Recent reviews by Hifu Himejima

SWAT 5 we never got.

Years down the line, the game becomes censored for no good reason other than appealing to vocal minorities and removing a part of its original appeal in a few very select cases. Such modifications should not be allowed.

Literally 1984 lmao.

Part 1 - The Premise

Atomic Heart, a game that's been developed and conceptualised as far back as 2010 with earliest concept materials, set in a soviet atom-punk-like retro-futuristic setting where Soviet Union became a world leader in robotics. Premise good on paper, in-line with soviet science-fiction works of the time, and a pretty cool and underused setting in general. And we finally have a game in it. So, where do we begin?

Part 2 - The Plot

The plot is there, and it is very reminiscent of original Bioshock (as is the entire game, but we'll get to that). But the most important things is - robotics are amazing, until they aren't and things go awry. The main problem with the plot is its delivery, and the way it is delivered. Sometimes it looks like the developers had huge ambitions that had to be cut down more or less obvious reasons like gameplay pacing. The game tries to make up for that with opening up the world, and giving you a very chatty companion and almost too much dialogue that sometimes can get cut off if you walk through an area too quickly or happen to have an encounter. But if you can live with that (I know I can, it was kinda hilarious at times though) then you still get terminals in the game world that give you way more background to the events. Overall, it was pretty good and a solid ride, but not without its own issues.

Part 2 - The Sounds and Music of Facility 3826

I have to give it a separate paragraph, because the world is full of sounds and music for your ears to enjoy, provided you stop and listen for a while instead of bum-rushing through the entire thing like "I just wanna get it out of my backlog already". The whirring of the machines, the ambient music in more or less desolate places, the sounds of machinery, the impact sounds - they're carefully done and very enjoyable. Don't feel too powerful, I'd say perfectly accurately depicting their power...maybe except for the KS-23. It's like dev team spent actual time on making sure things sound as they should.

And then topped it off with music that will give a huge nostalgia trip for anyone growing up in former Soviet Bloc countries during and after the collapse of USSR, hitting you with likes of Alla Pugacheva and Zemlyane, which might not vibe with younger audiences, but for people born during and right after the collapse would feel like grandma's home during a summer vacation. However there's also entire remixed soundtrack with some of those songs being brought more...up to date, let's call it. And they sound stupid good. It's hard to go back to originals after you hear how good of a job Geoffrey Day did. Same goes for combat pieces done by Mick Gordon, you feel like you absolutely slap. Zero complaints here.

...until we get to the English dubbing. It's fine, if not a bit cringe to hear at times. So unless you're a masochist like me and/or want to hear random bits of dialogue around you, be it announcements or dead corpses talking, do yourself a favour and switch to either your own language since dubbing quality is generally good, or play it in line with the setting. Because English dub feels like the developers tried to end this spectacle of audiovisual goodness with a front flip and ended up smacking their face against the floor.

Part 3 - Graphics and Performance

The game looks gorgeous, even without RTX (which will be added in a later update), and runs way better than you'd expect out of something looking like that. DLSS is there to help your performance at higher resolutions, but me and my rig managed to run it at 4K, max settings, DLSS set to Quality, and rarely get dips below 80 FPS, let alone 60. It's a smooth and great looking experience, even with the infamous Denuvo being implemented.

Part 4 - Location and map

Facility 3826 is a rather massive location...with most interesting bits of it being underground. Most of the time spent outside will be either random looting for resources or looking for a way to go underground to reach another objective or a testing ground to get your weapon upgrades. It's basically a lot of room you're led around in a linear manner until the end, and only serves as means of commute with no fast travel. This game suffers from the same issue Metro Exodus had, as the closest example - huge open world stuffed into a game with a linear progression, and underdelivering in terms of things to do in said world. You don't even get back to locations once visited, nor game gives you any incentive too. Just get everything done, move on, rinse and repeat until the end of the game.

Part 5 - Gameplay, and gameplayn't.

Let's get to the meat and veggies - gameplay. I have to make a comparison to Bioshock here again, because it's that, but with more resource management in terms of upgrading yourself and your weapons (provided you craft them first). Though honestly I can't see the reason why crafting of weapons exists in the game in the first place, it feels like such an afterthought to give players incentive to look around and loot things, but it feels so half-baked that it could be totally cut out. Upgrading itself is fine, but I can hardly warrant having this many kinds of resources for all these weapons and upgrades in order to fulfill basic requirements. I feel like the game would do fine without that, or even cutting it down a bit to just include upgrades and ammo crafting. The biggest saving grace however is the fact that any resources you pour into a certain upgrade path are fully refunded to you, should you pick a different upgrade for the same part of the weapon.

