Recent reviews by etneveL

World Racing 2 has been published back in 2005, the champion edition is a remastered version of it. The game looks decent, has some older textures in it, but overall I dig this look, although occasionally the game screen freezes for a short time on the highest graphics. Soundtrack is also pretty nice, controls are pretty easy and works really well on controller. The campaign is surprisingly interesting and mixes well it's mission. Difficulty is another question: on occasions the game is fair, but in later missions the player has to find shortcuts and get better at driving, since the AI is on point with it's inputs. Not impossible to beat, but it can make player sweat. However, this game's strongest point is the multiplayer: if you can get others with you and you have most tracks and cars to play with, you can have some fun and good racing with the game, and I didn't even mentioned the still alive modding community in World Racing 2, in which you can add tracks and cars to the game. It's crazy to see that this game after this many years has a strong community behind it.

However World Racing 2 is not without flaws. Even though the physics is decent enough in the game it still has that "old game jankiness" in it, which the player has to get used to it. The game don't have a story, so you are only resorted to the constant racing, which usually would make me bored of the game but I enjoyed, but I'm sure there are others who would find this bland.

But probably which was a bit annoying to me, is the exploitable mission. There is one mission called 'No Escape', where the AI is not really strong and you get a pretty handy rally car. In this event you can keep playing the second part of the mission until you get a specific amount of drift points, you are under the damage limit and you are in first with more than a tenth. However, if you would start lap the AI, this head start gets buggy and the AI won't start for minutes. At one point I lapped the cars by 2 laps and I got completely stuck, they didn't budged for 4 hours. I had to restart the whole mission and with that somehow I got 100% completion in the game and I was able to play the last mission, when I still had a lot to go. I don't know how this happened, but it was weird and completely broke the progression, even though I was able to finish the game sooner.

This last example is an extreme one to mention, but even though I do think this game can be fun in single player, but if you need a game for a friend group and you like racing, give a try with World Racing in Remote Play Together. I can definitely recommend it to buy, but get it around 6€.

The Executioner DLC is a whole different league than the other two. You playing as an unknown person, who connect STEM to save his daughter who is in STEM as well. You get The Keeper's body and you are exploring the mansion and kill 6 targets to keep her memories. This is a whole different DLC, because you playing in FPS mode, using a hammer and the mines, meanwhile the player unlocks new weapons after beating bosses. You can also collect coins which you can spend for upgrades. All in all, this DLC feels different and more action packed aswell.

However, if you are looking for any new story element, this won't provide that. Also the gameplay might seem repetitive, since there is not much to do in an already explored environment. I also have to mention, that the optional boss fight is quite lackluster, but so does the final boss fight.

Although I don't quite like this DLC, I think it still can be fun for those who look anything more exciting then the stealth DLCs. If you are really interested in, buy it when it's on sale, otherwise just skip this one.

The Consequence is the 2nd DLC for The Evil Within, which continues Kidman's story from The Assignment DLC. This adds more to the overall game's universe which I have to say it's more interesting than the previous DLC. It has the same stealth gameplay aswel. The play time is also the same, you can beat this in 2 - 3 hours. So, if you are interested in some addition of the overall gameplay, I think you will be pleased mostly with this DLC...

however, the stealth gameplay is still boring in my opinion and inconsistent most of the time. The plot still weird certain points, considering the main game but not too bad compare to the previous DLC.

Overall, I would say this is the better DLC from the two about Kidman, however both give a more whole picture about the game. If you are interested in more of the story and you don't mind the different gameplay and bit boring action parts, you can buy this DLC aswell, but try to get it for 50% or more cheaper. Otherwise, just skip this one.

The Assignment DLC for The Evil Within will be about Kidman and her experience in the story. This DLC take care of the plot holes in the story from the base game and adds a new perspective about it. It makes the game more interesting and adds more sense about the weird story telling in The Evil Within, It's not to long either, you can play it through in 2 - 3 hours. The gameplay is also different, because Kidman can only hide, lure and run away from enemies, which adds an interesting dynamic for the game. This DLC also introduces character and soundtrack collectibles, which are nice additions, also there are letter pieces to collect.

However, certain happenings in this DLC doesn't quite align with the base game, mainly what Kidman's doing. I understand that lot of parts in her experience with the world of they are in, but most of the time in the base game Kidman had her gun, which now it disappeared completely and lot of scenarios happens differently, which is weird. Not even mentioning the letter collectible, which doesn't really add any new information to the universe. The gameplay can be boring to some, as I wrote it's not the same survival horror shooting, like in the base game, this has more puzzles in my opinion.

