Recent reviews by Takingdomscosimog

First game was probably better, but it's still worth playing.

6/10

Haydee 2 has quickly became one of my favourite games, I dont think Iv ever played anything quite like it. The absolute absence of guidance is totally refreshing, thanks to this I share the same confused perspective as HD512 which is our characters serial number, but more on that later. We awaken in a room next to inanimate copies of our-self, you immediately take control there is no cutscene no narrative no markers. You only hear music and an automated announcer, everywhere is desolate and void of sentience whatever this place is (or was) it is clear it is no longer functional. As you make your way around a bit you'll notice a few things, such as there seems to be a sheer abundance of sexual imagery from vending machines to posters to pick ups, and that the only life you seem to encounter are horribly disfigured alien looking creeps in worker uniforms. I wont spoil what iv learned about the story because half of the fun is actually figuring this out for yourself, the way you learn the lore is in two ways there are little titbits of information on letters and reports scattered around the entire facility. The second way is environmental storytelling which goes back to what I was saying about the lewd imagery and zombie like workers, when you combine the scraps of info with the environment, you get a really engaging story which is drip fed to you the player leaving you to hypothesise, or wonder what the hell happened here.

Now talking about game play, the loop is like this you find things you need to get into rooms/areas, you may not exactly know why but if you find a key that fits a lock you're going to open it aren't you. Solving tough puzzles is a major part of it too, except there to make it tougher you have enemies standing in your way and several choke-holds placed upon you all the while, such as inventory space, limited saves (only if you play on hardcore there is unlimited saves in softcore) and ammo, oh yes ammo, lets talk about that for a sec. You see when it comes to ammo you get quite a lot of it at the very start, you may look at your 50+ pistol ammo rounds and think "hey, I'll shoot everything that moves and it will be so badass!" etc. Only to find that you have now soft locked your self from progressing cos your objective is blocked by enemies and your gun is now just for show. It genuinely happened to me and I had to reset. Seriously if you take anything from this review let it be that ammo is the most precious thing you can find in this game, ofc it is entirely possible to beat the game with loads of ammo left over but in order for that to happen you need to know exactly where and when to use it. You will have had to upgrade your guns as well once you figure out that the weapon upgrades indeed are weapon upgrades cos I didn't know at first either. I should probably also note that some of the puzzling can be quite convoluted and since you don't get item descriptions you will need to rely on intuition if you can, or failing that an online guide or help from the trusty steam forum goers cos some of the puzzles really are quite difficult to figure out.

I want to talk a bit about the atmosphere, cos it is minimal in a really good way each area has its own theme on a loop but they all really fit. I have a few personal favourites too, for me "technical" or the yellow zone (not that you'd know it was yellow cos its ♥♥♥ pitch black in there) is my favourite as well as safe room music but I think I like that one cos it's conditioned me to know that i wont be surprise attacked in there. Which does happen by the way you can backtrack to an area you have "cleared" and a slasher may drop from the ♥♥♥ ceiling behind you at any time and possibly end you. Anyway back to atmosphere, I mentioned the yellow zone earlier, and yes the areas have their own colour schemes this lets you distinguish the different zones as well as the music doing the same. The music makes up a lot of the atmosphere, the rest is ironed into you from being killed by really quite cheaply placed mines and the aforementioned unexpected ceiling attacks. It conditions you to watch your own back makes you feel alone and be weary of every corner, and that perfectly sets up the atmosphere for this game to me. What you may have thought was just an ero game has a sinister underlying truth, wont spoil it with the details, but I feel that as far as atmosphere goes gives you enough of an idea.

Just a couple of final things, the game CAN be completed in under an hour. CAN. I spent 50 ♥♥♥ hours on my first playthrough on softcore, I'm now on the last section of hardcore and I will play it many many more times after.
Im not even going to talk about how much time iv spent trying to beat Haydee one.. at least until Iv beaten it and wrote the review anyway. Just so it's out there, after I finished the first run on SC difficulty i went and bought RE2re since it shares some similarities in its gameplay loop, I did not feel anywhere near as accomplished beating that than I did beating this. Lastly this is the best game Iv played in ages I truly mean that, I think its the mark of a good game when it really stays on your mind after beating it, and I havent had that feeling since I think Bioshock 1 probably. Okay okay really lastly, just a little something from me to you fellow player since you read this far, you can drag the white box with a red symbol into the pistol for extra damage, and the yellow symbol one will refill your entire mag regardless of ammo so use it when you're dry mwaa. Now I'm going to go around reading every single scrap of paper, get every achievement and pray to Antales to make number 3. Thank you.

OUTDATED---> Unplayable, cannot even get to character creation because it loads for about 5 minutes then crashes. Dont waste your money. The game itself is actually very good cos i have it on console but this version is broken. <----OUTDATED

Game runs well now for whatever reason the game I know and love! Added bonus DS4 controller works perfectly out of the box so to speak, and also changes the in-game UI to the console version.

