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Ghostwire: Tokyo is a first-person horror game, developed by Tango Gameworks from the mind of Shinji Mikami, and what an experience this was.

• The world of Tokyo is fantastic! They nailed the accuracy, architecture and city of Shibuya perfectly, from the many alleyways, to the many buildings and shops and even the city square! I spent moments in the game just taking it all in and the occasional rain that would come whilst playing was also a nice touch, really adds to this disappearing, "dead" world that they're showing off here. They nailed it with TEW 1 and 2, and they did it once again. Hats off
  
  
• The story, while basic and nothing too special, was actually decent enough that I was able to follow with what's going on. To sum it up, you play as Akito, a man who gets into a bike accident on the way to see his sister, and gets brought back to life by a wraith known as KK, who you develop a relationship with and try to figure out what's happening to Tokyo and why everyone's disappeared. Oh, and also getting Akito's sister back from the bad guys. Some good moments, okay boss fights and an interesting ending that made me think for a minute on how hard it can be to face the truth
  
  
• Akito and KK's relationship is something that shouldn't be underestimated. In fact, this is one of the strongest parts of the game, seeing the two banter, make jokes and open up to each other about their own personal lives and experiences. KK is this, hard hitting, rough and elderly person who is serious about everything and hard working to where his family became forgotten to him, and Akito is a young, courageous and caring man who struggles to deal with the death of his parents and doesn't want his sister to die. This became more apparent as I was completing side quests and completing activities, particularly the school quest, which opened my mind to their dynamic being well executed
  
  
• Enemy designs are amazing, some of the coolest enemies I've seen, being based off of Japanese folklore, specifically yokai. Each had different attacks and moves, never felt too bland or boring to fight
  
  
• Combat consists of "Eternal Weavings" or spells, making use of 3 elements: Wind, Fire and Water. Think karate but with magic. Each element has light and heavy attacks, which you get by charging an element up, alongside a special attack that unleashes the elements further. Some are better than others, like Fire being able to turn into a flamethrower and stunning packs of enemies, whilst Wind can be used to rapid fire and shred enemies within a few seconds. Pretty enjoyable and something different. Reminded me of Bioshock a bit with plasmids
  
  
• FREE CONTENT! A while back, Ghostwire: Tokyo actually got a content update, expanding the world of Tokyo with new locations, an amazing side quest storyline which felt right at home with TEW, new attacks, a rogue-like game mode and many more. I didn't notice it until I looked the content up myself, so it felt natural, and that's a good thing!
  
  
• Side activities were similar but different, with the highlights being praying to statues, hunting different yokai and collecting spirits, which you take over to a payphone and get rewards. The similar ones would be finding collectibles and cleaning these tori gates, much like outposts in Ubi games to introduce more content, and ofc, the side quests
  
  
• The game... Looks great! I thought it was going to look a bit dull, given the low game size of 22gb and lack of graphical settings, but no, the game looks good and runs like butter, didn't have any issues at all
  
  
• VFX, sound and music - levels, especially the VFX when using different spells
  
  
• On a side note, collecting spirits in this game... WAS SO ADDICTING! I loved gathering these and could not help myself to go for them as I was making my way to different areas, so much so that I decided to stop using fast travel!

• The side quests are so boring. Monotonous, boring tasks where you're basically helping spirits out with their problems because they can't seem to do it themselves. I was interested to hear the dialogue for each of these quests at first, but then I got so bored that I just started skipping them halfway through, wanting to get them done and keep the game going
  
  
• The most common negative is that the game is repetitive, and I agree. Combat can start feeling the same, enemies will feel familiar and the aforementioned side quests, like many of the game's activities, can get pretty boring. You can fix this by just changing what activities you do and spells you use and such to help remove this feeling, but you won't be able to escape this feeling after 5 or so hours
  
  
• Shallow progression system - They pretty much took the system from TEW2 and put it into this game. Wish there was a bit more to it
  
  
• The game's main antagonist, Hannya, is underdeveloped and is more or less a menace than an actual threat. The game's way of giving you obstacles is just fighting his family, and outside of his talks, he's nothing special or interesting. He just exists for the sake of the story
  
  
• A bit expensive for the amount of content you get, even with the free content best to buy this game on a sale and not full price

Ghostwire: Tokyo may be one of the most bizarre games I've played from recent memory, expecting a linear-horror game and instead getting something entirely different. With a great art style, amazing representation of Tokyo and interesting combat, there's no other game I can think of that is quite like it.

The Scorchers is basically more of the same linear style gameplay that you're familiar with, but with a nailgun, a new mutant bash area, new missions, areas and a new bandit faction. What's not to love about this DLC. It's also fairly cheap, though you can get it cheaper at a key retailer than on Steam. It's nice to get this alongside the base game if you've never played as it flows pretty well with the game and makes you feel right at home the moment you jump into it since you can do it right after completing the main story.

RAGE is id Software's first fray into the open-world genre, capitalizing off of previous successful titles in the post-apocalyptic setting during its release, such as Borderlands, Fallout 3 and New Vegas.

