Recent reviews by Valkiel

I've read the negative reviews. They don't really make sense. It's an indie dev team. What they've made far outstrips all of the survival horror games I've played this year, minus Cronos (they're equivalent in depth in my eyes).

I know people are complaining about the dodge mechanic, but it's really not bad at all. You just have to be aware of spacing and positioning before attempting to dodge. And you DO have I-frames. Not many of you play souls-like, eh >.>?

The enemy attacks are easy to dodge sans dodge mechanic, and you can get through the game well enough without killing anything at all, honestly.

The single boss fight I've had so far, I'll be honest, I wasn't a huge fan of it. It's the same attack pattern. Which, while it makes the fight understandable, it makes it so that you could beat it with the pipe, if you're patient enough.

The ammo availability in the first game was extremely generous, to the point where I never worried about it. This game, I actually have had to worry, until I got to the second area.

Animations-wise for Caroline, I find it very...interesting where they put the...movements. Clothing, sure, but we can see where your priorities lie, Dual Effect >.>. I see you.

I don't see the controls as clunky, but I DO think the camera angles are a little sus. They've screwed me over multiple times, and the controls between tank and stick are kinda clashy, but I personally don't mind.

The enemy placements are pretty standard, you can kinda tell what's gonna come out at you from a mile away, but I still love it regardless. There's a formula to survival horror games, and Tormented Souls 1 and 2 both perpetuate it, and actually subvert it a little, in good ways.

For a team that doesn't have tens or hundreds of millions to spend on creating something, the amount of detail and love the environment has, from both games, has always blown me away. Someone painstakingly spent so much time and effort on the environments that it feels filled, like an actual environment that you'd come across.

Overall, even though I'm still playing, I've loved every second of the game, and am SUPER excited to see what else Dual Effect comes out with.

Ok, I'm just gonna put it out there, but this is such a massive YES.
This review is at 3.6 hours in.

The controls are fairly solid, they feel intuitive and easy to use, and they respond super quickly to what you want to do. It makes dodging so much more dynamic and fun. The graphics are phenomenal, as well as the voice acting. There's just something hauntingly beautiful to hear a human voice in such a robotic intonation. It really immerses you into the role of the LMC.

The story so far is actually super interesting, and I'm fully hooked, 300%. And the devs aren't unfair with enemy placement, although some of the arenas are suss.

Weapons are both good and bad in their own ways, but I love the way the devs did weapon swap. It's super "Control" vibes to me. It's dynamic, it's quick, and it feels great.

Some things, like curtains, are animated as 2D cards, but that's not a bad thing. The way that Dead Space got around the open environment issues is that they had tight corridors and only steel. Every hallway felt like it was leading you somewhere deeper into the bowels of the ship. Here, everything is static except for the player, the biomass and the enemies. A little disappointing, but that's minor in my mind.


The rough parts that I can identify right now have to be the combat. Not to say it's bad, but after playing so much Dead Space in my life, the enemy variety is a little lacking. They throw the same enemy at you, gradually building you up to new enemies. Bosses feel like they're easy to dodge, and you can just hug a pillar or object and run to kite it while slowly whittling its health down. And that's not even to add all of the fire canisters lying around for you to use. I understand why, because resources are EXTREMELY scarce, almost brutally so (except I love that), so they want to be able to have the player able to defeat the enemies without using ALL of their ammunition. But sometimes it's a little excessive.
And the inventory is resident evil style, but where you gotta scrounge HARD for upgrades, with an eventual cap to it that makes it a little annoying, especially when you come across items and you already have a stack of items ready to go.
You go through ammunition FAST, but then you make it back up almost as fast, as they don't throw that many enemies toward you.

Overall, completely in love with it, thematically and storywise if nothing else. But it feels good to play. Should it be $60 USD? I'm not sure. I think that's going to be the harshest part where people won't buy the game, which is a shame because in my opinion, it's well worth what I put into it.

My word is "Love".

I watched Markiplier play this this, so I knew more or less what was going to be asked, but the ending...gave me shivers. It was....very spot on. As did some of the questions, as only the ones that were static were the same as what I saw from his video. While some didn't apply to me, technically, they still "worked", and the fact some of these questions came up kind of unsettled me.

Seriously, it's no wonder this game is over 165k reviews and it's overwhelmingly positive. Every time I stop playing, a few minutes later I get the itch to play again. Ya'll should have made this $10+, because it's vastly, VASTLY worth the money. Hell, I've put in 24 hours and it just keeps going with new things, but in a good way. I keep trying out new combinations and find I'm exasperated that everything works so well together, constantly. Such a good damn game.

I remember playing Stanley Parable when it came out, and it was one of the absolutely most INTERESTING and epic games I'd ever played, and Ultra Deluxe both encapsulates and re-imagines it's own philosophical insights and wonders. Like a pheonix, rising from the ashes. The end....is never the end. And in the case of Stanley Parable, I hope that holds true for all eternity.

Crows Crows Crows, you've done it again, you bastards. I fell in love all over again. And Kevan Brighting brings it all together with his beautiful narration and significant greatness.

