131
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371
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Recent reviews by ♡ Katalina Aryze ♡

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26 people found this review helpful
2 people found this review funny
84.3 hrs on record (25.8 hrs at review time)
First off, the Enhanced Edition is far better than the trash incomplete version on GOG, even when modded. This version has so many improvements and cut content from the original, just quality of life stuff and stuff that should have been there plus a few new surprises. You don't have to hunt for the best mods or worry if things will get messed up, Beamdog has taken care of everything for you.

Now, moving on to what you want to know...

Baldurs Gate is an isometric rpg that does a good job of hiding the "holding your hand" technique, usually the typical process is a mini-map, arrows and markers but here in this game we have a journal and a world map, you're pretty much told wheee to go by name and just search with the clues given to you so technically ot still holds your hand but in a much more mature way than what we're used to getting in an rpg. Arrows and markers wouldn't make much sense in an isometric rpg anyway.

The mechanics are complex.. you know, there are some Jrpg's which use super complex mechanics in crafting, combat and so forth. This game buries anything else in the industry in terms of depth of combat and learning curve for mechanics. You can play this game for 80 hours and still not know all of the systems. Whether you're an experiened D&D player or new, you're still going to be learning the same amount.

Story-wise, it's not very emotional like some games I've played today (Life Is Strange, Transistor, Nier: Automata, I'm looking at you!). It's not going to make you cry but it might make you laugh. Voice acting is partial, there is some, enough to give you some personality to both npc's and playable characters who join your party. You're going to be reading alot, there's alot of dialogue and alot of choice.

As far as interactivity and exploration go, there's alot to explore and alot of side-quests. Random emcounters are a thing, if you set up camp and rest, bandits may come for you and try to kill you, you may wake up to find some of your items stolen. Make a wrong choice that your party disagrees with and they may abandon your party. Bounty hunters will be sent after you if you are murderous, the town will love you or fear you based on how you treat townfolk. There literally isn't a game on the market that matches the depth of the Baldurs Gate series in this regard.

There is alot of freedom in Baldurs Gate. It's thought of by many to be the 2D spiritual predecessor to The Elder Scrolls series but gives you more choice than them. You can be anyone, any class, kill anything or anyone, have a party of six or solo and much more.

"Story-Mode" difficulty has been added and what a joy it is to play if you find the combat to be an overwhelming joy or if you have better things to do than worry about dying or losing companions and gear. As someone whose work is getting more demanding, I was thankful for this option, I don't want a 60 hour game to be stretched out to 200 just because of deaths when I have to work alot and have other games to play and finish as well (My backlog is large).

Graphically, the sprites are not the best but the 2D backdrops are gorgeous. This is far better looking than the original version of the game. You can actually tell what things are, you can zoom in and see small decales like an inn symbol and so on. Sound is crisp like the original, there really isn't a change there but surround sound and headphones support has been added.

Controls: My only legit and validated compaint is that controller support hasn't been added. The PS4 port of the game proved that controller works better with the game's UI than mouse and keyboard. Who would have thought? I wish that this was an option like it is for Divinity: Original Sin. Alot of pc gamers seem to agree that controller would fit the game better now as we pass through the years. Otherwise, if you are happy with the mouse and keyboard, you won't care too much about this anyway.

Overall, you have an rpg game from 1998, that still gives you more freedom than any rpg today. Now that it's remastered, there's no excuse not to try this amazing rpg. Even moreso because of story-mode difficulty, you can breeze through the game on this setting so there's no reason to be intimated if you're not familiar to the D&D systems.
Posted January 28, 2020.
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11 people found this review helpful
24.6 hrs on record
Psychonauts is a deep RPG experince disguised as a cute cartoony 3D Platformer. Throw in some Puzzle, Acrobatics and Action/Adventure with a Metroidvania map type structure. It's got alot under the hood, and alot that makes it unique.

The Rpg Portion: You have a decent lengthed main quest, then you have side-quests and scavenger hunts with an option to grind to level up your character. You gather cards and buy a Psi-Core and go to a lab to craft to level up or you can level up by collecting dream-puffs in missions. You have choices in Dialogue with full voice acting and there is some level of choice, you do have alot of freedom in the game and while that may not affect the world around you, it does get a reaction/acknowledgement from your character. For example, I killed a bird and he says "I feel bad about that" in an apologetic manner.


Metroidvania Portion:
As you gain more powers, you not become more powerful but you get more options to traverse meaning that more of the map opens or you are able to reach new places based on your progression, this is very meteoidvania-like. This also applies to opening small areas you weren't able to before due to maybe an object you pick up later in the game, you return and you can use that object to get you further in that specific location. So powers and objects affect your progress in a big way.

