Recent reviews by Mankybus

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is still a timeless classic to this very day and it remains as one of the most enjoyable puzzle horror games I've ever played. It's an incredibly rewarding game, all the while I'm completely cacking my pants at the incredible atmosphere that's terrifying yet tasteful. What can I say that hasn't already been said before other than me rambling about my love for this game and my disappointment for many other games of its ilk? It became a massive sleeper hit and a beloved cult classic for a damn good reason and it ended up spawning countless clones and imitators, yet not a single one of them has ever come close to just how great everything is in The Dark Descent.

The puzzles are really great and brain teasers without being too difficult or too easy. The resource management is tense enough to always worry about but just lenient enough so you can stay fully immersed in the game's world, narrative and atmosphere. The atmosphere is so superbly done that the intense build up from frame one upon hitting start game is truly palpable and manages to hold me in its grip all the way to the end. The tension as the game builds up a good long while until you find your first monster is amazing and upon finally seeing it, they never stop being scary - the pure anxiety of trying to hide or run away from one, that is always faster than you, is peak horror gaming for me. Despite the game's extremely troubled development, pretty much every aspect hits hard in all the right places for me,

Many people seem to blame Frictional and Amnesia for the death of more classic style survival horror back when it released, but I'm going to come to its defense and say big publishers were the killer of classic survival horror. They deemed the genre "not viable" and either killed off horror franchises and refitted them into action games. Frictional struck gold with Amnesia and proved that horror never died and there was always a demand for it, it just came in a form and style that hasn't been done anywhere near as successfully previously, and the timing was perfect.

With how much of a cultural phenomenon Amnesia was in the indie space, so much so that many Youtube creators built their careers off the back of this game, it was inevitable that The Dark Descent would spawn countless clones and imitators and unfortunately I cannot think of a single one that comes even close to matching the greatness of this absolute classic. And yet again many people would continue to blame Amnesia for killing survival horror to this day because indie horror games for a long time was dominated with this "run and hide" style. But yet again that's not the fault of this game, but rather the fault of many developers rushing into this genre like it's a gold mine and trying to take what The Dark Descent did so well and yet botched their games so hard because they didn't get it.

Many Amnesia clones seem to believe The Dark Descent is boiled down to just lots of impenetrable darkness and spooky monster chases, when in actuality it's far closer to a point and click adventure game with monsters hunting you down while you try to solve the game's many puzzles. And yet Amnesia's physics mechanics allow the player to barricade doors, create hiding spots, objects can be thrown to stun enemies in pursuit and create distractions for players to sneak by - the running and hiding allows players to get creative so long as they can find what they need and that's what makes the combatless design work so well. Amnesia does so, SO much with so little whereas many of the terrible and even decent clones often do so little with even less, as many games don't have those physics mechanics, multiple resource management, enjoyable puzzle solving and genuine sense of terror.

It sucks to say as I usually champion clones of other games and genres, such as souls-likes and boomer shooters, because those games can take a basic formula and do many unique and different things from many different developers that have great ideas. Don't get me wrong a lot of games in those genres of games can be bad, but I think this style of combatless horror game is almost completely awash with awful clones that simply aren't worth playing at all and so many of them keep coming out and continuing to not get what made The Dark Descent so special.

Heck I'll even apply that criticism towards Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs, Amnesia Rebirth and even Soma's stripped back gameplay, as I found them to be incredibly disappointing follow ups to the masterpiece that is The Dark Descent, even if their narratives can hold up exceptionally well. At least Amnesia: The Bunker was a fantastic return to form, and while I thought the puzzle aspect of that game was disappointing and I still rate The Dark Descent above it, I still think it's an incredible horror game and it managed to successfully marry that classic Frictional style with a good healthy dose of classic survival horror. And as someone who adores The Dark Descent AND survival horror games, The Bunker is pant soilingly glorious.

Luckily the community's love for The Dark Descent has endured with a fiery passion 14 years after release, with so many excellent and wonderful custom stories, mods and addons STILL being made and released by a really healthy community of talented modders and map makers. Many of them having fully custom assets, monsters and mechanics that make them stand out and even rival the quality of Frictional's work, thus making the base game an excellent taster introduction to an all-you-can-eat buffet of incredible high quality horror gaming from creators who do get and understand what made this game so special in the first place. So without a doubt, this game is your one stop shop for some delicious combatless puzzle-focused horror gaming.

