Recent reviews by Blooey

How much you enjoy this game is likely contingent upon feeling a sense of mastery over using your bionic arm. There is a learning curve to using it effectively; but if you can, this game is stupidly fun in all the best ways.

It never gets old to latch onto an enemy with the arm, and toss them aside like a ragdoll. Or to grapple an enemy from afar and drag yourself towards them like a human missile.

Traversing the environment is also a huge part of this game’s appeal. It’s a bit difficult at first, and you may find yourself falling to your death a lot at the beginning of the game. But once you do get the hang of it, building momentum by swinging through the environment is euphoric.

You’re playing as a heavy, tankish character with lots of mobility options. The best way I can describe it is like Spiderman and The Incredible Hulk rolled into one.

Downsides are:
-The story is lame and forgettable
-Environments are pretty bland and dull

Also when you try to do a grapple kick on particular enemies in the late game, the physics break 90% of the time and leave you ragdolling all over the place. For some enemies, this move is required, so there’s not really any way to mitigate or prevent this from happening. I was able to complete the game, but not without a good handful of these frustrating encounters.

In spite of its flaws, this game is a ton of fun. It’s a shame it never got a sequel because you really begin to see the amount of potential the bionic arm has in terms of its utility as you play. The developers came up with a lot of creative and unexpected ways to use it. I would definitely recommend picking this one up on a deep sale.

They moan really loud.

10/10

A Road Not Worth Taking

On the surface, American Truck Simulator doesn't look very compelling. Being a truck driver isn't exactly a glamorous job in the real world, so it's baffling to see such a large community grow around a game like this. The main thing that drew me in was the possibility of learning more about trucks, brands, trailers, etc., and the appeal of being able to "travel the country" without leaving the comfort of my apartment. For the most part, American Truck Simulator delivers on that, but there are a myriad of issues that damage the experience.

Driving the truck is fairly simple once you get the hang of shifting gears, and figuring out which buttons do what. The developers went out of their way to include as many control configurations as possible, which means you can play the game with just about any peripheral or controller and have a tremendous amount of freedom to rebind keys and buttons to your exact preferences. I played the game on a Steam Controller, and I was impressed by how fluid the controls ended up feeling after being initially overwhelmed by just how many different commands & inputs are needed to recreate the experience of driving a truck.

Certain aspects of truck driving are far more frustating than others, and it can take a long time to adjust to making extremely wide turns at intersections, or simply accounting for the size and length of your truck as you navigate across the states. Parking can be a monstrous challenge, and it gets even more complicated (and headache-inducing) when you start to take on missions that assign you with multiple trailers and fragile goods. The learning curve is steep, but the game does allow you to skip parking altogether if you don't feel confident in your abilties.

Outside the simulation, there's a meta-game where you can upgrade skills and accumulate cash by taking on challenges with varying degrees of difficulty. Longer drives with heavy or fragile loads will net you the most money, but also increase the possibility of getting into an accident or arriving to your desination late; which can cost tons of XP and cash. There were many times where I ended up getting into accidents that I felt like I couldn't prevent; due to being rear-ended by incompetent AI, or being hit by a suicidial driver while I was making a turn at an intersection. Being unable to prevent accidents adds a random element to the game that's entirely unwelcome; especially when it's making so many attempts at realism.

And that's only just the beginning of this game's problems. There are 9 different views you can cycle through to help increase your scope of vision to park accurately and to avoid other vehicles, but only the cockpit view has a dynamic camera. The remaining 8 views are fixed camera angles which prevent you from turning left or right to view your surroundings. They're extremely impractical to use outside of parking situations, and I have no idea why the devs didn't unlock camera movement to allow for taking maximum precaution in every potentially dangerous situation.

Naturally, the player gravitates towards missions with the highest cash reward, which means that most of time you'll be going on long road trips that can take up to an hour (or more) in real time. The biggest problem with this is the fact that you'll be spending most of that time on the highway, which is arguably the most boring part of the entire game. This is a very divisive aspect in the community, because I've seen lots of threads stating the importance of having the experience of "doing nothing" because it's accurate to what truck driving is really like. It's boring, and that's the truth! There's really no way around it, and it can be alleviated somewhat by playing your own music in the background, which makes taking in the scenery a lot more tolerable.

