Recent reviews by Kimo Force

It's been difficult for one's voice to stand out amongst a sea of reviews for a game that was initially seen as the underdog darling by a brand new AAA studio, paying homage to the regularly-undersung JRPG genre, and particularly amongst some of its most underrated muses, Lost Odyssey, only to suddenly become the gaming's media pampered poodle, garnering awards left and right, some deserved and a few that admittedly made myself more cynical than I already was of this industry. It's invited endless controversy, both from admirers of the genre whom then took to throwing bricks at this game's largest sources of inspiration, to contrarians whom have made it their mission to knock this game and the team behind it down a peg to satisfy their egos. I do not wish to indulge in the mess that has transpired amongst online gaming circles; all I wish to be is someone who expresses passion for JRPGs, open to both new and refreshed ideas from different cultural perspectives, and to voice my own opinions as I truly feel about the game.

Is this game perfect? No, and I have several complaints regarding it that I would like to commit to text. Is this one of the best games I've played, as someone who has dabbled in several RPG series across multiple generations? Truthfully, yes. Whom would I recommend this game to? Frankly, only people whom already enjoy JRPGs.

Read the full review:
https://backloggd.com/u/KimoForce/review/3961748/

Overall, Helldivers is a fantastic and brilliant co-op shooter that nails the fun chaos of playing games online with your friends. The monetization, although I elaborated on quite a lot, is not a deal-breaker by any means, but rather an annoying thorn in what is otherwise a spectacular video game. That said, it can be for others, and I did wish to give it its proper clarification in case you are the kind of person who would be turned off by it. I do think you'll get your $40's worth by the time you hit your first Warbond after grinding enough premium currency, and I would say that's a fine place to stop playing. I still find myself coming back to it even after getting 100% achievements, mainly just to play with friends, even if this game isn't necessarily my favorite online co-op game to throw myself at. It plays well and has good enough writing that I find amusing that pulls me into it, and continues to do so just because of how stupidly fun it is.

Full review since Steam did not warn me about its length while I was in the middle of writing it and I don't have it in me to toss everything into the trash[backloggd.com]

I can't believe I'm starting off like this, but given the current climate on the internet, I'm curious if this review will even be allowed to stay up in its original form. I played this game prior on PS3, and this replay is my first playthrough on PC.

Wolfenstein The New Order is the first chapter of the latest revival of the franchise by Swedish developer MachineGames. It not only excels in its gameplay, but comes loaded with a story with one singular goal: reminding you of just how vile, vicious and inhumane Nazis are, and what a desolate world looks like should they get their way. A cautionary tale that may, in fact, already be a reality in the year 2025. It doesn't stop there, but goes over and beyond to show how that danger is just peaking around the corner. Fascism does not simply end with Nazism, as the game takes shots at existing world governments and how they've decided to represent their own history soaked in blood. A single text log that mimicked word-for-word what a certain country in the real world said to justify its own war crimes, but with the flags reversed, left me so stunned that I had to turn the game off to let it sink in. Much like Nazis, this type of fascism must be identified and snuffed out with the same vigorous boot. If there was any doubt of the extend of the cruelty fascists display, this game will snuff it out for you. No rock is left unturned, no display of fascist barbarianism left to the imagination.

Every facet of the game is geared towards riling you up against fascism, including in its gameplay. You have an arsenal of knives, grenades and five weapons, four of which receive their own alternative fire modes that often radically change how they work, with the last fifth weapon receiving a multitude of upgrades that significantly enhance its combat mode. Not enough? There's enough systems in the game to enable four different styles of play, as outlined by its perks system. Want to sneak around like a rat and stab Nazis in the dark? Want to play the game tactically, hiding behind cover and aiming down the sights? Want to ignore all survival instincts, overcharge your health and waltz in guns blazing and dual-wielding? Want to just blow up some Nazis with grenades or rockets? All of the above is doable. The Nazi is there for you to slit open, butcher, maim, bop, twist, pulverize, and so much more. The games wants to normalize your opposition towards fascists by giving you as many options as possible, as if loathing them is so facilitated that you have time to mull over and fantasize over how to respond to them in kind.

