Recent reviews by TP | Drac

One of the best games of the year 2023. It's a fantastic remake, that manages to bring the old game into the year 2023, keeping its sprit, while doing some stuff different. It has great replay value, controlls well, looks awesome and still has its iconic cheesy story. The DLC (Separate Ways) is also a steal for 10€ and also does some things different vs the original, so if you want more RE4, that exists as well. If you liked the Resident Evil 2 Remake or RE Village, you will also like this one.

It's basically Dark Souls 4 with an open world. Overall pretty good, but with some flaws. I played most actively until Patch 1.04. Patch 1.05 I played very little.

Pros:
- The "Legacy Dungeons" (classic Dark Souls Levels) are very good and fun
- Some pretty good bossfights
- Awesome arts style
- Really great soudtrack
- Open world concept works pretty well
- Tons of things to find and explore
- Massive replay value.
- You have in-game options to make the game easier for you (like summons). It's still a quite difficult and challenging game.

Neutral:
- most bosses have weird attack timings and often "delayed" attacks. Depends on if you like that or not. I struggled a bit with it. I don't mind a few bosses with "weird" timings to spice things up, but it's almost every boss in the game.
- Multiplayer got better compared to previous games, but can still be improved. E.g. it's easier to play coop, but it's still Dark Souls in that regard. Not my favourite PvP game, though PvP is not bad.

Cons:
- Small technical issues on release (not always, but in some areas bad frame pacing and frame drops even on very good harware)
- Game is too long and most importantly recycles too much (some bosses you fight 4-7 times; enemies repeat a lot later). It's a fantastic game with more unique content than all other Fromsoft Souls games, but imo 20-30% less (for less repetition) would have been imo better here.
- Balancing of some stuff is/was pretty off. Some weapons make the game much easier than others. But you still have tons of good options. So it's just a minor thing.
- Some difficulty spikes felt artificial. E.g. a certain boss has an attack that was very hard to dodge. Took me like 15 hours of practice to get consistent (in close range). One change of the current patch make it a bit easier, which is the increased roll distance on low equip load. Still pretty tough and frustrating.

Minor things:
- They nerfed some routes (like getting Somber Stone 7 or some skips) and fixed some bugs, so challenge runs and speedruns on current patch got far less smooth. There is a reason why almost nobody runs it on current patch. On one hand it's good they fix bugs, on the other they focused on fxing some pretty unlikely stuff, while ignoring bigger technical problems like the frame drop issues for a long time. Imo wrong focus.

- Adding to that: routes for challenge runs, etc are a bit boring (esp. for level 1 runs speedruns), because though you have 1 million weapons in the game, only 4-5 of them fit the profile for level 1 runs somewaht. You have to put in a lot of effort to make other weapons work in that category or play it very slow. As a result it boils down to the Serpent-Hunter all the time, which is very unfortunate. I know there is always this one weapon that is good for a category, but it feels extreme in Elden Ring.

Overall Game of the Year for me personally. I liked it a lot and fully recommend it to everybody interested inS ouls games. For me it's just a 9/10, due to e.g. the enemy and boss recycling that becomes very prominent - esp. late in the game.

It's really good.
Sound Design is fantastic, if you like the "documentary style" the campaign is decent too and they managed that each civilisation plays quite different. Some features are sadly still missing, the UI needs some work, there are some small bugs and there are some small balance issues, but nothing really big. I guess the biggest thing is that the French are e.g. too strong on water maps and picking somebody else is an auto loss, Holy Roman Empire has a bug with its Prelates (if they get "pushed" by another unit, their auto-cast stops working and is bugged). But nothing that can't be fixed (and changes are already announced for next patch). I can only fully recommend the game esp. if you enjoy Age of Empire multiplayer.

It's also rare that a big RTS game comes out and they also imo delivered. Not much I can criticise. It's quite close to Age of Empires II, but also has some interesting ideas to make it feel a bit different, like getting to the next age by building a building (landmark). You can choose between 2 Landmarks for each age transition and they have different benefits. Ofc some landmarks are way better than their counterpart, but that is also not always the case. beyond that some civs have very unique ways of playing like the Mongols who can pack their buildings and move them and they have a unique "stone mechanic". Pretty cool. In my opinion a worthy sequel.

tl;dr: fully recommendation for this game if you like platforming with a bit of Metroidvania in it. I had a blast with it.

