Recent reviews by PCF13

alex is the biggest dumbass in the entire franchise

Literal meme of a game that's not worth playing. Next to nonexistent level design that betrays a really cool movement system, an incredibly stupid story made needlessly complex by being told without sequential order, a major visual downgrade from RE5, overly long and bloated especially compared to how short RE games usually are, and many more reasons you should just straight up avoid this one. It's not even funny, it's just downright boring. However, if you can get it for 5 bucks or less, I'd straight up go for it, just to play the very solid Mercenaries mode which, while I still prefer 5's, I easily put 24 hours into without much hesitation. Otherwise, the rest of the game, including the multiplayer DLCs, are just not worth touching.

There really isn't much about this experience that is redeeming at all. Repetitive and clunky puzzle mechanics, a total lack of any real atmosphere or scares, basic and unfinished looking visuals even at max settings, and an extreme lack of any sort of creativity whatsoever really sinks an experience that didn't have very much promise to begin with. Even for a short 30 minute game this really isn't worth your time, you could play literally anything else.

Pretty solid DLC for an already solid game. The only thing that's outright improved is the writing, which is a lot more engaging narratively and actually has an interesting mystery to follow, as well as some character development for Jacob Rivers. The rest is pretty consistent with the base game, more decent gameplay and fantastic atmosphere for Terminator fans to eat up. Some of the vistas are genuinely gorgeous and the inclusion of T-600s is really cool. Definitely worth the $15

I got Piotr Łatocha's Terminator: Resistance for my birthday after keeping my eyes on it for a long time now. Many Terminator fans call Resistance their new "Terminator 3" and I can see why. It's a genuinely good game made by people who were massive fans of the franchise, despite its flaws.

The game design is nothing special. It takes elements from numerous different AAA games over the years but plays most similar to a combination of Fallout and Far Cry, jank included. Side quests, lockpicking, item crafting, leveling trees, etc. It's all here and feels like Teyon trying to fill the big boy AAA shoes with a fraction of the budget and staff. Despite this, it's all designed well. The game is legitimately fun and the enemy/weapon scaling and balance is on point. Enemies always feel like a threat, even in the late game, especially the T-800 Terminators, which are entirely immune to ballistic weaponry. This means you have to sneak around them most of the time as direct engagements will result in a quick and painful death. Eventually, you'll gain the means to destroy them, whether it be stealth kills via the limited Termination Knives or acquiring laser weaponry of your own, but the T-800s never once feel like they've become cannon fodder. Teyon nailing this element was so key to them achieving the proper balance between fun gameplay and making the Terminators formidable, threatening, and scary. The side quests are once again, nothing too special but the game does make sure to remind you hours later that you completed them, like for example, showing a little kid playing with the puppy you rescued for him. My only real complaint from a gameplay standpoint is the choice system, which while perfectly serviceable feels like it does the bare minimum to make your choices matter, with the only real payoff being the supporting characters trusting you enough to leave the resistance bunker before the Skynet attack.

The story is pretty so-so. It's not that it's necessarily bad as much as it is just going through the motions. When you picture a "Terminator future war story" in your head, Resistance's story is exactly what you think of. It hits quite literally all of the beats you'd expect, and there are no surprises. Don't get me wrong, there aren't any plot holes, at least none that are significant, and it all works fine, but it just can't help but feel unambitious. It doesn't help that protagonist Jacob Rivers isn't much of a character himself. You get to customize his personality to a limited extent by choosing how he reacts to certain situations but otherwise, he's a pretty standard heroic soldier type, always wanting to do the right thing and having very little complexity to him. Where the writing shines is the supporting characters, who all have fully fleshed-out backstories. Each one has their past, their trauma, and their own "where were you on Judgement Day" type experiences, which are gradually revealed the more and more they trust you. Not only does this make each character feel believable and realistic, but it adds significantly to the lore, such as when Erin, the doctor, describes living in a Skynet work camp and being faced with a Skynet machine they nicknamed "Nurse Ratched", which had a stretched out rubber face made to look like it was smiling. It makes the world and characters feel fleshed out even if the story itself is fairly cliche. The only character I felt was weak was Commander Baron, who despite having a similarly detailed backstory, never really diverts far enough from action girl cliches to be memorable.