Honestly I could gush about this game for days, I feel like my most recent replay has made me fallen in love with this game even harder than I did over a decade ago. Especially after discovering loads of brand new stuff I missed the first time around, such as the Justine expansion, the Remember short stories and the super secret stuff in the game's files - tons of new stuff to delve into always makes me giddy when revisiting my favourite games!

If you haven't played Amnesia: The Dark Descent, then PLEASE do so if you're a fan of horror stuff, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this absolute banger of a classic. And if you really don't like the idea of a combatless horror game, then I genuinely think you should give this game a real honest try with an open mind - it's absolutely worth it.

Save Room is a really fun and relaxing little puzzle game based on Resident Evil 4's inventory system. Personally I always quite liked the inventory management in that game, so taking that whole idea and making an entire puzzle game out of the premise while following the logic of making sure you can take everything, fully healed up and that your weapons are reloaded is a fantastic idea.

It's a really simple idea but a genius one and the outcome is really fun, rewarding and having those eureka moments when you figure out one of multiple ways to solve each puzzle is really fun. Of course with such a simple concept, it ends up being an extremely short single sitting game, but it was an absolute blast while I tried to figure things out. Just be warned that it can get really tough in later stages. Luckily I only needed help on one level that utterly bamboozled me but the rest I managed through tinkering with what I had, because chances are you're usually on the right track but one or two pieces of the puzzle are slightly out of place.

At full price for this much fun for an hour or two, I'd say it's absolutely worth every single penny. Give it a shot, you won't be popping off zombie heads or backtracking through spooky mansions, but it's great fun!

There's not that much to say about Pools other than it is a masterclass in atmospheric liminal space exploration.

It is truly eerie, unnerving and just the environments and sound design alone can make me afraid even when I know there's nothing around the corner, but it always feels like there will be. It's that feeling you get when something is very wrong, a constant sense of dread permeates the game in its entirety that just keeps on building, with the occasional moment of serene bliss, relaxation and calm - like walking back upstairs in the middle of the night, thinking something in the dark is going to grab you but then dozing off to a peaceful sleep, a perfect duality of surreality. It's everything I love about liminal spaces and evokes so many different emotions in me that I just wanted to keep exploring more and more.

Yes, it's a walking sim, but considering the developers' intent with this game I feel monsters, puzzles and such would massively detract from that atmosphere and vibe that it so perfectly nails. Sure there are some small flaws, like misaligned textures, the occasional stutter and such but none of that really matters when Pools does what it sets out to do with near perfection.

If you love liminal spaces and exploration walking simulators, then Pools is by far the best in my honest opinion. It's short but it's wonderful from start to finish, and is absolutely worth the asking price.

Dismantled is, in my opinion, a hidden horror gem in the indie space that was sadly overlooked even to this day. It is a delightfully demented and disturbing horror romp from start to finish, it's like if someone took the original FPS and story concepts of the original Resident Evil while it was in development, and made that a reality using the LZDoom engine. It has tons of inspirations from movies like SAW, Martyrs, Hostel, etc and even some classic Frankenstein elements all wrapped up in a really messy but very enjoyable first person survival horror package.

It is very amateurish in places, with many spelling and voice acting mistakes, it can be downright unfair at times, it can be overly edgy and just about every element is rough around the edges. But it's a game with a lot of heart and soul despite all of its problems and is genuinely one of the scariest games I've played in a while, with incredible atmosphere, tension and knowing even a goofy looking enemy can rip you to shreds with ease makes exploration and combat even more panic inducing when ♥♥♥♥ does hit the fan.

Pros:
- Genuinely scary, with amazing atmosphere, tense situations and panic-inducing monster encounters
- Excellent soundtrack, the music sets the vibe and tone perfectly
- Fantastic sound design, despite the retro look just about everything sounds great
- First person survival horror gameplay, this isn't a boomer shooter so make every bullet and health item count
- Loads of content, with a main campaign and a shorter but far more intense B scenario that will keep you busy for multiple sittings
- Replay value, plenty of secrets and multiple endings to find with each run
- Unique enemy designs, with animal-human Frankenstein hybrids that are very different from most other horror games
- Fun puzzles, very Resident Evil and Silent Hill-inspired that feel just right in their challenge
- Price is perfect, lots of game to enjoy for just under £3 at full price

