Recent reviews by Draven Crow

F.E.A.R. 3 seems like a good conclusion to the F.E.A.R. saga except it is like some weird cartoonie bad Spawn knockoff of F.E.A.R. but still remains true to what F.E.A.R. is aesthetically and storywise in spite of lacking everything else like the mechanics no other game in the market had. The missing all guns system is a huge turnoff for me as the original F.E.A.R. had that as well as cover mechanics, no need for extra functions. They killed the John Woo feeling the original had in favor of being like every shooter on the market as if they needed to compete with Call of Duty, Battlefield and before it existed Fortnite. Also what was the point in changing Harlan Wade's voice? In case that wasn't redundant enough they also made a points based system for different endings as they did with old Mass Effect universe. Instead of sticking with what worked in original F.E.A.R. they had to chase after AAA market success and it wasn't even the original team working on it. Sad to think F.E.A.R. has been drug through the mud the most throughout its development until it pulled a Doom 3 on itself (except it went hot action, tons of enemies just lacking the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rock/metal music which I'd imagine they almost signed Five Finger Death Punch, Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold to do the soundtrack, they had Danzig do so) save they kept the feeling of F.E.A.R. intact by soundtrack with newer tracks to emphasize the blood curdling thrill ride instead of rinse repeating the foundational one which could have easily worked. Again with the gameplay, don't fix what isn't broke but they did so anyways for those quick bucks and years later thought they could get away with Aeria doing the online version of F.E.A.R. 2 and 3, sadly it became a CoD or Counter-strike clone that failed and got shut down (not to mention the cheaters and hackers) and Aeria didn't help matters as their online model sucks royal balls (if you count their snuck attempt at an online porn game called Scarlet Blade then pun intended) I preferred what PWE did and even they failed Blacklight which gameplay speaking succeeded F.E.A.R. This game would have been excellent if it was a return to form instead of some odd off-the-wall experiment that ignored the success of the original. Q and E leaning mechanics was not some temporary experiment, I know stealth games use it, can't shooters as well? Can't they also go John Woo or is that not feasible in the world of shoot-em-up games? Oh yes, I forgot the formula of AAA games, choose the most annoying common denominator that every other release uses and profit $$$.

Still F.E.A.R. 3 is better than the vast majority of pointless stuck in the 50's shooters out there. It still keeps the creative guns in the game instead of the PR going 'No, we need to go tried and true. Good old military weapons, not this experimental likely to vanish in a few years guns! Leave the imaginative and creative stuff for Sci-Fis or horror survivals, this is a shooter. Just keep coming up with fantasy war scenarios and what ifs or hell, just tell the billions of war stories that are 'unsung' and have people put into the eyes of a war vet. If we run out then think of countries most likely to duke it out with us and invent a story there. People no longer jive with this conspiracy crap or that Cyberpunk 'the big wigs suck' thing, everyone likes a good war story or two especially with certain veteran holidays coming up.' Yes F.E.A.R. 3 felt short but still kept the feeling of your playing a F.E.A.R. game alive even if the John Woo part packed for greener pastures. It still felt like a commercial thing rather than an honest installation to the series.

Update: Finally the damned game works again, I was able to play it full through but man are some guns missing and still it is a stain and reminder how Monolith cowed to the wishes of the big-wigs in making yet another CoD, CS, BF, MoH clone. Now Monolith only makes teen friendly games because WB says so.

This is my 'not yanking you around' review:

Presentation: Unlike Doom 3 this game doesn't outright slap you into a boring long intro, it isn't trying to pull a Half-Life thing with you. You leave the main room you come out of and then it's 'rip and tear' time which in translation means, no wasting time with plot BS just jump in and make a mess of your foes Doom '93 style.

Combat: Doom 3 make this aspect of the game frustrating and more fitting to a survival game than any real shooter. Doom 2016 brings back what Doom did best from the start, make the combat adapt to the situation and make the fight enjoyable rather than a chore. It also took strong hints from Brutal Doom and said 'your the main badass in a world where you conquer all' coupled with music that coexists with the combat instead of a looped track throughout the level. As far as guns, what should I say? They all rocked and maintained the rule of 'use the right gun for the right situation' instead of having a favorite. The upgrade thingy seems more fit in an RPG shooter rather than a straight-up shooter game or appropriate in an action game where you buy newer combos. Still the combat feels like Doom and plays like it.

