Recent reviews by XLBanana47

Arkham City: A Worthy Evolution of the Franchise

Arkham City takes everything great about its predecessor and improves upon it in almost every way. After finishing Asylum, I felt that games like this could really benefit from an open-world approach—and I was right.

The gameplay is smoother, more engaging, and filled with interesting content that keeps you hooked. While the story is compelling, it does feel a bit short, with events unfolding a little too quickly for my taste.

The boss fights are definitely better than in Asylum, though they still fall short of perfection. That said, the game's other shortcomings are minor and not worth mentioning.

Arkham City is absolutely worth the price, offering a fantastic experience filled with quality content and hours of fun. If you enjoyed Asylum, this is a must-play.

I'm not a fan of superheroes, but I gave this game a chance, and I don't regret it. Even after 15 years, the combat feels satisfying, and it's not the button-mashing type of combat, which is very important. The graphics are okay, and the story is decent for this type of game. The voice acting is excellent.

Batman: Arkham Asylum is mostly linear. This isn't necessarily a problem, but I think games like this could benefit greatly from an open-world approach. Other than that, boss fights, in general, are disappointing, especially the final fight. With such a solid combat system, I expected at least one epic fight at the end of the game, but it turns out the last one is also the worst.

That being said, the game is good—good enough to make me want to continue with this series.

It's the year 2025, which means that Hitman: Blood Money is almost 19 years old. I'm pretty impressed with how well the game still holds up today.

As a big fan of the Hitman series, I've played it countless times, at least once a year, and I can definitely say that H:BM has the most classics among the levels in the entire series. There is some special charm, it's hard to explain, I'm probably nostalgic.

Far from being unnoticeable. The graphics are outdated, the gameplay is a bit clunky, the shooting can be weird. All these things are normal, a lot of time has passed, today's demands are much bigger and so are the budgets.

But it should be emphasized that this is the point when the Hitman series finally became what it should have been from the first game - a place where you have the ability to kill in many different ways, without linearity, where there is no single "right way".

Finally, I would like to add that to this day I am still fascinated by some small details (example: newspaper with news at the end of the mission) that are not of crucial importance for the game's admixture itself, but also how they contribute to the whole experience. I hate to say it, but it definitely feels like the games were made with more love, less deadlines.

I never expected to say that the best horror game I've ever played was actually an indie game. Darkwood is a great mix of survival and horror elements. No fancy graphics, no jumpscares, no cheap scare tricks. So what makes Darkwood special?

Darkwood brilliantly puts a constant feeling of tension, a feeling of insecurity, discomfort. It works in many ways, such as, for example. impossibility of knowing exactly where the player is on the map, time constantly passing, limited inventory, etc. To all that, one should add an interesting story told in an even more interesting way, as well as an excellent soundtrack that fantastically builds the aforementioned atmosphere.

In the end, it should be said that the developers of Darkwood have a much better understanding of the feeling of fear in people, that is, what actually scares people. I think it is closely culturally connected with the fact that the developers are from Poland (I'm not trying to joke about prejudices about life in the Eastern bloc, but about the very differences in the understanding of life that are also noticeable in literature).

It is impossible to remain indifferent after playing The Void. The game will cause a sea of ​​different emotions in the player. At one moment you will be frustrated by the gameplay that does not forgive even the slightest mistake and punishes the most cruelly, at another you will be confused by the story that is open to various interpretations, while in the third, you will be enchanted by the beautiful appearance of this strange world.

In terms of story, The Void has much less text than Pathologic and the writing is much more abstract. You can look at The Void as a poem and Pathologic as a novel by the same writer. So, The Void or Pathologic? Firstly, I do think The Void is the harder game but both games are difficult because they manipulate the player's ignorance, and once the player understands that, they become much easier.

The void is definitely not for everyone. The game is difficult and requires several replays from the beginning, because you will make mistakes that you will only realize were mistakes after a few hours, but then it is too late. Another reason why it is not for everyone is the poetic story itself, where at the beginning you feel like a newborn who will have to collect fragments to create a picture of a world he knows nothing about.

I have to admit that The Void had a similar effect on me as the original Pathologic, which I consider to be the best gaming experience I've ever had. Still, I think Pathologic is better, but The void also has its own charm and I must add that I feel very inspired after the 4 endings I've played.

Finally, I would like to say that The Void (as well as Pathologic) is one of the examples of a video game transcending its boundaries and becoming art.

Pathologic is a game that is more interesting to talk about and watch than to play (for most people). Actually, this is not a game, this is a collection of little things that can kill you. It's frustrating, complicated, ugly, buggy, frustrating, difficult, confusing, frustrating... and did I mention it's frustrating?

I would say that there are two possible scenarios for players, which are that they experience enlightenment (like me) or that (much more likely) they turn off the game after an hour and go to the page where they bought it and write that it is not worth a penny that they found while defecating in the toilet at the gas station. But anyway, the final question I ask you is, do games really have to be fun? If answer for you is no, then buy Pathologic - It's piece of art.

One of the best FPS games of all time

Just skip it. Not worth a shot. Just a bad game. There are so many better roguelike games out there that are even cheaper.

Don't ask. Just buy it.

The game keeps crashing in the same place. It's unplayable because of that.