106
Products
reviewed
915
Products
in account

Recent reviews by David Szymanski

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Showing 1-10 of 106 entries
15 people found this review helpful
0.3 hrs on record
Neat little platformer with great art and a charming vibe. Difficulty spikes pretty quickly into level 2, so expect a fair few deaths. Worth a look for only $4.
Posted January 25.
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349 people found this review helpful
40 people found this review funny
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14
0.2 hrs on record
My brother made it, so you know it must be good!
Posted January 18.
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52 people found this review helpful
0.5 hrs on record (0.3 hrs at review time)
Actually a pretty clever little idea. Although there isn't any obvious challenge to Otok, it's still unexpectedly fun to try and make the best looking model city you can with the pieces it gives you. Not something you should expect to play for hours on end but I could see myself booting it up every so often for fun.
Posted November 23, 2023.
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179 people found this review helpful
5 people found this review funny
3
16.7 hrs on record
Marvelous fun. Everything Teyon nailed with Terminator: Resistance applies here too. If you're a RoboCop fan, purchasing this is a no-brainer. If you aren't a RoboCop fan, there's a high probability this will make you one.

A few key points:

- Not only can you shoot creeps in the groinal region, but there's an entire class of enemies that are armored from the waist up, REQUIRING you to shoot them in the groinal region

- The first level has some of the most ridiculously destructive gunfights I've ever seen in an FPS. It's Hardboiled Tea House Shootout levels of mayhem.

- Yes, the Cobra Assault Cannon is in this game. And yes, the rousing RoboCop theme is in the game. These two things converge at one point in the best possible way.

- RoboCop himself is hilariously deadpan.

- You can, and will, pick up motorcycles and throw them at guys riding other motorcycles. The resulting ragdoll deaths are incredible.

- ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, come

- One of the upgrades for the Auto 9 makes kills extra gory. There is no other purpose to this upgrade. It is Rogue City's version of the bloody mess perk.

- RoboCop wields the combat shotgun with one hand

tl;dr, 10/10 game, well worth the purchase
Posted November 9, 2023.
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135 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
2
3
3.1 hrs on record (2.9 hrs at review time)
It's like if Unreal, MDK, and Turok had a baby. It's awesome. Play it.
Posted October 2, 2023.
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27 people found this review helpful
5 people found this review funny
1.6 hrs on record
Early Access Review
I'm a simple man. Game has tornadoes? I like.
Posted September 1, 2023.
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214 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
2
2
6
9.9 hrs on record (7.7 hrs at review time)
Absolutely fantastic. Amnesia: The Bunker takes design elements from classic Resident Evil, Arkane games, Alien: Isolation, and Frictional's own previous work to create a tightly-wound little masterpieces of tension and risk/reward problem solving. It's easily the most gameplay-driven of their games since Penumbra: Overture, while still maintaining the horror sensibilities that originally made Amnesia such a success. An easy recommend if you like the resource management of survival horror and the open-ended problem solving of immersive sims, and want to see what happens when those ideas are mixed together by a studio with years of experience making visceral dread-driven horror.
Posted June 24, 2023.
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554 people found this review helpful
30 people found this review funny
31
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74
11.3 hrs on record (5.3 hrs at review time)
5 hours in and it just keeps getting better. The Callisto Protocol is an action horror game (NOT a survival horror game. Do not buy it expecting a survival horror game) that focuses on brutal close-quarters combat above all else, and actually does a pretty darn good job of it.

At first you'll mostly be getting used to the odd (but eventually pretty smooth) melee system and enduring the requisite scripted setpieces and cutscenes, but after the first hour or so it opens up into a highly enjoyable riff on the ethos and aesthetics of Dead Space and its many inspirations. Combat is brutal and satisfying, with an emphasis on balancing guns, melee, and telekinesis. You end up in a nice rhythm of shooting, beating, and throwing foes with plenty of curb stomps to punctuate everything, and it's very rewarding to successfully tear through multiple enemies with the right combination of all your tools. The tide can turn quickly though, and the game strikes a nice balance of making you feel vulnerable but also making you feel like you can utterly destroy enemies if you're smart and skilled enough.

