Recent reviews by ABG

“Lured in by the anime booty and 2B’s thick thighs, ended up pondering the meaning of existence and life.”

In true PlatinumGames fashion, in the first 30 minutes of NieR: Automata you fight a gigantic robot 50 times your size where you beat it by tearing off its own arm and smashing it to death with it; and that’s not even craziest thing that happens.

NieR: Automata’s setting is 10,000+ years in the future where Earth has been invaded by aliens and humans were driven to the moon. Now the aliens and humans wage war on Earth by creating machines and androids to fight for them. It’s never quite explained in-game why all the androids fighting for the glory of mankind are cute anime girls wearing gothic skirts, but that’s Japan for you. Some of the robots look pretty adorable too.

As for the game’s actual plot, NieR: Automata is a story driven by its characters. 2B and 9S, the duo protagonists of the game steal the show with one of the cutest relationships you’ll ever see. They’re the typical anime girl and boy in nearly every single aspect. So much so that NieR: Automata might as well be called “anime: the videogame” with its over-the-top action, cheesy voice acting and fan service (there’s literally an achievement for looking up 2B’s skirt and dressing 9S in incredibly tiny shorts). The relationship between them is the story; as the game goes on it becomes clear that the story isn’t as much about the war between machines and androids, but how 2B and 9S handle the events of the world they live in.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1832692593

NieR: Automata’s story is an overall framing device for its overall themes, the plot is excellent and over-the-top as you’d expect from a Japanese game but it’s more of a setting in exploring the games themes of existentialism and what it means to be human. Games over the years have explored these themes with various degrees of success; from pretty good in the Deus Ex games, to laughably clumsy in Detroit: Become Human, the “machines have feelings and emotions” trope is one that can either make your game look like a work of art or pretentious drivel. It’s a fine line to tread, but NieR: Automata does a masterful job at handling these themes in a way it weaves in seamlessly with its world and story without feeling like a clumsy attempt of its writers wanting to appear smart.

Gameplay in NieR: Automata is a blast; if you enjoyed PlatinumGames’ previous works Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance you’ll enjoy the combat here. It doesn't have the sane complexity in combo’s and moves as previous games, but hacking and slashing your way through robots is still immensely satisfying. All the craziness and absurdity you’d expect from the Platinum is still there, you don’t quite punch the final boss into the sun like you do in Bayonetta but the completely over the top action is here in all it’s glory. The downside of the RPG nature of the game is the difficulty scaling; it is very easy to end up over-levelled if you do all the side quests (which all have excellent writing and are worth completing for the story, even if many of them are escort/fetch quests), making some fights too easy.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1832694214

As with all PlatinumGames’ work, the soundtrack is an absolute banger. From the boss fights Platinum does all too well to the exploration of the open world, every moment of the game has one of those songs accompanying it that when you’re listening to it outside the game, you can picture the moment in the game. From the epic orchestral music playing in the over-the-top as ever boss fights, to the quiet ambient tunes as you explore the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Earth (and of course the incredible end credits song), NieR: Automata’s soundtrack is one I’ll be listening to for a long time.

For added enjoyment, I’d recommend reading/watching the story and lore of the previous game’s in the series, namely the storyline of NieR which this game’s story continues from and to a lesser extent the Drakengard series. That being said, NieR’s lore is convoluted and confusing as hell, after first watching a video of the game’s lore I came out even more confused than before. You won’t be completely lost by starting jumping straight into NieR: Automata, but knowing the story of the previous game, as well as the backstory of some of the characters from the previous game that appear in Automata massively helped my understanding of some plot points, so at the very least I’d read/watch a plot summary of NieR before playing this game for an enhanced experience.

Explaining why NieR: Automata is so incredible without spoiling it is impossible, it is one of those games where the story is one that could only have been told through a videogame. What makes it a masterpiece for me was the story and themes, 2B and 9S, gameplay and one of the best endings of all time. One of those game’s that’ll stick with you for a long time.

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1834493770

Rockstar can ban suspend/ban your account and completely reset your stats without any warning even when you have no used any mods, picked up modded cash or downloaded a cheat. Rockstar support will not revert your suspension/ban and refuse to look into your case when you ask them to over live support, only giving the same copy/pasted responses of "all decisions are final and your ban/suspension will not be reverted." They will refuse to check whether you are a legitimate player or not and if you are wrongfully banned, say goodbye to all the work you put into your character.

Meanwhile actual cheaters have a free reign in public lobbies, able to spawn in unlimited cash, unreleased vehicles, invincibility, the ability to kill anyone not in passive mode instantly. None of them get banned, while thousands of legitimate players do.

Consider this a warning before buying.

“Only Evil and Greater Evil exist and beyond them, in the shadows, lurks True Evil. True Evil, Geralt, is something you can barely imagine, even if you believe nothing can still surprise you. And sometimes True Evil seizes you by the throat and demands that you choose between it and another, slightly lesser, Evil.”

Without a doubt, you will need to have played the previous game or at least read a summary because this game does NOT hold your hand. Right from the beginning characters will be discussing events that took place at the end of the first game and you’ll be introduced to a huge amount of characters you’re expected to already know. Geralt recovering his memory is a huge plot point this time around that without knowing the events that happened prior, interactions with characters Geralt meets would be confusing if this was your introduction to the Witcher. The good thing is that reading the books is less important here, though having knowledge of the Thanedd Rebellion and Battle of Brenna would help as those events help to understand the political climate as the game doesn’t explain those events quite as well as the books.

Storywise, The Witcher 2 puts monster hunting on the backburner and brings political subterfuge to the centre. If you love Game of Thrones and its intriguing politics then you’ll be right at home with this story. With such a vast amount of characters and location playing important roles you’re going to be reading the glossary frequently to keep track of everything. You’ll almost certainly need to have a map of the game world to reference to. Keeping track of all of this is hard, if you’re not going to read the in-game lore books and go through all of a character’s dialogue tree you’re going to have a hard time understanding what’s going on. As someone that loves political conspiracy’s, backstabbing’s and civil wars with a good dose of fantasy involved, this was a story that was right up my alley. The only criticism I have of the story is it feels like its only purpose was to set the stage for The Witcher 3, and doesn’t feel quite as epic and the first game.

