Recent reviews by nelvus

I was pleasantly surprised by the demo. The devs got a lot right here. It feels a lot like the first Gothic, not only atmosphere wise, but also gameplay wise.
Visually, it looks nice as well. There's still a lot to polish, fix and optimize, but they are definitely on the right track.

There are some negatives that I'd like to point out as well:

- you cannot sheath the torch (place it in the inventory); most actions will have the character drop the torch on the ground; even using secondary attack (mouse 2), or opening the inventory (no real reason to drop it in this case), or climbing a latter. When picking up the torch, the character will wield it in his hand as a weapon. I could not find any way to sheath it, and pressing the numbered hotkey assigned to the torch, would have the character drop it again. In the original games, you had a hotkey to light a torch or put it away. Hopefully, you'll be able to do the same here in the future. I did notice that the character picks up the torch from the ground and places it in the inventory, only when it dies out (it's no longer burning); however that takes a while, and waiting it out isn't really practical;

- getting stuck in geometry, like it can happen in Gothic 1 and 2 isn't great (when dropping from some elevated ground, for example); that's taking being faithful to the originals a bit too far IMO :)

- invisible walls prevent you from falling off of some high ledges; implementing invisible walls is a poor choice in any game; and if the user wants to fall to their death into a canyon, he should be free to do so;

- the original games, did not have many props and foliage, due to the hardware limitations of the time; this made noticing items which could be picked up much easier. The environments in today's games are packed to the brim with geometry, foliage and props; this can make them look really good and immersive, but it can also cause information overload; here, there's no exception; to make matters worse, items which can be picked up blend seamlessly with the environment, making them indistinguishable from other props/foliage (especially plants). Simply put, there isn't enough of a difference in shape, color, contrast to make them stand out. All of this is further exacerbated when graphics options are lowered and the game becomes increasingly blurry. You really have to strain your eyes to notice items, or run all over the place hoping that you'll stumble onto something.
There is an option, to highlight them, but this happens when the character is very close to them, within arm's reach. As such, it's easy to miss some or a lot of items, depending on the player. Increasing the distance where the highlight is visible is not the best option, as it clutters the HUD and breaks immersion; unfortunately, it's the easiest option. The other one, which takes considerably more time, but it's much better, is to rework some of the items that can be interacted with, to make them stand out more (increased size, more vibrant textures, etc);

- please, for the love of every imaginary deity, no do force any kind of anti-aliasing; currently, in the options, the user can chose between TAA or TSR; neither one is a particularly great option, and both can introduce graphic artifacts. As such, please allow the option to disable AA; not everyone likes a blurry image;

Nice to have in future updates:

- being able to select dialog options (during dialog sequences) using number keys (1, 2, 3, etc), as you could do in the first Gothic games;

- when sitting down a bench, to have the option to pass the time (without healing); this is a nice QOL feature found in Chronicles Of Myrtana: Archolos;

- holding a torch in the off-hand while using a single handed weapon. This isn't available in the first Gothic games either, but to me it always felt like a missed opportunity. From a realism/immersion POV, there is no reason for the character not to be able to do that, and it greatly enhances the exploration of dark places. I know that there is the Light spell for this use case, but torches are more readily available, and in the original games, the Light spell was not great; it seared your eyes and barely illuminated anything for more than a few feet. To actually see anything in dark places you had to combine Light and a torch (unfortunately, that scorched your eyes even worse). I wouldn't mind if holding a torch in the off-hand was made available later, after you upgraded your one handed weapons skill (which would also add to immersion);

- mark chests/containers as empty after grabbing everything (like adding an 'empty' string). It's always annoying to waste time re-opening chests that you're not sure if you have cleared them or not. This would also mean that the empty tag would have to be removed when placing something inside them;

- currently, jumping feels floaty; there is no feeling of weight to it; it's not the worst animation, but not exactly a good one either;

- de-interacting with items, such as chests, stoves, etc (closing them, exiting the interface), by using right click (as in the original Gothic games); it's a faster way to close them, rather than using ESC;

- after saving a game, there isn't much point in keeping the menu open; automatically closing it improves the flow of the game (something that also was available in the first Gothic games);

- would be nice to toggle sprinting on/off, rather than keeping a key pressed at all times;

Shadow of the Templars is the best in the The Broken Sword series, as well as of the best adventure games out there, and this remake did not disappoint.
The new visuals and audio are simply amazing and it's clear that a lot of effort and passion went into this project.
This one's a must have for any Broken Sword or adventure fans.

Legend goes that every time one mentions, Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, there's at least one person out there that will reinstall it.

