I know most people adore this game and a bunch of people hate it, but I'm kind of in the middle. It's abundantly clear that it was crafted with a lot of passion and an insane amount of creativity, but it didn't really draw me in as much as I expected or hoped. It probably doesn't help that I'm more into action RPGs than tabletop RPGs, but... The writing is mostly top-notch, with really convincing and original dialogues, and a decent amount of positive wackiness. The dialogues between personality traits were a great addition too, both amusing and insightful. Above all, the huge number of dialogue options means that we can craft our relationships with other people in very specific ways, and every choice matters and has consequences. However, there is a strange emphasis on (fictional, though based on parallels to real-world) politics. This is fine by itself, but most of the time dialogue options are either very radical or completely ambivalent ("I have no opinion"), with nothing moderate. This broke immersion for me, because aside from my own rather moderate political opinions, I also feel like an amnesiac rediscovering the world wouldn't form radical opinions straight away. The personality/skill system was well-written, but to be fair was one of the main reasons why I couldn't really get into the game. Firstly, I constantly felt like the character *would* have some personality traits still inside him despite the amnesia, which he'd gradually rediscover, instead of going in a completely new direction, which to an extent broke the immersion for me as well. Secondly, the dice-based system meant that it was possible to pass almost every check if we tinker around with clothing and wait with levelling up skills until they're needed. This made it in my view neither realistic nor particularly engaging. Really pleasant and original visual design and fantastic story design, but the implementation isn't perfect. The game actually feels like it should be really inaccessible to a lot of people, so I find it puzzling that it's consistently rated as one of the top games of all time. I really tried, but I just can't see why.
I know most people adore this game and a bunch of people hate it, but I'm kind of in the middle. It's abundantly clear that it was crafted with a lot of passion and an insane amount of creativity, but it didn't really draw me in as much as I expected or hoped. It probably doesn't help that I'm more into action RPGs than tabletop RPGs, but... The writing is mostly top-notch, with really convincing and original dialogues, and a decent amount of positive wackiness. The dialogues between personality traits were a great addition too, both amusing and insightful. Above all, the huge number of dialogue options means that we can craft our relationships with other people in very specific ways, and every choice matters and has consequences. However, there is a strange emphasis on (fictional, though based on parallels to real-world) politics. This is fine by itself, but most of the time dialogue options are either very radical or completely ambivalent ("I have no opinion"), with nothing moderate. This broke immersion for me, because aside from my own rather moderate political opinions, I also feel like an amnesiac rediscovering the world wouldn't form radical opinions straight away. The personality/skill system was well-written, but to be fair was one of the main reasons why I couldn't really get into the game. Firstly, I constantly felt like the character *would* have some personality traits still inside him despite the amnesia, which he'd gradually rediscover, instead of going in a completely new direction, which to an extent broke the immersion for me as well. Secondly, the dice-based system meant that it was possible to pass almost every check if we tinker around with clothing and wait with levelling up skills until they're needed. This made it in my view neither realistic nor particularly engaging. Really pleasant and original visual design and fantastic story design, but the implementation isn't perfect. The game actually feels like it should be really inaccessible to a lot of people, so I find it puzzling that it's consistently rated as one of the top games of all time. I really tried, but I just can't see why.
A similar environment to the main game, but with a very different vibe - closer to a psychological horror, but not quite there, so it doesn't get too stressful. Some enjoyable sections and interesting lore connecting Control to Alan Wake. Overall very similar level of enjoyment to the main game, so the rating stays the same.
More of the same as in the main game, with quite a bit of additional lore and some extra mods (with no extra space for them...), but with very lazy level design - the majority of the map are just rock tunnels that all look and feel the same, hence the -1 to the rating.
Intriguing and mysterious sci-fi action game, but it's nowhere as groundbreaking as it's trying to appear. The environment is well designed and immersive, but the concept of building shifts had way more potential than what was utilised. Combat is frequent and rather enjoyable thanks to well-implemented mechanics (throwing objects, levitating, dashing, etc), but doesn't really go beyond the fairly typical. The writing is mostly stiff, and named/interactable NPCs are scarce, making the majority of the world rather bland, though I really enjoyed the occasional Finnish jokes. Visually it's beautiful, but again, nothing out of the ordinary. A good game overall, but don't expect to be blown away.
