Recent reviews by Pump-Action Pete

Leaving Lyndow is a short, yet somewhat sweet teaser for an upcoming title still in development.

To be brief, I quite enjoyed what was on offer. The scenery is very nice, foliage and vegetation detailed quite well. I loved the architecture of the buildings. The tavern, the main character's house, the docks, they were all well designed.
In fact, the only issues I have graphics-wise is perhaps the character models. They... need refinement.

Most complaints about the game range from a short, non-existant story that is already explained before you
start the game, to an empty/lifeless world. Apparently there isn't enough going on for people to fully enjoy.
Others find the world completely devoid of life and meaning. I feel that these people are looking for too much.
After all, this is a prelude to something bigger, right?
I, on the other hand, understand that this is just a brief and relaxing glimpse into what may be.
This "what may/could be" is what will bring me back to give the title in development, Eastshade, a try in order to
hopefully be more thoroughly invested.

Overall, don't go in expecting too much, and you won't be too disappointed.

<I love the fact that half of the positive reviews for this are one liners>:

-Very intersting Game

-I think this game is pretty cool

-free and theres achievement to get

And finally my personal favorite:

-I don't care what others say - this game is wonderful!!!
|
V
(people are easily impressed these days. I sure wasn't :/)

Notice how none of these tell you much. Very well, let
ME give you a good idea of what this game will bring you.

-Tiny glimmers of amusing puzzle solving?

-Irritating dialogue throughout

-Needlessly bizarre attempts at twists/trippy moments

Essentially, this game is about some guy who is suffering
from a night of heavy drinking and drug-taking (accidental or otherwise, I don't care).
That's it. I get that it is a free game with achievements (oh joy), but
there are enough games on Steam that try too hard to be different.
And emulating a drug-induced stupor accompanied with voice-acting
that consists of: ♥♥♥♥ you man! ♥♥♥♥ me, No ♥♥♥♥ you!

A VERY intelligent design, I must say. Unimaginative and offers nothing new.

<PS. The credits were so long ;_; the garbage dialogue just wouldn't end>

Also, the game cache needed to be verified for half of the achievements
to show up. :/

Lots of positive reviews on here. Looks like its easy for people to follow the rest of the sheep... So here's my opinionated review :D

It is basically a really long commercial about why we should all be impressed about Dota 2 and how people looking to "break the rules" and give themselves an aneurysm should get into it.
Not sure why the system requirements says this movie needs 500 MB of space, when I had to download 7.3 GB to play it... But hey, it was free right? Free and boring. Thank Jupiter it has achievements otherwise its popularity would be halved.

I liked Limbo, I really did. It didn't need much of a story, or any real fancy gameplay dynamic. Just some nice art style involving silhouettes and simple black/white backgrounds. It can be described as having a minimalistic art style. Antenna does the same, though with far less content.

Personally, I looked a little deeper into what this game is about. The description for the game: "A machine ponders its loneliness. It scans the radio spectrum for an answer to its question."
I think a little imagination is needed to fully encapsulate what this game is about and what it attempts to achieve. The robotic creature scuttling along seems to act as a sort of caretaker for the structure which the game revolves around. You control the creature to raise radio antennae and activate generators, to power up/turn on parts of the structure and to strengthen the radio waves needed to access the underground area and progress.

The games' greatest flaw is definitely the lack of content. Plenty more is need. However the content that is there is good. The puzzles were fun and I'm sure a story could have been made to accompany extended gameplay to give this game more than half an hours worth of gameplay. But for what its worth, I enjoyed it. For a free, short game, you can't go wrong and I just don't see why people write negative reviews when this game didn't relieve them of a single cent/rupee/rand/ruble/peso etcetera, and didn't take much of their time. As for unique, I dunno man. If you're after a unique game these days, you're in for a struggle. But I suppose there will always be whiners and whingers.

I'm generally not a big fan of point-and-click type games, and this experience won't change that. However, I did have a thoroughly enjoyable experience thanks to this game immersing me into a largely suspenseful and paranoia-ridden environment.
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Setting the scene: I wake up in a small room with no memory of how I came to be where I am or any clues as to what my purpose ever was. The only objective being, to escape and find out what happened along the way.
Immediately you'll have to dust off your thinking caps and slam those bad boys on, because puzzle-solving is key here. Observe your surroundings, be perceptive, and try to build up the story behind the place. I honestly went in with no expectations and got a fun 4-5 hours out of it. It might seem a little dull at first, but it gets far more interesting in the second half of the game.

Some puzzles are easy while others require a little more thought put into how they are solved. A couple times I almost gave up because it didn't seem at all logical. But persevere and you'll get your money's worth. I admit, this game could have been made better in regards to finding certain objects that require you to progress further. It just shouldn't be that hard at some points. But it is and can get quite frustrating finding some small object or knowing how to use it. Another thing that I found this game lacked is a little more closure once you neared the end. Some questions were left unanswered and I really wish they hadn't done that, seeing as how I was so drawn in by the atmosphere and dark story-telling.

Overall, I would recommend this to people who enjoy adventure games in general, and to those who love a bit of 1950s Soviet-themed (fake) history with legit themes thrown in. I especially enjoyed reading the patient files and information files on the poisonous gases (they turned out to play a part in the game). The radio puzzle was a nice touch, though I'm not sure if the speeches/songs featured on the device are actual recordings or just created specifically for this game.

Now, for some inexplicable reason, I seem to have a craving for some creepypasta...

