Recent reviews by noibn

This is a pretty neat minimalist platformer, somewhat in the vein of Thomas Was Alone, only much more simple, shorter, and rhythm-based. You play as a square, and your goal is to get to the end of each level (3 in total). The only controls are left/right and jump, so it's not exactly complicated, nor are any of the jumps particularly difficult. What makes it interesting (and marginally challenging) is the timing of the jumps - you are typically tasked with jumping on or through obstacles that appear, disappear, or move in time with the music. Once you figure out the pattern of a particular area, it's pretty easy. The soundtrack is your typical indie-electronica type music, but suits the game well. Visually, although it is very simple, the look is pretty cool and even hypnotic at times (it looks like an Atari 2600 game on acid). The game only takes about 1 hour or so to complete, so keep that in mind when contemplating a purchase. If you like indie platformers or rhythm-based platformers and don't mind the price-to-length ratio, give it a go. Otherwise, if you're on the fence, I'd say wait for a 50% off (or more) sale.

Telltale Games is really hitting their stride right now in the adventure/story game genre, with The Wolf Among Us continuing right where they left off with The Walking Dead season 1. The two games, structurally and mechanically, are basically identical - the gameplay is primarily dialog-driven with a few action scenes thrown in occasionally. The only small difference is that there are absolutely no 'traditional' adventure-game puzzle solving bits to be found here - this is purely an interactive "choose your own adventure" story, basically.

The game is an adaptation of a graphic novel series about fable characters that live hidden in our world. I didn't know anything about the source material going in and I enjoyed it a lot, so knowing any of the background is clearly not a pre-requisite to playing or enjoying this game. You play as Bigby Wolf (a.k.a. the "Big Bad Wolf"), the sheriff of Fabletown. The main storyline has you investigating a murder, and without spoiling anything, let's just say you encounter a variety of interesting characters and places along the way. It's a fun ride. The game is split into 5 episodes, all of which have now been released. The first episode does a great job of setting the stage, and although the following episodes vary in intensity and quality, overall everything is pretty good, and the story concludes in a satisfying way.

On the technical side, the graphics and voice acting are outstanding. I ran into one bug near the end of the last episode, but reloading from a previous checkpoint fixed the problem. Hopefully this will be patched soon. Other than that, I had no other issues.

This is a must-play if you enjoyed The Walking Dead adventure game, even if you don't know anything about the comics. If you didn't play The Walking Dead but have an interest in adventure/story games, you may like this (though I would suggest perhaps trying TWD first, just to be sure). Overall, as a fan of both Telltale games and the genre as a whole, I really enjoyed this, and hope the series continues.

Does an already popular AAA big-budget game really need a review? Probably not, but I figured I would at least write a little something, as I did enjoy this game.

The new Tomb Raider is a reboot of the series for modern consoles and PC. You play as a young and inexperienced Lara Croft, before she becomes a badass adventurer - a new origin story, basically. This is one of the game's strengths. Since it's not really beholden to anything that came before (except really basic stuff such as Lara's name and archaeology background), the writers were free to build the character from the ground up, and they did it fairly well. The game takes place on a seemingly-inescapable island full of all sorts of mysteries. Sound familiar? If you said "hey, that's the plot of LOST", then you win the Captain Obvious prize. The whole setup and plot, in fact, feels like a direct love-letter to LOST, as they share many similarities. So that's a plus if you are also a fan of that series.

Gameplay is third-person action/adventure, very similar to the Uncharted series (with some hints of Assassin's Creed and Prince of Persia thrown in). There is nothing particularly ground-breaking about any of it, but it's well made and is pretty fun. Your signature weapon is a bow, but you can also obtain a few others, such as a pistol, shotgun and more. Along the way, you'll also experience a fair amount of "set piece" moments and platforming sections. Overall, it's a good balance between exploration, combat, and action sequences. Combat itself is extremely easy (at least, it is with mouse aiming - more on that later). So this isn't a game you should play for a hard core challenge. Play it to experience the story and just have some good clean fun shooting dudes in the head with flaming arrows. There is also a multiplayer mode as well, but I don't really care about multiplayer in these types of games, so I didn't try it and can't really comment on that portion at all.