I'm surprised to be rating it both so low and so high. The good? The environments are wonderfully crafted, beautiful visually and very immersive. This is a huge part of the game, and makes it enjoyable to just *be* in the world. It also feels authentic (both geographically and historically), but I have no way of telling if it actually is - I hope they've done their research). The level design, in tombs especially, is also very impressive, as is the design of people (not just Lara). The bad? Stiff writing (some of the dialogues made me roll my eyes hard), scarce and boring combat (don't really need to use your brain even at the hard difficulty level), weak puzzles, and most importantly, boring and annoying terrain traversal/climbing. It's so "cinematic" that you barely have to do anything other than holding W/A/S/D and occasionally mashing E. The camera always shows you where to go, there's usually just one path, and almost all of the movement is automatic. The game demands no skill - I guess to be suitable for couch gamers. Overall a pleasant enough experience thanks to the gorgeous and immersive world, but it doesn't do a good job as either a puzzle game or a skill/agility-based game.
Well, it's Portal with ray tracing slapped onto it. The game feels as great as ever and looks pretty amazing, but 30fps on a 9070 XT with low settings and maximum upscaling, which actually makes it look worse than the original, and 15fps at any reasonable settings? I know it's a free tech demo by Nvidia, but that doesn't make me accept that. And screw Nvidia anyway for all their **** practices.
Weeeell... I guess: meh? Pretty and soothing meditation for 2-3, but I don't get the hype around it. I don't mind a quiet and simple game (I really enjoyed Dear Esther for example), but this one didn't really have anything to keep my interest. Engaging or emotional story? Nope. Interesting gameplay mechanics? Nope. Fun world exploration? Nope. Just keep going forward, look at kinda pretty but fairly monotonous and repetitive sceneries, find some collectibles, done. Maybe I'm not sophisticated enough, but totally skippable in my view. GRIS, for one, was a lot more fun (and a lot more beautiful) with a kinda similar premise.
A worthy sequel to the original Battlefront. The highlight for me is definitely the story told from the perspective of a Clone division, who then become Stormtroopers. A unique perspective, and very well narrated. The missions, having more of a plot than in BF1, were somewhat more interesting, but at the cost of intensity of the battles.
A classic that, in my view, has aged really well. There are obvious issues of the good old times, like incredibly clunky/inaccurate hitboxes or buggy NPC AI, but the graphics still look impressive for the time, and the complexity, variety and SW feel of the battlefields makes the gameplay thoroughly enjoyable.
It's a cool idea to bridge BL2 with BL3 with a late DLC, and the main story does a good job at that. The new maps and enemies are mostly well-designed and fun to play, but unfortunately the writing and side quest design (errands forcing you to run back and forth across maps) are on par with the main game - mostly mediocre at best.
Wow, finally something different! The best writing I've seen in the Borderlands series by miles, with a genuinely fun campaign, a sizeable and actually fun new world, and lots of new enemy types that force you to readjust your tactics. And for the first time in the series, it felt like the characters were actual people with actual personalities. Clearly a labour of love, I wish the whole series felt like this!
Basically just more of Borderlands 2, with no particularly interesting new mechanics or weapons. A few decent locations, a couple of decent characters, a bunch more errands.
A short campaign focused on arena fights and a few other quests and errands, all of it quite typical for Borderlands 2. Mr Torgue's voice acting did make it more fun though.
Basically just more of Borderlands 2, with no particularly interesting new mechanics or weapons. A few decent locations, a few decent characters, a bunch more errands.
Very bitter-sweet, similar to BL1. The world is vast and diverse, but exploration is made very dull by omnipresent garbage loot, very few interesting NPCs, and repetitive (and respawning) enemies. Regrettably, the game doesn't do much to engage the player emotionally with its main protagonists either, and it took me almost until the end of the game to actually start to care about them. Still, the world is beautifully designed and combat is reasonably fun, so it wasn't too bad an experience.
Gorgeous RPG but with poor RPG elements...? + Really beautiful world and decent music, which makes exploration very pleasant; outstanding design of machines, and decent variety (although they get a bit repetitive later on); some decent character design.
- Very poor writing (both quests and dialogues); horribly broken lip sync (which is particularly annoying given the amount of face close-ups during dialogues); combat that gets rather tedious with time (some weapons and combos are obviously superior for particular machines). The Frozen Wilds adds some more variety, a gorgeous soundtrack and some interesting lore. The writing is improved too, but combat gets tedious after a while once again.