Another thing that drew me in was that this time around The Witcher 2 has characters that are actually interesting. The first game didn’t have a strong cast of characters, but fortunately The Witcher 2 solved that problem. Everyone has their own motivations and goals here, very few people you meet won’t be trying to use you in some way. It’s all shades of grey, everyone has something to hide and you’ll never get the feeling you can trust anyone.

One thing that makes The Witcher 2 significant is how vastly the game changes based on a single decision you make. Based on one decision at the end of Act 1, the entire rest of the game will play out in a completely different way. Huge plot points that you deal with in one route aren’t even revealed in the other route and major characters that you meet in one you’ll only hear about in the other. It’s one of the few games I’ve played (Mass Effect being the others) where I’ve really felt that the decisions I made actually changed the story in a significant way, and not just changed the outcome of a quest. Even when you reach the end of the game you’ve still only seen about half of the full story and while it may seem like a downside, that decision to gate off a significant chunk of the game really made it feel like the choices you made had weight to them.

While The Witcher has always been about morally grey choices, this game really doubles down on that theme, especially in the side quests. There’s rarely that feeling that you feel like you made the “right” choice and even the choices that seem like the right ones often have ways of backfiring. If you like games with tough decisions, this is one for you.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=917456828

As far as the combat is concerned it is without a doubt a step up from the previous title, though that wouldn’t have been hard to do to begin with. It still is a little janky though, (side tip; play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tutorial because this game just drops you into the heat of things and won’t explain anything.) Attacking feels inconsistent, sometimes when you attack Geralt won’t move forward to strike and will just swipe thin air. Dodge rolling and Quen are completely OP here, nearly every fight will inevitably end up with Quen > dodge > attack > dodge repeat. The combat is still without a doubt a massive improvement over the first game, but can be rough at times.

Adding to combat not reaching its full potential, the potions system was severely flawed. This time the only way to drink potions is through meditation which cannot be done while in combat or in a dangerous area. While in theory this makes sense as preparation for fights is a big focus in The Witcher world, from a gameplay perspective there’ll be fights you’ll have no way of knowing will happen (looking at you end of Act 1 boss.) Since potions can be critical to surviving especially if you make a build around potions, you can end up in situations where you’ll be forced to fight with a huge handicap. Also they don’t last long either, in the first game most potions lasted for 20-30 minutes, here most potions only last 10. It feels like the developers wanted to streamline the process, but missed the mark.

Graphically The Witcher 2 has aged well, it was one of the most demanding games on PC when it came out and it shows. The graphics are still extremely good for a 5 year old game, every locale has its own unique feel to it. They didn’t solve the problem of NPC’s though, you’ll be seeing the same recurring NPC faces over and over throughout. Given how dated the first game looked, the graphics here are a big step forward.

The soundtrack here is good, though I never found there were many memorable tunes (apart from the main them in Flotsam) compared to the first game. Also, it’s missing that dope tavern music that was so good in the first.

One of the biggest improvements over the previous title was the voice acting. While the previous games voice acting was outright terrible at times, The Witcher 2 is a huge improvement in both voice acting and dialogue. Geralt in particular is especially great here, he has a much stronger personality here and the sarcastic dry humoured witcher he is here suits him better than the blank slate he was in the previous game.

If you’re looking for an RPG with tough choices and Game of Thrones style politics, The Witcher 2 has what you’re looking for, with the caveat that you’ll need to have played the previous game or at least read a plot summary to understand the overarching plot.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=918683423

“People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves.”

The Witcher is an RPG developed by CD Projekt RED, based off the The Witcher series written by Andrzej Sapkowski. Most people already know that, but truth being told it was The Witcher 3 that really brought the series into the mainstream eye. Prior to then The Witcher games were fairly niche, The Witcher 2 was overshadowed by Skyrim in the same year and despite the games fairly good reviews, it wasn’t until The Witcher 3 that people really started paying big attention to this game series. And even still, you’ll still run into a fairly large population of people that will tell you to skip the first two games in favour of what is being called the greatest RPG of all time. So where to start? As the narrator of Bastion said: “Proper story’s supposed to start at the beginning. Ain’t so simple with this one.”

The first big question is how critical reading the books is to understanding the story. In my opinion, it’s yes and no. Apart from a lot of inside references to characters and adventures Geralt had in the books, not reading the book series doesn’t inhibit understanding the main storyline of the game. In fact, the game does a better job of getting to the point than the books did (seriously it took until like the 4th or 5th book to explain why children of the Elder Blood and Ithlinne's Prophecy were so important.) You’ll miss out on some bits of context which helps understand the world (war with Nilfgaard and non-human uprisings,) but reading in-game lore books provides decent backstory. Geralt himself has amnesia, so all the events and characters of the books are conveniently handwaved away to give the player a more blank avatar. It’s a clumsy plot device, especially when characters are constantly saying “you don’t remember me?” but it does its job of making you feel like an outsider and a reason to learn about the interesting lore and world you’re in.

The main storyline itself sticks true to the themes of the books, there’s racism, political backstabbing and humans being monsters. Unlike a lot of modern RPG’s where you’re saving the world, Geralt’s adventures are much more down to earth. Having the main quest on a small scale is refreshing and suits the overall theme of the game. You never feel like you’re in control, there’s that feeling of being in over your head and everyone playing game of thrones with one another. You’re just a monster slayer who’s put into crap situations and often have to pick between a ♥♥♥♥ choice and even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ choice.

