Recent reviews by Mofow

I’ve just completed the game. Before I swing back around to get the achievements here’s my review!

I will start by saying I’ve been a fan of The Chinese Room back since Dear Ester, and that survival horror is a guilty pleasure of mine - so there might be some unconscious bias involved in this one boys, but I’ll do my best!

The setting of a grubby 1970’s oil rig lends itself perfectly to a claustrophobic horror experience. The rig itself feels like a character in the game and the old girl certainly starts to get worse for wear as the story progresses.

After an initial meet and greet with the crew an ‘event’ leaves us tasked with going into the guts of the rig and saving our friends and coworkers as we quickly realise there’s something unseen going on.

Often times the player character questions why it must be him who needs to undertake the life and death missions, even sarcastically pushing back at times. I liked the self aware nod and realism of this. Too often the everyman-hero in the game is willing to dive in headfirst into danger without a word or complaint.

The decor, lighting and ambience of the rig are fantastic inside and out. The music and sound effects all add to the overall impact of the experience.

As for the horror sections, they generally consist of short-ish set pieces. The player only needing to evade the threat for a large room and few corridors at a time to be safe. As opposed to say an Outlast where the player must evade for long periods of time before reaching ‘safety’. 

On the subject of ‘safe zones’ they are pretty frequent. This will surely be a plus for players less than enthusiastic about being chased relentlessly to their wits end, however for more experienced horror survival players it could feel overly generous.

The game is well paced, not too long, not too short, the breaks in the tension felt well timed and as the story progressed I found myself being really curious as to how it would all end.

There are some jump scares that will play well with streamers and the game is suitably gory enough to satisfy the 90’s horror fan in you.

I would recommend this game for any horror enthusiasts, as a very reasonably priced enjoyable evening or two of terror!

"What is better - to be born good, or to overcome your evil nature through great effort?"

Lovingly created and true to the feel of the Half-Life franchise.

The detailed and immersive level design feels like every pipe, mattress and grate was placed with great care and thought.

The Element 120 concept is well thought out and executed. A brief backstory of the goings on can be found in the journal pages scattered across the 4 chapters.

I enjoyed the simple yet effective puzzles and the shoot outs were perfectly slotted in to break up the exploration.

Although quite short, it was easy to get 100% of the achievements and a real pleasure to step back into the dystopian world I love so much.

A perfect entry in the Half-Life universe!

You are Celebrimbor, the ancient Elven Lord who was deceived by Sauron to craft the Rings of Power.

The game focuses of the period of time prior to the events of the main game, as you explore how Celebrimbor came to be a cursed wraith and what he did for the short period he wielded the One Ring.

Combat is more challenging than the main game, due to having half the health pool of Talion and losing some of the stun mechanics and time slows from the main game too.

Celebrimbor is not without his tricks however! His arrows are stronger, not requiring any charge up to kill, but his most powerful abilities are built around the branding system. Area of effect branding and teleport branding both stand out as very powerful core powers. Making Celebrimbor more of a stealthy minion collector than an head on combatant like Talion.

However if you do want to run in an cut off some heads fear not, as you brand enemies turning them to your side, you charge the One Ring, which when activated makes you invisible with unlimited executes, unlimited arrows, unlimited brands, unlimited focus, basically you become a God for 20 seconds. Which is massively fun.

The final boss battle is very epic and I really enjoyed it!

I liked that the Uruk all appear heavily armoured and ready for war like their film counterparts.

I also liked the new dialogue. The voice acting was very good and consistent with the main games quality.

But the DLC isn’t perfect and has a few down sides I’d encountered.

The lip sync isn’t great and at certain moments is non existent.

The games main system ‘Nemesis’ is more or less redundant here, which while in line with the story being told, is a huge waste in my opinion.

I also died once or twice to not being able to climb certain buggy terrain, which is odd as the DLC is a dark sandstorm like re-skin of the first area in the main game.

Over all it’s a fun DLC that expands on and completes the story of Shadows of Mordor. I’d recommend this to any fan of the game looking for a few more hours of the same and a little more challenge.

I’m in cage, stripped of all my armour and weapons. A man appears, seemingly from thin air and asks me “Do I remember him?”
I think for a moment - and I ACTUALLY DO!!

He was the very first person I spoke to in the tavern at the start of the main game, all those hundreds of hours ago! - And suddenly you realise the depth of the development and planning from CDPR - as a huge RPG fan, I’m obviously as all-in as it’s possible to be as the new adventure begins!!

As famous monster hunter Geralt of Rivia, you are reluctantly coerced by the mysterious Man of Mirrors to kill a former Nobleman, turned ruthless bandit captain, who has seemingly acquired the power of immortality. - But I don’t need to tell anyone familiar with the franchise this only scratches the surface of what is actually going on.

This is a strong story and narrative focused expansion and one of the best RPG experiences I’ve ever had in any game. If you’re looking for new mechanics and huge new areas to explore I’d recommend Blood & Wine instead.

