Recent reviews by NegatioN

It's still a good game, and worth replaying after all these years.
The commentary is also well executed on, and the first I've seen of this kind.
The main reason I bought this though, is to support Jon in his compiler work. We simply need this kind of relentless pursuit of games as art to continue :)

What does this game have going for it?
The setting, the art, the dystopia, and the gunplay feels decent.

Sadly it doesn't really have a good story, and the acting isn't especially inspiring, so every time you're forced to sit through a cutscene sequence feels like an eternity. And there's quite a lot of cutscenes.

Sadly it's a thumbs down from me, even with all the bugs ironed out, 3 years after the initial release.

Gameplay seems awfully clunky for a game that involves platforming to this degree. Puzzles also seem to be intentionally designed to make you run around several times, increasing your chance to die. Deaths are punishing (but in the really lame way that Super Mario was), where if you die, you will probably have to repeat quite a bit of the previous stuff you just played.

This is a no-go for me, and I wrapped it up a little bit after the "tutorial" (which explicitly teaches nothing, even though some of the controls of this game is quite esoteric)

"When does XCOM3 come out?"
There's a lot of this game, but I'm still left wanting more, which almost never happens after a playthrough for me. Looking forward to diving into mods

I really wanted this game to be good. I even made a website to showcase popular skill-builds by good players, but there's just too many issues with it.

1. There's no players obviously, so you won't get matched with similar skilled people, making the grind unbearable.
2. The developers feel like they change their plans every 2 months for the future of the game, and never stick to something.
3. The online community of the game is somewhat toxic, and circle-jerky.
4. Removing the RNG in the game actually sounds like a great idea, but might have backfired. In higher level play, it's all about capitalizing on a move the opponent made, where you know you can execute a plan of 6-7 steps to kill them, which feels and looks dull. Since you can calculate everything, and there are few opponents, there's less room for depth and surprising turn of events in this game. The good part is of course that it's all based on your own skill when you win, but it never really feels great. You're never stuck with a "war story" of how you overcame anything.

I don't play anymore, but I would only recommend trying it if you have 2 friends who're exactly as psyched as yourself about it. And even then, it most likely doesn't have a future as an eSport or anything, so don't get too attached to it.

If you like visual novels, this should right up your alley. If you don't like them... maybe put in a little over 2 hours here anyways...
Don't read spoilers :)

A humourous return to adventure-games!

If you're looking for brain-numbing puzzles, this might not be the game for you.
However it does carry with it a great soundtrack, great voice-acting and witty dialogue that echoes the past works of Tim Schafer's glory days.

Act 1: 8/10

Very good game. If it's ever on sale, get it no matter what. If it seems very interesting, get at full-price too. Must have a console-controller to play.