Recent reviews by Suparockr

>Put woman in charge of Crime.net
>It immediately breaks

As gas prices continue to rise in America this really is your best option if you're into joyriding. Maybe wait for a sale and buy as much of the relevant DLC as you want.

Some people are going into this 10 (20) dollar spinoff game expecting XCOM 3 and it shows. Know what you're getting yourself into: a smaller experience focused on the combat to a focal point.

EDIT: I would like to add onto my review by warning potential consumers that this game is extremely buggy. I've crashed more times in this game than I have in 400 hours of Fallout New Vegas, 100 hours in Skyrim, and 200 Hours in XCOM 2 combined. In addition, equipment for my soldiers has gone missing. One of my squadmates lost her shotgun and I had to get a new one (easier said than done). Despite that, I still recommend the game (don't play on Ironman and save often)

While this game is hailed as an FPS-RPG hybrid, I would recommend you ignore the RPG part because for the most part it's a DOOM-Clone. If you've played games like DOOM (the Columbine shooter training simulator not the new one) or Chex Quest, this is more of the same and I'd recommend it if you've played those. Take that previous statement with a grain of salt.

The story is good, when there is one. Basically a comet crashed on the planet, created a plague that wiped millions out, mutating thousands, and humanity has had to mostly hide away to survive. At the time of writing this, that hits a little too close to home. What few humans aren't hidden away are either slaves or lambs to slaughter for the mutants who have created a dogmatic order on the world. You hook up with the local resistance to very slowly step by step take back the town. This part is amazing. You actually feel like you're an important part of liberating the people. However, this is like the first fifth of the game. After beating the boss and freeing the town, you find a plot device. Your goal is now to travel the world and complete the plot device. The whole resistance angle gets put on the backburner and it never really gets addressed again. There's one story decision you can make, which is admittedly one more than I would have expected from a DOOM clone. There's voice acting and it felt like it was a bunch of people from the dev team who cared A LOT about getting their lines right. That means that the actual voices are quirky but the actual acting is great.

Hey guess what the gameplay is like DOOM. The gunplay is brutal, the enemies are varied, and the levels were designed with an etch-a-sketch. These levels were better than DOOM's mostly because you can press tab and pull up the map for where you are. There's an inventory system so you can stock up on items but more importantly extra health and armor. Disable auto-use health kits as soon as you start the game unless you want to be left at the final boss with low HP and 0 medical supplies . The guns pack some bite, but a lot of that is lost under the poor gunplay. Most of the enemies you're going to be fighting are not on the same verticality as you, and the crosshair is a liar. You're going to waste a lot of ammo trying to aim at the hover drones because you will whiff a lot. Ammo comes and goes a lot so make sure you keep your eyes peeled for secrets.

Tech wise it's DOOM. You could probably run this on a coffee maker. It's been reworked to run on modern systems by Night Dive Studios (the saviors of retro PC gaming) but you might run into a crash here or there. The fact that this is on the DOOM engine is a problem since the cardboard cutout character models is poison for depth perception (and you're gonna need to be able to gauge distance when you come across enemies that are only damageable by the weapon that drains your HP to use). The art direction is probably the best I've seen in a video game in a LONG time. It looks like a comic book from the 1980s come to life.

So that's Strife. A relic of a bygone age. It's still a good game but you should know what you're getting yourself into before you buy it.

Final Words: "I won't tolerate that kind of depravity... not without my cut."

This game sort of makes 3 for a holy trinity of PC games (The other 2 being Deus Ex and Planescape: Torment). As someone who liked Bioshock and LOVED Deus Ex, I was optimistic for System Shock 2. Despite my love/hate relationship with the game, I don't recommend this game to anybody.