Listen, let's be honest. If you're going to try and compare this to L4D1 or 2, you're going to have a bad time. It's a different beast. It's MEANT to be a different beast. It's a masochist's game, easily. Recruit is easy beyond belief, even only casual gamers can get through it with a modicum of difficulty, as long as you keep at it. Veteran is a big jump from Recruit, but is still not too bad, compared to L4D2's Expert Realism. Granted, however, the game's AI director is taking off some of the training wheels and making things more difficult.

However, when you get to Nightmare is when only the most masochist and tenacious of players can do well. It takes a VERY well defined deck to get through Nightmare, and a solid team. The bots are useless when solo, unless you're running a speed build, or going VERY slowly, which the game doesn't like. For the people who are complaining that the game is too hard, it's only because you're not doing what you need to do to set yourself up for success.

For anyone looking to try this game out, please, understand that it is a hard game if you're not used to Left4Dead. The game is even hard for someone with over 1200 total hours in L4D1 and 2. Just keep going at it, and know that Recruit is a way to enjoy the game without actually having to be a masochist.

P.S.
With the update today, players no longer take friendly fire when grabbed by Crushers, and bots now use defibs, which is HEFTY and amazing.
And the Roadmap for 2022 is out. The changes they're going to introduce from now until summer next year are fantastic and much needed, so keep at it, Cleaner!

As always, the writers know how to make me literally both genuinely smile while subsequently making my eyes leak like a bad faucet. I took my time to enjoy the game and got through it in 12 hours, and each and EVERY second was worth it. I know it's not made by Dontnod and instead made by their partner Deck Nine, but that doesn't even begin to detract from it.

The thing I'm not a fan of at all is how the story often jumps days, weeks and months with no in-between exposition about what happened, instead you have to piece together from various texts and social media posts what had happened in regards to personal relationships and etc. The game is also EXTREMELY obvious about who the romance partners are from the beginning, with very little "just friends with everyone", at one point making you choose who you think is hotter. Me personally, I don't mind, but I can't help but feel bad for the ace players.

Overall, it's overwhelmingly positive from me, 97 out of 100, easily, just like all of the other LiS titles.

I only do reviews for games I REALLY like, and I have to say, this game is absolutely FANTASTIC! It's not scary, in the way that games like FNAF or Layers of Fear or etc. are, but the themes themselves are absolutely horrifying. To put it another word, it's horrifying, not terrifying.

The game is intuitive, and plays much like old third person horror games do, and the controls can be a little wonky, but Bloober Team made sure to make them simple, which adds to its enjoyment. You don't need a ton of fancy abilities and powers to make a good game, and much like Beyond Two Souls, it's about the game's story itself.

The music ALONE is well worth more than half the game. Yamaoka-san and Mary Elizabeth McGlynn power up together yet again, and the songs are so beautiful and haunting. Like, as soon as you hear Mary's voice, if you've EVER played a Silent Hill game, you IMMEDIATELY feel the heartstrings pull. I sat just listening, until it faded away and I had to go to the next area of the place place with the salt. No spoilers. But for real, like, SHEESH. <3 <3 <3 <3

It's about 10 hours or so for one playthrough if you do everything and don't rush the story, and multiple playthroughs are probably not going to do anything for you other than achievements, but the twists are great. It's well worth the $45 USD.

I know some people complain about the lip sync, but you have to remember, this is a Polish game, not English. The lip sync is tied to the Polish language.

Listen, I don't give a damn about how you feel about the release, this game is AMAZING. Even with the few bugs and the intense need for a good system, if you DO have a good system this plays like a dream. I'm getting 133 fps on average with a 6900rt and I'm blown away. There are some things I wish it had that games like GTAV has, and I find it utterly H I L A R I O U S that cars don't have much weight or density, so your little motorcycle can make trucks fly dozens of feet into the air, but for real, they worked on this story for over 8 years, and it absolutely shows. The dialogue is fantastic, and the storytelling is pure gold and wonder. I haven't been this entrenched in a game in....forever. Even if you can't play it right now, buy it anyway so when you CAN play it, it'll be right there waiting for you.

Also, the PS4 and XB1 are based off of AT BEST mid-range hardware back 7+ years ago, and was already stated that they could NOT run CP2077 well. It is not indicative of how this game actually performs. Stop complaining about it.

Holy crap. Like, just holy crap.

I grew up playing PS1 era as a pre-teen into teen, and the PS1 was hefty with games like this. 3D platformers, attempting to beat Nintendo out with 3D worlds, pushing the boundaries with level design (at the time) and collections (to make you feel some accomplishment, which it worked, and helped with the gameplay).

And this game is LITERALLY the same, in the best way possible. This made me relive classics like Blasto and Gex. For those saying it's like Spyro, it's definitely not. Spyro was significantly different, but this is DEFINITELY like Scooby Doo (PS2), MediEvil, Rayman, and Tomba 2. But, overall, it MAINLY reminds me of PS2's Maximo. From the haunted aspect, to the twists, to the hero, the environments, the MUSIC, which is some of the best I've heard in games in forever. The North's music is PHENOMENAL. It's nowhere NEAR as difficult as all of those games, but they were relentless and ruthless and punished missteps immediately. This has a forgiving atmosphere, and is just...absolutely phenomenal.

Definitely, DEFINITELY play this as a Halloween event, or even Halloween-Into-Christmas event. One playthrough is about 4 hours long, which isn't long at all, but what you get is well worth it.