Recent reviews by DimAce

Butcher's Creek is ok.

I'll start off by talking about the gameplay. If you've played other games from Szymanski you know to expect a relatively simple gameplay loop with 2-3 elements that mix and match and give you a short experience. I think this is perfectly fine, the game never claims to be groundbreaking or anything, but in theory the combat is pretty fun. In practice I had issues with the difficulty and balancing, each enemy seems to have different timings for blocking their attacks. You also can't actually tell if they are going to block, they just do it without any visual or audio cues. I found it frustrating how the combat mechanics work because while it can be really fun and give you a great sense of badassery, as the game progressed I found myself more and more frustrated by it.

The art direction falls completely flat if you don't use the VHS filter, please do because it's actually pretty good. It's not something that hasn't been done before but mixing low quality textures with low poly-high fidelity 3d objects in the environment works really well in the low-lighting setting that the game takes place in. Smart work playing with this but when an area has more lighting you can usually visually tell that there's a downgrade in quality.

Narrative, kinda meh, honestly didn't expect much but in my opinion Szymanski can't write very well (and he probably knows it?). Yeah sure the game is brainless fun and shock-and-awe, but there's nothing that remains after it's been completed. It's really predictable and doesn't really push the player to keep exploring the story. Nearing the end it felt more and more like a chore, especially combined with the combat.

As for the horror, the atmosphere is great, I really enjoyed it and certain sections had me terrified. I've definitely played scarier games but Butcher's Creek is not bad at all in this regard, I just don't think this feeling works well when the player is equipped with powerful weapons against enemies. The horror element in the game is also clearly inspired by Silent Hill 2, most notable how it combines the visuals with the offputting soundtrack that oftens makes it hard to distinguish if you are under threat or not. Anyway the horror is definitely one of the better parts of the game.

Audio, pretty good, the expectations were not that high anyways. I did find it odd sometimes that the enemies became completely silent and would sneak up on you. Maybe this was intentional but it feels more like a bug if anything. If not I would have liked to see some type of sneaky/stalker enemy, this could have been terrifying if done correctly.

Overall, Butcher's Creek is an okay game, 6/10 for me. It's cheap so you should definitely play it and see if you agree/disagree with my points. I do however think Szymanski's "ceiling" is around 7/10, so this is definitely one of the better scores I can give the game. I really wish he improves his narrative skills for the next games.

Fantastic remake and sticks true to the original game. Off the top of my head I could only whine about a couple of decisions taken during development, the most noteable one being yellow things sticking out everywhere.. (Art Direction, am I right?).. Anyhow the story was quite intriguing and I didn't expect to have so much fun. There were also some scary moments, not too shabby!

I always thought I wanted to experience Metro in VR, and for the most part this game is not bad. I've not completely finished the game yet due to time constraints, but I think it's an okay VR title.

Pros
+ Khan's writing is excellent, this is in most part because of Glukhovsky. He is a likeable, relatable and multifaceted character and a great pick for a protagonist in this game.
+ Gameplay really matches the VR platform and it was inherently one of those games that you could imagine playing a long time ago.
+ Immersion, generally good, though some issues break it every now and then.
+ Monster design, so far I am enjoying the new/updated monster designs and it is both fun and scary.

Cons
- Controls a bit wonky, adding to dizziness and motion sickness. Also hands feel a bit unresponsive or like they are doing the wrong actions.
- Audio is not occlusive/spatial
- Graphics feel a bit outdated, despite using Unreal Engine
- Level design/game design is not the best, leading to moments where you end up thinking "What was I doing" or "Where am I supposed to go" or "How do I do this", way past the opening of the game.
- Speaking of the opening, not that great especially once you compare it to other VR games.

Overall, if you are comparing this to Half Life Alyx, which is THE best game to play on VR, this falls rather short almost 5 years later. I would still recommend it if you can spare the buck, not great value to be had here but as an experience it is definitely intriguing and something FPS players should check out if they already own a headset.

I'm not going to lie, I couldn't manage to finish the game as I got dizzy, but this was a great experience. I can imagine how fun it must have been to have developed this game.

