Recent reviews by Marsted R

A highly useful tool for getting older games into fullscreen with the correct aspect ratio and nearest neighbor scaling. Additionally, you have multiple spatial upscalers and a frame-generation tool. This software is an absolute must if you play lots of older games which don't work well with modern setups, or if you play obscure indie games that use poor technology.

It's a very fun game. You have to become one with the jank and remember that the bugs are features. Apocalypse weekend is not good though. Paradise lost is great but does drag in some places. It's good clean fun, what more can I say?

Honestly, I can't recommend this game enough. It has an elegant complexity beneath the simplistic presentation. It's a game that has more to it than initially meets the eye. You really can approach the game in many different ways and it's not overly challenging. The immersive sim elements are great, they aren't the most in-depth, but they do allow for many different approaches to the game.

Roguelike FPS' are a genre I've been interested in for a while and this is the most approachable one I've tried. The dungeon-generation never seemed to screw anything up and the layouts were always varied and unique. Exploration is fun and rewarding as many items you might find can be immensely helpful. I liked that you could acquire items and a spell that allowed you to place barrier blocks and destroy blocks with bullets or a pickaxe. Shaping the level to avoid mazes or using keys along with trapping monsters in blocks combined with the other immersive-sim elements is really cool.

Some of the item combinations and gameplay are almost metroidvania-like. This game has tons of charm and is lots of fun to jump into and learn. It's not very frustrating or particularly difficult, but it's not devoid of challenge. The new-game-plus should help those who want more of a challenge. I personally tire of overly frustrating games now that I have so much less time to game.

I'll definitely be jumping into this game again sometime to get the good ending, achievement hunt (not 100%), possibly attempt ng+ and the asylum achievement. For the modest asking price, there's a lot to enjoy and plenty of replayability, even if an initial playthrough doesn't take especially long.

The first chapter is great, and fairly lengthy. The later levels seem shorter than the early ones. It's probably 4 hours long right now, but if you savor every level it lasts longer. The art, music and sound design is all great. Not only that, but from a gameplay perspective, the game is very satisfying. There a many ways you can approach a level and there are many ways you can approach your enemies. The melee-combat is a lot of fun, as is the stealth and gunplay. Though guns and ammo can be tough to come by, especially if you aren't doing stealth take-downs. But it provides a fun balance. You can really improvise your way through levels in a way you can't in a typical shooter. You can also strategize your way through levels, or anything in between. Secret hunting and money hoarding also grant you more options for supplies. The presentation is top-notch. The levels look stunning, as do the cutscenes. The storytelling is well integrated into the levels and is fun to follow along. I'm very excited to see what the next chapters hold, even though it's likely to be a long wait.

This really is a great game, it's a shame the dos version is so technically flawed, even with the provided patches. My recommendation is to seek out a source-port if you want to play. I used BuildGDX and it worked pretty well. There was a crash at the end of a level that had 2 bosses. I had to kill them and then run for the exit to finish before it could crash, so hopefully BuildGDX has patched that by now. If not I'm sure there's a better source port out there somewhere.

As for the actual game, it's one of my favorite single-player FPS games I've ever played. The combat and level design are very satisfying. It's impossible to talk about this game without mentioning the Saturn/PS1 version which has been remastered for all platforms. This is a very different game from the console version, and I'm glad it is. Not because I don't like that version, but because we essentially got 2 great games out of it. The console version is much more of a metroivania style experience and is great in it's own right. But this version has more satisfying combat and great level design. It's more straightforward to get through and the enjoyment comes from fighting through levels rather than progression through abilities. You also don't unlock the ability to reach new areas like you do in the console version. The levels still have a great sense of exploration though. Secret hunting is rewarding and the level paths intersect with each other in a way that's satisfying. I would have trouble picking a favorite between the versions. The PC version is probably the one I revisit more, but the console version had a great sense of accomplishment upon completion. Individual levels are more fun to fight through in this version, but the console version is more about the sum of its parts. Either way you can't go wrong and I highly recommend both games. Both are easily 8-9 out of 10 experiences.

