Останні рецензії користувача Stoibs

Oh boy, I didn't realize 'Wintermute' has it's own store page!

I just came from leaving a negative review on the main game after one particular power tripping moderator rapid-fire permabanned about 6 of us users and deleted every message criticizing the slow absolute lack of progress on this product that we paid for 11 years ago,

Shame that they are trying to silence and cover up how pathetic their development has been; how abusive their moderators are; and that the devs are allowing such an abusive use of Forum moderation to purge any and all critiques we have like this in the first place.

Stay away from these dodgy scammers and their unethical business practices who don't seem to know how to handle PR

Jesus. H. Christ.

For a decade us Kickstarter backers have been waiting for the finale and resolution to the campaign mode (Which was the original pitch and primary gamemode they were designing when asking for funding...)

In that time we've seen development time and resources go to literally anything *but* that, Their scummy DLC expansion cashgrab pack just got it's final update (Oh yeah, these dodgy guys went and made a Season Pass for another game mode before even delivering what they promised in 2011) and still no word of what the hell is going on with the game.

The icing on the cake and reason for this eventual review is that these cowards literally purged and perma-banned me and other people's comments in the forum calling them out and asking what is going on.

Absolutely pathetic scummy devs treating their day 1 Kickstarters like this.
Incredible.


EDIT: Haha wow.. the scummyness of these devs know no bounds.
I literally can't even respond to my own review to address the troll comments while banned from their forums.. Should have known there would be a few shill apologists though.

To the "Hurrrr u only haev 6 hoUrs" guy out there; Why the hell would I start an episodic game that commenced 7~8 years ago with no end in sight, rather than waiting until all the chapters are released..? Especially with these dev's poor track record of spotty releases and broken promises, it would be foolish to get myself involved in the storyline that may or may not have ever seen a conclusion.

This is the classic survival horror experience us 90's guys are craving for.

While the setting is nothing supernatural, the theme plays with the very real horrors of war and fear of isolation and death around every corner in such a unique setting that you wouldn't expect the genre to excel in.

Actual jumpscares are rare (though effective the handful of occurrences) and it's mostly psychological; the effective usage of Silent Hill-style still images which give an unsettling air about them, your character's aim and crosshair devolving into a jittery mess slightly over time as the game goes on, entire areas in a catacombs/dug-out mines that require limited visibility flashlight items, finding remnants of your fellow platoon losing themselves and in the throws of being shellshocked, witnessing amputated and land-mine victims crawling toward you..

It has the hallmarks of the RE/Silent Hill style metroidvania design down to a T and you'll quickly be associating the trenches and familiar Mess Hall areas to the Spencer estate, and marking down locked doors, Gas-filled areas or other obstacles barring your ingress until the appropriate tool is discovered.

Puzzles are clever, and I've made use of Steam's handy notepad overlay on more than one occasion. Surprisingly enough they sort of.. fit thematically and feel like they are atleast justified and make sense also instead of just being there for the sake of it.

The homages to the classics are all here between an ink ribbon save system (togglable off for those who dislike) and item boxes, a familiar shady Merchant+weapon upgrades, even being hit with waves of RE1 nostalgia as I returned from the 'Outside' area back to the familiar homebase to be met with more aggressive hunters armoured blitzing enemy-types and a mustachioed friendly face restocking supply rooms (At this point the game throws a curveball at you also to ramp up the survival/horror aspect by destroying half the safe rooms!)

If someone asked me what a Silent Hill/Resident Evil/Metal Gear/Parasite Eve mashup set in WW1 would look like I never thought the formula would work as well as we've seen here.
Absolutely worth your time to atleast check out the demo if this is the type of thing that piques your interest.

Amazing experience for fans of early FPS's.
Genuinely challenging combat with AI reminiscent of F.E.A.R, fabulous level design with a range of differing themes and setpieces, (Including a completely optional and missabale multi-hour superdungeon toward the end) and according to my end-game stats some ~150 secrets to discover.

Combat is incredibly meaty and reactive. Physics and particle effects decorate entire environments as firefights are going on (Just watch either of the video trailers on the store page for a taste of how hectic things get), and discovering weapons' strengths and weaknesses, incorporating your slide-tackle, and even throwing a quick melee stun for good measure now and then are all manoeuvres you'll learn to appreciate and develop compared to many other corridor shooters which favour a flatfooted approach to exchanging gunfire.

