Recent reviews by Blaze

I like to begin my reviews with some kind of oldtimer anecdote, and man - this one really brings me back. Over 12 years ago, Dead Space 1 & 2 were the first games I bought on Steam - the start of a collection that has since grown to 800+ games that I technically do not own.

Back in the 2008, Dead Space was an instant classic, the "Aliens" horror game we never got (until Isolation, years later). The sort of game you talked about with your mates and ignored upcoming final exams to play through. Or was it just me? Whatever, point is, it was bloody good. And trying to remake a bloody good game can sometimes end in a bloody disaster. Luckily, it's not one of those times.

As usual, first go the visuals. And the game looks - yes I'll say this word a lot - bloody amazing, emphasis on bloody, as this is the default state of your attire throughout the game. Original Dead Space had a great visual design and the modern, highly detailed graphics truly bring the creepy, brutalistic corridors of the Ishimura to life. The necromorphs are properly disgusting and popping limbs results in a satisfying shower of bloody goo. There are also some environmental great details to be enjoyed, from the thick fog you have to slog through, through the oppresive darkness of pitch black halls, to the way your flashlight plays with grime on the windows. And speaking of pitch black, if you ever get an OLED screen, this is the game to show you its true capabilities. I'm usually "gameplay over graphics" guy, but man - can't help but appreciate how well put together every single thing in this game looks. One thing I'm not sure on is Isaac's redesign. On one hand, it fits him. On the other, I felt like he'd fit right in in a Weasley household, or on the cover of that "Spare" book.

Sound wise - it's par for the course for the genre. Atmospheric music builds that oppressive feeling and enhances the jump scares, keeping your nerves tense like a piano wire. Audio logs and frantic dialogue are well executed, helping bring out the wrongness of whatever's happening on the Ishimura, in addition to telling the story. And adressing one of my major complains from original Dead Space, Isaac has some lines to say. Yeah, as a self-assured lad with no need to project myself into a videogame character, I was never a fan of mute hero trope.

Gameplay didn't change much over the original - you still wander around the dead ship, fixing things and repurposing engineering tools into deadly weapons. Most noticeable changes are polish - movements are smooth and aiming lost that "console first" feel the original had.

Overall, as a remake it's one of the bloody best (last time, I promise) I've ever played. One thing that'd make it perfect for me, would be changing chapter 12. At this point ending the game with a lengthy escort quest and "strafe left and right to avoid attacks" arena-style final boss feels really dated, and it's one thing I wish they weren't so faithful with. Aside from that thought, hats off. As an avid hater of EA's usual business model, I'll happily admit they did a damn good job on this one. Here's hoping they can eventually be talked into giving Dead Space 2 a similar treatment.

Man, this one bring back memories. No, I don't mean just the original game, but the period in general.

In BloodRayne you play as titular Rayne - a redheaded dhampir, with supermodel body and jiggly jigglies clad in a dominatrix outfit. Said outfit has some extra pointy and sharpy bits, which you'll use to dismember nazis while throwing out innuendo-filled quips and moaning as you sip that sweet, sweet aryan blood.

Seriously, I can't think of anything more 2000's than this.

Throughout the game you'll visit Louisiana swamps, submarine base in Argentina, as well as a ruined castle in Germany, working your way through a list of high-ranking targets, trying to stop Third Reich from arming itself with occult powers. It's a servicable enough story, though presentation could be better at times.

Gameplay loop consists mostly of acrobatic meele combat, akin to Jedi Academy, but you'll also pick up some period-accurate guns, all the way to Panzerfausts. It's fun enough, if a bit uneven at times, with some difficulty spikes which might seem like RNG. Every now and then you'll fight a boss more unique than your usual generic officer targets, usually with cutscene and a few lines of quippy dialogue.

And since you're playing a supermodel vampire, and it's a game from 2000s, the cutscene camera will ofter pan across Rayne's roundy and jiggly bits. You decide whether it's objectifying or fun.

