Recent reviews by Alcat101

Titanfall 2 could be a great first-person-shooter game back when it launches in 2016.
Alas, it was pitted against the giant of FPS releases on that timeframe, Battlefield and Call of Duty, which sucks out a lot of the playerbase quickly from the game.

Its 2020, and EA have now seen the error of their ways and decide to release their IP on Steam as well!
Well look at that, from less than 100 player online; the Steam release of Titanfall 2 boost it up to 12000 player online.
It just shows that people do like Titanfall 2!

If you like fast-paced neckbreaking speed of FPS movement, and controlling giant mech on the battlefield, Titanfall 2 is here to answer your thirst.
A 200% improvement over its predecessor, Titanfall 2 comes with all mode for all people to enjoy:
- Great story for the Single Player campaign exploring the bond of a Titan and (you) the Pilot ( a rare gem on the era of FPS shooter with 'meh' campaign story, back on the 2016-2019 FPS releases ).
- Multiplayer with various gamemode to test your skill against other (people) pilot and titan combat.
- Frontier Defense co-op mode of defending a point with 3 other player against an onslaught of CPU titan, infantry, drone, and 'mini titan'.

I gotta commend Respawn as well for the vast coverage of multiplayer server and the really well done optimization of the game.
FPS MP server usually is the boon where I live, but I have 6-8 local region server here with ping below 100.. You'd think when the game dies down with the playerbase, Respawn would scale back the server number, but thats not the case!
Respawn also proves itself knowing how to customize the Source Engine used on TF|2. It is so well optimized, I hit a constant, stable 60 on my old laptop released 2 year before TF|2 (2016). 60fps constant is basically a necessity on the neckbreaking speed of TF|2 movement.

Get it now with a hefty discount of Steam release celebration, up to -67% price slash before 10 July, 2020. And call in the Titan.

Rise of Tomb Raider (RoTR) brings out the rebooted Lara Croft into another adventure, after the Yamatai and Sun Queen 'quest' in the Tomb Raider 2013 (TR2013), the first reboot.

After acquiring a taste of life and death, and uncovering/documenting ancient mysteries in Yamatai, the adventurous Croft blood is true in Lara, but the modern world dismiss her experiences there.
Looking to solidify the experience herself, Lara turns to her late father research about immortality in the eastern/ex-soviet region. What she will found could shaked the foundation of history as its known, but only if she can get out alive from there.

Much of the gameplay element in RoTR is the same with TR2013, albeit which much improvement.
Each weapon, bow and firearm, have more variant, model and stat.
Arrow have different functionality, fire, poision, explosion, in addition to the already exisiting one from TR2013.
Each weapon have more upgrades now, which will change combat style.
The size of explore-able map is increased too, along with day-weather system that will change the entity in-game on how it'll appear or react.
Puzzle and platforming are still true to its Tomb Raider-esque style, altho in a bit more grander scale than TR2013.

After completing the main story, player can replay the different area of RoTR with different scenario in different mode, High Score, Time Attack, etc.
What RoTR does best from the previous TR2013 is giving extra single-player content in the form of DLC.
3 DLC exist to prolong the enjoyment and pile yet another play hour.
2 which is a side-campaign to the main story line with new area, new character, new puzzle;
and 1 extra side dish where Lara returns to the Croft manor, dilapidated, and chock full of Croft's possesion. Lara must prove she is the rightful owner of the Croft, less his uncle will say otherwise. Finding and reminiscing about her childhood in the manor, or fights horde of undead and claim the right is 2-in-1 package of this side dish DLC.

If you're a fan of Tomb Raider series, buying this at full price with extra-content DLC (but not the cosmetic one) might prove to be a worthwhile experiences.
Otherwise a discount really help.

This is a review for CoH New Steam Version
(You'll get it when you buy this game, New Steam Version is the way to play this old game, so that all element on the game would work)


I generally suck at RTS game.
I think I can count on finger, how many RTS game I played and truly enjoy.
I still suck on all of them


Company of Heroes is a RTS game that have element of building production structure and training your army. Upgrade is researchable, and each of your army unit may have an ability.
Compared to other similar game like Man of War or Sudden Strike (I have minimal experience with those), CoH is lot less complex on unit micro management.
CoH instead play out on the flow of battlefield, where your units are, where the enemies, what should you do after engaging a skirmish. Getting to know this is the way to win, at least thats what I (who sucks at RTS) thinks.