That said, it's not a retro doom-clone (or "boomer shooter".. ugh) by the devs own word of mouth, and it moreso feels like a distant cousin to Deus Ex/System Shock with loads of immersive sim-like elements strewn throughout;
Permanent character upgrades, various vending machines and security nodes to use currency and weapon parts on, purchasable weapon mods (Along with secret permanent upgrades that fundamentally change the way a gun works - I've legitimately went from not using a gun at all, to using it as part of my main kit after one side-grade completely recontextualized it..)

This game rewards exploration to a higher degree than most other shooters, and you are aided in this via a few useful tools at your disposal. For instance there's a certain multimeter item that will become your best friend which beeps the closer you are to secrets, so you aren't left completely in the dark and reliant on guides like other unforgiving shooters, and the fact that you are free to take a fast travel option back to any previous chapter really gives it a sense of survival/adventure as you may opt to backtrack to earlier levels once you've found certain keycards or wish to find overlooked caches/restock on passed supplies.

There's a skeleton of a story here so far, but it's important to note that this is still very much in Early Access; and so while the bulk of the shooty gameplay is pretty sound and dripping with polish already, we'll have to wait until full release to get the full picture and more VA lines and exposition from the protagonist in a more fleshed out objective-based narrative.
Suffice it to say everything we can piece together from the dozens of datapads spread throughout the game so far tells an intriguing story of what Selaco is and what's going on already, so I'm eager to experience the complete package come launch-time for sure.

(Oh.. and to top it all off there's an addictive inbuilt cookie-clicker minigame on your personal wristcomputer you can access at any time once found in-game - which may or may not have accounted for my ~40hrs it took me to play through Chapter 1.. 😁)

Woof.

I think banking on Chrono Trigger nostalgia and focusing the admittedly pretty visuals in marketing was the only thing they were going for here. Very few other redeeming qualities sadly. Combat is repetitive and doesn't evolve much from the opening hours (only having literally 3 skills was a... choice) the main characters have the shared uninteresting personality of cardboard, there's no character growth or meaningful arcs, and the overall writing/pacing of the cliché storyline feels like it was written by someone submitting a Grade-School level creative writing exercise.

The ending goes into my hall of shame for the bizarre Easier-Than-Everything-Else-You've-Fought final encounter which seemed like it was just the warmup for the real boss, before abruptly ending instead; but not before genre swapping and making you play some dumb SHMUP against the actual Big Bad for... reasons?
Apparently someone on staff thought that making all the narratively-unimportant McGuffin collectable items throughout the game essential for the 'true ending' was a good idea also, which just ensures most people will Youtube it instead.
(The new ending hilariously adds about a dozen more plotholes when you think about it for more than a few seconds too..)

I Honestly don't know why this has an Overwhelmingly Positive steam score, maybe some people voiced their opinions while still in the Honeymoon phase of the opening handful of hours when the mediocrity was in its infancy..?
I can't imagine my fellow peers who grew up with this stuff in the 80/90's are ok with the result considering even the likes of the early FF games and Chrono Trigger (*with* the disadvantage of localization..) were more coherent than this.

Hurts even more as a Kickstarter backer who was anticipating this for years, in hindsight I probably should have taken that refund they offered when the announcement of them selling out to PSplus and Gamepass Day 1 came about..

There's some talent in this devteam for sure, but I just hope they hire a damn writer and do some editing for their next project..

2023's year of mega hits draws to a close and this remains my GOTY.

Any classically designed JRPG which manages to keep a turnbased battle system fresh and interesting in the current era deserves kudos, and at no point in my some ~100hrs did I feel bored or annoyed here given the absolute range of character customisation and skillsets on offer via its Final Fantasy inspired Job system, slick animations and camera shots - as well as some very unique boss encounters which turn the table on conventional combat rules.

The usage of 'Path Actions' (utility skills used outside of combat) adds such another layer to adventuring and socialising in cities within the bounds of traditional JRPG mechanics. Bribing, mugging or haggling your way through a township for gossip or intel, and even recruiting some of the more lucrative NPC's to aid you in battle made exploring each and every new city I came across an actual joy to look forward to. And you can more or less do it all twice since the Day/Night cycle in this game actually changes NPC behaviour, locations etc. The way some of these path actions are incorporated into the mainline story chapters are often pretty memorable too.

