Recent reviews by comfy_bruh

Black Mesa was originally a labor of love and mod for the half life two source engine. Over time that labor and passion grew into this fully realized recreation and expansion of a game that changed the way games are made in every way.
It is not the original half life. To sum up the experience completely it is what half life would be if it was made as a half life 2 game. It has physics based sections, puzzles, and grand set pieces that far surpass the original in fidelity and scope. But it is all based on the original ideas and concepts and does not veer away so much that it feels too distant. It's also done to a professional shine. It's biggest improvement by far are the sequences involving zen and all a.i. components of the game.
this games existence while fantastic and bold and just genuinely well done in every way is not a reason not to own the original. This I believe was done on purpose. While the scenes have nostalgia in them they do not hit the same way the original does. However this game elevates the way those ideas and concepts can be executed with today technology and had my jaw dropping.
buy the game, final sections far improved and expanded. ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ great graphics. Enjoy.

TL:DR I endorse child labor.

For the people who just wanna read, this game is amazing. It's something I never knew I wanted which made it stick to the little tacky board in my mind palace that is reserved for stuff I like to do on the annual. Mostly, literally the cozy micro management if not survival based struggle buses like "Don't Starve" and "Dwarf Fortress". However Frost Punk is also a herald for the streamlined and tailored experience that is not usually delivered from our AAA developers and their schemes to crowdfund- Early access fund - and monetize the menus of our would be beloved experiences.

Frost Punk is a classically structured game in every sense of the word. It has an intro cut scene which is frankly carried (beautifully) by the score. The SCORE is amazing! This sound track is awesome. Truly half of the experience. The design and graphics are such that you can't zoom in all the way to peoples faces but you can click on every individual citizen and know almost every minute detail about them. Each one with their own sad portrait of their cold blushing faces. The intro lets you know how apocalyptic things have gotten. a last stand of human beings aims to survive the harsh end times with a generator they have been tugging around. they settle a place and begin collection rubble garbage and abandoned wrecks of miscellaneous old world items and get to work re purposing them.

As you begin managing what work is being done it becomes clear that in order to mitigate the chaos and despair of the bastion city of humanity you, the mayor, must adapt and lay down the law- literally. You are given a choice as soon as the first few days go by. Do children work or stay in a home?
Which has lasting and sometimes unexpected consequences from then on which is not something you see in most other games. Some games change a single variable give you a boost in one thing but not another whilst Frost Punk will have you bumping into whole story branches that have been unlocked. Is there entertainment? What do you do with the dead? What about food supply management? How about we use kids to help in other ways?

very soon you unlock a tech tree by building an engineers building and after that its sim city with motivation and that apocalyptic blessed soundtrack. The limitations given throughout the game make things incredibly interesting and managing expectations while also giving people hope and gauging how much you can get away with makes the game a remarkable experience from start to finish with a fantastic end state that wraps the whole experience up in just 5 or 6 hours. If you're looking to see how long you can survive the eternal winter then by all means go endless mode and test your skills.

A final note on game design. This is one of the few games that I love because it respects my time. as an adult with things to do every day I love that I can finish a run rather quickly compared to some of those insanely huge games out there that think you want to live in them. I like these kinds of paced out games. It feels very much like having a solitary board game to play at home. I'm not so overwhelmed that I can't manage it for a half hour and I'm also not bored at all the entire run. Every event that takes place adds to the agency of the mayor character your playing. Failure itself feels very fun and has me smiling every time.

If you're looking for something that wont suck your life away and still leaves you wanting to revisit it about once a year if not more often then I highly recommend this game. I would even go so far as to say that it is a must have and I haven't even played the DLCs but I am excited to get those soon this year and have a go at them.

Of the games I revisit this one always feels fresh. The art is unbeatable, the style is keyed in to every line, and the content, I mean there is just so much game happening all the time. Mods galore which I haven't even tapped into. I've never beaten the darkest dungeon but I have some seriously dedicated heroes in my most played save and I know I will find more and more as the years go on. Whether I'm bingeing on darkness or simply dropping in to check on an old save this game is exactly what we needed in 2018. May the corpses heap in the wake of your adventurers.

