Recent reviews by Vengeance

This is a shoddy rushjob of a port, an undercooked collection that reminded me of the unflattering sourcenext ports of RE4 and DMC3. And just like with those games, the Metal Gear Solid franchise deserves better releases, as the core games themselves are wonderful, with MGS2 perhaps being my personal highlight.

Only recommended if it has seen a significant price drop and modders have fixed this up (though the company that published the collection for money should fix this up already).

First impressions:
When this was first announced I was excited for this collection, but thinking: no Twin Snakes? No Portable Ops? No Peacewalker? Well at least there will be the possibility to have the HD collection versions of MGS2 and MGS3, but on pc! Then the collection got released, and after checking MGS2 for only +/-15 minutes i could already tell its worse then the X360 version: The menu's look slick but are kinda jank, the framerate doesnt seem like a stable 60 fps allround, the resolution seems lower, the sound quality isn't as crisp as i can remember it... Updating this collection for a solid 4k support should've been nothing but an absolute slamdunk, a homerun, a 1 meter penalty kick without a goalie, a 1st place finish with a 20 second difference with the guy in 2nd place... Yet Konami still manages to ♥♥♥♥ up decent 1080p versions of existing 20 year old games for current PCs, let alone a more modern 4k release. Also worth noting is that apparantly the keyboard and mouse controls (on a PC? That's crazy am I right?) aren't great either. At this point I didn't even bother to check MGS3 and MGS1, but apparentely they are not much better off either.

Checking up on it:
Now, after nearly 3 weeks I checked the storepage shortly and there have been 3 updates: The updates merely fix an issue with the game running at high speeds, and they now added cloud save functionality. Where are the resolution options? Where are the fixes on sound issues? Where is the locked 60 fps for these 20 year old games? Then I checked the steamdiscussions abit and saw mods to edit the resolution and sound, and now there are glaring issues with savegames being broken?! I have played MGS2 and 3 on PS2 and X360 and never had such issues, why would it suddenly be an issue for this updated release?

Upcoming releases:
Perhaps this section is not relevant for this review, but with a port this underbaked, how does Konami actually expect they can port MGS4 over to PC for the upcoming collection releases? (Vol. 2?) MGS4 is notorious for being stuck on PS3 because of it's coding complexity, but Konami can't even properly bring MGS2 and 3 over to pc, which by the way has already seen Microsoft Xbox releases with the HD collection. Will the same amount of care be put into Metal Gear Delta?

Final Thoughts:
I was excited for this collection and really, really wanted to give it a fair chance, but if Konami makes people pay this amount of money to have a version that still needs tons of patches and mods to even have a chance to match the original or even emulated versions: why should anybody even bother? Why do modders have to pay for the game, and then fix it in their free time to make this an actual feasible product? There's a whole bunch of cool extra's in this collection, but to me this makes the collection taste bitter as I wouldve much rather seen actual quality releases of the games themselves. For now I think will just dust off the trusty X360 whenever I wanna check the games, and I recommend everyone to either get MGS2: Substance and MGS3: Subsistence or just the MGS HD Collection instead. If Konami miraculously fixes all the problems with it i'll probably revise this review, but I currently have no faith that Konami will pull that off, and I can only recommend this collection when it has seen a steep price drop, and modders have actually fixed the game.

Fatal Frame/Project Zero just suddenly appeared on PC with this 5th game in the franchise, and as a huge fan of the franchise (5 is the only one I haven’t actually played back then) I was ecstatic to see some FF/PZ on PC!! I was also anxious, as some people are still saying that this 5th entry is the low point in the series and on top of that, Koei Tecmo doesn’t seem to have a good trackrecord when it comes to porting games to PC. So I was already preparing myself to turn excitement into dissapointment... But so far i've had a blast playing this, what a pleasant surprise!! More on this later!!

Also: I think its a pretty good PC port sofar, I’d love to see the rest of the franchise on pc too!! (Yes, that includes the awesome FF/PZ4! No excuses, make it happen!!)

SC:Double Agent deserves a better pc port, especially when Ubisoft advertises with screenshots from the arguably superior oldgen PS2/Xbox version!!

