Останні рецензії користувача A Lazy Sapling

Minimum system specs were changed over 5 years after release due to the new update, which causes significant performance issues for many players who have already bought this game long ago, but can no longer play it due to arbitrary decisions out of their control. Game is great, but practices like this should be abhorred and players should have access to legacy versions of games they own once they are updated.

UPDATE: Capcom has enabled the previous version of the game as a beta build, allowing players to rollback to the DX11 build without any third-party workarounds. DX11 is still disabled in the current update, but it's nice to see the devs have responded. This is important as RE7's update has the biggest impact on performance.

Next gen update makes the game near unplayable on Kepler and RX200 graphics cards and windows 7, needlessly screwing people who can't or don't want to upgrade their PCs and have already bought the game. Moreover, performance seems to be significantly lower compared to previous updates. Although I was unable to make any significant tests myself and the game still runs at well above playable fps for me, anyone still running something like a GTX 1060 or RX 580 (two GPUs that are more than capable of running this game at 1080p/60 with all settings cranked to max) will most likely have some trouble maintaining stable performance. Moreover, the update also introduced FSR 1.0, when FSR 2.0 already exists and provides significantly better image quality over its predecessor. So not only is performance worse in this new update, players must now use poor upscaling technology, with blurry edges, ghosting and other artifacts, to achieve the performance they would otherwise be able to get on DX11, which was senselessly removed in this latest update.

This video is also a good showcase as to why removing DX11 is a bad idea; performance is just better all around in this API than DX12, including higher framerate and no stutter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aROjm7gtDpk

UPDATE: Capcom has enabled the previous version of the game as a beta build, allowing players to rollback to the DX11 build without any third-party workarounds. DX11 is still disabled in the current update, but it's nice to see the devs have responded.

The absolute epitome of "flashy with zero substance". A game that gives the initial impression of rewarding skill, when in reality, it's a big arcade-style casino where strategies are inconsistent and you're constantly punished simply for trying out different approaches.

From a visual perspective, the game does look great. The destruction physics are satisfying and there's a great sense of accomplishment by leaving an area completely trashed after a fight. This is further compounded by traditional ragdoll physics: every enemy hit by gunfire is sent flying a good 3~4 feet in the air and will wobble about in destructible objects, making every kill satisfying and engaging. Weapons also feel punchy and powerful, further compounding this sense of satisfaction. Unfortunately, that's about all there is too it as far as praise for this game.

The destruction and ragdoll physics are left unbalanced by the simple fact that movement feels inexplicably sluggish in this game. I found myself unconsciously pressing down on my movement keys because I felt like the player character was moving far slower than he should have been. Not to mention it felt like the character was constantly swaying about while walking, which made movement feel unresponsive. I also found myself getting stuck in geometry several times when trying to turn around corners or getting behind cover to avoid gunfire. You are given an additional movement option in the form of a dive (because, y'know, John Woo action movies), but diving has little to no feedback, and between dodging gunfire, ensuring your shots will hit and making sure the character will stop at a safe spot once the animation is over, it's impossible to keep track of it. Diving feels less like the cool moment where your character is meant to strike a flashy pose in the middle of an action sequence (like the classic guardrail slide scene in Hardboiled) and more like the dreaded moment when you lose what little control you have as you pray you won't get hit by any stray gunfire once your i-frames run out. This is made even worse by the spotty geometry and how often you get stuck in it. There were several instances in which I tried diving through a window for a set up, only to find myself stuck in some corner and then inevitably dying because the game didn't cooperate with the strategy I wanted to try. Frustrating moments like this are common and are worsened by the randomized enemy movement. Enemies have somewhat set patterns and spawn points, but there are a few variations which, while keeping things fresh, aren't helped by the movement issues. It's a game that's begging to be satisfying to play, but ultimately fails to actually deliver it. You also have a slow-mo, but I've found it completely useless. It simply doesn't last long enough to actually be useful at all. It does seem to last longer when used combined with diving, but even then, it didn't help much. What makes this even worse than it already is, is the godawful aiming reticule that blends into the background no matter what color it's set to. It lacks any distinctive design or outlines or animations or anything like that, so in the heat of the moment, you will absolutely lose track of where you're aiming. The result is that you often find yourself missing when you're shooting an enemy that's just a few inches away from you.

