tech-noir

When I decided to give this a try, I was already aware of its infamous reputation for being harmful. All of the negative rumors you hear are true. It will make the most friendly of people aggressively competitive, while ignoring the game's extremely low fun factor. Dota 2 is bad.

Even though it fails to provide a truly open ended experience, it's fun until the gameplay becomes stale. While the addictiveness level is existent, it eventually falls to the game's limitations and interface faults. Ultimately, it doesn't know what it wants to be: purely historical or maniacally alternative.

From the presentation, to the game engine, to the mechanics, to the controls, everything is clearly crude and underdeveloped. While it tries to emulate the greatness of the Nintendo classics, it totally fails on every level, including that of storytelling and setting. The only enjoyable aspect is the music sometimes.

Although the idea sounds much better than it's executed, it still manages to be tense, fun, and rewarding. The difficulty level is high, and successful heists give the player a true sense of accomplishment. Weapon and item variety is limited, but the progressive upgrades and unlocks system is quite good.

There is not much reason to be playing this after Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was released. Everything about it is dated in comparison. Most importantly, there are only two or three servers that play official maps with a ping lower than 100 and with populated matches in my region.

It's possible that this was playable several years ago, but in 2013, it's useless. There are only six populated servers available, with the closest one being for custom sniper maps only and having a ping of 150, while the other servers have pings ranging from 240 to 300 and higher.

There is only one server in my region with a decent ping that plays some, but not all official maps. Tense and exciting moments are rare, with very little happening to create interesting engagements between the teams. Even with the mildly realistic gun physics, the kills are seldom satisfying.

As one the worst ports I've ever played, it also suffers from poor storytelling and an unforgiving difficulty. The battle mechanics are very good, while boss fights are the highlights of the game. It can be tedious sometimes, but it is an overall enjoyable experience that requires patience and dedication.

It's fun while it lasts, but there is really not much left to do once you complete the three worlds besides unlocking cosmetic items and getting a 100% score for each level. The mechanics are solid, the gameplay is challenging, and the art and sound design are very cute.

The mechanics, environments, and art design are imaginative and beautifully realized, but the gameplay fails to keep the player entertained and intrigued for very long. Collecting all the dolls, finding all the solutions, and completing all the hi-jinks may be enough for some, but will easily bore others.

While the gameplay mechanics are fun and interesting, this fresh approach to the puzzle/platform genre never actually impresses. The music is good, but there aren't enough tracks to remain enjoyable. The 16-bit art style is cute, but the main character's design is too derived from Nintendo's Kirby.

Aesthetically, there is very little that is appealing to the eyes. The colors are muted, bland, and everything looks generally uninteresting and drab. The battle mechanics feel completely broken at times, and the randomly generated elements do not add anything at all to the experience.

At first it's frustrating. Some hours will pass and it becomes enjoyable, somehow. Then you realize that this offers limited gameplay, poor visuals, lousy sounds, and close to no fun. The controls are responsive, and the title song is enjoyable, but beyond that, there is nothing; like a phone game.

Despite its minor technical issues regarding the engine, bugs, and glitches, the game manages to impress on all fronts. The action is engaging and loads of fun even when it gets slightly frustrating. The music is great and compliments the atmosphere perfectly. The various masks are also a nice addition.

The graphics, environments, and weather effects are beautiful. Everything about this game is high quality and consisting of high production values. Its only flaws are the excessive amounts of quick time events and the overusage of cutscenes to tell a surprisingly good story. There are also many extras to collect.

Sadly, this game has a lot of potential, but it's nearly unplayable instead. Even though there are many difficulty levels to choose from, they are totally worthless. The AI is completely broken as it will not give the player a chance to play, not even on the beginner difficulty level.

After playing through the story mode, I still don't quite understand what I just experienced. Nothing makes sense, and nothing is funny. In fact, there is no fun to be had at all while playing this game. It feels like something that was meant only for a very specific group.

There is nothing fun, interesting, or redeeming in this shooter. The gameplay and mechanics are boring, while the graphics and sounds do not add to the experience in any way. The game also suffers from some poorly implemented design choices concerning the visibility of enemy bullets.

Super Crossfire is an arcade style vertical shooter game with an excessive amount of neon style lights flashing all around and enjoyable music. Its most unique game play mechanic involves flipping from bottom to top, and vice versa. There are many permanent boosts and upgrades to unlock as you accumulate certain amounts of deeds and actions. These will help you further advance in the leaderboards, as well as in the game. There are also upgrades and boosts in-game, but they disappear from your ship when you die. Even though there is something like a campaign mode with chapters to progress through, the main objective of the game seems to be the never ending score attack, as your profile name will appear on the leaderboards for the world to see. Despite this competitive aspect, Super Crossfire is clearly meant as a mostly casual, and quick play experience, and should be treated as such. Because of all the flashing and changing lights, it takes a bit of getting used to, as it is often difficult to see the incoming projectiles and other enemy attacks. The artwork is very basic, and unimaginative, but this fact does not detract from the overall game play fun. Hours will pass and you will be having fun doing the same thing over and over, which to me means that the game keeps you interested and hooked despite its repetitiveness. Even though the music is good, it seems like it's only one song per campaign chapter, which adds to the repetitive nature of Super Crossfire. The most interesting aspect of the game, is by far the upgrades, weapons, and unlocks. It is the reason why you will continue playing. After completing the base campaign and epilogue, the game encourages the player to repeat all levels again to accumulate more points in order to unlock the most advanced difficulty level, and an additional set of levels. While this may sound intriguing at first, you will soon realize that it is a repetition of what has been accomplished previously, only with more difficult enemy waves in addition to utilizing the gained powers. As a casual, once in a while experience, Super Crossfire is a brief, yet enjoyable romp through the arcade shooter memory lane of previous decades, combining tense and fast paced moments with an electric and exciting audio visual ordeal.

The overall graphical presentation, general environment, and artwork are very well done and interesting to look at. The plot and storyline are intriguing and engaging, set in a dystopian science fiction far future. Even the voice acting is okay. Sadly, those are the only positive aspects of Nikopol. In this point and click adventure game, you should expect terrible pixel hunting, as well as puzzles that are quite unintuitive and will certainly require hints or walkthroughs to make any progress. Worst of all, is that if you do not pick up certain items in various rooms in order, or perform certain actions in a specific order, you will need to reload a saved game and do many portions of the game over. The focus on tiny details and prearranged orderly functions make for an irrational, boring, and forcefully repetitive experience that was not even present during the late 80s and early 90s of the genre's era. In order for you to understand which action takes precedence over others requires a walkthrough. It is a must. There is no other way to approach this game whatsoever. For the developers to think that this game design decision was appropriate is an absolute disaster, and should serve as an example for others to never follow. In addition, there are several events that are timed, and require the player to perform some actions quickly, and if they do not possess certain items that were left behind in other rooms, there is simply nothing that could be done except for reloading and starting over. The save system is another serious stumbling block. You are not allowed to quick save. Instead, "saving" only saves your last checkpoint. This means that because of how flawed the overall design is, if you miss an item in a previous room, and find yourself farther in an area without it, there is nothing you could do except restart from the last checkpoint. You cannot walk back and correct the problem. You must restart and do it all over again. Needless to say, the only way you will know that you are stuck besides not being able to execute any useful actions for a prolonged period of time, is a walkthrough. There are no other options. The game fails horribly at providing hints, or doing anything remotely resembling intuitive reasoning. It is a truly broken point and click adventure game that has no place in the genre, or in the professional field of game design. Nikopol is an enormous waste of beautiful artwork and a riveting storyline. It is a technical and developmental malpractice of the worst kind.

