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STEAM | March 2015 - Have you seen MRORANGE?

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C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
I'm going to have a fun time trying to pull together thoughts on Hotline Miami 2 once I finish it. Most of the stages are incredibly enjoyable, the soundtrack is batshit good and the new playstyles offered by some of the new masks really change things up from HM1. But, bigger isn't always necessarily better. Stages are too wide open and feel too reliant on making you use guns, whereas HM1 was much more narrowly constructed and gave you more freedom to approach a situation how you felt was best.

The metagame has changed, and I think a lot of players are gonna clash with that. The level design just isn't as fun or thought-out as the first game, in my opinion. One of the worst aspects is being sniped by a guy across a stage whom you can't even get line-of-sight on holding down Shift to look ahead. You'd think they'd try to avoid something that was completely unfair.
 
T

Turfster

Member
DocSeuss said:
Cities: Skylines is like SimCity without the Fisher Price Toys style UI and also functional and enjoyable.
Click to expand...
So, nothing at all like it then. Good to know.

Speaking of C:S. This seems... ill advised.
xKzVpO8.png
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It's incredibly cool that you can dam rivers and win land, though.
 
C

Chariot

Member
God, almost played 5 hours and only closed Cites: Skylines because I have to go to sleep. Fucking hell, this is a fun game. And fairly nice after Banished continuously slapped me over the table last weekend.
 
X

xezuru

Member
What's the general reception for the Evil Within DLC? I thought the vanilla was interesting enough to beat on a harder difficulty, but not sure this is my cup of tea.
 
R

r3n4ud

Member
You won't get a better opinion than Dusk_Golem's

Okay, so finished the DLC. Took my time to explore and got a good number of collectibles, took me close to four hours. I would place the DLC at around 3-4 hours, unless you really booked it, which you could probably do it in 2 hours. There's two difficulties for the DLC, you unlock the second when you beat it, tested it a bit, and it makes literally everything completely pitch black, except your flashlight.

Now, three things I will say before I say full impressions:
01.) The DLC is almost entirely stealth, story, and puzzle based. You only get a gun in one small section, and then lose it, you can find axes, but they're for you to execute in stealth mode, as you can't stealth kill an enemy unless you have an axe on hand, can't use the axe otherwise).
02.) Almost everything in the DLC is brand new, about 4/5ths of the locations you visit in the DLC are new, most of the enemies are new, the returning enemies and areas also have new touches.
03.) The DLC did actually answer a lot of questions, and at least the Assignment part didn't raise many. Not everything is revealed, though, and there is a second half of this DLC coming out later this year (The Consequence).

Firstly, the story is a HUGE improvement over the original game's in my opinion. I liked The Evil Within, but I felt story was its weakest area. I think the way they told the story in the DLC was a huge improvement, they managed to be cryptic but not undertelling, and managed a creepy tone that shed light on things, and kind of reveals a lot more through both gameplay and cutscenes. Story had a much bigger presence than in the original game, but not so much so that it felt meddling with the gameplay. It also made me like Kidman, which is saying something as I just didn't care for her all that much in the main game, and sheds a lot more light on who she is and where she's coming from. However, it also sheds a lot more light on Jiminez and Ruvik in particular, seeing sides of both of them you never really see in the main game. I actually found Ruvik a lot more sinister here than he seemed in the main game, but the DLC also introduces a new villain, which if I may say, in my opinion trumps Ruvik by a long-shot (I didn't hate Ruvik, but he wasn't a 'great' villain in my opinion, the new villain n the DLC is much more interesting for me). It also fit in well with the main campaign, and made me rethink a lot of things.

The DLC actually had several puzzles. None of them were brain-stumpers, but were enjoyable, more so than the original game, it was a nice addition in my opinion.

Now, besides the story moments, puzzle moments, some exploration moments, and a single scene where you had a gun, this DLC was entirely stealth based, so it lives or dies by its stealth. Thankfully, the stealth was so much better than the main game, had a number of improvements. The Haunted look as they normally do when unalerted, but when they're somewhat aware their faces and scars begin to glow yellow, and when actively chasing you, will turn to red. However, they managed to mix up the stealth sequences so they didn't feel too samey, which is a nice touch, with introductions in very different level design, different enemies with different searching behaviors and styles, interesting boss twists for stealth, traps, level gimmicks, enemies that are blind but are super sensitive to sound, you can now take to cover to hide behind things and call out to summon enemies, certain context-sensitive things to help like calling a phone, and so on. And you're defenseless from most everything besides your melee, which any players of the original game can tell you, is night useless. Stealth kills also are not an option unless you pick up an axe, which you no longer use as a one-shot kill, but as a limited supply of stealth kills you can do.

I also will add this: Health regen does not matter. You get killed in one or two hits, and the regen takes forever, basically what would usually happen if I would get hit once, either die or be limping so I couldn't run, which would usually lead to me getting hit again anyways, with a few rare exceptions.

There's a lot I want to say about specific moments, like the original game, there was some mixed bag here. The lowest point for me was the beginning of Chapter 2, which was a sewer area, but once out of the sewers it got much better again. My favorite part of the DLC probably goes to two stealth boss battles in the DLC, which were well done and fun, though the second one definitely wore its inspiration on its sleeve.

