lastfox

I'm still playing this game every year, this and Ocarina of Time haven't aged one bit. It just has a timeless gameplay. I don't understand: it's been almost 25 years and we still haven't gotten a good jet ski game that comes even close to this (I'm including the GameCube sequel as well). The atmosphere and the ideas this game has are very simple, pure & efficient. The fact that this game got rushed in production and still ended up being a classic is a sheer marvel. The only downside is that that there aren't a lot of track or game modes. Nintendo kind of abandoned this franchise, since they never came up with any good ideas to improve on the concept. A decision I highly respect and I wish more game developers would be equally judgmental on their own IP's.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Rated M for Manure. The game is easily the worst in the DRIVER franchise, and that's coming from a guy who unapologetically likes DRIV3R. Say what you will about the Driver series, but the driving mechanics always feel intuitive with a good level of weight. This feels like the cars are always drifting and it takes forever for them to gain momentum. The city feels empty and dead. I highly prefer the outdated, older titles who bring a much bigger charm to the table. The story mode is a disgrace and seemed to be an afterthought in terms of gameplay. It's basically the two same missions you play over and over, with increasing difficulty by powering up the enemies that have to be wrecked. Our protagonists dialogue during the chases is dumb, childish and annoying since he keeps repeating the same three lines for hours, I had to mute the game to continue. The story is equally bad with Tanner being portrayed as a psychotic killer who's seemingly possessed by a demon. I have no idea who made that 'edgy' decision but that person should never be allowed to work in the industry again. The whole game feels less like what made the Driver series great: a grounded story with solid gameplay & ideas, but rather resembles a Fast and the Furious cashgrab game. The only Driver game that I have not finished, since playing it felt like a waste of time.

I commend the game for mixing genres and trying something new. Unfortunately they haven't really finetuned the gameplay and forgot to include explanations for several mechanincs. I was 8 hours into the game, repaired most Upgrade stations but still could not upgrade even a pistol because 'raw, material' was missing that I had no idea where to find. Same for all the items you find, they will weigh you down until you move as fast as a turtle, so I tried selling them but 90% of the items I looted were not sold-able, even though they looked valuable to me (especially weapons). The side quests are way too long and stretched out all over the map which gave me the impression of doing fetch-quests rather than an engaging side story I take part in. It is ok to get familiarized with the terrain and the different regions. And here we come to the main problem. Exploring new areas is not as fun as I hoped it to be. 90% of the time I wanted to get to a place, only to find out that it's only possible without a 10min detour to another region (you'll be walking most of the time). I like the idea of activating the trains via sneaking into the enemy's base. But some of them are so heavily guarded it's literally going into a hornet's nest armed with a spoon. Shooting your way in is suicide, which leaves only disguising yourself as a guard. I tried it several times, the guards always spotted me from far. The game never establishes guidelines what works and what doesn't. The isometric perspective I like but for parcour climbing, sneaking, breaking and entering it can be a nightmare. It needed at least better color design to distinguish upper levels from lower ones. Figuring out how to enter a building can be a puzzle of the frustrating kind because everything is so damn small that you can miss a vent or opening. I really wished there was a zoom function or at least a 30 degree angle rotation option. This game would play probably gangbusters on a Nintendo 3Ds where you can take advantage of the stereoscopic depth of field. The story didn't grip me so I left the game after completing roughly 25%. In general did the world building and the apocalyptic factions and religious groups seem indistinguishable from another. I didn't know exactly who I'm doing favors for, nor did I care. It's too bad there is a really good game here that gets bogged down by the mechanics and buggy quests.

Maybe there is a good game hidden in there. But I didn't get too far to find out. I'm in my 40's and although I'm not averse towards games with a steep learning curve, I can not stand games that have simple fetch quests where every mission feels like grinding for upgrades in the hopes the game will get better. I'm also not a big fan of that old shooter 'DECENT', and the game controls gave me a lot of PTSD (and I tried switching control types, flip axis etc...). The story is tired and bland, so I kinda stopped paying attention. Word of advice, playing a protagonist who blows up a planet in the beginning with billions of casualties is not very endearing. Anyway, I still give the game the benefit of the doubt and try to soldier through the first missions. One thing I noticed, was that the 'dog fights' aren't any fun. They're not very difficult but they aren't engaging either. After the second escort mission, I was starting to feel the boredom. I was a few hours into the game and I notice how empty and frozen this world feels, there are no great discoveries except enemies. And somehow I can never save, (the option is always greyed out,) so there are only autosaves for now. Then I get to a new mission about lost cargo, so I go to recover the first batch, knowing full well that the obligatory enemies are waiting nearby. I dispose of them and I get the first bug where I obtain the first cargo but whenever I try to get to the next area, the game is warning me that I'm about to leave the mission area. So I was stuck, the moment I leave the area, the mission is failed and that was pretty much all my patience that I had for this game and de-installed it.