The Open-World:
The game features a full open world which is placed in a kid's summer camp with a day/night cycle. The day/night cycle depends on where you are in the main quest. It's surprisingly a large open world for this type of game and from its generation.

A Gripping Story:
While Psychonauts may look like a kid's game, the story deals with some pretty scary topics - Abuse, murder, mental illness, depression, loss, abandonment, grief, suicide. It's all there and while the game does have some moments of comedy to balance out the darkness, it's important to know that the game takes the issues seriously with respect and realism though placed in a colorful world.

The Platforming Part:
The game controls mostly like it's Rayman 2, with alot of double jumping, floating across and climbing to places. Attacking is pretty basic and relies on melee or your psychic powers. There are no guns or anything like that.

The Bad:
Psychonauts is not perfect and suffers from a few issues, let's talk about them.

Bad Camera Angle Syndrome - Common in allt of third person action games from this generation.

Low-Res CGI: It's awfully immersion-breaking when you're playing the game in say, 4k and the cut-scene is 480p stretched out.

Some Of The Texture Work: Some of the textures can be outdated, too simple by today's standard. Maybe a remaster or full remake of the game could do this some good.

Can't Play Post-Finish: You will need to load or start a new game, part of me understands as this is a game based on a summer camp bit part of me wishes that I could have continued other stuff after finishing the main quest.

Load Screens Are Frequent: Even though they are very short thanks to today's tech power, they are still there and it's still kinda annoying.


The Lasting Impression:
After 24 hours, I finished the main quests with some side stuff left over, I reached level 67 and said it was enough. For $9.99, everyone should own a copy of this. I have had this game for a long time and put it off due to playing other games. I'm glad I finally played through it and now I see why the game has won so many awards. While I'm late to play it, maybe it was a good thing since Psychonauts 2 comes out next year!
Posted September 9, 2019. Last edited September 10, 2019.
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4 people found this review helpful
2.0 hrs on record
Pretty awesome, it's like a 2D version of Overwatch but with some rpg mechanics like ability upgrades and such. Pretty fun whther you're playing online with randoms or with friends.
Posted August 26, 2019.
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6 people found this review helpful
4 people found this review funny
0.1 hrs on record
Nobody on here anymore who speaks the same language as me so I can't communicate with other players for tactics. Worse controller support ever too, you'd figure that a team based fps would have controller support since pros play with controllers but nah, that isn't the case here.
Posted August 26, 2019. Last edited August 27, 2019.
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5 people found this review helpful
9.8 hrs on record
Well, it's far better than Resident Evil 2 Remake!

It's funny how an older game with dated graphics and what may be considered as a "walking simulator" to some still offers more atmosphere and quality gameplay than bigger AAA titles. It's an indie horror game but don't be fooled, the voice acting, the build up of tense moments, the flow of the game all make for a great experience.

My only complaint is that the ending was very unclimactic as it felt unrewarding. This is the father of Outlast genre- meaning without this game, there wouldn't be any Outlast or Layers Of Fear.
Posted August 26, 2019.
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17 people found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
12.8 hrs on record
The Lego Movie Video Game is pretty unique in the sense that it's a video game based off of a movie based off of the Lego toys that the video games are dedicated to in the first place *Mind Blown!*

What separates it from other Lego games? The music genre invades Lego. You'll see the graph with the buttons on screen, moving from right to left, prompting you when to press a button - much like guitar hero or DDR. I guess this feature/mechanic was a given due to the mob flash dance scene in thd movie... EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!


+ Bizzare cast full of variety which includes licensed characters (DC, Lord Of The Rings, Ninjago, etc.), fully original characters, Lego set characters and historical characters.
+ Unikitty should be enough reason for anyone to buy this game. Unikitty has become one of my all-time favorite Lego characters.
+ Graphics/Art Style is nice, while not as pleasing to the eye as newer Lego games, which is to be expected.


- Don't expect an open world experience, this is a game where you select levels via mini-hubs. Some have more room than others but none of them are large open spaces like something from Lego Marvel Super Heroes.
- Bad voice acting in the beginning of the game that slowly turns into better voice actings.
- Some voice overs are ripped straight fr the movie while others are either good/bad impersonations of the original actors. It can be strange at times - although younger audience may not notice this.
- Very barebones character customization. It's there but is rather limited.



Some things are problematic but overall, this is an adventure worth going on. There's alot to see and like any other Lego game, you've got alot to collect. Bugs are minimal so despite many claims, do not be afraid to give it a try. With the sequel release right around the corner (in Febuary), you owe it to yourself to play this one if you have ever considered it.


Is the game actually any good? Yes, as every other Lego game based off a movie/movoe franchise has proven. Lego games seem to have a unique ability to defy that pesky "Movie games can't be good" ideal pressed by gamers as per usual, Tt Games has only ever proven these types wrong.

