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.

Out of all of Supermassive's "choose your own adventure" style games, I found The Quarry to be the weakest entry (although I admittedly haven't played Until Dawn or the final installment of the Dark Pictures Anthology). If you are familiar with any of these games, you know basically how the genre works: you switch between several different playable characters, making dialogue choices for them and completing some QTEs. These characters can either survive or die based on the decisions you make and what QTEs you pass/fail.

The Quarry's plot was entertaining (although there were some fairly significant plot holes you have to overlook), and was a fun take on the typical 80s slasher film. The characters felt more well-rounded than those in most of the DPA games, and the dialogue was both well-written and well-acted. Unlike the DPA games, there weren't any characters that I desperately wanted to kill off within 30 seconds of being introduced to them. The characters actually seemed to mostly remain focused on the life-threatening danger once it was introduced rather than get constantly sidetracked by romantic entanglements that really shouldn't have mattered in the face of supernatural horrors (looking at you House of Ashes).

All that being said, The Quarry undoubtedly has the least "game" of any of Supermassive's games. It is mostly a series of unskippable cutscenes, interspersed with an occasional dialogue choice or an even rarer QTE. Granted, you expect this to some degree just due to the nature of the game but The Quarry took it to excessive levels. That combined with a dumb scene selection system (you can only scene select from a completed save and it automatically wipes your progress once that save is selected rather than give you the option to start in a new save slot like the DPA games do) made for a frustrating 100% completion. For all but my initial playthrough, I brought something else to entertain me while going through the motions. By my final playthrough, I just rested the controller on one knee and read a novel for the bulk of the game, only looking up when I realized a QTE was occurring soon.

Overall rating: decent fun for a single run albeit more as a movie than a game, but hellish for achievement hunters.

A horror-based walking simulator, KHOLAT is a mechanically simple game that relies heavily on atmosphere. As is the case for most walking simulators, the story unfolds by you finding and interacting with objects--primarily newspaper articles, medical reports, and diary entries in this game. There is a single type of enemy which can only be dealt with by running away or hiding (running is somewhat stymied by the player character's truly embarrassing stamina level) but it doesn't pose much of a threat.

It's a short game that doesn't overstay its welcome. Not particularly frightening but it has a pleasantly dark atmosphere that made it feel appropriate as an October game. Not a bad way to spend a couple hours.

An adorable indie gem, Hue is a puzzle platformer that can be easily completed in an afternoon. You play as a young boy--Hue-- slowly gathering additional colors to brighten up your black and white world. The more colors you gather, the more complex the puzzles you can solve are and the more hidden areas you can explore. None of the puzzles are overly challenging, which is good for the relaxing nature of the game, but a few of the later ones add just enough complexity that you don't feel you're getting nothing out of playing.

Not a lot to say about this old classic. I had previously played about halfway and then forgot about it. I restarted it from the beginning last month and played through to completion. It's a game with its tongue very firmly in its cheek which helps it from showing its age too much. That being said, it is definitely a product of its time with some aspects aging better than others. Overall, it's a classic RPG with easy to learn combat mechanics and a decent story, well worth the time if you are a fan of the genre but can otherwise be skipped.

This is a game that I had been meaning to play for more than a year, but I had audio problems with it that took quite a bit of troubleshooting to solve. While some games are playable without audio, this is definitely not one of them. I eventually found the solution on the game's forums which only required some minor edits to the ini files and I was able to enjoy the game.

The game itself is intriguing not for its story, or its graphics, or its fighting mechanics--although these are all enjoyable aspects of the game--but rather for its attempts to allow players to experience what living with mental illness is like. The protagonist-- Senua-- has psychosis and therefore progresses through the game experiencing visual and auditory hallucinations; the line between fantasy and reality is frequently blurred not only for her but for the player. The game designers consulted extensively with mental health experts (most notably a professor of neuroscience from Cambridge University) and individuals living with psychosis themselves to create as realistic a depiction of what it is like to live with this illness.

Many typical game elements (the existence of puzzles, the friendly ai that helps you figure out how to fight/interact with the world) is explained through the lens of her illness. Many people with psychosis look at the world for patterns and images, and this becomes a key element in game play as you attempt to solve puzzles based around recurring patterns. Similarly, the voices Senua hears (and you should wear headphones to fully experience them) are more than just additional narrators. They do provide plot information for the player through their encouragement or taunting of Senua, but they also pipe up in fights to warn her of approaching danger.