All the systems outlined in the previous paragraph all work, for the most part, flawlessly. When behind cover, the game will show an arrow on your HUD, pointing to how your player character will peak from behind cover should you choose to aim down the sights. If it's not to your satisfaction, the game has a manual button that holds you in place, with the movement WASD keys instead changing the direction from where you bob your body, whether you are or aren't behind cover. There are key advantages and disadvantages to playing the game like a regular shooter versus utilizing the game's titular dual-wield anything mechanic (except for the laser gun and the detachable turrets). You can toss knives to guarantee taking out enemies silently, or shoot with the suppressed pistol from a distance. The game does have a fairly basic stealth system, but progressing through the Stealth skill tree allows you to unlock more passive buffs that make the process all the easier. It can be difficult to tell where enemies are coming from and what the exact response from enemies will be like, but if you are quick on the trigger, you can take certain enemies out either before they yell for help, or before anyone else can hear them if they're far away from the others. That said, if you are detected, all of the enemies on the map immediately know where you are, which I do think is a tad dull. That said, the game's levels are pretty excellent for the most part and supports whichever playstyle you choose, giving you all sorts of nooks and crannies to sneak into, or ample obstacles to take cover behind, and should you choose Rambo mode, said obstacles are usually not in the way of you or the standing enemy.

Furthermore, did you know that Mick Gordon composed the soundtrack for this game? And despite being your more traditional rock and metal soundtrack, it's still absolutely amazing? The way Id Software and Bethesda tried to sabotage this man's career to avoid taking the blame for their own incompetence, and pissing him off so much from ever working with these games again, is still unbelievable all these years later, and they should never be allowed to live that shame down.

This game would be perfect if not for one major gripe I have against it: the perk system. On paper, having the player do menial in-game achievements to unlock skills sooner is a fun spin on the generic upgrade system formula, but it's implemented in the worst way imaginable. Some of these perks require feats that are far from menial, to the point where unlocking them requires the player to farm for them by constantly reloading checkpoints in specific parts of the game where it's easier to farm them. This applies both to feats that are difficult to do, as well as ones that require a lot of repetition, by funneling you into specific playstyles until you do, just so you can receive the passive upgrades to make certain parts of the game more fun, as with the Stealth skill tree, which would explain why I had so much more fun with the stealth system this time around given that I actually went out of my way to try and 100% this game. One of the worst is the first upgrade in the Grenadier tree, which requires you to kill two Nazis with one grenade, but enemies will run away from grenades you toss at them. None of your feats towards the other perks in the skill tree count until you do this one extremely frustrating.

There's a couple annoying feats here and there, but by far the worst Vaporize, requiring you to have Nazis killed by their comrades-in-villainy's dropped grenades, which can be done by shooting that Nazi during the very brief period between them pulling the pin and lobbing it at you, while there are nearby Nazis around to be blown up. I spent an hour farming this in the third chapter on the other timeline after beating the game and unlocking every other achievement. The NazAI is pretty simple (which is funny in hindsight considering all the other factors), but it's never really a problem in their effectiveness as an enemy faction up until this part where the system fails. Enemies will never throw grenades unless you stay behind cover for a while, meaning that in order to best adequately farm for this achievement, you need to camp in a narrow hallway with bends, then run out and shoot out whichever Nazi is about to lob the grenade (they're often wearing all black and it's hard to tell sometimes with all the environment noise). For the record, throwing the grenade back will NOT count towards this perk's unlock rate; funnily enough, the perk locked behind it does require you to get five kills from grenade lobbed back at Nazis, and I managed to do it in FIVE minutes. Having to farm these feats was always the low-point of the game, and trying to farm Vaporize was absolutely not fun at all.

I played Wolfenstein The New Order in its launch year, and thought it was an immaculate game. Coming back to it more than a decade later, it is still that phenomenal game that's only aged for the better with time. What would have been a perfect game in my eyes if not for its obtuse perks system. No game delivers this game's message as proudly, boldly, effortlessly and vigorously as it does: fascism is an affront to all life itself, and it is your obligatory duty as a human being for your response to fascism to be at the edge of a gun's cold steel barrel.

I don't typically play a lot of Adult Only games. Possibly the only ones I played prior were a 30-minute long visual novel you could play for free in your browser, and the first Fear & Hunger game (the latter of which was certainly not for titillation purposes). I'm someone who's rather a lot more focused on the mechanics of a game moreso than any erotic material included, and generally prefer reserving said material outside of the game for when I don't have both of my hands busy with the controller. Needless to say, I saw this pop up, and it was pretty short at under 90 minutes for just $4 in my region. So sure, why not? My verdict? It's ok.

