Rewind Complains About Stuff

Hi there this is just a place i can talk about things i like or dont like feel free to stay a while :D

[rewind-reviews]

So I’ve Been Playing... Wolfenstein: The New Order

Shooters are the genre I play the most, one of the first PC games I ever played was DOOM 2 and I have been hooked ever since. Be it trying one of the classics like Blood or something a little more recent like Postal Brain Damaged I will play them all but there is one franchise I always come back to, Wolfenstein.

Wolfenstein 3D captivated me when I was a kid even if I had games like Quake to play I would always gravitate to Wolfenstein, something was amazing about the early 3D to me so was the way the game managed to tell its story with no words just get up, kill some nazis and escape against unspeakable odds. Growing up I was always excited when a new game would come out the 2009 "remake" got me so excited I would watch the trailer almost daily hoping to one day get my hands on it. But those games aren't what we are talking about, I want to talk about the 2014 reboot Wolfenstein: The New Order.

Wolfenstein: The New Order was developed by MachineGames and is a soft reboot of the franchise. Unlike previous instalments focuses entirely on a single-player experience with no multiplayer component. Because of this the story needed to be top notch and man does it deliver.

(spoilers ahead)

The story begins in 1846 with our protagonist captain William "B.J." Blazkowicz flying into Deathshead's compound to put an end to the mad scientist who is creating not only super soldiers and advanced weaponry but also mechanical monsters prolonging the war and leading towards a Nazi victory. BJ is joined but two notable soldiers. Commander Fergus Reid BJ's right-hand man and a very headstrong, capable and overall brilliant tactician and private Probst Wyatt III, who unlike Fergus is overwhelmed by the horrors of the war that he is forced to witness at the young age of 18. After fighting your way up the shore, scaling the walls of the compound and losing countless men in the prosses you gain entry to Deathshead's lab only to be ambushed.

This moment is when I fell in love with this game. You are forced to make a choice, who will die Wyatt or Fergus? This choice breaks me every single time I play this game, the weight of this choice is so hard to put into words. By the time you get to this choice which is only about an hour into the game, you have spent so much time around these two people that you love them both. Do you save the kid who barely had a chance to live his life before war changed it forever or do you save BJ's best friend?

No matter who you save you escape but are wounded leaving a chunk of metal in BJ's brain. Luckily you are found by a polish doctor who along with his wife and daughter Anya care for you for fourteen years until asylum is shut down, everyone inside is executed by the hand of the Nazis and Anya is taken. After fighting your way out, saving Anya and stealing a car you flee to a safe place. Your mission is to find the resistance and to finish what you started 14 years ago, Kill Deathshead and put an end to Nazi reign.

Okay, enough story I don't wait to spoil all of it for you. So how does the game play? Its a modern take on a classic shooter, nearly every room you walk into in MOST missions is full of enemies for you to blast your way through however you see fit maybe, you want to hide behind cover and take them out one at a time, maybe you want to charge forward with a fully automatic shotgun in both hands or (and here is how I played most of the game) you sneak through prioritising which enemies you take out first, who can raise the alarm? who is strongest? if I get seen can I recover? will I survive? However you choose to play you will have an arsenal to back you up everything from the previously mentioned fully automatic shotguns, to assault rifles even a bulky metal monstrosity that can take down most enemies in one hit. You can also unlock different perks by completing challenges which is where I have an issue. The perks are extremely useful in this game letting you hold more ammo or grenades healing on stealth takedowns things along those lines. However unlocking these can be a nightmare. At the start of most missions, you lose all of your weapons leaving you with your laser gun and a knife sometimes a pistol if you are lucky, plus there are no guarantees you will get the gun you need to unlock that perk you so desperately want making the unlocks harder than they need to be.

During the later stages of the game as the locations and battles get more and more insane some of the enemies become way too hard to kill, and yes it makes sense in the context of the game but fighting them becomes less exciting and more of a chore or hell sometimes its straight up unfair. starting a level with next to no ammo and having to fight two heavily armoured shotgun-wielding nazis is a terrible experience that I honestly never want to slog through again. However, the story really is when this game shines the most, every location and character this game shows you is perfect they all show you how war affects different people. Wyatt or Fergus resent the fact they are alive and the war has cost them a life they never got to live, BJ is desperately holding on to a dream of the future with the woman he loves where he can one day be happy. Max learns that he needs to fight after the death of his father. Even Deathshead shows his own goals and has his reasons to keep fighting, there were moments in this game that crushed me making me feel like fighting this war is pointless, like I have no reason to carry on and there were others where I felt I had to fight to save the character I love so much or to crush the oppressive force that took someone from me pushing me forward to end this seemingly endless fight.

Does Wolfenstein: The New Order have its issues? yes, Is it a perfect game? no. There are a few minor things I didn't mention here like constantly taking fall damage or needing to be super precise while cutting paths leading to pointless deaths, but would I recommend you play this game? absolutely. I haven't been this quickly attached to characters in a long time. There are moments this game makes you feel you are fighting a battle you can't possibly win but you need to keep fighting, you need to be the bastion of hope.