The problem is, the scenery leaves a lot to be desired. If you're playing the base game with no mods installed, it's noticeably lacking. Lots of un-detailed textures pop out of the environment, and they can really be an eyesore, even on the highest settings. The game might look okay in screenshots, but once you see it in motion, you'll know that something is off. There are some mods out there to help improve the graphics, but there's only so much you can do to polish a turd. What the game really needs is an extreme graphical overhaul on a brand new engine before it can even begin to tease players with the possibility of enjoying a long session of staring at different landscapes for hours on end.

The game's menus are not very visually appealing, either. It looks like something that was released in 2004, with just how basic all the buttons and menus look. There was no effort to add any style here, and maybe that's okay for people who wanted a decent simulation and nothing more, but I feel like the standards were much higher for aesthetics even in 2016 when this game was released. It just feels lazy.

I really wanted to like American Truck Simulator. It manages to (mostly) capture the experience of driving a truck, and I feel like that's worth something. It has a ton of mod support, community events, and other ingredients that should in theory make for a really great game, but it just feels "cheap" in its overall presentation. And most importantly, it's just not fun. The brief moments that I did feel like I was enjoying myself were overshadowed by the maddening lengths of time between them. The virtual money I recieved for completing each mission just made me sad when I thought about the amount of real money I could earn by applying for truck-driving positions in my local area.

As a fan of the Assassin's Creed series (and the AC: Chronicles spin-offs, to a lesser extent), I really wanted to like this game. I enjoyed the previous games in the series despite the occasionally brutal learning curve and segments that could get a little unfair, but AC: Russia is easily the worst of the bunch.

There are tons of gameplay sections where pixel perfect timing is required to advance, and I ended up having to replay some of these sections 15-20 times in order to get past them. The amount of trial and error that is required to complete the game really begs the question whether or not it's even worth playing at all; which is an absolute shame because ACC: Russia undoubtedly has the best story in the entire trilogy. For the first time in Assassin's Creed history, we get a straightforward and consistently-engaging narrative with no unecessary filler along the way.

Nikolai and Anastasia's story is genuinely gripping--and most importantly, it foregoes the common AC trope of sending you after a set number of assassination targets in a linear fashion until the inevitable confrontation with another generic evil villian. Their story revolves around both characters trying to escape Russia, but there's lots of unexpected twists along the way, and it even boldly frames the Templars and the Assassins as two sides of the same coin; both willing to commit grave injustices to accomplish their goals.

I was also very surprised to see the level of ambition and creativity on display during the set-piece sequences. The entire game takes place on a 2.5D plane, and the devs took full advantage of it in order to deliver some genuine "wow" moments that wouldn't seem out of place in some of Ubisoft's bigger AAA titles.

Unfortunately, those are the only compliments I can give. For every mildy enjoyable gameplay section, there is another frustrating (and borderline unfair) race-against-the-clock challenge right around the corner. No amount of preperation or skill can save you from replaying them over and again, effectively destroying any semblance of forward momentum (or fun) that you may have been having. I truly thought about ending my playthough on multiple occasions thanks to these poorly-designed levels.

Assassin's Creed Chronicles: Russia effectively undoes anything good that it brings to the table with some bafflingly incompetent game design. I'm torn, because it really had the potential to be the definitive game in the series, and one that might've pulled in more people than just the AC die-hards if only it had been polished a bit more, if only they'd spent more time. It pains me to know that it will be written off as just another forgettable entry in a spin-off series that could've been so much more.

Shooty Skies takes the Shoot-Em-Up genre to dazzling new heights in this incredibly ambitious game that's WAY better than it has any right to be.

Although I was initially put off by the fact that this game was a mobile port, Shooty Skies doesn't look or feel like a product that's been lazily slapped together by a money-hungry game developer. This is a fully-featured game with hundreds of levels, a wide variety of different enemies, and an absolute truckload of unlockable content; most of which is available completely for free if you casually grind.

Shooty Skies takes no prisoners when it comes to gameplay. Even on the easiest setting, surviving the onslaught of enemies is a daunting task. They all have a unique flight pattern that's difficult to predict; and you will constantly be anticipating where and when each enemy type will spawn. There are also dozens of different worlds to explore, and each world features new enemy types, weapons, and color schemes to increase the longevity of the game.

Perhaps the most surprising thing of all is the fact that Shooty Skies on PC completely trumps its mobile counterpart. I downloaded the mobile version to practice the game offline, but the game developers decided to make the puzzling decision to optimize the game vertically; as opposed to the much more versatile horizontal perspective featured in the PC version. Maybe the lack of screen space would've crippled the experience right out of the gate anyway, but this issue is non-existent when you use a monitor or television to play.