A large part of the appeal for this game is its unapologetic erotic subject matter. It's certainly more on the softer side of erotic, but also extremely specific with the fetishes it caters to that it might not even matter. If you browse through the screenshots and trailer, yet said subject matter doesn't appeal to you, there's perhaps a lot less reason for you to pick this up. If this is your cup of tea? I think there's enough here to justify putting up with a lot of its shortcomings for its rather short playtime. You'll have to be the judge on whether this is something you would want to pick up or not. I definitely do need to point out that I had less reservations with it priced at $4 in my region, but it's $7 normally otherwise, which could certainly turn people away.

So what's the gameplay like? It plays like a very slow top-down melee action game. You walk into stores and buildings to steal food, while dodging or bashing cops with your trusty baseball bat, who either try to rush you down or shoot at you. There's a bit of a stealth element as you try to avoid security system cameras, but should you get caught in the lights, you'll have every cop in the level gunning for you until you escape. You can charge the baseball bat for a swing that deals more damage, with two fully charged swings temporarily knocking a cop out for a few seconds, enough for you to steal any donuts on them. You can also swing at any bullets fired your way, and parry them back at the cops, dealing about as much damage as a full swing. As the game progresses, the level layout becomes more complex and convoluted, with more difficult enemies being introduced. or certain areas being dark and thus much harder to navigate.

Between stages, you get to visit this supermarket run by a possum with a burning hatred for the cops, and will supply you with one of seven alternative weapons to the bat that can be used with the right mouse button. I found it amusing that one of those weapons was the Shinzo Abe doohickey. Anyways, there are a total of seven secondary weapons as of writing, all of which have their uses and unique traits. You can also chat with many of the residents hanging around and whom rotate with each visit, most of whom I presume are both Kickstarter backers or commissioners who paid to have their fursonas included (I can't link to their page in this review, but you could probably snag a slot from the game's main artist for $120 at [ko-fi (dot) com (forwardslash) heftytotem] if interested). You also have a hideout where you can sleep to gain an extra full heart into the next level, or even observe any secret photo collectibles you may have picked up in one of the levels (I believe that there is a total of seven photos for the six levels save for the last one, with one of the photos being found at the supermarket hub).

Your progression is tied to the donuts you steal. You can feed your ghostly companion, Mari, a minimum of one donut, and she will offer you a random perk that improves how your character plays. You can, of course, feed her more than that singular donut, for reasons that don't offer much beyond a visual upgrade. On the other hand, you could keep the donuts to yourself and have your playable raccoon girl be the one to feast. Donuts will heal your character as well as increase her, well, bust size, and once it's large enough, you get access to an ability that allows you to permanently put enemies out of commission for the rest of the stage, so that they cannot get back up and chase you some more. The larger you grow, the more times you can utilize this ability. Given that the developer was open about this mechanic regarding the ending, I'll include it here behind a spoiler: The ending is determined by who eats the most donuts between yourself and Mari.

So far so good, right? Well, I do have one singular complaint that is a significant mark against it: this game not only lacks controller support, but is designed with a scheme that is perhaps not the most inclusive to controllers. This makes assigning keyboard buttons to controller buttons not exactly be the most intuitive option. In order to loot anything or interact with objects, you need to be aiming at it with the mouse, and moving the mouse around swivels the camera around you as well, which can be very disorienting whenever you're in a panic. Almost all in-game menus are only navigatable with the mouse, where you have to physically aim and click to get past certain parts (unless you hold the space bar, which skips dialogue for you). I played this on Steam Deck, and it ran pretty fine without issues besides possibly one visual bug where you get a white screen before the start of every level, and I still found this unwieldly to manage even with gyro aiming.

Some changes I'd suggest would be to significantly widen the interaction radius for items and enemies, and tying it to the player's physical position instead of the mouse. I think removing the mouse on-screen entirely when on controller would be for the best, where the right analog stick is what determines the character's direction. In order to keep the camera swivel, you can assign it to a button that the player holds in order to utilize it. They move their character with the left stick still, but now the right stick moves the camera alongside with the direction of the character. Essentially, you could have the current control scheme and the one I'm suggesting both included, and just simply have the player swap between then by holding down a button. One way this could be implemented while making this easier on the developer is just not having controller support at all; only make this one change, and have the default controller layout through Steam changed to accomodate this control scheme (this will, however, not be great for folks playing the DRM free version).

