agurczuk

A final installment in the Assassin's Creed Ezio trilogy is my personal favourite. While it's not revolutionary by far it improves on it's predecessors and delivers an interesting story in a rich and superbly designed environment. The story this times takes place in Constantinople and ties all loose ends. Apart from writing the final chapter for Ezio it also revisits Altair who is also a playable character in certain chapters. And it was great to learn what happened to Altair and how both he and Ezio are tied together. The cut scenes are really nicely put together and the whole story is quite interesting. Visually it's also an improvement although not breath taking. The characters are better animated, the environment is well designed and does remind of life teaming city packed with a lot of people. The map overall might be a bit smaller but it's so well designed that it's an actual improvement over the somewhat empty spaces we could encounter in the previous installments. I must admit the city - the way it looks, the way it's structured and how you move around it is what probably makes it my favourite Assassin's Creed game. The mechanics for the most part are the same. With just the addition of bombs which are quite annoying to craft and not that useful and the hook which lets you climb higher places and also zip line which is super fun - the rest almost unchanged. The whole structure of the game remains the same. And it's absolutely fine as you get to do them in a great environment. Overall as mentioned - definitely my favourite Assassin's Creed game. Though somewhat requires you to play the previous ones to fully appreciate the story it ties up. Can't recommend enough.

A colorful 3D platformer about collecting things - lot's of them. You play as a boy or girl in a colorful world in search for adventure. There is little in terms of story. You're just there on a flying ship visiting these unique worlds and collecting mostly medallions but also a bunch of other meaningless things. Once you collect enough medallions you unlock new areas in which you can collect some more medallions. Each world or level is designed in a pretty open way. Most of the areas of the level are accessible at all times the only difference is the things you need to do to fetch a selected medallion. Each world has 7 medallions placed around the world though you can only collect one at a time. Each medallion will put you at the starting location of the level so it's impossible to do certain things along the way - sort of artificially lengthens the game. Certain quest do repeat themselves between the worlds - like collecting 7 keys to unlock medallion or 100 coins though there is a lot of unique ones. The open nature of the levels combined with a bit floaty physics means you can reach certain places in variety of ways. In one way it's a cool thing as you can approach it your way. In another the wall jumping combined with double jump is not as tight as I would like it to be and you can climb certain places in a way that you should not be able to. But the game is still pretty fun. Very family friendly and relaxed. Interestingly designed worlds filled with cute creatures. Lots of things to explore and collect. Overall a pretty decent game I enjoyed playing.

A rather bad game I like more than I should for some reason. First of all this game is bad. Bordering on being complete garbage. The graphic does feel a bit outdated now. The envionment looks pretty generic as well. If they didn't tell it is located in Shanghai I would have assumed it's New York or Hong-Kong or something along those lines. It looks just generic. The levels are rather linear and with noting special to them. Most terible thing about it is probavly how the camera works. It's stylised after reality shows. It's shaky as hell and you can't turn it off. That coupled with over the top visual effects which makes it very hard to tell what's going on at the moment and you will be lucky if you don't get sick while playing. The story is very unclear and I was having a hard time to work out what is going on. It almost felt like some cut sceenes were missing. The characters hinted different things that were never explained. It's unlcear what exactly transpired to get the two main characters in to the fight they ended up. The game is a standard cover based third person perspecitve shooter. You follow a pretty obvious path and just shoot people as you go along. And while some guns feel nice, there is a lot of terrible ones. Especially the SMGs with their terrible aim are worse than a normal pistol. As those are the guns you will be dealing with early on it gets really tempting to throw the damn thing out of the window. So why I liked in the end? No idea. It's fairly short, a bit brutal and definitelly mindless. Provides a challange at times but it's rather on the easy side. And I do like the Kane and Lynch characters and have fond memories about the first game featuring them in. So the nostalgia might have played a role in me liking the game. Subjectivly I'd recommend staying from it as far as possible.

A first person perspective horror mystery game taking place on a frozen Russian ice breaker near the north pole. In the game you play as a meteorologist wanting to hitch a ride returning from the north pole. But the ship you were meant to board is stuck in the ice and it looks like it's been that way for quite some time. The ice breaks under you and you're forced to investigate the fate of the ship. I'm not sure how to classify this game. It's pretty bad, but at the same time I finished it which means it's not completely bad. The visuals do look quite outdated and bland. Texture quality is terrible, the models are of poor quality and there is little variety. For as bad looking game the whole engine is very unoptimised requiring definitely too much of processing power. The audio is fine for the most part, nothing spectacular but nothing to complain about. The voice acting is at least decent. The game play itself is a slow exploration of the ship. Health is represented by heat and you replenish it by holding your hands to the heat source. The combat is dreadful, not all entertaining and quite painful to be honest. At least there are no audio logs - all the history is presented either through flashbacks or through quite the interesting mechanic of going into peoples memory in order to re-write the history. Those short episodes are mostly fun, though frustrating at times as you need to perform exact actions in order to change something that will let you progress in normal time line. The game starts slowly and I was thinking of giving it a pass within the first hour. It does get better later on mostly due to the story that slowly starts getting interesting over the course of the game. The ship itself is an interesting thing and exploring it is satisfying. The whole game was a bumpy ride. Started really poorly, didn't get better for a while. then it started getting better mostly due to story evolving. Then a bit of combat sections brought it down again. Then started to entertain nearing the end until the final boss which was unnecessary and made no sense - the ending was a real let down. Overall I did finish the game. I did enjoy it at times. I would not however recommend it.

A rather disappointing 2D platform zombie/survival game that showed a lot of promise. I saw this game a while ago and was looking forward to play it as the it looked really good, it seemed to have a pretty nice idea and looked very promising. Sadly the game falls short. The visuals are nice, the pixel art is of hight quality. The theming does look also good. But the game is not that fun to play. The story behind it is a standard zombie outbreak of some sort - nobody knows what's going on really apart from the fact that people are turning to zombie like creatures. And it turns out you're the last train driver around tasked with transporting something somewhere for the military. The game is divided basically into two parts - in one you're riding the train from station to station taking care of the machine and managing your supplies to keep your passenger alive in the other you explore each station in search for survivors, supplies and a code to let you go through. The train riding part serves as sort of exposition - your passengers talk about what they heard and what they feel is going on - but it's mostly gossip you don't pay much attention to. Some of them are wounded, some hungry - you need to distribute food and med kits among them to let them survive. If they survive to a specific station you'll get a reward. Apart from that you need to keep an eye for a specific element and tweak it so the train doesn't stop. It's an interesting idea I guess but it feels just so boring. Totally unnecessary. The second part of the game is exploration. Once you meet a station you need to find a lock code to progress further. You have a gun, fists, later on shotgun and machine gun. The ammunition is very little so you need to make every shot count. That is until you learn you can punch the zombies to death and with the use of ladders which zombies can't climb - well to say I was definitely not lacking the ammo. There is no jumping and while the levels look cool they feel very much the same. You walk left, kill some zombies, collect supplies, climb down, progress through some kind of underground area and you're back at the train. Every time it's the same thing. The number of zombies is also quite limited so it feels a bit same all the way. I've finished it - but I can't say I enjoyed every moment of it. Maybe first half an hour - later on I was just curious to see how it ends - and the ending was especially disappointing. Overall a decent game that just didn't catch my attention and felt it had much more potential than it turned out. Would probably not recommend.

Hotline Miami 2 is a 2D pixel top down action indie game - a very punishing and fast paced but entertaining. If you played the first one - this one will not surprise you at all. It's essentially the same game with just a few mechanics added on top, a bit higher difficulty level, and a number of new levels. I think I preferred the original version as it felt fresh at the time. This one feels just like more of the same and while the game is well designed and plays well it lacks the novelty the previous title had. Graphically - this is very rough looking, gory 2D pixel art. The camera is constantly bobbing left and right in the rhythm of the music. Blood explodes violently, everything is extremely graphic and brutal. Although the resolution does not let you see the details it's still pretty gruesome. Did not enjoy the graphic style much, but got used to it in the end and it serves it's purpose just fine. The thing worth of note is definitely the soundtrack - it's just amazing to listen to even without playing the game. But fits very well - the game would not be half as good without it. It sets the tone and mood so well. Mechanically it's a very fast 2D action shooter. One you will die a lot. The levels are sort of a puzzle, you need to learn what route to take, and where to expect enemies. You need to decide which gun to take, and in which order to eliminate your opponents as this will dictate which new guns you will get. The ammo is very limited and therefore each shot counts. What Hotline Miami 2 introduces over the first installment is the need to play certain new characters. While mechanics in the first part were constant throughout the whole game - here you get a number of different playable characters, each that comes with a bit different qualities. For example you get to control a news reporter that throws away all guns until you kill two people with a bat or other blunt weapon or you get to control two brothers - one carrying chainsaw while the other one shoots. The new characters are interesting change to the game paste - but some of the levels seem unnecessarily difficult forcing you to play a certain way instead your own - especially the Vietnam ones, where you can't change weapon and it's really hard to get ammo. The story tries to be a bit more deep than the first one but I never played Hotline Miami for the story. It's the game play that sells this game - and it's still unique and plays so smooth. It's definitely worth picking up and giving it a go. If you've never played the original one though I would recommend the first one over the second - as the game play does seem a bit more focused there.

