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is what you get when you combine exploring otherworldly locations in a dungeon crawler-like fashion mixed with lunatic conspiracy theories and retro graphics depicting some disturbing, often violent stuff. And then you expand on this formula and release it as a sort of definitive edition. Basically, Psychopomp GOLD.

The story goes like this: the girl you play as creates a helmet that lets you read peoples’ minds, but not really, it actually shows you things you didn’t know existed — places and creatures hidden under our everyday buildings, be it schools, hospitals etc. So you do what any sane person would do, you take a hammer and break into these places to explore their mysterious depths. You encounter some goofy ahh monsters and NPCs, sometimes get spooked, other times admire some nice views and very atmospheric ambient music, you pretend like you know what you’re doing, in reality you forgot to take your meds. No, seriously. Go take your meds, I’m not joking.




In amidst all these hijinks lies a pretty simple, yet engaging game. Movement is done like on a grid*, either forwards, backwards or sideways and you only get one way to attack enemies. You can also interact with the environment and talk to characters in a point and click style. Oddly enough, sprinting sideways is the best way to get around the levels, since it doesn’t draw your stamina (it was a bug deliberately left in the game by the dev to make speedrunners run like crabs, which is pretty based in my opinion).

Definitely this game’s strongest point is its setting, not how refined it is gameplaywise (because it isn’t). The slick combo of old-school visuals and memorable music creates this mysterious and somewhat unwelcoming atmosphere, that just makes you want to uncover what is hidden deep down. To see what oddities are there. And potentially hit them with a hammer, just in case.

Compared to the free version, in Psychopomp GOLD we get more unique enemies and NPCs, extra locations and old locations get a revamp — new secrets as well as some visual touches. Fresh music is nice too like in the original, I especially like the tracks in Structure and Instructions intro areas (they remind me of Hallmark ‘87 – A T R I U M, great ambient album btw). Game is still quite short, but this might be a blessing in disguise. You quickly get used to the simple gameplay loop and it’s one of these games that’s fun only when you experience it once and replaying levels feels a bit tedious after a few times.

Partially thanks to its mechanical simplicity, game doesn’t suffer from many bugs. The only problems I had was movement grid in a particular level (Instructions) which wasn’t aligned well with level’s geometry and you couldn’t go through one portion of the map without phasing through walls. Moreover, music in one bonus location (Rust Mother Artificial Cave) was too loud, to a point it was substancially louder than anything else and slightly unbearable. Luckily, none of these issues are gamebreaking.

Psychopomp GOLD also features a mod support (in theory), but there is no Steam Workshop yet and there isn’t much information floating around on how to create your own mods, so we’ll see how it goes in the future**. Additionally few people have been saying the dev is dishonest for releasing this game as one smaller free version and then one paid with all the content, but as far as I’m aware he created a poll for his fans and they voted for him to expand the game in a paid edition, so it’s not like it was a ploy to persuade people into paying.




This game and its soundtrack lives rent-free in my head. Despite it not being particularly deep, it was somewhat thought-provoking and even slightly inspiring (game was made by one person and in Godot engine, which I was fond of since it was a huge part of my bachelor's thesis). It’s always nice to see people doing something creative and niche on the internet, especially when they get some deserved recognition for their work.

If Psychopomp 2 was ever to come out, it might need to bring some more variety in gameplay and some QoL improvements — like being able to replay levels after you completed the story, which the current game unfortunately lacks. All in all, the formula for a potential classic is there, it just needs to be refined and ideas for more imaginative worlds need to keep coming. As I’ve said earlier, creativity is this game’s biggest selling point, so let’s hope the developer will never lose the essence of what made Psychopomp great.


Rating:

Playtime: 3-6h

The game is GOOD for players who:

• look for something unique
  
• don’t mind the grotesque and disturbing nature
  
• like conspiracy theories
  
• already played the free version of Psychopomp

The game is NOT GOOD for people who:

• are easily disturbed
  
• look for a complex narrative
  
• want replayability in their games

*Some people call it tank controls, but that doesn’t reflect how it works in practice. It’s more like Crypt of the NecroDancer (but in first person view and without the rhythm) than for example old Silent Hill games.

**As I was finishing up this review, Karbonic released first version of modding tools for Psychopomp GOLD, which looks promising.

