SmAshMk01
Fantastic game. A lot of people have gripes with the combat but I found it to be quite enjoyable. The story can be cryptic at times. I managed to piece everything together at the end however. The more you think about it, the more it starts to make sense. I think a second playthrough would make me appreciate this even more. Really looking forward to hellblade 2 now.
2018
Average at best. The humour is a little childish for my taste. The gameplay wasn't engaging at all. I wouldn't recommend it at full price.
2020
This review contains spoilers
Omori left me annoyed and disappointed. The ending is so laughably amateurish, it feels like it was written by an edgy teenager. It's really a shame because the rest of the game is fairly well written. Before I get into spoilers, I also want to talk about the gameplay. The game has your typical JRPG combat which is incredibly boring imo. Buyers beware. The only reason I bought this despite the turn based combat was because of the art and story. The latter didn't live up to my expectations.
Let's just get straight into it:
As it turns out, the protagonist accidentally kills his sister and then with the help of his friend Basil, makes the death look like a suicide. This guilt makes him create a colorful, imaginary world in his head where everything is fine and dandy.
Now I would have no problem with this plot if it wasn't revolving around literal children. A 12 year old child, apparently staged the death of his own sister. This just goes beyond my suspension of disbelief. It would've been fine if the kid lied about his involvement in her death. That would've worked as his little secret. Instead, he literally drags his sister's corpse to his backyard tree and hangs her.
I was expecting a twist ending cause both the protagonist and Basil seemed distant from the very beginning. But what I got was completely out of this realm of possibility. Instead of being a delicate and personal story about dealing with mental illness, the ending turns it into this bizarre, shocking tale which reads like a fanfiction of itself. It feels shocking just for the sake of it. Silent Hill 2 is a great example of a twist done right. The plot is shocking but it doesn't feel hamfisted. The developers want you to "learn" something. There are messages they want to convey to the player. This entire game feels pointless.
The game also suffers from the character trope problems that plague most anime. I believe this is intentional but it's annoying nonetheless.
I may come off as overly critical in this review and that's only because of the potential I saw in it. The art is phenomenal, the soundtrack is super memorable and the characters are genuinely endearing at times. The scares also do a really good job of building tension. Alas, the ending spoiled the experience overall.
Let's just get straight into it:
As it turns out, the protagonist accidentally kills his sister and then with the help of his friend Basil, makes the death look like a suicide. This guilt makes him create a colorful, imaginary world in his head where everything is fine and dandy.
Now I would have no problem with this plot if it wasn't revolving around literal children. A 12 year old child, apparently staged the death of his own sister. This just goes beyond my suspension of disbelief. It would've been fine if the kid lied about his involvement in her death. That would've worked as his little secret. Instead, he literally drags his sister's corpse to his backyard tree and hangs her.
I was expecting a twist ending cause both the protagonist and Basil seemed distant from the very beginning. But what I got was completely out of this realm of possibility. Instead of being a delicate and personal story about dealing with mental illness, the ending turns it into this bizarre, shocking tale which reads like a fanfiction of itself. It feels shocking just for the sake of it. Silent Hill 2 is a great example of a twist done right. The plot is shocking but it doesn't feel hamfisted. The developers want you to "learn" something. There are messages they want to convey to the player. This entire game feels pointless.
The game also suffers from the character trope problems that plague most anime. I believe this is intentional but it's annoying nonetheless.
I may come off as overly critical in this review and that's only because of the potential I saw in it. The art is phenomenal, the soundtrack is super memorable and the characters are genuinely endearing at times. The scares also do a really good job of building tension. Alas, the ending spoiled the experience overall.
2016
The visuals are fantastic and the score is superb. Those are the only things great about this game. Tension is thrown out of the window cause there's a jumpscare every 2 seconds and it gets extremely repetitive. The story is bland and forgettable. This is barely a horror game. More of a walking simulator. Would not recommend it.
Horace can go fuck himself
2011
The greatest game of all time.
I had zero idea what this game was, it was on sale and was super cheap so I bought it. Good golly was it a surprisingly good experience!
