Recent reviews by Eludium

The only regret I have after finishing Layers of Fear is that I won't be able to experience the game like the first time I played it, ever again. It was a memorable journey, which, even though admittedly short, was worth every cent.

You play as a painter who's gone insane over his obsession with perfection in his works of art. Through the story you'll recall memories that surrounded him and his family and how his profession completely changed his world, his attitude etc. While the narration is not particularly mind-blowing, it's the events which happen throughout player progression that mainly consolidate the story. The game is split in a prologue and six chapters, all of them happening around the spectrum of your magnum opus, a new masterpiece you're working on. As you are progressing through the narrative you will understand how the plot takes a darker turn with each new chapter.

In regards to the genre, I can firmly say that Layers of Fear does a fantastic job at bringing suspense and fright to the player. There is no combat, and dying will not have you reload an older checkpoint (though it will lead to a different ending). Instead, most of the horror is brought to you by the uncertain and the jump scares. Indeed, the game is filled with them, but in my opinion they make the game a lot better. Sure, many people may disagree with me here. I am not a fan of cheap, cliché-ish jump scares either, and that's exactly why I loved them in Layers of Fear: they're different. It's difficult to explain exactly how they work without spoiling the game. In short, they're much more than random meshes thrown at you. It feels like they're building the story in their own way.

The gameplay is the standard one usually encountered in games of this sort: you walk/run across the rooms, interacting with the environment in order to progress or to uncover memories of the protagonist's past. You can not defend yourself from the enemy, but there's only a few encounters with them, all of which can be avoided as well.

The graphics are absolutely top-notch and a notable feat both from the development team and the Unity engine. Many times I stopped from advancing in the game only to stare at the paintings on the walls, or at the attention to detail in various scenarios. It is definitely a visual gem, which immensely adds to the immersion factor and overall to an even greater atmosphere.

The sound design is purely a masterpiece. Being an audiophile, I paid attention all the time to the background noises and music.

• The sound effects are very well polished and in harmony with the pace of the game. The wind and the trees outside, the lights cutting out, whispers of the past etc. all make up for the horror ambiance.
  
• The voice acting, while not distinctly catchy, is not half bad. Most of it will be heard when the player finds a memento, so it's not intrusive in any way.
  
• The soundtrack is astounding and one of the main reasons I replayed the game multiple times. Immersive melodies accompanying the player, with changing themes depending on the scenario.

It is worth saying that Layers of Fear is an incredibly atmospheric game, mainly because of the aforementioned graphics and sound quality, but also thanks to the incredible level design set by the developers. It's a game playing with your brain, the rooms changing their appearance as you trigger certain events, returning to some places only to find them completely different etc. , delivering the player a taste of the painter's madness.


Pros:
+ Unique, memorable, true horror experience, amplified by a dark story line, breathtaking visuals and exceptional sound effects;
+ An atmosphere unseen before, with an interesting level design concept (interiors changing as the player looks back etc.), living up to its title of "psychological horror";
+ Marvelous soundtrack and totally immersive audio effects;
+ Gorgeous graphics;
+ The story is mostly built by the world elements the players can interact with, never enforcing cutscenes;
+ In my 20 hours of playtime I don't recall encountering a single glitch, let alone game breaking bugs;

Cons:
- No replayability; I, for one, have finished the game multiple times in order to better understand the story (and to get the remaining achievements);
- The fact that dying only affects the ending and has no real consequences during gameplay kills a certain amount of the tension;
- While not a big issue, I feel like the game could've been longer, as it took me roughly 5-6 hours to finish it on my first playthrough;

Personal rating: 91/100 - Amazing

*Review of the "Inheritance" DLC can be found here.

*Review of the main game can be found here.

While certainly not sharing the glory of the main game, Inheritance is still a good DLC and totally worth the price.

The player returns to Layers of Fear's cursed house, this time taking control of the painter's daughter. She has returned to put an end to the insanity that runs in her family. By visiting the chambers of the house, she will recall memories relevant to them. These memories consist the gameplay of the DLC, as you will control a young version of the main character and discover how she and her father were getting along. Your decisions will affect the ending of the story: you can decide whether to listen to your dad or not, and in one particular memory you will be asked to choose the mother's path or the father's path.

Inheritance takes a different approach to the horror genre when compared to the base game. While still presenting a dark, mysterious atmosphere, the DLC does not make use (for the most part) of jumpscares, instead bringing terror to the player by the story line alone. At its turn, the story is not particularly brilliant, but the fact that you can choose your own path, which will lead to different outcomes, will keep you engaged.

