Recent reviews by AssassinGlasgow

It's been a while where a short (roughly 3 hours) game's story has gripped be as hard as this game. It's got me in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ chokehold ready to super suplex me. I went in completely blind, and I'm telling you - DO IT BLIND. The game is a linear horror narrative experience where spoilers will absolutely ruin the story and vibes of the game.

Now, this isn't to say this is the most perfect story ever presented - but it's a damn good one. If anything, it needed more time to flesh the already good bits to polish the character development and narration to perfection. Usually I find myself commenting the opposite, where the game needs to cut a lot to make the story not drag like a lumbering zombie. Mouthwashing is definitely not that with its tightly knit narrative and pacing.

Gameplay is minimal and frankly easy- it's a lot of walking, some segments of running that adds to the horror, and puzzle solving. If you play a lot of horror games, it's very easy to look at the footage of this game and think it's not scary. This game does horror in the ways that I, personally, enjoy horror, which is to use atmosphere and player engagement with the characters to drive the horrific scenes home. The art direction was a great choice - in using PSX visuals there's already a sense of unease (especially with the rise in PSX horror titles in recent years) but having limited visual definition allows the real star to shine: the audio. I swear, some of the audio in this game is so disturbing because not only is it recorded and implemented exceptionally, it uses the player's imagination to really ramp up the horror. Hell, even the scene transitions amp up the horror by making you think your game glitched and crashed with its distorted audio and visuals.

The game is, however, presented nonlinearly. Normally, I wouldn't even mention this in my review, but I know some people dislike this type of narrative presentation in games, so if you are one of these people, this will be a tough game for you.

This is basically everything I want in a psychological horror game. I'll be keeping an eye on this dev for their future works. If you like psychological horror in the same vein as what I described above, I absolutely recommend this game.

Also, ♥♥♥♥ That Guy. If you play it, you'll know who I'm talking about. Worst Guy of the Year, 2024, 100%.

I'm so disappointed in this game. It's got a style and setting that I think is great, and that's about the only thing going for it. I'm not compelled to follow the player character Bob in any way, because he lacks any kind of personality and the story is boringly simplistic at best. I can forgive that if the gameplay is good, but it's a frustrating, clunky mess.

The core gameplay loop is simple enough, but the enemy placement and AI are simultaneously frustrating and laughably stupid. Enemies turn on a dime in a complete 180, which can ruin your stealth because you can't see the turn actively enough to avoid it. The placement is terrible - if you have badly positioned enemies and you combine it with the 180 flip mentioned above, you can literally get pinned and be unable to escape. Another example is that some enemies will have their paths go RIGHT UP TO YOUR SPAWN, which is a massive oversight if the first thing the player wants to do is assess the situation before moving in. The enemy AI is also so bad that you can hide in a hiding spot right in front of them and get away. To be honest, I found this actually advantageous at times, because exploiting the bad AI was the only way I could get around the clunky gameplay, but it takes away from my overall enjoyment to do so.

The UI is frustrating as well. To activate "Cleaner Mode" to highlight all environmental interactions and see the enemy pathing, you are forced to stay in place, making the only time worth activating it is if you're hiding. The top left corner that displays your objectives will disappear and reappear randomly, without much rhyme or reason, so I have to break my immersion with the game by pausing every couple of minutes to assess what else I need to do. This is very frustrating when you have a percentage of blood you need to clean up and want to see how much left is needed.

Movement in this game is limited to 8 directions, which normally shouldn't be an issue in other games, but for a game like this where seconds matter it can lead to collisions on corners that lead to getting caught. The button prompts aren't always responsive - if you don't linger long enough when pressing the prompt it just won't register at all. When moving fast because you have to avoid the immediate 180 turns of the enemies (especially in end game levels), this can lead to a lot of frustrating situations where you're forced to come out empty handed even if you executed your plan flawlessly.

Level design is also just horrible. While I like the game's desaturated, polygonal style, trying to see if a space is passable is very difficult. What looks like a door ends up being a wall, or what looks like a window that can be jumped through ends up being another barrier. In order to determine it often requires the player to die and retry from the beginning. Moving things in the environment can also be annoying because it can move right into the player and block them.

Finally, this game asks for access to your IP address - why? No clue. People say that it's to sync the time and weather of your area to the game but the game doesn't even state this, nor give you an option to opt out . For privacy conscious gamers, not being told the intent or given the option to opt out is concerning. Why even implement this when you can achieve the same thing by just having the game read the system clock?

I may continue this game after a break to finish it, but it's probably not worth the time, and it's not worth your time or money to try it.

