Recensioni recenti di grim_reefer

Play with mods, or don't bother playing.

Solid tacticool fun. I recommend playing modded, with friends, or by yourself on the hardest difficulty level in Terrorist Hunt. Singleplayer's plot won't win any awards, but the gameplay itself from level to level is actually quite good. No matter what you do, this game's still a blast.

I won't go on and on about all the little imperfections currently present in the game. At the root of all the issues lies a single, glaring fact- for this game having just barely two hours of content (not counting player-created content), a reasonable person would expect this content to have more polish than it currently does, given how long this game has been out. I get that game development is not easy, let alone cheap, but some of the problems in this game are just puzzling. Little details matter in short, simple games like this, and most of the little details in this game at the moment appear to be bugs rather than features.

And yet, I am not refunding this game.

Why?

For one reason:

The devs appear to be actively working on this title, not only regularly releasing patches and new content to the game, but also listening and responding to the playerbase itself when they have technical issues, questions or suggestions regarding the game.

I take this behavior as a gesture of good faith on their part, and I would be amiss not to offer mine in return.

I will update my review when one of two things happens- either when the game is abandoned, or when the game is deemed complete and removed from Early Access.

As it stands, the game is short and mostly sweet. Steam Workshop support is definitely a big plus as well. I cautiously recommend this title... For now.

P.S. I don't know what kind of wacky tobaccy you fellas were smoking when you implemented the current weapon switching system, but it could do with a revision. That ♥♥♥♥ gives me cancer. I want to pull out my second pistol, not my AA-12, then my other AA-12, and then my... Single pistol again for some reason? What's that all about?

Receiver 2 is a marked improvement on the game that preceded it, taking the core elements and ideas present in the first entry and refining them. But no game is perfect, so let's start with the bad. I'll summarize each main point, and elaborate further beneath them, so if you ain't got time fo dat, just read the bullets and forgo everything else.

-The game feels light on content.

In the original Receiver, you had two enemies to contend with- flying drones and stationary turrets. In this game, the new additions to the enemy roster feel more like iterations on those concepts, rather than new enemies in and of themselves.

For instance, there are now stationary turrets on ceilings, proto-turrets that have their vital components exposed (so as to give you a chance to learn the precise locations of their weak spots) and, my personal favorite, stationary turrets that "sleep", motionless, usually in dark places or around tight corners until you trip their sensors. There are also security cameras which alert flying drones to your location if they spot you, and armored variants of the stationary turrets.

I like these concepts and I think they're really neat ideas, but let's be real here, these are iterations of a single enemy concept, rather than being new enemies in and of themselves, and you deal with them much in the same way you did in the first game- either by running away from them before they can hose you down, or sneaking up to them and disabling them.


-The maps don't have enough variation.

I want to preface this by saying that I like the way the map chunks look and how they're laid out, generally. I just feel that the idea of the setting (being "The Dreaming", an ethereal sort of purgatory that you and, it is implied, other receivers are trapped in) vastly outshines the execution of the setting.

The main antagonist of the game, The Threat, has conjured this realm as a rat maze for you, and has conjured kill drones to kill you over and over again, keeping you forever trapped in this realm. A setting as dark and surreal as this could be used in fascinating ways, but instead, the architecture itself from chunk to chunk is utterly ordinary, and there are no variations of it from level to level, which is disappointing, as half the tension in the early game comes from your ignorance of the layout of the various map chunks. The game's RNG system could have been utilized in a way that makes the interiors of each "room" defy memorization, but alas, it does not, and this makes me sad.

-Sideplot pacing is nonexistent.

So, a very welcome addition to the game are the floppy disks, which are essentially diary entries left by other Receivers for each other to find. Due to the nature of this game, you will eventually get stuck playing at the same few levels over and over again until you either git gud or get lucky with tape and enemy placements. Tapes seem to be context sensitive, with certain tapes playing depending on the level that you are on and the weapon you have spawned with, but unfortunately, floppies just... Spawn.

