Recent reviews by puxorb

This game made me love Tetris again! I haven't tried VR yet but this game already looks spectacular in 2D HDR.

Its fun, fast-paced, and really satisfying to shoot dudes

It's been a year so I'm giving it another try, but I have to be honest. I just really don't like this game.
I'm someone who played DOOM 2016 a fair bit. I really enjoyed the game, though I'm not one of those hardcore players who's played it 100 times and found every secret. I have beaten it 3 times on Nightmare difficulty so I feel like I have a good understanding of the game.

On paper, Doom: Eternal seems like it should be a great sequel to Doom: 2016. I don't know why, but I just can't get into it. Maybe as I've gotten older, my reflexes have become slower, or I'm less patient, but every time I play this I'm getting seriously frustrated over every single gameplay element.

I'll start with less important things first:

The visual design. Is garbage. Not to say that I don't enjoy the sentinel homeworld, and the various examples of demon architecture, and the awesome set pieces. But secrets in this game are not secret. They're floating holograms of a bright yellow question marks, clearly visible from behind a barrier or up high. New weapons? Gone are the unique introductions, the buildup to getting something awesome to destroy demons with. With the exception of the super shotgun (which I think is super underpowered, I will explain why in a later section), every new weapon introduction is a floating, spinning, green hologram. All the pickups and upgrades look comically video-game like and cartoonish, which I get is what they were going for, but for me it just doesn't work. Doom 2016 was delightfully absurd but still took its time with worldbuilding and fitting gameplay events into the narrative and visual design of the world.

Now onto the gameplay. I started on Nightmare, looking for a challenge. But quickly had to walk that back to Ultraviolence, and now Hurt Me Plenty. This game wants you to play a certain way, using all the items in a very specific way, or you get punished. If you stay close to any enemy for more than half a second, you either die or have to retreat backward. This has the awful effect of making the starting shotgun absolutely useless except against the weakest, slowest enemies. The combat shotgun was my favorite weapon from Doom 2016 so its sad that I don't get to play the way I enjoy. The super shotgun has a grapple that brings you in close to enemies, or swing around them. All it ever does for me is bring me into an enemy's kill range, to which I die very quickly. Doom 2016 never punished you for getting too close, even when at low health. It always gave you an option to escape or deal with whatever it threw in your face. This game punishes you for trying to engage in close quarters combat more than 75% of the time. One problem I keep having is how quickly certain enemies can kill you. At nearly full health and armor in the earlier levels, I can still die to low-level demons in less time than it takes to press q to switch weapons.

I'm always dying to the stupidest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. In the super gore nest level, in one of the arenas, I was doing really well against all of the enemies. I was about to clear out all of the demons in the room when I boosted over a teleporter that I couldn't see, teleporting me into a room full of demons that killed me instantly from behind. I never even saw what killed me. And that seems to be the theme of this game for most of my experience. I can't tell you the number of times I've been trapped in a corner as demons spawn in, unable to jump over them or boost around them, panicking because I have no way to kill 3 mancubus at the same time. I feel like the chainsaw never works on anything but the lowest enemies either, despite having 3 levels of fuel.

I miss jumps all the time. When it should clearly land, or when I'm spamming 'e' to grab onto walls, I always fall to my death. I really dislike the platforming in this game. All this flying around in combat doesn't seem to add anything to the fights but time. (Which is another complaint I have...why do these fights seem to last forever? and is every fight an arena fight? where are the lone stragglers?) Like I've said before I like to fight up close and zip around demons, and this game seems obsessed with getting you as far away from them as possible.

Your projectiles are really slow in this game. I think the heavy-cannon's normal bullets are as slow as its micro missiles. And enemy projectiles are very fast. As soon as they spawn in you are guaranteed to get hit by one before you can even decide how to react. I feel like I'm being punished for playing the game.

I know there's a lot I missed, and my thought aren't exactly coherent, but here's my summary:
This game feels like a chore. Every little thing has to be done the way the developers want it to be done, or its ineffective or doesn't work. The platforming is annoying. The visual design completely ruins my immersion. All fights are arena fights and are incredibly difficult. I have not been able to pass a single optional slayer nest fight and I have no idea why. Sometimes I get stuck while fighting demons and have to let them kill me. My favorite weapons are useless and I'm punished for trying to play the game in my preferred way.

I really really really want to like this game, but its just so difficult for me to enjoy. I think I'll go back to doom 2016 again.

Wow, definitely a worthy sequel. I think I like it better than the first game so far, and that's saying a lot since the first game is incredible! Amazing character designs, music, graphics and art. The movement feels so tight and smooth, and you can string together so many jumps and boosts that Ori just glides through the level seamlessly after a few hours of playing. Playing in HDR is a completely different experience, I don't think I can play it any other way from now on. Everything is so vibrant and the contrast between bright and dark areas is incredible. Ori really pops out of the screen, as does all of the items he can collect.

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Its really fun and cute! Super easy to build stuff and very satisfying. I see a lot of potential for additional content, though I would also be happy if it never changed. Its really cheap, definitely worth getting.

Okay, I think I've gotten far enough through the game to leave a review now. I may have to update it when I finish though. BTW I am going to keep this review SPOILER-FREE.

This game is AMAZING. I mean, I knew it was going to be good, but WOW. Valve, this is incredible. The world design, the art direction and visual language to guide the player, the sound design, the weapons, the enemies, the music, the character animation; They are all superb. Absolutely incredible.

To anyone out there who thought valve was losing their touch (and I myself even began to think this way), this game absolutely proves the contrary.

This game has left me with so many unique, unforgettable experiences. I think about them every single day. What something felt like during the heat of the moment. What things sounded like, what they looked like up close and in true-to-life scale. I can't stop thinking about this game! I am officially obsessed as I constantly watch other people play just to see their reactions to my favorite parts.

In this game you are able to interact with nearly everything. I have never felt more in-touch and immersed with a game world before. Even if this is not the best game ever made, its certainly the most immersive so far. I actually FORGET that I'm playing VR until I need to take a break.

Its extremely comfortable. Even with continuous locomotion, I have never gotten motion sickness. I can play for 2-3 hours at a time with only minor discomfort. (Although, this is more to do with the Valve Index that I play on).

The game's graphics are 10/10. The lighting is really beautiful. It also runs extremely well on high fidelity settings on my now outdated gtx 1070.

Would I recommend this game? Absolutely. If you can't afford VR, make sure you get to an arcade some day or to a friend's house to experience this game. I'm giving it the highest praise I possibly can because it deserves it. 10/10 in every category. If this game doesn't completely change the VR landscape, I would seriously be surprised.

Okay. This is really cool. I'd love an entire game out of this. Or just a bigger city to explore. I love it.

A fantastic recreation of Half Life with updated visuals and a wonderful new soundtrack. If like liked Half Life or Half Life: Source, you will probably love this game. There really isn't much more to say about a recreation of a game with this big of a legacy. Its a faithful recreation of one of the biggest milestones in storytelling and gameplay for an FPS.

This game makes you feel like the ultimate bad-ass as you sprint, jump, and hop around expansive levels and beat the crap out of demons. Amazing soundtrack, great level design that keeps you coming back to explore and unlock new areas, and a visual style and graphical fidelity worthy of the current generation of games, yet somehow isn't demanding and is well optimized. This game can run well on any PC that is medium-tier or higher.

I get about 90-120 fps with a GTX1070 @ 3440x1440p with the highest graphical settings.

10/10
I definitely recommend this to anyone who wants to blow up demons with an assortment of weapons while rocking out to a musical fusion of metal and electronic. One of the best shooters I've ever played.