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Better than I thought it would be considering the person who gifted it to me said "average gameplay, phenomenal premise". While his statement may ring true, I do think Hellblade achieves its own goals rather nicely. It's a game that relies heavily on its presentation and not simply graphically. The protagonist, Senua, suffers from what appears to a modern player as some sort of psychosis. The interesting part lies in the fact that the game takes place in the eighth century, and as far as Senua is concerned, this is her reality, and everyone else shuns her as cursed. This lends the game a very unique perspective not often seen, and this is portrayed visually and aurally with artifacts and minor light hallucinations occasionally peppering the screen, and numerous voices which constantly fill the surround channels at varying distances. It's very artistically interesting to step into the shoes of a character like this and one that feels not only highly immersive but also highly respectful to those suffering from it in real life. While I wasn't fully on board with the game's writing at the beginning, and unsure how to feel throughout, by the time the game ended I felt that Ninja Theory had done a great job telling a story that felt very intimately personal yet grand in scale despite the relatively small scope. Senua comes out of her shell as the narrative progresses and it's satisfying to see her become more confident in her abilities and quest, before finally coming to terms with the fact that not all of her problems were her fault. Uncovering the game's story through creatively told flashbacks at key points in the game feels like unraveling the bandaged head tied to Senua's hip, and by the conclusion, it all felt satisfying. While I'm not sure how the lore tomes tie into the game's narrative or themes, it is fun to hear Druth tell his stories.
The main make-or-break here is going to be the game design for most people, though I found it to be competent enough to be unproblematic. The combat isn't anything special, in fact, it's probably been seen in tons of other games in the same generation alone. Even in hard mode, it's not particularly challenging after a couple of hours and you really can just spam the dodge to escape all enemy attacks. Despite this, there's enough enemy variety to keep things varied enough, and you can't use the same strategy with all of them. The game probably could have benefitted from more of that, but what's here is fine. There is a visceral feeling nature to the combat and I think the visual feedback as well as seeing your enemies visibly represent the damage they've taken through different animations does make it satisfying at the very least, even if it's relatively simple and not particularly creative. The puzzles are generally fine as well. They require you to locate patterns within the environment, forcing you to view the game world from a variety of unusual perspectives to progress. While nothing mindblowing, these puzzles can often be clever and do require you to think outside of the box. Sometimes I felt they overstayed their welcome and had wished for a return of combat, but Hellblade generally gives you enough new puzzle mechanics to not be boring. The only outright bad part of the gameplay I'd say is a fire maze near the end of the game, which requires you to locate these patterns while on the run from a burning wall of flame. It requires a lot of random running around and trial and error before you get it right, but not in a way that feels like you've overcome it, rather feeling as if you got lucky. Despite this, I think Hellblade's gameplay is largely serviceable, nothing too special but with memorable moments here and there. Not bad at all, but you'll be playing this for the story.
Hellblade was made with a team of around twenty people, which makes the game's visual presentation all the more impressive. It genuinely matches the quality you'd see in a lot of AAA games from the mid-2010s, featuring well-defined environments, decent texture quality, and phenomenal character models. Seriously, Senua's model looks damn near lifelike, with an impressive amount of fidelity and great facial animation enhancing the emotion of the story. With a lesser art team, the game's story wouldn't be as effective as you wouldn't connect to Senua's emotions on a sensory level. Ninja Theory also updated the game to take advantage of ray-traced shadows and reflections, both of which look fantastic and add heavily to the realism of the game world. Occasionally there'd be a low-resolution texture in plain view, but this wasn't a frequent issue. I also loved the incredibly creative blending of live-action footage with the in-engine graphics during cutscenes, which was not only neat from a visual standpoint but also pulled off well. If there's anything about the presentation I wasn't a huge fan of, it's that the monster designs aren't all that unique. They're largely fine, but they don't strike me as particularly creative, simply representing distorted people. Valravn was the exception, whose mangled raven-like design reminded me of something from a more creative version of Silent Hill Downpour. The game also runs pretty well at max settings with ray-tracing and balanced DLSS at 1440p, usually averaging around 80-100 FPS depending on the sequence. However, like a lot of Unreal Engine 4 games, Hellblade does occasionally suffer from annoying shader compilation stutter. While much less egregious than a lot of games, it's still distracting when it happens. While I suppose that's the consequence of having a loading-screen-less game world, it doesn't make it pleasant either. The game's soundtrack is also very good, featuring very Nordic-inspired composition and instrumentation. It feels appropriately epic when it needs to, with Hela and River of Knives being good examples. It can also be appropriately atmospheric when need be, though the ambient tracks I found less interesting when divorced from the context of the game.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice isn't going to be a game that appeals to everyone, but I feel that it's a good game that achieves the specific goals that Ninja Theory set out. With its respectful portrayal of psychosis, its rare and fascinating perspective, and strong visual and aural presentation, it does make for a unique game experience in terms of immersing yourself into the shoes of someone different from yourself. However, the gameplay isn't anything all that special, and if you require every game you play to be mechanically innovative, Hellblade will not appeal to you. Despite this, it still comes recommended from me.
The main make-or-break here is going to be the game design for most people, though I found it to be competent enough to be unproblematic. The combat isn't anything special, in fact, it's probably been seen in tons of other games in the same generation alone. Even in hard mode, it's not particularly challenging after a couple of hours and you really can just spam the dodge to escape all enemy attacks. Despite this, there's enough enemy variety to keep things varied enough, and you can't use the same strategy with all of them. The game probably could have benefitted from more of that, but what's here is fine. There is a visceral feeling nature to the combat and I think the visual feedback as well as seeing your enemies visibly represent the damage they've taken through different animations does make it satisfying at the very least, even if it's relatively simple and not particularly creative. The puzzles are generally fine as well. They require you to locate patterns within the environment, forcing you to view the game world from a variety of unusual perspectives to progress. While nothing mindblowing, these puzzles can often be clever and do require you to think outside of the box. Sometimes I felt they overstayed their welcome and had wished for a return of combat, but Hellblade generally gives you enough new puzzle mechanics to not be boring. The only outright bad part of the gameplay I'd say is a fire maze near the end of the game, which requires you to locate these patterns while on the run from a burning wall of flame. It requires a lot of random running around and trial and error before you get it right, but not in a way that feels like you've overcome it, rather feeling as if you got lucky. Despite this, I think Hellblade's gameplay is largely serviceable, nothing too special but with memorable moments here and there. Not bad at all, but you'll be playing this for the story.