The worst thing to say about the story is that it starts off incredibly slow. It’s only around chapter 3 that the story becomes really interesting, which is unfortunately around 10-15 hours in. From then on, the story gets better, with a very satisfying final act.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=911876642

The first reason people give when they tell you to skip this game is probably because of the combat system. In my opinion the combat isn’t outright bad, it’s just repetitive and boring. It’s essentially a glorified QTE, you click when the sword icon flashes yellow, wait for the animation to play out and repeat. The various “styles” of combat doesn’t add much variety either, once you quickly work out what type of enemies are resistant to strong/light attacks there isn’t much strategy to be had.

Two things the game did well was the potion crafting and monster hunting. Reading books to find a monster’s weaknesses and crafting potions to prepare for a fight adds that feeling of being a witcher, you can’t just rush into every encounter blind. The toxicity system does solve the problem of spamming healing items in that every potion you drink raises toxicity, which means you have to carefully choose which potions to drink before a fight is crucial, though I did find myself only mostly using the same 1-3 potions. Even if the combat itself is lacklustre, the game still captured the feel of being Geralt very well.

Its later sequels are graphical powerhouses, but you won’t hear anyone talking about the graphics of the original game, and for good reason. Even for 2007 standards, it’s fairly dated in the graphical department, especially in the character models. Get used to seeing the same five NPC’s and the same two cave layouts over and over again. The world isn’t bad though, the game captures the low fantasy feel pretty well, Vizima really feels like a grimy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, just like most cities were described as in the books.

A side effect of being an old game is an old game engine, and an old game engine unfortunately means the game doesn’t run particularly well. Turns out that building a game off the Neverwinter Nights engine to save money wasn’t such a great idea. At least for me, I was getting a lot of crashes and framerate drops particularly in the middle of the game. Most of the crashing stopped when I enabled v-sync and triple buffering externally (the game doesn’t have those options by default), but the games framerate was still all over the place in the city areas.

The music is suitably Polish which separates it from the common “generic fantasy” soundtrack trappings. One thing the music did well was making each area feel distinct, the music in Vizima’s Temple Quarter gives that area a dark and dirty vibe, which contrasts with the Trade Quarter where the music is much more bright and cheerful. Plus, the tavern music is great.

Putting it plainly, the voice acting is fairly mediocre, even laughably bad in some areas. Several times a character would just speak in a completely different voice, though admittedly that was more funny than annoying. Even though the games enhanced edition did redo the voice acting, get used to hearing the same voices and repeated lines throughout the game.

The Witcher is a game a lot of people will tell to you to skip in favour of the sequels, but you really shouldn’t miss this one. Despite its dated graphics and clumsy combat, the compelling story and world full of rich lore makes it worth pushing through. It’s a game that’s rough around the edges in many aspects, but despite how rough it is there’s still a gem of a game here.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=912534258

“Excellence isn't an art, it's a habit. We are what we repeatedly do.” – The Edge

Furi is an action twin-stick, bullet hell, hack n slash boss rush, the first PC debut title for The Game Bakers. You are The Stranger, a white haired, katana wielding badass. You are being tortured in a multi-dimensional prison. A mysterious figure wearing a rabbit mask, The Voice frees you. Your objective: escape. Guarding the cells of the prison; Jailers, the Guardians, handpicked fighters with one simple objective, to stop you from escaping. ”The Jailer is the key, kill him and you’ll be free.”

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=831004697

Furi has a basic story: escape the prison, kill whoever tries to stop you. The thing I loved about Furi was how the story was fairly straightforward, yet was intriguing enough to keep me playing. In a game that is completely about boss fights and solid gameplay, it would have been easy for the developers to ignore the writing, but they crafted an intriguing world and characters I wanted to know more about. The backstory is there, if you look and listen closely enough to The Voice’s exposition as you walk from one boss fight to the next.

Furi’s writers did an incredible job of characterising each of The Guardians you fight in the story with such little scenes. In between every boss fight is a walking section where The Voice tells you about the upcoming Guardian, their history with you, their personality. These walking sections effectively tell you everything you need to know about the upcoming fight. The fights feel so much more personal when you learn about your opponent’s backstory why they are fighting you, and the way they behave during the fights. One of the most memorable quotes in the game was The Voice describing the personality of the 7th boss; The Burst. “On a scale of 1 to 10 she’s an 11, and she’d give herself a 12.” It’s at that point I fell in love with the writing, you immediately know everything about the type of person she is in a single line of dialogue. Personally, I loved how they set the scene of each of the bosses you were about to face.

Depending on how good of a gamer you are, Furi can be fairly short, ranging anywhere from in between 2 hours if you know exactly what you’re doing (I managed a 2 hour run on my 2nd playthrough, and that was only after practicing every boss fight at least 5 times each) to 5-7 hours. It may seem fairly short, but there is a lot of replay value; a higher difficulty mode that unlocks after finishing the story, and a dedicated speedrun mode that cuts out all the walking sections in between boss fights and cutscenes, that kept me playing long after I finished the story.

Furi is a straight out boss rush. This is a game that is nothing but 1v1 multiphase boss fights. And they are HARD. If you’re looking for a “Dark Souls difficulty” game that is nothing but intense, action packed boss fights that give you an adrenaline rush, Furi is the game you’re looking for.

You have very basic methods of attack, your katana for melee and your pistol for ranged. Individually none of these would be interesting, you can only do a basic 4 hit combo and a charged slash with the katana, and basic shots and a charged blast with the pistol. Put together however, and it’s more acceptable, if a little lacking in depth. Bosses vary enough that you’ll be using everything in your arsenal to take them down, most require a mix of melee and pistol, some focus heavily melee and one is entirely ranged only. Even though the mechanics remain the same throughout, all boss fights have distinct tactics that are unique to them and made every fight memorable.

Defensive options likewise are basic but effective. There’s a dodge move that’s used to avoid AOE attacks and ranged attacks, and a parry that blocks melee attacks. The parrying is particular satisfying, successful parries restore small bits of health, and parrying at the precise moment allows for a counter-attack. I’d recommend using a controller in this game, it’s not unplayable with kb/m, but some of the more intense bullet hell phases are infinitely easier with a controller.