A game praying on nostalgia to deliver a Syndicate like experience that turns out to be not a bad game - although with what i felt a lot of potential wasted somewhere between the lines. First of - I remember somewhat the original Syndicate Wars - enough to feel nostalgic about it but not enough to draw a direct comparison between the two. Might be for the better or worse for a game review but this is how it is. Satellite Reign is a real time squad based game set in a cyberpunk world of the future. The giant companies control the world and it's up to you and your squad to take the worst offender down. The story is simple and doesn't get much more complicated throughout the game. Most of the text is presented in writing and it's easier to just skim the text for important bits regarding the mission rather than trying to understand the story which seems a bit generic. Mechanically this is a squad based real time strategy game. You control four members of your squad in a pretty standard set up - soldier/heavy, support/medic, hacker and infiltrator/sniper. Each of those come with a special set of skills you can upgrade with experience gained. Those are pretty cool and useful - some more than other - but generally you do feel like you're making a choice by selecting what to upgrade and it does impact the way you play later on. Apart from the standard upgradeable skills you get to manage your squad load-out meaning guns, gear and implants. All of these feel pretty varied and provide an impact on the way you take on a mission. Some loud-outs are in fact better suited for certain missions than other - all depending on the mission type and facilities you're breaching, and your preffered game play. The amount of customisation here was pretty cool. There is also a cloning layer - a place where you take people and by assigning them to your squad members you enhance their abilities - but I found it pretty much useless - didn't understand the concept to well and ignored it entirely. It felt wonky and combined with often dying and loosing the bonuses felt like just too much work for little gain. Visually it's quite nice. The cyberbpunk atmosphere is there and looks really good. Although seems to be very power hungry. Sure, you can zoom in pretty close and it still lookes good but it's unplayable while zoomed in. So I was completly zoomed out the entire time. The camera for whatever artistic reason is constantly bobbing slightly left and right - didn't make me feel nauseous but I imagine it could make some people. Overall it felt like totally unnecessary thing with no way of turning it off. The graphic in general was looking good - very neon like - and fitting the setting. The game has a bit strange paste to it. It's slow at first - you're always under equiped with low tier guns, and no money. The enemies are also a bit hard at first in comparison to your setup. This leads to tackling the first mission very stealthy - luckily the game allows for such approach and you still get experience from doing things without causing mayhem. It gets better over time and things start balancing out and stealth stops being the only viable option. I'm glad I've stuck through the beginning part as the game picked up somewhere along mid-game and starts getting interesting. The mid and end game is far more interesting as you're much better equipped and have a lot more room for taking different approaches to each mission. The thing this begs for is an active pause though. It would change the game significantly and i feel for the better. As things stand right now there is no other way than just move your squad as a whole. There is just to little time for any flanking or other clever maneuvering. The slow-down time ability is there for the hacker but it has almost no meaningful impact on the game play. Overall in the end I found the game to be enjoyable despite a bit repetitive and not giving a lot of control of the action when things get spicy. I have a feeling that making small changes to the game play would make the game much more enjoyable than it is but as it stands it's still worth picking up and trying out yourself.

A narrative experience with great eerie story and not much gameplay. I absolutely loved it. The game has a great story about young teenagers going to an island for a party. They bring a radio with them that's able to pick up strange transmissions throughout the island. And just by mistake with the radio they're opening a rift to the ghost realm. And now they have until dawn to figure out what's going on. First thing to note about this game is amazing soundtrack and superb voice acting. The visuals are pretty decent but it's the audio layer that makes this game. The main mechanic of Oxenfree is the dialogs. As the game revolves around the characters interacting with each other you get limited time to select a dialog option - if you don't decide the characters continue talking as if you decided not to talk. The writing is pretty clever and feel natural and your choices do matter in the end. Depending on them a game can end up one way or another - and that does not mean necessarily difference between good and bad - just different. Apart from that although you control directly the main character you have little choice. You know basically where you need to go - and though you can take different paths - it does not really matter. So your only job is to get from one place to another and trigger another dialog sequence. It's cool that you can still move while in dialog but it doesn't do anything. The other in game puzzles are so simple it's hard to call them puzzles. It's just a matter of tuning the radio in the right spot. Everything other is pretty obvious. I feel there are some hidden stuff in the game - things I didn't really bother to look for but the whole story is quite interesting and details placed here and there make it feel even better. Overall it's just an interactive story with dialogs choices that make a difference but do not matter in the grand scheme of the story. With a great atmosphere - that reminded me for some reason of the "Stranger Things". Loved the experience and the story.

A bit underrated game about stealth and infiltration set in a dark, fantasy world. I had this game on my radar for a while mostly due to the fact that it looked good and featured a goblin like main character in a Thief like world. Didn't know too much about the gameplay before diving in but I've seen mixed reviews. In the end I must admit I very much enjoyed the game despite some flaws and a bit hard difficulty level. Styx: Master of Shadows is a third person stealth game. Set in a world that reminds the one in the Thief series but a bit more fantasy and bright. But the general feel is pretty similar - at least for me. The story starts a bit slow and is a bit confusing at first. It's hard to make out exactly what's going on. But it comes around somewhere mid-game and when it starts making sense it starts to reel you in. And despite the rough start of "ok, this one is not for the story" I must admit it hooked me. Without giving anything away - you play as a goblin like creature trying to infiltrate Akenash tower in order to steal the heart of the tree. An amber producing tree. The amber in this world is a sort of drug and an extremely valuable thing. The story follows your journey through the tower while you seek to access it. The visuals are pretty nice. Levels are well designed with a multitude ways you can approach certain objectives. Sometimes you get to travel the same area twice and doing so from different starting points is a very unique experience not often found in other games. Audio layer is also well designed - the voice actors did pretty decent job and the soundtrack fits with the gameplay. Nothing breath taking but absolutely fine. One thing to note about the gameplay is that it's pretty hard. I've struggled with first levels before figuring out there is quick save functionality which I would strongly advise to use. Without it - the auto-save spots are so rare that getting trough meant replaying up to half an hour of level progress. On the other hand learning the level layout made travelling through it all that much easier and satisfying. Even with the quick save - the game is still pretty challenging and though. I don't think I've achieved a "no alarm" or "no kill" or any other of the achievements for a single level of the game. It's not hard enough to discourage from playing though. The game gives at your disposal a set of abilities. You can upgrade them between missions through experience points. You get them by completing secondary objectives and getting achievements. From the lot the most notable are amber vision - which is sort of night vision with benefits, invisibility - though for painfully short time and clones - can be useful at times although didn't find all that much use for them. Overall they're a nice addition though I've relied mostly on sneaking, moving between covers and quietly killing off guards. Aside from that you have to manage your consumables - you get two health potions, two amber bottles - which are used for the above abilities and two throwing knives - probably most useful thing in the game. You can replenish them between levels or sometimes pick up along the way though they're all pretty scarce commodity and thus so much more valuable. The game is fun. Although being very difficult it's really fun to play. It has some flaws as mentioned in the beginning - of which two are most note worthy. First is the ledge detection and jumping. It takes time getting used to it. It's not very polished and can lead to a lot of trouble while trying to perform a tricky jump. The second problem lies with AI. While the enemies behave quite good and pose a challenge - the NPCs are terrible. Most of what they do is stand and shout. Even if no one is coming and you're murdering one of them just in front of the other. Makes up for a silly moments. Overall I really did enjoy the game and would really recommend it to any stealth loving gamer.

"Ninja Pizza Girl is a serious game about bullying, emotional resilience – and pizza delivering ninjas! " - it's not a good game though. The game is a mixture of runner and a platformer. You are a ninja pizza girl that scales the roofs in order to deliver the pizza within the time given. On the way you need to tackle time, obstacles and enemies. It's all accompanied by some sort of story presented in dialog between the main character and her friends. The story is hard to follow. It's presented in a way that made me not really care. And while it might try to talk about bullying and other serious stuff - it couldn't make me care. In order to emphasis the emotional struggles of the main character a mechanic is introduced to take a tea in order to lighten up your mood. A bad mood is indicated by visual cue - everything starts to get darker and gloomy - it's an interesting thing - though found it more annoying than anything else. The controls for a runner do not feel good. They feel a bit laggy and not very responsive. The level design is bad as well. The main path is unclear and it seems that falling at any point just forces you to take a different route so you don't feel all that challenged. The various uninspired pickups seem to be placed randomly or just without a sense. The enemies are very repetitive and with just a basic behaviour. Jumping, sliding, wall jumping does not feel good as well - with trampoline jumping being the biggest offender. Overall there's just no fun in playing the game. The soundtrack is poor as well. It's a form of dub-step but not very energetic. The visuals look a bit like generic unity assets - a very bland sort of 3D models and environments. On the good side though there doesn't seem to be any technical problems with it - but that's as much positivity I can muster for the game. Overall I can't recommend it to anyone. The game is just no fun.

