Recent reviews by Jordan100X

Can we stop with this pre-order exclusive content already?

This is what a remake should be. It improves on the classic S&S 3 gameplay in every way. The skills feel impactful, and the music is as good as ever. Being able to take boss weapons after killing them is such a fun reward for each arena champion. As with the classic flash games, I will likely return to this occasionally to kill some time. Having played through S&S 3 recently, I will exclusively be returning to this version from now on.

For some champions you will have to swap you build around a bit. One of the champions I faced could regen 2000 hp in a round which my tank couldn't out damage. I bought poison skills (poison disables hp regen while the target is poisoned) and was able to beat the champion easily on the next try.

I do have some criticisms. The gold and experienced gained at later levels is way too low. I ended up beating the game at level 60 (suggested level is 80) using mostly boss items. Farming for higher levels and better gear is a huge slog. Also the level requirements for enchanting/forging should be removed. Why can I buy an enchanted level 30 sword in the shop, disenchant it, and not transfer its bonus to a better base until I'm level 80? I attempted to make use of the blueprint, runes, and forging systems but the weapons you can make are garbage and cost so much more than the already overly expensive shop items. These systems may as well not be in the game.

Overall I really enjoyed this game. There are a few caveats with my recommendation, but overall this game is another masterclass in ambiance from this designer. His last work Scratches was phenomenal. Unfortunately you can't get it anymore due to licensing issues, but he did give away a few hundred unused keys for it in his Discord so he's a pretty cool guy.

Back to Asylum, I love how this game embodies Point and Click games from the 90s. The pre-rendered sequences are intentionally ran at lower framerates to feel weird and disorienting, but is used so limited or confined to a small portion of the screen so people more inclined to motion sickness won't feel anything from it. The click to move transitions that fade out the previous frame into the new one also feel perfect for the POV character and his hallucinations. The soundtrack for this is phenomenal. It always kept me in full suspense throughout my gameplay, even when I knew nothing was going to happen in a previous area. The characters are also a joy to talk to. And the interview system, while basic, really allows their personalities to shine through this dark atmosphere. I also found the writing in this game to be very enjoyable, both the text and conversations between characters, just a tad too lengthy at times.

For the few cons I have for this game. Every point and click game comes with some BS you have to deal with. Asylum is no different. Most of the early game puzzles have realistic logic and limited exploration scope to make them easy to solve. It's only when the game opens up that some of these puzzles can become really misleading. Being given the strands for several different puzzles at once, but still having to complete them linearly is no fun. I spent so much time trying to piece together a puzzle, just to find out I was unable to complete it until a chapter or two from now got really annoying. The level design does minimize this somewhat by discarding useless items and text options between chapters. I know for a game designer you have to strike a balance between realism and fun, and I think changing up the layout of the asylum with some more farcical features or paths to cut down on the available puzzles would have streamlined the game a lot more. In addition to this I found myself missing prompts to interact with some clickable objects. The game tries to minimize this issue as well by allowing you to turn on glowing white circles when you mouse near an object. I would have loved an option to keep these circles on at all times, although I do acknowledge it would ruin the immersion somewhat. It also felt like the game ran out of steam at the end with rooms having significantly less things to interact with in the later chapters.

A few nitpicks. I would have loved to read through my collected articles in the pause menu. It already has the option to see past dialog so adding the articles shouldn't be a big issue. It also would have been nice to see what questions I've already asked the different characters. I also find most horror games by default to be slightly too dark and Asylum is no exception. There were a few times where I couldn't tell what I was interacting with visually because of it just being a shadow on my screen and had to go off of the on screen dialog.

Overall a great game, hopefully to become an Indie Horror Classic with the likes of Amnesia. With a few design changes this could easily be one of my favorite horror games. For now I will have to settle with labeling it Pretty Damn Good, but for how little attention the Point & Click genre gets that's fine with me.

Used to be one of my favorite games. I cannot recommend it after Gearbox's recent changes.

This game was good at one point, but the latest updates have broken the game. Sometimes the candle lighting up the main menu will fail to play its animation and you will be stuck at a black screen. Playing in a multiplayer lobby may crash the game every time it saves. You are required to login to a paradox account to play. And intrusive ads have been added to menus.

TLDR: 7/10. The new mechanics are really fun. The puzzles an interesting blend between Portal 1 and 2 design. It feels like this was a DLC Valve made for Portal 2, but never released.

The Good:
The new mechanics are fantastic. They slot right in with Portal 2's mechanics.
The puzzles are challenging and rewarding (for the most part). Despite multiple playthroughs of each Portal game, I still found most of the puzzles in this game pretty difficult.
The 2 cores that assist you are incredibly entertaining. A lot of personality and care was given to their design and the voice actors pulled it off magnificently.

