Atebash の最近のレビュー

Hmmm... I'm really not into trashing games, I always do my best to find something positive about them. But I simply fail to do so with Retention. The mere publishing of Retention on Steam puzzles me. Honestly, Zimbio's quizzes (you know those "Which Spiderman villain are you?" or "How would you die on Game of Thrones?") have more elements of a game than this... game. It's just a waste of time.

This is probably one of the most overlooked games ever. It's fun, it has great story and the game mechanics are simply brilliant. I loved and enjoyed Homeworld and Nexus can easily stand by its side and be proud.

You should really do yourself a favor and play this game!

An old review of mine, written in 2001. Unedited:

I don’t know how to start. Really, I don’t. Maybe I should remind you about the movie known as Matrix, a movie that set a new standard in film industry, a movie that used breathtaking special effects never seen before. Slow motion, rotating camera, bullets ripping the air and the main character avoiding them… Fantastic, wasn’t it? There are some that didn’t like the movie, but I’ve never heard of a person who said that those effects weren’t amazing. This game is very similar to the Matrix, not only because of great effects but by its charm as well.

I am pretty much sure that many, many gamers have at least heard of the Remedy’s game years ago. It’s been in the making for more than 4 years now and mutated from the first person shooter into the third person view action game. Yes, it was intended to be in first person view, but the game physics and the type of action didn’t allow such thing. Even the publisher has changed. It was supposed to be 3D Realms, but they “only” produced the game, which at the end was published by GOD Games, the company that’s actually younger than this product! That tells you a lot about the time needed to complete Max Payne, doesn’t it?

Okay, lets get to the story. Actually, you can see the background story by playing through the introduction at the start of the game. Max is, or better to say was, an ordinary police officer, a New York PD detective working on the “usual” cases, solving the “usual” murders in the Big Apple. He was pretty good at what he did and was offered an “inside job” in the local mafia family. But Max had other plans in his life - a beautiful wife and a baby daughter. All he ever wanted was to be with them, but all that changed after they were brutally murdered by a group of junkies. Three years later, Max is on the inside job, in the Puncinello family. Only two people know his true identity, but after one of them gets killed while the other ones whereabouts become unknown. Max’ life is in real danger, especially after the mafia discovered him and launched a major offensive to capture and kill him. What a mess! Now both the police and the mafia are after our main character. It is your job to help poor Max’ survive in the unfriendly world as he learns a lot about the conspiracy, the drug lords, the people behind the murder of his family and military involvement in secret projects.

As I said, the game is played from the third person view. You can see the complete Max in the middle of the lower part of the screen. The controls are pretty easy. You use arrow keys to move back and forth, or to strafe left and right. Mouse is used for turning left and right and firing the weapons. Other than that you only need to know the keys for weapon selection, slow motion (more about that later), use, jump and crouch. That’s all! There are no items to be carried around and used when needed. Actually, you can collect painkillers and get back some of lost health and that’s the only non-firing item that can be collected. Back to the main screen. Except for the Max, the bottom screen features the health bar presented as little, empty Max who fills with red color as he gets shot. Next to it is a small sand clock, which shows how much slow motion you have left (as I said, more about it later) and a number of painkillers left. Other than that there are weapon stats that show up in the top part of the screen, but only during the weapon selection.

The graphics are simply gorgeous! A lot of attention is given to small details, which can be best seen during the shooting scenes between Max and multiple enemies. The play areas are always large, with a lot of rooms, furniture, buildings and other objects (unlike Oni, another fast paced action game with great gameplay but incredibly empty play areas!). Everything you see can be shot at. Not everything will be destroyed though, but holes from bullets or shotgun shrapnel will be there. Same goes with the sound. You will hear thugs talking between themselves about their wives, mother-in-law, guns, movies… That is of course until they see or hear you. I was amazed at duration of a show on the turned-on TV somewhere in one of the hotels in which game takes place. I just stood there, listened to the conversation in some soap opera, and they kept talking and talking and talking… so I turned off the darn TV! The speech was incredibly long!

Now to the best part of the game – slow motion action or so-called bullet mode. Once you turn it on, the time slows down so both you and your opponents move slower, the bullets fired from the weapons move slowly so you can dodge them (Neo, Matrix was an expert in this). This slow-mo mode enables you to aim faster at your enemies as well, giving you an incredible advantage over the others. You know, it is pretty hard to explain how great this feature is, you simply have to see it to get the idea. Even the screenshots can’t show all the action. Heck, the screenshots can’t show anything at all! Another great feature is automatic zoom-in to the great kills. If you shoot a thug in an interesting way (a neck shot, multiple head shots and such), the game will zoom the enemy that was just shot, move the camera around him and show his death in a slow motion. Another thing that can not be fully described by words or screenshots!