Hellblade was made with a team of around twenty people, which makes the game's visual presentation all the more impressive. It genuinely matches the quality you'd see in a lot of AAA games from the mid-2010s, featuring well-defined environments, decent texture quality, and phenomenal character models. Seriously, Senua's model looks damn near lifelike, with an impressive amount of fidelity and great facial animation enhancing the emotion of the story. With a lesser art team, the game's story wouldn't be as effective as you wouldn't connect to Senua's emotions on a sensory level. Ninja Theory also updated the game to take advantage of ray-traced shadows and reflections, both of which look fantastic and add heavily to the realism of the game world. Occasionally there'd be a low-resolution texture in plain view, but this wasn't a frequent issue. I also loved the incredibly creative blending of live-action footage with the in-engine graphics during cutscenes, which was not only neat from a visual standpoint but also pulled off well. If there's anything about the presentation I wasn't a huge fan of, it's that the monster designs aren't all that unique. They're largely fine, but they don't strike me as particularly creative, simply representing distorted people. Valravn was the exception, whose mangled raven-like design reminded me of something from a more creative version of Silent Hill Downpour. The game also runs pretty well at max settings with ray-tracing and balanced DLSS at 1440p, usually averaging around 80-100 FPS depending on the sequence. However, like a lot of Unreal Engine 4 games, Hellblade does occasionally suffer from annoying shader compilation stutter. While much less egregious than a lot of games, it's still distracting when it happens. While I suppose that's the consequence of having a loading-screen-less game world, it doesn't make it pleasant either. The game's soundtrack is also very good, featuring very Nordic-inspired composition and instrumentation. It feels appropriately epic when it needs to, with Hela and River of Knives being good examples. It can also be appropriately atmospheric when need be, though the ambient tracks I found less interesting when divorced from the context of the game.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice isn't going to be a game that appeals to everyone, but I feel that it's a good game that achieves the specific goals that Ninja Theory set out. With its respectful portrayal of psychosis, its rare and fascinating perspective, and strong visual and aural presentation, it does make for a unique game experience in terms of immersing yourself into the shoes of someone different from yourself. However, the gameplay isn't anything all that special, and if you require every game you play to be mechanically innovative, Hellblade will not appeal to you. Despite this, it still comes recommended from me.
I'm a sucker for light gun shooters and while I still found it to be a moderately enjoyable experience overall, it's clear The Umbrella Chronicles could have been much more. When it's at its best, it manages to be not only enjoyable on its own but also a fun romp through Resident Evil nostalgia. At its worst though, it's padded, tedious, and frankly frustrating. The game doesn't have a continuous narrative, but rather multiple sub-scenarios with contained plots. The best of these is easily the Resident Evil Remake scenario, which is probably the most consistently well-designed of the bunch. Revisiting my favorite RE game in full 3D but being able to gun down every enemy that gave me trouble prior was both fun and exciting. Resident Evil Zero's scenario was no slouch either. While Zero was never exactly the most creative or exciting RE game, it's represented well here with great recreations of its locations and solid design. Umbrella's End, the only scenario with an original story is pretty solid as well, featuring a cool Russian location, increased difficulty, and a story that ties into future RE games (though admittedly not too well). All of this sounds pretty solid, and you'd be right, the game's shooting can be good fun and the variety of locations and playable characters means you won't get too bored easily. However, the game is a bit slower than your average light gun shooter, and I think it could have benefitted from being sped up a bit. The main problem with The Umbrella Chronicles is that at some point, developer Cavia just seemingly got lazy. Resident Evil 3's scenario isn't even an adaptation of the game it's supposedly based on. You never visit any of the locations from RE3 nor fight any of the unique enemies from it. Every enemy is taken from the other scenarios, and every map is ripped straight out of Resident Evil Outbreak borderline unchanged, you can't make that up. Nemesis, an antagonist so iconic and imposing that he was in the title of the original game, doesn't even show up until the last of the RE3 levels and you never see him go one-winged angel as he did in the original. All of the smaller mini-scenarios, while they fill in additional lore details that had previously gone unexplained in the mainline games, just reuse areas from the main scenarios and aren't worth playing.
These mini-scenarios do have a narrative line that does somewhat continue through them, however, featuring a new antagonist, Sergei Vladimir, who rivals Albert Wesker for control of the Umbrella Corporation. Sergei is unfortunately a very boring villain, encapsulating almost every evil Russian general trope that every piece of media since the 1980s has repeated ad nauseam. His motivations are to revive the TALOS project, yet another Tyrant offshoot whom he refers to as "beautiful" as all RE villains tend to do, and of course, mutates into a giant grotesque monster at the end. He's as par for the course as they come for the series and his villainy is constantly upstaged by Wesker's cool swagger, only further proving how uninteresting he is. Nevertheless, although The Umbrella Chronicles' original story isn't very entertaining, I will give props to Cavia for attempting to solve previously unanswered questions about certain events in the mainline series, which it does relatively well. It's nothing exceptional, but I can always appreciate fleshing out a pre-existing world in a matter that is consistent with the original works. The framing of each scenario as Wesker writing a report on past events is also rather cool.
I've always said that one of the parts of light gun shooters that appealed to me is that they tended to be rather flashy fun despite their shallow nature, and visually The Umbrella Chronicles mostly looks the part. The environments from RE0 and RE1R are lovingly recreated in full 3D with great accuracy if my memory serves me well. There is sufficient detail in these environments and I love the degree of destruction that the player can cause with their grenades, which makes it feel like your rather simple actions do affect the world around you, and is also just rather satisfying. Enemy models also look the part well enough, however, I am pretty sure most of them are ripped directly from their respective games. However, this is where the positives mostly end, and the rest of the game looks rather cheap. Character models animate rather stiffly, and while this isn't the biggest deal in the world considering the game is primarily in first-person, it looks rather awkward any time the game attempts any sort of cinematic cutscene. As I stated prior, the RE3 scenario quite directly reuses maps from Outbreak on the PlayStation 2, and while I'd argue Outbreak was one of the best-looking games on the platform, it was primarily played from a rather distant third-person perspective. When these maps are viewed up close, their weaknesses, such as absurdly low-resolution textures are revealed and therefore cannot match the fidelity offered by the rest of the game. The pre-rendered CGI cutscenes aren't very good either. While they may look decent in still frames, they animate rather awkwardly and the lip sync is always at least a little bit off. On the flip side, however, the game's soundtrack is more promising. While it does fall into pretty conventional RE territory, it's a very well-produced score that for the most part effectively underlines the mood and tone the game needs to meet. However, there were some points where I felt the music was simply too calm for the action on screen, such as "Raccoon's Destruction" which sounded more like something from a James Bond porn parody rather than Resident Evil.
Although this review seems predominantly negative, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is still a decent time in the right hands. If you're a fan of the series, the game offers quite a lot for you, such as nostalgic recreations of past locations, additional bits of lore that prior games left blank, and a decent amount of replayability as the game has quite a lot of unlockable memos which help expand upon the universe. However, if you're not a fan of the series, you may be turned off by the slower-paced gameplay, the inconsistent scenario quality, and the amount of padding the game can have at points. There are certainly better light gun games on the Wii, but this certainly isn't a bad one by any stretch of the imagination.
These mini-scenarios do have a narrative line that does somewhat continue through them, however, featuring a new antagonist, Sergei Vladimir, who rivals Albert Wesker for control of the Umbrella Corporation. Sergei is unfortunately a very boring villain, encapsulating almost every evil Russian general trope that every piece of media since the 1980s has repeated ad nauseam. His motivations are to revive the TALOS project, yet another Tyrant offshoot whom he refers to as "beautiful" as all RE villains tend to do, and of course, mutates into a giant grotesque monster at the end. He's as par for the course as they come for the series and his villainy is constantly upstaged by Wesker's cool swagger, only further proving how uninteresting he is. Nevertheless, although The Umbrella Chronicles' original story isn't very entertaining, I will give props to Cavia for attempting to solve previously unanswered questions about certain events in the mainline series, which it does relatively well. It's nothing exceptional, but I can always appreciate fleshing out a pre-existing world in a matter that is consistent with the original works. The framing of each scenario as Wesker writing a report on past events is also rather cool.
