This game is fun, but there is so much going on in this game that a 2000 character review can only scratch the surface, but I will try. The obvious comparison is comparing this to "Slay the Spire" (StS). Though this game shares some superficial similarities, it is different enough to be its own "thing" and in some ways it is superior in my opinion. The biggest differences is that instead of having only one row for combat, you have 3 rows: enemies spawn on the bottom row and every turn they climb up one row until they reach the "pyre", which is the thing that if destroyed means that you lose. You job is to prevent them from reaching and damaging the pyre - by summoning creatures to fight and casting spells. After a certain number of turns, the "boss" for that level enters combat. Aside from being stronger, their combat phase does not end until either they or your creatures are destroyed. These things add an interesting dynamic to the game where you have to balance preventing trash mobs from reaching the pyre and killing your summons, and building up your strongest creatures for the inevitable boss fight. As for the deck-building aspect, there are 5 clans with their own "theme", lore, set of mechanics and creatures and spells that use those mechanics. You choose two for each run and a champion from your main clan. These choices will dictate your overall strategy and which cards come out of the random draws. Cards can also be modified with upgrades you find along the way. All of these things put together make for some fun experiments. The game doesn't artificially limit you - it pretty much lets you run amok with the mechanics. Also, you can enable mutators that further mess around with the rules. Like I said, there is a lot of stuff going on. Visually the game is good, but the music and audio is really awesome. I also like how they have a little bit of lore for each of the cards. It's a nice touch. I'm out of characters :) It is a good game. Have fun!
Current GOG release is v1.45, but game is already up to version 1.6 on steam. This is very disappointing. Game looked interesting.
This is one of my favorite games of all time, despite being flawed in many ways. Let's get the bad parts out of the way first: - The story is mediocre and just ends abruptly. It's like they planned something 10x larger and more detailed, but them had to chop it down to fit the deadline - The combat feels like an afterthought. The game didn't need it and it's badly done - The interaction of your character with the game world is a bit quirky, which sometimes causes you to miss and die in confusing and frustrating ways - Despite being totally linear, it's still easy to get lost That said, this is a fun and unique parkour experience - once you get used to the quirkiness it flows beautifully and just feels amazing. There are some quite spectacular sequences of running and physics-defying jumps and stunts. The game is played in first-person perspective and that was a very good decision: it really adds to the immersion. The entire game is spent in a city (concrete everywhere) but there is a lot of variety in the areas that you visit - with both indoors and outdoors areas. The game is linear, but there are often a few different paths you can take to reach your goal. Visually, despite being dated, it's still quite beautiful in my opinion. They chose a visual scheme with emphasis on strong colors which create very pleasing contrasts between the "concrete" and the other elements. The general atmosphere (sounds and music and such) fits the game perfectly. The story mode is relatively short. There is a speedrun mode for story mode chapters and some time trial maps which are all about racing between checkpoints trying to beat the top times. Sadly, there are few of these, and the game fundamentally lacks replay value (aside from relieving the experience again). To summarize, this is an amazing game when it flows right and it is quite unique, but be prepared for some frustrating quirks and weak story. I strongly recommend it, but wait for a substantial discount.
I haven't finished the game but I'm loving it so far. The game in a nutshell: you roam around in a strange alien world, gathering clues and solving puzzles by interacting with the environment and various machines and crazy alien contraptions. Why are you here doing this? What is "here"? And where is everyone else? No idea! Experimentation and exploration and piecing the story together are what the game is about. The game is totally chill. There's no tutorial and you really don't need one because the controls are ultra basic, there's no inventory management and there's zero pressure to do anything, so you can just poke around at your own pace. It is also absolutely gorgeous. Often I just have to stop and admire the scenery because it's just fantastic. The audio is also beautiful. It's quite an awe-inspiring experience if you allow yourself to be immersed. The puzzles so far have been fine, but kind on the easy side. They are more laborious than difficult (require a lot of setup or travel). So far, there hasn't been any dumb "find the pixel" or "guess what the developers were thinking" puzzle, which is nice. The game does have two flaws which don't ruin it, but make it a bit frustrating: 1. You have to walk/run/drive A LOT. Like, several minutes to go from A to B sometimes. There really should be some kind of "fast travel" mechanic; 2. There are some puzzles which involve you teleporting around a bunch of times to solve a puzzle. Every time you do that, the game has to load for like 10 seconds (on my modest hardware). This is super annoying. I shudder to think what that feels like with less powerful hardware. Without those 2 flaws, it would be an easy 5 stars. This way, I have to ding one star because those issues just cause needless frustration (not enough to quit, but enough to be slightly miffed). But in the grand scheme of things, the flaws are minor. This is a fine adventure game and it is breathtakingly beautiful. I recommend it.
This game is basically a scavenger hunt on a partially procedurally generated map (the layout of some areas and the locations of items change, but the "big picture" remains the same), except there's a monster coming after you. This monster will kill you very much if it finds you and it can't be killed. So, you move from room to room looking for the items you need to escape, hide in closets when you feel danger is close and occasionally bump into the monster and run like hell in the opposite direction. The monster is constantly seeking you, and will eventually converge on your location (yes, it "cheats") so you have to keep moving, but you can use some trickery to get the monster off your trail temporarily. There are 3 different monsters (but you only face one per game), each with unique mechanics. Once you find the needed items, you head to one of the escape vehicles, install the parts and then trigger the escape sequence and fend off the monster until it completes. Once that sequence completes, you escape and win. This is a horror game, but the horror element is pretty "light" in my opinion. It's not absolutely terrifying, but it's still good for a bit of an adrenaline shot. Each run normally lasts around 15-30 minutes. Though, depending on random, you may find yourself wasting an hour trying to locate key items or find everything and escape in like 5 minutes. That's random for you. As for replayability, I see this as the sort of game you occasionally pick up, play, and then put back on the "shelf". I don't play this every day, but come back to it once in a while when I'm in the mood. All that said, this game still feels more like a demo of what "could be" than a full game. The overall concept is pretty solid, and the game is fun (assuming you like this sort of thing), but it is definitely begging for more monsters, more maps, more items and a bit more polish in some areas. On sale, it's an instant buy in my opinion. But at full price I'm not so sure.