• If you've played an id Software game before, you'll know what to expect with gunplay. If not, I am pleased to report that the gunplay is the best aspect of this game. Guns feel punchy, satisfying and fun to use, with a good variety of weapons and ammunition types, open for experimentation and being more effective against certain enemies, such as armor. They sound really good too on another note
  
  
• The wasteland is fun to explore, with activities to do, things to find and places to explore and loot. This game puts a major emphasis on looting and scavenging, so pick up EVERYTHING you find
  
  
• Simple and easy to use crafting system, using components found from areas or enemies and making different items (buffs, quick use/consumable items, permanent health boosts, grenades). Can play a big part in some aspects, like making lock-grinders which are pretty much lockpicks that are used to open rooms that usually have high tier loot
  
  
• Vehicles are serviceable, nothing too crazy but enough to get the job done. Nice steering and driving controls, vehicles can be upgraded with parts and combat is a simple lock-on system. There is one caveat: no free look, so you're mostly just driving with your keyboard and occasionally shooting when you need to
  
  
• Loved the mutant bash and the races to take a break from the occasional shooting, which is what you'll be doing majority of the time in this game
  
  
• Decent enemy variety, you fight humans and mutants. Humans are your usual fodder enemies like most games, with the addition of heavy enemies and mutants are your fast and hard to kill enemies, swerving whenever you aim at them and such (if someone knows what this mechanic is called, please let me know)
  
  
• A lot of the level designs, such as Dead City Central and Subway Town really reminded me of Metro 2033 (which came out before this) and I really enjoyed that, given the post-apocalyptic setting
  
  
• DLC adds a few extra hours of content, a new weapon, faction and new areas. Pretty good value as well if you just want more RAGE

• Texture pop-in is something that I experienced and even with trying the Graphics fix from the game's community hub and changing some settings around in-game, I still couldn't fix it. It turns out that the anti-aliasing is what keeps the game from always rendering textures, so that's why you deal with it all the time, so if you turn it down to around 2x or even none, you shouldn't have problems with it. Something to point in case people are pedantic or peculiar with this and don't want to bother going through effort just to remove this issue
  
  
• Level design is so bland to the point where it began to annoy me mid-way through. Having to go to the same areas multiple times just for a quest or a job outside of the main quest soured my experience and bothers me to why id Software just didn't make entirely new areas for these side quests (eg. You go to Dead City two times, one from the streets to central and the other from central to streets).
  
  
• Wish that NPCs played a bigger role for the player: Yes, there are some NPCs that give you quests and have dialogue, but most of them are kind of just there. Definitely could have had more opportunities or quests to give them presence
  
  
• Driving can be a bit weird at times: Your car can feel slippery on even the lowest of speed with vehicle upgrades, to where you'll sometimes just spin around and do donuts. It's fairly odd whenever it happens
  
  
• Story is terrible and forgettable: Basically, you play as a man who is one of the chosen members for the ARKs, these pods filled with people beneath the surface. You wake up out of cryostasis, everyone's dead (ring any bells) and venture out into the wasteland, discovering that a faction known as the Authority wants these ARKs for themselves and destroy humanity. The friendly faction you join is called "The Resistance"... Yeah, how cliche. You just trek on and become an errand boy, doing things for people. It doesn't really go anywhere and the ending did set it up for a sequel, but they ended up botching that in RAGE 2.
  
  
• Performance can be iffy if you play it out of the box, use id5 tweaker to unlock FPS and make some further improvements to what you like. Also, the graphics fix guide on the hub as mentioned before is good too. Game is locked to 60 by default, but I was able to set mine to 120 and be flawless the whole way through. Anything over that puts you at risk of crashes

Despite the mixed reception I have, I still think that this a game worth picking up for a short but fun experience. It's got some cool things that distinguish it from other id Software games and the gunplay was enough to keep me playing till the very end. Get it on a sale.

In a time when Warhammer 40K games were becoming stale due to usually being "turn-based" or a game that becomes underwhelming, Boltgun would not only begin the resurgence of good 40K games, but inspire later games that would come after it (Rogue Trader and Space Marine 2), games that people want.

• Boltgun takes place shortly after the events of Space Marine 1, with Titus having stopped Nemeroth, but the war goes on. You play as Malum Caedo, a space marine sent to the planet Graia to retrieve an important shard that has been taken by those freaking heretics. There's not much else to it really, that's pretty much it for the story
  
• The universe is nailed to a pulp here. Atmosphere, infastructure, dark and grim as 40K should be, and the 2D sprites are some of the best I've ever seen. Retro 40K doesn't get better than this
  
• Amazing gunplay and mechanics, good variety of weapons and good sound design. Favourite weapon is the heavy bolter, coming to this game straight after SM2 (being a heavy main) and running this gun felt right at home
  
• Armor system is interesting, being that your 'contempt' as they call it acts as another layer of health instead of reducing both your health and armor at the same time when you take damage. An interesting change that in my mind, caters to casual players so they don't get rekt but also a good change for everybody
  
• Short but sweet length, clocking in at around 8 hours to complete the game on Exterminatus, the highest difficulty. This will differ depending on what difficulty you play but I'd say it's pretty good for what you're spending
  
• There's a strength and toughness system, something I haven't seen in a boomer shooter before, where weapons have strength values (eg. Boltgun has a STR of 4). If the enemy's strength value is lower than 4, you deal more damage, if it's higher, you deal less and if it's the same, you deal normal damage. I think this is Auroch's way of prioritizing different weapons to use instead of relying on wombo combos like in DOOM, and I mess with it. Pretty cool
  