If you want to learn more about the story and you don't mind the different gameplay, there is no question that you should buy this. However if you expect to continue the killing spree from the last game, you should skip this one. I can recommend to get this DLC for half of it's price on Steam, not more then that.

The Evil Within is an interesting game for me, because on the surface it's a survival horror game with lot of psychological horror elements and gore in it, it quite challenging on the normal difficulty, also the game good looking and good sounding too. If you are into these kind of stuff, and also you are fine with the bit heavy controllable character, you can handle lot of flashing lights and you don't lose your motivation in the weirdly told story, then I think it's Evil Within is a decent game, with some plot holes.

However, under the surface the story and the meaning of certain things put the game into a different light, which makes the game better and the whole weird story telling is understandable, however if you have no interest to go into this deeper territory, the game won't be that fun, especially since you most likely will lose the interest to play the game more in the future. Also, as I said the controls for the character is a bit heavy in certain cases, but you can get used to it. I also have to mention that the game has a few really annoying parts, which are either not understandable at first or simply hard. They are not impossible, but sometimes you need some patience with this game.

If you can open more towards The Evil Within and you are okay with the other negative aspects aswell, I think you can definitely give it a try. However, I would be cautious playing this game, due to the weird story telling, however the DLCs can help a whole lot to give more sense of what is happening.

The Assignment DLC review
The Consequence DLC review
The Executioner DLC review


20€ for the base game is a lot, I would get it for around 5 - 6€.

I was aware of this game, how bad and buggy it is, so I thought I will try it myself and have a laugh... however I didn't expect that the developers in 2022 fixed some things to make the game better.

First of all I want to mention that on occasion, Hunt Down the Freeman looks pretty good for its times. Also some of the ideas like the inventory system, parkour mode are good additions, The fixes by the developers makes the game more bearable: they either simplified certain parts to make them easy to understand and what to do or eased up the difficulty. I think it's cool that they gave it a go to fix some stuff. HDTF has some fun moments, which is coming from it's non-serious moments

However, even though the game is somewhat playable, it's still not a great game. The game still has maps which are useless to even existing, a lot of times I didn't know where to go, a lot of parts where the player has to run away from fights because the game sends enemies infinitely. The story does not make too much sense, most of the time even the maps have some plot holes and you just get to one place. There are some cringeworthy moments in the cutscenes, a handful of times where the cutscenes have the same dramatictrack.mp3 song which is okay sounding, but it just gets old. Crosshair is barely visible, games can freeze and crash a lot of times, characters can get stuck into scripts and you have no idea what to do.

Did the fixes help the game? They did. Is it any good? Not at all. Back then the game was infamous for it's bad traits, now the game has become a low mediocre something, which occasionally can be fun. I can't recommend it at all, although if someone is that interested, you can buy it when the game is like 3€ or smth like that.

Killer Frequency is quite incredible. Even though it's more like a walking simulator with some puzzle and horror element, the story and dialogues carries the game far. Controls are easy to use it, sound design is well made, voice actors doing top notch job throughout the game and the graphics are really fitting for the game's 80's setting.

However, Killer Frequency is not a high action packed game, in fact as a horror game it's not a conventional one either, because it really depends on the atmosphere which is phenomenal in general but for some people these aspects would make the game boring. If you are not into listening in conversations and learning the story from this way only, you should skip this game. Also, I saw a few review about this version of the game don't have the VR version, which is a bit shame.

I really don't want to tell more about the game, because I would spoil something but in my opinion Killer Frequency is a surprising and really fun title for those who gets sucked in the base situation and they are okay listening in conversations. I can definitely recommend playing this game, 25€ is a bit overkill to me, but getting it around 8 - 10€ would be a steal.

More than 20 years after of Max Payne 2's publising I have managed to playthrough the game today and oh man, this is such a gem.

For it's time it looks pretty good, the grim lighting and coloring fits perfectly for the game aswell, effects and ragdoll physics is also well made. Soundtrack and the sound design in general is pretty good too. Controls are surprisingly easy to get into after a few minutes. The story continues from the previous Max Payne, however you can still play this one without every touching the first game, since Max Payne 2 has a "Previously" menu, where it tells the important bits of the back story, which is good to have after I played the first Max Payne long ago. The game is balanced, although at the end it can be annoying, but it's not too bad. The game on Windows 10 runs perfectly, I didn't need to download any kind of fix and the game was not broken anyhow.

