Recent reviews by The Jaguar

7.5/10. It could be a 9/10 or 10/10 if it ran better. Even though my computer easily exceeds the recommended specs, this game still has issues with glitches, crashing, etc. I can't count how many times I had to re-verify the game files. I even had to do a re-install at one point. After playing around with it a bit I got it to behave a little better, but it still wasn't as smooth a ride as the previous three installments in the franchise. You'd think the dev would have patched/soved these issues by this point, but, they haven't. None of it was game-breaking...just annoying and time-consuming. Other than the technical issues, the game was fabulous. Good story, good characters, good playable classes. Most of the DLC and add-on missions are good except for the arena one with Axton and Salvador -- that one suuuuccks!

I've only played about 3 hours into it but, so far, I'm not really digging it. DOOM (2016) is better. DOOM 3 is better. Original DOOM is better.

Overall, it's pretty well done. But there are some sections that are just too wide open and empty. However, what really kills it is that the final puzzle is glitched. I finally got so frustrated, I watched a walkthrough to see if I was doing something wrong...but, nope, I'm doing exactly what the walkthrough shows. I checked a few other guides, just to be sure and they all show the same solution that I've been trying -- it simply doesn't work in my game. I've tried re-verifying the game files, I've tried re-installing the game, but nothing works. It's just broken, preventing me from finishing the last 10 minutes of the game and, sorry, but that just ruins it for me.

It was pretty fun, until I got to Xen...and then it just drags on, and on, and on...

Can't re-map the keys. Epic fail! Uninstalled.

I'm enjoying this so far, despite a few flaws. Overall, it's been entertaining.
8.5/10

PROS:
~ Engaging story
~ Good FPS actions w/ cool, upgradable weapons
~ Good RPG elements
~ Decent graphics
~ The UI is pretty good overall, although I wish health and ammo count would be displayed on screen continuously.
~ Trading cards and achievements
~ The voice acting for most of the supporting characters is pretty good...or, for some characters, at least passable.
~ Hard enough to be challenging, but not too hard to the point where it's frustrating.

CONS:
~ The major one is some of the graphics glitches. I've seen comments from users who have had major problems with this, specifically with micro-stutters and blur. I did have some minor issues with this but, strangely enough, it was only for one level of the entire game thus far. The first four missions ran flawlessly, and then I had lots of stutter and blur in the area that followed those first four missions. However, once I exited this area, the problem vanished and hasn't returned since. My rig meets or exceeds all of the system requirements for this game. This fact, along with comments I've read from other players, lead me to believe this is an issue with the game, and not a problem with my rig.
In short, while I did have a few graphics issues with one short portion of this game, it's run just fine during the rest of my playthough. Still, it's something for potential buyers of this game to be aware of...
~ While the voice acting for the supporting characters is fine, the voice acting for the main character is just terrible. It's incredibly wooden...like some jack@$$ who can't act is just reading from cue cards or something.
~ Although my system isn't the newest hardware, it still meets or exceeds the requirements for this game. And yet, my card still gets warm while running this. Not dangerously hot or anything, but hotter than I'd imagine it should. I run other games that are as graphically demanding (if not more so) as "Terminator: Resistance", and they don't run as hot as this game does even with all my case and card fans cranked up. Weird.

I've played the previous nine Hercules games and loved them all. Unfortunately, I can't recommend this one. I'm not sure what happened with this installment, but the design team totally dropped the ball. The level design on this installment of the franchise is absolutely horrible. The levels are very poorly designed, and even majorly flawed on a few of the levels. I'm very disappointed.

This is really one of those games that makes me wish Steam's review system had a rating somewhere in between "thumbs up" and "thumbs down".
I love the Alien franchise, and this game does have lots of positive aspects, so I'm going with thumbs up. However, this game also has several flaws.

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PROS:
~ The story is excellent so far.
~ The graphics are very nice, and the setting is wonderful. The space station looks, feels, and sounds exactly as it should for an Alien game.
~ The controls aren't overwhelming, and keys can be re-mapped (I know that sounds like a no-brainer, but it's amazing how many PC games I come across that STILL don't let players re-bind the key layout!).
~ Immersion is good, UI is good. Also, the map is very clear and it’s a very useful in-game navigation aide. The in-game gear/item menus are good, as are the crafting menus.
~ Soundtrack is well done.

