Recent reviews by Zephy

The remake of Silent Hill 2 is my new favorite game of all time and as someone who loved the original Silent Hill 2 and was my favorite game. I played the original Silent Hill 2 back when I was a kid on the original Xbox, I played it again when I was a teen with the HD Remastered Collection, and I did go out of my way to get a physical PC copy to play while I awaited for the remake. With various improved changes, better feeling of exploration, combat, and the horror feeling more threatening, I am in love with Bloober Team's Silent Hill 2.

Story wise, Silent Hill 2 follows the same plot as the original and a lot of the same beats and notes are about the same. There are some slight differences in the story and interactions with characters, but it is largely the same story. Graphically, Silent Hill 2 is impressive. That should be no surprise as it's running on Unreal Engine 5. There are some graphical oddities I have spotted, notably some pop-in, but it wasn't a lot to really take away from the experience. The audio also stands out heavily. Not only is series composer, Akira Yamaoka, back to compose the music, but some parts of audio were either recreated and brought back into the remake, and what was new did sound more threatening.

Areas in Silent Hill 2 have been vastly changed when compared to the original version. South Vale has more areas to explore, as some shops now have areas that you can go into where they didn't before. The apartment complex, hospital, prison, and hotel have also been expanded to feel more fleshed out in terms of design, less confusing hallways to navigate, and feeling like lived in or used places. They actually feel like the buildings they were supposed to be.

Enemy behavior and combat have also been greatly improved. In the original, enemies didn't really feel threatening as they were often slow to attack and can easily be taken down. Enemies in this remake are now faster, hit harder, and are more combative. Mannequins got the biggest upgrade of them all as they now hide behind doors, against walls, underneath desks, and even have an alternate version that appear in the prison that can crawl on walls and jump onto you. In the original they would just stand still in front of you. Mandarins are probably the ones with the 2nd biggest upgrade as they are much more aggressive and one is even a boss fight. Combat is now more fluid and feels more impactful, along with a dodge to keep yourself clear of enemy attacks. Guns still have a lot of ammo to find, but its nowhere near as plentiful as in the original, and they aren't as overpowered as they were. Combat though can get repetitive as there aren't a whole lot of weapons and once you recognize enemy attack patterns, it's easy to know when to dodge.

If I had to give one giant negative though, it would be performance. This shouldn't be a surprise given that this is an Unreal Engine 5 game, but I did come across a good amount of stuttering in the game. It did get better over recent patches, but its still present. It's not unplayable, and I can manage through it, but I know that it will get under the skin for some people. I did also play this game on the PS5, and the performance wasn't bad on it so long as I had the game set to Performance.

There is also some replayability in this game in the form of some unlockable endings and one unlockable weapon. Though the original had 2 unlockable weapons, the remake substitutes by also including 2 new endings to the remake with 8 endings in total for the game.

If there is two things I would love to see in the future for this game though, it would be the Born From A Wish scenario, a bonus scenario that were in some versions of the original Silent Hill 2 that let you play as Maria in exploring a creepy mansion. Rather it be DLC or an update, I would love to see it in this game. I would also like to see the performance ironed out a bit more.

With that said, I do highly recommend anyone who is a big horror fan to buy this game and as a Silent Hill fan, I am in total love with what Bloober Team did for this remake!

tl;dr - If there was an option to give this game a Mixed rating I would. Sniper Elite 3 takes some steps forwards, but takes several steps backwards from its predecessor that makes it difficult to give a full recommendation. You have SOME better mechanics, you have SOME better level design, you have SOME more sophisticated AI, you also have SOME bad mechanics, SOME bad level design, and SOME more dumb AI. I'm only giving this a Recommendation because I like some of the changes they made, but I hate some of the other changes.


Sniper Elite 3 is a prequel to both the original Sniper Elite and Sniper Elite V2, taking place in the North African campaign of WWII. If you didn't care for the story in Sniper Elite V2, like me, you'll probably not even going to care about the story in Sniper Elite 3. The plot can be summed up as bad Nazi making Nazi things, find out things about the Nazi guy, kill him, destroy the Nazi things, the end. There are a total of 8 levels in the campaign, and each one is pretty lengthy. Though personally, I'm not a huge fan of the levels in SE3. a lot of them just honestly feel kinda dull though that's not to say all of them are. The final two missions in particular I found to be ones I really like along with maybe the 4th mission. Plus for whatever odd reason, someone decided that nearly every mission should end with a Tank battle. Why? I do not know. Levels in SE3 are much more open than the linear based level design of V2, which does open up optional objectives you can complete and it does give a lot to explore. However, a lot of what you can explore in these levels are mostly dull and some have areas that are completely worthless to go through aside from maybe finding a collectible. One major issue with each mission though is the auto-save system as the game felt like placing an auto-save in some of the worst times imaginable. One of the worst that happened for me was in a guard tower where I had 2 enemy snipers with knowledge of where I was at along with a tank out in front of me that would be locked on me forever if I ever shot at the snipers.

Graphically, for a game from 2014, SE3 is bad. There are some times in the game where the game can look absolutely gorgeous or even stunning, but most of the time the game does look really bad. Shadows in particular, even if on high, would not properly with the environment and look extremely blocky. Karl's model is also bad for the most, despite being more detailed than the Nazis, he looked devoid of life or even looked like a toy soldier at times. Textures also didn't mesh well in some areas with some areas having a lot of Z-fighting going on.