Remaster is alright, if a bit basic. Not much improvement visually, but at least there's widescreen support, which works fine on 21:9, with occassional minor graphical glitches (like water getting cut off just where 16:9 screen would end). There's also a gamepad support - good enough to complete the game, but overall a bit clunky compared to using kb+m.

If I had to describe BloodRayne in one sentence, it'd be "Underworld meets "hail Hydra"". Fun enough while it lasts, though the remaster could be better. I'd wait for sale with this one.

You liked Boltgun? Well, here's more of the same, turned up to 11.

While we don't get whole eight levels as in main campaign chapters, each of the five is bigger and longer for your purging pleasure. On average they took me 10-15mins longer to complete.

We also get two new toys to play with - Multi-Melta, playing like a lava-powered assault shotgun and a Missile Launcher, with two types of rockets for the biggest booms. And you'll be putting them to good use, because this time Nurgle boys are not playing around - especially on Exterminatus. New and remixed enemies provide fresh challenge, while boss fights are pure insanity. You better come prepared.

It might not be the longest DLC on the planet, but if you enjoyed Boltgun, it provides a ton of fun for the price.
And of course you enjoyed Boltgun - otherwise, why would you read this whole bit (not that I don't appreciate it, cheers mate)?

It's a bit hard to pinpoint my earliest gaming memories, but games like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom I/II are definitely among the most vivid ones. Back then they were not "boomer shooters", but just "games" - and revolutionary ones at that, that I got to play after preschool on spare PC with a black & white screen in my father's office.

With all the nostalgia I have for pew-pewing pixel sprites, you'd think I'd get into the genre sooner. Oh well, at least I got to start my boomer shooter journey by purging some heretics.

Let's knock off visuals and sound first. Yeah, game obviously looks like a pixelated potato, but it's still a pretty potato. Weapons and enemy sprites got some nice detail to them. Levels are well designed and visually consistent, overall atmosphere fits quite well with the oppressive, massive, future-gothic architecture of 40k. Audio consists mostly of gunfire, enemy screeches and metal music. Nothing extraordinary, but competently done.

Story is... present? Boltgun is a kind of sequel to Space Marine, but the whole narrative consists of barely few sentences boling down to "you need to secure this macguffin, go and shoot anything that moves". Who cares anyway, we're here for the gameplay.

And the gameplay is where Boltgun shines. It feels like exact middle point between Doom II and Doom 2016. It's quick, snappy and responsive. Enemy variety is good, with each type having unique behaviour, from cultists using various weapons, through various demons, swarming nurglings and frogs jumping around to charging champions and teleporting terminators. There are also few bosses presenting a unique challenge.
Gunplay is solid, each gun feels quite different, with a few having unique mechanics affecting you as well - like overheating plasma gun damaging you, or heavy bolter slowing you down. Each gun can also be upgraded by finding a secret Machine Spirit. They're all affected differently, so it's not just a straight damage boost. It's also limited to one gun at a time and lasts only for the current level, letting you experiment and find your favourite pew-pew stick to upgrade. My personal choices were heavy bolter and, later on, grav-gun.
There's also the chainsword, and while there are some creative use cases for it, it's mostly there as a last resort backup. Unlike modern Doom, it doesn't make enemies drop extra resources.

The game can provide a fair challenge, even for seasoned FPS players. I really enjoyed the way they solved higher difficulties - rather than turning enemies into bullet sponges, they tweaked the spawns - so you'll not only face more enemies, but different combinations of them as well.

In addition to DLC, latest patch also added a horde mode, for the ultimate heretic-purging challenge.

Warhammer 40k games are in a bit of a weird state right now - there are games from a dozen different genres and rather mixed quality, kinda like with Star Wars before EA bought exclusivie rights from Mickey Mouse. Thankfully, Boltgun is one of the good ones and I've throughly enjoyed the time it took me to 100% it and its DLC. Would purge the heretics again.

