Recent reviews by boltronics

Very fun promotional game for the real game. Well worth the 10 minutes of your time it takes to complete.

When I first purchased this the OST had 58 tracks. Now it has 69 tracks, including tracks for DLCs I've yet to purchase. What a deal!

Music is provided in both MPEG ADTS, layer III, v1, 320 kbps, 44.1 kHz, Stereo MP3s, in addition to FLAC files. Perfect!

As someone that played all of the Penumbra and Amnesia games, this experience was exactly what I was looking for. I also enjoyed the premise and the stronger sense of progression this game offers.

I played the game with an Xbox Series controller, and it gave me no issues. The default mapping of LB for run instead of LS always felt a little odd, but I didn't bother making an attempt to change it.

There is a bit of reading notes that you collect, but they are short and I never found them boring. The menu system to organise notes and objectives is well thought out, although scrolling is a little slow.

The sound effects are amazing. The graphics are a bit basic. The lighting especially felt quite dated (with many objects lacking shadows entirely), and the monster looked like something from Quake 1... but it doesn't hurt the game too much.

The main thing I didn't like was the loading screens between each section of the map. There were times where the monster was chasing me, and I just had to run to the next section of the map (which isn't even separated by a door, it's just a specific location in the tunnels) and then the chase seemed to be instantly over.

There was a bug where I killed the beast in the end but didn't get the achievement so I had to do it again. Shooting was also a pain, because if the monster is near you, you can pull the controller's trigger multiple times before it even touches you but your character will not fire once, since you're effectively stuck in the monster's attack/death animation.

There is an inventory management system, and you can only carry a limited number of items. I partially understand why they still have it, since it means that you can't quickly collect all resources in the game and then waste all of an item that is needed to progress. It's also more realistic, and adds a little bit of planning, but ultimately I would prefer it didn't exist. There is also a main storage chest near the save point area, but that too has a limited number of storage spots. This is despite being able to just dump items on the ground and they never disappear (but are a little annoying to pick back up), so I'm not sure what the point of that is.

However, these are all minor gripes. The game is by a small team on a small budget, and it's sold at a cheaper price with those factors in mind. Amnesia: The Bunker is still an experience that is worth your time. Play it with headphones cranked up and the lights off.

It's the sort of soundtrack you can play in the background while coding or something. Not too distracting, but most of the tracks have a nice beat to keep you alert and focused.

I'd personally still pick Hacknet or Vampire Survivors over this for that purpose, but some might find that they are "too much" when trying to work, where as this soundtrack feels a bit more chill overall, despite the strong beats throughout most of it.

The files are in 256kbps mp3 format. The files are properly named, but tags are not provided. I found it easy enough to have the tags added automatically using EasyTAG's scanner option, but it would have been nicer if tags were already present (ideally including some artwork).

I picked it up on sale at a 55% discount, and I have no problem recommending it at that price. Even full price is okay if this sounds like something that might be up your alley, or have already played the game so know what you're getting.

Slaycation Paradise is a fun enough game for a few hours. I did everything except complete the game on Hard, since that effectively requires replaying every level two more times. There is no option to just select Hard mode on a level to begin with, and the game just isn't exciting enough to keep me entertained for two more playthroughs.

I was sadly quite bored towards the end. Everything became too repetitive. Building defense structures was no longer necessary (except for the final bosses to save time). Waiting 60 seconds for the portal to open so that I could finish a mission became a chore. Simply put, the game does not end on a high note.

The missions are mostly on the same few levels (which are quite large) but just reused over and over. Sometimes a mission is restricted to a specific part of the map in earlier missions. At least the missions that do exist are quite different from one another.

There's no grand story connecting everything together, which is a shame. Some missions are quests that people give you, but that's about it. When you get the completion meter to 100%, the credits don't roll or show a screen that congratulates the player. The mission ends just like any other. The lack of a good story (or any story really) is the other major problem this game has, in my opinion.

There are other minor annoyances, such as not being able to switch to a weapon in your inventory during gameplay — you can only switch to weapons you find during a mission, but then can't switch back to your previous one if you don't like it, unless you can find yet another one.

By default, X on an Xbox controller does multiple things — pick up objects (hold X), open gates or boxes (hold X) or pick up items on the ground and immediately place them in your inventory and not switch to them (tap X). On a number of occasions, I thought I was holding X to open a door, but instead I ended up switching to a bad weapon that was nearby on the floor, causing the remainder of the level to need to be played with a weapon that I didn't like.

Once you get the magic wand (which in my playthrough was probably around 25% of the way into the game), you won't want any other weapon. You may need to use a flame thrower for a specific mission and achievement, but otherwise the magic wand feels very OP. It has no reload time, fires rapidly, and the projectiles change trajectory to fly towards the enemies like a homing missile — or perhaps lightning is a better analogy.

When you die during a mission, you can restart or go chose to go back to the main hub area. If you go back to the main hub area, you have to spend another ~40 seconds walking to the furthest point to get back to the mission select screen. I wish this were more streamlined.

The music is actually pretty good, but it seems to be one track per level, and there aren't that many levels. Hence, the music gets quite repetitive and outstays its welcome. There is also no voice acting, which I think would have helped sell the quest missions, particularly since there is no real story to speak of. Instead, you just have to read bits of text like a slice of a visual novel.