For the majority of my initial playthrough, I was stuck on levels 2-3 and occasionally four, and meandering around these environments looking for tapes or scanning the environment for drones, I unintentionally farmed a good three quarters of all the tapes, and I think almost all of the "secret" floppy disks, which I would collect in the same potted plant shelf in the same hospital room every single time. Now, I get why they might have felt the need to do this, perhaps trying to avoid locking players out of content they may have missed in earlier levels, but a simple solution comes to mind.

So, all these little subplots tend to have beginnings and endings. Why not simply assign floppy disk spawns to levels roughly in order of progression? Let's say there are a ten floppies in a single collection (let's say they're "Bobert's" entries) to be found, and there are five replayable levels- so the first two in the set would spawn in the first level, the next two would spawn in the second, and so on. If you're stuck in the middle levels, you would be able to collect the floppies corresponding to the level that you are on, or floppies assigned to the preceding levels, but you would have to progress to find out what happened after that... I hope that makes sense. I feel that the Threat tapes should also have been scaled in a similar fashion.

Now, on to the stuff I'm conflicted on:

-Cool new toys!

Okay, I want to make it very clear that guns aren't toys. Moving on from that point, which should hopefully be obvious, the new additions to the weapon roster, while very welcome, have the same problem as the additions to the enemy roster, in that they feel more like iterations on previously established concepts rather than new concepts that really spice up your gameplay. There are three revolvers and six slide-operated pistols. Without going into minutia, once you get past the cool factor of the Sig P226, the funk of the Beretta 92 and it's janky mags (which is honestly the most realistic feature of any of the guns currently featured) the lovely Colt Detective Special, or the... Shall we say, novel and unique Hi-Point C9, you realize that these are mostly the same guns with only slightly different operating principles.

-No Steam Workshop... :c

Kind of an odd omission in my opinion. The Devs™ say, and I quote, "We have big plans to support the game with content patches, so keep an eye out for future updates." So maybe some of the things I feel have been omitted will be added retroactively, in which case, I will update this review. That being said, it still strikes me as a puzzling choice.

-The ending...?

Without getting into spoilers, it's kind of an anticlimax. Makes you question if it's just a placeholder until they add more stuff.

-The fall damage

I get that there's an in-game reason for it, but... It's kind of an unwelcome addition. I already have killdrones and the world's deadliest holster to contend with without having to worry about having glass bones.

-Elevator buttons on the bottom floor of the hotel chunk that can be pressed but don't call the elevator

I get that you're not supposed to be down there, but come on.


Now for what the game does well:

-Visuals are great, with fantastic mirrors and glass that reflect and even shatter in superbly satisfying ways. Guns are modeled quite well- dead enemies remain where they fell, as do bullet holes and shell casings, which is perfect.

-The writing is great, from the floppies to the tapes.

-The surreal, brooding atmosphere with hints of neo-noir is absolutely captivating.

-The music, like many aspects of this game, is something they iterated on from the last game, but I feel that it 100% works in this case.

-The Voice Actor (single) did a fantastic job.

-The environmental and weapon handling sounds are superbly done.

-Projectile behavior is amazing, the way bullets penetrate certain materials, or ricochet off enemies, leaving telltale long dents in their thin metal frames. Seriously, how the hell did you pull that off?!

Great focus has been placed on the little details in this game overall, which is appreciated, and I've had a great deal of fun with it! I will likely have many more hours of fun now that I've completed it for the first time. I recommend it without a second thought.

Sniper Ghost Warrior: 3 is the definition of a mixed bag. The game toys with some neat ideas. But unfortunately, its ambitious scope ultimately exceeded the capabilities of CI Games. And the more you look at the game, the more little problems and quirks you will see for yourself. The issues with this game are too many to list- nothing game breaking, but certainly immersion ruining, and it is a damn shame. Environments look excellent, and have loads of small details if you take the time to look, no doubt painstakingly added to each region. Voice actors do their best with, what I have been told, was a crappy script thrown together at the eleventh hour to replace what would have been a much better, but ultimately, more time consuming plot. The plot is serviceable, don't get me wrong, but don't mistake that for being anything good.

