kingzardoz

I'm a big fan of the break from traditional assassin's creed games. I had a great time with Origins but I recognize it's not an amazing action rpg, it's just some good dumb fun. Odyssey takes the Origins formula and just adds tons of content for the sake of adding content. Odyssey has more naval battles, more mercenaries, more forts, more rpg dialogue trees, more bandit camps, more cities, and more fighting. All of these things get rather boring very quickly because it's a quanity over quality design which leaves everything feeling unfinished or hollow. The new gear and leveling system doesn't feel as rewarding as Origins. The combat is slightly more complex but the animations are choppy and only a few of the abilities really offer any meaningful damage. I played both games on Nightmare and Odyssey feels very grindy, I can never get ahead with gear, every encounter or fight is a grind. I'm 20hrs into this game and I just don't see myself finishing because the basic gameplay gets old fast and the grind for xp is just so obvious. I would love to see how my impression of the game changed if I had XP boosters but I'm not going to encourage ubi's disgusting microtractions. I think this game could have been better if the devs were just allowed to make a good game instead of making a game that encouraged people buy addictional content from the shop. The dialogue, characters, combat and stealth are ok, but something just feels off and I fairly confident the xp grind is the problem.

Multiplayer review updated: Can't vote on maps still. The developers have been pushing out updates to fix many issues one of those being the gun balance. I still think they have a long way to go but things are getting better. The Skill Based Matchmaking has divided the community quite a bit but I don't mind it at all. I prefer always playing against sweaty players but I would like to see them fix the weapon balance more so 50% of the sweats stop running overkill + shotguns. The M4 is still a laser and can still out snipe all but the best snipers. If they buffed Focus perk that would change, right now the focus perk is almost usless because it only offers flinch resistance and not 100% flinch nullification. With guns like the Kar98 and MK2 you live and die by the first shot, at medium and long distances an M4 will smack you with enough bullets to cause a flinch significant enough to throw off your first shot, if your shot hits anywhere besides the upper chest or head then you are 95% of the time a dead person. Focus definitely needs a buff to make the single shot rifles more viable. Footsteps sounds are improving. 50% of the weapon attachments are still useless when all that matters are high ADS speed and controling horizontal recoil (Recoil Stablization). Camping strategies are still annoying and rewarding as hell because of claymores and shotguns. They need to move the Overkill perk to another perk class or take shotguns out of the game. After putting in a lot of hours into the semiautos and bolt actions (FAL, Kar98, MK2, EBR) the hit reg issues have become more obvious. At least 2-3x a night I will fire the Kar98 or MK2 into the chest of a stationary enemy and I will get no hit registration, the same thing will happen for headshots at least once a night. The hit reg issues are less obvious with full auto weapons but I've had nights where half of a mag will not register. Singleplayer review: I finally got around to playing the singleplayer or playing as much of it as I could. At one level/mission I ran into a critical error that keeps happening, after reading about the issue it seems that the only solution is to resinstall the game but since I'm on DSL and the game is 120+gb I won't be doing that anytime soon. What I have played of the singleplayer ranged from typical and boring call of duty missions to interesting reality simulations. The intro to piccadilly square and clearing some house with night vision were insanely immersive and much more unique than the typical COD gameplay of having a bunch of bots run at you. Regarding the propaganda that many of these reviewers are unhappy with, I don't know what to say other than Call of Duty has most likely been a recruiting tool for the DOD since the original modern warfare so you're going to get tons of DOD bull****.

I've seen a thread where people complain that the game is too difficult, I thought the game was way too easy. All those issues could be solved with a difficulty setting. It's very strange they decided to omit that feature considering Remedy are veterans in game development. Maybe they were over budget. The gameplay starts very strong but never evolves past using your telekinetic ability (launch) to attack everybody. They created a variety of enemies with different abilities and all of them can be easily dispatched with launch. Of the five guns, one is completely useless and another is useful in rare situations. If you only have five guns in the whole game it would be nice if all of them could be useful and fun. The level design is very well done with metroid type discovery and plenty of hidden secrets. Visually the game is stunning and the animations look very fluid and natural. I can only recommend this game if purchased on sale.

