Recent reviews by KuroRyuuD

Pentiment takes you back to the early 16th century where you follow a few notable events from the life of the artist - Andreas Maller during his visit in Tassing, a small town in the Upper Bavaria.

It surely takes you on a journey and not necessarily a pleasant one at that, one filled with sorrow, pain and some joy. Mostly sorrow though, as the game tries to portray the life of peasants during the time when Christianity was still reigning supreme and was starting to be threatened by Luther and his teachings. And to make matters more intense, it portrays the clash of old pagan beliefs versus Christianity and their similarities.

The game is a classic RPG where you are placed into conversation with other characters and are offered multiple choices, some even based on your background or traits and as such, you make choices that might benefit you and alter the lives of the characters surround you. Not all choices play a significant role, but might bring up new conversation subjects if addressed or left ignored.
Pentiment is separated in to 3 Acts each noting a serious story altering event and Andreas' slow descent into depression and/or borderline madness.

The journey starts off in a tranquil dream sequence where Andreas talks to four of his personality traits (as I see it), after which he awakes in the home of a family of peasants who have agreed to lodging him while he works at the abbey as a scribe and in parallel also works on his masterpiece.

As you make your way out of the Gertner household, you get to select your background and traits of which some can affect the outcomes of a few quests, but are mostly tied to specific achievements. During your walk from home to work you make acquaintance with the townsfolk and get a glimpse into their everyday lives before you venture to your place of work - the Scriptorium which is located in the abbey. Conversations can include making statements that the other character might find positive or negative. The game will let you know after you have made the choice however, without straight out telling you if you messed up or not, once the conversation check comes up you will see a tab telling you what you did right or wrong and you will either succeed or fail the conversation check, which can have major or minor impact down the line.

The gameplay of Pentiment is very similar to what you would find in point and click adventure games mashed together with traits from visual novels themed around the art style of the time.

Every day is separated into multiple sequences during which you can be locked out of doing particular tasks and instead forced into doing specific ones. For example Prime, morning work hours where you are free to explore and engage in conversation with almost everyone. It is also the time for major story events to unfold. During Sext, which is lunch time, the game forces you to find people with whom to have less significant conversions and share a meal with. However you may still explore the world and find objects to interact with. The game is very generous with giving you pointers on what to do and where to go and also includes a glossary of varying subjects that were important during that time.

Once at the Abbey, you get to learn about the lives of nuns and monks, and you may also explore the abbey. During work you converse with other scribes as they work on their books or related art. The first day goes by fast and is really only there as a tutorial, it gives you a glimpse of what the gameplay is going to be like.

Once the story reaches the first conflict point, Andreas has to help uncover the perpetrator of the presented murder mystery and in doing so help his friend Piero. It is at this point you are given multiple leads to pursue on who might have caused harm to the victim and you're given a time frame in which to solve the mystery. Needless to say, it is your choices on the matter if your investigation will see justice served, or not.

Pentiment is a longish game, where it mostly depends on how inquisitive you are, how much you want to learn and how fast you can read. It is a very interesting murder mystery that throws a few curveballs at you at times. My first playthrough took about 25 hours, but if you know exactly what to do and where to go, it can take less than 10.

If I were to speak of cons, the game is repetitive and at times feels very sluggish, I would have like to have the option to speed up the walking speed and option to skip cutscenes (for the second playthrough).

It is a solid game ad it definitely deserves more praise. I highly recommend it to those of you, who do not mind repetitive gameplay and reading.


May you believe in divine Providence.

You wake up in a chair, pick a weapon of your choice, leave the train you were apparently on, and set off on an adventure through the mad-puppet and monster infested city of Krat.

Since, I guess, it's only natural to compare any souls-like that comes out, to one or multiple other From Software games, then i can say Lies of P is what I would consider a meld between Bloodborne and Sekiro.
Lies of P plays fast and similarly to the before mentioned two From games also requires quite a bit of reaction from the players to dodge or block incoming attacks, which I might add is the bread and butter of this game. The game has a steep difficulty curve, while the first 5 minutes you might think this is going to be okay, the first larger enemy you meet, will oblige to show you where you stand if you do not learn to block those pesky unavoidable attacks.

