Скорошни рецензии на 40_Onyx???

UPD. Sadly it's dead


I don't want to neither praise potential nor poke every slightest flaw of the game in EA.
I just want to recommend you to try it out for few hours, because you might love it as much as I do. Then you'll have weekly content updates or at least bug fixes, dev's updates and events twice a week, clear Play 2 Win system, historically accurate weapons and armor, M&Bish combat with deeper strategy and hours of fun. Don't forget it's still in beta, so you would encounter minor bugs with AI, hitbox system (nothing critical) and server's stability (very rare).

The most unnecessary DLC for Wargame. Couple "really new" units. But still nation feels unic and visually all units crafted with love and contain tons of details. No-brainer on sale if you love wargame and want to add some new weedy flavour to it.

At this point I'm ready to buy any DLC to the best (IMO) multiplayer RTS game on the market, sadly this is last one. Two new nations and two coalitions are joining Wargame, which really balance the RED side due their lack of diversity of units. Eugen changed their politic of free DLCs, so now we are paying for the things we got used to get for free. But let's face it, cost is really low, all pay DLCs cost as much as one latest Paradox DLC to Europe 4 and they got I think already almost hundred of those (including skins, music, etc.). On top of that all units look much better and detailed. Now let's play fabulous Finland and migthy Yugoslavia, while we are waiting for Wargame 2 announcement.

This is the most shallow and boring rogue-like experience you could buy. Combat system is extremely primitive. You just choose out of 3 points on the moster's body with different hit chance and then roll the dice. Exploration floor to floor is repetitive. Surprise surprise. It really doesn't deserve big review from me, just warning you to avoid it, don't be fooled by stylish look.

Right after finale my PC crushed with bsod, it took me few seconds to realize that was a real-life bsod. Pony Island is a metagame at it finest. Ironically it's a game with solid gameplay about diabolically bad game development.

Suicide note

(It should be a review for game website, which no longer exists, so I decided to put it here anyway. I'm open for offers btw.)

If I would say that “the static speaks my name” is ♥♥♥♥ or the masterpiece, it would be as much a review as tssmn is actually a game. Yes, it would intrigue you by the title and then jump right to the point, but then would find itself shallow and without an ability to perform something meaningful. And more importantly, it won’t waste too much of your precious time and would offer some point of view.

If a free game takes you 15 minutes to beat it (only because of mine desperate attempts to find any hidden way or/and meaning), how could you criticize it?! So tssmn cares about your wallet and time (which is money, so its care is twice beneficial), but the game can’t offer anything except that and “shocking” thematic. And this is disappointing because it got tightness in the air, a game like that desperately needs, but catharsis of the story is too weak to sympathize, it just leads you to inevitable. Do you really want to kill yourself only because you found the rope and someone told you so? Do you really want to play the game only because it’s free and short? Well, maybe you do, how could I know.

It might be easily the end of my review, but the journalistic rule says to avoid rhetorical questions at the end of any article, so let’s talk about theme of the game, we got no choice, because other aspects of it are not worth a space on the paper (screen? nevermind), as I mentioned before. So tssmn explores the dark side of human consciousness as well as “Depression Quest” which made a lot of noise some time ago, but it was nothing to do with its theme or quality. DQ reminds some physiological test, while tssmn is more like a manual; it isn’t asking any whys. Sadly both games failed to deliver gameplay-wise mumbling something about the importance of its ideas. You really need to get your thoughts straight before a public debate on such topics, because loud statement couldn’t substitute story, game mechanics and the gameplay itself. We all know that those things exist, although sometimes afraid to talk about them, would you mind to make an actual game about it? Oh my, the rhetorical question again. So it was inevitable as well.

Outdated Review: Poor cousin

(It should be a review for game website, which no longer exists, so I decided to put it here anyway. I'm open for offers btw. Also it's more like neutral review, but steam allows us to choose only between thumbs up/down, and in my opinion Mafia 2 doesn't deserve such a perfect score, it's far away from being perfect or even good)


Mafia 3 has been announced not a long time ago, so it’s a good time as any to review Mafia 2, which I deliberately missed. To be honest all those 98% positive steam ratings put a shame on me, whispering that I missed something worthy. Oh, grow a pair and say it to my face already. So Mafia 2 is the sequel to an original game from 2002, Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven. Caroled gangster’s romance was released in 2002 a few months after groundbreaking GTA 3 and it found its own niche. It wasn’t GTA-clone even though it looks like one. It had the well-written story, which masterfully utilizes a beautiful, but pretty lifeless open world and some fresh mechanics. And it was easily one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. But we are talking about the brother of a genius, so I won’t bet on the chance that he would be as bright. And as a matter of fact, he isn’t.

