Recent reviews by nO_d3N1AL

EDIT: After a few matches the game is now extremely laggy and unplayable. When it works it's good, but the servers or the game are a complete mess, no matter what I do there is horrible lag. Bad servers.

OMG. I haven't played CoD for over a year and usually do so on a controller. I don't even game on PC anymore, full-time on Xbox. So on a Sunday night I decided to give this a download on my laptop, and am completely blown away. It presents itself as a parody of Call of Duty, but unlike "Duty Calls" (if you're old enough to remember that demo for Bulletstorm), it's legit. This game... I have genuinely not been surprised, delighted and excited by a game to this extent for a long time! It's honestly incredible, it takes the best bits of Call of Duty and condenses them into a no-nonsense experience. It's extremely fast paced, has impeccable gunplay and hit registration, insanely good optimisation, simple map design and a good options menu. Best of all, it's so easy to hop into and have fun, without all the clunk that modern games have. It's lightweight, a small download and fast matchmaking, without the manipulative EOMM or "skill based damage" and other nonsense found in modern CoD. Might be an unpopular opinion but I've always found CoD to play better on a controller, but this game feels amazing on mouse & keyboard with very minimal tweaks required.

It's not perfect though. It could do with more objective game modes from CoD, and the inability to bind weapon switch to mouse wheel is annoying. The positioning of HUD elements is unusual, and I really don't like that I have to be shown the battle pass after every match. One of the things I dislike about modern CoD is the extent of weapon customisation, and this has copied it like for like. Though if you just play Arms Race, it can largely be ignored.

Still, I was expecting a throwaway asset flip and instead what I stumbled upon is the essence of what Call of Duty ought to be. I don't think XDefiant is going to be the CoD killer, it's much more heavyweight. This is more like Quake with Call of Duty mechanics.

"IT'S HIGH NOON!"
Basically a standalone game dedicated to Cassidy mains in Overwatch 😂. Looks and runs great on Steam Deck, quite fun and nice, simple mechanics, environments, controls and interesting way of storytelling in gameplay.

EDIT: Even more amazed by the optimisation, or perhaps the Steam Deck: on an external 1440p display with framerate set to 120hz and max settings, native rendering resolution, I was getting over 100 FPS during intense combat, and with a 10W TDP limit still getting around 80 FPS... on a handheld... at 1440p max settings. Plays really nice on a controller too!

I was sceptical of getting this game because the huge moves lists and amount of knowledge needed to play the game seemed daunting. They still are. This game has insane depth and requires a lot of knowledge and practice, even learning a character takes a lot of work. However, I am actually surprised how much fun this game is to go into training mode and learn characters. I've never played Tekken before but I've played a lot of Street Fighter, so I'm delighted that Akuma is in the game, especially with Street Fighter IV mechanics. This really helps players transition over. Learning a traditional Tekken character in training mode isn't as bad as I thought it would be: the execution and combo system are a lot of fun, and although there is absolutely zero attempt at a tutorial or explanation of the game's mechanics, I personally find with practice and experimentation it becomes somewhat intuitive. Moreover, I think it's possible to enjoy this game without knowing everything.

In terms of production value, this game is top-notch. Both Tekken 7 and Street Fighter V are Unreal Engine 4, but Tekken 7 looks MUCH nicer, especially the stages, effects and character models. It has a great soundtrack, a story mode that's had significant effort put into it (at least, compared to Street Fighter) and it has character customisation. Sure, it doesn't have combo trials or a tutorial, but honestly the training mode in this game, moves list and sample combos are a refreshing change from overwhelming and crazy long in-game tutorials. I find that it's much more interesting to play around with the game on your own than go through long tutorials which explain the basics but won't help you get better at the game.

I'm far from actually understanding how to play this game competitively, but even as someone who's Super Diamond in Street Fighter V I don't mind being a complete noob, this is a fun game to play even if you're a beginner. Having guest characters is a nice bridge, I understand the controversy but honestly, for a franchise that is so impenetrable, I hope they continue with these varied characters.

Final thing I'll say is that it's refreshing to have a 4-button fighting game. I struggle to play Street Fighter on a standard pad but Tekken is much more natural in this regard: two kick and two punch buttons. I just wish the moves lists were smaller!

