Activities
Today
Although DOGS THROWING SWORDS II: Three Barks To The Wind was in that 1700+ itch.io bundle from six years ago, I checked the page recently to see if it had been updated since I downloaded it and I noticed it had gone free to play. For that price, it’s a pretty decent–albeit short and basic–shoot-em-up. The second (final) boss is the same as the first, but there’s still variety since the arena now has spikes you have to avoid. The levels could scroll a bit faster and the enemies maybe take a bit too long to die sometimes, but it’s a solid game overall, and I recommend it. You can download it here: https://itsmelilyv.itch.io/dogsthrowingswords2
I also recently learned that if a game on your wishlist goes free-to-play, Steam does NOT send you an email like they do when it gets discounted; I had to find this out from that “Free 2 Plays That Were Once Buyable” thread:
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Unless
54 minutes playtime
15 of 32 achievements
Platformer. Standard left/right movement, jump, and wall-jump.
As I said when I posted about its demo, the controls are responsive and the level design is decent, with frequent checkpoints and fair enemies (except the torches in world 2; those things do NOT look like hazards!). Also, although berries are needed to unlock four bonus levels, and the only way to get enough berries for them is to beat previous levels fast enough, the entire main campaign can be finished just by beating the levels normally. Problem there is that the entire main campaign is only 42 minutes long, and that’s going based on Steam’s timer; the in-game timer that only measures level playtime had me at slightly less than 21 minutes. Plus, you don’t unlock berry levels by simply obtaining the amount shown on them; you have to SPEND that many berries to unlock them individually, and although you get 25 berries for each level you B rank, you’re also just as likely to get a C rank on your first play-through of a level, which gives you zero berries.
On top of this, although the levels in world 1, 2, and 4 cost between 125 and 150 berries each to unlock, the dev(s) randomly decided to make the one in world 3 cost a whopping 225 berries! When I beat the game, I had enough for the other three (again, combined ‘cuz you have to spend the berries), but I didn’t have enough for that one, so I just edited my save file to change the level’s unlock status from false to true, and you know what? None of the berry levels are that much harder or more special compared to the levels in the main campaign. I was disappointed.
After you beat those four berry-locked levels, you unlock four more levels that ARE supposed to be much harder, and you know what? They’re not. Beat them and you’ve beaten every level in the game…in 54 minutes, not even half of the Steam refund window. There isn’t even a level editor despite the lack of content and despite the game’s story being about spreading the joy of creating your own Worlds. It feels like there were bigger plans for this game that fell through, or that the dev(s) focused too much on appealing to speedrunners that they didn’t put enough effort into appealing to casual players.
By the way, even after beating all of those extra levels, I still didn’t have the 225 berries needed to unlock the world 3 berry level that I cheated to access.
Still, the game is pretty good overall, especially for free, and even if you don’t cheat to unlock a berry level like I did, you can still have a decent (if slightly disappointing) time just playing through the main campaign and leaving it at that. Recommended.
P.S. I will say, though: I’m convinced that it’s impossible to get to 4-3 from 4-2. The glass platform reforms too quickly for you to get the height needed to boost from the portal; I always either didn’t have enough height or I hit my head on the glass as soon as it reformed. The only way I finally reached 4-3 was by backtracking from the start of the world and going past 4-4.
Yesterday
Viewfinder is a refreshing puzzle game, using a mechanic I have never seen before. Puzzles are great, although on the easy side. Some new mechanics are gradually introduced but not too many of them since game is not very long. That was a positive thing for me as it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Story generally isn’t that important in games like this, and it is Viewfinder’s weakest part. I stopped caring about it very early as it was very boring, no mystery about it or wandering what will happen next.
Metaphor: ReFantazio is an exquisite game. I haven’t played anything from Atlus before so this was my entry ticket into that world of dungeons, social bonds and careful calendar management. It is much more lenient than Persona games, but if you are careless you could miss your chance to do some stuff you wanted.
