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A prequel to Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Old Blood has more story, but less gameplay. I recommend getting The New Order, as it's got more going for it, has the best story in all of the Wolfenstein games, however the best experience is to get both, as the ending of Old Blood ties perfectly into The New Order, back-to-back.

The Old Blood focuses on a much more supernatural vibe, akin to Indiana Jones, only with more blood, sci-fi technology, and war crimes.

Rudi Jager makes a great Nazi nemesis, with Helga, the penultimate villain, being a lot less interesting in comparison. Neither of them are Deathshead, but Rudi and his dog Greta are especially memorable.

For your friends, you have "Agent One", Wesley, who teaches a clever little trick about dealing with stress, which B.J. later recites in The New Order. Your contact in the village, Kessler, is an admirable resistance fighter, but like most of the characters in The Old Blood, doesn't have much character development. The woman he protects, Annette, is a Jewish refugee looking for her sister in the decrepit and mysterious town of Wulfberg, home to Castle Wolfenstein, the main setting for half of the game, and the place B.J. has escaped once already. You also meet "Agent Two", Pippa, as well as Fergus (the latter only at the ending), but Fergus doesn't receive as much characterisation until The New Order.

Although not as interesting of a story, The Old Blood is as good as any excuse to listen to B.J. Blazkowicz monologue, and the environments of the Nazi super concrete structures are awesome as ever to kill Nazis en masse in.

If you can, get both The Old Blood and The New Order. If you have to pick one, pick The New Order, although it lacks the supernatural, its more grounded but sci-fi environment is filled with overall funner gameplay.

The best Splinter Cell game and THE best stealth game ever made.

tldr
You get:
The weirdest and coolest stealth game soundtrack composed by Amon Tobin
The wittiest and most creative stealth game protagonist Sam Fisher
A cast of memorable government workers having equally memorable conversations and small talk while on the mission
Close-to-perfect level design letting you complete your objectives through multiple routes
Closer-than-ever stealth system that lets you hide in the darkness inches away from bad guys
Night-vision, thermal-vision, EMF vision
The funniest guards of any stealth game (apart from Metal Gear)
Pipe-climbing, vent-crawling, ledge-shimmying, shadow-sneaking action
And more

Ubisoft gets:
your money ($2.49 on sale)

You will need to patch the game a little bit, but so long as you follow the pcgamingwiki page on Chaos Theory to a T, you'll be playing no problem.

You'll want to put "-nointro" into the steam command line (accessible by right-clicking the game and entering its settings), the widescreen fix on thirteenag (linked on pcgamingwiki), and you'll want to disable mouse acceleration by going to the game's "System" folder, opening "splintercell3settings.ini", and editing all instances of "biasCut" to "biasCut v=0.0" (use the Find tool in notepad to locate all instances of biasCut).

If you want to get co-op working, use RadminVPN or any other software like it to set up a LAN party network. You'll want to disable the widescreen fix though, due to the fact it messes with the other player, at least in my case.

My only problems with Chaos Theory is that it is old, a few parts of levels are broken or buggy; the AI can have really dumb moments, but at their best they'll use teamwork to clear a room, at their absolute best they'll 360 noscope you like a Counter-Strike spin bot, punishing you for going too loud in a stealth game with absurd hilarity; some of the levels are less inspiring than others, but that's up to preference; the story isn't amazing, but at least it isn't trying too hard to be serious like other entries in the franchise.

There are few feelings greater than coming back to Chaos Theory and knowing a level like the back of your hand, breezing through it, slowly, smoothly, and quickly, without saving your game once. That's the bank level for me, and I'm proud to say I stealthed that level around 10 times before I became so used to it I could beat the whole thing without a guard even becoming curious.

Play this game. One way or another, you'll be wearing night-vision goggles and crab-walking through banks, boats, and batteries soon enough.

There are very few video game characters I'd want to be. V1 is one of them. Most video games you gotta worry about death, saving others, saving the world, et cetera. All V1 worries about is killing loads of robots, demons, angels, and other godless horrors, all the while deciphering the history of Hell like a metal-launcher-wielding-blood-fuelled Indiana Jones.