A quite unique puzzle game that plays a bit like platformer but due to its mechanics is nothing like you ever played. in the game you are as the title would suggest a mushroom. But not any old mushroom - rather a radioactive mushroom blob thing. The way you control the thing is by cutting away parts of it with a rather thick brush - your mouse. The blob tries to keep its volume so once you cut away from one side the second one expands. And this is how you move, by cutting opposite to the way you want to move, forming different shapes and tackling obstacles. The graphics are pretty decent and work well with what one might assume is a post apocalyptic environment. The sound accompanying you along your journey is quite satisfying an fitting. The story is non existent as far as I can tell. You are in this place now and you need to go. That's about it. But it doesn't hurt the game as its all about the puzzle. There are 7 levels in the game. The first six feel a bit on the easy side with some harder parts. The last one has a really big difficulty spike and I really struggled at parts but after finishing felt really good about myself. Overall a very good and unique game I can safely recommend.

A game that reminds of the great Theme Hospital but sadly is not one - although it is not a bad game in itself. Big Pharma is a game about drug production by setting up processing lines that change different ingredients into a drug that can be sold with profit. You get a number of machines that can change the drug intensity, upgrade it or remove side affects that come along. Each steps of course comes with a price and it's up to you judge if you want a better drug or make more money on it - sometimes both means the same but not always. The visual aspect and general user interface are really great. A bit old school but well designed and look. The processing line design is pretty fun - I must admit. In general it's a puzzle - place more cheaper machines that takes less space or more costly ones that do the job for three but at higher cost. Either way you have to judge space requirement over probable income loss. Depending on the drug complexity the processing lines can be quite long and interesting and putting them up together is the meat of the game. You need to watch for side effects, adjust proper concentration, mix them together to combine certain effects in order to upgrade them. The whole marketing model is quite complex and opponents do put up a fight. Apart from that you get scientists you can hire in order to discover more complex machines and other enhancements. You also get to hire people to discover other ingredients curing different diseases. They're costly so you need to manage this as well. There are some issues though - ones that really spoil a lot of the fun. First of while the theme is interesting it causes the names to be hard to remember. This goes especially for ingredient names and diseases treated - I could not remember them whatsoever and had to constantly check by hovering over or visiting cures screen. Fact that processed drugs at each stage look almost the same - apart from the small distinction in colour does not help at all. The machine names are easier to remember but just a little. Also the fact that once you research Creamer there is no point in shipping pills is also off putting. But the worst offence was a combination of trying to optimize the output combined with competition. The game gives you a packaging machine. This enables storing multiple drugs in a single package, thus the packages contain more but are less frequently occupying the conveyor belt. This lets you output multiple drugs into a single slot. The number of slot is limited and you can use them both for input and output - thus makes sense to have 4 inputs and single output - and is doable. However if your opponent gets a patent on one of the drugs you're producing you are screwed. The forbidden drug will stop the export and halt all four lines to a point in which you have to manually delete and replace the conveyor belt in order to get your other lines working. Really annoying and proves that optimizing this area is pointless. Overall apart from the problems noted the game is pretty good. Has it's flaws but did enjoy it. Though probably will not get back to it again.

This got me by surprise. Did not expect to like this game so much as I did. First thing to note about this game is that is essentially an arena based fps that emphasises mobility, fast paced action and constant strafing. There is no slow approach, no cover based shooting - no reloading even. Just pure adrenaline shootout with waves of enemies spawning in an enclosed arena. The story is minimal - and I felt that it's only reason for being there is to somehow explain the demon enemies you need to face. And those are very familiar doom enemies, just in a modern high-res edition. They look great, they've got distinct attack patterns and fighting them is just pure fun. The graphics are really well done. Especially the enemy design. But environments are nothing to be ashamed of ass well. Both hell and Mars base are really great looking and well designed. The soundtrack is amazing. I heard people prising it before but actually experiencing in in-game is an experience of it's own. High paced heavy metal makes your blood pumping. The other sound effects are top notch as well - especially guns sound really satisfying. Hands down a really really cool game with lots of fun to have.

The second instalment in the rebooted Tomb Raider franchise. As with the first this one maintains a real high quality accompanied with an engaging and interesting story. The visuals are really nice - same is true for sounds and voice acting. It takes everything that it had going in the original reboot game and adds some more without breaking anything. The story is good and interesting. Nothing mind blowing but consistent and fitting the game very well. Lara is a bit more mature than in the previous game which is a good step up from the teen she was in the previous version. The story takes place for the most part in the mountainous region of Syberia with Lara on the quest to discover a lost city of Kitezh to in a way fulfil her fathers legacy in finding the city. On the way she gets tangled up with a mysterious organisation called trinity that's after pretty much the same thing. The game mechanics are quite the mixture - apart from standard climbing and otherwise traversing the obstacles you get an array of optional tombs, hunting, fighting, crafting, and resource gathering going on. While all of them are well executed - they do feel a bit disjointed from the main story line. There are times when although you should be going into certain spot quickly but you go explore optional tomb and for a while forget about the enemies that are pursuing your allies at the moment. This happens frequently enough to be a bother if you invest heavily in the story but still don't want to loose any of the additional content. I think the strongest part of the game are actually the optional tombs. The puzzles are interesting and it's the part mostly reminding the old tomb raiders. The whole crafting and resource gathering does seem a bit unnecessary. The fighting although sometimes forced is pretty well executed. There's also plenty of chances to take a stealthy approach which is very nice. Overall it's a very good game. As close as you can probably get to Uncharted series on PC. And definitely worth picking up.

A pretty game in the style of the Journey that somewhat fells short of it's spiritual predecessor. There is no way to review this game without comparing it to the Journey. It's pretty much the same premise. There is not much game in a game - it is a very calm, beautiful experience that focuses on the journey of the main character rather than any particular story or puzzle solving. Starting off with the setting. You're a some kind of diver travelling through an underwater world. So here's the first thing you need to know - the whole game is an underwater level. That gives you some additional movement directions but you're going to be swimming all the time. The good thing is the swimming does not feel sluggish like in some games and is pretty enjoyable. This however puts some limits on the level design. The areas need to be enclosed and because of that they feel more like a series of lakes or pools rather than open waters - although there are instances of that but are rather rare. The graphics are stunning - very colourful and alive. Sometimes it feels like there's too much going on at the same time, but still it sets a very good relaxing feeling. Accompanied by a superb soundtrack it's a game to just chill and feed your senses. The game however lacks a bit in the meat of the game. When played there's very little aside the visuals and great music. When playing Journey I had the feeling of going somewhere, discovering different ruins, wall paintings gave a sense of discovery and progression. There was this mountain in the distance I was going to reach and on my way I learned about the world through environment. This is missing here. You just swim from area to an area. Touch an underwater thing to release some fish. Swim with fish. Activate some underwater drone that will cut open a net in the way and swim again. There are some triangular things floating in the water but somehow they lack context. I never felt intrigued. Just swam from one area to the next. Overall I kind of enjoyed the game. Though it felt a lesser experience when compared to Journey. It's definitely pretty and worth picking up if you know what you're getting into. If presented with choice - go for Journey.

An amazingly atmospheric game that reminds of a mix between Limbo and Another World. First of - it's a 2.5D platform game that makes a real good use of the 0.5D aspect incorporating in its puzzles and obstacles. There is no word ever spoken in the entire game and the story is what you make of it. You start out in the woods with what looks like being on the run. While on the run you go through different locations solving different puzzles. The atmosphere is the strongest point of this game. It gives out an eerie vibe very much reminding of Orwell's 1984. It's dark and unsettling. The visuals are amazing, the super smooth animation helps with the atmosphere and the sound design is top notch. As you progress trough the game all you can do is avoid enemies - and they do feel very scary. Scarier than most games I've played in the recent memory. And you're always accompanied by the feeling of being small and alone in a very hostile environment. Don't really want to go into details as not to spoil the fun. Enough to say - this game is amazing - you should give it a go. Not ver long but definitely worth a play-through.

In short if you've played previous part you'll know exactly what's coming your way. If you have not than there's no real reason to pick it up before playing the previous ones. This is the final chapter in the Sheppard trilogy. The reapers arrive just as you've warned everybody. And yet everyone is surprised. And it's up to you again to save the galaxy. This game definitely feels more linear than the previous. With the reaper imminent danger most of the stories are for you to gather allies for the war. There are just a few missions you could skip but why would you really. The core mechanics are pretty much the same. You fly around the galaxy, land on planets and do missions. The missions consist of you fighting through the ranks of enemies completing different objectives in order to gain allies. Nothing really changed from the previous parts. The combat is very much cover bases - occasional grenades will make you change specific cover but that's about it. The special powers as well as your team mates feel like they're just there but not a real game changer. I think I just got bored with it. Outside of that you'll get a scanner - not really sure if it was available previously - that you can scan your vicinity in order to find artefacts and stuff. But that can alert the reapers so you'll need to evacuate soon or they'll catch you. Pretty annoying mechanic - luckily one that you don't and probably will not use during the game. The one other change is that you're presented with a war room where you can observe the allied power you have recruited. However this part confused me and apart from looking at single bar - indicating probably when you get enough allies for final mission - it's pretty much useless as well. Visually it might be a bit better than previous instalments however the animations are quite wonky, especially the running animation - this was even more visible since last game before this I played was Metal Gear Solid V which had superb animations. The ending - the most commonly criticized part - is not as bad as I've anticipated, but not good as well. It's just meh. Overall there were cool moments but the game didn't capture me. I'm glad I've played it but I don't expect ever coming back to it.