Lies of P is a beautiful game, with a really good attention to detail in almost every location. While some textures could use some 2k resolution treatment, it still looks good and is quite atmospheric with a story bound location transition weather effects that will linger for the entirety of the world until you progress further.
Only concerning parts about the visuals is that characters mouths move randomly out of any possible sync, but it is a very minor issue.

Enemies are very diverse and as you advance the story, each new location in the game introduces new types to keep you on the edge. The stars of the show, of course being the bosses - they are very well made and each requires a different approach.

The thing that separates this game from others of this genre are the weapons, or rather their combinations. While your character build is going to be very basic, only really varying between Technique, Advance and Motivity stats to boost your attack damage, the question how you will be dealing it is a different matter. All, except boss weapons can be taken apart, well, in two parts - the blade and handle, and you can combine them to make your perfect weapon to suit your play style.

Sound design is very good, I am not a fan that P is a silent character however, but again it's not an issue. Music for this game is interesting. While I do like the record tracks that you collect through out the game, some of the in game background music becomes tedious after a while.

The story is.. well, for me it's a miss. I was quite interested in how the city of Krat became this deserted calamity, how the puppet frenzy had started and what's up with the disease that's spreading along side the frenzy, but for some reason the introduction of alchemists and their grand plan made me avert, it seemed a little far fetched. The game also has a morality system which affects P's growth - Telling a lie or telling the truth. Gameplay wise it does not affect too much, but it's an interesting feature.

From the issue department, I really did not like the final chapter and it's level design, but then again, the final boss balanced it all out.

Lies of P might just be one of the more difficult games I've lately had the opportunity to play and I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I believe if you liked Bloodborne or Sekiro, you will likely enjoy this one as well.

Verdict 8-/10

That's all I can say.

Well now...
I did not expect this. I'm from an age where NFS Most Wanted (2005) reigned supreme as the best 2000+ NFS game. I loved Porsche Unleashed and High Stakes before that. NFS Underground introduced car tuning at a completely different level and was a very good game in general, later Hot Pursuit (2010) reintroduced the gameplay of NFS's of the prior age and was an excellent game as well. The other NFS's somehow came short on something every time. It was either a bad port (Undercover), horrid story (NFS 2015), weird world and handling (NFS Rivals) or just a bad gameplay loop in general (Most Wanted 2012 and Heat) and the lack of cops in my NFS's (Payback, Shift, ProStreet, even Underground for that matter).

Then came the scetchiest of all NFS's - Unbound and it somehow took the lead.

I haven't had so much fun in a NFS since Most Wanted. This is a most excellent game.
It has a good gameplay loop - you have races during day and night, where each has some benefits, the gameplay loop is tied to the story which is subtle and you don't need just the one car to beat everything. You need 4 tiers - A, A+, S and S+ to beat the final stage in the game and you use these cars throughout the story if you choose to. There is also a B tier and even though you still have events for B tier cars, it's not obligatory to finish the game.
The cops are not over the top and whilst it's unlikely you will have a 6+ police car chase on your tail it's still exciting and fun to try and lose them. The game puts you under pressure from the start and does not let go.
Multiplayer is fun, while there are some cars that require nerfs, like the Ferrari Pista or Koenigsegg Agera, maybe even the old Golf, it has been a good experience overall.

My only two gripes are the music and vanity visual effects.
Some music tracks seem to fit the mood of the game pretty well, especially the more energetic ones, however the pop and hip-hop songs - they are just boring and they get old very fast. The lack of DNB and rock music also hits home. I liked the option to disable specific songs in some older NFS's, but muting them is also an option.
The visual effects are possibly one of the most talked about issues in the game. While they don't brake the game and they do add some flavor to the whole thing, for the most part I've found them to be annoying. These effects obstruct the view too much. A simple visibility slider would easily fix that.

