Recent reviews by Shockeh

It's just... aggressively okay.

It does nothing *wrong* per se, it's just that there's a lot of fill, and someone loves POE style gigantic +10% to This Ability If You Do X trees, with very little in terms of progress, and the combat is deeply repetitive to the point of near mindlessness.

The core story is actually really good - I've enjoyed it, but I've given up on side content because there's so much that just... doesn't matter. You're doing them for +1% to Faction X, but the actual stories they tell, are pretty uninspiring.

If it was a movie, you'd say it'd be great if they cut an hour off it.

To every Venture Capital controlled publisher out there...

You want commercial success. You want return on your investment. We get that, your job is to make money, and making games is Hellishly expensive. But do you know what makes the biggest return? Do you know what buys you pre-orders, a huge release, great reviews and a commitment that the next game will see commercial success the moment it's announced?

Making a great Product. Make an experience, not a fairground ride. Make a space people want to inhabit, and a story they want to see unfold. Compelling characters, villains with motive, and events you can affect.

This is what Larian have achieved with this game, and it's paying dividends for them. A massive credit to the entire team who worked on this, from the designers & writers (Oh Lord, please hire writers), to the artists, voice actors, engineers and supporting teams that made this game. This isn't commercial success - This is just plain success, and commercial success is the consequence, not the objective.

Baldur's Gate 3 is the best Traditional RPG on the market today, hands down. It's a worthy successor to the Bioware & Obsidian titles of the past, and you should absolutely buy it. I'd also advocate if you like this to try their previous title, Divinity: Original Sin 2, which, whilst not being D&D, has similar levels of quality, humour & flair.

It's Tekken. If you like Tekken, it's one of the best Tekken. If you don't, you won't?

My four year old son is happy to fly his spaceship, and roast marshmallows. He doesn't care why the universe keeps ending, and that's somehow much better than solving the mystery.

Game Of The Year 2019, easily, and everyone at Mobius Digital should be proud of what they made.

Special mention goes to Andrew Prahlow, who produced one of the best soundtracks of any game ever.

Evacuated my crew into space, would recommend. A+

Full disclosure: I refunded this game after 90 minutes.

Unfortunately, a game that manages to be less than the sum of it's parts.

There is genius here. Some aspects of the game are really, genuinely quite good, graphical fidelity is amazing, and the environmental effects are jaw dropping to watch, it just falls flat as an actually fun game to play.

On gameplay itself - I think map design has really failed them here, as most maps there's huge, open spaces with very little going on, and capture points have clear sight lines, so being Infantry means really cowering to capture points because there's little you can do to hold a position or stop enemy fire, especially from vehicles & aircraft.

I can't recommend it in it's current state, though I wish I could, because there's clearly been love from the DICE team here, it just hasn't stuck the landing.

Magical.

Prey is probably going to be remembered as the best game Arkane made that was killed by bad marketing.

Prior to playing it, my awareness basically started and ended with 'It's the game where you can be a coffee cup', and that's true; You can be a coffee cup. What the abysmal marketing didn't say (and should have said) was 'IT'S BASICALLY SYSTEM SHOCK 3 WITHOUT INFRINGING THE IP GUYS' in neon, 72pt letters at every opportunity.

Yes, the combat is a bit wonky. Yes, it relies on you being scared as a player to not start gleefully rambo'ing into the Typhon. But if you let it, it's a beautiful immersive sim that rewards you for trying things, and has some genuinely brilliant jumpscares. The plot requires you to pay attention, read everything and immerse yourself in the world, but it's very rewarding if you do.

In a Steam sale like it is now? It's an absolute bargain, and I wouldn't hesistate in reccomending it to anyone who is a fan of the Deus Ex / System Shock type games, and it'll be a crying shame if poor marketing means we never get another one.

It's one of those perfect little symphonies of a game. The art, the music, the style, everything just oozes class. The gameplay itself will feel simplistic at first, but that's because you haven't quite worked it out yet, and the early phases are letting you get away with playing it simply.

A couple of hours in and you'll wonder how you were ever so naive, as you set up chains & combinations and start experimenting with how much fun you can have whilst actively limiting yourself, you'll realise how much depth to the gameplay itself there is.

This is a great game. Not just a good game, or a polished game, this is an actual, bone fide great game. Highly recommended.

L4D2-esque Co-op gaming with a bank heist slant. It's good fun, but a lot more fun when you're on Mumble together!