Recent reviews by Jäger

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☐ Better than I had expected
☑ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☐ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☐ Impressive
☑ Average (The tracks get repetitive fast)
☐ Better to just put on music.

Replayability
☐ One and done
☐ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles
☑ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out! (I try to play this game at least twice a week to keep my skills up!)

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☐ Worth the full price!
☑ Wait for a sale
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Micro-Transactions/ Bane of gaming
☑ None to be seen! (There are separate cosmetic DLC but NONE of them are any good)
☐ Pressure is put on the player to buy Items/skins ingame
☐Almost impossible to enjoy the game without buying extra content/items.

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience

Summary:
Arguably the "best" chess game on steam in terms of style, multiplayer options and general polish. Yet it lacks much that many regular Chess players would consider to be commonplace in a game about chess.
I like this game, but man oh man does it sorely need new content and general QoL updates. It is so long overdue for a change!
I would NOT advise buying this unless it has something that a free, online version of Chess[www.chess.com] does not provide for you, which I find very unlikely.

Pro’s:

• Crossplay with Epic games, PS4 and Xbox One. NO CROSSPLAY FOR CURRENT GEN CONSOLES
  
• Great Graphics that still hold up pretty well today. (I dont know many people who play chess games for the Graphics however..)
  
• The game has a very refined and elegant style (and music) to it and I love it for that. The default Staunton pieces in particular look gorgeous!
  
• 80 Levels of Challenges for when you want to train and learn how to play in specific conditions. I do appreciate the challenge levels as they are much shorter than the standard games against online players and the AI.
  
• 10 Levels of AI Difficulty, ranging from a blunderous bot to some kind of classified military quantum computer.

Con’s:

• Camera movement sucks and doesn't stay where you want it to most of the time
  
• Nowhere near enough choices for Piece and board customisation
  
• No noteworthy updates for over 5 YEARS. This game is dead and mouldy by now unfortunately.
  
• No options to disable the "En Passant" Rule. This is ridiculous imo as that rule is an addition to the original rules of Chess. Damn the French!
  
• Cant drag pieces at all
  
• Menu is soo slow. This is especially noticeable when playing multiple games against people at once, navigating the Menu screens to get from one game to the other is frustratingly slow. The UI NAVIGATION NEEDS TO BE FASTER, OR ELSE SHORTCUTS NEED TO BE IMPLEMENTED. I recommend never playing more than one game at the same time because of this!

The Sarajevo Scam

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☐ Better than I had expected
☑ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☐ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☐ Impressive
☐ Average
☑ Better to just put on your own music.

PC Required
☑ A potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☐ Mid to High level Gaming PC

Story/ Plot
☑ Nonexistent
☐ Generic and predictable
☐ Better than I expected
☐ Really sucks you into the lore!

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☑ A fair challenge/ Satisfyingly balanced (RNG is very hard to grade when it comes to the level of difficulty!)
☐ Difficult
☐ RIP Keyboard and mouse

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☑ Worth the full price! (Small Price for a Small Game, seems fair to me!)
☐ Wait for a sale
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience

Summary:
Once again, we see another "flavour of the month" game that seems to beckon Twitch Streamers to play it for about a month or so before it again falls into irrelevancy, much like Among us. Is it any good though?
Keep reading!
This game takes a very simple concept: Russian Roulette, and manages to spice it up with Items and some uniquely brutal mechanics. I must say I have enjoyed this game, though my main highlight has been via Multiplayer with Friends. It also features a brutal AI opponent when playing in Single player.
It seems to me that the games with the simplest mechanics always have the toughest AIs, and this game seems to continue that trend!

However, in terms of actual replay value and any bonus modes that would retain players... It falls short.
...So, what are the good and bad things about this suddenly very popular game?

Pro’s:

• Great for improving your Memory and Probability skills that you probably haven't utilised since high school.
  
• Many different Items to change how each of the three round plays out, the main ones I would mention are:
  Inverter: Change the currently held round from a Live to a Blank and vice versa. Great for changing the blank to a live... When you know which one it is!
  Magnifying Glass: Allows you to view the currently held round. VERY useful most of the time!
  Saw: Turns the Shotgun into a Sawn off, making it deal 2 Damage instead of one, better make sure its a live round though!
  Beer: Racks the currently held round onto the table instead of using it. Useful if you want to end a round quickly before your opponent gets a chance to use the gun!
  Cigarettes: Heals you for one health, why they chose cancer causing cigarettes to be the healing Item, ill never know..
  Phone: Calls a mystery entity that tells you the polarity of one of the rounds in the gun, although it generally isn't the round that is currently loaded. It is still useful in conjunction with other items though.
  
