Recent reviews by Jaxtrasi

Playing this game forced me to become cleverer.

Portal was a totally unexpected hit. We expected a puzzle game, we got one of the best written games of all time.

Portal 2 had to live in that legacy, without the advantage of being unexpected. Somehow it still delivered.

Easily one of the best games ever made. Holds up superbly. Mind-expanding. Funny. Brilliantly written.

Superb. Somehow treads a really careful line being being absurdly exploitative and powerfully meaningful at the same time. I never thought I'd battle a mech in the courtyard of a death camp and it wouldn't feel tacky.

A great remake of the original. Updates the core controls but retains the Resident Evil survival structure.

Maybe over time they'll fix it, but right now this game isn't ready for launch.

There are severe AI problems in both strategic and tactical mode. The system design is a step backwards from TWW2. The core design of the included campaign plays against most of the game's strengths and is a real slog to endure.

A trial and error game where failure is instant and cannot be anticipated, but each attempt could take hours.

A shadow of the previous game. There are definite improvements to some mechanics, controls and level design, but the scope and scale and story just aren't there. The story is both mediocre and unfinished. It feels like a DLC addon.

Subnautica is definitely worth playing, but in this case you should really start with the first game. The original is packed with incredible sights and experiences that would lose their impact if you played Below Zero first.

This is the best scifi story I've ever experienced. It doesn't just ask an interesting question, it provides an answer to that question and makes its case incredibly powerfully. It does this using the unique perspective of a computer game in a way that wouldn't work in a book or film.

Unfortunately the gameplay itself is quite poor. It's effectively a stealth game, but the level design and mechanics make it quite a boring and frustrating one. I highly recommend playing with a workshop mod called "Wuss Mode" which makes all enemies non-hostile. That way you still get the atmosphere and storytelling, but can skip the annoying gameplay that detracts from the experience, turning it into a very powerful walking simulator.

There's shonk, and bad design decisions here and there, but if anything about the premise of this game appeals it's very much worth a go.