I've always said that one of the parts of light gun shooters that appealed to me is that they tended to be rather flashy fun despite their shallow nature, and visually The Umbrella Chronicles mostly looks the part. The environments from RE0 and RE1R are lovingly recreated in full 3D with great accuracy if my memory serves me well. There is sufficient detail in these environments and I love the degree of destruction that the player can cause with their grenades, which makes it feel like your rather simple actions do affect the world around you, and is also just rather satisfying. Enemy models also look the part well enough, however, I am pretty sure most of them are ripped directly from their respective games. However, this is where the positives mostly end, and the rest of the game looks rather cheap. Character models animate rather stiffly, and while this isn't the biggest deal in the world considering the game is primarily in first-person, it looks rather awkward any time the game attempts any sort of cinematic cutscene. As I stated prior, the RE3 scenario quite directly reuses maps from Outbreak on the PlayStation 2, and while I'd argue Outbreak was one of the best-looking games on the platform, it was primarily played from a rather distant third-person perspective. When these maps are viewed up close, their weaknesses, such as absurdly low-resolution textures are revealed and therefore cannot match the fidelity offered by the rest of the game. The pre-rendered CGI cutscenes aren't very good either. While they may look decent in still frames, they animate rather awkwardly and the lip sync is always at least a little bit off. On the flip side, however, the game's soundtrack is more promising. While it does fall into pretty conventional RE territory, it's a very well-produced score that for the most part effectively underlines the mood and tone the game needs to meet. However, there were some points where I felt the music was simply too calm for the action on screen, such as "Raccoon's Destruction" which sounded more like something from a James Bond porn parody rather than Resident Evil.
Although this review seems predominantly negative, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles is still a decent time in the right hands. If you're a fan of the series, the game offers quite a lot for you, such as nostalgic recreations of past locations, additional bits of lore that prior games left blank, and a decent amount of replayability as the game has quite a lot of unlockable memos which help expand upon the universe. However, if you're not a fan of the series, you may be turned off by the slower-paced gameplay, the inconsistent scenario quality, and the amount of padding the game can have at points. There are certainly better light gun games on the Wii, but this certainly isn't a bad one by any stretch of the imagination.
Easily one of the most innovative and unique games I have ever played, System Shock proves that even 28 years later it remains a highly immersive and enjoyable experience. Despite hearing numerous statements that the game was like "playing an operating system", I was surprised by how intuitive the game's mechanics and user interface were. There certainly is a learning curve, but I got used to it after about fifteen minutes, and I found the game to be a remarkably rewarding experience. Despite having many elements in common with shooters of the era, the game is endlessly dedicated to immersing you as much as it can via its mechanics. A big part of this is the weaponry, and how different enemies react to other weapons and ammo types. Cyborgs and robots will go down easier with armor-piercing rounds, though traditional ammunition is best used on the mutants. The labyrinthine and nonlinear level design is also fantastic, allowing the player to return to every floor at any time and even requiring backtracking to complete missions, requiring memorization of each of the floors' different rooms to best optimize paths and shortcuts. This gives the player a strong Metroidvania-esque feeling of returning to previously challenging locations with upgraded abilities, giving you a brief power trip in a game otherwise set out to crush you at every turn. While I don't see System Shock as an unfair game by any means, it is certainly outwardly hostile to you at every turn. Everything in this game, from the enemies, the environments, and even your weaponry can turn you into red paste, necessitating a careful approach to every step you take. This is echoed in the game's storytelling, isolated to audio logs (one of the first games to use them!) detailing what exactly happened on Citadel Station before you awoke, and spelling impending doom for those recording. You never meet another human being in this game due to the limitations of the time, so your interactions are solely limited to logs or calls. This lends a tone of utter isolation and dread to the game, and while I wouldn't call it a horror game by any means, System Shock definitely could have been one under a different context. Shodan's mocking speeches to the player are not only eloquent but also performed wonderfully by Terri Brosius, who feels incredibly convincing in her spiteful hatred of humanity and delusions of godhood. The game does a wonderful job of conveying not only its scenario but also smaller details about the world via these logs and it's easy to see why it became a mainstay of the genre. The game's visuals are no slouch either. While they may be seen as incredibly dated nowadays, there simply wasn't a 3D PC game at the time that looked better than System Shock. For example, Doom 2 came out the same year, and while not a bad-looking game by any means, doesn't render environments in nearly the same detail as System Shock. The environments are surprisingly detailed and every tile which makes up the game world even has a name. You'll even find proper 3D objects such as cabinets and test tubes adorning the space. This is paired with a varied, atmospheric, and inventive soundtrack that features futuristic electronic sounds, epic guitar solos, pan flutes, and even good old Nine Inch Nails-inspired grinding industrial. It all adds to an atmosphere that is not only immersive but unique as well and serves the purposes of the game perfectly.
System Shock to this day is a phenomenal game, almost perfectly weaving RPG and adventure game elements into a shooter package and inspiring so many games afterward. Through a combination of immersive gameplay, strong worldbuilding, and a fantastic atmosphere, it still makes for a highly entertaining time even nowadays. Sure, there may be minor flaws, level 3 is brief but hellishly unfun, and cyberspace is a gimmicky mechanic, but these feel so minor in contrast to the game's qualities. Highly recommended.
System Shock to this day is a phenomenal game, almost perfectly weaving RPG and adventure game elements into a shooter package and inspiring so many games afterward. Through a combination of immersive gameplay, strong worldbuilding, and a fantastic atmosphere, it still makes for a highly entertaining time even nowadays. Sure, there may be minor flaws, level 3 is brief but hellishly unfun, and cyberspace is a gimmicky mechanic, but these feel so minor in contrast to the game's qualities. Highly recommended.
2023
There really isn't much about this experience that is redeeming at all. Repetitive and clunky puzzle mechanics, a total lack of any authentic atmosphere or scares, basic and unfinished-looking visuals even at max settings, and an extreme lack of any creativity whatsoever really sinks an experience that didn't have very much promise to begin with. Even for a short 30-minute game this really isn't worth your time, you could play literally anything else.
Was writing a giant review but decided this would be better for a YouTube video, but tl;dr the game is good, has a wonderful world and gorgeous environments, not to mention is easier to get into than most MMOs, but the base 2.0 ARR story is bland and the pacing is off. Still recommended as it is something truly special
Probably the best version of the original Resident Evil to date. This was a labor of love from everyone involved and it's surreal to see Capcom put so much effort into this yet not port the game to any modern platforms. Deadly Silence comes jam-packed with content, containing not only the original RE1 with its two campaigns but also a Rebirth mode that features revamped balancing, difficulty, and puzzles that take advantage of the DS's hardware. The new balancing provides more ammo and more enemies, making it a more action-heavy experience, which is different but not unwelcome. The new puzzles are all reasonably gimmicky but it is shocking how well they fit the tone of the game without feeling too out of place. There are occasional first-person knifing segments which are probably the most gimmicky aspect of the port, but still provide a surprising amount of fun and challenge. It even has a Mercenaries-style side mode which, while I didn't dive into it that much, seems to be a fun distraction for a while.
Something you'd think wouldn't have improved is the graphics, which Capcom has rather tastefully updated. 3D models have been overhauled to have better points of articulation and generally more detail, providing a moderate boost to realism but without clashing with the unchanged pre-rendered backgrounds. Speaking of presentation, it's impressive how much of RE1 remains in this port fairly uncompromised. Audio quality is naturally compressed (especially noticeable when playing with a nice pair of headphones) but sounds reasonably well most of the time, except for a stray voice line here and there. The FMVs are all here and accounted for, and while compressed to the point of ugliness (a black and white sequence early on even has unintentionally added color due to the compression!) I think it's impressive that they managed to include all of them. It's a shame, however, that the intro sequence is the censored version, which is an odd choice considering the game is still rated M and the first zombie cutscene is uncensored.