• Great Art style and a black market, dusty PC OS feel.
  (Think a cursed, slavic, dos-based CRT Interface)

Con’s:

• Very Short Game that wont have you playing for more than an hour at a time, unless you are grinding the exhausting double or nothing mode.
  
• You guessed it! The Leaderboards are already infested with cheaters, making the entire damn thing useless.
  
• No Tournament mode, could have been a real blast!
  
• OST is pretty forgettable and serves more as a quiet ambience for the gameplay than anything more.
  
• Bit of a nitpick, but it could really use more Achievements, especially creative Achievement ideas that would make you take risks and play differently than you have become accustomed to!

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☑ Better than I had expected
☐ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☐ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☑ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☑ A potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☐ Mid to High level Gaming PC

Story
☐ Barely explained / Minimal
☑ Generic Boomer Shooter Plot (These types of games generally dont have a very good storyline compared to other game genres)
☐ Better than I expected
☐ Really sucks you into the lore!

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☑ A fair challenge/ satisfyingly balanced
☐ Difficult
☐ RIP Keyboard and mouse

Replayability
☐ One and done
☑ Justifies a replay to find secrets
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☐ Worth the full price!
☑ Wait for a sale (10 Levels for 10 Bucks (USD) just doesn't feel like enough content to me personally. I really hope Chapter 2 has more to offer if it is going to ask for another $10!)
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience

Summary:
A 90s-esque FPS experience that has been heavily inspired by the likes of DUSK, Heretic, Blood, Hexen and a touch of Quake 1.
The Combat, exploration, secrets, Spritework and SFX were the real highlights for me.
However, I was let down by the lackluster story, Dissapointing Enemy AI and the short duration combined with the $10USD price of admission.
I feel that this game is an impressive achievement for the tiny team, however it just didnt do anything new or exciting that would make me plaster its significance all over this review!
I still recommend this game, BUT dont expect to be blown away during the short 3 to 4 hours that you will be playing it for.

Pro’s:

• Fantastic movement options, Dash, kick, crouch slide, crouch jump and Sprint infinitely, like it should be!
  
• Satisfying final boss battle. It really feels like you are facing off against a massive enemy worthy of boss status! It was a satisfying final challenge that I enjoyed.
  
• Plenty of WW2 era Weapons including Sten MK SMG, FG-42, Repeater and even a trusty Mauser C96! They all work well and sound threatening!
  
• Almost every weapon can be upgraded with findable weapon kits that are often located in secret areas. This is a great incentive for players to explore the levels!
  
• Great Level variation, you will fight your way through:
  Mineshafts, Rusty Ship Interiors, Flooded Crypts, Dense Forests, Ghost Towns and even an abandoned Insane Asylum!
  
• Lighting Molotovs and Bundles of Dynamite and hitting enemies with a "hail mary" throw makes you grin devilishly irl and I love it!

Con’s:

• 10 Levels is just not a long enough game for me. It really hurts the game overall that it is so short. I would have much preferred to pay $10USD for both Chapters at once, instead of the strange paid DLC approach that the Dev is taking. Not a fan of it at all.
  
• AI is terrible most of the time, they will often just run directly at you, easily dying to traps, bombs, or the player just hiding behind a corner. The fodder Cultists are very easy to exploit!
  
• The Tank Boss is boring as it doesn't even move at all, it just sits there shooting at you while you dodge enemies and throw explosives at it. Pretty low effort imo
  
• No Secret level(s)?not even one??
  Definetely a missed opportunity there!
  
• Many enemies wear brown which blends into the background on many levels, Im not sure if this is intentional but it is very irritating decision!
  
• Not enough Achievements for my liking. Cards and Badges would have been nice too.
  
• Many weapons become useless when compared to other guns that utilise the same ammunition. Why use the Mauser when you can spray enemies with the Sten MK? It has better Rate of Fire, Damage output, Magazine Size and even a shorter reload animation. This made guns like the starting Pistol (The Mauser C96) very unattractive to me at least.

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☑ Better than I had expected
☐ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☑ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☐ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☐ A potato will suffice!
☑ Entry Level Gaming PC
☐ Mid to High level Gaming PC

Story
☐ Barely explained / Minimal
☑ Confusing and difficult to decipher
☐ Better than I expected
☐ Really sucks you into the lore!

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☐ A fair challenge/ satisfyingly balanced
☐ Difficult
☑ RIP Keyboard and mouse (Some of the bosses in this game were so tough that I had to stop playing before I broke something!)

