Recent reviews by blake++

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Due to it being in early access though, there are issues with balance and player movement that are occurring.
For an example of a balance issue: the Kriss Vector, which was the best weapon in the game (and still is a top contender) due to it being basically a laser beam. Also, some weapons are underpowered and notoriously bad, serving little to no purpose.
For an example of a player movement issue, I'd say the worst is lean spam. Spamming lean left and right is near instantaneous, and results in head hitboxes that are a lot harder to hit. Players also have a lot of control in the air, which makes jumping and strafing wildly to be the best option to dodge sniper fire. These are both issues that persist so far.

But, the game also released only two months ago. And while those issues exist, the game is already super fun to play and these issues are far from game-breaking. Additionally, they just nerfed the Vector a bit to make it more on par with the other SMGs, and they are actively taking suggestions and feedback in their Discord server to improve the game. They give regular daily automatic updates on features that will be tweaked and are actively developing new features that will bring potential for more dynamic gameplay. And the cherry on top is that they actively discourage the kind of behavior that FPSes tend to attract by moderating text and voice chat in official servers.

While this game has a lot of issues in addition to the ones I listed, the 37 hours I have put into this game are well worth it so far, and as a casual player, I can't wait to put more in. Game is a blast. Definitely a good purchase even at full price.

Awesome tool. Great for Halo MCC LASO and L4D2. Customization is plentiful. Great buy, even better on sale.

I played this quite a long time ago, but considering I think it's the best turn-based RPG to ever existed (I have played a total of 3 turn-based RPGs), I think it deserves a short review.

Undertale is a masterclass in genre-redefining gameplay where it takes the usual turn-based battle formula and flips it on his head by giving the player a huge amount of agency in every fight they partake in. In a rich world where pretty much every single character is lovable and hilarious, it's hard to not fall in love with them. It's so stellar that I cannot complete this game through any method other than the pacifist route.

While I do find the art lacking somewhat in certain areas, I find the style is cohesive and detailed when it wants to be. The story is incredibly engaging with deep lore and a fantastic world that's been wonderfully designed. With the addition of a beautifully composed soundtrack, Undertale is a game that I doubt will ever be matched.

Toby Fox is a genius, and you should absolutely, positively, buy this game. On sale, off sale; it's a must-have for any gamer's library.

I've played this game a total of 3 times partially. All three of those times it eventually softlocks, bugs out, or crashes. Community patches and fixes don't help. Same for Fallout 3.

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I completed TNO on the Uber difficulty.

I felt like I was directly punished for playing in the way that TNO is supposed to be played: as a fast-paced run and gun shooter. ADSing with weapons is rarely a good option except with the weapon designated for it due to poor viewmodels and general inaccuracy at range. However, the way to play this game on the Uber difficulty is by picking off enemies from a distance. Going in fast against any enemy except common enemies (no enemies as powerful as shotgun guys) will get you insta-killed. There is no mechanic like DOOM (2016) where getting glory kills gives you health back. By running in, you're effectively rolling the dice on whether or not you survive the encounter. Playing in a COD-like way of picking off enemies from afar behind cover netted me better results than when I went in guns blazing, so that's the way I played. Slow and methodical. It wasn't fun due to the aforementioned ADS problem and the game just not being built around it seemingly. Various guns become mostly useless except in rare occasions as all you're doing is going for headshots. I would've turned down the difficulty except...

The game makes fun of you for playing on lower difficulty settings. There's a very blatant "playing at higher difficulties makes you cooler!!!" design. The easiest difficulty has the protagonist wearing a pacifier and a baby bib, looking sad. The hardest one has the protagonist with a very smug grin and looking badass. Difficulty elitism is already a terrible ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ idea as you're just alienating players who are lesser able (goes directly against everything Wolfenstein stands for in its story btw lol) but it's even worse when the hardest difficulty a) isn't even that hard and b) doesn't result in a difficulty that's actually fun to play the game in. And why would I lower the difficulty when the game is telling me that the coolest and most badass way to play is on the hardest one?
For contrast, CoD (at least MW2 and before) had difficulty variances like Wolfenstein. The main difference is that CoD never made you feel awful for choosing a lower difficulty setting and the game is fun to play at all difficulties. Difficulties remain clear in their intent and who they're meant for, but it doesn't actively insult the player.