Fantastic world design, maintaining the level seen in the Dishonored series. The design of the entire space station, all its interiors and its exterior, is breathtaking, and at times made me feel like in a space station sim. The concept of the story is fascinating too, and the design of the aliens is interesting, if not terribly original. However, the combat felt a bit monotonous and repetitive by design, with all encounters looking similar - you enter a room, find an alien in it, and kill it. No real ambushes, chases, reinforcements, or anything else that would make the combat experience more engaging. I also dislike the decision to make the playable character mute throughout the game, even though all interactions are scripted, and the character is voiced (as evident by recordings). This, together with lacklustre behaviour of NPCs, made interactions with other living inhabitants of the station rather unengaging emotionally, and made me not really care about what happens on the station. Other mechanics, such as researching the aliens or the neuromods, were well implemented and made the experience diverse enough, but unfortunately it remained rather unengaging till the end. And the ending(s) was lazy to the point of being insulting, with some of the endings composed of nothing more than a cheap 3-second cut-scene. A weird imbalance, compared to the meticulous attention to detail of the station design!
Damn near perfect. Incredibly beautiful and fascinating world design complemented by gorgeous music, diversity of creatures that keeps surprising, and snappy and well-designed combat make the exploration experience truly unforgettable. The amount of hidden stuff, from barely hidden to almost impossible to find or notice, is mind-boggling - the game really rewards attentiveness, not just with extra loot but with whole new environments! The difficulty curve is demanding, but seems perfect - the game forces you to try, and try, and keep trying, until you learn your capabilities, and your enemies, sufficiently to progress. My only complaint is the lack of a strong story driving the exploration, and as a result, for the most part, a lack of emotional engagement (although the lore is fascinating), but the whole experience is fascinating enough to make up for it.
The feel in this expansion is decent, but really it's some mechanics and a map very heavily inspired by other game series, and the core gameplay is the same repetitive grind as in the main game (and its predecessor). Take over 5 outposts, and then a fortress. The main difference? Once you die you start from scratch (retaining only the rather unconvincing story quests, and some - but not all - upgrades).
Some new potentially fun mechanics, but very imbalanced, with most of combat becoming laughably easy, and some fights (notably against Talion) becoming horrible repetitive grinds. The story was alright, but still kinda forced and unimmersive.
An even greater disappointment than the predecessor. Most of the strong (and weak points) of Shadow of Mordor were retained, with some mechanics and game elements were expanded. The combat still works well, but somehow the story felt even less engaging than in Shadow of Mordor, and the world felt even more lifeless and contrived. Still mostly empty spaces, with infinitely respawning Uruks (sometimes spawning or de-spawning in front of your eyes). And, in my view, the game is even more grindy and repetitive than the first one. Oh, and I guess they decided that the world from Shadow of Mordor was a bit too bland (being Mordor and all), and apparently thought it was legit to add an ice region, a lava region, a desert region, and a forest region, all within Mordor. And I'm supposed to feel immersed??
A decent continuation of Blades of the Shogun, despite the lack of new mechanics. The extra maps (three major ones) are well designed and interesting, and the mechanics from the main game were in such a sweet spot that nothing more was really needed. It's not groundbreaking - just more of the same good old stuff.
The Bright Lord lets us get into the skin of Celebrimbor in his heyday, which is a cool concept, but its implementation leaves much to be desired. Most of it is the same old process of slaying Uruk and dominating Warchiefs (albeit with some modified and some additional mechanics, including a lot more branding), intertwined with really lame verbal back-and-forths between Celebrimbor and Sauron. The final boss fights were also rather underwhelming. It's a shame this period was not explored with a bit more depth!
Lord of the Hunt is an alright extension of the main game, adding some more mechanics, a few more quests and a bunch of collectibles. However, the new bosses, quests and collectibles follow the same patterns as the main game, so it feels repetitive and uninspired. It could've worked better if it was embedded within the main game, similar to The Witcher 3 expansions.
A good game, but also a story of what could've been, AKA a disappointment. Shadow of Mordor is focused predominantly on hack-and-slash combat, which is implemented very well indeed, so that makes it fun. World and character design are decent, but the world is rather small. The music is alright. The story? Well, there are some interesting bits from key moments in the Middle-earth history, but the way these tie in with the personal story driving the main character is a little questionable, and definitely not emotionally engaging. Even as someone who is moderately into Tolkien stuff (i.e. read & watched LOTR more than once, but not more), I was unsure of what's going on at times. This is partly due to a poor intro - the game throws the entire backstory and half of the mechanics onto the player in the first 3 minutes, instead of gradually laying it out and making it more immersive. The way a lot of the stealth and exploration mechanics are copied from Assassin's Creed is also a disappointment. The Middle-earth universe is just begging for so much more, both in terms of the expansiveness and richness of the world, and the fascinating stories set in it. Shadow of Mordor is solid in most ways, and would do just fine as one of a myriad games set in the universe. But as the main one released in the last decade, it's just underwhelming.