Updating my review again, raised the score from a 3 to a 7. They have mostly dealt with the cheating issue. I only see one cheater once every 5 days. Overall the game is much more balanced now but there are still many frustrating issues with the game. The servers are very inconsistent from night to night. One night my squad will have constant lag/stutter/hitreg issues and other nights it will be tolerable. No other recent games I've played (Overwatch, Siege) have this issue. Footsteps sounds will still occasionally cut out making you wonder how the hell a whole squad suddenly appeared next to you. The hitbox for pathfinder and wattson are still bad, better than before but still bad. This game could be a 9.5/10 if the servers were better. It will be sad to see this game die once COD Modern Warfare comes out.

If you've played Deus Ex and Bioshock/system shock 2 then you don't really need to play this game. Prey copies parts from those games and doesn't bother to put a new spin on anything. The first half of the game is ok but eventually you run out of new enemies and weapons and it just gets boring. The side quests have mostly interesting stories but there is a lot of backtracking and eventually I just got tired of it all. I played the game on nightmare and overall it was easy until the heavy robots show up at the end and then I had to emp and hack everything at which point the game became tedious 100% of the time. The devs ran out of interesting and new combat scenarios and eventually you're just running around with no interesting gameplay while you move the story forward. The story is interesting though and it certainly does provide a fun twist on a bioshock like story but without interesting combat you're just running around pushing buttons and looking at loading screens. If you are going to play this game I would suggest playing it on Normal or Hard difficulty because Nightmare will just add to the tedium for the last 30-40% of the game.

Graphics and graphical options are 10/10, performance on nvidia 970 gtx is 10/10, sound is 10/10, netcode is 8/10 Now to the bad stuff Game Modes: Every game mode except conquest and operations is 12v12... You have this great engine that is very well optimized with the capability of 32v32 but you're not using it? This brings me to my next point Custom Servers: Where are they? Why can't people host servers with custom features Stat tracking: Compared to BF3, stat tracking doesn't exist in BF1 Gunplay: I have no idea what they were thinking with these guns, a perfect FPS shooter will strive to make every gun relevant for specific purposes, no gun should be good at everything and no gun should be absolute garbage with no reason for existing. In BF1 each class has 1 or 2 guns that are superior in 80% of all situations, the remaining guns are useless or frustrating. It's like they had 4 teams working on the weapons, each team not knowing what the other was doing until launch day, just horrible. I didn't play BF4 or Hardline so I don't know how far DICE has fallen since BFBC2 and BF3 but they are currently setting new lows in FPS gun mechanics. Team balancing: Where is it? Maybe its because it's release weekend, their ranking algos don't have enough data yet but I highly doubt it. Why are level 5's playing with level 40's? And no these are not God Tier level 5's, they are how do I use my medkit level 5's. RE-skin of Battlefront: If you love Battlefront you don't need to play this game, unless you really like WWII games that are skinned to look like WWI games. That pretty much covers it. There are some bugs but not nearly as many as Beta so I think they did a good job of cleaning up the game. Overall I hope they keep adding a lot of features to the game so I don't get bored and uninstall. I'm very happy I didn't purchase the game + DLC because these guns are going to get boring fast.

I am not a fan of the Witcher series, I tried to play the the first game along time ago and I thought it was old and boring and the 2nd one kept crashing all the time.. The only reason I even bothered to play the 3rd one was because I played the first 2 hrs on my friends Xbox. Even if you don't really play RPGs or know much about the Witcher series you should consider buying this game. The story and presentation are 10/10. Their use of every cinematic tool in the story tellers arsenal is excellent. I don't really care for stories in video games as gameplay is the most important feature **** for me, but the Witcher 3 story is told so well that the gameplay could get 5/10 and it would still be worth playing. Fortunately the gameplay is 8/10, well enough executed to not get in the way but overall nothing groundbreaking with many missed opportunities. The combat can be a bit repetitive as the attack patterns of all the enemies lack diversity. Even on the hardest difficulty the game becomes easy as the XP curve is poorly balanced along with the potions, spells (signs), and leveling system. There is already one mod that tries to balance the game better but I haven't had the time to try it out yet. If you're looking for a hardcore experience you should anticipate having to download mods because the vanilla game won't give it to you. Any weaknesses in the gameplay are made up for with all the other strengths of the game. The visuals are stunning and diverse. One second you might be galloping through a grassy open field and the next you will be trudging through a gassy swamp as thunder clatters overhead. Every enemy class you encounter looks different and unique. The overall world design is rather remarkable making it possibly the best designed video game world to date. With regards to performance, the 1.07 patch is running flawlessly on ULTRA @ 40-50 fps GTX 970. CDPR is obviously very committed to the PC release and I expect the game in 1-2 years will have many new features and tons of new content that will likely be free.