The gameplay is the same one from Layers of Fear. However, it introduces a flashlight to navigate the environment with, as the house is now abandoned and the lights are all dead.
The game is not long, yet not shorter than it should be either. I finished it in about 2-3 hours. It's the right amount of content for a DLC of its price and for the story it presents.

While the soundtrack of the base game was thoroughly exceptional, I can't say the same about the one from Inheritance. It is not bad in any way, though it does not excel either. When outside the childhood memories, it only plays one piece. There is an atmospheric melody inside one of the memories which I believe is the peak of the DLC's song line. However, the sound effects are still just as well-placed as the ones from the main game, massively contributing to the horror factor. The voice acting is decent and shouldn't have a negative impact on the immersion.

As you would probably expect, Inheritance uses the same graphical engine of the base game, thus revealing yet again a wonderful-looking final product. In spite of this, the field of view when playing as a child is frustrating and possibly even immersion-breaking.


Pros:
+ Dark, creepy atmosphere, further expanded by the story line;
+ Memories fueled by player decisions encourage replayability, in order to achieve all the possible outcomes;
+ The right amount of content, not too short nor too long;
+ Impressive visuals, just like in the main game;
+ Great sound system; even though the soundtrack does not reach the level of the one from Layers of Fear, the sound effects are still on point;
+ Polished experience, bug-free and no crashes, graphical or performance issues;

Neutral:
+/- It's something different compared to the main game, in terms of horror; Inheritance focuses less on jump scares and more on a disturbing, twisted plot;

Cons:
- Annoying field of view when playing the childhood memories;
- There is no challenge; dying does not affect the game and there is only a single memory featuring a real enemy;

Personal Rating: 76/100 - Good

Polarity is a fun little puzzle game, whether you are in for some achievement hunting or simply want to face some brain challenges. However, note that this game's stages are nowhere near the level of other puzzles games such as Portal or The Talos Principle. Most of the levels in Polarity won't leave you thinking for more than 2 or 3 minutes, sometimes the solution is painfully obvious, making the completion of this game feel rushed, even though there are 20 levels attached to it.

The goal of the game is to reach the end chamber of each level (similar to the Portal series). In doing so, you have to make use of red and blue cubes in order to activate different mechanisms. In addition, you can change your player's "polarity" from red to blue and vice-versa. This is mainly useful because some walls only allow you to pass through them if you are in their specific polarity.

We are presented with a poor attempt at a story, which will not matter in the slightest throughout the game and only serves as a filler. However, this isn't anything important if you don't care much about a storyline. Polarity is, after all, a puzzle game.

The game looks pretty, visuals are nothing too impressive, but they're on point for its genre. Unfortunately, the game seems unpolished. There are glitches, some slightly unfinished areas, while the places which represent abyssal falls are literally... void, leaving the map in a lackluster state.

The music is pretty much alright. Fortunately, there's a couple of songs attached to it, so the same tune will not repeat through each level.

The store page of the game claims to feature a multiplayer factor. However, this is partly true. You can only play a local co-op campaign with your friend, on the same computer, using either a keyboard and a controller, or two controllers.


Pros: + Fun little game to kill time with and relax;
+ Overall a nice simplistic approach to games such as Portal;
+ Collectibles and achievements, as well as the co-op campaign, encourage replayability;
+ Ambient music that fits the game's setting;

Cons: - Some people will find the experience lacking, due to the easy challenges and small amount of gameplay mechanics; in addition, this may lead to a fast completion of the game, maybe too fast for its price;
- Unfinished, visually speaking; the pits that serve as obstacles are pitch black, as if parts of the map are just missing;
- Even though a multiplayer feature is out of the question, since the player base is pretty much dead, a more advanced co-op feature would be appreciated, letting players play with their friends, each on their own system;
- Occasional bugs here and there;

Personal rating: 62/100 - Decent

After spending days thinking about what to write in this review, I finally have come to the conclusion that mere words cannot summarize this gem of a game. I could write tremendously long essays describing what makes Amnesia: The Dark Descent an unique masterpiece, but it's to no avail. One would have to play the game in order to understand its beauty and its charm...