• Level design is good, love that the arenas are very open and give you plenty of wiggle room to run around and purge your enemies
  
• Found the 'retro' settings to be interesting, allowing you to adjust the retro style and pixelation of the game. I changed my pixelation to 100 to have it be sharper compared to other modern boomer shooters like Turbo Overkill, but you can make it as new school or as old school as you want
  
• Horde mode being part of a free update is huge and adds more content, on top of the paid DLC, which is more or less the same game but with a few new weapons and enemies
  
• FIGHT IN THE NAME OF THE EMPEROR
  
• Pays homage incredibly well to the 90s era of gaming, something that is long forgotten nowadays
  
• You can taunt your enemies by pressing T and it's so good to hear all of the different voicelines
  
• Game ran like butter, no issues whatsoever

• Can be repetitive and monotonous, given that the level design doesn't shift too much outside of a few sections. Enter level, kill heretics, find keys to open said doors, open doors, go into a purge arena, kill enemies and bosses, rinse, repeat. It didn't bother me too much personally but it's something to mention since it doesn't really do much to try to change this formula
  
• Repetitive bosses - Would've loved to see unique bosses instead of fighting the same ones 2-3 times. Or better yet, change their mechanics somehow to make them different
  
• In a genre where shotguns are usually the goats of these sorts of games, the shotgun in this game... was not a goat. It was pretty miserable to use due to the Strength stat it had. I wish it was more powerful

Boltgun is an incredible boomer shooter/retro FPS, whether you're a 40K fan or not. I've been on a Warhammer high as a result of Space Marine 2 and I'm excited to continue diving into this universe and learn more. It's fun, has a short but sweet campaign that can be extended with the paid DLC and despite being 'samey,' it's a blast to play through. All you need to do to remove that feeling if you're getting that is to change the difficulty! Buy it and have fun, battle-brothers.

The Emperor Protects.

Warhammer 40k: Space Marine 2 is one of my most anticipated games of the year, being the long-awaited sequel to the first game that lets you live your Space Marine fantasy, while also learning more about the enemies you face (at least for me), packed into a third-person shooter. After putting a ton of time into it, I think I'm finally ready to give my thoughts. Disclaimer: I only played the Campaign and Operations (PvE), so no Eternal War (PvP) content from me.

• The campaign, although forgettable (will be in a few weeks), serves as a perfect introduction to the 40k universe, with returning character Captain Titus (now Lieutenant) coming back into the fray once more as an Ultramarine after serving his penance by serving the Deathwatch. There's plenty of good moments and badass scenes here, and the campaign is roughly 8-10 hours depending on which difficulty you play, so a lot of bang for your buck if you were to get it for this alone. It can also be played co-op with up to 3 players and it's very seamless too, playing as Titus' squad members instead of just some generic AI. They also get their own unique abilities too, which is a huge plus as opposed to getting abilities from the PvE mode, which makes it more enjoyable. I did play the entire campaign on solo Angel of Death and man... It's freaking hard. I suggest playing on Veteran or lower and don't go insane like me, but it was hard in a good way.
  
• Enemy variety is amazing, with two different factions to fight - The xenos or tyranids and Chaos, and both factions have unique enemy types. Tyranids are more suited for swarm numbers and lots of close range fighting, with Chaos opting for more long distance fighting and marines who will shoot you down if you don't know what you're fighting. This goes a long way to add a ton of replayability to the game so you're not just fighting the same enemies over and over again. Every Warhammer co-op game I've played always does this and it works great, given how expansive and diverse Warhammer's factions and characters are.
  
• Gameplay is solid, with a mix of ranged and melee combat as you'll be forced to do both, and it's satisfying as F**K! The melee combat is interesting to me as it's akin to Darktide or Vermintide's combat, swiping, dodging, blocking and parrying hits, with parrying being the main emphasis since you open the enemy to a gun strike, which is a high single target damage action that can put an enemy into an execution state, which you'll need to do often in order to retain and keep your armour pieces, and it's one of the game's main mechanics. Deal enough damage to big enemy to put them into execute state, parry to keep yourself alive and perform gun strike action if need be, rinse repeat. The execution animations on that note are so cool that you'll never get bored of doing them, even if it's to the same Lictor over and over again. There's also different combos you can perform depending on what weapon you have as well. Gunplay is pretty much what you'd expect from these kinds of games, sporting a good amount of weapons and plenty of shooting to be had, especially against those pesky Rubric marines.
  
• One thing that I feel like people won't appreciate is the way that Operations are interwoven into the game's main story. I love this for two reasons: It keeps the story progressing and you're given the option to do the operations before you go into the next mission. Throughout the game, Titus will enlist one or two additional squads for the mission he's about to undertake and you get to play as one of those said squads. I didn't bother to do that myself but I thought it was awesome to see, given that most missions or PvE content in games like this would usually take place before or after the events of the story, even during if so, but just in a different timezone or area. I wonder if new operations will be something like this.
  
• The Swarm Engine is amazing, and it shows with lots of enemies being shown on your screen at any given time. Saber Interactive have learned so much from World War Z (their previous game which is also using the same engine) and have gone through a ton of changes to make the game look as modern and perform as well as humanly possible. The visuals are to die for and the art style is on point, nailing the 40k universe perfectly.
  