Replayability
☐ One and done
☑ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles. (This game is quite long if going for side activities/ bosses and collectibles. I honestly wouldn't encourage a second playthrough unless you are a speedrunner, masochist or just willing to play through hours and hours to get a slightly different ending.)
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☑ Worth the full price! (I would confidently say that there is at least 30 Hours of content here)
☐ Wait for a sale
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience

Summary:
A very immersive Metroidvania with a fantastic setting, musical score, atmosphere, art style and exploration. However this is all let down a bit by excessive backtracking, a confuscating plot, a few bad boss fights, and needlessly grindy challenges.
I still recommend this game, but dont expect to understand the mechanics and combat for at least 12+ hours of gameplay. This game presents new mechanics and abilities at a very slow pace.
Definetely a game for the masochists and die hard achievement hunters though!

Pro’s:

• Absolutely breathtaking Art style and environmental storytelling
  
• Fantastic Music by Composer Chris Larkin, I recommend checking out his work on Expand as well!
  
• Combat feels satisfying and generally well balanced. (Primal Aspids are an exception)
  
• Easily 40+ Hours of Content if going for 100%
  
• Being able to slash in any direction (Up, down, left and right)is very useful and makes combat more efficient as it opens up more opportunities to hit enemies with your Nail(Sword)
  
• Fantastic and/or amusing Character Arcs regarding, Quirrel, Hornet, Cloth, Bretta, Nailsmith and even a few bosses!

Con’s:

• The game has a HUGE amount of backtracking. Far more than most people would find tolerable. You will rely on fast travel frequently to get across the world!
  
• Some Enemies have extremely hard to read attacks including a few bosses.
  
• Certain invincibility frames are not long enough for my liking.
  
• What does the colosseum have to do with the rest of the story? It just seems so out of place compared with the tone of the rest of the game.
  
• The story/plot is very hard to understand without using external sources such as the steam forums, games wiki or youtube lore videos. I should not need to have to go outside of the game to understand the story that it is telling! I found it very hard to follow, especially with the written style/prose that the vast majority of npcs use in the game.
  
• Literally everything about Zote
  
• Fast travel is good, but often isn't nearby where you need to go to, leaving you to have to travel across enemy filled areas just to reach where you need to go. Whats the point of fast travel if it isn't very fast or efficient?
  
• The Hunter's Journal is absolute insanity. It requires you to revisit the same areas 20+ times to farm very rare enemies, Kill all bosses (even the bad ones)and also farm the same boring fodder enemies more than you would during normal gameplay which leads to very repetitive gameplay.
  
• When using the Howling Wraiths attack, you are very vulnerable to being hit by enemies/bosses. The attack animation really should have giving you Invincibility frames as you are not moving when you perform it!
  
• The Wayward compass should be a feature in the game and equipable NOT a charm that takes up a slot. Do the devs expect you to remember where you are at all times? Laughable decision.
  
• Minor critisicm, but for whatever reason, you cant sell multiple items at once to Lemm at once.
  
• The disgustingly long wait time for Silksong, are the devs dead?

Feel free to comment below if you disagree with me or would like to correct me!

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☐ Better than I had expected
☑ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☐ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☑ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☐ A potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☐ Mid to High level Gaming PC
☑ Can it run Crysis?

Story
☐ Barely explained / Minimal
☑ Generic and predictable
☐ Better than I expected
☐ Really sucks you into the lore!

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☐ A fair challenge/ satisfyingly balanced
☑ Difficult (I played on the highest difficulty mode: Delta)
☐ RIP Keyboard and mouse

Replayability
☑ One and done
☐ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☐ Worth the full price!
☐ Wait for a sale
☑ Don't waste your hard earned cash, BUY THE ORIGINAL AND USE MANY MODS

Bugs
☐ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☑ Minor bugs, tolerable (Mainly game physics quirks)
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience

A dissapointing remaster that feels more like a rushed console port with pc controls, than what the PC fans truly deserved..
If you must play Crysis, I would highly recommend avoiding this remaster and instead playing the original, albiet heavily modded!
Pro’s:

• Beautiful Open Levels, it is still a visually stunning game, especially when you enter the first (Large) level.
  
• Stealth approach is a nice way to diversity combat, you cant stealth takedown enemies but you can one-hit punch them from behind or shoot them in a back with a tranq dart. Overall Stealth is much more rewarding than just going in guns blazing, ESPECIALLY on the harder difficulties where AI becomes inhumanly aware.
  
• Lot of interactables throughout the levels such as Radios, Jeeps, Turrets and Boats. This was great back in the original, however they havent added anything new here for the remaster which is a damn shame.
  
