#gamereviewer | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

cannedbread95 · 1 year

Text

Slow Damage Review

Not Spoiler Free! What makes Slow Damage such an emotionally compelling and rewarding experience? To answer this question, we first need to look outwards at ourselves and the social conditions of the society we live in. It doesn’t take much insight to understand that capitalism is in a deep and severe crisis. Inflation, poverty, political instability are just a few things that have been exacerbated in recent times. And I find that art in general rarely takes inspiration from the sickness of this system. Right away in Slow Damage, the prologue dives into the economic collapse of post-Olympic Japan. Describing basically word for word what life has become for the majority of people around the world. Shinkoumi may seem dystopic, but are the material conditions on the island really that different from our own? Its clear where the writers drew their inspiration from.

Towa is both a unique and familiar character. Compared to other Nitro Chiral protagonists, Towa certainly stands out, but why is that? I think there’s a few reasons. Towa for most of the story is really just someone trying to get by in life, and barely at that. He has few hobbies, spends a lot of time doing nothing, works a boring low wage job, wanders around. Not even mentioning his drug abuse and other destructive behaviors, its clear that Towa isn’t very interested in being alive. There are reasons for this, which are later revealed in the true route. However, Towa’s internal dialogue reveals that a lot of Shinkoumi residents feel the same way, and he’s no different. Given the staggering unemployment rate, high cost of living, and prevalence of violent crime, Shinkoumi is a suffocating place to live, especially for young people. Towa’s lifestyle may standout in comparison, but in his world--our world, he’s just the average guy. Throughout the story, Towa meets people who are just like him. People who have suffered the same exact abuse he did as a child, and who cope in the same destructive way he does. Even though Towa has familial connections to the bourgeois of Shinkoumi, his lived reality is crippling poverty. I think at times throughout the story, there seems to be not a lot going on. During the exploration component, Towa has the option of going to local shops and districts, but these movements are not necessarily plot relevant. A lot of the time, Towa just goes to places and you get to listen to his thoughts. If Towa goes to the old school candy shop, you get to hear him talk about gentrification and nostalgia (obviously in his words). Depending on what district he’s walking through, he describes the class character of the neighborhood, who probably lives in the apartments, etc. I think this is a wonderful component of the story, and Towa’s descriptions really solidify the class character of Shinkoumi. Towa’s meandering and inner dialogue are the heart of the game in my opinion. Its not until after Fujieda’s route where Towa has regained his lost memories that he starts to find joy in everyday life. But Towa doesn’t magically heal from his trauma. In fact, when Towa is brutally confronted with his childhood, we see him breaking down and falling into the lowest point of his life. Its only through Fujieda’s compassionate intervention where Towa begins to slowly accept himself. By the end of Fujieda’s route, Towa is still suffering from daily nightmares. However, in the past when Towa would use self-harm and alcohol to cope with his trauma, instead now we see him experiencing the same distressing flashbacks, and then letting the painful feelings pass. This is not to say that he’s unaffected from the agony of his trauma. Towa still struggles from insomnia and feeling like shit in general, but at least now he wants to live. Unfortunately, Slow Damage does not end in the revolution of Shinkoumi. I’ll admit that I was bit disappointed that nothing fundamentally changed in the resort city. Even though the two gang leaders who governed the city were removed, we are told that some other “corporation” took their place, and it was business as usual. Although anti climatic, this is the reality under capitalism. Social conditions don’t magically improve just because the scary cat lover ex-yakuza assassinates the head honchos. So basically, post story Shinkoumi is still a shitty place to live if you’re poor. But at least in each ending, we get to see Towa trying to live his best life regardless if he’s decided to confront his lost memories. Its enough that Rei, Taku, Madarame and Fujieda accept and love Towa for who he is. And this feeling is mutual too. Although perhaps more obvious in other routes, Towa openly voices his admiration and respect for each love interest. This doesn’t mean that these relationships are perfect by any means, but that these characters can be imperfect, crooked, and happy. It was really difficult putting together a review, especially since I love this game so much. I think the point overall of writing this was to somewhat clarify why this visual novel resonated with me so well. The strong point of this game is undoubtedly Towa and getting to experience Shinkoumi through his eyes. I think in general if Slow Damage had come out ten years ago, it probably wouldn’t have had the same emotional impact on its players, or at least for me. But for me, and millions of other young people, the world has turned its back on us. Conditions are rapidly deteriorating, life has become unbearable, and like the barbarism of Shinkoumi, there seems to be no way out. But at least in Slow Damage, we get to see someone like us finding a sliver of respite in a world deprived of hope. Afterthoughts: By the way, this game also has an amazing soundtrack, art direction, voice acting and UI. There are so many other wonderful aspects of the game that I will not mention publicly on social media platforms. But if you must know, Slow Damage is an R18 game. Slow Damage has really elevated the Boys Love genre in general and I hope future titles will continue to go beyond expectations. I was also all over the place with this review, which is indicative of how badly I want to pop off on all the things I love about Slow Damage.

#slow damage #nitrochiral #towa #visual novel #gamereview

39 notes · View notes

jeffs-gamebox · 2 months

Text

Daggerheart First Impressions

Taking a brief look at Daggerheart Playtest document from Darrington Press. This game needs some refinement, but it looks great on paper so far. I definitely see it selling to the Critical Role audience.

It’s awesome for Critical Role fans. The playtest package can be found at this link. I’ve been in this hobby for over 40 years, and I’ve seen many games come and go. Companies with products who looked like they were going to stand the test of time are gone now. Games that looked like hot garbage at first glance are still around today. Darrington Press’ Daggerheart is still very much up in the…

View On WordPress

#criticalrole #Daggerheart #DarringtonPress #gamereview #mattmercer #rpgblog #rpgblogger #rpgwriter #ttrpg #TTRPGblog #TTRPGblogger #ttrpgcommunity #ttrpgdesign #ttrpgplaytest #ttrpgreview #ttrpgwriter

2 notes · View notes

flamingtunapictures · 4 months

Text

Honest "Death’s Door" Review - *7/10*

Tl:dr - A good game that delivers a challenging and polished souls-like gaming experience, however its choices in story/world building; repetitive dungeon structure; and lack of simple navigational tools detracted from a thoroughly enjoyable adventure for me.

