Puzzle games are not a genre I typically play, but this, even after a long time and me forgetting a large part of it is still a blast to play.

Puzzles are neither incredibly easy nor incredibly difficult. The game paces the introduction of its mechanics really well, making the puzzles, for the most part, feel incredibly intuitive and, at worst, able to be completed with a bit of trial and error.

The atmosphere felt pretty good as well. The setting subverts your expectations, which created an even more ominous feeling than usual throughout the entire game.

My only minor complaint is that some puzzles require some really fast reflexes to pass through, which lead to a few unnecessary deaths, though it hardly detracts from the experience.

The 2D pixelated graphics are simple, but effective and the music is pretty good.

It's very challenging, but despite dying hundreds of times, the game rarely felt frustrating due to instant respawns and checkpoints being placed on pretty much every screen. Each death is a learning experience and finally beating a section, however long it took, was satisfying.

Of course, sometimes a certain section may be far too difficult, and luckily, this game decided to included flexible accessibility options, which allows to either make that section a little easier or pretty much skip it.

A decent, minimalistic platformer with Atari 2600-esque graphics, tight controls, and presents a nice challenge.

The default arcade mode can be beaten in around half an hour, but other modes like speedrun and YOLO (one life) add some replay value.

My only minor complaint is that the default keyboard controls felt awkward, and I would suggest remapping them before playing.

A decent and short puzzle game about getting two people to shake their hands.

The visual style isn't its strong point and there is unfortunately only 1 track that runs throughout the entire game, but it has some creative levels and introduces players to its mechanics at a good pace.

I'm looking forward to the planned sequel and how they'll expand on this idea. The last few levels of this one were tricky, so I'm imagining that an expanded version will be quite the handful. I'll see myself out now.

An interesting port (one could also call it an official demake) which turns Max Payne 1 into an isometric shooter.

There's a decent amount of voice acting, the comic book panels are implemented well, the atmosphere is a good replica considering what they worked with and the developers did their best to include a good variety of weapons and make the gameplay as action packed as possible.

Your sight is a little limited which can sometimes mean taking a few cheap shots, but l didn't find this to be much of a issue with the exception of the semi-last level. That one can take a bit of patience.

The game is pretty short and can be finished in a little over 2 hours.

While not really something someone should go out of their way to play, if you're a fan of the Max Payne games, you could give this one a try and appreciate the ambition.

When I finished Max Payne 1&2 back in 2021, I enjoyed them a lot and consider them among the best third-person shooters I've ever played. I was planning to play Max Payne 3 shortly thereafter, but upon seeing a gameplay video, I was kind of hesitant, but kept it in the back of my mind. Now, I've finished it and despite the game's positives slightly outweighing the negatives, a part of me wishes I had put it off indefinitely.

Max Payne 3 takes a sharp detour and completely replaces the noir style from the previous two games with far more vibrant visuals. There is great attention to detail and good set pieces, but the presentation is very GTA-esque and there was always that underlying feeling I was playing a GTA spin-off, rather than a Max Payne game.

Comic panels with some minor exceptions are done away with, which would typically be alright. You know, they were an essential part of what made the first two games special, but with all of the fancy hardware advancement that happened between the second game and this, Max could get some cool cutscenes to shine in.
They didn't handle it well in my opinion.
The cutscenes happen so often and for some of the smallest things (thought I realize a big chunck of those are masquerading as loading screens) that they become incredibly grating and ruin the pace.

The story is what it is. It largely ignores what happened in Max Payne 2 to work, because otherwise there would be no reason for the story to happen in the first place.
Max's one-liners sometimes hit the spot, but Sam Lake's absence is pretty apparent as a lot of lines end up sounding like cheap vulgar phrases or wannabe witty similes. The sophistication that made them so good is the first place is just not there.

Finally, the gameplay. It has it's moments, but it self-sabotages itself so often that it's just hard to enjoy for extended periods of time.
As already mentioned, the cutscenes ruin the pace and makes it far more difficult to just let the action flow. Not to mention the game likes taking away your weapons and replacing them with a pistol at least once every chapter.
At least the mechanics feels like the previous games. Bullet time is a joy to use.
You can run and gun, at least sometimes. Max isn't as sharp as he used to be in the previous games and moves kind of sluggishly now, so that kind of discourages you from going all guns blazing on your enemies as often as you'd like to.
For those who aren't used to the run and gun style there is also the cover system. Though I found that enemies can surround you and naturally have a far greater chance to hit you, so it's not a definitive way to play.

