Recent reviews by Smashzone

This is one of those hallmark games that really stood out among the piles of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I played as a kid. It has incredible atmosphere, such vibrant worldbuilding with such little dialog and exposition. A total of 5 paragraphs tell the rise and fall and rise of an empire, and yet with the way it's presented I feel as if I'm reading a fifty page epoch. Am I reading the thoughts of the character? A third party observer? Or the words of a historical figure, reciting the rhythms of a tragedy that rhymes with the present?

Unique and addictive physics-based combat that always brings me back when I'm really bored. The campaign gets really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard, really ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fast, a "trial-by-fire" at the end of the first chapter will force you to adapt to the controls and if you manage to pull through and survive, you will have become a much better player than you were before. In the chains you will find yourself in, circumstance will hone this initial understanding to a fine point, preparing you for the challenges ahead.

You will go from being an aspiring heir, the last living descendant of a once great clan burnt to the ground for the crimes of their ancestors to a world-renowned warrior who frees himself from slavery by the skin of his own teeth and luck immeasurable.

"Is it better to be a live dog or a dead lion?"

This game takes the saying "a horse and it's rider are one" quite literally, as every subtle spin of the mouse affects the speed and direction the weapon you have equipped spins; to block, parry, and riposte, you must master the relationship between the movement of the mouse/machine and the movement of the blade. For maces, like the simple rock you start with, utilizing the momentum gained with repeated spins of the mouse is essential for maximizing the power of your blows.
During the aforementioned trial by fire, you will miss, and miss, and miss, until you instinctively know from muscle memory the slight adjustments mid-swing you need to make to effectively guide the rock toward its target true.

Once it clicks in your head, it's insanely enthralling and no other game comes close to it. I can't think of any other game where the martial skill of the player's character and the player feel so perfectly intertwined. Except maybe Exanima, but that's a much different kind of game. It's as if when you move the mouse, you are controlling the blade in the same way a warrior controls the precision of their swings. The weapon merely becomes an extension of your body, able to flow as smoothly as the waters of a river.

Absolute gem of a game, and best of all, it became free to play a year or so before the release of it's sequel, HighFleet, which is good, but, well... it's a different kind of game.

Play it, and be patient. It takes time to master any skill.

I went into this game expecting it to be an okay remake. That it would change too much, or that it wouldn't change enough. On the day it released, I decided to read some reviews. The first one I see basically said, "this remake is faithful enough that you can use a guide for the original and it would still be accurate."

Minutes later, I bought and installed it hoping it would at least be "okay". Boy, my expectations were blown away. I was able to play through most of the game using more or less nothing but my experience with the original.

By the time I had made it to the Bridge the first time and ran out of time trying to clear out where the cyberspace terminal was in the original, I knew they had made a good remake. Not necessarily a unique masterpiece of a game, but a well done modernization of the original. All the things they added (the recycle system, the vending machines, the SS2-style inventory, updates to some of the weirder mapping decisions [the theater in Executive, anyone?]) are much-welcome shake ups that make playing through it feel fresh even if you've beaten the original a dozen times.

The combat, arguably the worst part of the original, has been kept mostly intact while also benefiting from the modernization. Headshots actually matter, and the Laser Rapier isn't the end all be all of weapons (still one of the best). The Mark 3 Assault Rifle is no longer a horrible semi-auto AK-looking atrocity, instead looking more like a western AR with burst-fire. Big difference.
While I understand why they did it from a design standpoint, I was disappointed that the near-useless dartgun and the ammo-starved Riotgun were removed. Also, the flechette rifle (my second favorite weapon after the rapier) is a shotgun now for some reason, probably variety.

Cyberspace is... well, it's about the same. Visually I think it looks worse than the original, but less confusing, which I guess was the point. If they kept the cool render distance space fog and the pulsing light effect, then made the walls slightly transparent or went for a forcefield look to them, I think Cyberspace would have looked much cooler. That might've not been very performance-friendly, but I digress.
For some reason, the Combat Pulser and Ice Drill only have one level each, and there aren't upgrades covered in ICE sprinkled around the levels anymore. I also miss the TriOptimum Entertainment Packs, which I always enjoyed collecting and forgetting about.

The soundtrack is high quality but sounds pretty bad when compared to the originals. I know they couldn't just blatantly rip off Head Like A Hole again, but damn, there's something about the clean, modern synth compositions that just don't get me PSYCHED.

Overall, I think this is a great remake, a good game, and deserves a playthrough or two, even if you've never heard of or played System Shock before. I almost completely ignored the recycling for most of my first playthrough, so to people who think the game rewards mindlessly vaporizing and recycling crap for money, well... it does. But it sure as ♥♥♥♥ doesn't encourage it, if you're playing on 3/3/3/3.
If you have no knowledge of the original, I recommend playing on the max difficulty, but put Story on 2. The 10 hour time limit is more than generous if you know where to go and what to do, but I can see it being difficult to beat and perhaps even slightly stressful without sprinting everywhere and ignoring many of the beautiful sights around the modern reimagining of Citadel Station. But that's why, rightfully so, it's a difficulty option. It's not like you put it on Very Hard and it gives you the time limit, you can just choose to not have it on if you don't want the game to be that little bit harder.

