Recent reviews by JonJoin

Quite honestly, I've had a ton of fun playing classic Halo CE with graphics at 60 FPS. Which is really all I could ask for, having paid full price when this port came out almost a year ago. I could say some minor gripes about audio mixing being weird at launch, handling feeling weird for KB+M (noticed some bits about auto-aim/magnetic bullets)...honestly, it's livable for me.

However, me and some of the old friends were really hyped to try and play the campaigns in co-op together, and having to go into XBox Live Networking settings and *hoping* your PC/router/network was going to set your NAT Type properly to Open led to mixed results - me and one person would get it, another buddy was stuck in Strict and he'd essentially have to debug Teredo and his router to figure out how to get his NAT Type to open.

Any idea what NAT Type is? Exactly. We're doing IT work to basically play a AAA game together.

The campaigns remain fun enough for anyone who grew up with the lore and/or wants to get a sense of how this game changed the face of the FPS genre and the console side of the industry. But anyone getting this for co-op? A year or so into the PC port and your more honest bet for actual co-op will be waiting for COVID to end/get sorted, getting one of your buddies with an XBox One (or whatever this originally was released on), and *maybe* scheduling a weekend for everyone to fly all the buddies back in to actually finish the fight.

Buying this hasn't (and likely) won't change that, unless you're one of the lucky ones.

Writing this a month or so after initially running through the game cos I hope more people get a chance to check this one out, though I do wish there was more of a "Recommend/Don't Recommend with a very huge and sharp caveat" because I feel this could go either way.

Unrelated to the game itself, but I only really heard about this game from a Sunday Papers article on Rock Paper Shotgun linking to Nico Tuason's blog post chronicling his 10 years as an indie developer up to around the release of the game (a great read even if it kind of left me a bit sad at the end, linked here[nicotuason.com]).

As such, I went in knowing this game is *super* short since in the article he describes compromising on the original scope and just polishing up on just a few levels.

And holy crap, were these few levels fun. There's not much distraction in the way of explicit story and it's just great visual and audio over some fun and well-polished mechanics and level design, the best feeling of Hotline Miami mechanics plus a bit of puzzle and playing around with a new mechanic in each level to keep it all fresh. The visual style just looks super-cool and John Camara's tracks just work with it all so well.

Soundtrack alone is worth a fiver to listen to out of game, by the way. The sequence of "Footsteps," "Sidesteps," and "Spikes" are just really good techno-y tracks with super-catchy melody lines. "Hotline" shamelessly references its inspiration while being distinctly its own as part of the soundtrack, particularly that one motif I'll call the "rising ringing" sound.

All that being said - it is a *very* short game, and as mentioned in prior reviews, as of writing, the very last boss does spike in difficulty A LOT and is very different to the rest of the game to a point where it did kind of detract from the rest of the experience. It's a great and atmospheric fight where the excitement escalates with each stage, but it kind of wears on ya (especially if you're kinda getting up there in gamer years and you're not nearly as fast as you were with Hotline Miami (1) at release D-:).

As of writing, the developer has announced completing the remaining planned chapters, and I do really hope he gets a chance to work 'em in with as much polish n love as these were (last battle kinda still needing tweaking). It's a very crowded market in the sub-$10 range and while *I* think $8 is totally fine for what we do get, I can definitely see this definitely being a sticking point for people using "hour-per-dollar" logic (especially if they *are* better than me).

Nevertheless, this is still a stupendous recommendation for people after something indie that's (for the most part) an exemplar how you polish up a few levels into visual/audio/mechanical gold.

Unrelated to the actual game and something of a disclaimer: I am Filipino-American and a (software) developer myself, and learning up front that Nico's from the Philippines from the article is what really got me checking out the game, and I'm so glad I did. Really hoping for the next few chapters and that this maybe inspires the indie scene back in the mother's country. :-) Maraming salamat po, Nico!

A BioShock "novella" - self-contained plot, excellent level design and satisfying combat in the space of only a few hours of play, no bloat. Excellent, whether you know anything of or have played the series before or not

Interactive late-night thought stimulator, not quite a game of systems, moreso a beautiful example of games in shortform--beat poetry for our usual, super-adorned and over-budgeted epics. Very George Saunders, not as much David Lynch (surreal yet not really grotesque or terrifying on any level), altogether an audiovisual treat of poetry.

A sense of curiosity and some openness is all you need; familiarity with strange art and strange situations not required. Playing in the late hours with headphones is recommended, as is driving the mine tram in Act I with the lights off. Looking forward to further Acts.

This is a game, and then it is not quite a game. Two first-person paths diverged once back in the 90s, one leading to Doom and the other to Myst. Whereas the former led down to a fairly well-known and successful business model only possible through this medium, the other led down to this mod-made-game and odd philosophy sometimes best experienced for oneself, and solely through this medium. This is the most off-the-wall study in level design any gamer and/or would-be developer should undergo, and it is also one of the most interesting, introspective stories to come out of the medium as a whole. Maybe not quite what anyone expects to represent "our medium" as its focus is not addiction, but perhaps a means towards passing wisdom to others, creating spaces to learn and experience things. Absolutely necessary for everybody who's played too many games and for those who haven't played a game at all.

Ever wanted to see how long a start-up would last making nothing but text-based, government-flavored action games? Hilarious, cheerfully compelling. Rise out of your garage post-1983 to big name company status, research new tech developments, customize in-house game engines of awesomeness--or, go bankrupt in the process, utterly screw up a couple publishing deals, and alienate your fanbase time and again with your ceaseless sequels (though that also can be researched....)

Think WarioWare meets Mario Party meets every Final Fantasy-esque game ever. Quite funny and challenging in simple ways.

Game that gets its addictive quality from sheer peacefulness - a dwarf of yours just struck lava? No big, just plop down a wall, a stick of dynamite, and send another to detonate it, seal off the lava cave. Other diggers will come.

In the best of times, perfectly recreates the feeling of you and your friends bum-rushing each other with nerf swords (least, this is cos I gotta turn all the graphics all the way down to get a decent framerate, but all the yelling and implied violence is there)

Good, but not because it's a Hitman game, rather cos it's a stealth game with Hitman elements. Less hiding in plain sight and more hiding behind cover. But Contracts mode is addictive and sure to bring out the asynchronous competitor/completionist in you. Overall, decent enough reboot/hand-over to Squenix, only hope it doesn't go the route of Splinter Cell. Post Script: There are some funny little throwaways Kane & Lynch fans are sure to recognize.