July 2023 results

A game that crushes you with fan service (but you don’t mind). A pretty decent ending to a frankly weak arc in terms of plot. The characters from Cold Steel I-II are still background furniture, the characters from Cold Steel III are still good and develop further, the antagonists for the most part still have a minimum of character, or they just exist because you already know them from past games, so why bother. Definitely the best game of the entire Cold Steel arc, albeit mostly because of the fan service. But it was good fan service.

In some incredible way, this game combines both the features of the best remakes and the features of the worst. There are chapters here that very carefully transfer the source material with a minimum of changes, which is good. There are chapters here that completely rework the source material, which is great. There are chapters that have been slightly expanded, which is good (for example, the introduction in Black Mesa, where much more interactions with the environment are added for the player). There are chapters that are slightly expanded, which is bad (for example, developers really like to turn some puzzles into finding valves, which further drags out the already stuffy levels). The updated appearance of the levels improves the original in some cases, and spoils it in others (a lot of visual noise that can interfere with finding the solution to the puzzle and navigating the level). The redesigned AI of human opponents in some chapters causes only irritation, while in others it generates exciting combat situations. Certain chapters pissed me off, others I simply adore. The levels in the complex before the exit to the surface suck ass, the chapter on the surface is amazing, Xen is very good, despite the noticeable delay, the half-hour staged boss fight with Gonarch is just mind-blowing in its awesomeness.
I hate this game, I love this game - it was definitely an interesting experience.

I didn’t get it. This game tries to be both humorous-parody and dark at the same time, and it doesn’t succeed very well. The gameplay is clumsy, but you can enjoy it. I don’t regret the time spent, but if I had not played it, I would not have lost anything.