I had a jolly good time with the previous DOOM game and I went into Eternal expecting pretty much the same thing, a classic FPS experience with some modern sensibilities strewn over the whole thing, with a challenging but tight core loop that wouldn’t be too punishing or frustrating. Eternal goes into a few different directions that distracted me from the core experience and I also found that some of the new challenges and systems weren’t my cup of tea. Overall I enjoyed the game, but it didn’t hit as much as the previous one did in my case.
DEATHLOOP is an interesting first person shooter based around the concept of all taking place around one single day where your character is trying to break the loop by finding and killing 7 specific people. Combining puzzles, exploration and combat, it is a fine experience that I almost dropped because I wasn’t sure how to proceed, but I’m glad I stuck with it. The more interesting elements of the game were definitely its lore and puzzles, and I’ve found the combat and character upgrades/customization to be a bit lacking.
I’m a big EDF fan; Fighting hordes of bugs and monsters in corny scenarios with increasingly ridiculous weaponry and machinery is something that is fun with friends and I’ve played my fair shake of all the entries in that franchise, usually in local co-op. I was cautiously optimistic when World Brothers was announced, because it looked like it would shake up the EDF formula, at least a little and go in a different direction. On the other hand, EDF spin-offs (Iron Rain comes to mind) are often weird on both their tone and mechanics. After having completely played through EDF:WB, I feel like it was a good attempt, bogged down by stereotypes (if not borderline racism) and some weird design decisions about the progression systems.
Borderlands 3 is the fourth entry in the borderlands franchise; one which I enjoyed a lot in the past. I was on the fence about this new one - whether to get it at all, for instance - because of controversy surrounding people involved in making it, but ultimately I nabbed it during a pre-order sale; I had to know what they would do to the Borderlands recipe to make it update it to 2019s standards, I wanted to know if I still enjoyed that game of game and also how they would tone it. After playing about half the campaign (I still want to finish it at least once) I can answer these questions. They didn’t update it, I still enjoy that kind of game but with diminished returns and the tone is still horrible.
I had heard glowing things about the new Wolfenstein game and decided to try the first one since it wasn’t super expensive anymore. How could they restart the Wolfenstein concept of nazi-killing destruction while following modern sensibilities of design and storytelling? It could’ve gone pretty wrong, but nah, Wolfenstein TNO is a great game, both as a first person shooter and as a story about a fictional World War Two where the nazis won because of stolen quasi-magical tech.
Broforce is a really neat shooter where you run around battlefields, shooting an extreme number of enemies with various characters - each equipped with signature weapons and special abilities - while dodging bullets, explosions and other hazards. I really enjoyed my time with it, although I didn't get all the references it makes - characters all have 'Bro' puns, like Rambro and the Brosen One. The chaos is a bit overwhelming at times, but the game is pretty forgiving with its checkpoints and the difficulty isn't that high, so I could have a good time with the whole game.
Super Star Path is an interesting arcade-like space shooter with a twist; Enemies you kill chain together with nearby same-colored enemies, and other enemies at the extremities of these chains get turned into indestructible crystallized versions of themselves. By defeating certain enemies on each level, you get power-ups and collectible to upgrade your ships and you constantly get gold to purchase new ones. At the end of each stage there are bosses that mix up the gameplay a bit by having you rapid-fire them down before they deplete your health. I loved Super Star Path enough to complete the game but I didn't think it was perfect.
DOOM is a really interesting game, a product of a gone area brought back into this century with a flurry of new mechanics, systems and updates over the original arena-based single player first person shooters. I was looking forward to playing it and while I'm not the biggest FPS fan in the world, it didn't disappoint me. I'm really happy that DOOM exists and it does exactly what some other games - Serious Sam, Bulletstorm - have tried to do in recent years, but better. I feel that this game is going to be on everyone's mind for a good while.
EDF 4.1 was released on PS3 a while back, but getting a smoothly running version with fast loading times made me quite happy. Playing it by myself on the PC isn't the best experience, but technically, it runs way better than any other versions. I was also pretty happy to see a 'real' EDF on PC after that last one they'd release that was strangely different. Is EDF a perfect game? Not at all, some of its issues turn into fun features and can be entertaining for the beginner, but the core of the game is a bit unbalanced and frustrating in parts, especially if you're playing alone.
