Recent reviews by Quirky A.I.

Sorry, can't recommend this game at this time. Very little feedback, hard to tell what's a texture and what's an interact-able object, and you just die for little reason with no real idea of what you could have done better.

Normally, this kinda game ain't my thing - but I am so happy I took the time to play it! Story was good, acting was good, it was free of most of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I remember from playing old adventure games, and the artwork was phenomenal.

If you are on the fence, grab this thing on sale and enjoy it for a weekend. Well, enjoy it as much as any horror game can be enjoyed :P

*chef's kiss*

This game has "passion project" written all over it in a very good way. You can see from the art style, to the mechanics, to the general flow of gameplay that these devs put their heart and soul into this thing.

The result? A solid metroidvania game that takes its combat mechanics straight from Dark Souls - but with a major focus on a aggressive playstyle (parrying, dodging, etc.) over a more defensive one. Layered over top of this is a fascinating aesthetic and world filled with all manner of weird creatures and locations.

Is it going to redefine your concept of a platformer? No. Is it going to make you question reality? Probably not. But it is engrossing, immersive and engaging in a way that totally blindsided me.

I genuinely love this game and I think it deserves more attention. When the devs make their DLC for this, consider me sold - I can't wait to see more from this team :)

Skyrim and Minecraft had a baby that enjoyed Dark Souls.

Odin looked upon it, and saw that it was good.

Then everyone got drunk and built a house.

10/10, my mind was legit blown by the sailing mechanics. More epic than Assassin's Creed.

Is it buggy? Yes.
Runs like crap? Yes.
Does it have a story that will change your life? No.
Does the UI kinda suck? Yes.
Do I have any idea what 2500+ armour means? Heck no!

But what this game has is solid gunplay, some incredible moments of storytelling, and a cool world that I couldn't help but be pulled into. If you want to wait for it to be fixed up and go on sale, I say go right ahead. But if you want to dive in and keep your expectations in check (it's just a good game, not life-changing) then I think you'll enjoy yourself. I've completed the main story line, done as many side missions as possible, and just had a good time.

This game is amazing.

Replayable? HECK YES! Different difficulty ratings, gear spawns, and you are guaranteed to not see everything on your first playthrough. If you have the DLC, you also get access to a new add-on campaign in Subject 2923, and adventure-only content in Swamps of Corsus in addition to a rogue-style Survival Mode in Swamps of Corsus.

Cool bosses and enemies? TONS! Each with cool designs, attacks, and unique to their locations.

Lots of cool builds? Absolutely, and new ones come out after each patch & DLC. Check out Phemeto's YouTube channel for just a taste of the cool stuff you can find. Pretty much anything can be used for high-level play if you want :D

Great devs? 100% YES! More than willing to change things that aren't working, have made multiple reworks of gear, and keep things at a great price.

Good price? You won't find a better deal :D

Moment-to-moment gameplay? Dark Souls w/ Guns! What's not to love? Great mix of 3rd-person ranged combat, dodge rolling, and some decent melee to mix things up. This moment-to-moment gameplay is what keeps me coming back

Aesthetics? Post-apocalyptic, western-inspired, science-fantasy. Each world is visually distinct, the equipment designs are so cool (the shotgun pump animation always makes me smile), and the art style really makes the game pop.

Gear? Designs range from "cool" to "inspired", with each weapon being cool to use, look at, and providing new options in combat. Starting weapons are just as viable as late-game ones, and the base weapons are distinguished by being able to use any mod you want, while the cool boss weapons are more limited in versatility (1 mod built in only). Armor, amulets and rings let you really change up how you play.

Multiplayer? Get some from for co-op and go nuts! I've played this with several friends and it's a blast.

This game isn't 100% perfect - I didn't get or care about the story (sorry), many bosses spawn ridiculous amounts of adds/mobs which is just annoying (the DLCs don't have this as much), and you need to rely on RNG to find new equipment & events on other playthroughs/adventures (for which I recommend the save-game analyzer tool you can find online). I'd also say that the DLC is pretty much a requirement to get the best out of this game, and multiplayer is where it really comes alive.

