November 2023 and Looking to December

This is the HD version of the original RE 4 and not the new remake. I've actually had this game in my library for a while but had some difficulty with the control scheme. The KB&M controls were terrible and while the controller worked much better, I had some difficulty getting the game to register that it was plugged in (despite other games having no difficulty seeing the controller). Thus, about 30 minutes of my playtime was actually just setting the game up.

This game was…okay. I know long time fans of the series would probably gasp with horror over my lackluster reaction to what is widely considered at least a strong contender for best RE game, but it didn't click with me the way other games in the series have. RE 4 is where the series started to diverge from puzzle-oriented, survival horror where the player must keep careful watch on all their limited resources (ammo, health), to a more action-focused game. This isn't a terrible thing in theory-- I'm one of the few who actually really enjoyed the RE 3 Remake-- but this is where the game showed its age. The somewhat clunky controls and awkward handling didn't matter in REmake, because the game was focused on slow exploration and puzzle solving interspersed with occasional combat with 1-3 enemies at a time. In RE 4, however, the awkwardness in the gunplay and the odd camera controls were much more apparent given the rapidity of the game.

However, playing this game did make me excited for the remake. The bones of Leon's adventure -- the plot and all the wacky characters in the village-- were genuinely enjoyable. Updated to modern FPS gameplay standards, this game will undoubtedly be a treat. While I generally enjoy playing the original game first whenever there's a remade/updated version, I think I would have enjoyed experiencing this story via the remake more than playing the classic. Still, a solid entry in the RE franchise and I don't regret playing it but I'd probably only give it a 6 or 7 out of 10.

The first entry in a sadly, probably never going to be completed series, HIVESWAP was a tongue-and-cheek ode to old 90s adventure games. You control three characters throughout the game-- a brother/sister pair and an alien-- as they go about trying to foil an alien invasion of Earth. Its bright colors and soft-edged art style are charming, and the humor usually hits the mark. While the puzzles are as wacky as you'd expect from a 90s inspired adventure game (you're main character usually dances opponents to death), they are also a lot more obvious then the old-school games. This lets the player simply enjoy the game rather than trying to mash every item they pick up with every other item in the hopes that some illogical combination will be the solution to a puzzle.

I do have to take some points off, however, for having an impossible to obtain achievement. Speculation on the forums is that it was meant to be achievable in the final entry in the series, when you could either return to the first game or start some sort of new game+. Unfortunately, we're unlikely to ever find out, meaning that this game cannot be completed currently. There is one more achievement, requiring an additional playthrough, that I could have gotten but since I couldn't get the final achievement regardless, I didn't bother. 7/10.

My final review will wait until I have completed my Honor mode playthrough but if you're reading this to get my opinion on whether this is a good game worth buying or not…I've played it for nearly 400 hours. What do you think?

A fairly short game-- although not as short as some of the steam reviews made it seem-- I was able to 100% complete it in about 5 hours, with each run taking about 1 hour. I don't play a lot of visual novels, so perhaps this is unusually short for this genre, but it felt like a good length to me.

One of the reasons that I decided to keep this game (which I picked up in one bundle or another) rather than give it away on SG was because--while it is a visual novel-- it also had RPG components. It seemed like it would play something like those Lovecraftian board game RPGs where the character's ability to traverse different challenges would vary by how the player built them. This was true. The game is based around a particular stat called "rage" which is pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. The more rage you have, the easier it is to complete certain challenges but the more out-of-control your character is, often forcing you into confrontations you might have wanted to avoid. There is also a stat called "willpower" which you can spend to succeed in challenges that you would have otherwise failed.

While the RPG elements were simple, they did make replaying the game interesting. There were many options that only became available to high/low rage character and watching how the story unfolded differently between the character types was enjoyable. This is where the short length of the game was to its benefit however. While there were certainly differences between each run, the basic story remained the same. In a lengthier title, I think the fairly minor differences would have seemed tacked on and pointless, but in such a compact storyline, they felt more meaningful.

An interesting experience for sure, but probably not one I'd ever go back to play again 7/10.