Recent reviews by AC Denton

We won!!

This game is really neat. It's beautiful Deus Ex-esque detective Immersive Sim. Procedural generated content to keep you playing. You can tell this game is very inspired and has a lot of heart.

I'll do this review properly later. Just needed the Steam Awards thingy.

Starfield is a galactic adventure in the Settled Systems colonies.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3028896982

The game is set in the Settled Systems colonies in the year 2330 after humans set their eyes towards the stars. The colonies spread across the galaxy, inhabiting many planets. Throughout the colonies are various cities, farms, crime syndicates, pirates, traders and settlers to interact with. In the vast open space, you'll never know who you'll run into.

This might be the biggest problem with Starfield by far. Bethesda decided to return to their roots and use procedural generation for nearly everything. Going back to the Elder Scrolls I and II, Daggerfall, Bethesda made use of procedural generation for their world design, including dungeons and cities.
Now, with Morrowind onward, they still used procedural generation for the terrains but made the right choice to hand-craft their own environments on top of that. The cities, dungeons, towns etc were all made by level designers. It allows for large open worlds but with beautiful, immersive locations areas on top.

With Starfield, they still do that. The issue is the scale. Starfield has 1000 planets to explore, and due to this number, hand-crafting on top of it all is not feasible and due to the fact that space is of course mostly empty, hand-crafting on top of it all is neither realistic.
The problem is a matter of perspective. A pessimist would look at this and think it's awful, that they should have had less planets. An optimist would look at this and say it's amazing, exploring so much is great. A realist would look at this and realise both are true, which is the case here for Starfield.
Starfield is unbelievably huge, there's so much to explore, it's their biggest game yet by far and it's brilliant, but it's held back by the lack of hand-crafting on top. See, there are handcrafted areas such as the main cities and quest areas, but outside of these places everything is procedurally generated to such a scale they can't keep up and instead of putting in that extra work (understandably so, I would be an insane ask), they held back what is undeniably Bethesda's biggest strength: the world design. You will still come across hand-crafted assets and areas, but soon realise that they repeat quite a bit. Of course Skyrim done this (anyone with experience of the Creation Kit and level-building will be familiar with how Bethesda designs their levels with their assets), you'll see a lot of forts repeating for example, but they were always tweaked and made to feel unique in their own way. Given the immense scale of Starfield, these areas can't be tweak as they were before due to having no way of knowing what's going to be generated and thus quickly repeat themselves. It's very disappointing because it's the main thing Bethesda was praised for for decades.

That said, the parts that are hand-crafted are really nice. They've done a great job here and improved overall. The cities especially, as they feel like real cities unlike previous titles. The NPCs look much more real, besides the odd randomly generated NPC. It all feels believable and even the random citizens belong in the world. Exploring is really fun too, even if some stuff does repeat. I'd ask the question, as much as they do repeat, is it really any different from playing Skyrim 100 times and seeing the same fort you've explored before in 100 play-throughs? Not really. It still has that Bethesda feeling of exploration.
My suggestion for improvement would be to add a much larger variety of locations and assets that can be used for their procedural generation and dungeons. They should have had a team dedicated to exactly that.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3030442330

Starfield plays very similarly to other Bethesda games, especially Fallout 4. The gun-play and combat is pretty much the same here, but feels less impactful. I still really like it, but it could be improved with dismemberment, gore and more bullet impact. Interacting with NPCs is closer to older Bethesda titles like Fallout 3 and Oblivion, close up framing of the NPC you're talking to with better facial animations and good dialogue. Finally, Starfield has brought controllable vehicles to their games in the form of a spaceship. Being able to fly your ship around is really fun, held back only by loading screens between fast travel. It could be improved by allowing for quick and free open travel around any solar system you're currently in, for example flying from Earth to Pluto seamlessly in a reasonable amount of time. My method of implementing this would be to make the light-speed travel technology used for fast travel, available to the player in a controlled manner.

The music in Starfield is rather bland. There are times where the music comes on at the right moment while you're doing the right thing in the right location, but not often enough. Most of the time it's just very uninspired and unoffensive sci-fi mellow. A lot of it sounds the same and I was personally not noticing one track versus another.
This an an absolutely shocking thing given the music is by Inon Zur. Compare my favourite Starfield track to Dragon Age Origin's main theme. It's night and day.