Reign of Bullets is a great little shooter with customization and a good progression system. The game isn't completely without flaws, but I think that I've enjoyed it much more than many other things I've played recently, and the simplicity of its core gameplay added to the complexity that can stack upon it via its many systems create an experience that while a bit reminiscent of old flash game, is totally fun to play.
I wrote a huge review and Chrome crashed as I hit save?! Thanks chrome.
Because of plenty of reasons, TCTD isn't a game I've enjoyed, don't buy it. These reasons include a boring story, boring gameplay, convoluted systems, too few interesting side activities, a huge world for no reason, forced multiplayer and forced online. That'll teach me not to save more often.
Overwatch is great, it's one of these Blizzard games that you can see yourself playing for a good while. First forays into the first person shooter genre from that company that I like so very much, Overwatch is the remains of a cancelled MMO project where you play a cast of colorful and various characters with different abilities and playstyles to shoot your way to victory in a handful of maps with predefined objectives. The characters are great and the gameplay loop is so polished that I didn't hesitate for a second to give this game a perfect score in my book.
I can't say I enjoyed my time with SUPERHOT, which is a bummer since I really thought that the length of the game was indicative of how polished the end result would be and of how refined the gameplay was. I didn't find the time mechanic to be particularly interesting, nor the surrounding framing device, so there wasn't much in that game for me. It might be a bit reductionist, but I fear that SUPERHOT might be almost any shooter with a variable time scale.
Dead Rising 3 felt way more arcade-y to me compared to what I remember from the second game; You had to die and restart from the beginning in order to improve your chances on your subsequent runs. Dead Rising 3 is nothing of the sort, I've managed to play a good chunk of the game without ever dying - although there were some tight spots here and there - and besides a few bosses that took way more punishment than regular zombie hordes, the game was pretty easily in general. I still had fun with it, going from objective to objective, building weird weapons and exploring around the streets of Los Perdidos.
Beat da Beat is a great game on iOS, it's a bullet-hell like shooter where music dictates when enemies and bullets are going to spawn. With a great soundtrack, precise controls and a few good customization systems layered over it, I had a ton of fun with this game. It's not entirely perfect, but if you enjoy shooters or music games, this one is a custom-tailored experience for that platform, and it works.
Valkyria Chronicles is a weird mix between a turn-based strategy game and a third person shooter set in fictional Europe during a parallel world World War. With plenty of content, neat style and somewhat deep systems, it could've been a great game for me, sadly it doesn't go over "good" since the mix of strategy and shooting created a bunch of frustrating messes that I didn't enjoy slogging through at all.
Although this game has some RPG elements, Zombieville USA 2 has clunky controls and a weird sense of uncertainty added to mechanics as simple as buying new weapons. It's a game where you kill zombies using guns in order to get money to buy better guns and perks that will help you defeat more tougher zombies. The game controls with a virtual joystick that mostly works and I had some fun with it before being frustrated with certain systems and uninstalling it.
While I gave a 4/5 to Hotline Miami and enjoyed the puzzle-esque ultra-violent psycho trip, the second game didn't catch my attention as much and I found it much more difficult and frustrating than the first one. It is still the same shooter/puzzle, pitting you against horde of enemies and you always need to kill them all to proceed. With a weird story and a large cast of character this game could've been pretty amazing and I really tried to like it, but it just didn't compare.
Super Time Force Ultra could have been amazing instead of just great if it knew what it wanted to be and focused on one aspect of the game. As it is, it's kind of a mess to play, quite bad with the keyboard and only made a little bit better by the use of a controller - something I try to do as little as possible with PC games - and while there are a few design decisions here and there that I find just weird, I had a great time with it and I think it's a charming game most people should try.
Sanctum 2 is way better than Sanctum 1 was. I remember vaguely playing the first game, unbalanced weapons and towers against quickly impossible missions, things of the sort. This second game adds much to discover with level-gated weapons, towers and perks to equip to different characters in order to blend the genres of tower defense and first person shooting once again. I'm a big tower defense fan!