“Look at me” – says Mafia 2: “I’m just like GTA, look at that decently sized open world, at all those clothes stores, eateries, gun shops, glossy cars and wait for it…. collectible boobs. I got everything you might need. See? Seeee?” Okay, Mafia, but why? Why do I need to eat? I got great lizard-like regeneration. Are you making me choose between waiting three seconds behind the wall and regenerate 80% of my health or take a ride to the other end of the city to eat some burger right in the middle of the shootout? I guess I stuck with regeneration, thank you very much. Anyway, I don’t have a choice in the vast majority of the time, because you cutting me off from the outside world in narrow halls and rooms. Why do you offer me to buy guns, when I got enough ammunition to arm platoon in every chapter and then you take it all away at the beginning of the new mission anyway? I understand you need to make some use of the money you gave me, but please be more creative. So what are you saying about car’s customization? Okay, but why do you force me to use cars of friendly NPCs in most of the chapters, when I really want to show the world my new candy red Pontiac with EATD1K plates? Freeride mode could help, but you don’t have it. Why don’t you borrow it from your older brother? I need to tell you something very important, Mafia 2, you are adopted and no, you are nothing like GTA, you are more like Call of Duty and not the prettiest one.

Game torn between two role models; open-world sandbox and Hollywood movie and cannot decide which one it wants to be more. It is not clear for me why developers used open world at all; it’s a complete gimmick for the game with a linear and short story and no free mode. However, I got no doubt that Mafia 2 was released in a total rush, every part of the game screams about it. In the last mission, I caught myself on thinking that I am tired of the small map, but at the same time I’ve never checked the half of it, I just got no reason to. Some of the buildings I passed looked very detailed, like the location for unfinished missions. The story named to be the strongest part of the game, feels rushed as well and it’s okay at best. The main character is generic Italian American Vito with no real will, except the will to be rich. His best friend is his worst friend at the same time; he brings all the troubles on them both. The only memorable minor character is Leo, who got unhealthy father-and-son relationships with Vito in prison, like Woody Allen with all those young actresses. Storytelling is torn apart by time leaps and cutscenes, which at the end looks more like compilation “of the stories and mission, we got no time and money to make properly and add to the game, even though we obviously planned to”. I’m not sure about the morale of this story but looks like it teaches us that family matters, but never specify which family, because, let’s be honest, Vito betrayed both of his families at some point. So it has to be about the significance of the friendship, at least this is the last thing Vito lost in the end, it should be important. On top of all that the one moment in the story which might become really powerful and interesting, unfortunately, remained just an Easter egg to the first game.

It’s odd to say in 2015, after the release of Order 1886, but Mafia 2 is a quite short for AAA open-world title, due to lots of the clipped materials, but even though 11-13 hours of gameplay, game got difficulties with how to entertain the player. The hard difficulty might slow you on the way to “the end” sign, with one-shot kills from nowhere, but it’s obviously not enough. Game decided that you might enjoy dock loading, selling cigarettes or even toilet cleaning with “Press E to do” mechanic. The game feels proud about it so you would repeat monotonic actions (press E – watch the same animation) few times. What a brilliant gameplay finding, but please don’t take this candy away from CoD series. Do you want to find all playboy’s pages maybe? I guess, but I am not a teenager anymore and I got fast internet for dirty stuff. More so, searches for erotic pages break the rhythm of the game, when your wounded friend crying you to hurry and you keep looking for some titties.

Reviewing Mafia 2 I tried to avoid comparison with The City of Lost Heaven, but this is quite hard because the first game was bigger and better in all aspects. It got a more intriguing story, better-written characters, more hours of gameplay, more cars, more things to do, story twists and missions you’ll never be able to forget (remember the race?). In ten years, Mafia 2 brought to the table only fancy picture. The saddest thing is that game not only didn’t evolve in any part but even lost some nice ideas of its ancestor. For example, cops won’t follow you for running a red light anymore. Mind-blowing in 2002 driving regulation system could become a great core mechanic with lots of interesting missions and accidents built around it, but it didn’t. The only thing in which Mafia 2 could compete with the first game is the atmosphere and music as a part of it. 2K’s child nailed it; for the short amount of time, you could feel yourself as “not so law-abiding” citizen of an American city in big and open to possibilities 50s. Due to the great number of positive reviews, I suspect many of the people just missed The City of Lost Heaven and I would recommend playing it instead.