The characters in Starfield are a huge improvement over their other titles. They finally seem like believable people. I don't have much to say on it, but the voice actors and writing is really good. This is probably narratively their best game yet. You'll get to learn more about them, raise your affinity with them, get married and overhear your crew talking to each other. Sam Coe and his daughter are wholesome crew members, pick them! :luv:

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3031187259

The story is so much better than their previous games by farrrr. Earth has become uninhabitable and humans decided to set their eyes towards the stars, seeking to colonise elsewhere. After the Colony War of 2308-2311 the United Colonies and the Freestar Collective signed the Treaty of Narion, ensuring peace in the galaxy.
You start off as a miner working for Argos Extractors when you discover an artifact that causes you to have a reaction. This leads to you joining Constellation, an exploration faction dedicated to "What's out there?"

Despite the criticism, the magic of the game is great characters and sense of endless exploration, role-play and discovery :luv: One of those things you love for it's few shining qualities that make you forget it's issues.

You take off in your ship to explore the galaxy and venture into the unknown, where will you go first?

This is a great program is you play older games that don't support controllers; set up your own controller button layout for your games.
The Steam workshop integration makes this really seamless too, just subscribe to the mod or if you make your own, share with the community.

I made one for the game Bully and it was really easy to do.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1126673854

Personally, I'm very much a keyboard & mouse person but I recommend this app for people wanting to use a controller for older titles.

No One Lives Under the Lighthouse is first person horror set on a lighthouse island isolated from civilisation.
Rating: 8/10

A Lovecraftian-inspired indie narrative experience. The prologue has us play as a lighthouse keeper, going about his routine of lighting the lighthouse for the night, which ultimately leads to his disappearance. A result of the keeper's vanishing, you have been tasked with being the new lighthouse keeper and as dropped of at the island alone, only knowing that your job is to keep the lighthouse lit every night and supplies will be coming in a week.
Each day you go about your routine of keeping the lighthouse lit. Each day gets harder. Each day gets more scary. You're not alone on this island after all... something is under the lighthouse. Will you go down there to find out?

The developers intentionally went with PS1 era horror and Silent Hill atmosphere. Your view distance is limited due to the fog covering the island which adds to the feeling of isolation and being lost. The island itself is small, with only a few buildings. Rain appears very heavy and covers most of your vision in a couple of scenes, which I think should be fixed.

In old school horror, music is key. Music is used sparingly throughout this game, to help give a sense of uneasiness. The developers also knew when to correctly not use music at all, which creates a sense of isolation. You will often hear a loud knocking sound that gets more and more intense in some scenes, it's terrifying as you don't really know what's on the other side of the door. The games minimal use of music allows for sound effects of objects to stand out and be more appreciative, such as hammering nails, opening a door or filling your lantern.

The gameplay is entirely in first person. It will remind you of Thief 1/2, as you walk around and interact with objects, picking them up and cycling through your inventory. It's a borderline walking simulator but with more interactions thrown in. You look with your mouse, walk with WASD and interact with/place things using E. All you need to know.

Remember, no one lives under the lighthouse.

Bioshock is an Immersive Sim FPS set in a submarine city.
Rating: 8/10
Would you kindly read this review?

Tycoon businessman Andrew Ryan built the underwater city of Rapture in the 1940s as a result of his contempt for government and socialism. Rapture was to be a paradise for entrepreneurs. A key element to life in Rapture was the discovery of ADAM, a chemical substance that can rewrite genetic material, allowing people to change their bodies and abilities. ADAM is highly addictive which led to people becoming desperate to acquire it. The city flourished and grew economically until December 31st, 1958 when civil war broke out leading to Raptures decline and collapse.
The main story of Bioshock starts in 1960. The protagonist, Jack, is aboard a plane flying over the Atlantic Ocean when the plane crashes down into the sea, suspiciously next to the island and entry point to the city of Rapture below. Jack takes refuge in the tower and descends to Rapture where he is contacted by someone called Altas, your guide through the war-torn streets and facilities.
The only way out? Take down Andrew Ryan and unlock your passage out of Rapture.