I did encounter a couple of small issues with the game, though. The main problem I had was with the controls for gamepads. I started playing with an Xbox 360 controller, since most console ports tend to be designed for controllers and generally play better that way. However, this is not one of those games - that is, not unless you are a whiz with using the right-stick for aiming. Maybe it's just me (being a longtime PC gamer), but I just find controller aiming schemes to be terrible. For this game, it was too hard to aim with pinpoint precision under circumstances that required quick responses. Additionally, I had major problems with the camera control using the controller. I like to invert my X-axis for camera on the right-stick in 3rd person games, but for some reason, in this game, it just refused to work properly. It will work correctly once, and then not even 2 seconds later, the opposite effect happens, even though you are doing the same exact thing as you did a second ago - it's pretty much completely broken. So I switched to keyboard and mouse, and never looked back. I recommend you do the same. With a mouse, you can headshot pretty much every enemy in the game before they even have a chance to shoot at you. In retrospect, it's obvious that the AI was dumbed down for console players, who have to use the crappy right-stick aiming control method. Another issue I had with the game is its use of quicktime events (QTEs). These might have been novel when Resident Evil 4 came out, but that was nearly a decade ago now. Games have evolved since then, and these unholy abominations should have been banned from modern game design by now... *steps off soapbox*... Anyways, thankfully, there are only a few sections that have QTEs, but the ones that are there are still annoying as hell - you barely get any warning, so if you're not prepared and don't mash the right keys in time, you have to replay a section over and over again. It's really annoying, and takes you out of the game.

Those small complaints aside, I enjoyed the game a lot. I wouldn't say it's a masterpiece or anything, but it's definitely well above average and provides a good, fun time (an interactive popcorn flick, basically). The gameplay, graphics, and setting are all pretty solid as well, and the story is a nice new start to a franchise that was on its last legs. I would estimate the main campaign lasts somewhere between 12-18 hours, depending on whether you just run through it or if you are a completionist - and there's also the aforementioned multiplayer, if you're into that sort of thing. So it's definitely worth the money, if you are into these sorts of action/adventure games (and definitely pick it up if you enjoyed the Uncharted series, in particular).

Terrible name aside, this is a semi-decent time-waster in the classic "match 3" puzzle genre. The twist in this one is that the matching mechanic works in conjunction with the actions your character takes at the top of the screen. The character's goal is to keep moving to the right, clearing obstacles such as monsters, treasure chests and locked doors. In order to clear those obstacles, you need to match specific types of tiles (swords to kill monsters, keys to open chests, etc). Getting hit or not matching tiles causes you to slow down and creep towards the left side of the screen. If you get pushed all the way back, the run is over. After each run, you return to a dungeon where upgrades can be purchased using the resources collected during the run (wood, stone, gold and experience). And that's pretty much all there is to it. Basically, you just keep running through the dungeon and buying upgrades when you die. Reaching certain score milestones causes you to rank up, which allows you to achieve higher scores and travel further into the dungeon. The ultimate goal is to score the titular 10,000,000 points and escape. On the technical front, the graphics are extremely simple, done in a low-res pixel style. It works for what it is, but the visuals are really nothing to write home about. I did really like the music, though. It's pretty catchy and very NES-esque.

In summary, if you are a fan of "match 3" games and don't mind spending a few hours on the mindless grind it takes to complete (I would estimate around 5-6 hours or so), then by all means, give this a shot. However, I really must reiterate that the gameplay is the very definition of a grind - the whole experience from start to finish is extremely repetitive. If you have a short attention span or really don't like doing the same thing over and over for hours, do NOT buy this game. Additionally, I have to say I also think the price is a little too high. For some reason, it's double what it costs on iOS, which doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm not saying it's a rip-off, but this might be one of those cases where you may want to wait and see if it goes on sale at some point.

Did you make it through Super Meat Boy without throwing your controller through the screen? Have you played and enjoyed the gravity-reversing platformer VVVVVV? Are you a fan of auto-run levels in games like BIT.TRIP Runner? Did you like the dark aesthetics of Limbo? Are you a cat lover? If the answer to 2 or more of the above questions is "Yes", then you will probably like this game.

For the most part, the gameplay is very Meat Boy-esque, with short levels full of spikes, saws, and other nasty obstacles. You play as a cat whose goal is to make it to the end of each level in one piece, which is easier said than done. It's a very simple game, mechanically - your only abilities are jumping (including advanced wall-jumping techniques) and crouching. There are also two other types of level variations: "auto-run" and "gravity-swap". In the "auto-run" levels, you have no control over the cat except to jump or crouch as the level scrolls by automatically at high speed. The "gravity-swap" levels, in which you play as a little girl instead of the cat, feature gravity-swapping gameplay similar to VVVVVV. Aesthetically, the game is really nice looking, with dark silhouette foregrounds and backgrounds of varying colors and styles. It's sort of a mashup between Limbo and NightSky, and works well. I must also make a note of the soundtrack, which is pretty good. The music is fairly low-key and consists of nice piano arrangements, with a few additional variations in the later levels.

