Recent reviews by Pa3s

This add-on brings Knuckles to Sonic CD and Amy to all games. This is new and a good addition! Anything else is barely noticeable and because of that, the addon is clearly overpriced. That's a fact.

Another fact is that SEGA showed the middle finger to everyone who preordered the "premium" version of the base game by bundling the "exclusive" contents with this update. The preorder should have included this update for free, but no. This was the last time for me. And as a little extra, you got to be online for playing this game. Ridiculous!

To complete all of this, SEGA has also removed the "classic" version of Sonic 1 to 3 from the Steam store before releasing the remastered compilation INCLUDING the already remastered version of Sonic CD. You kept them if you purchased them before, but still.

Anyway, go on and grind every penny out of your fans for >30 year old games.

Great game for zoning out and relaxed racing! There are several games on Steam which try to emulate the 80s Synthwave style, but this game does it best in my opinion. SD'85 has great potential and is really fun already. Get in your car and take a ride through the neon night!

While the game is not nearly as good as The Talos Principle (its main competitor and probably closest match on Steam) in any aspect, I did like it. It is pretty short, but the puzzles were (for the most part) nicely designed and the environments were varied and pretty. The only exception for me is the grass which is extremely bland.

Sometimes, the speech is delivered much too quickly to follow, but all in all it's solid. I got this game in a pack, so I did not pay the standard price (which I think is too high). If you like The Talos Principle and manage to get this game at a good discount, you should try it.

The visuals are spot on, the items, upgrades and classes are based on the lore and it's a great third person shooter experience. As of now, it may not be everything the developers have promised, but it is certainly a playable and fun game in its current form.

Sometimes - very rarely, though - you encounter a game which you can only describe as a masterpiece. A game which obviously has its flaws, but also something very special about its atmosphere which completely makes up for them. This is entirely subjective and you may not agree, but E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy is such a game for me.

Created by a small, independent studio, it confronts you with a creative mix of countless cyberpunk and sci-fi works, sometimes even directly adopting certain elements from these references into the game. It lets you create and enhance a character to your liking and play a weird, complex story. Being set in a grim future full of darkness and deceit, the game contains all the staples of a good dystopian world.

As a member of a secret cultist society and elite warrior you are thrown into the world without any memory. Step by step, you progress through the story and learn more about the game's reality, or at least, you think so. You will soon learn that many things are not what they seem to be. Up until the end of the game, you will have many questions, just like the main protagonist. And if you are like me, you will take every chance to find the answers.

In terms of gameplay, the game is solid: it features many classic projectile weapons (which are ancient by the standards of the time) and it has everything necessary to give you the typical shooter experience. But there is much more. Besides the melee weapons you have at your disposal, you can also make use of many PSI-powers which complement your personal play style. You can be a minigun-wielding juggernaut with near-impenetrable skin or a swift cyber-ninja with hacking skills and a cloaking ability.

Some of the game's features are truly unique and turn out to be very interesting additions. For instance, if you are caught in the heat of the battle (or have a certain genetic predisposition) you can easily fall into madness which can manifest itself in five(!) different ways in the game. Besides your physical character, you have a virtual avatar as well, and can hack into computers or even people. But beware: Don't be too careless or your mind will fall victim to a counter hack and be possessed by a different digital avatar!

The missions you get can be solved in many different ways, depending on your decisions and actions. There is no obviously good or bad path. You don't even know what's part of reality. Or if there even IS a reality! As you may have noticed by now, the game will not hold your hand. It is a diamond in the rough. Sometimes you will have problems, you may not progress the way you intended to, but the game still marches on. There are parts of the game you won't understand, but the only thing you can do is to make your way through and just experience it. Indulge yourself in the raw weirdness of the game.

E.Y.E: Divine Cybermancy makes use of the Source Engine and looks accordingly. Not too fancy by today's standards, but not ugly, either. In any case, the graphics are definitely of secondary concern in this game. I'm absolutely sure that you can't truly appreciate the game if you don't read what the characters are saying (text only) and also invest some thoughts regarding the meaning of what is said and done. It's not a game to play if you want to relax after a busy day, but a somewhat demanding (and rewarding) piece which could be compared to a story-driven movie or novel.

All in all, the game's mixture of illusion and reality, science-fiction and mysicism, story and gameplay elements make it a memorable experience with great replay value. It is a unique experience which really stands out from the crowd.

In short: I love this game.

In this review, I don't want to focus on the gameplay, the graphics or the technical aspects of the game (which you find in many other reviews), but on a specific issue I'd like to explain to you. This is, of course, very subjective and based on my personal experience, but if you're interested in my view, keep reading.

Anyway, one of the things I like most about this game is the message behind it (or rather, how I interpret it). Back in the day, I played all classic Sonic games on the Genesis. In these games, technology has always been evil and formed the counterpart to nature, which was depicted as inherently good. This conflict was black and white, and only one could prevail. And because almost every machine you encounter serves Dr. Robotnik, you always fought against them. This bugged me a lot as a kid, because I was (and still am) a fan of all kinds of technology and machines. My favorite stages were usually the completely artificial, factory-type stages like Chemical Plant Zone, Metropolis Zone and Flying Battery Zone (I liked their music, too!).

But Sonic CD is very different in this aspect. You still fight against Robotnik and his machines, but there is another representation of technology, shown by the good future of many stages. Once you liberated the past zones of Palmtree Panic from Robotnik's machines, you expect the same happy, perfect, Green-Hill-esque Zone you saw in the present, but it is very different. Suddenly, the palm trees are replaced by mechanical versions (and it's still as happy as expected). The whole stage is now outfitted with an artificial irrigation system. The same thing can be observed in Tidal Tempest, which starts out as a relatively technology-free zone and turns into a high-tech greenhouse. Technology and nature coexist in harmony and technical progress is shown in a positive light. It improves nature instead of destroying it.

But that's not all. The bad future in Sonic CD does not just show a “perfect” mechanized world, but rather a broken down, decayed wasteland. This underlines the fact that Robotnik is not an ambassador of technology, but an egoistic megalomaniac who simply uses technology as a tool for his plans. The player can see that once Robotnik succeeds, he ruins the place no matter if it started out as a natural or high-tech zone. It is also quite apparent that the mechanization of the stages in the future is not the work of Robotnik. It will happen either way, driven by unknown forces. Robotnik is just the one negatively influencing the development (or not, depending on how you play).

At the same time, nature itself is presented different as well. The only natural area you see in the game which closely resembles the “standard” natural stages in the other Sonic games is the present of Palmtree Panic. The present of Tidal Tempest already looks suspiciously evil despite being mostly natural. But what's really interesting is the past. Here you can see a different face of nature, which is often ignored. The past zones show a primitive, uncivilized world which is often as dangerous for the player as any other zone. This contradicts the usual “pure” view of nature which is often shown in games and other media.

The bottom line is that while technology can very well be used to serve humanity and improve life, it can also cause a lot of harm if it's not handled correctly or misused for personal gain. This mirrors my own interpretation of technology and appears to me as a much better message compared to a simplistic conflict between the idealized, inherently good nature and the demonized, artificial technology in the other games. Maybe I'm reading too much into the game, but that's how I interpret it. And for this reason, I like Sonic CD very much.

Thank you for reading.