DourCricket
2020
What if....
A story.....
Asked some fun questions..............
And then some more boring questions....?
And then implied there would be more to the game.....
But there wasn't???????????
Final Grade: C
A story.....
Asked some fun questions..............
And then some more boring questions....?
And then implied there would be more to the game.....
But there wasn't???????????
Final Grade: C
2023
Killer Frequency
#13
PC - Steam
Beaten June 11th, 2023
A puzzle/walking-sim/visual novel disguised as a horror game (or wearing the mask of one...?) Killer Frequency is about a washed up, blacklisted DJ from the Big City being forced into rural overnight radio... as he's constantly demeaning his new home, a local legend reappears and starts knifing the townsfolk! Can our 'hero' and his plucky producer slash sidekick help out Gallows Creek, or will there be no one left to see the dawn??
The Good -
-Vibeeeeeesssssss man! Set in 1987 we've got the usual Neon 80's vibe, but also the small-town setting, washed up DJ trying to put a fun spin on the local murders (especially if you choose the right dialogue options) really comes together to make something special.
-Shooting hoops during long dialogue scenes, excellent choice by the devs
Playing your own vinyls! Just the amount of buttons really is cool - playing tapes, taking calls, etc. The board feels properly interactive to play with, it would've been easy to just "press A for next section" but they went that extra mile with all the interactivity.
-Voice acting is pretty perfectly cheesy for the B-movie PG-13 horror movie they're going for. Nash and Peggy esp
-Cast of characters is SOLID - well meaning but a bit ditzy producer, Pizza shop who won't stop calling to advertise their deals, RollerRink Guy and his dog, teenagers being dumb, creepy killer... Nailed it, team!
-The main story and its mystery are a bit by the numbers but executed well. Misdirects a-plenty and there's a point where you've got enough clues to legit get one over on the killer if you're paying attention and not just clicking options.
The Meh -
-Some of the actual 'gameplay' segments of exploration definitely needed a little more to them. I feel like there should have been some puzzles or something?
-The 'puzzles' for helping people on the phone calls could have been a bit clearer, in a few cases I legit didn't understand why I couldn't save some of the people! I didn't really play around with it though as I wanted the story to progress as naturally as possible.
-Ending is definitely a setup for a sequel but in some ways feels a bit undercooked. I feel like Forest and Peggy (or just the station in general) needed one more scene or something at the end.
The Bad -
-Pacing is off - not sure if the game should've been a bit shorter (I finished in 5.5hrs, maybe an hour less?) or maybe the office experiences should've been more involved that may have kept my interest a bit better.
The Hmm -
-We can see Peggy's monochrome model (great perm btw) through the window for most of the game but no reveal at the end???
-Expanding on that last point, definitely felt a lowwwwww budget on this one. Basically no working models at all other than the killer, station is pretty small and underused... It's not bad, just noticeable.
Killer Frequency is a damn solid B-movie horror presented as an interesting but not mind-blowing puzzler with great vibes and even greater hair.
Final Grade, very appropriately: B
#13
PC - Steam
Beaten June 11th, 2023
A puzzle/walking-sim/visual novel disguised as a horror game (or wearing the mask of one...?) Killer Frequency is about a washed up, blacklisted DJ from the Big City being forced into rural overnight radio... as he's constantly demeaning his new home, a local legend reappears and starts knifing the townsfolk! Can our 'hero' and his plucky producer slash sidekick help out Gallows Creek, or will there be no one left to see the dawn??
The Good -
-Vibeeeeeesssssss man! Set in 1987 we've got the usual Neon 80's vibe, but also the small-town setting, washed up DJ trying to put a fun spin on the local murders (especially if you choose the right dialogue options) really comes together to make something special.
-Shooting hoops during long dialogue scenes, excellent choice by the devs
Playing your own vinyls! Just the amount of buttons really is cool - playing tapes, taking calls, etc. The board feels properly interactive to play with, it would've been easy to just "press A for next section" but they went that extra mile with all the interactivity.
-Voice acting is pretty perfectly cheesy for the B-movie PG-13 horror movie they're going for. Nash and Peggy esp
-Cast of characters is SOLID - well meaning but a bit ditzy producer, Pizza shop who won't stop calling to advertise their deals, RollerRink Guy and his dog, teenagers being dumb, creepy killer... Nailed it, team!
-The main story and its mystery are a bit by the numbers but executed well. Misdirects a-plenty and there's a point where you've got enough clues to legit get one over on the killer if you're paying attention and not just clicking options.
The Meh -
-Some of the actual 'gameplay' segments of exploration definitely needed a little more to them. I feel like there should have been some puzzles or something?
-The 'puzzles' for helping people on the phone calls could have been a bit clearer, in a few cases I legit didn't understand why I couldn't save some of the people! I didn't really play around with it though as I wanted the story to progress as naturally as possible.
-Ending is definitely a setup for a sequel but in some ways feels a bit undercooked. I feel like Forest and Peggy (or just the station in general) needed one more scene or something at the end.
The Bad -
-Pacing is off - not sure if the game should've been a bit shorter (I finished in 5.5hrs, maybe an hour less?) or maybe the office experiences should've been more involved that may have kept my interest a bit better.
The Hmm -
-We can see Peggy's monochrome model (great perm btw) through the window for most of the game but no reveal at the end???
-Expanding on that last point, definitely felt a lowwwwww budget on this one. Basically no working models at all other than the killer, station is pretty small and underused... It's not bad, just noticeable.
Killer Frequency is a damn solid B-movie horror presented as an interesting but not mind-blowing puzzler with great vibes and even greater hair.
Final Grade, very appropriately: B
2023
Amnesia: The Bunker
#12
PC - Steam
Beaten June 10th, 2023
You know a game is REALLY fucked up when you have to seriously ask yourself: is being trapped in a near-lightless bunker with a hellbeast warped from powers beyond the stars really that much worse than being in World War I? Because, really, it's not as far off as you think...
The Bunker is the newest game in the Amnesia series with a new twist on its formula - rather than making your way through some linear levels solving puzzles and avoiding some roaming monsters, this time you're in a more sandbox~y map trying to grab a few necessary items (in whatever order seems best) to try and get to a clear end-goal set up from the beginning. It's a very cool twist on their formula and I had a lot of fun with it, also appreciated that length - 6~ hours, got in, got spooked, got out while the gettin' was good.
The Good
-New format for the series - more open ended and freeing to the player.
The story and premise: we're in WWI front trenches and a terrible beast is hunting our platoon.. and we've been sealed in! This leads to a natural question that the ending deals with: is being trapped in a bunker with a warped hellbeast SIGNIFICANTLY worse than being a soldier in WWI? Because... like the answer should be obvious, but.....
-Items are plentiful and work together in interesting ways. Make fuel in bottles, make some molotov cocktails, make bandages, make all kinds of neat items and combine them to figure out a way around the beast. Pretty much everything you find is useful in some way (except gas grenades those suck)
-THE GENERATOR! A key fulcrum of the game is LIGHT - the beast doesn't like it and will generally stay away unless you set off a bomb or something. However the generator guzzles fuel down - a huge chunk of your expeditions will be grabbing what cans of fuel you can afford to spend inventory spots on to bring back and keep the lights on. You can (and I did, def too much) wander around in the dark if you've got a keen sense of 3d memory you can do pretty well on short excursions for items you've seen before and make it back without incurring too much interest. It's always a risk reward - do you spend your fuel in the hopes to make more fuel and get story items, or go through the dark and save up for a bigger adventure later?
