Category Theory legutóbbi értékelései

The game is, unfortunately, marred by many flaws.

The primary one, for a game of this type, is that the art quality simply isn't up to the standards of modern Triple-A game that's going to be seen at 1080p resolution. The art itself is well done, and the engine seems to do a reasonable job of rendering what's there, but tripling the artist-hours put in to this game and allowing for 10 GB rather than 2.5 GB of textures would have made a huge difference. That said, this is forgivable for an indie project where a huge artist budget simply isn't there; perhaps it's better to think of this as a demo of what the developers could really do, and a demo well worth playing.

The other major flaw is in certain areas of game design that simply, it appears, did not get enough time, testing and reworking. For example, a fair amount of clambering and climbing is required to reach a supply chest, which is the major item of progression in the game. Upon opening it you are immediately transported back to your home base, even if there are secrets yet to uncover nearby. When you go back (through the same complex route), there is no longer any quick way out; you must reverse what you did to come in. (Remember, it's impossible to die in this game; you can't fall off a ledge.)

The rest of the much more minor flaws are mentioned extensively in other reviews: the short playtime (which didn't bother me--my backlog is long enough already!), the repetition, and so on. They don't really affect the core of the game; they affect only how much you should pay for it.

And that's where we come to the price: $20 is probably a little too rich for most people who would otherwise like this game. Possibly this is simply part of a "frequent sales" marketing strategy, which is fair enough, though, especially on Steam. I paid $5 for this game myself, and I'd rate it at worth $5-$10. If ten bucks isn't a big deal to you, buy it at that price or even more; if $5-$7 is an amount you think about before spending, wait for that price, and you'll get your money's worth.

Before ending the review, I must mention the brilliant "Postcard Mode": this pauses the game and lets you move the camera around to set up a screenshot. This is a brilliant feature that I wish all games had, and is also a great learning tool for budding in-game photographers.

Well, first, it's Minesweeper. If you're not in to the game in general, this version of it is unlikely to change your mind.

If you do like it, however, this is one of the better versions around. They offer a "classic mode" which is pretty similar to the original Windows version, and their own variation which is arguably better. I'll concentrate on that in the remainder of this review.

The major change is that you now get lives (hearts), of which you can have up to seven, allowing you to detonate seven bombs before the game terminates. Extra lives are dropped as you progress so if you're careful you should be able to handle five or so detonations per level indefinitely. While some might lament the loss of tension in this mechanic as compared to the traditional "instant game over" from a single detonation, there are situations where you simply can't know which of two possible layouts you're looking at, and you have to guess. Being able to do this makes the game less luck- and more skill-based, and also introduces the new mechanic of figuring out, when you do have to risk exploding something, what will leave you in the best shape after that move.

Along these lines too, they also appear to have removed both any chance of detonating a mine on your first move and the possibility of first moves that don't open the board enough for you to make an intelligent next move, as opposed to a guess. (I presume they do this by building the board only after you've chosen your first move.) Again, this shifts the game away from luck and more towards skill.

The standard "campaign" game has you clearing levels, starting with a small (5x5) grid where you need to flag three bombs, and eventually moving up to a full 20x40 grid with dozens of bombs. This gives a nice feeling of progression, and also makes things rather interesting and different from the original gameplay once you reach level forty, where you have to deal with a much higher bomb density (hundreds) than the original game ever offered. You can stop playing at any time and it will restart where you left off when you come back to the game. If your game ends, and you restart again from the main menu, you'll be prompted to start at any level you like up to the highest level you've ever reached.

The graphics are pretty decent, without being distracting, and I particularly appreciated their well done auto-open highlight. I use it a lot, and it's nice that it's easy to read in this game. (Auto-open is when you middle or right click an open cell to automatically open all non-flagged cells around it. If you don't have exactly the number of surrounding cells flagged as indicated in the cell on which you're clicking, you'll see a highlight of all unopened cells, allowing you to quickly and easily concentrate on the ones you need to flag.)

Custom modes, where you set the board size and number of bombs, are also available, and there's are also simple global and friends list leaderboards for comparing your score (which appears to be based on several factors, including what you expose and how many bombs you explode, but not on time taken). There's also a reasonable selection of achievements, and Steam trading cards.

All in all, this is a nice little time killer, and at $3 or less I think it's priced perfectly for what it is.

I do recommend this game, but not for everybody, and perhaps not even for most people. Read further through the review to see if you might find it worthwhile or not.

First, the story and enviornment, since this is really the interesting part of the game.