I had high expectations for this expansion, as there is already so much I love about the main game and it’s fair to say that it actually surpasses the original in some areas.

There are very few new mechanics. So don’t expect any big overhauls or play style changes.

What’s new? Hearts of Stone expands on the base games areas adding new interiors to cities and expanding the map north east of Novigrad, adding new treasures to hunt and monsters to kill.

Rune forging is introduced early on. Granting you the choice of new bonus effects to your weapons and armours as well as a much needed gold sink - at this point in my game I had in excess of 70,000 coins and nothing interesting and useful to spend them on. Rune forging allows you to enhance weapons and armour with some pretty convenient and at times over powered abilities. Always welcome!

All of your gear and game decisions are carried over from the main game. We have new weapons and armour sets for each of the weight classes, dropped by some familiar friends from the earlier instalments, as well as some new gear for your faithful Roach.

The stars of this expansion are the Characters without doubt and like a great film I don’t want to spoil what happens or how the story unfolds. The voice acting is excellent.

I strongly recommend playing Hearts of Stone after the main game has been completed. However the plot and dialogue will change should you choose to play it alongside the main story - a nice touch!

A high point not just for the Witcher series but for the RPG genre as a whole!

Put simply it’s Outlast with some limited weapons to fight back with.

I loved this game! As horror survivor games go It’s one of my favourites.

I played this alone, at night, in the dark, without guides or YouTube videos because I’m not a casual. I had no idea what to expect from the game - except that the Steam user reviews were consistent in saying how good it was - and I wasn’t disappointed!

I felt genuinely scared on my first play through and fell victim to basically every jump scare in the game. Early on I had to broadcast the game and seek confidence from the chat to continue into a pitch black basement with just my trusty rusty knife.

The games story is a simple one. Your wife goes missing and a few years later sends you a message to rescue her. The game is set within a large, seemingly abandoned, estate and it’s surrounding buildings. Known locally as being a haunted house. The environments were believable and detailed. The house itself looks lived in and has all the rooms you’d expect. It wasn’t just a series of interconnected, poorly lit rooms full of wooden crates because of reasons.

I liked that many of the items tied to your survival; such as ammunition and first aid were hidden behind and under objects - encouraging the player to dig around in each room to find its secrets!

The resources in the game are sparse, as is your inventory space. Making each decision on what to carry and why, much more meaningful. It really enhanced the survival element and makes you feel as if you really are an interloper in someone else’s grim home!

The gaming trope of loading you up with health and ammo before a ‘Boss battle room’ remains consistent. A necessary evil I suppose.

The textures are inconsistent at moments, I was running this on a very high end machine and some parts looked excellent - then I’d see a tree or rock that looked like it was from a pixel point and click adventure game.

The enemies don’t respawn once an area is cleared, so there are brief moments of respite to explore and scavenge until you advance the story or leave. I found gaining the shotgun quite emboldening and it did actually remove a lot of the earlier trepidation, but it didn’t fully spoil the tension for me.

The puzzles were pretty simple, which I was fine with. I think the real difficulty comes from dodging the enemies chasing you while solving them.

The boss battles are almost always in tight rooms or similar close quarter environments which could annoy some people and there’s a few logical things such a breaking down doors with axes or guns that should happen but doesn’t - however ultimately it’s a game and some suspension of disbelief is always necessary.

This is one of those games that actually enhances your second play through with permanent item unlocks and challenging game changing achievements; such as completing the game without healing or not using the storage chests etc. Items change locations based of the difficulty too which adds a nice twist. Need that handgun ammo you remembered was under the stairs? Too bad, it’s moved!

I’m not familiar with the Resident Evil franchise and lore overall so I can’t offer any comments on how it fits into that, or if a hardcore fan of the franchise will be satisfied. There were a few moments and references that I didn’t understand, so these were likely there for the fans of the franchise.

I didn’t experience any bugs in my two play throughs and the game is well polished.

I’d strongly recommend this game to any horror survival enthusiast.

“Welcome to the family!”

It's Half Life 2.
It's updated.
It's free.

Tweaked with most of the updated visuals/lighting/shadows/sound from Episode 2.

It was an absolute pleasure to replay this all time classic of the genre.

Your main weapons in Outlast are running and hiding. Your main goal is to stay alive.

Your inventory consists of a small video camera with a limited night vision mode requiring simple resource management to keep available by finding batteries while you struggle to stay in one piece.

A great First Person Survival Horror.

Mount Massive Asylum hides a terrible and a bloody secret. You play an investigative journalist Miles, given a tip off that horrible and unnatural experiments are being conducted on the inmates at the Asylum. You set off into the Colorado Mountains with your camera to uncover the truth.

Outlast is very tense and very satisfying experience mostly due to the outstandingly well designed environment of the Mount Massive Asylum. The asylum layout and near pitch black enviroments create a powerful tension where you feel like, and infact are, constantly hunted. The experience is added to by the outstanding musical score that keeps you on edge and very nervous at all times, enhancing the whole experience and making your dark journey into the heart of the Asylum all the more unnerving.

