Останні рецензії користувача Dimitri Cosmos

A fun, beatiful, action-packed game with a decent story, great soundtrack and scenic views. Dueling mechanics are kind of clumsy, but don't take away much from otherwise perfect western experience.

My overall rating: 9/10

A pain-in-the-a$$ game for masochists with endless patience who don't mind the clunky controls, fixed camera angles and item-dependent save system. Fans of old school Resident Evil might appreciate it. Gamepad is highly recommended. Local CoOp is possible.

4/10

This is the original Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon game. It's considered by some the best Ghost Recon game. I can't confirm this, because I haven't played all GR games. But I can tell this: it's definitely better than that joke of a game, Future Soldier, and it's also slightly better than some of the early Rainbow Six games, which also involve squad management. Surprisingly, it still runs well on Windows 10 and there are plenty of mods (mostly, community maps) available for it. I recommend mod Heroes Unleashed, which not only adds more weapons and maps, slightly improves textures, models and AI behaviour, but also allows to play the base game + two expansions in a single story campaign with some extra maps.

Following is a list of things that I liked and disliked about the base game:

THE GOOD:

• Immersive, semi-realistic squad management experience with up to 6 people, 1-3 platoons and 1-4 classes (sniper, support, demolition specialist, rifleman);
  
• Variety of well-designed missions in various locations in Georgia, Baltics and Russia;
  
• Attention to details (except for a few geographical inaccuracies);
  
• Interesting story that was geopolitically very plausible in 2001 (what blew my mind is that there is an event in the game that actually happened 7 years AFTER the release of the game EXACTLY in the same year as in the game);
  
• Weapons feel good and there are quite a few to choose from;
  
• There are only a few orders that the squadmates can execute, but they do it pretty well and consistently; apart from occassional pathfinding issues, the AI scripts and communication lines between the squadmates really help the feeling that you're playing as a team;
  
• Unlockables (better weapons and specialists);
  
• Roleplaying elements (stat points and medals);

THE BAD:

• It's possible to give orders to platoons (position, destination, engagement mode), but there are no options to tag enemies and give individual orders for teammates that could be executed simultaneously;
  
• The game is politically biased and heavily pro-American: the USA are portrayed as a bulwark of democracy with no other motivation but to save other nations from evil dictators and ensure fair governance around the globe;
  
• Full stealth playthrough isn't really an option.
  
  A few words about the expansions:
  It seems that the expansions were given less attention than the base game. Therefore, they feel a bit sloppy.
  
  • Desert Siege: less thorough and pretty boring story, poorly communicated mission objectives, timed objectives.
    
  • Island Thunder: consists mostly of rush and shoot missions, I liked this expansion more than Desert Siege, but, at times, AI's detection abilitity is too high. Also, I don't find it very likely that, IMMEDIATELY after the fall of Castro's regime, Cuba could be overtaken by a drug lord.
  
  My overall rating: 8/10.

Shadowrun Retuns is a fun and immersive isometric RPG with an interesting detective story and turn-based combat. It's based on a tabletop game with rich lore, set in a universe that combines cyberpunk and high fantasy elements. It has inspired a few 16-bit games in the 90's that had enough following to succesfully fund a Kickstarter campaign that resulted in this video game. There's also plenty of references to those retro games that fans of the franchise will appreciate. But you don't have to be familiar with the lore to enjoy the game. I wasn't, but still understood what's what.

The progression is linear, which might be a problem for some, but I actually liked that, because I didn't have to spend time backtracking, and all the explorable bits were conveniently placed on the way towards the mission objectives. The missions are really well designed (with multiple stages, not too rushed, not tedious, with fun little twists). You just start the game and immerse into the story. The levels are intricate and detailed, conveying a cyberpunk atmosphere similar to Deus Ex, but with magic and metahumans (elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls). The game features 6 main classes (archetypes), which all are well balanced and, along with the equipment options, offer a 50/50 choice between magic and tech.

