Recent reviews by Someot

Sifu is an excellent martial arts action game with a rogue-lite-ish(?) flair. You take the role of a nameless protagonist on a mission of revenge through 5 excellent missions as you hunt down the killers responsible for your fathers death. The moment to moment gameplay here is superb. It shares a lot of DNA with many other beat 'em up games, typically invoking the names of the Batman: Arkham series or the more recent Spider-Man game. It improves upon that formula, though, with a slightly more involved dodge system, an excellent set of combos, and stamina/posture breaking mechanics. Those new additions coupled with fantastic animations and combat encounters that severely punish mistakes creates a very satisfying gameplay loop that feels fresh through the 10-15 hour runtime.

It is a fairly difficult game, but not unmanageable. The previously mentioned rogue-lite-ish mechanics do a good job of providing meaningful progression throughout difficult runs. Ultimately, I think Sifu is a must play for anyone craving a good martial arts action experience, as long as you aren't afraid of a bit of a challenge.

En Garde! is an exceptionally charming action game. It's not overly complex, and on their own none of it's individual components are of note, but as a complete package it's a wonderful experience. This is one of those games where you can tell everyone involved was passionate and enjoyed themselves during it's creation, and that elevates En Garde! above what it may have been otherwise. It's quite a short and easy game, but I believe that to be a strength. Just about anyone should be able to pick up En Garde! and enjoy themselves as they stab, kick, and quip their way through this fun little swashbuckling adventure.

Serial Cleaner is a short but sweet stealth action game that's somewhat reminiscent of Hotline Miami, but if you were the one cleaning up all the blood and bodies. It's a fairly simple premise, pick up bodies and clean up blood, but it's got just enough to feel fresh throughout it's relatively short ~3 hour playtime. The only real criticism I can levy towards it is that sometimes the combination of art style and camera angle creates some issues of depth perception, meaning on occasional there will be a path you couldn't have known was there, or enemies will rush at you through what you thought was a wall. There's enough in Serial Cleaner to keep most people happy for a few hours, and that's all it asks of you.

Gears Tactics is, so far, the best XCOM clone I've played. XCOM 2: WOTC is still the king, but Gears Tactics fits in a nice spot. It's different enough to be feel fresh, but familiar enough to fill the XCOM-shaped hole in your heart. It does a great job at being accessible to non-Gears fans (like myself) but is still very much tied into the universe in a way that will please existing fans (like the friend I played with).

In particular, I felt Gears Tactics actually does one particular thing much better than XCOM: the difficulty curve. In the Firaxis XCOM games you'll often hit a point where your squad becomes an unstoppable monstrosity. Gears, however, does a much better job at keeping the playing field even without feeling artificial. Perhaps most importantly, though, the game (mostly) manages a consistent difficulty while still preserving the feeling of growing more powerful.

Conversely, Gears greatest weakness is it's unfortunate padding. Despite being only about 20 hours, most of the story missions are broken up with a required "beat 3 randomly generated missions to unlock the next story element" thing. It's not so bad early on as it gives you gear and XP, but later in the game it becomes incredibly tedious since the XP requirements for a new level are very high and the gear isn't as useful.

Either way, Gears Tactics is a worthy entry into it's genre, whatever that's actually called. It has enough quirks to make it one of the best XCOM-clones, but it also has enough quirks to prevent it from dethroning XCOM as the king. Fans of XCOM-style tactics games will definitely enjoy themselves.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a weird game. That's mostly a good thing, but on occasion it's not. The majority of strangeness comes from the narrative. It's fairly bonkers to begin with, and shifts to downright ludicrous by the midpoint. It's incredibly enjoyable for the most part, and fairly fitting to have such a chaotic story to match with the chaotic gameplay. Sometimes though, chaos results in strange tonal shifts and the occasional cringe-y "did a teenager write this?" moment. Additionally, there's some bizarre scenes where seemingly important things happen, only to be never discussed or resolved again. I'm running out of synonyms for "weird," but you get the picture. Beyond that, the characters, including the villains, are tons of fun, and the story does a pretty solid job at actually exploring some of the more complex themes it deals with.

The gameplay is basically just shooting. It's fairly responsive and loads of fun, but there is something that feels just a bit... sloppy? BJ never controls quite right, but I could never put my finger on what was off (besides the godawful head bobbing, I had to install a tweaker to turn that off). As mentioned, it can be very chaotic, but there's some simplistic stealth approaches available as well. It's not much variety, but it keeps things interesting. There are also a multitude of upgrades to be unlocked either by picking up upgrade kits, or completing challenges related to skills. They contribute well enough to you invested while you play, but they're not interesting enough to incentivize grinding out everything. Speaking of grinding, there are some side-missions that involve re-visiting previous areas to take down high-ranking officers. They're... fine. I did them all to unlock the secret mission, but that was pretty lackluster. A few of them do change up the levels a bit though, so if you're really itching for more playtime, you can give those a shot.