You are immersed. You can smell the mold and taste the cold air. The rotting tiles and dank enviroments are fantastic and all consuming. Even the charcters heavy breathing keeps you on edge during the various frightining cat and mouse chases.

Outlast is very scary and not because of cheap jumps scares, there are a few jump moments, but they never feel cheap or tacky for me, the majority of the terror comes from the outstanding enviroment and the helplessness you feel as the player sourrounded by the grotesque unhindged inhabitents that may, or may not attack you at any random moment.

Well written notes located around the map help to explore and expand the story of the asylums past and present for players who wish to delve into the story.

Outlast is one of thoes brilliant games with Achievements that change the way you play and experience the game a 2nd or 3rd time.

-'Lunatic mode' is a play through on the hardest setting without dying or saving once. Beyond punishing.
-'Claustrophobe' is a play through completed without hiding in a locker or under a bed. Quite tricky.
-'Energiser' is plaing on Insane without using any batteries for your night vision. Very difficult!

This is probably my favorite survival horror game of all time. I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to test their nerve and survival abilities.

Beware The Walrider.

I REALLY wanted to like this game.
Take a second and read this, I might save you some money..

Basically Lara is a brilliant character in a weak game. The game itself looks very, very good on any half decent PC.
...and here endeth the positives....

At first the game tries to go with the "Hardcore Survivor" angle, but after less than half an hour it's forgotten completely and the game turns into full on action hero mode. ...Not too bad you say?.. Well let's continue.

There are loads of Quick time events (QTE's), I mean loads, and you can have a hard time with them because the letter of the button you need to press doesn't actually appear. Instead you get a red fist icon - or a grab icon. The QTE's feel intrusive and spoiled the immersion for me. A few hours in there have been 20 times the amount of QTE's compared to puzzles.

Tomb Raider is very linear and will make anyone with a brain feel like you're secretly having your hand held the whole time. You can only climb the rocks that game wants you to climb if you know what I mean, and all those rocks just happen to be down the path you need to go, which is infact the only path...

The enemy AI is laughable. There is a sleath system but it is very weak, the game decides when you can and can't use stealth and as soon as you are discovered all AI instantly know your location because they have magic powers or something? ...Buuuut a few hours in it all becomes pointeless anyway as the player is forced to shoot it out if you want to or not.

Obviously the game desperately needed multiplayer death match too, so you know, I'm glad they got that in there....

I haven't completed Tomb Raider, but I imagine this game has zero re-play value?

I wanted to love this game... Perhaps it was my own fault for expecting too much.

This is not a good game - and it's not because of the Ubisoft Launcher.

Let me help you understand why.

Okay. Let's do this. You don't know until the combat starts - but your character actually has X-Ray vision!
Yes... Really...

Once you shoot an enemy all his movements and location are forever highlighted to you without any explanation as to why. Meaning that if the enemy runs away to hide behind a brick wall - who cares! You can still clearly see him highlighted anyway.

The game has no immersion what so ever - Allow me another example to explain it to you:

It's a Sandbox Game that isn't a Sandbox Game at all.
This is not Skyrim with guns.

The game presents a huge island to explore. That is, unless you have a mission to do.
If your character leaves the mission area the game will force you to teleport you back to the start of the mission area. How immersive.

This and many other annoyances leaves the player feeling like the game is constantly slapping you on the wrist and saying "Bad player. Play how we say!!"

The game is way too easy and running in shooting has almost no downsides whatsoever as landing a head shot rewards just as much XP as a stealth kill, despite requiring less set up and less skill.

This game treats the player as an idiot in many different ways. As far as I can tell after a few hours, so far it's impossible to fail a mission.

Not skilled enough to stealth into a camp? - Who cares, just carry on!
You can't fail the missions!! This game treats the player like an idiot.

All the bad guys use the AK47, which means after you pick one up you're never worrying about ammo ever again. Non of the guns seem to have any recoil mechanics.

The game looks very impressive - but a quarter of the screen is taken up by a Mini Map you can never toggle off and if you're on a mission you better believe the missions paragraph long description takes up the left hand side of your HUD too.

Farcry 3 cleverly tricks the player by using what I can only describe as a 'fake distance'.
Meaning although you can clearly see mountains and such in the background the actual local area visible is only ever quite limited but disguised in quite a clever way, even on Ultra graphics settings.

As a console port the FOV is a decent 110, along with Direct X11 and Ultra graphic settings do make the game look very nice. However in the middle of a thick jungle at night time without lamps or fire it isn't actually dark.

Aside from some good visuals and good characters (the main bad guy is actually really decent and interesting) the game is weak in so many areas. I'm glad i picked it up for £3.75 last Christmas.
I would have been devastated to pay full price for this effort.

Avoid it and play one of the much better shooters out there - unless you're after an easy no brainer FPS, to hold your hand as you play.