Recent reviews by Logan

"All roads lead deeper into the forest."

Darkwood is a survival horror video game developed and published by Acid Wizard Studio

Story
Darkwood is set in late 1980's Poland, where strange forest devoured large amount of area, turning it into nightmare. Those who were trapped inside are affected by strange plague that kills or transforms survivors into monsters, while still sane seek a way out of the green hell.

You play as a mysterious stranger who wakes up in the middle of the forest after brutal events that took place last night, including unknown accident that left him wounded and brutal interrogation by his "saviour". With same goal as everyone else, he sets out to escape, whether forest will like it or not.

Gameplay
Before you dive into the main part of the game, it's worth to play Prologue to learn basic mechanics, controls and tid bits of story. Important considering actual game is very harsh and won't bother holding your hand.

Darkwood plays from top-down perspective, providing a procedurally generated yet with handcrafted locations semi-open world to navigate and day/night cycle. Your main goal is to escape, but let's say it has multiple smaller steps, unique characters and monstrous creatures in between blocking your path, so learning how to survive is a priority. During the day you get out of your hideout to navigate mysterious, twisted forest, while at sunset you crawl back, barricade the windows and hope to see the daylight.

Everyday as you wake up refreshed in a hideout, your little somewhat-safe haven among the green pastures of hell, you get to prepare yourself for another venture into darkwood. Most important elements inside are kitchen and workshop. Collect meat and different shrooms, cook them up and level up to gain new abilities that will help you survive. To make it spicy, you have to also pick a negative aspect alongside it! Workshop provides a place to stash items and craft tools, materials or weapons, with option to upgrade it to unlock more items to craft. Here you come to rather obvious conclusion quite quickly: in Darkwood, everything you find is important, and learning how to use it is a key to success.

Once you are all stocked up, with plan in your mind, it is time for a trip! Procedurally generated map means layout will be different everytime you start a new game, but important story places will always appear. Explore the forest to discover creepy ruins, wrecked machines, abandoned places, some locked and some open, all with resources to loot. With limited inventory, better be sure to know what to grab and what to get another time. It all sounds pretty simple, but habitats of darkwood won't make it such. Wild dogs, cultists, swamp monsters, spidermans (not the fun type), and way more monstrous abominations hunger for your flesh. Protect yourself with variety of melee weapons (and firearms), all coming with different range, size, and attacks, just like your fellow forest neighbours who want you dead! Keep them in nice condition as game features durability, and improve them at workshop. There are also extra worthy items, from source of light to traps and bandages, worthy of keeping for encounters with habitats of darkwood. Don't fret however. Death will take you back to your safehouse and only for a small toll of some items in the inventory, so keep best stuff at the hotbar to not lose it. You can also venture into the area you died to recover your goods! (Death outcome varies on difficulty)
Worth mentioning it ain't all gloomy. You do have a journal which will keep most important information, featuring key items, notes, and a selfmade map that updates as you explore!

Once your vision cone starts to turn orange, it means sun goes down and so does your chance of living. Go back to a hideout, use materials to barricade, set up traps, store items and better fuel up most important aspect: generator. It powers up lights, and lights grant better vision and a bit of comfort among the sea of darkness. At time goes past 8 and night starts, your goal is simple: survive. And who knows what will forest bring out at night to get rid of you, living and not...

After every night, no matter how it ended, you get a visit from local Trader with certain amount of goods ready to be exchanged, and a nice timefreeze to consider your next moves without pressure. Reputation is a currency of Darkwood, as every item comes with certain value of it. You also get it for surviving the nights so keeping your guts inside throughtout them is more than recommended! Use reputation to obtain materials, ammunition or parts and keep eyes open as during exploration you might find other traders too.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 16 hours to beat the game, but playtime is flexible due to nature of Darkwood, so it is difficult to point out just how long it might take you to wrap it up.
You can give forest trip another go to select different choices throughout your journey and see how they will impact your game, or attempt to ramp up the difficulty to raise the stakes even higher. Try your hand with limited number of lives or simply go hardcore with permadeath.

Pros and cons
Darkwood provides a lot of survival horror goodness and quite nicely balances it out to offer one terrific experience that won't hold back, offering you a little taste of what is to come in Prologue and turning it up in actual game. Gameplay might not bring anything new to the genre, but it is still very enjoyable. Expect first few hours to be painful as you tend to learn how world operates, what do and what not quite. But once you get aclimated, it all starts to click and grow. Exploration feels natural as you desire to investigate mysterious, creepy areas and scavenge for loot, with brutal, intense combat that can surprise you with encounters at every step of the way. Fantastic design of enemies with decent chunk of them inspired by slavic folklore, utilization of top down perspective, terrific atmosphere, outstanding soundtrack and unforgiving combat make horror aspects of Darkwood deliver on every front, as navigating seemingly abandoned locations with limited resources and field of view, reeking of death and lore is scary, intense yet addictive. Game doesn't come with jumpscares, every once in a while enemy will ambush you to check if you are aware but most of the time it's environment with audiovisual design that does the heavy lifting.

Darkwood is a game that respects you and your desire to experience something tad more fresh from usual survival horror mixture, it will be painful in few moments, will take a moment to get used to, you might get frustrated with possible lack of progress but it only makes game better, it enchances the painful part of hellish experience forest is supposed to bring.