First impression was not positive at all - game has problems with some wireless headphones. Not all of them but Xbox Wireless Headset which I own is one of them and it is known problem since release and they haven’t patched it. It is not some minor incovinience - there is no sound, at all! I have tried everything, every troubleshooting advice on the web and none of them worked. When you change audio source in-game you could hear music for a second and after that back to silent. In the end I had to connect them via cable which solved the problem.
From the start first thing I noticed is best-in-business menu and UI design. Game is a masterpiece in that department, it doesn’t get better than this. There are a lot of UI tutorial prompts in the first couple of hours for every single thing and new game mechanic. It didn’t bother me at all since they were short and to the point. Metaphor has captivating world with very interesting lore and I constantly wanted to find out more about it. Politics, religion, inequality and racism are heavily incorporated in it so it is not just about the hero saving the world. Nothing in the world is black and white, even main villain has some validating arguments for things he’s doing. Story is very linear, there are not any major choices or story forks which is good since the game is huge. There are more than 40 archetypes (classes, jobs) in game with a couple of skills each, and when characters learn other ones they can inherit those skills and use them in addition to their main ones. We also have synthesis skills that require 2 specific archetypes be present in the party in order to use them, so the number of combination you could make is endless.
Funny thing from my first big dungeon - I didn’t know that MP is premium at the beginning of the game and that you have to manage it very carefully. I was almost empty and just arrived to do a boss fight. You can’t do it even if you are half full, and there is no vendor to buy MP replenishment like it was in the tutorial dungeon. They don’t have to be done in one day, you can return to town to sleep off and return tomorrow to continue from where you left off. But there was a problem - I have wasted days doing relationship bonds and I could’t get back since from the story perspective I have to do it this day. Tried to return and was greeted with a game over screen.
Am I softlocked? Fortunately no, since if protagonist is using Mage archetype he refills 1MP to each party member for overworld kills (enemies that are weaker than you and you don’t enter turn-based battles fighting them). And so the grind started - clear all of them to get 20MP or so in 10 minutes, exit dungeon so they can respawn. Rinse and repeat for an hour :D
In the end I had so much fun playing the game, although I wouldn’t recommend spending 100+ hours in a game in just 2 weeks.
April Assassination #4 (Backlog)
Played on itch.ioOne of the best walking simulators I had the pleasure of playing. For a game where you barely do anything more than walking left and right and interacting with NPCs and certain objects, this keep me hooked more than it had any right to.
What makes Night In The Woods from a good to a great game its the quality of the writing. All characters are multi-layered and believable, and their interactions always go a layer deeper than you would expect. Not only that, but everyone has some pathos, including the setting i.e. the city of Possum Springs. Trauma is everywhere, like it or not. What changes is how people react to it and deal with it. And our protagonist, Mae Borowski, is really flawed, which just gives a lot of room to create these situations where emotionally unstable folks just clash and have to deal with the fallout later. It's great.
The production values are also pretty high. The UI is clean and allow you to focus and take in the environment. Animations are fluid and every scene is shock-full of detail and props that enhance the believability. The soundtrack, man, is glorious. And don't get me started on the journal, so shock-full of personality just through doodles. The game sprinkles minigames every now and then to switch things up, and it really helps. Things like band practice, miracle babies feeding time, eating pizza, opening windows, etc. It didn't need to do that, but I'm glad it does.
All in all, it's one of those games that refuses to be explained. When you put all cards on the table, it sounds boring or subpar. When you play it, it's a vibe and works much better than you would expect. It has to be played slowly, maybe one day at a time, so there's enough time for all the themes to sink in. I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who has the minimal interest on walking sims and just human nature and the tragedy of human condition.
