January '21 Play Log I

Decent FPS that’s very retro. If you enjoy FPSs or want to relive some of the older ones this is worth playing.

Pros:

• Really great music
• Good weapon, level, and enemy variety
• If you find most/all of the secrets you’re unlikely to run out of lives
• The pause menu shows you how many secrets you still have to find on the current stage
• As long as you don’t accidentally go to the next stage it’s generally not too difficult to find all of the secrets
• I liked the choice of weapon upgrades, allowing for different play styles

Cons:

• As much as it is faithful to the era, I’m not a fan of limited lives since it means you have to start the game from the beginning if you run out. Even if it’s unlikely I don’t enjoy the added pressure.
• It’s easy to accidentally go to the next stage before you’re ready (i.e. before you finish finding the secrets)
• If you proceed to the next stage without getting all of the secrets, your only option is to return to the workshop at the cost of one life, since levels can’t be replayed
• On some levels the secrets are next to impossible to notice, leaving you no option but to run around trying to interact with all of the walls

Verdict: 8/10

Partially Experienced on Oculus Rift

First things first, don’t play this on VR. VR mode has been abandoned in beta. It mostly works, but there are parts when you have to make a selection but cannot choose. Additionally, there are some parts that don’t work well in VR, or which make much more sense playing the game flat.

The game itself is depressing and very disturbing. Be aware of that, and if it’s not your thing give this game a pass.

Pros:

• Good sound effects
• Good voice acting
• The graphics are pretty good
• They did a very good job of making the hospital feel abandoned and decaying
• The story keeps you trying to figure out what’s going on
• Collectable diary entries are easy to find as long as you visit every room

Cons:

• The walking speed is frustratingly slow, and there’s no running
• VR abandoned in beta
• In one chapter you are in a more violent ward and are hearing screaming, but if you go to other parts of the hospital that should be quiet, the screaming continues.
• Even after playing through all of the routes, I’m still not entirely sure what actually happened Renée, though to be fair this is probably by design
• It’s never made clear who you are playing as. This is actually referenced in the story so is probably also on purpose, but personally I would have preferred it to at least be a bit more obvious.

Verdict: 7/10

Clearly designed for co-op, but works well solo. Definitely worth buying if you enjoyed the base game.

Pros:

• Adds 4 new prequel chapters to play that explains some more of the backstory
• Adds some new weapons/techniques
• I expect this would be great to play co-op
• works well solo, and you can call in the other assassin in solo as well

Cons:

• If you finish a chapter and quit, then next time you start the game press ‘continue’ it will default to normal difficulty, even if you were on a different difficulty when you played the previous chapter. NOT EFFING COOL!

Verdict: 8/10

This game doesn’t start out well, but it does get better and the story seems promising enough that I think I’ll try the next game.

Pros:

• Pretty good voice acting
• Promising start to the story

Cons:

• Default resolution is awful, and it’s not clear how to change it (go to the install folder, there an exe there, change it to 4x)
• Feels short, more like an introduction to a story. Thankfully the price reflects the length.
• Crashed a few times, and opening the steam overlay breaks the dialogue
• The first puzzle followed by an info dump was bad. In fact I almost refunded it because of this. Thankfully it gets better, and even the developer has said it wasn’t a good start.
• Why is there an achievement for listening to developer commentary?! Thankfully it can be skipped as it comes up. On the plus side, some of it was interesting and has convinced me to try the next game since he’s clearly learned from mistakes made in this game.

Verdict: 6/10