The Partisan Spy's Reviews
You are a 6 months old sugar glider living an adventure in a post-apocalyptic world. Run, climb, hide, fight, glide… You will have to do everything to survive being mid of the food chain. AWAY has 2 game modes: STORY and EXPLORATION. While on Story mode there is a chain of quests to complete, on Exploration mode, you fly around possessing different creatures and exploring the map. There is a clear effort to make players feel they are in a National Geographic nature documentary. The music, narrator, and written script resemble something you would watch on the TV. But, the CONSTANT BUGS, glitches, and performances issues won’t let you “transcend” from the state of “this is just a game”.
Waking is a gamified SELF-REFLECTION EXERCISE, that has 2 big parts: gameplay and meditation. Being the main character of the story, you will fight your way out of a coma by killing mobs and rebuilding memories. You will run, pick-up objects, aim, shoot, and continuously select different spells to fight. As objectives are completed, a voice asks you to CLOSE YOUR EYES and invites you to travel deeply into YOUR PERSONAL MEMORIES. Waking is not a traditional action-adventure gaming experience. To experience the game as it is meant to be you need to be opened to a self-reflection experience.
Zombieland: Double Tap - Road Trip is BASIC. The character carries one gun and one throwable item, which can be swapped by other weapons found along the way. The entire gameplay is AIM and SHOOT at zombies, there is no change to that. The storyline has 10 missions and one boss in the middle of the trip. Added to that, there are 5 side missions and 3 Horde waves scenarios. As story missions are completed, the game gives the option to repeat it in higher difficulty. The entire game can be completed in 8 to 15 hours, including all achievements.
A COMMON FPS game with impressive graphics, that's Wolfenstein: Youngblood. It brings nothing new to the game genre, something expected from the franchise that carries the title "grandfather of 3D shooters". The game is not an open world, neither a mission-based. It's an "OPEN MISSION WORLD". You can travel around the city blocks as you wish but there is no reason to explore as you will only find the same dynamics, Nazi soldiers to kill. PC players: before buying the game make sure you have a top tier PC or patience to custom the graphics settings.
You need to love shooting, shooting and shooting. That's the game. The only “new” thing it brings to the TPS scene is the ZOMBIE SWARM. Every other element of the game can be found in previous shooting games.
Lost in Random (LR) is a blend of things. It blends a fairy tale into a game. As the game is played, a narrator tells us the story of Even and Dicey, a magical dice, to save her sister from an evil Queen. It blends game genres as you may have never seen. The combat system is a mixture of ACTION and CARD AND BOARD. When fighting enemies, it feels like being in an action game and when building a deck or using cards, it feels like playing a card and board game. Combat can be divided into 3 stages: collect crystals, throw Dicey to pick cards, and fight with the powers cards give you. As hard as can be to explain, it is really easy to understand while playing and you will have 7 game levels and various side missions to get good at it.
Biomuntant is an action adventure game with complete RPG character customization. THE GAME STARTS IN AN EXTREMELY SLOW RHYTHM, the first hours are dedicated to its storytelling and tutorial. After that, you will fight, travel and loot to complete a variety of different quests to save what’s left of the world. Like most open-world games, there is a bunch of things to do, but what most stand-out about the gameplay is HOW EASY BIOMUTANT IS. Almost every combat can be won by kiting enemies around. Puzzles are so simple that can become repetitive for some players. All bosses can be easily beaten on the first or second try. THE LACK OF CHALLENGE can influence how deep you go into the RPG portion of the game. As things “run so smoothly” the need to build, optimize and learn how to better play your character becomes secondary. This doesn’t mean the game can’t be fun to play. Just be sure that you are the kind of player that enjoys exploring, collecting things, and completing lists of objectives.
Hood: Outlaw & Legends (Hood) is a team-based third-person shooter game in which two teams of 4 outlaws compete to be the first to extract the chest. NPCs are responsible for protecting the chest, you can sneak around them or fight your way in. TO EXTRACT THE CHEST you got to do 4 things: steal the vault key, open the vault, carry the chest to an extraction point, and winch! Between those simple tasks, there will be a lot of blood spilling, arrows flying, and alarms. Find the outlaw that best fits your gameplay style and level him up to unlock perks, weapons, and clothing. No need to say, teamwork and good communication are crucial for victory. BIG DISCLAIMER: Hood feels more like an Early Access game than a full release. It has only 4 outlaws to pick from, 1 game mode, some crazy bugs, and no ranking system, something essential to any multiplayer competitive game. As it has been marketed as a full-release game, it would be smart to set your expectations to an Early Access version instead.
Quantum League (QL) is a 1v1 and 2v2 shooter arena with a twist: TIME LOOP. Every ranked match has 3 rounds and each round has 3 loops. What you do in the first loop will automatically repeat itself in the next 2 loops. So if you get killed in the first loop, you can change the outcome on the second or third loop. In other words, at the end of every round, there will be 3 of you at the arena, one that you control and 2 repeating what you’ve done previously. Who wins 3 rounds first, wins the match. To be successful on QL you need to master 3 main skills: SHOOTING, STRATEGY THINKING, and BUNNY HOPPING.