I've just beaten episodes 1 through 2 on the normal difficulty without dying once (not counting the lives lost), minus the final level where I restarted a grand total of 3 times until I found my Sifu training kicking back in.

It's probably the most tense boomer shooter I've ever played on a normal difficulty. The lack of quick saves or checkpoints becomes incredibly nerve-wracking, especially on the longer levels, and even on the intended difficulty can be surprisingly tough, if it weren't for my secret-hunting skills and the extra lives obtained from those nooks and crannies.

Upon first discovering INCISION it definitely was my "Mad God the game" candidate, but going deeper and deeper into the growth vivarium and beyond I felt much more like I was in a Lovecraftian story, and this time, a creature of termination, I was able to influence a level of eldritch politics I could never fully understand.

INCISION's story, unlike Mad God, is not completely surreal, but was very open to interpretation, and that's my favourite kind of story.

You play as a man who was "rebranded" by something he couldn't understand, and has been hiding in a desolate part of a walled-off city for a good long time, waiting for rescue, dissecting the corpse soldiers and flesh walkers to try and figure out what made them, and in turn himself, tick.

Then he gets a visit from the growth's army, and from there he continues his original goal, to delve deep into the world below his feet, constantly descending into something mankind should never have to tread.

Along the way I found the many humanoid figures, gone of skin, nothing but emaciated flesh and torn bone, curled into fetal positions or spread out among a pile of ammunition. You can even find some of these seemingly human remains in the [REDACTED], which makes you wonder if you weren't the only human thing to make it down that far, crossing between realities.

The combat and shooty-shooty-bang-bang action of a boomer shooter is here, and it feels good. Fast, slow, you never feel as if you're being choked into a certain playstyle, however you're never really forced to super-super fast. Level design is great, the weapon selection is beautiful, and Kitty is the most adorable bioweapon. It may not be bunny-hopping central like DUSK, you don't have the tactical forethought of Gordon Freeman from Half-Life, you're not the DOOM Slayer, and you can't shoot coins like it's Ultrakill, but you do have double-jump and the best melee weapon in any boomer shooter you could ask for: the saw-spear-blade.

When I replay INCISION, I've got to do a saw-spear-blade-only run, cause the saw-spear-blade is the most amazing-feeling weapon apart from the rocket launcher and the revolver spinny secret mechanic and it makes me wanna see more melee action in shooters.

In fact, the designs for all of the weapons top-notch, maybe even a little overcompensating.

[SPOILERS IN CASE YOU WANNA FIND THEM ALL FOR YOURSELF]
For one, you've got the saw-spear-blade. Then you've got a six-shooter revolver, which is the only weapon you could possibly call "subtle" in this game. Then a quad-barrel shotgun, a two-barrelled machine gun that can also fire several shots as an improvised incendiary grenade, Arnold's iconic Commando quad rocket launcher, Kitty the living bioweapon, a minigun that tallies its rounds via how many yards rather than the actual number, a triple-barrelled shotgun nicknamed "THE JAWBREAKER", and a meaty railgun infused with Lovecraftian energy.

The artstyle and level design is immaculate. The placement of everything, from death traps and weapons to story clues and dead bodies made everything feel really lived-in despite everything being inside-out. My imagination ran wild throughout the game.

Enemy designs are great, and their usage is phenomenal. Too many shooters will forget about the enemies of an earlier level, or forget to add new enemies to later levels, but SmoothBrain's INCISION, especially Episode 2, is very smart with enemy placement. Even after fighting hordes of later level enemies you'll still come across a few early level enemies, again making everything feel like a proper lived-in world, as if the corpse soldiers are steadily following your path of carnage.

My only gripe is the saving system, but only for repeat playthroughs. I didn't mind the looming dread of having to replay an entire level if I screwed up, however it'd be fun to unlock a cheat after beating an episode that lets you go back and play with either quick saves or checkpoints. Quick saves would be the easiest to implement, so that way you wouldn't have to go back through every. Single. Level just to implement specific checkpoints, but I presume with enough patience even that would be possible.

