Recent reviews by Franz

While this remake is an immense improvement over the original game, I still found it somewhat lacking. There's just this persistent aura of cheapness smeared all around it, which is especially noticeable, since the rest of the series (and yes, that includes 3) were mostly spared of that, and 2 was considered a top-of-the-line game at the time of its release). If I didn't know Hangar 13 is a US-based studio, I'd even consider this game a fine example of 'eurojank'.

Still, despite its numerous flaws, the game is good. Not as good as it could have been, mind you: a lot of nice and memorable things from the original got lost in translation, like a more advanced car physics model or a more complex wanted system, but it's still fun to play and the story, while remaining naive and simplistic, got a great rewrite. I'd probably prefer if even more of the original plot got changed, yet, considering what the guys at Hangar 13 had to work with, it's an immense improvement.

Do I recommend this game? Probably, if you're willing to ignore a whole truckload of obvious issues, from unnecessary streamlining to some areas clearly being undercooked. Do I recommend it over the original? Sure as hell I do because that game aged like milk on a hot summer day.

This is a game about a medieval civilization of quazi-pre-Islamic middle-eastern tribes who have based their entire society on salvaging malfunctioning automatons built as a part of an ancient interdimensional AI mainframe's attempt to repel an invasion of polymorphous non-humanoid aliens from another universe.
If this premise alone hasn't sold you on Hammerfight already, I don't know what will.

The best Sonic game in decades. Not even kidding.

You can kill Russians in this game, 10/10

The real sequel to Quake 2.

The real sequel to Doom 2.

The most RP of all the Gs I've ever played.

I know that my opinion is kind of controversial, but this game is not as good as it is believed to be. Not even remotely.
It's not bad per se, mind you: just way too overrated. And, well, it is not that different from almost any other 'artsy-fartsy' indie platformer' you can think of: simplistic stylized graphics, primitive and not really engaging gameplay, obscure (or just rudimentary) plot, and occasional tear-jerking moments that simply feel cheap and unimaginative.
Yeah, I get it, this game is almost 10 years old. But it should have aged way better if it is as good as it's said to be.
The only thing that somewhat makes this game interesting is the coop gimmick, that relies entirely on the fact that another player is not some kind of аsshоlе who would abandon you in the middle of the level. Yeah, it sort of works. Half of the time. And even when it does, this hardly elevates the game beyond just another pretentious indie game with a semi-interesting gimmick.
There have been quite a few artistic casual games over the last decade that have done so much more with so much less.

Imagine Andrzej Zulawski and Jan Svankmajer on acid, who try to adapt the Strugatsky brothers' Roadside Picnic, while using Zdzislaw Beksinski's paintings as references. That is Darkwood.

Short, but sweet mod that just oozes with love that was put into making it. The overall level of polish here is unusual for a modification and may rival many actual standalone games. It may be short, but it also has no filler content: every minute something interesting and new happens.
Clever use of light, stylish environments, good soundscape, interesting new mechanics... one of the best Half-Life 2 mods I've ever played.
The only thing I disliked about it is that the final arena becomes borderline dull if you try to complete the strider achievement. Only when I replayed it a little later, I realized how expansive and diverse it was.