Recent reviews by MarsShadow

A spooky and nostalgic romp through the forum board of a cryptid-hunting community in 2006. A great showcase especially for a free game! Worth the hour of your time.

As of this review going up, Sony has reversed their decision regarding the game’s May 6th PSN update. It’s a shame it had to happen in the first place and tanked the game’s reputation, but for what it’s worth I love Helldivers 2

It's been years since I've written a game review. Just not something I had much time for, but I'd like to say that this game is one of the most marvelous games I've played in recent years. For fans of the weirdo indie classic Yume Nikki who may or may not have trans'd their gender since playing it I cannot recommend SWOLLEN TO BURSTING UNTIL I AM DISAPPEARING ON PURPOSE any more. It's funny, has a great amount of heart, incredible music and charming artwork. I hope to see much more from this developer in the future.

A delightful little gem of a game. Constantly surprising, funny, and engaging. Lots and lots of spiders and bugs though. Definitely recommend.

Dante takes a break from eating pizza all day to annoy a new cuhrayzee protagonist, who definitely isn't his nephew or anything, and maybe even save the world while he's at it.

Follow Dante, the lovable demon hunter, in this thrilling trilogy about the trials and tribulations of starting a small business, brotherly conflict, and jump cancelling.

EDIT: This review will be updated if/when the game is patched into a better state.

What a mess. I was so looking forward to playing this game but I cannot in good concious recommend it in the state that it's in, especially for $40. The game is less functional than some early access titles. I can not believe they released the game in such a pathetic state, which is all the more disappointing because the core of the game is very fun. Don't support the devs until they fix the mess they've dumped onto the steam store for people to buy.

"There is a way to turn an entity into data..."

Between games like Undertale, Pony Island, and IMSCARED, the idea of breaking the fourth wall of the game to terrify the player directly is quickly becoming one of my new favorite tricks.

IMSCARED is the full retail version of the original, much smaller game of the same name released back in 2012. If you've heard of it or seen any gameplay videos or Let's Plays, chances are you're already aware of the game's central "gimmick". If you'd prefer to go into the game blind (which I recommend) then don't read any further. IMSCARED is a good game for a very cheap price. Worth the play.

If you're curious, then read on: IMSCARED's main idea is that the game will mess with your computer itself to deceive, attack, and scare you. Essentially created a horror game acting like a malicious, haunted virus. Right off the bat the game automatically creates a folder on your desktop where it will send you messages, sometimes to aid you, and other times to taunt you. The ways the game requires you to think outside the box and the ways it uses your computer become more creative and more clever as the game goes on. For a gimmick, it's a well implemented gimmick.

It should be noted that when I say the game's tricks get more clever as you go along, the entire game really is the same way. The first gameplay section of IMSCARED (past the short tutorial) is the original 2012 game in it's entirety with one or two very minor changes. Compared to the rest of the game afterwards, the beginning segment feels amateur, and it's not a great testament to what the game had up it's sleeve. It feels very much like the developer took the original game and has been building and improving on it since 2012, leaving the segment feeling a tad uneventful and slow (not that the segment is bad, mind you, but the rest of the game just feels a lot better).

You're probably going to either tolerate or hate the graphics. It's VERY low-res and can make finding small object sprites hard. On the flipside, it does help push the idea that "this is a video game that's acting very wrong". Movement can be annoying, as the game has a tendency of having you get stuck on objects or even in narrow corridors, especially when running.

The game's no Silent Hill 2, but it has some fun, creative scares and incredibly creepy atmospheres, especially when it incorperates the gimmick of a haunted video game. Even the least subtle parts are still better than many cheap indie horror games.

Much of the gameplay consists of puzzles, which get better as the game goes on and it fully utilizes the central idea to it's potential, even if there's a bit overreliance on keyhunting, usually there's more than just backtracking to keep it interesting.

Overall, for four dollars, IMSCARED is a good game to check out. Maybe it won't for your style if you can't suspend some disbelief at times, but if you can, then I believe you're in for an enjoyable and scary ride.

