Recent reviews by Ghost

A beautiful fan made game created by a Blade Runner fan for Blade Runner fans. The entire apartment is highly detailed, with a great atmosphere and a great use of Vangelis' soundtrack for the original film. Highly recommend if you're fan of the films.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning may look generic on the outside but deeper in the game is a good/deep combat system with an interesting story with enough originality to keep you interested until the very end.

LONG REVIEW:

Looking at Kingdoms Of Amalur you'd be forgive for mistaking this as a single-player WoW game. As the biggest flaw in this game is sadly everything looks too generic. And this is a problem as the world being shown in the game is very interesting filled with good voice acting, and a main campaign thats original enough to keep you interested. Without spoiling any of the plot, the game revolves around you (named The Fateless One) who is revived from death by a machine created by the gnomes, and is said to be a detriment to the plan's of the Self Proclaimed Leader of the Winter Fae. Sounds cliche? Don't worry without spoiling the plot I can tell you that this game offers enough originality keeping it from lingering into cliche territory. The lands you explore in the game are actually a mixed bag, The first town you get into is fine and all but sadly feels small and unlike Skyrim or Oblivion, it isn't really that populated. The game does make up for me for having interesting Side Quests (ranging from find the traitor and the cliche, "Go to Point A then Point B then Go back to me" quests).

So now you're probably asking is it better than Elder Scrolls? NO, Of course NOT! Does that mean you shouldn't buy it? NO, actually if there's ONE THING this game does better than the ES games is that it knows how to do combat well. The combat is primarily simple at first (using default controls) left click to attack, right for spells, 1234567890 to switch between spells. But then the combat goes deeper as the game progresses with the game encouraging you to mix between either Mage, Rogue, and Warrior and getting your own set of perks as you level these 3 Classes up. A thing I have to bring up would be the weapons. For the first time, from the moment you get out of the tutorial you're automatically presented with High end cool looking armour and weapons. No there's no tier 1 2 3, etc. And it gets better that when you craft something they allow you to name it. Sadly though unlike Elder Scrolls ( a game similar to this ) the game feels small. As there are no mounts in the game travelling from Point A to D felt more like a 5-15 minute chore not a badass journey.

So overall yes I recommend Kingdoms of Amalur Reckoning for its combat, even if the game isnt as good as Elder Scrolls.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Orbital Gear is a 2D side scrolling shooter that does nothing new to the genre, bringing only a bare-bones shooter with bland visuals.

LONG REVIEW:

Orbital Gear, at first glance, seems to be a cool 2D shooter. You jump from "planet" to "planet" while trying to aim at your enemies, with a handful of guns. That being said the actual game isn't all its cracked up to be. Playing Orbital Gear is like having a shiny present under your Christmas tree, only to find out that inside that present is an old dusty toy that you already given before. Nothing in Orbital Gear feels new or innovative as I was lead to believe with the description, screenshots, and a few gameplay videos I saw. To sum it up the main gameplay is a mixed between your standard sidescrolling shooter and Angry Birds Space. As you jump from "planet" to "planet" started to remind of the levels in Angry Birds Space, where once you fling the bird across the planet the gravity will be make you "slinghsot" to your target. Similarly to this game. You move around jumping from here and there shooting people left and right, while dodging bullets. Rinse and repeat. As this is the only thing you do in the game, at it gets stale pretty quick since there's only (a total of) 3 Modes in the game. One for Singleplayer and Two for Multiplayer. The singleplayer mode is basically a time trial where the goal is kill and get the stars before time runs out. Nothing special, gets boring quick. Now for the multiplayer portion of this game. There are 2 modes: Deathmatch and Orbital Warfare, Deathmatch is pretty simple, nothing new or groundbreaking. Orbital Warfare on the other hand is the best part of this game where you join a team to protect your home planet and destroy the other, by either collecting power cores and fully powering their Doomsday Weapon or attack head on. This is an interesting mode not only because its unique but also it plays to the strengths of the game. Sadly though I am not recommending this game (currently the game costs a dollar less since its on sale) because the game is sadly dead. And this is the sad reality of multiplayer games once the flames of popularity slowly die down, so does the game. At the time of this review the game contains several servers (namely: USA, EUR, JPN, ASIA), and sadly to say ONLY EUROPE HAS PEOPLE PLAYING. There are no servers available in the other countries EXCEPT EUROPE. And normally there are only two (at the time of this review) and most of the time its almost always Deathmatch, meaning you'll probably never get to play the fun Orbital Warfare since no one plays it.

