Reviews

It's hard to say why people removes one A from the AAA when describe this game. It feels like a typical Playstation exclusive, trying to look like a movie. From the very beginning, we are told that this is a serious story, aimed for many awards and make you write long reviews after you finish it (Oops). Usualy when focus goes to story, gameplay always suffers. So, what I get this time? Female God of War, Death Stranding with swords or Grim Lollipop Chainsaw?

True, here is "no fun allowed" club, but you must be know about that and be in right mood before you start playing. The topic is important. Main focus of the game are mental disorders that built twisted reality of main character — Senua. This is not just buzz words, and the consultants writen in the credits really helped to convey realistic hallucinations and posible source of this problem.
At second layer same old story of fathers and children, but being told within fictional dark ages feels fresh and adds a lots of nuances.
While playing, we are constantly told by the myths and legends of the Vikings, which in some ways resemble the fate of Senua herself. There are many, but most likely you already know them. But as a little distraction, during constant walking just fine.
Well, what kind of movie can be without lovestory? The strongest motivation that drives the hero forward through monstrous trials is salvation of the soul of the beloved, whose head hangs on her waist. And it realy works! I belived that this is very important goal and worth all this suffering.


I played in headphones, as recommended and it's really impressive: the sound here deffinetly works on a new quality level, which no one has yet approached! The whispers of inner voices comes from different sides and actors' play make you believe in Senua's teared personality. Voices speak contradictory phrases, forcing player to doubt his actions and wait for a threat that didn't exist. I've been caught once, when they make me to believe that the torch can go out — bravo! Also, voices are clever used as pointers, suggesting where to go and what to do.
Visual style is also beautiful, but we've already seen this. All these cold rocks, moss, wild plants and shackled together wood logs have appeared many times in many games. Even Viking castles not surprise anyone. But still visuals are impressive: I stopped many times, just to look at the sunlight reflected in the puddles. Btw, Ninja theory continue to use live action footage. This time actors placed right in scene and camera matches with their position so they didn't looks flat (like in Myst). Very clever.


As new thing, developers have made original puzzles, playing with enviroment. Finding symbols in the environment is fresh idea (if you didn't play The Witness before), and perfectly illustrates real mental problems when a person searches for unnecessary patterns around before doing something. Unfortunately, to get this working and to be sure that player didn't stuck somewhere, puzzles have to make very simplistic. The necessary objects always in sight, and when you stand next to the right place screen start to flow with lights. It is difficult to imagine how to do it different, so I assume that developers did alright.

I heard many complained about combat system, but I was quite satisfied with the fighting. It allows you to maneuver between enemies, constuct effective series of attacks and at the same time become hard when you get damage by adding long pauses between attacks. The set of movement will even increase slightly during the game. However, you still get bored from constant repetition of the same enemies.
It's less a game and more of a story than you might think, but without interactivity, it would never be so immersive. I was scared, angered, amazed and confused for real so this is definitly worth playing. 

Really loved this one. Black the Fall didn't get too much praise or attention (after release when it's most needed), although in my belief it should. There are two core reasons for it. First of all, even though you barely hear or read a word in it, it's a narrative puzzle game, where the story is told throughout the environment and objects, rather than words. It's a game about factory worker trying to escape an authoritarian regime, heavily inspired by communist rule. Since I'm coming from a country that used to experience that rule, I have some understanding of its aesthetics and zombified daily life. Black the Fall catches some details to describe that era and at the same time, it's not lecturing or annoying. For example, it's graphics and artistic style, for many eyes may look half-baked or incomplete, some models are pretty detailed and animated, some are simple and ugly, some are without any texture at all. Some of us may see it as a bug, while I see this as an exceptionally realistic resemblance of communist past. Pretty much everything, starting with household items, ending with entire living districts looked that way. Some things where half-baked because there were no resources, nor sense of style, while other things looked unfinished and almost ready to collapse due to organized theft. Somehow Black the Fall managed to manifest it all through surroundings of the game, but I won't argue, maybe I see those things because I want to. For a westerner, this game may look rather different, somewhat reminiscent of old Apple ads, but then again, it's a touching aspect of the game (it would be interesting to see how it would look if we would remove communist propaganda from tv screens and replace it with modern fox news broadcasts). It shows a regime, clearly based on Ceaușescu's communist rule, but the ending gives a glimpse of a modern-day Romania and it's lingering problems. In other words, Black the Fall kind of reminds us that history tends to repeat itself and this reminder is as timely as ever.
The second reason is the gameplay. It's somewhat reminiscent of a cult classic „Another World“, but also offers a variety of puzzles. Yet, the overall experience is way too short and it's probably the case where developers should've played with assets and existing puzzles to just fake and bloat an amount of content. It's a platforming puzzle game, mostly focusing on logical pathfinding problems, but also offering some cool puzzles with physics, companion dog usage, lightning or unexpectedly changing perspective. Puzzles are designed very well, since each one of them is solvable without external help, by just staring at the problem for 5 to 10 minutes. It's a perfect balance when the game doesn't feel too easy and progressing through it is still rewarding, but... Since there are no puzzles that make you stuck for an hour, overall playthrough time feels way to short for asking price of 15EUR. However, if you see it discounted, I would really recommend you to give it a go.

Well it's a weird case of being able to write a review in one sentence — „Not as good as Rayman Origins, or Rayman Legends :D.

No, but seriously — Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is a marvelous, beautiful platform, action game with a dash of puzzles presented via level design, hidden areas and boss fights. Great purchase for families or households with several players, cause it's actually better, funnier and feels beatable when played in couch co-op mode :D. With that said, I just have to add, that from the moment when Rayman Origins exploited this approach, no one really could do it better. Donkey Kong Country gets really close, but it's a bit lacking. It's beautiful and well executed, but its difficulty increase is quite steep going from chapter to chapter. Of course, there are assists, like special modes for noobs, or ability to skip a level, but those are a bit over the top, to be used by anyone willing to beat the game as it is. Rayman, for example, has a more balanced curve with a plethora of levels giving time to grasp new mechanics and increasing tempo. Also, Rayman can solve difficult issues by simply inviting more friends (up to 4) to play, since the game gets a bit easier with more people joining (one can always stay safe and revive others). So I wrote all this to really encourage people to try Rayman first, since the game is available on all consoles, while Donkey Kong Country is more suited for those obsessed with Nintendo characters and those who had enough of Rayman already :D.