The first time I have played this game was back in 2004 when it was released. It was by far one of the most buggiest gaming experiences I was ever graced with. It had abysmal performance, tons of bugs, including game breaking ones; it took around 10-15 min to load the larger levels on my 256 MB RAM rig.
But, it was all worth it, to be able to:
- listen to The Deb of Night
- take a leisurely stroll through the Ocean House Hotel and experience one of the best horror segments in video game history
- have a conversation with my TV
- have an argument with a STOP sign
- joke around with Smiling Jack
- try to reconcile 2 former assassins and friends, who now want to kill each other
- listen to Alistair Grout's journal, a paranoid Malkavian with the eloquence of Oliver Goldsmith
- experience some amazing quests with top-notch writing and stellar voice acting
- and most importantly, Play one of the BEST RPGs of All Time

And these days, it's even better, with the Unofficial Patch by Wesp5, which has been a labor of love for almost 20 years.

A highly enjoyable action platformer with some solid combat and interesting mechanics. Combat is a mix of hand to hand pummeling, staff fighting and air juggling. You can use your staff to help with platforming as well.
The visuals are pretty nice overall, though some level art is not as polished as others.
Looking forward to the full release.

It's probably fair to say that this quote is a pretty good representation of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri; a game that's so complex, with so many layers, but at the same time so amazing that uncovering its many mysteries a joy each time.

I have probably played this gem for tens of thousands of hours over the years, ever since it was released back in '99. This is one of the few games that I always install on all of my PCs.
SMAC isn't only one of the best 4X titles of all time, but it's also one of the most unique.

It masterfully weaves a narrative, in a genre where this was not commonplace, further augmented by superb voice acting. It's no surprise that several books were written based on this game.
It's also full of charm, lore and some of the most fun and complex mechanics, being in some ways ahead of its time.
Faction leaders aren't just some portraits with slight bonuses, but they are fully fleshed out characters with deep personalities that you get to discover a little bit more with each quote when completing a base facility, secret project, or discover a new tech.

And the sheer amount of mechanics and features in the game is mind blowing. From a lot of terraforming options (to the point where you can include them in your offensive, by raising or lowering the terrain into the ocean), to a rich unit customization system (in addition to unit types, weapons and armor, there's also a large number of special abilities that can change the gameplay quite a lot), to a pretty complex diplomacy system, and a ton of base facilities, secret projects, and technologies; many of which have not been seen in any Firaxis game since.

It's one of the few games that I will always come back to from time to time.
And if you have enjoyed it at any point, dear reader, I encourage you to do so as well.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this remaster, and after playing it, I have to say, it's a bit of a mixed bag.
I still wanted to support this work, because the original Tomb Raider games, as well as Lara's character in them, are still the best; far better than the reboots developed by Crystal Dynamics.
For the fans of the original games, I would say that it's worth buying.

You can seamlessly switch between the 3 games from the main menu. And during gameplay, you can switch on the fly between the original and the remastered graphics, by pressing F1; you can also switch between the modern and tank (classic) controls while playing as well, from the game's menu.
One downside is that there are absolutely no graphics options; you can play the game in borderless fullscreen, or switch to windowed mode by pressing ALT+Enter.
From what I have played so far, everything from the originals is in there; the content and the level layouts have not been changed.

So, how do the remasters measure up?

The remastered FMVs are not that great; they are too blurry, and some of them are way too dark, to the point where you cannot really see much of anything. Modders have actually done better jobs at upscaling the original ones.

The new visuals are pretty nice, though they are nothing special; there are new textures, new models, new foliage, new lightning, and the old environmental sprites have been replaced by 3D models. Some level art has been slightly changed, but not by much and the layout of the levels has been preserved (for example, in some cases you'll see an open ceiling with light coming through instead of a closed one).
Graphic mods for the original games will net you similar or better results (they also update models, textures, foliage, etc). In addition, if you use an RTX remix mod as well (only if you have a supported Nvidia GPU), you will also get superior lightning, which can result in a vastly improved visual experience.

I expected the modern controls to be fairly bad, but I did not expect them to be abysmal. They don't work well at all with the game's grid based system. You cannot jump back by tapping backwards; you cannot do a back flip; this makes larger jumps, which are very easy using the classic controls, a complete pain to pull off. Positioning Lara in front of objects is also a pain, because she automatically turns to her side when she reaches a wall.
She also has a habit of getting stuck in environments after interacting with objects, like levers; nothing worked to get her unstuck, except switching the control scheme to tank controls.
There are many other gripes I've had with the modern controls, including wonky underwater handling, but those above are the bigger ones.
Thankfully, all is right in the world when you're using the original (tank) controls, and Lara controls like a dream.

What about the actual games?

