Recent reviews by Happymartin

The translation is hilariously awful, and barely any tutorials. I took some quests in a very "MDickie" fashion, then got lost on the map, and died in a storm.

69/10 Mother Russia's Finest Eurojank

It's not a bad game, but my thumbs down is really only because I found the plot very plain. I was really expecting some kinda twist or some major consequence to show up, but nah it's just kinda resolved and that's about it. The Poker's fine but not as engaging as say Tower Unite or Poker Night.

Customizing the boat is nice, and the Ska was ok until I had to turn it off. Overall good game to play if you think a cursing Capybara is cute, but honestly I'd argue it's not worth $10.

Normally I take time to write up a good review blog when I feel like writing one of these. This time I will not.

Tell me friend, if you aren't a zoomer, do you remember that period in the 2000s when Disney churned out those direct to dvd sequels? The ones that felt like going through the motions of the original except it's with either a sidekick or child of the main character? (Shut up I know Dishonored 2 is that too).

Well this feels like that but with Knife of Dunwall. BUT unlike Knife of Dunwall, and to that extent, Dishonored 2, where both were fun to play because the former was more Dishonored but with some different toys and stakes and an interesting angle to the first Dishonored; and Dishonored 2 that was Dishonored's Big Fat Greek wedding but ultimately a retread of the first game, Death of the Outsider is Knife if Dunwall if the dev's said "How about we just don't give as much of a ♥♥♥♥ as we did Knife of Dunwall, take away the Chaos System (the main point of Dishonored), and not only further unveil the mysteries of the Void, but outright just get rid of The Outsider; the interesting neutral god-figure that marks the game's world.

I'll start with the first issue; Billie Lurk just isn't an interesting or captivating character like Daud is. Daud had Madsen's gravely voice that entranced you, as should be for the Leader of a gang of supernatural assassin's. Or Corvo and Emily. Billie is just, not very interesting. Prolly because her whole deal was taken care of in Dishonored 2.

Second issue; No returning powers or rune hunting, it's just bonecharms and apparently you don't get to craft them until the third mission, where there's two more after until the game's over which blows because I love charm crafting.

The gameplay tho is just, Dishonored 2 except without chaos, there's no reason to give a ♥♥♥♥ about holding back and murdering everyone; as nothing serious happens as a result. Maybe sparing one named character in a mission will result in them commiting suicide in the next as a bit of reactivity, but it doesn't matter at all. I can just make Billie a psycho murder and slash up Karnaca without any shame or tutting.

I know there are people who whine about Chaos in the first two games and I say, yes Chaos is a good mechanic for this series because the whole point of being an Assassin is eliminating ONLY YOUR TARGET, and maybe some beat cops, but not the entire force and the wage slaves just mingling on the streets. The whole idea was that it's very easy to slip up and find killing so cathartic that you just end up on a killing spree and before you know it, there's no law, the rats are eating the corpses you left behind and everyone looks at you like someone who pulls legs off beetles for fun.

But in Death of the Outsider the only real choice is the ending choice which is pretty basic and I'm sure if you've played Dishonored you can gleam that the DEATH part in the game's title is subject to change.

Anyway I gave up during the second mission because I kept getting lost and finally threw my hands up, turned on objective markers and found it right next to me, opposite room of me in what is technically another part of town in what was already a sprawling map. This was after a good 3 hours getting lost while also trying to find the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SHOP. They made it easy in Dishonored 2, I never had trouble finding them. Here I had to go well out of my way and look up online where to find the place.

Day 1 PREDATORY premium currency shops, day 1 pay for battle pass, and a dull uninspired clone of DBD leads to Project: Playtime. a Poppy Playtime Multiplayer spinoff that's poorly optimized, and exists soley to sucker money out of snotty children who scream at their parents because it's from good old MOB. The people who decided "screw building up a empire like FNAF, let's just get to the merchandising part!".

I won't be surprised if this game ends up with a double digit playerbase a week from now.

I have come to a simple conclusion after playing earlier in the year, checking on it during the summer, and seeing reviews here near the end of the year.

The devs do not care beyond serving their Chinese audience, and making DLC. NOW MIND YOU, I don't mind them serving their Chinese audience; I was there from EA and the game would have essentially died without it. But their outright refusal to even ATTEMPT to try to maintain their English speaking audience has shown, with very little English speaking lobbies to play in.