So how does it actually play? For the most part, it's good... but it's not perfect. Hard-core platformers like this really need to nail the mechanics perfectly - the controls and the character's interaction with the world need to be spot-on, so that when you die, you feel like it was your fault, and not the game's. Unfortunately that is not always the case here. An especially frustrating aspect of the game is the collision detection, which feels very inconsistent and "wrong" at times. You will die from spikes that you swear were nowhere you, and other such inconsistencies. Ultimately, you just have to learn (and make peace with) the quirks of the game and try to be super-aware of exactly how you are jumping in certain situations. The "auto-run" levels, in particular, can be a nightmare, requiring pixel-perfect timing of jumps to complete.

That said, for all of these rough edges and frustrations, I still think this is a pretty good game overall, considering its low-budget indie nature. It is very much worth checking out if you like hard-core 2D platformers like Super Meat Boy. This isn't nearly as complex or polished as that game, but for the amount of content you get (100+ levels) and the reasonable price, I think it's worth picking up. Again, that is assuming you are up to the challenge - despite the cute exterior, this is not a casual game. Some of the later levels can get pretty difficult. So if you don't have a lot of patience, you might want to hold off on a purchase. Additionally, as is the norm for 2D platformers that require precise input, I also recommend avoiding this game unless you have a controller.

Assassin's Creed IV is the game that Assassin's Creed III should have been. You know... like, actually good and stuff. In that way, it's somewhat similar to the drastic change in quality from AC1 to AC2. Assassin's Creed III had some good ideas, including changes to the controls and overall formula, but ultimately just wasn't as good as the previous games (not to mention it was also buggy as all hell). AC4 takes the improvements that AC3 tried to make and actually implements them - with nary a bug in sight. I suppose it also helps that the setting and main character are far more interesting as well. I mean, seriously... who doesn't dig pirates and adventure on the high seas? You play as privateer Edward Kenway - neither Assassin nor Templar - thrust into the middle of both of those worlds. Edward is one of the better protagonists in the series, and is generally quite likeable.

The one huge difference that sets Black Flag apart from previous games in the series is its setting - well over half the game takes place on the ocean. And what an ocean it is... seriously, it is huge. And sailing on it is just so very cool. The closest comparison I can make is to exploring the ocean in the Wind Waker on Gamecube back in the day, only much bigger and more realistic. The exploration element alone is great. However, what really sets AC4 apart is the way it looks and feels. In terms of video game technology, it's just amazing what they were able to pull off. You can almost actually feel like you're out on the ocean, as waves and wind make your ship swerve, sway and dip (and just wait until you see all the gorgeous weather effects). I can't imagine any game ever nailing seafaring better than this... (well, at least not until virtual reality sailing comes along). It just feels great. Naval combat also plays a big part in the game. Unfortunately, as fun as it can be, it does have a few problems. You control your weapons by changing the perspective of the camera (look to the ship's side to fire cannons, or to the rear to drop fire barrels, for example). This is all well and good, in theory, but in the heat of battle with multiple enemies, it can get a bit dodgy. By the end of the game, you should have a good handle on it, but it isn't always the easiest thing to manage. By far, the coolest part of combat is boarding other ships. There are no loading screens on the ocean. Ever. This means that any ship you see (and all of the crew members on it) can be engaged in real time, at any time. If you want to jump off your ship and swim to a frigate and kill every dude on board all by yourself, you can do that. If you want to incapacitate a ship with your cannons, get alongside, board it by swinging on a rope and air-assassinating the captain from one of the masts, you can do that. It is very, very fun. But as with anything, repetition will eventually cool those initial highs and you may start to tire of the whole process by the time the latter parts of the game roll along. This is more an inevitability than a knock on the game itself, but should be mentioned. Rounding out the new additions to the series, Black Flag introduces a set of underwater diving locations. These are mostly optional and don't really make or break the game one way or the other. They are just "meh", mostly due to the horrible controls inherent with underwater segments in every game with underwater segments ever made. Ever. There are some cool bits underwater, but these segments could have easily been excluded and it still would have been a decent game.

