Recent reviews by &Olga

Just not fun whatsoever. It's a really basic stealth game, making you crawl slowly through samey corridors, with fairly buggy hit detection that makes you restart sections over and over.
Even if you're a fan of the show there's not a whole lot here, it introduces new characters that come entirely out of nowhere (probably from the upcoming Season 7, but that's not out yet, how are we supposed to know these people!?), and the main trio isn't even accurately represented either.
If you want Totally Spies games, frankly, go play the GBA ones instead. Yes, those were also really basic, but at least they functioned and had more to them than slooooooooooowly going through the same levels over and over.

The original Persona 3 was very much a diamond in the rough. An excellent story and a really fun game bogged down by the limitations of a system far too limited to show the intended beauty of the environments, a sparsity of content and a couple really bizarre design choices here and there.

This fixes everything, which is really on par for ATLUS remakes. There is a lot more character interaction that you might be used to from P4/5, with proper social links (if not arcana-based) for the entire crew and then some. The main story had some extra stuff added to fill in some gaps, and being able to interact with Strega is a huge deal as well.

Tartarus is still... there, and it's still the same randomly-generated predictable mess that it was before. But now it looks gorgeous, and the different blocks actually feel different from each other. A few additions to its formula such as the extremely challenging optional boss fights and the extra rewards help spice it up just enough to feel at least on par with P4's dungeons, which is a big improvement.

Both the combat and the social systems are at the deepest they've ever been in this series. The ability for some social links to unlock others, or the ability to reverse social links, has been completely removed from P4 onwards -- but this game brings those back, which is excellent. The addition of Theurgy gives each character a distinct role that they're encouraged to play, but it's in no way forced on you so you can still play your way.

It also goes without saying that the new talented voice cast does a phenomenal job of helping the game's story move along. If you're one of the people who play in English, then you're no longer stuck with the robotic and emotionless voice of the original game.

My only remaining complaint is the somewhat slow pacing at the start of the game, it takes forever to fully introduce its systems and to allow you to interact with its main cast properly. However, it's a shorter timespan than in the original, and there's a lot to do in the meantime.

I'd like to address a few additional concerns that I see some people bring up:

• This does not have FES content. This one is... simply not true. All of the extras FES added to the main game are here. What is currently not included is Episode Aegis/The Answer, which is available as DLC. The Answer was always a DLC (well, an append disc) in Japan, so this isn't too surprising.
  
• The soundtrack/artbook are locked behind custom executables. This is true, and was probably done by ATLUS so that they could also release them on consoles (as they don't have support for proper file management). If you want the actual files, they are trivially extracted from this Steam version, so it's still worth a purchase (if you care to have these things).
  
• No Kotone/FeMC. This is true. However, her presence is largely made redundant by introduction of social interactions for the male crew members, which was the main selling point for her other than just her being a girl. Her storyline also introduced a few flaws into the story of P3, breaking some of its themes and making a lot of the characters come off as much worse than intended, so that's not a playthrough I'd recommend to a new player. If you care about her simply because a female character is easier for you to identify with, I'm sorry, there's not much there can be done other than waiting for someone to mod her in or playing Portable. However, if you care about her because of the story improvements in her route, you'll find a lot of the same things done in Reload, and done better.

Now this... is the true sequel that Heretic deserved. And, look, I'm not just saying that, alright? Read the store page description if you don't believe that's what they were going for. It says it right there.

Made with modern tech, it brings that beauty of the original game to a higher level. It takes the game to "full" 3D with its highly-vertical level designs, showing off some truly gorgeous palace-like environments while maintaining and improving upon the fast-paced, carnage-fueled nature of the retro FPS. You'll probably recognise a few of the weapons - in their use, if not in form, but for the most part the game brings a fairly unique arsenal of interesting magical weaponry to play.

The inventory system is gone now, though its purpose (of preventing backtracking) is largely fulfilled by an absolute abundance of pickups EVERYWHERE, so you'll never be truly short on them as long as you can manage to make your way over without getting slaughtered. The only item as such that remains is the Tome of Power -- a thing that temporarily changes all of your weapons to more powerful variants -- but it too has been modified to be split into "souls", pieces dropped by enemies. However, once you collect enough souls they become functionally identical to the Tome.

Each of the game's episodes is also fully unique in terms of art, level design gimmicks and what enemies you will face, keeping each play session fresh. Of course, that's not to mention the fact that the amount of content in this game is truly gigantic, and the DLC brings pretty much an entire second game's worth. The endless arena modes are there for the ones craving more "replay value" than the levels themselves provide, which is a lot.

Just: really, really good game. It is my favorite New Blood title, and my favorite retraux FPS by far.

If you are looking for a Heretic sequel... well this ain't it, despite the name. This isn't the Heretic case of Doom 1 to Doom 2, not at all, this is a completely different game that only borrows the name and the setting of Heretic. In all other ways... this game is Quake 2 (even though it came out much earlier).