The Story is... Outstanding. You're a soldier on the Von Braun. The Von Braun is a brand new spaceship that has the ability to warp reality around it to travel faster than light. On its maiden voyage, the scientists discover "alien" life. You learn pretty early that the alien life known as the annelids are extremely psychic, and were controlling most of the crew from pretty much the instant their brain wi-fi connected or whatever. You're pulled out of cryofreeze (also you have amnesia but since there's no dialogue what's the point) and told to meet with Polito, the Doctor who rescued you before you're jettisoned out into space. There are some characters you learn of through audio logs and it fleshes out the crew of the ship and their motivations for going out into space. The biggest problem with the story is that we're supposed to act surprised SHODAN but to be honest even if you know from square one that you're going to be working with her, the reveal of SHODAN has got to be one of the most amazing moments in video game history. Also, the ending to this game is so good it makes the Bioshock game endings look like Mass Effect 3. I love the story in SS2

Which, since it's a love/hate relationship, means I have to hate the gameplay. And boy, is it a catastrophe. You're thrown into a character building segment before you're even given a chance to understand how the game is going to work. You have the Navy technicians, the Marine soldiers, and the OSA psy ops. This wouldn't really be an issue if the game didn't play favorites. If you decide to play as an OSA psychic, you're going to have your work cut out for you. This game's magic system is one of the more creative where it's not like all of the spells you can get are going to serve a completely practical purpose, but all of it is moot when your energy won't recharge without using psi hypos, and you're not going to get enough to just be a space wizard without falling back on your gun. Even with guns, there's a durability system with them. I'm no gun expert but I'm pretty sure when you shoot them you're supposed to damage what they're pointed at more than you're going to damage the gun in wear and tear, but if you're a loose cannon your guns are going to break. Your idea would be to just stick to dodge and weaving with the melee weapon, but almost all of the enemies in level 2 are allahu akbots who are programed to blow up when you get too close to them. Level 2, where you probably have 15 bullets currently. I guess now's an opportune moment to mention that there are infinitely respawning enemies, they know where you are at all times, and some of those enemies will turn the corner and shoot you instantly with a hitscan shotgun. You don't regenerate health. To make matters worse in the gauntlet, there's security systems. Due to the Von Braun's AI having the security strength of its password being "password", the annelids turned it against non-annelid passengers. There are cameras rigged around the different levels of the Von Braun, and if you're caught in the sights too long, an alarm blares, your position is going to be rushed for its entire duration, and any turrets in the area are pointed at you. If you can find a security station, you can hack them to disable the cams and alarm for a pretty long time. The hacking mini game is like a mix between connect 4 (3) and scratching off a lottery ticket. If that sounds dumb believe me, it is.

The level design is nothing bad, but it never felt special. Cameras could catch you off guard but you usually had a corner to hide behind, there were always vendors or skill upgrade hubs but a lot of the time getting to them was a pain in the ass. The most annoying things by far had to be the annelids. Sometimes they'd have eggs that hatch when you get too close releasing god knows what obnoxious hazard, and other times they just leave a bundle of worms on the ground that will poison you if you walk over them. The engineering decks get a special little award for being both a confusing level to navigate while also poisoning you with radiation. The best thing I can say is that the level design was very organically segmented up by the literal divide between levels on the Von Braun. You'll be exploring each level of the ship as the bulk of your experience in SS2, and you'll usually be stuck on an objective that gets you higher and higher to the bridge of the ship. You're not really rewarded for your exploration but you will be rewarded if you keep your eyes peeled for goodies.

The RPG elements are classic early 2000's suck. Trap skills that aren't worth the investment, weapons that make sure you have a high enough level to even hold the damn thing, and an inventory full with items of determinable worth. There are 2 different skills for repairing a gun and maintaining it. Energy weapons are not good enough to handle organic enemies but are practically required to beat the final level. There really is no specialization, all builds kind of morph into the same tactics by the end of the game (if you can hit it with a wrench do otherwise fill it with lead).

Technically speaking, it's a 20 year old game. Your PC should run it without issue, and thanks to the folks over at Night Dive Studios, it should be future proof. The biggest problem I have with the graphics is that your arm on the OSA probe looks extremely fake. There are texture improvement mods out there but I think you need to use an external launcher to actually use them. The keys are rebindable, but understandably there's no borderless windowed. Bonus points go to this game's soundtrack which doesn't really work all that well as a horror game but absolutely shreds as an action soundtrack.

