Recent reviews by grim_reefer

It's fun, but don't believe the Doom/Quake Comparison for a second- the environments and cutscenes have lots of visual depth, and the game is fun, nu-retro and difficult, but a more apt comparison would be with Hotline Miami- the music is fast paced, the game is fast paced, you die in seconds. Your character in comparison to these environments is tiny- smaller than the original mario- and the enemies are tiny, which is most of the reason you'll die in the first place. After you get used to looking for four grey pixels with one peach colored pixel on top in a vast sea of red, black, grey, etc. (or whatever the case may be later on in the game), difficulty is a matter of whatever setting you're on and whatever strategy you employ. I find it quite fun and fulfilling in terms of the gameplay, and the environments, soundtrack, sound design, gore and everything else is phenominal. I just really wish they had put a dollar or two more into making the characters larger than a baby fly- not even by much, just a few more pixels. But that's a personal thing. Worth the ten bucks if you're into this sorta thing.

Look, here's the long and short of it. I wanted to like it a lot, and I ended up dissapointed. It runs like bootybuns. It plays like Dark Souls but somehow, even more slow and grindy and tedious, and with none of the caveats or nuances that make games like that tough but fair and overall satisfying experiences. On top of this, in the beginning it's a semilinear sort of game, so if you wanna just grind the everloving crap out of your dude to make him awesome enough to not die as much, you gotta backtrack the same claustrophobic environments over and over for the handful of piss-tier enemies to respawn.
Are there fun moments? Yes.
Is the game pretty? Sure, if you got the rig to run it.
Story's acceptable, voice acting is pretty nice, and the overall quality of the presentation cannot be ignored, but under that thin veil of gold is the very definition of artificial difficulty- your reflexes here mean nothing as your character lethargically winds up- to late, your target swivels and wrecks your ♥♥♥♥. Rinse and repeat. Boss battles are not a matter of skill. They're a matter of gear, strategy, and sheer dumb luck, and if that's your cup of tea by all means drink it- I myself tend to play games more often than not with this silly, antiquated idea of enjoying them while I do it.
So if you like playing frustrating, tedious games that waste your time being the opposite of fun or entertaining, have at it. Not my thing, and if it's not your thing either, I can't reccomend this title to you in good faith.

I've been playing this game for a while now, and, though I haven't finished it, I feel I've been playing long enough to speak my mind, because this game has a lot of things I think will be of interest to the potential buyer.

First off- unless you're a masochist, get yourself a controller for this. I rarely, if ever, play any game ever with anything less than a mouse and keyboard, but for this one it's absolutely essential.

This game has character. Ever watched a strange anime on adult swim or online at two AM, half asleep? This is the best way I can describe it. The characters are nice, the world is interesting, the textures, while they show their age in the form of pixels on static, animated faces, do their job well enough.
The controls are on and off for me. I've seen gameplay of people handling their chosen character very well and acing levels, as for me I've been having a lot of trouble coming to grips with so much as maintaining a chain of grinds or getting my character to jump exactly where I want them to- something that in free play or graffiti missions doesn't make much of a difference, but in something like a race is crucial, and this game loves to make you race other characters to try and see who can tag a certain area first.
One missed jump or failed grind, and it's over, and unlike the trick competitions, this game doesn't have the courtesy of failing you outright- you've got to wait until your opponent sprays his tag, either by futiley trailing a country mile behind him, or having your character standby and do a little jig while you have a fit in the corner and try to compose yourself for the twentieth go at it- after you've skipped the cutscenes, which you can do unless you quit the game, return to the garage (which acts as a sort of hub for choosing your level and character, among other things) or otherwise have to leave in the middle of one of them.
When whichever is the real problem here- the game, or my thumbs- works, it works like a damn dream, and it's a fine little piece of entertainment here for eight bucks- it looks nice if a touch dated, it runs great (as well it should, given how old it is), and everything going on it keeps you guessing, for better or worse. Just when you think they've gotten predictable with riot police and parachute troops on your tail, they bring out missile firing helicopters and tanks to try and waste you, and grinding down the road, tagging the wall up and jumping onto a rail for an added boost, all this stuff combined makes this game great and a joy to play and replay despite it's age and my lack of mastery of it.
Now, from what I hear, they made a sequel a while back, and if it improved on all these things or at least kept in the spirit of the original game, I'd love to have a crack at it, or better yet, another sequel.
Until then, I hear there's a spiritual successor in the works by one of the people who used to work on the series named Hover: Revolt of Gamers. Might be worth a shot, who knows?

