Évaluations récentes de Voodoo Pork

One of the best games of 2023. A true gem of atmospheric puzzling with some uniquely ingenious mechanics, amazing score, and art design that made me wish this game was 3x longer. Played this with a big smile on my face the entire time and some solutions actually astounded me. It's not exactly Talos Principle 2 in terms of difficulty, but it'll stretch your brain in the best way. Highly recommend.

If you're stuck in the game or need some mechanical help, here's some non-spoiler tips:
- You can trade the orb on a pedestal with the one you are carrying, without needing a second pedestal.
- There are some rare, scripted instances where you can drop or place an orb mid-movement.
- You can nest worlds within worlds to move multiple orbs at once. The orb you are carrying is the ability you can use.
- Pay attention to where an exit pad will teleport you. It is always consistent.
- You will always have the tools you need to complete a puzzle. It's very hard to softlock yourself.
- Things traveling into a world orb will continue in the same direction they entered. They don't stop until they hit an obstacle.
- The special musical cue will tell you that you've got the correct solution.

**EARLY ACCESS REVIEW**

A worthy followup to the original, even in its unfinished state. This review will stand until the full release, then updated after 1.0.

Current game time: 3 hours.

Pros:
- Shooting feels so good in this game
- Levels are tighter, less maze-like than in original
- Style is even more atmospheric, with fog and lighting effects that really pop
- Sound design is great, especially weapons
- Several standout levels, such as Basement, where you're totally in the dark and have to handcrank your flashlight to avoid being totally in the dark
- New enemies are great!

♥♥♥♥:
- Hit detection not very good. Needs an indicator you are at low health
- HUGE difficulty jump at University level. Gets kinda nutty
- Only 1 boss fight and it's not very good
- Level vary wildly in length, some are 20 mins, some are as little as 5.

Recommendations for new updates:
- Pistol might be a bit overpowered, thing has laser beam stability and hits very hard
- There should be a dedicated melee button, instead of a melee weapon slot.
- Soldier enemies are too tanky when their goo pod gets popped. I miss when they got one-shot honestly, considering how dangerous they are.
- Really should just automatically go back to the Asylum after each level
- Needs voiceovers added badly, story lacks context
- Could use an auto map or an optional waypoint
- Weapon unlocks are very grindy considering they're often not straight upgrades

One of the best retro boomer shooters out there right now. It's basically Chernobyl Quake, but that's okay because HROT brings it own particular flavor of 90's Drab Brown Textures to the table. It's frantic, visceral, and goofy fun. Highly recommended, a real gem here.

Pros:
- Crunchy, brutal combat with a variety of well-designed enemies and encounters
- Bursting with creative level design, they get a lot out of the 1980's Soviet aesthetic
- Amazing soundtrack
- Some genuine scares mixed in with fast-paced action, changes up the pace
- You can pet the dogs and feed them treats until they barf
- Some laugh-out loud gags and achievements

♥♥♥♥:
- Lots of "find the key right behind a locked door" type of progression
- Stops introducing new enemies after cultists, kind of a bummer
- Very punishing difficulty sometimes, you can die to some real ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥
- Needs a weapon wheel
- Bosses are meh

"Bramble" hits all the classic tropes of the cinematic platformer: a child in danger, fantastical world, basic platforming and puzzles, and most importantly: a super dark tone that is rarely motivated by narrative other than to place a defenseless child in peril.

I give this a very tepid recommendation mainly for its cutesy, slightly generic fantasy aesthetic slamming into an incredibly violent and grim Witcher 3-esque world. There's something compelling about that, if to only tell a mid-grade, dark, R-rated fairy tale. Play it for the Scandinavian folklore vibes, as Swedish as husmanskost salted fish.

Pros:
- A lot of compelling and creepy fantasy imagery
- Plays with scale and size in a unique way that makes you feel truly tiny in a vast, unknowable world
- Amazing score, top notch
- Short length (matches thin plot)
- The picture books you can find. Lovingly illustrated and voiced.

♥♥♥♥:
- Extremely dark and violent without a compelling narrative to accompany such a decision. Feels cheap and downright exploitative at times
- Platforming can be sloppy at times
- Boss fights with unclear mechanics, especially the last one, can lead to a lot of cheap deaths and restarts
- Very, very, very linear without much mechanical depth or narrative drive

One of the better analog, 4th wall breaking creepy games I've played recently. Would you like to befriend a desperate, cloying AI program? No? Too bad, you're friends now whether you like or not.