I was anxiously looking forward to Hotline MIami 2: Wrong Number over the months before it's release. Being a massive fan of the original, I thought this game was gonna blow the original out of the water. I even committed the worst PC gamer sin of all and broke my no pre-order rule. I think this has taught me that even your most trusted developers can make mistakes.

Now, onto the review: Hotline Miami 2 is by no means a bad game. The soundtrack is excellent and heart-pumping and the neon visuals are hypnotizing to look at. The thing is, I can't recommend Hotline Miami 2 since the original Hotline Miami is much cheaper and better in a lot of ways. If you've already played Hotline Miami and are desperate for more, then sure, give this a try if you like what you see.

Now, the problem that a lot of reviewers have mentioned is what I'll start with first and give my opinions on. The level design.
I'm going to be honest, the level design in Hotline Miami 2 isn't very great. As opposed to quickly and widely bashing mobster's skulls in like the original, HM2 has a much larger focus on gunplay, and because of that very large open maps with little cover. This can very easily get annoying, as missions drag on for too long and you are forced to restart several minutes of gameplay because you got killed by an enemy from afar you couldn't even see. The worse examples of this have got to be the Hawaii missions. They're plain awful.
It's trial and error, but not in the challenging way like the original where you knew that every time you died it was always your fault. It can get frustrating.
That being said, not all of the levels are that frustrating, but very few come close to the fast-paced skull-crushing action of the original. The fast paced flow of the original is gone, replaced by accuracy-based, teeth grinding shooting.

The story is... just really weird. The original Hotline Miami's story was weird, too, but it was mainly kept to the background. The general jist that you needed to know is that your character is on a drug-fueled psychopathic murder spree. The clues to the story are there, you just have to piece them together.
The story in this game, however, is much more in the foreground, which wouldn't be bad if the story wasn't completely convoluted and batsh*t confusing.
The biggest problem is the characters. There are just way too many of them. You practically play as every Miami citizen and their mother in this game. Characters are introduced and dropped after only a couple levels and I kid you not the final mission is played through the perspective of a character introduced only a few levels before. Talk about bloated. The characters that have been advertised most, the Fans, barely get ANY game time.
To make things even more confusing, the plot jumps between different locations, characters, and years randomly, leaving you with no idea how it even fits into the plot. It's a mess, and to top it all off the ending is downright insulting, taking a hard left turn and leaving you with more questions than answers.

Speaking of characters, while the Fans distinct and unique playstyles should have livened up the game more, it just makes it harder.
Corey, the Zebra, has a dodge roll. Using it in a small room is suicide because you'll get caught on a piece of scenery and die. In larger rooms with melee enemies, though, it's pretty fun.
Tony, the Tiger (get it?), has killing punches, but the problem is that he can't pick up guns, and since so many of these levels are so big you'll end up getting shot before you can punch a dude, forcing you to play the good old corner peak-a-boo game.
Mark, the Bear, has two machine guns, which are useful until they (very quickly) run out of ammo, leaving you slow and vulnerable.
Alex and Ash, a brother and sister murdering duo, are by far the most fun characters to play. As you play Alex, slicing people with a chainsaw (which never stops being fun) you're followed by Ash, who you can use to cover you with guns. It works alright, but there were several times where Ash got stuck in a doorway, usually leading to your death. He's also a terrible shot, so don't rely on him to save your life.

The other characters play pretty much the same as a standard Jacket from the original, with the exception of a character I won't name due to spoilers, so there's not much to go into with them.

In short, the game isn't bad, but it was certainly disappointing, If you've never played Hotline Miami, pick up the first one for cheaper and I promise you'll have more fun as opposed to playing this one. If you're a Hotline Miami fan who's dying for more, then pick this one up, if only for the level creator that's supposed to be coming out soon.

Overall, Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number is a brutal, gory, and punishing top down shooter that, while not living up to it's predecessor's charm and flow, stands up well enough on it's own merits.

Not. Even. ONCE.