Recent reviews by Dea_Inferna

Playing as a detective in a cyberpunk world sounded like a dream game to me. So I didn't even doubt I would get this game eventually. If you do hesitate, there's a free demo with a good chunk of gameplay waiting for you to get your hands on it. Your saves will be transferred to the full game should you decide to buy it. (I decided to start anew, though, because it had been a while since I played the demo.)
Gamedec turned out exactly what I expected it to be. It really makes you feel as a detective and use your brain. More often than not, it rewards your curiosity (and I love it when games do that). It has great visuals and is set in a very interesting and weird world, true to the cyberpunk genre. There's a lot of reading, but it's worth it. The more you understand the world, the easier it is for you to deal with the information you obtain. And there's TONS of it. Honestly, I don't know how others complete the game in 10 hours (my 33 hours, however, come with a little bit of replaying when I wasn’t satisfied with the outcome). Or maybe I'm just too thorough. But hell, I'm a detective, why would I not be?:)
Sometimes, though, there was not enough information, and it felt like I was doing guesswork, not detective work. It's probably impossible to unlock every single clue (or you need a guide for that), but it just doesn't sit right with me when I'm supposed to make a deduction, but the information I have is insufficient. It’s certainly helpful to have all clues and conclusions in the UI, but the problem with this system is that it gets confusing sometimes. For example: I’m supposed to answer the question ‘Who had a motive to kill X?’ Well, more than one person, actually. But I can choose only one option because this is how the deduction system works. Or, it happened more than once that I believed none of the assumptions was true, but was forced to choose as I couldn’t progress otherwise. Why can’t I postpone the decision until I have more information? Sometimes, the information on the deduction screen is contradictory (can’t really explain without spoilers). The good news is that it doesn't seem to matter if you make a mistake: you'll learn the truth further on in the story. I want to try and roleplay a loser who just can't deduce a thing correctly. Where would it get me?..
I really enjoyed The Fallen Hero and The Axis Mundi sections. There were so many interesting interactions. In the first one, for instance, if you figure out the hacking, you will be rewarded with very useful insights. In the second, there is a lot to discover if you care to do some trial and error. I'm not a fan of puzzles, but those felt so fit and added to the sense of mystery you are about to reveal. That's when you realize that Gamedec is not just about talking to people and gathering information.
Our first cases in game worlds are also pretty engaging. However, the Knight’s Code world where you're supposed to live by clan's rules is easily the most annoying section of the game. It felt like playing an MMO, which I never do. So I wasn't excited about the idea. There was a way to bypass it, and I had found it. (By chance, because I listened to NPC’s instructions half-heartedly.) The problem with this way was that the information I had was so scarce that I couldn’t make a proper deduction when I was prompted to do so. So I sighed and replayed it.
The final section seemed rushed. There was no time to gather information, no time to decide who you should or shouldn’t trust. What I like about the finale is that there are no 'good' or 'bad' endings: they all feel bittersweet, their 'goodness' depending on how you look at it.
The most frequent complaints I see in reviews are that the game tends to ‘remember’ your choices wrong and that it swaps male/female pronouns every now and then. I can’t recall any problems with pronouns in my playthrough, but there was a weird occurrence in the gallery where you can learn something about some characters, including the gamedec. I played as a man, but for some reason, the portrait showed a woman. As for the choices, my character once said that he killed a person when he actually didn’t, but that didn’t affect my endings. And one more: a certain person in my character’s head kept talking to me after I allegedly got rid of him. Those things are really confusing, so, yes, the game is not perfect, but it was perfectly enjoyable to me. I would most certainly play more like this.

THAT...
easily goes to my personal top of jaw-dropping endings.