The other half of the game takes place in land-based locations, and follows the standard AC series formula. You take on various missions to gather information or assassinate people, which require either stealth, combat, or both. Free-running and climbing also return and are generally OK, though the usual issues (like climbing onto things you aren't trying to climb onto in the heat of the moment) are still ocasionally present. Combat is similar to previous games as well. Mostly all you need to do is button mash and use counters or break enemy defenses at the appropriate moments. As simple as it is, it is still ever so satisfying, due to the insane number of moves you can pull off in various situations - put simply, you are a serious badass. There is also a very limited number of different weapons available (contrary to previous games), which is a welcome change. There's no longer 3 inventory screens' worth of pointless weapons you'll never use. Early on, you'll be able to buy a good set of swords and pistols. Those, along with your hidden blades, are pretty much all you'll ever want or need for the majority of the game. The land-based segments take place in 3 major locations - Havana, Nassau and Kingston. Additionally, there are a number of smaller islands scattered around the ocean that contain fishing villages, ruins, and more. Overall, it's a nice balance between traditional AC and the newer naval bits.

The last part of the package is a sub-plot that continues the goings-on in the modern-day time period. With Desmond out of the picture (mostly), you play as an unnamed employee in the game division of the Abstergo Corporation. I don't mind these sections too much, but for those of you who don't care about these present-day bits, just know that most of these sections are optional, and the parts that are required can be done pretty quickly. The optional activities available involve "hacking" a bunch of computers, which unlocks various bits of lore and info on what has happened since the events of the previous game. If you are into following that part of the series, some of it is pretty interesting. Otherwise, these optional bits can simply be ignored.

Overall, I found this to be a worthy entry in a series I thought was on its last (peg?) legs. The amount of things to do is pretty insane, and I found almost everything to be pretty dang fun. That said, I am also somewhat easy to please, and kind of anal when it comes to games that have any kind of collecting aspect... so take that opinion for what it's worth. A lot of how much you enjoy this game will depend on how much you dig the new seafaring aspect, since it is such a large portion of the experience. I can see how it might be hit or miss for some people. If you liked the naval missions in AC3, then you will most definitely enjoy the improvements Black Flag makes in that area. If you hated those missions, I hesitate to recommend AC4 wholeheartedly (though you very well may still enjoy it). If you've never played an AC game before, or haven't played one in a long time, this is a great one to jump into the series with. It's definitely not perfect, but it's pretty solid overall. I'd rank it up there with the better games in the AC2 era. I'd give it a B+ or A-.

Proteus is not a traditional game. In fact, it's not really a game at all. I guess I would call it a sort of... "interactive experience"... (?) ... I dunno... (how's that for generic?). But seriously, this is a tough one to describe. Each time you play, the game - err, EXPERIENCE - puts you on a randomly built island. The island is full of trees, wildlife, mysterious stones, and more. Your goal, if you want to think of it as such, is simply to walk around and explore. That's it. Technically, you can "finish" each session by performing a series of specific actions (which I won't spoil), but essentially, you just walk around and explore the island through 4 seasons, starting in Spring. As you explore, the things you do and see affect the soundtrack, which is primarily comprised of low-key ambient sounds. The visuals are also very simplistic. The various trees, flora, terrain and animals you encounter are all rendered using the most basic blocky sprites imaginable. A good way to think of it is if the Atari 2600 had the capability to render a fully 3D world - this is exactly what that would look like. You wouldn't think such simple graphics could adequately portray a setting like this, but it actually works. Just watching how the environment changes from day to night and through seasons, it just looks so cool. Although the visuals and music are extremely simple, when taken together, the combination makes for an extremely relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Before I close, I must reiterate one final time that this is not a game. I repeat - THIS IS NOT A GAME. This is one of those fancy pretentious artsy game-type things. If you are not into artsy game experiences, then stay clear. This is not the game for you. However, if you can handle non-traditional experimental games and this seems even remotely interesting, I fully recommend picking it up (definitely if it's on sale, but for full price, I'm not so sure... that's your call). In terms of length, you can see just about everything there is to see in maybe an hour or so. But that's not a negative. Nor is it the whole story. I see this is a game that you can come back to again and again for a slightly different experience, any time you just want to chill out and relax. So it does potentially have replayability, especially with the randomization aspects of the island. All in all, I really enjoyed my time with this and think it's definitely worthy of a look from those with an open mind and spare cash to burn. Check it out.

