Recent reviews by Nomiya

I's only after i've achieved every single achievement did i realise that there's a button to lock your weapon and prevent accidental swaps.

It's "R" by the way...and this makes the game a 11/10.

TL;DR - The Evil Within 2 is a vast improvement over its predecessor, placing more focus on building up the atmosphere and environment rather than overemphasis of blood and gore.

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Gameplay for TEW2 is vastly improved. Gunplay is pretty much the same as the original but the stealth aspect of the game is better now with the cover mechanic. There are different types of weapons for each categories that each serve their different purposes which caters to the different needs of players. i.e. stealthy players may focus more on the silenced pistol to draw enemies one by one, whereas players who prefer straight up combat may go for the more powerful revolver or the more accurate laser-sighted pistol.

Upgrades for weapons and stats for Sebastian are now separated, with weapon parts for upgrading weapons and green gels for upgrading Sebastian and granting him new abilities. In that way, not only can the player build their character according to the playstyle they like, it's is also more difficult to get into the situation whereby the player feels like he/she wasted the materials they used. In addition, green gels actually grants certain useful abilities to Sebastian, such as the ability to strike at unaware enemies from cover, automatically freeing themselves from a grab with a bottle or increased weapon damage with consecutive hits. This is a great departure from the small, minute improvements you get from green gels in the original game.

Crafting is also introduced and seems to draw heavily from Resident Evil 7. This feature gives the player some leeway in using their supplies when venturing through the world, easing them from some on the situations possibly face in the original game whereby they just have not enough bullets to take any boss down. Yet at the same time to prevent this from being abused, the great idea of increased cost when not crafting at a crafting table is greatly increased to deter the wasting of materials unless absolutely desperate for them. I thought this is a really good idea.

Instead of the mostly linear path like the original, TEW2 is now set in an open-world-ish town with a few sidequests that gives more insight on what the background of this game is about.

Story is still whack depending on how invested you were in the lore of the previous title. Newly-inducted players are more likely to find everything more acceptable while the veterans might find the sudden introduction of the new characters (i.e. the daughter) to be more...abrupt.

The best part of this game is the atmosphere and some of the disturbing monsters that haunt you throughout your exploration of the world. With minute usage of jumpscares, the focus and details on the background, eerie music and sometimes cramped environment keeps the players constantly on guard.

I have only one complain - the length of the game feels a bit too short. For a game of this price, i'd expect the story to run on a bit over 25 hours. Playing through the game trying to find all the extra events nets me a total of 15 hours, although to be fair i did not manage to find anything. I also did not try the new game plus mode or higher difficulties.

Whether you liked the original game or not, TEW2 is sure to be a welcomed addition to your library of games.

I bought this game understanding the poor optimisation. I am personally fine with low framerates and it was a little hard to pass up the sale especially when i am a fan of the franchise.

...then the mouse started moving by itself. Repeatedly.

Without Within is a visual novel, a genre that i try to avoid. However since it is free, why not give it a try?

I will start with the cons of the game. There is no proper resolution menu (the protagonist actually makes a joke about resolutions within the story) and it is too short, with the novel ending a little too abruptly.

However, i really liked this visual novel. Every scene has great detail and the colours were great. As a result, i found myself to be pretty invested in the main character, to the extent of being really tempted to buy the extra edition in order to see more of the main character.

If you have 10 to 20 minutes to spare, go ahead and give it a try.

Ziggurat is a rogue-like first-person-shooter dungeon-crawler, with many elements from games such as The Binding of Isaac (TBOI), Paranautical Activity and even Crimsonland. The initial goal you will be set upon is to get through a five-level dungeon. Each level is randomly generated similarly to TBOI, and is cleared by finding and obtaining a Portal Key and then defeating the floor boss.

The gameplay is simply first-person shooting. However, you have access to another weapon at the beginning and can hold up to 4 at any time. Each weapon - Magic Wand (default), Spell Books, Staves and Alchemic Weapons. Each weapon type has different mana pools and can be upgraded when leveling up by picking the corresponding perk. Each weapon also has a alternate fire mode. This grants the player many interesting ways of fighting enemies.

By picking up 'knowledge gems' from fallen enemies, the player can level up and select a perk from 2 randomly chosen from the perk pool, much like Crimsonland's level up. The upgrades chosen can widely vary and determine a playstyle and how you approach the dungeon's deeper levels. It is entirely feasible to focus purely on staves and upgrade on purely the mana pool and regen of staves. You may also find amulets which grant different temporary benefits, much like items in TBOI

The RNG of the game would be the rooms you will find in each level. There are enemy rooms, trap rooms, shrines where you pray and can receive gifts or punishments and treasure rooms which can hide an enemy ambush. With enough experience, it is possible to take a peek at the room, determine the type, then decide whether you wish to challenge the room or not. At times, this RNG about room placement can completely destroy a run even in the early stages.

After each defeat, with the gold gathered you will unlock items, weapons, perks to be added to the existing pool for your use on the next run. Once certain feats are completed, characters will also be unlocked. Each character has their advantages and disadvantages, granting a different experience with each of them.

With that said, Ziggurat is a content-rich game which shows finesse at this genre of games. I fully recommend anyone who likes random elements happening in their games to have a go at Ziggurat.

What can i say except that it is quite the game with a rather intriguing story?