Recent reviews by L33tr

It pains me how poorly this "remaster" was done.

There is so much potential with this release, but at this point it is completely wasted.

Aspyr, please, fix this broken mess.

TL;DR: It's an OK spacey RPG-ish game, but it is severely lacking in polish and refinement. One of Bethesda's weaker games. That said, it was interesting enough to keep me playing for 100+ hours. 7/10

This game follows the Bethesda formula, which both helps and hurts it. Without going into detail, the main quest is very "Bethesda-like", and the mechanics are similar to their last games. However, applying this formula to a game of this scale results in some shortfalls.

Pros:
+ The main quest line is actually pretty good, has a few twists and is overall pretty impactful
+ The weapon and equipment customization system is fun
+ Atmosphere is excellent in some locations
+ Spaceship builder is pretty flexible, I enjoyed spending time customizing my ships

Cons:
- Game becomes very grind-y as you progress
- The NPCs have absolutely no character. Cities are populated endlessly with no-name NPCs that wander aimlessly carrying briefcases. No one has a schedule, no one has a name or a story. It feels like everyone aside from the main quest companions is a cardboard cutout
- Faction quests are somewhat lacking. Particularly, I found very few likable characters, and the storylines are pretty bland. Most quests are glorified fetch quests
- You will find yourself repeatedly jumping from planet to planet, and the game becomes something of a menu simulator. The space travel itself isn't interesting at all. You basically arrive over a planet and there are a few random ships around, but you don't truly "explore" space at all
- There are plenty of bugs which will hopefully be fixed as the game ages/new content is released

The story mode of this game is absolutely incredible. Worth it even at full price.

The open-world aspect of the game is just massive. The world feels so full and vibrant, even when you're riding alone in the countryside. The characters feel real, and the acting is great. R*'s motion capture really shines in the story.

Combat is really fun, and rewards accuracy and strategy. The weapon customization system is a nice touch, I've probably spent at least two hours just at the gunsmith just customizing my loadout.

The only downsides of this game are the occasional technical glitch. Until recently, there was a volume bug where the game starts with extremely low volume that you have to turn up manually. I'm also running the game on a GTX 1070, and experienced some graphical issues; mainly, ghosting and hair appearing slightly "see-through." I'm sure with a better rig these issues would be mitigated.

So, if you have some semi-decent hardware and want a great open-world, but story-driven game, RDR2 is a no-brainer.

Side note: I haven't played more than a few hours of the online portion of the game, but it seems rather boring to me. Your character is wordless, missions are given without real motive, and enemies are literally called "enemies," with no further characterization. I'm sure it's fun if you have a good group to play with, though. Otherwise, the online world feels very lifeless.

Halo is a fantastic franchise and I'm glad to see some of its best titles ported to PC, and for a reasonable price. My only gripe with the port is that it is locked to 60 FPS when v-sync is on, so I'm hoping the devs are able to give us 144 Hz with v-sync. I would also prefer a cosmetic unlock system where you can unlock only the items you want instead of having to grind to a certain level to get some specific armor. Other than that, Halo Reach has aged very nicely and feels just as fresh as when I played it on my 360 in 2010. If you were to have someone who's never heard of Halo play this version of Reach, you could easily convince them it's a recent release. Some aspects of the game are a little unbalanced given that people are playing with KBM now though (it's a lot easier to land headshots with a mouse than a joystick), so expect to die a lot in games like SWAT and Snipers.

Summary:
+ Awesome job by devs of making a proper PC port
+ $40 is very reasonable considering it pays for five games
+ Reach still looks and feels amazing
+/- 60 FPS cap is alright, but I would prefer 144
+/- KBM support makes headshot weapons insanely powerful
- I wish you could choose what to unlock in the progression system instead of just grinding

I wish I could express how much of a gem this game is. The devs are constantly adding new content, and they've definitely gotten a handle on things by now. The game is in many ways totally different than what it was a few years ago when I started playing, and it's only been getting better. Not to mention, it's free. The only stuff you'd pay for is purely cosmetic, because even the in-game premium currency can be obtained through the trading community with items found in-game in substantial amounts. Can seem like a bit of a grind at first, but once you get some good equipment and a feel for the game, you'll want to keep playing and playing. You can play fine alone for most of the game, but it's always good to play with a few friends.

