UncleEd

I can’t describe how boring this game is. Ubisoft is known for copy-pasting its own franchises until people are fed up. Rainbow Six Siege, released in 2015, is a good game. Rainbow Six Extraction, released in 2022, is Rainbow Six Siege converted into PVE. All assets, characters, weapons, gameplay are shamelessly reused. The problem is, this game is not fun. You can have a good time playing a bad game, even more so in a co-op title. Rainbow Six Extraction is a bland game, devoid of soul. I would be surprised to find anyone who manages to enjoy their time with it. 1.5/10

Unsighted is a top-down metroidvania from the Brazilian studio Pixel Punk and it’s one of the best games I have played in this genre. You are Alma, an android and your goal is to save your fellow androids from running out of Anima, the energy which vitalizes all androids, and thus to prevent them from becoming “Unsighted”. It borrows game mechanics and visual style from the likes of CrossCode and Hyper Light Drifter. Tight combat, a good story, plenty of puzzles to solve, interesting boss fights and diverse weapons to use in order to progress to different parts of the map. Different areas have unique weapons, enemies and visual tones, all of which combine to a cohesive, beautiful world. I should mention that in the default mode, the androids run out of time quite fast and you will have to make decisions as to which NPCs to keep alive. You can, however, choose the Explorer mode and make the time run much slower. This will save you from the stress of rushing the game and you can still keep the difficulty otherwise unchanged. As much as the Explorer mode is not the “intended” mode to play the game, I have found it to be the preferable one for my taste. The difficulty is just right. Whether in combat or puzzles, you will always feel the challenge but not in a frustrating way. No part of Unsighted is a masterpiece, but it’s a very ambitious game. It tries too many things and I find it marvelous that it succeeds at most of them. Unsighted is the sleeper hit of 2021! 9/10

Doing a good parody is hard. You should have a really good understanding of the source material. You should imitate the original work you intend to mock, as closely as possible. And this is what Unmetal masterfully achieves. It’s a perfect parody of Metal Gear Solid games. Unmetal plays as if the characters, dialogues are all taken directly from the Metal Gear Solid franchise (more so from the original Metal Gear titles), albeit in a more exaggerated and hilarious way. Without spoiling anything, it is a very complete story from start to finish and the laughs never stop until the very end. Unmetal is a must-play for all Metal Gear Solid fans. I think it is a must-play for all the Kung Fury fans, as the sense of humour gives very similar vibes. It is also a remarkable video game and easily one of the most underrated games of 2021. Just make sure you have played at least one MGS game in advance, so you get all the jokes.

Dino D-Day can be somewhat enjoyable with its asymmetrical **** dinosaurs vs Allied soldiers theme. It is imbalanced, hitboxes are off and the game mostly feels like a Counterstrike 1.6 mod. Despite all that it can be fun for a while if you don’t take it seriously. It’s not a good game, but it’s not terrible either, especially if you already have it in your library for some reason. The problem is, it’s almost completely dead. You can only find populated servers in certain hours on weekends. In a world, where there are so many great multiplayer shooters, it’s really hard to recommend Dino D-Day. You can basically get Natural Selection 2 for the same price (another asymmetrical shooter with aliens vs marines that is much better and still supported after almost 10 years of its release). Dino D-Day begs for a f2p release for resurrection, unfortunately the devs appear to have abandoned it.

Lacuna is an interactive noir adventure. For me it was pretty much an instant purchase simply because it was giving heavy Beneath a Steel Sky vibes. Having played through the game, I can safely say the setting is where the resemblance to Beneath a Steel Sky ends. On the other hand, Lacuna is still a pretty good game in its own right. You are a detective working for the CDI, investigating a case involving interplanetary terrorism. When you initiate a dialogue, you are often given a few options of answers with a timer, where your choice will influence how the game will end. There are no point & click puzzles here and the game focuses on the narrative experience instead. It is still interactive, but your interaction will mostly be limited to moving to different places and reading your emails, clues etc. Pixel art is very beautiful and arguably the strongest aspect of Lacuna. I also liked the unique interface, which was pretty eye-candy and easy & fun to use. Writing and story are pretty good, but nothing very memorable. Overall, Lacuna is an easy recommendation for everyone who enjoys narrative games, as well as dystopian, sci-fi and noir settings.

First things first. I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison is one of the best sci-fi stories ever written and if you consider yourself remotely interested in the genre, you owe yourself to read it. The video game adaptation is a point & click adventure co-designed by Harlan Ellison himself. Harlan Ellison also narrates AM, the main antagonist of I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. On that point, this game features some of the best voice acting in the history of video games, period (Just have a look at the opening scene). Harlan Ellison’s involvement does not end there. The game expands on the original story, while maintaining the dark, sinister atmosphere and mature theme in visual format. It touches subjects rarely seen in video games and delves into deep areas in psychology. Visually, the game looks very good for an adventure game that came out in 1995. Everything you have read so far points out to a masterpiece. But unfortunately, the game is a big flop when it comes to being a video game. Remember how a big chunk of adventure games released up until the end of 90s were crippled with abysmal game mechanics, most of which are completely abandoned today? Trial & error puzzles that make no sense? Deadlocks where you can get permanently stuck because you did not follow the steps in the order the game designer had in mind? You will find all those here and in abundance. It did not take me long to understand how bad I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream is as a video game. My love for the original story as well as the parts of the game where Harlan Ellison was involved (atmosphere, writing, voiceovers) kept me going until the end, but only with constant use of a walkthrough. Play this one if you are familiar with the short story and only if you are comfortable with using a guide throughout the game.

