Recent reviews by Misha Tarkus

When's Deathloop 2 (please don't close Arkane Lyon)

You know what this is about

Final score for Sonic Frontiers is a solid 7.5/10.

For full clarity, I'm the sort of guy that doesn't much like Boost Gameplay and wasn't super into Generations. Frontiers' main strength comes from its snappy and precise movement mechanics combining with some fun things like maintaining momentum jumping off a rail or flinging yourself uphill with a dash allowing you to interweave movement setpieces in the overworld, do them in unintended way, to just blaze through the intended paths. The overworld platforming felt fresh and fun, even if not as momentum based as I'd like - there's an actual degree of decision making and challenge that has been sorely missing from most boost entries in the franchise.

The combat (on Hard, the difficulty I played) while a far cry from complex often necessitated me to use the many attacks to pass a damage check when fighting the diverse roster of mini bosses, or my punishment would often be them going for another non-damage phase before my next opportunity to attack them. This was me being tested, and failure resulted in time loss, which felt appropriate for Sonic. Their varied designs and mechanics felt fresh and interesting, and only a couple are recycled across the whole game across the overworlds.

Super Sonic gameplay during the fights is not the best thing ever and I wish parries were timing based, but they felt like a kick-ass spectacle that nevertheless allowed for some expression and had interesting elements to them. The minigames, similarly, were mostly on the side of fun rather than annoying. Big the Cat's fishing specially felt designed for those that simply didn't like an aspect of the core loop of grinding for the next story segment, allowing you to skip to purchasing items faster.

The Cyberstages varied wildly in quality - the 3D Cyberstages, while sitll borrowing a lot of elements from Generations and other Boost titles (and at times, assets and whole layouts) felt fun and dynamic enough due to using Frontiers' movement, where boost is less an automatic play the game for me button and more a quick dash tool in your arsenal. The 2D stages were consistently bland and boring, but doing them was in no way really required.

The story was pretty good, although I wish the presentation was more enticing than simply characters talking all the time. All the same, the writing by Flynn clearly is interested in writing the wrongs of modern Sonic writing, and Sage is a good addition to the core cast. It also had some of the wack we've been sorely missing from more recent entries.

Overall, music was good. Overworld themes varied in quality, being a little too BOTW understated at times, but otherwise all tracks were excellent.

It's a fantastic foundation for Sonic to build off of, and hopefully it will actually be used as a foundation rather than thrown carelessly to the wind as Sonic Team sometimes tends to do. Still hoping for Adventure 3, though.

Final Score is 7.5/10

Almost every negative review for this game is fueled by bitter fans of Victoria 2, a game that prized itself on needless complexity while having no true depth of its own other than the obtuse nature of its systems.

Victoria 3 is a great base to start. The economy system requires some tweaking so succeeding is slightly more difficult once you understand fluctuation, and the military aspect of the game can expand in meaningful ways, but as far as releases go, this is Paradox's biggest hit in ages.

Ground Zeroes in many ways encapsulates everything that The Phantom Pain could've been with a tighter focus and more time in the oven. For a game with only one map it is excellent at details and extracting the tiniest value out of every bit of it. A fun time I 100%d without getting bored, and played a bit more anyway just for the heck of it.

A great time - rather than just a nostalgia callback, it brings plenty of good, solid mechanics into the mix that make gameplay dynamic and satisfying without being complex for complexity's sake. In my opinion, plays much more satisfyingly than something like Streets of Rage 4, a good game that nevertheless feels like it's trying too hard to do too much.

Excellent music and visuals, but that should go without saying, the game made me smile several times with the attention to detail and care in the vision it has for itself. Multiplayer worked flawlessly too, playing as a Brazilian with a man in China with very little desync or noticeable lag.

If I have any criticisms, I'd say the audio mixing for sound effects can be a bit messy and the game is rather short, although I recognize the workload each level brought to bear. I would like to see content expansions and more difficulty modes to really amp up the challenge.

If you've never played Stanley Parable before, this is well worth your time. If you have, however, I would not recommend purchasing this outside of a severe discount.

