Recent reviews by gomez184

Sunk a few hours into it, it's OK. For the price I think I got my money's worth.

One of the worst ports I have ever installed on my PC in my life. Maybe the worst. Optimizing shaders alone turned my I7 11 series CPU into a pilot light and would have taken over 2 hours on my estimation if I hadn't pulled the plug early to refund. I can only imagine the game itself would run like hot doodoo as well based on the fact that at 1080P!!! on medium settings capped at 60 my VRAM was almost maxed out. Inexcusable, I wanted to play this game after hearing good things from my friends with Playstations, but based on this initial experience I will never give money to Naughty Dog and whatever abomination of a studio ported this game regardless on if they fix it down the line.

Best of the REmakes in my opinion so far and possibly one of the best re-imaginings of a video game ever. Continues with the more serious tone of the modern Resident Evil games but keeps enough of the campy B-Movie lines in to match the original. Story beats are basically the same with some of the fat trimmed off. Runs amazing on my mid grade PC in 1440p High with rare frame drops in places and when you scope in and out of rifles but zero crashes so far. If you've played REmake 2/3, Biohazard, or Village you will be right at home here. Still can't believe there are 18 year olds right now who were born when this game came out. God I'm getting old. 9.5/10

Nothing truly groundbreaking here but also nothing really bad. No Ubisoft grinding required to progress, I was vastly overleveled just from doing a few side quests before I even left the castle. Honestly just a game to hold me over til the big March releases.

It's actually pretty great, good thing I didn't trust all of the journalist reviews hating on it. Is there a little jank? Yeah, nothing too out of the ordinary these days. Is the story a bit cringe at times? Sure, but it's definitely passable especially given how good the gameplay is. Yes, Denuvo sucks and it's my one unforgivable sin about this launch but I am willing to look past it and hope it will be removed soon. My opinion is, if you're on the fence but liked the first game definitely buy it now, or at least within a few months as there is for sure more to come for this game.

An excellent DLC for a great game, Sam's Story tracks the only American member of the Aurora's crew who decides to set out on his own after events of the main game in order to find a way to San Diego to find his father before he dies. Once he arrives in the remains of Vladivostok, players are treated to a whole new story and open world level with many new weapons and secrets.

While the last DLC, "Two Colonels", offered a more classic on-rails metro experience, Sam's Story expands on the Exodus formula of a semi-open world with many optional areas for the player to discover on their own. Boats and bridges allow Sam to traverse the flooded ruins of Vladivostok, similar to a postapocalyptic Venice. New mutants rear their heads alongside familiar monsters from the Metro games, alongside an interesting storyline where, as usual, your choices will matter in the end.

Overall, Sam's Story is a great DLC that expands upon changes 4A introduced in Exodus. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and environment and think that it brings a great balance to the postgame after the release of the more classic metro style Two Colonels DLC. Great Characters, atmosphere, story, graphics. Everything a Metro fan should look for in an expansion to an already great game.

Great game, pure ludo with a compelling story and characters. This is how open worlds should be done, plenty of small things to discover on your own without handholding or overdoing it with map marker bukkake. The levels aren't HUGE but they don't have to be.

Atmosphere is off the charts, 4A definitely took some notes from the STALKER franchise as survival in this game feels visceral and challenging on the higher difficulties. From deep underground bunkers to expansive forested areas, the environments will draw you in and immerse you into the game world.

-----PRO TIP-----: Play the game in Russian with English subs for the best experience. The game is much better overall without cringy dialogue and poor voice acting that appears in the English version. The way it was meant to be played.

This game is always going to be very divisive when it comes to reviews so I will try to give my honest assessment on the basic pros and cons as someone who was skeptical and very wary of this game until I saw it was on deep sale and got it on a whim and not as a fanboy.

-PROS-
>The art style is amazing, hands down. Learning that a team of ~6 people made this is astounding given how much thought is put into each character, enemy, and animation. It has a unique color pallete that conveys the darkness and hopelessness of the game world while not being too bland and full of browns and greys (looking at you Fallout 3).
>The narrator who plays the ancestor is out of this world, even after beating the game and going back for round 2 I still do not get tired of his lines.
>Once you get the hang of the gameplay it becomes very addictive mid-to-late game. Jumping into dungeons and challenging yourself by going torchless or shaking up your party to something outside your comfort zone is refreshing once you have mastered the basics of the game.
>The stress system is a really cool take on dungeon crawling, and although it adds difficulty on top of an already hard game, it really does make sense. If you were exploring dank dungeons all day crawling with eldritch horrors, your sanity would definitely be in question after a few slimy tentacle swipes from a Cthulian horror or two.
>Stat/RNG nerds will have a field day here. There are literal spreadsheets that exist to crunch numbers for your SPD, CRT chance, optimal trinkets, etc. and it really does feel like you are playing an interactive game of DnD with a lovecraftian twist. On the flipside to that...