This is a case where the original title lay the foundations for a great game and the second title nailed it right on the head. Resident Evil 2 features better controls, better graphics with more detailed textures, much better puzzle design, better everything. Backtracking which slightly crippled the first game is eliminated here and mostly replaced by smarter (not necessarily more difficult) puzzles. Resident Evil 2 takes place within the police headquarters in Raccoon City. You play as Leon or Claire and each playable character (as well as different difficulty levels) introduces some changes to the gameplay resulting in a game with great replay value. It is one of the rare games I have played through within almost a 24-hour period, because the gameplay was so tight and no part of it felt like it’s there just to prolong the playtime. I know the remake is great, but you should not skip the original second title if you are into Resident Evil series. I suggest Classic Rebirth version as it’s a comprehensive patch to the PC port, making it at least as good as its best console ports. Resident Evil 2 is easily one of the best PlayStation 1 games I have played, both technically and gameplay-wise.

Remember the parts in Ratchet & Clank where you play Clank? The ones with some simplistic combat mechanics with some heavier emphasis on puzzles and platforming? Imagine that with stunning hand drawn isometric visuals and you will get Retro Machina. Unfortunately, it also has several issues which come to surface as you progress through the game. Retro Machina is heavily crippled by its level design and backtracking. The gameplay loop is simple. Kill enemies, find some keys and unlock some new areas to progress. But there comes a point in Retro Machina that you keep finding yourself simply lost in its large map with no visual clue as to where to go next. Having to backtrack to every location just to figure out my next steps started feeling tedious and I did not have the patience to play it through. My early experience with the game was an easy 8/10. As I progressed, it got worse. It is a hard pass and I am afraid I could like it even less if I kept on playing. On the other hand, I am curious what the Brazilian studio will come up with next time. 6.5/10

If on a Winter's Night, Four Travelers is a free to play adventure game that takes less than 2 hours to complete. I was very surprised by the gorgeous pixel art, fitting music and skillful writing. It consists of three short stories and there is little gameplay here, but it’s a very atmospheric with some Sanitarium vibes. I would argue this was my best gothic gaming experience in recent years. Do not sleep on this underrated little gem. Having played this for free, I feel like I owe the developers and I will purchase their next title without waiting for a deep discount. PS: 2nd story was my favorite.

Spellbreak started as a spellcasting free to play battle royale. My first impression with it was quite positive. Movement smooth as butter, nice cartoony animations, charming graphics. You can choose your spellcaster from one of the six elemental classes and once you drop into the map, you get to find your secondary spell, as well as your potions, runes etc. One would expect a sophisticated system of synergies. Unfortunately, I have found them quite simplistic, much simpler than Magicka, and ultimately not very interesting. The main problem with Spellbreak is that this spellcasting gameplay doesn’t really match to the battle royale genre. In an FPS, you would find cover, spot your enemy and try to aim well. Your surroundings, environment, sounds are all integral parts of the core gameplay loop. In Spellbreak, however, most combats come down to enemies finding each other and engaging in face-to-face combat until one of them dies, unless more players join the combat which only increases the number of casualties. There is no tension you would find in most battle royale games and the satisfaction you get from killing another player or winning the game is minimal. And that is why I enjoyed the Dominion mode (which was introduced later) more. It is your typical King of the Hill mode in a much smaller map in comparison to battle royale. The problem with it, though it is even less popular than Spellbreak’s battle royale mode and you will wait several minutes for a single round even during prime-time hours. All things considered; I still recommend giving Spellbreak a try. It is a polished charming free-to-play game. Unfortunately, it gets a bit boring after a while and the servers are not very populated. It will, however, still give you a few hours of entertainment. 6.5/10

Rust is the game you would wish existed back in the heyday of MMORPGS. Unforgiving PVP with consequences, where you can end up literally dominating the entire server. So, if you are the sort of person who enjoys tension in online PVP games, this should sound very good to your ears. And Rust honestly delivered in building that tense, insecure atmosphere in my first couple of hours. You start naked, with a piece of rock. You mine ores, destroy trees, build your first weapon and just try to survive. Any animal, any player is your potential murderer and players won’t hesitate to murder you and loot all your things. The more I played though, the more I observed how this is not a game “for me”. Even when you are offline, your base can be raided and everything you have can be stolen. The community is beyond toxic, but that’s kind of expected for this sort of game. Servers usually reset weekly, biweekly or monthly, preventing many players from everlasting slavery and giving everyone a chance to start on equal terms. But that comes with a caveat: All the benefits you earned by your grinding will be lost no matter what. Also, it should be mentioned that Rust offers some “lite” pay-to-win items. You can purchase things which appear to be only cosmetic, but do actually provide some gameplay advantages. Rust is a good game for people with a very specific taste in games. It achieves what it’s going for, but ultimately is not a game most people would be willing to invest their time in, including myself. If you are a solo player, stay away from Rust. If you have limited time to invest in one game, stay away from Rust. If a mature community is important for you, stay away from Rust. But if this type of extremely unforgiving game is what you and your group of friends are looking for, you may actually love it. 7.5/10

Marvel’s Spider-Man has some issues, but it is a game hard not to love regardless. Imagine being able to really feel like Spider-Man in a visually amazing world. Insomniac really nails it with the animations and overall feel here. The way you jump, swing, fight, everything feels just right. There is a very high production value and both graphics, audio and cinematics, all push the video game games to its limits. But what I really loved the most about Marvel’s Spider-Man was how it is the perfect beat ‘em up game. Somehow, it’s not hard to learn or hard to master, yet you find yourself doing dozens of different moves in each combat. There is also plenty of fan service here. I do not consider myself a Marvel fan in any way, but I appreciate the attention to detail with references to Spider-Man’s 60 years of legacy. I only had one issue with this game and that’s something you can find in most open world games nowadays. The game has many side quests and collectibles that interrupt the flow of the game. Most of them are interesting at first, but become a drag when you have to almost identical ones over and over. One can argue that it’s not mandatory to do the side quests, but that’s not really the case here because you unlock most of your suits and power-ups with stuff you earn by completing side quests. Talking about suits and power-ups, boy that’s what I call variety. I have found myself changing my suit frequently, just to experience different looks. Also, power-ups are mostly fun to use. In addition, there are suit powers which come with every suit you unlock. However, once you unlock a suit power, you can just combine it with another suit that better fits your visual tastes. As for the DLCs, I would say they are worth playing if you enjoyed your time with the main campaign and want more of the same, maybe with a slightly less interesting story. Overall, I definitely recommend Marvel’s Spider-Man. I also recommend the “Spectacular” difficulty, which offers a bit of challenge for your first playthrough but not in any way frustrating.

