Reviews - MarBronx

30 years after, Doom remains as a staple and a mayor influence of first person shooters, just like at the time of its launch. It was the first modern proposal of a conception of shooter where the player embodies the main character, and with a simple yet effective design provided many players an addictive game to be played for hours on end. Although it's a classic, it has some flaws in terms of gameplay that put it away of the top place of all FPS games.

Even when graphics feel dated for today standards, the developers figured out ingeniously how to give the 3d effect in a 2d game. The color palette is not very diverse, but it achieves high contrast and gives the atmosphere of an unknown and dangerous place full of strange creatures, blended with high technology facilities and dark underground environments. Characters have a simple but effective design, and the animations feel right despite the tecnical limitations of the era.

Building up tension in a psychological horror game is difficult, because the less interesting moments in setting up the plot must be offset with good ambience and gameplay. Silent Hill is a known staple in this feature. It is clear that White Night draws a lot of references from Silent Hill and games like the Penumbra series, and though is a noticeable good first try at modding, it fails greatly at delivering what is expected in this kind of genre. While the ambience is dark, mostly well designed and achieves the goal of an uncomfortable feeling for the player, voice acting and music is mediocre, story is confusing, and (possibly the worst offender) gameplay is tremendously tedious, artificially long and with unnecessary complex puzzles.

As for the ambience, the most remarkable feature is the use of assets from Penumbra, distancing the mod from the Amnesia-like environment and giving it an identity of its own. Mental institutions are a bit of a cliché in survival horror, but the transition is fluid between the hospital, the street, the sewers, more enlighted areas, more gloomy and surreal areas and the places shown in multiple cutscenes. One of the new additions is the flashlight, and while its lighting doesn't ruin the sense of defencelessness, the modelling of the holding hand is horrible, because it is much like a deformed zombie hand and holds the flashlight in an awkward position. Another letdown that can be seen in a few places is the mosaic texturing in wide areas, which gives the impression of lazy design. As for music, while most of it is ambiental and generally fits the environment and the feeling of tension, it's not outstanding and in some cases listening it in loop can be an annoyance. The exception is the piano melody from the phonograph: a fine, memorable and iconic tune.

Paradoxically, the plot is the strongest point of the game and one of the least polished features. I remark its non-linear narrative and the fragmentary story that has to be reconstructed by pieces, but the fact that each piece of detail is as obscure as the previous one, it gives a sense of confusion that can easily lead to weariness. I don't know if symbolisms are overly enigmatic or a simple story is told in an unnecessary intricated way, but the concept of the illusion of reality doesn't seem too immersive in White Night. Plot is supported heavily by scripted cutscenes, but most are confusing and the voice acting feels so weak that it doesn't build momentum either. There is a clear and crucial plot twist around the half of the game that is well settled, but from this point on the climax doesn't feel like one and the end is left unresolved. In sum, the structure of the plot is interesting and was a good choice, but isn't carried out well at all.

Though it has some innovations in gameplay, this is definitely the weakest aspect of White Night. It has some upsides though. It must be recognized the inclusion of new forms of lighting. Flashlight is more versatile than an oil lamp and there are plenty of batteries scattered, so the game doesn't become a chore list. Lightbulbs are an innovative idea for replacing tinderboxes, but unfortunately it's underdeveloped since there are few places where those are needed. Puzzles are more hit than miss: most of them are adequately challenging, but a few are impossible to overlook since they are easy but tedious or so unintuitive that you either have to check a guide (killing all the challenge) or spend a long time figuring it out, thus becoming boring. Supposedly White Night is not a horror game, but it has a few jump scares and long sections of tension that have you in the tip of your toes. However, from the half of the game on, fear fades away and long corridors of boredom are plentiful. Without music, enemies or ambience, the game feels ever more like a walking simulator. Along with the annoying puzzles, White Night flops harder the close it is to the end.

As it happens with overrated mods, White Night is popular for a good reason: it is an incredible develop with so little experience and in so little time (only 10 months). However, this doesn't have to conceal that, in the cold light of day, it is a mod that have many perfectible shortcomings that are evident, but doesn't imply that playing it isn't enjoyable.

Several survival horror games limit the survival component to the core idea of "kill or be killed". Players assume that the only way to endure a hostile and terrifying environment is with the help of a weapon, and from that point on, it all revolves around how big is the next unlocked weapon. In a time when survival horror games and action movies repeat more this proven formula, Amnesia: The Dark Descent returns to its roots and immerses us in the psychological horror of a vulnerable protagonist, with no option to fight back, being its role solely of a prey desperately trying to buy as much time as possible to escape. This gameplay principle is combined with an eerie and desolate ambience, taking us through 19th-century castles, mysterious North African crypts, sewer systems, morgues, prisons and gory cult locations, intertwining fiction and reality in an almost literary narrative. Gameplay has simple rules, but its difficulty stems in part from the continuous tension of being hunted by enemies, which can be particularly frustrating on higher difficulties. Nevertheless, overall, it delivers what it promises.