So far System Shock 2 has given me 3 nightmares. All 3 of them have been not from anything actually in the sci-fi horror classic itself, but from just the thought of having to play the game. I have rage quit the game, I have walked away from the game before, but like the psychic mindbending of the annelids, for some reason I'm drawn back. Do I advise drawing others to the game, abso-♥♥♥♥♥♥♥-lutely not. Remember it fondly as a game you've heard great things about and stay away.

Final Words: "Nah."

I know that you know that there's something insidious inside this game already. You're not certain what exactly the catch is, other than you're expecting something less than normal. It's fine, really. In the past I've found once the game's cover is blown, the whole experience is a house of cards and collapses down.

Not this time. You can put your guard up but the game knows you're on edge. By that I mean it knows how to lower your inhibitions enough to get you to poke your head out and really enjoy the game for what it is.

The story is... well, I won't go in to too much detail, but it doesn't really drop anything on you like an anvil. It's a normal enough dating simulator up until you really get invested in it. The characters are archetypical enough to recognize by just looking at them. I don't really know enough about these types of games to comment on originality, but they're all more than just passable in my books. It was, at points, a cute, wholesome game about a literature club that also helped you become a more confident writer. At points, it felt like these characters were living through the pains I have long forgotten afflicted me. It ripped off band-aids and peeled the scab off with a knife. And all of it's before the game lives up to the disturbing content warning.

As for the horror aspect of the game, it's underplayed. It's not like every 3 minutes you're getting spooked out of your pants or something, it's a lot closer to a constant reminder hanging over your head that there's something very dark and very insidious playing out, and you're stuck, unable to help.

And that's probably because there is no gameplay. I don't know how these games work usually, but I was expecting something, be it one of three irrelevant dialogue choices, simply chosing who to spend the day with, or, I don't know, more literature? Instead, you write poems in between scenes that are nothing more than word association with one of the characters. Make no mistake, this is a Visual Novel, as in you are reading text and illustrations as they're unraveled before you like a carpet.

As for thematics go, It's by the numbers. Even though it's practically a match in a matchbox, I can't really get enough of backgrounds or soundtracks in the style of these kinds of games; it just feels so warm and simplistic.

Technologically speaking I don't think there are any bugs, but glitches are this games' most used method of horror, so it's really hard to tell

I know I don't sound excited about this game, but it really was one of the most outstanding experiences I've had in a video game. As far as free to play games go, this has to be one of the best in the market. I recommend this to everybody who wants to go on a journey, stare into the void, and leave better for the experience. It's 3 hours tops, and it's certainly going to be my 2017 Game of the Year

One Final Quest, and the hardest goodbye I've ever given to anything other than my pets. Step in line, It's Blood and Wine.

Whereas I'd call Hearts of Stone a DLC, Blood and Wine is, without a doubt, an expansion (CDPR said there's 30 hours in it, and I squeezed out 33 and there's still ♥♥♥♥ to do). We head to Touissant, a land straight out of a fairy tale, but as I'm sure you guys know by now, fairy tales always go sour where the White Wolf travels.

The story is that there have been a string of absolutely rancid murders in Touissant linked to one new serial killer- the Beast of Beauclair. You're to find it, and kill it. The story is almost two separate parts: the main story and not the main story.

The main story is the bloodiest, morally gray game I've ever experienced. Everybody's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ person and you're going to be hard pressed to hate any of them. I'd rather be as vague with the details as possible, because the main story is definitely quick on the draw with the reveals, twists, and action.

When you're not on the main quest, you're a patron in the duchy of Touissant, and it's the lightest hearted The Witcher 3 gets (which is a relief from Hearts of Stone, because Jesus Christ). You'll visit exquisite vineyards, take pictures of wildlife, even discover proof that grabbing a man's balls really does make you last longer in bed. Both halves to the story are thoroughly enjoyable, and neither overstays its welcome.