The visuals are limited by a lack of budget, but they capture the mood of the first two films so well. The game uses Unreal Engine 4 and its many quirks and traits can be seen throughout, such as overly shiny metal and glossy skin. I like to call the game "gorgeous at a distance" because when you're not looking at things too closely, it's often beautiful. Environments are nicely detailed, the enemy models look the part and animate well, and lighting is used exceptionally well to craft an oppressive and downtrodden mood. However, once you get closer you'll notice that, likely due to the budget, things aren't always up to par. First-person animations can be somewhat stiff, textures don't have parity with some being lower quality than others, and character faces are often hit or miss, with some looking solid and others looking downright uncanny valley. The game also suffers from a somewhat low view distance even at maximum settings, which can cause more object and LOD pop-in than I am comfortable with in a game from 2019. However, despite all of this, the game's impeccable art direction shines through. It perfectly matches the tone and feel of James Cameron's first two Terminator films. Steely blue god rays pour through ruined buildings, highways and skyscrapers rot from nuclear decay, a Skynet aerial HK flies through the air, spotlight sweeping through the rubble for survivors. Skulls pepper the ground, crushed into dust by oncoming Terminators. It feels like you're playing through one of Cameron's films and it's easily the highlight of the whole game. The whole game is filled to the brim with fanservice that always feels appropriate and never excessive. Despite some technical flaws, the game nails the tone it needs to.

The soundtrack, composed by a trio of musicians, like the visuals, nails the sound of Cameron's films. Synth and percussion-heavy, it's often tense, melodic, and moody. Some songs have been taken and rearranged from Brad Fidel's film score and they're used effectively. The original compositions hold their own as well and they can often hype you up, scare you, or even convey beauty at points.

Terminator: Resistance is a good, if flawed, game that actively exudes fanservice without ever feeling contrived or gaudy. Although the game struggles with uninspired gameplay, low-budget rendering, and a predictable plot, it succeeds in its atmosphere, art direction, soundtrack, and character writing. Highly recommended for Terminator fans, and fans of RPG shooters in general.

Not bad for a first go but not all that interesting either. The atmosphere can be striking at points but there simply isn't all that much to do in Fingerbones. The story, while well-written from a prose standpoint and conceptually interesting, is entirely predictable and doesn't end with any sort of shocking revelation. The gameplay features a total of two maps and you have to do a whole lot of backtracking to solve incredibly basic puzzles which don't take much brainpower to figure out. The visuals are simplistic but David Szymanski gets quite a lot out of bloomed lighting and low-resolution textures. The game employs pretty interesting ambient effects such as atmospheric groaning and a little girl's crying but reuses the latter a bit too much to be unnerving. Overall, Fingerbones is a bit of an average and mediocre experience, but for the debut project of Szymanski, you can see a lot of the concepts and elements of visual design that would permeate his future works.

I'm not gonna claim to be the game's biggest fan or anything but I did enjoy using VRChat as a way to connect with online friends in a more relaxed and casual atmosphere beyond the clinical nature of text chats. However, after the developer's choices to implement Easy Anti-Cheat, the game no longer supports a lot of community-made mods, making many utility mods unusable and allowing VRChat to become a significantly less comfortable experience for many and possibly even outright unplayable for disabled users, as well as causing compatibility issues for Linux and Steam Deck players. For a game that's entire appeal is the user-created content, this is unacceptable. It's like if Facepunch removed Workshop support for Garry's Mod. The developer claims to be listening to player and modder feedback, but it is yet to be seen how this will pan out, especially since they refuse to remove EAC. The game on its own should still play *fine* for most users but I encourage you not to out of protest for this anti-consumer move.

Despite loving classic FPS games, I never actually played any of the retro revivals. Although I own Ion Fury and HROT, I was more than content to stick to Doom. I finally got around to playing David Szymanski's Dusk about a month ago and I gotta say, it's easily become one of my favorite first-person shooters in recent memory. Originally conceived in the mid-2000s by Szymanski due to a desire to play less demanding FPSes on his low-end machine, development began in earnest in 2015, and after a period of rigorous early access testing, the game was finally released in 2018 to unanimous praise, kickstarting the revival of the retro shooter.

Like the games that came before it, Dusk is pretty light on story. There is one, but it's told to the player via bloodstained graffiti splattered across the walls of the game's many haunted environments and not through cutscenes. The game's main antagonist, Jakob, will occasionally pop in to spew cryptic and evil-sounding dialog, which while cool, isn't very substantial. That's about it. This isn't a criticism of the game, as Dusk isn't intended to be a narrative-heavy experience. What's here is done well but is mostly in service to the atmosphere rather than an extensive story.