Despite the odd censorship, I think Capcom has done a very admirable job porting RE1 to the DS in what is potentially the best port of the game thus far. I'd highly recommend Deadly Silence to Resident Evil fans who need a new spin on the PS1 classic, as well as DS users who are looking for a horror experience for their classic handheld (just make sure to play on classic mode for a first-time playthrough!)
Something you'd think wouldn't have improved is the graphics, which Capcom has rather tastefully updated. 3D models have been overhauled to have better points of articulation and generally more detail, providing a moderate boost to realism but without clashing with the unchanged pre-rendered backgrounds. Speaking of presentation, it's impressive how much of RE1 remains in this port fairly uncompromised. Audio quality is naturally compressed (especially noticeable when playing with a nice pair of headphones) but sounds reasonably well most of the time, except for a stray voice line here and there. The FMVs are all here and accounted for, and while compressed to the point of ugliness (a black and white sequence early on even has unintentionally added color due to the compression!) I think it's impressive that they managed to include all of them. It's a shame, however, that the intro sequence is the censored version, which is an odd choice considering the game is still rated M and the first zombie cutscene is uncensored.
Despite the odd censorship, I think Capcom has done a very admirable job porting RE1 to the DS in what is potentially the best port of the game thus far. I'd highly recommend Deadly Silence to Resident Evil fans who need a new spin on the PS1 classic, as well as DS users who are looking for a horror experience for their classic handheld (just make sure to play on classic mode for a first-time playthrough!)
1986
Entertaining gameplay loop, I love that it's a much more rigid platformer than, say, Mega Man, every move needs to be planned and you need to play carefully because jumping, for example, cannot be canceled and you need to commit to every action. The level design is generally pretty good and there's much room for you to use your movement to the best of your abilities. I love the individual abilities and how each has its purpose and different enemies they're good against. I will say though, the difficulty progression is kind of fucked, Frankenstein's level is smack in the middle of the game and I easily spent the most time there, the other two following levels are way easier and it doesn't feel as natural as it should.
Visually I think the game looks generally fine, I love the art direction's musky castles and old Universal horror movie monsters for bosses. The Mummy, Frankenstein, and Dracula are bosses, and hell the Creature from the Black Lagoon is a regular enemy, which appeases the film student in me. I think the character sprites are detailed and animate fluidly, but the environments are a bit messy, many backgrounds look like a clusterfuck of messy tilework with little cohesion. The soundtrack is amazing though, each level tune is an earworm that I found myself humming throughout the day, it's just passionate 8-bit glory, Wicked Child was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Overall, a very solid platformer that benefits from a great gameplay loop, fun levels, and a fantastic soundtrack, but occasionally unfair difficulty spikes and messy graphics do drag it down a bit.
Visually I think the game looks generally fine, I love the art direction's musky castles and old Universal horror movie monsters for bosses. The Mummy, Frankenstein, and Dracula are bosses, and hell the Creature from the Black Lagoon is a regular enemy, which appeases the film student in me. I think the character sprites are detailed and animate fluidly, but the environments are a bit messy, many backgrounds look like a clusterfuck of messy tilework with little cohesion. The soundtrack is amazing though, each level tune is an earworm that I found myself humming throughout the day, it's just passionate 8-bit glory, Wicked Child was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Overall, a very solid platformer that benefits from a great gameplay loop, fun levels, and a fantastic soundtrack, but occasionally unfair difficulty spikes and messy graphics do drag it down a bit.
Pretty solid DLC for an already solid game. The only thing that's outright improved is the writing, which is a lot more engaging narratively and actually has an interesting mystery to follow, as well as some character development for Jacob Rivers. The rest is pretty consistent with the base game, more decent gameplay and fantastic atmosphere for Terminator fans to eat up. Some of the vistas are genuinely gorgeous and the inclusion of T-600s is really cool. Definitely worth the $15
2002
The Thing starts pretty interestingly but about halfway through begins to quickly lose steam. A lot of the fantastic ideas the game started with (managing a squad of different talents, the trust system, the potential for any of your teammates to be assimilated, the cold system) just aren't super important midway through the game anymore and it transitions into a very average third-person shooter for the time. It's not bad at any point (except for the awful boss fights). Still, it just eventually descends into TPS tedium and thing creatures even become a secondary enemy type compared to the human soldiers. The story has a few interesting concepts (like someone willingly infecting themselves) but otherwise feels kind of disappointingly nonexistent past the halfway point. Visually, the game is pretty on par with what was expected at the time. Environments are sufficiently detailed and there seems to have been a decent amount of thought put into the actual layout of each building. Character models look a bit behind the times, resembling Half-Life models but with slightly more geometry, but the high-resolution textures lend them a bit more realism. The cinematography, admirably, has more thought put into it than most games of the era. All of this goes out the window, however, midway through the game, when the creative environments and level layouts eventually decent into bland metal corridors with very little variety, hardly even letting you see the snow. The game could also heavily benefit from any sort of soundtrack to enhance the atmosphere, with the game only resorting to short little stingers during dramatic moments. This game had a lot of potentials and starts strong, but it just kind of fizzled out and maybe needed a sequel to fully refine the genuinely good ideas the game has.
I got Piotr Łatocha's Terminator: Resistance for my birthday after keeping my eyes on it for a long time now. Many Terminator fans call Resistance their new "Terminator 3" and I can see why. It's a genuinely good game made by people who were massive fans of the franchise, despite its flaws.
The game design is nothing special. It takes elements from numerous different AAA games over the years but plays most similar to a combination of Fallout and Far Cry, jank included. Side quests, lockpicking, item crafting, leveling trees, etc. It's all here and feels like Teyon trying to fill the big boy AAA shoes with a fraction of the budget and staff. Despite this, it's all designed well. The game is legitimately fun and the enemy/weapon scaling and balance is on point. Enemies always feel like a threat, even in the late game, especially the T-800 Terminators, which are entirely immune to ballistic weaponry. This means you have to sneak around them most of the time as direct engagements will result in a quick and painful death. Eventually, you'll gain the means to destroy them, whether it be stealth kills via the limited Termination Knives or acquiring laser weaponry of your own, but the T-800s never once feel like they've become cannon fodder. Teyon nailing this element was so key to them achieving the proper balance between fun gameplay and making the Terminators formidable, threatening, and scary. The side quests are once again, nothing too special but the game does make sure to remind you hours later that you completed them, like for example, showing a little kid playing with the puppy you rescued for him. My only real complaint from a gameplay standpoint is the choice system, which while perfectly serviceable feels like it does the bare minimum to make your choices matter, with the only real payoff being the supporting characters trusting you enough to leave the resistance bunker before the Skynet attack.
The story is pretty so-so. It's not that it's necessarily bad as much as it is just going through the motions. When you picture a "Terminator future war story" in your head, Resistance's story is exactly what you think of. It hits quite literally all of the beats you'd expect, and there are no surprises. Don't get me wrong, there aren't any plot holes, at least none that are significant, and it all works fine, but it just can't help but feel unambitious. It doesn't help that protagonist Jacob Rivers isn't much of a character himself. You get to customize his personality to a limited extent by choosing how he reacts to certain situations but otherwise, he's a pretty standard heroic soldier type, always wanting to do the right thing and having very little complexity to him. Where the writing shines is the supporting characters, who all have fully fleshed-out backstories. Each one has their past, their trauma, and their own "where were you on Judgement Day" type experiences, which are gradually revealed the more and more they trust you. Not only does this make each character feel believable and realistic, but it adds significantly to the lore, such as when Erin, the doctor, describes living in a Skynet work camp and being faced with a Skynet machine they nicknamed "Nurse Ratched", which had a stretched out rubber face made to look like it was smiling. It makes the world and characters feel fleshed out even if the story itself is fairly cliche. The only character I felt was weak was Commander Baron, who despite having a similarly detailed backstory, never really diverts far enough from action girl cliches to be memorable.