Anyway, I gotta go I think I need to rest before a new colossus shows up.

[rewind-reviews]

So I Just Watched... Tick, Tick...BOOM (2021)

So I just watched Tick Tick...BOOM and I have somethings to say. Musicals are a very strange medium for me, I have never been the biggest fan of them. Don't get me wrong as a former theatre kid I have my favourites of course, mainly West Side Story, Sweeny Todd and The Blues Brothers but like many people my age I grew up surrounded by them thanks to the likes of Disney. All that being said I never really liked musicals and would always pass them up for something else be that watching or even performing.

Everyone I know loves and I mean LOVES musicals. My mum would watch them all the time growing up, my friends talk about them constantly and even someone I like a lot loves musicals with all her heart. One musical that they all have in common is Tick Tick BOOM (2021). I had never seen this musical and honestly wasn’t super interested it seemed like another generic musical with a predictable story and bland characters. In my opinion what I expected was exactly what I got.

Before you judge me let me say I didn't hate TTB I just wanted it to be so much more than it was. I can see why so many people love it and want to share it, I can see why the story would speak to people and make them feel the emotions the characters are feeling, I can see why people love the songs, all the musical numbers are catchy, creative and all round full of emotion I just don't think it was very impactful.

The main issue I have with TTB is the character of Jonathan Larson. They try desperately throughout the movie to show him as this caring and compassionate person who is full of love for those around him but struggles to express that under the stress of writing his musical. They want to show him as someone we can all relate to and understand but to me that's not how he appears. Throughout the movie all I saw was a character obsessing over his immanent failure, someone who is not only destroying his own life but the lives of those he cares most deeply for. He uses his friends when its convenient to him, he ignores things more important than his musical and cuts every last person who supports him, all the while acting like he is the victim of this story, as if what's happening to him is more unfair its harder for him that his friend is dying than it is for the friend himself. He only begins to care for his friends once he has failed and is left with nothing. He is egotistical and almost cold in places as we see how he only cares about one small part of his life and ignores the bigger picture.

Again I didn't hate TTB it was just too predictable. Nothing came out of the blue to shock or surprise it was all clear where the story was going to go as soon as it started all the plot points i saw in my head played out beat for beat (pun intended) which is a shame seeing as it could have been so much more. With this particular movie I feel they did the story a dis service with the dramatized sequence of events and it would have played out a lot better if they stuck with the reading established in the opening. Doing this would have made the movie feel a lot more real and deep almost to a personal level what we got however felt like a half baked attempt to not only appeal to fans of JL but to also tell a new “revived” version of the original TTB.

That being said I would say you could watch a lot worse than Tick Tick BOOM Andrew Garfield is perfect and the rest of the cast are pretty well picked too. Its a fun little movie to sit down and relax to just don't expect it to set your world on fire. Anyway I need to go, I have a song to write....

[rewind-reviews]

So I’ve Been Playing.... Psychonauts 2

So I've been playing Psychonauts 2 and I've got some things to say. As always this review might be a little more personal than you want but this game honestly means quite a bit to me. This review is going to be more about how I felt with this game than it is the game itself.

I loved the first Psychonauts when I first played it, not only was it fun to play but the humour and writing were my perfect cup of tea needless to say the announcement of psychonauts 2 got me way too hyped way too fast.

Psychonauts 2 follows Raz right after the end of the highly underrated VR game The Rhombus of Ruin. Turns out there is a mole in the Psychonauts and it's your job as the newest intern to... work in the mailroom!! I know glamours work indeed!! Of course, it doesn't stay that way for long and you soon begin to once again jump from mind to mind psi blasting censors, tagging emotional baggage and cleaning up all the issues people might have. Turns out someone is trying to bring back the greatest threat the Psychonauts have ever faced, the woman who killed Helmut Fullbear, destroyed Ford Crullers mind and was the downfall of the Psychic 6.

During your adventure, you jump into each member of the psychic 6 and this is where the game really gets hard for me. Psychonauts 2 is at its core a love story. All the members of the psychic 6 are failing to deal with their battle with Maligula. Helmut was believed to be dead only for his mind to be locked away for 20 years. You help him not only regain his senses but also come to terms with what he thinks happened, ford not finding his body, the love of his life, Bob Zanotto leaving him alone for 20 years and the fact that his plan failed. Eventually, you get him to realise that's not what happened and help him reach happiness or close to it anyway.