Chaos Theory's followup is a game with great potential. It kinda plays like Chaos Theory, but with a darker, more engaging storyline, some moral tightroping and some epic music (SC:CT had good music too though). How could you go wrong? I cant help but to like SC:Double Agent, but i won't deny that it's infuriatingly buggy either. For starters, the detection meter has been replaced with a simple color system: Either your green and your hidden, or your yellow and your not. Then theres a flashing red, which means that your currently getting blasted to bits. The lighting in the levels isnt really clear on what spots count as a shadowy, green "hidden zone", so you're prolly ending up missing a viable hiding spot. Or you'll have it the other way around: you rush towards a dark corner, thinking it's safe to hide there but it's not. For example: i was crawling through a dark alley near a palace, thinking it would provide some cover to hide, but nope... it didnt. But when i climbed on top of this same palace i realised: this whole palace rooftop is considered a savespot, in broad daylight!! There's quite a few spots like this, and it feels like the leveldesign got rushed.

Then there's other mechanics that are just buggy, or the leveldesign doesnt care for it. Like the splitjump, which now feels nothing more then a leftover-move from the older games. Even after numerous playthroughs on the xbox 360, i'v only been able to find 2 good spots in where you can use it, and i'm not sure if the developers even intended it to be used at all. There's also a new cornergrab move that proves to be pretty usefull sometimes, yet there are times when the enemies somehow spot you through the corner before you can use it on them... isnt that nice. Then theres the swimming, which is okay to me, but there's also that lure-move while swimming: if you whistle while swimming under the ice, you can tap the icefloor above you. So the tapping sound could lure nearby guards over, right? This could help with dragging down guards through the weak spots in the ice, but the guards never react to the lure at all, so why bother? Granted, this move was never explained, but why is it in the game then? It feels like another leftover move, just like how the whole game feels rushed and buggy, sadly.

To be fair, some problems are shared with the (arguably better) xbox 360 version, but this pc version is probably even worse. It runs on a much higher framerate and looks really nice sometimes, but it's even more buggy then the xbox 360 version. Some objects and effects are missing, menu's don't work properly, NPCS dissapear and appear at random, and some clip right through objects... But you better believe that they will spot you just fine. Im not sure which of these problems are exclusive to the PC version, but it definitely has some of it's own problems. The game crashes at random and the savesystem is incredibly confusing. For instance, overwriting a saveslot will ALWAYS overwrite your LATEST save, regardless which saveslot you selected to overwrite. Quicksaves on the other hand don't overwrite and will stack up. However, trying to load an earlier quicksave doesn't actually work... look, its just a mess.

I'd suggest playing the Xbox/PS2 version instead, which is a much more polished and streamlined version, resembling Chaos Theory alot while still adding the moral tightroping and awesome music from Double Agent.


-- Getting this game to run was quite a pain, and it's still glitchy, but this is what i applied:

*Patch 1.02a (only that patch)
*Thirteen AG widescreen patch
*Reload tweak based on SC:CT -

You cant actually reload while using a controller, in that case:
Go to SplinterCell4User.ini and replace:

Aliases[13]=(Command="Button bInteraction | Interact",Alias=Interaction)

With:
Aliases[13]=(Command="Button bInteraction | Interact | Reload",Alias="Interaction")

...or just add in that " | Reload" part. Note: Sticky cams wil now prefer exploding instead of releasing knockoutgas because those use the same buttons now, and who cares about logic in your stealthgame immarite??


*Graphics tweaked - Joshhhuaaa Guide > Graphics
*Graphics further tweaked with PCgamingwiki > Guide values commented out with ;
*Hidepieces=False - Setting this to true flatout removes some objects from the game, even walls! Setting this to true does prevent the coastguard in Cozumel getting stuck in a door.
*Bomb defusal note: If you use a controller and this mechanic doesnt work, try scrolling up or down with the mousewheel. It should get the defusal mechanic unstuck.

As a HUGE RE3 fan, RE3R is pretty dissapointing/frustrating as a remake... But still a great game in it's own right. !!!Only recommended if you already played RE2R and RE3R is way lower priced/on a sale!!!


