Highly recommended – Page 9

O tempora: System Shock 2

21/01/2018 13/05/2023

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

This has been a long time coming. I’ve attempted to play System Shock 2 ever since 2001, when I first got my own modern (for the time) PC. And even back then, just few years after the game release, it already worked with issues. After that for the longest all games on this in-house game engine made by Looking Glass Studios, along with the Thief 1 and 2, were borderline unplayable on most PCs. Until one day a mysterious person (often believed to be one of the ex-Looking Glass employees), released an updated version of the source code of the engine, which made things work again. Ever since then, all 3 games on the Dark Engine have been receiving updates and fixes making games not just playable again, but often better than they were originally. And several years since I had a chance to replay all the Thief titles and a year and a half since I’ve first experienced the innovative undying beauty of the original System Shock, I finally had the chance to finish System Shock 2. And I can sum up my experience in a very short review: Wow…

For more in-depth analysis, read on. :)

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In love with: HITMAN – Game of the Year Edition

26/12/2017 09/12/2019

Hitman series are 17 years old by now. They started out with Codename 47, a PC-exclusive fresh new take on the freeform stealth ideas introduced in Thief: The Dark Project. Where instead of stealth, it focused on “social stealth” and blending in, and instead of stealing, on the art of killing. Despite all the flaws, like unnecessary action-focused missions, incredibly simplistic concept of blending in with no in-between states of suspicion, and less complex AI patterns than the ones you get today, it remains an amazing game, with some of the best missions in the entire series (like “Traditions of the Trade” or “The Massacre at Cheung Chau Fish Restaurant”). Of course, most of the good stuff has been later remade in Hitman: Contracts, which might as well be considered the proper start of the series (Hitman 2 also being rather rough), which finally realized that pure stealth and pure action sequences just don’t fit the series. And Blood Money remains one of the best examples of the stealth games to this day.

Then we had Hitman: Absolution, which was… well… It was a rather cool stealth action game, but a terrible Hitman game. A linear, story-driven game, where social stealth and blending in usually worked against you, since most of the time being dressed as someone you want to blend in with meant higher of getting noticed. But a lot of the ideas and concepts introduced in that game were great, ready to be taken, modified and perfected to work in a proper Hitman game. And that’s what the game, simply called HITMAN, is – best ideas from all the previous games in one package. And then some.

In love with: Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments

28/11/2017 28/06/2019

It took me much longer to finally get to Frogwares’ now not even latest Sherlock Holmes game than I anticipated. I actually bought it back in Warsaw 2 years ago, but had to ask Steam to remove it from my account, because it was a region locked Polish and Russian version or something along the lines. Still have the box, though, which contained the full walkthrough (which I didn’t use, however). And after finally finishing the game my first thought was – damn, I wish I had played the game earlier.

In love with: Tales from the Borderlands

05/11/2017 28/06/2019

There’s been a lot of games by Telltale games. Way too many, I’d say. And that’s one of the main reasons I’ve stopped caring about the games they make. They started with pretty average and often boring to play (but fun to watch) adventure games with 3D controls and a lot of classic point and click adventure elements in. That didn’t work out well. Then they tried switching to “interactive stories”, and it didn’t work out at all (with the Jurassic Park game), yet the second try was much better and their Walking Dead series, based on the comic book series of the same name, won several awards and were lauded as a story-driven evolution of adventure titles. So they did what a lot of studios do after they find a success formula that works and made, mechanically speaking, the exact same game over and over again for the past 6 years. Sometimes, based on franchises that don’t even make any sense (Story-driven Minecraft? Really?). But I heard good things about Tales from the Borderlands, and last time I heard good things about the Telltale game, it was about The Wolf Among Us, and that game was really good. So, how about the Borderlands game without the bazillion guns?

In love with: Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

20/08/2017 28/06/2019

Ninja Theory have established a reputation for making games that are solid, if average mechanically, but really memorable in terms of storytelling. With one glaring exception being DmC: Devil May Cry, where the game had solid and fun (if weaker than previous DMC games) gameplay, but unbelievably terrible story and script. With Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, their first fully independent production, things looked a bit different from the announcement. And I’m glad to say, that what we got is a really unforgettable experience.

In love with: Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut

02/07/2017 28/06/2019

It’s been a while since I could write anything in the blog. Whenever you have a job that takes most of your day, playing long titles takes much longer than whenever you have a lot of free time. And apart from open world titles, most of which I tend to ignore nowadays anyway, RPGs tend to take most of your gaming time. Luckily, Wasteland 2 was that particular type of an RPG that was a joy to return to, no matter how long it took.

O tempora: Bayonetta (PC)

14/05/2017 28/06/2019

My O tempora posts tend to be about older titles, than 2009, the year Bayonetta was released originally in Japan. But Bayonetta became a milestone release, a new classic that ushered a new era of “stylish action” games and gave the Capcom alumni at PlatinumGames a much needed boost, despite the lower than expected sales. In addition, the core gameplay has been evolved and perfected so much since then it’s interesting to look back at where it started. But now on PC, with a surprisingly solid port.

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In love with: NieR: Automata

02/04/2017 28/06/2019

I’ve been interested in Yoko Taro’s work for a while… despite not actually finishing any of his games until now. I gave Drakengard an honest try a while ago and the gameplay felt a bit too rubbish, so I didn’t get to experience the amazing concept of constantly updating story as you unlock more and more story paths after you finish the game once. I gave NieR an honest try, but didn’t have time or desire to finish it because, as a game, it felt pretty boring. So I didn’t get to experience the amazing concept of the story of the whole game being pretty much turned upside down on the second playthrough, just on the basis of you now understanding the opposite side of the conflict. But I read it all, watched it all. Because it felt like something not a lot of games try to do. A different approach to storytelling, lack of fear in exploring risky topics or “boring” the player.

So, without trying to downplay the work of Cavia or (for Drakengard 3) Access Games, I’m incredibly happy that PlatinumGames were selected to partner with Yoko Taro to work on NieR: Automata. I cannot think of a better choice of developer.

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In love with: Night in the Woods

12/03/2017 28/06/2019

When the Night in the Woods Kickstarter popped up back in 2013, I backed it immediately. Without even fully understanding what the game is going to be like. I always admired projects Alec Holowka was involved in, and this one seemed to be another one I shouldn’t miss. And as the time went by, I still never really knew what the game would be. After completing the game a few times I finally understand why that was – it’s really not about how it plays and all about what it tells and how it does it.

In love with: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

31/01/2017 28/06/2019

Anyone who’s known me for a while knows that Resident Evil is one of my absolute favorite game series. I’ve played most of the games that were ever released, excluding some rare terrible ones, like Game.com version of RE2, or a mobile port of RE4. And I like the vast majority of them, even if they’re not very good games. That said, I’m also always the harshest critic, wishing these games to be the very best they can be. And lately the series weren’t feeling all that well, with me liking a lot of parts of Resident Evil 6 despite the fact that it’s a pretty bad game, or wanting to love Revelations sub-series, even when they made one mistake after another.

Yet, Capcom released Remasters of 2 Gamecube classics and were promising to truly review their stance on what the next main entry in the series would be. With each new interview, each video, playable teaser-demo I was becoming more and more hopeful that Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (or, in Japan, Biohazard 7: Resident Evil) will be great. A true return to form and yet some new direction for the series. Were my hopes in vain?