Recent reviews by bermuda

I love puzzle games and this game has so many puzzles with great rules and logic but, in its current state, i just CANNOT recommend this.

It's AWFULLY optimized. There's FPS drops everywhere, entire areas will tank your FPS, sometimes in half. Bad netcode means you're constantly lagging in a game that doesn't even benefit from being multiplayer in the first place. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if a majority of the FPS problems are from the useless multiplayer aspect in the first place.

There are also plenty of minor issues that really add up for a poor experience. The enclaves are very completionist but they provide zero aids to help you find that 1 puzzle you're missing, so you end up just running around aimlessly. Some puzzles are also badly designed, such as the fractal morphs which have no tutorial area compared to every other puzzle. I pretty much just fumbled around in those til I figured out what it wanted me to do, and even then some solutions make zero sense.

The lore is also kind of garbage.

If the devs can find some way to fix these TERRIBLE issues then I'll edit my review, but for now it stays. There are areas where I'm getting NINE. (Single digits! ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ NINE) FPS. I can Red Dead Redemption 2 on High at 100 FPS but this? THIS is where my GPU struggles, apparently.

This is seriously one of the best video game remakes I've ever played.

A couple years ago I finished the 2021 Myst remake, and since I had heard that Riven was being given a makeover (with no release date and very little info - this was before the 2024 trailer) I had to get it. Since there was no other option, I got the 1997 version and it ended up being my surprise hit of that year. Such a blast playing it, despite me kinda raging at the infamous fire marble puzzle. I'm a huge puzzle game fan, and I still have yet to find more than a couple games that are even similar to what Riven had to offer.

So when I played this, I was a bit taken aback. Not only is it a BEAUTIFUL remaster of a classic, they went ahead and changed a TON of this game. So many areas are re-written to have different timings (Gehn's throne, the mile-long bridge, etc.) as well as an entire new area added that replaced an older, sort of less interesting mechanic. The puzzles were also reworked not only to serve the new first-person walking perspective but to be more easier and more fun to work out. I had a blast with the new numbering system (a LOT more fun that Obduction's base-four system, I might add) and I found it really fun figuring out the new puzzle elements added to this classic.

Just, what an amazing job at Cyan. After the flop of Firmament I honestly wasn't very optimistic they could pull this off, but I'm so excited they did and I'm so excited that the game's gotten such great reviews and so MUCH attention in the past few days.

Anybody who even LIKES puzzlers, PLEASE. I insist. Play this. Even if the only puzzle game you've ever played is Portal 2 or Antichamber or Fez or something like that. If you even have a passing interest in testing your knowledge and logical reasoning skills, this game will stump you but I think you'll also enjoy it a ton.

I thought this game was really good and a very worthy sequel to the original. The campaign is markedly shorter but there's definitely potential replay value considering you have two main characters instead of 1. The game also prioritizes stealth still, but there's a lot more opportunity for playing a violent non-stealthy approach, and this approach is even encouraged with a few of the enemy types. No longer, also, is a non-lethal approach truly vital for having a good end-game experience. It's moreso just for bragging rights and achievements, although non-lethal assassinations of the targets definitely changes the epilogue slideshow. It's nothing like the... stuff that Samuel can do in the first game if you aren't a kind individual.

Like all Arkane games there are definitely a variety of approaches to every obstacle, however I definitely disliked how there were multiple sections that were just plain openly linear, such as one area with the clockwork soldiers. I kept exploring expecting to find *something* that could get me around that area but I just didn't find anything and was forced to do it "loud." I really liked the crafting system too.

I think the only real downside to this game is there seemed to be less of a focus on using some of the powers. Blink and dark vision were really the only two I needed, and I only ever "bought" those two plus possession. It didn't seem like I really had to use any of the other powers, and I could even get through a few sections without even using blink.

I unfortunately just cannot recommend this game. I love the aesthetic, I really do, and going in I really thought it was going to be like bioshock, but it just seems to be trying to do too many things at once. It wants to be an RPG with dialogue options and a skill tree, but at the same time it wants to be bioshock with abilities. It also wants to be a horror game while still being funny. Also the English VO is some of the worst I've ever heard in a video game. Every time this guy says "CRISPY CRITTERS" I want to punch my monitor. There are times where it's fun, but there are also too many times where it's a boring slog.

I utterly despise how awfully slow it is to sneak in this game despite stealth being ENCOURAGED in most sections. I completely HATE how slow you walk in general despite most FPS encounters being fast-paced and frantic. How the ♥♥♥♥ am I supposed to use my axe to slice a dude in half when I lumber around like an obese person??? It feels like this game would've been far better spent as a straight-up horror shooter or a frantic FPS.

They tried to cater to WAY too many audiences and just failed.

This is probably the first game *in my life* that I immediately uninstalled after five hours of playtime.