A great game that I would rate 8.5/10 if metacritic would allow me. The level design is superior to Dark Souls 2 in every way, instead of exploring isolated zones, the zones are woven together to create a rich experience so the world feels very dense and real. The graphics are excellent with a decent variety in visual themes for each area. If I had to pick one graphical issue that bothers me it would be that in many prerelease gameplay videos I watched, the blood spray effect would continue long after the enemy was slain and would only stop when the player stop slashing. I wish they kept that feature but it's possible the hardware or engine limitations prevented them from keeping it. The thing that kept me most interested in the game was the world and atmosphere, I just wanted to see what was next. Some of the visual images are really memorable even if it's something as simple as two barn doors rattling in the wind. The combat is fun but I don't think it offers the depth or innovation of demon/dark souls. You basically have 3-4 stats to level up and 3-5 interesting weapons worth using. The runes and blood gems don't really add much variety to your build. I think anybody expecting the heavy RPG elements of the last game will be upset. Fortunately many enemies have a huge variation in attacks and combos and they sometimes evolve when your insight level gets higher (not sure if it's insight level or just your overall level). Every time I think I've seen it all I get surprised by a new attack, timing, or combo. Overall I really enjoyed the game but miss the depth of the Souls games. I think the game lost some of the originality of the Souls genre when they tried to integrate hack&slash gameplay instead of creating a unique and new genre defining fusion. With regards to graphics, level design, and atmosphere, Bloodborne gets a 10/10, I loved walking around this world. Combat and gameplay get an 8/10, good enough to enjoy the game but not very memorable.

Not a terrible game but there are clearly many areas that needed to be polished as well as some overall concepts that were never properly executed. The gauntlet (projectile weapon) is goofy and although it can sometimes be useful just feels tacked on and poorly utilized. If an enemy is blocking and it visually looks like your weapon will strike around the shield or you could sneak an attack in, the attack will simply register as being blocked. All the polish of Demon Souls/Dark Souls combat is not present because its just too much work to deal with all those hitboxes and animations. The hitboxes for you are also inconsistent, on occasion you can roll through attacks that obviously look like they should hit you yet on other enemies you can't get away with the same tactic which creates some frustrating encounters because the game is not establishing a clear set of rules. Visually the game is acceptable although I don't think it lives up to the marketing. The visual style isn't unique enough to elevate the game past looking like a really nice Unreal Engine tech demo. I haven't used any of the magic except the first level spell because I've read other reviews that have said the magic ranges from really op to underwhelming so I didn't even want to bother with it. I would recommend this game if you could buy if for $10-15, it's not the type of game that pulls you in and makes you keep coming back so if you're a busy person or you have many A+ games your interested in then this might not be worth your money.

Only reason I'm writing this review is because Bloodborne is coming out and I was thinking about how bad Dark Souls 2 was, hoping that Bloodborne is better. I preordered this game on steam and didn't have all the PC problems people were talking about but still never finished the game because I got so bored. I played Demon Souls and Dark Souls and it becomes very obvious after an hour in this game that it was made by the B-team. The world and enemies are so boring, I can't think of one interesting or memorable location or enemy. A good game director will have an idea or be inspired to make something, From's B-team were just on auto-pilot, recycling content and pumping out a product with zero soul. The Demon and Dark Souls environments and enemies would tell an unspoken story, you would get a sense of history and purpose from the world and its inhabitants, Dark Souls II lacks any of that depth. Hopefully Bloodborne brings the Miyazaki brand back up to the standards everybody expects.