Ever since I first got my hands on Freespace 2 demo as a wee lad, I've enjoyed a bit of space pew pews in my gaming routine.

Space combat enjoyers got some decent games over the decades, but overall the pickings are rather slim compared to Wing Commander, X-Wing and Descent days - especially if you're not into roguelikes, multiplayer, building spacestations, Microsoft Excel or AAA flops. And since godfather of the genre prefers to keep his magnum opus in forever-alpha state and milk it by selling $5000 pixel ships, you gotta take what you can get.

Luckily, Chorus is more than "be happy you got anything at all" game.

I don't pay as much attention to graphics these days unless it looks exceptionally good or bad. Chorus is pretty enough I suppose, with some very distinct visual elements later on.
Ships designs could be better and more varied. Especially capital ships - most designs felt barely functional. They could also use some weathering - as it is most vessels looked like they're brand new and made of plastic. I've seen actual plastic model kits which looked more realistic.
Maps feel a bit lifeless at times, despite ocassional civilian ships floating around - I know it's cold, empty space, but still - giant oribtal city full of neons should be busy with traffic, rather than having just a few bigger ships stuck in line to a jumpgate. Check out Scrapland to see it done well.
Music, sound effects and voiceovers are quite good - my one gripe here is the sheer amount of character's whispered thoughts. It's a bit hard to hear at times, plus I've never been a fan of this internal monologue fad.

Anyway, let's get to the important stuff - the gameplay.

As some others noted, initially the controls feel a bit awkward and the first few battles might feel like you're trying to dogfight while flying a freight train. By the end though, with some practice and after unlocking a few new skills (especially drift, which basically turns on newtonian spaceflight, rather than having the ship work like an airplane), you'll be gliding gracefully through a literal bullet hell. Some of my fights towards the end of the game were so cinetmatic, they wouldn't be out of place in a blockbuster sci-fi flick.
All in all, once you get past the initial hump gameplay is extremely fun, with no major detractors. Everything else is secondary in my book, so if you want a TL;DR - there it is.

Speaking of unlocks - ship customization could be better. You get a few options for each weapon, though usually difference comes down whether it's weak but rapid fire or slow, but powerful. There are also a few options for "internals", boosting various stats, complete with unique set bonuses. In the end though, weapon damage generally takes care of itself and I found boosting efficiency of special abilities to be clearly superior to everything else. Overall despite bunch of component options, build diversity is pretty much nonexistent. Every now and then you get to switch it up by piloting a bigger, slower Spirit-class vessel, which is basically a hull attached to a bunch of chainguns, mowing enemy waves in seconds. Those serve only as a palate cleanser in a few missions though, and you can't customize them at all.

Things look better when it comes to enemy variety, with a bunch of different factions' fighers, heavier ships and turrets dropping mines or firing charged lasers and a few capital ships here and there that you'll dismantle by destroying various bits and pieces in order. Overall combat scenarios are pretty fun and exciting, culminating in awesome fleet battles and rather unique bosses, though the fights against basic fighter squadrons get rather repetitive. That said, powers unlocked as the story progresses speed those fights up massively, limiting the tedium.

Storywise - could be better, could be worse. You're ex- ace pilot for a weird space cult, who decided blowing up a planet was going a wee bit too far on a murderous cult scale. Then, as usual, you get pulled back into the fight, because your old friends attack your new friends. Overall it's workable, if at times a bit too anime for my taste.
Aside from main story, there are some decent side missions, usually netting you meaningful ship or ability upgrades. There are also some repeatable activities netting you some cash, like collecting salvage, fighting off attacks and sitting next to another ship for a few seconds to refuel/hack/calibrate something or other.

All in all, Chorus is a qute decent space combat experience, with fun and exctiting combat system, which only gets better the further you get into the game. It has some flaws, but they're more noticeable in hindsight than moment to moment gameplay. Overall I had a ton of fun in the ~20 hours it took me to 100% the game.

