Recent reviews by [ROTT] hackman

6/10
the mod has an interesting story, great visual design in the interior levels, but almost ruined by unclear objectives and terrible backtracking.
The difficulty on "Normal" is pretty extreme, throwing countless Combine at you from the first minute, and some enemies eat bullets like a sponge. The narrator talks to you via onscreen messages, often times even explaining that you have to backtrack and/or activate a certain thing: basically it's the deevloper admitting that the levels are too confusing and the objectives too unclear for most players to understand by themselves.
Wasted potential!

It's a pretty enjoyable mod with interesting map design, cool new enemies and good AI providing for tense fights.
However, it ends pretty much when it starts to take pace and overall only provides for an hour of (very solid) gameplay. Let's hope for a chapter 2 SOON!

I died 3 times on Island 2 and had to start from the beginning. Once because of a bug.
I will never ever play this frustrating game again!
Never! Nev... Launches game!
This time I will be prepared better! ;-)

Sick soundtrack!

Infra is a 'puzzleventure' game with loads of exploration, puzzles and avoiding hazardous environments. The most impressive about the game is definitely the intense atmosphere created by detailed industrial installations and beautiful surroundings.

You play as Mark, a cynical structural analyst who's task is to document the state of the infrastructue of Stalburg city. What sounds like a boring every-day mission turns out to be a real trip: In the aftermath of a corruption scandal the whole infrastructure of Stalburg is abandoned and left to rot. You try your best to document damage with your camera, repair generators and electrical installations and generally not to die in the hazardous environments left in the once busy industrial complexes. On your way, you may even uncover the complot behind all of this.
There are many optional tasks in Infra, e.g repairing installations, getting the water supply & putrification back in shape and many more, so even a 2nd playthrough may be worth your while.

Infra constantly gets updated, and the developers are very busy developing chapter 2 of the story which will be free for everyone current owner.

Karaski is a unique first-person adventure game with lots of exploration, investigation and stealth mechanics.
The game takes place roughly in the 1920s onboard the airship AA Karaski, the sole pride of the Commonwealth of Dunabe and the first of its kind.
Your name? Chose yourself. Your past? Unknown. When you wake up from what seems to be the result of someone hitting you over the head, you'll soon learn that the airship has been sabotaged by terrorists. The fact that you were near the crime scene instantly turns you into one of the suspects, so it's only in your best interest to find the real saboteurs.
A mysterios voice over radio gives you instructions, but who are they, and can you trust them? It doesn't matter, as you get thrown head over feet into a thick complot of either selfish, nationalist or economic interests. Everyone onboard of the airship seems to have is own motives for turning this first ever airship flight into a disaster.
Over the course of the game your main activities consist of talking to the various crew and passengers, scavenging for evidence, breaking into rooms, bribing or sneaking around guards to get into prohibited areas. If you aren't careful, your suspicion level will rise and your dialogue partners will be a lot less cooperative. Stealth is a big part of Karaski, so thankfully the game provides you with various tools like lockpicks, vent openers and more to make your life easier.
Pros:
- interesting characters with their own stories and motives for sabotage
- pretty & atmospheric art style and music
- various endings
- nonlinear, mission based gameplay
- very intuitive UI with tabs for suspects, clues, inventory and missions

Cons:
- sneaking can get dreadful at times, esp. if you have to find that one item in the middle of a prohibited area
- no spoken dialogue
- lots of running back and forth
- relatively few usable items
- very open ending

Will you find the true saboteur(s)? Will you even be able to save the airship? It's all up to you!
Recommended to true adventure game fans!

The intro sets a very nice humorous tone for the game, reminding a lot of Dungeon Defenders. You play a ball who's heading out to free his fellow ball friends from the fangs of an evil pyramid...
Roll through countless labyrinth-style levels, avoid traps and nasty robots, fight bosses and buy power-up in the store with coins that you can find thoughout the mazes. There are some secrets as well and, typical for the genre, highscores based on how fast you finish a map.
The power-ups add a bit of depth but also some annoyance to the game since you have to buy them in the store, which can only be accessed by rolling back to the very start of the 'overworld'. Better stockpile them to avoid frustration and map repetition!