Cons:
- Certain enemies are way overtuned, with multiple being able to kill you near instantly if they don't see them coming
- Bosses are very overtuned, with far too much health, speed and can often one shot the player on normal difficulty
- Ink ribbons for saving your game are slightly too scarce in the main campaign but too abundant in the B scenario
- Might be too disturbing for some, especially if playing with the uncensored graphics
- Too much forced combat, with some enemies being too fast to outrun and too aggressive as they never de-aggro thus draining more resources than you'd like
- Unskippable FMV cutscenes, especially a huge problem with the start of the B scenario if you can't find an ink ribbon to save your game

For the price and the sheer amount of content you're getting (between 10-15 hours with both scenarios), I can wholeheartedly recommend Dismantled despite its jank, balance issues and flaws, because it so effectively accomplishes its mission of being a first person survival horror that brings the horror with its messed up imagery and genuinely evoking tension, fear and panic through atmosphere, game design and pants soiling scares without ever feeling cheap. There is also a remastered Director's Cut version of the Dismantled with improvements and bonus content as well if that's your bag.

Needless to say I am very excited for Dismantled 2, whenever that comes out.

Lorn's Lure is a game I've been eagerly waiting for and following for a while before release, but sadly it's another game where I desperately wish Steam had a "maybe" sideways thumb rating, because I was close to not recommending this game for reasons I'll get into shortly.

At its best, Lorn's Lure is an incredibly fun, relaxing and unique first person platforming/climbing game with a wonderful atmosphere, where the goal is to essentially climb or descend to the end of each level with the occasional objective here and there. Those times where it presents a challenge to the player and allows them to find a myriad of creative ways to solve the problem are definitely the high points for me, especially when the environments presents you with an amazing view of how much progress you've made. And the game keeps giving you more and more tools as the game goes on, and sometimes takes them away, to keep each challenge feeling fresh.

I absolutely adore megastructure settings, the cold and desolate concrete wastelands that exudes an unquestionable feeling that you're alone in this world is a vibe I can never get enough of. However with a world as beautifully realised as Lorn's Lure is, inspired by the works of Tsutomu Nihei like BLAME! in particular, and as a massive fan of BLAME! that's a fantastic thing indeed.

It's a shame I feel that the gameplay doesn't hold up for such a long run time as well as it should. I spent most of my play time offline on my Steam Deck as I was away on vacation, but it became clear to me that the developer struggled to find ways to keep a combat-less game based around platforming and climbing challenging after the first half of the game. While people complain about the third level of the game, and I can see why they would, I feel the fifth level is where the issues start cropping up.

Many times in the second half the game would often throw players into scenarios where not only do you have to have quick reflexes but you also need the clairvoyance to know where you need to go as that's often obscured from the player, plus the number of solutions to solving a problem starts to dwindle with often only one solution to progress and you need to accomplish it with PRECISION.

Precision is the key word here, because in the second half, the game leans more and more into becoming a precision platformer as time goes on, with limited solutions and focused heavily around trial and error, where you have to keep dying until you get it right. I must confess that I absolutely hate precision platformers (with some very rare exceptions like Super Meat Boy, and even then it boils my blood at times) and found myself becoming more and more disappointed when Lorn's Lure kept falling into these same tropes and traps in a genre of platformers I heavily dislike and it's the kind where I'm also regularly exclaiming out loud "Where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go now!?" all the while trying to not fall to my death for the 100th time.

It also lacks those precise controls to make those sections work, even in less stressful areas I find myself regularly over and undershooting my landings on small platforms and unintentionally wall jumping with the dash when I don't want to, There's also straight up flaws with the game like my dash being very inconsistent where it sometimes gives me the lift I need, my character's hitbox being very weird and big which sometimes catches the geometry and ruining my plan or just end up falling to my death despite seeming like I cleared those gaps. As for the climbing, sometimes it doesn't work as it should and my character sometimes decides not to grab a climbable wall despite mashing the grab button when my face is touching it.

The frustration comes to an absolute boiling point with the final level, as that is where Lorn's Lure is at its absolute worst. The final level lured me into a false sense of security, which I was expecting to get shattered soon enough but I was no expecting it to be completely obliterated to the point I was considering giving up at the very end of the game. Blissfully it's a very short level, but it is by far the worst as it's a chase sequence and brings all of those precision platformer traps and tropes together in a truly awful way. Every problem I have mentioned Lorn's Lure having is present in this level and is multiplied many times over; the lack of precise controls, the inconsistent dash, bumping into geometry all the time and the constant neverending feeling of "Where the ♥♥♥♥ do I go!?".

