Recent reviews by Alex-C25

Should you even play Returns and the Dead Man's Switch campaign considering Dragonfall and Hong Kong expand this game greatly? It could be argued that it is not necessary, after all, this campaign is pretty linear, has like a single side-mission, its UI now feels dated in relation to the next games, except for Coyote on most missions you otherwise don't get a crew of Runners and the story and writing have much more meat on the following games. Also, the modding tools and such are more advanced on the following games.

That said, if one takes it for what it is, I think you can still have a great time here. The dialogue choices and the different ways to tackle missions started here and make for some nice replay value on a small scale, the plot is still pretty intriguing, the cast is fantastic, the combat is very enjoyable, the music is very nice, has great art and really important here, the customization is pretty flexible and the character creation is great (though apparently I read that going Physical Adept here is not very viable).

Dragonfall is the much more true and meatier experience, but Returns does make for a nice intro and I think it's easy to overcome its limitations and enjoy the game for what it is. At the very least you can now buy it for dirt cheap, maybe even bundled with Dragonfall and Hong Kong.

Making a small recommendation just to complement a nomination I gave to Duck Game for the awards.

Been eager to play Duck Game ever since TotalBiscuit's (RIP) glowing recommendation from years back and it hasn't dissapointed, even if as seen on my hours I haven't given the game much time by some standards. Thank god I have neighbors willing to play locally as online has been a mixed bag so far (as in, seems to be separated by regions and mine doesn't have a lot of active players).

Expect this recommendation to be more expanded in the future?

I'm mostly doing this recommendation on the basis of doing an own category on the Steam awards for best Doujin/Japanese Indie game, though if this was nominated outright for best Indie of all-time, I would give it a vote in a heartbeat.

Seriously, I love this game. I really need to formulate a proper review so I can properly describe why I feel that way, though to make it short, although it can be quite infuriating on the difficulty and vagueness in certain actions, it makes up for it in a big way with the fantastic run-and-shoot gameplay, great art (both the original pixel art and remastered), excellent music, likeable and/or interesting characters and even a story that starts pretty basic but takes a turn that deceive the look of the game. It also has quite a bit replay value thanks to the multiple endings and secrets.

That aside, there's a few versions and ports of this game released over the years, with this being touted as a definitive version of sorts. I have to agree to that sentiment, as it has the option to play with the original or the remastered graphics (from the Wii Ware release), the option to three soundtracks (original, remastered from WiiWare and another remastered apparently from the 3DS version), the bonuses of the Wii Ware release, other bonuses included here and an extra potential for modding. Although you can still download the original freeware version and patch its early english translation (the one here is done by Nicalis), I think this is worth buying and the content justifies the price.

Full Review right here [alexreviewsandtexts.tumblr.com]

Note: Decided to delete my previous recommendation for Half-Life 2 not only to write a more proper one that also serves as a review, but also for the Steam Awards on the category of game that stood the rest of time (don't know what's the name in English since my language setting is in Spanish). I think the review can say well enough why I personally think this is still a blast to play to this day despite the game now being around 12 years old. Because it turned out to be a much longer review than what Steam allowed, I decided to post it on my (rarely used) review blog on Tumblr, so if you want my reasons why this game still holds up and read me gush about it, go to the link above.

I love the Metal Slug series and wish I talk just about the game itself here, but sadly this is a pretty bad port of the game that started it all. Don't know if it's the same as others, but in my end, the game has problems with slowdowns, the FPS is not optimized well and the music audio is borked as hell. If I compare this to other 2D games in my library, my computer can run incredibly well games like Dust: An Elysian Tail or Rogue Legacy, and if I compare this to the port of Metal Slug X, it's quite the downgrade, because even with some slowdown issues, it had no problem with the FPS and had the audio intact as far as I could tell. Considering this port came a year after the ports of X and 3, there's simply no excuse for this lazy hack job and even then, this is a game that's been out for about 20 years, and because it already had past ports, there shouldn't be that much problem putting a PC version. I will not be surprised this was ported just so fans eat the game up regardless of quality.

Unless you have money to burn (and even then, this can be bought cheap on sale), I can't recommend this port on good will. If you want to experience the original game, buy the Metal Slug Anthology, get the Wii's Virtual Console re-release or even outright emulate if you don't have problem with that.

The game, the legend, the one that put Valve on the map.

The release of Black Mesa on Early Access inspired me to play the original game and the fact that I started first with Half-Life 2 and wanted more, which coincidentally I can compare the two on their merits.

To keep this out of the way, Half-Life may be old by now, but it has dated very well in many terms. The graphics are old, but very impressive for their time, it's quite smooth, the shooting works great and the unbroken first-person gameplay is still great as it is today. It may not be so important now considering that game like Bioshock, Far Cry 3 and this games own sequel got ahold of the method, but not many can do it as well as the original Half-Life and it still engages you into the game and makes for an excellent narrative method. Much like the sequel, the game despite being a shooter, also includes variety in plataforming, exploring and navigation that make the game varied and avoids getting stale as you continue.