CDPR really stepped up in the new features department. There's new advanced mutations, the Manticore armor set (focused on high toxicity mixed with combat), and Grandmaster sets for all the gear, giving you set bonuses that would be totally ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ broken in an MMO. There's also a player house in the form of a Vineyard. For the low low price of 14,000 gold, a kidney, and participating in a NASA experiment, you can get a base of operations. I'm usually a sucker for these kinds of things, but it really lacked substance, and I almost never popped in, despite resting there yields benefits. Paired with required signposts for fast travel, and I think I will meditate.

If there's one complaint I can give, it's about the finale. Post credits, a character from the main game will come to visit you, and stay, at your home. This is the last thing you do in the game (barring repeat playthroughs), and who visits you is out of your control. I wanted to meet all of my friends one last time, but I guess I can't because it would be hard to explain the unicorn I keep in my bedroom or something. As a finale, it felt a failure.

As for Blood and Wine being the finale for the Witcher game series, I guess I couldn't end it on a happier note. I'm always going to long for a repeat playthrough where I'm an amnesiac, but I know that's not going to happen. What I can do is recommend you to share the experience with me. I'd say that Hearts of Stone is definitely a better story, but Blood and Wine definitely was the more pleasant experience.

Didn't get enough Witcher 3? Of course you didn't. Here's Hearts of Stone.

I'm expecting you have at least played Witcher 3 to completion before starting Hearts of Stone. This means you're about level 33, understand the base game enough for me to skip over it, and are emotionally dead inside after whichever ending you got. You're going to get about 9 hours out of this DLC (I'm disappointed that this was called an expansion, because this is too short, definitely the strongest DLC I've played though and would give my soul for another one with this much heart).

The story this time is tight (like, tighter than Triss's ♥♥♥♥♥ in my playthrough). Most of your time will be spent on the main quest, which takes place in the far countryside of Novigrad. You get a contract from one Olgierd von Everec, telling you to dispose of one extremely toxic toad in the Oxenfurt sewers. You run across an old flame Shani in the sewers, and you attack the toad. This turns out to be a really bad idea, because before dying, the toad reveals itself to be an Ofieri prince, and an envoy looking for him happens to round the sewer corner. Geralt, in no condition to fight, passes out, and wakes up on a ship heading for his inevitable execution (leave it to colored people to complicate a situation /s). With no means of communication, outside of a hilarious sequence of Geralt trying to speak gibberish, Geralt is hopelessly awaiting his death. He gets saved by one Gaunter O'Dimm, under the condition Geralt helps him deal with Olgierd. Olgierd must have 3 of his wishes fulfilled by Geralt, and he made sure to make all 3 wishes require hellish feats to achieve. That's what the DLC is, or at least that's all I'm telling you. What you need to know is that this time, CDPR isn't faustering any poor writing in this DLC.

New features to speak of, outside of the expected new region to explore, there's the runewright. For the low low price of 30,000 gold, an arm and a leg, and weekly plasma donations, you can add enchantments to your weapons and chest piece. These replace adding runes/glyphs to the individual piece, but have wild effects to them (e.g. applying quen for free at the start of combat). It's incredibly good as a way of perfecting that one thing your build was missing. In addition, there's a new set of Witcher gear: the Viper (looks like the starting armor, and deals with poisoning enemies and being immune to poison yourself (things are not looking dimm for Devil's Puffball). This armor set is unique, in that you are going to be forced into doing some gameplay decisions to get all the pieces, and as such, both swords could be completely missed.

The biggest improvement made that I can reflect on has to be the boss fights. They're not just the standard enemy but stronger, they're like something I'd expect to see in a souls game. Unless you cheese the fights real hard, you're going to die a lot, even on normal. Hell, even the newly introduced enemies require more thought than just forethought. I'm not going to say it makes the game's combat perfect by any standards, but it sure does great things to make you use all your tools that you have at your disposal.

Really, there's not much more to say about this DLC, other than I'm glad I ran the gauntlet on this. What it lacks in length, it more than makes up for in quality. My biggest complaints come down to nitpicks, and even those are forgiveable. Great characters, given a good story to work in, with good people behind it. All I can say is that it's almost good enough to be its own game.

