Recent reviews by Dapper Raptor

Picked this up after seeing about 5 minutes of a let's play because it looked like fun. This is an amazing basis for a great game and as long as the developer continues to add more content and such, it will be an amazing game.

So this is just a minecraft clone right?
Wrong. It has a lot of similarities to minecraft, but it also has a lot of similarities to dwarf fortress. Whilst you build structures with blocky resources you collect int he world, the reason you do this is to set up a working colony. You build a farm and recruit a farmer. They, in turn, product food for your baker to make into better food. But, as soon as you start recruiting your colonists, zombies will start to attack at night, so you have to recruit guards. This in turn, not only increases the amount of zombies, but also the amount of food you need to remain healthy as a colony... and so it goes!

Currently, the games weakness is that after a few hours you run out of things to do, as once you have a reliable food farming system down, the zombies, even when you get a lot of colonists, don't offer a good challenge. This is fine - as the game IS in early access. As long as the developer is able to build upon the foundation they have laid here this will be an amazing game.

Long story short - if you like Minecraft, Dwarf Fortress, Rise to Ruins, etc. and you actually understand what early access is, give this a go!

Prey [2017] is probably one of the best games I've ever played. Only a test of time will tell if that statement is hyperbole, but at this point, I am 100% behind it.

I honestly don't want to go into too much here, as I think it's one of those games that the more you read, the less you will enjoy your experience... but Arkane have really outdone themselves here.

Narrative: Whilst some points of the story can feel a little understated, I think as an overall package, the entire plot comes together nicely. Yes it's a plot about fighting aliens on a spacestation, and it includes all the standard tropes you would expect to see there, but it also is a plot about a character who finds themselves unaware of who they are, and how they grow as a person during adversity. I think that this second facet of the story is really the more powerful narrative in play here, and definitely comes across as the intended focal point to me. Morgan's decisions throughout the game, whilst they may not drastically change the gameplay in most cases, carry weight with them that is seen through to the end, and things that we usually take for granted in games, such as motivation and consequences, have real weight, even if sometimes not realised at the time.

Graphically: You're either going to like or not like the artstyle. You can pretty much tell from one or two screenshots where you sit here. It's similar to Dishonored and Bioshock, whilst also feeling reminiscent of the Alien franchise. It all runs very nicely and smoothly, something that I was quite surprised about given it's running in CryEngine.

Audio: The music varies from amazing to mildly forgettable, but always feels right. The sound effects on the other hand are awesome, and really add to the overwhelming fearful atmosphere present in the game. The Typhon are a strong overbearing enemy that, even when you are at your most powerful, can easily kill you if you get careless, and the sound design, from the creaks of the station, to the Typhon themselves, to the audio cues that trigger fake jumpscares, or legitimate ones, really add to that constant balance between making you feel capable and disempowering the player.

And gameplay: Honestly - I don't even know what to say here. The game feels absolutely amazing. From the incredibly well designed spaces that hide so many secrets and diverging paths, to the satisfying combat, to the compelling push to keep exploring, everything meshes really well.

I honestly think this is a game to remember, and it takes so many cues from great games like Half-Life, Dishonored, System Shock, Deus Ex and Alien: Isolation. If you think you are interested, you are probably going to love it.

Well, this game looked really interesting, and has some nice ideas, but I can't recommend it to anyone who likes the first person puzzle genre.

The narrator is annoying, inconsistent in tone and direction, and honestly comes off as a half-baked attempt to add character to an otherwise lifeless game.

Puzzles are inconsistent in logic, even within the first 30 minutes of playtime.

Movement is very slow and boring.

And there's no narrative hook that has me engaged. This will be the first game I've ever refunded through steams system =/

Got this game in a mystery bundle, and never played it for a good year or two. Then decided to give it a go one day and have been hooked since. Pretty much feels like Terraria mixed with Rogue Legacy, and that's a mix I'm hugely fond of!

This game is sick! Doing early access right by making a super playable and fun game with only a few levels. Looking forward to seeing more content as it goes along!

A brilliant game that is both throwback to the old school shooters that founded the modern gaming landscape (Quake, Doom, etc.) and a breath of fresh air. It's hard, incredibly fast paced, skill based and a bloody good time.

When No Man's Sky came out, I was one of the few who really enjoyed it. That said, I wrote a negative review because, despite having a blast for about 80 or so hours, it was clear that the promised game was no where to be found, and the developer had gone silent and were MIA.

While I don't think the way that was handled by Hello Games was great - they could have communicated more (hell even SOME) during their silence... what I can say is that the game No Man's Sky has become is honestly better than I had ever expected them to reach. They have added many of the features that were not present at launch, as well as a swathe of additional content. 4 years later, they are still adding entirely new systems to the game, and have not charged for any of it (beyond the base game). I can honestly recommend this as a great game that is worth your time and money.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided is a great game. It has a well written story (for the most part - more on that in a minute), a very satisfying minute-to-minute gameplay loop, and incredibly well designed interesting and versatile levels.

It has a lot references to the prior games (including referencing characters, origins, and groups from the very first Deus Ex) but could easily be enjoyed as a standalone game.

If you enjoyed any of the other Deus Ex games, you will enjoy this game.

There's only two flaws in the game IMO. Firstly - it runs pretty awfully. It's clear it was made for consoles first, then ported to PC. The gameplay systems don't suffer, but the performance does. They have already improved it a LOT with two patches, but a lot more love is needed.

The second flaw is the ending of the game. I won't discuss specific spoilers...

The game's narrative ends in a very unsatisfying abrupt manner. Part of this is the game being a victim of it's own systems - you are faced with a choice. The choice is meant to be impactful and intense, but if you have played the game like most Deus Ex fans do - exploring everywhere, doing everything, etc., you will be likely able to do both options in the choice, even though the game suggests you cannot. This removes the stakes for the final conflict and means it feels very underwhelming. Up until this point, the narrative thread had been fine. It's just the final moments that let it down.

Overall, this is the second best game in the franchise (the best still being the original Deus Ex) and is a great game in it's own right.

Free. Interesting. And fun. You could ask for more I guess, but it'd be a bit foolish.

Red Trigger plays similar to games like Portal and Deadcore, without ever feeling as boring as the other clones out there. Part of this is it's short length, and part is clever level design. There will be times where you ahve to stop and think a little, but no puzzle is too challenging to leave you scratching your head for long, and you'll always have a "oh... god I'm dumb" moment when you realise the solution.

The game is great... All the new additions are welcome, and it feels like a logical evolution of the series. However, there's a HUGE portion of the player base who haven't even been able to run the game since a patch about 2 months ago, including myself. Devs have said nothing and appear to be making no effort to fix it. Avoid this game until this changes.