The Good Things About Death’s Door

Overall Presentation - A clean, polished game with well developed systems and beautiful art. Combat is challenging but not impossible, and visual style is graphic and engaging without being too juvenile. Characters are fun with a good balance of gritty and whimsy.

Music - Wonderful soundtrack. Each area boasts a variety of fun thematic instruments. I found tunes and arrangements very reminiscent to Okami.

Gameplay - Challenging combat that rewards patience, with a variety of ranged and melee weapons a player can interchange fluently in battle to fit their personal fighting style. Puzzles are balanced, never crossing into so-hard-lose-interest territory. The game can be 100%-ed in a reasonable time without guides if one chooses to do so.

Despite my initial impression, the shrines were also fun riddles to solve. I loved the local pub's “hearsay” method with “Jefferson” at the Sunken Sailor. It was a fun touch of flavor and helped make the shrines feel tangible.

3 major criticisms for Death’s Door

(-.5 point) Game progression is extremely linear and dungeon structure lacks core differentiation. Each dungeon’s objectives are structured the same way: you explore an area and fight through mini-boss rooms to free 5 crow souls. These unlock the next power upgrade via almost identical combat challenges. This is followed immediately by ascension to the final stage of a dungeon; concluding with the boss fight. While each dungeon offered their own unique puzzles and layouts, the lack of variety in objectives started to feel more like a checklist than an exciting opportunity for discovery. It’s worth noting as well, the game is linear (Urn Witch > Frog King > Betty) as each previous level provides you with a necessary upgrade to access the next challenge.

(-1.5 points) The lack of a map made the experience of exploring vast areas (extremely) frustrating. This frustration was exacerbated in the world-scouring post game collect-a-thon. The fact that a map was not even an option was incredibly infuriating to me. I understand the creators of the game declared their creative choice “promoted as organic of a gaming experience as possible,” and aligned themselves further with the “souls-like” label, however it does not feel like an infallible decision. Take Hollow Knight as a compare and contrast. Maps were provided throughout the game but the player was also given the choice of how much they wanted to engage with, or take advantage of the map. Maps had to be purchased, making it entirely possible for a player to forgo it completely if they chose to do so. There was also a balanced trade-off of forfeiting an equipment slot to attach the Wayward Compass charm for effective use of the map. Death’s Door doesn’t even give you the option.

(-1 point) The game’s narrative feels a little hollow, lacking in any commendable character depth or motivation. Essential world lore is also delivered too late, is confusing, and detracts from the drama’s overall impact. I finished the game feeling underwhelmed by the plot despite the game’s (self)positioning as a prolific drama. (Spoiler Alert)

I found myself floundering to feel anything for the final act, or to really make sense of the world’s logic and lore between the end of act 2 and beginning of act 3. From what I understand (having 100%-ed the game) the world, since coming under the rule of the current Lord Of Doors, became a place of stagnation… Most, if not all (?) creatures were living unreasonably long lives (past their “due dates”) because the Lord of Doors cut off death itself from the worlds, and subsequently the Crow Commission (who had assumed Death’s role of reaping souls). With no no one reaping souls, nobody was actually dying? But then why was the Grey Crow aging with the threat of death looming over him? Or why did all the crows who got cut off from the commission die? Or how were the free-crow’s movement for that matter, that promoted the natural order of embracing death, actually fulfilling their own creed? I should not be this confused or have this many questions at the explanation of the state-of-the-world after playing the game for 20 hours.

Secondly, many of the significant “reveals” in the 3rd act felt rather underwhelming. Starting with the “Free Crows” movement (a tropey rebel group that “fights the system”). Their presence and justification provided almost all the context to the world’s supposed stagnation. Thus, their late-game reveal (almost the end of act 2) caused me to completely reevaluate and question if I had understood anything from the soft world-building up to that point, and not in a good way. Their motivations felt rather generic as well, and lacked any kind of originality or robustness. Additionally, the pacing between defeating the Grey Crow and the sudden “call-to-arms” from the Free Crows felt very jarring and like the story was just trying to quickly wrap things up. It did not feel very justified.

Death’s reveal was equally underwhelming. His reveal should have felt like a reward for the arduous efforts it took to open his door. His reveal should have left me feeling like I finally had answers… but because I was not aware the world was supposedly “stagnated” (?) until moments before I encountered him, his presence felt confusing, and a little insignificant to me.

As for the final two bosses, the Grey Crow and the Lord of Doors, another reviewer captured the narrative's failure best: It felt like the story was telling me to care about these characters more than actually giving me substantial experience with them to want to care about them. I found myself not caring about the final boss’ motivations and just wanted to finish the game.

All these things considered, it really boils down to me not finding the lore of this game’s world particularly compelling.

Even the “truth” revealed after completing the post game did not feel like it added any significant detail or insight into the story. For how much effort it demanded to unlock, it was another narrative disappointment.

One exception exists however with the Gravedigger. He was by far the most compelling character. His sad story was the only one that drew an actual reaction from me when I realized just who “Monty” was (hint, look at the shiny-thing locket you find). His final battle was the most satisfying and his emotional departure felt wonderfully delivered.

In conclusion, Death’s Door is a quick (10-20 hours, including post-game) adventure challenge that offers a polished gaming experience, pleasant visuals, and catchy soundtrack. Combat will leave you gnashing your teeth if you don’t employ a little patience, solidifying its position as a “souls-like” game. I would definitely say it’s worth your time if you enjoy games like that. If you’re looking for a more compelling world-lore, convicting story or just better navigation support however, I would recommend something like Hollow Knight instead.