All in all I like this game a lot. I would be stoked to see a DLC that adds more missions to the single player and also adds more races and cars to the multiplayer.

I do recommend this. 8/10

If you would like to try it yourself, then as reassurance - this is a very well made cRPG, however it may not be for everyone because you do play as the bad guy and I don't mean the edgy "Oh I'm so bad, I will steal your stuff and murder you for no reason" kind, but you are an enforcer of the tyrants rule. You are not evil, not really, you play on the side that has already mostly won and you help bring Kyros's will and law to the unconquered lands, who obviously do not want it.
Tyranny has a fantasy theme, but it is not as evident as Pillars of Eternity for example, it is a lot more political.
The writing is very well done and the characters are quite memorable. Unfortunately not all lines are voiced, but if you enjoy cRPGs, then you don't mind a bit of reading.
It is very unlikely that we will see a Tyranny 2, so I do have a gripe with the ending - Act III - it's quite short and ends abruptly, however the rest of the game.. well no complaints.

While I thought DOOM 2016 was an amazing game, except for the MP as I just don't enjoy that, DOOM Eternal has a little too much of everything for me.
It is too fast paced, much faster than I enjoy. While I understand the charm why most would like it, I prefer a simpler, slower paced game play.

A most excellent FPS.
It took a while for me to come around and finish it and boy was it fun.
Don't play on anything less then Nightmare, you can do it.
Would love to get all achievements, but MP isn't really for me.

This game has been on my scope for a very long time, ever since Agony, as I remember.
While the latter, unfortunately proved to be a mess of a game, this a different creature entirely.

I really like the quote from the Art book: "One person’s fear may be deemed ridiculous by others. Stories or situations that creep and crawl beneath somebody’s skin could very easily have no effect on somebody else. The thrill of a scare may be followed by relief that it’s over, or lingering unease and haunted memories. Bloody slasher films and subtle, subversive psychological thrillers are both classed as horror, but the two approaches are so different to the point of being unrelated"

This is a game for game gourmans.
I do not recommend this to just anyone, only ones that can perceive the genius, philosophy and abstractionism of H.R. Geigers and Zdzisław Beksinskis works would be able to thoroughly enjoy this game. Or maybe you're just an art junkie like me whose a sucker for details.

The visual design aspect of Scorn is amazing, albeit disturbing as one would expect stemming from the artists I mentioned before. It is foremost a walking-sim adventure game with some puzzles, where you explore various areas and look to find objects you can interact with and combine and solve to progress further.
The game also features some shooting mechanics. While it does not bring anything new to the table, it is in fact a very clunky shooting experience, it is also necessary as a means to deviate from pure walking, running, hiding-from-monsters kind of survival horror games. The Kronenbergs you encounter are there to make you uneasy and to slowly drip a sense of stress in an otherwise calm, slow-burn adventure experience. When I say calm, do take that with a seed of chili.

I loved it, love the art direction, love concept of biomechanica. Hope to see more games from Ebb Software. Best of luck to you!

It's like Animal Crossing meets Zelda or Binding of Isaac.
It's quite fun, addictive.
Not the most difficult of games, but there is a sort of challenge to it in how you manage your cult.
It's an 8/10 for me.

A truly, masterfully created short game.
I enjoyed it quite much and was thorough in my playthrough.
For what this game is, 9/10

Mafia is a very interesting and well written 1930's gangster thriller. Made back in 2002, it was the one to go for back in the day when GTA3 reigned.
All the way through I had a pleasant feeling of nostalgia, taking me back to the good old days when I played this game on my old PC. Played is a stretch, more like watching a slide show...but it gave me a pleasant and warm feeling.
I recommend Mafia 1 to anyone first seeing this game in the store and to those who have known it for a while but never really decided to take it on.
The newly added features don't ruin the game at all, in fact they compliment the gameplay of a almost 20 year old game nicely.
Visually it's a very pleasing game to look at and I do love Cab Calloway whenever St. James Infirmary starts playing on the radio.