The art design is gorgeous, the score is fantastic and the overall narrative, although a bit cliche, was well put together.
My only gripes with this game is with respect to the controls. I understand that utilising both the analog sticks for movement was a design decision ( it comes into play at the very end of the game ) but it just doesn't feel right.
If you're looking for a game to take a break from long ass titles, this is it.
The art design is gorgeous, the score is fantastic and the overall narrative, although a bit cliche, was well put together.
My only gripes with this game is with respect to the controls. I understand that utilising both the analog sticks for movement was a design decision ( it comes into play at the very end of the game ) but it just doesn't feel right.
If you're looking for a game to take a break from long ass titles, this is it.
2015
I never expected this game to be this good. The first two episodes had me thinking, "damn this is underwhelming". Then episode 3 came and I was floored. Episode 4 had a twist that came outta nowhere, and I genuinely believe the writers wrote episode 5 after taking acid.
The game suffers a bit in terms of it's use of "cringeworthy" dialogue. This may be off putting to some people, but I find it endearing. It does fall into some narrative pitfalls in episode 5 and although the choices do matter on an episode to episode basis, there is no payoff for it in the end.
Not a perfect game but very charming nonetheless.
The game suffers a bit in terms of it's use of "cringeworthy" dialogue. This may be off putting to some people, but I find it endearing. It does fall into some narrative pitfalls in episode 5 and although the choices do matter on an episode to episode basis, there is no payoff for it in the end.
Not a perfect game but very charming nonetheless.
2016
It is quite hard to imagine that a single person made this game and the fact that he is still improving it by constant updates is absolutely astonishing. Great game to play while listening to a podcast.
2017
It blows my mind that this game was made by 3 people. 3 PEOPLE!!
The level and world design : 10/10
The art : 10/10
The story and the lore : 10/10
The fantastic soundtrack by Christopher Larkin that keeps egging you on to whoop some ass : 10/10
This game is up there for me at the top alongside Dark Souls 1. I highly recommend everyone to try it.
The level and world design : 10/10
The art : 10/10
The story and the lore : 10/10
The fantastic soundtrack by Christopher Larkin that keeps egging you on to whoop some ass : 10/10
This game is up there for me at the top alongside Dark Souls 1. I highly recommend everyone to try it.
Let me start off by saying that I've never played a crpg before (this game might be more of a point and click game with rpg elements but I'll get into that later). I'm more of a gameplay first kinda person so when I say that a top down crpg with no fighting mechanics filled to the brim with walls of text is good, you best believe it's fantastic.
Pros:
-Exceptional writing. I was engaged in the story from start to finish.
-The art style is timeless.
-The soundtrack is very fitting to the mood of the game.
-Simple gameplay. As I mentioned before, the gameplay is pretty much pointing and clicking where you want to go and occasionally pressing tab and using the inventory. Even though this might sound like a negative, it works in the favor of the game imo.
Cons:
-Poor optimisation. I have a fairly decent rig. Even tho the game looks like it could run on a potato,it probably can't.
Incredible writing bogged down by some minor performance issues.
Pros:
-Exceptional writing. I was engaged in the story from start to finish.
-The art style is timeless.
-The soundtrack is very fitting to the mood of the game.
-Simple gameplay. As I mentioned before, the gameplay is pretty much pointing and clicking where you want to go and occasionally pressing tab and using the inventory. Even though this might sound like a negative, it works in the favor of the game imo.
Cons:
-Poor optimisation. I have a fairly decent rig. Even tho the game looks like it could run on a potato,it probably can't.
Incredible writing bogged down by some minor performance issues.
2016
Even if you aren't interested in the multiplayer, the singleplayer campaign is 1000% worth it. Possibly the most innovative fps campaign I've played albeit a little short.
2019
Kind of a shame that Outer Wilds wasn't even nominated for game of the year (didn't even win a single award I believe). The devs at Mobius created a one of a kind experience which is a rare commodity in gaming. This story can only be told in a videogame.
Outer Wilds has a time-looping open solar system fully explorable from the start. You are only gated off from certain areas by your lack of knowledge. Once you know what to do, you can get to the end of the game in a matter of minutes. A drawback of this gameplay system is that, there isn't much replayability but it makes the first experience all the more sweeter.
