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Recent reviews by Potatokin

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Showing 1-10 of 13 entries
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
0.2 hrs on record
This girl would be great at a desk job. No matter how bad things get, she remains upbeat and stays on task.
Posted December 22, 2023.
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2 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
66.4 hrs on record (16.2 hrs at review time)
Escape from reality simulator.
Posted September 7, 2023.
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3 people found this review helpful
0.3 hrs on record
There are over 17,000 reviews for this free, 10 minute game. If that hasn't sold you, the soundtrack is pretty fly.
Posted July 11, 2023.
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7 people found this review helpful
406.5 hrs on record (394.2 hrs at review time)
394 hours in and they make a change that ruins my ability to play with friends. Thanks, guys.
Posted June 8, 2023.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
11.0 hrs on record
This entire series has been an enjoyable journey. Easily recommendable to anyone looking for a cooperative puzzle experience with a decent story. This is the first game I've purchased on release date since I think Borderlands 2.

Things I appreciated in this installment include the change in and variety of puzzles. We overthought some puzzles, we easily destroyed others, we were happily challenged by yet more puzzles, and we discovered I am not great with visuals. Between this game and the previous ones there has been a nice decrease in the number of times I had to describe three similar looking squiggly lines with excruciating details or ask the pivotal question "What color is his hair, though?" only to determine I might have a touch of colorblindness. Even if I did not love every puzzle, this game has a great medley and, very happy to say, we generally felt successful after solving each puzzle instead of confused as to what we did to win.

I will say that on a few occasions, and maybe this is just my experience, it felt as though I encountered the majority of the "sit and wait for the other person to solve the puzzle for you" problem. In previous games, this was fairly well balanced in that the person with the answers switched back and forth regularly. With players choosing their own path frequently in this game, it may happen more often that find yourself waiting patiently for your partner to solve the puzzle while you twiddle your thumbs. Again, this was purely happenstance in that I happened to pick the path that lead to being the errand boy while my friend solved things. In general, I felt happy knowing I had some amount of choice in where to go and what to do.

Finally, let me admit the story falls flat for me. While I would need to replay each game in succession before solidifying this opinion, I do not see much solid connection between the previous three games' story and the conclusion of this one. Honestly, the story contained within WWHF seems oddly disjointed at times, or at least rushed and ill planned. The story does add to the overall experience of the game, something the game can't do without, but the plot does not integrate with the story the way it does in games like the Myst series, where Myst almost explains why the puzzles exist in the first place. In the WWH series, you get story, you get puzzle, but you rarely see any relation between the two elements (rarely, because there is sometimes a connection, such as the play at the end of the first game). PLUS THEY SHAFT YOU ONCE MORE AT THE END FOR GOOD MEASURE NOT THAT I'M BITTER.

All in all, great series if you have a friend to play with who also enjoys puzzles. I genuinely will miss this series if this is the last installment, but will 100% keep an eye on this publisher.
Posted May 23, 2022.
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No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1.8 hrs on record
If you're already reading the reviews for this game, you probably have some inlking of a desire to play the game. If this isn't the first review you have read, and you're at least decently smart, you can guess a few things about this game. This, unfortunately, ruins the suggestions that you play this game 'blind', that is, without prior convictions, information, etc. Will this at all affect how you approach this game? Most likely. However, this is NOT an issue. Nothing about this game disappointed me, even though I made the mistake (mistake? I was convinced to play the game in the end) of reading reviews, THEN playing the game. I did not play %100 blind because reading a review inevitably tells you something about the game. Even so, I highly recommend this. It is the only dating simulator I have ever played (unless you count Runescape, but that was a while ago). I will be following this developer for future games. I would have paid money for this.

If you're still reading, here is some basic (and I mean basic) info about the game. You play as _insert name here_, a mediocre guy, into anime and manga. Your friend Sayori wants you to join an after school club, preferably the club she joined. You guessed it: The Literature Club! Given that this is a dating simulator, you may have guessed you try to woo a member of the literature club. Right again! But this isn't some superficial dating sim. You get fleshed out characters and amazing interactions. If possible, I advise you to play through once in a single sitting, although as with many choice-based games, multiple playthroughs are expected.

The music fits the game excellently, the dialogue is outstanding, and the game builds connections not just between you and your beloved, but between you and ALL the characters. There is a ton of reading, so that may change how long it takes you to get through the game. I read fast, so I took maybe two hours or less. Again, even going in with some information will not hurt the value of this game, and it is very enjoyable.