The game has a fairly simple control scheme, and you can map most of your buttons to the shoulders and sticks. Here's the control scheme I have in mind with these changes to the controls:

- Bat: RT (Left Mouse)
- Alt Weapon: LT (Right Mouse)
- Interact/Loot: RB (E)
- Eat Donut: B (Q)
- Sprint: L3 (Shift)
- Slam: R3 (X)
- Camera swivel: LB (Space)

And of course, physical keyboard buttons to navigate dialogue and in-game menus would be wonderful, if controller buttons would be difficult to implement. I suppose one other minor criticism is that there's not enough variety, but hey, the game is still very short and I don't mind it too much. All in all, that's about all I have to say about this game, and what I explained above in regards to whether you should pick this game up or not is up above.

EDIT: They fixed it. Buy this game. Will probably have more to say about it after some practice.

I thoroughly championed this game from the moment it was announced, and even went as far as to praise its monetization model compared to its contemporaries, but was so thoroughly disappointed to learn that I couldn't connect to any matches online over here from Egypt. I've never had this issue with any other fighting game before, both AAA and indie. Whatever the reason was, I was not able to receive a refund after testing it out on multiple occasions, including past the refund window, The fact that a game that is predominantly online with very sparse offline content is being sold in a region that it does not support network-wise should not have been allowed in the first place. I will amend my review for when this problem is fixed, but for now, I am posting as a warning to anyone from a third world region of the world; should you find yourself unable to connect to private lobbies or even join friends in public lobbies, refund this game. Do not attempt to test it out like I did, or you'll end up with a game that you can't even play, yet put down money for.

Since the dawn of time (the 2000s), man has striven for the one video game that allowed him to partake in a battle of glory to the drum of triumphant music. Perhaps the most successful of those attempts came from Tango Gameworks' Hi-Fi Rush, but there is another attempt from a year earlier that ought not to be lost to the tides of time. That game is none other than Metal Hellsinger. Truth be told, this is a pretty darn good shot at this concept, if not without its fair share of hiccups.

Metal Hellsinger is pretty straightforward as a concept: it's a retro-style first person shooter with simple mechanics and the one defining feature that is shooting to the beat of the music. You get a double jump that is not tied to the beat, a dash that can be chained together if your timing is perfect, and a mild bit of depth with the ability to utilize them in different combinations or ways for different effects, such as long jumping by jumping and dashing at the same time, or star-falling by aiming towards the ground and dashing. All of your guns shoot with the left mouse button, and your right button is your ultimate that is charged with use. Your weapons may have an infinite pool of reserve ammo, but they do still require reloading which can be significantly shortened by timing the reload button to the beat that is shown on your on-screen cursor. Speaking of, your on-screen cursor will help you keep track of the beat at all times, and there is a score multiplier at the top of the screen at all times to help you keep track of how you're doing, with more elements of the background music kicking in the higher your multiplier goes.

That's pretty much the game, and onto my biggest complaint that I feel is holding it back: how brief it is on content. You have a total of nine levels, the first of which is a very short tutorial level. Most levels will last you about 15-20 minutes for a rough estimate of 4 hours to finish the game. There are some additional challenges in some of the levels and a separate mode from the main game known as Leviathan mode, but they all utilize the same levels and don't alter the game in any significant meaningful way. Even the rewards from doing some of the challenges aren't even necessary at all to completing the game. The enemies are very simple to a large extent, with some later enemies standing out as especially annoying, but nothing too difficult for the player on the normal difficulty. I don't mind the enemies being simpler than usual given how much is being asked of the player to aim, move and match all of that to the beat.