Final words and conclusion
Be sure to get Artwork and Soundtrack DLC to support develo...what's that? Indefinite hiatus? 5 to 10 years? ...oh...alright....ahem.

Slavic folklore meets lovecraftian atmosphere with great gameplay on top! Darkwood is one fantastic survival horror game, where fight among forest terrors is an absolute treat.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"I never get tired of this view. Claire, you're gonna have a great time here this summer!"

A Short Hike is an adventure video game developed and published by indie game designer Adam Robinson-Yu (also known as adamgryu).

Story
In A Short Hike you play as Claire, young bird who spends her days off by traveling to Hawk Peak Provincial Park, where her Aunt May works as a ranger.
During her visit at the Park she awaits for an important phone call. Unfortunately cellphone reception is only at the top of Hawk Peak, forcing Claire to go and reach the summit.

Gameplay
If case you haven't figured it out yet, in A Short Hike your main goal is to take...a short hike, to the top of the summit! But game provides open world you can explore from the get-go, as Hawk Peak Park provides few activites for interested.

To reach the top, you have to hike, jump, swim, jog and glide your way through, and to do so you have to collect golden feathers. Each feather grants you extra jump and time you can spend on climbing, essentially increasing Claire's stamina. Running out of stamina during climbing means dropping down like a rock or gliding away to safety, depending on your choice. To recharge stamina you have to wait few seconds on solid ground. In higher areas, there is also temperature difference, as cold makes it hard for Claire to get her tired feathers all warmed up for another hike. So you will have to find a source of heat to warm up. Obtain feathers by exploring the Park and participating in different activites.

What is there to do? There is a sport minigame, ton of buried and not-so-buried treasure chests lying around with coins, used to buy cool hats or even more feathers, treasure hints to solve, fishing minigame, races and interractions with other park visitors. They have side quests you can take for extra rewards helpful on the hike, granting helpful items or, you guessed it, more feathers!

Playtime and replayability
Short Hike is indeed short. Completing everything game had to offer took me 4 hours, and if you will focus solely on reaching the top you can probably do so (and ultimately, beat the game) in less than an hour!
After you beat the summit you can just jump into a game again to explore a bit more, maybe get all achievements or just relax at the Park.

Pros and cons
Short Hike is a wonderful little cozy game, there is no denying that. Compact size of the world you can explore, simple controls and colorful, variable environment combine together into a charmful title. Surprisingly filled with content for a bite-sized game, probably it's biggest positive. It's very flexible, you can beat it in an hour or spend few to enjoy chilling at the beach, peacefully gliding across the Park, strolling through woods or just fishing across many ponds and rivers, making it a very relaxing experience. Characters you encounter provide nice dose of humour, exploration is enjoyable, flying/gliding around especially is very pleasant. To improve the experience further, game comes with adaptive soundtrack, changing based on the weather and how you travel to extra immerse yourself.

Unfortunately compact size and focus on gameplay took a toll on the story. It's barely in the game and what is included is very...shallow. If you seek great, or pretty much any narrative, you might want to check something else.
But if you look for a sweet comfort game that will set you in a mood to spend another free weekend hiking and strolling through woods, this is definitely one of them! Perfect for a rainy evening. And without mosquitoes!

Conclusion!
A Short Hike provides charming artstyle, fantastic relaxing gameplay and freedom of exploration that wraps around you for few hours to deliver cozy adventure. Highly recommended!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Nothin' to see here. Nope. Nobody special. Ignore the mick with the bomb."

The Saboteur is an action-adventure video game developed by Pandemic Studios and published by Electronic Arts.

Story
The Saboteur is set in 1940's France occupied by Nazi Germany.

You play as Sean Devlin, Irishman who emigrated to France to escape his criminal past. With multiple talents and personal vendetta against German forces, he becomes a worthy addition to expanding French Resistance in Paris, with goal set on liberating the city from the Nazis.

Gameplay
Saboteur is an open world game with third person perspective that features most of the aspects you can find in games from said genre. Complete quests to further progress in the storyline or venture into Paris, some of the French countryside and even a little part of Germany to demolish Nazis! After a prologue of course.

As name of the game suggests, gameplay is all about ruining the day (and night) of occupants with sabotages, assassinations, overall carnage or all 3 aspects at once! Most of the quests in game will involve these elements, with occasional escort, tailing or defense thrown into the mix to offer a rather usual objective cocktail.

Sean is a versatile and creative man so he won't have any problems with achieving his goals.
On the ground he can utilize a wide variety of vehicles to travel, from civilian sport cars to military machines used by occupying forces, with latter often offering extra firepower. All vehicles can be stored in garages across France too, if you will manage to snatch one and deliver it.
Plenty of places have to be reached on foot, and there is a solid amount of restricted "No Irishman" areas. As a good climber, rooftops of Paris are natural habitat for Sean. Parkour helps avoiding forces on the ground, removing higher elevated threat and opening up the possibilities of approach. Disguise can be useful too, but it comes with own limits. You don't want to run around too much or get close to certain people who will see through. Actions you perform will affect Nazis looking at you. Standing and smoking is A-Okay but climbing on buildings, entering military vehicles or pulling out a weapon will make them suspicious. Be suspicious long enough to alert enemies, starting a deadly chase. To escape you have to look for hiding spots or get away from enemy range to once again become ordinary citizen.

Sean can carry 2 firearms, and game allows you to pick your work tools from a wide arsenal. Small pistols and submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles for long distance and more, though you unlock and expand what you can use by making enough progress so at the start your choice is limited. You can get personal and let fists do the talking too.

