Recent reviews by xilmin

I have to call this "recommended" because I do think it is a decent game and I did enjoy it (hence why I not only finished the campaign but also spent the time to get all the achievements), but that recommendation comes with a lot of caveats.

Performance - Playing through the campaign was mostly fine other than a couple of brief single-digit-fps moments out of nowhere. Playing the rogue-lite mini-game was infuriating with so many slideshow moments or just completely freezing for a few seconds (all the more noticeable in a mode where lives matter).

Bugs - The enemies would jitter around objects, or just get completely stuck in terrain. The grapple-hook was not reliable, and I would often not go anywhere if I so much as stubbed my toe on a pebble. Towards the later part of my playthrough I frequently found myself sliding forward even when not pressing any keys (a hazard when waiting for a platform to materialise). And when replaying levels for achievements I sometimes found enemies would not spawn, blocking progress.

A greater focus on story - I would consider this as a negative, because to me it just feels like the wrong kind of game to be standing around having a chat with your allies.

Larger but emptier levels - This was very clear in one of the later levels where you have a motorbike. I imagined the motorbike levels to be high-speed chase kind of sequences with lots of obstacles and needing to pull all sorts of stunts to get by. There were a couple of sequences that lived up to that, but far too much time on the bike was simply following roads with minimal obstacles. The game then gave a massive open area with collectables to find, and yet the location was drab and empty, and there was no fun gameplay in driving around looking for them. But even the levels on foot felt like they were lacking something, even just some background decorations to give the locations more life.

Too many interruptions to the flow - What I enjoyed most from the first game was that sense of flow as you chain together abilities to pull off amazing stunts. Somehow I didn't get as much of a sense of that here. The path didn't always seem as clear, or platforming sections wouldn't last as long as I'd expect. Then there would be a minor puzzle to find a switch or push a block. Or I'd have multiple objectives in different directions. All of that would have been fine in small amounts, but ultimately I started to miss the more linear focus of the first game. They even put extra challenges in the levels themselves (races, timed kill challenges, that sort of thing) which not only broke the flow of the level you were on, but also seemed out of place because if you wanted to retry them, you had to replay the entire level up to that point.

Easier than the first game - Now this could be a positive or a negative depending on my mood. I certainly didn't die anywhere near as often as I did in the first game. The addition of the block in combat really simplified dealing with many enemies. It is something of a relief to not have a 100+ death count on some levels (I may not be very good at these games!), but at the same time I am left feeling there was a lack of challenge to the game by the end, for both combat and platforming actually. There is hardcore mode of course that I didn't try, but given my other issues with the game, I think I'm good, thanks.

I know that is a long list of negatives, but to counter that: you are a cybernetic ninja that can wall-run, dash through the air and insta-kill someone with one swipe of your sword. At that most basic level, this game is still immensely satisfying to play. Also I love the music!

TL;DR: If you enjoyed Ghostrunner 1 and want more, and don't mind a less-good version of the game, this is worth a shot.

I've long been a fan of the Myst games and I supported this game on Kickstarter with a lot of anticipation and high expectations. Sadly the end result didn't live up to what I had hoped for. I think it's a decent enough game as a whole but there were a lot of aspects that were disappointing.

The different "worlds" felt very similar. I didn't get any real "wow" moments on discovering a location until right at the end.

The worlds also felt quite empty. You can only interact with the world by using an item you get at the beginning of the game. Any other lever or valve is just decoration, meaning it was always clear what was relevant and what wasn't. Which could be seen as a positive, but for me removed any sense of discovery or mystery which is an important aspect I look for in these kinds of games.

There are only a few books/notes to read. Story is primarily told by voice-over. Unfortunately when I initially started playing there was a bug that stopped dialogue speaking. It is now fixed, but it meant I spent a couple hours in complete silence exploring and getting no story to explain anything I was seeing. I wasn't even aware it was a bug at the time. Replaying after the fix did help enhance my understanding of the world, but the bug highlighted how detached the puzzles feel from the world. I got the recurring sense puzzles were there for gameplay reasons rather than in-world lore reasons.

Your interactions are limited, all through a rather cumbersome UI to use the item you are carrying. The puzzles therefore are pretty simple, and the puzzle I found the hardest I still ended up brute-forcing my way through it anyway.

