Recent reviews by PoloBoy

Outcast: A New Beginning is a great action game in the open world, all of a sudden!

The original Outcast was released in 1999 and became one of the first three—dimensional games in a large open world - thanks to the strange, almost voxel graphics. Today, such a technical feat cannot be repeated and you will not become a pioneer. On the other hand, the game also clung to its eccentric universe in the style of good cheap adventure fiction and beautiful orchestral music - and these elements can be repeated. And the revived Appeal Studios (the developers of the original Outcast, by the way), with their modest forces, again swung at the big openworld.


In Outcast: A New Beginning, an Interesting Universe

Suspiciously reminiscent of "Avatar", but it's still a sequel to the 1999 game. The bottom line is that humanity has invaded the parallel world of Adelphi, inhabited by intelligent humanoid talents. You could even say smart, but not too technically advanced. With a share of the Na'vi narrative about the connection with nature, but without excesses. The main character, former special forces soldier Cutter Slade, found himself on Adelphi, unknown how and unknown why, he immediately stood up for the talents, who in general (not all) consider him the messiah. He cannot die — he is mysteriously reborn. And his memory is gone — so he returns slowly, trying to return home at the same time. You may not know anything about the events of the original game, which is also about Slade.

The story of Cutter Slade is a formulaic adventure fiction. Or even popadanistics, sometimes funny, not devoid of self-irony. In Outcast, it is more interesting to observe the stories and everyday life of the talents. They are not such exalted and insanely boring jungle children as the na'vi in Avatar — they are more like people. There are fools, hysterics, madmen, grumblers, greedy scoundrels, and dirty politicians among them— you will have to deal with and participate in all sorts of things.

At the same time, the atmosphere of what is happening is closer to Hogwart's Legacy than to Avatar

The Talans have everything like people, "just the opposite" — distorted to the level of a joke. The poor live in the treetops, while the rich live on the ground, fish are caught with oars, moonshine is driven from the saliva of local horses, fruits are harvested by riding on the backs of giant flying worms and all that. It is interesting to pour into this nonsense, as if you are reading a perky children's book — even glimpses of "serious drama" do not interrupt the atmosphere. In building the universe, as in working with the open world, the game is just trying to amuse, not download — and thank you for that!

And at the same time, there is fabulous beauty, colors and amazing music by Lenny Moore. He also wrote iconic music for the original game — with the involvement of the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. I do not know which orchestra was recorded this time, but the result is magnificent. Orchestral Hollywood in major games has already become boring and commonplace, but there is a soul in the music of Outcast: A New Beginning. She is not pretentious, as if she is simple and perky. But when necessary — magically mysterious or exciting, with a wonderful chorus. The pleasant light atmosphere of the game is largely based on music.


Outcast: A New Beginning has a standard open world, but it's not annoying.

Because everything in the game is damn fast and convenient. Starting with moving with the help of a jetpack. At first, it allows you to make only one upward leap, but after a couple of hours with its help you can soar, and strafe as you like, and jump up the mountains in two counts. It's both tactile and fun, and moving around the world makes it trite — you never get lost or break your head, you're always on the move. But at the same time, you are not completely off the ground, you do not lose touch with your surroundings — although at some point flying on an air worm will slightly cut this connection. Everything is just as fast and fun in the game. Even outposts (and towers!) they are cleaned in a matter of minutes, between cases. The same is true with other activities in the open world — not primitive, not always so simple, but somehow surprisingly fast and intuitive. You fly through quests, and literally clean up the map along the way, without breaking on the grind, without going too far to the side. In principle, the game does not try to stretch its timekeeping — it will take 30 hours to completely clean it, even despite the huge map, densely packed with content.

Outcast: A New Beginning has a great combat system

So this is a basic, even somewhat old-fashioned third-person shooter without any tangible ballistics. But there are nuances! Firstly, the shield — it can be used to defend and beat enemies. Secondly, those same straights with the help of a jetpack, which sometimes turn shootouts into almost Vanquish. However, the soul of the game is in the weapon customization system, simple but ingenious. Modules are scattered around enemy outposts, which can be placed on guns in any combination. And these are not some advantages to damage or rate of fire - modules radically change the behavior of barrels. They make an ordinary pistol shoot mines or turn an assault rifle into a sniper. And considering that four such modules can be attached to the same gun at once, the scope for creating insane boom sticks opens up dizzyingly. And the rifle has six slots — can you imagine what you can do with it? This modular system smooths out all the flaws of the combat system like no recoil and a very meager pool of opponents. In addition, modules are accumulating rapidly — I collected half of them literally in five hours, so there is no time to be bored.


