Recent reviews by Ogachi

This game is pretty neat, actually a lot neater than I thought it would be. First off, the term "extraction shooter" is a bit misleading if you associate that with games like Tarkov and Hunt Showdown. Instead, it feels like what I'd refer to as an "Arena Helldivers." It's the same affair of spawn into the map, run around doing the main and subobjectives, then get to extract and go home. The maps are a lot smaller, perhaps 500x500m, and enemies are constantly spawning and aggro'd onto you. This keeps it constantly a fight rather than having regular moments of downtime.

Its meta progression is something that differentiates it quite a bit. Every weapon and item you carry is persistent meaning if you ended the last mission with 233 bullets in your inventory, that's how many you have at the start of the next mission if you don't buy or find more. More than that, your inventory is limited by weight. You can bring as many guns as you want but since these weapons and their ammunition all have weight, you can only effectively bring so much. It's an interesting limiter on the player. As for unlocks/progression, you get currency from every mission that unlocks more levels on the battlepass-style leveling system and can be used to buy and upgrade firearms.

What's most surprising for a two man indie game is how well it plays. It doesn't feel janky at all and I've really not run into any bugs. It's a very tight package for what it is and succeeds in being what it intends to be. The main complaint right now is that it's sparse on content. With only four maps, there's a distinct desire for more even with the variety of enemies and anomalies. I hope the game continues development to flesh out the maps available.

Also it has a cool soundtrack that reminds me of the Paranoia mod for Half-Life 1.

This game is cool. HOLE is a single player extraction shooter that plays like a hardcore/realistic FPS with features like lean, chambered rounds, weapon jamming, barrel heat, and height-over-bore. The standard gameplay loop is to spawn in, kill bad guys for money and mission items, run around to bonus objectives for big currency drops, gather mission items laying around the map, and extract before death. The longer you're in mission, the more enemies spawn and the tougher they get. The gunplay is satisfying and the AI, while not showstopping, proves a good enemy. There's basically no fat on the game. With only four guns, three stages, and the objective plain, you just get right into it.

The aesthetic is especially cool. I've heard it described as a shootout in the backrooms but, as the environments are all well furnished, I'd call it more in the liminal style of the Matrix. Moreover, the further you go, you'll discover new and strange secrets in the levels that start making it all feel mysterious and cryptic. It's a great vibe.

Overall, cool game with a good price. Shoot bad guys, escape or die, do it again.

F.E.A.R. 2's biggest failing is that it's not F.E.A.R. 1. It's a good game, it is, but it must be compared to its predecessor which harms its image. It's hard to be compared to one of the greatest FPS games of all time, to be fair. It is carried heavily by the Jupiter EX engine, a remarkable a revolutionary engine in its day, and the tech still remains impressive though it doesn't go to the lengths to show it off that FEAR 1 had done. On its own, FEAR 2 is a very competent shooter with impressive AI and a powerhouse engine that makes it shine above its contemporaries.

To spend some time picking it apart: it has practically the same cast as FEAR 1, the guns feel slightly worse (and look goofy), it is a parade of underground complexes with sprinklings of nuked-city, the story is told mostly through codex entries, the enemies have this over-saturated cartoonish look, and it doesn't make strong use of its AI by giving them more than a hallway to bounce around in.

However, it still carries a lot of the impressive features of the Jupiter EX engine which saves it a lot of face. Enemies are smart, there's a lot of attention to detail on how they react to you in audio, the way they interact with the (limited) environment is very cool, the lighting and damage systems still look great to this day, firefights are just as fun and intense, and Cortana is in the game.

tl;dr, FEAR 2 is not as good as FEAR 1, but it's still pretty good.

Hell of a lot better than F3AR.

This is a really cool game that I'm positive is not going to do well in the West. It has a weird name, it has a weird art style, it has a weird marketing campaign, it a weird playstyle. However, all these things are what makes Kunitsu-Gami novel and special. It's a very Japanese game and no, not like Senran Kagura is Japanese. It's Japanese in ways that are inherent to hisotric culture and mythology. While players of games like Nioh are probably familiar with the spirts and demons presented in this game, the thematic focus on Kagura and Shinto Harae are what makes this game stand out in its art direction.

