Neue Rezensionen von Hyper

Dude, this game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ awesome, and the fact that I'd never even heard of it until about a month ago is absolutely insane. I went and bought a PS2 copy of World War Zero just so I could do a back-to-back comparison of each different version, and after playing through them all within the span of two days, I can say for sure that this one is my favourite. It runs flawlessly on modern hardware right out the box, and as far as old school shooters go, this is some of the most fun I’ve had in a long while. I’d say it’s most comparable to HROT, although there are arguments to be made for games like Day Of Defeat and Return To Castle Wolfenstein/Enemy Territory.

It’s worth noting that the store page contains screenshots from the updated version of this game; World War Zero. These screenshots include items and encounters not available in this release, such as the flamethrower and the final boss fight, which is the only thing I feel is really missing from this release. It’s also worth noting that there’s a bug in the final level which can make it difficult to access certain areas required for progression, but it’s possible to work around with a little perseverance. Aside from those few issues, and the stretched UI elements when using widescreen resolutions, I didn’t really encounter any problems during my playthrough.

Anyway, criminally underrated game, and most definitely worth the price.

Maybe I had my expectations set too high, but I feel like this had a lot of potential that it failed to capitalise on. There’s absolutely no narrative, and most of the puzzles can barely be considered puzzles. Of the eight segments this game has to offer, one is a stealth section, two are parkour sections, and one I don’t even know how to categorise. The other four are technically puzzles, but they’re all dead simple, the ‘harder’ ones being more unintuitive than they are actually difficult. In the end, it’s kind of just a generic liminal space type game with a PSX aesthetic.

This is very much a welcome return to formula for the Shelter series, and in my opinion, it’s what Shelter 2 should’ve been all along. It shares many of the same technical issues as the sequel, but in terms of gameplay design, it’s far closer to the original; a linear, narrative-driven story, somewhat akin to Milo & Otis. Survival mechanics are no longer present, and although there are still a few stealth segments spread throughout the story, failing them has no repercussions other than missing out on an achievement. As such, it is a much more laid-back experience than even that of the first game. As with Shelter 2, there are collectables, although this entry only has around thirty as opposed to the ludicrous five hundred of the mainline title. There are also a few grindy achievements, and a lack of chapter select makes them a little tedious to farm, but they’re overall manageable. The price, as with all of the Shelter games, is far steeper than it should be, but at least it’s cheaper than Shelter 2. Kinda made me want a co-op game from these devs. Not exactly an online type thing like Meadow, but more along the lines of It Takes Two or A Way Out.

Pretty solid, although the fact that this is a prologue makes me question what the storyline of the full game will be. Seems pretty cut and dried at the moment.

I vaguely recall skimming through the trailer for this during Gamescom or something like that and thinking it looked kinda mid. Turns out, my instincts were spot on. I like the overall concept, and quite a few gameplay elements are polished to a fairly high standard, but it's just missing a certain zhuzhiness which, unfortunately, pulls this game down from a good rating to, once again, kinda mid. It does somewhat remind me of the PS2 platformers I grew up playing, viz. Ratchet & Clank, so I'd like to be able to say that it's a good starter game for kids, but with the sparse inclusion of unnecessary swear words spread throughout the story, I'm afraid it doesn't even make the cut in that department. It tries it's best, but in the end, it still very much embodies the soul of a lower budget game.

I liked the first game. It was short and overpriced, but it had a nice story with unique levels, each of which had it’s own distinctive threat you were forced to deal with, and limited resources made it so that your cubs were actually at risk of starving to death.

I really don’t see the appeal of this one, and after thoroughly reading through the notes I took during my playthrough, I actually kind of despise it. The story here is only slightly longer than the original, yet the game has a 66% price markup. Where the first game had you trying to find a new den for your cubs whilst simultaneously keeping them well fed and protected, this game only offers up two of those facets for the player’s enjoyment. Feeding your young poses no challenge as food constantly spawns in your immediate vicinity, and without the Mountains DLC, protecting your young is as simple as staying out of the Tundra and going AFK when the sky starts to darken.

