Recent reviews by Vhashaar

I recall first playing this game as a rental on the PS3. I'd never played the original title, Kayne & Lynch: Dead Men, so I wasn't sure what to expect. There was lots of swearing, mediocre gunplay and blur mosaics to cover naughty bits.

Replaying it much more recently, in the best spec PC could offer, I found myself much more fond of its brand of zanyness. The plot dynamic completely reverses from Kayne's mercenary machinations to Lynch's spectacularly inept criminal blunders. I enjoyed the attention to environmental details, the garbage heaps within the dense city streets and the rapid shift from industrial parks to overpasses to sleek coprorate highrises.

The shooting is simplistic and the cover system is clumsy to control mid-fight. Deaths are rampant, rapid and relentless. Playing on higher difficulties must be a nightmare, with some of the late-game shootouts requiring much patience not to flip one's lid as deadly enemy aim seems to curve bullets around cover at times.

The dialogue writing is just-right in its bluntness and cheese, prodivindg a Guy Ritchie-esque mob double-cross, except it falls apart at every possible turn as our protagonists keep making stellar decisions.

About 3 hours of blistering shootouts later, the vlog-style cameraman adventure ends and credits roll over a soft pop track. Like it was all a drug-fueled haze or delusional nightmare.

I'm not even sure if I enjoyed PLAYING this game, but I know I appreciate the EXPERIENCE it imparted upon me. On its own, it's largely forgettable. As a follow-up to Kayne and Lynch 1 (which I played immediately prior to this title, at last), it's a significantly more entertaining cultural artifact than I might have initially expected.

Crazed, snarling, bloodied and cut-up Americans discharging their automatic weapons at state police officers, in the nude.

The gunmen, not the officers. If you're curious.

I'm not sure if I expected anything with this title. Sidescrolling, puzzles, pipes, right?

There is no spoken dialogue in this game, but it's a remarkably flavorful dystopian crawl through fantastical environments. Caves, derelict factories, and some more surprising fare - the level designers paid close attention to their work, despite the fairly modest Unreal-engine assets.

The puzzles flow smoothly, with only a handful of stumpers towards the end. The solutions tend to be satisfying and have a rewarding sense of continued exploration.

The protagonist of the game, without so much as a name or voice, comes across as having both a personality and a purpose in this odd world - though I enjoy that its morality (if any) is somewhat grey.

Gameplay clocked in at about three hours at a casual pace, with a few collectable achievements available on the way. A surprisingly enjoyable trip through a clockwork maze, great grab at a bargain.

This game had me for about three hours.

The rest of the time I spent in a sort of trance, wherein I wasn't really enjoying myself but I couldn't quite put it down, hoping I'd find some spark that would reignite my enjoyment of this title.

The strong point of this game is the period setting of 'Atlantic' City, replete with boardwalks, hooch smugglers, strongarm mobsters and bad accents. A small crew (starting with 3, capping out at 6) operates around a particular segment of the city, working their way into local businesses, strangling the cash flow and occasionally shooting up other mobsters.

The city management element of the game is a fairly simple juggle of three resources (beer, liquor, firearms), two types of money (dirty and clean) and police attention (gained by doing more of the things that get you the aforementioned items). While I enjoyed seeing the city turn through its day-night cycle, the interaction was shallow and repetitive. The best means of expansion across the urban setting is to reveal all local businesses via informants (who can be asked, forced or paid to do so), set up a supply chain of materials (a brewery to make beer, for instance, and a bar to consume it) and wait for the money to trickle in.

And wait.

And wait some more...

In the interim, you can harass local businesses for immediate rewards, but these come with diminished income options and lots of police attention - which is the one way to attain a Game Loss state. If the police meter tops out, the investigators come a-knockin'. They can be paid off (the fee doubles each time), you can throw another business under the bus (worsening relations with all goods providers), call in a favor from a bribed official (if one was buttered-up prior) or you can engage in a single combat encounter to try and destroy the evidence. Fail to provide one of these, and the game ends.