Hammerfight's setting seems to be a variation of cyberpunk with a hint of light fantasy. The music is fitting, and somewhat interesting, but quite repetitive. The graphical presentation is reminiscent of PC games from the 1990s, even though the ship animations could be considered fluid. What is most unique (and incredibly problematic) about the game is the attack mechanic. This involves using the mouse to create inertia and physics based weighted action, which is more complicated than it sounds. There isn't much of a tutorial, nor any kind of instruction for the player besides minimal between mission briefings, and much of the game play is discovered by plenty of trial and error. Meaning that you will have to repeat the majority of the levels a multitude of times until victory is achieved. Upgrades to your ship are obtained as you earn money and purchase items from the shop. The plot appears to be involved, but ends up being a disorganized and fuddled mess, leaving the player with not much care as to what is actually happening. Hammerfight also seems to be prone to crashing at random times, for no apparent reason whatsoever; with an emphasis on when you quit to the desktop. Even though the idea for the game is unique, the implementation for its most important mechanic is a complete and utter failure. Hammerfight has the absolute worst controls and mechanics since Gish. Controlling your ship is the most imprecise experience I can think of, and manages to be generally worse than Gish in all comparable ways. There are various gauges and panels that mysteriously appear and disappear on the screen during battles, and there is never anything explained as to what they mean, what they do, or what they are supposed to be. The mechanic of circling your mouse around continuously and inconsequentially gets boring and tiring extremely fast, as your arm, wrist, and hand will feel like quitting minutes into the game, besides feeling like an idiot for performing such a task. Then, when you realize that your attempts at attacking your enemies are mostly frivolous and ineffective, you will have even less reasons to continue. Hammerfight is yet another good example **** premise going to waste due to achingly poor and limited design and execution. It has some of the worst controls and mechanics I have ever experienced.

The overall presentation and aesthetic is quite pleasing to the eyes, as well as to the gamer in general. The ideas behind Sideway New York are unique and fresh, even for a platforming action game. The artwork is distinctive, cartoony, and with an air of playfulness also. The level design is what sets the game aside from others of the same genre. It is a combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional spaces with a novel way of going about the buildings and other structures. The game screen often flips and changes angles as you progress through each level, and you must find ways to jump, skip, slide, and pounce around the environment. All of these actions are not very fast paced, but they coincide with the game adequately, and in an enjoyable manner. The storyline is short and casual, not going very far away from the usual beat the bad guys who kidnapped my girlfriend fare, but this does not get in the way of game play gratification, as you will be mostly busy platforming and appreciating the levels and environments. As you advance through the game world, you will unlock special abilities that are both fun to use and applicable within the game world. They range from special attacks, to special jumps, and even gliding through the air. There is also the option of collecting tags in the levels, but this does not reflect any changes in the storyline or game play whatsoever. It is a mere collection mechanic for your own accomplishment and bragging rights. The ability of playing with a partner in local co-op is available, but I have not personally tried this. The soundtrack seems to have only about three or four songs that loop endlessly, which makes for quite the repetitive listening experience. On the other hand, it is done entirely by renowned underground hip hop artist from Boston, Mr. Lif. This means that depending on what your musical tastes are, you will be either pleased, neutral, or annoyed. Either way, the music may be turned off or kept on. There seems to be a serious bug with the options menu, as sometimes, it will not allow you to exit it and get back to the game. The only way to fix this major problem is to end the game in Task Manager; which also means you will lose all progress if you were mid-level. There are several instances during certain levels, which involve mechanics unique to Sideway New York that are slightly unintuitive, and the game does not do a very good job of explaining clearly how to go about accomplishing certain actions. This means there will be much trial and error before you are able to figure out how to approach some situations. The last two boss battles can be a bit frustrating, as they require several precision based actions, until you are finally successful. For a short and casual cartoony game, Sideway New York gets most what it is trying to accomplish right, and for what it is, it is quite enjoyable. It took me about 5 hours to complete.

The first thing I noticed after completing the tutorials is that there is only one server that is not full and has a decent amount of people playing. If you join a server with less than ten people, Nuclear Dawn will play and feel like a ghost town. I suppose this can be said about any other multi-player only game. In the beginning, everything seems very confusing, regardless of how many people you are playing with. The classes are well rounded and fun to play, even though Stealth seems to be overpowered at times. Capturing strategic points and destroying structures can be quite fun and competitive. The voice acting warnings about our base being under attack gets quite repetitive, and I'm not sure that can be turned off. The map design is outstanding. Every single one of the official maps are a pleasure to look at and take part in. There is so much detail and thought put into the cityscapes that you feel like you are there yourself. The leveling up system is also very well implemented. There are several upgrades that you can make to your weapons and gear. To acquire different weapons and move up, one has to do plenty of teamwork and actually earn experience points. It is refreshing for a multi-player game to require the participants to work as a team. The relationship between all of those involved gives the player a sense of accomplishment and value. Being a commander takes experience and practice, which sometimes means you will have a novice running your team, but to be fair, we all must learn and all players should be given equal chance at the opportunity. The overall feel of Nuclear Dawn is very futuristic, and everything from the graphics, presentation, to sounds is done in a high quality fashion. The developers often make large updates to the game, fixing problems, and adding new features. Even though the load-outs are limited in options, what is currently there offers players plenty of fun. In addition, gaining experience and moving up the ranks also adds a personal level of competitiveness, and a feeling of real achievement, as there are some unlocks in the form of gizmos. With the current patch, there seems to be some glitches/bugs making the player stuck at random places in the map. This is not only related to the structures being built. It also occurs in open spaces, as well as inside of buildings. From the first time I began playing Nuclear Dawn a few months from this writing to now, it has become extremely obvious that the player base has been getting smaller and smaller. As of this writing, there is only one active server, and it is rarely full; playing at about half of capacity at all times. With that said, if you can find populated servers, Nuclear Dawn is great. All classes play differently and there is much fun to be had alternating between each one of them. The gun play in conjunction with capturing and destroying the enemy's strategic points and structures is extremely exciting and fun. This never gets boring or dull. Some Commanders are terrible at what they are trying to do, some are excellent, and some are fair-weather Commanders who will sabotage your side's efforts and forfeit everything at the first sign of an enemy approach or whatever idiotic reason. I wish there was a way to report such fair-weather Commanders and get them banned permanently, as they ruin many games with their worthlessness. With all of that said, Nuclear Dawn is a great game that deserves much attention in the present, and hopefully in the future as well. It is the most multi-player fun I've had in a long time, and I hope that there are more servers spawning in order to maintain its player base alive.

