Recent reviews by Nyarlathotep

Loved every moment of it from beginning to end. I finished the story and I may just go back to find all the fish - it's very relaxing and the music will live with me for years to come.

I need to preface this review by stating that I am the Director of System Shock

I’ve had some time over the past few weeks to reflect on what has almost been a decade of my life working on this game and I couldn’t be more proud of what my team has accomplished - it’s a far cry from the Unity demo we released back in 2016, but this is the game we wanted to make. We made this as fans of the original and our one goal was to honor the legacy forged by Origin Systems and Looking Glass Studios - the legacy that can still be felt today in games like Deus Ex, Dishonored, Prey and countless others.

If you give System Shock a try my only hope is that you enjoy your time aboard Citadel Station.

Wonderful game that mixes parts of Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Anime and Lovecraft into a Sci-fi package. I had a great time playing and particularly adored relying on my own hand written notes to solve puzzles. The sound design was great and the pacing was perfect. My only real critique is the combat, the lock on system is a little wonky and could use some adjustments. At about 9 hours in length SIGNALIS never gets boring or tedious.

I have to preface that I received this game for free - and as someone who has the work of H.R. Giger, Zdzisław Beksiński, and Stanisław Szukalski hanging in my home I may be a bit biased.

Scorn is simply magnificent - ever since playing Dark Seed back in the 90's I had dreamed that a developer would take on the monumental task of translating the nightmare world of Giger into a fully interactive experience, and this is what Scorn is. At roughly 6 hours in length it never outstayed its welcome and every puzzle is thoughtfully designed and integrated into the world seamlessly. The pacing is sublime and the art direction of each chapter continuously evolves to keep the overall experience fresh and exciting. I took well over 100 screenshots while playing and at times it's hard to believe they're from a game and could easily stand alone as works of art by themselves.

Scorn is an example of what the video game medium is truly capable of and ultimately what it was made for.

Great style, good combat/gameplay which is unfortunately marred by some technical issues, mostly sound related. During combat the sound will become distorted, the frame rate will drop and the once fluid movement and action gets choppy and unresponsive which is what RUINER is really all about. I'd still recommend it, but if these issues were addressed it'd be a classic.

Update:
I feel like the Overwatch system in particular has turned the game around - I haven't run into a cheater, a griefer, or anything even remotely negative in dozens of matches. Well done, Valve.


Original Review:
As of the recent patch dota2 (7.23) has become an exercise in frustration and futility - the neutral item drops and outposts have made the game unbalanced to the point where each match is determined mostly by luck and have introduced a jungling meta that, franky, just sucks. Cheating has become rampant and matchmaking is simply broken - why am I being paired with 4 uncalibrated randoms in solo que while the other team has a 2 stack and a 3 stack with ranks 500-1000mmr higher than anyone on my team? Why is this consistently happening? After having spent nearly 5200 hours playing and spending thousands of dollars on cosmetics I have reached the end. Dota is no longer fun to play and I'm out.

I waited a few years to play as the game didn't run on my machine at launch - and I'm glad I did. Wolfenstein 2 is a supremely polished game with a great campaign. I'd recommend this to anyone who loves a solid shooter with a serviceable story. It gets real weird at times, but that's a good thing.

After spending about 10 hours in game I'm having a hard time motivating myself to keep playing. Mad Max nails the tone and atmosphere of the movies, but the narrative arc is non-existent and after about 3 hours you've done everything there is to do. It's highly repetitive and takes the Far Cry open-world formula and copies it almost verbatim but in a post apocalyptic world. Drive there, take down an enemy base, lower it's influence on the zone, rinse and repeat.

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series has always been close to my heart and unlike Clear Sky, Call of Pripyat manages to re-capture the joy of exploring a dangerous and radioactive wasteland like in Shadow of Chernobyl. While the game is buggy (quick save often) and CTD are common - it doesn't really hamper the experience, especially when using the Complete 2009 mod which I'd highly recommend.

Overall, the story is a bit underwhelming but the quests are great, the explorable areas are massive and even by today's standards the envionment is absoloutely gorgeous. There were many times late at night I'd be wandering through the swamps of Zaton with the sun glaring off the marshes and I would pause and soak it in, radiation and all. Howling winds whispering through the tall grass and crickets chirped while off in the distance the *pok* *pok* of gun shots and Russian obscenities filled the air.

Get it on sale, spend 20+ hours in the irradiated wasteland and even after it's over, you'll wish you were still in the Zone.

I have a little experience with Roguelikes, nameley FTL, Binding of Issac, Sword of The Stars: The Pit, Eldritch, and while they hold my attention for a brief time Nuclear Throne has become my new drug of choice. Every aspect of it is highly polished, tuned, and just a pleasure on the eyes and ears. I constantly find myself playing "just one more round" and quickly losing track of time.

It gets very difficult and I still haven't seen most of the game, but I am getting better and that sense of player empowerment is rare these days. I had a chance to play this game at PAX Prime about 3 years ago and it's come a long way - definitely worth the wait.