Now the graphics of this game looks good, on screenshots. Sadly though its not really that great, for one when you select your "mech" you can obviously tell that the game is made with the Unity engine, sadly though this game doesn't fully utilize the engine, since the game: Dead Trigger 2 looks a lot better. The games textures aren't really that good either. While In-game the mechs may look cool and stuff, but at mech select screen (which is barely a select screen, more on that later) they look ugly and dated. The design of the maps aren't also that good. Some maps look cool while others just look like carbon copies, with just a different background.

Now I rarely talk about this but, I feel the need to say this: the UI sucks. From the moment you boot up the game, you're greeted with a menu that looked straight out of a poorly made early access game. Go into settings or the Multiplayer select screens and you're greeted with the bumper triggers of on XBOX 360 controller on the top left and right. This makes me wonder if this game was created for the XBOX 360 but was rejected on the indie store and instead brought here on Steam.

And lastly let me talk about its price. I converted it from my currency. So I'm estimating around 5-10 USD. Now let me ask you this is this game really worth it? For 5-10 USD you get a game that's practically dead with dated graphics and bad UI. Do you really think this is worth your money? You can probably spend that money on better things or on a Steam Sale.

On the end of the day, No. I do not recommend this game.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Guns of Icarus Online is the spiritual successor to the 2010 game Guns of Icarus, which provides good graphics with fun (albeit somewhat long) cooperative matches, but suffers from a somewhat steep learning curve.

LONG SENTENCE REVIEW:

Guns of Icarus Online at first glance looks like a simple game. Man a ship, cooperate with teammates/friends, win game. Its not that simple. First of all there are three classes and from the tutorial they "briefly" teach you the basic mechanics of the game. Sadly though the tutorial may teach you the stuff you need to know but the tutorial doesn't test you for the actual war every match is. Sure there's a Practice Mode, but sadly that doesn't actually prepare you for how tense the matches go (more on this on the latter part of this review). As I have tested the Practice Mode, the game's AI is simply isn't good enough. And I lost my first match because I didn't have a crew and I was given an AI team, so it ended with me inevitably losing the match. So ideally the only way to really experience and prepare yourself for the game is to actually play the "real" matches, and not the practice ones. It would help if you have friends to play with, but going in solo would be somewhat hard since the matches can get really tense. For example there was one match which was 3 v 3, one of my crew members was still new to the game so he frequently manned the guns instead of fixing things (since he was an engineer) and until I helped him and told him to do the things he's already expected to know, we would've lost. It's stuff like this that requires a very detailed tutorial, sadly though the tutorial of the game is very brief and last around 2-5 minutes less.

Now lets go to the graphics department. The game looks alright, graphically there's nothing special. But for its visual style it looks nice, I like how the ships and characters look like. Gameplay wise though it's almost as good. Matches range from 2 v 2 to 3 v 3, and contains several maps that looks good. One of the things why I like this game is because It reminds me of one my favorite movies when I was a kid, Treasure Planet since people you're sailing a flying ship excluding the space travelling. And combat wise is great since this is one of the few games I found to be heavily cooperative base. I cannot emphasize this even more. Cooperation is the key to winning every single match, if one of you tries to be a jerk and try and go solo then not only will you fail miserably, you will also ruin the game for everyone else.

Yes, I recommend this game because its unique and at the same time fun, provided that you don't mind a somewhat steep learning curve.

Now if ever you do get this game I would suggest you buy the collector's edition including: A Costume Pack, and the Game's Soundtrack. Now I'm not suggesting this because I'm paid to, I'm suggesting you to buy this because if you're like me who likes listening to composers such as Hans Zimmer and John Williams, I suggest you buy this collector's edition now. The added costume pack is nice though, but its nothing noteworthy. Truth be told the real gem in this collector's edition would be this OST, so if ever you consider buying this game I'd really recommend the Collector's Edition.

