Recent reviews by dbdk422a

Hack`n Slash done right
Shadows Awakening delivers on all important aspects of an Action RPG. Sure, you are constantly fighting - but to make this entertaining, Shadows uses the necessary ingreidients: beautiful and various locations, a perfect map with perfect tracker, fast travel, here and there a bit of dialogue with professional voice over, a few tiny puzzles, a silltree that can be corrected afterwards etc. And above all, the combat is fluent, and very soon your party becomes next to invincible, even if a few enemies may remain a bit tough. You can save anytime anywhere, even in different slots, so you can easily decide for how long you are wandering around smashing your controller buttons.

This "game" is baxically text - lots and lots and lots of text about the Gnosis. Ah yes, there are some "puzzles", but don't bother. As those "puzzles" are no fun, you will probably just use the integrated hint system in case you wonder what this is all about. If you have no interest whatsoever in the Gnosis or at least in any non-Christian belief, skip this garbage.

Still a good game
Yes, Leon is incredibly clumsy, some arenas are insanely difficult or even totally unfair. And in your first play, you do not know what ammo you will find, what ammo you should save, what weapon you should buy and what weapon you should upgrade. In short: Survival will be horror.
However, beneath all those severe flaws lies an interesting game, and when you know all about all enemies and all about all weaponry, you actually stand a chance.

Just cluelessly running around, sometimes some stupid / embarrassing dialogues. Avoid.

No clear aiming?
Theoretically, you can aim by moving your character. Practically, it does not work well - at least not well enough to make the game enjoyable. Stay away.

No clear aiming?
Theoretically, you can aim by moving your character. Practically, it does not work well - at least not well enough to make the game enjoyable. Stay away.

No clear aiming?
Theoretically, you can aim by moving your character. Practically, it does not work well - at least not well enough to make the game enjoyable. Stay away.

Flaws Galore
So many and so awful flaws - and on top of that: in a game of 2005!
Clumsiness all around: A slow moving character, a slow elevator, no direction to change the screen, no fast travel ... You lose al lot of time just for trying to move.
Hotspots are not highlighted, and even intense pixel hunting can be unsuccessful, so be prepared to use a walkthrough - as if that game really needs another nail in the coffin.

Abysmal controls and a next to invisible cursor. That is not playing a game but just randomly clicking around.

If you ask yourself why an obviously necessary jump is impossible - rest assured: It might indeed be impossible. A frame rate limiter seems to help, but I won't guarantee it.
Furthermore, the new "Adrenaline Dodge" is already horrible in itself (a wild combination of several moves) and even more horribly integrated in the game - that is: next to not at all. Very seldom it is at least very commendable to fight with AD, but you cannot get the hang of it, as you normally cannot use it.
In earlier TR games you could literally save everywhere. However in TR:A, there are only checkpoints, so if you want to make the one and only difficult jump or finish an annoying boss fight, you first have to make the same old things over and over again. And sometimes that includes watching a non-skippable cinematic.
Regarding the high potential of the game, all those flaws are a true pity.