Little Nightmares 2 is a spooky puzzle adventure game. The sound and graphics build an apprehensive atmosphere and GETTING SCARED is a possibility that’s always there. You play as Mono and have an AI friend called Six. Together, you will solve puzzles, escape from morbid creatures, kill some of them, and for completionist gamers, there are hats, souls, and achievements to collect. Puzzles’ difficulty varies from easy to hard, to beat the game you need to complete all 5 chapters of the story. To have the best gameplay experience, HEADPHONES ARE A MUST to fully immerse in that dark world.
The hype CD Projekt RED built around CP2077 is proportional to the gaming community deception. We would be fine and supportive if THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STATE of the game was told. 8 years of waiting, no one left. 3 major release delays, no one left. Multiplayer being pushed to 2021, no one left. The choice of not setting expectations right makes CP2077 one of the MOST FRUSTRATING GAMEPLAY EXPERIENCES a player can have.
Disintegration is a shooting game with some RTS gameplay mechanics. It has 12 campaign missions and 3 PVP game modes (5v5) with various cosmetics options. Most of the gameplay you will be shooting enemies, targeting crews' special attacks, and collecting loot boxes. You play as a GRAVCYCLE (flying hover motorcycle) PILOT that fights and commands a ground crew. The "FLYING" DEFINES a lot of the gameplay experience. It is required a good view distance to manage the crew, which reminds the viewing perspective of an RTS game. Being far away from combat, naturally makes it LESS INTENSE than an FPS game. And... as there is an FPS character and vehicle to control, crew mechanics can't be as complex as RTS games.
Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory (P:HM) is a 3D top-down camera game that can be played with a controller or POINT & CLICK actions. During the entire game, you have control of your character and, on missions, of other 3 teammates, each one with a different set of skills. The game happens around the Friend Computer, responsible for assigning the main missions. You will interact, shot and choose what to say to NPCs. To feel involved with the game a fair amount of READING is necessary. P:HM has much more of ACTION than of RPG as you can play the game by only mastering its mechanics. Even though the RPG elements can make missions easier, they have low influence on the gameplay results.
As obvious as may sound, it’s another Need For Speed (NFS) game: you DRIVE, BUILD and CUSTOMIZE awesome cars. NFS Heat is divided into 2 modes: Day and Night. The first mode rewards money and the second reputation, XP for character levels. The NIGHT MODE carries the function that gives the game name. HEAT is a "wanted system" as you have in games like GTA. It goes from 0 to 5 and the higher you get, more cops you will attract and more XP will be rewarded. Bigger the risk, bigger the reward. Your “taste” for the game genre is key to set your expectations correctly as 100% of the gameplay you will be driving or setting-up a car. The set of storyline missions is short, but there are tones of things to do at NFS Heat (collectibles, race modes, time trials, jumps, drifting...).
First of all, keep these two things in mind: Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an ONLINE game (even in PVE mode) and it brings a MEDLEY of almost every feature seen on the shooting genre. The game maintains the basis of the previous title (Wildlands): tactical shooter in an open world and brings tones of features. While doing the basics (shoot, collect, craft, manage inventory), you will also level character, class, gear, weapons, skill tree, reward system and much more. The game can be an endless adventure for some or OVERWHELMING for others. There are several SMALL BUGS that don't interfere with the gameplay but can become annoying after a few hours.
SHOOT, LOOT and MANAGE inventory/character. These are the 3 main things you will do in Borderlands 3, no need to say the shooting is the big one. If you have any resistance to one of these elements, this may not be your game. The first hours of Borderlands 3 felt like playing Borderlands 2 on a different map. As game progress and “NEW” elements are introduced to the gameplay the feeling fades away a bit. But every “new” element in the game is not new to the FPS genre. Borderlands franchise carries this expectation and is not fulfilled in its third title. Balance your expectations about that and you will have similar fun you had with Borderlands 1 and 2.
You've watched it, now you can be the LEAD of the story. Stranger Things 3: The Game (ST3) is based on the new season of the show. If you still hadn't had enough, the game can help extend your hype feeling. Obvious or not, ST3 was developed for fans, so being a fan is an influence factor on players experience. On the practical side, PC mechanics are different from Console versions. Game on PC is based on POINT & CLICK which influences gameplay experience and difficulty.
The Sinking City (TSC) is an invitation to read, listen and be part of a STORY. Even though it's classified as an Action-Adventure, most of the game is about reading and listening to the story. All other game mechanics (character, combat, npcs, missions, etc...) can be found in other games made in a similar or better way. To play TSC, you need to like a SLOWER game pace and see pleasure in searching for things at your screen.
Older ones will be nostalgic about it, younger ones will see it as an "old-new" way. Some will even risk saying it is a remastered version of GTA 1 & 2. The fact is, 20 years have passed and GTA 2 has become a CASUAL GAME. As it is American Fugitive. It’s an extremely EASY game that allows you to chill, lay back and play with the measure of violence it requires. Set expectations correctly, and you will have a good time.
11 abilities, 11 weapons and 13 vehicles. A shooting game with hundreds of POSSIBILITIES on how to play it. You can play the entire game with a rifle and a shotgun or you can mix it all up and have a BLAST with crazy combos. Hard mode for veteran players is easy. If you love genre and mode, GO INSANE on this game. It rewards killing and fast pace advance (feltrite collection). Play it with RAGE and live up to its name!