Recent reviews by static_panic

It's got souls-based combat: stamina, equip load, rolling around, parrying. Only it's at an ARPG camera angle. Pretty nice since you can finally see enemies sneaking up behind you.

Only it's more than a souls-like as it has Fable-esque RPG elements: a central town that you can upgrade for better shops/gear, houses you can buy.

A great story line so far from the 10 hours I've played so far. Not much but I'm hooked and looking forward to playing this one through.

It doesn't do the metroidvania thing where you can't enter certain areas until you get the right maguffin. You can totally barge into higher-threat areas and take on enemies and bosses far above your pay grade as I did.

Haven't even tried the multiplayer yet but it sounds excellent.

The art, music, voice acting, and direction are top notch. This is a sleeper hit.

Probably the best extraction shooter?

Well balanced for new comers to the genre.

Great world-building and lore. Excellent solo or in a squad.

Short, intense rounds.

Can't really go wrong with his one.

If you've played the other S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games you'll like this one too.

If you haven't, it's a deep simulation open-world FPS. Probably the best faction system going around. The AI system is interesting and should keep most players on their toes. Playing on the harder modes can be very satisfying if a little frustrating at times as the reloads aren't super snappy, so save often.

It's a Silent Hill game and probably one of the best in the series. The atmosphere is perfect: claustrophobic in the way that a bucolic, backwater town can be when you don't fit in. And there's mist every where and a bunch of fleshy, mouldy monsters. The music is a little intense at times but it uses the cultural context of the setting and fits in well.

You can scale the difficulty of puzzles and combat separately to suit your play style.

I'm playing combat on hard and the mechanics and tactics are juicy. It's all melee.. and reading the telegraphing is hard. Remember to use focus! There is weapon wear which can get you into sticky situations if you try and fight every monster. Weapons and repair kits are few and far between so choose your battles wisely.

I'm playing puzzles on hard as well and they can be brain-bendy and subtle. Read everything and treat it as a clue.

There are a few jump scares if you run a lot.

Spooky game! If you like Silent Hill games you'll probably like this one. You'll never feel at ease. I'm not even sure I know what's happening. But I like it!

Cons... I guess warning that if you're audio-sensitive to adjust the music volume to a comfortable level. There are some enemies with a recurring, dissonant sound piece that plays when they get near... and they can respawn... and play the sound again when they get near. It can be grating on the nerves to hear it a bunch of times.

It's chaotic at first. Use the library to learn to read the map, watch a beginner strategy video, and work towards beating the first Nightlord. The game really opens up after you beat that first boss.

Really fun, quick to jump in, and fast, fast, fast.

Hilarious. Seems easy enough at first. Then you need to start making 20k+ on 3 runs or less. And it starts to get hard. Great if you like juking and setting up hilarious danger.

I'm playing on Mechanic mode which is one grade above "recommended". Things will break down more often and you'll have to work on repairs. Nice thing though is that you can tailor the aspects of the game that work for you with a custom difficulty level.

I had to start over twice at this difficulty level before I started getting the hang of things. The game doesn't teach you everything you need to survive; especially at higher difficulty levels. Fortunately those failed runs were only a couple hours in... but I didn't feel like they were wasted. This game is fun. At this level I'm not making huge money and coasting through the game: there's quite a bit of challenge to make sure you're buying the right amount of spares, how many jumps you can make on what you have... and all versus the profit you can make on a job. Sometimes you should take a lower-profit job if it's only a hop or two when you're low on supplies. Can't take the risk!

Once you start unlocking new sectors, the game adds new elements to an already challenging sim.

Plus there are the side missions with excellent voice acting for the NPCs. There's an amazing soundtrack... I hope more gets added to it over time. Graphics are great and the setting is really immersive.

Highly recommend!

A very unique, open-ended crime solving game. It's unique and interesting. The cases are generated and clever enough to keep you on your toes with multiple ways to solve them and having to tie the clues together yourself.

Strong noir vibes. Work your way up from a grungy apartment. Show up at crime scenes nobody asked you get involved in. Take money. Take your licks. Find the evidence. Break and enter. Close the cases.

Underrated and worth checking out.

It's Doom. Rip and tear.

It's Riven. Only now there's more of it. And it's in full 3D.