Not only are those issues made even worse, but now you're dealing with NEW problems, you're given a new traversal mechanic but you're given no time or space to properly experiment and learn how to use it effectively, which in turn also makes that feel inconsistent. The environment is also changing and shifting around in unpredictable ways that the way to progress is often closing up before you can even find it. And to top it all off, you need to get through this level with near perfection levels of execution and you need to be so incredibly fast and have amazing amounts of clairvoyance to know what's coming and where to go to even progress just a tiny bit. Without a doubt it's one of the least fun and most miserable gaming experiences I've suffered through in a long time, it's so awful that the final level alone came close to completely ruining the game as a whole for me. It's basically a forced sloppy speedrun, and I only enjoy speedruns when I'm watching them.

But after beating it and taking a day to calm down, collect my thoughts, do other things and what-not, I can't bring myself to give this game a negative review. Despite the game being a pretty huge disappointment for me and ending up being not what I wanted or expected, I still enjoyed my time with it and the developer's love for the game and world that's been crafted here is visibly apparent. I would have mentioned other very notable flaws the game had during the launch build but they have been working tirelessly to correct many of them after the multitude of understandable and justifiable complaints.

Chances are I will likely come back and give the game another proper try one day because I love the world that's been crafted and the almost soothing sense of desolation and loneliness I get from it is relaxing. Plus the variety of unique locales and those moments of pure dread and horror keeps the game's atmosphere fresh and unique from start to finish. And who knows, maybe I'll enjoy it more the second time around now that I know what to expect going into it.

I hope updates make Lorn's Lure much more easier to enjoy for players like me, and I also hope it gets a harder mode for those players that want the brutal challenge of the late game completely intact because I really want to see Lorn's Lure succeed and with many more people falling in love with it as time goes on. I would also love to see more games set in this megastructure in the future, hopefully leaning more into that chill climbing style or even in other game genres entirely, because there's a lot of cool stuff in this universe for the developer to explore further.

Ghostware is such a bizarre oddity of a game in the boomer shooter scene, because it's not a typical boomer shooter nor is it an arena shooter. It feels like the developer took Unreal and Hypnospace Outlaw and blended it together in a way where it turns out to be heavily inspired by both but is still a very unique beast in itself.

The game turned out to be surprisingly narrative driven and luckily the story and worldbuilding are really interesting and definitely seems like the kind of thing that could be explored more in the future. I especially loved the webscape system, having a 90s inspired internet browser to check back on throughout the game to learn more about the lore and recent events of the game world is an interesting and fresh way of handling the typical codex system that most games do, while also fitting the vibe and ton of the game itself perfectly.

Combat is quite hit and miss for me, the mission-like levels of the game where you're fighting mobs can feel rather flat as foes tend to be tankier than I'd like and their AI can vary from quite smart to dumb as bricks. The weapons in those missions also feel unbalanced, with the SMG in particular dominating the arsenal by being the best tool for every job, a shame too since the other weapons are cool in concept.

The combat during the arena sections of the game feel great though, it's easily where the game shines best in terms of gameplay, combined with some excellent movement mechanics to gain a ton of speed and feel cool as heck doing it. Plus every weapon feels great for the given situation and I wish the main missions used them as well because they were much more fun to use. Sadly the arena gameplay is fleeting, but due to the game's themes and narrative it is also rather fitting that it often gets cut short.

I beat the game in 7 hours, getting both endings in the process, so it's not a long ride by any means and while the final boss is sadly both underwhelming and really annoying to fight, I had a great time with this game. It's definitely one of the most uneven boomer shooters on a gameplay level but it is also one of the most interesting I've played in a while,

I know I'll go back to read through more of the webscape pages I didn't get around to during my playthrough, there's definitely a comfy value to Ghostware since I love that 90s internet aesthetic. it's absolutely worth picking up and playing just to experience how weird, strange and creative indie shooters can be.