Also, I can kind of get not adding laying prone, but why in the name of God-Al-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-mighty, why would you remove vaulting? The first game let you climb up ledges, the second game let you climb up ledges, why can't I hold space and climb up a ledge the Hacker could totally just do a pull up on? Actually baffling.

Buy it if you're desperate for a captivating, highly immersive FPS game, or have never played the original. (which I still wholeheartedly recommend as it's definitely a unique experience comparatively. Save yourself the pain, play Enhanced Edition. Pressing E to enable freeaim is lifechanging.)

This game is a cashgrab. No, really, they seemed to have run out of creativity around the release of Paradise Lost, but the core gameplay still feels like Postal 2. As in, it plays almost exactly like Postal 2 but on a newer version of Unreal.
I bought the game when it first came out on steam and decided to wait until they released 1.0 to play it. But it seems like it needs another 4 years of polish.

I ran into the keypad bug on Monday, restarted the game, did the sewer errand instead. Almost reset again because I somehow walked past the box of lightbulbs, but found them and continued on.
The game is horrendously optimized, as in it runs fine most of the time but it likes to use 7 gigs of ram constantly (probably due to having the maps loaded in memory) and the textures are so high quality that when you get close to things, it lags because it's loading the "close up" texture. Also, I can just walk through like half of the scenery rocks, for some reason.

The comedy is really, really phoned in. Lots of literal ♥♥♥♥ jokes too, for some reason. The only time a ♥♥♥♥ joke stuck out in my mind in Postal 2 (AWP + PL), was the animal control elephant in Paradise Lost. I mean, the 12th time you've seen a stall overflowing with ♥♥♥♥ it starts to be a little repetitive. Where's the subtlety? I know this is Postal but somewhere along the line they just stopped giving a ♥♥♥♥ about making it funny. Like for instance, Mike J is a bidet cultist while also being the mayor of the city? Okay, but, aside from being obvious shock humor, why? I can accept that he just "got better" but, it's a lame idea for an errand boss. In Paradise Lost, your ex-wife is marrying the Mad Cow kosher god of hellfire (who is also Mike J) and yet, somehow, I can suspend my disbelief and just roll with it. Yeah, sure, I'll go panhandle for you, Mr. Satan, all in a day's work.
The story itself isn't bad, Postal Guy and Champ trying to recover their trailer home, that's a good hook. But the jokes that carry it along suck donkey balls.

When is POSTAL mode coming out? Or hell, an equivalent of Heisenworld or Insan-O. Hard is way too easy especially since there's no hate groups you accumulate through the week. I hear people "go postal" more often but I haven't seen many people bug out unless I enjoy my second amendment rights a little too much.

Despite it's flaws, it still feels like a Postal game, which I think is its only saving grace. That, and the Rick Hunter voice pack.
Buy it if you're really desperate for another Postal 2 expansion. otherwise, maybe wait another year or two

I think this is one of the best games I've ever played. I found it on the steam store page during the summer sale, and one glance at the preview video cemented it as something I had to buy, dlcs and all. I don't regret getting it, in fact, I'm still in shock I hadn't heard of this game sooner. Deus Ex-like gunplay? Open-ended gameplay, with (mostly) complete freedom of choice in how you want to complete the story? Voodoo (!) and cybernetics? A save system that lets you save scum but also gives you the thrill of permadeath by starving you of beds at times?

Listen chummer, you don't even know. If you like killing random characters in Morrowind, this is the game for you. The only thing that happens if you kill specific story characters (or make all the factions hostile) is the game preventing you from saving.
In some cases, you can even still complete the game, it's just nigh impossible since you can't save. The story is weird, but makes sense. The touch of madness that pervades the entire game just makes the Mexican post-apocalypse all the more engaging.

If you play games for fluid gameplay with well-balanced character builds, this isn't it. It's easy to die, but most enemies die really easy too. Most characters need at least 5 medicine (for bandage, since medkits are rare/expensive and food is also kind of expensive near the start of the game), and 10 charisma (for negotiator and detect motive, which pays for itself 3 times over by the end of the game). Most skills are useful for something or another, but some are better than others for certain people.
Having some shooting skill is useful for everyone (first playthrough, I recommend 11 points or so in pistol by 2nd chapter) but because bullets are lethal regardless it's not entirely necessary. Using melee in melee range is suicidal rock-em sock-em robots, but throwing things works fairly well and is renewable for the most part.
The crafting skills are so-so, since the inventory space you use carrying the crafting mats could be used for ammo, medkits, food, or rags instead. Grenades are extremely useful though, so I guess if you go hardware/chemistry you'd be using energy weapons (that you can craft) anyway which only have 1 ammo type. (blasting cap + tin can + chemical per nade. You could only carry caps and cans around since chemicals are scattered literally everywhere. But that's still a 1/4th of your inventory, and you gotta carry the grenades separate, plus a slot each for your 10mm mags, your magnum rounds, shells, your guns, medkits and rags, any knives or glaves, etc. Part of the game, I suppose.)