If you never played FC3 but you always wanted to see what the developers have been trying to do since FC2, then FC4 is the game for you. It's very similar to FC3 but improved and balanced to near perfection. The story is not as good but the gameplay, world immersion, overall freedom balance out any weakness in the story. I'm generally not a completion-ist type gamer but I certainly did more side missions and random exploration in this game than most other open world games I've played. You can just move around so easily while still feeling limited and not god like and the whole time there is an opportunity to witness funny stuff like a pack of rhinos slamming enemy vehicles into trees. The combat is fluid and you can easily access your weapons in combat. It gives you the opportunity to be an artist in crafting the massacre of your enemies. There are many weaknesses to the game but all of them can be overlooked if you just want to hang out in the mountains and blow stuff up. Sure the developers could do better but when this much money is on the line, innovation and taking risks are not a top priority. Take it for what it is, FC4 is worth playing if you're looking for a open world fps experience.

This game has the feel of something just being slapped together to get a PS4 exclusive out on the market. The graphics are generally fantastic and the locations are often very cool but the gameplay, controls and story are consistently weak. The controls do not allow for quick access to anything in combat so the game lacks any fluidity or opportunity to improvise. If the combat in Far Cry 4 is rated anywhere from 8-9, Killzone Shadow Fall is a 5-6. The AI is unremarkable and you can often see it just standing frozen in combat until you change your position. The pacing of the game is awkward and you sometimes wonder what the hell should be happening or why you're not shooting enemies. For $50 this game is just bad, for $15 bucks this game might be acceptable if you're really bored. Overall this game feels like a tech demo to show off some cool graphics.

If you're looking for a action fighting game like bayonetta or god of war 1 where you can just combo baddies and get in the flow this is not the game. LoS 2 is just way too fragmented by cut scenes, exploration, and stealth to be comparable to any great hack and slash game. All the comments about how they fixed the fighting are true and false, they did fix the responsiveness of the controls but they failed to implement those new controls and moves in satisfying gameplay. For the first four hours of the game you're lucky if you fight more than 3 baddies every hour. There are tons of moves to unlock yet they are either unnecessary or impractical unless you're playing on the hardest difficulty. The exploration aspect (backtracking) in the game is more tedious than other metroidvania style games but don't ask me why, it could be all the loading or the poor world map and navigation. If you loved the first LoS you might love this game, they are basically the same overall with strengths and weaknesses swapped around. This company is obviously incapable of making an A+ title and most likely will consistently produce 7/10 products like raven software. I could go on for pages about how this game is painful average and how I expected so much more based on some reviews but I'm going to save some time and just say if you loved the first LoS and have no concern for old castlevania games then you should play this. Just because this game is the standard of mediocrity does not mean its a bad game, it's just one of those things that comes down to how in love with the world and characters you are instead of how well structured the gameplay is...

Solid shooter with a lot of potential but it's less an arena shooter and more a cross between gears of war and tf2. The dodging and ads aiming make it seem like a very fast gears of war game which I really dig. Decent graphics and animations. Viable gun choices are kinda weak and possibly the worst part of the gameplay. They tried to make it so there are tons of options but really there are only a few decent gun configurations which results in having less viable guns than UT. I love me a good arena shooter and I will certainly keep playing this for maybe a month but they are going to need a lot more content and gun choices to keep me interested. People that say this are pay to win are most likely just bad at the game. I've played about 30 matches and so far I've seen no evidence of pay to win. I do quite well with the stock assault rifle and a modified 3 round rocket launcher which can be purchased after 2-3 matches.

I don't get this game. The graphics are terrible and it gives me a headache. Performance is terrible it can go from 90fps to 30fps from one room to the next. I got this game on sale thinking it would be mindless fun but its just poorly developed trash. GJ DEVS

I had to submit a new review because my first impression of the game was very wrong and I shouldn't have written a review so quickly. This game is actually very deep to the point of every item in the game having a strategic purpose. I originally thought it was very random and while it is very random there are routine strategies you can follow that can help turn the randomness in your favor.

