clash with each other in a very noticeable fashion. As Observer Daniel Lazarski, you receive a call from your son, begging for help, leading you to an apartment building where most of the game takes place. And what a building it is, rendered in beautiful, dirty detail. There's a strong art direction here, no doubt, and the game looks and sounds incredible; however, some stiff character animations, texture render problems and random FPS dips did hamper the experience a little. And that's a key word, you should play >observer_ for the "experience", because there's little in the way of actual gameplay here: a good chunk of the game is spent walking (or running!) around, talking to NPCs, and examining crime scenes with two different vision modes that allow you to examine objects and clues. You see, in the aforementioned apartment building, a series of murders have triggered a lockdown, so as an Observer, you must jack into the minds of the recently diseased and uncover the mystery. These sections play a lot like Layers of Fear, but turned up to 11. Definitely the highlight of the game, with fascinatingly disturbing visuals marred by some pathetic jump scares and downright boring enemy encounters. Just like those traditional horror game elements, the story doesn't deliver any sort of meaningful food for thought: the themes are there, but everything else (drugs, evil corporations, nihilism, transhumanism) is just Cyberpunk 101. Ultimately, >observer_ is something that you don't get anywhere else WHEN it sticks to the strong art direction, impressive surreal visual sequences and subtle voice acting.
Have you seen the trailer? Good. Pretty sure you spotted the similarities with Quake: color palette, weapon roaster, industrial soundtrack, emphasis on constant movement. So, does it manage to translate those qualities into 2D? Well, mostly. Let's start with the good: combat feels great; it's cathartic and fun. Taking a note from Quake, all weapons are useful, with advantages and disadvantages depending on the situation. This is also enhanced by level design that, while not stellar, allows for enough manoeuvrability to help keep the pacing up, adding its own twists on each level (pirhanas, rising lava, fucking razors). Add those two together and you have a game where you must quickly pick off targets with the right weapon, while keeping track of platforms that provide cover and possible escape routes... oh yeah, the review's title says 'hardcore'. Here's my main problem: for a game that compells you to go fast, you have to be very precise, because ammo is provided in just the right amount. This, unfortunately, can lead to level memorization, killing you over and over until you excecute the right sequence to finish a level. And enemies deal a lot of damage. Add those two together and you have a game that can become a trial-and-error grind, deriving most of its length from that factor alone. But when it clicks, it goddamn clicks. You're this unstoppable human-killing robot that gracefully bunnyhops and gibs its way to an excellent example of a final boss: one that puts everything you've learned from previous enemies and enviromental hazards to the test. During the 4 hours and a half that I've spent finishing this game, I had a blast, even though I'm pretty sure they'll be easy to forget in a couple weeks. But for the asking price, I'm not complaining. And there are still secrets and harder difficulty modes to unlock, so who knows. Maybe Butcher will grab my attention again in the near future. P.D.: Don't even think about playing with a controller. This is keyboard and mouse mandatory.
Story: Once again, we step into the noisy boots of the thief Garrett, as an everyday job escalates into a major turn of events that threathen The City. Garrett, whether he likes it or not, gets involved into a conspiracy between the Keeper, the Mechanists and the Pagans. Garrett is a great character (for a thief) and the story is simple and entertaining to follow through the game's beautifully created cutscenes and by eavesdropping conversations and reading documents that give an immersive sense of scale to the world. Gameplay: Little related to the core gameplay has changed since the first game. This is a stealth game, so you have to constantly be aware of your level of visibility and the amount of sound you produce while moving. And that's what this game, compared to contemporary "stealth" games, does best: knowing exactly if you're hidden or not and giving a consistent alert process when an enemy discovers you (that means, if you knock out or kill the one who discovered you fast, then there will be no alert). Combat is an option, yes, but a single enemy is challenging enough, so keep your Rambo impulses at bay. As for the gadgets, you have various types of arrows (water to turn off certain sources of light, rope to climb to certain surfaces), flash bombs, mines, invisibility potions... they all give a nice variety to the stealth and exploration. And exploration is the key for the huge levels that have an impecable design. There are often lots of buildings to loot, secrets to discover and a couple of open-ended missions. That being said, there are a couple of levels that will test your patience more than they should (you'll learn to hate the name 'Cavador') and some of the missions, even though their objectives and enemy and object placing varies with the difficulty level you chose, feel linear. Graphics/Audio: Though the levels are huge and many of the textures look nice, the characters are flat and poorly animated. The audio is excellent and eerie. Nuff' said.