The presentation and art design are the only things that are beyond average. And I still have no clue why all the androids are dressed as gothic lolitas. It doesn't fit with the serious themes which are going deep into Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfic territory. A'other one of those open world games which is a giant elobarate fetch quest. None of the items or weapons give you a game-changing experience. Instead the Rpg elements are too rudimentary implemented, they barely affect the game. And that several side quests are blocked without further notice or option going back, unless with the next character is frustrating. Especially since certain side quest have to be unlocked on route A first. That is my whole experience in a nutshell: tedious and frustrating. Even traveling on the back of an animal feels boring. I went through the whole ordeal and finished the game with all three characters and the first ending was by far the best one. The other two added a twist and meta modernist ramblings, but I honestly didn't care since all the characters are cold and unlikeable. The game never even gives you a choice to save X but give up Y like in the Witcher 3. There's no interactive storytelling with the 26 endings, just forced cinematics to one end that is worse than the other. Also the forced themes and parallels to our society were really tired. This game wants to be super artsy and deep but at the same time throws the most stereotypical anime clichés at the player, every occasion it gets. I want my 10 hours of gameplay back and wished I would have read a good novel instead. Make no mistake this isn't a game that gives you chills, an experience or good vibes, it's just a product to waste your time on meaningless quests that have no effect on the story.

A short adventure game that can be finished in one day. The art style and the environments are pretty nice to look at. It's main focus lies in exploration and small puzzles. Combat is non-existent, and that's probably it's biggest flaw (that and no maps). Although it's nice to explore the forests, it can be tedious to find the remaining light stones if you want to get a special ability. And honestly those perks are not worth it for all the trouble and backtracking. The music is very good too, but in terms of gameplay the game is below average unfortunately. The character you control doesn't have a run, instead you get special boosts by shooting arrows on targets. It takes some time to get comfortable with it, but it's fun, for a while at least. You get fragments of information about the past events/year via brief mementos from dead corpses and the monuments of the area. Basically a war that broke out over religion and believing in different gods. Honestly it was interesting to read those little story tidbits and it was what motivated me to finish the game. Unfortunately the story doesn't really go anywhere interesting, it's very predictable. But it's supposed to be a more a visual and sensual experience like 'Journey'. So yeah, as a short game for people who like exploring nature and solving puzzles, and like visual storytelling, this'll do for one or two days.

A very uneven game. First of all the game doesn't have a good learning curve regarding the tracks. There are tracks later in the game which are much easier than the first ones. The handling of the cars is another issue that never feels quite right. And the weapons seem like an afterthought lacking any game-changing qualities. Even when you blow up an enemy it misses an oomph to it. I've played the career mode for a week before I lost interest, since it seemed to offer not more than five tracks . There wasn't even a two player mode to keep us engaged. I've got to give props that the game looks pretty although the level design is a bit bland, since most tracks look and feel similar (with seemingly the same color palette). Another positive thing I can say is that it made me go back to play F-zero64 again.

Inked is one of those 'artistic' indie games which tend to put their main focus on presentation and the inner journey rather than gameplay. Because as a puzzler this game is honestly nothing special. And sometimes the art style can get in the way of clarity. Honestly this could work much better as a short mobile game. I expect more from an indie title. The story is the only element that is keeping this thing together, unfortunately it didn't kept me engaged enough to finish it. People who like games with a strong artistic vision might be compelled to play this through the end though.

A sidescrolling shooter in the the vain of classic shooters like R-type. But instead of space ships it uses cars and the dystopian world of Mad Max as a backdrop. The game is a fun shooter that kept me engaged for a few days. Although one shouldn't be too averse to grinding, because there is quite a lot of it in order to upgrade and keep up with the new enemies. In fact a bit too much of the grind makes the whole thing unnecessary bloated. For that reason the game is a mixed bag, in my opinion. Sometimes it can be fun to battle against a horde of gangs, but the later stages and enemies are getting more and more annoying in the way you have to dispose of them. Lots of waiting for the right moment and timing your shot all the while you're trying to dodge rockets, lasers and collisions. Especially the bosses will require you to keep eyes on three things at a time. It could be frustrating to some players. I finished the game more out of obligation than enjoyment, if I'm being honest.

