StingingVelvet's reviews on GOG.com

Created on 15 June, 2024 01:17

Great throwback with its own dark charm

It's nice to have a game with beautiful retro art from a time that doesn't get honored much (think mid-series Ultima) that ditches all the clunky user interface problems those games have. Almost everything in this game feels slick, easy to do and satisfying. Big crits that wipe out an enemy are my favorite, but everything feels fun and snappy. It's Baldur's Gate 3 with Ultima graphics, basically. The mood is dark and ominous, and while cliche the story is written very well. The music is a special highlight, it can get repetitive across 30 hours but it fits the game perfectly and works really well. There are a few problems that prevent me from giving it 5 stars however. Mages felt extremely weak at launch, and while a patch has increased their damage another core problem remains. You get very little mana (attunement here) and no cantrips, so you spend most of your time as a mage clicking skip turn (defend) until it makes sense to use what little mana you have between rests. Later in the game you'll have tons of resources and this is less of an issue, but early on you feel like you're just standing there. The game also has a very Gothic/Piranha Bytes problem where the first section is extremely difficult (on hard anyway) while soon after you'll be so powerful nothing ever challenges you again. The skill trees and such are also pretty simplistic, so at some point you really start getting a little bored without a challenge or character build decisions to make. The randoom loot can also cause issues, as my 2-handed weapon master never got a better weapon after that start in 30 hours of gameplay. All in all though the game is great, if it sounds up your alley then I would buy it without hesitation.

6 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 11 October, 2023 00:31

More Cyberpunk, Which is Good!

The media reports about this being some kind of redemption or transformative addition kind of baffle me. This is more Cyberpunk 2077, no more and no less. Yes the 2.0 patch made some good tweaks to the game's mechanics, and yes Phantom Liberty has perhaps more story choices and better game/story balance. However at the end of the day 95% of the game experience is the same. Which is good! Good for me anyway, as I love the game. Deus Ex style infiltration missions in a gorgeous world with solid combat feel and great storytelling? Sign me the **** up! I understand the flaws though... a lack of depth to the open world, the mostly story light gigs, the forced combat sections even if you make a stealth or netrunner build... but I love the game despite these things. If it wasn't your thing at launch though I really doubt it will be your thing now.

8 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 11 September, 2023 22:57

The "Elder Scrolls Oblivion" of CRPGs

Almost 20 years ago now a game called The Elder Scrolls III: Oblivion" came out and changed the action RPG genre forever. It solidified the Western style RPG as a console friendly genre, and simplified their mechanics and writing enough for much more mainstream and casual players to enjoy. It is not a bad game at all, it's perfectly fine, but I kinda hated it for what it did to the genre. Baldur's Gate 3 is that game for the CRPG genre, or tactical RPG. Whatever you want to call them. If Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous's mechanics are an algebra problem then BG3's are "1 + 1 = 2." If Pillars of Eternity's writing is Stephen King then BG3's is 50 Shades of Grey. Which is fine! The game is fine! I've put almost 200 hours into it because I want to finish it and it's as long as a winter in Antarctica. The problem isn't the game being bad, the problem is it is being praised as the best thing since sliced bread (as Oblivion was) and it will change the genre forever. I can't help but be worried what that will mean.

40 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 18 July, 2023 07:23

Second Half Blues

Think "small team made a Fallout clone but ran out of money and time halfway through" and you have Encased. It starts well, and its writing is surprisingly solid for what I assume are not native speakers. However after a relatively good act one the game kinda fizzles and wears out its welcome. Act one sets up a cool world to explore and story ideas to expand on, but you never quite get there. Cities you imagined would be complex end up being three empty houses and a boss's office. Factions and questlines you expected to go places give you a few errands to run and that's it. The big epic ending is a simple dungeon that ends in a text crawl, my final confrontation being against zombie type enemies I fought many times already. I respect that these guys shot for the moon on a pretty small budget. I wish they did something like Shadowrun Returns to ease into the genre, then maybe we would have gotten a Dragonfall. As it is though Encased opens well enough... not Fallout 1 standards but solid stuff... and then a rushed second half is so meh I rushed to the ending as fast as I could. For a CRPG addict though, it's worth playing. Not that many games like this exist.

40 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 13 April, 2023 08:16

Updated on 13 April, 2023 08:19

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Hearts of Stone

More Movie Than Gameplay

I generally like the ideas and plot in Hearts of Stone, but the bulk of the expansion is quests focused on talking and cinematics, not gameplay. The base Witcher 3 game already walks a fine line with feeling like a movie a lot of the time, and for me Hearts of Stone tipped it over onto the bad side of that coin. That said it's a good movie, with cool characters and locations. If you're fine with an interactive story focused questline then you'll like it more than me. I just like a little more gameplay in my games.