As Max advances further into the game, you will notice other great features. What I really like are the cut-scenes. Unlike most of the latest games, the cut-scenes in Max Payne are not movies or still pictures. They’re made as a comic strip, with hand-drawn Max, conversation bubbles and such. I like Max’ speeches and philosophy shown here!

The downfalls of this game are a rarity. Aside from very linear story and lack of everything except shooting, the biggest disadvantage of Max Payne is – its shortness. It is possible to complete the whole game in just one day (if you do not explore a bit and actually play the game for straight 10 hours or so). Remedy tried to make it more fun by making several modes of playing through the game. Once you complete it in the normal mode (the only one available once you install the game), you will unlock the hard level and eventually the hardest (once you complete hard) and a time limited mode. But neither is really interesting to play since there are no big changes to the original story.

Max Payne is a revolutionary product, no doubt about that. Bullet mode is simply fantastic and alone worth buying this game. The action is great, slow motion and zooming set new standards in action games, the story is brilliant… But it still seems to me like this title was an experiment, a prequel to the real thing. Only that can explain the shortness of such a great game. Should you buy it? Decide that yourself. If you’re looking for a game that’ll keep you busy for a long time then don’t, but if you’re eager to see something new and great then get it right away. You will not be disappointed!

http://bosniannerd.blogspot.com/2015/02/star-wars-dark-forces.html

Dark Forces. If you were playing games back in 1995 you most definitely know about this first person shooter and you are probably wondering why I am writing about it in 2015? Honestly, the game was included in a recent game bundle and I decided to check out how well did it age. You know, some games may be awesome at the time they were released, but as the time passes and games evolve, some of those old favorites end up being very bad. And we wonder how come we loved them so much back then and now they seem like games we'd never play for more than 15 minutes. Anyway, before I move on I want you to know that I didn't really like this game even when it was first released. Just as I didn't like Doom, a game that Dark Forces was too often compared to. I didn't dislike it either, I just thought it was an average Star Wars game and an average FPS and it was well accepted just because it was set in Star Wars universe.

So, how well did it age? Not good. First of all, you need a DOS emulator (DOSBox) to run it on a modern computer, but if you are using a Steam version of Dark Forces you don't have to worry about it as Steam was nice enough to set up DOSBox for you. The resolution is extremely low (640x400) and everything is very pixelated. There's another solution for this (and more) called DarkXL. DarkXL allows you to play Dark Forces even in full HD (1920x1080) resolution and/or in a window (as I prefer it). It doesn't just stretch the pixels as you may have thought, it really has new game textures and makes everything look a lot nicer. Don't expect wonders though, the graphics are still more or less the same, it just looks a lot more polished.

By default, you use mouse only to look left and right and if you want to look up and down, and more importantly shoot enemies who are above or below you, you need to use PageUp and PageDown buttons on the keyboard. Actually, the game will usually shoot up and down automatically if you line up the reticle with the enemy, but it's extremely frustrating and unforgiving at times. DarkXL fixes this as well as it allows you to use fully use mouse and view your surroundings. Trust me, this helps a LOT and not only with shooting the imperial scum, but also with switches and doors.

However, DarkXL is incomplete and will probably remain so. There are certain bugs that have been reported and the most important are present in the very last level. You will be unable to complete the game with these bugs (you will have to cheat to advance and to give you a hint: hold G to move through walls) and it's a real shame. Especially since regular save game file is incompatible with DarkXL save game file, meaning you cannot just switch back to normal game and complete what's left regularly. Another annoying bug (or a missing feature?) is lack of weapons. If you play through the game using DarkXL you will be unable to pick up the strongest 2-3 weapons for a reason unknown to me. You can use another cheat to unlock and equip those weapons though, so it's a minor issue at the end.

Now that you know how you can enjoy the game better using DarkXL, lets get back to the game itself. The story is mostly unimportant: you are Kyle Katarn, a mercenary who works for Rebel Alliance. You are being sent on a series of missions to find out about the latest Imperial project and ultimately destroy it. An army of Storm troopers, Imperial commanders and commandos, droids and other aliens will stand in your way as you progress through 14 levels consisting of mining facilities, space stations, cities and other environments. The levels are average in size, have no respawning enemies and will take an average of 30 minutes to complete (more if you play on hard since you have to be more careful). Most levels will require you to find switches, cards or buttons to open up certain doors in order to advance. However, I hated that part a lot. Why? Simply because you will often run into a switch or a lever, use it and... wonder what actually happened? The levels are not linear and you can wander around as much as you want, and as good as that is it confuses you because you are not sure what did that switch do. There is no "objective pointer" to tell you where to go (this is a 1995 game after all) and it's especially frustrating in missions where you have to go back to your ship after you complete the mission. I walked around for more than 20 minutes on one mission, looking for the starting point in order to complete the level. Frustrating! I tried using the in-game map as well, but since you can go up and down in elevators, the map adjusts and doesn't really help at all. Ah yes, you cannot save your progress during the mission - it is auto-saved after each complete mission so don't expect to load the game and see where something is before returning to your "real" save.