But overall, this is one of my favourite games and I can't wait for a sequel or to see what this studio has coming up next. Gunfire Games have made a fan of myself and my friends, and I can't wait to jump back in and play more

I'm gonna be honest - I initially didn't understand why this game was getting so much attention or what people saw in this game. Watching let's plays or videos about it didn't intrigue me. But then I thought, "I always liked the idea of space salvaging... could play this as research material?" and bought it.

Now that I can get access to class 3 ships and am working up to bigger ones, I think I get it. Shipbreaker at it's heart is a puzzle game - you get some tools that do predictable things (scan, grapple, tether, cut) and are then set loose on a ship with multiple ways to get the job done and more ways for things to go wrong. You always feel like there is a checklist in your head - open the airlock, take a look around, cycle the air, take out the reactor, plan what to do when the oxygen fails, etc. But the random differences between ships and the fact that each round is only 15 minutes puts the pressure on.

I agree that the timer can be a bit annoying at times, but honestly I don't think there would be much of a game without it. The screw-ups I made were almost always because I rushed something - and I feel that the real challenge of this game comes from keeping your head cool in a stressful situation. It also helps the upgrades feel useful and makes certain ships feel more or less challenging. If you had the time to go back to your base to refill oxygen, that first oxygen capacity upgrade would never feel so useful - nor would finding an oxygen tank in your current ship be such a relief. Being able to cut things at a longer range would be only there for convenience, but the timer makes such upgrades a matter of efficiency.

Honestly, if you want something that strides that line between relaxing and challenging, and you really like the idea of breaking down ships in space, then I strongly recommend you give this game a shot!

Shadow of Mordor is a beautiful, fun game whose main achievement is blending in a linear story with progressively generated events to make the setting feel alive and unique to you. The gameplay is your standard Assassin's Creed parkour system and Batman Arkham Aslyum's stealth and combat system (currently I am playing with the counter attack prompts and effects off to increase the difficulty), but its very functional and lets you interact with the world through acts of violence.

The game's highly-praised Nemesis system is far from a gimmick. Your opponents each have randomly given traits and abilities which result in unique and challenging foes (only for the captains and warcheifs, mind you, but you can bump into them pretty much anywhere). But the stories and interactions you have with the orcs in the non-story stuff is amazing. As an example, I'll tell my story of my rivalry with the orc Faldush the Merciful (the "u" is pronounced like "oo").

Faldush was the first bad ass orc I saw in menu showing Sauron's armies. He looked tough, menacing, and seemed like a good fight. I had killed every opponent I faced and felt that I needed someone who could take me on, and boy did I choose the right Uruk for the job! I found him and another captain that I had not yet found any intel on duelling in an arena to the far east. I sat in a watchtower and admired the fight, sending arrows flying into the heads of the spectators outside the ring. Soon, some of the Uruks and Orcs became suspicious, and began to hunt me down. Faldush won his duel (without my direct interferance), and so I decided to make an entrance and busted open a caragor cage, mounted the giant tiger-thing, and rode it into the arena. Faldush shouted a challenge, and I hopped off my steed to face him.

Bad idea. 20 other orcs piled in and began hacking at me. For the first time in the game, I was downed, and it was by Faldush. But Faldush had a trait where he refused to kill those he deemed unworthy (hence the "Merciful" title), and so he mocked me and disappeared. I barely made it out of there with my life, hopping from watchtower to watchtower and dropping nests of vicious insects on the orcs that followed me, but I made it out.

Later, I found myself wrecking Faldush's execution of an unknown captain. I busted in and stole the intel from the poor captain's mind before Faldush could do him in. After a while, Faldush had whittled me down to almost no health, and I ran like a wuss, safe in the knowledge that I had not let him get his execution to himself.

The third time I met him was the one that saw my rivalry with him turn to arch-nemesis status. Faldush was in an Uruk stronghold, beating up other Uruks to press-gang them into service. He had a tussle with some Uruks, and when he wasn't looking I dropped from a bit of scaffolding and stabbed him in a way that would make any Assassin's Creed fan wet themselves with joy. I was a little sad though, that the Uruk I had formed a rivalry with had died.

But I was wrong.

