Recent reviews by ThomasMalton

A two hours long journey worthy of an entire life.

Bravo! The game Journey is definitely one of the best things that happened to me throughout my gaming career. Without a single dialogue the game tells you the story of an entire generation. We are so eager to find the answer to one of the most existential questions: why do we live? But, alas, there is no answer, never was and never will be. Except the one that is already known to us but hidden within the journey itself. If you are not quite understand the meaning of what I am saying here please play this game and maybe you will know better.
My sincere thanks to thatgamecompany and everyone taking part in creating this masterpiece of a game!

-What can you tell me about The Song of Saya?
-It is beautiful and it is ugly. It is dark and it is bright. It is young but also ancient. The truth is buried deep within its soul.
-I knew this game'd messed up your mind...
-You just don't like riddles, do you?

After The Song of Saya has been finally released on steam it can be truly considered as one of (if not the most) messed up games this platform. It won't be an exaggeration to say that for me as a person with a strict set of principles and morals the journey through SnU wasn't satisfying nor was it easy to endure from an emotional perspective. Since I played SnU in 2010 I'm certain that never have I felt so many contradictory feelings towards the characters and their actions before or after. Despite how short the game is (around 4-7 hours long), which is almost a crime in comparison to an average length of most classic VNs like One, Canon, Air, Clannad, SnU's narrative seems to be doing a perfect job by telling us everything important there is to know and all the gaps that are left can be easily filled with the power of our own imagination. Besides, any story would become boring no matter how good it was told without at least something left unsaid, wouldn't you agree?

A sole survivor with a twisted mind or how strong is your stomach.
Well, you might as well already know how crucial a good story for a VN, but have you ever thought what makes a good story actually good? I'm sure that some of you might say cannabis smoking' a good writing, or unusual and interesting setting, or shiny vampires, or maybe even a game in which players use broomsticks to fly, but I'd say that a good story is defined by its characters. Traditionally, characters in a good story are involved in a series of extraordinary (or not) events and maybe even destined to change the fate of humanity or at the very least to shape their own fate, usually by overcoming obstacles, themselves, circumstances, other people or often by doing something especially stupid right once in a while. Naturally, due to the same reasons Sakisaka Fuminori from SnU an ideal candidate for a role of protagonist and, Saya, a young girl without a past an ideal "love interest" for the main character, but of course she is so much more than just that. In the beginning, all we know about Fuminori is that he is a sole survivor of a terrible mischance that took lives of his entire family, and somehow changed Fuminori himself, twisted his mind and senses along with his perception of reality, and turned his life into an unbearable nightmare full of everyday suffering. The world as he knew it simply ceased to exist the moment he opened his eyes after the accident. Everything was smeared in a viscous substance of blood, offal and squelchy flesh — truly a terrible sight to behold. Though the real horror came when he saw meat beasts who must have been humans judging by the squeaky sounds they made, barely reminding human speech, although their appearance was so hideous and twisted that Fuminori at first couldn't even recognize his closest friends. As if loosing his relatives wasn't terrible enough now he must suffer a fate even worse than death: being the only human among these hellspawns, pretending to be his friends and doctors. Such a pity existence would've broken him for sure but for a fateful meeting. One night a girl appeared in his hospital room, and surprisingly she looked completely normal, in fact, she was the only human being he could look at without disgust. Saya became the only ray of hope and Fuminori's only reason to continue living.

Are you still not convinced to play in SnU? Well, then you should know that it was only the beginning, and if only our poor Fuminori knew what horror awaits him in the future he would've thrown himself out of the window without a second thought. Okay, I'm just joking! In any case, believe me The Song of Saya has a top-notch story with a few unexpected twists and tough decisions to make.

Take the pain and keep reading!
Playing a VN is very similar to reading a book with one significant difference: you can actually change the outcome of a story by making decisions at certain points in a game. If you love reading you'll definitely enjoy playing VNs. If for some unimaginable reason you don't like reading or even better you are a MOBA genius reading this review by a mere chance, I can assure you that it is simply not your cup of tea, though as always the choice is yours. All right, if you decide to read SnU you have to be fully prepared mentally because it is definitely not going to be the happiest experience of your life, but far from it. The game portrays some truly dark themes and r a p e is not the worst of them. Having said that, I must admit that all of it in the context of the story makes total sense and serves not only as a horror element, but most importantly it helps us better understand characters and their motives, making the story richer in a certain way. I know it is hard to believe unless you play the game yourself, and I am sure as hell won't be able to explain it to you without going into spoilers anyway, so just take my word for it!