Leading on to Bob Zanotto. Bob was dealing with a lot throughout his life and was the one that spoke to me the most. While exploring Bob's brain you for the first time in this series travel all the way back to childhood. Bob had a rough upbringing and it never stopped affecting him so he locked it away and ran from it. later in life, Bob turned to the psychonauts where he met the man he loves, Helmut Fullbear. For a while bob was happy and in love, for the first time his life had meaning, his life had colour and his life had love. Until Maligula. The battle cost him everything, he turned to alcohol to try and forget and shut everything away deep in his mind, forcing himself to forget about his friends, his life and his love. Thanks to Raz Bob gets past everything and even reunites with Helmut.

Finally, I want to talk about Ford and Maligula. Throughout the series fords mind has been shattered. Ford was in love with Maligula turns out she was part of the psychonauts even one of the psychic 7 that's right 7. Her name was Lucrecia Mux her and Ford were dating before everything happened. Lucrecia had to go back to her homeland of Grulovia to try and help against a "war" only to be turned into a monster killing hundreds of innocent people in the process. All the while ford was begging her to come back to stop the violence and the hurt but she wouldn't listen soon it was too late and Maligula was born. The fight with her shattered Fords minds only giving him just enough time to save Lucrecia locking Maligula away in her mind and planing false memories making her believe she is Raz's grandmother.

This is going to sound strange but I can relate to Maligula. See maligula is a part of Lucrecia's fight or flight that got wildly out of control, becoming its own person, having its own goals, wants, emotions. Lucrecia lost all control of this aspect of herself and it ruined her life, killing her friends, destroying their minds leaving their lives broken and angry. The message of Maligula is "we all have a Maligula we just know how to keep it locked up where it belongs." My Maligula is someone the people I love the most know very well. My Maligula came out and destroyed something I care very deeply about, much like Lucrecia I wasn't able to keep the box closed when I was weak and vulnerable. I could relate to Lucrecia feeling like what she had done was unforgivable, wanting to lock that part away forever and feeling like it's easier to try to forget than it is to hope for forgiveness, to admit the things you have done when you lost all control. All you want to do is say you are sorry and tell the ones you love it's okay, that you will leave them for the rest of your life because that's what you deserve exactly like ford. Or like Bob to push what you are feeling down deep into your mind or even like Helmut to just tell yourself you weren't enough over and over.

To the person, I hurt the most I am sorry I wasn't strong enough to deal with my Maligula and that's on me and forever will be. I wish I had the answers to deal with what it is whoever is reading this is going through but I don't. These silly little games have told me that the mind is a complex and illogical place, there is no right and wrong, sometimes what we think we want is wrong and what we think we know is worse. These games taught me nothing is black and white as much as we might want it to be, sometimes the despair you feel is the way it is, sometimes it's you making yourself feel that way. We all have a Maligula but we need to learn to keep the lid shut before it's too late.

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Watching... Diminish

So I've been watching Diminish and I've got some things to say (warning spoilers ahead). This review is going to be a little different, it's going to be personal, emotional and very hard to write. Everyone knows the special kind of heartbreak that comes when you lose someone close to you, be it a parent, pet, friend, brother or sister. No pain compares to losing someone you love, leaving you wanting just to spend a little more time with them, questioning every word you ever said and action you took and feeling full of pain. Diminish is a web series that captures this perfectly.

I stumbled across Diminish purely by chance, I watched the first episode of act 1 and immediately fell head over heels in love with it. I have been obsessed with it, watching every episode I can, joining the community discord and lurking in chat (hi everyone <3) and trying to piece it all together, trying to find the message it's trying to tell me.

Okay so what even is Diminish? Like I said Diminish is a web series about a guy named Will playing a video game or well a rage game, think I Wanna be the Guy or Super Meat Boy made by his late twin sister Teddy. I know it doesn't sound interesting but stay with me here. (spoilers ahead!!)  Teddy died of stage four leukaemia four years before we see the first episode leaving Will destroyed. However before she died she made a little game called Diminish and asked Will to play it, he promised he would and record everything, all his first reactions, everything "interesting" no matter how long it takes him.

To begin with, Will is hesitant to even play the game, he rambles constantly almost afraid to stop talking, desperate to fill the dead air however he quickly loosens up and gets more comfortable. He starts to realise that this is Teddy's way of opening up to him, telling him all the things she felt while she was dying, her final thoughts, her regrets, her fears, her favourite and most hated soups. All the while Will is feeling something, anything for the first time in years, he is failing over and over, becoming enraged, laughing, crying, screaming, he is both at the height of happiness and in the deepest melancholy. Will knows what this game is and never wants it to end "I don't want this to be over... I never want this to be over... it feels like we are spending time together." After years of his life having a hole in it that cant be filled with anything, he has this gift to spend a little more time with the person he loves the most.

Towards the end of Act 1 we start to find out the sort of dark and dirty parts of our two main characters, things I never thought I would see. Teddy recounts a conversation she and Will had talking him out of something that could either hurt him or for all we know end him for good. We see how Teddy felt she always had to be perfect even in the way she died she never let herself be anything other than what others wanted, the way this made her hate humanity, we even see Will's resentment towards her for that, his anger for Teddy never letting herself be herself, never taking a break to be happy. What we see in Diminish is the pure guttural pain of both loss of a loved one and the loss of life, the fear of losing your sister and the fear of leaving the people you love. However, it also shows the love two people can feel for each other, the unbreakable bond of compassion, the acceptance of who you are and who they were.