3 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 11 March, 2023 22:12

Updated on 11 March, 2023 22:20

The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition

Questionable changes, poor performance

First off I love Outer Worlds. It's smaller in scale than games like New Vegas and Fallout 4, but it is a nice game in that genre. If you enjoy those games and haven't played this, you should. The DLC is great as well. The "Spacer's Choice Edition" however is a mixed bag. It does offer some significant visual improvements, notably in draw distance and overall crispness thanks to higher res textures and toned down post-processing. It also introduces Global Illumination, which can make for some stunning lighting at times. Unfortunately many of these changes alter the general look of the game enough that it kinda bothered me, and felt like too much of a revision. The lighting especially does things like turn a wild west style barber shop with bright purple walls and a striking blonde haired barber into a dark and moody room with a dark haired barber. Quite the swap, and every area is like this. The original game also still looks great, especially at the 4k ultra you can likely play it at now, so why change it? These questionable changes also come at a big cost. I can play the original Outer Worlds at native 4k on ultra settings and a locked 90fps nowadays, but the new version struggles to stay at 60fps even with some things turned down. It also has hitches because Unreal Engine 4 in DX12 mode is trash. So keep in mind that even if you 're more positive on the new look it runs much worse. All in all at this point in time I'd choose the original version for better performance (90fps is hard to give up once you get used to it). I'd also maybe choose it in 5-10 years because the art changes here are too severe IMO, and it doesn't look as it was designed to. So why buy this?

89 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 04 November, 2022 08:17

Half Great, Half Terrible

First off if you want to play a detective Cthulu game, immediately play The Sinking City. It is this same idea only executed ten times better. Okay, you played that. Should you also play this? Call of Cthulu is two games in one. There's a rather good (4 stars) adventure detective game where you talk to people, look for clues and uncover a subtle but frightening cult. Then there's the second game, a crappy and rushed linear stealth action experience that throws out all subtlety and has you running and hiding from monsters or clicking on people to kill them (2 stars). I don't know why they chose this route, but it's just going to annoy adventure gamers and no one else is interested in the first place. That said the story and presentation is good enough I struggled through the crappy parts to get to the good parts. Will you think the same? Depends on how much you like Cthulu stuff I'd guess, and how tolerant you are of flawed games.

17 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 14 August, 2022 07:04

Solid Boomshoot with Great Atmosphere

This game is pretty much what it says on the tin, a boomer shooter with cool Lovecraft atmosphere. If that sounds good to you, you'll sure enjoy it enough for a playthrough. It does have some negatives. There is no real feedback that you're being hit, so I very often died without even realizing I was in danger. The weapons are good but nothing really amazing or innovative and sort of lack "punch" outside of the shotgun. Having a revolver and not making it feel like a hand cannon is always a crime in shooters. Overall though these are minor complaints which knock the game down a star but don't prevent it from being fun and worth your time.

2 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 12 June, 2022 20:21

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Director’s Cut

5 star game, but bad version of it.

Deus Ex HR is a wonderful game. Not quite as good as the original, with some annoying Xbox 360 era aspects, but still a great game that lives up to its pedigree. Unfortunately like with Doom 3 GOG are only providing a lesser version of it here, making the DRM free archive aspect of it rather pointless. You'll always want to figure out how to play the "real" version. These deficiencies include: - Removal of gold filter without changing the design or textures to compensate. - Lessening the bloom without changing the design to compensate. - Removal of graphical effects to run on WiiU across all versions, like car reflections. - Addition of a silenced sniper rifle, which makes the crossbow pointless. - Addition of hacking devices, enough to make level 4 and 5 hacking upgrades pointless. - Poorly designed pre-order bonus mission that hinders act 3 pacing forced upon you. - Missing Link expansion designed as a standalone experience poorly integrated into act 3. - DLC money and upgrade points make you overpowered the whole game. Deus Ex HR is one of my favorite games of the 2010s. I would love a DRM free version of it to backup and own forever. Unfortunately GOG prevent this, as I will always want to play the original version available only on Steam. Please GOG, provide the original version as an extra.

50 gamers found this review helpful

Created on 10 June, 2022 21:54

Good ideas, low rent execution

I played this on Epic. The idea is great, a Deus Ex style game with sneaky werewolves in the World of Darkness setting. It's got evil corporations, cool powers, a mix of stealth and action, etc. etc. If that sounds amazing to you, you might enjoy it despite its flaws. The problem is not just that the budget is low. Lots of "janky" AA games surpass their origins and offer great gameplay (Elex for example). However this low budget is paired with a general lack of quality development, leading to a game with no heart or great gameplay to match its jank. At the end of the day you get a simple, low rent version of the genre in a cool setting. Maybe that's enough for you. It was enough for me for 10 or so hours, before I ditched it.

118 gamers found this review helpful

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