The aesthetic and atmosphere are also great, again riffing heavily on the industrial sci-fi elements seen in Dead Space. It's especially cool when you're crawling through the bowels of Callisto's prison through dim claustrophobic tunnels lined with ugly utilitarian components and rust.

There's also... the performance. If you're reading through Steam reviews circa TCP's December 2022 launch, you'll probably notice that its average rating is... perhaps lower than one might have assumed given the pre-release buzz. That is almost entirely due to the game's performance issues, which at launch were fairly severe. As of this review there's been a patch to address these issues, and it does seem to have done that to some extent. Most people report less stuttering and I'm personally finding that it feels a lot smoother to play (although there are still regular sequences where it chugs). Given time this will hopefully turn into a non issue, but currently it's definitely the worst part of the game and a legitimate reason to hold off on purchasing if you're uncertain about your hardware.

I'm still gonna recommend The Callisto Protocol, though, because the game itself is quite fun once it gets going, and if you go in expecting a brutally satisfying action horror game in a cool atmospheric setting with pretty visuals, you won't be disappointed.
Posted December 2, 2022.
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42 people found this review helpful
1
12.3 hrs on record
An unexpectedly fantastic little survival horror game that feels less like a Resident Evil throwback and more like a Resident Evil contemporary. It looks the part, for one thing. To a ridiculous degree. Screenshots don't really do justice to how accurately this game emulates the PS1 aesthetic, to the point where it's easy to forget that you aren't emulating some forgotten classic. But it also has the gameplay to back those visuals up, and goes way beyond simply copying Resident Evil's design. There are many surprises waiting in the dozen or so hours that Alisa takes to complete, as well as quite a few of its own little tweaks to the formula that gives it a pretty unique place among other survival horror games.

For instance, it has a currency system. Enemies will drop shiny looking gears that you can use to purchase things like ammo, health, new weapons, character modifications, and clothing with unique stat buffs. Now on paper this sounds like it might undermine the whole "limited resources" thing that's generally a staple of survival horror, but in practice it actuallly adds an interesting new angle to dealing with enemies. You still end up in situations where limited health or ammo necessitates avoiding enemies rather than engaging them, but you're also incentivized to come back and kill them later, and to figure out the best way to kill them without spending too much health or ammo. It doesn't sound like much but it completely changes how you view encounters in fresh and interesting way.

It's bursting with imagination, too. Enemies are varied, creative, and creepy. The setting is a lot more varied than you'd expect too, with several distinct areas that all have their own theme and flavor. The puzzles are clever and strike a great balance of challenging but not frustrating. And... well, I don't want to spoil anything, but you never quite know what to expect. It took me about 12 hours to finish Alisa and it managed to keep the surprises coming right up to the end.

If I had one criticism, it's that the bosses can be a bit of a pain. The first one is probably the worst of the bunch, and comes at the tail end of the most frustrating area as well, which I could see being a stopping point for some players. The rest of the bosses aren't quite as bad, but I wouldn't describe any of them as fun per se. I should also mention that the aiming and general control isn't quite as polished as it could have been, and it might be a good idea to choose the "start with autoaim" option at the beginning (although autoaim can also be purchased later).

Other than that, though, I had a blast with Alisa and would easily recommend it to anyone who enjoys classic survival horror games. Especially if you're looking for something that brings more to the table than just a retread of Resident Evil's design.
Posted November 12, 2022.
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113 people found this review helpful
22 people found this review funny
3
4
4
2.3 hrs on record (0.5 hrs at review time)
Got in a giant mosh pit brawl with two Jacks, a Nemesis, and three stupid looking moldeds.

Was fun.

Worth the price of "free with Resi 8"
Posted October 23, 2022.
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Showing 1-10 of 106 entries