Outcast: A New Beginning can easily be accused of being too "simple" and "shallow" for a big open-world game in 2024. You can even call it archaic — and the PS2 vibes, for which the canceled Outcast II was once developed, can be traced in it. But there are not enough games like this right now!

A New Beginning proves that even messing around in a standard open world can be fun. At the same time, the game looks great, does not bug much and does not crash — and in general is at such a level that it will look fine even a little bit more and even in the line of some Sony exclusives.

Rating 10/10

The Gwint board card game is a one—on-one competition project created as part of a series of games about Geralt of Rivia. Initially being a mini-game from the adventures of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Gwint quickly gained popularity among gamers from all over the world thanks to its dynamic gameplay, entertaining mechanics and, of course, colorful design. In the end, the developers from CD Projekt RED, known for their attentive attitude to the wishes of the players, decided to make a full-fledged project out of a small off-story entertainment.


The first mention of gwint can be found in the book "Baptism of Fire" by Andrzej Sapkowski: the original source says that it is a card game, very popular among lowlanders and dwarves. The author did not provide a detailed description, but the words that Zoltan Khivai, Percival Schuttenbach and the rest of the squad spent literally every free minute playing gwint make it clear that the game was very, very exciting.

In "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt", players met gwint in the vision of CD Projekt Red. The mechanics, at first glance, seem extremely simple: Geralt, the main character of the series, has a base deck at the start, which he replenishes with a legendary card in one of the first quests, which has clear advantages over the rest. The next task is to fight with the rest of the Neverland players to get all the other legendary cards in the collection. In addition, cards of individual factions that differed in their abilities and characteristics became available for purchase from merchants or as a reward for completing tasks.

The gameplay itself is not complicated: there is a lined field with three sectors for each of the participants, where there are maps of combat vehicles, mages and melee or ranged fighters, as well as bonus and power-up cards. After all the cards are laid out, the scoring begins, and the player whose cards have killed the opponent's alignment by damage wins the round (of which there are only three). Despite the simplicity of the gameplay, the matches themselves sometimes cause serious emotions — it's enough to recall the quest "High Stakes", in which Geralt had to play several rounds in a row with the strongest players of Novigrad.


Becoming an independent project, Gwint received several new mechanics and a number of features that diversified the gameplay compared to the version from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Firstly, the abilities of leaders have appeared, which become available once per battle and change depending on which faction's cards the game deck is made up of. The game decks themselves have also undergone significant changes: the skills of the fighters and improvements have become more diverse, and the cards themselves have become much more compared to the original RPG. In addition, in addition to the classic match, various competitive modes with players around the world have become available: ranking, draft (with a random set of cards) and seasonal, the conditions of which change once a week and are overhauled with the release of a new patch.

The main advantage of Gwint is the low entry threshold: to start the game, it is not necessary to have experience in similar projects or knowledge of the world of the original series of games about the witcher. All the rules and mechanics are explained in training matches, which, if necessary, can be revisited at any time, after which the player is given a starting deck. You can replenish your set of cards by fighting with other players, as well as completing seasonal tasks, the list of which is regularly updated. Therefore, if there were doubts about buying a Gwint due to the lack of early season cards, then the worries are in vain: the game provides recruits with a full range of opportunities to make up for the experience and strength of the deck.


Rating 10/10

Despite the technical innovations underlying Warzone 2 – a truly ambitious game space, water battles, revision of the ballistics of weapons and handling them, Infinity Ward in a sense returned to the basics of the royal battle. The experiments inherent in hybrid games like Resurgence and task-based modes like Plunder that helped define the original Warzone are over.

And now 150 players get on one vast map, having a little more than a gun. Solo survival alternates with frenzied firefights at random intervals, as backpacks are filled with ammunition and equipment. And when the last expletive is heard over the communication channels, one of the fighters leaves the small round arena – victorious, with a story that can be told to everyone who is ready to listen.