#deathsdoor #death's door #gamereview #nintendoswitch

2 notes · View notes

warrenwoodhouse · 5 months

Text

Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition Review (Game Reviews) (Reviews)

As a returning fan from playing the previous instalments of Fallout 3: Game of the Year Edition and Fallout: New Vegas (which didn’t receive a Game of the Year status), Fallout 4: Game of the Year Edition is one of the many great games that I’ve played and throughly enjoy. I’ve been playing this game for nearly a decade and can tell you that there is still much more that I’ve not explored yet. The DLC Packs included in the Game of the Year Edition take you further into the story with additional storylines supporting existing characters from the main storyline, going to new locations nearby. This large, expansive and vast open world of nearly all of the state of Massachusetts, you can explore downtown Boston and fight against a horde of super large green mutant enemies or visit the historic Old State House to as far as Lexington and Concord, along with Quincy to the far south east and Salem to the far north east, nothing says adventure and action quite like Fallout 4. This game is a great beginners entry into open world first person shooters and exploration games.

#warrenwoodhouse #gaming #gamereviews #game review #game reviews #reviews #review #.review #2023 #fallout4 #fallout 4 #fo4 #fallout 4: game of the year edition

3 notes · View notes

thechubbiestlamb · 2 years

Text

Super Fatty RPG: Expanded

Holy SHIT you guys, it's the Super Fatty RPG. This'll be the first kink-game I've ever paid for (there is, however, a free version). I gotta warn ya, this review gets EXTENSIVE (and spoiler-free!).

Gameplay: I'm gonna be completely honest, I have 17 hours of playtime in this game in order to get all the endings (and occasionally enjoy myself) and good-golly-gosh there's a LOT of content. We're talking 3 quest-lines, 2 side-quests, 35 NPCs with full dialogue (actually there's probably more that I just forgot about!), a mystery to solve, a book of lore, and more! Combat can work a variety of ways: beat enemies to a pulp! charm your way into their heart! swallow them whole (if you're big enough)! feed them until they can't move! outsmart them in a riddle-contest??? The choice is yours! And the way that there are a variety of goals that your opponent can have, so that you losing the battle could mean different things??? Incredible. I was so utterly blown away by the variety offered by this game. I have a single negative about this game, however: the power scaling is way too steep. You either are way too weak to face monsters or way too strong. Once you unlock all of the moves from the gym and gain a few weight-classes it's not uncommon to start one-shotting the mini-bosses, which on one hand makes the vore option much easier, but on the other hand it makes it impossible to just enjoy a fight where the enemy is force-feeding you boxes of chocolate or whatever it is they have. Honestly I deleted my first save because I thought I'd need way more Power, and ended up defeating one of the final bosses in two hits. I genuinely recommend only upgrading your Power after you've been defeated by something.

Kink: Hoo boy, where to start? As stated earlier, the sheer variety is where the game shines: feeder, feedee, vore (eat people, objects, or get eaten yourself), immobility, gurgling, furry, cow-transformation, pregnancy, inflation (slime, air, blueberry, and breast), tube-feeding, breast-feeding, intox, lycanthropy, vampirism, macro/giantism, and probably others that I couldn't find! I'll be posting some spoiler-free tips on this blog if you don't want to go digging through the walkthrough for where to find each kink. Another great feature of the game are the options you have for maintaining whatever size you want; if the higher weight-levels are just too big for your taste, you can reduce your size using the gym, F-ATMs, or buying the Reduction Bracelet. Don't worry: you maintain all of the stat buffs from the highest weight-level you've reached. With so many options you'll definitely find yourself spending extra time in certain areas to enjoy the kinks offered there. On top of all that: if you find yourself unable to project yourself onto a blank, featureless character, then you can INSERT YOUR OWN ART! That's right! The game has three separate spritesheets for you to choose from and edit! Granted, it can take a hell of a lot of time to draw over all 240 sprites (and that's 240 sprites for each of the 3 levels of badonkers, so if you're interested in swapping between sizes that's more like 720). Still, there's a handful of community-made spritesheets available for download!

Overall: 10 / 10 Slam-grandwiches

#gamereview #sfrpg

24 notes · View notes

tooaverageofagamer · 6 months

Text

REVIEW: Little Nightmares - Tarsier Studios

Release Date: April 28 2017 Available: PC, PS4, XBOX One, Nintendo Switch, ISO, Android. Genre: Horror, Creepy, Puzzle, Platformer, Adventure, Survival Review Length: Long (~2.8K words) Review Spoilers: Major, but not detailed --------------------------------------

Story:

Little Nightmares is the first instalment of the Little Nightmares series.

Little Nightmares is set on what seems to be a large boat or underwater barge known as 'The Maw', which your little, yellow-coated, lighter-wielding protagonist, 'Six', weaves and scurries her way through to find a way out after having a nightmare about a beautiful woman in a kimono who is wearing a mask.

'The Maw' consists of different areas that Six has to find her way through by solving puzzles and avoiding warped creatures. The Prison, The Lair, The Kitchen, The Guests Area and The Ladies' Quarters are the areas where the different chapters take place, each coming with their own bosses to sneak by and overcome.

Gameplay:

To note, I played through the whole of Little Nightmares with a keyboard and mouse. I'm unsure if it was the keyboard controls, my bad average gaming skills or the game, but I found the controls terribly janky to work with and I found myself dying very stupidly often. Which led to some funny moments, but it did become frustrating at some points. So that's a short note before I get into things so you can see from my POV why I might sound off-putting towards the game. Another thing I might complain about is the camera angles in some areas were a little odd, especially when you crawl from one room to another. But once I got used to it, I like to think I overcame it.

Anyways, the game begins in The Prison, where it seems that other small children are kept in cages, where it is shadowed by a long-armed figure, who is hinted at throughout this chapter.

The first few puzzles in this chapter I found to be confusing, then again I am not the best at puzzles so I did struggle with solutions all throughout this playthrough. A lot of the puzzles didn't have obvious solutions, especially in the darker areas where things might not be as highlighted or as out of place with the environment. There are climbing hints throughout some of the chapters shown by little black handprints and smears, but they seem to be inconsistent.

