Recent reviews by nekobun

Alien Breed 3 wraps up the Alien Breed trilogy in spectacular fashion, bumping up big battles just enough so that they feel more impressive without being overwhelming. A fitting end to this trio of games, with an increase in encounters and environmental shifts that reflect where the plot has taken things perfectly.

Short-ish review since I mooned about the first two games plenty, but yeah. Get the trilogy. Play 'em all.

I did most of my raving about the Alien Breed trilogy in my review for the first game, so we'll keep this short. Alien Breed 2 continues the framework laid down in the first game, with few to no new surprises waiting this time around. This could make things feel kind of tedious, were it not for each game's relatively short length. If anything, it feels like an episodic release before such a format was popular.

As in the first one, a lot of the plot elements and ambush points feel fairly telegraphed, but it's fun despite how easy it is to figure out what's going to happen. I also applaud the game's way of balancing your character's vulnerability and badassery. I believe all three of these are bundled on Steam now, so definitely pick up all three in one go.

Coming from Team17, the crew responsible for the Worms franchise, the Alien Breed trilogy was a pleasant surprise. A far cry from the light-hearted lobbing of explosives and sheep at other annelids, Alien Breed rehashes the gritty, one sucker against everything being thrown at him trope while avoiding being boring.

Being trapped on a ship full of alien creatures out to turn you into dinner is nothing new, but Alien Breed manages to maintain a good balance of puzzle solving, surprise attacks, and ammo management as you mow down wave-based hordes. The level design rarely, if ever, backs you into an unfair corner when dealing with the masses of enemies, even if it does suffer from the "no starship designer would ever make things this convoluted" syndrome often necessitated by gameplay.

The pacing between massive onslaughts and ambushes is varied enough to keep things fairly tense and avoids being repetitive. However, anyone familiar with this sort of thing will rapidly begin noticing what vents or other points are likely points of monster ingress, which makes things feel a bit more predictable. They won't -always- be used, but a lot of the time? Yeah, aim that way and get ready to party.

It's also not that much of a slog, time-wise, to get through any of the three games in this trilogy, so if you want a fun, if typical, sci-fi survival romp, check Alien Breed out. Team17, to no one's surprise, did well.

Alan Wake provides a great homage to more subtle, spooky horror while portraying (fairly accurately) the blurred line between reality and fiction experienced by many a fiction writer. I really loved the focus on avoiding combat for the most part, and the flashlight mechanic was a great change of pace, if a bit frustrating in some of the game's tighter bits.

On the audio front, the licensed soundtrack choices, especially at the end of each chapter, were amazing. The entire episodic format was a nice touch, both for said tunes and for how it played into reinforcing Alan's role as an author. Having boss fights in the game felt a bit peculiar, but most of them are simple enough to figure out with few to no obliterations while attempting them. I kind of hate farming equipment forever now, though.

Definitely pick this one up, especially if you're a fan of stuff like The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, or the more subtly menacing works in Edgar Allan Poe's bibliography.

Absent recounts the events surrounding a small college town when a mysterious disappearance throws several students into a conflict that's much more than it initially seems. It delivers much more of a game than I expected for free, but isn't without some minor problems.

On the plus side, the game area is fairly compact, the voice acting is pleasant, and the story is compact and coherent, if a bit deus-ex-machina-laden toward the end. The animation style may be a bit off-putting at first, but it has enough charm that it grew on me before the game was over, and I appreciate the dedication put into animating everything by hand. There were only a few puzzles I had any real difficulty with, and most of those were in the last phase of the game. That, and the bit with the ladder was a bit annoying as I wasn't quite sure how it worked; you'll know what I mean when you get there.

All in all, I'd recommend taking this for a spin. Maybe twice, since some of the achievements are less obvious than others. Absolutely worth the price, and in honesty, I'd be willing to kick the creator a buck or two if I could.

Oh man. This game. Wow.

First strike? Took me ten minutes of hammering "F" on everything just to find the less-visible door out of the starting office.

Second strike? I got run over and killed in the first few minutes after that trying to cross the street to drop off some chump's food delivery.

Third strike? After finally making it to the hotel and having a slight grasp of what to do thanks to another playthrough I'd seen before trying the game (Jim Sterling's, if you're curious), got gangbanged by a trio of two-headed whatevers just for walking into a shed for a lame jump scare.

The game's enemies are ridiculously tough given you're not equipped with so much as a dot reticle for your firearm, so shooting is mostly a matter of praying that your view is lined up properly. I found a rifle with a scope before encountering any, but what's the point of a scope when you can't maintain the distance from enemies necessary for it to be useful? Aiming in general is basically suicide, since whatever you're aiming at will crawl right up your butt if you take the time to.

I thankfully avoided any of the Pewdiepie bait/references, but to be honest, they wouldn't have made the experience that much less tolerable. Don't waste your time with this.