Reboot
45 Reviews liked by Reboot
Granted, this one might not be for everyone.
It describes itself as "a cross between a walking sim and a tarot card reading" but I rather think of it as a short, intense experience, unlike anything I've ever played before.
I am quite fond of titles like these: highly vague, highly stylized, immersed in its own aesthetics. Not much in terms of gameplay but then again, it never claims to be a game at all. It's beautiful to look at, the atmosphere is utterly unique and it stayed with me for a while after I found all the endings.
It describes itself as "a cross between a walking sim and a tarot card reading" but I rather think of it as a short, intense experience, unlike anything I've ever played before.
I am quite fond of titles like these: highly vague, highly stylized, immersed in its own aesthetics. Not much in terms of gameplay but then again, it never claims to be a game at all. It's beautiful to look at, the atmosphere is utterly unique and it stayed with me for a while after I found all the endings.
battler with a cape should be illegal how am I supposed to read a 150 something hours visual novel while also trying not to be continuously turned on by this man
End Roll
2016
She Egged on my roll call that a End Roll
GOOOAAAAAATTTTTTT this game has no reason being this good
Grandia HD Remaster
2019
I love adventures so much
This review contains spoilers
astonishing how much dedication they put into running with one of the least funny gags from the showcase area for nearly the entire runtime of the new content
The more I sit with this one, the less I like it. Wreden seems to like doing meta-commentary on the nature of being a "creator" but it's much better realized in The Beginner's Guide. Plenty of fun gags surrounding that (the steam review sequence was great) but once you get that god damned bucket the writing gets pretty lame pretty quickly.
The majority of the new endings just boil down to "the same thing but you have a bucket now". The bucket museum ending strikes me as particularly bad compared to the original one, but none of them are all that good. It's just not that funny of a gag and the game runs with it for so long. I think you could handwave this one off as like, a commentary of "oh well it's bad on purpose because it's supposed to say something about how making a sequel when a game didn't need one is bad", but then, like, make it good. Kane & Lynch 2 exists. If you're gonna make your game bad on purpose, go for broke and don't just do something that's kind of unfunny that I probably would have thought was funny when I was like, 13 playing the Stanley Parable for the first time.
The original (both mod and steam release) Stanley Parable was based around subverting expectations. When Ultra Deluxe does that, it's pretty good! Everything before the bucket is like a solid 8/10. Honestly seeing that "new content" door pop up made me grin like a stupid idiot with how hard the game read me, but again, once you get back into the normal cycle of things there just isn't much to take away from the experience, epilogue aside. And even then, the epilogue is really short, like it's actually maybe only 5 minutes long or something.
Idk, just kind of disappointing seeing this delayed for like 2 years just for this. Part of me thinks nothing could have matched my expectations, but like, the first couple hours of content did. The bucket is just really unfunny. It is a randem x3 reddit homestuck level joke and i mean that in the most negative way possible
The more I sit with this one, the less I like it. Wreden seems to like doing meta-commentary on the nature of being a "creator" but it's much better realized in The Beginner's Guide. Plenty of fun gags surrounding that (the steam review sequence was great) but once you get that god damned bucket the writing gets pretty lame pretty quickly.
The majority of the new endings just boil down to "the same thing but you have a bucket now". The bucket museum ending strikes me as particularly bad compared to the original one, but none of them are all that good. It's just not that funny of a gag and the game runs with it for so long. I think you could handwave this one off as like, a commentary of "oh well it's bad on purpose because it's supposed to say something about how making a sequel when a game didn't need one is bad", but then, like, make it good. Kane & Lynch 2 exists. If you're gonna make your game bad on purpose, go for broke and don't just do something that's kind of unfunny that I probably would have thought was funny when I was like, 13 playing the Stanley Parable for the first time.
The original (both mod and steam release) Stanley Parable was based around subverting expectations. When Ultra Deluxe does that, it's pretty good! Everything before the bucket is like a solid 8/10. Honestly seeing that "new content" door pop up made me grin like a stupid idiot with how hard the game read me, but again, once you get back into the normal cycle of things there just isn't much to take away from the experience, epilogue aside. And even then, the epilogue is really short, like it's actually maybe only 5 minutes long or something.