Overall, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is a bit better than middling, but not going to be high on any lists. It has a zany story and fun high-octane combat with a fantastic soundtrack, but it never elevates itself above some of the others in it's category (DOOM, for example). If you liked the previous entries, you'll like this one, but I don't imagine anyone other than the most devoted fan or hardcore completionist will do much more than blaze through the story and never touch it again.

DREDGE is a great little game, but also one that falls into a weird space. The "Overwhelmingly Positive" Steam reviews sometimes lead one to believe a game is an absolute masterpiece, but that's not always the case. DREDGE is one of those games that hits a weird spot where you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who dislikes it, but it also has a few shortcomings that hold it back from true greatness.

For the good, the majority of the gameplay loop is excellent. You're almost exclusively fishing or exploring places to do more fishing, and sometimes hauling up treasure. There are a few side-objectives and upgrades to gain for your boat, but everything comes back to fishing. The fishing mini-game itself is surprisingly satisfying for something so simple, and there are enough new fish to find to keep players invested for a while. The mysterious story is also quite well executed, and will likely be the main draw to keep players invested after some of the gameplay mechanics begin to outstay their welcome.

On the other hand, the game is ridiculously easy and loses a lot of steam as a result. This is primarily due to a strangely non-gated progression system. I was barely halfway through the game before I had acquired every meaningful upgrade for my boat. By about the 2/3s mark I was so beyond maxed out that I threw away most fish I caught because it wasn't worth the time to take them to the fish market. Similarly, the "panic" mechanic was trivial to mitigate and I fully missed an entire game system until the very end because I never needed to interact with it. Additionally, to enter mild spoiler territory, the Lovecraftian/Horror elements pop up fairly early and hit their peak not long afterward. In a somewhat related note, the finale(s) felt a bit flat to me. Not bad, but just... a bit mediocre.

All that aside though, [/b]my experience with DREDGE was an altogether unique one, and it was ultimately more about the journey than the destination. There may have been some rough seas on that journey, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.[/b]

TECHNICAL DISCLAIMER:
Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is pretty dang old and has trouble running on modern computers. Thankfully, there are fan patches to make it run and look good. I used the Jedi Knight Remastered 3.0 mod, and I used SteamEdit to point Steam at the right executable to run that version. That seemed to be all that was necessary, from there it was only modifying in-game settings. No crashes or significant bugs.

On to the review. STAR WARS Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, or Dark Forces II for short... or Jedi Knight for short...? This game's title is ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Anyway, I'll get this out of the way once again. I have no nostalgia blinding me for this game. I loved Jedi Outcast, but I never played Dark Forces 1 or 2. The community around DF1 definitely has an issue with rose-tinted glasses and I'd guess so does Dark Forces 2.

Speaking of Dark Forces 1, my thoughts on DF2 game echo my review for that game. While it is an improvement, it also carries over many of the issues of the original title. Namely, an absolutely piss-poor visual language. There were far too many instances where I found myself running back and forth until eventually looking up a walkthrough because too many buttons, switches, and doors are ridiculously easy to miss due to the wild inconsistency in visual design between them. At first, I thought this was a consequence of the mod I used, since it upscales most of the textures, but the walkthroughs I ended up watching were all using the original assets and those were just as bad, if not worse! Thankfully, the general improvements in level design and move to 2.5D made these moments of misery far less common than the original title. They still occurred, but in general, DF2 felt much less claustrophobic and there seemed to be a clear attempt to avoid the awful labyrinths that made up most of DF1's maps, which compounded the visual design problems to be much worse than they would have been otherwise.

The gameplay here is very similar to the previous title. You're mostly shooting your way through enemies, with some light platforming and puzzling sprinkled throughout. I already mentioned the visual language issue which hampered some of these non-combat sequences, but there were others that were genuinely enjoyable. I specifically recall a puzzle involving equalizing fuel levels that gave me a bit of trouble due to, again, bad visual language, but ultimately left me feeling accomplished once I finally determined which bits on the wall were important to interact with and was able to solve the puzzle. The platforming is generally fine, except there's an annoying thing that happens when you bump into stuff when jumping that causes you to bounce off at a different angle. It can sometimes create really frustrating moments where you can't figure out if you're not supposed to go somewhere, or if the game is just being ♥♥♥♥♥. The shooting is responsive and adequate, but really nothing special, nor is it really different from the first game. The enemy variety is definitely a bit lacking as well, but it's all perfectly serviceable.