• Gunplay feels excellent and the weapons sound awesome. The more heavy duty firearms such as miniguns, snipers and rocket launchers feel and sound satisfying. The overall sound design in this game was a real highlight for me.

Con’s:

• surprisingly unoptimised, this game just runs like absolute sh*t on the higher graphical settings, making my pc get hotter than it really should.
  
• The enemy (Human) AI is terrible, Enemies are sometimes able to detect you from over a hundred metres away, even when you aren't shooting and then proceed to shoot at you with inhumane levels of accuracy.
  
• VTOL Level (Ascension) is terrible and the controls are beyond bad. It just feels shoved in without much care and doesnt really fit into the game. Being in control of a gun while someone else flies the VTOL would have been much more satisfying to me!
  
• Some of the early game stages are far too large and empty for their purpose/objective, leaving too much empty space without buildings, enemies, items or vehicles. Also, 80% of the buildings in the game must be made out of cardboard and will fall apart with only a few bullets or even one well placed punch. I get that this is purposely designed to show off destructibility, but the badly designed houses feel far too weak to be anything close to realistic.
  
• Most of the combat mechanics and physics feel identical to how it was in the original. Those that aren't the same have been made noticebly WORSE.
  
• Unable to change the FOV through the ingame options menu.
  
• Driving feels sluggish and the acceleration of most vehicles is laughable.
  
• There is NO quick save system, in a 2020 fps..for the PC?
  The fact that the achievements have also been ported over from the PS3 era makes me realise how "console-ized" this excuse of a remaster really is. Just lazy and lacking passion.
  
• Small change, but you are unable to change suit modes while inside vehicles.
  
• The Nanosuits functionality has been severely dumbed down. You no longer have to manually select which mode you want, instead, by doing certain actions like running or jumping it will activate the respective modes (Speed and Strength). This takes away the players need to choose if they actually WANT TO USE THAT MODE. For example: The Jumping is wildly inconsistent and will very often make you (Strength) jump about 8 feet in the air instead of a normal jump when you press space. This is terrible when you just want to mantle a ledge or fence. It can even lead to you accidentally jumping high into the air and giving your position away to nearby enemies! Frustrating af!

NOTE: I will endeavour to revisit this game if and when more updates come out.

Gameplay
☐ Another world!
☐ Captivating
☑ Average
☐ Bit lackluster/missing features
☐ A bore to play

Graphics
☐ Masterpiece
☐ Beautiful
☑ Good
☐ Awful
☐ Minecraft

Story
☐ What Story?
☑ Not easy to understand/ grasp. (I would go so far as to say that the plot is confusing, especially the new "Nightmare" Chapter and the ending itself)
☐ Average
☐ Good
☐ Invests you throughout the game

Difficulty
☐ Just press a bunch of buttons
☑ Easy (Predictable AI along with the sad fact that there are simply not enough stages where you actually do anything apart from walking.)
☐ Made difficult by bugs
☐ Difficult
☐ Prepare for Rage

Game Time
☑ Can finish in a single sitting (Unless you want all the achievements)
☐ Average
☐ Long

Price
☐ Worth the price
☑ Wait for sale & NEW CONTENT
☐ Dont waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☐ None
☑ Minor bugs (Clipping issues and some Lighting Quirks)
☐You experience them semi-reguarly
☐ Bugs ruin gameplay

- Nice graphics and lighting, although in some areas it can be far too dark to see. I had to turn my Gamma up at one point.

- Interesting Variety of environments that you traverse. eg.Mines, Abandoned Hospital, Abandoned Farm, Hiking Trails and Derelict campsites.

- Satisfying experience for players who enjoy "cheap" horror thrills such as jumpscares, sudden loud noises, being chased with limited stamina and many dark areas. If you are the kind of "gamer" that enjoys slop such as FNAF, Badly written SCP Creepypastas or the Backrooms, I am sure you will enjoy this game for the hour or two of content that it provides.

- Sound design was excellent, especially when coupled with the sudden appearances of Slender man. Imo, the "best" scares in this game occur whilst you are being pursued by him and eventually become complacent, thinking he has gone away, then rouding a corner to see him meer metres away. For me, that is the best scenario/ scare that this game provided me.

- The Genesis level is a great Homage to the original Slender-man game as the level itself is a remastered version of the 2012 Web Game. This is probably the most challenging stage that this game has to offer and I did enjoy it for the 2 or 3 runs I did.