This is one of the best games I've played in a while. It's a mish-mash of all the best parts of various games: the one-hit death mechanic of Superhot, the level length of Mirror's Edge, the wall-running of Titanfall and a lot of the art style, platforming and level design from a little-known game called Deadcore. Whilst Deadcore did some truly unique things, it quickly got overcomplicated by the fourth level, making it difficult to see the path amongst all the various platforms, mechanics and enemies. This game has resisted the temptation to overcomplicate levels, mechanics and enemies, whilst still providing plenty of novelty throughout the 17 levels. The length of the game varies greatly on your competence, but on a first playthrough, expect it to take around 8 hours or more, depending on how long you spend looking for collectibles.

The level design has decent variety, with a few boss fights thrown in amongst the fast-paced platforming and combat encounters. Visually however, the game looks uniform, it's just the placement of assets that differs. Though the game is difficult, it is generally quite fair and not frustrating at all. This is mainly because checkpoints are frequent, and there is a dedicated restart button which instantly resets to the checkpoint. No waiting, no loading. So even if you finish a level with over 100 retries / deaths, you don't feel bad. What does feel awesome however, is replaying levels and improving your times. It's an incredibly satisfying game to play and even attempt to master, due to its extreme fast pace.

The stellar gameplay and controls are complemented by a suitably awesome electro soundtrack. The dystopian ultra-futuristic AI-controlled setting and story telling - which is done exclusively through dialogue whilst you play the game, rather than through cutscenes - is another strong point. That said, the story itself is rather pointless and doesn't have anything interesting to say. No character development, no (unexpected) plot twists, and certainly nothing deep. This game is all about the action, and to be honest, that's perfectly fine.

Aside from replaying levels for collectibles, which can also be cosmetics (swords and gloves), there is a Hardcore mode which puts more enemies and enemy types throughout the game, making even the first level harder than some of the later levels in the regular mode. This will surely please those who want the ultimate challenge.

Visually, the game looks great and runs well too. This is definitely one of those games that you want a high refresh rate for. It supports NVIDIA's DLSS 2.0 and also ray-tracing; although the latter is monumentally pointless; it has almost no discernible visual impact yet more than halves your framerate. In a fast-paced game like this, it serves no purpose.

The game has some issues. Firstly, there are no global leaderboards, so you can't see how you compare to others or race their ghosts like you can in Mirror's Edge. There is also only one level in the entire game which is purely platforming. Whilst this isn't a pure platformer, I think the movement mechanics lend themselves well to that sort of gameplay and it would've been nice to see a few short platforming time trials, perhaps as an additional mode or DLC.

Gameplay-wise, my biggest complaint is with the skills. Throughout the game you unlock different abilities and a Tetris-block upgrade system for choosing your enhancements. There are 4 abilities and you can toggle between them, but in practice, only one of them is useful. The "Tempest" skill is a blast than can take out multiple enemies, and there is an upgrade which refund its usage. Abilities require meter to use, which is primarily built by taking out enemies. Since you only have a few chances to use skills within a level, you have to be very deliberate when you use these skills. Unfortunately, everything is significantly weaker than Tempest, and combined with the fact that you can get free usage through multi-kills, it basically makes every other skill redundant for most of the game.

The game also has a running theme of puzzles in between levels, as a filler for the dialogue-based story. These don't really add anything interesting to the game, but make for a more relaxing change of pace and visual setting.

Overall, Ghostrunner is a refreshing platformer which nails the cyberpunk theme and fast-paced gameplay, fusing some excellent mechanics from various games and makes you feel like you're in The Matrix playing as Genji from Overwatch. whilst also adding its own style and innovation. If you like speedrunning games, this is definitely one of the best. It's challenging, but not overly complex. Whilst it's definitely not perfect, the gameplay and controls are sharp. I really hope to see a sequel or additional content - I'd love to see more games like this!

I don't usually review games before I finish them, but SotTR is such a big disappointment and a chore to play, I can't bring myself to finish it, even though I'm at the last area (yes, I got that bored I actually looked up how much further I have to slog through this drivel). I have 100% completed 2013, on both PC and Xbox, and that game had an underrated multiplayer. It did everything right. Rise of the Tomb Raider improved upon it in much the same way that Arkham City improved upon Arkham Asylum. Even though I'm not the target audience for these kind of games, I really appreciated their quality and design, as well as the graphics.

