Recent reviews by juliet ♡

To me, Rockstar Games is a weird studio. They make games that sell really well, and receive nominations for so many awards, yet still remain underwhelming in perception. Grand Theft Auto V is an example of this – it’s a fun game, especially playing with friends – it’s just… weird that it got so big.

I thought Red Dead Redemption 2 would be another GTA V. I was so wrong.

I don’t tend to play long, story-driven, cinematic video games often, so a lot of them go under my radar. This game was no exception. I’d like to thank my friends for encouraging (forcing?) me to play it, and others like it (please see Ghost of Tsushima).

I won’t lie and say this game is perfect: there were a lot of bits about RDR2 that annoyed me, especially early on. For example, Rockstar continues to make games for PC that are obvious ports of the console release. This game isn’t as bad as GTA V is in this regard, but it is noticeable. (It is worth saying that you do not need a controller to play this game, the UI is just built with a console-first outlook). Not only this, but there are moments where the immersion falters slightly – like when you’re travelling with NPCs and movement becomes a whole lot less intuitive, or when cinematics often lead to buggy models interacting with each other due to rendering them in the game’s engine.

Now with the entire story under my belt, I can say that these are the only issues I have with the game. Three extremely minor problems that you can – and will, as you play – see past. Time to talk about the good stuff (where do I even begin?)

I’ve played a lot of games in my time, and still knowing that I can say with confidence that Arthur Morgan is the best protagonist I’ve ever had the pleasure of controlling. The relationships in his life, his outlook on the outlaw way of living, his strengths, his flaws, his morals – you learn all about these and more, as well as how they evolve (and often devolve) throughout the course of this 70-hour, gripping, heart-wrenching, and unparalleled story. You really end up wanting to make the most respectable choices for him, because you know how it will affect those he loves and those who love him.

Even the smaller details about his character are particularly touching. He interacts with minor characters in respectful ways that other characters don’t even try to, he always cares for his family in ways that other characters fail to, and he loves in ways we don’t see other characters do. You can even read the journal he writes in – I used this as a recap of what happened during my previous session. As you play the game, his handwriting and illustration skills improve over time as he gains more experience with these creative outlets. He really is written to feel like a natural human being.

I mentioned wanting to make the most respectable decisions on Arthur’s behalf. Did you know the game changes depending on how honourable you act? Cutscenes, cinematics, and choices are unique to high and low honour – for the new players’ sake, I won’t get into specifics, but this is a clear sign of a well-written and immersive story.

When I play video games, I often don’t notice most of the soundtrack unless it’s pointed out to me in the moment. This isn’t the case for a score or specific songs that are closely tied to the playing experience, like Undertale for example – but for most games I’m usually doing something else while the soundtrack plays in the background so I struggle to pay attention to it. Having this in mind, the soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption 2 is incredible.

From the beautiful melodies that play while you traverse young America on horseback, to the dramatic symphonies that blast as you trek through rain and snow to put an end to your next foe really put you in the boots of a cowboy and rekindle your love for that slice of history. My favourite tracks are American Venom, Unshaken, and the House Building Song.

This review is already quite long, but I’m not lying when I say there is plenty more I could rant and rave about. Unfortunately, a lot of it requires you to play the game first and, well, that doesn’t really work for this type of review, does it?

If you haven’t played this game yet, I just hope reading this has prompted you to give it a go. I just hope you can experience this outstanding story – of the lust for greed, of the lust for power, and of corruption. But really, I just hope you’ll be okay standing by and watching it happen.

Wow, this game. It was so much better than I could have imagined.

I watched Rock Paper Shotgun's spoiler-free review of the game and that, tied with the endless amount of reviews I read saying "Please buy this game, it's excellent", you'd think it'd be a no-brainer for me to purchase this game. However, I still wasn't too sure. Looking back on myself now, it's hard to think about why I was so on the fence about it because this game is incredible.

It's honestly exactly what I'm looking for in a game - an outstanding story, fun movement mechanics, a very casual play style, amongst other things. A line from the RPS review mentioned above really stuck with me and that's "This game isn't Elite: Dangerous or No Man's Sky; it has no interest in capturing the bloody hard work of space travel - this is the childhood fantasy version where you can spot a glimpse of adventure of the horizon and be touching down in minutes." And honestly, that's a great description about what this game is about. There's no mental gymnastics about managing ship fuel, or inventory and loot. It's casual at the heart of it and I think that's what makes it so good - I really doubt I would enjoy it as much as I did if it were hardcore like those games are.

This game took me ~20 hours to 100%, and buying it for £20 means there was no penny that felt unspent. I would say the only nuance I have with this game is that all of the achievements - minus two - are hidden, meaning I had to look up what they were even called. I understand hidden achievements can be used to prevent viewers from spoiling the game for themselves, but considering there's no achievements linked to the story and there's other ways of doing achievements (like only hiding the description but making the name and picture visible) I think another route should have been taken. That being said, that wasn't much of a pain to do and given I completed 99% of the log myself before I looked them up, spoilers didn't affect me either.

