Very simplistic but quite engaging game about gorilla on the run. Gameplay is barebones but works well if you like Hotline Miami style fast-paced mayhem. It's only couple hours long, which is probably good thing because it ends before becoming tiresome, yet still it does what it can to keep things reasonably fresh, mainly by introducing new enemy types and unique flavors to some levels (like darkness, snipers outside or falling bombs). Although gorilla has only two moves: smashing and grabbing, it allows for some degree of more sophisticated tactics because grabbed enemies can be used as shields, throwable missiles (some of them will even explode) as well as they briefly fire their weapon forward after being grabbed. Might be frustrating at times (mostly due to random nature of levels) but for me dying was motivating to try again rather than rage quit which is good thing. I think it's easier and more forgiving than Hotline Miami but for those wanting bigger challenge there are unlockable Hard and Arcade modes. With regard to audio-visuals Ape Out is very artistically driven and seamlessly uses it's style to achieve clever effects. Graphical presentation is simple but very stylish and mostly clearly readable (only in certain levels I had some troubles with seeing things). I also like how despite top down perspective game emulates gorilla's actual field of view. Soundtrack contains only drum kit and has this gimmick of dynamically reacting when our gorilla is going apeshit. When watching gameplay video I thought it will be annoying but while playing myself didn't bother me at all and worked well with flow of the game, adding even more punch to destroying opponents. Overall it kinda reminds me of those higher quality Flash games you would play on the Internet around 2005. Worth buying with hefty discount.
SoF plays sort of like visual novel with puzzle gameplay elements. As private investigator with house arrest, living in this cool city on Mediterranean island, we solve series of cases loosely connected by recurring characters, while working remotely all the time. Fortunately she has access to technologies allowing to hack everything out there in the blink of an eye (don't ask how it works) and even has this super AI helper that she wrote alone from scratch! Future, man. Main minigame is hacking security cameras and drones to get evidences and info. This gets slightly more complex with progress but only really difficult part of the game might be figuring out passwords which involves sometimes rather abstract puzzles (but there is hint system). Collected data is then used to create arguments during conversations, which is impossible to fail as there is infinite number of retries until you get it right. The only irreversible parts are occasional choices that might affect story in minor way, although most choices are rather illusionary. E.g. in early cases game forces player to incriminate basically random person out of three based on a "hunch" due to lack of hard evidence (great detective work indeed...) or choose to make or not deal with blackmailer - but then it's mostly meaningless anyway, even when subplots return later. For the large part it's linear and only few decisions matter. I found protagonist likeable and storytelling quite involving, each chapter/case being like separate episode of TV series but with this bigger picture constantly forming in the background and culminating in intense finale. It's really fairly nicely put together, which is important because with repetitive and simplistic gameplay it's mostly story that keeps player interested. Dialogs I assume weren't written by native English speakers because they feel awkward sometimes. Music is pretty good and fitting, could have more tracks though. While it's not perfect I enjoyed it very much.
3D point and click adventure very similar to first two Dracula games, using the same engine and made by the same studio as Dracula 2. It has FPP view but there is no free movement, only jumping through nodes on predefined paths which makes navigating certain locations needlessly annoying. Mostly static graphics looks pretty good, unlike animations but there aren't many of those. Eerie atmosphere is strongest point of the game, creators really did a good job at depicting world from Lovecraft's stories, whether it's bleak coastal town, creepy catacombs (parts of which have to be explored almost blindly at near total darkness) or underground temple (well, the last one is sort of underwhelming). Sadly the plot, writing and direction are completely nonsensical and off-putting from what could be captivating story. This with pretty bad design makes this game rather hard to recommend unfortunately. Puzzles are either easy and tedious (like searching library for the one book you are allowed to pick up at the time, or basically first third of the game is nothing but walking from one person to the other looking for someone to talk and progress the story) or overly convoluted (like parts of laboratory section). To makes things worse there is no journal of any sort and no items descriptions at all. On the other hand, number of available locations, characters, items and interactive hotspots is usually rather limited so most of the time it's not that hard to figure out where to go and what to do in case you didn't deduce it from vague dialogs. Speaking about dialogs, there is afaik no way to turn on subtitles! It's also one of these adventures where you can die on occasions and there are few timed puzzles so remember about saving. The game is short, took me just over 5 hours to complete with checking guide only to skip through some of the lab puzzles. Even though it's cheap I would recommend only to hardcore adventurers.
No one else than few franchise fans which is damn shame because this combination of corridor and arena shooter rocks! It's like Quake x Serious Sam x Doom Eternal but all soaked in Postal's wacky toilet humor with a pinch of Psychonauts or AMcG Alice here and there. At first I was skeptical about this whole surreal theme but at the end I'd say it couldn't be done any better as it allowed designers to unleash their imagination and creativity to the fullest. And they certainly didn't waste this chance. Level design is one of the coolest I've seen in FPS game (or even any game) in a while. Maps are stylistically diverse (from American suburbs and Mexican deserts, through Burtonesque asylum and forest to spacecrafts) which keeps the fresh feeling throughout the campaign, big and cleverly crafted with lots of hidden things if you will to explore. People often complain the game is short which I don't understand unless they just run ahead without stopping. For me it took good 40-60 minutes per level, looking everywhere and admiring views and I still missed many secrets. Overall production value is impressive to say the least considering how relatively modest project it is. Storywise it feels very much like post-P1 Postal game where at first you just want to watch some TV, then find toilet paper and lastly get an autograph but all as it was dreamed by Dude's sick mind. Number of easter eggs and references to real life, pop culture and internet culture is simply insane. From technical standpoint it's most polished Postal to date. Forget the usual jank and clunkiness, here Quake-like movement is smooth and shooting feels great. Arsenal is not terribly big or original but all weapons are useful and have alternative function as well as there is good amount of usable power-ups. Oh, and forgot to mention, enemies are some jRPG level of demented crap. If you enjoy fast paced shooters just get this game and you will regret nothing.
