AL1 最近的评测

Shadow Warrior (2013) is the reboot of the underrated classic Shadow Warrior from 1997.

I was skeptical of Shadow Warrior at first, being a huge fan of the oldschool shooter formula and just having finished the original game a few weeks earlier. I had heard about the game being easy and the levels being simple and repetitive, very much unlike the original. And to be completely honest, some of these criticisms do apply.

The game is fairly easy compared to the original and only gets moderately difficult in the last third of the game on normal, but I feel like by 2013's standards, that's kind of an unfair criticism. On one hand, this game was made for an audience that likely didn't experience the original Shadow Warrior or any oldschool shooters before, given that it was released 3 years before the DOOM reboot and the oldschool shooter revival that came with it, and on the other, oldschool shooters relied a lot on save-scumming to get by.

The asian setting of this game is interesting and truly great at times, though it takes kind of a dive in the second third of the game with container-, sewer-, warehouse- and shipwreck-levels which may scare people off. It really picks up again towards the end though.

And the repetitive combat encounters? Well, that's a complaint that isn't exactly unfounded. The game has a quite manageable variety of enemies, around 9 enemy types that I can recall from the top of my head, and it likes to put you in pretty basic arenas most of the time. Combine that with levels that sometimes take upwards of an hour, and it becomes clear why the game is too repetitive for some people. And to that I say; The game is kind of like Serious Sam in that regard. It's repetitive and exhausting, but fun. I recommend doing what I do with these games: Play one mission, so about an hour, at a time and just come back the next day. By then you want to play again.

The sword combat might also seem repetitive or frustrating if you just keep spamming the same sword attack over and over again, but by the end of the game I figured out some effective combos and mopping the floor because you figured out how to attack an enemy's weak point as fast as possible feels great. I'd say you can beat 80% of the game with the sword only. People say the guns feel weak and the enemies are too spongey, and while that's true for some of the guns, the ones you really need to use feel powerful enough and the katana is argueably the way the game is meant to be played anyway. And it's good.

The story is cliché, but also picks up towards the end. As a matter of fact, the ending was kind of moving, although the dialogue writing ruins a lot of the more cinematic moments because of relatively childish humour that you'll have to get used to throughout the game.

Oh yeah, the humour. It's not racist like the original. Nothing in the game really is anymore, which isn't surprising, but the new humour is something to get used to for sure.

Overall, this is a surprisingly unique and fun shooter that is different but on par with or maybe even better than the original.

9/10 - Great shooter!

Do I really have to tell you what Half-Life 2 is? That it's an FPS by Valve Software? No? I didn't think so.

This isn't a classic for nothing. It has great, innovative gameplay, fun physics, an intrigueing universe, great pacing, an interesting story, awesome setpieces, insane attention to detail, a fluid, believable progression and a beefy playtime for a shooter, all that. It has.

Yes, after years of watching Gmod videos, the game may look bland looking at screenshots or gameplay footage. I've seen all of the models, props and textures before too, but it all just comes together when you're actually playing Half-Life 2.

It's hard to describe this game with words. Just give it a shot. It's cheap anyway.

10/10 - An FPS masterpiece.

Half-Life 2: Episode One is one of these games where I wish I could give a "mixed" recommendation, but I can't bring myself to give this a negative review.

I really don't know how to describe Episode One except "more of the same", and not in the best way. The first few scenes feel like a rehash of HL2s final chapters and the majority of the episode are basements and urban warfare like you've seen them in the main game. That's not to say the Episode doesn't have it's moments, it definitely does (a particular scene in the hospital for example), but by the time the "Follow Freeman!" chapter was over in HL2, I had seen enough skirmishes taking place in City 17, so I wasn't very excited to have more in Episode One. And while some of the fights still had interesting gimmicks to change things up, the last half hour was shameless padding. To give the game some credit though, Alyx is a much more useful companion and more fleshed out character now, genuinely helping out in a fight and having a more intense relationship with Gordon (however awkward that may be).

At 6,59€ for 3 hours of comparatively average HL2 gameplay (compared to 8,19€ for the 11 hour main game) though, I'm really torn. I don't think I could recommend this to somebody that didn't really love the main game. I for one liked the main game a lot myself, and I had an OK time with this one, however it just lacks the punch of the main game for me. I will be playing Episode Two for the sake of completion, however if one isn't particularly interested in Half-Life I think they could skip playing this episode.

7/10 - It's alright.

Blackwake is a multiplayer naval warfare FPS about Pirates and the Royal Navy fighting.

Really, that's all there is to it. However, I can't think of another game that does this and it does it so well! Although repetitive, being on a crew of +7 actual people where people have to work together to manually reload cannons, fix the ship, pump out water, etc. is truly an experience for anyone that likes ships and pirates!

Different from games like Sea Of Thieves, this game focuses on ship combat for 95% of the time, or more. Some might say that the game is small in scope because of that, but the game is made by 2 people in their spare time for all that I know, so I can't seriously criticize them for that. The game also has a more realistic approach in it's ship and character design while still having humorous dialogue and other things, which I appreciate.

The game has unlocks tied to the several prestige ranks, however all items and weapons are available from the start and only outfits, hats and a few facepaints can be unlocked through levelling.

People in matches tend to be pretty nice most of the time, using voice chat to manage the ship or to have some light roleplay.

In general I really enjoy this game for what it is, and it's clearly a passion project.

8/10 - A pirate's life for me.

A Place, Forbidden is an intrigueing first person "horror" game set in the never-ending Library of Ouroboros.

I put "horror" in quotations because while the game is definitely unsettling, it hardly relies on jumpscares or chase sequences. For a lot of the game, it hardly even relies on horror staples like gore. I can appreciate something like that a lot, because I'm someone that has always had a hard time with regular horror.

