Recent reviews by Valyn

cinema

still good

many o' spooks & laughs

Game good

Me give money

You give more good game?

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood has always been a better and more polished version of the second entry when it comes to gameplay. In other aspects, not so much.

We continue playing as an older, hardened Ezio on his way to becoming a master assassin. His progression is the best part of Brotherhood when it comes to narrative. And while the characters you meet, apart from some villains, aren't as interesting or fleshed out as the second one, many of the older ones play a bigger role here but some of them are left out completely. The story itself is probably the worst in the Ezio trilogy but it's still passable.

The gameplay is better than ever. The game introduces many new mechanics and fleshes out some from earlier titles. Sadly the camera angles, at which the game puts you during climbing puzzles are still extremely aggravating to deal with on a keyboard. While the new kill streak mechanic in combat dumbs it down significantly, it's better than the repetitive button mashing we got before as combat encounters usually end much faster. We get a new assassin recruitment system, which lets you manage your own recruits, send them on different missions, call them in at any time to help you out and watch them become assassins. Almost every memory has an optional objective now, which makes the game a lot more challenging for those that like to 100% everything. Side activities are much more varied with Templar Agent hunts, Assassination Contracts, new ancient ruins to explore, missions from two of the main guilds, repressed memories and missions involving some of Leonardo's inventions. Unlike ACII, almost every side mission has a story to it, albeit not that substantial for most of them. The optional DLC sequence based around Leonardo is also a huge improvement from the previous ones, which ended up being my least favorite part of ACII. The biggest flaw in Brotherhood's mission design is the insane amount of tailing missions. There is nothing fun about following a slow NPC halfway through the city. Collectibles finally have maps to them and give proper rewards. Borgia Towers are introduced as a part of the now fleshed out renovation system and tie into the recruitment system. Each tower has a captain that you have to assassinate in order to be able to renovate shops in the area.

The modern day part of the game is substantially better than the previous entry with some long gameplay sequences set in places you've explored as Ezio. The great cast of characters return and you get to learn more about them. The Truth puzzles make a return with a more satisfying reward for completing them.

Brotherhood is the first AC game I would call actually beautiful. Instead of different regions, you get to explore one bigger city. Rome is both pristine and falling apart but always detailed in its environment. The soundtrack reuses some of the music from ACII and adds plenty of new tracks that are as good if not better. The game runs great, but I did have a problem with one of the Leonardo missions where the controls of the invention were completely broken if you didn't turn on VSync and played at 60Hz. And even if you did they would still freeze up occasionally.

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood focuses on improving and polishing the gameplay, but falls short on the narrative.

Assassin's Creed is the start of today's massive franchise. But is it as good as its successors?

You start your journey as Altaïr, an assassin with a prestigious rank, which you end up losing after a few minutes of gameplay. Shows you what kind of a guy he is right at the start. He seems cold and uninteresting, but sure makes a comeback and at the end winds up being pretty likeable, although I didn't find his progression very believable. The story is definitely a highlight. You interact with some really interesting villains and characters and while it is very slow at the beginning, it picks up and ends very strong.

The combat is extremely repetitive and a slog to play through. Ended up dreading combat at the end. Doesn't help that when you get spotted the enemies seem to communicate via satelites and bring the whole town down on you. Thankfully, it's accompanied by satisfying parkour, albeit a bit clunky. Altaïr has some weight to him while climbing, which helps the traversal feel great. All the missions play out more or less the same. What surprised me was how free you are to do whatever you want. There are absolutely no restrictions on how you go about completing them and you can choose to use the information you've gained along the way or completely ignore it. There are also optional side activities and collectibles, which weirdly don't reward you in any way, except doing a few side activities giving you a slight boost to your health.

Alongside Altaïr, we get to know our modern day protagonist - Desmond. Not going to say a lot here since very little people seem to be interested in the modern day story and I don't wait to spoil much since a big part of it is the mystery. All you have to know is that it's there and good enough. Sets up a sequel quite nicely.

The graphics are quite dated but still look great. You get 3 relatively huge cities to explore and an in-between area connecting them all, each with a different atmosphere, which Assassins Creed excels at building. The soundtrack by Jesper Kyd is easily the best part about the game. The guy is a genius.

Assassin's Creed is repetitive and clunky but it's saved by an amazing story and characters. If you can get past its flaws there is a lot to enjoy here.

The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit is just what I needed to fill the void until the release of Life is Strange 2.

