Yerczeys

The game itself is zany and wild and lots of fun to play with the kids, remind them that age and treachery will always defeat youth and skill... But I'm giving it a mediocre score because of the menus which are among the most irritating I've ever encountered. Maybe my copy is wonky, but just getting into the game is a challenge. Begins with a menu asking if you want to use an existing save or go on without one. Either option will usually land you back at this question again and it doesn't seem to let you through until you've answered it a few times. After that you're bombarded by other menus and menus within menus. It all just feels really clunky. That said, the characters are really creative and fun.

Styx is an incredible game that comes at us with some disappointing features. Like a blind date that starts magically before they casually admit they chew on their toenails. I'll start with the bad. This game felt decidedly unfinished. The opening cutscene itself looked like it was using pre-rendered graphics and every one after that used artwork instead. There were minor errors all over the place like corpses blending with walls making them impossible to pick up, irregular sensory patterns from the guards meaning they'd notice you sometimes and not other times, other guards would get stuck in positions and just rotate in place making them very difficult to gank or sneak by, there would be random alerts caused by I know not what. Ass ghosts maybe. I even had one save where a guard went into search and destroy mode while I was hiding and wouldn't move, de-agg, or find me so I had to restart the level. These problems all united in an effort to piss me off and found myself sighing and reloading a lot. The combat was also atrocious, just about the worst I've ever encountered, but you weren't forced to engage in it often and I chose not to. But the biggest offender to my sense of decency was the reuse of levels. You pass through about twenty levels in the game, but there are only about eight maps. That was sad to me. The maps they have are fantastic but going through the same ones several times begin tedious. The above listed complaints would sink most games but I gave it a seven because the highlights were impressive. The first thing I noticed was the music. The score to this game is easily among the best I've ever heard. Second thing that took me was the atmosphere with which I immediately fell in love. The levels were intricate and laid out in a very fun way which was a treat to explore. The characters felt well thought-out and interesting. And the plot. Oh my god the plot. Plot is a big thing for me in games and I found this one stellar. It drove me to complete the game despite the very disappointing latter half with its recycled levels. So in the end it's sad that I have to give this game only a seven, because if it had spent more time being fine tuned and fleshed out it may have hit a ten. If you're driven through a game by plot, atmosphere, and characters like I am then give it a shot. Otherwise you may want to pass.

This game certainly wasn't terrible, but it never grew even vaguely exciting for me. The characters weren't interesting, the atmosphere was whimsical and yet still boring, the plot was decent but never intriguing, and the puzzles were okay. Nothing great, nothing terrible. Well, maybe one big gripe. The puzzles near the end got old fast between the backtracking and the obscure solutions. It really started bothering me when I had to flip back and forth between characters to find clues to the other's puzzles. Are they mentally linked or something? Found that downright upsetting. But in the end I did finish the game at least and I gave it a shrug before moving on to something more interesting.

Being a player driven by atmosphere, story, and characters more than anything else I found Transistor to be a beautiful experience. I fell in love with this game from the first button I pushed and it didn't let me go for the next six hours. The music of the game was haunting and felt like an organic member of the experience rather than background noise. The story took a few turns I didn't expect and that's always a welcome thing. And the combat was refreshing, I don't know that I've ever been through fights like that before. The only two issues I found with the game were the enemies (which weren't interesting in the first place and grew tiresome quickly) and the unfortunate short time the game lasts. I didn't expect and epic tale, but six hours left me wanting. Would have reached a perfect ten in my book otherwise.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The first and best thing you get to feel in this game is the atmosphere. That's a big selling point for me so I was initially delighted despite terrible (and it is terrible) voice acting. The story seemed interesting and I found myself sitting back ready to enjoy a wonderful game. Then I reached the combat. The combat in this game is boring at best and frustratingly unresponsive at worst and it became a chore after the first few encounters. Then the story began to fall to the pressure of cliche, so that facet of my immersion left me as well. I beat the game, but by the end it was only because I wanted to get it out of the way. Was I disappointed? Yes, I was disappointed.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

This game was just bland. Our hero was completely disinteresting, the plot was pretty mundane, the dialogue was stiff and uncomfortable, and the world was vanilla flavored fantasy. The combat felt decent and the game had a good length to it, but it certainly wasn't an exciting romp. I don't recall anything about the game that I absolutely hated, nor can I think of anything I really loved. It was just boring. So I guess if you're looking for a cheap and easy game to whittle away some free hours you might as well give it a go. Just don't expect much.

