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39
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Recent reviews by Captain Capslock

Showing 1-8 of 8 entries
4 people found this review helpful
4.2 hrs on record
I can't recommend this game solely because of the G-force system. For a core game mechanic, it's just too wonky and inconsistent.

Deep down Steep can be an amazingly fun game but it's seriously ruined by the constant feeling of having no control of your character whatsoever. You'll get stuck in barricades, lose 90% of your health from one questionable slow landing whereas you were fine last time you did the same jump at twice the speed, etc.

The graphics look great, controls feel intuitive and the gameworld is both beautiful and cleverly designed for minigames (a bit like how Bowser's home castle is obviously one big racetrack in Mario Kart games).

But don't for a moment think the greater picture of Steep lets you forget about that one terrible game mechanic. Oh no. It's like trying to play normal chess with an autistic kid who flips the chestboard off the table every few minutes.
That's Steep. Every single great moment is ruined by the G-Force system kicking in every now and then, saying "OH NO YOU DON'T!" while pushing your character into random directions and draining health out of nowhere.

And finally, the gameworld needs some optimization. Not performance-wise (another area Steep excels in; it runs really well), but collision-wise. Expect to get stuck in objects often and - perhaps most annoyingly of all - randomly get KO'd on steep hills because the game didn't register the snow below your feet as actual snow and behaved as if you tried to snowboard on the rocks beneath.


A few minor nitpicks:
  • Ridiculously overwhelming amount of information and controls at first, and yet STILL the game manages to miss out on some important basics. I guarantee you that every player's first attempt at the introductory wingsuit section resulted in tripping onto the wooden floor because the game forgot to mention that WASD immediately triggers wingsuiting now instead of walking.

  • Both keyboard controls and any other camera preset than "Look at my 3rd person cinematic ride" feel like afterthoughts. First person (GoPro) might as well be removed from the game as it is now because it's impossible to complete any challenges with your player's FoV locked staring at the ground instead of in front of him.

  • World map suffers from terrible controls and HUD clutter.

  • G-Force system (yes, I'm bringing it up again) feels like a deliberate limitation for playing unrealistically. The game focuses so much on realism (which ironically it does a fairly poor job at, read rant above) that every single stunt costs a little health. You'll be rewarded with points for doing amazing mid-air flips but the game will literally KO you if you do the same trick again immediately afterwards.
    It's like the gameplay focused half of the game is saying "Good job, amazing stunt!" while the realism focused half is saying "Are you insane? That would really hurt in real life!"
Posted November 20, 2016. Last edited November 20, 2016.
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8 people found this review helpful
1,123.4 hrs on record (973.5 hrs at review time)
Whether you liked this game in the past or not (or never ever played it at all and mindlessly joined the "Let's hate Evolve" -bandwagon), you can't deny that it's at a much better state now than it ever has been.

Going free to play was a bold move but I'm glad they did it. The game is great fun and was always perfect for people who like to play a few short and diverse multiplayer matches a day, and it's a shame that people previously never gave it a chance due to all the talk about its "DLC shenanigans" and "season pass bullsh*t".


That's all behind us now.
Give Evolve a (second) chance. It's free to play. You have nothing to lose. See for yourself that the game can be extremely fun and is full of polished content, gameplay strategies and atmosphere.
You'll probably like it a lot.
Posted July 8, 2016.
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7 people found this review helpful
15.4 hrs on record (6.1 hrs at review time)
+ 'Okay' graphics, it's not the prettiest Unity engine game ever created but for an indie game in general it looks really professional.

+ Genius monster design. There's plenty of variety in all 3 monsters regarding their strengths, weaknesses, traits and design. All of them play into a different human fear (horrific physical strength, being stalked and the supernatural respectively)

+ Genuinely scary, which is sadly a rare sight among indie horror games. I always try to steer clear from the cargo bay as best as I can because I'm not venturing through that dark, creepy maze unless I'm absolutely certain I have to.

+ A surprisingly huge amount of depth to gameplay. There's far more items than just the key items required to escape the cargo ship and they all have their uses.
Lighters can be used to illuminate an area or ignite a pool of gasoline on the floor to hold off a monster.
Tape is required to repair the life raft but can also be used to sabotage camera's.
I'm telling you, it's amazing how much you can actually do in this game so it's sad to see some people (falsely) claim there's nothing more to Monstrum than hiding in lockers.

+ Interesting setting. I don't believe I've seen a cargo ship used in horror games before but it really makes sense. It feels right for a horror game.
The ship itself looks really good and the rooms, from living quarters to engine room, are believable locations.

+ The difficulty is just right.
You're going to die on your first playthrough. Probably also on the next. Possibly on many more to come.
And that's okay. Because of the wide range of options in this game, I never really feel like the monster cheated or I died to unfair b*llshit.
This is why I don't mind this game being difficult even if you've already completed it several times. This, combined with the ship's random layout everytime you play the game, makes for great replayability.

-----

- Questionable animation quality.

