Recent reviews by Dollmaker

A short yet intriguing puzzle game.

Completing this game, DLC included, took me about 4 to 5 hours, so yeah its a short game, regardless, the sheer mystery of the world of Little Nightmares is enough to convince people of trying this game, its dark, creepy, and dangerous, which is perfectly delivered by its presentation, from the designs of the creatures, the world, and its OST, all top notch, it really pulls you into it, wanting you to learn more.

Gameplay wise, its pretty simple, you wander around as you progress through the levels, and you gotta deal with simple puzzles, while avoiding the various creatures, each one working different from the others, like most other puzzle games, its trial and error, and you gotta find out not only how to solve the puzzles, but also how to avoid the monsters, its a fun and tense experience, for those that like "cute horror" the design of the creatures will likely remind you of the style of Tim Burton.

The game for the most part had no issues, but i did ran into one bug where one of the monsters got stuck, but besides that, the game is well optimized and youll likely play with minimal if any issues at all.

Its a good puzzle game, not particularly hard, but its enjoyable, and like mentioned, this dark world is really appealing.

I give it a 8/10

Now THIS is a remake.

From an old masterpiece to once again a masterpiece, gameplay is solid, the violence is brutal, and you feel every hit and shot, the new OST is good as well, and overall a far scarier game than the original 2005 one.

So lets get started:

1.-Combat: like i mentioned, its solid, you have a variety of weapons at your disposal, from the old ones to new ones, this allows you to have plenty of options for combat, and the new addition, stealth, you can sneak around enemies by crouching and eliminate them with a stealth kill, which can allow you to both save ammo and make encounters easier for yourself, crouching can also be used to evade some attacks.

The original knife as also been revamped, now being a proper weapon, unlike before it now has durability so yes, it can break and become unusable but you can repair it with the Merchant, now only can you use it as a weapon, but you can also use it has a defense tool, since now you can parry attacks with it, if you time it correctly you even get a perfect parry which will stun the enemy allowing for a melee counter (the old roundhouse kick), learning how to parry is gonna be crucial for this game, to avoid dmg, since the enemies are a lot more dangerous and aggressive.

2.- Merchant: Our old pal is here, like before, he sells weapons, upgrades them, the whole deal, but you cant no longer get ammo by upgrading a weapon's capacity, so you gotta be careful with how you handle your ammo, he will also trade special items for Spinels, which are normally obtained by doing little side quests, these are usually revealed to you by a blue piece of paper, which can range from destroying medallions to killing mini bosses.

3.- Ashley: Overall an improvement of her old iteration, unlike before she no longer has a health bar, so you no longer have to use your precious healing items on her, instead she gets incapacitated if she get hurt enough and you have to pick her up to get her back in shape, also, the commands were slightly altered, the follow command is essentially the same, but instead of telling her to stay still, she will now loosely follow you while avoiding conflict, giving you space to fight enemies while remaining somewhat close to you, shes also not annoying.

4.- Bosses: All the bosses were improved from their old iterations, even being more challenging, but, it is worth pointing out that one particular boss was removed from the game, just saying "it" was a pretty forgettable boss anyway.

5.- Atmosphere: Like mentioned earlier, this game is quite scary, its darker, enemies are creepier and some sections can really put you on edge, remember that Ashley section with the Armaduras? welp, lets just say, you are in for a treat, the game's tone is also overall more serious and mature, unlike the original that was know for its campiness, this is specially noticeable with Salazar

6.- Shooting Range: Yeah, its back, and improved, the rounds are kinda like puzzles, having to know how the weapon works to be able to get the highest score, specially finding the new Skull Emblems that give the most points, you really gonna have to use all the weapons they give you, you cant rely on just one, one little complain about it though, the Submachine gun is... not that great for this minigame, since it requires accuracy, and this weapons is the very definition of the opposite.

7.- The Case: Tetris is back, it works the same has before, with a new addition to auto-sort the inventory if you dont wanna do it manually, they also added new features, you can switch to different cases that give different buffs, largely related to increasing the drop rate of specific items, like ammo, herbs, etc, there was also the addition of the charms, these can be earned in the Shooting Range, similar to the case they give different buffs, from increasing the chances of getting more ammo when crafting, to making the Merchant services cheaper.

