Recent reviews by Chet Walters

Excellent game, with excellent music. Controls are pretty great too. The graphics are top notch, and the story can be pretty hilarious at times. If you like 80s stuff and music, you will love it even more.

The game has bugged difficulty, in which neither Easy, nor Standard, difficulty will be easy at all. Instead, you are swarmed by a super-aggressive A.I. Easy mode here seems a lot harder than the hardest difficulty setting in the old AoE. Development team has not had any intresst in fixing this issue (and the game crashes) since the release of the game, thus making this product both broken and basically abandonware.

I am an Age of Empires veteran. Been playing the game since the first day it came out, and I grew up with this. The graphics and sounds in DE are nice. The overall presentation is pretty awesome. But difficulty alone completely breaks the game and makes it quite literally unplayable.

I recommend you save your hard-earned money for something better, and not waste it on a broken product made by a team who are only after quick and easy cash. Without giving you any support. The choice is ultimately yours however. You've been warned.

Verdict: Definite Edition is definitely crap.

PROS
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+ Truly impressive graphics that run on 60 fps on my really low-end computer as well
+ Fantastic horror atmosphere and lighting effects
+ Genious and simple gameplay
+ Very responsive and easy to use controls
+ Awesome abilities
+ Brilliant level design, which gives puzzles that sometimes may look complicated, but
due to level design, become simple

CONS
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- Sometimes one dies too easily. Not often, but it happens.
- I think that some special abilities are way too cool, but usually have limited use for only puzzles, because energy is depleted so quickly.
- Music too silent maybe? Game felt mostly mute to me?

DIFFICULTY
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Varies. But balanced, once you use your tools correctly.

SCORE: 10/10
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John Carpenter would be proud. I sat hooked on this game until I beat it. The story is so good, and gameplay so addicting and awesome.

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PROS
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- Intressting weapons
- Intressting weapon/shield designs
- Awesome Level Up system
- Nice ambient lighting

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CONS
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- Game is over the top difficult. And I really mean, over the top difficult. Even with preparations, and proper leveling, you will still get demolished for no reason at all.
- Not all level skills are very helpful.
- Black border around objects, which is supposed to make the game look like a cartoon, is hard on the eyes. Especially on low-end computers.
- Extremly crude, cruel, and heartless comments/behaviour throughout the game, in an attempt to make humor out of it. I, personally, find it highly distasteful.
- Once you fight for your life (about to lose your life), the enemies either hide behind spots where you can't shoot them, or they hide behind enemies with HP too big to take down with your weapons in such a short time.
- You'll often struggle with controlling your own character. The controls feel very sluggish and unpolished.
- You can neither hide, nor outrun most of enemies. And it's a bit bad, since all enemies have perfect aim. You just end up dying instead. Especially when they start to swarm you.

Overall: 6 / 10
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As a gamer, difficulty is important aspect of a well designed game; a progressive difficulty to help player learn to play the game, and give proper challenge. I don't mind challenging games, but I do mind over the top hard games. The difference is that hard games, unlike challenging games, give unproportional benefits to the enemy in the game, wether they be strength, durability, behaviour of AI, and fiddling with game mechanics... hard games abuse the latter, on purpose, to infuriate the gamer. This is one of those games. Sadly. Because it has a great system, great weapon design and variety. It's just a bad game and bad controls.

Intressting game mechanics don't make up for a good game. Controls frequently fail you, and your leveling won't help you that much. You are required to loot gear in heavy grinding, in order to have any chance at all with the game progress. Unless you want to grind your own teeth to dust and lose hair in frustration. The game is probably more enjoyable in multiplayer where you as a team can take advantage of each others team bonuses, but overall... in the end... experience is the same. Not to mention the fact the devs made this game insanely hard on purpose, and were bragging about it. Why do that, I'll never know. A good game should give you a good time. Lost potential if you ask me.

Jedi Outcast bot play is exceptionally difficult to the point of absolute stupidity. Bots don't really need to even initiate a hit for you to be hit, while you will break a sweat actually landing 1 stinking hit on a bot. It's not about skill. I have JKA and I win multiple bots in saber combat, with reasonable amount of difficult. In Jedi Outcast - I play vs Initiate (easiest), and can't even land a single hit. But they, for some magical reason can break through my every defence. Avoid this game, because of poorly coded A.I and hitboxes.

