Recent reviews by retrogex

The game that makes you feel self loathing and depression like no other, while somehow still being really funny.

I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

A solid as hell videogame on its own, paying homage to the true arcade experience, whilst blending 21st modern videogame mechanics with its perks and loadout system.
The game is really really fun if you have another player too, though it is limited to local co-op as far as I am aware.
There isn't really much else to say about this game; it's PAC-MAN, and if you have never played PAC-MAN, then this would probably be a good start for a newcomer.

A very short, but serene sidescroller which involves being a smoothly moving block off a tiki torch and talking to Hindu Gods from Tibet.

Steam, I am seriously demanding ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ quality control on your part for the absolute awfulness you present us steam users.
Get someone in your infinite amount of offices and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hire someone to control the amount of wank you allow to flow through on to the store.

Yeah, call me out for being gullible on the product. It is a unreal engine mess with framerate problems, non functioning controls, 0 ambient soundtrack, painful voice acting, etc etc.

It is basically another one of these trashy games prob made by a Russian. And yeah, sure thing I can refund this garbage.
But ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ have some quality control in this place.

The Room is a point and click examina-thon game that generally is targeting a very specific audience (people who enjoy stuff like MYST will probably like this) and although its demographic is niche, the game for me personally hits all the right spots to make it a very enjoyable and "comfy" game, despite not being a huge fan of these types of games.
The Room is exactly what it says on the tin I guess in terms of premise; you are in a room, and in this dark room you have in front of you on a table a puzzle of some kind, with the setting of the game being in the 1800s, I think anyway. These puzzles are generally very bizarre and extremely intricate, with little details and inklings on each set piece to allow you to examine or play with. The objective is relatively simple; open up each puzzle, and as each puzzle opens, another awaits inside. Picture those russian dolls that have little versions of each other inside them. There is some kind of hidden story involved in the game, but for me personally it was best to not know much for the sheer feeling of mystery involved.

The graphics are very photorealistic, volumetric, and pristine, which obviously allows for more obscure puzzles to be made that couldnt have been achieved on engines for games like MYST back in the 90s. The game's soundtrack consists of eery ambient music, sometimes with the rhythm of a heartbeat, probably indicating that your character is either panicking or focusing on solving each dimensional puzzle in the game. Clicking on things, usually ones with twisty handles or rotational movements, can be a little awkward and fidgety to work with, but besides that, the game controls pretty seamlessly.

The game unfortunately has the issue of being incredibly short, being around 2-3 hours probably depending on how gud you are at solving these kind of puzzles, but for me the money price was worth a pound or two, just for the sheer level of detail in each of the 5 puzzles.
If there is one issue with the Room that I will point out, it is the sheer unawareness of how comfy the game could actually be without its creepy atmosphere, but I suppose it would be considered some kind of clone to other point and click examination games, so the horror setting I suppose helps it be unique.

Overall, an enjoyable experience that was comfy to play while it was raining outside, filled with atmosphere and that Victorian-era feel to it.

An extremely well made Half-Life continuation mod that has the production value of a literal Half-Life 2 episode. Very well-paced, excellent added music that is very reminiscent of the original half life 2 music score.
While little gameplay is involved honestly, what little it provides is a perfect slice of enjoyment from what we all know and love from Half-Life.

Also it is free, there is absolutely no loss to playing this mod if you are fan of Half life 2. Give it a try.

Played this game on release back on 2011, and I must say first things first, it has visually aged quite poorly for the most part, unfortunately, especially when i remember being absolutely blown away first time playing it. The director's cut version of this game provides the extended DLC called the Missing Link that was I believe to be a separate game (typical transaction bs from publishers). REMINDER: THE DLC PLAYS IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MAIN STORY, IT IS UNMISSABLE, so don't worry about somehow skipping it.
Human Revolution is a game about politics, philosophical questions on what makes us human, and throwing vending machines at people. It is also set in the Year 2027, which from playing the game, it seems they probably shoulda pushed the years quite a bit further into the future, because we are FAR from reaching this point in technological evolution.

The game's story, characters, and development throughout is refreshing, and the atmosphere put down on the table is one of a futuristic Renaissance-esque type, floral patterns and colouring indicating a style they were going for. Quite different from the original Deus Ex's straight up cyberpunk atmosphere. The change, while making it more mono coloured, is a very unique one, giving it a very distinct feeling.

The soundtrack also deserves a special mention because it truly encapsulates the feeling of Deus Ex on a whole, providing an epic score of emotional but revolutionary sounding music, blending a mixture of the old and new.
The gameplay itself is one of great variation, and like many stealth games on the market, like Dishonored and MGS, the game provides whatever playstyle you want to go for, whether it is guns blazing, stealth approach making little noise, strongman which can jump 3 metres in the air (no I didn't make that up). The best part of this is, unlike other games, where the options are available but are gimmicky, and provide no real advantage over just doing the same thing over and over, is that EVERY playstyle is important. playing non lethal and stealth will punish you in some aspects, along with rewarding in others, so preferring to one playstyle will make it more difficult on the player in certain areas, and vice versa.