Obtaining weapons has been changed for SE3 with them now being unlocks by rank progression, and they can also be customized by obtaining weapon parts on certain enemies in the campaign, and you can even unlock various reticles to suit your comfort. However, just like with V2, the secondary weapons and pistols are kinda worthless. The only weapons of note are the Sten and Panzerschreck. The Sten is the only silenced SMG, but the accuracy is atrocious. The Panzerschreck can be good because as mentioned nearly every end of each mission has an objective that is blowing up a tank or armored vehicle of sorts. For pistols, the only pistol that is worth to bring is the Welrod unless you the DLCs for the game in which you can unlock the Semi Auto HDM which is the only other suppressed pistol in the entire game. You also can not customize the secondaries or the pistols.

A new feature added in SE3 is the Relocation system. If enemies know where you are, you can relocate your position and they'll quickly forget about your presence. With that said, you can just abuse this in the game if you need to because enemies are quick to forget where you are at in SE3 once you relocate. Sound masking is made much easier now with Generators or other breakable objects you can take advantage of by shooting them or going up to them and breaking them. However, not all generators are useful, in fact some are kinda worthless. Another new feature are Sniper Nests where you can take a position to snipe enemies, but just like the generators some of them are rather pointless. Some of the sniper nests will be extremely useful and have something to mask the sound of your shots, but some of them have hardly any coverage of the area, obscures your line of sight by a lot, or they'll overlook an area where an earlier sniper nest was more useful. You also now have a semi regenerating health where your health is divided into fragments and you'll restore health by whatever fragment is full, making it to where you have use bandages and first-aid kits to help when you're hurt.

Stealth is a lot more reliable in SE3 than it was in V2, where in V2 there were moments where no matter what you were forced into a gun fight. SE3 now mostly can be beaten in Stealth, but not completely due to a few scripted moments and objectives. It's also not perfect either. You now have an indicator that shows how easily you can be seen by an eye icon, however this eye icon doesn't really mean much as it doesn't really give a good indicator on how hidden you are.

Returning from V2 is the Bullet Cam and the X-Ray cam, and it's even more detailed from V2, and it's still just as satisfying to land a good nasty headshot from a very long distance or the ever so painful Johnson shot. It's still not perfect though, sometimes the animation will glitch out slightly causing weird cam angles or moments. Also returning from V2 is the Rock which you can use to distract enemies, but it feels a bit too exploitable or the rocks sound like grenades to enemies. There was actually a time where I threw the rock to create some noise, and enemies that were a good distance away from it still heard the rock even though they really shouldn't have. It could've been due to me playing the game on Sniper Elite difficulty, but part of me highly doubts that was the case. You can also use a new tool being Flint and Steel to set up a timer for explosives, or use it to distract enemies, but I never really found a purpose to really use it to distract enemies. Perhaps the worst thing I can say about the gameplay is that it is still janky and rough around the edges. Granted this game did come out only 2 years after V2, but some of it just still feels very janky and maybe even more so than V2.

Enemy AI has been reworked, and they're not as bullet accurate as they are in V2, but their actual intelligence is either really stupid or they just cheat. There were many times that I stood out in front of enemies in full daylight, gun pointing to them, and their response time was slow to non-existent. Other times they went full into eagle eye mode and saw me in impossible places with ridiculous response time, but then totally walked away from checking out where I was after walking 10 feet and getting nowhere close to where I initially was. Sometimes they'll grow some sort of sick sixth sense and despite them being in a tank, they'll just notice me to the side of the tank even though they really shouldn't have any vision because you know, they're in a tank. Perhaps the dumbest I've seen the AI is they take a bullet, and they just don't care like at all.

Do I recommend Sniper Elite 3? Somewhat. I feel like this game took more steps backwards than steps forward from V2. The game does improve on some aspects, and in some it did worse. It's still a serviceable Sniper Elite game, and I think fans might enjoy it, but I feel like some would find some of those aspects that went backwards as unbearable. If you can bare through it though, you might enjoy it.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered is a barebones remastering of the original version of Sniper Elite V2. Though it does retain the entertainment that the original version has, its value is something that may vary between person to person, especially between new players and original owners.

Sniper Elite V2 is set at the end of WWII in Germany. You take control of an American OSS soldier named Karl Fairburne, and during your course of the 4-5 hour long campaign, you're going to be mostly discovering enemy intel, stop convoys, assassinating a few targets, and shooting down a rocket. To be honest, story is not this game's strong suit, in fact most of the story is told through mission briefings and Karl monologuing in cutscenes. It's not bad, but just do not go into this game thinking that you're going to be treated to a lot of story.

Gameplay is part stealth and third person shooter with heavy focus on using a sniper rifle. You are given an SMG and a pistol for close quarters combat, though most of the time you're going to be relying on your sniper rifle since it will carry the most ammo and most encounters are going to be in long range. You are also given different gadgets to work with in the form of grenades, land mines, trip wires, and rocks. Though, I did find most of these to be kinda useless except for the rocks, and that is mostly due to the level design of the game. The levels of Sniper Elite V2 are very linear, with little room to explore. It does put a limit on how you want to get through certain places and really limits the use of your gadgets unless you played the game several times and was able to remember exactly where enemies will spawn. Some levels are just not well designed to begin with. Though the sniping in the game does feel great as each of the sniper rifles in the game do carry a very impactful punchy sound and feel to them. Sniping can be very simple or can have gravity and wind can also come into play that will affect your bullets, and the game also does allow for a custom difficulty. One of the most iconic features of this game is the x-ray bullet camera which back then was oh so satisfying and still is to this day, and it was oen of the best things that this game introduced back then.

The game also does feature a multiplayer and co-op mode if you really want to squeeze some more out of this game.