I'm just so glad I didn't catch any spoilers before playing this game, so here's my first piece of advice: DON'T WATCH any video reviews before playing - they tend to spoil the great things. You know, when an NPC in a game has been talking to you for 10 minutes, explaining what's what, that's bad narrative design. But when no one has told you anything yet, but it STRIKES you, and in a moment you REALIZE EVERYTHING, that's great narrative design. And Prey (2017) does that. It has a common narrative theme with Bioshock 1, but what Bioshock, imo, fails to do, Prey does wonderfully. The Big Twist works much better when you know your character well enough and have a connection to them.

Prey has been on my radar for quite a while, but I didn't want to play it, scared away by the 'survival' tag. That's just not my kind of gameplay. I want to kick a$$e$ in games, not to tremble in a corner waiting for a monster to go away. Then I stumbled upon a video called something like 'Transhumanism in Prey (2017)'. I watched it (cautiously skipping possible spoilers), and it got me interested immediately, since 'what makes us human' and stuff like that is one of my favorite topics. OK, I thought. I'll suffer for the sake of... humanity.
Actually, all you need to know about gameplay is that, first and foremost, it's an immersive sim by Arkane. Disregard all the rest. I found out that the survival component works surprisingly well in an immersive sim. Knowing that your resources are limited, you'll explore more and find alternative (sometimes even creative) ways of dealing with enemies instead of just running'n'gunning. I also found out that surviving is not so stressful when no one forces you to do what you don't want to. Don't feel like fighting? No problem. Just sneak around. Don't want to look over your shoulder while searching that curious room? Go ahead and kill that pesky typhon roaming there. Not in the mood of running? They got you covered - pretend that you're a cup (I'm not kidding. You can do that.)
The further you progress, the more tools you get to have fun with. There are so many (weapons, abilities, 'grenades') that the encounters never get old or repetitive. While at the beginning I was afraid to engage in combat with anything bigger than a mimic, in the second half of the game I'd had my share of creative a$$-kicking. A fully upgaraded shotgun + the shield ability, and a Nightmare becomes a piece of cake (OK, of biomaterial). It's up to you to find the most fun combinations.
Though the storyline is relatively short, I got lost for 62 hours, and I'm pretty sure I still haven't seen everything. The exploration was so amazing - I discovered something new every time I revisited a location. I have yet to mention how gorgeous the location design is. Moreover, albeit the complexity of areas, those really look like places where people used to work - every single detail on the space station makes sense. There's also plenty of environmental storytelling.
Oh, and you can go OUTSIDE the station, to the outer space! I mean, how many games do you know that offer you the experience of floating in zero gravity, first person, watching the Earth and stars? I don't know any other. I was like, 'wow!' the first time I got there. There are things to do outside the station, too.

So here's my second piece of advice: DO the side quests! This is where the game really shines - through these quests and interactions with NPCs.

There were some frustrations, of course. For example, when I found out that I couldn't morph into smaller things that could have squeezed through one very tricky door. I'd had so much fun with the morph ability and was disappointed. (Later, I found out that the devs actually explained it: they had too many clipping issues with smaller things, so they had to limit this ability in such a way.) But mostly, such frustrations made me want to try harder and be more aware of my surroundings, instead of just rage quit. And there were bugs, not critical, but still unfortunate. Falling through textures a couple of times, an enemy seeing me through a wall, a Nightmare not going away after the timer has run out. There was that moment when I was pretty sure I grabbed a quest item from a safe, but the quest didn't update and the marker kept pointing me to the safe, which made me doubt my own sanity. Well, you know. Mind games.

So here's my final piece of advice: PLAY THIS GAME. If you like immersive sims, there's a very, very good chance you'll absolutely love Prey.

Now it's time to beat the mi-i-ind game
(that tune is so catchy)

I've never seen such a loooooong setup in a game in my entire life. It took almost an hour! When I finally got to play it, my problems had only just begun. My PC may not be new, but it runs AC Valhalla on medium settings just fine. Or is it a feature? Your PC showing signs of deviancy from a proper machine behavior... I don't know.
Anyway, it took a lot of tweaking before I managed to achieve an OK performance, but the game still kept stuttering every now and then, with image-sound desync issues and characters repeating the same lines. No crashes, though (I'm on AMD).