A short but sweet DLC which takes about 1 hour to complete. This time you don’t play as Isaac, so it’s a story separate from Dead Space 2. It really feels like another mission from Dead Space 2 though, so if you enjoyed the main game, you would definitely enjoy this DLC.

Dead Space 2 is to Dead Space, what Aliens (movie) was to Alien. The first game was a spectacular horror game, very atmospheric, slowly building tension. It had very tight gameplay too. Dead Space 2 focuses on the tight gameplay and further improves on it. It throws aliens at you left and right and you can make use of your more comprehensive weapon arsenal to kill them. Thanks to its awesome sound design, the game is still scary. But it is scary in a way that Aliens was, keeping tension constantly high throughout the game. There is also great replay value here, because you unlock different difficulty modes which you can complete with your upgraded weapons brought from your previous saves. Overall, I loved Dead Space 2. I did not love it as much as I did Dead Space, but that is not a drawback, considering the first game is one of the best horror games ever made. I totally recommend Dead Space 2. It’s as good as a sequel can get.

When I first saw the trailer for Loop Hero, I was very impressed. It seemed to tick all the right boxes for me. A very specific retro visual style and sound effects, which Loop Hero really nails right on the head. It is often referred to as a roguelike, but to me it is more of a tile placement board game. I really enjoyed my first several hours with Loop Hero. It offers an innovative and addicting gameplay. The problem, however, is that its length was artificially prolonged by locking progression behind grind. For the first several hours, that didn’t really bother me as I was enjoying my time with the grind. But Loop Hero is actually a much more simplistic game than it first appears to be. There are not many synergies among the tiles and it doesn’t take long to figure out the optimal way to play. A few hours after Act 3, I’ve just got really bored with the grind and decided to grind through the rest of the game was not worth my time. I still applaud Loop Hero for the visuals and innovative gameplay. I have the feeling that a sequel would be great, if it preserves what is good about Loop Hero but improves upon things that don’t work well (meaningless grind, lack of clever synergies…).

The only thing that I liked about this game was the map design. It is a cute top down 2D version of PUBG map, which actually looks cool. I was quickly bored due to extremely simplistic gameplay though. 1.5/10

This is a game I disliked, but I can see why some people enjoy it. Darkest Dungeon is a side-view turn based combat game, where grinding is its core mechanic. You have your party and go into dungeons trying to complete quests, most of which involve exploring the dungeon or clearing out the enemies. There are a lot of good things to say about it. It has a unique visual style, which I really liked. The music, audio and atmosphere are also really good. You have to watch the stress levels of your heroes in addition to their hit points and stress is usually the main challenge to overcome. Once your heroes die, you lose them permanently. So, you can spend hours leveling up your heroes and lose them unexpectedly. RNG is an additional factor of frustration, which you can maybe overcome with constant grinding. If you grind long enough, upgrading your town, then your heroes, I can safely assume you will be able to play through it. And that’s the thing about Darkest Dungeon. If you enjoy or don’t mind the grinding, Darkest Dungeon offers a unique atmosphere and it’s very friendly to casual pick up & play. If you are like me though, you will see early on what is expected from you to complete the game and you will choose to abandon it instead. I have played it both on Switch and Steam and found the gameplay much more enjoyable with mouse & keyboard. On a final note, the game warns you that it will collect your data if you wish to access one of the DLCs, which sounded alarming, but I did not really research if it’s something troubling.

This is a game I disliked, but I can see why some people enjoy it. Darkest Dungeon is a side-view turn based combat game, where grinding is its core mechanic. You have your party and go into dungeons trying to complete quests, most of which involve exploring the dungeon or clearing out the enemies. There are a lot of good things to say about it. It has a unique visual style, which I really liked. The music, audio and atmosphere are also really good. You have to watch the stress levels of your heroes in addition to their hit points and stress is usually the main challenge to overcome. Once your heroes die, you lose them permanently. So, you can spend hours leveling up your heroes and lose them unexpectedly. RNG is an additional factor of frustration, which you can maybe overcome with constant grinding. If you grind long enough, upgrading your town, then your heroes, I can safely assume you will be able to play through it. And that’s the thing about Darkest Dungeon. If you enjoy or don’t mind the grinding, Darkest Dungeon offers a unique atmosphere and it’s very friendly to casual pick up & play. If you are like me though, you will see early on what is expected from you to complete the game and you will choose to abandon it instead. I have played it both on Switch and Steam and found the gameplay much more enjoyable with mouse & keyboard. On a final note, the game warns you that it will collect your data if you wish to access one of the DLCs, which sounded alarming, but I did not really research if it’s something troubling.