All in all this game was mediocre. The marine side of it played well enough but without anything that made it stand out. We know most of the weapons at this point and the plot was the same as every other Alien game, more or less. I can't say I felt too invested nor did I feel overly annoyed with anything here. The xenomorph side was less enjoyable for me. Probably more for play-style than for any other reason, but part of receiving directives like that from the queen didn't work for me. I wouldn't have any idea how to represent such a communication but what I got didn't feel right to me. The predator campaign was probably my least favorite. At no point did I really feel like the stealthy huntsman I wanted to be, but rather just a deviation toward sneaking from the standard first person gameplay. Well... No, that's not true... There's some stealthy fun to be had and you can hide from the human foes easily enough. I guess what really rubbed me wrong in this one was the advent of the super-alien at the end. I know there's precedent for it in the setting, but I put on my grumpy old man pants and sigh when they insist on throwing something like that at me. Particularly with the glaring gestation time inconsistencies. Oh well, game was average. Worth it if you're paying five smackeroos.

The first think you'll note about Avadon is the simple graphics. I'm not a player who needs my games to be shiny to enjoy them but it did limit what the game could do and diminished much of the impact one would like the world to have had. Quick examples: You gain four characters, all of which are graphically the same as your original choices just with a slight color tweaking so they don't feel distinct, even from your human enemies. Spells and items also suffered from this color-adjusting differentiation so while you knew the stats were higher on that sword or something huge had been cast, it didn't convey the excitement one would desire. Enemies themselves even have one of maybe twenty graphical representations so everywhere you go it's bats, spiders, and lizards, there are no unique enemies. After that, and really my biggest complaint, was the difficulty variations in this title. Some of the combat encounters in the game are just simple and some are teeth gnashing difficult. One fight about half-way through the game forced me to turn the difficulty down because I was just not beating it. And I don't mean from insane to medium, I'm talking medium to easy. The finale of the game is where it really just got stupid. I'd have one fight that I took a few turns tops, and the next I'd have to load my game a dozen times. The part about the end-game fights that really drove me crazy though was that every encounter saw all enemies working with virtually every buff at all times. I understand challenge, but it gave the sensation that my highly trained warriors were slow and impotent next to these common guards who could and would move three times to my once sometimes. And, if you don't invest your points right (warriors need intelligence?) you'll see every stun and debuff they can muster work on you every time. The boss fights were also really obnoxious toward the latter half of the game. It seemed like all of them had gimmicks or dumb tricks like "Oh now there are suddenly three of me!" or "You can't hurt me until you find my secret life monsters and kill them first". By the end of the game I was just annoyed with it. Those significant complaints out of the way, the experience had some serious highlights. The story was pretty obvious, but it was written in such a way that it felt immersive. I actually read everything I came across because it added flavor to the game and made the world feel like things mattered. Speaking of which, your choices in this do matter. You might not be able to break the narrative too much, but I elected to not do one of my companions side-quests (didn't support them in doing it anyway) and at the finale they declined to join me. Wait... AMBUSH GRIPE! You're limited to three party members throughout the entire fifty-plus hour game for some reason and then the final fight permits you to use all four companions. That's idiotic. Either let me use them all through the entire game or don't let me suddenly field every one just for the climax. Would have lead to some interesting dialogue. Anyway, the world, despite it's obvious plot and graphical limitations, felt very alive through the entire experience. If you're story-driven and you don't mind reading then this game is certainly one you should give a shot. All in all I give a C. Good, but not great.

The basic game feels terrible from the "plot and good ideas" perspective. The characters are all stereotypes, save the Brit lady, the story feels like a standard Japanese fare complete with inexplicable social controversies and over-the-top details. And the game play itself isn't anything beyond the norms for the most part. It also has some extremely annoying details like the inability to switch out your main weapon and some quick time events that felt frustratingly unresponsive. The command system was interesting, though poorly implemented boiling down to being a yes-man and pep-talk guy. But! My god was it fun blasting the crap out of robots...

About as bland as a game gets. The gameplay is smooth, even if nothing notable, the levels are boring, the enemies are dull, the weapons are... there. Seriously, nothing in this game stands out as either amazing or terrible. The voice acting is pretty bad I guess, but that's about it. Oh! One big complaint. Apparently the enemies weren't programmed to miss, so on any difficulty they hit you with every shot, all the time. You've been warned...

Despite my burning distaste for Ubisoft, I quite enjoyed this game. I'm echoing the herd at this point, but it was simplistically delivered, and emotionally touching. It manages to humanize rather than villainize soldiers in the unique setting of WWI. This is definitely not for the twitchy types or adrenaline junkies, it's slow paced and easy going, but in the end it hits you right in the feels.