Sidequests are bountiful and avoid common gaming tropes and cliche's about 90% of the time, usually adding some unexpected twist or interesting flair to them. Several near end-game deal with the aftermath of prominent NPC's and were definitely worth pursuing for narrative closure more than any material reward.
As for the main storylines, you're presented with a mostly open world to explore and tackle in any non-linear order you see fit as you engage with each chapter, and are free to follow a single thread or spread across all 8 heroes simultaneously as you choose (Level permitting, though you're never barred from attempting higher lvl content).
Most of them are *much* better written, generally more interesting, and improved upon than the original game's fairly average writing - actually eliciting genuine emotions of laughter or sadness. The characters are diverse both in personalities and unique character skills, while the range of voice acting carried some of the more brutal and wholesome moments from start to finish.

The game does ~adequately manage to tie everything together in a believable manner (which atleast doesn't feel hastily thrown together at the last moment like the first game..); however the main draw here are still the 8 separate storylines and the personal journeys of our heroes more than anything. While they're all still very independent from each other, the inclusion of so much more cross-party banter both in and out of combat alongside several specific dual-character chapters does a lot to make this feel like a more cohesive travelling party.

The OST deserves a special mention for just being incredible. I'm actually genuinely annoyed and surprised it wasn't nominated at the 2023 Game Awards considering how universally praised and loved the whole thing is. Not many games make me specifically go and seek out a soundtrack to listen to once done. This one has several that are worthy to add to one's playlist.

All in all it was one of the better JRPG experiences I've played in recent years. A reminder that a 10/10 can still be done in this more retro style despite the industry focusing more and more toward pizzazz and spectacle.
Playable demo carries progress into the full release too for the curious, it caused my immediate purchase.

A linear point and click adventure/narrative title at it's core, the game places you in the middle of a family gathering as these adult siblings reconvene to mourn the loss of their Father over the course of several nights, staying at their childhood Mansion while attending the funeral and sorting the re-sale affairs of the Estate etc; The twist being that you simply play from the perspective of Aspen - the pet cat of the recently departed.

There have been plenty of games in the past which have done the fly-on-the-wall perspective to retell a series of events, like The Invisible Hours or Tacoma, but this one cleverly puts you right in the moments as they unfold in real time while still giving a plausible reason why people ~mostly ignore your presence a lot of the time.

The gameplay as it is involves following story beats as they unfold, eavesdropping on conversations to learn the personalities and drama that this mess of a family unit compose of, uncovering the bizarre and eccentric life of this family bloodline, while doing point and click environment puzzling and the usual cat stuff in-between to break up the pacing a little. (Oh and like I assume most cats do in real life, the biggest source of information to the unfolding backstory is the ability to see spirits and old echoes from decades-past as they appear at relevant moments)

The way the linear design of the game occurs is masterclass in ensuring you're never stuck or get lost; being unable to open doors, the only way to progress at any given moment is always telegraphed or might involve a puzzle to get someone to open a door for you in a sly method. The way Aspen might get distracted by vermin, or in one instance the youngest brat of one of the family members teasing you with a laser pointer (Causing your mouse cursor to become magnetized to it) is a welcomed break of levity from a lot of the heavy themes and downright depressing-at-times writing, accompanied by jaunty and differing soundtracks.

It's not without it's flaws, for whatever reason the devs decided to force some QTE/mouse jiggling and action platforming sequences in that feel way out of place, and one prolonged instance during the finale can be downright frustrating. Thankfully there's only a scant handful of these in total before returning to the core gameplay.

As someone with a generally short attention span, this is one of those games that managed to hold my interest for hours at a time until completion, and made me go on an emotional journey with several character arcs all concluding with a tearjerker ending. This was my 'Stray' that I enjoyed a lot more.

This is the answer to what Silent Hill would look like as an Indie title.
It absolutely nails atmosphere, enemy design, lighting, fog, the... almost copyright infringed soundtrack..

Exploration is accessible enough with a few maps to help you along the way, there's no head scratching puzzles that keep you stumped, and the environmental design/fixed camera placement is executed nicely.

