Recent reviews by Snipestorm

Best narrative game I've played since the Last of Us and is clearly influenced by that great game. A super super game!
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Starting the game in the beautiful French countryside the developer Asobo Studio works hard to connect you with Amicia De Rune - the main protagonist. Hunting with her father and dog you begin to track a boar through the forest when you discover the blight (plague) which will become the central plot obstacle which you will be tasked to overcome. Amicia witnesses her beloved dog "Lion" dragged and devoured by a burrow in the Earth. The first of many disasters she will have to witness. Lord De Rune, more wise about the world decides to return home with haste and it is there as you try to find Amicia's mother that rumours of a plague circulate around the castle's stuff. They all hush and address you halting their murmuring about evil.

Amicia finds her mother and brother, Beatrice and Hugo De Rune, Hugo is sick but before you can gain any understanding of his illness the Catholic Church's Inquisition attacks the De Rune castle. Beatrice guides her children out of the castle and this acts as a tutorial of the stealth mechanics. This game at its core is a stealth game and although you can be more brash in the final act the majority of the game is spent skulking in the shadows. You must choose to sneak past enemies or manipulate the environment to eliminate them. Amicia watches her father and castle servants be killed by the Inquisition and their imposing Captain Nicholas. Every instinct I had was to take out the enemy and exact revenge but I couldn't. The game won't facilitate your instincts, you just have to keep going and let those good loyal people die. The De Rune's reach the edge of the castle gardens, the forest and safety is in sight but they are spotted by Captain Nicholas. Beatrice De Rune pushes her children out into the forest. The wooden door closes and moments later a blade impales through the door. Amicia De Rune must find a cure for her sick brother and somehow keep them both safe. I thought the opening chapter was the best introduction to a game I had played since the Last of Us in 2013.

The main body of the story is about Amicia and Hugo searching for a cure to his sickness called the "Makula" (Spelling may vary). The journey takes them to settlements across the French countryside, forming a band of renegades to help them and learning how to fight the rats which carry/represent the blight. The story captures how the De Rune children are hardened by their environment, Amicia grapples with her morals after she kills for the first time and Hugo is extremely upset when the children sacrifice a pig to save their lives. The helplessness of innocent children is very apparent in the early chapters and it is consistently saddening to watch the characters go through the turmoil of their journey in the cruel Middle Ages. A sad story of the less of innocence in a cruel world is however permeated by good individuals who buck the trend and give the De Rune's hope e.g the woman in the blight infested village who provides refuge to the children as they flee from villagers who wanted to burn them alive.

I was very impressed with the accurate deployment of history. It brings the game to life, set during the 1340s Asobo has created a counter factual history scenario. What if the rats that carried the Black Death were murderous and more numerous? Nothing is omitted, the God fearing nature of the people and the violent tyranny of the Inquisition in the pursuit of their goals reflects the religiosity of the age. The urban areas visited in the game have white X's on the houses of infected families and they lie desolate either through death or migration. Even the 100 Years War is represented in the game and all these little things in combination create a really accurate background meaning I could make allowances the artistic decisions surrounding the rats in the plot and get immersed in the game/story. The last historical praise I wish to lump on Asobo is the importance they placed on including detailed and relevant medieval artwork. In an age where few can read and the internet obviously doesn't exist paintings were the main way the Church could communicate the Bible's teachings to the peasantry.

I thought it was interesting that the game explores the ideas of class struggle. It's done very subtly through banter between Amicia De Rune and Meile, a thief who becomes an ally of the De Rune children. It is an important fact that the De Rune children are in the 1%. If Hugo De Rune was the son of a blacksmith he would have been taken by the Inquisition at a much younger age. A blacksmith's wife would not know about the Makula and would be unable to read anything about it (most likely). The laity often sought the help of the Church to cure sickness and this is reflected in Christian doctrine. Jesus Christ among many things is a healer of the sick. The fact the De Rune's are of the noble class is what allows this journey and story to take place.

