Recenzii recente de Sterling

I wanted to start this by saying I really wanted to give this a positive score, but I feel there are some fundamental issues and worries I have for this project.

The Good:
The developers have done an excellent job making Unreal Engine feel like Source, from movement to the UI, it's nearly unnoticeable. The game runs decent for me and did not hitch at any points. Scripted sequenced played correctly and enemies never bugged out. UI graphics look nice and clean. And this new physics engine seems to be working well, as picked up props feel good and interact with the world without issues. Level Streaming also seems to be working well.

The Grey:
It's unclear what kind of Demo this is, is this fully representative of the final product which the developers intend on eventually shipping? If its near the idea, then that leads me to-

The Bad:
While it's clear there are elements here that were made with passion and all the good intent that can come from a Half-Life Fan project, there are fundamentals which miss more than they succeed.

The gunplay is not satisfying, nor pleasing to engage within. The first person animations and sounds leave far more to be desired from a demo meant to showcase solidified elements. The animations range from HL2 quality to nearly the quality of Half-Life 1 without the satisfying feeling and sounds to back it up. Receiving damage and having my camera bob so violently made me nauseous when cornered and repeatedly hit. First person animations feel lacking overall, with running feeling as if you're only gliding along the ground due to the lack of sounds.

Which leads me to Sound Design. While sounds such as physics interactions and zombies feel mostly well executed, many others feel as if they're simply imitations of Half-Life 2 but changed for some reason. The UI sounds such as turning on the flashlight do not feel as if I am pressing a flashlight button, but rather a sci-fi noise vaguely similar to a portal 2 button. Sounds for guns are flat and underwhelming, especially in the case of the gravity gun which lack much dynamic range when it comes to punting or interacting. I expected more from the audio spatialization which was previously advertised in the updates, I believe this hurts to illusion of the spaces. For example: Guns shot indoors will sound the exact same as a gun shot outdoors.

Subjectively, I think the art design is missing the mark when it comes to execution, all concept art showcased well rendered ideas with a grounded sense of values. However, when this art is interpreted, all subtlety is loss and the scene is overwhelmed with large, flashy Unreal Engine particle effects alongside contrasting quality and textile density between assets. Where blurry large stone walls and ice sit right next to 4k snow textures on the ground or bricks on the wall. I cannot tell if Project Borealis is trying to have a stylized or realistic artstyle because it varies between so many elements. Some props such as ice are heavily stylized while wood and zombies are realistic, I feel there is a balance which the developers just are not quite meeting between these elements. There is so much great concept art that they are adapting but I feel as if art direction is being ignored and unchecked as these assets are made and implemented into the engine.

Overall, I'm hoping much of this can be addressed, I'm just not convinced that this is the best direction which they could be going towards. The updates of the past have advertised so many features which are unnoticeable here. If the elements included are not intended to still be placeholder, I'm unsure why all they bothered redoing certain things rather than keeping the HL2 assets. Prioritizing rope physics and wind drag systems over the feeling of combat or harmony between sounds and visuals worries me. In Update 5, the gameplay showcase excited me and others because we saw it was all placeholder and could look and feel great with time. I was hoping this demo would showcase all the improvements they've made since five years ago with their last update, however it just looks like more of the same placeholder elements.

Game development is hard, and sometimes unrewarding. I don't want any of this feedback to deter this team from keeping at it and working on this in their free time, I'm just hoping that they can read this and recognize where I believe this demo disappoints and some areas which they could give a bit more polish. You've got some systems here which could very well make for a good Half-Life experience, it just needs some work, polish, and proper direction to utilize the unique gameplay elements you've made more. I do look forward to what comes next from this team, you'll continue getting my feedback and support throughout your journey.

Thank you for sticking with PB despite it all.

Guns and Monsters, need I say more?

Filled to the brim with AI art and AI voice nonsense.
Hope they replace it all.

Horror fans are eatin' good this year, and it just keeps getting better with Amnesia: The Bunker!
With a fresh gameplay take on Amnesia, bringing live-sim aspects to the series, this title stands out among the franchise. An incredibly well thought out experience, which doesn't overstay its welcome (even though I wouldn't have minded). The campaign is short and sweet with the most replayability out of any previous title. From sound design to animations, the devs have nailed this spooky atmosphere, and the HPL engine keeps chugging along for each title to be timeless.
Everyone at Frictional should be extremely proud of this one!

A walk through this hellish realm brings disgusting creatures and a mysterious world straight from the mind of H.R. Geiger. With spectacle galore, Scorn is an impressive feat of artistry within the Video Game medium and is exactly what I seek from an experience relying heavily on visuals and sound. Ebb Software have blown the visuals out of the park and delivered a unique experience that is unlike many other puzzle survival games.
While the story is minimal and a tad cryptic, its world-building drips with history of this fallen civilization. While short, Scorn's delivery and pacing is wonderful. I beat the campaign in 5.5 hours and loved each second of it. The journey reminded me of playing Myst back as a child, but with the wonderful horror which I came to love as an adult.
Scorn is everything I want from the horror genre and its painful scenes make me squirm every way I hoped it would. I cannot wait to see what may come next, but so far, this was an impressive experience unlike any other puzzle game.

Sadly, BoneLab's attention is less on its campaign and rather its sandbox gamemodes. Nearly an hour into the campaign and after hitting several long puzzle sections, its clear that the campaign of this game not only does not care about your time, but does not work to achieve anything over its predecessor.
With zero improvement to the ""jank"" of the first game, the charm of its environments, headcrab creatures, and wonky physics are not as enticing the second time around. It does not help that Stress Level Zero refuse to tutorialize anything in this game, including unmentioned changes from Boneworks. Including zero comfort options, the developers have made it clear that they are intentionally setting out to make players feel uneasy and uncomfortable multiple times in the campaign, included probably ten 50 foot drops for no real reason within the first hour. The level design and enemy placement feels random and poorly thought out in many early sections, with there being no real motivation to even make progress with its hidden narrative. Where Boneworks had a race to a clock tower, Bonelabs has a radio voice actor talking to you, and no clear connection between each level.
If you're looking for a VR sandbox game, this may be for you, just prepare to have to work through one of the more poorly designed singleplayer campaigns I have tried. The start is very rough and although it may improve as your progress, I value the time I must spend standing, fighting against the physics of a fake digital body, with a box weighing down my head.

One of the best modern FPS games for sure. Hype for Eternal is real.