What is your last passed game? v. 8
Spellbound! Genre - Schmap (Shoot'em up)
Impressions
What happens if you combine the work of H.F. Lovecraft and cyberpunk? Developers from Stormling Studios have decided to answer this question in their new project Transient.
A post-apocalyptic future. The remnants of humanity live in a "city under the dome" called Providence, isolated from the outside world. The main character of the game, Randolph Carter, one of the members of the group of hacker mercenaries ODIN, tormented by strange dreams, in which he travels to other worlds, meeting representatives of other, much more ancient, civilizations. At some point, Carter realizes that he is in danger and that he knows "something" that is trying to erase from his memory.
Transient gameplay is built around the study of locations and problem solving. The cyberpunk component in the set and implant of the OPI, with which the main character can include the mode of analysis of surrounding objects, is similar to Transient with another cyberpunk project - observer_. However, where Bloober Team skillfully pumped up the atmosphere and immersed in an unusual detective story, Stormling Studios simply stirs as much "Lavcraft" and "cyberpunk" cliches, offering the player a second-rate product under the original label. The plot is not revealed to the end and breaks off in the finale without logical conclusion, the locations lack more interactivity, and local puzzles - ingenuity. However, the design of locations in some places is not bad and pretty, but models of characters look budget.
So what's the bottom line? Transient is a fairly "pass-through" project, trying to go to the original setting combination. If you are a "deep-sea" fan of Lovecra ft games, you can try Transient, everyone else - I recommend to pass by!
5/10
Before I went to the pg, I went through this:
The Witcher 2 Assassins of Kings for Roche
Assassin's creed 3 and its addition Tyranny of King Washington
Resident Evil 2 original, four times all variants of passages
Resident Evil 3 The Nemesis original, on the lung, as on a complex with basic weapons flew
Once again, Ori and the Will of the Wisps passed, only this time in Steam, and 100%.
Impressions
The new project of The Giant Squid Studio, the creators of "Underwater Journey" ABZÛ. As a hunter, accompanied by a faithful eagle companion, the player explores a vast island, trying to remove the curse from the divine spirits of the ancient world.
The Pathless is a project that combines world exploration, puzzle solving, boss battles and platforming. In addition to the small starting part of the island, the player is waiting for four large locations - each of which belongs to one of the children of Mother Orica: a deer, a lizard, a snake and a bear. To remove the curse from the dogo of the "former gods" you need stones of light, which are scattered on the island and "sealed" by a mystery. To solve the puzzles useful bow of the main character, and sometimes the help of an eagle companion. Unfortunately, local puzzles quickly get bored because of the general uncomplicatedness and juggling of "puzzle" elements (which makes many puzzles similar to each other). Hidden treasures that a player can find during the exploration of the world, too, disappoint - primarily their reward. Opening another chest or solving an optional mini-mystery, the player receives crystals, which, when reaching a certain level, give an additional spurt in the air, thus allowing the eagle satellite to "raise" the main character even higher above the ground. Yes, at first, the extras are useful, they allow you to climb into hard-to-reach parts of the island and more comfortable to move around the world, but after a few "levels", I have stopped paying attention to their number and could fully explore the game world. It is a pity only from all locations somehow (primarily visually) stands out only cold tundra, wasps that have their own landscape and external features, but still perceived not sufficiently different from each other.
A more notable drawback of The Pathless is the local stealth episodes. Exploring the island, our Hunter from time to time will fall into a nasty storm. In it, she will meet one of the bosses (for example, the cursed Spirit-Deer, turned into a monster), look for the missing eagle (he is carried away by the wind and throws to the ground) and do not come across the "monster" in the eyes (and if you have come across, then immediately freeze on the spot!). Executed these episodes are very clumsy and drawn, and by the end of the game cause persistent disgust. Separately disappointing is the fact that all bosses behave in these "stealth" episodes absolutely the same. But the battles with the bosses turned out more or less good, though before the fight "beast" still need to catch up and several times to shoot.
What's definitely not bad about T he Pathless is a nice picture. Acceleration by shooting at (floating above the ground) mascots is also done well and carries a certain "relaxation" element. Promotes this element and good musical accompaniment.
To sum up, we can say that The Pathless turned out to be a cute, but monotonous game. You can safely spend the evening behind it, but not everyone will reach the end of the road.
6/10
Clive Baker's Jericho
Just a great horror movie with some pretty interesting mechanics. The only great premise, but the finale was disappointing.
A fresh detective project from Dontnod Entertainment, creators of the Life Is Strange series.
Twin Mirror's plot begins with the return of former journalist Sam Higgs to his native mining town of Buswood. After a high-profile journalistic investigation and the subsequent closure of the only mine, Sam hoped that he would never return to the city, but the funeral of a close friend who died in a terrible accident changed his plans. In addition, the daughter of the deceased, a girl named Joan (nicknamed Bug), is confident that her father's death is not an accident, but a planned murder.