The first bigger puzzle which I was really feeling dumb after was the electrified gates. I got through the first gate after shutting the power off and was trying to figure out how to get past the second one in the toy room by finding a switch or something. Pretty sure I was stuck for about 10 minutes before figuring out you can go back to the first toilet room and then you just have to keep running after switching off the switch as it turns off both gates, not just the first one - whoops. I also think I did encounter a glitch here where I did switch off the gates, but the first one was still electrified and I died touching it - whoops x2.

During this chapter, there is a side room that shows a camera that hints at a later chapter, which I think is a nice touch but also shows a darker side that someone will always be watching wherever little Six is going.

There are two puzzles that involve a lit-up eye security light that causes our protagonist (and previous escapees) to turn into statues. I enjoyed this concept. I liked how in the second puzzle involving this there is a wheelie bin that moves with the swaying of the barge, to remind you that you are on one still as you might have gotten used to the constantly swaying camera at this point.

When walking into the room with the sleeping children, I did encounter a weird glitch when the door slammed me back out of the room, but then respawned me back into the room before the long-armed man arrived. Not a big deal, just thought it was funny.

Once you escape The Prison, The Lair is the next chapter where you soon find yourself captured by The Janitor (who I didn't know was a janitor until I looked it up and I thought he was some sort of deli man or butcher because what sort of janitor just chops meat?) after a few short puzzles and you must escape the cage he has trapped you in to continue your adventure.

Since The Janitor is blind, any running or creaking floorboards will alert him. I've always enjoyed the idea of blinded characters who can only hear you to find you (such as the Moth Priests from Oblivion) so I did enjoy The Janitor sections a lot. It did take me a few times to figure out that the creaking floorboards did actually trigger him as I thought it was just ambience, but besides that, I enjoyed the first encounter with this character.

After escaping The Janitor in the first section you're dropped into a room full of shoes, and as you shuffle your way from one suitcase platform to another, what has been dubbed the 'Shoe Monster' tries to catch you. Once you pass this area it is never seen again, so just a random encounter, which some might say adds to the creepy. This is another area though where I found the climbing to be odd as trying to get onto the platforms was a struggle and I kept getting caught a few times.

A little bit after the shoe room, you'll spot the room you were originally captured in which I thought was a nice detail that Six is circling around the area and then ends up in an elevator after a short chase with The Janitor. Once out of the elevators, you end up in what seems to be a room with nothing but a box of toys. I was stuck here for a little bit trying to find a way out until I pushed the box around a bit and just fell through the floorboard. I felt like there was zero hinting that that was the solution, but again, I am bad at puzzles.

After another few run-ins with the janitor, trying to create distractions to get by him and continue. You have one last fight with him as you try to escape The Lair through an elevator. A cage stops the elevator doors from fully shutting and as you try to avoid his arms that stick through the gap to capture you, you must yank at the cage bars to finally shut the door and chop off the janitor's arms.

Had another dumb moment during this fight and I thought I was just an 'avoid for a certain amount of time' thing. I was waiting for the cage to collapse and got caught about 3 times before I tried to actually interact with the cage and saw that the bars could be pulled out. Again, zero indication this needed to happen, but I didn't dwell on it too much.

Then began the start of The Kitchen chapter where you encounter a chef character, chopping away at meat in a kitchen. You might have already seen this character already if you looked at the cameras back in The Lair. You make your way to the end of the kitchen to discover a locked door. You then make your way up a shelf and into the kitchen rafters where you end up in a sort of living quarters and discover that there is a second chef asleep in a shared room where you also find a key for the locked door. The Twin Chefs are the bosses you must avoid in this chapter now.

At this point, you may take notice that the people you're up against are actually wearing some sort of skin mask or suits as you can catch glimpses of The Twin Chefs lifting their masks to itch their real faces underneath. This might get you thinking about the lore of the world a bit more and its darker appearances.

Avoiding The Twin Chefs throughout this chapter is easy enough honestly. You might get caught a few times trying to set up the distractions or if they start looking under the tables you're hiding under, but you'd always know when they've discovered you by their monkey-like screeches before chasing you down. In the pot-washing area of The Kitchen, you must switch a lever to change the direction of the meat hooks flow, you then climb the top of the central stack of plates and grab on. Once you've been shaken off the hook the first time, a short chase ensues. I struggled at this chase a few times, as the twin that smashes through the door, knocks over items which were thrown about randomly each time it happens and sometimes hit me which in turn stopped or slowed my running. Then my timing for the final hook catch was off a few times, which caused me to fall to my death - whoops x3

After being shaken off your final hook grab, you then begin Chapter 4 with a glimpse of giant cogs churning and hearing seagulls calling. You gain your first glimpse of the outside of the barge, with its guests piling onto the barge and into The Guest Area.

You then reenter the ship, catching closer-up views of The Guests and the mysterious woman you dreamed about at the beginning of the game. You then find yourself in what seems to be Japanese-styled restaurants or eating areas. With the guests stuffing their faces with mostly raw meats (we love salmonella). You are seen by one of the guests as you go through the rooms, and a small chase begins. The first time I encountered this guest, I was under his table. He threw the table and then proceeded to body slam me, which I then laughed about for 5 minutes before I could proceed to play the game - whoops x4.

Anyways, you then get away and then have to make your way through the top of a table full of The Guests, avoiding their grubby hands. More mini-chases occur with The Guests before you find yourself in living quarters, confronted again by one of The Chef Twins. Smashing the mirror allows you access to the rafters to make your way to the elevator. There are not many puzzles in this chapter, more of avoiding, running and hiding.

Once up the elevator and make your way into the next room, sliding paper screen doors begin to open and what I think is the most terrifying thing I have ever encountered, a mob of The Guests begin to chase you in one big scrambling pile. You get away nearly by swinging over a gap.

You encounter the mysterious lady again getting into an elevator, and once she has left, you enter the same elevator up to the final chapter.

The Lady's Quarters is the final area in the game. I find it one of the most unsettling areas, the ticking clocks, the mysterious singing and just the overall eerie quietness. You follow the sound of the singing upstairs and make your way into a room where The Lady is seen singing in front of a smashed mirror. You sneak your way past her and into a bedroom, where a white vase you can smash is on a bedside table. As soon as you smash this vase to get the key inside, the singing stops. The strong silence really begins to set in.