Warzone 2 is notable for the stories it allows you to create and how well you can navigate the wide gaps between the most memorable moments of the round – defiance in the face of death; racing on a narrowing gas circuit; quiet isolation while looting the sunken village of Savah. In Warzone 2, battles that cause an adrenaline rush do not happen often, unless your squad insists on landing over the high-rise buildings of the city of Al-Mazra. Due to the size of the map, you will probably see fewer enemies while exploring, and when you do encounter one, the probability of an error when pulling the trigger will be very small.


In Warzone 2, priority is given to positioning, which almost contradicts the basic Call of Duty experience. You need to be more attentive to how (and when) you decide to come out of hiding and cross open space, as well as when you decide to open fire on the enemy. If you get used to the increasing recoil of the many weapons scattered around the map, assault rifles and SMGS will be relatively easy to penetrate armor plates. Speaking of armor, Infinity Ward has improved the survivability balance by introducing a three-tier armor bag; By default, you can equip only two plates and increase their number to three if you are lucky enough to get a rare item or find a purchase station where it is stored.

The pace of the battle has become shorter and clearer, and the rejection of the muscle memory of the cat-and-mouse battles in Warzone is a shock to the system. But after I got used to her rhythms, I began to appreciate what Infinity Ward has created here. This battle royale uses small military leanings within acceptable FPS competition, and it works. This is partly because everything is consumed in Warzone 2. Your life points and ammo are obvious, and your patience is natural. But almost everything else you come across, too. The cars are running out of fuel, and they have to be abandoned in a race between refueling circles, three of which can now appear in the last minutes to split the squads and provoke drama. The heartbeat sensor will discharge if you lean on it too hard, and it will be a nightmare when you cower behind rocks, when flying bullets raise dust around you.


Warzone 2 lays an excellent foundation for future expansion, but there is room for immediate improvement in key areas. Some elements of the game experience and ecosystem are more complex than they should be – a criticism that can also be leveled against Modern Warfare 2. The main user interface is confusing, making it difficult to navigate between game modes, social tabs, and weapon setup screens. The combat pass system in Warzone 2 is similarly confusing: Infinity Ward abandons linear progression in favor of a sectoral map design, which makes it difficult to quickly track unlocks between games.

Speaking of weapons, while Gunsmith is cumbersome in the main MW2 multiplayer game, the complexities of the system are clearly evident in Warzone 2. While Infinity Ward has done everything possible to discourage players from using separate sets of main weapons (you can now buy one at a time at purchase stations) in favor of collecting ground loot (more of which can be stored at once thanks to the
new backpack inventory system; another unnecessary turn back to Blackout), the truth is that some weapons are already proving their viability compared to others, and the process of unlocking new weapons, gadgets and camouflage is difficult to understand and represents a general deluge of time.


Warzone 2 is an excellent foundation for many years of expansion and experimentation. The map is incredible to traverse, weapon systems and handling models are slower and more thoughtful, and a sharp, short battle turns every encounter with the enemy into an exciting spectacle.

Rating 10/10

Clatter is a rental turn-based tactic in which you create and manage squads of combat robots of various classes, trying to outplay your opponent. The project is designed for multiplayer, there is even a rating system: if you are a skilled commander, then quickly run up the "ladder" and fight with rivals equal to you. In addition to multiplayer, Clatter also has a career mode.

Rating 7/10

Chippy is an arcade game in which players will control a small robot named Chippy, who must restore order to the space station after an accident. There are 30 levels in the game, each of which requires the player to control the robot and use its features, such as the ability to fly, control robotic arms and shoot laser beams. The player must collect green crystals on the level to open the exit, avoiding dangers such as falling objects, hostile robots and other obstacles. This is a game with a complex gameplay and an exciting atmosphere that provides many levels to pass and many difficulties to overcome.

Rating 7/10

Fort Solis is slowly pumping. The main character Jack Leary receives an emergency message from a nearby base and goes to investigate what happened. He doesn't know anything about what exactly happened, but reading notes and listening to audio diaries, as well as stumbling upon other, much more terrible finds, he realizes that something terrible has happened. His colleague and close friend Jessica Appleton often gets in touch with Jack: at first they just chat and joke about zombie series, but then the mood of their conversations changes dramatically along with how the hero learns more and more.