A bit old but still holding up pretty good. A classical adventure point and click game in which you play as an American tourist on vacation in France. Just so happens that a bomb explodes inside the cafe at which you were having a coffee. Needless to say it's enough for the main character to investigate and get tangled inside the Templar story. So the game is a bit cheesy. Has that 90's vibe as well. But that's actually quite refreshing nowadays. And I enjoyed it quite a bit. The story is a standard Templars story - there's a conspiracy, they want something to rule the world, you're up to stop it. Simple but quite entertaining. On your adventure you'll get to visit France, Spain, Ireland and Egypt. The characters while feeling a bit cliché are still pretty interesting and the dialogs are pretty fun. Visually it's still very lovely looking. Hand drawn locations are varied and pretty - although in a bit smaller resolution. It still looks good. And the animations remind of older French animation films. The sound is also well done - all dialogs are spoken so no reading necessary. The puzzles are pretty nice - there's nothing too abstract and they do make sense for the most part. Only on few occasions you get the full map with no clue where to go next. For most part the next step is obvious. The interface used is a standard point and click - but instead of picking sentences to speak you use the icon of the topic or item you want your character to talk about. Pretty neat if you don't like reading all the possible questions you might want to ask. Overall this game is pretty fun - even after all these years. Interesting characters, well designed and drawn locations and most of all entertaining story makes this a must play on any point and click enthusiast list. Highly recommended.

A very atmospheric first person sci-fi horror game. The story starts with you going for a brain scan. After an accident you've got little time to live so you go for an experimental treatment where they're going to take a full scan of your brain. You sit in a chair and the vision goes black. When you wake up you're somewhere completely different - in a space station looking like environment. And here's where the real game starts - you go on discovering where you exactly are, how you got there and how will you be able to escape. I'm not a big fan of horror games but I must admit I enjoyed this quite a bit. Probably because of a nice balance between the horror scary parts and the exploration parts. And there is quite a lot of exploration and puzzle solving apart from running scared from the entity hunting the underwater research facility which you get to travel through. Graphics are really nicely done. It's dark, it's damp - it's very atmospheric. The world design is top notch as well. The facility does feel very alien like sci-fi. There's plenty to discover about the previous inhabitants leaving on the base. A nice touch - you're able to pick up any object even though it serves no purpose - but it's fine to do. Looking at numerous photographs also adds to the back story of the full game. A bit let off is that it does take place underwater and there are plenty of water levels (ugh!). And while the visuals are really nice I did got lost once or twice in them and did not enjoy them as much as the rest of the games. Though entering the really deep ocean places was impressive and scary. The game is driven by two mechanics - exploration puzzles and horror survival. The first part was definitely enjoyable - you go around the bases, switch a lever here, push a button there. The exploration feels interesting and the puzzles are not that complicated. The survival horror is similar to Amnesia - you have nothing and IT's coming. Not as scary as Amnesia but still too scary for my personal liking. The game asks interesting questions about identity, consciousness and what it means to be alive. And answers them almost perfectly as far as I'm concerned. Especially with the epilogue. A really nice food for thought. Overall a great game with a great atmosphere. Highly recommend.

This game turned out more fun then I anticipated and it was quite accidentally that I gave it a chance. In short this is a 3D side platform race runner. Your aim is to get from start to finish in the shortest time available. To do that you've got to navigate the course and use various slides, jumps, boosts and a grappling hook to your advantage. Gameplay wise it reminds a sonic game. It's fast, it's not easy but really rewarding. The environments are pretty detailed and colourful. At times I found them a bit too distracting but it's not a game breaking problem. The controls are tight, very responsive and make sense for the most part. Some slope jumps are not intuitive but you can learn them by watching the AI ghost runs. Sound design seems appropriate with the game's theme - bold, loud and cartoony. The race length is long enough too enjoy and short enough to quickly restart when you fail. Getting a gold medal on the run at certain races is really challenging. Global score sheets are really nice addition as well. This seems like a perfect fit for multiplayer although I've not tried it. Overall enjoyed the game very much. And was happy to go trough all of the tracts. Can easily recommend to any sonic fans or people liking runners with tight controls.

It's hard to talk about this game without talking about it price tag but I'll try to separate the two and babble about the price point at the end. In short the game is a third person stealth action combat kind ****. You play as a Snake or as he is referred later on Big Boss - the whole Metal Gear Solid time line is quite confusing but that's something for die hard to keep a track of. The game consists of a single story mission and a number of side mission's called side ops. The side ops can be treated as a full flagged missions but with just a different objectives and a lot less story following them. They all take place on a single fairly big map. While the atmospheric conditions change and vary a lot - whether it's a day or night with rain and without it you must understand that the map does not change. Though having a sandbox kind of aspect for all missions lets you learn and appreciate it's design a lot more if after a single mission you'd leave to another area. I'm still on the fence if that's good or not. On one hand I really did enjoy playing the same map but discovering new areas and ways of approach - on the other hand the engine seems just too powerful to have a single map. The "main game" is short. It took me around 70 minutes on the first try to finish the main mission - and that's including time spent learning what I'm allowed to do and what I'm not. You can probably finish it in half of that and that's not rushing. The additional side ops extended the time spent in game to around 8 hours which is fairly decent for such a short game - and I did not replay any of the mission on hard mode - so that's that. Though in order to unlock two bonus missions had to raplay the main one. The story is interesting though if you're not paying attention it sometimes does not make a lot of sense. The big thing to note is that Ground Zeros is mostly free of the Metal Gear Solid strangeness. This feels like a more traditional war game rather than metal gear title which comes with quite a bit of supernatural and a few metal gears. The game engine is a beast. It runs smooth, looks amazing and offers a lot of choices of approach and interactions. You can be stealthy, you can go gun blazing, drive a armoured vehicle - it's up to you. The number of things you can do is really high. There are sometimes games that have extremely memorable moments. Those can be scripted but this one (and this goes for the MGS5: Phantom Pain as well) is a unscripted moment maker. During a rainy mission I climbed on top a small building and started sniping people down - no suppressor - and due to rain/storm they just couldn't work out where the shots were coming. That was so amazing seeing them just run and talk that there's a shooter somewhere but can't make out where. The little touches like suppressors lasting only for a certain number of shots, luring enemies with clips, even the sentries calling other guards to investigate something make this game a real joy to play. The controls are a bit finicky - I struggled between mouse/keyboard and controller. For sneaking and moving around the controller is a much more natural fit. For shooting it's pretty bad. Ended up switching between the two when things got hot. Would have liked if the keyboard controls were a bit more thought through. Finally the price - this feels more as a DLC rather than a full title. Or even more like a demo. In my personal case that would have worked. If this was free and I'd played that - no doubt I would pre-order the Phantom Pain - full price, no questions asked. As it stands I've stayed away from both until I saw them on at least 50% sale - and the only reason I've picked up Ground Zeros is that they've been bundled. At anything more than 3$ this is definitely not worth picking up. Instead you should just buy the Phantom Pain. There is enough content for this game to not matter entirely. So in summary. Worth a buy for cheap. Fun game but does nothing that would suggest buying this over Phantom Pain which is definitely a money well spent.

A rather short Limbo-like platform game. Nothing exceptional but not bad at the same time. In the game you control a robot (that reminds me a dog for whatever reason) that for whatever reason reminds me of a dog. Crash landed on an unknown alien world your quest is to follow your maker and explore the planet. The first thing you encounter is an audio log of the person who gave you free will and you learn that he went ahead of you. Nothing else is explained and you will learn a lot on your way while exploring the planet. To be perfectly honest the plot is pretty thin and after finishing the game I have no idea what the story was really about. Graphicly this reminds a lot of Limbo. The environment is simple though unlike Limbo with a dash of colour. It also gives the same a little eerie vibe. The only thing standing out is the main character who is quite detailed and because of that a bit out of place. Though you get used to it after a while. The sound design is pretty good. The soundtrack is a bit eerie and unsettling working well with the game play. Apart from one or two instances where the music goes disco for unknown reason. Luckily it's not more than a couple of seconds at the time. The narrator in form of left audio logs is nice to hear and is a welcomed addition. Mechanically it's Limbo through and through. Well not entirely but close enough. You move along and solve environmental puzzles along way. There's no fighting, only jumping, climbing and moving blocks and stuff like that. The puzzles are not too complicated and well designed for the most part. The character however while jumping have a tendency to get magnetically pulled towards ledges which was a bit disturbing. In the end I will say this. If you've enjoyed Limbo you might like this as well. Not as good but pretty good. The story doesn't hold up. Finished it and I have no idea what was it about. Enjoyed it for the most part however and since it's fairly short you'll be done with it before it starts to get annoying.

