Recent reviews by Meryl Gear Solid

The Darkside Detective is a love letter to classic point and click adventure games with a focus on the humour rather than obtuse and obscure puzzles. It follows the story of Detective McQueen and his sidekick, Officer Patrick Dooley as they investigate various hauntings taking place around the city as they try to uncover the truth and crack the case. The game is broken down into 9 cases, 6 main cases and three bonus cases which were added post launch. Each case takes around 30 - 45 minutes on average to beat so it's a great game to pick up and play in short sessions.

The game has a larger focus on on the humour and exploration over obscure puzzles with moon logic which I felt was a great decision. Usually the puzzles will be standard adventure game fare such as combining items and using them on part of the map but I found for the most part these solutions were all very logical and made sense in context. There's also some puzzle segments which are mini games like connecting tubes together to make a tunnel which allowed for a nice change of pace and a brief break for exploring.

I played the game on Steam Deck and it ran flawlessly, the game has controller support where you just use the A button to click and drag and I didn't find any issues with Controller inputs. You can also at any time and you'll never lose progress if you want to put the game down then come back later.

Overall the game will probably take 5-7 hours to beat all nine cases with the length varying between them. The game is short and sweet and doesn't overstay it's welcome, I think if the game was too long the humour might have ran dry but I think including the bonuses cases the length is just right. It's a lot funnier than I expected, and found myself chuckling quite a bit at every case. I don't think there were any bad cases and overall the quality was quite consistent and I never really found myself getting frustrated. If you're a fan of classic point n' click adventure games such as Monkey Island or Broken Sword I'd recommend picking this up, it takes all the best parts of the classics and removes the annoying parts like moon logic and instead focuses on fun and exploration.

This game is Steam Deck verified, and you can play a lot of the game without issue, however you will be locked out of multiple endings if you're playing on Steam Deck or Linux. The most spoiler free way I can describe it is there's several endings of the game which only function on a Windows and or a desktop PC. You will not be able to get these endings on Steam Deck or Linux despite the game having the verified tag. I can't explain why without spoiling the game but if you follow a guide you can technically still achieve this endings, but you will miss the entire puzzle and only get the solution by following a guide.

Spoilers for why it is not functional: There is a free DLC that you need to launch alongside the game for use in multiple endings and secrets. This DLC is a separate software which will give you solutions to puzzles that have no other solution. This DLC does not boot on Linux even with Proton, I had to load up my windows desktop and re download the game on my laptop to finish the game. There are also several parts of the game which involve using a real desktop PC to visit Twitter, and a part where you have to download a PDF file. These parts can be done on Steam Deck desktop mode but not on the game mode.

If the developer could patch this, so everything worked on Steam Deck I would recommend the game, it's quite fun and original, however having to stop at the half way point of the game, and then re-downloading it onto another computer to finish it was rather frustrating.

Alisa is a love letter to classic survival horror games with fixed camera angles, tank controls and obtuse puzzles. If you like the original Resident Evil or Silent Hill games this is the perfect game for you. It has a rather unique setting taking place in a large doll house full of creepy dolls, clowns and more that I won't spoil here.

The gameplay has you exploring a large doll house (see: mansion) full of monsters and puzzles where you have to find the right key or item to progress. Ammo is somewhat scarce, however enemies drop currency upon defeat which you can use to buy upgrades and ammo. The upgrades include various dresses which give you different stat boosts such as taking less damage, or faster movement. You have to decide how much ammo you want to use to clear a room and whether it's worth the exchange as enemies don't respawn. After you finish exploring an area you will fight a boss which upon defeat will give you access to the next area of the game. The combat can be quite difficult however the game has has some options to make the game easier with things like an auto-aim toggle,

The level design is quite good and the different areas of the game all feel unique with different enemy types, visual styles and music, and as you progress you'll find shortcuts linking the areas together for faster travel.