When I got this game originally, I was coming off of Until Dawn and expected the next Suppermassive Games experience to be enjoyable for both the decision making and schlock horror fest. Sadly, this one missed the mark with me because I could not get into any of the characters or story, though I tried on many occasions. Everything about this is flat and boring - from the scares, the suspense, and even the decision making. Even if the characters are just schlock horror characters, Until Dawn made me actually connect with a few because they were (to my surprise) fleshed out and their decisions had a lot of weight behind them.

Here, I'm left thinking "Is that it?" Even the end was incredibly abrupt. There was no time to unwind with whoever is left at the end of thee story, and any mourning if you lose characters is brief and forgettable. Hell, now that I think about it even the climax was handled poorly, with a decision that was way too obvious that making it felt like there were no ramifications because I knew what was happening. The art design and graphics in this game were really good, but given that this game sells itself on its story and decision consequences, this isn't enough to save this installment of the anthology.

I'll be checking out the other parts of this anthology, but I fear it will suffer the same fate that other anthologies suffer: that is, you may have a gem or two, but the rest will be middling to bad. I consider this a skip, though, so save your money.

Ok, let's get to the point: This is objectively, a really good game. It scratches every itch I could have regarding puzzle games and detective/mystery games, while giving a really unique plot on top of it. It toes the line between challenging and fair fantastically, much like it's predecessor.

This game has a slew of improvements made that include UI changes and case presentation. I've noticed that the cases are far more confined and don't require too much navigating between different scenes in the same case, while also adding nuance to the unfolding of the plot by expanding on what the first game's DLC played with by utilizing time points in the mystery. The plot itself, however, felt weaker compared to the first game. There's a lack of charm to the characters that makes it difficult to get attached to any of them and want to know how their story plays out. Furthermore, there are more scenarios in this game (especially in the middle) where it felt like padding - I understand why it was included and the significance of these cases, but because it was surrounding (mostly) irrelevant situations it felt disjointed with the rest of the plot.

Regardless, this game is definitely a game I'd recommend. If there's anything I'd recommend even more, it would be to play the first game before playing this. While the plots are not directly linked, they are still linked by being part of the same universe and centering around the Idol.

Also, ♥♥♥♥ Eugene Marmot, all my homies hate Eugene Marmot.

Unlike RE7, RE8 begins to lean a bit more towards action, essentially making it a mix of RE7 and RE4. I think it does the perfect job in balancing goofiness yet with a serious horror-filled tone and narrative. Ethan sure says and does some dumb stuff, but I have to commend the guy for going through all of this for his daughter. That's one determined dad! Too bad his hands suffer so much though.

This time around, Ethan gets a larger arsenal of weapons to play with, and the Four Lords/bosses that he encounters ups the ante to the story. I actually really liked the Four Lords and what they added to the overall lore of the Village itself, as each had an interesting backstory and presence in their locations. They are, if nothing, memorable, though I wish there was more screen time for a few of them. I think this lack of screentime is compounded by how the middle of this game is weaker than its bookends - after the introductory zone the game quality dips. The middle attempts to play with some really great ideas, and one zone especially would be exceptionally frightening, had it not been so short.

I think it's a solid entry into the RE universe, and I'm wondering how they'll take the series forward with the next game. It's overall enjoyable, so if you can get your hands on it I recommend it.

Truly garbage tier level. It's honestly a shock as to how much more awful it runs compared to the screenshots. It chugs like crazy, and the writing and voice acting, what little there was of each, was insanely bad. This was Unreal Engine 4!

Story? Lol, what story?
Any level of quality in gameplay? I wish.
Did I enjoy this? How do I say this in Spanish? NO.

Don't let your wallet become victim - spend your money and time elsewhere.

This game caught my attention for sure. FMV in this time an age? Sure, let's see what it has in store! This type of premise is something I can get behind!

And then I played it and now I want to back away from it as much as possible while wielding a bat.

It's such a frustrating experience. I can see the hallmarks of what could be a great story with a timer that forces you to make split second decisions. It's setting itself up to be a thriller with a story around a MacGuffin. But the characters. The ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ characters are so stilted and poorly written, as well as the needlessly contrived and convoluted plot. i liked no character throughout my entire playthrough, and felt no sadness when some died. And this wasn't an intentional thing, as I could tell they were trying to get us to like or empathize with them. Don't get me started on the acting too - for an FMV game that relies on real filmed scenes, the acting was awful at points.

This game has multiple endings, so I wanted to go and revisit them, but there is absolutely no skip forward feature through scenes you've already seen, and no save function that I can recall. I was not putting myself through the excruciating experience of playing this again, so I looked up the other endings online, and the none of them are written well. I'll at least commend the game for having branching narratives with the choices, but the story was wholly unengaging and made that effort worthless.

