Herska

Though enjoyable for a while, Assassin's Creed 2 prolongs its main story for way too long. The game mechanics really get repetitive and offer little more during the main story. At the end of the game you are forced to seek out collectables to advance in the main story, and I don't even want to think about playing all the side missions. Ezio is a great character and the gameplay is somewhat enjoyable and the setting nice to look at, for some time. Should the main story take several hours less to complete and expand on its working gameplay mechanics, Assassin's Creed 2 doesn't really inspire me to check out any of the other games. I don't see the charm in the underlining scifi story with Desmond and Animus. Most of the time it only distracts you from the characters and environments you actually care about and even restricts the openness of the game: you cannot enter this area because Ezio doesn't remember this area or Ezio had these collectables when this memory occured. When the scifi story is actually developed, it is rushed and feels like a forced cliffhanger so that the Assassin's Creed games have some continuity. I decided not to care about the scifi story and enjoy assassinating people as Ezio. If only it could have ended sooner (and had a better ending, for that matter).

Dungeons of Dredmor is one of those games that offers more **** laugh than a lasting gameplay experience. Ironically enough, I've spent +50 hours enjoying that joke and with its 5€ price I'd say its a bargain. The game has tons and tons of references and jokes, and the core gameplay is also brilliant. Through lots and lots of trial and error you come to understand the vaguely described skill sets you choose in the beginning of your run, and finally you manage to prepare for every peril before you: enemies, traps, backfiring abilities and even thugs coming after your stolen goods (stealing, SERIOUSLY NOT COOL). Although knowing your bit of pop culture and gaming history adds to the experience, Dredmor can be just as captivating and fun even if you grew up in a barrel under a rock. Developing strategies and hoping not to fall to a trap you didn't have the sufficient skill to see and/or disarm can keep you entertained for a long, long time. I also highly recommend getting the DLC for the game (one of which is free, others 3€ each). This is the steam sale must-buy.

DLC Quest is a clever satire of the video game industry. It really doesn't feel or play like a game, but instead like an interactive joke. DLC's biggest problem is that it delivers its punchline too early: the description of the game in steam already spoils the joke of having to buy pause screens, jumping etc. After that, the gameplay just isn't that enjoyable. If the game would emphasise and compliment the elements of for example, having to buy a DLC that requires jumping, this would easily be a much better game. Instead its design doesn't really give you a chance to have a laugh at only being able to go in one direction as you're unable to jump as you are granted the ability within the first fifteen seconds of gameplay. Complaining about DLC's gameplay issues could be missing the point, though. The game throws great jokes about how modern games are designed, and for the >hour of entertainment it provides you'll be blowing air out of your nose with increased velocity. DLC Quest offers good laughs, but on my opinion, with slightly better gameplay design the joke would run more fluently and the game would be more worthy of the 3€ price tag.

A decent retro-style zombie game to keep you entertained for a few hours. The price of 3€ is pretty high for its value, though. The gameplay can get a bit repetitive and boring, but it has a certain moment where you can really enjoy balancing your ammo consumption and surviving through the horde. The difficulty system prolongs the length of game modes for example from 10 to 40 rounds. I would prefer to choose the amount of zombies and amount of rounds separately, and as in lower difficulty settings you really can just run through campaigns without firing a bullet, there really isn't an option of a quick yet fun game. Dead Pixels' gameplay is designed worse than its feel and outlook which are surprisingly neat. The soundtrack is nice and enjoyable and its look has that certain "1920's damaged film reel" feeling to it that I enjoyed. I'd recommend Dead Pixels if you have a boner for indie retro games. Otherwise it doesn't quite offer 3€'s worth of entertainment. When Steam sales come around again I'd recommend it for anyone, though, even just as a backup time killer.

I'm really surprised about the score distribution here. I suffered from technical difficulties only in the last mission, where a bug caused me to fail the mission and start over from the beginning of a mission (far behind). Overall the gameplay is fluent enough and the story is really well developed. I highly recommend buying the Episodes from Liberty City DLC as it focuses on the stories of some side characters in the original game and can get the player really invested in the subplots going on in the game world during Niko and Roman's struggles in Liberty City. To me the most important aspect in Grand Theft Auto games is the design of characters, missions and the setup. In GTA4 the setup is great, our protagonist Niko Bellic included. Some of the voice acting and dialogue are however really overblown and ridiculously stereotypical, and at times I would have liked for the writers at Rockstar to show a bit more respect for the intelligence of their audience. GTA4 does have its share of problems, though. I won't complain about the PC port, as it has worked like a dream for me. There are some flaws in the design and gameplay mechanics as well. For example the relationship/girlfriend aspect of the game really felt like it was slowing the gameplay down and some of the missions should have been cut out as well. In addition to this I would have liked more use of the vertical dimension of the city: in a sandbox game it would be good to have the option to easily go to the roof of more buildings, gun people down from tactical locations, skydive etc. (Skydiving was added in the DLC, but it doesn't satisfy my urge to skydive to a meet with gun-dealing Jacob.) Also the ability to make decisions that affect the story could have been utilized more. In The Ballad Of Gay Tony story of the DLC a very pleasant feature was added. When dying or otherwise failing a mission, retrying would allow you to continue at the point where the player failed. This should be a norm in GTA games, as it cuts down on the pointless delay of running to buy a body armor, going to a safehouse to regain health and continuing on to your next mission. With its minor design flaws, GTA4 is still an amazingly enjoyable game with a really touching and compelling story.

With the wrath of the lamb, the 8€ cost of Isaac is still ridiculously cheap. I've played the game for ridiculously long, currently clocking at 84+ hours. Still, the game experience seems to be only enhancing as new items, bosses and areas are introduced. Through skill and tactics the player learns to master different floors, and the process is always swinging from tidious to extremely enjoyable. The challenge is moderate and the controls are fluent enough, so there is no one to blame for your mistakes. The roguelike element can be pretty tiring at times, for a run can last almost a full hour. As long as you know what you are doing (or know how to google a item and/or floor guide) Isaac offers a really well balanced and nice retro-like rogue challenge. Its problems have not bothered me during my 84 playing hours, and I still return to it from time to time.

More an experience than a video game. And a really amazing experience at that. The cult classic really delivers with its atmosphere and feel, which **** you in in minutes. The vast amount of custom stories ensures hours of entertainment beyond the main story. As a downside it can sometimes be difficult to get your room lighting right for playing. Amnesia is a game that can be pulled from the shelf many times and it has the same chilling charm every time.

Beautiful game with memorable characters, great story and gameplay (excluding the final battle, which felt a bit awkward to me). A classic that offers more than it seems. Sometimes the gameplay mechanics make it a bit harder than it should be to execute a command, making a seemingly easy moment frustratingly hard. The puzzles also vary from ridicilously hard to really clever and creative that can make the gameplay a lot easier if you know your characters and their special abilities. If you can get past some quickload-abusing chapters, Desperados will prove to be awesome, though. A great wild west game that isn't based on gunning down gangsters, but on focusing on the whole and planning sometimes very complex strategies.