Stop reading, start installing.
Posted October 8, 2017.
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1 person found this review helpful
14.4 hrs on record
This is the first time I've written a review for a game where I felt ambivalent about the game as a whole. Not as to individual parts, but overall I cannot bring myself to love or hate this game. Burning lukewarmness, and a lack of anything productive to do otherwise, drove me to write a review. Bear with me, I guess. (Don't get me wrong, I really loved the story: on the story alone, I would suggest this.)

Storywise, I enjoyed myself. Life is Strange centers around a few interesting themes and tackles them in a praiseworthy manner. Photography plays a big role in the life of the main character, Max Caufield, and they implement it effectively throughout the story. Max photographs many things, but prefers to stay behind the camera as opposed to in front, most of the time. Speaking of time, Max can control that thing, hence the title.

The very beginning of the game has you saving your friend from a bullet, using your newfound superpower to save your childhood friend Chloe from being shot in your high school bathroom by Nathan Prescott. Max and Chloe reunite, and the development of their relationship, and Max's power, is another important story-point. Their relationship, as well as the optional interactions with other students, faculty and staff at the school, and a few characters outside the school grounds, are very well written and certainly engrossing for anyone who is a fan of stories in video games. Each character feels like an individual, not a mannequin, the voice acting is often good, and most characters are interesting... or creepy.

The other main plot point: why was Nathan trying to shoot Chloe? Chloe, Max learns, is investigating the disappearance of her best friend Rachel Amber. The police have found little evidence, and there isn't much to go on, but Chloe suspects Nathan Prescott is involved, if only they can prove it. Using Max's power as a game/story mechanic to reverse mistakes and undo decisions, you try to find Chloe... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!! Because the story is best experienced by playing the game, I'll move on to the gameplay.

The gameplay integrates with the story by allowing you to reverse decisions using your time-control ability. Dissatisfied with someone's answer? Rewind, and try again. Realized too late you could have helped Alyssa avoid a terribly embarassing accident? Rewind, and move her out of harm's way. This allows you to minorly change the story most of the time, but not every single time. Choices like helping Alyssa avoid a mishap are recorded: at the end of the episode, you'll see statistics telling you who chose what, which statistics were often surprising. But those are small decisions, which only affect insignificant parts of the story. If you help Alyssa, for example, maybe she can help you later, or not. This simply means you have multiple ways of solving puzzles.

Then there are the big decisions, most of which are plot relevant and spoiler ridden. So like, the difference between safely docking the boat or running it into a rock and killing dozens of people (which is not a deicision you have to make, but some of your choices are of similar import). Using Max's power and the player's deductive reasoning, you slowly work your way towards discovering what exactly happened to Rachel Amber, Chloe's missing friend, along the way (un)making choices which might ruin or save lives.

So why my ambivalence? I was sincerely infatuated with the story and characters. I made decisions I most certainly regretted, sometimes going against what I believe I would have done, if put in a similar situation, and I made choices I liked, but the outcome was regrettable. That part was fine. However, as with most games which promise 'game-altering choices', Life is Strange fails to deliver. As I said earlier: Saved Alyssa? Alyssa will help you now. Sure the dialogue might change, and you are annihilating friendships or building trust with a supposed enemy as you go along, and this certainly changes your perception of the story and characters therein, but that's sum total of my experience. Much like Until Dawn (another game I really enjoyed), you are riding a train toward your predetermined destination. You can choose to look out the window to your left, or the window to your right, but you end up in the same place. Admittedly, there is more than one ending. Even so, the sum total of all your decisions is 0. Look out the left or right window and pick your preferred ending.

Quite literally, you pick between two endings. At the end of the game. This destroyed any desire I had to replay the game. And, up until THE END, I had every intention of replaying the game to shoot at different targets, make different friends and enemies, try for a different outcome or some such nonsense. I didn't expect as many endings as Silent Hill, maybe, but any concept of 'choices have consequences' went out the window in the last five minutes. Once my wish to replay the game died, I became ambivalent. I found the story satisfied me, though I can understand why some people didn't like it as much as I did. As I do, I should say.