Companions are super useful, since they can carry an additional 8 items each, but they can get themselves killed really easy since the AI is... easily distracted. I usually just leave it on "Hold" and kill everything myself. The game is more than possible alone, especially since going full murderhobo locks you out of something like 3/4ths of the named companions.
You can still hire mercs/thugs (depending on who you side with) but those are expensive and money is better spent on chromewires or food (or juice, if you're spec'd into survival)

The only thing that's really bad about this game ('side from the occasional spike in difficulty) is that there's not an active modding community making maps and guns and epic retextures for it. There's only 2 survival maps but the game is practically built for an infinite wave survival mode. It has a ton of potential for total conversions or really, any kind of wacky story/gamemode you can think of.
The assets are really easy to work with if you know basically anything about coding (any language) and its scripting is surprisingly robust. Probably doesn't help that the workshop is hidden and can only be accessed through the community hub, but hey, I think the devkit has only been a thing for like 3 months. I gotta learn how to model 'n ♥♥♥♥ man, this game needs more mods.

This game is niche, but if you're into the same niche as the dev, it's gold all the way down.

the first hour of me playing this game was shooting a receptionist, and hiding the body in a toxic pit I found in the wall.

it's like if hotline miami was 3d and an accurate interpretation of modern life if it was a late ninties video game. it even includes the nuances of day-to-day frustrations born out of free will and wasting all your time on a computer.

YOU ARE A FLESH AUTOMATON
ANIMATED BY NEUROTRANSMITTERS

you play the first level a couple times, and die a couple of times, falling into crippling debt from biological reconstruction fees. eventually, you realize that somewhere along the way you lost your soul (or maybe your computer-assisted consciousness) and became a flesh eating feral corpodog.
when I finally liquidated G-TECH for the first time, I knew this was an instant classic.

pros-
odd, macabre story full of subjective interpretation
incredibly replayable levels
hard to find secrets
half a nanosecond time-to-kill
difficulty worthy of a doom murderhead
cons-
doesn't have 90 hidden, cryptically named steam achievements
no saving mid level (I personally don't mind this)
kind of badly optimized, I get random FPS stuttering when I kill too many people

4+1 is 5, which is the number of points a pentagram has, representing the demonic influence that inspired the corporate system of organization


"stay as long as you like, as far as I'm concerned, we're family"

Yes, this game has a learning curve. Yes, this game has a fuccton of PKers. Yes it is very grindy.
But if you just get some friends and go on one of the less populated realms it's not bad. There are a lot of brazillians, though.
The skill system is grindy and repetitive, but it still feels like you're making progress. Seeing your life bar grow is really fun to do.
Now, if you die, you lose all your stuff. Now, what you're suppoused to do is engrave said items so you don't lose them apon death. You still have a chance to drop it, though it's a very low chance. (10%) While you still lose all your gold on death, you can bank it.
Overall, it isn't that bad of an experience.

please help, I've bought like 9 copies of this game for my friends

So, a long while back, I wrote a joke review about my experience screwing up a bank job.
Instead, I'm going to write an actual review.

Uplink.
Where to begin?
The hollywood hacking simulator is one of my favorite games, and all the people writing negative reviews on it yelling "buggy" or "go buy hacknet its better"
Well to that I say, Yes, it is buggy. But it was made in ~2003, and it shows. Yes, it crashes. But the game has a certain charm to it that leaves me with a better impression of it than Hacknet.
Granted the newly-in-beta graphical overhaul UplinkOS helps alot to make the game more user friendly (and I highly recommend it)

-----Gameplay------
I can say the gameplay is top notch and semi-realistic
You have to get a "bounce" (long linked trail of connections) to get extra time for when the network you're hacking decides to trace you.
The thrill of trying to get in, do your job, and get out before the trace kicks you out is exilarating.
Then you gotta go to one of the links in your trail, and clean up the logs to get that passive trail off you.

-----Music-----
Kind of a minor thing, but the 5 song track list is a nice mix of cyberpunk-ish techno, and fits well with the hacking theme. (its also great to listen to when trying to concentrate on a paper or something)

-----Story-----
The story is pretty good, though you don't really have follow it, as you can just continue doing freelance work, as the storyline doesn't require you to follow along.
ARC is up to no good; help them destroy the internet with a virus known as Revelations, or help Arunmor stop them.

10/10

Good game.
to play correctly;
1. download x live less
2. play
3. get backstabed by some russian guy.

Honestly, the fact I both have 80+ hours and 80/88 achevements, says alot.
I love this game to death and beyond, just because of the sheer insanity of it all.
Monday through Sunday, the crazyness just doesnt end.
It even has a second expansion, Paradise Lost.
The fact the game devs still update it shows its worth 10 bucks
Hell, I would have payed 25$ if I knew how much fun I would have with it.
Get this game. If you cant spent 10$ on the game, it frequently goes on sale for about 2-1 dollars.