I'll admit, the beginning of the game was a bit slow to get the ball rolling, and towards the end the game felt dragged on, maybe a chore to play it at a few points BUT the grand finale was worth it.
Posted December 29, 2018.
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24 people found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
16.8 hrs on record
Dead Rising 4 is like a perfect combination of all your favorite zombie horror early 90's zombie films, drawing a heavy inspiration from Return Of The Living Dead 3 and then finished with some some more modern story elements from The Walking Dead tv show on the outer layers.

• The story of the game is far more well developed than the previous titles. The open world is open from pretty much the start (after a short tutorial). The writing is the same kinda lame comedy that you'd expect from previous Dead Rising titles as you play an older Frank West.

• The map is surprisingly large with a variety of terrain, zombies are greater in number. There's enough map for you to drive around in comfortably as you would in most action open world games. Baring in mind that you are, of course, limited to on ground land vehichles.

• Graphics are much better than Dead Rising 1&2 but not as stylized as Dead Rising 3. I think this has to do with color pallette desing choice. Dead Rising 4 is bright and colorful, very modern while Dead Rising 3 possessses a more cinematic color-scape.

• Sound is meh, don't expect anything too fancy from the sound direction. It is Capcom after all and they've never been masters of sound design, this is no different.

• Lack of detail in zombie activity and behavior is where the game falls short. As shown by many YouTube videos, there are slight differences, small details that are just missing in Dead Rising 4. I think it was due to developers already having issues with the optimization, maybe they had to let go of some of these things to make the game run at all.


I found the game to be very fun but there are MASSIVE problems with it. The game is called Dead Rising 4: Frank's Big Package but I assure you that the big package is sadly infested with crabs. Players having issues with crashes, getting stuck on loading screen, textures disappearing, framerate dips for no apparent reason. We can agree that this is due from poor porting, the actual game is great and it no doubt plays better on console. Purchase at your own risk!

As a game I like it better than the other Dead Rising games, but technically, it's deeply flawed. The technical aspect is the main reasonI cannot recommend the game.
Posted December 16, 2018.
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12 people found this review helpful
5.0 hrs on record
Replace the writer with a painter and what you have is basically Stephen King's The Shining in video game form. It's a short experience, 6 chapters and each chapter is around 20-30 minutes give or take. You may be able to finish the game in one sitting like I did.

It's interesting because there's a sense of mystery in it. The horror elements and jump scares in the first couple chapters got me but beyond that I became numb to them and I was more invested in the story than the fright of it.

Although it's very short and linear, there's allt of variety. There's jump scares but there's also some sense of dread. It's well put together, the lighting and sound are really good. Interactivity is pretty much what you'd expect from this type of game, nothing out of the ordinary. Decent voice acting, it feels like being in a Hollywood movie.



I would recommend on a sale, $19.99 seems a bit too steep for what content it offers. I got it for free on Steam.
Posted December 16, 2018.
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253 people found this review helpful
6 people found this review funny
83.6 hrs on record (38.7 hrs at review time)
Lego DC Super Villains is essentially Traveller's Tales' very own original adaptation of the Forever Evil DC Comics storyline. Featuring the Injustice League, League Of Doom, Justice League and a couple surprises. This is the first Lego game all about the bad guys, so this is NOT Lego Batman 4, nor is it meant to replace it. This is more of an evolution of the Villains level section in the very first Lego Batman game, and that is a good thing for many reasons.

If you're familiar with Lego games, you probably already know that every Lego game has something that sets it apart from other Lego games. Lego DC Super Villains goes a bit further with this though. So... What exactly is different this time around?

+YOU, that's right YOU, your character is at the center of the story and the most intregal part of it. For the very first time in a Lego story game, you take the reins with your custom character. Your character is seemlessly integrated into the story and the cut-scenes. Aside from this, you are making choices later in the game which I will not spoil. I refuse.

+Largest open world in a Lego game packed with details with more collectibles and things to do than ever before. Visit DC's most beloved scenes such as Smallville, Metropolis, Gotham, Atlantis, Apokolips, Arkham, and many more! I don't think I need to say anything more here.

+Next-Gen character customization on a whole other level. Make a mini-fig/big-fig with your personal touch, finally customize without limits and you can change your character's apparence and powers at different times so don't worry if you don't like your character later. Things you can customize but are not limited to: Helmet, head, hair, face, eyes, chest, chest armor, shoulder armor, hands, arms, legs, belt, super powers per eye, hands, chest, feet, etc. Weapons per hand. Be aware that customization opens options as you progress meaning that there is a more limited selection when you first start the game.