A sidescrolling shooter in the the vain of classic shooters like R-type. But instead of space ships it uses cars and the dystopian world of Mad Max as a backdrop. The game is a fun shooter that kept me engaged for a few days. Although one shouldn't be too averse to grinding, because there is quite a lot of it in order to upgrade and keep up with the new enemies. In fact a bit too much of the grind makes the whole thing unnecessary bloated. For that reason the game is a mixed bag, in my opinion. Sometimes it can be fun to battle against a horde of gangs, but the later stages and enemies are getting more and more annoying in the way you have to dispose of them. Lots of waiting for the right moment and timing your shot all the while you're trying to dodge rockets, lasers and collisions. Especially the bosses will require you to keep eyes on three things at a time. It could be frustrating to some players. I finished the game more out of obligation than enjoyment, if I'm being honest.

A nice little retro shooter which has great pixel art and a good synth soundtrack. The dystopian look is undoubtedly inspired by Escape from NY and The Warriors. It is a bit repetitive though in terms of gameplay and level design. Some people won't notice if they go in for all the flashy design, but some will probably feel a certain staleness after a few levles.I was hoping we would get some variety in the vein of a bike chase, manning a tank or a sewer level. But I get that there are restrictions in terms of budget that comes with every indie game. Nonetheless I was surprised that the bosses had that variety I was looking for. The boss fights are pretty good in my opinion, they are intuitive and fair. Only on the last ones you'll need more than good reflexes, you have to die a couple of times in order to memorize their pattern.Overall the game is a very entertaining nostalgia trip although very short. Can recommend it for people who are into this thing, everyone else who expects great gameplay with a high replayability factor might have to reconsider.

It takes some time getting used to. But once you get the hang of it, it is a solid game that can entertain a week or two. It ain't Rocket League but it has a similar intricate knack of detail and some interesting level design to keep things entertaining. It could be a sleeper hit if there was community to do some mods to keep the game evolving like new levels, different weight of balls, more players, more accurate special moves, moving obstacles, weather conditions etc.. Right now it is very rudimentary and unpolished.

The Swindle is one of the better Rogue-like games out **** has a very simple premise and can easily become addictive after a while. There's a lot of replay-ability since the game is short and a lot of tools and gadgets invite the player to alter the strategy of playing. I enjoyed it, although I wish there was the possibility to select five different types of thieves who have different abilities than the **** game is simple in it's design, but very effective. What I find funny is the more I play the game the more I enjoy the first levels where you almost have no skills and you have to acquire the **** only big negative aspect is that there are serious bugs with the controls sometimes which is one of the reasons why I have given up to do a perfect run, since it's basically a gamble.Bugs include: invisible spikes, jumping often doesn't work if you're on sloping ground or on steps, characters uncontrollably sinking when standing on a ledge, character freezes sometimes after hacking a door etc It's little stuff that could be fixed with a patch but can get really annoying the more you become a pro.Another obstacle can be the visual style, although it's beautifully drawn, there are several occasions when the screen is just too busy that you overlook little enemies that can give you an insta-kill. The reason for that is that a lot of stuff is going on, on the screen. Even in the background, and the colors of some enemies are very similar to the BG and they blend in sometimes. I don't know if that was intended to make the game more difficult, but it could be fun if there is an 'easy version' where the visuals are slightly more cut'n dry, for beginners.I recommended it to several friends, but it's a bit hard to get into in the beginning, those who did persisted absolutely loved it in the ****'s one of the few games that I keep coming back every year or two. It has a very neat core concept, and it's a shame that they never made a sequel.

