Recent reviews by Taeljam

Prey is an excellent example of atmospheric storytelling with captivating gameplay. It creates a rich and immersive sci-fi world that grabs your attention right from the start.

The gameplay combines exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving in a satisfying way. You get to use a variety of abilities, weapons, and tools, allowing you to approach challenges from different angles. The level design is impressive, with interconnected areas that encourage exploration and reward creative problem-solving.

Visually, the game looks amazing. Prey has a beautiful retro-futuristic style that makes it visually unique.

If you enjoy immersive sim games or a good sci-fi thriller, Prey is a must-play. It's among the best. It offers an engaging story, deep gameplay, and a world that's fun to explore. Highly recommended!

Not worth your money or your time — the multiplayer game is dead; no players are active anymore!

The concept itself is interesting — playing hide and seek as a Mimic while someone else hunts you, or playing as the hunter against 5 other Mimics. However, it's definitely not worth 20 bucks and should have been free-to-play to attract more players and make it at least somewhat playable.

There's also a VR puzzle game that, according to other reviews, provides a maximum of 1-2 hours of gameplay.

If you're a completionist like me and got the Deluxe Version, you can complete it 100% with a friend, but it takes a while.

An intriguing Murder Mystery story that hooks you until the end. Unfortunately, the gameplay leaves something to be desired. If the game were a bit more polished, it would be considered a classic. It had some bugs, which I luckily managed to work around with turning V Sync on and off.

Movement is somewhat clunky at times, especially when playing as a cat. Yes, you can play as a cat. Combat, if you can call it that, consists only of backstab quick-time events. It could have been removed entirely, and maybe added some puzzles instead, which the game was lacking sadly.

There were far too many collectibles. They could have been easily reduced by half. As a completionist, this was quite tedious.

The Ghost Stories collectibles were great though, they added some nice flavour to the game as you were rewarded with a nice spooky story in the end. The characters and world-building were very well done in general. The whole city felt cursed and haunted.

There's hardly any investigation or detective work involved funnily enough; you just find a few clues, which you can't fail to find, and then solve the case by pressing Q and choosing a couple of the clues you found. If you choose wrongly, you can try again right away without repercussion.

So, view it as an interactive Murder Mystery film rather than a detective game. For that, I would recommend Danganronpa instead.

Nevertheless, both the main game and side quests were enjoyable, despite the game not being particularly polished. I'd suggest ignoring the collectibles and just got for the main Story and Side Quests, unless you're determined to achieve 100%.

I'd recommend getting it on sale when it's cheap, as a short pastime and a change of pace from other games.

A friend of mine really wanted to play a co-op game with me and recommended Remnant from the Ashes. He described it to me as "Dark Souls with guns."

A pretty good description, although not entirely accurate. The game does have boss fights and mechanics like stamina management or dodge rolls. However, the levels are randomly generated, which makes replaying the game quite enjoyable.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend the game for solo play, but as a co-op game, it's a lot of fun. What sets the game apart for me are the unlockable traits, weapons, and armor. Shoot your buddy for fun? Unlock the "Suspicious" trait, which reduces friendly fire damage. Use the melee weapon a lot? Unlock the Melee trait. Certain weapons can only be found by defeating bosses or completing small quests.

In addition to the campaign, there's also an Adventure Mode, which is essentially a Chapter Select but random. There, you can find bosses, etc., that you might have missed in the campaign.

Then there's the Survival Mode, where you have to kill as many bosses as possible under time pressure, which I found very enjoyable.

The story, although good, is unfortunately very rudimentary in the game, a minor downside. But it's usually not a crucial factor in co-op games.

Overall, highly recommended with friends!

Evil Within 2 is an interesting successor to the first game. In contrast to the linear first installment, this game adopts a semi-open world format and is quite polished, with only some minor bugs (I once fell out of bounds, which is always funny). The grainy art style has been replaced with a more realistic look compared to the first game (Play that first, or else you might get confused with this game's story!).

