Recent reviews by wdbros

the guy hugged me from behind and then i watched my friends from heaven

i love spending money on virtual boxes

Superliminal is not as much a game as it is an experience. At first, I wanted to call it a collection of gimmicky mechanics. And while that is true, I now believe it makes up for it with a great overall theme.

It's a game that will take about 2-3 hours to beat, with a bit of replayability given by the speedrunning mode. The puzzles aren't anything to write home about. There aren't many, and most of them either have super obvious solutions or end with a 'wait, i could do that?' moment, at least for me. (Though that might be because I'm trained to think in terms of a game's mechanics instead of taking the elements of the game at face value.)

Yet I still don't think that the game fails as a puzzle game. While the mechanics aren't very varied, I believe the devs make up for the lack of variety with a great through thread tying all the levels together. They came up with a great mechanic, wrote a compelling, though admittedly basic story to make sense of it, (wrote a banger soundtrack) and packaged it all in a game.

You should get Superliminal if you're looking for a fairly simple experience with a clear 'moral of the story'. On that front, it delivers well.
You should not get Superliminal if you're looking for a longer puzzle game that uses it's mechanics to the fullest. Again, don't think of this as a game. It's an experience.

this game leaves me with mixed feelings.

while i'm not too much into waifu stuff, i definitely see why the content is appealing. the music is nice, the art is interesting. and i admit that while i'm not too into the setting of hell, and demon girls, it does have a certain appeal.

but, the game fails to be fun, for me.
the game is basically a trial and error puzzle game. the solutions aren't too obvious, and it does take some time to figure out the general solution. but, during gameplay, it quickly becomes frustrating.

i think the game would benefit from dropping the counter mechanic. on multiple levels, i figured out the solution, but was always one or two moves away from beating the level. that's not inherently bad, but it left me frustrated. it forces the player into the one solution that the developer came up with. and to add, a mistap of the arrow keys will make you restart the level. again, not bad, but not fun either. without the counter, and with some tweaking of the level design, helltaker could go from trial and error puzzle game to... just puzzle game. ;; the counter is not fun > better to lose it (it does have the skip level option, so you can cruise past the levels if you're playing for the "plot")

to sum up, the game is good in everything except the gameplay. it's only frustrating, but could easily be made into something more fun. i only recommend it if you're in it for the girls and don't mind skipping some of the levels.

very nice

not much story
but cool gameplay
it's made to be replayed on harder difficulties each time
and has mobility mechanics to boot (dodge)

feels similiar to re2 in gameplay, yet still very different
i actually want to speedrun re3, unlike re2

overall, i think it's worth the moneys

this one is a lot more polished than the one before
idk if it has an endless/rougelike mode like the first one
but it's definitely got a lot more story
also the gun descriptions are nice
10/10 does what it says it do

Nothing can be said about this game that hasn't already been said. But I'm still gonna write this.

This is a good game. It's a plain good VR title, made to drive sales, and give a reason for people to get VR. But, it's not done just for the sake of it. It's done well.

Even just by itself, it's just a good game. It didn't do much that was special, or at least, there wasn't anything that sprung to me as a groundbreaking design choice. But this will be the benchmark for VR games. It doesn't stand out to me as much as Boneworks or Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, but it is more fun to play, and I really can't tell why. It shouldn't be, Boneworks has better physics, and Walking Dead has a gameplay loop that's better in theory, but... HL:A still comes out on top for me.

Though, I can tell why some people are complaining about the game. At times, on my second playthrough, it felt slow. But, it's paced for the comfort of a new player, not an avid VR user. And even though I've spent a cool 300 hours on SteamVR alone (I play on Oculus Rift CV1), on my first playthrough I never felt that the game was slow.
The game does lack some features that Boneworks and Walking Dead do have, like melee combat. But I feel that it doesn't need to, as long as situations where using melee would be better than shooting do not occur, which, they didn't. And, melee is not a beginner friendly feature in VR games, and definitely isn't a requirement in any modern VR game, so I don't see how the lack of melee makes the game worse.

