Recent reviews by Hellbound

I purchased Cyberpunk a year ago and gave it a shot for a few hours and then put it down for 12 months. I treated myself to the Phantom Liberty DLC and that latest 2.1 patch to experience the definitive edition and boy it's hard to put this thing down.

No doubt the launch was rough, but credit to CD Project Red for fixing it and crafting an awesome gaming experience, there is so much to do (yes some filler content) - but the World feels alive and it's unique.

You are doing yourself a disservice if you don't play and stick with it, I'm 50 hours in and haven't even scratched the surface.

Do not waste your time, perhaps in a 6 months it will be worth playing but it's currently a BETA build at best.

It should have been delayed again to ensure it was released finished.

85%

Max Payne, the eponymous gravel voiced "anti-hero" has returned after a hiatus of nearly a decade. Developed by Rockstar Studios, the latest game features a change of location, a new story and a number of fresh elements.

When Max first burst onto the 3D shooter scene he delivered new features and a fresh, adult story. The original Max Payne easily stood out as the most innovative 3D shooter of its age and spawned a superb sequel as well as a gaggle of imitators. In particular "Bullet Time" - the ability to slow down enemies and make precise shots - was a huge innovation and has been copied often.

Fast forward to the present day and much has changed. There are now many top notch shooters, most of which have features that help them to stand out in the current hyper competitive climate. In this tough new world does Max still have the skills to pay the bills?

When you fire the game up for the first time the lavish production values and strong narrative will bowl you over.

That said Max Payne 3 delivers a tale of woe that isn’t quite as compelling as the original game. Max has fled New York to pursue a new life as a hired bodyguard in Brazil. As soon as he has landed the fecal matter hits the spinning air conveyance facilitator and one of the people he is hired to protect is kidnapped. From here Max quickly discovers his employers are not popular people and he is constantly chasing hordes of bad guys as he tries to get to the bottom of the vendetta.

The story has many twists and turns and it moves along nicely, but it doesn’t have the emotional impact of the first game which saw Max trying to avenge the murder of his wife and baby. You still find yourself caring about the sad old veteran though, even as he binge drinks his way through most of the artfully animated segues.

Bullet Time has returned and we still like it, but there are other features that clamor for your attention. The game delivers a new obstacle based cover system, as well as a "last man standing" shoot-out mode that sees you survive a near fatal hit if you can fire back successfully. This mode is really cool as the game employs clever blur effects to make it feel like you really are about to expire if you don’t blast the guy who just shot you.

Max Payne 3 also features a number of fun multiplayer modes and these do add something, even if for this particular shooter the single player game is still king.

The game keeps you guessing with helicopter sniper stages, swamp boat chases and flaming buildings to escape as well as some really cool set piece battles with enemies and boss characters. The action is also punctuated by superb visuals. Never has the nebulous maze of refuse and ramshackle housing of Brazil’s favela neighborhood looked so good.

Max has a good, but not great selection of weapons to play with this time around. Compared with the earlier releases the current offering lacks variety boomstick wise. You do get to use an excellent sniper rifle from time to time, but you can never keep it. Instead it is sometimes snatched from your inventory in a way that doesn’t make sense. Indeed this applies to all of the weapons in that, after some passages of play, you lose your guns with no real explanation. This hurts the narrative’s sense of credibility, as Max wouldn’t have just tossed such valuable firearms away. He loooves his guns!

Also while the gameplay is very good, for me the essence of any Max Payne game should be Bullet Time. In the current offering the cover system ends up being the most regularly called upon gameplay dynamic and this feels odd.

During some stages Bullet Time is for the most part unnecessary. It isn't driving the gameplay forward as it did in the earlier incarnations of the series. It has gone from being the turbo, giving the game its extra impetus, to being a mere hood ornament. You will kill enemies more efficiently and with less risk to yourself by simply propping behind cover and popping up to take shots when foes show themselves.

Bullet Time, and in particular "shoot dodging" works, but it can be quite risky too. At its best shoot dodging is all about leaping into the air, spinning around and blasting a bunch of hapless enemies as they flounder about in slow motion. Bodies fall and you survive because of your incredible acrobatic skill. In Max Payne 3 your agility is annoyingly hamstrung. You can't draw a bead on foes fast enough. Worse than this, you often land with a thud that sees you recovering too slowly, leaving you horribly vulnerable. So while it looks really cool, you will use shoot dodging sparingly, as popping away at bad guys from cover is more effective ... it just doesn’t look as exciting. Even with the aiming speed cranked up to maximum the game still lacks the dizzying speed and precision we'd expect.

Also, and I know I am nitpicking here, many of the segues feature colorful motion blur visual effects that are totally unnecessary. The game looks stunning enough without this additional graphical garnishing. For me the developers were at times self indulgently showing off their luminescent toys merely for the sake of it.