I was originally going to give Shadow of the Erdtree a very soft and pensive recommendation, however during the writing of this review I feel there's just far too many serious issues with this DLC that I can't recommend it in good faith. Though I really wish I could give reviews a sideways thumb that says "Maybe", because Shadow of the Erdtree is one of those things that I find myself extremely conflicted on. I will have to give it a not recommended; because I have a huge number of very serious gripes with it, not necessarily a lot of small ones but rather several huge problems that I'll address in this review,

Saying that, I still had plenty of enjoyment and there were plenty of times where I really enjoyed this DLC. It is at least worth a play once or just to simply just in to get to gear you want for future playthroughs, even if you feel like you won't replay it ever again in later playthroughs.

I'll start with the positives, the first one being that this expansion is unfathomably gigantic compared to most games. I think I spent close to 60 hours in this DLC trying to explore everything, fight everything and find everything, and even then I still feel like I've missed a good chunk of what this DLC has to offer. It also has a bunch of new enemies and most of the bosses, while brutal, are absolutely fantastic. It is also filled to the brim with a wealth of new armour, weapons, spells, consumables, crafting materials and so much more. This expansion offers so much content and most of it is such high quality that it's basically its own game that ends up dwarfing a ton of other RPGs out there. This expansion puts almost every other developer to shame and the asking price is absolutely worth it for the vast extra content you're getting.

However Shadow of the Erdtree is also an excruciatingly uneven experience a lot of the time, just getting to the DLC requires to you to find and kill an extremely difficult boss in the tail end of the game, which is hidden in a secret area within another secret area, while also getting you to kill another optional boss that's requires specific conditions for them to spawn. And all of that can take anywhere between 50-100+ hours for most average players. All of that is simply just to start the DLC, meaning any gear you bring over from the DLC back into the base game won't get any proper usage unless you're one of those players who likes to do new game+ in these games, and I'm not one of those people as I find new game+ boring.

The map of the DLC also have some pretty huge problems, though I will say that it's incredibly impressive that From Software managed to craft a new and huge open world that has so many different layers stacked on top of each other. However navigating and getting to those different layers ended up feeling like a huge chore as most of those layers can only be accessed via a single and often really obscure path that requires circling around the map to get to, which often felt really unintuitive and made just baffled and confused me, to the point that I needed help at least 3 times. It got so bad that I explored most of the north-western part of the map without picking up the map fragment because I somehow missed it 30 hours before thanks to somehow missing a cave quite far to the east, several layers below that north-west area, in an area that I swear I thoroughly explored.

The loot and crafting materials is also quite terrible in how they're handled as well. Chances are you've likely beaten the game and got all the important bell bearings and what-not before trying your hand at the DLC and thus you won't need most of the upgrade materials anymore, right? Well the game seems to think otherwise as it's littered with low level smithing stones EVERYWHERE, to the point of ridiculousness and you won't need them whatsoever. And of course smithing stone 7s are even rarer than they ever were before, because lol I guess.

Another huge problem is crafting materials, while having new materials is not an issue in itself, it becomes a huge problem for players who like to use the crafting system and consumables - I am one of those people. One problem is the new craftables don't use any of the base game crafting materials under any circumstances. This crafting issue also further compounds the second issue, which is that there are no base game material whatsoever in the DLC, meaning if you run out of materials to craft base game items then you will have to take yourself out of the DLC to go and farm what you need in the base game.

Another problem is the new DLC crafting items will only ever use materials you find in the DLC, meaning you better have a ton of those materials farmed up before heading into new game+ because otherwise you won't be able to craft anymore hefty pot items and a bunch of other powerful stuff ever again until you reach late/end game in the base game. Not only that but most of the important crafting materials only appear sparsely in very specific areas thus making farming agonisingly tedious and slow. To From Software's credit, they did dot bell bearings around the DLC map that makes attaining these materials easier but that shop will reset the default in new game+ anyway, so it doesn't solve the NG+ issue.

And now the big issue; the bosses. Personally I found most of the bosses to be really great, some of them were tried and tested Souls bosses which were fun if a bit samey but some of them were really interesting, creative and so much fun that they ended up being my favourite bosses in the game as a whole. However the bosses that were problematic were EXTREMELY problematic, they're so wrought with some really horrible design issues that they were clearly designed purely for the sake of difficulty to frustrate and piss players off without any regard to being enjoyable.

I won't name any bosses in particular, but there are some bosses that are so big and flail around so wildly that the camera just can't keep up at all, meaning target lock will throw my view all over the place, which in turn makes me feel sick but also makes it incredibly hard to tell what a boss is doing. And that's if I'm lucky hoping those bosses didn't sit on the camera with the fat bums and obscures any and all vision that I very clearly need.