The ambience is varied but imbued with a sense of claustrophobia, where darkness plays a key role. Most places can't be well navigated without an oil lamp, and the sounds of the surroundings, accompanied by unsettling but masterfully created musical cues, serve as sources of both orientation and anxiety. One of the strong points of Amnesia TDD is the high level of interaction with multiple objects, some of which are carefully designed and full of historic symbolisms or features that contribute to the plot. Enemy models are grotesque, intended not for a thourough appreciation but for a repulsion that keep the player at a distance. For the majority of the game, the transitions between backgrounds are fluid and can captivate curious players for many hours.

Opinions about the plot are mixed. Some think it fails to engage the player given how confusing it is, while others think that, although good, it fails to build momentum. For me, the story delivers as well as I expected for a solo horror game. Full of puzzles, mysteries and sudden revelations, the story has a non-linear narrative that gradually unfolds through scattered notes written by the protagonist, showcasing amazing storytelling and depth of emotion. It feels like reading pages from a book written by a troubled individual, filled with fears, regrets and desires for revenge that push him to the brink of madness. On top of that, within the game files there are fascinating short stories that greatly contribute to a broader understanding of the plot and can be of interest for many hours.

The gameplay is the most distinguishing feature of Amnesia TDD and, in general, of most titles of Frictional Games. A defenseless protagonist is thrust into a world of horrors without weapons and limited lighting, and must navigate carefully avoiding vicious and relentless enemies that act as predators. It is as simple as that. However, there is a mechanic that directly impacts survival and relates to the psychology of the protagonist as the narrator of his story: sanity. The lower your sanity, the more distorted the environment becomes, the more frightened is the protagonist and the higher the chances of being spotted and killed by enemies. Preserving sanity requires juggling between staying in well-lit areas, keeping a safe distance from enemies and solving challenging but not overly difficult puzzles. While innovative and interesting for casual players, the sanity mechanic can easily become frustrating in hard mode, considering that when sanity drops to zero the character dies and you have to restart from a way earlier point in the game. Another aspect that could be improved is the occasional awkward interaction with obstacles and player movement, leading to small mistakes that feel clunky and often result in death. This, coupled with the crucial need for tinderboxes in hard mode, can make the game feel like a chore, artificially difficult, annoying and almost impossible to progress without a guide (which, of course, removes all the immersion and challenge from the game). However, it's worth noting the potential for replayability through the DLC Justine (which has a short but interesting story) and the custom stories that open up a world of player-made possibilites and are as easily moddables as some big gaming titles like Half-Life.

Amnesia TDD is definitely not a game for everyone, considering how scary it can be or how dull it may be perceived if one endures the horror elements. However, I think it brings a breath of fresh air to the increasingly hackneyed genre of survival horror games with its evocative ambience, distinctive storytelling and challenging gameplay.

gud

While not a pioneer in its genre, Runescape stands as one of the oldest MMORPGs in the gaming industry. Worth of praise is how it has lasted for 20+ years starting in hands of 3 ingenious developers and brothers in the garage of their house while today is part of a big video game company with multinational reach. Its story is packed with highs and downs, always containing a lesson for developers of similar kinds of games. It has moments of great success, with newly content releases on a daily basis, a very established RPG identity and an active concurrent playerbase in the order of hundred of thousands. It has also moments of steady decadence, with a flow of releases that raise suspicions of maintenance mode, a relentless community backlash for its focus on predatory microtransactions and buggy content that has lasted for years and the lowest figures of concurrent players in its history (worth of thousands, and even having less than 10 active players in a single world). Is also a game notably famous for its nostalgia hook, that has shifted from a very social gameplay combined with a constant grind to a very individual playstyle with focus on efficiency and min-maxing, but very active in its niches.

As a player that have started playing 17+ years ago totalling more than 10.000 hours of play time across 3 main accounts (not even considering the play time of about a dozen of disposable characters), I think I have a pretty solid stance of how Runescape can be reviewed.

Imagine a mashup between Half-Life and B horror films. Then we got the acclaimed HL mod, They Hunger. Now imagine a mashup between Half-Life 2 and B horror films. On paper, the core idea of No More Room in Hell (NMRiH) is not new, but the results are spectacular and gives a wave of freshness to the declining zombie survival horror gaming. NMRiH is a HL2 mod so thoroughly developed that it gained the status of a standalone game and has been well received among the zombie fanbase. Its smart and unforgiving gameplay, gloomy ambience that puts you on constant alert, well-fitting soundtrack and non-linear narrative packed with cultural references do justice to the survival element that is defining of the post-apocalyptic survival horror genre and its cultural productions.

