OperationParlov

Stray was an incredibly chill experience. The gameplay is fairly simplistic and exploration focused, but the best parts of the game are the art direction and sound design. The city setting is incredibly realistic and feels very lived-in. The sounds of the city and its inhabitants also do a wonderful job of adding to the realism. The soundtrack is very moody and definitely helps build the atmosphere. Once the stealth sections were introduced in the latter half of the game, it became a little less chill, but that's only a minor gripe. Overall, I'd strongly recommend this to anyone that's looking for an experience similar to Journey.

What can be said about Half-Life that hasn't already been said a thousand times over? This remake is damn near perfect, and I have an extremely hard time finding flaws with it. It's leagues above the original Half-Life in nearly every way. It's visually stunning, it feels incredibly good to control, and it has excellent pacing throughout, so it hardly ever feels slow or boring. When it was over, I still wanted to play more of it, which is some of the highest praise I can give to a game. And how about that soundtrack?

This is one of the most visually and auditorily stunning games I've ever played. The art direction and sound design were definitely the stars of the show. It was a treat to experience. This is mostly a story-driven experience, so the gameplay itself is a bit simple. The platforming is extremely easy and the musical sections are very uninvolved. It seems like this was meant to be a chill experience in the vain of games like Journey or ABZU, so none of these things really detract from the experience. The voice acting is also excellent thanks to the talented and experienced cast of actors.

This is a walking simulator with a very captivating, mysterious, and heartbreaking story. The real star of the show is the art direction. The way the story is told is extremely creative and really complements the direction they went with the art and graphics. At just 2 hours long, there's no real reason not to play the game to completion.

I haven't played the original Shadow Man from 1999, so I can't speak on that version, but this remaster is solid. Shadow Man Remastered is a very competent 3D metroidvania, especially for a game originally from 1999. It's a fun, ambitious, and lengthy experience that didn't feel like it overstayed its welcome. It's well paced and rewarding, although some level designs did end up breaking the pacing a bit. The game has excellent sound design with a really good soundtrack (minus a couple of songs) that adds to Shadow Man's already near-perfect voodoo atmosphere. My biggest complaint with the game is that a lot of the levels are maze-like and have a very samey look to them, making it difficult to navigate. I spent a lot of time just wandering levels, hoping to find the one door or corridor that I haven't gone through yet. This is the only real major negative thing I can say about the game. Highly recommend everyone play and beat this.

I really wanted to like this game, especially since I've only ever heard good things about it. Unfortunately, it's not good; it's extremely tedious and frustrating. The movement and controls are super clunky. It was an absolute chore to get through. Conker's Bad Fur Day is known for its raunchy toilet humor, which held up surprisingly well. I was expecting to be cringing at the humor more than laughing, considering the game is 20+ years old and humor can change so much over two decades, but I was pleasantly surprised. Some jokes still fell flat, though. Hands down, the highlight of the game is the sound design. There's so much attention to detail in the smallest things when it comes to audio, like how the buzzing bees in the first area start buzzing to the tune of the background music when you approach them and stop when you walk away. Not to mention the soundtrack on its own is an absolute banger, specifically the tracks "Poo" and "Rock Solid." 10/10 on the sound design. Sadly, the lows aren't worth suffering through in order to experience the game's highs, so I can't really recommend this to anyone.

This is an interesting horror action-shooter with a Manhunt-esque aesthetic. Gameplay-wise, it looks and feels like similar to a game like Freedom Fighters. That's the thing about this game: it's very derivitive of other games around this time. The only real unique thing it has going on is its story and lore. The enemy designs are unique, as are the bosses. The boss fights usually require solving a minor puzzle in order to win, which is a bit more exciting than just "shoot the guy" like you get from similar games from this era. The worst thing about The Suffering is the last few levels are unnecessarily annoying and obtuse. This is why I can only recommend anyone play this game and can't really recommend anyone beat it.

This game is janky fun, but I wouldn't recommend playing through to the end. It has some frustrating moments, particularly toward the end, but those moments are worth powering through to experience other - more fun - parts of the game. The story is bad and kind of all over the place with way too many major plot twists, so it's kind of hard to follow. The combat is unique, but needed to be fleshed out a little more. I liked the combat, the hilariously bad characters, and the overall aesthetic of the game.