The Bad
-The map is really great BUT it's honestly too small. It is pretty easy to remember the layout of each section and just go through it in the darkness with little risk of getting lost or injured.
-Final encounter is a bit wonky - I get what they're going for of course with a climactic fight BUT ya know, push boxes together so you can hop over a wall? Eh
The Meh
-The engine is looking and feeling preeeeety dated. There are LOAD 'stutters' between each area? In 2023? Wat? And these are not big areas! At all!!
-Beast AI is a bit disappointing considering Alien Isolation (game number 11 this year!) was almost TEN YEARS ago. It doesn't hunt at all really, doesn't learn from you, doesn't have special environmental interactions...
The Hmm
-I do kinda wish there was a guide for some of the crafting items? Like I found out from forums that there are TORCHES? HOW GAME HOW
So yeah, Amnesia the Bunker is pretty rad bite sized horror game and I'm here for it man. We just need a balance for Alien Isolation & The Bunker and we're cookin with GAS.
Final Grade: A-
#12
PC - Steam
Beaten June 10th, 2023
You know a game is REALLY fucked up when you have to seriously ask yourself: is being trapped in a near-lightless bunker with a hellbeast warped from powers beyond the stars really that much worse than being in World War I? Because, really, it's not as far off as you think...
The Bunker is the newest game in the Amnesia series with a new twist on its formula - rather than making your way through some linear levels solving puzzles and avoiding some roaming monsters, this time you're in a more sandbox~y map trying to grab a few necessary items (in whatever order seems best) to try and get to a clear end-goal set up from the beginning. It's a very cool twist on their formula and I had a lot of fun with it, also appreciated that length - 6~ hours, got in, got spooked, got out while the gettin' was good.
The Good
-New format for the series - more open ended and freeing to the player.
The story and premise: we're in WWI front trenches and a terrible beast is hunting our platoon.. and we've been sealed in! This leads to a natural question that the ending deals with: is being trapped in a bunker with a warped hellbeast SIGNIFICANTLY worse than being a soldier in WWI? Because... like the answer should be obvious, but.....
-Items are plentiful and work together in interesting ways. Make fuel in bottles, make some molotov cocktails, make bandages, make all kinds of neat items and combine them to figure out a way around the beast. Pretty much everything you find is useful in some way (except gas grenades those suck)
-THE GENERATOR! A key fulcrum of the game is LIGHT - the beast doesn't like it and will generally stay away unless you set off a bomb or something. However the generator guzzles fuel down - a huge chunk of your expeditions will be grabbing what cans of fuel you can afford to spend inventory spots on to bring back and keep the lights on. You can (and I did, def too much) wander around in the dark if you've got a keen sense of 3d memory you can do pretty well on short excursions for items you've seen before and make it back without incurring too much interest. It's always a risk reward - do you spend your fuel in the hopes to make more fuel and get story items, or go through the dark and save up for a bigger adventure later?
The Bad
-The map is really great BUT it's honestly too small. It is pretty easy to remember the layout of each section and just go through it in the darkness with little risk of getting lost or injured.
-Final encounter is a bit wonky - I get what they're going for of course with a climactic fight BUT ya know, push boxes together so you can hop over a wall? Eh
The Meh
-The engine is looking and feeling preeeeety dated. There are LOAD 'stutters' between each area? In 2023? Wat? And these are not big areas! At all!!
-Beast AI is a bit disappointing considering Alien Isolation (game number 11 this year!) was almost TEN YEARS ago. It doesn't hunt at all really, doesn't learn from you, doesn't have special environmental interactions...
The Hmm
-I do kinda wish there was a guide for some of the crafting items? Like I found out from forums that there are TORCHES? HOW GAME HOW
So yeah, Amnesia the Bunker is pretty rad bite sized horror game and I'm here for it man. We just need a balance for Alien Isolation & The Bunker and we're cookin with GAS.
Final Grade: A-
2014
Alien: Isolation
#11
PC - Steam
Beaten 5/21/23
Isolation is one of the most well realized horror games I've ever seen - it's a beautiful recreation of the vibe and aesthetic of the classic original 'Alien' film, in all of its late 1970's glory! Monitors are monochrome CRT, lights and computers are all analog, the architecture is stark and low on color... Visually, this game is a damn feast. On the audio side its no damn slouch either - each piece is either a direct lift from the movie or so in tune with it that you could swap it into the movie and if you didn't tell anyone, it'd probably fool most people. So yeah, presentation wise this is an easy 5/5. How's the gameplay though? Welllllllllllll about that..
The Good:
-As I said above - the visuals are ASTOUNDINGLY good. The game takes place on Sevastapol station, a space station controlled by a Not-Wayland-Yutani corp but keeping very much in the same vibe of what people in the 70's thought that the future might look like a century or two in the future. Lights glare, art deco is on full display, monitors are ugly green CRT... just perfect, honestly
-The Titular Alien is our main foe here - though it is joined by human and android enemies who will will unfortunately get to later. The Alien makes their debut roughly an entire hour into the game and it is suitably horrifying and wily a foe. You will learn its AI quite well as the game goes on - it HUNTS you in a way that is now-common in horror games (RE, Outlast) but remains your main obstacle for much of the game. As you continue getting more and more tools you figure out new ways around it and even a couple of ways to drive it off... though of course it is impossible to defeat with normal means.
-Our protagonist Amanda is a pretty dope stand in for her mom as protagonist. Got that No-Nonsense energy down
The Bad:
-This game is 12~ hours and boy it draaaaags in parts. The encounters are all pretty solid but honestly there's a lot that just shouldn't be here. Honestly cut out a whole quarter of the game and you're on your way.
The Meh:
-The Story - our premise is that the Nostromo's black box has been found and it's being held at a 2nd-rate space station, neat! Love it. The actual story itself is, beat for beat, an Alien story about a monster slowly knocking out systems as our trusty engineer goes section by section flipping the switches as the other characters drop like flies...
-The other enemies - Alien, awesome. Humans, interesting because at least you're never really sure what they're going to do and that's got some neat tension there. The Androids.... creepy the first time, kinda boring and annoying to sneak around the rest of the time. Nothing matches the Alien and it is noticeable.
-Animations - For a game that looks AMAZING, the animations look jarringly weird. Like the robots make it work, but everything that's not the Alien is pretty jarring.
The Hmm:
-Crafting system - normal difficulty had wayyyyy too much shit man, I was maxed out on toys most of the game and rarely used any of them.
Final Grade: B+
#11
PC - Steam
Beaten 5/21/23
Isolation is one of the most well realized horror games I've ever seen - it's a beautiful recreation of the vibe and aesthetic of the classic original 'Alien' film, in all of its late 1970's glory! Monitors are monochrome CRT, lights and computers are all analog, the architecture is stark and low on color... Visually, this game is a damn feast. On the audio side its no damn slouch either - each piece is either a direct lift from the movie or so in tune with it that you could swap it into the movie and if you didn't tell anyone, it'd probably fool most people. So yeah, presentation wise this is an easy 5/5. How's the gameplay though? Welllllllllllll about that..
