Скорошни рецензии на Elthrael

One day, you'll wake up, and realize the world is going downhill. You will start to see everything as against your belief system. And you will feel the URGE... to PURGE. Whatever shall you do? Don't worry, Warhammer 40K Space Marine is here to put a hand on your shoulder and a Chainsword (or Power Axe) in your hand and tell you that's perfectly okay for the 41st millenium.

Some disappointingly low-res textures aside, said 41st Millenium looks terrific despite its age. Warhammer 40k games aren't exactly a rarity, and as far as I know, Games Workshop has a pretty iron grip on the art direction, but holy Emperor does this game nail the vibe and atmosphere of the 40k universe. I'll admit I'm more of a Warhammer Fantasy fan, but the way I envision 40k is exactly this: grim, dilapidated, steely, over-the-top and robust. It sounds amazing too. This has got to be one of the most chunky footstep foley work I've ever heard. You feel like the giant hunk of metal that you are. The weapons likewise are spot-on. Bolters sound like someone firing small cannons, melee hits are super satisfying and the plasma guns go pew-pew. All is as it should be in terms of presentation.

Gameplay is an absolute BLAST too. The combination of melee and ranged combat is absolutely seamless and the game doesn't wait too long until it lets you play around with most of its more potent toys. You have a melee weapon with several combos and four ranged weapons (two are fixed, the other two can be swapped out) to bring down sweet, holy death on the godless heretic scum. Enemies are plentiful and despite the game starting off as a brainless hack-n-slash, by the end, there's just enough enemy variety and sheer overwhelming numbers that even the most vehement of berserkers will want to re-evaluate the situation before charing in like a bull. Another small, but neat detail are your squadmates who follow you around and pop the odd Xeno, but thankfully, they can take care of themselves and you don't have to babysit them.

Unfortunately, the combat more or less carries the game 100%, because Space Marine was made in that unfortunate era of gaming where Call of Duty: Modern Warfare set the standard for coma-inducing linearity. The maps (if you can call themt that) are just a series of not-very-interesting, mostly brown or gray corridors that are just an excuse to restock you with ammo and get you from one combat arena to the next. While there is an ever so slight sense of spatial progression through the planet, especially towards the end, it still feels painfully superficial and the world is therefor thoroughly uninteresting to be in. There are small sections where you get a jump pack and you at least experience some verticality, but it's a splat of ketchup in an otherwise very dry pizza.

The story is alright, it's not a literary masterpiece but it doesn't get in the way either. There are (especially in the start) very numerous cutscenes for no real good reason (another trope of late 00s game design). The ending somewhat vaguely hints at a possible sequel, and apparently, one is in the works. Speaking of the ending, the end bossfight is also fairly anticlimactic and disappointing ( it's a few waves of enemies before you have to perform a long-ish quick-time event on the boss and that's it ). The game is also fairly short too, it took me 8 hours to complete it on Normal with a few deaths and some minor collectible hunting.

There is also multiplayer, but to be honest, I didn't feel the need to try it. Credit where it's due, the forums suggest there's a small, but devoted community to multiplayer so if you want to try it out, it's there.

I have to say that despite the bland, corridorey map design and the wet sock final bossfight, I found myself thoroughly enjoying Warhammer 40k: Space Marine. The combat is a rampaging good time and despite its relative simplicity it's just so freakin FUN, you really want to just sprint from one encounter to the next and indulge in what this game does best, which is PURGING XENO FILTH. Despite its short length, I didn't feel it was too small in scale, and that's a tough feeling to pull off. It made me warm up to 40k, which is always a good thing, and I heartily recommend it even if you're completely new to Warhammer.

I adored the first Psychonauts game, warts and all, and finished it several times. My jaw dropped when this sequel was released with little to no fanfare (or maybe I just wasn't paying attention?), and I instantly added it to my wishlist and bought it soon after.

Using Unreal Engine with a game like this might seem like an odd choice, and I was afraid the quirky, signature Double Fine artystle would suffer, but I can assure you it doesn't. The only "side-effect" of UE4 is that this game looks gorgeous and feels amazing to play. I'll just lump controls into this paragraph because it really is a huge step-up from the first game and the engine is probably to credit for that - for some people, the combat might be too floaty and chaotic (the old game was kind of clunky and basic), but to be honest, I never focused on the combat in this game. What does feel a lot better is the movement. The old game felt a bit cumbersome and this game is snappy as hell, like a modern platformer should be.
I also want to dedicate a few words to the sound: the old game had a very recognizable soundscape and most of the old sounds are carried over very well. Some peoiple take issue with the music, for some reason, but I really don't understand why. The original had phenomenal music and this one does too. It has more tracks, the original really only had one track when roaming the real world and that's probably why so many remember it so fondly since it was drilled into our brains. This time, each outdoor area has its own soundtrack and they all hit home for me.

The PSI powers are back, and this time you can choose which one to upgrade yourself. It's a small but vital QoL change that sets it apart from the original - there you got upgrades as you ranked up without any choice as to what to upgrade first, now you can do it yourself. I liked this, but at the same time I felt like the game became trivial very early on. There are new powers as well, but some like Projection are literally just there to pad out the game if you want to collect everything. Then there's stuff like Mental Connection which is introduced in the very first mind and I thought they would do a LOT more with, but it just ends up being a one-trick pony.

The world is also a LOT bigger this time (or at least it feels that way). This game is heavy on the exploration/puzzle aspect and in that regard, it certainly doesn't disappoint. I loved every minute of scouring every single mental and real nook and cranny and if you like exploring unique worlds, this is definitely the game for you. The gradual drip-feed of powers to further exploration is also done well, just like in the first game. So top marks in the level department.

What didn't I like? Well, the main thing that didn't gel with me is the difficulty. Overleveling is almost inevitable, the game gives you a lot of get-out-of-jail free cards and there really is little to no consequence for failure. I don't mind this as much since I play other games for the challenge fix (is Elden Ring out yet?!), and I don't think challenging combat was the point anyway, but there were some boss battles in Psychonauts 1 that I felt were legitimately challenging and hard, and in this game, I only would've died once in the very final boss-fight if I didn't buy the "rez me for free" Dream Fluff items. Just seems like one of the few steps-down this game made compared to the original.

Another thing I wasn't in love with was the story. I'll keep it vague on purpose: Psychonauts was daffy, light-hearted and original. Psychonauts 2 takes itself more seriously, but I think it goes a tad too far in some respects. Don't get me wrong - I welcome the fact that they're exploring darker themes and delving deeper into mental illness, relationships, and so on. The fact that you're delving into the minds of ex-Psychonauts is thrilling, and the minds in this game are a lot more tastefully and thoughtfully fleshed out than in Psychonauts 1. This is great and it adds depth to the story. However, I really don't think a whole war/protest/political subplot, for example, was necessary to get the point across and it kind of clashes with the vibrant, cheery theme of the game in general. Overall, it's not a bad story, but it didn't have the same charm as Psychonauts 1 did.

One more thing that's part of the game's design, and I'm not a fan of - the game forces you to progress through certain parts, especially at the end, so you're basically forced to replay some parts if you want 100%. I understand why they did this, to prevent someone breezing through all the content in one go, but the truth is, I tried getting as much as possible as I went along and it took me all of 2 minutes to clean up after. So if the idea was to extend game-time and encourage revisiting... either double-down or lock off more, or just let me pick everything up. Especially since some collectibles are "hidden" behind some of the most atrocious invisible walls I've ever seen. But I'm going into nitpicking territory now, so I'll leave it at that.

All in all, Psychonauts 2 is great. It's a worthy sequel, it does a lot of things right, it has some minor annoyances, but overall, I'd easily recommend this if you're a fan of the original game.

Ever played mage in a game and had tremendous fun? I bet you did. I also bet there was a little voice in your head going "Why aren't there more spells? More ways to combine them? Why can't I get EVEN MORE overpowered?!". While it has warts aplenty, Lichdom: Battlemage is still the definitive answer to that question.

I'm one for consistency, so let's get presentation out of the way first. You are greeted with an "Achieved with Cry Engine 3" splash screen when you boot up the game, and boy did they get their money's worth. Forced film grain aside (sigh), this game is gorgeous on all accounts. The environments especially - nothing was held back, you're taken on the whole ride, mountains, deserts, swamps, jungle, you name it, they do it, and they do it well. The spells and visual effects also look and sound AMAZING. The elements sound like you'd expect them to (fire sounds like, well, a damn good rendition of fire) and the less grounded spell types also have very pleasing sound design. The combination of great visuals and sound make everything feel extremely meaty and impactful and for me, the game ran butter smooth. The controls are also alright, although bizzarely, you can't jump (?!?!?). Other than the lack of jump though - top marks in that department.

So, what awaits you in terms of gameplay when you don the mage's robe in a game specifically made for it? Unfortunately, it's a bit of a mixed bag.

Without turning this already lengthy review into a guide, the basic idea of spellcrafting is this: you have 8 sigils (spell types, fire, ice, lightning etc.) and three "shapes" for each (targeted, AoE and block retaliation/dodge effect aka "Nova"), and three types of "attunement" (what a spell actually does, deal damage, crowd control, or apply "Mastery" aka a damage-increasing debuff to enemies). You make a spell by choosing the Sigil, then what "shape" it takes when cast, then what it does. You have 3 sigils with one shape each for a total of 9 equipped spells. In order to be effective, you want your foes to be stunned or otherwise disabled (i.e. have some Control spells handy), you want to apply as much debuff as possible to as many of them as possible to increase damage (i.e. have some Mastery spells handy) and then slam them to kingdom come with a Destruction spell of your choice. If you're going "what, can I have that again, please?", well... that's the problem and simultaneously the beauty.
Despite it being a bit of a double-edged sword (boooo, melee references in a mage game review, booo), I really want to praise the spellcrafting system. It's deep, it's complex, it evokes the idea of a scholar poring over old arcane texts in search of ultimate power. If you want to turn your star-voiced mage (more on that later...) into a walking whirlwind of annihilation, you'll spend quite a bit of time staring at numbers and words in the crafting menu, which is both good and bad. The good is ... it's really, REALLY rewarding to find a combination of spells that works and once the whole thing clicks, it's really super-satisfying and you are, indeed, grotesquely powerful by the end. I'm not kidding, I literally killed the game's final boss with two or three spells on Battlemage difficulty. The bad is ... the game does its darndest to explain all the intricacies but ultimately, for a first-time player, a lot, and I do mean a LOT is lost on you. For example, the game does tell you via loading screen that your sigils can be leveled, but to see the progress (and, more importantly, the criteria), you have to go to the Custom crafting menu, select "crafting", then hover your mouse over the sigil and see your progress. Pretty arcane, but for all the wrong reasons. In short, there are a plethora of moving parts to keep track of and at first you'll feel overwhelmed, and there is a handy journal and a bunch of tutorial videos you can access at any time to revise, but it still might leave you feeling frustrated or confused. Lastly, there is a "Smart Crafting" system, but I'd call it "Sloppy Shortcut" crafting. It's great for upgrading items (doing it manually sucks), but otherwise it just takes the augments with the highest numbers that you have in your inventory and mashes them together - sometimes, it works, but 95% of the time, it just offers you worse spells with one slight number increase and you're better of crafting your own.

My biggest gripe with the gameplay is the actual combat and, more specifically, the enemy design. For the most part, it's a bit samey and repetitive. Near the last act of the game, things really pick up and enemy variety improves by a LOT, but I just get this unmistakable feeling of laziness from the enemies themselves. You'll be fighting skeletons and barely-interesting humanoids for at least the first 5-6 hours of the game, and any kind of variety in combat comes from enemies that glow and have words next to them like "Knocks Down" or "Collossal Health" or "Seething". I mean, information is great and all, but I'm a firm believer in "show, don't tell". Worst part is, some effects like "Seething" and "Cursed" DO have visual cues, but I have a feeling the devs were in over their heads with enemy design and just said "screw it, we'll just spell it out (no pun intended)". As mentioned, it gets better by the end of the game where you're getting beat on by giant demons and alligators and such, but boy, oh boy was I sick of the same old skeleton/humanoid mobs around the 2nd third of the game.

There is also another problem with figuring out the game's system - effectiveness is repetitive by design. Throughout my playthrough, I was following the same routine: apply control, apply mastery, single-target or AoE damage, rinse, repeat. I didn't get tired of it very fast, but I can see some people going "ok, here we go again" fairly soon.

I have praised the environments, but another slightly minor gripe I have is level design. Every level just feels like it goes on for every so SLIGHTLY too long, like it could've done with one or two skirmish less. That, and the linearity is almost offensive. Especially the swamp level - pathetic 10 m loopbacks galore.

My biggest gripe in general, outside of gameplay, is the story, the characters and the voice acting. Even after 20 hours I still can't figure out if this game takes itself seriously or not. The writing is just bad and inconsistent. On the one hand, the setting is very much high-fantasy, you have this revenge tale and some old mage guy telling you in perfect British English how the fate of the world is in your hands, but then your character talks like some 21st century American action movie tough guy and the enemies blurt out obscene one-liner drivel like "let's dance, ♥♥♥♥". You have some serious-sounding names like "Zasad" and "Drivasser", but then the swamp level is called "Soddentrod" (I kid you not, and for what it's worth, the level is a pretty sodding trod) and the level after that "Sinkhole". Just ... weird, jarring tone changes across the board. The antagonists are also total wet towels. You have an evil king's underling, a pair of annoying twins and the actual evil king. Pretty flat and uninspired stuff. And while I adore Troy Baker and I think he's a stellar voice actor, he is REALLY not a good fit for this type of character. I ended up turning down the dialogue in the sound options and turning off the subtitles.

Lastly, the game has a slightly low-effort "New Game Plus" mode which includes short combat encounters in the main game's maps. It's basically a platform for grinding achievements, so it's adequate, but not earth-shattering. I didn't bother going past the first set of portals, but it does add some replayability.

In conclusion, take the story and throw it in the trash, then open up the Spellcrafting menu, spend some quality time mulling over spell numbers and percentages and you'll have yourself a beautiful, merry, death-raining time in Lichdom: Battlemage.

Well, this is it. End of the pointy-eared line. What a ride. A bumpy one, in places, but a great ride nonetheless.

I remember when this game came out and the whole performance and bugs debacle was taking place. I gave the game a hefty detour but I swore I'd come back to it in a few years to see if things have improved. Well, my rig certainly has improved, but to be honest, the game ran great for me (except one area in Stagg airships dropped my FPS by a lot for some reason) and I only encountered two or so crashes in my entire 52 hours, which, for an open-world game this dense and massive, is pretty good. Mid playthrough nVidia even fixed their GameWorks stuff so I got to experience all the fancy FX too. I'm not going to mince words here. This game looked incredible in 2015 and it still does. Everything is polished to a brilliant shine: the textures are detailed, the weather effects and water are breathtaking, the animations are fluid, the sound design stellar as always, the whole thing just fires on all cylinders and looks down on the previous games from way up high.

Gameplay-wise, to me, it feels to the Arkham games what GTA V is to the GTA series: it's a culmination of all the things the devs tried and learned in the previous installments and then adds some more to the mix. Let's get this out of the way first: YES, the Batmobile is way, WAY overused. Yes, there are a ton of gadgets and it's a bit much to wrap your head around at first. But the whole thing just clicks. My favorite new additions were open-world predator encounters (I don't think we ever had outdoor predator encounters other than that ship in AO) and the "pick your mission" gameplay loop. I like games that let me tackle the massive list of missions at my own pace (*glares at Far Cry 5*), and this game does this superbly, and even though I was a bit annoyed at the objective gating, it prevented me from just blasting through everything and it prevented the game from feeling too ADHD-like (*glares at Far Cry 4*). Sure, there are a lot of collectibles, and the gameplay still mainly consists of punching, sneaking and analyzing, but there are so many permutations to the formula that it only starts feeling a bit samey towards the very, very end. Keeping a game feeling fresh for 30-50 hours is a daunting task, and the Arkham Knight delivers.

I don't want to say too much about the story, but I found it phenomenal. The way the ending ties in with the whole theme of the game is just magnificent. For a game story based on a comic book (i.e. not something to read too much into), this is as good as it gets.

I mentioned bumps in the ride, and to me, the main thing was, as mentioned, overuse of the Batmobile. The car itself is cool as hell and I liked how it was integrated into the environment and the Riddler puzzles, so in essence, it IS a breath of fresh air, but there are some downright silly ideas like "car stealth" and massive "tank" battles that really feel a bit out of place in a Batman game. Its use also stretches the idea of Batman's non-lethality as far as the canon has ever tried. Not to mention the fact that zipping around and gliding is still the fastest way of getting around. But hey, I'd be lying if I say it wasn't fun having *a* Batmobile of some kind. It's a cool addition, if a bit misguided.

Lastly, the DLCs are a joke. I got the GOTY edition so I got everything in one package, but they really should've been part of the base game. I can't believe they had the gall to charge money for 20 minute, three-objective missions. They're fun distractions, but ultimately a cash grab.

All in all... it feels sad to say goodbye to the Arkham franchise, but it was the 21-gun salute send off of massive proportions that we deserved. This may be how the Batman died, but it's a series that I will never forget and will fondly remember for years to come.

It's not all bad, but ultimately, to me, there were more negatives than positives to warrant a positive review.

Visually, the new levels are stunning and it was nice to see id apply some green, foliage and some nature into these otherwise desolate worlds, it was a breath of fresh air. The game still runs like butter and while I miss our old pal Mick - nothing will ever spank as hard as his tracks - the new music is... adequate.

In the gameplay department, we have a few additions, the hammer, the annoying "must-blood-punch" prowlers, indestructible Riot guards, Stone Imps and a Baron of Hell with a weak-spot. The hammer is fun, but overpowered as all hell, and the new enemies are okay, with the Spirits from TAG1 also making a return. I found the Stone Imps annoying and I hope this trend of "can only be killed by X weapon mod" doesn't carry over into future id games. There are also "escalation events", which are Gore Nests that respawn for extra cosmetics, but are otherwise optional, a kind of stand-in for Slayer gates. All these additions shake up the combat just enough for the game to be interesting again.

However, not all is rosey in the land of DOOM Eternal. The DLC is really short, I completed it in 2 or 3 hours (one sitting, basically). It's also a bit wonky in difficulty, people complained TAG1 was too hard and too cheap, this one I think is not as challenging as it could be, it's more the game annoying you every once and a while and it calls that "difficulty/challenge". That, and the last boss fight is just... tedious beyond description. It's basically a Marauder with some extra tricks, except it's stupidly finnicky to get him to do the flash thing, the boss heals when you take damage, the hit detection is all over the place, it's just unfun to the core and it kind of ruined the whole thing for me.

As for the story, I stopped following the story right around TAG1 because it's just too wordy, convoluted and up it's own for it to be even ironically interesting/amusing. Too many deities, myths, legends, names, places to keep track of in a fast-paced shooter. I don't even know who the bad guys or the good guys are/were, who betrayed who and what happened, I just don't care because NONE of it has any bearing on the world you inhabit and slay demons in - the definition of tacked-on.

Combine the short length, the more-annoying-than-challenging new enemies and the slog of a final boss fight with a price tag of 20€, and you get a "not recommended" from me. It's pretty, it sounds good, it still plays well, it's still mostly fun, but the balance dipped into "nope" too much on this one for me.

Grayson Hunt's Pro Butt-shooter is a pretty neat game sadly marred by technical hiccups and a painfully short runtime. While the ride is short, there's still no shortage of thrills.

Visually, we've got Unreal 3 engine firing on all cylinders. Being a remaster, it supports high framerates and high resolutions and it looks pretty darn nice for a remaster of a game released in 2011. The artstyle is quintessential early 2010s, big bulky character models with brown stuff on them and lots and lots of destroyed setpieces. The worlds are interestingly executed but are a bit bland by concept: the seven Acts are distinguishable, but they're nothing groundbreaking: toppled cities, messed up spaceships, sewers, platforms, standard sci-fi military shooter fare.
The sound is alright, the gun sounds do their job but are sadly nothing memorable, and the score is the typical mix of orchestral and cheap djonty metal you'd expect from a game of that era.

The gameplay is this game's ultimate strength, ignoring the forced quick-time events and camera pulls (the game was made in 2011 and it shows). I called it "Grayson Hunt's Pro Butt-shooter" as an attempt at being funny, but that's basically what it is: a shooter where you get points from killing enemies in creative and brutal ways. The points you can then spend on weapon upgrades and ammo on the plentiful Dropkits found throughout the levels. I found it a satisfying combat loop and the fact that ammo pickups are rare and you're sometimes forced into buying ammo keeps the gameplay exciting and the minimal resource management adds some much-needed depth to the game. Upgrades for guns and the guns themselves are drip-fed at more or less regular intervals, and at the end you're rewarded with Overkill mode, essentially a New Game+ where the stupid 3 weapon limit is removed and your guns are upgraded from the get-go.

The enemy roster is solid as well with your usual assortment of fast, annoying enemies, slow, bullet sponge enemies, regular trash, spec-ops soldiers, mini bosses and so on. I'd say the game is well-balanced on Hard and you really have to use everything in your arsenal if you want to be effective because these guys won't hesitate to mow you down first chance they get.

Unfortunately, the game is plagued by game-breaking bugs, some of which can be fixed by reloading a checkpoint, others need a game restart, chapter restart or complete game reinstall. This game has been out for 4 years and these bugs have been reported from the start, yet they still haven't been ironed out. I experienced two of them and while both were fixed (one by reinstalling, then reloading a chapter, another by simply reloading a savegame), isn't polish the point of a remaster!? There are also weird audio glitches in some cutscenes and so on.

Lastly, the story is... meh, at best. Your typical revenge tale turned something else and to be honest, I didn't really buy the character's "development". Speaking of the characters, they veer left and right on a strange road between parody and tryhard-ness. There's a loooot of swearing and tough-talk, and not a lot of it lands, sometimes it feels like it's there for the sake of it. If you're 12, this will be hilarious. If you're not, you'll get tired of the macho, spittle-drooling f-bombs and countless dumb combinations of profanity and reproductive organs. But I won't hold the story against this game too much - it's not the point of the game and while it adds nothing, it also doesn't detract anything from the overall experience.

All in all, Bulletstorm is a fine, points-laden shooter romp through familiar-feeling but unique looking environments. For shooter fans, it's an easy recommend from me. It's short, yeah, It took me around 8 hours to complete the main campaign with plenty of reloads to get skillshots down and hunt for collectibles, but I prefer short games that don't overstay their welcome to dragged out games. Beware of bugs, strap yourself up, warm up that left-click button and get ready to kick some dudes into the air while piledriving a drill projectile into a boss's face. Good stuff!

Superhot was neat, but painfully short. Superhot: Mind Control Delete is neater still, somewhat longer, and, as the game's achievements and erm... "story" keep smashing into your skull, MORE. A lot was thrown at the wall, some of it stuck very well, some of it kind of slid down, and some of it fell flat.

I won't bother with the "story" much. It's again told through a computer terminal and flashing messages, and it's one of those things where you either love it and accuse everyone else of "not getting it", or hate it and accuse everyone else of being "pretentious art nerds". It's more or less the same idea as Superhot: the game wants you to recognize it's addictive and despite it's simplistic and repetitive nature, you supposedly can't put it down, so you should relinquish your humanity and be nothing so you're finally at peace. Or something.

In the presentation department, there aren't any substantial changes, and to be honest, none were really needed in the first place. The game has a recognizable art style and it still runs like greased lighting, and while I haven't played the original recently to compare, the maps struck me as more detailed and polished, so a +1 there. The music is still minimal, but it does it's job.

