Recent reviews by AllergicToDeath

Fun light novel type game, where Sonic cast does some Cluedo/Amoung Us roleplay in a futuristic train. You play as a dork, but I guess that's only fair.
The puzzles are only hard to solve because the mini-game associated with them can be tricky, otherwise the plot has only one actual twist.
The illustrations are lovely, the designs cute, the dialogue very in character. Everyone (except you lol) is endearing and charming in their own unique way!

Interesting puzzles, although they are not themselves philosophical, but much more in style of Portal, where you need to get to the other end of the puzzle area. I felt less challenged than in other puzzle games but truth be told, the stars (rare items that you can collect in the puzzles or in the overworld) are sometimes so twisted!
The philosophy sorrounds the puzzles, takes many forms, but one of them is a dialogue with an entity (Milton). Very frustrating to convey subtle thoughts into limited answer choices... Especially when there is an objection to every answer you could make, and of course Milton makes the obvious objection, leaving you wishing you could smash the terminals that let you communicate with it. I have to say though, the dialogue is annoying to live but well-written, as it forces you to redefine a lot of concepts that you thought you knew. And then leaves you a bit empty, since now you feel like you cannot relie on these flimsy concepts anymore. That's how philosophy works.

Stanley Parable meets Portal, meets Don't Touch Anything.
You really need to think outside the box, even if sometimes I felt that some puzzles needed to break previously established rules in order to be solved. Not that many were frustrating to solve, really.
Delivers on what it promises!

You can use several characters in the same run, as long as the previous one died or escaped the moon. The changes you made in the environment are still there, during the whole run, meaning loot you got with one character will not be available for the next one. It can be hard to get accustomed to, but if I did, there is no reason to think you won't.

You need to take into account the different waves of typhons (with a system that lets you know precisely when they arrive, at least you are not surprised like in Prey, where a safe area could be crawling with aliens 10 minutes later if you have completed an important objective); but also the changes in the environment. Parts are broken, stairs are on fire, the more you progress the more challenging it gets.

Some damages are randomly generated, which means from the very start of a run a certain area might be low on oxygen, on fire, full of radiations, and other hazards. A lot of loot is randomized, too. An item might be in a certain spot once, and in another in a future run. You might have some doors that were broken and needed repair that are, in another run, fine but locked, and require a hacking skill to get in.
In other words, you have to adapt, and improvise, much much more than in Prey, where you could plan more.
It might feel sometimes as thought the game punishes you for your knowledge of the surroundings: you plan to go somewhere to get an item, that is important and therefore has spawn spots that you can check. Your plan fails, because the area is now unavailable with the character you're currently playing as... Yes, the game punished you for assuming it would always be the same. "Improvise, then!" says Mooncrash. There might be a way to craft that item, another spot you could find, maybe some previously out of reach corpse has it. One thing is for sure, you always need a plan B, and C!
Do not expect to be able to explore every area as slowly as you wish, at least not at first. There are a lot of new items, new weapons that bring new game mechanics, and learning them sometimes means dying, but that's okay. There is one item that you love to get that allows you to control when the next wave of typhon and dangers arrive, once you get into late game and you have the plans for it, you will be able to take your time to explore.

The level desing is as interesting, challenging, and overall well built as in the original. Alternative paths to avoid dangers, or get into the hazards to trick the typhons chasing you, it's all in there! They improved some parts of the gameplay, by adding on the locks of the door the name of the last person that used it, for instance. That way, you kow who has the keycard for what, and if you really need to get into a room, you can use a security monitor to find them. More lore, (although not that much I have to say), new abilities to unlock, getting into it can be a bit frustrating. But in the end, it felt rewarding.
You also get a new, updated version of some typhons you already know... Have fun!

FINALLY A GAME THAT UNDERSTANDS ME!
Pigeons, finches, doves, budgies, partridges!
In maid costumes, in biker outifts, in miko uniforms!
It's cute, sometimes creepy, sometimes epic!
The game has a goofy premise and never shys away from it. Every possible incoherence from living with birds is explicitly mentionned. It does look like lampshading, but it is forgivable. They commit to their idea, and that is beautiful.
Live your best life as a hunter-gatherer, feel your heart race as you date the cutest birds around!
Feel that same heart stop as you live tear jerking endings! Live the mysteries, the revelations, the twits!11/10 would date again
The lore is surprisingly deep... Replay value garanteed!
Oko san is the best. All hail the sacred pudding god.