- The Chaser Enemy is very frustrating as it is faster than you AND has infinite stamina whereas you can only run for about 6 seconds before getting tired. You can delay it from moving by focusing the light in its direction but as soon as you move your flashlight away, itll simply keep running at you. Eventually, it will catch up to you and pounce you once it is within 1-2 metres of you. While playing the "Into the Abyss" stage, I was constantly having to look back every 6 seconds to shine my light at it (Once it had initialy spotted me) in order to freeze it temporarily. This constant action is not only repetitive, but means that navigation of the stage itself is even more difficult than it should be.

- The game costs $29NZD / ~$16USD and provides only an hours worth of content. This is blatant overpricing in my view. A simple walking sim/horror game such as this should cost NO MORE than $8NZD / ~$5USD. I dont quite understand what makes the publishers think that the asking price is fair when you can beat the entire game in ONE sitting.

- As I mentioned before, this game is a walking sim with horror elements sprinkled throughout. There are a total of THREE Encounters in which you will have to run or hide from enemies. The enemies AI is generally predictable and you can figure it out after dying 3 times.
1)The Chaser makes loud footsteps and can be avoided by keeping running to a miniumum, once spotted you can just periodically turn around and shine your torch beam to (Temporarily) blind it.
2) Slenderman is a bit different, he teleports semi-randomly around the player at different distances, these distances mainly depend on how many story items you have acquired. Sometimes he will teleport near a wall or large tree, making him harder to see. However his proximity/prescense will actually distort the screen slightly. This makes it easy to know when he around without actually seeing him first. The main annoyance with Slenderman happens when he appears close to a passage, door or important Item.

- The plot of this game made absolutely zero sense to me and did not interest me enough to bother looking into it. Imo, Horror games should feature a coherent and "easy to pick up" story that immerses the player and makes them want to pick up and subsequently read every little piece of collectible lore. I sadly did not have such an experience in this game.

- There simply is not enough features/ mechanics present to compete with modern day horror games. I do sincerely hope that the promised future updates will breathe some fresh ideas into this game as it sorely needs them.
Multiplayer is a good start, however, time will tell how that mode will function..

Advice: Wait for content updates, as there simply is not enough content here to justify the damn price!

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☑ Better than I had expected (Far superior to the original)
☐ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☑ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks (The SFX and unsettling ambience present throughout this game is incredible!)
☐ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☐ A potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☑ Mid to High level Gaming PC

Story
☐ Barely explained / Minimal
☐ Generic and predictable
☐ Better than I expected
☑ Really sucks you into the lore! (Apart from a few lauaghable plot holes and a strange alternate ending which I have no idea is supposed to be canon or not)

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☐ A fair challenge/ average for the genre
☑ Difficult (Play on hard for the best experience in terms of Scavenging for ammo, Using upgrade nodes wisely and using the environment to your advantage in combat in order to save on ammunition!)
☐ Book anger therapy in advance

Replayability
☐ One and done
☑ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles (NG+ Mode and 3 Side missions)
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☐ Worth the full price!
☑ Wait for a sale (This game is a great but does justify the massive price tag. The quantity of content on offer here simply was not enough for me.
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☐ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☑ Minor bugs, tolerable (enemies getting stuck in the environment upon death and UI elements remaining in front of isaac after I had closed the inventory.)
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ A broken experience


Pro’s:

• Circuit puzzle is a great addition that fits the game surprisingly well.
  
• The Soundtrack and sound design are truly next level!
  
• Story has been changed in places to fit better with Dead Space 2 and 3! Although how the alternate ending relates to all of that I have no clue! (No spoilers though)
  
• Each of the 5 weapons you acquire during the game's story are very different from one other and can assist you in unique ways and situations. For example:
  Plasma Cutter = Great all round weapon that is best utilised against a few enemies with minimal armour. Still a solid gun and easily the most balanced, polished and iconic out of the 6 Weapons you acquire.
  Pulse Rifle = Great Machine gun used for crowd control and placing Proximity Grenades with its Alt Fire mode! Best used on multiple fodder enemies
  Flame Thrower = This is best utilised against smaller, fast moving enemies and also has the added bonus of dealing fire -damage over time!
  Force Gun = This beast is essential to use in order to prevent getting cornered by many enemies at once, it works as a close range "shotgun", but instead of shells, it uses compressed air! Low damage but it knocks enemies back and also onto the ground. This is my go-to panic gun!
  Line Gun = Great weapon that can surgically cut off multiple limbs with its wide cutting beam. Useful for short to medium range combat. Also features an amazing Alt Fire, but I wont spoil it here.
  Contact Beam = An epic Ammo-Hungry laser beam that can decimate most unarmoured enemies when fully upgraded. This is the final weapon you can discover and you'll quickly find out why! Useful for most enemies in the game, although ammunition (In the form of Cells) for it is rare, expensive and consumed quickly!
  