• Mentioned before, but full-fledged like a AAA game should be: 3 game modes, Campaign, Operations and Eternal War, all offering different experiences and plenty of content to jump between. We used to pray for times like this (I'm looking at you, Call of Duty)
  
• Customization is out of this world, with plenty of cosmetics to earn, things to unlock and chapters that you can pick from if you're a big 40k guy. This is one of the features that gets talked about a lot and I'm glad because there's just so many to choose and pick from that I wanted to do some research on a few of them just to know what they're all about before I pick them. There's a surprising amount of depth to it, where you pick your armour pieces first, then your chapter. Afterwards, you can add layers which colour specific parts of an armor piece, much like how you would when you build the marines IRL. Not a customization guy myself, but something I can appreciate alongside many fans.
  
• The two main progression systems in PvE are weapons and skills. Weapons start off at a low tier and as you upgrade them, you'll unlock mastery points which you then spend in its own individual tree, alongside getting substantial buffs as you go through the tiers. Skills are earned by just leveling up and you use Requisition credits (a currency you earn by doing missions) to buy both the skills and the new weapons. It's gonna take a good amount of time to get these (took me 20-25 hours to max out one class from 1-25), so for those that want to grind or love grinding, it's got that to offer here.
  
• 4 difficulties for both campaign and operations, since they have their own names, but I think the way it scales and all that are pretty much the same. Enemies will grow in numbers, deal more damage and have more health as you go higher, pretty self-explanatory stuff.
  
• AI is surprisingly good and can handle themselves, don't be afraid to play the campaign by yourself

• While Operations is fun, it can get pretty repetitive and boring after a while, which for me, is understandable, given that I've been playing the game since Early Access launch (Gold Edition). Playing the same 6 missions over and over again can only become so enjoyable to a point where it's just doing the same thing over and over again, with the only difference being a higher difficulty. I know that more content is on the way, so I'm not gonna complain too much, but wanted to put this as a negative in case people were expecting Darktide levels of co-op replayability, because while it's sort of there, it's really not. More content will solve this problem.
  
• Performance has been iffy for me, with some stutters during the early days of launch, which thankfully have been fixed for me. This game is CPU intensive, so if you're wondering why you're not getting a lot of frames, it's probably because of that. CPU patch that pushed out recently further confirms this too
  
• Grind can be pretty long at times, given that you're doing the same missions over and over. I know this because people have just been speedrunning missions (Decapitation in particular) and rushing to the end so they don't have to go through any effort other than forced sections. Either reduce XP required or increase XP earned. Don't mind this but just thought I'd mention it.

Space Marine 2 is the best 40K game ever made, with a great foundation and a bright future ahead of it. Excited for more content!

Pumpkin Jack is a spooky 3D platformer made by Nicolas Meyssonnier (yes, a solo developed game) that pays homage to those old school, platformer collecting games such as Medievil and puts you in the eyes of a Pumpkin, whose job is to "DOOM THE WORLD."

• The premise of this game is really cool and interesting. You play as Pumpkin Jack, a well known rogue in the land of hell who becomes cursed as a result of being a trickster and is offered a chance to break that curse by the Devil and be free again by destroying the wizard and ensure the end of the world. I love the narrative for two reasons - You're playing as the bad guy instead of the good guy and you get a "bad guy" ending so to speak, which is pretty badass since a lot of stories these days are mostly good guy stories where the bad guys always lose. And secondly, because the characters that you meet make it interesting, with each character knowing Jack from some time in their life, which gives him backstory and adds charm to his character instead of simply playing as him. The interactions are cool, particularly between him and the crow, as you're pretty much together the entire way through and I just found some of the things he says to be funny
  
• Decent amount of humor. Very subjective here since people view humor differently but I managed to get a few laughs out of it and I was satisfied
  
• Simplicity is key here and a lot of things in this game are fairly simple. The platforming, puzzle solving and combat are so dumbed down that you can notice with the way some of the mechanics work, but it's not a bad thing considering one man made this entire game from start to finish
  
• Combat comprises of simple attacks, with a few combos you can perform on certain weapons. Weapons are earned by killing bosses in each level and you can swap to whichever you prefer at any time. No weapon is bad, so feel free to use what you want! (My favourite is the blunderbuss, enjoyed the heck out of this thing... Mostly out of spite because I love guns)
  
• Puzzle-solving wasn't too difficult and fun to do!
  
• I was going to save this for a neutral spot but it's honestly the only problem I have this game - Repetitive level design. Once you get past the first level, you'll notice a pattern with each of the levels - Progress through a level, find special/unique event to that level, albeit the kart race with the knights or destroying santa claus' workshop to keep it spoiler-free for those who play, finding the boss, kill boss, earn weapon, rinse repeat. Not much else changes aside from a few exceptions, but it's not a bad thing by any means. The game is also short too, clocking in around 4 hours for me to complete. If it was more than 6 hours or something, it'd be a problem. Thankfully you do a bunch of different things so it's not necessarily the same, but I've seen this being noted in other reviews, so wanted to put it here as well
  
• Really cool OST, sporting its own tracks while also remixing some classical songs, such as Fur Elise. Hearing this song gets me every time as it was the first piano song I had to play for my piano exam
  
• Enemy designs? Also straightforward, monsters, humans... and freaking Santa Claus. Nothing spectacular but nothing terrible
  
• Boss fights are really cool too, fair mechanics and nothing too challenging
  
• Platforming is fun and offers a good amount of variety - jumping from spot to spot, navigating moving obstacles, avoiding traps, riding minecarts and activating magical bridges to name a few
  