Seeing how RE2's remake turned out pretty good last year, i was hyped that maybe my beloved RE3 would get the same treatment now. When announced at first, that did seem the case!! Now this remake turns pretty fun on it's own, but also pretty dissapointing compared to both the original RE3 bossness aswell as the RE2 remake. Here's why:

Muh nostalgias, muh rants:
As soon as i saw the achievement "Escaped Uptown" pop up after a lineair setpiece i could already tell: Gone are the hub-like areas, mazey streets and alleys, and instead there's mostly lineair sections to race through. At most, only 2 areas could count as a hublike area, and along the way, pretty much all of the puzzles are axed aswell. Perhaps they tried to address some of the backtracking that the original had? But i liked the way one could tackle obstacles in different ways through each playthrough, roaming the streets at will and all... Alot of the iconic area's from the original are also gimped or just removed altogether (along with THAT one bossfight) And there's little or no content to replace it. This is doubly frustrating compared to the treatment RE2 got last year. Now don't get me wrong, 2019's RE2 cut some corners too, but certainly not as drastic as this RE3 remake did. After a little while, this remake just says "F' it, im gonna do my own thing now" which is pretty jarring. Now Nemesis, the titular big bad is still pretty powerfull, but also depressingly scripted. He does dynamically chase you along like in the original RE3, but here it's like... only in 1 area? Most of the time he just harasses you in lineair setpieces and bossfights. The setpieces and bossfights are still thrilling on it's own, but it's not quite the same... Mr. X was done better in RE2 remake, so did it prove too hard to one-up him to Nemesis-tier throughout this whole remake? This makes me pretty salty about the RE3 demo too because what was shown there was pretty much the best part of Nemesis and Raccoon City's streets in this entire game. (Not wanting to spoil to much, there is one other area i really liked) Sadly, the whole game doesn't feel as open ended as even the demo suggested it to be, which is just dissapointing and again, very frustrating.

Muh value:
It's also frustrating to see that the game is quite short, but instead they added in RE: Resistance, a game i have no interest in playing. (I still prefer RE: Outbreak with it's co-op breakout scenario's, thank you very much). So they shoe-horned Resistance in for "free" but it probably makes up half the asking price of this package, because RE3 by itself is in no way worth the current €60 retailprice. I've completed the standard run in 7 hours, which is pretty meager in itself compared to my first run in RE2: 9 hours and 30 something minutes. (Alternate A and both B's scenario's not counted). I certainly wasn't rushing it and theres also no live selection system like the original, so even if you would compare it to RE2 remake's lacklustre approach to it's original A-B system, there's still no branching paths here anyway. (Except for maybe different enemy/keyitem placement per each difficulty?) There's no Mercenaries minigame either, and on top of that, many assets are lifted straight from RE2 and even RE7 (which RE2 admittedly also did with RE7, but still added more then RE3 did). For example, Carlos's M4 feels like a remodeled version of RE2's MAC-11 because i can't remember this 5.56 rifle being this surprisingly weak in the original RE3. And why does the Desert Eagle fill in as the Magnum in this game? Where's that badass S&W Magnum? Was Jill not in the mood to give some heavyduty STARS, wheelgun style?? Or was it just easier to copy-paste Leon's Desert Eagle from RE2... You see, it doesnt ruin the game, but alot of these design choices sure feel really lazy for such a short and expensive game. RE2's assets were probably created with RE3 in mind aswell, so if they didnt go all the way with this RE3 remake, I can't help but feel that RE3 should've been a add-on campaign for RE2. Certainly not bundled with Resistance for full price... Maybe they will add content later, like the ghost survivors content in RE2R? Maybe a proper Mercenaries minigame, or even extra chapters to well... you know... let you play in the area's they left out of the game? Would be nice but i doubt it will come.