The gameplay is very smooth, addressing many of the issues present in the first game. However, due to the semi-open world nature, the game loses some of its horror aspects. Enemies quickly lose interest when you flee and are easily backstabbed, making everything feel less dangerous. On the other hand, the linear sequences are quite eerie and very well done. The game could have had a few more puzzles, in my opinion.

There are some very beautiful moments in the game, especially story-wise. Sebastian's story, the main character as in the first game, receives a conclusive narrative that left me deeply moved by the end.

Survival horror with heart! Highly recommended; it was a lot of fun.

The gameplay strikes a perfect balance between tension and action, keeping you on the edge of your seat with every encounter. Whether you're navigating through creepy hallways or facing off against grotesque creatures, the sense of dread never subsides.

The story unfolds slowly; it starts off confusing, but the deeper you go, the more you understand, especially after playing the DLCs. Every revelation about the characters' pasts and motivations adds depth to the world.

The main game, although sometimes janky, is a lot of fun. The DLCs are absolutely great and add a completely new experience to the whole game!

Highly recommended if you're a fan of the genre!

Highly recommended if you have played the first part, Plague tale Innocence. If not, make sure to play the first game beforehand, as this is a continuation of its story.

Plague Tale Requiem is an amazing follow-up to Innocence. It takes everything that made the first game great and elevates it to a whole new level. The improvements shine through in almost every aspect compared to its predecessor. Any gripes I had with the first one – like questionable decisions by the characters, enemy AI, and small immersion breakers – are gone and/or improved in this sequel.

The world is beautiful, the story is epic, especially resonating if you have siblings, and the voice acting is fantastic. It's one of those games that, once you complete it, you find yourself sitting in your chair, staring at your screen for a while. Great story indeed.

If you decide to play this game, make sure to turn off "Chromatic Aberration" in the settings; it greatly improves the game's appearance!

If you enjoy darker stories, this game is a good choice. The gameplay is straightforward, and the puzzles are rather simple. Unfortunately, the game tends to provide instructions constantly, which can be a bit annoying. Let me think for myself! Nevertheless, the world is beautiful! Each level is visually stunning, clearly crafted with love.

The storyline reminds me of some books I read as a kid/teen, such as Krabat or The Neverending Story, giving me some sweet nostalgia.

Stiff facial expressions, but the voice acting is amazing. Unfortunately, some in-game decisions, like leaving a torch behind when light is crucial for survival (story-wise), seem forced from a gameplay perspective and break the immersion every now and then, reminding you that you are just playing a game. These small issues could've easily been improved with better reasoning and more logical actions. Gameplay and story clash with each other every now and then. The enemy AI is as smart as a rock (walking around a barrel loses their aggro, for example). Maybe I'm just nitpicky. If you don't mind minor spoilers, I recommend Joseph Anderson's review on YouTube; he explains perfectly how I feel about the game. (First TLDR in the video is spoilerfree)

Nevertheless, I enjoyed the overall experience and recommend it for those seeking a great story with likable characters!

**EDIT** After playing the second part, Plague Tale Requiem: It's a must play if you have played Innocence! It concludes the story perfectly and fixes all the small gripes I had with this first game. Both games combined form an epic tale which one shouldn't miss!

Undertale catches you off guard with its weird humor, lets you pet dogs, and introduces you to some cool skeletons. It boasts a great story, amusing pixel art, and top tier RPG soundtracks. Even Sans from Undertale makes a cameo in this game. Did I mention you can pet dogs? A delightful and heartwarming RPG with standout characters, though a certain yellow dinosaur might be the exception. Certain Bossfights are not too easy even, especially on a certain route for a certain ending, if you like some challenge. Recommended!

In the final charge against the great evil, 67 ponies valiantly sacrificed their souls, their collective bravery illuminating the battlefield. Their selfless act paved the way for victory, ensuring that their sacrifice was not in vain. As a reward for their noble steeds.. I mean deeds, these courageous ponies ascended to the heavens, their spirits forever honored for turning the tide against the evil force of darkness. Rest in peace comrades!