Recent reviews by p|mpanocta

To sum it up, game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sick.

I don't like making references to other games when talking about something that is clearly trying to do something new, but for anyone that really wants to know without playing, 10Hit is essentially the mission structure of Hitman: Codename 47, with the "visual language" (sorry) of Killer7 and Sift Heads, and the combat and sound design of Bodycam.

Normally I'd say anything attempting to be Bodycam would be essentially worthless, since games like those are essentially tech demos attempting to do something that Kane and Lynch 2 was endlessly grilled for- the key difference here is the control scheme is something more akin to Resident Evil 1.

When you're making a game that's clearly trying to mimic real life shooting situations, you can't give the player a snappy control scheme that enables them to john wick every shootout they jump into without at least some kind of struggle. Resident Evil 1 figured this out decades ago. Shooting in real life isn't as precise as the usual WASD + mouse digital input, you have to recreate how obtuse it is in character movement. I could write a book on how important trying new things in terms of designing controls in a video game is, but anyone can step back and think critically on their own time and figure out how important that is without reading an essay on it. Armored Core is another series that has forgotten these lessons.

Back to the visual and sound design, the game somehow works despite having near-clipping levels of gunshot volume and a nearly entirely grayscale color palette, and obviously stickmen. Everything is readable enough in-game to understand while not being too readable i.e where enemies are in an environment- just another thing to grapple with when moving through a level.

My only complaint is first figuring out how to start a level, I did have to look up a guide for that. Whether that's me being oblivious or a wider issue is up to the devs to figure out. Regardless, I am wishlisting this game, and will be buying it, even if the mission structure remains almost too-simple. Good work.

The only actually good Assassin's Creed. 2 and onwards chalk all the mysticism in this game up to ancient aliens, and the plot becomes exponentially more "hollywood" with good vs evil two-dimensional characters, and a revenge plot that doesn't have any teeth until revelations. But by then, it's too late and you've played 60+ hours of the same ideas in previous entries. Anyone who complains about "repetitive content" in this game needs to play the other titles and realize theres like 10% more variety, with 10x more repetition. AC1 is an Ubisoft swan song in terms of experimental narrative and mixed game design. I'd go on, but anyone with two brain cells to rub together to make a third should be able to play this and listen and understand what's going on, for a game made nearly 20 years ago.

just here to support my homie. i like the game a lot. confusing to get in the mech though. maybe label the keybind for it something other than eject. im probably going to buy all this guys games.

neat game

Unironically a better FPS and satire than Postal 4 and CoD respectively.

Not very mechanically deep. Style over substance in the best way.

Hate to be reductive like this, but its kind of an unpolished cross between Bloodrayne and Dishonored. That's the best way to put it. The tutorial/warning screens kind of scream a lack of confidence in your own world/design and kills whatever good faith the concept has in the first place. This is also in that "bad" part of low-poly aesthetic where some textures are so low-res that it wraps back around to bad minimalism. I'm also getting annoyed at the sight of objects in indie games having "realistic" ragdoll physics because the collision doesn't really allow for it- specifically referring to popping vents in the tutorial level. It just feels completely wrong. I really hate to be that guy because I'll take anything remotely original at this point. If I could put the issues this game has in a sentence: "not crazy enough." The other negative reviews cover pretty much every other problem I have with this game. I'd recommend reading them. Combat/stealth just feels clunky.

The hub world is great, though.

painfully embarrassing that i cant use any of the controllers that i own to play this game, dont give positive reviews simply because "mods fix it"

A lot of the usual "tuber game reviewer" style comments in these other reviews. i know the devs are saying this is based on looking glass-styled games, but im not seeing it. i have no idea what this game is or what its supposed to be. i think ive managed to find maybe 5 NPCs in my 90 minute playthrough thus far. the rest has been spent trying to reach the bottom of the city. It seems like the devs purposefully made a lot of the in-game materials (whatever Unity calls them) ugly, and a lot of the building meshes are purposefully... wrinkly? Like you purposefully have to go out of your way to subdivide and then sculpt a surface that should be flat (look at certain windows closely).

I think comparisons to other games and trying to categorize whatever this is kinda sells it short. It's unapologetic about deliberate design choices and kind of understands what it is. usually devs fall down the rabbit hole and end up trying too hard to be smart when its not always necessary. this whole thing kind of feels like a Serial Experiments Lain fan got a degree in graphic design, and then attempted to build an entire game without realizing they would eventually need to write custom code not covered by youtube tutorials.

its a definite buy if youre looking for a game that doesnt seem to care if you entirely miss whatever point its trying to make, gameplay or otherwise. i cant remember the last time a game had the balls to let me run down a hallway or up a staircase for two minutes, completely gambling on whether or not there will be some kind of reward at the end of it outside of the general decency to make sure its properly textured/closed off. or sometimes its just a staircase that throws you out of the bottom of a skyscraper. i also killed a girl and unplugged her fathers iron lung or something at some point. sometimes i dont want to sit through cutscenes or feel like im "missing out on quests and content" by not checking the log. some of us want to be able to do what we want when "new game" is pressed. let me have my "Soulja Boy Plays Braid" moment.

this probably all sounds condescending but at this point, if a game can keep my attention and surprise me like this, i cant *not* recommend it. its sincere- whatever it is.

good ♥♥♥♥