Скорошни рецензии на M4RC0

Game of the Year unless Cyberpunk somehow lives up to the hype.

Extremely addicting. Lately I have been solely playing games that I can zone out to while listening to a podcast/Youtube. This is a great game for that. There's a satisfying feeling of progression with every run, and the guns generally feel good. $11 is a steal for this, especially if you can come back when content gets added (early access). As is, I have 14 hours and feel that I still have 50% of the content left.

The in-game text is a problem though. Clearly they did not spring for translation services, because there are a lot of things in broken English, often to the point of not understanding what scrolls/upgrades actually do. Also, I personally don't like the visual style. All in all, an impressive debut. Hope they continue to add content and refine.

Looks better than TFT anyone who says otherwise is deluded

A nice appetizer before Life is Strange 2 later this year. Touching story that doesn't overstay its welcome and puts to rest the main issue I had with the first Life is Strange game which is that the graphics were poor enough that it took you out of the experience. If Dontnod is putting this much effort into a free precursor then I can't wait to play the second season.

I thought I would break down what works in this game and what doesn't. To preface, I loved the game and I will await season two with bated breath.

• The Visuals - The first thing you will notice when you start the game is the visual style they have chosen. It works extremely well with the gameplay. Its somewhere between painted and cel-shaded, but it achieves uniqueness without feeling abstract. Characters are porportioned accurately and colors and the environment really pop. Since the game works with an enclosed environment, almost every item has been crafted with love and it shows.
  
  
• The Music - One of the most common symptoms upon completion of the game is looking up the soundtrack on youtube. Every song just feels so right. When you walk onto the school grounds on a sunny day you are greeted with an uplifting guitar/piano track that immediately entices you to explore. When you are hanging out on the characters bed on a lazy sunday a melancholy guitar rift echoes through the room. It sucks you right in.
  
  
• The Direction - A lot of reviews have compared this game to something like an interactive movie. After playing it's easy to see where that sentiment comes from. The camera positioning during the cutscenes is really great. In particular were the in-game scenes where the camera would pan around the room you were in as a soft indie-rock song plays on the stereo. I found myself staying in these scenes for 5 or so minutes appreciating the melancholy atmosphere. It felt like a real human moment and served to suck me into the game's narrative further.
  
  
• The Dialogue and voiceover - To me the characters felt real much for these reasons. Hannah Telle - the VO for max was paricularly standout in a game with all around terrific performances.
  
  
  What doesn't work:
  
  
• The animations and facial expressions - For a game that is so focused on human interaction and the choices we make that affects them, it's pretty jarring when the characters look like they are made of cardboard and have basically no facial expressions. There was a point in the game where every character remarked on how 'serious' Max's face looked in light of some story events, but when the camera panned I found myself looking at the same old blank face she always wore. It seems terrible to waste such great voice work on such stale animations. The game begun development in 2013, so I hope by the next season we will see a marked improvement in this regard.