Every episode of Diminish I watch I struggle to process. I know that it's not real but the way it's made makes it feel as if we are given a window into Will's grief and I know why. The game is real and Will really is not only playing it but also seeing it for the first time, every time he screws up he feels the pain of starting again. He is being forced to learn with each passing trip through the level or every hour spent playing. Will's reactions are real, the anger is real, the joy of making progress is real. The storytelling, the characters and the real elements of Diminish make it something I have never seen before and I doubt I ever will again.

Now Diminish isn't over (or well I think so at least) so there is still a lot more for me to see and think about but most importantly a lot more for it to make me feel. This one series makes me laugh, cry, makes me nervous, makes me angry and makes me feel connected to Will in a way I didn't know I could. I know how he feels, I know what losing people feels like, I know that self-hatred it sparks and the pain-filled obsession it leaves in its wake. I even know how Teddy feels in a way, to be scared to leave things unsaid, to want to be perfect but being scared of who you are, to want to protect the people close to you. Diminish is a show to me anyway that above all is about loss and love. Now if you will excuse me I need to go and hug my brother. Remember I love you all.

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing... God of War 2005

So I've been playing God of War 2005 and I have some things to say. There is very little I like more in my video games than a proper fast-paced hack and slash and when I think of hack and slash action I think... Devil May Cry... but God of War is always a close second. I recently played through GoW 2018 and fell in love with the characters and after not touching the old god of war games for around 10 years I thought it was time to visit an old favourite, that is when I finally managed to get my hands on a copy.

I grew up playing with GoW on ps2 and remember having a really good time playing it, all that being said I didn't play it all that much the only thing I remember is the first stage and its boss which is still amazing in every way. It's a shame it doesn't stay that way, isn't it??

A quick recap of the story prepare for spoilers for a 16 year old game. GoW follows a spartan warrior named Kratos who we see fighting to save the greek city of Athens while Ares the god of war leads an army of monsters aiming to destroy the city in a stand against his sister Athena. After making his way through Athens and getting some advice from the oracle Kratos is told the only thing that can kill a god is the legendary Pandora's box which is hidden deep in the desert in an ancient temple atop the final living titan Chronos. After freeing Pandora's box from the temple Ares strikes Kratos down by impaling him with a stone pillar sending him deep into Hades. Kratos fights his way out of hell itself to confront the god of war and stop the destruction of Athens. When Ares falls and Kratos's quest from the gods is complete he jumps from the highest point in Athens hoping to end his life and stop the suffering he faces for good. The gods however had other plans lifting him up to Mount Olympus and crowning him the newest god of war.

Okay so yeah this game has a pretty bad-ass story and playing as a man who is painted out to basically be a god amongst men as it is just makes it all the sweeter. But I do have a few gripes with the gameplay. Honestly, this game is at its best in the first few hours the first level easily being the best part, here the gameplay is fast smooth and just a joy to play. All the enemies in the starting area are perfect to let you learn the basic controls and all the combos at your disposal, nothing unfair is thrown at you and everything is perfectly manageable. The boss of this area lets you get to grips with the QTEs the game uses for finishers and shows you just how brutal this game can be in a fun and overall safe environment. Even the first section fighting through Athens is fun, harder enemies are introduced, you are given more abilities and this is the first chance you get to level up your gear. There is one section where you have to walk across a beam and that can be a bit rough and you will fall a lot but there is a checkpoint just before it and I'm sure it won't show up again, right??

The second half of GoW is where it nose dives all the way down to the depths of Hades. Everything from the lead up to Pandora's temple just gets worse and worse and worse. From here on almost every encounter takes double the time it normally does because each and every enemy respawns up to 2 or 3 times per fight and every last one of them contains at least 1 strong enemy such as a minotaur which can stun-lock you, a gorgon that can turn you to stone and one hit you or Satyrs that you cant stun at all and oh yeah all of these can either block your attacks so you do no damage, just decide to move out of the combo or just stop your combo all together and damage you instead. That being said the combat is where this game shines so combining magic and mixing it up with your available weapons makes the combat overall pretty fun especially when you level up your stuff.