But the waiting gets silly. There is a fine point where your income and expenses are evenly matched and you're racing the margin curve to watch your influence spread across the town... But once you have it all, there's nothing to do with it. Just watch the money numbers go higher as your Hotels and Casinos roll in totally legit *cough* moneys into your grubby coffers.

But wait! The game features a turn-based combat mechanic with your squadmates! (whom you pay to retain every morning in-game). There is a decent amount of attention to the environments, and your fragile mobsters will have to make good use of cover to avoid gut-shredding volleys of lead from your opposition.

The interface is a mixed bag; on one hand, if you set a travel path for your character to take, the game helpfully counts out the steps (in Movement Points), tells you when an intersecting line of sight for an opponent comes up and displays available abilities cleanly; But then the camera obscures critical cover or registers a movement point for a character on the WRONG FLOOR and sends a goon running out into the open, making for a flight of stairs he won't reach for three turns!

The gunplay is vicious, as enemies and allies both have shallow HP pools and guns do what guns do best. There are also knives, brass knuckles and baseball bats, but it takes a truly hardy character to withstand being shot to death by four opponents before their next turn.

It's disappointing that a game with good intentions for its environments does so little to help you customize or get to know your team. There is a levelling mechanic (but in the campaign the level-ups are event-locked to missions, not combat encounters) wherein every level allows for a team member to grab a new perk. These range from increasing core stats to raising critical chances and giving new abilities. Of course, seeing as your henchmen never get stronger on their own, a single combat mistake can send your veteran to jail or the morgue. Oh, there are also persistent injuries, wherein your character might lose half of their stamina bar or move at 1/3 normal rate. No punches pulled here, folks.

While you can purchase new weapons in the game and assign one to any given character, there is no cosmetic change on the models and the weapons lack flavor within their subclass; By this I mean that while I greatly appreciate 'the revolver' actually being two separate pistols, able to retalliate at the first shot fired and spray lead in a cone as a special attack (a great touch of flavor!), any one revolver behaves like any other, be it a common or a unique weapon.

And as many reviews have pointed out, the game simply gets boring. There is little incentive to advance within the story, except to discover how the various buildings you can set up in the city can synergize - or how snipey a Sniper can become, given enough accuracy and critical perks.

But this game simply fails to inspire. It looks nice, but it's far more shallow than one would hope.

While it's worth a look at a discount or a bundle, I only managed to enjoy about 5 hours of its mechanics (not counting the plodding tutorial) and the rest was spent holding my breath for more. Eventually my lungs collapsed and I died. But then I got better and regretted the time spent not breathing.

Man, what a ride!

A well-paced 10-hour adventure through a tropical island full of derelict ruins and relics of a bygone time. On your journey, the game will throw bodily harm (lots of it), savage enemies and decently-pitched melodrama your way. You'll come across linear action sections and tons of collectibles in forms of relics, story snippets and more mundane pickups.

Though the game's combat is simple at its core, the enemy AI is robust enough to force you to change position, take cover and dodge around, and later on decide whether to go for distance skillshots or to dance around melee enemies to perform stylish finishers.

Lara's character is portrayed as being compelled through gruelling trials, beating innocence out of her at a relentless pace - to the point where an idealistic archeologist becomes a finely-honed killing machine, willing to do anything to commit virtual genocide - in order to help her friends, of course.

The game features a dual reward system in forms of experience points (assigned for passive or reactive skills to enhance combat and collectible finding abilities) and salvage (used to enhance the game's scavenged weapons to increasingly senseless levels). Lara Croft becomes a robust survivor and combatant throughout the course of the story, able to perform many daring feats of spelunking, acrobatics and combat prowess; so much so that the levelling system and weaponsmithing are kind of superfluous. Welcome, but hardly needed. An arrow through an enemy's noggin is effective from start to finish, but now that you mention it, SURE! I'll take Dragon's Breath incendiary shotgun shells and a burst-fire mod for my scavenged pistol!

I was a little concerned by how the game depreciated its own art and theme assets in the pursuit of experience points. There is a 'hunting' mechanic in the game, which translates to shooting animals and scavenging them for loot - 10 at a time, if you like; Hard to feel for a desperate adventurer girl when she's sweeping the land clean of all its assets.

