Recent reviews by Dr.Acula

Doesn't run great, and while the quests are simple and uncomplicated, Starfield still has a pleasant gameplay loop. I'd probably give this a 7/10, but can only recommend for people that enjoy these kinds of open-world RPGs.

This game is getting to a better place, while the weapon pool is too large and could be serviced with allowing modification, the revised talent tree allows for most customization, and you are rewarded with items after every mission now.

The gameplay still remains king, and best in class, but be warned, the system requirements are pretty steep.

Plays well on PC, not quite as ground-breaking as the original trilogy, but am glad to be finally able to play it.

Excellent frantic melee co-op game. Good dev support with constant additions being made. A decent-sized playerbase, not any trouble to find games. Install size is a bit much.

Perfect port, runs stable, lots of fun activities, flawless open world.

If you play on hard, it's quite difficult for an Igavania, especially in the overworld -monsters will kill you. The bosses unfortunately are uninteresting damage-sponges, they rarely seem to alter their patterns or react to you in any way, they never dodge, get knocked back, or stunned. Lots of loot and stats, but loot often fall into the "trash" heap, and stats can be confusing (CON, DEF, and Health are all related but it's hard to tell which you want the most of).

Level design and traversal are solid, exploring is fun and dangerous. Can feel like a grind sometimes looking for specific items to drop, and there are a lot of things to keep track of.

Best metroidvania ever!

One of the best games for seemless "pick up and play" co-op, the missions are well-paced, and there are always activities to do.

Loved this game.

I thought it was really clever to have three different factions that could almost be described as, Skyrim; Fallout; Mass Effect. There are a lot of subtle touches I enjoyed in the quest system, particularly that once you've completed a quest, the quest giver will usually have additional dialogue/rewards when you return to them, and that other characters will react to you differently upon completion of quests.

The difficulty can seem punishing at first, but as you gain skills, it becomes very managable.

In terms of bugs, they've been overstated. I only encountered one quest-breaking bug when an NPC clipped through the ground.

The ability to see dialogue in the mission tree was useful as well.

If you enjoy Euro-janky games like STALKER and The Witcher (original), this game should be right up your alley. And even if you don't, ELEX feels quite polished and intuitive with a modern sense of game design.

It's not so much an action game as a puzzle game. Hitman is based around scenarios and then completing them while performing certain objectives, the ultimate goal, "kill the target" isn't really the challenge. The challenge comes from the increasingly tricky and nefarious ways to do so.

Hitman is much more of a sandbox game, the goals of killing in unusual manners revolve frequently around your ability to take on new disguises. The elements of stealth aren't as much as hiding and creeping, as they are of seizing opportunity and hiding "in plain sight." It's not the kind of stealth game where someone will spot you across a map, but rather spot you if you are someplace you shouldn't be. As such I found it to be much more forgiving and sensical than other stealth games. You won't be frustrated over someone spotting you through a wall or in a shadow at a hundred paces.

Ultimately, rather than the gameplay being driven by a narrative or play loop, it's driven largely by the player who is given a lot of freedom and encouragement to break systems and experiment. As a result, it's a single player game that asks you to replay areas again and again, learning movements and moments in great detail, and to do so again and again and to manipulate the environment to encourage the same end goal (kill target "x") through wildly different means.

It can feel like purgatory at times.

If you're the sort of person who likes to sit down with a puzzle and isn't afraid of revisiting it again and again looking to beat your own time or score, then Hitman is a brain teaser worthy of dozens of hours. Those looking for a linear action game can move on.