Idk, just kind of disappointing seeing this delayed for like 2 years just for this. Part of me thinks nothing could have matched my expectations, but like, the first couple hours of content did. The bucket is just really unfunny. It is a randem x3 reddit homestuck level joke and i mean that in the most negative way possible
Infra
2016
Here is my review of Infra AKA Level Design: The Official Game of the Movie
If you love to explore meticulously recreated virtual renditions of civil infrastructure, industrial facilities, and other man-made utilitarian spaces, with a few caves thrown in for good measure, then BOY have I got the game for you. You are a Finnish Structural Analyst tasked with investigating the deteriorating facilities at a hydroelectric dam in a fictional Scandinavian city called Stalburg. Things spiral into the dark from there. Those facilities, they sure are deteriorating something fierce! Time to photograph all the broken parts while solving puzzles, fixing utility systems, and trying not to drown, fall, get crushed, electrocuted, burned, poisoned, or blown up! And what is this? A far reaching industrial conspiracy? Just how run down IS this city, and how'd it get this bad? And what's going on with this Open Sewer place I keep hearing about? And what's with all these beers and mushrooms? Well.... at least I Have Five Batteries for the Flashlight Now...
Let me tell you, this game GOES places. Like the deterioration of Stalburg's civic infrastructure, it is far larger and more extensively detailed than it seems at first glance, but for the most part it uses that time very well. It is jam-packed with secrets and weird level-design jokes, and weird one-off bespoke systems. There is some truly wild deep lore that rivals dark souls in its hiddenness and depth of its story implications. No really. It has some charmingly rough voice acting and some really spectacular atmosphere. The level design creates this eerie feeling of isolation and lostness and I-shouldn't-be-here-ness that makes you believe that at any time, it could turn into a horror game. And well, it kind of is a horror game, but the monster is government corruption, neglect, and neoliberal austerity measures.
You WILL learn how a civic water filtration facility works and you WILL have a great time doing it.
Infra is a very special game that was clearly made with a ton of love, and if any of the above sounds good to you, you owe it to yourself to play it.
If you love to explore meticulously recreated virtual renditions of civil infrastructure, industrial facilities, and other man-made utilitarian spaces, with a few caves thrown in for good measure, then BOY have I got the game for you. You are a Finnish Structural Analyst tasked with investigating the deteriorating facilities at a hydroelectric dam in a fictional Scandinavian city called Stalburg. Things spiral into the dark from there. Those facilities, they sure are deteriorating something fierce! Time to photograph all the broken parts while solving puzzles, fixing utility systems, and trying not to drown, fall, get crushed, electrocuted, burned, poisoned, or blown up! And what is this? A far reaching industrial conspiracy? Just how run down IS this city, and how'd it get this bad? And what's going on with this Open Sewer place I keep hearing about? And what's with all these beers and mushrooms? Well.... at least I Have Five Batteries for the Flashlight Now...
Let me tell you, this game GOES places. Like the deterioration of Stalburg's civic infrastructure, it is far larger and more extensively detailed than it seems at first glance, but for the most part it uses that time very well. It is jam-packed with secrets and weird level-design jokes, and weird one-off bespoke systems. There is some truly wild deep lore that rivals dark souls in its hiddenness and depth of its story implications. No really. It has some charmingly rough voice acting and some really spectacular atmosphere. The level design creates this eerie feeling of isolation and lostness and I-shouldn't-be-here-ness that makes you believe that at any time, it could turn into a horror game. And well, it kind of is a horror game, but the monster is government corruption, neglect, and neoliberal austerity measures.
You WILL learn how a civic water filtration facility works and you WILL have a great time doing it.
Infra is a very special game that was clearly made with a ton of love, and if any of the above sounds good to you, you owe it to yourself to play it.
Super Meat Boy
2010
What a dynamic platformer. Years ago i thought it was just a hard troll cringe 2010 game like cat mario, but this was at least more taken seriously, and actually it isn't that hard (i played til hell world). Btw both Danny (2010) and Ridiculon (2015) OSTs are good in their own ways. My favourites themes are Betus Blues, Ballad of the Burning Squirrel, Bedside Manner, Forest Funk, Jam Bonjovi, etc. Oh, and the dark world maps themes, they are so badass
Little Witch Nobeta
2022
Miyazaki if He Didn't suck at his job :
I think I'm pretty lenient on this game because Hidari is the designer and I'm a real fucking sucker for his art, but, honestly, it wasn't a big deal, a nice experience but it wasn't mindbreaking or anything
Just a chill game
Just a chill game
Infra
2016
creppy atmosphere, but the puzzles keep getting worse and worse as you advance.