GoW's biggest failing is in its level and puzzle design. Where the levels and puzzles were once clear and easy to understand as soon as you get to Pandora's temple that changes instantly. To begin with, everything made sense and I had a clear idea of where I needed to go and what to do but that very quickly fell apart leaving me lost only to wander around aimlessly searching for the right door to progress the story. When I did finally find the right room nine times out of 10 it was a room fitted with a trap where if you weren't fast enough you die instantly, spitting you out at the last checkpoint where not only do you need to make your way back there but you have to watch the cutscene again. Or better yet a room filled with enemies all of which you need to kill just so you can mess up a jump fall to your death and do it all over again. Oh yeah, I almost forgot more of the god awful beam walking from the first stage shows up too just to add an extra layer to the hell your in. Hades is no better either. Hades is full of instant death pits, bad platforming and these god damn pillars you have to climb up that are covered in spikes and if you get hit once ITS BACK TO THE BOTTOM HAHA HAVE FUN!! Pandora's Temple and Hades made me pause my playthrough and take a break it's just that bad.

Now that's not to say GoW is all bad. Like I said earlier when the game is good it's great and that's mainly in the combat. Throughout the game you get a whole bunch of magic attacks from a few different gods and even another weapon in the form of a big ol' curved sword called "The Blade of Artemis", this is what I used nearly all the time after I got it purely because of the massive damage it deals. Magic is also crazy fun to use, Poseidon's rage was also a favourite of mine as it hits multiple enemies, multiple times and it hits HARD!! Every single boss in this game is a testament to how fun this game can be.

Honestly, I don't feel like God of War 2005 is worth revisiting today, at its best, it's a fun fast-paced gorefest of a game but after the first few hours, it turns into a janky unbalanced mess that is either too hard or just too confusing. I guess some games just aren't as good as you remember. Anyway, I have to go, God of War 2 is calling me.

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing... Little Nightmares 2

Words cannot describe the excitement I felt when I pre-ordered Little Nightmares 2. I was set to get the game loaded and stream it to death when it came out and that's exactly what I did. After my first stream, I was set to call this game the perfect sequel and I was head over heels in love with LN2 but sadly this game isn't perfect and I want to talk about that.

There are gonna be a few spoilers in this review so sorry about that. Unlike the first Little nightmares, you don't play as the hungry child that is Six you play as a little boy with a paper bag covering his head named Mono (linking into the theme of TV sets). Just like the first game, the story isn't told to you, there is no cutscene setting the stage, no lore items nothing you just start the game and go figuring everything out along the way, the game leaves it to you to piece the story together yourself. Along the way, you meet another child who has been locked up and left to fend for herself. You spend most of the game joined by your little friend that my stream affectionately called "Jeffsix".

Gameplay-wise LN2 is basically the same as the first game but there are a few new mechanics most notably having a companion for most of the game. Having a companion opens the game up way more than you think it would it allows puzzles that require the two of you to split up or one of you waits while the other has to find and press a switch to open up a door, your companion has to give you a boost to another room so you can both progress. It's not much but having the other child help does add another layer to the puzzles in the game with the added benefit of forcing you to get attached to them so if something happens to them it hurts that little bit harder. There are also certain sections of the game you are given a weapon forcing you to fight back. Man having to fight back was always tense, you die in one hit they die in one hit but no matter what you are always outnumbered. While fighting you can nearly always see all the things coming for you so you know where they are and you feel that the odds are against you but they always come and you one at a time so you cant get overwhelmed, this is one of the most well-designed things in the whole game.

Throughout the game, you visit a bunch of different locations ranging from a run-down farmhouse in the middle of the woods, a school full of evil kids and crazy teachers, a seemingly abandoned hospital and a few more that we won't talk about here. Pretty much everywhere you visit is a place that visit you will more than likely recognise but a twisted and distorted version and being places that we have all been in at some point just makes it all just that little scarer which I will admit really ones up the first game where it was all just areas on a boat. There is one thing I found annoying that I don't think anyone else did. I don't like that everywhere you end up just so happens to be on your path, one second you are walking down an alley then oh look a school then later you are walking down an alley oh look a hospital. It feels like everything in the game is just in a straight line whereas the first game never had that problem. In LN you were going back and forth being dragged away to god knows where using lifts and falling through floors but that's not the case in LN2 its all just in your path. This one small thing really made the world feel more limited and closed off even with all the effort to make it feel wide and open.

This game is buggy as shit too. During my first stream, everything was fine nothing went wrong and I was having an amazing time. However that all changed when I got to the hospital. Everything broke!! First off a level critical item despawned and just vanished forever so I had to reload, then I just disappeared and couldn't do anything so I had to reload. I managed to get a little further in the level and encountered the monsters of the hospital the game established rules on which ones move and which ones don't, how they move and how to stop them. Literally moments after showing you these rules they throw them out of the window and put you in a room full of these monsters where none of the rules apply NONE!! I won't say how many attempts this one room took but all I will say is the only way I got through was by spinning around in a circle until I got to the other side. The entirety of the hospital is a poorly designed broken mess of an area none of it was fun to play.

With all that being said Little Nightmares 2 is still an amazing game that does all the things the first game does and improves upon them. The locations are more relatable, the monsters are more grotesque and disturbing but is also more unstable and has strange issues I never encountered in the first game. If you like the first game or horror in general i would still say you should give this game or the first game a shot. Gotta go TV is on....

