Three reviews for three spots today. And I'm swamped at work so this will be brief. Be happy I even did it! Or be very, very unhappy. Either way, here it is.
Check that: four reviews. Almost forgot about Nightfire's Thief review, which was held over from last week.
THIRD PLACE
Joe's Betrayer (PC)
Solid review of one of those games with a lot of potential, but not so much execution, leaving you with a lukewarm reaction along the lines of "It was meh, but could have been great". You did a good job of showing why you were torn. Some of your early descriptions made me very interested in this game, but as you kept going on, you brought in more and more negatives ("Oh, yeah, it would really suck doing FPS stuff with colonial-era muskets…") to the degree where I'd probably be happy to just read a synopsis of the game's story and call it a day.
---
SECOND PLACE
Nightfire's Thief (PC)
This was just a very good takedown of a game that seemed to be a letdown in every way possible. I had no idea why it was part of Project Horror until I read the end of your review and then did a bit of research to find out how all that tied into things, but now I know! It really just seems like someone got their hands on a known license and decided to create GENERIC ACTION TITLE #3493748, regardless of how that template fit into said license. And you proved that again and again and again with descriptions of the overpowered hero, how stealth is not a necessity, how the enemy AI is lacking, how the story and actual gameplay contradict themselves and so on. I enjoyed this review as much as I would not enjoy this game.
---
REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)
Pickhut's Please Don't Touch Anything (PC)
If there's one thing I truly like about doing RotW, it's how I'm finding myself reading about these games I'd never heard of and likely wouldn't even think about possibly playing if I had and then finding them far more interesting than I would have guessed. This is a great example of one of those games. You made an exercise in pushing buttons and whatnot seem really interesting and involving. I really dug the intro where you mention what happens if you don't push anything before going into a bare-bones description of how the game works and how much work you'll have to do in order to find all the game's many endings; essentially turning a tiny diversion into a full-blown time-eater. Good stuff!
---
Next up is next week. Where another judge will have a few more reviews to handle, it seems. Before going, I do have to say this about Zach's Valkyrie Drive review, which was good enough to place some weeks that I've been doing this. Around the time you got up to the Rack Rank part, I got this flashback to a number of years ago when we had one of our largest yearly contests of that time and Guts got second place for reviewing a completely fictional game that only existed in his imagination. I mean, I was reading and all of a sudden started to wonder if I was reading about something that actually exists or if I was being hoaxed. That amused me.
Check that: four reviews. Almost forgot about Nightfire's Thief review, which was held over from last week.
THIRD PLACE
Joe's Betrayer (PC)
Solid review of one of those games with a lot of potential, but not so much execution, leaving you with a lukewarm reaction along the lines of "It was meh, but could have been great". You did a good job of showing why you were torn. Some of your early descriptions made me very interested in this game, but as you kept going on, you brought in more and more negatives ("Oh, yeah, it would really suck doing FPS stuff with colonial-era muskets…") to the degree where I'd probably be happy to just read a synopsis of the game's story and call it a day.
---
SECOND PLACE
Nightfire's Thief (PC)
This was just a very good takedown of a game that seemed to be a letdown in every way possible. I had no idea why it was part of Project Horror until I read the end of your review and then did a bit of research to find out how all that tied into things, but now I know! It really just seems like someone got their hands on a known license and decided to create GENERIC ACTION TITLE #3493748, regardless of how that template fit into said license. And you proved that again and again and again with descriptions of the overpowered hero, how stealth is not a necessity, how the enemy AI is lacking, how the story and actual gameplay contradict themselves and so on. I enjoyed this review as much as I would not enjoy this game.
---
REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)
Pickhut's Please Don't Touch Anything (PC)
If there's one thing I truly like about doing RotW, it's how I'm finding myself reading about these games I'd never heard of and likely wouldn't even think about possibly playing if I had and then finding them far more interesting than I would have guessed. This is a great example of one of those games. You made an exercise in pushing buttons and whatnot seem really interesting and involving. I really dug the intro where you mention what happens if you don't push anything before going into a bare-bones description of how the game works and how much work you'll have to do in order to find all the game's many endings; essentially turning a tiny diversion into a full-blown time-eater. Good stuff!
---
Next up is next week. Where another judge will have a few more reviews to handle, it seems. Before going, I do have to say this about Zach's Valkyrie Drive review, which was good enough to place some weeks that I've been doing this. Around the time you got up to the Rack Rank part, I got this flashback to a number of years ago when we had one of our largest yearly contests of that time and Guts got second place for reviewing a completely fictional game that only existed in his imagination. I mean, I was reading and all of a sudden started to wonder if I was reading about something that actually exists or if I was being hoaxed. That amused me.
I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle
