Recent reviews by Suicide Machine

Stop censoring 10 year old games and artist. What's wrong with you?! Especially if you are going to remove content from art book that people paid for!

Definitely can't recommend in the current state. There is just so many bugs related to storing and loading player progress in save files, which can literally softlock the player. And then the game failing to also store and load player's binding settings, 25 fps limit and overall issues with level design and gameplay, where you just end up walking really slowly through all of the levels trying to find small pieces you've missed, which - in the end - you might have not missed at all and might just not be present because of the game's buggy save files. Shame.

To keep it short. HROT is another game in the wave of recently popular "Boomer shooters". It takes place in Czechoslovakia of 1986, where something has gone terribly wrong. Like almost all shooters in this subgenre, the game doesn't hold the player hand and doesn't do much in terms of storytelling - instead relaying on level design, its enemies and occasional boss fights and jokes with some pieces of lore to carry it.

Here some of the game's problems lay, as I don't think most enemies the game has are capable of enforcing different weapon usage and adoptive play style - there is literally one tactic that works on 90% of enemies, which is a shame, as it may make the experience somewhat stale at times. Bosses most of the times are too easy as well, but at least they are not bullet-spungy and each time they have very creative, absurd designs (although they are also most often based on Czech culture, so I don't fully understand them).

However, what certainly manages to carry this game, especially in the second half is its settings and loads of absurdities based in Czech culture or further even soviet-block reality of 1986. And while - again - I don't think the gameplay is as good as it should be and the story and lore is so loose and obscure it's pretty much impossible to keep track of it, the gameplay is still solid enough, while the level design and settings successfully manage to carry it till the end. It is an impressive achievement - especially considering custom engine it is using and a game that slavs with interest in boomer shooters should definitely play.

It very much seems to recycle the same ideas and mechanics as all the Sherlock games Frogwares have made since The Testament of Sherlock Holmes - which is a bit meh, but if anything - I have to give Frogwares credit, they are very prolific at making something that often looks impressive, runs relatively well and is fun to play, while at the same time it seems to be made on reasonable budgets, with small teams and short development cycles. As for the story and writing - it sometimes leans into tropes or gets downright cheesy, which can sometimes ruin scenes. Still, the game managed to surprise me several times with its twists to many of the subplots that needed to be resolved in order to move the main story forward, and if anything, I wish the main plot had worked anywhere near as well as they did. Overall, though, I had a good time playing the game, although I'm not sure I can fully recommend buying it at full price. And, I guess, if you're buying it solely for the Lovecraftian elements, you might be disappointed.

I am going to go and say "no" as recommendation to this one. And the reason is that this game is somewhat empty. It is very experimental and does many things that work, but then it also does not care in the slightest on whatever the player can handle it. It is seriously NOT a game you want to start your journey into VR with and even if you get use to most problematic aspects like free movement, camera moving based on position of VR body and not real one etc. this game will still make you feel sick at times. But my biggest gripe with it - it's just that it's so empty, repetitive and boring. Shooting and gun mechanics are really fun - even some platforming is! But then the game stretches its levels so badly and still forces you to do tedious stuff like climbing so much... it just gets boring and at the same time uncomfortable. Like - if you have a VR headset and don't mind a game that tries loads of ways for physical interactions in VR space, while not carrying whatever the player can handle it - you might want to try it... but don't expect to finish it - it is a chore.

Sadly, this game just can't get my recommendation. It requires way too much patience from a player and the game really doesn't have enough content, just forcing a player into replaying the same levels until he/she finds a solution to all of the challenges. It's just loads of trial an error. It's not all bad - it has its charm and humour and it is an interesting way to approach sitting VR game, but - I just can't recommend it. Not with this gameplay loop.

Emergency always had some issues with micromanagement of units and issues with AI and pathfinding. This version was finally when the amount of micromanagement reached such absurd levels, I had to give up.

Sadly, despite somewhat decent core mechanics, the game is absurdly repetitive forcing you to replay the same general levels (with randomization - sure, but nowhere enough of it to make it feel like it's anything original and worthwhile) over and over and over again. Then there is obviously a matter of some questionable design decisions of just bringing so many wildly different assets, where at times this starts to feel like and asset flip. Shame, really... shame.

Again - just like the VR mod for the base game, this is really good and beats many professional VR port of other games. But it can get really hard and tedious at times (especially towards the end), as these games were not designed with gesture based reloading - you can configure it of course to not use it, but then it's also sort of killing the fun of playing this game in VR.

After somewhat mixed Ghostwire: Tokyo, it's really soothing to see the team at Tango Gameworks come up with something so light-hearted and original. Hi-Fi RUSH is a rhythm-based linear action adventure game with within cell-shaded aesthetic. And what can I say - it pretty much nails everything - from having a nice, cool set of original characters and villains, humorous and wonderfully directed cutscenes, to some really fantastic selection of music that is used during various boss fight and action sequences. And despite me generally disliking games that mix rhythm mechanics with combat - this one really nails its combat, making it really satisfying to just stick to the rhythm, without being utter killer the moment you miss the beat. And with a price of 30€ for a quite intensively packed 9-11 hours experience with some NG+ content, there is just no way for me not to recommend it. Good job, Tango Gameworks!