the plot is really uninteresting
the plot is really uninteresting
Miyazaki's C*m on my face
Genshin Impact
2020
OUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH KEQING ðŸ˜
Genshin Impact
2020
Genshin Didn't make an Impact ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Doom Eternal
2020
Doesn't really improve on the DOOM16 combat so much as it does tack on a ton of capital G Game Design concepts and call it a day. By far the weakest part of 16 were the story and the upgrade system, neither of which felt much more than half-hearted "Well, If I Have To" situations, and Eternal triples down on both these aspects without really changing its attitude about either concept. There are so many upgrade trees in this game it's like a joke you would make about modern upgrade systems but played completely sincere, and the story is so overly self-serious and obsessed with making the Doom Slayer into something more than Angry Man Go Brrr that it completely spoils the appeal of having some random, very fucking angry man be so terrifying at a primal level that they locked him in a sarcophagus in hell with third-rate Chosen One bullshit. If they were trying to make the lore so convoluted that its meant to be funny I'm not sure why they focused all their efforts on elaborating on a joke that was already long played out the first time.
Speaking of jokes, this game has exactly two of them, one being the phrase "mortally challenged", which they beat you around the head with so often that every time you hear them your eyes roll further back into their sockets. 16 already played the corporate hell-lovers bit to the point it didn't register and Eternal seems to have been so desperate to resuscitate it that they pinned all their hopes on a phrase that sounds satirical but is actually just confusing in intent and toothless. If you managed to have clueless right-wingers (aka all of them) cheering about how your game is sticking it to minorities maybe reconsider the joke.
It also incorporates the absolute bane of my existence of Simon Says Weak Points where you have certain weapons or attacks that are objectively the best option and you go through a routine of doing them over and over. I know they wanted to avoid the 16 problem that the super shotgun was so versatile that you didn't need anything else but they massively overcorrected and in the process turned the fun arsenal of weapons into a bunch of specific tools that you don't want to play with as much. Meanwhile the game is also so paranoid that people still won't get it that they also just outright tell you what the weakpoint is any time you meet up with that enemy for the first time in a big tooltip. No room for experimentation, stop playing with the cool toys, you have to do it like this now, okay, pay attention. The marauder is, of course, many people's breaking point for this newly-created problem, as it's so demanding of an incredibly specific play pattern with little to no room for experimentation or even slip ups that it's very easy to get caught slipping and die.
The short version: id got paranoid that people weren't "playing the game right", overcorrected, added tons of unnecessary game design concepts because marketing told them to, fucked over mick gordon for basically no reason other than shockingly bad management practices, and now DOOM went from one of the cooler reboots of an iconic series into a slightly-above-average shooty game. I hear Dusk is pretty good, though.
PS. oh my fucking god the platforming is DOGSHIT
Speaking of jokes, this game has exactly two of them, one being the phrase "mortally challenged", which they beat you around the head with so often that every time you hear them your eyes roll further back into their sockets. 16 already played the corporate hell-lovers bit to the point it didn't register and Eternal seems to have been so desperate to resuscitate it that they pinned all their hopes on a phrase that sounds satirical but is actually just confusing in intent and toothless. If you managed to have clueless right-wingers (aka all of them) cheering about how your game is sticking it to minorities maybe reconsider the joke.
It also incorporates the absolute bane of my existence of Simon Says Weak Points where you have certain weapons or attacks that are objectively the best option and you go through a routine of doing them over and over. I know they wanted to avoid the 16 problem that the super shotgun was so versatile that you didn't need anything else but they massively overcorrected and in the process turned the fun arsenal of weapons into a bunch of specific tools that you don't want to play with as much. Meanwhile the game is also so paranoid that people still won't get it that they also just outright tell you what the weakpoint is any time you meet up with that enemy for the first time in a big tooltip. No room for experimentation, stop playing with the cool toys, you have to do it like this now, okay, pay attention. The marauder is, of course, many people's breaking point for this newly-created problem, as it's so demanding of an incredibly specific play pattern with little to no room for experimentation or even slip ups that it's very easy to get caught slipping and die.
The short version: id got paranoid that people weren't "playing the game right", overcorrected, added tons of unnecessary game design concepts because marketing told them to, fucked over mick gordon for basically no reason other than shockingly bad management practices, and now DOOM went from one of the cooler reboots of an iconic series into a slightly-above-average shooty game. I hear Dusk is pretty good, though.
PS. oh my fucking god the platforming is DOGSHIT