I loved Prey 2017 and had high hopes for Arkane Austin's next project. But I can't believe this was made by the same team. Redfall is so bad, like, questionably bad. What the hell happened??

I'm not even totally against Arkane making a looter shooter instead of an immersive sim, if at least the game was good. But here, it's a failure on all levels.
It's very repetitive, the guns feel so weak, finding loots is not satisfying at all. The open world is not interesting to explore because there is nothing really to do except shoot the same vampires and humans over and over again.
Speaking of the enemies, they are completely braindead. This is some of the worst AI I've seen in a AAA game in a long time. They can't even jump over a car or fence, or crawl under a low object. They will just stare at you because they don't know how to get to you.

Visually, this barely looks like a PS4 launch title, but it takes up 105GB for some reasons and runs like ass. I had constant texture streaming issues and everything looked blurry.
Also the art direction is very bland and lacks a distinct style. This is the most disappointing aspect as Arkane is known for creating games with strong artistic visions. Redfall looks like a bunch of Unreal Engine asset packs.
Even the music seemed out of place, and I had to mute it because it was destroying the mood.

This is definitely not worth 70$. It feels so barebone and cheap. They couldn't even afford cutscenes, so the story (which barely exists anyway) is told with a bunch of still images.
I'm really worried about the future of Arkane Austin, this is super disappointing.

The first Entropy: Zero was a fun but flawed experience. This sequel is so much polished and better paced. The level design is excellent, with interesting encounters and great art direction.
They've nailed the HL aesthetic. The HL lore is used in a very interesting way. All the creatures, items and locations seem to fit well in this universe. They've added a lot of creatures from Xen compared to the original HL2 which is fun.
Combats feel more punchy than the original game, and all the new weapon animations are great. There is also a new grenade with an interesting concept.
Puzzles are also interesting but not too difficult or repetitive/annoying to solve. (Not like the 50 cable puzzles in Black Mesa Xen for example).
The writing is also surprisingly good. At first it's a bit weird to have a talking protagonist in a HL experience, but the dialogue between 3650 and Wilson is fun and touching. 3650 seems like a standard asshole character at first, but we keep learning about his struggle and feelings towards the adventure. The voice acting is also pretty good, I was surprised that it was not actors but the developers themselves.
Took me around 7 hours to finish. It even has a great soundtrack and achievements. It's mind-blowing that it's free.

We waited 3 years for this?
This is a very poorly done remaster. In term of the visuals, it does the bare minimum. The characters' textures are not that bad, but otherwise everything was just upscaled with an AI and 3d models were not redone. They didn't even fix the wobbles on the character models.

And worst of all are the ugly visual effects. Lamps have gigantic lens flare, which is clearly a bug. There's no way the developers thought it looked good. Neon signs have horrible blooms, characters have a large ambient occlusion outline around them, etc.
And it also runs very poorly. The framerate constantly dips below 30FPS in certain areas. A game from 1999!

There are also a lot of bugs. Suspiciously long loading times, braindead AI, broken physics, overlapping music, janky animations...

This was one of the retro FPS releases I was most looking forward to, what a disappointment..

PS: The rating is obviously for the quality of the remaster itself, not Kingpin LoC as a game.

Anno Mutationem is a charming little indie RPG. (If we can even call it a RPG.. don't expect any deep mechanics, complexe dialogue system or branching stories etc... )

The visuals are the best part. I really like the mix of 2D sprites and 3D environments. It's clearly not an original Cyberpunk universe, but each area is full of little details, the city feels alive and it's enjoyable to explore.
The inspirations are too obvious sometimes, with many elements that seem to be directly borrowed from Akira, MGS, Evangelion or even SCP.

The combat system is simple but fun enough, and the overall level design and pacing were decent. Nothing crazy but I never got bored either.

The main problem is the story, which gets very messy towards the end. The developers tried to make too many plots and put too many characters. I think it's the typical case of the writer throwing stuffs on the wall in the hope of making the lore deeper.

SPRAWL is a very good Cyberpunk FPS that starts off promisingly, but unfortunately runs out of steam along the way.
The game offers satisfying movement and action, with incredible art direction inspired by Japanese Cyberpunk aesthetics and a neat DnB soundtrack.
The first half of the game is absolutely gorgeous, and parkouring across the rooftops of Hong Kong-ish cityscape while shooting in slow motion like Max Payne is super cool. Sadly, we're limited to 3 weapons and about 4 enemies to fight.
The second half offers a greater variety of weapons and enemies. Unfortunately, it's the art style that takes a hit, and we start to progress more and more through repetitive industrial facilities that don't feel as memorable as the city part of the game. The level design loses some of its cleverness, and the game just throws hordes of bullet-spongy enemies at us.

