Recent reviews by LDSO

Rock of Ages is a wacky mix of Marble Madness, Katamari Damacy, and Monty Python-esque humor all rolled (pun intended) into one. The humor and Terry Gilliam style animation sequences, alone, make this extremely memorable. But it helps that the game is actually fun, too. Particularly the over-the-top spectacle boss battles. Highly recommended.

Portal 2 takes what was great about the original Portal - the puzzles and humor - and elevates it to the next level.

The puzzles are even more devious, the humor that much more amusing and in-depth compared to the original. In particular, listening to Cave Johnson's messages (brought to life so well by actor J.K. Simmons) throughout the game is a delight.

Portal 2 is absolutely a worthy sequel, and another instant classic.

Spirits of Xanadu is a game I can give only a marginal recommendation to, along with a few reservations.

The game is rather short, and at its original $15 I feel it wasn't worth the asking price back then. Spirits of Xanadu can be completed in about 2 hours if you rush through it. I took my time, and still completed it in 5 hours. Since the price has now been reduced to $10, I feel this is a bit more reasonable for what you get. (Even the additional endings can't justify the price, as they don't add a lot of replay value. Since you can reload your last save and experience all three in one sitting. I'd recommend picking up Xanadu on sale, which is what I did.)

It borrows heavily from the System Shock series in terms of plot and gameplay, but the RPG elements in Xanadu are very light in comparison. There is no resource management: with the player's character regenerating health, and weapons having unlimited ammunition. It also borrows from a variety of other science-fiction stories, such as Solaris, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Sphere, Sunshine, Star Trek: Voyager, and more. If a mashup of several cult science-fiction games and films is something you'd like to experience, then Spirits of Xanadu has it covered.

Pros:

• Intriguing mashup of various cult science-fiction stories, peppered with its own unique additions and symbolism.
  
• Despite the simplistic visuals, it has a tense atmosphere that will keep you wanting to explore.
  
• Good voice acting in the logs.

Cons:

• Some glitches and annoyances. For example, if you have a gamepad plugged in, it will override keyboard and mouse input. I couldn't find any command line parameter or option to disable the gamepad, unless I unplugged it. The game should allow you to freely alternate between both types of input.
  
  I also experienced a bug where, at one point, crouching would cause the screen to turn black and prevent you from continuing. (Somehow fell outside of the level?)
  
  And forcing a different type of Anti-Aliasing (SSAA for instance) than the FXAA option in-game, can result in the visuals becoming completely messed up and the game unplayable. (In my case, anyway.)
  
  
• Poor performance. I may only have a modest setup by today's standards. AMD Phenom II 1100T, Radeon 6870, 4GB memory, Windows 10, using latest updates and drivers, not overclocked.
  
  But there's no reason why - despite having all settings at maximum and using the game's built-in FXAA - I should be dropping just below 30 FPS at times in 1080p. The visuals do not justify the performance I'm getting. And I know I'm not the only one seeing poor performance. The game will also start to stutter on occasion, with a reload seeming to fix that. (Suggesting a memory leak, perhaps.)

Overall, it's worth a go. But, again, I'd advise waiting until it goes on sale before purchasing. Many will not find the length of Spirits of Xanadu worth the asking price, even at the reduced $10.

On June 30th, 2017 Disney finally released a fix for the issue that prevented the game from starting for some. But I'm leaving my review below intact.


Before I continue, I want to disclose the fact that I'm one of the creators of the Killer App Mod for TRON 2.0. I've also owned the game since its initial release in 2003, and provided help and support to players during that entire time. So, my opinion on TRON 2.0 could be considered a bit biased.

If you look at the negative reviews for this game, you'll find in the majority of cases it's not because they didn't like the game. It's because they couldn't get it to work. Giving a negative review for that reason is fine, and Disney should definitely fix the issue.

It doesn't happen for everyone. But if it does, there's a community guide started by schmatzler that can help, with a simple fix. It also advises on how to play the game in widescreen, and even get the online multiplayer working again; both via the Killer App Mod.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=325088441

For me, TRON 2.0 is a more faithful sequel than TRON Legacy. It was once considered the official follow-up to the original TRON film, as stated by director Steven Lisberger himself. It celebrates the geekiness of the original, with many puns and references to it.