8.- The World: Several areas were remade beautifully, with new additions, if you played the original RE4, you will likely recognize a room as soon as you enter it, the game is quite lengthy, i would even say longer than the original, its a big map to explore.

Conclusion: Overall, this was an excellent remake, it surpassed my expectation by a lot, its a game that lives up to its predecessor, being a worthy reimagining of the original RE4, its definetly a game i will expend tons of time on, doing multiple runs on it, speaking off, replayability is just has good, specially due to the new challenges added that were present in previous remakes, anyway, this is a must have for any RE fan.

A well deserved 10/10

One particular negative: The VA of Ada was... sloppy to say the least, it felt really artificial and phoned in, and it stands out a lot, since the rest of the cast was really solid.

So, RE3make, where to begin with this one.

Well lets start with the good stuff, unlike RE2make, this game is more action oriented, and you get a dodge ability, but it can be tricky to master, doing a perfect dodge will allow you to aim directly at the enemy's weak spot while the game its slow down, so theres some skills to be learned here, at certain points in the game this ability is instead replaced with a parry like variant, which allows you to stun enemies instead.

You get more ammo compared to RE2make as well, which is why this game is more action oriented, of course, that means more enemies, so you gotta be ready for that.

The higher difficulties will also change the item and enemy locations, which adds replayability for those looking to complete the game multiples times.

Speaking of, after completing the game once, you will unlock the Shop, which allows you to buy several items, from weapons, to items to boost your abilities, items normally found during the run, etc, which you can use on future runs, to buy them you gotta do various challenges found in Records, similar to the ones in RE2make, theres several of them, some which can be quite challenging, with the amount of points earned being based on the difficulty of the challenge, this gives you quite a bit of content to play this game which is quite short.

The boss fights are also pretty good and enjoying, something i felt RE2make didnt quite get to the same extend.

Now into the negative stuff...

The gore was toned down, this becomes obvious with the zombies, instead of how it was in RE2make, when shooting at zombies limbs which would cause them to tear and fall off, now just explode and disappear completely.

The game is REALLY short, this is due to entire sections and even bosses being cut from the original, which is a letdown overall, you first run, which if you do explore plenty, you might get maybe 6 hours, maybe even less, more experienced players can complete this game in likely less than an hour

The decision making mechanic was removed entirely as well.

And the main disappointment... the star of the show, Nemesis himself, anyone that played the original RE3 or heard of it, has heard of this guy, and how much of a threat he was, while in this game hes definitely dangerous, most of his encounters are scripted instead of random, and like mentioned before, due to how short the game is, his gameplay as a pursuer is quite short, only lasting for about the a fifth of the game, after which he just becomes a recurring boss, after how amazing the Tyrant was in RE2make with how he constantly patrolled the RPD and being a constant random threat, Nemesis was a downgrade, while Nemesis is considerably more aggressive and dangerous, (specially on the higher difficulties) the short duration of the game greatly hurt him.

Last thing would be that the final difficulty of this game Inferno can be quite... unfair to say the least, specially the final boss.

Now, i said many negative stuff, but this is still a good game, but, its not really worth the price, which is largely cause of this game being tied with RE:Resistance, which is an online PvP game (which is pretty much dead at this point i believe) so i would recommend buying this game when its on sale if possible, thats why many people said this should have come has a DLC for RE2make, and i can see why.

Its a good game, but its not a good remake.

7/10

An awesome remake of a classic, the gore, the atmosphere, the horror, all good.

Gameplay wise, its pretty solid, unlike the likes of RE4 or RE8, this game is focused more on survival horror, which is why ammo is far more limited, you have to value your ammo, cant go around shooting all enemies down or you WILL run out, this is worsen by how durable the zombies are, so you gotta be smart on how you approach each problem, speaking off, theres quite a few puzzles, which are pretty simple and fun to solve.

The game has tons of replayability, has you unlock the various challenges available on the Records section, which grant you special weapons, concept art and models to see the various characters, weapons and monsters in the game.

One of the big bad guys in this game is the Tyrant, he will be an intimidating force in your runs, has an unstoppable monster that chases you around the RPD, when you hear those loud footsteps, its time to run.