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PROS
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- Brilliant 8-bit graphics and animations
- Music is good and actually makes sense compared to earlier installment
- Great character roster and character abilities
- Pretty decent controlls (save for crouching attack, and switching direction you face while crouching. Not very possible and it can cost you entire lives, this function alone).
- Very nice new way of getting lives where score is omitted; you have one bar, which you fill up. When it's full, you earn 1-UP. Very nice addition, because no one cares about score points. They're just messy and don't give you overview when you can expect to get a 1-UP. This has been fixed in a very creative manner.
- Level backgrounds and general locations feel more Castlevania this time around, and are so very very welcome. Truly everything, in this aspect, is top notch.
- The enemies make more sense. They look less like aliens, and more like demons this time.
- Overall presentation is very charming. I like the characters action when you are shown at map screen. They all do different stuff, depending what kind of level they've been through. Makes game feel more alive.
- Beautiful user interface. Truly. When you pause, you can get character tips of your current character, and how to use your current sub-weapon. But often, the text scroll speed is far to quick to read. And you really can't switch manually for next tip, which would have been a big bonus, instead of having to pause/unpause all the time.

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CONS
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- EXTREMLY Difficult. Oh boy... let's talk about this game's ludicrous difficult. I'm gonna break it into sections, because honestly, I think and feel that the developers and IGA himself need to take a real good look at it. Don't let chapter 1 fool you, because soon after you've completed it, the game is getting exponentially harder. And no, it doesn't really matter what game mode you play "CASUAL", "VETERAN" or "LEGENDARY"... there is no middle ground. The game is extremly difficult. Veteran and Legendary just make it exponentially worse.
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Boss fights
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The boss fights are an absolute mess, requiring you to have pixel perfection of your jumps. Sometimes, you won't even be able to dodge at ALL (lava boss anyone?), and other times you are attacked from so many places/directions at once, in such speed, and in such angles that any hope of evasion is impossible. This is even worsened if you do not have a certain character and/or powerup, that makes a battle completely impossible to beat. (Lava boss, anyone?) Think you know tacticts of a boss? Think again, because they may change tactic to completely mess up all your planning. Not that it will ever matter to begin with.
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Level layouts
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Level layout is filled with annoying death traps, where one little hit will insta-kill you. This especially true in later levels, close to end game. There will be moments in the game which will require you to be on tiny moving platforms, where miscalculating your jumps is so extremly easy to do, which will ofcourse result in you getting killed. This is even worsened with the fact that just as you think you have made a jump, there was a quick shooting projectile enemy just outside your field of view, waiting for you to make that jump, so he can shoot you down and kill you in 1 shot. Final levels are filled with that. In fact, they are ENTIRELY made up with heart-stopping, pixel perfection death traps that gives player no breathing room whatsoever. There is no rest, nor change of pace. It's EXTREME. Even your checkpoints when you've come far and get killed, you will be respawned at the most annoying locations where you will have to re-do ALL the pixel perfect jumps/death traps again.
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Enemy attack angles
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Some enemies and some enemy tactic is to attack you from angles that you can't protect yourself from. You MAY, MAYBE, have a sub-weapon to deal with it... but when playing through the game for 1st time, and don't know what to expect and don't have such a sub-weapon... what happens?... Exactly. Even if you have played through it, and you don't have proper weapon, you are pretty much as good as dead. Veteran or newbie alike.
Now that difficulty has been somewhat covered, let's continue the list.
- Amount of levels are few. Seriously, why tho? You did well enough with the art and ideas,why not more levels? And you expect players to have 7-8 levels to re-play through as 4 different chapters?
- There is no CRT effect video filter mode. Even though people really like it, and game claims to be a throwback to the old-school games. You can't feel more old-school than CRT effect. It's not in the difficulty, it's in the presentation and overall feel of the game.
- The game supports 2 players, but the 2nd player MUST have a controller. Even on online coop/remote play, the one joining me MUST have a controller. Now why is that?
- I can't rebind my keys. ESC should be pause, but it's not. It MUST be "P" on my keyboard. Why can't I change that?
- The homepage is more informative about the product than the actually manual you PAID for. And it STILL doesn't tell you about game modes or how to start coop modes online.