Also, while the word Tomb is in the game's title, the optional Tombs within the game are one-room puzzles with generic loot at the end; feels like a bit of a missed opportunity.

The complaints are minor, however. The game sells itself as an exciting action experience - and it takes you through a great variety of wild and settled locations, all within gloriously-detailed states of decay; you meed interesting people, kill virtually everyone and get to ponder your dark nature at campfires, the game's menu hubs and fast-travel network.

Let's ignore that there's a multiplayer mode, it's not worth your time.

Great action romp, plenty of excitement and gore for the whole family!

I'm quite surprised to find myself saying this, but I DIDN'T enjoy playing Psychonauts.

BUT!

I want you to try it.

The key word for me is PLAYING. The game's mechanics haven't aged well, in terms of controlling your character, the reliability of your motions during platforming, juggling your various abilities during combat and a surprising amount of busywork (in terms of fetchquests, scavenger hunts and backtracking).

Now, these elements can be done well and kept quite enjoyable; this is especially surprising, since the game has VAST imagination in terms of level design, use of color and style, and thematic NPC's and enemies.

It's just no damn fun to slog through.

Normally, I'd be able to move through mundane mechanics for the writing, but Tim Schaeffer's work tends to become a little predictable once you've seen a few of his games. Tim and Ron Gilbert do fantastic work together, but despite the charm and attention to detail, I couldn't bring myself to laugh or cheer during this game; a smile, a nod, a puzzled 'huh' was all I could manage. I get the feeling the game deserves more than this, but it simple couldn't be mustered this time around.

Also, though Brutal Legend was more of a mess, mechanically, the two games hint at each other strongly in terms of narrative direction, delivery and pacing. Even the characters, both primary and extraneous have strong design similarities and roles.

Psychonauts deserves attention and exposure, and the vast majority of critique is positive. I fully expected to have fun with this one, but it's left me feeling sour and tart, like I'd missed the joke somewhere along the way and was left fussing with the packaging and ticket stubs.

Despite my disappointment, I DO recommend this game. It's full of psychic shenanegans, bizarre characters, imaginative sequences and witty banter.

Also, you can set squirrels on fire. With your MIND. And throw them through basketball hoops.

Again, with your MIND.

It's kind of a theme...

...

...

BUY IT, DAMN YOU! O,o

This game is a fable.

It tells you a story, and it's a familiar one. There's hardship in the home, and two young boys do what they feel they must. They set off on a quest together, inseperable and interdependent.

They journey through a world they find familiar - but as the player sees more of it, the world reveals its surreal and magical bits and pieces. The journey shows glimpses of grand scope and mysticism, but don't forget: your two young heroes have a task, and they journey on to succeed.

But... As soon as you think you have a handle on things, the game begins to test your resolve. Mechanically, what you do isn't difficult: two analog sticks, two triggers and timing. Emotionally? ... Well, if you feel any investement in the characters you encounter, the game might make you FEEL things.

There is no intelligible speech in the game; the inhabitants of this world speak their language just fine, but the player has no idea what is being said. Of course, the body language/mimeography reveals just enough for one's imagination to take off and run with all sorts of meanings.

There is no comat in this game, but there is a measure of challenge. It's a story that asks you to try in order to reveal more of itself. The trial may be more one of morbid curiosity and courage.

While playing it, I got strong memories of Neverending Story, that same feeling of discovery and adventure, as well as the realization that every fantastical element in this world is matter-of-fact to its inhabitants and serves as allegory to something more familiar, mundane.

Over the course of 4 hours or so, I saw this story through to its conclusion, encountering a few of the side-stories within (optional activities and further glimpses into the world). The levels are linear and well-paced, but this pace is slower; the game is meant to be savored rather than devoured.

I love this story. It is so very simple in its idea, so old in its roots; the pace is natural and doesn't offer (nor require) handholding. Buttery smooth and saccharine-sour, this delicious morsel is worth sampling, then pausing to savor and reflect; then, should the mood strike again, perhaps coming back for a second helping.

I love a good fable. This is a good one. Come see for yourself.

