Recent reviews by blake++

An absurdly massive game full of things to do and things to play with. A true heisting simulator filled with memes and genuinely cool stuff. A bloated mess. A game in desperate need of a third entry.

Payday 2 is a lot of things, but at its price, all you can really say is "it's worth it".

Doing heists, both in "loud" and stealth, is always fun, and playing with random people can still definitely be fun. You don't need friends for this co-op experience.
There's a massive amount of customization both in terms of loadouts and the look of your heister. There are skill trees as well that give you abilities to do various things, whether its supporting your team, doing dumb stuff, or putting out massive amounts of damage for free.
You can easily stack 500 hours into this game (as I have) and still find more things to do. I can't guarantee all of it will be as rewarding or intriguing as the early experience is, but I can say this game is definitely worth picking up (I don't have any of the Silk Road Collection DLC either; this is all "basegame" content; (a lot of it used to be DLC, it's a long story)).
These days, late game suffers from massive content bloat and general lack of viability of a lot of builds on the higher difficulties. In addition, there's so much that it can easily overwhelm a new player; a third entry from the ground up would be a much better pick than this game.
I give this game a thumbs up, both because you should buy it AND because it deserves it's third entry so badly. It's in development right now, so be on the lookout for that in the coming years.

it's still great for a lot of reasons, but Valve needs to give their game to another studio or start working on it. the fact that casual has been infected with bots for years is disgusting and they just don't care about it

How Fish Is Made is a surreal walking simulator designed to ask you some tough questions. From what I interpreted, it's a game about choices, and your path in life.

In the real world, people old and young, of different colors, cultures, wealth, health, and everything else under the sun will all give you their advice and their life experiences. This game talks about that, and how we derive meaning from these choices that we make.

There's also a lot of symbolism here involving the fish, the cyborg biomass you're in, the refuse and bones you flop upon. I won't get into it, because I think this is something that you should experience and think about. This game may help you through tough times, when you're feeling lost. This game may also make you feel worse, and like nothing you do really matters. One thing's for sure; there's no retry button.

UP or DOWN?

This took me 17 minutes.

I'm going to go ahead and review this despite not being really close to a level of completion I am with other games I review. This is due to the sheer scale of the game. TL;DR at bottom.
Ask me any questions you like in the comments! I'll try to respond quickly.

Like many others have said, this game is phenomenal. It is the co-op PvE game that ruins all other co-op PvE games.
For background, I've levelled up one class, the gunner, to 25 and then promoted. He's pretty much all I've played. I just got started with Deep Dives and play at a level of Haz 4 solo, Haz 5 with friends. I also don't mean to imply I have any sort of deep knowledge about the game. This is important, because from what I've seen in 45 hours of game time, I have a LOT to learn.

The Gunner is the first class you're given when you start the game. It's the "tutorial" class and meant to be simplistic while teaching you about the game. The closest comparison I have is that he's the Heavy from TF2 but better.
The Gunner has 3 different primary weapon options, 3 different secondary options, and 3 different grenades to choose from; and they're all really useful, unlike many of Heavy's options. Like most of the classes from TF2, you also can note that there is a significant difference between a new Gunner and a veteran Gunner. Knowing where to position yourself, when to use what weapon, when to carry which weapons into a mission, and how to budget your ammo is just scratching the surface of how deep this "tutorial" class can be.
With DRG, all cave systems are procedural. This means instead of knowing which geometry you can duck behind in TF2 while still being able to fire with Heavy is an important skill, all knowledge pertains to your class and how to perform in new and interesting situations. This further deepens with multiple mission types ranging from Mining Expeditions, to Point Extraction, to On-Site Refining, etc. In these missions you're ranging from being able to be completely mobile to having to focus around a singular point to having to stay with an objective and keep it maintained.
Beyond that, there's also different biomes with different cave generation gimmicks and terrain features. And even game modifiers that may be beneficial or detrimental!.
For the purposes of this review, I won't get into all of the depth that I've found out about the Gunner, but needless to say as a fan of hidden techniques and knowledge in video games, I am very satisfied with the amount of depth I've gotten.

Back to progression, there's a perk system in here as well. It frankly really needs a rework. I find a portion of the perks to be useless, and it seems the community agrees with me for the most part on this one. However, enough of them are good options that you can easily get whatever perks you need to help fill out a niche or support a weakness you have, whether its class-based or skill-based.
Promotion works a bit like CoD's prestige, except there's no downsides; nothing resets, you just unlock more things.

