Recensioni recenti di SaturdayMonk

Cool, detailed, sometimes creative but a bit too long and kinda repetetive at some points. Might be a different take but I saw a lot of Silent Hill 4: The Room references or influences, you call it, chains, big faces in doorframes so on and so forth.

(Oh can't forget, the last sequence was really really annoying at some times, almost ruined the whole game for me. You shouldn't make your triggers that hard to start. Just a reminder.)

After almost 10 years and -if I remember correctly- at least 3 attempted playthroughs, I finally did it and finished the game with all the DLCs as well and I feel... Complicated to say the least. Before actually experiencing the entirety of the game, it actually was one of my favorites of all time, let alone my favorite Bioshock but now with the knowledge I have on what kind of a game it is I can almost say that I'm a little bit disappointed and so much so that I happened to remember my first reaction towards that initial CG trailer they showed back in 2011 if I'm correct: "Wait, this is not Bioshock" which is a statement I stand behind, I think it is unfortuntate that these characters, this whole narrative had to end up as a Bioshock game.

That might sound stupid after what they did with Burial at Sea but the main game ends up just being a cinematic action shooter with a pretty good story that has a brilliantly designed world with great writing and excellently voiced characters yet anything and everything "Bioshock" they stuff inside this mix does not work all that great. The gameplay and gunplay in general doesn't feel that good, Plasmids -well, in this case Vigors- are not that different from eachother, the least inspired in the entire series honestly and the feeling of progression feels non-existent. In prior games whenever you upgrade anything you not only see instant results in gameplay but also visually too; your guns look different with plenty of add-ons and your Plasmid animations slightly change to reflect and cement that feeling of progression with the addition of meaningful new abilities to deepen the gameplay, in this one however you choose an upgrade on a heavily boring looking list and that's it, both with the guns and the Vigors.

When you add all of the above to the sometimes mind-numbingly fast gameplay and a less than useful weapon wheel mechanic with weirdly limited slots for a myriad of clothing items that give different upgrades when equipped on the side, then topping all up with unimpactful and shallow "special abilities" you just can't use everything in tandem, in order for them to become useful in combat, therefore the whole gameplay loop feels terribly and aimlessly chaotic. I mean I don't know how much it makes sense to judge an action shooter for being a guns-blazing fever dream but when you call it Bioshock I at least expect some kind of depth in the gameplay aspects with the series' signature Plasmid mechanics at the very least, yet you can't even stack health packs or EVE -well, SALTs in this case- in this game which seems like either by studio pressure or just some effort to revitalize the series, they tried to create something similar to CoD or Halo. Unfortunately though, this creates an unnecessary identity clash throughout the game which takes away any homogeny that it possibly could've had.

Despite these criticisms though, game did indeed blew me away with where the whole narrative went at the end and it is probably the saving grace of the game too. It almost feels like they made the rest of the game after initially coming up with the ending and those abovementioned incredible voice acting performances elevate everything to a level where perhaps with their absence the game never would've reached. It's a great example of the sub-genre of stories it resides in and even that I don't really believe you can come up with an absolutely perfect story within the confines of that specific metaphoric narrative mold, what we have here is one that works on so many levels. I also can't possibly forget how the game singlehandedly demolishes the typical damsel in distress stereotype and even goes on to create perhaps the most useful companion in any game, ever and to a point that I can only agree with line, at some points I was afraid of them as well.

At the end of the day I can go on and on about bits and pieces that I love or dislike about the game but in summary this is nowhere near a bad game on itself, nonetheless I think it would be a disservice to even judge it alone, excluding what Burial at Sea chapters add to the whole experience (perhaps even saving the whole thing) therefore on that regard, including everything -with Clash in the Clouds as well of course- the "Definitive Bioshock Infinite Experience (TM)" on it's entirety is definitely something I recommend despite some of the woes it entails. It might be a mess, but it definitely is a beautiful one at that.

This one started out GOOD. Like GREAT. I'm controlling a team of soldiers who have unique and fun abillities that make the combat really fun. Enemies had enough variety. Offered ample challenge. But then... Then the game took 'em ALL away. ALL of 'em. Why? That's beyond me. Why would you kill the great tempo the game had? Just why? And that's where the game lost me unfortunately.