My first game of this kind, so I don't have much to compare it to, but it was definitely fun and engaging. Every aspect of the game seems really well-designed, from level design and aesthetic design, through the interfaces, music, challenges/achievements, to the rather small but engaging story. Optimal difficulty level in most places as well, which can't have been easy to achieve, with how much you can do with the few tools available to the characters. Still, despite being mostly pleasant and engaging, it wasn't really an unforgettable experience. Maybe need to be a fan of the genre!
First off, urgent advice: before attempting to play NieR:Automata on mouse and keyboard, install the Input Overhaul (NAIOM) - the game is NOT playable without it, and I mean it - in some parts of the game it's impossible to do what's needed because of ridiculous controller>mouse mapping. Some other quality of life mods are recommended too - look up the definitive mod guide on Nexus. Second urgent advice: do not stop playing once you see the end titles for the first time, this is only about half of the story. It's more than worth it to continue until you've obtained endings A-E; it's not just other perspectives later on, it's also literally a continuation of the story. ------------------------------- On one hand, NieR:Automata really deserves a 9/10, but on the other it deserves at most a 7/10. In the end, I'm giving it an 8/10, and below I'll explain why. It deserves a 9/10 because in many ways it's an utterly brilliant game. The concept of the world is fascinating, the few main characters are very authentic, and the story (once you get to the >actual< end!) is so powerful that it left me emotional for days. The world design is charming and memorable, despite sub-par graphics in the vanilla version, voice acting is amazing (the Japanese voice-over is hugely recommended), and the soundtrack is otherworldly - even though there aren't too many tracks there, they're SO GOOOD that I didn't want to stop playing the game just because of the music. Combat is fun and well-balanced too, with a satisfying progression curve. Maybe the strongest suit though is that the game is original and surprising in so many ways. I won't give examples here because it's amazing and you have to see it for yourself! But let's just say that there are at least 6 different modes of gameplay, with virtually seamless transitions. And then we get to the second part - why it deserves a 7/10 at most. It's really down to the fact that I felt compelled to give two pieces of advice at the beginning of the review - part of it is due to it being a terrible port, and part due to questionable design decisions. The game is literally unplayable on mouse & keyboard, which is just unacceptable. Some examples: negative mouse acceleration in 3rd person mode (the faster you move the mouse the slower the camera movement), and broken aiming in side-scrolling mode (mouse movements cause the crosshairs to jump up or down, but it jumps back to horizontal after each increment). Luckily modders sorted this out (in say 98% - there are still minor issues at some stages). And by far the most questionable design decision in my view is the decision to split the game into three playthroughs, forcing the player to essentially replay the game with only minor changes and additions after "finishing" the story, in order to get to the actual second part of it, which let's just say is CRUCIAL. Even though at the end of the first playthrough the game tells you "please continue" I wasn't sure if I wanted to or if it was worth it - I looked online and saw some people saying it was worth it, so I did, but also saw plenty of people saying they gave up because of the repetitiveness, which is SUCH A SHAME. After playing through the whole thing and thinking and reading about it a lot, I remain unconvinced that this was necessary - I think the different perspectives and elements of the second playthrough could be integrated into the first, just like different perspectives were integrated at the beginning of the 3rd playthrough. It would avoid alienating many players, and make for a more cohesive and less grindy experience. After all the experience was so amazing that I couldn't give less than an 8, but I wish I could give more.