I have spent a day in this game. I have started with a single character twice, I have quick loaded many-many-many times. I no longer call it quick loading. I believe it to be a form of inter dimensional time travel in which all things change. The butterfly effect is real. Everyone is super horny for you. And somehow they were able to perfectly recreate combat of a table top and got me asking my computer screen, "Can I do this?" I will never finish this game and at the same time I will never stop playing it.

So glad I got it in early access.

TL:DR
SHOOT SNIPE- jump SNIPE - jump -dash- jump- slam - slam - slam - SNIPE - SNIPE - SNIPE - SLAM - Jump SLAM SNIPE SNIPE!

We've destroyed the hell spawn- Now we kill fallen ANGELS!

Most amazing visuals for a boss fight I've ever seen.
Pretty sure Sorath is a real demon. Would love to interview him.

In 2016 we were gifted by Sorath (in his infinite wisdom) Devil Daggers. A retro bullet hell in first person with deep old school quake-like mechanics/physics and a style that was honed to a purity that was only rivaled by it's enemy design. It's utilization of small file size and database video sharing making the knowledge of ultimate power accessible to all who were mad enough to delve into the leader boards.

Five years later. A masterpiece is reborn- Much in the way Eternal had leaned into it's arcade aesthetics and immersing the player in momentum and push forwards mechanics with quick tactical demands so HYPER DEMON is what it sounds like. A devil daggers heir with ADHD on speed in an abandoned Disco where the demons come to meet their boy.

You play Handy. A single hand with the ability to launch gothic daggers to their enemies but this game takes it so much further now enticing the player to hold down the right mouse button for a majority of combo sniper shots. Making skill the most rewarding part of play. Instead of how long you last it's how fast you blast through the waves. Each hinting whats to come with amazing new graphics and FX, but near spawning until the conditions are met. Meaning it is even more scripted.

The new enemies and reworked designs are familiar but jarring. The way the enemies work is totally different. Instead of wanting to farm you NEED to destroy and the faster you do it the better. In some cases instead of gather as many gems as you can you want to let them get eaten because now instead of eggs they produce bombs. Though you'd never know unless you went through the tutorials.

That's right the tutorials! Much in the same way it has taken the Eternal approach and given players something that gives you a very scripted training ground. But not without nuance. Each one gives you a level of freedom and wiggle room to experiment and mess with the controls as you get used to the new look of the game.

The FOV is now nonlinear. It's a fish eye bubble lens and it allows for true 180 degrees of view. With a red overlay appearing showing what is directly behind you. It's very natural and you get used to it quickly. Though I'm almost certain it's limited to players with high neuroplasticity.

The entire thing can be completed in less time than a fraction of the original but becoming that skilled is a feat. Intense and incredibly fun to watch on repeat. I slow down all the footage online to a snails pace and end up with eye candy that beats some of the best visual works out there. The graphics have gone from their gritty and ultra orange brown and crimson reds to a hyper contrasting black on ultra reflective gold which shimmers and casts lens flares that give JJ Abrams a run for his money. The warped nature of the lensing effect is not the only thing that looks visually intense but the movement adds dash lines, when you slam down you warp the ground momentarily when you have a sniper lock you slow down time and zoom into a target focus, when you boost to the sky you make the world around you seem like it's miles away.

The sound design compliments the visuals immensely giving it an other worldly cathedral feel. A goth cathedral of fallen angels! The hits now changed from a meaty pierce and stabby gem crack to bell tolls and swift whistles and shrieks. As well as wistful dashes and dampened jumps. The movement being refined just as much as all the visuals sounds and of course, the most epic menu music you will ever AFK on purpose for. With a link to a whole album of same feel music by the composer.

My ultimate take away is that enthusiastic and critical changes can be done well and can be entertaining as all hell when done with purpose in mind. Hyper Demon is a MUST HAVE and it goes without saying that this will change the way that FPS games are tackled in the future if the wise among us take note. Judging from the fact that I haven't heard about this game until almost a year later where as I heard of Devil Daggers in the same year of it's release this one is not as big of a wave maker and much of that will probably be due to the it's insanity visuals. Though I feel it's an artistic choice I totally understand it may not be everyones cup of tea, just as with devil daggers. Not a ton of people like repetative fine control shooters. Not everyone likes goth art. Not everyone likes what I can only call Demon Disco Aesthetics. But man- for those who are down. This is the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ peak.