It also had some visual and gameplay bugs here and there (two characters in my team stood on top of eachother for example) and ran a bit bad and had annoying screen-tearing for me but I could've tolerated all of it because it was FUN. You know, what a game should be, for it to be enjoyable. But it just had to kill all the fun and tempo the game had, it just had to do it...

The game isn't the best graphically and it doesn't control the best but those are definitelly tolarable, if some certain other aspects of the game suit you. Gameplay is fun afterall. I mean I atleast guess, since the game doesn't give you all the fun you could've have at the beginning...

(Also I have a soft spot for it aesthetically, design-wise, this is my kind of game, HOWEVER I still can't recommend this one with my right mind, but I know there are some people, who will like this game, like, a lot, so, if you think there are some stuff this game has that lure you in, check it out on sale. It might be your hidden gem.)

I don't know how this game got that "Classic Resident Evil Hidden Gem" thing going on for it but, it's that but also not that at the same time.
I don't know what I expected graphically from a Nintendo DS port but I still somehow got a bit let down. It surprisingly "shines" (both metaphorically and literally) on some aspects but there are also some aspects of it that looks to be done for a quick buck.
Gameplay is solid but it still feels more like an action, 3rd person shooter than a classic Resident Evil Survival Horror, maybe that's also because of its' presentation and voice acting, it feels like a dumbed-down action movie, so, still, on some aspects, still feels like a Resident Evil game.
On most parts, this is right up my alley, so I do recommend it, but people really shouldn't hype this one up more than it deserves.
It is ok, and mostly fun but it is not that "classic Resident Evil". At least not in my opinion.

Guess what, it's me again!
F*ck this game and its' understanding of boss battles!
Constantly funneling enemies your way while you have a big fat bullet-sponge of an enemy following you close-by? And those enemies keep respawning? Yeah. Nope. Won't finish that one. Everything was going alright right up to that point, and that left one really bad taste in my mouth. Sorry.

I don't want to be overtly dramatic or make myself seem like I crave attention but,

Yeah...

This game kinda saved my life for a couple days.

I've played my fair share of adventure games but this one... This one takes the cake on so many aspects. I've never played an adventure game, and to some level no other game, that has this many interactable stuff, that make the game incrediby immersive. If I leave the obivously relatable and heartfelt story and characters, the world devs built is... One of a kind. I personally have an affection towards small American towns, probably thanks to a lot of media I consumed romanticizing those places, but this one was a real treat to... Honestly " live " in it. An impressive amount of characters and even more impressively written dialogue for those characters, just everything is thought of and everything is amazingly personal and unique.

Even with the fact that the story and the characters aren't exactly for me, and at the same time they just are, there are just enough stuff to latch on for almost everybody in the game. Real life issues, more specific generational issues, societal issues, just plain out emotional and human issues, there are all kinds of stuff the game that makes you relate and immerse yourself in, it is almost ridicilous. Even when you don't really agree with most of them. I still managed to find corellations, alot of them, from my own life.

The gameplay is also pretty satisfactory since there are certain, really fun minigames, nice enough platforming sessions, that are not limited to just some story bits, you basically explore the world by platforming around, the graphics are also nice, and in some sequences just plain out beatiful design-wise, everything is at such a balance that it never bores you ever. (and the only time the game got tedious for me were the dream sequences because my dvd-player-ass laptop can't really champion those segments, with some annoying frame drops in the, I guess, sewer (?) part of the game. But it is only my problem, the game runs smooth as butter on any other pc I bet. It is not a demanding game.)

And I guess, without going into spoilers, this is all I can talk about the game. This game is special in my opinion. There aren't any like it out there and, if you just don't care about the controversies that go around and just take in the story and the pretty locals, and interesting characters and the gripping story, you are going to have some great, great time.

And on a last note, it makes me sad that one of the brains behind the game which I really think saved my life in a really rough time in my life, is no longer alive because of some allegedly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ contreversy. Even if there isn't any god or anything like that, I hope they rest in peace somehow. They were a part of making something special, something really changing someone's, and infact saving it for a while, life. That's all.

