Recent reviews by Cryiox

Martha is Dead doesn't know what it wants to be.

Some spooky moments, but not enough. The game forgets it was meant to be horror.
It has ... THREE really hardcore visual sections, but completely meh otherwise.
Some point and click adventure elements, but not enough.
No consistent gameplay mechanics.
Tedious as all hell doll theater sections, walking sections, phone calling sections.
Side quests are vague or easily missable.
The story doesn't have any satisfying payoff.

The ray tracing implementation is a joke. It either breaks completely in the photo developing room or there are some reflections here and there on the glass panes on the furniture, lmao. It's extremely demanding also. I'd say the game overall is incredibly demanding with absolutely nothing to show for it.

I was very close to the end, but couldn't take the boredom anymore.

AVOID. There's nothing of worth here.

First 2 hours seem fine, story wise.

One of the best games of all time. Everyone that ever played a video game has to play RE4 at least once in a lifetime. Gameplay wise, it will remain timeless. Polished to perfection.

One of the best games ever made, of all time. Now and always, that everyone should play. Required gaming material I'd say. Even for your non gamer friends. 10/10.

Some of the most MP matches I've had in a decade

Everything that made TR2013 great, except more of it.

High-end AAA production values with some of the best visuals on the market at time of release.
Superb PC optimization
Visually far ahead of the console versions
DX12 offers better performance

Gameplay wise, it's everything from TR2013, now with a bigger world, expanded gameplay mechanics and vastly more tombs and crypts, with tombs at least twice longer (we're still talking 5-10 mins though). There is a lot more combat in Rise, but that's a good thing. The combat in the new trilogy is amazing and it helps with variety and pacing. You're never doing the same thing for too long, be it story cutscenes, platforming, tomb raiding, combat or general exploration.

The game is exactly as challenging as TR2013, meaning it's overall a breeze even on Hard (same thing as with Very Hard, the only difference being the game saves only at bonfires, which are plenty).

It's at least 30% longer than TR2013, with more areas, more gear upgrades, more tools and more skills to unlock in general.

What the game lacks compared to TR2013 is a story of equal quality and there's a slight downgrade in overall atmosphere and gritiness but it compensates with vastly better gameplay and combat encounters.

The Season Pass is mostly a joke. If you can get the base game + season pass for 15€, that would be for the best. Baba Yaga is a nice side quest with interesting visuals that doesn't take more than 1-2 hours to complete. Blood Ties is a nice 1 hour tour of the mansion while exploring the Croft family backstory. Cold Darkness is a horde mode within the same Croft manor, which doesn't really allow Rise's combat to shine. Laura's Nightmare is mostly the same thing as Cold Darkness, except not confined to the manor. Endurance mode is a great co-op survival experience with some great replayability. The costumes are pretty and it's nice they exist, but I wouldn't pay for them. As for all the extra weapons, they're variations on the tons of weapons you already unlock throughout the campaign, so nothing to fret over.

NG+: It was sorely needed in TR2013 and it's present and accounted for here, sort of. While you can't really play a complete campaign in NG+ like some other games, you can replay all levels with everything you unlocked from a "Level Select" screen, which mostly is the same thing as NG+.

TL;DR: The game is a masterpiece and an easy recommendation.

TL;DR: Pretty, if extremely boring game. The pacing is horrendous.

Alice Maddness returns is a sequel to 2000's American McGee's Alice, which itself was a sequel to the 2 books, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.

Too bad the game is boring as salt. There are ... 5 or 6 levels. Each levels last 3 hours. You simply get bored of simple platforming, followed by shallow combat, followed by platforming, followed by combat.

The upgrading system is a joke. The levels are not even sufficiently twisted enough to keep your interest engaged. The story is barely there.

The performance? Fine, if you are not using Physx. The effect is pretty I guess.


END: Boring game, with huge pacing problems, uninterested combat and platforming sections. American McGee's Alice was a much better AND twisted game. This? Play this if you have time to waste I guess.

Game:

It's supposedly DLC for a Batman game. The DLC available so far for Batman games haven't been all that great. I can't comment on the quality of this one, because I haven't finished it. It's bugged out at one sequence and I couldn't progress further in the story.


The bad:

Game breaking bug: I couldn't finish the DLC. Starting the DLC again fixes this problem. The DLC isn't particularity long if you play the story only, but 1 hour in and it bugs out. Great.