The graphics in the game are excellent, there are minor drawdowns, in general, the frame rate is even. Gameplay-wise, this is the most reference walking simulator I've ever played. There is no running button in the game at all. At first, it doesn't bother, the animations of the character are good, but the whole game of unhurried walking may annoy someone. In fact, this is a beautiful adventure game with searching for objects, solving riddles, watching video diaries, etc. Don't expect shooting here, there's no horror here either, but the atmosphere in the game is present.


The game is beautiful and made very technologically advanced. I really liked the atmosphere, which is most strongly influenced by the aesthetics of retrofuturism and liminal spaces created, without a doubt, by very talented artists. In addition, Fort Solis has fascinating music, which often gives goosebumps on the skin.


Fort Solis is an exciting journey. Attempts to figure out what really happened at the Mars station encourage you to carefully examine every computer and listen to every message in audio diaries. There was no revolution in the narrative, but the game developers were able to tell their goal in the scenery of a fantastic thriller.

Rating 10/10

The game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons was the debut project made under the direction of Josef Fares and went on sale in the summer of 2013. The collaboration of the film director and the Starbreeze studio immediately bore fruit, many awards, enthusiastic reviews and tons of odes towards the creators speak eloquently about this. Fares himself, in an interview with the BAFTA Award, said that he had always dreamed of making such a game. Video games have always seemed to him to be the next stage in the evolution of art, and he considered the combination of digital technologies and film drama to be something delightful. Moreover, the story told in the story of the "brothers" was very familiar to the director, as it resembled a difficult childhood under the yoke of the civil war in Lebanon. "Interactivity" is exactly this characteristic he kept in his head during the creation of both gameplay mechanics and the whole story. Despite his experience primarily in the film industry, Fares did not forget about the fundamental component of video games. He really didn't want to tell an interesting, exciting, sensual story without any interactive other activities. Therefore, the game, despite the rather modest timing and the lack of an interface, seemed to be as lively and functional as possible. The creators of the game paid special attention to the musical accompaniment, I will tell you more about this later. It was quite typical of the director, because in his past films, music also played a very important role.


The style of Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is quite unusual, while extremely thoughtful. During the creation, the artists primarily sought to create the most fabulous and cartoon atmosphere, and they succeeded. Many years of experience have already shown that such a visual will not become obsolete over time and such games will remain relevant after several generations. In 2013, it was no longer a big revelation and many perceived the project as something from the indie category, but many noticed the honed and very beautiful graphics. The work with shadows and reflections was done at a decent level, and the textures did not hurt the eyes even then, because those were the times when the developers themselves, not the players, were engaged in optimization. The entourage is felt at all locations and this is not only due to the musical accompaniment and mechanics, but also visual. Birds fly, bushes rustle, castles fascinate with their size, forests with their density, sunsets with their warmth, and NPCs and opponents with their appearance.

Separately, I would like to praise the appearance of water, more precisely rivers-lakes-glaciers. It is quite difficult to meet such a beautiful and peculiar visualization of liquid textures nowadays, even in modern AAA games it is very rare. Moreover, it is not made highly polygonal, but simply beautiful and tasteful. Contrary to the cartoonishness and fabulousness, the game cannot be called a children's or family game in any way. The semantic load of the plot immediately makes it clear that it should be passed alone to a closed kennel (it is possible in another place).


And finally, we have come to the main component of the game. Like sugar on the bottom, cream or jam in a bun, I decided to leave the most interesting towards the end. The plot may initially seem a little naive and quite understandable to you, but in fact it is not, old Fares pumped up the story with a noticeably large amount of meaning and subtext. As you know, the director has a brother who also has success in show business, and their relationship is very close, he himself has repeatedly noted this in his interviews. He also spoke many times about the importance of family ties, "It Takes Two" is a clear confirmation of this. And in this game, first of all, it is family values and the grief of the loss of a loved one that are revealed. I will not spoiler here once again, just go through the key points. The main goroi, more precisely the brothers Nai and Nayu, go on a long journey to get medicine for their sick father. The mother of the growing young men died recently, the heroes have not yet been able to come to terms with the loss. So, the heroes begin their journey in their village and slowly walk towards their goal. Along the way, they will meet with a variety of characters and opponents, they will help someone, save someone, engage in battle with someone, and so on. Even in the most difficult situations, the brothers do not lose their grip and motivation, periodically help each other, both physically and mentally, maintain a conversation in their fictional language (but at the same time understandable to the player). Nayu's older brother is more seasoned and resistant to future dangers, while Nai is more sentimental and good-natured. They complement each other in their own way and create, in a sense, one strong character who overcomes all obstacles.

