Recent reviews by Noman

It's hard to excuse a game with a bad ending regardless of its merits. The final chapter if this game features a difficulty spike so extreme that it feels mean-spirited and just rude to the player. The rest of the game has many merits worth discussing, and the iteration on the core premise feels, at times, masterful. However, the finish line is locked behind a maddening, time-constrained gauntlet that is designed to make you fail and sneer at you when you do.

Freedom requires firepower.

An excellent mix of twin stick shooter action and Titan Quest-like RPG environmental exploration. Doesn’t overstay it’s welcome and engages throughout with surprisingly good writing, voice acting, and humor.

Rock and stone!

A tightly-crafted puzzle box bathed in rich Vaporwave style. The mix of environmental exploration and dialogue trees makes for a varied, satisfying adventure with heady themes of immortality and ambition.

Changes the fundamental game formula from linear level-based shooter to something more akin to a Live Service game ala Destiny: there are a limited number of hub areas through which you will be traveling many times to complete a variety of bite-sized objectives (plant a bomb here, steal the documents there). There are also more traditional linear levels branched off the hubs which you will also be returning to many times to complete additional quests. These changes initially turned me off the game (enemies have health bars and power levels!) but after giving it another chance, i got sucked in. Few other shooters can match this series' visceral, heavy gunplay, and Youngblood adds even more weapons to the roster which don't disappoint.

Just good luck finding a rando to co-op with.

Hooked me like nothing else.... the claws are deep, and it feels good.

Well paced, visually gorgeous, suitably mysterious, and elegantly viscious. Combat can be tough but it's never unfair. Almost like Dark Souls in fast forward, there is a perfectly balanced mix of quiet exploration and tense battle. Secrets galore, careful and thorough players are richly rewarded and reckless bravado is swiftly punished.

A game that knows it's a game and wants to have fun with that self-awareness but still wants you to play it as a game and take it seriously. At every turn, the game is winking at you (figuratively and literally) and constantly challenges expectations and conventions. In a word: incredible.

My progress through Undertale was slow and, admittedly, interrupted by other games (once i started DOOM, there was no stopping). I found myself frustrated at parts, as i was playing the "True Pacifist" route and some of the bullethell boss battles are very difficult when playing this way. There are times that i wanted to stop, but i'm glad i didn't.

I often feel that a game is only as good as the impression it leaves behind, and this has left a monstrously-sized impression on me. Character relationships (with both the player and each other) is nailed in a way that gives these simple but lovingly-drawn figures life in a most convincing sense. Frustrations forgotten, all i'm left with is a fondness for the time i spent with this story.

Other games i would recommend to fans of Undertale: To The Moon and The Sea Will Claim Everything.

The hype surrounding this game is extremely dangeous, but fortunately, it absolutely lives up to expectations and even exceeds them in almost every conceivable way. It is extremely difficult to find fault here, the game succeeds at everything it tries to do (even at telling a story). Gunplay is frenetic and grounded in what feels like classic PC shooter roots, which is refreshing in this COD-dominated genre. There is nothing stopping you from playing in whichever method you choose- and you are rewarded for fighting creatively with perks. Using stealth to eliminate pesky reinforcement-calling commanders and then immediately pulling out two assualt rilfes to to mop up the remaining grunts in a caucophony of blood, bullets, and environmental destruction is just one exhilerating strategy to progress in the game. Most surprising here is the incredibly deft delivery of an emotionally-attached story. So ironic that the protagnonist is viewed by most as a blood thirsty ape, whilst his monologues are so thoughtful and so human. Everything about this is worthy of major praise.