Balancing is all over the place too. There are four weapons to choose from but three of them behave almost identically, and if there are any differences, they aren't significant enough to be noticeable. I often tried different weapons in different situations (you can choose your starter weapon in every level and pick up dropped weapons from enemies), but there were hardly any differences at all. At best the rate of fire varies between the pistols, SMG and AR, but as every enemy dies in a single hit (with one major exception, along with bosses), this difference is moot. The fourth weapon is the shotgun, which is completely, usesless as it can't hit the broad side of a barn even at close range. There were a handful of instances in which I found it useful to take down multiple enemies at once, but the level design doesn't lend itself well to these set ups. Of course, enemies have nigh perfect aim, so anyone using a shotgun will absolutely ruin your day. But as for the player using it? It's only useful for all cool particle effects and destructions physics.

Most enemies in the game die to a single hit, which is good for a "supposedly" snappy and fast game like this, especially since you die in one hit as well, but an enemy type is introduced later that requires two hits to die, rolling to safety when the first one lands. It's a cheap and frustrating way of adding 'variety' to the game as it forces the player to take a deliberately defensive strategy, ruining the pace of your run as you need to take the enemy's i-frames into account, along with randomized movement (you never know which direction they'll roll towards). It makes the later levels too frustrating to be considered fun, everytime my beat them, I found myself thinking "thank god I never have to play this again". The annoyance ruins whatever bit of replayability there could have been. There are also a few boss fights which are inexorably awful. They all follow the same pattern of your character being on the left side of the screen and the boss to the right, as you both rush upwards to the end of the level while exchanging gunfire. Normal enemies also block your path, making boss fights even more annoying as you will invariably die to stray gunfire while trying to land potshots at the boss (who will always roll to initiate i-frames).

Finally, the game encourages replayability by keeping track of deaths and offering three challenges applicable to each level: beating the level within a par time, beating it without using slow-mo, and beating it with 100% accuracy (read: every shot lands on an enemy). Beating levels within a time limit is fun, but the other two challenges are pointless as they require the player to do nothing more than restrict themselves from playing in a freeform manner or taking advantage of mechanics. For a game that has such detailed destructability, it's feels rather pointless. The idea of not using slow-mo is also equally nonsensical as the ability itself is useless, so I found myself accomplishing this challenge for most levels without even trying. It feels less like a full fledged replayability feature and more like an afterthought, as if the developers didn't think players would naturally develop challenges for themselves and come back to the game. Almost as if they weren't confident the game was fun. Makes you think.

There is a lot of potential to be had with Hong Kong Massacre and it definitely wears its influences on its sleeve, but it fails to actually be fun or engaging at a deep level, and by the time you're at the end of the game, it feels like you're fighting a war of attrition, repeating the same level over and over as you struggle with half-baked mechanics, sluggish movement and inconsistent gameplay. Nothing about the game feels natural, resulting in a frustrating experience that makes you feel glad to shut it off and never look back. Do you want the John Woo experience in video game format? Just play Max Payne or F.E.A.R., games made by people who were actually capable and intelligent enough to adapt their influence's style into a different medium.

Horizon Chase Turbo is what happens when you have an idea, and you want to pay homage to something or other, but absolutely, desperately lack a very crucial thing: talent.

However, to say that Horizon Chase Turbo pays homage to its specific genre, arcade style racing games like Outrun from late 80s and early 90s, isn't exactly accurate. It's not paying a homage. Rather, it is outright, shamelessly and as unimaginatively as possible copying everything about it, in what I assume is a free-to-use engine with pre-made assets. There is nothing wrong with looking back to the past when making something new; thinking about what was right before, how we lost our way, and how we can use newly found knowledge and technology to make something inspired by that, while also improving upon it. Doom mods such as Sunlust would not have been possible in 1993, but they are possible now, in 2020. Unfortunately, it seems that the developers of Horizon Chase Turbo caught on to the manufactured nostalgia fad, and thought to themselves that if they made a game that looked and played like it was "retro", that everybody would like it.