I definitely recommend this game. It may sound like the rest of the reviewers on Steam and I are lying or going over the top saying this game is great - we're not, it really is. Please try it out for yourself.

This game is... alright. It's not outstanding and it's not terrible - and it's nowhere near as good as its predecessor, Mirror's Edge.

The main difference between this game and the first is the open world aspect. For me, it seemed like a really positive idea, but playing through the ~10 hour story going from the same rooftops to the same windows gets boring and tedious after a while. You have the option to fast-travel, however I never used it because it takes away from the core experience, the running and parkour.

They also changed the combat system, you can no longer pick up guns (boo!), you can now vary between light attacks and heavy attacks for some reason (boo!), but you also get rewarded when attacking enemies using the terrain around you (woo!) - eg. extra damage when wallrunning then kicking a K-SEC officer.

The movement mechanics are pretty much the same as the first, except adding in a few new features. Speaking of, there's an upgrade tree - meaning you don't have access to all of the movement mechanics from the get-go (like quick turning with Q), but earning upgrade points doesn't really take that long, but it's still worth mentioning.

This game is also easier than the first. The "runner's vision" in the first game that lit up doors is in this game too, except it exists in the form of a human shaped ghost that you follow like a satnav. There are options to change between full, minimal or off - I had it on minimal for the entire game, all it does is replace the runner with a red pulse than pulses the route when you press Alt but also keeps the red tints on obstacles. Some runners may think that it's a detriment to the experience as you're almost forced to follow one route as opposed to exploring other ways to navigate a scenario, but in the open world I often find myself relying on it a lot to make sure I take the correct corner.

The story is as good as Mirror's Edge stories go, the character development is pretty non-existent and you don't really feel connected to any of the cast; but this game isn't about the story so I don't really care.

Despite my many flaws with this game, I still enjoyed my experience. There's nothing better than pulling off an insane parkour run over some buildings first time, and because of that I would recommend this game. But if you asked me which to purchase out of the two games, I'd definitely say the first.

Mirror's Edge is known to many, but played by fewer. It's a 5 hour, parkour action game where you control Faith, a runner avoiding the law and the police. You feel like a badass during a lot of this game; jumping from rooftop to rooftop, but this game also presents a lot of challenges - trying to figure out how to get to the next red door, or coming up with methods of not getting shot to shreds by the onslaughts of police in the rooms you find yourself in. This game can be difficult at points, but nothing more than a puzzle game usually is -- I never found myself stuck on a section long enough for me to get frustrated and look up a solution, which makes this experience extremely rewarding. Worth the pick up, probably not at full price due to it being an 11 year old game with occasional frame drops, but considering I bought this at 90% off, I don't think it's rare to find a sale for this thing (see: SteamDB[steamdb.info]).

Footnote: I see a lot of reviews or discussions mad about how there aren't any PC controls. As long as you have your controller plugged in, the controller controls will show instead of KB+M, even if you're using KB+M. Unplug your controller for the PC controls to appear.

There's not a lot I can say about this game that hasn't been said already. But I'm going to talk about it anyway.

I have a bad habit of buying games that have really good user review ratings, or games that my friends recommend to me, and then not doing them justice by only playing them for a few hours, without even getting halfway. It's a shame, because it happened to Hollow Knight (and Touhou Luna Nights, before I kicked myself up the arse and told myself to finish it). So, I was skeptical of purchasing this game for that exact reason.

But let me tell you, I can barely put this thing down.

NieR:Automata is a story-driven, RPG, hack 'n' slash that has you play as 2B with your colleague 9S. The general background is that an alien race sent swarms of machines down at the humans on Earth, forcing the small group of survivors to flee to the Moon. From there, they deploy YoRHa -- a collective of androids that are sent down to Earth to rid it of its machine/alien rulers. That's where you come in. You're deployed down to the ruins of some city, told to introduce yourself with the nearby resistance camp, and the story starts from there.

So far, it may just seem like a generic third-person cutting simulator, but let me tell you, it is not. I don't want to say this game has lots of minigames, because the said "minigames" are so integral to the gameplay experience that it wouldn't be fair to call them "mini". This game, at certain points, transforms from a third-person experience into a side-scrolling adventure, a bullet hell, and a top-down game -- just to name a few. One of the said bullet hell parts of the game is hacking. When you initiate the hacking, the music turns from its orchestral glory into a chiptune, 8-bit style that plays for the duration of the hack. Then, once you're finished, it goes back to its original piece. All seamlessly. The chiptune comes in at the exact point the song is at when you enter the hack, and fades out to the original at the point in the song where you finish the hack. It truly is beautiful.