This game hyperfocuses on a single technological breakthrough at Raven: they figured out how to make REALLY BIG levels. Like, potentially hours-long big. This makes progression through the game incredibly slow, especially in terms of getting new weapons. The enemies feel bullet-spongey and take forever to deal with.

The automap, your savior when it comes to really complicated doom levels, is not particularly useful here as the game no longer uses colored keys and doors, but instead relies on unmarked "key items" that you collect and that just change something in the current level. Additionally, due to how the levels are implemented, the automap doesn't even show you the entire level anymore, only the current "part" of it that you are in. You do get on-screen messages that tell you that something may have changed when you pick these items up, but the messages are not very detailed or helpful.

The "class" system that they came up with is pretty worthless. The "fighter" class relies on melee combat and therefore is almost entirely useless in a first-person shooter, and the mage gets really strange weapons that are hard to make any real use of. The only class that feels like it belongs in the game at all is the Cleric, which plays somewhat similar (but not exactly) to the original Heretic.

If you do end up wishing to play this maze of a game, play it with Crispy Hexen or GZDoom, since, just like with Heretic, this game is in licensing limbo and cannot be officially upgraded to make proper use of modern systems and hardware.

Heretic is more than a "doom clone", even if that's what you might think it is. Beyond some interesting technical advancements such as freelook and the ability to fly, plus an inventory system designed to cut down on backtracking for health and powerups, the game is different in design. It brings fresh visuals and uses a (still horribly underutilized) magic theme for its weapons and enemies, as opposed to the more the same boring guns you've seen a thousand times that are a staple of the FPS genre. The game is also weirdly colorful for an FPS, which is also nice for a change.

The levels are well-built, varied and challenging, the difficulty settings are well-balanced. The game completely removes "hitscanners" from the doom equation which makes it far more fair, as well.

A definite must play if you're a fan of Doom or any of the other retro FPS titles.

However, a note: this game is currently stuck in licensing limbo, which means that it cannot be remade in any way. This version is straight from the nineties with all that entails, horrible resolution, almost non-existent mouse support, and so on and so forth. Use a source port (such as gzdoom or, if you're feeling more vanilla, Crispy Heretic) to save yourself the headache of dealing with all of this and play it like a proper modern game.

In many ways, Viewfinder is like the original Portal. Which... should not be surprising, given that this is a fan-made implementation of F-STOP, Valve's scrapped mechanic that Portal 2 was meant to be centered around. Some of the same philosophies are at play here, too. The game does not overstay its welcome, it gets in, shows you a ton of cool mechanics, gradually introducing and expanding on every single one while telling a lovely story, and gets out. The story is something you can almost completely ignore should you so choose, or you can dig deep into the lore by looking around the world to find a bunch of extra dialogue and reading material.

The game does all this while presenting you with minimalist but beautiful visuals and submerging your ears in some of the most relaxing soundscapes imaginable. This extends beyond music, too, there's lovely ambiance in the nature of these floating islands. While the game might not have much in way of replayability, which is true for any puzzle game ever created, coming back to the world of Viewfinder is something I still plan to do at some point -- if only to just enjoy its design.

This may well be the best sphere matcher you'll ever play, and this is speaking from a purely mechanical standpoint. The creators of Luxor Evolved made a multitude of small decisions that, together, ensure the experience is fun. To name just some of the things they've done:

• You are always given spheres that you can actually use. You'll never get a color that is somewhere far off on the field and is blocked off by rows and rows of other spheres.
  
• The game is extremely fast-paced, but almost every clear will slow the game down for just a few moments to allow you to get more shots in. This encourages planning ahead at least somewhat, and keeps the pressure up without ever getting too overwhelming.
  
• The game is focused entirely on score-attack. Plenty of sphere matchers have a speedrunning element to them that they rely on greatly, but in an RNG-focused genre that makes little sense. Instead, there's tons of little ways to acquire extra points.
  
• There is a chain mechanic that goes beyond what you usually see. Normally, clearing multiple combinations of spheres in a row provides a bonus. Luxor Evolved also keeps track of how many shots you landed "correctly" -- that is to say, you don't necessarily have to consistently clear combinations with every turn, but you have to at least work towards that goal, and if the sphere you placed does not contribute towards that you get penalized.
  
• There is a ton of different power-ups and you get them very regularly, leading to pure destructive chaos on screen at all times. You also unlock more of them as you progress through the game, and existing ones become more powerful to accommodate the increasing difficulty towards the end.

Aesthetically, the game goes for a much more modern look (and music) than what you usually get from sphere matchers, which for some reason always seem to have an "ancient civilization" sort of focus. This is a refreshing change, though obviously a matter of preference.