Overall, the game is well paced, has fun gameplay, headcrabs are not as terrifying as expected. It's a damn good piece of software, and a reason for people to get into VR.

now. this game is basically a pve coop mission grinder. you have your team (or lack of), your "hero ability": one of three powerful items that will define your playstyle, and a skill tree (a la dead by daylight or we happy few). you and your companions are launched into a randomly obstructed map with randomly generated enemy placements and (a) randomly generated objective(s). and this isn't the juice of the game is, the mechanics are.

this game has a few interesting mechanics that combine together. now, i still haven't experienced the game fully, and i feel i have a lot to learn, but i'm writing this from what i've gathered.

to start with the main mechanic: eye closing. this is the centerpiece and pride of the game. it really feels like the developers think of this as the greatest thing in the game and the most intriguing mechanic... it's not. the concept is admittedly cool, but the way it is implemented is pretty bad. however, the devs are not to blame, this is the best way this could've been pulled off; there really isn't much leg room for this because of reasons i will leave at the bottom. but, it is only useful to show you the fastest way to your objective, the wildcard which i will get to later, and to communicate with your inner "VOICE"; some second soul (or just voice) stuck with you in your body (diavolo intensifies). it looks creepy though, so props for that.

then, you have the stamina/hp mechanic. and the way this works is very clever. to be quick, your hp defines your maximum stamina. so, if you have 100%hp that means you have 100%stam, and you can use that to sprint for as long as that will last. then, you get damaged for 40%hp. that means you have 60%hp left, and now your maximum stamina is also 60%stam. if you heal back to 100%hp, you regain your max stamina as well. it gets rid of useless clutter in a fairly realistic way.

for the rest: the movement/parkour feel fairly basic and honestly pretty bad; reminded me of hello neighbor (oh god the ruin of that game). mouse controls are also finnicky, but not unusable.
the basic stun mechanic is pretty good, not much to say on that. you jump on your victim from the back, and pin them. you can keep them down by getting back on top of them, and when you're done in the area you can run away. reminds me of Invisible Inc.
the "Hero" abilities (stun gun, grappling hook, crossbow) don't feel like they work together. there wouldn't be a benefit to having each one on your team.
the major skill trees also feel pretty single-player oriented, other than the prank call and drone (but even those have to be well coordinated); it doesn't feel like there's actual need for teamwork, you can just run around, do your own thing and get back to the extraction point.
the always on microphone mechanic (a la welcome to the game) doesn't seem like it does anything. like, anything at all.

now, for the enemies. you have your default "sleepers"(?) who just walk around, listening for your footsteps. they aren't too dangerous, as long as you don't blatantly get in their stupid face asking why they have cloth over their heads.
next you have the "sleepwalkers". these are the same, except they are slightly slower and much more attentive to sound than the sleepers. they also don't wear a cult uniform, the hipsters.
the lucid, they are... well, lucid. they can see. these guys are really difficult to hide from, and they always seem to track your steps perfectly when you try to run away, almost perfectly one step away from running at you with their hands in front of them.
and, the afformentioned wildcard: the shape. the shape appears to be an invisible dude, though when jumpscaring you, he reveals his true form. anyway, he will occasionally appear seemingly out of nowhere with thundering footsteps running after your most effective (objective-wise) or loud (bad-at-stealth-wise) teammate. but you don't know if that may be you. all you know, is that you can only see him when you close your eyes (or by the red vfx on the screen pointing to where he is). and that's the interesting bit. you have to close your eyes to see him, but you then can't see where you're going. it's a delicate balance, but it feels gimmicky.
there might be more types of enemies but these are the ones i know of so far

if you get caught by one of the earlier mentioned enemies (other than the shape), it's not game over yet. they will attempt to drag you off to the closest "red door", conveniently passing by some trash piles. trash piles that conveniently store "escape items", items that can set you free from your potential indoctrinator. how very convenient of them.

there are more things that i could look into, but i'm not too experienced, and i am too tired, so here's a tl;dr/tl;dw
pros: interesting mechanics, fairly good gameplay, decent horror elements, nice setting, replayability (self sacrifice and all)
cons: lackluster movement, gimmicky-feeling mechanics, lack of playerbase (though that'll be fixed with time), and almost none of the multiplayer things or skill trees are explained in the tutorial, only gameplay basics.

overall, a 7/10
where's the arg ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

This game will make you feel weird. It is a strangely simple gameplay mechanic made into a full game. It is fun. I like it.