To keep this short and sweet, rather than a considerable packet of new content, most of the new content is simply a collection of new, sometimes funny gags awkwardly bolted onto the original game. Yes, the game also makes fun of this fact, constantly, and some of the jokes are funny.

But in the end, there's nowhere near enough content to justify the asking price, and pointing out the thing you're doing is rather lazy doesn't make it suddenly alright. If this was just the prelude to a true expansion of the experience it'd be one thing, but you just get more and more gags until it ends.

I feel it doesn't match what was quite promised to returning fans, but still, as a definitive edition of the product, it is fine. As said, if you've never played it before, or don't mind the price as a returning player, feel free to go ahead. But otherwise, skip for now.

Outer Wilds (vanilla) Final Score: 9.5/10

My only criticisms are extremely nitpicky, or stuff that isn't entirely under their control. The game is a bit of an achievement. and the fact it is in Annapurna's catalog honestly just draws to the light how inadequate most of their 'games' are. In the game, you have three ways of interacting with the world: Spaceflight. Vernier maneuvering on a spacesuit (including walking and jumping). And your camera scout, which can be thrown and takes pictures.

With just these three modes of engagement, you are thrown into a miniaturized solar system and left off to explore. You can take anything in any order, and the plot can unfold in a myriad different ways, both you finding out what the plot is and how to get to its solution. Unlike Deathloop or many other games, you are solely gated by information, and I don't mean codes or something of the sort. You have all the tools to solve every puzzle, mystery and challenge the game throws on you from the get go: You just need to either solve them yourself, or find the right clues through exploration. Exploration is incredibly engaging, and the simulates physics and micronized cosmic concepts such as gravity wells, weather and other effects are incredibly fun to playa round with. The music is minimalistic, but very effective - and while the graphics are simple, they more than compensate with scale and presentation. The game constantly did things with its physics and planets that had me agasp - it's a full simulation, and it can do ♥♥♥♥ with its environments that leaves me flabberghasted.

The plot evolves extremely well non linearly, and there are pelnty of spots where you can break progression somewhat hard, but break in a good sense. The game is a set ofd different mysteries that have to come together, and the fact you can skip some or figure them out in different ways adds to tis charm. It was never boring to explore, and I rarely felt myself having to use the journal log to go "♥♥♥♥, what did I miss". Reading dialogue wasn't exhaustive, as they are kept short and sweet and almost always have something to say.

The writing is also clever, and everything comes together in fun ways. The tone is kept extremely appropriate throughout.

The bad: The fact that environments evolve over time and change is extremely cool, but has one big downside - there are a handful of places where the solution is timegated, and the lack of a press T to wait button is felt sorely. Instead, you need to find a campfire and wait there, which is a weird process where instead of picking how much time you want to wait, you read out a clock as it slowly ticks forward, and the screen is black so you can't even make a visual aproximation if you're when you're need to be. This makes revisiting a few locations extremely frustrating, specially if you miss one thing in a place that's a ♥♥♥♥♥ to get to.

Physics can sometimes be a bit glitchy here and there and interfere in some puzzles. And despite 99% of the game being perfectly playable on KBM, there is one specific section where it'll fail you, or at least make things incredibly frustrating.

Only just started with the DLC, but it's integrated into the campaign intelligently thus far and the production quality is immediately better. Very excited for it. Might update later.

Deathloop is the best Arkane Game released yet.

Now that is a bold claim, I realize that, and I'll try my best to justify that whilst spoiling a little as possible. I've seen the criticism "watered down Dishonored", and I feel that comes from a fundamental misunderstanding of the work. This is not watered down - this is *purified*, distilled to its rawest and most engaging form, like a drug condensed to be as powerful as it can be. I'm not doing this to ♥♥♥♥ on Dishonored, a series I also enjoy greatly, but to make a point - anything superfluous or 'extra' has been cut to make the experience as raw and direct as possible.