I'd still recommend the game if you like Cyberpunk and action-packed FPSs. When the game achieves its peaks (around E1M3-M5) it's one of the most fun I had recently.

Ehhh, not sure about this one.
To start with the positives, I think the new weapons are generally fun. I especially like the Tesla traps that electrocute enemies, even if they are hard to place since they take a lot of times to start.
Also, the final boss is a completely new enemy, which is always cooler than the Reckoning which recycled the boss from Quake II.

But I don't really like the level design of this expansion. First, I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to put turrets on the walls and ceilings of every room! It got really annoying towards the end.
New enemies often have too many health, and they have a nasty tendency to spawn right behind you.
Also the secondary objectives have way too much steps in general. Every levels are like "You have to power up the nuclear reactor, but first you have to cut the power of the lasers, but for that you have to empty the gas tank, but for that you have to find a keycard so you can..." ENOUGH ALREADY!! Is this Quake II or Dead Space?

Apart from the mine levels in the beginning, every levels are basically more of the same brown industrial environments we already saw in Quake II. It's not a terrible expansion but it's kinda dispensable imo.

From best to worst:
The Pony Factory : 3.5/5
David sure likes Doom 3 huh. It's simple but the atmosphere is very good.

Summer Night : 3.5/5
Really love the simplicity of it. It's minimalistic yet spooky.

Shatter : 3.5/5
Shame this one is so short because I adore the atmosphere.

Mr. Bucket Told Me To : 3/5
Solid art direction for a small game, also love the music. It's not perfect but it's still one of the most memorable games in the collection imo.

Hand of Doom : 3/5
It's a pretty charming attempt at recreating the mood of the early first person RPG. I didn't have an incredible time with it either but it's pretty good.

Outsiders : 2.5/5
For something that was made in 7 days, this looks impressive (even though it's probably a lot of asset packs). Looking for very small objects everywhere ends up becoming annoying though.

Don't Go Out : 2.5/5
I don't have a strong opinion on this one. I like the Clock Tower reference with the music but that's about it.

The Pay is Nice : 2/5
Interesting pitch, however it's a bit ugly and the ending is very abrupt even for a teaser.

Carthanc : 1.5/5
The idea of exploring an ancient temple like this is cool, but every challenges are awful platforming sequences.

Rotgut : 0.5/5
This one is utter garbage.

It's a pretty fun game but don't expect anything really new compared to the previous episodes. It plays well (despite some bugs), and levels are often beautiful. The 3rd mission in Mont-Saint-Michel is gorgeous, and it also has a great level design that lets you experiment with sniping, stealth or action.
After that, a lot of missions feel pretty bland. Many generic locations like bunkers, factories etc... with repetitive mission objectives. Sometimes the level designers seem to have forgotten that it's a game about a sniper. We have some very flat levels with no interesting sniping spot.
It's a fine game, and I think if you have game pass you should play just to enjoy the Mont-Saint-Michel level. But they seem to have put the entire budget of the development on that one location (it's on the box art after all).

Ghostwire Tokyo has a lot of potential. It's an original IP set in modern day Tokyo, but with an emphasis on yokai, ghosts and other Japanese urban legends. The Shibuya district is well represented, probably one of the best representations of Tokyo in a video game, after the Yakuza series.
It's full of cool visuals and interesting/strange decisions that make the game very unique.

It's all the more baffling that the game's design itself is extremely bland. It feels like a Japanese studio tried very, very hard to make the most tedious and forgettable Ubisoft game, with lots of collectibles, boring side quests and other filler activities.
The combat is also pretty bad. They're never really fun or challenging, and tend to drag on and on. Towards the end, I was actively avoiding enemies, simply because I didn't want to engage in combat.
The story is also rather forgettable, and I found the main character uncharismatic.

I think if you like the idea of exploring a virtual Tokyo and are interested in Japanese culture in general, this is a game worth trying. But the overall open-world design and the game design make it much harder to recommend, which is a shame because the art direction is too good for this game.

Boltgun is mostly enjoyable, but I'm not sure why the boomer shooter community talks about it like it's the second coming of Christ.
I do love the aesthetics of the game. Some levels are very beautiful to look at, with huge, impressive structures and well-chosen colors/lighting.
The gore is also great, and the weapons are fun to use. So there is definitely a solid action game here.

But there are plenty of problems too. Mainly level design and pacing. The levels lack clever and unique situations, and most of the time it just throws the player into the middle of ok-ish arenas with a ton of enemies that spawn constantly. It ends up becoming quite repetitive (especially towards the end of the game, when even the visuals start to repeat themselves).
The developers seem to have forgotten that the strength of old-school FPS was not only the action, but also the cleverness of the level design.

