Recent reviews by Curious Incubus

Things to Consider
- The game utilizes a very cutesy, pixel aesthetic for a majority of the time spent playing through the title.
- Platforming will accentuate the importance of upgrades that the player will pick up. Hookshots in particular are capable of free use, allowing for sequence breaking. Secret upgrades will render a majority of the platforming moot, however.
- Combat is done with a short-range blaster, meaning the player has to close distance with the enemy.
- Bossfights are challenging, yet fair for the player. Movement upgrades are given ample opportunity to shine in combat. Some bosses present a difficulty spike that far exceeds most game standards nowadays.
- The soundtrack is very fitting, providing a simplistic and atmospheric contrast to the abrasive difficulty of the game.
- The post-ending content is vast and shifts the gameplay focus into puzzle solving. Some of these puzzles are cryptic to the point where they seem more like they were meant for conglomerate effort.
- Health upgrades are minimal, to say the least. You start with 10HP (enemies deal around 1-4 damage), and can get a max of 30HP.
- Backtracking is HEAVY in this title, and much of the secrets are hidden in locations that wouldn't be considered by a player who doesn't have experience with the quasi-genre that ESA resides in. The game will provide players with more challenging enemies and obstacles as the story progresses, partially mitigating the nuisance that backtracking beholds.

Despite its various flaws and overall difficulty, Environmental Station Alpha has become one of my favorite games of all time, thanks to how joyous I can be over the nature of discovery. A lot of effort has clearly gone into it, and certainly shows. Hempuli, the game's sole developer, is currently working on a sequal of sorts to ESA. Be sure to keep your eyes out there, if interested.

Fibonacci spirals, circuitry, flowery wording, random biblical passages and a narrative that randomizes its passages with each playthrough. Meh.

My greatest accomplishment is a three-way tie for:

• Breathing
  
• Beating Rainbow Road on Hard
  
• Getting a Wonder victory against a Moderate AI as the Koreans

Making a game sure is hard work.

Positives
- Tank controls and grid based level design allows the player to easily learn the timing of movements and jumps.
- Great pacing. Levels rarely overstay their welcome.
- Atmosphere that excellently sets the tone for not only the levels, but each setpiece you encounter while progressing.
- The use of soundtrack triggers instead of backing music allows the player to better read situations and be engrossed in the desolation of the ruins you're exploring.
- Most levels feature multiple pathways for progression, providing you with a sense of agency.
- Inventive puzzles and challenges found in the mid-later levels.
- Tons of speedrun glitches if you're into that.
- Extremely accurate hitboxes, not only for Lara, but the environmental traps as well. You can use this to your advantage.
- Reasonable difficulty curve

Negatives

- Combat is either completely forgettable, or just unfairly punishing. There is no point where fighting an enemy is a genuine challenge.
- Though pickups are generally satisfying, they do a HUGE part in trivializing combat and even environmental hazards.
- Textures can be an incredible eyesore.
- There is a water level that will softlock you if you are too liberal with exploration.

This game serves as both an advancement of the series in terms of design and mechanics, and as somewhat a departure from Tomb Raider's humble first outing.

Difficulty is one of the biggest first impressions that Tomb Raider 2 makes. It's likely a result of devs making this game for players who finished Tomb Raider 1, because almost immediately the player is dropped into a gauntlet of instant-death traps. Later into the game, you will encounter enemies that will set you on fire, and even one-hit-kill enemies. The game wants you to die.

The graphical enhancements are all welcome. Hair physics, texture improvements, and the changing of outfits all reflect the slow but steady progression towards modernity. I felt the environmental storytelling was bolstered as a result.

With the graphical enhancements comes the addition of several mechanics that all add to the overall playability of Tomb Raider.
- Consumable flares allow the devs to weave darkness into more of their levels, functioning as another valuable resource in Lara's toolbelt.
- Ladders are added as a direct result of TR2's texture improvements, providing the player with a new means of traversal within the level grids.
- The ability to do 180 turns while underwater and midair adds greatly to the flexibility of Tomb Raider's tank controls.
- Vehicles are in the game, but mainly function as level specific gimmicks.

With all of these changes comes several notable departures in the game's feel and aesthetic.

For one, the game is incredibly focused on combat. The previous Tomb Raider featured notable gunmen as boss encounters. Tomb Raider 2 has Lara fighting a cultist mafia for a large majority of her adventure.

Then you have linearity. Much of Tomb Raider 2 is moving from point A to B. Puzzles are simpler and sparse. You will find few levels that provide you more than 2 paths to attempt when you do reach an open environment. There are some levels that manage these changes to provide an excellent experience, like Temple of Xian. In other cases, it will leave you lost and exacerbated, like The Deck.

Lastly, the game feels noticeably urban. Near half of the levels you encounter take place in European canals,
industrial platforms, and tibetan monasteries, and a lot of these levels are in sequence.

Despite these departures, the overall experience of TR2 is absolutely solid, and for the most part gives the fans exactly what they want. More Tomb Raider. Big recommend.

It's a game where you play as a rather insignificant character who becomes a catalyst in a war of ideologies. It seems like an epic tale, but where it truly shines is through player interactions which are tied within the narrative. Has some of the best writing that I've seen from an action RPG and I reccomend it to anyone who enjoys RPG games which emphasize world building and RPGs in general.

One gripe that I cannot get over is the unstable engine that was used for the game. Most bugs can be fixed/mitigated with mods only, since Obsidian is not permitted to continue working on Fallout: New Vegas. It's mostly a minute issue once mods are installed, making the game much more enjoyable.