Recent reviews by Arthrex

Celeste is... a game. Yet at the same time it is more than a game. It's art, but at the same time it isn't. I think a definitiv attribute to give to it is 'unique'. Yes, there are many collectathons and jump 'n run games, but none are on the level of Celeste.

Story; While I cannot relate to the struggle that is portrait in the game directly, I can say without the shadow of a doubt that every person in the world faces struggles one way or another and Celeste, instead of glorifying them, shows this in a more natural way. The struggle of anxiety, the struggle of wanting to prove something to others, the struggle of mental health, the struggle of having someone close die. The game manages to catch those and more and show that facing those demons can result in surprising growth, but also that certain things are simply part of life and cannot be avoided. We just have to find ways to deal with it. I am willing to say that most people won't be able to get as much from the story as people capable of introspection.

Gameplay; The controls are snappy and there is a lot of depth to it, despite the basics being very mundane. With certain movement, usually called a demo-dash, the hitbox can be reduced by a few pixels which enables certain routes through screens which seem otherwise impossible. Something the devs could have fixed, but instead opted to incorporate it further by making it a valid option in later chapters by building in ways to actively use it. This depth of movement also introduces several ways to solve a screen without there being only one valid solution. When dying, it also never feels like getting bullshitted by RNG like in Soulsgames and even then it is nothing bad since every death doesn't cost a lot of time and instead helps to understanding the screen and the obstacle in front. Even if some people will say that the game is way too hard for them... Do you really know if you haven't even tried? Just like climbing a real mountain, this game is a challenge. The only difference is that it is as challenging as you want it to be thanks to in-game options to make it easier.

Artstyle and Music; Honestly, I am tired of all those AAA games chasing the peak in graphics with basically no redeeming quality. That's why I usually prefer a style that other games avoid and pixel style is one of my favorites for that. It's handcrafted and allows the game to shine in places that others try to hide from. The music goes hand-in-hand with this approach, being subtle in some places and hectic in others, always depending on what the situation tries to tell and needs to be.

All in all this is one of the best games made in recent history and totally worth full price. So much so that I gifted it to about 8 or so of my friends so they can experience Celeste as well.

The game has an interesting premise of being able to rewind time, in a sense, to solve the events that have transpired. Yet they use this incredible tool for a story that is not only confusing, but also relatively shallow to deliver a message that is just as stale, but the gameplay itself also suffers tremendously from it. The solution to fix this problem would have been to simply do an Ace Attorney style gameplay where the player has to solve several, like 5 or 6, different crimes through that technology. Sadly that isn't the case and even for a 50% discount I cannot recommend the game. Bugs and glitches not even included.

As a fan of Path of Exiles I was looking forward to the release of Early Access. Especially since the Settlers League is quite stale by now and a new campaign is more than needed. Yet.. This game does not deserve to be in Early Access. It's less than that. I wouldn't even call it a beta. It's a proof of concept Alpha with a big more graphical polish than other games in this state. I had a discussion with a friend today and I told him that even Ashes of Creation, a game still years away from a full release, is more polished in regards of gameplay than this game. It's a shame. It's a shame they let someone design a majority of the content who doesn't seem to know what people like about PoE and the ARPG genre.

Positives
- Removing skill sockets from gear and making them a separate thing
- Graphic looks nice
- Music is fitting for the areas
- Lore is actually easy to follow and to immerse in
- Technical performance is stable (for me)

Negatives
- Lack of loot (Hello Ruthless)
- Lack of resources to craft (Hello Ruthless)
- Lack of freedom to experiment with gems and supports (Hello Ruthless)
- Lack of defensive layers on the skill tree and on gear (Hello Ruthless)
- Lack of polish for enemies (White mobs hit harder than most bosses. Ground effects and chaos damage etc already in act 1 on the 3rd or so area)
- Dodge Roll doesn't do anything outside of avoiding some boss attacks
- Lack of mobility. (Hello Ruthless)
- Lack of interesting uniques
- Lack of meaningful ways to progress
- Losing loot in campaign when dying due to the whole instance soft-resetting
- No reward for picking up loot. (1 shard for 1 item. Good luck getting 10 rares for a regal)
- Overtuned modifiers like Siphon
- Lack of available Spirit to gain auras

In short, this game needs another 2 years minimum.

Age of Mythology is a game that was first released 22 years ago and served as a spin-off to Age of Empires, a franchise beloved by many players within the RTS genre. Now the game received a much needed love tap on the shoulder with a remake that stays extremely true to the original, but with a few little touch-ups here and there.

