Recent reviews by S S Absolution

Little more than a casual nightmare... In the scheme of things there's not really a lot to this game. A lack of explanation or any stories to define what's actually going on. Ultimately there's only the gameplay and the environment to focus upon. While neither of these aspects were terrible, there's very little to rave about either. The atmosphere of the game is likely the strongest point that anyone can point to, but to actually play through it leaves quite a bit to be desired. With only really two main aspects to play through, this is a game for the casual gamer and nothing more.

Don't expect any dialogue, monologues or anything that even resembles those two things. Little Nightmares is devoid of any of that. Even if those aspects could've offered more reason to want to play this. Gluttony is about the only message that's ever conveyed as well. Everything else is just a random interpretation that you make to try and justify the experience of this midget child. Anything at all to offer some additional details into what's going on would've likely helped this, but alas it was not meant to be.

Aesthetically, the game is interesting to ponder over, but that's all it really ends up being... pondering. A dark environment with some rather interesting creatures is the one bright spot this can point to as the strength of the game. There's nothing beyond this that will be a beacon in that darkness. The game revolved around a couple of mechanics that are good, but needed some real refinement. You'll sneak around, sneak some more, and then sneak again. Maybe solve a simple puzzle here or there but nothing that doesn't also involve sneaking around. The hiding aspect of the sneaking can be hit or miss at times, areas where a determined spot is required to hide or being seen while you're hiding happen here or there. It's not a defining aspect of the sequences, but it happens enough to be annoying.

That's about all there is to the game, congratulations you just beat Little Nightmares. Although one section where you run across a table of gluttonous fat bodies deserves special mention for being annoying. There's an invisible wall that prevents you from basically skipping the section as well which I'm never a fan of, how hard would it have been to put an actual obstacle in the way to prevent me from outsmarting the level design instead of, well, magic.

It's got a short runtime, with me taking my time with it I got completed in about three and a half hours. the ending sequence as well... apparently there was some magic left in that old silk hat you find. You suddenly become the anti-Christ with murder exuding from your very existence. It was all rather confusing.

A tale of a game plagued by mediocrity. A character driven narrative that's let down by its nonsensical plot lines. A number of tedious game mechanics that are repetitive at the best of times and boring at the worst. The programming for the NPCs is just begrudgingly bad and makes it a frustrating experience when you're literally forced to drag at least one through basically the entire game. The animation and graphics are the best aspect of the experience which means the weaknesses are contained within the interactive nature of the actual game.

One of the few strengths of the game is the characters and their personal interactions. It almost feels like there's a genuine connection between them through most of the game. Yet it still couldn't avoid some truly questionable decisions to try and hamstring certain events into the game. These things become more prevalent the further you progress. If the game had focused more on this aspect for the plot or story, it would've been a much stronger experience.

For some reason or another, the plot takes a few mystical turns that feel forced or out of place given the nature of the narrative up to a specific point. This is one aspect that gets worse as everything continues. Nothing is really ever explained even after it's presented to you. Much of the mystical elements felt coerced into the plot to make some of the earlier elements make sense. The stories and plot felt good in the beginning but begin to fall apart.

As for the elements of interaction, there's three main mechanics you'll be forced to endure over and over again. Sneaking around, avoiding rats and using you sling. You'll repeat these same three things throughout the entirety of the game. None of these elements were outright terrible, but there's some definitive problems in each of them. The sneaking is marred by being required to have other characters with you in every Chapter but one. The rats will avoid the light, except for when they don't, but they act more as an environmental obstacle than anything else. Using the sling is ridiculous at times, since you'll just mow trained knights and guards down with it when needed.

When you're with you're allies they will just stand there at times while you child protagonist gets cut down or chased by the guards. Worse they'll stand out in the open at times and get seen thus alerting them to your location. At least you can hold Hugo's hand to keep him right next to you unlike the adults you have to coach into better spots. The enemies drop their attention from you quickly. A murdered colleague at their feet and 15 seconds later it's like it never happened. The entire aspect is at best playable, at worst annoying.

With most of the game just repeating the same thing over and over again, plus a plot line that gets worse the more time that passes there's a lot to be desired in the game. It's by no means terrible, but it's also not that great. I do feel it should've focused on the characters and how the events of the game affect them, that would've made for a better story given the strong character interactions.