As in Life Is Strange, Twin Mirror's gameplay revolves around dialogue with NPCs, “choices and consequences,†and story-driven exploration of smaller locations. In addition, there is also "Halls of the Mind", a kind of surreal space in Sam's head, where he attaches himself to memories, compares the evidence found, wanders in the labyrinths of his mind, and sometimes "makes his feet" from his own fears and demons. Dontnod Entertainment has already experimented with surrealism in the finale of the first season of Life Is Strange, the experiments, however, were not crowned with success, but the developers decided not to give up and in Twin Mirror they managed to achieve the first quality results. "Halls of Mind" turned out to be successful, both in terms of design and in terms of plot points associated with them. But the plot itself, twisted on the detective line, is disappointing. The main "villain gardener" is guessed almost at first glance, as the detective Twin Mirror came out too predictable. And the end credits come too quickly, leaving behind many NPCs whose stories and characters have never been revealed. Oh, yes, the GG also has an alter-ego, a kind of “reverse Samâ€, with whom you often have to conduct a dialogue, listen or not listen to his advice, and so on. The presence of such an NPC definitely plays in Twin Mirror's favor, although, in my opinion, he still lacks more psychological depth and elaboration. with whom you often have to conduct a dialogue, listen or not listen to his advice, and so on. The presence of such an NPC definitely plays in Twin Mirror's favor, although, in my opinion, he still lacks more psychological depth and elaboration. with whom you often have to conduct a dialogue, listen or not listen to his advice, and so on. The presence of such an NPC definitely plays in Twin Mirror's favor, although, in my opinion, he still lacks more psychological depth and elaboration.
As for the picture and the technical side, there are no complaints about them, I have not noticed any bugs, the controls are convenient, and the local landscapes (both around and "inside" Sam) are nice and moderately atmospheric.
So what's the bottom line? Twin Mirror turned out to be an ambiguous project: it is cute and it has good "finds", but the game lacks a more twisted detective branch, and most importantly time and "content" to reveal both a good setting, as a whole, and the characters inhabiting it ... Alas, Dontnod Entertainment was never able to replicate the success of the first Life Is Strange.
6.5 / 10
Impressions
Last year, 2019, was rich in "interactive films". This is the finale of The Walking Dead, and the first project of The Dark Pictures anthology, and the second season of Life is Strange ... But first of all, of course, it is the release of three projects of Quantic Dream on the PC. And if Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls looked like “greetings from the past†even with a tighter picture, Detroit: Become Human, released on PS4 in 2018, can boast of its “good shape†even now! However, a nice picture (especially in terms of character models) is far from the main advantage of the latest project, Quantic Dream.
To begin with, Detroit: Become Human is the most comprehensive interactive android work in the gaming industry. More "fully" on this topic in games has not been expressed, at the moment, no one else. The second advantage of the project is, of course, the characters. Kara, Marcus, Connor, Hank ... The heroes are worked out in detail both in character and from the visual and technical side. The level of emotional gaming involvement in the fate of the heroes is colossal. And the third "whale" of Detroit is the branching of the plot and sometimes really difficult "moral choices". As in the case of Heavy Rain, David Cage once again snapped on the noses of all “colleagues in the shop†who boasted of their “choices and consequencesâ€. For each of the main characters there are many forks and possible endings, and the "uprising of the machines" can be as peaceful,
If we talk about the plot in more detail, then, in addition to nonlinearity, there are many plot twists, high-quality presentation and direction. Yes, it was not without David Cage's characteristic "killing of common sense in the name of emotions", but on the whole the story turned out to be collected and complete. Separately, I was pleased with the storyline of Connor, an android on the capture of deviants ("awakened" androids who deviated from the programmed behavior), which makes it possible to stop the "android revolution". In addition, his partner, police lieutenant Hank, turned out to be no less elaborate character than the main characters.
What else can you say about Detroit: Become Human? Local QTEs turned out to be moderately diverse - there are episodes with everyday life typical for Quantic Dream projects (organically woven into the plot and not as frequent as in Heavy Rain), and adrenaline chases, and spectacular action scenes. The game also has a high-quality soundtrack. The control, however, is not very convenient for the keyboard, but there are still fewer complaints about it than about the Heavy Rain PC port. As for the bugs and the technical side of the port, there were several random freezes and one crash in a certain place (I had to slightly correct the settings file to solve the problem).
In conclusion, I would like to state that Detroit: Become Human came out as an excellent example of an "interactive film" - spectacular, exciting and memorable!
9/10
Claire
2D indie horror. If such a game came out in the days of Sege and demolished it, it would be cool.
Spoiler