What are there is typically full of toxic people who; probably because they're already toxic, or tired of the constant influx of Chinese players, will spout all sorts of slurs at anyone with a Internet Cafe ID.

The updates that focus more on fancy new powers or just selling DLC packs for $13, doesn't bode well either.

If you want to play any kind of active Among Us type game. this isn't it; at least not anymore.

EDIT: I forgot to mention. going by the Steam Charts, this game is sadly bleeding players.

NOVEMBER 2023 UPDATE: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Why am I not shocked. So instead of fixing ANYTHING in the year since I rewrote this review, they just took whatever money they could get, and told us all to piss off. I was there from watching Tomato and friends play this and have a blast, I was there around 1.0 when there was hope.

But it should have been clear early on that the devs just didn't even attempt to fix any issue swith server setup beyond "just shove people together even if it means waiting for someone to speak english. And supposedly the gameplay is even MORE toxic now with people enforcing "house rules" and making it more difficult and less fun to be traitor.

WHAT a disgrace. I'm sorry I ever gave these people any of any of my money and expected them to deliver upon ANYTHING beyond just the surface fantasy of "Among Us: Franklin Edition".

Well I can't refund the game because I was one hour over, so I'll do the next best thing and make it clear why this game isn't worth your money.

It's like they took West of Loathing and everything that made it unique, and just went back like three steps. The companions aren't as useful, combat is even more messy with item management hell, and while the IDEA of a focused main quest sounds nice, it still comes off as a confusing mess I'm barely following.

Starting off with Combat, it blows chunks. The combat in West was already flawed in how many useless combat items they tossed at you and expected you to use, here in Shadow it's like a warehouse full of useless junk YOU WILL NEVER TOUCH EVER.

Worse off there's no more Stomach, Liver, or Spleen, so you can't enjoy stacking food and potion bonuses to pass the harder challenges and deal with the tougher fights. You just have to hope for the best and lean in on your class's main stat. Also item crafting just feels tacked on compared to the first time where there were some really useful things to make. Here it's just making stuff like bombs that do 10 damage to all enemies, which sounds good, until they have like 30-50 health and you either use more, or just pray you can kill them in a few rounds before they overpower you.

The writing also takes a downturn, and instead of a bunch of fun gags, it's alot of info dumps that either lead to punchlines that aren't funny, or just plain word dumps that take up your time. It's made worse by quests that involve alot of back and forth between areas, to a point where I just ignored the dialoge to get the quest over with. THE KEY ELEMENT TO A COMEDY GAME, AND I'M IGNORING IT BECAUSE IT'S DRAGGING IT'S HEELS.

Despite the idea of a focused main quest, I don't feel focus at all. The game just kinda throws things your way and you're expected to kinda get the idea. I'm kinda just in a car getting car sickness praying we stop somewhere to get fresh air soon. Instead we just keep going to zones that have visual character, but no meat on the bones.

The City, The Lake, Porkham, etc, they don't have alot of deep character beyond what you're there for and whatever else they could think to put in those areas. If we're making jokes with Lovecraft, just keep Porkham and expand on it, REALLY lean into the Lovecraft influence.

But the thing that got me to just say, I quit? Throw my hands up in frustration and just say that's it I'm writing this scathing review?

THEY BROUGHT BACK THAT HORRIBLE PUZZLE FROM GHOSTWOOD IN WEST. Where you go BACK AND FORTH, BACK AND FORTH, BACK AND FORTH, for a big long "haha red tape am I right?" gag.

This is after already doing that Cursed Sickle items that just drags on and on and on.

I was overjoyed when I heard there was a sequel after playing West of Loathing, and after watching Tomato and Markiplier play that, I was estatic to get my hands on this. Now I wish I didn't, I could have bought some quality food with this, or anything else.

If the developers are reading this. I'm sorry to be so scathing, but I was really expecting more of what I liked from West but in Lovecraft form. Why you did things like remove Stomach/Spleen/Liver mechanics I can't fathom, that was the best and only way to actually play West of Loathing; from boosting your stats so hard you can kick Cthulhu in his 15 testes. Instead it's one food item and one potion, nothing else.

Written by Happymartin
SPOILER FREE


Sherlock's Childhood. A rarely touched on subject matter as most would prefer to think of Sherlock as a Victorian Batman; a perfect detective and badass that's better then everyone and has practically zero flaws outside of the occasional drug habit or being eccentric. Why is Sherlock who he is? What makes him so much of a investigative genius while doing insane things like shooting up his suite or nearly dying of self posioning?

Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One (kinda dumb title if I'm being honest but hey I just write reviews not suggest titles) is a story about a 20 year old Sherlock Holmes and his Best friend Jon (no not Watson sadly) as they journey back to his childhood home on the Mediterranean island of Cordona; a rich vibrant mix of English Colonialism and resorts with and Italian heart but with a firm Ottoman (Turkish) soul. His purpose, to come to terms over the death of his Mother, Violet Holmes...and maybe even figure out some truths along the way about himself, and his childhood memories he's forgotten about for some reason.

Is this game truly worth your money? Or will it fall over the falls like old Moriarty? Read on, for the game is Afoot!

Gameplay

So let's get this out the way, yes the gameplay on surface level is pretty much The Sinking City, but more colorful, Victorian, and there's no monsters contend with (or at least only of the human variety). Gameplay consists of two main avenues, Investigation, and Combat (more on that soon). Generally speaking as you walk around Cordona or follow the main game's plot, you'll receive cases big and small to solve. The side quest ones are simply following bread crumbs and clues while the Main plot ones make sure of the familiar "Mind Palace" from the other recent Frogware titles. Some involves mini games, a good one being Chemical Examination which takes the form of a nice little numbers puzzle where you have to make the numbers match what you're trying to analyze, or crap like the Eavesdropping one that is essentially trial and error until you get it wrong. Getting it wrong just kinda upsets Jon.

Oh yeah; Jon has a diary and he writes observations and opinions of your adventures, successes and failures. From start to finish I'm not sure that it had any real impact on the plot at all, but it sure almost felt like it, which I found pretty annoying when he get's upset because I can't figure out the listening puzzles immediately.

Another issue is at rare times and more closer near the end I did check online guides because sometimes following a trail wasn't apparent and I didn't know I'd pick it up later on (I had a moment where I thought a side quest bugged) or I had some idea correct, but I wasn't really doing as the game wanted so I had to check online to be sure I did so I could just move on with the plot. Also whole Cordona is a beautiful place to explore at first, it get's tedious later on where you're just running between Rickshaws to just get around to the important places. Compared to Sinking City there were at least interesting stops along the way to find crafting materials, stories, encounters, etc. Also Sinking City actually had Street Signs so you didn't have to keep checking the map unlike here in Cordona.

Finally, since I do not want to spoil any major plot at all for any quests, I'll simply say that some of them are kinda open ended in terms of who "did it", I'm not sure how much of a blessing it is or a curse since it means unless Jon makes a comment on it after, you're just sorta looking at everything and make a "best guess" on who you think did the deed, while still having a "morality" system which I think feels redundant here (I get that someone tried to hurt your life, but you murdered in response so I don't think letting you get away with it is the right idea); which is more confounded by that fact that Jon wants you to be more forgiving then late 18th Century society. I should make the moral choice based on what I think is right, not Sherlock's BFF.

Combat

Oh sweet christ it sucks bad. It's like ever since Sinking City Frogwares has gone "hey guys, let's try again to spice up our adventure games with tacked on combat!" and in the end we get weird wonky ♥♥♥♥ that never feels good to use or is annoying to deal with. I think the only time it was done well was Sinking City itself.

But getting back on point, yeah it sucks eggs. Sherlock has a weird Steampunk Semi-Auto....thing that I have no idea what it's based off on, but on occasion he might find himself in a arena room kinda place and have to deal with criminals. It's strange how even though the game leans hard on "please don't kill them", it never feels like a real punishment (other then less money, but that only really counts towards buying stuff for Manor and that's about it.). You could just blast them, but Jon will whine about it if you do. You have to precision aim things to get them off balance like shooting a lamp or a hat off, and then run up to them and do a QTE that's easy to muck up on the first few tries, to THEN arrest them. The problem with aiming is when you do, it automatically goes into a sort of "legally distinct deadeye mode", and for some parts like shooting off armor before knocking 'em down, you have to aim for a face plate. But it's REALLY easy to just be slightly off, kill them with a headshot and have Jon whine at you AGAIN, forcing you to do two things.

Reload and do it all over again, or just do what I did, give up, turn it to easy mode where you can just Skip combat sequences, and just play a Mystery game instead.