Even with the DLC (Which pushes the price well over double that of the first game), threats are still few and far between, and when they do eventually arise, they’re all mechanically lacklustre. In my first playthrough, I encountered two eagles (Which are as easy to deal with as any other animal in the entire game), two foxes (Which according to the wiki are predators, but they seem to just run away as soon as they get anywhere near you), and one forest fire (Which can be avoided entirely just by staying away from forests). Each of these threats were originally featured in the first game, and many of them were so integral to the story that they actually warranted their own chapters, so seeing them reintroduced as bog-standard predators in a DLC this expensive speaks volumes on the developer’s overall intentions. The survivial mode difficulty spike is marginal, I'd even go as far as to say negligible, and the entire game suffers from a myriad of technical issues including bad geometry and poor performance.

The game barely does anything to keep you engaged, and above all else, it has almost four hundred collectables, not including the DLC ones, all of which are required to finish off the achievements; no way of tracking them, aside from a faint sparkle which only appears under certain conditions, no way of seeing which ones you’ve already collected, and a few which have yet to be moved from their out-of-bounds positions almost a decade after release. The real kicker is that even after you’ve spent ten hours going around picking up every little rock, leaf, and stick, you’re still required to play the game an additional three times MINIMUM in order to get the generational achievements, because ♥♥♥♥ the other thousand games I have sitting in my library, right? As a result, what should’ve been no more than an hour long experience ultimately took me nineteen to complete. It’s artificial playtime inflation for a shallow and unimaginative sequel which is two-thirds the game its predecessor was and five-thirds the price. Shelter 2? More like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ 2.

I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about this game. It’s an enjoyable experience, and while I’d still give it a positive rating even if mixed reviews were a thing, it’s only just passing that threshold for me.

Artificial sharpening is hardcoded into the game, and whilst TAA completely negates this effect, the entire game just ends up blurry when enabled. The only way to really combat it is by raising the resolution scale, which in turn causes your FPS to absolutely tank. As a result, I was never able to get it looking quite right or performing particularly well.

Atmospheric horror is often an intrinsic element in this type of setting, yet the devs decided to add some really out of place jumpscares as an attempt to boost said atmosphere and implement a few more random encounters. It’s a bad habit I assume they retained from their previous project and I think the game would be better off without it.

Most of the gameplay is resource gathering and base building with non-linear narrative beats in-between. There’s very little in the way of combat, and in fact, the game often punishes you for killing other humans.

---

If you’ve come for a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-like experience, this ain’t it, but maybe keep an eye on the upcoming ASKET. It's still quite a ways off, but if the current store page is anything to go by, it's probably gonna be pretty good.

That said, if you just want a decent but considerably different type of game with a similar setting, this is probably as close as you’re gonna get.

I was on the fence about buying this game, but I got it for pretty cheap, and I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. The puzzles are all quite simple, and often difficult if not impossible to break, but the game more than makes up for it with amazing visuals, a great soundtrack, and some humorous dialogue. In my mind, it’s nothing less than a spiritual successor to Portal.

Kinda missed the mark on this one. I bought it mainly because it had a unique artstyle compared to other games of the genre, but when you actually get into it, it’s more like what you’d see if you used a freecam mod in a grand strategy game, or if you zoomed in really far to an MMO from the early 2000’s. While they managed to get the chore aspect nailed down, they completely missed the relaxation part, and the whole game just has a certain air of carelessness about it. Everything feels stiff and takes too long to do, kind of like a mobile game, and there’s no sense of progression; You have access to one tool throughout the entire game, and the skill tree ranges from useless to unnecessary. There may be some good stuff toward the end of the skill tree, but you don’t actually get enough XP in order to fully unlock it by the end of the game, so I have no way of confirming that. The music is extremely repetitive, and every level feels the same, with the exception of Raccoon City. Some items take longer to clean than others for no discernible reason, all of the objectives and loading screens are full of typos, and there are still bugs preventing 100% completion almost a year after the devs first acknowledged them. I legitimately don’t understand how this game has such a high rating.

Started out rough, but it started to grow on me during chapter two, then completely lost me again on chapter three. The last hope gamemode is still a crappy and unnecessary addition, and unlike the dev’s first horror game, most of the achievements are “secrets” which no one has figured out how to unlock.