[rewind-reviews]

Im streaming star wars jedi the fallen order

Come say hi in my stream :D

https://www.twitch.tv/rewind_review

[rewind-reviews]

I think you've mentioned somewhere that you stream? What do you stream on? I want to check it out

I Stream every Wednesday at 5pm GMT or 12pm EST on twitch. https://www.twitch.tv/rewind_review

I’m going to be streaming Little Nightmares 2 next week so it would be great if you came and said hi :D

Thanks for the support it means a lot!!

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing... Little Nightmares

So I've been playing little nightmares and I have somethings to say. I don't really like horror stuff all that much for the pure reason I don't find them scary anymore. I used to watch a lot of horror movies, read horror books and play horror games but after a while, I just stopped being scared. I don't like the way most horror media relies on cheap jump scare tactics and obvious clichés just to tell a sub-par story that doesn't leave any impact what so ever. Now with all that being said Little Nightmares. No one talks about this game even if it did do pretty well after it launched so I knew nothing about this game and was pretty interested.

Little Nightmares isn't the scariest game in the world I mean its only rated T for teen. But man it's good. I got little nightmares on PS4 shortly after it came out then never played it (as I always do). However, it was free on the Namco website a short while ago so I thought "fuck it may as well add another game to my steam library"  then while bored one night I decided to give it a go.

As always I won't spoil too much of this game for you because its a game you need to experience first hand. You play as a little girl in a yellow raincoat named Six. Six wakes up after having a nightmare in a dark and damp room laying in a suitcase. That's it. That's all the story you get. You just have to play the game and figure the rest out. This is one of my favourite things about this game. After playing through the main game I knew just enough to piece the story together and it wasn't what I was expecting at all, the DLC just adds to it too giving even more context to the main story which even left me sad when I finished it. The reason this is such a big deal is THERE IS NO DIALOGUE IN THE WHOLE GAME!!!! There is no text, no memos, no journal entries, no signs, NO NOTHING!! You learn the story of this game just by playing it and piecing together all the things you see and do. Or you ruin it for yourself and read the wiki. It's not the darkest story you have ever seen but it's just strange enough to make it worthwhile plus again the ending is something to behold.

Gameplay-wise Little Nightmares is simple. It's a horror themed puzzle platformer. The majority of the game is just figuring out how to move from room to room either through solving puzzles or you guessed it platforming. Little Nightmares doesn't try to do anything groundbreaking in its gameplay even when the monsters show up all you can do for all but one of them is avoid it and don't get seen... or heard just don't let them get you. I know it sounds boring but trust me it isn't, let's not forget you are tiny I mean really really small you are just a child after all. The world you are in is massive compared to you bookcases are like skyscrapers, the monsters are giant and grotesque. The world is what makes this game worth playing, shame I can't talk about it I guess you just need to play it and find out.

Graphics and sound are things that I can't really talk about if I am avoiding spoilers but I will try my best. First of this game looks fucking stunning like I said everything is huge compared to you the environments go from empty dark damp rooms made from cold looking steal to abandoned looking almost houses full to the brim of old and dusty furniture and books. These places always throw you through a loop every time because they are all in the same central area and always seem to link together with no rhyme or reason so you never truly know where it is you are, it feels like it changes or shifts under your feet. Furniture is warped and twisted in some rooms but looks completely normal in others giving a dreamlike or should I say nightmare-like quality to the whole adventure. The sound is also a huge factor in this too everything sounds like it just doesn't belong. Before you even see a monster you might hear it dragging a metal cage along the floor or it breathing and clicking its neck in the next room, if a monster gets too close you hear your heart pounding in your chest getting louder and faster, screams in the distance and weirdest of all strange calm music playing in a room just out of sight and what's that?? sounds like... humming.

I won't lie this game isn't perfect. During the DLC I found a few physics bugs that launched me off of whatever I was standing on either too my death or just putting me back a little either way its a pain. You are also given a torch which is horrible to use and doesn't really light up what you need it too making dark sections very unfun to play however they are few and far between. I also had an issue with some of the later puzzles being hidden a little to well leading me to run around for way longer than I care to admit but I am pretty dumb so that might just be me.

Little nightmares is my favourite horror game. It might not be the scariest game I have ever played but it's by far the most charming, creepy and weirdly adorable horror game I have had the joy to play. I wish I could talk about the monsters but that would give way to much away if you need to see one google the janitor and yes I do think he is cute don't judge me. Go play little nightmares if you want some spooks or if you want a fun little mystery to solve. Now if you will excuse me I need to go I think the visitors are about to arrive.

[rewind-reviews]

What is your favorite game?

