DonutNebula legutóbbi értékelései

Call of Duty has always been an interesting franchise. While it started out as a grounded WWII shooter it quickly evolved into an over the top spectacle that seemed to focus on going bigger than the last game rather than storytelling and gameplay. It was around the time I was hijacking a nuclear submarine to blow up the International Space Station to save America that I realized that these games were too ridiculous to take seriously. However, that all changed once I played Call of Duty WWII.
This game should be the gold standard for how a Call of Duty game should be developed. The story actually feels like a story and not just an excuse to show you the next map to play in multiplayer. The story follows you and your squad from D-Day all the way to crossing the Rhine into the heart of Germany. The characters all have distinct personalities and you get to see the human side of them during the cutscenes. It really helped humanize them and made me feel for them more than the standard CoD protagonists of “burly white dude who’s only emotion is anger”. The story driven focus and character development really paid off because by the end I was really invested in my squad and how the story was going to end.
Cod WWII also adds new gameplay mechanics that help it stand apart from the other entries in the franchise. Instead of automatically healing behind cover you need to use med-kits which aren’t too scarce but did require me to be careful in combat. Your squadmates each have a special ability like refilling your ammo or calling a mortar strike that recharge when you get a certain amount of kills which gave them more of a purpose during the levels rather than yelling orders at me. They even fixed small things like updating the collectables so instead of finding random laptops you find mementos that have real meaning to the people that owned them and have a story behind them.
Overall this is one of the strongest Call of Duty games I’ve played. The focus on making a good game rather than another entry in the series really shows in the story and I highly recommend this one to anyone that’s a fan of the games. The grounded story telling really strengthens the experience and I hope we see more games like this in the future.

I was originally skeptical about buying The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe because I’ve been burned by past games that do a “remake with additional content”. However, I can say confidently that the Ultra Deluxe mode is one of my favorite remakes I’ve ever played. The game is still as charming as I remember and the new content is equally as entertaining while also having several sections that felt very deep and impactful. I really enjoyed playing through this game and reliving my experience playing through The Stanley Parable the first time. I highly recommend this game if you are both new to the series or a returning player.

Rusty Lake Paradise is one of the stranger and more unique games in the series, but it still maintains that Rusty Lake charm. You play as Jakob who is returning to see your family after your mother passes away. However, once you arrive you find that the family is suffering from several plagues. In each level you are tasked with curing one of the plagues and learning more about your mother. This is a very story focused experience and while it does share several of the puzzle elements of the Rusty Lake games, it also introduces some new ones and was a fun experience. I highly recommend for any Rusty Lake fans.

Rusty Lake Roots is one of the more story focused games in the series as it shows the beginning and end of the lives of several characters throughout the series. You start out at the beginning of the family tree and solve a variety of puzzles to help the family tree grow and then, in the later levels, help put them on the right path. It is different from the traditional Rusty Lake games, but I really enjoyed it and would highly recommend. Even though shows the beginning of most of the characters I honestly wouldn’t recommend playing it first, but rather starting with the cube collection.

The Cube Escape Collection is a series of point and click escape games from the era of flash games that have been updated and can now be played after the death of flash. While on the surface these seem like traditional flash escape games, the world of Rusty Lake starts to open up and the hidden story behind the cubes, the people with animal heads and the mysterious death of the woman in a flower dress.
The gameplay is your basic point and click escape game where you search the room for items, complete puzzles, and ultimately escape the room or complete an objective to beat the game. Some of the puzzles are straight forward to solve, but there are a few puzzles that’s solutions are a bit convoluted. Some of the levels have secret objectives to complete that will reveal more of the lore and it was very satisfying to find.
The story behind each level won’t make much sense at first. One level you’re in a Vincent van Gogh painting, the next you’re a detective trying to solve a murder. The objectives you’re trying to complete will also seem strange when all you end up doing is collecting a black or white cube. However, if you pay attention to the little details, you’ll start to notice the bits of lore that make up the story, and once you start putting the pieces together the objectives make much more sense. As for the deep lore story it’s actually very interesting and I was very engaged and replayed some of the levels to pick up those bits of lore I missed the first time through.
Overall, I’d recommend this collection of games, especially if you grew up on flash games like I did as a kid. The gameplay was nostalgic but the story also did a great job keeping me engaged as I played through them.

