Recent reviews by Vampire 2

Neutral: The Long Dark's recent updates have added some more to the game, but it's a game experience that increasingly is being shown as somewhat shallow. A somewhat zen and immersive survival experience falls prey to a pressure to make it more challenging, and the game does so by giving you challenges you have little chance to survive. The story is plodding, staid, and kind of bog-standard stereotypical mysticism which handles its themes extremely heavy-handedly. There's still plenty of fun to be had here in the survival mode, but its been dulled since initial release.

Read the full review at Highland Arrow[www.highlandarrow.com]

Not Recommended: Sundered is the most disappointing game I've played to date. I've played games and had worse experiences, and I've played games which have had more glaring design flaws, but none quite so disappointing. Sundered is a beautifully-wrought disaster of a game which marries an absolutely gorgeous art and animation with detailed sound design and atmospheric music ... with some of the most slipshod and lazy-feeling design I've experienced in a long time. Where there was the promise of a metroidvania is more a bullet-hell button-mashing brawler, devoid of any feeling of taking skill or granting any accomplishment. Aggravating maps full of procedurally-generated tunnels that don't last long before they get repetitive, and bosses that feel more akin to battles of attrition than tests of skill. Not really worth it except on a deep sale, if you're willing to put up with an experience that's fairly uninspired and rough in every aspect outside art direction.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow[www.highlandarrow.com]

Neutral: Sir, You Are Being Hunted ends up being something of a "popcorn game" - there isn't a great deal of depth here, but what is there is solid enough, if a bit crimped by howe severedly a lategame player can threaten the things that they themselves are supposed to be threatened by. Good for a casual little romp with good production values and impeccable narration - just don't expect the Moon.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow[www.highlandarrow.com]

Neutral: Darkest Dungeon spins a tale of insanity and despair that looks and sounds brilliant, but is something of a veneer western town, with quite plain mechanics underneath. Worth a play if you can stand a decent amount of artificial difficulty. It isn't going to sell you on it, if you aren't.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow[www.highlandarrow.com]

I loved Space Engineers, but buyer beware: Recent updates require a version of .NET framework that does not work on Windows 7 and they have not updated the minimum requirements to reflect this. This also rendered the game unusuable to me, since I - like 49% of the world, am on Windows 7. (Don't take my word for it: http://netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=10&qpcustomd=0 )

Neutral: Fallout 4 is a decent game, but it's neither a good role-playing game nor a good Fallout game. While the new additions - weapon modifications, animated dialogue, and settlement building - are neat, they fail to distract from the fact that much of the core content that distinguished past games: interesting story-writing, dark humour, deep role-playing and the skills system, have all been excised from Fallout 4. It feels like what you would get if you asked a game-making robot machine to make a Fallout game, mechanically there if bland and cut back, but lacking its soul. Perhaps it will become better with DLC, but as is, it's strictly mediocre, what I would call a "popcorn game" not unenjoyable and good to waste time in, but almost immediately forgettable once you stop playing.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow here[www.highlandarrow.com]

Recommended: The appeal of this game is right there in the premise, and while I don't think that it's going to win over anyone that is sceptical of it upon hearing about it, Hatfall is nonetheless a great amount of fun for those that find the humour in it. It lives and dies by that humour, really, but if you are a fan of critic and creator Yahtzee Crowshaw's humour, then I suspect you'll find this game more than worth the price of admission.

Read the full review here[www.highlandarrow.com]

Recommended: FTL is a game that is intentionally punishing in the end fight, but irrespective of that, the journey to said end fight is often quite fun. There is perhaps an over-reliance on procedural generation that can make the game overly inconsistent in difficulty, but to many, that's the appeal. At it's heart, FTL is a simple space tactical game that uses it's rogue-like elements with decent proficiency to create that often-sought "just one more game" replayability. It's not going to sell someone new to rogue-likes, I don't think, but it is well worth a look for fans of the genre.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow here[www.highlandarrow.com]

Not Recommended: Presented as a film, Her Story might have made an interesting story presented though an unusual framing device, but as a game, it's a story let down by the means by which you are left to experience it. Coupled with over-acting from the actress of the titularly-implied character, stilted and unnatural exposition, a very bizarre and frankly inappropriate plot turn, and a lot of chaff in an already short game, I simply cannot recommend Her Story. There's some value to be found in exploring it the one time and discussing it, but this is a game you can easily replicate watching it on YouTube; very little from the experience is lost.

Read the full review on Highland Arrow here[www.highlandarrow.com]

Not Recommended: WWE 2K15 is a game that wasn't so much ported to PC as it was lobbed in the general vicinity of PC code with the hope it'd work itself out maybe. A half-finished series of features (if they can be called that) which subtracts huge portions of the customisation the series is known for only to add the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ netcode and an absolutely unforgivably bad control set, among many other bugs ("features" no doubt), WWE 2K15 is a game I could recommend to absolutely no one, even my most loathed enemy. Avoid, if at all possible.

Read the full review by Maiyannah Lysander here[www.highlandarrow.com]