This "game" for lack of a better term feels like it was half made by some incredible graphic designers and half made by people who have no idea how pool works. Here's my biggest gripes:

1. The HUD

Believe me when I say this, this HUD is AWFUL. The game looks beautiful, don't get me wrong, but the hud reminds me of playing ArmA II back in like 2009. How the hell do you make a game like this and have such a god awful HUD? There's so much wrong with it, yet you can see *all* that is wrong with it from watching a gameplay video on youtube.

2. The physics

Don't get me wrong, the physics are great! ... until you add anything complex to the mix. I mean literally anything. A straight shot with the ball is really realistic until the ball hits a wall and you realize gravity somehow doesn't affect them. Pool balls are *heavy.* They don't bounce around when they reach the edge of a hole or a rail of the table. Trust me, I've *Played* pool. In real life, if you smack a pool ball into the edge of a pocket it'll go in 9 times out of 10. In this game, it will NEVER go in. Most of the time, it'll bounce out and you'll get a foul. You know, the kind of ♥♥♥♥ you see on snooker compilations where the announcers are in SHOCK, and you get 3 replays. Yeah, that happens *multiple times a session* in this game. The cue ball itself is also incredibly bouncy. Just a tiny bit of backspin and you can pretty much guarantee your ball and maybe even the object ball is going flying off the table at Mach 3.

3. The AI.

Career mode itself is pretty ♥♥♥♥♥♥, but have you ever wanted to get dominated by some of the greatest pool in the history of the sport? Then play career mode. It's like the developers have never googled the word "amateur" because just a third of the way into the amateur tournament and you're already getting run-out multiple frames in a row. It also doesn't help *at all* that the game doesn't let you break every time. So you have to sit there while a computer dominates you and you can do LITERALLY NOTHING to stop it. Your free will is completely taken away as you JUST SIT THERE. How did this get through testing as a good idea? Who in their right minds just wants to watch a robot destroy them with nothing they can do about it? Like... if I wanted to see a run-out, I'd just watch an Efren Reyes compilation on youtube for FREE. I don't need to pay 9 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dollars for it.

4. The music

For such a polished game you'd think the music would be great right? It's actually pretty good except for the fact that there are only about five songs that constantly loop. They're alright songs but this game came out in 2014. A year in which you could have an entire damn radio of hundreds of songs. GTA:SA came out in 2004 and has more songs than this damn game. I get that you can just turn it down, but really? It's like the developers didn't even try.

5. The modes in general

This game only has 3 "modes" with some extra challenge modes added in. It's 8-ball, 9-ball, and blackball. And god forbid you use any rule changes, you can literally only play official UK rules, so no "kitchen" for you buddy. 8 ball is pretty normal, and I didn't really play blackball, and 9 ball is fun as always, but it's just so weird not being able to at least play some variations. Like, why is ball-in-hand even allowed? All it does is make it incredibly easy for your opponent if you scratch. At least use the kitchen rule to make it a bit of a fairer playing ground.

And to top that all off, the challenge modes are just weird. Like, there's Killer, a game in which you have to "outlast" your opponent through multiple frames. Each consecutive shot saves you, but missing a shot loses a life. The issue here though is that hitting the 8-ball in ADDS a life, so if your computer opponent gets the 8 ball in (they will) you basically *automatically lose.* In REAL LIFE, the 8-ball gets rid of a life, meaning there will only be 5 frames maximum. Who in their right mind would want it to add a life? That just makes it so you get infinite lives.

in short, DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. This is one of the only times in my life I can officially say that I threw 9 dollars down the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ drain.

A gorgeous game with incredibly difficult puzzles and a somewhat interesting story to go along with them. The puzzles themselves are obtuse as hell but when you solve them they usually make sense. You need to seriously think well outside the box for every puzzle, don't just think inside the little area you're in but in the area outside. A great game for fans of The Witness and The Talos Principle.

(Just use a guide for the damn maze puzzle, that ♥♥♥♥ is hell)

An incredibly good game. It tells a great story without actually telling an actual story (in words) which is a very difficult thing for game developers to do, and makes you feel a lot of emotions, again, without telling you in words what's going on. It features various puzzles and challenges, as well.

The only con I could find was just that it tended to stretch things out a tiny bit too much between puzzles, but it's understandable.

I've got a few hours in it, not much tho. Not really anything special, kinda dead community

It's... not the best of games.

It is literally EXACTLY the same game as the mobile version, except it has savegames, and mouse controls. I mean, It's not what I expected it to be. I expected Fallout Shelter to be way more indepth, and without any of that pay2win ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. I mean c'mon Bethesda, you guys are an established games studio. You should be better than those low-level pay2win companies ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ out generic mobile crap.

It's pretty good. Definitely better than Civ V.

Now, I haven't played this game for very long, but already I can tell it's good.

Pros:

Smooth interface
Good graphics
Nice District System
Stacking on Cities
Amazing soundtrack
Good UI

Cons:

Less Civs
Long(ish) loading times
Slow start, even on Quick
Less advanced settings
Can't view what map will look like in Advanced Settings

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Overall it's a good game. I'd rate it 91/100.