Can you play Dragon Age? One look at top reviews, 'overall rating', and 'verified owners rating' tells you immediately this game stirred a controversy and was review bombed. Keeping to the game only, here's a recap; judge yourself: - A companion had a quip 'It's all about ethics in heroic adventuring', a play on a Gamer Gate slogan. *Not* a joke at their expense, mind you. It's since been removed. - A shopkeeper, if you decide to talk about them rather than just do business, will admit to being trans. 'Token' inclusivity, but not really forced, either. - There is a war going on, one location is filled with refugees. Thematic, nobody would blink if it didn't conicide with the refugee crysis in Europe (but must have been written earlier). - The game has a linear structure, without the semi-open exploration of BG and BG2. I can understand why people may not like it, but, personally, I found it hard to thematically justify side questing in BG2, given the pressure CHARNAME should feel to follow the plot. - It was buggy on release (what else is new?). I haven't seen any. Above all, though: this game was possible because a lot of people have a lot of nostalgia for BG. However, BG aged badly in so many ways, it's much easier to mention what aged brilliantly. If you want to play a game you remember BG being, not the game it was, pick one of its spiritual successors, like Tyranny. The story is okay-ish with a twist, not particularly moving or memorable, but neither 'only you can save the mankind'. The new companions are ok. One is gay, but it has always been a Bioware thing. You will pick your favourites from BG anyway. One thing I take issue with, are accusations that dungeons are bad. One is at least as good as Durlag's Tower, and the battles, on higher difficulties, are as good as it gets. Better than BG, worse than BG2, by the simple virtue of your abilities at this level. If you still play BG, play it. Otherwise, a safe pass.
A hacker who can't fight, an orc spec ops vet, an aging punk rocker, and a cyborg cult escapee go on a quest to kill a dragon and its cyber warfare AI. Oh, and the party mage is a dog. No, it's not a joke, the game treats itself fully seriously and pulls it off. If you are a weirdo for whom this sounds like a great pitch, and like old-school RPGs, then you'll be very happy with Dragonfall. I mean really old-school - levels are tiny, empty, and cramped, graphics were dated even in 2013, there is no voice-over, a lot of text, dialogue options don't matter, and hardly any choices before the last two missions have any effect on the story or the mechanics. In its defense, though, the decisions made during the last runs have great repercussions both on what little of the game remains and the world. Even if this strange marriage of fantasy and cyberpunk doesn't convince you, you should still take it into consideration. First, the fight mechanics are solid, and - on 'very hard' - quite challenging, especially for fragile characters. A balanced, classless system allows viable builds for almost any combination of skills, some of which are rarely seen elsewhere, and it affects your options for tackling problems. The story, despite following a classic archetype, is engaging and has some authentic mystery to it. It helps you are not a 'chosen one' - you were just unlucky to learn too much, and must fight for your skin if you don't want to join a long list of dead people. Primarily though, you play it for the joy of running a crack team of morally grey misfits with cool backstories and breaking into highly secured corporate facilities, simply because you are paid to do so. The differences between various 'species' in the models are hardly noticeable, and, outside of a single quest involving racism towards meta-humans (which, as with all fascists, could be any 'outer group', really), you can easily forget about the fantasy part - you don't even need a mage in your party.
It is not. Ironically, Dragonfall was originally released as an expansion to this game, but, because it was a vastly superior campaign, it was later re-released as a stand-alone game. Play that first. Then SR: Hong Kong. If you still want more, this game has the same engine and mechanics, but feels much more generic in every aspect. You don't have a party, but assemble a team of mercenaries on a per-mission basis. Some missions may have either a mandatory member, or a heavily suggested one, but, otherwise, the relationship is purely professional - no dialogue, no backstories. Available archetypes play differently but have a negligible effect on dialogue or available options - with a proper background you can bypass some small fights, and that's it. The story, as every review states, is very linear and quite crazy. Saying it's badly written would be too harsh, but it certainly feels as if the concept was laid out by an enthusiast in their early teens, and offers nothing memorable. Pair that it was already an old-school, indie, low-budget title, targeting also mobile devices in 2012, and you get a properly vintage experience, and not in the 'cult-classic' sense. It's not that it aged badly: the gameplay is still solid. It simply aged, and did not distinguish itself to begin with. The only unique aspect - the strange fantasy cyberpunk combination - isn't particularly significant to the story, which could be easily rethemed to almost any setting, and still play the same.
The game didn't really get on the best foot with me. Initial levels are *very* easy; so much so, I I thought I bought a 'cute' kids' game. I am not a gamer, I don't have super reflexes and precision, so it really is saying something. There are no puzzles to speak, or rather they are pretty obvious. Collectibles for once are easy to find (I count it as a plus) and the levels are short, but typically have just one checkpoint - having to replay long sections induces impatiance, which certainly doesn't help in a platformer. The game also suffers from the common 'translated from chinese' symbol, which doesn't bother me in games like 'Unruly heroes' or other somehow tied to that culture, but when you attempt to tell your story through a poem, you'd better hire someone who can speak English; as it is, it really comes out as something a 12 year old could write, and is just about that deep. While platforming in utter dark, sparing just a split second flash to gauge the distances is fresh in itself, it wasn't used for anything much, and I kept thinking about all the things they could do: setting things on fire, avoiding setting things on fire, avoiding splashes, warming stuff up.... However, just about when I was ready to quit, the difficulty started increasinig. Never to anything devilish, but at least It became engaging. What's more important, about one third or one half in, the game started pulling out new ideas. but then came invisible platforms, platforms you can see only in a mirror, chinese fireworks. The game fortunately isn't very long and every three (short) levels or so, the setting and means of movinig changes, which certainly helped to make me keep playing. Overall I do think that the title brings new stuff to the table and is a worthy addition to the genre, not just another pretty, but bland, indie wannabe. It is not for the impatient though.