Music: Obviously music plays a huge role in any game but if it fails to compliment the game or feels out of place then the game will semi-trainwreck if the story or gameplay doesn't go well. Doom 2016 music once again feels and plays like Doom taking clear hints and inspiration from Brutal Doom (which meant to recreate Doom the way it would have been had the tech been there) from start to finish its a pure headbanging journey through insanity and through hell and back! There's no Doom without the ear raping, face melting heavy metal and Mick Gordon did it to the letter.

Gameplay: Doom is designed with general simplicity in mind and maybe some sophistication but not so much that your average grunt gamer would beat his head against a wall trying to get through the game. Like in the old Dooms there comes a point where we have to look up walkthroughs because we get disoriented, confused or need a refreshing reminder of where we're going and what we're doing and luckily Doom gives us an arrow indicator to insure we never lose track, we just need a way to reach Point A and through the other letters and that's on us to figure out.

Story: Again, simple, doesn't get bogged down into a grand universe where you are just one character who adventures with like 9 others or so. The only thing the evil forces fear is YOU! Fate help (they are demons so don't worry) any evil being who's last face they see is yours before they're descended in pain back to the bowels of hell. Being this is set some time after the events of Doom and Doom 2 and a very long time after Doom 3 I'd say the universe of Doom was slowly being unraveled as they discovered more of it. The game didn't borrow 'The Legend of Gilgamesh' the way Diablo 3 did but instead probably borrowed 'The Book of Enoch' though I could be wrong. So long as you the player was the center of it all, nothing else mattered. The plot was as big deal as it was in the original Doom games, enough to let you know what was going on and daring you to unleash your beast mode.

I don't care to say anything else but that this game is awesome, doesn't slog through a muddled plot and gives you the satisfaction of pure adrenaline pumped action! \666/ Rip and Tear!

I hate the damned jump puzzles and the whole 'get locked into an area so you can fight your way out even on empty ammo' but everything from the soundtrack to how to tear the demons asunder and the sheer excitement of it all is worth my cash! A game about fun is always a vote of confidence from the player, Call of Duty is a sheer joke by comparison that became a more literal joke when it went into the whole battle royale thing. I don't think we will ever really see a Doom Battle Royale game and I'd rather not as Doom presented itself as a jump into the fire, fight like hell and make the story short and sweet. The only survival is against the maddening onslaught of demons who don't relent because they are demons and you are plunging into hell itself where insanity lives. This is grade A therapeutic stuff, did someone, the day or anything piss you off, turn this game on and take it out on the demons trying to rip you apart. The demons love it when you scream so give them your best battle cry! Even the demons of dragon age would retreat to the black city knowing the Doom slayer has entered, big scary spider demon? Pfft, the doom slayer's got this wench!

Rock on! Get this game! Then Rip and Tear these agents of Covid-19 and feed them the black death plague as their reward! That's the Doom slayer way!

As for The Ancient Gods, it is fun in your an elite gamer but frustrating to the point of rage quit if your a casual and I mean the final boss fight which there are few to practically no strategies to winning except what others on the boards suggested. If you use trainers then your S-O-L when it comes to the Dark Lord boss battle as I believe ID made sure this was a definingly Dark Souls styled DLC and battle for the sake of the more hardened doom fans. Avoid it if you are a casual, I spent money on this and it is the one purchase I truly regret.

Yes I know the history of Activision with Trioka games and the development of this game, bastards screwed Whitewolf and Trioka over big time worst than the many ways that LaCroix could screw your character in political moves. This history, however, didn't stop this game from becoming a classic and a legend at the same time which is only improved by the unofficial patch or whatever that community patch is that puts the rest of the planned content into the game as Trioka got rushed and unpaid. For the universe this game presents go see the community who ran VTM roleplay for decades especially the old chat room 'Celestia City' which many people played in including a guardian of mine (friend to my mom), as she was one of the oldest role players of the VTM community. God bless her soul she died this year and will surely be missed by those who knew her, 'Kaye' I think one of her handles was but she was cool for someone who was old enough to remember the first man on the moon, John F. Kennedy as president, Queen before they became a legendary band and Black Sabbath in their early days and so on and so forth.