The Good:
-As I said above - the visuals are ASTOUNDINGLY good. The game takes place on Sevastapol station, a space station controlled by a Not-Wayland-Yutani corp but keeping very much in the same vibe of what people in the 70's thought that the future might look like a century or two in the future. Lights glare, art deco is on full display, monitors are ugly green CRT... just perfect, honestly
-The Titular Alien is our main foe here - though it is joined by human and android enemies who will will unfortunately get to later. The Alien makes their debut roughly an entire hour into the game and it is suitably horrifying and wily a foe. You will learn its AI quite well as the game goes on - it HUNTS you in a way that is now-common in horror games (RE, Outlast) but remains your main obstacle for much of the game. As you continue getting more and more tools you figure out new ways around it and even a couple of ways to drive it off... though of course it is impossible to defeat with normal means.
-Our protagonist Amanda is a pretty dope stand in for her mom as protagonist. Got that No-Nonsense energy down
The Bad:
-This game is 12~ hours and boy it draaaaags in parts. The encounters are all pretty solid but honestly there's a lot that just shouldn't be here. Honestly cut out a whole quarter of the game and you're on your way.
The Meh:
-The Story - our premise is that the Nostromo's black box has been found and it's being held at a 2nd-rate space station, neat! Love it. The actual story itself is, beat for beat, an Alien story about a monster slowly knocking out systems as our trusty engineer goes section by section flipping the switches as the other characters drop like flies...
-The other enemies - Alien, awesome. Humans, interesting because at least you're never really sure what they're going to do and that's got some neat tension there. The Androids.... creepy the first time, kinda boring and annoying to sneak around the rest of the time. Nothing matches the Alien and it is noticeable.
-Animations - For a game that looks AMAZING, the animations look jarringly weird. Like the robots make it work, but everything that's not the Alien is pretty jarring.
The Hmm:
-Crafting system - normal difficulty had wayyyyy too much shit man, I was maxed out on toys most of the game and rarely used any of them.
Final Grade: B+
2022
How Fish Is Made
#10
PC - Steam
Beaten May 14th
Weird indie horror double whammy!!! This one is an odd fish travels through a strange biomechanical stomach.. up or down?? UP OR DOWN?? DOES CHOICE MATTER?? DOES LIFE MEAN ANYTHING AT ALL??!?!?!?
Yes, they do matter, and yes it does game but that's okay game you're trying your best.
There's a delightful absurdism to things - the fish you can interact with all are clearly insane at their precarious situation, encouraging you to either go up or down at the end, or to question your intentions or sanity... it's some wacky dialogue and fucked up visuals along with a 10/10 musical number (no I will not elaborate)
Pretty darn good!
Final Grade: B
#10
PC - Steam
Beaten May 14th
Weird indie horror double whammy!!! This one is an odd fish travels through a strange biomechanical stomach.. up or down?? UP OR DOWN?? DOES CHOICE MATTER?? DOES LIFE MEAN ANYTHING AT ALL??!?!?!?
Yes, they do matter, and yes it does game but that's okay game you're trying your best.
There's a delightful absurdism to things - the fish you can interact with all are clearly insane at their precarious situation, encouraging you to either go up or down at the end, or to question your intentions or sanity... it's some wacky dialogue and fucked up visuals along with a 10/10 musical number (no I will not elaborate)
Pretty darn good!
Final Grade: B
2020
Perfect Vermin
#9
PC - Steam
Beaten May 13th, 2023
Beautiful mini-game that is best going in knowing nothing! So if you're reading this and you're not me... just play it!
Otherwise, this is a delightful "smash em up" where you're a cleaner sent into an office.. only you're here to kill mimics disguised as office furniture! There's a wonderful gag at the beginning "use wasd to move", okay sure, normal, here we go. "Use LMB to interact" - immediately swing and destroy a door with a sledgehammer rather than a just open it lolol, excellent intro. So you go through a few maps as narrated by a decaying newscaster, where we learn that this may just be all an allegory for the cancer that is killing him... excellent outro in that sense as things get more and more fucked up in the "office" which we can definitely tell is his body.
So yeah, excellent theme with great minecraft-esque graphics and fun gameplay and lasts about 20 minutes. Kinda perfect for what it is.
AND FUCK YOU SOAP!!
Final Grade: A
#9
PC - Steam
Beaten May 13th, 2023
Beautiful mini-game that is best going in knowing nothing! So if you're reading this and you're not me... just play it!
Otherwise, this is a delightful "smash em up" where you're a cleaner sent into an office.. only you're here to kill mimics disguised as office furniture! There's a wonderful gag at the beginning "use wasd to move", okay sure, normal, here we go. "Use LMB to interact" - immediately swing and destroy a door with a sledgehammer rather than a just open it lolol, excellent intro. So you go through a few maps as narrated by a decaying newscaster, where we learn that this may just be all an allegory for the cancer that is killing him... excellent outro in that sense as things get more and more fucked up in the "office" which we can definitely tell is his body.
So yeah, excellent theme with great minecraft-esque graphics and fun gameplay and lasts about 20 minutes. Kinda perfect for what it is.
AND FUCK YOU SOAP!!
Final Grade: A
2022
Man I didn't think I'd tear up at at this one when I started it... Lil Gator Game is a chill send up to adventure collect-a-thons like Breath of the Wild while having a strong narrative reasoning for why we're smashing up cardboard bits & tracking down friends to solve puzzles.
The Good
-Writing is equal parts heartfelt and clever, and they're damn big parts. I chuckled audibly every single conversation you have with an NPC
-Fun 'world' to explore, basically you're just wandering around a big island finding little secrets. There's something to hit or talk to every 5 feet.
-Pacing, its a bite sized snack of a game and it knows it. There's easy directions later on to get 100% if you really want to.
The Meh
-I feel like it needed a third "thing" other than just smacking cardboard and talking? Like some kinda proper puzzle system or something.
The Bad
-Err, honestly, not much to report here. It's kinda perfect for what it is.
The Hmm
-How old are we, exactly??? Sometimes you seem like an elementary kid, other times like a freshman. Not sure where the game was aiming at.
So yeah, Lil Gator Game is a delightful and charming romp through one last hurrah to end a childhood, and it's damn fun to be a part of it.
Final Grade: A
The Good
-Writing is equal parts heartfelt and clever, and they're damn big parts. I chuckled audibly every single conversation you have with an NPC
-Fun 'world' to explore, basically you're just wandering around a big island finding little secrets. There's something to hit or talk to every 5 feet.
-Pacing, its a bite sized snack of a game and it knows it. There's easy directions later on to get 100% if you really want to.
The Meh
-I feel like it needed a third "thing" other than just smacking cardboard and talking? Like some kinda proper puzzle system or something.
The Bad
-Err, honestly, not much to report here. It's kinda perfect for what it is.
The Hmm
-How old are we, exactly??? Sometimes you seem like an elementary kid, other times like a freshman. Not sure where the game was aiming at.
So yeah, Lil Gator Game is a delightful and charming romp through one last hurrah to end a childhood, and it's damn fun to be a part of it.
Final Grade: A
2023
Dredge
#7
PC - Steam
Beaten April 17th, 2023
Dredge is a game I really WANT to love - a fishing game set in a small chain of islands where something sinister is lurking just beneath the depths... Hell yeah Lovecraft!! But, like almost everything Lovecraft, I'm loving the premise but the execution leaves a great deal to be desired. This is a fishing game at its core and that is its largest failing: the fishing and gameplay just are not very interesting!! Your little boat is fun to drive around the wider seas but ultimately you just stop at POIs and play a little minigame (a simple timing game) to scoop up whatever treasure or fish you've got and thats'... like 95% of the game right there and gosh it's just never interesting honestly? The other chunk of the game is its spooky atmosphere and the occasional threat that pops up in the darker hours: and you might say:
"oh, so things get more dangerous at night but more rewarding??" Technically yes, but only barely more rewarding and you don't reallllly need the upgrades anyway, or at least not badly enough, so you'll only go out at night as the plot demands.