When finishing that above paragraph, it occurred to me I haven't spoken about the music. Oh my lord, what a soundtrack. All the "overworld" music sounds incredibly orchestral and legendary and is bound to make you nut every time you hear it. Just listen to Memories of Dust. Truly an incredible composition.

This game is definitely worth the £30 price tag as well. I have 27 hours at the time of writing and I haven't even finished the game yet. Do pick this game up, you'll be doing yourself a favour.

There's a reason this game has a 98%+ review score. It's an indie gem.

A Short Hike is a cute, adventure, flying sim game, where you play as a young bird called Claire who goes around a mountain range collecting golden feathers, which increase her flying and climbing ability. You can see the mechanics aren't complex at all, but translate into gameplay seamlessly. The story itself isn't too long, but I kept finding myself going off tangents, exploring nearby areas, and talking to NPCs elongating my story time in a very natural way.

Some NPCs present you with side-quests, but with no quest tracker it's entirely up to you if you want to complete them. However, none of them are that difficult (looking at you, beachstickball) and some of them are even quite fun, letting you explore the mountain in new perspectives.

In general, to test whether a new game is worth the money I spent on it, I work on a £1/hr regime. I wouldn't pay much more than £5 for this experience, as it isn't that long - but it's a good use of my time, self-isolating and waiting for Animal Crossing to release.

If I could come up with any downsides, it would be the arrow key controls are a bit finicky sometimes, and the fact you can't move the camera yourself results in some funny perspective changes when flying too quickly.

Pretty fun co-op multiplayer game, met some nice people through the Discord; plus has a native linux build. However, does get boring after 1 hr+ sessions

3 years ago, I wrote a review for this game, but I feel it fitting to start again and rewrite it as Monaco turns 10 years old this year.

Being one of the first purchases I ever made on Steam, I can't really remember what made me want to buy this game back in 2015. Perhaps it was the influence of playing with my siblings, and wanting a copy of the game for myself; or perhaps it was the iconic and unique blueprint-esque visual style that drew me and my siblings toward it in the first place. Either way, I'm so glad I bought it.

As you grow up, your tastes change -- I hate to break that to you if you weren't aware. You listen to different music. You like different films. You hang in different crowds. It's no different for the art style of video games. And yet, throughout all these years, Monaco stood as a pillar of my tastes - standing tall when others crumbled.

In present day, surrounded by critically-acclaimed releases such as Red Dead Redemption 2, The Witcher 3, or - hell, even The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim; you seem insane to have a list of favourite games with nothing but the "normie" picks. But there's something about Monaco that's different to all these. Something it does that makes me choose it over any AAA release, and most indie releases. It's complex, and yet there's no need for a traditional tutorial. It's chaotic, but I'm never blaming RNG for ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ me up. It's -- and I suppose this is my real point -- just good cheap fun. I always have a soft-spot for local multiplayer games that are Just Fun (see Unrailed, PlateUp!, etc.) and this is no exception.

Considering this game goes on sale for 20% of its original price, I definitely recommend you give Monaco a shot.

Having once reviewed this game when I had just 10 hours in it, I feel like I owe it a more up to date review.

Back when I reviewed it, I enjoyed my time playing it. In spite of that - like many other sandbox games without a clear goal - I struggled to find joy in ASTRONEER to keep playing it for more than 20 hours, after which I had researched everything possible and decided "Yep, I'm done". Oh, how naïve I was.

I've started a new save, played for nearly 30 hours and am only just finding it to be a little slow, as I've completed almost all the content. As I mentioned above, the fact there was no clear goal hindered my appreciation for it. However, the developers recently added a "mission" feature, where you get clear checkpoints and goals to aim for that divide your time up meaningfully. My only gripe would be that the missions aren't exactly optional, as you get items or schematics as rewards, meaning your time and research bytes can be used elsewhere, severely cutting down the time it takes to do stuff. Anyhow, I think this addition is a great one, but could do with some refining.

The missions also nudged me along and inspired me to automate parts of my base, which is such a cool thing to do regardless of the game you're playing. At the moment, ASTRONEER's automation is very primitive (there are some sensors, the option for factories to automatically keep producing their recipes without human intervention, and Auto Arms - the equivalent of Factorio's inserters) but this is nowhere near a bad thing. The issue I find in games like Factorio is that you effectively put yourself out of work for periods at a time, as you're just waiting for things to get done. But because you can't do everything with automation in this game, it's never a chore once you've set up a working production factory.

The multiplayer has also had a major improvement. Back when I left my first review, the multiplayer was unstable and laggy, resulting in random disconnects and subsequent frustration. However, they've really brought it back to life; I have played quite a bit of the multiplayer recently and cannot complain about it at all.

I definitely recommend getting this game. Although it is a rather steep purchase at full price, I believe it's worth it.

Interesting and educational, quite difficult sometimes too - however, not frustratingly so. Worth the pick up if you've got the money.