The game was quite buggy at launch which you might see mentioned in some reviews, but it has received several patches and is relatively bug free now. The patches have continued to add post launch content including new areas and endings. There won't be any more content updates for the game, so now is the perfect time to jump in and experience everything. It takes about 8 hours to beat on your first playthrough, but there are 3 endings to unlock and New Game+ has additional features, so there's good replay value with bonus costumes and the like.

If you're a fan of old school survival horror pick this up you won't regret it.

A classic style PS1 style horror game that looks and plays like Silent Hill 1 or Resident Evil 1-3. You play as a detective and visit a mysterious house where you must solve the mystery of what has happened to the residents. Lots of puzzles, and a great atmosphere, There aren't any "survival horror" elements it's just atmospheric horror so if you're looking for things like limited saves or low ammo rationing this isn't the game for you..

The game is relativity short and will take you about 60 to 90 minutes to beat, but for the price i would highly recommend to any fans of Silent Hill 1 or Classic Resident Evil, it's an experience worth playing for retro horror lovers.

Tormented Souls is a love letter to old school survival horror. If you're a fan of old fashioned Resident Evil or Silent Hill this is the perfect game for you. Limited saves, fixed camera angles and scarce ammo, this game is exactly what survival horror is about.

The game will probably take 7-10 hours to clear if you're a Survival Horror vet or maybe 10-12 if you're new to the genre. The game only has one difficulty setting but it is well balanced. I didn't struggle too much, however If you're new to the Survival Horror genre the limited saves and scarce ammo may seem quite difficult. The game does give you plenty of ammunition if you play sensibly and don't waste it on everything you see, there's plenty of chances to run past monsters to conserve ammo.

The basic core gameplay loop has you exploring an abandoned hospital searching for clues about the disappearance of two missing girls. It takes inspiration from RE1 in that as you explore you'll be unlocking shortcuts and be circling back round the way you came to the same areas. By the time you've finished the game you should be able to map the entire area without too much trouble.

You can only save the game with a cassette item and at selected locations, the amount of saves is limited but fair. There were occasional times where it felt there were long stretches without any save cassettes to be found which was rather stressful, but I feel this was intentional as you usually get a bulk of save cassettes at once, and then have to ration them for the next section of the game.

The puzzles are quite difficult in this game, and some of them are a bit too obtuse, I know this is a love letter to classic survival horror games but I feel the puzzles may have been too hard overall, however this didn't really dampen my experience as everything else about the game is fantastic. For example there's an audio based puzzle, and I figured out the solution very quickly but the execution was very difficult and took me about 15-20 attempts to be successful despite knowing the solution. There wasn't really much reason the puzzle had to be this precise and it was the most frustrating part of the game for me.

There's a few different enemy types and they're all fun to fight however visually a lot of them are quite similar. I'd love to have seen some more enemy variety but overall the enemies did their job and were fun to fight through the whole length of the game.

As far as story goes it's fine, it's typical survival horror story with bad voice acting and silliness and throughout, there's plenty of twists and turns that keep you guessing, and there's multiple endings depending on your actions which I quite liked, none of the endings felt obscure to get, they all felt rather logical and a player should be able to find them all without needing to consult a guide.

Overall Tormented souls is a fantastic love letter to one of my favourite genre's and It's nice to see indie devs bring a dead genre back from the dead. If you're a fan of old school Survival Horror this game is a must play without a doubt. If you're new to the genre the game will probably be enjoyable to you, however for maximum enjoyment I'd suggest playing a couple of the original RE and Silent Hill games then coming back and playing this. You're sure to enjoy it more when you see how it manages to feel old school and modern at the same time.

If you're on the fence pick this up you won't regret it.

If you've played the original game this probably isn't worth playing, there is plenty of new content but it's all just unfunny gags about "How lazy remasters and sequels are". It's just the same one joke over and over again about re releasing a game with minimal effort for more money. It was funny at first but after the narrator kept saying the exact same joke with slightly different punchline it got stale.

If you've never played the original pick this up, it has all the content from the original game and new the content is sectioned off, the original gags are still funny but the new jokes just fall flat.