Although Lucas Arts adventures are not my favorites due to some illogical puzzles in every game, I admit Full Throttle is one of the best by the studio. You are the leader of a biker gang, the Polecats. The game features motorcycle riding, combat (similar to Road Rash) and demolition derby, which provide a welcome change in addition to point & click mechanics. I loved the voice acting, as well as the heavy metal soundtrack. Back in the day, the game was criticized to be too short. But I feel 4 hours length for Full Throttle felt just right. A few words about the remaster. As in every Tim Schafer remaster, this is a perfect one. You can switch to old graphics and sound by the press of a button and also access commentaries, which renders the old version pretty much obsolete. As opposed to Day of the Tentacle Remastered though, I chose to play with the original graphics, which in my view offers a preferable darker and upsetting tone, rather than the more colorful and cheerful remastered graphics. 8.5/10

Although Lucas Arts adventures are not my favorites due to some illogical puzzles in every game, I admit Full Throttle is one of the best by the studio. You are the leader of a biker gang, the Polecats. The game features motorcycle riding, combat (similar to Road Rash) and demolition derby, which provide a welcome change in addition to point & click mechanics. I loved the voice acting, as well as the heavy metal soundtrack. Back in the day, the game was criticized to be too short. But I feel 4 hours length for Full Throttle felt just right. 8.5/10

The first time I played Blood was when it was released back in 1997. It was one of the first video games that gave me the creeps and being a horror fan kid, I loved every minute of the first iconic mission, yet I did not progress much further due to my inexperience in shooters. Blood is a member of the holy trinity of Build engine games along with Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior (I personally would add Redneck Rampage to that list). Due to its scary nature, it was a bit less popular than Duke Nukem 3D, yet the game always had a cult following, despite the harm its sequel Blood II: The Chosen may have caused. 24 years have passed. I have beaten countless shooters from retro classics (Doom, Duke Nukem 3D) to classics in transition period (No One Lives Forever, Half-Life), to modern ones. I usually love Nightdive Studio’s work with remasters and I simply could not resist to replay the game as “Blood: Fresh Supply”. Oh boy… It holds up so well. It plays like Duke Nukem 3D, where you find some keys, kill enemies and finally press a button to finish the mission. It separates itself from FPSs from the same era with its level design, soundtrack and unique weapons. You will not find annoying maze-like levels where you get lost. You will have extremely memorable weapons in your arsenal from flare gun and dynamite to voodoo doll. Any kind of incendiary damage will be your most effective tool here as you watch even the strongest enemies burn, screaming in agony. Enemies have good variety and none of them fell out of place, cultists being my favorite. Most importantly though, this game has sick soundtrack, which I had totally erased from my memory. It is the sort of music that you would find on a cassette tape that belongs to a satanic cult leader. I could not play anything else until I finished the game and all expansions including Cryptic Passage and Plasma Pak. It was a blast. I did not experience and compatibility issues thanks to the remaster and I certainly recommend picking it up. It’s definitely one of the best fps games ever made and one that you should not miss if you are into retro FPS classics. 9.5/10

The first time I played Blood was when it was released back in 1997. It was one of the first video games that gave me the creeps and being a horror fan kid, I loved every minute of the first iconic mission, yet I did not progress much further due to my inexperience in shooters. Blood is a member of the holy trinity of Build engine games along with Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior (I personally would add Redneck Rampage to that list). Due to its scary nature, it was a bit less popular than Duke Nukem 3D, yet the game always had a cult following, despite the harm its sequel Blood II: The Chosen may have caused. 24 years have passed. I have beaten countless shooters from retro classics (Doom, Duke Nukem 3D) to classics in transition period (No One Lives Forever, Half-Life), to modern ones. I usually love Nightdive Studio’s work with remasters and I simply could not resist to replay the game as “Blood: Fresh Supply”. Oh boy… It holds up so well. It plays like Duke Nukem 3D, where you find some keys, kill enemies and finally press a button to finish the mission. It separates itself from FPSs from the same era with its level design, soundtrack and unique weapons. You will not find annoying maze-like levels where you get lost. You will have extremely memorable weapons in your arsenal from flare gun and dynamite to voodoo doll. Any kind of incendiary damage will be your most effective tool here as you watch even the strongest enemies burn, screaming in agony. Enemies have good variety and none of them fell out of place, cultists being my favorite. Most importantly though, this game has sick soundtrack, which I had totally erased from my memory. It is the sort of music that you would find on a cassette tape that belongs to a satanic cult leader. I could not play anything else until I finished the game and all expansions including Cryptic Passage and Plasma Pak. It was a blast. I did not experience and compatibility issues thanks to the remaster and I certainly recommend picking it up. It’s definitely one of the best fps games ever made and one that you should not miss if you are into retro FPS classics. 9.5/10

Fun little mini game that takes around 10 minutes to complete. It now became more like a free showcase for its sequel, There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension. 6.5/10

A chaotic cooking game best enjoyed with friends. In every mission, you are tasked with fulfilling customers’ orders in a specific time where each player has to chop, cook, bake etc. Each mission comes with some challenges that you have to overcome, from moving platforms to random fire in your kitchen. I am not really into this type of games, but once my party got accustomed to the game’s mechanics, I suddenly started enjoying it. You will get a few hours of fun with its simplistic gameplay and charming graphics. I would recommend this only for multiplayer with friends though.

Deep Rock Galactic is one of the best online co-op games out there. You choose your dwarf, each equipped with a different set of skills of weapons and dive into a procedurally generated cave filled with bugs and creators. Your mission could be to retrieve some monster eggs, mine minerals, protect the “drilldozer” or kill some elite enemies. The game features an incredible visual style which is dark but at the same colorful. I also loved the soundtrack which gave me Jean-Michel Jarre vibes. Deep Rock Galactic only occupies around 3 gigabytes of hard disk space and I think it’s an outstanding achievement for the developers. My experience with Deep Rock Galactic was with my favorite class “driller”. I was hooked until I promoted my dwarf and played through the “deep dives” and “breach the core” content. At that point the game started to feel a bit repetitive, but only after around 40 hours playtime. For anyone looking for a co-op multiplayer game, I wholeheartedly recommend Deep Rock Galactic. Whether you play with friends or join a random server, you will get your money’s worth.