"GHOSTWARE: Arena of the Dead" is good but not perfect. It's more about the variety of things it does and how well they work together than it is about the quality of any one aspect. The general vibe of the game is really good with a comfortably eerie atmosphere. The music is also a highlight, especially when roaming around nearly empty levels. The sound design of corrupted levels is also top-notch. The game goes for more of an unsettling tension rather than outright horror, which I like quite a bit. The story is interesting and engaging, but I feel it could be a little better. The dialog is a little lackluster in places. The wizard in particular demonstrates a lot of the weaker aspects of the writing and I find his voice somewhat cringe-worthy but in a charming way. The story really shines in the message items you discover throughout the game, particularly the forums. It's a really engaging way to explore the story, especially as the story elements serve as a reward for exploration. As you explore the story, you are rewarded with new abilities. Once the game gets going, there's no denying its potential. The metroidvania elements that stem from the hubs, secrets, special abilities, and locked areas work very well with the fragments of the story in a way that makes the game very rewarding to play and explore. The guns feel decent, some feel better than others but they nailed the grenade launcher. The pseudo-multiplayer aspect of the game is fun, I wish there was more of it in the story mode. Revisiting multiplayer levels in their corrupted state without fake players is suitably eerie. The singleplayer-style levels feature enemies that aren't very fun to engage with and difficulty balancing is also very frustrating on the harder modes. I bring this up because the early stages in pseudo-multiplayer modes actually feel about right on the harder modes, but the singleplayer-style enemies will ruin your enjoyment. I restarted about two thirds into my playthrough because I knew the difficulty was ruining my enjoyment. Fortunately replaying it was enjoyable. I recommend using the default difficulty setting. Overall, it's a good game.

Turok is shockingly good, it has some of the most satisfying exploration/secret hunting of any FPS I've played. It strikes an excellent balance without being overly cryptic but is also rewarding to figure out. The combat is pretty solid, I opted to play without a cross-hair which probably hurt my experience. I'd imagine the shooting feels snappier with a cross-hair and no auto-aim. But for an N64 title, the combat feels surprisingly close to the combat I'd expect from a pc shooter of the era. The movement is brisk and very responsive and the platforming works surprisingly well. It's a big game in every sense of the word, some of the levels feel massive. There's a jaw-dropping amount of weapons, many enemy types, and plenty of exploring. Once I completed the game I felt a real sense of accomplishment.

I wouldn't say this is my favorite Blackwell game, but it's just as strong as the others. The series was so great, and the personalities of Rosa and Joey and their back and fourth banter are endlessly charming, so it's sad this is the last game. But as far as endings go, this doesn't disappoint. I won't spoil any of that. As always, everything is top notch here. This is a satisfying payoff to the mounting mysteries hinted at throughout the series. If you're reading this and somehow haven't played the other games, I recommend you buy the series bundle now. The first game is good and worth your time, but not amazing. The second game and onward are as close to perfect as possible. You really won't regret diving into the series (spoiler free if possible). It's less than $30 for the series, and the sheer volume of quality mystery, puzzle solving, and storytelling are unparalleled in the genre. I would not pass this series up.

It's hard to say something new about each of these games when everyone already knows how good they are. I don't have anything to say about this game I haven't said about the prior entries, they're all genuinely so good at what they do. The puzzles here are probably my favorite in the series, particularly the nightclub one. The continued world-building is also great. There's a sense of comfort I get from this series that's hard to explain, part of it is from the thematic elements, but also the aesthetic/mood. The way the story ties into the solutions to puzzles, and the way the story elements are introduced to you are probably also at their peak in this game. These are all great reasons to check out this series, I recommend avoiding any spoilers until after finishing the series. I managed to do that and it really made the experience special.

Another great entry in the Blackwell series. I can't recommend this series highly enough. The puzzle solving is extremely satisfying and the story and storytelling are done excellently. I particularly liked the eves-dropping puzzle. It's not a long game, but it's well worth the price of admission if you like mystery and point-and-click puzzle solving. It's a great expansion on the world building and a great primer for the rest of the series, yet still has a satisfying conclusion.