There's an upgrade tree for each weapon where you pick and choose certain upgrades. Once you buy them, you don't have to rebuy them again as opposed to PD2's system.
There's also Overclocks, which help change your weapon in minor or major ways. Pretty hard and slow to earn, but can be well worth it.

To touch on difficulty, there are 5 Hazard Levels, with various modifiers that can stack on top of those. Hazard 1 and 2 should be combined into one, Hazard 3 is good for new players, Hazard 4 is a happy medium, and Hazard 5 is usually a really great difficulty option. Sometimes it can be way too hard on certain types of missions though, but this is likely just me being unskilled at this game.
Different difficulty options affect your rewards which include credits, XP, and minerals, all of which are important in buying items and upgrades. You may want to bump a Haz 4 mission to Haz 5 because it has some minerals you need for an upgrade. It's a very natural push where you are incentivized to push your limits.

Customization is a huge thing in DRG. There's an absurd amount of cosmetics. 99% of them are unlocked by playing. Sometimes there's certain events in missions that you can randomly find that unlock you cosmetics. There's currently two paid DLC cosmetic packs, but the ones in-game are very similar in terms of quality.
There's skins for guns, visual addons for guns, head, chest, hair color, skin color, armor color cosmetics, etc.
Loadouts are also very important. You can have up to 5 loadouts per character with different cosmetics, weapons, perks, etc similar to Payday 2. You usually want to have a few, as certain missions will be easier with certain loadouts.

Options; there's a lot. The biggest thing I want to touch on is that you can customize your hud pretty freely. You can enable, disable, or dynamically display certain elements. It's really fun to see how much you can give up to help immerse you in DRG or make things harder. However, I wish there were more options for people like me who like to play without a hud, as we have to rely on mods to substitute where default lacks.

The modding scene is one of the best organized I've seen in any game. It's officially supported, with mods fitting into certain categories with restrictions based on the changes the mods make.
You can install mods on a pseudo-Steam workshop page, and it's very easy to do so. There's one or two mods I think should be included in the base game, but I don't think you need any mods to heavily enjoy DRG.

The community for this game is pretty awesome. There's a lot of catchphrases that helps foster familiarity and a bond between randoms, and everyone I've encountered playing online is super nice or is just new and hasn't learned dwarven etiquette yet.
I have limited experience with the community though, since I mostly play with friends. Regardless, it feels like a step above Payday 2's community.

Visuals are pretty simple, Everything is made up of simple polygons and triangles, resulting in near-zero reliance on your graphics card. However, it makes up for it through good use of lighting and effects. It does what it needs to and does it well.

Warning: This game is incredibly CPU intensive. Make sure you have a good processor. Also there are some bugs that may cause low performance.

Sound design is really important for this game; the caves you're in are going to be very dark, only lit up by rechargeable flares all classes can toss around. It's important to have clear sound design so players can use sound as another method of information gathering.
For specific heavy-duty mobs, they have distinct sound cues that allow you to clue in on what's coming towards you. This key information will allow you to prepare for certain scenarios without even seeing what's happening. I can't tell you how many times I've been able to avoid bad situations by hearing something before it appeared and adjusting accordingly.

As for music, it's okay. I haven't really listened to much of it, as it didn't blow me away. It's nothing compared to Simon Viklund's Payday 2 soundtrack.

Best PvE game on the market, with excellent sound design, gameplay, depth, and procedural generation. Intelligent and phenomenal modding scene with official developer support, and in-depth customization and UI options.
Developers could add a little more options in terms of UI customization, and performance can be pretty poor.
Overall, there is no competition. Deep Rock is King. Buy it, and rock and stone!

Summary:

Really awesome parkour, feels great 99% of the time
Played on hard co-op; difficulty is unbalanced and broken
Story is predictable and cheesy; it is at its worst when it takes itself seriously
Music is not bad for the most part; it sometimes adds and takes away from what you're doing
Still looks visually pleasing despite its age
Skill trees for agility and survivor are cool
Combat is completely broken and terribly designed; revolves around spamming the same moves
Crafting system for weapons is made useless by DLC creep
Crafting system doesn't allow for quickly crafting a lot of things

Dying Light 1 is bad, but the freedom the movement system offers you alone can make this game worth it. Buy on an extremely heavy sale; third party sellers sell keys for dirt cheap. I bought the platinum edition for 6$. 23.4 hours for 100% main story and 35/44 side quest (the rest are just fetch quests)
6/10; Traversal and map alone makes it worth it, but a flawed combat and crafting system can really hurt the experience. Best experiencied in Co-op.