Shadowrun Returns is also relatively easy, and, as such, serves as a good introduction to turn-based squad games. If you have previously played games like X-COM, this will be a walk in the park for you.

Furthermore, Shadowrun Returns has a level editor and numerous mods. After finishing the main game, you can explore the community mods, many of which are full-scale campaigns with detailed stories. Or, if you have the patience and time, you can design your own. The level editor is intuitive and relatively easy-to-learn.

I really don't have anything bad to say about Shadowrun Returns. For what it is, it's great.

But for the game as a whole, for the experience and fun factor, I give it: 8/10.

(Текст рецензії приховано)

Coteries of New York, the predecessor of Shadows of New York, was criticised for lack of meaningful choices and ways to influence the in-game events. It didn't bother me in CoNY, because, after the release of VtM:Bloodlines, for a long time, there were no new Dark World releases for PC, and I am just happy about any decent Vampire: the Masquerade title. So, I took CoNY for what it is — a visual novel — and enjoyed the story. However, if, in CoNY, the narration was about 70% of the game, and 30% was interaction, then in SoNY the ratio is 9:1. And that is just too much narration for a video game. It felt to me that I as a player am being forced to follow through protagonist's cringy internal monologues.

The previous game was criticised for having only one ending (apart from untimely death on the first night) and that it didn't actually matter what you did or said, the result was always the same. Here you have two possible endings (apart from untimely death on the first night). I got the "bad ending", but, because of the rigid and straight progression, I'm not even interested in replaying the game. The devs have introduced traits, which determine which ending you get, but you get the traits for insignificant and minor choices during dialogues. These choices are so irrelevant to the main story that I find hard to care about which traits I get. I would also say that the trait system is just a poor attempt to mask the lack of player's agency in the game world.

CoNY ended on an abrupt cliffhanger. SoNY pretends to tie the loose ends from the previous story, but all it does is give false hope. It just revisits some of the previous NPCs and that's it. Not a word about the whereabouts or fate of the previous protagonist.

What the game gets right is the dark and hopeless atmosphere of VtM world. But that's just a flavour. I also need some kind of meaning and development in a story. But I don't see any. The whole story is about helpless young woman who is a victim of the Masquerade. She starts as a pawn and ends as a pawn. The game travels a circle, and, largely, everything stays the same (unless you get the "good ending", in which the protagonist betrays everything she stood for).

If I have to describe this game with one word, it would be "disappointing".

I could recommend this game only to die-hard VtM fans who want to explore every bit of work in the franchise.

My overall rating: 6/10

Coteries of New York is a visual novel inspired by New York by Night. Despite the fact that outcomes of your choices have very minor variations, the story is solid, the artwork is beautiful (albeit not to my taste), the characters are memorable and fleshed out, and the overall presentation is immersive.

As a game CoNY is nothing great, but as a novel it's pretty good. I have only minor complaints about it:

• Incomplete understanding of anatomy (not possible to sink fangs into the aorta through skin; not possible to drink from aorta without losing enough blood to kill the victim);
  
• Inconsistencies between the text and artwork (e.g., T-shirt vs dress);
  
• Inconsistencies between the text and choices (e.g., reference to a "snack" in a situation where the PC decided not to feed);
  
• The fledgling has knowledge of the vampire lore that no one shared with him (e.g., connection between phones and SI, understanding of the difference between the Camarilla and non-Camarilla clans;
  
• Recycled locations (same location artwork for different locations);
  
• Investigation scenes are very primitive;
  
• The story ends on a cliffhanger.

I recommend this game to all fans of Dark World universe and, simply, to everyone who likes a good vampire story. I think it's a bit overpriced for a visual novel and compared to other games that offer more content, so I'd recommend to wait for sales.

My overall rating: 7/10

Contrary to what others say, I actually think that Beyond Divinity is an improvement compared to Divine Divinity. It has better story, better items and greater variety of locations and enemies, and more secrets. It also has humour like all the Divinity games, although I found myself laughing less frequently than in DD.