You black out and wake up in catacombs under a government building surrounded by monstrosities. Ugly monstrosities. You know what that means. Hammer time. Something draws you deeper. What do you do? You take an elevator down. Downturn. Downward. Earthward? Oh, yes please. You delve into the deepest depths of Earth after you descent. This is madness. Madness? This is Sparta? Uh, I think so. Next thing you know, you meet up with the Plato who tells you how he likes the touch and smell of chil#ren. Then you open the dog, smash the nurse, recycle the queen and black out again, wake up, red out, which you didn’t even know you could do. Then you turn into a fairy and fly away.




For real though, Psychopomp offers one of the more unique journeys you could embark on completely free of charge. A journey of traversing through bizarre places, talking to deranged NPCs and hitting a few monsters with a hammer. It’s a neat mix of a retro dungeon crawler, some point and click elements and a soundtrack that sets the tone perfectly throughout the game. I absolutely adore its music, tracks are super atmospheric. The only issue is they are very short and sometimes it’s noticeable when they loop.

Funnily enough, the game has a psychological horror tag on its Steam page. Is it scary? Not really*. You definitely feel uneasy due to all the weird noises, bad visibility in darker hallways and setting that's just slightly beyond your comprehension — alien and eldritch at times. The player is not defenseless though, you have your trusty “weapon” and can use it to smack anything that comes right up to your face. Which ultimately makes any threat less scary. Psychopomp is just not the kind of game you play to get scared, but rather to explore an interesting world with uncanny creatures and simply enjoy someone's vision. And that’s also great, not everything has to be pants-shi#tingly spooky to be good.




It’s becoming harder and harder to find captivating games that aren’t straight up toxicaly addicting or mid overall to say the least. Under a constant stream of bland “quadruple A” slop, indie games continue to prove themselves as a superior form, with Psychopomp being one good example.

In a couple of days since posting this review, Psychopomp Gold has its release, which I'm definitely looking forward to. It has the potential to be even more successful and memorable, it just needs to build upon already quite solid foundations. So far the story feels more like an intro for something much more grandeur, it’s sparse, short and cryptic, so you just wish to see more. Let’s just hope we will.


Rating:

Playtime: 1-2h

The game is GOOD for players who:

• are on a budget
  
• don’t have a lot of time
  
• look for something unique
  
• don’t mind the grotesque and disturbing nature
  
• are fans of conspiracy theories

The game is NOT GOOD for people who:

• don’t like spooks
  
• look for a complex story

*And that comes from a guy who was crapp#ng himself playing SOMA, while all the other horror veterans were saying Amnesia was way more terrifying. I’m definitely not the kind of person to pretend how nothing can scare me.

It's good and more accessible for beginners, but there are still some essential features missing. For example, Adventure mode and logs.

As far as I'm aware, Adventure will be added later, but I'm not sure what about the logs. They only appear in small pop-up notifications and once you dismiss them, they are gone forever. That's very bad.

If something dies and you accidentally deleted the alert, you have no way of telling what happened. The same goes for a scenario where you would like to trace something that happened much longer time ago.

Edit: Apparently logs are already here and Adventure mode is coming, so that's good. Amen.

Have you ever wondered how would WW II play out if Hitler died? Or what would happen if Allies joined the fight earlier by saving Czechoslovakia and Poland from the quickly expanding Third Reich? Or maybe you are more interested in playing as a country that didn't participate in this conflict at all, like Afghanistan for example?

In Hearts of Iron 4 you can try to realize your wildest WW II fantasies and hopefully find some satisfying answers to all the "What if?" questions you can come up with. It's a wonderful game with almost unprecedented amount of freedom given to the player, but it all comes at a price and I'm not even talking about buying all the DLCs...




One of the main obstacles you'll need to overcome is how complicated the game appears at first glance. Just prepare yourself that first moments with this game may be a struggle. Learning the basics takes a lot of time, failing and frustration. Not as overwhelming and user-unfriendly as Europa Universalis IV, but if you are not used to playing complex strategy games, it might still give you a headache. Fortunately, there are ways to ease your progress.

The best way to learn is by playing with a friend that already knows this game well. It can literally skyrocket your learning process. However, if you don't have such a friend, you can still speed it up by watching experienced players. Since Hoi isn't an arcade game, knowledge and decision-making is the key to success and adopting veterans' way of thinking helps you avoid many mistakes you would have otherwise made. I recommend checking out creators like Taureor who does interesting challenges, FeedBackGaming who sometimes does tutorials for achievements and TommyKay who does multiplayer and roleplaying. From all of these lads you can learn useful tactics and exploits.