"Wait a second, I thought this was a horror game? ..." . It is. It's a terrifying journey in its own rights, from start to the end. But I can't help it, the atmosphere of Amnesia is one of the most, if not the most refined one I have ever witnessed in a video game. The Brennenburg Castle is a truly memorable place. During the first half of the game, you will be exploring the highly architectural, yet haunting chambers, familiarizing yourself with the gameplay mechanics, the story of the main character and the lore. I'm not going to go into lots of detail about the second half, but I'll just summarize this part with a quote that I think fits it best: "All good things come to an end.", as you will understand what the beautiful castle hides, buried deep within.

The story of Amnesia: The Dark Descent does not lack at all in quality, but nor is it the most intriguing or most interesting. However, you may have to give the game a second playthrough to fully understand the lore. You're playing as Daniel, an archaeologist. The plot spawns after Daniel retrieves a strange, mystical orb from a tomb in Algeria. From that moment on, he starts getting nightmares and the people he interacts with end up brutally killed sooner or later, by a strange force. He realizes he's being haunted by this orb and that, in the end, he will end up dead too, so he decides to follow the instructions from a strange letter he recieved, signed by Alexander, baron of Brennenburg. Most of the narrative will be brought to the player by finding notes and bits of Daniel's journal, scattered across the castle, but there are also occasional flashbacks, which will give you an insight into what happened in various places, throughout your journey. Story length's neither too small or big. Expect around 10-15 hours of playtime, if you also want to collect every journal fragment. It's worth noting, though, that this game suffers from the replay value factor. I don't see myself replaying it anytime soon as there's not any content to it besides the main story. Then, you may ask, why do so many people still play this game? The answer lies in the great implementation the devs added to the game: community made maps, aka custom stories. These are (for the most part) completely new settings created by various people, with new stories and environments (they're made using Amnesia's original assets, so it goes without saying: don't expect something as fresh as a brand new game). There are hundreds upon hundreds of them, fairly easy to find on the Internet and there are also Steam Guides regarding which ones are worth your time, or even how to create your own one!

Let's move on and talk about the sound quality. This is another element where Amnesia shines brightly. Music is fitting and the sound effects are top-notch. The monster's growl will make your skin crawl and when he spots you, a ghastly music will commence. But all in all, when there is nothing dangerous nearby, you will be surrounded by a charming melody, one that immaculately fits the game's vista.

Graphics of this game are quite impressive for such a small team (at that time?). Of course, they cannot compete with big name's engines, but nonetheless Amnesia does look good and the visuals have never been an immersion-breaker. The optimization suffers in certain areas, notably places with many sources of light, where the framedrops tend to flutter. I do not have a beast of a rig, but my specs highly surpass the recommended ones on the store page. It's nothing of a big issue to me, though, and the FPS never dropped below 30.

The gameplay is interesting, to say the least. I don't see often horror titles blending puzzles in such a non-intrusive way, like Amnesia does. The puzzle element is on point here, you will run quite often into trouble, doors needing keys to be unlocked, machinery that needs more power, escaping from narrow areas etc. The monsters are here to give you a hard time and will do their best to stop you from advancing. Unfortunately, one thing I did not like is that, for the most part, the enemies will unrender after a while. Thus, you may find a good place to hide and wait for the beast to just go away... I wish they would patrol the area instead.
However, the puzzles are intelligent and non-repetitive. Sometimes, the answer is not as obvious as it seems, or it requires the player to read some notes, advance some more in the story etc.
Another unique element here is the "sanity" system. Basically, staying in the dark for too long, looking at the monster or witnessing unexpected events will drain your lucidity, giving Daniel headaches and ultimately hallucinations, collapsing on the ground, allerting the monsters, along with different screen distortions. Always conserve your lantern oil, as most of the game takes place in dark surroundings. An interesting trivia, when your sanity is dangerously low, some elements of the game will change, such as Alexander's portrait on the wall paintings or some corpses appearing in various locations.

The horror aspect is top-notch, rarely has any game made my heart beat this fast when being chased by the enemy. In Amnesia, you have no means of defending yourself. Darkness can be your foe, but also your best friend when it comes to hiding. The monsters are much faster than you, they can break down doors and detect you if you stare at them for too long. They're also very susceptible of sounds, so don't attempt to run past them without being seen. And under the worst circumstances, you have to make a run for the nearest chamber and lock yourself inside, alternatively using elements from the environment to block the monster from reaching you.


