saleks

Very good and engaging game. I am not into deep RPG titles and actually did not like the earlier two titles in this series. I played as mostly combat but did lots of hacking to get experience and money (kind of like Bioshock) and that was a very satisfying experience to me. The combat is well done and stealth is a great way to save ammo which is in limited supply early in the game but is plentiful later. What I did not find amusing are somewhat dated graphics look, occasional freezes and in game map and inventory controls. Also, the way story was told was kind of boring. A lot of emphasis on reading instead of telling it in more indirect ways like Bioshock did (through background voices and videos). The dialogs are also too long for what they worth - they are not changing the game flow enough to justify time they take. The endings are also dissapointing. In fact, there was no reason to have multiple as they basically the same. With all said, It is still one of the best few titles of 2011 and is a very engaging and fun game. If you liked Bioschock or Escape from Butcher Bay then it should be on your list.

This game is overall an average and I for once agree with the professional reviewers - if you set aside huge expectations that ID has built up prior to release (and i am one of those who fell for the hype and paid full pre-release price) then it is ok and even fun at times. It is a game that tried to be something much bigger than it is and at that it failed. It combines too much and those things don't feel as one complete game world. I liked the care and details with which the levels were designed. Invisible barriers make you feel you play Doom 3 with some kind of glitch making walls invisible. In fact, one area is totally Doom 3-like - not even sure what all that blood and some alien outgrowth on the walls have to do with the Rage story. Graphics quality leaves a mixed feeling due to very low resolution of close-ups - especially in darker areas. Other than that games looks very good and I do get great performanc eon 560TI. The weapons and the fight mechanics are very nice but some missions are too easy and boring. Story, is ok for a shooter but definetely lacks for an RPG. All the build/buy/sell activities feel boring and unnecessary. Driving is done pretty well but again, unnecessary. Minigames add pretty nice spice to the whole package and are done very well. As far as bugs etc. I had no real issues with the game. However, I played it after the initial patches. My biggest personal problem with it is the ending. Not to make this a spoiler, but for those who played the game - what was the purpose of BFG again?

This game is a welcome break from his year's overhyped releases that failed to deliver. It is all I was hoping it will be and more. Just pure trigger-happy fun! If you liked the previous games in this franchise or Painkiller then that it is the dream come true. If you are more into RPG style or moremodern combat style then please don't waste your money just to leave bad review later. This game is well polished, has perfect controls, a load of weapons and mirriadof enemies to try the arsenal on. I stopped only to brine my turkey and get another cold one and will be going right back into the game to shoot Mental's scum! It is the best Thanksgiving ever!

This one is hard to rate. To start with, I was not a huge original Crysis fan. Therefore I view Crysis 2 not as a sequel but standalone game. I do not care if the game is sandboxed or not so this has not resulted in point deductions. It is a game that clearly had a large amount of effort put in but, unfortunately, it got spoiled by annoying negatives. The goods - huge amount of detail in visuals, well-tuned performance, interactive environment, fairly good story and cinematics for this ganre. Overall a very good but not exceptional shooter. Bads deserve to be taken one by one because they are so annoying. First is the blurry textures in the far distance (vegetation is especially horrible) and I am running it on ultra with DX11 and high-res textures. I even waited for those before playing the game hoping it will be fixed! The original Crysis and many less known games look way better with crisp textures close and far. Second, overall gamma is dark and depressing, sometimes to the point of interfering with game play. I run it on super bright Asus 3D monitor and even without 3D on it looks dark. Looks like it is a side effect of being a console port because I see it in more and more recent console port games. Is it because they tailor graphics to look nice on TVs? TVs are considerably brighter and have different color temperature because they are designed to be viewed from a distance. And then the last, but the most annoying, is the weapon controls. For some reason weapon switching is often messed up. On top of mouse lag, many times it gets frozen and would not respond to a request to switch weapon or to switch primary and secondary modes. Needless to say that when played on hard or above it is a deadly bug, which, combined with the dumb checkpoint saving system is causing you to replay quite a bit, spoiling the fun and immersion a lot. Honestly I have not hated any game in the long time as much as sometimes I hate this one. To sum up, it is very sad that a game with this much effort and potential could be spolied so badly. Unfortunately it seems to be the sign of the future of PC gaming.

To summarize, I loved the short demo and bought the game upon release. Unfortunately what I got was just a longer tech demo. This game just does not feel involving nor does it have enough variety in it to be called a full reelase. Many things are right - challenging and fast old-school combat, boss fights, pretty graphics and fluid engine. But many things are wrong - too many invisible walls in unexpected places, failed weapon selection system, checkpoint saving system, weapons despite upgrade are limited to perhaps choice useful in combat with other just being a demo, overall very short game and lack of variety in either enemies or environment. I wish developers great luck and REALLY hope to see a full-scale release from them. As for now, my cravings for good old school shooting will have to continue to be filled by good old Painkiller and Doom 3.

I am writing this about seven years since this game was released and I still play it once every few months when I want to clear my mind from yet another over-hyped garbage that gets released a lot too often and reset my scale of what a great game should be. Strengths? Best "at will" stealth action I have experienced in a game to date, good melee system and controls that allow complex moves without using half of keyboard, great dialogs and fantastic voice acting. Most of all though - full immersion into the story and situation that Riddick got himself into. Problems? None in my opinion. Just can't get enough of it (not to say it is short). The re-release and sequel (Dark Athena) had some annoying install limits and DRM but get it on Steam and don't worry. I also think the original reelase had a bit better color schema. To sum it up it is a classic comparable to Doom 3, HL2 and Bioshock and it deserves a real sequel rather than just a short episode which is Dark Athena.