Firewatch is an interactive story where you play Henry, a man who’s trying to escape his current
life by becoming a Fire Watcher out in the Rocky Mountains. During the course of the game you
make friends with Delilah, a fellow Firewatcher who keeps you company throughout the game.
The gameplay mostly consists of exploring the forest and talking with Delilah as the story
unfolds and you unlock tools to help you explore more of the forest.

The scenery is beautiful, there are several sprawling landscapes and areas to explore in the
forest. The interactions between Henry and Delilah are very charming and I really enjoyed their
chemistry together. The story has a strong beginning and I quickly became invested in the
characters and the story. However, the second half of the game really fell apart for me. I feel like
they tried doing too much at once as more story threads began appearing and I felt like the
writers were trying to do too much with the story. The major climax of the story was lackluster as
it feels like all the plot threads get quickly wrapped up in a short time and leave an unsatisfying
conclusion. However, I really did like how the story concluded with Delilah and Henry, as it
wasn't something I was expecting, but felt like the best way to end their story.

Overall I liked this game, the world was beautiful, I liked the characters and even though the
climax of the story wasn’t my favorite, I liked several parts of the story. If you’re a fan of
interactive stories I’d give this one a try.

Subnautica Below Zero is the second game in the series, that falls short of being a ture sequel to the game. Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing as I’d rather have a shorter game that’s good over a longer game that’s bad, but Below Zero doesn’t really add anything new to the game. The developers seemed to focus on the story more than the exploration gameplay which really hurts the overall experience of the game. Instead of exploring to find new locations, the game is constantly pointing you where to go to continue the story. I ended up feeling like I was on an audio tour at an aquarium and was constantly being shuffled to the next tank full of fish.
Gameplay is largely the same as it was in the first game. You start out with basic gear, and you find blueprints and materials to craft better gear, but it’s mostly stuff from the first game with only a handful of new items that didn’t really add anything to the game itself. Most of the new items are decorations so there really wasn’t a point other than cosmetics. The biggest difference between the two is that you spend a significant chunk of the game exploring islands. But the island part was probably the worst part of the game since you move much slower on land and even when you do get a land vehicle you jump off it if you so much as drive too close to an obstacle and have to jump back on. You’re also constantly being chased by a giant worm that feels more frustrating than a challenge.
Spoilers for the plot: Even though the game focused heavily on the story, it’s not good. It feels like two different people got about halfway writing their own story and they squished them together and hoped it worked. You start out trying to track down what happened to your sister and find this woman that’s hiding out on the world, but after doing her quest her story just ends. Then you befriend an alien who needs you to build him a new body and you end up going to all the different corners of the map to scan random items, then you team up with him and go on a space adventure. There was no real payoff in the story and I never felt any real closure. It felt like the entire point of going on this adventure was to waste time.
I really loved the first Subnautica game, but I have a really hard time recommending this one. The developers tried lots of new things and while some of it paid off, this game felt like something that was rushed out the door in order to have more Subnautica. I hope that if they do make a new game they focus more on the exploration and gameplay.