Avoid, avoid. There are better choice based games out there.

Downfall seems like it would be limited in horror due to how it is: a side-scrolling game with 2d sprites. However, this isn't the case, as the imagery is at times even more disturbing. The fact it isn't the most appealing art style also helps to drive home the core messages of the game, and enhance the psychological horror aspect this title has.

The main protagonist is Joe, who is trying to help his wife as she deals with her own mental trauma. Their marriage is rocky, and while they are traveling they're caught in a storm and forced to take refuge at a hotel. This hotel ends up being the centerpiece for the rest of the game, as each room and hallway becomes more and more disturbing as Joe (and the player) travels through and revisits places.

I really don't want to spoil the writing too much but it truly is great, and best played blind. The game tackles heavy themes, and psychological trauma is its forte. No character gets out of this unscathed, and it isn't clear who you should root for either.

I recommend this title if you're into dark character explorations with creepy atmospheres. The puzzles are not too difficult, and are standard for this type of game. If you're a fan of slow burn psychological horrors this is up your alley.

Look, I was all aboard the Battleborn train from Day 1. I was in the closed beta and played copious amounts of it, and I was there purchasing it on launch day alongside DOOM (2016).

I love this game. It's a great game, with lots of unique flair to it. It can get a little crazy at times and a little complex, but overall I really enjoyed my time with this game. It scratched an itch that I couldn't get from other games at the time: alongside a PvP mode, there was a PvE mode that was great. The writing was charming, and the character designs were incredibly varied and felt lively for the amount of playable characters on the roster.

But now that the servers are essentially closing, and the game itself is already dead to begin with...I can't recommend this game. As much as I want it to survive, it is done. And all we can do is write a eulogy to it, and hope that the character that this game brought survives elsewhere in a luckier game.

If you think this is a serious story about the Japanese mafia on par with movies, you don't know the half of it. If you think you know what bizarre things Yakuza 0 has to offer, you don't know the half of it. Yakuza 0 is an absolute trip that balances surprisingly serious and intricate storytelling with insanity. Where else will you find a game that goes from a talk about assassinating people to Friday Night dancing and - ahem - "adult entertainment."

Yakuza 0 weaves the perspective of two different protagonists - Kiryu and Majima - into a surprisingly cohesive story that involves real estate and one particular owner of a plot central to the story. It sounds boring, but they actually managed to make it engaging. Every two chapters there is a character switch and we see the story unfold between both men until it finally intersects during the climax of the game. This narrative choice opens up the gameplay to involve more variety in combat and locations, as well as what each individual can experience. I personally enjoyed Majima's combat styles, but I much preferred Kiryu's side quests. Following two characters was a fantastic design choice and works well in favor of the game.

The gameplay is solid, with a lot to do in both cities you're in. There are so many side quests (called "substories" in game) that are engaging if not even more entertaining than the actual story because of how stupid they can get (in a good way). Fighting is smooth and offers variety, and can be upgraded through money to help with combat. Leveling up is a good idea, as as the game progresses enemy types increase and they get harder to take down.

The best thing this game has is just the element of surprise. The marketing seems to indicate a serious story akin to something like a Japanese gangster movie, and then we get stupid ♥♥♥♥ like a character named Mr. Libido doing the "five knuckle shuffle." Yes, this character actually exists and that's an actual line. I cannot laud how well it balances the serious and utterly bizarre in this package of a game.

The art is good, though I admit that the cityscapes are a little boring to look at despite the neon lights. Everything has a similar feel save for some important areas, and this can make walking around a little boring to look at. Also, this could be a Yakuza series thing, but it seems like the way story scenes are presented differ based on if Sega has any more money left in their budget or not: you can get 1) frozen characters with voiced lines 2) voiceless scenes, and 3) full on animated scenes with lighting that shows where they cared enough to actually animate. It's a bit strange, and off-putting sometimes, though I admit it does add to the charm of Yakuza 0.

Finally, I want to laud the translation. Some games, when translated, lose the feel of the characters in how they speak, but the localization team did an excellent job in localizing the game. They didn't sacrifice the Japanese aesthetic of the game, yet they managed to localize in a way that it didn't mellow out characterization in the way the characters speak. Being able to balance both is impressive, so I have to really commend the translators in being able to pull it off.

I went in not knowing anything about Yakuza except for a few things, and I came out a fan. I look forward to playing the rest of the games, and I hope Yakuza 3-6 get released on Steam soon.

Dame da ne
Dame yo
Dame na no yo...