Recent reviews by Mankybus

It's bad, oh it's absolutely a bad game in many, many ways but it's so bad that it's good! It's short, stupid, colourful and fun! It definitely feels like a game from the PS1 era from the mechanics, the story, the visual style and just about everything else and I find a certain charm in that and that really brings my inner kid out when I was playing this. You can beat it in under an hour with it's five levels where you go from arena to arena, battle horde after horde of cartoonish enemies until you reach the end of the level and it's silly and fun - I'll give you a quick list of pros and cons just to save you some time:

Pros:
- Short but sweet, doesn't outstay it's welcome
- Each mission presents something different
- Colourful, childish and cartoonish, you can run it on a potato
- Funny but somewhat racist dialogue
- Very cheap
- It has an arena mode if you ever want to just smash cartoon baddies
- Supports controller (With so few buttons being used, you could use a USB SNES pad)
- Dumb, casual fun

Cons:
- It definitely looks like a PS1 game for those who want fancy graphics
- Pickups are almost non-existant, only coins in two levels as well as life pickups
- It's really just an arena brawler
- Fighting mechanics are dodgy, normal attack is literally useless
- For some people, it's way too short
- Might be offended by the voice acting

That's really all I have to say about the game, I got it in a bundle and I decided to play the game and found myself enjoying the badness and stupidity of the game that I played it to completion in less than an hour and I don't regret my time with it, it's dumb fun and reminds me of my kiddy days playing on the PS1 and for £1.59 (Or your regional equivalent) which I might add is a LOT less than what most people charge for a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ game (I'm looking at you Citadels), so I'd say it's worth it if you want to sit down for an hour and play something dumb for a change. Like I said before, it's so bad that it's good!

I loved this game back in the day and I still love it now. Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi is a very interesting little horror FPS. It takes heavy influence from the classic horror films backing in the early 1900s (Nosferatu, Dracula, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Frankenstein and so much more) and brings it all together into an old school first person shooter much more akin to Wolfenstein 3D. The story is, your sister is getting married to the son of a wealthy count in Transylvania where you and your family have gone to visit to take part in the wedding ceremony but you arrive late to the party and it soon dawns upon you that things have gone horribly wrong, only to find out that the castle is haunted by vampires, wraiths, zombies, ghouls, demons and what other kind of classic monster you can throw in there. The count aims to resurrect the almighty Malachi and to bring the world to an end and it's your job is to save your family and to put a stop to the count from resurrecting Malachi.

Since this is a Steam review, I want to break it down into simpler, more straight forward lists of pros and cons:

Pros:
- Open, explorative level design
- Interesting weaponry
- Fun gunplay
- Great aesthetic, has that German Expressionism vibe to it
- Really creepy and atmospheric
- Old school, using medikits to heal as well as allowing you to carry all weapons and as well as powerups throughout
- Very challenging even on easy for your first run
- Randomly generated castle with each new playthrough (Some landmarks will stay the same but it's so you're not lost)
- A wide variety of nasties of the night to fight
- Enemy and item placement is randomized, leaving you wondering what's around the next corner
- Fantastic amounts of replayability
- Captures the feel of the classic horror films pretty much perfectly with it's soundtrack, story, theme, melodramatic voice acting, etc

Cons:
- Some of the geometry can be very dodgy, making you get stuck or fall through places
- The geometry can glitch out really badly sometimes, leaving holes to the neverending void of nothingness
- The graphics look a lot like Quake 1 despite being released in 2003
- Animation quality is quite laughable
- The Wolf 3D maze-like levels will confuse a lot of people, just make sure you remember the layout when exploring
- You are timed against a pretty strict clock, while times moves realistically you will often find yourself too late and some of the people you're meant to save will die off (The level design makes that even more of an annoyance)
- Hit detection can be a pain sometimes
- Not enough powerups in my honest opinion
- Health and ammo is a little too plentiful, it can kill the survival horror element of it sometimes
- The last boss is far too easy and underwhelming despite his cool design
- The game runs for roughly 2-3 hours, that's too short for most

I think Nosferatu: The Wrath of Malachi is a really great game with awesome ideas, good level design, solid gunplay and great survival horror experience. Taking ques from Wolfenstin 3D and being inspired by the films in the early 1900s makes it a pretty fantastic game for horror fans or old school FPS fans to pick and play for a little while. The level of replayability comes in by obviously completing the game in several difficulties but also saving your family members and completing the game as fast as possible, that leaves plenty of room to replay the game if you're really into it.

Overall I would recommend this with all my heart and soul, it's so much fun to play and with it's short length, it's great to kick back and relax and watch the afternoon or evening go by playing this, by then you might have beaten the game already. But it's always fun to come back to every now and then. Your first playthrough will take you a lot longer, respectively, and you will lose some of the people you're meant to save and by the end of the game you will just want to hop back on the horse and do it all again, this time doing it faster so you can save everyone and that makes it a very fun and addictive game to play.

