Recent reviews by FakeDadRealFren

I can't complain TOO much, this is free, was my initial thought. But technically its not free, if we're being real its just included since its functionally just completing an incomplete plot from the main game. And while in story its not as strong as the base game, it would be acceptable, forgivable. For better or worse, Lucas Baker does feel reasonably "Lucas-y" here, his character doesn't feel inconsistent to what I recall from the base game really. And you already know when being given Chris Redfield that the tone is no longer horror, its Diehard. So that is acceptable as well.

But that's about where the nice things to say end. I really dislike the white smoke invuln mechanic. It's not difficulty that gets me, but poor visibility and feedback for the player. A lot of the areas in this DLC take place with a haze of spores and/or smoke about in the air, sometimes making the smoke coming off a specific infected sort of get filtered out to the lizard brain as "part of the background." This leads to often just unenjoyable sequences where you didn't realize something was invincible and wasted time and ammo in a game where effective rationing is somewhat central. What makes this worse is that some enemies simply have poor visual indicators that they are indeed taking the damage you are dealing to them, even if they totally are and suddenly flop down like a ragdoll. This in tandem with the visibility issues just, again, makes for unenjoyable, unfun experiences where you're wasting the special resource that debuffs invincibility because your eyes just can't parse at a glance if something is or is not showing the smoke tell and if it is or is not taking damage.

These issues persist constantly throughout the DLC because this white mold mechanic is the central new gameplay "thing" here, unfortunately. So it becomes harder to power through just for narrative closure. Add a few other outdated classics like being at the mercy of autosaves before unskippable dialogues and the DLC just at times feels like it actively wants to make the process of playing it tedious. I've heard a lot of good things about End of Zoe and am hoping that even if this DLC is kind of poor compared to base game, that one will be better.

I'm bothering to write this review because currently a Halloween special is going for all the DLC and the game, until Nov 12th 2024. People picking the game up now interested in what's next after the main game knocks their socks off should... definitely reign in their expectations. This DLC does NOT live up to the main game in quality despite largely positive reviews, and I'm left hoping End of Zoe doesn't follow suit. If the main game is a 9/10, this is a 4 at best. Consider simply watching it on YT as a movie and then skipping to End of Zoe directly if you're dead set on full story completion.

Project Warlock is exactly what I was hoping it would be after I heard about and purchased it; an old Doom-like 2.5D shooter where I move fast and shooter faster and face hordes of enemies as dangerous as they are hideous. Had a great time; it controls tight, the weapons are satisfying and feel great to unload on monsters, and the game greatly respects the fact that the strength of these old-style shooters is to just get you into flow state and keep you there. Once you're gliding from room to room like a land-based fighter jet making split second decisions weaving through huge waves of enemies while sharing roughly equal love across about a dozen instruments of death that are your weapons, there is nothing quite like the zen you achieve while reveling in absurd 2D* violence.

It does takes some of the weaknesses of its ancestors with it, however. Secrets didn't detract too much from the experience for me personally, but there is little I can say in defense of a game mechanic that involves humping every wall the map makes suspicious and then mashing the space key until a repetitive motion injury sets in. While there are a handful of secrets that provide you actual visual clues in order to solve them, most are either going to be found wall humping, or by accident. Now, this is largely fine, because even if there is a particular secret I'm aware of and really want to find. The fast move-speed makes backtracking levels a lot less tedious than it otherwise would be. But when that happens, the fact remains that its adding nothing worthwhile to the experience, and taking a little away. To be fair though, when you find a secret you were clued in on and get a fat stack of loot, that feels pretty damn good.

I will unfortunately say that the replay-value does leave something to be desired. While its all fine and dandy that there is an extreme difficulty you can enter into after having beaten the game, on a new game, there is little in the way of post-game at all past that. We'll talk about Endless Mode in a minute, but straight up, once you beat the game, while you can boot back into the hub world on your save game, you cannot go on any missions whatsoever, and therefore can't earn any new upgrades or even replenish your ammo, health, and mana from the levels they are the freeze-frame on which you beat the game. Which is doubly funny when those values are what all your Single Stage gameplay excursions start with after you emptied your obliterator and like 6+ of your other weapons all into Megasatan's like 4 phases and run around with an axe at the start of every round as consequence of no ammo. So no exploring the different weapon types or experimenting once your beat the game, unless you erase your file and start fresh, without compromise. But hey, maybe you can do that stuff in endless, right? Well, remember when I said we'd talk about Endless in a minute?