Overall, it's a decent shooter that still has that Max Payne essence in it (gameplay-wise) but it's also deeply flawed.

I got this in a bundle with Cthulhu Saves the world, and it was decent.

The in-game systems, graphics and presentation are almost like Cthulhu Saves the world. With some minor exceptions like the inability to teleport back to a certain point, which was a shame.

The story is pretty comedic and fine to go through once. Your standard fantasy setting is there and this game doesn't try anything innovative. The battle system is alright, and with the game only being around 4 hours long doesn't overstay its welcome.

Overall, if you enjoyed Cthulhu Saves World, you'll enjoy this game as well.

The game is very reminiscent of early FF games and Earthbound in terms of general gameplay feel, graphics and design.
Luckily, the game decides to remove a lot of the more punishing features of those games. Winning a battle will restore your party to max HP and revive all your downed characters, coupled with the fact that if you roam and fight in a dungeon for long enough, you'll stop getting random encounters being the two most prominent examples.

The story is good for what it is. It's meant to be a parody and I enjoyed a large part of the dialogue and self-awareness the game had. It also isn't long and can be beaten in 6-7 hours.

The gameplay is classical turn-based with the twist that enemies become stronger every turn, so stalling is not recommended as it will make any battle unnecessarily difficult.

Being able to branch your characters out further and further with each level-up was a nice addition, which adds some replay value.

The one thing that really hurts this game is how they deal with MP regen. You need MP if you're gonna deal a lot of damage, but the only way to regen it outside of save points is to battle by only using normal attacks and finishing a battle quickly on top of that. That's not easy to do in later stages because enemies get tougher and tougher. It would be fine if you could run away from these encounters, but here the only way to run away from battle is to have a character from your party who has a skill that costs 25 MP to use. Not to mention if the enemies kill her, you're screwed. This made the last two dungeons in the game annoying to go through.

Overall, if you're a fan of early 80s JRPGs and are looking for a game that is far more forgiving in its design while still retaining that 80s feel, this is a decent choice.

Pretty short and doesn't add anything of note to the Alan Wake narrative.

Gunplay feels better than the first one, but the story is meh and the general atmosphere feels like a big downgrade from the first game.
Not to mention the second half of the game is basically reusing the first half's levels without changing them too much, which I personally wasn't a fan of.

If you're a big fan of the series, you could give this one a try. Otherwise, it's a pretty safe skip.

Last year, the first game I played was Slender: The Eight Pages, a game that I should have played many, many years ago.
Now, to continue the trend of playing a horror game (I'm using the term very loosely here) and keep up with the times, but mostly because I made a bet with a friend that this would be the first game we play in 2024, well, I'm playing this...

Is it good? I guess it's ok with friends, but there's only so much you can do because of the boring gameplay, boring design, and lack of levels.

At least I got it at a discount... I'll take that small W, however miniscule it might be.

You experiece the game through the lens of a two-year-old named David. Without spoiling much, the game sets up a fine line between feeling like a horror game and a whimsical adventure, which feels incredibly cryptic and blasé at first, but has a good twist at the end that turns it around on its head.

The gameplay is mostly a walking simulator with some puzzle and stealth parts sprinkled in between.
The only complaint I have is when you interact with stuff. It may have been an intentional design choice due to the age of the character, but it felt pretty stiff to pick up, move stuff, throw, etc.

Overall, it's a good one time experience. While the gameplay can feel stiff at times, you have a story that's rich in symbolism with an interesting twist at the end.

As a spiritual successor to Limbo, the similarities between both games are easy to spot.
The story is open to interpretation and even after seeing the secret ending, I'm a little confused as to what went down.
The mute color palette creates a good atmosphere with a persistent sense of disconcernment.
The gameplay is pretty simple, but considering it's meant to first and foremost be an experience, it works out well enough.
I'll also give the game props for giving you the option to load and replay even the smallest of segments.

Overall, if you liked Limbo, you'll most likely enjoy this game as well.
While I most likely won't revisit it, it was a nice and short experience.

Graphics look really good and while the darker atmosphere of MK10 isn't there, MK11 looks far sharper with a bigger attention to detail.

The story is pretty ridiculous and really requires you to turn off your brain to enjoy. To avoid spoilers, I'll just say it involves a lot of time travel and I didn't feel like the game used it well.
The final boss at the end of Part I also felt incredibly unfair and pretty quick required you to cheese through the battle using a lot of jump kicks and uppercuts. Though that can be said about a lot of MK final bosses.
If anything, the story provides a lot of cosmetics, so going through it once isn't a bad idea.