Part of the dystopian premise here is standard fare: environmental problems push a vast portion of the world's population into squalor, with the instability spreading to the first world, leading to civil unrest, war, and eventually a civil war that fractures Europe. The interesting science-fiction twist is a technology that allows people to extract, move and share memories. The game doesn't look in to this in the kind of depth a good science fiction novel would, but rather uses this mainly as a structure to support the plot. While the writing and acting has quite a few awkward moments, the overall story certainly avoids being a straight "good vs. evil" tale, instead being considerably more interesting. As Nilin, part of a plot to bring down an ostensibly evil corporation taking over the world, you'll find that things swiftly become uncomfortably unclear. Your very first memory remix involves bringing someone over to your side by convincing her that the corporation killed her husband, which I doubt anybody with a conscience could feel comfortable with if they take the story even moderately seriously. As you proceed, you'll find yourself wondering on a regular basis who the good guys really are, or even if there are any. While there are a few characters who fit into the "evil villain" mold, all the rest have plausible reasons for what they do, and nobody comes out purely good or bad. This gives the story a pleasing depth that most games don't have, and does a lot to make up for failings in the gaming elements.

One area where the game really shines is in the sketching out of the world. The fantastic art and design really makes the world come alive, even though, being a straight corridor game with almost no ability to look or explore beyond the path along which you're driven, I couldn't see nearly as much of it as I liked. But the details that were there were wonderful, holding up even to stopping play for close scrutiny, and the Parisian setting (with its mixture of French and English scattered about) adds very nicely to the foreign feel, at least for an Anglophone like me. On the technical side the art and design could have benefited from rather more polish, but if time and budget considerations forced the choice of where to put the design effort, clearly the developers made the right decision.

As mentioned above, this is a straight-line corridor game with, aside from short detours to pick up collectibles, no exploration or choice whatsoever. Even for those of us who like to take our time and look and poke around, this makes the game quite short; I would be surprised if anybody took as long as 20 hours to finish it. For those who finish games quickly anyway, this isn't a problem; for those who usually get a lot more hours out of a game (because they explore every nook and cranny), I suggest you simply take this as they give it to you and enjoy the fact that at least there's no padding here to waste your time.

The gameplay doesn't really have much to offer; it might best be described as "adequate." There's a reasonable amount of platforming of puzzling, none of which will bend your brain terribly. The memory remix idea does have the seeds of something brilliant in it, but unfortunately never really has the time, space or integration in to the story to do more than be an interesting sideline. You can play around with the remixing, but there's only one "correct" solution for the single storyline, so you can't explore the consequences of trying alternate paths. The best part about remixing memories is the discomfort you feel when you realize that you've acquired allies through building up a set of lies, and quite hurtful ones at that; you can well imagine that these people will eventually find out what you've done to them and their families (even if it was in the name of the greater good) and quite justifiably come after you for revenge later on. I'd love to see a game that wraps this idea deep in to the fabric and explores the consequences of how you choose to remix people's lives, rather than just being an element you need to get through to make the story progress.

The combat in this game has been quite divisive, as is clear if you have a look at the forums. For the most part it's a fairly standard fighting style game with a bit of shooting thrown in to deal with robotic enemies and knockdown of human enemies. The main interesting twist is that you can select, for your combos, which blows emphasize damage, health restoration, and speeding the cooldown of special attacks.

Experienced players of fighting games seem nearly unanimous that, even on the hardest level, combat is far too easy. If you're one of these people, you're probably best off not looking at this as a fighting game at all, but as a relaxing stroll through the story.

On the other hand, for people like me who are terrible at fighting games, the combat is pretty rough, to the point of being very frustrating at times. The main problem here is that the game doesn't really provide useful training for the beginner at this genre; if you can't learn at the pace things are thrown at you the game will carry on forward anyway, and you'll soon find yourself out of your depth. Some careful combo design and going back to previous chapters (with more health and in-game skills) to work on particular areas where you're lacking can help mitigate this, but a training room or training mode allowing practice of particular skills would really have helped here. (The Combo Lab Pack DLC might also help, here, but opinions on that have been mixed and I've not tried it myself.)

To sum up, we've got a good linear story with more depth than typical for a video game and a beautifully realized interesting world, even if we can't see as much of it as we'd like. If that appeals to you, you can probably fairly easily overlook the issues with the gameplay, and you'll almost certainly be able to overlook the lack of polish, in trade for a unique experience. You'll also be able to find many areas where the game could have gone a lot further in exploring the consequences of different decisions, but I'm happy to leave that for another game, and take this as the good start in this direction that it is.