The story satisfied me, as it ended at a very logical conclusion. Would I have liked a different ending? Absolutely, but that's why I didn't write this story. What disappointed me was the lie I was fed about consequences. Nothing I did mattered in any significant way as pertains to the outcome. I would only recommend Life is Strange based on the story as a singular narrative, with no real replay value. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I'm sure many people have run through the game and befriended so-and-so while being mean to what's-her-face, but I felt no need to do that.
Posted May 26, 2017.
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1 person found this review helpful
7.5 hrs on record
Mensch ärgere dich nicht: kauf ein anderes Spiel. DreadOut ist ein übernaturliches Horrorspiel, ohne eine echte Geschichte. Die Geiste, gegen die man kämpft, haben tolle Geschichten, die ich sehr interessant fand, aber das Spiel selbst? Keine Ahnung.

Wenn man stirbt, und ich starb sehr oft, braucht man drei Minuten, zum Spiel zurückzukehren (Wilkommen in Vorhölle! Der Ausgang steht da). Weil ich so oft starb, daurte mein Kampf gegen das Scherenphantom fast eine halbe Stunde. In einem Horrorspiel stört so ein Kampf die Erfahrung, besonders wenn es nicht so viel zu erfahren gibt.

Jedenfalls ist die Atmosphäre gut, trotzdem genugt nicht, um dieses Spiel zu empfehlen. Wem dieses Spiel gefällt, darf es haben.
Posted January 13, 2016.
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3 people found this review helpful
3.2 hrs on record
I would have bought this at full price, even given the brevity of it all. Short, simple, and to the point, this game delivers all the punches right to your gut, taking you through all the fears of being a two year old, barely able to walk. Want to open that door? Find something to climb; toddler ingenuity at its finest. Need some comfort? Hug your bear.

Among the Sleep does not necessarily offer anything outstandingly new to horror outside of your perspective as a baby, but the details that went into crafting this diamond masterpiece surprised me. I felt encouraged to explore everything to avoid missing a tiny detail because every detail mattered. Hugging your bear gives you comfort and acts as a flashlight? Awesome. Hugging the bear causes the bear to sigh lovingly? Slightly creepy, but amazing.

Also, if you haven't had the plot spoiled for you, and again this game is only about a two hour thing, it's pretty good. And unlike a lot of games where the atmosphere and tiny details contribute not at all or very little to the plot, pretty much EVERYTHING in this game tells you exactly what is going on. Most importantly, something is going on which even I could completely understand.

Controls when turning a valve or opening a door are wonky, so be prepared. I had trouble climbing some things. I couldn't figure out if there was a no crosshair option (pesky little dot in the middle of the screen was slightly obnoxious), but I didn't try very hard to get rid of it. Pretty much sums up my complaints.
Posted January 4, 2016.
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5 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
0.1 hrs on record
(Actually played this on Desura, which is why I have so few hours into it on steam.)

The hardest part of this game sold me, I swear! It is not every day that a platformer takes me by surprise, being generally a standard genre of games, but this one stood out. It had all the frustration and infinite retries I require for a platformer, and all the jumpscares I need to empty my bowels. The best of both worlds! Wait.... You're telling me this isn't a platformer? No no no, it CAN'T be a horror game. What horror game would have the player jumping across a canyon of random furniture only to fall to his doom every five seconds? All those deaths completely ruins the atmosphere! Only the worst of horror games would make THAT mistake.

Really, though, I know this is a (horrid) horror game. I did not spend much time crying in a corner waiting for the monster to assume I was no longer in the room. The illuminated rooms, while sometimes eerie, were far too bright to make me tense, and even in the darker parts of the game I had no idea what was happening anyway, so the scary just wasn't there. Wooden Floor is a jumpscare phantasmagoria, reenacting countless scenes of floaty object scares from Poltergeist with a distinct lack of success. After the thirtieth "Oh my! The book is floating!" I realized there was no threat. When the risk of death arrived it meant running madly away from a mess of wooden teeth, but that sums up the majority of the scary points. (Get it? Pointy teeth?) The utter lack of maleficence in this game makes for a droll experience.

And then I got to The End. No, I did not beat this game. Not really sure what the end is, but I know there is a mask dripping blood from its eye sockets, a giant floating book regurgitating red hieroglyphs, and a few pointed sticks falling from the ceiling. I died many times.

You may have noticed I didn't talk about the plot at all. Yeah, not really sure what the plot was. Something about an evil house or something. Whatever.

A game so concerned with jumpscares accompanied by loud noises does not capture the attention. I have worse scares imagining what machinations my roommate has planned for me.
Posted June 3, 2015. Last edited June 3, 2015.
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Showing 1-10 of 13 entries