As soon as you start the game, you will notice that the mood, setting, and atmosphere are superb. The storyline is mysterious and well thought out, with interesting to watch cutscenes. The lighting effects further enhance the overall flavor of the game, and adds an eery feeling as you explore each level. The game mechanics are well implemented, but they do take a bit of getting used to, as initially, the controls may seem clunky. The game rewards you with an achievement for killing innocent bystander monkeys and even keeps track of how many you have killed, which is rather pointless and mean. Regardless of the monkeys, there are plenty of monsters to kill that will come at you relentlessly. With that said, there is not much variety in who your enemies are, but this does not feel too repetitive or boring, since you will be doing all you can to control the ball and attack them with it, and there is a great amount of excitement and fun in the process. This mechanic really isn't as simple as it sounds, and it does take getting used to and learning the techniques. Killing the monsters makes them splat with some gore and loose body parts. These moments are incredibly tense, exhilarating, and action packed. The Ball manages to put together various aspects from a few genres and implements them quite well. It feels like a first person shooter, adventure, puzzle game, slightly reminiscent of the Portal series. The level design is outstanding, and truly sets out to make an experience that is memorable, tense, edgy, creepy and extremely satisfying. The buildings and other structures are masterfully crafted and placed in the game world for much enjoyment. Simply looking around each level is an absolute delight by itself. In The Ball, there is an overall feeling of loneliness, as you must progress through the dire situation of being lost all by yourself, without anyone helping. It also manages, through its mood, setting, and atmosphere to positively produce emotions of fear, despair, worry, and awe. Being inside the various tombs, caverns, and other structures presenting a theme of ancient Mexican civilizations is truly amazing. Everything has near perfect timing, expert design, wonderful execution and flawless placement. There aren't that many bosses in The Ball, but the few you will encounter are skilfully crafted, and a joy to watch and fight against. The puzzles are all quite intuitive and requires the perfect amount of thought in conjunction with action dexterity. They are all well developed and enacted, providing much satisfaction as you complete each one. If some of the puzzles may seem a bit complicated, the designers have included a hints system that allows you to get on the right path of puzzle solving without sacrificing the gaming experience and other plot elements. Adding to an already extremely positive overall experience, the ending was thoroughly satisfying. Once you're done with the campaign, you are also given the option to go through small, new levels not found in the campaign, in the so-called Survival game mode. It is an interesting change from the campaign, but it does not compare, as it is taken from an entirely different context, and has a whole different approach. This has been the best overall experience in a first person game since Half-Life 1. The Ball is that amazing. The environments are beautiful, the game play is rich and interesting, and it never gets boring. It is also perhaps the most fun you will have as a virtual, in-game archeologist. The Ball is a truly magnificent experience. It took me about 8 hours to complete.

The controls are awkward, unusual, inadequate, badly implemented, and nearly impossible to use properly. Even if you rebind the keys, there is simply no way to execute multiple commands while using both the mouse and keyboard to move about the game world. Sometimes it is necessary to use power-ups, and having five fingers in each hand is simply not enough for inMomentum. I am certain that after excessive amounts of practice, it becomes possible, but I am not sure if the trouble is worth it. There are barely any sound effects of any kind. You will hear the occasional beeps and bloops every once in a while, but that is all besides the continuous uninspired music. The game does not give you any indication that you are actually running around and jumping. There is no feeling involved with the movement and game physics. It is as if you are gliding from place to place, then floating, gliding some more, all with odd physics that do not blend well with the game's setting or anything that makes any sense at all. Timing your glides and floats so that you land on the platforms requires mostly luck, as the controls are incredibly imprecise, and do not allow for the player to develop any real skills or techniques in order to accomplish each level rapidly and properly. inMomentum does not have any story or introduction as to why you are doing this gliding and floating around on platforms collecting orbs and doing time trials. There is no campaign of any kind to speak of, and the only aspect of the game that provides feelings of accomplishment are found in online leaderboards for the two limited game modes available. The game is so bare bones, in fact, that you will wonder if it was actually finished, and if the developer should actually be expecting money for it. inMomentum is a cheap, unfinished, unpolished, bore. Play it every once in a while for five to ten minutes at a time in order to maximize your fun with it.

Max & the Magic Marker is a children's game. The game play, platforming, and mechanics are simple and easy enough for a child to master in not very much time. The mechanic of drawing objects is implemented in a much better fashion in comparison to Crayon Physics Deluxe, for example, but that is still far from a compliment. The music is good, and fitting of the game world, but it does repeat quite often. The overall level design is bland, repetitive, and uninspired. The checkpoints are available throughout each level, and they are put to use for the benefit of the player, and not because of difficulty. Because of the game's overall limitation, it is better suited for short play times, as it does get boring very fast. Soon after progressing to the second world, the game has severe crashing to desktop problems with no errors. It simply quits the game and puts you back into the desktop. Other users have had the same exact problem and you can read further about it in the Steam forums. The developers have stayed silent about this game breaking issue, and have not responded in any way, nor corrected the problem with a patch. With an already extremely limited amount of content and bleak game play, Max & the Magic Marker feels more like an attempt at making large amounts of money than actual care and attention to game craftsmanship. The asking price for this game is pure insanity. Do not feed their greed and achingly poor game design and programming.

There is no story, premise, nor any kind of introduction. Before each level, there is a brief sentence that is supposed to give more depth to the reasons behind the murder spree, but they are often too vague and pointless. The controls are absolutely terrible. Aiming is close to impossible, with the keyboard or mouse. It is a matter of holding down the fire key and moving your character in the direction that hopefully your enemies will come across. Movement is slow, sluggish, and clunky. The weapons behave strangely, and there is very little reason to switch between them, especially when some are nearly impossible to shoot with any precision whatsoever. There is simply nothing amusing or interesting in Postal, nor is there any entertainment or amusement value to be gained. It is a game with extremely limited content, and terrible controls that has only been given attention to the vague and boring idea behind it. If you are looking for a game with gratuitous violence without any reasons or story at all, there are many others out there that are far more polished and better executed than this attempt at a unique gaming experience. Postal fails in every possible aspect, even for the mid to late 90s.

In BEEP, you are in control of a small robot that is used to explore other planets. It is mostly a platform game with slight action and puzzle elements. There are basically zero options provided to the player as far as graphics are concerned, and the game engine seems to have serious problems with frame drops and performance on a modern computer. The general presentation is basic, upbeat, lighthearted, adorable, and for all ages. The world map is amusing, as you are allowed to navigate through space with your ship and bounce off asteroids or space debris. Each planet looks different than the other, and the levels appear to have been designed well. The controls are implemented adequately, and are quite responsive even in the more dire platforming situations mixed in with some shooting or the tricky anti-gravity device. The robot's wheels also have an excellent grasp on terrain, which makes for some forgiving moments if you are new to the genre. All of this is not without some major problems related to performance. The game runs terribly on a modern computer that more than meets the minimum requirements. The massive frame drops, excessive lag, terrible slowdowns, and extreme choppiness make it unplayable. Others have experienced similar problems, and proof of it can be found in the game's Steam forum. This is actually quite unfortunate, as BEEP seems to be a good game at its core, if it weren't for the performance issues that break it. Perhaps with some developer tweaks and patches, BEEP will live up to its full potential and be enjoyable.

Nation Red is an arcade style top down shooter game that combines zombies, power-ups, and perks all into a high action, all thriller fun extravaganza in short bursts. Yes, the concept may seem repetitive at first thought (and it is), but the beauty and fun comes from actually participating in the craziness that takes place. The music is some kind of metal derivative, and I quickly muted it in the settings, as I can not stand it for very long. You will develop favoritism for certain weapons, and also predilection for perks that suit your play style or power factor. There are missions, but they are basically variations of the other game modes that may be played at your leisure without attachment to the game's horror plot. Surely, because of its nature, Nation Red may not be a game you spend consecutive hours playing, and may be best if picked up at short intervals and breaks. There are many statistics that the game keeps track of for you, including a leader board for comparative and competitive reasons. The developer's are very much involved with the gaming community via Steam, and update the game often. I find that playing for longer than one hour at a time, Nation Red gets repetitive too quickly, and as I've mentioned before, it is better enjoyed in shorter periods. The player's character seems to glide and slide around the maps, which is a bit of an imperfection. These movements do not look very well done. Each of the game modes feel and play different from each other, which adds to the already existing amount of replay ability. While there is fun to be had with Nation Red, it simply becomes too repetitive and dull too quickly. The longer you play, the less you will feel like playing, and when you do play, you will be playing it for less time. It is a coffee break style game, and most of your enjoyment will come from fifteen to thirty minutes playing sessions. Anything more than that will rapidly wear out the game, and your interest in it. There is really not much to it. Nation Red is a simple and basic experience.

