Recent reviews by dori

Just came back from my first two (of many many hours) and it's everything I hoped it'd be. It runs like a dream, looks better than your wife and plays smoother than Morgan Freeman's voice sounds. Just conquered England as William the Bastard for my first campaign (it's the first thing I ever did in CK2, or at least attempted!), and it's just amazing. I'm so happy this game is so good and that we'll get many years of further development.

I'm stuck in the geometry in the very first moment. I remember playing the opening bit years ago and being very impressed how far they were already pushing the Oblivion engine. Hope my problem can be patched.

Okay I'm going to go out and say that at its core, Imperator Rome is a better grand strategy game than the Paradox darling EU4. It has a stronger foundation that allows for far more variety both in terms of realm management and map painting. The only problem is that Imperator is only one year old, so it doesn't have the same amount of sheer flavour content, unique mechanics for individual countries or mission trees EU4 has. BUT: it also doesn't have a long list of DLC you need to get the full package, so it's a good time to get on board. I find myself enjoying my time with Imperator more because of these things it does better than EU4:

1. Internal politics. Imperator has characters much like Crusader Kings 2, but it's not about roleplaying. Instead it's almost like your the puppet master. You smear one guys reputation here, give a holding to a prominent faction leader there and voila you have the backing in the Senate to declare war on that pesky neighbor. Next election you're another guy, maybe the one you smeared just now, so keep that in mind before you mess around with people.

2. Military gameplay is much like EU4, but adds concepts of tactical stances and you can let armies automate (suppress rebels, patrol the border, etc) which really makes for more enjoyable wars.

3. You can micro manage your realm a LOT more here (though it's not necessary) because it's all based on population simulation and demographics that make sense. I love how I can analyze why a given city is underperforming and can take appropriate action (buildings, policies, investments, trade) to alter things, but it is borne out organically over time.

Why am I comparing with EU4 specifically? Because it's really most similar to that game. CK2 is an RPG, completely different. Vicky 2 has pops, but I don't know enough to compare, same thing with HOI4 which I believe is almost a wargame more than anything else.

Imperator has come a loooooooong way in the span of one year. It launched as a map painter that had weird abstractions which didn't make sense and tedious busywork (spending oratory Mana to convert pops one by one, etc) but that's ALL been replaced with far better systems that make logical sense and give the game an almost simulationy feel. I'm amazed with how Paradox responded, I never imagined that they could redo basically 70% of the main game design in one year but they ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ did it and that's why I'm recommending this game now. Get it, support the devs.

Hitman is one of the few franchises that feel like they're made for mature audiences. I don't mean the violence, but the clever design overall and all the little subtleties that make this game feel like it (to use Kojima's words) "flies above" the rest. There's no game like Hitman, with a laser-like focus on what it's about, and everything else coming from that core.

I'm really pleasantly surprised by the story of this game so far. The characterization of Wei Shen immediately intrigues. Also I love exploring Hong Kong as its realized in this game. I just visited Shenzhen and missed out on the chance to go for a visit to Hong Kong, so this is the next best thing haha. Also, I love how they made melee combat Arkham style, it's so much fun.

Today I jumped into the Early Access build for the first time to see how it plays and get some impressions of the early parts.
First off, Torment: Tides of Numenera does not mess around with its richness in text. There's tons and tons of descriptions about the environments, dialogues offer at least 5 or 6 possible branches to go into and there are very few generic NPCs that give you a single line response. Once I'd entered the first real area (the Circus Market) I realized that I shouldn't approach and talk to everybody. It's too much! But in a good way, this led me to be more objective oriented in my play style. I finished one quest, it's about rescuing a guy who's being publicly executed. It was a very interesting premise, there were multiple ways I could've gone about it, and even in the solution I chose, I had different means of progress (do I talk a merchant into selling me an item that's not for me? Do I snatch it when they're not looking? etc).

Torment is a game that delights in the inclusion of skill checks at every opportunity which is fantastic. I do love my skill checks in my RPGs. In conclusion of the quest was satisfying and I grew to like the characters I met. They had personality and there was some notable nuance in the writing.

Overall I had a great first impression. It seems like the full game will be a real monster in terms of replayability if they keep up the standard set by this first quest anyways.

The Blackwell Legacy is the first game in the Blackwell adventure game series. It is made in the style of 90's point and click adventures which is a totally valid choice. Graphically it's low-res pixellated characters and backgrounds. It isn't as detailed as a Monkey Island 2 or so, but it's good enough.

You play as Rosangela Blackwell, a young woman living in New York and writing for a paper (if I remember correctly). You're aunt Lauren just died after years living in special care in a hospital. She was Rosa's last family member and all this kicks of the story on a somewhat somber note. Soon enough though things get interesting when you learn more about her family's past and end up meeting Joey, a ghost. He compells you to solve a mysterious death and it just goes from there.

The characters and world building are the strong suit of this game. Legacy is a rather short game, but is all the better for it. It gives you a taste of what the Blackwell series is about. It has solving cases, banter with Joey and learning more about the Blackwell family.