(side note: thanks to my friend thebashfulone for getting me the game :D, seriously though get this game if you already haven't I really recommend it)

ONE SENTENCE EARLY ACCESS REVIEW:

Brawlhalla is a fast paced 2D side scrolling brawler in the style of Super Smash Bros that offers 2D Cartoonish Graphics, Smooth Animations, Fast Paced Gameplay, and a Variety of Characters to play and master with.

LONG EARLY ACCESS REVIEW:

Brawlhalla at first glance looks like an easy cash grab for those only looking for a Smash Bros-like experience on their PC's. But once you take a good look at it, Brawlhalla not only does justice to its genre but also does F2P right. Let me start here that the only reason you would spend money on this game (aside from being a Founder to get into Early Access) is to get more skins for both your character and weapon. (At the moment of this Early Access Review...) Everything is unlocked for you from the moment you click "play". This is a game that knows how to handle the free to play model, so for those thinking this is nothing more than a cheap cash grab riding on the success of Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. than you are completely wrong.

Aside from its fair use of its Free to Play business model, Brawlhalla also features great and fluid controls offering fun and challenging multiplayer. At the moment of this review the game has currently only one mode and it's deathmatch. And for what it has, the game does it well by offering Fun and Fast matches with well done maps, and almost Lag-Free matches. Though if there is one problem I notice (at the time of this review) would be disconnections. I may not experience and lag, yet sometimes I just get disconnected from the server, and this isn't just a rare thing because I notice even my opponents keep getting disconnected. Worst case scenario would be what happened to my opponent at the start of the game, my opponent kept disconnecting and reconnecting which painfully affected his/her overall score (which was -12). Now aside from the multiplayer experience the game does include a Training Mode and an Arcade Mode for Single Player fixes. Sadly though, there's nothing really noteworthy about the Arcade Mode and feels like its added there for the sake of having one.

At its current state, Brawlhalla offers a fun, fast paced, Smash Bros-like experience that will please any fan of the Nintendo hit or brawlers in general.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Rustbucket Rumble is a 2D team based shooter with dated visuals, poor controls, and overall bare-bones gameplay that does not bring anything new to its genre and lacks content when compared to others in its genre.

LONG REVIEW:

Rustbucket Rumble feels like an Early Access Game. Don't get me wrong this isn't a rant on Early Access Games (fairly enough some of them are really good...*cough* Don't Starve Together *cough*), but sadly it does feel like one. First off when you start the game you're greeted with a tutorial explaining the mechanics of the game. Now the game has 1 mode, and its basically this: Kill Bots, Grab their Recycled parts before they turn back into bots, so you could make a Big Bot. Sounds fun? Believe me it gets stale really quick. As the two free characters of the week quickly lost its flavour (currently its Clancy and Daisy at the time of this review) as you are completely stuck with them for the rest of the week. Now most you MOBA players might be used to this already as every MOBA I have played it has a weekly character rotation. But here's the thing, with this game, unlike MOBAs which has at least a dozen characters, this game has only 6. And to top it off unlike MOBAs where you can get you're character by grinding for coins, the only way for you to get the characters PERMANENTLY is to PAY the DEBUT BUNDLE which includes all Characters at launch which is roughly 300 PHP (which is around 5-10 USD). Meaning you can only get these characters permanently by paying, if you don't want to pay then you can always win around 10 matches (if I'm not mistaken) to unlock the character... FOR A WEEK. Yep after that week the character "expires" and you have to wait for the game to make them free again. Albeit you can argue that the game is just trying to make you play all the characters, but that just not the case. I found Daisy to O.P. since players just put turrets everywhere and kill you, and Clancy to be your generic dime a dozen soldier. Nothing special about him.

My second and overall problem with the game are the controls. Since the game does not let you utilize your mouse either from shooting, it feels awkward to shoot with your keyboard (W and S to shoot up and down? Not jump and crouch? that's weird), maybe if you guys use a controller then you might be able to get through the controls. But at the moment of writing this review I DO NOT OWN A CONTROLLER. I play with my keyboard and frankly because of these controls it feels like a Console Port even though this game was created for PC.

So overall Rustbucket Rumble is a bare bones 2D side scrolling shooter with little redeeming value.

Do I recommend it? NO.

ONE SENTENCE EARLY ACCESS REVIEW:

Don't Starve Together is a fun multiplayer survival game with a unique art style, fun gameplay, and good community.