I wonder what Sorath will bestow upon us next. Take your time king.

A good upres to a classic.
The DIALOGUE is SPECTACULAR! I'm saying it is from start to finish a pleasing journey, every click, every line is delivered with love and passion and feels real, the acting is amazing the homage to classics are always charming and the nuance and culture behind it all makes this a pillar of voice directing, acting, editing, writing, story design, and point and click adventure game design.
I am one of those 90's babies who played this a bunch when too young to understand the nuances and the art put into the game. I barely made it to Year 2 without help.
Now having finished the game it's amazing how refreshing it is. You can never do anything"wrong" to the point of failure and I never aimlessly found solutions though I did stumble my way across items early because I'm a klepto-rpgamer I was basically going- Gee what will I need this for. There's never too much to choose from and the puzzles are never too hard but never too simple.
The reason I say 'good upres' is because the game did crash on me a few times and beyond a menu you can press 'esc' to after a lengthy opening there is no main menu to speak of. Even after finishing the game it literally loops back to a new game! That's a bit jarring though it does remind me of the simplicity of the systems back then.
The advanced lighting is fantastic in the remaster and I wish there was a way to apply that lighting but with classic resolution. The widescreen doesn't adjust resolution just aspect ratio and so it does not hold up to original presentation. I do like the added side pieces for the 4:3 ratio. Their change with the scenery is very welcome.
Loyalty to the classic is maintained even with minor bugs and some crashes the game is what it was back then with all the original sounds and voices as well as that glorious 3d art! The upres on characters is very well done and the masking for the old set pieces holds up as well. To the point that I prefer the remastered models constantly.
It is no minor acheivment and my hats are off to the people who put their hearts and souls into it.
The music is boss, the climactic moments still hold up and I laughed harder at this in 2023 than most other games that aimed at being funny in the last few years. What were they... I can't remember.

Please do yourself a favor and get the game. Explore it with fresh eyes. It's amazing. And fun. A ride for sure.

First Fort: Temperate biome. Dig to a cavern, don't realize five dwarves dying ot snake people tribe warriors. Abandon to ruin.
Second fort: Same enviroment, yak gets scared of lightning kills everyone in the fort but 2. Abandon.
Third fort: Decide to pick a horror biome cause why not! Might as well go all in since yaks! Are dangerous.
I prepare carefully though, doesn't take as long as I thought it would. bring copper(cheapest but still great) spears and bucklers 4 each. Make a few adequate spear man and shield users. Biome is covered in tendrils and eyeballs and rains dwarf blood. right on the edge of a forest (normal) biome super cool.
We dig. We find a cavern and I squad up. Troglodytes! We massacre over five of them. Wild yaks up above become a problem... I forgot to make a hatch. Only a couple hurt not big deal. The yaks succumb to slaughter by spear. We dine on meat that night.
We get only one group of migrants as we build the wall above and the walls below. The giant falcons appear! They are agitated. Not everyone is ready. We barely have a forge going on charcoal. We smelt. We make more weapons. Then- 3 found dead. Giant flying squirrel attack. Damn creatures. Hideous at that size. We finally catch the last when more troglodytes. Got through on crack of the defenses. Only wounds but the hospital is half wounded. Down to 12 dwarves. Many adventurers and goblin guests appear with great spirit and entertainment as they heal. There is finallyt enough thread to make cloth and the healing begins... Then another attack! This time a giant horned owl! Flys straight into the fortress blasting the hatch open! It kills two more and three guests. And a cave troll!
The daughter of the expidition leader looks upon her fathers tomb and relives the trauma of losing him to the giant horned owl. We abandon the fortress to ruin.

10/10 would buy again.