It really feels like the developers wanted to balance out the augmentions (essentially your character's skill trees) to make it feel like you werent some overpowered player, unlike certain games like Dishonored, where you become some one man army. Careful preparation and strategy is rewarded in the long run, and can also affect the game's AMAZING variation in speech in dialogue based on decisions and choices, along with your own playstyles. characters in game will react differently to your different playstyles, while one person may like your upfront "kill all" playstyle, another character may take interest in your "stealthy infiltration" playstyle. The game makes replayability a joy, just like the first game in the series.

I didn't wish to discuss the story, because while it is incredibly good and engaging overall, it is best that the player unravels it himself, and like I said, you carve your own path based on decisions, so most people's storylines will vary.
Overall, a game of incredible depth and enjoyment, a close call to its ancestor in the series, and shows what developers can do when they are creative.
Here's hoping to a successful and wonderful sequel, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

There is no other game for me personally, that I would consider perfect, other than Portal.

There is literally NOTHING flawed in the game, nothing at all I can think of.
The pacing is impeccable, with the correct timing on music and ambient playback with the story.
It covers all types of pacing with music and ambience in gameplay, from the slow and depressing downward spiral of thinking you may never escape (Self Esteem Fund from the OST), to the fast paced finale music of the game. The game made me go through so many emotions all in the expanse of my first time playing around 3 hours.

The game is UNBELIEVABLY clever, yet doesn't need to break the fourth wall to do that, which is incredibly impressive.
The game's humour is absolutely timeless, it is old as hell (9 years from this review point), and yet the jokes are still brilliant. witty, and dark. There are almost NO games that do it on the same caliber of Portal, hell, not even Portal 2 could live up to this godly creation.
The puzzles are beautifully made, completely fair (no fidgety rubbish) and once again, timeless in the sense of enjoyment.

Visually, you might think this game is nothing to write home about, but to me, once again the game shows how age will NEVER affect this game. NEVER. simplistic visuals will always be timeless, intricate wank in videogames will ensure it stays contemporary.

I think I play through Portal 1 at least once a year. The game is short, and scales next to nothing in comparison to other games, but unlike those said games, which take hours upon hours of your life, portal will only take an hour or two. But it stays with you for life, and allows you to experience true perfection in a videogame.
I generally hate analogies for this kind of stuff, but if you can think of some other medium with a perfect technicality and timelessness to it (think of Citizen Kane or something), then Portal is that kind of game.
I think most people in the year 2016 will have played this by now, but sometimes you just gotta pour your heart out for something you cherish a bunch.

Valve may not be the greatest company, but some small dev adopted by them gave us a glimpse of perfection in a video game format. And for that, I am grateful.

I played this a long ass time ago on 360 back in 2010, and heard the initial release of deadrising 2 was botched on pc for many reasons (windows live being a thing unfortunately being one of them). Never completed it, found it difficult to play back in the day, and even now the game can be difficult to play. There are still some issues left even when windows live stopped going on. some of the cutscenes are clearly rendered for 30fps when it is running for 60fps, and the loading times are still long and tedious and in abundance, like the original deadrising and on the xbox 360. unfortunately, it seems regardless of PC specs the load times are long and annoying. The number one complaint I hear about this game is the TIME CONSTRAINTS and how it doesn't allow time to be invested in doing whatever you like completely. For example, getting Katie (your daughter) the drug she needs is something a lot of people really did not want to bother with, but it is obviously a key component to making this zombie game different from the rest. The time constraints for me do not take away from the experience, but rather, make me invest my time well into what things I want to do in the playthrough, like doing certain missions and ones which I can live with missing, saved for another replay.

Anyway, besides those obvious issues, the game itself still holds up fantastically, and it makes me sad the game is almost long forgotten at this point, that being obvious with the global achievements tracker showing people that have played this game lately, only 2 percent have beaten it. To me, the game holds up remarkably well, despite its age, and while I haven't played deadrising 3, mainly because of apparent issues with the port on PC, this game still does the series justice. TONS of replayability, the co-op is weird but still amazing to have with a friend, and the soundtrack to this game holds a special place in my heart. for example go look up Kill the Sound by Celldweller, it is a fantastic song from this game's official soundtrack. It is just so sad seeing the game on Steam being long forgotten because of its horrible PC launch probably botching the popularity the game deserves.

Overall, if you enjoy co-op zombie games with a million and one creative ways to kill them, don't mind using a plug in controller over mouse and keyboard, like your game to not be taken seriously in most cases (the story is incredibly parody-like and quite self-aware) and do not mind the time constraints, this game is definitely worth a purchase for that experience alone.

absolute WANK, no amount of mods will save this piece of trash, and no amount of years will allow me to forgive Gearbox for what they have done to this franchise. This game made a good game like Alien Isolation go under the radar because of the name association.