You may be able to enjoy this game as it was intended on a lower difficulty, but I don't recommend buying already just based off of this needless elitism and poor balancing.

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It doesn't stop there.

• Jump between cutscenes and gameplay is incredibly jarring. Cutscenes are letterboxed and gameplay isn't.
  
• Cannot autopickup ammo, health, or armor. I had to spam SO MUCH to pick up all the things I needed after a battle or otherwise I was hurting my chances at doing well in the next fight. Autopickup is a no-brainer. Genuinely the most annoying thing besides the combat.
  
• Loading takes forever. It's genuinely surprising. It's way too long for a game of this recency.
  
• Shotgun guys do SO much damage. It's unreal and they probably do the most damage in the game at unreasonable ranges. You cannot engage with these guys.
  
• Weapons should backpack reload. Duh.
  
• Some characters just die for no reason.

• The big mech thing that I tried to kill with the AA gun. I wasn't able to kill it with the AA gun before it tried to kill me with it's charge-up blast, so I backed away from it before it fired. It continued playing the sound of the charged-up cannon for the rest of the mission.
  
• I received the Autopanzer perk and the notification stuck on my screen for the entire mission. Could not get it off.

Quite limited.

• Headshots on armored enemies cause their helmets to drop, which serve as a quick slight armor boost. Great way to encourage accuracy.
  
• The story and presentation. The story is campy but not too much. The letters and side content you can discover is very good and really gives a semi-accurate look at the propaganda of a theoretical war-winning Nazi regime. I also cried reading one of the letters. Hard stuff.

Don't buy.

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• Story is terrifying and raises a lot of moral and ethical thought-provoking questions. Discussing these afterwards with friends adds to the fun
  
• Instead of separate levels separated by physical barriers, it takes the more Half-Life esque approach of areas which serve as loading zone triggers which load the next map. Besides some texture loading issues with these areas, it feels really good and seamless
  
• Has questionnaires throughout the game that really add to the experience in a minimal and unobtrusive way
  
• Puzzles are alright, but they could be more complex. I think it was for the best for them to have simpler puzzles to allow access to less experienced puzzlers though. Puzzles are generally satisfying and intriguing though
  
• Flashlight is totally useless, but it helps add to the horror
  
• People having blackboxes is an awesome mechanic and the way that interacts with the player and monsters is nothing short of incredible
  
• In general, the way the world and mechanics combine is some of the best work I've seen in a game. It's so seamless and so logical you'd think this actually happened
  
• The moral dilemmas the game asks you to try and solve are heartbreaking
  
• Audio/text logs are super cool and it's really fun to connect the dots on what happened to various people and places. Love the lore; I found myself actively looking for more terminals to find out more things
  
• Jumpscares feel earned, and they're super limited in number
  
• Exploration is really top-tier. One of the best parts of the game
  
• Ending is absolutely brutal. Just. Brutal.

• Slow to get to the more physical horror like monsters; took around 2 hours
  
• I wish there were resources to manage like in Amnesia
  
• Can miss very important pieces of dialogue if you interact with something else
  
• A lot of quiet areas have this really thought provoking dialogue between you and another character, but it also happens while you're doing puzzles or asked to explore the environment. I'm the type of person who can't really do this multi-tasking, but that's just me
  
• Opening doors, lockers, and other items feels awful compared to Amnesia. I have to yank my mouse across the screen.
  
• It is hard to understand the monsters; the game doesn't want you to look at them, so it's really hard to understand their weakenesses or abilities sometimes through their visual design. This happened with Robot Head for me
  
• The health system is weird. The game should just kill you if you mess up. Being injured just sucks. It also hurts the physical horror aspect
  
• Missed some moments in the game like looking at yourself in the mirror due to unclear design
  
• No choices on what to say during dialogue; I found myself disagreeing with some of the things that Simon would say. Would help me immerse myself more in the role. On the other hand, Simon is really his own character here, and it's important to the story. So I don't really know.
  