Pros: + Magnificent atmosphere, the Castle of Brennenburg is a spot that will stick with players for a long time;
+ Great and interesting puzzles, with original solutions;
+ Immersive music and sounds, mixing ambient noises with heart-pumping melody, accordingly;
+ Engaging storyline, may call for a 2nd playthrough in order to fully comprehend it;
+ Terrifying horror element, you are completely defenseless in front of the monsters, they can chase you down relatively quick and kill you in a small number of hits;
+ Unique system of Health+Sanity, in Amnesia you also have to take care of your brain status; witnessing unexpected events, staying in the darkness for too long will drag your sanity down and you will eventually collapse;
+ Difficulty is balanced, the game will not throw its most dangerous enemies at the player until he's prepared to face them;
+ Tons of user-made custom stories, that keep this game's player base alive and bring new, different concepts;

Neutral: +/- The lantern runs out of oil pretty fast, which might prove to be a bother for new players, leaving them facing the darkness for a long time;
+/- Dying has no real consequences; the game saves quite often and it will spawn you back in a safe chamber, along with the items you have retrieved;

Cons: - No replay value; after you understood the storyline, there's no real point in coming back to it (besides the custom stories, of course);
- Monsters disappear after a while, which massively takes away from the challenge factor;
- Occasional bugs and glitches, aswell as sound stutterings;

Amnesia: The Dark Descent is a king of horror genre and, by far, Frictional's peak game. Ultimately, we need more games like this.

Personal rating: 97/100 - Masterpiece

Asteo600: hey emily what's up?
emerly35 is away

Games have become too realistic, I tell you.

Let me get this straight ahead and confirm that the wait for SOMA was, 100%, well-worth it. Frictional delivers yet another masterpiece. I even dare say they followed the saying: ''There's always room for more.'', after their fantastic Amnesia series.
What we got from them here is one of those existential questioning games... combine that with horror, well-suited atmosphere, incredible sound effects and you get a memorable gem.

SOMA has less enemy encounters than Amnesia, but I say it's for a good cause. What it lacks in terms of monsters, it completely delivers with the story. I'd say they got the perfect balance between hiding and actual advancing through the events. More encounters would have made me forget about the plot and it would have gotten unimmersive.
But when there is a monster showing around, expect it to be a challenging part. No more hiding in a corner and waiting for it to leave as in previous games, as SOMA's creatures are not just randomly going away after a while. They'll stay in your path and you have to carefully progress through the chambers and remember the map, in order to get away safe and sound.

I did mention this is more of an existentional questioning game. I can't dig deeper into details on this one as it would all lead to story-breaking spoilers. Heck, even the premise of it is a spoiler. All I can say is that it successfully made me question what it is to be a human and what distinguishes us from artificial intelligences --robots-- .

What I also loved about it was its length. 13 hours to finish an indie game is nothing short of amazing and I didn't even stay to read all notes and journals. I'll definitely give this game a second playthrough.

The inventory has been massively simplified since Amnesia and the sanity/health system is also changed. Looking at some monsters for too long will give away your position and health can be restored at healing places throughout the journey.

Technically speaking, the game suffers from a poor optimization. I was getting massive frame drops in some places. Visually it does not excel either. But I can get past these issues coming from a small company. On the other side, I haven't encountered many bugs nor grammatical errors and kudos to the developers for taking their time and patching up their game!

*End-game debate incoming (definitely spoilers ahead); please skip to next paragraph for general personal rating if you haven't completed the game yet.*
The feeling that was following me up to the very end was one of déjà vu. There is another game out there that raised the exact same questioning: The Talos Principle. Apocalypse, AI that would replace the mankind and would live through a new aeon? These two games are as if set in the same universe. If you put away the gameplay of them, you will notice that they both follow the same plot.
Is artificial intelligence capable of replacing the human brain? In SOMA, a group of scientists work in projecting it on digital chips. The Talos Principle follows a similar path, with one AI already constructed and left in sleep mode until it proves that it acts and thinks humanlike.
In both games you are playing as a virtual mind placed into a carcass, in order to continue human legacy. Could these two games be set in the same world? The similarities between them are astonishing.
Also, SOMA's concept of replicating someone's mind is extremely intriguing. Are you the first AI copy of Simon after his death? Like in the end of the game, where he is duplicated and a part of him remains alone for an eternity on a wasted planet, while the other rests forever in the ARK, on a digital island.. The main character could very well not be the first copy of his brain awoken.

