Recent reviews by GrueTwo

Very rough, a great deal of ♥♥♥♥ that would be unacceptable in any other game, all in service of a sort of experience that is severely lacking in the industry currently. I've only just left the Lesser Zone at the time of writing this review, but these early hours have been extremely effective in conveying a very specific tone in most every aspect of the design, in the gameplay which gives you the sense that you are on about the same level as every other human character you encounter, the decently varied and organic feeling quests/events you can run into, the believably imposing weather effects with real mechanical consequences, the way NPCs converse among eachother and with you, so on and so on. It all leaves me very compelled to see everything this world has to offer, and GSC deserves massive props given the circumstances behind it.

Two guys created one of the greatest explorations of the interactive aspects of games to date, without any real monetization for much of its ongoing two decades long development cycle, influencing dozens of notable titles in the process (including the best selling one of all time), still managing to be miles ahead of said titles and anything AAA could spit out in terms of mechanical intricacy, being endlessly replayable, continuously updated, and acting as the closest artificial approximation to a living breathing world ever created. The game is fun too.

Good and well designed game given the challenges of designing an immersive sim with such a small team, but clearly still a work in progress in many ways, and as such this review will focus on some of the aspects that could use improvement down the line despite being positive overall. The game feels a little stuck between the more reserved Thief and more actiony Dishonored camps of stealth focused immersive sim, and feels a little tonally inconsistent at times as a result. There aren't very many tools at your disposal compared to those other 2 series as of now either, sometimes giving the impression there's not many more creative ways to take out enemies besides using bottles to lure groups of them into explosive barrels. This is helped a little bit by the silenced pistol you can pick up on subsequent playthroughs with more varied ammo types , and the existence of currently useless currency and equipment slots hint at future additions to your character's toolset, but what's here right now leaves something to be desired. The game also ran surprisingly poorly for what it is, particularly in the opening fishery area where it would occasionally drop from 60 to 30 FPS on Steam Deck, which is especially unfortunate seeing as how that opening section is otherwise easily the best designed and most open part of the whole early access so far. For one final criticism, the way certain content still in development is sectioned off doesn't feel super natural, especially leading to disappointment in the section where some beast is very clearly set up as a threat in an inaccessible tavern . Aside from all of this, it's still a great buy for anyone invested in the sort of stealth-based immersive sim design of the likes of Thief and Dishonored, with great presentation aided by some legendary voice acting talent. For someone more on the fence however it may be best to wait until the game is in a more complete state than it currently is.

100% a top 5 game, maybe the one I'm most confident in calling a masterpiece. As others have said you'd better go in with as little knowledge about it as possible, but without going into too much detail its probably got the best video game story ever told, as in the story is seamlessly tied to the gameplay to a larger degree than just about anything else. It takes extreme efforts to ensure the game operates under a consistent set of mechanics so that there will be virtually no sense of arbitrary solutions to puzzles or for the story as a whole, even going so far as to make virtually everything you see in the game be stuff your in-game character would see themselves for added immersion value and believability. Don't go into this expecting combat of any sort btw, the main fun of the game comes from dangerous exploration of imaginative environments, extremely thoughtful puzzle design, and probably the best environmental storytelling of any game (especially considering that uncovering much of it is actually key to progression). It's a game visibly made with extreme passion, one that cuts all the fat from typical open world games, one that'll have you thinking about it's world for years after finishing it, and one that provides a once in a life time experience in a literal sense. If you've ever felt good about paying $60 for any video game then it'd be hard justifying $25 as being anything but a steal for this ($40 if you get the DLC too which you probably should since it's about as good as the base game and pretty much seamlessly integrates itself within the main story). Easy 10/10.

Godamn this game was ahead of it's time for 1994, basically the first story based FPS game 4 years before Half-Life, and the first 3D Metroidvania 8 years before Metroid Prime. I played through the original classic version (hence why it says I only have 1.5 hours for the enhanced version, I have 21 hours in classic), and as archaic as the original controls are, they do have a certain flow once you get used to them. Sort of like first-person tank controls, pretty sure this is the first 3D first-person game to have crouch and lean controls, so there wouldn't have really been a set standard for a game like this at the time. Feel like this review is getting kind of rambly, point is System Shock still kicks ass if you can get past the controls, and Nightdive is a pretty awesome company as well for preserving and enhancing these classic games for modern audiences.

Nominate Cruelty Squad for GOTY, best visual style, best soundtrack, and best story rich game you worthless consoomers.