Beautiful soundtrack.
Wish it was lossless though, not highly compressed mp3 (circa 2003 quality).
Tagging could be better, but at least it's there, which can't be said of most sountracks in my library. No cover, sadly.

I'd rate this game 621 out of 10.

So I've been a fan of Obsidian ever since KOTOR2. Before that, if we count the games some of the folks there worked on back in Black Isle. Despite the tight schedules those early sequels were on and some resulting clunkiness and bugs, I loved (and still do) most of their games. The Outer Worlds though? Well, it's complicated.

Lets knock out the visuals first - graphics are about what you'd expect from 2020 game, still looking good. Visual design though? Not a fan. I feel like the whole retrofuturistic vibe doesn't fit the setting at all and is only there to emulate Fallout - where the 1950-60s vibe was much more fitting and plausible. Everything being oversaturated to the point of being painful to look at doesn't help in the slightest.

Alright, but RPGs should shine through the story, not visuals. Does the story hold up to Obsidian standards? Yes and no. There is some really great writing and fun quests in there, but it's in the minority. Overall impression the game left me with is "Stupidity written smartly." Dialogs are witty and competently written, but they hardly compensate for 85% of characters you meet being complete idiots.
Game actually touches on some serious issues - big corporations destroying environment and ruining people's lives for profit margins - but then goes out of its way to make a mockery of it all by turning stupidity to 11, from blabbering idiots of npcs and corpospeak emails present on every in-game computer to majority of sidequests being idiot plots (that is, stories which only happen because everyone involved has an IQ roughly equal to comfortable room temperature).
"Corporations. Pretty stupid, hehe." is the one and only note writing has for the majority of the game. It's most prevalent in Emerald Vale, the first area of the game - which might be why almost 30% of players dropped the game at that point.

The only time I actually noticed the brief respite from everpresent idiocy and some real, human emotions was during the Gorgon DLC. My companions' reactions to some horrifying experiments were written extremely well and it's probably the moment that stuck with me the most.

Gameplay wise - not much to say, it's still the basic Bethesda RPG game loop. Exploration, looting, some mediocre shooting, more looting, pick some quests, sell loot, some more shooting, some lockpicking and more looting. Loot is not all that exciting, as you'll rarely find meaningful upgrades, aside from unique Science Weapons, which are probably the most fun to play with. Enemy variety is nonexistent, consisting of about 4 types of animals, 3 types of robots, melee humans and ranged weapon humans with AI that's as basic as it gets.

There's now also a 'Spacer's Choice' edition, but it seems the only major changes are turning up color saturation even more and raising level cap from 36 to 99, so you don't have to make any build choices/sacrifices. At 9$ upgrade price, I'll pass.

Overall, The Outer Worlds is not a bad game and there is some fun to be had. Still, it's mediocre at best and definitely the weakest Obsidian game I've played, which makes it hard to recommend. At this point, I'm much more interested in Avowed than Outer Worlds 2.

For years my only experience with Mafia was in early 2003 when I visited my cousin during the winter break. We spent some time trying to beat the race, but - since his older brother worked in IT and liked to sail the high seas for new releases - we eventually moved on to other games. Eventually Vice City came out and swiftly took over as the homicidal maniac simulator to play. Next time I'd be reminded of it, it'd be 2020 remake. I'd be 30, too busy, with a PC few generations too old to experience the game in all its glory. It'd be another 3 years before I finally made my way to Lost Haven.

And what a trip it was.

We play as Tommy Angelo, an ordinary guy who goes from working as a taxi driver to mafia's made man. Throughout 20 story chapters, we'll get to experience most of highly qualified mobster's resume - from being a chaffeur, through extorsion, beatings, robbery, smuggling and car chases, all the way to assassination, gang executions and mass shootouts. Between the bouts of wanton slaughter, we'll get to to see some nice things as well - friendship, love and importance of family. It's a nice, bittersweet story and a welcome change during the age of streaming platforms feeding us with biographies of one psychotic serial killer after another.