An art showcase with some music that's apparently supposed to make you "feel" something... but I must've missed the message or something like that. All I can gather is it has something to do with grieving... maybe... I'm still not really sure. It purports itself a bit too heavily for no reason behind a delicate art style that renders it rather soporific. Most of this game ended up being a simple side scrolling walking simulator through some, admittedly interesting visuals, but really that's all it is. Maybe I'm not "artsy" enough to "get it", but I was mostly just bored for 4 hours.

Artistically, yes I have nothing negative to say about it. The backdrops, some specific visuals, the music and the way the world evolves aesthetically are pretty. A few disquieted moments in the first 2 minutes have a slight emotional impact, there's no real reward beyond a few momentary scenes as you progress. Grief, or dealing with loss and trying to overcome it, like I said, is about the only meaning I could extract from anything. Even that though lacks any real emotional weight behind it.

As a video game, the aspects of it that you play are boredom inducing. It just lacks any sections, beyond one, that are actually that interesting to play through. It's most just a walking simulator with a few button presses with the most obvious clues possible. If you're looking for the most casual experience possible, then this is probably the type of game you're looking for. There's no way to fail or lose, and the puzzles are about as simple as they come. It's an unrelieved experience to play through.

When the art is the best part of a game... it's never a good sign. It generally means the actual game isn't good, and this is a perfect example of that. You'll get a few visuals that are nice to look at, but to actually interact with... it lacks in nearly every aspect.

A pixel art homage to the classic survival horror genre from the OG PlayStation era that both hits and misses on some of the main items it portrays. The classic feel of the gameplay of old is directly evident, even down to the possible control schemes, with a tank control option being available. The controls are solid and the atmosphere of the game is on point, with a potential for tense moments when ammunition is running low. While the story has moments where it appeals to some interesting ideas, by the end the clarity of any of it is rather convoluted. Some of the symbolism requires prior knowledge into other works of fiction as well to understand what it is meant to portray.

I've nothing to complain about with the actual game... everything is solid and it uses established survival horror items to really dial in. It most reminds me of the original Resident Evil, a solid use of slower gun mechanics and puzzles to break the experience up. The puzzles are a bit of a mixed bag, with some of them being excellent nuggets that can be enjoyed, while others are mostly fetch one thing to fetch another. Most of them are on the positive end though. The moments of tension aren't common, cropping up mostly in the earlier sections. By the end, you should be able to simply avoid most of the enemies. I ended the game with an abundance of ammo left in the crate.

In all honesty, the stories and plot are the weakest point, it starts with a lot of promise and offers some interesting moments of fascination. It just fails to ultimately deliver on itself though. Ultimately I ended with more questions than it ever attempts to answer, and the whole series of events is a bit too open for interpretation. The symbolism is a mixture of savage thrust, and a wet noodle all rolled up in a rug with half the rug being set on fire and left to ash. If you've never been exposed to The Yellow King by Robert Chambers, you might end up having to research it when you've completed the game to understand some of the nuances. It has its moments, and I did enjoy many of the themes. It just could've been a bit tidier.

While everything else meets the basic metrics of quality, nothing will really stand out as exceptional in terms of the visuals or sound. They were never a problem, and that's the minimum you should ask of a game. They add to the atmosphere of the game, but never elevate it to another level. I found all of these to be satisfactory, and never distracted to the experience.

As a little caveat to anyone who plays this... the first "ending" is not the end of the game. You need to begin again to reach an actual conclusion. I only say this because I did quit out of the game the first time I got past the first "ending". Only by chance did I catch that I needed to begin again. There are multiple "true endings", but the ways you unlock each are a bit convoluted. It's a decent length of game as well, my playthrough took about 9 and three quarter hours of playtime to complete.

With all around solid gameplay, and the only thing being a slight drawback that the story and plot lines aren't as tidy as they potentially could've been. I'd still recommend the game if you're looking for a more classic survival horror feel/game this should check all those boxes for you.

An arcade space ship shooter with a small mech-type component to it. Depending on which of the three platforms you choose from it can range in its level of difficulty. The controls are tight enough with the keyboard and mouse, but the gameplay can get repetitive as you continually progress through the levels with the latter levels really supplying bullet-sponge enemies at times.

The main objective, beyond beating each of the levels is to score the highest score in each level to earn increasing letter grades. Enemies come at you in waves, with the waves getting slightly more difficult with each new wave that comes through. Capital ships usually show up in the end waves, but as you progress through the levels they become more common earlier on. Destroying the capital ships nets you credits, so it can be helpful to destroy them as quickly as possible.