Fun fact: I've experienced no issues whatsoever with the demo, and I played the demo EXACTLY because I wanted to see if I'd have issues...

I had no doubts that I would love the story. It's one of my favorite topics - you can't go wrong with that. It has a message, memorable characters you can empathize with, and every single part of it is so finely crafted. What is especially praiseworthy is the sheer number of story branches. The game proudly shows it to you on flowcharts - you see all the branches, but you don't know what they are about until you unlock them by doing something specific in the game.
But... I also feel I have some ranting to do here. My experience with Kara was cut abruptly, not because I failed to do something, but because I chose to do what I thought was right in that situation, and it turned out bad. Don't get me wrong, I do like it when my choices have dire consequences, and I'm not the one trying to make everyone happy in choice-based games. I just don't like being robbed of big chunks of content because of my choices. I understand, though, that they wanted to encourage players to replay.
On the bright side of things, a failure in this game can turn out more interesting than a success, which is great. On the darker side of things, a failure can sometimes be REALLY frustrating. One example: when I led the assault on the camp as Markus, I just didn't get what I did wrong. I even watched it on youtube afterwards, and it seemed to me that the guy who played it on the video did the same things as I did, but he succeeded, while I failed. (To the bright side again: I liked my ending better - it was more dramatic.) Another example: failing because of QTEs. While playing D:BH, I realized how much I hate QTEs. IF ONLY I knew how bad it would be for me, I would have chosen Casual mode (didn't want to change it in the middle of the game). The problem is, there are just TOO MANY buttons/mouse swipes and they are so random. (And this is coming from a person who actually LIKES action-heavy games.) I mean, what's the use??? If you want to make it complex, try and build an actual gameplay. If you want to make an interactive movie, let me sit back and take in all those wonderfully directed and acted scenes. We, deviants, don't like fixed sequences and predetermined combinations.

With all that said, the game is totally worth playing more than once. (If you are lucky enough not to have major technical issues, that is.) If you are into Bladerunner kind of stories, it's your pick. I will certainly go for the second playthrough.
Right now.
(UPD: I launched it and I didn't believe it: setup process! NOT AGAIN...
Probably, has something to do with GPU drivers update a couple of days ago.)

This is absolutely OUTRAGEOUS.

I'm at a loss.

How come so few people know about this game? How come the sales were a complete failure? 'Cause, for me, it was one of those very few games that I couldn't get enough of (and I'm considering replaying it soon). So I feel like I owe it a review - it's the very least I can do. (Few people will probably ever read it, though...)

The first time I ever heard (read) about Binary Domain was in the context of 'this game is like Mass Effect'. That got my attention right away. Now that I've played it, I wouldn't say they are alike, but they do have some things in common: a futuristic setting, cover-based shooter mechanics, focus on the story, and, of course, squad members whose trust you gain as you go. (I've got a soft spot for squad members ;) )

Binary Domain is quite a standard third-person shooter, but at the same time, it's NOT. Shooting robots is really fun, and there are 32 different types of enemies, which is pretty dense for a relatively short game. And they look cool. In some encounters, you are forced to run around like crazy, and covers are not of much use. There are also different objectives to complete, so you don't just run and shoot all the time, and it never gets boring.

