Recent reviews by Relic the Philosopher

With this review I hope to portray my thoughts on an aspect of the game which I am surprised has never been discussed before. If it helps you understand what this game is BEFORE you buy it and become disappointed in this $16 wonder, I can rest knowing that when someone hits that "Add to Cart" button, it is because they want what the game has and not what it's description and premise seems to offer.

I can't recommend this game for what it is, even if what it could have been would have been incredible. Unfortunately, I am here to recommend the game as it is, not the dreams of where it could have gone or the dreams the devs had that didn't come to fruition. I feel as if the intention of this game may have been there, but fell short. Due to what? I haven't the knowledge to say.

Megaton Rainfall puts you in what *should be* a morally challenging and mind-wracking position. You are THE superhuman, the apotheosis of power. I myself am not a devout follower of comics surrounding heroes, nor have I seen a mainline Avengers film. But, I find the psychology of such powerful beings of great interest and an important thought-experiment all people should understand. Alan Moore's Doctor Manhattan, who our protagonist of Megaton seems extremely reminiscent of, portrays a man weighed by his immense power, lost in existentialism and absolute ambivalence about his involvement with the human race. He is so powerful, so instrumental in monumental changes to reality that should he lift even a finger, all reality could change. He feels this pressure so much that he has to render himself to complete neutrality just to feel that the good guys and the bad guys both have their fair tug of the rope. Robert Kirkman's Omni-Man is capable of not only supreme massacre but also extreme elitism, cynicism, and disregard for human life due to his all-powerful abilities setting him far beyond humankind. Garth Ennis' The Boys compares most of its heroes to narcissistic celebrities who consider themselves above the law, whereas its most remarkable character remains seen in the degradation of its most powerful hero Homelander, descending from his chair as the clean-cut American superman who believes in the company's efforts to portray them as good guys (but god forbid believing in actually being good guys) to the prime Ubermensch of society and perhaps even further -- to a version of Dr. Manhattan or Omni-Man who could annihilate a planet without remorse due to his ever-encroaching disconnectedness to anyone less powerful than he.

So what is the issue of Megaton Rainfall's superhero? Is it wrong to think I should have the choice of being a villain who could blast every skyscraper, explode every moon, and ride an alien spaceship to a proto-socialist regime ruled only by transparent bluish-purple men? One might say yes, and that this would never have been the goal of this game, that this game is for hero-lovers only and anyone else needs to go root for Dexter or something and avoid going into public with their /pol/ taint and under-manboob sweat.

What I think is missing from this game isn't necessarily the choice to be evil, but the *choice to be good*. You are born, given your role of hero, and told to defend Earth without so much as a why, a boo-hoo humanity deserves saving, or even the ability to abandon the campaign just to short some cars -- nope, step out of line, and the game resets. You are not a hero. You are a puppet. You don't feel the desire to play this game. You want to go shoot innocent people in Grand Theft Auto. You want to explore the universe as a lowly human in No Man's Sky because at least there you have a choice.

I can only recommend this game for its technical wonder, a beautifully crafted simulation of being an on-rails strict superman that becomes less human with every second you don't quit the game. You don't get to fly lightyears away as an indestructible man in No Man's Sky, nor can you blast entire cities -- but, truly, you can't do that in Megaton Rainfall either, not until you complete the annoying and limited campaign at least. And if you only complete this campaign of rescuing and selflessness -- just to access the mode where you can destroy everything without consequence -- what ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ kind of hero are you?

The only real choice is here and now, hovering over that green button, trying to decide what kind of hero you are, because this game can't and won't show you any reason to lean one way or the other.

Speaking as one of the biggest and longest-time fans of the original Psychonauts you might ever encounter, I can say, confidently and whilst brushing a tear from my eye, this is everything a true Psychonauts sequel needed to be and more.

Some things in comparison to the original I'd care to point out that others might not in their reviews:

Powers:
While there are three powers from the original that are no longer present, three arguably more fun powers replace them, powers I found to be well-fitting into the lore as well as incredibly fun to use.

Enemy Variety:
The first game sported little in the way of enemy variety, giving us the usual Censors, little explosive Personal Demons, a Nightmare here and there, and of course enemies based on the area. The sequel brings in a plethora of needed variety, while staying true to the series' nods to psychology, including: Regrets, Doubts, Panic Attacks, Judges, Enablers, Bad Ideas, and Bad Moods, each of them requiring different powers to deal with, making combat all the more interesting and tactical.