Barring the two default weapons of the game, you have a total of six weapons in the entire game, two of which are locked behind individual DLCs. Even if all but one of those weapons do feel incredible to use, this is the one part of the game that delivers below expectations that I am bothered by, especially with the fact that you're only allowed to take two of them with you. The shotgun, revolvers and rocket launcher are all vastly more well-rounded and better than the other three guns (yes, the DLC weapons are in fact the weakest in the game despite having to spend more real world money to be able to use them) that have far more situational uses. I could see myself resorting to the bow and arrow when having to confront any of the heavier enemies, but to be asked to give up a slot to it for an entire run is obnoxious, and will simply push me to never use it. It makes far more sense to save up the shotgun's ultimate for big enemies and to only use costumes that boost your ultimate bar build-up at the x16 score multiplier. Speaking of which, three of the costumes you get as part of one of the DLC packages have abilities locked to them that I found less fun than simply being able to use the ultimate abilities of my weapons more easily.

Now onto parts of the game I dislike that aren't related to length. First is to do with the Coat of Arms, the only collectible in the game. Not only do I think adding collectibles is a disadvantage to a game as fast-paced as this, but it's also completely inconsequential. Collecting them only unlocks skins, and not only are they hardly any different from the default, but beating the game once and collecting every emblem along the way only unlocks skins for the sword and skull, the two default weapons that are always on you that you barely ever use regularly. There are also some odd collisions here and there with the terrain, and I'd suddenly find my character moving a lot slower than usual or not at all for no reason or even enemies standing on thin air. The technical aspect of this game is also not great, where you have to recalibrate your audio and video input delays at every boot and maybe a second time while in-game once you realize it's still off with how you're missing beats you normally should have hit perfectly.

The story isn't much to write home about, and the aggravating repetition in the design of all the boss fights will get on your nerves, even if they all have different attack patterns. The level design can also get a tad repetitive, and could have benefited from more objects that would help with maneuverability, such as bounce pads. I also wish many of those levels didn't have tall pillars or walls in the middle that made it feel as if I have to run around the arena to locate the new batch of enemies spawning in, or even just the last remaining fodder enemy I need to take out so that I can progress. I also do wish that enemies moved to the beat as well, especially given how some are frustrating to deal with and are made far more difficult if you happen to have a slow song playing that would allow you to react less frequently. I have not yet tried Leviathan mode as of writing, but I am not confident given the sentiments echoed by various people who have.

Now after spending four paragraphs criticizing the game, you would think that I would recommend against this game, but far from it. I do admit that I took a lot of time explaining just one point in one of these paragraphs, but even so, this is still a game with a rock solid concept that also comes with a lot of flaws. The concept itself works amazingly well and is backed by some incredible music and visual feedback that only enhances the experience further. The excellent sound design trickles down to the guns too, and having a game that lets you shoot with the shotgun on one beat then pump with the next is so satisfying, or even using the burst-fire rifle that will shoot additional bullets if the guitar in the song revs up and will throw up its hand attachment in the position of metal devil horns once activating the ultimate ability. I appreciate how much care went into various aspects of the game's design to pay tribute to metal culture.

Metal Hellsinger is a very promising albeit flawed attempt at the concept of "Rhythm FPS." Perhaps the decisions and focus on content around the game rather than just making new content for the core game itself was not exactly the best call, and I understand that the price point of this game isn't the most attractive given its brevity. There's a lot working against this game that would normally have me thinking far less of it, but it has a core concept that is genuinely very fun and unique of which I would love to see improved upon in a potential sequel, if not other franchises tackling this idea with better success. Definitely recommending this game lightly for most folks, but certainly a stronger recommendation for metalheads. With that said, absolutely buy this on sale and try to aim for the deluxe edition with everything included. If there is a chance you might keep playing beyond your initial playthrough, you'd want to have access to all the additional songs you get from those DLC, especially the Essential Hits pack.

Originally posted 22 November 2023

Look. I like this game a fair bit and I want to see it succeed because it's interesting enough to be fun, but this "season pass" is a textbook example of false advertising. It's literally just two battle passes despite the store trying hard to skirt around saying so. All you get is the privilege to grind in-game missions or milestones that rotate daily so you can have the privilege of unlocking the cosmetics the Steam Store description claims you should be getting. There's no guarantee if those battle passes won't expire at the end of the season, and if the developer can't be upfront about what the "season pass" actually is, then I have no reason to trust anything else they say. I am genuinely hurt for trying to further support a small developer by buying cosmetics DLC. I don't have the time to play this game enough to justify having to gring XP for cosmetics, nor would I even want to when I could focus on having fun playing something else that doesn't treat my free time as a secondary job. By all means buy Friends VS Friends, but do not buy this season pass. This is scummy practice that should not be rewarded.