The gameplay for the most part felt good. There is a pretty low level of entry and you can pick it up pretty quickly. It didn't feel as combo heavy as previous titles, but that didn't bother me too much.
Fatal Blow felt like a bad mechanic though. It deals far too much damage (almost half the health bar) and encourages you to intentionally get your HP down to 30% to use it. Your opponent can dodge or block it, but you can use it again after 10 seconds if that happens anyway.
Definitely should've been added as an option that can toggle on/off rather than a default mechanic.

Overall, it's a solid fighting game with a packed roster and a low level of entry, though the story leaves much to be desired and things like Fatal Blow just shouldn't have been in the game.

Initially developed as a Resident Evil game, Devil May Cry 1 ultimately ending up becoming its own thing, although vestiges of Resident Evil can still be seen in it.

The story is simple enough. You're a demon hunter named Dante and you travel to a mysterious island, traverse it and overcome all sorts of challenges.

The game is split across 23 levels and has a fair amount of exploration in it. Each level is relatively short and the entire game is around 6-7 hours, so if you own it on a handheld console, it's a good game on the go. On a first playthrough, it can be a little rough, but when you know what you're doing, it can be far more fun.

The gothic architecture, eerie ambiance, off-beat music, a castle that has dangers lurking at every corner, plenty of small spaces where you either fight or die (and more) make for a truly great atmosphere. And in my opinion, the highlight of the game.

The combat system is good. The only thing to complain about is that it's rather simple in comparison to other games in the series. The inability to quickly switch between all your weapons can also be quite annoying. The enemy design, which oftentimes rewards proper dodging and attack timing mostly makes up for it, however.

The game does have some pretty apparent flaws though.
The fixed camera helps boost the atmosphere, but really requires some getting used to when in combat. Getting multiple camera cuts in the same room while an enemy is launching projectiles can be especially annoying.
The gold orb system makes the game unnecessarily harder than it should be and the game forcing you to use them even if you don't want to makes it even worse.
There are a few segments which take place underwater and those are not fun. Same can be said about the platforming sections.
And finally, they reuse bosses multiple times which was a bit of a shame.

There are things to both like and dislike here. The atmosphere is great, combat and enemy design are pretty good, but stuff like the fixed camera angles and the gold orb system (which can force you to replay an entire level) can be pretty frustrating.
An interesting experience, but not for everyone.

It's not the most sophisticated shooter, it doesn't have a revolutionary story setting, and neither is there mind-blowing level design, but its individual parts are woven in such a way that makes it fun to play, even if there are a few design choices I wasn't a fan of.

The story and the consequences of your actions naturally unveil themselves as you progress. No cutscenes or extensive dialogue is needed. This also leads to the game never taking control from the player, so there is always that satisfaction of feeling like you've done something, rather than the game making you watch a cutscene of the character doing something. This game is often praised for its environmental storytelling for a very good reason.

The atmosphere and sound design are really well done as well. It's a little difficult to put into words, but the game's setting gives off some survival horror vibes, combined with a feeling of isolation and desperation.

The gunplay felt pretty nice and you have a good variety of weapons. Nothing really to complain about there.

The level design felt kind of hit or miss, at least for me.
Your default speed is pretty fast and you'll have plenty of instances where you'll have to platform, sometimes on areas that aren't easy to land on. This becomes a lot more frustrating in the last few levels.
Puzzles were very easy and I almost have no idea why they were even in the game.

There were a couple of bugs that detracted from the experience, though some of them are admittedly nitpicks.
Whenever I needed to escort an NPC, I sometimes had to talk to it around 5-6 times so that it could begin following me. And it sometimes also just stopped following me until I didn't talk to it again.
There were 2 cases when killing an enemy resulted in that enemy continuing to walk around.
Worst of all was a bug in chapter 16. The boss, no matter how much I reset (did it around 30 times) didn't initiate its 3rd phase properly, although I learned it isn't necessary to kill it to finish the level, so that was a small relief. I wasted a lot of weapons to open that hole in the ground though.

Overall, a revolutionary shooter for its time and still a solid game today.
Certain areas feel a little clunky and the bugs can be annoying at times, but it has good gunplay and really good environmental storytelling, atmosphere, and sound design.
It will kick your ass in areas but felt satisfying to beat, even with its flaws.