I loved Limbo. I love stealth. I always have a platformer in progress - in short, I'm the target audience. The graphics are wallpaper worthy, and the overall atmosphere of empty, postapocalyptic remains of an android civilisation is enhanced by slow pacing and occasional switching to a very far-off camera to depict vast, lifeless locations. It is certainly among the most atmospheric side scrollers I played. I can't comment on the story, as it is told by collectible journal entries (snippets of messages between pre-apocalypse robots) and, despite generally being on the lookout, I found maybe one third of them, so all I was able to piece together is that there was/is some kind of virus-like 'light' (not much of a spoiler. There are apparently multiple entries, as I clearly got the 'bad' one, but, again, I haven't a slightest idea where the branching points were, and I didn't feel like I made a single decision. I understand the design choice of making resolving the mystery difficult, perhaps requiring repeated playthroughs, the problem is that the gameplay is hollow. While huge, hollow locations can be explained by the theme and focus on the atmosphere, together with very sluggish movement (not a problem in itself for me, as it again emphasises your vulnerability), they come also as padding what is a rather short game. Level design is completely uninspired and looks like something a 10 year old could come up with (as, oftentimes, it's basically black solid ground vs red/green/blue background), the puzzles obvious, platforming posing no challenge at all except for one or two timed races were you need to demonstrate perfect, split-second timing. There are just three enemy types, and the whole thing felt like going through the motions, where most of my deaths came from impatience rather than the difficulty. I really wanted to like it, but I play games for gameplay, and I am sure I would enjoy it overwhelmigly more as an animated film - even with its slow pacing.
This is the best non-puzzle 2D platformer I played in a very long time. I am not sure why I liked it so much - it might be I longed for classic Disney games of yore, and this game scratches that itch. Combat isn't tactical or challenging enough (except for boss fights) to describe it as a beat-them-up, but you do have several attacks and combos. Fights, as the genre dictates, are mostly about jumping around to avoid being hit and smashing buttons. On 'hard' (basically, no near infinite lives, so it really should be 'normal') they are just challenging enough to keep things interesting without dying that often. Only boss fights see a severe spike in difficulty, just about reaching frustration levels (with my casual reflexes and precision), which I count as perfect for this type of game. They are mostly more platforming, evading telegraphed attacks (the signals are enough similar to each other to keep you on your toes), waiting for that distinct moments when they become vulnerable, and then smashing buttons. While there are four characters you can switch between at any time, they come in two basic types - can double jump or can glide - and certain sections are much easier with the second type, any section can be in principle beaten with any character, and the differences between attacks, other than animations, are negligable. Most importantly, the levels are colourful, plentiful (29, including boss fights!) and varied enough. They can be divided into five distinct locations, with different visual themes, different enemies (with different attacks), and different tricks/twists employed. You are often granted temporary new abilities you must learn to utilise both in platforming and combat, so they don't feel the same and if there was a sequel, I'd likely download it right away. The only critisism I have is that 'bad translation from chinese' syndrome, but the story is non-existent anyway, so switch to chinese audio and enjoy a glimpse into another culture.
Not only the best Lara Adventure, but possibly the best adventure-puzzle-platformer in general. There are things one can criticise: the reduced difficulty (comparing to TR:A), further simplification (you can carry all the guns, but there are no ammo drops, for example), too many secrets to really go 100% without a walkthrough, considerably shorter playtime to the preceding two. But what it gets right, it nails: a better, gripping, story than half of the Indiana Jones films, and the atmosphere of discovery. Greatly improved graphics allow for lush vegetation, and a large part of the game happens in overgrown, South East Asian temples, modeled after Angkor Wat and similar. Lara gets new moves, which add little to the game play, but increase immersion. Both platforming and puzzles seem completly natural, and while the path is completely linear, the levels do not have a contrived feel of a platformer game, requiring no suspension of disbelief - at least in terms of levels, you still need to swallow the usual supernatural and ancient super advanced civilisation stuff, but that's par course of this genre). While some levels in Legend come close, here you really feel like you are exploring something, if not real, then at least believable, rather than playing a platforming game. I won't spoil the story, but while it rounds up nicely both Legend and Anniversary. it can be experienced completly on its own, if you prefer to start familiarizing yourself with the best title. It pays to read Lara's journal, as its entries tie everything she encounters to existing (mostly Norse) mythology. The levels also follow each other more naturally, without that world hopping for the sake of it feel which is typical to all Lara's (and Henry Jones's) adventures. It doesn't have the best puzzles, platforming, combat or story of all times, but it's one of the best gaming experiences I had, competing with adventure films on their own terms, while being an engrossing game to boot.