Combat:
In a way, this is an extension of the previously mentioned points. Combat in the first game was never truly essential to the experience, not seriously awful or excellent in any respect. The sequel, by using powers that are more suited to combat over those powers that were more for puzzles or obstacles anyway, offers the fluid, edge-of-your-seat combat a Psychonaut deserves. Changing powers on the fly to deal with the expanded enemy variety and selecting Pins that suit your playstyle better all deliver an experience much improved over the original.

Levitation:
Okay so at first, I found levitation more difficult to use and greatly nerfed from the original. That is not really the case; in your gameplay settings, you can turn on float on triple jump, and levitation ball on quadruple jump, just the like the original. You can also receive the original Wrecking Ball perk and ground slamming with your Levitation Ball with Pins and Rank Ups. The only "nerf" from the original is a timer on how long you can float.

Acrobatics:
As a platformer, you expect jumping. As a trained acrobat from the circus, you expect dodging and flipping. As a sequel, you expect improvements over the original. Well, as a game ahead of its time really, the original needs little to expand, but even so the developer still added a few new acrobatic moves: press shift while mid-air to dive (so much fun and so useful), and the classic platforming trick, wall jumping.

Exploration:
Let's face it, be it from the location or purely from nostalgia, nothing will truly beat exploring every nook and cranny of the summer camp in the original. But that doesn't mean the sequel doesn't bring in a lot of exploring to be done. While not the largest areas, the Quarry, the Questionable Area?, and the Green Needle Gulch offer a lot of areas to reach, lots of pamphlets to read and characters to talk to, and areas not able to be reached until further powers are acquired, just like the original. There is also a new scavenger hunt (ahem, mission critical assets), a preferable replacement to the Dowsing Rod, a Photo Mode, and, of course, Challenge Markers and Cards. In minds, you'll find the usual Emotional Baggage, Figments, and Vaults, but also welcome Half-A-Minds in lieu of Golden Goggles and Nuggets of Wisdom.

Story:
Follows the same, beautifully-crafted formula of Raz fixing everyone's problems and being okay with not taking all the credit. Best part of the character development for the whole series in my opinion? Raz is always being left to handle things while the other character "finds a way out" or falls back entirely. That is, until Lili charges head-first (heh, see what I did there) into her dad's head, and Raz, confused, followers her instead of doing things himself. Beautiful, no notes. Worst part of the story? Why's every villain gotta end up being related to the protagonist in everything? I appreciate the explanation on the family curse and found the reason Cruller fabricated it well written, but why is Vader always the father?

What's Missing?
As stated before, three powers are missing: Invisibility, Shield, and Confusion Grenade. But trust me, you'll prefer grappling enemies midair, hearing your little Raz talk mad ♥♥♥♥, and playing with the most fluid and fun to use time-control power I've seen in quite some time. You won't run into any Cobwebs, interestingly enough as I see no real reason to exclude them (besides of course the grind to buy the duster). Most children and madmen from the first game do not make another appearance, which I found criminal considering the love we built for those characters -- and no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ Mr. Pokeylope is just downright ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ evil. Instead, however, the intern kids are well-written despite my expectations, and the new madmen here are beautifully flawed masterpieces I wish I could hug. No Personal Demons, no Nightmares, no PSI Bears or Cougars, and unfortunately no more burning squirrels alive.

What else is there?
Bacon. Jack Black as a gay, LSD-infused Viking who fronts a rock-opera. Shattered psyches damaged by alcohol abuse, gambling addiction, cleanliness obsessions, abandonment, multiple personalities, grief -- all mixed into scenarios that you might not expect but work so well it blew me away (including the beekeeper who was also a librarian, the hospital-casino, and the desert-island gardener). I'd have expected nothing less from the same people who wrote the bull-fighting obsessed painter who couldn't get over his high school wrestling days.

I clung to Psychonauts like a security blanket back in 2005 and held onto it my entire life as an escapist fantasy, as a painted world of creativity, psychology, comedy, and child-like ambition to prove oneself. To me, if there were anywhere in the world I could be, it would have been Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp, with a pair of goggles and girlfriend named Lili (funnily enough, I dated a Lily for 2 years who ALSO turned out the be a firebug. Thank God I had insurance). Growing up, this world became less of an impossible fantasy and more of an ideal of video game literature. Between the worlds of books and cinema, I have always viewed video games as the next and greatest frontier of storytelling, and there is no greater example of the color to be found in doing so than Psychonauts and now, 16 years later, Psychonauts 2. It isn't just there in a story, or even in lovable, quirky characters and snappy dialogue -- it's there in the dedication put into the world, delivering an expanding Silmarilion right before your eyes full of its own history, laws of gravity, and contemplation of its own values, traditions, and allusions to the past. Psychonauts opened the door to its excellent world and Psychonauts 2 has proven itself to be a worthy successor, utilizing its source material in every needed way and expanding so fruitfully to deliver what today's technology is capable of creating out of it.