The bosses are particularly bad. They have no unique strategy, and are just annoying bullet sponges. And they are recycled many, many times throughout the adventure. The last boss is a total slog. It's not even hard, it just drags on and on.

Also this is a nitpick, but Boltgun doesn't seem to know the meaning of "secret". At first, I was glad that the game had secrets like old-school FPS. But in this game, all the bonus items in the most obvious places are considered "secrets", which is a strange decision.

For any Warhammer 40K fans who also want to have a fun and gory FPS, Boltgun is certainly a game to try. But if you're looking for a fresh and unique boomer shooter that tries something new, this is probably not the right game.

A.W.O.L. is an ambitious game that tries to create a more tactical military experience with the Build engine. Well, at least on paper. It's a pretty well made project, especially for a free game, but I didn't find that the experience was really "tactical" at all. It feels more like a classic boomer shooter in which you have to find colored key cards, but with a slower pace and the ability to aim down sight or throw grenades.

I think the main problem is the AI. Both the enemies and your teammates seem completely braindead, and it doesn't offer the slow-paced military experience that the devs tried to recreate (I think?).

The levels look good in general. I especially like the smaller levels in which you have to infiltrate an enemy base and eradicate all terrorists inside, or sabotage their equipment.
But there are also some bad levels, especially the Dubai mission which is easily the worst one. Granted, it's very impressive to create such a massive level with the Build engine. But it drags on faaaar too long and the level design is a confusing mess. The drones are super annoying to fight, and there are way too many elevators that take forever to move. (I don't exaggerate, there is one that takes a whole minute!)
Also the music in that level was very bad. In general, the music in the game is... weird? They often sound like a joke and don't match the serious tone of the game.

The story and characters are very cheesy, which is fine. That's part of the charm of an indie project. Although I'm not a big fan when developers put references that are too obvious. I'm a big fan of Max Payne, and the developers apparently are too. But I rolled my eyes with that MP reference.

This is an impressive mod for Half-Life 2, with some of the best looking environments made with Source I've seen. It even has a great original score.
The mod has issues though. First, the pacing is weird. 70% of the mod is puzzle solving. I like puzzles but in this case it's a bit too much. They constantly stop you in your progression, and some of them aren't that interesting (like go find a battery or a jerrican to start a generator, stuff like that).
The levels are often too claustrophobic, and you'll bump always against walls and small objects on the ground. This mod is clearly inspired by the Metro series, and that kind of narrow level designs don't work very well with Source. You need more space to move smoothly.

With that said, it's still a good mod that's worth checking out. Despite the issues, it feels like an ambitious project made by a passionate team. It's nice to see a HL2 mod which has completely new environments, and not just the same assets from HL2 recycled.

The Ascent is very pretty. Neon Giants managed to create an incredible Cyberpunk city filled with small details and jaw-dropping vistas. The soundtrack is also very good, it's mostly ambient tracks mixed with synthwave and it fits the game perfectly.

The problem is that it's not a very good game to play. The quest designs are very generic and repetitive, and all the dialogues and characters are pretty forgettable. The map can be a pain to navigate, with a lot of back and forth. The difficulty can be all over the place, and the loots are not unique so it's not very satisfying (you'll end up finding the same shotgun 7 times in one session etc...)

So if you expect a good looter shooter, there are definitely better options. But if you like Cyberpunk settings and you just want to explore an impressive futuristic city, it's definitely a game worth checking.

Thanks to the Quake II remaster, I played the Reckoning for the first time, and I quite enjoyed it.
It doesn't offer anything really crazy - it's pretty much the same as the base game. But I like the level design approach, which gives a more realistic and immersive dimension to the environments than Quake II in some aspects. From what I understand, the same team will later make Return to Castle Wolfenstein, one of my favorite retro FPS, which may explain why I like the feeling of those levels.

The expansion also offers some nice new weapons (including a trap that turns enemies into meat cubes that act as heals, which is a lot of fun to use). There are also some new enemies, but it's a shame that most of them are just new skins of the original game's enemies.

In terms of the atmosphere, it's a mixed bag. The nature levels are almost reminiscent of Turok, which is refreshingly different from the base game. The section on the moon base is also well done. It's a level in space that actually feels like Quake II (unlike Quake II 64, which is also set in space but is so colorful that it no longer feels like Quake at all).
On the other hand, there are lots of levels in sewers and box-filled warehouses, which is a shame.

All in all, this is a substantial and enjoyable expansion that I'd recommend.

PS: also as a fun fact, this was apparently one of the first games Viktor Antonov, the art director of Half-Life 2 and Dishonored, worked on.