Recent reviews by Exploding-Bob

mediocre

Chinese Room at it again. After they ruined Amnesia A Machine for Pigs, Still Wakes the Deep got enough momentum to give them another Chance.

Well it"s a walking sim (I knew that) with a strong theme of Carpenter The Thing"s on body horror, though it is rarely convincing. It"s spooky and unsettling, all right but nowhere near of scary, like Alien Isolation of Amnesia Dark Descent or Soma.
There are short stealth and chase section that are not very difficult and puzzles are basically non existent.

The thing the game does well is atmosphere and voice acting, if you can stomach the strong Scottish accent.
Story is soso, characters are all right and relatable but nothing too great.

You play it once and then forget it, while Soma still lingers on, after 10+ years.
For me I am completely done with Chinese Room.

The only thing Lana has going is the art-style and that cat-thing. Mechanically It is nowhere near the level of craftsmanship and artisery of e.g. Playdeads Limbo and Inside or even Little Nightmares 1, though I admit that kind of horror-theme is not everybody's cake. So this is more 'family-friendly'.

There are more control options in Lana but that does not make for better puzzle designs, since the puzzles are very samey throughout the game and don't bring much sense of accomplishment, since they are not hard, just feeling like chores to overcome.

There are some highlights but the are very few and far apart and mostly in the final section (fly puzzle). Also movement is slow and feels clunky and the forced mostly pointless environmetal cut-scenes rip you out of immersion and don't help either.
It also has Quicktime Events. Usually I hate QTE but in this game they came as welcome change of pace. Now go figure how non-impressive the rest of the gameplay is when QTEs are a hightlight.

The Story and world building wears everything it has blandly on it's hand and does not have much evocative elements or deeper things to tell (unlike the other mentioned games). It is very shallow and trotten trope-heavy. Maybe it's impressive when you are under 12 years old, I was bored.

Only in the last hour of it's ~4 hour playtime the games dares to step it's game up (pun intended) and showing glimpses of great ideas but then it's mostly over by then, already.

I got this on a sale for under 2 bucks and I am glad I did not pay more. I finished it mostly because I paid for it.
If you are still inclined, get in on discount.

I stopped playing when the timing puzzles dropped in. Gosh how I hate these.

In the end, yes I liked it, though I did bother not to 100% it. Combat is very simplistic, so don't bother playing on higher difficulties, it's just not worth it and does not add anything, since you just respawn and carry on where you left off.

The camera _always_ shows you what you need to know to proceed. If you don't find a path _you_ did no pay attention. Though there is some backtracking, esp. until you get the only ability that matters - the grappling hook.

The game marvels with visual storytelling and ambient, so if you don't appreciate curious exploration, this game is not for you. The game also lacks some enemy variety but natural environmental puzzles makes up for it. Luckily the number of jumping puzzles is very low, too. It never really overburdens you with anything and has a rather relaxing pace, so don"t worry, except for some (optional) sword upgrades you cannot miss anything important.

It took me 1 or 2 hours to get into the mood but then I was hooked to exploring this world.

All sentient beings are sentenced to see the end of their path - but it's the path that matters.

I did go in without much expectation,thinking it is just another walking sim. But there is a surprising lot of actual game, well - puzzles -, in it. The puzzles difficulty vary quite a bit but mostly on the easy side.

The beginning of game is lacking but gets a lot better, esp. from the second level on. Equally surprising is the thoughtful and still beautifully humorously story.

Only narrator Rachel August gets kinda annoying at times with her whiney acting. First I thought it was Nola Klop from Bramble the Mountain King (equally whiney narration). But that's a matter of taste and I won't hold it against the game.

Still I think this was 7 hours well spent and if you're inclined to thoughtful puzzle games, go ahead.

Most games either succeed at story or at mechanics. Bramble is one that gets the story right but the gameplay is severely annoying and the boss fights are 'tedious' at best. Drawn out into several stage for no apparent reason, All action sequences come in the number of 3 of mostly the same without noteworthy changes to the formula and the floaty, slow controls surely don't help. The absolut low point of the game. The light (jumping) puzzles better designed and navigating the 3D world is quite solid but that should be the base line of any game.

What this game totally nail is atmosphere, monster/ character/ world design and story. So this is not a bad game par se but you'd better adjust your expectation for some very annoying action sequences.

It's nowhere near masterpieces like LIMBO/ Inside or even Little Nightmares (first one + DLC). Not worth to get at full price,

Same say it"s relaxing. But really, this is boring AF. The puzzles are boring and the walking speed makes point and click movement even more tedious. The only thing Tengami has going for it is the art style and that wears out quick.

Monument Valley (both) - some other games that migrated from iOS to PC - are magnitudes better!

I can"t pin it down but this game annoys the heck out of me. I've played similar walk-sim-adventure before, like Lifeless Planet or Moons of Madness, Narcosis and others I forgot, LP I really enjoyed, MoM and N were soso but this hits the bottom. Is it the ultra slow pace, the laggy controls the bland narrative structure? Don't know but everything feels tedious and boring. Like the levels are only there to present some contrived puzzles and then there are timed objectives, that you have to do over and over again, because the game doesn't tell you what it wants from you.
I am done with it for now, didn't even bother to finish.

If you think this game is bad take a look at SuicideSquad from Rocksteady and you see what 'bad' actually is. Or rather don't !!! While AK is surely not a particularly good game, but at least it has 'game' in it and combat that is at least somewhat skill-based. Combat is simple yes, switching between long and short attack-button presses, while dodging, blocking away, waiting for you super powers to cool down between uses.
Traversal is super fluid and simple story is OKish and bossfights are nothing really special.
Still beating up mobs, though only little in variety
is fun but feels a bit grindy.

It's is definitely the worst Arkham game but as I said Suicide Squad managed to set a new low that is not even worth the time you spent with it, making you actually appreciate the little amount of effort that went into AK.

Oh my godness, Suicide Squad is just atrocious. Nothing in this game feels right and everything uninspired from the start. You can smell the grind even in the tutorial.

Compared to this game, Gotham Knights feels like Half Life 2-Quality Level. Gotham Knights is magnitudes above this game.

I only paid 3 Dollars and I am going to refund.