Overrall thought: It begins with a nice atmosphere build and nice scares, gets repetitive by the middle, and goes totally bonkers by the end. Story: Pretty interesting, but many of is written on documents, that most players ignore. And -in my opinion- you can predict the ending miles before it arrives. Game Mechanics: You use your camera to see in the dark (it requires batteries for this), solve extremely simple 'puzzles', and runaway and hide from enemies. It's fun an gets your heart racing, but it gets repetitive at the middle of the game, and as a side note, bateries are way too abundant. Graphics/Sound: It uses the Unreal Engine 3, it looks very detailed, but the character models could have been better. The sound is amazing, and very chilling. So, like I said, you'll have a nice and creepy time playing Outlast, but its inconsistencies show themselves throughout the game, and might take you out of the experience.
I like to keep my reviews simple: the game has a lot of atmosphere, pushing the Unreal engine, even to the degree of moving the character's eyebrows. The maps are huge, well designed with a color palette that sweats dreadful memories and unsetlling events. The sound is creepy, the music is oniric, and voice acting is pretty good. Gameplay... that's the issue. First, the control scheme is strange for and FPS: you have to keep pressed a key so that a magic or weapons ring appears on-screen, and then move the mouse to the weapon/spell you want, release the key and voilá, you have a weapon/spell selected. It's confusing at first, but when you've played enough, it may even result more quick than having a key for everything. Anyway, the game's flaw is its difficulty: don't try to be tough guy, and choose the easiest. Otherwise, you'll smash your computer to the wall, you'll kick it, you'll corrode it with acid and then sh** on it after loosing a boss fight a couple of times. A map wouldn't hurt either, and weapons could be more balanced, especially when you get certain weapon that renders the others practically useless. If you pass by these 'minor' issues, you'll sh** your pants in this expertly crafted game.
So, let's begin with the good stuff: it has good graphics, especially with the lightning which looks incredibly good in prerendered backgrounds; the story is engaging and creepy (somewhat cheesy sometimes... 'Shadow Island'? Fuc**** original) with two storylines (Edward's and Aline's) that reflects in two different playstyles (combat for Ed, puzzle-action for Aline); and situations really scary and threatening. The bad: well, it doesn't follow up to the series' storyline (Carnby must be like 100 years old), controls, though responsive, are outdated, repeating a formula that was the point of criticisim of a genre. Don't mind the other reviews: The New Nightmare (clever, huh?) is a really enjoyable, scary and fun game. The problem was that it came out when the survival horror genre was dying, and it had to compete with the (at that time) standards of the genre: Silent Hill 2 (tons of times better) and Resident Evil (not scary, but popular). Just give it a try if you're a fan of horror.
It was the first horror game I've played. And I'm not gonna fool you: it practically created a genre, and in 1992 it was graphically revolutionary. But it's a hard game (like every single other game at the time, remember that PC gaming was more concentrated, with a smaller/hardcore public). So before you buy it, consider that you'll have no clue of what to do. I mean it. Derceto mansion is a sandbox, so'll you solve puzzles in a non-linear way: there are no maps, documents that tell you what to do or other characters. Every object has a purpose, so when you pick up a big pot of rotten soup, keep in mind that it may save your life. This also applies to enemies and 'enviromental' hazards, which can be outsmarted in some interesting ways. You'll have tough time playing this game, but if you do it alone in the dark, you'll discover why a creepy story and unforgiving gameplay made this game such a legend. -SIDEBAR- You didn't expect it to be easy, right?
C47 is a unique game: it has innovated in some areas, e. g. by being one the first games which used ragdoll physics and by introducing a fresh concept. The gameplay is satisfying enough, and you really feel like a cold-hearted killer... BUT, it's not perfect: it's the most difficult in the series. And there are two basic facts that contribute to the game's unforgiveness: first, every hit will make you squeeze every single neuron of your brain, you'll spend lots of time exploring to find a quiet solution. Guns-blazing is rarely an option, because a couple of hits will kill our bold friend- and here's the important: you can't save in the missions. You die, you begin the level from scratch. Even when this issues contribute to the game's realism, don't take them lightly. C47 is enyojable and, if you're up to the challenge, incredibly rewarding.