There are many different systems that the game lets you control. Fortunately, Hoi 4 just as any other Paradox strategies features an active pause, so you can calmly plan everything out and play at your own pace. The more you know the better your gaming experience gets, because then you can manage your nation properly and getting it all right is very engaging. Especially since you can play as literally any nation that existed at this time on the world maps and even some nations that didn't. At the start of a campaign you can choose whether you want the AI to follow historical path or alternative scenarios at random. So as you might imagine, it has quite a lot of potential for roleplaying and creating some very unique experiences. What's the catch then?




Imagine spending multiple hours on your brilliant campaign, preparing for the dawn of the biggest war humanity has ever experienced, only to get tired by the late game lag and giving it up, because you are spending more time waiting for things to happen than actually playing the game. Let's just say that ~12 fps will not suffice for enjoying your experience, unless you don't value your free time. Optimization is unfortunately a big issue. Moreover, the fact that AI controlled nations tend to spam small, rubbish divisions instead of creating a smaller quantity of good divisions, doesn't help the game's performance at all.

And if it weren't enough that AI contributes to the late game being tremendously slow, the AI itself can get very stupid at times. It has its advantages — thanks to being inferior it's highly exploitable when it comes to enemy AI, but what's bad about it, is that you just CAN'T rely on your AI allies. They either don't help you enough or they straight up cripple your army by bringing too many forces to an area with low supply, rendering your and theirs units completely ineffective. So if you want the job done right, you have to do everything yourself. In a case where you are not able to, you are simply doomed.

The game is heavily focused on warfare, thus other options like diplomacy and trade are not as successful and interesting to focus on (unless in multiplayer). Luckily, military aspects of this game are done well. Although with the amount of complexity in the game it is near impossible to balance everything and not to include some simplifications, therefore don't expect absolute realism. Also nations are balanced historically, so obviously some are substantially weaker than the others, that's why you need to lower your expectations whenever you chose a smaller country.

Moreover, knowing this game well can feel good, but at the same time makes this game much more predictable. Since it's so heavily oriented around WW II, some things are hardcoded for AI to make WW2 play out as it should (for example there is a piece of code that makes British AI send fewer troops to Africa and be more passive there, because Italian AI used to always lose against them on this front). And some countries literally don't do anything throughout the entire campaign, since in the real world scenario they weren't participating in this conflict. It makes sense, but also makes playing in some parts of the world boring, because all the "fun" is happening in Europe.

If you don't really care about WW II and this time period overall, you might be better off playing some other Paradox games like EU 4, CK 2 or even Stellaris. Their campaigns are less predictable, even when staying historical in the case of Europa and Crusader Kings.




I have very mixed feelings about this beautiful game. A big part of me absolutely loves the idea of being able to play any country as well as changing the course of WW II, but at the same time I just can't stand the thought of how much more you would be able to do, if the late game wasn't running so slow. And yet the game itself is highly addictive, so it creates a toxic loop where you want to leave, but you keep getting new interesting ideas for campaigns and saying to yourself that this time it will work, it will be fun... But more often than not you just feel depleted and disappointed. Overall it feels like a huge potential lies in this game, but you can't just really reach it all.

Still, this potential allowed something special to flourish, Hoi 4 has a brilliant collection of modders and content creators. There is an abundance of great mods in the Steam workshop, that can turn Hoi into a completely different game, because of how rich and well-made they are. Community is what makes this game much better. I have to give credit to Paradox, for adding such an extensive mod support to this game, it's what gives this game longevity.

It's also worth mentioning that doing 100% achievements costs a lot of money and an absurd amount of time. You need all expansions and some achievements are extremely hard to do. After 666h I managed to get only 66 achievements out of 132 that we now have in the game. And that number will be growing with each new DLC released, so even if you manage to get all achievements, your 100% won't stay for too long.