Ultimately... I'm disappointed and disheartened that what would have been something amazing was rendered merely passable and shoved out the door. And yet, what remains of this game oscillates wildly in quality: sometimes it's merely passable, but sometimes, you get the faintest glimmer of what this game would have been- what it could have been, if only CI Games had been willing to make the necessary investments and ultimately follow through on this product's original ambitions.

The core of the game is serviceable. Sometimes great. Sometimes infuriating. I really, really like the soundtrack. Stroinsky did an incredible job with it. I don't recommend "Challenge Mode" unless you end up really getting into this game- maybe this mode would have been better in an alternate timeline where this game was given more time, but it's made abundantly clear from the level design and the game's progression that this game was made AROUND certain abilities- like seeing tagged enemies through walls, for instance, and other CryEngine staples. There's even a mod that even removes the little detection rings from enemies. It's a funny joke, until you realize they're serious. Don't even try.

Do I recommend this game? Begrudgingly. It's like an unfinished masterpiece. Some of it is blank canvas- some of it is sketchwork, promising later refinement that will never come, because I guess CI Games doesn't believe in post-launch support in any meaningful sense, outside of crapping out some tacked-on DLC. In parts, it is finished, but rushed, marred by little imperfections and missing small but crucial details. Some of it is damn near perfect.

I can only look at it and sigh, lamenting what could have been. When I've finally 100%ed all the objectives, I can't imagine myself ever reinstalling this title. Take that for what you will.

The Sniper Ghost Warrior series has, ever since it's original entries, been plagued with severe issues. In the entry prior, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, a lot of talent and a lot of effort went into the game, which unfortunately was sabotaged by short-sighted last-minute decisions that cut a lot of content that would have been unique. Like the fabled Icarus, their goals too lofty, they soared and soared before ultimately plummeting into the sea- a major disappointment given that the game seemed to have some incredible ideas and talent behind it.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts, on the other hand, is an entry in this long-maligned series that has finally hit it's mark. But it's not quite a bullseye.

Let's start with the problems:

-Ragdolls sometimes don't behave properly, especially when dropping corpses.

-There are issues with the player getting "stuck" on certain objects in a permanent falling state, not just in weird areas off the beaten path, but even along one of the main paths you may follow to reach your target during the last mission.

-The glass kinda looks bad and behaves strangely. Luckily you won't have to deal with it too much.

-When you load checkpoints, corpses disappear. Why??? Please fix this.

-Weapons that aren't sniper rifles feel worse to use than they did in the previous entry and have less features. None of the rifles can be suppressed. There are no submachine guns, which could have filled that niche. There are also shotguns, and they, too, cannot be suppressed, even though their real life variants can be. So unless you are a speedrunner, you have no options other than your sniper rifle, your pistol, or your gadgets, severely hampering "aggressive stealth" playthrough options, so unless you enjoy constantly getting into firefights, an entire category of weapons will basically never get used unless you get caught as you are attempting to exfiltrate. I would have preferred suppressors with limited durability (a feature from SGW3), allowing players a little more freedom to be aggressive, but not for too long. Pistols also feel worse, with massive amounts of delay between each shot. They're not unusable, but I would prefer being able to spam fire like you would be able to do with a real pistol and have my accuracy suffer for it, rather than having to deal with the absurd oversampling that, for some reason, was not an issue in the precious entry. I basically stuck to melee and throwing knives until I unlocked the Mk23 handgun.

-The economy seems... off.

Progression is mostly fine. I just wonder what they were smoking when they made an automatic glock that you can't suppress the most expensive pistol in the game. You can also use a drone, which, in practice, functions rather like the drone from SGW3. The only problem is that your mask's binocular/tagging feature seems to do this job just as well, and as a result, I simply never used the damn thing, as I never saw a need to.

-The game feels relatively light on content.

Beyond challenges, which are side objectives you can fulfill in order to buy unlockables, there are five "main" missions total. Call me spoiled, but... I'd really like to see content patches in the future for this title. I adore the concepts and the core gameplay loop they have here, it was just over too soon in my opinion.

