Recent reviews by Blue Arrow

I don't really want to spoil anything, but I really enjoyed playing it. The concept they are going off of, being pulled into a game world and realizing all isn't quite what it seems was a lot of fun.

There are some similarities in themes to DDLC, so if you liked that I'd recommend trying this. With that said this game is very much its own thing and quite a bit different.

My only problems with the game were mostly minor bugs and some spelling and grammar errors. For example, the speaking protagonist sound didn't always work for me. The "gore" option that toggles between mosaic censoring on in off isn't straight forward - The option should be labeled "Censor Gore" as when it's checked it turns the mosaic censor on, and when it's unchecked it's uncensored.

Per finishing both endings it also looks like the developers are working on a new game mode which sounds really interesting. I'm looking forward to trying that when it is released.

I loved this game.

The characters are well written and voiced. Vivian and Amy are the soul of the game. The characters and their relationship is the soul of the game.

The story and pace of the game was also very well done. It took me about four and a half hours to complete. This includes both parts of the game, which to my understanding the second part was added when the game was 'relaunched'. This may sound short for a video game, but I feel the pacing of the game is well done and a lot happens during that time. The game doesn't string you along or feel like it's artificially drawing its self out to increase the game play time. It feels about right for the story they are giving you.

Honestly you could even finish this game in less time, but I'd highly, highly, recommend taking the time to explore and read or listen to all the notes and and other items in the world that give context to the story. A lot of the background to what's going on and the relationships between the characters are told in these notes and items you find, and I feel that all adds a lot more meaning and context to what you are going through. If you end up skipping these on your first play-through I think you would be giving yourself a big disservice. There's more to the story than just running through the buildings solving puzzles to get to your objective.

Fortunately these notes and other things that the characters observe and talk about are brief and quick to digest. They respect your time and don't feel like you are reading a long essay that takes you out of the mood of the game. I like that because as interesting as environmental items and notes are in some games, sometimes they can sometimes be overly long and feel like they are a chore to read all of them. That's not the case here.

Most of the gameplay revolves around exploring, puzzles, and avoiding enemies.

The atmosphere is pretty good and is well done in conjunction with the N64/PS1-era graphics vibe they were going for. A lot of games from that era haven't aged gracefully graphics-wise, but I feel this does a good job of going for that era's fidelity while staying visually appealing and interesting. I didn't miss 30 FPS framerates so I chose the "smooth" framerate option. Otherwise I left all the filter settings to their default to play the game as intended. It's definitely a creepy game at times. I wasn't really ever terrified, but it kept my attention and on my toes.

The puzzles overall aren't super difficult, which I am fine with. Difficult and abstract puzzles that take a lot of time like a lot of 90s adventures games probably would have frustrated me. They also seemed conscious on not waiting the player's time with having to do tons of backtracking for puzzle-sake. Also anything that requires any level of memorization often can be utilized nearby, so I don't feel like I need to keep a notebook on me. So if you are looking for something super challenging puzzle-wise then you probably won't find it here, but the puzzles felt good to me for requiring me to think about next steps but not holding me back enough to disrupt the pace of the game.

There isn't really any combat in the game. Mostly it's avoiding enemies who can inflict fear on you. I generally don't like cat-and-mouse horror games. It's not too bad in this game though, and it isn't a constant thing you need to keep worrying about, so I didn't mind it overall here. The closest you get to combat in this game is more about puzzle and misdirecting your enemy, which I feel fits the game well.

I can understand the criticism from some about a 4-5 hour game being $20, but I think it's worth it. It's short, but there is a lot that happens in that time. I can't imagine them stretching this game out any longer other than maybe adding new stories or chapters. I have no regrets purchasing this game.

I initially downloaded the demo then bought the game. I am glad I did and I am glad I took a chance on it. I really enjoyed it and look forward to more games from Blumhouse Games / Cozy Game Pals. Maybe more similar to this?

I've got a lot on my mind. And... well, in it.

This game is a worthy successor to the older Baldur's Gate games, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes turn-based RPGs and D&D. I'm still playing through it, but I am having a blast.

