OctopusGrift
2017
This review contains spoilers
I really hated the ending. I personally think it's a lot more interesting to be doing tasks during an alien invasion than having the character be delusional. I had really been getting into parts 1-3 to the point that I was considering gifting a copy to a friend. Did not feel that way in the end. Also while part 4 integrates elements from the previous chapters I don't feel like the previous chapters do as good a job telegraphing the twist.
Also I get that people's emotions are complicated and the parents don't have to be rational people, but it's completely the 22 year old's fault that his parents and their friends got him drunk and then told him to drunk drive and he got in an accident?
Also I get that people's emotions are complicated and the parents don't have to be rational people, but it's completely the 22 year old's fault that his parents and their friends got him drunk and then told him to drunk drive and he got in an accident?
This review contains spoilers
I was sorta enjoying this up until the end. My main complaint with it before the stupid twist was that I feel like a lot of Supermassive's games really blindside you with qtes. While I like (most of) the plot the actual gameplay is not super engaging a lot of the time, this means that I will have taken my hand away from the controller during a cutscene to drink my tea and suddenly I've fucked up. I've only played until dawn before this one and it had the same issue where it was easy to lose focus and then get hit with a qte out of nowhere.
I don't know that the events being all in Will Poulter's head makes a lot of sense. A huge amount of this game is stuff that he isn't present for. I personally rarely like it was all in their head endings for games or for movies. It always feels like a huge cop out. We don't need there to be an explanation for what happened because it was all in his head. Except that doesn't explain the inciting incident of the game. The younger sister locks everyone in the house and burns them all, with a sinister presence in the background of one of her shots. That made sense with this is a cursed town where the same people relive trauma over and over, it becomes a lose thread if the events were in a different character's head.
I don't know that the events being all in Will Poulter's head makes a lot of sense. A huge amount of this game is stuff that he isn't present for. I personally rarely like it was all in their head endings for games or for movies. It always feels like a huge cop out. We don't need there to be an explanation for what happened because it was all in his head. Except that doesn't explain the inciting incident of the game. The younger sister locks everyone in the house and burns them all, with a sinister presence in the background of one of her shots. That made sense with this is a cursed town where the same people relive trauma over and over, it becomes a lose thread if the events were in a different character's head.
2007
I think it has moved out of the zeitgeist at this point but 15 or so years ago an obsession of games reviewers was finding "The Citizen Kane of gaming." The game that they could point at and say "this is the proof that games are art." For a lot of them Portal was that game. Many people tried to get Rodger Ebert to play it for that reason. As someone who thinks a lot about film Citizen Kane isn't my proof that film is art; it is the film that everyone agreed we can call the best one even though individual critics might argue that their personal favorite might be better. We mostly all kinda accept that if there has to be a "best film" that one is good enough that we don't have to fight over it (except for contrarians who want to fight.) It's the all time great the pisses the fewest people off. I feel like Portal definitely fills that niche in gaming. There are people who would argue that Skyrim or Last of Us or Breath of the Wild is the greatest game of all time, but each of those has pretty dedicated detractors. If we all had to come together to say one game is the best one Portal would probably be the least controversial choice. Portal may not be my favorite game, but I am completely comfortable with it being "the best game."
2011
One of the best followups to a game ever. I think that sticking the landing of writing a sequel to something good is one of the hardest things that a story can do. This manages that. It's a bit less tight than the first one, but still a very good game.
Would have been stronger if I hadn't worked out the twist in the first scene, it's not subtle, though I think it is funny that the Curator acts like he's letting things slip and I'm here thinking "yeah I already worked that out." It was so simple that I half expected a double twist where something else would also be going on. Same issues as other Supermassive games, but they have some B horror charms.
2022
I didn't give this a ton of time, but it failed to give me a compelling reason to pick it over reinstalling Stardew Valley.
2020
I recently finished my first playthough and decided to give it another go afterwards to experience some content I missed. While I think this game is good it is a marriage of two genres of game and I think it is a better example of one than the other. It is a bioware style party/character based rpg and it is a CRPG. I think it is one of the best Bioware style RPGs I have played, but it made a lot of weird decisions as a CRPG that annoyed me quite a bit. I tend to be more of a CRPG person (though I get that we are the much smaller demographic so focusing on the Bioware people makes sense) so these issues stood out to me as problems. Bad checkpointing, bad pathing, no option to pause the game, and no easy way to queue up actions all annoyed me and almost had me quit early on. I also think that the first act may have some pacing issues, maybe I was just drawn to the wrong order for quests, but there are some that seem somewhat urgent that you are super under leveled for at the beginning of the game.
This was a strong story, obviously the gameplay was a bit minimal. A lot of good characters and drama. If you don't mind a walking simulator this is worth picking up.
2015
Undertale is one of those games that is difficult to review because there isn't much that hasn't been already said about it. It's one of those games that seems to unite a lot of the different elements of gaming culture all into one. It has a lot of cozy cute stuff. It has a lot of strong emotional story beats. It has a lot of good jokes. It has a lot of challenge. It has a lot of niche content that implies that the creator was considering all these tiny edge cases that 99% of players wouldn't ever look for. Most of the people who I've encountered that didn't like it are people who were turned off by the more insane elements of the fan base before being able to play the game (which I would argue is more the fault of fan culture than the game.)
2020
When this game is on it is amazing, but it is super annoying when it isn't. When you are flying around the battlefield smashing through enemies it's great. When the game occasionally slows down (usually when fighting the Marauders) it is really unfun. It's not that it is that hard, it just feels like it goes from a game where you have a lot of different options for how to approach a fight to a game where there is really only one way to approach the fight.
2010
The ur-Big Headed Child Explores Dark World game. One of those games that most one of those games that I think people wouldn't regret playing but I don't think they will regret skipping either.
2015
There were some really interesting moments in this, but the chapters felt a bit disconnected. It's one of those games that makes you think that the creator's next game will be worth looking at.
1998
Half-Life is the game that all other FPS games are compared to for me. Even with some of the jank it is a game that I find myself reinstalling every few years.
2022
This is the kind of game that makes me interested in seeing what the dev does next. This did a good job creating atmosphere, the game made really good use of lighting and sound. The game play isn't bad, but I think the curve isn't great. I think ranged may be too op, the difficulty drops off pretty quick when you start getting good ranged weapons and a majority of enemies don't have much that can counter a ranged build. Final boss was pretty spongy. The atmosphere is there, if their next project has stronger game play I could see it being something great.
This is a game that I love, but I will say that it is a pain getting it to actually do what I want it to. I was having a lot of fun with my modded play though and then the creation club caused it to bug out and I couldn't get it running again. I think instead of spending a lot of energy figuring that out I am going to shelve this playthough and I'll start again another time. I love this game and modding it up is fun, but dang that's not the best experience.