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The Rush
88 minutes playtime
no achievements
This game was really close to being a great free shoot-em-up, but it makes a few notable missteps. First, although the game sets you back to a checkpoint when you die (in one hit), the game still has the gall to have limited lives (max you can set is 9). Also, although Training Mode lets you play any stage from the get go without having to reach it in Arcade Mode first, it still only lets you play a level from the start or from the boss rather than let you retry from any specific checkpoint between them. Sure, you can get around this by going to your AppData/Local/The_Rush_Laptop folder and opening the game’s settings file in Notepad to give yourself 999 lives, but this obviously wasn’t intended; the game was meant to be tedious for no reason, and it kills me that so many Shmups do this. Second, bullets can be kinda hard to see sometimes, especially since I’m pretty sure they get drawn behind your own bullets, so a lot of your deaths will be from shots you didn’t even see, and trying to do a blind play-through of Arcade Mode legitimately will get you a game over on level 2 or 3 (out of 8). Third, some of the enemies and hazards require trial-and-error before you’ll understand how they operate, like how the stage 4 boss shoots directly at you for every shot you land on it (something that nothing else in the game will do) or how level 7 has gates suddenly close when they reach specific points in the autoscroll (not always the same points that previous gates closed at).
Overall, there’s a lot of good here, especially for a free game, but the missteps still make it kinda hard to recommend.
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Funky Panic Attack
53 minutes playtime
no achievements
First-person platformer. Standard left stick to walk and right stick to look around, A button double-jumps, RT fires your freeze-gun (which you only get if you go through the tutorial) though the lack of reticle makes it hard to aim, Y advances dialogue, and RB toggles a mode where you move faster but constantly bounce. If you freeze a moving platform, jumping off of it will launch you in the direction that platform was moving when you froze it, which is an interesting concept, but it really just makes it kinda annoying to make the long jumps you’re expected to, especially when you only barely miss reaching the next platform despite having toggled on the fast-moving bouncing mode and double-jumped. Making those jumps feels a bit more like luck than skill.
Level design is pretty good. Checkpoints are frequent and hazards are fair. Only issues I had besides the aforementioned launch mechanic is that hazards can sometimes unfreeze faster than you expect and kill you when you’ve just moved past them and can’t see them anymore, and also the fact that frozen hazards still deal contact damage, but both of those are things you can get used to.
It’s also worth mentioning that the game ends very abruptly. The protagonist finds a picture of people who “look familiar,” and then nothing ever comes of that. Near the end, the protagonist mentions that she doesn’t sense what she’s looking for nearby, but then ten seconds later, you enter a door and find exactly that and the credits show up and you’re back to the title screen. It definitely feels like there were bigger plans for this game that fell through, and the demo for its sequel has an entirely new cast of characters, so unless I missed a hidden Easter egg somewhere, the questions raised by this game will remain unanswered (the secret area shown in the game’s only Steam Guide just raises more questions).
Overall, it’s okay for a free game, so I can recommend it.
Apr 22 2026
April Assassination #3 (SG Win / PoP Pick)
Please consider liking my review on Steam - it means a lot to me!
Chernobylite is a hesitant thumbs up for me. TL;DR it is a game with great production values, a solid plot (hard to follow at times and with a poor twist at the end), and a really well-developed universe to explore and live in, but that is marred by poor pacing and repetitive gameplay. At 30 bucks, if will be worth if you buy it, but you'll have to endure some repetitive stuff to see the credits roll. Buyer beware.
Now, let's dive a bit deeper. The absolute highlight of this game is the universe you'll be playing in. Combine real-world locations that were scanned for the game with great visual effects and texture work, and you will feel like you're in Chornobyl, period. The soundtrack, the fog, the rain, everything contributes to that aura and atmosphere so thick you can cut with a knife. The first time you enter each map is particularly exhilarating, as you never know what to expect, or where. Each area has a ton of landmarks that allow you to navigate effectively without the map, and I had a lot of fun just being in that world. At least at first. Some of the earlier cracks I noticed in the game was the fact that every character (NPC or enemy) in the game wears a mask, clearly done to avoid animating faces, and the poor optimization (I had to tune every setting to the minimum and still could barely crack 30 FPS, whereas I played Elden Ring and RDR2 in higher settings with better performance).