The lack of instructions and arrows to tell you where to go are part of what makes this game immersive (even though the graphics haven't aged well). It is also, in a sense, a weakness, as I was sometimes stuck, not knowing what to do, because no interactive object really stands out (aside from, what, the red buttons?). And not knowing where to go too, I found the backtracking really confusing.
The large variety of weapons calls for strategy. Count your ammo too, sometimes you're short! Again, the lack of instructions on how to use some weapons is hindering progression. Especially when you haven't seen anyone use that weapon in front if you, so you don't even know what it is supposed to do (if you know the one I am talking about, seriously, tell me: how were we supposed to know?). Some weapons are dangerous in close quarters, experimenting could end badly :,)
Some parts of the game are plain traps, you have to die at least once to know how to avoid/get prepared. I don't really care, I save often, but new player beware!
Some jumps are tricky, and frustrating. Those are rare, and the way you can use the map is interesting! Screw ladders though. And screw those people who are supposed to follow you and open doors, sometimes they won't...
A lot of different maps, even if some don't make sense, you still get the feeling you went through half the globe lol

Cool first person animations, they help a lot sell the movement, and the effort of the character you're controlling. The game isn't as instinctive as I thought it would be (it is sometimes difficult to understand where you need to and can go, to see if you can make some jumps, evaluate the distances and grab on some ledges or not), but most of the time the path is clear. It is really nice to feel free to choose the way we go from one point to another, there are always multiple paths.
Not the biggest fan of the animated parts, the animation looks a bit slow at times.
Almost makes me want to try parkour, and that means a lot coming from me.
Awesome menu music, perfect for some meditation ;)

Fun, forces you to torture your brain a bit to solve some puzzles. There are some frustrating moments where you know what to do but you can't do it right, but those are rare. The gravity changing is very desorienting, might cause nausea if you play for too long X) No other game is using the mechanics shown here, originality points!
P.-S: The cake is good.

Prey is 80% Bioshock, 10% Half Life and 10% Alien Isolation. A must if you enjoy the immersive sim formula!
Strong suits: Excellent level design, strong art direction, a lot of the worldbuilding is done through the envionment, and I have yet to see another game that does just as good as Prey.
The station is magnificent, coherent, believable.

: challenging, you need to learn to manage your ressources. You need to learn the pattern of the enemies, their attacks and weaknesses to adapt to them.
Exploration is rewarded: you will find a lot of lore, secrets and juicy loot in every corner of the space station. You will do a lot of backtracking, to unlock new areas with your new abilities! Even if you might encounter enemies at every turn, you will learn to pick up cues that indicate what type of enemy you will encounter. No fight feels unfair.

Freedom: who doesn't like a good immersive sim? One of the core philosophies of the desigers was "say yes to the player", which means that whatever strategy or interaction that you think would be feasible irl is very likely possible in the game. It is insane, after hundreds of hours I still discover new things! You have a LOT of skills and powers to unlock, some of them super original and so much fun to fool around with! I am still experimenting with the possibilities... and yet, the whole game can be finished without a single upgrade (the most challenging achievement according to me!).
Interesting themes about ethics, identity and how memories build our selves, the greater good, the risks of letting too much power in the hands of private corporations...

SO. MANY. PLOT TWISTS!

Weaker suits: the NPC AI is not the best... thank goodness it does not really impact the gameplay since you do not interact with them a lot. The enemy AI is fine, and does its job well. The pace gets a bit muddy in the last quarter of the campain. Introducing a new antagonist this late was not the best choice, but it does not destroy all of the good stuff that was built before.

Not a specialist in animation and 3D posing software, but SFM does it job correctly most of the time. Crashes when map too big is loaded, but not so much in other situations. Good if you know how to use it, might be frustrating otherwise. Then again, at this price... is good.