Recent reviews by Adny

Decided to play this since I enjoyed Tales of Berseria and wanted more story... Not entirely sure it was worth it even for the story. It certainly wasn't worth it for the gameplay. The soundtrack is pretty good and, in my opinion, the only thing this game does better than Berseria.

A massively over-complicated equipment upgrade system... AI companions that are as dumb as rocks and, even with micro-management, will still seemingly do everything in their power to not only die but take you with them... Enemies in the open world that throw themselves at you like sniper bullets to force you into combat, especially as you're coming out of cutscenes, trying to open a menu, etc.... Perks such as having your companion(s) call out things like chests... as you're opening them, plants.... as you're picking them, etc.... Fast travel that has Inscrutable and Fickle Opinions about if, and where, you're allowed to travel...

To cap it all, don't think you'll just put it on 'simple' and enjoy the story because you'll still hit various brick wall difficulty spikes that force you to grind or deal with the bingo-card and you're-gonna-need-a-guide-for-this equipment upgrades system anyway.

Seriously: if you're tempted to play this, find a guide on how the weapon fusing works and how to farm specific equipment for use with it. If it sounds like fun, have at it. If not, there's not really enough here to make up for it.

Starts out fairly strong... a nice 'modern' take on the classic HL1.

The Xen levels, however, were an absolute chore to get through. A seemingly endless slog through confusing, needlessly over-complicated 'puzzles' that whilst they looked amazing were just not fun at all. By the Gonarch fight (now a ridiculously overlong chase punctuated by frequent cheap deaths and jumping puzzles) I just wanted it to be over. I should have quit then - it didn't get any better.

The end of the game was like being mugged by a rave organised by the Laser-lighting And Hard Drugs Appreciation Society, but without any of the fun that might suggest. A fitting end to the whole experience, really - impressive visuals that were no fun at all to play. Outstayed its welcome by way too long.

Mooncrash is an interesting answer to the question "What if Prey was a rogue-lite game?". I'm not sure that's a question that needed to be answered, or even asked, but I had fun with it.

Like the base game, it took me a little while to 'click' with it and the way the 'rogue-lite' features work isn't particularly well explained. Expect to be a little confused as you figure out how the world/progression works - and what you can do to mitigate the new challenges progression will inevitably lead to. The difficulty (mostly implemented as hazards in the world rather than 'number based' scaling) ramps up as your team of would-be escapees becomes stronger.

There's no 'difficulty' setting, and the 'traumas' feature of the base game is not optional here. There is an interesting story here -- several interlocking stories, actually -- but unlike the base game you're going to have to earn it rather than set the difficulty to 'Story' and coast through it. To be honest, the 'progression' elements of the game wouldn't make much sense otherwise and the overall difficulty felt like a good balance between the characters' abilities and my ability to use them.

So... This is what you get if Dishonored had a baby with System Shock 2 and the baby took more after the Shock side. Took a while for that to click for me, but once I'd settled into it, I was having a pretty good time.

The main quest felt kinda clunky ("Oh noes, all the doors are locked! Again! You need to go and Do A Thing to fix it!") but, in retrospect, I can accept that since the main quest is, more or less, just a reason to go through the areas where the 'real story' is. The way you handle some objectives can have consequences both big and small, and I was pleased to still have some surprises on the three playthroughs that were required for achievements.

Not the same kind of horror as Amnesia: The Dark Descent... That's no bad thing though. It's tempting to compare the two but that's probably not the best way to think of SOMA - it's not Amnesia and nor should it be.

SOMA is very much its own experience, and an excellent one at that. Yes, it's gonna be dark (both literally and figuratively?), and yes there is horror... oh, and no small amount of descending (literally and figuratively?) but SOMA is a much more thoughtful experience despite fitting the same "I need some maguffin/puzzle to remove the barrier to the next area... oh and the &^%$*& thing has found me, hasn't it..." formula that worked so well in A:TDD.

In short: It's like A:TDD, except where it isn't, but it's like it in all the good ways... and different enough to be a thing in its own right.

(I was gifted a key for this game by a friend)

An stylish doggo platformer with some interesting mechanics. The level design is linear and challenging in places but thankfully there's pretty frequent 'save spots'.

I did have some issues with the "being chased" segment where I kept dying due to little details like the floor/lifts not existing until the game decides to scroll it into view... which kinda makes the "run!" sentiment a bit wobbly, but not enough to spoil the game.

Overall I enjoyed the game - and I'm not great at platformers. The presentation is fun and there's some subdued humour that works well. The soundtrack is good, but I'd have appreciated an option to turn music off... as it happens, muting the whole game (in windows, or equivalent) seems to be the only way to do that, but there's not much sound other than the music so that's no big deal. The pixely graphics/animation work well and give the game a nice feel.