Morality is gone, the gameplay is tighter, and your powers more destructive and spammable. To compensate, you're often limited to a small handful of weapons, and have to contend with Julianna being on your tracks at every turn. With drastically reduced resource management - health, ammo, mana and grenades are refilled as you move from region to region - the levels become a more freeform sandbox for you and your invading Jules to play around with one another in elaborate games of cat and mouse, as you dig into the large, expansive levels Arkane has become known for. As you learn them like the back of your hand and your proficiency increases, once insurmountable challenges become easy to handle, and it is only through those online invaders that your run meets the proper match in a setting where both players are fully aware of the tools available to them, with *the level* being one of those tools.

The story is also the best out of any Arkane game, and one of the best stories in years. It's a charming storyline that is actually about something, but will not spoonfeed you answers *or* its themes, letting you draw your own conclusions from its ever expansive world. Colt and Julianna are highlights, with superb dialogue writing, witty chemistry and top of the line voice acting making every single exchange of banter a joy to listen to.

The music and art direction deserve high praise, as well - the artstyle is wonderfully original and realized, far be it from some half-assed 'retro' aesthetic like other games have attempted, with careful consideration into the practicality of the world, how people live, how their lives look like. And the music is a wonderful jam of 60's Bond motifs combined with a Prog-like Rock progression that I can't help but adore.

Don't go in expecting all the answers - expect a mystery you'll have to figure out piece by piece, secret by secret, and will likely leave you wanting for more in the end. The gameplay is tight and engaging, although I will say this is the first Arkane game where I'd say going loud is not only viable, but much more fun than its alternative. The campaign has been polished to a fine sheen, with very little fat despite the gimmick providing it a considerable length despite never growing frustrating.

If you have friends that also play it, I'd recommend setting it to Friends Only, but if you don't, take the risk and go Online. It might result in a few frustrating fights early on, but the game really doens't work without Invasions, and the Offline Julianna is seldom a worthy opponent. The PvP has been rather well balanced so that due to Colt's extra lives, he will walk away victorious in most engagements, although Julianna will likely take a life or two - meaning most engagements are satisfying to both parties involved. It can only really be frustrating early on when you lack the necessary tools as Colt to fight back against some of the Slabs she might carry.

As for Performance, I had no real issues outside of some laggy Online Julianna play with people far away. I do understand Denuvo causes severe issues for some, and it is my personal stance that whoever is insisting on it - be it Arkane or Bethesda, they should stop it. It seldom prevents piracy, it reduces performance, and generally impacts goodwill.

The game deserves nothing but praise, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. If I had to add some cons, there is one particular puzzle in the lategame to whom missing a clue has the punishment of ... doing the puzzle again, which was strange but a small marr on the overall game. Aside from that, early loop AI (AI scales with how late in the loop it is and how many targets you killed that loop) can be a bit daft and slow on detection, but IS replaced with more capable Eternalists over the course of the game.

I will say that whilst I understood it as part of that 'refined' appeal, some people were frustrated finding the 'perfect loop' is a question with a singular answer - I found it satisfying as it made the entire thing 'click' and it felt like putting together a mystery myself, but some people seem to have hyped themselves into imagining the premise in a much more expansive capacity that I only hope Arkane can make true in a DLC or sequel.

But if my criticism of a game is only nitpicks and 'I wish there was more', I can seldom complain, can I?

TL;DR: This is the little game that could. Many say it isn't worth the price right now, but I disagree. Even if you only plan on playing it once on Standard difficulty, it clocks in at a good 8 hour campaign, and it has enough to warrant replaying quite a few times. Review will be updated over time.

This is a great game dripping with charm and passion that obviously didn't have much money, but was carried on by the other two. If you are an aliens game or a fan of games like Left 4 Dead and Vermintide, I think this is absolutely a game for you, specially if you have a friend or two to follow you.

The game works on a system of Acts and mission, each Act composed of 3 missions, with 4 Acts on release. Each 3 mission goes on for 30 to 40 minutes, give or take, with preset overall progression and some fixed events pertaining to story beats, but a randomized spread of enemies and random ambushes. The variety in playstyles with the different classes, the difficulty and the slight random elements provide a good sense of replayability to the game in its current state, whose final goal is to level up the classes for more varied builds and find a variety of new weapons and items.