A pretty fun classic point and click adventure game with an interesting story. The game tells a story of a team of people from the future where climate change did destroy the earth as we know it and the upcoming sun storm is about to destroy the rest of humanity. To prevent that they go back in time to prevent the climate change that destroyed the world we know. In the game you play either as Fay a radio operator from the future - or an older retired scientist from the present - Bent Svenson. They team up in order to show an alternative to the nuclear power - which is supposed to be green algae. The story takes them through quite a few locations around the world. The story is interesting, a bit educational probably but that did not bother me at all and I had quite fun following it through. Most importantly it makes sense and keeps you wondering what will happen next. Well told. The levels are varied and well designed. Very well painted as well. The animation of characters is also quite nice, although scaling them to smaller sizes at times shows some problems. Cut scenes are presented through a comic like panels - they fit well within the whole aesthetic and look just good. Every sentence said by any character is spoken which is nice. For the most part the voice acting is descent - they do have some trouble with more expressive emotions but that's not that big of a deal. I enjoyed the puzzle design very much. Most of them are pretty well designed, make sense and they're well contained. You have to solve them before you'll be able to move forward. There's no jumping between multiple locations looking what to do next. And they make sense - the amount of random clicking everything on everything is quite rare. Apart from few bugs - a text displayed in wrong language or missing required item (fixable once googled) - the game has no other bigger problems. The are nitpicks that I've had with it. The first being a rare but frustrating plot holes, when something just happens and you're not sure how it came to it. The second being the plot twist at the end - totally didn't see it coming which is good - but the more I think about it things don't add up. It brakes a bit a great story in the end and is hard to let go - more so that the story held up pretty well till the very end. Overall a very recommendable point and click adventure game.

One of the best sci-fi horror games out there. Amazing ambience, story and gameplay. This is the game equivalent of the first Alien movie. The story puts you on a mining station "Ishimura" after responding to a distress call. On arrival you and your two crew mates crash land on the station and find out that the station is overrun by creatures called necromorhps. It is up to you to figure out what's exactly going on at the station, find your girlfriend who was stationed there and get out. The story is quite interesting and takes through the different parts of the ships where you gather bits and pieces to solving the mystery of what exactly happened. Takes quite a while to go thrugh all the chapters but it's engaging, interesting and at no point repetitive. Graphics still hold up very nicely - the level design is very nice and there are just a few areas you will re-visit. The audio layer is amazing and gives a lot to the ambience. The thumps in the air ducts, the humming of machines and the echo of your footsteps. Makes your hair stand up. As far as mechanics go - this is somewhat of a 3rd person shooter but the array of weapons and the way you fight the enemies is not from a standard shooter. Most of the weapons are energy weapons each with its own distinguish ammunition. The way you use them against the necromorphs is you need to cut off their limbs rather than going for the classical headshots. This makes for a very interesting mechanic where the first thing you aim at are the legs - at least for the most enemies. Additionally you get a stasis power which lets you slow down the enemies affected by the stasis field which comes in handy with a bigger amount of enemies. There is a couple of different enemy types and most of them differ significantly from each other requiring a bit different approach which is really nice. The only problem I've had is that you can tell that the game was designed for console. And the sensitivity on the mouse changes when you go into aim mode and feels a bit sluggish. But its not very hard to get used to it and enjoy this great game. A must play game.

A fairly standard third person cover based shooter with an interesting story it fails to deliver correctly. This game has its moments. Three of them to be exact. First of them being sand falling through the window for the very first time. Second is a single scene that would include spoilers and an epilogue. Outside of that it's pretty forgettable. The graphics are nice although a bit dull with all the sand and not much space to roam about. The level design is extremely linear and there's next to no room to maneuver. All you do is follow a set path, cover behind obstacles and shoot the opponents. The story is strange. You start in Dubai not really understanding why you're there, what happened and what exactly you're trying to achieve. For whatever reason you need to shoot your fellow Americans, there's CIA involved and you're not exactly sure what's going on. In the larger scheme I think the game tries to do something like Apocalypse Now but I wasn't sold on it. It wasn't bad though. There's a big plot twist near the end but it's nothing you can figure out along the way. The gameplay as mentioned is forgettable. It gets a bit better towards the end but feels really boring for the first half of the game. The AI is extremely stupid. You hide behind the cover and enemies come in waves. You kill some, another bunch comes and so on until there's no one left. You progress further and repeat the same thing over again. It's a good thing that this game is fairly short and I enjoyed the cinematics for the most part. Good if you're up for some mindless shooting.

A quite unique rhythm based retro random generated dungeon crawler. Seems like a quite peculiar mash up of genres. In a way you would not expect those particular genres to work with each other but somehow this game pulls it off. It's a very unique compilation. On the outside its a dungeon crawler. You progress through a randomly generated dungeon gathering loot. Once you're dead the only thing you are left off is gold with which you can purchase unlocks, additional crates and items to be found in the dungeon. Any unspent gold goes away and you start from the start. And you start all over on each death with just a bigger chance of getting better things along the way. The combat hover distinguishes it from the normal rouge like games. As its essentially a rhythm puzzle to be solved. In short - each enemy has a movement pattern in which he moves taking a move in the beat. Its easy to learn and tackle a single enemy but when different ones come at you at the same time fending all of them is quite the challenge. It makes for a very unique and satisfying combat when you pull all the moves in the right way. The audio layer of this game is just amazing. Even more so as it's integral part of the game. It's worth getting the game for the soundtrack alone. I have no words to better describe it - just amazing. Well worth a listen to. Graphicly it's nothing special, but nothing bad as well. The pixel aesthetic might not be the best pixel art I've seen but it does the job. Sadly this will not be one of my favourite games ever. Simply because I'm bad at it. Not a big fan of a rhythm based part of it. Moving only on the beat seams a bit limiting and while the combat is quite enjoyable I was more often failing at it than not. In the end didn't feel interested enough to persevere longer than the first layer of dungeon. I do however suggest checking it out. This game does perfectly what it sets out to do and its unique enough to surprise you. It will not be a game for everybody. Great game, just not for me.

Wasteland 2 scratches all the classic Fallout itches but is still a far from perfect game. I think this game is a mix of the classic Fallout series (1 and 2) and Fallout Tactics. Praying a lot on the nostalgia so people loving the mentioned games will feel right at home. I admit the atmosphere is there. Travelling wasteland is fun and engaging. Combat is well designed and satisfying. The quests are varied and most of the times interesting giving multiple ways to tackle the problem (most of the times at least). There is a steep learning curve though and having played it once I would have made a completely different starting choices. Which is a shame as I did take the original pre-defined party of characters. It's not bad but due to my choices on levelling up some characters ended up as cannon fodder rather than the useful team members. Guns are fun but some of the gun classes feel useless. Especially the handguns and shotguns. I wanted a varied party so had a medic with a pistol and guy who was supposed to be close combat shotgun wielder. Sadly had to re-purpose both of them changing the first into energy weapon sniper and second to standard rifleman. The shotgun just felt so useless. Quests for the most part are well designed though there's quite a few of 'go and fetch' ones. Some require a bit of thinking and are not all that straight forward which is a nice change from the current generation of "go to this spot and press this button" missions. However there are some really badly designed - one for example hints that there are multiple ways to approach the problem but there are actually two. And while the first one is obvious the second one unlocks only after you acquire the part required for first approach. And the part is somewhat 10-15h of game play away (out of around 60 for the whole thing in my case). That is just stupid. And you can't even go at it guns blazing as this is the only part of the game that has super turret guns killing you instantly no matter how many explosives you throw at it. Really annoying. There is a few quests that are not interesting especially near the end but those you can tackle with guns blazing approach which was nice. The amount of text in dialogues seem to get out of control at certain points without any real benefit to the game. This is also a game of two parts. The Arizona one which feels more fleshed out and the LA part which for some reasons changes mechanics, introduces completely not necessary plot lines and feels a bit rushed. It also introduces an instant spike in difficulty making all enemies two times stronger. Luckily from the get go there is a vendor selling guns that are way stronger than your current loud out. Graphicly it's pretty bad. I played the directors cut which should be updated version with better graphics and assets. And it still looks bad. The texture quality is pretty low, the game sometimes look worse than Fallout 2 in my opinion. The camera works sometimes really strangely. There is no tilt control, and the angle sometimes feel weird - though you can get used to it. The worst looking part must be the world map though. Such an ugly thing. Audio wise - there's not much to tell. Didn't notice any soundtrack. The voice acting is good although not sure why some characters have the voice and others don't (excluding the main characters of the game). The screaming goats are pretty annoying and not sure who decided it was a good idea even if meant as a joke. Overall I'd say a decent title. Had fun for the most part with exception of some annoying situations. Wouldn't recommend it for everyone but for all Fallout 1/2 without a shadow of doubt. Good world design, fun storyline, engaging game play, a bit disappointing ending

To be perfectly honest this was not a game I was expecting. All I knew before lunching it was that it's not your average GTA-like game. But in the end I must admit I enjoyed it quite a bit. In short this game feels like GTA on mods with a pretty stupid, absurd story line and weird game play. In the game you control the president of united states. But this guy was previously a gang member with his homies being the staff members. Planet earth gets attacked and destroyed by aliens, people get kidnapped and put into a matrix like pods aboard the alien spaceship and you get put into a computer simulation where you try to defeat the bad alien boss. This gives the ground to you having all of the absurd powers. Gameplay actually like GTA on mods. You can jump high, stomp, fly around, throw cars and other heavy objects, run like flash and shoot fire bullets. The game is not very unified and feels like a collection of mini games where you get to use your powers one way or another. There are events where you have to scale towers, other places you will race with your super speed. In other instanced you'll do some hacking, throw cars through virtual hoops and so on. On their own the modes are pretty fun to play and there is really a lot of them. If you're not looking for anything serious and just want to enjoy yourself with no thought involved - this might be the right fit. The main story missions make a bit more sense but not that much - just feel like a different mode from the rest. The progression and upgrade system does not feel very rewarding - though you are able to update your powers to make them more effective. Guns are strange and most of them are pretty useless. You can drive around in cars but since you're faster on foot it doesn't make any sense to do so aside from the special missions. The game graphics are pretty decent although constant night time feels boring after a while. In the end it was fun playing. A rather light game but fun nonetheless - surprisingly so to be honest.