Welp that's a tough one. Honestly, I can't really pick a favourite but I can give you a list of some games that I love. Dishonoured is by far my favourite stealth action game everything from the visuals to the mechanics are near perfect in my opinion, I dont even need to mention Hotline Miami anymore, The Binding Of Isaac started my love for rougelike games, The entire Kingdom Hearts franchise has had me gripped from childhood, the Devil May Cry games are some of the best hack and slash games you will ever play (yes even DMC is a good time) and well a whole bunch more. Either way i hope that awnsers your question

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing... Costume Quest

Oh, boy Halloween 2020 is finally here and man is it the least Halloweeny Halloween I have ever experienced. As we all know this year has been a nightmare so Halloween is the perfect holiday for this year as a whole.

As a kid, I was never allowed to go trick or treating until I was about twelve years old so I have only ever gone a few times in my life. I have no real experience making and wearing my own costumes and staying out for hours with my friends gathering as many sweet treats as we possibly could just so we could spend the next few days eating ourselves into oblivion, so this year I did the next best thing and lived vicariously through video games.

Costume Quest is a game that's been on my radar for a really long time ever since I first saw it in a humble bundle (if you don't know humble bindle google it its a great site and all the money made goes to charity :D) years and years ago. Recently Epic games gave it away for free so I finally had the chance to play it and well its... alright.

Costume Quest is all about kids doing the tried and true Halloween tradition of trick or treating only this time there are goblins attacking the town and stealing all the candy from every kid and house around. Oh and guess who thought it was a good idea to dress up as a massive piece of candy corn... YOUR SISTER!! Guess who gets kidnapped by evil goblins.... YOUR GOD DAMN SISTER!!!!!!!! so it's now your job to save her, don't you just hate siblings?

Now how on earth is a kid like you supposed to fight the evil goblin menace and they're maniacal witch leader that just can't get enough of that sweet sweet candy goodness, well you super cool hand made costumes of course.

The main bulk of the gameplay revolves around knocking on doors to go trick or treating at least from what I have played which is only around a few hours or so. Every time you knock on a door there is a chance you will be greeted by a person who wants to give you some candy or a goblin that wants to take all the candy you have. Every time you start a fight with a goblin you and your party transform into a giant more realistic version of whatever character you are wearing at the time, I'm talking everything from a noble knight with a sword and shield to a space warrior with a jetpack and laser sword all the way to the statue of liberty that spits fire with her torch and heals the party with the American national anthem.

Combat in Costume Quest is the standard turn-based RPG fare we all know and love only it plays more like South Park the Stick of Truth as in every action even basic attacks require more inputs to get them to work, which can range from pressing a button at the proper timing or spinning the analogue stick and a lot more. Doing these actions perfectly will result in doing more damage but if you mess them up the attack still goes off just not as strong so it's not the end of the world.  Besides your basic attacks, every costume has a super ability which can be either a heal or an attack that does extra damage and that's it... I mean it, that's all you have, no items, no magic just so just the basics.

You don't only use your costumes during combat most of them have some form of use when just walking around. The knight has a shield that you can use to avoid getting wet or having debris fall on you or the space warrior uses his laser sword to light up dark areas so you can see. This one small feature makes getting new costumes which yes you have to find the parts for and make yourself so worthwhile, I mean seeing the way the costumes change from pieces of cardboard and tin foil to a straight up fantasy knight is cool enough but as weird as it sounds I love the fact I'm using toys to help me beat up evil goblins.

Costume Quest is a fun time the only bad thing I can say about it is its very repetitive and the combat gets boring fast. If you get the chance I highly recommend you give Costume Quest a go even if only for a couple of hours I can promise you it will make you laugh at least once. Anyway, I'm going to get my costume ready there is candy to be eaten, people!!

[rewind-reviews]

So I just Played... Devolverland Expo

So I just played Devolverland Expo and I have somethings to say. If you have read nearly any of my posts here you know that I adore Devolver Digital and the games they put out, they have published some of the best games I have ever played be that Hotline Miami, Katana Zero, My friend Pedro, Enter/Exit the Gungeon and well the list goes on. Every time they announce something new I instantly watch the trailer and make sure to let the hype train hit as hard as it can. Ever since the 2019 E3 direct Devolver did I have loved the amount of love and creativity they pour into announcing their games packing the announcements full of the dark and witty humour they are known for.

Last night I got an email saying that a new game from Devolver was available on steam called "Devolverland Expo" and would do you know it's free so you know I downloaded it as soon as I could and let me tell you I was not disappointed. As we all know all the typical gaming conventions like EGX or E3 have been cancelled this year so news on new games is a little weird right now but that didn't stop Devolver. Devolver decided to bring the con to you with Devolverland Expo. I'm not going to go over all the games that were mentioned here because honestly, I want you all to see this for yourself it's by far the best idea to cover new games I have ever seen so I will only mention games we already know about.