The ideas behind RoboBlitz are not original nor interesting in any way. Despite this, it is a slightly fun game. The puzzles are intuitive, and they are similar to the puzzles found in other story driven first or third person shooters. They do not get in the way of enjoying the overall experience, and they do not seem to be annoying chores that one is forced to complete in order to advance. Given the context of the storyline, it all falls into place adequately, and feels natural. The camerawork is terrible though. You will often move your head by instinct in an attempt to keep the robot's view in perspective so that you may move about the game world and perform various tasks. The camera problems do get in the way, and there is simply no getting used to its shortcomings. While the graphical options allow for full screen display, it forces the image into a letterbox format that I have not seen in any other game I've played in recent memory. This presentation is unnatural, awkward, and strange, but after some time, one adapts to this odd design choice. The music is generic but okay, and the sound effects are fitting of your character's robotic build while sounding a bit cartoony. All levels appear to be well designed and they remain challenging and mildly interesting to the player. The gun play mechanics are satisfactory, but because of the camera troubles, timing your aiming with the firing action can be problematic. RoboBlitz provides ample chances for the player to complete each level by means of unlimited lives/continues and liberal save points. There is also a hints system in place that is well implemented and does not remove any of the fun from realizing how to go about your way to accomplish various tasks. This makes the overall experience more enjoyable, as the game is not exactly easy. The difficulty is adequate in all aspects. There are some upgrades to be obtained as you progress and collect enough points. They range from jump enhancements to armor, and the ever handy weapon advancements. These upgrades are all quite useful and fun to equip, and sometimes your lab partner will provide you with some free breakthroughs in robotic technology that you may put to use. RoboBlitz is prone to crashing during startup or while selecting certain menu options, and this can occur quite often. With all of that said, RoboBlitz has some serious game breaking problems that are directly related to the boss fights. There seems to be some kind of bug that prevents the game from recognizing that the boss is being hit and damaged. This means that certain bosses are invincible and cannot be killed in any way. Many other people have reported similar problems in the Steam forum for RoboBlitz, and the developers have not responded nor addressed these game breaking issues in any way at all. This means that RoboBlitz has been abandoned in an unplayable state, as you will not be able to proceed past certain parts. Developers such as these should be penalized for releasing software that is clearly not in working condition while charging a high amount for it. It is a real shame, as the premise and idea behind RoboBlitz seemed promising. If it only were actually complete, and if it only actually worked, it could have been a decent game.

Yes, this game uses the all too familiar free-to-play model that makes the main menus look like an online store. It will be thoroughly enjoyed if you have some interest in actually enhancing your character. My interest for this game came from the Infection mode, which turned out to be mediocre. There are a few other modes, but the highlight for me is Annihilation. It is simply non-stop fun and excitement. The three classes available all play different from each other and gives the player access to specialized weapons. The rank system is nice even though one does not truly benefit from leveling up with the exception of money earned. With the cash comes the part where you will customize almost everything on your character. With the experience you have gained, you will be able to buy new weapons, give yourself more room for equipment, choose weapon additions, and even repair items previously purchased. This for me, added an immense amount of replay ability, and it is a game I will continue to go back to for the continuous amount of fun and variety of weapons and equipment. At the very least try it for eight hours, and you will not be disappointed. I must warn though, that Alliance of Valiant Arms has severe updating/patching problems. Each update takes at least one hour to complete. Many people have complained about this in the Steam forum and in the official forum, and the developers simply have done nothing about it. This problem is persistent and has been going on for many months without any change whatsoever. if you are able to be patient and overlook this very serious flaw, Alliance of Valiant Arms is a very good overall experience.

PoxNora does not allow for true full screen, nor does it display itself in wide screen. What it does instead is use a window that is maximized, and places black borders on the sides. The most obvious and serious problem comes as soon as you select to begin a tutorial walkthrough. The game loads, displays your objective at the top right of the screen, and that's it. Nothing more. There are no instructions, no informative text, no leads as to what should be done, and certainly no tutorial. PoxNora simply dumps you in the game with zero information and expects you to play it. After some trials and errors, I was finally able to begin learning the game on my own, without any sort of tutorial. After winning the first battle, the game informs you that you have won one new rune. I was not able to find anywhere within game how to access these runes or even how to look at them. After asking for help in the chat, I was informed that the only way to access your runes and to manage them is through the official website. This important aspect of the game; building your deck, is only accessible outside the game, with your browser. Needless to say, this is a major flaw, and deters from game play enjoyment tremendously. Even after you access your runes through your favorite browser, knowing what deck to build is another problem altogether. Because the developers have completely omitted any kind of tutorial or in-game instructions whatsoever, it is impossible to ascertain whether or not some runes should be included with your deck or not. I understand this is all about players' perspectives, but a little help and direction would go a long way for a game such as this. The game's presentation is also quite unclear when it comes to the single player campaigns. When you complete them, it seems to place a check mark next to them, but the ambiguous "0/1" remains the same no matter how many times you go through the same campaign and win it. The game does absolutely nothing to explain itself in any way at all. Besides its excellent artwork, everything about PoxNora, from the presentation to the mechanics seems to be generally lackluster and crude. It almost seems like much of the game is crude and unfinished deliberately. It is as if the developers sought out to make the overall experience unfriendly and frigid. Who wants to exit the game and access a rune manager through a website? Who wants to learn the game absolutely by trial and error without any explanations or tutorials at all? The PoxNora developers should seriously reconsider their approach and focus more on their software's usability and user friendliness. Whatever game content that may or may not exist, is hidden away by extremely poor presentation and execution.

Osmos would like to make you believe that it is a relaxing ambient game, but that is mostly not true at all. The description even makes the laughable usage of the word "elegant" to describe its game play style. It couldn't be farther from the truth. The controls are clunky, obtuse, and unprecise. The music is boring, uninspired, and uneventful. It feels like you're playing a simplistic and limited cell phone game, and for the most part, that is correct. The difficulty is simply broken. In the first five or so levels, you will become acquainted with the game's narrow mechanics, and every single level after that, you will learn lessons in what unaffluent programming looks like and experiment with poor game design. Worst of all, is that Osmos has the tendency to flicker the screen and generally display what appears to be coding garbage and fragments of menus at random and persistent times. The only way to correct this serious problem is figure out how to quit the game without being able to read the menu options due to the bugs, and restart it. This screen flickering and fragments display problem will continue incessantly, and there are many others who have tried the game who have the exact same problems. All one has to do is go to the Steam forum for the game and read about the numerous problems this poor attempt at game design has to offer. The developers have not shown any signs of life in relation to correcting the game's various serious flaws, or made any relevant commentary whatsoever. They just don't care. For a game that is supposed to be relaxing and intriguing, Osmos is the perfect antonym to those experiences, and should only be given a try by the most patient and forgiving gaming persons around. This game is yet another example of ideas being implemented lousily and in an incredibly unsound manner. It is an unbalanced and confined mess, and its value is clearly in the realm of free cell phone games. The developer's thoughts on what an adequate asking price for such a poor showing is also downright ridiculous, as for the same amount, one could make much better use of their hard earned money. Osmos is a drab cell phone game reminiscent of a screen saver.

The artwork is minimalistic and uninteresting. The game play mechanics are annoying, awkward, slow, and unintuitive. The repetitiveness in death is only a replacement for actual game content and game play. The puzzles are like chores, and not actually fun or entertaining. Within fifteen minutes you will grasp and understand the small amount of amusement this game offers, while at the same time growing tired of playing it with each passing minute. It is a lesson in poor game design and lack of creativity. There are barely any sounds nor music. There is no charm, fun, creativity, nor intrigue. And Yet It Moves is another independent showcasing of what game development should steer clear from. It is a cheap, short, flat, unexciting, unexceptional, deficient attempt at game design. There is nothing to see nor experience here. It is a freeware game disguised with an exorbitant asking price from developers who obviously lack shame and humility. And Yet It Moves is inadequate in every fathomable way, and it exemplifies everything that gaming should not be about. There is no actual game content and no game play. It is self-conceited to make up for all of its failures and shortcomings.