• I agree with Joseph Anderson in his review (on YouTube) where he thinks the ending gives too much to the player. I agree, and I really like his alternate ending, which has some really cool story ideas that could blossom into something greater.

Died only twice in the game.
Best experienced in two hour intervals.

I've only played a very limited list of horror games, so I'm not the best on scare factor, but I can say I very much enjoyed my time with SOMA. It's worth it if only for the story. Playing it in the game's Safe mode is honestly not a bad idea.

I used mods in this playthrough that had a minimal impact on the experience (FoV switching). You can view my full settings list down at the bottom of this review.

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• Apex of STALKER so far; Gunplay and exploration is at its peak
  
• Some stalkers roaming the lands can fast travel you for a fee to various areas within your map
  
• Map is big but not too big; game consists of 3 huge open areas with costly travel between them; different resources in different areas result in interesting decisions and requires the players to plan their travel between maps
  
• Strong intro: Great explanations of what's going on, game teaches you via sidequests on the nature of the Zone is and you really get a feel for what you're stepping into. Great intro to STALKER
  
• Other STALKERs will loot bodies of STALKERs that are killed. Makes the world feel very lived in
  
• Sidequests have CUTSCENES. Crazy
  
• Achievement system is super cool with the rewards it gives you and it helps you feel like you're really making a difference
  
• Technician system as a whole is just really solid. Feels good to upgrade your weapons and keep with one or two weapons for a while
  
• Progression over time is incredible. Pripyat in general is pretty awesome, but I'd appreciate more roaming enemy squads
  
• NPCs that you help out come back to help you out. Really helps make the world feel lived in
  
• Music is really additive to the experience. Audio isn't the greatest so the light music and ambience helps supplement it and adds to the atmosphere

• Clean UI that is minimal but remains rooted in STALKER; best UI of the series
  
• Hotkeys for items is intuitive and smart; nice that they show you the amount you have
  
• Map is very clear to understand with large labels for areas as well as a filter system that is unintrusive
  
• Can communicate in a chat with numbers for responses
  
• Sleeping, personal stashes, special item orders through NPCs, different STALKERS with different info on the zone's aspects. It's so good.
  
• New kinds of medecine do different things like increase carry capacity or improve blood coagulation temporarily. Huge improvement
  
• Ammo highlights itself and what weapons it goes with in your inventory
  
• Two weapon slots that you can put anything in. No more weapon swapping on the fly :D
  
• Items need to be of a certain condition to sell. Repairs can be done through technicians, but if it's too damaged it may not be worth repairs to sell. It's good to remember how much weapons can sell for in new condition so you can decide if the repair is worth it. It's a very cool system that prevents the player from farming money this way (although I was still able to make a large portion of my money this way)
  
• Stamina regen feels REALLY good; def better than CS and slightly better than SoC. Travelling via walking feels good
  
• Mutants are generally much more healthy; they are much more fearsome and more of a threat
  
• Game encourages you to talk to NPCs via highlighting people with actual stuff to say and info you can obtain via these NPCs. You can ask them specific questions relating to your current quests and they'll have good, okay, or bad answers. The world feels much more lived in with this
  
• Prefilled stashes. You don't need to know the location first.
  
• Dedicated anomaly zones that ease movement through the Zone as well as makes it easier to find and collect artifacts
  
• Quests that are far away will bring you there themselves instantly when you ask, and then you have the option of staying there or going back with them
  
• Plenty of spots for cover from emissions that are reasonable

Bugs/Glitches:

• Intro movie voice and subtitles don't match up. It's jarring.
  