• Costumes to unlock that change Jack's look. Personally went with the skeleton for my playthrough
  
• Crows and gramophones are the secrets of this game and while the crows aren't too difficult to find, the gramophones however you gotta put a bit of work in to find. When you find one, Jack just dances and it's freaking hilarious, made me happy every time I found one
  
• Game doesn't overstay its welcome, which is a huge plus. Go in, have fun for a few hours, finish up and move onto something else
  
• Game ran like butter, has DLSS available, shouldn't be any problems running this game on any gaming rig
  
• Dark and horror atmosphere, perfect for its release time, considering that it came out the week before Halloween. I'd even go as far as to recommend it as a fun, spooky game during that season

• Had a problem with one particular level. For those who may know, it's the forest section. On the way to find a witch, you come across a forest in which there's no guidance for the player, so you have to find your own path and every time you find the wrong path, a tree falls down and you die. There's no counter play or any way to avoid it, you just die and you have to restart checkpoint. It's very dumb, considering that Jack has the ability to dodge, so why can't he dodge away from a falling tree? Thankfully, this is the only time there's any BS in this game
  
• Mentioned repetitive level design in positives but I'll just put it in here anyway - Definitely something to be aware of if you don't want to feel like you're doing similar things over and over because that's how it is for the entire game.
  
• Camera can be a bit wonky at times but nothing too crazy, just it going out of balance in some sections sometimes
  
• Game is pretty expensive for a 4-5 hour game, clocking in at $43.95 AUD!!! Given that yes, you can replay levels and get the secrets and remaining crows to buy all of the outfits/costumes and be able to I guess speedrun the game with the time being shown (this is just a way to get more playtime out of the game), I would not buy this game at full price but instead buy it during a sale. You'll get more bang for your buck that way. Shocked the price hasn't changed since release
  
  
  Conclusion
  Pumpkin Jack is simple, short but sweet game that doesn't overstay its welcome, is fun, has cool characters, a really cool premise and what I'd consider to be a "bop" for a detour or a break from whatever game it is you're playing. Its short playtime and easy to learn systems make it an awesome game to pick up and play, or for the old heads that practically grew up on these kinds of games. I personally don't play a lot of platformers, but getting through this one has got me interested for more. I hope that if any form of sequel is planned, it'll be longer and have a bigger budget. Well done Nicolas for making an amazing game!

Deadlink is an FPS rogue-lite set in a cyberpunk universe and I'm shocked that this game isn't getting the recognition it deserves like other titles of its genre such as Roboquest and Gunfire Reborn.

• Freedom of choice - Deadlink gives you a ton of freedom in between runs, allowing you to pick what rewards you want to earn or what place to go to next. Kind of reminds me of a choose your own adventure and it's not to say that other games do this as well, but I thought I'd highlight it here because they make a great impact on how your run is affected
  
• Combines multiple games/genres, such as DOOM and Cyberpunk with a Hades style flair as you'll be blasting through different combat arenas. Think of it as Hades... But in first person
  
• Top tier combat - Deadlink has the best combat in this genre, hands down. Guns are punchy and feel great to use, movement allows you to move around in a fast-paced manner to where you're always on your feet and the VFX are so satisfying that it feels like eye-candy at times
  
• Level design is pretty solid with distinct locations and enemy types. You don't fight the same enemies over and over again (excluding doing runs over and over again ofc), every area has their own special enemies. Eg. First area is filled with the Yakuza, simple but basic shooty enemies, the next area has PMC soldiers and robots
  
• Characters in this game are defined as combat shells and there's 4 to choose from, each with their own playstyles, positives and negatives. You'll only start with one at first as the others are earned through gameplay, but you get your second shell pretty early so the options open up to you pretty quickly after the first hour or two of gameplay
  
• Good amount of weapons to choose from, from pistols to rocket launchers, shotguns and lasers. Each shell starts with a primary weapon and a heavy weapon. Primary weapons remain the same for each shell and doesn't get swapped whilst heavy weapons can be changed at your own will. They also have a limited amount of ammo to make up for their power, making weapon swapping essential for a good run
  
• "Marking" mechanic is a unique mechanic that helps players increase their up time during arenas as health and shield regeneration doesn't exist in Deadlink. Instead, you mark enemies with abilities or grenades and killing them drops ammo and shields, promoting a proactive playstyle for this type of game. There's also drops available like in DOOM available for you to pick up
  
• Gotta give Gruby props for making each of the heavy weapons different! There's 3 elements in the game, which are Corrosive, Fire and Shock and each weapon has a variant of these that act and feel different. They're not just weapons that come with elemental bullets. Huge W here for adding variety
  
• Difficulty options, provides ease of accessibility for those who may be new to this genre. Also offers additional rewards the higher you go
  
• Simple vertical progression system, mix of passive bonuses and upgrade-able abilities. You start with one row of upgrades and as you earn more, more stuff will unlock that'll provide you with a ton of stuff, such as more health, shields, damage and credit acquisition that'll help you get through those higher difficulties
  
• Runs last for about 45 minutes to an hour, maybe a little more than an hour depending on what difficulty you play. Never feels too long with how fast you move through this game
  
• NPCs is something I figured I should add in-case people are wondering if they're in-game, and they are, helping you make your runs easier
  
