Recent reviews by Clown Man

The Hippocratic Oath is for suckers anyway


10/10, easily has potential for Indie of the year

A game so simple yet so complex beneath the surface, I enjoyed trying to figure out the mystery. 9/10

Fostering Apocalypse is a game I heard about randomly and bought on a whim, but I'm glad I did. If I had to summarize this game is like Telltale's TWD Seasons 1 & 4 with you taking a child through the apocalypse and having it learn its morals through your actions mixed with the visual style of an earthbound-like rpg that's a metaphor for depression, you know at least one. It takes about 30 minutes to beat the game and about an hour to 100% so its a short experience but it was a pleasant one. Despite spending very little time with them I loved Del and Barrett as characters and got attached to them surprisingly fast. The visual style of the backgrounds and portraits is unique and a nice compliment to the story. My only real issue is the somewhat glaring one: I wish it were longer. I could have easily spent 4-8 hours with these characters but instead its over before you know it, and a consequence of that is that the story and bond between the main characters feels a bit rushed. The VN itself feels more like a demo one would use to pitch an idea for a full release rather than the full release itself, and who knows maybe that will be the case if the good folks at Incisor decide to take their story to the next level.

Overall considering the $5 price tag I would give this game an 8/10, could be something beautiful if there was just more to work with, but a nice way to spend an evening

Alright lets get this out of the way immediately: this game had a very rough start, probably one of the most atrocious opening weeks for a video game in recent years. It was unpolished, the devs were rushed and crunched by EA to oblivion, and some glitches were just too much to enjoy. There's a whole thing where an less experienced/ smaller team was tasked with big parts of the project but I'm not gonna be the best to retell that. But now that its years later and all the edges are smoothed out a bit, I'd argue it's in its best form now, I bought it a couple months ago on sale to see what it was about so I have no previous experience playing the game and I've played all the other mass effects: so what did I think?

Andromeda when you play it does not feel like a Mass effect game, strange to say but anyone who has played it knows what I mean. In the original games your options were limited to find cover and shoot and use the appropriate weapons and abilities when necessary, and sure mass effect 3 went a step beyond with rolling but most of the games can be categorized in the same style of play. Andromeda goes far beyond that premise, including verticality in levels, fast movement, jump packs that can move you in any direction, and other means of traversing the area. while a big part of firefights is still about peaking from cover you feel much less rooted in one spot and are encouraged to stay on your toes. The biggest change however is the pathfinder system of character class, I was extremely against the idea of switching from soldier to engineer to vanguard etc. because to me that felt a bit like it didn't follow how people worked in this universe, a character was an infiltrator because they trained in covert ops or someone was a biotic because they were naturally gifted in such abilities, having people that could do any and all of that just seemed a bit unrealistic (but then again this is a sci-fi game about alien civilizations and space magic so what do I know). When I was able to look past that and start experimenting, the system was extremely fun, there's nothing quite like sneaking in as an infiltrator and sneaking a couple sniper headshots in before hunkering down with a soldier build to play king of the hill with the objective or charging in as a vanguard and tossing enemies around like they were part of the gmod physics engine, the options not only give a satisfying variety that keep combat from getting repetitive but also help you adapt to any situation. The new formatting also changes up how you play, for instance in the original trilogy I felt naked without a vindicator battle rifle, but in this game I think I touched an assault rifle maybe once, but I pretty much used every gun besides them. It changes up how you think about encounters and has enough options to suit a playstyle. On the downside the guns in this game don't have the same punch and grit as they did in old games and the enemy AI isn't the smartest but lets face it: this is mass effect, the bar for that wasn't that high to begin with. Overall the combat is refreshing and while I miss some parts I enjoy the new additions as well.
For this game Bioware brought back the vehicle planet traversing from mass effect 1, for me personally it was a mixed bag. I enjoyed exploring big maps and discovering things but sometimes getting from point A to point B felt like such a chore due to markers not being an exact science and the fact that the hill youre trying to go up is just a biiiit too steep for your climbing treads. The quests ranged from very interesting with some even nodding to the original trilogy to the most tedious and not-worth-it quests I've ever seen in a game. This game has probably over 2 dozen fetch quests where you have to find multiple things around a map, cause everyone loves fetch quests right? The vaults were a curious addition with most including puzzles that the player had to solve, some I felt proud of myself for figuting them out while others I was just happy they were over, though I will admit once you finally bring a planet to full vitality its very satisfying to see the world change as a result of your work. The personality responses replacing the paragon/renegade system is...different, I know there was talk of replacing it for years but I don't feel like this is what players had in mind; for better or for worse your demeanor no longer affects big decisions in the game and instead of gaining influence as "yuor angel or youre debil >:)" your nurse sends you an email that basically says "hey your character has a stick up his ass, here's a lollipop" (I played logical yet casual with my Ryder). Aside from those big things the UI could use some touching up but I like all the options for weapons. I'm don't dislike the gameplay outside of combat but I'm not exactly thrilled with it either, some things work, some don't, c'est la vie.
That plot sure did happen, wish I coulda been a part of it. The main story admittedly feels very loosely put together with not a whole lot of forward direction, and it doesn't help that Ryder doesn't quite feel like a driving force and instead is just kinda along for the ride. If you compared how you started the game to how it ended you'd wonder how the h*ll did we end up doing this? And if you know the answer, please tell me cause I'm still not sure I just wanted to scan plants ;-;. The antagonists in the form of Archon and the Kett aren't really impactful to the player like say the geth or the collectors (at least in my personal experience), they serve their purpose but for the next game I would recommend either a new threat or pumping some life into the current one. Meanwhile the Angara are interesting additions to the mass effect universe, they have a fascinating history and culture but they don't quite mingle with the rest of the species of the game, but maybe that's just because they're so new. The big decisions in the game are alright but its hard to judge them without a sequel to reference how much they changed the world so we'll see how that goes. Now the real meat and potatoes comes in the form of your motley crew, the people of the tempest are the most emotionally engaging parts of the whole game. Every character on board from your squadmates to the people that keep the ship running go miles ahead of the previous games in terms of interacting with the player and each other. Its nice to go up to someone and they genuinely have something to say instead of blowing me off for calibrations. The dynamics between the characters are fascinating, especially when two are talking in the back of your rover and you witness their relationships forming over shared trauma, personal experiences, and how much everyone wants to throw Liam out the nearest window. Speaking of relationships, the options for your romance are plentiful and in this game, you have several options for who Ryder can pair up with who range from obscure to downright luvy dovey. I ended up with Vetra but Reyes sure tempted me, all the relationships feel very down to earth (for lack of a better term) and realistic which I really enjoyed. And finally Ryder: off the bat, some of their lines are a flat swing and a miss, not all of the jokes(?) really land and the character creator no matter how hard you try will somehow make your character come out ugly as sin. What I do like is what Ryder means to the player, Shepard (while a fantastic protagonist) always felt larger than life and not exactly relatable, Ryder on the other hand is new to this and we get to be with them as they go through their own Virmire story. Overall, the plot lacks but the characters (if they are ever given similar attention as the OG trilogy characters) could go down as some if the best in the series.
Best $8 I've ever spent. Overall 8/10