UPDATE: to the neanderthal who awarded my original review on the Deluxe Edition package a jester award to insult me, truly you think yourself a hallmark of anything above a level of intellect where you wouldn't eat your own feces. I hope you appreciate me deleting my old review on the now-inaccessible Deluxe Edition page and squandering the Steam points (for what little value they hold) you relinquished to smear me for simply highlighting a bad business practice for a game I liked at the time of the review, and putting it on the main game's review page for even far more eyes to see. I normally don't bother myself with this nonsense, but I will be petty as I can be should I choose so. You picked a wrong day to test me, and you have made it my personal vendetta to recommend against this game out of spite for you. Go ahead; award me another jester award, and I shall simply delete and repost my review again and again and again, as many times as it takes. I will waste as much of your nonsense Steam points earned through spending money on the storefront till the heat death of the universe. Boil and stew in your pot of misery and anger as I laugh at your mockery. No good day to you.

ROCK AND STONE!

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Sonic Frontiers marks a new era of Sonic the Hedgehog, one far away from the influences of Yuji Naka and far away from the crunch culture that permeated the Sonic Team. Things looked dicey for this game when the early footage released for this game was unappetizing. Needless to say, this game proved everyone wrong. Sonic is better than ever in what is ostensibly his best adventure yet.

Most of your time in Sonic Frontiers is spent exploring mysterious islands. As you make way, you'll fine platforming tasks to attempt, puzzles to solve, and foes to overcome. It's a simple system that works very effectively, backed up with the best mechanics the Blue Blur has ever experienced. The jumping has been refined and heavily improved upon, with an addition of combat capabilities to conquer the wide list of creative enemies in the game. There's so much to do in the game and it feeds it into a satisfying sense of completion. The introduction to the game can be a little rough at first especially when you're still getting acclimated to the mechanics of the game and without having everything properly explained to you, but once you've gotten used to the game, it hooks you hard. The combat can be a bit easy to pull off especially when there's zero precise timing required to pull off your parries, but it is fun and spectacular to watch, without it ever taking control away from the player.

When you're not exploring the island, you're doing linear levels similar to the ones from the boost era of Sonic (Colors, Generations, Forces). The levels are all well-varied and are generally a ton of fun to play. There are also challenges to do that aren't too difficult to beat, and if you miss anything, the levels are short enough that redoing isn't a big deal at all. My only complaint about them however is that the 2D levels do feel a little slow and aren't as responsive to control in as with the 3D levels. There is a solid amount of levels in the game, and given how packed just exploring the island is, this game feels immensely feature-rich. Whenever you need to wind down, there's a simple fishing mini-game that can also help ease off some of the exploration and grinding should you wish to overpower your character or move the game along by getting plot-focused collectibles early.

This game is just oozing with charm, from its incredible music by Tomoya Ohtani, to its writing by Ian Flynn and both of their respective teams. The game takes the previous entries' plots into account and has characters behaving and conversing based on past events, with some genuinely fun writing that takes itself seriously and is never satirical as with the state of the Blue Blur prior to the release of this game. It's so refreshing seeing Sonic feel confident about attempting some serious story-telling again. As for the music, whenever you're not listening to the whimsical open world music, you're banging it to the amazing techno beats, and even more shocking is some of the downright metal tracks for some certain key moments.

As far as for this games' downsides, most of it is minor and nitpicky. I mentioned how the 2D stages are slow as well as how the game feels a bit rough early on especially when you haven't yet unlocked that many things to do. The checkpointing in this game can be rough at times where it sends you back to your latest stage if you die to an enemy in the open world, and with certain boss fights, robs you of all of your rings should you fail an attempt at them, making subsequent attempts all that much harder to do, especially given how you're locked off from leaving and collecting more rings to have a better shot at them. There is one mini-game that's fun at first but can get super annoying especially given how long it drags on. There are some jarring pop-in issues that make exploration more difficult and the camera can get a little wonky at times.

In the end, Sonic Frontiers is an excellent Sonic game and a fantastic open world experience. It's definitely something that's worth your time and money, especially if you are a Sonic fan. With this game, Spark the Electric Jester 3, and Freedom Planet 2, Sonic fans are eating really good this year.