This is one of the first PC games I ever played back when I got my first laptop. I asked for it as a Christmas gift specifically to play Gone Home, and after I did so at 20FPS, I picked this game up and nearly beat it. But for whatever reason, I didn't until what is now a decade later.
This game is basically classic God of War at home. The game has a lot of flash and excitement, but nowhere near enough polish to match the epic scale of the action on display. Most of the cutscenes involve static character models to save on the animation budget. But unlike Bayonetta, which also had certain scenes without character animations but used frequent cuts and voiceover to hide them, this game just slowly pans over its character models and poses them in new positions off-frame, all with little to no dialogue.
This is the biggest example of the low-budget-ness of this game, like Marlow's hands and fingers don't ever move throughout the entire game! There's decent voice acting and the gameplay variety is decently high, especially for a 3-6 hour game. But some of those gameplay diversions feel like mobile-style mini-games, especially with the random inserts of timed and scored challenges.
But with all that being said, there is a strange charm about this game. It's just so unsuspecting on the face of it. You'll likely pick it up for less than $5 or even for a few cents. You may be like me and just don't expect much, and with that expectation, this game is actually lowkey incredible. It might now be as good as any of the classic God of War games, but games like that are so rare nowadays, especially nowadays. And the cheap feeling of the game just makes every single thrill that the game DOES give even more enthralling somehow.
The entire game kinda reminds me of the action movie scenarios that I would imagine when playing with action figures as a kid. It's refreshing to play something juvenile in such an innocent way, free of any guilt associated with the objectification of women or with the cruelty of more graphically violent action games. You can feel the effort spent on the game through the cringy charm of the main characters and the bombast of the setpieces.
Sure, there are only 6 enemy types, but the game is short enough for them to not overstay their welcome. Sure, this is the most Unreal Engine 3 game ever made, but it runs perfectly on Steam Deck and likely all low-end PCs. And sure, the game is cheap, but that often makes the game feel like a scrappy miracle rather than a cynical cash grab.
I didn't just ask for that laptop back in 2014 to play Gone Home. I was in my first year of college, and I also needed it for schoolwork. Now, a decade later, I am returning to school after a year-long break. I guess I felt the pull to finally beat this game as I've been feeling like finishing what I've started a lot recently. I assume I picked this game up due to its similarity to the many PS3 action games I grew up with, the DmC reboot and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. But now that I've seen it to the end, it reminds me of that simpler time: when big, dumb, short games were the standard, not the exception.
I bet I would have ranked the game 4 stars back then, as it adequately stands toe to toe with other games in eh genre that I've played. But I'll give it that same score now for how refreshing it feels, thanks to the same attributes that would have kept it from sticking out all those years ago.
This game is basically classic God of War at home. The game has a lot of flash and excitement, but nowhere near enough polish to match the epic scale of the action on display. Most of the cutscenes involve static character models to save on the animation budget. But unlike Bayonetta, which also had certain scenes without character animations but used frequent cuts and voiceover to hide them, this game just slowly pans over its character models and poses them in new positions off-frame, all with little to no dialogue.
This is the biggest example of the low-budget-ness of this game, like Marlow's hands and fingers don't ever move throughout the entire game! There's decent voice acting and the gameplay variety is decently high, especially for a 3-6 hour game. But some of those gameplay diversions feel like mobile-style mini-games, especially with the random inserts of timed and scored challenges.
But with all that being said, there is a strange charm about this game. It's just so unsuspecting on the face of it. You'll likely pick it up for less than $5 or even for a few cents. You may be like me and just don't expect much, and with that expectation, this game is actually lowkey incredible. It might now be as good as any of the classic God of War games, but games like that are so rare nowadays, especially nowadays. And the cheap feeling of the game just makes every single thrill that the game DOES give even more enthralling somehow.
The entire game kinda reminds me of the action movie scenarios that I would imagine when playing with action figures as a kid. It's refreshing to play something juvenile in such an innocent way, free of any guilt associated with the objectification of women or with the cruelty of more graphically violent action games. You can feel the effort spent on the game through the cringy charm of the main characters and the bombast of the setpieces.
Sure, there are only 6 enemy types, but the game is short enough for them to not overstay their welcome. Sure, this is the most Unreal Engine 3 game ever made, but it runs perfectly on Steam Deck and likely all low-end PCs. And sure, the game is cheap, but that often makes the game feel like a scrappy miracle rather than a cynical cash grab.
I didn't just ask for that laptop back in 2014 to play Gone Home. I was in my first year of college, and I also needed it for schoolwork. Now, a decade later, I am returning to school after a year-long break. I guess I felt the pull to finally beat this game as I've been feeling like finishing what I've started a lot recently. I assume I picked this game up due to its similarity to the many PS3 action games I grew up with, the DmC reboot and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. But now that I've seen it to the end, it reminds me of that simpler time: when big, dumb, short games were the standard, not the exception.
I bet I would have ranked the game 4 stars back then, as it adequately stands toe to toe with other games in eh genre that I've played. But I'll give it that same score now for how refreshing it feels, thanks to the same attributes that would have kept it from sticking out all those years ago.