You play as Chris, better known as Captain Spirit, a boy with an overactive imagination. You spend your time in the game doing everyday things, which through Chris' eyes turn out to be a lot more interesting than you would think. I'm so glad we'll be seeing more of him since I loved the character and the voice actor did a really good job. We get a glimpse of some new features that will return in LiS2 and thankfully, that includes some improvements. The way you interact with things is much more convenient now since you have to use the mouse wheel to select different options.

Most of these improvements are on the technical side. It looks so gorgeous and a noticeable improvement from the past titles, but it still keeps that watercolor style it's known for. Although we hear very little in terms of a soundtrack here, it's still prominent and, as expected, beautiful. There's one issue that needs to be addressed and it's the floaty camera movement. Game seems to be using some sort of mouse acceleration that you can't turn off.

Overall it felt like a cohesive story, something comparable to the first episode of LiS, that I can't wait to see more of. Granted it is very short but definitely worth checking out. It's free after all, what do you have to lose?

AER Memories of Old is an interesting game. While it is far from perfect, it's a great game to play if you're interested in exploring a world filled with both wonder and tragedy.

Your protagonist is a girl with the ability to turn into a bird, which proves to be a surprisingly fluid and satisfying way of traversing the series of floating islands the game is set in. You're put right in the middle of the story with names being brought up left and right. I found myself being extremely confused with no idea as to what's going on. Thankfully, that clears up as the game goes on and you uncover more of the story, which is revealed mostly through text and ghosts of the past, revealed with a lantern that you acquire at the start. The game consists mainly of walking around, exploring ancient temples and of course a lot of soaring through the clouds.

The first thing you'll probably notice about AER is its beautiful low poly artstyle paired with a memorable, atmospheric and honestly wonderful soundtrack. The ambient sounds here are also great, especially when exploring some of the lost temples. The story is incredibly vague, especially the ending, which I felt was too abrupt. That being said it can still be enjoyed. Sadly I ended up getting a few lag spikes and FPS drops in a few areas but aside from that I experienced no other technical issues.

AER is not without its problems and can be hard to get into. But once you're into it, it's an enjoyable, short experience that's worth your money.

Fez was sitting in my library for a while now and I figured I would finally play it. Best decision ever. It's everything you would want from a puzzle platformer and one of the best examples of an outstanding indie game.

You spend most of your time in Fez manipulating your perspective on the world, leading to some really interesting gameplay moments. The meat of the game here consists of the insanely fun and in-depth puzzles with a lot of exploration. While you do have your ordinary puzzles that don't require much involvement, you also get some insanely creative ones here, utilizing sound and even QR codes. Hell, the game has its own alphabet, numerals and codes you have to decypher yourself. Best thing is it doesn't hand you these codes, you have to pay attention to the environment as there are clues everywhere on how to solve these.

The pixel art and animations here are beautiful. There is a huge variety of areas with different looks, music and even styles of pixel art. The soundtrack is pure charming, 8-bit glory. As many other things in Fez, the story isn't presented in an ordinary way. And while it isn't the focal point of the game, I found it surprisingly intriguing with environmental clues playing a huge part in the way it's told.

It's hard to find flaws in Fez. Perhaps one of its greatest downfalls is how not newbie friendly it is. It doesn't hold your hand and if you don't like figuring stuff like secret codes on your own, you're probably not going to get as much out of this game. But even if you aren't about that life, there are plenty of guides out there to help you get through some of the harder puzzles and enjoy your time exploring this wonderful world.

Fez is a miracle of indie developement and one of the best platformers I've played. It's a must buy.

Seasons after Fall is a charming 2D platformer with some of the best art direction I've seen in the genre. But the graphics aren't the only highlight here as the music, sound and even the voice acting are excellent.

You spend most of the game exploring various regions that you eventually have to backtrack through and discover new areas with some of the skills you've acquired along the way. This is where some people might get turned off since you do a lot of walking around. It doesn't help that the controls are really not responsive sometimes especially the jump. The puzzles aren't anything difficult but they do get pretty creative at later stages. They mostly consist of changing the seasons to manipulate the world around you in different ways which also helps the graphics shine since you essentially get 4 different looks for the entire map.

The story is my biggest problem with the game as it is really forgettable and consist mostly of narration (a big chunk of which is only heard if you actively seek out the hidden locations you have to visit if you want the real ending). The normal ending leaves you wanting more in the worst way possible. I feel like the real ending was way more interesting so I was confused as to why it was locked off. I don't feel like this is the way to reward exploration.

Overall Seasons after Fall is a worthy experience even at full price if you're looking for a game to take the load off. It has incredible potential to be something more but falls short in the narrative.