Despite being 11 years old now, the game runs without any hint of an issue on modern systems, so have no concern over that. Some of the menus look a little "washed out" on current resolutions, but it stops being an issue the moment you get in the game due to the abstract art style scaling really well.

This is a story-driven game, primarily. The story has great potential but is ruined by the game spoon-feeding you all of the answers, repeatedly.

I'm not going to spoil much. I'll just say this: there is a Thing that happens, three times throughout the game.
The first time the Thing happens, your protagonist is not aware of what is going on, so he's rightfully confused. But he later meets someone who explains -- in plain English, that a child could understand -- what happened to him. And he does seem to get it.
Then the Thing happens a second time. And suddenly, he's surprised and confused again, he's even angry at his companion for "not explaining" it to him, even though she literally did.
Then the third time. This one is treated as a sort of grand reveal by the game, as if it's finally giving you an answer, as if this is a key event of the story, a culmination... but it's the exact same Thing! And your protagonist STILL doesn't get what's happening!

By the ending, I was just mad. Not only was the character dumb, but the game seemingly thought that I, the player, am just as dumb as him, overexplaining things to that extent and still expecting me to be surprised at the exact same event happening once again... Disappointing. It could have been so much better.

I am not someone who enjoys rhythm games or is good at them. At all. So I was extremely wary of trying Hi-Fi Rush, but the game looked like a lot of fun and I didn't want to pass it up, even if it's in a genre I generally struggle with.

I do not regret playing it. While being good at rhythm is certain to help in this game, even with me failing the exact beats now and again I'm still enjoying it as a pure hack'n'slash, and when the combos do land in beat -- which happens far more often than I expected -- it feels really, really good. For the sake of completeness, I am playing this on the "Normal" difficulty. I imagine being able to land the beats is much more important on higher ones, but I don't care to try them. I will note that the game defaults to borderless which for something that requires ultra-low input latency is a horrible idea. Switch it to exclusive fullscreen as soon as you first run it or there's a chance that you will miss like 90% of the time.

As far as hack'n'slash gameplay on its own goes, this is no Devil May Cry and no NieR. It is, for the most part, a much more simple, button-mashing affair with just two attacks (though there are a decent number of combos). However, it manages to be its own special thing, evoking feelings that those games fail to reach. Everything feels like a single, fluid scene with no breaks in between, and the hyper-animated and stylized art style certainly helps that feeling. Both soundtracks are also great, if anything I actually recommend playing with the streamer mode on even if you aren't streaming, just so that you hear all the original compositions made specifically for the game.

The story is quite trivial from what I've seen so far, and basically skippable. But it doesn't try to take itself seriously in the first place, so I'm not going to hold that against the game, and it's decently funny too. The characters, despite being pretty "flat" in terms of development, manage to maintain likability as well.

Overall, a fun romp and a pleasant surprise, especially considering that this came out of a AAA publisher.

Another "classic" that I never played, decided to check out, and came back disappointed. I just keep getting bitten by these, huh?

The game sets out to do so many interesting things, which I really do respect. But it has too many flaws going for it that will do their best to completely ruin your experience every step of your way. First off: this thing is quite buggy. Not to a point where it is unplayable, but expect enemies to get stuck in walls, your weapon bindings to randomly change (???), your camera to clip through the floor or ceiling and other such garbage.

Secondly: the sound design is horrendous. Music aside, of which there really isn't much, the game has an obsession with excessively long voice lines that repeat over and over. You can't walk half a metre without hearing "WELCOME TO THE CIRCUS OF VALUES", something about a "Mr. Bubbles" or weird religious chanting. It's cringe-worthy the first time you hear it, annoying the second, and makes you want to straight up mute the game the third time onwards. Which would be a bad idea for environmental audio reasons, but also: the subtitles are broken. They'll consistently go out of sync, they'll sometimes not show up, they're not formatted correctly...

Bugs aside, let's move on to the gameplay. This is allegedly an FPS, but it's more of a walk around and collect random objects simulator with shooter sequences here and there, though at least they are frequent. But as far as shooter gameplay goes, this is an "eh" at best. Most of the guns don't feel fun to use, and the "plasmid" system while certainly creative also goes to only offer a couple interesting combat options. If you're out of ammo for the good weapons (a frequent occurrence here) you'll find yourself not having fun until you recover said ammo.

Finally, the story, supposedly the one amazing redeeming feature of the game. It felt extremely pretentious, a shallow (if necessary) criticism of the capitalist society. Random philosophical quotes repeated over and over, most characters being exaggerated villainous caricatures in a society which sets out to be realistic. A couple touching moments and fun twists are there, but overall it's nothing to write home about. Perhaps storytelling in video games has evolved far too much for this to be thought of as "good" anymore.

The game was still good enough for me to at least finish it (though I was definitely getting fed up near the end), and not bad enough for me not to consider the sequels, which hopefully will do a better job. However, I certainly will never be coming back to this one.