Recent reviews by Mace

A kind friend gifted this game to me so my investment in it will be different than if you buy it yourself but it's all around a pretty fun game. I encountered a few bugs with world geometry; my car or the Driver getting stuck in things and the RNG sometimes just puts you in an impossible, punishing situations but this isn't too bad once you realize when/where you can restart things to leverage the RNG in your favor. They also added a menu option to change how much you get punished on abandoning runs, which I used when RNG seemed to be acting unfair. So I can't really complain about the imbalance. I took my time playing this game, doing runs to gather up materials so I've got more hours in it than I would have if I just played straight through to the story which might feel short depending on your personal tastes and whether you get it on sale.

Ironwood Studios did a great job with the game though. Between driving in first person (which modern games prefer to avoid) or repairing the car everything is pretty enjoyable. You'll have moments of frustration when anomalous zone occurrences troll you or you're suffering through and trying diagnose a car quirk but I don't think this takes from the game.

The music is nice. It's got good voice acting. The story is enjoyable and thankfully not too predictable. The game play is rock solid and graphical presentation is spot on. It's fun to discover the really weird stuff deeper in the zone.

If the few negatives I've mentioned don't turn you off, what I said sounds interesting and you want to do runs through dangerous zones to spiff up your supernatural car then I would suggest this game. Pacific Drive offers relaxing chill drive times but also exciting, nerve wracking dashes through radioactive storms as you race to an exit. Pick it up at a price you feel good about because not only did Ironwood Studios deliver on a fun experience, but I'm eager to see what they make in the future.

Also most of the DLC is just cosmetic stuff so you're not really missing anything if you don't get them.

I know Crytek was trying to bring some new content and much needed fixes to the game with the 1896 update but it's in a really rough spot. As someone who plays Solo a lot, Necromancer getting nerfed hurts bad. Doesn't feel great when I can only revive myself once but a squad of duos can revive each other several times if I don't move fast enough on them, which likely is the case since I'll already be hurt from dropping the first hunter.

That has greatly affected my experience, but if that's not a problem for you there's countless other bugs you'll likely run in to. Lots of graphics bugs, sound bugs and apparently functionality bugs.

Worst of all though is the the new UI and menus. They're pretty atrocious. From what I can tell, I can't check my loadout during a hunt. That functionality is just gone now. Instead I get a new menu that introduces other options that forces more clicks on me to slow down the whole experience. The whole menu is a confusing mess of more selections than previous. I've seen screenshots where one menu hotkeys performs multiple choices and over ride each other, I've heard people say the purchase is bugged for some equipment. I also can't seem to compare the base stats of a weapon to it's specialized ammo stats because specialized ammo is an entirely new menu screen you have to click through and that doesn't feature the base weapon information.

Hunt: Showdown previously had a kind of janky UI but it's unfortunately worse now. I'd like to say wait for an update to fix issues but bug fixes are not usually fast IF they get fixed at all. It would be great if we had an option to use the old menu but I think we're stuck with this one.

The team that made the map did a great job though. It's pretty and kind of fun to play on.

Over all this is not a good experience for a game that's already VERY punishing.

These is a lot to love about this game and I'm pretty sure it's a title I would play again and again. Unfortunately this port is terrible. Between the odd bugs here and there that will make what is playable painful to tolerate to things as bad your save file corrupting or the game becoming completely unplayable, I can't really recommend this game.

Despite being First Person, which is different from past Resident Evil games, this one is really fun. As a result the game has a lot of good intense moments. Highly recommend it.

Fun but difficult. Well worth the purchase if you enjoy something challenging. From art style, to sound to music, everything about Cuphead feels era appropriate. It's a real treat! If you write for any popular gaming sites, you should probably pass this one on.

Hacknet is an enjoyable hacking/terminal simulator. I use the term hacking, loosely, but the player will be diving in and out of networks, taking admin access of machines, trying to remember and using a variety of tools to do so and looking for clues that lead them to a greater truth that someone is trying to keep hidden. That's where the real challenge comes in. I had to stop playing for some months because of a game breaking bug but revisited after a fix and recently completed it. It's better to do this all in one go so your commands and tools are fresh in your mind as you go deeper down the rabbit hole. The story will keep the player interested while the visuals and music do an excellent job of keeping the entire thing exciting. Hacknet is a tight package worth its ten dollar price.

This is not a game. This is an interactive fiction and, unfortunately, not a good one. Even as an experimental piece it feels a lot like a student project. The only choice the player has is what to dress Nina in and that has no impact on the experience. The 'game' even fails to reflect this choice in a later scene. It's writing style and brevity prevent the fiction from feeling like a coherent, developed experience.

While I would not reccomend this fiction, it is free and very short so it's a moot point anyway.