The whole concept of Devolverland is you are a huge Devolver nerd that's broken into a closed Devolver Expo because you just have to get the scoop on those new games!!. The whole game revolves around you walking from booth to booth armed with a T-shirt cannon trying to avoid security robots just to see those new games, all the while being yelled at by an automated voice that seems to know what you are going to do before you even do it. Super simple I know but I mean it beats not being able to go somewhere like E3 so you just sit around all day waiting for a live stream to start here there are no lines!!

Some of the games we get a closer look at are Shadow Warrior 3, Serious Sam 4, Carrion and Fall Guys (there are more but I mean go and see for yourself the games free!!). Understandably there are no demos for us to try but we do get to watch trailers and again there are never before seen games in here so it's way worth the time for those alone. The booths are laid out exactly how you would expect them to look at a con or expo but with a little video game flair like the Carrion monster crushing a security robot or some floating weapon pickups with serious sam. The booths really are a sight to behold and the feel of the game changes as soon as you step foot in one and you are transported to the world of whatever game you are there to see.

I know based on what I have said this game really doesn't seem like much but there is so much I cant say about it. Honestly, you really need to go and have a look for yourself Devolverland is jam-packed with jokes, gags and references from start to finish and there is a game here I just don't want to ruin it for those who haven't played it. So please go and play Devolverland Expo it a short one tome romp through a creepy convention centre where things aren't exactly as they seem.

[rewind-reviews]

So I've Been Playing.... Sea of Thieves

So I've been playing Sea of Thieves and I have somethings to say. I don't normally play a lot of multiplayer games mainly due to lack of friends so singleplayer is more my jam. That being said I do have a few games that I play with friends most notably Rainbow 6 Siege and of course Sea of Thieves.

I usually start with the story but with Sea of Thieves there isn't one, in fact, there is no progression what-so-ever. The whole point of Sea of Thieves is do whatever you want you are literally a pirate go find some treasure, kill a Kraken, fight some spooky scary skeletons and destroy some other pirates so you can own the seas!!

That's not to say that everything is pointless. While on your travels after selling all the loot you find mainly via means murder or treasure maps you will earn gold that you can spend on cosmetics. Honestly, I love this system so much, the fact everything is cosmetic means every last player new or old is at an even playing field for PVP plus it means you can have your character and ship look however you want them too and I'm talking all your guns and swords, all the usual clothes stuffs, down to cannons and sails and everything else for your ship. It's not perfect though. This game does feature one of the most hated demons in all of gaming... the dreaded microtransaction. The microtransactions are mainly used for seasonal cosmetics and pets such as cats, birds and monkeys. Again everything in Sea of Thieves is purely cosmetic so it doesn't make the game pay to win I mean it doesn't give you an advantage at all but I do personally feel the pets should be the same as all the other items in the game and be obtainable with in-game currency even if they were ridiculously overpriced at least then you would have something to aim for. Plus parrots and Pirates go hand in hand... come on.

Sea of Thieves looks god damn stunning there is no other way to say it. The game is sporting its own stylised visuals so not only does it look great now but it's going to look great for years to come. All the pirates look dirty and disgusting just as they should hell a lot of the characters are even missing teeth and scarred from battles already won. But the main feature is, of course, the Sea itself. Every single time I play this game I end up just sitting either at the end of the boat or up in the crow's nest just admiring the view and as weird as it sounds I always say "this game would make such a good screen saver" Because it would!! I could honestly stare at it for hours even the storms and rough seas are a sight to behold the whole sea as far as you can see becomes a murky endless black abyss the seems as if it could swallow you whole and believe me it can. Honestly, the visuals here are something you have to experience for yourself.

If you are going to play Sea of Thieves which you 100% should make sure to play it with friends I learnt that lesson the hard way sailing even the smallest ship alone isn't easy when a giant shark is trying to kill you. Not only does playing with friends make life way easier for you but what's a pirate without a crew?? Sea of Thieves has so much potential for stupid fun, a few examples of what happened to me are firing me out of a cannon into land breaking both my legs and nearly killing me, blowing up our boat with an explosive barrel killing everyone aboard, sailing outside of the map while being attacked by ghosts slowly destroying our ship and launching into a blind panic to try and fix the mess we made and just so much more. if you have a game night with friends or just want something new to play for sure pick this game up.

Sea of Thieves is one of the best gaming experiences I have had with friends in years and no matter how much I play I always want to play more. If you have the chance give thig game a try you will not regret it. Just don't get seasick, drink too much grog and for all that is holy DO NOT shoot the barrels when near the boat!!

Sorry, I have been away for so long a lot has been happening in my life so i haven't really been able to write but hey I'm back now and I hope you are all looking forward to some new stuff.

[rewind-reviews]

I know it's been forever but I am working on something and it should be ready soon. Thanks for understanding <3

[rewind-reviews]

Okay so my posts are going to be a little slower than usual due to a family member dying I'm sorry about this but I ask you to please understand and not hate me to much

[mousieex]

Drawing every character from Animal Crossing day 1.

[mousieex]

Drawing every animal crossing character day 2