Recent reviews by Josh Has Worms

Very fun. Simple and addictive. Not super challenging, but it is fair. No cheap defeats.

I played through the whole thing and I had fun maybe half of the time.

This game is a roguelike / roguelite, because every game feels the need to be anymore. Random generation and manufactured frustration are poor substitutes for design and interesting gameplay. This game can be fun for stretches, but it might just make you lose all of your genes, food, fuel, and ammo, for a frustratingly unavoidable reason. Dying really takes the wind out of your sails. You spend hours grinding out these things and then they all go away because you encountered a whale with no torpedoes. Beyond this frustration, the game is repetitive. Fortunately, the loop is satisfying enough and the weapon variety is good. The game is an addictive slog punctuated by getting pissed off and hating it. Save your money.

This game is average in just about every way. The gun play is something akin to Doom, as is the loadout. The graphical style is neat. The blood effects are cool. The music is good. The gameplay loop is solid, albeit nothing special. The skill tree is quick to fill out and mostly inconsequential beyond gun upgrades. The level design is middling, save for a few standouts. The voice acting is really bad and grates on you after a while. The enemy AI is bad. The game starts strong but wears out its welcome around early act four or so. I'd give this a solid 7 out of 10. It's worth a playthrough, but I doubt I will revisit it.

An early access game that hasn't seen an update in almost six months. Getting close to abandonware.

The game to buy if you want to play Yugioh solo. This brought me back to my childhood, but the game is also complex enough for my adult brain to enjoy. Tons of duels and cards. The time to beat the game gives you a lot or bang for your buck. I've found a couple of bugged cards and trap card prompts are super annoying, but that's about all I can complain about. Well, some cards are stupid overpowered and unfair, but that's not the video game's fault.

Calling this "horror" is more than a stretch, but it is a good game. As a shooter, it's so-so, and it's certainly not scary, but the game has a lot of personality, laughs, and heart. The voice acting is top notch, the game performs well and looks good. On the other hand, enemy variety is lacking, weapon accuracy is imperial stormtrooper bad, and a few parts are mildly frustrating, but the game still manages to remain entertaining and keeps you interested in what comes next. I think it could have benefited from a few more puzzles, a few less enemies, and creating some genuine tension and scares, but I still enjoyed my time in the neighborhood.

If you're expecting "The Darker Descent," you'll be disappointed. If you want a really scary game, you'll be disappointed. If you want an occasionally spooky, atmospheric walking simulator with a good story, you'll have fun here. This game would have been far better received if it didn't have the Amnesia name and ties. It's far from perfect, but it's a solid game.

If I had to complain, the language in the notes is far too flowery and the enemies pose little or no threat. Otherwise, I enjoyed the game.

This has to be the best Amnesia game since TDD. It's a short, tight experience that does not overstay its welcome.

I got a little frustrated at one or two points, but most of the time, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's tense but fair. The monster is a constant threat and it's fun to learn how to handle him.

I wish Frictional would stop tying so many things to a locked frame rate, but this is the first of their games you can have a good experience with unlocking it manually, so long as you keep it to 120 or less. Overall, besides the tech, there isn't much to complain about.

No plot spoilers.

If you're a fan of immersive sims or "Shock-likes," this game is a must play. It's a faithful (AFAIK because I haven't played the original) remake of the game that others drew inspiration from. As a huge Bioshock fan, there is a lot to like here. That said, despite what the fans will tell you, the reviewers aren't entirely wrong when they say this game is outdated. Some of the core design concepts are antiquated and the game has a LOT of flaws. I'll mostly be focusing on what I didn't like.

If you're unfamiliar with System Shock, you're probably going to get stuck not knowing where to go more than once. You're probably going to spend combined hours backtracking and combing over the same places multiple times. There's definitely enjoyment to be found in a game not holding your hand, but it did get irritating a few too many times. It really throws off the pacing and immersion when you are walking in circles, trying to make sense of needlessly obtuse objectives.

Speaking of pacing, the puzzle panels can throw a wrench in things. Once you understand them, they're not too bad, but it definitely sucks when one stumps you and you spend a lot of time on it. Fortunately, this has its own difficulty option.

Visually, the game is a mixed bag. I really don't care for the decision to leave certain things pixelated. Some textures look modern and others look pixelated, sometimes making the game feel like it hasn't loaded properly. It's a bit jarring. The readability of objects is also lacking. You'll find it difficult to notice important objects until you adjust to the game and know what to look for. The item shimmer is far more subtle than I'm used to, and things are very small. Like most modern games, it's also too blurry. The game really benefits from reshade sharpening. There unfortunately isn't a baked in sharpening option. On the plus side, there's basically no aliasing.

By far the most annoying thing in this game is the inventory. It's adequate for the first floor or two, but once you start getting more weapons, you'll quickly run out of space. You can upgrade it a bit, but too late into the game and too little of an upgrade. You either willfully restrict yourself to less guns or you are constantly full. Upgrades making guns take more space is also extremely frustrating. It seems odd to have a recycling mechanic and many guns just to not be able to use them. Oh, and you can't recycle items that are actually useful. Junk only. The inventory really needs to be expanded, at any rate.