Gunpoint is a 2D platform, puzzle game of corporate espionage. Not exactly sure how I came about this game, but once I played the demo version I was hooked in and had to get the full deal. The game is a about a trench coat spy-like character being framed for a murder he did not commit. His goal is to clear his name by infiltrating some corporate facilities and hacking the data from the servers. The core of this game are basically two mechanics. One of them is the puzzle element. You get your hacking gear and you can access the wire layer of the game. With this you can hook up different things with each other, connect the light switch to a door or power outlet. Flick the switch and a guard can be electrocuted from the outlet or the door will open up. There are different coloured wires to which you get access once you hack the proper coloured control panel. Pretty neat idea and well executed. Second core mechanic is jumping. From the start you get your jumping boots that let you jump quite far. You get a trajectory of predicted jump and you just lunch yourself. This aspect reminds a bit of Ronin but the focus of this game is more on stealth than action. And it nails it pretty well. Hiding in the shadows to lunch at the opponents or completely avoiding them. Using hacking to turn of lights or distract the guards to pass unnoticed. This works quite well I have to admit. The graphics are pixel art. Looking good. Nothing spectacular but nothing annoying as well. Didn't mind it at all. The weakest part of the game is the story or how it's told to be exact. The whole plot is introduced via text box conversations. There is a lot of the text - too much. But that's not the biggest problem. The worst offence is that the game tries to be funny. Tries and fails in this regard. The forced humour gets really annoying really fast. I lost interest pretty fast and soon was skipping over most of the text. It does nothing for the gameplay anyhow. In the end the game was quite enjoyable and felt fresh. I had fun time playing it. Though I must admit the last few levels felt a bit repetitive. As a whole quite a decent game nonetheless.

Assassins Creed 2 is everything you would expect from a sequel. Takes best elements of it's predecessor and builds on it a great game. The game follows a story of Ezio Auditore - a character I found extremely annoying at first but learned to like by the end ****. This time the story is set in renaissance era of Italy with action taking in a couple of Italian towns like Florence, Venice, Tuscany. Ezio is introduced a s reckless playboy character until both his father and brother are hanged for treason. Only then Ezio learns that his father was an assassin and begin his journey into the ranks of assassins. The story this time is a bit more linear than in the original Assassin's Creed but there is no lack of side activities to torment the completionists. Same as previously we follow the modern-time story of Desmond who re-lives the life of Ezio. And as previously the time spent outside the animus feels like totally necessary. Mechanics wise this game improves on original game in almost every aspect. Drops the tedious repetitive missions in favour of more catered story driven missions this time. Crowd blending has been vastly improved making it more natural than previously. Notoriety has been introduced which can be removed by bribes or taking down wanted poster. It is really fun trying to navigate through a town having highest notoriety with guards alerted to your presence if you're not careful enough. Combat was also refined giving a wider array of moves. Graphics hold up till this day - although you can tell the age when you're outside the town and it feels a bit empty. Inside cities however there's nothing to be picky about. The designs gives a good feel for the time period. The cities are well designed and fun to travel through either by foot or taking the rooftops. Overall a big improvement to the original one and a really fun game that still holds up very well. Definitiely worth playing.

I've bought this without knowing exactly what it is apart from hearing mixed emotions. Some called it bad, other claimed that this game is misunderstood. I hoped to end up in the "I liked the game" camp though sadly I did not. First of - this is barely a game. It's beautiful, extremely so. The visual effects are just gorgeous. The models are so detailed that up to this date I'd say this is the best looking "tech demo" I've seen. But sadly it fails hardly as a game. So why it is that? I don't really mind narrative games, I don't mind experimental ones. But this is lacking so much in game design aspect. As a player you start out at a spot with a short story introduction. A very short and not really telling you what to do. You start walking - everything is pretty but nothing is explained. I just kept walking, looking around and so on and later on learned that I've missed 3 out of 5 or six puzzles. Nothing told me that. There was also almost nothing explaining the game mechanics or even subtly prompting me to do anything. Arriving at the old abandoned village game suddenly introduces teleporting doors with some spell - why? how? How does that fit the narrative. At this point I was confused and had no idea what to do. I walked around for little more enjoying the views and graphic quality but was bored. Honestly I thought that was it. Had to look up reviews to see there was more. And after having a read - was not really interested in actually playing. The game just lacks any game design - forcing player to explore certain areas, hinting or suggesting some actions. Or just simply explaining itself. Really shame as it is really beautiful. Can't really recommend it.

Following the footsteps of Resident Evil 4 this game is both a little better and a little worse. Still fun to play though annoying at times as it's predecessor. The story happens five years after the events in Resident Evil 4 and you play as Chris Redfield. You with your partner are sent to Africa to track down some bio-terrorist and the story goes from there. You encounter Las Plagas or some kind of it's mutation (was not really paying that much attention) that again turns people into zombie like creatures. Those are not as previously as zombies but you wouldn't tell a difference. Though would a zombie ride a bike? I think not. The story is pretty nice and takes you through a lot of well designed zones. On graphical side the game has much improved. From being dark and gray in previous title the pallet shifts to yellow and gray - thus quite nicely giving the African feel. The models are much better detailed and it's quite the step up comparing to the previous one. Gameplay has not changed all that much though there are changes. First of - they've added strafing - that helps a lot! Secondly as this game is mostly designed for co-op play you are stuck with a partner which wastes ammo, though heals you a lot making it really hard to die. It's a shame you can't play without the partner. The game structure at first really reminds of the previous game. You are thrown into the most hard part of the game within the first half an hour. At least that was my feeling. The weapon shops were removed in favour of what might be load-out menu that lets you store and buy items between levels - or when you die. The inventory system has been simplified a lot as well sadly. There are nine slots, no item stacking and arranging as previously. The weapons are pretty cool and feel nice. The electric rod however is so overpowered for regular zombies that it feels like game braking. As with previous game I did enjoy fighting zombies and doing QTEs - not so much keen on the boss fights. Though those might be a bit easier than in RE4. Still played till the end and had enough fun to recommend.

The game at first feels like a clash of Mark of the Ninja and Gunpoint but actually differs from the both a lot. In short this is an action puzzle game - with the emphasis on the dynamic puzzle element. Starting from the story. There is almost none. There's just a photo and a hint of revenge. And for me this was spot on. I've started making up my own story to the picture wandering on what might have lead to the revenge aspect and for the lack of story I really did enjoy it weirdly. Visually it's a nice looking 2D platformer looking game. Not pixel art but has that vibe. In all looks good - nothing to awe about but nothing to complain about. Best part of the game is the game play. In short - it moves and feels like gunpoint - you can jump with selected trajectory, hang by a line attached to ceiling or wall - up to the point where combat starts. And this is where the game starts to shine. As the hints say - it's not a stealth game - kill everyone. Once the combat starts the game turns into turn based puzzle. Somewhat similar to Frozen Synapse everyone indicates there next move and all of them are executed at the same time - though different enemies have different priority - so for example you jump before some enemies start shooting while different enemy type shoots before you jump and you have to take that in the account. It's easy at first but gets really tricky later on when you have to deal with multiple enemies of different types. And it's really satisfying when pulled of correctly. It's easy to mess up though - luckily the checkpoints are quite often so repeating a sequence does not cost any progress. The game is divided into 15 levels and 5 sections/bosses. As easily deducted each section is 3 levels long. Two of which order you to hack some terminals to find location of the boss which is the final level of each chapter. But it's always more of the same - kill all the guards, don't kill by-standers, don't raise alarms. The levels are pretty nicely designed. Additionally if you complete the optional objectives you receive a skill point - really worth picking up - that adds options you can use on your fights - i.e. throwing the sword or knocking guards out. Overall was really with the game and had a lot of fun completing it. Don't have really any problems to point out with it - though this will not be a game for everyone. First and foremost this is a puzzle. But a fun puzzle.

For an almost 10 year old game it still holds up to this day and is definitely worth picking up if you've never played an Assassin's Creed game before. The game tells a story of Desmond Miles - a descendant of Assassins - a secret organisation fighting with Templars. While Assassins strive to preserve freedom - Templars seek to control people. Desmond who lives in modern times is put by Templars into Animus with which he can access genetic memories of his ancestors and re-lives the events happening in the third crusade times. The game is very atmospheric. The cities you visit during the game are big and extremely atmospheric. It really does feel like a crusader movie. The movement - ability to climb any building, run on the rooftops is very well done. The whole scope of the game does look impress. For the times this was released it is very impressive. Even today it still looks very good and holds its own. During the game you will kill a number of templars. And while all the tools seem to be present the game feels a bit repetitive. Each mission follows pretty much the same schematic - follow someone and eavesdrop on conversation to learn something, beat someone up, pickpocket someone else. In the end it does not affect the main mission much though. With additional Ubisoft dis tractors - climbing towers to reveal map and so on it's a completionist nightmare. Even more so that the side missions are even more repetitive than the core plot. The main missions at least vary from each other and are really fun to do. The strength of this game lies within stealth. Blending with the crowd, picking routes to avoid detection to deal the final blow. When executed properly it's really satisfying. The combat is a bit too easy. All you have to do is wait for a queue to counter and you can fight off a hundred men. The only problem I had was with an XBox controller which for some reason does not work well with the PC version of the game. And some keys are bound in a strange way without ability to re-bind them. Even using community fixes I couldn't get it to work exactly as it should. The whole story of Desmond Miles is a bit weak - and personally I would prefer for it to be strictly about Altair. Overall the game still holds up - worth picking up and playing through.