You head downstairs again to unlock the door, and upon entering, the door slams behind you and a chase with The Lady begins. Once escaped, you find yourself in a room full of the mannequins you have been seeing throughout the area, throwing you off and making you anxious if one of them is her. You run across this room and into a side room with the only unbroken mirror you have seen in the area so far on top of a drawer. Grabbing this mirror and going back into the last room, you glimpse The Lady in the centre of the room and as you approach, she disappears and the final boss begins.

The Lady is easy to defeat, running towards the lights and pointing the mirror in her direction. What really gets you during this fight is your nerves. Trying to figure out where she is coming from next, scrambling to pick up the mirror after dropping it. It was intense. Hands were very sweaty afterwards. The Lady's ghostly face that appears during this battle is really both beautiful and terrifying.

Once defeated, Six makes her way out of the barge.

Throughout the story, you are subjected to your own questioning about Six's true powers. As her hunger pangs lead her to kill a rat, gnome and The Lady then proceeds to absorb some sort of life force from The Guests as she walks out of the barge. This is never really answered in the game as the story concludes with Six shown sitting outside of the barge entrance.

Throughout all the chapters, there are lamps and candles you light, which I thought were being used as checkpoints since a save symbol popped up once you lit them, but apparently, they're just collectables, so I was very confused when I died and ended up nowhere near a lamp, especially if I closed the game and came back later to a point further back than I was.

Art Style/Music:

Little Nightmares is a real mixed bag when it comes to the art directive. I've seen inspiration or comparisons to LIMBO, INSIDE, Coraline and Spirited Away. I personally feel some Alice in Wonder Land and Roald Dahl vibes in some areas, especially with the character designs. I loved the insight through the concept art you can unlock as you go through the game.

The environments really make you feel like a small trapped child just trying to escape. The pan-outs to show off the surroundings really let you take in the vast expansion of The Maw and what else it could have had to offer if our protagonist went a different route.

The soundtrack is similar throughout most of the game, but all the ambient noises and the sounds from characters really make the game unsettling, it doesn't have to rely on the soundtrack too much. The sound design is honestly the real gold in this game. The rumbling and creaking you hear can be felt all throughout the barge. Even the little things such as The Janitor's teeth grinding or Six's coat getting water dripped on it. The developers really went all out with the game's ambience and small sound details.

The Little Nightmares soundtrack can be found on Spotify.

Final Comments:

To start, apologies for all the complaining and WAY too long yappin' review.

Anyways, compared to other games that came out in 2017, Little Nightmares felt a little unpolished. I’ll possibly replay the game again with a controller and see if I go a bit better with that, but I feel like a game should be accessible to many forms of play and I just felt DUMB playing the game with these controls at some points, then again, could be more me being actually bad at games than the game. I did watch a couple of different playthroughs on YouTube to see if I was the only one or not. I did see a couple of people struggling in the same areas and having the same thought processes as me, which made me feel a bit better about things, but no one really commented on the controls themselves.

I’ve also seen a few people have conversations online if Little Nightmares is considered an Indie game or not. I personally, very lightly, wouldn’t. I would consider an indie game to be developed by less than 10 people, maybe 15 people max. But Tarsier Studios had about 20+ working on the game at the time, so I would personally hold them to a higher standard, but I also kinda don’t so much since this would be considered their first (I think) fully developed game. And now with about 77 employed (and hiring currently according to their website – so check that out if you’re into it!) I wouldn’t consider them Indie now and wouldn’t consider Little Nightmares II (review soonish?) to be an Indie game either.

Continuing on, the pop-up prompts like to sprint or that you can swing on objects didn't pop up for me the first times they were available [which I saw a few other YouTube play-throughs experience and comment on] only after I failed a few times, which I thought was odd. The game was trying not the be hand-holdy I guess, but I feel like it hindered my experience when first playing the game.

Besides the jank controls, I enjoyed the art directive. I enjoy the disturbing-looking characters and the damp eeriness of the whole environment, even places that are meant to be homely. Knowing you’re on a boat throughout the whole game before you even see the outside of it really hits the helplessness vibes. The art style really makes this game more than anything.

Stroy-wise, you are left clueless throughout the whole thing besides just playing it. You know your goal is to escape, but how did you end up there in the first place? Why do people look the way they do? How do lighters that small exist? I'm going to say that its just all part of 'the vibes'. Being clueless and wandering around in a warped world.

Anyway, I would recommend this game if you enjoy creepy or unsettling directives with little story or if you enjoy puzzle and platformer games. I might not recommend it to people who aren't too familiar with the game and it might not be the best game for a first-time experience, but give it a go if you wish!

I haven't gotten around to playing the 'Secrets of the Maw' DLC yet, but I will soon and might update this to include that review also, or just make a separate post and link to the DLC review here.

Cheers,

The Average Gamer

-------------------------------------------------

If you want to chat or discuss more about games, feel free to PM or Ask me!

5 notes · View notes

nomoneytoplay · 6 months

Text

Prince of Persia (2008)

Bought for: $1.99

Played on: PC

Release date: December 2, 2008

Developer: Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher: Ubisoft

Game Type: Platform game, Action-adventure game, Adventure

Platforms: Android, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, macOS, Classic Mac OS, Java Platform, Micro Edition

ESRB Rating: T for Teen - Alcohol Reference, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes, Violence

Pros & Cons

A brand new Prince!

Graphics are stunning.

Superb voice acting.

PARKOUR!

The classic hack and slash the series is known for.

A huge map to explore with different paths to unlock.

While the map may be impressive, yourself parkouring around in circles. Which at one point the world will start to feel empty.

Enemy designs are cool, however same enemy, same area.

Four unique bosses and encounters. However…..

Combat is very repetitive.

Glowing seeds to collect all over the map.