The only time I think any kind of checkpoint system should be implemented (outside of cheats) is in the boss levels. The parry miniboss almost made my heart take a leap when I realised that I still had over 100 enemies to kill after dealing with him, and then at the end, you had a special surprise of not one, but TWO more parry bosses, plus several late-game enemies. Fortunately for me I really like parrying, and I've always been a fan of horror games, so having a scare like that made the level much more memorable, even if I was anxious in the moment.

I also noticed how the level select option in the main menu didn't unlock after beating either Episodes 1 or 2, but I assume it's only cause it hasn't been implemented yet. Early access and all.

So long as you manage your extra lives well, explore the environment, and learn your weapons and your enemies, you'll do just fine on the easy or normal difficulties. I've yet to try anything harder, and will prepare adequately before doing so.

If you're feeling apprehensive about getting the game, I recommend waiting for it to leave early access or grabbing it on a sale. But the atmosphere, the sound design, the world of INCISION is easily worth your time. I didn't even mention the soundtrack, which is absolutely awesome and unique.

Chaos Theory has trained me for this moment.

Story wasn't the best, but it had me engaged enough to beat the game in two days, and, damn, it's a pretty fun game.

While the first few gunfights (and few more here and there) feel like a more generic cover shooter, the game's combat shines in more open arena sections, where you're darting from cover to cover, blasting foes with a shotgun and spraying down the rest with a machine gun or pistol. I was expecting it to be generic the whole way through, and for the climbing and adventure to really hold my attention, but it surprised me nicely.

Speaking of the climbing and adventure, both are done pretty well here. I haven't played enough platformer treasure hunting games to really judge, but the scenery is nice and the sunlight casting through the storm clouds is worth a screenshot every time, so I'd say it's good.

My only gripe is with a few moments of cutscene incompetence. Right after clearing out a whole town full of cultists, there'll be scenes where Lara is beaten up by two goons and momentarily captured. Similar scenes happen throughout the game. While I get it's to drive the plot, I'm not a fan of story and gameplay being disassociated, as it's the complete opposite of immersing yourself into a game.

(SPOILERS): When Lara is half-knocked out by a random cultist goon, the goon squad immediately gets attacked by samurai. One of these samurai is a full on boss monster, so instead of the machete-wielding goon knocking a fully-kitted Lara out, why not have the roided up samurai do that instead? The samurai capture Lara afterwards, anyway.

Otherwise, it's a 9/10. I can't recall buying it (and the fact I can't recall buying something is worrying) so I have to assume that it's one of those rare free games Steam gives away.

P.S. Even though this isn't really part of the story, I find it funny that as Lara sustains a ridiculous amount of wounds she becomes dirtier, bloodier, and more wounded throughout the game, yet the members of her crew are all mostly clean. I get that the devs put more time into modelling and detailing Lara Croft as you play as her, but I like to think that while she was out during literally every single essential thing for the crew's survival, they just camped out in the woods, chilled, and played poker while pretending to look for their missing crew.

The only two characters that I actually felt something for were the old boys, Grim and Roth, who were on their own similarly to Lara. There's also the fact that those two were friends with Lara's father as adventurers, so there's a lot more history to them than any other of the characters, minus Sam.

Another more important P.S. Read or check the pcgamingwiki page for Tomb Raider (2013). If you have a monitor like mine that the game isn't cool with, then the latest version of the game will be screwy and HUD elements will be out of place.

Go to the betas tab in the game's properties and select "build743.0" or "TR Build 1.01.743.0"

You have the genes of Pointman from F.E.A.R., Dusk Dude from DUSK, Doom Guy from DOOM, John Wick from John Wick, Sato from Ajin, and Henry from Hardcore Henry. The world is ruled by alternate reality Lord Jeff Besoz, the Amazon Corporation has been using you for anomalous study. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives have been killed to serve the research of the mega corp. End the cycle. Cut off the Amazon production line, and save the world.

9.9/10 "F.E.A.R. but with less lasers and office buildings"

No one can hear you scream at your friends in space.