Some games do not age well. And Splinter Cell: Double agent is a great example of that. There is a lot of things wrong with the game and not many that were done right. I finished the game but there were times I thought about not trying to. Lets start with bad then shall we. The game crashes. And it crashes a lot. And there is no pattern just when will it crash. Sometimes in the middle of the mission, sometimes on mission load, sometimes on intro or outro of the mission. And sometimes it works just fine for an hour or longer. But on other times crashes after ten or fifteen minutes. Quite annoying. And once you decide to exit game, it can freeze itself forcing you to restart the windows in order to regain control. The graphics are aged and it shows. Fact that highest resolution is 1600x900 does not help either. To top that the first mission is really ugly which makes matters even worse at first. You get used to it later on and it's not that bad as the first impression. Audio seems fine most of times. Though lack of subtitles is extremely annoying. This was almost a reason not to play the game. The game does not introduce itself very well. It lacks that modern tutorial/guide style so present everywhere. This is somewhat refreshing but leaves a lot for player to figure out. Some things I've learned on almost ending missions. But the lack of waypoints saying exactly where to go was a bit of back to the roots trip. When you actually had to figure stuff out instead of going after the flashing blip. The story is rather bland. The start of it a disaster I would say. It gets a bit better later on but it is not to original or interesting at that. Mechanically it's not too good as well. The three vision mode, night, head and electronics are pretty much useless. I don't think I used them even once in a meaningful way. Shooting and combat are bad. Most annoying thing being - why the hell is a pistol more accurate than a rifle? I mean really. Grenades are useless as well. As a stealth game it fares much better. Sneaking is satisfying as much as stabbing the guys in the back. Most of the missions can be completed by remaining stealthy which is nice. Safe cracking is a nightmare though. The controls for it are terrible. That should be about time to tell something good about the game. So what it does going for it are pretty well designed levels and missions. They're interesting and challenging. Some of them are approachable by different ways I guess though it's not the same amount of freedom as Hitman games for example. Also the JMB headquarter levels are very nice - especially with the trust mechanic. This is the only part that makes the game worth playing. Time you are given to complete some additional objectives really adds to the double agent atmosphere. Overall I'd say 6/10 if you disregard the crashes. Not really something I can wholeheartedly recommend though I've played worse games.

A small puzzle-plarform game that is somewhat entertaining. In the game you are a pikachu-like character trying to put all of your offspring into the doorway in order to progress. To do that you must solve more and more complicated environmental puzzles - figure correct order to gather your offspring without killing them or yourself. The graphic is a standard a bit retro 2D style platformer graphic. Not extremely cute but does the job well and look good. Controls are nothing to pick about either - work and behave well. The puzzles are interesting enough to keep you going although the whole game feels a little like a mobile game. You solve a puzzle or two in between stuff that you do normally and come back to it at a later time. Admittedly there is quite a handful of puzzles to try and ability to both create custom levels and load new ones from the internet. Overall I can enjoy the game for some time and move on before coming back for a little bit more. Nothing really keeps you **** in to finish all the levels.

I've had this game lying around for some time before actually picking up and playing. A very nice looking, colourful game with somewhat interesting game mechanics and a really good audio layer. In short you wake up as a Kid in a world that has been hit by calamity - whatever that means - in short the world is dying, a lot of people died already and soon more will follow. You find a place called Bastion from which you venture forth trying to gather shards in order to restore Bastion to its full glory and stop the calamity. What really stands out in this game is both great music and superb narration. The story at first seems a bit strange and it's hard to make out what's going on but once you reach the end it all starts to make sense and is in fact quite interesting. The gameplay is an isometric a little bit like hack and slash but with much more emphasis on arcade action. You don't rely on the stats of your weapon but rather on your skill to doge, block and attack at the right time with the right time. Personally I didn't find the combat extremely exciting although I feel this might be a personal preference and a lot of people might love it. This is the reason why I only went after the story missions and completely avoided any additional challenges. In the end wanted to finish the game for the story, not the gameplay. The game lets you level your character but levelling up does not increase your stats - rather it unlocks a space where you can hold a bottle of sorts which boosts your stats in one way or another - it's an interesting approach to levelling. The weapons you will have you find along your journey. They're interestingly designed although I found out that at any given time I'm sticking with the choices made early on and not really going for the newer weapons which feel weak. You can level them up - but still - once you find your favourites there is no real reason to change them. Overall a good 7/10 game - not spectacular but a solid title - worth playing for the story for sure.

I really wanted to like this game but it turned out impossible. Gave it two approaches, struggled with graphic issues, after solving them was totally disappointed by the gameplay and uninterested by the story. I picked up witcher 1 and 2 at the same time and for the continuity reasons wanted to play them in order. Could not bare through the first one thought - loved the second though. The graphics looked ugly - after some patching it sill looked bad. The combat was a total disappointment - click, click click and then repeat. After playing around 2 hours I had enough. The rest of mechanics probably had some potential but the game didn't interest me to discover what else it had to offer. Given that I'm not the biggest fan of the world created by Sapkowski I was put off and will never try my luck with this particular title.

Ocean horn is a really nice and beautiful game looking and playing a little bit like zelda series mixed with little big adventure. Everything is put in an isometric perspective with lovely candy graphics. The world is divided into island to which you travel by sailing your boat. Our main hero has no name but looks very similar to Link - although without the cap - but with the sword and the shield the inspiration is unmistakable. Your goal is to kill the monster called Oceanhorn - to do so you will need to travel the world, discover new locations, solve puzzles and gain necessary abilities. This game gives a very laid back feeling. The gameplay is very good as well. Fighting, travelling the world, solving puzzles, even fishing are all well done. I really enjoyed my time playing the game and can easily recommend it to any Zelda fan out there.

Ocean horn is a really nice and beautiful game looking and playing a little bit like zelda series mixed with little big adventure. Everything is put in an isometric perspective with lovely candy graphics. The world is divided into island to which you travel by sailing your boat. Our main hero has no name but looks very similar to Link - although without the cap - but with the sword and the shield the inspiration is unmistakable. Your goal is to kill the monster called Oceanhorn - to do so you will need to travel the world, discover new locations, solve puzzles and gain necessary abilities. This game gives a very laid back feeling. The gameplay is very good as well. Fighting, travelling the world, solving puzzles, even fishing are all well done. I really enjoyed my time playing the game and can easily recommend it to any Zelda fan out there.

Mafia 2 tells a story of Vito Scalleta and his rise and fall within the mafia ranks. The game looks similar to grand theft auto series but it's not open world game although it looks like one. The story is very linear and although you can change the way you approach one mission or the other and can drive around the town freely - in the end you will be bound to proceed to the next mission and the checkpoint. The story is great. A very Godfather story of mafia - power struggles, assassinations and betrayal. There are no side quests and I would actual consider this a good thing. This way the story is more focused and does not loose your interest in it. The Empire Bay which looks like New York set in the 1940-50s looks amazing and has great feel to it. The soundtrack additionally sets the mood as well. The game mechanics are on point. The driving feels good, shooting and action is both responsive and enjoyable. The array of weapons is good enough to enjoy. And there's nothing better than picking up tommy gun and shooting other mobsters. Overall really good experience, wonderful story - really worth picking up.

A really cool fantasy rpg game with great mechanics and interesting story. This is a really well put together CRPG where you control Geralt of Rivia - the Witcher. Unlike the first instalment which I just couldn't bear this one both looks and plays great. The combat system is really good - a bit of dexterity and strategy is required to perform. The combination is just right. You need to keep in mind which sword you use - iron for humans and silver for monsters. The signs in certain situation prove a great help while in others are pretty useless. The use of potions also adds to the strategy level of the combat. It's not just mouse clicker - where you select enemy and click constantly. You need to dodge, use throwables and time your attacks just right. This is probably the best part of the game. The story is really good and makes you care about the choices you do make. I'm not a fan though of the Sapkowski world entirely - some dialogues do break the character of the setting and make you remember this is a game (i.e. when elf says "Piece of lembass" and shrugs it when asked for details). This is not the game developers fault but the witcher author and it is just something that doesn't feel right for me - other people might and probably have different opinion. Voice acting is well done, although a bit too vulgar in my opinion - but again that is witcher's novels trademark so I can't blame game developers for it. The levelling up system does provide quite a few options. Shame the game does not have enough content to upgrade everything. But that makes for interesting choices. Overall really did enjoy the game and it's story. Would without problem recommend this title to any cRPG enthusiast.