"oh, but at least nighttime is more interesting right? With all the monsters? That's neat!" Well, yes, but again only barely. What few extra enemies MAY pop up (most nights nothing will happen to you) are not terribly dangerous and almost all of them just give you a good whack and wander off, your chances of dying are quite slim.
"Ah, but I bet the story is super creepy and messed up right?? Lots of good Lovecraft horror!" Yeaahhhhhh about that...
The Good
-Visuals overall are pretty stellar. Character art pops nicely in a painterly style, fish look fucking weird even when they're "normal" fish and only get stranger from there, fog rolling in at night looks super spooky
-Each island chain (there are 5) have their own overarching stories that are all pretty good and either feed into the main plot (the calamity that destroyed a seafaring civilazation seems awfully familiar to what little we've seen from what we're dealing with now...) or just weave a darn good spooky supernatural tale (a great beast is being studied by a lonely researcher and you've got to help them out)
-The music is a pitch perfect "chill music for the waves.. with a slight underscore of dread"
-No "oh you're going out of bounds!" warnings on this map... something else keeps you in the zone =D
The Meh
-The pacing is a bit off, the early game goes by pretty slow as you're bouncing between trying to upgrade your boat to be actually useful and go faster than a rowboat and moving the actual plot forwards. After the first two story sections though you'll be flying through things and those last two island chains (which are pretty cool!)
-Story is generally pretty good beat for beat, but overall is a bit... lacking? Lovecraft does its best work when things go increasingly bonkers as the ending ramps up: this is not the case here at all, outside a 15 second cutscene at the end. I think the "bad" ending is by far the more interesting of the endings but the "good" ending does explain a bit more in what the heck is going on, though it raises even more questions that would be too spoilery to be get into but just aren't that important anyway so I'll just leave it at: some things don't make entire amounts of sense if you do both endings, and not in a good "Lovecraftian what is reality anyway?" way, but a "why would a normal human being say and do that thing" way, which is a bit disappointing
-Some gameplay systems need a bit better of an explanation: you can ONLY get upgrades through research + stacking your motors makes you go much faster!
The Bad
-The fishing minigame starts off as tolerable and is just kinda annoying about 2 hours in. There is no challenge or skill or even barely an evolution of it the entire game, and there are no stakes whatsoever. It is however mercifully short.
-As I mentioned above, the gameplay variety is pretty minimal even for a twelve hour game. You boat around with no challenges or real changes (minus the 4th island, they have some neat twists there but that's less than an hour in this 10 hour adventure) and fish with no challenges or real changes.
The Hmm
-The pacing is a bit off, the early game goes by pretty slow as you're bouncing between trying to upgrade your boat to be actually useful and go faster than a rowboat and moving the actual plot forwards
So while I do think Dredge was overall a good experience it does leave me with a bit of disappointment. The gameplay could've done with quite a bit more shaking up and I'm not sure the upgrade system really works properly with the day/night cycle or even the "fear" system that I was pretty much free to ignore. The story had plenty of opportunities to tell about the horrors of the deep and rarely did more than dip its toe into the shallow end. So despite this Lovecraftian Horror having way too many appendages I found Dredge to be oddly toothless.
Final Grade: B-
#7
PC - Steam
Beaten April 17th, 2023
Dredge is a game I really WANT to love - a fishing game set in a small chain of islands where something sinister is lurking just beneath the depths... Hell yeah Lovecraft!! But, like almost everything Lovecraft, I'm loving the premise but the execution leaves a great deal to be desired. This is a fishing game at its core and that is its largest failing: the fishing and gameplay just are not very interesting!! Your little boat is fun to drive around the wider seas but ultimately you just stop at POIs and play a little minigame (a simple timing game) to scoop up whatever treasure or fish you've got and thats'... like 95% of the game right there and gosh it's just never interesting honestly? The other chunk of the game is its spooky atmosphere and the occasional threat that pops up in the darker hours: and you might say:
"oh, so things get more dangerous at night but more rewarding??" Technically yes, but only barely more rewarding and you don't reallllly need the upgrades anyway, or at least not badly enough, so you'll only go out at night as the plot demands.
"oh, but at least nighttime is more interesting right? With all the monsters? That's neat!" Well, yes, but again only barely. What few extra enemies MAY pop up (most nights nothing will happen to you) are not terribly dangerous and almost all of them just give you a good whack and wander off, your chances of dying are quite slim.
"Ah, but I bet the story is super creepy and messed up right?? Lots of good Lovecraft horror!" Yeaahhhhhh about that...
The Good
-Visuals overall are pretty stellar. Character art pops nicely in a painterly style, fish look fucking weird even when they're "normal" fish and only get stranger from there, fog rolling in at night looks super spooky
-Each island chain (there are 5) have their own overarching stories that are all pretty good and either feed into the main plot (the calamity that destroyed a seafaring civilazation seems awfully familiar to what little we've seen from what we're dealing with now...) or just weave a darn good spooky supernatural tale (a great beast is being studied by a lonely researcher and you've got to help them out)
-The music is a pitch perfect "chill music for the waves.. with a slight underscore of dread"
-No "oh you're going out of bounds!" warnings on this map... something else keeps you in the zone =D
The Meh
-The pacing is a bit off, the early game goes by pretty slow as you're bouncing between trying to upgrade your boat to be actually useful and go faster than a rowboat and moving the actual plot forwards. After the first two story sections though you'll be flying through things and those last two island chains (which are pretty cool!)
-Story is generally pretty good beat for beat, but overall is a bit... lacking? Lovecraft does its best work when things go increasingly bonkers as the ending ramps up: this is not the case here at all, outside a 15 second cutscene at the end. I think the "bad" ending is by far the more interesting of the endings but the "good" ending does explain a bit more in what the heck is going on, though it raises even more questions that would be too spoilery to be get into but just aren't that important anyway so I'll just leave it at: some things don't make entire amounts of sense if you do both endings, and not in a good "Lovecraftian what is reality anyway?" way, but a "why would a normal human being say and do that thing" way, which is a bit disappointing
-Some gameplay systems need a bit better of an explanation: you can ONLY get upgrades through research + stacking your motors makes you go much faster!
The Bad
-The fishing minigame starts off as tolerable and is just kinda annoying about 2 hours in. There is no challenge or skill or even barely an evolution of it the entire game, and there are no stakes whatsoever. It is however mercifully short.
-As I mentioned above, the gameplay variety is pretty minimal even for a twelve hour game. You boat around with no challenges or real changes (minus the 4th island, they have some neat twists there but that's less than an hour in this 10 hour adventure) and fish with no challenges or real changes.
The Hmm
-The pacing is a bit off, the early game goes by pretty slow as you're bouncing between trying to upgrade your boat to be actually useful and go faster than a rowboat and moving the actual plot forwards
So while I do think Dredge was overall a good experience it does leave me with a bit of disappointment. The gameplay could've done with quite a bit more shaking up and I'm not sure the upgrade system really works properly with the day/night cycle or even the "fear" system that I was pretty much free to ignore. The story had plenty of opportunities to tell about the horrors of the deep and rarely did more than dip its toe into the shallow end. So despite this Lovecraftian Horror having way too many appendages I found Dredge to be oddly toothless.