Now the star of the show here, of course, is the introduction of the lightsaber and force powers! For which, I am once again mixed. While the force powers are well handled and fun, if not a little basic, the lightsaber creates an identity crisis for Dark Forces 2 and felt pretty bad to use. If not for the fact that it's essentially the only way to kill bosses and mini-bosses, I would have ignored it entirely. The slashing is sluggish and the collisions are weightless and unsatisfying, and in standard combat it often causes you to take more damage than necessary when compared to blasters. As mentioned, it's more or less the only option for bosses, since they're absolutely JUICED with health and the lightsaber's only saving grace is that it does much, much more damage than anything else in your arsenal. Unfortunately, the barebones saber mechanics turn all of those encounters into a dull routine of spinning around your enemy while smacking them around.

Of course, just about all of these criticisms are due to the game's age. It's hard to fault it for the limitations of the time, and ultimately it is a significant improvement over it's predecessor. Where DF1 was a miserable grind for me, DF2 mostly stayed enjoyable throughout. And when the going got rough, I reminding myself that I had something to look forward to: those charming little FMV cutscenes, which were a delight any time they showed up. Despite some issues carrying over from the previous title, I feel Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II is enough of an improvement to be enjoyable. While I don't think the average gamer will get enough from this title to be worth their time, I do think fans of classic games and/or anyone interested in experiencing a neat little piece of Star Wars gaming history will be satisfied.

Were it not for the unfortunate technical state this game released in, STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor would have likely been immediately recognized as the best Star Wars game in the last decade. Heck, it's probably still a top contender for the entire run of Star Wars video games so far.

I'll get the technical discussion out of the way first. Jedi: Survivor launched with unacceptable performance and a fair few other issues. This topic has been done to death so I'll keep it brief: I was lucky enough to have a PC that was both powerful and well maintained enough to brute force my way to playability, and eventually a few patches allowed me to hit a stable 1440p/60 with RTX on and no FSR. I only experienced 2 hard crashes through my playtime. I also had an optional Bounty Hunting questline stuck because the game wouldn't present me with the next mission, but I was able to resolve that with debug commands. Overall, the experience was actually fine for me, especially after a few patches, but YMMV, significantly.

Anyway, on to the game itself. Jedi: Survivor clearly set out to address the shortcomings of it's predecessor, and I think it succeeded magnificently. Would have liked to Dual Wield your saber in the Jedi: Fallen Order? Not only can you do that now, there are two other new saber options. Wanted Cal to wear something other a poncho? You can now customize his hair, beard, jacket, shirt, and pants. Did the lackluster exploration rewards turn you off from visiting optional areas? The game world is now littered with fun and useful collectibles. I had a blast exploring the whole map and went as far as to collect every single databank entry. Everything built on the previous title to great effect, which kept me coming back throughout my 65 hour journey.

The narrative in Jedi: Survivor is similarly excellent, but the less that's said the better. If you enjoyed the first one, you'll enjoy this one. It's well constructed and fantastically acted, and there's a large cast of colorful and interesting characters. There's a ton of optional dialogue and I found myself frequently visiting my new friends to see what else they had to say.

I'll nitpick a few items, though ultimately they don't impact the game significantly. The combat itself still remains fairly simple, with a similar hit/block/parry/dodge system to the first game. It's still good enough to hold the game up for it's full runtime, but I think a bit more of a combo system akin to God of War would have helped give it a bit of an extra edge. Unrelated to that, the collection of plants continues from Jedi: Fallen Order. The system is expanded, but it feels bizarrely large and yet pathetically hollow. There's an entire system for planting and a ton of plant color options to collect, but the only place you can plant is a spot where you'll almost never go. It's a strange inclusion that feels like it must have had something cut out because it's far too involved of a system to be as useless as it is.