• Another special mention to the dialogue of some of the characters. During a run, one of 3 characters will narrate/be your announcer and the dialogue helps to bring a good amount of immersion into the game, alongside providing some subtle backstories and history into the world of Deadlink
  
• Amazing OST, fits the vibe and world perfectly
  
• Good boss fights, with decent mechanics and an incentive to stay on your toes and not sit in one spot. The Iskra was the highlight boss for me, being this massive machine that talks and tries to provoke you like it's a being in itself. Phoenix Apex = Best OST in the entire game
  
• Another unique system is the implants or "items," which you have to slot into specific slots based on how much battery power an implant has (ranges from 1-3 bars), instead of just picking up an item and having it permanently like in other games. Gives you some thought and lets you decide which ones to put in where. You can also take these out before an encounter as well. Some cool combinations you can make as well
  
• Additional game modes on top of the standard mode, such as a horde mode and the recently released time-trial mode, giving the game replay value
  
• Performance is buttery smooth and having DLSS in a game like this is so nice. For most gaming rigs, you shouldn't have a problem running this
  
• This game has a freaking demo! Can't remember the last game I played that even had a demo

• Story is pretty mid, not much to talk about, not much to say. Couldn't remember much from what was going on other than being an agent who goes into simulations to stop rogue corporations. The cutscenes were kind of cool though, hinting that you may be some sort of shady character who's done bad things prior to joining the Deadlink program
  
• Game gets repetitive fast, particularly when you reach the "endgame." All the runs work like this: Kill enemies, choose rewards, kill more ememies, kill bosses, talk to NPCs, rinse, repeat. There's only like two random events that can occur and it's pretty boring. Needs to be more of these random events or some way to juice up the runs and make them feel different
  
• The early game can be bad for a few reasons. Two NPCs require you to spend both XP and Tokens, which are the two currencies you need to purchase upgrades and Tokens aren't usually worth spending early on as getting those starting upgrades is way more important. This also correlates to my next point, which is that your choices are somewhat limited as well, meaning that XP and Token doors are the best way to go for your first few runs. By the mid game or end game, these problems resolve itself and you can play the game how you want to. Just something to keep in mind in case you want that freedom of choice early on
  
• Implants in this game feel more like passive bonuses rather than actual items. Even though they do have both active and passive bonuses, I still didn't feel like it was at a point where I was building into something either broken, good or just bad (which will happen at times in games like this). One time, I tried building into a heavy weapon and got a few good items and buffs to start it off strong, but fell short by the time I got to the next area. This is more of a pet peeve for me so maybe people will disagree with this point and that's okay, it's just not for me
  
• This game only has 2,673 reviews as of writing this review. WAKE UP PEOPLE!

Deadlink has an incredible gameplay loop and fun progression system that makes it stand out amongst its competitors. In fact, I think the gameplay is peak here out of the other games out there. Despite some problems I have, I still highly recommend that you give it a try, especially for those who want that DOOM fix but don’t want to play DOOM. It’s incredible at what it does, has a great soundtrack to back it up and the dynamic is fun enough to where you’ll feel right at home. The difficulty settings give ease of accessibility and the game looks and runs great!

Superliminal is a first-person puzzle game set in a surreal dream world and a game I didn't expect to have me question what, how and why we dream as human beings.

• This game often gets compared to Portal 2 for being first-person and being a puzzle game, but it really isn't when it comes down to just having similar genres. It's a game about depth and perspectives, having to use your eyes to determine, create and find objects that either seem out of place or don't match the way they should. You're able to move, rotate and resize objects to make them smaller or bigger, which plays a big part in navigating through majority of the game's levels
  
• Steam workshop is a huge positive, adding more maps for replayability and fun
  
• Multiplayer is a nice touch, haven't bothered to play it but a bonus for those who want to experience this with friends
  
• Incredibly known for its speedruns, and it shows, with many pieces of tech and cool things to discover. Watching a few of these made me want to try one myself
  
• Developer commentary is a great bonus, learning about the dev process, thoughts and feelings they had whilst making this game. Did you enjoy know it was in development for 7 years before it came out?
  
• Interesting and great concept, starting off as an advertisement for dream therapy and then falling asleep to be sort of taking that therapy yourself, entering the world they envisioned. The level design is beautiful and has a few trippy moments, all coming together for a great ending that's changed the way that people have perceived life, judging from steam reviews. A game being able to do that is a big deal.
  
• Perception is reality. Those are the 3 words that play a huge part in the game's design and is further illustrated by the game's narrator, Dr. Glenn Pierce, the man responsible for creating this world that you're in. He's fantastic and says a lot of cool things that help you put things to perspective
  
• It's both an experience and a video game, something that's usually hard to come by these days
  
• Collectibles and other fun secrets to find that relate to the game's achievements
  
• This is NOT Portal
  
• The only bad thing I can say about this game is that it's too damn short, but I'll put it as a positive because it was good kind of short, didn't drag out too long.

This is the shortest steam review I've done, but I really don't have anything bad to say. It's a well made game with a lot of time and effort put into this, tries something completely different for its puzzles and succeeds with its incredible concept, level design and mechanics. I really enjoyed this one and think everyone should at least give it a try. You may feel some type of way after finishing it. Just remember these 3 words if you do play: Perception is reality.