I have a ton of mixed feelings about Mysteries of the Sith.

On the positive side, this "expansion pack" (which is really a standalone game) brings a lot of well loved Legends characters, particularly Kyle Katarn and Mara Jade, both of who are playable. The game has a lot of references to other Legends and Dark Forces / JK lore if you are paying attention. This game also feels in many ways more ambitious than JK2, with more friendly NPCs, improved multiplayer, a variety of level sets, new weapons, and more. People have mixed feelings on the voice acting, but I like it. Maybe that's nostalgia talking though.

On the negative, MotS fall prey to the worst parts of DF2 Jedi Knight, which are amplified greatly. Particularly, the level design is often very convoluted. It can be tricky figuring out where to go and you may spend 10 minutes to find that the way forward is to break through a vent hidden in some corner behind something. It almost feels like the need to search often is intentional to artificially draw out the length of the game. Some of the levels are interesting and others are kind of dull, in my opinion. The narrative also is kind of mixed, with some things not ending up being explained and the pacing is sometimes uneven. While not surprising but still a bit disappointing, MotS doesn't have the live action cut-scenes that Jedi Knight does. Granted JK is unique in the series when it comes to that.

The reviews of this game is mixed, and I feel like that's really understandable. Some things are excellent and unique to MotS. The events of MotS move Mara forward in the Legends universe and is hugely consequential for Kyle's story. However the level design may irritate a lot of people, and the game does feel dated. Depending on how much you feel positively or negatively

MotS is worth checking out if you are a fan of the Dark Forces / Jedi Knight series or a fan of Star Wars Legends. Many people may be put off by the dated graphics, gameplay, and level design. I would play Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight first. If you like that, then give MotS a try. At only a few dollars this game is pretty cheap though, so you aren't out much if you don't end up caring for it.

Regarding playtime - I've had this game as well as Dark Forces and Jedi Knight since they were originally released and put many hours into these games. I may even still have the original CDs around somewhere.

It's a survival game that throws in Pokemon-like elements. It is a little rough around some of the edges, but for an early access game it's pretty good.

Sometimes I wish Steam allowed neutral reviews.

In general I've been having fun playing it, but I feel hard pressed to recommend the game to most people right now at its $70-100 price tag and a potentially uncertain future.

Positives:

The story for the most part was interesting. It was interesting to see it tied into the Arkhamverse
The campaign missions were mostly good
The gameplay loop is pretty fun, especially as you build up your skills and start experimenting with different builds
The voice acting and cinematics were pretty good

Negatives:

The side quests, random encounters (if you can call them that), and post-game content is very repetitive. It's always the same three-four types of missions with the same enemies.
Because of that there isn't much of a reason to stick around after the campaign other than for grinding for equipment and completing all the Riddler challenges.
The game isn't very well optimized. The game is playable and a lot better than some other broken releases we've seen, but performance isn't where I'd expect it, and often there are drops in FPS or short freezes when traversing. This was more of an issue with my laptop than my desktop, so your experience may vary
You would think that a live service game would actually have a decent amount of cosmetics in the store, but there isn't so far
There have been some bugs causing loading issues and progression issues. Some of which Rocksteady has fixed.
The story, while interesting, feels like it ends at an intermission rather than a satisfying end. Presumably the story will be completed with future content, but with the low play rate it may be possible that a good ending is never provided. I hope I'm wrong though.

There are things I enjoyed in Suicide Squad. I had a good time playing through the story and doing many of the side quest and the general combat loop can be a lot of fun and satisfying. Unfortunately with a lot of the non-story and end-game content being very repetitive, not great optimization, and uncertainty of the future of the game I would be hard-pressed to recommend it at full price. Maybe wait for a sale.

I hope season 1 turns the game around and the future content doesn't get cancelled. I think there are some good things going for the game, but it should have been built out more, even if that meant delaying it for another year. Even as someone who likes the game, it's hard to have a lot of confidence in the game's future right now and recommend a $70 live-service game because of it. We don't know what will happen, so it makes no sense to recommend a game on what it may potentially become, only as it is. For most people I'd recommend waiting for a sale or season 1.