But what really makes this game stand out for me is the spirit of fun and adventure I rarely see in games. Not only you have fun as a player, but the characters do, too. I can only name a couple of games, really, where I've seen something like this. Thing is, in many games, either the task that the characters are to complete is too big and serious, or the overall atmosphere of the world is too gloomy, and having fun just doesn't fit. In Binary Domain, the task is important enough, but it's far from 'save the world' or anything. The characters don't even kill people - only robots, so there's no reason for them to be burdened by it. They are just doing their job - it's dangerous, but they're used to it. Why not have fun, then? I laughed at their jokes, smart comments and funny situations they found themselves in. Of course, they had NO idea what they were going to uncover...
This is where the story gets a bit creepy and controversial - in a good way, because it raises and explores controversial issues. And I really appreciate it - this is what I expect from a cyberpunk story.
On the one hand, I had my doubts about the underlying concept - perfect robotic imitations of human beings . And the technology is not explained in the story at all. (Well, I'm a sucker for explanations.) On the other hand, the story-telling itself is GREAT. It offers some unexpected twists, an amazing cast of characters with their motivations and roles in the story, action-packed scenes. Everything is so well-balanced and smartly structured.
I also loved the way the story fooled me more than once.:) There were moments I thought I'd lost a team member for good, and it got me worried. But I didn't. I had my own version about one major twist, and then, at some point, one of the characters voiced my version. I was like, 'Oh yeah, I'm probably right!' But I was wrong. The story made me doubt my other guesses, giving me reasons why it couldn't be, and then turning it all around by revealing something unexpected. All is unpredictable. Or another example: I figured that the trust system affected something in the story (and I had some guesses), but didn't figure out how exactly it would play out until it was too late.

The controls, though... can be a mess (a console legacy). More than once, I found myself in a situation where I had no clue which button I was supposed to press, and ended up trying my luck with everything the game ever used.

I seem to be on a streak of discovering gems (hidden or not so hidden) among games. If you like this kind of digging, too, then probably Binary Domain is exactly what you need.:)

Remember Me is the first game of Dontnod, and the second their game that I've got my hands on. I've played Vampyr before, and I loved it. Now I can say there's definitely something signature about these 2 games. It's like when the devs make a game, it's for the art of it, not for popularity or money. And I think Remember Me IS a game to remember.

What I REALLY liked:
- The visuals. The views of futuristic Paris are beautiful and cyberpunk-ish. I was walking around, abusing F12, and really enjoying myself. The areas are small, but very self-contained; although you can't talk to NPCs, they look like people (and androids!) going about their business rather than standing there as a decoration. I just wish there were more to explore in this world.
- The story. To be more specific, its emotional component (some scenes gave me goosebumps) and its message: our memory makes us who we are. Taking away painful memories is taking away a part of a person's self. There's more, but I'd rather not spoil it, I'll just say the ending was a very nice twist and absolutely not what I thought it would be.
- Some gameplay features, like remixing memories and customizing combos. They feel fresh and perfectly fit the concept of this game. I also enjoyed gameplay in general - whether you climb walls, solve puzzles, beat the hell out of enemies, or play with people's memories changing them at your whim - all is mixed so well you don't get tired of it.

What I liked:
You don't have to be an ace in fighting games to play this game well. You can win by being more strategic - smart use of abilities and smart making of combos. I don't have much experience in beat-them-up or fighting games, but Normal difficulty in Remember Me was totally fine for me.

What I didn't like:
- Some things are unintuitive. The game gives you tips and hints, but some things are left unexplained. For example, I once got stuck doing a wall-climbing puzzle, not because the puzzle was difficult, but because, as it turned out, I needed to hold two movement buttons to jump instead of just one, which was never required while jumping before that. Or, I couldn't figure out how to stop a big robot enemy from regenerating - the game prompted me to use the stun ability, so I thought that's how, but it didn't work. It turned out that stunning wasn't even necessary.
- Bugs (well, no one likes that). They were rare but annoying. The sound suddenly muting, buttons becoming unresponsive (relaunching the game helped). Once I even had to replay the whole fight, because after I killed all the enemies, the game somehow 'thought' it was not over yet and kept me locked in the room.

What I HATED:
The QTEs. Why would anyone even need those in a game like this? The thing is, to terminate a boss, you have to press a certain combination of buttons (different for every boss). If you make a mistake, you'll miss your chance, and the fight will go on. Boss fights are well-designed, but the problem for me was that during those fights, you follow a certain rhythm - and it's fun. Up until the QTE breaks this rhythm. So, instead of sitting back, relaxing and watching a cool animation after a challenging fight, you watch for icons and mash buttons anxiously. I ended up just looking up the right combination in the internet to spare my nerves.
But regardless...
Remember Me is an interesting and worthy experience I would recommend to those who like cyberpunk themes.