At the end I played through Dark Forces' 14 levels using DarkXL and it didn't feel rewarding at the end. The game is not hard, the story is nothing special and there's no special "accomplishing" feel once you are done. Again, I never liked Dark Forces much and I played through it some 15 years ago just because I loved its sequels, but that's an entirely different story. I didn't rate the game as I usually do because... it's just not easy to rate a 20 years old game, especially since it really did not "age" well.

Have fun!

Oh dear God, what a terrible game! Bad controls, horrible voice acting, non challenging levels and a complete feeling of failure. I know it's cheap, but even that is too much. They should pay us to play this game! Just...terrible!

It's a fun little addition once you complete the game. It's not really hard and it's probably not worth paying the full price for it (I suggest buying it when it's on sale) but it can keep you busy for... 30 minutes or so.

http://bosniannerd.blogspot.com/2015/02/lara-croft-and-guardan-of-light.html

Run, run, jump, throw a spear, jump onto spear, jump and fire a hook to the closest ring, swing left and right to gain speed, jump to the platform, get to the rock, roll it through four monsters that just spawned, keep rolling to the nearby platform. The gate opens. You step in. Ok, the easy part is done. Now... go and get the artifact and keep pushing forward to reach Xolotl and finally stop him!

There's no need for any introduction when it comes to Lara Croft and Tomb Raider games. The difference between this game and all the other Tomb Raider titles is the pace of action and camera view (fixed isometric), as well as a multiplayer option (two player co-opeative hot-seat or via internet). Lara is still equipped with her dual pistols, remote bombs and grappling hook but she can expand her arsenal during this adventure with dozens of weapons (although you will most probably stick to 3 or max 4 of them).

The story. Is it really important? Alright, here's the short version: Lara was hunting an ancient mirror that entrapped a creature of darkness for centuries inside a Mayan temple. A band of mercenaries got there before her and released the spirit. Now it's up to Lara and Totec, an ancient guardian, to hunt him down and stop his evil plans of world domination. Honestly, it's completely unimportant and unimaginative and the real value of this game is in its gameplay.

This is still the same, good old Tomb Raider game. It's just a little bit faster and the levels are shorter. Your goal is always the same: reach the level exit until you can finally face Xolotl and be done with this adventure. The puzzles are pretty simple and will only require you to control your character with some skill to be done. The real challenge are... challenges! Each level has a number of them, including speed runs (beat the clock) and some item collecting (each level has 10 red skulls that need to be found). Honestly, I really loved completing challenges and I kept repeating each level until all were done. I would usually try and beat the score challenge on my first run, as well as collecting the skulls and power-ups, then come back and try the speed run. Some challenges on some levels are real easy and you won't even notice you completed them (meaning that you will be surprised when the "challenge complete" text flashed out) while some require strong effort. For example, the very first level has a "Disable Xolotl's fire trap in under 00:30" and that took me more than 30 minutes to complete. Fortunately, dying in game is not really punishable (you lose 5000 points which is ok if you are not doing the score challenge) so you can commit suicide and just try again from the save point. Another great thing is that you can collect weapons, artifacts and other power-ups in any order - once you collect them, they are saved. You can even quit the game right after picking up an item and it's ok, you will never have to do it again. You can even pick up a grenade launcher on level 7 and go play level 1 with it in your inventory, possibly making some puzzles easier with it. Cool, eh?

Now the real fun is the multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, I never tried it (nobody wants to play with me!) but I've seen videos and I loved it. In multiplayer, two players control Lara and Totec, while some puzzles (and solutions) are different than in a single player game. The game requires true co-operation and seems to be very fun to play.

Overall, this game provides a lot of joy. It takes about 8 to 10 hours to complete the single player game and probably another 15 to complete all the challenges. There are 12 achievements in the game and 11 are really easy, while the last one asks you to complete all the challenges. It's far from hard, but it takes time to complete. I know I will do it, I really enjoyed completing time runs and I am not really a kind of gamer who likes speed runs in any games. This one is somehow different.

http://bosniannerd.blogspot.com/2015/01/gunpoint.html

This game is a perfect example of why we love Steam as the gaming platform. 10 years ago a game such as Gunpoint would never find a publisher because it's not fancy enough (in terms of stunning graphics and/or world class production). Steam, as digital distribution platform, offers so much for indie developers and we should all be really thankful for it.