The only thing I can nitpick about is the platforming section which game occasionally has, because the jumping in this game is weird. I dived more instead of do jump because it was more consistent to do and it just felt silly to use them. They could have done something about it, but after I realized that the diving is better, most of these section were not hard.

Even though the game felt a bit short with its 4 hours, I think it closes down the game well and the first two game in general. This is such a classic game, which I can recommend anyone who likes shooters and don't want to avoid games, which has some darker atmosphere. 10€ is not even that much about it neither.

The Technomancer is a bit hard to categorize for me on Steam... because it starts well, the graphics are alright and there are some area which is really good looking. The game offers a decent challenge at the beginning, even on normal difficulty. The RPG elements, the battle system, party management and the story is also interesting in the beginning and the game has quite a long story mode, you can play it through in 30 hours if you only focus on the main missions. Technomancer reminded me of the Mass Effect games, it somewhat similar to it, but this has more hand to hand fighting, which is pretty cool. All in all it looks like a decent game on the surface...

but deep down has some bad roots. First of all some story elements are either weird at all or not making much sense to me. I really tried to pay attention what is going on, but the conversations from some characters are just too long and feels like they are timewasters and not telling anything interesting. I understand that background infos has to be shared towards the players, but it just has too many unnecessary detail for me. Not even mentioning the voice actors, most of them sounded either out of character or just bored in some cut scenes.
Then, the game is quite buggy. Sometimes my bombs or other equipment run out in a second, even though I had like 15+ from that item, it just runs empty for whatever reason. The game likes to crash occasionally, so I would save often in the game. In some missions the AI companions are either can't get to a certain destination in some missions or they just standing still and you have reload the save to somehow bring them back alive. Playing controller was okay, but when my companion was next to a dead body with a loot, I always healed my teammate instead of looting, because the two actions is bind on the same button on controller, which was quite annoying, when I had an ability to heal them after battles. Certain cutscenes which are played on specific locations can teleport my character under the map, which is beyond me how the devs haven't notice this, but there are many other thing which can pop up randomly and annoy you in the game.
But if the game is not buggy, then the game starts to become boring. 30+ hours gameplay can't really work if there is only just handful of locations, without anything new to see. The game likes to use previous areas for "new" missions, which is making the whole gameplay boring. Also, the battle system and the enemies are not making the game anymore interesting, because you can easily realize that the game has 3 different type of movesets for the humanoid enemies, occasionally you get different enemy types, but they will also get boring really fast, especially if you use the same movesets too with barely any new elements to see.
But what really makes this game worse, is the difficulty around the 3/4 part of the game... enemies become veteran Dark Souls player, who dodge and hit you with really good accuracy, they barely get any damage from the best possibly equipment and build the player can make and making the back tracking so much more painful with the occasionally difficult fights. I played this game on hard, but even on normal it's really annoying to get through this parts.

I can understand that a indie developer team hardly can make a perfect game, and I admit the game has some good traits and at some point, I tried to enjoy it but in the end this is just a boring and annoying RPG game, which gets repetitive in the end and it doesn't cost that much either. I can't really recommend to play this, but if you could get it around 3 - 4 €, then maybe it can worth a try.

No Straight Roads is such a fun game, it's surprising to play something like this. The game mostly plays as a hack and slash with music elements, and if you like the EDM and Rock (and EDM-Rock) tracks, you are gonna enjoy it surely. The game also has character development features and exploring different city districts for additional unlockables or currency, which helps you to upgrade your characters. The story didn't seem that interesting at first, but thanks to the characters and the message of the game, it was a blast for me. Soundtrack is also on point, most tracks were incredible and every song has its own remix in the game too. Every boss and most of the characters in the game were unique, just like their levels as well, so the game was always interesting to play. Controls were a bit difficult for me to get used to, but after some time it was fine. The game has some fun moments as well, it has some light humor here or there.

However, for me No Straight Roads is not perfect, one of the aspect was the graphics, which looks a bit blend. I mean on some places it's colorful and has some really good effects, but overall the textures looks a bit cheap to me. The drawings about the characters and animations were okay tho. The other problem I had with this game, is the heroine. Now, I understand that most characters have their development storywise and so does the heroine of the game May, but she was really hard to like in general, but that's probably because of how she talks in English.

But to be fair these issues were not too bad and I honestly like this game very much. I can definitely recommend playing this game, although 25€ is a lot for it, get it for around 13€ or less.