• Larger areas such as the ADS Cannon Trench, Slug Boss battle and Communication Relay Chamber have been reworked to make them more modern and generally less clunky.
  
• Loading up the game will load you into your latest save and not the main menu, this lets you jump right back into the action! While this is a minor detail, I really liked this change from most games.
  
• Achievements have been largely unchanged from the original's back in 2008! If it aint broke, dont fix it.
  
• The 3 Optional side missions provide a wealth of juicy lore and background into some of the unique characters you come across or hear of throughout the game. Learning much more about Mercer, Kyne and Temple was a real treat! A lot of the original Lore and backstories have also been changed. I would list them all but that would take far too long and bore people that dont care too much about the DS universe. I will say that I was a fan of most of the retroactive changes and tweaks to the overall storyline, as the narrative has been tweaked in important places to flow better alongide the narratives of 2 and 3.

Con’s:

• No FOV slider, in a fully priced, 2023, Triple A, Third Person game... Really EA??
  
• The "Deluxe" edition is complete and utter Garbage. Instead of adding any content that could be considered meaningful or valuable like any the following ideas: Game OST, Artbook, Director's commentary, Themed Backgrounds, The 2 different Dead space Animated Films, a PDF File of the (massively underated) Dead Space comic, Gameplay modifiers, Extra Items such as 10 Nodes or 50k Credits, a Lore compendium, or perhaps even a digital copy of the original Dead Space from 2008, you receive...Drumroll please!...3 Suits and 2 Skins.
  WHAT THE F*CK EA!?. This is easily one of the WORST Deluxe editions I have ever seen in my life. This lackluster DLC honestly does not deserve to be $4 USD, LET ALONE THE ASKING PRICE OF $10 USD!
  Speaking of greedy pricing...
  
• The (undiscounted) full price of this game is actually MORE than the total price of Dead Space 1 (2008), Dead space 2 and Dead Space 3 COMBINED! I get that this is a remake and has many welcome changes, but at the end of the day, asking me to pay $100NZD / $60USD for a game with a maximum of 15 to 20 hours of content is laughable. Sure I had a lot of fun with the game, but 25 hours is really the maximum gametime I could spend as a result of the total content avaliable here. There are NO other game modes apart from the main story and the story itself only warrants a single revisit in the form of the New game plus mode!
  What I am trying to say is that regardless of the game's inherent quality and the visual polish it posseses, those two factors simply do not justify the massive price tag!
  
• Tiresome backtracking at times
  
• Character's faces are far less expressive than in the original, especially noticeabler during video calls.
  
• 1st boss is great, 2nd boss is more irritating than enjoyable and the final boss could have been changed more than how it was in the original. It isnt groudbreaking boss design, and its age shows.
  
• Once you beat the game twice and get the alernate ending, there is really nothing left to do in the game.
  There is none of the following: Survival Mode, Leaderboards, Chapter select, Photo mode, and even an Extras menu with juicy goodies such as old concept art, Director commentary, Complete Lore compendium, Soundtrack or Cheats/Modifiers. This is a shame as this game honestly needs more content to justify the massive asking price, alas this is EA after all!
  
• Lack of hints/confirmation towards a Dead Space 2 Remake! Give us something Motive! This is an impressive remake of the first DS game, but why stop at the first? I know this isnt a real con but it would really bother me if the second and even third game doesnt get this sexy remake treatment!
  
• Unskippable cutscenes are infuriating for repeat playthroughs and also during speedrunning!
  
• Cant sell excess power nodes after upgrading everything! This is really only a problem for new game plus players but it makes little sense that you are unable to sell any more that you find! This is an issue in EVERY dead space game and I am so sick of it. Finding power nodes after maxing everything out only wastes your time. Let players sell Nodes dammit!!!

Gameplay
☐ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard
☑ Better than I had expected (Many new features and settings make this a solid experience)
☐ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☑ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks
☐ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☑ A Potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☐ Mid to High level Gaming PC

Story
☑ Minimal/ Basically irrelevant
☐ Generic and predictable
☐ Better than I expected
☐ Really sucks you into the lore!

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☐ A fair challenge/ average for the genre
☑ Difficult (I through the base game and also the Call of the Machine Expansion on Hard and Hard+/Nightmare and thoroughly enjoyed it. Nightmare is quite unbalanced at times however, but more on that later.)
☐ Book anger therapy in advance

Replayability
☐ One and done
☑ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles. (Also playing in COOP mode adds more value!)
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☑ Worth the full price! (With the optimisations, visual improvements, new content, achievements, coop and more, I would say that the price is definetely worth it.
☐ Wait for a sale
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered during my 50+ hours of total playtime as of this review.)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ An utterly broken experience


Pro’s:

• Achievements, though only 13 compared with Quake 1's 35! Why is there such a difference here?
  