This game has an insane learning curve. If it's your first time playing an action RTS style game then it will take you ~200 games just to be decent and that's if you watch pro games and actively work on improving your play. Of course you can approach the game casually as well but you will be missing out the insane depth and complexity of the game. This game really shines when two evenly matched teams battle it out for 40-60 minutes where everybody gives it their all and works together as a team. Those matches are rare though and they have nearly become extinct with Valve's changes to matchmaking. The reason I gave this game a 7/10 instead of a 10/10 isn't because of the gameplay itself, it's because of Valve's current direction they are taking the game. The mute system and recent matchmaking issues have negatively impacted my dota experience to the where I no longer play the game. After 3 months of bumbling around Valve finally improved the mute system but now the matchmaking problems have taken center-stage. Maybe once they iron out all the wrinkles I will return to this great action rts.

The combat was boring. The story failed to create any emotional connection to anything. I would compare it to Inception which was just a mental circle jerk that failed to create any characters or relationships that were interesting. The graphics are decent but not as good as Tomb Raider. Overall I didn't expect much from this game since whenever the media goes crazy and starts throwing out 10/10's its usually a warning sign, but I expected one fragment of goodness from the first Bioshock. Nothing. This game is nothing like the first Bioshock. In Bioshock 1 you get a concrete sense of the world and atmosphere and you enjoy the exploration. Each location had a personality and a character to explore but Infinite is just a mess of boring locations and irrelevant characters. You just kinda wander and fight with no purpose until you reach the ending and get a vague sense of what it was all about only to realize you don't care about anything in the world of Colombia. If the gameplay was amazing I would give this game a 9/10 but it was all just very average, none of the guns felt cool and of the 7-8 vigors only one of them was entertaining. Everything Infinite tries to do, Bioshock 1 does better.

I didn't think I would get this game but my friend convinced me it was awesome. He was right, this game is fantastic. Crystal Dynamics really poured blood and sweat into this game. The PC port is very well done almost to the point of reminding you of The Golden Age of PC gaming. The graphics on High and Ultra settings vary from solid to mind blowing (Geothermal Caves looked amazing). The sound design is exceptional. There is so much detail in this game that you really get immersed in the world. The pacing of the game is tight and the combat is good. If you buy this expecting the old school arcade style Tomb Raider combat you will be let down. The combat requires using cover and moving tactically but also offers melee takedown options. The world design and leveling/upgrade system is like Batman Arkham Asylum. Old fans of Tomb Raider might be let down by this but if you like a quality game you might get over it because this game has it all. There are a few reasons I didn't give Tomb Raider a 10/10. The game on Hard is just a bit too easy and there is not NG+ or any mode to make the game more difficult. One time the AI bugged and just sat there while I killed three guys. Even though the audio and graphics are a 10/10 the combat is really only and 8 or 9, it's good but not perfect to the point where it's the primary reason you're playing the game. Another problem I had with the game is Lara's voice acting and the lines they gave her, it's just the same tone over and over even though the character evolves throughout the story. Despite these problems this game is still a great achievement and I hope Square Enix allows Crystal Dynamics to produce an even better sequel because they obviously have the talent to produce a nearly perfect game.