Best co-op game of 2023. It's simple and to the point. This one developer who started his career off of roblox horror games, that of which I remember my brother playing, has definitely made what I could call a classic; a classic which I'm grateful to have been gifted by a friend.

From the aesthetic, the stylised look, to the environments, the music, and the atmosphere as a whole; everything about this game is screaming over a radio about how much of a classic it is. It feels like a PS2 game I would've played as a kid, but it has the social nature of modern friends games like Phasmophobia and Secret Laboratory.

Thing is, this isn't the kind of game you desperately need friends for, its atmosphere stands on its own. Of course playing solo is much, much harder, and I'd rather play in a public game if my friends aren't available. But solo is possible and it is nice to soak in the atmosphere without any friends screaming in the distance or begging for me to buy 'em a shovel.

There are sets of moons to explore and get scrap from, which you can sell to your overlord, the Company. A faceless organisation operating on an ocean moon with a gigantic facility acting as its trading base. You go out on a Company autopiloted ship, and find them scrap. Simple excuse for you to explore strange alien moons. And by strange, I mean as strange as the outdoors, as beyond the fauna and anomalies you'll encounter, the environments are eerily earthly.

From the warm deserts of Experimentation, Assurance, and Offense, to the forests of Vow and March and beyond on the hidden away ice moons of Rend, Dine, and Titan, populated with trees and wooden cabins. Except for that last one. Titan is the very opposite of earthly.

While the moons aren't very alien beyond the odd plant or land formation, the fauna makes up for it entirely, each creature practically a love letter to horror games and movies. From giant spiders cocooning their prey to shadowy figures snatching people in the shadows. You'll find things that could be excused as the local wildlife. And then you'll find things you'll question the existence of.

To understand more about the world's lifeforms, there is a bestiary. Each time you right click you scan the environment around you, which helps you find objects the company is keen on selling, but also detects lifeforms. Once detected for the first time, the data will be sent to the bestiary, which lets you read up on whatever you found, or whatever found you.

Of course you won't be going in with nothing but your bare hands and an iconic orange suit and gas mask. You're able to purchase equipment from the Company, from basic utilities like flashlights and radios, to the most effective weapon out there: a shovel.

All in all, Lethal Company's atmosphere makes up for a lot of its flaws, mainly being technical. While friends will greatly make the game more enjoyable, they're fortunately not a requirement. You won't even have to rely on public servers, but you will have a harder time surviving.

But most important of all, you must fill your Company quota. You must.

A platformer where you use a psychedelic portal to enter the minds of mostly-willing subjects.

It's weird, it's humorous, and the music's got some funky rhythm. Takes me back to old-school cartoons.

The story is also surprisingly detailed, complete with enough darkness so that the game doesn't get the dreaded G rating. And the best part is most of the dark subjects are self-contained, so they're not forcing edge in your face for the sake of it.

I recommend it wholeheartedly.

If you're not curious as to how a pregnant Frenchwoman would survive a Lovecraftian expedition, then this game will probably bore you. And if you're only looking for scares, you probably won't have as much fun.

This is a story game, first and foremost. The atmosphere, world, flashbacks, and all other narrative bits take the lead, while the scares play second fiddle. However, it's not Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, so you might still get spooked here and there. This game's more in line with SOMA, Frictional Games' previous title.

I'll admit, this was the scariest game I've played this entire year. I haven't come across many genuinely horrific games within that time, but this one unnerved me. The atmosphere is done very well.

I do have one main gripe with the main character, Tasi Trianon. She's French. She's not one to hold back all of her French. "♥♥♥♥. ♥♥♥♥. ♥♥♥♥. ♥♥♥♥." I'm not kidding here when I say she is going full-on French half the time, it's like she forgot she had a baby downstairs.

A lot of reviews have complained about her incessant talking. That's a good point. Barely leaves any room for the player to say "♥♥♥♥. CRAP. BLOODY ♥♥♥♥." for themselves, because the person they're playing as is saying all of that. At some points it did get annoying for me, but after a certain amount of time I considered she was talking to the baby. If she really meant for her French-filled gasp to reach her baby's ears, I wouldn't know for certain.