The level design is excellent and emphasizes verticality, quick movement, and careful enemy placement. Leaping across the map in a single bound and landing a super shotgun blast onto an unsuspecting cultist is a real thrill ride. The weapons are carefully designed and all have specific uses without succumbing to bloat. The crossbow pierces enemies, the hunting rifle deals tons of damage at long range, the riveter can rocket jump, the super shotgun is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ super shotgun, et cetera. The enemies follow pretty standard retro FPS design tropes: the wizards are imps, the scarecrows are shotgunners, and so on and so on, but they're all both formidable and fun. Even if they rely on tropes, Dusk's enemies have a few tricks up their sleeves, such as the wendigos, who are invisible except for their bloody footprints and heavy breathing (until you manage to hit them, that is), or the priestesses who rely exclusively on melee combat. The biggest praise I can give to Dusk's enemy roster is the variety. There are a ton of different enemies who are specialized in different areas throughout the game's three episodes and they not only visually fit each theme but are also generally fun to slaughter as well. One of my favorites has to be the welders: overweight soldiers in boiler suits who blast fireballs at you via oversized flamethrowers and are especially satisfying to see explode into chunks of gore and red mist. If there's any enemy I didn't like, it would be the scientists, who while frail are extremely fast and can kill you in one hit. They're often placed in areas where you can easily be cornered. There are also a few levels here and there that aren't up to snuff, such as a late level which has a gravity-shifting mechanic which isn't as fun as it should be, and the game uses the "you fell and broke your flashlight" trick too many times to be effective. It's only a few levels though and it thankfully avoids the 90s FPS curse of the third act being total garbage. Dusk may not bring a whole lot new to the table, but it's the most refined boomer shooter experience I've ever played, avoiding most of the flaws a lot of them tend to fall into. It's pure retro FPS fun with very few drawbacks. Load that super shotgun, hunter.

The game's presentation also excels. Dusk aims to visually imitate games such as Quake and I'd say it mostly succeeds. Out of the gate, the thing I appreciated the most was the amount of customization that the game provides. You can tweak the graphics settings to fully imitate that low-res Quake-era look or you can boost the numerous modern graphical features for a more atmospheric look. I prefer the latter as the modern visuals are fairly modest and don't clash with the game's retro art direction. Dusk certainly isn't a stunner on a technical level but it absolutely matches the intended vision, and it's certainly not ugly either. The moody lighting and tasteful bloom make the trip through hell-infested backwater America a fun one. The general horror-themed nature of Dusk's environments calls back to the metallic space station corridors of Doom or the Lovecraftian castles of Quake, providing a sinister mood that makes what could have been a silly retro callback a genuinely tense and occasionally even scary experience. I love the settings as well. The first episode's backwater American farms and swamps give off grindhouse horror vibes, making you feel like you're gonna be the victim of some unstoppable slasher villain (the leathernecks even resemble Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th: Part 2!). The industrial Stalker-inspired pillars and hallways of episode two feel steamy and oily like you'd burn yourself or contract tetanus for even touching the walls. Episode three is when the environments get even more abstract, with gargantuan demonic cathedrals and nonsensical architecture being the norm. It not only unnerves you in different ways but also provides much-needed variety to the game's backdrops. Some of the weapon models are perhaps a bit too low-detail even for the Quake style but nothing in this game ever looks bad. Not to mention, due to the game's low technical requirements, it runs like a dream on almost any PC. It's a visual throwback that succeeds in delivering a Quake-like visual experience in both the atmosphere and technical execution.

The game's soundtrack was composed by the now legendary cult musician Andrew Hulshult, who had previously made a name for himself in the FPS community for his work on Brutal Doom and the Rise of the Triad remake. His work on Dusk is clearly inspired by Mick Gordon's soundtrack for Doom 2016, but with a more downtrodden feeling to it. Although certain songs can blend, I loved the variety Hulshult employs. Songs like Hand Cannon or Departure to Destruction feature skull-pounding doom metal riffing creating an ominous malaise of impending doom. Some songs, like Ashes to Ashes, Dusk to Dusk are low-key moody ambiances which in particular highlight just how tense the game can be. There are also tracks like the title track or Unworthy, which combine strings with guitars in a unique combination. It not only compliments the game well but also stands on its own as an awesome metal album, albeit a very long one.

Dusk is one of the finest shooters I've played in a long time. The game's fantastic and refined level design, weapon arsenal, and enemy sandbox make it an exhilarating experience, but the game's downtrodden atmosphere, low-key visuals, and intense soundtrack give it a personality I'll be remembering for years to come. Highly recommended.

Hacknet is, as the title implies, a hacking video game developed by Matt Trobbiani, stemming from a 48-hour game jam idea built into a full game throughout two and a half years. Playing as an unnamed hacker, you are called into the fray to investigate the death of a prominent hacker after downloading Hacknet, a new operating system designed specifically to exploit security issues in consumer servers.