So graphics and music/sound effects are good, but what about gameplay? Here things start to get iffy. Chernobylite alternates between a stealth game and an action shooter, with emphasis on stealth particularly early on, before you have enough resources to spend them on full-on combat encounters. As a stealth game, it works but it's not great - enemies are kind of stupid, they see you but then you hide behind a small bush and they pretend you were gone and never there. You can bait enemies by staying long enough in their vision cone that they decide to investigate, which allows for easy pickings. I used a crossbow early in my game, which is supposed to be a silent weapon, and half the times it would be silent, the other half it would alert the whole camp of my presence immediately, and it was never clear when or where that would happen. If you can tolerate the slow patrol cycles of your enemies, you can usually clear enemy camps without being noticed, at least early in the game before your enemies start wearing body armor and helmets. And this is an efficient way of saving resources, but very boring, repetitive, and unengaging gameplay loop, which is a terrible combination. Stealth is also problematic in an open-world game like this one (each map is a small open-world, with you having a lot of freedom on how to move around) since it's easy to just avoid combat and go somewhere else if you want, as the game area is usually mostly open fields. This is great if you want to evade patrols, but terrible if they spot you since being detected means 4-5 enemies immediately converging to your position, with little defensive cover, and them having perfect accuracy. Remember the small bush that made you invisible before? Now you're exposed butt-naked even behind it.
Well, eventually you'll have to forfeit stealth and go into combat mode. Before you get a fully upgraded weapon of choice (I alternated between a rifle and the railgun), you'll be handicapped. Weapons can only be shot when aiming down sights (shooting without ADS executes a melee attack), and the shooting is tactical in the sense there's a lot of sway and recoil. In places with cover, tactical shooting is incredible, but in an open field with enemies flanking you from all sides, arcade shooting would have been more appropriate. At some point you'll be forced into combat because enemies start getting helmets, which prevents you from one-shotting them with a silent weapon such as a crossbow, and body armor which prevents you from stealth melee-killing them. Once I had my fully upgraded rifle, those combat encounters became laughable because you can choose to initiate most encounters, and since it's more tactical than arcade-y, having better ground will usually leave you on the upper hand. With a fully upgraded rifle, for instance, it's not hard to clear a full encampment with 5-6 heavily armored dudes without taking a hit, simply choosing where to initiate combat from and letting them charge into you.
Which is to say that the enemy encounters go from dull and boring (early game) to easy and unengaging once you have your arsenal upgraded. It's a weird progression and while it's satisfying to clear a level killing everyone without taking a hit, it makes me confused if this is a stealth or tactical combat game.
Early on you'll rely a lot on exploration and resource-gathering, and this is a very fun part of the game. You have to craft structures at your base to improve life for your allies, and also craft consumables to use in missions, including ammo. Early on everything is hard to come by and you'll be scrapping to craft anything. By the halfway mark, I had all structures built, all weapons fully upgraded, and a lot of field structures in place to use throughout missions, so the survival pressure was entirely off. At that point, I started rushing through the maps, since I didn't need resources anymore and I had seen everything on each map, even though the game still forced me to re-visit them frequently for the story missions.
And here's the game biggest flaw - the pacing. Structurally, you have 25-30 story missions, taking place on a selection of 6-7 maps. Meaning you'll be revisiting each map 5-6 times at least. It might not sound bad, but the third time you go into a map, you know it already. You probably already cleared each corner, and there's very little surprise. Still, you're forced to trek 5-10 minutes from one end to the other of this mostly empty map with a lot of resources you don't need and enemies you can either completely overpower or ignore. And this is when I really thought about abandoning the game - I was already 15 hours in and felt I had seen and done everything I wanted, and yet, had barely touched half the story missions. The story itself is interesting (even thou the final twist is crap) and has some good choices to be made throughout (which also are mostly irrelevant since they can be changed at any time, they clearly signal to you if they were good or bad the moment you make them, and they don't truly affect the ending), so it feels like they stuck a half-finished choices made onto a good story, added some padding and hoped you would continue playing long after the game stopped being fun.