The visuals are limited by a lack of budget, but they capture the mood of the first two films so well. The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and its many quirks and traits can be seen throughout, such as overly shiny metal and glossy skin. I like to call the game "gorgeous at a distance" because when you're not looking at things too closely, it's often beautiful. Environments are nicely detailed, the enemy models look the part and animate well, and lighting is used exceptionally well to craft an oppressive and downtrodden mood. However, once you get closer you'll notice that, likely due to the budget, things aren't always up to par. First-person animations can be somewhat stiff, textures don't have parity with some being lower quality than others, and character faces are often hit or miss, with some looking solid and others looking downright uncanny valley. The game also suffers from a somewhat low view distance even at maximum settings, which can cause more object and LOD pop-in than I am comfortable with in a game from 2019. However, despite all of this, the game's impeccable art direction shines through. It perfectly matches the tone and feel of James Cameron's first two Terminator films. Steely blue god rays pour through ruined buildings, highways and skyscrapers rot from nuclear decay, a Skynet aerial HK flies through the air, spotlight sweeping through the rubble for survivors. Skulls pepper the ground, crushed into dust by oncoming Terminators. It feels like you're playing through one of Cameron's films and it's easily the highlight of the whole game. The whole game is filled to the brim with fanservice that always feels appropriate and never excessive. Despite some technical flaws, the game nails the tone it needs to.
The soundtrack, composed by a trio of musicians, like the visuals, nails the sound of Cameron's films. Synth and percussion-heavy, it's often tense, melodic, and moody. Some songs have been taken and rearranged from Brad Fidel's film score and they're used effectively. The original compositions hold their own as well and they can often hype you up, scare you, or even convey beauty at points.
Terminator: Resistance is a good, if flawed, game that actively exudes fanservice without ever feeling contrived or gaudy. Although the game struggles with uninspired gameplay, low-budget rendering, and a predictable plot, it succeeds in its atmosphere, art direction, soundtrack, and character writing. Highly recommended for Terminator fans, and fans of RPG shooters in general.
The game design is nothing special. It takes elements from numerous different AAA games over the years but plays most similar to a combination of Fallout and Far Cry, jank included. Side quests, lockpicking, item crafting, leveling trees, etc. It's all here and feels like Teyon trying to fill the big boy AAA shoes with a fraction of the budget and staff. Despite this, it's all designed well. The game is legitimately fun and the enemy/weapon scaling and balance is on point. Enemies always feel like a threat, even in the late game, especially the T-800 Terminators, which are entirely immune to ballistic weaponry. This means you have to sneak around them most of the time as direct engagements will result in a quick and painful death. Eventually, you'll gain the means to destroy them, whether it be stealth kills via the limited Termination Knives or acquiring laser weaponry of your own, but the T-800s never once feel like they've become cannon fodder. Teyon nailing this element was so key to them achieving the proper balance between fun gameplay and making the Terminators formidable, threatening, and scary. The side quests are once again, nothing too special but the game does make sure to remind you hours later that you completed them, like for example, showing a little kid playing with the puppy you rescued for him. My only real complaint from a gameplay standpoint is the choice system, which while perfectly serviceable feels like it does the bare minimum to make your choices matter, with the only real payoff being the supporting characters trusting you enough to leave the resistance bunker before the Skynet attack.
The story is pretty so-so. It's not that it's necessarily bad as much as it is just going through the motions. When you picture a "Terminator future war story" in your head, Resistance's story is exactly what you think of. It hits quite literally all of the beats you'd expect, and there are no surprises. Don't get me wrong, there aren't any plot holes, at least none that are significant, and it all works fine, but it just can't help but feel unambitious. It doesn't help that protagonist Jacob Rivers isn't much of a character himself. You get to customize his personality to a limited extent by choosing how he reacts to certain situations but otherwise, he's a pretty standard heroic soldier type, always wanting to do the right thing and having very little complexity to him. Where the writing shines is the supporting characters, who all have fully fleshed-out backstories. Each one has their past, their trauma, and their own "where were you on Judgement Day" type experiences, which are gradually revealed the more and more they trust you. Not only does this make each character feel believable and realistic, but it adds significantly to the lore, such as when Erin, the doctor, describes living in a Skynet work camp and being faced with a Skynet machine they nicknamed "Nurse Ratched", which had a stretched out rubber face made to look like it was smiling. It makes the world and characters feel fleshed out even if the story itself is fairly cliche. The only character I felt was weak was Commander Baron, who despite having a similarly detailed backstory, never really diverts far enough from action girl cliches to be memorable.
The visuals are limited by a lack of budget, but they capture the mood of the first two films so well. The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and its many quirks and traits can be seen throughout, such as overly shiny metal and glossy skin. I like to call the game "gorgeous at a distance" because when you're not looking at things too closely, it's often beautiful. Environments are nicely detailed, the enemy models look the part and animate well, and lighting is used exceptionally well to craft an oppressive and downtrodden mood. However, once you get closer you'll notice that, likely due to the budget, things aren't always up to par. First-person animations can be somewhat stiff, textures don't have parity with some being lower quality than others, and character faces are often hit or miss, with some looking solid and others looking downright uncanny valley. The game also suffers from a somewhat low view distance even at maximum settings, which can cause more object and LOD pop-in than I am comfortable with in a game from 2019. However, despite all of this, the game's impeccable art direction shines through. It perfectly matches the tone and feel of James Cameron's first two Terminator films. Steely blue god rays pour through ruined buildings, highways and skyscrapers rot from nuclear decay, a Skynet aerial HK flies through the air, spotlight sweeping through the rubble for survivors. Skulls pepper the ground, crushed into dust by oncoming Terminators. It feels like you're playing through one of Cameron's films and it's easily the highlight of the whole game. The whole game is filled to the brim with fanservice that always feels appropriate and never excessive. Despite some technical flaws, the game nails the tone it needs to.
The soundtrack, composed by a trio of musicians, like the visuals, nails the sound of Cameron's films. Synth and percussion-heavy, it's often tense, melodic, and moody. Some songs have been taken and rearranged from Brad Fidel's film score and they're used effectively. The original compositions hold their own as well and they can often hype you up, scare you, or even convey beauty at points.
Terminator: Resistance is a good, if flawed, game that actively exudes fanservice without ever feeling contrived or gaudy. Although the game struggles with uninspired gameplay, low-budget rendering, and a predictable plot, it succeeds in its atmosphere, art direction, soundtrack, and character writing. Highly recommended for Terminator fans, and fans of RPG shooters in general.