In Sean's line of work, bullets are good, but explosives are even better! That's why he carries (and along the game will use) more than enough of dynamite to blow up half of France, with extra grenades in a spare pocket. Use against sniper nests, anti aircraft guns, military vehicles, radars, fuel stations and everything else enemy placed, including enemies themselfs! All of these count as "open world objectives", and while constantly blowing stuff up is fun, there are other side tasks you can do. Eliminate generals, loot up supply chests, collect postcards or nail a sweet stunt jump! Activities earn you contraband, games currency.
Find a local black market to stock up on explosives, ammo, buy upgrades or new weapons.

Most unique aspect of Saboteur lies within visuals. Areas occupied by Nazis are covered in black and white with only few distinctive elements highlighted, such as blood, Resistance or German symbols.
Complete missions to free districts, giving vibrant colours and feel of life back. What should be obvious, there is less enemy forces and more of resistance (and helpful citizens) in freed areas, with opposite in Nazi controlled zones.

To wrap it up, game offers unlockable Bonuses you get by completing certain challenges across multiple categories. Kill specific enemies here, blow up vehicles in certain amount of time there, these are fun and worthy of completion, as perks you unlock within will make your life easier.

Playtime and replayability
Completing everything game had to offer took me 30 hours. However if you will only focus on necessary quests you can wrap up the storyline even in 10! So like with open world games it tends to be, playtime is very player dependant.
One full playthrough should satisfy your destructive needs, especially as you are free to roam around the map after you finished the story, letting you wrap up everything or simply cause more chaos.

Pros and cons
Saboteur has two main things going it: Fun entertaining gameplay, and great visual style. It's enjoyable to dive into bases and blow everything up, kill dozen of Nazis loud or quiet way, and participate in a chase to wrap it off! Parkour, simple stealth mechanics, and wide arsenal of weapons grant you a great freedom of approach towards your goals. Ton of - even if repetitive - side tasks to take care of during open world exploration will keep you in 1940's France for a while, but as my numbers state it still keeps it in decent lenght especially when compared to modern open world titles, and you can always just focus on missions instead if you start to feel bored.

Visual style is self-explanatory, noir black and white filter you get when exploring occupied areas is fantastic, it's a shame there is no option to constantly keep it on, as while colorful and decent looking, areas lose their charm when liberated.

When it comes to negative elements, storyline. While Sean is a fun character to hang around with, generic revenge plot and rather weak execution of story do make you focus more on mayhem and fun gameplay. Flat ending with little cliffhanger doesn't help either. There is also plenty of technical issues which sadly affect patchless Steam version and generally game does feel like it could use extra wrap up time, felt by elements such as clunky controls and rushed design of certain environment areas.

Final words and conclusion
PC version of the game comes with "The Midnight Show" patch/DLC. It adds extra hiding spots and a VIP room at the cabaret with minigame and spicy midnight shows...oh and it adds nudity option you can turn on or off.

The Saboteur delivers fun gameplay focused on mayhem and open approach with great visual style. Technical issues and lack of polish won't stop you from blowing everything up and enjoying it!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Remember: Technology can be punched."

Costume Quest 2 is a role-playing video game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Midnight City.

Story
CQ 2 is a straight sequel to CQ 1 so I say playing first game is a must.

Costume Quest 2 picks up where Grubbins on Ice DLC from first game left off. Continue the adventure of siblings Wren and Reynold, with chosen one turning into playable character, who jump through the mysterious portal and return to their home at Halloween night.
Joy lasts short however, as local dentist Dr. White thanks to a time wizard goes back to the past, changing future into dental dystopia where Halloween is banned. Our siblings will have to go back and forth through time to save their holiday once again!

Gameplay
Costume Quest 2 offers same gameplay core as first title, as our little heroes complete quests and battle it out using their costumes when necessary. Explore areas in past and future to gather candy, do trick-or-treat and unlock costumes by gathering parts plus schematics, required to get into new areas. So you will either knock on doors, knock down everything not nailed shut to get extra pieces of candy, or knock down your enemies!

Combat is still turn based, with parties taking turns in controlling their characters to perform an action. Goal should be obvious, reduce their healthbars to zero before they do so with yours. During your turn you can attack, run away if things get dicey, or use Treaty Cards, a system replacing Battle Stamps from first title- 3 special cards offering different bonuses, with roster of cards expanding as you make your way through a game. You can use them to deal some damage to enemies, give your party extra buffs, perhaps to reap better rewards once you come out victorious. Every card after use becomes unavailable for few combat turns, so you have to constantly shuffle through them if you use this mechanic often. When it is not your turn, you have to defend yourself from incoming attack to decrease damage received. Attacking and defending slowly allows you to build up your special, a unique for each costume move that can shift tides of the fight. Just like in first title, you have to hit specific timing to squeeze out the most out of your moves. Worth mentioning that as you make your way through Costume Quest 2, you will be able to unlock more moves used in combat by your party, helpful as enemies will be constantly getting tougher.

After done combat you gather experience and candy. First- also collected from completed quests- allows you to level up, increasing health and damage your party deals.
Latter is used as games currency, so visit local shady merchant to expand your Treaty Cards collection, buy maps of areas, or upgrade your costumes.