LONG EARLY ACCESS REVIEW:

Don't Starve Together is the multiplayer portion of the single-player game Don't Starve. In this multiplayer expansion, we are given with great randomly generated worlds. Tons of servers, and mods. Similar to it's single-player sibling the game's main focus is to "survive" but not alone. In this game we now different players either helping or fighting each other for their own survival. Now I know what you're thinking, Wait? Does that mean there are griefers in the game? SHORT AND SIMPLE ANSWER: NOPE. I have played over 7 hours of the game (and will continue to play after this review has been posted.) and I have yet to encounter people who grief. Does it add anything new to other multiplayer survival games on Steam? Not necessarily. The game supports mods, which adds more useful features to make the experience even more fun (or easier/harder, depending on what mods you install). The game also has a unique art style differentiating it from the loads of Minecraft styled multiplayer survival games.

Overall Don't Starve Together is a great multiplayer survival game, buying this game is a no brainer if you loved the singleplater iteration of this or survival games in general.

So what are you waiting for? WHY ARE YOU READING THIS REVIEW? BUY THE GAME NOW!

Ok, I really wanted to like and recommend this game. I really do. Sadly the game is marred with expensive characters, laggy servers, and sadly a VERY LONG Queue Times. But when you overlook these, you see a game with a lot of potential. It has great graphics and interesting gameplay. Sadly for the longest time I wanted to play this game, I could barely play with anyone. And fighting with bots gets old real fast. BUT when you do get to play with other players (or your friends) you see how fun this game really is.

At its current state, NO I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT. NOT YET AT LEAST.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Saints Row The Third is a fun open-world third person shooter with a deep character customization and fun co-op modes yet suffers from tedious and repetetive story missions.

LONG REVIEW:

Saints Row The Third is big departure from the [somewhat] serious and mature tone of Saints Row 2 is replaces it with this over the top, comedic storyline that doesn't take it self too seriously. When you first start the game you are met with a deep cuztomization mode for character. Practically everything in a Character Creator is present in the game and more. This makes for either a funny character or a character that may just look like you. What makes this character creator even better is that you can upload your creations for everyone to download. This makes for dozens of interesting character creations.

After the character creation you're brought to the first mission of the game, which is: Robbing a Bank, and then getting in to jail. After this you are now brought up by a generic "I will take back what is rightfully ours" storyline that doesn't do anything new and at times it just feels predictable. What makes this worse is that way the story missions are done. You need to reach a certain point to get to the story missions, so you are FORCED to play all of the side missions before progressing. Now the problem with this is that it feels like it was added for the sake of making the storyline longer. What could've been a 3-5 hour storyline is padded out to around 6-8 hours because of these missions. What's even worse is that these missions get stale really quickly and it doesn't help that most of the jokes in this game are crude and unfunny.

But the game does redeem itself with it's gameplay. Shooting is fun in the game, driving feels smooth, and customizing your car is really cool. Sadly the missions of the game is a double edged sword where as there are missions that are fun (mostly the story related missions) but then there's always the "padding missions" which just feel boring. But I still recommend playing this because of its fun open world gameplay and its Horde mode. Though it does nothing new to introduce to the genre the horde mode is fun mode that can be played with friends. Sadly you cannot use your campaign character to play in this mode.

Overall Saints Row The Third may have its faults but in the end of the day, its still a fun game to play.

ONE SENTENCE REVIEW:

Expendabros is fun little demo/teaser for the full game. Its free there's no regret to get this game. If your a fan of shoot em ups then get this.

LONG REVIEW:

Expendabros is a movie tie-in game created just in time for the release of the third Expendables. Now when before you start running away since this game IS a Movie Tie-In, make no mistake, THIS IS A BLOODY GOOD ONE. Sadly, this game contains the one thing that would've made this game part of the best F2P games on Steam, is there's no Online Multiplayer. Yes there is Multiplayer, with 2 people on keyboard and 2 on controller, but that's still not as good as an Online mode. But it makes up for a solid gameplay experience and good level design with full destructibility.

Overall, Expendabros With good pixel art, great gameplay, and a variety of playable characters, Expendabros is one of the best movie tie in games in recent years.