Traversal:

Parkour is incredibly smooth and fluid. You regain stamina by climbing up onto things, which is really good so you can just run these really long lines and never stop going. Abusing the little oversights and bugs in this system is really rewarding and allows you to do some crazy ♥♥♥♥. Vaulting over your co-op partner can let you reach insane heights and do crazy stuff. It's so fun and so fluid; easily the best part of the game. Only issue I have is that the sections where you're just climbing up aren't fun at all, like antenna towers. The routes aren't totally clear, the routes are always super linear, and it's really just not fun to climb up stuff.
TL;DR Best part of the game

Map:

The first area feels quite vast and expansive with tons of stuff to do. It always feels like you're somewhere you haven't been before, but manages to avoid looking completely same-y. It's impressive. You can easily spend 20-30 hours just in the first area, and it's only half of the game. The map is intelligently designed to allow you to create routes in the buildings and streets and do really awesome parkour. Loot respawns after a day, which can easily be abused (to the game's deficit)

Story:

The story is cheesy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that is at its best when it doesn't take itself seriously and has fun. Any time it tries to be serious, it utterly fails. Dialogue is often cut short with weird cutscene timings, regardless of who the host is, and voice actor performances do leave something to be desired. Main character is the most self-insert self-insert I've ever seen. Final boss is a QTE.

Crafting:

You can craft in this game, right? So by buying the DLC, one specific DLC gives you access to a craft called Lupus and another craft called the Vindicator. Lupus requires a Short Knife (specifically that; not super easy to find) and some basic items that you probably already have in your inventory just by looting. By crafting Lupus, your damage on your Short Knife goes from 60 to 560. Then you can add stat boosts and upgrades on top of that to push it up to 660. It has a high handling stat, so you can use it really quickly and shred literally anything except a Goon. There are no level requirements on crafts, so you can literally get this day one, and it's the only weapon you SHOULD use because all of the other melee crafts are ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ besides Inmate's Kiss which is an even cheaper Lupus but does less damage.
Another craft is the Vindicator, which is a simple craft for a revolver which makes it instakill goons with a single headshot. No durabililty on pistols, so I will use it until the end of the game. Great design.
It's way too easy to never run out of basic crafting materials as well, which should really not be a thing. You also can't craft multiple things at a time; it has to be one at a time at a set quantity.
TLDR Crafting system is made useless by DLC weapons.

Combat:
Difficulty at least on Hard Co-op is literally insane at times. It's so unbalanced across the campaign it's crazy. The first sidequest fight vs some bandits in a safe house is extremely difficult. Combat hinges on abusing certain skills to gain easy kills. Actual melee combat with weapons is basically forgotten. Human enemies are like weak Marauders from Doom Eternal in that they throw axes infinitely if you're too far away and they don't get hitstunned so any melee combat is always the two of you trading blows. Latter one is a weak analogy but you get the gist; they're annoying, and not in a good way like Eternal does it. You're fighting groups of these guys, sometimes ones with guns, so you need a gun or ranged weapon to counter them unless you're able to use cover and MAYBE get in close before they mow you down. DLC crafts like Lupus trivalize this stuff though, but at a base level it's flawed, and then gets even more flawed through use of Lupus and the Vindicator, and pistols not losing durability.
There's no parry or blocking either with your weapons. You have to get a mid-game skill in order to use a shield, and then you have to have an inventory slot taken up by a shield. Why? Human enemies can block with their weapons; I should be able to do the same.
Alternatively, You can just grapple them and then finish them, but that's skill spam and really dumb. Why does no one seem to talk about this?

Exploding enemies and environment objects are really dumb and their timing can be weird. Boomers can and will walk around corners and instakill you without you even having the chance to do anything. Some are placed in spots that are DESIGNED to actually instakill you. Zombies can accidentally set off explosions and instakill you. It's so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

The damage required to kill basic enemies is absurd.
TL;DR Combat sucks hard.

DLC:
Got through part of a DLC and my buddy and I lost interest. We probably just got burned out, no fault against the DLC itself.

