Recent reviews by Awkward Fish Guy

(this review will have mild spoilers)

So, as someone who didn't play this game as a kid, here is a somewhat untainted, nostalgia free review.

The reason why I bought this game at all was because I was a HUGE Timesplitters fan, and played all three of those to death, so I thought I'd give one of my all time fav developers another go.

I played on the hardest difficulty.

For starters I think the graphics look pretty okay. I'm a big fan of the character design Free Radical does, although it is definitely not as creative in Second Sight as in Timesplitters, it still gave me a nice comfy feeling seeing very familiar animations and visuals.

The gameplay is quite clunky, and you can REALLY tell it's 2004 console third person action game controls. It translates rather poorly to mouse and keyboard, but once you get used to the jank it's manageable. I did however find myself frustrated at some of the more challenging parts where precise gunplay and quick swapping of powers/weapons was needed.

What was really cool about the game, though, was all the different psychic abilities. They all make for some cool and fun gameplay moments, and the pacing of how and when you unlock them is done very well. I would have, however, liked if they had more open ended solutions to most tasks. Sometimes it really feels like the game wants you to use a certain ability, and only that, so some more variety in how you would solve certain puzzles or enemy encounters would keep it from getting kinda stale towards the end.

I did however REALLY enjoy the computer puzzles. Albeit simple, they were a really cool way of interacting with the world and story, and I found myself actually wanting to read every tidbit of information I could get my hand on. It makes the whole world a little bit more believable, even though some of these workers really need to learn more about password safety :p


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Story wise I felt even more disappointed. I'll try not to spoil too much, but I felt they could've taken the story in a much more mind♥♥♥♥y way. It felt kinda tame and left me with a rather sour taste in my mouth when I was done. Very predictable, which is why I felt the story was going in another direction. The ending felt kinda rushed, too.

It was so obvious and over the top at some points I was certain the story would go completely M. Night Shyamalan on my ass, but I was left very disappointed when it was in fact just an obvious rather boring story.

Skip to under the line if you don't want me to spoil what DOESN'T happen, because now I wanna give my two cents on what I was really hoping the story was doing at the midway point:

To me; all the mind♥♥♥♥s the main character experienced were so cliché and boring I genuinely thought it would end with him actually just being a schizophrenic mental hospital patient. They could've made such a powerful story relating the player to the insanities these people sometimes experience, and man oh man would it have been good, if executed correctly. After the first 2 hours I started doubting everything, thinking that this was such a good way of showing psychosis symptoms and delusions, but no; turned out it WAS all real and it was just another bland, fairly naive story.

The first time you meet... uh... I already forgot her name, the other psychic woman, and the whole squad got split up, I followed my gamer instinct and tried to kill her when I got bored. I killed her, then got a cutscene of the main bad guy interviewing us; asking if "killing and hurting people is fine with you?" I think this is where the biggest seed of us just being a very mentally ill person REALLY started taking a hold, and I was really eager to find out what would happen.

The biggest reason as to WHY I even bothered finishing it was because I thought this type of ending would redeem the whole game. But no, you are the chosen one with psychic powers and you are the hero and oh my god please save us!!!
How sick would it be if you just turned out to be someone suffering from SERIOUS schizophrenia? I don't know man, I thought it was a cool concept, until I realized towards the end that that ending was all in MY head, and I was suffering from mediocre story psychosis.


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Music and sound design is pretty okay too. Some of the tracks were pretty good, Graeme Norgate is one of my favorite video-game soundtrack producers, but even so it is kinda more in the background in this one. Very rarely did it do anything but serve its purpose, which is fine.

Other sounds are also pretty good. A lot of them are kinda nostalgic to me, since I played so much Timesplitters, like the Soviet Rifle, or the camera detection sounds. Dialogue delivery is mostly fine, but sometimes there was a few unintentionally funny deliveries.


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In 6 days I've played this for 50 hours...

If you've always wanted to be an evil genius designing a base that is both challenging, but also beautiful in it's own regard, then this game is for you.
If you like horror, this game is for you.
If you like high paced FPS action, this game is for you.

As always Sokpop delivers a sweet and short experience full of charm and creativity.