The best one in this collection, and in the whole series, including both reboots done by Crystal Dynamics, is still Tomb Raider 1.
TR1 was a perfect storm of engaging gameplay, foreboding atmosphere, great exploration, good pacing, and an interesting story.
It perfectly captured the soul of the Tomb Raider - delving into the unknown, discovering lost artifacts, and traces of bygone civilizations. Something that unfortunately has been diluted quite a bit in the rest of the games.
It had great locales and diverse levels, like Peru, Greece, Egypt, and the level design was extremely strong, and consistent throughout the game, both thematically, and from a quality standpoint. There was a strong emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving with the occasional combat sequence, and it all felt great.
The Unfinished Business levels pack didn't really have a story, were quite a bit more difficult, but were enjoyable nonetheless.

TR2 started out pretty strong with the Great Wall level, displaying all of the strengths of a Tomb Raider game, but it slowly started to fall flat on its face. They added way too many human enemies (and combat encounters in general), all veritable health sponges. While in the 1st game, there were only a few human enemies, in the 2nd one there are tons. And with their poor AI, rudimentary hitscan damage, and blatant spawning in front or behind you, killing them is the same bland chore every time.
This is something that the devs themselves acknowledged and rectified to varying degrees in 3 and 4.
Because of this forced shift towards an action game (and not a particularly good one at that), TR2 suffered greatly in terms of the atmosphere, mystery, pacing, exploration, puzzle solving.
The story was somewhat interesting and while it did have some great levels earlier on, the level design was nowhere near as good or as interesting as it was in the 1st game. Later levels were excruciatingly dull and dragged on for way longer than they needed (like the sunken ship).
It is not a bad game, and it has its enjoyable moments, despite some of its dull and tedious parts, but it never managed to reach the heights of TR1.
The Golden Mask bonus levels, were kind of a pain. They were riddled with annoying invisible enemies, poor exploration and puzzles, and ultimately unrewarding.

When the team started TR3, they were already suffering from considerable burnout, and it showed. This one is among the weakest in the series, with a pretty forgettable story. It has less tedious and poorly designed action than TR2, but the level design and pacing are all over the place.
It started out pretty strong, with the India levels, but it slowly and steadily declined from there. The South Pacific levels were decent, while the London ones were simply abysmal (the only redeeming part about them is you had the option to skip large parts of some of those levels), and the rest, somewhere in-between.

Fortunately, TR4 was a return to form of sorts, but that is a story for another day.

Is that a bird? Is that a plane? No, it's Supercharged Robot VULKAISER!

The game is a pretty fun and solid horizontal scrolling SHMUP (shoot 'em up), with an old school robot anime aesthetic, which looks pretty good.
Gameplay wise, it's pretty simple; Keep a key/button pressed to shoot, and occasionally release it to unleash a stronger attack (which charges while you're firing at a pretty fast rate), press it again to continue shooting. Occasionally, you get the chance to combine your flying robot with different aircrafts, named VulFighters, which changes your attack type and pattern and allow you to do more damage; some are more useful than others. VulFighters will also take damage, and can be destroyed; once that happens, you won't have that available for the rest of the game.
Compared to many other SHMUPs, your screen isn't completely filled with extra large bullets and explosions (yours or otherwise), so you can actually see what's coming your way and are able to avoid them much easier. The hitbox is also just a rectangle near the center of the robot (in the form of a glowing circle), so the rest of the robot is immune from damage. Taking damage will not outright destroy you, only lower your energy; however, once the robot is out of commission, it's game over; you have no additional lives (your robot gets partially repaired at the end of each mission).
During missions you get text snippets of story character dialog, though it's mostly cheesy one liners. After a mission you get a summary of your performance, in the form of a character dialog, which is different, depending on how you do (like if you barely made it out alive, while damaging most of your robot, or if a VulFighter is totaled beyond repair), which is pretty nice.

While the game is fun, it's a barebones arcade to PC port. You have absolutely no settings/options (you cannot chance the resolution, audio volume, redefine keys, etc), you cannot save or select a level (once your robot is destroyed, it's game over, and you start from the beginning).
What's worse, is that you can only use a keyboard or a gamepad. You cannot use mouse controls for movement, even though the manual states that you can (you can only use the mouse buttons to shoot), and fight/arcade sticks don't seem to be supported (mine didn't work). So, I was forced to use the keyboard and change the key layout using AutoHotKey; it's playable, though using the mouse of arcade stick to control the movement would have been much better and more accurate (unsurprisingly, playing with a gamepad is much worse than a keyboard, as they are utter garbage, and have extremely low accuracy).
The game is rather short, but it can be challenging, and it has several difficulty levels. For its low price, it's worth it.

