Not recommended – Page 4

Disapprove: Call of the Sea

16/06/2021 16/06/2021

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.

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Disapprove: DOOM Eternal: The Ancient Gods

21/03/2021 21/03/2021

Last year I really enjoyed playing DOOM Eternal despite it’s numerous annoyances. Yes, it was as likely to be enjoyable as it was to be stressful, if not more the latter. Yes Marauders were terribly designed enemies. Yes, the story was weird and couldn’t really be enjoyed seriously or ironically. And yes, despite the really cool huge levels and awesome platforming abilities, the exploration was always limited via invisible walls and death planes. But despite all of that, it was really really fun, inventive and had an awesome soundtrack by Mick Gordon.

A year later a few things have been tweaked, numerous “live service” crap elements are still being fed into the game, Mick Gordon cut all ties with the publisher and the game leading to a disappointing official soundtrack release, and he is, of course, also absent from The Ancient Gods DLCs, the two-parter DLC/expansion that finishes the Doom Slayer story started in 2016. And it’s not enjoyable.

Quick thoughts on: She Sees Red

03/09/2020 03/09/2020

With the recent resurgence of “interactive movies” and FMV adventures, and increased ease of producing them at an adequate quality, it’s getting harder to identify from the start what could and what couldn’t be interesting. She Sees Red, for example, looked very promising. An interactive thriller from a Russian (I think?) studio with good actors and high quality production. In reality, though? Not very good.

Disapprove: Song of Horror

26/08/2020 26/08/2020

It is extremely rare that I stumble upon a horror themed game where I see developers spending a lot of time researching and trying to create something of their own instead of copying some pre-existing formula. Song of Horror feels like a project that tried really hard to get the essence of every horror themed game now considered a classic, understand why those worked and how. And I tried really hard to love it. But I can’t.

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Disapprove: Armikrog.

28/06/2020 28/06/2020

I was very curious about how Armikrog can turn out way back when the Kickstarter project for it got announced. Yet, for many reasons I didn’t have too much hope even then. When it was finally released in 2015 to mostly damning reviews I considered simply forgetting about this game. But recently, after seeing it go on big discount, decided to give it a go and see how bad things really were. Turns out, they weren’t as much “bad” as they were just “tedious” or “poor”.

O tempora: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary (MCC)

17/06/2020 18/06/2020

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

I never played Halo on the “intended platform”. Never owned an Xbox, don’t plan to unless Series X impresses me with something exclusive and unique and even when I was borrowing one of the 360 from a friend of mine, I never ever played Halo on it. Yet, I did play Halo: Combat Evolved. The PC port done by Gearbox Software in 2003 which had some improvements and unique features, but also several bizarre downgrades. And back when I played it, I didn’t like it much. I did, however, feel that it was still a curious game to look at.

With the Master Chief Collection available and slowly updated with supported titles on PC, however, the Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary brings the newest remaster of the original game to PCs. And, being curious about the series for a long time, I’ve decided to give it a go and play the games in the order they were released. As usual for me, I don’t plan to play the multiplayer or even the coop in these games, which is an important point to stress since Halo has always been most loved specifically for those modes. Yet, I feel that even with coop, I wouldn’t have enjoyed this revisit of the original Halo. Because by 2020 its campaign is genuinely unpleasant to go through.

Disdain: Aliens: Colonial Marines

08/06/2020 07/07/2023

Ever since release I knew that Aliens: Colonial Marines isn’t a good game. Yet, in space no one can hear how curiosity kills the cat. And it’s almost a shame that despite playing it 7 years later, despite patches, despite other experiences and possible change of perspective, I feel like I still don’t have much to say about this game that hasn’t been already. Not because it’s that bad, but because it’s that mediocre in its poor quality. But, I’ll try to explore this game at least a bit.

Disapprove: Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Definitive Edition)

10/05/2020 10/05/2020

Oh, Tomb Raider… *sigh*

What a cool experiment Tomb Raider 2013 was. Something to do, to learn from, to never repeat as is. Yet it was repeated almost verbatim in Rise of the Tomb Raider, which I still consider to be the most pointless huge budget game in existence. And then it was repeated almost verbatim a third time in Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Except, this time the game is not just pointless, but often shockingly incompetent. Yet, often entertainingly incompetent.

Disapprove: Blaster Master Zero 2

02/05/2020 02/05/2020

It’s been just a few months since I’ve played Blaster Master Zero, a game that I didn’t expect to like as much as I had. It was a really fun exploration focused reimagining of an 8-bit classic with some unique ideas and very few annoyances. So when Blaster Master Zero 2 got a PC port as well just 2 months after my review of the original, I was excited to play and enjoy that game as well. Enjoyment wasn’t part of the process of playing it, turns out.

Disapprove: Kentucky Route Zero

05/02/2020 05/02/2020

Kentucky Route Zero has probably become more known by now not by the praise it’s first Acts received but due to how it took to get the “full” release of it. But here we are, Act 5 is out, those who followed the game since 2013 are finally getting what they wanted. Those who were curious since 2013 but don’t like unfinished products (like me) are getting to finally learn what the game is all about. I can see why 7 years ago Kentucky Route Zero, with its first two Acts out, was an interesting and mysterious journey to look forward to. As a complete game, though, it’s a drag.