But Shadow is just inexcusably bad. It might be because it's not Crystal Dynamics. Everything about this game, except the graphics, feels like a step back. The story is even more nonsensical, it's not gripping at all and the characters are very bland. Gameplay-wise, it's 90% exploration of caves and perhaps 5% combat. There's a lot of side quests and collectibles littered around, but you soon realise all of it is pointless, because despite having a large skill tree and lots of weapons, most of them are unusable because the game provides very few opportunities to engage in combat how you want. It's heavily stealth focused, which is fine but a large part of the skill tree and weapons are for aggressive combat. There is very little action in this, the genre this game belongs to can only be described as "adventure"; and that's putting it kindly, given how bland that adventure is.
So you end up having lots of resoruces and fully upgrading all your weapons, but never get to use them. And then there's the outfits system, which is pointless too in the definitive edition because all the Definitive Edition ones are unlocked from the start, and look a lot better than the ones you unlock throughout the game. The game is just so restrictive with what weapons and outfits you can use, and lacks both good level design and action sequences.
This largely mirrors my experience with Deus Ex: Mankind Divided: the developers put in a good number of weapons and abilities, but you never get the chance to use them because the game is so thin on actual content, it's mostly filler.

If all you want is a game that looks good and don't care about gameplay, this is fine. I honestly upgraded to RTX graphics card for this game and was expecting to be amazed, but really it doesn't look THAT much better than Rise. The ray-tracing is for shadows only, and RTX Medium shadows looks better than High or Ultra RTX, and actually RTX off and shadows on Ultra actually looks better in some scenes. So it's just a gimmick. DLSS works reasonably well, but the HDR in this game is horrible, one of the worst I've come across and relies on the Windows setting, not the driver.

The controls are also a downgrade. Whilst it natively supports DualShock 4, the reload button doesn't work for some reason. The actual traversal of the environment is inconsistent too. Sometimes Lara won't grab ledges, and the path isn't always obvious because of the spacing and lack of clear indicators. The other two games were excellent in this regard, but Shadow just feels off.

Overall, I can't recommend this game, regardless of whether you enjoyed the previous two in the trilogy. It's very bland, lacks variety and is very thin on action. It's mostly just filler.

I remember playing the original when I was kid way back in 2005 and was amazed at how much detail went into the game, the graphics were insane and so was everything else regarding the world, cars, mechanics, voice acting and story. It really felt way ahead of its time and I played it through quite a lot. A lot has changed since then, bearing in mind it was a 2002 game from a relatively small studio. So remaking what I wonder consider to be one of the greatest works of art in gaming is a huge task, and I feared it wouldn't age well. Moreover, I questioned whether a remake (rather than a re-release with updated graphics) would make me question how good the game was in retrospect. But having played the first few levels, I gotta say it's even better than I remember! The characters and voice acting takes some getting used to, it's very different to the original. But the mechanics, the city, cars etc. are all authentic, but modernised. I'm really glad they kept "Classic" difficulty. Although even on classic it's not identical, I still think it's for the best. I'm also playing the game on a controller instead of mouse and keyboard and it plays much nicer.
The attention to detail is still immense. Small things like how the character walks up and down stairs really shines.
I didn't expect the graphics to be anything special, but my god this is one of the best looking games I've played. Judging by the graphics settings menu, you'd think it'd be quite a lazy job given there's only Low, Medium and High with not many settings. At first I also thought it was poorly optimised because in the menus I was getting 45 FPS on High at 4K with an RTX 2080. But in-game you can expect anywhere from 35 to 50, which on a G-sync display is definitely playable and not distracting. There's no dynamic resolution scaling or render resolution % so if your system can't handle 4K at acceptable framerates and you don't want to go down to 1080p then I'm afraid you're out of luck, because the graphics settings don't make a big difference in terms of performance, but they have a HUGE impact on visual quality so I recommend leaving them on High (except for anti-aliasing perhaps, which isn't necessary at higher resolutions).