The way the game handled failure was one the most interesting aspects. Being as hard as it is, you’ll naturally be dying a lot. You effectively have 3 lives. When your health depletes, you lose 1 life. You regain health, but so does the boss, and you have to repeat the current phase. Defeating a boss phase restores 1 of your lives. I liked this design because it was fair, at the very minimum you’ll always have 2 lives. This gives enough leeway to be fair but still tough; you’ll always have at least 1 life to learn the attack patterns of the current phase so you can adapt, but if you don’t you’re dead. In other words, you need to GIT GUD if you want to beat this game.

Games that are considered “Dark Souls difficulty,” in my eyes have a requirement, and that is to be hard, but fair. Furi, for 95% of the time, is hard but fair. Having S ranked every boss, I can safely say that there is nothing in Furi I would consider “♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.” Every death in the game comes from mistakes that you make, not a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ attack that a boss does. Furi had me playing over and over, even when I was getting my ass handed to me I still had a massive grin on my face, ready to give it another shot when I died and learn from my mistakes.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=830998480

Furi’s has a gorgeous art style, it’s simple yet colourful and stylish. It’s graphics are fairly basic, but the strong art direction is the selling point. Each of the levels and boss arenas of the prison have a unique aesthetic and personality, from floating rocks high in the clouds, to sandy deserts, to snowy mountaintops.

The boss designs were one of the highlights of the game, I always felt a sense of excitement to see what the boss I would be fighting next would look like. Every boss has a distinct personality that was amplified by their character design, highly stylized and memorable.

If you loved the soundtrack to Hotline Miami, you’ll definitely love the soundtrack to this game. If you recognise the names Carpenter Brut and Scattle from the aforementioned soundtrack, you’ll know what to expect from the music. Furi has a great range of synthwave tunes that match perfectly to the adrenaline fuelled gameplay. The way the music dynamically changes during each of the boss phases never got old, those close quarter fights really become more intense when the beat slows, picks up when you hit that next phase, and then climaxes when you reach the final phase. Give a listen to Danger 6:24, Wisdom of Rage, What We Fight For, Make This Right, You’re Mine, Something Memorable, You Are the End and My Only Chance. One of the best game OST’s of 2016.

Enjoyed this one from start to finish, and then some more. If you’re looking for a game that is nothing but tough as nails boss fights, Furi is the game for you. With tight, responsive gameplay, an intriguing story and a hella incredible synthwave soundtrack, Furi was a complete sleeper hit for me. One of the most underrated games of 2016.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=830998730

“The ending isn’t any more important than the moments leading to it.”

To the Moon is a story driven RPG game, developed and published by Freebird Games. You play as Dr. Watts and Dr Rosaline, employees of Sigmund Corp., a company that invented a machine that can create artificial memories by traveling through the memories of the subject. Their job is offering wish fulfilment to dying people, since implanting memories conflicts with the patient’s real memories, only people near death may request to have the procedure. Their patient today; Johnny Wyles, an old man with hours to live. His last wish; to go to the moon.

You know that scene at the start of Up where there’s the 5 minute montage of Carl and Ellie’s life from when they were kids, through their marriage, then when they were old? And it’s the saddest ♥♥♥♥ you’ve ever seen? To the Moon is almost exactly that.

I’ll say right off, if you’re not into story driven games, don’t buy this game. To the Moon is all story, and light on gameplay. If you’re looking for good characters, great dialogue and a touching narrative driven experience, go ahead and pick this one up.

With that out of the way, To the Moon is one of the most sappy, mushy emotional games I’ve ever played. And I mean that in the best way possible. To the Moon had me in tears. And if it doesn’t do the same for you, well, you’re probably just a heartless bastard. In all seriousness, this is a game that will tug on the heartstrings. This is one giant feels train and a half. The story may be a little cliché at times and some moments are a little predictable, but that didn’t stop the game from being one of the most touching gaming stories I’ve played.

One of the things that most caught me off-guard about the game was how funny some of the writing was. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game that had me tearing up in one scene, then laughing my ass off the next minute. The writing is great and although some of the humour has varying degrees of success, especially some of the pop-culture references, the vast majority of it resonated with me. “FREE PONY RIDES IN SPAAAAAACE!!!” Also, “You never cockblock someone in the middle of a Kamehameha.”

To the Moon is a short game, clocking in at around 3 to 5 hours at most. It’s undoubtedly short compared to most other story driven games, but given its price (a steal when it’s on sale) and incredible story, the length of the game is justified in my opinion. It’s a game that’s as long as it needs to be.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=638481819

Gameplay mostly consists of point and click style exploration and tile solving puzzles. To the Moon is about as minimalist as it gets without being a full-on visual novel. Whether you’re fine with that is up to your personal preference in games. Puzzles were fairly simplistic and most of the hidden objects you need to find to progress to the next scene are easy to find.

Controls were somewhat finnicky, mostly down to the fault of the engine the game was developed in. Movement and interaction with objects in the environment at times was awkward, sometimes your character won’t move at all despite on clicking the object.

Whether To the Moon is classified as an outright game or interactive entertainment is an argument for another time, but given the limitations of RPG Maker and the small indie team that developed the game, the lacking gameplay is mostly made up for. Just don’t go in expecting revolutionary game mechanics and you can get by it.

Given the limitations of RPG Maker, it's somewhat understandable that most games that use that engine are hindered graphically. “Every RPG Maker game looks the same” is a common phrase, but still one that rings true. To the Moon is no different, it’s and RPG Maker game that looks like every other RPG Maker game. It by no means looks bad, the game looks perfectly okay. The game uses what it has to work with, and from a graphics standpoint, it’s acceptable. Perhaps it could have looked a bit nicer had the game been able to run on higher resolution monitors (the game is stuck at 640x480 and locked at 30fps, something else you should take note of if that concerns you.)