All in all, it's not a bad game. But I think it would be such a superior game if it was half as long, and made you only visit each map once or twice. As I said in the beginning -- not a bad game, but buyer beware.
I think they call this genre “PS2 game” (whatever that means)
I like the simplicity of 3D platformers - run and jump around collecting shiny things, and maybe whack or jump on some bad guys - and A Hat in Time nails the fundamentals. Controls are tight and responsive, and visual design is mechanically clear, while still being expressive
Having such a solid foundation allows it to branch out easily with additional or tweaked mechanics in each world and level. And honestly, the breadth of creativity across the whole game - both in theme and gameplay - is genuinely astounding. The music in particular, was sometimes way better than it needed to be (those time rift levels, man)
In some ways, A Hat in Time is exactly what you'd expect from a cute 3D platformer, but also manages to be fresh and surprising in many other ways, which was a real joy to experience
Apr 19 2026
Feb 2026
Lots of Buildup and Anticipation Towards RE9
In Progress:
FFXIV
FFXI
Benefitship
Very short VN involving newly acquainted roommates that quickly engage in romance through accidental encounters and unexpected anatomy. The characters and interactions are actually pretty believable with great voice acting. Some of the progression though is a bit abrupt as after the end of an incident it will immediately cut to a time skip. Scenes are solid and help fill the demand for this niche fetish.
If you're into this sort of thing, definitely recommend as it's cheap and pretty good for what there is.
Space Comedy AVN with surprisingly tame scenes but some genuine writing. The humor is can be borderline juvenile at times but that doesn't mean it didn't still make me laugh here and there. There's also some genuinely great interactions and writing when growing with your teammates and learning about their own struggles/dreams. Unfortunately the better writing can easily be missed when choosing the more renegade options as they often just outright skip dialogue with little to no repercussions other than maybe missed scenes. In fact, the whole stat system (choosing kindness, witty, or rude) doesn't seem to pay off from memory. No real lockouts or changes in story other than the immediate conversation. A wide variety of death scenes in case you choose really poorly which are often more of a funny moment than a bad end especially since you can quickly return to the question before your demise.
Despite being particularly vanilla, scenes are still animated well and offer a decent variety of partners to engage with. Of course, if you are not interested in seeing the scenes at all you are more than able to refuse them and continue the story without issue. Still I am pretty remiss that the scenes were as basic as they are considering you are working through quite a bit of story between them.
All in all, a fairly decent reading experience with just enough rewarding scenes to get you through. Humor can be excessive and low bar, but not necessarily bad. The overall story progression can be a bit of a slow burn at the beginning and feels a bit of an abrupt end. Definitely going to be checking out Season 2 with some hopes of spicier scenes and expanding upon the solid character developments they have set up.
In anticipation for RE9, I thought I’d go back to a RE game and play through it once more. Since I’ve only ever done the base platinum for RE7 on the PS4, now was an opportunity to go through it on Steam and do the update content as well. Boy oh boy was that a challenge. The base games hardest difficulty, Madhouse, is fairly challenging but not too bad outside of key parts (or specific enemies I should say). The update hardest difficulties (Not a Hero: Professional and End of Zoe: Joe Must Die) are pretty diabolical. More enemies, crazy trap placements, and just about anything will kill you (with the added difficulty of limited saves). EoZ being the worst due to the swamps, plethora of traps, and just the nature of the content. It also renewed my disgust towards the smaller faster molded that seem to take a magnum shot even on the easiest difficulty and still walk away despite the supposed lower health pool. Then there’s the ultimate challenge… Ethan Must Die. A specially rigged mode that has you make it through the house to unlock and fight Marguerite with nothing but a knife and randomized item drops. It is brutal and takes a lot of attempts just to learn each step forward before actually getting to the end zone. Luckily your dead body will leave behind a randomized item from your last run… but it won’t always be enough to save you. Even on my successful run I had nothing but a knife to my name and a dream in the final moments.