A bad, bad Deus Ex game, they say. Let's pretend it never happened, they say. Dumbed down, downgraded (insert_an_insult), they say.

Wait a minute...

Am I, actually... HAVING FUN with this game? Instead of cursing and moaning in frustration as I did with the first DE? Are all those things that annoyed the hell out of me in the first DE just... gone?

Did I say 'wow' while watching the opening cinematic..? Is the story, actually... INTRIGUING, with more things happening in the first 30 minutes of play than it was in the first 5 hours of DE1?

Did I instantly connect to the main character, Alex, as we were trying to figure out wtf was going on around (because neither of us had a clue)?

Am I having a hard time trying to sleep because of the big decision coming in the game..?

...I mean... Wow...

Different approaches to the same task? Let's see... It's there all right.

Invisible War definitely surprised me. Why or how the hell it is 'a bad game', or 'a bad Deus Ex game', I have no idea.

The only thing I can agree on with those who scold IW is optimization. From this point of view, the game is a little... messy. There ARE a lot of loading screens, which is not such a big problem if you are patient (I am). The problem in my case was that the only way to make it work at all was running it in windowed mode with the Visible Upgrade mod installed. Otherwise, all I got was a black screen right after choosing a character portrait. Then, I had to close manually a bulk of 'not responding' instances because the game opens a new window whenever you load a save or enter a new area. Even if you don't have problems launching it, I strongly recommend installing the Visible Upgrade mod - it allows you to play with modern screen resolutions. Besides, the game looks really good with hi-res textures the mod offers. As a bonus, you can tweak the looks of Alex and main NPCs (I loved those glowing eyes:) )

It seems that whenever I try to write something about Deus Ex, the only thing I can come up with is a love letter. And it's been only a couple of months since we met first. Now I've completed both newer games of the series, and it was such an amazing ride. It gave me one of my favorite characters ever. I love playing as characters with actual personalities and backstories, and Adam is just that. What's more, there's something about him that just resonates with me. He was broken - literally (back in DE: HR) - but remained unbreakable deep inside. Such a useful trait in a world that's gone to hell - to always rise again after the fall. What I would give the devs a special credit for is that they do not try to sell us a superhero fantasy, but instead, give us an unconventional hero. Adam is not fighting to save everyone and to make everything right. He is fighting in order not to let things get worse than they already are. In a way, the world tells him, 'No matter how cool and powerful you are, there are things that you cannot change'. But it does not - and must not - stop him (and us as players) from trying. It's so true-to-life, and it appeals to me very much.

There are some gameplay improvements in DE: MD as compared to the previous game. They made a proper tutorial, introduced new augmentations, crafting, and some other things. I was especially glad that lethal takedowns don't alert all the enemies in the area anymore. Those are still noisier than non-lethal takedowns, but to a reasonable extent, so you need to be careful and strategic. Some things became more logical. For example, now you can't just walk around and hack anything you like - if the police spot you, they will warn you against it; if you don't heed, they will open fire. If you do something unruly, like breaking a wall or pointing a gun at someone, the citizens will panic. However, you still can break into someone's apartment and help yourself with anything you find there - the owner won't mind. Just keep your weapon holstered, and you'll be fine. :)
As one would expect, exploration is a big part of DE: MD, too. In DE: HR, I found myself a couple of times in a situation of being 'punished' for exploration (it wasn't meant that way, just so it happened). I went exploring before starting a quest and stumbled upon an alternative path for that quest (and didn't know it was just that - an alternative path for the quest). Then I started the quest and took that path because I was already familiar with it - and then, when it was too late, realized there was a more interesting 'main path'. Such things never happened in DE: MD. Exploration always felt rewarding - the game knows exactly what to tell you and what to keep secret until you discover it yourself. One good example: during one of the quests, I had found a keycard from a certain storage. I was very intrigued because of what the quest revealed to me, but had no idea where that storage was. Later on, when looking for something else entirely, I got in the wrong direction, got carried away a bit - aaand stumbled upon that very storage. I was like, 'Wow!' Funny thing is, it was very well hidden - you don't just stumble upon things like that. But I did. Another example: I was exploring a hostile territory, saw a man in one of the rooms, killed him without bothering to take a closer look first, and then realized I'd just killed the notorious mafia boss.

