Welcome to This Is Not A Review. In these articles we discuss general impressions, ideas and thoughts on any given game, but as the title implies, it’s not a review. Instead, it’s an exercise in offering a quick recommendation (or dismissal) after spending enough time to grasp the ideas and gameplay of a thing without necessarily playing it from A to Z.
The subject of this installment: The Spectrum Retreat, developed by Dan Smith Studios and published by Ripstone.
HIGH Exploring new areas in the Prey universe.
LOW The difficulty growing more aggressive the longer I played.
WTF That disgusting broken bone leg-crunch sound? Yeeeeeesh!
HIGH Safe Mode opens the door for timid players to experience SOMA’s story.
LOW Chase sequences now lack a sense of danger.
WTF I’ll never get used to using the right trigger to interact with objects.
HIGH The bank heist!
LOW New Game+ options are underwhelming.
WTF I’m still mad they replaced The Outsider’s voice actor in Dishonored 2.
Hitman developer IO Interactive has had a rollercoaster of a year.
Halloween 2016 marked the final release of new content for the rebooted version of the franchise, and Square Enix (Hitman‘s publisher) announced it was parting ways with IO Interactive. While the pub let IO keep the Hitman IP, its future was unclear. However, the first act of IO as an independent developer was announced today.
HIGH Feels incredibly fresh and innovative.
LOW Trades innovation for harsh difficulty spikes later on.
WTF The protagonist’s name is… En?
HIGH The bubble wrap room.
LOW The echolocation hook doesn’t build to anything satisfying.
WTF Why doesn’t Cassie’s voice produce sound waves?
HIGH Top-notch art direction and animation.
LOW Repetitive puzzle elements.
WTF The endearing character models look creepy after a while.
HIGH Assembling paper butterflies.
LOW Too many dialogue-matching puzzles.
WTF Magic fire-controlling abilities?
HIGH The immaculately-recreated Volterra asylum
LOW It feels like a VR tech demo with no console VR support.
WTF Icky sexual assault scenes.
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