Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Oct. 7 to Oct. 13, 2019 -- And OctJOEber continues...

Not counting my own review, which is not in the running until next week, there were eight reviews from five unique contributors this week. Not bad! And "not bad" would be underselling the content we saw. There were a lot of reviews for horror games (particularly from Joe, of course), but the wide variety of approaches prevented that from ever getting dull. And there were some contributions from people we haven't seen a lot of--or anything from, until now--on the site. So it was a pretty exciting week, all things considered.

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First up, here's a look at the reviews that didn't place in the top three, whether because a single author can only rank that high once (in Joe's case) or because competition was pretty furious this week.

Cold Fear (Xbox) by JoeTheDestroyer

Your second sentence has some issues: "Instead of cracking open some cold brews and making bad jokes at this home in [insert quiet suburban town where Tom likely grew up], he has to fly to a whaling ship and respond to dire situation." That should be "at his home" and "respond to a dire situation." The first sentence in paragraph three would be more impactful if you lost "also" or "either" and went with just one or the other. But otherwise, this was a strong review on the sentence-by-sentence level and an interesting, convincing dress down of a game destined to be forgotten. It does seem to be addressed toward other horror veterans, since genre newcomers probably won't share your familiarity with points from which enemies will emerge (when I play a horror game, I'm basically just suspicious of everything and also busy wishing I were playing something else). But that's okay, too. For its audience, I think think this is likely to be a very useful review indeed.

Ghosts 'N Goblins (NES) by JoeTheDestroyer

Your introduction here was clever, but I think it went on a bit longer than was warranted to make the point that the game hates you. Trim a little bit and combine those first two paragraphs and I feel it would work more effectively. The first sentence of your sixth paragraph also says "an way out," which I suspect resulted from some last-minute revision. In the second-to-last paragraph, you say "halls a few time, and..." when you need an 's' on "times." By the way, what spinoff trilogy are you referencing at the end? I know there were two Maximo games, not three, so is there something else I'm for-- oh, you mean the Gargoyle's/Demon's Quest games. But anyway, I'm surprised you hadn't gotten around to covering this one during a previous year of horror-themed game reviews. You've made up for that now, with another great review of an old friend. Er... enemy.

The Darkness (PlayStation 3) by JoeTheDestroyer

"However, irritating as this misstep sounds, it's the last of the game's woes..." I think you mean "least" of the game's woes, or there wouldn't be much of a review to follow. And in fact, from there you go into some great discussion of the overpowered hero and the inept AI, so my suspicions were confirmed. I liked how you acknowledged and effectively dismissed the idea of just relying on more conventional shooting, since the game also messes up that mechanic. Your conclusion ties nicely into your introduction, and works well because you covered each point in detail along the way. In the end, I'm left with a bit of sadness because The Darkness sounds like it was almost great. Didn't they make a sequel? I seem to recall there being a sequel.

Penumbra: Black Plague (PC) by zork86

I like your sentence describing the improved enemies in this game, versus the first game. The examples you provide and the conclusions you draw make it clear you have something specific to say about this game, rather than some of the general talk about sequels that served as your opener. The main thing working against this review getting better placement was the rather slow pacing. You tended to take longer than felt necessary to make some of the less interesting points, and sometimes you would repeat your points a bit without adding any new information, so that there wasn't a good sense of momentum. Consider this sentence: "In some ways, these guys are more intelligent than the enemies in Amnesia, I’m sure that’s by design and on purpose though." It follows the paragraph where you already established that enemies are more intelligent in this game, so it feels unnecessary. Also, you describe the change as "by design and on purpose," when simply saying it was one or the other would make the same point. I think a little more time in revision would have caught stuff like that and led to a stronger review overall, but it's not weak as-is and you definitely made your points. Good work!

NamCollection (PlayStation 2) by namcokid47

Welcome to the site! It's always good to see fresh faces, and your debut review was quite good. The biggest mark against it was some rough writing here and there, including this portion of the first sentence in your second paragraph: "Unlike the majority of Namco's classic game collections, NamCollection does focus on the usual 80's arcade game flair". I believe you meant to say it DOESN'T focus, and also I suspect "flair" was meant to be "filler," but maybe I'm wrong on that second point. Occasional rough writing aside, though, this was a review with good structure and some nice, insightful analysis of an import compilation not many will have experienced. You did well to cover finer details, like the reworked compositions of Shinji Hosoe and the support for the NeGcon controller. I don't know how long you've been reviewing games before posting this review here, but the good quality suggests you've been at it for some time. I hope you'll stick around and keep at it.

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And here are my comments on the three reviews I liked most this week...

Third Place: Gears 5 (Xbox One) by EmP

Your thesis is pretty clear: Gears 5 half-heartedly attempts to jump on the open world bandwagon and loses too much of what once made the franchise special. Touch up a few rough sentences and there's not much to complain about there, but the curse of a mediocre game is that it too easily results in a bored writer without much to say beyond cursory criticism. That's what holds your review back from higher placement. It's a solid review, just not up to your usual level.

Runner Up: The Sinking City (PC) by AbsoluteDeicide

This was an enjoyable review for a game I was curious about, and I'm glad you saw fit to share it. I liked your third paragraph in particular, which expertly cut to the heart of the game's issue: rough edges and limited unique content. But you did a good job of making it sound interesting in spite of those flaws. There were a few rough sentences throughout, where you said "it's" when you didn't need the apostrophe, or where you said "fiskmongers" when you meant "fishmongers," or similar. But like the game itself, a few warts didn't really get in the way of a solid end result. I hope another year won't pass before we see another review from you, when this is the sort of writing you're capable of producing!

Review of the Week: Abasralsa (PC) by JoeTheDestroyer

I love this sentence: "Questionable design like this isn't just a red flag, it's a red national anthem." Actually, your review was full of clever zingers. I liked the bit about the Harlem Globetrotters, as well, and there were others. This game sounds simply wretched, and even though I would never have purchased it in the first place, someone else might have. I hope that hypothetical someone else comes across your review and finds it as useful as I found it enjoyable. Of course it was this week's winner...

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Thank you all for making this another tough week to judge. I can't wait to see what each of you do next!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

I appreciate the victory and the critiques! Thank you very much, and congrats to AbsoluteDeicide and EmP as well.

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.