My Experience:

Before the acclaimed Assassin’s Creed franchise was born, Ubisoft's greatest parkour master game was the Prince of Persia. An epic tale of a warrior prince and unique rewinding time ability that was always fun to do. But to create something new, Ubisoft made a total 180 on this game, no longer would the Prince be ... .uhm a Prince. But he would be a (I guess) traveling thief who has lost his donkey………one word: AWESOME!

This new Prince is now my favorite, THAT”S NOTHING MORE TO SAY!!

A Score of~~~

Okay Okay I’m kidding!

Prince of Persia is a game where you are immediately sucked into its plot. Helping a young woman named Elika to stop the curse that has left her kingdom ruined and her people dead. While you are playing as the “hero” of this game, The Prince behaves more like an anti-hero than anything else, cocky, a bit arrogant and flirtatious when given the chance. This is what makes this game worth it. The interaction between Prince and Elika is so much fun, there’s a button where you can have them speak to one another at any given time. Elika will fight alongside Prince, so if you parry or activate any special move, Elika will provide a hand. But here’s the issue of this game, Elika will always prevent Prince’s death. From falling off the platforms or enemies about to deliver the final blow.

Safely put this game has no game over!

As amazing as this sounds, it kinda takes away from the difficulty of this game, if there really is one. You see, while playing Prince of Persia, the game does feature four interesting bosses. These bosses have some unique story backgrounds, they all were in charge of different parts of the map which gives them a cool intake of who they were. But while the part of the world is challenging and enemies themselves are unique. It will be the same boss battle hack and slash encounter over and over again.

The maps themselves also feature some challenging paths that are unlocked through story progression. It adds more to the parkour challenge and they are a challenge. One mistake and you would have to start all over again.

As much as I can nitpick a person’s upper strength to climb and jump all the obstacles in this game. This is (like I said) not the most typical Prince of Persia game, but I enjoyed it so much. Simple to play on keyboard, beautiful graphics and character interactions that make up for the amount of ideas this could have had. This is an adventure that your two dollars investment will be proud to spend!

OH! It has been 15 years and he still hasn’t found his donkey…

A Lost Donkey Score of 3 out 4 Quarters.

#nomoneytoplay #playstation #video games #gamereview #pc games #xbox #review #ubisoft #classic #parkour

2 notes · View notes

gertlushgaming · 6 months

Text

Dreamworks Trolls Remix Rescue Review (PlayStation 5)

For this Dreamworks Trolls Remix Rescue Review, Play as Poppy, Branch, and more of your favorite DreamWorks Trolls as you explore, smash, dance, and battle your way towards rescuing the Troll Kingdom from a melodic mastermind who’s trying to alter the Trolls’ musical harmony!

Dreamworks Trolls Remix Rescue Review Pros:

- Decent graphics that look like the film. - 2.93GB download size. - Platinum trophy. - You get the PlayStation 4 and the PlayStation 5 versions of the game. - 3 save slots. - Action platformer gameplay. - A full 3D world with 360-degree camera control. - Locations are very open and do let you roam as you wish. - Many hidden areas and bonus crates. - Earn new abilities as you play like swirling your head around to damage crates and enemies, get wall jumping, etc. - Big boss-like encounters. - Gems are everywhere and carry over between levels. - Characters can be chosen or you can edit and create your own. - Local multiplayer support with up to 4 characters. - Two playable characters are from the new film that is coming soon. - Constant checkpoints. - Accessible easy-to-learn controls. - You get a good amount of health and can pick up health parts at a level. - Mini-games play a part in rhythm action sequences. - A collection of the enemies you face fills in as you take out one for the first time. - As you go through a location you come across safe areas that act like a hub, before you can use it all enemies have to be cleared out and the DJ decks activated. - Trader trolls are in safe areas and here you can buy costumes for your character. - A wardrobe is in the safe area and is where you go to edit your character. - Hidden Golden Troll statues are traded for higher-end customisation items at the trader troll. - The hot air balloon in safe areas lets you fast-travel to unlocked areas. - Kids will love the open space and the way they can progress how they want or not, Do as they want and still have fun. Dreamworks Trolls Remix Rescue Review Cons: - Cannot rebind controls. - The music sounds the same in every location and if it does change then it loops so much that you learn to hate it. - The platforming is not great. - Jumping feels spongy and loose. - You never know when you have hit a checkpoint. - Not all the cutscenes can be skipped or fast-forwarded. - The gems you need to collect are loose and do everything in your power to avoid being picked up. - Gems disappear really quickly after dropping. - The combat is boring and simple. - At many points of a location, the game takes control of the camera and it is not great and jarring, it then feels like you are wrestling with the camera during it. - You get very little guidance and progression feels more like you stumble upon it rather than scripted. Related Post: Shuyan Saga Video Review (PlayStation 5) Dreamworks Trolls Remix Rescue: Official website. Developer: Petit Fabrik Publisher: GameMill Store Links - PlayStation Read the full article

#PlayStation4 #PlayStation5 #trollsbandtogether #Trolls #Dreamworks #Gamereview #GLG

3 notes · View notes

reviewsdosidney · 10 months

Text

Hi-Fi Rush - 10/10

Que jogo BOM! Me senti na época do ps2 da melhor forma possível.

Jogo completo, sem travar, com personalidade, proposta diferente, feito com carinho e genuinamente engraçado.

Infelizmente esse não tem sido o padrão deste ano para jogos triplo AAA, mas todo carinho desse projeto já coloca ele como sugestão para jogo do ano.

Amei e recomendo demais!

#gamepass #hi-fi #hi-fi rush #xbox #pcgaming #review #gamereview #microsoft

5 notes · View notes

atanx · 11 months

Text

Just finished Yakuza 3 so here's some of my thoughts:

BEAUTIFUL EYES

Richardson and Kiryu talking at each other in different languages was so funny to me. Like they don't understand each other yet stubbornly keep talking as if they did XD

RIKIYA DYING WAS SO UNNECESSARY FOR THE PLOT WHYY like Kiryu has GOT to get rid of his stupid habit of leaving defeated enemies to their devices around various lethal objects (especially guns). Because they always, ALWAYS get back up. I'm not saying he should kill them. But like secure them in SOME way. Start carrying around some rope or something. I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried.