Maybe things will turn around as time goes on. It probably depends how much Rocksteady is able to invest in the game moving forward. If things get better maybe I'll change my recommendation.

I'm about a third or so way through the game (from what I gathered). Redfall isn't by any means a great game, but I have still been enjoying it. The concept and story is interesting. The gunplay is fun, although not too in-depth. I think exploring is better than some open world games. Not that there are a ton of sidequests or ambient things going on in the world, but the world at least isn't so huge that you feel like you're wasting time just getting from point A to B, something that seems to be a problem with some recent open world games. So I appreciate the developers keeping the open world more concise and to scale with the amount of content.

Performance-wise I haven't had any issues. It's been running pretty smoothly on both my 3080 and 3060-Mobile. Which is welcome considering how poorly optimized many new releases have been.

I didn't play the game when it came out, the third major patch was released when I did. It sounds like it was a lot more buggy and less optimized when it released, so I never had to deal with that. I bought it on heavy discount at 75% off. I didn't have high expectations going in due to all the negative press and reviews. All of those which I am sure influenced my expectations going in verses someone who paid 70 or 100 USD on launch.

While I enjoy the game in general for what it is, there are still some areas that could be improved or added to greatly improve the game in my opinion with potential future patches or content updates.

- Improve the enemy AI. It's... serviceable, but feels pretty basic and unintelligent for a modern game. Sometimes the AI is alright, but it feels like most of the human enemies mostly will just move and shoot in one place at you. Enemies sometimes get stuck behind walls or act reckless to the point where it seems like they are just suicidal. The vampire enemies are a bit more engaging, but still seem like they need some work. I think the game tries to offset some of the shortcoming of the AI with having them do more damage to you, so you can easily die if you are reckless or aren't paying attention, but the AI is still often questionable enough that it's noticeable.

- Better develop solo play:

This game should be able to played offline if you are playing solo. Being able to play offline would make this game a lot more attractive to Steam Deck owners and people interested in Modding.

Also, allow manual saves, pausing, more tweaks to the difficulty. Make the game more open and easy to mod. I think these may give the game a bit more replayability and more of a better experience if you play the game solo. If the game was as flexible and open as a Bethesda-developed game I can see potential there. (Bethesda was the publisher of this game, not the developer)

- Make more ambient quests and activities, and more side quests and lore. I think the game has an interesting setting and more stories and things happening in the world could help show that.

- It'd be nice if there were ways to manually upgrade or mod your weapons, instead of having to just scrap them after leveling up a bit. Adding modification may be a bit much at this point, but maybe add a way to upgrade a weapon's level, even if it is expensive.

- Ability to go back to the first map after the point of no return shortly after defeating the Hollow Man

- Add melee weapons

- Allow the player to assign more than one keyboard or mouse button to an action. Such as the bash key - It'd be nice if I can have it assigned as a keyboard key and a mouse key. Currently it's just one or the other.

Overall Redfall seems like it has the beginnings of a good and interesting game, but was released too early. Another year of polish and rounding out of content and gameplay features and AI would have helped a lot and probably would have delivered a good game. At this point Redfall I think is playable and enjoyable enough (to me), but it does feel pretty mid and like a lot of wasted potential. It would be cool to see some content releases that improve the game, but I find it hard to see Akane/Bethesda committing more than they already promised considering the game doesn't appear to be selling well or have a lot of people playing it.

Overall: I wouldn't pick up the game for full price right now, but for a very good discount I think it's worth a try. I think it's much better than its reputation has been portrayed online at least, so I wouldn't judge the game just off that. I've played games that I've paid for that I feel were genuinely much worse; but that's me. It should have retailed for probably half the price.

I'll see how the future Bite Back content and updates pan out before deciding if I want to get that.