+++ Great art style, super unique
++ Good campaign, I can't wait to see what more is added during/after Early Access. Not only in length but also in how it teaches the game mechanics, while also providing good variety in missions. City building, expedition and tower defense, I can't wait to see what more is added.
++ Noteable variety both between player units and enemies, creating interesting strategies.
+++ Same goes for the insane liberty in creating buildings, what a great idea honestly. There's also stat bonuses through environmental design by using banners and windows, and also the addition of rain as a mechanic. I personally think it should be tweaked a bit, but it definitely adds more than it takes.
+ Runs well for an indie title (also for Early Access)
+ Resource management is simple enough yet needs player attention
+ Upgrades system for units and buildings, a good step in the right direction.
+ Sandbox mode
+++ Workshop and level editor

-- Skirmish mode is basically the same thing always, explore before the first wave to destroy monster nests and then build up with salvage. What you do doesn't really matter because it's short in length.
- Tower Defense missions in campaign are only 2 waves long. Why? (Small nitpick)
- Resources are not very balanced, I personally never found myself being careful what I would spend my resources on. Same goes for time, there's plenty of it to do basically anything, especially during the first few nights that you would expect would be the biggest obstacle. For this I think salvage is to blame but not entirely sure, I need to play more.
- Not entirely sure how useful the Captor unit is, couldn't tell much difference.
- The game needs longer missions, or to start in later stages than Prosperity 1.
- Needs more meaningful upgrades and visual variety based on that. Like what Age of Mythology has done.

Overall, this is a great game, though a bit expensive at full price, I bought with 20% sale. I definitely recommend it, if you're not sure, you can check it out during a sale to feel more bang for your buck. Unexpectedly, for me a great sim/strategy game. Although I see some issues with the game's design, I think this game is going to be a great mix between RTS, city builder and tower defense when it fully releases. Already it's in a much better state than most games release in, and currently in EA for at least one more year.

I was waiting for this game when it was originally announced 10 years ago, kept wondering what's gonna happen to it, saw it change studios twice. I finally gave it a shot, no expectations, no knowledge of what happens. I'm really glad I did. Dead Island was always about the cheeky humour and villain story regarding the zombie virus.

This game keeps the same vibe, evolves the mechanics of the first game and adds so many facets of gameplay to zombie slaying that it's honestly extremely fresh in the zombie genre to be playing a game like Dead Island 2.

The main story is short, but has a ton of exploration capabilities and fun in co-op with completing challenges and sidequests. The game visually looks extremely good and even in low-light environment manages to get under your skin and really thrill you in vents and sewers. Audio wise, good work done but nothing fancy. The gameplay and gore system however is one of the best I've ever seen in all the zombie games I've played. The character models combined with the textures and VFX really knock any competition right out of the park in this regard.

On the downside, you have connecting to Epic Games. Honestly this is a much smaller issue than people make it out to be, I don't like it at all and never did it annoy me once while trying to play the game, I only played singleplayer though (still connected to EGS). The story is a bit all over the place in the beginning and can cause some confusion. I will definitely replay with the other characters to see how much changes, but even if nothing does, the setting is still good enough to keep you hooked. The ending was a bit predictable? But not so unsatisfying, I personally found this one to be the best story in the franchise yet. To add another con, I barely did any sidequests while trying to explore the map, and it's also made clear that they want you to keep playing after the main story and backtrack after you've found keys all over the map. The keys were something I really didn't enjoy, everywhere I went I had locked containers I couldn't open. Also, the tutorialisation is a bit off, some things aren't explained at all. I completely missed how to get fuses, how exactly the elements work and what they do, zombie immunity etc. But on the other hand I was constantly reminded about meaningless things that were glaringly obvious from the get go.

I genuinely enjoyed this short adventure to Hell-A and I plan on coming back eventually, hopefully in co-op with friends. I really, really had a ton of fun, more than I expected, and looking back at it I'm disappointed that last year at roughly the same time I bought Dying Light 2 instead of this. If you are a fan of slaying zombies with all sorts of ways and limbs flying everywhere, look nowhere else, this game is for you. I recommend buying this regardless of sales or not, just make sure you know the main game is around 10 hours long.

Awesome work by Dambuster Studios. Only genuine respect in my eyes to have salvaged this franchise from seemingly way beyond the grave.

I've played the first game at least 5 times beginning through end, max levelling my character and exploring every nook and cranny of the map. I beat all DLCs including The Following twice, so needless to say I was super hyped when DL2 was announced. Unfortunately, this game is by far worse than the original one. The story is uninteresting so far, the characters forgettable, the parkour floaty, the gameplay buggy and unsatisfying and it feels like there's basically no progression. In the first game I was a government agent dropped into a zone of mutants and infected, slowly uncovering the world and improving my survival skills. In this one, I'm already an established person (or so you would think) but apparently I don't know how to do just about any basic thing. Awfully convenient writing/game logic but extremely unsatisfying way to create an arc for your main character and story. I think I'll just stick to the memories made in the original game, had a ton of fun there and played literally every single piece of content that I could (except Hellraid, lol)

A game advertised for a "rich narrative" with "psychological horror" elements, which is in fact nothing more than a glorified walking simulator with quick time events.