Fans of the ketchup will be far from disappointed as the game splashes it around with enjoyable abandon. You also get treated to an animated slow motion kill sequence when you have polished off the last foe from a group of bad guys and some of the finishing moves in melee combat are slicker than baby poo. If this wasn’t enough the lighting effects and sun flares are also delightful to behold.

So, while there has been much discussion in this review of the things I didn’t quite love about this game, Max Payne 3 is still well worth your time and spare shekels. Indeed, it is only because I love the game so much that I feel the need to be picky with the critique. Max Payne 3 is that close to being perfect that we’d love it to have those few remaining foibles sorted.

Fans of the previous two outings will enjoy this and those of you who have never played a Max Payne game will love the acerbic wit, style, and narrative depth of the game. The game delivers old school ballistic bliss with aplomb. Gun toting gangsters and militia are everywhere and the action just keeps propelling you forward.

Get over here - 70%

In creating a modern-day update of classic ’80s game Bionic Commando, the designers wanted to create a faithful follow-up to the original storyline.

Only problem is, the original story was really, really stupid. In the 8-bit game, you played totally dudical, pink-haired, shades-wearing Rad Spencer, who used his trusty bionic grappling arm to defeat evil members of the Badd army, who were trying to revive their fallen leader, Master-D.

To make things more complicated, the chintzy story was actually a bowdlerized version of the original Japanese game, which was titled Top Secret: Return of Hitler. In it, Spencer faced off against swastika-wearing Nazis who were reanimating der Fuhrer himself.

The new Bionic Commando, doesn’t bring back the Nazis or the swastikas. But neither does it throw away the old story. Instead, it turns a silly situation into a serious one, recasting the one-dimensional, four-color characters as flawed heroes in a world gone wrong.

It’s a clever use of these retro heroes, but the gameplay doesn’t translate as well to the modern era. In fact, besides the novelty of the story, Bionic Commando is a mostly forgettable experience that doesn’t make very good use of the game’s central unique feature — that amazing extendable bionic arm.

How do you turn a happy-go-lucky guy with gel in his hair into the battle-hardened antihero that jaded millennial gamers demand? Just throw him into jail for five years for a crime he didn’t commit, then drop some nuclear bombs. Emerging into a ruined, irradiated world, Nathan “Rad” Spencer (his original moniker having been retconned into a cutesy nickname) has been beaten down into the sort of dreadlocked, sarcastic, bitter a-hole that America craves.

In any other videogame, this story would be cliche. But when the guy in your earpiece shouting gruff commands at you is “Super Joe” from a 1985 arcade game, the whole thing is just ironic and goofy enough to work.

Bringing Bionic Commando‘s story in line with contemporary tastes was only one challenge that Swedish development team Grin had to face. Another was re-creating the bionic arm gameplay in a fully 3-D world. The original game’s unique appeal was that you could throw your left arm out like a grappling hook, catch hold of high ledges, then swing in the air.

It works well here: Your targeting reticule will light up when you’re in range of something you can grapple on to, and as long as you’re holding down the R mouse button, Spencer will hook on and his momentum will start him swinging back and forth. Let go at the right moment, and you’ll fly through the air, ready to grab another target and swing like Tarzan through the levels.

That’s how it works in theory, anyway. In practice, Bionic Commando‘s levels are nothing more than highly linear, strung-together series of firefights against mundane bad guys, something that doesn’t feel substantially different from any other third-person shooter.

You can use your arm in fights to grab and throw enemies, or to throw things at enemies, which is quite a bit more effective than shooting them. These moves also err on the side of perfection: Once I picked up an enemy and threw him, and it auto-locked onto a sniper on a roof about half a mile away, and the two bodies collided perfectly. Who needs guns?

But in most cases, Bionic Commando punishes you for trying to enjoy it. If you’re having too much fun swinging around and climbing buildings, you’re quite likely to fall into a bottomless death trap, or swing into an area of the city that’s full of radiation. Both kill you very quickly. To add insult to injury, you’re booted out to a very long loading screen when you die.

The checkpoints are spaced so far apart that you’ll quickly learn to be extremely cautious when swinging around. When I finally completed some of the more frustrating objectives, I didn’t feel like I’d accomplished something — just relief that I wasn’t going to have to play that section of the game again.

The single-player mode won’t take longer than a weekend to complete. Although the story moves along at a fast pace, the final stage is the very definition of anticlimax: a completely predictable plot twist, a frustrating shoot-a-thon of a final level, a boring boss fight and a completely incongruous quick-time event to cap it all off.

I couldn’t help but notice, playing Bionic Commando, that its interface design is highly reminiscent of Metroid Prime. Too bad the developer didn’t also borrow that game’s clever use of open worlds that let you backtrack and explore freely. This is especially disappointing since that’s what the original ’80s game featured.