As the setting of a library may suggest, most of the game's gameplay, horror and story happens through books, so it will be a lot of reading and solving puzzles and riddles. But the story about what the library is and how it came to be is interesting and some of the puzzles are real head-scratchers that had me taking notes to solve them, which I loved!

The game has at least 2 endings to my knowledge, presumably depending on how many puzzles you solved and how much forbidden knowledge you found, so there is some replay value, too!

8/10 - Great horror experience.

Hylics is a game, or "recreational program" as it calls itself, that is very unique, if you couldn't already tell. Deep down it's just an RPG maker game, but there's so much going on on the surface level that that alone really sells the game.

Everything in the game is made with claymation; The world, the NPCs, the items, the attacks, everything. And it's weird. Like, really weird. Surreal, even. And that's what makes the game so interesting! The absurdist aesthetics are supported by largely randomly generated dialogue (i.e. gibberish) made to sound as poetic as possible and very experimental, but interesting, music.

I honestly don't really know what to say about this game. It's just kind of an artistic experience and not a game-changer, but it's great at that and dirt-cheap anyway. You get roughly 3 hours of content for 3 bucks here, but it's really fun and weird content.

8/10 - Truly artistic.

The Darkness 2 is a singleplayer FPS loosely based on the comic of the same name and is the sequel to the console-exclusive game The Darkness.

Honestly? I was pleasantly surprised with this one on many levels. It felt like I was playing a DC comic with it's cel-shaded look and awesome orchestral and licensed soundtrack. It also felt like I was playing a mix between Scarface and Venom from Spiderman. And you know what? It felt good.

The main gimmick of The Darkness 2 is that you're possessed by The Darkness, giving you an array of powers to defend yourself. And while combat is sometimes disorienting and the quad-wielding system takes some getting used to, it's a whole lot of fun to juggle all of the available powers in combat and avoid lights so The Darkness isn't weakened. And since you can heal yourself by eating dead hearts, the game pushes you even more to be aggressive and have fun with your arsenal.

The story is pretty good. Hence I don't really want to talk about it. Go see for yourself.

If I have any criticisms it's that I wish that some of the side characters were more fleshed out and that the choice of endings was a bit better. A lot of the side characters are pretty likeable and you can talk to some of them between missions, however most of them are either killed for dramatic effect too early or just not explored enough in these intermission dialogues. By the end of the game I didn't really know what my enemy and some of my allies were even up to besides hunting the game's MacGuffin or getting revenge. And while both endings are intentionally bittersweet, one is a far superior and more logical choice for anyone who paid attention to the story.

Both of these criticisms probably stem from the game's length. With 5 hours on normal, it's short. 5 hours may be enough to tell a story on it's own, but not in a shooter. This game could have used an 8-10 hour campaign to reach it's full potential, however by that time it may have gotten hard to keep the combat interesting.

In the end though, despite it's flaws, I was hooked on this game. I played through it in 2 sittings; Saturday night and Sunday morning.

8/10 - Unique, yet underrated.

Note: I refunded this game on Steam because I was a wuss back then. Played through it on GOG though.

Shadow Warrior, the middle-child of the Build engine trinity, is a true 90s first person shooter. Based entirely on, let's call them "dated", Kung Fu movie clichés and stereotypes about asian people, you play as Lo Wang, former assassin of Zilla Enterprise, on his quest to defeat Zilla and his dark forces.

The gameplay is what you'd expect from a game from this time. You run, you gun, you blow ♥♥♥♥ up and you get to play with cool exotic weapons in the process. And the weapon roster really is a blast to play with.

The game has 20 levels, however some of them can get quite long, so you're getting your money's worth. It took me about 6 hours to complete on the standard difficulty and with savescumming. If that still isn't enough, Classic Redux also features 2 expansions that haven't been released before, because the game is cool like that.

Although it has a bit of a rocky start if you're unfamiliar with Build engine shooters, I can definitely recommend Shadow Warrior to fans of oldschool shooters.

9/10 - FPS classic.

Note about my low playtime: I played Episode 2-5 on GOG.

Life Is Strange is one of these games where I'm not sure wether or not I want to call it a game or an interactive story. Sure, it has gamey elements like one or two obligatory stealth sections, but overall Life Is Strange has little in common with your typical game.

You play as Max Caulfield, an upcoming photographer and university student, as she discovers her strange new power and reunites with an old friend of hers. As you can imagine, said strange power allows the story to go all kinds of places, and by the end of episode 5, it did. I recommend playing this with as little spoilers as possible, because it's a genuinely great and moving at times story. So I will not elaborate further.

I think the most important thing to keep in mind before buying this game is that this is mainly about the story. I spent a good 14-15 hours on this game looking around as much as I could and I still missed a bunch of secrets. If you aren't fond of "walking simulators" or point and click adventures, this probably isn't for you.

9/10 - Great and moving story.

Helltaker is a free puzzle game where you solve small puzzles with a limited number of moves.

That's about it gameplay-wise, however the catch of this game is obviously the character dialogues and the artstyle, since this game was developed by the artist VanRipper. Now I'm not exactly sure why this game took off so much because the game is fairly short and there's accordingly little dialogue. However the characters are drawn well and apparently Rule 34 did it's job well with this game, tying into the plot of collecting demon girls for your Harem. (of which you only get to see the flat share though)

My only real complaint about this game is that 1-2 puzzles have very specific solutions due to the strict number of moves.

But this is a free game with a 50 MB file size, so I already wrote too much here. Just give it a try.

7/10 - Neat, free puzzle game.