Pros:

The game looks really good
The skills, blade, and gun play are fun and can make for some interesting combos
Fun fast paced fps or third-person action
DLC outfits, if that's a thing you are interested in
The game now supports third-person for most gameplay

Cons:

Level designs are pretty linear and feel the same on later playthroughs
Game is pretty short, only about 3 or so hours total
Voice acting is passable. Not the worst, but many characters feel pretty generic
The story isn't all that flushed out. Many aspects of what's happening aren't fully explained or explored

Other Thoughts:

Overall it's a fun few hours of fast FPS gameplay. I enjoyed it. The combat mechanics are pretty good and getting used to them can lead to some fun challenging gameplay, especially on harder difficulties With that said it ends pretty quickly, there isn't much of a story, and the mostly generic and linear levels and enemies don't help with the replay value unless you are really interested in challenging yourself with the highest difficulty and completing achievements.

I wish the game was a bit more fleshed out and longer because it seems like they have a start to a really neat game with fun FPS combo mechanics. I like the setting in China and the Chinese themes. It's a welcome change of scenery from a lot of other FPSs.

Maybe they'll release a sequel with a more in-depth story that explains the antagonists more, explores why the protagonist is fighting ancient Chinese warriors and creatures randomly, and gives some more character development to Shelia and the crew. This feels like the start to a good story.

This was made by a single developer though, which is pretty cool. So I am more than willing to give him a break for what he accomplished when it comes to the few rough edges when comparing to AAA games with much bigger budgets and development teams. Many parts of the game feel very well polished for an indie game, more so a one-person developer. I look forward to see if we get more.

If you catch a good deal it's worth a few dollars for a few hours of fun.

It's a fun tech demo that shows off the Steam Deck. It would have been cool to have a longer game that takes place in a Pre-Portal Aperture like this, but even though that will probably never happen having this is pretty neat.

I've been really enjoying this game so far. It feels like a great mix of 90s shooters and aesthetics along with modern controls and a few (good) elements of looter-shooters. I feel like there is a bit of influence of Doom Eternal as well, and not just the excellent music that was produced by the same person.

The game has a lot of replayability, with maps being mostly randomly generated as well as the stats on the guns you pick up.

There are a few things I will nitpick however:

1. While the maps are randomly generated for the most part, it's more like there is a set of designed rooms that are randomly connected together when the map is made. Sometimes it becomes very obvious after seeing the same few rooms reused many times. It doesn't make the gameplay any worse so much, but it is noticeable. Maybe the developers will make more rooms or find ways to make rooms feel less recycled. This especially goes for the challenge/puzzle rooms that you can optionally repeat to get a new weapon.

2. The minigames are novel, but sometimes feel like a bit of a chore. They can be a bit challenging sometimes, but more of in an annoying way. Maybe it's just me. The game does allow you to turn the minigames off though. Not sure if you lose out of any achievements doing that.

3. It would be nice if there was somewhere where you could get more of an explanation of what certain effects to weapons do, like what exactly a "pull", "overload", "silencer", or other weapon properties do instead of guessing from gameplay.

4. The progression of the story and being able to explore the hospital seems a bit slow, but I am assuming this is intentional. Not really a complaint as much of a desire for a bit faster pacing with this sometimes. Your character's story seems to be mostly used for framing then a focus of the game though, which is fine.

5. Max graphics settings are more demanding than I expected, or could be better optimized. I am playing on a 3060 Mobile and a 3080 Desktop. Performance isn't bad per-se on either, but I would expect to get much better performance with these cards. I guess those dynamic shadows really are demanding? I haven't tried on lower end hardware yet, but I plan to. Hopefully it scales well.

Overall I am pretty happy with this game. It's a pleasant surprise. I was hoping it'd be a mix of Doom 2 and Doom Eternal, and in some ways it is just that and more. It's fun for mindless FPS action and seeing what interesting weapons, places, and secrets you can find. Some of the RNG elements could be improved upon, but at the same time it's those elements that really helps with replayability and makes dying a lot and replaying a level again much better than it may be if they were static levels.

I am glad I discovered this game. Great job to the developers and I'm looking forward to playing through the rest of the game. I've been playing it a few hours a day since picking it up a few days ago.