The camera view is top-down, which absolutely makes sense on mobile platforms and their sensor-based controls. Adopting the same camera 1:1 on PC is a bit weird (watch videos), and may cause some dizzyness at first especially since the map is constantly tilting 'head over'. The controls are pretty responsive on kb & mouse as well as gamepad. The level design is a bit repetitive, esp. visually, but the later levels definitely provide a nice challenge.

It's hard to write a "recommendation" for Masochisa, as it's clearly not a game for everyone. It touches on very dark and disturbing topics like domestic violence, lunacy, abuse and murder.
Not recommended if you are under 18, easily upset/disgusted or expect to have a "fun" time playing it.

If you are however into dark stories, Masochisia is an interesting and unique gaming experience that will compel, upset, disturb, make you feel unconfortable and leave you with an awkward feeling of "What did I just play".

It's less a real adventure game than an interactive story:
Young Hamilton grows up with an abusive father, his whole family a wreck, and no help to be expected from his mother or brother. He reaches a point where he has to deal with the situation, deceived by inner (and outer) demons. Hamilton gets deeper and deeper into a maze of violence, his vision blurred by nightmares and schizophrenia....

While Masochisia does have classic P&C gameplay elements of exploration and dialogue, it's very limited in execution. Exploration only serves to find a handful of story-relevant items, but other than that inventory can be neglected. The strict linearity constantly forces you to explore the game world to find the sole spot/dialogue that will make the story advance.
Judging Masochisia as an adventure game, I was quite disappointed by its many flaws in game design.
Yet - also after having personal conversation with developer Jon Oldblood - I understand that the game aspect is only a tool to transport a story he wants to tell.
With that in mind, I recommend having a look if you're into dark and disturbing games.
Expect to hate it as much as you like it, I certainly do. ;-)

This is my first impression with the EA beta of the game, and I may update it once it's easier to find full matches after Steam release.

OBEY is very fun and unique multiplayer PvP game about oppression, obedience, subversion, deception, bribery, and all the other fun things you can never have in real life! ;-) It's highly based on communication, and the social interaction makes every round a unique experience. I strongly (!) recommend using a headset/mic to get the full experience.

Each player in the game controls a cute llittle nameless bunny, and to win the round you must earn money faster than your competitors.
Per default, the earning rate is the same for everyone, except the one bunny controlling the giant, armed-to-the-teeth robot gorilla in the middle of the map, who earns like 10 times!

So will you instantly go for the robot and try to rule them all? To secure your reign, you will have to spend the bigger part of your earnings to buy weapons and resources and then bribe your competitors into feeding those items into your feedbox, and set up defences.

Be a merciless and punishing ruler, killing everyone who disobeys the slightest, and you risk a revolution...
Be a mild and generous sovereign, and you will be used and manipulated into ultimately losing money faster than your clever subordinates earn, only to be pushed from the throne in a second of inattention by simply walking through the robot's front door.

And then there's of course always the subversive ones, constantly trying to manipulate, sneaking around, outright lying or stealing your money by hiding your purchases or dropping dead bunnies in your feedbox....

I had a lot of fun in the few matches I had so far, and I can highly recommend the game to everyone who wants to experience "something different", esp. if you have some close friends to play with.
Plus the dev Dez is a great guy, constantly present in the chatroom, trying to set up matches and coaching noobs like me or just having a nice talk!

Buy this game if you like old-school shooters without stupid unlocks or infinitely respawning enemies or auto-heal.
Buy this game if you like mindlessly blowing up hundreds of enemies with a lethal arsenal of rocket weapons.
Buy this game if you think finding a silver key and then a gold key is smart level design ;-)
Buy this game if you don't mind the occasional jump section and like to scream "♥♥♥♥ yeah" at your screen when you finally did it after falling into lava 20 times!

This game is pure 90s FPS nostalgia with a great sense of (poop) humour and bloody gibs all over the place! ♥♥♥♥ yea, flying body parts!!

Favorite FPS in a long time!