Recent reviews by amackert

Great visuals, sound and combat. The new gameplay mechanics are refreshing and fun. The new play styles (mech and dragon stages) are a lot better than I originally expected them to be.

My main complaint is the repetitive nature of the game. You become so overpowered that the last third of the game is a breeze (even on Ultra-Violence). There is zero reason to use the lesser weapons end-game. The style of fights also doesn't really alter at all (primarily large arenas with lots of enemies, power-ups scattered at the far walls) and it just feels very "samey". The gameplay between fights also becomes tedious--run down this hall, flip switch, jump on platform, climb wall, find key or goody or a secret, maybe solve a tiny puzzle, rinse and repeat ad-nauseam. That's all fine and well for the earlier parts of the game, but this is basically 12 hours of it. Whether this has the edge on 2016 or Eternal will depend on the sort of added content it gets (as of launch, it's pretty barebones). Tweaking the difficulty settings and making it uber-difficult might also make it more interesting than on stock settings.

I've been playing this since its 2004 release. In my opinion it's one of the all-time greats when it comes to somewhat mindless run 'n gun FPS games. Highly recommended.

Dark Souls meets Breath of the Wild. It's an interesting combination that won't be for everyone, but it's super fresh for long-time Souls fans.

Pretty much the best way to play the classic '90s version(s) of Powerslave. Not much else to say!

It's hardly a replacement for the original Painkiller, but there's some good stuff in here, particularly in the DLC levels. I wish performance was better, but it's still enjoyable overall. The original PK is better balanced however and does run significantly better. Still the best way to play, but this is fun for fans of the original game.

A cutting edge game for the time. It's held up fairly well overall from a technical angle. The biggest issue is it's a time consuming game to get through (at least 10 hours), which by simple run 'n gun standards is quite lengthy. This is compounded by constantly having to whip out the flashlight, a stamina meter that holds you back arbitrarily, tedious item code searching and constant weapon reloading. I am making it sound bad, but I think it's still a solid game in small doses. It's worth going through even just once to see what top-of-the-line visuals and tech were like in 2004.

Whipseey has a solid foundation but lacks any sort of depth. There are no secrets that I could find, no unlockables after finishing the game and no difficulty settings. I finished the game on my first try in about 40 minutes. My second playthrough immediately after took slightly less. The game looks good and is colorful, but there seems to be a small lack of refinement and polish. For instance, the framerate is stuck around 30 and this gives the whole thing a choppy feel. There are also small collision detection issues that make certain sections more irritating than they should be. The boss fights are fun and the whipping does feel good, but without a higher difficulty option the replay value is minimal at best. I don't think the game *isn't* worth the $6 it costs (it *is* fun), but if you are someone that needs a greater challenge, you will want to avoid this one (unless extra content is added in a future update).

Really solid bullet hell shmup. Nice visuals, excellent soundtrack (a good mixture of metal and electronic). Well worth the price of entry for those into manic shooters.