Bioshock's main theme is the Biopunk genre. The game design makes use of underwater life, ADAM and bioenchanced individuals as narrative tools. Rapture is a decaying city with no established government as the level design brilliantly maintains the destruction and decay of the once shining city throughout the game. The game world is similar to the games Arx, Prey and Dishonored; confined locations joined together to create a large world. As Rapture was once a haven for corporations and bright minds, each area in the game displays a key theme, be it a fishery, a casino and nightlife district or oligarchic apartments. Most of the game is well lit but maintains a dark tone in most areas.

The player controls Jack and has a varied choice of weaponry, typical of shooter games. Those that have played Dishonored will feel familiar with Bioshocks bio-abilities provided by acquiring ADAM. These abilities allow you to stun enemies, set them on fire, manipulate security devices and more. As Rapture is in a post-apocalyptic state, ADAM is rare and the way people acquire it is through draining it from the corpses of others that have it in their system meaning a never-ending onslaught of freaks in every area is gonna want you dead for your ADAM. The way the player gets ADAM is through defeating "Big Daddies" (mini bosses throughout the world) and draining it (lethally or not) from the "Little Sisters" they protect.

Now would you kindly play the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game?

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodhunt is a Battle Royale set in the V:TM series in the World of Darkness universe.
Rating: 7/10

In the city of Prague, Czech Republic. Following the Conclave of Prague[whitewolf.fandom.com], where the De Facto Vampire society governing body, the Camarilla, gathered together. The Camarilla and the Anarchs subfaction blamed each other for the Second Inqusitions hunting of the Kindred. Following the Anarch rebellion, Kindred society in Prague was split.
What's a Bloodhunt? Is the lore safe?
The Camarilla in each city is led by a "Prince". In Vampire society all must uphold "The Masquerade" meaning to maintain the secrecy of Kindred existence. Siring new vampires is regulated, you must not kill mortals etc. etc. The Masquerade is the one rule everyone (well, should) follow. If a Kindred is found to have seriously broken the Masquerade, the Prince of a city may order a Blood Hunt on them, a call for all other Kindred of the city to hut and eliminate this traitor. During a Bloodhunt, many powerful and influential Kindred make use of the ongoing situation to make power plays and eliminate ones rivals... this is where the Battle Royale comes in.

The game makes good use of lighting, shadows and visual effects. The architecture of Prague is gorgeous and a great setting for the game and very much fits a Vampire game. Bloodhunt does include optional Bloom, Chromatic Abberation. Lens Flares and Film Grain. The game is set at night with an impressive level design of the Prague rooftops as well as the neon lit atmospheric streets.

Currently. Bloodhunt allows you to play as three vampire clans; the Brujah, Nosferatu and Toreador. Each clan has two archtypes with different abilities such as teleport-dashing, healing or throwing bats to reveal enemies.
You can customise each of your 6 characters as either feminine or masculine body types as well as a variety of different clothing, tattoo, and accessory options that you can unlock through levelling up.
Bloodhunt currently has one map, central Prague. The map size is very good, better than expected and no doubt more maps will be added at full release and as the game grows.
The game has two modes, solo and group play. Solo matches consist of 45 players, while group matches consist of 45 players in groups of 3. Each teammate must play a different archtype, for example you can't have two Toreador Muse (healers) at once.
In the future more clans will surely be added to the game as well as more customisation options, maps and game modes.

You will have a tutorial to show you the basics of how to do things, though it needs expanding.
The hub area is Elysium, an indoor environment with some quest givers and items, will be expanded as the game grows.
When you first join a match you will be asked to choose your starting location on the map, try to group with your team. Next you will be asked to select your archtype; the order of who gets to select first is random to encourage players to try different styles out.
You use keys Q and E to use your abilities. Aiming and shooting is the same as any other shooter. Navigation is fast paced and is based around scaling buildings, moving along the rooftops or escaping through the dense streets and alleyways. F is used to pick up items and interact with things, while the number keys at the top are used to switch items. G is for using your blood packs etc.
Hints & Tips

• Once in the game you will spawn on the streets, your first move should be to locate weapons close by, indicated by a blue effect.
  