The environments in the game expertly balance the fine line between paying homage to the original film's neon glow aesthetics, while at the same time updating them and giving the game levels a more sophisticated look. The player's weapons are imaginative analogues to the standard FPS shotgun, machine gun, sniper rifle, grenade launcher, etc. But it's the iconic identity disc that is the most fun to use: being able to both attack, and defend (block) opponents' discs. Monolith Productions managed to translate the versatility and precise control seen from the disc in the film, to this game.

Continuous FPS action is occasionally broken up with Light Cycle race sections, which again almost perfectly emulate what was seen in the original TRON. The AI can be a bit frustrating to play against, because of their insanely fast responses to the player. But, eventually you will learn how to deal with them, and they can be defeated relatively easily. If you find the races too frustrating, they can be skipped by saying "No" when the game asks if you want to retry. There is no score penalty for doing this, and you won't miss anything (cutscenes or rewards) if you skip races.

The ending of the game is a bit disappointing, and leaves you wanting more. But it's the journey there that is the most rewarding. TRON 2.0 is a lot like System Shock 2, in that regard. Another game with a fantastic campaign, but an unsatisfying ending.

The press and user reviews generally agree on a score of 8.4 (84/100), which I think is fair. If I had to give TRON 2.0 a numerical score, it would be a 9/10. It's not perfect or completely groundbreaking for its time, but it does what it does very well and is an overlooked gem of a title.

This recommendation applies to both the Overture and Black Plague episodes of Penumbra.

Both remind me a little of the survival-horror System Shock atmosphere, crossed with a classic puzzle-solving adventure game. There are also small homages to Half-Life in the story and gameplay.

If you like spooky atmosphere mixed with a bit of action and puzzle solving, you'll really like the first two Penumbra games.

Avoid Requiem, however. It's little more than a Portal-esque rip-off with some horror tidbits thrown in. The only possible reason to bother with the episode is to see the ending, which ties in to the first two and adds an extra layer to the story. But it's really not worth the price of admission, unless you can pick up Requiem super-cheap.

If you enjoyed the Penumbra games, you'll enjoy Amnesia. It's as simple as that. The graphics are a bit better, though. Frictional improved their engine a fair bit in the meantime. However, one thing I don't like about this latest title is checkpoints/autosaves. If you want to manually save your game, you can only save and exit. You can't just save and continue on. They force you to quit the game. I take it this was done to discourage constant saving and reloading. But I'm still not pleased with this change.

The conscensus seems to be that Amnesia is possibly the scariest game yet made. I disagree. It is creepy, yes. No doubt about it.

I can't go into further details without spoiling the game, but Amnesia is not as frightening as it's made out to be. I actually prefer the previous Penumbra titles to this one. Amnesia is good, yes. But I felt Penumbra had the better narrative and was a more memorable experience.

Let's face it: Tank Universal is an obvious homage to Tron. It's a Tron game in almost every respect, but name. Even the marketing for the game loudly proclaims you're entering a "Tron-like world". Sure, there are enough differences to make it something unique, unto itself. But when you're playing it, you can't help shake the feeling that you're essentially playing what could - or even should - be Space Paranoids as envisaged by Flynn in the movie.

Aside from some frustration you may experience in the frenetic Tank battles, and the fact that you may end up starting over again on a level which could be aggravating, Tank Universal is a very nice indie game. Recommended to anyone who's a fan of Tron.

While not quite reaching the lofty heights of the original Deus Ex in terms of storytelling, freedom of choice, and emergent behavior (the boss battles in particular are pretty terrible, and are widely derided): Human Revolution (aka Deus Ex 3) nevertheless turned out to be far better than I originally expected it to be - despite my trepidation about the third-person takedowns (which are still stupid and break the immersion), the cover mechanic, and the player hints and highlighting on the HUD (which, thankfully, can be turned off). It's absolutely a worthy successor to the original game, and makes Invisible War (aka Deus Ex 2) a laughing stock by comparison.