Recent reviews by TokraZeno

While the tech is cool evoland 1 does the bad parody thing where they go through the exact same motions as the orignals but change the names. The sequel can be worth checking out since it's able to establish its own identity but I spent so much of the runtime getting frustrated at it that I can't recommend it to anyone.

The barrier for entry to this series is too high for me. Tutorial missions exist but they don't tie everything together so you can actually play a game.

I love the idea of Sword of the Stars but this was absolute garbage.

It really needs a single player campaign.

I gave up on this. I got up to a point in the story where I had no idea what it wanted from me and online walkthroughs were vague at best

I found the story to be lackluster but the dynamic narration really drives the immersion

This has become the ideal of the physics platformer:
- tight puzzle design
- good mix of narrative and gameplay
- puzzle solutions that can be reliably executed.

In the survival crafting genre, subnautica shines by giving you something clear to work towards and a definitive end goal. It keeps you interested and reduces the amount of time you spend scratching your head as to what to do next.

Just...wow. Advice for anyone who wants to make the best of this game; do not save scum on your first playthrough.
The impact of everything will be lost if your actions are without consequences.

At first I was expecting Orwell to be about the evils of Big Data, huge data mining operations keeping tabs on everyone and everything, but as you play you realize it's much deeper than that.

First episode there's a joke between friends and the game lets you update the suspects profile to say that she tortures people . It seems like a joke at first but then you realize: the system doesn't know it's a joke. Only your presence and understanding of the situation could prevent someone potentially being incacerated for being a crappy baker ... But surely that would never happen right? So long as there are people to check everything it'll all turn out okay won't it?

Then the conflicts come in. Working or creating an alibi? Patriot or Insergent? People will die if you make the wrong call. But you are human. You are fallable. You make mistakes. That is the point of this game. This for me was the message of Orwell. It's not so much about the evils of Big Data, but the dangers of incomplete information.

In the ideal world of perfect information (an assumption used for the creation of economic models), Orwell and other Big Data operations could be forces for good. However, we do not have perfect information. Imperfection leads to ambiguity, ambiguity leads to assumptions, assumptions lead to mistakes and mistakes lead to suffering.

I highly recommend the game. My only critique is that the trailer spoils one of the twists. It's a fairly obvious twist, and the trailer would be far worse off had it been left out, but it's worth noting none the less.

I've been meaning to replay this game and see the other endings, but I'd be making choices based on future knowledge rather than the information that's provided to me. While I could spend the time scouring the information we have to find justification for the right call, it's just not the same as it was when that was all you had to go on.

TLDR; Replay Skyrim. Or Oblivion. Specifically, the Shivering Isles expansion

I only played briefly over a free weekend, but there wasn't enough to make me come back. It's poorly tutorialized and I'm not sure the MMO elements make it better. It's clear that other players see NPC's in different places when they act out quests, but they share boss mobs?

It's way too easy to accidentally attack a town guard. They're marked as hostile if they're fighting with other players so I jumped in thinking I was helping (it was the first guard I'd encountered) and got hit with the bounty.

I also didn't particularly like how skills are tied to equipment given how clunky it is to change sets and the classes system goes entirely against the 'play it your way' feel of Elder Scrolls games. I'd have rather replayed the Shivering Isles, but few things are better than Sheogorath.

I got my fill of it while it was free. A nice little dungeon crawler that feels like a mashup of FTL, a tower defense the SWAT Aftermath map from Frozen Throne. While it was a good time sink, I can't recommend it over games like FTL or Slay the Spire.

It's good that there's some consistency with other games in the Endless unverse.