Yeah, there's a lot of RPGMaker games out there. Yeah, a lot of them are pretty awful, and yeah, a lot of them are pretty fantastic and deserve recognition. But Last Dream? Last Dream is something else.

It's got a very moving story and lore behind it. Nothing impressive enough to charm your pants off or something you've never seen before, but it's something unusually beautiful and it's brought to life by a dark narrative alongside your own protagonist's totally nonsensical existence in this world that exists regardless of him. It's a medium through which to tell these developer's story they clearly spent a lot of time and effort crafting.

The combat is pieced together nicely, reminiscent of the first Final Fantasy as I'm certain you've read already, but with customization and smooth point allocation in all the right places to make this the best version of FF1 you'll ever come across. With a huge world and lots of variety in monsters, classes, and weapons, this is the perfect, simple but as complex as you make it RPG to pop in and level for a little for the rest of your gaming days, squeezed in between whatever your AAA fancy is.

I recommend Last Dream like I recommend my favorite coffee shop. It's the best there is, for what it is -- cheap, easy to access, but customized to either be fancy or just "get the damn caffeine in me." But if you don't like coffee, you obviously won't like the coffee shop.

I literally only bought this game so I could use the character creation screen to make portraits for my RPG characters. It's that good. In every sense of seriousness, I have not played even one minute of the game.

But damn is the character creation good, worth the price alone.

10/10 as a character creation tool

The Ultimate Doom < Doom 2016 <<<<<< Brutal Doom
DayZ < Unturned < DoomZ

What more can I say?

This gem of a game is extraordinarily underappreciated, blossoming in areas of combat, multi-classing systems, beautiful environments, and possibly one of the best British Isles mythology-inspired bestiaries in fantasy. However, the game does fall behind in several areas, including perhaps the most incredibly terrible dialogue you've ever seen, exceedingly repetitive side quests, and, despite having clear inspiration from games like Fable II and III, doesn't fully meet the multi-classing desire that the game could have -- Fable 2 and 3 having a different button assigned for each style of combat, whereas KoA has only two buttons, four limiting spell slots (despite access to many), and far too many awesome, fun weapons for there being only two weapon slots, making character weapon focuses feel far too limiting, especially with a particularly low level cap.

Overall, I think this game is a shining example of spectacular effort and some very solid, unique ideas, and although some of them did not meet their ends, this franchise could have become a fantastic saga if improvements were made over the course of newly developed games. It may be true that the game studio has fallen apart, but with new ownership, perhaps we can look forward to a highly anticipated future game.

Hour 72: Haven't left the tutorial island yet

Larian: *updates game*

Hour 82: Can't wait to ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ leave the tutorial island

Hour 86: I've spent 86 hours on the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ tutorial island

10/10
Tutorial of the year

Edit: Every time Larian updates the game, it breaks my save so I have to start over, i.e. I've now spent over 150 hours on the tutorial island. If you're gonna update or use the switch version, I recommend don't use mods.

I like a lot of games. Some of my favorite games include the Fallout series (except Fallout 4), the Elder Scrolls, Psychonauts, and the first Fable. Another one of those favorite games is Terraria.

I like games not just for their gameplay, their multiplayer compatability, and especially not just because of their graphics. My favorite games are always immersive: beautiful stories, loveable characters, and interactive gameplay. While Terraria does not contain much of a story, it does in fact contain loveable characters and very interactive gameplay. Playing the game on singleplayer brings out the best of my creativity, designing buildings of granduer for myself and my villagers, customizing my character to be memorable to the foe that is lucky to escape me, and training the art of swift combat. On multiplayer I can do all of this and more, as I cooperate with my friends to acquire materials, build a town together, and take down the boss, all the while roleplaying ourselves across the expansive world, searching for the next big loot cache.

Terraria has given me some of the best memories as a gamer, and I can never truly accept anything negative about the game. Terraria does not have top-of-the-line graphics (although its pixeled art is sometimes breath-takingly beautiful), it's not a deathmatch FPS, and it's not the least frustrating thing for sure, but it is immersive, it is fun, it is creative, it is challenging, and it is my blood as a simple gamer.

Although I find myself able to play games less and less each day, I know that my favorite games were always there, have always been there, and will continue to be there. Terraria is truly a masterpiece of a game, and a masterful piece of my collection. It is my game.

If you have never played this game, then there is no reason why you shouldn't use some of your weekly lunch money to go and buy yourself a copy of the amazing world of Terraria to hold as your own. If you have, then you should feel the same greatness in this game, if not more. There are thousands of reviews out there, and if mine is not satisfying enough, go find another. I just knew that I had to get my blood, sweat, and tears to touch the community that has either never played this game or has been playing for years. And now I have.

