Recent reviews by Xandão

Good but weird: Feels a lot like it was made before the conventions of the FPS genre were well defined, so you get this strange historical artifact - a mish-mash of daring ideas, jank and bizarre humor. As far as I know, this Ludicrous Edition is currently the best way to play the game, and I had no technical issues. Gameplay consists of lots of exploration and of an unusual style of combat in which you use hitscan weapons to keep enemies stunned, switching targets all the time as you do so; all the while trying to identify if the situation calls for you to swap to one of the game's myriad launcher weapons, usually to deal with tougher threats or bunched up enemies. There are multiple playable characters to choose from, and it seemed like the "Accuracy" attribute was close to irrelevant, despite it changing between them. But speed and max health matter quite a bit. It's also worth noting that this game's soundtrack is unusually good and often does elevate the action, all mostly thanks to legendary video game Maestro Lee Jackson.

A fine remake of Half-Life. Changes some things, not always for the best, but on the whole it's worth checking out just to see the old environments redone. It's undoubtedly one of the best looking Source games.
A small warning regarding the chapters from Xen onwards in this. They're lame, overlong (about 1/3 to 1/4 of a total first playtime, I'd wager) and I'm still a bit confused on why the developers felt they needed to ship it like this. The Gonarch fight is a 40 minutes long cinematic slog instead of just putting down a dangerous beast. Xen sucks in this, I actually like the original more. Looks good, though! Nihilanth is a better fight this time around, at least.

A fun little romp, and it's tough to beat the price tag.
Solid, arcadey kart racer gameplay with items. There are modes other than racing, such as Battle and one that takes after Capture The Flag.
The 32-bit console era era textures + CRT aesthetic are delightful. You can tweak and modify much of how the game looks, too.
Try to find and beat the (in my opinion janky and unfun) hidden boss fight! Unlocks things!

Teeming with promise, but painfully buggy right now - Only purchase it in Early Access if you're a retro FPS aficionado. Otherwise, an amazing improvement upon the first game, I prefer this one in essentially every aspect. Level geometry is far more complex this time around, the game now resembles something like Quake instead of Wolfenstein 3D. 8-way sprites, multiple hitboxes on each enemy (with different death animations), great feedback to the shooting and carnage (it resembled something like Brutal Doom to me at times, bits and pieces of your foes flying everywhere), tons of enemies onscreen and useful, expertly balanced weapons (the standout for me was the Cannon). The upgrade system is back in a more in-depth fashion, and magic feels way more useful in PW2. There are currently two campaigns with 12 levels each, Palmer's and Urd's. A third one is planned. They play rather differently, with Urd's upgrade system feeling like something from a "Roguelike", you can't always choose what upgrade you get. I felt Urd's campaign was the better of the two by a large margin, Palmer's lost steam to me during the latter third or so, even if his weapons are more fun in general. Even if its current buggy state dissuades you from a purchase, keep your eye on this one!

Strangely, this competent throwback FPS spinoff might actually be the best and most polished of all the Postal games. But there are modern influences to its gameplay: Doom Eternal's DNA shows up immediately. Some encounters on the highest difficulty might actually exceed D:E's harshest fare in terms of challenge, since this game is significantly more demanding in terms of aiming (several enemies must be hit in small weakspots to be dispatched quickly), and the onscreen enemy count also seems to get much higher than it did in D:E. Most weapons are enjoyable to fight with and useful. The majority of this game's levels are superb, there are only a couple that stood out to me as obviously inferior. Very easy recommendation if you're on board with the "boomer shooter" revival wave.

A remarkable FPS/TPS and 3D platformer hybrid with great amounts of potential and oodles of content. There are technical issues with it right now (latest content update at the time of this writing was the 2023 Halloween event), but those are outnumbered by a much greater amount of good attributes. Lots of exploration, lots of weapons, lots of customization (outfits), a very replayable main campaign, several Arcade Mode maps...You can get a lot of hours of high quality content even if you buy it during Early Access. Become an Onibro!

I first became interested in this game due to it featuring what I felt were Turok 2-like visuals, all from a random Steam discovery queue recommendation. This game is significantly better than your run of the mill retro FPS throwback, and you can tell a lot of love and care went into it. Zortch plays a bit like Half-Life or Quake 2 but with exceptionally mobile enemies, which I found refreshing. The humanoid enemies in particular are very entertaining to fight, and they can move through the map in unexpected ways. I played through it on "Subjugator" difficulty and found it to be a fair challenge, though some sections are rife with enemies taking potshots at you with highly damaging rockets from concealed spots, and their projectiles are rather silent. Those parts I felt tiresome to deal with it at first, they were almost like a speed bump in the way of the game's "momentum". Make sure to check out the "Rejected Maps" series of levels under the "Custom Map" option. A number of them are as good as (or better than) the levels that actually made the cut.

Classic Doom through and through, you move slower but a number of your weapons feel improved. Frequently said to have been the horror take on Doom before Doom 3 itself, there is certainly a somber mood to the game, with a muted palette, colored lighting and an often disturbing ambient soundtrack. It is still very much like the originals, however: Soon you'll be fighting large numbers of enemies, amassing a sizeable arsenal and feeling like the hunter instead of the hunted. There is a mechanic of note with the Unmaker weapon in this game, you can find three "Demon Keys" in three different secret levels, and they permanently upgrade said weapon on pickup (though dying will remove all Demon Keys). A welcome addition to this high quality port are the new "Lost Levels", by Doom community legend Samuel "Kaiser" Villarreal. His levels are easily on par with the main campaign's, and are all worth playing.

A fine retro-styled shooter. Very basic but also very competent. Can be difficult, too, especially on Very Hard. I felt the third episode was significantly less interesting than the first two, and disliked both secret levels. Visually it's reminiscent of the first Quake, but it plays more like Quake 2 (?). But in truth it is its own thing, a mish-mash of classic FPS ideas and things the creator enjoys. Well polished and full of easter eggs and cute interactive objects, really nice.

A very well made top down driving game in which you mainly kill zombies with collisions and weapons. There are three modes, the self-explanatory campaign one, Blood Race (time trials and events against other cars) and Slaughter (horde mode, essentially). I liked the campaign the least, even though it's not bad. Blood Race to me was the best - very fun and replayable, even though the zombie killing takes a backseat (except in the Endurance events, in which killing them adds to your available time). You have many available vehicles with different stats, and you can pick from a number of paintjobs for them. You can also upgrade weapons and vehicle attributes with the money you get from playing. The vehicle selection didn't feel that well balanced to me, as some cars just felt far more effective than others in general. Nonetheless, a gorily charming and competent driving and killing game, and for the price it usually goes for it's hard not to recommend.