My only complaint so far, aside from the jarring character models and voice acting, is that the original soundtrack sadly hasn't made it into the game. That for me was a huge part and it's a shame they didn't re-use the OST, but considering they got everything else right, I can forgive that. I wish it wasn't quite so demanding but given the visual quality I think it's worthwhile.

Overall, I highly recommend this game regardless of whether you've played the original or not. It's one of the greatest stories in a video game and the attention to detail is still there. I'm sure many hardcore fans will nitpick about various aspects but the developers had to find a happy medium between being faithful to the original and modernising it for newer audiences. So far, I think they've done a near-flawless job, except for the soundtrack and character models.

I'm a big fan of racing games, arcade and sim alike, and GRID 2019 is surprisingly good. Based on the mixed reviews I thought it would be a flop, just as most games are nowadays due to rushed development and predatory monetisation. This is not the case gladly. I'm a loyal Forza Motorsport (and even Horizon) fan but those games feel so "heavyweight" and bloated that the racing isn't the most fun part, or at least it's not as satisfying as it should be. What I admire about GRID 2019 and also the DiRT games is the purity. There is no fluff. There isn't any emphasis on tuning or customisation or car collecting. It's all about the racing. And that's where for me GRID is a refreshing return to what made me love racing games. If you have ever been a fan of Project Gotham Racing series, this is the natural successor. The handling and general mechanics are spot on: not unrealistic but with the usual selection of assists, should be accessible to most people. What I admire the most however is that Codemasters added interior view, which was a painful omission in GRID 2 and a complete joke in Autosport.

There is good variety in the selection of motorsport events and a mix of track and street racing, though be aware that this game in tone is like a "Project Cars Lite" - you wouldn't be driving road cars or tuning them or anything like that as you would in Forza. Unlike Project Cars 2 however, the selection of real-world tracks is extremely limited - some might say minimal. However for me, this game isn't about its car or track roster. It's not even about the graphics, which by 2019 standards are distinctly average, if not sometimes outclassed by 2017 games (Forza 7, Project Cars 2). Puzzling, given how amazing DiRT Rally 2.0 looks and uses the same engine. Nevertheless, there is dynamic resolution so it runs very smoothly at 4K on a GTX 1070 Ti with a 60 FPS target.

That said, there are some obvious issues which may disappoint some. As mentioned, the graphics are lackluster by 2019 standards and there isn't a big car or track list. These are not problems per se, just content. The main issue is wheel support. If you're expecting to play this with a wheel, you're going to be very disappointed. First of all, there's no option to adjust deadzones - this is performed purely through calibration. That would be OK if the calibration worked, but the calculation is completely broken, so you have to unintuitively "game" the calibration system to adjust your deadzones, because there is a clear discrepancy between what the menus show and how the wheel behaves in-game. The force feedback is also comically bad - the tyre friction doesn't even work, so with RWD cars you can't feel the grip loss through vibration. You're definitely better off playing with a controller in this game. But even then, the vibration isn't the best and for Xbox One controllers, the trigger rumble doesn't even work!

So glad I got this game. I really liked Far Cry Blood Dragon and this is a fantastic addition to the mini-franchise spinoff. The intro is hilarious and the game is full of parody and satire, perhaps more so than the Far Cry game. Just like Far Cry, it is full of epic action and you really feel like a badass when you finish a level with no faults and a good time. The perfect run is elusive yet the gameplay and controls are so fundamentally simple that it's addicting. Furthermore, there's no waiting to restart, it's instant. The art style and music are excellent, as you'd expect, but so are the visuals. It's surprisingly more demanding than I expected at 4K max settings, I get some dips below 60 FPS with a GTX 1060 6GB but overall it's moor than playable and looks decent - better than Hotline Miami at least! Speaking of which, one of the chapters seems to be a direct competitor / parody what with the on foot sections and enemies, level design, masks etc.
Sure, there are some gimmicky and annoying sections where you're not on a bike but when they do get it right, and you have a near-perfect run, the game shines. Leaderboards also allow for near-endless replayability.
I honestly don't understand how this game got rated so poorly. Maybe it's just my kind of game, and this is coming from someone who doesn't follow the Trials series. If you want something satisfying, simple and that is pure skill (i.e. no RNG), even if the skill cap is fairly low, it's a fun game to hop on. The levels are just the right length in terms of the balance between difficulty and content: they're short enough to make you want to replay them and not get frustrated when you fail, but long enough to make it very difficult to get a "perfect" run.