Included in the Remastered is pretty much all the DLCs right out of the gate. All the weapons, extra levels, and even new playable characters are available in the Remastered version from the get-go. Textures are much more detailed than in the original and the game does look visually overall better and even has support for 4K. Though that's pretty much it, nothing in the gameplay department or even levels were changed or improved upon, which is sad because it could've very easily at least changed a few things in the gameplay to at least match some of the newer games in the series, but everything is pretty much mostly left untouched.

Would I recommend this game? It depends. If you bought the original version of Sniper Elite V2 and all of its DLCs, maybe not unless all you want are better visuals. If you bought the original version of Sniper Elite V2 before it was delisted and didn't buy any of the DLC, then yeah I'd say go for it. New to the series or played some of the later games first, I'd say yes, but best to wait for a sale first. The main meat of the game, the campaign, is short and that wouldn't be a problem if the remastered made a few gameplay changes to go with it.

Stories Untold is a unique horror game that I do think deserves some attention. It does play in a unique and interesting way that I hope will be seen again at some point and even expanded upon. However for all the good this game does, this is a game that I am 50/50 on. Half of me loves this game, while the other half of me is just frustrated by it.

Stories Untold goes through 4 different stories and is presented like it is a TV show and the song that plays during that time reminds of me Stranger Things. All 4 stories are linked together, though I won't say how because in the end it does tell an interesting story overall. However one issue I have is that it honestly, part of me feels like the "4 Stories, 1 Nightmare" tagline is a bit misleading. It feels more like 3 stories instead of 4. There are 4 chapters yes, but the final chapter isn't like the other, it's more like a wrapping up chapter.

This is where I think Stories Untold really does shine. It's very minimal in terms of inputs you'll have to put in. Each episode gives you a computer and some other electronics, though which one depends on the episode, all of them do involve a computer of some sort that you can use. It feels like you are sitting in a room that goes with the corresponding episode, working and using a computer. The House Abandoned, the one that is advertised for the game the most, is a prime example as the setting is like a bedroom and you are on like a Commodore 64, and you are playing like a text based horror adventure game and as things happen while you play, things around that setting also react in some way. It's really cool. The same goes for the other episodes, each one has something cool that goes with it. The downsides of the gameplay, come into 2 portions. The first, and this goes specifically to The House Abandoned sections, the game is a little too picky about what it will take or even do the exact opposite of what you want and there is absolutely no way around it because it is not a bug nor a glitch. For example, I would type in "Go around to the house" and with how the game chooses words and phrases it would end up saying "You go inside the house". The actual way you go around the house during these sections is dumb really, but oh well. I still found those segments to be really awesome regardless. The 2nd issue is that there is specific section where you have to walk around, and your vision during that time is blurry. It makes sense for why your vision is blurry, but I honestly feel like it shouldn't have to be blurry at all for that section especially since you know, this is a video game. Those are just my issues with the gameplay. However I do have one big issue that really holds this game back and why I even have trouble recommending it, and that is....

Yeah, the 2 hours I have put into this game as of typing this review, that's actually how long it took me to beat the game. You can really knock it down to under 2 hours really if you can get through The House Abandoned with less troubles than I had. Out of everything really, the length of this game and its overall replay value is really lacking. From what I have looked up, nothing changes if you play the game again. It looks like there would be a lot more stuff to try out given how much you can see in the game and you would rightfully think "Maybe there is changes on the 2nd time through", but no, it doesn't. Out of everything about Stories Untold, its overall length and replayability is what makes me really hard to actually recommend especially since the game goes for $10 and considering how there are a lot of other games for $10 and offer more and even in the horror genre, this game suffers.

In all honesty, if I had to say really between rather I love it more or if I'm more frustrated by it, I love this game more than I am frustrated by it. This game has an insanely cool premise, setting, it has an interesting way of playing a horror game, and it makes me want more. However, that more that I want will have to come in a sequel given how short it is, and I honestly hope that there will be a sequel or another game like this at one point. I only recommend this game when it goes on sale, it is really worth it at that point. Outside of a sale, I don't recommend it.

Remaking a game requires that a lot of love, passion, and respect to go into it especially if the remake is going to be for a game that was beloved. As someone who loves the Mafia series and even the original Mafia game, I can safely say that Mafia: Definitive Edition is a remake that not only had a lot of hard work gone into it, but was handled with pure love and respect to the original game and has went far and beyond my expectations.

A lot of the original Mafia has been faithfully recreated in Mafia: DE. Buildings are a lot more diverse looking and the streets and locations stand out a lot more. Missions and even the story follow almost the same, though with some noticeable changes. The changes that they did make to the story did feel better to me and felt more real and believable in terms of the story, and the performance by the actors were absolutely beautiful as each voice and character felt like a believable mobster from the 30s. I loved the story of the original Mafia, and Mafia: DE's made me love it even more with all new voice acting and changes that they made and it's a story that I think any fan of mob or crime stories should sit through. Lost Heaven is absolutely beautiful in this game, and this especially goes for it at night where lights of the buildings and street lights illuminate through the darkness and the neon lights bring extra color to it. That's not to scoff at the city in the daytime as it just looks like a pleasant place to live in for the most part. It's only ugliness is the places that are meant to be ugly given its 1930s Great Depression era time frame, but seeing those areas makes me feel bad and makes me wonder how hard it was during that time. The Radio Stations fit the time frame perfectly and even though I don't remember if it is the same music and radio talk from the original game, it does fit wonderfully into the game.

With that said some parts of this game is not all perfect. Some cutscenes does show some oddities like hands clipping through clothing, a tiny amount of low texture interiors in some vehicles, and some visual glitches in the game do occur, and even though I didn't come across many, it was in the take down animations during fist fights and during some reloading animations. However, the amount that they affected my experience with the game is next to nothing.