I hate giving a game like this such a low score because you can tell a lot of passion and effort went into making it. I played the old natural selection mod for 1 day but it was still unfinished at the time and I didn't really understand it so my review is not from the perspective of everything in NS2 should be like NS1. Starting with performance, this game is about as bad as they come with optimization. If you're buying this game make sure you have an i5-7 processor or AMD equivalent because from what I've read this game takes all the processing power you can throw at it. My video card is decent enough and plays many games at max settings 1080Hd res but if I go anywhere near mid-max settings on this game the video starts to stutter. According to the forums the problem is caused by my weak processor (8400 wolfdale) and not by my video card so I run the game at very low settings to make it playable. In my non-expert opinion the small dev team should have just licensed some game engine and used that instead of trying to invent their own. Now to the gameplay, this game is treated like a casual fps multiplayer where players can drop in and out **** and switch teams but this style of matchmaking does not work with the gameplay which is far from casual. I would say 80% of your victory/loss relies on the commander which is a lot of pressure to put on one position that can be taken by simply walking up to the hive and pressing E. I held off on writing this review until I played in some more "advanced" servers but I noticed they behaved in a similar fashion to the "rookie" servers. Lack of commanders and bad commanders doing nothing (no upgrades, no communication). Without upgrades or communication from the comm the game is over yet you have to sit through the whole round unless everybody drops out to the lobby. Why not require a comm to be picked before the round starts and maybe add an ability to vote for comms if multiple people want to command. The current system is just absurd. If your team gets behind because there is no commander or there is a total idiot with no communication skills commanding the round is over. I have yet to see a team recover from such a setback. I have no problem with unforgiving team games (I play a lot of dota2) but at least structure the matchmaking properly with rating systems or voting systems or something. When you break it all down I don't even think voting or ratings would help the game because it is structurally flawed by putting too much responsibility on one position. In the 20 NS2 games I've played, about 1 or 2 were evenly matched. Im not giving up on the game because I think it could offer some unique teamplay aspects but to stay sane I might have to start learning to be a commander when nobody else steps up to the task.

I haven't played WoR or Mount & Blade so I have no prior experience with medieval melee combat games. I bought this game because it looked hilarious and it was on sale for 13 bucks. Even at 13 bucks its not really worth it but I still enjoy the game for what it is. It's just a casual game where you can split skulls for 30 minutes. If I were reviewing this game at the $30 dollar retail price I would say its not worth it. The graphics are dated, the performance optimization is questionable and I couldn't see myself playing this for more than an hour every couple of days because the game lacks depth. Also, the music is disgusting. Even with all its problems Chivalry is still fun and worth trying out if you can get it at a discount. The game modes are fun and sometimes if you get on a roll you can take out a large portion of the enemy team without dying. It's a decent game but I feel there is still a lot more work to be done. I hope this game sells well because it might mean more developers attempt to improve this style of multiplayer combat.

I usually buy games on sale but after I listened to the whole soundtrack for hotline miami I purchased it for full price. If you don't dig the vibe after watching the trailer then I would say save your money. The game starts out fairly challenging but once you figure out the little details to the gameplay then it becomes moderately easy. The game is about tactically clearing rooms and doing it over and over again till you get it right. Sometimes you will wait and take things step by step, other times you will know exactly what to do and go in swinging/shooting. Again, if you watch the trailer and don't like the graphics or hate the music don't get the game. Also if you don't like challenging games then don't get this game.

Awesomenauts looks great and the controls feel good but after unlocking a few new characters I quickly became bored with the game. Some heroes are obviously more effective than others and if you want to win you quickly realize what hero your team needs and how it should be played. Players can hop in and out of the 3v3 matches as they please which reduces the competitiveness and the motivation for teammates to talk. You can pretty much experience everything this game has to offer in 1 hr of play which makes it a hard buy at any price.

Im not going to write much because every other low rating review has covered all the horrible stuff. People just need to know this game is boring. I'm in the middle of chapter 2 and I don't think I can go on. The story is not good enough to endure horrible combat. They use the same player models over and over. The side quests just require you to engage in more terrible combat. I thought if I gave the game more time it would grow on me but the combat only gets more boring as you go.

This game is terrible. I give it a 2 instead of 0 because it is a complete game without any bugs and it has a professional apperance. Everything else about this game is boring as hell: the shooting, the enemies, the rooms, the objectives. I have played at least 10 indie games on steam, this one was pretty terrible considering the cost. If you have any reservations about buy this game just pass on it cuz the odds are pretty high that you will be let down.

How can a game live up to deus ex in the console era of gaming? It can't. They try to satisfy both PC gaming and console markets and fail. It really doesn't matter if you blow everybody away or use stealth I spent 5 hours playing one city using stealth and then went back and played the same part rambo style except this time it only took me about 2 hours. There seems to be no significant consequence for your chosen play style. It's a decent game when compared to all the other garbage out there but as a deus ex game it just can't compare. The gaming industry needs some kinda revolution because the high cost to produce games today stifles creativity.... or maybe I should just stop playing games.