The gameplay has been shaken up quite a bit though. MCD is less linear and more random - the levels are grouped together in "nodes" and the maps are randomly selected in groups of around 5-10 (or 100, for the penultimate optional mode, lol), and if you fail a level, the maps in a node get reshuffled. I raised my eyebrows a bit the first time that happened but it's a welcome addition because it reduces frustration and keeps the gameplay from becoming stale. There is also a "life" system that makes the game a bit more forgiving while retaining the challenge.

Speaking of not becoming stale - this time around, we have powerups, or "hacks", and four classes (or "cores") to choose from, and while having more lives, being able to recall your Katana and possessing red dudes is handy, to me, the Charge (teleport and punch enemies) core is by far the most useful and I dare even say overpowered a bit because it lets you warp right through already fired bullets, making it a bit of a "get out of jail free" card. The hacks are very varied and you are randomly awarded a choice of two from your hack pool every few maps in a node, meaning you can have makeshift "builds" that change every time you attempt a node. Very well done and a textbook example of how to do randomness in games without making a mess of things. Regardless of my feelings towards Charge, the classes and powerups together make the gameplay a whole heap more interesting, making the 6-7 hour journey of MCD engaging from start to... almost finish.

And the ending, or rather, the last "stretch", is my only real gripe with this game. Most of it, like 90% of it was great, but the last bunch of cores force you to hand in your powerups, and for the last few levels, MCD essentially becomes a less interesting version of itself. It's just so dumb to give the player all these awesome toys to play with and instead of making the last levels super hard and letting you use MORE (despite the sardonic tone, that WAS the freaking point of this game, at its core, right?! MORE?!) hacks or find a good combo to beat a hard level, you're slowly stripped of everything and end the game like a chump. I know their whole shtick was "no climax" and "no satisfaction" or whatever, but this is pushing it. Nothing, I repeat, NOTHING excuses making a game unfun to make a "statement". You can make the same statement without sucking all the fun from the game in its last breaths.

Lastly, the price. I'm still not sure it's worth the full price of 25€, but the "One of Us" bundle with the original that frequently goes on sale for around 20€ Euros is more like it.

In conclusion, MCD expands on the Superhot formula with absolutely stellar implementation of randomized elements, fun and creative powerups and classes and slightly more polished maps. The story is what it is and the ending is unfortunately a wet sock, but... I'd be lying if I said that last hour or so completely ruined an otherwise enjoyable 6-7 hour experience (and 2.5 hours of idle time for that last friggin achievement, lmao).Well, what are you waiting for? You know you want MORE. MORE RED DUDES TO KILL. In MORE FUNNER WAYS.

Here's the 411: if you like 90s shooters, fantasy or both, this is the game for you. If you're thinking "hey I loved Quake/Doom/Unreal/Heretic etc., will this scratch that itch" for the love of God YES. It will. And then some. What I'm saying is, AMID EVIL is a tastefully done retro shooter that doesn't feel like a cheap retread of something we already experienced 25+ years ago.

Unreal Engine is responsible for the visuals, and boy does this game look good. While this game does lean heavily into the "art over fidelity" approach, the balance between crisp, polished elements versus gritty, pixelated elements is unique and well-struck. It doesn't look like crap and hand-wave it off as "retro". Nope. You can tell care and love was put into the maps, the enemies and the weapon models. Same with the sound design, the music is some of the best atmospheric, mood-painting stuff I've ever heard in a game, the soundscape in general is instantly recognizable and I'm glad you can't really say "oh it sounds like this game". It's it's own thing.

This "own thing" is the main reason why AMID EVIL works so well. People are so quick to happily nod and go "oh it's a modern Heretic reimagining". I mean... fair enough, Heretic was the first to do low fantasy and shooting mechanics together, but apart from the somewhat magickey weapons, this game's atmosphere feels more like Quake or Unreal with less gritty sci-fi and more fantasy. Heretic was firmly cartoony, dark fantasy. AMID EVIL feels a lot more ominous and darker still. The movement is way more responsive than anything ever conjured up in the DOOM engine (hence my comparisons to the kings of FPS movement).

Without delving into too much detail, I just want to praise three elements that are, for all intents and purposes, the only elements that really matter in an FPS game: the weapons, the maps and the enemies.

The weapons are a great collage of cool ideas, the soul mode alt-fire powerup makes the whole roster very flexible and you'll never feel like a weapon has lost its usefulness right up to the very end. There are four ammo types and I feel like here they could've drawn a bit MORE from Heretic and did the whole "some weapons use two ammo types at once" thing, but the four types work well enough still. My favourite is the Star of Torment, a shotgun-like mace/wand that shoots spikes in a spread pattern that pins enemies to the wall if you "overkill" them (hit them with more damage than necessary to kill).