• Weapons have different rarity, try to pick up purples.
  
• Checking your map you will notice pharmacies (marked by a + icon) which provide healing items and antique shops (marked by a sword icon) which provide weapons.
  
• Check is a team member is a muse and stay near them, their archtype can heak those around them in a radius
  
• When playing in a group, note the revive locations around the map indicated my a white cross in a white circle; these allows you to resurrect dead teammates and bright them back to the hunt. If your last in your team, the best move is likely to retreat and resurrect.
  
• Red crosses on the map indicate the Second Inquisition, elite Vatican troops guarding the best loot.

Overall I would say this is a really good Early Access title. In it's early stages it's already managed to impress and can only improve from here. I very much recommend getting it as it's a free game and really enjoyable. It's also a nice introduction to the V:TM series as there's bits of lore to unlock. It's a really nice way to guess your V:TM withdrawal fix.
Join everyone and LFG in the Bloodhunt discord[discord.gg].
See you in the hunt, new blood.

Heavy Rain is a dark noir murder-mystery in a modern (2011) U.S. city.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2352663891

The city itself is unnamed but it's based somewhere in Philadelphia. The year is 2011, in October. All of the game takes place in the city area, made up of different environments, typically at night time or in rainfall weather with few people around to create a sense of isolation and mystery.

The world layout is just like their other titles. Each area is carefully crafted with a lot of detail in it's design. It's a linear experience so not an open world. Smaller locations with not a lot of freedom of movement. As the game focuses heavily on the storytelling, choices and characters, it is a straightforward experience as you go from level to level. In each chapter you'll interact with various items, clues and people. Be it talking to characters, finding evidence or quick time events.

The gameplay of Heavy Rain is fairly limited. It's an interactive drama game. The game is separated into chapters, each one having you play one of the rotating cast of characters. They all play similarly, control using basic movement and input prompts. Each chapter typically tasks you with interacting with things in the environment, these can be people or objects. As you near an object an input prompt will appear indicating the correct movement to be performed. Typically mouse movement for most things but button presses for more intense scenes.
https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2351204642
The music in this game is phenomenal. Comprising many different instruments, my favourite being the piano instrumentals in the more emotional scenes. The soundtrack was composed by Norman Corbeil (who also done Quantic Dream's other titles such as Fahrenheit), winning Heavy Rain two awards for it's original music.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEoj7dl9mXQ

Heavy Rain uses real actors for both the voices of characters and their motion capture acting. All interactions and movements are done by real actors. Interestingly, many of the cast for this title hadn't done any major acting work before this, typically smaller roles. This may sound like a red flag to some but they really pulled through with Heavy Rain. The acting is incredibly well done, both in it's motion and voicing. The main protagonist is played by Pascal Langdale.
Watch this video if you're interested. Remember that this is just the casting and the acting in-game is much much better.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95kV-vaBtPI

Over the past few years someone called the Origami Killer has been abducting and killing young boys. The story takes place when the latest victim, Shaun Mars, has been kidnapped too. You play as a handful of different characters in this story. All of this tying together in this mystery as an FBI Agent, the cops and a journalist get closer to the truth, all while the father of the latest victim, Ethan Mars, undergoes challenging physical and mental trials, orchestrated by the Origami Killer, to save his son before time runs out.

https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2350321963

Heavy Rain is a narrative masterpiece showcasing the stories of many characters. Each chapter giving more clues. Each clue giving more answers. While the game says a lot, it leaves you with two questions:
How far would your father go to save you? and how far would you go to save your son?

Midnight Ride is a gripping story of betrayal, wit and survival.
Rating: 8/10

A long, lonesome road in a forest in the U.S.

The game's narrative is told through 3D rendered still images with text dialogue. The designers done well with adding to the atmosphere of the game and our protagonists dangerous situation. Midnight Ride's visual design is very well done and a lot of detail and passion went into it.