The combat seems to be a point of contention among the community however; only consisting of one melee weapon and various other support tools.
Sadly there's no real good middle ground here since by default the standard melee swing has horrible range and it's easy to get chewed up by the (visually unique!) monsters; on the other hand the completely re-usable, abundant bear traps you find are overpoweringly broken - capable of entirely stunlocking every enemy type (Only 2 - sadly) for enough time for you to finish them off; which then turns the game's enemy encounters into a loop of:
Hearing an enemy,
Determining where they are,
Placing a trap between you and them,
Waiting for them to approach
Move in for the kill
- Rinse repeat.

(There's a.. throwable iron pole sub weapon also I guess, the unintuitive aiming direction/accuracy of it made it seem pretty worthless, even when I point-blank hucked it at something that was stuck in a bear trap one time it wasn't even an instant kill, so they seem to exist only to clog your inventory.. ?)

Monsters frequently get repopulated throughout the relatively small environment also as key items and progress is made, and because the enemy bodies don't actually disappear (nice touch!) it actually becomes a bit hilarious and lessens the tension by the time you are at the 11th hour of the game and need to wade through dozens of bodies strewn across the courtyard or lobby..

One of my main bugbears however is the lack of Tank Controls; which really ought to be a staple in fixed camera survival horror games. Holding a direction in 'direct 3d control' is fine up until the point where a shot crosses the line with a new mirrored angle, and all of a sudden me running 'East' is now moving my character 'West' as he quickly doubles back to the way he just came from due to the perspective shift. This is a huuuge no-no and happened to me more times than I remember keeping track of; especially aggravating when I'm specifically trying to manoeuvre around monsters and trying to fight, but I can't keep control of which way I'm going. This is why fixed cam is typically synonymous with tank control, since 'Up' is always 'Forward' and you never run into these issues when it's all uniform.

That aside I did have fun with this one, some neat clever puzzles (Time hopping back and forward in one instance was great), though It might take me another play or perhaps a writeup of sorts to sift through the narrative and ending, which felt a little vague and left me befuddled. Nice budget indie for the 90's survival horror fans at any rate.

A neat bitesized little retro fixed cam horror for a nice bitesized price. Plays similarly to Selewi's previous work in Night of the Scissors, though this is clearly a step up with a bit more polish shown, VA work and ideas present.

Pretty impressive what can be done in such a small relative play area consisting of so few rooms, which subconsciously makes the threat more engaging since you know there's not a lot of places the killer could be, and not a lot of space for him to close the distance with when found.

Tight controls, flashlight mechanic which effects your visibility and some standard survival horror metroidvania puzzling; you'll be doing a bit of inventory juggling with an item box too (with even less inventory space on Hard mode!)
Intriguing 'B' Plot behind the scenes also that is explored in the game's alternate ending, which was definitely a choice and mood that I respect the dev for taking outside of the standard 'Deep South Hillbilly' reasoning.

About my only critique is that the Killer is kind of slow and the player takes multiple hits (including there being healing items to use), so outside of the initial shock value of him appearing in a room he's fairly easily to avoid and break line of sight of, even on hard mode where Stamina is slower to recover. It's decidedly easier than Night of the Scissors and sort of felt less stressful overall as a result.

EDIT: New patch silently dropped and made the killer a lot more conniving! He now leaves traps for you and can even board up the more commonly used hiding places in hard mode! That's quite evil, but a much welcomed addition :D

Recommended for fans of this indie grindhouse horror genre for sure.

After waiting a month Post-Launch for the multiplayer to come live before many people have started playing, it appears to be a case of bait-n-switch tactics and misleading advertising. With the precedent of the 3 current Dark Pictures games under this studio's belt and promises of being able to 'share the horror with your friends' in similar fashion, it stands to reason that the expectation would be for this one to follow suit and provide the same experience, no?

Apparently the co-op mode that we've all been waiting for is some dumb Twitch-play style affair in which you invite people (Who also require the complete full priced game, no less) to merely *watch* you play solo, at which point they can 'vote' on decisions or perhaps provide commentary..

The devs had all the time in the world to clarify and make clear what this was and what it wasn't, yet they chose to remain tight lipped until well beyond the point of Steam's two-week refund window.
Class act.

Kind of jaded at the moment of being lied to, maybe I'll change this knee-jerk review after actually playing it after I've already wasted a needless month waiting.
Maybe not.

We'll see.