Recent reviews by The Pantheon

What was I huffing 9 years ago when I played Batman: Season 1?
This season was SO good. Classic Telltale in all the best ways.
+ Intriguing plot, loved the pact and actually enjoyed the Bruce sections MORE because of the clandestine nature of my mission
+ Loved having intimate time with Harley (<3), Freeze, Bane and... JOHN
+ Developing the complex relationship between Joker and Batman was really, really well done. A slow burn in the best way, and Batman had to make some tough grey choices.
+ Excellent choices and dialogue all along the way.
+ Graphics looked great
+ No "Millennial" Cobblepot which was maybe the reason I hated the last one? The villains were way better this time around.
+ Also the ancillary chars, I liked Al's arc, I liked the Agency chars, Iman, Waller etc.

Honestly, top class and now I have to watch The Expanse in full to go play Telltale's Expanse game and get my next TT hit. A+, PUDDIN'.

- Most fatal flaw of this entire game: co-op. Absolutely terrible. Why would you implement that in a psychological slo-mo horror like FEAR? So boring. And degrades playing solo. Poor map design for two players just makes everything bland, wide and sterile.
- Psychic Links! oh cool I can see in the mind of a soldier like Prototype nope it's just a smoky corpse that fades away and gives you "points". Oh cool points I can spend on a skill tree! nope it's all decided for you.
- HOLD e to use things? HOLD? Why not tap? WHY NOT A NORMAL ONE KEY PRESS.
- How the hell do you test a game where the flashlight randomly turns off if you SWITCH WEAPONS so the player has to turn it on again and again and again.
- How the hell do you design a weapon system for mouse+keyboard where you can only take TWO weapons and you can't even bind them to 1 and 2 only 1 which is SWITCH weapons and it's SLOW.
- Graphics are so blurry, textures are so bad. How does FEAR 1 and even FEAR 2 look sharper than this - and FEAR 2 was even a massive step down in terms of texture work!
- Massive crosshair it's like 10% of the entire screen ahhh, the Xbox360 era. Consoles REALLY dumbed everything down and PCs were treated so poorly for a few years there!
+ At least the AI seems pretty good. Better than FEAR 2 actually. They're not bad, communicate with each other and do a pretty solid job of trying to flank. Nice FEAR 1 attempt vibes.
+ Also rate the variance in environments. It's nice to finally see different areas other than drab office, drab alley or drab sewers
+ Positive on linking FEAR 2 in as well (barely but, enough) in the lackluster generic plot
- FOV is sooo bad. Even at 85 it's quite claustrophic.
- What happened to the lore? The answering machine messages in FEAR 1.. the tablet lore drops in FEAR 2.. Now? Literally nothing. Lazy!
- Bad ending, and it's literally all decided on co-op points. HA!

F. Don't play it unless you're FEAR obsessed

What a victim of Xbox360-era Console-itis F.E.A.R. became in F.E.A.R. 2! Ugh!
+ Pretty good graphics for the time. Echopatch mod recommended for some resolution and FPS tweaks.
+ Gunplay is satisfying, scares are..middling but OK.
Extremely linear but, I mean, whatever it's just to satisfy the story. Now, the negatives.
- Huge console-itis from a weird time where Americans/American devs didn't believe in the power of the PC and thought Xbox would be their saviour. Ha! Really dumbed everything down for the console kids especially with.. the AI! Massively dumbed down. Just pure cannon fodder. They no longer outthink or flank. Boring really.
- Too much ammo. Turns a thrilling shooter into a boring stop and pop. Console kiddies can't handle true fear!
- Huge ugly crosshair. In FEAR 1 you could customise it, colour it, resize it. Here? Nah. Big ugly huge thing for console sized TV screens. Ugh.
- They removed leaning left and right. Too many buttons for console kids 360 controls, see! Ugh.
- Shorter, somehow.
- Characters are lifeless, unremarkable nobodies that exist purely to die.
+ Freaky ending, I'll give it that.
- Ends wayyy to abruptly though. I was like huh? That's.. it? OK? What's resolved? Genevieve? Alma? Paxton? Harbinger lore? Nothing. Ugh!

Overall, C-. Massive downgrade from the first.

NORA... was brash, blunt, a bad ass, someone who projected confidence and buried her head in the sand, funny, surprisingly vulnerable once you got her one on one, stupidly narrow-minded, driven, and ultimately forever loyal.
AUTUMN... was level-headed, logical, cautious, cool, believed in herself and didn't need approval to continue doing so, hurt, isolated, regretful, complicit, and ultimately too afraid of the unknown to venture into it.
KAT... was funny, foul, brave, tired, sweet, punk, discovering more of herself as each day crawled to a smaller close, coping the only way she knew how, and ultimately stronger than she ever knew.
SWANN... was nerdy, happy in youthful innocence but scared of being lonely as she matured, growing in confidence, finding her passions, following what drove them, caring, thoughtful, respectful, empathic, broken-hearted, and ultimately in love with a soul mate.

This was my summer with the girls, what was yours?