I tried writing this review a year ago, but it exceeded character count. A year later, and post release content ceasing development, I'm going to try again. The Witcher 3 has a long history of games behind it, and an even longer history of books. If you're wandering whether or not to play the preceeding games/read the books, go ahead, but the game doesn't suffer for your ignorance.

The Witcher 3's Story is comprised of a large, overarching, unremarkable story, and a cluster of smaller, sensational, stories. The large picture is little more impressive than Geralt (the main character) going on a journey to find his soul mate Yennefer, and then being roped into a much larger story of finding his daughter figure and protecting her from the Wild Hunt (the namesake of the game and not something you should get your hopes up for). Along the way, just enough goes wrong to keep the game unpredictable, but not so often that the game becomes a slog. The side quests have you going on amazing adventures, meeting 3 dimensional characters, engaging in grimey politics, and fighting impressive monsters. The characters especially deserve a mention because it's rare you don't feel bad for someone out of empathy. The weak point though is definitely the Wild Hunt itself. I was never gripped by them as a villain I should be motivated to fight, or to fear. It never ruins my experience, though, because the rest of it is so damn good. True to any RPG these days, you're asked to make important decisions. Like any other, the decisions you make are always just a dichotomy of event 1 or 2, but CD Projekt Red really makes you feel emotionally invested, and at times, regret (something no other game has made me feel).

I'm giving special mention to the world built, because it's blindingly ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obvious that this game was built up from 2 games and like 5 books when this game was released. The first 2 games were hub zones, chapter based, and were molasses thick with detail. You don't expect open world games to pack as much content as a specifically detailed game (compare Fallout 3 to Bioshock). Somehow, Witcher 3 manages to keep the attention to detail thick in a game seemingly as large as life. There are random huts with no importance, cities doors locked to keep you out, caves with nothing in them, and lots, lots of pointless ♥♥♥♥ to do except for the hell of it. It really impounds on those well written characters. The world of Witcher is one of the worlds I'd love to live in (and yes, I am well aware I'd probably die in a pretty terrible way)

Gameplay wise, it's awkward, but I love it. You have your fast attacks, heavy attacks, dodges, rolls (not weed, but this game does give me couch lock), potions, bombs, spells (called signs), oils for your weapons, and a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crossbow. It's a lot to take in, and most of it's thrusted on you at the start. With that said, you can beat the game without needing to take advantage of everything (that said, I did play on normal, though I have played on Death March). Geralt is not a newborn character, he is adept in everything. Your skill points, as well as armor choices, go towards making Geralt not just adept, but exceptional, in whatever ways you want. You'll never have enough skill points to get it all, but you'll have more than enough for whatever you want to be (unless you want to be a healer tank damage dealer, in which case just use quen because that does everything anyway). Of course, it doesn't matter, because the game is so damn easy that you can do whatever is the most fun for you (♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ I ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ love alchemy).

Tech wise, you really should get enough hardware to overpower this mother ♥♥♥♥♥♥. You probably have heard of Nvidia's Gameworks in your games. It's a hit on your performance, and looks gorgeous. Well Witcher 3 already looked great. Hairworks, which has Geralt's hair blowing in the wind. Discussing a contract with somebody inside a hut, as you see Geralt's hair blowing in the wind that creeks through the logs was so immersive it put me on another world. With that said, seriously, you're going to need some top of the line hardware.

I can keep going on, but at this point you're probably getting an idea of whether or not you want to bite the bullet on this game. I would love to go on and on about the game, but really, It's not necessary. I give this game the highest recommendation I can give to any game. The best video game experience I've had the pleasure of.

P.S. There's no reason not to get the Free DLC. It's not really big, none of it's gamebreaking, and if it's visual, you can shut it off. The paid content, well, I'm going to be writing those separately.

Final Words: "I hate portals"

A lot of people will say that XCOM 2 is more of Enemy Unknown. I can only agree with that to an extent. I would say it's a different Enemy Unknown. A lot of tactics that were employed in the first game will have to be widely abandoned. Why, you ask? Does the change in pace lend itself to effectiveness? Well, I should elaborate.