You will also unlock extra modes, which focus on short yet challenging scenarios, one being the 4th Survivor, and the DLC Ghost Survivors, which includes an Horde Mode of 100 zombies, theres also a variant of the 4th survivor, but wont spoil the surprise of that one ;)

Both of the main characters, Leon and Claire come with their own set of weapons, so how you play either of the two will be different.

Sadly, here comes my one mayor complain of this game, the A and B scenarios, in the original game, what you did in scenario A would affect certain things in B, but in this game, both scenarios are completely independent from each other, having no effect what you do in the other, the scenarios are also nearly identical regardless of who you play, with the only variables being the weapons, certain sections, and the final boss, nearly everything else is the same, which is a sad thing.

Another problem with this, is the story, it makes no sense, on their own, sure, but when you play both scenarios, it doesnt make sense, and the protagonists have barely any interaction with the other, and both fight the same bosses and see the same events in different ways, which basically looks like both characters live on parallel dimensions.

Besides that, the game is excellent and definitely a recommend that any RE fan should play.

9/10

Now THIS is a good "Harry Potter" game, yeah he isnt here, but you get what i mean.

Fans of this franchise will more likely love this game and how it brings that world to life, specially with Hogwarts, which you can explore plenty.

Its an open world game, so you have quite a lot of stuff to do and explore, such has fighting enemy camps, dungeons, looking for chests, collecting items, getting equipment, etc, like mentioned before, you can explore the castle quite a bit, which as you progress the game, the more you will unlock from it, solving several puzzles along the way.

One of the main mechanics of the game is the Field Guide, which is essentially your journal, where you document all your progress, from enemies you've faced, items you've collected, your map, gear, etc, the main collective of the game are the Field Pages, which can be found all around the world, you gotta use the spell Revelio to find them, once obtained you get some small bits of lore about what you found, theres also the "Extra" ones which are just part of puzzles or flying around, which dont give lore sadly.

Then we have the Conjuring Items which are found in Collectible Chests, which are essentially decorations for a "special" room you unlock in the game, allowing you to decorate the place as you please, so does that like to go out of their way to make an impressive room for your Witch or Wizard, such has a potion room, or herbs, or just a bunch of statues, will likely be satisfied in that area, in this room you will also be able to capture animals which then you can decorate their own areas in the room, taking care of them will give you resources needed to upgrade your gear.

Now, lets get to the juicy part, the spells, this game offers plenty of spells to use, large majority are centered for combat, which you can combo with each other and even use in specific ways to exploit enemy's weaknesses, such as making a troll bash himself with his club, like mentioned, the spells can be combo into one another, such has pulling enemy towards you with Accio and them blasting them with Incendio (Which works similar to a shotgun), and of course, theres also the Unforgivable Spells to play around with ;)

Theres quite a variety of enemies, so you will have quite a few ways to work your way in approaching each encounter, including stealth, even potions and hostile plants to use, overall the combat is fluid and fun to play around.

The spells are also used for basically all puzzles, so you will need to think outside the box every now and then, since some puzzles can be surprisingly tricky, from moving boxes, to burning vines, making things float to use them as platforms, etc.

The game work on Quest System, so besides the main story there will be plenty of side quests to do out in the world, theres also a couple of primary side quests that follow one of the side character's story, from a girl looking to save magical creatures, to another girl wanting to fight against dark wizards, and my personal favorite, a boy tempted by the dark arts to save a loved one.

Now, another mechanic in the game are the Challenges, which are varied through multiple things, from defeating specific enemies, to completing quests, doing puzzles, rescuing creatures, among other things, which unlock both upgrades and customizes.

Besides fast travel trough Floo Flames, you will unlock a flying Broom at one point, which allows you to easily explore the world around you and even has its own minigame, that being a race against time, sadly no Quidditch, but i dont think this game really needs it, personally i would prefer a game centered around it (Quidditch World Cup remake when?), you can upgrade the broom as you progress through the game, making it faster, as well as unlock different brooms to choose a look you prefer.

You can also get 2 other types of mounts, sadly, these two proved to be considerably inferior to the broom in nearly all aspects, specially since one is unlocked really late into the game

Overall, its a fun game to explore, it looks beautiful, the story is enjoyable, so are the characters, the combat is good, the puzzles are fun, the music really sets the ambiance, etc.