As for the semantic load, on the one hand, it lies banal on the very surface. Family is an important component of a person's life, the very hearth that will always accept him, feed him and bestow love. You need to cherish your loved ones while they are there and not lose your spirit if they suddenly leave you. The death of a mother for sons is a very terrible blow, the player indirectly feels this very pain throughout the passage. While the elder suppresses his feelings, the younger cannot forget the horrors of that terrible night. There is a constant anxiety that does not allow you to relax and focus on a common goal. The younger brother begins to hallucinate, he treats the girl with some skepticism, causing doubts about her feelings towards her brother. Along the way, the brothers will save a man, a love couple, a griffin. This actually shows the purity of their intentions and their slightly naive attitude to everything that is happening. Of course, you need to help, but it's still not worth it to everyone you meet, because the most unsuspecting ally will stick a knife in the back. The director immediately envelops the players with a lost and frightening vibe, as if the brothers' journey will end with abrupt changes for both. And if you take the last scenes of the journey along with an extremely atmospheric chord, then all doubts are instantly dispelled. This is the story of salvation, the story of redemption, overcoming, loss and achieving the goal by all possible means. The player empathizes with the characters literally from the first minutes of gameplay. With its slightly naive, unpretentious graphics and setting, and at the same time a very cruel, sad plot, the game causes a curiosity in the perception of what is passing. And she keeps this bar until the very end.


I highly recommend going through the game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, if by some miracle you still haven't done it. "A way out" and "It Takes Two" are different in their own way, but Fares released the real game piece in 2013. Of course, without the help of talented developers from the studio and an excellent composer. The game will not strain you during the passage, it will not torment you with puzzles, it will not be a big revelation in terms of the plot, but it will definitely leave an unforgettable gaming experience and a lump in the soul. You can go through it in one or two sittings and I think that this is just an excellent timing for such a story. Time management is important in literally every game, and even more so in indie games. It is enough to increase the travel time by an extra hour to kill all the advantages of the project. In the same game, everything is done as competently as possible, timing was no exception. That's it for me. Take care of yourself and your family. Thanks for reading)!

Rating 10/10

How can the game be described objectively? On the one hand, Black Mesa is a remaster of the original Half Life, making mostly visual changes, and leaving the plot and basic concept intact. On the other hand, there are so many improvements and improvements that it pulls on a remake. I'm more inclined to the second, the official description is the same.

Black Mesa from the position of the original Half Life.
To compare the remake and the original, I used letsplays on YouTube and my vague memories from childhood. What can I say here? This is an amazing remake. Comprehensive improvement of every aspect of the game: main menu, interface, audio, physics, characters, weapons, gameplay mechanics, convenience. The in-game world has become incredibly detailed, locations have become more large-scale, atmospheric, lively.

The final part of the game, taking place in the alien world of Zen, is no longer the final one, judging by the duration. The world of Zen has been radically redesigned. After the finale, I was left with the impression that I had gone through two different games — that's so Zen is not like earthly locations. The gameplay of the alien world is not like them either. You get used to it anew, memorize its rules, mechanics, get imbued with a special level design.

Does it make sense to talk about graphics? I'd rather throw in more screenshots from my passage so that you understand everything.

The natural desire is to compare Black Mesa with Half Life 2. Is it better? Worse? She's different. The second Halva is still about speed and running around, the dynamic development of the plot in constant interaction with partners. In Black Mesa, the original unhurried rhythm of the first part is preserved, sometimes diluted with tough shootouts. 90% of the game time is spent walking around locations, finding a way and solving puzzles.

Black Mesa as an independent product.
But here everything is not so clear. Even though the official release thundered already in 2020, do not forget that the first steps of the fan alteration began back in 2004.

This is a retro joke, friends. Do not expect from him the pathos of the Witch or the beauty of the Witcher's narrative.

