Recent reviews by Oyster

reviewing this to get steam page

I still think about this game a lot, if I were to drop nostalgia for early titles this is probably my favorite video game ever, this is very spur of the moment, I'm kinda just winging this review, thinking about DXHR so I'm writing about it, Immersive Sims are one of my favorite genres of all time, I love different ways to fight, sneak, traverse, talk to NPC's, etc, I don't think DXHR does these things the best, but I do think it's the most balanced, Prey has so much of the ImSim formula but it has a lackluster story IMO, if you consider BioShock an ImSim, I think it has an amazing story but lacks intriguing gameplay, Dishonored is the opposite, but DXHR doesn't have the best gameplay, it has great gameplay but it can be outclassed, same goes for it's story, I really like the story, I'm a little biased, but I don't think the story or the gameplay outshine each other, Deus Ex is unrealistic of course but it also feels a lot more grounded than other ImSims, Jensen's augments aren't as powerful as Corvo's magic or Jack's plasmids, it's cheesy to say but you feel like a swat officer on the shooting floor when you get into fire fights, the way you use cover and the environment around you, I think Adam's character is really interesting, he's indifferent to human augmentation but through other people's choices he gets augmented without a say so, that theme is played with a lot in the game, the situation seems plausible, no underwater city or floating space station, it feels like a real city with real people rioting outside, believable corrupt politicians, real social unrest, again at the risk of sounding cheesy, this game really makes me think about my moral compass, the endings of the game, maybe a little cheap in presentation, no matter which one you get Adam reassures you it's the right choice, no stupid world killing ending, every ending makes you stop and think, all games should strive to be like this, I wish I could just sit at night and think about the characters, the world, the endings of every game I played, maybe someday I'll better break things down but I just wanted to write about a game I love, 10/10 I recommend with every bone in my body.

I'm a big fan of Arkane, I'm a big fan of Immersive Sims and I love System Shock but for some reasons the boxes didn't check for me on this game. First off I will say I did go into the game in the wrong way, when I found out Arkane made it I let myself expect Dishonored in Space, I didn't look at any trailers or pictures, I saw it was on sale so I bought it. So when I first got into the game, besides being blown away by the visuals I started to realize that this was gonna be more like System Shock and less like Dishonored, so once I got past that little mental hurdle I started to enjoy the game, all the interactions you can do are really impressive and it leads to a lot of "A ha!" moments when you finally figure out what to do, but to me that's all the game feels like it has to offer, it drags on and on and on and gets old once you've already discovered the intricacies of Talos 1 and even when you get past all the boring bits the ending just sorta drops on you, you are given a bunch of options to end the game at once that will impact the ending and it almost makes it feel like your choices throughout the game didn't really matter besides some dialogue, my favorite immersive sim, Deus Ex: Human Revolution does this kinda as well, but the over all enjoyment of that game makes up for it and also Human Revolution's endings are all more emotional in my eyes. Prey's twist was kinda lame too in my opinion, but what really gets me is it's just not memorable outside of the sticky note section or the Gloo Gun, when I think back to playing it, what mostly comes to mind is boring, dragging on sections and repetitiveness. It has all the great things that an Immersive Sim should have I suppose, that's why I recommend it, I recommend it to those who want to play more Immersive Sims but not to the ordinary gamer.

Blood is easily one of the most fun I’ve had with any first person shooter game ever, without Blood I never would of got into boomer shooters, Blood was my first, my gateway into the game I know and love today, but in way Blood being my first boomer shooter almost ruined every other retroFPS for me, because NONE OF THEM are as good as Blood was to me, I’d pay top dollar to be able to play blood for the first time again, it’s timeless, any other shooter that I’ve played it’s easy for me to get burnt out, play only a level, when I get on Blood by myself and start playing it’s customary to finish at least one episode, I feel like an idiot writing this because I’m talking about the game instead of playing it, Blood easily the height of the Build Engine, Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior pale in comparison.

The guns in Blood stick out like a sore thumb compared to other shooters of yesteryear,
No wimpy starting pistol, you get a flare gun that can ignite heaps of sorry cultists, no boring pump shotgun that you get before the double barrel, the sawed off is the most satisfying weapon to use in any game I’ve ever played, Caleb is a gunslinger so he reloads his shotgun fast, and when you have the ammo you can turn any of Tchernobog’s minions into corpses with ease and by the time one cultist or zombie is dropped on the floor dead you’ll of killed 10 more while Caleb laughs as you tread over the still warm bodies.

Blood will bend you over and find you in the alps, higher difficulties will have your screen turning red faster than you can say “Crudox Cruo”, hitscanning black robed cultists will shred you with a tommy gun as soon as they see the red of your eyes, hordes of zombies will resurrect as you walk across burials, flying phantasms will fade in and out of reality as they let out blood curdling shrieks, Blood is terrifyingly fantastic, a horror game it’s core, you'll be on the edge of your seat as you walk through haunted mansions, forgotten crypts, evil laboratories, and dark carnivals.

I will never stop playing Blood, never, it’s one of my favorite games and I have endless respect for Nightdive for remastering such a masterpiece, GT interactive for publishing the apex of Build, and Monolith for creating the very game I write about, Blood will forever be one of my favorite games.