CoH have a lot of war element detail on a less unit-management game style. Infantry might get suppressed when they're in no-cover area, vehicle might be damaged on a number of parts that might hinder their performance, and iirc building that's on fire will have it's health decreasing as time pass by.
A faction have doctrine subtrees, where a player can specialize on what tactic it brings on the battlefield.
The range of infantry and vehicle the player can used spans from the early WW2 to almost the end of the period.
It's generally a land combat type unit you can control. Fighter plane exist but only as a form of commander strike ability.
Playing against other player is great, but those who prefer to spend a free time stomping out CPU/AI enemy will find good time battling them out.
The vanilla game plays out really well, and if you're already bored with it, there are 1-2 mod out there that brings out new way to play.


I recommend to buy the CoH Complete Pack, one that have CoH and its 2 expansion, Opposing Front and Tales of Valor
The full price might shy people away from this 2006 old game, but a discount will help alleviate this.
Up to 50% cut is considered a good deal for me, with what the amount of hour you'll dump to this game.

There are many mod out there to complement the vanilla CoH

One that I have found to be a good mix between all the mod I've tried is this

Long ago, I used to play the Blitzkrieg mod, which expand CoH unit micro management to a great extent
There's also the Soviet mod, which added Soviet faction as a playable unit along with its special unit.
Europe at War stands apart as a mod that wants more than the vanilla CoH offer but with a mix of Blitzkrieg mod albeit the super-complex unit management ability.

This mod adds in new Canadian faction, basically a british unit but with USA arsenal capability (cmiiw)
It also feature a lot of new unit abilities, both infantry and tank, as well as fleshed out doctrien subtree.
AI logic is greatly improved on this mod so player that like stomping AI to pastime will find this mod to be a great complement of CoH

It's a bit weird considering that I came to know the franchise I played the most by 2016, by pirating it's very first game.
Payday: The Heist.
And when I paid my due (buying the original), it's because this game is just pure awesome!
I'm still not of the hook yet, as when Payday 2 came along, I pirated it first until like 10-20 update the game have released, that's when I decide to just buy the original for good to make the enjoyment of the game unhindered by searching the pirated update (it still exist though, iirc)

PDTH shines in it's cinematic heist flow and solid gun play, compared to Payday 2 which offer diverse playstyle and ever increasing arsenal and heist location. But Payday The Heist still holds its own as a classic throwback on the game that spark the genre of heisting-with-your-friend.
One feature I would surely miss from the recent iteration is the character interaction during heisting. Every heist have some kind of story between the character as it progresses. I hope Payday 2 can aim higher on that department.

Sadly, PDTH is bogged down on a number of element.
The Heist is more-or-less static, you can only do it one way or a mix of 2 with still the major way basically the same with every heist released in PDTH.
Progression system to unlock arsenal, equipment and passive skill is grindy at best. You won't reach the end growth if not clocking more than 50 hour doing the hardest heist getting all objective and loot. So it might turn off some people.
There's only 1 game mode, which is heisting. Don't compare it to Left 4 Dead series which have mutator, scavenge, etc. But PDTH relief this by having the heist objective a new and different on each heist. Basically making the heist's objective on the same level with L4D various game mode if I say so.


For those of you who came to know Payday 2 first, you won't regret buying this game that spark the genre. It might server as a break from your 1000th hour of Payday 2. It'll feel fresh, trust me.
Even better if you can get your other heisting partner in Payday 2 to play along in this.
Discount is really generous when it comes to sale.
Getting DLC for this is more lucrative, since it ties also to existing Payday 2 DLC, buy 1 to get 2 so to speak.


Get ready to begin the story of the original Payday crew
And it'll not be as easy as Payday 2.
Mask up

MAD MAX is a satisfying vehicular combat wtih emphasis on exploration around its world map.
That's basically the tl;dr of this game review.