Pros: + Excellent plot and an overall amazing storyline. The journey that the player takes from the beginning to the end never ceased to amaze me.
+ Incredible sound effects. Not just one time have I thought some environment sounds are actually coming from my room.
+ Perfect mix of horror and story telling.
+ Impressively long while still maintaining to not get boring.
+ Great puzzles that add to the core, just like in the Amnesia series.
+ The atmosphere perfectly blends in.
+ The voice acting is also well-crafted.
+ More types of monsters with different behaviors. They also have some great sound effects implemented, you will hear them if they're wandering on a nearby corridor or if they have detected you.
+ Overall balanced difficulty. Does not make the player replay the same area countless of times due to dying, but is also thought as to not be rushed through with ease.
+ Does continue Frictional's unique horror style.

Neutral: +/- Different system of health and sanity, like shortly described above. Some players may welcome the changes with open arms, while others may dislike it compared to the old one from Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
+/- Depending on everyone's tastes, I suppose the game suffers from a lack of replayability.
+/- Enemy AI. They're not brainless, but nothing amazing about their thinking either.

Cons: - Poor optimization... may encounter frame drops, stutter and even freezes in some areas, even while lowering the settings.
- Infinite battery flashlight. A similar system to the one from older Frictional titles would also suit SOMA better in my opinion and would add to the difficulty.
- Uhm... where's the enemy robots? I was disappointed to only encounter the big machines with flashlights 2 or 3 times and only in the first quarter of the game... They were some great enemies in my opinion and would have surely also suited some other areas.
- Can get extremely frustrating to cope with the visual screen tearing while the monster is chasing you. Later on in the game, you're almost always getting caught by it if he sees you, anyway.

SOMA is a must for anyone that loved Frictional's other games. For the others, this is a great decision if you're looking for a thrilling story with scary elements and atmosphere. I definitely not regret pre-ordering this one and I want to thank the developers for bringing in another masterpiece to Steam.

Personal rating: 91/100 - Amazing

The only game where you pray after the match has ended.

Pixel Puzzles is a fun little game to kill time with. There is a handful of puzzles and completing them will unlock greater difficulty ones, as well as a level increase to your profile (the ranking is only ''to be''; it won't affect your gameplay experience in any way).
As you may guess from the title, this is a Japan-focused game in the ''Pixel Puzzles'' series. Thus, all puzzles are set in a japanese landscape.
However, as simple and relaxing this game may sound, there is a very annoying bug when picking up puzzle pieces. It's usually never the piece you click on, but the one nearby. I don't consider this a game-breaking bug but it can be very frustrating at puzzzles with hundreds of pieces, where you can barely pick them up. Not to mention, there is no ''Save'' function. If you've embarked on a 300 pieces puzzle, you need to either stay there for an hour or two and finish it, or remember the pieces' position. This is because the screenshotting option is disabled in this game.
The game only has one, repetitive song during puzzles. I ended up muting the game and playing my own music in the bakground, I recommend you do the same.

Pros: + Fun and relaxing game, excellent to pass time with;
+ Puzzles with different difficulty levels which are unlocked as you complete easier ones;
+the hint system is balanced, so players won't spam it;

Neutral: +/- The ranking system is only there to fill the game with a new element; it doesn't do anything, but some players may like seeing the monk leveling up after completing puzzles;

Cons: - Picking up the piece you want is a pain; they are always moving in the background and cursor will pick up another one;
- Only one, repetitive soundtrack;
-Missing save button;

Buy it while it's on sale if you're into the casual genre, you won't regret it.

Personal rating: 75/100 - Good

Why isn't this eSports already?

From a somewhat decent little platformer, Imagine Me fell to a plain mediocre game.
Back one year ago, this game had pre-defined levels that were fun to play just to pass time. Now it has some badly designed generated levels. I often found myself playing the same level and it gets boring very easily.
I'd suggest the devs go back to the previous stage of the game and improve it.

Pros:+ The Challenge levels are pre-defined and were fun to play; it took me a short while to complete them all, but they weren't that bad;

Cons:- Generated repetitive levels, gets boring in a short while;
-Lacks initiative, there are only 2 types of enemies, 2 types of traps and 1 weapon;
-Boss levels are random aswell, many people complained that they had to play dozens of stages to finally reach a boss area;
-More soundtracks were welcome..

Conclusion:
I would recommend Imagine Me only if you really can't afford any other platformer out there. Even then, you would probably put it away soon. The gameplay lacks many features and I see no real reason to replay the game after you have finished it.

Personal rating: 30/100 - Awful