• Community cards and Badges
  
• Weapon and equipment now have their own wheels that slow down gameplay and let you select what gear you want during a fight! This is completely OPTIONAL as you can still quickswitch like before.
  
• many options to configure the HUD, including your Crosshair size, colour, and style, Hit markers, FOV, Always run, view bob and more. This may seem small but it serves to help make gameplay better according to one's taste. In saying that, they could have easily added 50+ additional settings to customise one's experience.
  
• Physics are a lot better, Your movement is more agile and the enemies themselves sometimes will try to dodge or take cover from your gunfire! (Depending on the enemy type and situation)
  
• Compass Item serves as an extremely useful tool that displays the direction of the next main objective on the ground in front of you. This is extremely useful when you get lost or need to find the quickest way back after a good 'ol secret hunting excursion! (This is also optional)
  
• You get 4 additional campaigns on top of the base game. These are:
  Call of the Machine, The Reckoning, Ground Zero and Quake 64. Overall the content on offer here will take you at least 30 hours to complete, assuming you are not rushing or playing on the easier difficulties! Which the Multipler Modes, Cooperative campaigns and many secret levels, it goes without saying that there is great value for money here.
  
• Fantastic soundtrack, easily one of the best boomer shooter OSTs of all time. While the main tracks can and do get a bit repetitive, hearing the OST for the first time while exploring the early levels and kicking Strogg ass is a great memory of mine.
  
• Just like in Doom eternal, shooting enemies that have an energy shield with an energy weapon such as a Hyperblaster (This game's version of a plasma rifle) or the ammo hungry Plasma Beam will deal extra damage to the shield itself. This adds a nice touch of strategy when dealing with the tougher enemies of the game. While it isnt an essential mechanic to remember, it will save ammunition and also incentivises players to switch weapon types more often! (EG. Bullets to Plasma Cells)
  
• Nightmare difficulty mode is present and playable for each of the 5 different campaigns. This mode, which is also known as Hard+ is a super tough mode but feels much more balanced than Quake 1's Nightmare difficulty setting. While it is generally a fair setting, it has a few quirks that I will mention in the Cons Section below.

Con’s:

• The Berserkers "new" AOE Slam attack is OP as the range that it can damage the player is absurd, they can also jump across ridiculous distances very quickly in order to hit you with this attack. While it is fairly rare to encounter, I feel that it is super unbalanced as you will be able to dodge maybe 1 out of every 10 ground pounds they perform!
  
• No Downloadable Soundtrack? Not a major critiscm but a missed op for sure.
  
• Nightmare Gripes are as follows:
  Enemies do not flinch on nightmare which means you will have to wait for their (often hitscanning) attacks to be over before you can deal damage to them without being shredded yourself. This can slow down gameplay at times as you will often have to bait out an enemies attacks while you hide and wait for it to finish, only then can you run up close and blast it. This is especially true of the tougher enemies like the Tank, Tank Commander, Icarus and Beserker.
  No additional ammo, which is ridiculous to me as the enemy count is increased. If there are more enemies, why tf isnt there more ammo to help out?
  The Carrier Boss spawns in Flyers to distract you from damaging it, but the rate at which it can spawn/teleport in these Flyers is absurd. You often dont get more than 2 seconds of time after destroying one before another one can spawn in! This makes fighting this particular boss incredibly lengthy and drains a huge amount of ammunition as you'll have to deal with its speedy minions! Terrible design in my opinon.
  
• 13 Achievements is far too few. I expected 30+, much like Quake 1. Nit pick I know, but it was dissapointing.
  
• No option to change the size and position of your held weapons exists in the gameplay settings of the game. I had to go into the console to change these values. I did this because the size of a few of the weapons you hold take up too much of my screen. I respect the customisation options you can tweak inside the settings menu, however they could have added so many more options to configure your experience!
  
• No Horde mode like Quake 1! Missed opportunity if you ask me as I loved that mode from Q1.
  
• No steam workshop or any sort of mod support that I could see. I feel like this would have been an obvious choice to increase the life span of the game and give the loyal community an official avenue for creativity in the form of soundtrack replacements, custom levels and campaigns, model replacements, UI styles and more. Why not provide an ingame-mod menu to the community? In my opinion they really had no reason not to implement something like this.