FIRST OFF, I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS GAME TO ANYONE IN ITS VANILLA STATE!!

That being said, it is a worthy modding platform for those willing to put in the time. If you have a vision of a Fallout game, or a STALKER clone or whathaveyou, this overpriced modding sandbox is the perfect place to play it out.

In 300+ hours and several years, I have finished the storyline ONCE and every attempt to get through it again is miserable. The vanilla weapons are lower than garbage. The perk system in lieu of skills is an offense to the Fallout and even RPG community. There are maybe two voice actors worth their salt and one of them is the original voice actor for Garret of Thief fame and has been around for every other Bethesda game so good on him for not losing his spirit in this soul-crushing, passion-draining travesty that happened to the Fallout series. Every other character, and every quest (which, by the way, includes randomly generated objectives and locations in one of the MAIN FACTION QUESTS) and interaction with even the most interesting NPCs feel like an afterthought to what otherwise presents itself as a well-crafted, detailed world with absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ to do in it. This is not helped by overpriced DLC that adds little and furthermore, paid mods from the Creation Club that people make their own mods to fix when they're broken anyway. Performance wise, it is easily the worst of Bethesda's efforts, addled with consistent crashes even after mod fixes, FPS drops that once they plummet, rarely climb back up again, save bloat (wherein the more you save your game and the more you build in settlements, the longer load times become -- to the point of several minutes)

Then mods come in. I am a huge fan of New Vegas -- but I honest to god play the game *mostly* vanilla, just because I don't want to lose the initial vision the wonderful devs set out for when I feel the need to play through it again. It's that good. Fallout 4? I will literally never play this game vanilla. It has no redeeming qualities that make it worth the slog.

So why do I still recommend it? Even with all the talk of modding, this review probably strikes you as a surprising Thumbs Up. Well, you see, Fallout 4 is a drug. And i know it's bad for me. And yet I try to find ways to make it manageable alongside remaining a responsible adult. A functioning addict, I tell myself, knowing full well this does not exist. I tell people it's bad, that I hate it, list the reasons for disdain, then spend my nights alone in the dark adjusting sliders and unpacking ZIP files and trying to justify another romp through the Commonwealth in a gas mask, searching for adhesive and food, avoiding quests and dialogue like my life depends on it, jumping at the sounds in the shadows, only to be met with the greatest fear of all: [LOOKUP NOT FOUND!]

I am writing this reveiw from a standpoint of finishing both it and it's predessesor. In many ways, DIR is a copy-and-paste of the original DI, with a list of subtle differences and a different island, NPCs, and quest line. One might say it is more of a stand-alone expansion, taking into consideration that you can transfer your DI character to DIR AND that it picks up right from where DI left off. And that is how I will treat this reveiw, by continuing from where my DI reveiw left off, covering the old and new aspects of DIR.

I finished Dead Island in 25 hours, doing a select majority of sidequests. I finished Dead Island Riptide in 16 hours, doing a select majority of sidequests. With the release of DIR, none of the glitches from the first game were fixed, and seemingly more followed them as well. And because of the fact that this game was like a copy-and-paste of the original, this and all of the badly designed systems were transfered as well. The aspects that differed from the first game include:

A few new perks on the skill tree.
A new character to play as.
A few new weapons.
An array of quests that differ from each other in almost no way at all.
Harlow is hotter than Jin.
Your character is half-mutant in the late game, but you only even get to experience it twice and for a very short moment.
Less variety of guns.
A few new crafting mods.
Only one firefight in the whole game.
Lots of wading through water, which makes you way slower.
The world is significantly small.
The new Dead Zone random missions (a good concept, actually, but they are all the same exact room with different loot and different exteriors, and so in the end a pretty aweful concept.
Periodic tower defense which is surprisingly not that bad of a concept.
Harlow is a ♥♥♥♥♥.
You can do favors for your AI team to upgrade their skills or their shops.

In my opinion, lots of things made the game much worse than Dead Island, even with the few new concepts. I feel, however, that this game should be looked at the same as DI: terrible, glitchy, and a hell of alot of fun with friends. I will never again play through this game or DI, but neither do I regret playing it. On sale for about $5, I reccomend getting it, but only after playing through DI, or else there's no point in causing pain to yourself. Overall, I hate this ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game, but it was one of the most memorable experiences in my life. So, get a few copies, kill some 'monsters', as the NPCs call them, and loot all the oleander your digestive system can handle. Oh, and the ending was ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome. GO4SALE.