Now, although I really liked this game, there are several things that hold it back from being a favorite of mine. Now, I don't know if it's the difficulty level (I played in normal throughout), but some of the enemies have a bad case of bullet sponge, which can be quite annoying. Another things would be the fact that despite the cool soundtrack and its greatness when it's used in battles and certain moods, there's not a lot of music throughout. Finally of course, there's Xen, which while I certainly thought it had great ideas, wasn't a very inspiring last level and the last boss battle can feel a bit anticlimatic, partly due to the teleporting breaking you into different areas and not keeping any momentum and also a lack of music and epic tone that tells "This is it, time to show who is the boss!". At the very least the last scenes were very intriguing and do a nice ending.

I guess another thing would be that what the first game did great, the second game did a lot better in every department, including and actually awesome final level and a better immersion for the player, which doesn't mean that the first game can't be awesome on its own right, but feels a bit overshadowed compared to the sequel and dated in some respects.

Despite all that I said, I still had a great time with Half-Life and I do consider it a masterpiece for its time. It's definitely influenced many things that gaming would adopt and really showed what PC gaming was capable of.

Note: This recommendation is based only on finishing the game for the first time. I may expand this once I fiddle with the New Game Plus and the rest of the content.

Well, what else can it be said about one of the most prominent Indie games in the past few years? Many good things have been said and I don't feel I can give this game the justice it deserves, but I can try

Bastion may have one of the better uses of narrative in the medium. Ruck's narrations can immerse you into the world and describe every event, action and thoughts in such a way that is not only interesting, but manages to inform the player without trying to info dump them. The way that is also structured makes the player feel like part of the world.

The story itself is a take on the apocalypse (or after the fact), but once the plot advances, characters get introduced and expanded on their roles and the truth of the Bastion surfaces, the game takes an interesting turn that I won't spoil, but that I will say can make the player think and there are critical points in the late game that show very well the integration of narrative and player interaction with the story.

For me, those are the main points of the game. But not to say the other stuff isn't competent, because the rest of the content is quite great. Gameplay is in the vein of Action-adventure games like of the 2D Legend of Zelda games and works very well, with good progression on the weapon updates, nice powerups with different kinds of combinations on how you approach the combat with different arms and good combat overall, though it can get a wee annoying when there's sometimes enemies everywhere and I recommend to play more with a pad than the keyboard (it works, but there's some dexterity required). The graphics are amazing and the artstyle by Jen Zee not only looks beautiful, but manages to create an aesthetic that is different, unique and creative from other games. Lastly, my god, Darren Korb's soundtrack, probably the other high point of the game besides the story and narrative, now among my favorites.

Overall, I love this game, there's simply not much else I can say to describe the experience I had with Bastion, which now I have among my favorites not only on Indies, but in general. With Indies sometimes taking flak (some deserved, some exaggerated), i'm glad games like this exist to prove what can be possible with gaming that many companies refuse to take the risk of producing.

It may not be a long game (you can probably beat it in a single day), but Escape Goat was a nice little experience overall. It's an unique combination of puzzle and plataforming that tests very well your reflexes, cordination and in some cases also planning ahead of time and observation, with the uses of your mouse companion and the magic hat in some levels adding a bit more to the puzzles.

The game can be quite hard and it can be a nuisance when you are about to exit the level when suddenly you died by some cause you didn't see. However, the game is the kind of hard that is challenging, rewarding and keeps you wanting for more instead of frustrating and the shortness of the levels help a lot. I only had to watch a guide for one of the levels. The music is also very charming and catchy, the controls (atleast with an Xbox 360 pad) are precise and the graphics and art are nice, even if there's not a lot of variety in the scenery except some small colors and detail changes.

I bought Escape Goat back when it was on sale by one buck, though I think the normal price tag justifies the sale, as it also includes a level editor and an extra set of REALLY hard levels made by users after you completed the main story. If you really like puzzle games and/or plataformers, and don't mind the shortness, you should check this game out. If you're still unsure, wait for a sale.

I remember back when Bit Trip Beat and its sequels were exclusive to the Wii and how they looked so interesting and wanting to try them. I managed to play the demo of this and I was quite impressed and made me want for more, but unfortunately I didn't have space on my Wii for this game.

I was glad to discover that the game was ported to Steam, so once it was on sale I inmediately snatched it and I wasn't dissapointed.

My only complains are that it's a very short game and it can get very frustrating. Also, those who are epileptic should not play this. Other than that, it's a very entertaining game that combines very well retro-ish music, colorful pixel graphics and Pong style gameplay, and even with the short duration, those who want to go for the achivements and high scores may get some replay value out of this or maybe just go back and repeat a level just like you would do with a song.

Beautiful would be how I describe my experience with Dear Esther. Though i'm not sure if it would enter into my favorite games, I found it to be worth playing with interesting narrative, incredible scenery and beautiful soundtrack. That said, the only walking and no interactivity gameplay, the slightly annoying backtracking, the VERY short lenght (around 2 hours) and a ending that raises more questions than answers don't fit some people, so this is more for those who are fans of exploration or want something more calm, maybe rest from playing games with constant action.

Still, if you like more narrative than gameplay and art in your games, you can't go wrong with Dear Esther. If you're still unsure and you're afraid of the short lenght, you can get it on sale. At the very least they aren't charging that much unlike Gone Home.