Final note : Andrew Prahlow deserves an infinite amount of praise because the soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard
Outer Wilds has a time-looping open solar system fully explorable from the start. You are only gated off from certain areas by your lack of knowledge. Once you know what to do, you can get to the end of the game in a matter of minutes. A drawback of this gameplay system is that, there isn't much replayability but it makes the first experience all the more sweeter.
Final note : Andrew Prahlow deserves an infinite amount of praise because the soundtrack is one of the best I've ever heard
2019
A neat little game you can finish in about 4-5 hours. It's not very difficult, I got 100% in 4 hrs. The regular mobs are super weak and you can run past most of them. This creates a situation where the difficulty might seem a bit unbalanced. The bosses can be really daunting if you've been skipping regular enemies and not using all your abilities. This can be a detriment to the people who've not played a lot of games in this genre.
The metroidvania elements aren't very strong and the level design is serviceable. The movement feels good. You can sequence break if you know how to do the rocket jump which I thought was pretty cool. I wish they had experimented more with the mecha/mechaless dynamic. Seems like a missed opportunity to not include a level/boss where you have to use both of your forms. A great place for this would be the incubator level which feels weirdly unfinished.
The artstyle is great and the story is pretty charming. Since it's also short, this could serve as a break from the 50 hr games we seem to be getting now.
The metroidvania elements aren't very strong and the level design is serviceable. The movement feels good. You can sequence break if you know how to do the rocket jump which I thought was pretty cool. I wish they had experimented more with the mecha/mechaless dynamic. Seems like a missed opportunity to not include a level/boss where you have to use both of your forms. A great place for this would be the incubator level which feels weirdly unfinished.
The artstyle is great and the story is pretty charming. Since it's also short, this could serve as a break from the 50 hr games we seem to be getting now.
The atmosphere and tension this game is able to induce is extraordinary. It doesn't have many jumpscares, but the ones that are in the game have been executed masterfully with fantastic buildups.
It doesn't have the mechanics popular in horror games right now where the protagonist is completely helpless. The protagonist can actually fight back instead of just hiding and running. The player is given access to a plethora of melee weapons from metal pipes to wooden boards all of which have a similar moveset with different stats. There are numerous types of guns available but they are very rare. Fighting the enemies is quite satisfying. At it's best it feels like a brutal dance between the enemy and the player as you block the enemy at the right moment and attack them when they are stunned. The combat does get a little repetitive by the time you reach the last 2 levels though and some weapons with low block rating feel iffy.
Now the bad part : The story. The story in condemned is complete dogshit. The writing is incomprehensible and the voice acting is just as atrocious. You can pretty much ignore most of it as the strong atmosphere itself is enough to carry you through 90% of the game. Condemned completely shit the bed in the final level unfortunately. The last level is completely in the dark, out in the open, filled to the brim with tanky enemies and completely throws everything condemned had established up until then in terms of game design out the window. I hated it. Oh and the last boss is trash as well.
Overall I'm positive about the game.
It doesn't have the mechanics popular in horror games right now where the protagonist is completely helpless. The protagonist can actually fight back instead of just hiding and running. The player is given access to a plethora of melee weapons from metal pipes to wooden boards all of which have a similar moveset with different stats. There are numerous types of guns available but they are very rare. Fighting the enemies is quite satisfying. At it's best it feels like a brutal dance between the enemy and the player as you block the enemy at the right moment and attack them when they are stunned. The combat does get a little repetitive by the time you reach the last 2 levels though and some weapons with low block rating feel iffy.
Now the bad part : The story. The story in condemned is complete dogshit. The writing is incomprehensible and the voice acting is just as atrocious. You can pretty much ignore most of it as the strong atmosphere itself is enough to carry you through 90% of the game. Condemned completely shit the bed in the final level unfortunately. The last level is completely in the dark, out in the open, filled to the brim with tanky enemies and completely throws everything condemned had established up until then in terms of game design out the window. I hated it. Oh and the last boss is trash as well.
Overall I'm positive about the game.