Recent reviews by Tb

This is one of those games that shows up every so often that I'm quite sad to give a negative review for.
It's a bit of a cheap knock-off of the Mass Effect 1 style of combat (Even conversation wheels and all!), but that's not too bad. The combat's actually not bad. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

... But after but a few levels, I uninstalled it. The game was unplayable. At the very lowest settings, it lagged, badly. If you google it, you'll find it to be a common issue, but not an issue that everyone experiences. If you get lucky, you might be able to play it through... But I wasn't :)

Good luck to ya'll. It wasn't terrible... Just a little cheap and not great :)

It is with the heaviest heart I can bear that I write this recommendation, because I adore this game totally and yet I can't give it a blanket recommendation. This is not a game I know everyone will love, or even most people will love. What I do feel confident in saying though, is that if you like it at all, you'll be so heavily invested and so drawn in, that you'll love it. I hope I see a thousand more games of this... depth and with this level of voice acting, writing and investment from the team going into the future.

October 26, 2013, at the end of a year, I feel confident to say that this is the best experience I've had with a game this year. It was amazing and I hope it'll stay with me for a while.

This sequel follows directly on from the original Deponia game, so it might not be the best for people who haven't played the original. However, there are some really fun and intelligent puzzles and a great sense of humour throughout the majority of this game... I say throughout... it does die off for a bit about three quarts of the way through... But if you like adventure games, I distinctly think that the Deponia series should be in your collection.

Let's be honest, it's a Hidden Object game. It succeeds very well in being a Hidden Object game. Most of the puzzles can be solved with a bit of logic, but if you've played some of the puzzle games like Professor Layton or Puzzle Agent, you'll be able to solve many by memory, rather than logic. Most of the hidden object areas aren't the hardest and there's a good hint system to help you out.
Voice acting seems to be by the same guys who do Watson and Holmes in the other Frogwares games, if you're particularly attached to them.
If you like Hidden Object games, this is probably a game that you will enjoy for a few horus.
(PS... This isn't exactly how the real story goes... This is more... Sherlock Holmes with superpowers and time travel... But hey, Sherlock Holmes with superpowers and time travel, right!?)

This is a bad game. I hate to say this, but this is a bad game and an even worse adventure game.

I still like Nina and Max is alright, but it was a struggle to power on through this game. Most of the situations are totally abstract which the developers use to excuse their needlessly odd solutions to puzzles. The "minigames" all have the option of easy or difficult. Easy is tedious and boring and difficult is the same, but you have to do it longer. Oh and this game is weird.

I sigh, but I suppose if you are a Secret Files fan, like myself, you will buy this game anyway, but if you're looking for a good adventure game and figure this is a recent one from a company with a pedigree, it's a mistake. Take a look at The Next Big Thing or Deponia instead.

This game is not the Max Payne you may know and love. If you cannot bear the thought of changes to a beloved franchise, this isn't the game for you.
Are they gone? Good. Okay, so, this is a good game. It's got its weaknesses, but it's fun to play, has characters that are as likable as required and a world as dark as the snow in Valhalla on a cold winters night. It's a fun game and is surprisingly long for a modern shooter. You could think of it more in the vein of a Bruce Wills film than a Max Payne game and I think you'd enjoy it more. There's even a gunfight in the baggage area of an airport, ala Die Hard 2.
I think you'd enjoy it, if you can find it in a good sale sometime (yes, I wrote this when it was on sale).

This was a fun game with a few annoying bugs, such as the fact it can take up to two full minutes to pause on occasion. However, the game itself is enjoyable and a sure contender for the best looking game I've played all year, if you care for the aesthetic.
It's a 2D Action platformer with Randall Wayne trying to escape from "Shadows" (read: zombies) and find his lost family. There are weapons in the game, but they are primarily for the platform puzzles.

Oh right. And there's a sewer level.

I'll open by saying that within a minute of closing this game on completion, I knew this was easily my Game of the Year.

There are issues: 1) There is no skipping of dialog and it uses a checkpoint system. This means that sometimes it's a pain to stop playing without having to sit through a scene all over again. 2) On Windows 8 , if you have a wireless 360 pad connected, the game will not launch. There is a fix for this, but it's a bit of a pain. 3) There is currently an issue with savegames getting corrupted. To reduce the chance of this happening, always let Steam sync your saves when you close the game. Savegames are recoverable if they are corrupted, but again, it's an annoyance.

Despite these, I have never played such an immersive, emotional game before. It is difficult not to become attached to every one of these characters, which makes it painful when they start to fall. The decisions are tough, but if they weren't this wouldn't be the game it was. As the game progresses, it gets harder and harder to make the tough decisions, when the people you have grown to care about are at risk. But you will. And if you let this game take you in, you will have... An experience.

I liked this game. Quite a bit.

Mark of the Ninja is possibly the best game I've played all year. Well balanced, good looking and perfectly architected, this game was both fun and tense at times. There is satisfaction is using your ninja gadgets to clear a room of guards, there is satisfaction in freezing in mid air to throw kunai at three different targets, dropping a smokebomb and grappling away and there is satisfaction in sneaking through leaving no sign you were there.
I can barely recommend this game enough for its worth.

This is a game that progressively gets better as the game progresses. The combat and enemies are... well, about what you'd expect for a DmC style game, but there are also a few puzzles in this game that are real brain teasers. So fun, interesting, and... thinky, I enjoyed sitting back and relaxing with this game whilst I had it. I went straight for Darksiders 2 after this. I expect many would do the same.