Review Archives (Staff Reviews)

You are currently looking through staff reviews for PC games. Below, you will find reviews written by all eligible authors and sorted according to date of submission, with the oldest content displaying first. As many as 20 results will display per page. If you would like to try a search with different parameters, specify them below and submit a new search.

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	Sherlock Holmes: Nemesis review (PC) Reviewed on May 28, 2008 Arsène Lupin and Sherlock Holmes face off not in a book, but in an adventure game that encompasses all staples of the point-and-click genre, and manages to remain strictly faithful to the source material at the same time.
	Overclocked review (PC) Reviewed on May 28, 2008 Overclocked follows the story of David McNamara, former army psychiatrist, as he wanders the rain-slicked streets of New York, hunting for clues to uncover the mystery surrounding his five new patients.
	The Immortals of Terra: A Perry Rhodan Adventure review (PC) Reviewed on May 28, 2008 Perry Rhodan, for the uninitiated (or rather for those who haven't Googled his name for review purposes), is the star of a forty year old German space opera. Beginning life in print, the series is now a massive phenomena in its native land, spawning TV shows, Graphic Novels and now, a point and click adventure game.
	Half-Life review (PC) Reviewed on June 01, 2008 There’s a surprise around every corner, be it a new enemy, a new platforming challenge, or some new method of simply scaring the piss out of you, like watching a scientist get sucked into a hole in the wall, only to see him re-emerge in pieces a moment later. Take out any five-minute segment of Half-Life and it probably wouldn’t seem like anything particularly special – you have to play it all at once to fully understand just how well each piece compliments the next, how it all adds up to one nearly seamless FPS experience with rarely a single dull moment, or even one that feels like what you’ve already been through. It is truly greater than the sum of its parts.
	Half-Life: Opposing Force review (PC) Reviewed on June 08, 2008 My least-favorite segment of Half-Life was the journey through the border world Xen at the end, only because the human factor had been taken out of the equation, and battling the far less intelligent alien grunts got old after a while. Much of Opposing Force more or less feels like that entire sequence, only set in the Black Mesa facility itself. The good news is that the action is kept fairly interesting throughout thanks to some new (tougher) alien baddies to fight (whom I later learned are not from Xen, but from… uh, somewhere else). The game is simply never as exciting or action-packed as the original often was.
	Great War Nations: The Spartans review (PC) Reviewed on June 09, 2008 I thought this was supposed to be a historical RTS. You know, based on actual history. That's what it sells itself as, anyway...But I'm reasonably certain none of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean had the power to throw magical fireballs.
	Half-Life: Blue Shift review (PC) Reviewed on June 09, 2008 If Blue Shift were merely a simple rehash of everything we saw in Half-Life, I’d be cool with it, since I adored that game and would have loved to see more. But this expansion lacks many of the masterful touches that made Valve’s first-person shooter stand out so much. Level design is straightforward, mechanical, and lacks imagination; way too much of the game’s first act is spent wandering through some nondescript sewer system, turning wheels and pushing buttons and swimming down canals and all that. The game does eventually pick up a bit, during a semi-cool run through a train yard sporting a number of mildly exciting skirmishes with your old military opponents, but even here, the game lacks the energy and knack for big, “epic” moments that the original (and even, occasionally, Opposing Force) did so well.
	Dracula: Origin review (PC) Reviewed on June 10, 2008 Torchlight flickers ominously, shifting the shadows cast by ghostly slivers of light invading the darkness through a network of cracks in the ancient ceiling. A silver tomb sits surrounded by a slew of human remains; bared ribcages, chewed femurs, a shattered skull. An unholy groan emits from the coffin and, from an exposed hole in the corner snakes a rotting arm, longingly reaching for you. If a hungry immortal was not enough, behind the undead monster floats a malevolent green fog, one completely impassable without knowing the rite of passage. These events may not have come from Stoker’s pen, but may as well have.
	Belief & Betrayal review (PC) Reviewed on June 11, 2008 Belief & Betrayal is the latest adventure title from Italian developer Artematica Interactive, the company behind such horrors as the horrible Druuna game from 2001. Seven years later, and things haven't moved on all that much. The back-story and introduction are essentially made up of badly paced, unconvincing and uninteresting drivel. The blokes at Artematica seem to have tried reeling in the 'Da Vinci Code' crowd with an entirely unimaginative narrative centred around conspiracies within the Catholic Church, but the plot lacks so much conviction that it was always going to be impossible to pull off.