Not three minutes later I'm hunting down this other captain and attempting to get the drop on him when I hear a shout and look on the other side on my sniper's perch. Standing there, waving his club and sporting a vicious set of scars and metal staples, is Kaldush! He screams at me for leaving him for dead, and then down I run to fight him fair and square. A few seconds later, another captain jumps in and I get my ass kicked.

And now, I've just messed with Faldush's plans the fourth time, wrecking a hunting party for him and his gang. He retreated this time though, and I'm glad I stopped chasing him when he ran into a stronghold. We'll meet again. I know we will.


These stories are what make the game so much fun. The animation is good, the performance I am getting on my GTX 680 (with 4GB VRAM) is good (pretty much everything on high results in ~70 FPS), and the combat and stealth is solid. You can play with with either a controller or a mouse and keyboard (I prefer the keyboard, honestly) but it really doesn't matter. It's a good game with a great way to create your own story. If you have the hardware to run this thing, and you are looking for another action game with something new to make your own, unique experience in, Shadow of Mordor has you covered. I highly recommend this game.

Who knows, maybe you'll be telling tales of your own Faldush the merciful before long ;)

So, I am a little torn up about this game. There is some good writing, some great gameplay, and some good graphics, but I have just been playing some of the side missions and dang, this game can be punishing.

Now, I do not mean difficult here. It can be. What I mean is that some of the side missions will require complete and total stealth and force you to completely restart if you do not perfectly stealth it. These would be the Grim missions. Look, Ubisoft, mid-game checkpoints ARE GOOD. I like stealth games, but if you are constantly asking me to retrieve 3 objectives and then extract on the other side of the level without a single mid-level checkpoint, that is a recipe for rage, not tense and gleeful stalking. Don't go Super Meat Boy on your checkpoints but at least give us something.

Now, I do say this as both a warning and a message to any stealth developer: this game is good but seems to have occasionally missed some good stealth game design points. Overall, I enjoy my time with this game, but its memory is marred by the somewhat crummy side-mission designs. Currently, I have played some of side missions for Kobin (kill x terrorists, y more will show up if you are detected), Charlie (defend position from x waves... no it is not that easy) and Grim (get these 3 objectives and then extract without being spotted, complete mission redo if you are). Grim's missions are punishing, and you will probably rage-quit if you screw up on that last objective (which I have done several times, because PRECISE TIMING IS REQUIRED in some cases). Charlie's missions can be a drag (kill a guy or two, run and hide, wait until everyone calms down, repeat; also it has a checkpoint after each wave), and Kobin's missions can be just as boring if you are trying to stealth them (also no checkpoints here). Thankfully, there is some decent level design, and the campaign missions are pretty tight (complete with checkpoints, thank heaven). I have not played any of the co-op missions yet as I have yet to get my friend over to try them out.

For mechanics, I like how the mark-and-execute mechanic is now a set number across all weapons, that you can REMOVE weapon mods and select your own loadout (it is fun to see what you can do with a loud-only setup), and that there is a large amount of weapon and gadget variety. I also like that there are multiple ways to get through a level, and that there are new non-lethal ranged weapons (only 2-3, though, but that's better than hand-to-hand only). Additionally, the ability to carry more gadgets is a huge plus in my books, and the new stealth notification of your lights flaring up in shadow doesn't marr the visuals by doing that black-and-white thing that Conviction did (although it does make me want to scream "How can you NOT see me!?!" to every enemy when it comes up).

I do feel that the new "press B to attach to walls" is a step backward though. I really liked the smoother hold-left-trigger-to-stay-attached-to-walls mechanic from conviction, even if it made gunplay a tad more difficult (but it did make for a smooth stealth system with a decent incentive to not go all gung-ho and stay in cover).

In the end, I tenatively recommend this game. Good graphics, good gameplay, and the new voice actor for Sam Fisher is pretty good (although I do miss Michael Ironside's growly quips on getting older from Chaos Theory and his threatening tones from Conviction). However, expect the game getting a lot more rough when it comes to the side missions, which need to learn the difference between punishing and difficult.

SIDE NOTE: I am playing this game on "Realistic" difficulty only, so I cannot comment on Easy, Normal, or Perfectionist difficulties and their changes.