The biggest problem with Beyond Divinity is its poor compatibility with Windows 10. There are numerous tricks for getting around this problem (from enabling compatibility mode to using DxWnd), but the only thing that made it playable for me was lowering the resolution of the game.

I know that I said that Beyond Divinity (theoretically) is better than Divine Divinity, however, unlike the first game in the series, I actually didn't finish the second game (I got to the end of the second act ~half of the game). The reason for that is backtracking and grinding through mobs. There's just too much of that. It gets boring after a while. This is a common problem of Diablo-like games and that's why I don't really like the genre. But, they could be enjoyable, if the story and quests are interesting. The stories and quests in BD ARE interesting, however, the overall experience is mediocre. I think it's ruined by the map design that forces you into backtracking and revisiting locations and makes locating characters and places harder than it should be. So, in the end, albeit still interested in how the story ends, I ran out of patience. Perhaps, I'll just watch some summary on YouTube to satisfy my curiosity.

Additionally, there are some minor faults that don't improve the overall experience either:

• Just like in DD, the traders still don't have enough money to buy all your goods. Fortunately, you don't have to run around looking for them, as you can just visit the Battlefields to drop off the loot whenever you want;
  
• There are neutral creatures that don't usually attack you, unless you attack them first. But, if you kill one, all creatures of the same species will attack you no matter where you are. Since they are always under your feet (also during combat with hostiles), it's really hard not to click on them accidentally. As a result, in addition to regular mobs, you are swarmed by multitude of frogs, bats, rats, and other tiny and not so tiny creatures.
  
• Many skills are redundant. Fortunately, you can always reset your skills.
  
• The UI is far from comfortable. It was bad in DD, too. But, in BD they made it worse.

Although, I didn't finish this game, and despite its numerous flaws, I still give BD a positive review. It's rough around the edges, but, if you are a patient player who likes old-school hack'n'slash RPGs, you might give it a try. It's no masterpiece, but it's not bad either.

My overall rating: 6/10.

Divine Divinity is a decent Diablo-like ARPG with typical Larian humour. The mob killing and dungeon mazes are tedious, but that is compensated with a solid story and nice secrets. The loot is mostly trash and there are only a handful of decent items in the game, and the overall progression suffers from difficulty spikes, but, on the bright side, there's multitude of skills and the player is not restricted to his class skills. The great soundtrack and detailed environment offers relaxing and immersive exploration. If you are looking for a fun old-school ARPG that doesn't take itself too serious, DD is your type of game.

The good

• Decent story
  
• Humour (the game even trolls the player occassionally)
  
• Secrets
  
• Detailed environment
  
• Beautiful soundtrack
  
• No class restrictions
  
• Immersive atmosphere

The neutral

• Open world
  
• Some unneccessary mechanics (e.g., weapon sheathing, item identification)

The bad

• Sloppy endgame
  
• Broken economy (traders always short on gold, many items require identification to be sold at full price)
  
• Boring and broken loot system (most items are trash, very few unique items, lack of armor sets (I found only one), many items require identification to be equiped)
  
• Difficulty spikes
  
• The dungeon areas are too big, and some are also too convoluted
  
• Quite a few quests are poorly presented and you can break some of them, by doing something in a wrong order.

My overall rating: 8/10

• - Tedious and slow gameplay
  
• - Fonts are not adjusted for Full HD displays
  
• - Slow and boring combat based on D&D 3.5 rules and with 6 second rounds
  
• - Unbalanced boss battles
  
• - Mediocre story
  
• + A lot of mods from a dedicated community
  
• + Multitude of classes and ways to customize your character

Verdict: Just another generic Forgotten Realms RPG. Just another overpriced Beamdog "enhanced" edition that offers very little improvement compared to the original game.

Overall rating: 5/10.