It doesn't work that way.

The end result is an uninspired game that hinges on boring gameplay, repetitive races, fake difficulty, and terrible performance. Playing Horizon Chase Turbo isn't quite unlike watching a one-minute video on repeat; when such a video lacks anything that may be endearing in the long run. I have tried giving this game a chance for 5 hours, and throughout this time, I felt like I was playing the same few races repeatedly, even though the game provides several dozens of races and cars to choose from. Even so, nothing stands out. There is nothing to learn or improve when it comes to how you play. Everything feels the same. Even with the large track variety, a lot of it still comes down to luck, as rival races pay little to no regard for your line, how fast you're going, or even the track itself as it doesn't appear that they need to slow down, brake, or methodically take turns to optimize speed. These are all things that the player must take into account, but but not computer-controlled opponents, which creates a large element of luck as no matter how well you drive, a single bump will cause you to lose all the time you saved, while rivals zoom past you with no regard for any difficult corners, always taking them at full speed. Literally every race in the game is like this, which means that you are never quite encouraged to learn the game; even the simplest of tracks becomes an exercise in futility as you end up losing all of your time and progress and advantages because you ended up bumping against the rear of the car in front of you, losing speed and giving them a nice boost. This kind of repetition starts of as boring, then by the first hour of gameplay becomes annoying. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to play a game well, but being punished for it due to poor luck, or a sense of unfairness because your opponents aren't play the game by the same rules as you. You could be competing for 1st place with an opponent driving the exact same car as you, with the same stats, but they can some how steer and turn and speed off with no issue. Very rarely do you see rival races actually crash, and those in the top positions naturally never do. I understand that this was likely an attempt at providing the game with a challenge, but the player doesn't feel challenged, but rather frustrated. Very little in the game compels you to play well when it seems that the fruits of your labor never bear any fruit at all. Also, before anyone asks, I completed essentially all of the game's races up until half-way through Greece, with a few super trophies to spare (super trophies are awarded when you collect every coin in a race and finish 1st), so it's not that I did not succeed in the game. Quite the contrary, but rather than feel satisfied, I felt annoyed. I didn't feel like I learned anything. Rather, it was like I had simply been 'allowed' to win. This is especially true for any races prominently featuring narrow roads; you'll be spending more times bumping cars from behind (and boosting them) and crashing into scenery than actually figuring out a way to race well. Speaking of which, perhaps the most annoying factor of this game is that none of the signs telling you when corners are coming appear soon enough for the player to actually begin taking the corner appropriately, forcing you to glance at the quick map on the left of the screen and potentially crash into a rival or off-road decoration. Signs like this usually appear in games like Outrun itself or Super Hang-On, and always far enough from a corner that you can tell when you start adjusting your racing line accordingly, but the signs in Horizon Chase Turbo appear almost immediately before a corner, forcing you to use the map on the left sign of the screen and, as mentioned, crash your car or bump into another racer, losing speed. Again, it's an element in the game that punishes the player for trying to play well, making it seem more annoying than satisfying.

Speaking of satisfaction, perhaps Horizon Chase Turbo's biggest sin isn't just its flawed gameplay, which I'm sure some people can appreciate, but rather its dreadfully mediocre appearance. The game uses an artstyle and color scheme that is so inoffensive, it feels like a government-sponsored advertisement instead of a passionately crafted video game. The doesn't use any textures, instead opting for flat colors and surfaces -- which isn't a bad thing necessarily, but this becomes especially grating on low-polygon models, such as those on the background. In fact, the backgrounds seen in races are also so flat and boring, it feels like they're not even there in the first place. Even though Horizon Chase Turbo tries to pay homage to games like Outrun, it seems to actively insult those games with the simplicity of its appearance. Instead of finely crafted pixel art backgrounds and cars, you get flat pictures with haphazardly put together geometric shapes that seemed to have been drawn on some basic, free to download image editor; almost as if the developers think that the graphics of such arcade races were slapped together in about 10 minutes with no regard for art direction. Moreover, the color scheme makes nothing stand out: it isn't too saturated, but not too faded, creating this pseudo-cartoonish style that tries not to actually jump at your face or leave any lasting impressions, because some kid with ADHD might just feel too immersed, or some grandma might feel dizzy watching her grandkids play it. It is inoffensive. It doesn't try anything, doesn't want to jump at your face or leave you thinking about it when you turn the game off. Rather, the uninspired graphics make me wonder just what car I was driving five minutes ago, because not even those stand out. Before the developers froth at the mouth, no, putting in the Hachiroku from Initial D in your game, or slapping up the Ferrari from Outrun doesn't quality as "art direction". It's cute, but the impression it leaves is that you were too uninspired or unimaginative to actually include your own designs, so you 'borrowed' others and called them 'easter eggs' or references. Unfortunately, I have MAME installed on this computer with a ROM of Outrun, so if I wanted to drive the Ferrari from that game, I'd do that. And that game was made in 1987.