After finding the cure for Hugo it is revealed to him as it previously had to Amicia that their mother Beatrice was not killed on the night of the Inquisition attack and is instead being imprisoned at the Bastion. In the night Hugo leaves the safety of the groups castle and travels to save his mother. Chapter 13 and you now play as younger, weaker, smaller and less equipped Hugo De Rune. The equipment and crafting items you have built up as Amicia are lost and you are back to Chapter 1's gameplay. You must rely on stealth alone to find and save Beatrice De Rune. This is an excellent reset of the gameplay loop and it rehooked me back into the story just as "game fatigue" was setting in. Chapter 14 unlocks a new skill, after being reunited Beatrice teaches Hugo he has the power to control the plague rats. They will move where he wants and more importantly they will kill for him. Asobo makes Hugo into a killer just like Amicia, the cruelty of the Middle Ages strikes again. Beatrice and Hugo are captured once more by Captain Nicholas and brought before Vitalus, the head of the Inquisition. He is an Emperor Palpatine style character who brainwashes Hugo De Rune (Anakin Skywalker in our Star Wars analogy) to join him and continue to harness control over his sickness/superpower. They see the Makula as a gift.

Captain Nicholas and Hugo attack Amicia and the others using the rats to breach the castle defences. Hugo appears different, with hate in his eyes and clear skin for the first time in the game he looks about to set his rats upon the group. Amicia embraces him and sibling love overcomes the Makula, reunited as brother and sister the player now uses Amicia and Hugo's skillsets in tandem to defeat Captain Nicholas, the man who murdered their father. Then the finale of the game has you storm the Bastion and face Vitalus in one final boss fight set in a cathedral. The credits roll. Amicia and Hugo are in a village once more - it's unclear if it is the same one from earlier in the game. Amicia plays a fair game, she has to knock down six rat targets to win an apple. Mirroring the game she played with her father at an apple tree in Chapter 1. You have come full circle , the village is back to life and they are hosting a fair. Hugo wants to go and play but the villagers apologetically shoo the De Rune's along, there is still a warrant for their arrest but this time the villagers don't want to capture you. Amicia races Hugo back to the cart where their mother is being cared for by one of your companions, you set off and it is revealed your other long term companion separated themselves from the group after seeing Hugo's powers in the showdown with Vitalus. I was left wondering if the De Rune's would ever be accepted in a post blight world or would they forever be pariahs?

Beat the galactic conquest accidentally in 42 minutes. Not sure how. Best game ever!

A good level based sniping game with some sandbox elements. You could really nerd out and craft some interesting ways to complete the missions in varying scenarios. Plenty of replay value if you enjoy repeating the same mission and finding alternative solutions, you could also go the "realism" route and try to simulate the experience of a WW2 sniper but I think ultimately the game will force you into becoming the Captain Superman America character rather than just Billy Bob from Iowa. If you want a good WW2 story try something else, the story in this game is serviceable and makes sense but it is in my opinion an afterthought. The main focus here is on the sniping gameplay which is really fun. I had no issues with crashes or bugs and the ai has a good level of challenge. I think I only scratched the surface of this game content wise but ultimately I wasn't enticed enough to dig any deeper than playing through the story missions once.

Worth picking up on a sale even if you aren't particularly interested in Warhammer. I don't get the fan fare personally but I still really enjoyed this game. The story is simplistic and you can guess most aspects before they happen but I don't think they were trying to match up to the Last of Us or other such story games. Good campaign length with nice set pieces, fun characters who are generally likeable except Leandros who is the heel of the group... and a c*nt!

I really enjoyed the environment and level design, rarely did I encounter bugs. Weapons are interesting and varied with more than enough opportunities to swap out your loadout and find your favourite set up. I like the level of customisation, enough to make a difference but not so much that I shun the system and hit randomise until I find something that'll do the job.

TL;DR Well worth picking up on a sale to enjoy the set pieces. Campaign is short and sweet, defo kept me locked in to get to the end.

I will add the second game to my wish list and await it's price slash in the Summer sale...

A 4/5 hour long narrative murder mystery experience for two quid. Why not? Is what I thought when buying this game and I sure am glad that I did. My expectations for the game were on the floor and avoiding hyperbolic statements like “This is my most favouritist bestest game ever!” I would encourage anyone on the fence to give it a go. Immerse yourself in a good story set in a visual and audio masterclass.

There is no mechanical skill ceiling for you to get to grips with in this game. If you come into it armed with the ability to press wasd whilst using your mouse to look around and potentially also click (Warning – You may have to do all these things simultaneously!) then you can manage. I can happily report that I only experienced one bug and zero crashes during my completion of the game. The bug issue arose because I was failing a puzzle so badly the game couldn’t comprehend my gormlessness and tried to help me.

The plot was interesting throughout and made me want to get to the end by any means necessary (more on this later). The few minutes after finishing the game I was a little confused, even a little unsatisfied if I’m honest. But once I had processed and understood the ending I was contented and even empathetic towards the characters I’d spent the last two afternoons with. The story has twists of narrative and jolts of the bizarre but it’ll all make sense in the end.