VTMB as the acronym that I'd rather refer to this game as as it leaves room for more words here is one of my major 'go to' Halloween games. I like playing the Malkavians as they definitely are fun and have witty dialogue but not Therese and Jeanette (they are basically Two-Face Harvey Dent as a really crazy ass girl), I came up with this new Sect called the 'Draconian' which follows old Anne Rice rules about vampire secrecy which means they have to be complete shadows to the world, not faces seen on the streets. I also came out with how they founded the masquerade and how the Camarilla retired them in a very spoofed way they didn't see coming. So the sect plotted some time later in trying to bring all sects to their knees and under a leash they held, of course if the others caught on they'd be hunted into solitude and made to go dark for some time.

From the foundational universe only seven of the bloodlines got exposure while the rest were kept aside. The sects merely represent the three most messed up parts of our society, the concieted powerful elite, the rabble rousing/chaos endorsing prolitarians and the anger festering/insanity brewing/fanaticism advocating occult. The one I came up with is more of the sociopathic weebish xenophobia harboring vagrants who while less dangerous than the others are no less monstrous yet still not part of the foundational narrative. This game goes for the stealth focused horror political thriller mystery style that helped give it the most original story style since the show Kindred The Embraced. I just as well found the most peaceful Indiana Jones styled exit as worth it as smashing La Croix with whatever scene took over after. The combat is a bit clunky and some of the animations clunk as well but this was a game from the 00's and was rushed to the store without the necessary patience needed for it to come out at the proper time. As usual the voice acting is stellar and basically the first time a gaming studio got away with dialogue that would draw out the wrath of feminist gamers as well as the wagging finger of FOX News *tsk tsk tsk* but such a brave act allows room for the freedom of expression even if the game failed to reach the AAA list.

The meme 'Every time someone mentions it, you install it.' didn't define what I did, I kept it installed and treated it as an annual thing to play it. Recently I played the more decent Anarch who didn't go around raising hell out of anger for the system but instead played the clever chess player who worked to weaken the Camarilla which in part meant beating them at their own game. The atmosphere and the music are very much akin to vampires living in a late 20th/early 21st century world where punks and headbangers ruled the scene along with that whole high octane top secret agent vibe. There are also characters with great insight to things such as Tung the Nosferatu, wow I could ramble but I'll say to you... Why read this when you could be playing and enjoying it for yourself?

First time I played this game I got some major 'Interview With The Vampire' vibes and as I played further I thought "What if Monolith wrote a game about a vampire in their style?" Something like this would likely be the answer as they were well known for horror styled games. Not sure if this was merely the beginning in the rise of more vampire-oriented horror games but I thought about someone needing to restore the horror element to the children of the night. The lack of prostitutes returns to a Dracula era where the theme of virgins was central in the blood vampires went for because it made them powerful for such blessed blood not only made them powerful but also restored their humanity in a way. The more ♥♥♥♥♥ blood though and they'd further embrace the curse of the monster they had become delving deeper until their inner demon took control. The main character prefers the logical approach to vampirism or whatever he deems his condition which even in the dark ages was used to explain 'psychopathy' and nowadays is a fancied Gothic fairy tale or a political term for those who are gluttons for things they shouldn't have. Everything within this game is right and why shouldn't it be? It was clearly made by an Indie dev being they are the only ones these days with artistic or break-the-mold ideas seeing the rest of the industry either chases success or treads on musty old ground with washed-up and recycled ideas, or properly put, re-skinned approaches to dog tired ideas. And hey, if it opens a new approach to horrors in games these days I'm game.

