OnlySP's Reviews
Do you want to know what Superhot is? It's pure mind-control and a little bit of the ol' ultra-violence packaged into an addictive game mechanic. It's, well, super-hot.
Set in a rural post-societal America, The Flame in the Flood is one part Noah's Ark, one part Oregon Trail, and two parts grit and determination.
It's recommend that you level up your survivor skill tree to 12 before beginning expansion – with good reason. The infected roam freely in the pastures, your enemies have guns, and there are fewer places to hide. I ignored this recommendation and started with a survival level of 5. It's not impossible to start the story this way, but be prepared to die. A lot.
The beauty of The Witness is that the puzzles transcend language itself. They pull you through a broad range of emotions – anguish, despair, desperation – but, once you finally solve that seemingly impossible puzzle, you can raise your fists in the air, victorious, and maybe taunt the game a little bit.
For a game that draws on the essence of a 80s or 90s horror flick, it takes many of the identifying tropes and defenestrates them.
Misery loves company. And many companies are loving misery these days. Two of the most famous pieces of media currently, Game of Thrones and the Walking Dead, originate in literature, both have adventure game series created by Telltale Games, and both exemplify this line of thinking. They each delight in making their fanbases miserable. In the books (graphic novels) and on the television shows, your favorite families are torn apart and scattered across the world, and your favorite characters are murdered, sometimes seemingly on a whim.
This all sounds like a lot of harping on a series that I feel has been nearly brilliant up to this point, and one that I still recommend highly despite my feelings about its closing presentation. I recognize that not only is life strange, but so are expectations. Undoubtedly this will not meet some people's. "Polarized" indeed.
It comes down to what you're looking for in a game. If you enjoy challenge, I think you'll find the game to have that for you at times. It rewards exploration with powers and life upgrades, but punishes it with a singular checkpoint system. It's short in length, depending on your skill set, or recognition of possible patterns in boss fights. Their use of lore is appropriate and measured, but again, being a short experience, most players will want more of it. The visual style is an impressive feat from a small team, but for my tastes needed some additional refinement. But that strong Icelandic voice over is all win.