FINAL VERDICT AND OVERALL SCORE: 4/10
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The game looks beautiful, with many and compelling characters, along with a decent storyline. But the gameplay and level layout is so unforgiving that it renders the game unplayable. I like to take it easy when playing games, i.e, use it as entertainment and relax my mind. However, "Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2"'s difficulty, completely kills the atmoshphere it builds up. At least to me. It feels like a painstaking work that rewards nothing, and doesn't give you anything to look forward to. I just feel... "Oh no.. not this again. More?" throughout the entire game. I have been a fan of Castlevania series for 31 years (so yeah I'm an old-school gamer), and I have Loved most of IGA's work. We all know he changed face of Castlevania forever, with titles such as Symphony of the Night.. and quite frankly, knowing his background in this, and following it intimatelly, I have expected that someone like him would have had a clear understanding of what makes a good game and what's not. This game, to me, goes hands down as the greatest gaming disappointment of 2020. Maybe because I liked previous installment and Castlevania series so much, and also the fact that I have a deep faith in IGA and was so happy that he got to do what he wanted to do, the way he envisioned it, after that turbulence with Konami, do I feel this game to be such a huge slap in the face for me, as a fan and long-time player/gamer. I can only hope that the developers can take in, and fix some of the issues that are present in the game. They truly did an outstanding work with everything else, that I personally think they should fix these issues as they overshadow all their efforts and hard work. Failing that... If the next game doesn't change any of this, I will not support or follow IGA's future work and projects. I see no reason to.

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PROS
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* Addictive gameplay - Soccer meets racing - the idea is fantastic, and you can play with your friends!

* Beautiful levels - seriously, the level design and effects of this game are usually top notch. It feels very sporty, and techy. There are also changes of daytime and weather too.

* Highly customizable cars - you can change almost anything about your car: the body, the paint, stickers, the texture of the paint and stickers, antenna, wheels, hats, sound, goal effect... you name it. As you progress, you will unlock more customization stuff. To add to this, you can customize your cars specifically for blue/orange team. Like the car you made? Save it as a preset, and name it. Then you can create new preset and create a new car. You can choose between presets as long as you are not engaging in the game itself.

* Customizeable Settings - You can choose teams, create your own (and also create your own club), lenth of match, change physics of the ball, and even create your own tutorial training programs. The game is truly rich in how you can tinker with it.

* Save replays - Played a good match? Save it as a replay and re-watch anytime you want!

* Nice graphics - nuff' said!


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CONS
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* Extreme steep learning curve - Learning how to handle your car, especially in fast paced multiplayer games, is a must. And it is NOT easy.

* The A.I is an absolute idiot - Seriously. You can play on easiest (Rookie) difficulty with A.I, and your own team mates will very often either betray you, sabotage you (blocking you/ramming you from shooting in the opponent goal and/or carry the ball to their own goal), or not do a squat... while opposing team A.I will play as experts and show you no mercy. This becomes extremly tedious and infuriating - because as a team, you are supposed to be able to trust that your team mates can handle the challenge. I haven't seen such absolute garbage, poorly and sloppy made A.I since the early 90's 2-D Mortal Kombat games. Make no mistake: playing with your A.I team YOU will be the one sweating and doing all the work. Even on easiest, your team mates will just be extra luggage to you, as they are countering most of your moves and plans. It's basically like you are playing alone vs 2 teams - the other and your own A.I teammates. It is not just extremly tedious as I mentioned before, but in the long run... it becomes extremly depressing. Seriously, why do that?

* Multiplayer is pure murder for beginners - tired of single player and want to try out multiplayer? Get ready to hit the floor. You really can't hook up with anyone with your level of skill on quick play, and will very frequently get floored and demolished by pro players, many who just love to gloat of scoring a goal. Watch your career stats go to hell in just a few matches online.

* The game is extremly unstable - Yep. You heard it. Not only does it take ages to load up (and exit), but if you are saving replays of your games, there is a high probability that your car presets, and even your career stats, get completely eradicated. There is no way to recover your data, and this is STILL not patched! (WHY??)