The game can get a bit labored at times; cut scenes are often too lengthy making the game seem plodding despite its overall short duration and the plot isn't going to surprise anyone. The pattern recognition puzzles can be tricky to line up properly so that the game actually registers that you've found the pattern (this was particularly annoying during a sequence when you are being chased by an enemy you cannot fight and therefore need to memorize the patterns quickly). Despite these issues, it is a game worth playing if only because it is one the few genuine attempts to portray the mentally ill as fully realized people rather than the 2D villains media so frequently paints them as. The experience is quite unlike any other game out there and its worth taking the single afternoon it takes to complete.

This game has been in my backlog for a while; I actually tried its sequel-- "Beholder 2" -- first but I found this game much more enjoyable. When I started playing it, I didn't have the DLC but I purchased it midway through my playthrough because I enjoyed the game so much. It has a very simple premise and very simple game mechanics. You play as the landlord of an apartment building in a dystopian regime where you must balance your personal morals, the needs of your family, and your obligations to the state. Mechanically, you must balance quests timers, reputation points, and your finances to progress and earn rewards. You spend most of the game looking at the same screen (you can zoom in and scroll up-and-down a bit, but that's it) but surprisingly that doesn't detract from the game's enjoyment. There are quite a few endings (you can check out achievements to see how many) and which ones you get are determined by many different choices you made throughout your play. If you're achievement hunting, the reloads to obtain different endings can get the tiniest bit monotonous, but overall I'd give this game a solid 4/5 stars.

Not a lot to say about this game. It's been in my library for ages but I never got around to finishing it. It's a redone version of a classic point-and-click game and the gameplay is typical for the genre. I enjoyed the humor well enough, but it was nothing spectacular. Overall I'd give it a 2.5/5 but if you are a particular fan of the genre, then you'd like rate it higher.

This was a game I won via the GGPlayers website and one that I have been making progress on over a few months. However, this December I decided that I wanted to fully beat it so I added it to my monthly plan. I have only played the single-player campaign, so there will be no discussion on the co-op aspects.

First, the negatives. This is one of those games that expects you to be online the entire time you play. Unlike some games, you can play it in offline mode (by putting steam into offline mode) but that messes with your game time and occasionally achievements. Why does this matter? Lag. So. Much. Lag. My computer has specs well above anything Borderlands requires (for comparison, I have no difficulty running Cyberpunk 2077 on it), and yet the stuttering was enormous. Fights were sometimes completely impossible to complete because every 2-3 seconds the game would stutter. Other times, I was able to play for hours at a time with no issue. My internet connection was theoretically fine, but Borderlands did not like it. If I played in offline mode, however, it would run smoothly.

My other main complaint with the game was how it respawned enemies. I had several occasions where the game experienced a bug of some sort and I had to reload (phasing through solid objects and becoming stuck was fairly common). But when I did so, my location was not saved and all the enemies I had killed had respawned. This meant a monotonous fight through the exact same hordes I had just fought. While some level of monotony is expected in a looter-shooter like this, the ones that arose merely because I had to restart the game were extremely frustrating.

Now on to the positives. I love the artwork. The hand-drawn, cartoonish style is gorgeous and unique. The characters are colorful (both literally and figuratively) and great fun to interact with. For every dull fetch quest, there is another hilarious easter egg ridden one. I caught endless references and- given how pop culture illiterate I am-- I no doubt missed twice as many as I noticed. There was lots of fun loot to collect and hours of swapping out different gear. The DLCs were basically identical to the base game, just adding new entertaining characters to meet. I'll probably never 100% the game, but I do intend to come back and play it some more in the future, even though I have beaten the main game and some of the DLCs.

This is a controversial game which I know a lot of longtime RE fans were dissatisfied with. If you're a fan of the series, you've undoubtedly heard them all already. If you're new to the franchise, however, I'd urge you not to be discouraged by these complaints and give the game a try anyway. Even after 100% completing it (which took 5 replays), I still wanted to go back and play some more.

