Recent reviews by ARitz Cracker

Plays like a mix of GTA and Deus Ex

This game made me think when I'm being really dumb

(Spoiler-free review)

So, Half Life Alyx. First Half Life game in over a decade. I've definitely been waiting for this for a long time.
Solid 9/10

Gameplay: Satisfying, and fantastic
World-building: Amazing
Graphical attention to detail: Even on my 5 year old system using an OG Vive on medium graphics, great.
Environmental attention to detail: The best
Ending: THE BIGGEST OF TWIST REVEALS
Story: Good
Rewards for additional exploration: Plenty

And that leads to what's preventing me to give this a perfect 10/10.

While the ending is VERY satisfying, there's not a lot of plot that happens throughout the game, and there's only really 3 mail goals, rescue eli, destabilize the big floaty ship, and go to the big floaty ship. Compared to Half Life 2, you have (minor spoilers if you didn't play HL2) Starting from Kliners Lab, Go to Black Mesa East, escape ravenholm, rescue Eli from nova prospekt, Go to the citadel, go to breen, blow up the citadel. Even though the game is only slightly longer, it feels like so much more happens in HL2.

HL2 also had more character interactions in general. Yes, Russel speaks to Alyx with the headset, but you never actually SEE 2 NPCs talk to each other except during the opening.

And lastly, I don't mind being a one-girl army, but having friendly NPCs fighting along side you would have been great.

Again, the ending is great and makes up for relatively low amounts of plot and character interactions in the rest of the game, and what character interaction you do have in HLA, especially with the Vortigaunts, is memorable. I'm definitely not going to say game's story is bad. It's pretty good, and the way the ending expands the story of the overall Half-Life universe is great.

Anyway, that's just a little constructive criticism for an amazing experience, and I'm super excited to see where Valve takes this universe next.

Edit: Yes, this is more than worthy of a second playthrough

[Received it as a birthday gift from someone who knows me well]

Seeing that this was made by the same developers as transistor, I had a feeling I'd like this game. And, well, I did.
The walls of text and lack of actual dialog apart from the voice of the rites was a bit overwhelming at first, but the world and the gameplay made it worth it. Compared to transistor, pyre does a lot more to flesh out its world and let you explore it which I really appreciate, though if you aren't taken in by the world and the roleplaying within it, then this game might not be for you. Visuals are amazing, gameplay is fun and challenging, (played on standard difficulty) and overall was a very good experience. (Also Darren Korb has great sound and music design)

I too would rather that this game didn't go F2P. Dangerzone is fun, though and plays nothing like other battle royale games, which is great. It really scratched my itch for a "new" multiplayer game with valve-like fps mechanics.

It's perfect, I have loads more fun with this than unboxing lootcrates in other games.

There's one thing that totally breaks my immersion, though... It doesn't have me enter my credit card information or take money out of my steam funds.

** Not worth your money if you have a vive. **
If you're looking for a good video controller, get Vive Cinema on vive viewport. (It's also free)

However, even though the default steamVR keyboard is better, I will admit that this thing does have a very good implimentation for the VR desktop. If this was half the price, I would keep it just for the sheer cool-ness. The desktop feels a lot nicer than the "tacked on the last minute" feel of the default SteamVR Desktop view.

Again, it's cool, but not worth the money for me personally.

First game that made my cry in multiple playthroughs.

Again, it's early access so the full paying price will probably not be "worth it" until full release, but what these guys have so far is amazing. After playing some of the new content in the latest update, I think the game is worth buying, but not until early access ends.

The entire game plays like Deus Ex, without the guns, transhumanism, or satient AI, but with more psychedelic drugs, hunger mechanics, a focus on conformity, and an atomic-dream asthetic.

Love me some drug-fuled conspiracies 😩👌