Iron Grip: Marauders is a real time strategy game with several unique and clever twists. This means that such a game may be interesting to you, but if you expect a standard strategy experience, it may not. The setting is Steampunk with a slight bit of fantasy, and the player is not presented with a clear cut storyline. The artwork is excellent. It portrays human characters well, with a unique drawing style, and the creatures are done exceptionally. There is much detail to the artwork, and to the units alike. There are three types of PvE missions. They are Raids, Smuggling, and Assault. Raids are the only ones that you control the units yourself. Smuggling and Assault are on a time delay, but involves the selection of units as well as the appointment of one of your heroes. All three mission types are well done and fitting of the overall presentation of the game and game world. Iron Grip: Marauders is a Unity engine game, which has some limitations and awkwardness. It is basically a web based experience, but a well done one. Even though it all feels like you are playing the game from a website, this does not hinder the all-around enjoyment. While you scroll through the real-time game map, Unity showcases its horrible scroll and lighting problems, as well as somewhat of a sluggish movement. Each unit looks and plays differently, and there are many to choose from. The research tree also offers many new approaches to accomplish your goals, and they maintain the player interested by creating diverse capacities for future advancement and development. The game operates on energy points that are used to go on missions, and are replenished per hour. This means that your play time will be limited to a total of about one hour per day. As a free to play game, it is quite limited, but if considered a casual once a day experience, Iron Grip: Marauder excels in a range of areas. There are sound effects and a little bit of music during the Raid missions, but the rest of the game is completely silent. The chat room always has at least five or more people, and they are all eager and happy to help or answer any questions you may have. I have yet to come across someone who was rude or unpleasant. Due to its limiting nature, Iron Grip: Marauders is the type of game you log into once a day, order your heroes on quests, or go into a few short quests yourself. If you are not a paying member, there is really not much more to it than those couple activities for no more than about one hour per day. It's a shame the developers have put the game's depth locked away somewhere, for paying members only. This is not a free to play game. The developers do not actually allow you to play it or experience its full potential. It is a one hour per day demonstration.

VVVVVV takes its name from the game's main objective, which I shall not touch upon in order to leave the discovery to you. The first aspect of the game that took me by surprise is the superb 8-bit chiptune music. The only problem with that is that it does get repetitive only because it replays one single track for about 30 minutes at a time, until you complete each level. The graphics are imitating the general style of the Commodore 64, including its startup screen. VVVVVV's main platforming mechanic is the player's ability to flip the character's screen position vertically, going from bottom to top and vice versa. This makes for some complicated platforming in general, as well as some challenging and entertaining rooms. Because of the game's incredible difficulty, the developers have cleverly implemented checkpoints liberally throughout the game world, which cuts down on rage and frustration. With that said, VVVVVV still manages to be extremely difficult, and you should expect to die hundreds of times, if not one thousand times by the time you complete the game. The platforming and controls are not badly designed, as in Super Meat Boy, so do not confuse this well crafted, yet simplistic game with that developmental disaster. Younger generations of gamers may find the overall presentation of VVVVVV to be unique and hip, but as we all know, these graphics have been done before, about 30 years ago. One serious flaw is that there are no audio options for volume. The in-game default is quite higher than usual, and requires turning down in Windows. While the majority of the levels' rooms are a lot of fun, and well designed, some are simply unreasonable and require too much luck as opposed to actual precision and skill. Because of this, you will die many times and spend far too long attempting single rooms. Which also means being forced to listen to a single song on a loop, for the entire duration of your trials. This is something of a shortcoming and should have been avoided completely by the developers, as these uncalled-for rooms only add negatively to the experience. Even though you get unlimited lives and unlimited continues, having to repeat a single room hundreds of times in order to pass it gets boring, repetitive, annoying, and only serves the purpose of replacing actual content with limited and mundane game play. While the music is once again, excellent, there are only a few that repeat over and over, as the rest must be unlocked by finding and collecting certain orbs within the game world. There are also a few more game modes for the player to experiment with once the campaign has been completed. The storyline and ending are endearing and delightful, and once you complete the game, there is an overall feeling of satisfaction. VVVVVV is short but perfectly sweet. It took me about 3 hours to complete.

This sequel manages to be worse in every game play aspect. The graphics, models, sounds, and music appear to be the same, so you should expect a very cheap presentation and overall quality. This is very low budget even on a 1990s standard. The voice acting is absolutely terrible, which made me actually laugh a few times in the beginning, and the game gives you the chance to cringe because of it quite often. The AI has not been improved over the first game, and this is made obvious from the very first zombie you face. They have a tendency of spinning in place and being stuck, with conjunction of terrible path finding abilities. The developers decided to make the display grainy and purposely of lower quality than it would already naturally be, as well as using a very small amount of color throughout the game. There are spelling errors throughout the bleak mission briefings, as well as many bugs and glitches that manifest themselves as menu issues and clicking problems. The game play mechanics have stayed about the same as the original, where you simply move and shoot at any zombies coming your way, but also with the addition of operating a turret from a moving car that you have no control over. Zombie Shooter 2 looks and feels like an extremely low-end development, with all of its facets being obviously rushed, poorly designed, badly implemented, and generally deprived of creativity and any true enjoyment. The original Zombie Shooter provided the player with mindless and lackluster game play, but at the very least it had its few game play merits of running and gunning with the occasional smile or smirk. The sequel fails in the continuation of the series, and carries on lousily while adding many other problems that did not exist in the original. The character's movement is sluggish and sometimes not very responsive to control. It feels like Zombie Shooter 2 was a junior college computer programming project that was barely finished. It lacks polish, imagination, and game development technical skills. The folks at Sigma Team have showcased how limited they truly are. The game's description boasts RPG elements that do not actually exist in any way, shape, or form. There is simply nothing there to make any such absurd claim. You are able to make weapon and ammunition purchases, as well as some other items that may aid you through each of the levels, but there are no RPG mechanics or elements whatsoever. This claim is basically not true. Upgrading health, speed, and accuracy do not equate role playing mechanics. The difficulty levels are not programmed properly, in addition to some of the stronger zombies being extremely overpowered and with an unreasonably large amount of life. Sadly, there is just too much wrong with Zombie Shooter 2. It is almost entirely crippled, unbalanced, and limited in every describable way. The music is also rather poor and of low production value, but thankfully, you are allowed to turn down its volume or to mute it completely. The loading times are atrocious for such a low quality game run from a modern computer. The vehicle levels where you are able to control direction while shooting can be slightly satisfying, yet short lived. The save system is nothing short of idiotic. It does not use checkpoints, and it does not allow you to save mid level, or any time you so desire. What it does instead, is that it saves it for you at the end of each level only. This means that if you die during a level, or near the end of a level, you will be forced to do it all over again from the beginning; meaning that you may waste another 30 minutes or longer attempting to beat certain levels again and again. The unbalanced and overpowered enemies makes this bad design decision much worse. If you have enough patience for an extremely poor, low budget title, there is some small amounts of fun to be had with Zombie Shooter 2. There is really not much to enjoy in it.