In fact, I'll think I'll wrap this review here and do just that: play some Outrun. That game actually stands out with its incredible graphics, music, tight controls and natural replayability. I can't bring myself to play a game as insultingly inoffensive and mediocre and annoying as Horizon Chase Turbo.

Neither should you.

GFWL, absolute lack of proper mouse and keyboard controls, unsatisfying gameplay where weapons feel identical, enemies blend into the background and it becomes increasingly frustrating and hard to find your way despite the presence of arrows and other pathway indicators. It's hard to play a fast pace "arena" shooter when the slightest flick of the mouse, even when mouse sensitivity is turned all the way down, causes your view to move a whole 90 degrees; on top of the nonsensical mouse acceleration/smoothing that makes placing your shots all the more difficult and frustrating, and that's already in a game where nothing stands out in your view so you don't even know where you're being shot from, making it extremely difficult to react to even the most basic of situations. This game isn't just bad. It's insulting. It took e an hour to set this up thanks to the presence of GFWL (which, by the way, you need to use otherwise you can't save), on top of having to manually download and install an update which did apparently nothing to the game whatsoever. I paid about R$5 for this and I still feel cheated. If I could erase the presence of this game from the depths of my memories, I sure as hell would, even if it means incurring permanent damage to my frontal lobe.

Hotline Miami 2 proves that the first game was nothing more than a fluke: a set of ideas that happened to work well, without any sort of specific planning. It just worked, and that was enough. It was a hard, snappy, rewarding game. Levels were short and sweet, and you were rewarded for experimenting and trying out new strategies. It was pure arcade style fun. Unfortunately, the only thing the sequel has going for it is the music. Everything else feels less like an attempt at succeeding its predecessor and more like insulting it. Levels are now too long, you can no longer experiment with the different masks or strategies outside of key situations, forcing you to play in a specific style for a each level. And if you like shooting, you better get ready, because any amount of recklessness you were rewarded for in 1 is gone in 2, Get ready to peek out of corners, picking off guys with a shotgun and hope that the spread gets them. And by them I mean the 50 guys that are in this one level, including the fat guys which basically force you to use guns. Sorry, but if I wanted a top-down shooter, I have dozens and dozens of other games to play from 20~30 years ago and this one fails in that respect so spectacularly, it's almost depressing. In HM1 it would take you about 20 real time minutes to beat a level if you really suck at it. Now, just playing on average skill level, it takes 30~50 minutes of meticulous planning, waiting and hoping that RNG won't screw enemy positions for you. Oh, and if you get shot by a guy from across the level that you couldn't see, well, tough luck. Start over. It's not challenging as it used to be. It's obnoxious and a constant test of patience instead of skill.

HM1 was fun. HM2 is not fun. At all. It is so terrible, that it makes me think that the developers should stay away from game development altogether, or at least study traditional game design before trying to improve on a fluke. It's really, really bad, and so disappointing, that it makes me wish HM1 didn't exist, so this game didn't, too. It's terrible to the point of being insulting. You can't help but feel depressed at a 2/10 sequel to a 9/10 game. Awful. Truly, truly awful, and certainly not even worth getting for free. Stay away, and be thankful for it.