They somehow managed to make the game feel like a card game, a colony sim, a survival and an action game.

Finding all the cards and combinations is such a treat, and there truly is so many ways to play this game.

It took me about 6 hours to fully complete it, and I found myself making thousands of eggs, potatoes and campfires, constantly saying; "more 'taters n' eggs!" out loud, grinning at my own stupid joy as I was cooking frittatas.

At first it seems very simple and easy to handle. You put one villager at the rock to get more stone. Simple enough. Eventually you get another villager. Doubling the things to keep fed and keep track of! Eventually, there are so many cows, wolves, milk, stones, farms, apples, 'taters and eggs to keep track of that your whole playing field is just one big mess as you frantically make more 'taters and eggs to make sure your population doesn't die off.

I would absolutely LOVE to see this game get updates; other factions, more cards, etc...

EZ 10/10 if you're into card games and 'taters 'n eggs.

PS: Go subscribe to Sokpop's Patreon, you get at least 1 game each month for just $3. They're usually short games, but damn they're creative and fun!

So far I've only played 4 hours of this DLC, but I've been having so much fun that I just want to boost the reviews.

The amount of control you have over your colonies with this update is insane, and it's like a Rimworld wet dream.

I made a colony that worshipped some pretty dark stuff; like canibalism, cutting out eyes and pointy weapons. A massive grin spread across my face when I noticed that even after ritualistically cutting out the eyes of all my colonists in my "Void Temple", they're still able to function at 100% capacity.

Because we all know that without eyes "[We] are free to explore the depths of [our] minds and the true reality without [our] sight limiting [us]"

Aaaand of course Randy decided to hit me with the plague immediatly after 2 raids :)))

God I love this game <3

Another great game coming out of the Sokpop Collective.

Whenever I'm feeling down, I always hit up the Sokpop Collective for a cute and interesting game, and this game doens't come as an exception. The atmosphere is comfy as heck, and I absolutely adored exploring around the open world, hopping in and out of tallgrass to hide from the guards while saving the little children.

I would love for this game to be more developed and realized into a more thorough experience, as even in this tiny world, I had the same feeling I had when playing Breath of the Wild for the first time.

There are some minor bugs here and there, espeically with the AI, but I don't really care.

All in all a nice and comfy experience.

After a playsession lasting about 34 hours, I caught myself looking at irl buildings and thinking about how easy it would be to raid them cause none of them have airlocks.

♥♥♥♥ this game
Love this game

The viscious cycle that is Rust will turn you in to a real man, even if you're a woman

***SMALL SPOILERS AHEAD***

My experience with Rain World has been that of being a creature that is lower on the food chain, and wonderfully so!
It is truly fascinating to explore this dark and twisted world. Every time you find a new creature it's such a delight! A very scary delight, as you don't always have an idea what said creature/creatures do. Some are friendly, some will just straight up murder you.

The easiest one to avoid are the obvious ones. Don't walk straight up to that big green lizard who's snapping their massive jaws against you. Just climb away on a pole away from the danger. Wait, what's this, a purple lizard? Ok, just climb to safety again, except the purple lizard can climb poles, run!

Then you have the more snake-like enemies, not in the literal worm sense (sort of is though, in this example), but the ones who ambush you when you least expect it. Imagine you're just parkouring around trying to get to the next part of the room; when all of a sudden the pole you just vaulted to grabs you and multiple small graspers spread out from the whole thing pulling you closer to the "pole". In a flash it has dragged you down to it's chamber and proceeds to eat you; its slugcat lunch. I can't help myself from sitting there with a massive grin on my face after such occurrences.

With a dynamic music system, the game tries to warn you when creatures are close. It may start off with a couple of hi-hats, giving you a sinister feeling. Then you enter a room and see no creature in particular, but the music has ramped up. Hmm... Shouldn't there be a creature in this room? Before you know it a camouflaged lizard shoots its tongue at you from across the room and barely misses. The music ramps up even more and is now an enthralling, yet terrifying war beat, and you jolt away to safety. With adrenaline flowing through your tiny slugcat body, you ready your spear and throw it at the lizard and hit its head. The spear gets deflected by its hard skull and it comes hurdling back at you and land in front of you again, the lizard obviously stunned and dumbfounded. Quickly it gathers itself and prepares for another attack, but you're not as lucky this time, and its long tongue grabs you with its sticky end. Panicking you manage to grab your spear on the route to certain doom, but this time you manage to throw it at its body. The lizard jolts in pain and releases its firm grasp.