Your Doodles are Bugged is another game on the cusp of being worthless. As much as the developer tried, there are no actual puzzles here. There is nothing clever. Nothing exceptional. Nothing useful nor worthwhile. There is nothing happening. This also barely qualifies as a game. It is all about drawing simple lines in order for the bugs to climb up or to the sides, then erasing, then repeating. That's it. There is nothing else to it. The bugs' AI is horrible to nonexistent. They hop around aimlessly, and often take far too long getting on top of the lines you draw. These bugs also tend to get stuck around the levels due to what I surmise to being limited and poor programming. One could have more fun with Microsoft Paint. If this ridiculous attempt at game design were not enough, it also doesn't help that there are absolutely no sounds nor music in the entire game. Upon further investigation, many others experience this same problem. A simple Google search will provide you with much proof in this regard. The asking price proves that some people really have no shame and are willing to pull anything for an income. Even if that means overcharging for a piece of software that should be considered freeware at best. Your Doodles are Bugged is an excellent example of how poor concepts in conjunction with poor design equals nothing more, and nothing less than gaming refuse.

At first glance, Saira looks and in fact is, a very cheap Flash game. You will not be able to adjust any settings at all, such as the volume, and the game takes up a relatively small part of the screen. Needless to say, there are large black borders surrounding the viewable game area. The graphical style also manages to have an overly simple and cheap look, which also goes along with an overall cut-rate presentation and production. The jumping and platforming elements also appear to be designed poorly, as timing the jumps can often be awkward and unusually rough. Despite these limitations, Saira does offer the player some mildly interesting and basic interactions with the game world. As you travel to different planets to collect various objects for your project, you discover other life forms, as well as different machines that you must interact with throughout your quest. While the initial puzzles are favorable and intuitive, they will quickly become boring, annoying, repetitive, pointless, and severely lacking in creativity as you progress through the planets. The game's protagonist must put a photo camera to use in order to remember mundane puzzle hints, as well as use other gadgets in each planet. While inside the ship, one has access to a few other screens which allows for a poorly designed pinball mini game, and a radio receiver of sorts, that advertises musicians and their Myspace page links. Everything about Saira screams low production values and very poor execution. While it is true that the idea behind the game is quite interesting and promising, it is obvious that the development talent is simply not up to the task, as there is a clear gap between the concept and accomplishment. With poor showings such as NightSky and Saira, the developer has proven that the necessary skills in order to create appropriate games is severely lacking, and one can only hope that this improves over time. If all of these faults were not enough, it is also important to mention that this bore is prone to random crashing as well. The asking price is also something to be ashamed of. Saira is yet another good example of what limited game design and poor implementation is, and what should be avoided in the future. It is the epitome of what independent game development should not be like. Perhaps if it were freeware, it would be more suitable.

Unfortunately, the excellent level design of Hacker Evolution and Hacker Evolution: Reinsertion are not to be found throughout this sequel. The developer decided to make a couple of the levels overly convoluted and unnecessarily complicated for no good reason whatsoever. It is not a matter of these couple levels actually being challenging. On the contrary. They have proven to being the exact opposite of anything resembling of fun and intuitive. In Untold, it is as if one is put through a couple tedium and boredom filled levels as a form of punishment or through lack of design creativity. There is simply no enjoyment to be extracted from these two exercises. These two levels are not fun, interesting, nor rewarding. It feels more like taking irrelevant and needless tests for nothing. The music in Untold is not nearly as amusing and entertaining to listen to during play as in the original game. The songs selected are bland, uninspired, and repetitive in comparison. I could barely notice the difference between each song. Another bad change in comparison to the original is that the game does not make use of a wide screen view. Instead, it has placed black bars on each side. As far as I have noticed, only one new command ("deletelogs") has been added to the user's repertoire, and that only adds to the general feeling of doing errands in order to proceed. It is a shame that the badly designed levels are utterly unreasonable and joyless, since parts of the game offers truly fun levels that accompany a nice storyline, continuing the original's saga. Despite its level design problems, Untold still manages to be more developed and better executed than Uplink, but it remains a poor comparison to the original Hacker Evolution. Once you get past the two inferior levels, the rest of the game is enjoyable. As for the Flight Zero expansion, it is completely broken and cannot be played past the first level due to bugs. This can be confirmed through the official Steam forum for the game. As of this writing, there are no signs that the expansion will be patched into working condition. Sadly, Untold appears to have been rushed and is clearly uninspired, and Flight Zero is blatantly unfinished. This is almost disastrous, since the original game and original expansion were such wonderful examples of this rare genre. Perhaps Untold's biggest disappointment besides the level design flaws, is the weak ending. This is yet another poorly executed aspect of the game that showcases how overly uninspired Untold is in comparison to its predecessor from the same exact developer. The last level and ending are so pitiful and neglected, that it serves merely as a confirmation of the all-around lesser quality in comparison to the original. I hope the developer can pick up the pieces from this developmental stumble and improve upon the original for the sequel. It took me about 8 hours to complete the base game. The Flight Zero expansion could not be played due to game breaking bugs.

Zombie Shooter looks and is extremely low budget. It could easily have been a DOS game from the mid 90s, but it was actually released in 2007. With that said, it is an enjoyable DOS game from the mid 90s. The level design is basic, linear, and straightforward. Animations are the bare minimum that one could expect from an average game from that era. Each mission involves doing very similar actions, like reaching certain specific areas of the map a couple times in order to proceed. There are several items and upgrades that could be purchased between each level, as well as upgrading skills from your character, which makes for an interesting and fun addition to the upfront running and shooting. The AI has very serious problems, and at times you may use this to your advantage. Zombies will often get stuck behind walls or other objects, and many times they will also spin in place and not move, without doing anything else. Besides the campaign, there are two additional game modes, but they are much less interesting and do not provide for a true extension of replay ability. Zombie Shooter is a short and basic game, with very simple game play mechanics. It is plagued by severe AI path finding issues as well as general AI problems. There are also various bugs throughout the game, and the final boss is not challenging at all, in comparison to the massive groups of non-boss zombies that will come at you almost non-stop. Also, the small amount of text found in Zombie Shooter has some grammar errors. There is very little variety to be found in Zombie Shooter, and the short lived amount of game play will not keep you very interested, and it will not last long. For an unintentional DOS game from the mid 90s, this is a small gaming distraction amidst the abundance of better, more polished games out there. It took me about 2 hours to complete.

Cave Story+ is a famous Japanese independent game that was originally released as freeware with a fan translation. This re-release offers a choice of playing with the original graphics and music, or the remastered graphics and music. Whatever your choice may be, the game is a well done fanfare reminiscent of the classic platform games on the NES and SNES. The keyboard controls takes some getting used to even though they are simple to learn, but you do have the option of rebinding the keys and using a gamepad. The plot is comparable the well established lore of yesteryear by being invited to save people and rid a world of evil. The enemies are stereotypically Japanese in design, as well as the overall game mechanics and boss battles. Some of the dialog can be slightly amusing and sometimes charming, but this once again, does not steer too much away from what we have grown accustomed to enjoy from the 80s and 90s console eras. The difficulty settings can be adjusted to your liking, and they each provide an adequate challenge depending on what option you have decided to go for. The power-up system rewards the players who go out of their way to collect dropped items from downed foes. Switching between each weapon rapidly can be tricky, but this does not hinder the player from enjoying the changes, as adapting comes somewhat quickly through your progress. The different weapons acquired throughout the game are all quite useful and play very different from each other. As you change between them, there is much satisfaction shooting down your enemies and conquering bosses. While the storyline is reminiscent of past decades, it is surprisingly unique, in addition to flowing and developing well. This appealing plot provides the player with plenty of entertainment for many hours as you progress through the story. After tougher areas or tougher boss battles, your weapons' levels go down quite a bit as you take damage, and gathering the necessary drops in order to get them back to full power can be a chore. Cave Story+ is full of retro charm, from its game play style to its artistic inventions. There is very little to complain about, as I cannot think of any serious flaws. The resolution settings do not allow for true full screen, as black borders will be placed at the sides. The platforming elements in conjunction with the shooting can sometimes take some skill and getting used to, especially in high action sections. Some portions of the game (namely some bosses) become quite frustrating, no matter what difficulty setting you are playing on. This forces the player to redo a part of the game again in order to face the same boss (or bosses). Each repetition is about five minutes or longer, which constitutes of a problem to me, as dying with certain bosses occurs often. It is a game that may not be for everyone if the genre is not to their liking, but overall, it is quite the accomplishment, especially if you keep in mind that it was designed entirely by one single person, and achieves such positive results. The music is nothing short of superb. It embodies all that was great from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras and makes it exceptional and complementing to the game's presentation and plot. There is also a considerable amount of replay ability, as there are unlockable game modes and four different endings. If you love platform games with shooter elements, this is a must play. If you are unsure about the genre, you owe it to yourself to give this indie classic a try. It took me about 7 hours to complete.

