Recent reviews by sparky

sony man bad, however, apes together strong.

now that the evil has been defeated, game good.

This is a game with a ludicrous amount of heart. There's so much love, enthusiasm and humor oozing out of every corner, the impeccable kino pixel cinematics, the gorgeous undersea environment, relaxing music, charming story - it's the kind of game you'd expect from some solo indie auteur developer but with the resources and production capacity to scale it up to a surprisingly broad and deep (hah) experience. Despite the odd tense encounter, the time pressure in the sushi kitchen or a dwindling oxygen meter, you never feel stressed out and there's always room to get past any slip-ups.

At full price this game is 110% worth it, on sale I cannot imagine any good reason not to pick it up. I know this game got some degree of press but I have no idea how its impact isn't bigger than it is. I feel like a lot of what people love about games like Stardew Valley is iterated upon here in a wholly different setting and with a fresh gameplay loop. There have been a handful of outstanding games this year, but this is the only one that I didn't see coming at all.

This is a fantastic diagnostic tool for mental illness.
For example: I love Astarion. 10/10

Oᴛʜᴇʀ ᴘʟᴀʏᴇʀs ʟᴏᴀᴅɪɴɢ...

A lot of hard work has clearly gone into Below Zero. It incorporates a bunch of extra gameplay features compared to its predecessor, there's some gorgeous art and music, and the game world has been designed to be as unique as possible even compared to the original Subnautica. There's a fully voiced story with some solid performances and interesting ideas and a world far more fleshed out than I would have anticipated. It's also remarkable how much conflict you can feel in what is essentially a lone character experience.

I still only feel a pale shadow of the wonder that I felt playing the original Subnautica, unfortunately. Something about dropping into that gorgeous underwater crater with the only thing in view above the surface at first being a titanic spaceship wreck and then bright and beautiful undersea life beneath was absolutely magical. The way it guided you through its minimalist story with only the most barebones direction that you often didn't realise was there (although in the current release the developers have understandably made things a little more overt so players won't miss things) worked really well for me. The many physically restrictive biomes both above and below sea level did sour the experience slightly for me too, I suppose, but I can see why they were implemented.

Nevertheless, a shadow of of that majesty is still a worthwhile experience and I'm not unhappy to say I purchased it and did everything it's possible to do (other than build oxygen pipes).

Intrusive notifications requesting that I leave a Steam review.
Wish granted, Gaijin.

Gonna keep it pretty simple.
Game's fairly pretty. Yes, there are some bugs and glitches like with every game ever released since the dawn of time. No, none of them that I've run into have been any kind of barrier to play, just basic visual clipping and stuff.
Gameplay itself is honestly not super innovative. Pretty much every feature will feel like something you've seen somewhere before. That said, it basically feels like a huge greatest hits compilation of a lot of gaming ideas and that's far from a bad thing.
The character creator is subpar, unfortunately. Was hoping for more there but hey, this is what modders are actually for - I don't mind relying on modders to really flesh out cosmetics and customisation; it's when you also need modders to make the core gameplay loop actually fun that a game deserves criticism. Here's looking at you, Bethesda RPGs.
Here's where it excels. Story and atmosphere feel fantastic. You really do get a deep dive into this huge, sprawling, awful city and I love it. I do recommend the female VA over the male one (bring your own junk) but overall the voices tend to sound good to great. Big fun world, lots to play around with, new weird tidbits and features and stories around every corner. There is loads of cyber and a hefty dose of punk.
I'm not going to call it the best game of all time, or even my favourite game. But it's still a damn good game.

I'll be honest chief, this was a pretty expensive disappointment.
Gradually you start to realise that maybe Kojima really is just a hack and that no amount of postmodern irony is going to salvage the fact that almost nothing in terms of themes or storytelling here works.
And the gameplay, uh, certainly exists. It can be a little zen for a while, I guess, and visually it's quite neat, but nothing that really got me wanting to keep playing.

I hope you have friends because you're absolutely going to need them if you want to do several hunts, many of which constitute the ultimate end-game content. Most of them game is quite entertaining alone or with casual buddies but eventually it gets to a point where you need to grab three other people and really dive into the grind. Easier said than done if you're the sort of person who plays weeb games like this.
But I can't really not recommend a game that lets you wield such massively overcompensating melee weapons, even if the ranged weapons are disappointingly overpowered in comparison.

A grim and gritty struggle across well-realised battlefields where death is your constant companion.
Just figuring out what you need to look for is half of the challenge.
It's entirely possible to spend several hours hating the experience.
You'll be back the next day.