The concepts behind Bionic Commando are strong, but the moment-to-moment action just doesn’t deliver on the promise of how awesome it would be to have a grappling hook instead of a hand.

Hello darkness, my old friend - 85%

I'm entirely cut off from the world. Noise-canceling headphones cover my ears, the lights in my room are switched off, and I've thrown a sheet over my curtains so that not one speck of light will appear from the street lights outside. And I'm shaking.

A film of sweat covers my mouse, and I can still taste the blood in my mouth -- the result of a bitten lip during a particularly intense game of cat and mouse in a pitch-black, waterlogged basement. I'm a hot mess.

Outlast is not a fun game. It is a game of cruel limitations with an oppressive, constantly unsettling atmosphere. Its goal is to terrify; to tap into deep-seated fears of imprisonment, impotence, and horrors lurking in the darkness.

I've got the light on now. I don't think I'll be turning it off again.

When I finished my journey through Mount Massive, a wave of relief washed over me. I was free from the asylum, able to turn on the lights, take off my headphones, and not jump every time I saw a shadow. But as I soaked away in the bath, washing off the sweat and stench of fear, I heard the floor creak. It sounded just like the old floorboards in the asylum. I knew it was just my flatmate wandering about, but I couldn't help looking at the door, expecting to see a knife, and I wondered if I could fit my flabby, naked body through the tiny window of my bathroom, and just leg it down the street.

Score 90/100

The Witcher has many virtues and the sentence "arguably one of the best RPGs ever made" summarizes it.

When I first played this I found it buggy as it was the first version, but then the Enhanced Edition came and I could finally enjoy the game. It's a real modern RPG, with choices that matter, a well-realized world, great characters, great graphics and sound.

It's very unique too, with its intriguing combat, cool alchemy system, solid novel-like story and main character *real* dark fantasy world with a vivid Middle Ages tone, entertaining dialogs and people, knights, princes, monsters and everything in between.

So I can't think of a reason why hardcore RPG fans wouldn't like this game. In this final enhanced edition, bugs and performance issues are virtually non existent.

Finally I'd like to add that even at full price this is a fantastic game which could easily see you spend 80+ hours on.


Backstory

Your name is Geralt of Rivia and you are a witcher, that means you kill monsters for a living. You were given special training to be the best at what you do and your body has been enhanced with potent elixirs to help you do it.

Suffering from amnesia you remember nothing of your past. Kaer Morhen, the last remaining keep of the witchers, was attacked by a mysterious organization, just as you were starting to lick your wounds there. The battle is won but the secret recipe for the mutagen, a substance required to create more of your kind, has been stolen. The surviving witchers set out to find and reclaim it and punish everyone involved. Memory loss or not, you are one of them.

Set in a dark fantasy world with a unique medieval, yet somewhat modern, feel to it, The Witcher isn't just another fantasy RPG. With a deep story, complex characters, and tough choices that actually matter, this game will keep you glued to your monitor for days.

85% - A Classic That Has Aged Well!

The game tells the story of an anonymous operative known as Point Man, who is part of a team, called First Encounter Assault Recon, sent in to investigate the goings on at a site in the Auburn district, with reports of gunfire in the area. It isn’t long before the player is thrust headlong in to the midst of a paranormal nightmare, as all of his squad mates are slaughtered in the blink of an eye by some unexplained malevolent force. And this is only the beginning of the game too – the pace picks up from there as there are many action-packed gunfights (enhanced by slow motion) with extremely intelligent and intimidating enemies to be had, and supernatural creatures – some that can’t be killed by conventional means – to face off against, and not to mention there are plenty of scares.

This isn’t a Doom 3 type game where there are monsters hiding in a closet waiting to pounce on you. This involves the player embarking on a dark, twisted, psychologically tormenting journey in to a brilliantly crafted world where they will strive to put the pieces of a much larger story together.

There are several inspirations evident in F.E.A.R. as it draws from famed horror films such as The Ring, and by extension the Japanese film it was based upon, Ringu. This is easily the best in the series, and Monolith shows its mastery when it comes to the horror genre.

The only real gripe I have with the game – and it’s a very minor one at that – was perhaps the sound effects, particularly the weapons, which I found to be a little flat sounding, although there is a wonderfully fitting soundtrack composed by Nathan Griggs that more than makes up for it.

90% - BioWare are back!

Dragon Age: Origins is my favourite RPG game, alongside Skyrim. However, with DA:O, it's pretty much a love or hate relationship. I will tell you all the things I loved about the game, and I will tell you about the things I didn't like that much, or at all.