Playtime and replayability
Completing everything Costume Quest 2 had to offer took me 5 hours!
It's short and sweet, but doesn't provide any reasoning behind another playthrough.

Pros and cons
Costume Quest 2, to stick with overall candy climate, offers sweeter filling in better looking wrapper than predecessor.
Main improvement lies within combat, as new moves and treaty cards mechanic create extra depth it previously lacked, adding necessary elements to keep your interest, making combat more fun.
Visually game looks slightly better while still keeping artstyle and Halloween's charm of first title. There is also solid humor with decent story in Costume Quest 2, especially sweet as you will only have to spend an evening (or two) to reach its conclusion!

Perhaps only real issue is navigation, as game likes to play around with elevation changes that can confuse in a certain moment or two.

Similar situation as first Costume Quest: it's short, sweet and with better combat, but nothing outstanding. Does what it should, which is making sure you spend few hours in an enjoyable way! And sometimes, that is all you need.

Conclusion!
Costume Quest 2 with solid story, humor and most of all improved combat is a good treat (not trick) worth checking out!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Every journey is a series of choices. The first is to begin the journey."

Antichamber is a first-person puzzle-platform game created and published by Alexander "Demruth" Bruce.

Premise
Antichamber doesn't waste your time, as right from the start it drops you into an antechamber that contains four walls. One wall is a window, behind it lies your ultimate goal- door with written above it "Exit". Now you only have to get there...

Gameplay
...and to do so you will make your way through maze of mind breaking levels!

Antichamber is simple when it comes to controls as you run, walk and jump, with gameplay focused on making progress through chambers to find a way out of this place. Simplicity ends when you venture into the unknown territory and realize fundamental laws of geometry you know in real life not apply here, in place filled with impossible objects and perceptual mindgames.

What does that mean? Navigating a constantly shifting maze is troublesome. Walking or running, turning left or right, keeping visual contact or reaching certain point can cause an enviroment change that places you in a completly different place. On top of that game has riddles with more unique mechanics you will need to figure out how they operate and simplistic puzzles, mainly focused on cubes. To solve these practical problems you will need a tool, and game offers just a thing. It doesn't have a name so might as well call it a "tool", but said item allows you to manipulate certain matter so you can progress further. However you will have to seek new, more powerful versions of said tool to control matter in different ways so you can get you closer to exit.

On your journey you will constantly encounter messages serving as hints to the puzzles as well as adages for real life. If you will ever find yourself trapped or unable to make progress, a quick button press will let you return to main black chamber, featuring a map to see where you ended, how your progress looks like, and where possibly you can go next. Pick a chamber and you will be send straight to it!

Starting location besides your goal hidden behind a window and previously mentioned map has diegetic menu with options to tweak the game a bit and final wall showing off all helpful messages you encountered on your way!

Playtime and replayability
7 hours to finish the game, but playtime is flexible as Antichamber can be beaten even in 30 minutes (if you would know layout and quickest route to gun upgrades of course). Take it being a puzzle game into consideration when it comes to playtime as time taken on making your way through can differ depending on a player.
After you beat the game you can load it up again to solve any puzzles you didn't complete, find rooms you might have missed, or fill up the images/signs/messages wall.

Pros and cons
Antichamber shines the most with its Escher-esque level design. Simple artstyle and atmospheric emptiness it provides create one unique experience that delivers right from the start. It offers fantastic riddles within the constantly shaping maze that, at very least for me, never felt annoying when it comes to revisiting same areas in order to find a way to progress. Game forces you to adapt as corridors around you change, to learn how world operates and seek creative ways to pass through another chamber. Ambient music evolving or constantly expanding wall of images add to feeling of making progress and figuring out Antichamber's world.

All of this adds to overall topic game is focused on, which is quite simple, maybe even obvious as you make your way through the title, that topic being life itself.

Fortunately game keeps it simple with controls, letting design of levels and puzzles shine.

However, it has to be said game might not tickle you in a right way if you seek something with strong narrative. "Story" and everything surrounding it play second fiddles. Fans of narrative-heavy puzzle games such as Talos Principle might feel lacking.

Conclusion!
Unconventional, imaginative, creative level design offered in Antichamber is a masterclass worth experiencing. A unique puzzle game title that delivers.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Hong Kong looms ahead, pulsing with energy."

Shadowrun: Hong Kong is a turn-based tactical role-playing video game developed and published by Harebrained Schemes.

Story
Hong Kong takes place in science-fantasy universe of Shadowrun tabletop game.
Set in year 2056 your character - once an orphan who together with foster brother Duncan was adopted by a person named Raymond Black, now an adult after rough 8 years of Seattle prison - gets a message from Raymond about urgent matter that requires a meeting in Hong Kong Free Enterprise Zone. After a landing and meeting your brother events quickly go sideaways, forcing you to venture into the shadows to find out what did you step into.

Gameplay
Like previous titles, Hong Kong is an isometric turn based rpg with point-and-click controls, focused on completing shadow runs while progressing through the storyline.

Before you dive into neon riddled city, you have to make your character. Pick a race, gender, and archtype, or if none speak to you, utilize all karma yourself to start with ideal character. Game allows you to be an elf mage harvesting power of nature, human rigger with deadly drones doing heavy lifting for him, a troll eager to give a solid punch or two, and more! Mentioned before karma is what serves as skill points within Shadowrun, as it doesn't feature traditional experience points system. Collect karma from missions and certain side tasks to improve your skills in ability trees. Just keep an eye on race restrictions and your playstyle.