At worse I Say the only reason combat is in this is because walking around Cordona is boring as heck, and they wanted to spice up all the walking or side quests with something exciting, as if simply writing a good story was not enough.

Story

As mentioned in title, I won't do spoilers at all. I will say that the mystery writing that Frogwares does, is still great! Outside the mini side quests (Cordona Stories), the Main and Side cases were a blast to follow on the strange and interesting plots of this seemingly lush island. Dark secrets, sad regrets, tragedy, and bizarre dwell in almost all of them. Although the main plot on it's own is VERY powerful as this really does feel like Sherlock's personal origin story about how he really became the man that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote all those years ago.

As said a few times, Jon is Sherlock's best and only friend, and our replacement Watson for this adventure, and outside my complaints about his complaints gameplaywise, character wise I love him! He's Sherlock's inner child keeping their old memories and fantasies alive in his heart while Sherlock forms into the calculating human can opener we know.

It's really hard to write further without spoilers but if you must get this game, do it for the writing of the cases as I promise you, it's like a roller coaster but being blind, as you'll have no idea what comes next, and when things do finally come together, You'll probably end up as shocked as I was, but also accepting of it.

Overall while Psychonauts 2 was still good in making me cry, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was probably the best twist this year has provided for me.

Conclusion

While there's not much to say on the gameplay or graphics, in the end that doesn't really matter here to me. This is Frogwares's Sherlock, they're AA and proud of it because whatever they can't do in those first two, they typically make up for in strong and interesting writing for mysteries. And this is why their Sherlock Franchise still holds strong even in the 2020s.

Written by Happymartin

Once upon a time dear children, a then small game developer named Turtle Rock developed a mod for Counter-Strike called "Terror Strike". The concept was simple, co-op survival against bots with knives that acted like "zombies". With Valve's assistance, this mod culminated in 2008 with the release of Left 4 Dead. It was a smash hit! Earning alot of praise and becoming a very influential game for future generations. Once Turtle Rock left to work on Evolve, Valve on it's own released Left 4 Dead 2 a year later in 2009. Then...silence. As Evolve flopped and Valve shut in to quietly work on software and make money off Steam over the course of 10 years, it seemed to be the end of Left 4 Dead; though popular games inspired by the title came out like Warhammer's Vermintide and Ghost Ship Game's Deep Rock Galactic.

That was however, until March 2019, ten years after L4D2's release, when Turtle Rock and Warner Bros Interactive announced a spiritual successor to L4D; Back 4 Blood.

The initial reception was mixed. Some were cautiously optimistic, but others felt that this was basically taking L4D, a decent bike, and adding a lot of unnecessary stuff like cards and deck building, a store to buy weapons and items, weapon variety and attachments, as well as the player characters (here called "Cleaners") having passives like the character "Doc" having passives for healing people, as opposed to L4D's characters being merely a choice of who you liked more as character (Which was always Francis, and anyone saying otherwise is a filthy liar). After a Open Beta in August, some people had doubts as to the game's success, feeling it nothing more then Turtle Rock wanting to have L4D back in it's hands after Valve took the IP. The the game came out and after playing it for a week and a half, I've had enough experience to put down a solid opinion.

The Conquer Worm

The backstory isn't terribly deep as it's only shown in a trailer. Basically a science team found seemingly inert worms in the frozen wasteland of Antarctica and brought them to America, only for them to come back to life and infect the team, causing an outbreak that nearly destroyed America, colloquially knowns as "The Collapse". At the start of the plot, the zombies, known as "The Ridden", seem to be dying off, and a sense of normalcy starts to return. Until it's found out that The Ridden have begun mutating via disgusting flesh piles into Special monsters and have gone back on the offensive against the remaining humanity in fictional Finleyville, Pennsylvania.

Unlike L4D where the story was told through Valve's particular love of environmental storytelling, Back 4 Blood has a more formal plot with extra characters, some NPCs, and a few cutscenes. I won't spoil the plot itself here, but I will say that it's fairly decent, nothing really worth going into depth. It's basically "we need to do this, so go do it!" and well you do it. On Easy mode in Solo, you'll probably beat the campaign in less then a day. On the plus side it is a lengthy campaign with some pretty cool setpieces like blowing up a Ferry, using a Cannon to blow up a Mine, or my favorite, a level where you use a jukebox in a bar to distract zombies while other survivors load into buses to evacuate.