TL:DR Instead of ♥♥♥♥ competitions in the form of guns, this game asks you how big your nuts are and proceeds to give you dialogue options that it then judges you for. Hard.

I played this game for 40 hours and restarted about twice. I save scummed only for a few unimportant curiosities in the world. As far as plot. NOTHING BEATS THIS GAME! NOTHING! I mean nothing.

In a world where action games disguise themselves as RPG,s i.e. Cyberpunk 2077 and claim they want to critique capitalism by making a capitalism simulator with no alternatives DISCO ELYSIUM is like a splash of cold water waking you up from the repetitive BS plots and showing you a truly strange and unique world that you directly influence. With characters who feel like they could each have their own spin off game. Each one. I am not kidding. There is like only one character that I thought was super shallow and even they have talent and writing that is beyond the ♥♥♥♥ you find in any AAA rpg I have played to date.

I will not spoil a damn thing. Do not look up videos or pics. Go and find out who you want to be and who you were as this cop without a memory. Go and talk to people and instead of being hand held and told "People remember things" Watch how it affects the plot as directly as being in the real world.

This is the closest thing to a ballsy DM just throwing you the best hypothetical conversations! With the greatest combination of interest, curiosity, plausible sci-fi, insane conspiracy theories, politically heated tension, and (in an amazing display of writing and game design) a sincerely gratifying ending that somehow captures the magic of simply being alive.

I will use this game as a litmus test to discern which people in this world are worth my time and effort. If you seriously think games aren't the most important thing to happen to the human species, my friend, you are a lost cause. Yet I will not abandon thee. I will simply preach the good word. Please play this game! It is worth far more than they are charging.

What was said about the game that asked, "What if the dude who delivered your packages to you was the most important person in the world?" was to be expected. Plenty of shooter boomers and their less than sound offspring fell over themselves trying to be the first and loudest to say it was boring....
Well I agree, it bores... Right into the depths of my soul.

This game is nearly prophetic in it's setting and tone for the year that followed it. The amazon deliver dude was super important and everyone was acting like fuggin mules (toilet paper anyone?). In game reference, but really... kinda on the nose.

The game has it Kojima sensibilities. The writing is on that fine edge of motivated but cringe. A cringe worth going back and replaying the game all over again for the sake of it's message and to be quite honest it's glorious game-play. This game is ground breaking in that it literally has you looking across the landscape and plotting out your paths. The maps imperfections and overhead view match the limitations of the real world so finding your way around is as nuanced as the real world with the added sci-fi bits that stand out amongst the post apocalyptic genre.

Perhaps the most stand out thing is the premise and goal. This is a world filled with ghosts that are stranded in an in between. They are not able to move on and there is no explanation as to why. There is not very much understanding into the inner workings of it at all. It's themes and nuances as well as the performances are so unique both because of the setting and because of the personality of Kojima that it almost borders on metaphor reminiscent of David Lynchs Twin Peaks. It does this from the very get go.

There is no waiting around, urgency is of the utmost importance in this game. His last game was the open world and now the world is the game. Making every step precious. The expansion simply adds more to the mix. More combat, more gadgets, more ways of getting around, more jump scares, more fun. And might I add it does so without adding any new systems or compromising what was already there.

This is by far one of my favorite games of all time. Every shot looks photo real. Every line is dripping with Kojima sensibilities, and the game altogether sends you on a ride that asks you as a person in the chair of your home important questions that rock your notions of what is real, what matters, and why we try to save the world at all if it just keeps on trying to kill itself.

TLDR: Bioshock Infinite wish it had an ounce of Death Strandings depth. Even if it did it still wouldn't shine as brightly as this game.

Even in early access and only a few plays I know this will be a beloved game in my library. It is exactly what I wanted from a space station micro manager. You can craft an entire fleet and in fact start with the bare minimum. Communication with other ships and their factions is organic and based on many factors and not a simple good vs bad system. It feels like a lot of what I was missing from Faster than light. The complexity, the micro management. Though there is a learning curve it is not as steep as a lot of other management or city builder games. It feels a lot closer to dwarf fortress if it had a good user interface. Definitely worth the price and very fun even on a first play through with no idea whats going on.