In some ways superior and inferior to the original Outbreak, Eiichiro Sasaki's Outbreak File #2 largely matches the bar set by the first game, though hardly exceeds it. Scenario design is once again incredibly strong for the most part. Wild Things, Desperate Times, and End of the Road are all very solid levels that feature interesting (and in the second's case, nostalgically familiar) setpieces. Flashback in particular is probably the best scenario that both games have to offer, featuring an incredibly strong atmosphere, impressive branching pathways, and one of the most interesting substories that the franchise has ever told. Likewise, Underbelly is probably one of the worst, due to its confusing level design, infinitely respawning enemies, and overly convoluted puzzles. Though frankly, getting four scenarios out of five right is perfectly fine and that's about as many as the original Outbreak succeeded in anyways. The base game design seems to be mostly unchanged, which is ultimately a good thing, and generally plays just as well as the original. Playing online is a breeze and the net code seems to be a little more consistent than the previous game, though still spotty at points. Unfortunately, if you choose to play solo, the partner AI has been heavily downgraded from the original. What used to have fairly competent bots that would actively solve puzzles and assist you have devolved into meandering lunatics who aimlessly run around and get into trouble. It is not an uncommon sight to walk into a room and find one of the bots dead. This isn't the biggest deal in the world as the game is primarily intended for online play, but considering the fairly small player base, inevitably a few sessions of Outbreak cravings will have to be satisfied on your own. In terms of both graphics and art direction File #2 is once again a treat. Environments are rendered with striking fidelity and realism for a 2004 console game. The game may struggle with outdoor environments somewhat but still manages to look reasonably appealing if not great during those sections. Baked shadows and moody lighting are used to great effectiveness, especially during Underbelly, and the game even does fake reflections in an interesting way that looks surprisingly good. The soundtrack is also fairly decent, setting a fitting atmosphere and consistent tone throughout the entire game. I don't think it's as memorable as previous RE soundtracks, with only the title track immediately springing to memory, but I can't think of a single song that struck me as bad both in-game and as an album. Outbreak File #2 is a great game that generally matches the quality of the first game, with many qualities but unfortunately some flaws as well. Still highly recommended for horror fans, as it's one of the most unique multiplayer experiences out there
2014
Not bad for a first go but not all that interesting either. The atmosphere can be striking at points but there simply isn't all that much to do in Fingerbones. The story, while well-written from a prose standpoint and conceptually interesting, is entirely predictable and doesn't end with any sort of shocking revelation. The gameplay features a total of two maps and you have to do a whole lot of backtracking to solve incredibly basic puzzles which don't take much brainpower to figure out. The visuals are simplistic but David Szymanski gets quite a lot out of bloomed lighting and low-resolution textures. The game employs pretty interesting ambient effects such as atmospheric groaning and a little girl's crying but reuses the latter a bit too much to be unnerving. Overall, Fingerbones is a bit of an average and mediocre experience, but for the debut project of Szymanski, you can see a lot of the concepts and elements of visual design that would permeate his future works.
2005
A truly ambitious mod that I can respect for its influence on Half-Life's modding scene, but unfortunately it's too rough around the edges for me to recommend. Where it shines is the atmosphere, and it's pretty tense if not outright scary at points, but from a game design standpoint, it just flops. The game bathes you in pitch darkness at many points and gives you only Half-Life's terrible flashlight to work with, which leaves you stumbling in the dark frustrated instead of scared. Most of the enemies are largely fine but the Alien Grunt variant is mostly invisible except for their projectiles which makes them brutally unfun to encounter. Combine that with level design that essentially amounts to switch hunting and you have a mod that is not only fairly dull but actively frustrating
2018
Despite loving classic FPS games, I never actually played any of the retro revivals. Although I own Ion Fury and HROT, I was more than content to stick to Doom. I finally got around to playing David Szymanski's Dusk about a month ago and I gotta say, it's easily become one of my favorite first-person shooters in recent memory. Originally conceived in the mid-2000s by Szymanski due to a desire to play less demanding FPSes on his low-end machine, development began in earnest in 2015, and after a period of rigorous early access testing, the game was finally released in 2018 to unanimous praise, kickstarting the revival of the retro shooter.
Like the games that came before it, Dusk is pretty light on story. There is one, but it's told to the player via bloodstained graffiti splattered across the walls of the game's many haunted environments and not through cutscenes. The game's main antagonist, Jakob, will occasionally pop in to spew cryptic and evil-sounding dialog, which while cool, isn't very substantial. That's about it. This isn't a criticism of the game, as Dusk isn't intended to be a narrative-heavy experience. What's here is done well but is mostly in service to the atmosphere rather than an extensive story.
The level design is excellent and emphasizes verticality, quick movement, and careful enemy placement. Leaping across the map in a single bound and landing a super shotgun blast onto an unsuspecting cultist is a real thrill ride. The weapons are carefully designed and all have specific uses without succumbing to bloat. The crossbow pierces enemies, the hunting rifle deals tons of damage at long range, the riveter can rocket jump, the super shotgun is a goddamn super shotgun, et cetera. The enemies follow pretty standard retro FPS design tropes: the wizards are imps, the scarecrows are shotgunners, and so on and so on, but they're all both formidable and fun. Even if they rely on tropes, Dusk's enemies have a few tricks up their sleeves, such as the wendigos, who are invisible except for their bloody footprints and heavy breathing (until you manage to hit them, that is), or the priestesses who rely exclusively on melee combat. The biggest praise I can give to Dusk's enemy roster is the variety. There are a ton of different enemies who are specialized in different areas throughout the game's three episodes and they not only visually fit each theme but are also generally fun to slaughter as well. One of my favorites has to be the welders: overweight soldiers in boiler suits who blast fireballs at you via oversized flamethrowers and are especially satisfying to see explode into chunks of gore and red mist. If there's any enemy I didn't like, it would be the scientists, who while frail are extremely fast and can kill you in one hit. They're often placed in areas where you can easily be cornered. There are also a few levels here and there that aren't up to snuff, such as a late level which has a gravity-shifting mechanic which isn't as fun as it should be, and the game uses the "you fell and broke your flashlight" trick too many times to be effective. It's only a few levels though and it thankfully avoids the 90s FPS curse of the third act being total garbage. Dusk may not bring a whole lot new to the table, but it's the most refined boomer shooter experience I've ever played, avoiding most of the flaws a lot of them tend to fall into. It's pure retro FPS fun with very few drawbacks. Load that super shotgun, hunter.
The game's presentation also excels. Dusk aims to visually imitate games such as Quake and I'd say it mostly succeeds. Out of the gate, the thing I appreciated the most was the amount of customization that the game provides. You can tweak the graphics settings to fully imitate that low-res Quake-era look or you can boost the numerous modern graphical features for a more atmospheric look. I prefer the latter as the modern visuals are fairly modest and don't clash with the game's retro art direction. Dusk certainly isn't a stunner on a technical level but it absolutely matches the intended vision, and it's certainly not ugly either. The moody lighting and tasteful bloom make the trip through hell-infested backwater America a fun one. The general horror-themed nature of Dusk's environments calls back to the metallic space station corridors of Doom or the Lovecraftian castles of Quake, providing a sinister mood that makes what could have been a silly retro callback a genuinely tense and occasionally even scary experience. I love the settings as well. The first episode's backwater American farms and swamps give off grindhouse horror vibes, making you feel like you're gonna be the victim of some unstoppable slasher villain (the leathernecks even resemble Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part 2!). The industrial Stalker-inspired pillars and hallways of episode two feel steamy and oily like you'd burn yourself or contract tetanus for even touching the walls. Episode three is when the environments get even more abstract, with gargantuan demonic cathedrals and nonsensical architecture being the norm. It not only unnerves you in different ways but also provides much-needed variety to the game's backdrops. Some of the weapon models are perhaps a bit too low-detail even for the Quake style but nothing in this game ever looks bad. Not to mention, due to the game's low technical requirements, it runs like a dream on almost any PC. It's a visual throwback that succeeds in delivering a Quake-like visual experience in both the atmosphere and technical execution.
