Recent reviews by Timthos

I am that rare person who preferred the original Watch Dogs to its sequel. Perhaps I am biased because I live in Chicago and have never visited San Francisco, so you can take my words with a grain of salt. However, I did actually enjoy Watch Dogs 2 and would recommend it to those who enjoy the Ubisoft brand of open world action games. Gameplay and controls are solid, and the production values are what you'd expect. There is an increased reliance on gadgetry in the combat, which is a smart direction to take with a game centered around a group of hackers. The game offers a much lighter tone than the rogue vigilantism of the original, but there is a certain disjointedness between the personalities of the characters and the actions I feel like I'm forced to take to succeed in these missions. Marcus et al., to me, seem like they would err on the side of trinksters and stealthy hackers, not mass-murderers, but trying to play the game in a stealthy manner became somewhat frustrating. Aiden, on the other hand, had the kind of personality to do whatever it took to get the mission done, so it made sense for him to use his gun if he had to. This disparity of tone and game-play bothered me a little, but otherwise, I enjoyed my time with Watch Dogs 2.

The developers of SUPERHOT basically took the Matrix and turned it into an action puzzle game. The game-play centers around employing action movie stunts as mechanics to solve combat puzzles. As a result, on the surface SUPERHOT appears to be a cyberpunk Max Payne, but since time only moves when your character moves, you have the ability to plan out your strategy, i.e. how to string together a series of cool-looking moves to take out all your enemies. SUPERHOT reminds me of sitting in a classroom or walking along the street wondering, "How would Ideal with a mugger or a masked gunman if they tried to jump me right now?"

Ultimately, SUPERHOT is just really freaking cool.

INSIDE presents a grim, subtly-told story with a dark yet beautiful aesthetic. Playdead wholeheartedly embraces the "show, don't tell" philosophy of narration, which is not something many developers even attempt (or pull off if they do). Every lover of Indie games should play INSIDE, no question. That said, it is the epitome of the "darling Indie platformer", so I personally was not blown away the way some others were. The puzzle solving is what you'd expect, clever, but not frustrating, and the experience is mostly linear. This is very much LIMBO 2, so if you've played the previous title, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Nevertheless, it's a solid game.

While being stranded on an abandoned spaceship isn't exactly an original plot, interacting with the spaceship's AI through text is a novel and intriguing problem-solving mechanic. For once, I was able to pose my own line of questioning instead of relying on the game's writer to present me with the dialog option I wanted, and I loved the feeling of agency and allowance for creativity that this game-play element afforded me. I am hoping we get to see the ideas in Event[0] expanded upon for even deeper experiences in the future.

I hate this game for breathing life back into my cold, black heart.

Clever puzzles, hilarious dialog, loveable and memorable characters, and an amazing co-op experience. My favorite game of 2011.

My personal favorite Indie game of 2011.

My favorite game of all time.