Endless mode appears not to really scale up much; after 40 waves I was still only seeing the exact same 5 monsters in random 40ish assortments and the weapons keyed 1 through 4. It either ramps up so slow I was able to completely miss it, or it doesn't ramp up at all. Both are far from ideal. I hope the Endless Mode gets a bit of attention. Just stronger mobs and better weapons spawning on intervals of each 10 wave or something would be great at a baseline. I could easily put dozens of hours into this well-made foundation of a shooter with just a half-decent endless shooting gallery, but this game promises one and fails to deliver it.

That being said, I don't mean to be harsh, I love this game. I'm recommending this game; not every game needs to promise that you have 8 endings to find via 16 fresh play-through on New Game+++ to justify the buy-in price as a single player experience. Just deliver a fun campaign and solid, tight-controlling gameplay that lasts long enough to make me want more. All my complaints simply stem from the fact I just want more of this specific game to play and can't find it. What better compliment can I pay it?

The most wholesome software you've ever interacted with. A public good and argument for inherent goodness in the hearts of humankind.

Picked it up for $10. Was impressed with what I got. Very convienient way to play the games with friends that we never have the opportunity for. I mean when you and all you friends have life responsiblities just like everyone else to get to, it's not often you can get everyone into the same room to just sit down and play poker or a big board game. But suddenly you give everyone the ability to do all of these things freely from the comfort of their own house, either at the computer, or maybe sitting on the couch, controller in hand... suddenly things you couldn't quite gather the troops for are totally doable again. It's a nice feeling.

As far as a game, I'd classify this much like Gmod; it's just a sandbox for the modding community to freely create models, games, and associated assets for. It's a generic physics engine with loose guidelines that you stick things into. And on those terms it's a great experience. The stock pieces and sound effects are nice, pretty, and satisfying to click, roll, flip, and toss. The tools you have to work with are generic enough to be multipurpose, but designed effectively enough to be practical.

For $10 (the sale price at the time of writing) this is a very solid product that I'd recommend. At MSRP of $15, I'd still recommend it, even. With the promise of more features to come (devs if you're reading this I'm greatly anticipating some stock options and tools for CHARACTER SHEETS THAT WILL BE NICE) I'd say it's a steal even at full price, and at this point of 9 to 10 dollars we're seeing during sale, I've been handing it out like candy to my friend.

Also the fact that they remembered to add an "undo" button to make use/abuse of the Table Flip button totally okay for most games is just the best.

I strongly recommend!

This game hasn't been out more than a month. I can't put it down. At all. The demented atmosphere ripe with dark humor and the interesting item synergies that make each randomized run it's very own adventure are truly, truly captivating. The game is challenging and constantly evolving to accomdate you, adding new bosses and milestones every time you beat the game enough times to think you've gotten the hang of things. And I mean if you enjoyed the first one in any capacity you'd be hard pressed to imagine a better remake than this. Any minor complaints I might have about the lack of options in menus and whatnot are quite throughly trifling and not worth word count in light of what an enjoyable experience this is. I'd recommend this game if it were $20, but at the time of writing it's on sale for $10.04 so we're beyond that. Buy this game.

I recommend solely the multiplayer mod. However, the considerable levels of insane enjoyment you can glean from the multiplayer mod would even, if you have enough people to play with, justify full price for the game. Needless to say this is worth your time to pick up on sale.

Fantastic little time-sink this game is. It's simple, but challenging and has a very unique appearance in both theme and art style. And at the time of writing this, it's but a little over a dollar. There is no reason not to own this game, and plenty of reasons in favor of it. Come on. Buy it.