On her way home from a party our brave protagonist gives her boyfriend and piece of her mind. Alas, in an act of horrible betrayal, Serena is left stranded and alone by her boyfriend, destined to walk the long dark road home. Along the way she encounters various potential threats and friends, not all of them human. The narrative of Midnight Ride focuses on trust, friendship, danger and the importance of choice. The goal is to help Serena home safe. Will she make it home untouched by the horrors of humanity, or will she fall prey to the predators deepest desires? Her fate and future lies in your hands.

You click things. Can be played with one hand.

The Outer Worlds is a rootin', tootin' space-western adventure in a galaxy far far away.
Rating: 8/10
TL;DR:
If you enjoy Fallout: New Vegas, other Obsidian titles or the TV show Firefly, I recommend this title. It's a lot like NV but totally different theme with full independent design. It's shorter and some ideas/mechanics fall short but worth playing through.

The Halcyon Colony. A space colony in a far away galaxy ran by The Board (made up of different large corporations) that purchased rights to colonising this galaxy.

A world layout with a feel similar to that of Fallout 3, New Vegas and 4 but with a smaller scale like KoToR 1 & 2. The world-space itself is small but beautifully designed. Lots of attention to detail and environmental storytelling, if a bit repetitive. This game prioritises quality over quantity. Everything is well done and solid work. I personally forgive the lack of scale because it's a first entry to a new IP that makes way for many sequels and it's hard to know what'll work. This is a game made from passion and care, with years of ideas and drive.

In an alternate history where President Roosevelt was never elected president and thus never busted large corporations and their trusts. A few of earths largest corporations got together and purchased the rights to the Halcyon Colony, where the game takes place. The colony is controlled by these corporations rather than an elected government. The first colony ship to arrive are the inhabitants of the colony. You play as The Stranger, a colonist upon the second colony ship that never made it to the colony, destined to reside in space frozen on the ship. The story kicks off with you being rescued by an on-the-run scientist who seeks your help is saving your other colonists and freeing the colony from corporate oppression and corruption.

The gameplay is very similar to that of New Vegas again, with familiar combat in both melee and gunplay. The Outer Worlds brings the return of the faction, disguise and reputation mechanics too. You will have reputation with each of the corporations, the board itself and an independent faction known as The Groundbreaker, (*the first colony ship transformed into the last free bastion of hope in the colony by the non-indoctrinated.*)
It's the typical loot-and-shoot first-person you'd expect, with detailed RPG mechanics and choices that make you question yourself. Your companions have abilities that you can use in combat, unique to them and their default weapon. In addition, companions also have their own perk list for you to customise and your followers will have their own opinions and reactions to your choices in the game.
*There isn't too much i can say on the gameplay, if you've played Fallout New Vegas, this isn't too different*

*this section is things i consider mention-worthy and worth your consideration and would like the developers to take as feedback, but i do not consider deciding factors in whether you should buy this title*

• The world size. It's big, but you don't see it, you don't feel it:
  Tim Cain (director of New Vegas and Outer Worlds) gave a presentation at Reboot Develop about making RPGs. A really good talk. In that he mentions one of the testers of Fallout kept requesting a feature to be random but what he requested was not random, but the illusion of it. That's what people want. This game separates each location between planets and while the overall playable space is large, it gives the illusion of being small as you see chunks at a time.
  
• Skill grouping. Something covered in the above referenced talk too actually. The Outer Worlds groups skills together (e.g. handguns, long guns and heavy guns come under "ranged"). You first need to level your skill group (e.g. ranged) to 50, before you can specialise in a sub-skill. This means that regardless of which you specialise in, you'll be good with everything.
  
• (SPOILER FREE) The end choice. You're either with The Board of against them. There is many choices in the game but the overall direction is a forked path, it's binary. The same flaw than Fallout 3 and New Vegas had, even 4 mostly. The feeling of impact on the world, it's people and story is an illusion. In the end you're railroaded into one or the other.

Overall, The Outer Worlds is a great game and I had so much fun playing it. It has it's flaws but it's an entirely fresh new IP trying to reinvent and find itself as well as outgrow it's Fallout past. It takes a lot of experience and inspiration from their previous titles that we know and love and adds to ideas and flavour to it. It's every experimental, very flawed, but very beautiful. Thanks Obsidian, keep it up!