Recent reviews by Matman

One of the strangest ideas for a game that I can think of - combining a Metroidvania-type platformer with a pinball game - turns out to be one of the most delightful surprises I've experienced recently. The characters are incredibly charming, the art and animation is gorgeous, and the gameplay is super fun. It's also one of the few games where I've really enjoyed getting all the collectibles I can. Overall, if you're at all a fan of either genre this game blends together, I think you'll enjoy it.

A great 3D platformer with a charming set of characters, interesting locations to explore, and an engaging gameplay loop. I'm not usually one to play these sorts of games, but I had a blast.

A great game with stunningly beautiful visual, great characters and voice acting, and a solid story. The game play is fairly straight forward, but very compelling. The majority of the time you're either sneaking around avoiding guards, navigating through rat-infested areas, solving puzzles, or even a combination of the three. The rat infested areas in particular are such an interesting concept, and adds an interesting layer to the story and world. The game also features a few boss fights, the majority of which are actually pretty enjoyable and flow well with the story and game play. The final boss however, is a whole different story. Thankfully, it doesn't sour the experience, and overall I'd definitely recommend you check it out.

Vampyr is a great little action RPG, with interesting characters, a great story line, and a pretty fun and satisfying combat loop. Your decisions throughout the campaign have a lasting impact, and can seriously punish you if you're not careful. The graphics also look great for a more budget AA type game.

Also, be aware that if you have a Ryzen processor, you'll need to download and install a fix, otherwise loading times will arbitrarily be insanely long (2+ minutes) even with an SSD. It was infuriating at first, but once I found a working fix things went smoothly and loading times were pretty reasonable.

Ghost of a Tale is a wonderful little game. It has loads of charm, with fantastic likeable characters, great controls, engaging stealth game play (albeit a bit simplistic), fantastic visuals, and is overall just a really fun experience. I really liked how certain outfits you wear can affect how characters interact with you. The game's lore is also fascinating. There's a lot more depth to the world than I was expecting, with tons of history to the world and its characters. My only gripe was that certain quests can't be solved until you complete something else first, which the game doesn't inform you of at all. Still, it wasn't enough to sour my experience, and I'd definitely recommend you check it out.

Amid Evil is a great throwback to 90's FPS, particularly games like Heretic, Hexen and a bit of Quake. The art style is great, with pixelated textures and sprite ammo pickups, combined with modern-looking reflections and lighting. The weapon models are also incredibly detailed sprites which look amazing. The combat feels great, and the weapons are varied enough to still feel fun throughout the campaign. The enemies vary quite a bit, with each episode having its own distinct enemies along with a new environment and aesthetic. The levels themselves are great for the most part. A couple episodes drag a bit, but most are a joy to play. Performance for the game is also excellent. With a GTX 1070 I was constantly averaging well above 100 FPS, sometimes up to 200. Overall, if you're a fan of old-school FPS games, I think you'll have a blast.

Quantum Break is quite a pleasant surprise to be honest. I didn't have incredibly high expectations going into the game, but the game play and story kept me glued right until the end. The game's combat, with its neat time powers, feels very punchy and impactful. The combination of the time stopping an enemy and spraying them with bullets feels especially good when it finally hits.

The story is pretty great for the most part, a bit 'hokey sci-fi' I guess, but it's fun and I definitely enjoyed it. The voice acting and performances really sell it and definitely elevate the story. It also does feel that your choices have an impact on the world, as many of your decisions are referenced and called back to several times over the course of the game. The television episodes are a neat concept, and give some insight on the environment surrounding the antagonists. They're pretty good, although they do feel a bit low budget at times, with some pretty obvious green screens, as well as some shaky cam during fights.

The performance of the game definitely leaves much to be desired. It does look very good, with really great character models, textures, and the time distorting effects looking really cool, but the performance is still pretty lacklustre for a 4 year-old game. With a GTX 1070, I had to tweak a few settings down to high/medium to get acceptable frame rates of 60-80 FPS. The cut-scenes are also locked to 30 FPS, and the sudden change is kind of jarring during game play. Not a huge deal, but definitely an annoyance.

Overall though, it's a great game and if you're at all a fan of Remedy's previous work, it's definitely worth checking out.

Dusk feels like a strange combination of Blood, Redneck Rampage and Quake all mashed together, but in the end it plays wonderfully. The combat loop is very satisfying and visceral, especially when you gib an enemy and they explode into red mush. The weapons feel very satisfying and chunky to use, and the movement controls are incredibly responsive. For the most part the levels are great and a joy to play through, although the second episode does drag a bit. A couple of levels are not the greatest, but the vast majority are fantastic. The game's graphics, with its low polygon models and pixelated textures, look straight out of 1996, which definitely adds to the charm. Overall, if you're a fan of games like Quake or Blood, or really any of the old-school first person shooters from the 90's, you can't go wrong with Dusk.

This is a fantastic remake of Resident Evil 2. The graphics look amazing, especially the character models and animations (including the zombies), which are some of the best I've seen. The gameplay is solid and satisfying, with some really chunky and powerful sounding guns, plenty of secrets and some pretty good puzzles to figure out. The overall story is also great. I especially liked how you can play the game through as either Leon or Claire and experience different perspectives of the same events, as well as seeing how they intertwine at certain points in the story.

My only complaint was that I was experiencing a ton of crashes due to memory overload. There are some fixes that worked for others that I could find, but my issue seemed to persist anyways no matter which I tried. It seemed to resolve itself when I lowered the texture quality to high (0.25GB) and turned off shadow caching, but it is something to keep in mind.

Overall, if you're a fan of any of the previous Resident Evil titles (or survival horror games in general), then you should definitely check this out.

Ziggurat is a great mix of rogue-lite elements and old-school fantasy FPS games like Heretic and Hexen. It's a fun and addicting game, and definitely worth looking into if either of those are up your alley.