Tag: game review

Happy about: The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story

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Yeah, it seems like FMV games are back in full force. From titles that play more like Visual Novels, to adventure games and even attempts at stealth, there’ve been plenty of very different approaches to trying to mix live action segments with gameplay. And overall, the results are so much better than what we had during the boom of FMV games in the early to mid 90s. The Centennial Case: A Shijima Story, an FMV game from (surprisingly) Square Enix, is trying to mix the live action with a detective game and the results are pretty great, if uneven.

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Revisiting Resident Evil 4

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I have a complicated history with Resident Evil 4. For a lot of people it was an instant hit, for me it was a frustrating experience. I didn’t “get” the appeal of the game for several years and only after several attempts, and because of the fact that the game influenced so many others, which gave me necessary experience to understand what it as going for, I started enjoying it. I still have plenty of criticism towards it, mind you, but nowadays replaying RE4 is an enjoyable experience for me. And I’ve replayed it many times over many different platforms, including this 2014 “Ultimate HD Edition”, which remains the best version of the game to play.

In fact, the main reason for my revisit this time was the fact that the version got even better due to fan work – I wanted to finally experience out the fantastic RE4HD mod, that more than lived up to my expectations. And in addition to that, wanted to have some fun with the recently released randomizer mod that adds some fun chaos to the overall experience. As I was about to play, the RE4 Remake got officially announced as well, so I decided that it might be the best time to revisit the original. And even in 2022 it’s still an extremely fun game… that really hates you.

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Happy about: Eternal Threads

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Eternal Threads is among those pleasant types of games that don’t really invent anything new, but manage to take a lot of well established concepts and mechanics and combine them into an experience that hasn’t been attempted before. So while you’re playing, you’re enjoying the game as something that isn’t unlike what you already know, but when the time comes to analyze it and try to compare it to other titles you’ve played before, you realize – hey, this is actually quite new. It wouldn’t mean much if the game wasn’t good, but it is.

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Revisiting Resident Evil 7, 2, 3 (with Ray Tracing patch)

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After the entertaining but ultimately boring and disappointing Village last year, Capcom has announced that the updated rendering features from that game would be coming to Resident Evil 7, new RE2 from 2019 and RE3 2020. As new versions for the consoles and a free patch for PC owners. And that got me excited, because I was expecting that Capcom would finally address some of the issues that those games had on PC and in general for years and would breathe new life into these titles. Sadly, I was hopelessly optimistic and Capcom took an incredibly lazy route. But at least I had a reason to revisit two fantastic games. And also RE3 2020.

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Happy about: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

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I’m not good at beat ’em ups or fighting games, but I do find them often fascinating and fun. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I was growing up when those genres were extremely popular. Or maybe because a lot of great beat ’em up titles just don’t care about being serious, realistic or anything other than stupid explosive fun. And I did love the home port versions of the fantastic Konami Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles titles, even that weird first NES one that is objectively not very good. Yet, something about it still feels awesome.

But it’s been a while, the beat ’em up genre fell out of favor, Konami turned to crap and even the TMNT franchise was changing and mutating with each new iteration, becoming much less popular than what it was during the 80s TV show and the first live action movie. But the fans are still out there (not of Konami, they suck). So with the revival of the beat ’em up genre in recent years and never fully fading popularity of the turtles, it’s only natural for Shredder’s Revenge to exist. And it’s pretty neat.

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Happy about: Rogue Legacy 2

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So, I don’t really like roguelikes and roguelites. I’m not fond of randomly or procedurally generated content and would always take a wonderfully hand crafted shorter experience over it. But there are occasional projects that grab my attention. And the original Rogue Legacy did grab my attention. There was something interesting and fresh about the idea (quite new at the time) of mixing the “fresh run” nature of roguelikes with permanent upgrades, plus there was enough metroidvania-ish charm to the exploration of the locations to get me interested, even if said locations were randomly generated each run.

Yet, a lot of games since then have done the same and combined the exact same basic concepts and I’ve not enjoyed any of the ones that I’ve tried. Thankfully, Rogue Legacy 2 turned out to be fun.

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Thoughts on: The Inheritance of Crimson Manor

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I’m usually not that into puzzle focused games or “escape room” type titles. Adventure games for me has always been about interesting stories and characters first and puzzles… not even second, really. But there are some rare exceptions where something grabs me about the game even if it isn’t really “my thing”, and in the case of The Inheritance of Crimson Manor it was a promise of exploration. I love the idea of a “creepy mansion” done in the typical gothic horror fashion – with secret rooms, hidden switches and a horrible family secret behind it all. And this game does this pretty well.

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Thoughts on: Nightmare of Decay

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Classic survivor horror (you know, the actual one, not any horror themed game) has seen a revival in the past couple of years, which is great. I love the genre and am glad to see fresh attempts at it. Even if vast majority of them fail, just like they did during the genre heyday. Some, like Them and Us, are too ambitious for their own good. Some, like Alisa, are so focused on emulating the old style that they become more frustrating to control than the original Alone in the Dark. And some, like Tormented Souls, deliver and extremely solid enjoyable experience, even though they bring nothing special or interesting to the table. Nightmare of Decay tries to fall into the latter category for the most part, but more often than not fails miserably. But it is definitely curious.

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