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Salt & Sanctuary is very different than any 2D platformer I have played previously - holding unique and familiar traits as well as rewarding and just down right frustrating elements. This indie title throws combat challenges as well as platforming puzzles at you from all angles. It's constantly changing - the player must be ready at all times, even for things you may not see. Jumping, rolling, blocking and parrying with some hidden surprises; these gameplay elements are fundamental but I could understand how some players may have a hard time catching on as there are many things to be aware of when you are traversing the areas. An example being equip load, it will affect your rolling speed and certain weapons scale way better with certain skill attributes - you really must shape your build carefully if you want to have fun early game and become more powerful for the sometimes ridiculous middle to late stages of this title. This is significantly rewarding for someone like me. Paying attention to every little detail is great when games make it worth while and this is definitely no exception. The story of S&S is where it would be at its worst but that isn't to say bad. I just don't think the character writing and item descriptions always deliver intriguing lore and depth one would hope. It seems as if the characters and lore are trying too hard to establish a connection to SoulsBorne rather than really being inspired to be completely on its own with subtle homages to the series. It doesn't really take from the game but it is something to note. I also need to point out that after you finish the final boss and select the ending you are locked into NG+. Narrative tropes and a forceful NG+ hardly bring this game down when the island is so wonderfully crafted, filled with awesome loot and well hidden secrets. The best parts are when you are trying to figure out how to reach out of reach areas and items, not necessarily lore diving. I managed to have a relatively smooth experience without getting stuck too much, that took me around 30 hours. A mass of content is to be found for a game that is $19.99 retail and constantly goes on sale. If you are a fan of dungeon crawling RPGs, do yourself the favour of trying Salt & Sanctuary.

I made a mistake by playing the first chapter way back when it first released because you have to remember all the details, at least it helps. As of now I have gone through all 5 episodes 3 or 4 times each so it does really pay off to remember the small details. You are Sheriff Bigby Wolf, in our world, New York. The fables try to keep regular citizens(Mundies) out by using glamours to appear normal. When a few heads start to roll in Fabletown it's up to Bigby to solve this dangerous mystery that will keep twisting. As for the gameplay, the mechanics are typical for Tellatale. They are QTE prompts but you are the choreographer of the fight scenes which is why I love The Wolf Among Us, as well as its well designed consequence system. If you have read Fables by DC Vertigo you would understand more but you still have a great story either way.

Thief along with Metal Gear shaped the stealth genre and to this day still nothing can rival this first person stealth game... You are placed in huge mission areas and its up to you to use your wits and problem solving skills to over come each and every obstacle Garrett(MasterThief) faces. Thief Gold has an incredible amount of depth partly because the man who is behind Bioshock had a big influence on this game. On a side note the visuals in this game can be somewhat bland but in my opinion that is no reason to bring the score down since there are so many amazing modders that keep this game running with the big boys even today. R.I.P Looking Glass Studios

So, I finished Thief: The Metal Age and I must say everything that lacked in Thief Gold was built upon in the sequel. I spent many, many hours looking for hidden loot and secrets while trying to kill nobody. This game highly rewards the non-confrontational type of players and stealthy manuevers gives an immense amount of satisfaction for doing so. There are many new toys for Garrett to play with in these huge mission areas and also some of the encounters are hilarious. The story was amazing; I will not dive in but it has great morals and a few familiar faces will be present. Once again the sound is spot on whether Garret is going down a steep hill or a long climb everything syncs pretty greatly, not to mention the music is very fitting and adds to the overall atmosphere. On a side note the visuals in this game can be somewhat bland but in my opinion that is no reason to bring the score down since there are so many amazing modders that keep this game running on par with some games today!!!

After completing Death to Spies I am very pleasantly surprised with the game mechanics and shockingly smart enemy A.I. Enemies will respond accordingly to mostly all of your actions on the field but I recommend stealthing this game fully as the A.I. can become brainless when you are caught. They run around aimlessly and constantly chuck grenades at you. The game is definitely meant to be played silently and it is way more rewarding this way. Death to Spies has you tackling **** prison camps, bases and even tasks you with destroying an entire bridge to cut of enemy reinforcements to the front lines as well as a few other locations I will leave to you to find out for yourself. Do not expect anything exciting from the story and dialogue as that does not seem to be a huge focus in Death to Spies. Character voice acting and lip to voice synchronization is a mess but I did not let that take away from the stories I created within each individual mission. To say the least, Death to Spies is truly underrated and was lost in the shadows of Hitman. It is a must play for hardcore stealth lovers!

I thought Hitman: Codename 47 was a great entry point for the series defining what it is that Agent 47 does and how he came to be. Just like any game from 2000 there will be many flaws in A.I. and level designing. Most of the levels were small and only had one or two ways of completion but that is fine because with a saving system like this one it really would have been a nightmare to beat this game. If you are caught, killed and hit space to continue from a checkpoint the guards will still be on alert EVEN if you are loaded back in an area you are sure you were safe in; they WILL find you. That is one of my very few gripes with this game as it still delivers satisfying gameplay with a variety of fun hits. The story, in my opinion is the game's strength but it only picks up in the end quarter of the game and for me, it did not disappoint. Learning how 47 was created and by who was pretty awesome and I enjoyed watching it unfold. Most gamers overlook this rewarding game but I highly recommend they try it out if they are a big Hitman fan!