It might seem that there is not much content in this game, but don't be fooled by the quantity of missions or quests. It's just that the game rewards you for being thorough and paying attention. If you do, you'll get the most of it, and it will really keep you busy. Sure, you can do most of the things fast, but that would be far less enjoyable. For example, there's a quest about a man who brainwashes people, and you need to deal with him. You can just break into his hideout and kill the man. Or, you can investigate, learn the whole story behind it, expose the man, and the result will be much more interesting and rewarding.

There are also some technical things I would like to mention (nothing game-breaking, though). The game kept 'overclocking' my PC and knocking out my network. Never had such problems before. Of course, my PC is not top-notch now, but hey, in 2016, it was. The performance itself was fine, apart from rare FPS drops in crowded areas, but loading saves took forever. Probably, it's an optimization issue.

Now, to what matters most for a story person like myself. In DE: MD, there are 3 narrative components that work together perfectly and contribute one to the other: the main story, side quests, and the overall atmosphere.
Just like in DE: HR, the story is 'augmented' with all sorts of extra info you can find in emails or pocket secretaries. The info that gives you clues to contemplate on and to get paranoid about (I just can't get over how much I love that :) ). Although I knew that in time, all I needed to know would be revealed in the story, I felt the urge to figure it out by myself, re-reading emails, remembering conversations and scanning them for more hints. If it's not complete immersiveness, then I don't know what is. The atmosphere of a world gone wrong adds to that immersiveness even further. Watching that hatred, fear and discrimination through the eyes of the one who found himself on the 'bad' side of things, gave me plenty of opportunity to empathize, and I'm always eager to do that. As for side quests, they are very well-designed and are not just separate stories - they intertwine with each other and with the main story. You meet someone you've already met while doing another quest, or learn information, or get insights related to other quests, or a piece of the story. Everything is a part of the big picture.
It's not that all is perfect and shiny story-wise, and I could offer some criticism, but those are just small things. And besides, you know, love is forgiving. :)
By the way, don't ignore the DLCs - System Rift and A Criminal Past are awesome!

Dear Square Enix. I promise I will be a good girl. I will pay the full price. I will pre-order (which I've never done before). JUST PLEEEEEEASE, give me the sequel, will you?..

With Deus Ex: HR, I have gone through the whole cycle of evolution from 'How on earth am I supposed to play it???' to 'OH I LOVE THIS GAME SO MUCH!!!' I'll try to explain such a drastic change of heart (no pun intended).

Gameplay-wise, there are lots of things that are not obvious at all, and I'm not talking about different approaches to the same task (those are really well-done). I'm talking about the basics of gameplay - the controls, what you can or can't do in the game. There are tutorials, sure, but they are easy to skip by accident, so you will never know what you've missed. At least, that was the case with me. I've been regularly playing games for 10 years now, and at the beginning of DE: HR, I sometimes felt I didn't know a damn thing about games. For example, I've had a hard time figuring out the shooting, and how to do it right, although I've previously played both FPS and TPS games. However, once I learned the ropes, this obstacle had been overcome. Then again, there were things that seemed weird to me. I was astonished to find out I can't really be a stealthy killer - killing someone makes all the enemies hostile right away. If you use lethal takedown after carefully approaching an enemy in stealth, all the nearby enemies will immediately know about it, but if you just knock your target off (non-lethal takedown), they WILL NOT. Do they hear their buddy stop breathing, or something? At the same time, if you open the door right before an enemy's nose, they don't give a damn as long as you stay out of their line of sight. If you fall behind an enemy's back - so hard that you even take damage - they don't give a damn, though it should be noisy as hell. Or, you can hack the lock, break into someone's apartment, and take anything you like, while the owner is sitting there and doesn't seem to mind you at all (this was even hilarious :) ) Or, if you visit some location before you take the quest related to it, and kill everyone there, then after taking the quest and going there again, you will be credited for being unnoticed. Well, no one saw me, sure... since there was no one left to see me. And at the top of my 'weird' list is this (most likely, a bug, but it doesn't make it any less weird): I somehow got the 'wrong' monologue at the end, with Adam saying how he kept morality in mind, avoided to hurt others, etc. After all the dead bodies he and I had left behind...
Nevertheless, those things soon stopped bothering me, and I found myself having fun with gameplay, trying to leave no stone unturned and no terminal unhacked.

