game review – Page 3

O tempora: Beyond Good & Evil – 20th Anniversary Edition

17/07/2024 17/07/2024

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

Beyond Good & Evil has always been a pretty odd game. Inventive and unforgettable in many ways, but also clearly unfinished and frustrating in many others. Born out of incredible ambition of the team inside Ubisoft, back when their games were fresh and exciting and not the same game with different coats of paint released several times a year with 15 minutes of end credits they’re known for nowadays. Though even this game’s release was a bizarre choice on the company’s side – released the same day as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, another beloved classic, the two games competed for attention, leaving both of them with very high critical scores but less than exciting sales figures. Nonetheless, a sequel Beyond Good and Evil 2 have been in development for… who knows how long, as the game was originally announced back in 2008 (just 5 years after the original), and the development of it has been far more troubled than that of the first game, since no one knows what it’s going to be anymore… That is, no one knew at all until 20th Anniversary Edition remaster of the first game has been released that, among other things, has additional elements that seem to exist specifically to tie the game better with the prequel concept last shown in 2018.

But, that’s all great and all, yet BG&E is now a 21 year old game and not games age well. Is it still worth playing, with the fresh coat of paint or not?

Happy about: The Talos Principle 2 – Road to Elysium

10/07/2024 10/07/2024

The Talos Principle 2 was easily one of my favorite game releases of 2023. Wonderfully paced, wittily written and well-balanced in terms of difficulty, the first person puzzle game was an improvement in my eyes over the already amazing original game. That did get a well received epilogue DLC Road To Gehenna half a year after its release. So, I guess, it only makes sense that half a year after the release of the sequel it receives its own DLC – Road to Elysium. And while I doubt it will get as well received, it’s a really fun three piece addition to an already wonderful title.

Thoughts on: Still Wakes the Deep

04/07/2024 04/07/2024

It’s odd. I know, from talking to Dan Pinchbeck, the founder and creative director of The Chinese Room, over 10 years ago, that they never wanted to stick to the story exploration games (or walking simulators as people often dismissively call them). Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, which I still like a lot, was supposed to be more systems driven, before cutting down on features in favor of story on recommendation from Frictional Games. Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture was envisioned as a simulation game where you live out the last moments before the world ends, not a game where you see echoes of these events. And while I didn’t find their first title after being purchased by Sumo Digital, that is Little Orpheus, interesting and never finished it, it was trying to be a cinematic/puzzle platformer, not a game driven by narration. Maybe with the Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 they would finally be able to deliver a title that’s great not just narratively, but also in terms of gameplay. Because Still Wakes the Deep isn’t doing it. It isn’t doing much at all, sadly.

Happy about: Sniper Elite 5 (Complete Edition)

28/06/2024 01/07/2024

As mentioned in my recent revisit of Sniper Elite V2 (this time Remastered), I’ve quite enjoyed Sniper Elite 4. It was hardly as detailed or inventive as the titles it directly pulled from, like Hitman or Metal Gear Solid V, but what it had was extremely fun and satisfying. So I was looking forward to playing a sequel, yet when Sniper Elite 5 came out I was too stressed due to living through early months of the full scale russian invasion, I was rather picky about which games I was comfortable playing. Plus, a lot of the initial user reviews on the game were surprisingly negative, commenting on its inferiority to the fourth game. Two years since its release and one year since the release of its final DLC mission, I’ve decided to give it a shot and was not disappointed.

Quick thoughts on: Sniper Elite V2 Remastered

21/06/2024 21/06/2024

Back when I’ve played Sniper Elite V2 about 10 years ago it was just a second entry in the budding middle budget franchise from Rebellion. A third person stealth shooter with emphasis on sniping and slow motion kills that could switch to the X-ray vision, it was somewhat novel and curious at the time, even if not particularly good. But the series evolved since then and Sniper Elite 4, while not among the best stealth action titles I’ve ever played, was an easy recommendation and an extremely satisfying game. And a year after its release, Rebellion decided to remaster V2 that originally released in 2013. In preparation for playing the latest entry in the series, I’ve decided to revisit this title and figure out for myself if there’s a point in playing this game, when you have the improved sequels.