Shooty Skies not only shatters our preconceptions about what a mobile game can be on PC; it also elevates its genre to heights that were previously considered unreachable, and solidifies it's position as the definitive Shoot-Em-Up game on the entire Steam platform.

RATING: 9/10

Resident Evil VII needs no introduction.

Its memorable marketing campaign ("Welcome to the Family!"), flood of positive critic reviews, and endless coverage on Youtube during it's release catapulted an already iconic franchise into the stratosphere. Gamers who had been burnt by P.T.'s unexpected cancellation finally had a reason to celebrate, and to bury the hatchet on one of modern gaming's most persistent issues: A true lack of single-player AAA horror experiences in the wake of a multiplayer-obsessed culture. But one question still remains: Was RE7's positive reception justified; or was it a case of settling for less after a survival horror draught?

The story begins simply enough--our main character Ethan recieves an alarming message from his wife, Mia, who's been presumed dead for the last 3 years, and Ethan goes to investigate the old Louisiana plantation where she was last sighted. Things quickly go to hell, and Ethan finds himself at war with the Baker family, and a far more sinister supernatural force. The set-up to all of this is done fantastically; slowly introducing a feeling of dread as you draw closer and closer to the game's climactic moments. Before you "meet" other members of the Baker family, you'll find horrifiying tidbits about them along the way from letters, notes, and videotapes scattered around the house.

Ammunition is scarce, and it can be intimidating if you aren't used to playing games that punish you for not preparing for encounters in advance. You might go into an area with a gun and 7 bullets, there will be 4 monsters to take out, and each monster takes at least 5 shots to the head before it goes down. In situations like these, you need to creative by shooting off their limbs and making a run for it while they're incapacitated, or just being ballsy and running towards the next checkpoint and praying they don't hit you with their wide, sweeping attacks.

Even if you scrounge for ammo, and make an active effort to hoard your items, the game doesn't let up. Sometimes you'll be given precisely the amount of ammo you need to advance past the next area, and nothing more. You'll also quickly discover that most enemies are bullet sponges, so in a lot of cases, the best decision is to avoid enemies altogether (which is way easier said than done).

There are also puzzles. While some can be kind of cryptic, most of them can be figured out if you pay attention to the environment and the notes you pick up along the way. It's satisfying when you're rewarded with extra ammo and inventory slots for going out of your way to complete them.

The main game takes around 10-12 hours to complete on Normal difficulty if you're taking your time and scrounging for loot. You can probably beat the game much faster than that if you know what you're doing, and there's even an achievement for beating the game in under 4 hours. You unlock "Madhouse" difficulty after beating the main game too, which adds some replayability if you really want to put your skills to the test (it's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hard).

I can't speak on any of the DLC's aside from "Not A Hero" which is free to download. It lasted about 2 hours, but it was extremely fun, and far better than I expected it to be. It also provides closure to a plot thread that was left unaddressed in the main game.

Although I generally enjoyed REVII, there were a few nagging issues that lingered on my mind after the closing credits.

Before I started playing, I noticed a good number of people complaining about not having the urge to replay REVII again after beating it. I didn't really understand what they meant until I did. The unavoidable fact is...

REVII's map is very small.

It's much easier to remember where every item is located on a second playthrough, to the point where it stops being fun. The environments are so different, varied, and crucial to observe, that they will inevitably be etched into your memory. It truly is a one-and-done kind of experience. Once you know all of the jumpscare and item locations, the game just isn't the same. Enjoy the ♥♥♥♥ out of your first playthrough, because you won't get another opportunity to recreate the same exhilirating, adrenaline high ever again.

The second issue I encountered was purely performance-based. My PC is about 3 years old, so it's not going to be able to handle every new AAA without a few graphical downgrades, but no matter how much I tweaked the settings, I would get constant framedrops whenever I moved to a different area. I'm talking 60-1FPS, which lasted a few seconds everytime the game tried to transition into a new environment. SO annoying, and it really broke my immersion. According the the Steam forums, a lot of other players have this issue as well, so proceed with caution before you buy the PC version.

All in all though, Resident Evil VII delivers. I can't imagine any horror fan walking away from this game dissapointed. The incredible visuals, tight gameplay, and gripping story deserve to be experienced. Your mileage may vary after the main game is completed, but this is a gaming milestone you don't want to miss out on.

As someone who hasn't played many fighting games, this one is much more approachable than other titles in the same genre (Blazblue, Sreet Fighter, etc.)