In Gratuitous Space Battles, the player is allowed to design ships with various elements, arrange them on a grid prior to battle, and provide each ship with preset orders. That's it. You are not allowed to participate in anything else. There are many unlockables and such, but this does very little to make the bare bones game enjoyable. There is no storyline, nor a campaign of any description. The game provides the player with so-called scenarios, and all that means is that the developers arranged the enemy ships in a grid. Once again, that's it. There is not much else besides that. You may also unlock a few other races, and each race has about a dozen "scenarios" (if I can even continue to refer to them as such). Each component that could be equipped for each of your ships has different descriptions , but they do not impact the overall performance of the ships in any significant way, nor do they alter the player's overall game play experience. Each and every time you go into battle, is almost a near perfect repetition of the last attempt, with very little variation, if any at all. Each of the races do not provide the player with true alternatives in order for them to actually be considered unique or different from each other. There is absolutely no action, nor climax in any of the battle instances you may go through as you play the game. It is like watching a limited and basic screen saver, over and over again, with very subtle differences each time. Even if you unlock all the hulls/components and implement them in ship design, there is barely any noticeable performance difference in the battles. It is as if nothing changes. In addition, the game does not inform nor hint at the effectiveness of any of the components you will have available to equip your ships. The AI is also comparable to that of a screen saver, in every describable way. There also appears to be no sound effects whatsoever, besides the ever repeating music. A representative from the developer named "cliffski" can be found in the Gratuitous Space Battles Steam forums being arrogant, pompous, and rude towards others who have a negative opinion about the game. At the time of this writing, the developers are asking for $20 for the game, and an additional $37 for six DLCs. There is basically very little content here, for an irregular and exorbitant amount of money. I have never come across such an exaggerated difference between content and pricing prior to this shameful release. This is completely unacceptable and despicable, and developers such as these should not be supported in any way, shape, or form. It is with releases such as Gratuitous Space Battles that we see proof of very low quality and very low content getting worse and worse. This game is comparable to adjusting the settings of a screen saver, then watching it run. There is very little actual game play to be found in Gratuitous Space Battles. If you like screen savers, you may want to give this displeasing, limited, uncreative, and meager attempt at a game a try. I hope you have a CRT monitor so that this glorified and expensive screen saver could actually become useful.

The presentation is lazy and limited. The settings made available to the user are minimal to nearly none. The "widescreen" setting is not widescreen at all, as the size of the game's screen is still very small and surrounded by large black borders. The graphics are also of the most minimal efforts that are found in free Flash games for PC or phones. The so-called ambient music is barely noticeable and does not add to the overall experience in any way. The game mechanics are only mildly interesting or amusing, and the game world and design are uninspired and uncreative. Guiding the ball around the levels is unsatisfying and dull. The game play is so vacuous and boring, that I would find it hard to believe that someone would actually be interested in such a dead and valueless activity after about one hour. Every aspect of the game is so breathless, numb, flat, lackluster, and muted. The physics of the game are not interesting nor exciting in any way, and the overall atmosphere is so indifferent and apathetic, that you will be wondering why you should be spending any time at all with this poor attempt at a game. NightSky's sale description lists it as an "action-puzzle" game, set in "picturesque worlds". This couldn't be farther from the truth. NightSky does not involve any action whatsoever, and the game world is the opposite of picturesque, as it is as good as dead. The asking price is borderline insanity, as the developers are clearly overpricing an obviously poorly designed and low-grade game.

As the game loads each time, you are instantly presented with a warning that you should be using a controller to play the game. This is unacceptable, as I've purchased it for PC, and I expect it to be played as such. Despite this misplaced excuse of a warning, Shank can be played and enjoyed with the keyboard. The controls and combinations aren't too pitiful, and you will be able to execute most of them as soon as you get used to how the mechanics work. The artwork is well done, in a comic book style setting. The voice acting is okay for what it is, but you should not expect them to be excellent. Even though the game is violent, the overall atmosphere is quite mild and cartoony. The story isn't very original nor is it interesting, but it does fit fine with the overall presentation and game play style. Even though Shank attempts to go back to the glory days of early to mid 90s Beat 'em ups, it comes off as unpolished and sometimes inadequate in some forced platforming elements. There is very little variety between the levels and enemies, and once you get acquainted with the moves, Shank gets increasingly repetitive in all aspects, and you will be hoping for a quick finish to the game. After a very short while, it all looks the same, feels the same, and plays the same. The unlocks don't add much at all, and there is very little to be gained with the weapons the game makes available to the player on a permanent basis as you progress through the story. The boss battles can often drag and do not offer any true challenge or difference in game play in comparison to the rest of the enemies. There is very little charm in Shank, in comparison to games of the same genre from earlier generations. It's button mashing without any skill or strategy whatsoever. The music and setting are akin to stereotypical Southwestern United States, and this provides the player with slight immersion to the theme, albeit a basic one. The general concept would have been better suited for a short animated film instead of a shallow and slightly subpar game. Tedious fight mechanics coupled with poorly designed boss battles makes for a forgettable and passable gaming experience. It took me about 5 hours to complete.

Do you like repeating very small levels 50 times? 100 or more times? If so, you are in luck, as that is all Super Meat Boy is about. It is not about clever mechanics, interesting game world/story, or well designed platforming and good controls. It is the exact opposite of that. The developers decided to display a large disclaimer every single time you start the game, trying to get players to specifically use an Xbox 360 controller. Furthermore, this same disclaimer often states that playing with a keyboard should not be done. This is completely unacceptable. I bought this game for PC, and I expect to be able to play it as such. Every level is a repetition of the last, with only the boss levels actually feeling different. The general level design and artwork are mediocre and bland, creating very little excitement and entertainment. There is a vast amount of campaign levels, and the option to download levels from the in-game bulletin board, but there is little reason to go through them. The repetitiveness of it all, in conjunction with how terrible the game mechanics and controls are make Super Meat Boy not very fun at all. It simply keeps on recycling the small amount of game play it has over and over. There is no variation, very little amusement, and not much to look at or listen to. The level design and difficulty are so badly unreasonable, that the patience required to play this game is unnatural. This is not a platform game. It is an attempt at forced trick jumping with lackluster controls. It appears that Edmund McMillen went back to his awful roots with Gish, and created something almost as appalling and flawed.