The dark ambience is the first aspect that deserves recognition. Faithful to the genre, NMRiH provides us with urban and rural setups filled with darkness, tense ambient sounds and music charged with sorrow and despair. Its coherence with a difficult gameplay that implies a lot of risky life-or-death decisions is remarkable.

There's a bunch of official maps that draw a lot of references and pay homage to B films, horror movies and/or post-apocalyptic media productions: George Romero's first zombie horror trilogy, American Psycho, Cabin Fever, Friday the 13th, El Mariachi, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead 2004 remake, The Walking Dead... the list goes on and on. Maybe they went a little overboard with the homages, reaching even the titles of the achievements/trophies, but that is a matter of taste. If this isn't enough, there are other community-made maps that, in general, preserve the dark ambience of the official maps.

Cultural references are also an interesting part of the plot. NMRiH has its background story about the origin of the outbreak, for which I do not care much, but each map has a prologue that provides a background narrative for the player and intertwines with the type of gameplay. It is this narrative that gives sense to the objectives the player has to overcome and/or the way of escape at the map's climax. Even when the theme of a city in chaos, a government overwhelmed with the situation, and people escaping in groups while leaving many dear ones behind is a bit of a cliché in the genre, I believe it is a defining representation of the conflict from which survival horror arises.

Gameplay in NMRiH, despite its drawbacks, takes all the awards. Player's movement takes a lot from the HL series, but it is somewhat slower and clumsy on purpose. Much like a real person full of fear, the character has its actions limited by a slow backpedal and quickly depleting stamina, which adds to the difficulty and sense of survival. Even when weapons are varied (not only guns but also melee weapons, with their varied base damage and stamina depletion), ammo is scarce and inventory space is limited. Each weapon and healing object takes different amounts of space from the inventory, which favors diversity in playstyle as well as strategic thinking on what to take and leave, which is also essential from a multiplayer-based perspective. From my point of view, NMRiH is a game that requires a risk-based approach, good planning and, most of all, patience. Sometimes it's a better strategy to pick a few zombies to kill and run past the rest. In this sense, the use of bashing action is a skill that requires refining the more you play and the higher the difficulty, especially on solo. Because of all this, the game can be unforgiving to new or casual players alike, leading to frustrating experiences (although casual mode does exist for those who are not much into a challenge).

Another element of gameplay that gives it dynamism is the two types of maps that determine different types of gameplay: objective and survival. Each one is challenging in its own way: objective mode makes the player follow a list of tasks that take them to different places on the map, some of them difficult to reach or so dark that make you wonder from which corner a vicious zombie will come. Survival mode can be a bit lackluster and tedious compared to other games with this feature, but the different classes of zombies (shamblers, runners, children and even turned zombies from your own team) add a layer of challenge to the mission of standing your ground. Both game modes are clearly designed to make the most out of the multiplayer gameplay, but public servers can be a bit of a hassle when they are crowded with novice players who don't know how to play and take all the ammunition and healing objects, reducing the chance of survival for the team.

NMriH is a game that poses a challenge to hardcore players or can be a fun experience to play casually with friends. Stylistically, the game also has its attractiveness of an old-school zombie survival shooter. However, it has to be noted that, despite its replayability, NMRiH can be monotonous or frustrating as hell.

Serious Sam: The First Encounter (TFE) is indeed a classic FPS and arguably a must-play for everyone who loves this genre of games. However, even when compared to contemporary or older FPS, Serious Sam: TFE doesn't shine due to its below-average graphics and AI, absurd and uninteresting narrative and repetitive gameplay that can get old real fast.

The Egyptian landscapes are a good choice, and although the graphics may not be the best for a 2000s game, they definitely contribute to the ambience. Player characters are varied and you can customize several things like your crosshair and your name, which comes in handy for multiplayer (perhaps the best thing this game has to offer). However, enemies' models make little sense, ranging from decapitated humans to big four-armed demon-like creatures. They aren't particularly visually appealing by start-of-the-century standards, although they are tolerable. The soundtrack deserves a little mention, as it is packed with epicness that immerses you in an ambience that blends Egyptian features with a killing spree-style gameplay.

As for the story, the more I try to I understand it, the less sense it makes. You are supposedly an explorer looking for treasure in an ancient Egyptian temple, but all of a sudden you encounter strange, unfitting creatures and even extraterrestrial beings. Each step in the story makes less sense than the previous one. It's a shame, because I can see effort in creating a complex and interesting story, but at the end of the day I couldn't care less about it.

The gameplay is dynamic and, generally speaking, meets the minimum standards of every FPS. However, the worst thing about Serious Sam: lies in its poorly executed enemy spawning. Maybe the whole point of this game is to explore the well-designed maps and suddenly be ambushed, but it isn't enjoyable when you're in a large open area and enemies come from all sides (not when you're alone, even less in higher difficulties). The game systematically tries to make you die in absurd ways, throwing big enemies at you so you have a bad time trying to take them down. You end up getting used to being ambushed around every corner, but that doesn't make it more tolerable.