BioShock Infinite finds itself in an odd position: Director Ken Levine shaped it to express a complicated stream of emotions and dreams, his production team poured love and care into its aesthetics and its narrative offers glimpses into a greater interconnected web of worlds.

However, in practice, the game is a fanciful yet shallow rollercoasted, following an odd pace and rhythm. Moments of respite and tender introspection are robbed of effect when they are sandwiched by corridor and arena gunfights; the weapons and enemies are tastefully exaggerated and hint at deeper character, but behave in clumsy and predictable patterns. When following its own animated routines, the cloud-borne city of Columbia hums with life; yet the game almost audibly clicks into a different gear when combat begins, rushing the player along past remarkable scenery to the next grind of banal enemies.

It looks so good, yet it really offers so little at its core.

For fans of prior BioShock entries, there is a good mix of familiar near-historic grounding and paranormal abilities and foes. Steampunk construction with old-time conservative values, dehumanizing elite societies and... Well, classic petty rivalries that unmake the best plans.

The game doesn't stand up nearly as well as its forebears upon subsequent playthroughs. Its effect is spent on the first tour; the few presented 'choices' throughout the game fail to resolve in a meaningfully divergent fashion - though this could be in service to the game's subtext: it doesn't matter what you choose to do, there is always another possibility.

Mechanically speaking, there are few activities other than taking cover, scrounging for ammo and pulling the trigger. Bullets hit enemies with satisfying splatter, former Plasmids (now Vigors) allow you to cheat and disable enemies with colorful forms of alternate damage and specialty foes are best circle-strafed to death.

Excellent voice acting and delivery on the part of the cast, good lighting effects and textures, and it's a sincere pleasure to explore pieces of Columbia between the gunfights.

Elizabeth, an NPC companion for much of the game, was a labor of love for the team -and it shows. One of the first times in an adventure shooter where a compatriot did not get in the way, provided useful in-game mechanics and had a distinct personality all in one package. Sure, there are ways to break her behavior, but this leading lady makes a fine centerpoint for the game's plot developments. She will be there to supply you with money, weapons and loving sutures, depending on what she finds scattered about the floor. She'll offer perspective, comment on your (admittedly monstrous) behavior and even sing a song if you're lucky.

Also maybe warp and rend reality with cataclysmic powers. You'll just have to play and see.

The story DLC is yet to be completely unveiled, but the theme remains the same: excellent setting, poor fit of action stylings.

The game is still a recommended purchase, but be aware what you're going into it for: An interesting take on a fictional place with wonderfull wallpaper but poor wiring. Good content, average mechanics, poor repeat value.

A clever experience, one wrapped in a familiar story and predictable rhythm: A special operations team is dispatched to Dubai following a massive sandstorm and a communications blackout to determine what happened in the silent city.

The third-person gameplay feels immediately familiar with cover, headshots and team orders. The colorful environments and dilapidated city create a wonderful background to close-quarters firefights and hallway progression.

Then...

Then something starts happening. Your squad starts making decisions. They aren't the cleanest kind. The more you look at what you're doing (if you look at all between the gunfights) the more you question what's really happening.

By the time your tour in Dubai is over, you will have been witness to stunning human tragedy, a heavy-pitted feeling of betrayal and an aching need to determine just what the hell happened to make things go so bad.

And if for some reason you remain unfettered by moral quandary, at least it's a solid cover-based shooter.

Spec Ops: The Line is not really meant to be enjoyed light-heartedly, but is a delight to be experienced with an open mind.

An eerie, disorienting start into a surreal adventure; every step you take is one towards another's death, and in your wake lay human ruin and torn lives.

And yet... The soundtrack pumps you full of adrenaline. Your enemies are many, and you are fragile; but weapons are everywhere, and you are mighty!

Who are you? What are you doing? Why are you here? Who are these people?

None of that matters. It's Knife Party time...

This game will punish, humiliate and stomp all over you. Then it will give you endless rewards for trying; Build up your home base with found gold, unlock more player classes, upgrade your equipment, master your abilities and CHARGE BACK INTO THE DUNGEON! -- to die once more, so that your children can keep trying. Excellent pace, ruthless difficulty, bounteous rewards, charming style and nonstop references and humor. Good buy.