Most encounters feature a design where you are either holding out in a room (sometimes, with proper time to setup) or getting ambushed in smaller encounters in small corridors, and the different layouts often require cooperation between players to hold out different angles of approach. Communication is key, which is why the lack of innate chat is strange - I'd prefer either an easily accessible in-game voicechat, a textchat system, or a much more robust ping system than the current "Look over here". Devs should look to Vermintide's dynamic ping wheel for inspiration.

The levels drip with Aliens love and ambience, and even a fair bit of care for Prometheus as well. Different alien types are taken from all sorts of different sources, most of them having been seen before and being portrayed appropriately to their character. I love details like the fact the Drone (seen in Alien the first movie and Alien Isolation) imitates that 'peekaboo' behavior, where it'll attack you for massive damage then go and scurry off, compared to more differing methods of attack from other Specials.

If I had one complaint, it is that currently Specials feel underused and somewhat underdeveloped. Their unique characteristics aren't built on enough to constantly force a change in playstyle, and outside of Bursters and Spitters, you rarely face multiple at a time even in higher difficulties. From what I've heard, the difficulties above Intense - specially the highest one - tend a little towards bullet sponges and severe ammo scarcity, and I think more hordes with more specials at the same time would be a much better balancing act. On the same dime, you could make them a lot more unique - give aliens another type of spitter that denies large areas of space and splits teams apart, make the Crusher charge more of a proper charge rather than the kind of reskinned pounce it current is, in general, polish them and make them more special.

Many complain about the two other enemy types - without spoiling much, there is a gun-toting faction with suicide enemies, and another alternate alien-like faction that has both humanoids and special four-legged pouncers. I greatly appreciate the attempt to add more variety, but they feel underused (the first is limited to but a handful of encounters, and the second to two missions in a single act) and somewhat limited. They need more enemy types that feel different and more engaging combat compared to the xenomorphs, and once again, don't feel afraid to make them more different! The humanoid faction has a shield-toting enemy that I kept trying to attack around the shield until I found out I could've just ... shot the shield and still done damage (even if less damage).

Nevertheless, the combat encounters are dynamic, interesting and I found myself in the highest difficulties often acting like characters in Aliens, coordinating with my friends and slowly making our way through the level, treating the Aliens as opponents that cannot be underestimated. The campaign has enough variety in environments and events to keep myself interested despite obviously being more of a budget game, and besides the lack of real boss fights, no big complaints.

Horde mode is fun, but it scales in difficulty fast. The consumables are great, but it feels mines are underpowered due to how quickly they blow up for good - maybe they should only explode when a group runs over them rather than a single alien, or maybe they should blow up a few times in sequence rather than explode and be done.

There's a lot of guns and most of them feel unique and different, and the game has one of the most fun flamethrowers in a long time. Friendly Fire adds plenty of consideration for weapons, and the Class Abilities look and play different enough to encourage different sorts of play, and the grid system is interesting and neat. Cosmetics don't feel intrusive and for the most part fit the aesthetic, which I really like. Balancing feels a bit off with them, however - nothing broken, but Doc feels underpowered and Gunner feels very very strong, specially on higher difficulties, but I expect that will be nailed and detailed over time.

The writing is simple, but effective. It's a quintessential Aliens story that whilst nothing to put on a list of greatest narratives, kept me engaging and if anything, could've used a bit more focus on a couple of the characters.

As for the difficulties - if you are entirely in Solo Play, you should definitely do Standard, as it'll provide a decent challenge - even with Friends, it might be best to run through Standard first and foremost. Intense is quite difficult and requires cooperation between the three squadmates, but I also find it the most satisfying difficulty.

Matchmaking is still a little sparse, but has been fixed significantly since launch and I feel they have constantly found partners, but I'd enjoy a quickplay or lobby browser system *immensely*. Developers have promised new content for free, and I approve - I have faith it'll deliver and expand on this great little game. If they require further money, however, I feel the current DLC model isn't a bad one, similar to the system Deep Rock Galactic uses - purely cosmetic DLC priced in full merely to show support for the Devs. (although one shotgun is in a DLC, it is a slight stat change of the existing pump shotgun and not that great, but in the future none of that please)

Overall, I strongly recommend this game and enjoyed it immensely - I have great hopes for its future.