Recent reviews by Hausman

Wow. Jesus Christ, what a ride. That was, by far, the most intense experience I've ever had in a video game. It's scary, it's hard, it's frustrating, but most importantly, it's rewarding. That amazing relief you feel when you reach a save station or enter a new area, knowing you're safe, is wonderful.

Graphics: Everything looks great. Fire, lighting, characters, outer space, machinery, it's all incredibly detailed and beautiful to look at. The design is great as well. It looks just like the original movie did, but slightly upgraded (which would make sense, given the story). The game absolutely nailed the futuristic space theme.

Ambience: Definitely the best ambience I've experienced in a modern game. I find myself disappointed with most modern games' attempts at background noises, music, etc, but this one was perfectly done. The alien can be heard moving around in the vents, and the station is constantly making distant crashing noises, so you're always uneasy, knowing the station could be minutes from destruction. It adds a whole new level of tension and constant fear that makes the game even more intense.

Story: As far as I can tell, it seems very true to the original movie. I saw the movie when I was pretty young, and none of the sequels or video games lived up to that original horrifying experience. This game created characters I genuinely cared about, a story that kept me wondering what would happen next, and had voice acting that almost brought me to tears at times.

Gameplay: This, unfortunately, is where I think the game suffers, depending on your viewpoint. While the sneaking is phenomenal, I found myself consistently frustrated with two aspects of the gameplay: the save system, and the movement speed. This game utilizes save stations, which is not always a bad mechanic (Dead Space did it quite well). However, the save stations are small, hard to find, and generally very scarce. One might argue that this adds an element of fear to the game, given that dying would be a major setback (sometimes 30 minutes of gameplay can be lost), but I believe that it makes the game much more frustrating, rather than scary or intense. I frequently found myself quitting the game because I would die and end up having to repeat 15-30 minutes of gameplay in order to get back to the part I died at, only to die yet again. This is where the movement speed comes in. Your character walks very slowly, and running is almost never a good idea because the alien will hear you. Therefore, if I want to complete a section, I have to do so very slowly, which gets tedious when you have to do it over 5 times. I found this to be extremely frustrating throughout the whole game, but luckily there were enough positive aspects that I kept coming back to it.

Overall, this game is a masterpiece. A difficult, frustrating, intense, horrifying, beautiful masterpiece. It's clear the developers put a lot of time, effort, and love into this game. If you loved the original movie like I did, this is the Alien game you've been waiting for. Buy it, play it, and love it. 10/10

My opinion about this series did an absolute flip after playing this game. Finally, I understand the reason why everyone raves about the Hitman games. The gameplay is unlike any other game I've seen. The gunplay is satisfying, the sneaking is immersive and challenging, and there are endless ways to approach the missions. The graphics are wonderful. Unfortunately, the story, voice acting, and writing is somewhat laughable, but it's easy to ignore that when the gameplay is so great. Now, I feel like I should try the older Hitman games again with a different mindset and see what I think of them. I never stopped having fun with this game. 8/10

Very very disappointed with this game. At first I hated it, then I loved it, and then by the end I hated it again. The story is subpar, generic, and predictable, nothing like the original games were. The only reason this could possibly be considered part of the "Thief" Universe is that they call the main character Garrett. There are no Hammerites, no Pagans, and there's one level where you infiltrate an abandoned Keeper library, but they never actually identify them as "Keepers." There are no Burricks, no Zombies, no Haunts, it's basically just a Steampunk game called "Thief" in order to bring in more customers. In my opinion, the coolest part of the Thief games was the universe, the mythos, and all the different factions. Of course, this Thief game doesn't have any of that. The best part of the whole game is the graphics and ambiance, it certainly feels "Thiefy" and looks "Thiefy" and the sneaking gameplay is actually pretty good, but it all comes down to level design. That is where this game fails miserably. It suffers from what most AAA games suffer from these days: very linear, tiny, and cramped levels, and not a lot of emphasis on exploration. Of course, previous Thief games (Even Deadly Shadows) have been the opposite of this: huge, exploration based levels with no real path you're supposed to take. The whole reason that the original games were fun was because you spent time figuring out how to manuever around the map and not get noticed by the guards. They were built to be big and confusing, which is what makes the entire experience challenging and tense. This Thief game is nothing like that. The majority of the levels are small, linear, and boring. The few levels that are someone exploration based are VERY small and eventually lead to another linear portion, probably accompanied by explosions of some sort. The reason I liked it halfway through playing it is because I was hit with a few levels in the middle that were actually relatively large, nonlinear, and required you to choose your path. But then, after those levels, I was again greeted by linear, trigger-based, explosion riddled levels that just didn't feel like Thief.