Of final note are the Cleaners themselves. Well they're hit and miss. Holly and Evangelo were kinda grating at first before they grew on me, some characters were liked from the first meeting like Mom or Jim, Walker is kinda just there, and Hoffman is the best, practically the Francis of the game. They also have passives that reflect their character and playstyle. Holly and Evangelo are agile melee, Mom and Doc are support, Walker and Hoffman are Gunners, and Jim and Karee are kinda like rangers, one for sniping and the other for watching for mutated ridden and map hazards like Birds or car alarms.

The Gameplay

First off the Gunplay, as it is a FPS first and foremost. It's ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing! With 29 guns, and a slew of attachments all of varying quality that all feel wonderful to shoot, nice and solid as I mow down the undead, and honestly no gun is really a bad gun, it just depends on your preference and deck build that you want to do with a particular set of guns. That cannot be said about the melee weapons with a measly four (five if you count the card that replaces your bash with a combat knife to deal with common zombies), and while I will say that Melee builds are potent and fun, I just wish there was more variety in melee weapons.

Then we have a major part of the game, the deck building. You see when you complete levels in online games (Campaign or Swarm) you earn "Supply Points" which you spend to grab more cards to make decks with. Before launch I thought it was just unneeded fluff, but honestly with my time playing I think it's the most fun, making interesting builds to test and optimize your play, like the aforementioned Melee build to turn a character like Holly (who has passives for melee combat) into practically a tank. Essentially you build a deck of 15 cards, and the order where you place each card will have them pop up for certain points in your Run, with the first card being your staring card you will have on your from the very start of said run, and as you complete each level you pick another card. These decks can be simple optimized generalist builds that allow someone to do fine on their own without too much reliance on team support, or experimental builds like a "No Aim Down Sight" build with LMG's to go full rambo.

In between all this, is a hub area you chill in called Fort Hope, where you make your decks, turn on a jukebox and hear some tunes, and play with all the game's weapons at the range.

The Horror...oh the Horror

While overall the gameplay is pretty fun, there are some issues. In Solo mode the bots are basically stupid and on certain levels involving water they have a good chance of falling and dying. Multiplayer games beyond the first act are hard to come by as you might just spawn in as the only person in a lonely lobby that just feels like playing single player, and the Crossplay leaves alot to be desired. I hope you live kids screaming in the background, people taking fat bong rips, and people leaving as soon as they die, because console players tend to have these happen alot. Thankfully you can turn the crossplay off and finding PC players isn't hard so it makes me question why even bother with it?

Another more major issue is RNG. See the AI Director and his "Corruption Cards" are kinda a 50/50 on having a decent run, or getting ass slammed into defeat, no matter how good your team is or your decks or guns. Fog and Boss are supposedly the worst combo to get.

Finally the simple matter, I don't feel this is a $59.99 USD kinda game. it's more like a $30-$40 title overall as while I had fun, I wouldn't say this was a game I'd die hard recommend. So right off the bat I'd say wait for a price drop or sale.

It's The End of the World as we know it...and I feel fine.

Overall, Back 4 Blood isn't the bloated Left 4 Dead we thought it was going to be, and I think that's the only issue gamers even have in the first place; That we're actively thinking and comparing this game to Left 4 Dead directly instead of viewing it for what it is, a spiritual successor. While it has familiar elements, it is NOT like Left 4 Dead, and If you buy this, I'd highly suggest trying to keep the two as separate as possible to enjoy the game fully.

The game is good. Not amazing, just good. You'll have fun building decks and the gunplay feels nice enough while blasting away at zombies and kill a good week of time, but if you REALLY want to buy this, wait for a price drop as I don't think it's worth that price.

While quality wise the acting and movie itself were fairly good, the plot and content itself is very short, and the most criminal part of this crime story is that there's no skip button or choice map to make different decisions and see the other endings.

I mean I get it guys, you made a decent short movie, but I'm not re watching it 5 + times depending on if I ♥♥♥♥ up and die; that's just straight up annoying. I should NOT have to go to youtube to see all the endings.

>Wake up as random dude with a gun
>I have no idea what to do other then find a guy with my gun and it's flashlight.
>I step into a wormhole and go back in time
>Meet friendly Roman who wants to give me the tour.
>Unloads all 10 bullets into the bastid.

God Bless America.