The story and the storytelling is one of the main aspects of the game. It has an interesting enough story that will interest you, but the way the game takes you through the story is unbelieveable. In many games where it's possible, I find myself skipping some of the cutscenes or even dialogues, but not with this game. DA:O has amazing interactive cutscenes that, packed with nice graphics and over-the-top textures on the characters, make it seem like you're playing a movie, instead of a game. As for the classes in the game, there are 3: The Warrior, Rogue and Mage. Warrior is good in weapon and shield and two-handed weapons, rogue is good with daggers and bows, and can pick locks, and mages are good with staves.

Companions are one of the great features of the game. You can have up to 3 companions with you at a given time, but you can have a total of about 8 or 9. But it doesn't stop there. Each companion has a different story and literally TONS of dialogue options. As you progress through the game, and make different decisions, you will increase reputation with the companions who approve it, but diminish the reputation with the ones who don't. But it doesn't really all stop there. It is possible to have a romance with certain companions, four companions, to be precise.

The characters in the game look amazing. The textures of the faces are very well done, but the graphics, that everybody seem to look at first, are nothing special, but they can be looked over.

The combat in the game is, pretty much, autoattack. I did not like it at first, but with the ability to actively pause during the battle to think of a best strategy to proceed, and assign each one of your active companions who to attack, where to go, what to do and what abilities to use, make up for it by a longshot. There are some finishing animations which are very welld one, as well. The sound in the game is amazing. Especially the voice acting.

As for the length of the game, a rough estimate of my first playthrough was about 50-60 hours, which was just the first playthrough. I've completed the game over 3 times, with all the classes, and different decisions. I would honestly recommend this game to all of the RPG fans, who don't look at graphics as an important factor in the game, and don't mind the combat. Even for the full price, it seems worth it. 200 or so hours for that price, is as great bargain

90% - Welcome Isaac Clarke aboard the Sprawl!

Dead Space 2 continues the story of the great horror sci-fi game, Dead Space. As engineer Isaac Clark, the protagonist of the first episode, you'll wake up in a mental sanitarium of the Space Station Sprawl three years after the Ishimura incident and while you awake into the same deadly nightmare you've experienced aboard the planet cracker ship, you'll have to learn what has happened in those missing years and how is it possible that the necromorphs came back after you've eliminated the threat in the past.

One of the greatest improvement of Dead Space 2 is that the developers have cured Isaac's sure throat and finally he is capable to speak all over the game. The other greater improvements of the game, other than the great graphics which is finally much more colorful than the graphics of the first, that the game does not have any loading screen at all. The game loads at the beginning and up from that moment you won't see a single loading screen at all. The whole game plays fluid and without any interuption from the beginning to the very end. However not everything is perfect in Dead Space 2. The story is a bit weaker than the storyline of the original Dead Space, some of the twists are predictible at times and the characters are also a bit weaker than the core team of the USG Kellion.

While Dead Space 2 is supposed to be a horror game the horror factor is slowly vanishing by time, mostly in the first quarter of the game and you have to realize that the game is more of an action game than a horror. And if you play Dead Space 2 right after the first one, you'll see this right from the beginning as you will have the routine to not be scared, but to eliminate the necromorphs easily with a smile on your face. Especially with the new weapons, which are even better than the unique weapons of the first one. Dead Space 2 is a great game, but in my humble opinion its more of an action game than a horror and unfortunately it is not better than Dead Space. Still it is highly-highly recommended.

70% - Good fun with friends but a little repetitive!

(I'll say that firstly I liked Sniper Elite V2, so I had moderate hopes for this title too!)

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army is a gothic/horror spin on Sniper Elite V2, featuring hordes of the undead and supernatural. You'll encounter standard zombies, special zombies (brute, sniper and speedy) and various monsters such as the 'ever-so-annoying fire creatures'.

The shooting mechanics are just like Sniper Elite V2's, with the performance being just as good too! Your character is still controlled in exactly the same way, no significant changes have been made.

Visual-wise, the characters and world/levels are still highly detailed like Sniper Elite V2's, apart from this time many of the levels have been laid out and altered to appear more Arena-like. This can be a negative at times because the sniping mechanics become less effective at close range. Like the predecessor, the close-range weapons still fail to 'pack a punch' meaning you'll find yourself spraying bullets everywhere every-so-often.

Apart from the changes to the lighting, enemies (& AI) and some new weapons added, the game is still very similar to its predecessor. The Slow-motion, X-ray bullet cams are still there but because the zombies are 'rotting', the textures for the organs and bones have been changed to look more rotten and decaying. These new textures unfortunately don't look as great as the originals, which means I found the perfectly shots I'd taken a little less satisfying (This isn't a big issue though).

All in all, a solid co-operative game. If you liked Sniper Elite V2, then this game is like a co-op single-player from that game, only with zombies and horror. It hasn't revolutionized the series, but it's a fairly good game nevertheless!