Gameplay: You walk or run around completing meaningless tasks to buy everyone aboard the ship more time. Occasionally there are scripted monster sequences which you have a path layed out in front of you and must sprint until you reach the next cutscene or scripted event. Yep, there are only a couple of moments where you must figure out how to get past a certain enemy by "playing it smart" (having to throw items across the room a couple of times to reach the next checkpoint). Basically, the encounter design is so shallow that it feels like the original Penumbra was ages ahead of this game, 20 years ago.

Controls: Get ready for the most boring and in the beginning unintuitive and confusing control scheme in your life. You have to hold right mouse button to do just about anything, and have quick time events requiring you to react to scripted events. Also don't try running in this game because the player character is slower than a 90 year old man that hasn't run since he stormed the beaches at Normandy.

Visuals and environment/level design: Outside areas aren't especially beatiful, they are definitely not bad, but the inside environments have a lot of love and research done to them and it clearly shows. It's a huge shame however none of these areas are ever utilized to their maximum with monsters. Navigating around the oil rig is impressively realistic, or so I would assume as I've not been on one, and I have to give props for this. However, the level design as I said, doesn't make proper use of a lot of areas, and that defeats the purpose so much. It's a shame really.

Story: Prepare for a story you have seen everywhere in literally any piece of media. A linear story that starts in media res with the main character escaping from the scottish mainland because he was in a fight with a cop. This is all revealed with flashback sequences which occur in specific scripted events and are incredibly convenient timing-wise for game logic. In total you meet around 10 characters, some of them eventually as monsters and the rest as task-givers to progress the story. "Go do this for us or we are dead" is a recurring theme throughout the entirety of the game, human nature says that you must fight until the very end for your own sake and for others'. Spoiler alert, the game ends after you've completed every task aboard the oil rig, saving it from destruction multiple times, only to tell you that "the game was rigged from the start" and "everyone dies eventually" (sic) which has to be one of the cheesiest and unsatisfactory ways to end a story you've been building for hours. It's like that meme says, "omg the quirky indie horror game was about su*icide and de*ath all along). IF YOU CAN'T WRITE A STORY, HIRE SOMEONE THAT CAN. I've seen players here calling it the "best story in a game they've played", but to me that's either a) pretentious or b) clear that these people have never played a videogame in their life. If you want to play a great horror game that has clearly inspired this game, play SOMA. You will see the difference.

Horror/atmosphere: Atmosphere is sometimes there, most of the time it isn't, I personally was not really immersed due to the incredible timing of events, scripted sequences and just plain insane amount of "videogame logic" moments that this game has. When the game works, it works, but it quickly fades away sooo easily and you remember you're playing a game. You somehow create a detailed oil rig with humans on it and add cosmic horror, yet you completely manage to destroy the atmosphere. I think that has to be an achievement.

Audio: One of the only highlights in the game, sometimes however the audio doesn't allow you to tell where the enemy is because it gets incredibly muffled. Generally good sound design, I don't remember a single track from the music except the credits.

Game length: Absolutely inexcuseable to ask for 35 euros for a game will only play once in your life at 4 hours. Absolute disgrace, you should be ashamed of yourself to whoever/whichever team of executives sat down and decided that this price is good.

TL;DR This game is a walking simulator, with a story as old as time, but at least it's nice to look and listen to. Super short and super expensive.

WHO SHOULD BUY; Casual gamers that are trying to enter the horror genre. It's a super forgiving horror game that holds your hand all the way through.

WHO SHOULDN"T BUY; People experienced in horror expecting the next thrill, like Silent Hill 2, SOMA, Amnesia: The Bunker or any other psychological horror game with monsters. You will be disappointed by the shallowness of the game in almost every sector.

Really enjoyed this, even though I'm not the biggest "survivor" game fan. Great visuals and audio, and quite a lot of replay value. I definitely need to play more of it!

In my opnion, the second best zombie game ever made after Left 4 Dead 2. I've finished the main game so many times and all the DLCs, have grinded to max level and seen just about everything this game had to see, including almost all achievements. The second game doesn't even come close to how good this one is, so if you're thinking about buying that one, I would replay this one instead :)