Splatoon 2 is a charming game crippled with several design choices. It is a sequel to Splatoon so I can’t really praise the novelty of the core gameplay. But for those who haven’t played the original game, the idea of a multiplayer shooter where bullets are replaced by ink is certainly refreshing. It is not a typical team deathmatch though and in the main game mode called turf war, you are expected to cover the arena with paint. The other popular game mode is called salmon run, which is more of a teamplay mode and is as good as turf war. On paper, it should be a great game and the core game is pretty good. What ruined the experience for me though were some of the design decisions. Firstly, the game is a grindfest. There are many locked weapons, items which you can unlock by leveling up your character and it basically takes forever. Motion controls are not ideal, especially for a multiplayer shooter. Other than that, Splatoon 2 has a super cringe game hub where you can hang out, interact with people. Every time you launch the game, you have to spend a minute to skip through some dialogues between two characters, which I’ve found super annoying. Colorful makeup wears up fast and the game is not worth the price point.

Devour is a co-op horror survival game, which can give you a couple of fun nights with friends, but no more than that. You are a group of survivors and in the first map, The Farmhouse, you are required to perform a satanic ritual and stop Anna from dragging you to hell. You perform the ritual by finding goats inside the farmhouse and sacrificing them in the ritual site. You get the goats by unlocking different rooms inside the farmhouse and feeding them. Demons will randomly spawn which you can kill with your flashlight. The boss, Anna, does not die. You can only stun her for a short period of time with your flashlight and in most cases, she will get you. When you are captured by Anna, you will crawl on the floor (just like in PUBG), until a teammate revives you with a med kit. The game shines with its jump scares and the design of the farmhouse map. Your first moment spotting Anna is also quite memorable. Devs managed to design a sinister and atmospheric map with the Farmhouse and it’s really not bad for a couple of hours. The main problem is that the game relies very much on RNG and careful play or skill will not let you avoid Anna. Also, jump scares get old after a while and the more you play the game, the less scary it will get. I would have rated Devour higher, had I not played the second map The Asylum. Here Anna is replaced by another boss and goats are replaced by rats. However, level design is very poor. It is uninteresting and feels like a maze. We did not feel like beating the second map, as it seemed to be a waste of time. I can’t say Devour is a good game. But it’s very cheap and you will get 3-4 hours of fun if you have some friends to play with. Treat it as a one-night horror party with friends and you may end up enjoying it. 5.5/10

Blood and Wine is a step back from the original game. I did not find the majority of the quests very interesting. On the other hand, the graphics look a bit better than the original game. Landscape is more beautiful and thus, it is more fun to ride Roach in Blood and Wine. In terms of characters, I have found Regis to be one of the most interesting ones in the Witcher universe. Other than Regis though, most characters are pretty forgettable, similar to Blood and Wine quests. Finally, I had to lower down the difficulty when fighting Dettlaff due to the sudden spike in difficulty. Dettlaff boss fight offered a challenge unlike any other encounter in Witcher 3, but not necessarily a more enjoyable one. Overall, I can recommend Blood and Wine if you have enjoyed both Witcher 3 and the first expansion. If you did not find them very interesting, your experience won’t get better in Blood and Wine.

Hearts of Stone is one of those rare cases where the expansion is better than the main game. My gameplay criticisms to the Witcher 3 still apply to the DLC. Where it differs is that Hearts of Stone has such beautiful story and the game focuses on its strengths. You won’t find unnecessary fetch quests here. All quests contribute to the game’s narrative, story and character development. Hearts of Stone takes you to a short but very memorable journey. PS: The game features a spectacular song (aka Master Mirror’s song). It gave me the creeps and reminded me a particular level from Sanitarium (1998).

I had enjoyed the original Witcher, but disliked the second game for its poor gameplay. As much as Witcher 3 generally follows the Witcher 2 formula, it is a big step up from it. Again, the gameplay is passable at best, but the more accessible open world design and removal of QTEs really help it. Movement is a bit clunky and combat is really nothing special. Yes, you can prepare potions, use signs, enchant your weapons etc. but it won’t take you long to figure out that repeatedly dodging and hitting will get you through the entire game. As a game adapted from fantasy novel series, you won’t be surprised to find great lore here, similar to previous games. There is a good variety of monsters and many encounters feel unique. Where the Witcher 3 shines though, are the cutscenes. They are very well made and watching the cutscenes (you will watch them very often) will feel like watching a pretty good fantasy themed tv show. Character development for all the characters including the insignificant side characters is very good. Overall, the game suffers from the same burnout that most open world games do. You have a map filled with question marks and generic fetch quests. Some of the best quests are secondary quests, whereas some of the worst fetch quests are within the main questline. So, you will never know what quests are worth doing and which ones you should skip, which results in completing pretty much every quest you get, which then causes burnout. Save some exceptions, I often felt like in one of the MMORPGs released in early 2000s where the game felt like homework. On the other hand, completing my homework was often rewarded with a great cutscene, which was a joy to watch. 8.5/10

Slay the Spire is my first deckbuilding video game and I absolutely loved it. It took a while to get familiar with the mechanics but once it clicked with me, I was totally hooked. You start the game with the class Ironclad. He is by no means the most fun class to play with, but I think he is the ideal class to learn the game. There are 4 Acts in Slay the Spire and once you die you start from the beginning. In every run, you learn about the enemies and how any given deck can be used to plan your strategy to create card synergies in your favor. I adored the overall character design and Slay the Spire really feels like it has its own style and lore, rather than your generic fantasy setting. Does Slay the Spire have RNG? Yes. You can at times be doomed or become a god based on unforeseeable decisions along the way, yet I’ve found it entertaining even to lose in Slay the Spire. Also, your experience with a particular class should not define your experience with the overall game, since Slay the Spire really feels like a different game with different classes. I recommend Slay the Spire to everyone, regardless your familiarity with deckbuilding games. It is beautiful, addictive and immensely replayable. My ranking of classes: Silence > Defect > Ironclad > Watcher