The Undertale of Analog Horror.

Pros:
- Lots of surprises I was not expecting.
- Genuinely creepy atmosphere despite not really being a horror game.
- A deeper story once you piece it together, not EXACTLY sure what's going on, but I want to figure it out
- Funnier than I was counting on.
- The sound design is weirdly compelling, you can hear the ROOM TONE of your character sitting at the computer! WHAT.
- Check your Documents folder.

♥♥♥♥:
- I don't like it when technology tries to be my friend. Unrelated to the game, but I don't want my microwave telling him to have a nice day. Getting a little too familiar, robot.
- Text adventure part can get a little tedious, like an actual text adventure.
- I get why it's only playable with keyboard, but the RPG section would have played better with controller, especially the blocking mechanic.
- Last section is very undercooked, feels like the shift starts and then it's over.
- No ability to speed up dialogue, since there's a lot of it.

A hyperviolent, crudely juvenile, psychadelic game about kicking doors into people. I kinda love it. Hotline Miami with a foot fetish. Truly, the angriest foot-based game ever.

Pros:
- Crunchy, fast-paced, addictive combat. Every time you kick a door in, it feels amazing. You can literally kick everyone in the game.
- New weapons and enemy types regularly introduced, forcing you to adapt
- Exactly as long as it needs to be
- Some very challenging encounters that combine spawn knowledge with twitch reflexes to win, a good balance
- Funny, bizarro story and world, everyone is a little freak straight out of an Ed "Big Daddy" Roth cartoon. Design and character work are phenomenal. ♥♥♥♥ City is such a great place, I'd love a Mirror's Edge style parkour game in this world.

♥♥♥♥:
- Soundtrack can get a little repetitive. There's only so much DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUN DUDADADA DUN DUN DUN you can really tolerate
- Slide shoe mechanic should just be part of your moveset, best shoes in the game
- Enemies can be easily cheesed with doors
- A few levels feel pasted on, I would have preferred less levels with more ideas. Some level challenges are just annoying and not fun (headshot kills and ignites stink)
- Last boss fight is kind of a letdown

I really, really, really wanted to like "Elypse". On paper, it's got everything that I want: a tough platformer experience, a moody art style, tight controls that are easy to pick up, hard to master. The main issues with this game are so fundamental, a patch wouldn't fix them. In the end, several unfortunate design choices make this game's potential fall into frustration and in the end, I muscled through and felt relief, not excitement, when I was done. There's talent on display here, and I really want these folks to make another game.

Pros:
- Somber, surreal mood and atmosphere. You're basically escaping hell.
- Movement is tight and precise. You don't get many abilities,
- Level design switches up mechanics and adds new stuff in on the regular.
- Love the score. Not insanely memorable but never found it annoying or out of place.
- I really love the last boss fight's design. A real highlight.
- Accessibility options are a nice addition, and I like that they're there.

♥♥♥♥:
- Extremely reminiscent of "Ori and the Blind Forest", to the point I couldn't stop noticing it. A floaty multi-jump, a mid-air projectile attack, a grapple mechanic that rockets you forward, bug-like enemies that shoot from their back, flying enemies that both dive and shoot, laser beams, multi-part blue keys that open blue doors, character that speak in soft gibberish, a meandering supernatural plot involving abstract forces. It's not a photocopy, but there's ENOUGH similarities it feels uncreative.
- What is the story of this game? What is happening? I feel totally lost in the jargon heavy narrative with unclear stakes.
- There are way too many blind jumps in this game. There's often no clear idea of where you need to jump, kind of important in, you know, a platformer.
- Why can't I rebind controller inputs? In the year of our Lord 2024?
- The grapple points will sometimes fling you out to the stratosphere, sometimes will just fart you out. I never got the hang of these things.
- Instant kill on any damage is incredibly frustrating in lackluster combat sections. Every boss fight becomes a slog.
- Difficulty spikes on certain encounters are bananas. You can cruise through an entire level and suddenly it's Meat Boy Dark World using a Guitar Hero controller, then back to baby mode. Nokron Tower is a particular offender here.
- Why is there no map? Omission is inexplicable. Half of my time in this game is trying to find blue keys or the blue door. Sometimes you need as many as 5. You have no idea how many you need until you actually find the door, and when you do, it's very easy to get lost on the way back. Both "Ori" game are multitudes more complex level-wise and I never felt lost in those.
- Underwhelming secondary abilities. I never felt the need to use them.