First off, urgent advice: before attempting to play NieR:Automata on mouse and keyboard, install the Input Overhaul (NAIOM) - the game is NOT playable without it, and I mean it - in some parts of the game it's impossible to do what's needed because of ridiculous controller>mouse mapping. Some other quality of life mods are recommended too - look up the definitive mod guide on Nexus. Second urgent advice: do not stop playing once you see the end titles for the first time, this is only about half of the story. It's more than worth it to continue until you've obtained endings A-E; it's not just other perspectives later on, it's also literally a continuation of the story. ------------------------------- On one hand, NieR:Automata really deserves a 9/10, but on the other it deserves at most a 7/10. In the end, I'm giving it an 8/10, and below I'll explain why. It deserves a 9/10 because in many ways it's an utterly brilliant game. The concept of the world is fascinating, the few main characters are very authentic, and the story (once you get to the >actual< end!) is so powerful that it left me emotional for days. The world design is charming and memorable, despite sub-par graphics in the vanilla version, voice acting is amazing (the Japanese voice-over is hugely recommended), and the soundtrack is otherworldly - even though there aren't too many tracks there, they're SO GOOOD that I didn't want to stop playing the game just because of the music. Combat is fun and well-balanced too, with a satisfying progression curve. Maybe the strongest suit though is that the game is original and surprising in so many ways. I won't give examples here because it's amazing and you have to see it for yourself! But let's just say that there are at least 6 different modes of gameplay, with virtually seamless transitions. And then we get to the second part - why it deserves a 7/10 at most. It's really down to the fact that I felt compelled to give two pieces of advice at the beginning of the review - part of it is due to it being a terrible port, and part due to questionable design decisions. The game is literally unplayable on mouse & keyboard, which is just unacceptable. Some examples: negative mouse acceleration in 3rd person mode (the faster you move the mouse the slower the camera movement), and broken aiming in side-scrolling mode (mouse movements cause the crosshairs to jump up or down, but it jumps back to horizontal after each increment). Luckily modders sorted this out (in say 98% - there are still minor issues at some stages). And by far the most questionable design decision in my view is the decision to split the game into three playthroughs, forcing the player to essentially replay the game with only minor changes and additions after "finishing" the story, in order to get to the actual second part of it, which let's just say is CRUCIAL. Even though at the end of the first playthrough the game tells you "please continue" I wasn't sure if I wanted to or if it was worth it - I looked online and saw some people saying it was worth it, so I did, but also saw plenty of people saying they gave up because of the repetitiveness, which is SUCH A SHAME. After playing through the whole thing and thinking and reading about it a lot, I remain unconvinced that this was necessary - I think the different perspectives and elements of the second playthrough could be integrated into the first, just like different perspectives were integrated at the beginning of the 3rd playthrough. It would avoid alienating many players, and make for a more cohesive and less grindy experience. After all the experience was so amazing that I couldn't give less than an 8, but I wish I could give more.
SOMA took a while to grow on me, but when it did... holy **** A truly brain-bending concept executed in a brilliant manner. What irritated me initially were the significant resemblances to other classic games, such as Dead Space and BioShock, but eventually SOMA found its own character and became a deeply immersive experience. In many ways the exploration of the underwater base (and open seafloor) was very realistic, and always immersed in a thick and tense atmosphere, created by the world and character design, music, sound, and charismatic and convincing voice acting. It could be better visually (which I guess is down to the relatively small team behind it), but that didn't prevent it from providing some of the most intense and profound moments I've ever experienced in a game. A definite must-play.
A perfect DLC, adding several hours of additional gameplay in puzzles that go beyond the original game in complexity. They're not just bigger or longer, but involve more creative exploitation of the mechanics already introduced while maintaining increasing complexity, making it an ideal continuation of The Talos Principle. This time the story/lore revolves around an online forum for androids/AI, and while it's again a very interesting concept (and quite an amusing one), once again it fails to really engage me emotionally, which makes the experience just a little dry.
A truly top-tier spatial puzzle game, with a beautiful and diverse world and a magnificent soundtrack. Over 100 individual standard puzzles plus a bunch of additional mini-puzzles and dozens of much more complex bonus puzzles may sound intimidating, but the progression of complexity and difficulty is designed so well that the game never gets tedious. The inherent non-linearity also means that you're almost never stuck at a particular puzzle, because you can just move on to others and come back to the tricky ones with a clear head later on. The puzzles themselves are fantastic, ranging from fairly simple ones to some really complex brain-melters, but each giving a sense of fulfilment and a job well done once you figure them out. One of my favourite aspects, especially in comparison to many other puzzle games, is that the difficulty doesn't rely on hiding stuff - all elements are in plain sight, and you're job is to figure out how to connect them to get through, with an elegant solution possible in each of the standard puzzles. However, if you're happy to go the extra mile, the bonus puzzles involve a lot of secret elements and require proper exploitation of the game's mechanics, to the point where you'll have nothing left to give. Truly something for everyone. My only real complaint is with the story/lore. The basic concept is fun and interesting enough, but the reading scattered throughout the game didn't really engage me emotionally, which it feels like it could have.
Blood Ties feels like a distant cousin to The Room games, but with less puzzles and more reading/listening. There's not much to the gameplay other than walking around the Manor and finding documents and relics explaining Lara's family history. A sensible vehicle to expand on the lore, but much of the meaningful background could've been embedded in the main story with more soul in the writing.