Firegirl is a game where you have mainly two objectives. Extinguish fires to push through to the exit and mostly find 2-3 survivors that are usually trapped in the building. If you miss just one of those survivors, the mission is deemed a failure and you won't see much reward money. While in the beginning you get a heads-up before every mission how many survivors are in the building. It is up to you to find them in the maze of a building, because of the fire, you can not return to previous areas once you pass through a door with a fire icon. But once you rescue a German shepherd it will give you a hint that there is a survivor before you leave an area. The game is very coy with explaining you what certain icons mean, you have to learn on the fly. For example it took me a while to figure out that just because I see an exit, doesn't mean I can't continue searching the building for the rest of the survivors (especially in the forest area that wasn't quite clear). To keep things a little bit more balanced you can upgrade the headquarters, your gear and your income - basic stuff. You encounter three times some form of a boss fight with a giant fire demon. Overall the game suffers from it's small scope, there are only a handful enemies and four different kinds of stages: an appartment building, a moving train, a **** and a forest. And to be honest only the 'appartement building' is any fun the other levels are kind of boring because they lack true variety or interactive challenges. The random level design can also be very punishing with your water reserves, only with your upgrades does the game get exponentially easier, in fact at the last third or when you finish the game and continue grinding it's too easy. No added difficulty and another reason why this game is so short-lived. I also wished there was a way to upgrade the hose with a quicker movement like they did for the fire axe. There also is a tiny problem in the controlling: when you hover down closely to an enemy and you want to immediately hose them, you instead start hovering agzin. A lot of times I got punished for this little bug. I really liked the look of the game which reminded me a lot of the theatrical presentation of Mystical Ninja 2 (N64) or Viewtiful Joe but in a beautiful sprite costume. I only wished the boss was done in that style too, he sticks out a bit with his 3D-design. The soundtrack consists of only a few tracks but they are very catchy and feel like something from the early PSX/N64 era. From the gameplay it reminded me a little bit of Luigi's Mansion but dressed in a rogue lite package. But whereas Luigi's mansion had a creative puzzle component to lure out ghosts first before you can try to catch them. Firegirl misses an additional hook for the gameplay. I wished there were more creative ways to deal with the fires or solve puzzles to find survivors or let's say detect gas leaks that keeps feeding the fire. It is unfortunately a bit one dimensional and although I had a lot of fun in the beginning, the lack of new ideas makes the game lose steam pretty quickly (after 2-3 days was my experience). I truly hope there will be a sequel with more fleshed out ideas & levels because on paper this has the spirit of classic Nintendo games.

As an old OPF veteran, I get that some people want to write a negative review because it's not their old game anymore. But to be honest I think this game is a perfect game for newcomers who want to get into OPF. The control menu, has been streamlined and simplified which is a good thing in my opinion. The mission design is very good, I enjoyed it and they made pretty good use of the environment. It's unfortunately a short campaign in my opinion, thankfully there are still a couple of mods out there which gives the game replay value. I liked the aiming and the little icon which tells you when you hit someone fatally. I replayed the game after six years and it holds up better than ARMA 1 & 2 in terms of movement and HUD. The simplified map layout is a disadvantage though, I liked that you had a compass and more variety with markers in the older game. Overall it's a good tactical shooter for people who are new to this genre.

It's a solid game but with much less variety than the reviews claim. The gameplay was too repetitive for my taste, but it's not a long game so there's that. I think a lot of effort has been done on the presentation but too little on the mechanics and therefore the replayability. The story is a complete ripoff of Hotline Miami, which wasn't great to begin with if we're being honest. But the quirkiness of the characters and the wink wink dialogue started to grate on me pretty fast. The Devolver games feel terribly pretentious in that way, that they try to outsmart the player and use 'shock value' but most of the time I feel disengaged from the story/protagonist by those antics. The game sure looks beautiful, but that’s all there is unfortunately.

Although it's a bit short, it really is a fun game that surprised me quite a bit. On top this games feels quite nostalgic like old SNES games. It's probably the fact that you only need three buttons to play it and the overall simplicity of the game. In the end it's what they do with that simple premise is what counts. And they mix it up quite a bit. From small puzzles to big survival matches to jump'n'run. You can play either pretty aggressive and barge into rooms or you can try to be sneaky and take out enemies. I think this option to shift from one playing style into the other is what made this experience so fun. Like I said, it's a bit short but it's worth the buy. Here are the titles that this game reminded me of ( if you like these games you might give Mr Shifty a shot): True Lies (SNES), Hotline Miami, DieHard1 (PS1), Hyperlight Drifter

A pretty underwhelming walking simulator. I'm not averse to the genre, I quite liked Gone Home. But this game doesn't even come close to being engaging: the story is pretty simple and you'll guess pretty much what's going on halfway through the game. If they would at least go for a shift in tone from time to time (like horror), but the whole affair feels pretty one-note unfortunately The only good things would be the music and the environmental design.