- Weak audio design, the audio is usually nothing but distant, broken steam pipes and a random noise once every few minutes that doesn't mean anything.
Also a BIG sound problem: The attenuation on some sounds is just plain misleading. Sound volume doesn't seem to be affected by distance in height, meaning it's impossible to tell whether a monster is roaring or thumping right next to you or a floor safely above/below you.

- Could use some performance optimisation, though in general it runs fine on most computers.
Posted May 31, 2016. Last edited May 31, 2016.
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425 people found this review helpful
16 people found this review funny
10.1 hrs on record (8.3 hrs at review time)
This is incredibly hard for me to do, but I'm giving this game a negative review.
Mind you, if there was an inbetween-option like "It's okay" then I would definitely have chosen that, but since the choice lies in either "Recommend" or "Don't recommend", I'm afraid I must settle for the latter.

Ori and the Blind Forest is a great game.

Ori and the Blind Forest: DE is a great game as well.

Story, visuals, music... Both games check all the necessary boxes that make a good platform game.

I love Ori and the Blind Forest.
I love Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition.

However I do not think this game is an improvement over the original.

---

Let's start with the improvements.

The good

Extra area
Moon Studios has added an extra area that can be explored at any time. It gives us a little more backstory on the character Naru. The location's design is not only beautiful but also clever in the way it becomes partially explorable at the start but story-acquired abilities are required to progress further.


Extra abilities
While I'm not a huge fan of the newly added abilities to Ori's skillset (more on that later) I can't deny that they've been implemented professionally. The animations are smooth, a select few pickups scattered across the map require you to utilize those abilities well in order to obtain said pickups and most impressively they're well balanced.

It's easy for developers to make a small mistake and accidentally introduce a new ability that actually allows players to sequence break the game to their desire, but in Ori this is thankfully not the case.

(Sequence breaking means progressing through locations and parts of the story in a way that developers did not intend to happen, such as expertly leaping over gaps that were meant to be uncrossable.)


Full backtracking support
For those completionists out there, Moon Studios has added the ability to fast travel through the map using spirit wells. Additionally, areas that were previously sealed off after completion are now still open in Definitive Edition and after completing the main story you can still open your save to explore Nibel or reach 100% completion.
It's a great improvement over the original Ori where you better made sure you didn't miss anything before heading to the exit of a dungeon.


Difficulty overhaul
Having trouble with some of the game's famous escape sequences? Simply crank that difficulty up to Easy so there'll be a few checkpoints along the way. There's no shame in that.
Already completed the game once? It feels like a breeze now, doesn't it? Then perhaps try playing the game on Hard or even One Life difficulty. The difference is rather noticeable and even the most diehard Ori fans will have to admit that it was a lot harder than they expected.


The bad

Extra area
Allow me to bring up that extra area again, Black Root Burrows.
It's well designed and feels like a natural part of Nibel's map.

However it's also incredibly short. 1 hour of extra content? Not even that. It takes around 30 minutes to breeze through this entire extra location.
And finally to top it all off, where's the backstory again?

To quote the Steam Store description:
• Discover Naru’s past in two brand new environments.

The game promised and the game delivered exactly that. But players surely expected more, right? I won't spoil the whole thing for you here but I can confidently conclude that at the end of Black Root Burrows, the player is left with more questions than answers. There is no emotional reveal. No sad shocker. No twist.
Nothing. The player gets exactly what he started expecting to happen at about halfway through the area and the emotional value to be experienced is zero. No surprises.


Overwhelming control scheme
Ori and the Blind Forest was already close to the edge of turning its great gameplay into frustrating gameplay, and I'm afraid Definitive Edition succesfully leaped over said ledge.

The original game had no rebindable keys. This is a huge problem for PC gamers. I will admit to finding the default control scheme just fine but I reckon there's also a huge amount of players who aren't comfortable with it at all. Left handed gamers, people who prefer ESDF over WASD, etc.

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition has made no effort to fix this. Even in this version you cannot rebind your keys (you can edit your KeyRebindings.txt file but I fear for those unfortunate many who will not discover this method).

This is already bad on its own, but it gets even worse due to Definitive Edition introducing 2 new abilities to the game. BOTH of which require their own key on the keyboard.

So yeah. This game that was once considered by many a "simple platformer" now forces you to utilize half your keyboard with no way of rebinding keys. (Again - I'm not considering the KeyRebindings.txt method as an actual part of the game)

SHIFT to glide.
E to create a soul link.
CTRL to Dash horizontally.
Hold UP to charge your HORIZONTAL dash. (definitely doesn't feel counterintuitive at all)
R to use Light Burst. (which you can aim with the ARROW KEYS if you use the full-keyboard control scheme without the mouse, something that is never explained in-game)

It becomes such a frustrating mess at times. I'm sorry but it really does. In tense moments where you're expected to react quickly it's an infuriating experience to rely on the far too many keys you now require.

To sum this problem up:
It's RIDICULOUS to expect players to use half their keyboard in a simple platform game that DOESN'T even allow them to configure the control scheme.


Lazy implementation of difficulty
The addition of a harder difficulty is nice, but it's implemented in such a dull way that it only makes the game more frustrating.