• Using fellow STALKERs to fast travel you within an area with bring you to that area no matter what state it's in. I got fast travelled into a Chimera :(. Realistically, they should've stopped shortly before the Chimera
  
• Cutscene dialog is really stilted still
  
• Controller mutant in a Lab spawned behind a locked door. It was very difficult to kill him and i had to shoot a lot through a locked door. And it was still able to damage me despite being behind the door
  
• Fighting burers in Lab X8 is awful. There's this one room which contains documents that has them, but if you're not in the room with them, they rapidly regenerate health. It seems like an impossible fight until you rush them. Really stupid

Normal Stuff I Disliked:

• Horror is turned down :(
  
• Missing the artifact obtaining puzzles from Clear Sky
  
• Weapon comparison system is weird and I had to look it up to understand how it worked exactly; it also doesn't function all that well
  
• Specific quest was time-limited without it being obvious that it was time limited (weapon transaction one)
  
• I miss there being a few more random STALKERs who would just try to kill you. There's no bandits or direct enemies that are human, which hurts the experience a bit. I still get into plenty of firefights though.
  
• Getting to some stashes (top of fuelling station) is absurdly hard.
  
• Ladders are still bad
  
• Game needs ability to hold your weapon "at ease" instead of just totally holstering it. Would increase immersion
  
• Final sequence is okay, but it lacks the flair of the previous 2 games endings. At the very least it isn't brutally hard like SoC was. It wages on being too easy, but I was also maxed out on literally everything lol.

I looked up stuff! Sue me! I looked up:

• What to do with notes I picked up (do I sell, do I keep (some of this stuff is legitimately impossible to predict))
  
• About any side missions I missed so I could finish them (it was one, obvious if I just paid attention)
  
• Looked up where to find certain artifacts (necessary for a certain side mission)
  
• Saved a ♥♥♥♥ ton during a section to keep a squad alive for an achievement (this was stupid)

Otherwise, this game really rewards you for being an astute player. Listen to NPCs, follow leads, do things.

• Fully upgraded Tide, Predator, Zulu's RPD, Exoskeleton
  
• Two Bubbles, Firefly, Goldfish
  
• Artifacts Found: 41 (I think I never got Flame or Moonlight)
  
• Stashes Found: 35
  
• Mutants Killed: 254
  
• Stalkers Killed: 257
  
• Zone Time: 18 days
  
• Emissions survived: 25
  
• Missions Completed: 89
  
• Money: 311k
  
• Playthrough Hours: 23

• Weapons Systems Expert
  
• Detective
  
• Friend of Freedom
  
• Friend of Stalkers
  
• Courier of Justice
  
• Hi-Tech Expert
  
• Trafficker of Information
  
• Keeper of Secrets (technically cheated ig)
  
• Leader
  
• Mutant Hunter
  
• One of Ours
  
• Research Assistant
  
• Seasoned Stalker
  
• A Wealthy Client

• Wiped out bloodsucker lair
  
• Garry Bad Ending (died during Mysterious Weapon quest I think)
  
• Oasis
  
• One Shot
  
• Night Hunt
  
• Good ending for Zulu, Vano, Strider, Sokolov, Noah, Cardan, Strelok, Kovalsky

One of the best PvE games of all time. Hilarious with a wonderful cast of characters and deep mechanics. This is a must buy, and often is on sale.

I recommend with DLC because the DLC adds a lot of items, but the base game is totally just fine.
Isaac is extremely luck-based, so be ready for runs to go really well or really bad on a moment's notice; that's part of the fun is adapting to various items that you get and enemies that you encounter.
I recommend getting some mods from the Workshop that show you what items do, as most of the time the item descriptions aren't helpful at all.

EDIT:
Playing Repentance+ with a fresh save file makes the game feel a lot better than it was before. A bunch of items don't feel totally useless and they all contribute towards something.

Can't believe I don't have a review for this already. I've played this a lot more than 2.3 hours, not sure why Steam is only showing that.


Dishonored mostly consists of open-ended levels with a variety of things to do but with a primary objective to take out a target. There's a myriad of ways you can go about this, and all options are on the table. The ways that you do things also matter; the game has multiple endings depending on the type of play style you went for.
The story and atmosphere are dark, deep, and enriching. The game is bursting at the seams with passion baked into every environment. The weapons and abilities have excellent sound design, feeling punchy and woosh-y where deserved.
At $10 retail, this game is a total steal. You're ripping the developers off. Very much so buy it if it's on sale.