Recent reviews by ManagingDemocracy

Changing the EULA and adding a PSN requirement makes the game unplayable in countries it was previously playable in and adds additional hoops for players to jump through to play a game they've already paid for.

Missing texture files, missing cutscenes, many critical errors, servers are terrible, and the "AI upscaling" did a terrible job. Just play the originals, they're actually playable.

Resident Evil 2 is an example of a perfect remake. It holds true to the vision of the original, while bringing a very dated classic to the modern day. Leon and Claire are classic characters in the Resident Evil mythos, and they're better here than in almost any other iteration. The game looks, plays, and feels fantastic.

The overrun Raccoon City Police Department is the location the majority of the game takes place, and it is truly a place of nightmares. You're rarely ever safe within or without its walls. Enemies you've long thought dead may stand back up hours later, and supplies can be scarce. More than once your best bet will be to simply run for your life. The atmosphere is uniquely terrifying, and the game doesn't relent for the first several hours.

In the later acts the game can dip into a more action oriented style, but after hours of being on the defensive, this can be a welcome shift in power. Ensure you play through both Leon and Claire's paths to get the full experience.

Resident Evil 2 truly is a masterpiece of horror, and one of the best games I've ever played.

I'll make this short - this should have been a DLC for Resident Evil 2. It uses the same engine, the same locations at key points, etc. The game can be beaten in under 2 hours. I've done it. There's an achievement for it.

This game doesn't justify it's $60 price tag, and is a shameful excuse for a Triple A title, especially coming off the phenomenal Resident Evil 2 Remake. What it is however is an excellent jaunt through Raccoon City the same night Leon and Claire go through hell. Jill Valentine is a fantastic protagonist, and Carlos proves himself to be a fantastic addition to the Resident Evil world. The antagonists left a lot to be desired, and the Nemesis was a little underwhelming in comparison to Mr. X from RE2.

If you can pick the game up on sale it makes for a fun return to Raccoon City, but I would never pay full price for the experience.

Can't really recommend the game, at least in its current state.

Every match follows the same basic formula: Grab the thermometer, a flashlight, and your additional tool of choice. Walk around until you find the coldest room, then ferry equipment back and forth until you have your clues. Fill out the optional objectives, which are typically straightforward: take a picture of the ghost when it appears, find the freezing room, put down a crucifix, etc. None of them are particularly difficult. Overall, the gameplay look is extremely repetitive. Your first match will likely play out very similarly to your fifth, tenth, hundredth, etc.

The game also fails entirely as a horror game. It really isn't scary in the slightest. Ghosts have a few jumpscares, but you quickly realize that there is nothing behind them to threaten you. With few exception, the only time you are in danger is when your flashlight flickers (signalling the beginning to a hunt). With only a few exceptions, the ghosts are the same speed as the player, and the player can just walk backward to avoid death. Only in small confined spaces or against specific faster ghosts are players ever in any danger. Once your subconscious has picked up on this, the game really stops being any scary.

Overall, I simply cannot recommend the game, at least with how it is currently. It is far too repetitive and not scary. The game does have potential, and I would love to be updating this review in the future if it ever comes to fruition.

Makes Doom 2016 look like a tech demo. Better guns, better enemies, better combat, everything is just dialed up to 11.
It's a rare game that you finish a fight and you feel your heart pounding and your hands shaking, but each and every fight in this game does that and each successive fight is bigger and more intense than the last.

My only complain is that the game feels like it traded a certain level of grit found in Doom 2016 for a more over the top, stylized feel. In Doom 2016 the Mars facility felt like it was straight out of a horror game - hell looked like it was truly a place where the damned would suffer for eternity, and the enemies all were something from a nightmare. Here, that has been traded away for glowing utopian cities and enemies who make cartoon sounds when they die. A minor nitpick given how much better the game is over its 2016 predecessor in every other way.

Ashley Williams : One of the most iconic men in horror, Ash finally makes his way to Dead By Daylight. Voiced by Bruce Campbell himself, I can't imagine any Evil Dead fans being disappointed. He looks and sounds perfect, and even has a few voice lines for when you are waiting around in the lobby. (-0)

There are a total of three perks included in the DLC, since there is only the sole survivor.
Ash Williams
Mettle of Man : This perk was meta the moment it was added to the game. More reliable than Adrenaline, and can save you in a pinch. The only issue is that it is not effected by killers powers - you read right, if Hillbilly chainsaws you, no stacks are added to your shield. This perk is ridiculously useful against standard M1 killers, but against someone like Leatherface with his chainsaw or Michael with his Evil Within, it can be unreliable. Still one of the top perks in the game, and belongs in the arsenal of every survivor.
Update: This perk received a pretty major nerf that knocked it down to meme tier. While I admit I'll toss it on every once and awhile to see if I can get it to activate, there is absolutely no real reason to run it. You'll end up having to give the killer free hits to activate the perk, when in reality you should just be focused on other objectives. The odds of you getting three protection hits naturally are so low you will likely never see it happen. (-3)
Flip Flop : A weak anti-slug perk. At the end of the day, you're much better off using Unbreakable. If the killer slugs you long enough for you to gain enough struggle bar to escape before being hooked, you could have just picked yourself up with Unbreakable, crawled to safety with Tenacity, etc. Again, there are just so many better options compared to this highly situational perk you're best off not using it. (-3)
Buckle Up : Another anti-slug perk, but this time for grabbing your teammates off the floor. Completely useless if you are playing SWF, and for solo survivors, doesn't do a lot either. While admittedly useful for avoiding rushing in and not being able to heal your teammates, it just doesn't do a lot. (-4)

Grade: C

I'll admit it; I've enjoyed just about ALL of the Saw Movies. I'd rewatch just about any of them. They're not great movies, quite a few aren't even good movies, but they are damn entertaining. My review may be a little biased, but I'll try to be fair.