Now, to the point. Gunpoint was made by Tom Francis, an ex-editor of the PC Gamer magazine. I remember when the game was released in 2013, PC Gamer refused to review it because they knew they wouldn't be objective enough about their ex co-worker's game (and the loved it!). Anyway, to create his little game, Francis used Game Maker, a software suite responsible for many other real masterpieces such as Spelunky, Hotline Miami and Risk of Rain. He said that he realized he was overly critical of the games he was reviewing for PC Gamer and wanted to see if he could do better (it's like "I am such an ass! I should put my self in their shoes and see how hard it really is to make a game!"). And for the most part - he did.

Gunpoint is a stealth-action-platform game. It puts you in the role of Richard Conway, a private detective who got himself in trouble by trying out his brand new Bullfrog Hypertrousers at the wrong time. These trousers give him the power of jumping at really long distance and height and they prevent him from dying from falling. Right, so... He was at the wrong place in the wrong time and could be charged with murder so he accepts a task from a new employer to delete the camera footage from the crime scene and only gets himself involved in a big conspiracy.

The game is divided into many small missions (once you get a hold of them, each mission can be completed in less than 3 minutes) and Conway's goal is always the same: infiltrate and collect/hack. To do so, Conway can use a range of gadgets that allow him to control doors and devices of the infiltrated building. For example, you can rewire the security camera to open the door instead of sounding the alarm or connect the light switch to open the door and stun a guard that was standing next to it. Of course, to make it difficult, switches, doors, cameras etc are made of various colors and only the matching colors can be connected. Each mission can be completed slowly (in stealth), on average speed (make those guards sleep!) or recklessly (and that may trigger the police alarm with a time limit to complete the mission... which usually means you are dead by sniper fire as soon as you show yourself near the window). Your choice. The missions are graded at the end, but it really has no real meaning except for your own personal satisfaction.

The achievements are real easy to get. There's 42 of them and I got them all in 2 playthroughs (some are mutually exclusive). Speaking of that, the game is rather short and once you get the hang of it, you will advance really fast. The first playthrough took me 3 hours, the second no more than 1 hour total. Fortunately, the game supports Steam Workshop and if you want more of this game you can simply download more missions. Some are really tricky and enjoyable, but even then they lack the feeling of the "real game story". You know, it's never the same to play the original game and custom made scenarios for it.

Overall, Gunpoint is a wonderful game and I guarantee you will enjoy it. But it's a short-lived entertainment and we can only hope to see more of Tom Francis' talent in the future. Ok man, you proved your point, now make more fun games and let us see what you can do!

I was about to write a review then I remembered I alredy did. Back in 2002. So here it is, unedited:

Games such as this one bring smile to my face. Why? Because I was initially an adventure game player and the last few years have been quite bad for this genre. Ever since Sierra and LucasArts stopped their production of adventures and turned over to the more profitable games, a few developers have even tried to do something. The only true masterpiece that I can think of at the moment is Funcom’s The Longest Journey, while Dreamcatcher’s creations were far from what we really need (still, my congratulations to Dreamcatcher for even trying where others don’t bother at all!). I doubt the situation will get any better soon, but Syberia might prove that there’s a lot that adventures can provide, especially to young gamers.

In this 3rd person adventure you play a role of Kate Walker, a young lawyer from New York who was sent to Valadilene, a little town in France to complete the deal of purchasing a local toy factory for a huge multinational company. Unfortunately, the owner of the factory Anna Voralberg has just passed away and her only heir, her brother Hans is nowhere to be found. This is where your adventure begins.

The story might not sound like it’s anything special, but it’s actually amazing! As you do your research to find Hans, you will discover a lot about the Voralberg family, their toy factory and Hans’ maniacal obsession with automatons and mammoths. You will even meet a few automatons made by Hans, robots with their own character! Your journey will also take you to the weird university in Barrockstadt in Germany where you’ll meet more weird people, then to Russian mining city ruled by a lunatic and so on. Everywhere you go you will get into a bit abnormal situations but you’ll get used to it.

Unfortunately, most of the puzzles are rather easy and each problem can be solved in a real short time. Still, since there are many locations and a lot of puzzles you won’t notice this often. I got stuck in only two occasions and both times it really was my fault – once I had to use a cell phone and the other time I just didn’t see the closet that contained two important items. Also, there is no item combination at all, making everything a lot easier as well.