So overall, this game is slightly above average if you're just looking for another game to play and haven't played the original Thief games. 6/10 from that point of view.

But if you're a huge fan of the originals, don't even buy this game. It's a waste of time and money. The only good I could see coming from this game is if someone rebuilt the original Thief games in this one. That would be cool as ♥♥♥♥. But anyways, as a hardcore Thief fan, I am forced to give this game a sad 3/10. Very disappointed.

I really expected to dislike this game. I've never enjoyed strategy games, they've always seemed too slow paced and bore me within minutes. However, there's something about this game that really keeps me going. There's a huge element of tension in the fighting sequences because of how easy it would be for you to miss a shot, and how detrimental that would be to the rest of the mission. Every single shot you take means something, so it's really important to decide if you're going to take a chance and shoot, hang back and reload, or go on overwatch to fire during the aliens' turn. Also, you can name your characters, which is a feature I've taken advantage of very often. Colonel Jesus Christ and Captain Morgan are doing very well for themselves.

I got this game for free when I preordered Bioshock Infinite and only recently began playing it. I've barely uncovered the huge amount of abilities you can take advantage of in this game, but I'm already addicted. 9/10

One of the best horror games out there in my opinion. Amnesia only tops this game because of length and the noncoherent story. But overall, if you're looking to get scared, this game is crazy scary. The soundtrack is great and the ambiance is masterfully executed. The graphics are quite good for an indie game, and the scares are always unexpected. And it's not all about the scares, it's also about the constant feeling of dread waiting for the next scare. This is something that this game does perfectly: it thrusts you towards what's scary rather than having you run from it, and you're not alone in this asylum, you're surrounded by inmates that at any moment could kill you. Every second of this game leaves you on the edge of your seat hoping that something won't jump at you (which, inevitably, it will). So buy this game if it goes for 10 or less, and you're in for a real treat. 8/10

Pretty disappointing actually...definitely not the same caliber as the original in pretty much every way. The puzzles are pretty boring and easy, the whole game is linear (whereas The Dark Descent had many rooms and the puzzles were pretty intricate). The gameplay is much more boring, the insanity meter is gone and there's no more inventory, meaning that there's no lamp oil or tinderboxes, making the game much less tense. The ambiance is still scary, but the enemies are more dopey than disturbing, which deflates the situation when you're being chased by one. The one saving grace for this game was the horribly disturbing but cool as ♥♥♥♥ story, but...it's 3 hours long. I think this game could've been so much better than it was, especially given the success of its predecessor. Not worth 15 or 20 bucks for a boring 3 hour story, maybe worth 5 if you really want it. 4/10

A much better game than I thought it was going to be! Despite it's messed up console port controls, the combat and driving is some of the best I've ever seen. You really feel like you're controlling the character as you're fighting, it's all very smooth, deliberate, and satisfying to hit things. The graphics, for an open world game, are fantastic. The leveling up system is very unique, and the story, characters, and voice acting are very well executed. Definitely worth the buy, 9.5/10

This was a great little indie game. If you're a huge pyromaniac (like me) you'll love it. The fire physics are great and there are so many things to burn! And underneath that shallow game mechanic is a very deep, ironic metaphor that the game slowly unfolds to you. This game offers a cheerful, creepy, and entertaining experience that really makes you think about your life. 8/10

For the price, not bad at all. It's a pretty short game with a mediocre story and voice acting, but the gameplay is fun and creative. I mean, I don't ever think I've seen a realistic survival zombie side scroller before. The graphics are impressive for a sidescroller, it really does a good job with the setting and ambiance. Overall, a good buy. 8/10

This game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fantastic. If you enjoyed the first Bioshock, this one offers an equally jaw-dropping experience and even tops the incredible story of the first. The gameplay is perfected, involving even more plasmids (vigors) and guns. The environment is thriving, interesting, and always has something awesome to look at. Overall, it's definitely one of the best games I've ever played, and it has the best damn ending to any game ever. 10/10