The original Mafia was great for its time, but playing it nowadays has shown age especially given old software on new tech doesn't mesh well. Playing the game back in 2002, I remember it ran butter smooth, but now with new tech makes it harder for the game to process properly. Even some gameplay choices feel really outdated. Mafia: DE fixes it by taking how newer Mafia games play and using that as how the game functions. I have played Mafia III on the PS4, and it feels like they took that game's gameplay as the basis for Mafia: DE's gameplay and that's not a bad thing as I enjoyed the gameplay of Mafia III minus all the constant side stuff that was repeated. However and thankfully, Mafia: DE doesn't bring everything from Mafia III's gameplay over into the main game, it's more like you do have the open world to explore, but you still really only have the story missions to go on, kinda like how Mafia and Mafia II was. The downside is that this does make the game a tad short for an open world game that is, but in all honesty, I'm actually fine with that since it was still a good amount to play through and I enjoyed it all the way through.

Mafia: DE does have multiple difficulties to choose from and each difficulty does affect some aspects of the game rather than just "enemies do more damage". Police will care less about your crimes in easier difficulties, cars will have different controls depending on your difficulty, your health will only regenerate a certain amount on each difficulty as well as healing, and if you want an experience that matches the original game, then there is Classic Mode. Classic Mode has it to where the police will respond to your crimes like they would in the original game, controls of vehicles will be close to how they were in the first game, enemies will do far more damage, and reloading a gun when its not empty will not carry over that extra ammo into your back up ammo. You can even tweak the difficulty to any way that you want to to make the game the way that you would like to play it.

If I did have to complain a bit, other than that Classic Mode can be a bit sadistic at times, it would be just be the load times. I played the game on Classic mode first because I wanted to relieve that true Mafia experience that I had nearly 2 decades ago, and you are most likely going to die in Classic a good amount. I just wish that dying didn't give you a load screen to sit through, it does take a while for the game to finally give you the prompt to continue on said screens, and while its not too long ago, it is just long enough to be a bit of annoyance. There is also also some small amount of stuttering, though mostly with driving, but it didn't really hinder my enjoyment of the game all that much really, it was just noticeable.

I can't recommend this game enough to not only Mafia fans, fans of crime stories, but to any gamer really. I found Mafia: DE to be not only a fantastic remake, but a fantastic game on its own. It feels like it set out to be, a remake of a classic game modernized to today's standards. It is just absolutely brilliant.

As a fan of the original game, I really wanted to love Dark Souls II, but in all honesty, this game took some steps fowards, but took several steps backwards. It has things that I do love, but it has a lot of things that I really hate. It suffers from weird choices and changes, and relying on a "Quantity over Quality" philosophy. I can see why some people do love this game, and if I honestly could, I would give this game a Mixed review overall to better reflect that.

I should note that this review is solely based on the Scholar of the First Sin version which has a giant list of changes made from the original game, though the most notable changes are enemy placements, some extra bonfires, some extra content, higher quality graphics, and more. There are some people who do prefer vanilla Dark Souls II over the Scholar of the First Sin version, I'd say its better to look into both of them before considering a purchase. For me though, even with the changes, my issues lie with the core stuff of Dark Souls II that even if Scholar of the First Sin did try to fix them, it wouldn't have been enough.

If you're looking for the deep lore that the original Dark Souls has, this game is also filled with lore that is worth looking into. Though if you're looking for the complex map design where areas are interconnected with each other, then prepare to be disappointed.

The layout for this game's world is that you have the hub of Majula, and in Majula you have different paths to go down and the areas down those paths are only contained to their own path. A lot of the areas, in my honest opinion, are not that interesting to the point of being forgettable or they go too far and become annoying to get through or in a few lesser cases they are blatantly unfair by cramming a lot of traps and enemies into it. Don't get me wrong, there are some really nice areas in this game, there are some really nice areas, my personal favorite being a castle that is dark and is constantly raining outside of it, it was a fun area to go through and one of my favorite areas to traverse and it looked amazing. Another issue with the areas are the hidden rooms, which for whatever reason, a lot of them have bonfires behind them now for some reason and sometimes the trek from one bonfire to a boss can take a while simply because you didn't find the hidden bonfire.

Bosses also take a heavy hit in the design department. There are some really great bosses in Dark Souls II, but most bosses are not very imaginative, a lot of them are very humanoid with armor and weapons. All of them are not bad due to that, The Looking Glass Knight is one of the most memorable bosses to me, but most bosses aren't as interesting as he is in terms of a battle. Some bosses are just really lazy when designed, like a boss that is just a normal rat hiding among other rats, and there is a boss that is just lifted from an already existing boss from the original Dark Souls. If they aren't lazy in design, then they're either painfully easy, or have something in them that is just annoying to deal with.

For the most part, combat has stayed the same as the previous game, though there are some new mechanics. Backstabbing feels more satisfying and feels easier to pull off. The Estus Flask now upgrades permanently through shards instead of kindling bonfires, and it doesn't heal you instantly. A new healing item called Lifegem was added that very slowly heals you over time, but it heals faster the more that you use in a row. The Lifegems were honestly something I'm not really a fan of, since they are so plentiful that dying wasn't a huge problem to me. Death this time is a bit more harsh, with each death taking away a portion of your max life up to a certain percentage. Again, this didn't really worry me since Lifegems were so plentiful, along with Human Effigies, the new way to get Humanity, to the point where I never really worried about it. A new soapstone, the Small White Soapstone, is a new item that appears and puts you a time limit summon, and does have its own reward that differs from the main White Soapstone. Covenants can now be freely switched to without having to backtrack to where they are located. Bonfires can be fast traveled to without needed to unlock the ability, and all of them can be fast traveled to once you light them. However, to level up you must talk to one lady in Majula in order to even level up.