As a Twin Peaks and Stephen King fan, I installed this almost immediately after reading about all the references thereto. If you are familiar with Stephen King books or Twin Peaks, it does hit the right notes when you start the game. References are impossible to miss. As I continued playing though, I realized how much the game was crippled with bad and repetitive gameplay. You will spend the entire game trying to run from one location to another. In the meantime, same enemies will keep spawning and attacking you, as you try to avoid or slow them down using your weapons, flashlight or by simply dodging. Some games with bad gameplay can still be quite good if they are strong in other aspects. However, that was not my experience with Alan Wake. What I have gotten was an average Stephen King wannabe story. Atmosphere is alright, writing is not so bad, but all things considered Alan Wake was not a memorable game. Everything it tried to do, felt more like a -bad- derivative from the source material, whether it is Twin Peaks or a Stephen King novel. 6.5/10

A phenomenal game that deserves all the praise. This is the game that co-invented the metroidvania genre together with Metroid. You are Alucard, Count Dracula’s half human son and you have to explore Dracula’s castle. You gain access to different parts of the castle by unlocking some skills, weapons, solving puzzles, killing enemies, typical to metroidvania games. First thing you notice when you start the game is its unique visual style. It definitely holds up and looks absolutely beautiful today, better than most other PS1 titles. Music is also spectacular (especially in the first half of the game), fitting to the vampire theme nicely and changing based on your location within the castle. Once you explore the castle, you gain access to the inverted castle (a top-down version of the same castle), with new puzzles, enemies and bosses. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the game is the cohesive game design with the vampire mythology. Different parts of the castle introduce different enemies but they are all connected to the vampire mythology one way or another. Nothing feels out of place. There are some flaws. The infamous cheesy dialogue written with poor English which may now belong to “so bad that it’s good” category. Also, the game has a difficulty problem in the sense that it starts a bit too difficult. And depending on your weapons and skills, it may become way too easy before you are half way through. Finally, there are some areas which would be very hard to figure out without a guide. Despite all these flaws though, Symphony of the Night’s main strength is something lacking in most games. It has character and you feel strongly connected to it despite the many games you may have played in the past which Castlevania: SoTN has strongly influenced. 9.5/10

I chose Civilization III as my first Civilization game because I wanted to see how the series evolved over the time. As a newcomer, take my review with a grain of salt since there may be some concepts I did not fully comprehend. Civilization III had big ups and downs. It’s an aesthetically beautiful time sink and similar to Heroes of Might and Magic and X-COM (although mechanically I would say Civilization is more similar to Settlers), it hypnotizes you every time you play it. You lose concept of real life and time and end up playing for several hours non-stop. I’ve had the feeling it plays very much like a board game and I wouldn’t be surprised if Civilization series were heavily influenced by them. There is no real campaign. You decide the rules (map, weather, victory conditions etc.) and start your custom game which can easily take dozens of hours. There are many civilizations to choose from but they are diverse enough to offer unique gameplay. You start in ancient times, build cities, research technologies, conquer other civilizations. There are some aspects I did not really like though. Firstly, some early strategies have too much influence on your fate. Don’t build enough cities or invest enough in technology, you may find yourself in an unwinnable state. AI obviously cheats in harder difficulties so you’ll have to play in specific strategies in order to win rather than a flexibility on strategies. Diplomacy is pretty much broken and the AI never accepts your fair proposals, making the entire game mechanic obsolete. Corruption may sound like an interesting idea but in the case of Civilization III, it does more harm than good. Also, in mid to late game, you end up micromanaging hundreds of units and one turn can take quite a long time. I think it would be fair to say a game in Civilization III takes way too long with plenty of downtime. I would say Civilization III aroused my interest to the series and I will definitely be playing other titles. On the other hand, I can’t ignore its flaws and I’m pretty confident I won’t return to Civilization III specifically.

Never having owned an Xbox, Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC was an instant purchase for me. I started with the first game, hoping to love one of the most popular franchises but I am a bit disappointed. Halo: Combat Evolved is not a bad game, it’s just not that good for anyone familiar with FPSs on the PC that predated Halo. I understand its appeal to console gamers in particular, considering it was maybe the first FPS on consoles with rather good controls. It also introduced a regenerating shield mechanic which was borrowed by many other games. I did not find the story anything special. There is a very little variety of enemies and you will keep killing the same aliens over and over. Whereas I really liked the graphics of the remastered version, the graphics of the vanilla game feel a bit dull with the use of repeated grey corridors throughout the game. You can switch between the original and remastered graphics by a simple press of TAB, so it was a great feature of the Master Chief Collection. Whereas enemies feel a bit repetitive, the gameplay does not. Some missions take place in narrow corridors, some in large open areas and some of them expect you to use vessels. Different missions play differently and so the game offers a change of gameplay throughout. My favorite mission was definitely The Library which felt like a mix of Serious Sam and Half-Life. I played on Heroic difficulty but I felt the difficulty was a bit unbalanced. Some levels were quite easy, whereas some others were really frustrating. Overall, I enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved. But it failed to secure a place as one of the most memorable shooters of the early 2000s.