The game's soundtrack was composed by the now legendary cult musician Andrew Hulshult, who had previously made a name for himself in the FPS community for his work on Brutal Doom and the Rise of the Triad remake. His work on Dusk is clearly inspired by Mick Gordon's soundtrack for Doom 2016, but with a more downtrodden feeling to it. Although certain songs can blend, I loved the variety Hulshult employs. Songs like Hand Cannon or Departure to Destruction feature skull-pounding doom metal riffing creating an ominous malaise of impending doom. Some songs, like Ashes to Ashes, Dusk to Dusk are low-key moody ambiances which in particular highlight just how tense the game can be. There are also tracks like the title track or Unworthy, which combine strings with guitars in a unique combination. It not only compliments the game well but also stands on its own as an awesome metal album, albeit a very long one.
Dusk is one of the finest shooters I've played in a long time. The game's fantastic and refined level design, weapon arsenal, and enemy sandbox make it an exhilarating experience, but the game's downtrodden atmosphere, low-key visuals, and intense soundtrack give it a personality I'll be remembering for years to come. Highly recommended.
Like the games that came before it, Dusk is pretty light on story. There is one, but it's told to the player via bloodstained graffiti splattered across the walls of the game's many haunted environments and not through cutscenes. The game's main antagonist, Jakob, will occasionally pop in to spew cryptic and evil-sounding dialog, which while cool, isn't very substantial. That's about it. This isn't a criticism of the game, as Dusk isn't intended to be a narrative-heavy experience. What's here is done well but is mostly in service to the atmosphere rather than an extensive story.
The level design is excellent and emphasizes verticality, quick movement, and careful enemy placement. Leaping across the map in a single bound and landing a super shotgun blast onto an unsuspecting cultist is a real thrill ride. The weapons are carefully designed and all have specific uses without succumbing to bloat. The crossbow pierces enemies, the hunting rifle deals tons of damage at long range, the riveter can rocket jump, the super shotgun is a goddamn super shotgun, et cetera. The enemies follow pretty standard retro FPS design tropes: the wizards are imps, the scarecrows are shotgunners, and so on and so on, but they're all both formidable and fun. Even if they rely on tropes, Dusk's enemies have a few tricks up their sleeves, such as the wendigos, who are invisible except for their bloody footprints and heavy breathing (until you manage to hit them, that is), or the priestesses who rely exclusively on melee combat. The biggest praise I can give to Dusk's enemy roster is the variety. There are a ton of different enemies who are specialized in different areas throughout the game's three episodes and they not only visually fit each theme but are also generally fun to slaughter as well. One of my favorites has to be the welders: overweight soldiers in boiler suits who blast fireballs at you via oversized flamethrowers and are especially satisfying to see explode into chunks of gore and red mist. If there's any enemy I didn't like, it would be the scientists, who while frail are extremely fast and can kill you in one hit. They're often placed in areas where you can easily be cornered. There are also a few levels here and there that aren't up to snuff, such as a late level which has a gravity-shifting mechanic which isn't as fun as it should be, and the game uses the "you fell and broke your flashlight" trick too many times to be effective. It's only a few levels though and it thankfully avoids the 90s FPS curse of the third act being total garbage. Dusk may not bring a whole lot new to the table, but it's the most refined boomer shooter experience I've ever played, avoiding most of the flaws a lot of them tend to fall into. It's pure retro FPS fun with very few drawbacks. Load that super shotgun, hunter.
The game's presentation also excels. Dusk aims to visually imitate games such as Quake and I'd say it mostly succeeds. Out of the gate, the thing I appreciated the most was the amount of customization that the game provides. You can tweak the graphics settings to fully imitate that low-res Quake-era look or you can boost the numerous modern graphical features for a more atmospheric look. I prefer the latter as the modern visuals are fairly modest and don't clash with the game's retro art direction. Dusk certainly isn't a stunner on a technical level but it absolutely matches the intended vision, and it's certainly not ugly either. The moody lighting and tasteful bloom make the trip through hell-infested backwater America a fun one. The general horror-themed nature of Dusk's environments calls back to the metallic space station corridors of Doom or the Lovecraftian castles of Quake, providing a sinister mood that makes what could have been a silly retro callback a genuinely tense and occasionally even scary experience. I love the settings as well. The first episode's backwater American farms and swamps give off grindhouse horror vibes, making you feel like you're gonna be the victim of some unstoppable slasher villain (the leathernecks even resemble Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part 2!). The industrial Stalker-inspired pillars and hallways of episode two feel steamy and oily like you'd burn yourself or contract tetanus for even touching the walls. Episode three is when the environments get even more abstract, with gargantuan demonic cathedrals and nonsensical architecture being the norm. It not only unnerves you in different ways but also provides much-needed variety to the game's backdrops. Some of the weapon models are perhaps a bit too low-detail even for the Quake style but nothing in this game ever looks bad. Not to mention, due to the game's low technical requirements, it runs like a dream on almost any PC. It's a visual throwback that succeeds in delivering a Quake-like visual experience in both the atmosphere and technical execution.
The game's soundtrack was composed by the now legendary cult musician Andrew Hulshult, who had previously made a name for himself in the FPS community for his work on Brutal Doom and the Rise of the Triad remake. His work on Dusk is clearly inspired by Mick Gordon's soundtrack for Doom 2016, but with a more downtrodden feeling to it. Although certain songs can blend, I loved the variety Hulshult employs. Songs like Hand Cannon or Departure to Destruction feature skull-pounding doom metal riffing creating an ominous malaise of impending doom. Some songs, like Ashes to Ashes, Dusk to Dusk are low-key moody ambiances which in particular highlight just how tense the game can be. There are also tracks like the title track or Unworthy, which combine strings with guitars in a unique combination. It not only compliments the game well but also stands on its own as an awesome metal album, albeit a very long one.
Dusk is one of the finest shooters I've played in a long time. The game's fantastic and refined level design, weapon arsenal, and enemy sandbox make it an exhilarating experience, but the game's downtrodden atmosphere, low-key visuals, and intense soundtrack give it a personality I'll be remembering for years to come. Highly recommended.
(Edit 2: Unfortunately, Cobalt-57 has made the decision to cease production on Absolute Zero and will be delisting the mod from steam. If you intend to play the mod regardless, you can download it by pasting "steam://install/812440" in your web browser, or download the mod from the official ModDB page.)
(Edit: the bug where the medical cabinets would not work in Unforeseen Consequences has since been fixed. Thanks!)
I want to preface this review with this: I acknowledge that Half-Life: Absolute Zero is nowhere near a completed state. I am not reviewing Absolute Zero as a finished mod. I simply want to give the development team some useful feedback, as I understand that's very useful to an in-production project.