Now some negatives i have to mention, like said before, the other mounts beside the broom just arent very good, so that was a letdown, and the open world can be somewhat repetitive at times, but my main complain likely is the collectibles can be quite a bit much, largely cause currently the main spell for this stuff Revelio doesnt seem to work sometimes, which made it considerably harder to find certain items, and you can REALLY get lost in what to do to get to some of them.

The map could also be better, specially to know the boundaries of each zone better, or the Hogwarts castle map rarely being useful, making hard to explore without accidentally leaving the are you were looking around.

Another complain but this is more niche, is that both the player character and the Floo Flame lady can be REALLY spammy with their lines, specially around Hogsmaede in the case of the player character, so that can be annoying.

I also wish the bosses would have been better and more complex, but they are still enjoyable.

Last complain i would say is that there isnt really a morality system even though you can make several choices through the game, from being nice or selfish, this also extends to the usage of Dark Arts which the characters at best will make some comments on it but theres no real impact in doing so.

Overall, despite its flaws, this is an amazing game, a pretty long one for those looking to explore and even longer for those looking to 100% it, your playtime will likely be around 20 to 40+ hours depending on how much you wanna explore this game to complete it or getting everything in it.

I give this game a 7.5/10.

Pretty fun game, its essentially a souls like, but mainly focused on ranged combat, with some melee mixed in.

The artsyle and design of the characters are pretty good and cute, soundtrack is enjoyable, and it runs well, the combat is fluid and the 4 available spells allow for some variety on your combat, Fire for example is more oriented to close/melee, while Arcane is mostly towards medium range.

The game isnt really long, while exploring as much as i could, it took me 10 hours to beat, without exploring much i would argue around 6 to 7 hours, the game does offer NG+ so you can replay the game while keeping all your upgrades and spells, which like typical souls fashion also makes the game harder with each NG+

Most of the lore of the game is hidden behind collectibles, which are the "Items" you obtain around the world, from killings enemies, bosses, destroying objects, etc, its a decent read, this is also the reward for exploring the zones, with some hidden paths, which can also reward upgrades, while the game is mostly linear, like stated before, theres some exploring you can do.

Regarding difficulty, its not "super" hard, but you cant be careless either, one mistake and you can get obliterated on the later areas.

One particular con i would have to add, is that the game could do a better job at explaining some of its mechanics, but other than that, its ok.

Overall i liked the game more than i originally expected, and will try to 100% it by getting all the achievements.

I give it a 7/10

A decent multiplayer game.

While its balance could REALLY use some changes, the game offers a large variety of playstyles, having several Killers, including icons like Myers or Leatherface to choose from, even Chucky.

Each character comes with their own 3 unique perks, which later on can be used on the other characters, this allows to change how you play the game, from being a stealthy survivor, to one centered around teamwork for example.

The game unfortunately can be a bit overwhelming for newcomers due to the large amount of DLCs with content locked behind them, including the perks, some often being among the best.

The game while not free of bugs, runs smoothly for the most part, i rarely run into issues.

The atmosphere of the game is also good, like mentioned earlier, each match can be a different experience since theres a large roster of killers, and each survivor can bring their own tricks to the field, so you have to be ready for whats coming.

For those likely wondering, the matches are essentially a 4v1, 4 survivors and 1 killer, the survivors have to repair 5 Generators to power up the Exit Gates and escape the trial, the Killer on the other hand, has to protect said generators and find the survivors, down them, and hook them to be able to sacrifice them.

Thats pretty much it on a nutshell.

While the game can be fun, its hard to recommend to a newcomer due to all the progression needed to get even with an active player, plus having to buy all the DLCs

I give it a 7/10

Night in the Woods is one of a kind.

There isnt much going on gameplay wise, but the character and story, just WOW, the character felt so realistic, and interesting (more on that later)

The OST was really catchy, mostly relaxing, which is fitting, this game is kinda of a slow burner, so its ideal for those wanting a game you can play at your own pace.

The artstyle is beautiful, almost like something you would see in a children's picture book, its colorful, lively and also well animated.

Like i mentioned earlier, this is a slow burner, most of the time you basically expend the game hanging around with other characters, speaking of, the game allows you to take choices at several points, mainly what to say, which can affect how the conversation will go, but theres also on which character you decide to hang around with, those being Bea (A gloomy and cold crocodile) and Greeg (An hyperactive delinquent fox) , allowing you to learn their story and relationship with the protagonist Mea (A dropout from collage, a cat), its possible to hang around other characters as well, but those are optional.

