Recent reviews by Solar

fallen aces shows absolute promise and i overall really enjoyed episode 1. the stealth is easily the best part of the game, figuring out different ways past every encounter is what makes the game special, especially with your limited resources and inventory space.

chapters 4 and 5 were my favourites for sure, however i found it quite easy to get lost in a lot of levels, especially chapter 2 (probably my least favourite since it's so massive and long). i'm pretty fine with the quicksave feature since many of new blood's past games (such as dusk and amid evil) used it, and it's not really hard to remember to press f6 every once in a while, but i know some people might not have realised there are no checkpoints and you have to basically make your own. lol.

story and characters so far are very endearing. the cutscenes are great, im surprised the voice acting works with the comic book style. the story is pretty simple and easy to piece together as it goes along, but it still kept me engaged and interested, and i'm excited to see where it goes from here.

an easy recommendation if you enjoyed gloomwood (which i admittedly still need to play). this game is looking to be one of those that gets easier (and even better) on repeat playthroughs.

7.5/10

hard mode made me fatphobic

about 10-11 months ago i was fluctuating between being able and unable to recommend this game. i deleted my last review (not recommended) at around the time boys in blue released, as i was noticing an improvement with the game and wanted to see where it went rather than constantly rewrite reviews. fast forward to today, after fear and greed, and i can safely say this game is in a spot where i can recommend it to a lot of people.

biggest improvement this game has made is still the stealth system. the casing mode buff is absolutely MASSIVE and provides such a big layer of depth in how heists are approached in stealth compared to payday 2, and im very eager to see more remakes of pd2 heists with this improved stealth (ESPECIALLY those nightmarish civ-infested ones like black cat and hostile takeover). gunplay is solid and enjoyable. gustavo coutinho is still knocking it out of the park with his music. new heists, although linear, are still pretty well designed, even if theres not that many.

biggest issue the game has right now imo is the power creep with the dlc weapons. the weapon pool in this game is definitely balanced pretty fair, but a lot of the really strong (and also really fun) stuff is in the dlc packs, although i can recognise that this is kind of an issue payday 2 had as well. there are other things to comment on, such as odd colour grading and questionably balanced skills, but the core gameplay is fun enough now to where i think these issues aren't as standout as they were on release. not to say they can't be improved, obviously, but considering the drastic (and positive) changes the team have made and planned for the anniversary update, i can see these being ironed out soon.

if you were waiting for this game to turn around and go in a positive direction, it's gone ahead and done it now. if you're still unsure, you can wait for a sale, but otherwise im happy to recommend this to people, both as a casual game and as something difficult to try and improve at (since overkill proves a surprising challenge now).

HL1 has its fans, but i'm not one of them. regardless, i still decided to give BM a go, and WOW. it absolutely blew me away.

pacing and balancing have both been drastically improved compared to the original. you find weapons at a much more spaced out rate, and they all feel like part of a much more balanced kit
level design and layouts in general are SO much better in like 98% of cases. a lot of the weird puzzles and platforming have been finely tuned or outright replaced for the greater good

audio is great, the soundtrack is especially a very pleasant surprise. the voice acting is nice, and i especially like the new voices on the HECU soldiers, it makes them sound much more vulnerable in a fight for survival.
the game is also absolutely BEAUTIFUL. visuals are so good its unbelievable, especially on a 2004 game engine. the visual difference between HL2 and this is absolutely incredible. early chapters are much more moody, while later chapters are more serene and atmospheric.

the crowning jewel of changes in this game is the endgame, though. xen has been COMPLETELY overhauled, and nearly everything you play after stepping through the portal is entirely fresh. there's so much more worldbuilding, especially with the vortigaunts, and the reworked long jump makes for genuinely fun platforming and combat opportunities.
the length of the endgame being drastically longer especially helps the game's pacing, and the final boss is nowhere near as frustrating on top of being MUCH more climactic now. the place looks beautiful and the soundtrack is great; basically everything i said above applies tenfold to the final four chapters. only detractor i can mention is that the most bugs i experienced happened in xen and beyond, but they were mostly minor such as missing collision in tiny areas. its whatever.

the game is super cheap on offer which is amazing, but even if it's not on sale, BUY THIS GAME. its SO worth it, regardless of whether you enjoyed the first game, hated it, or never played it. to me this is the definitive way to experience HL1's story, especially with added context and scenes linking it to the second game, and i genuinely think it might be the best HL game ever made even if it's not official.
going for 100% achievements seems like hell, but i'll try anyway.

EXTREMELY dated. the game is remarked as a classic but its victim to some of the most questionable game design ive ever seen. i dont doubt black mesa is better, get that instead

so unnecessarily confusing and infuriating for new players. absolutely MASSIVE map download upon first launch. playerbase is one of the most toxic ive ever seen. so glad i refunded this excuse for a game LOL

UPDATE 3/6/24: the #fixtf2 movement has shown how abysmal the bot problem has grown and i fully agree with it, but i will leave my original negative review below anyway since i had more to say other than the bots. #fixtf2

after almost 3000 hours played since 2016 i think i can safely say this game has one of the worst fanbases i've ever seen. everyone is either an extremely annoying/arrogant child or teen, or the most bigoted, racist, homophobic/transphobic manchildren you'll ever meet. to me its absolutely crazy because i've played so many games with toxic fanbases, so why does this one stick out so much? probably because everyone has such a high opinion of themselves. if you claim your fanbase is "friendly and welcoming" then why do i keep running into these people? why have none of you made an effort to get rid of these people from your matches? why do you still allow lowlives like zesty jesus or zealot to have such a big platform in your community? it's one thing to be annoying, it's another to let terrible people like this get away with what they say/do.

i know it's weird to preface a negative review with complaining about the people who play it. but that's the majority of the experience you're gonna have with this game. i could name countless other issues which run rampant in this game like optimisation, poor weapon balance, questionable mechanics like random crits + bloom, and being downright horrible for new players to learn. but the number one thing that always kills my mood is the playerbase. i hop on every now and then and i'm greeted by the corniest weirdos i've ever seen mixed with people who need to be put on a watchlist.

i love this game, i really do. its so important to me and so many other people i'm sure, otherwise i wouldn't be sitting here with quadruple digits in playtime, and an inventory with expensive pixels. which is why the current state of the game itself and its fanbase upsets me so much. i want tf2 to be the best game it can be, but even if you could fix literally everything, everyone you run into will still give you hell for one reason or another.

the game may deserve another update, but the people who play it absolutely don't.
do not try and get into this game as a new player. full stop.

this entire game is a guy going "hey you know what would be cool" then putting it into his game and being right every single time

goblins are real

this is one of those rare games thats extremely hard for me to even criticise. it is absolute QUALITY, from beginning to end. episode 1 eases you into the game very nicely, while 2 and 3 really expand on the absolute wild potential of ideas.

even when you finish the main game, there are still things to do; check for secrets on every level, find the secret stages, try for under the developer times, and (god forbid) go for untouchable. there isnt some BS secret ending if you complete everything, its just there for completionists, as well as some (amusing) achievements.

dusk owes a lot to its inspirations such as doom and quake, and it fully embraces it beautifully. the art direction is great, the humour is just as you'd expect, and the tone is perfectly grungy. and the soundtrack is simply beauty to the ears, perfect "kill everything" music the game needs while also being balanced out with slower, tenser tracks for the eerie ambience.

its extremely hard to go wrong with a game like this. do yourself a favour and play through this masterpiece already.