So, what did this completion mean for me? Well, RE7 is definitely a welcome return to survival horror and a great game… but the flaws have only become more apparent. Enemy variety and balancing sucks. Both visually and gameplay. The first person is neat but the running speed feels really SLOW. Almost no skippable cutscenes. The flashlight usage is determined by the character, not you.
SPOILERS: I’d also like to take the time to note that the complaints that RE8 advertised with Lady D despite only being only the first quarter(ish) of the game… but the same can be said for Jack. They both serve a pursuer role and are dealt with in a very early stage of the game (with a slight but minimal exception with a later RE7 segment). Mostly just saying this because it seems like a very common complaint but RE7 would have a similar issue but isn’t held to the same standard.
Decided to take my chance on the PC version in anticipation for RE9. Quite happy this managed to run on my system. Looking as good as it does it still manages to run well on a 1070 GPU. In no way does this replace the original but it absolutely creates a fun new way to re-experience with fast pace action, satisfying parry system, and a wonderfully chosen cast of actors. Despite choosing a darker and debatable more serious tone, the game is surprisingly faithful to most of it's set pieces and the changes that are made were fairly welcome. I do think we don't get enough interactions with the major villains and miss the back and forth from the original. New weapons can be hit or miss. Bolt thrower (essentially the mine thrower) is nearly an essential piece in a run while others can feel under performing or useless. Though very few and far in between I have died due to falling through the map or a boss triggering phase causing me to get killed off screen.
Genuinely an amazing game and the PC version is not only efficient in terms of hardware requirements but has great potential for continued support from fans.
Fairly standard match-3 with a furry focus. I was fairly surprised to find that it is not one greater story but a collection of smaller stories that imitate very stereotypical scenes. You'll read through a section which is followed by a match 3 segment where you must meet certain requirements to continue the story (clear x types of tiles, exceed a score, etc.) Once a criteria is met you can then choose to go down that story path or try for an alternate one. Unfortunately, once all criteria are met you are forced to pick even if you have extra moves to use. Some of the criteria are pretty hard to get and almost demand you use your limited power ups which can only be bought through the shop with earned money. The scenes themselves are mostly solid with decent animations and limited voice work. A couple of scenes have some wonky perspectives and art but overall do well.
Pleasantly surprised, though I wish the match 3 felt more engaging and rewarding instead of relying on what feels like luck of the drop. Otherwise a pretty okay game.
March 2026
RE9, FFXIV, and That Was Pretty Much It
From a very casual standpoint this is very similar to Guilty Gear X2 #Reload in that it has a similar story mode, arcade mode, and cast of characters. This seemingly has a few more characters added that even get their own selectable (albeit shorter) story chapters. I could not say if the story sections are particularly different as I ended up playing different characters and the final boss was the same for arcade though I did try to play all the bonus characters and as many side characters as I felt comfortable with. I will note that the sound design wasn’t particularly great. Cutscene audio was crunchy and some move sounds sounded like a jet flying overhead.
Recommend? Yes, As far as I can tell, this is the definitive way to play the XX series of GG.
Fighter of Choice: I-No
Resident Evil Requiem 
1
3
6
40
When I first saw details of the game I thought it was simply a combination of the classic RE games with the more action focus it took on post RE4. However, this game is so much more and is best described as “The Greatest Hits of Resident Evil”. It takes so much from the entire series including many of the non-numbered and spin offs. Truly, it is a game for the fans despite some having very strong preferences though it is not without issue.