You know that thing they say about turn-based games? "Just one more turn"? That's how I felt playing this game. The environments and general atmosphere are very well done - very compelling and gripping. The game just makes exploration enjoyable - you want to open "that" door. You want to unlock "that" safe. You want to walk into that dark hallway - even though there's a voice in the back of your mind screaming "DON'T DO IT!". This is, after all, a horror-themed adventure. There's blood, dead people, ghosts and a few jump scares. The "horror" isn't visceral and oppressive, but you'll be jolted a few times. The puzzles are logical (mostly) and not super difficult. There are quite a few different kinds of puzzles aside from the ubiquitous "find the item, bring the item to the place, use the item"-type puzzles. The game automatically keeps track of clues for the puzzles which makes things easier. And if you are truly stuck, there's a hint/skip button to unstuck you. Note that I said "mostly" logical. The puzzles, though generally well done, sometimes feel "forced" and illogical - you have to solve a lot of seemingly trivial problems in a roundabout way or use "this" tool instead of "that" tool that also appeared logical (to be honest, it feels like you're being trolled sometimes, which is annoying). You can always use a hint/skip, but come on... With regards to the story, I think the story of part 2 was weaker than part 1. Part 1 established your character's motivations, gave you background the main "actors" and set the general "tone" of the "investigation". Part 2 barely moved the story along any further. You're given a few more shreds of insight, a bunch of new questions are raised and then... well...let's just say it's kinda disappointing. But I think these are small problems. In my opinion, this is an easy recommendation for any fan of adventure games that doesn't mind the horror theme. I eagerly await part 3.
This game is a horror point-and-click adventure type game - mostly a hidden-object game with some puzzles to solve. Essentially the game consists in navigating screens and picking up objects that you use to solve puzzles and progress further. Most puzzles are solved by using object A in thing Z (key on door etc), but there are also proper logic puzzles to solve. The game is extremely linear - you are on rails most of the time. To the point that parts of it are sequences of "Use A on B to get C. Use C on D to get E. Use E on F to get G". However, the game is quite intriguing and keeps you hooked throughout. Through various clues left around and cutscenes, the story is slowly revealed to you and despite the simplistic mechanics and linear nature of it, the environments are well crafted and the atmosphere is melancholic, gloomy and spooky, and you can't help but see it through. The game remains quite strong up until near the very end where it weakens somewhat - and annoyingly leaves many questions unanswered. Thematically, this is a horror game, but this is a game that almost asks for permission to scare you. There are a couple of jump scares, some properly hearth-pounding scenes and some environments are quite gruesome, but nothing that will leave you shaken to your core. It's mild as far as horror goes. This is a pretty solid game. Strongly recommended - and consider getting the whole trilogy.
This game is awesome. The concept is super simple. The controls are just 2 buttons - one button attacks left, the other one attacks right. Enemies come from either side of the screen, and as they come into range, you have to hit the corresponding button to attack them. If you miss your timing, you leave yourself open to an attack. If you are hit, you lose a life. The round ends once you defeat all enemies or you die. Some slight variations of this formula aside, that's basically it! The pace of the game is very fast, and enemies often come in groups of assorted different types. The "basic" enemy dies in one hit, but the tougher ones take more hits, while others dodge your attacks or throw projectiles or perform other trickery. You are free to hit an enemy on either side of the screen that is within range, and sometimes it is advantageous to attack one over the other. So you really have to make split second decisions and rapidly adapt to changing circumstances to survive. And as you get into the "zone" and you are hitting those buttons in perfect sync, your stickman performs hundreds of different poses and animations, and occasionally special moves that not only look awesome, but tend to tilt the odds in your favor (for example, by hitting multiple enemies). You can also unlock powerful abilities that charge up during combat and trigger "whenever they are ready" (for example, one ability wipes out all enemies on screen). With bodies flying in every direction, and your character just being a total badass and throwing special moves left and right the game becomes just this marvelous symphony of violence. The sound and music are amazing. The effects and general "flow" of the game are excellent. The formula has been streamlined to perfection. This is a thoroughly addictive game where all elements fit together very well. The pure awesomeness of it is very difficult to express in mere words here, so my recommendation is: buy it! You will not regret it.
I think that most people will easily agree that this game is one of the best tactical shooters ever made. This is a tactical shooter from back when that meant something. It picks at your brain. It forces you to make decisions that have a measurable impact on the outcome, and forces you to adapt to changing conditions. Tactics dictate success and failure, not your ability to make headshots. You play as the leader of a SWAT team. As lead, you actually don't do a whole lot of the shooting. You spend most of the time in the rear, giving orders to your AI teammates. The team AI does a pretty good job too - they have some limitations, but you can trust them to do things "right". Because you operate within the constraints of being a police officer, this adds another "layer" to the challenge: gunning down everything that moves is NOT an option here. There are rules that must be followed, and you are penalized for not doing that. It is a pretty unique kind of game. If you love tactical shooters, you should add this one to your collection. Despite its age, it is still a superb game and very playable. Truly deserving of the "good old game" designation. Do note that the base game is pretty flawed, which detracts from the whole experience. To fully enjoy this game, you should install the "SWAT: Elite Force" mod - it vastly improves the game.