The soundtrack is fantastic. The “sad piano song playing at heartwarming/sad scene” cliché is true, but the music works so well. There’s great use of leitmotifs, songs that will make you smile, songs that will make you cry. There’s so many tracks on the OST I loved, though if I were to pick the absolute highlights they would be To the Moon – Main Theme, For River, Moonwisher, Moongazer, Take Me Anywhere, Once Upon a Memory, and of course the absolute tear jerker; Everything’s Alright.

If you’re looking for a game that is guaranteed to make you cry (unless you’re a soulless bastard), To the Moon has you covered. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you might be an emotional wreck by the ending. Though it’s light on gameplay and some will debate whether it’s even a game or an interactive story, To the Moon is an incredible experience. It’s by no means perfect, far from it, but for experience you get, it’s hella worth it. A beautiful story, fantastic script and a great soundtrack, you should give this one a shot.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=95148293

“NOPE” – Amnesia: The Dark Descent achievement

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a survival horror game developed and published by Frictional Games. Amnesia acts as somewhat of a spiritual successor to Frictional’s previous titles; the Penumbra series, sharing similar themes and gameplay mechanics. Stick to your guns, right? Fortunately, Frictional know what they’re doing when it comes to making a horror game, and they do it damn well. Way too well…

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=504554624

It’s 1839. You wake up in the halls of a dark castle with no memory of how you got there. Your memory is blank. You find a note on a nearby table. Your name is Daniel. You’ve drunk a potion which has wiped your memory. The letter tells you must descend into the heart of the castle, find a man named Alexander, and kill him. Something is hunting you and it cannot be stopped. That’s pretty much the story in a nutshell and while simple, the journey to the Inner Sanctum of Brennenburg Castle and uncovering the truth and lore of the game makes for a highly compelling narrative.

Story wise, I think this is one of the most overlooked aspects of Amnesia, due to its reputation for being “Youtuber bait.” The story is pretty damn good. I’ve never really been a fan of most horror, but I absolutely love Amnesia because of its Eldritch horror inspired narrative. If you’re a fan of H.P. Lovecraft works and the like, you’ll likely enjoy Amnesia’s story. It’s a genre that’s not often explored in games, perhaps because the concepts of the genre are extremely difficult to turn into gameplay mechanics. Amnesia is one of the few games pulls it off.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=749396333

Amnesia is the game which spawned countless of imitators, but none of done the gameplay mechanics quite as well as Amnesia did. Amnesia is a dark game, literally. Staying in the dark for too long, staring at monsters or seeing unsettling events reduces your sanity. If your sanity drops too low you’re incapacitated for several seconds, helpless. Being near light restores sanity, which can be done through using your lantern or igniting light sources, both of which consume limited oil and tinderboxes respectively. However, being near light sources makes it easier for monsters to see you. You cannot fight the monsters directly, only run and hide.

On paper, Amnesia’s gameplay doesn’t sound impressive. Perhaps it’s because of the countless games that have copied Amnesia’s exact style and saturated the horror genre, but nonetheless, the gameplay loop conveys the feeling of desperation and helplessness of the player effectively. The concepts of Eldritch horror are difficult to convey through game mechanics. Incomprehensible beings that disregard the laws of nature, grotesque monsters so terrifying looking at them drives a person insane, cosmic horrors so powerful they can never be fought off. They’re classic Eldritch horror tropes, and it’s unsurprising that few games attempt to tackle the genre, but Amnesia does, and it does it convincingly.

One of the strongest aspects of the game that Amnesia doesn’t get enough attention for is the level design and pacing of the gameplay. Amnesia is called by many people as one of the scariest games ever made, and this is in large part due to the pacing of the game. Amnesia is a slow burner. The first hour and a half of the game, when put plainly, is just walking around and solving puzzles. The first actual encounter with a monster didn’t even happen for me until an hour and a half of playtime. Amnesia plays with your mind, creating atmosphere and tension rather than cheap jump scares. It builds up every encounter with its monsters to be absolutely terrifying. The lack of jump scares should be praised, Amnesia is a game that makes the player scared, not force the player to be scared.

The pacing of the levels is the reason for Amnesia’s excellent atmosphere, and where much of the tension comes from. The more you see of a monster in any film or game, the less scary it becomes. Monster encounters are placed very sparingly throughout the story, with the exception of two levels, there is usually only one or no monster encounters in a single area. By using the monsters so sparingly and having them remain unseen for large sections of the game, it plays on the player’s mind and when there finally is an encounter, it really is a terrifying experience. One of the most memorable moments for me was halfway through the game; when creeping through the sewers, you discover the corpse of one of the monsters you had been running terrified from the whole game, ripped in half by… something. It was a terrific “oh ♥♥♥♥” moment. Though honestly, that could be used to describe every moment in this game.

Puzzles I felt were one of the weaker aspects of the game. Levels are designed Metroidvania style, to progress, you need to find x, y and z, make an item and proceed to the next area. They’re fairly basic, and most of the puzzles are designed so you’re forced into monster encounters. The one aspect I did appreciate however was the way puzzles were made to be a calming process. After arguably the scariest moments in the game (the infamous water level and the prison), you are taken to a bright area with calming music, no monsters, and the only objective is to solve a basic puzzle. It was nice to see the developers recognise that in a horror game, the game needs to let the player take a breath once in a while.

Graphics wise textures are somewhat low quality, however it’s hardly noticeable thanks to the games incredible art design. Every level is unique and has its own theme, the Cellar Archives, the Prison, Chancel and Choir are notable standout levels. Despite being such a scary game, Amnesia is oddly beautiful at times. The lighting and shadows is absolutely fantastic, every area oozes with a creepy atmosphere.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=814476390

If there was one thing Amnesia excelled at, it was making the player imagine the monsters around the corner, even if there wasn’t one there. Never have I played a game that made me so hyper aware and paranoid of everything around me. If you do play this game, you NEED to play it at night with in a dark room. The sound design is phenomenal, from the general ambience to the sound cues of a monster right around the corner, it is one of the most atmospheric game I’ve played.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent was arguably the game that kickstarted the popularity of the modern first person horror games, spawning countless imitators. Few of them managed to capture what really makes those games work, but Amnesia does thanks to its excellent level design, sound design and compelling story. It is exceptionally well crafted horror game, especially when you consider it was made by a team of EIGHT developers who only ever met once during the games development. Amnesia is the king of the first person horror. If you’re into Eldritch horror stories, or horror games in general, Amnesia is a must own.