A nice little rogue game, that I would describe as a mix of Spelunky, Rogue Legacy and Zelda. A scavenger at night and a merchant by day, the game is not an an RPG, but more of an action adventure with combined with a mini shop game. You kind of scavenge certain dungeons (within a limited time frame) to get parts = money and in effect upgrade either your armour, weapons, magic or your own shop. The combat seems a bit difficult at first but it's very fair. Every time you enter a dungeon it's maze-like architecture is randomly generated. But there are still rules, which you can uncover by taking hints of other scavengers who didn't make it. There's a ticking clock element in form of a dungeon guardian who is starting to pursue you after you spent too much time in the dungeon. It gives the scavenging a sense of urgency. Honorable mention: nice pixel art and some neat animations. The music is nice too. Unfortunately it's a bit short, the village is way too small and therefore the game lacks a bit of scope. The shop system adds some additional hours, but overall it's a pretty short affair. I would recommend it if it's on sale.

A hidden gem, and I never called a game like that before. It starts off a bit clunky with a boring infiltration mission. But once the ball starts rollin' it's one of the most fun shooters I played in a while. One of the main reasons for this are the enemies. There's not a lot of variety but they are fun to take apart. The models and designs are really well done, you can take out their legs, arms, head, torso, but even then they still are quite mobile and put up a fight (reminded me of the T-800 at the end of Terminator I) For a game that's from 2012 it looks pretty good, and like I said there's a level of detail in the enemy design, the world-building and animation that is sadly the exception nowadays. There are only a few boss fights, ony one on the highway was tedious, but all of them pretty well-designed. This was definitely meant to be a blockbuster game and it looks like Sega put all their bets on this title, it never does look cheap. Although the story is not really that special a little bit of "I, Robot" and a bit of Blade Runner. The characters and voice-acting of the team are very well done. They all feel very distinct with their own personality. Only the writing of the dialogue an be accused of being mediocre, especially the love story felt very from the 90's. The game in general feels very old-school in that the pace is relentless and moves from set piece to set piece. Some offer an interesting distraction like driving jet skis or a long a bullet train fight, others can be quite tedious like the car chases. A lot what's going for the game is the level of detail, especially the world and level design. And although there are some clunky levels here and there, the game is a good time for people who like cover-based shooters like Vanquish or Gears of War. It's by no means a revelation gameplay wise, but the presentation is so good and well paced that I have rarely seen.

This game was groundbreaking in it's time. And it's also a quite long game, which is a testament how much effort was put into games back in the day with all the different locations and big maps. The thing that I didn't like even back in the day, was that you fight more monsters than ****, and there isn't much diversity in the human enemies or in their animations. And that's four years after Turok or Goldeneye (N64) showed how it's done. There isn't also much tactics involved in the firefights. You can peek around corners, but not shoot from that position. Crouching is the only skill in your tactical toolbox. There are also a surprising amount of levels which require stealth, and the rules are never really clear if an enemy is able to spot you from a mile away and when they aren't. It's especially frustrating at a certain mission at a prison camp where the mission is immediately over after you get spotted. And sometimes the alarm goes off regardless if you have spent several minutes in a building with no enemies in sight. There are also bugs where I had to jump and then immediately crouch to enter a certain **** opening, and it just wouldn't let me enter, I had to restart the whole mission to pass certain obstacles because of those bugs. Overall, this is only for nostalgic players who played this game back in 2001, but for new players there's nothing to see here.

The third installment of the BiA series tries to go a little bit mainstream and tries to attract newer players. The game difficulty is definitely not as demanding as the two previous titles, only the graphics seem to be a vast improvement. I can’t shake the feeling that they were pandering to the MoH / CoD audience by ramping up the gore and violence. And there are some boring scripted stealth missions which is definitely taken out from the tired playbook from CoD. Same goes for the story, while the previous titles had a creeping darkness that slowly reveals itself, they still had a balance and felt grounded in reality (they were after all modeled after the great HBO show Band of Brothers). This time we're dealing with full on hallucinations/ghosts etc which feels again like trying to rip off other games ( F.E.A.R. & Bioshock) which is a shame since the BiA series had it's own identity that made it stand out from the vast amount of (tactical) FPS shooters. It's still a good game, regardless of these flaws, because the core mechanic of this game are still intact. Although most missions feel definitely more linear than the old games, which has something to do that the old game's maps were much more open and therefore there was more room for movement and different approaches. It’s definitely worth checking out.