Final Grade: B-
Faith: The Unholy Trilogy
#6
PC Steam
Beaten April 12th, 2023
Faith: The Unholy Trilogy is a pack of 3 sorta "mini" games released several years back (at least the first one was) that tell a VERY effective 8-bit horror story about a Priest who is dealing with a severe demon problem.. but are the demons on the outside, or the inside???
The Good:
-The visuals are SICK, I didn't think an 8 bit game (seriously it looks like a PC game from 1980) could pull off creepy vibes but it does on almost every screen in the game.
The narrative is mostly pretty great, especially it's focus on our main character John and his struggles with fighting the forces of evil. You can see and feel how much all of this shit is weighing on him which is kinda rare, oddly, for a horror game protagonist.
A long-awaited confrontation with our villain hero is suitably rad
-Multiple endings so if you want to keep playing these bite sized morsels of a game you are rewarded with content in doing so!
-The enemies and some scenes use a special rotoscoping effect while somehow staying 8-bit in appearance which adds some fucked up scenes that really elevate things to another level. You know shit is Getting Real when the artstyle shifts!
-Keeping in spirit with the 8-bit graphics, the sound is done like it's a crappy 1980's talking toy with droning frizzy sounds for each character. It's equal parts creepy and endearing. You'd THINK it would be annoying but all the dialogue is very short, only a few lines to not get on your nerves.
The Meh:
-Notes scattered about the map give lots of context to what is going on, but most feel pretty "artificial", like you definitely could've put this in the game some other and more satisfying way, c'mon
-"Combat" with regular enemies is just scaring them off with a button press. Not deep or anything but keeps tension up at least and gets the job done. Bosses on the other hand..
The Bad:
-Every boss encounter except the final one, lol
Seriously, your movement is so slow and you only have one "attack" while the major enemies move quickly and erratically at first so you're going to die A LOT. Like, at least 10 times while you learn the movesets.
The Hmm:
-Split up into 3 Chapters, they are not alike in terms of quantity with the third being the biggest by far. This is due of course to the fact that is was a tiny (and free I'm pretty sure) indie game that was later released in the Unholy Trilogy pack. It's not bad or anything, just a bit odd.
Final Grade: B+
#6
PC Steam
Beaten April 12th, 2023
Faith: The Unholy Trilogy is a pack of 3 sorta "mini" games released several years back (at least the first one was) that tell a VERY effective 8-bit horror story about a Priest who is dealing with a severe demon problem.. but are the demons on the outside, or the inside???
The Good:
-The visuals are SICK, I didn't think an 8 bit game (seriously it looks like a PC game from 1980) could pull off creepy vibes but it does on almost every screen in the game.
The narrative is mostly pretty great, especially it's focus on our main character John and his struggles with fighting the forces of evil. You can see and feel how much all of this shit is weighing on him which is kinda rare, oddly, for a horror game protagonist.
A long-awaited confrontation with our villain hero is suitably rad
-Multiple endings so if you want to keep playing these bite sized morsels of a game you are rewarded with content in doing so!
-The enemies and some scenes use a special rotoscoping effect while somehow staying 8-bit in appearance which adds some fucked up scenes that really elevate things to another level. You know shit is Getting Real when the artstyle shifts!
-Keeping in spirit with the 8-bit graphics, the sound is done like it's a crappy 1980's talking toy with droning frizzy sounds for each character. It's equal parts creepy and endearing. You'd THINK it would be annoying but all the dialogue is very short, only a few lines to not get on your nerves.
The Meh:
-Notes scattered about the map give lots of context to what is going on, but most feel pretty "artificial", like you definitely could've put this in the game some other and more satisfying way, c'mon
-"Combat" with regular enemies is just scaring them off with a button press. Not deep or anything but keeps tension up at least and gets the job done. Bosses on the other hand..
The Bad:
-Every boss encounter except the final one, lol
Seriously, your movement is so slow and you only have one "attack" while the major enemies move quickly and erratically at first so you're going to die A LOT. Like, at least 10 times while you learn the movesets.
The Hmm:
-Split up into 3 Chapters, they are not alike in terms of quantity with the third being the biggest by far. This is due of course to the fact that is was a tiny (and free I'm pretty sure) indie game that was later released in the Unholy Trilogy pack. It's not bad or anything, just a bit odd.
Final Grade: B+
2011
DS2 down on ng+, after completing DS Remake and RE4 Remake because WHY NOT??
A huge increase in cinematography and set piece battles over the original, and they're all very impressive and I love the game for it but... Dead Space feels more like a pure horror experience while RE4 has dramatically better encounter design which leaves this game feel just a touch lacking?
Still think it's amazing, I liked it more this time even, but if I were a coward who did half stars this would probably be a 4.5
A huge increase in cinematography and set piece battles over the original, and they're all very impressive and I love the game for it but... Dead Space feels more like a pure horror experience while RE4 has dramatically better encounter design which leaves this game feel just a touch lacking?
Still think it's amazing, I liked it more this time even, but if I were a coward who did half stars this would probably be a 4.5
2023
Resident Evil 4: Remake
#4
PC - Steam
Beaten April 2nd, 2023
Oh yeah, the return of the King!! Well, other people think it's the king, I only gave the original 4 stars back in the days of my original RE series playthrough.. RE4make is the 3rd of the Nu RE makes that I have been terribly fond of - I was excited for this but mostly to see how well they'd address my largest complaint of the title: it's almost complete lack of horror and atmosphere outside of a rather-great-but-not-really-desired B-Movie camp. I'm happy to report that it is generally good! There's a darker mood in each of the locations and the disgust and horror at what the Plagas do to the poor residents of the Village is definitely heightened.. so it's all perfect now right??? Well, not quite...
The Good
-Encounter design is insanely good in several places. Interesting arenas, resources to find if you move around, new configs of enemies that pop out on you... good stuff, kinda want to steal some of these for my dnd games lol
-Improvements to Ashley and Leon's character are stellar, in fact the story is pretty good all around this time! Leon still wise-cracks pretty often but its pretty clearly he's just a dude struggling to deal with his clear PTSD - he has a couple times in the game where the mask slips a bit and I genuinely loved it. Also Ashley and Leon legit bond in this one, she's not just a whiny annoying kid the whole way through the game wants you to ogle at - them becoming genuine partners is a major theme through the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game.
-Darker and more serious tone than the original. Still plenty of B-movie lines but they're all delivered by Leon and its clear he's just trying to keep his shit together. Lots of bits of environmental storytelling where we see ripped apart bodies and houses that've been either neglected or ripped apart... and of course the contrast between the destitute village and the outrageously wealthy castle...
-The SHEER AMOUNT of times a villain would start launching into a certified Villain-Speech and Leon would tell them to fuck off and shoot them in the head lololol, he just had no chill for the "Resident Evil"-ness of our bad guys.
The Bad
-The Island is still too much! The crazy encounters felt more annoying half the time than super interesting. Like, these are just standard 3rd person shooter encounters... that's just not terribly interesting in the RE world? This is more like Gears of War shit.
-Ada's new voice actress is blehhh. Not sure if that's her fault or the direction though... Also Salazar was definitely a downgrade from his original self. I appreciate what they were trying to do (and what a hard time it is to "fix" him to the new tone without redoing him entirely) but I don't think it worked.
-It's STILL just not that scary. I dinged the original 4 because it had VERY little horror in it and while the remake does try a bit harder, it's still not really where I'd like it to be.
The Meh
-I know it's a remake but the color palette's are... just not that good looking? Village is very brown, castle is very light gray, island is very dark gray...