Wow, Vessel is utterly brilliant. What differentiates it from other side-scrolling physics puzzle/platformers is the amazing level of polish. The progression in difficulty and capabilities (at least so far, I'm only a few hours in to the game) is fast enough that you feel you're always getting or learning something new, without ever being overwhelming, and the puzzles have for me have had perfectly balanced difficulty, with plenty of challenge to keep things interesting while never giving me anything that got me stuck so long as to be overly frustrating.

I don't find the movement to be as smooth and precise as some other games, but that's rarely important; the game doesn't much rely on doing the right thing with split-second timing but mainly on solving the puzzles. It still does have a bit of an action-y feel, though; squirting the water around is extremely satisfying.

If you like puzzle-platformers at all, this is a must-play.

Reviewers both professional and amateur keep mentioning "match 3" games, as if this were something like Puzzle Quest. The comparison is unfortunate, since the similarities are only superficial. This is a true tactical RPG with an interestingly different and very deep combat system.

In combat you work with a small army on a grid, moving your different units around according to some very limited rules and grouping them together to form attack and defence formations that face off against the opponent's grid on the other side. Attacks, once formed, take 1-3 turns to complete, at which point they do damage against any enemy units across from them and, one hopes, through them to the enemy commander on the other side (while of course the enemy is doing the same to you). Once an attack is complete the attacking units are removed from the grid; reinforcements can be brought back in as the battle progresses. There are a large number of ways of combining units that are introduced as the game goes on, and doing this effectively quickly starts to take a lot of thought. It ends up being far closer to chess than to a simple puzzle game.

Outside of combat, this is a fairly simple RPG, quite reminiscent of a PS1-generation JRPG. There's not a lot of exploration, the quests are trivial, and the story is your typical "stop the bad guys from stealing the item that will let them take over the world" thing. Clearly the main focus of the game is the combat, as with many other tactical RPGS.

If you're in to tactical games, this is certainly a good one, and is well worth the low price.

The gameplay seems pretty decent (and the battle mechanics particularly interesting), but after thirty minutes or so I've had to set this game aside (at least for the moment) because I simply can't take any more of the purple prose, especially given how often it descends into complete doggerel in what is presumably an attempt to sound "poetic." This isn't even remotely funny-bad, as Bulwer-Lytton contest entries, but simply painful-bad, the hail-like slew of obstreperous adjectives hurtling down in contradictory fashion, each a shard of ice with its own unique, cutting edges inflicting a slightly different shape of wound on my suffering literary sensibility, to combine to envelop me in a veil of unseeing mist, muffling prosaic taste with a bitter aftertaste of a poison blade. (On the other hand, if that sentence doesn't bother you, go right ahead and dive in to the game.)

Remove the grapple from Just Cause 2, switch the viewpoint to first-person, and add in some (slightly awkward) crafting, better AI, and a whole big pile of stealth opportunities, and you've got Far Cry 3. It's not particularly original, and the story is even annoying (I disliked the protagonist from the start, and nothing changed that), but it's a huge, interesting and beautiful open world where exploration alone (especially on a hang glider) is a delight. That's what makes the game worthwhile.

There are a lot of other things to do, of course. Hunting and crafting are welcome additions, though they are rather awkwardly implemented; syringes in particular are a pain to craft and use, though an important part of the game. There are a lot more collectables which are thankfully well-implemented. (You can buy maps of where they are, but even with these some of them are a welcome challenge to get. I do wish they'd delayed making the maps available until much later in the game, though.)

The main thing the game drops from Far Cry 2 (besides a significantly better story) is the unrelenting pressure of enemies everywhere. If you're tired of them re-manning checkpoints just a few (in-game) hours after you've wiped them out, simply go capture the nearest outpost (admittedly a very enjoyable activity itself) and the problem is gone for good. In the second half of the game, not even this is necessary in most areas, since you quickly get a disguise that keeps you from being attacked regardless.

Add to this the easy availability of overpowered weapons, and the game really does become too easy, unless you deliberately play it for difficulty. I'm trying a playthrough now where I unlock neither outposts nor even radio towers (leaving me without a map and a much more limited minimap). For all its faults, that the game gives you the flexibility to do this is what gives it the potential for a lot more investment than a single playthrough.

My first thought on this was, "The last thing the world needs is yet another Texas Hold-em poker game." But the wisecracks from the AI players are actually pretty fun.

Absolutely hilarious! And beyond the sarcasm and humour, it's also a fun little morsel of gaming. Well worth the full price

Fantastic fun! I can hardly even find time to do the missions, I spend so much time just playing with my astroid/planet/star system. I've never seen a game where the raw mechanics alone are this much fun. Highly recommended.

Best played with a controller on a PC, I find, though the Android version on a tablet isn't bad, either.