In my opinion, Hoi 4 would be a solid 9+/10 if it weren't for the performance issues and not the smartest AI (currently it deserves 7/10). It has prospects for becoming an ideal grand strategy, but judging by how Paradox manages this game's development — it won't happen any time soon. So we just got to hope that if Hoi 5 were ever to come out, they won't repeat the same mistakes. The fact that Paradox doesn't have almost any competition in this niche doesn't really fill with optimism. Monopoly is always bad and that is why it would be splendid if some new grand strategy games (not made by Paradox) appeared on the market.


The game is good for:

• players who love grand strategy games
  
• people interested in 1936-1948 time period history and WW II overall

The game is bad for:

• achievement hunters
  
• players who don't like overwhelming complexity

Death comes in all shapes and sizes, but in the case of Toribash it is slowly rotting away. A unique game with great potential, persistently losing players' trust as well as players themselves due to flawed matchmaking system, toxic community and moderators that allegedly scammed players.

If you look thorugh the reviews on Steam you can see some people complaining about getting scammed by the devs of this game. I don't know how much of this is true, but this sure is quite concerning in itself. Players stating about these issues seemed to know what they were talking about, they had a good chunk of experience in this game and these reviews had feedback in the comments — the positive one as well as toxic people insulting the reviewers for being a crybabies.

When it comes to the player count Toribash has peaked on Steam in 2014, just as it got released and from then on it was at a slow, but constant downfall. It's also worth mentioning that the game was alive even before it came out on Steam, so it probably had a bit more players than SteamDB might suggest. Although things have changed over time and unfortunately — for the worse. In 2016 it had around 450 players daily on Steam, which was reasonable and nowadays there are about 150 concurrent players daily. Unless you play at peak hours, you see most of the servers empty and that's no bueno. Source: Steam Database[steamdb.info]

Furthermore, the developers of this game are working on some kind of a sequel called 'Toribash Next'. It has been announced around 2017 and it does have some kind of closed beta going on, but I'm not sure what is the state of this project right now. It's supposed to be made on a new engine, built from the ground up, so I assume it will be a separate game. The project definitely does exist, because it has some gameplay on YouTube. And I bet it will become a priority for the devs over the original Toribash if it ever comes out.

So it's not looking too bright for the future of Toribash, isn't it?




I came back to this game after a few years of absence. Before that I've played it without Steam, because you can download the client from their main website. Really used to like this game, it was pretty enjoyable when you were trying to create your own moves in singleplayer mode against a mannequin and when you were goofing around with other players on multiplayer. There were many different game modes available, it had swords, judo, boxing and even parkour. Everything it had was fun in some way or another. And now the game still has all these game modes, but there is rarely anyone to play them with.

After I launched the game for the first time on Steam I got greeted with an annoying tutorial that throws at you some useless dialogue, which you skip through and then it allows you to try a few simple moves. Then I jumped into multiplayer and saw all beginner servers completely empty, so I tried connecting to a public server. I was matched against a black belt player that started owning me in every single game. I didn't really care about winning, but playing against him wasn't fun at all. I almost didn't get any chance to move since most of the time he just ripped one of my limbs off and I was losing immediately after it fell down on the ground. When I finally met someone on my level, he ragequitted after I won once against him, even though we had an even fight.

And that's basically how my experience looked like after coming back to this game — either meeting players that are way above my skill level or not having anyone to play against at all. As I've said earlier you often see servers empty and on private servers people play with friends, so most of the time you get kicked out of them if you try to join.

This game has no place for new and inexperienced players. They rarely get a chance to play against someone on their level. And since Toribash has quite a steep learning curve, people either tend to give up trying to understand how to control your character or they just become completely depleted after getting repeatedly smashed by a veteran. And then they just leave.

Also you can find some deranged content like a mode called 'functional_toris*x' that is about sticking a schlong into a big posterior of a busty doll. Just keep that in mind if you will ever consider letting your kids play this game. Furthermore, the game has a lot of blood, but it can be turned off in the settings.




Just stay away from this game, avoid it. If you really want to test it out, play it with friends or experiment in a singleplayer mode. It's a pretty cool game on its own and it gets updated regularly, but in a current state it is unplayable if you are looking for a competitive challenge or fun community to play with. It lacks the playerbase and the people who are still there are not very welcoming. The concept of the game itself is great and I would love to see this game have some kind of comeback, but unless Toribash Next will be an absolute banger and will gain a respectable playerbase, I don't really see it happening any time soon.

