Video Games

"When I first played this game, I knew absolutely nothing. If you have not played this game, I highly recommend you do without any knowledge as well. Even if you are not a particular video game oriented person, the story is what drives the game. The ability to create your own choices and actions that affect the wider population around you, as you discover and explore more about this cyberpunk world, is absolutely incredible. It left me absolutely flabbergasted with some storyline twists and turns, as well as how well it holds up today on modern hardware. The game at certain points did have some issues (I played it through Steam, specifically Game of the Year Edition) and on some levels would run into severe frame drop issues that I was able to work around, other than that, it ran perfectly fine. I also find it important to note that the soundtrack for Deus Ex is absolutely fantastic, very catchy and memorable, every level has a perfect set mood with its soundtrack."

"I had played Monolith's re-release and remaster of Blood, named Blood: Fresh Supply on Steam. I only knew that it was similar to other Build Engine shooters (DOOM, Duke Nukem, etc.) so I was excited for that on its own. However, when I went in I had an absolutely great time the entire game through, it was full of entertaining visuals and gameplay, and an impressive game time spanning many hours. I loved the characterisation of Caleb and the other characters, for their late 90s weirdness and bizarre humour, it is a great game and I highly recommend it to those who love fast-paced Build Engine shooter classics."

"Personally I have not played the game, nor plan to, it is known for being incredibly difficult and annoying. Despite this, I love its old beauty and bizarreness, the early CGI visuals are charming accompanied by wacky music. It has some hilarious characters, songs, visuals and gameplay, so despite not planning to play it, I still enjoy it."

"I have a long history and love for Turok, originally being exposed to it and playing it on the Nintendo 64 console. However, that original port was difficult to navigate and play, notably the draw distance fog and aim controls being difficult. Luckily, it was recently remastered and ported to PC on Steam. The game is great fun, and I was able to play it through to the end, it has a long play time and was extremely enjoyable. It does struggle with similar adventure shooters of loss of direction, but it was able to be worked around nonetheless. I recommend it to those who love Build Engine type first-person shooters, it's a wonderful game and nostalgic to me."

"I heard about this game from its name alone, and that it was similar to a Build Engine game, and that was enough to interest me. Going in I was absolutely drawn in by the characters, story, visuals, gameplay, music and more. It's a fantastic game that I recommend everyone play - once past the difficulty of outdated controls and old software, it is a delight. Though I will note that you should be prepared for a difficult and long gameplay, the puzzles at times were very long and required me to look up answers."

"I have not played this game and don't plan to, but heard about it through various sources. I found its art style and game direction extremely eye-catching and unique, it left me rather disturbed at some parts of the game as many gruesome events can take place. Please keep in mind, this game has some highly disturbing visuals and themes, as it aims to recreate the realistic experience of ancient Japan."

"Saw this on Steam and that it was free, as a fan of the Source engine, I decided to download it and play. I was not prepared for hours long worth of entertaining gameplay, a beautiful art style, silly comedy and endless puzzles. This is a great game to play for free and uses the Source engine very intuitively, I will say however that the puzzles were frustrating and long and in certain points. To figure out some parts I often relied on searching online for answers, however, seeing that the point of the game is to frustrate and tire you out for 'the spectators', I wasn't really surprised. Very entertaining game, I really love the grey scale visuals of the game, with a unique 'scratchy' grunge-like art style."

"I went into this game blind, and you should too, I very highly recommend it. I find it personally to be one of the best story games I have ever played, certain topics and themes talked about in this game are extremely depressing and brutal, yet are represented and talked about within the game perfectly. It's very emotional and powerful as a story, and its visuals are beautiful as you explore different parts of the facility."

"When I first played S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I had no idea what I was really going to play, and it was a lot to understand at first, and I still think I don't understand a lot and/or missed a lot of content and environments within the games. Nonetheless, I find this series to be one of the best I've played, it's extremely captivating and the world building and storylines are incredible. The way each environment and society within The Zone is built is incredibly immersive and impressive. I have a deep passion for this series and urge everyone to play it. However, I do warn that it is not an easy game, nor does it run well on modern hardware. It is extremely buggy and difficult to work with, it can be frustrating and difficult for non-persistent players. Most people usually play the series heavily modded for it to run properly, I did not however and played it vanilla, experienced a lot of crashes, bugs and issues that I had to work around. Once past all of that, though, it is absolutely fantastic."

"I haven't played this game and I won't, and unless you are willing to work through severe bugs and technical issues, I wouldn't recommend you play it. Despite the unplayability though, this game has a fantastic art style and bizarre story, it's truly hilarious at times whether it intends to be or not. It is a perfect history piece of early 2000s games, the characters are weird and odd yet entertaining, and the story continues to unravel further and further you go in. It's fantastically bizarre and interesting."

"When I got Penumbra I played it immediately, I loved all three games from start to finish. Funnily, though, I accidentally played them out of order since I knew so little about the trilogy. Despite that, it was an amazing experience. The setting and ambience of the three games perfectly encapsulate the feeling of a strange abandoned mine, clawing your way out to figure out what is going on. It’s extremely gritty, dark and disturbing, and does it very well. I recommend playing it, but if you’re not good with horror, then this is not for you (it is also a puzzle game)."