Once your character is all set and ready, you venture into the rain covered streets of Hong Kong. Following same formula as Dragonfall, after introduction missions you have the freedom of selecting what jobs you want to take, and in between runs you have Heoi acting as in-game hub filled with different interesting characters, vendors constantly looking to sell items for nuyens, Shadowruns currency, and your safehouse where you will find a stash with your items and crew members ready to chat.

When you feel ready it's time to pick a mission and select the crew from companions or mercenaries, with latter needing financial inspiration. After selecting the mission you can also alter inventory of your crew, and once you are satisfied, it's time to get to work.
Missions offer you a chance to show off your skills you have invested in your character outside of combat with multiple skill checks, granting you extra money or items like weapons or medkits, paydata, even alternative way to make progress, from jacking into Matrix in order to hack a door or two, to sending out a drone through vent shaft for diversion. Old fashioned bribery is in there too! You will never get stuck during the job as lack of skills necessary for more non-lethal routes means you can pull out the big guns and get messy to carve your path ahead.

In combat goal is pretty simple, eliminate enemies in whatever way possible while keeping everyone from the crew alive. Turn based means each factions perform tasks in order. Once you end the turn, you sit and watch what enemy will do, after they are done ball ends up again on your side, repeat. All actions you perform in combat cost AP- Action Points, it's worth to think about your next move before wasting crucial points. Do you want to move and get behind a cover, flank an enemy, reload your firearm, heal yourself, trigger an effect, or perhaps use an ability of your crewmate? Plenty of choices! Game utilizes percentage based system to count your chances on succesful use of an ability, hit with a weapon, grenade/spell throw landing where you want and so on, with character stats and distance between your target being an important factor. There is also cover/flanking system and good ol' armor absorbing damage.

Because this is an Enchanced Edition of HK, it is worth mentioning what's the difference between it and base game.
For starters, here we have bonus campaign - Shadows of Hong Kong - that wraps up the story of our protagonist.
You get developer commentary audio for those who fancy hearing behind the scenes process, revamped Matrix art and gameplay, enchanced sound design and combat music plus gameplay tweaks, from improved inventory UI to new cyberweapon skill tree and additional weapons.

Playtime, replayability and other modes
Completing whole story with all side missions took me 19 hours, to that you add extra 6 coming from Bonus Campaign making it in total 25 hours spend on a full, singular playthrough.
With usual rpg shenanigans being a factor, I can state you can safely give game another go, by using a different character and making different choices than before.
Like previously, you can download and play community created Shadowrun campaigns for more time spend with its universe!

Pros and cons
Hong Kong keeps the high bar raised by previous titles. Core gameplay being mostly untouched, offering multiple different playstyles and combat being engaging from the start, with solid pacing and freedom of selecting your crew to experiment with approach, makes it easy to get into basics of Shadowrun but still have a nice layer of tactics to peel off as you progress and learn more about the game. While you do so, you can engage with Shadowrun universe and dive into uncommon combination of science and fantasy. It might be a small add-on, but I have to thank for finally giving an option of trading items between your crew during the runs. Small addition, but very appreciated.

Improvements from Dragonfall remain and these are even further polished in few areas, such as hub NPC's offering way more dialogue and personality, making those breaks between runs more enjoyable and further immersing you with a game thanks to hefty lore provided by them. Though be warned this is more lore-heavy focused game than previous, so there is a chance those who were in Shadowrun for fun setting or combat, might be a bit...bored, of all dialogue awaiting them. Cannot forget about Enchanced Edition either, as additional campaign, polished audio design and extra weapons or karma trees it provides are a massive positive.

Now the Matrix, hacking space withing Shadowrun and it's revamp is a very debatable topic within community. It looks way better, but stealth gameplay provided does have issues and can cause frustration, especially when you have to move your character through tight areas. New hacking minigame also has its fans and haters, with myself rather leaning towards positive side, it does a good job at spicing things up and adds security aspect which felt weirdly off in previous titles. Matrix is what I call a "Mixed" element within Enchanced Edition of HK.

And as per usual, I have to mention I am still not satisfied with karma/skill trees. Game plays it way too safe and offers way too much. Cut few levels to make race restriction more intriguing and add another reason for possible replayablity. Pretty much same thing I mentioned in previous two Shadowrun games I reviewed. There are also some smaller nitpicks here and there, mainly coming from games nature of design. So there are few moments where camera mixed with point and click controls makes it tricky to pinpoint precise location. Nothing game ruining, just a mere scratch in the system.

Final words and conclusion
Playing through Harebrained "Shadowrun Trilogy" was an absolute pleasure, and as I love to point out in my conversations surrounding it, I can only hope we will receive a bigger title that attempts science fantasy to same degree as this, instead of another open world fantasy rpg.

Extended Edition of Shadowrun Hong Kong brings extra campaign and gameplay tweaks to overall positive outcome, elevating already solid game even higher, worth playing if you liked previous Shadowruns.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Frogs are people too."

The Talos Principle is a puzzle video game developed by Croteam and published by Devolver Digital.

Story
You play as an unnamed android who wakes up in a mysterious environment.

A voice calling himself Elohim instructs you to explore the worlds he created and complete puzzles inside them to gather sigils, under one condition- you cannot enter the tower in the centre of these worlds. But as you navigate through the lands, you discover your actual purpose might be way different than you originally thought.

