I enjoyed my time with En Garde a lot. It plays a bit like a simplified version of Sifu with a bigger focus on using the environment. The fencer-musketeer theme is also very welcome as there aren't many games about that around. It's very well polished (had very few bugs in my playthrough) with nice visuals and voice acting. Good text with cartoonish comedy and a charismatic protagonist. The only downside is that it's not very long but it does have some replay value in the form of challenges and an Arena mode. At a certain point, there's a secret that hints at many other characters that ended up not making an appearance, so my guess is the devs had bigger plans and had to cut out many things in favour of delivering a polished final product. Taking into consideration that the gameplay is simple with no character progression whatsoever, maybe the short length isn't an issue: if anything the game doesn't overstay it's welcome.
When this game came out I wanted to play it but couldn't. Many years later, I bought it on sale here on GOG and had my chance, but maybe I've been spoiled by many excelent titles that came out after (and even before) it. You play as a an undercover cop in Hong Kong, doing missions for your triad as well as the police force. So expect the whole identity conflict story-wise. Without spoiling much, but it's pretty good, just nothing special as most characters are one-dimensional and have simple character arcs, with the exception of your protagonist. Side-missions are varied and very interesting in the beginning but can get boring throughout the game. What holds it up are the main missions. The city looks good but there isn't much to do in it or possibilities of creative play. Melee combat is good, but it would benefit from more possibilities such as blocking or dodging. The game lacks in boss battles which would be crucial as they'd be the climax fights the movies it takes so much inspiration from. There are a few unique fights but they are very undistinguishable from the generic ones. Now, it's still fun beating up tons of guys, shoving their faces in an oven, etc. Gunplay, however, is very barebones and would've benefited from a few classes with Max Payne 1 and 2 (both games way older and with similar tematic inspirations). Bullet time is conditioned to vaulting over obstacles which, although cool, can be frustrating when there are none and you want to access it. The setting is very unique for this kind of game and it's good to have a open-world city not in the US, with a good mix of local and international (English) music on the radio, some pretty good. All of that contribute to the game's attempt to emulate that "kung fu cop movie" vibe and overall it succeeds. DLCs are good, though the horror one was better than the other IMO. tl;dr: this is basically GTA-lite with a beat em' up game attached to it. Good overall, but a bit dated.
Describing it is a little hard. The game operates on a "Groundhog Day" loop where you need to save guests of a very excentric, ultra fancy casino/mansion from dying horrible deaths at the hands of the staff. You do this by solving puzzles which require collecting information and items to use on the correct places. Information is collected mostly by eavesdropping on the right person and there are many interesting dialogues and interactions to listen to, which flesh out the characters' personalities. The puzzles are mostly easy to figure out and as long as you explore and can connect the dots, they'll be solvable. In terms of difficulty. it's nothing like old point and click games or games like Myst. However, The Sexy Brutale holds a lot of secrets from the player and will rewarding exploring "out of the box" to find them. In the pause menu, there is a codex full of information which better contextualizes the story and place. And since everything is so carefully made, with such lovable characters and locations, I found that reward to be more than enough. Writing is good, humurous and lighthearted most of the time, although the game can and will be serious when it wants to, specially towards the end, where it will resemble something closer to Silent Hill or MGS2 (!), but it never loses its class and charm. Speaking of class and charm, music and sound design also deserve a mention, although there is no voice acting. Overall, it was a great experience. I've seen people complain about the controls but I had absolutely no problems with them (played on joystick). tl, dr.: Ok so this is a mystery puzzle adventure with very easy puzzles and great writing/atmosphere. Challenge lies in optional stuff. There are tons of secrets and collectibles that will reward exploration and backtracking. Finding them rewards you with seeing new things and lore about the characters and the place. If that's your thing, you'll love it.