These aren't major problems, but they are still there, and you will surely notice them unless the game gets further patches down the line.

Now for the Pros-

-Animations and sounds are great.

-The writing is good, and the voice actors also did a fine job.

-Mikolai Stroinski, who, most notably, composed music for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, SGW3, and Age of Empires 4, has returned to do the score for this game, and he's done a fantastic job. Sadly, I feel his work is underutilized in this entry, especially relative to the bangers that SGW3 had.

-Sniping is still awesome, though I kinda miss the neat scope adjustment animations that SGW3 had.

-Levels are large and objective dense, giving you the best of both open-world sandbox style gameplay and traditional/linear objective based gameplay, as after you've completed a major objective, you can "exfiltrate", saving your progress and allowing you to take a breather or keep playing if you so choose. This is a great idea that's mostly done well.

-Contracts are challenging and can be approached from multiple angles, and your targets can even be interrogated like common guards, giving you a better understanding, piece by piece, of the bigger picture. Out of all the little details this game does right, this might be the coolest one!

-The atmosphere, just like in SGW3, is as unique as it is transfixing.

-The core gameplay loop is solid.

-The... Multiplayer?

It's not my cup of tea, but it's fun, from what little of it I've played!

-Foliage!

It's been vastly improved from SGW3. I really really love it. I know that's a weird thing to focus on, but the way it sways in the wind or brushes aside you is excellent, and you're always aware of how visible or not you are, which was a bit of a problem in SGW3, unfortunately. How did you get this stuff to look so good?!

-Gore!

Given that most FPS games still somehow suck in this department, with crappy 2D generic little poots of blood that sometimes don't even leave messes, I like what's been done here, but there is a little room for improvement. There is a single point of amputation for each limb, and high-caliber sniper rifles will destroy heads. I would appreciate better bullet wound decals for sniper rifles. Like, when you get a headshot, you see this nice, messy spray of blood jet out from their head, but the environment is clean as a whistle, and there's not even a bullet decal in the head where I shot my mark. This is a pro and not a con because most shooter games are too lazy to bother with fun little details like this.

-The story, while not Shakespearian, is serviceable and mostly told well.

Strongly recommended, even at it's current price. If you can refine and iterate further on what you have here, you will have an undisputed GOTY. As it currently stands, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is a fantastic game whose little imperfections do nothing to hamper it's unique setting, charming atmosphere, and addictive gameplay loop. CI Games, you're onto something here. I'm very much looking forward to the next installment in this series.

Stick Fight: The Game is a decent game, I just can't seem to have a good time with it.

It's just a hair above a screen saver when it comes to player control and responsiveness. This is a casual game, pandering to a casual audience, and so was Nidhogg, and yet I enjoyed my time with Nidhogg because I felt like I had control over my movements and attacks. Winning and losing each fight was your fault. In this game, stuff just happens. Mash buttons as if you're a mentally handicapped, fingerless person suffering from muscular dystrophy, stay completely still, try to play the game as you are meant to by timing your movements to maximize your accuracy and moving your mouse precisely where you want to attack, simply lie down and pretend to be dead- all approaches are equally worthless, they have an equal chance of helping you succeed or getting you killed. To the game's credit, the level design is very cool and dynamic, with lots of moving parts or platforms that break and other cool things that would keep you on your toes... If only staying on your toes mattered. The design and specific gimmicks of each level are also quite imaginative, and I'd be a liar to say the game doesn't flirt with some neat ideas. But when NOTHING you do matters, from your reactions to your inputs to your decisions, you're not playing a casual party game. You're playing a screensaver that had the audacity to cost money! I got my copy as a gift and begrudgingly play it with my friends when we can't decide what else to play, and every time we do I'm just various levels of bored or frustrated.

I understand that I'm probably just a grumpy, joyless prick that hates fun and sucks the light out of sunshine, and so with that in mind...

Literally everyone else I have played this game with like it enough to play it regularly, and they seem to have a lot of fun playing it, so I'll recommend this game regardless of my personal experience. I'm probably just crazy.