The gameplay loop - it's good. Gunplay seems fine, it's not Call of Duty or Battlefield and it's not a main focus, so I can say it is decent, even if weapons fall flat in terms of damage department at first (especially KS-23 shotgun), but as you progress they will get better. Your main tools of trade will be melee weapons, and you've got a decent variety of them - so you'll find your favourite. The enemies even suffer visual damage as fighting, they can be frozen in place with your Polymer mods, slowed down with a shock, and you can combine your skills to deal additional damage. All of them have strong spots and weaknesses that warrant using different weapons or approaches on them. But gameplay itself often boils down to kill ♥♥♥♥, move to new area, kill ♥♥♥♥, rinse and repeat, broken up by occasional lock to bypass with a simple logic game, or an environmental puzzle to solve. These are actually fun and don't overstay their welcome, unlike your slutty upgrade vendor that you have to deal with for the entirety of starting area - it's a fun joke that should be ended sooner, but thankfully it doesn't last too long.

But to get to that gameplay you have to get between the zones on the map, and you won't do that on foot, right? Too bad the implementation of cars in this game sucks ass. They feel like cardboard boxes on wheels, break way too easily, their physics seem quirky at best, and you can get randomly launched in the air upon driving over certain enemies, bringing me all the way back to the seesaw glitch in GTA4.

Part 6 - Overall score

Atomic Heart is a game, one surrounded by controversies which I don't want to go into in this review, and is a game of some problems. But it's decent. It's something I recommend playing if you're a Bioshock fan and can deal with a few shortcomings and treat it primarily as a linear experience. Because it's an experience alright. I personally enjoyed this game, and if you want a numerical rating from me...

A certified childhood classic, now back and better than ever with workshop support, meaning MORE CARS MORE TRACKS MORE REVOLT.

So, Modern Warfare 2 (2022).
Or just MW22.

As far as beta goes, it's good. I didn't run into any issues launching it, it crashed maybe 4 times during my 4 days of playing it. Didn't even run into phone number authentication or anything (maybe because I did it in the past?)

Either way, another good CoD after MW from 2019, and let's forget anything in-between. Reworked gunsmith, reworked perk system, everything works well and plays well. The only real complaint is that the game requires some minor balance tweaks. That and maybe TTK is a bit too low.

"My Therapist is a Futanari" is a game that could be calssified as a visual novel...if your definition of a visual novel is reading a single paragraph and checking out 3 different images, which is pretty much in line with most game reviews nowadays. Level of writing reaches the abrupt heights of ground floor, matching the exquisite writers of Kotaku fame. The dialogue is shallow and not even witty, the game makes absolute fun of the profession of a Therapist (but in the case of this game it should be written as The Rapist), and the biggest gripe of them all - The Therapist isn't a futanari, but a hermaphrodite, as she has both sets of sexual organs instead of a singular one. I call that false advertising! I call it blunder! WHAT HAPPENED TO HONEST GAME DEVELOPERS NOWADAYS?!

I do not suggest this game if you're looking for both a futa and a good therapist, because this game provides neither.

Stay away. Protect your butt.

It's FH4 but better.

REAN!
REAN, LISTEN TO ME!
FOR THE LOVE OF AIDIOS, IT'S BEEN A FEW YEARS NOW!
IF YOU DON'T ♥♥♥♥ INSTRUCTOR SARA NOW, YOU'RE A SIMP, AND A LOSER!
♥♥♥♥ EREBONIA! ♥♥♥♥ CROSSBELL! ♥♥♥♥ CALVARD TOO!
YOU MUST GET HOT FOR THE TEACHER, REAN!
THAT'S WHAT'S WRITTEN IN THE BLACK RECORDS RIGHT THERE!

Let me tell you, the game is hard but good.

However, ♥♥♥♥ optimization on that thing. Someone on dev team ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up particle effects and while out of combat I get smooth 120FPS, try getting into actual combat (which is like, major bulk of the game) and you're seeing dips into mid-40s.

FYI, I got RTX 3080. So I wouldn't say this is forgivable...but other than that, game is fine. It's good. Really. Just prepare to get your ass whipped or play with a friend.

What can I say? That's a load of nostalgia, coming right back at you with better graphics and new episode with modern references! Well, at least at the time of writing this review.