The visuals are fab! I was always stopping to take in the view, racking up 57 screenshots in just 5 hours of playtime. For all you maths nerds that is a screenshot every 5 and a half minutes… I think. It was a pleasure to spend time in the eerie wooded mountains, with their patchwork of lakes, cloisters of civilisation and the ever present amber duskball in the sky.

The soundscape was the most impactful part of the game for me. The music builds suspense and prolongs tension. I often had goosebumps when I was close to the next plot point. The ambient noise as well is perfect and the game did manage to pull me into it’s world.

If you don’t like puzzles, don’t play this game. Duh. There are two types, firstly the murders which felt like the main plot beats during the game. They’re stimulating yet horrifying, giving a window in to the very people you will have to watch die. Very fun to solve the murders and things are easily missed so stay vigilant! The other type of puzzles are the “stories”. The stories are odd, I had no clue why they were in the game until the very end. So stick with the outlandishness and wait for it to make sense later. The stories range in their oddity, some made me marvel, some made me scared and one of them was frustrating as hell. You’ll see what I mean.

Lastly, I have to credit steam user Mike who made this fantastic comprehensive steam guide https://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=373569878 on how to complete all the puzzles in the game. I couldn’t have finished the game without his help. Go as far as you can on your own and then use Mike’s bountiful wisdom to tie it all together. Good luck finding Ethan.

As someone who persistently tries to enjoy tactical shooters, I found Squad to be a very frustrating game. I love the pieces but not the sum of the parts. If Squad was a Lego set, I’d rather use the bricks to build something else.

Squad is a great idea. It takes the boring organisational parts of Arma 3 out of the way so you can spend more time playing the game and enjoying the action. The game play is supported by loads of fun weapons, vehicles and factions. Diverse maps, solid movement mechanics and a good radio system which I found easy to use (once I had changed my keybinds to match Arma). The developers are continually supporting and updating the game, long time players would butt in here and highlight the ups and downs of the update history but at least the developers are there trying to improve the game. Or at the very least keep it fresh. It’s all sounding good so far, so where does my frustrating come from?

Firstly, one minor frustration that inconvenienced me on 80% of the sessions I played was that I could not create a party/group in the main menu and queue with my friends. I was trying to join servers in a group of 4-9 people for most of my playing time and it always added a layer of hassle that we couldn’t queue up together in some sort of quick play list.

However, the main drive of my frustrations comes from something outside of the developer’s control. Squad relies heavily on those around you, meaning your fellow players. Offworld Industries provides the tools, but the players create the game. And unfortunately, when I played solo I found a Mos Eisley motley crew of whinge bags, poor leaders, unhelpful team players and worst of all the gormless. I myself was one of the latter gormless players who more than anything got in the way of those around me. I’ll share two anecdotes about different experiences I had in the game to highlight the different player types I’ve critically identified.

“I had solo queued into a fresh lobby and joined a random public squad. We headed out fairly normally from HQ but no one wanted to take on the fireteam lead slots. That was the fine until our squad leader decided to not immediately go for the OBJ and instead take a more logistical approach by securing a flank. At this point applications for fireteam lead were flying in and many voices of great wisdom tried to persuade the squad lead to change his course of action. They simply demanded he did what they wanted without explaining why their course of action was better, the squad lead had admitted his inexperience earlier in the game but did not relent to their demands. At this point 2/3 of the squad abandoned the plan and went off doing their own thing for the rest of the game. I remained with the squad leader and pointlessly followed him around for 45 minutes. We achieved nothing. But equally our other squad mates who went off on their own to the OBJ did not work together so they also achieved absolutely nothing.”

“I decided to give the squad leader role a try as I was playing with a full infantry section (i.e 9 people) from my arma group. Upon joining I tried to get some advice from the higher command structure about what my squad should do. This was met with a long silence and then the beginning of a new conversation. I would continue to seek guidance throughout the game. But I figured no one else had time to hold my hand through the game so I decided to make some plans for us… and what a ♥♥♥♥ show that became. We got squad wiped many times in a row, all of which were the fault of myself and the extreme expertise shown by our opponents. If I was Neville Chamberlain, I was facing down Napolean, Genghis Khan, Caesar and Saladin. We lost every game that night and it was the last time many of us tried to play Squad”

A skill issue. That’s my frustration with Squad, I’m simply not good at it. But I’m also not willing to get good at it in the current community landscape, so is the answer that I shouldn’t play? At the moment, the answer is yes. There’s plenty of YouTube guides out there and if I ever want to recreate my COVID years at university I know Squad is there for me. At the start of this “review” which has turned into the mother of all rambles, I praised Squad for taking the organisational burden away from Arma 3. However, that is also why I’ve quit Squad and I have 2,000 hours on Arma 3. In Arma players are put into roles that suit them and are shown how to do different things in the game by a human being, not a YouTube video. Arma 3 is a proficient noob academy that encourages new players to learn and get better. Squad takes a Spartan approach to learning, you either do it right or you die.