If this looks like your cup of tea, it probably is. If any of what I said resonated with you, don't touch it. Not even on sale.

Ah, Absolution. What can I say that hasn't been said before?

It compromised the series' most fundamental mechanics, hoping to draw in new players to the series... By overmarketing the game and watering down the core gameplay. A trend as common in the 2010s as it was disappointing to witness when it happened to a series you had grown up loving (RIP Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell!) Thankfully, the decision didn't pay off, and somehow also didn't kill the series.

Is this the worst game in the series? No. That unfortunate accolade is reserved for Codename: 47, simply because it has aged poorly. And yet, Absolution IS worse, not because it is unplayable or even unenjoyable, but because it is mediocre. Codename 47 might look like ass, have a godawful default control scheme, need .ini tweaks just to run at a decent resolution, etc., but once you do get it running, you have a cheesy, darkly charming game with a brooding atmosphere, some impressive tech (for 2000!), AND an OST composed by none other than industry titan Jesper Kyd! Did you know that Codename 47 was one of the first videogames to have ragdoll physics? Wild stuff, considering the budget.

Absolution has general improvements to "the feel" of combat and it looks pretty, but almost everything else, from the atmosphere, to the soundtrack, to the narrative (not that the narrative has ever been the selling point or focus of these titles) has been compromised. If this wasn't part of such a well-liked series (not to mention many people's first introduction to the Hitman series through it's console ports), this entry would be almost universally canned as the ♥♥♥♥♥♥ Splinter Cell: Conviction knockoff it ultimately is, which is unfortunate, given the handful of good ideas this game flirts with.

Do I recommend Hitman: Absolution? Absolutely not. Play it if you want a mediocre action-stealth game, and if you do, may God have mercy on your soul. But if you want a proper Hitman game, play literally any other entry in the series. Hell, play Hitman Go.

Serena is short and simple- so do my best to also keep this review short and simple.

Serena is a point and click game with horror themes. It is written well, and during your playthrough, I'd recommend clicking items more than once, as often your character will have more to say about a given item. If you have never played a point and click game before, don't try to play this like a standard game. This game is about atmosphere and storytelling. Try to relax and immerse yourself in the role of the protagonist.

I'd describe this as the visual equivalent of a short story from a first person perspective. The visuals seem dated by the standards of 2014, but are serviceable. There is no inventory system of any kind, which makes sense as, with the exception of one item, you will not be picking anything up. What little dialogue there is is delivered well, but... Quirky. You'll know what I mean when you play it. The protag kind of sounds like a more bookish Harry Mason.

There's no replay value to speak of, but I don't feel that this reflects negatively on the game itself. Overall, I liked it for what it was. Don't play it with lofty expectations, measuring it against open world RPGs with ten different endings and a potentially thousands of hours of gameplay, or you will surely leave disappointed. Measure it instead against a short story, a fifteen minute long movie, a light Visual Novel- as an intriguing but fleeting experience.

***This review got censored when I tried to mention a certain dedicated multiplayer client. I have revised my review so that hopefully when you read this, you'll understand what I'm trying to tell you.***

Modern Warfare 2- the pinnacle of the series, at least in my opinion. "Muh balance peepeepoopoo" shut up loser no one cares. Back in the day you could snipe dudes with akimbo 1887 Winchesters. You still kinda can. Come on, what more could you want from a game?

One thing- if you're trying to play this game's dedicated multiplayer, don't. The default multiplayer experience is pure cancer- and not the kind of cancer you get nostalgic for, thinking of playing this game on your old console before you upgraded to PC. No, no, the kind of cancer that sends you directly into hacked lobbies, some of which could even remotely install malware on your PC.

But never fear, Google is your friend. Look up (Eye Double U Four Ecks), READ THE SETUP INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY, and once you have it installed, never look back. You want more maps and game modes? Dedicated servers? Bots? Zombies? More guns? More loadouts? Don't wanna farm to get back up to Prestige, or get back all your old emblems, ranks, dog tags etc.? (Eye Double U Four Ecks) has got you covered. Seriously. Don't try to play the default multiplayer. Please.