Pros:
- portal mechanic is creative and fun
- very good Level design that makes great use of mechanics
- good difficulty, only one small optional section I found frustrating
- you feel like you have a lot of control over the character; it plays well
- fun and challenging platforming (for an ok-ish player)
- bosses don't overstay their welcome
- cute story
- great visuals and art design
- tough sections are mostly optional sections
- Metroidvania elements are fun too
- fair checkpoints (with maybe some exceptions)
- good length
- some cool puzzles, where you have to think a bit outside the box
- you can rebind buttons freely (I played with a controller)
- once loaded very short loading times (I had it installed on an HDD)

neutral:
- no voiced dialogues
- the new movement abilities you unlock are pretty standard, but still feel great
- I had one game crash during the second phase of the final boss, which made me repeat the first phase again and on some deaths (rare though) the character did not re-appear at the checkpoint again (back to main menu and then continue fixed it without losing progress), else I encountered no technical problems or major bugs and those might be fixed by now (I played the release version)
- takes fps limit from Windows' monitor refresh rate setting, limit fps in settings would be appreciated
- You can control your character with the left analogue stick and/or D-pad

Cons:
- no additional "Reset Portal" button, so you have to double-tap the open/close (toggle) portal button a lot in some sections, which felt exhausting and not as smooth control wise
- bosses are maybe too easy for really good players
- no icon on map that shows the gates that turn on/off your portal ability (I think)
- first phase of the final boss was a bit annoying in parts


Unbound: Worlds Apart is a platformer with Metroidvania elements. So the comparison with Hollow Knight or Ori you often read is a bit unprecise, though not completely wrong.

Unbound focuses mainly on platforming and some puzzles, but has no real combat (maybe with one/two exceptions) combined with a great art style. The classic Metroidvania "get new abilities (wall jump, double jump, etc) and backtrack to explore new areas that can be accessed now with the new ability" is in the game too, but it's not its main focus and often this is more about optional areas (ofc with some exceptions too). That is however not a bad thing, just to set your expectations right. It's more a platformer than a Metroidvania.

The coolest thing in my opinion is the "portal" ability. By pressing the "Toggle Portal" button (standard L1/LB) you open/close a "bubble" (Portal) where your character is (some follow you, some stay where you open them) and inside it the world changes in many creative ways (the idea is the portal leads to another world/dimension and properties of that world are transferred to where you are now, but they are only active inside the "bubble"). The areas of the game often have different kinds of Portals (so with different effects; there are 10 different portal types). In one section it inverts gravity, in another it changes objects which now interact differently, etc. This works really well and I found it quite creative what the level designer(s) makes you do with it. The levels are really well designed around this idea. Note: there are also sections where you don't have the Portal ability, so it's not always available and it felt like there is a lot of variety as a result.

It also has a cute little story with two endings (I think) and some optional content that can be quite challenging. Overall I would say the game is not easy, but ofc some platforming pros might see this very differently. I'm personally not that good in platformers. For me the most difficult sections were optional, but if you are not good at platforming, even the main story sections might be difficult.

The game orients imo a tiny bit at e.g. Super Mario World (I mean the jumping and how it feels, there is no sprinting though), I think it even has regrabbing (you fall slower when you hold or re-hold the jump button). Overall I found it controls and plays very well and for me it was a lot of fun. There was only one optional section I found a bit frustrating, else I had a blast, I even got 100%. I would say you can beat it 100% in like 10-12 hours, if you are good at platforming (unlike me) probably a bit faster.

They did also a good job to keep tough sections optional. I think if you just want to complete the main story, it does not become too difficult. There are some boss fights, which also evolve mostly around platforming and maybe with one exception they never overstay their welcome. Instead of 10 hits it's only 3, which might be a bit too easy for good players, but for me it was the right amount of hits.

In my opinion one improvement the developers could think about, would be adding a "Reset Portal" function on e.g. L2/LT. Ofc the toggle is needed for some sections, but every time you need to re-open a portal fast, you have to press L1/LB two times. One input to close it and one to open it again. That is often not a problem, but if you only have a very short amount of time (far less than a second) to do this and you have to repeat this in succession on top of that, it becomes a bit frustrating and exhausting for the hand. I had to rebind it (you can rebind buttons freely) to another button for some optional areas, so I could press it faster (for me double pressing L1 is quite slow). Having the close and open input (so basically a "reset") on one button, would have made it a smoother experience in those optional areas. In addition you also always have to keep track if you closed the portal already or not, which makes it imo a bit more complicated than it needs to be.

Another thing that would have been cool (maybe I did not see it), would be an icon on the map where those portal ability on/off gates are. For some puzzles this information is useful.


Overall absolute recommendation!