Firstly, I want to go over what I like about Absolute Zero. Overall, after around three hours of gameplay (though I didn't finish it, for reasons I will mention later), I can safely say that I would recommend Absolute Zero. It's a good mod, although it does have some noticeable issues that hold it back. The mod accurately recreates the early development concepts of Half-Life and it successfully implements many unfinished concepts in a way that feels natural, as opposed to incredibly forced like many other mods of its ilk. Visually, it's quite good looking, considering the intended art style and the age and limitations of the GoldSrc engine. Design-wise, Absolute Zero doesn't do much to change the pre-established Half-Life gameplay, though it doesn't need to, other than the addition of colored vials which give Gordon Freeman certain abilities (reincarnation after death, immunity to toxins). The level design (the levels that are completable, I mean) is great. Just like what Valve managed to pull off with the original Half-Life, the environments manage to feel like living, breathing areas while also being intuitively designed and most importantly, fun. The PantherEye is a great enemy, though unfortunately underutilized. Like every great FPS enemy, it has a certain pattern one needs to memorize to evade or kill the beast. The area it is introduced in particularly compliments the PantherEye's AI. The HECU Sergeant is another well-implemented enemy. It's certainly great to see more variety among the HECU marines, and the sergeant's windup for his minigun prevents the enemy from being too overpowered. The mod also delivers a very tense, often creepy atmosphere, which is always commendable, especially within GoldSrc. I particularly loved the area where the headcrab zombies would burst out of the walls. It made the map feel dynamic, and it made me feel a little more paranoid wandering those halls.
However, as I said earlier, Absolute Zero isn't perfect. It's got some serious issues that I hope can be patched out when the mod fully releases. Firstly, the mod is very buggy. Now, this is to be expected in an unfinished development build, though I figured it would be constructive to list what broke in particular. The health chargers in the earlier part of the mod often didn't work at all for me. They would play their animation, yet I wouldn't gain any additional health. The scientist (and to a lesser extent, security guard) AI needs some serious work. They often will not follow you despite the player giving them the explicit order to do so. There was a particular part where I tried and tried to get a scientist to use a retinal scanner, but he refused to. The guards are a little too aggressive, charging into the fray immediately and almost killing themselves. Speaking of the scientists, sometimes their voice lines will glitch out, looping infinitely. In the map a1a4f, the sewage door doesn't open, preventing progress, though from what I've read, the developers are well aware of that issue already. Sometimes, though infrequently, level transitions would break, leaving me in an infinite loop. On occasion, the game would just outright crash (something related to sound volume?). Shadows would sometimes glitch out, revealing hidden enemies, such as headcrabs hiding in the ceiling.
I just outlined all of the bugs and glitches I experienced in my time with Absolute Zero, however, there are some problems that I experienced that aren't due to a technical error. Firstly, the video settings have been downgraded from the original Half-Life. There is no anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, or vsync of any kind. I understand this may be an artistic decision, though I feel the mod would benefit from the option, as it is a little immersion-breaking to see the floor in front of me get increasingly less detailed the further I look. Moreover, I feel Absolute Zero would benefit from a field of view slider (though I understand this is a fault that Half-Life has as well). I managed to adjust the FOV via the command console, but small quality-of-life improvements go a long way. The mod could also benefit from a higher framerate, as for me the game was locked at 60FPS. Higher framerates (particularly 120FPS and above) make gameplay feel and look more fluid, reduce input latency, and may make screen tearing and stuttering less noticeable. From a design standpoint, movement feels slipperier than Half-Life, causing the crate puzzle to be unnecessarily more difficult. The section where Black Mesa is being bombed by the HECU is incredibly unbalanced and unfair. The bombs give you very little margin for error and make for a frustrating experience.
Overall, I would recommend Half-Life: Absolute Zero. It's a pretty good mod that does a lot of things right, even in such an early state. Just go into it knowing that it's not even close to completion, and you'll have a fun time.
(Edit: the bug where the medical cabinets would not work in Unforeseen Consequences has since been fixed. Thanks!)
I want to preface this review with this: I acknowledge that Half-Life: Absolute Zero is nowhere near a completed state. I am not reviewing Absolute Zero as a finished mod. I simply want to give the development team some useful feedback, as I understand that's very useful to an in-production project.
Firstly, I want to go over what I like about Absolute Zero. Overall, after around three hours of gameplay (though I didn't finish it, for reasons I will mention later), I can safely say that I would recommend Absolute Zero. It's a good mod, although it does have some noticeable issues that hold it back. The mod accurately recreates the early development concepts of Half-Life and it successfully implements many unfinished concepts in a way that feels natural, as opposed to incredibly forced like many other mods of its ilk. Visually, it's quite good looking, considering the intended art style and the age and limitations of the GoldSrc engine. Design-wise, Absolute Zero doesn't do much to change the pre-established Half-Life gameplay, though it doesn't need to, other than the addition of colored vials which give Gordon Freeman certain abilities (reincarnation after death, immunity to toxins). The level design (the levels that are completable, I mean) is great. Just like what Valve managed to pull off with the original Half-Life, the environments manage to feel like living, breathing areas while also being intuitively designed and most importantly, fun. The PantherEye is a great enemy, though unfortunately underutilized. Like every great FPS enemy, it has a certain pattern one needs to memorize to evade or kill the beast. The area it is introduced in particularly compliments the PantherEye's AI. The HECU Sergeant is another well-implemented enemy. It's certainly great to see more variety among the HECU marines, and the sergeant's windup for his minigun prevents the enemy from being too overpowered. The mod also delivers a very tense, often creepy atmosphere, which is always commendable, especially within GoldSrc. I particularly loved the area where the headcrab zombies would burst out of the walls. It made the map feel dynamic, and it made me feel a little more paranoid wandering those halls.
However, as I said earlier, Absolute Zero isn't perfect. It's got some serious issues that I hope can be patched out when the mod fully releases. Firstly, the mod is very buggy. Now, this is to be expected in an unfinished development build, though I figured it would be constructive to list what broke in particular. The health chargers in the earlier part of the mod often didn't work at all for me. They would play their animation, yet I wouldn't gain any additional health. The scientist (and to a lesser extent, security guard) AI needs some serious work. They often will not follow you despite the player giving them the explicit order to do so. There was a particular part where I tried and tried to get a scientist to use a retinal scanner, but he refused to. The guards are a little too aggressive, charging into the fray immediately and almost killing themselves. Speaking of the scientists, sometimes their voice lines will glitch out, looping infinitely. In the map a1a4f, the sewage door doesn't open, preventing progress, though from what I've read, the developers are well aware of that issue already. Sometimes, though infrequently, level transitions would break, leaving me in an infinite loop. On occasion, the game would just outright crash (something related to sound volume?). Shadows would sometimes glitch out, revealing hidden enemies, such as headcrabs hiding in the ceiling.
I just outlined all of the bugs and glitches I experienced in my time with Absolute Zero, however, there are some problems that I experienced that aren't due to a technical error. Firstly, the video settings have been downgraded from the original Half-Life. There is no anisotropic filtering, anti-aliasing, or vsync of any kind. I understand this may be an artistic decision, though I feel the mod would benefit from the option, as it is a little immersion-breaking to see the floor in front of me get increasingly less detailed the further I look. Moreover, I feel Absolute Zero would benefit from a field of view slider (though I understand this is a fault that Half-Life has as well). I managed to adjust the FOV via the command console, but small quality-of-life improvements go a long way. The mod could also benefit from a higher framerate, as for me the game was locked at 60FPS. Higher framerates (particularly 120FPS and above) make gameplay feel and look more fluid, reduce input latency, and may make screen tearing and stuttering less noticeable. From a design standpoint, movement feels slipperier than Half-Life, causing the crate puzzle to be unnecessarily more difficult. The section where Black Mesa is being bombed by the HECU is incredibly unbalanced and unfair. The bombs give you very little margin for error and make for a frustrating experience.
Overall, I would recommend Half-Life: Absolute Zero. It's a pretty good mod that does a lot of things right, even in such an early state. Just go into it knowing that it's not even close to completion, and you'll have a fun time.