There are other bosses that are so fast and so mobile that I literally can't keep up with what they're doing. One boss in particular has such speedy attacks that the telegraphing was either deceptive, terrible or there simply wasn't any to begin with. On top of those speedy attacks, pretty much every one of them hits like a truck. And to make this boss even worse, they have so many different combo extenders in so many different attacks that they can chain into several different strings, special attacks or even dodge in a circle behind you where they can instantly restart into a new massive multi-hit combo, all of which is incredibly hard to avoid thanks to the insane tracking and stepping towards you in each attack.

And that's not even the end of it! This boss also has varied wind up animations on multiple attacks to constantly mess your timings up and has so much poise that I never once stance broke them unless I had a summon. Also their attacks are in such wide arcs that the hitbox got behind my shield half the time, making the only defense I felt truly safe with in these fights feel meaningless half of the time. I know bosses are meant to be tests of skill, knowledge and memory but a boss that has all of the advantages and seemingly no weaknesses is just pure BS.

I can think of more problems with this DLC, like how stilted the scadutree and revered ash upgrades felt, how sites of grace are so common to the point of comedy as they hurt the level design in dungeons, how awful and unfair the final boss of the DLC is and more but this review is so long that I can't even fit all my complaints in. I cherished what I did love in SotE but it's so wrought with too many issues.

Elden Ring is a masterpiece, what more needs to be said? Well, other than the fact that it's an imperfect and flawed masterpiece of course. I love Souls games and Souls-likes so I'll keep this review short and sweet, but everything that people say about Elden Ring, at least for the base game, is absolutely to be believed. There's so much to do, so much to explore, so much cool stuff to find and it really captures that incredible feeling of adventuring through a war-torn but whimsical fantasy world that fully invites the player to brave the perils and dangers.

The combat is obviously very much Souls, and while it's always quite simple compared to the majority of most action games, it's always one of my favourite combat systems as far as RPGs go. There's so many weapons and shields of many different types, so many cool armour sets, so many fun spells and incantations and a ton of really cool strategies and builds to form the combat into something you can really enjoy and master - so long as you don't mind pressing the roll button half of the time if you're not using a shield.

However I do have my issues with the game; the camera can be very wonky and unwieldy at times, some bosses can be extremely difficult to punish, a multitude have enemies have crazy fast multi-hit combos that can be a nightmare to deal with even with well-known strats that most deem reliable. It's an incredibly challenging game and I love the learning process as I find cool and interesting ways to tackle problems, but some enemies and bosses can be a bit too much and sometimes nullify certain builds more often than I'd like.

Luckily the issues only really crop up in the late/end game content, and is still a very enjoyable ride if you don't mind taking several hours learning a boss, engaging in co-op or using summons like the fan favourite Mimic Tear to help out.

Also the modding community also deserves a ton of praise, as plenty of dedicated fans have crafted a bunch of really cool, unique and interesting mods that effect gameplay, visuals, difficulty and more, so there's a ton of highly replayable game here that many different people can enjoy for hundreds or even thousands of hours.

If you haven't played Elden Ring yet then please do, you won't regret it.

I'm going to preface this review by saying I absolutely hated The Surge 1, the moment to moment gameplay and combat in that game felt terrible due to being locked in often seconds long multi-hit animations you can't cancel/have little control over, and with difficulty so high it's easy to call it unfair due to even basic enemies dishing out so much more damage than you can and always getting ganked by three or more enemies. That said it was also a game with really interesting and cool systems like the implants, limb targeting, severing and gear crafting - all of those good things completely strangled by the terrible combat.

However The Surge 2 does a complete 180 compared to the first game; it took what did work and made the gameplay so much tighter, responsive and chunky while being incredibly fun. The difficulty has been toned way down and in doing so turning The Surge 2 into an more casual friendly Souls-Like game and it's all the better for it in my opinion, because it feels much fairer and the only times I died is when I'm playing like an idiot and not managing my resources properly. And it does all of that while keeping every single great system in the first Surge game intact and even expanding on those aspects. It is just a much better game on almost every single level, however I stress almost as there are some things that disappointed me. As usual I break things down.