The action is frantic and fun at times, but sometimes the things I was trying to collect (which gravitate towards the player once a particular ability is unlocked) would look too similar to an enemy projectile. In the beginning of the game, I would frequently get hit until I learned to pay closer attention to the shape and not the colour of the things heading my way.

One gameplay issue that was quite annoying was that your character will not shoot uphill or downhill. If you are walking down a slope that the enemy is standing in the middle of, you will not hit the enemy with any projectile unless you are basically standing right next to that enemy — in which case, you might as well just use a melee attack.

Performance under Proton on a HoloISO box with an RX 6900 XT was great. 4k, max detail, high frame rate. I had to go back and check that the game wasn't a native GNU/Linux binary. This is a game made with Unity FWIW.

I was curious about the Affordable Acquisition developers, but information is scarce. It would be interesting to know where they are located and how many people were involved in the project. There are also other unknowns, such as what the "Fun" slider in the settings area does. I tried turning it all of the way down, but couldn't immediately spot any difference.

This game does not have multiplayer. There are NPCs you can find and will assist you (if you can find them — one is very difficult to locate, so you'll probably need a guide) but the NPCs don't unlock achievements or anything special. In fact, for missions where you need to kill X number of enemies by doing a specific type of damage such as fire, the NPCs can be a pain and rob you of your kills while the enemies are still burning. I think that, given the lack of a story, this game would be perfect for multiplayer if such an option existed. Having said that, my intention was always to play it single player anyway.

I'm surprised that there aren't more achievements for a game like this. There could be achievements for finding all of the NPCs, unlocking all of the weapon blueprints, getting a weapon to a particular level, killing an enemy with every weapon type, killing X number of enemies... all kinds of things. As it stands, there are very few remaining achievements that unlock towards the end of the game.

I think that if you get the game on sale, it's not a bad way to spend a few hours. I didn't encounter any bugs or performance issues. It has had a surprising amount of polish for such a little-known game (screen shake effects, rumble, nice fire animations and explosions, etc.), but I also can't help but see a lot of missed opportunities that are holding it back from being something above average, and the developers have stated that they are not developing the game further.

This game is packed with excitement and fun. I love the art style and you bet the OST is full of bangers. The game won a bunch of awards.

Truly an amazing accomplishment. It really demonstrated that Microsoft was on to something, so what did they do? Screwed over everyone involved in the project by shutting down the studio to meet targets for the quarter.

Never ever ever trust Microsoft. They never change.

A good entry for the Amnesia series. It's nice to have native GNU/Linux binaries as well, which make it start up fast and performance was also very good..

The puzzles all seemed relatively straightforward, so you shouldn't need a guide to pass them.

One of the game mechanics is being afraid of the dark, so you need to stay in the light where you can. You will find yourself constantly looking for matches. I don't think there's a matchbox in the game that has more than 3, and yet every torch is good to go.

Still, it's not a bad game mechanic.You risk being spotted more in the light. Torches are everywhere mounted on walls throughout the game and you have to light a match and use it to light as many torches as you can before the match goes out (probably 10 seconds tops).. However, you can't easily see where the other torches are in the darkness until one is found and lit so there is a mad dash to quickly find and light as many as you can, sometimes with increased risk of attracting enemies in the process. You also can't run with a match or it'll go out, and you'll typically need to be in a well lit area to spot more matches.

Things like being limited to carrying just 10 matches at a time, but also about 10 cans of oil (total including different sized cans) are head scratches... all in the name of fun game play I suppose so don't overthink it!

There are three main endings, each with their own achievements. You don't need to repay the game to go back and redo the different options, but there does appear to be a speed-run achievement which will almost certainly require a second playthrough. I don't have the patience for that.

There was an occasional audio hick up where sound would stop for half a second, but it wasn't common. I did also encounter a bug where when my Xbox controller went flat and I had to plug it in via USB, (on HoloISO), the Steam overlay had no problem picking up the controller again straight away, but I had to restart the game before Rebirth would acknowledge that the controller had been reconnected. Relatively minor issues, I suppose.

I've played all of the Penumbra and Amnesia games to date (aside from the recently released The Bunker which I'll get to soon) but Rebirth is one of the better ones. It's not particularly scary or difficult, but the presentation and voice acting are both quite well done.

I couldn't help myself thinking that it would have been scarier with ray tracing for the shadows, but the game is a few years old and its style makes up for it. The art on the loading screens is particularly worth highlighting.

Of all the C&C games, this is the one that's the hardest to get working properly under Proton (hint: it requires old Proton version 3.7-8 and possibly messing around with cnc-ddraw and ini files to reduce the game speed and have the in-game menus rendered correctly), but this game is a classic that must be played if you love the RTS genre.

EA, please remaster this (and Nox too while you're at it).

The game has some kind of anti-cheat that does not work under Proton, including Proton Experimental as of this writing.

If you're thinking of playing the game on Steam Deck, HoloISO or a GNU/Linux PC, don't waste your time.

Great horror game. Fantastic story and setting.

Has a native GNU/Linux build that runs great. No crashes. I was getting over 200 FPS most of the time at 4K on my 6900 XT.