I haven't played strategy games since the Command & Conquer days quite honestly. I thought it's important to mention where I'm coming from, and that I'm not hardcore into RTS games. Northgard looked pretty simple in that regard (in a good way), kind of what a strategy game would look like on a Nintendo switch. Well, the problem is that it's mostly about defending your base from wave after wave of enemies landing on your island. Even with the upgrade system, it gets tedious after a while without variety. Like for example you taking the fight to the enemy, or setting ambushes at sea. Overall, I didn't finish the game, it was fun for a short while, but if you are not much into the basic premise of the game, there isn't much else that will sustain the interest.

A turn based stealth game, but from a 2D platformer angle. It's fun in the beginning, but later the difficulty goes up in a steep curve. This would be fine, but in order to make it through the later levels, you have to be precise but the game's bugs, hit boxes and collision detection prevents that and kills all the fun. My character got stuck several times on a ledge, or I jumped 'through' a wall, right into a chasm. That's not a single incident, it happens too often unfortunately. I can only recommend it to players who play just any turn-based game.

As someone who played most of the Metal Gear games (except MG4) I really only enjoyed MGS I, III & Peace Walker. I'm not a big fan of Hideo Kojima as a storyteller, but thankfully you can skip most of the story and still enjoy the game. The game is the first Metal Gear that goes all-in on the open-world experience. It's a huge improvement in terms of player- and camera controls compared to the uneven Ground Zeroes. Not only does the game provide a more intuitive approach to stealth, but the AI is also adapting to your usual tactics and weapon choices, so the difficulty gradually ramps up. Surprisingly the game runs even pretty smooth on an older machine, so props to the Fox Engine. It's a shame that Konami won't properly use it again except for a shameless cashgrab. If there’s a few things I would criticize, then that I would have wished to see at least a third country that we could explore. And the other thing is that the ending is pretty underwhelming and I mean in a "that was it?" sense. Overall it's one of the best open-world stealth game hands down. Even after finishing the game there is a lot of replay value just by the sheer volume of ways to experiment with the gadgets and the environment.

The Witcher3 is a pretty good open-world game. The graphic and the world-building is gorgeous. The combat system is solid, nothing outstanding but it does it's job. The potion system gives it a little bit of edge. But I have to say the main quest is a bit boring with the usual 'chosen one' narrative and it always gets interrupted by the flashbacks of Ciri, which are not fun to play. The game could have done better without them, it would also add more to the mystery. The thing that kept me going were the side quests to be honest. They are quite well written and seemed to have more urgency than the main quest. It's a bit of a bummer that sometimes the quest schedule can be confusing because there's lack of additional information. Certain quests have to be paused because you didn't level up yet, so at some point you will be juggling with a lot of unfinished quests that you have to jump back and forth. And some you can't even return to, because they have a time limit. The game certainly kept me entertained for one and a half months, but after I finished all the side quests it started to lose interest in the main quest completely. But the game is well worth it's money.

It's a great exercise in game design, but terrible when it comes down to gameplay or replayability. The only positive improvement over the older titles I noticed was that the puzzles are a little bit more ambitious and are reminiscent of Escape Room games. But that’s pretty much it. Enemy designs are bland (probably the worst in the series), and it's no fun mowing any of them down. There are also compelling tactics missing when it comes down to boss fights or enemies in general. While the game starts off strong with a kind of Evil Dead setting, it just has not much else to sustain that tedious premise. It’s one of those games that I had to force myself to finish, because of the lack of investment in the characters, story or gameplay.

First off, I liked the visuals, the atmosphere and the music. Well, that doesn't come as a surprise since all of it is from the original movie. What is left though is a middling stealth game. In my opinion a good stealth game needs to have room for improvisation and at least two different ways of clearing an area. But Alien Isolation feels too linear and half of the gadgets you tinker with are useless or very samey. Which means they don't specifically change the style of playing, it's a very one-road approach to gameplay, that's why it gets stale after a few hours. You can't pit enemies at each other, you always have the same two options: evade or confront. A lot of other stealth games had a better way of manipulating your environment, so this game feels very dated in it's limited abilities. I like that they take time to show the Alien for the first time. But once they do, boy do they use it in the same way over and over. It always has that same upstanding walk which looks sometimes too human and less frightening, there should be more variety or maybe slow wall-crawling. Even the mediocre AVP games had more creativity in that regard. They never do something with the camouflage ability of the Alien, instead they rely on jump-scare tactics and the alien doing it's round like usual. It also mises a vague estimation of how good you're hidden from the Alien, sometimes hiding under a table is good enough, other times it's not. Another boring aspect is the amount of locked doors and ways to unlock them. Again, it's there to make you feel like this is gameplay, but it's not. It's just tedious obstacles to stretch the game for a few more minutes. I bought the game on Sale, and I don't say I regret paying 9 bucks, since it still looks gorgeous. But I haven't played the DLC's, although I own all of them, but it's the gameplay that kind of makes me say, "okay I do not really need to play this".