The capital ships are filled with turrets and weak points that can be targeted for destruction. Depending on which of the three ships you pick it can range from easy to difficult to destroy the turrets in a timely fashion. Weak points can also be a bit odd in their hit boxes at times, which can cause a bit of frustration as you work against the clock. There are bonus rounds, but the capital ships appearing during these sections are rare, but can net you some additional credits.

Using the credits you can purchase reinforcements to help you out on a level by level basis. If they survive the level you get your credits back so you can hire the same ships again the next level. While they can be useful in the earlier levels, they begin to lose their effectiveness once you get to the "Elite" enemies. You can always upgrade their effectiveness, but even at the highest levels they're still mostly just cannon fodder, that can be used to distract from you being the sole target.

Each ship can transform into it's "mech" version as you fill the "Flux" bar. Each shot of your weapons (gun or missles) will drain this bar slightly, once it's empty you auto-switch back to your standard space ship mode. There's two perspectives you can fly in as well, cockpit view or a 3rd person camera directly behind the ship. So you can enjoy it either mode, without any real changes to the gameplay.

I enjoyed the game, as you can tell by the 100% achievement mark I've gotten in it. The arcade-y ness of it can help you get a bit of extra enjoyment from it if you like trying for additional points to beat your previous runs. For me, once I beat the game, I've only really come back to it a few times but I remember those times being fun regardless. For around $7 (US) it's a decent enough game if you like space ship shooters.

I've burned the heretic, killed the mutant and purged the unclean... still never found the glory of The Emperor.

ANNO : Mutationem just frankly needs more... if you want to look at pixel anime-ish art legs... then sure it's perfect. Honestly it just feels rushed and unfinished. There’s never any big reward as you progress to really keep you involved. It's got the sparks of originality and intrigue, it just never catches fire.

I'm not trashing the pixel art... I was nice, I'm not attacking the music or sounds... they were fine. It's everything that makes this a "game" that needs more content and refinement. You'll do a bunch of useless tasks that never really drive the story forward. Characters can come off as annoying or pointless. The combat is simple and never really posed any challenge. If you want to do any of the side quests, there’s just a ton of backtracking.

The pacing is all off too. Beginning sections feature a ton of menial, boring tasks. Only the final act finally makes you feel as if the game is starting to catch it’s stride, when it ends. Almost no meaningful information is given out in the first half of the game, and even when it does it still ends up retconned at the end. I just never felt like I was ever actually building toward anything.

The entire second act is spent looking for your brother and his search for the mcguffin. The first act, all these little tidbits are dangled out in front of you, but never actually get delivered. All the characters fail the muster test as well. Sure some are interesting, but others can be annoying. Even the interesting ones, might disappear to never be spoken of again.

If you’re just looking for a super casual experience where you never really have to follow anything until the last few hours, then I recommend this for you. If you’re looking for something fleshed out that delivers, I’d avoid this one. There’s just not enough delivered to make it worth your while.

Just why... why did you make the choices you made? Was it your intention to finally kill off a beloved franchise, or were you just irresponsible? Did you go in just screaming about profit margins and the silly saps who were gonna shower you in gold, 343?

Well... seems like there were plenty of showers of gold to go around... 343 towards its fans, the fans back to 343... it's a sad state of affairs to be involved with. Luckily, I didn't spend any money and got away with just an 87 hour time sink, hours not representative of actual playtime. It feels like a shell of the game we'd anticipated, a demo for what's coming Holiday's 2022, not a well polished game ready for release.

The game isn't a mess... but... I remember an interview I watched with ole Bungie creator of CE and he talked about how the game is just capturing the same 30 seconds of fun over and over again. This tries that formula, but in the weirdest way possible, it tries to give you the exact same fun for 30 seconds over and over again. In terms of an initial rush of fun, yes it succeeds for a time, but the sugar crash you feel afterward if just depressing.

Design-wise, I'm not entirely certain what they were thinking. Sure the character models looks fine and the scenery and all that is good to look at, but many of the more subtle design choices were just mucked up with a seemingly brazen disregard for intuition. The menus can be a nightmare to operate and move around until you just learn by clicking through the thousand options that do essentially the same three things.