The good parts:
I could keep ranting on forever about how this game is missing so much from the original. I could, but i won't (or i'll try at least) because i did actually genuinely enjoy this game!! As i completed the game, i instantly started a new run on a higer difficulty, which i never would have done if i truly hated this. Raccoon's streets (what little there is of em) look and sound absolutely amazing, just like pretty much every area that did make it into the game. Like RE2 remake, it's still a beautifully crafted game and unlike RE2, i felt RE3 uses more of it's original golden soundtrack aswell, like the saveroom theme, Nemesis chase theme, the ending credits etc etc. Alot of the things that actually DID made it into this game were pretty good, and it was surprising that even Dario is in there too. Once a minor but loudmouthed character in RE3, he's inseparable from his hideout-container once again, and he has almost the same voice lines from the original, word by word. Actually, most of the characters are done pretty good aswell. RE2's sweet mechanics are back, with a few additions to help out with the actiony approach of this remake. The knife wont turn dull like in RE2R and there's a dodge feature that works more reliable then the original RE3's tricky dodge system. And if Jill times her dodge perfectly it lets her instantly lock on to an enemy's weakpoint and fire/slash away (Yes it works with the knife too). Carlos has a similiar system, but bodychecks enemies instead to clear some space. Time it perfectly and Carlos will do a Chris-style haymaker that will knock even the mighty Hunter Betas flat on their asses (it's actually really good on Hunter Betas in particular). He can also follow that up with an instant lock-on, just like Jill. Speaking of Hunters, they were done pretty well i think, and the Hunter Gamma's are now way slower, but even more disgusting. The Alien-like spiders that replace the Drain Deimos are horrifying too, but are sadly underutilized... woops, there we go again.

Conclusion:
So with the really lineair pathways and Nemesis chases, this short remake is not quite what i have in mind when i think of Resident Evil, let alone it being comparable to it's original source game... Maybe it is best summed up as an abridged version of the original, with a much faster pace and tighter, more action orientated controls and a stubborn attitude with doing it's own thing every now and then. it's pretty fun in it's own way, as a more thrilling agression-rush, especially if playthroughs on every different difficulty DO end up changing the keyitems/enemy placements completely.

The Evil Within turns out to be an amazing game overall, but it might take a while to really appreciate it. Can be a very polarising and downright frustating game, beware!

Chapter 1: The Rant
To explain the polarizing part, i'd have to begin with my first impressions of this game: I'm a huge RE4 fan, but i wasnt quite convinced by the first trailers of The Evil Within, and kinda forgot about the game when it released. So I picked it up 4 years later during a sale and despite how nice it looks (that rain!!!) I immediately got frustrated at how bad it ran. 60fps had ridiculous screentear all over the place, and 30 fps felt more like 15 fps. My PC wasnt exactly a potato because I could play many newer games just fine. This damn 2014 game however just wont run fluid, and i'v spend hours trying to fix it. Coupled with some frustrations in the gameplay department aswell (more on that later) i was slightly dissapointed and forgot about it once again. Months later, i upgraded my rig and during some tests for other games i suddenly remembered that, maybe this game will benefit from it too? I still had to remove the ingame vsync and let my drivers put up a 60 fps limit, but then it started to run like a dream, instead of a technical nightmare. (ok, a very disturbing dream still, but...) Third time's the charm perhaps? Horribly optimized though.

Chapter 2: The Gameplay
So after this really rough start, i really started to appreciate it. Sure, the game doesnt even take 5 minutes to hook your feet to the ceiling of some dank murderbasement, only to literally dump you in a pool of blood abit later, but the game's style isn't that overreliant on gore as i thought it would be!
Over the years, many horror games i think have taken on 2 main approaches:
A) Action game with a "scary" skinwrap around it. (Yes, RE6 can be good fun, but its not horror)
B) Run and hide like a little B-word game. (Outlast? Awesome game in it's own right, but very lineair and not so fun in gameplay or replay)
In my eyes, a good horror game has a haunting atmosphere, is very scarce with giving you supplies and it should you feel powerless. But it should also force you into confrontations when there's simply no more place to run and hide. RE7 mixed this quite well, and you guessed it, The Evil Within is in my opinion excellent in balancing these 2 aspects. In my opinion, this makes it one of the best horror games out there. One moment your running from an overpowering, unstoppable monster. Later, your carefully taking out zombielike creatures with some distracting bottles, a knife and a gun. A few minutes later, the damn monster catches up again and now theres no escape, so you gotta fend it off with a fight! This keeps it varied and interesting, as it forces you to constantly shift between a -Flight- or -Fight- state. Mix that in with a very atmospheric game, and that's in my opinion the best kind of horrorgame there is. However, the gameplay can be infuriatingly frustrating sometimes, due to certain one-hit death mechanics, exaggerated hitboxes and a lack of invincibility frames. This makes The Evil Within rougher around the (sawblade?)edges then lets say, RE4, but that brings a certain charm too and it's still an amazing game i might add.