Bad news first, always. Much like most of the RE series, the story can be a little ridiculous. So much so that some of it is tied together by a single or few threads barely keeping it together so long as you don’t think about it too much. Though I didn’t nearly have as much of a problem with the ending or reasoning behind it, I can at least admit that there is quite a bit of happenstance that drives the plot. Though I do think there was room for one more boss fight at the end (if you know, you know). Despite being the length of a RE game, it does FEEL short. This is largely because the game is split between to gameplay styles. Grace’s classic Survival Horror RE gameplay and Leon’s action-focused “modern” RE gameplay. This leaves each only getting half of a game’s worth of each type of play and leaves us wanting more… So much so that I almost think to scratch that itch the game would have to be nearly double a normal RE game’s playtime just to feel satisfied with the time spent with both types. In a way it’s not a bad thing to want more since the game clearly does both well but even just a bit more could have gone a long way. The UI is not great, often using very similar colors in maps and inventory giving a very muddled look. Inventory also has some misleading item notifications, questionable item stacks, and lacks a long time feature of being able to combine/use while grabbing an item. My greater and later critique is with Leon’s section. Specifically, not only can weapons not be stored in a box for later playthroughs (or even a current one) but upgrades also feel greatly limited. Doubly so for any bonus weapons as they have no upgrades at all. I enjoy seeing how a weapon performs as you go on, so getting a bonus weapon only for it to not evolve in any way feels… dissatisfying.
The GOOD. Well, like I said it is the greatest hits and boy do they hit. First off, I love having new protags (and antags/characters in general) in Survival Horror games so much that I’d argue that a survival horror series almost needs to be somewhat of an anthology of characters in that world. Grace Ashcroft has very quickly become one of my favorite RE characters. Her fear is so real and her struggling to get through this nightmare is quite immersive, yet her perseverance and quick thinking fits her character so well with her background. She probably has some of the most genuine dialogue (in general and with other characters) I have ever heard in the series and the voice actress deserves every commendation for her performance. Grace’s survival horror experience is such a nice return to form and I loved exploring her areas trying to figure out the best way to manage everything with interesting and diverse enemies that all have unique little quirks.
When Grace’s struggle for survival chapters end you get a palate cleansing moment to kick ass as Leon S. Kennedy. He retains a lot of his capabilities from 4 Remake but is enhanced as you can parry so much and durability is mitigated through on the spot (free) repairs to your axe. You get the greater inventory space, over the top melee, and diverse weapons to slay through your enemies. Admittedly it sometimes feels like Leon doesn’t get the same diversity in enemies; it is easily dismissable due to the diverse over the top situations Leon gets into. Leon’s story still has plenty of weight and you can feel his development stemming from RE2 to now as he carries his past with him. Victor proves to be a competent villain who not only stands on his own but shows interesting goals.
Recommend? Abso-abso-absolutely! Even with the issues it is an absolutely fantastic game made for the fans of RE. I only hope that the expansion content continues to do it justice and gives us the “more” that we’ve/I’ve been craving.
Starting by using Valentine’s Day to replay this I took a huge detour until March to finally reclear this game that is locked to the 360/PS3 consoles of gaming. Having replayed it… I realize why there is little attempt to bring it forward. Though I do appreciate the comic getting an adaptation with neat powers and genuine moments (like the apartment scene with Jenny), the game is really rough and aged poorly.
The rough parts are real rough. For starters the graphics are pretty generic and Jackie looks a bit like a dope but it’s not a total deal breaker either. The gameplay is a bit wonky with targeting often needing heavy aim assist and powers often having some level of inaccuracy or awkward controls. Navigation is by far the worst as there is little reason to let you free roam when really it mostly entails you triggering several loading screens just to confusingly ride/navigate the subway. It doesn’t help that the game gives you little direction as is and objectives aren’t always clearly labeled. Your minions have pretty terrible AI and often fail to do the task assigned to them outside of more scripted sections. You get a multitude of side quests that seemingly yield no rewards and only further waste time as you must travel the subway and smaller areas much much more. The collectibles and rewards you do get are mostly just numbers with weird little conversations followed by concept art unlocks.
Recommend? As much appreciation as I had for the game… it is a hard game to recommend, especially when the sequel does so much more and better.