TL;DR:
+ Free
+ Devs constantly adding new content
+ Active playerbase + helpful clans
- Can seem a bit grind-y at first
- Occasional bugs, but not very often (lots of updates)

The worst part about Hellblade is that it can sometimes be extremely slow-paced. For a short game (6-7 hours if you play straight through) this is a pretty big problem. Slow movement and lots of very similar puzzles make this effect even worse.

Without spoilers, I can say that the ending left me confused and unsatisfied at first. This game's story is a lot to digest, and if you're not willing to truly attempt to understand the protagonist, it probably won't be an enjoyable experience.

The devs clearly wanted to make a game exploring psychosis and how it can affect a person, and if you're not looking for something like that, it'd be best to spend your money elsewhere.

Also, the combat system is pretty fun, one of the better parts of the game for me. It has rather simple controls, but still leaves room for the player to employ certain strategies or styles of combat.

Since I knew what I was getting into, I enjoyed the game, and can definitely recommend it to anyone who is willing to invest a little time into understanding Senua.

Summary, plus some other little tidbits:
+ Combat is enjoyable
+ Plot is entirely unique
+ Protagonist (well, the actor really) portrays real emotion
- Relatively short (6-7 hours)
- Slow-paced at times
- CANNOT be rushed through. Understanding the protagonist takes effort
- Is not particularly well-optimized. Framerates can dip even with strong hardware

The lack of a color blindness intensity slider makes this game unplayable for me, specifically for distinguishing blue and purple. I have mild deuteranopia, though the colorblind options for this game are very extreme, rendering them unusable for individuals similar to me. As soon as some sort of intensity adjustment is added I will revise my review, until then I cannot recommend it.

Update 7/24/17: Devs have indicated that no color blind update is coming. RIP.

The Turing Test is a short puzzler that was thoroughly enjoyable. While it doesn't quite size up to some of the other puzzle gaming giants (Portal, Talos Principle, etc.), The Turing Test provides a few hours of fun puzzles and an intriguing storyline. The major problems I had with this game were that some of the visuals looked a little unpolished (clipping mostly) and that the voice acting sounds a little dead at times. In addition, some points are made in the story but are not really elaborated on. In terms of gameplay though, the puzzles are mostly fairly easy (there are 70 total), though there are a few puzzles which were abnormally difficult. I took my time during one playthrough and totaled at 7 hours. Some more expansion on the storyline and more difficult puzzles would definitely make this game a lot better.

+ Intriguing storyline
- Could use a little more development in terms of plot
+ Good amount of puzzles
- Most are simple and can be solved in <1 minute
+/- Doesn't take up too much time (it doesn't feel drawn out, but it could definitely be a little longer)
+ Most visuals are stunning
- Clipping in some areas takes you out of the game
+ Main computer voice acting is appropriate
- Most other voice acting sounds a little off/dead

Bottom line, if you like simple, relatively easy puzzlers, you'll enjoy The Turing Test.

After completing the base game, I can agree with the vast majority of people in that this game is a lot of fun. The storyline is thought-provoking in a way that very few games are, and the puzzles are (mostly) fun to solve. As I progressed some of the puzzles seemed rather tedious, and some of the puzzle mechanics, namely the proximity mines, became really frustrating, but the sense of completion gained after solving every puzzle is awesome. If you are a fan of puzzle-oriented games (Portal and the like), you will certainly love this game. Provides a good amount of hours of content, not even including the expansion. Piecing together the story through bits of information works well for this game, and I thought its conclusion was handled nicely.

Really the worst parts of this game come from character animation. The jumping animation looks rather odd, and object interaction viewed in the third person looks off. Using first person alleviates this. Everything else in terms of visuals is stellar. I very rarely experienced drops in fps on a GTX 1060 at 1080 ultra.

Bottom line, if you enjoyed puzzle games in the past, The Talos Principle is not something you should pass up.

TOXIKK came as a very pleasant surprise to me. I'm not super experienced with arena-style shooters, but I've played plenty of "modern" ones, namely the new DOOM, but this is definitely some of the most fun I've had in a game. There is a little bit of a learning curve, since the movement mechanics are very old-school, but once I got the hang of it, TOXIKK became really fun. The gameplay is extremely addicting, the devs are awesome about updating, and the no microtransaction policy keeps everyone on the same level. Only wish that more people would play!