If you only play a few missions, it's easy to think that Soh is rather overpowered and the game is too easy. Make it a bit further than this and you'll quickly find otherwise. While Soh is a great hero unit, he can't do this alone. That's where your villagers come in. The game has a very cool twist on tower defense in that instead of towers, you get moveable units all with their own niche roles. This helps as your defense point is constantly moving. Missions often have unique gimmicks which change up the usual formula, keeping each one fresh. As is tradition with Capcom titles, the game is big on being replayable with side objectives becoming unlocked after completion and the ability to farm up crystals and rations in easier missions if a more current one is giving you a hard time. I'd call this game a blend of character action and tower defense, something that plays really cool.

This is the first game I've preordered in a long time and I rather pleasantly surprised at just how intent it seems to be on not letting me down. I'm always glad to see a new IP, especially something this cool.

Also, you can give Yoshiro snacks. Game of the year.

I don't know, really. This is an interesting one because it's both incredibly simple and a bit of a mess. With the exception of beating a man to death with a crow bar, every step in this game is a bit of a confusing hassle despite there being so few. From the difficulty in shooting the shark in the eyes to actually figuring out you have to move to and left click the final boss after a stun, there's a lot of unintuitive stuff here. However, the game isn't exactly long and I do dig the setting. There's also a dream sequence where you castrate yourself and... it's just weird. It's a lot, but at the same time barely anything. I spent $0.79 on this for like twenty minutes, most of which was me trying to figure out how to beat the boss. Is that a fair price? Maybe, but I suppose it's less than a soda.

The Thing is my favorite movie ever. This is not the Thing. This is a monster shooter that takes place in Antarctica. Now, with that aside, let's get to it. This is a neat little game, a little confusing in its progression between levels but a solid Resident Evil-style saferoom shooter. It's straight forward in most every respect but its level design. Get a gun, get a key, get a key item, use it where it needs to be used, move on while killing the monsters. There's a bit of secret ending stuff you're bound to miss first playthrough but that's okay. The game speaks of a lot of love put into a two hour package, enjoyable and tight in the experience. A solid recommendation for those into indie horror!

CITY OF HEROES REFERENCE SPOTTED ON THE FLOOR BEHIND THE BOXES, POSITIVE REVIEW LEFT.

In all seriousness, this is a fun little anomaly game that's pretty short and to the point. Getting all the endings a bit of a feat, especially as one requires a specific anomaly to spawn at a specific time which is a hassle, but they aren't too bad. There are some cool ideas here for anomalies as well and, without spoiling, check the window and behind you. A fun little play through, I enjoyed it.

A nice little game for the price of free. You'll definitely see all of it within two hours (if you pass your second quota, you go right back to the first map so I'm pretty sure there are only two maps). As such, while failing quota and losing progress is sad, it's not so bad because I'm quite sure there's nothing more to see after 45k viewers and you keep your emotes. It's a fun little toy of a game to play with friends on a Saturday night for a few hours. The ability to export your videos (in less than 3mb no less) is a pretty fun feature.

First thing to note: this is not a horror game. There's a little creepy atmosphere here and there but if you're in the realm for real spooks (and I don't just mean jumpscares, I mean an actual horror atmosphere), you won't find it here. But that doesn't make this game bad! In fact, when you first dive in, it may still strike you as a horror themed game. However, by Wednesday, this will kind of start to fade as you pick up on what the actual theme of the game is.

Home Safety Hotline is a neat little concept I've not seen tried before. The gameplay is simple, kind of a clue-based puzzle game where people call you with issues and you match said issue to one of your possible answers. These answers of course being generally creature themed. There are times where the questions are very, very esoterically related to their answer which can be annoying but I didn't find the game difficult all the same despite a failure on Wednesday which had a very goofy, enjoyable game over screen. All in all, I enjoyed it. I felt the effort that went into it through the art, the writing, and the people involved. I will say that it's a sub-3 hour experience so keep that in mind, but I enjoyed my playthrough.

Very good. If you like puzzle games, you'll like Agent A. It's pretty straight forward point and click adventure with a cool 60's spy motif. It does a pretty good job of avoiding classic "adventure game logic" and while I did get stumped in a few places, I never felt as if I needed a guide. It's visually pleasing, has some fun puzzles, and felt well made. Would recommend!