Censorship problems?
The steam version of the game has been modified in accordance with the steam censorship which means that all scenes with sexual content was heavily censored but no need to worry about such trivialities because all you have to do is visit the official publisher's site and grab a 18+ patch for less than 2 euros. Or if you're one of those greedy persons you can always use some other means that is without any payment methods. For example, click [drive.google.com] and your welcome. Last but not least there are scenes including sexual intercourse between an adult man and a teenage girl so if your religious or personal beliefs are at stake just ignore the patch. Personally, that's what I did myself. An adult having sex with a teenager arguably might be considered outrageous, but without understanding the context and characters' backgrounds it simply wouldn't be right in my opinion.

Frankly, I had better memories about SnU, and after another playthrough almost 10 years later it became obvious to me that some aspects of the game are not as good as I remembered them to be back then. Although, it is not necessarily a bad thing because everything changes including us, and things that are used to be great in the past eventually become trivial and dull. Also, I heard that everything is so much better when you experience it for the first time. If you are new to the genre and struggling to find the right title to start with, Saya no Uta would be a good choice. The game has one of the best stories on my memory, it builds suspense in a skillfully organic manner, then fully pays off in the end. Furthermore, the story has thrilling sequences that make your heart race faster with a sense of trepidation with believable characters, each with a strong motivation, and a couple of adult themes worth pondering on after you've finally finished the game.

What you should expect from The Song of Saya?

• Gripping story portraying some truly dark themes, which make your hair stand on end. In short, hardly forgettable.
  
• Professional voice acting for every character accompanied by a beautiful soundtrack and quality background sounds.
  
• Unique and disturbing art style that sends shivers down your spine when you less expect it.
  
• Multiple endings and hard decisions to make. Consequences can be fatal.
  
• 18+ content including sexual intercourse, r a p e, gore, violence, nudity, disturbing scenes and situations so if you are under 18 using a blindfold is highly recommended!

Thank you for your time and happy reading!

The following review might help you to save your money or potentially to save you from a heart attack (!) ;)

Overview

The Cursed Forest is a great example of how to create an immersive environment and uncanny atmosphere in a horror game because that what makes this game truly stand out among many similar titles in its genre. Initially. the original version of the game was developed by a Russian guy Andrey KPy3O Suhachev who's contrived to make it single-handadly on Cryengine 3 Game SDK Afterwards, engine's version has been changed several times during almost 4 year-long development process, so fortunately the final version of the game utilizes powerful but flawed CryEngine 5 at its full potential! The steam version of the game is a remake and was made by a small but dedicated team of enthusiasts and for that they have my respect. There is no doubt that this game is a labour of love and hard work! Believe me or see for yourself on youtube, The Cursed Forest looks absolutely stunning and often you find yourself just admiring the visuals perfectly accompanied by a beautiful and rich in detail level design. Not to mention the incredible atmosphere that literally takes a hold of you and doesn't let go until the final credits roll.

Narrative

The story is interesting but somewhat ordinary for this type of games and movies although it can get compelling for you at some point if you're playing in the right mood and if you know how to read overcome your laziness when it comes to reading poorly written notes in video games. Unfortunately, the game offers only a single way to absorb the narrative - written notes that can be found in all five chapters during your travel. Some of them can be easily found but some are well hidden and will require from you a more thorough exploration. The truth is looking for notes not as fun as it sounds due to sometimes excessively complex and even frustrating level design, undoubtedly fascinating and immersive but still lacking in terms of pathfinding. In sum, I liked the story and the grand finale. The game per se is a walking simulator therefore tools of storytelling are scarce and restricted by the game's mechanics. However, developer knows exactly which buttons to push to make you empathize with the characters and ponder the choices and their consequences after you finally unfold all the bits and pieces of the story.

Will the game scare the h e l l out of me?

No, it probably won't or yes if you're a sensitive person. I'd say If you are no stranger to the horror genre games, most likely you already know all the tricks and tools developers usually use in this kind of games to scare the s h i t out of you. Anyway, the Cursed Forest definitely has a few eerie and even spooky moments in store. As a good adviser, I would recommend to play in a dark room with a good pair of headphones for maximum immersion and spookiness! Although, I have to mention that for me personally a huge downside was the dark entity (ghost) itself, which in theory should be scary, right? Then why is it so damn adorable, huh? As an explanation, I may have a perverted taste when it comes to dark entities from beyond ...

Optimization/Performance

Technical side of the game on the other hand require some minor polishing and better optimization, especially in the final chapter but that is more of an engine related problem rather than a lazy developer. As far as I know the current version of the game engine is still quite poorly optimized and bug fixing is a very long and tedious process. However, there shouldn't be any issues with finishing the game and from my experience crashes are rare guests (on my memory the game crashed only once in six hours ). Performance-wise you should be able to run it at a stable 60fps most of the time if you own a decent gaming computer. In case you're struggling to apply the word "decent" to your machine be prepared to experience some fps drops during the final chapter.


