Recent reviews by cHaoS

I can't really recommend this. While there are some interesting ideas, especially at the beginning, they stay one-note and aren't really connected. This gets worse the more the game goes on. The story as well as the gameplay lose their focus and their cohesion. Things happen just "because". Suddenly there's a car chase, which doesn't fit the rest of the game. Although I have to admit that I don't really know WHAT the core gameplay of the game is supposed to be.
Then there's the writing. Annie is written as this kind of character, that the author assumes is likable, just because she is the main character, instead of trying to win you over. She does some very questionable stuff during the game, but for some reason her "friends" (or rather the people she takes advantage of) still root for her. It feels like the autor also wants me to be rooting for her, but I can't, because the story forgot to give me a reson to do so. All in all I regret getting this immediately when it came out for 20€. Get it when it's really cheap, if you are curious and want to invest the few hours.

It's really hard to make up my mind about whether to recommend this game or not. What we have here is a narrative driven puzzle and exploration game. But it goes beyond a tightly defined genre. It is weird from the start. The graphics are deliberately janky, sometimes even ugly, often mixing artefacts and glitches into the game. Sometimes to the point of making it barely playable. The sound is serviceable, the music and ambience often grating, irritating and annoying. The map layout is confusing and you are often left searching and wandering. The gameplay is oftentimes repetitive, sometimes boring, and confusing. The story bits are a disjointed mess, that have to be put together while playing.

But all this seems to be in service of an interesting narrative about childhood trauma, abuse and coming of age, all wrapped in the guise of a story about the singularity and artificial intelligence. I have to commend the author of keeping his clear vision and a consistent narrative through all this mess. A mess which is reinforced by all the thing I mentioned above, which would make a game 'not fun'. But being 'not fun' seems to be the point in this case. You feel the confusion, anger and bewilderment of the main subject of the story.

So I guess, if you are into this kind of story, and if you are willing to drag yourself through a confusing mess of a game (which seems to be a deliberately crafted experience), you should check this out. Everyone else should stay clear.

Not the worst debugging session I've had.

The writing is atrocious, and despite being a fan of the writers' other works, I find the humor is this one grating and obnoxious. I couldn't give two ♥♥♥♥♥ about the characters, while they were flinging obscenities like a bunch of 5th graders and wink-wink-nudge-nudge 4th wall breaks like the pretentious hollywood hack writers they are.

But the gameplay was pretty good tho. The weapons are good, the gadgets are fun, combat feels great and the boss fights are really challenging and creative. Exploration and looking for pesos and upgrades was also fun. A lot of the game mechanics were stolen, but in a competent way so who cares. The world and ideas were fresh and interesting. When I wasn't stuck in a mandatory dialogue, the game was really entertaining. Play it for the gameplay, or if you think you have a high IQ for liking Rick & Morty.

I had already played the first game and Road to Gehenna, which I both very much enjoyed. I didn't know what to expect of both how the game and the story would be continued, but Talos Principle 2 delivered in all aspects. While in the first game you play an emerging consciousness trapped in a simulation, the second installment continues where the other game left off and spins a story of an emerging robot society with very human problems (as they have after all minds modeled after our own). I love how it's not just a rehash or more of the same, but an elevation of the first game in all aspects. We have crazy sci-fi concepts, vast and awesome landscapes and structures, a siginificant upgrade in graphics, fully voiced and well written characters and tons more of that well thought out hand picked philosophical, ethical and mythical concepts, that leave you pondering and in existential crisis more than ever before. The game basically leaves no stone unturned and touches currently relevant issues like sustainability, and connects it with history, ancient philosophyand futuristic concepts. It touches human self hatred, optimism for a better future and the quest to reach the stars. Basically this game is in itself a theory of everything.
The writing is also great. It is a lot of fun to explore the audio logs and text files littered in the world, that paint both the world as well as the story, and always interwoven with philosophy. The characters you encounter during the game, which are now all fully voiced and can be interacted with as in an adventure game are all charming and you learn to love and/or hate them during your adventures together. Same can be said about the interactions with the "Social Media" system, which paints the society of New Jerusalem basically as its own character. Exploring the city was fun as well, as it paints this emerging but flawed society at the brink of grand change.
While the first game embraced its video game esthetics, taking place in a glitchy simulation, the new game plays in the real world. I was skeptical at first, but the stunning levels that Croteam has conjured here really sells it. It's not only the graphics, but also the ambience, which really lets you dive into this world. The sometimes brutalistic, sometimes art deco, and sometimes fully absurd, but always in the literal sense awe inspiring architecture of the puzzle areas and other buildings in the game are fantastical and have at the same time an imposing, very physical presence. I stop and marvel at the beautiful landscapes as often as I admire the architecture. The fact that you can now actually die and aren't merely reset adds to the sense to physicality.
The gameplay is also improved. There are a ton of a new puzzle elements and the puzzles themselves are much tighter, relying less on tricks and exploits than in the previous game.