Damn, Mine, babygirl, you are so beyond fucked up you need therapy BAD

Poor Daigo like imagine getting shot, being in a coma and you wake up on a rooftop in fucking december, toes freezing off, falling off of a hospital bed and immediately being greeted with the sight of several gun wielding assholes. You shoot them, still confused about what's going on (why tf is your father-figure of sorts there? Why is the dude u wished was ir boyfriend there? WHY ARE THEY SHIRTLESS AND BLOODY). Then ur crush starts spouting cryptic shit, the dude you shot somehow still has fight in him and to save you, your crush charges at him, getting shot multiple times and then tells you that he doesnt deserve to live before throwing himself off the roof. You've been awake for three minutes.

Also Haruka slapping Mine was EPIC. She should have kept going, kicked Mine in the shin, bitten his arm etc all feral foaming-at-the-mouth chihuahua mode

Also Mine feeling good about himself for having slapped a teen back. A grown ass adult. Like damn dude has issues

I'm stilk very upset about Rikiya. Like one moment I would run away from him in the Kamurocho streets and giggle with a warm feeling in my chest when he'd scream "ANIKII!!" and then the next he fell victim to this stupid gimmick of defeated opponents not being taken care of properly

I honestly feel like that gimmick is so overdone at this point

I think I did something wrong during the final boss battle because Mine was constantly going into this Jojo's bizarre adventure pose and regenerating health AND I had to do like the exact same QTE cutscene like four times even though I never failed it (besides the first time)

RIGHT I ALMOST FORGOT my steam screenshot folder is prob like 90% just various Majima facial expressions because I enjoyed them so much. Reminds me of that post going like "while older character models are kinda eh Majima's crowfeet in them slap!" and I really agree. I'm playing the games chronologically and when I got to YK2 something about Majima just looked extremely off but I couldn't put my finger on it. I think that's it tho they ironed him out and took away his wrinkles :(. Like obvs the model is still good it was just a weird change that I'm not sure why they implemented it. Anyway the Y3 Majima expressions are fucking precious especially the grins

Also pink truck scene probably best scene in the game it was so cute the way Majima was worried that he accidentally ran over Kiryu <3

I took way too long to finish this game because the old graphics are kind of jarring especially considering I played Judgement and Lost Judgement at the same time, but it was still a pretty good game. (another contributing factor was that for some reason the game doesn't allow me to do anything else on my PC besides access the taskbar while I'm playing it so taking short breaks is harder. The game literally does not allow for any apps to show up on screen) I'd really like a YK3 I think that would be epic especially to get an updated Rikiya model (I think there's an updated Mine model in Ishin? Idk anyway just more modern graphics would be really cool)

I can continue with Y4 now, which I'm really excited for because I've hears quite a bit of stuff about Akiyama and Saejima and this will be like the first proper contact with them and their storylines. I've actually started Y4 already and Akiyama has major cat energy to me

#yakuza #rgg #yakuza 3 #spoilers #yakuza 3 spoilers #my rants #More like my gamereviews lol

4 notes · View notes

thecptfroggy · 1 year

Photo

G'day all,

We added 5 #steam keys of Myth of Mist：Legacy to our member giveaways section. I would like to thank Interwise Multimedia Corp.for this great opportunity!

5 fortnightly draws. Draws start on 05-01-2023

Here is the link:

Myth of Mist: Legacy Zeepond Giveaway

Feel free to read our Myth of Mist：Legacy #review on the following link:

Myth of Mist: Legacy Zeepond Review

Good luck all.

THE CPT FROGGY🐸

8 notes · View notes

coyotiii17 · 1 year

Text

Sonic Frontiers Review

Hello I finished Sonic Frontiers and now I'm crying. So I think it's the perfect time for me to reviewe this god damn game. Let's just start with one thing I wanted to do from the beginning since I started playing this game. Like I said, so far, my favourite sonic game was Sonic Generations. And I was wondering if this game would ever beat it. So what's the answer to that question? Yes, it absolutely beats Sonic Generations. Sonic Frontiers is officialy my favourite sonic game. Not only, because it has something that I always wanted, which is open world, but because it's really well made game that entertains for hours! Of course, it's not perfect, but I'll get to that later. Let's list positive sides of this game. 1. GAMEPLAY It's honestly really fun, especially with open world formula. Many fans were worried about it, but they did such a great job with it. We have 5 islands where we can run freely and do what we want, stunts, challanges, stages, SO MUCH THINGS. So it never gets boring. And let's be real, who never wanted to run around big fields with Sonic's speed. I did, that's for sure! What I also like is that the open world feels like and actual world. We have days, we have nights and even different weathers! It makes those islands more 'alive'.

2. STAGES Like I said, many fans were worried about open world, but we got stages too, which is great! And let's be real when it comes to stages in Frontiers. They're not as good as stages in Sonic Generations for example. But in this case, I understand. Because this game is not just stages. There's more they needed to work on. And stages, even if quite short and easy when it comes to red rings, are still fun! And it's fun to fully complete them. 3. MINIGAMES Aside from this normal gameplay where we just run around and complete stages, there are also minigames we can find on our way! Like for example pinball unlocking our way to third Titan, or this weird hacking game or FISHING! Those minigames are simple, but super fun and can really diversify the gameplay. I fell in love with fishing game, because it made me relax when story made me sad :'> Also I love Big.

4. CHARACTERS The characters were actually fixed!! Are you tired of Amy being only a sonic fangirl? Or Knuckles being a dumb comic relief? Or Tails being a coward? This game fixed that for you. Amy is still crushing on Sonic, but she's this sweet girl that wants to help others and will be stubborn if you're not willing to help. Knuckles is the responsible Guardian of the Master Emerald, but he still likes to crack jokes and just have fun. And Tails is the smart fox he always was, who wants to be truly independent and be his own hero. Eggman is not just a joke anymore, but truly an evil scientist that wants Sonic dead. And Sonic. Sonic is still this chill dude that loves joking around. But he still knows when to stop and get serious. Especially seeing his friends in distress. The moment when he saw that Knuckles is upset and at first wanted to just start with jokes, BUT he stopped himself and listened to him. This was brilliant. The same with Tails. Seeing him as this big older brother cheering up Tails made me really emotional. That's how it's supposed to be. There should be time for fun moments, but also serious things.