I honestly think this game is way easier than the original Dark Souls, even if it is just mostly a design reason on why it was all easier, the addition of the Lifegems and their over abundance along with the Human Effigies also didn't help, but make it easier as well.

What does make the gameplay suffer for me the most is the stats, the hitboxes, and the overall feel of combat. That stats have went through a small change, mostly with the names, however the biggest issue comes with the Adaptability stat since it increases "Agility" or how good your dodge rolls are. This doesn't change your dodge roll, but gives you more invincibility frames which does not make any sense on why it even does that. Not like that will help because hitboxes are really atrocious in this game. The original Dark Souls had a few issues with hitboxes, though nothing serious and nothing really bad. Dark Souls II on the other hand has hitboxes that are absurd at times. You can be way out of the way of an attack and you'll still take damage for no reason, or you can dodge out of the way of a grab attack, it'll miss you visually, but then you'll be teleported to that grab because the hitbox is that bad. Even better, you can be behind an enemy, they'll try to grab you as though you're in front of them, and then you'll be teleported to that grab for just no reason. Even if hitboxes wasn't an issue, the overall feel of the combat also feels cheap. Weapons don't have as much weight and dodge rolling has some audio/visual feedback issues that makes me think that I rolled out of an attack just fine, but once I look at my health bar, it would say I got hit. This never was the case with the original game as it did have some audio/visual feedback if you got hit during a dodge roll.

Lag and desync is just as bad in Dark Souls II as it is in Dark Souls: Remastered, so get ready to scream hacks at a person even if they weren't actually cheating, though there are still cheaters. However, I think Dark Souls II online is worse due to two parts, Soul Memory and one particular game breaking bug that triggers at random. Soul Memory is the amount of Souls you have gathered collectively in the game and is used to match you with other people who are around your Soul Memory. I don't know what the threshold is, but I do know it differs on what is happening, and sometimes it feels like it differs in some areas though I'm not too sure about that. Sounds good, until you realize that you will need to manage your soul spending in a way to prepare for people wanting to invade. As for the bug, it is a random encountering bug that causes a player who has been summoned to just disappear, they can still attack and take damage, but enemies also can't see them and will flat out ignore them.

Dark Souls II does take some steps forwards, but for me, has taken several steps backwards. I can see why people would love this game, some will see it as just more Dark Souls, or some of the steps forward with the gameplay or some of the design choices will fancy some people more. For me personally, it was more due to a lot of the lazy, unimaginative, and even annoying design choices that made it, couple that with the issues I had in some of its gameplay changes, it didn't make it a fun ride for me. I don't 100% hate this game, there are parts I do love about it, so much so that maybe one day I will return to play it again, but for now I don't see myself coming back to it anytime soon.

Dark Souls is one of the most challenging and rewarding RPGs I have ever played, along with its creative bosses, decrepit yet visually stunning world, deep lore, and gameplay that is easy to learn yet difficult to master, it quickly has become one of my favorite RPGs. It does have faults due to age along with a few other faults, but where it does stumble, it never affected my joy of it.

I want to start with the performance since I want to clarify that I started with the Remastered version. I didn't play the game during the days that it was a console game, nor did I play the Prepare To Die Edition on PC when that was around. One issue that I did hear of all versions of the game was that the framerate tended to tank in some areas. I haven't had much issue with framerate drops, only having it happen twice and they were during 2 separate boss fights that used a lot of particle effects, thought my PC at the time wasn't using the recommended specs so that could be why. Overall this game did play flawlessly at consistent frame rates. The horror stories that I heard about the Prepare To Die Edition on PC has been addressed with the Remastered version so if you were scared away from the game initially during its original launch, you are in safe hands with this version.

If a story rich game is what you are looking for then this game won't be for you. If a deep amount of lore is what you are looking for then this game will be for you. Dark Souls is light on story, having more focus on the gameplay and letting you discover its world through your own perception and investigating. The world itself as well as what you get to explore is vast and its areas are interconnected with the more you travel, the more you'll find shortcuts back to previous areas you've already been to. There are a few areas that aren't connected to any other area, but a majority of them are. The areas themselves do vary in terms of where you will be taken to, and each one has its own dangers to look out for, some enemies might be infested with enemies while another area will have some traps waiting for you. There is fast travel, but don't get your hopes on being able to fast travel immediately as you will only unlock that half-way through the game, and even at that, you won't be able to fast travel to any place you want, only a select number. As for the creatures and entities that you'll come across, you do have the usual RPG creatures that you would see in your typical fantasy setting, but you do have some unique looking creatures like the Primordial Serpents, Gapingn Dragon, and Basilisks.

Hailed as what started the Souls formula, the way that Dark Souls work is very simple. You get souls for killing enemies which is used for almost everything including leveling your character up. You have bonfires as checkpoints for which you can rest at, but resting at a bonfire will respawn all enemies except for bosses and special enemies. If you die, you drop all souls you had at that point and you can recover them, but if you die again before you reclaim them then you lose them permanently. That is just the basic Souls formula.

When you start do you have a selection of classes to pick and choose from as well as a gift item. However, you are never tied down to the class you selected, you are more or less choosing your starting gear and stats. You aren't limited to what you can and can't use, a Thief can switch on over to a Greatsword if they ever so wanted to. Granted stats do matter on your performance with weapons and armor. Combat is deceptively easy, needing a lot of learning to really master it if you really want to progress or do your best . Knowing when to kick, parry, backstab, or dodge an enemy is key to conquering the game and its challenging bosses. The game does present a challenge, but I find that the game is also fair, and most deaths that did happen were my fault. I also want to say that dodging and backstabbing feel a bit weird at times, mostly due to dodging being locked to 8 directions rather than being omni-directional, and backstabbing sometimes requiring you to be just in the perfect position and in the perfect stance to pull it off. It's not too bad as you can easily get used to it after a few hours of play.