A hidden gem by Avalanche Studios, is a game trying to capture the beauty and grittiness of Mad Max cinema of vehicle mayhem combat. And for me personal, it succesfully reach the target it sets.

What Mad Max excel though, it fall short on other factor.
Story/Narrative is barren at best, providing only the means to move the game progression forward. It is not all barren though, the narrative style and voice acting is perfectly in Mad Max verse.
Do note that this game story doesn't have any connection to any Mad Max movie, especially the recent Mad Max Fury Road where this game came along. It's basically a spin-off of Mad Max tale. And a good choice for Avalanche, since making a video game story that relate to another media type usually result in unsatisfying end.
So if the story is graded purely from video game perspecitve, it certainly can hold on it's own and a decent one to keep player seated, waiting the conflict to unfold.
Quest/Mission design is basically a repetition of going to this area, talk to NPC and do something. It's a bit of letdown considering its strong point of the world design which we'll talk later.
You can easily clocked in 50 hour above if it's for the vehicular combat and exploring every nook and cranny, sadly, after you basically 'clean' of the map from any quest/mission/enemy hotspot, I don't think the game will give a means to replay or play with more harder or bigger scenario combat.

But Mad Max game strife through this point
World Design is beautifully barren with red sand palette tinge. Each wastelander habitat gives a story even though it's only a home, bunker, shelter, an inanimate object here surprisingly tells the story far better. Every place that's not a dead desert is scavenging or interest point, which intrigue player to check it out.
Combat stands out, although it's the vehicle one.
On foot combat works like Batman Arkham game, although the motion capture of body wresting combat movement makes the fight fluid, it's basically keep hitting and blocking when enemy attacks. There are other way to kills enemy on foot through other weaponry or weaponized fuel can, but hitting the 1-2 punch is the best and quickest way.
Vehicular Combat is the satisfying one. You customize your 'Archangel' combat car through various means of armor, engine, suspension, tires type with all its up and down to compensate. Weaponry ranges from sniper, jag-tip or explosive tip harpoon, flamethrower and sharp damaging rim.
The car element upgrade system could be better to offer more complexity, but Mad Max is doing fine with current system. The way the vehicular combat plays out is really adrenaline-and-nitro fueled, whether accelerating to max speed or tailing the enemy behind to get a better aim, Mad Max have done it right.


Those of you who cant cash out the full price for this, is striking a good deal with discount. 50% cut for me is more than good enough.
Those of you who buy it full price and know what to expect from this game will find that Mad Max deliver on how it's feel to become Max, on the driver seat, ramming, firing a shotgun pellet, harpooning and making other vehicle kablooey!

I always got shiver when I play Transistor soundtrack

Both the vocal and the instrumental/humming song are just plain beautiful

Thumbs up for Darren Korb

Metro LL takes the 'bad ending' of Metro 2033 and continuing the story from there.
Continuing the journey of Artyom from Metro 2033, now he is a full fledged Spartan elite squad.
Artyom are now haunted by the action he took that kills an entire new race, or so he thought.
He is then tasked with eliminating a new threat that have just been founded, but upon seeing that this new threat is just a child of the Dark Ones that he just massacred, Artyom knew that he can maybe redeem himself.

Metro Last Light again delivers a single player experience just like Metro 2033, except with updated graphic quality.
The gameplay mechanic are still pretty much the same with the previous title.
After the main story, Metro LL offers other mode to play, supplied by the DLC (if you buy Metro LL redux, it comes with all DLC available). There are short story mission, involving a stealth sniper level and heavy combat of the fronline.
Also there are some background story mission -apart from the campaign- involving the major character in Last Light, playing this might give you more insight to those major character.

One of the DLC mission that shines the most is Kshatriya.
You are tasked as Kshatriya, a squad that retriev whatever useful item in the surface that can be recycled and used again by the Metro populace.
This mission gameplay is not quite the same with the campaign one, involving the player in a a true scavenging-survival mechanic.
Air filter is non-existent in the surface and so player must frequently back to base to restock and resupply. Player are given ingame money to purchase armory and survival gear if only they brought back artifact to be cashed in.
Coupled with radiation and enemy that lurks the environment, player must make flee-or-fight decision in order to complete his task as Kshatriya

A discount purchase of this item, and you can net yourself some 30 hour-ish gametime.
And easy achievement

Few FPS game could deliver a well written single player experience, and Metro 2033 is on that category.