There are three campaigns in total currently, Fall of the Trident, The Golden Gift and The New Atlantis. They already announced that they will release the China part as well as a DLC later and a second DLC which is supposed to bring a completely new campaign. There is also the option for a custom campaign, which is currently grayed out for me, but it does indicate the possibility of player made content to be available later. Depending on skill and chosen difficulty, a mission takes roughly between 20 and 40 minutes, sometimes even longer depending on how often it has to be restarted.

The gameplay feels exactly the same as it did before, but with the difference that units behave slightly smarter than back in the days. You build up a base, recruit units, micro them in battle and counter the enemy units. Graphics and OST got improved, but nothing to write home about.

A good remake that deserves to be played.

One of the best games created in recent history. The attention to detail is phenomenal and the artstyle chosen will still look good in ten years. It runs perfectly fine and the devs aren't trying to milk the player for microtransactions or similar either.

I played through this game twice with two different friends who don't own the game, thanks to the devs allowing co-op with people that don't have it. The levels are diverse and there are a lot of references to other genres. The mini games and other gimmicks are fun to engage with, like trapping your friend in the box and making them suffer of being turned into an acorn.

The story itself is well-executed, albeit it does feel a tiny bit rushed due to the length of the game, yet still outshines most AAA productions commonly released nowadays. It has a bit of everything and makes for the perfect choice when it comes to picking up a cozy game to play with a friend.

I am not sure how this game has received so many upvotes, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, is it a piece of junk. I loved MGS 1. I adore MGS 3 and I even bought a PS3 back when for MGS 4, among other games. But this? This has nowhere near the production value of the previous games. The intro is SLOW as ♥♥♥♥, hitting reset checkpoint anywhere in the first 'tutorial' level puts you ALL THE WAY BACK to the first 3 days cutscene and the controls for controller (PS4 Dualshock) are BEYOND ATROCIOUS. This is a piece of garbage, truly.

This game is lacking in several departments compared to a game like Dying Light (The first one, as the second sucked ass). Not only is the gameplay loop rather lacking, something that becomes very clear rather early with zombies basically spawning right in the player's face, and most main missions simply being 'Go there. Once there, kill all zombies. Go somewhere else' rinse and repeat. Weapons lack any kind of feedback, melee combat feels VERY clunky and the maps are more than mediocre. Also please don't get me started at the bad dialog.

While the first game didn't have a fantastic story either, the second game's plot is among the worst I have seen in gaming history, even falling short compared to gamejam projects that had 2 weeks development time. It suddenly makes sense why the game took so long to develop as there are so many things wrong and no sane person would try to release it in such a state. Guess Dambuster doesn't have high quality standards, though. Certainly a studio to avoid in the future. ESPECIALLY after they already butchered Homefront: The Revolution.

I hope that CA goes bankcrupt so the managers lose their jobs. I further hope they will never find a job again in their future. I am sure the devs won't have much trouble finding something new in a studio that actually appreciates their creativity and provides them with the means to deliver.


Yes, I am that petty.

I love this game. I really do. I have spent so much time in the MP and the various mod servers it offered, I can't even count it anymore. Same goes for the SP. Yet, at the same time, it's one of the worst SP experiences when compared with more recent games (Can't say much about CoD in that regard, since I haven't bought any since MW2, lol).

So, what makes the experience that bad? Well, for one the completely and utterly aimbot-esque AI. (I play those games always on Veteran). It's not as bad as with ARMA, but it certainly gets close. What makes it even worse is the playerbias. 10 friendly AIs running around, not hitting ♥♥♥♥. The second you leave cover? All enemies focus fire on you. Then there's also the grenade spam. It's hilarious and sad how extreme it is. The end makes the infinitely spawning AI in certain missions, which basically forces the player to approach the objective instead of waiting for the enemies to rush to the player's position due to the bias it has. It gets especially bad when an objective is wide in the open. It's pure RNG to survive and just frustrating.

At the same time, when not playing on Veteran, this game gives one of the better experiences when it comes to stories in egos and it runs very smoothly on new systems as well. (Ryzen 5800x3D + AMD 6750 XT here.) It also doesn't look bad, despite it's age.

Hitting three PBs back to back to back just feels awesome. Achieving zen in this game is equal to what it might feel like to obtain ultra instinct. You don't think anymore, your body just reacts on instinct alone