It actually managed to scare me a few times more than the main campaign did, and some of the moments I would say rival some of the best down-time moments from the main game, though the action and gunplay was missed in some places, but the stealth here definitely saw much improvement to the original game, and was enjoyable as such, along with the much more enjoyable story and puzzles. I'd say worth it if you liked The Evil Within and the idea of it being stealth-based does not bother you, know the stealth has seen much improvement and there is still a lot of variety here even with that, surprisingly so I would even say. They pack a lot of ideas in that 3-4 hours, and surprisingly most of it isn't recycled stuff from the main game.

Also, the fucking Light Lady turned out to be far creepier than she has any right to be, I think for me she may be the creepiest enemy in the game. She sounds goofy on paper (armless woman in red stilettos wearing a sheet with a lit-up divers helmet), but how she moves, her sudden changes in speed, the sounds she makes, and her fucking death animation, are creepy as hell, and she actually unnerved me on just being herself alone.
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C

Chairmanchuck

Member
Evolve’s Steam Player Base Nose Dives
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That thread, man.

I really wonder how long it takes till the player-base will be small. I never understood how 2k charges 60$ for a MP-only game with not that much content and still has the nerve to charge for cosmetic DLC.
 
K

KiDdYoNe

Member
Played good 2 hours of Hotline Miami 2. Oh boy it's awesome.

Killing a SWAT is awesome.

Can't understand shit tho, again. Haha, maybe i'm just stupid, i dunno.
 
E

Eternia

Member
Finished The Longest Journey for the first time today and I thought it was a pretty enjoyable overall. The performance from April Ryan was really what made listening to nearly every piece of dialogue a compelling and engaging experience. She played most situations she encountered quite naturally and believably. The main cast, specifically
Crow, Cortez and Flipper
were exceptional as well while the rest were mostly passable.

For the most part, the game and story was pretty large and well-done but I felt the
Stark
portion was a little rushed and dull. I didn't see as much variation as I would like. Also when you finally manage to get a
fake ID card to reach the upper levels, there's barely anything there too
. On the other hand
Arcadia
was rich in different locales, the people you meet and the stories that were told.

Puzzle-wise I did not have as much patience as usual would so I did refer to a guide for several of the harder puzzles. I finally know what that silly duck puzzle is! So cruel considering you could mess that up immediately which will force you to backtrack. They did something similar at several other points of the game as well but they weren't as egregious.

Visually, the game is bad by modern standards. None of the cutscenes hold up at all with some scene transitions being really jarring, characters are just polygonal blobs, and the animations are hilariously horrific and slow. I couldn't count how many times I thought I was seeing some kind of lumbering monster or zombie but it was just a regular human. The pre-rendered backgrounds looked okay though. In the end though, I wasn't too bothered by these flaws.

Looking forward to starting Dreamfall and then maybe Dreamfall Chapters after that. Hopefully that will be enough for me to ignore that Ori and Cities: Skylines have released! :p
 
K

Khronico

Member
Played some HM2, I'm not sure how I feel about it, which is kind of disconcerting.

Mouse controls feel REALLY off, seems to be slight but noticeable input lag which is causing 99% of my deaths.

Levels so far have been giant and almost unmanageable. Getting shot from an enemy offscreen is not fun at all, and the zoom mechanic is messy (I don't remember it being this finicky before).

The music is AMAZING and the visuals are a definite step up from the first while still maintaining the aesthetics of the original.

Story is... interesting. I'm curious to see where it goes.
 
C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
Khronico said:
Played some HM2, I'm not sure how I feel about it, which is kind of disconcerting.

Mouse controls feel REALLY off, seems to be slight but noticeable input lag which is causing 99% of my deaths.

Levels so far have been giant and almost unmanageable. Getting shot from an enemy offscreen is not fun at all, and the zoom mechanic is messy (I don't remember it being this finicky before).

The music is AMAZING and the visuals are a definite step up from the first while still maintaining the aesthetics of the original.

Story is... interesting. I'm curious to see where it goes.
Click to expand...

The levels only get larger as it goes along, and the leaning on guns gets worse too. Level design has suffered a bit, in my opinion. :(
 
SSPssp

SSPssp

Member
MMBosstones86 said:
ah. Thanks.



gimme keys pls =)
Click to expand...

ok

ModBot said:
Instructions for SSPssp:
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Instructions for participants:
I am giving away 6 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line from the message below that corresponds to the game you want. (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering). Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.

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Lego Harry Potter Years 1 to 4 -- MB-AF38C3E9764F0257 - Taken by Sammichu. 4 entrants total.
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t1426038085z1.png
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C

Casimir

Unconfirmed Member
Hi,

The code should be good. Please tell me if it is not.

ModBot said:
Instructions for everyone:

I am giving away a Steam key. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line from the message below containing the game you want to enter for. Confused? Watch this GIF tutorial or ask for help.

ModBot Basics:
- I really appreciate thank you messages, but please send them to me (Casimir, not ModBot!) via PM instead of in thread.
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two.


Borealis -- MB-BB52F3E13F0B5383 - Taken by TheMadMan007
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