In terms of combat, the game gets progressively more frustrating as it goes on. You're very vulnerable and you definitely need to take your time, but there are a few parts that are very poorly balanced. The boss fights are especially bad. The first boss fight is incredibly difficult unless you cheese it. There is one extremely effective strategy that trivializes the boss while every other approach is suicide. The named boss later on is ridiculously difficult and entirely unfair. I ended up cheesing its AI. A good boss is difficult but rewarding. These ones are just begging to find and abuse flaws in the game.

Ammo is also poorly balanced. At no point beyond the first level did I get close to running out of any type of ammo other than energy. There simply aren't enough enemies and there is too much ammo for it to matter. If you have any degree of accuracy, and use more than two weapons, ammo might as well not be a factor. What it amounts to is more inventory spaces you can't use for something interesting. I would bet I could beat the game with a single energy weapon, a pistol, and the SMG only, and still not run out of standard rounds.

Despite all of the flaws, the game is engaging most of the time. The environmental storytelling is interesting. The modern presentation of retro design sensibilities is intriguing, with the earlier sections in particular feeling claustrophobic (in a good way). The combat at least starts out fun and rewarding, given the initially limited resources. Melee and stealth are viable early on and necessary until you find too much ammo. For the same reason, the first few times you find new weapons are really great. The weapons in general aren't bad, although melee doesn't have good enough feedback. I sometimes wondered if I was actually hitting an enemy or not with melee. On the other hand, the guns mostly feel punchy. The biological enemies and the exploding RC cars feel satisfying to kill. The fully robotic enemies, not as much. Most of the station is interesting enough and fun to explore.

I'm conflicted because I want to give this game a higher score, but there is just too much it gets wrong. As someone who hasn't played the original, finding it too primitive and clunky, I wish they had been a little less faithful to it. A balancing pass would do a lot to improve the game. More inventory, less ammo, boss tweaks, and a few basic enemy tweaks would go a long way to smoothing out the rough edges. Now that I know my way around Citadel and know what to do, I can probably finish the game in half the time and have just as much fun. For now, I'm kind of burned out on it.

Given the price, length, and depth of the game, and the potential nostalgia factor, I definitely recommend it. A few changes would make it a solid B+ or A-, but as is, I'd have to give it a C+. Worth while if you're into the type of game or if you're a fan of the original. Maybe pass on it if you're not sure, aren't a fan of the original, or aren't willing to get lost a few times.

No plot spoilers

Good:
- Shock-like, with a satisfying gameplay loop and plenty to do.
- A good chunk of it is non-linear, giving you a lot of options to achieve your goals, with quite a few things to do in your own order.
- Plenty to explore early on.
- A really cool opening.
- Challenging, at least until you learn the ins and outs of the game and upgrade your character.
- Really cool use of geometry and physical mechanics.
- Great voice acting and at least a few characters you grow to like or hate. Benedict Wong kicks ass.
- Visually clean (after tweaks) and usually stylized in a pleasing way.
- Long, giving you plenty of bang for your buck.
- Full of memorable moments.
- Performance seemed good, but my computer is ridiculous, so YMMV.
- What little music there seemed to be was decent.
- Recycler charges are super satisfying.
- The enemies are really interesting, though the variety often feels lacking.

- SPACE!

Bad:
- * The game looks like a muddy mess until you tweak it. Disable motion blur and add Reshade for sharpening to correct this. Once you do, the game is exceptionally clean, with no aliasing. It's not the most graphically impressive game out there, but it looks good. It just requires some work to get there.
- The most baffling thing... they decided to put the default crosshair on the lower portion of the screen, rather than centered. You know, like every first person game ever made? This can also be corrected, but gun models will still point at the lower screen. Once you learn to ignore it, you're golden, but seriously, how do you mess this up???
- The game suffers from a mid-late lull, as a lot of games with non-linear objectives do. If you care about side quests, you are going to backtrack a lot, and you will get to a point in the game where you spend hours doing this.
- The difficulty can seem unfair until you get used to the game and learn what you should and should not be fighting at your current level of progression.
- The endings feel rushed. I won't spoil anything, but they aren't very satisfying. Separately from that, the after credits scene may be divisive. It didn't make me feel much, but some people may find it cool.
- As with most games that offer this level of customization depth, you can trivialize most of the game with the right unlocks.
- While some of the environments are unique, a lot of them get samey. There is a lot less visual appeal and unique design than something like a BioShock. It's a space station with more subtle art deco design, with a few cool interior sets. The exterior is really cool though.
- There are a few sections where you spend a bit too much time in zero G. The 6DOF movement is cool, but it gets cumbersome after a while.
- Zero oxygen environments put you in a helmet that can be a bit obstructive at times.
- The feeling of the opening of the game is never quite matched later on. To compare it to BioShock again, imagine if the Andrew Ryan office scene was the start of the game, then there was nothing quite as impactful for the remainder.
- Weapon variety is limited. Only two standard firearms, a couple of utility weapons, a wrench, and a beam weapon I found less than useful.
- Grenade weapons vary from next to useless to vital, depending on how you're playing. Overall, I find them lacking.
- Recycler charges should yield more materials for large objects.