All in all Croteam has outdone themselves. They took what was already great in The Talos Principle, and then improved on it, which I would not have dared to dream to be possible. While I love their Serious Sam games a lot, this here is their magnum opus. You have created something most beautiful and important.

The game is really super cute. The idea to combine a farming game with dinosaurs seems random at first, but what can I say? Dinosaurs are cool, and the dinos in the game are animated and modeled really well and cute. The game is fun, you have a lot of options to create the pens of the dinosaurs, tons to explore and to discover. My little one of 4 years loves dinosaurs and obviously loves this game. If you look for an inoffensive game to play with small and very small kids, this is ideal. There is effectively nothing that is "bad" in here, the worst thing that can happen is that you forget to feed the dinosaurs one day. Everyone is happy and friendly and even rainy days are kinda sunny.

The game seems fun, but it would definitely more fun with free saving. Having to run through the same level over and over again feels tedious, if you have to collect every item and secret every time.

I had a ton of fun exploring the Fabled Lands for yet another time. I got intrigued by the book series this is based on when learning game design. An open world RPG in the form of books? This has so many interesting concepts. I later played a digital version that was basically a carbon copy of the books, but with automatic hyperlinks and book keeping. With an image of a map open, this already gave a really good feeling of traveling the world.
This game now is a really faithful adaption, for better or worse. It has all the intrigue, but also all the "quirks" and kinks of the original. Which is ok for me, as it means it leaves the original experience intact. The graphics are good, as is the music and sound. I was at first a bit taken aback by the added hexfeld combat, but it does not detract too much from the original experience and plays quite well. I still prefer the original with simple dice rolls to resolve combat.
I also wanted to make a game out of the fabled lands books, even had a prototype of the isle of druids running. And then this got announced. But I think you did a very good job, probably better than I could have.
I definitely recommend this game for RPG fans, who prefer exploration over combat, who don't mind reading a lot and are not scared of by sometimes unfair old-school game mechanics. But it is really something else, you can't get this kind of game from big studios like Bethesda.

Great little experience. Very innovative approach to the horror walking simulator. And a very innovative way of controlling your character. I wish I had creative ideas like that in my own designs...
As a plus: Runs very well on Linux via Proton.

I really want to like this game. And it was great fun in the first few chapters. But then it began to become worse and worse. While the gunplay is decent, the weapons are fun and the enemy visual design is great, more and more flaws started to accumulate. It ended with me running out of ammo in chapter 5, so I could not continue to play. The enemies become more and more bullet sponges. And while it wasn't a big problem in the first levels, it became more and more annoying how little sound the enemies make. They often spawn behind you or out of sight and you only realize that they're there, when you are hit with a volley of projectiles, losing half your health. As I said, the visual presentation is really great. But the atmosphere does not fit a Cthulhu Mythos game. Unfortunately I can't recommend this.