If Hard difficulty at all alters the escape sequences in any way, I have not noticed it.
As far as I could tell it did absolutely nothing to those scenes (which I consider the highlights of Ori).
Instead, the only thing Hard difficulty did was add more difficulty to the normal, calmer parts inbetween those sequences that seem a little dull and repetitive in comparison.

It's the usual difficulty slider like in every other game. All it does is increase the damage taken by enemies.
It did a good job at making the biggest part of the game relatively difficult for me but that only made the rare few escape sequences even more disappointing, as these supposedly "hard" sequences were now easier than the rest of the game due to not being affected by the higher difficulty setting at all.


The remaining additions don't excuse this being a whole new game

From the short Black Root Burrows to the difficulty slider, none of this feels impressive enough to condone the developers saying "Hey guys I know, let's make a NEW version!"

Stuff like the revisiting areas to reach 100% completion should've been part of the core game all along. Definitely not something a player needs to pay for.

The extra abilities, extra area and difficulty slider... Well, they're nice additions but even when all of them put together I just don't see the reason why this had to become a new game.
A free update would've been far more appropiate for this amount of new content.
Or even a cheap DLC, perhaps.

Not a full game.

---

Great game, but apart from the spirit well teleport mechanic all of its additions could've been implemented better and I personally find this version unnecessarily confusing due to addition of even more required keys to play what used to be a simple platform game.
I would've worded this summary a little more positive but it seems I reached the word limit.
Posted May 26, 2016. Last edited May 26, 2016.
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22 people found this review helpful
14 people found this review funny
14.0 hrs on record (11.9 hrs at review time)
I had a review on this game before. There were many paragraphs about what killed this game and how I miss the old Primal Carnage.
But really there's no need for any of that, because it's really simple.

There is no game here.

9/10 servers are Free Roam where literally nothing ever happens. The other 1/10 are either A) an unfinished buggy gamemode called "Dino Deathmatch" that takes "bad netcode" and "work in progress" to a whole new level or B) the actual Team Deathmatch or Get to the Chopper (objective gamemode) that you bought this game for but it will be empty or extremely laggy.

Your average server list in Primal Carnage: Extinction will look like this:

Server name
Gamemode
Players
Ping (in milliseconds)
Random Joe's Roleplay Server
Free Roam
20/20
14
Super Awesome Cool Kill Server
Free Roam
5/20
26
Official Something Something
Free Roam
7/20
40
Official Something Something #2
Team Deathmatch
0/20
50
Random kid's server (NO KILLING)
Free Roam
20/20
64
Yet another Free Roam server
Free Roam
10/20
82
24/7 Free Roam!!! xDDDDD
Free Roam
4/20
100
Official Something Something #3
Free Roam
0/20
148
Surprise surprise, yet another Free Roam server
Free Roam
6/20
174
I Stole My Mum's VISA To Buy A Server
Dino Deathmatch
19/20
190
Guess which gamemode?
Free Roam
7/20
204
Official Something Something #4
Free Roam
20/20
216
Official Something Something #5
Free Roam
2/20
234
Official Something Something #6
Team Deathmatch
4/20
250
Oh, would you look at that? We finally found an actual Team Deathmatch server with players in it.
Oops, nevermind. 250ms ping. Trust me when I say that you don't want to play a game that already suffers from bad hitboxes and netcodes at over 200ms ping to boot.

There's really nothing left to say. I can rant on and on about expensive skins and unbalanced classes but really - the primary issue here is that this is not even a game. With the abysmally low playercount (90% of which is made up by skin fanboys anyway), Primal Carnage: Extinction is nothing more than a skin-showcase platform at its current state.

I cannot for the life of me recommend this game to anyone.
You won't find any "Humans VS Dinosaurs" action here that the game advertises itself to be about.
Posted March 7, 2016. Last edited March 7, 2016.
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56 people found this review helpful
18 people found this review funny
7.2 hrs on record (6.8 hrs at review time)
We've all heard most of what needs to be said about Machine for Pigs.
In short; it's more Dear Esther than Amnesia.
The Chinese Room butchered Frictional Game's good reputation they made with The Dark Descent.

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The real reason I've decided to finally post a review is because on my second playthrough it literally took me less than 5 minutes to get stuck in the map. I encounter a machine that needs a fuse, find a new fuse, install the fuse, notice there's a second fuse so I bring it along with me assuming I'll need it later, come to a point where I need free hands so temporarily put the fuse down, then finally game tries to scare me by locking door behind me.

Then the game tries to show clever level design by giving me access to the old location of the fuse, not at all considering the fact that I had brought it with me for most of the way, now lying on a table no longer accessible.
Nice, Chine Room. Real nice.
Posted September 21, 2015.
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3 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
12.3 hrs on record (6.7 hrs at review time)
I literally feel bad for everyone who doesn't know this game exists.
Posted July 26, 2015.
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2 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
35.1 hrs on record (9.3 hrs at review time)
Portal 2 doesn't take itself even remotely serious, and that's not a bad thing.
Posted January 2, 2015.
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Showing 1-8 of 8 entries