While the artwork and game setting are very well thought out and portrayed, the longevity of Jamestown is its downfall. There are five campaign levels that must be beaten in Legendary difficulty in order for the player to advance. This difficulty level is appropriate for the first four levels, but on the fifth and final level, this design choice becomes a problem and a hindrance. The last level is so difficult, I consider it to be poorly designed and most importantly, inadequate. It is as if the designers realized they did not have much **** in their hands, and decided to make the final fifth level nearly unbeatable, in order to excuse the amount of time necessary to complete the campaign. Sure, there are bonus modes/levels to be unlocked, but they are merely side distractions, that do not provide the player with additional entertainment or value. Jamestown is simply too short, in addition to one of its five levels being extremely poor. To add to this insult, the developers have released an expensive DLC for an already overpriced base game, that adds very little. The limited amount of continues is also another bad design choice because of the terrible last level. In the end, the player is left with a clear understanding that the developers resorted to a cheap and unimaginative means of prolonging Jamestown's lifespan by making it artificially and unusually difficult in the last level. Through this, it is very quick to realize that this game does not involve much, and the developers should be ashamed of themselves for charging so much for so little content. There are innumerable amounts of games of this same genre that are incomparably better, and most are more than 20 years older. Jamestown is a prime example of independent developers taking advantage of the scene and overcharging consumers for content that is extremely scarce, poorly implemented, and quite limited. There is very little to do, very little to experience, and very little to enjoy. Jamestown can be beaten in less than one hour, and there are many other games that have a much better value than this. What a waste.

Dungeons of Dredmor is a modern, turn-based, roguelike RPG, comparable to The Binding of Isaac. In it, you will enter randomly generated dungeons with various levels to explore, and a large amount of loot to collect and experiment with. The artwork is charming and adequate, albeit not too creative. There is even a crafting system, for those interested in hoarding items for the hope of usage as you progress. There is a tutorial with several chapters, but even then it fails to explain and introduce a few aspects of the game to the player, which leads to a slow-paced approach to learning how to play. Dungeons of Dredmor is more focused on exploration, rather than action. There are many items to find and experiment with, as well as the innumerable crafting combinations. It is also more difficult and less forgiving than The Binding of Isaac. Death comes from various means, and there will be many times where you will be overwhelmed by the enemies. There are also many skills to choose from when creating a new character, which makes each attempt at the game different each time. Personally, I have no interest in crafting. To be able to craft valuable items, you must hold on to many different items needed for a very long time, in hope that you eventually will be able to craft something worthwhile. This means that your inventory will be populated by mostly garbage. Besides, if you proceed through the levels deep enough, you will encounter good, quality items to equip your character with. This to me, makes crafting practically abandoned. As you go deeper in the dungeon, the appearance of the levels change, and become more interesting. There will also be more unique and challenging enemies to fight against. As with everything else in the game, the shopkeeper is populated in the levels at random. This means that sometimes you will need to go up or down a few levels to sell your loot. Dying and losing everything is part of the genre, but that doesn't stop it from being slightly frustrating. The game also tends to crash sometimes, which means you will lose all your progress and be forced to start over. The developers even added a Steam Achievement for this. Dungeons of Dredmor is a difficult game. More difficult than The Binding of Isaac. You will die much more often and much easier than you ever did in The Binding of Isaac, while accomplishing much less. Even though the game is filled with what is supposed to be clever humor, I personally did not find any of it funny, but it does not ever get in the way of the game's enjoyment. Unfortunately, any items that you equip during the game do not change the appearance of the character in any way. I feel that this particular shortcoming detracts from the indulgence of the game, as there are many items that would make the game much more interesting if they actually changed the character's looks. The constant dying and lack of real progression through the dungeon in this roguelike leaves much to be desired overall. It simply isn't as exciting or as rewarding as The Binding of Isaac. With that said, Dungeons of Dredmor is still a title that should be kept installed for future casual ventures as a more classical style of roguelike game. In moderation, and with much patience there is plenty of fun to be had with this game.

Crayon Physics Deluxe looks and feels like a Flash game that could be played entirely from any website. It also does not support true full screen nor does it support widescreen. Even though the music is nice and goes well with the theme, it gets repetitive rather quickly, since there are only three songs that repeat indefinitely. The game play itself is okay. It is a casual physics based puzzle game, and the overall initial experience is relaxing and calming. If you are able to complete each puzzle with minimal drawing, you will then be rewarded with more stars; which you collect throughout each physical riddle. The aesthetic is unique and inviting, even if the all-around design is simplistic and basic. Some puzzles are more complicated than others, which requires many more minutes in practice and execution, but eventually all is resolved. There are numerous ways to approach each puzzle, and the means necessary to complete each one is dependent on the player and style. Crayon Physics Deluxe is a very thin and shallow game. There are many levels and puzzles to get past, but their cleverness and excitement soon disappear. It feels as though you are solving the same puzzles over and over, with some minor changes from level to level. All of this gets very repetitive very quickly, and one grows tired of them quite easily. There is very little variation between each level, and the experience does become monotonous over time. After the first hour of game play and puzzle solving, you will grow tired and bored of Crayon Physics Deluxe. There is very little to this game, and there is even less in replay ability. The asking price is also absurd, and the developers should be ashamed of themselves for expecting people to pay as much as they are asking. Crayon Physics Deluxe is tolerable for no more than one hour, and even then, it is difficult to appreciate this effort for what it is trying to be.

In the first two hours, Aquaria is extremely uneventful and uninteresting. You will feel as though the music is bland and repetitive, the art is adequate but not unique in any way, and the game play is tedious. There is really not much going on in the game world or around you in the beginning. All you are doing is maneuvering the main character around the screen with very simple controls. Because the game play is so dull in the initial couple hours, this may deter many gamers from continuing. After you earn a couple special powers, Aquaria becomes something almost entirely different than the initial experience. It is a mixture of Ecco the Dolphin, Metroid, and Castlevania. The singing mechanic is elaborate and well thought out even if it takes a little getting used to. The cooking system is also fresh and unique, giving the player access to various combinations for producing food items and power-ups with special temporary effects. Combat is interesting and the controls are decent. At times it is a bit confusing since there are often sections of the map that you do not have access to as you go past them at first, which gives the player a feeling of having missed something. In addition to this, you will reach areas of the game world that attempt to give you direction, but end up being ambiguous and cryptic, making your progression unclear. This problem means that several aspects of the game will force the player to seek help through FAQs and guide maps. The save system requires the player to go to certain specific areas that are not widely available in order to save your progress. This means that if you die and haven't saved in a while, everything accomplished and explored since your last save must be done again, as if it never happened before. These save areas are often very far from each other, which adds severely to the problem. Once you adapt to this save system shortcoming, you will be prepared to backtrack just to save your game. The world map gets extremely convoluted and disorganized because some sections often overlap others. This can cause confusion and disorientation as you travel around the world. The enemies design is often interesting, albeit predictable, as you can imagine many of the creatures you encounter are from the sea. The different forms and abilities you will learn during the game are creative and fun to use, making them the highlight of Aquaria. Some instances during the game seem too cryptic and if you accidentally pass these areas by without noticing, it is possible that you may go through the rest of the game without certain items and abilities because of this design flaw. Some things happen in the game without any explanation whatsoever, which leaves the player, once again, disoriented. In addition to the forms and abilities you will learn, the other interesting and fun aspect of Aquaria is in the exploration of this large game world. The bosses are challenging, well designed, and fun to fight against. The mechanics required to defeat them make sense and puts all your skills and abilities to the test. Accomplishing some of the needed tasks in this game is so unintuitive, obscure, unclear, and unobvious that there is simply no way to figure them out on your own without seeking help with a FAQ. There are some parts of Aquaria that requires you to be out of the water. This brings some of the worst platform jumping controls I have played in any game, but all is forgiven as these instances are rare. Forgiving the save system and the occasionally extremely unclear and ambiguous progression, Aquaria can be enjoyed thoroughly. It took me about 29 hours to complete.