Speaking of bosses, the game does boast a good amount of bosses, each one uniquely designed and test your abilities in some way. While there were a few bosses that weren't great and even a select few that were a joke to even go up against, I was pretty much hyped to see what the next boss was going to be whenever I did defeat one.

I also like how this game does its healing. You are given an Estus Flask at the beginning of the game, it can be upgraded every once in a while to give you more uses or restore more health. The only way you can regain more uses is to rest at a bonfire which means respawning all of the enemies you once defeated. It does at times make you think on when you should use it. There are also some other ways to heal and each do have different benefits on how they also heal. I do appreciate that for a game that is challenging, it keeps me on my toes and makes me think about healing rather than just going ahead and healing without any thought.

Dark Souls does have a unique and interesting online mechanics that can make the world much more alive than you thought it would. Though for me personally, I do dislike half of the multiplayer components. While you play the game, you'll come across messages on the ground left by players used by with pre-selected choices of text that is given to you by the game. Bloodstains will also be left on the ground to show the last few moments of a player's death. You'll also see ghostly figures of other players in their own session in the same area while you do play. Where it does get interesting is if you use a point of Humanity to turn back to Regain Humanity and turn from Hollow into Human. At that point, you can use a White Soapstone so that other players can summon you into their session until the area they're in is complete. You also run the risk of a Player invading your session who will try and kill you.

That is where my main issues with the Online comes into play, at least with the PC version. In my experience, the netcode was iffy at times, occasionally glitching out and causing a desync issue where it would look like something did happen when in reality it wasn't. What could look like hacking might just be the game desynced a little. That's not to say that hackers don't exist, they do unfortunately and that's the other issue I found with online. There are some hackers in the game and playing with or against them can ruin your experience. If I was on console, I would play online more since it would be harder for people to hack and cheat. One last issue is that online can be a bit glitchy. I haven't came across many, but there were some glitches that left me against an unfair challenge like a trap with boulders running down a course and killing me because they were invisible to me.

If you decide to not want to play this game online, there is the option to go into the game offline if you desire. Bear in mind that while I am not a fan of the online due to the issues it has, I would say to give it a look into just so that you can see the messages, bloodstains, and ghost versions of other players. It's also good to be online for the Covenants, the in-game guilds that will give you rewards especially for online play.

Overall, I think Dark Souls is one of the most well crafted and design games to be made. It does have some age, and the online can be finicky at times, but that wasn't enough to make me like the game less. It's not a game for everyone, I do recommend it to people who want an RPG that is also challenging.

As someone who hasn't played any of the previous games, but is a fan of crime and mystery, Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments got me hooked with its story telling in each case, some of the puzzles that it'll present to you to give your mind a small challenge, and discovering how a crime took place ends up being an engaging time, only held back by some restrictions that do put a small damper on the experience, but not on the whole package.

Crimes and Punishments looks downright amazing and if not gorgeous at times. Character models in particular have had a lot of work put into them with even the pores of each character's face being visible and cloth on their clothes looking highly detailed. I even like that text on books in some instances are readable. There is some instances where the graphics will not show properly in-game and will have flashing effects that are really distracting. Technically through, the game ran smooth, for the most part. In some instances there was some stuttering and it felt like whenever I ran, there was a small tiny amount of stutter. It's not enough to be annoying, but it was noticeable. Thankfully most of the stuttering and the worst of the stuttering that I ever experienced was kept isolated to just the loading screens.

Crimes and Punishments has a total of 6 cases for you to complete, each one lasting anywhere between an hour or two to complete. The only one that doesn't even come close to lasting that long is Case 4 which can be completed in less than an hour. However, overall, you'll be looking at around 10-12 hours to complete the game.

Each character in the cases are voiced brilliantly, though the titular Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson probably have the best performance in the game, and some of the banter between them was a delight to hear. As someone who hasn't played the other games in the series or read the books, I found Sherlock Holmes himself to be an intriguing, respectable, and a fun detective and this game made me an instant fan of the character. Even with that, some of the characters and suspects were memorable.

The cases themselves I found all to be interesting, and compelling to figure out. One case did feel a bit cliche, but I would be lying if I said I didn't feel engaged while still playing it. There is a plot about a group of people called the Merry Men, but it honestly felt odd when it did come up since the Merry Men plot is often not even talked about, only coming up once at the beginning and then never spoken of again until near the end of the game. The cases themselves overall are the biggest part of the story and each one I think was well done in terms of their structure.

Gameplay is simple, you walk around each area, finding and examining clues to progress the case though there are multiple ways that you do examine clues and I do like that some are just more than just looking at it. Some you have to reconstruct, some you have to experiment with, some you have to follow a trail for, some are in parts, and that is nice that you just don't look at it. Though I am not a fan of how automated this game is. For example, you're questioning someone, they give you a lie and you have a quick time event, and a list of choices of which one will give you evidence. You have to pick something out of those choices that will get them to speak, though if you mess up, nothing happens. You are just told to try it again.

There are also puzzles and mini-games to complete in each level. Some are as simple as aiming and firing a gun, while some are a little complex like figuring out the pieces of a puzzle to form a mold or arm wrestling and figuring out when you should try to be more passive or more aggressive during it. The puzzles are all optional if you don't want to bother with them, though personally I think it is better to do them. The mini-games you have to do though if I remember correctly. Though my one issue though is that there is one mini-game that will come up in every single level and that is lock picking. It's not too bad, it's not really complex, and you can skip them if you want, but aside from coming up a good amount, my biggest issue is that the lock picking can be extremely picky. There were times where I would a lock correctly, but the game won't register that it was done correctly because something was off by a pixel. There was one time where I completed a lock, but the game wouldn't register it at all. It is possible that I simply just did it wrong, but I'm fairly sure I didn't since all the lines were connected to each other and nothing looked out of place.