Misc:
Arena fight is absurdly hard and nothing around it is remotely close in difficulty.

Go into this game completely blind. I wont speak on any spoiler-worthy content in this review, so you are safe to proceed here.

Writing:
I suck at analyzing writing in my opinion. I'm not very good at it, but I do know what I feel.
I feel that this game has phenomenal writing. All the characters are so delightful and lovable, with their own flaws and backstories that you can look into and discover. The adventure showcased here can have its share of highs and lows, but thankfully it balances itself out by having bits of comedy and cuteness scattered among the lands.
The world itself is vivid and imaginative, and the very base concept of your adventure feels almost surreal, but keeps itself grounded through the use of relatable characters.
The main character is the most adorable person I've ever seen and I will protect them with my life.
I cried my eyes out multiple times playing this game. It's an incredibly emotional experience.

Soundtrack:
The soundtrack is very good too and perfectly accentuates the situations you're in. It's timed very well with cutscenes and gameplay.

Gameplay:
OneShot is a puzzle game, but the puzzles are usually quite simple, which works to its benefit. The real highlight of this game is the story, and keeping the focus on that was a good decision IMO.
Niko can only move in the four cardinal directions. Just a classic RPGmaker moveset.
I can't talk any more about the positives, as that moves into spoiler territory. This is a game you HAVE to play.

Cons:
-It's a little bit hard to appreciate much when you play it in a tiny window, which is recommended by the devs. I wish it was a bit bigger but I suppose they had to make compromises.
-Travelling across screens can be jarring as you don't see what's actually on the other side, you just see some more ground or whatever. It's really weird and stupid.
-I sometimes had difficulty understanding the role of certain characters in the story. I recommend you play this over the course of 2-3 days, and not too spaced out like I did. 4 hours one day, and then like a week later I finished it with my current time of 6.5 hours.

Hotline Miami is an incredible top-down reflex shooter, focusing on extremely fast close-range fights and big combos. It's gritty, it's edgy, it's bloody, and it's so much fun. There's nothing quite like the adrenaline rush the gameplay can give you, and the euphoria resulting from you walking back over your bloodbath.
The story is confusing, but not at all necessary to understanding what you need to do.
The music is a perfect backdrop to your insane killing sprees and is perfectly scored, in addition to being (from the time) relatively unknown artists. You'll be listening to it far after you finish this game.
The graphics are just pixel graphics, but I think it's a perfect pairing for the overall themes of the series. Plus, they look decent, and they get the job done.
AMA in the comments about the game and I'll answer ASAP.

There's a thousand YouTube and Steam reviews praising this game, and for good reason. It's spectacular.

This series is definitely one of my favorites for good reason. 100% completion in 16 hours.

Since there's no achievements, I beat it on veteran. Joined the mile high club.

A really short but imaginative and terrifying game about being trapped in the bottom of a coffin at the bottom of an ocean of blood.
The game plays delightfully with your senses, trying to always leave you feeling like something bad could happen.
There are jumpscares, but they're very well earned, and are enhanced by the atmosphere created throughout your playtime.
However, I feel like there could've been more management mechanics in your coffin.
But definitely pick this one up if you're looking for some short and sweet horror.

Time shown is time to 100% complete the game, all achievements (5.9 hours).

Pros:
-Humor still holds up
-Lot of witty jokes; lots of dumb fun ones as well
-Fun storyline to follow

Cons:
-♥♥♥♥♥♥ options; not able to change resolution a bunch, tinker any other settings. Really bad. Full screen also causes instability, even moreso than the base game already has.
-Press esc to exit fullscreen but not reenter it.
-Cannot esc to menu out of cutscenes or skip them. Why? It makes returning to get all the bios and extra achievements a chore.
-Bios (aka right click on a character and get a short snippet about them in a menu) can be ridiculous to find since some characters show up for such ridiculously short amounts of time; also not a lot of hints towards their location (especially bad in chapters with tons of paths and characters)
-Cannot choose solely ending cutscenes (WHY)
-Cannot select intermission cutscenes (WHY)
-Crashes all the time. All. The. Time. Thankfully, I didn't lose any save data at all.

Despite all these problems, it's good to have a collection of these legendary games easily available like this. Whether it's the best it could be, it's the best version of these games available. I think.
Buy on a VERY heavy sale.
Best played in a Discord call with friends where they pick choices as well.