game review – Page 18

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

21/06/2022 21/06/2022

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.

Happy about: Rogue Legacy 2

14/06/2022 14/06/2022

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

09/06/2022 09/06/2022

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.

Thoughts on: Nightmare of Decay

26/05/2022 26/05/2022

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.

In love with: The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe

19/05/2022 19/05/2022

Now that it’s been more than 10 years since the original mod, it’s almost weird to return to The Stanley Parable. Especially for me, since back then I enthusiastically proposed to translate that mod into Russian and was among the first to hear that a full commercial version of it was planned. And now we have a new version of the game, which, in spirit of the original, is well aware that it’s a new version of an old game that was a mod. It’s really awesome. But I wonder how I would’ve felt about it without the prior connections.

Oh and to get it out of the way, I’m absolutely not connected to this release of the game. Not that I’d want to translate anything into Russian anymore, but even so, this time it’s a professional translation made by professionals, and not some Ukrainian jerk.

Happy about: Halo Infinite

13/05/2022 13/05/2022

As someone who almost never plays multiplayer or console-only FPS titles, I was never super into Halo. But I was curious enough to check the entirety of the Master Chief Collection when it finally landed on PC and did enjoy my time with it. ODST and Reach were the most enjoyable entries by far, but it’s not like I hated my time with the rest of the games. Apart, maybe, from the original which was just so damn tedious. Halo 5 never got a PC release so I’ve still yet to play it. But knowing how mostly disposable the story in these games is, I still was interested in checking out Infinite. And it’s quite nice.

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Thoughts on: Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

07/05/2022 07/05/2022

Ever since Lego Star Wars: The Video Game from 2005 Traveller’s Tales has been almost exclusively developing the Lego-licensed action adventure videogames. And they all followed the template established by that 2005 original with very few and rather minor changes. Even though the mumbling voices and original movie clips were swapped for voice acting recorded specifically for the games, even though more open world segments and different mechanics were introduced, the formula of the games was rigid and predictable. Which is one of the main reasons, I stopped even looking in the direction of these titles after The Lord of the Rings title – playing these titles became way too boring. Which meant that I’ve missed a rather curious attempt at making the gameplay more varied and fun in the Ninjago Movie Video Game from 2017. I still got bored with it, but at least that one had some genuinely fun ideas to it (and wasn’t developed by the main Traveller’s Tales studio).

Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was supposed to be a refresher of the series. Not a revolution, necessarily, but a long needed evolution. It was built on a new engine, restructured the game world, reshuffled the ideas that were at the base of all previous Lego Star Wars titles and, based on reports, had a really messy development. It is a shame, then, that the end result of this effort is the same boring TT Games’ Lego title we’ve seen for 17 years, just with a new coat of paint.

Happy about: Hitman 3

01/05/2022 01/05/2022

It’s almost hard to believe that it’s been more than 20 years since Codename 47 release. Hitman franchise went through so much, slowly evolving and occasionally making very radical choices. And the the “World of Assassination Trilogy”, as its now known, might be the best era yet. Started out as a episodic season-based game with “live service” concepts in 2016, this evolved into a trilogy of titles, each next entry superseding the previous one while slowly evolving the ideas. Hitman 3 is the end of this period and being a title that can also contain the preceding games content it’s undoubtedly the best. But on its own, it’s quite disappointing.

Quick thoughts on: Iron Lung (and revisiting The Music Machine)

25/04/2022 24/01/2025

David Szymanski has been doing small unsettling horror themed titles for a while, but his biggest success, of course, was the fantastic classic FPS revival title DUSK. Somewhat ironic, I suppose, given that it was the polar opposite of what his games were usually about, but thankfully he didn’t decide to abandon his smaller projects because of that success. So after a few years of working with other developers and helping with awesome demo collections and small game compilations (like the awesome Dread X Collection) a new standalone commercial title is now out – Iron Lung. And since I was in the mood, I’ve decided to revisit The Music Machine, that awed me seven years ago, as well.

Thoughts on: Fatal Frame: Maiden of Black Water

19/04/2022 19/04/2022

Despite being very familiar with the Fatal Frame franchise for many years now, I somehow managed to never finish a single game of it until now. I loved my time with the first two games, but for various reasons (one of which being that those games were genuinely too creepy to play) I never finished them. Maiden of Black Water is the fifth main game in the series, originally released in 2014 for Wii U, and while it’s not considered worst in the series (that “honor” being given to the absolutely terrible spin-off Spirit Camera), the reception for the game was overall quite poor. And now I see why, even if the game does have some cool ideas.