Chapter 3: The Mechanics
So apart from running, hiding and abit of sneaking, there is also combat. And the combat feels like an evolved RE4, but melee takes a backseat now as it is only usefull for creating some distance between the freaks. Its also usefull for damaging downed enemies, but lighting them on fire with a match is much more effective (provided you have some matches on you) This combat revamp is really cool, and it never feels overpowering, so this is the direction that RE5 and RE6 should've taken. (minus that dive in the pool of blood) There are some stealth elements like hidingspots, bottle distractions and sneakkills, but this is only really usefull at the start of the game. Theres all sorts of upgrades, ranging from weapon and skill upgrades, and theres also a custom ammo craftingsystem for a crossbow. The game's mechanics are pretty solid to me, but Sebastian's base sprinting stat (outside of setpieces) is abit crippled at the start (heh) so make sure you upgrade that sprint first... Unless you want to see how embarassing it looks when a trained cop like Sebastian grinds to a halt after like 3 seconds of sprinting... Imagine him chasing criminals like this?

Chapter 4: The Story
Now the main game's story is all over the place, but i think some parts of the story are left open for interpretation and symbolism. Theres cutscenes, files and tapes to uncover, but i'd say that the environments and creatures tell the most effective story by themselves. Sebastian has a dark past, and i think its sad that most of its backstory is told through files, instead of him elaborating on them. I like him as a character, and he most likely represses his memories and emotions, but he just doesnt seem that involved. Again, when you think of interpretation, maybe it's a way to let the player create it's own views on the event (like other silent protaganists like Gordon Freeman) but this is a third person kinda game and it does not help an already vague story. However, the vague story is also one of the game's very strong points. Environments warp, characters change up, and everything can change completely, without warning. It keeps the events untangible, and it just wont let you land with both feet on (or in) something safe. (Unless that pool of blood sounds comfy to you now)

Chapter 5: The DLC
One of the main game's strong points i think is that it mixes up the Fight and Flight tactics very well, so i'm sad that it turned out that the Kidman DLCs favors a VERY limited combat approach at all times. I like how it fleshes out some story aspects of the main game, and Kidman is also a cool character (Voiced by Jennifer Carpenter!!) but there's a heavy focus on that Outlast style of gameplay (Type B), and i wish they didnt do that. Don't get me wrong, both DLC chapters are still very tense, but they revolve more around learning the movement patterns of baddies, avoiding them and running like a B-word when they spot you. The choice is always -Flight- and then the available methods are also very lineair, though there are some opportunities to sneakkill a baddie every now and then. The Consequence does provide you with some weaponry later on, but i wish they would've mixed it up better, just like in the main game. Now there's also The Executioner DLC, which is the complete opposite from Kidmans chapters. In this DLC you play as one of the more powerfull freaks, and you're absolutely not hiding anywhere in this one. It's mostly first person melee combat around a mansion, and it's pretty fun smacking the everliving daylights out of the other freaks for once, but the last fight is one of the most frustrating encounters in the whole game. A combination of slow, unskippable cutscenes between certain stages of the fight, followed by a VERY cheap attack that's fatal 98.5% of the time? NOT FUN, DUMP IT BACK IN THE POOL OF BLOOD

Chapter 6: The Verdict
The Evil Within is an amazing main game, with a couple of frustrating tidbits really dragging it down once in a while. Kidman's DLC chapters are really tense too, but they contain abit too much lineair "run like a little b-word gameplay" to have that ideal gameplay-mix from the main game. The Executioner DLC is pretty fun too, except the last portion of the last boss fight, ♥♥♥♥ that noise. Overally a great game, but it might take a while to really appreciate it.