Collectibles:

The game has some collectibles. I forgot which because I couldn't play this DLC.


Replayability:

Non existant so far.


PC version:

Optimization is as good as the core Arkham Origins game. Hardware Physx effects are nowhere to be found, even if enabled in settings. Why not, I couldn't tell.

PC version:

This is a true, proper PC game through and through. It performs amazingly well. The game controls just as well on Keyboard & Mouse as on controller. The game is highly optimized, performing great on a variety of PCs. There is an in-game preset that varies from Very Low to Very High, as well as multiple settings. The game can even be customized with shortcut commands for various effects to be turned off or to be run on special resolutions. The game on max settings looks mighty better than its console equivalents. There are better textures, better shadows, the light shafts generated by different light sources are active at all times, compared to only story sections at night in the console version and there is the draw distance is higher. Plus the framerate is unlocked of course. The game also knows to use FXAA, and AA, between 4 to 8, or 16 (forgot if its 8 or 16). There is even a FoV (field of view) slider. It also knows how to properly use 2-4 cores (maybe more ?).


Game:

Alan Wake is great. It's a product of love and care, with attention to detail. The main thing going for it is its story. If you are one of those people who play games for their story, you owe it to yourself to play Alan Wake. It's exactly one of those games which you cannot stop playing because you want to see what happens next. Of course, you wouldn't be so engaged if the game wasn't dripping with atmosphere. You actually don't need me telling you this. Just look at the screenshots from Steam. Also, the voice acting? Some of the best in business. The main character, Alan Wake is one the better voiced characters ever made. Especially as he narrates his own adventure from 2 different perspective in the game.

From a gameplay perspective, it is engaging and dynamic. You actually uses a flashlight to either kill enemies or make them weak enough to be killed. The combat is frenetic. You are always surrounded, enemies don't wait up on you like say, Assassin's Creed and you constantly need to be dodging, checking your surroundings and monitoring how much ammo and battery life your flashlight has left.

I finished the main campaign in about 18-19 hours on Hard and then I played another 2 pieces of DLC for another 2 hours. The game is not hard. Just don't go guns blazing and be a good shot. There is one section in the 3rd act that may prove a bit difficult because you are sort of helpless, but besides that, I recommend starting on Hard for a proper experience.


The bad:

Not that many bad things I have to say about this game. Actually all of these might not even bother most of you.
• I experienced one or two crashes and maybe 2 bugs. So the game is not 100% technically perfect. Maybe 95%.
• Consider this as you will, but this games has no ... bosses, not really anyway.
• While the games is great as a whole and has some surprising elements that happen from time to time, it lacks some especially WOW element. There are maybe 3 set pieces, but they're not quite "WOAH DUDE".


Collectibles:

The game has 7 different types of collectibles.
• 3 are just for the sake of it (I didn't do them).
• another one are basically stashes of ammunition, indicated in the game like the stashes in Half-Life 2.
• another one are Radios. These are actually quite fun because they provide backstory on the game and fuel the universe's lore.
• second to last are TVs, which can be powered on and Alan can watch an episode of TV show closely resembling Twin Peaks. They are short, 1-4 minutes in length but are quite interesting indeed.
• the last ones, and most important, are Manuscript Pages. These foreshadow events that have not yet happened in the game. Some may consider these collectibles spoiler-ish, but they are intended to increase tension as you are keep on waiting for events to unfold. Of course, the presence of these Pages mean that Alan survives the events of the game one way or another, but they create incentive to explore. 50% of them are foreshadowing, 25% contemplative & character building and 25% backstory.


Replayability:

The replayability is decent. The game has 4 difficulty levels and the last one is unlocked after finishing the game once. In Nightmare difficulty (fitting name for the game's theme) there are Pages to collect that further expand the background of the story. The game is quite long as I said so maybe you won't want to replay right away.

Now, the STEAM achievements, for the people that care. The game has a lot of achievements for a singleplayer game and a surprising number of achievements for its included 2 DLCs. Most of these are story moments, but there are quite a few that needed a conscious effort. Actually most of the achievements for the DLCs need a conscious effort. And there are of course 16 achievements for finding every collectible in the game, main + DLCs.

You're not a "gamer" if you didn't play and love Half-Life 2.