Now, the story... Oh my deus, this is where the game truly shines. The ultimate goal of any story is to make you care. And I didn't even expect I would care so much, since the topics touched upon in DE: HR have never been on my radar of interests. But DE: HR just happened to have everything I love about stories:
- Personal story - check;
- Ethical/philosophical implications to ponder on - check;
- Memorable characters - check;
- A bulk of details to notice and analyze - check;
- Deep, well-written, well-acted, well-structured - check.
So, it really got into my head (and into my heart, along the way), and I gave it a lot of thinking.

The main 'feature' of the story that I found really exciting, is that it gives you clues to... no, not to predict, but to FORSEE what's coming ahead if you care to think on it (if you don't, you'll still understand everything, so no worries). On the one hand, little can surprise you, which might seem a bad thing, but on the other, it gives you that magical 'OH YEAH, I KNEW IT!' feeling, which is totally worth it.
Ah yes, I just LOVED the way I was getting paranoid when trying to think on just about anything in the story (and I'm not, normally). It was intentional, I guess. Congratulations, dear DE: HR writers, you did a great job! :)
As for the clues I found, quite a lot of my assumptions were right, some of them were wrong (and of some of those I thought 'no, it can't be true, this is too paranoid'), but regardless, making them was so much fun.

I bought this game on sale with a big discount, thinking 'Looks nice. I'll give it a try', and I ended up haunted by it at nights and craving for more.
I never asked for this...