+An astounding and varied voice cast which features: Kevin Conroy as Batman, Mark Hamill as Joker, Tara Strong as Harley Quinn, Michael Ironside as Darkseid and many other amazing voice talents.

+Smaller Roster than your average Lego game. Base game consists of 162 characters means more uniqueness to the personality and functionality of playable characters. Characters feel different and are set apart. Say goodbye to the ten different skins of the same character, every character has a purpose and nobody is a clone or reskin. Quality over quanity.

+Graphics, coloring and animations have been improved among the best looking Lego games. Bloom is being used in a bit of a better way than Lego Batman 3 did. Textures are more detailed while staying true to the Lego style of shapes. Lighting and shadows have been revamped. The color pallette makes the game visually pop, bright neons against darker contrasted colors make the game stylized but to where characters are easy to see in intense battles. Animation is perhaps the most improved thing here, there's something about seeing Clayface's muddy drips, just look at how beautifully Harley Quinn roller skates and seemlessly transistions into skating backwards and the new trails on speedsters. There seems to be physics behing the animations like the ones I mentioned.

-Made for a controller. The game is pretty much made for controller more than past Lego games. Allow me to explain why. New actions for different buttons have been added meaning that the left and right triggers are now used for left dodge rolls, right dodge rolls and/or parrying strafing just for changing characters. Aside from that rumble has been reworked for this Lego game, you can feel everything, it's been refined. Using a Keyboard and Mouse may put you at a disadvantage for this reason.

-Pacing of combat is a bit slower and less fluid than Lego Marvel Super Heroes and Lego Batman games. I assume this is because so much has been changed, involving new fighting styles, new attacks and the new dodge buttons. Additionally, I noticed that there is a slight delay after taking a hit that adds a new layer of strategy, this means that your character can get staggered. This could be good or bad depending on what you like.

-If there is one thing that will confuse most people, it's who some of the characters are. If you're not heavily into DC Comics, chances are that you will have never heard of 50% of the playable villains, they are obscure. That said, they probably also won't know what the multiverse is or how it is relevant in the comics. This game won't act as an introductory to these things as TT games expect people who buy this to know about everything it throws at you.

-Disappointment: NO Online MP. Don't buy this if you expect online multiplayer capabilities, it may be 2018 and it would have been nice but the answer is "No."

-Disappointment: STILL No trading cards, this also means no badges, no wallpapers, no emoticons. I understad that the gake is $20 less than the console version but still would have been nice.

Final thoughts: Although Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2 and Lego The Incredibles were releases only for newer consoles such as Xbox One and PS4 and pc, this one feels like it's the first "next-gen" Lego game because of everything truly being updated to the next level. Finally we're using more buttons on our controller, an all star cast, licensed music and original music from real artists/bands. TT Games waited over 10 years to make this game specifically and their efforts show. The game has a completely different vibe, you can feel this when you start the game and that rock music starts up (Yes it's a song about Joker being sad because Harley left him).

Note: My review is based off my experience with the game using an Xbox 360 controller, single player use only and nVidia gpu's to push graphics to perform at 60 fps and at 1080p resolution. I experienced no bugs with either of my set-ups. As always, keep your system and gpu drivers up to date to minimize any problems that may occur. If you use keyboard, mouse and/or an amd gpu, your experience may be completely different.
Posted October 16, 2018.
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16 people found this review helpful
1 person found this review funny
20.4 hrs on record
"What does it mean to be a LEGO Video Game?" Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga is a Lego video game, stripped down to it's purest form and yet features pretty complex and tactile lightsaber combat!

With tons of characters, most of them having their own unique speeds and some of them being unarmed civillians (having no attack or ability at all), there's much to love about LEGO Star Wars and right off the bat, it's easy to see why it's one of the highest rated LEGO games til this day.

You get 6 different storylines (one for each movie of the classic trilogy and one for each movie of the modern early 2000's trilogy), each storyline features 6 levels. Not every level has a boss fight but the levels are varied in gameplay styles. What it lacks in bells and whistles of newer LEGO games, it makes up for in sheer amount of content.

The lightsaber combat was easily my favorite thing about the game, it's just as complex and thought out as the combat in Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy.



Pros:
- Satisfying lightsaber combat
- Boss fights are epic
- Valied locales and level design
- A plenthora of secrets, beta levels, characters

Cons:
- No voice acting
- If you step away for 10 minutes, you need to re-enable your controller
- Things aren't explained as well as they should be
- U.I and character switching isn't intuitive, nor is it optimal for gameplay experience


Closing thoughts
All in all, a great sum up of Star Wars classic and modern Lucas trilogies. There's alot to love, alot of nostalgic feelings rise when playing this game. It's not the prettiest but you can see the love put in this one.
Posted June 21, 2018.
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Showing 1-10 of 131 entries