Great co-op game, requiring both co-ordination and high APM in a changing environment. Every level is different not only due to the layouts and orders, ingredients etc. but also because something moves, meaning you can't just blindly do one job each. You have to be adaptable and it's a great concept overall, with enough complexity to keep it interesting but not overwhelming.

Underrated game. Even at the end of 2018, around 5 years after its initial release, this game is high up there for contenders of best graphics and overall visuals in a video game. Running this game at 4K with a GTX 1060 on max graphics and it looks better than most modern games! The production value of Ryse is nothing short of top-tier, at least in terms of the content that's there. The art style, soundtrack, audio quality, cutscenes and especially the level of detail in the motion capture is impeccable. Despite its relatively short length (the game has 8 levels), it feels like a complete experience and doesn't outstay its welcome. Which brings me on to the other aspects of the game, graphics and production value aside.

The story isn't particularly innovative in its plot or its execution, but it's certainly not tacked on. It's very straightfoward and well-paced, being mostly aided by its non-standard ancient Rome setting; though admittedly it could've capitalised on this more. The level design is also very bland uninspiring. Sure, there's plenty of collectibles and you probably won't get all of them in one run, but I have never played a game more linear than this one. The world is very small and each level is mostly the same but with different environments. Although this difference is novel in the last couple of levels, mostly it's just a change in scenery and not gameplay.

This is where Ryse is most heavily criticized: the reptitive and basic gameplay. Whilst I can definitely see where critics are coming from, I also appreciate a simple but rock solid combat system. This game is literally the definition of hack and slash: you have your sword and shield attacks, alternating them in a suitable rhythm (so long as you don't do more than three of the same in a row) to defeat enemies. Of course, you also have the usual defense mechanics of evade and deflect, including parry for some heavy attacks. This is combined with a Batman Arkham style combo system, and genuinely feels satisfying when you have a good rhythm and can clear entire sections without taking any hits in a perfect freeflow. Even when that doesn't happen, the combat system is so unobtrosive that it's difficult to hate it.

Of course, a game which is almost entirely reliant on combat can't get away with just that. So what makes Ryse different is its heavy emphasis on executions, which are basically a bunch of preset quick-time events that require to press either the sword or shield attack button to finish off your enemies in brutally violent manner. Although there are plenty of these and you unlock more throughout the game with the upgrade currency, towards the end you will inevitably recognise each one of them and can time your presses perfectly; though there are so many including environmental ones that it's never predictable which one you will get.
Here's where things get really messed up though: if you fail the prompt by either not pressing the button in time or pressing th wrong button, the game automatically ocmplets the execution anyway, with no consequences other than your rating being lower. So the only thing that makes executions satisfying is getting the right button and timing perfect so that you can get a higher rating. What these ratings do? I'm still not sure. Presumably they give you higher XP and credits, allowing you to purchase upgrades more quickly.
That's right: Ryse does have a very simplistic upgrade system for standard things like damage, health and even XP gain, and executions can grant bonuses on any of these depending on your choice (a system which is again familiar from games like Remember Me). So what else is there? Well, there are some very simple projectiles in the game: spears and spear cannons. However there is no aiming involved: the game automatically does that aiming and you just pull the trigger. This becomes hialriously absurd in the beginning of the last level.

So, that brings me on to the conclusion. The short version is that Ryse isn't an innovative game, it's very repetitive and the gameplay is about as cookie-cutter as you can get. But in a world of overly complex systems, microtransactions, DLCs and so on, I must say that Ryse is one of the games I've been most impressed by recently. I've always had a soft spot for short, single-player experiences like Remember Me and Mirror's Edge (which are amongst my favourite games). Where it shines is its simplicity: take a historical setting, put a simple combat system in, add a decent story, wrap it around 8 levels and build it with state-of-the-art game engine and you're done.

For even the full price that it is now on Steam it's worth it, let alone the sale prices!