Edit - These are the launchoptions i used:
+fs_cachepath ".....cache folder" < Generates a cachefile of 1GB in the folder you specified between the "..." I suggest creating a folder in the main folder of TheEvilWithin

+com_skipIntroVideo 1 < Skips intro

+r_swapinterval 0 < Disables the ingame framelimiter/Vsync

(Capped the framerate to 60 in Nvidiainspector)

Holy hot damn is it good. For me, RE2 REmake sets the franchise right back on track. Now where do i sign up for the RE3 Nemesis treatment?

I had my doubts when this remake on Resident Evil 2 was first announced. Would Capcom be able to capture the spirit of the good ol' original? RE2 is a fanfavorite (rightly so, even though I prefer RE3 myself) and even the slightest deviation from the original could mean swarms of angry fans with torches and pitchforks. Was RE2 really the best choice for a remake? Why didnt they cast the original voice actors?! Will a 3rd person camera do justice that what RE2 did back then? Will it still have partner zapping, or will capcom just settle for a co-op campaign and call it a day? So i had my doubts, but it's finally here and i'm glad to say that it was well worth the wait.

The previously released RE7 (yes, confusing for newcomers, i admit) was really good at times (The mansion! The greenhouse!) but it could get pretty bland at times too (SAW traps, boring caves, etc). So, RE7 was a step in the right direction, and the engine behind the game had loads of potential. Now RE2 grabs that promising engine and handles that missed potential way better!! Instead of the rather slow introduction, SAW elements and lineair caves from RE7, RE2 brings back a true Resident Evil game, making it an engaging game from start to finish. When playing RE2 remake, these were just a few thoughts I had:

"But I shouldn't waste the little supplies i have... Which routes should i take to evade them and what are the best angles?"
"I should save that Flashgrenade for later"
"Is it fight or flight?"
"What?? Hold on a minute, lemme check the map"
"I see, i'll probably need this item later then"
"Dont mind me Mr zombie, just keep doing whatever you were doing ok? To me, you're invisible enough ok? hahaah? (awkwardly looks both ways, then continues the attempt to creep/dodge)"
"Gotta check out that room. But i'm not sure how, or if it's even worth the risk"
"Uuhhhmm, that sound... Is that what i think it is...?! Now i can't see it right away, but THAT sounds like BIG TROUBLE".

The game is very tense, and in all the right ways. So in my opnion, this is how a great (horror) game is done!!

***This review will be updated as I myself only completed Leon's story first now, which took me like 15 hours. But there's more good stuff waiting in the 2nd half of the story, in which you play as Claire's perspective. You can also begin the story as Claire and finish the second half with Leon, so that brings the game to a total of 4 playthroughs. And then you can play on higher difficulty too, so theres plenty to go around of you ask me!!!

Hitman 2 takes its excellent 2016 predecessor and adds even more fun to its open playgrounds of assassinations. Add in the legacy content (or simply own the original 2016 game) and this solid sequel makes for a very fun and content filled package of sandbox goodness. Very recommended!

Each mission in Hitman basically drops you in an open playground with only two or three objectives. The playgrounds themselves however are crowded with everyday people, just living out their lives, and the way you can interact with it's environment is really fun. You can bring and find a variety of "tools" and use the terrain to your advantage, but you need to know how or when to use it. You can disguise as different people to blend in better (and pretend your doing some work to stay unnoticed) but you still gotta pay attention to sharpminded people who see through your chameleon abilities. The game has a lot of cool mechanics and Hitman 2 adds a few more mechanics to this mix, like hiding in tall grass or blending in with crowds of people. Its great fun and every mission is meant to be replayed several times. You could go guns blazing, but planning out and being stealthy about it is much more fun and rewarding. The best way to enjoy the missions is to try a couple of approaches, and then switch to a new locale to keep things fresh. Just make sure that you revisit older missions later, keep em in rotation so to speak.

What i also like (especially with its open-ended nature) is how the game handles its UI. Some games treat you like you're some toddler, while others games don't feel like explaining anything at all. Now this game offers basic guidance through hints and markers, and these are enabled by default. However, at any time in the game, you can tell the game that Agent 47 is a big boy now (or big girl?) and ask the game to let go of the handholding by disabling a variety of these guidance options. You can also re-enable it at any time (unless you're playing on the highest difficulty) and I think more games should offer this kind of variety in options!