Metal: Hellsinger is my first ever rhythm FPS game and let me just say, I'm impressed with how much these two genres blend together when done right. Although there are very few of them, I can see why this one is rated so highly out of both Bullets Per Minute and this (the only other one I know really).

• The soundtrack should be the first thing to mention, which is just so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ good. It reminds me of the modern DOOM games a lot and wouldn't surprise me if this was one of the games they got inspiration from when making this. Mick Gordon inspired and created an OST with a genre that hardly ever gets used in gaming and I'm glad it was chosen for a game involving Hell and demons! It's exciting, thrilling and the riff raffs get me so hyped for every stage I played in, with each level having its own track, all made by the studio's band. I personally wouldn't listen to these outside of the game but for whenever I'm in a killing mood and want to play a game, this is the way to go
  
• I do love that you can shuffle and pick what tracks you want to listen to, which is a nice touch and allows you to pick whatever song you like. It doesn't affect the game's tempo or gameplay in any way, so feel free to pick whichever you want! This applies especially to the game's "Leviathan" or horde mode, so you don't have to go listening to the same track over and over. Or maybe you do
  
• The weapons available are all really solid and well made, each having their own tempos and ultimate abilities, which play a big part in the gameplay loop. At first I thought the tempo was different for each weapon (so one could be slow and one could be fast), but it turns out the tempo is the same every time, it was just a matter of adjusting for the fire rate of whatever weapon you're using and I love that it all goes to one because the skill gap would be all over the place. So a good example would be the shotgun, since it's a pump shotgun and you have to adjust for two beats instead of one before shooting for a perfect shot. It's an even playing field and lets you pick whatever weapons you want to use or like based on your play-style. I went with the shotgun and pistols because I wanted both a close range and long range option
  
• Referred to as DOOM The Musical and rightfully so, it plays like DOOM, it feels like DOOM and it sounds like DOOM
  
• Gameplay loop is simple, go in, kill demons to the beat and rack up a sweet high score, taking as less damage as possible and going for those sweet perfect shots
  
• 4 difficulties, 3 unlocked at the beginning where the higher you go, the more emphasis is put on perfect beats and taking less damage. I played on the GOAT difficulty given that it's my first time into the fray for this sort of game but replay value can be high if you decide to get invested. Scoreboard system also helps with that, putting you up on the leaderboard and trying to get higher every time. Works like a charm and can get you hooked if you love going for high scores
  
• There are 3 DLCs, each adding new things to the game. The main ones are Dream of the Beast and Purgatory, both containing new weapons and songs, and the Essential Hits pack contains some well known tracks from different genres. More on this last one in particular later
  
• Level Design is top notch, with a great art style, excellent models and textures. The arenas are really good too, gives the player plenty of space to work with and kill those demons. Never felt too tight or too big
  
• Simple story, nothing too fancy. You play as a demon girl who's lost her voice and has to get it back by killing demons. Besides, who plays these sorts of games for the story?
  
• The score system works alongside a mechanic called Fury, which increases the more demons you kill. It caps out at 16x and it amplifies your damage. Rack up kills, don't take damage, EZ high score. Simple, yet effective to feel that satisfaction of wiping demons off the map
  
• Sigils are mini upgrades, like runes in the DOOM games that provide passive bonuses, such as maintaining your hit streak and starting with max fury in every arena. Not something to overlook as they come in handy for all kinds of play, especially those going for high scores. Earned by completing their associated missions (essentially mini missions) and can be ranked up to a total of 3 times
  
• Good enemy variety, mix of fodder, ranged and melee demons. Favorite would have to be the stalkers, cool green buggers that teleport around
  
• Movement is solid, with double jump and dashing options. Can dash in any direction too which is nice for a game like this
  
• INFINITE AMMO!!!!
  
• There is an assist mode available for those who can't seem to get the beats flowing and would prefer to just play Metal as a DOOMer Shooter. It makes it so you always shoot on beat. Thought I'd mention it
  
• Performance is pretty good, didn't have too many hiccups or stutters. Only had one bug where the shotgun reload animation wouldn't go through but that's about it
  
• Horde Mode or "Leviathan Mode" is great! Lots of replay value to be had here, you basically go through 3 arenas, killing bosses and choosing one of three powerups for every arena to make yourself stronger. After each run/escape, you gain currency which you then use to buy permanent upgrades to make The Unknown even stronger. This is a great way to sink more time into the game if you feel that the campaign wasn't enough

• While the Essential Hits DLC may seem tempting from the songs that are on there, none of them make sense to the game at all and it's also pricey, even with the steam sale going on as I write this? Who let The Outsiders cook and fumble this bad? Given that you can bring your own songs into the game as well (albeit a complicated process), it's a waste of money and I wouldn't bother buying it unless you want to support the developers
  
• I wish the DLC had some additional levels to help support those new tracks. Would've made the game less stagnant and provide more content on top of the weapons
  
• Campaign is incredibly short. Alongside sigil missions, I managed to complete it on GOAT difficulty in about 5 hours (take two hours away from sigils and it's 3 hours)

While short and sweet, with the exception of the Horde Mode of course, Metal: Hellsinger is an exceptional rhythm FPS game and a game that is the golden standard for these kinds of shooters. Couple that with a killer soundtrack and you'll be having the best time of your life, even if it's just for a few hours. If you love heavy metal, DOOM and boomer shooters, get this game. Thank you Outsiders for this amazing game, I hope there's more in store for us after the VR version comes out.