I really wanted to like this game, I loved the flavor from the moment I set eyes on it. I've been captivated by both the steampunk and gothic horror genres for a long time and blending them into a beautiful game felt like I just got invited to be the guest star in an orgy of lesbian angels. Sadly, I was let down. The game is pretty, there's no denying that. There were a few moments where I thought I was watching a cutscene only to discover that I was in control. The characters all expressed their emotions well and the voice acting was pretty good all around. The atmosphere was incredible. I found myself immersed in the world they'd set up while I was just standing there. It was gritty and ugly and treated my like an adult which I appreciated hugely. First game I, personally, have played where they weren't afraid to show you a naked person when the person should be naked. Everything fit miraculously on this aspect. My problems with the game began pretty early as the understanding that I wasn't going to be actually facing too many supernatural enemies dawned on me. I had hoped to be primarily facing such things, like a steampunk Van Helsing, but the vast majority of the enemies were boring old humans. The only supernatural enemies you did fight were werewolves or "halfbreeds" as they were called and those fights were annoying at best. Oh, quick time events, they were everywhere, so heads up. Entire boss fights in quick time events and only quick time events. Whomever made that decision should lose a job. The next strike for me was our hero's bizarre moral compass. Melee kills were done with one button and resulted in fun and smooth animated takedowns, so I used them with some regularity. I noticed that on rebels and villains I'd just beat them ruthlessly. They'd have survived most of the animations I saw even if without all their teeth. But when I was sneaking up on guards who were (in the moment) on my side and just an inconvenience I was stab-happy and throat-slitty. First time I shanked some poor mechanic who was just doing his job I began to feel like I might be the bad guy. The final straw for me was the story, and there was a lot of it for such a miserably short game. With such an interesting setting you should be able to really do some fun things and get the player involved, but this game did everything by the book. Most of the characters might as well have been wearing signs saying things like "I'm going to die or betray you", or "I'm actually a villain". It was very disappointing to see everything line up so predictably. And our hero's moral dilemma was so obviously on it's way that I groaned when it finally got there. Also, loose ends. All in all, the game was fun enough. It was hackneyed and predictable and downright obnoxious in spots but it was a decent if disappointing amount of fun for the few hours it lasted. I just wanted so much more out of it.

I liked the playful tone of this game and the atmosphere was none too bad either. The levels got a little boring after a bit and the guns were uninspired, but all in all I had fun. My big gripe is the camera angles. When you're primarily a 2-D stealth game you shouldn't be given to being discovered by some random yokel off-screen who happens to be facing the right direction. All in all I give it a C. Good, but not great.

I wasn't entirely sure what I thought about this game. It has some decent high notes in it. The stealth aspect was fun, the stealing itself was enjoyable, the levels were well thought out, and the atmosphere was dark and dreary and that made me quite happy. I had enough fun with these things that I'm giving it a relatively average score, because the downsides of this game were striking. The story itself was mundane, and that's a major thing for me in games. The protagonist was... well, lame. I think they were going for an anti-hero thing but he ended up just being uninteresting. He didn't seem to have any discernible personality beyond stealing things and brooding and I'm still confused about his actual motivation through the game. I think his motivation might actually have just been to steal stuff. He did say at one point when asked about it "It's who I am" which is the kind of dumb answer you'd expect from a teenager after getting an ugly tattoo on their face, not from a middle-aged man who's seen the ugliest side of life up close and personal. So no hook there. The climax of the game felt very lacking as well. Our villain didn't play a strong role and I saw him coming from a mile away, and our damsel was just there to provide some personal motivation to our middle-aged teen. It all just felt very lackluster. And then there's the combat. I like the option of being a murderous backstabby little thing in my stealth games but that just wasn't here. Not only could you not kill people, but when you did fight it felt like clubbing a snowman to death. They'd react to your initial hit and then to none of the subsequent ones until their animation was done. Clunky doesn't begin to describe it. And, the biggest gripe for me was the Thieftaker General. He did fine as an antagonist, but that bloke popped up everywhere. At the end of every level he was somehow there to remind me that he existed. The worst was when I found a secret room in a building that was on fire and under siege and he somehow showed up to step on my fingers and glare at me. P.S. Note to game designers. It is bad form to set me up as a super-stealthy master thief only to have me be discovered by cutscene.

Perhaps this game wasn't aimed at one such as me. I'm driven by plot and atmosphere in a game and this had none of the former and little of the latter. The colors were pretty, but flying a fish and a phoenix through some shapes doesn't doesn't constitute anything interesting to me. Gave it an hour of my time, and called it good.