10 years ago Rockstar released Bully, a game about an adolescence boy named James(Jimmy) Hopkins. This game is the most unusual game Rockstar has ever developed in the most hilariously amazing ways! The game consists of five chapters where you try to gain influence in each of the town's groupies in order for you to gain control of the school. This makes for some HYSTERICAL missions that exaggerate highschool stereotypes. You will do odd jobs for greasers, preps, nerds, jocks and townies. The game world consists of three islands and school campus. While the map is not the most lively open world game we have seen in gaming it offers a lot of fun cruising on a mo-ped or your stylish BMX bike. My favourite part of Bully is definitely the combat and the silly writing. You learn new combos from a hobo near your school by bringing him what he asks. The combat is very similar to that of The Warriors, only smaller in scale and less brutal(you will not be killing anyone). I could go on for such a long time with reasons why I love Bully's charm but I will just implore that you play it for yourself.

"The case was a rising nausea that tasted like rust in my mouth." Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne brings our favourite bloodied and worn NYPD cop back in great fashion with better visuals, new takes on storytelling and the same old stellar voice acting all around. Pretty much everyone is back from the original Max Payne and we get to see the aftermath of bringing Aesir Corp. down along with Horne, it has been two years according to the wiki. This time around there are 2 main protagonists that you control which offers some interesting segments of teamwork from the two characters to get through seemingly grave situations. The gameplay is pretty much the same with a few tweaks and upgrades making for an even smoother experience this time around. When Max dives you can now continue to stay laying down until you let the trigger go which is definitely a welcome addition. There are definitely more painkillers to be found in Max Payne 2 as well which is fine because it is definitely a challenge at some points. All around this is a proper sequel to a cult classic expanding on the world of Max Payne and you should definitely play through the whole trilogy. As a note, the game will take some tweaking to get working as you would like and there are some cool mods like the Max Payne 3 mod which I may try in my next playthrough. "But I refused to give in. I had to continue."

Max Payne, to me is a timeless classic. A bold tale of a bold cop in a do or die situation. Max Payne takes place in none other than New York's Hell's Kitchen where a cime syndicate has invaded your home and killed both your wife and young daughter leaving Max on a very bloody and dangerous game of intel collecting, he needs to figure out why his family was murdered in cold blood. This game will take Max on a very painful journey to the truth through hotels, restaurants, snowstorms and building tops.. The gameplay style is one of lots of dodging and shooting, while it may get repetitive I did not have any complaints as the game is not terribly long. In the levels there are many hilarious things to see and hear such as TV shows, conversations or even comic strips. Some PCs will have trouble with this old gem but everything is fixable so please do not give up and just look for a solution, there are many! "The pain has only just begun."

Newly found appreciation for Dark Souls II has been acquired with this re-work called 'Scholar of the First Sin'. Approximately two years having not played Dark Souls II and after I had moved on to Bloodborne and Dark Souls III - finally, I decided to go back to see how it has changed and hopefully improved. I have come to realise the new placement of items and enemies works way better than how it originally did. For example, I really loved the new placements for the Suspicious Shadow enemies. They were only featured in New Game+(almost certain) and that, in my opinion, was a waste. They are really fun to fight and obtaining their gear was pretty satisfying. Also, the addition of the Forlorn Dark Spirit is a good one - he has an interesting background albeit not much is known. I've been invaded five times and received his gear and scythe. I think he is fun to fight but Drangleic Castle is by far his toughest encounter; try to move to a more open room. As for The Pursuer haters, are they not meant to pursue you? It is silly to think they only have a small handful. They aren't that tough, anyway. The new NPC antagonist is really cool, won't spoil too much but it raises just as many questions as it gives answers. Well, maybe not even so. PvP is still pretty great besides the ridiculous lag backstabs but I don't get that so often. I am pretty surprised that I still get summoned a lot - getting the Sun Sword was easy! The DLC still remains to be the best part of this package but I'll admit that I really started enjoying this game after the halfway point - just before Drangleic Castle and onwards. I will keep my gripes with this game such gripes being the 'Agility' attribute - I need to phase through every attack nonsense. Not smart design. Also, 'Soul Memory' still continues to just be horrible. All in all, this is a great game and I think all Souls fans should get this and doubly so if you've still yet to play Dark Souls II in general. I bought this as a $12 upgrade from the original a while back - I don't think that's so bad. $50 is fair for full price if you've yet to play, in my opinion. However, it has been significantly discounted many times throughout the past year and a half. I would just wait a few months.

Dishonored - easily one of the best first person stealth games due to its level design, art style, character and dark atmosphere. With the steampunk setting we see pretty neat technology and a heavy industrial theme tied to poaching whales which also has a hand in how you tune your powers. The architecture and character model design has very unique hand painted attributes and compliments the game quite well. This game seems to be heavily inspired by Thief from the early 2000s and in many ways has done an excellent job in keeping its spirit alive. You play as Corvo Attano, the royal bodyguard to Empress Jessamine. You return in time to be able to at least put a stake in the spokes of the plan to over throw the Empress but ultimately fail and the fate of Dunwall is on your shoulders as you restore the government from its Dictator, Hiram Burrows. From there you will carve a path to revenge or redemption, it is the players choice. The levels you traverse are decently sized, open ended and filled pretty nicely with hidden loot and runes/ bone charms to upgrade with. You can also ignore all of your powers for a flesh and steel run if that's what you prefer. Seriously, Dishonored is an amazing game that lets you really get creative with all the weapons and powers you have at your disposal. My only gripe is that they didn't get Mr. Russell to voice Corvo originally.