Recent reviews by Sonoida

this game made me look forward to every Wednesday

Fun, retro game with very satisfying movement. It nails its retro aesthetic very well, keeping visuals consistent and coherent with its style. Map designs are neat, though overall most locations have this strange lonely and barren feeling to it: kind of fitting to the game's style, but also feels off.

I think my biggest gripe so far is the readability of combat. It works very well with one, two maybe three enemies. Everything clicks together nicely, the parrying is satisfying and you can easily read enemy attacks and movement. But anywhere more than that and it's starting to fall apart. The screen gets incredibly busy and often you won't be sure what even hit you or how.

The signalling (for example enemies flashing purple before an attack) is clear in only some enemies, which means you will have to rely in predicting an attack by reading their facial expressions or poses with others, which isn't always easy or even possible during intense fast-paced combat (or when enemies group up or a lot of effects pop up). You can get used to handling it, but I think it's initially pretty daunting to really enjoy the parry / attack / run dynamic. This issue is mostly apparent in dungeons.

Other than that, satisfying experience though at the time of the review it still feels a little devoid of something special (but it's also early access, so fair enough).

The Gold edition is an improvement to the 'Base' title in every way: most importantly, I think that the earlier title's tendency to make the dialogue and lore elements feel random and disjointed has been improved greatly, because you can connect the dots on a lot more elements now. However, I still think that they can seem a little random.

You can sense a clear theme and a vague sense of overarching plot in Psychopomp Gold, though there's still a few detached elements, which I can only presume will be connected in future titles / updates. Or maybe they're just there to get people talking and crafting theories?

As one extra nitpicky complaint, I don't think the 3D model does enough justice to the character: it's generally great, but it really fails to portray that creepy, manic grin that the protagonist is known for.

Loved the 2D artstyle elements of the game, loved the atmosphere. However, I expected a little more. The way the game was set up gave an impression of the atmosphere turning far more deranged and the difficulty ramping up considerably. However I must admit that the creepy atmosphere remained more or less consistent, which is a bit of a shame. You can also piece together a theme more or less but it still felt a bit random. I'm assuming this is something that'll just click together once more parts of the game are released. Judging by the fact of how big inventory is and the fact that you can never fill it up, I'm assuming that there will be more to this in the future!

tl;dr solid foundation, but it still needs something more to it.

It's a well made game however I think the chores and base planning quickly lose their charm. There's also a lot of Quality of Life changes that could be implemented, which are pretty noticeably lacking.

As a life-long Half Life fan with a tradition to complete HL1 campaign at least once every year, this game absolutely pulled me in with how wonderful of a homage it is to the series. I've always craved getting to explore Black Mesa and taking a closer, more personal and slower look without speeding through it with an arsenal of weapons. With the strong draw of an SCP-esque side of it, it really makes for a very intriguing world.

The game also revolves around the unique concept of what could be called 'urban' survival (or pseudo-urban, seeing how remote the whole facility is). I've spent long hours daydreaming as a kid, about how I'd ever survive in some sorta giant store, or a giant facility where rather than chopping down logs and stacking rocks, I'd be forced to scrap together some clever contraptions using office supplies or furniture. It's super cool to enjoy this concept in a game and see all the fun designs or items that were put together with this method.

It's quite well polished, though I think there's still a couple problems to iron out
- it has great potential to be a fun building / furnishing sim, but there should be a setting for the game ignoring structure integrity, just letting you stack stuff as much as you want to. Just for sandbox purposes
- I'm sure it's a feature that everyone really desires, this game really needs a console / cheat window
- The game really needs a better marking system for what's trash and what's important. Add an extra confirmation step to make sure the player doesn't accidentally scrap their weapon or other items which often NEVER appear again
- Custom setting for cable reach or Leyak frequency (or just generally better sandbox settings)
- Better XP gaining balance. Reloading is giga easy to get, but strength is annoyingly hard to obtain which locks out the potential of really good / fun weapons for immensely long time. And when you actually get to use those, you probably have better gear already

Overall, real banger. Super hyped for new chapters.

Ever since finishing Day 2 in-game, I've been thinking on how to give witty or well-written praise for this game, but after I've finished it I've realised that I can't do so. I could write paragraphs upon paragraphs of how well written and brilliant it is, but it really is one of those things you need to try yourself: a once-in-a-lifetime game.

My only complaints are the slightly lackluster ending and a railroaded climax (The Tribunal). I've managed to kill all three mercenaries and yet Kim got beaten up (not shot) and a couple Hardie boys got killed. The timeline doesn't quite add up from my perspective. . That and a couple small bugs. Nothing other than that. Please, try it if you don't mind reading a lot of dialogue.

Worth the wait.

Banger game, but I think the quests suck. I appreciate the lack of modern game design where the game holds your hand through everything, but in this case you HAVE to look through Google to make sure you don't ♥♥♥♥ yourself over some quest. And even then, it's still really confusing.

neat!