Personally, I am strongly struck by the excessive sprawl of locations in which nothing special happens. Yes, sometimes you have to break your brain to figure out HOW to go further, and then enjoy the fruits of your ingenuity. But... for what? Just to get on with it. There are practically no secondary characters in the game, which is why there is no drama or social motivation.

No, it's not Gordon Freeman who is silent. It is the game itself that is silent) They don't do that anymore. Even Half Life 2 shows it — there you are literally led by the hand through the whole plot, if not to say "whipped", so that, God forbid, you don't get bored or lose motivation.

What else catches the eye (literally)? And there is something. A flashlight! I was not the only one who noted the utter uselessness of this device and its absolute helplessness in the face of darkness. There are not so many dark locations in Black Mesa, but they all make your eyes suffer, and you — silently swear in the direction of the developers)

I didn't find any more disadvantages of the game. A high-quality holistic independent shutan. It's nice to shoot, interact with smarter opponents, look for secrets, stare at all sorts of laboratories, gloomy dungeons, open streets.


Rating 10/10

The undying fashion for retro makes dinosaur publishers compile nostalgic collections of their former hits - and they do it with varying success. SEGA had the SEGA Mega Drive Collection, Konami had anniversary reissues of Contra and Castlevania, and Capcom had already turned to the Megaman collections and Walt Disney's cartoon legacy in the Disney Afternoon Collection. Now they have also presented to the public CAPCOM Arcade Stadium – another set of great (and not so great) classics of the era of VHS cassettes.

They won't be ruined by the visual presentation either. All games lend themselves to flexible display settings, including an imitation of an arcade machine booth with a tilted screen. And a large set of special filters will easily turn your modern 4K TV into an old father's "Ruby" - and no one will tell you that you can plant a kinescope.

Finally, following all modern trends, Capcom tied high score tables, special tests, user-friendly manuals and achievements to the game. From the generosity of the soul, we even brought a choice of ROM – most of the games are available in two versions, English and Japanese, and some are available only in the original.

Capcom Arcade Stadium itself is just a platform, only one game is built into it for free – the legendary Ghosts ‘n Goblins. All the others can either be purchased separately or as part of three thematic packages. Gamers in a rage have already condemned the publisher for greed, although let's be honest with ourselves – most of us and our parents did not have (money and opportunities) then in the 90s to buy a licensed cartridge from the NES or SEGA Mega Drive. Now we can honestly pay Capcom for a happy childhood – except that the sale of invulnerability mode and design frames looks very greedy and stupid.

As for the games themselves, then, probably, it is not necessary to say once again how outdated almost all of them are now, both morally and even more physically. It is currently not possible to perceive most of the 30+ games without condescension and irony. And even then, perhaps, not all games from the list can be called examples of art.

There is no great reason to talk about each game – even a simple enumeration of them with an extremely brief synopsis would take a good couple of pages. Almost all the games from the set can be divided into four categories: fighting games, action platformers, bitemaps and arcade scroll shooters.

The former are represented primarily by as many as several versions of Street Fighter II, including Super Street Fighter II Turbo, released on the first PlayStation and Sega Saturn. Another fun addition is the game Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness, which in fact did not leave Japan. There is no practical value in this clone of the "Street Fighter about Mechs", but it is interesting to look at it.

There are also quite a few bitemaps in the set – from the legendary Final Fight to the lesser-known Captain Commando and Battle Circuit. Since over the past years the genre has almost died and only recently showed signs of life, even these ancient hits of the past are now being played quite fun and funny.

The absolute winner of the collection by the number of representatives of the genre was a variety of scrolling shooters of all varieties and colors. The 194x series was the luckiest of all – it was added here almost in full, from the most ancient parts that came out in the mid-1980s to those that appeared already in the midst of the 1990s. Most of them are arranged according to the same principle, and therefore if you played one of them, you get the feeling that you saw literally everything. Nevertheless, these are still pleasant, and sometimes very exciting arcade games.

The smallest and most interesting in the entire collection would like to call platformers, among which two (or rather three) stand out: Strider is a dystopian hack-n-slash that became a kind of progenitor of the God of War and Devil May Cry series and the stylish, dark and incredibly hardcore Ghosts ‘n Goblins with its sequel. These three games are rightfully still considered iconic and there are many reasons for that.