So now talking about the themes and characters, the game explores several psychological themes such has depression, wanting to fit in, wondering about your future, social anxiety, among others, and it does it SO WELL, this is what really sold me on this game, alongside its characters which explore these themes.

Mea the protagonist, is quite an interesting one, at first you might... not like her, but the game over time explores her relationship with others, as well as to who she is and what she has/had to go trough in her life, she is a deeply flawed character, and one i could really relate to, i cant say much more since that would get into spoiler territory, but she will grown on you.

The game does have a couple of Minigames spread out, mainly two in particular, one being the "Music Practice" which plays kinda like Guitar Hero, where you gotta click on the notes on the correct timing, dont worry, this is mostly just messing around and you dont need to be good at it, mind you, the character will comment on your performance :P

The other being "Demontower", which is optional, this one plays like your usual dungeon crawler, but it can be quite hard.

The game does offer a quite a bit of replayability, like mentioned earlier, you take decisions at several points in the game, which affect how the story plays out, so you can do multiple runs to learn all the choices and learn about all the characters.


Anyway, Night in the Woods is special, is one of those games that really gets you thinking and one everyone should give a try, specially those interested in psychology, who knows, it might even change your life.

10/10.

Well just finished the game.

Gotta say, it was quite the experience, visually the game is beautiful, the story of the world is quite intriguing, (although the ending was kinda lacking) and the protagonist is really charming, a simple cat.

Gameplay wise, its pretty simple, largely focused on exploration, puzzle solving and some stealth/run sections, its a good game for those looking for something relaxing.

Its a pretty short game, took me around 6 hours to complete while trying to explore everything, there isnt really much replay value im afraid, with most of it relying on getting achievements and collectibles.

The highlight is obviously the protagonist, our little fur ball, they did a good job at replicating cat behavior, one interaction that gave me chuckle is when you first get the backpack, cat owners will most likely know why ;) you can mess around quite a bit, throwing items into the floor, messing up with people, scratching everything you see, sleeping, etc, if you wanna be a cat, this is the game.

A few complains though, the game could really use some optimization, the FPS would sometimes really drop on certain areas, and in my case i ran into an issue with my controls not working which essentially locked my game until i managed a way around it, so, might be better to wait a few days for some patches to fix those issues, but its possible to play the game.

Overall, i really liked the game, i would give it a 8/10, Meow.

Well just completed the game, gotta say, it was pretty good, the artsytle and music were good, the puzzles do make you think outside the box every now and then, for a Platformer/Puzzle game, id say its good.

The story is largely explained trough Collectibles and Flashback-like cut scenes rather than dialogue, which is an interesting choice.

It is a slow paced game, despite its relatively short length, took me a couple of hours to complete the main story.

A few complain i gotta say though:
This one is more nitpick, but i think the HUD could have been designed better, specially the menu.

Another would be that the game sometimes fails to explain certain mechanics in the game, a got stuck in a puzzle cause i wasnt aware that Rose (The flower girl) could hide in barrels, which i dont think it was ever mentioned outside of a scripted cutscene where she fall on one by accident and starts rolling before breaking, which is unrelated to using the Barrel to hide from enemies.

Some puzzles can also be a bit too precise.

But what i think was the main flaw, was the "bosses" in the game, theres two as far as im aware, while the bosses themselves are ok, the problem is that theres no checkpoints for both of them, so failing at any point forces you to start the fight from the start, which can be very frustrating since you cant make any mistake, cause a single hit kills you, and the fights can take mins to defeat, specially the last one.

Other than that, i would say it was a solid game.

Im also aware the game allows you to play timed versions of the levels where the objective is to complete the levels as fast as possible and several achievements are tied to that, so those looking for a challenge have that to look forward to.

Also some achievement are quite funny and you are likely gonna get them by accident, something that make me laugh when i first saw it was how Rose has next to no skill at landing, if the fall is even slightly high, she falls face first into the ground, which was kinda adorable in a weird way, speaking of which, gravity is LETHAL, dont underestimate a fall, or you will likely die.

Anyway, its a decent puzzle game, i recommend it.