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CONS:
~ The Alien is supposed to be terrifying, and encounters with the thing are supposed to be nerve-wracking. I get that. However, such encounters often end up being frustrating. Allow me to explain. I'm not sure how the monster detects you (sight, smell, etc.), but it will sometimes find me when I'm well hidden (even when holding my breath), and then other times blunder right past me when I feel very poorly hidden. Also, the Alien just seems to appear out of nowhere. I mean, you can often hear the thing stomping around in the air conditioning ducts, so you'll know that it's near, at which point you have to walk, not run, because running is noisy and that racket will attract the critter. So, I'll be walking along quietly, turn a corner, and...*WHAM*, walk right into the Alien which promptly mauls me to death before I can even react. And this happens mere seconds after my motion tracker told me there was nothing in the area. I can only assume that the creature dropped out of some ceiling vent the split second after I put my tracker away, yet a second or two before I rounded that corner. I mean, sure, I could just keep the tracker out all the time so I'll always know if something is in the area...but the tracker beeps, which the Alien can hear. So, my options seem to be:
1) Keep the tracker out at all times. I'll always know when the Alien is around, but it will hear my tracker, find me, and kill me
OR
2) Use the tracker sparingly in an effort to keep quiet and blunder into the Alien as a result ... in which case it still kills me.
Either way, I end up buying the farm. I'm probably not very good at this game, but still...this rinse/repeat cycle of getting my @$$ handed to me by the Alien gets a little tedious.

~ Some of the craftable items are pretty useless. Once the Alien finds you, you're f**ked. You can't fight it (more on that below). You can't outrun it most of the time either because Amanda Ripley runs like a 90-year-old woman. Hiding is usually successful but, as I mentioned above, even that can be hit and miss...especially since the beast appears out of nowhere, leaving you no place to run and no time to hide. Plus, all the hiding really slows the game down. I don’t mind hiding if I’m able to sneak along, scooting from cover to cover, and making forward progress. But in this game, I often end up sitting in a closet or under a table for long periods of time just waiting for the Alien to leave so I can move up to the next room, at which point the monster returns and I have to dive back into a closet for several minutes. Honestly, I feel like a spend a lot of play time just sitting in one spot, hiding and not moving. Regarding the craftable items, then. I thought that maybe I could use them to slow down, distract, and/or otherwise disrupt the Alien, allowing me to make progress. I've tried using the smoke bombs to obscure the monster's sight so that I can escape or move forward without being seen, but they don't really work. Nor do the flashbang grenades. The noisemaker device can be thrown to draw the Alien’s attention to the spot to which it’s thrown…but they only buy you a few seconds, so aren’t really all that helpful.

~ The weapons (hammer, cattle prod, guns) are basically useless against the Alien. At best, they buy you some time. I get that this is primarily a stealth game. The limited number of weapons and the scarcity of ammo alone mandate a stealthy approach to most situations. But it would be nice to know that the weapons could be used as a last resort when I botch the stealth and everything starts to go south. I suppose I understand why they don't let you kill the Alien -- without the creature, the game loses its main threat/antagonist. I suppose another option would have been to design the game/story with more than one very-hard-to-kill (but killable, nonetheless) Alien, instead of a solitary, yet invincible, Alien. I might have enjoyed that better. I guess it just seems weird to me that in the other movies and games in the franchise a shotgun can kill an Alien, but in this game it can't.
Even against synthetics (androids), the weapons are pretty useless. In the original Alien movie, Parker and Lambert wasted Ash with a length of steel pipe and a jury-rigged cattle prod. However, in this game, I can unload my revolver into an android's face from a few feet away and then follow that up by beating its skull in with my hammer...and android still won't die! Even the cattle prod doesn't fry androids like it did in the Alien movie...all it does in this game is temporarily stun them. So really, the weapons aren't good for much of anything in the game so far, other than killing the occasional human.

~ You can only save your game at certain, in-game locations (a particular type of computer terminal). These often seem few and far between. It gets frustrating to replay the same 25 minutes of the game over and over again because I made it 95% of the way to my goal, only to be jumped by the Alien, killed, and have to reload from that last save. It would be nice to be able to save more often or save when I know I'm about to be in a tight spot, thereby allowing me to retry that same tough part of the game, without having to repeatedly replay the 20 minutes leading up to that part.

~ Some of the achievements don't seem to be working.

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I've only played 11 hours of the game, so far. As of right now, I'm giving this game 6.5/10. It gets a positive review, but some of its faults prevent it from really shining, thus far. I’m hoping that the main character will get more tools, weapons, and skills as the story progresses and I’ll feel frustrated less often. We’ll see…

Crysis 2 was tons of fun and ran like a dream.
This installment of the franchise, on the other hand, not only requires you to install the smokin' hot turd known as Origin to play it, but it doesn't even run. My rig easily exceeds all of the system requirements, yet this dumpster fire of a game constantly crashes from the start menu and/or title screens.
Seriously, don't waste your money on this.

Even in the Special Edition, the key-mapping is still royally broken. Epic fail!
It sucks, because I've been dying to play this game for years, but it's still busted on PC. What a bummer.