Apr 18 2026
March 2026 Update
Next update (works only on profile page)
- Interesting setting
- Story looks interesting, but was not enough to keep me playing in otherwise tedious game
The bad 👎
- Option to auto-label plants is disabled by default
- Some puzzles are very vague
- No way to automatically sort plants. Number of pots we need to track of gets overwhelming quite fast
Conclusion:
It is clearly not a game for me. I see how someone who has time for slow game and green finger would enjoy it. For me, it was slow game of trying to guess the plant name, based on vague descriptions. Not the entertainment I want to spend my time on 😅
Details
☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.) |
☐ None ☑ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs |
☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☑ One checkpoint, frequent ☐ Manual saves |
☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster |
☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☐ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☑ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful |
☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action |
☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options |
☐ No map ☑ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel |
- There is basically a walkthrough guide inside the game, specifying how to solve puzzles step-by-step
- The art style is nice
The bad 👎
- Some puzzles don't work correctly in full screen more
- Plot is very basic
- Puzzles can be quite unclear
- Interface/inventory is clunky
Conclusion:
I played it mostly because it was short and easy to take down from "to beat" list. And it was disappointment. Sure, graphic style and robots are cute, but puzzles and mechanics are a let-down. I thought to compare it to some other games from that time, and thought of Siberia. Which is IMO a better game, even when it was released 7 years earlier (2002). Same as Siberia II from 2009.
☑ None ☐ Skins ☐ "Time-savers" ☐ Direct purchase ☐ Custom currency (gems etc.) |
☐ None ☑ Story progression ☐ Few collectibles / easy to get ☐ Grindy collectibles / hard to get ☐ Require multiple playthroughs |
☐ No saves ☐ No saves, progress carries over ☐ One checkpoint, too rare ☐ One checkpoint, frequent ☑ Manual saves |
☑ Can run on potato ☐ Medium requirements ☐ High requirements ☐ Too low for what is visible on screen ☐ Optimization disaster |
☐ May look good 10 years ago, but not now ☑ Blurry textures / geometry problems ☐ Average ☐ Good ☐ Beautiful |
☑ Nothing to remember ☐ Good voice acting ☐ Good weapons & effects ☐ Good OST ☐ Music flows well with the action |
☑ Resolution, volume only ☐ Basic graphic settings ☐ Advanced graphic settings ☐ Adjustable HUD ☐ Accessibility options |
☑ No map ☐ Basic ☐ Detailed ☐ Minimap ☐ Fast travel |
Side note
I need to finally sign up for Krav Maga 🤼♂️. And then maybe go on a climbing wall 🧗♀️. Both look like useful skills to have 😂 And a good exercise.
How are you with New Year resolutions, seeing that Q1 is already over?
Apr 17 2026
Finished:
Achilles: Legends Untold - straightforward, fun for a spin
CODE Bunny - bite-sized platformer
Crowalt: Traces of the Lost Colony - simple point and click
Deliver Us Mars - a different sequel
Double Kick Heroes - simple rhythm game
Four Last Things - nice paintings gimmick, but a bit crude
Hauma - buggy adventure game
Interrogation: You will be deceived - not a fan of timers
Kao the Kangaroo - colourful platformer
LEAVES - The Return - abstract adventure
Legacy of Dorn: Herald of Oblivion - choose-your-own-adventure, works better if familiar with W40k
Press Any Button - a wonderful little experiment in emotions
Severed Steel - immensely satisfying
Space Pilgrim Academy: Reunion - there are days when games like this just click
Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 1 - there are days when games like this just click
Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 2 - there are days when games like this just click
Space Pilgrim Academy: Year 3 - there are days when games like this just click
Star Vaders - snazzy deck-builder, encouraging experimentation, respects player’s time
The Procession to Calvary - rather crass, quite disappointing
The Signifier: Director’s Cut - not my cup of tea
Warhammer 40k: Space Marine - cathartic violence?