Gameplay
As you could have guessed from genre and quick story summary, in Talos Principle you explore the worlds and solve puzzles to further progress in the game (for even more puzzles!), with a given choice of playing the game in either first or third person.

Each puzzle contains a tetromino-shaped "sigil" you have to obtain to consider a puzzle as complete.
These sigils are used to unlock new tools you need for further riddles, or to unlock new areas. You have to complete a tiling puzzle from a collected sigil set every once in a while too.
Puzzles themselfs offer a variety of challenges, depending often on what tools you can use and what stands between you and your goal. You will encounter computer controlled drones which explode if you get near them, wall mounted turrets, fans blowing you away and more! You will have to utilize everything you got at your disposal and your wits to beat these challenges. Sigils come in different colours to represent multiple difficulties. Starting green ones are simple and easy, yellow offer average challenge while red sigils are a reward for toughest puzzles and especially at the start of your journey, might be a really tough nut to crack. There are also hidden star sigils, requiring creative and sometimes crazy approach to get them, needed to unlock extra worlds.

When you are not interested in collecting sigils, you can explore a bit. Find audio logs, or use terminals to reach data texts, you might start a conversation or two too.
Discover QR messages left by other androids (including your Steam friends!), and write one yourself if you will find a bucket with paint. Plus ton upon ton of Easter Eggs, with big chunk of them focusing on other Croteam franchise, Serious Sam!

Playtime and replayability
Completing every puzzle and wrapping up the story took me very solid 20 hours.
As it tends to be with puzzles, after solving them repeating tends to be unnecessary as knowing a solution does ruin the fun and here it is the same. You might want to jump into it again if you have used a lot of guides on your playthrough or you want to repeat whole game for different ending instead of reloading older savefile, perhaps you crave a discussion about topics it covers that you might not be interested in as much previously.

Pros and cons
Without any doubt I can say: Talos Principle is absolutely wonderful. You get into it expecting well made puzzles and that is what you get right from the start. Not only it offers good difficulty curve so even newer players to the puzzle genre can slowly but surely gain confidence as you solve them, variety of challenges it provides due to mixture of tools and obstacles on your path will constantly keep your interest and desire to push forward in order to see what new riddles lie ahead.
But it quickly shows its second, more philosophical side, as the debate about machines and humans expands, sewing itself together with storyline and your ultimate goal. Each talk or audio log leaving a mark in your mind, something to think about while you hunt sigils or explore worlds to engage further in games debate. It is rather slow burn type of a story, it involves ton of reading so it won't be for everyone, but those who will dive deep and spend time on discovering it will feel satisfied. Personally, it's one of the best puzzle games I got a pleasure to play.

Final words and conclusion
I highly recommend getting Road to Gehenna DLC which brings out toughest puzzles Talos can offer, and wraps up some loose ends from main game.

Talos Principle offers both fantastic, well-crafted riddles and philosophical storyline focused on humanity that can quickly take over the spotlight if one desires so. Masterpiece of a title.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Don't ask why Kenny decided to be a chick, it just seems to be the way he's rolling right now."

South Park Stick of Truth is a role-playing video game developed by Obsidian Entertainment in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios, published by Ubisoft.

Story
Stick of Truth is set in the fictional town of South Park in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, location where most of the action of a show takes place.

You play as a New Kid, who as name suggests, just moved into South Park with his parents. He quickly joins local kids in live action role playing game featuring humans and elves fighting over legendary Stick of Truth, twig that possesses unlimited power.

Gameplay
SoT is played from 2.5 D third person perspective, as our hero ventures all over South Park (and Canada!) to complete quests, defeat evil, gather loot and level up. The usual RPG duties.

Gameplay can be cut into multiple pieces, with one being overall exploration of the areas, other focused on turn based combat and last revolving around improving your character and managing his inventory.

But first, quick character creator with tutorial that will teach you combat basis and make you pick an archetype you stick with throughout the game.

Once the game opens up you get to travel across town with few locations being locked until you reach certain moment in the story or until you get a certain ability. In areas you can visit right away, you will meet well known characters with unique quests, encounter enemies ready to battle, and gather a ton of different loot, together with your buddy who will accompany you in and out of combat! While town ain't massive, you can discover and utilize fast travel points to move from one place to another even faster.

For your victories in fights and completing quests you receive experience points, gathering enough grants you a level up allowing you to use items with certain level restrictions, plus gives you a skill point to upgrade your abilities.
And you gather cash, ready to be exchanged for different items in local merchant stores.
Besides these, during your journey you gather friends! On Facebook. Virtual one. Collecting enough gives you an option to unlock permanent perks, so it's worth bothering everyone you can. There are also Chinpokomons scattered everywhere serving as collectible waiting to be picked up.

Combat! As mentioned before, it's turn based, with first turn going to whoever initiated it. So smacking enemies first is a good move. Turn based means both parties perform sets of actions one after another. Your party-their party-you-them and so on until one side is defeated. During your turn you can choose if you want to use a support (consumable) item or move straight into your own class depending abilities or weapons (as you have both melee and ranged options) to perform an attack. Abilities cost Power Points called PP, while magic fart attacks require mana. If you did quests for right characters, you get to summon them in combat for powerful attacks that instantly end it. But don't worry, you cannot use them during boss fights! It would be a bit too easy. Worth mentioning your buddies have special abilities you can utilize in same action as a support item, meaning they can still attack afterwards.
Timing is key when using weapons as all of them feature flashy icons where hitting a button at a right time deals critical damage. Same works when you are in defence, as you can time your blocks to neglect taken damage. With abilities you have to follow the instructions and perform certain button mashup sequence.