To conclude Squad could be fantastic and I think it’s worth trying. But only if you don’t mind independently learning a game with a fair amount of nuance and rules of thumb. If you can go with the flow and appreciate the good games when they come to you and spend your time listening to other people recount that one incredible game. Then Squad is worth a purchase because the pieces made by Offworld are really good. Good luck and remember I’ve only got 17 badly played hours and a whole host of Arma 3 nostalgia.

Great game! One of the best SW games to come out recently.
I loved the older SW Lego games when I was a child and I was glad to see that this game has it's own style and approach whilst still having the charming Lego feel.

Skywalker Saga is well humoured throughout, the new shooting and force mechanics make the combat much more interesting especially as an older player now. I do however admittedly miss the old "heart health system" but that's just me. The missions are well put together and cover other elements of the Original Trilogy and the Prequels to make the experience unique and not recycled from previous games. Having voice acting in the game allowed for new avenues of story telling and punchlines so that's also great to see. H1-NT was a dry and fourth wall breaking character and hopefully there are versions of him in all the new Lego games.

I could ramble on about the landscapes, weather and everything else that went into making this game but much more qualified folks than me will already have tread this ground.

I think the best credit I can give to this game is that it made me really enjoy the Sequel trilogy and I noticed that only about 20% of players have played through the Sequels missions. I actually think they are some of the best so if you do not like the newer movies defo take them for a spin in this game. It's made me actually want to revisit the Sequels and give them another chance. The Last Jedi story line still does not make sense and no one can blame the game for that haha. Lastly, AOTC is probably my least favourite movie from the Prequels as I find it somewhat boring but playing through it was very entertaining and the investigation sequences were great fun.

P.s my PC is now 8 years old, I had no significant performance issues. Only some minor lag in the Geonosis factory but even this was insignificant.

Watch the initial cut scene upon launch, goosebump creating stuff!

This game is perfect for die hard Mad Max fans but I fear for anyone else the good gameplay is locked behind too much monotony. I got 7 hours into one campaign playthrough and at first I like many was engrossed into the desolate wasteland that I as Max had to escape to find true peace. At the start the mechanics of the game and the open world was enough to satisfy me, the driving mechanics are exceptional. Easy to pick up but yet have the nuance and ceiling for potential improvement to encourage the player continue on in the game. The combat is badass and brutal, centred on melee combat the barbarous nature of the violence and gore in Mad Max will shock you. There are a variety of melee weapons from axes to shivs which can be utilised for unique finishing moves as well as Max's "Fury Mode" which makes attacks hit harder and you can really feel the extra force in these hits.The story with a decent premise was able to motivate me to play for 5 hours but slowly the reality of the game loop began to become apparent. I had been progressing well within the main story missions and ignoring side quests because I wasn't really interesting in having constant brawls or scrap hunts for no reason. However this meant that I essentially hit a wall, I was unable to move on through the campaign as I had not upgraded my car enough. To upgrade my car I'd have to grind scrap (currency) and fight through many repetitive enemy camps to reduce threat levels in the world territories (this is how car upgrade's are unlocked in the game). I played for 2 hours grinding to level up my car and even after that I still felt vastly under equipped to progress in the story and this led me to closing the game and deciding to uninstall. I personally feel that side missions should be optional and the only penalty for not completing them is that main missions are harder. I really disliked the fact that the main story missions do not equip the player to complete the main story. The bountiful side quests did have their relevance in the game and for some maybe that's a good thing but for me who just wants to experience the meat and potatoes of a game I thought the need for side quests was silly. However had I been someone fully immersed in the world and franchise I'm sure I would have been loving each and every side tangent and adventure so it really does hinge on how invested in the world you are. All that being said the main missions were fantastic, different objectives and some really great arenas to fully push the games well designed mechanics. I just wish I could have played them without all the filler.The open world of Mad Max is really well designed and the creation of this world is a real credit to the developers. The world feels so alive with patrols, weather events and vastly changing environments (which is especially impressive when considering the relatively limiting colour and environment palette that can be applied within a desert theme) that I never wanted to take the fast travel option, instead I really wanted to see and experience the vivid world I had been dropped in. Credit must also be given to the audio engineers, you really can have a loud, bass and testosterone fueled experience in Mad Max which I think is really unique. Everything from the engine revs, to the sandstorms and the punches sounds so perfect. The last thing I want to highlight is the characters, I feel this for me is where the game lacks the most. Max is a boring character, he is an empty attempt at replicating a conflicted badass like Batman or John Marston. I found Chumbucket to be a really annoying attempt at the affable humorous side kick. Flavour of the year in 2015 was throwing a dog into your franchise and Dinki Di apart from being a nice lil pup adds nothing other than being a mine detector. The range of territory leaders like Jeet, Gutcash and Pink Eye are all just boring to be honest. All stereotypes that lack their own individual flair, all the characters in Mad Max are written in a very vanilla way and it feels like Max (and therefore the player) has no real connection to any of them. Additionally I still don't know who my nemesis was.... the main enemy is killed in the opening cutscene so I really wish there had have been a reoccurring main villain as for me a strong villain can make a game. This is a real shame because I think if the characters were a bit more interesting and they interacted a bit more they could add so much to the already alive open world. Mad Max is perfect for die hard fans who can lose themselves in the open world and not mind doing some repetitive tasks to build up Max over time. However to those who want to just jump in and play through a creative story without any nonsense and enjoy a brutal, thumping, riveting story then I would say you should look for alternative options.