Never having owned an Xbox, Halo: The Master Chief Collection on PC was an instant purchase for me. I started with the first game, hoping to love one of the most popular franchises but I am a bit disappointed. Halo: Combat Evolved is not a bad game, it’s just not that good for anyone familiar with FPSs on the PC that predated Halo. I understand its appeal to console gamers in particular, considering it was maybe the first FPS on consoles with rather good controls. It also introduced a regenerating shield mechanic which was borrowed by many other games. I did not find the story anything special. There is a very little variety of enemies and you will keep killing the same aliens over and over. Whereas I really liked the graphics of the remastered version, the graphics of the vanilla game feel a bit dull with the use of repeated grey corridors throughout the game. You can switch between the original and remastered graphics by a simple press of TAB, so it was a great feature of the Master Chief Collection. Whereas enemies feel a bit repetitive, the gameplay does not. Some missions take place in narrow corridors, some in large open areas and some of them expect you to use vessels. Different missions play differently and so the game offers a change of gameplay throughout. My favorite mission was definitely The Library which felt like a mix of Serious Sam and Half-Life. I played on Heroic difficulty but I felt the difficulty was a bit unbalanced. Some levels were quite easy, whereas some others were really frustrating. Overall, I enjoyed Halo: Combat Evolved. But it failed to secure a place as one of the most memorable shooters of the early 2000s. 6.5/10

A short DLC that serves as a prequel to the Last of Us. I enjoyed the story of Ellie and Riley and the “Street Fighter” section in the video arcade was the highlight for me. I consider this a must-play if you enjoyed the original game. 9.5/10

A short DLC that serves as a prequel to the Last of Us. I enjoyed the story of Ellie and Riley and the “Street Fighter” section in the video arcade was the highlight for me. I consider this a must-play if you enjoyed the original game. 9.5/10

The Last of Us is one of the modern AAA games that deserves all the praise it gets. I have been playing video games for about 30 years now and I can’t think of many games that can compete with the Last of Us in terms of narrative achievement. This game proves how you can take an ordinary story with a cliché zombie setting, but provide an unforgettable experience with character development, storytelling and game pace. It plays like a stealth focused Uncharted and as expected, shooting mechanics are not the best. Melee, on the other hand, feels great and is the most enjoyable part of the combat. Overall, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the gameplay despite the poor shooting. To avoid spoilers, I won’t write a detailed review but I strongly recommend playing the Last of Us if you consider video games as your hobby. Multiplayer is actually not as bad as you might expect, but it is crippled with pay2win microtransactions. 9.5/10

The Last of Us is one of the modern AAA games that deserves all the praise it gets. I have been playing video games for about 30 years now and I can’t think of many games that can compete with the Last of Us in terms of narrative achievement. This game proves how you can take an ordinary story with a cliché zombie setting, but provide an unforgettable experience with character development, storytelling and game pace. It plays like a stealth focused Uncharted and as expected, shooting mechanics are not the best. Melee, on the other hand, feels great and is the most enjoyable part of the combat. Overall, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed the gameplay despite the poor shooting. To avoid spoilers, I won’t write a detailed review but I strongly recommend playing the Last of Us if you consider video games as your hobby. Multiplayer is actually not as bad as you might expect, but it is crippled with pay2win microtransactions. 9.5/10

Astro’s Playroom is offered as a freebie to all PS5 owners and it is made to show off the features of the DualSense controller. I bought a PS5 with no prior knowledge of the DualSense and I have to admit this is the first time I have gotten super excited about the future of gaming since I first tried VR. I have Astro’s Playroom to thank for that. It’s a very short platformer that takes only 2 hours to beat, unless you revisit missions for all the collectibles. Every level takes you to a different generation of PlayStation and introduces different peripherals such as controllers, memory cards etc. Every level focuses on different aspects of the DualSense. It’s hard to describe it, but having played Astro’s Playroom, I can easily call this a game changer and good use of DualSense will be a factor (in addition to graphics and frame rates) when deciding the superior versions of video games. It is much more than a tech demo and you should definitely not ignore it because it’s a free game. Astro’s Playroom is Sony’s way of telling gamers “Look we have a revolutionary gaming technology. It’s now up to developers to make good use of it”. 8.5/10

Destruction AllStars is like a combination of Rocket League and Destruction Derby. While on paper it may seem like a good idea, on execution game doesn’t deliver. It looks graphically stunning although I personally hate its visual style. The problem lies mainly with the gameplay mechanics. Maybe 25% to 50% of your playtime will be outside your car running, trying to get in into another car. And that part is really tedious. The car combat is ok, but it has been done much better by many other games already. Last, but not the least, game is further crippled by microtransactions which are required to unlock some game content. It may be a wise move by Sony to offer this as a PS Plus freebie and introduce some microtransactions, considering most people would be very upset if they paid full price for it. Destruction AllStars is not a good game and in a few months it will probably be a dead multiplayer game, despite being in the library of all PS Plus subscribers.

I am a big fan of Tools of Destruction, but I was very disappointed with Quest for Beauty. Now that Rift Apart is on the pipeline, I have decided to return to the series and I was very pleased with A Crack in Time. A Crack in Time has everything a Ratchet & Clank game has to offer. Explosions, fun weapons, humor, gorgeous graphics and cinematics. You mostly play as Clank in the puzzle parts of the game and as Clank in action parts. Also, this may be the largest Ratchet & Clank game ever made. It has dozens of planets, which you can travel anytime with your spaceship and during your travels the game will become a space shooter. Even if the space combat section of the game does not feel very deep, it still brings a distinct flavor. I loved the soundtrack, especially the jazz. It has a wide range of tracks and the music suit well the rhythm of the game. The main problem with A Crack in Time is the story. Although the game never takes itself seriously and it would be unfair to expect a deep story from a Ratchet & Clank game, I’ve found the story of the Tools of Destruction more cohesive. Also, hard difficulty can be too hard in your first playthrough at times, so I would suggest playing on normal difficulty on your first game and maybe switch to harder difficulties when you unlock many weapons. I played on hard mostly, but switch the normal when things got too frustrating. I did not beat the optional final boss Vorselon which requires some grinding, but I may consider doing that in the future. All in all, Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time is a great game. It’s easily one of my favorite platformers ever, up there with Tools of Destruction. It takes as long as you want it to take and offers non-stop entertainment.