“Well, at least we can all agree the third one's always the worst.” Jean Grey, X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Batman: Arkham Origins is the 3rd entry in the Batman franchise, a prequel to Asylum. Notably, Origins was not developed by the original developers Rocksteady, instead it was made by WB Games Montréal. And oh boy, does it show.

Set 5 years before Asylum, Origins portrays a young Batman who has yet to become the superhero vigilante. The thugs and criminals are afraid of him, the police even more so. On Christmas Eve, a hit is put on the Dark Knight by Black Mask. $50 million for the head of Batman, with 8 supervillains competing with each other for the bounty. It could have been neat story, but Origins falls apart in its execution and gameplay.

The first part is the believability of the story. Batman has not met any major villains, yet in one night, goes up against the Joker, Bane, the Riddler, Penguin, Black Mask, Killer Croc, and the Riddler. Not to mention the other B-D list villains such as Electrocutioner, Copperhead, Shiva, Mad Hatter, Deathstroke, Firefly and Deadshot. It’s unbelievable that Batman encountered every one of them for the first time in the same night, much less beat them all.

Origins’ story lacks any tension. We all know that Batman will survive, we all know the fates of nearly all the characters. Origins is an unnecessary game, because we already know what’s going to happen. There are prequels that still told compelling story, adding to the story rather than detracting from it, (Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood are great examples) but Origins does not. It’s telling an origins story we already know the ending to, and is an unnecessary addition to the franchise.

The most obvious example of this lack of tension comes near the end of the game. Bane, having discovered Batman’s secret identity as Bruce Wayne, goes to Wayne Manor and seemingly kills Alfred. It’s worst parts of the story because we already know how it ends. Alfred isn’t dead, Bane doesn’t know Batman’s secret identity in the later games, it’s an utterly useless plot point.

The only scenes I found myself enjoying were the ones with Joker. Though I still wish he hadn’t been the main villain yet again, especially after that bait and switch (IT WAS ME ALL ALONG), he’s the most entertaining part of the game. The moment where he meets Batman for the first time (the best scene in the game), watching Batman come to grips with his yet to be nemesis, those segments were easily the most interesting parts of the story. The rest of the story is a convoluted mess, too many villains and no sense of direction.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=781433080

Origins is one of the few games I’ve played where the core gameplay actually got worse. It still uses the Freeflow combat system, but something felt… off. Timing is irregular, where in previous games there was a consistent rhythm to the combat, it’s completely absent from Origins. Animations are janky, there’s a distinct lack of polish. The new gadgets are uninteresting and there are no new moves, whereas City greatly expanded the combat variety that Asylum was lacking, Origins copies the combat of City, and somehow made it worse.

Worst of all are the visibility issues when it comes to differentiating enemies. Handling Brutes (the big armoured enemies you needed to stun first) was important in City, you had to keep an eye out for them or risk losing your combo. In Origins, Brutes are near indistinguishable from common thugs, where in City you could spot them instantly even in the heat of combat due to their distinctive armour and larger stature, the same can’t be said for Origins.

On the subject of reused features, the entire ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ map of City is reused. There are minor differences (5 year time gap), but when half of the map in Origins has been an area identical to the previous game, it feels like such a lazy design choice, as if the developers couldn’t come up with any original ideas. Given how much Origins borrows from City, they could have at least made a whole new map, instead of reusing half of Gotham and calling it twice as big as the previous game. Origins feels like a cheap knockoff compared to the previous two games, it copies the same mechanics and does nothing new. Mad Hatter missions play like worse versions of the Scarecrow bits in Asylum, “new” gadgets are just the same ones but under a different name. It’s the same… but worse.

And the boss fights are awful. Though the bosses in Asylum were weak, City showed that the Arkham games could make creative bosses, from the spectacle of the Ra’s al Ghul fight to the hide and seek game with Mr. Freeze, which at the time was one of the most creative boss fights I’d played. The bosses in Origins for comparison are laughably bad. Remember that Poison Ivy fight in Asylum? All the bosses are essentially that. You beatdown the boss for a bit, perform a QTE counter, use a specific gadget when they’re vulnerable, then repeat the exact same sequence over and over until they’re dead. EVERY boss uses this same formula, and every single fight feels anticlimactic because of it.

The only new feature I enjoyed in Origins was the newly improved crime scene investigations. While in previous games, investigating crime scenes boiled down to “scan for the highlighted object and follow the trail,” Origins expands on that idea by allowing you to rewind time and recreate the crime as it happened, and look for clues at specific instances. It still is the same idea for the most part, but is more involving than walking around and scanning the area, and was a nice addition.

Oddly enough, Origins looks graphically worse than its predecessor. If I were to guess why, it would come down to the art design of the game. Previous Arkham games had a very strong art direction and had a surprisingly good use of colour. Asylum and City were colourful games, and to this day they still look great. Origins in comparison lacks the strong art direction, and it’s noticeable. The game looks flat, has terrible lighting, too much grey and brown. It’s not a visually appealing game. It may be my imagination, but the textures looked worse on max settings compared to City. Just look at Killer Croc in City compared to Origins, and you might see what I mean.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=386749054

I can’t remember a single song. It’s not like the Arkham games had bad music either, Asylum and City had some memorable tunes, but there didn’t seem to be any recurring leitmotifs in Origins.