So lets see, I...
* Bludgeoned an old man to death while he slept
* Dropped a moose on a mans head
* Got invited to a house party befriended everyone and then murdered them
* Swapped a dying guys medicine for poison
* Shot a retired soldier while he was out for a swim
* Cut his finger off and put it in his desk
* Proceeded to murder all my brothers and sisters
* Cried into my pillow...
....and then I came home, and loaded up oblivion...

Ahh so this game, its certainly a souls-like no question, but... its also so very different in a lot of ways.
While i know the gripe of comparing everything to souls games is cheap, and kind of a meme at this point i do think since it basically un-apologetically rips the format and formula from that series and is probably one of its biggest selling points, i think its pretty much fair game.

Sooo-

Does it have the same level of atmosphere and character as fromsofts classics? Well, not really no.

Does it have the satisfying weapon animations and a sense of weight to weapons you get in souls? Again, not really... the weapons feel like plastic and each hit is all treble and no bass if that makes sense...

Does it have good boss fights and level design? Actually, it does! The bosses are actually pretty inspired for the most part in my opinion, some more than others, and level design is usually fitting for the area boss and is adequate challenge too.

Does it have the same variation of weapons and armour? No it has significantly less unique feeling weapons than in Souls and BB, and armour is none existent beyond mantles in which are actually a welcome take on armour for me.

Does it offer the same difficulty? Really depends, if you play with companion no... split aggro makes most bosses a breeze and especially when you have got your build together, but if you play solo, bosses can feel like a slog to finish as it does feel like they scaled the hp for non solo play.

Now, it does have its uniqueness too, with blood codes, mantles, focus bars, constant companion (if you choose to have one) etc and its modern anime art style and character design.

The story is given to you freely in this game and its kind of boring to be honest probably wouldnt be if i could take the characters seriously at all, but nope story and characters personalities kinda sucked tbf...
It does make up for this with overall adequate combat that despite my criticisms is fun in its own way, dodging is immediate in this game you can press dodge at basically the very last moment and get away with it, with generous iframes and timings too.

So all in all is this game on par with its kin? I have to say not quite, though while its quality of production IS high it misses on the things that make this genre great for me... BUUUUT it absolutely does provide a temporary semi-nourishing meal to somewhat sate the hunger/craving for this special genre of game, and i DO think its worth it, so long as you dont expect a full DS or BB level overall experience, and if you can accept this, then there is enjoyment in the boss fights and combat to be had... so have at it!

tried it once got really bad motion sickness but i absolutely loved the 3 minutes where i wasnt ill, not the games fault its my bodies fault, ill try again when i got more energy i was kinda tired already last time hopefully i can last a lil longer next time.

this is the first feet on the ground virtual reality game that didnt make me feel sick, odd cos i have no problem doing barrel roles and loop the loops on eve etc...
generally speaking for some reason first person walking in virtual reality usually makes me feel terrible, but not this one i can play for hours in the common wealth i know and love like never before.

funny cos id modded my pancake fo4 into oblivion causing it to not even load anymore, but i dont think id ever go back to non virtual reality fallout now.
gunfights are not so easy now, you really have to learn to shoot as if a gun were really in your hand and its actually amazing how much more fun gunfights are and watching a head pop like a melon when you dome someone with a magnum is too much fun, not to mention as you are shooting, bullets and lasers whizzing past your head is pretty ♥♥♥ epic in virtual reality too.

i think i should note another thing that makes this game harder in this edition is that using your pip-boy is real time and does not pause unless you are in power armour for some reason but i like this actually, because its fast you dont press any buttons to use it you actually turn your wrist and look at it yourself, it can be intense for this reason, for instance id just decided to check out the brotherhoods ship, one of the lackeys told me to "back up civillian" in the typical im better than you voice the brotherhood uses so i shoot her in the face and the whole battalion of power armoured grunts emerge and combat ensues.

I'm shooting n quick wheel stimpack-ing etc then i run out about 5 mins into the shootout, so im dipping for cover trying to eat food and drinks for hp while i know they are advancing on my position it was intense cos i had to heal fast without time to think and leisurely scroll through my inventory etc, but when the smoke cleared i felt like a badass when i finally emerged surrounded by bodies.
seriously this is the best virtual reality game iv ever played ever, this is what i want in this platform not just gimmicks and experiences but good full length games with story and satisfying gameplay, this game wasnt even designed for vr as far as i know but is so good either way.

also i know its not listed but it works well on my rift s despite that fact.
occasionally experienced crashes and a few dropped frames here and there but ill be seeing if theres a good fix for that too.

i highly recommend this all in all whether youve played fo4 before or not this is the definitive way to play it in my opinion.

maaaan if you dont know you wont know, unless you buy it ofc...

great game, i just wish the game allowed you to hunt the most satisfying of kills, a voracious beast, a grotesque kleptomaniac, with a hunger that far exceeds that of the great jagras or deviljho, thats right... i wish you could hunt the god forsaken handler... i have never known more anger towards an NPC before, theres just so many things...