The enemies likewise keep you on your toes. Seven episodes of three levels + boss level, you'd think there'd be some recycling or laziness, but nope, every area has its own distinct monsters and I never for a second thought "oh, this again". Top notch stuff.

And the maps. Oh, the maps. Once again I need to stress that some 90s FPS maps were too convoluted or complex for their own good. I think devs have learned this lesson too since 1996 and this is absolute creme-de-la-creme. Just complex and non-linear enough to be interesting, just simple and well-laid out to be easy to navigate. Perfect. I've already gushed how pretty and detailed they are, so no need for that twice. Lastly, the length is perfect as well. Some oldschool games really overstayed their welcome, but since the market wasn't as dense as today, I can understand why they wanted to give the players a more lengthy experience. Either way, AMID EVIL took me 12 hours for a nice, unrushed playthrough on Hard with some secret hunting, but if you're a completionist (without guides), you're easily looking at around 20 hours at least.

If I had to look hard (really hard) for something to knock... I guess the boss fights aren't very challenging if you're a stupid hamster like me and overprepare. A soul-powered Star of Torment will melt most any but the last two bosses and the very final boss, but the other bosses are pretty easily dispatched. I honestly don't remember what the Solar boss looked like because I murdered him so quickly. Some kind of weak spot or phase mechanic would work wonders to make boss battles a little more challenging, but they're alright since you can always just choose not to use Soul mode and do it that way.

In summary... the game is great in all aspects (except bossfights), and if you like 90s shooters and want something contemporary to get that circlestrafing, white-knuckle left-mouse button holding action fix, you're in for a treat. An easy recommend from me!

This is probably my favorite game of all time for three reasons: it was made with love and attention to detail (emphasis on the past tense), it combines so many of my favorite things in gaming (first person, fantasy, melee + ranged, Warhammer) and it's just plain fun. It does, however, have a MYRIAD of flaws.

Graphics and presentation is not one of those flaws. This game is gorgeous and it's oozing with style, detail and if you've ever read a Warhammer novel or if you're a Warhammer fan, you'll instantly be taken in by the atmosphere. The lighting is gorgeous, the texturework detailed and the animations flow seamlessly. The sound design is tight and every enemy has a clear, unmistakable sound, the weapons sound and feel meaty and impactful, the music is top-notch. It is a fairly demanding game that taxes both the CPU and the GPU, but for me it runs about as well as I'd expect.

The core gameplay is also one of this game's strengths. Essentially, it's a four-player co-op horde hack and slash. There are five characters with 3 careers each plus two extra payable careers for two characters (we'll get to that later). Most classes have a melee weapon and a ranged weapon (some have 2 melee). There's no story, per se, just background lore and the game consists of linear missions with some scripted sequences and an AI director generating random horde spawns, boss spawns, special enemy spawns and so on. The roster is wide and varied - even the trash mobs have two tiers, then there are Elite enemies that hit hard and have armor/more health, special enemies that disable you or have crowd control, it's just good mechanics all around (except Blightstormers, they can buzz off). This means no two runs will be the same and it keeps the gameplay fresh and reactive instead of turning into rote memorization. As I've mentioned, the animations and feedback are tight and the game feels responsive. This is fantastic, because despite it's random nature, at its core, it's still a skill-based game... mostly. The maps are fun, varied and as I've said, beautiful and I haven't gotten tired of them even after 450 hours.

One last, really good thing - the characters are A+. The banter is awesome, the voice acting superb, they have great chemistry and they're just fun to be around. They're a talkative bunch and I love it because it gives the game so much charm you could measure it in bucketloads.

There are, sadly some glaring faults and annoyances. First and foremost... to me, the game didn't really start until the fourth difficulty, Legend, around 100 hours in. Up to that, the game might seem totally boring or too easy to newcomers and the fact that all difficulties grant the same amount of leveling XP might mean someone will infer that the game is just a boring grind. I mean, it IS a grindy game, but to me, the appeal is that it keeps getting harder and harder and it's fun to master a difficulty and move on to the next one until you can hold a Cata horde on your own. Unfortunately, it's hard for beginners to experience how fun this game is at higher difficulties because the game is just too watered down on the easier ones. Let me give you an example: during a Recruit run, you might run into ONE horde and maybe 10 specials throughout the entire map. Traversal is risk-free and dull. During a Legend run, you will get upwards of 1000 trash enemies and specials in the 50s or 60s. Hordes will spawn very, very often and specials and elites will populate even mundane roads and paths making traversal actually dangerous and thrilling.

Another thing that might turn new players off is the loot system. You basically collect Tomes that replace your healing item and Grimoires that replace your potion buff in order to level up a loot box that you get upon completing the mission. Higher difficulties give better chests, and your loot level slowly rises. The drops are still random, so the road to max damage/stat gear is long and tedious and the Winds of Magic DLC (for all its other problems) had a MUCH better upgrade system that I wish they would just transfer to the main game.

