Recent reviews by cal-mo-dee

This was actually fairly visionary for 2008. Most of the 'sci-fi'-ish elements of the story have actually come to pass or could plausibly happen this year.

Do not buy this game. It asks for your cd key and then when you enter it, it says that you already entered your key and then you have to beg Kalypso customer service to reset your account and they will take a day or more to get around to it if they do at all. As far as I'm concerned that's attempted robbery.

Been there, done that, bought the sweatshirt.

It's wicked hard.
Do you hate success? Do you scorn the dopamine-laden trifles of the commonplace puzzle games with their 'you paid for it, here's a trough of candy-coated achievements just for showing up, that's it, eat-it-up, eat-it-up my pretties, bwah-hahaha' sensibilities? If you crave brain-bending domination like Chuck Rhoades craves vinyl boot then you have come home, my friend. This is your destiny made manifest, fellow puzzle flagellants.

It's DOOM. It is pretty, maybe too pretty.

This revew contains spoilers. Best not to read it.

No other game will self-consciously mention its developer's hometown as much as SOMA. Spoiler alert: it's Toronto. I assume that this was a requirement for obtaining sweet sweet grant money.

Apart from this small annoyance, SOMA is amazing. It's dark, very dark, worthy of the over-used term. What could be darker than a setting where the protagonist has been dead for a century, and the planet is dead or dying, the last human is nearly dead, and the most our hero can hope for is an assist to launch a sort-of 'matrix' terrarium containing the virtualized personalities of a few underwater power plant workers into space?

Story - top notch, thought-provoking, worthy of comparisons to writers like Peter Watts, Philip K. ♥♥♥♥, and China Mieville.
Audio - some of the best I've ever heard. This game is SCARY when you wear headphones. I haven't been so spooked since I played DOOM in the dark when I was a kid.
Graphics - suitable
Gameplay - atmospheric and unique in the sense that you aren't going to be doing any shooting. It is frustrating to have to hide or run away from enemies, especially when the options for doing so are often limited. Facing down a beastie in a corridor that only has one exit is not really strategic and when you get bowled over multiple times the temptation to curse is understandable. However avoiding and bypassing the baddies is not that difficult. If this game does have a weakness it's that it's a bit too easy. The puzzles are not really a challenge. I did have trouble finding one plot-continuing element while crawling around in the dark of one level, trying and failing to avoid the howling monster multiple times. That wasn't fun. However it was just the one time. The rest of the monstes were a cinch, and maybe even predictable, but the notes, sound files and characterization of the hero and his sidekick makes it worthwhile. The ending was not a complete shocker, but pleasantly unpleasant.

9/10 would become an undead robot again.

This game is hard but fair. Like if Sean Bean was your high school physics teacher and flunked you because you didn't study enough, but then let you make up the test during summer school. LIke the top review says, if you can finish this game there is probably no game you can't finish, although I haven't finished Dark Souls or Super Meat Boy and probably never will.

This game epitomizes the state of 'flow' in which you can find yourself acting without thinking, mastering what was formerly impossible. I did not think I could finish this game with my 40-something year old reflexes but I've now unlocked anti-X boson and have gotten about halfway. I'd encourage more people to play it but then my achievement would be less impressive.

It's good to know there's still a place for whimsy in this brutal world.

This game was way ahead of its time. It really makes you wonder how a multi-million dollar blockbuster can get so many things wrong that were solved by what is basically an indie game, back in 2000. I'm not saying that it's perfect. It does have atmosphere, and thoughtful level design though, and I've paid a lot more for games that lacked both.

I'm a little bit surprised about the negative reviews that complain about the difficulty of the game (lack of hand-holding) and required knowledge of particle physics (false) because you don't see those same criticisms of a game like... dark souls...or ... super meat boy. Punishingly tricky this game can be, but it's elegant and almost educational.