Amanda: The first apprentice we see on screen, long before the retcons and flashbacks, Amanda has been a villain of the Saw franchise since the second one. Her powers in the game and look all match up fairly well. She's stealthy, able to crouch and lose her terror radius. Chasing isn't her strong suit, but slowing the game down and torturing the survivors is her specialty. She isn't overpowered, but is still a strong killer, even at high level play. Don't expect to kill anyone with the bear traps, but you'll be turning the survivors against each other - nothing is worse than seeing the timer start because your teammates finished a generator. Definitely a solid, mid-tier killer. Her addons can be weak, and often her lower tier addons are better than her high tier addons. (-2)

Detective Tapp: Making his first return from the original film, Tapp is a fun addition to the game. His look is semi-accurate to the films, and he has some fun customization options. Not much else to say about him. (-0)

There are a total of six perks included in the DLC, three for the survivors and three for the killers.
Survivors
Tenacity : An increased crawl rate and being able to simultaneously recover has little use overall. It's only use is against slugging killers, and unless you are bringing a second perk to get yourself up with, you're still relying on teammates to help you back up. Not completely useless like other perks, but after you've gotten the achievement, you won't be using it again. (-4)
Detective's Hunch : A solid option for new players learning the layout of the maps, but tends to lose out to other perks. It only works after finishing a generator, so it won't help you take down that pesky ruin early on in the game. Once you've figured out the spawn locations for chests and generators, Small Game will fulfill the same role, and often do it better. (-3)
Stake Out : Every fifteen seconds you are in the killers terror radius, you get a free Great Skill Check. While this is useful, other perks will help you out a lot more. (-2)
Killers
Hangman's Trick : Allows killers to reuse hooks. While this is useful against sabotaging survivors, those kinds of teams are fairly rare. I can only thing of a handful of times I have wanted a hook back when playing as a killer. Frankly, it's just not a very good perk with too limited functionality for me to recommend running it. (-4)
Surveillance : Following the recent rework, this has become a fairly excellent late-game tracking perk. Sick of not being able to find the last two survivors? Surveillance allows you to consistently find survivors who are attempting to repair generators you have damaged. Definitely better on some killers than others, but has a place among the arsenal of any high ranking killer. (-2)
Make Your Choice : A fantastic perk that rewards killers who aren't tunneling. It can be useless against overly altruistic survivors, but can allow you to turn a game around when survivors are suddenly punished for going for the safe unhooks. You'll have to get back fast to take down the rescuer, but even experienced survivors will be a little on the scared side when they are exposed for 60 seconds. (-1)
Grade: D

Michael: Who doesn't like Michael Myers? The Shape is a classic movie monster and he is a fantastic addition to Dead by Daylight. His power set matches his actions in the Halloween franchise well, and the developers should be praised for giving such an accurate and fun adaption of Michael Myers. (-0)
Laurie Strode is a poor rendition of one of cinema's most iconic characters and of the original slasher Final Girl. Her outfit looks nothing like what she wears in any of the Halloween movies and her face looks like it was designed by someone who has never seen Jamie Lee Curtis. Her perks do match her abilities in the films though; being an obsession of Myers and actually having the ability to fight back, even if she cannot kill the killer. (-7)

There are a total of six perks included in the DLC, three for the survivors and three for the killers.
Survivors
Sole Survivor : Reducing the aura reading abilities of the killer is useless when it requires your friends to be sacrificed. Most killers will still be able to track you down some other method, and few have long range aura reading abilities anyway. (-4)
Object of Obsession : Every killers worst nightmare. Insanely strong in a SWF group, and can be very strong even in solo queue. It gives a lot of free information, and in DBD, knowledge is power. You can expect to be tunneled for running this, and in most cases that's the smartest thing for the killer to do. It'll be getting reworked soon, but as it stands its one of the most powerful perks in the game. (-1)
Decisive Strike : After the recent rework, Decisive Strike is no longer a top tier perk. It now stuns killers for 5 seconds if they pick you back up within 60 seconds after you have been unhooked. I'm all for punishing tunneling killers, and this is an excellent option for the Solo Survivor who can't rely on teammates to safely unhook or bring Borrowed Time. (-1)
Killers
Save the Best For Last : Requiring The Shape to deal with the friends of his obsession first is certainly in character, and it definitely helps the killer keep pressure up. It will end chases sooner, and encourages the killer to continually switch targets. The penalty for hitting the obsession is high at two tokens, but this is definitely a solid perk all around. (-1)
Play With Your Food : Increasing movement speed when your obsession escapes; certainly a highly situational perk, and is reliant on the killers power and the other perks in your loadout. Certain killers like Bubba gain a lot from this, where other killers like Spirit or Freddy are just wasting their time. (-2)
Dying Light : This perk is a solid gen regression perk. Its penalty is fairly small, and does not apply to the obsession, but it works entirely passively and continues to grow stronger throughout the match. It definitely needs some touch ups to become a strong anti gen progression perk, but it certainly fits Myers character and is strong in its own right. (-2)
Grade: D

They brought Maurice back. Guess he gave Dredge indigestion.