If you are searching for some fun F2P fighting game on Steam, just play Brawhalla. You will enjoy it much more and you will actually get a chance to experience it properly, since it has much bigger playerbase and queue times are almost instantaneous.


The game is decent for:

• players looking for a small game to play together with friends

The game is terrible for:

• solo players
  
• players wanting to play multiplayer competitively

Gothic 3 is quite a relic by today's standards. Even though the game itself is not that old, it didn't stand the test of time very well. Some people like it, some people despise it. And for me, this game is precious. It was a part of my childhood experience with the first RPG games I have ever played. These games were mostly Witcher 1 and a bit of Gothic 3. Even back then I thought that Witcher was simply a better game than Gothic 3, but Gothic gave me something that Witcher couldn't - a completely open world where I could do whatever I want and go wherever I want. It sparked my young imagination like a supernova.

I know that hardcore fans of this series don't really like this game in particular and I understand the reasons behind it. It isn't canonically accurate and it's not as good as its predecessors. But 11 year old me didn't care about any of this, this game for me was just a cool sandbox with a relatively big open world and that's all I cared about back then. It just felt magical to explore it as a kid and having freedom to do whatever you want to do. It almost felt like a GTA of role-playing games.




Mediocre at best. It sometimes has performance issues and graphics look objectively bad. Combat is simple, but can be frustrating while engaging enemies at close range. At longer distances "shoot and run with a bow until they die" strategy is very effective, but not very challenging. Magic is a bit fun, but can be too overpowered. Story has some charm to it, but it's nothing extraordinary. And some impurities in it are annoying for players who are well accustomed with this franchise.

Fortunately Steam version of Gothic 3 has community patch available to choose from the Properties>Betas section (patch cpt_1.75). This patch corrects some minor issues with the game and adds support for higher refresh rates, so it's really nice if you have a 144hz monitor. It also offers options of alternative balance and alternative AI that can improve the game for some players. These changes make the game a bit more challenging, however they can strip you of some freedom when it comes to developing your character. It slows down your progress, so you won't get too overpowered early in the game. Thus I wouldn't recommend it for your 1st playthrough, since you won't be able to experiment as much with your builds.




This game may still be fun even today, especially for people who just want to goof around, kill and steal everything they encounter. But then again, why would you choose this game instead of playing one of The Elder Scrolls games? They basically offer you the same kind of entertainment with better quality gameplay and presumably story too.

Yet, I think that the world in Gothic 3 is unique enough to stand out from TES series, but it's up to you whether you have enough patience to uncover it through its mechanical and graphical inferiorities. Nowadays people just got used to much higher standards and that's perfectly fine, not everyone has time and money to dig through trash in search of hidden gems. I wouldn't call Gothic 3 a garbage though, it's just a small and very unpolished gemstone.

There are tons of little joys that you can find in this game. You can liberate villages and towns enslaved by Orcs and after you do that, Rebels take control of this village/town. It's a neat feature, you can do it at any time and by any means you want - either by doing quests for the Rebels and gaining their military support during the uprising or you can just do it yourself by simply killing all the baddies in that one establishment (like a one-man army). You can purge Rebel camps for the Orcs as well, you don't really have to be the good guy. It's cool to see what kind of impact on this world as a hero you can have.

I remember that after some tweaking you could get access to a variety of console commands, that would spawn buildings, NCPs, monsters, give control over other characters and even stop time for projectiles and magic (so you could do some epic Matrix stuff like shooting bunch of arrows/spells and then releasing all of them at once from multiple angles). And of course the game has funny ragdolls that behave like floppy balloons and sometimes get glitched while colliding with the environment.

This kind of control over a game allowed people to create different parodies and machinimas for YouTube, almost like with GMod. A lovely community has grown around this game and it was fun being a part of it. Creating your own stupid videos, sharing your funny adventures with friends at school - all of it added some flavor to the game itself.




To avoid some of the problems with this game, I recommend you to play on version 1.75 and to change game's language BEFORE DOWNLOADING it, because later it might not work due to a bug on Steam. At least that's how it was in my case. Some console commands also don't work on some versions of the game, I've heard that people were having trouble getting them to function. And sometimes when you Alt-Tab the game at the wrong moment it tends to freeze completely and you need to close it with task manager, but with patch 1.75 it happens less often.

