Recent reviews by Sławetny Watażka

I have just finished the game and I enjoyed it a lot; it's exactly my type of game: a dialog heavy detective puzzle game. Which made me think: why haven't I played it before? I usually tend to wait for the games to go on sale so I simply wishlisted it and forgot about it. Turns out, when I bought it on July 2019 it was its first sale ever. I have a very simple recommendation: don't make the mistake of waiting for the next sale if you think this game is for you. It's a great time.

Looks like a lot of people are mad about the content to price ratio in the current offering as well as sparce updates despite the 'Early Access' status. I can't really speak for others who paid full price for this game having gotten it in a bundle (a failrly expensive one, but alongside like 30 other games), but my outlook on it is not as negative as it appears to be for many.

It's true that you can play through the available levels in a couple hours and the updates were infrequent, but despite some say this game is far from abandoned. The developers frequently post about the progress they're making with the single player campaign and judging by the screenshots and gifs it's big and most likely will not disappoint.

I think almost everyone would agree that the devs have developed a set of super tactile and satisfying mechanics; the negative reviews are mostly an expression of strained patience rather than disappointment with the game itself. Seeing how the game is still very much in development It's just matter of time when this proof of concept turns into a full-blown and most likely really good parkour-melee-brawler, That's why I recommend it - with a caveat that it's best to simply wait for the full campaign to be released before buying it. I'm confident it will be worth its price by that point.

I got this game in a humble monthly and didn't expect much. This was my introduction to the typing game genre and I must say it was an enjoyable one.
While the main character's monologs are a little verbose and poorly delivered, the game is salvaged by a well designed and balanced gameplay and a nice aesthetic.
I found it easy to go back to and zone out for a couple hours despite having absolutely no interest in the story. It didn't overstay its welcome which I always appreciate.

Once the devs iron out all the bugs and optimize the performance, it's going to be the perfect casual mini-golf game. I didn't even know I have a itch for this genre and yet this game succeeded in scratching it - Golfing With My Friend has become sort of a fixture. I just hope there will be more content added as well as Workshop support for more replay value. But even without that it's definitely worth the 6 $/€ price point.

As many have said, it's not much more than a tech demo at this stage of development, but a gorgeous and promising one.

Things like gameplay, wonky controls or animation quality and even voice work can and probably will be improved, what I'm worried about more is the script. Exposition is as clunky as if the devs decided that they're going to draw from the worst aspects of that other Interstellar.

But I sense potential problems with the premise itself. There isn't really any explanation as to why would fully mechanized staff communicate in natural language or why a rover performing menial tasks even need an intelligence this well developed to understand it. Did people, having developed a strong AI capable of jokes and self-consciousness, presumably decided that they're going to make everything intelligent above necessity just because they can? This seems like a huge overkill to me, I imagine even in THE FUTURE that kind of technology must be somewhat costly.

If this game is suppose to be a fully developed story, it will need more character than this, because if all the heroes are some generic droids and rovers devoid of personality, like it is now, I can't see myself being too engaged by this narrative. Sure it might not depend on characters, but rather on ideas, but so far it doesn't seem seem to be heading into direction of a philosophical sci-fi and I don't honestly how it could with its current setup.

Still, for 3€ it's worth checking out as perhaps we'll see something interesting come out of this.

I wish the devs best of luck.

Rocket League is, as description claims, a sequel to a PS3 game with an overly complicated title that probably contributed to the fact that not many people have heard about it. Neither have I, so when I watched a video of Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars, I was surprised to learn that Psyonix basically got the whole formula down with their first attempt; mechanics have hardly changed since the first entry into what might be now considered a sort of a franchise.

That Rocket League is now enjoying far more success than its predecessor is very clear. Some of it may be down to the good timing since it doesn't have to compete with any AAA behemoth, some to PS+ free release and its very important strength: it is highly watchable and thus enjoyed free promotion from streamers and youtube personalities. But it doesn't fully explain the explosion of entusiasm it garnered.

I think the main reason is that it's almost a perfect execution of its idea. It's addictive, but demanding. Fun from the getgo, but surprisingly deep in terms of its mechanics. If you have all these elements and add polish the result is an extremely engrossing competitive online game.
You start off by simply attempting to hit a ball, preferably in the direction of the enemy's goal, but in the beginning every hit feels like a success. As you learn to have more control over the car, which thanks to the tactile responsiveness of controls happens at a rather quick pace, you find yourself mixing in more advanced techniques to gain the edge over the enemy. Occasionally you will manage to pull off an impressive move and you will want that to make this a norm. Once you get your technique down to an acceptable level it's no longer enough: you need to "read the pitch", predict your opponents' moves, cooperate with your teammates (or not, if you choose to play only 1v1 which you're entirely free to do!).

This aspect of the game is hard to overstate. Playing Rocket League constantly demands and leaves room for improvement, both individual and team-based and given that player base is currently huge and matchmaking great, you're going to matched against players just right for you.
There is always one caveat that applies to every online game in existence: your mileage may vary. If you're unlucky, you may very well have unpleasant experience with it. You might end up with a series of online problems or bugs. You might very well not be so drawn in by the mechanics or be in the minority of people this game doesn't resonate with. But I say: buy. It's unlikely any of it will apply to you, and if the price is the only source of doubt for you, wait for the first sale and get it then, though in my opinion it's well worth the price of admission.