Game allows you often to use environment to deal with enemies without engaging in combat. Be on a lookout for anything shiny, as a open source of flame or something hanging loose on a wall can deal with your opponents.

New Kid throughout his journey utilizes 2 different weapons, melee and ranged, can equip 3 outfit parts (gloves/chest/head), plus multiple purely cosmetic items, from makeup to beards.
You can enhance statistics of your weapons and outfits by using patches and "strap-ons", increasing damage dealt or adding effects such as bleeding.

Playtime and replayability
Full playthrough with decent time spend on exploration took me 11 hours.
Sadly there is no reason to dive into a game again as classes don't differ much in combat, and most of the sections doesn't shock as much as in the first go.

Pros and cons
South Park Stick of Truth is fantastic, especially if you are a fan of the show. Option to explore this iconic town, meet well known characters, appreciate consistent aesthetic so you can feel like whole game is just one big episode, it's remarkable! You add to that humour, jokes, references, social commentary, whole satire about Role Playing Fantasy genre aspect mixed with classic shocking, fearless moments one knows SP for to create an absolute gem.
While still being appreciated by people who are not that familiar with the show, you will miss out on some reference or an inside joke here and there.

The game does drop a ball a bit in other departments. Combat is shallow and even with rather short game lenght, becomes a repetitive chore in latter half of it. It's not challenging thanks to powerful summons, ton upon ton of different items you can use, and just as strong buddies plus features a lot of repetitive animations. On the other hand quite sized arsenal of weapons and especially over-the-top abilities you can use create fun, even if one-sided encounters in which you blow enemies out of the water while soaking in absurdity of said encounters.

To the bad bag I throw in button inputs/prompts/instructions on screen which quite often are wrong. So you can pick an ability, attempt to do as it states and fail miserably, wasting an action. Some buddies for me were pretty much useless due to that fact, and certain story-related clinic moment in game forced me to look up on google on what proper instructions are to beat it. Very...weird issue, I don't even know what is a cause of it. Read claims it's an issue with keyboard and that game should be played on a controller but I'm just mentioning what happened to me.
Lack of any post-game content, especially considering how much happens throughout the storyline is a negative surprise too.

Even with those few mishaps, I still had a great time with Stick of Truth. As someone who seen few episodes here and there but doesn't have time nor interest to dive into 20-or-how-many-seasons-are-there of South Park, this wild ride was a pleasure to experience and just enough of SP for me.

Final words and conclusion
Worth mentioning game has censorship applied in certain countries due to abortion and nazi images, replaced with pictures and description of what happens during a censored moment so um...don't be surprised if you get one.

South Park Stick of Truth has all the charm and humour of the show blended well with decent gameplay it provides, creating a fantastic parody of fantasy RPG genre worth checking out.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Long ago, dragons ravaged the lands.

Only cats known as the Dragonblood could defeat them.

But suddenly they vanished, never to be seen again..."

Cat Quest is an action role-playing video game developed by The Gentlebros and published by Kepler Interactive.

Story
Cat Quest is set in fantasy kingdom of Felingard, ruled by cats.
During the trip through an open sea, ship of our feline hero gets destroyed and his sister captured by a mysterious white cat who disappears afterwards. Woken up on the shores of Felingard by a guardian spirit, with strange purple mark on the back of the head, he sets out to find out more about mysterious symbol and to rescue his sister!

Gameplay
It's an open world title with top down perspective where our feline protagonist travels across the land to complete quests, slay enemies, grind levels and collect gear along the way!
Quite straight forward.

Main quests are automatically acquired once you complete previous one, while side quests have to be activated by visiting local board. Most of the side tasks is chopped into multiple chapters and features level suggestion as to when you should attempt it.
If quests bore you, Felingard stands wide open waiting to be explored, though few areas will require certain abilities to obtain in order to reach them.
Clear out dungeons spread across the land with sweet loot and not so sweet enemies, find monuments to gain a bit of Cat Quest lore, take naps across towns to save your game or regenerate health and magic, lastly discover mage towers to learn new spells (for a small price). Though beware on your journey as higher level enemies can wipe the floor with you, so it's wise to keep an eye on icons near tough enemies.

When it comes to combat game is very simple in that remark. You either hit enemies (game only features a single melee attack you gonna mash like a madman...or mad kitty I guess), dodge opponent attacks by rolling, or use magic spells for different results depending on spell and your current need. It's wise to experiment with these as different monsters have different weaknesses when it comes to spells.

Completing quests, slaying enemies and overall just collecting enough experience points grants you a level up, increasing health points, damage, and magic.
On your heroic quest you also collect coins, used to unlock and upgrade magic spells or to open up chests at local blacksmith for new, or to improve already owned gear.

Chests and occasional quest rewards contain gear you can equip to improve your statistics (and look!). Grab a weapon, armor, and head gear with most of them coming as sets focused around certain playstyle. Here you can also notice final stat- armor! More armor the better as it means you won't lose your health. No health, no kitty.