The game isn't perfect, but then again very few are. I became enveloped in this story and felt connected to these cops that for the most part didn't say a word. The gameplay can become repetitive after a small bit but that's mostly cause you'll shoot some lady in a hair salon 4 separate times. The actual combat is surprisingly engaging and unintentionally has one of the best stealth mechanics I've seen from a game.










But if I have to try and raid the Necktie base one more time I will have an aneurysm

RNJesus take the wheel

Dammit Icarus, you had the whole world to explore but you flew too close to the sun and melted your damn wings

Well I've never really done a formal review of a game, but I feel like this one deserves talking about *SPOILERS*

OVERALL:8.75/10

GAMEPLAY:
Much like your regular Far Cry game this one has a plethera of guns and a multitude of ways to strike down your opponents. I played on normal difficulty and felt a fair challenge with about a dozen deaths to my name. The AIs are smart enough so you can't just spray and pray and hope for the best while also challenged enough so you don't have to take a challenge to seriously and have the liberty to take on problems in your own fasion. The vehicles are fairly simple to use and non-inverted plane controls can go to hell.
However story quests can feel slightly repetetive at times where the region liberating missions are always "You must kill (INSERT SEED NAME HERE)and destroy their bunker then some dude will stand on a rock holding an american flag" however there's enough side quests in the game to distract you from that.


STORYTELLING
Hoh-lee-****
I can't say I've ever questioned everything about a game's plot as much as this one. Throughout the game you are constantly met with the question "What if you're wrong? what if you're not the hero" and until the end I couldn't really say. On one hand eden's gate is clearly not doing this for their own benefit and when looking at it from a different point of view some of their actions can be justified, but on the other hand actions like The Cook's ideals and Faith's all around bull-****tery that contradict Joseph's purpose for Eden's gate all together. it's the kind of thing that has you going back and forth every other minute on you're role in all of this, and the developers did it beautifully

GOOD ENDING
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH-H-H-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... Oh wait you're serious?
On the internet its not uncommon to see videos about all 3 endings: Good, Bad, and Secret. Well now that I've played it I have a better name for it: Bad, Worse, and Not Bad But Nothing To Write Home About. Bottom line, there is no happy ending to this, you're friends are dead, Joseph was right, and its all your fault. In the good ending you drive away with your police team (what's left of it) and leave you're new friends in hope county to be mindless slaves for the rest of their natural lives, and even after Jacob's song plays and you can only assume you went on another murderous rampage. In the bad ending THE ENTIRE WORLD DIES EXCEPT FOR YOU AND JOSEPH, so yeah that's fun. and in the secret ending you walk away before the game even starts, leaving Eden's Gate to continue on a war path with no cause. To put it in Dutch's terms "But mostly it means we're all ****ed"


In conclusion, This is one fo my favorite far cry games to date I'm glad I played it.

R.I.P. Virgil, Burke, And Eli; three nice guys who didn't deserve what they got

Every game has its bugs, glitches, faults, etc.(this one included), but its about the other elements that can balance it out and still be rated one of the best games of the year by critics. And Middle Earth Shadow of War did just that. The Nemesis system is better than ever and with new orcs along with it.

8.75/10

Believe it or not I bought this cause I was told it was a murder mystery game, but what I got was so much more.
This game is a fantastic visual novel with a great use of art style and memorable characters, the sound track is okay in my opinion but that's just me. It really knows how to get its hooks in you and you get engrossed into the story. When you're in a trial and you make a new discovery, you actually feel like you accomplished something. And when you see the characters you've bonded with be murdered or end up as the blackened, you can't help but feel sad for them. This game is basically a mystery wrapped in a mystery and all wrapped in a nice bloody bow. And I have no choice but to give it my seal of approval.