That probably all sounds like a lot of criticism, but ultimately I did enjoy my time with it. It was just up against my very high expectations. I'd recommend Obduction over this, or even Myst 1-4 despite their age. But if you've played those and want something similar (if easier/of smaller scale) then this is worth a look.

I may not play this game "properly" but I enjoy it for what I get out of it. I only play in VR and I mostly just enjoy flying around and admiring the amazing locations I discover. Sometimes I might take the time to mine some rocks or pick up a passenger from one of the space stations to give myself a bit more purpose to my wanderings.

My main problem with the game is the complicated controls, which I guess are standard for the genre, but bewildering when playing as infrequently as I do. It does lead to stupid moments where I'm only trying to deploy a cargo scoop on my rover and instead send my spaceship off into orbit. And I am perpetually terrified I am going to accidentally boost into a wall or something whenever I try to land at a station.

But when I am in the mood to play, my favourite moments are just landing on random planets and looking up at some alien sky and marvelling at what I can see.

Continuously being updated, there is always something new every few months to get interested in. As a casual player, I am entirely dependant on using builds other people make because of how complex the interactions between skills, passives and gear are. However that doesn't stop my enjoyment to see how far I can get each league.

The developers are the most engaged with the community of any game company I have ever come across, which is also refreshing to see. That isn't to say developers and community always see eye to eye but I respect them being direct with any communication they give.

A wonderful exploration game where progression is tied purely to the knowledge you gain as you explore.

It can be overwhelming to start. As soon as you leave your little planet the entire solar system is free to be explored. But once you set a target and learn what you can from there, natural curiosity will lead you to your next goals.

The less you know going in is probably best for this game, since knowledge really is the equivalent of spoilers. But I will say despite the free-form exploration, it comes together into one of the best endings of any game I have played.

And one final note: the music is wondrous and is woven into the characters you meet in a delightful way.

As a workout game, I've been enjoying this. The different punch directions add more varied movement than the previous music game I was using as a workout (Audioshield) and so this feels much more effective overall. At least that's what my protesting muscles were telling me after the first few sessions. Though I was disappointed the (very short) tutorial teaches you the game mechanics but does not teach you anything about boxing, so I'm probably doing it all wrong.

However I can only recommend this as a workout game. The music game side of it is disappointing. The choreographed classes feel good to play but any custom music I've added felt dull. The beat detection is decent but there is no reaction to subtle music changes and the larger scale changes always seem to lag behind the music. Particularly noticeable at the end of a track where I have to keep punching past the point the music has stopped.

Also I should point out when choosing to buy this game I watched videos and the current version doesn't reflect what those videos showed. Graphically it looks improved, but a couple of features I would have liked have been removed. There is no high score leaderboard for the classes and no graph showing calorie burn over time.

Other minor issues make the experience not as good as it could be. The UI I find unintuitive with lots of icons with no labels. Adding custom tracks is cumbersome, and there was no way to view drives other than C:/ which was a problem for me. There is no way to reorder tracks manually in the custom playlists, only randomise them. The classes also have no way to sort by music genre or intensity of workout, and no way to favourite the ones I enjoy.

Ultimately I have to say I can recommend this for the high intensity workout, but not for much else.

My most played VR game, not least because I get into the 'one more track' mentallity, even as my arms ache. I really can't beat that feeling of putting on my favourite fast tracks and flailing wildly at the air. My only disappointment in the game is the lack of a playlist mode, or at least a play-all-in-current-folder mode.

I recommend this game as a must-have for anyone with a VR headset.

Update: The new exercise modes are interesting but I personally prefer not to use them since I feel they break my 'flow' too much. Those awkward moments with multiple walls where I end up hitting the orbs while stuck in a squat don't feel particularly dignified either. I do like the two new locations though and I can't be sure but I feel performance has improved with the updates too.

The best VR game I've played as it's the only VR game I keep coming back to. It utilises the room scale well with dodging lasers. There are several weapon choices to keep gameplay varied. The sound design is great both in its soundtrack and for keeping track of enemies and their attacks. Gameplay is simple yet satisfying.

This is a game that is just pure fun.