I decided to change my recommendation, since 2k announced SECOND hunter season pass with 4 more hunters for freaking 25$, so it looks like they planned to make 3 more SEASON passes (or maybe more, possibilities are endless), which made Evolve unique the one and only game with more than 1 season pass, congratulations! This is a new low. Technically its misleading information, cause customers got used to season pass as way to grab all DLC's, which could be released in the future for the less price. This is unspeakable abuse of the system and gamers and it should NOT be tolerated. So this game cost already 110$ and would be cost 75$ more. Cmon, 2K, stop ruining Turtle rock's reputation (they made decent game once again, and you literally cut it in pieces) and your player base.... 5 loyal players. And btw they raised prices twice as much in my region for their old games, like 5 years old games. So my recommendation don't trust your money to 2k at all. I guess they looking for fame of activision and 90's EA.


Old review:

Evolve got too much hate around it, mostly cause of ridiculous DLC model. But how does it really make game any worse? Anyhow, I decide to make Pros/Cons list, to answer vital question "Is it worth it?". Here we go:

Cons:
-Worst DLC model I've ever see. Really. Skin packs, 2 (!!!) season passes, deluxe edit., etc. And the price is enormous.
-Skins are really pathetic; they are literally using just another color texture. Really lame comparing with TF, Dota, Lol or anything.
-Most of the player feels lack of the content. Well, I feel like TRS could bring us 5 monsters and 5 of each type of hunters from the beginning. It would be fair for 60 dollar tag.
-small but annoying bugs with cursor
-minor crashes and disconnects
-Game base are dropping down pretty fast and it's hard to say how bad it would be. Frequent updates with new FREE characters would save it for sure.
- and THE BIGGEST ISSUE (is it a real issue, tho?), game is far from being casual, it very exacting to player's skill. One lame random player would easily ruin whole match for your team. If he is a trapper, you got a chance never see the monster until it would come to your power plant. If he is a healer, you team probably would lose first teamfight, etc. It could cause frustration in first case or rage in second? or most likely both. Teamplay is critical here. One hunter could not win whole war, but could win a small battle and make something right to save whole crew. If everybody doing right (including monster) here Evolve shines. So its “boring and repetitive” if you or your teammates don’t really know what you should do. Most complains come from the people who don’t understand the game and not willing to learn it.

Pros... and conclusion.
Well, it's quiet a list, so do you think those things are more important than actual gameplay? Cause gameplay is brilliant, and pretty well balanced for asymmetrical game. Before you start to argue about wraith, I want to say that Evolve reminds me about MOBAs a lot (jungle, 4 abilities + ult, monster's farming, different roles and importance of teamplay, etc), so as it would have more and more characters to play, every new one would be accusing of being op, just because it’s new. Anyway game would need frequent updates and game balance. Let’s face it; it’s hard to balance even non asymmetrical MOBA games. And by the way would you call MOBA games repetetive? Cause their have 1-2 maps to play and victory conditions are the same from game to game. Their find variability in big numberf of playable champions and the fact that different people got different playing style and most importantly skill. So why do I recommend it? Well if you have decent team (even random) you would have a great joy out of it. Battles are totally epic and beautiful, hunt process is keeping you in your toes (your heart is rushing when trapper following you hard on first level), every member of the team is matters and could save all others in some situations, so gameplay is thrilling. If you are ready to learn the game (if you have a full team it would be even greater) you would enjoy it. But I would recommend waiting for updates with new characters, just to be sure about developer’s intentions and plans. It won't hurt to wait sale either, cause it's kinda costly. Evolve got its issues, its not that great as developers told you, but its definitely not as bad as community trying to make it looks and for sure Evolve is unique.

As a jew I find this game offensive

"Alan Wake" is talently written and well-directed, voice acting is remarkable, music..., well everything it quiet noteworthy about this game, except the gameplay. If you found Bioshock Infinite's gameplay shallow, Wake got a surprise for you and it's a bad one. First of all port is poor, partly cause of this gunplay just is not enjoyable and pretty boring, gladly late in the game I realize that I could just run to other checkpoint leaving flairs and enemies behind, when it's possible. It brings to another sad thing. You could find all pages of manuscript that contain parts of the story only on the nightmare game difficulty. Believe me after you beat it on normal, which is not a cakewalk as well, you won’t want to go through all this again. Back to the good part. Nevertheless game brings to you really great atmosphere and story, most of reviews compare it to Steven King's novels and you really can feel that writers drew their inspiration there. But for me it all reminds "circus" level from Max Payne 2: dark, gloomy, depressive, hallucinogenic and crazy. Some names, situations, etc. insinuate to Max as well, you could even see his face on TV if you got a watchful eye. Drama in Max Payne is stronger, but more obvious and schematic, while Wake's writers create truly holywoodish (in a good way) suspense, narrative full of metaphors and links to pop-culture. It could be a fantastic movie, but it's just a good game worth your time.