Capcom Arcade Stadium is a convenient and comfortable collection of three dozen classic arcade games of a bygone era. Even if not all games have survived to the present, curious and retromans should definitely pay attention to such an offer.


Rating 7/10

The plot of the shooter Call of Juarez: Gunslinger begins from afar: it's a quiet, hot day, a shabby-looking old man enters the Texas town of Abilene. Stopping in the sauna to relax and have a drink or two, the traveler attracts the attention of other visitors. It turns out that his name is Silas Greaves and he is one of the most famous bounty hunters in the Wild West. Yielding to persuasion, Silas begins to tell stories from his practice.

The whole game consists of such stories. Silas's life was, to put it mildly, eventful: he just didn't chase after anyone. In his track record (if, of course, you believe him), almost all the legends of the frontier: the Dalton brothers, Jesse James, Wild Company. Well, before he became a hunter of the limitless, he allegedly belonged to the Billy the Kid gang himself. Silas tells the shocked audience about all this, and the disparate stories of the personalities of three scum are connected, for whom the main character hunts to avenge a long-standing and terrible offense.

Gunslinger is quite an important milestone in the history of Call of Juarez. Last year's fiasco called The Cartel, in which the developers moved the action to our days, and the main characters were forced to confront Mexican drug dealers, made some Call of Juarez fans wonder if their favorite shooter has come to an end. In Gunslinger, everything returns to a familiar rut. Again, wild prairies and forests are all around, faithful revolvers are in their hands, and on the other side of the barricades are Indians and mustachioed men in wide—brimmed hats.

From time to time, listeners get into Silas's story with questions, the narrator clarifies some details ("No, they were not Apaches, but cowboys. I meant that they attacked me unexpectedly, LIKE Apaches" — and immediately the Indians on the screen are replaced by white bandits), and one of the stories is retold three times in three different versions. All this, besides, is well written, so it's very interesting to follow Silas' adventures.

But more importantly, Gunslinger is fun to shoot. The shootouts in the game are fleeting, but fierce: they kill very quickly, so you have to constantly look for shelter, use your arsenal and special abilities competently. For example, in Gunslinger there is already a traditional opportunity for the series to slow down time for a short time in order to quickly shoot a large group of opponents. And in the most difficult moments, an ability called "The Feeling of Death" comes to the rescue. It is gradually charged during the game and is activated automatically when Silas is fired a bullet, which may be his last. Time, again, slows down for a few moments, and you are given the opportunity to dodge the deadly lead by leaning to the right or left. We managed to correctly predict the trajectory — we got a chance to continue the adventure. They made a mistake and went to their forefathers.

From time to time, the action is interrupted by duels in which you fight against the fastest shooters of the West. It is not so much the accuracy of the shot that is important here, as the preparation for it. Before you grab a weapon, the opponents play on each other's nerves for a while, and this lull should be used properly: first, focus on the enemy without letting him out of a rather clumsy sight, and secondly, keep your hand right over the handle of the revolver in order to take it out of the holster faster at a key moment. It doesn't seem to be particularly difficult, but the duels turned out to be really intense.

But the character leveling system in the new Call of Juarez appeared, it seems, for the first time. For each kill you earn a certain number of points. Moreover, the amount of the reward depends on how well you fight. For example, for a headshot, killing a running opponent or a combo (a series of murders committed in a short period of time), "experience" is significantly more than for opponents laid down in the usual way. Points can be spent on the purchase of additional abilities distributed across three branches: one for those who prefer close combat, the other for fans of long—distance combat, the third for those who want to wield two barrels at once.

It's just a pity that Gunslinger turned out to be so short: it's quite possible to complete it in one eventful evening. But the action itself turned out to be so fascinating that you want to go through the game again in order to feel the heavy colt in your hands again and see how the enemies one by one fall to the ground with their skulls shot through. As a last resort, the developers have provided two additional modes: arcade and dueling. In the first, you need to complete a piece of the level, trying to score as many points as possible, while the second, as you might guess, focuses on duels.

It's nice to see that Call of Juarez is back with us. After the absolutely shameful third part, we had some doubts about the future of the series. Fortunately, the developers made absolutely the right conclusions, and, as a result, they turned out to be an excellent and, importantly, quite atmospheric shooter.


Rating 7/10