* Too much pay-to-get content - One of the cool aspects of this game is being able to customize your car, ranging from wheels, looks, to effects when scoring. However, this game is pure money milker when it comes to getting content. There are too many intressting premium content, which are highly overpriced (like buying a dragon goal-score effect for 9 Euros, when Doom64, and entire game, costs 1,5 Euros). In the game, you may also obtain blueprints... which are blueprints for rare items for your car. And even though you may have worked very hard to obtain a blue print, you will STILL have to actually pay real money to build an usable item of that blueprint you obtained. To add to the insult, the free content you recieve is usually just junk.


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OVERALL SCORE: 7.9/10
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The game is highly addicting, with a truly winning concept. But the drawbacks are truly withholding the game to reach and live up to its full potential. The A.I is just plain stupid (seriously devs, FIX THIS), the game is unstable (and STILL not fixed!), and there are no balanced online match pairing. You will more often be fighting pros who have played this game for years, and they'll have your entire career stat crushed to dust in just a few matches.

Also there's plenty of truly epic content, which your wallet and life priorities will more likely not allow you to purchase. Is this game worth it? Up to you really. If you really can play this game online any time, and you enjoy playing with others... go for it. But be prepared for some really hard time. If you are a solo player (like myself), the game can be quite a burdain...*insert Captain Picard facepalm meme here*

Anyhow, the game is quite good, but it needs major improvements. The drawbacks aren't many, but a couple are really really SO annoying that, in all fairness and truth, it's literally depressing just thinking about it. Fun to play with friends tho!

Offendron Warrior is a nice throwback to old shooter games from the 80s, with beautiful graphics, sound and presentation. But in the end, it doesn't add up. Here are my thoughts:

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PROS
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- Fantastic old school graphics
- Great idea
- Excellent presentation
- Awesome that you can shift between two forms to suit your needs
- I really dig the laser color in this game. Seriously.
- You can set how many lives you have from the start.

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CONS
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- The game is TOO FAST. WAY TOO FAST. Despite that you got two forms you won't be able to maneuver through enemy fire.
- Enemy attack pattern always attack at your weakest angles, and in such speed that you can't outrun or defend yourself from them.
- You will die. A lot. And way too quickly to make this game any fun at all.
- Too many enemies can spawn at once, and even though you do have a bomb to wipe out everything on screen, there are enemies that will burst into tiny pieces upon death, which home at you with great speed. Escape is near impossible.
- Due to such extremly fast pace, it is veeeery hard saving the inhabitants - if not impossible at moments.
- No matter the amount of lives you select at game start, they won't help you even a bit. They only slightly delay the inevitable: you are made to lose, no matter what.
- The game is TOO FAST.

OVERALL SCORE: 5/10
An excellent idea with great presentation which is absolutely destroyed and devastated by the shere difficulty of playing it. You can't escape, despite your two forms... Your weapons are useless and fail you, as even in death some opponents will home in on you in such speed you can't escape. And you die. You're simply not equipped for the missions ahead, Attacks occur so quick you can't defend citizens, or yourself. I've always concidered good games to be ones you can have fun with. This is not one of them. My recommendation? Stay away. Either until a sequel comes which improves upon original design, or a patch that fixes all of this. But it is unlikely.

This game is just so fun to play. Not only is the graphics great and the sounds, but also controlling the chopter is rather easy. I highly recommend this for any retro gamer. Well done developer! Looking forward to your next release!

I'm not a huge fan of Borderlands games, and never will be. Because it's pretty much psychotic and the joke's are crude. But this is a good game. Here's why:

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PROS
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- FPS in space, one of my favourite genres
- Easier than it's insanely over-the-top-difficult predecessor Borderlands 2. This game can actually be ENJOYED in single player mode
- New oxygen system which makes the game a lot intressting,
it works as air supply, and also as a boost to some special moves. How you use it is up to you, and it can be
very strategic.
- There actually ARE funny jokes and events (!) in this one, unlike in Borderlands 2

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CONS
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- Boring abilities
- The story is so and so. Still better than Borderlands 2 though.
- Not enough variety in level looks and design, as in Borderlands 2

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FINAL VERDICT: 8/10
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Superior to Borderlands 2 in nearly every aspect. The single player can really be enjoyed. And I do mean enjoyed. But the abilities are not too fun to play with. I personally don't think they give you enough edge over the enemy. Feels like the bonuses stack up doing nothing, instead that you really can tweak your character into a beast, any way you want it. But it might be just me.