In a market that is overly saturated with open-world games, Elden Ring manages to stand above all of them and be the best open world game I’ve played in a long time. The games has different sections to it, the open world exploration section where you ride your horse around the world and find places to explore and the dungeon section that plays like a traditional Dark Souls game. The exploration sections were some of my favorites because the world is huge, but unlike most modern games, it never felt empty to me, there were so many places to explore and secrets to find. I always kept finding dungeons and caves to explore that would give me new items.
While there are many sections that play like a traditional Soulsborne, the gameplay is vastly different. I tried following the linier path right away and was immediately beaten down by the first story boss, however after I left the main path and began exploring, I started finding that all the stronger weapons and armor were found in the side areas of the world and after some exploring and leveling, I was able to defeat the boss. Once I got into that mindset the game became a lot more fun. Unlike traditional open world games, Elden Ring doesn’t offer you any assistance in exploring, there was never an NPC telling me where to go, or an arrow pointing to the next cave to explore, it all felt so natural to me as if I was really exploring this world. There was a bit of an adjustment for me at first, but after some time I began to look more closely at the environment and find all the secrets they were hiding.
While I really did like Elden Ring, there were still some issues I had with it. The difficulty curve on bosses is very unbalanced in several sections. I’ve be making good progress through the game only to find a boss that would absolutely steamroll me into the ground, especially towards the end of the game. The final boss is a very brutal fight that took me well over 10 hours to beat. They added an ability to summon NPC spirits of enemies to help in fights which is a great new addition, but they filled it with about 40 of them that are ultimately worthless in a fight, and I ended up using the same one every single time. Some of the bosses are also brutal with their attack windows and end up pulling 10+ hit combos that are very hard to dodge and only have enough of an attack window to get one or two good hits in, so some fights ended up lasting over 15 minutes, and most of that was spent rolling around waiting for that one second. However unbalanced issues aside, I still really loved the game.
I would highly recommend this game, especially to anyone who is a fan of the Soulsborne series. It was an absolute blast to play and even though I got very frustrated in several parts I still had fun playing it and felt pride when I finally beat a boss that was giving me lots of trouble. It rekindled that feeling I had playing games as a kid, and I can’t wait to see what’s next in the Soulsborne genera.

In Aliens: Fireteam Elite you and 2 other players (or bots) team up in order to fight off hordes of xenomorphs from one safe are to another, similar to Left for Dead. And while at first this may seem like a Left for Dead clone with an Aliens skin, this game does a lot to change the formula and adds several new mechanics. For starters you get to pick from four classes and unlock more as you play. They’re you’re usual set of classes, one that does a lot of damage, one that heals, one with different gadgets to help the group defend themselves.

The story itself isn’t anything extra special. You and a group of Marines are sent to investigate a planet that’s been quite for too long. When you show up you find out that Aliens have made a mess of it and you need to sort things out in the usual Aliens fashion. The story is also given to you in walls of text from the different characters on the ship which made it very dry and not worth following. However the main gameplay loop was a lot of fun to play. Each of the main areas have several different large areas to fight the xenos in and there was enough interesting parts of the game that I ended up playing through the levels several times and never really felt burnt out. The only major downside is that you are at a sever disadvantage if you try playing solo with the bots and will really benefit from playing with other players. I never really felt like I was worse off playing with others even if they were new at the game.

I only really had one main complaint with the game and it’s the same issue I have with the other Aliens game, and that’s the levels where you’re fighting things other than Aliens. There are several parts where you’re fighting robots with guns and it turns into any other cover based shooter with no real strategy other than get headshots to win. There’s also a very confusing level where you fight off what amounts to zombies which feels both out of place and lazy. We already have the main threat of the Aliens, but the zombies feel very shoehorned in. Aside from those few levels the overall game was a lot of fun to play and I really enjoyed my time playing it. I’d highly recommend playing it especially if you can find other people to play with as well.

I bought this game when it first came out in 2021 and it was an absolute mess. The combat was unbalanced and felt luck based, the single player campaign didn’t allow players to get rewards or progress so you were either forced to get friends to buy it and play with you, or hope you get a good party with random players, and every update felt like one step forward, two steps backwards, since the devs seemed more concerned with patching out broken builds than actually balancing the game.

However, 3 years and a ton of updates later, the game is definitely a lot better. Instead of forcing players to pick which cards in their deck they can actually use, they get the entire deck right from the beginning. The balancing has gotten a lot better so campaigns are no longer a slog to get through and the single player saves progression. Honestly I’d highly recommend giving this game a try, especially if you are like me and were extremely disappointed in 2021, it’s gotten so much better.