game review – Page 13

O tempora: Max Payne & Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne

25/05/2023 07/12/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

I absolutely loved Max Payne when I first played it. It felt unlike any other action game out there and for years remained my golden standard for how an action game should be. It wasn’t without flaws, but it’s fantastic pace, exciting action and shockingly good storytelling far outweighed them in my eyes. Then there was also a sequel that I admired and respected for its even bigger focus on storytelling and some refinements to the gameplay mechanics. But I also didn’t enjoy the game as much. It has been a while, however, since I’ve played any of them and I wanted to see what my opinion on these classics would be today, especially with a remake announced.

In love with: Live A Live (2022)

20/05/2023 20/05/2023

Live a Live (stylized as LIVE A ƎVI⅃) has been a project I’ve heard a lot throughout the years. It was a jRPG from Square released in 1994 – that’s the same year as Final Fantasy VI, a year after Secret of Mana and a year before Chrono Trigger. But, just as Seiken Densetsu 3 (later officially and wonderfully remade under the title Trials of Mana), it was originally a Japanese-only title, so a huge amount of international audience only heard about it without good means to experience it for themselves. The concept for the game sounded wild – several unrelated independent stories with unique setting and gameplay mechanics in one package. All produced by Square at the top of their game and with the soundtrack from Yoko Shimomura, who’s soundtracks for Super Mario RPG and Parasite Eve would become much beloved just a couple of years later.

Unexpectedly, last year a “HD-2D” remake of the title was announced, first exclusively for Switch and now available on more platforms including PC, so I could finally experience this unbelievably sounding title for myself. And it’s genuinely hard to put into words just how surprising the experience was.

O tempora: Silent Hill 2 (with Enhanced Edition mod)

15/05/2023 01/07/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Continuing on with the classic Silent Hill titles, it’s time to talk about the highly revered sequel. Silent Hill 2 was quite a shocker when it was originally released, it took many people by surprise. And it is also the game that established the idea that Silent Hill games are first and foremost story-driven games simply because of how strong the story was and how many other games and also later “western-made” titles in the franchise attempted to copy it. For how much respect and admiration I have for this game… I also don’t particularly love playing it. It was the case when I first experienced it on PC in 2003 and even today, in its arguably best form with the Enhanced Edition mod I will also talk about, I still didn’t really love the act of playing this game. But is it still worth experiencing? Absolutely.

O tempora: Silent Hill

10/05/2023 10/05/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

There are several games and franchises that I’ve replayed and continue replaying regularly for decades now. And because of that, I didn’t even consider them for my retrospective reviews, just because of how intimately I know them and how “obvious” it is that they did stand the test of time. But perhaps it’s time to change that. To attempt to take a fresh look at these titles and play them as if this is my first experience with them, re-assessing what I think about them. I’ll start with Silent Hill.

Back in the late 90s Capcom blew everyone’s mind with what they named “survival horror” and after a few years of delay, many “clones” have followed. Konami wanted a piece of that action too, which led to the creation of a title that managed to both feel like a continuation of ideas from Resident Evil, while also being quite innovative in many other ways. And, according to the pirate copy cover, it was “more awesome than Resident Evil 2”. That cover was quite correct.

Revisiting Torchlight II

03/05/2023 03/05/2023

While the original Torchlight came out during the time when “Diablo-clone” action RPGs were almost entirely absent from the market, Torchlight II arrived in 2012, and things looked quite different. Among many announced and awaited titles we had two huge releases. Diablo III came out earlier the same year and despite receiving a lot of criticism, it was Diablo and that title still meant something. And in a related genre, Borderlands 2 got released just a couple of days before Torchlight II and despite being more of the FPS, the whole “looter shooter” concept the first title helped popularize had an clear overlap in audience. None the less, the game wasn’t lost and forgotten and got a lot of well deserved praise. Including from me at the time, so I was curious if my opinion would be any different over 10 years later.

Revisiting Torchlight

28/04/2023 24/01/2025

Action RPGs are popular again and have been for the past decade. But there was an odd period of time when seemingly no one wanted to release a classic “Diablo-clone” title, and during those strange times Torchlight appeared out of nowhere to save the fans of the genre from the lull. Revisiting it today is a bit odd, but after replaying Diablo 1 and 2 (and refreshing my memory on 3, on which I really have nothing more to say), I felt like I had to.

Thoughts on: The Last of Us Part I

23/04/2023 23/04/2023

Finally, I’ve completed The Last of Us. This critical darling from 2013… yep, from 10 years ago… Anyway, I’ve tried playing the original game around the time of the release using the PS3 my friend graciously lent me and about 2/3 of the way in I got so bored that I simply decided not to continue playing. But, being a game designer and all, you have to play titles like this – even when you don’t like the whole package, there are elements to learn from, ideas to get influenced by. So I couldn’t keep it this way and now, that a remake of the game (now with Part I added to the title) is out on PC, I decided to give it another go. And yeah, it’s… fine. The port isn’t, though.

O tempora: Diablo II: Resurrected

18/04/2023 18/04/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Okay, confession time. People love Diablo II. For many it has been THE Diablo game to play and it has been extremely influential, canonizing a lot of concepts that are still in use today. But I never liked it much. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve finished Lord of Destruction before – the expansion pack for the game, though I definitely remember finishing the Act IV. But I did respect the game and, given how much praise this title has always received, always planned to revisit it. Now that a genuinely fantastic remaster Diablo II: Resurrected is available and I’ve finished replaying the original Diablo with its expansion, I went in and played the sequel too. And finally enjoyed it.

O tempora: Diablo (+Hellfire)

13/04/2023 13/04/2023

O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.

Can you believe that it’s been more than 26 years since the release of Diablo? So weird to think about it. I mean, it wasn’t the first real-time RPG or the first game to be an action RPG. But it became what defined action RPG for the western market, a mix of ideas from roguelikes, lots of loot and simple but engaging dungeon crawling, solo or in multiplayer. And while I understand why people always love the second game the most – to me, the original game has always meant more.

That said – I actually only finished it once before. And I’m pretty sure it was on the PlayStation port too. I’ve never played the often forgotten Hellfire expansion either, so I’ve been meaning to replay the game for quite a while now.

Happy about: Fatal Frame: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse

06/04/2023 06/04/2023

I have to say, it really is very weird to be going backwards with these Fatal Frame remasters (but I do hope we don’t stop here). Couple of years ago the currently latest entry, Maiden of Black Water, got released on PC and modern consoles and many people experienced the franchise for the first time. And while it is arguably among the weaker entries, with many poor design choices and annoying elements, it nonetheless had some of the coolest ideas for mechanics that were unique for it and not tried in the series before. Still, I went into Mask of the Lunar Eclipse with relatively high expectations and was not disappointed.