Recent reviews by mcrib is back

Not going to pretend this game is perfect (Norton Mapes, some annoying enemies, underwhelming combat in the final level, middle section drags a bit) but what it does well it does better than any other game, including Max Payne, and the vibes are immaculate. Spiritually an adaptation of Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil films.

great game with an absolute home run climax/ending. can't recommend highly enough to fans of point and click adventures or narrative-focused games in general. writing is on par with Kentucky Route Zero/Disco Elysium, and honestly that should be enough for you to play it.

exactly what it looks like and exactly what i was in the mood for. cute, brief, feel-good, and fun.

solid game! if i have anything to criticize it's that the combat feels largely unnecessary until one sequence towards the climax. the enemies leave a lot to be desired and melee combat is extremely unresponsive.

that said, combat is a really small part of the experience of Mundaun, and everything else is pretty great. the visuals are unique and beautiful, the atmosphere is palpable, and the tone is fantastic. love this kind of folk horror. at 6 - 7 hours, it's a well-paced, worthwhile experience.

Obviously it's still early, but this game would have to take a massive downturn in quality in the latter portions to not land as my favorite From game. It's hard to imagine how they'll improve on this.

I'm starting to have dreams about optimal traffic patterns

One of my favorite games of all time, though you have to know what you're getting into to some extent. It's not a straightforward game by any means, with a very obscure main story (somewhat reminiscent of Obsidian's also-excellent Knights of the Old Republic 2 - The Sith Lords in tone and mystery) and extremely technical mechanics (for example: did you know that armor recovery penalties only affect your animation speeds and not your actual recovery time? Wow, I wonder how that interacts with wearing plate armor while dual wielding fast weapons!). Once you take the time to let yourself be immersed in the game, however, you're rewarded with deeply tactical combat and an excellent, rewarding narrative with one of the most satisfying payoffs I've experienced in a video game. And while it's true that the narrative doesn't change too much on replay (outside of varied endings based on the extremely wide variety of ways to complete different quests), there's still a lot to be had here on a revisit, whether it be attempting challenge runs on ironman mode or simply messing around with different party compositions. Give this one a shot!

as a fan of this series since the first game, i can say very confidently that Unity does the best job of realizing its initial conceit: the concept of being a "silent blade in the crowd", killing and slipping away unseen. to that end, Unity has fantastic crowd mechanics and a brilliantly designed world that allows you to actually make use of them. gone are the days of bowing your head slightly and falling in with a group of 4 monks and suddenly being considered invisible. instead, Arno moves through crowds like water, slipping into and through every available space. sure, it's not the most believable thing ever - you can move directly on the edge of a crowd while still remaining unseen - but it beats the alternative by a mile.

the game also features a much more rich and varied equipment system than previous AC entries, with individual pieces of your outfit contributing to different aspects of the gameplay, from the amount of time it takes to blend into a crowd to the amount of damage you take from a fall. you're also forced to make harder decisions about which weapons to carry, since you're no longer a walking armory, instead limited to one main melee weapon and a pistol, though there are still a plethora of gadgets at your disposal: smoke bombs, coin pouches, and perhaps my favorite, "phantom blades", essentially a replacement for throwing knives or a bow, as a silent projectile weapon that can kill instantly with a headshot. however, like the stealth mechanics, this too is imperfect, as many pieces of equipment are either locked behind co-op missions (which are technically possible to complete solo, but very very difficult), punishing players who like to play solo, and the very highest tier costs an astronomical amount of money - likely an effort by Ubisoft to encourage players to purchase money through microtransactions.

narrative is likely this game's weakest aspect. it's built on a very genuine and touching romance, but simply gets so many things about the time period and political atmosphere of revolutionary France wrong that it's frustrating, even for a person like me with just cursory knowledge of the period picked up from a high school European history class. in particular, its choice to portray revolutionaries as criminal thugs, bought and paid for by a small group funding the revolution, is downright insulting. that said, the presentation is great, and the fleshed out characters really help to carry the story along.

the things that cause Unity to shine are its excellent mission design and setting. its representation of Paris is incredible and dense - you can spend hours just exploring its streets. unfortunately, the rewards for exploration are not especially worthwhile, generally just small amounts of money or very occasionally pieces of low-tier gear, but the city is so beautiful that finding a new part of it you haven't seen before can be rewarding enough on its own. the missions are, in general, complex and challenging. many of the assassination missions have unique objectives and kill opportunities, providing a great sandbox for a creative killer.

ultimately, Unity is a flawed game, but the ambition and brilliance of it can't be denied. several years after its release, the infamous game-breaking bugs from its launch are entirely gone, though their existence is evident through the occasional bugged animation. however, in my 30+ hours playthrough, i didn't experience a single crash. frequent sales push the price of Unity down to $10 or below, but honestly, it's a steal even at full price.

Probably the most ideal version of a Mad Max game. I can't really think of any way it would've been better in terms of adapting its universe. There's a few minor quibbles I have with it as a game, but pretty much all of them can be overlooked in light of just how much damn fun it is to play. Can't recommend it highly enough to fans of the movies. It comes slightly less recommended if you're unfamiliar with them, but it's still an excellent game.