Inspired by an international best-selling novel with the same title, the settings are told when the world are devastated by all-out nuclear war, irradiating the surface and forcing the population to underground. In the case of Metro 2033, it's on the Metro underground, Russia's underground train system.

The story pulls all the character that appear with legit reason, and not because of a half-assed or vague story that we must search behind the scene of the game.
I've never read the Metro 2033 novel, but I think this adaptation game is worthy on it's own in the Metro franchise.
The story open nicely in medias res , well not technically in the middle of action, because the intro is a part of the ending mission/story. Later on, the protagonist played out the first introduction of their home, then it's attacked by mutant which is unknown to attack human settlement. The protagonist are told that something or somebody made the mutant act weird, and must find help in other Metro settlement if the protagonist don't want his home to run over by mutant. Along the way, the protag will meet other people that'll help his journey and find out that his early objective might bring the wrong result.

Gameplay wise, it's a generic shooter. You pick weapon, load the ammo, and shoot at the enemy. What makes it unique is as the game is set in the apocalyptic world, ammo is scarce. There are 2 type of bullet, the pre-war ammo grade which is used by the Metro populace as currency, deals more damage but scarcer to look. And the Metro built in ammo, which can be acquired easily but deals lower damage. Although it's only for weapon that shoot military ammo, some weapon use other type of ammo, such as bow and bolt arrow, steel ball bearing launched with pneumatic weapon, shotgun shell, and the ancient flamethrower.
The game feature a gameplay without HUD, meaning player must derive their avatar condition by seeing their equipment. A cracked gas mask needs replacement, gas filter that must be used when in radiated area can deplete and when 1 filter time's is up, the player breathing will be harder. The player can also 'look up' their gun to see how much bullet is left, visually.

The story can end up in 2 way, which is differentiated by how the player act during their journey. A karma system exist where if they help the people, being generous or avoid killing (the game gave more way than one in completing certain level) will give good moral point, whereas stealing, ignoring plea and outright slaughtering everyone will generate bad moral point. This leads to the good or bad ending in the end of the story.

All in all, Metro 2033 is a solid experience set in apocalyptic world where the remain of human population must fight for survival, both the mutated creature and human themselves pose the same threat. It gives off the right feeling when the world are truly ravaged by nuclear war, the underground Metro is dark and supressing while the surface is a beautiful winter coated in radiaton fallout.

"THINK WITH PORTAL

THINK HARDER"

That would be a fiiting tagline for Portal Stories: Mel

Since Valve have a phobia of number 3, its up to the community to make the next story after Portal 2
And boy, its one hell of a game, even for a community made one.
It could be Portal 3, for all I care.

The plotline matches with the previous game and acts as a prequel to Portal 2 (which is a usual step in game that tries to make a third in the series). Some explanation are in here: PLOT and About AEGIS regarding some element of the game that are not told, after you finish it.
Gameplay mechanic is widely the same, only the difficulty of solving puzzle been upped a lot, and I mean a LOT! I can finish Portal 2 without walkthrough video just fine... and just in Chapter 2 of Portal Stories: Mel and I have to open youtube to search for solution. Time to finally exercise that brain and twist more of Portal mechanic, because you'll need it.
Sound and Music are top notch, voice casting have that Portal-y feeling, like Valve could make up. Music while there's none like Still Alive, it brings the game atmosphere and moment like a full fledge Portal game will do.
Its only a Single Player experience, so no Multiplayer, no Co-Op like Portal 2, none whatsoever, but it complements itself with making a truly great SP exp for the player.

And its FREE, a well made, community mod like this one deserve a price tag, and maybe promoted to be full fledge game in Portal series. But its not, because its what will the community do, a mod will do.
So have a go, once again into the Portal universe.
And this time
Think harder
;)