And witnessing that story is quite a pleasure, since Mafia: Definitive Edition is gorgeous. From great visual design reflecting 1930's New York, its cars, architecture, interior design and fashion, to lightning effects making us feel like we're really sitting in Don Salieri's smoke-filled conference room, Hangar 13 really made the great use of modern hardware's capabilities. Nowhere is this more evident than during the 'A Trip to the Country' mission. Driving through the rainy night, with all the neons lighting up the fog was simply breathtaking.

Immersion is helped by great audio as well. From revving engines and gunfire, through radio stations playing period music, discussing prohibition and certain unfulfilled painter's rise to political power, all the way to the completely new, re-recorded dialogue. It all clicks.

Gameplay is likewise solid and about what you'd expect from a modern GTA-style game. Unlike those games though, you won't roam the city looking for things to do. Game's story is told through a bunch of missions with no time to explore in between. You can roam and explore a bit, but you'll always have a clear objective while out in the city. While it restricts the freedom we've come to associate with open world games, it helps keep the story focused. Being unable to go from a homicidal lunatic chased by the army to a regular cabbie doing fares in the space of 2 minutes helps with immersion as well. There is a separate freeroam mode, where you can explore the city and look for collectibles, though not many people bother with it, since unlike in GTA there are no rewards for those side activities.

Original Mafia was universally considered a great game, and I think Hangar 13 did it justice with this remake. Rockstar should take a few (hundred) notes on how to do a "Definitive Edition".

And yes, the race is still as PITA as I remembered it.

I remember enjoying Dungeon Siege a lot as a kid. So did most of the reviewers back in 2002 - since it mostly got straight 8/10s and above. So, how does it hold up 20 years later?

Not so well. While many of its features felt revolutionary at the time, it aged rather poorly.
As far as party-based RPGs go, it wasn't very good even back in 2002. The story is extremely basic and forgettable, barely providing an excuse for hours upon hours of walking forward while slaying everything in your path. Same goes for party members, whose backstory is mostly meaningless and confined to one sentence, after which they're nothing more than dps/healbot. I wouldn't really call that a Role-Playing Game, unless 'meatgrinder' counts as a role.

One thing I remember fondly was lack of classes - you could specialize in any type of combat simply by using certain weapons. You could even mix it up with melee and magic... until you realized it'd leave you weak in both aspects and unable to use level-appropriate gear and spells, so the viable choice was to specialize anyway. I'd suggest one of two types of magic, since melee/bow characters only get to autoattack. At least with spells you get some variety, though you probably end up spamming the same ones anyway - since your spellbook only gets two active slots.
Either way, the majority of gameplay looks the same - walking your party to enemy group and waiting as they dispatch them. Player's involvement is usually limited to popping health/mana potions and occasionaly picking a focus target.

One truly impressive quality of Dungeon Siege is pretty much seamless, if completely linear, game world. From start to finish you'll experience no loading screen, which was a small technical marvel at the time. Its 3D graphics also looked quite impressive for 2002 isometric game.

In all other aspects though, Dungeon Siege falls way behind its contemporaries. It came after the era of Infinity Engine games, all of which had far more interesting and involved storylines. It came after Diablo II, which had way more involved and interesting gameplay, as far as Hack-n-Slash games go. Finally, it came in the era of... Gothic 1 and Morrowind. And I think each and every game on this list would provide more enjoyment to a nostalgic modern gamer. (Although - granted - much less initial frustration if you're not used to things like Gothic 1's control scheme).

To sum it up: Dungeon Siege is historically significant game that's absolutely not worth playing in 2023+, unless you have an extreme level of nostalgia for this game specifically or fancy yourself videogame historian.