As you collect more evidence, question suspects, and everything, you'll be able to start to put the pieces together in a like a braincell kind of web thingy. Some of them requires your deductions, for example and as a slight spoiler, there is one where you are asked if a Harpoon was able to pierce someone's body due to either strength or luck. As you keep making deductions during this and creating a path, you can come up with on a conclusion to the crime, and each case will have multiple decisions on that front and you can mix and rearrange them, so long as they make sense, to get another conclusion. There is only one correct or canon conclusion for each case and you can see your conclusion was right or not on the results screen. Once you figure out a conclusion, you do have a choice afterwards on rather to Condemn the perpetrator or Absolve them. Each one is entirely up to you, and you will be given a reason under both choices. I do really like that it is a choice on rather you want to Punish or Absolve because some of the suspects I felt bad for when looking at their reasons. Each choice will determine alter your Personality rating at the end of each case which really doesn't do anything from what I can tell.

Overall I really enjoyed Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments. It really evoked a sense of classic point and click adventure game vibes, but with 3rd person movement. The story for each case and the characters I enjoyed, and I like most of puzzles and mini-games. The things I didn't like were not that big of an issue and don't detract a whole lot from the game itself. This game does get my recommendation to buy if you want a good and solid detective game.

The Forest is one of the most engaging games that I have played. For a first time game by an indie dev team, Endnight Games has made a pretty impressive game in my books from the game's stunning visuals, lore, atmosphere, music, and gameplay. While the game's combat can be a bit weird at times and there are some bugs that can take you out of the moment, the rest of the game comes together in a nice survival horror package that lives up to the genre's name.

The Forest's story is one that isn't explained out to you fully and instead relies on you to explore The Peninsula and look around its environment to fill in the rest of the gaps of the plot. You are a father and you are traveling with your son Timmy on a plane that ends up crashing into a forest. Timmy is taken away in front of you by a man in red, and your goal is to find Timmy on this peninsula that is inhabited by Cannibals and Mutant creatures. The rest of the story will unfold as you keep playing and finding items, drawings, tapes, or just by examining your environment. While it is never told to you outright what happened or what is happening, the game leaves enough for you to piece together events. What you will find might be quite saddening, disturbing, and leave you unnerved.

The Forest does a great job at setting up an unsettling atmosphere. The game is often quiet as though you are alone in the world, with the only sounds you will hear is nature itself. The silence being broken once enemies spot you, or make their presence known in the area with either loud screams, shrieks, or cries that echo throughout the area. The caves are dark, hiding away some of the more unsettling parts of the game's backstory in them, and enemies hiding inside of them.

The Forest is survival horror in the most literal of terms. As soon as you are dropped into the game's world, you are given just a little bit of food, drink, and an axe to start you off. You'll scavenge for items, chop down trees, and then craft items. The Forest has 2 kinds of crafting that you'll get to be familiar with. First is that you can craft items in the world by opening up a survival book and looking through the pages to find what you build, then placing it in the world to start building it. The second is inventory crafting where you combine items to make new items, though without a visual reference and you'll have to experiment with to see what you can and can't combine. Crafted weapons, and all weapons for that fact, are thankfully unbreakable, with the exception of the aerosol can, so you will never have to worry about a weapon breaking on you when you need to fight. Each weapon can be further upgraded in only a few ways though either with damage, speed, poison, or being able to be set on fire. You'll also have to deal with stats such as hunger, hydration, warmth, and stuff like that. Disappointingly though is the Sanity stat, which while it does sound like a neat stat, it however does nothing except give you the ability to craft effigies once you reach a certain point, but nothing else.

Around the peninsula are caves that you will explore, and these caves will have special items in them that will greatly help you around the world. However, if you want to beat the game you will have to go through these caves and you will need at least 2 or 3 specific items to even make it to the final area in the game. The caves are, in my opinion, some of the most unsettling of places in the game because not only are they really dark like a cave should be, but a lot of creepy stuff can be found in these caves, like drawings and pictures from a Christian group that were there centuries ago, or if you start exploring them before a week has passed in game then you'll see Mutants in them who just look creepy.

Combat in The Forest is, in my opinion, the game's weakest point. While it is fun to see teeth being knocked out of enemies, the issue with the combat is that it feels a bit cheap at times or the hit boxes were a bit picky at times. There were times where I would swing my weapon at an enemy, and despite being up close to them and aiming right at them, it would just not register. There were times an enemy would fall over and I wanted to hit them while they were down to kill them, however the game would not register the hit unless I was doing a down attack, and sometimes the down attack would just be picky about that, either because I was looking down enough or it just didn't want too and wanted to swing first. This isn't too much of an issue during a good portion of the game, but in times where you are going against a good amount of Cannibals it can be the meaning of life and death. Another issue is that the game can be annoying with its enemies. I know that enemies have patrol routes, however, there were just times in the game where the game just threw too many enemies at once like 10 of them, or it would throw group after group after group just one after another. It's not the worst thing ever, but it's just that it can get really irritating when you want to move on and the game just throws enemies that slows you down.