Hacknet's story exists solely to give the player something to do other than poke around. It doesn't get going until halfway through the game, and by then you'd probably have forgotten the initial premise like me. Nevertheless, it's not bad at all, and there is a mildly interesting mystery for the player to solve. What's more interesting are the little side stories you can find just by poking around in the game. A screenwriter who wants to sell his terrible script to a movie exec, a man who is so addicted to an online idle game that he wants you to reset his score, and even a family begging to have their patriarch's heart monitor shut off. There are also small little IRC chat archives you can find, and they tend to be pretty funny too. The problem is that they tend to be repeated numerous times and after a while can lose a bit of their luster. Being a voyeur is a concept I have always found very interesting in gaming and Hacknet lets you excel at that.

The actual gameplay consists of, well, hacking. I have no idea how realistic the actual hacking mechanics are, but Trobbiani did a very good job of making them feel immersive. Everything is designed exactly like a real OS (highly simplified, of course) with command prompt and all. It's essentially a puzzle game, with the player using their newly acquired programs to approach increasingly difficult puzzles. Using a command prompt as your main weapon is a lovely idea and it plays out very well, adding to the immersion much more than Windows-style icons could have. The number of things you have to discover and the different ways you can discover them is insanely impressive and it feels as if an immersive sim and a text adventure game had a baby. My only complaint is that the side missions can become very repetitive, and they don't have a consistently increasing scale of challenge, making some of them feel like busywork instead of your next big heist. Trobbiani does try to add variety, such as having another hacker try to hack you for a change, but this variation does not occur as frequently as I'd like.

It's hard to say anything about the presentation considering the game consists primarily of text, but I'll say Trobbiani achieves the look of a fictionalized OS pretty well. You can activate certain visual effects like bloom and scanlines to make it resemble an old monitor, and these are nice small touches. The soundtrack is often praised but I'm afraid it didn't resonate with me. It's mostly fine but it's a pretty generic electronic score and after a while, I just muted it because I found it actively took away from the immersion for me. I understand why people love it but it just wasn't for me.

Hacknet is a very innovative title and one of the most creative indie games I've played as of late. Sure, it suffers from occasionally repetitive gameplay and storytelling, as well as a mediocre soundtrack, but the puzzle design, immersion, and raw sandbox-esque use of your abilities pull it forward. Not for everyone, but if it sounds remotely interesting to you, I'd recommend it.

Dropsy is a truly unique point-n-click adventure game from Tendershoot. Originating as a Something Awful "choose your own adventure" comic by Jay Tholen, director Jesse Bull takes a decidedly more lighthearted tone, creating a silly and refreshingly original adventure game that harkens back to times of old.

Bull and Tholen wrote a story about kindness and forgiveness. Dropsy's narrative is rather simple but told uniquely, using symbols instead of any spoken language. This make's Dropsy's story essentially universal, and it adds a lot of personality to the game. However, this can make certain story beats a little difficult to understand at points. The different NPCs you find wandering around town seem to have their own lives, appearing at different places at different times of day, which is an excellent touch. The world ebbs and flows and feels like it breathes, and that is a testament to the smaller details. Dropsy doesn't tell an Oscar-worthy story but it's one that mostly works very well.

As an adventure game, Dropsy follows genre conventions fairly straight. You wander around, solve puzzles, and push the narrative forward. Tendershoot does add variety to this by giving Dropsy a few animal friends who can reach certain areas that he cannot reach himself. Exploring the town is genuinely fun as not only is it visually creative but it has a lot of variety. However, Dropsy falls into a lot of the same pitfalls most adventure games do, such as occasional moon logic for puzzles and at points an aimless direction. There are quite a few points where I had to use a walkthrough because I didn't think to click on a random thing that was barely even in-frame. Since there is no written language, sometimes it's hard to tell what objects exactly are, which can make puzzles confusing at points. This isn't a problem for most of the game, but it can lead to occasional moments of frustration.

Dropsy's strongest element is its presentation. Beautifully detailed and fluidly animated pixel art paints a world full of variety and color. Each character you encounter feels different from the last, some are more exaggerated than others but none clash. Chris Schlarb's original soundtrack has a jazzy feel, with an emphasis on horns and bass, wrapped in a nice blanket of chiptune. The soundtrack is really what pulls the whole experience together and it lends the game a rather laid back, relaxed mood.

Dropsy is a very solid point-n-click adventure game that fans of the genre will adore. Its theme of kindness, its gorgeous presentation, and its fun exploration hold the game above its sometimes confusing puzzle design. Adventure fans itching for a more classic style experience would do right to check this out.