I have some degree of sympathy for the initial backlash around the time of release, because admittedly 20$/€ seems a bit steep for that short a game and I'm saying this as a someone who really enjoyed it. However if someone claims that it's overrated or overhyped in this point in time, she's being highly disengenious, as it's hard to come across any positive feedback about it now and its critics are extremely vocal on the Internet. Same goes for the claims that people were mislead into thinking that it's a horror game or that it was promoted as such. I have no idea where this one even come from, because neither promotional material for the game nor the game reviews couldn't have been any clearer that it's in fact a love story in a form of an exploration game. The mood was indeed creepy and it is such intentionally, but I think it's pretty clear from the onset that there isn't anything supernatural or truly dangerous going on. The mystery element of it served as a good initial hook, as you have a clear motivation to find out what happened over the last few months as the protagonist was in Europe and sends you an occasional chill down the spine when you feel that you're completely isolated in this alien environment. Again, my perspective is that of someone who played it long time after the release, so I can't say if this held any water at first. All I'm saying is: if you say that you thought it's a horror game with a long campaign full of plot-twists and action in year 2015, you are full of ♥♥♥♥.

My biggest worry when it comes to games that focus on a narrative and the reason, I think, why so many people respond so negatively to most of them, is that their stories or philosophies are spoonfed to the player without any means of engaging with them. Either they lack an active component at all, or it's completely disjointed from the story and we get the notorious 'lugoscababib discobiscuits'. Then there are games that get the narrative thing right and give the venue for engagement without falling into constraints of traditional game mechanics like Papers, Please, Gone Home (though I know it's too passive for some people) or MLA parts of Talos Principle. I was happy to discover that Her Story belongs to the second category. It is surprisingly engrossing for something has the player watch a police interrogation pieced into hundreds video clips, which is the only storytelling medium this game employs. Players have no significant role in the story (not explicitly at any rate) and yet, thanks to non-linearity added by the interactive dimension, what could have been just just above avarage short film if shown from beginning to end, is a truly great detective/mystery game.
85/100

My opinion of Alien: Isolation has radically changed over the course playing this game and, sadly, it wasn't at the very end when I liked it the most; I honestly thought it was gradually getting worse and worse. But even though A:I left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth at the end, I would recomment it, because it just gets so many things right.
First of all, designs. This game in terms of aethetics is a period piece of an era that never existed. The 1970s and 80s' version of the the future was recreated with such immense detail that it makes for one of the most cohehise and convincing sci-fi worlds in a game that I have ever seen. Visually this game had me hooked from start to finish, as even at later stages I took my time to just look around the enviromnents to appriaciate the great effort that went into making it so authentic. Interestingly, this design language also translated to the look of UI, which has its retro-touches here and there like VHS-like artefacts and filmgrain. The radial menu plays into that aethetic, but it does so sadly at a cost of being a little unintuitive. It was great to look at, but not so great to use.
Stealth mechanics were very well designed: sound effects provided very organic feedback, level design and crafting system worked hand in hand with keeping the player on the edge with just enough recources for distraction and repulsion as well as enviromental advantages to get from point A to B. It takes a skillful approach and good use of all of the mechanics to avoid being horribly murdered over and over again.
The problem is that this game is long. Far too long for a horror game to work. I had so much time to get aquianted with the Alien's AI and strategies of survival that by the time I was about to finish this game, Alien has become more of an annoyence than a source of horror. Early encounters with the Alien counted among the scariest experiences I've had in a game, the later ones were unfortunetely completely devoid of tension; the effect was further emphesised by the introduction of a flamethrower, which basically made the Alien feel like a noisy little dog that you have to occasionally shoo away in order to move on. (NOTE: I don't mean to say that I use flamethrowers to shoo away dogs IRL)
It doesn't help that almost all of the objectives troughout the whole 12-20 hours long campaign revolve around tuning stuff on. Turn on the generator here, open doors here, go back to that place to get a key to other doors, turn on other generator to open these doors and so on and so forth. The constant tinkering and engineering was justified by the occupation of the protagonist but it didn't make it any lesss dull to me. Aside from that, the story seemed like it was poorly tacked on on top of ready-made setpieces. Amanda didn't seem like a fleshed out character in any shape or form, and the other character I couldn't care less about either. The half-assed attempt at a plot twist in the last act was so poorly executed that it was kind of impressive.
I might sound like I hate this game, but all the bad stuff can be almost exclusively attributed to length, especially last few hours, so while I thought the ending was terrible, the first 3/4 of the game provide with a good enough experience to recommend it, especially if it's on sale.
+ perfectly captures the mood of the first movie
+ cool-as-balls retrofuturistic designs
+ great level design
+ Alien encounters are genuinely scary
+ gorgeous UI
- not necesesarily practical UI (radial and crafting menus are a little wonky)
- the story felt tacked on on top of already made up setpieces
- repetetive objectives
- TOO LONG

I kept hearing about how Jedi Outcast is far superior to Jedi Academy, and since I loved last Jedi Knight game and completed it multiple times, I decided to give this one a go, especially since it was already sitting in my library after I bought a bundle.
This game has one of the worst openings to a single player campaign I've seen
First level in a nutshell:

• lack of a solid narrative hook
  
• extremely generic base, corridor-ridden level design
  
• one horrendously inaccurate weapon to use throughout
  
• series of mind-numbingly boring button pushing-based objectives
  
• terrible platforming (WHY ON EARTH IS KYLE SLIDING AFTER EVERY SINGLE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ STEP HE MAKES)
  
• idiotically cryptic puzzles (shooting an exploding box that destroys a switch which in turn causes the doors to open? Who came up with that?)
  
• two types of extremely dull enemies
  
• WHERE IS MY LIGHTSTABER ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I've heard that it gets better past a certain point and I believe that, but honestly the beginning did all it could to discourage me from trying to progress this far, so I have no intention to continue playing this game. Maybe I'll finish it when I feel like driving myself mad again with constant sliding off the ledges and shooting waves of braindead AI with an unimpressive pea shooter, but based on what I've seen I wouldn't recommend this game to anyone who wants more than just a slice of nostalgia out of it.