Metal Gear Solid was one of my favorite PS1 games ever. I have played Metal Gear Solid 2 last year and it failed to impress me. A great story was often disrupted by bad gameplay and I had my doubts about the third game. Metal Gear Solid 3 brought back to me all the excitement I feel about this series. Story and atmosphere are still spectacular, which should not surprise any Kojima fans. It serves as a prequel to the original Metal Gear Solid and takes place in the Soviet Union during cold war. I won’t talk about the story to avoid spoilers but if you are a fan of espionage, this is better written than many notorious works of the genre. It’s almost up there with John le Carré novels. Also, the theme song “Snake Eater”, despite being heavily influenced by James Bond songs, is definitely on par with them. There are many improvements to gameplay. You always have to pay attention to camouflage, hunger and curing your wounds. None of them feel like a chore though, it enriches your experience and makes you feel like a real spy whose neck is always on the line. The game also rewards exploration and trying different things. You may find a camouflage which will make a boss fight easier. Before I conclude this review, I will just give one example as to how MGS 3 experiments on video games. There is a boss fight, at some point, and you will face a very old guy who is about to die of old age. He spends his remaining time sleeping, just to preserve energy for this particular boss fight. If you save your game in the middle of the battle, quit the game and only load your save after 1 week in real life, you will find the boss dead. You can avoid the difficult boss fight and progress your game. It was always obvious to me that Kojima wanted to take the video game medium to a different level. I think Metal Gear Solid 2 was a miss. It did provide a cinematic experience with a sophisticated story, but it failed in terms of video game mechanics. With Snake Eater, Kojima nailed it right on the head.

Take this review with a grain of salt, as I have never been a fan of the original God of War games. It combined two game mechanics that I despise the most: Button mashing and quick time events. That is why it took me so long to return to the series, God of War II, which is often regarded as the best God of War game from the old trilogy. It is definitely a good production. Graphics, sound, cutscenes all push the PS2 to its limits so if I were a game critic, maybe I would have rated this higher. Core game is still the same and I do not like it. I still hate button mashing; I still hate quick time events and God of War II has a lot of those. It is also as much a puzzle and platforming game as it is an action, so expect plenty of puzzle solving and precise platforming. So yes, it is an epic journey with some good boss fights and a great story, but it’s just not for me.

Take this review with a grain of salt, as I have never been a fan of the original God of War games. It combined two game mechanics that I despise the most: Button mashing and quick time events. That is why it took me so long to return to the series, God of War II, which is often regarded as the best God of War game from the old trilogy. It is definitely a good production. Graphics, sound, cutscenes all push the PS2 to its limits so if I were a game critic, maybe I would have rated this higher. Core game is still the same and I do not like it. I still hate button mashing; I still hate quick time events and God of War II has a lot of those. It is also as much a puzzle and platforming game as it is an action, so expect plenty of puzzle solving and precise platforming. So yes, it is an epic journey with some good boss fights and a great story, but it’s just not for me.

When I first played Skate’s demo back in 2007, my mind was blown. It had such excellent physics even doing the basics was extremely fun. EA managed to create a beautiful world and offered a superb soundtrack which is just perfect for a skating game. Once I played the story mode though, I started to see the game’s flaws. Physics are perfect, yes, but the control scheme does not allow Skate’s ambitions to shine. Very often I do a specific move but end up doing an undesired trick. I could forgive this, if the game had room for flexibility in terms of progression. However, plenty of challenges in the story mode requires perfection. You have to time your jump right, manage your speed right, your tricks right. It could be the perfect skating simulation, if the controls have been tight. In the end, I’ve quit the first Skate for now due to extreme difficulty of challenges. It almost feels like the story mode makes the game worse. I might revisit it in the future to see if Skate 2 or Skate 3 does a better job teaching me the mechanics. It definitely has vision, proving another skateboarding franchise can co-exist with Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater side by side. Skate aims for a masterpiece ****. Unfortunately, the game misses it due to problematic controls and extreme difficulty. Nevertheless, I applaud its ambition. 7.5/10

Unreal Tournament 3 is not a bad game per se. The problem is it is way worse than its prequel Unreal Tournament 2004, which was already not as good as the original Unreal Tournament. So, if anyone was looking to play an Unreal Tournament game, there is simply no reason to play this one. UT3’s major strength is the graphics, which still look awesome today after more than a decade. The main weakness, on the other hand, is the fact that it was designed to appease console gamers and it clearly shows. UI is atrocious. Shooting and movement feels off. Granted, when you purchase UT3, you are looking for an old-school Unreal Tournament experience and not some Gears of War mutation. But if this is your first UT experience (or better; if you are a console gamer), you may not necessarily have a problem with it. But if there is one game that cannot be forgiven for showing the middle finger to PC gamers, it’s Unreal Tournament, a franchise that owed everything to the PC audience. Last, but not the least, the weapon balance (or the lack thereof) is even worse than UT 2004. Flak Cannon and maybe Shock Rifle are overpowered in comparison to the rest. And in an arena shooter, every weapon should be somewhat useful and fun. Unreal Tournament 3 is an ok game, but I cannot recommend it. Servers are almost dead and bot AI is terrible. For a better old school UT experience, choose the original Unreal Tournament or UT 2004. 6.5/10

I picked this up due to sudden popularity and cheap price. It really is not a good game and it owes its popularity to streamers. It plays like a mobile game (in fact it is a mobile game) and game mechanics are extremely simplistic. There is a lot of down time on lobbies as well as when you vote. You may think “it’s fun with friends”. Well, all games are fun with friends. Among Us is one such case where your friend makes it fun, not the game itself. Finally, even the idea behind it is not original. Town of Salem did this years earlier. I do not recommend it even at this price point.

There is a good idea for a video game hidden somewhere behind Mashed, but this original version has too many flaws to ignore. Cars crashing behind you will spawn in front of you, there will be invisible walls, camera problems. These may have been addressed in the updated version Mashed: Fully Loaded, but Mashed: Drive to Survive, which is the only version available on Steam, is simply not enjoyable. If you are curious about this series, I would suggest to try Mashed: Fully Loaded instead and preferably on PS2 or Xbox with a friend. 3.5/10