I've noticed an interesting phenomenon when I write my reviews. The more I like a game and the deeper I invest myself into it, the less I feel able to write about. I fully 100%-ed Jedi: Survivor, and yet when I come to write about it, I don't have a lot of specifics to point out. I think that might be representative of how much I enjoyed it. Usually I'm just disconnected enough from the game I'm playing, always trying to peek behind the scenery and think about how the game was made and what decisions got it to it's current state. But not for Jedi: Survivor. For Jedi: Survivor, I was so completely enthralled that my obnoxiously inquisitive nature fell by the wayside as I became fully engulfed by this magnificent game. I would stand by my statement that Jedi: Survivor would be amongst the top Star Wars games of all time were it not for it's technical issues, and I grew up on the 2000's golden era of LucasArts. If there's enough post launch support to polish off the rough edges, I believe that Jedi: Survivor will eventually find it's place in the hall of fame. Ultimately, if you enjoy Star Wars and have the hardware capable of running it, Jedi: Survivor will not disappoint.

Death Stranding is a mess. A clunky, confusing, frustrating, and sometimes just plain stupid mess. And I hated it.

Do you know why I hated it? Because I nearly loved it. That mess is also full of so many truly beautiful and unique moments that I absolutely treasured. But all of those magnificent moments are cut down by constant self-sabotage. Or maybe just severe self-indulgence? Who really knows.

What I do know, though, is that nearly every time Death Stranding hits it's stride, every time it finally manages a moment of greatness, it completely gut-punches itself with something completely asinine. Whether that be trashing an emotional story beat with bizarre dialogue that would make George Lucas cringe, arbitrarily cutting out the gorgeous soundtrack to a serene trek through a mountain because another sound played temporarily, or burying half of the experience behind countless sluggish and awful menus.

The entire experience feels as if everything was written down on paper in one pass, and then a game was created with that document as gospel with no flexibility one way or the other. Basically, this game badly needed an editor for the story, and whatever the equivalent of that is for game design. There are so many utterly idiotic gameplay decisions and I can't even fathom that the UX ended up this bad even after a Director's Cut edition. Seriously, half of the gameplay is managing things through a terrible menu with constant stoppages to prevent you from doing what you want quickly. Similarly, the narrative is full of nonsense. Some of the dialogue is straight up abysmal, and characters seem to constantly restate the same things, phrased different ways (sometimes all within the same sentence!). It's also horrifically paced, with incredibly lengthy story segments punctuated with hours of busywork. At times it took me weeks to return to the game because I didn't have the effort to sit through another miserable conversation, or play through a lengthy sequence that I had to restart due to the game tripping over it's own clunk.

And yet, there was always something that brought me back. There was always just a little something to keep me going through my 60+ hour journey. I absolutely loved the atmosphere of traversing alone through an unconnected landscape with nothing but yourself and the occasional song (assuming it doesn't cut out abruptly). And once I made it to my destination and the area was connected, I could build roads and structures to make it easier to pass back through the regions I'd already been through. That sense of progression was excellent and I spent much longer than was necessary in the early regions just to build out my roads. The foundational mechanics of Death Stranding are fantastically unique and the interesting and strange tools you're given encourage experimentation, which can be immensely entertaining. I have a strong memory of trying to see what would happen if I killed and incinerated all the enemies in a camp, and then realizing my truck didn't have enough capacity to carry them all. I had to make multiple frantic journeys to the incinerator to try and burn the bodies before they exploded and destroyed the landscape. Thankfully I managed to burn them all up in time (thanks to the roads I had built making it easy to travel), but it was an incredibly fun moment created purely out of the systems the game granted to me. To me, that's a mark of greatness in any game.

The story, for as much derision as I will levy towards it, does work sometimes. The uniqueness of the world stands out and has stuck with me, and the story can really hit when the various plot threads actually come together. Certain beats are fantastic and some of the goofier moments did put a genuine smile on my face. I even read and enjoyed some of the ancillary text, and would have done so more had it not been for the aforementioned terrible UI.

To me, Death Stranding is as disappointing as it is wonderful. I feel as if a defter hand could have brought the game to true greatness, but unfortunately the wondrous eccentricities that come from the mind of Hideo Kojima go both ways. As much as I enjoyed it, I can't help but feel a bit sad at how much missed potential I felt it had. With that said, though, Death Stranding is still an incredibly unique title with juuuust enough going for it to be worth experiencing.

Stray is an excellent game that highlights the value in small indie experiences, as it's probably the best of it's type to release this year. It's superbly crafted, with a simple but strong narrative and superb presentation. It's a very minimalist experience, primarily revolving around light platforming, puzzle solving, and exploration, but that does not lessen it. Rather, it enhances the experience and allows the atmosphere to shine through and keeps things easy to pick up, which should make accessible to most gamers (though there is the occasional difficulty spike that may cause trouble for some).

Stray is a short but sweet experience that would fit well in the library of just about anyone. There's a clear amount of love and care put into the world, with lots of polish and numerous small details that really elevate the experience beyond what it would have been.