Pros:
- Amazing visual style and animation
- Very solid and fun Metroidvania
- Combat and abilities are fun
- Fun exploration
- Unusual setting and lore
- fun movement
- Item can be interesting

Cons:
- Collectables are a bit boring
- Names are hard to remember
- Some unnecessary death traps, which result in you walking long paths again
- Teleporter/Fast Travel portals are too few. The ability to teleport between some shrines or if they had placed more portals, would have improved the game
- Could have needed a bit more polish

Overall I enjoyed my time with Blasphemous a lot, but the game is not perfect and you should prepare for backtracking a lot. There are probably better Metroidvanias like Hollow Knight, but I would still recommend it, when you search for more and like the genre.

Soulcalibur VI (Season 1) is in my opinion a very good 3D fighting game, that is relatively easy to get into (ofc it's a fighting game). Multiplayer is still active on PC, but compared to launch the player base is much smaller now, but I have no problems finding ranked matches relatively fast (depending on day time).

Single Player content is OK-ish for a fighting game these days. Don't expect too much. Most of it is told through images and a bit of voice acting (I enjoyed it, but haven't played it extensively). There's another RPG-like mode, which has no voice acting at all (just text for dialogues). It can be fun too, but you notice that the budget of the game was quite limited.

Pros:
- Solid 3D fighting game
- Good for beginners I would say
- Fast paced weapon combat and good 3D movement options
- Movement feels intuitive (you don't need to learn something like e.g. wave dashing)
- Character roaster is quite broad; roaster size is average I would say
- Relatively easy to learn compared to other 3D fighting games like Tekken
- Good and "flashy" visuals (often quite clear what's going on, except for some Characters)
- Character modification/creation possible and relatively complex (previous titles probably had more options though)
- Balance seems OK (as always: people complain, but I have seen worse; many characters are viable on almost all player levels)
- Training mode offers almost all you need (no frame data though)
- Devs still patch the game

Cons:
- The new "Reversal Edge" mechanic can disturb the combat flow (I'm not a fan of it, but you can easily side step it)
- Some people "troll" with the character customization
- Character customization can bring little advantages (e.g. more range but less damage)
- Singleplayer content could be more interesting
- No frame data in trainings mode or move list available
- You can't change the Keyboard key bindings for trainings mode reset (maybe fixed by now?); it's K+L or R1+L1/RB+LB
- Low fps or lagging enemies online make you see the lag/stutter as well (I hate it; even sound stutters)
- Game still gets patches, but it took developers like weeks or month to delete people from the ranking list who clearly cheated
- DLC and seasonpass feel quite expansive
- Fighting against some characters (e.g. 2B) can be annoying, even if you win
- Still some little bugs and online play could be still improved

I hope that helps. Overall I would recommend the game, esp. if you have some friends you can frequently play against.

The "stealth-action" game "Shadow Harvest: Phantom Ops" is a technical mess and hard to recommand, but I have to admit, I liked some ideas of the game. The stealth and the action component is (strictly) splitted between the two main-charaters. Usually you have them both and can switch between them at any given time. You play from the third-person perspective. The game machanics have some flaws, but the core idea is not that bad.

It is hard to recommand it, because it is more between "Yes" and "No". From my perspective now (2014), it is old (game performance is still bad; it crashes a lot on several systems), buggy and outdated, so no recommandation. From the perspective of 2011, I would say "yes" with some "constraints". It brought back some "oldschool" mechanics like med-kits (no regenerating health), it was quite difficult, if you died (or get seen in some missions) you had to restart the complete level again, etc. And this before Dark Souls (and others) was released that made "harder/frustrating" games popular again.

Another problem is the execution of most elements of the game. Animations, graphics, coding, qa (a lot of bugs, bad performance, crashes), story aren't all that great. I would say, I can forgive bad animations and graphics, especially if it is a game from a small studio, but a lot of small indie devs right now, are doing a far better job here. Admittedly they also often avoid genres like stealth action (like in this case). And this is most likely the reason why this game has a lot of problems. The developers wanted too much. They wanted it to look and feel like a "AAA-Title", but this is very hard with a small team, a small budget and right on the first game they've ever developed.

If you are looking for an "old-schoolish" stealth game with a cheesy story, some nice ideas (here and there) and you can ignore animations, bugs, bad performance and some design flaws, maybe pick it up, if you see it cheap. $7.99 is maybe borderline ok for it, if you are into those games and you know it will work on your machine. Don't expect patches, the Studio was closed, as far as I know.

So from the 2011 perspective and with a warning (flawed game with tons of bugs and problems, but for cheap maybe give it a try), I give a semi-recommandation.

Disclaimer: I played through it when it was released in 2011, but Steam hasn't tracked my game time on it back then. Also my english is bad, sry =/