A rhythm game with simple two button gameplay, easy to learn hard to master. Comes with a great sound track and amazing graphics. Best of all It's free, there's no reason not to pick this up.

Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped in a never ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle… and wonder if we’ll ever get the chance to kill him.

Cap the game at 60 fps and it runs fine, the amount of negative reviews about this issue is ridiculous, the game is fun and runs without issues capped at 60. It's a remaster of a decade old game than barely ran at 30fps in the past now it runs at 60 and looks better then ever.

Siege Of Dragonspear is a DLC that takes place very shortly after the end of Baldur's Gate and begins after Baldurs Gate 2 begins. The story takes about 15 hours to beat and i really enjoyed my time with this package as a whole, Siege Of Dragonspear has a great story and enjoyable gameplay and dungeons.

For context this review is from someone who is playing the saga for the first time, I am writing this review after playing BG 2 because i wanted to see how the story tied together, without spoiling anything this DLC ends pretty much as soon as BG 2 begins and i thought this did a good job of bridging the gap between the two stories.


The story of the DLC is that another child of Bhaal, named Caelar Argent is leading a crusade that is soon to reach Baldur's Gate, as the Hero of Baldurs gate you are given the duty to lead an army to war against the crusade and stop Caelar Argent before Baldur's Gate is attacked. You start in Baldur's Gate then shortly after you head to a new continent to face Caelar head on. Caelar is an absolutely fantastic antagonist, she is morally complex and has great character development as the story progresses, by the end you really understand her motives and what her goal is, she isn't just a mindless killer or tryant she's leading this army for what she believes is a good cause. I found she is a much more interesting villain than Saverok and I personally think she is as good as, if not better than the villain in BG 2.

My only real issue with the story was that it ended rather abruptly, you can tell when you're at the conclusion but then it just seems to end so suddenly, i originally thought i had somehow got the bad ending or done something wrong so it would've been nice to have another 30 minutes or so to wrap things up, apart from that I really enjoyed everything else.


As far as gameplay goes at the start of SOD you'll be looking for your old companions to recruit who are scattered around Baldur's Gate, the introduction serves mostly for story purposes but it's nice to explore Baldur's Gate when the streets are packed with people. The way most of the exploration works in SOD is that you are given several small areas to explore that are dense with content, you can't explore a full map unfortunately and the areas you explore are locked to the story chapter you are on, once you finish that chapter you won't be able to return and you will unlock a new section of the map to explore.

There are several companions to choose from to form your party, some new some old, almost all of the companions of the original game do show up in SOD but not all of them will join you, this is unfortunate because it means you might not be able to have the same party as you did in the base game, however I thought the new companions they added were good and were a solid addition to my party. SOD also has more interactivity with your companions than the original game, similar to BG 2 your companions will often strike up a conversation with you and you can respond however you wish.

One thing that really stood out to me was that SOD does things that would not be possible in the classic version of Baldurs Gate, it really takes advantage of more modern hardware by having tons of NPC's on the screen at the same time. Most of the cutscenes are rendered in game but at times there can by what looks like a hundred characters on screen at once, this would never have been possible in the original game and it makes for some fantastic moments, like during the actual siege you feel like you're trapped in a battle between two gigantic armies and I was genuinely wowed at some points.


I think the reason a lot of people don't like SOD is because nothing of importance really happens that will affect BG 2, however I'd argue this story came out years after Baldurs Gate 2 and that story has been set in stone, there's a reason this is an expansion for the first game and not the second, and that's because it's an epilogue for the original story, it's not supposed to feel like a sequel.

Overall I'd highly recommend playing this, especially if you're new to Baldur's Gate it bridges the gap between the two games and has a fantastic antagonist and story, the new companions are fun and the dungeons are great to crawl through. It's a fantastic epilogue to the original story, apart from some minor nitpicks about the abrupt ending and being unable to return to previous areas playing Siege Of Dragonspear was an absolute blast.