Additionally, I need to point out that Gothic 3 looks way more interesting and overall better than the screenshots on the Steam store page would make you think. They create a bad impression in my opinion, they are like a compilation of the least interesting parts of the game. If you want to see how it actually is in practice, better search for some gameplay on YouTube.

Not a real issue, but it's a pity this game doesn't have any achievements on Steam. Obviously I don't need an excuse to play Gothic 3, but would appreciate some extra challenges in the game. For example achievement for killing every NPC on the map, liberating whole Myrtana from Orcs or learning all skills from one particular branch (like Thief skills or Hunting skills).




It's very janky and clunky game, but for many it used to be something truly special. As you get older and your standards rise up, it gets really hard to find a game that would invoke similar enthusiasm and curiosity from you as this game once did for the whole generation of young gamers. That's why Gothic 3 despite all of its flaws still holds a special place in my heart. And even now in the 2020s, it can be a fun game to relax with.


The game is good for:

• players looking for a unique open world experience (with great amount freedom)
  
• people that are bound to this game by nostalgia

The game is bad for:

• players hoping for a good plot and mechanically refined RPG
  
• hardcore fans of Gothic series

Memories lost, but not forgotten. The game reignites them by providing us with the same original experience, but presented in a more modern look. Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy is one of the most genuine remakes out there, on par with Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy. If you ever had a chance to play the original Spyro on Playstation 1, be ready for another "smashing blast from the past"!




It contains (as its title suggests) all three canonical Spyro games, in a perfect digital condition. Surprisingly, beautiful and amplified graphics don't deprive Spyro of its initial charm and magic. You could even say that now locations feel less empty, since they have much more details everywhere. Comparing characteristic landmarks to what they looked like on PS 1 (with all its hardware limitations) is really mesmerizing. Roughly 20 years have passed since original release. One could only wonder what the upcoming decades might bring to the world of video games.

On the sound design side, Reignited Trilogy also does not disappoint. It features a dynamic soundtrack based on original one. It is especially suited for what's happening on the screen - the music changes whether you are inside a building, charging forward with your horns or just chilling out and standing still. It's a subtle thing, but it feels very refreshing when you notice it. The original OST was great on its own, remake's soundtrack is a further improvement. However, if you are looking for a more vanilla experience, there is an option to turn on the original soundtrack. Sound effects are pretty neat too. Collecting gems feels nostalgic and even more satisfying thanks to that new and sweet dopamine inducing sound. Lovely.

The game is also well optimized, I haven't had any performance issues and didn't encounter any bugs throughout my entire playthrough.




Spyro has already sparked the imagination of youth over two decades ago, now its remake has a chance to do the same for new generations. The formula of the game hasn't changed, but its refreshed looks make the game more appealing to kids already accustomed to pretty graphics and animations. Nowadays they mostly encounter productions of a higher quality, be in a movies or other modern games or even YouTube. Reignited Trilogy with all its vivid colors and glittering effects is truly eye-catching. It just feels very welcoming and wholesome. Appropriate for children, so to speak. The gameplay itself is very family friendly too. The game is focused on collecting stuff, helping funny characters and progressing further through the different worlds. There are occasional fights with opponents scattered around these worlds, but encounters are far from violent - they are presented in a cartoonish and humorous way. Exploring locations is probably where most of the fun lies, they are quite diverse and include secrets. You can turn on the map of your current location, but I think it takes away element of a surprise and I wouldn't recommend using it even for kids.

All in all this game creates an interesting environment for the kids. If I had children myself, I would definitely introduce them to the world of Spyro (and Crash Bandicoot too).




In regards to to older players the amount of joy they receive per square pixel may differ greatly. It really comes down to whether you played the old Spyro or not. I'm not saying it's a bad game, it just doesn't offer that much compared to the current competition. You need to have a very special interest in this game to forgive its imperfections. The remake in itself is top shelf, no denying that. The original Spyro's gameplay wasn't perfect though, people really tend to remember things as better than they actually were. That's why nostalgia is such an important factor in this case.