Here are the main fan complaints that I heard when reading reviews of RE3 Remake: (1) it wasn't faithful to the original RE3, (2) it wasn't faithful to the spirit of the RE franchise, and (3) it was short. To the first complaint, I admit that it certainly diverged more sharply from its original than the RE2 Remake or REmake did from their original games although the basic story and characters were the same. As to the second complaint, I've always interpreted this as a dissatisfaction with the change of focus in game play. The original games were very puzzle oriented which is not the experience you'll get with this game. RE3 plays much more like a traditional survival horror, an FPS with resource management following a linear storyline. It is a different play style than most RE games but still enjoyable. Finally, yes, the game is quite short. Speedruns can be easily done in around an hour and even a completionist run where you grab all the collectibles will only take a couple hours. But, it is also very re-playable. Personally, I did 5 runs (one on each of the 5 difficulty levels) and never got bored with the game. In fact, after getting that final achievement, I was left wanting to play some more. Once you hit nightmare mode, the locations of items and enemies change which adds some variety to the game even as the maps remain the same.

RE3 is probably not GOTY material but it is a fun and satisfying zombie-shooter that will entertain you for a fair few hours. Give it a try, especially if it is on sale.

I wanted to like this game, I really did. I love games that emphasis the story and atmosphere rather than just the mechanics and this one seemed like it was a short and sweet narrative adventure, focused on the interpersonal relationship between characters. However, the mechanics of the game were overwhelmingly frustrating, the characters were too flat, and the imagery and music simply couldn't compensate for them.

Most glaringly, the controls were a nightmare. You are meant to control 2 brothers simultaneously but getting them to actually do what you want is an exercise in patience. Frequently, I had to make minute adjustments in order to get one of the brothers to realize they were standing in front of an interactible and, well, interact. They couldn't get far apart from one another, so even in situations where you only needed one or were trying to scope out a location, you always had to bring the second brother along.

Secondly, there is no dialogue in this game. Normally, that wouldn't be an issue. You don't need dialogue to create a compelling story. The characters speak in a made up language, however, and there are lengthy cut-scenes where you watch them speak nonsense at each other for WAY. TOO. LONG. For such a short game, even these couple minute long cut scenes seem agonizingly lengthy. I kept trying to figure out if there was a way to skip through them and return to gameplay as most of them weren't even effective at adding emotional depth to the story.

Overall, I'd skip it. There are no surprises in this game's story and most of the game alternates between being frustrating and being boring.

Honestly, I have very little to say about this game. It is a short, simple game that mostly revolves around solving simple puzzles to advance a storyline about a robot society. It's not particularly challenging but keeps the player engaged through its short runtime. It ends on a cliffhanger, meant to set up the next chapter, which is intriguing enough that I wouldn't mind playing the sequel. Overall, not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. If you get it in a bundle, it's worth playing but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it.

I was disappointed in this game. It wasn't bad by any means, but the synopsis had me a lot more intrigued than was warranted. Essentially, the game tells the story of a young woman struggling with mental health issues during a time period where asylums were not a place you wanted to be sent (lobotomies, shock treatments, etc). It is basically a walking simulator where most of the environment looks identical and isn't worth interacting with. The story is fine, but no big twists or dramatic moments that get the player invested. I….don't think that it is supposed to be a scary game (or, if it was, it failed utterly) but the atmosphere was somewhat immersive at the beginning of gameplay (although it quickly became repetitive). It's games like this one that made me wish that Steam had a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ emoji instead of just thumbs up or down.

Back to the wacky, Lovecraftian, steampunk world of Fallen London =D This is the second full game based upon Failbetter Games' browser game "Fallen London," following up on Sunless Seas. If you're familiar with either of Failbetter's previous entries into the series, then Sunless Skies will be no surprise. The same basic game mechanics, the same unusual world and cast of characters, a similar set of stories. Skies, however, is a marked improvement over its immediate predecessor. Rather than one enormous map, Skies is divided into 4 smaller ones of increasing difficulty. This makes your early trips where you are gathering resources, port reports, and quests much less likely to end in your captain's brutal death. Skies also eases in newcomers to the series more gently with variable difficulty settings (e.g. how fast you consume supplies, how well you/your enemies aim their weapons, whether you can reload your last autosave if you die or whether it automatically passes on to the next captain of your lineage).