"Robocop: Rogue City", much like the dev's previous game "Terminator: Resistance", historically isn't supposed to be good. These games never are, it's one of those laws of video games. Robocop is a very good (but not great) take on the material tragically underserved by previous games. Teyon is quickly finding itself a very interesting niche: a "AA" quality FPS based on a R-rated licensed 1980's property that has never really had a good game entry. "Predator" game, next? "Rambo" that's not a dog turd rail shooter? Oooh, "Escape from NY" game. Once you look past its steep price and convoluted story, you'll find a rough but genuine gem of a licensed game here.

Pros:
- Faithful and authentic tone and characters to Paul Verhoeven's classic film. Nailed the look, sound, feel of a grungy, scuzzy 1980's Detroit.
- Nailed Robocop's walk and his general tank-like feeling without feeling annoying to control.
- More mechanics than you would expect: social systems, branching story paths, detective work, mod system, special skills, even a small open world area. Nothing to deep on the detective work, but a welcome reminder Robocop is, in fact, a street level police officer.
- Satisfying, extremely violent combat. You genuinely feel unstoppable and the breach effect almost never gets old.
- That classic synth score, so good.
- Longer than you would expect, surprised when the game threw one last level at me.
- Some laugh out loud moments, like a bratty kid arguing the civic duty and merits of voting to some street punks, "Funeral Bob" who casually attends funerals for fun, a nurse asking if a patient wants to pay with a donated organ, and the final resolution with a high tech mercenary group are all very choice.

♥♥♥♥:
- Weapons other than the upgraded Auto-9 are functionally worthless. Easy to get overpowered very quickly.
- Pretty obvious devs aren't native English speakers. There's some strange turns of phrase and lots of typos in subtitles.
- Performances can be wooden, which is fine from Robocop (with Peter Weller returning), but from the human characters around him. Weakest part of the game: stiff line readings and uncanny character models.
- Not sure why we get stuck with Washington and Pickles, two very annoying characters, when really I just wanted to team up with Lewis. You know, your partner? She gets sidelined for like half the game. Sucks.
- Story is... hmm not great? Is the evil multinational corporation destroying your city going to be the bad guy in the end? I dunno!
- There is no universe in which a police union would actively strike, leaving a city with no active law enforcement. Vast majority of locales make police strikes actually illegal or require minimal staffing. I also found it strange that a fully privatized police force even has a union, you'd think that would be the first thing OCP would destroy.
- Main villain is cut straight from central casting. Ho hum. Give me the oozing smirk of Clarence Boddicker or Bob Morton rather than this Hans Gruber-looking ass knockoff. Oh wow, he likes money and power. Imagine that. Why does he keep leaving all the time? They even call this out in the game. BTW, that's called "lampshading" a lame story beat.
- The game asks the question if Robocop should be considered "human", being a resurrected cyborg. The story argues he should or shouldn't be granted full human rights status by the Mayor of Detroit. That's not how human rights work. A single mayor of a city can't grant or take those away. Also this idea of Murphy being haunted by his previous life was resolved in the second film: he has accepted his family has moved on.
- Some missed opportunities in the world-building. No parody commercials for example, which would make for great in-between level cuts.

True story, this happened to me once

One of the best adventure / puzzle games of all time. A lovingly crafted remaster and remake that fully recaptures the spirit of the 1997 classic while adding some great quality of life features. Play without a guide if possible for one of the most immersive and rewarding puzzle experiences in gaming.

Pros:
- A masterful puzzle game that is genuinely clever, intricately designed, immaculate
- Score worth playing on repeat, sound work is phenomenal, the best creaky board sounds in the business
- Gorgeous art direction
- In-game notebook so you can take a million pictures and forget everything anyway
- Some randomized puzzle elements make brute-forcing impossible (brainlets in SHAMBLES)
- No guidance, forcing you to think and make connections between areas that can be stimulating and full of brain expansion moments

♥♥♥♥:
- No guidance, forcing you to think and make connections to a point that can sometimes feel punishing to the point of brain implosion moments
- Navigation is slow, sprint toggle please, making the mandatory backtracking such a chore I wish to throw myself into the Starry Expanse
- Confusing ending structure, easy to get a doo doo ending and have to replay a lot, good option would be to have a "point of no return" notice
- One cutscene feels longer than church, skip please
- Crusty FMV characters removed in favor of, let's just say, very not great looking CG models.