As someone who enjoyed even the 'maligned' predecessor, this was more of a letdown. I liked the change of environment, it's too bad that it's never used to create a different experience like Dragon Rising. Unfortunately the campaign is very short (they get shorter with every game). The levels feel too repetitive because three of them play in the same area. They didn't make much use of the geography. The game just ends on a whimper, with no feeling towards a big endgame or something important. Seriously the last level in this would have been a side mission or a mod in the old OPF. Most missions also consist of defending a base. There's very little in terms of dynamic gameplay or improvising on the spot. The whole thing felt too scripted, starting with the annoying banter between the sergeant and the soldiers. It's eye-rolling in the beginning and gets almost unbearable after the third chapter. That there is no option to either cut it short or to speed up time like in the predecessors. That is a huge factor why I don't like replaying this game. I know that OPF's priorities never were about story or story-telling, which in my opinion is a good thing, especially nowadays where the market is flooded with games who have only story and zero gameplay. But the story shouldn't become bro-talk like Call of Duty and have some sense of urgency. The command menu is altered to a detriment, it never felt intuitive and till the end I had to struggle with it, in retrospect I barely used it and always told my soldiers to follow me. Another flaw is the aiming and shooting which was pretty damn good on the previous game. Here they kind of changed it for no apparent reason. It's also annoying when enemies keep running at you even when you keep unloading, I thought we left this stuff behind in the 90's. It's a shame. This game had potential with the right level design and better controls.

It's a fine enough game. I was hoping the developers would have put more emphasis on actual platforming. This game is more related to a shooter like Contra rather than a jump'n'run game. It consists mainly of Boss Fights, and the emphasis is on memorization of enemy patterns and basically trial & error. It's very old school, and by that I don't mean by design but how unforgiving and how little lives you have. I don't know if it's really for casual players, maybe for those who will find the art style entertaining enough to sustain them till the end. But if you strip the game down to it's bones, it's just a mediocre shooter with amazing visuals.

The Swindle is one of the better Rogue-like games out there. It has a very simple premise and can easily become addictive after a while. There's a lot of replay-ability since the game is short and a lot of tools and gadgets invite the player to alter the strategy of playing. I enjoyed it, although I wish there was the possibility to select five different types of thieves who have different abilities than the others. The only big negative aspect is that there are serious bugs with the controls sometimes which is one of the reasons why I have given up to do a perfect run, since it's basically a gamble. Bugs include: invisible spikes, jumping often doesn't work if you're on sloping ground or on steps, characters uncontrollably sinking when standing on a ledge, character freezes sometimes after hacking a door etc It's little stuff that could be fixed with a patch but can get really annoying the more you become a pro. Another obstacle can be the visual style, although it's beautifully drawn, there are several occasions when the screen is just too busy that you overlook little enemies that can give you an insta-kill. The reason for that is that a lot of stuff is going on, on the screen. Even in the background, and the colors of some enemies are very similar to the BG and they blend in sometimes. I don't know if that was intended to make the game more difficult, but it could be fun if there is an 'easy version' where the visuals are slightly more cut'n dry, for beginners. I recommended it to several friends, but it's a bit hard to get into in the beginning, those who did persisted loved it in the end.

A solid rogue-like stealth game. It's fun for a little while, but for a rogue-like it gets surprisingly repetitive. The levels are supposed to be randomized, but they still seem very similar to each other and lack variety. Also there aren't enough gadgets to to raise the replay value. What is nice, is the visual presentation, and I like that it mostly sticks to it's two dimensional perspective although it uses depth in a few cases.

This is gonna be a very short review since I don't want to put more effort into this as Konami did with this cash-grab. This HD collection is the game equivalent of the botched restoration of the Jesus Fresco that became an internet meme. This rating refers only to the post-conversion not the quality of the games. The games are probably one of the best things this company ever created, with a level of integrity that is only apparent in a few indie titles nowadays. But on the other hand the level of incompetence and negligence in the HD presentation is so unbelievable that I borrowed the game from a friend before purchasing. I'm glad I did, since this is without a doubt one of the laziest platform conversions I've ever witnessed. There have been a couple of Youtube videos pointing out the disaster of what happened behind the scenes. With wrong textures being used and lots of bugs that the old games didn't have. They changed the voices with worse voice-actors and the replaced the sound design, all the decisions here are just baffling.

