Recent reviews by <xtal lines>

PROS
- Excellent Storyline, plays out almost like a movie. The storyline for Tomb Raider made me care about each character and what happened to them throughout the duration of my playthrough. It never felt tedious and was excellently written. Loved it.

- Open World is a plus. I really liked how the developers made the environment open for exploration in each level, which really encouraged you to look around for secret areas, items, etc. that would spawn around the map.

-Fighting is well programmed. Fights in Tomb Raider always felt smooth, and through the style of the game, it put YOU in the driver's seat on how to engage enemies. The variety of weapons in the game match these various styles too, and they sometimes even have uses outside of fighting, which I found interesting.

- The Goal in the game is clear. Tomb Raider is a perfect example of great script writing in this sense. I never felt like I was aimlessly doing something in the plot. I felt like every action I made had some meaning that pushed me closer to the end of the story.

- The game is challenging, but not overly so. Playing my first run-through of the game, I had no idea what I was getting into. At the same time, the game can be very conducive to new players, teaching them the mechanics of each tool early off in the game without deliberatly giving you a tutorial that has no meaning to the game. That being said, I died many times, but quickly learned how to avoid the situations that had killed me in the past.

- Game Environment is gorgeous, VERY immersive. Each scene has a picturesque feel to it. You can be running through an environment and be awestruck from just looking out into the distance. You feel like you're there beside Lara Croft.

CONS
- Won't hold your hand. This game can be very conducive to new players, but I was frustrated with certain levels in the game and their difficulty. This game will not hold your hand, whether you like it or not, it'll throw you into the deep end with no floaties. Prepare yourself!

- No substantitive DLC! The DLC for Tomb Raider consists mostly of player skins, but I would've loved to see another few missions added as something a little extra. I understand the studio that made this game was planning to make Rise of the Tomb Raider and didn't want to creatively drain themselves, but I would've loved to see some post-story missions or thematic material.


This has to be one of the best games I've ever played. If you're still looking to buy Tomb Raider, it's always on sale during Steam sales, but it is always worth it to buy this game. I literally have nothing bad to say about it functionally or about the story. You WILL be amazed. 9.5/10

PROS:
Great Storyline- The storyline for "Wolfenstein: The Old Blood" was one that I enjoyed following throughout the game. Each character had something that immersed you in the plotline even further.

Runs Great- I have a low-end computer, and I'm still able to play at decent FPS and enjoy the game. There were only a few times I was lagging. Overall great optimisation.

Lots of Weapons- I feel like some games in the stealth/action genre can leave you lacking with weapons choices, but The Old Blood makes sure you have what it takes for each play style. You wanna go in guns ablaze? Have at it. You wanna sneak around and take out each person one by one silently? Have at it. This game doesn't really hold your hand in that aspect or tell you how to play. It's up to YOU.

Lots of Different Difficulty Levels- While I feel like playing the game over and over again can feel repetitive (with no DLC to add more content to the game), the difficulty levels that are added into the game make it feel a little more fresh. These modes span from "I just picked up this game, and I can complete it", to "I've played this game through twenty times, but it's still a challenge".

It's not a long game- I finished my first run of this game in under 10 hours, which for somebody who had no idea what they were doing, that seems reasonable. This game won't drag you along for forever like other stealth first person shooters do that have many parts.

Arcadey Feel- As somebody who experienced Wolfenstein 3D before playing this, The Old Blood still has a very "arcadey" feel to it, as the levels are set out so that encounters are necessary, but you are given a choice on how to deal with them. If you're looking for the Wolfenstein nostalgia, you will definitely find it in this title.

CONS:
Levels can get repetitive- As somebody who loves this franchise, I still felt like the levels repeated too much. As is with stealthy/action hybrid games, they have the same layout. While they don't hold your hand through the game, it can be frustrating progressing through levels with nothing but killing people just to do it again in another level with different scenery.

No DLC- I know there's The New Order (which serves as a sequel in the storyline), I wish there were DLC like in Dishonored that added more depth to the game. Most of The Old Blood is quite repetitive, and I just wish there was something to spice up the gameplay so I could keep coming back to it instead of just doing the same levels over and over again.

Stealth route is tedious- When I try to sneak around and play a more passive and challenging level run, I feel like the AI can discover where you're hiding randomly. When you're discovered by the AI, EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN A 10 MILE RADIUS LOCKS ONTO YOUR LOCATION. You just get swarmed, which means you have to start over. The AI won't leave you alone either if you leave the scene like in a game like Dishonored, they just always know where you are at all times.

Tries to be too many things at once- The Old Blood seems like it's trying to be too many things at the same time. It encourages you to "play how you like", but stealth is tedious, and the agressive route just repeats every gunfight over and over again. I feel like I'd have liked it more if it chose to be centred around stealth like Dishonored, or if it had been shamelessly centred around an agressive playstyle like Wolfenstein 3D or Call of Duty.


