February 2022 Update
Next update (works only on profile page)
Heavy Rain (Q2 2010) ⭐️⭐⭐☆☆
Choices matter Walking simulator11h hours | 31 of 56 (55.0%)
- good voice acting
- nice graphic
- game uses gamepad gyroscope for controls
The bad
- QTEs fest that is so absorbing it's hard to follow what is happening on the screen
- stiff animations and facial expressions
- shallow plot
- impossible to skip cut scenes and credits
- stiff walking controls
- bad camera work
- main character seems just pitiful and I couldn't really connect with him
Conclusion:
Fix camera work and controls and it could be really nice game. Instead I could not focus on the plot but felt like I constantly need to fight with the gameplay. It feels like game that may be better to watch on you tube than play, as that way you will be able to see what is happening. Instead of focusing on image to see where another annoying QTE will pop up. I did drop difficulty to easy and if that are "easy" QTEs then I'm out. I didn't know what kind of games Quantic Dreams are making. And now I think I may have bad time with Beyond: Two Souls >_> Overall I am disappointed in this one, and I had to drag myself to beat it.
Story:
Gameplay:
💸 Microtranzactions | None, game is way too old to have them. | 🏆 Achievements | Requires to beat game twice and memorize long boring QTE sequences for 100% |
📊 Performance | No issues | 💾 Save system | Automatic saves in random spots. Not possible to change decisions with game reloading. |
🎮 Controls | Stiff and bad. We walk one way, camera decides to shift view and instead of walking up we walk down. Because pressing "W" was pointing up before and with camera shift it points down. Perfect. Characters are responsive like wood log and it takes them a while before they change walk direction, even when they walk slowly. There is never fixed bug where game expects controller sticks to move so far it's already "outside" of the stick range to move in any direction. It requires manual edit of controller dead zones in software. |
Technicalities:
Music - ⭐️⭐☆ - Voice acting is really good. But environmental sounds are average
Bugs - ⭐️⭐☆ - I sadly did not experience "shouting Shaun" bug. But game that has controller as base controls should not have problem with dead zone range
Side note
I’ve beaten Mutant: Year Zero but it was this week. So it will count for March update. Story may not be amazing but combat and voice acting is really good.
Started Vampyr and looks promising. I like to walk around and uncover people secrets. Didn’t know anything about this game and thought it’s some killing simulator. Looks better than that.
I saw first reviews of Elex II and oh boy. The same thing as in previous game. I wonder if they want to keep using the same stiff animations and combat for next 10 years. I know they are good at world building, fractions, monster design and challenge pacing but don’t think it’s enough when other parts of the game drags it down. Graphic can be upgraded with community patches, core game mechanics can’t.
Hope that you’re all save, especially if you’re from Ukraine or know someone who’s there. Thankfully I don’t have family there but there are some online friends that live there. We already have nearly 1mln immigrants in Poland… and they don’t have where to go back as Russia is mowing their houses, schools and work places to the ground. It will take them ages to rebuild infrastructure there.