This review comes from me having played this when it came out in 2007, and beaten twice so my Steam hours don't do it justice.
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If you had ever played a role-playing game before The Witcher came out, chances are that most of the game involved people asking you to go places, deliver items, and kill things. Then this little beauty was born.

After the Witcher 3 came out and caught everybody's attention, many people who haven't played the series end up asking the question "should I play the first two games in the series?". Inevitably, many people will recommend playing The Witcher 2: a great game with solid controls and outstanding visuals. And what visuals they were, able to bring the gaming rigs (at the time) to their knees.
While I'd agree with all of that, I'd also add that everyone should play the first game, because I found it to be one of the best RPGs of all time. It is, through and through, a true RPG. One that focuses on choice and the resulting consequence, rather than character building etc.

Usually in every conversation I have regarding The Witcher, someone always admits to quitting, usually due to the unique fighting mechanics or during the game's extensive swamp section. But because The Witcher is structured linearly, and it seems as though it was built that way, it results in a game that constantly gets better as the story progresses. The second act improves upon the first, the third improves upon the second and so on and so forth. Despite the game's initial awkwardness, it becomes apparent to the player that things are picking up and where a certain brilliance can be felt in the story. But it's the fourth act where the crescendo really occurs and is that which really makes The Witcher what it is, what it's meant to be.

Every moment in the act is interconnected in some way. Every character seems to have a relationship with every other character. And each character has a little quest for you, which in turn will all lead back to the original quest. It's a beautiful thing really. Alina and Julian are getting married, but Alina's taking care of Alvin, who leads you to the local hermit, who takes you back to the Lady of the Lake, who wants you to kill a monster in a particular way, and on it goes.
The thing about these quests is that they are different in regards to other RPGs. Tasked with killing things in order to obtain items is fine, but it's a simple approach to a more full-filling one that these side quests can offer. The Witcher recognises that these games aren't so much about the skills players choose, but the choices you make. Each choice leads to a different outcome. And these choices are generally based off the player's view on matters, or how they feel, which makes the whole experience that much more authentic.
Of course The Witcher is not unique in this regard, but it can certainly serve as a more refreshing approach to how RPGs should be made.

Convincing a ghost that she is, in fact, a ghost so as to help her pass on to the afterlife is not a quest that would be present in many games. Nor would a quest, such as the aforementioned, end with the main character participating in a poetic duel with a bard.
The Witcher isn't the most beautiful game, with its wonky animations and the odd poor texture here and there, making it incomparable to its successor The Witcher 2. The more I played, however, the more I found myself sucked in. You end up learning that ignoring side quests is not an option. You just have to see more, play more, experience more. The Witcher shows us that there can be more to RPGs than just fighting.

I, personally, thoroughly enjoyed the underlying themes in certain parts of the game.
Act IV explores the different topics present in its story through the actions taken by the NPCs and the player. Two species with two different sides to the story. A ghost who isn't so much evil as it is misguided, and even in death it loves gambling so much that it tries to gamble for a human life. The monsters themselves seem to embody failed loves and desires. So much seems to be going on and somehow, through all the intricacy of the narrative, the clever role-playing ideas of the initial parts of the game are brought together in Act IV to form a cohesive statement about love and other things. Laying it all out, dissecting it, and examining it, resulting in a culmination of understanding.

So go ahead, do yourself a favour and pick it back up if you haven't already. Beat the game, and possibly end up having one of the best roleplaying experiences of your life. From Act IV onward. Or not. I don't mind.


Update 3/12/2016:
I've just discovered the OST and Inspired by soundtrack that come with the game. Seriously, such value for money. When on sale, it's $1.50. Outstanding.

I achieved ascension as a fly in 5 mins

BRUTAL

Well well, where to begin...

When I booted the game up for the first time, I was confronted by an early access user agreement screen. This was the first problem I experienced, as the screen remained unresponsive for about 5 mins. The button wouldn't work. Simple as that. But once it did, you could finally get to the main menu and start your disappointing journey...

I'll start by describing my first (and only) experience. My first spawn dropping me under 30 feet of freezing water in the middle of the ocean, a solid 20km from the nearest land mass. I spent my first 10-15 mins swimming (rather ineffectively) towards said land mass only to have the game crash on me. Not to worry, I restarted the game and respawned, this time on land thankfully. All this I experienced with no sound at first.

Second time round was a little more enjoyable. I entered a small town, saw a couple other players (all of whom avoided me) and battled a couple mutants who destroyed me in glorious Nippon hand-to-hand combat.

So what can I say about this game after giving it a solid hour of gameplay? The visuals were quite nice. The scenery was pleasant to the eyes. But that was about it. The character animations were fairly poorly done. In third-person mode your character looked autistic. Seriously.
The game is pretty broken, you are guaranteeed to experience regular crashes and sound drops. It is very boring, it wasn't clear on how to get started and use items. Comparing this to other survival games, it certainly lacked in this area. I therefore cannot recommend this game as it is. It needs a lot of attention and in my opinion, why bother? There are better survival games out there (Reign of Kings, Rust, 7 Days to Die; just to name a few). You'd be much better off with any of those.

As for me, I'm getting a refund. Maybe if this game ever gets fixed and becomes bug-free and complete, maybe then I'll give it another chance. Until then, it is the go to autism simulator.

To Kan Gao

After playing your game, my blackened heart has become slightly less so.


Much appreciated,
Gaming enthusiast