Recent reviews by Pett

Shards of Darkness is an improvement to the first game in all aspects and you can notice it very easily. The stealth mechanics are very similar to before but refined and the game plays better. The weak point of it is the story pacing and dialogue during cutscenes, it feels quite off.

Every mission is huge with a lot of variety and side quests to explore it further. The abilities and items offer you many different ways of completing each mission but it is very difficult to mess around with the AI, especially at Goblin and Master difficulties.

I went through each mission twice and you can notice the terror that the Master difficulty brings, its truly an experience worth your time if you're a fan of true stealth.

I play games for a living and get all of them for free, it doesn't affect my judgement
This is one of those reasonably polished low on content early access games that have a good foundation for a ton of game content. For now it is not very in depth and you can relatively quickly figure out the "formula" to succeed every time but it is fun and still requires thinking and planning each turn.

I'm looking forward to future updates and I'll definitely follow the development, it has potential to be a very time consuming turn based game with very interesting mechanics and theme. For now it has about 5-6h of fun plus 10-20 hours of just playing for the sake of playing (turn based players will understand what I mean)

I have never played a game like this but I enjoy the tactics and the way outcomes heavily depend on your planning. I know nothing about this type of game or Might & Magic but I do know that I enjoyed what I played. The customization options are alright, I don't care too much about it and the animations are excellent, both the combat moves and magical abilities.

I'd like the hero to have a retreat option, or move around options because currently, you can't really move him away from the fight, that seems a bit poopy.

If you enjoy tactical games, you'll like this. If you're an expert at these games or an expert at M&M you might dislike it, I don't know. All I know is that I'd definitely recommend it because I enjoy it!

Here's some gameplay - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pzmhWo-8Vs

Maize is a strange adventure game with simple puzzles and absolutely hilarious item descriptions along with great voice acting and visuals. It isn't a lenghty game and people might not like that it kinda holds your hand most of the time (hints are funny but maybe a bit too helpful) but it makes it all up with its story. The game doesn't take itself too seriously which is what goes really well with the events that happen in it.
I like it more than usual because the item descriptions and dialogue sounds like something I would write and do myself, the humor is exactly my type so this is actually my GOTY for 2016.

It might seem pricey considering it takes about 4 hours to finish but I can assure you those 4 hours are filled with humor, great voice acting and an ending that will be really difficult to forget. Definite recommendation!


Scripted gameplay walkthrough of first 2 chapters -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2UTT-fAdFI

I'm sad to say that the release version of the game is completely unoptimized and broken. It works fine with minor frame drops until the second mission. The second mission has insane frame drops and stuttering every minute which makes the game unplayable.

The world design, controls and mechanics are great and it seems to be an awesome game but releasing it broken is just really bad, it just confirms what everyone though, Bethesda's review policy exists to prevent bad early reviews that impact sales.

i7 4790
GTX 970
16GB RAM
1440x900, High settings - unplayable

I play games for a living and receive all game codes for free which doesn't affect my judgement.

It was a super buggy game at start but now, with the final map releasing of Season 1, I have had so much fun with it, completing maps in various different ways. The AI is decent albeit sometimes odd and the behavior can change when you distract them, it can get annoying sometimes, especially if you want to play with a specific weapon or attempt a SA/SO.

Despite minor issues, I truly hope the release goes well for the game and we get a Season 2 because this style of Hitman can only get better with more complex maps with more ways to kill and complete objectives.
I'm also a big fan of the episodic release, it gives enough time to fully play through the map and experience every little thing from it. The storyline kinda suffers because of it but it is so replayable that playing from start to finish again, when it fully releases, is still a joy.

Incredibly fun and chaotic game filled with guts and slicing! The game works on ultra settings at 100+ fps for me(GTX 970, i7) and borderless fullscreen is automatically enabled.
There's missions, upgrades, loot and enemies with strengths and weaknesses.
The dialogue is hilarious and the story is interesting enough to follow.
There is a huge variety of weapons, powers and upgrades that make every encounter interesting and different, if you want it to be.

It is such a good game, it actually annoys me. I didn't look forward to it or think about it even a minute but once I tried it out, it got onto my GOTY place. It will likely be taken by Dishonored 2 soon but so far, definitely the most fun I've had with a game this year.

What makes Aragami great is its ability to give you options despite looking very straightforward. As you get more powers, you get more curiosity regarding the levels you completed without those powers.

There are 2 basic ways of completing the game, as a shadow and as a cleaner. Trying to be a cleaner is difficult because killing and getting away with it is a bit more complex than just dashing through the level in the shadows.
A third way of completing it would be to never move. You give yourself a rule to never use the left analog stick and just shadow dash from start to finish. This makes the game incredibly difficult but my point is that it is possible to pass it like this.

It is easy if you want to just go from checkpoint to checkpoint but if you want to experiment your stealthy abilities and enhance your skill in the game, you will find a way to set rules and challenge yourself. As you get more powers, it gets easier but you can still set rules that will make it difficult and yet you will again be able to complete the missions.

The game gives stealth freedom that is easy, difficult, fun, frustrating, annoying and amazing. It is your choice how you approach it.
Easily my number 2 stealth game right after Dishonored.

Do you like sea creatures?
Do you like fantasy?
Do you like storytelling?
Do you like playing with a controller?

If your answers are all yes then this is a great game for you. The art style is great, the voice acting is great and the overall game is just very enjoyable. It's not action packed with insanely difficult gameplay but it does let you immerse yourself in its world and I wish there was a movie/show related to it because I would definitely watch it.

Here's the first 20ish minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtYGkSmq_J4

You know how every once in a while there's a game that is universally great and everyone should play it, like, say, Limbo? Yeah, Playdead did it again.