Gameplay
☑ Hands couldn't stay away from the mouse & keyboard!
☐ Better than I had expected
☐ Average
☐ Underwhelming

Music
☑ Fantastic sounds and/ or tracks. The main menu theme and ending credits music still brings me close to tears.
☐ Impressive
☐ Average
☐ Better to just put on music.

PC Required
☐ A potato will suffice!
☐ Entry Level Gaming PC
☑ Mid to High level Gaming PC (For reference, I own an NVIDIA RTX 3060 and this game ran like butter apart from regularly lengthy loading screens and 1 crash.)

Story
☐ Barely explained / Minimal
☐ Generic and predictable
☐ Better than I expected
☑ Beyond fantastic. This is the kind of game where you will want to soak up the atmosphere and every single second of (In-engine) the cutscenes.

Difficulty
☐ Game Journalist friendly
☐ A fair challenge/ average for the genre
☑ Difficult (I played the this version of the game on Survivor difficulty and then on Grounded difficulty. These are NOT the recommended difficulties for first time players. I recommend playing the game on Hard for your first playthrough as Ammo , Melee Weapons and Crafting resources have the best balance between being abundant and being scarce.)
☐ Book anger therapy in advance

Replayability
☐ One and done
☑ Justifies a replay for any missing content/ collectibles. (Some of the combat/stealth encounters are addictive to replay as well. Especially the FINAL Combat encounter on the higher difficulties, you will need high levels of reflex, patience, hearing ability and accuracy if you want to beat it!
☐ Multiple playthroughs will not burn you out!

Appropriate Pricing
☐ N/A
☐ Worth the full price!
☑ Wait for a sale (The massive price is a F*CKING INSULT)
☐ Don't waste your hard earned cash!

Bugs
☑ Very polished! (Little to no bugs encountered)
☐ Minor bugs, tolerable
☐ Bugs hinder immersion and overall enjoyment
☐ Ultimately a broken experience


What can I say about this game that hasn't already been said. It is a solid Jewel in the crown of Naughty Dog and Playstation as a whole. Despite being released 3 different times on 4 different platforms, the game still provides enough of a unique experience with each new release. This is because the game itself is changed enough to make it fresh to veterans like me and much more visually attractive to first time players.
While this remaster does NOT feature Multiplayer, it adds fresh features and superior visuals to the Main Story and the Left Behind Prequel chapter. Gameplay mechanics, AI Behaviour, UI options, Difficulty settings, Visuals and the feel of the movement itself are all noticeably improved and/or rehauled. The Human AI especially was much more cunning and unpredictable than what I remembered from the original PS3 version! I love being surprised in games, especially games that I have played many many times before.
However do NOT forget how disgustingly overpriced this game is! Charging full price for the story mode when the previous PS4 remaster was CHEAPER AND ALSO FEATURED MP, is an insult to gamers and loyal fans!

Pro’s:

• Improved Lighting, Eye catching Environmental effects, Crisp SFX, Sexy Reflections, Increased Default draw distance and Higher Vegetation density all serve to make the world feel so much more alive and vibrant, cliche as that sounds. Some areas in particular, like riding Callus the Horse from Tommy's Dam were just absolutely breath taking, if your PC can handle it, your eyes will definitely be treated!
  
• The subtle facial animations and movement transitional animations are the best I have ever seen in a game so far in my 10+ years of gaming. A slight facial expression like a rebellious smirk or a concerned-looking furrowed brow can really change the tone of conversations between characters and might even make you look at the cutscene itself differently!
  
• Gameplay modifiers such as slower-time when aiming, Infinite ammo, One hit kills and the incredibly OP explosive arrows make replaying combat encounters on New Game Plus less repetitive, lengthy and also allow you to have more creativity than the base game would normally allow! (Uncharted LOTC had a similar "Gameplay Modifiers" Sub-menu that also unlocked after beating the game. I love this as it adds replay value! While it may not be enough reason to replay the entire game, it is still a welcome addition!)

Con’s:

• Costs MORE than the original and features LESS content. (No MP) Why tf is this game and Uncharted LOTC missing their beloved Multiplayer modes??
  
• Mechanics from the second game such as dodging melee attacks, going prone and crawling are not here, which is a real shame as melee combat in this game is honestly far too simple. After 1 remaster and 1 remake, I really expected the melee combat to get some much needed love!
  
• Loading times take a long ass time, at least for me. Even replaying encounters or simply restarting checkpoints took minutes to load. This is surprising as Uncharted LOTC was the complete opposite and almost always loaded faster than the PS4 version did. Not a huge deal for me as I have a phone next to me (most of the time) so it didnt really ruin my fun.