Recent reviews by jombily

A very dear game to my heart. It actually made me cry at the end, what the hell, I almost never do that with media, specially videogames.

You'll soothe souls as they part to the heavens, the unknown afterlife. You tend to your boat, Stardew Valley style, and you feed these spirits, house them, and prepare them on their journey. It has beautiful animations, a colorful world that's fun to explore and all the mechanics are solid.

A few ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ though, but do play it: no reason why you can't travel by night, the writers crammed a ton of dialogue on regular NPCs and while funny you can tell it needs some editing, the game sorta overstays its welcome by revealing a truth about Stella (your character) while still having to tend to spirits and some late game items would've been useful mid game and not right at the end....

But no matter. It's worth every bit you put into it. What a rollercoaster of emotions.

What a fantastic followup to to DOOM 2016. It's more Doom, yes, but not more of the same.

The enemies' designs and animations have been updated to resemble the originals as much as possible and the variety of attacks and, um, suffering you put them through while glory killing them is marvelous. For such a good looking game, I'm frankly surprised it runs as well as it does in my somewhat dated rig. There are story elements added, unnecessary I think, that tell a backstory of the Doom Slayer and it makes the Doom novelization canon, but you can ignore it, the game isn't browbeating you with it. The music is still the cherry on top.

As for what's changed: expect the gameplay to be more consistent with an arena shooter than the more claustrophobic combat of the first one as it stands in comparison. Yes, there's too many balls in your court to keep track of, plenty of weapons and upgrades you'll need to consider on the fly if they best suit your style of play and now Health = Glory Kills and chips of Armor = setting enemies on fire, Ammo = Chainsaw. Every area is designed to be Doomguy's personal jungle gym and to play this effectively you have to be constantly on the move. Really, really on the move.

Which is why I have to mention a wrinkle you've probably heard of already: The Marauder. The Marauder is a nice boss fight and it breaks protocol. The problem is when they sprinkle him in the middle of a battle with a bunch of other demons. This guy makes it all about him. This is the crazy ex that's stalking you and if you're out of the only ammo that makes a dent in him, better avoid him while you chase down demons to chainsaw to bits. Too close? Shotgun to your face. Too far? Beam of energy to your back. Mid? Axe to the crotch. If he blocks one of your attacks (or even another demon's!) with his shield, he sends a wolf made of whatever to crunch on you. This stuff brings the game to a screeching halt while you look for resources to manage his needy butt and wait for the right window of opportunity as his eyes glow green. The same could be said about the purple goop they included which literally gets you stuck on the floor and you have to lumber through it.

That being said, it's more DOOM, which is great, with a different angle. There's fan service galore, lots of replayability as you hunt down secrets and revisit areas with new abilities and, whaddaya know, the multiplayer is fun, too. Just get it.

This is when I wish Steam had a "mostly mediocre" or "unfortunately meh", not thumbs up or down, but a thumb wrestling recommendation.

Since I never played the originals at the time of their release or ever (not even Resident Evil Remake all the way through), I have no nostalgia or fondness for those. My first RE was RE4, one of my favorite games of all time, so playing the new RE2 in 2019 was new and exciting. I mostly loved that game. RE3...*sigh* was a disappointment.

The engine is the same, the gore effects are juicy as ever, the atmosphere is still nice, the game looks great. It falters in the gameplay in some ways. Mr. X was a menace and a nuisance that kept you thinking on your feet on how to proceed next. Nemesis, for all the hype and its fantastic design, is relegated to a series of set pieces as if they were preordained and they just mostly become tedious and boring (no scares here!). That's when you're actually playing the game as opposed to running down a corridor waiting for the prompt to proceed, as if this was Tomb Raider 2013 or the Uncharted series. There's too much of that. The hospital section is a nice change of pace and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

While most of it is underwhelming, the graphics are a treat, it runs smoothly, the characters are fleshed out enough to be likable but not too much that it gets in the way, and features foes and combat sections that are very satisfying. The story is bonkers as with any RE game. On the whole, while I enjoyed most of my time with it, I wouldn't really recommend it unless there's a fine price on sale.

Never actually been a fan of the "classic" REs, RE4 and RE7 are some of my favorite games independent of the franchise. That said, having never played RE2, I found this game incredibly entertaining. Leon is as lovably stupid as always and Claire's voice acting sounds more sincere and more badass. Unlike RE4, the game doesn't have "lots" to offer. Fetch quests here and there, ammo conservation, puzzles, and OK boss battles. And yet...it's weirdly compelling. I never felt much for the story or cared, but the world is pretty immersive and the gameplay very addictive.

Aside from that, just from a quality standpoint, this is as good as it gets, folks. It's a fantantisc game and from the looks of it (from watching Let's Plays of the original) an incredible undertaking to translate what worked in a '98 game in the year 2019 and as best as remakes go.

TL;DR: Having never played the original or had any nostalgia for the franchise, I highly recommend it.

This is an incredible game, nay, piece of art. That's not to say that it's to be put in a museum and isn't fun, on the contrary.

Lucas Pope never ceases to amaze. He uses any and all "setbacks" to his advantage. No real budget/time to animate? No problem! The player will use sound and dialog to solve part of the puzzle and, using these bits of information, recreate what befell the crew of the Obra Dinn.

Seriously, this game is amazing. Why are you reading this? Go play it. (no, I guess there's little reason to replay it and it is kind of irksome after a while how the game makes you wait after a set amount of time to really explore a memory, but still, amazing)

Grew up with the retro Sonic series and are apalled at each new game Sonic Team build? Yeah, I know the feeling.