Black Mesa is a remake of the original Half-Life, staying faithful to the original while having subtle changes and the new and improved Xen levels, which I'd argue is the main selling point of this game. In advance, this is coming from someone who's never played the original but has watched plenty of gameplay, so comparisons will come from what I've seen/remember.

• The level design is absolutely phenomenal, just finished playing it the second time as I write this. You do all kinds of things, such as navigating laboratories, killing monsters, jumping on reactors, moving through a sewage plant, running from a group of Gargantuas, and dodging landmines! You're always doing something different and I think is a testament to what made the original so good in the first place. Unfortunately, most campaigns like this these days (I'm looking at you CoD...) are usually either recycled or just same same but different styled missions that you've already played many many times before. Favorite part on a side note would have to be going up the elevator in Interloper and dealing with all those alien controllers. PEAK.
  
• Gameplay is divided into two core mechanics - Combat and Platforming. For its time, there weren't many games that spruced this up together in a way that worked, so Valve went the extra mile and combined the two for an action packed experience and you never have more than the other. Evenly balanced, Black Mesa does the same here, spicing the game up every so often with different sections and new enemies. One of the best sections would have to be On a Rail, where you drive a train through a railway system and have to deal with all kinds of obstacles and things, such as the Army and the aliens, alongside some platforming and somewhat puzzle solving sections (It's more or less clearing an area or two out of the way for your train). Or Residue Processing where even though it's all platforming, you just had a combat scenario beforehand fighting a freaking Gargantua. It always just felt balanced and not have one over the other.
  
• Gunplay is solid, with a good variety of weapons. Just stay away from the Hivehand. That thing is horrible and shouldn't even be considered a weapon. The only redeeming quality it has is that it never runs out of ammo.
  
• On top of the new Xen levels, the Source Engine is another marketing point for Black Mesa, with the game looking amazingly better. I have to say, to this day, the Xen levels still impress me with its amazing visuals and great representation of the planet. It doesn't look dull here, so for any OG's, don't worry, this remake's got you covered. Even the Earth levels look great
  
• Great enemy variety, never had a problem fighting the same enemies all the time. Always changed up based on the chapter and situation. The only enemies I hate are the bloody headcrabs... (kidding, they're just really creepy)
  
• Story remains intact, nothing's changed. For those who may not know, you play as Gordon Freeman, a physicist who puts a crystal into a spectrometer and the experiment goes entirely wrong, creating a resonance cascade that lets the aliens from the planet Xen invade earth. I don't want to spoil much for those who haven't played, but you gotta stop them from making things worse. I'll leave it at that
  
• Characters aren't the major focus, you are. And that's a good thing. You see everything that unfolds through Gordon's eyes and because he doesn't talk, you can create your own experience and judge how things are seen from how you play. I think this is a huge positive because outside of the important moments where they tell you what to do, it's less focus on who you're talking to and more on what's going on.
  
• Forgot to mention puzzle-solving as a core mechanic, used alongside platforming to solve puzzles and progress through various areas in the game. Fun and not too difficult
  
• Workshop and multiplayer support provides fun times with friends or randoms for those who want it, nice little side hustle when you're done with the game and maybe want more. Also, Blue Shift, Half-Life's second expansion is currently being developed as a workshop mod which you can play the first few chapters for right now! (Opposing Force when?) https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2424633574&searchtext=
  
• Better than Half-Life Source (don't ever play this for the love of God)
  
• Playing the second time, I noticed lighting improvements that made some of the darker areas from the 2020 version a lot brighter, making a big difference in visual fidelity. Something personal I figure I'd mention. Lighting in general is great

I don't really have anything bad to say, so I'll just mention things that bothered me personally but never felt like it ruined the game in a negative way.

• While I do think the soundtrack across the board is great, there are some cuts that just don't fit the level they're going for in my opinion. I can't think of concrete examples off the top of my head, but it would sound so out of touch, like it could've been changed to make it sound different. I don't want to compare it to the original since they're two different experiences. I also noticed that the song would sometimes be really loud, leaving all other sounds a bit muffled or too quiet, even with the sound effect and music volume being the same (bad mixing perhaps?) This has not changed since the 2020 release and I was hoping for some changes here.
  
• Some people like to consider the Xen levels to be a drag, and while I agree with Interloper being the longest level out of them all (there is so much you do on there it's not even funny, took me 40 minutes to complete), I think if anything, it expands and shows more of the world that you never got in the original, which is really nice. Only Interloper made me feel this way, the other levels were fine and had no pacing issues.
  
• Performance was a bit iffy for me, especially during the Xen levels. The game would tank hard but it never steered me away. Turning the graphics down helps a lot, but don't put it to low. The game will ugly otherwise. I suffered 5 crashes last time I played and didn't experience a single one on this playthrough, so kudos to Crowbar Collective for continuing to update and improve performance. Some earth sections were a bit yikers to where it dipped but not on a consistent basis.

Black Mesa is the one exception I can make where you don't need to play the original. Why? Because it's janky and old as heck. Black Mesa is so faithful that it's the same experience but on a new engine. Better Xen levels, gameplay and graphics If you're planning on doing a Half-Life binge like I currently am, play this instead. You'll thank me later. Thank you CC for this masterpiece.