The kid notices that Quake2 has been updated with improved visuals and a new expansion.
The kid also notices that they have made the update free to current owners.
The kid downs a few beers, to get in the mood for some Q2, downloads the game, and boots it up.
The kid is greeted with the accessibility options, all turned on by default. He disables all of them. Those are for pu22ies. He also chuckles at the aim assist option for gamepads.
After a quick look through the options, the kid jumps straight into multiplayer. He checks the lobby, and all servers are running "The Edge". 'Good', he thinks to himself.
Time to party like a LAN party in '98.
The kid spawns, and dashes for the railgun. Frags a few opponents with relative ease, until he meets an unceremonious demise.
He hasn't gone completely rusty, he thinks to himself. Next, he has a blast with the rocket and grenade launchers, because nothing says 'Welcome home' like a rocket to the face.
The kid is pleased that the fast pace, high skill mechanics have not been messed with.
After that match, the kid start the original campaign on Nightmare. Completes the 1st map in a few minutes, while finding all secrets.
Before continuing on to the next level, the kid looks over to the fallen corpses of his enemies; flies are using them as airports.
'Good', he thinks to himself. The single player has not been messed with.

It's hard to review this game in a way that truly makes it justice, without any spoilers, and I'd rather not do that.
It's a game about escapism, friendship, regrets, loss, and so much more.
The story is pretty out there, but it delivers an interesting narrative, that feels like a breath of fresh air among the stale and lifeless backdrop of modern mainstream gaming.

The soundtrack is quite enjoyable. It's nostalgic, sweet and relaxing, and goes well with the game's setting.
Pretty much everything about the game brims with nostalgia. The nice pixel art visuals, the 90s small town setting.
Most of the pixel art is great, even though it's a bit simplistic at times and it's lacking in detail, and there are some scenes where it's clear that they didn't put as much effort, compared to other ones.

Unfortunately, the game has its fair share of drawbacks.
The action consists of some rudimentary mini-games; mostly basic quick time events. There are a lot of them, and they are rather repetitive and tedious.
Most puzzles are easy, logical, but some, are tedious, requiring quite a bit of trial and error.
There are too many errands with a ton of back and forth. For example, in order to get a simple cake, you have to jump through so many hoops, it's ridiculous; the worst part is that these errands are bland and simplistic in nature (basically, bad fetch quests), and most do not tie into the world or the story almost at all, just being isolated and contained. Would have been great if you would get more insight into the world, characters, lore, through these errands.
While for the most part, the writing is pretty good, it has its gutter moments, with some of the dialog feeling forced and unnatural (will not go into details, to avoid spoilers).
You can remap most keys, except for the movement keys, for some reason. Interestingly enough, in the 1st demo, you were able to move using WASD as well as the arrow keys. In the 2nd demo and the full game, you can only use the arrow keys. It's not that big of a deal, since you can use AutoHotKey to remap any keys however you want, but still, it would have been nice to have the option to be able to remap all keys.

It has some wasted potential. With a bit more polish to its writing, characters, lore, and mechanics, the game could have been a brilliant masterpiece.

Even so, despite all of these gripes, the game is enjoyable and well worth playing, ultimately delivering a unique and memorable experience.

Bright Memory: Infinite is a pretty a good FPS that combines tight gunplay with blazing fast sword action and special abilities.
When you think that it was developed by one person, it's downright impressive.

The visuals are gorgeous, putting many big budget AAA games to shame, and the gameplay is (mostly) fast, fluid, fun with enough variety not to get stale.
The Japanese and Chinese voice acting are great, however the English voice acting is hilariously bad, which was pretty much expected.

That being said, it has its fair share of negatives, like:
- the presence of QTEs, a bane on the gaming world that should be expunged
- the physics simulation is rather poor, as there's no sense of weight in the game, with the main character and the enemies feeling like paper most of the time
- the game is linear and the level design, while having incredible level art, suffers from some small areas and invisible walls
- you are forced through a few poorly designed stealth sections, where if you are spotted you have to restart from the last checkpoint, despite quickly dispatching the enemy who has seen you; and when enemies noticed you, they will just stand in place, without doing anything, like moving in on your position, or calling for backup; because of this, you are also mostly screwed, because as soon as you get in their line of sight, they start shooting, and a few bullets will get you killed
- when the game reloads a checkpoint after a death, the amount of ammo you'll have will be the one from the moment you died, instead of the amount you had when the checkpoint was saved; however, this is not that big of a deal, as the game showers you with more ammo than you'll need

The game is pretty short, taking around 3h to complete, but ultimately it's a fun and worthwhile experience.