-CONS-
>Stat/RNG...you either love it or hate it and since the entire gameplay system is based around it, if numbers based combat isn't for you, you will hate this game with a passion. All your heroes will miss, the enemies will simultaneously crit your weakest hero one after the other, your healer will roll a zero and inflict bleeding instead...I could go on. It's all part of the experience however, and this is the reason most people seem to dislike this game. Whether or not the enemies get better RNG than you through intentional design is up for debate.
>Early game is kind of a mess. The game explains almost nothing aside from a couple super basic actions in the tutorial. Once you get to the estate, it throws you to the wolves without a clue on what you should upgrade first, how to manage your heroes optimally, the trinket system...nothing. For a first playthrough it is pretty rough, even compared to the likes of Dark Souls. Would recommend skimming a beginners guide online if you don't want to have to wipe on your first attempt and start over.
>The story is underwhelming, mediocre at best. Without going into too many spoilers, most significant things happen in the endgame and the entire early/mid period will just be you grinding procedurally generated dungeons to level up heroes and hoard heirlooms and gold to upgrade your town. There is a twist at the very end that saves the plot from total disappointment, however lore will be few and far between up until then, mostly found through trinket descriptions and boss dungeon intros explaining the origin behind the creatures.

So that is the basic gist of this game coming from someone who loves hard games but was hesitant to buy this one due to unfavorable reviews lambasting the "unfairness" of the game and how it just punishes you without rhyme or reason. I will recommend this game with a caveat-it's not for everyone, and if you are someone who can't stand failure you will not enjoy constantly having hero wipes from brutal RNG that is totally outside your control. If it's your first roguelike then I would approach with some caution as there is a lot of menu scrolling and number crunching involved that is just not present in other types of games. Otherwise, a cool game overall with a lot of unique takes on the genre that have never been seen before along with a great art style and atmosphere.

-OVERALL-
8/10, would recommend only to players more on the hardcore side.

Having played all 3 Metro games (as of this point in time), I have to say the first is still my favorite. Call it nostalgia, but the Redux of 2033 took an already great game and made it even better graphics-wise with SSAO and VSync options that greatly improve its performance on a decent rig.

Story-wise, my opinion is that this game is the best in the series. You are put into the position of a young man who spent his entire life underground, thrust into a terrifying reality of having to make it through the metro to meet up with the Spartans, an elite fighting force tasked with protecting the inhabitants of metro. During the course of the game, you will have to overcome terrifying mutant creatures, ideological zealots clinging to old world philosophies, and other mysterious entities that defy logic and reality itself. Although the protagonist Artyom never speaks, the atmosphere of the metro and postapocalyptic Moscow fills the game with more ambiance than dialogue ever could.

Gameplay is designed to be relatively linear FPS style with no RPG elements or level system whatsoever. You will need to scrounge resources and ammo to survive, and on higher difficulties you will need to put thought into where you place every single bullet to avoid getting caught with just your knife and a prayer. Shooting mechanics are the only issue I have here-they are not as responsive as most FPS players will be used to, and guns just don't seem to have much weight behind them. Luckily, the stealth combat system is very satisfying and requires trial and error if you hope to make it through areas without alerting a soul. Ammo and weapon upgrades are purchased using "Military grade ammo" which can be found hidden around the game world or acquired by trading in weapons and ammo at vendors. You can also load this ammo into your weapons and shoot it, which I would not recommend unless it's your last resort.

To wrap it up, definitely get this game if you're looking for that atmospheric, gritty, bleak Eastern European gaming experience we have come to know and love from across the Iron Curtain with the likes of STALKER. It's a cheap game right now, it has little to no bugs, and it has a lot of length and replayability for your buck. Looking forward to seeing where 4A takes this amazing series from here now that Exodus is a resounding success (Epic Store drama aside, it is actually a great game!) Enjoy comrades, and mind the shroom vodka doesn't get to your heads!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R Clear Sky is the underrated gem of the legendary series by GSC Game World. Set as a prologue to the events of Shadow of Chernobyl, Clear Sky follows the story of a mercenary named Scar, tasked with stopping Strelok from reaching the center of the zone and destabilizing the entire region as a result. Returning to the infamous Zone, players will encounter deadly mutants, fearsome anomalies, and various factions with differing goals for the future of the Zone. Ramping up the difficulty from SoC, artifacts are much rarer and harder to obtain, anomalies are deadlier, and weapons are initially poor quality with good ones difficult to find.

While there is valid criticism for Vanilla Clear Sky in terms of hard crashes, mission breaking bugs, and a faction system glitched beyond belief, at this point there are plenty of free mods that take care of these issues in addition to adding new and compelling content. As mentioned, the modding community for the entire trilogy is still quite active and new mods, as well as patches to old ones, are still currently in development. Many of these mods make the game much more difficult, adding crafting and survival elements that contribute to the dark atmosphere of these games that has made them cult classics in the PC gaming community.

The world map is slightly smaller than SoC, however you will find yourself visiting many of the same areas albeit with different factions vying for control of these areas. The main differences are Faction Wars, an overhaul of the artifact/anomaly system, upgradeable weapons and armor, and a few tweaks to the FPS combat.

Overall, Clear Sky has its flaws for sure and is not quite as polished as AAA games many people may be used to, but if you are willing to embrace its quirks (and do a little modding), nothing comes remotely close to the atmosphere and world STALKER delivers. Give it a shot, and you will not regret it.