Narratively speaking, they missed the mark. Canonically, Enemy Unknown was nothing more than a simulated series of events. What actually happened was a full invasion, instead of sending the rookies to fight each other. I only mention this because, when you re-encounter some of the aliens, who have been updated, the original variants are brought up in passing mentions. I have a problem with this because the aliens were more or less just upgrades of themselves. Even if you strike it off as contrivance, the actual plot has its own problems. Starting a guerilla warfare offensive is a fresh change of pace, but I was just never convinced by our team of misfits. I think the biggest problem with the story, without spoiling anything, is the aliens being stupid, and XCOM actually not being far off from being the terrorist group that they're being propagated.

Nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥ about the story because the bulk of your enjoyment will be coming from the gameplay. Let's start with base builder. Fat was trimmed heavily. Your facilities are fewer, the amount of facilities you can build are fewer, but all of them are more meaningful. You could call it dumbed down, but I would rather call it streamlined. With that said, I feel like there's a linear build path. You're always going to want to get your Advanced Warfare Centers and Guerilla Tactics Schools ASAP. It's easier to explain why it's so important to get those two buildings up and running almost immediately, a little later. Research is way less vague as to what you're going to be unlocking by going into research. You also get access to start your investigations into psionics way earlier, which fixes my biggest complaint with Enemy Unknown. The foundry is replaced with the Proving Grounds, which has way better gear available, at the cost that some of it is randomized. Your facilities will also have the option of being staffed, usually speeding up the process of which certain actions are done. The scanning system is way more active, as your base is now on a flying space ship. You can spend time scanning out at places establishing contact with regions, picking up on leads that may lead you to more goodies, or back at your main base region speeding up healing/construction, or gathering Intel (pro tip for pros only: use the medical scan option). The defeat condition this time is the AVATAR project: a meter that fills up that you have to occasionally set back. It's way less punishing than in Enemy Unknown, and that can make the AVATAR project pretty meaningless. They also took out the interception mini game from Enemy Unknown, to the dismay of absolutley 0 people.

The skirmishes are where the game skews in the eyes of everybody; some love or hate the new changes. I think everybody agrees that in Enemy Unknown, it started off hard, and got progressively easier. XCOM 2 is way more extreme and by that, I mean that the game starts off so hard that even the devoted XCOM fans wanted nerfs, and becomes a joke once you overcome the early game hurdle. Alien abduction missions have been replaced by Dark Events. Dark Events will debuff you/buff aliens in any number of ways (e.g. cutting your monthly funding, speeding progress of the AVATAR project, etc.). You get to counter one of these events. These missions will have you coming in stealthily, allowing you to ambush unsuspecting patrols. You could technically sneak by the patrols, but that's a terrible idea, because completing the objective blows your cover, regardless of whether or not you got caught. The missions themselves have timers, forcing you to not spam overwatch. These turn timers are why you get the Guerilla Tactics School and Advance Warfare Center first: you need a bunch of firepower to burn your way to the objective timely, and you're going to take heavy damage. The enemy variety ranges from underwhelmingly weak, to being absolute ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Enemies like the Shieldbearer or Lancer are priority targets, while the new crew like the Sectoids with human endoskeletons (pectoids, basically) or the faceless are gutter trash. Late game, enemies like the Andromedon or Gatekeeper are scary, but by that point, you've probably unlocked your doomsday devices: the stock+repeater weapon attachment combo, and the psi operative.

Technically speaking, this game is probably FUBAR. Frame drops are expected, LOAD TIMES ARE VERY LONG ON THE SKYRANGER, and the procedural generation that XCOM 2 employs gets samey before the campaign is over. XCOM 2 is very open with mod support, and while I never consider mods in my reviews, the existence of exceptional mod support deserves to be acknowledged.

Well, can I recommend XCOM 2? I would not recommend XCOM 2 to the newcomer to the series (start with XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It's the most accessible of the series), but I sure as hell could to the people who loved Enemy Unknown. There are some tough pills to swallow, yes, but I think the experience is worth it.

Final Words: "Shot failed to connect"