Voice acting ranged from mediocre to bad, notably Batman and the Joker have different voice actors this time round. Mark Hamill will always be the true Joker, but Troy Baker does a fairly good job of playing a younger version. At the very least, you have to respect his impressive range, even if it does feel like he’s chasing Hamill’s spotlight here. The rest of voice cast is bland and uninspiring, especially Batman’s replacement.

Batman: Arkham Origins plays like a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ cover of a great song. This is not the game you need, nor the one you deserve. If you really want more of City you may be interested, but with an uninspired main story, recycled map and game mechanics, Origins does little to innovate. A blatant cash grab and completely skippable.

“Your parents are dead, and I can’t stop laughing!”

Batman: Arkham Knight is the 4th and final entry in the Batman: Arkham franchise, developed by Rocksteady, who developed the first two games in the series, Asylum and City. After the incredibly disappointing Origins, the final game is back in the hands of the original developers, and ready to “be the Batman” as it were.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807596872

Set one year after Arkham City, the plot begins with now main villain Scarecrow teaming up with all of Batman’s greatest foes, Two Face, Penguin, the Riddler, Harley Quinn and the newly introduced Arkham Knight. Scarecrow forces a mass evacuation of Gotham after threatening to unleash his new fear toxin on the entire city, and now the streets of Gotham are ruled by thugs and criminals. It’s the standard comic book Batman storyline, and would have been a rather average story if not for the inclusion of a particular character, who singlehandedly carries the entire game.

MAJOR BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY SPOILERS.The Joker is in Arkham Knight, despite his death at the end of City. Rather than being the main antagonist this time, he is the voice inside Batman’s head, after he was infected with Joker’s blood in the previous game. Throughout the entire game, Joker appears as hallucinations in Batman’s mind, taunting him and messing with his head. Unlike in Origins, where the inclusion of the Joker felt like “more of this again?” the Joker’s role in the story here is arguably his best appearance in the Arkham franchise. Every scene with him is absolutely fantastic and memorable, thanks to his voice acting (Mark Hamill, the one true Joker) and excellent script. The Joker single handedly saves the game from its mediocre story, Mark Hamill carries the game. That music number scene may be one of the best Joker scenes ever.

Outside of the spoiler character mentioned above, the rest of the villains were disappointingly utilised. Unlike City, where secondary villains (Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Ra's al Ghul, Harley Quinn) were integrated seamlessly into the main plotline, most of the villains are treated as afterthoughts and dealt with in secondary missions, with the exception of Harley, who gets her own fantastic section in the story. It was disappointing to see most encounters with these villains end up with you doing the same side mission over and over until you finally catch them.

Honestly, most of my complaints with the story is due to its weak main villains, Scarecrow and the Arkham Knight. The Scarecrow sections in Asylum were some of the most memorable, and arguably the best parts of that game. Here, Scarecrow doesn’t have the charisma or interesting personality of the Joker to stand as the main antagonist of the game. He puts on a menacing voice, threatens Batman everywhere he goes, but when you actually meet him in the game, he runs away with a “I’ll get you next time Batman!” Arkham Knight on the other hand is so laughably incompetent through the story, it’s cringeworthy. In nearly every scene where he has Batman cornered, he will walk out of the room and leave his militia to deal with Batman, who surprise surprise, deals with them with ease. Even more laughable was the way the Arkham Knight was introduced as a new character, when anyone who even knew a little bit about the comics would be able to guess his identity straight away.

Overall, the story isn’t bad, but it doesn’t go out with the bang it should have. My comparison would be the game is like The Dark Knight Rises to The Dark Knight, it’s not as good as the previous title, but it’s still okay overall. And it’s infuriating that you need to 100% the entire game (which means all Riddler trophies too) to get the true ending. Don’t. Do. That. ♥♥♥♥.

If you’ve played any of the previous games, you’ll know how to play this one. The Freeflow combat system is still the same and satisfying as ever, easy to learn, while still able to provide a fair challenge, especially in the late game. Unlike Origins which was a step down, did nothing new and had arguably worse combat than City, Knight’s combat feels like a natural evolution, while still being familiar. There is more emphasis on utilizing gadgets in combat, where in previous titles it was rarely necessary, Knight adds new enemies which require the use of gadgets to safely defeat. I felt this change was for the better, fights now require paying attention to certain types of enemies instead of button pressing from one to the other.

The inclusion of Dual Play was a nice inclusion. In certain parts of the game, you can play as two characters, where you switch from Batman to Catwoman/Nightwing/Robin mid-combat. The ability to play as those characters was nice for a change, and gave a lot of spice to the combat, particularly the Batman/Catwoman missions, where both characters could only attack a certain type of enemy. It’s far from innovative, but it was a nice addition.

Rather disappointingly was the reduced amount of investigation scenes. While they were never complex, searching an area for clues and reconstructing crime scenes was always a neat feature in the previous Arkham games, bringing out the detective side of Batman. There’s far less of them in Knight than previous games, which is shame since I thought they did a good job of making the player feel like Batman.

Probably the most controversial addition to the game was the Batmobile. While the Batmobile was fun to drive around in and battle with, it became FAR too overused in the story. The first 3 drone battles were cool, the next 30 were not. Somehow, they even have you doing pseudo stealth with it. More bizarrely, some Riddler missions now have you driving timed races with the damned thing. Even worse is the way the game forces you to use it for more than half of the main story. It was infuriating when the final fight with two main villains ended with a tank battle, rather than a proper boss fight. It could have been a neat addition to the game, but it far outstays its welcome.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807595053

Graphically, it’s hella impressive, one of the best looking games on the market. Despite its disastrous launch, the game runs well now, for the most part. On an i5-4460, GTX 970, 8GB RAM, I maintained 70-80+ fps consistently when maxed out. However, driving around in the Batmobile will make your game stutter worse than King George VI. Just keep those NVIDIA effects off.

Artistically, Knight returns to the style of the first 2 games. While Origins looked drab and boring, the Arkham games always were surprisingly colourful, and Knight is a return to form in that regard. The character designs are fantastic, Scarecrow in particular, looks suitably menacing.