I'll also admit, that while the game may have unnerved me, I did laugh a lot in plenty of parts. For example: Comforting the baby, Tasi comments, "It's all right. We're safe." Then a spooky ghoul goes past for a brief second as mildly horrific music plays, and I let out a chuckle.

I can't count the amount of times that Tasi is thiiiiiiiis close to an escape, survival, or any kind of positive thing, before having either it or her pulled apart.

Picture this: you're just leaving a maze of horrifying caverns and tombs, with a black eye, several cuts and bruises, and you see a town with dozens of people all just waiting to help. And then a sinkhole forms underneath you and you're bye-bye.

After a certain point, I just laughed every time that kind of thing happened.

As for the endings, I began to notice a pattern, not in just this game, but the whole Amnesia franchise. But that pattern could be considered a minor spoiler, so readers beware:

In all three Amnesia games, there's always that one ending that basically turns the main character into a martyr. A few things happen: the main character dies, almost all of the characters die, a larger world or place dies, and the great evil is destroyed. I won't go any further than that.

In The Dark Descent and Rebirth, there are three endings. One of those is my described "martyr" ending. While in A Machine for Pigs, there is only one.

I've gotten every single "martyr" ending, and no other endings. I beat TDD and looked forward to beating it again and getting the other endings, but haven't done so yet. I beat Rebirth just this day, early-early in the morning, and I suppose Frictional DID change me after that.

To explain that last bit of the sentence, I need to paraphrase what one person also paraphrased.

In short, I came across a comment alluding to Frictional Games' new objective: to CHANGE people through video games. It's less about making them scared nowadays and more about telling a good story.

Rebirth, besides a couple hitches here and there, tells a good story. But can it change a person?

Well, the ending made me feel a little more depressed, but I guess that's what would happen if you lived to tell the tale of how you sacrificed everything, yourself, and everyone to stop an all-powerful evil. But it changed me through another way, too. A way which I only discovered after thinking about this for a bit.

My endings, from The Dark Descent to Rebirth tell me that I'm willing to sacrifice everything, everyone, and myself to stop a greater evil. Or simply end it all.

So, the game(s) did change me by revealing to me I'm willing to sacrifice for the greater good, whether or not it's the best choice in the end.

After writing all that down, I can't really think of much else to say. The soundtrack is good, but not entirely memorable, at least for me. Usually I have to listen to a game's soundtrack outside of the game to really recognise it, which I haven't done yet. I just beat the game today after all.

I can't say it was the funnest experience momentarily becoming a pregnant Frenchwoman. You'll notice most negative reviews here do boil down to "it was boring, not scary, and the game focused too much on being a pregnant woman." (I will add that the pregnancy is a major plot point, especially down the line. Anything else to add to that and I might spoil it)

You have to go into this game thinking it's more like SOMA than it is Amnesia. Thankfully it's no Machine for Pigs (although I do like that game's story, too, and the music especially) but it's also no Dark Descent.

To paraphrase someone else, "The Dark Descent was like lightning in a bottle, and they're not as interested in catching it again. Calling Rebirth an Amnesia game brings up several expectations from the people looking to play it. The title of Amnesia should be put to rest."

Would I call this game a game? Nah. I have to call it a game because it IS a video game. You buy it, you install it, you press "PLAY".

But this game is not played to win, but rather to experience a world and story that the studio wanted to flesh out through the form of a video game.

To paraphrase someone else: "If they want to just tell a story, then why make it a game? Why not a movie or a book?"

Games are interactive. When given choice (or the illusion of it) or even just multiple endings, and the time to explore a rich world with no movie run time to stop you, you get a different kind of experience.

Movies require casts, sets, heavy budgets. Whereas games - probably - halve whatever costs there are.

Books, have virtually no budget, but don't have the same experience as a video game.

And not to mention, it's a little silly wondering why a video game company isn't making movies and books.

I don't mind the fact I basically played a 3D visual novel, because I enjoyed that novel. If you're into Lovecraftian realms, eldritch horrors, and Amnesia's universe and story rather than it's spook factor, you'll likely enjoy this game, too.