Recent reviews by hostile_being

An incredible action adventure that absolutely nails the mood and atmosphere of a nightmarish but beautiful world. The map design is amazingly diverse and superbly crafted. Every area has a distinct feel and filled with memorable vistas, remaining visually stunning despite a low-poly style. Populating this world is a huge range of creatures, with the combat feeling impactful and varied.
Absolutely amazing that this is all the work of a single developer, who seems intensely passionate and skilled to have crafted such a piece of art despite it being their first game!

This reimagining of a classic game manages to retell its source material with updated graphics and gameplay.

The main purpose of this remake was to keep the classic level layout and just update the graphics, however the developers seem to have taken it much further, updating maps to a huge extent. While some of the maps have been extended unnecessarily, most of the changes create a far more interesting experience for players of the original game. While pacing suffers somewhat, Black Mesa manages to update Half-Life's iconic setpieces, creating distinct memorable gameplay moments throughout the whole game.

The gunplay feels weighty and challenging, with all guns giving a punchy performance. The sound design is incredible, with eerie soundtracks at just the right moments.

While the first few levels of the final chapter have only just been revealed in beta form, I am confident in Crowbar Collective's current version of Xen being a worthy conclusion to this awesome game.

A new game from the creator of Papers Please, Lucas Pope.
This is an incredible game, innovating in so many ways. The graphics, character development, gameplay and story telling are totally unique, and made even more impressive as almost all of it was done by the one developer.

Return of the Obra Dinn is a deductive puzzle game, where you play as an insurance agent investigating the cause behind the disappearance of the crew of the Obra Dinn, using an ability to observe final instant experienced by a dead crewmember. Your ultimate goal is to fill a logbook with the correct arrangement of names, pictures and fates of all crew members before leaving the ship.

The game is relatively short for its price, I completed it in under 7 hours (my total playtime includes a second playthrough for achievements). Normally I would say wait for a sale, but this game is just that good, that I'd recommend it even at this price.

This is the first visual novel I've ever played.
What I expected: anime girls, sappy high-school plot and weeby ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

What I got: anime girls, PTSD and Ḿ̳͕̠͙̫̱̘̦̲̬͈͇̞̗͘͞Ọ̵̸̩̻̼͉̻̩͙̦̳̩̲̣̳͉̹͎̀͜ͅͅŅ̸̨̧̪͓̩̮͔̟̫͘I҉͕̪̦͚̘̦̥̞̻̮̹̟̮̘̯̼̺͘K̸̬͙̫̥͓̘̳͕͠Ą͓̞̮̲̻͝ ̷̡̪̤͙͇̘̜͈̫͈̙͉̹̖̺͘͞

In response to the publisher's decision to issue major GTAV modding community OpenIV a cease-and-desist letter, I cannot recommend this game to anyone.
I believe that being able to mod your own game files is what makes the PC platform great, and by taking this course of action, Take-Two Interactive is actively harming their own property in the long-term.

Read the letter from Take-Two on OpenIV's website here:
http://openiv.com/?p=1324

I will remove this negative review if Take-Two reverses this anti-modding policy and acknowledges the benefits that their biggest fans - the modders - have upon their game.

A timeless shooter set in post-disaster Chernobyl. This game excels in building a diverse and detailed game world that feels more alive than any other I have ever experienced.

From the unique setting to the minimalist and dread-inducing soundtrack, the game is drowning in atmosphere. This changes what would have been a run-of-the-mill open world shooter into something truely unique: excursions underground into abandoned Soviet bunkers are some of the most terrifying experiences I have ever played.

NPCs and questgivers move around the world between areas even when you aren't nearby and engage in combat against beast and rival factions dynamically. Even the monsters roam across the rust-speckled landscapes in migrations that give each area a life of their own.

The graphics, while dated, display some incredible dynamic shadows, and are extremely well utilised during night-times or underground areas. Easy to install graphical enhancement mods go a long way to bring the game up to date with modern poly-counts and texture quality.

Initial impressions of the game may disappoint first-time players, but be assured that the opening area of the game is easily the weakest in terms of gameplay and setting, and the game will quickly expand into a more open and gripping narrative.

Version 1.0 Patch #2
This game is an example of how great ideas, mechanics and gameplay designs can be swamped by problems that come with the territory. While Starforge has lots of content, interesting physics-based gameplay and being an all-round good survival game, bugs, poor performance and graphical issues can seriously destroy any sense of enjoyment.

I recently put a bunch of hours into a survival game, progressing through the technologies I've discovered and building bigger, and better houses and bunkers. Exploring the weird and wonderful terrain variations in a hard-earned hovercraft really gave me a sense of achievement in the gameworld, and a sense of pride in that giant Monolithium bunker I had built underneath a mountain for no real reason.

Unfortunately, this was where my fun was really starting to be sapped; the poor performance (it really never gets above 30fps on higher graphical presets) led to inconsistant crashing of the game, and eventually managed to corrupt my savegame to the point that it is no longer recognised.

Overall, I think this is a good survival game - when it works. However, if you are looking for some investment of your time in building structures (something that was pushed by the developers), I would say to stay with Minecraft - this game is just too unstable for it.

This beautiful indie title contains one of the most immersive gameworlds I've ever explored. You wake on a huge wild island, sick with a plague which has driven you from your homeland, and you must utilise the islands local flora to create a cure. Through all this, you can try to piece together the story of the island's previous inhabitants while the feeling of being watched encrouches on you - you are being hunted. If you like survival, exploration and subtle story telling, you'll love this memorable game.