All this isn't to say there aren't deadly dull moments. Skies does still suffer from the same problem Seas did-- lengthy sailing between where you are and where you need to get with nothing to break up the monotony. Fortunately, this usually only occurs when you've nearly completed an entire map and are ready to unlock the next area. Once you're in the new area, new questlines might have you retrace your steps but the purpose behind these trips keep them much more interesting. The other main issue only applies to newcomers: Skies is not particularly friendly to people unfamiliar with the lore. If you've never played the browser game in particular, you'll likely be confused as to who this odd cast of characters is and where on earth you actually are. This doesn't prevent the game from being enjoyable (I wouldn't think) but may send you to the wiki to look up some lore =D

I'm still planning to keep playing this game until I 100% complete it. Since that requires completing all 4 ambitions, however, it will likely take me a while yet. Looking forward to it though!

This game was so much better than I was anticipating. The voice acting is astonishingly good considering how small a production it was to make it. The graphics were striking, unusual, and accompanied by a very fitting soundtrack. Overall, this was an example of excellent storytelling, even if the story itself doesn't actually break any new ground.

One problem: the achievements are buggy. This should be marked "complete" but several of the achievements just wouldn't pop for some reason. Some I could get to register by verifying my game files. Others popped soon after starting a new game. But several just refused to ever register. If you love achievement hunting, you might want to give this game a pass until it gets sorted.

I won this game on SG a couple of days ago and promptly completed it. It is the sequel to the cult classic "Amnesia: the Dark Descent." While it is recognizably an Amnesia game, they have changed a lot of the gameplay elements. They've removed the sanity meter and your light source is no longer limited. Monsters are much more scarce than in the original, and many of the ones you see are purely for the atmosphere and pose no danger to the player character. That being said, I still really enjoyed it. It still manged to create that quintessential Amnesia dread, as you explore through various notes and messages to uncover the story. The plot is fairly predictable but that doesn't detract from the ambiance.

It may not have been as well reviewed as the original, but in some ways I actually enjoyed "A Machine for Pigs" more.

I got this game for free from the developer by playing one of their other games "Cyrano Story." It's a relatively short walking simulator that concerns Cthulhu lore. There was nothing groundbreaking here: the story was enjoyable but predictable, the music and graphics were fine but not spectacular, the game play was easy to master but not innovative. The main weak spot was the dialogue--both the voice acting which was occasionally weak and the dialogue which was repetitive and often misjudged. I'd recommend it on sale as a pleasant way to spend a few hours, but have no interest in revisiting it. For horror fans hoping to get some scares, Moons of Madness will disappoint. It was at best suspenseful but honestly rarely reached even that.

Plus side: achievements were virtually unmissable.

I no longer remember when or where I got this game (except it wasn't from SG or any other giveaway site), but I found it in my backlog and decided to give it a try. It is a fairly simple point-and-click mystery adventure, with some supernatural elements introduced part way through. The voice acting was surprisingly good and while the graphics style isn't my personal favorite, it has a kind of pleasing charm. Easy to get 100% achievements, and the story was intriguing enough to keep players engaged. The ending was a bit weak, but nothing that ruined the game for me.

I won this game on SG recently. It doesn't have any achievements on the PC version, but I tried to play as complete a run as possible (upgrading all my equipment, exploring all areas, etc). I had played the original game, so I was eager to try this sequel. It plays very much like its predecessor, similar combat mechanics and likewise very little plot. It's a bit of mindless fun although the repetitive nature of the gameplay makes completing it in multiple sessions a necessity.

I won this game on SG a few months ago and was playing it until my personal life temporarily got in the way. I cam back to it this month and beat it. I really enjoyed it, despite having little more than passing knowledge of the IP its based upon. I want to come back and 100% it some day, but as it would require an entire new playthrough in addition to several challenge mode maps, I don't anticipate coming back to it in the near future.

Still working on completing this game. I am set on 100% completing it, but it has been a bit of a slog to get through. I really like stealth games in general (I played both Dishonored games with very few breaks) but for some reason this one just isn't clicking the same way. It is enjoyable in small bursts but becomes overly repetitive quickly.

I am aiming to complete this game before the end of the month, but that may be overly optimistic.