+ vibes, narrative, characters, the incredible 90s aesthetic, the attention to detail in environments, the props, graphically astounding, the music, the camcorder clips/quests and how they integrated into everything unsurpassssseddddd!!! first game since TLOU2 to get me truly welling up in some scenes. bravo.

better than all Life is Stranges, one of the best 'narrative adventures' ever
A+

F.E.A.R. 20 years later still holds up. RIP to Monolith, they were a real one.
First off, incredible enemy AI. Truly one of the best to ever do it.
Secondly, texture work still looks really good for a 2005 game but in 2k!
Lastly, it's brief, it's action-packed but it doesn't outstay its welcome. Sets up an interesting story and hey, I guess we'll see where it leads. I don't remember loving FEAR 2 or 3 but.. on to the expansions in the meantime :)

Mods to use: EchoPatch, Battle Music replacer and that's ittt. B+.

Hmmm. I'm split with Kathy Rain 2, but overall I still think it's worth supporting an excellent P&C studio with beautiful art, music and V/O.
- My issue is with Kathy's writing. They managed - many times - to make Kathy a truly unlikeable protagonist. I get that she has demons, and she's prickly because of her past trauma, but how many times do you have to be an a**hole and think you can keep getting away with it, especially to your friends or loved ones? No, not the mother, I'm talking Josh and Eileen! Kathy in no way deserved a friend like Eileen, and tbh, did not deserve the Deus Ex Machina of Lucas either. In KR1, Kathy was a stubborn dog-with-a-bone-detective-in-training with a hard edge. But some of the stuff she does in this, or says in this, or ways she treats people who care about her in this, made me shake my head. Why write her into a corner that way when we're supposed to root for her?
+ Big plus on the acting side. Kathy, Eileen, Tom, all the ancillary chars were great. I didn't think Randy or Art fit their chars though. Randy a bit too.. old-timey-prospector, not middle-aged nerd. And Art was not sarcastic and wry, he was just kind of a good looking sounding guy being a bit of a prick. Nah, not it.
+ Music fantastic. So moody, so chill. Loved listening to it on the rainy days.
+ The GRAPHICS! Coming from KR1 like, woah. But then, those cutscenes! Truly beautiful stuff. Haunting even (Andrea...)
- No Director's Commentary boooo.
- No SteamDeck support out of the box, booo. I know I know dev time. But coming from KR1:DC like, you have to expect it in 2025.
- No unlockable bikes or slight cusomisation.
- They made Kathy's portrait a bit uglier, I dunno what it is lol.
+ The puzzles! Not too hard, I had a good little notes section on Steam about the mystery. Overall wrapped up nicely.
- I am not a fan of the unrealistic direction of the end of the game. I think horror truly hits when it hints at humanity and inhumanity within. Not spooky made up stuff.

Overall, an excellent Point & Click in a year full of good ones. I'll continue to look forward to more from Clifftop Games.
Thanks ;-)
A-

Played this again in the run up to Kathy Rain 2, though I originally played the non-Director's-Cut version, this review will count for both.
+ Excellently ported to Steam Deck, loved the point and click control scheme used. Innovative! And 1280x800 support! (Why doesn't Kathy Rain 2 have these features...? Not even the resolution? Weird.)
+ Great VO for the most part. Dave Gilbert was a lil flat and random, couple of other choices bit hammy but overall it's mostly about Kathy and Kathy does a lovely job as our heroine.
+ Really like the chill music.
+ Easy enough puzzles I only had to walkthrough a few out of me being dumb
+ Intriguing mystery that wraps itself up nice enough.
- No double-click to teleport to edge of screen so that's a bit laborious..

Overall an excellent P+C. Though I think I enjoyed their next Whispers of a Machine even better.
B+!

C+! Get it on a sale.
Finally got around to finishing STASIS after trying once before and giving up in the first act due to, well, a number of things that plagued the full game.
+ Interesting enough story with a good amount of twists
- Obtuse puzzles and no hint system, had to walkthrough a LOT of it just to enjoy the story
- Eye-roll inducing dialogue and writing.
- Not great V/O (Te'Ah especially..) but John lifted a pretty heavy load by himself so well done him.
- Everything was.. blurry? I mean I know it's a 2015 game but, yeah the art direction was just kind of.. not sharp. Which along with the lack of strong lighting left it kind of a mess to point and click in.
- Not scary, I got the vibes but meh.

I will probs pick up Bone Totem on a sale too though. I like me some sci-fi. Good first effort I guess.

95% of the time, very cool! I loved LACUNA so it was great to dive back into and support this studio who do really interesting detective stories.
+ Really cool ship design
+ Intriguing cases with multiple paths and wrong / right deductions
+ Memorable characters and protagonist
+ Vibey music
- The last 5% I was completely stuck and had to just walkthrough the final case guess, which sucked. I legit walked everywhere on the ship, talked to so many NPCs about so many topics and nothing progressed. So a little guiding hand would've been handy!

Overall, really great time and I look forward to more from DigiTales et al. Solid A-!

Failbetter are always so close to perfection with every game. Always - of course - the stand out is their writing. It's sublime. It's beautiful. It's tres magnifique. I just wish their gameplay loops were a little more fun both in Sunless and MotR. This was cute, but damn all the constant checking of whether I was still into a person - or just the fact I could romance almost everyone I met - actually got kinda grating. I will definitely keep this on the Steamdeck though to replay some choices, but the skip button literally skips over ALL dialogue - not just unread dialogue? What kind of choice is that for a multi-path dialogue game where it's all about the incredible writing!!

Loooved the music. Loved the art. Characters were here and there. The British eccentricities were fab. Yeah I just.. I wish they took inspiration from Inkle when it came to game concepts. Like, Around the World in 80 Days - just do that!! But with Failbetter/Fallen London writing quality! Holy s*** that would be A++!

This is.. a solid B-.