But enough handing out medals and statues to honor legends, the music is akin to the days of the 'victorian vampire' instead of going with psuedo-modern vampire who is a soldier, in underworld politics or is a teenager who stalks beautiful teen emo girls in high school because of a lost sense of romance all met with some rock soundtrack suitable to their world like the more hardcore guitar grinding of the more mature vampires or the more indie/emo bands for the teen vampire. Same goes for the medieval vampires who manage to land in silly universal monsterville with some wannabe medieval organs and a strange steampunkish approach to electronic music (Dracula Untold is the exception). Not that I mind the mature vampires in modern worlds with metal bands grinding it out as they suck blood to the very barbaric and beastly ferocious tunes the metal band oozes nor the medieval vampire if done right, it's just a fresh take is always appreciated. The more horror-driven approach does what the entire vampire genre needed for a long time, to make them less attractive and more scary. I definitely think teen vampires have done the whole genre a massive disservice by making vampires these angsty, love-starved, anakin skywalker-esque (super emo), blood suckers who also ignore the draconic rules of vampirism by saying 'they have sharp teeth, not pointy teeth' or 'they glimmer in the sun not turn to dust' all of which describe a dark angel and not a vampire.

Yes I will skip the rating system since I don't call it wholly necessary but I do find the controls a bit of an irritating learning curve. However, every game WILL have flaws no matter what you put into your system and should there be a perfect game then it was during the 90's when games were simpler to make. Take or leave it, that's my review. I do try to be as civil as my humanity allows so there you go.

Though not sharing the 'Stephen King' spark that made the first grand this game is like a twisted Assassin's Creed meets Doctor Strange save for Sebastian doesn't belong to an order and he doesn't have super powers. Personally I'd like to see something like this with the first's height of horror in a survival game like 7 Days To Die completely themed around twisted and warped realities controlled by the brains of serial killers. The fact the whole camera angle thing of the creator's older games is gone is a plus, the minus is on the reduction of the style of horror he made here though. A game where you are hunting the villain brings Scream to mind as the protagonist there was also hunting a serial killer, the difference is that his mission is to
save his wife and child so he could help them reboot their cranial simulated reality. For Halloween fun this game is worth it but if you are looking for something scary that depends on how YOU define scary. I'm not sure if the 2020's will have anything in the way of horror games unless I look for those lesser known horror game makers I'd say the days of retail horror are over. Look to Indie devs or the Kickstarters as the spotlight shines on battle royale, blockbuster RPGs or whatever emerges as the next BIG thing.

Yeah, yeah you naggie nit-picky nerds. Look to the nostalgia or the less noticed games because the gaming mainstream's attention is elsewhere now. I look to meaningful plots and characters not simple simulated experiences and The Evil Within 2 stands as the most recent one we've got until VTMB2 comes out.

An FPS classic from the Super Nintendo 8-bit days and a 90's game to boot. From Caleb's gruesomly witty comments to the various creative horror film sets, a joyride with unspeakable pain never felt this good! (sarcastic irony in case you guys wondered) Too much to say but more time for play, just get this game, jack in and you'll see what I mean by how fun it is...ooh-ooh! Let's not forget the fun names for the cheat codes, this was a time when Monolith felt like a real punk rockin' game studio!
Nowadays... *tear drop* Monolith barely feels like it has a soul anymore... They've become a husk driven by ego and it isn't even WB's fault. They just push projects of middle earth action driven games or (god forbid) a paid live-service/battle royale studio... I guess the real geniuses or the punk rockin' side of Monolith left for greener pastures.
Still, outside of the doom and gloom of what Monolith has become, this game returns to more fun and simpler times much like its sequel remains properly alive in a time before corporate BS mowed over creativity, modding and fun.

The Evil Within keeps running through my mind for addictive reasons, I first came to it realizing the lack of horror games in the industry in 2010's besides Indie horrors which landed hit or miss. Yes, I know, The Evil Within writer made Resident Evil and Silent Hill giving credence to the fact he is a horror genre genius much like Stephen King. The Evil Within is like a sadistically twisted version of Doctor Strange in the Marvel universe like if Nightmare and Dormamu took control of earth with the bedraggled soul of Caleb from the Blood series in tow wrapped in chains projecting the twisted world in his mind. Seriously though, I don't know what it is about horrors that are so gripping and mightily creative but it appears they are, they dare to have a sense of uniqueness and I'm told that having your heart race and pound for 30 minutes per day is actually healthy, it ensures you will live longer, such thrills and chills are provided by this game. Hey, it's like the residents of Halloween Town say 'little dumplings everywhere, life's no fun without a good scare' and that is a fact bone daddy!