However, here's Sonic Mania. This is the Sonic you know as it should be. Fast, giant levels that are fun to navigate with wit in design, clever additions, never a dull moment, and amazing new music. This deserves to be called a Sonic game.

Only downsides for me would be the 10:00 minute limit kinda doesn't fit with the huge, sprawling levels. I know it's all about replay and taking the route you didn't before, but the levels are huge and it sucks to lose to Robotnik because time ran out. That, and it's kinda short. Or at least it feels short. Think Sonic 1 length with the gameplay and rythm of later games, It leaves you hungry for more.

Furi is a wonderfully stylized barebones boss fight experience. From the get-go you're grabbed by the visuals and wonderful soundtrack, so much so that you really don't care who you're playing as or why a guy cosplaying as the Donnie Darko rabbit is tagging along.

Anyway, it has tight controls, memorable fights, and is way better than it sounds. Definitely "Even Better Than I Expected".

By no means a bad game, Valley has plenty of good ideas, some of them very well implemented, but these, sadly, do not take the form of a cohesive whole.

The L.E.A.F. suit is the game's main mechanic and selling point. It is fun to use and you will acquire upgrades as the story unfolds, however, the level design, no matter how polished, restricts many abilities to self-contained areas. For example, one of the upgrades to your suit gives you the ability to run fast through certain marked tracks, but it comes too late into the game (which not only feels but actually is very short) and seems detached from the rest of the levels. Same with your magnetic ability. Why are "these set pieces here and not in other places in the valley?" is a question that you'll raise several times. Contrast this to the Portal gun in both 1 & 2, which is perhaps the only gimmick in your repertoire, and the games give you a great variety of uses with its environment even though you possess just one ability. Or, if not, try a comparison to Metroidvania-style games where each new ability gives you new opportunities to explore those games' worlds, designed around that very fact. Valley is not like that.

The story unfolds through audiologs, which is becoming quite a tiresome way of telling a story these days, but unlike Bioshock, you will not collect them (where you could very well miss some of them and still understand the backstory of those games) so much as be guided to them and somewhat forced to listen to them right there on the spot. The story leaves much to be desired, as it is very conventional and your silent protagonist dujour takes it all in and accepts it at face value, and for all we know he is just some random explorer who might as well be called "Player: Your Name". As for characters, there are none besides those mentioned in the logs. The premise that the environment itself can take the shape of a character is nice, but it's lacking and despite being titled Valley, you will spend half the game in decadent industrial settings. You will encounter many of the creatures called 'daemons' along the way, but you won't form a bond with them, even though they become central to the storyline right when the adventure comes to an abrupt ending, which is detrimental to your enjoyment of this "wildlife" you'll encounter through most of the game but won't have a clue as to what they really add to the experience until its too late.

Somewhere in Valley there is a very good to even great game, but its flaws are hard to overlook. Despite great environmental design, quality voice acting, superb audio, and the amazing potential in the L.E.A.F. suit, it simply doesn't come together in the end despite the promise of a unique gaming platform.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my time in the game, warts and all, and kudos to the Dev team, but I feel compelled to add a contrast to the mostly positive reviews the game has gotten since those warts can very well be deal breakers for other players looking for a different kind of game. Valley has the potential, but it's not quite there yet.

To say that LIMBO is a great indie platformer does not make it justice. To say that it's deeply atmospheric does not make it justice. There are many, many indie platformers in the market, and I'm sure a great deal can be said about the positive qualites a good chunk of them have, but there is no replacement for what LIMBO offers: the experience. It is a standout game in a market flooded with indie platformers, but saying that is still not doing it any justice at all.

It is a standout game among any sea of games and you should play it. Period.

This is an absolutely incredible game. Avoid it like the plague if you just want a CoD or Battlefield style game to sit down and relax, but if your grew out of that mold and out of that phase, consider this title.

10/10 Yadda yadda... The good:

Buy it now if you like a narrative driven game that challenges your preconceptions of a war shooter and the war shooter genre in general, and in one swift stroke will help you meditate on the pursuit and immediacy of gaming in one that chides you for following the core mechanic behind the choices you make but may not entirely be responsible for. It is also about how the consequences of your actions may not accurately reflect your decision-making process. Yes, this game is a brutal ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of war, gaming, and free will in a manner that only this genre and this medium can deliver. I fully recommend Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation review as well as it is far more contemplative than the usual satire but just as pithy.

Still 10/10 but The Not-so-good:

OTOH, it's not without its faults. You'll find yourself in a beautifully designed world with, at times, clunky gameplay that drives a wedge between the player and the experience. For example, I had to restart far too many checkpoints due to the absurd amount of enemies (while on medium difficulty, mind you) that spawn at times where I found myself overwhelmed by the "enemy" and a lack of ammo. At these junctures, the game has a bad habit of recommending you downgrade to Baby's 1st FPS mode since you're dying so much, but even worse is the fact that I had to so I could move on once or twice. Not the perfect cover-based shooting system, or shooting system if we're honest, but nothing that will break the deal. Also, it relies far too much on hordes of baddies including Heavies and snipers and turret gun setpieces. I found these a bit tedious, to be honest.

On the whole, it's a shame this is the game that pretty much bankrupted the studio because it's a good bet that it will be fondly remembered in gaming history as a shining example of lovingly crafted storytelling and hailed as one of the best. It will also give you nightmares.