Pros:
- Chunky combat with unique limb targeting and severing mechanic for gear and upgrades
- The improved multi-directional parry system is a joy to learn, even if it is really tough to master
- Implants and gear crafting mechanics make a return and are just as great
- Battery and resource management is a gigantic step up from the first game
- Vastly improved level design, with a world that's constantly shifting with new enemy spawns and routes as you progress the story as well as further additions in new game plus
- Expanded metroidvania elements, with new tools to traverse the world in more interesting ways
- Great soundtrack, huge improvement over the first game's OST
- Some fantastic boss fights
- Status effects adds tons more depth to the combat
- The Kraken DLC is also fantastic, by far the best content in the game
- Much easier than most other Souls-like games, which is a gigantic improvement over the absurd difficulty spikes in the first game
- Takes itself less seriously than the first game, with plenty of fun jokes and references

Cons:
- Some disappointing bosses, with multiple repeats and not enough big machine type bosses like Little Johnny
- Less enemy variety than the first game, mostly blokes in exosuits and not enough robots and ranged enemies
- No map you can use at any time, making it really easy to got lost
- Nano status effect is far too common, extremely deadly and too many enemies are immune to it while other status effects are much rarer
- May be too easy for players looking for a challenge

I was honestly shocked at how much I ended up liking The Surge 2, I did try going into it as unbiased as possible but my disdain for the first game came through a lot in the early hours of the game, but pushing on through it managed to turn my frown upside down and won me over by being a gigantic improvement in almost every conceivable way and just being a really fun game on its own. While it's not among my favourites in the genre, it is a really good time and I definitely look forward to playing more in the future.

Adaca is fantastic, as I'm sure other reviews have pointed out. It is essentially what you get if you take Half-Life 2 and Halo and then glue those two together with a huge dose of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. gluing it all together, the end result is weird and bizarre but really unique and ends up being really well made and fun as heck.

Pros:
- Loads of unique weapons that all feel chunky and powerful in their own ways
- Mix of hefty gunplay, grenades and gravity arm mechanics makes the combat feel intense and allows for loads of player expression
- Almost no hitscan, making almost every encounter feel fair with the correct use of movement, cover and prop blocking with gravity arm
- Low poly models and environments that end up looking beautiful thanks to amazing art direction and volumetric fog
- Very unique and interesting world, bursting with tons of lore and small stories that will keep players immersed in the game
- Tons of content; Short but excellent campaign and the incredibly dense open world Zone Patrol mode that will keep you coming back for way longer - with unique content in each mode
- Journal for the Zone Patrol mode is extremely useful for figuring out the more cryptic and obscure puzzles
- Modifiers/mutators for both modes, making for some whacky and weird gameplay at times

Cons:
- Enemies with laser weapons absolutely suck, being pinpoint accurate with hitscan attacks and dealing absurd amounts of damage per hit
- The final "boss" fight of the campaign is really terrible due to dealing with bullet sponges that also use laser weapons
- The campaign's story is quite hard to follow, however playing Zone Patrol helps to fill in the gaps and then some
- NPC dialogue is text based with no VA, which is normally fine, but having to read what characters say in the heat of action makes it hard to keep up when the text often auto advances during action setpieces
- Gravity arm feels very clunky at times, often needing pixel perfect aim on an object even at short distances to pick it up, which in turn means you'll miss most grabs
- Gravity arm also feels very underused, with very few puzzles and traversal elements actually making use of it

I would wholeheartedly recommend Adaca if you're looking to get immersed in a sci-fi FPS with a really interesting world, I loved every second of my time playing through the action packed campaign and figuring out the puzzle box open world that is Zone Patrol, it just kept me hooked for hours. In fact it kept my hooked so much so it was the only game I wanted to play for a little while, and I wanted to try and uncover as much as I could possibly find.

I talked about Zone Patrol a lot, but for good reason because it really is an amazing mode. So much so I consider the campaign mode to be a smaller starter meal while the Zone Patrol mode is easily the main course, because it's so incredibly huge, dense and every small thing you do in it ends up culminating into something much bigger. It brings you more into the game's world, with loads of unique places, weapons and even factions that don't show up at all during the campaign. It gives you the chance to really explore what the world of Adaca is truly like, with some small humourous and interesting things to find on top of the horrifically dark but captivating sci-fi concepts that have made the world the way it is. Please do not skip Zone Patrol, it's not a mode to dismiss, it is by far the juiciest meat the game can offer on the plate.

But yeah if you like indie FPS games, then Adaca is a must play.