Happy about: Pampas & Selene: The Maze of Demons

14/06/2024 14/06/2024

Have you played The Maze of Galious? I haven’t, but I did get interested in it after the original La-Mulana came out – a game that was directly influenced by the Konami classic. Not many other “metroidvania” titles in a similar vein exist even today and apart from Nigoro, only one other developer has consistently tried to replicate the magic of the game they clearly love a lot. Starting with UnEpic and now arriving at a logical conclusion of the journey with Pampas & Selene: The Maze of Demons. A game that serves as an unofficial sequel to The Maze of Galious.

Happy about: Dead Island 2 (with DLCs)

07/06/2024 07/06/2024

The original Dead Island from Techland had a somewhat difficult development, but became an odd success when it was finally released in 2011. Its often unintentionally funny coop was the secret sauce for that period of games when the cooperative titles were extremely popular. While its often mediocre quest and level design and simplistic and grindy action RPG/looter shooter mechanics were often excused. It also allowed for melee combat using the analogue sticks, had some systemic elements, ability to drive cars and its story, despite being boring, actually acknowledged all playable characters even if you were to play solo – something that Borderlands wasn’t doing yet. But despite me being somewhat positive about the game over a decade ago, I couldn’t even bother to finish its standalone expansion Riptide, let alone ever replay it.

Techland moved on to create a potentially more interesting franchise with Dying Light, but I didn’t like those either. All while Dead Island 2 went into development hell, switching developers and being remade from scratch several times. But it has been released last year and all of its previously announced DLCs are out as well, so I’ve decided to give it a go. To my surprise, it turned out to be quite entertaining, if you know what to expect.

Thoughts on: Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II

26/05/2024 26/05/2024

Of all the titles Ninja Theory have made, if there was one that never needed a sequel, it was the fantastic Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice from 2017. But there’ve been plenty of examples in games and other media, where a sequel that never really needed to exist gets created and becomes as liked as the original or even overshadows it. Well, I doubt this will happen with Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II.

O tempora: FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (Collector’s Edition)

20/05/2024 20/05/2024

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

Back in 2004 physics simulation of all kinds seemed like the coolest new thing in videogames. The biggest example, of course, was Half-Life 2, but near the end of the year a Finnish development studio Bugbear Entertainment released a racing game where the main gimmicks were extremely detailed physics and car deformation – FlatOut. Instead of going for extremely high speed street racing style how Burnout was doing at the time, the game went for the demolition derby aesthetic with most races taking place on dirt roads somewhere in forests in different weather conditions. It was really cool, but didn’t click with me personally due to feeling a bit more simulation heavy than I’d preferred.

Two years later, however, the studio followed the game up with a bigger badder sequel FlatOut 2 that added more types of cars and tracks a felt just the right amount of arcadey for me, so I played the crap out of it. This game then received an Xbox 360 port called FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage that enhanced and added a bunch of things and a bit later that same port was made available for PCs. With one huge catch – it was a Games For Windows Live title. No one liked GFWL even at the time, as despite a good concept Microsoft botched the execution of the service really hard and within several years the service was discontinued and isn’t even working properly on modern systems. So, for years FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage was very hard to get working correctly on PC. Until recently, when the “Collector’s Edition” patch updated the game to not just remove GFWL requirement, but to also update the title to work correctly on modern hardware. So I’ve decided to check if the game can suck me in once again, like it did years ago.

Happy about: Crow Country

13/05/2024 13/05/2024

We seem to be in the middle of survival horror revival period, with both high profile and niche indie titles revisiting this niche subgenre of action adventure games. There have been some great titles released over the past 7 years and quite a few solid ones. But there’ve also been some stinkers and a few titles that cared more about the aesthetics of the genre, not its design. From the early previews and the demo, I expected Crow Country to land among the latter. Thankfully, the game turned out to be considerably better than that.

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