Give the game a go if you're looking for a game that'll scratch your itch for smart and complex gunplay or kill a few hours, but don't get your hopes up for a more refined experience, even with mods taken into consideration. This package is incomplete, the mods for it are by and large incomplete, and that's the long and short of it. It's worth five bucks, sure, but that's not saying a whole lot.

Thrilling and engaging from the fast paced gameplay alone, this is further amped up by a twisting and shifting plot that raises more questions than answers at the end of it. Fuzzy, distorted, 80's style synth music sets the tone of each scene well- from frantic and badass, to placid and even psychedelic, back again to flat, morose, disturbed.
If the methodical murder setpieces, subversive narrative and music all prove engaging for you, this is an experience well worth the price.

One flaw this game has is that sometimes, stuff just doesn't work- in a game where there are no second chances or quickasves once you've ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up a stage, you'd expect the combat to feel responsive, for every swing that's aimed well and in range to hit it's mark, and unfortunately... Well, I guess you could describe the feel of combat in a worst case scenario as hit or miss- but when the game does work and the pieces all come together, there's nothing quite like it.

Another problem is finishing moves- more often than not you end up having to temporarily incapacitate a target in a room, eliminate someone more dangerous/well armed, and then take out the other sucker before he gets back up, which is as easy as hitting space and clicking until the guy beneath you is pink mush... In theory. In practice, you're gonna end up hovering frantically over the man you've just knocked down, mashing the space button to no avail, and worst case scenario you end up brained yourself as he gets back up, grabs the nearest object or firearm and wastes you- and then it's back to the start of the stage. RIP.

Finally, and this is more just of a subjective thing, this game can be cheap with enemy placements, mechanics and movement. You start out thinking the idea is to learn the enemy movement patterns and plan accordingly, but more often than not one ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ enemy will go and do something completely random at the worst possible time, and then you're screwed through no fault of your own. Or you meet a new enemy type that the beginning tutorial didn't cover, with special properties such as being bulletproof, not being vulnerable to doors, etc. and bang, rip, crunch, you're dead.

Overall, it's worth the cost- these problems sound huge, but in a game as fast paced and satisfying as this, they're hardly even an issue- you just press R to restart and five or ten seconds in, you're back where you last died, right as rain and a little bit smarter than you were before.

In my humble opinion, the Call of Juarez series is rather hit or miss- pulling one game randomly out of the bunch is 50/50 as far as you getting your money's worth, and that's saying something given that there's currently only four games in the series. Glad to say, this is one of them.

Sound- Voices sound like they were recorded with a potato, yet the gunshots are crisp. Explosions look flat, though dynamite and oil lamps scattered around the environment are effective enough. This is a western, though- the focus is on the gunplay.

Gunplay- Just a touch tricky with some of the special moves, but once you get the hang of it you're damn near unstoppable playing as one of two brothers- Thomas, the sneaky and lithe long ranged specialist with knives and a bow, or as Ray, the guns-blazing, dual weilding muscle bound ass kicker. The game rarely limits your approach as far as what weapons you're actually allowed to utilize- as Ray I often found myself picking off people with a long rifle, and with Thomas I've blown away many an outlaw with a double barrel- the differences lie in how you utilize these weapons, and also, what perspective you experience the story from.

The Story- It's well written and engaging as any good western should be- not reinventing the wheel by any means, but satisfying to see unfold- and given the different perspectives of each brother through these missions, it's worth a second go just to see what exactly is going on when the other brother is out of sight. How you determine the quality of the ending and how everything get's tied together will ultimately be a rather subjective thing, but I personally enjoyed it.

I can't speak for the multiplayer- I haven't tried it, but there's a community however small it may be dedicated to keeping it alive, so it must have some merit.

If you're new to western themed games but enjoy first person shooters heavily focused on story and gameplay, definitely give this one a whirl- if you're already a fan of such things, don't even wait for it to go on sale like I did, ten bucks is already a steal, minor little quirks and flaws be damned.