-The length. It's quite a bit longer than all the other REs and it's definitely good in some ways but also dragged a bit in others. Makes me feel less likely to replay it
The Hmm
-Where are all the cool unlockables like from Village??? Where's my infinite shotgun ammo???
-Leon has a momentum to his movements in this game compared to the other RE engine titles, it's kinda odd and takes some getting used to.. I'm going to have to go back to one of the other ones to see if I end up preferring it or not
-Guns don't feel particularly fun? At least compared to the Dead Space remake though that's more the setting not being sci-fi and RE always keeps things grounded. I'm labeling this under "meh" because I was a coward and basically tried NOTHING new because I was scared of wasting money lol so this very well might be my fault!
So while there's still some things holding this game back from it's Legendary status in my mind, I do think it still clears the bar to 5 stars! It has a solid, if small, cast of likeable and interesting characters with exceptional encounter design with a fun combat system. It may not define whole genres for years after its release like the original and I may wish it focused a bit more on legit horror but I do think it is a wonderful time for any fans of action gaming.
Final Grade: A
#4
PC - Steam
Beaten April 2nd, 2023
Oh yeah, the return of the King!! Well, other people think it's the king, I only gave the original 4 stars back in the days of my original RE series playthrough.. RE4make is the 3rd of the Nu RE makes that I have been terribly fond of - I was excited for this but mostly to see how well they'd address my largest complaint of the title: it's almost complete lack of horror and atmosphere outside of a rather-great-but-not-really-desired B-Movie camp. I'm happy to report that it is generally good! There's a darker mood in each of the locations and the disgust and horror at what the Plagas do to the poor residents of the Village is definitely heightened.. so it's all perfect now right??? Well, not quite...
The Good
-Encounter design is insanely good in several places. Interesting arenas, resources to find if you move around, new configs of enemies that pop out on you... good stuff, kinda want to steal some of these for my dnd games lol
-Improvements to Ashley and Leon's character are stellar, in fact the story is pretty good all around this time! Leon still wise-cracks pretty often but its pretty clearly he's just a dude struggling to deal with his clear PTSD - he has a couple times in the game where the mask slips a bit and I genuinely loved it. Also Ashley and Leon legit bond in this one, she's not just a whiny annoying kid the whole way through the game wants you to ogle at - them becoming genuine partners is a major theme through the 2nd and 3rd acts of the game.
-Darker and more serious tone than the original. Still plenty of B-movie lines but they're all delivered by Leon and its clear he's just trying to keep his shit together. Lots of bits of environmental storytelling where we see ripped apart bodies and houses that've been either neglected or ripped apart... and of course the contrast between the destitute village and the outrageously wealthy castle...
-The SHEER AMOUNT of times a villain would start launching into a certified Villain-Speech and Leon would tell them to fuck off and shoot them in the head lololol, he just had no chill for the "Resident Evil"-ness of our bad guys.
The Bad
-The Island is still too much! The crazy encounters felt more annoying half the time than super interesting. Like, these are just standard 3rd person shooter encounters... that's just not terribly interesting in the RE world? This is more like Gears of War shit.
-Ada's new voice actress is blehhh. Not sure if that's her fault or the direction though... Also Salazar was definitely a downgrade from his original self. I appreciate what they were trying to do (and what a hard time it is to "fix" him to the new tone without redoing him entirely) but I don't think it worked.
-It's STILL just not that scary. I dinged the original 4 because it had VERY little horror in it and while the remake does try a bit harder, it's still not really where I'd like it to be.
The Meh
-I know it's a remake but the color palette's are... just not that good looking? Village is very brown, castle is very light gray, island is very dark gray...
-The length. It's quite a bit longer than all the other REs and it's definitely good in some ways but also dragged a bit in others. Makes me feel less likely to replay it
The Hmm
-Where are all the cool unlockables like from Village??? Where's my infinite shotgun ammo???
-Leon has a momentum to his movements in this game compared to the other RE engine titles, it's kinda odd and takes some getting used to.. I'm going to have to go back to one of the other ones to see if I end up preferring it or not
-Guns don't feel particularly fun? At least compared to the Dead Space remake though that's more the setting not being sci-fi and RE always keeps things grounded. I'm labeling this under "meh" because I was a coward and basically tried NOTHING new because I was scared of wasting money lol so this very well might be my fault!
So while there's still some things holding this game back from it's Legendary status in my mind, I do think it still clears the bar to 5 stars! It has a solid, if small, cast of likeable and interesting characters with exceptional encounter design with a fun combat system. It may not define whole genres for years after its release like the original and I may wish it focused a bit more on legit horror but I do think it is a wonderful time for any fans of action gaming.
Final Grade: A
2021
A fantastic follow up to an old favorite. The brains are genius and the writing delightful. I just wish I genuinely liked 3d platforms lol!
Full review later on...
Final Grade: A-
Full review later on...
Final Grade: A-
2023
This review contains spoilers
Dead Space Remake
#2
PC - Steam
Beaten February 1st, 2023
Dead Space - one of my favorite games, another horror title I have been able to face only in the recent years.. I have reviewed the original previously (beating it again last year in preparation for this remake!) so I won't be going into TOO much detail on the base game, mostly just what has been added/changed/removed here. In short though: this shit fucking ROCKS
The Good:
The Presentation! Lights, sounds, music, graphics... everything is firing on all cylinders 1000% of the time. The game looks amazing, almost every other room has some kickass dramatic lighting to it, the sounds of the ship, guns, necromorphs, ambient noises, the scramble of your radio... this is a horrifyingly beautiful game. EDIT: As is typical for all my reviews, I am listening to the soundtrack while I write this to get me in the proper headspace. DAMN this shit is scary lol
The character upgrades (minus 1...) for the story, ESPECIALLY the Ishimura herself. The two "nobody" guards at the beginning get at least a BIT more screentime which makes their demise, and impact on other characters, much more notable. Daniels gets a significant upgrade from "just a plant from the church" to an Earthgov spy trying to put things right - who is only an antagonist towards you for entirely understandable if ruthless reasons. Huge upgrade. The Ishimura as well: the ship is interconnected at all times making the place feel much more alive and less like levels in a video game. The already-stellar atmosphere and environmental storytelling of the original is amped up times 10 here, new logs, new bits of details... all stellar
Isaac is a real character now too! He speaks at appropriate times, asks good questions, we get a good sense of the man he is + some very appropriate backstory for him and Nicole. There's a few moments where it doesn't work but on the whole an excellent change.
Weapon rebalancing - the Reign of the Plasma Cutter HAS ENDED!! Actually not really, it's still a great all around weapon, not quite as OP as the original though. Really though it feels more like every other weapon got a big buff, rather than the Cutter being nerfed. Everything feels pretty great to use!
Enemy rebalancing - they're a bit tougher now, and have a, er, "meat" system? You can see the layers stripped off of their bodies (skin, muscles, bone..) until the limbs are severed. It's rad. And gross. But Mostly Rad!
Redesigned puzzles - basically the annoying puzzles were changed to be better, the cool puzzles are still there but made more clear. No more getting stuck on that asteroid for like 15 minutes!
The Bad:
Er, some tech issues...? This will be a short category lol. Definitely had some stutter, especially with screenshots. Couple of wonky physics moments.
Voice actor downgrade in one notable main character - the new voice actor for Hammond is just not up to par. And I don't mean the obvious disparity with the old actor who is a 10/10, obviously expecting that is a bit too much, but even compared to the other actors he just ain't there. No real gravitas, not a lot of believable emotion. Kynes is also a bit of a downgrade but he's not in the game anywhere near as much.