Also, sometimes the AI is buggy, so it isn't uncommon to find small enemies running to the walls and big enemies standing still even when you're nearby. Even when weird designed NPCs doesn't necessarily clash with the Egyptian and desert environment, these gameplay problems crucially affect how much can the game be enjoyed.

Classic status of a game doesn't mean is untouchable and it's exempt from criticism, and Serious Sam: TFE is proof of that. I can't not recommend it though, because it can be fun if you're in the mood for mindlessly killing things with plenty of weapons, especially if you want to do it with company. Just be aware that there are many FPS that outshine this one in every sense.

The name of the game in Halfquake is a concept that pervades both the storyline and gameplay: sadism. In other words, to torture the player with randomly appearing enemies, limited ammo, scarce health packs, trial-and-error movement puzzles and taunting voice-over antagonists. While the mod design isn't as bad as some other Half-Life mods, it is kinda lackluster and fails to leave a lasting impression. Still, it can be fun because of its unique style of gameplay, which is coherent with the narrative.

Modelling is rather simplistic, because enemies are just low-quality reskins of HL's. However, certain areas have an original ambience that portrays quite well a large facility dedicated to sadistic practices. It somewhat reminds me of the institutional atmosphere intertwined with the gameplay and story of Portal. Although symbols and textures aren't refined, the background achieves to transmit this ambience.

The story is original and, as I mentioned, coherently tied to the gameplay. It constantly pushes the player to act, die and repeat the cycle, generating a relatable sense of uneasiness with the victim-protagonist. Voice acting can be a bit dull, which detracts from the mood, but the narrative manages to remain engaging so the mod doesn't become boring too quickly. Also, the mod is filled with symbolism that is present all around, adding a nice touch.

Gameplay is fast-paced and not particularly hard. In fact, the mod is rather short, but it can be artificially extended through trial and error and by taking paths to secret places. Enemies are easy to defeat and battles are too simple, although the final boss requires a unique fighting style and strategy. Movement puzzles are the best this mod can offer, but they can also become annoying quite easily. One needs to be persistent and resilient to reach the end and discover what happens to our protagonist.

In conclusion, Halfquake may not be one of the best HL mods from around, but it's certainly worth a try, especially considering is the first part of a trilogy, Muddasheep's magnum opus. If you are into trial and error mechanics and appreciate the old-school vibe of Half-Life mods, it's highly unlikely that you'll dislike this mod.

When I thought Killing Floor was already good enough with their simple and engaging features, challenging difficulty and variety of weapons, I was introduced to Killing Floor 2. I have to admit that at first I wasn't comfortable with the major conversion that this sequel brought, but I slowly learned to appreciate it for its strong team-based multiplayer gameplay, well-crafted maps, new bosses with unique weak points that require specific strategies, the dynamic perk system and the constantly updated arsenal of weapons.

Graphics are the obvious major upgrade, and they don't disappoint at all. Maps, models, weapon skins, bosses and even the trader feel refreshing enough so one might think it's a completely different game. Characters' voices in some cases remain the same as in KF1, but they now have their own face, body and personality. Additionally, there are many more new characters, and they are available for free, which I greatly appreciate because most DLCs in this game (although this has recently changed and sparked disputes among the community) are cosmetic. So, the trend seen in most games towards pay-to-win is different in KF2.

Incredibly, the weird plot of KF1 is somewhat more deeply developed in this sequel, which support the changes in characters and maps. For example, some map settings are related to the inclusion of a new bosses, whether it's because of the objective or simply the landscape. The coherence between all these factors makes the game present a well-rounded proposition.

The gameplay is the most benefited from all the upgrades, to the point that it is completely different from the prequel. Firstly, player movement is more dynamic, with the addition of sprinting and parrying features. There's also the addition of new perks and a tactical system of abilities, allowing you to improve the strength of your chosen perk or opt for flexibility instead. In third place, there are new zeds that add a layer of difficulty to each wave, demanding new strategies to eliminate them without casualties, especially on higher difficulty levels. All of this, along with the new maps and character customizations, revitalizes the survival component of the game while giving a lot of versatility. There's also the rework of old map modes like objective and the addition of new ones like VS and weekly, which makes the experience less repetitive.

In summary, KF2 offers a lot of new features for both veteran and new players, which may appear to them as an "easier" version of KF1. Nonetheless, it fulfills all expectations: you will find loads of zeds, achieve loads of kills and earn loads of dosh. Perhaps the only drawback is the system requirements, so don't expect this to run on your PC if you barely can run KF1, as it demands a lot more in terms of graphics and processing power.