The soundtrack was average, outside of the main theme no song jumped out at me outside of the Joker’s song. What did jump though out at me was the reuse of songs from Asylum and City, even when it made no sense in the context. Perhaps they should have gotten Hans Zimmer to score at least one Arkham game.

Voice acting was fantastic, a return to form after the average Origins.

If you enjoyed the previous Arkham games, you’ll probably enjoy this one too, though City is still the best. Though the game is let down by its average villains and overuse of the Batmobile, the improved combat, impressive graphics and return to form after the awful Origins makes this worth picking up if you liked Asylum and City.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807596042

“Olly olly oxen free is a phrase used in children's games, which is generally used to indicate that people who are hiding can safely come out into the open.”

Oxenfree is a supernatural coming of age mystery adventure game, the debut title developed and published by Night School Studio. You play as Alex, teenaged girl who brings her new step-brother Jonas along to a night-time party on Edwards Island, an old decommissioned military island. As the night goes on, Alex and her group of friends soon find out not everything on the island is as it seems, and soon things take an ominous turn.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=670484735

The story is the selling point of the game. Oxenfree plays out like a cross between Until Dawn and Life is Strange, with the eerie atmosphere and tense moments, and the coming of age characters and story of the latter. If you enjoyed any of those two games, you may like this one. Oxenfree is driven entirely by its story, if you’re not interested in a heavily story based game, this isn’t for you. Indeed, much of the games backstory and lore comes from player exploration. If you’re not actively looking to solve the mystery behind the story being told or paying attention to character dialogue, you’ll likely get lost in what’s happening. With that said, if you enjoy a good mystery adventure game with a teenage cast and creepy atmosphere, Oxenfree delivers on both those fronts.

The game wears its supernatural thriller inspirations proudly, both the story and dialogue harken back to the 80’s/90’s when teen horror movies were at all-time peak popularity. Not to say Oxenfree is an outright horror game, far from it. It’s closer to The Shining, with more psychological horror and eerie atmospherics than outright jump scares (though the few are in the game will likely make you jump.) There are some seriously clever “mind screw” moments that reminded me of Undertale, from small things like messing with the interface, to a completely different scene playing on my second playthrough when I chose the exact same dialogue choice on my first playthrough.

Dialogue was a strong point throughout, the conversations between characters never felt unnatural or forced. The characters were believable, even if they were somewhat tropey. You have the protagonist Alex; the carefree teenage girl, Jonas; the introverted shy kid on the block, Ren; the stoner dude, Nona; the smart chick and Clarissa; the popular-at-school but ♥♥♥♥♥♥ teen girl. The roles of these characters have been done to death a thousand times over, you’ve seen them in just about every coming of age movie. Even though they might not be the most original cast of characters, the banter between them and the developing relationships you have with them throughout the game felt genuine and believable, and it was the interactions and changing relationships with all the different characters that drew me in. All your choices matter, both from the way you talk to certain characters to the major decisions you make throughout, and by the end, your decisions will matter, big or small.

While being a fairly short game at around 6 hours, without mentioning spoilers, there is benefit to be had of a second playthrough, that goes beyond selecting other choices. Honestly, calling it a second playthrough wouldn’t give it justice, there’s so much new content on a second run that it plays like a natural continuation of the story, rather than a rerun of what you’ve already played. I’d highly recommend playing through the game a second time if you enjoyed the game. It’s a short story, but a very compelling one.

Similar to Telltale style games, Oxenfree’s dialogue system uses the same point and click styled dialogue choices that are set on a timer. What made Oxenfree’s dialogue between the characters so enjoyable was the way it was presented. There are no “cutscenes” or “conversation nodes,” almost all the dialogue between the characters is done while walking from place to place. It feels natural, and the way your dialogue options are presented is one of the games strongest points.

As far as the actual gameplay loop is concerned, it plays much like every other heavily dialogue based story game; you walk from area to area, select highlighted objects for dialogue and puzzle solving, and converse with other characters at the same time. The game doesn’t do anything truly innovative in the gameplay department, but being such a small-scale game and debut title, its fairly understandable.

Your radio is the primary means of puzzle solving throughout the game, and is much more than a problem solving magic wand. Like I mentioned before, much of the lore and backstory of the game is hidden as secrets throughout the island, which you very much should look for if you want to understand the underlying mystery of the plot. The game never forces you to look for these secrets, you’ll most likely want to if you want to understand the hidden backstory. Perhaps it’s somewhat of a negative point that this information is somewhat hidden from the player by default, but if you’re playing for the story, you’d be most likely be the type of gamer looking for secrets and hidden clues anyway.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=687307769

While remaining fairly minimalist, Oxenfree is certainly a pretty looking game. It’s art style oozes atmosphere, player immersion plays an important role in the quality of story based games, and Oxenfree very much succeeds in immersing the player in the game. The hand drawn art style graphics of the game is gorgeous and pretty to look at, while still being able to communicate to the player exactly where to go and what objects in the environment are usable. It very much reminded me of Transistor in many ways, with the way the games blended their fantastic artwork into a cohesive gameplay environment. The supernatural effects are fantastic, a lot of work went into making them feel otherworldly and it shows. The game nails the horror/thriller movie atmosphere it was going for, thanks to the excellent art direction.


Like many horror movies and thrillers, Oxenfree’s soundtrack mostly comprises of ambient and atmospheric tracks that serve to accompany the eerie ambience of the game. The closest I can describe the music in the game is electronic trance. Oddly calming, the soundtrack makes for a pretty good “study playlist” set of songs, my personal highlights off the soundtrack being Beacon Beach, Epiphany Fields and Towhee Grove.

Oxenfree is a short but compelling story driven experience that plays like a cross between Until Dawn and Life is Strange. If you liked either of those titles, and/or you enjoy mystery exploration games with a dab of psychological horror and eerie atmospheric gameplay, you may want to give this one a shot. Worth checking out.

http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=806970116