The Bad:
The level design could use some work. A lot of non-test areas require you to walk for extended durations. Some puzzles require a lot of backtracking multiple times to finish. In particular the one portal puzzles in the beginning, while very challenging, force you to walk a lot because you can't just portal around to where ever you want with only 1 portal.
The difficulty curve also isn't very consistent. The 1 portal puzzles in the beginning are very challenging. The last 2 chapters feel like the puzzle designers got bored and phoned it in.
While the 2 cores provide great commentary, I wish the levels were designed in a way where they talked while the player is doing puzzles. Most areas require you to sit and listen to them speak before you are able to see the test chamber.
Some of the puzzles aren't marked the greatest. Some buttons do things that aren't marked by the usual blue/orange power strip.
Sometimes a puzzle will require you to try and fail at something once, then update and add new sections to make it now possible. This can be frustrating if you don't know the trigger to get the puzzle to update.
There are also weird puzzle "checkpoints" where once you get far enough in a puzzle it will permanently update to have a different solution. Instead, this should just be split into 2 different puzzles.
There is usually only 1 test chamber per floor, meaning there is a loading screen between each puzzle.


Don't let my nit picks scare you off, this mod is still great for anyone looking for some challenging new puzzles.

Not much to say that already hasn't been said.
Game is mostly a walking simulator that changes the gameplay up just enough to keep it interesting for the 2 hour run time. Mystery behind the family is interesting. The individuals in the story feel unique and human. Well detailed environment that you could study for hours and learn a lot about the characters. If you're fine with playing a walking simulator and are interested in mystery dramas go ahead and grab this game, it's probably the best walking simulator out there.

All of the puzzles in this are mindnumbingly simple and boring. Contrary to the name, no portals are actually seen in this game. You simply move boxes around over and over again. The entire game took me ~20 minutes, of which only 10 had actual gameplay. The opening tutorial/calibration dialog is 5 minutes long and for beating the entire thing you get the elevator opening sequence from Portal Stories: Mel in VR, which is another 5 minutes spent standing around. It's kind of a cool reward, but I would have preferred anything with some interactivity.
At least the game is free and the environments look cool. Seeing the portal environments in VR is nice, but this should have been just a walking simulator if the puzzles were going to be so low effort.

I've been following Superliminal's development for years back when it was originally titled Museum of Simulation Technology. The demo was one of the coolest puzzle games I have ever played. Some of the puzzles were "pixel hunts" to keep clicking around the room until you found what could be manipulated, but I assumed that would be ironed out in the full game.
I waited years for it to come out, and then another for it to come off the Epic Games store. I booted it up to see the familiar demo that I had played through numerous times as the first level in the game. The puzzles hadn't been changed or refined since the demo, but they were still unique so I played on. 4 sessions later and I finished the game.
Some of you may be asking, "The main story is only 1.5 hours long. Why did it take you 4 sessions to finish it?" The answer is this game that had some of the coolest puzzles ever created in the demo is not a puzzle game. It is a walking simulator. You hold forward and occasionally move an object to platform over. Once you finish the first level you no longer need any brain cells to finish the game. The game that I had been waiting all these years for was just the demo with an extra hour of narration. It is very unfortunate that a game with this much potential ended up barely using any of the mechanics that made it unique in the first place.
Other than the main story you have the Battle Royal and Workshop content. Unfortunately, you can't find any matches in the Battle Royal mode despite it only needing 12 players so that might as well not even be in the game.
The Workshop is where I was hoping this game would be saved. Giving these tools to the community and seeing what they come up with is a great idea, the execution is greatly flawed. The level creator has awful controls with you having to make everything from the first person perspective that the rest of the game is played from. It is so hard to line objects up due to the perspective scaling objects that most content in the workshop has these gaps in the levels that they can't be bothered to fix. There are also barely anyone uploading or playing community levels, probably due to the player-base being splintered between Epic, GOG, Steam, and Consoles.
The soundtrack is mediocre, but listening to the same track repeated over and over gets really tiresome. With a game this short it's you would think more than 1 track would be played for 90% of the game.
Do I have anything positive to say about the game? Well the art direction is great. The final chapter in particular looks amazing. I also found myself having more fun for the short time the game turned into a horror game. The creepiness and suspense added so much that the game's normal atmosphere couldn't provide.
The narration being optional is great, because the narrator has so little personality and adds almost nothing to the story of the game. Although the narration becomes mandatory in the final chapter, probably because the developers had no idea how to end the game.
If you want a puzzle game that this was supposed to be, I would highly recommend Portal 1, Portal 2, or the fan sequel Portal Reloaded. These will scratch your puzzle itch much better than this could.
If you want a better walking simulator, I would recommend The Stanley Parable. The narrator offers so much more personality.
If you want a game that does both puzzles and narration way better than this game, The Unfinished Swan is by far my top pick. I go back and play through it every year.

Before addressing the removal of content, let me address the game in its current state.
The original Superhot was an amazing and fun experience that left me wanting more. Unfortunately the devs delivered. Both Superhot VR and mind control delete were watered down, badly designed experiences that destroyed my high regard for the original game. Instead of one long well built level, this game has small, unrelated chunks that make up its levels. Dying in one of these forces you to restart from the beginning, which is where most of the gameplay comes from. If not for this mechanic you could easily beat this game in 30 minutes. Most of these deaths will come from you running out of bullets or objects to throw because the Valve Index controls are abysmal.
This lack of content, as well as existing content being one of my worst VR experiences is why I'm giving this a negative review.
As for the current condition the devs have put themselves in, why they decided to remove content in an already short game is beyond me. They allocated resources that could have been used to add more to the existing game or improve the current system into deleting one of the most original and interesting aspects of this game.
Before the most recent update I wouldn't have recommended playing this game and the recent changes are only reaffirms my opinion.