Now I must mention the visuals of Syberia. The graphics are simply amazing! It’s obvious that a lot of effort was put into the visual side of this great game. A few screens of the game exist only to show the beautiful scenery such as the side view of the Barrockstadt University or the resort hotel in Russia. The same applies to the sound as the game features some fine, classical tunes specific to the region in which you are at the moment. I especially liked the music in Russia, which sounded a lot like the old Soviet anthem. The complete game is voice covered and the voice acting is probably the best I’ve heard lately!

Overall, Syberia may be a bit easy for the experienced players but it’s a true masterpiece in the genre. I was delighted to see normal controls unlike in a lot of similar games that I had a chance to play in the last 15 months or so. It’s all point&click, like in good old times. Syberia is a well-made game, with an intriguing story and even a little soap opera that goes on over Kate’s cell phone. I can’t give it a score larger than 82% due to easy puzzles, but … good work by Microids, I am hoping to see more of their work soon!

Plus: Magnificent graphics and sound, intriguing story, easy controls.
Minus: Easy puzzles, some pixel hunting.

http://bosniannerd.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-banner-saga.html

There really is something about those fan-funded games. They really seem to be having a... soul. They are never rushed, they are released when they are complete and ready and they often have an army of enthusiasts offering help, suggestions and ideas to the creators. The results are quite often surprising: the end product is a quality game that will offer you a lot of entertainment and, in this case, a replay value.

The Banner Saga is a turn-based role playing strategy game. If I could compare it to some other title, I'd say it reminds me a lot of an ancient game called The Oregon Trail (or another game inspired by it and reviewed right here - Organ Trail). The Banner Saga takes place in an imaginary world of humans and giants, made to look like a world of Vikings. There's two kinds of giants. The first are Varl, big-size, horned humoids who happen to be allied with humans The other giants are Dredge, an unnatural beings of darkness whose only purpose in life is to wage war with everyone else. The Dredge were thought to be extinct for a few hundred years but they've suddenly appeared out of nowhere and are wreaking havoc on the human and Varl lands. Chapter One of The Banner Saga starts with a big group of human and Varl refugees (on the west), seeking help and shelter. Chapter Two introduces us to another group (this one is on the east) who run into Dredge as well and start moving towards the east with the same goal as the first group. In both of them, you play the current leader (I say current, because it is possible to die and actually play someone else) during the story and all of your fighters during the combat scenes.

The game is based on decisions you make during your travels, as well as on the outcome of the battles during your trip. As you progress towards the goal, the group will encounter various people, landmarks, situations etc and in almost all of the instances you will be given two to four choices. Depending on what you chose to do, you might gain or lose an ally, get or lose supplies, raise or lower the morale (morale affects bonus actions in combat) etc. You get the idea. Some actions affect you more than the others and you might not even see the actual effect until later in the game (for example, you might be given an option to recruit someone who may save someone else's life later in the game).

Combat is turn based. You will get to pick your fighters and their order of movement/attack before the battle and then select their starting positions. Imagine XCOM in a Viking world and on a much smaller battlefield (more like a chess board). Combat is fun, especially after you get some experience for your fighters and upgrade their skills. You will mostly fight the Dredge, but sometimes you will be unable to avoid battles with human and Varl opponents as well. There are a lot of "classes" in the game and they all have different skills and that might take some time to get ahold of (especially since its hard to distinguish some of them: Warleader, Warmaster, Warhawk... confusing). Once you do that, it will be a whole lot easier and your tactics will improve. A lot.

The story part is the real gem here. It rally isn't easy to make a game where you really get to care about the characters (Telltale is quite good at that, just sayin') and that is where The Banner Saga shines the most. You WILL like the characters and you will be sorry when and if they die (think of Game of Thrones, for example). I don't want to spoil anything, I just wanted to mention it.

Now, my favorite part. Achievements. There are 39 of them and more than half will unlock as you progress with the story. Another 7 or 8 will require you to go through at least once more and that really is not a problem since you get to see a different story (with the same outcome, mind you). The last few might take a while - you will definitely need some experience to complete the game on hard and not lose a single battle. Overall, I'd say that achievement level in the game is average. They are far from impossible, but they are not guaranteed as in some other games.

Overall, this is one great experience. The game is far from perfect, but I guarantee you will love it. It's obvious that it was made with limited resources (there are no voiceovers for example) but it doesn't stop its charm. I do have a small objection on a combat system as it gets repetitive after a while, but it's not really that much of problem (thanks to RPG part of the game that gives experience and skill upgrades). The Banner Saga 2 has been confirmed recently and I am really looking forward to it.