A stunning return to City 17 as Gordon has to take out a Combine controlled sector, and save an old fisherman. The mechanics are just as polished as Half-Life 2, and it builds on the great level design that they've implemented previously.

The story revolves around Gordon waking on a beach, meeting an old fisherman he enlists his help to remove the combine presence of a small fishing town. After fighting your way up the mountain you get to a small town and church, before destroying their gun. What follows is an epic combat encounter topped off with a fight against a helicopter.

This is also the first Valve game to include commentary, and it really shows. Hours worth of content to listen to as you replay this forgotten gem of a game.

Hunt is probably one of the better competitive multiplayer games I've played in the past few years. It has good mechanics, and enough depth to keep you invested for a while. Even once you've unlocked everything there are still challenges and prestiging available to keep you going.

The game revolves around you and up to two other teammates hunting (a) large monster(s) for tokens that you then have to extract. The catch is that there are other players hunting for them as well, which means that you probably have to get into a fight. However, this isn't always the case, as there is local voice chat which has allowed me and teammates to converse our way out of dying.

There are a lot of choices in terms of loadouts, especially in regards to weapons, but I find that I tend to choose the same consumables and traits every time, due to them simply being the better choices. The biggest lack of variety really comes from there (currently) only being 3 boss monsters and 2 maps. Still, it's enough to have kept me engaged for (currently) 153 hours.

Worth the money, but get it on sale if you're unsure.

New Vegas doesn't need much of an introduction. It's an incredibly janky, buggy mess with shit mechanics. But that's not why people love this game. This is another game where story trumps gameplay, and honestly, that's for the best. Unfortunately the game suffers in multiple parts. While there are consequences for choosing sides, those are, at best, shallow. Oh you want to work with the NCR? I guess Caesar's Legion will attack you now... That's about it.

Ultimately it's a game that suffers due to the short development time they had, but what they did complete is probably the best first person Fallout ever made. I've enjoyed my time with the game, but I'd rather be realistic about it than ignore the flaws that are there.

It's no masterpiece.

Thief 2 fixes the only issue I have with Thief Gold and is genuinely one of the best stealth games I have ever played because of it. It would seem they actually hired a level designer for this game, and it makes the game a joy to play through.

There are a couple new toys to play with in the game due to what happened at the end of the first, but the gameplay has stayed largely the same, much to it's benefit.

Story wise it's still alright, but it does much more to pique my interest than Gold did. However, that may be from my terrible experience playing it rather than the story actually being better.

Play Thief Gold if you must, but this is a must-play for stealth game enjoyers.

Thief Gold is one of the worst games I've experienced in my life, and almost exclusively due to the absolutely terrible level design. While it starts out okay and fairly straightforward, as the levels become more complex the samey corridors, horrible caves and twisting hallways start to drive one insane.

Gameplay wise I absolutely love the game, great mechanics that make you feel like a master thief as you progress through the story. The melee mechanics are... bad, but it makes sense due to the game not being about killing.

Story wise it's okay. Decent enough story that tells you why you're doing this and that. Nothing special.

Night in the Woods is a game that had an impact on me, and for good reason. The characters are all fleshed out and feel real (save for Gregg), and it's an interesting look into the decline of mid-western towns throughout the US. Don't go in expecting deep gameplay mechanics, because they're not there, but it has heart and tells a story worth listening to.

Stick to either Bea or Gregg for a playthrough, as you can then replay the game to get the other side of the story, but don't expect much to change unfortunately.

Dishonoured is a game all about stealth and killing as few people as possible. Unfortunately, there are very few actual methods of non-lethally sneaking around. The game has a tonne of different tools at your disposal, and almost all of them are lethal. The two primary ways of knocking people out are: choking & sleep-darts. This means that your blink becomes primarily a way to sneak closer or around guards so that you can choke them out.

However, that doesn't mean that I don't still really enjoy this game. While the mechanics aren't as polished as Dishonoured 2 or Death of the Outsider, the worldbuilding is still as beautiful and detailed as ever, and that's honestly what keeps making me come back.

Few games come close to being as beautiful, detailed and intricate as Disco Elysium. This is a game that held my attention for hours at a time, letting me simply read and listen to lore and characters and the politics of the world. A game with wonderfully charming characters, people who all have such unique personalities that it's hard to forget them.

The story is the main aspect here, but all I'll say is: There are issues with it, but I don't care.

Gameplay wise the game revolves around controlling the main character using either the mouse or WASD. I decided to mainly use WASD as I didn't want to tucker out my mouse or fingers too much, but found that I had to use the mouse at certain moments simply due to the pathfinding messing up. Rather than having WASD function as it's own movement system it essentially emulates the mouse, and as such becomes confused. Otherwise it's just dialogue and skill checks within dialogue. The game uses a two-die system to do roll-checks. This means that you'll more often than not roll a 7, making skill checks more consistent. My only issue with this all is that the game allows you to redo skill checks if you meet certain criteria, which means walking around looking for something to do. And when looking for something to do the game's biggest flaw shows itself: Moving around is incredibly boring in the long run.
The game makes up for this by having a small map, but as more of the map opens up it becomes more of a drag to move around. That, combined with having to wait for certain things (like going to sleep) and you've got a lot of down-time spent doing nothing.

Overall Disco Elysium is one of my favourite games of all time, however it's not without it's faults, and that's why I can't give it a perfect 5/5. Still, I'm excited to do another playthrough using the final cut. (Maybe I can actually start a proper communist movement.)

System Shock 2 is a game that, when I first played it, I took a huge break from before coming back. When I did eventually come back, I remember feeling tense, the sight of a psi-monkey walking down the corridor filling me with fear. It is probably one of the more immersive games I have played in my life, and I really mean it. The soundtrack, however, does detract a bit from it. Not that there's anything wrong with badass techno bangers, but it doesn't quite fit the general aesthetic of the game.

Gameplay wise it's definitely not the most polished, running on Thief's engine. While movement options are actually quite good, it suffers from Thief's terrible melee combat which, if you're a psi user, you might find yourself using a lot. Still, there are additional mechanics layered on top to make up for the clunkiness of combat.

The story is particularly good, focusing on giving you snippets of what has happened, without revealing the full scale of it all until later. Not to mention SHODAN being one of the best antagonists ever made.

Level-design wise it does suffer from issues such as areas looking similar, or being incredibly maze-like, but this adds to the feeling of being a rat trapped in a cage. With a fully functioning map it's quite possible to navigate the world without too much hassle (unlike Thief Gold.)

I'd recommend anyone to pick up this game and to listen carefully to what you're told to do. It is possible to soft-lock yourself if you're stupid.

A solid arcade game that relies on quick thinking and memorisation. Took me around 40 hours to beat and have since spent another 242~ hours playing it.

The music is great, although it gets repetitive after enough hours, and the announcer can be annoying to some.
V-Sync causes quite significant input delay, but turning it off causes quite significant screen tearing. Pick your poison.

Overall a solid game, and well worth the low asking price. Would recommend to anyone who enjoys a bit of a challenge. Big warning though: if you suffer from epilepsy it's probably best to keep your distance.