The learning curve is still fairly steep if you want to actually play competitively, but if you take a few hours to learn the combos, you'll find that reaching a decent skill level won't take nearly as much time as you'd expect. The controller's back bumpers and triggers aren't even used in combat, so all you have to worry about is making the correct joystick movements, and knowing which of the 4 buttons to press at any given time.

There's no proper tutorial included yet, but you can find every combo you'll need to know in the training menu, and from there, it's just trial and error. It might take awhile before you're ready to face actual human opponents, especially if you're inexperienced, but there's plenty of people in the lobbies who are eager to help new players practice and hone thier skills.

Them's Fightin' Herds has a real future as a competitive fighting game, but it still has a long way to go. There are only 6 characters right now, and many options and game modes are missing. The dev team has stated that they'll be ready for a full release in a few months though, so we can expect the game to be more fleshed out then. As of now, the core gameplay is solid, and every character has a distinct playstyle to suit any preference; so the foundation is there. Can't wait to see the end result.

I may be in the minority of Steam users, but I often find myself yearning for games that aren't mentally taxing. After a long day of work or school, the last thing I want to do is to test my reflexes, learn complicated combos, or tackle a steep learning curve.

Everything is perfect for this. There are no objectives (aside from cataloguing every known object in the universe, which is completely optional), no missions, and most importantly, no limitations. You can explore every nook and cranny of these interesting procedurally-generated worlds right from the get-go. Once you learn how to "ascend" and "descend" into different biomes via a 5-minute tutorial, the world the entire universe is your oyster, and you can freely explore the unlimited vistas at your own leisure. The level of interaction you have with the lifeforms is limited, but that's to be expected with a game world as staggeringly huge as this. I think mainly what the game developers intended is to make the player appreciate the sheer variety and inconceivable vastness of (literally) everything that comprises our known universe, right down to the individual molecules and atoms.

When your only "job" as the player is to eagerly venture towards the next horizon in search of cool new sights and locations, you're free to just take in all of the visuals while you enjoy whatever music album or podcast you want in the background. I know it may not sound like a selling point for some of you, but I'm serious when I say that a game like this is hard to come by; a game that strikes the perfect balance with juuuuuuust the right amount of interactivity to keep your brain occupied while you focus on the music/podcast.

I think players who want this type of game don't need to look any further. It's interesting enough to keep you engaged, but you can also dis-engage and just zone out when you want to. AND the game literally has an "auto-play" feature for just that. Yes, the game will literally play itself, which sounds like sacrilege to a hardcore gamer, but absolutely perfect for someone like me who's interested in zoning out and tuning into non-interactive mediums while I play a game with very light interaction.

If you've ever played Journey on PS3/PS4, you'll know what to expect going into this game. It's short, it's stunningly beautiful, and the gameplay is simple and meditative.

Exploring these underwater seascapes never becomes frustrating or boring thanks to subtle environmental cues, which highlight points of interest and various objectives in creative ways; like using contrasting color pallettes to guide you in the right direction, or showing schools of fish travelling towards a mysterious cave, or swarming around a magical pool that leads you to your next destination. It's a natural and organic feeling of progression, and I wouldn't be surprised if ABZU was used to demonstrate these videogame design methods in an actual classroom.

Did I mention how ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ beautiful this game looks?

Playing this game becomes a near-religious experience thanks to gorgeous, fantastic, stunning, not-enough-synonyms-to-describe visuals, and you'll be tempted to screencap everything in sight. It's eye candy on a massive scale, and I won't soon forget how awe-struck I felt while taking it all in. You'll definitely want to show this game to friends and family who can appreciate just how jaw-droppingly beautiful it is, not only as a videogame, but as a true work of art.

The game's length is probably its weakest asset, clocking in at just under a couple of hours for your standard playthrough.

Twenty dollars might be somewhat steep, but I would argue that this game's value shouldn't be judged on length or replay incentives, but on the solid foundation of it's stellar art design, setpieces, environmental design, and pacing. It's not often that a game manages to nail every one of these aspects, and further padding the game with meaningless objectives would've only lessened it's overall impact.

ABZU won't satisfy players who are looking for more involved or detail-oriented gameplay, but almost anyone will be able appreciate the game for what it delivers artistically (in spades) through it's focused, direct approach to creating an unforgettable journey with a minimal degree of interaction. This is an absolute must-play for PC gamers, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Nominated for the "I'm Not Crying, There's Something In My Eye" award.