Instincts take over; and you frantically pull the spear out of its body and you stab it again... And again and again, until your rage comes to an end, and the lizard spazzez out one last time as its life force is drained, leaving it limp and colorless on the ground. A moment of silences passes, until you jump up and down like a monkey triumphantly celebrating your successful defense, as if you are the greatest ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ creature this world has ever conjured.

2 minutes later a massive bird like creature swoops down from above and murders you before you can get your wits back from its terrifying presence. You think to yourself: "Looks like I have even bigger beasts to master," and you're back to your the same humble slugcat self you were before you killed the camo lizard.


This game is truly a masterpiece. It barely has any narrative, but the world- and creature design is so on point that it tells you things implicitly, much like Dark Souls. The game really fascinates me and makes me want to learn more about all the nooks and crannies it has to offer.

Graphics: 10/10 - The somber an depressing vibe really shines in both the world and its creatures. Truly amazing!

Sound/music: 10/10 - I just love how the tribal drums mixed with electronic music brings the above mentioned vibe to life, making you sit at the edge of your seat as soon as the smallest drum sample starts playing. The creatures all sound like you would expect them to, including yourself: When you jump off a little bit too tall of geometry and bang your tiny skull against the floor making you pass out for a few seconds before your brittle body can gather itself again, the sound your tiny skull makes sounds expremely believable. This extends to pretty much all the creatures of Rain World. Also amazing.

Gameplay: 10/10 - There's just something awesome about the 100% physics based gameplay, as all the "animations" of all the creatures are just physics simulations. The game simulates a whole eco-system constantly, and even though you are not in the room, the basic physics logic is still applied to all creatures on the map, meaning that you might stumble upon a random battle between two spear wielding monkey-like creatures and a lizard. Just knowing that that battle would have ensued even though you were not there to vitness it fills me with a childlike wonder. You can stick enemies to walls by throwing spears at them, buy valuable grenades with pearls you find (or steal) around the world, which blows those pesky enemies across the room. There is just so much to do in this brilliantly crafted eco-system, and I just feel like I barely scratched the surface of it with my 20+ hours in it.

Overall: 10/10 - I cannot recommend this game more: If anything that I mentioned above peaks your interest, you MUST try this game, as experiencing and exploring this game on your own is a magical treat.

I feel like I'm beginning to scratch the surface of this game

You know a game is good when you think you've played for about 15 minutes but it turns out that run lasted 50 minutes...

Visually: 9/10 - Very good looking, a lot of attention to detail, such as debris falling off the wall, or book pages slowly swaying back and fourth, eventually falling to the ground

Sound Design: 7/10 - Pretty standard for my taste, nothing completely amazing, but still pretty good. Soundtrack is meh.

Gameplay: 10/10 - You will lose hours upon hours in the gungeon, searching for new guns and beating new enemies. I've seen no bugs thus far, and the gameplay is smooth as silk. Insanely fun and varied weapons, items and enemy types.

Overall: 10/10 - "BUT WAIT, YOU GAVE IT 7/10 ON SOUND!!!1!" Yes I know, but the gameplay is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing, and it's been a long while since I've played a game as fun as this. in less than 48 hours I've already sunk 13 hours into this, and for the cheap pricetag, it's absolutely worth it. BUY THIS GAME, NOW!

PS: Playing with your own hype music, you will never leave the gungeon!

I've played the Super Smash games for quite a while now and this is certainly a good competetor to that game. While it's lacking in some departments, like more types of weapons or more stage items, it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ AWESOME! The characters are interresting and quite different, even though they have the same type of weapons, they all handle those weapons differently. It also features some delicious visuals and some crisp sound design all with insanely fast and intentse gameplay.

Visuals/graphics: 8/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 9/10


I give it an overall 8/10 as it's still in Beta, and things are prone to change and/or be fixed.