The Forest also has co-op, and from my experience, co-op is a lot of fun to play in. In Co-op, you can go through the entire story, you'll get a random appearance, you can go to any place on the map that you normally can go to without restriction, voice chat is regulated through a walkie-talkie that everyone will get, items can be traded through tin tray, and it feels like you really are surviving with people. Important items will also be able to be collected by all players and not just limited to one person. There are a couple annoyances though with co-op that do hold it back, but nonetheless still make it a fun experience. The only real issue though is that if you want to trade through the tin tray, you can only trade one item at a time. If there is another way, I was unable to figure it out. Do keep in mind that in co-op, host and player saves are different, players only get one save in that world while the host gets multiple, and any save going back to a previous point will have no affect on a player who isn't the host.

This game has some weird technical bugs in it that do slightly hinder the game. FPS drops can be frequent, and at the end segment of the game, the game has frozen for a few seconds. One issue that seems like a plague is the Black Water bug. This will turn some of the water in the game to pitch black, which not only does it look weird, but makes it nearly impossible to fish in those areas. There seems to have been a patch for it that went out sometime ago, but didn't fully fix it. There have been other bugs like stuff being sent flying for a bit and animals going inside of the ground or even rocks, making them extremely difficult or at times impossible to kill. The options menu is also seems to be quite lacking as well.

If you are looking for a survival game with crafting in it, and also want it to be creepy or have some horror elements to it, The Forest would be a great purchase. I can easily recommend this game even at full price. It does have some technical issues and the combat can be a bit wonky, but in all the game does come together in a nice literal survival horror package. It can be fun to play either by yourself or with others, and for a dev teams first game it is honestly quite impressive with what they were able to make. I do hope that the devs can or will make more games in the future and I will look forward to see what they do make.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is what I would expect for a sequel to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, for the most part that is. It does take several steps forwards, but also takes a few steps backwards. With all things considered, Danganronpa 2 ends up in ways being as good and at times better than Danganronpa 1.

Danganronpa 2's story does is very compelling and it has a lot of twists to it. I don't want to give too much if any away because to avoid any spoilers, but if you really liked Danganronpa 1's story, you more than likely will enjoy this game's story as much if not more. As for the characters, the cast for this game is great just like with the cast of the first game. Each one has a very recognizable appearance and with recognizable traits or personalities that help them stand out and are memorable due to their traits or personalities. The murder cases in this game are by far a lot more interesting than in the first game, none of them in my opinion are that easy to figure out unless you pay very close attention as a murder happens. The way they are played out, the way that the information is revealed to you, and the unexpected turns that each one has, plus the music cues that play that match what you are hearing and the information you hear just drives that much more into how these cases are.

Gameplay for Danganronpa 2 has been redone by a lot. Due to the premise going from a school to a school trip, you have a much larger map to explore. Instead of it all being in first person, you'll move left to right and click on the places you would like to go to. While it does look weird by today and it really does show its original PSP origins because of it, I do think that the game can look pretty awesome with each area that you do go to. First person movement is still in the game, but it is limited to certain places. Skills have been changed that instead of certain characters giving you certain skills, you instead get Hope Fragments which are used to buy from a list of skills, and you get more SP by leveling up just by walking around and examining stuff, and you get a bonus skill for getting all the fragments from one character. They also did add in a Tomogachi like element where you can raise a virtual pet, raising its hope meter by giving it items or its despair by being neglectful of cleaning up after it. Thankfully it is completely optional and the only thing you get for fully raising a pet in the game is some bonus coins and items. Monocoins can now be used to get random items or outright purchase items, which the option to now outright purchase some items is a nice change if you need or want something in particular.

As for the Class Trials, some key features or mini-games for them have been changed. In Non-Stop Debates now shoot Truth Bullets faster, and some statements that characters will say are things you can agree with them that will move the case along. Hangman's Gambit did get changed from just shooting the letters to where you pick hold them and match them to others to get them to stay and either shoot to destroy or use them. Bullet Time Battles are now Panic Talk Attacks which now has you hold and release to the beat of the song rather than tapping in order to break shields, and you have to put the word in order to breakthrough someone's statements. Closing Argument now gives you a stock of images to match the panels and you will get a new stock of images once you use up most of what you have been given. Two new mini-games were also added in, Logic Dive and Rebuttal Showdown. Logic Dive has you control your character through a course and you have to jump and avoid obstacles and answer questions referring to the case. Rebuttal Showdowns is when a character disagrees with what is said and will try to rebute what you said, and you need to destroy their arguments, and get them to say something that contradicts the evidence and cut through their words with your evidence. The new two mini-games I think are fun, and I especially love the inclusion of the Rebuttal Showdown since it makes the trials feel more like a trial where someone argues against your words. The change made to Hangman's Gambit is the only change that I personally didn't like, I honestly felt like it takes forever at times to finish, and maybe it's because I played the game on Mean, but it does feel like at the later cases it gets a bit too insane with how many letters they throw at you at a time.

With that, I do think that is another issue I kinda have with this game. Some things feel like they are there to pad the game out a little longer than needed. Most notably with the leveling, which while it is nice, it does feel like you should not fast travel and you should examine almost everything that comes up just so that you can level up faster and to get more SP, and there is also the aforementioned Hangman's Gambit change which at times lasts longer than it should. Class Trials also do take a break as well half-way through to have a Monokuma Theater like moment with Monokuma and Monomi, and Monomi will also give you some sort of hint after each one, like "Don't forget to save as much as possible", which while they can be funny or charming, I don't think the game would lose anything without them. Although that's just a minor complaint for me when really I do think the game is still really awesome.

Technically though, I had barely any problems running the game, save for one time near the end of the game where the framerate just all of a sudden lowered by a good amount.

I highly do recommend Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair if you really enjoy Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. This game does a lot of things that improve over the first game in a lot of ways, from its story to its gameplay. A person who is a fan of the first game, would absolutely love this game as well.