This game is terrible, and I'm not saying this in the context of being a good Starfox game, but this game fails at being a good Zelda game/clone. I have no idea how Rare could drop the ball on this one. The whole game consists of doing boring fetch quests but without the interesting scenarios or an absorbing story. To be honest Rare was never really good at storytelling, but the gameplay was usually top tier. This game however feels like an early draft **** without the polish. The combat system is as inspired as a Track&Field level. They should have dropped the puzzles altogether since they don't require skill. None of it ever feels like an accomplishment, not even the boss fights. Most of this stuff feels like blowing the game up so it 'feels' as if you spent a lot of time doing something. For example just getting from one planet to the other requires to pass a classic Starfox level. But the problem is after the third time it's clear that it's just the same level over and over again, it's stuff like this which makes the game tedious and grating. The game is also riddled with terrible level design since it's not clear where to go next, there's a lot of backtracking or backtracking by mistake. The map feels totally useless in that regard, since it's always too small and there isn't a good zoom function or full-screen view. It's one of many frustrating details. Compared to Ocarina of Time it also feels very linear. You never have the urge to explore the worlds, since they are very small and lackluster in design.

I played this game back in 2008 but I had no recollection of it whatsoever, which was a bad sign. The game is a MASSIVE step down from it's predecessors. First of all, I like the art style and the music, it's very unique and it's probably the only thing that still holds up. But the reason Prince of Persia hasn't aged well isn't because of those, it's the empty core of game-play. I hate to say it, but the puzzles, the platforming and the fights are so dull and repetitive that I didn't believe I was playing an actual AAA title. The game feels very unfinished like a Beta. The hype and the good reviews from game review sites back in the day are baffling to me. Really? No one picked up that the basics of what makes a game work are completely missing here? I wasn't the biggest fan of the previous PoP games, but I liked them, they were fun, with lots of set pieces, interesting fights and very demanding parcour platforming. The platforming in the new game consists of repeating the same 3 actions over and over and over... It gets old very quick. In the older games you had to really search to make your way to the top, but in this game every route is obviously mapped out for you, so there is no mistake where to go. They changed the fighting system completely, and to be honest it could have been really good, if they actually would have implemented a "system". But it fails in the same way like the platforming: the lack of variety and limited abilities are getting repetitive and you start using the same combo over and over. The lack of challenge in those three departments is why this game is no fun to play. And I'm not talking about diffuculty, it's more about the lack of learning skills that you can then use to beat the boss or reach a different area in the world. On my recent playthrough I didn't even bother to finish the game anymore, and I figured why I didn't remember anything about playing this 9 years ago. The story was servicable first but once you get to the ending it's really pretty bad and it's so frustrating that you don't really want to play it agian. Needless to say, you can't skip any of the cut-scenes, and there are MANY. The game-flow gets interrupted so many times, that it killed any momentum it builds up. The 'chemistry' between the protagonists are just basic cliche banter which is tedious since every banter turns into a mini-cut-scene, which again: you can't skip it. I think Uncharted had a huge influence on this game, you have the same sacrifices of actual game-play for mediocre story and cinematic presentation. The jumping sections are also predetermined and unchallenging like in Uncharted. It's a shame how much talent, money and potential have been wasted, and there's probably a reason why there never was a follow-up to this reboot.

Usually I would say it's a waste of money. But since it's a "free" game, I can only say it's a waste of time. The multiplayer Co-Op is very chaotic, with no clear distinction if you're up against pros or beginners. I say that especially to new players, the menu and overall layout is very confusing. With no real tutorial to guide you through the process. The so-called 'Campaign' is just a disguise for 8 short challenges, with no gripping storyline. Upgrading your planes or buying new planes is linked with the multiplayer, since it's the only way to earn credits etc if you don't wanna pay for it on the PSN store. ANd then you're up against players with their pimped jets who are faster than you, faster missiles and a much higher reach. This makes earning points a real pain in the ass, like bringing a bicycle to a Nascar race. That the publisher's don't host the network to create a balanced system feels like they just thrown out an unfinished product to hyenas. The Multiplayer matches are completely repetitive, with the same layout and same enemy variety. Don't bother playing this excuse ****.