According to these user reviews FEAR seems to be a love or hate experience. People junk this game for repetitive levels, bad graphics, and lack of enemy diversity. I just don't see any of that except maybe the bad level complaint is valid. Although who cares about how the levels look when the gameplay is so solid. I just played this game again in 2011 and it's still an awesome game. My one complaint with this game is even on the hardest difficulty it is still a bit too easy. The reason people love or hate this game is because its focus is the same gameplay over and over in different variations so if you don't like the shooting mechanic you will pretty much hate the whole game. Monolith has an epic resume of games

I picked this game up for $10 and knew I was getting a 7.0 experience so I couldn't be happier with this title. The game mixes old school and new school. Health pickups with stat/weapon upgrades. Many weapons are redundant and simply exist because of the cool factor. On Normal difficulty you're way over powered. Ammo and health packs are plentiful. There really are very few hardcore combat scenarios. You mostly fight a couple creatures or soldiers and then continue exploring on the linear path. For people who like secrets and picking up money (E99 and weapon upgrades) you will be somewhat satisfied. Overall they try to cram so many combat items and abilities into this game you never really get to master everything. I found myself just running around with the mini gun and accuracy tech upgrade for 70% of the game. The game is much more new school than old school so if you are looking for classic FPS action then you might be better of passing on this. The story is generic but not terrible and the characters are not horribly annoying. Overall its just a decent way to waste time but I would recommend you pick it up at whatever discount you can find because it had little replay value. (I didn't play the mulitplayer)

So many great ideas in this game but its just so damn buggy. I wish more games included this kind of shooting realism except with more polish. Required prone shooting at 300 yards, single shots required at +50 yards, necessary use of cover, 2 shots and your dead, I love this stuff but its just not polished at all. Why is the mouse so jittery? Why do the enemies sometimes run back and forth in the open? I think if the industry really wants to revitalize the FPS genre some developer should take some ideas from ARMA II and perfect them.

The main focus of this game seems to be atmosphere so if you play games for this reason set the difficult to easy, smoke a bowl and enjoy. If you want great enemy AI, balance rpg elements, and well paced gameplay then this is really not the game for you. I wanted to love Metro because I loved the first STALKER but this game tries to be too many things. I only enjoyed a third of this game. If you buy this game expecting a hardcore gaming experience you will be disappointed.

If you have played Day of the Tentacle, Grim Fadingo, or Full Throttle you will be overcome with feelings of nostalgia when playing Psychonauts. The story, how the characters are presented, and puzzles in the game all share similarities to these other games developed by Tim Schafer. I loved those games so I wanted to love Psychonauts but I just couldn't. There are so many creative environments and interesting level ideas woven into the story but almost every chapter of the game overstays its welcome or leans on one gameplay mechanic too much. Take for example the awesome idea of the Milkman Conspiracy chapter where you have to find and free this mysterious Milkman under the surveillance of these lemming-like CIA characters. By wearing disguises you find in CIA cars you progress through the spooky and silly neighborhood that appears to be warping and folding in on itself. The disguise part is fun but it goes on for the whole chapter with no other gameplay mechanics introduced until you get to the boss battle, which has to be the most boring boss in the game. This chapter is just another example of one cool idea stretched too thin. The disguise thing just gets old quickly and there is nothing else to take its place except the usual collecting things and exploring the level. What this game really seems to be is a 2d game designer who is having trouble adapting to the requirements of 3d platforming. The platforming suffers at the hand of person who only cares about presenting weird ideas, levels, and characters. If you played Brutal Legend you will also recognize the stiff and awkward controls in this game. The challenge of Psychonauts doesn't rest in combating enemies but rather in combating the stiff controls. If I had to sum this game up in one broken sentence it would be, boring and stiff combat with creative level and character design. All negative things aside this game is creative and its impossible to not notice the unique vision the Pyschonauts universe provides. Sometimes the use of items in the game can be fun for example in the Matador level you use paintings you collect like ladders, vines, guitars, doors, and windows to more easily move around the level. The characters are fun and the writing is decent but the tedium that sets at some point in every chapter really kills this game.