5. SAGE Sage is the new villain. And seeing the previous villain from Sonic Forces, really made me worry. But God, Sage is just so.... so amazing. She was so hostile and cold towards Sonic, trying to just murder him with those giants. But then she started to understand him more and more while the story progressed. And another great thing about her? Her relationship with Eggman. Seeing her call him father and Eggman call her his daughter... We've never seen something like this. We've never seen this side of Eggman. And when she sacrificed herself in the end, I actually wanted to cry. Especially seeing Eggman look into the sky, visibly upset. I never thought I would feel so bad for him. WHY DO YOU HAVE TO HURT ME SO MUCH.

6. PLOT

It's been a while since Sonic had some interesting plot. Discovering the backstory of the Ancients. Titans. And the Koko. It was so exciting to see more and more of it. Also, why do Ancients look like Chaos? :0

7. MUSIC

The music in this game is just so good! From the peaceful soundtrack you can hear while running around the islands to exciting soundtracks you can hear while battling Guardians TO EVEN MORE EXCITING SONGS IN TITAN BATTLES. COME ON THOSE ARE MINDBLOWING! Shout out to my favourites: 'Undefeatable', 'Break Throught It All', 'Find Your Flame' <3

8. FIGHTING MECHANICS Sonic was never a fighting game, but this concept works in Sonic Frontiers and it's honestly really great. All the cool moves Sonic can make while battling enemies (of course if you unlock them). It just makes me want to fight those enemies more and more.

9. SUPER SONIC AND TITANS The last one is the best thing in Sonic Frontiers. Super Sonic, something that the previous game DIDN'T EVEN HAVE. But he returned and absolutely destroyed all fans. Usually Super Sonic was only in final battles in the end of the games, but here, we have 5 super battles! That's just- IT'S A LOT. Not to mention every battle is unique. While fighting Giganto we have so much freedom while flying around and hitting him and doing crazy combos. With Wyvern, we need to be more careful and actually understand this boss to defeat him. With Knight, we also have a lot of freedom, but in the middle, we also need to think a bit to land a hit on him. Overall Super Sonic in Sonic Frontiers is actually portrayed as this powerful being that will literally beat the living shit out of you and slam you into the cliff if you keep messing with his friends.

So that's all when it comes to positive things (I hope I didn't forget about something). So now the negative things. Like I said, this game is not perfect. 1. THE END The final boss disappointed me and I wanted to make a rant about how it's not even a boss fight, but I've actually read that it's like that only in normal mode. If you have a hard mode, there's going to be a real battle, but a really hard one that will get you an achievement. I- don't know what to say about this. Why delete the whole thing from this one mode? It's the final battle! It should be there, no matter what mode you're playing on. If I didn't read that just now, I would have thought that there's no battle at all and it just ends so fast! ESPECIALLY that beating up Supreme was so easy and fast that even Sonic said 'That's it?'. So I really thought there's more. But I'm gonna say more about it, after I actually play this fight. Maybe my opinion about it will change I dunno. 2. WEIRD CONTROLS OR SOMETHING Overall playing is super fun, but on stages, controlling Sonic is just so weird and hard to control, because he ends up all over the place. I even saw some mods already that fix the issues. 3. 2D SECTIONS Oh my God here we go I've never been a huge fan of 2D sections in modern games even tho there are exceptions where they do work. In Sonic Frontiers we can see 2D sections on some stages or some part of open world. I honestly don't really like them in open world, since we're supposed to feel free there, but if you found yourself in 2D section you need to either turn back or complete it (or fall somehow). I personally sometimes felt trapped when I got into them. But 2D sections in stages is the worst thing. I'm just gonna say it right now. I don't have anything against 2D sections if they work. In Sonic Frontiers... they don't. For some reason Sonic feels just so much slower in them. And it's just... not really fun and I don't understand why it is that way.

4. LACK OF SOME SONIC'S ABILITIES Why did they get rid of drift? I know they added it on this one stage (or maybe more of them, idk), but drift should be something that Sonic always has, especially since some stages really need this ability. Ok, maybe I get it, there's just not enough buttons yikes- This is also something minor, but what really bugged me is that Sonic can't run on water while boosting. Which makes me sad, because I loved doing that in Generations.

5. CAN'T BATTLE WITH TITANS AGAIN Why, just- WHYYY. Battling with Titans is one of the most exciting things to do in this game! I don't want to play the whole game again just to fight Knight for example. This option should be here, since you could do that in previous sonic games. And yeah, there are saves. You can just save the game before the battle with Titans starts and then just make a new one. But there's only 4 saves. One is autosave. So you only have 3. That's how I ended up with saves with Giganto's fight, Wyvern's fight and also Supreme's fight. But I can't fight again with Knight- I've heard something that they will probably add this feature, but I'm not sure-

There are probably things I forgot about or they were just so small they don't bug me that much. Overall, positives of this game are much more stronger than the negatives! Sonic Frontiers is definitely one of the best sonic games that ever came out. And personally, it's my favourite from all of them. This game is beautiful and made me so emotional it's not even funny. I wish I could forget it and play it again, because that was truly an experience! Although I'm definitely going to still play it and unlock more and more achievements. And we're actually going to get 3 DLCs so there's still more ahead of us! I really recommend this game to everyone who loves Sonic and recently had a lot of doubts when it comes to his future in modern games. Thank you for reading my review and remember that a lot of things said are very opinionated! You do not have to agree with everything I'm saying! And now....

Time to watch Sonic Prime now :')

#sonic #sonicthehedgehog #sonicfrontiers #sonicfrontiersreview #review #gamereview #gameopinions

9 notes · View notes