So, it's basically what everybody says. Essentially WW2 Hitman. Missions are open with freedom to complete objectives as you see fit, with great level design. When you manage to execute a plan (or person lol) you feel that "I'm a spy oh yeah baby" feeling. Luring people and strangling them, shooting enemies with your silenced gun, etc, everything feels good and when in disguise you always feel that "behind enemy lines" tension, that your cover can be blown at any moment. The problem is that the controls are very junky. Now, shooting your weapons feels great and sound overall is pretty good. Everything else, however, is horrible and dependent on a contextual menu that appears when the game wants and needs to be interacted with by holding E and (I kid you not) scrolling the mouse you. The problem is that the menu only appears when the game wants it to, which makes it hard for performing actions quickly, something vital to a stealth game. Overall, I paid very cheap for it and don't regret my purchase but it could definitely use some more polish on the gameplay. I recommend it to people who enjoy stealth games and don't mind a lot of quicksave-quickload trial and error.
So, I played all three of the Sands of Time trilogy on the PS2 back when I was a kid/teenager. The first one was my favorite game and when the second one came out, I thought it was OH SO COOL because it was violent and dark and I would poop my pants in fear of the Dahaka (keep in mind I was around 12). When I played T2T for the first time, I thought it was just... Good. So after many years I bought all three again on sale and revisited the trilogy. And... Oh boy. So, the first thing I want to point out is that this game tries to be a compromise between the other two. The story revolves around a conflict between two Princes inside one, one more "hero-ish" and the other more darker, ambitious and violent. Of course that's metatext for the conflict between the two games. However, the game fails to capture the good parts of it's predecessors. Almost all scenarios are very bland and unimaginative, so there are no memorable places like in it's predecessors. Also gone is the sensation of "OMG I'm an ant in this massive structure" for 99% of the game. The famous hanging gardens of babylon are less impressive than your average greenhouse (and generally uglier than WW's gardens). Combat, on the other hand, is half-decent but definitely needed more debugging. Targeting the enemy you want is a nightmare and it doesn't flow adequately as it did in WW. The dagger of time, your main weapon, is also shit so you always need a subweapon to deal any resemblance of damage. With all that said, plataforming is extremely linear and the game feels like a corridor. It's a little better with the Dark Prince, but not by much. Sound and music are way inferior to the other two, but voice acting is excelent. It also doesn't help that the game is visually uglier than the others and that it's definitely uglier than big action contenders of the PS2 era. In conclusion, If you like the other you'll like this one, it's only worse, but worth it as closure for the saga.
Bought this on sale and paid very cheap. It was beyond worth it, but at full price, there are many other action-platformers that far surpass it. Although it has markers such as "metroidvania" and "souls-like" on the store page, it can't hold a candle to games like Hollow Knight or Blasphemous (although the influence of metroidvania staples is clearly visible in moveset and enemy design, for example). It's more action-platformer than metroidvania: Instead of a big map, you have a hub area and from there you teleport to closed levels that have mostly linear exploration (biggest variation is either "closed door, follow the other path to open it" or "closed door with many mini-levels that each open one lock"). It's akin to the first half of Castlevania Order of Ecclesia, if anybody remembers that game. Gameplay focuses on completing the level and fighting a boss. Loot is random and upgradeable and there is also a possibility of remixing items propertires by completing mini-missions which is very cool. By 60-70% of the game, if you manage to synergize everything your character becomes a god but that is not recquired to progress, at least in the normal difficulty setting (which is very easy per se). Story is "OK" at best, with good voice-acting but not-so-good text. In general it's dismissable. The good: - Visually stunning, with incredible sprites and animation. This is clearly where the devs put the most effort and it shows. The GIFs in the store page don't lie, the game is exactly as shown. - There is some enemy variety so you don't spend the whole game fighting the same baddies. - Different skills and upgrades, as well as different movesets for different classes of weapons, make the gameplay always feel a little fresh. The bad: - Formulaic exploration and progression through the levels. - Lack of hitstun and graphic pollution causes many situations where you don't know what hit you. - Story is "meh"