Contrast is a game that seems like it should be amazing, based purely on the premise, mechanics, and art direction alone. And while I do still recommend it (to a point), the final package ended up being a tad underwhelming. But let's start at he beginning. There is a lot of good to the game, specifically the elements I just mentioned. The setting (early 20th century Paris) and art direction are very interesting, and there are lots of cool things to see throughout the journey. You play as Dawn, the acrobat "imaginary friend" of a young girl named Didi. The game revolves around Dawn's ability to transform from a 3D person into a 2D shadow. As a shadow, you can maneuver along any other shadow, as if it were a normal platform. Puzzles generally involve manipulating light sources to create navigable shadows, and then platforming your way through those shadows to reach new areas. The story, without revealing much, is just OK. It involves Didi's lounge-singer mother, her loser father, and a mysterious magician named Vincenzo. There's nothing wrong with the story, but it's also nothing mind-blowing, for the most part. And that sort of sums up the game as a whole - merely adequate. The main gameplay hook of transforming into a shadow, while cool, just isn't enough to sustain a whole game in its own. Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of neat segments and cool applications of the idea. But after a while, you'll start to get the feeling of "been there done that", only in a new location. Not to mention, most of the puzzles (such as they are) are very simple anyways, there's not all that much meat on the bone in terms of challenge or completely fresh ideas. I am not sure they even could have added anything more to improve the game. As I said, it's perfectly adequate as-is, and definitely doesn't overstay its welcome. I just have this nagging feeling that there were missed opportunities for additional puzzles or ways the shadow mechanic could have been used. Maybe that's unfair, but so be it. Despite all this, I actually did enjoy and have fun with the game overall. I just feel that maybe with a bit more development time, it could have been better. But what's here is definitely an interesting experience, and worth checking out if the atmosphere or shadow mechanic intrigues you, as it did for me. The entire experience lasts around 5 hours or so, so also keep that in mind when considering your purchase. I would say hold off for a sale, unless you really feel the need to check it out right away.

My only real complaints would be for technical issues. Specifically, the game lacks many of the customization settings one would expect in PC games, such as video options and the like. Personally, I had an issue with the lack of an option for x-axis inversion for the camera controls. And while there is still no solution patched directly in game (at least as of the time of this review), for the record, I wanted to note that the developers actually responded to my request within minutes and provided a configuration file fix that could be changed manually to implement that feature. While it wasn't the ideal solution, I really appreciated their responsiveness, as it allowed me to play the game the way I wanted. So kudos to the developers for that. Which reminds me - I definitely recommend a gamepad for this one.

The Hidden World continues the story of Miranda Calomy and her clockwork-friend, Sprocket. Like its predecessor, the basic goal is to search a series of beautifully drawn scenes to find a bunch of hidden objects. However, the sequel increases the scope of the original, both in length and gameplay. Where the first game lasted maybe 2-3 hours, this one seemed a bit longer (maybe around 3-4 hours, depending on how slowly you take things). The interface and quality of the puzzles have also improved as well. This time, the puzzles are much more involved, and actually require some real thought at times! Amazing, I know. It's a nice improvement. However, with that change, one positive trait of the first game is now lost - the sequel is no longer kid friendly. Thinking back on it, there are probably a couple of puzzles in here that younger kids wouldn't be able to solve on their own (one involving classic works of literature springs to mind), and most of the puzzles are at least a bit more difficult overall. So, while the hidden-object scenes are still great for kids, they might need help with some of the puzzles that connect them. If you enjoy hidden-object games and are looking to fill a few hours with (mostly) mindless, casual fun, you'll probably like this. Again, my only issue against recommending this fully (assuming you like the genre), would be the price. I feel like it's on the higher end for what you get, even considering the potentially "endless" replay of randomized scenes. So, just take that into consideration when considering a purchase, or maybe wait for a sale. Otherwise, as with the first game, if you don't care for mindless hidden-picture games or puzzles, move along, there's nothing to see here.

The Clockwork Man is a simple "find the item" picture game, with some light puzzle-solving elements mixed in. If you are a fan of these sorts of casual low-key games, you will probably like this one. The characters and world are pretty nicely designed (it takes place in a sort of Victorian Steampunk-ish setting) and the voice acting is decent. Gameplay primarily consists of clicking within scenes to find a list of objects that are hidden throughout. Occasionally, there will also be scenes where you have to find, combine and use objects in specific ways to solve puzzles. It's definitely not rocket science, and not the least bit challenging... but you know what? Sometimes that's OK. That said, there are some things to be aware of before making a purchase. First, as I just mentioned, the game is extremely easy. So if you are an adult, don't buy this looking for a challenge - buy it if you just want something mindless to keep you occupied for a few hours. Second, I feel the price is just a bit too much for what you get. The story mode takes around 2-3 hours (at most) to complete. And while you do get an endless randomized "free play" mode that opens up after beating the game, I am still not sure the whole package is worth $10. You may want to hold out for a sale. Price aside, I recommend this if the premise interests you and you don't mind extremely casual/easy games. Another selling point would be if you have younger children. This game is tailor made for kids, or to play with your kids. So that's something to consider as well. Otherwise, if you don't care for mindless hidden-picture games or puzzles, move along, there's nothing to see here.