Gameplay: Try to be careful when moving about as the controls can be overzealous if your the type to be unsettled by the atmosphere. The part with the two legged flood shark is annoying from a gameplay standpoint especially when you have to swim in it and hope like hell you have an escape, but it is also a memorable moment. I wouldn't say anything is clunky since it is in many cases about timing and with ranged weapons about precision. For someone who doesn't sit there an analyze the contents of my drink before taking a sip I give this 10/10 for making my game basically fun and less of a chore while still giving me a challenge the works to unlock my savant.

Story: The hero in this game is one we can sympathize with and the villain starts out someone we could understand before he reveals he was always so wicked which works and makes him easier to kill in the end. Yes, in today's horrors or any game that has a plot, like a cinematic film you either grip the audience from the start to finish or this game would have been written off by even me as a one hit wonder. For this I give a 10/10 since I can't resist a well orchestrated and crafted horror.

Visual: It has everything that illustrates a death metal album creating that 'neo-Gothic' atmosphere considering the usual locales found often in horror driven games. The creator of The Evil Within practically invented the 'Nightmare Horror' genre because he always comes up with very twisted looking creatures as well as terrifying mockeries of people who set us off as teenagers met with swamp valley cannibals. The visual within horrors quite often is as important as the music and the delivery but the visual is the part that our eyes feast upon to really induce the sense of phobia. Some may say that not seeing the horror but having an emotional sense of fear and trying desperately to escape it is where the real 'scary' is at which we get plenty of in the opening act. I still think the janky 'security styled' camera is irritating and kills the feeling quicker than you could kill a rampaging enemy with a single bullet, this has been an issue even with the earlier games by this same creator but as it is his style we should respect that and I suppose it adds to the suspense.

Atmosphere: Another major part of horrors is its atmosphere, if you take out the atmosphere then it feels like one of those cheap POV camera based horror films like the darker version of AFHV 'America's Funniest Home Videos' and to add a disco soundtrack or some crappy 80's new wave song would further cheapen it. Industrial sounds or music tend to work well with horrors because the sounds remind us of the psychological pangs of a dystopian world. In the Evil Within, there are enough haunted or horror house sounds to make the game feel like jumping out of your skin. This deserves a 10/10 as I don't once feel taken out of such a feeling.

Music: Music to any kind of film or fiction is the bread and butter to telling a compelling story. The Evil Within goes from ye olde records to Industrial crashing sounds, to thrill inducing or creep indicating hurried violins and in some cases the angry striking of piano keys. Listening to the soundtrack without playing the game also works for a Halloween murder mystery party night. Like Hollywood films, however, there's always that one hit wonder artist or maybe an already famous band/singer who makes a special track for the game/movie itself which oddly turns out better than most of their songs or most of the billboard top hits (I guess they have Edgar Allen Poe's luck, making something so brilliant it is a crime to pass it off but those 'Philistines' as he referred to them as, who controlled much of the commercial industry normally do). Still, as impossible to ignore as the music is I give it a 10/10.

Originality: The Evil Within definitely comes up with originality having nothing to compare itself to ideally aside from its predecessors in the same vein. I said Doctor Strange from the cinematic point of view but this game does way more than that, it creates a sickeningly twisted reimagining of virtual reality technology with some matrix styled approaches like when the protagonist wakes out of the tub to realize Ruvik's brain was the simulator of his twisted world similar to Neo waking from the matrix to find himself inside of a bio-growing tub which all humans with cybernetics were. Some might say the whole 'cop solving a crime with gut-wrenching twisted elements' is by this point cliche since Condemned but the story is much more different than you'd credit it for. Ruvik gives a whole new twist to the mad-scientist form of horror even making himself the center of the scariness so he could have some sense of domination over his subjects. The gameplay doesn't particularly reflect originality but the stealth part definitely lends up that part as you aren't trying to weave around patrols in a high security place, you are trying to weave around monsters that will make you lunch if they spot you, I'll admit I actually had nightmares about such situations. Taking your nightmares and putting them into a game and sprawling upon every inch of the game is clearly a genius way to create a new face for horror. All in all 10/10 for coming up with new ways to scare and get a thrill out of playing.