Overall, I love this franchise, and it never ceases to be amazing. I wouldn't pay the full $20 for this game, but if you could get it on sale, I'd definitely pick it up. Nice rainy-day entertainment. 7/10

PROS

- Wide variety of weapons to play with around each map. Some are patently better than others, but all weapons are useful at some point in the game.
- Runs smoothly on pretty much all computers. I have a low quality rig and I still play @ 60+ fps.
- "Arcadey feel". Whenever I play this game, I get the same arcadey feel I get from playing DOOM or the Old Wolfenstein games.

CONS

- Would not suggest for NA players. A lot of the servers for this game are located in the EU, and you experience a ton of lag unless you have godly internet. If you live in Europe or Asia, however, I would suggest this game on the grounds that you'd have a decent connection.
- Not new player friendly. While there are tutorials teaching you how to play, I felt like a lot of people were already really good at the game already when I picked it up 3 years ago (when it was free), and while revisiting it, I feel the same way. You'll get stomped for a while until you learn the finer mechanics of how the game works.
- Servers are mostly unpopulated. This game has a small but dedicated community, much like the Counter-Strike: Source community. You'll have a tough time finding a game, let alone one that you won't have 300+ ping in.
- Hacking? With the prevalence of mods and such, there will always be hackers in each multiplayer game you play, but especially in a game like Quake that has extremely fast paced gameplay, a hacker can influence one team or another drastically.

Unless you get this game for free like I did, I wouldn't suggest getting it, especially if you live in NA. 5/10.

PROS:
- Very Clean Gameplay. I don't have a very advanced rig (no GFX card), and I can play this game smoothly @ 60 fps. The game engine seems to work fine on most machines and allows upscaling for more advanced rigs.
- Gobs of Replay Value. I've played this game on multiple difficulties, picked different paths for the story, and the DLC gives another 10-15 hours worth of original missions. If you're buying this game, get the DLC too. It's worth it.
- Free of Bugs. This game is a work of art when it comes to functionality. I didn't encounter any bugs during my multiple play-throughs of this game.
- "Choose your way to Play". This game is the prime example of this idea, that you are given resources and told to play how you like. Sneak around silently, go in guns blazing, kill this guy, or avoid him. Wanna use explosives or go unseen? It's all your choice.
- Stealth Feature is well thought-out. I really liked how if you were discovered while in stealth and leave the scene silently, they look around for you, but don't instantly know where you are. This is something other games haven't perfected yet.

CONS:
- Some BS discovering sometimes happens. Some of the AI discovers me when I'm fully behind a barrier sometimes, or the AI will discover bodies although I dispose of them. This is rare, but it still happens from time to time.
- Missions sometimes get tedious. I understand the story hinges on having gobs of assassination missions, but must these missions compose 75% of the story? I felt like I was just doing the same things over and over again throughout the game from time to time.

Hope I informed some people with this review. Overall Grade: 9.5/10. Seriously, this game was arguably the best of 2012.

Pros:
- Gameplay that will last you 40+ hours. Just finished a run on Normal difficulty, took me 44 hours to complete, and that's only the main story. There are probably 50 some odd side missions you can play too that extend the replay value of this game.
- Mostly very smooth gameplay. I only drop frames in huge environments with a lot of entities, but I'm running a rig with no GFX Card, so if I can run this game smoothly, then anybody with a graphics card can run it almost perfectly with decent graphics.
- Cool Items! I really enjoyed messing around with the different vehicles and stunt jumps. While there aren't a huge number of weapons in the game, you usually have 4-5 choices per weapon class to use.
- Missions are fun! For a lot of games like SR2 missions can get tedious, but I never got that feeling for this game. The SR series doesn't take itself very seriously, but I felt like the character development was solid and I felt invested in the characters.
- Car customisation is solid. I always liked this aspect in SR2. It was just something fun to do if you didn't want to do missions. Just customise a car and drive around the map :)

Cons:
- Audio Bug. Sometimes when my computer is heating up and my CPU is working decently hard, the audio in the game is the first to go. It will crackle in and out, or just sections of it will stop working, like the ambience will keep going, but my gunshot sounds will go silent for a few seconds, then cut back in. I fixed this by simply shutting the game down and restarting it after a few minutes. If you have an advanced rig, I don't think the audio bug will be a problem.
- Mission Bugs. There are only a few mission bugs in this whole game, but I wanted to make them known. They're just problems in the port of the game. I solved all mission bugs by consulting Google when they arose.
- The "Respect" System. The Respect System (for those that don't know) is used in SR2 to make sure that the player can't just do all the missions at once, and it forces the player to explore the map and its various environments by killing enemy gang members, doing stunt jumps, etc. Sometimes this can get tedious, especially later in the game when you are on the brink of a climactic event and have to go grind for respect levels. I understand it was implemented in good taste, but it can get tedious.

Hope this informed some of y'all about this game. Overall grade: 9/10. Got it for free in April 2017 through the Steam Store. Lots of replay value for its price!