Recent reviews by TalkyPup

EDIT: Never mind, they fixed it.

ORIGINAL REVIEW:
I really want to recommend this game, but at launch, bugs and performance issues have made it difficult to even play the thing.

On first boot, the game launched at 4K native res. with everything set to Ultra. No internal resolution scaling is available. A bit much for my rig to handle. Lowering the resolution to 1440p in fullscreen mode causes the game to repeatedly cycle between fullscreen 1440p and 4K in a box in the corner of the screen (not a window.) The only way to run the game at below native res. is to change the resolution of Windows itself. In the process of figuring this out, the game has crashed twice. After trying out the replay mission feature, the game crashes a third time. Now every time I load my save, the game crashes, but instead of freezing, I get an error reporting window for Unreal Engine itself. So now I have to start the game from scratch or wait for an update. Luckily, I didn't get too far.

If the game is fixed, I'll update this review. In the meantime don't buy the game on PC without at least waiting for a patch.

Don't buy the game on console either unless they add gyro on PS5. It's 2022. Splatoon is 7 years old. Console players today shouldn't be expected to play shooters like its 2001 and Halo: Combat Evolved just came out.

Unlike the tidal wave of minimalistic, retro puzzle/platformers that have flooded the indie gaming scene, Thomas Was Alone takes the time to make this simple world and it's simple characters mean something more than an excuse for a video game, as it tells an interesting little story of AIs gone rougue, discovering the nature of the human world, and venturing forth to escape from their digital prison. The Stanley Parable-esque narration gives Thomas and the gang a surprising amount of personality for who are essentially just an assemblage of colored squares and rectangles, and there is definetly a laugh or two to be had from their verbal antics, but as far as the gameplay is concerned, Thomas Was Alone does little to differentiate itself from the crowd. There are plenty of other games that have done better platforming and better storytelling, but very few have managed to combine these elements in such a unique way. This alone is enough to give the game a significant advantage over most other minimalist indie platformers, but if all you care for is gameplay, then you'll still have fun 3-4 hours of puzzle/platforming goodness, even if you've already done it a hundred times before in other games.

Probably Double Fine's best work, proving that you don't need a huge budget to make a great game. Simple, intuitive, clever and very creative. A little on the short side, but loads of replayability. An underrated gem.

Even as someone who usually plays games for the single player campaign, this is easily one of my favourite FPS games. Every class plays differently and brings something new to the table, which adds some much needed variety and introduces some fantastic team based strategy. The characters themselves are also different from one another in terms of appearance and personality, making for some very likeable, not to mention hilarious, characters. Whether you're looking for serious action and strategy or just some hilarious shenanigans, I can't recommend this game enough. A+