Technical: The game has been well taken care of save for the damned security-esqe camera. Also Bethesda includes its command console in case you are stuck at some point whereas in other games without and without mods you usually stick to hitting an earlier save when something went wry. I usually just console my way around the whole flood shark part of the game, sorry guys I suck at that part, I did bother to try and sneak past and I was nothing more than a steak dinner on a stick for the damn shark. (Yeah yeah, I should look up YouTube videos on how to get past that without codes but most of those people are pros, otherwise they wouldn't bother recording it) This gets a 9/10 due to the outdated camera thing that may have worked in 90's games but not in today's, not even the notice dialogue boxes when you do looting.

Final Verdict: 9 half/10, since old fashioned signatures are unnecessary in Bethesda published games.

I've never been sold on stealth games in the past and Dishonored was my intro to that genre even as many would say I should have been introduced to Dues Ex as that is the premiere stealth game. After trying dishonored a while I found the stealth to be a lot of fun and the AI a bit more evolved since F.E.A.R. as they actually react to you making racket and begin hunting you after. The story and the characters individually seem to have Bioware level and skill of writing and are made short likely to insure that they don't lose the magic after a time. In the story, after being framed for an inside job murder you get rescued by common folks and what starts off being the rebels against the evil empire, yet as you pluck off everything that poisons the fair system you get the rude awakening of realizing you've been used by yet another faction after power using the good old Marx (I'll explain this viewpoint later) approach. Now your only concern is recovering your daughter from the backstabbing piss bags who used you and then publicly abused you for political reasons which is ♥♥♥♥♥ all around. The best part is you choose the narrative, be Carnage who kills indiscriminately with a horror film ending or be a marauder who is never seen and never lead to death, or if you prefer be the friendly neighborhood Spider Man with the most Disney of endings possible. I prefer to (for fan-fiction purposes) do unreliable narrative but that's me. The spells are all fun and can get you from point a to point b without a scratch if you play your cards right, if I had favorites I'd say the blink, time stop and pull spells are my picks. What is even more cool about this game besides the obvious Steampunk in incredibly Gothic fashion is some facts surrounding it like how in metaphysics the whole sky ocean thing is a fact of the universe, in other words the dead black space outside our earth is basically one massive ocean of mass which is expressed in the 'void' part of the game. The other parts are how this game reflects pre-Victorian engineering apparently even if the society looks strongly Victorian which is largely what makes it fit the bill for Steampunk, the whale oil specifically was real oil used in the 1800's and early 1900's before the use of fossil fuels making Japanese whale hunting from long ago profitable and...probably the reason they got into WW2 as whale hunting was cut out of the market and later in the 60's or maybe earlier condemned. Aside from the facts and the whole 'superstition about rats and plagues' playing its part in pockets of today's society (namely the Chinese New Year Rat thing that some might connect to COVID ridiculous as it sounds) this game is pretty good and really brings on challenges for those who crave something to sink their teeth into (let me tell you about the watchtowers and guard sensitivity, it takes a pro to snake around them without drawing attention) it also is fun for casual players who've got little in the way of skill. While playing this game take in the beauty and enjoy the heck out of the gameplay, dishonored is worth it.

A bitter conclusion but also in spirit with a plethora of comics as many hero comics have their own 'Adventures of Hercules' including tragedy, love making, an enemy that may be sufficient to beat them and of course their death moment. This game still manages to keep you occupied for hours and makes good use of that time by having a villain you must battle when completed with various 'collect this, destroy that' tasks. In some RPGs it seems mostly for boasting rites or mere filler and the last thing you want to do in any game is create time consuming filler missions or quests especially when there is no payoff or lore to be discovered behind it. So once again this is a crucial part of the batman gaming collection if you are such a batman fan that you want anything and everything batman.