	BioShock review (PC) Reviewed on June 12, 2008 BioShock is an expertly crafted and finely tuned videogame: every inch of the level design has its place and purpose, and most of that purpose involves creating an astonishingly believable world out of something so incredible. The series of giant hubs that comprise the city are exactly as you’d expect the different districts to look, and contain exactly the amenities you'd expect to find there. The architecture in particular is wonderful: a phenomenal fusion of elaborate 50s art deco with the metallic necessity of constructing such an underwater world. Even the true greats at creating a palpable, utterly plausible environment – Deus Ex, Half-Life, System Shock 2 – didn't come anywhere near this incredible accomplishment.
	Spellforce Universe review (PC) Reviewed on June 21, 2008 It's hard to dispute the value of Spellforce Universe. The world is nearly endless, with many MANY locations to see, and an amount of lore that would fill a mighty tome. Quests come in piles to rival those of bodies left in your wake. For every flaw, there's a strength to hold it up, and a reason to persevere. Whether your goal is to see the next story, or see the next character ability, the game has something for you. After all, there's an entire universe awaiting.
	Sins of a Solar Empire review (PC) Reviewed on June 23, 2008 Sometimes it feels like the word massive was invented for this game, or if it wasn't, that until now you didn't really know what massive meant. Like maybe before you though elephants were massive, or whales, but then you play Ironclad's universe spanning RTS and you realise that elephants and whales are tiny, insignificant specks, smeared on the windscreen of a gigantic battlecruiser in the midst of a million, billion stars. It really is quite big.
	Space Station Sim review (PC) Reviewed on June 29, 2008 It is not the most complex simulator ever, or the most rigorous, or the longest, but that is a good thing. It is a short and to-the-point opportunity to give some thought to one field of science that we don’t often think about.
	Half-Life 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 04, 2008 Valve’s objective was to simply provide an FPS experience that surprises you around every turn and never stops entertaining. It works – every chapter in Half-Life 2 feels completely distinguishable from the last, and yet there isn’t a level in the game that I didn’t enjoy. Other developers should study Half-Life 2, because it’s a perfect example of how one game can so cleanly fit into a single genre, and at the same time constantly feel like something different.
	Half-Life 2: Episode One review (PC) Reviewed on July 05, 2008 If one thing really makes Episode One worth playing, it’s the connection to Alyx that starts thin but grows progressively stronger before the game’s three hours are up. In Half-Life 2, she was little more than a forgettable supporting character. In this episode, she’s at your side for the entire game, and provides both a surprising amount of battle support (it’s virtually impossible for her to die, so keeping her alive isn’t a concern) and a pleasant boost in morale. The Half-Life series has you doing a lot of cool things, so it’s nice that someone is finally acknowledging your heroics.
	Team Fortress 2 review (PC) Reviewed on July 06, 2008 Team Fortress 2 doesn’t have many maps, and of them, only about three or four are particularly popular. Yet they are so carefully designed, and inspire so many different approaches for both offense and defense, that in a way it doesn’t matter, because each game is completely different from the last, and all match each other in sheer intensity.
	Shadowgrounds: Survivor review (PC) Reviewed on July 07, 2008 I’ve no problems re-exploring claustrophobic corridors or rusting walkways infested with menaces not too happy to see you. I look forward to blowing them away in ridiculous numbers. Maybe it’s the sadist in me, or maybe Frozenbyte have simply gone ahead and made an addictive little game.
	Half-Life 2: Episode Two review (PC) Reviewed on July 12, 2008 Nearly every sequence takes you by surprise, and keeps you glued to the screen until the action is resolved. There is a helicopter chase. There is also a genuinely horrifying introduction to the Advisor, the only “true” Combine creature we’ve seen so far. Trusty robotic ally Dog has his moment in the sun, only before you finally reach White Forest and come to the realization that the game isn’t over yet – in fact, the most intense, exhilarating, large-scale battle the Half-Life series has ever seen is still just around the bend.
	The Lost Cases of Sherlock Holmes review (PC) Reviewed on July 14, 2008 Aside from the first case, which is complete filler in my opinion, the sixteen mysteries presented here are genuinely interesting. Examples include a man who takes off in a hot air balloon and crash lands after a dagger somehow finds its way into his back, a man who collapses in botanical gardens after suffering from a potentially fatal bee sting, a jewel theft on a speeding train and so forth.
	Great War Nations: The Spartans review (PC) Reviewed on July 15, 2008 In all, this is hardly a Hellish game. It throws in some really interesting mechanics (backed by opponents willing to make use of them at every opportunity) that makes Hellas interesting and that little more closer to the ideal strategy experience.

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