For once my score agrees with critics' average. It is an enjoyable and unusual game and I give it credit for that and for the scary atmospheric feel. It is similar in concept to Amnesia: The Dark Descent but Cryostasis lacks on execution and the story. The graphics are good but spoiled by ugly lighting and shadows - and I was running it at max settings. Also, the game has crashed on me too much at the end spoiling the immersion - perhaps it does not like 64-bit environment. It has innovative game mechanics, scary atmosphere and that feel of hopelesness with no clear direction despite being totally linear. But somehow I fail to connect with the game even though I speak Russian and designers did a great job recreating likely setting of that era. I also think the final boss scene is very disappointing - it almost feels that the designers built a game that kept going and going and then they had a brainstorming session to wrap it all up to meet release deadline. In my opinion it fits neither with the main story nor the secondary. To sum up this game has more goods than bads overall and at current prices (as of July'11) it is an absolutely great deal to try something novel.

I picked teh game up on Steam summer sale for 50% off and it is worth every penny. I have enjoyed this game very much and despite its many shorcomings I think the low score is not deserved. Yes, it is not a ground-breaking masterpiece as the original. However, it is still a lot of fun and in that department it is a much better than many recent FPS games which had much higher score. So I think the low score is a result of unfulfilled expectations. The gameplay to me mostly reminds HL2 - some easy physics puzzles, some throwable objects, use of improvized weapons to kill enemies and it is equally as scripted. Some dated but funny and very nostalgic mid-1990s "macho man" style of humor. This actually has been critisized a lot but I think it fits Duke's character very well - according to the story-line the guy was sitting in his layer isolated from the world for 12 years. So yeah, he has missed the wave of political correction that came since. We can't blame him. And should aliens attack in real life we would need Duke kick their a** and take names. My biggest let down is the limit of just two guns at a time. You basically have to choose guns for which ammo is available. For an old-school shooter that is also very scripted it takes away the fun of experimenting killing the waves of the enemies in as many ways as possible. I mentioned waves of enemies, well, they are not here either. That is my second problem with the game - number of enemies is small but their AI level is low. It should be either a) few smart enemies or b) hundreds of dumb ones. So the game tends to be a bit too easy. In summary: - The good: It is fun, good old-school shooting, the script is good, some puzzles are innovative, - The bad: dated graphics, limit of two primary guns, dumb console-style tapping to acomplish some stunts or open doors, too easy. Also too much loading.

The game is absolutely stunning. It took me about 8 hours for the single-player campaign according to Steam meter and these were the 8 hours of absolute brain candy. Some may say it is not enough for 50 bucks but I can tell you it is much better deal than paying 30 for a 2 hour movie and yet people are not complaining about that. Also it feels just right - add 30 minutes more and it would become either repetitive or would have to add more game elements making the game much longer. My guess is that Valve probably had much more material, probably enough for a good expansion pack or even Portal 3, but I think they have chosen to make the game shorter on purpose. This way it can be more polished and can be finished in one weekend so that player would not lose the immersion by interrupting it in the middle. I have not played the coop mission since it is hard to find time but I did not buy the game for the multiplayer option anyway. The design is beautiful, the story is great and has those sudden twists that remind me of some of the David Lynch movies. Puzzle difficulty is spot on - just hard enough to bring you to the verge of frustration but never carries you to the land of long wasted hours spent trying to figure out what you are supposed to do and cheating by going online. I even thought for the moment that it may be user adaptive since I was able to just blend into the story so well and solve everything without me being a typical puzzle gamer - I play mostly FPS but occasionally do the old style Myst type adventures. The quality of work is what I expect from Valve - not a single glitch and level design is done so carefully that each frame is a piece worthy of display. Games like this make video gaming an art form. I care less if it is is DX9 or 11 but one thing I would want is a little more world interactivity - perhaps in the style of Bioshock where player could read some diaries, e-mails etc. Also with all the vast number of objects in the game none can be manipulated even if just for the heck of it - feels somewhat 90s or early 00s. But I guess that is done on purpose so that puzzles would not become too easy in some cases. After all we are taken to a lab environment, meaning it is controlled. Is this the best game ever? Matter of taste. But it is definite 10 points and makes my personal list of the best games ever together with HL/HL2, Escape from Butcher Bay, Bioshock and S.T.A.L.K.E.R (this one after all the patches in place and if played in Russian) and perhaps Doom 3. Only these could capture and keep me in their world through entire game and that is how I judge a game.

I have played all PK games and like other say this one is a notch better than Resurrection - at least i have not encountered any bugs but still not worthy of time other than training for competition. I got through the first level and it felt OK - good to recall some fun days with razor cube. In the second level all of the game is reduced to running PK weapon in "Pain" mode (the spinning blades) and chop hundreds of weak enemies into crout. The fighting areas are small (smaller than most deathmatch levels) and you don't get enough ammo so very soon your only weapon is the Painkiller. I don't have as much time to waste anymore so I gave up on level 2. If like me you miss the good old original then just replay it and don't waste your time on this new one. I hope the five bucks I spent on PK Redemption will work as decisive vote and someone does a truly worthy sequel to this fantastic franchise.