tarranon
2010
seem to be going through remedy's catalog starting with max payne 1. not huge into spooky games so i didn't go out of my way to check out wake back in the day. checking it out for the first time this year, there's a lot to like. the pnw scenery looks great, the models hold up, and the core gameplay loop of juggling a light and weapon against multiple shadows feels great early on. the particle effects, the recoil, the little slowdown at the end of every encounter. feels real good to bust shadows.
then they start tweaking the difficulty up and the system starts to fall apart. the fun part of the game is the feeling of expertly juggling a bunch of enemies swarming you, knowing where to focus, getting a sense for when you should turn around
but as the difficulty ramps up, the game is not interested at all in giving you interesting encounters or tools to deal with the difficulty apart from flares and flashbangs, which aren't interesting to use. eventually i stopped trying to fight the shadows at all and just walked from light to light strategically popping flares
it's a real shame because the game still handles really well, remedy was absolutely onto something, it's just half-baked. compare it to RE4 where the tank controls feel way more limiting and yet the level design and enemy variety very clearly communicate your available strategies and risks
it's remedy so the plot's campy fun, zero complaints there and a large part of why i didn't find it too hard to power through after the absolute slog that ep 3 was.
then they start tweaking the difficulty up and the system starts to fall apart. the fun part of the game is the feeling of expertly juggling a bunch of enemies swarming you, knowing where to focus, getting a sense for when you should turn around
but as the difficulty ramps up, the game is not interested at all in giving you interesting encounters or tools to deal with the difficulty apart from flares and flashbangs, which aren't interesting to use. eventually i stopped trying to fight the shadows at all and just walked from light to light strategically popping flares
it's a real shame because the game still handles really well, remedy was absolutely onto something, it's just half-baked. compare it to RE4 where the tank controls feel way more limiting and yet the level design and enemy variety very clearly communicate your available strategies and risks
it's remedy so the plot's campy fun, zero complaints there and a large part of why i didn't find it too hard to power through after the absolute slog that ep 3 was.
miss the super rolls from the first one but it's hard to argue the eternally replenishing bullet time doesn't make things fun in an arcadey way
2023
dead space is a good series, and this is a decent remake of the original, but feels unnecessary. a lot of what makes the original work is the sense of loneliness and isolation, and making isaac and the NPCs chattier doesn't help that
quibbles aside, the dead space formula is a fucking blast and taking off necromorph limbs is one of the most satisfying loops in game history. if you don't want to go back to the original, this is a worthy pastiche of it and the quality of life / streamlining the later games delivered
quibbles aside, the dead space formula is a fucking blast and taking off necromorph limbs is one of the most satisfying loops in game history. if you don't want to go back to the original, this is a worthy pastiche of it and the quality of life / streamlining the later games delivered
2023
marvel cinematic universe ass game
2006
played a bunch of rhythm games but this one was an immediate top 5 for me. nearly every song is an instant classic. the call and response nature of the music duels is unmatched, the art rules, the story is funny and sweet. there's nothing quite like it and it still holds up to this day.
2013
coming back to this on pc a few years later was pretty painful, lots of weird network and audio issues to troubleshoot through, but once you're in the swing of it with a dedicated co-op partner it's honestly one of the better casual campaigns. a little long in the back third and i thought the dlc was pretty disappointing but overall worth your time if you can get it to work
2012
coming back for the first time since about release i'm more surprised the original holds up as well as it does. the controls take some serious getting used to and some of the enemies and rival races are overtuned but everything else is still a joy. great art, great music, the skating is fun, and you can put it away in a few hours before it starts to overstay its welcome.
1992
never got a handle on the controls, some of the late game troll traps are obnoxious, but i appreciated the design and especially the unique one off elements that give it a sort of adventure game / platformer vibe. now i want there to be a more fleshed out adventure / platformer hybrid. let's freaking do it
2022
Janky but very clever little horror number that thought up a clever way to ratchet up the tension in a survival horror game without increasing the tedium of a fail state. Nonlinear and with a great clue board like Outer Wilds, small town mystery terror reminiscent of Shivers 2, there is a LOT to like in this game
1996
This has a lot of cool ideas that still haven’t been fully explored in Zelda-likes. You get six spirits in the game that assist with puzzles, traversal, and combat, and six spells for your weapons that do the same, each spell associated with a spirit
You summon spirits by interacting with their element which is really cool and adds a fun puzzle layer (fire for fire spirit, bush for earth spirit, etc)
The abilities are pretty unhinged too, ranging from ‘the shadow spirit lets you pull levers’ which makes no sense to ‘you can basically just fly’ with the wind spirit which is really cool
The game is super unpolished but there’s a plus to that since it lets even amateurs like me do sequence breaks. You can use bombs to blast yourself up to platforms you shouldn’t be able to reach yet
And there’s lots of little neat touches and ‘i wonder if i can try this…wow it works’ moments which is really cool for a Zelda-like. Unfortunately, the combat is fucking abysmal and the controls suck so it’s hard to wholly recommend
And there’s no map! And it does the psycho thing of randomly forcing you to talk to same NPCs multiple times over the course of the game, usually with no clear indication you need to go back and talk to them to progress.
but one last positive, the optional collectible treasures are really good; gems that power up your spirits. I love getting stuff like that more than pieces of heart or money, makes exploration feel more rewarding
You summon spirits by interacting with their element which is really cool and adds a fun puzzle layer (fire for fire spirit, bush for earth spirit, etc)
The abilities are pretty unhinged too, ranging from ‘the shadow spirit lets you pull levers’ which makes no sense to ‘you can basically just fly’ with the wind spirit which is really cool
The game is super unpolished but there’s a plus to that since it lets even amateurs like me do sequence breaks. You can use bombs to blast yourself up to platforms you shouldn’t be able to reach yet
And there’s lots of little neat touches and ‘i wonder if i can try this…wow it works’ moments which is really cool for a Zelda-like. Unfortunately, the combat is fucking abysmal and the controls suck so it’s hard to wholly recommend
And there’s no map! And it does the psycho thing of randomly forcing you to talk to same NPCs multiple times over the course of the game, usually with no clear indication you need to go back and talk to them to progress.
but one last positive, the optional collectible treasures are really good; gems that power up your spirits. I love getting stuff like that more than pieces of heart or money, makes exploration feel more rewarding