The Hmmm...:
Pacing with the side quests is a bit off. One of them (the master key quest) is definitely a bit too all over the place and not in a particularly satisfying way. The Intensity Director keeps things from being boring by throwing some random encounters at you but even that feels a bit "checkbox" as you go through the major rooms where obviously encounters are designed to happen. "Oh, no monsters last room? Definitely 2 or 3 in this one... yep there they are!". However the rewards for each, both story and gameplay wise, are generally pretty worthwhile.
The Intensity director! This one goes in "hmm" because other than the issue above, it's hard to say what exactly is the director's doing and what's just the base game design. While obviously you can only have so many encounters before things feel a tad rote, the game does still feel good to play all the way through.
So yeah, the very lengthy "good" section will tell you that overall this was an excellent game - not a huge surprise of course, the base game is also stellar. Even with that base though, the team at Motive have crafted an almost REmake level product here: one that surpasses and frankly replaces the original by keeping all of the original's successes while adding in their own excellent additions and edits to keep things fresh. While it's certainly not QUITE that level of the original Resident Evil, Dead Space Remake's superb atmosphere, combat and story makes it truly a fantastic experience from beginning to end.
Oh yeah, and there's a new secret ending too?!
Final Grade: A
#2
PC - Steam
Beaten February 1st, 2023
Dead Space - one of my favorite games, another horror title I have been able to face only in the recent years.. I have reviewed the original previously (beating it again last year in preparation for this remake!) so I won't be going into TOO much detail on the base game, mostly just what has been added/changed/removed here. In short though: this shit fucking ROCKS
The Good:
The Presentation! Lights, sounds, music, graphics... everything is firing on all cylinders 1000% of the time. The game looks amazing, almost every other room has some kickass dramatic lighting to it, the sounds of the ship, guns, necromorphs, ambient noises, the scramble of your radio... this is a horrifyingly beautiful game. EDIT: As is typical for all my reviews, I am listening to the soundtrack while I write this to get me in the proper headspace. DAMN this shit is scary lol
The character upgrades (minus 1...) for the story, ESPECIALLY the Ishimura herself. The two "nobody" guards at the beginning get at least a BIT more screentime which makes their demise, and impact on other characters, much more notable. Daniels gets a significant upgrade from "just a plant from the church" to an Earthgov spy trying to put things right - who is only an antagonist towards you for entirely understandable if ruthless reasons. Huge upgrade. The Ishimura as well: the ship is interconnected at all times making the place feel much more alive and less like levels in a video game. The already-stellar atmosphere and environmental storytelling of the original is amped up times 10 here, new logs, new bits of details... all stellar
Isaac is a real character now too! He speaks at appropriate times, asks good questions, we get a good sense of the man he is + some very appropriate backstory for him and Nicole. There's a few moments where it doesn't work but on the whole an excellent change.
Weapon rebalancing - the Reign of the Plasma Cutter HAS ENDED!! Actually not really, it's still a great all around weapon, not quite as OP as the original though. Really though it feels more like every other weapon got a big buff, rather than the Cutter being nerfed. Everything feels pretty great to use!
Enemy rebalancing - they're a bit tougher now, and have a, er, "meat" system? You can see the layers stripped off of their bodies (skin, muscles, bone..) until the limbs are severed. It's rad. And gross. But Mostly Rad!
Redesigned puzzles - basically the annoying puzzles were changed to be better, the cool puzzles are still there but made more clear. No more getting stuck on that asteroid for like 15 minutes!
The Bad:
Er, some tech issues...? This will be a short category lol. Definitely had some stutter, especially with screenshots. Couple of wonky physics moments.
Voice actor downgrade in one notable main character - the new voice actor for Hammond is just not up to par. And I don't mean the obvious disparity with the old actor who is a 10/10, obviously expecting that is a bit too much, but even compared to the other actors he just ain't there. No real gravitas, not a lot of believable emotion. Kynes is also a bit of a downgrade but he's not in the game anywhere near as much.
The Hmmm...:
Pacing with the side quests is a bit off. One of them (the master key quest) is definitely a bit too all over the place and not in a particularly satisfying way. The Intensity Director keeps things from being boring by throwing some random encounters at you but even that feels a bit "checkbox" as you go through the major rooms where obviously encounters are designed to happen. "Oh, no monsters last room? Definitely 2 or 3 in this one... yep there they are!". However the rewards for each, both story and gameplay wise, are generally pretty worthwhile.
The Intensity director! This one goes in "hmm" because other than the issue above, it's hard to say what exactly is the director's doing and what's just the base game design. While obviously you can only have so many encounters before things feel a tad rote, the game does still feel good to play all the way through.
So yeah, the very lengthy "good" section will tell you that overall this was an excellent game - not a huge surprise of course, the base game is also stellar. Even with that base though, the team at Motive have crafted an almost REmake level product here: one that surpasses and frankly replaces the original by keeping all of the original's successes while adding in their own excellent additions and edits to keep things fresh. While it's certainly not QUITE that level of the original Resident Evil, Dead Space Remake's superb atmosphere, combat and story makes it truly a fantastic experience from beginning to end.
Oh yeah, and there's a new secret ending too?!
Final Grade: A
Scott Pilgrim
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 20th, 2023
Short review which I will edit later, hopefully:
Still a fantastic beat-em-up, this and Castle Crashers back in the day helped me fall in love with the genre. The moment-to-moment mechanics pale in comparison to some of the more modern BMUs but honestly the music, art style, levels and characters more than carry this game to greatness.
I wish the leveling system wasn't opaque (a complaint I share with River City Girls) but as a returning vet it didn't bother me. Also the story should definitely change a BIT more for each character you play as, rather than just the ending slide but... still, running around this world, beating up hipsters and ninjas and extras on a movie set still felt damn good.
Also its like 15 bucks just buy it man
Final Grade: A-
#1
PC - Steam
Beaten January 20th, 2023
Short review which I will edit later, hopefully:
Still a fantastic beat-em-up, this and Castle Crashers back in the day helped me fall in love with the genre. The moment-to-moment mechanics pale in comparison to some of the more modern BMUs but honestly the music, art style, levels and characters more than carry this game to greatness.
I wish the leveling system wasn't opaque (a complaint I share with River City Girls) but as a returning vet it didn't bother me. Also the story should definitely change a BIT more for each character you play as, rather than just the ending slide but... still, running around this world, beating up hipsters and ninjas and extras on a movie set still felt damn good.
Also its like 15 bucks just buy it man
Final Grade: A-
2022
Signalis
#14
PC - Steam
Beaten December 10th, 2022
Signalis is a modern classic, a psychological horror game made up of a dozen influences in gaming, anime and movies over the past 25 years - but instead of feeling derivative, if blends each element together to create something wholly new... and frightening
Pros:
We'll start with presentation, as it's visual design is it's most striking feature and obviously in a class of its own. It has a late-PS1 style graphics albeit with more modern lighting techniques and easily readable textures, crossing Resident Evil, Silent Hill and anime like Bakemonogatari & Evangelion, it's got enough edge to it that you can tell what everything is, but looks blurry enough to be just a bit... off
The story is straightforward but also fragmented, like our protagonist's memory. You are Elster, a robot/cyborg/clone who is searching for their missing girlfriend on an old and decrepit mining colony - one that is currently undergoing a horrifying transformation as all its robot workers are being twisted into monsters, as organic matter is slowly stuffing up the mechnical parts of both the people and the facility itself. As you progress through the facility (with several odd gaps in how you get where and when) you learn more about your past and the woman you're after - and why are others after her as well...? There is a great deal that is referential and open to interpretation which I enjoy, if you get any of the endings other than the one I got (it's okay youtube helped me out) I do feel you get enough closure at least on the main character. It's very much a game more about feeling and presentation rather than plot.