Halfway through the game, I was thinking about giving it a positive review. After a somewhat bumpy start (forcing the player to fight the first boss all alone, when you had barely had time to master the basics of combat, was a weird decision), I arrived to New Serene, where GreedFall actually started to be promising. The world is beautiful and well-crafted - the designers really did a good job. There is plenty to do, and the quests are entertaining. The companions... You don't immediately fall in love with them, but they are still nice, and it feels good to have them by your side. I tried to avoid combat, though, as much as possible, because I'm a diplomat, you know, why on earth should I fight at all? (the true reason, probably, being that combat just wasn't engaging) I specialized on firearms (and alchemy) because it looks so cool (yeah, and because it kills fast, which allows you to be done with combat real quick). All in all, I was enjoying the whole thing (and I really liked my Spanish-looking De Sardet - by the way, it was the first time when, given a choice, I decided to play a male character).
And here comes a huge, oversized BUT. At a certain point I just couldn't ignore it anymore. All the games I have played recently were very well-written, and with GreedFall, the contrast was too obvious. Although the voice actors were doing their best to make it work, the dialogues are just forgettable. They give you information, sure, but dialogues should be more than that. In other games, I often reload saves just to listen to a conversation or watch a cutscene again. I never did in GreedFall. All right, I could live with simple dialogue if the overall story was good enough. But it wasn't. It lacked both structure and coherence - less like a story, more like a set of events. Repetitive events, bringing a lingering sense of dejavu. From time to time, it makes an attempt at a personal, emotional story, but just fails to deliver on that. Believe me, I tried to care... but couldn't care less. (With a good story, you don't have to try - it comes naturally, doesn't it?)
At some point, there was a big moment in the story, and it felt like the grand finale was drawing near. Then I return to the palace, expecting some revelation or something big to happen, I meet the emissaries of 2 factions, and... Wait, what? I find myself where I began - go solve our problem, kill the beasts, and so on and so forth. More like a diplomat simulator, than a story-driven RPG? Let's see. It's not so hard, really, to earn 'Friendly' status with other factions, you don't really find yourself in delicate situations where you have to take sides, and trying to please someone will result in upsetting someone else. I began to doubt that the reputation even mattered, when the Coin Guard commander gladly gave me the troops I requested, regardless of 'Suspicious' status with this faction. I was also surprised when an encounter with Constantin spoiled my relationships with my own faction. Isn't he a traitor, and I am the one trying to save the day? Not to mention that the Congregation wouldn't know about it unless I tell them.
And the killing blow, just to make my frustration towards the story complete: the romance. I wanted to romance Aphra, had a conversation with her after completing her quests, and she seemed to like the answers. Then... nothing happened (I approached her from time to time, but no new conversations ever appeared). Having already finished the game, I started to wonder. I looked it up in the guides, found a relevant save and experimented with it. It turned out that after that 'love talk' I should have immediately gone to my residence, otherwise the romantic scene would never happen. What, I can't even romance anyone without a guide?
To top all that, the endgame was particularly boring. All the same enemies, all the same bosses all over again, all the same tactics (in my case: Throw bomb to remove armor -> Repeat until there's no more armor -> Shoot, shoot, shoot). Closer to level 30, there is nowhere to progress anymore: you have already unlocked the whole skill branch of your specialization, and starting to unlock the second one just makes no sense.
So, I decided that my honest-to-god review should be negative. I can't recommend this game, because if you are an RPG fan, you have already played games that are oh so much better. If you are not, it's not a good choice, either.
Probably, Spiders should go and seek their own identity instead of trying to imitate old Bioware. After playing two of their games, I think I'm done with it.

The first time you use the Darkness, it scares you.
But once you've tasted it... you can't stop.
It's all you think about.

If I was asked to describe The Darkness II in just one word, that would be 'stylish'. Every single thing adds to this description - the visuals (just look at the art on the cover), the gameplay, the way the story unfolds, the atmosphere. Staying very true to its name, this game just doesn't let me go. I can't actually recall any other game that left me wanting more so bad. So what's the trick? It's short, yes (not so terribly short, though, if you take your time to look around, speak to whomever is available for that, and study the relics, like I did). But it's not only that. It is well-known that time passes by really fast when you are having fun. And this game is pure fun. Well, if you have no problem with playing as a mo[b/n]ster tearing his enemies apart, ripping their hearts out, and doing many other gruesome things. Me? I found it so very exciting that I just didn't want it to come to an end. I wanted Jackie to get into even more trouble, so that I could continue having my fun (sorry, Jackie). The game indulged me in that - everytime I thought it was about to end, it turned out there was a little more in store. I can tell there's a decent amount of suspense in the story, and it kept me excited while I wasn't playing, and anxious. I had a bad feeling about all this, and I love this kind of bad feelings. The story really made me care, which, after all, is what matters in any story.
One of the coolest things was the way the first-person perspective played out in the story. When Jackie is being tortured, and you are watching it through his eyes - it's quite an experience! Or, there was a moment in the theme park, when I was busy with combat and finding my way forward, and then suddenly realized 'there's something wrong with my hands...' That wouldn't be the same in the third-person perspective. However, there was one thing that sort of spoiled the immersion for me. If you pay attention, you can guess about one major twist way before it happens in the story. I did, but Jackie had no clue, which felt weird, because he and I have seen and heard absolutely the same things.
Certainly, it's not a game for everyone, but it's sure as hell my kind of game. If you are tired of the Chosen One Heroes Saving the World for the Greater Good, this game might be great to try for a change. So... Absolutely, totally, definitely recommended.