Recent reviews by Kitsune

I'm baffled why Square make it so hard to just subscribe and log in to this game. I've been going through various customer service hoops for a week now and I still can't get in. After finally getting my password changed (twice) and their silly security token removed, I've discovered I can't even reinstall the game because it says my registration code has been used. Of course it has, I used to to install this game in the first place! But if you want to reinstall the game a year later, it suddenly won't let you. Why do I never have these issues with Blizzard and WoW? Their game might not be great, but at least I can play it.

I really didn't want to give this one a negative review, as there as a lot I liked about the game -- but Steam doesn't allow an "neutral" option, and I've seen other reviewers wanting to give it an average rating but had to settle for a positive review, so hopefully this will balance it out a bit.

First, the positives:

• Great visuals. A fantastic callback to 90s point and click games. Captures the cyberpunk vibe really well, even in non-traditional settings later in the game. The artist deserves praise.
  
• The music is great, good outrun vibe. A bit repetitive at times (some themes are re-used way too often, they could have done with a few extra tracks) but otherwise good.
  
• Some decent humour. Your character breaks the 4th wall often, and the tongue-in-cheek mockery works well given the setting. Some of the humour pokes fun at the genre too, which was entertaining.

The negatives

• So this is the big one: the game sadly suffers from the same affliction that weaker point-and-click games are susceptible to, namely that many of the puzzles (particularly in the later half) require straight-up guesswork. Without the use of a guide you'll find yourself combining random items, using every possible item on every different bit of scenery, and travelling to older areas in the hopes of new dialogue options opening up somewhere because you're hopelessly stuck. When I did cave in and look at the guide, often my reaction was "well how was I supposed to figure that out?" Ideally these games leave a discreet clue as to your next objective, or puzzles that you can solve with sheer logic. Unfortunately VirtuaVerse often expects you to know that two unrelated and random objects can be used together in order to progress, or that someone you met hours ago in a different location now has a new dialogue option. This is not how point-and-click games should work.
  
• While the story isn't bad, it's not all that amazing. The world building is good, but it seems more effort was put into this than the primary story itself, which is fairly by-the-numbers. This is a symptom of my final criticism...
  
• The game is rather short, but fools you into thinking it's longer because of the amount of time you'll spend trying to guess what the game wants you to do next. So really, my main criticism above comes back here, as it tries to hide how short the game is.
  
  If you're someone (like me) who saw "cyberpunk point-and-click with pixel-art" and got really excited, wait until this game is on sale before you buy it. It's not bad, but given that point-and-click games depend on you using logic to progress, it's a shame that so many decisions VirtuaVerse has you make just aren't intuitive.

Takes the freedom of infiltration that you get in the main game and expands on it massively. I know that I'll be able to return to this DLC in a few years and play it an entirely different way. The infiltration itself has some new quirks not found in the original game: heat sensors completely make you re-think the way you work through the building, and the Breach segment is more interesting than the version found in the base game, almost reminding me of Portal puzzle-solving. The difficulty escalates logically, and the story is more interesting than you'd expect for a DLC. Eidos put the effort in with this one, and it doesn't feel like something that was simply cut out of the original game. Pick it up when it's on sale next.

A really fun six-shooter game where no two playthroughs are the same. Find your family's murderer by decent means or by pulling a gun on everyone you come across. It's difficult to get bored during a single playthrough of this game. My only criticisms are: 1) the rifle seems to be the best gun and easy to attain, making other weapons a bit pointless, and 2) you don't have to kill that many people until most bandits start cowering in fear of you. This can make certain bits of the game rather easy, though some shootouts towards the end can still be challenging. I wouldn't mind a bigger map and more unlockables, but other than that this game is worth the price tag.

Between a bizzarre melee system, a glitchy game engine, short campaigns, and clunky controls, this game pales in comparison to its predecessors. Buy either the original (on Steam) or, more preferably, AvP 2. This game fails to improve on either of those except graphics.

An update of a classic that is undoubtedly true to the original.

New 'n' Tasty is a brilliant way to relive the classic Abe's Oddysee, without ever feeling that the game has drifted too far from its roots. The puzzles and locations are all the same, with a few minor tweaks to fit in with the graphical updates. It's incredible to go through old, recognisable locations that have been updated with beautiful graphics for the present day. Every location, consequently, looks both new and familiar.

While this is a faithful update, there are a few tweaks and new additions. For example, Abe now has a health bar which you can replenish by chanting around birds. Playing into this, you now have three difficulty levels to choose from. Sometimes you can take advantage of the fact that each "screen" from the old game is now part of a single, long level; this sort of thing allows you to mind-control the Sligs when previously you couldn't because of those floating probe droids were on your "screen", but now you can move just out of range of them.

The game is not without its flaws, however. Even on a single playthrough I came across a few bugs and glitches. Occasionally you might be doing an intense platforming section where you can't stop moving, but you will abruptly grind to a halt for no reason. Such an instance, especially when you are being chased, will lead to instant death. Additionally, some of the controls can get a bit fiddly. The game's instance on you pressing the jump button and then the direction a split second later can either result in your jumps being poorly timed or Abe simply grabbing onto the ledge above him. Finally, you might find occasionally that when you try to trigger something integral to a puzzle, nothing happens. It's a shame that the game was thoroughly bug-tested prior to release, but fortunately these glitches are few and far between, and hardly game-breaking.

A quick note should be made about the claim that there's three times as many Mudokens to rescue in this game. While this is true, the extra rescuees are all in the same locations as before. All you have to do is shepherd the same group to the same location. The only thing that's different is the number of prisoners who jump through the portal: this doesn't make the task any trickier or add anything unique that wasn't in the original. Please don't think there's three times as much content, because it's the same as it was before. The extra Mudokens add nothing.

All in all, this is a wonderful way to see a *true* graphical update of a classic game. The entire world is re-imagined without ever stepping too far from what you remember. They built the game from scratch, but they never left the original drawing board. The world feels a lot more connected than it did previously (especially when you can see locations you've already visited in the background), and they managed to do it without "ruining your childhood". I'd recommend this game for both fans of the original and people who have never touched and Oddworld game before.