*New about those missions... Apart from the New Zeeland Villa introduction (awesome!) I have only really checked out the new mechanics in older missions from the previous game. So I cant say much about the new missions at the moment, but they look really fun (A RACETRACK!? IN MIAMI OF ALL PLACES?!?!) and abit more colorful then the "season 1" content. This will prolly be updated once I got fimiliar with the new missions.

The game is not perfect of course, and some mechanics from the previous game are still a little wonky. Dragging a body can, once again, be a little iffy. If the body collides with anything (and i really DO mean ANYTHING) Agent 47 will stop dragging it around. Trying to subdue someone on or near a set of stairs can still trigger a different, not so subtle animation, and alerts everyone around you. They're not such a big deal, but it can be cumbersome and frustrating every once in a while. The "always online" requirement is also a mixed bag. This way the game can show you news updates, track everyones scores for leaderboards and offer timelimited "Elusive targets" and other people's custom contracts. Now i actually kinda like the idea of what COULD have been done with it, but the way it works now doesnt really add all that much to a game that's mostly singleplayer at it's core, so im not sure why this is absolutely neccessary. (If its there for security reasons, its absolutely not the way to do it)

But bottomline, Hitman 2 is a solid sequel that updates the 2016 original to a bigger and better package of awesome playgrounds.

It's hard to outright recommend this game (wait for a sale!), but theres still some fun to be had (and wreck some property!).

Il get straight to the point by saying that the problem of this game is simple: it's the WHOLE PREMISE of it. Its violent and it looks bleak. Black and white presentation and only blood, fire and emergency lights will bring color to this edgy presentation. There's no humour to be found and the main character is incredibly unlikable and boring. At least Postal Dude from the first Postal gamel had psychological issues and seemed possessed or something, kinda interesting to me. But there's nothing interesting about Mr. Not Important here (or The Antagonist, whatever his name is, ♥♥♥♥ it). Mediocre oneliners, greasy emo dude, no backstory whatsoever, and the game's story is not important either. He's just a ginormous memeing emo edgelord that needs to find a hairdresser and have some fun hanging out with a bottle of vodka.

It just that the game tries really hard to push the edgyness in EVERYTHING it does. I can enjoy alot of games, alot of violent games too. Theres always something to it, some style. In every GTA, you can kill random pedestrians, but thats never really the objective. Manhunt is very violent, but it's violence is always aimed at sadictic baddies that actively try to gang up on you and do you in. Manhunt 2 (PC) has innocent npc's and Rockstar actually planned to hand you the bad ending if you murdered those innocent npcs. Postal 2 can be really violent, but it's style is humurous and its violence is more about testing your patience around the crazy gun happy inhabitors of Paradise. You can actually complete the game without killing ANYONE at all. Postal 1 might be the exception, but even then, Postal dude in that game is kinda mental and possesed, so at least theres is some sort of excuse. But this game actively wants you to slaughter for NO REASON at all (except for being edgy of course), AND ITS NEVER OPTIONAL.

In gameplay terms, most objectives involve killing a certain amount of people to advance the game. Sure, there are sidetasks that involve wrecking property, but the main tasks almost always involve you killing stuff. And the only way to heal up is to execute some other poor bastards that lie on the floor, probably begging for their life in a near death state. These execution animations arent actually more violent then lets say, Manhunt, but i find that the reactions of these helpless innocent people are displayed in a incredibly disturbing manner. And what surprises me about this is in how sadistically encouraging the game's mechanics are build around murdering innocents. The very first level had me going in circles for ages because of this. The objective was to shoot a certain number of people, so I shot some random guys at the nearest busstop untill the cops showed up, and then I focused my efforts on dealing with the cops. Turns out, shooting armed response doesnt count, you need to kill helpless innocents specifically to progress. Like, really? Even Postal 1, which has a similiar dubious killcount system, didn't make an exception of whether your killcount was armed or not. Then theres a part on the train and at an election speech that stand out, but it's just how the whole game works really. And this is how I basically play this: You kill stuff, armed response shows up, you fend them off, you grab their ammo and shoot some more. When you need to heal up bad, you run away and execute some innocent folks so you can go back to killing cops again. It doesnt help that civilians just run around like idiots. I mean, they scream in panic, but they also run into you and block doorways. Sometimes they do run away from you for abit, but they never really escape the area as far as i know. I find the combat with armed enemies kinda fun though, but if you're only focusing on that aspect, you'l be here FOREVER. Then theres the isometric viewpoint: It can be disorienting as ♥♥♥♥ and because everything is black and white (edge vision), it becomes even harder to make stuff out, unless you hold a button to show outlines on important objects. TIP: BIND THIS FUNCTION ON THE AIMBUTTON OR YOUR PATIENCE WILL RUN OUT REAL QUICK. Because cops can shoot you from offscreen, you need to pay attention to the radar at all times which again, is really annoying if you're just looking at the game and not some stupid radar. Its a double edged sword though, because you can shoot stuff offscreen aswell, but i dont find it a very good mechanic for a isometric game.