Alpha Prime is a fairly interesting game, it's a sci-fi FPS that takes elements from games such as Doom 3 and Quake 4 (Even the aesthetic of the game will remind you of them) and implements some of its own little things here and there. At first it does seem cliche and it kind of is but players will soon find that there is a very slight supernatural element to the game that affects the psyche of all the people surrounding Alpha Prime, turning them into deranged madmen and making the base's AI go nuts and the Corporation is on clean up duty. Your job is to save your friend who's stranded on Alpha Prime.

Unlike most shooters that take a more old school approach (health packs, hip fire, carrying a full arsenal, etc), on normal difficulty the enemies hit very hard which will require you to take a more tactical approach to combat situations which will encourage you to use the lean function as well as the remote control mechanic, allowing you to hack into devices such as cameras, gun turrets, doors and other electronic devices. So since that little introduction is out of the way, now I'll start the review and first I'll break it down into lists of pros and cons to make this review a lot more straight forward:

Pros:
- Fun and solid gunplay
- Nice visual effects
- Cool art style
- Graphics still look good even today
- No regenerating health, all done with medkits and health stations
- You can fire from the hip (Always good to have)
- Characters have a bit of personality to them
- Level design is pretty good
- The soundtrack is just awesome
- Enemy AI are quite intelligent, always seeking cover, trying to outsmart and outgun you whenever possible and will rush you when they have the chance
- A nice array of weapons to use (A gatling-based assault rifle is pretty awesome)
- The remote control is cool and fun to use, turning gun turrets against your foes is always fun
- Very challenging, will crush gamers who are used to modern FPS and regenerating health

Cons:
- The story could have been really cool but it was fairly bland and the cliffhanger didn't help either
- Bullet time and flamethrower are near enough useless except for the last boss
- Enemy placement can be very cheap at times making the difficulty feel very artificial
- Enemy variety is near enough non-existant, just different guys with different guns and some robots
- Weapons given to the player have pretty poor pacing, it gives you every gun near enough from the get go
- The remote control mechanic is too underutilized, you'll often forget you have it later in the game
- Voice acting can be pretty atrocious sometimes
- The one vehicle segment is just awful, it controls like crap and you can't even run enemies over with it
- Enemies have pinpoint accuracy to the point where it's unfair at times (And you can't even dodge their shots in bullet time, yes it's that useless)
- Some character models look creepy, making the main character look like a plastic action figure
- Cutscenes and dialogue segments go on for WAY too long and when you need to do something, you can't pause them but thankfully they can be skipped
- The game only runs for the best part of 4 hours, for a single player only game that will be far too short for most

The game has a lot of flaws, but it's nowhere near as incompetent like games such as The Stalin Subway and Dusk 12 (Which I did enjoy somewhat). It's not awful by any stretch, some people will love what Black Element did with the game, others may not. It really comes down to a matter of opinion and my opinion is that I really enjoyed it, as short as it was, it was a fun little sci-fi romp with lots of action, somewhat interesting characters and cool aesthetic. It's a shame the remote control was barely ever used and the game was very unbalanced at times but it was a fun game to play as the afternoon or evening just wizzes by.

I do recommend this game to those who enjoyed old school shooters or for those who will enjoy something that makes players take a more tactical approach to their combat strategy, for me the positives outweigh the negatives and since I'm a sap for obscure FPS games, there is a chance I will like it for it's quirk. For those who prefer modern FPS with highly linear levels and the overuse of iron sights and regenerating health then this really isn't for you. But if you like kickass FPS soundtracks then this game is great to have, it has some truly fantastic music in there that just gets you really pumped for the action, big kudos to the composer! I'll wrap this up now though, it's on sale now for £0.59 or your regional equivalent and that will give 4 hours of great sci-fi action. I'd say it's worth picking up.

You'd think a first person shooter about shooting griffons and werewolves in a apocalyptic world would be LEGENDARY right? Where unleashing a horde of nasty mythical creatures into the world to wreak havoc giving you the satisfaction of hunting down grand beasts would be great right? Well I'll tell you right now that It's not a great game but is it as bad as everybody says? To be honest, with you - no, it's actually a pretty enjoyable game. Not amazing but fun. The campaign will take up to about 6-8 hours to beat so it's not too long but long enough to where you can have a good amount of fun with the game. 6-8 whole hours of nasties that just shot out of Pandora's Box (How a tiny thing could fit so many griffons in is completely beyond me but it's pretty cool) and I want to talk quickly about these nasties because Pandora's Box is meant to based on Greek Mythology right? Well funny enough there is probably only one creature in the game that's based solely on Greek Mythology, and that's the Minotaur. You'd think there would be things like skeletons, cyclopses, harpies, manticores, gorgons and what-not right? Well no, most of the monsters are based on folklore from other places around the world which is cool but still that irks me just a little bit as unnecessary as that sounds but a little bit of mythical consistency would have been nice but then again the story is definitely not the game's strong point. It's a nitpick so I just let it slide.