A platform game have based on inuit culture following from what I understand a legend of sorts. The game is fairly short. The story strange but with a certain charm. I didn't find it the most interesting but I didn't mind it. The problem lies with the game itself. You control two characters - a girl and a fox. At any time you can switch between the two. However controlled by AI second character has tendency to die more often than I would find it acceptable. The platforming is also not of the highest standard. The controls don't feel super responsive. The mechanics somewhat disappoint as well. The whole wind mechanic that can push you one way or another is more annoying than fun. The second level is a water level! I've played it through but did not felt the urge to play the fox tales addon. Can't really recommend this game really.

I have never played the original shadow warrior though I was raised in a Duke Nukem era. And I never heard of it as well which is strange. However this game is great! It's almost perfect for what it tries to be. It's a little bit of Duke Nukem (original one) humor combined with great gameplay. The graphics is good, voice acting up to standard and as a shooter this game is awesome. Combined with amazing katana fighting system I could not recommend this game more. The story is acceptable - nothing fancy - but nothing fancy is needed. The upgrade system works really well. Weapons do feel different from each other and it makes sense using different ones on different situations. And the fighting with katana is just pure fun. Slashing through hordes of demons, watching their head and limbs fly. Was very surprised when I got this game just how enjoyable it is.

Challenging, fast paced platformer with super responsive controls. If you have been living under a rock till now and have never heard of this game it's time to get out and see what this game is all about. And it is a good game. One of the best platformers in existence. Super tight controls and rather difficult levels are working great for this game. There is no story. Nor does it feel like there should be. Well - there is sort of story, you're a meat boy on a quest to save bandage girl from doctor featus. Yup - that's actually what it is. But the gameplay itself is so fun and addictive it's hard to walk away from it. The levels are fairly short but well designed. Their length however is short on purpose and it's a good thing. Because you will die a lot, but once you master timings correctly completing a level will feel really satisfying. I highly recommend this game to anyone. Just do yourself a favour and play it with controller.

I was ready to delete the game and never play it again just after about 15 minutes into the game. I was that annoyed with it at first. Luckily I didn't because it turned out to be quite an enjoyable game. After you get used to the problems. So starting with the bad. The controls are awful - I mean they are in a classic resident evil style but somehow I expected it to be better. It's not that old **** now. The camera is all over the place and the fact that it's moving independently from the movement makes it really frustrating at first. On top of that there is no strafing, meaning that dodging or avoiding enemies is a nightmare. And you can't shoot while walking. To top that off just after the intro you encounter one of the most difficult levels in the entire game. You're stuck with just your gun and a horde of "zombies" going after you which you have to hold off for a certain amount of time. Definitely not an easy task to do. But it gets better and once you get used to the controls and how to handle everything the game actually starts being enjoyable. The story is not worth mentioning because it's rather silly. You are a bodyguard trying to find the presidents daughter in assume what is Italy. You follow the rumours that's she is in a remote village. You go in. And you get to fight off hordes of zombies and monsters to save her. Well, not technically zombies but close enough. That's the whole story - silly but does the job. The level design is really nice. The enemies are varied enough to enjoy and the whole campaign feels just right in the length. There is always a sensation of you running out of ammo which makes you save it all up and use different weapons on different occasions. Apart from wonky controls and lack of ability to walk and shout, and strafing the combat feels nice and tactical. There is a problem where you can skip a very important item once or twice that makes the game extremely harder but having learned two hours later I was really not happy to re-do the whole thing and I pushed on. The ammo got even scarcer but I managed to get through it which gave me even more satisfaction. The game is hard on times but it's fair. Overall I really enjoyed it and I'm glad I stuck out the first part out.

This is basically portal game set in a Despicable Me universe. In the game you are a child of about ten years old that gets sent to his uncle. But your uncle is in fact a crazy scientist that cares little for you. And upon your arrival it turns out that your uncle is stuck in some weird dimension and needs your rescuing. So you put on dimensional glove and embark on a journey to find your uncle in his crazy scientist mansion. The game plays like portal with the only difference being you do not control portals - instead you do control dimensions. You gradually get to control up to four dimensions in order to manipulate objects and progress deeper into the mansion. The puzzles are well designed and require some thinking at times. Though are not extremely overcomplicated but rather just right. The use of different dimensions and their combinations is clever and interesting. There are a few puzzles that require agility as well apart from clever dimension use which is quite nice. The graphic is cartoony and cheerful, and fits well within the game setting. The narration is funny and witty adding to the general atmosphere of the game. I had really good fun playing it and can happily recommend it for picking up if you like games like portal.

A game without much game. This is essentially an interactive story. And interactive in a way that you just can't get it wrong. You are murdered detective trying to solve the mystery of your own death in a little town called Salem. So let's start with the story itself then. It's a descent story as best. It's nothing spectacular, has some twists but it does not make you hold your breath. You don't specially feel attached to the main character and the narration is clunky at times. The graphics, the voice acting and general quality is really good. Shame that the whole game falls short on the rest. The game mechanics are rather boring and come down to connecting clues with each other to progress the story. But getting them wrong does not cause any fail state of the game, and the overall success is never displayed somewhere at the end of the game. The other part of the game that forced some interaction was getting past demons, which could only be killed by QTE if you managed to get behind them. This part of the game felt annoying and tedious but happened so rarely you can't complain much. The whole game forces you to follow one single path, and there is no room for exploration. Really linear experience. The game is fairly short - around 10 hours and that's quite enough. Would I recommend it - probably not - though I did get through it and did not felt forced to do so. If you're ok in treating it as a story then you might like it. If you want a game - look somewhere else.

A second instalment in what is probably the best sci-fi shooting RPG. In game you become resurrected captain Sherppard to face the ever present danger from the Reapers and their newest lackeys in the form of Collectors. To stop them from harvesting humans you need to travel the galaxy far and wide to recruit your allays and defeat the Collectors. This game does not differ very much from the first part but it doesn't have to to be good. The graphics, the voice acting, the music - everything is top notch. You get a wide array of weapons with which to shoot your enemies. And special powers to augment your weapons and strike your enemies. The gameplay is very nice and smooth, you control your character from third person view, and can give commands to your two team mates. In most situations they do just fine with only once in a while necessity to directly issue orders. The environment is pretty, varies from place to place and is well designed. The shooting in most cases is a familiar cover based fire fight. You one from one cover to another, reload and shoot with weapon best suited for the situation. The only problem I had with the game is that there is not that much of a main story line. Most of the missions can be treated separately as most of them is either recruiting a new team member or helping him out with his specific task. Almost all of them need a separate recruitment and all of them come with a single mission not really related to the main task. For a completionist this sets the main mission on hold and you get the feeling of "no hurry - we've got time" contrary to the what the game would like to make you feel. Space exploration is fun as well though looking for resources can be a bit tedious at times. But each mission is designed with care and creates a solid, atmospheric experience. Overall really liked the game and can highly recommend it to anyone liking sci-fi.

This game is such a lost potential. It has many good things going for it but in all aspects seems like it could have been so much more. The game puts you in a post-apocalyptic world very well known from Mad Max series. I do must say that I enjoyed the original movie more then the new one so I'm not so thrilled by the environment. What's outstanding is the fact that it's very similar all across the board. It makes sense giving the setting but seeing the constant desert like background is a bit dull. Though given the setting of the game it is to be expected and this is not a genuine critique. You start our by driving and encountering a gang of cars that take away your car. You then meet a repair guy who helps you with rebuilding a brand new car in a quest to put a V8 in it. So the game introduces pretty cool mechanics at start - your fuel is limited and you must refill it from time to time to keep going. The ammo is really scarce - you count every shot - especially when it comes to the sniper rifle. Water put in a canteen is used to replenish your health. And at first the game is quite challenging but things change when you reach the first stronghold. All you need to do is finish some projects that on each stronghold visit will replenish your ammo, fuel and health. Combine that with quick travel and I have never needed any additional fuel or felt a need to look for ammo. Apart from main missions which progress the story pretty far you have a number of things to do. Either upgrade strongholds by acquiring different parts, lower terror level by destroying scarecrows or fighting different camps. You need to collect scrap along the way to purchase different upgrades to your car. There is a ton to do, but it all seems either repetitive or just gets boring pretty fast. Starting with the small camp locations. It's cool that each of them and there are quite a few is looking different. But in each you do the same damn thing. You drive up, a bunch of people come out screaming - you fight them off and collect some loot, move on. In every each one of it. The bigger camps - this looked so promising. Each one has a scout sitting somewhere near giving tips like 'there is a secret way on the right'. And you think - cool I can approach this in different way. Wrong. There is no stealth in this game. If you manage to pass external defences and somehow get in unnoticed you enter same area as you would enter gun blazing. Even worse when the enemies come out as they would normally the external defences start firing inside which is quite frustrating. So the only way to approach bigger camps is to: - drive around destroying external towers - snipe what you can - enter gun blazing - kill a number of waves of enemies - complete objective (i.e. destroy fuel barrels etc) - go to next camp And bosses are so easy it's just boring fighting them. The strongest part of the game is car combat. And that indeed is fun. Taking out enemy convoy is challenging and fun. You can harpoon a door out and pull the driver. You can pull out tires. You can ram the other car or throw an exploding spear at them. Although final car driving bosses do feel a bit easy in my opinion. In summary - this is a quite bland game that misses the potential it could have achieved. The story is not compelling to play - at one point of the game I just decided to rush through it to have it completed. Not really interested in getting all upgrades or defeating all camps. Fun for an hour or four but outstays it's welcome.