From the beginning when I started playing Reignited Trilogy, I loved it. Felt very nostalgic exploring all the locations I once visited as a kid. Nevertheless, I had no memories of playing Spyro 2 and 3. I knew only a couple of locations I played in some demo versions of these games on PS 1. Nostalgia has given way to curiosity when I got to the second game. Discovering it for the first time was absorbing, but no strong feelings there. Spyro got a few new abilities, level design became more diverse, but the gameplay stayed mostly the same and after some time it became repetitive. Only when I unlocked Skelos Badlands I really got excited, because that was the level I actually remembered. Third game on the other hand introduces new playable characters, but you can only control them in levels specifically designed for their skillset. So it brings a bit of variety, but in a long run it doesn't have much of an impact on the gameplay. Level design has changed from the two previous games, but I'm not sure if for the better or worse. There were a few places I really enjoyed, but the repetitiveness drawn most of the amusement away from me. Just got tired of doing usually the same thing over and over again, but in different areas. For me, the experience went from 9/10 to 6/10. Playing started feeling like a waste of time instead of a joyful adventure it once was. Additionally some boss fights are a little bit challenging, but not in a way that it would make them interesting. It just makes them more of a chore that you want to pass through and forget.

I don't mind casual games if they offer some depth in exchange. I'm just not a target for that kind of release and if it wasn't for the fact that I've played the original Spyro the Dragon - I probably wouldn't care much about this remake.

And that remake is mostly about reliving carefree memories, so if you've never played this game before, you may get bored or you might even not like it at all. Experiencing Spyro without thick layer of nostalgia makes it appear only like a decent 3D platformer, with neither much depth or story. Simple and casual, but also drawn-out adventure. It tastes well while consumed in small bits, but spending longer sessions with this game becomes tedious. For players who cherish their free time and look for something better I would recommend trying Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy instead. The game is less time consuming, more action packed and provides a player with more of an interesting challenge than Spyro.




The game feels exactly how it was back then in the late 90's, so I can't really blame it much for the clunky mechanics as well as monotony. On the other hand, Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy is a perfect example on how remakes should be made - with appreciation for the legacy that the franchise has left. I'm really glad that someone came up with the idea of remaking this trilogy and then so many talented people actually brought that idea to life. Mad respect for that.


The game is great for:

• people who already played the original game on PS 1
  
• children

The game is average for:

• players looking for a challenge
  
• players looking for a good 3d platformer and some fresh experience

Thank you Valve, very cool!

Games for Windows Live, this is everything you need to know before you consider buying this game.

How to differentiate a bad Free to Play singleplayer game from a good one? Well, a good one definitely was made to be enjoyable and it also doesn't have this hogwash microtransactions. Furthermore, it's even better if this kind of game is rewarding and gives players a reason to play it again. OLDTV fits in this image of a perfect free game very well. In my opinion it's one of the best indie games in a zero-budget class that are available on Steam.



In this game you become a guy sitting in front of TV and surfing through different channels. Doesn't sound very interesting, does it? Definitely not, but a simple mechanic made this process entertaining and somewhat challenging. When you start a game, on your screen appears a word indicating a color (e.g. Green, Cyan, Red). If a color of a given word is the same as a word idicates you have to click your left mouse button, if it's different – right button. Simple. Simple yet diverse, because when you get to the next levels it becomes harder. Game starts to flip your screen upside down, makes your controls inverted or creates different screen distortions that disturb you while you're trying to identify if it's a right color or not. "Campaign" is divide into few levels (so called continents) which get increasingly harder, introducing you to new mechanics. You can also unlock an endless mode, but I won't tell you how to do that. It's a secret.press space bar in the main menu

On a technical, side this game looks pretty cool. The menu as well as the rest of the game itself it's stylized to look like an old TV. Sounds are well matched and music gives you this special vibe which is hard to compare with something else. When it comes to rewarding players it has several dozen achievments that give you in-game bonuses and while unlocking them in a game menu they give you a special sound effect which is related to this achievment or something from a real world. Some references are droll, like for example Trump's speech.



For a Free to Play game OLDTV it's a very well made product, it has potential for mastering your reflexes and getting all of the achievments is satisfying (I will definitely try to 100% this piece). Probably the biggest flaw of this game is a fact that it can cause an epilepsy, it's quite flashy and jumpy. If it's not a problem for you, then you should definitely try it. It's free, the only thing that you will pay are few minutes of your time, if you won't like it, you can always uninstall.



Rating:

Pros:

• completely free
  
• simple and not very time consuming
  
• nice visuals
  
• very good soundtrack
  
• cool references

Cons:

• it's nor for everyone (due to epilepsy risk)
  
• quite short