Well with all the bullocks out the way let's begin the part of the review that actually matters:
Pros:
- Fun and satisfying gunplay (Yes, you can hip fire just fine which is always a bonus)
- Beautiful art direction
- Interesting array of enemies based on myths and folklore around the world
- Monster AI is quite intriguing and will use the environment best to their advantage (Throw objects, climb across walls, etc)
- Animus abilities are cool, but you need to strategize on how you use it (Unless there is anima everywhere)
- No lazy regenerating health, healing is done by collecting anima, basically the blood of your fallen enemies are your source of health
- The game's Serious Sam Netricsa-styled PDA does provide some fairly interesting lore on the creatures and backstory
- Controller support which is always nice for those who prefer controller
- £4 (Or your regional equivalent) is a fair price but I do suggest getting whenever it's on sale

Cons:
- Graphics are very sub-par despite the art direction
- Enemy human AI are stupid and can be really cheap at times
- Not many weapons to play around with
- The campaign is a little too linear
- I would have liked the campaign to be a bit longer
- The multiplayer is dead, no you can't go alone and treat it as a horde mode - you need one player on either side which is always a terrible decision when there is an NPC team
- No bots, for ♥♥♥♥'s sake developers if you want your multiplayer to survive at least put it some ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ bots you lazy ♥♥♥♥♥ - I will criticize any game that does this with their multiplayer
- Story and characters are paper thin
- Voice acting is hilariously bad at points
- Animations for the people are dodgy (They're mostly fine with the monsters)
- I think the monsters could have better designs, I mean the minotaur looks like a giant baby slamming his rattle all over the place
- Boss fights are naff
- Despite the nice little twist, it has a very rushed and terrible ending
- Odd and bumpy geometry, don't know what's going on with that
- The elevator before the final battle is bugged to all hell as it throws you out of the map and kills you, so you cannot progress unless you lock the game to 30FPS (Here's the fix for that; Open the PandoraEngine.ini (it is on C:\Users\USERNAME\Documents\My Games\Legendary\PandoraGame\Config-Folder) and search for
"MaxSmoothedFrameRate=300" then change the 300 to 30) Credit goes to PawPaw on the Steam Forums

Overall, I would recommend this game. It's flawed, VERY flawed but it's a fun and very charming game in it's own right with beautiful art direction, fun gameplay and an interesting array of enemies to fight. I want to see this concept done so much more in games, fighting mythical beasts is actually very satisfying - gunning down werewolves with an LMG? Why not! Shooting Griffons out of the sky with a rocket launcher? Oh yeah! Scorching minotaurs with a flamethrower? Sounds like fun! We've had enough zombie games, we've had enough alien shooters and we've faced terrorists countless sodding times - I think there's enough room to give this concept another bash because it's a fantastic idea even if it's poorly executed here. I want to see more games that take on the whole mythical FPS subject.

I have heard that the multiplayer, despite being dead is actually quite fantastic - it's a mix of a competitive objective-based game mode similar to capture the flag combined with a horde mode as the third NPC team decimates players on both ends but also constitute towards the goal of the main game mode. I am genuinely interested in seeing what this game mode is, I think I'll try it out with someone and see how it goes.

But yep, my conclusion is it's a fun yet flawed game. Just know that it will have problems going in but if you can stomach the annoyances then you will find a decently fun and charming FPS with a unique twist to it.

Easily one of the greatest co-op horde-based FPS games ever made. I really can't say anything else that hasn't already been said except just grap your friends, buy this game and watch the hours fly by as you all blast through hordes of nasty mutant zombie experiment thingamajigs. You'll have an absolutely fantastic time with this game, that I and many others can guarantee.

A true marvel, I will go as far as to call this game an masterpiece and a real work of art. For a game that's made by a one man team it really is something great and is more than enough to put every AAA developer to shame.

Dust: An Elysian Tale is a game that has everything in spade, gameplay, humour, gripping story, great graphics, lovely aesthetic, you name it - it's got it. A fantastic port to the PC with a tight framerate and can run on just about any system. Works wonderfully on both keyboard and gamepad. It has tons of weird and wonderful enemies to battle and it will take you across many different places in the game world through it's enthralling story and insanely fun yet simple gameplay.

There's really nothing to complain about with this game, the only thing that will put people of with this game is the art style of anthropomorphic animals which will remind people of the "furry" culture but honestly you won't find anything like that here, it's very well-drawn and animated. I guess if I was to criticize the game in some way, I would say that normal difficulty is extremely easy, I never died once in my playthrough (Sure I struggled with certain areas but never died) and also there isn't enough combos in the melee combat BUT it does make up for it with the awesome Fidget spells and Dust Storm attacks that are immensely fun in mid-air when you can stay in mid-flight for about five minutes straight.

Overall, I would recommend this absolutely. The main campaign will take you around 8-9 hours and doing all the side missions and quests will take it up to 12-14 hours or perhaps even beyond that so there is a ton of content to be had here that's both quality and quantity and with plenty of funny moments with fourth wall breaking, retro game references and much more. And the price is just right, £12 or your regional equivalent is a damn good price for this wondrous game. What are you waiting for? Buy it you damn fools!!