Puzzle wise it's quite easy stuff, but I welcome that. I find that really challenging puzzles usually hamper the pace and flow of adventure games, especially if they have compelling stories. There's also a nice commentary mode you can enable, but it does really mess with the flow of the game, so it's best to enable it on a second play through.

All in all I can recommend The Blackwell Legacy to any point and click adventure fans, and those who enjoy mystery stories.

Bllackwell Unbound is the second game in the Blackwell adventure series. If you're not familiar with this series, I'd suggest you just start off with the first game, the Blackwell Legacy.

Anyway, here we are back in the 1970's as Lauren Blackwell, Rosangela's aunt and her medium predecessor. I have to say this game has a much more involved story line, and it's a wonderful step forward for the series. I really enjoyed the prequel angle, jumping in time and seeing what it is like being a medium from another perspective. Lauren is a more interesting character in my opinion, though I may grow to really like Rosa in the later games.

Unbound has a very noir feel to it, it taking place all in one single night. You investigate two deaths, one of a saxophone player and the other of a woman who shut herself in her own apartment for years. These two stories are written quite confidently, and I especially enjoyed the one about the musician. There's something really compelling about investigating the deaths of these characters. You're digging into the past, step by step you learn about people and their issues.

But the real highlight was the end. Obviously I won't spoil it for you here, but just know that this game isn't just about two random cases without any more personal connection to Lauren. When the credits rolled, I found myself empathising with her a whole lot, and it really cast a spotlight on Rosangela and the things that lay in wait for her.

Blackwell Unbound is an excellent continuation in the series, offers the usual great banter between Joey and the main character, has interesting cases to solve and above all raises the stakes for our heroine(s). A big recommendation from me!

Woah how did I not review Spelunky yet? It's in the top 5 games of all times for me. A perfect game in all aspects. Great graphics, super tight ingenious design. It doesn't get old and it's easy to learn, hard to master. I nominated it for the "Test of Time" Steam award, because I've been and will be playing this gem for years.

Mark of the Ninja is the best stealth game I've ever played.

In MotN, you control a Ninja on a mission to stop a technologically advanced enemy. It's about infiltrating their multiple complexes, and along the way you have to sneak by guards, dogs, movement-sensitive cameras, laser beams and so on. What makes MotN such a joy to play though is the expressiveness of the gameplay. It differentiates itself from games like Splinter Cell in the way that it rewards every single Ninja-type action with points. That means if you hide behind a vase and a guard passes by, the moment he does it (for the first time), you get some points. When you knock out/kill a guard, you get points. When you hide a body in a dumpster, you get points, and when you dangle a body from up high and a guard sees it and freaks out in terror, you get points. The beautiful thing here is that this system encourages and rewards all these stealthy actions with points equally. You don't need to adhere to being super aggressive or super sneaky. MotN wants you to find your own preferred style and play it your way. It's not like in Deus Ex: Human Revolution for example, where the game ultimately wants you to play in a more pacifist way.

All this wouldn't amount to much if the controls weren't up to snuff. But they are. I played it with a gamepad, and once you wrap your head around the context sensitivity of the button layouts, you feel in total control. Other than that, level design is also hugely important. While to objectives are quite linear, the environments allow for a good degree of free-roam. Often you'll find yourself with the task to get to a room, but there are multiple paths to get there. And even within one path, there are a multitude of ways to bypass obstacles. So in that way, MotN is a real sandbox of stealth gameplay. There's a lot of room for experimentation, and because of the way it rewards it, it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to other titles in the genre.

The beautiful 2D art looks good in screenshots, but it's much better in motion. And even better when you're actually jumping, climbing and sneaking in these environments yourself. The animation is top-notch, especially for the main character. You inevitably will feel like a ninja. In that way, MotN really appeals to the inner child in me. I would run around, grapple-hook on top of chandeliers and do somersaults over unsuspecting guards just for the heck of it. It's a joy.

Story wise, you get a pretty bare bones setup that really just exists to give everything a fictional frame of reference. The story really doesn't impose itself on the game too much, and there are few cutscenes. The ones that are there are brief and actually quite entertaining to watch. You're a ninja from a ninja clan. Some mercenary corporation attacks your hidden compound. You are sent to kill their leader. It does get more interesting at the end, and the finale was actually really well done. All in all, MotN knows that it has such great gameplay that story purposefully takes the back seat here, and it's not really any worse for it.

My verdict would be that Mark of the Ninja is a great stealth game that seamlessly takes its place alongside the genre greats. The beautiful presentation, tight control and - above all - expressive stealth gameplay make it a joy to play. It's got great replay value because achievement hunting and exploring different playstyles keep the missions fresh and interesting even if you know their layouts by heart. It's light on story, but that is a purposeful design decision. The fact that this game single-handedly invented a gameplay formula for 2D stealth gameplay that works this well impresses the heck out of me and reminds me of the design brilliance of the original Thief. If you're a fan of the genre, you really should've played this by now. And even if you're not, it's accessible enough for newbies to give it a good shot.