BUT! There are some very good points about this game too! It surprised me in how much of the environment can be destroyed! Throw a grenade in a building, and see how the walls come down and rubble goes everywhere. Keep shooting at a wall, and youl make a hole evenutally. You can even steal some car and plow it right into someones living room. Go fast enough with that car and you might drive right through someones home, onto the next street, which might be the only ounce of humour i could find in this edgy game. Fire stays for a long time too. Throw a molotov, go around a few blocks, then see how the fire has spread and how much damage it caused, pretty impressive i say! Blowing up a gasstation is even more of a party, good stuff!! The movement can be clunky, but i like how Mr. Not Important can mantle over obstacles and dive through windows like some freerunning (homicidal) maniac.

So for me, this game's edge factor and presentation are definitely it's weakest link. It can be very enjoyable though and the music is still pretty cool (and HEAVY METAL, YEAA, hahaa!) Technically wise, this is a very interesting game. I see what the devs were going for with it's "style", but i wish that this game would stop being such a tryhard edgelord every once in while and have some fun in life.

After years of knowing it was bad, i wanted to be a completionist and i was in a stubborn mood, so I decided to actually give this a spin. The result: Yep, iiiiiiiiit's bad.

The style is kinda okay and its no suprise that the story is incredibly goofy. But the game also overdoes it on the memes and hommages too, even for Postal standards. However, the technical part is just a complete mess. Like, the music is kinda cool, but its playing all the time and it's pretty loud. This is probably to hide the fact that alot of sound effects are simply missing. Corey Cruise (The Dude in P3) has some funny lines when he actually does some of his own, but alot of his lines are taken straight from Postal 2. These lines feel like he's just impersonating Rick Hunter, rather then doing his own twist, and it feels like a missed chance. And that thought pretty much sums up everything, and I really do mean EVERYTHING in this game: a missed chance.

The game gives you the option to follow a Good and Bad path, but its just 2 flavours of suckage really. The karma meter that balances this mechanic is broken anyway, but either you:

A) Endure the good path and try not redecorate your PC with an Axe every single time you accidentely blast any retarded civilians in the crossfire of some of the most chaotic, and frustratingly broken fights you'l ever see, or:

B) Go nuts on a "less" enduring bad path and then get shat on because you went with the bad path this time so you wont get a proper bossfight, escape sequence and better ending (or maybe it's actually a good thing, because it makes the game abit shorter and you can do something useful instead)

As for the gameplay itself: Small missions with (mostly) straightforward objectives and little room for freeroaming, AI wonks out all the time, melee feels unresponsive, special weapons are either useless or only do what they feel like, and using any throwable weapons is a gamecrashing shortcut to exit this infuriatingly glitchy game. It's a shame, cuz it COULD have been good, but sadly, its not.

Long story short: It sucks, but at least the music and Corey Cruise are kinda fun.
And remember kids: don't do drugs and don't play Postal 3, or you'l be seriously sorry!

Not much can be said if i want to keep the spoilers to a minimum so i'll keep this short. At first glance, DDLC is a cutesy looking visual novel with happy music. The visual novel offers a few different perspectives depending on what choices you make. Dont let it's innocent looks fool you as the game can wipe the smile of your face quite easily if you do. Still, its easy to see that the team put alot of attention and love into making this grim gem of a story.

Also very relevant and important information:



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