Recent reviews by Altervayne²

The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.

The only card game addiction I need.

It has been a week and Snoy still refuses to officially state they won't be requiring PSN, and instead just vaguely said they "wouldn't be going forward".

Why are you hiding, Snoy? Trying to pass it discreetly?

Unblock the 100+ countries you forbade from helldiving with us, you liars.

Ah, yes, Most Innovative Gameplay. I mean, it's Skyrim but IN SPACE!

Giving a game a free award shows corporate their game is good. That's all they're gonna understand, that they did good enough. Pathetic.

As much as I love the game, RDR2 winning Labor of Love shows how braindead the gamers are nowadays. Congratulations, you gave a game an award they absolutely don't deserve! Now they know they can keep abandoning their games and get awards!

Red Dead Redemtpion 2 doesn't and has never deserved Labor of Love. It was an amazing game on launch, but they threw it in the dumpster to work on GTA.

It's a fun and refreshing game, definitely try it out.

Is the entity being aggressive?
Are you injured?
Do you need help?

I recommend it, BUT.

I'm saying BUT because there are a few things you MUST take in account if you're planning on playing this game, I'll start with why I recommend it, then I'll explain those things.

First things first, I love Thief. It's one of my favourite games, but it's hard for me to go back to it because it hasn't aged very well. I've had an itch for a while that no game could scratch, just the feel of a Thief game from way back, and this is where Gloomwood comes in.

The levels are open, they're not closed corridors with a forced path, you can actually do things how you want. In fact, there are several opportunities to just skip entire sections of the game by just looking around a bit. I love this. You can truly play it how you want to play it.

The ambience and design is gripping, you'll get very immersed from the baddies actually chatting with each other to the sound design to the lighting. It's easy to forget you're playing and just keep going.

The game mechanics are very interesting, from the inventory that takes a clear inspiration from Resident Evil, using your luggage case to store things manually, orienting objects to save up a bit of space, and so on... to the weapons that allow you to have an advantage in your encounters, one of those weapons (no spoilers) specifically allowing you to smother torches or break lanterns.

The stealth is punishing. The enemies Are ruthless and take quite a few stabs to kill if you don't backstab them. Either you take everyone out stealthily, go in guns blazing after stocking up on a lot of ammo, or just sneak by, which you can do very well by experimenting around with the levels!



Now, let's get to why you should be careful if you're considering buying it.

While the game mechanics are there and greatly enjoyable, the game has a total of 4 areas you can play on, I spent a total of 4 hours to get through everything the game has to offer now. This is because the game is in early access, but it is getting updates with new content. If an unfinished game that sticks a "That's all there is for now" pop up on your screen once you reach the end of the latest level isn't your thing, I'd wishlist the game and wait for it to come out of early access. If you don't mind that and instead would love to see the game evolve, buy it right now!

There is one area in the game that, for now, feels very bland. It's entirely linear and doesn't really offer a lot of different ways to go about, which is completely different from the rest of the game. The area in question is the second area, the mines, I've put a spoiler tag in case you do not want to know which area I am talking about and would rather find out yourself.

Contrary to a lot of modern games, you cannot save whenever you want, you have to save at specific save points. I love this mechanic because it forces me to plan ahead, but I know some people who do not like it. You can however use quicksaves at a certain difficulty, and can even enable it in the config file for higher difficulties.


That is all. Gloomwood is amazing, and I can't wait for new content to get released for it, but keep in mind it's still very much in early access in terms of quantity of content. The quality is absolutely there, though!

People paid for this?

An amazing game which manages to simultaneously be chill and intense.