Then there's the technical design choices... hope you like de-sync, rubber banding, and completely unexplainable hit box issues. If not, then you're gonna face some real frustration with this. I benefit from the last one quite a bit, and it makes me seem like I'm better than I am, but I suffer the penalties of the other two far too often. For some reason I love to pull the trigger on the BR for complete misses, but the game rewards my consistency with missing by giving me super bullets and head shots where none existed.

The one I get penalized the most by, is because this game exists in the Wanted universe and we can now bend bullets around corners. I don't think I'm a fanatic about this on any game, a step or a half second around the wall... I understand I'm still in the danger zone due to the technical limitations of what we have... but... full seconds where I have enough time to feel safe and begin trying to strafe back out.. but gasp... I've been taking damage non-stop and before I even step back out to get murdered... I'm already dead. Rockets blow up in your chest and you'll run away is another crowd-pleaser I'm sure..

Finally, the choices that kill franchises... do you want to only play a certain map, or maybe a specific game type in ranked? Find a different game! That's your choice! Certainly sounds like a business decision to keep people around for a long time. Gut basic features that are the reasons for the franchises sustained success like co-op campaign, forge mode, all lumped together with some rather loathsome map selections. It just feels like a hollow representation of what it should've been with all the resources behind the game...

I'll likely play the game again with friends... and like I said it's not that it doesn't have fun in it. It's just that there's a great deal of refinement and remapping that the game needs to go through to reach a state that feels like it properly competes for my time.

Plot driven games are terrible to review when you hate all the themes the plot is built off of. How do I describe why the message is bad... without defining the actual message...

Here it is spoiler free... parents suck, people die, and autistic spouses make terrible partners. Your life is gonna be sad and there's never gonna be any happiness that makes it worth it. The only solace you'll have is on your death bed when you completely change the memories of your life and all the people in it. Even that though... will last for like 20 seconds... sounds like the type of life worth living Johnny.

Surfing through the rust colored muck that's this guys life, there seems a probability that we'd find a pivotal moment where he was... I don't know... happy... but there's only really one. That one though is overshadowed by a p3n!s kick so righteous that it actually turns the happy memory into a source of pain. It's also a bit convoluted as to why these things would even need to be done.

For lack of a better definition, I just lacked any real empathy for Johnny. I don't feel bad that you lived your life and didn't like it... better git gud. Next time someone will stop being a coward and actually discuss fundamental issues with their spouse or find help that can assist with those additional challenges from autism. I had no faith in the love for his wife and that felt like he deserved to die without his memories being changed. I only wish I had the option

Describe this rhythm game in one word, niche. It tries to set a rather high bar early on, but it never quite lives up to its own hype. It's a fun distraction, but that's all it ends up being, and is remembered simply as a white and orange blob with a thin blue line that separated me from glory.

Really this game doesn't have any one thing you can point at that you just flat out say, that ruins the personal satisfaction of the game. It's a culmination of small seemingly innocuous designs that make it feel rather bland. There's a lot of simple monotony in this, and yes simple, and/or monotonous do have their positives. Objectively though this misses that slight aesthetic flair I'd expect from such choices. There needs to be some stark contrast that acts as a backdrop, and that's woefully missing.

With variety comes a bit of memorability. It breaks up a rather soporific experience into smaller little portions that are easier to remember. Even now, I have trouble picking level designs out by memory, and that's a problem. It means I can't say to anyone... ohhh this part, that part will make all the other minutes worth it. It's not for a lack of trying though, there are "boss" fights, but it boils down to the same mechanics as all the other levels. It's different and fun, but not quite different enough.

Maximum ribbon accuracy is not 100%, and it shows on the leaderboards. The best, let alone a pissant like me, can't get 100% so don't expect to. The ribbon is graded very harshly, but I never felt as if it were overly unfair. I can get the 5 stars on the Master level difficulty songs, so it's not a ripoff by any metric.

However, there are certain sections of levels, (I can't remember which, as I was in a tunnel gliding along a blue line listening to Dub Step) where the designer seemingly took a few shots of meth and wanted to wiggle the joystick around as quickly as possible. I'm being a bit facetious, but there are a number of these points that feel almost deliberately there to ensure 100% is impossible.

There's always a certain je ne sais quoi that separates the moniker of timeless classic from fun distracting diversion. There are just so many other better rhythm games out there, that I feel this is sort of an extra niche game that dub steppers and point/rhythm game junkies will thrive off of. For all others, the details will be lost to the ether forever more.