Might be the definition of okay. Cute, and sometimes clever dialogues are nice, doesn't take itself seriously which helps to get through the game, it gets tedious sometimes. Mostly well designed little adenture. You won't lose much if you won't check it out but for an hour of your time you can smile and maybe laugh too (Apparently there some alternate endings as well, didn't know before I wrote the review, if you care check them out, I don't know if I will do it on my end though, not really inspired right now).

A great start to bigger story. Art style is also nice, I liked black and white aesthetic and monster designs but in my opinion, character designs don't really match up with the game's overall tone, everybody is so "clean" and "anime" I would've loved if they were portrayed as rugged and kind of "rough" looking but I can tolerate. Also nice job with the translation too, only encountered two typos but that's understandable, game has heavy dialogue and heavy descriptions, and they are translated rather well. Jumpscares were done in a classic way, but they are not effective, more of that "TV sequence" type of stuff -if you catch my drift- and less of those pesky jumpscares, they don't even work and and are getting really, really redundant. I also hope they continue to add more choices and interactions in the full game as this one's


This is getting old at this point. But I also understand, games like these don't have the biggest budgets available for marketing, and probably in this one's case, none. They have to advertise it, so they've chose this way. Anyways, it has potential, hope dev(s) will add onto it even more as this seems like it is shaping up to be a great point and click/visual novel type of game.

Ok.

Alright.

I can't recommend this game, because the core thing that makes a platformer fun, you know the platforming, isn't fun in this game in the slightest bit.

Look, you put checkpoints in the game which is nice for a game of this kind, but if you can't place them not the least bit fair, or you lack the design sense, it is just annoying. There is like one checkpoint per level, yet between checkpoints there are levels and levels amounts of long, annoying and unfair, not fun platforming. Not challenging btw, just unfair. The game EXPECTS you to make pixel perfect jumps, yet in itself can't provide that type of accuracy. Game's glitchy and inconsistent, sometimes that rewards you -spikes don't take away lives sometimes- but sometimes you have to repeat basically a level long platforming session. Ugh. It is sorta fun the first time around, tolerable the second time but after those, it just becomes boring and painful.

BUT, there are some levels here and there that shine. Levels where you just don't fall down cliffs and have to repeat the whole process. Those are nice, neat, enjoyable. Boss fights are also fine, because the only thing you have to do is to die enough times to memorize some patterns, and then defeat the boss, and on top of that, they are fun, some inconsistencies here and there but overall fun, well designed boss fights they are. Most of the Super Mario Bros. -esque pixel art is nice to look at, Dininho looks silly and cute, can't say I don't adore the purple dino. Game got the momentum based platforming aspects of SMB right too, but again, most of the time, sometimes even that feels inconsistent.

As I'm typing this review, I haven't finished the game and I'm planning to but... Man, I'm just going to try because I paid for this and played for waaay too much. Other than that, if you think you can manage through this unfair mess of a game, go for it, buy it, because the game really feels like it is designed for people to speedrun through. But I just couldn't find what at the very least expected to find, which is a rather cheap Mario clone with nice enough controls and pretty pixel art. This ain't it chief...

It deserves way more playtime than I've spent but my experience was positive so I wanted to share my thoughts.

The axe feels clunky to use which is understandable in the context of survival horror but after I use the shotgun, which packs a punch and feels incredibly powerful and fun to use, the axe just feels,,, Meh... Just not fun.

I wish to finish at least its campaign after I get a setup that is not just able to play music and movies and then update this review.

But don't forget that you can get this basically free on any sale, the entertainment to price rate is very very favorable, you don't really have to think before you buy it. Just do it honestly.

Makes me wish I had more experience with D&D back in the day since it looks like it is going to take a lot of getting used to for me before I can actually start enjoying it.

And I want to get used to it quick because its; graphics, setting, tone, desings, and soundtrack... Just RIGHT. UP. MY. ALLEY. Phew.

If you are aware of your general taste in anything fiction, you've probably already bought it anyway but yeah, huge recommend.