!!This review only covers the single player campaign and does not address the multiplayer modes!!

Spoiler Free

Star Wars Squadrons 'The Galaxy's Finest' campaign is set after the Battle of Endor in the continuation of the war between the Empire and the New Republic (formerly the Rebel Alliance). As a player you will take flight for both sides of the same story jumping into the cockpit for the New Republic as the latest addition to the famous 'Vanguard Squadron' as well as flying for the Empire in the elite 'Titan Squadron'.

The campaign is short and simple serving as a great vehicle through which you can learn the game mechanics, the plot is not too expansive or in depth but it is interesting for its duration. Your characters (which are customisable) act as silent partners and the story is instead delivered through a great roster of side characters including commanding officers, squadron mates and others. The characters in Vanguard and Titan Squadrons represent a wide range of personalities and backgrounds so you are inevitably going to connect with at least some of them, my personal favourites were Shen from Titan Squadron and Grace from Vanguard Squadron. The campaign isn't long enough to fully flesh out the characters but there is enough time and opportunity for interaction before and after every mission for you to get acquainted with the roster of side characters so that you can the main idea and feel of the character.

I played Squadrons on mouse and keyboard with very little experience in flight games - I imagine playing this game with a joystick would be an incredible experience, if you have on go crazy and know I'm jealous. I found the controls easy to learn and hard to master and by the end of my time with the campaign I am most certainly not a master. All the controls were really responsive and the game mechanics such as acceleration, power diversion and missile systems felt really fluid and really immersed me into the game. The final note I'd like to leave on the mechanics is something I really appreciated as a newer player to flight games and that was that each control had a purpose. I really don't like it when a game gives you 30 abilities/combos and you never get the chance to use or even remember all of them, there is enough abilities and variance in the mechanics between ship to keep things interesting but not so many that they overwhelmed me. In Squadrons you'll use every feature at least semi regularly, most controls I used at the minimum every couple missions.

Graphically Squadrons is quite simply stunning and I've posted a few of my in game screenshots on my account to give a point of reference for how good this game looks. The ships and locations are insanely detailed and modern Star Wars games keep raising the bar on the aesthetics side.

For menu and customisation nerds - I am not one of you - there is a good range of options available to tailor your experience in missions. Firstly you customise your character with the usual things like gender, face, hair etc and to be honest in the campaign this really holds no bearing because you don't see your character in the campaign but maybe it's more important in the multiplayer aspect. More relevant to the campaign is the ship customisation you can do before most missions past the opening phase of the campaign. You can choose what fighter you want to use, you can alter the hull/engines/weapon systems/auxiliary systems (Missiles etc.) and more.

Overall I think Star Wars Squadrons is this generations 'Rogue Squadron,' simple arcade fun in authentic and famous ships in a beautiful galaxy filled with fun characters. And isn't that what Star Wars is all about?

I've created a showcase video for those who want to see some authentic gameplay before they buy, there are no major spoilers so no need to worry on that front. https://youtu.be/iq1qftt2p-M