Baba Yaga - The Temple of the Witch is pretty much just an extended tomb with a boss fight, but it's not any less engaging or entertaining than the main game. It's also not 30 minutes like one of the other reviews suggests, it's more like a couple of hours, so not THAT short for a couple of bucks.
Rise of the Tomb Raider is exactly what a game sequel should be - an evolution of a proven concept, with incremental improvements in almost every area, but without removing or breaking any of the elements that made the predecessor work. Gorgeous visuals (especially landscapes and Lara herself
There's nothing wrong with the tomb as such, it's just like the dozen or so in the main game. But the fact that they charge separate money for it is a joke - it's like they ran out of resources to make proper expansions and decided to split a tiny part of the main game and sell it separately. Play through as part of the main game, but don't bother buying and playing it separately.
The 2013 incarnation of Tomb Raider is not perfect in any way, but it's exactly what I need and expect from a very solid adventure game. First of all, the world is very immersive, with the events we experience and the lore we find building an intriguing picture of the situation on the island we find ourselves in, and the events that led up to it. Character design was decent, as was voice acting, but unfortunately the dialogue writing was pretty uninspired, though luckily not terrible. The world is also designed very well - both realistic and aesthetically pleasing, with terrain variety reminescent of CoD 4. Traversing it is generally very pleasant, although climbing routes are way too obvious for my taste, with white paint marking almost anything you can use on your way. The progression throughout the game was quite satisfying, both in terms of the available movement mechanics and in terms of combat. The available weapons and the encountered enemies both got gradually more and more advanced, in what seemed like a natural way. Combat in general is quite satisfying as well, although sadly, is way too easy. Even at the highest (3rd) difficulty level, it's trivial to headshot everyone with a bow most of the time, and it's very difficult to get killed (unless you're grinding an achievement which requires you to tackle an enemy with a rifle...). Although it's not much of a challenge, it's still quite fun, and an optimal amount of hidden locations and collectibles makes the world even more enjoyable to explore. Overall, Tomb Raider is a solid adventure game in every aspect, and a modern benchmark for the genre.
The Residence DLC was the first added chapter that actually felt like an expansion of the original concept, rather than a prolongation. The level design wasn't that different from the main game, but the few added mechanics seemed to utilise some of the untapped potential of the main game. Bonus points for the ending too.
The Hideaway DLC simply prolonged the experience of the main game by adding yet another chapter (roughly equivalent to 1/4 of the game). No significant new mechanics or notable improvements - just more of the same atmosphere for a bit longer.
The Depths DLC simply prolonged the experience of the main game by adding another chapter (roughly equivalent to 1/4 of the game). No significant new mechanics or notable improvements - just more of the same atmosphere for a bit longer.
Like many others, I can't help comparing Little Nightmares to INSIDE, but for me that's not necessarily a good thing. Like INSIDE, it's a very pretty, atmospheric 2.5D platformer, where you traverse a mysteriously hostile world as a tiny human. A lot of traps await and a lot of things are out to get you, and you have to sneak past them all on the way to freedom (?). The world design is gloomy yet charming and the music adds to the experience. Like in INSIDE, the journey is at times quite monotonous, with not enough movement mechanics to keep the player engaged physically. Because of the lack of narration and the mysteriousness of everything, it's also difficult to get engaged emotionally, other than "protect this cute little thing from dem ugly big things". The puzzles were decent, but most of the time rather trivial, so intellectual engagement also wasn't really a thing. Because of the overall lack of engagement, I simply didn't care about the game most of the way through, which is a shame, because the concept felt like it had more potential! Like INISDE, it's a solid 6.
A truly brilliant classic from an era where the biggest focus was placed not on visuals, but on gameplay physics, which is nailed in this game like in few others. Together with awesome level design this makes the game a real treat to play, though don't get deceived by the simplicity and easiness of the first few levels: later on the levels get nightmarishly hard to do well for a beginner. I had to force myself to uninstall it a while after I finished all the levels, because I felt myself drawn in and about to get addicted to the never-ending quest for faster times.
The Stories DLC pulled the game a bit further in the direction of my expectations by adding a story, and therefore more emotional engagement. The foundations remain the same however, with repetitive and basic survival gameplay.
The Stories DLC pulled the game a bit further in the direction of my expectations by adding a story, and therefore more emotional engagement. The foundations remain the same however, with repetitive and basic survival gameplay.
There's not much to The Little Ones, but it does add a little variety to the otherwise fairly dull and repetitive gameplay, by adding characters that need care and can't contribute to survival as much as adults.