I'ma split this rating into two parts because they're of hugely differing qualities. First and foremost, the gameplay was fantastic. The atmosphere was well done, the environment felt good, the day / night cycle added a nice touch, the leveling system was genius, the weapons were interesting and varied... I could go on, but you get the idea. Gameplay, great. The drop kick alone was about the most fun I've ever had in a three second span in a game. A few minor and personal gripes were the lack of gun variety (and a useless shotgun), the absurd weapon scaling (my machete does twenty times the damage of a lead pipe for example), and the maps felt a bit small for my tastes. But that didn't deter me from really enjoying the hell out of this side of the game. If I were rating the story alone this game would be in the red. I'm a story drive gamer, so this was important for me. The first three-fourths of the game were fine if bland, but about that three-fourths mark I ran into one of the most idiotic scenes I've encountered in a game. You have to be careful when using the damsel in distress dynamic, and this game botched it hard. They set up no real relationship between you and the woman in question beyond a few passing sentences so I didn't feel attached to her. She was also supposed to be a bad-ass so making her the damsel felt like a betrayal of her character. Though groaning, I dealt with this. It really died with the five minute over-the-top sappy diatribe that was so bad I found myself scowling on my couch. It was ridiculously dramatic. You were transported to a Dishonored style Limbo (apparently this is what turning into a zombie is like) and you chased her ghost while she was pelting you with the most droning self-sacrifice speech you've ever heard. This scene totally killed any investment I had in the story which really depletes my enjoyment ****, but I persevered because of drop-kicking zombies. A bonus crime this game committed was the climax. I really enjoyed the climbing part of it and the combat even if I had to listen to Mr. Generic Villain 101 monologuing at me. Crane's motivation in the game at this point was all about revenge which made me dislike him as a character. Seriously, a woman you barely knew died dramatically, but so did a doctor I'd talked to just as much and I wasn't harping about him. And aren't there, like, a thousand other innocent people to save? ...Just dumb writing... Anyway, I reach the putz expecting some lame boss fight like the last two but instead, they end the game with the only quick-time even in the entire game. Yup, quick time event. That's they best they could do with their villain. There. I've ranted.

Easily one of the scariest games I've touched, but it had some major issues. The one-button controls felt limiting in a bad way, the encounters lost their scare after a few times, and the puzzles were terrible. Not terrible in a simple way, but terrible as in anyone without the internet to help is not going to figure them out. But really, it's well worth your time if you're a horror game fan.

Is it just me or do fighting games add increasingly dumb characters and plot to their sequels. Most of the new guys/gals in this installment are either a walking / talking (punching) anime stereotype or just a stretch into dumb. After the amnesiac cutesy cyborg girl with rocket boosters and hidden chainsaws popped up, I lost any remaining respect I had for the series. Methinks I doth purchased my final Tekken game.

Most of the game was pretty fun. But ya know how long I spent watching first person cut scenes of my character getting the crap kicked out of him? A minute. That's a long bloody time to watch yourself get slapped about.

This series has gone downhill hard and fast. I'm not a multi-player guy, but I really loved the first three games. At this point, the characters they're adding have grown lame and over the top. Remember Talim? She's gone, along with her fun tonfa style. Now they have some **** with a dumb sword and a werewolf ghost. Worst part though is the story mode, and I used to love story mode. My issue is that rather than make a story for each character (so you can play your favorite!) it just follows the Sophitia replacement on his blisteringly dull adventure. That's it, one story, that's all you get.

This game had a great premise, and I really wanted to like it, but it's just not good. The level's are tedious, and early in the game the difficulty curve shoots for the moon unless you're willing to sink hours into grinding levels. So sad, it could have been a dandy game.

A two, solely due to the cutting mechanic and this wad of disappointment should be grateful for even that. Kojima is praised as a genius, but bluntly I think his stories are convoluted, nonsensical, and dumb. Like bad abstract art.

As an enormous fan of the original Halo, it's difficult to express my disappointment with how this series has been humped into mediocrity. The game-play itself is alright, nothing astounding, and the graphics are really quite impressive. My issues come from the story. I could have come up with a more compelling story with better dialogue, and that's not talking myself up as much as it's putting 343 Studios down. The Didact is a miserable villain, and his goons are bland / annoying along with their weapons. Bah I say.

Outside of joining a lot of other reviewers in being annoyed that I had to connect to an account for single player, I still found the game to be poor. The story was a miserable bag of cliches, the atmosphere was unimpressive, the game-play itself felt bland, and the treasure system I loved from number two was reduced to background noise. Graphics are great, but that won't carry a game for this little black duck.

Make no mistake, this is not an adrenaline junkie twitchfest, and If that's what your attention span demands from a game then don't bother. But if you're driven by mood and story, then this is an interactive piece of art that shouldn't be passed up.

I enjoy an atmospheric game done right, and this isn't it. The first chapter is absurdly dark, even with the gamma turned all the way up. And by absurdly dark I mean it's difficult to see the ground on which you're walking, which really throws an annoying wrench in the works when there are pitfalls. The game did have one good scare, but all in all it was a bland and boring experience.