While the static cam is mentioned in the "meh" section below, I must call attention to the several segments of 1st person exploration, each area you wander about in has a distinct vibe to it that adds a great deal of "present"-ness. I wish there were more!!
Lovecraft nods E'RYWHERE! Love it
Music is exceptional, obvious nods to Silent Hill with its somber pianos and contemporary jazz but also some VERY well-placed classical pieces. Like damn man.
Puzzle designs are a visual feast, and most of the puzzles are pretty good, not too tough but not just pushing a button on a pretty background either.
Meh:
Camera angles are a bit too "static" in terms of isometric views? I wish that some rooms changed up the direction a bit.
All characters (with one notable exception) are ladies who look very very similar.... The artist has a type that's for sure lol
Combat is a bit too... fine? Like everything not on the pro's list, it's not like Signalis has any real BAD parts, just things that don't live up to the superb music, visuals & story. The combat is basically just Resident Evil, however there's too much of it and it's not dangerous enough. It borrows the idea of Crimson Head mechanics (dead enemies can come back to life) but they just come back normal so there's no real reason to be too afraid of them, just burn the bodies that are in the main halls so you don't have to waste bullets when going up and down the busy roads solving puzzles and you're A-Okay. Basically the combat encounters need to be tighter - fewer in number, more deadly, more meaningful.
Puzzle FREQUENCY and inconsistency is a bit of an issue, there's too many "get X number of things to open this door" puzzles, and I get they're an homage to RE but ehhh I feel like RE had them paced better? Like there are 10-20 "find weird thing and put it in weird hole" moments in RE1, there are like 100 in Signalis. Puzzles are tough but with so many I felt like we needed more variety.
Cons:
Speaking of lack of variety, my one real issue with Signalis - the levels themselves. 3 of the 4 main areas are basically identical in layout - handful of hallways with handful of similar size rooms with a handful of floors. Find the right puzzle item in one room, head to another room with a very similar size and layout then drop off puzzle coupon and move on til' you're done with that area.. over and over. Of course RE and SH do similar things but their layouts feel very different, the RE levels especially. Wings of the mansion feel very different and unique to the other wings, the labs and outdoors feel very different from the mansion and each other... the majority of Signalis is pretty similar I'm afraid. There's one big exception to (the mines) this which is neat, but it's also by far the shortest. Boooooo!
Hmm:
Seriously why does everyone look so similar...
A couple times a year an indie title comes out and smashes all expectations, your Hades, your Hollow Knights, your Yuppie Psychos... Signalis is made by two people (+2 musicians) and is a colossal achievement. It's questions about identity, about pride, about conformity, about love, about how far you can and should go on behalf of your loved ones... it wants to confuse and intrigue you into following it's bread crumbs, and I gobbled them up all the way through and continue to think on it regularly months later. I look forward to going back again for the secret ending too, though I know it's quite small, knowing sort of what's going on may lead to some very interesting insights on the story I'm curious about!
Final Grade: A
#14
PC - Steam
Beaten December 10th, 2022
Signalis is a modern classic, a psychological horror game made up of a dozen influences in gaming, anime and movies over the past 25 years - but instead of feeling derivative, if blends each element together to create something wholly new... and frightening
Pros:
We'll start with presentation, as it's visual design is it's most striking feature and obviously in a class of its own. It has a late-PS1 style graphics albeit with more modern lighting techniques and easily readable textures, crossing Resident Evil, Silent Hill and anime like Bakemonogatari & Evangelion, it's got enough edge to it that you can tell what everything is, but looks blurry enough to be just a bit... off
The story is straightforward but also fragmented, like our protagonist's memory. You are Elster, a robot/cyborg/clone who is searching for their missing girlfriend on an old and decrepit mining colony - one that is currently undergoing a horrifying transformation as all its robot workers are being twisted into monsters, as organic matter is slowly stuffing up the mechnical parts of both the people and the facility itself. As you progress through the facility (with several odd gaps in how you get where and when) you learn more about your past and the woman you're after - and why are others after her as well...? There is a great deal that is referential and open to interpretation which I enjoy, if you get any of the endings other than the one I got (it's okay youtube helped me out) I do feel you get enough closure at least on the main character. It's very much a game more about feeling and presentation rather than plot.
While the static cam is mentioned in the "meh" section below, I must call attention to the several segments of 1st person exploration, each area you wander about in has a distinct vibe to it that adds a great deal of "present"-ness. I wish there were more!!
Lovecraft nods E'RYWHERE! Love it
Music is exceptional, obvious nods to Silent Hill with its somber pianos and contemporary jazz but also some VERY well-placed classical pieces. Like damn man.
Puzzle designs are a visual feast, and most of the puzzles are pretty good, not too tough but not just pushing a button on a pretty background either.
Meh:
Camera angles are a bit too "static" in terms of isometric views? I wish that some rooms changed up the direction a bit.
All characters (with one notable exception) are ladies who look very very similar.... The artist has a type that's for sure lol
Combat is a bit too... fine? Like everything not on the pro's list, it's not like Signalis has any real BAD parts, just things that don't live up to the superb music, visuals & story. The combat is basically just Resident Evil, however there's too much of it and it's not dangerous enough. It borrows the idea of Crimson Head mechanics (dead enemies can come back to life) but they just come back normal so there's no real reason to be too afraid of them, just burn the bodies that are in the main halls so you don't have to waste bullets when going up and down the busy roads solving puzzles and you're A-Okay. Basically the combat encounters need to be tighter - fewer in number, more deadly, more meaningful.
Puzzle FREQUENCY and inconsistency is a bit of an issue, there's too many "get X number of things to open this door" puzzles, and I get they're an homage to RE but ehhh I feel like RE had them paced better? Like there are 10-20 "find weird thing and put it in weird hole" moments in RE1, there are like 100 in Signalis. Puzzles are tough but with so many I felt like we needed more variety.
Cons:
Speaking of lack of variety, my one real issue with Signalis - the levels themselves. 3 of the 4 main areas are basically identical in layout - handful of hallways with handful of similar size rooms with a handful of floors. Find the right puzzle item in one room, head to another room with a very similar size and layout then drop off puzzle coupon and move on til' you're done with that area.. over and over. Of course RE and SH do similar things but their layouts feel very different, the RE levels especially. Wings of the mansion feel very different and unique to the other wings, the labs and outdoors feel very different from the mansion and each other... the majority of Signalis is pretty similar I'm afraid. There's one big exception to (the mines) this which is neat, but it's also by far the shortest. Boooooo!
Hmm:
Seriously why does everyone look so similar...
A couple times a year an indie title comes out and smashes all expectations, your Hades, your Hollow Knights, your Yuppie Psychos... Signalis is made by two people (+2 musicians) and is a colossal achievement. It's questions about identity, about pride, about conformity, about love, about how far you can and should go on behalf of your loved ones... it wants to confuse and intrigue you into following it's bread crumbs, and I gobbled them up all the way through and continue to think on it regularly months later. I look forward to going back again for the secret ending too, though I know it's quite small, knowing sort of what's going on may lead to some very interesting insights on the story I'm curious about!
Final Grade: A