That said, some maps are just unfairly hard and even though I said the game is mostly skill-based, sometimes the game just forces you to lose because it throws so much crap at you even four skilled players don't stand a chance. There are also some issues with hit detection and/or lag, so be prepared for quite a few "that was total bull" moments. It's just the nature of peer-to-peer and randomly generated encounters - sometimes you'll get dealt a bad hand, sometimes you'll lag, and sometimes, both will happen and you die through very little or no fault of your own.

Lastly, the elephant in the room... the support and development. This game has had SO many issues, so many crashes and things breaking, and the fact that there's no dedicated server means networking issues are common and totally ruin the fun. The devs seem to break more things than they fix sometimes and I dread what will happen everytime the game gets patched. Things do get resolved eventually but the game is just plain broken every so often. The other thing is the content or lack thereof. The devs have promised a PvP mode years ago. They drip-feed payable careers. They released a DLC that split the playerbase even further and locked the game's highest difficulty behind a paywall. Just... iffy decisions across the board and it really detracts from what is otherwise a stellar game. EDIT: now that Darktide is out and given what an absolute slow-burning disaster that is, Vermintide II is actually in a pretty good place. All the payable careers are out and I have to say they're all fun and worth the few bob.

All in all, in spite of the bad netcode, the random nature sometimes ruining the fun, the devs making questionable decisions about the game's future, this game remains my firm favourite. Come join us and become one of the bloody Ubersreik Five... or four, it doesn't matter.

Alan Wake has some great ideas but is ultimately dragged down into forgettable darkness by it's mind-numbingly repetitive and stale gameplay.

Credit where credit is due, the presentation is stellar and the game still looks and sounds decent almost 10 years down the line. The character models and animations feel a bit dated, but lighting and textures are superb, the darkness really feels thick without being just outright black and impenetrable. The environments detailed and lush with Bright Falls seeming like a living, breathing city - just a shame we never really get to experience it. The weapon sounds are meaty and impactful and while some sounds are outright recycled from Max Payne, the sound design in general is great as well, including the music.

The story is a double-edged sword: on the one hand, it borrows so many beats from famous horror giants like Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft that horror fans will recognize and appreciate. The setting and eerie, eldritch and slightly campy "there's something fishy around here" vibe is as close as we can get to a Twin Peaks 3rd person action game and as a fan of the first series of Twin Peaks, I'd be lying if I wouldn't say I reveled in the references. On the other hand, despite having a great meta-story and delving into topics such as writer's block, depression and so on, the whole thing still feels a bit cobbled together and... I don't want to call it "unoriginal", but it seems a bit "fan-servicey", at least. If you've consumed any art from the writers or shows I mentioned earlier, you won't find this story terribly fresh. Maybe it was fresh in 2010, but today, it feels like a fairly standard high-brow horror story, maybe because the insanely great idea of darkness having literal embodiment when wielded by artists is never really explored in depth. There's also this oddly tacked on "TV-show" format that is just there out of nowhere. And while the ending was unfortunately a bit abrupt and to me, not really satisfying, the story was ultimately what kept me going because in terms of gameplay, this game has very, very little to show for, and is the reason for my negative review at the end of the day.

The idea itself seems pretty unique on the surface (I guess that's a running theme here): enemies are only vulnerable once you've exposed them to (enough) light. That's all fine and dandy, but... there are literally five enemy types, and three of them only appear a handful of times during the 10-or-so hour campaign. They're bog-standard stuff, too: regular trash mob, big heavy health sponge, fast annoying weak enemy. Enemies have a ranged attack which is literally "throw random crap at player" and a melee attack. The combat is simple: point flashlight, wait, shoot, repeat. Over, and over, and over again. There are six weapons - revolver, shotgun, hunting rifle and flare gun, a flare and a flashbang (which people apparently leave lying around everywhere), so it's not like the arsenal is exciting either. There's some minor resource management involved in the first part of the game but nothing that would really amount to "challenge" either. Lastly... the final level is a total slog with little to no relevance to the story, it's literally just "go to this place", and like I've mentioned, the ending just fizzles out, no great boss fight, no big reveal, nothing. So even after you've dragged Alan's weak-lunged behind (he can sprint for like 10m, by the way) through 10 hours of gameplay, you feel like you just... finished a game.

After finishing the game, I learned there are two DLCs (The Signal and The Writer), but honestly, I didn't even bother with them and HLTB lists their completion time as sub 2 hours each, so I'm just going to assume it's typical the slimy "cut content repackaged as DLC" move of the early 2010s.

Ultimately, I was asking myself "does the neat story outweigh the sluggish, boring and repetitive gameplay", and my answer was no. If Alan Wake was a TV show or a book, it would be terrific fun. As a game, it sadly isn't.