Recent reviews by Kino

I enjoyed this right up to the last zone, 'Root Earth', where the game becomes very linear. The other zones felt quite varied and had different dungeons and hidden encounters to go through, and finding all of the areas without relying on guides was fun. However, because each run has random dungeons and puzzles, you aren't guaranteed to encounter some items, so acquiring gear felt directionless. I never really felt I had a build fleshed out until right at the end, when it no longer mattered. You could do lots of runs and find new things but it would probably feel quite repetitive after a little while. There is also an adventure mode. Although I liked the background lore and themes of each zone, the overarching plot is weak and unmemorable.

I would have given the game overall 7/10 but I felt the last zone was 3/10 at best. The intricacy of the previous areas discarded in favour of a few bosses linked by essentially single paths. The final boss was a substantial ramp up in difficulty and felt a bit jarring. It also didn't seem balanced around all play styles and if you're relying on melee or summons you probably won't have a good time. It was beaten after a few attempts but was visually cluttered and flashy to the point of being oppressive.

In Steam terms I suppose that's still a thumbs up, but not an emphatic one. If you like ARPGs and looter shooters perhaps pick this up on sale for cheap - but don't rush through early and mid-game, as that's the best it gets. There are DLC now, but my time with the game hasn't sold me on them.

Misery porn 10/10

Not perfect, still some glitchiness and bugs with the 2.1 update. But almost certainly the best thing I've played in years.

I enjoyed both Metro 2033 and Metro: Last Light, but this third instalment was a mediocre experience.

The story was poor and jammed full of wasteland cliches, and felt much of the time more like Fallout Lite than it did Metro. The Caspian area was still full of bugs, three years after release. The driving felt and was terrible. I'm not sure which is worse, that nobody bothered to test it, or that someone did test it and then said, "yeah that's fine". It very much wasn't, and the fact the same issues are still present from launch says a lot. Periodically the game would tell me my save was corrupted. Nice.

The developer added a similar karma system to games like Dishonored. I hated it in Dishonored and I hate it here too. If you want the 'good' ending (the one that presumably isn't full of heavy-handed faux moralising) then be prepared to spend the whole game sneaking around, and be kind and merciful to a whole bunch of people who spend all their time trying to murder you. In the context Artyom finds himself in, an often cruel world, full of slavers and cannibals, it makes no sense and just feels out of place.

Only the last section, (which was really quiet short and had many non-playable story sections), felt like a Metro game. Overall it feels like a reference case for how AAA games go wrong these days.

Amazing and chill fun for the low low price of $3. You owe it to yourself to pick this up if you even enjoy fun at all.

Didn't even run. Waste of time.

Deserving of the Labor of Love award. It's amazing how far this game has come especially considering that all the updates have been delivered by a small team and at no additional cost to players.

Excellent story-driven game with simple, but for the most part effective, gameplay that involves sneaking and solving straightforward puzzles. Enough game to support the narrative and invest you in the characters, without getting in the way. Graphics and sound are really immersive and the soundtrack is good, too. A great way to kick off 2020 and it's not hard to see why this was voted Outstanding Story Rich Game.

If I had to pick nits, I'd pick two. Firstly, while the game starts off feeling quite grounded in medieval plague-ridden France, even with an obviously supernatural take on the nature of the plague, by the end it made me think more of sequences from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Not bad in itself just not what I anticipated going in. Secondly without giving too much away, the game culminates in a boss fight. While the fight itself is climactic, it's also quite frustrating and doesn't feel as well tuned as the rest of the game. In a game like this that's heavily invested in the story-telling, having your character die a bunch of times while you figure out exactly how to beat the encounter takes you out of the game, and felt out of place. In the end it didn't detract too much from a memorable experience. The game takes about 10-11 hours to complete, and is well paced. I would recommend it for people who enjoy games that are much about story and immersion.

As some who bought Cube World back in 2013, and who had pretty much given up expecting to hear anything of it again, I'm glad that the developers were able to finally release it. The block art style is still really appealing and it's a shame the full release hadn't lived up to the potential shown by the previous alpha version. Cube World isn't as exciting to me six years on, but I hope it will see further development.

Based on the changes from alpha and lack of communication or updates over such a long period, I can't recommend this currently.

Gris is a simple puzzle platformer. The platforming isn't especially challenging, the game instead focuses on lush visuals and a lovely soundtrack. It's a short but captivating experience and very much recommended.