Playtime, other modes, replayability
It took me 7 hours to clean up whole map, you can waste half or even less of that time if you will solely focus on the main questline.
After beating the story you unlock New Game+ option where you keep your gear and statistics from previous save plus Mew Game, new mode with tougher enemies and additional modifiers that significantly change the way game is played, rewarding you with parts of a special set if you come out victorious from your runs.
Both of said modes, plus almost unlimited possibility of gear grinding and short game lenght give enough reasons to keep Cat Quest in a backpocket if you ever feel the need to get a dose of cat puns.

Pros and cons
Cat Quest is simple in design and simple in nature. You smack some monsters here, save a peasant there, collect rewards and explore dungeons for loot.
Main thing that game has going for it lies within cat puns, I cannot deny it's a reason I bought the game in the first place. I was satisfied with these. The meows, the mews, the paws, the furs, and more! They crack a smile especially if one is a certified pun appreciator. This make game stand out a bit.
Besides that, when it comes to positives there is a gear system, as all items look good visually and offers some minor changes to playstyle to spice things up, plus give a reason to grind or just clear out dungeons.
New modes after you beat a game and mentioned gear hunting/upgrading adds nice replayability if one is craving more of Cat Quest's simplicity.

As you might have guessed, one can dodge and smash same attack for so long before getting bored. Magic helps to some extend as you can try out different combinations but nonetheless combat is flat. Progression system works alright but sooner or later you reach a bar where you have to grind levels either to make through next quest or to clean up few final dungeons on the map.

Soundtrack could use a bit more...soundtrack. Because 4 or 5 short tracks in game quickly became repetitive. Story and whole narrative are nothing to write home about, it's just...there. Though I appreciate smaller side quest storylines you experience as you make your way through them.

Ultimately I still had decent time with Cat Quest because I knew it will be a good game at best but with cat themed puns. If you are not a fan of these you might aswell skip this title as combat or exploration are nothing special, including extra grinding in between. It's a simple, short title, worth playing for already mentioned word plays and if you need a break from massive, "dozens of hours to waste" titles, best absored in short sessions.

Final words and conclusion
There is a demo of the game on Steam page, feel free to try it out and see if you enjoy what it offers.

Pawsome puns, cute visuals and simple rpg gameplay core with minimal amount of mechanics make Cat Quest a purrfect title for quick sessions. Recommended!

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!

"Seems like we always wanna talk about the end, don't we?"

The Walking Dead: Season Two is an episodic adventure video game developed and published by Telltale Games.

Story
Playing first Season is pretty much a requirement to play Season Two.

Season Two of The Walking Dead takes place shortly after events from first game.
You step into the shoes of Clementine, who after final occurrences in last episode in Season One, ventures together with Omid and Christa to shelter known as Wellington all the way up north, protecting from walkers due cold and layers of snow. Unfortunately Clem soon finds herself alone, having to utilize everything she was taught to survive, facing threat from undead and humans on her journey to reach safe haven.

Gameplay
Just like previous season, S2 is a point-and-click adventure game where you control your character through a series of episodes, gameplay playing second fiddles to narrative and story.
Most of the time is spend on selecting different dialogue options and in few moments, making important choices that affect the narrative, with consequences coming back later to bite you.
When not chatting Walking Dead offers you an option to explore small sized areas. You can find and interact with items, pick them up and keep for later use, make a quick observation about them or chat with characters.
Game has more than a few Quick Time Events to create intense action focused bits so be prepared for button mashing or quick selection of what to press with somewhat new "Hold a mouse button and drag your mouse into specific direction" to spice things up!

At the end of each episode you get a screen showing off your most important choices and how overall community picked to see if you are in majority or minority. Though I'm pretty sure with Telltale Games problems, servers are down so you have look at data from...some time period.

Playtime and replayability
It took me 8 hours to make my way through all episodes.
You can give game another go to check how different choices impact the narrative.

Pros and cons
Without any doubt my favourite and simply best part of S2 is Clementine and her development as season goes on. Following her journey as she finds herself once again between a rock and a hard place, with new group facing same issues she saw before, needing to adapt as constant threat from undead and other humans give them no rest is a real treat and strongest aspect of the game. Struggle, survival, sacrifice, tough decisions and betrayals, looming hope and despair on the horizon, constant tension, game has it all. One does have to roll eyes a bit when game is putting so much emphasis on a single child in groups with multiple adult characters, as Clementine will be send to do...literally everything, but that's just protagonist curse.

Solid characters surrounding our heroine are as important to creating good narrative experience. Majority of them is well written, with variety of personalities clashing in to offer intense moments as Clem will have to find herself on some side of the barricade sooner or later.
Unfortunately they still suffer from horror syndrome where not all actions make logical sense or just plain stupid deaths to push story forward exist, and there are characters who have rather weird, questionable motives which do bring down the quality of a game down a bit. Writing also has weaker moments in the middle of the season.
And classic "choices and consequences" is a bit...iffy. I understand what they went with in 1st Season but in S2 choices feel even less impactful than before.

There is not much to be said about gameplay. It works with no problems, additional new "mouse dragging" mechanic to spice things up somewhat is a good move though, again, Walking Dead is not a game one plays for its exciting gameplay. Unfortunately game doesn't offer same amount of hub areas like first title, and that is by far biggest negative when it comes to this chunk of Season Two.

Conclusion
While slightly dropping in quality in comparison to first season, fantastic atmosphere, great cast of characters with our protagonist on top and constant tension make Season Two worth playing.

Feel free to check out my curator page for more reviews!