Translation

In addition, a few words about the quality of writing in the game. I have decided to play in Russian version because (surprise!) the game was made by a Russian developer so I thought it would be unwise for me as a Russian to play with English language, but after reading a few notes I wasn't sure anymore what was the original language they were written. In case if it was a translation from English - it was outright bad, unskillful and amateurish one, but if it wasn't - the talented person who wrote the original scenario should be ashamed.

In conclusion, I would definitely recommend The Cursed Forest for all horror game/movie lovers out there with balls nerves of steel! The game is easily worth the full price and chances are you won't be disappointed with your choice. The gloomy and dark atmosphere of The Cursed Forest with attention to detail and the heartbreaking story, slowly unfolding as you wander trough the woods full of mystery and dark secrets undoubtedly will leave a trace in your memory. Oh, and one last thing I almost forgot to mention, the game has a funny but bizarre thing about toilets that are strategically placed in each of five chapters and if you dare to venture inside you'll get an achievement (5 in total). In that regard, I had no other choice but to upload the screenshot of the most "risky endeavor"!

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1683455075

Pros and Cons

+
• Opportunity to visit every single toilet in all of five chapters (with achievements)
  
• Beautiful visuals perfectly matching an eerie and uncanny atmosphere
  
• Immersive and rich in detail level design with multiple routes
  
• Ambient sounds and soundtrack, especially in the final chapter
  
• Original and unexpected jump scares with elements of dark humor
  
• Decent story with a grand finale
  
  -
  
• Excessively complex and sometimes vague level design (arguable)
  
• Design and animations of the dark entity during jump scares and cut scenes
  
• Scarce narrative and lack of tools for storytelling
  
• Poor optimization during the final chapter
  
• Poor language or amateurish translation of written notes

Thank you for reading and until next time!

This game is a classic 2d platformer that will set your @ss on fire in less than 15 minutes without proper meditation! I couldn't even beat the first level which should be like a walk in the park compared to some endgame levels. Visually the game looks fantastic and the sound is quite authentic like in some old retro game. The combat system is pretty much standard: you have melee attack, spear throw, jump and roll. However, these few moves allow you to use different tactics and give you a certain freedom in outmaneuvering your enemies during combat if you have straight hands and a bunch of time to master the game's mechanics. Sadly, controls are a bit clunky and sluggish but definitely bearable after 50+ deaths.

I highly recommend this game to every hardcore player who finds souls like games no longer challenging but be aware that you have to be an extremely patient person with nerves of steel otherwise chances are your peripherals won't survive long enough for you to finish this game. The truth is Volgarr the Viking is cruel, unfair and will undoubtedly make you suffer all the way through it!

The game keeps crashing after saving manual/autosave in Whitechappel after dialogue with a doctor about a particular scalpel. I've tried to update Nvidia drivers and different video settings, playing in windowed mode keeping only 2 saves, as some players suggested on the forum but nothing helped, A lot of people experiencing this particular problem with all of Sherlock Holmes games from Grogwares save for a few early games in the series. Something isn't right with the game engine and in-game saving system! Unfortunately, It seems as if the guys from Frogwares don't give a damn about this whole situation!!

I am so disappointed because this game definitely has a potential .. Terrible developer who doesn't care about game breaking bug in almost all of his games. I don't recommend to buy games from Frogwares because you might as well experience this issue thus you'll be unable to finish any of them.

Update: I've found a solution! I was playing in windowed mode and keeping only two save files. I've definitely tweaked something else but I don't remember what exactly. Apart from this, the game's really good. Interesting and sometimes quite challenging puzzles
Sadly, the story is quite trivial and hardly engaging. Oh, often puzzles are repetitive. For example, many characters in the game have either boxes or cases with codes or some tricky mechanisms you have to decipher or solve in order to open them.
Nevertheless, I do recommend this game!

Buy this game if you like to receive pain, but if not, my recommendation would be to stay away from this product. As you can see, my playing hours clearly show that I am a pure masochist...

• Story 8/10
  
• Characters 9/10
  
• Camera movement 5/10
  
• Combat system 5/10 (Most important part. It's hack and slash afterall)
  
• A lot of Bugs...
  

Also a controller is a must have for this title as well as some minor game modding (here's the link Enslaved Improvment Guide). Strongly recommend to everyone, especially if you love good adventures with a little bit of action involved. All in all, Enslaved Odyssey to the West offers you one of the best and realistic character writings in the history of video games along with a decent story full of exploration and feeling of discovery of a post apocalyptic world and its long gone civilization.
Overall score 7/10

One of my all time favorite games even after years! Just believe me you don't wanna miss this kind of experience!

10 out 10

One of the best RPG out there and definitely the best Sci-Fi cyberpunk game on the market!
Go and play it this instant if you haven't yet!

10 out 10