Well, I suppose it was inevitable that Amanita Design would make a terrible game eventually. But I was hoping it wouldn’t happen.
Tag: Not recommended
Ugly duckling: Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo
Ugly duckling is a series of posts talking about games that could’ve been great, but were not.
Some licensed tie-in games are loved, some are forgotten. Some are fun to play, some are not. Some are very budget minded and simple, some are ambitious. The games based around The Matrix were ambitious and quite curious. Though, perhaps, the most successful and arguably fun of them was The Matrix Online, that I won’t be talking about here. Still, both action titles in the franchise – Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo, – were games I was considering replaying for a while now. Intrigued if I will like them more than I did back when they just came out. And I suppose I did. Though, not by much.
Гадкий утёнок: Enter the Matrix, Path of Neo
Гадкий утёнок — серия записей, в которых я пишу про игры, которые могли бы, но не стали хорошими.
Некоторые игры по лицензии любят, про некоторые забывают. В некоторые играть прикольно, в некоторые нет. Есть бюджетные попытки, есть амбициозные. Игры по Матрице были амбициозными и любопытными. Но единственной более-менее удачной попыткой была The Matrix Online, о которой я тут не буду писать. Тут речь пойдёт про Enter the Matrix и The Matrix: Path of Neo, экшен игры, которые я давно хотел перепройти. Потому что на момент релиза они мне очень не понравились, и мне было интересно, поменяется ли у меня отношение. Немного поменялось. Не всегда в лучшую сторону.
Disapprove: Them and Us
I was curious about Them and Us for the time it spent in Early Access as it seemed like a potentially curious independently made survival horror title that is an actual survival horror title. I mean, at the time I first noticed it we only had Alien: Isolation as the closest to ever attempt following the gameplay pillars of the genre in the past 5-10 years and since then the situation hasn’t changed that much, with only about 5 or so new “actually survival horror” games. After getting it a year ago and trying it out for about an hour, I saw many design flaws that the game already had, but still, was hopeful that it can at least be an interesting and enjoyable, if not notable, modern example of the genre.
I was not ready for what the game turned out to be.
Disapprove: Webbed
When I first stumbled upon Webbed, it looked like a curious game. Yet, every time I watched any gameplay, I was getting the feeling that despite the really cool mechanics and ideas, the game isn’t actually fun to play. I dismissed the fears, however, and decided to play the game myself. It really isn’t fun to play.
Disapprove: Need for Speed Payback (and few words on Heat)
After having a blast replaying Hot Pursuit (2010) in its Remastered version, I’ve decided to check what the series have actually been up to in the latest entries. First one up was Need for Speed Payback and I gotta say, the first impressions were very poor. Yet, I did get through the entire game, having played most of the events, so there is something good to it as well. Not much, but it’s not an entirely unfun experience.
Read more“Disapprove: Need for Speed Payback (and few words on Heat)”
Quick thoughts on: The Shapeshifting Detective
What I usually want from an FMV adventure game is either fun quick paced “interactive movie” experience, where every choice I make leads to a new interesting possibility, or a solid adventure game where the FMV is just a visual style. The Shapeshifting Detective is neither.
Disapprove: LEGO Builder’s Journey
When I first saw LEGO Builder’s Journey, it looked very interesting. A narrative driven puzzle game mixing the Hitman/Lara Croft GO ideas with Lego bricks was a refreshing change after Traveller’s Tales spent the past fifteen years making the exactly same LEGO-themed game over and over again. And the fact that the PC version of the game (this was originally an Apple Arcade exclusive from 2019) uses the ray traced visuals made it me even more curious to play it for myself. What an annoying game it turned out to be.
Disapprove: Papetura
Sometimes you stumble upon projects that you can’t help but respect the dedication and effort put by their creators into it. Yet understand that the end result of all that dedication and effort is, while impressive, not very good. Papetura is one such example. Reminiscent of the impressive fluid clay animations of The Neverhood, except with paper. And except not exciting and not fun to play.
Disapprove: Call of the Sea
I remember when Portal came out and first person adventure/puzzle games exploded and there were so many interesting takes on the subgenre. Some evolved the traditional Myst-like gameplay, some started mixing mechanics and ideas from other genres, some played with physics objects a lot… But for the past 5 or so years, I’ve been mostly ignoring these types of games. There are way too many of them and yet, vast majority of the games seems to fall into two main types: either story driven games with almost pointless adventure elements slapped on top or incredibly complicated puzzle games that make Myst look like an obvious and easy game for children.
Call of the Sea got my attention because it seemed like it could be at least slightly more engaging than a typical “slapped on top” type of adventure. And for the first hour or two, that’s almost what it was. But then it turned into one of the most tedious and poorly designed first person adventure games I’ve played in a while.