Borderlands (PC) Review

I'm somewhat conflicted about Borderlands. Technically, it's a solid game. It ran smoothly on my setup with a 2560x1440 resolution, an i7-6700k processor, and a GeForce 1080Ti, without any issues.

However, the gameplay feels dated. Movement lacks a sense of weight, and I frequently got stuck on level geometry, especially in densely packed areas. The vehicle controls are also unconventional, using mouse-based turning rather than the standard WASD movement, which took some time to get used to.

While I appreciate the cel-shaded graphics, the environmental design left something to be desired. The heavy use of grey and brown makes sense for a post-apocalyptic setting, but a bit more variety in the visuals would have been nice, even considering the game's era.

The much-touted weapon variety didn't impress me. I found most of the weapons to be underwhelming and felt they lacked significance. I ended up sticking with a few weapons throughout the game.

I played as the Soldier class, which was enjoyable. The gunplay is decent, but the endgame felt dragged out with a series of padded quests that ultimately failed to deliver a satisfying conclusion, leading to some boredom.

I didn't explore the DLCs due to a packed gaming schedule, so I can't comment on their quality.

I cautiously recommend Borderlands, especially if you're a fan of the series and want to experience its origins. For others, it might be worth a pass.

Batman Arkham City (PC) Review

Very solid game. Definitely worth playing. Main story takes about 13 hours to complete. There is a TON of side content.

Combat is the best part of this game and there is a lot to learn. After 13+ hours, I don't think I am anywhere near mastering it. There are parts that are unfair at times, especially when there are a lot of armed guards. Lack of auto-run will get you killed.

I had no technical issues. Worked fine on ultrawide resolution (3440x1440) without any mods. Game looks beautiful and animations are excellent (for the most part).

Game is made for consoles first. Controls are not PC optimized, same with the UX. Its not a big deal, but it would have been a lot better if there were PC specific controls etc. Lack of auto run is painful.

Story didn't make much sense. Its not bad, but it was forgettable.

Boss battles are kind of boring, but they are not overly frustrating, which is great. I typically do not enjoy boss battles in most games because the developers tend to design them in such a way that there is not a lot of player choice. This is true for Arkham City as well, but it was not done in a stupid manner like Tomb Raider Anniversary.

Level design is good, but sewer levels are very boring.

Over all, one of the very best action games ever made. Thoroughly recommended, especially if it is on sale.

Dishonored (PC) Review

Dishonored is one of the best single player games I ever played. It came very close to the original Deux Ex for me. There are so many ways to play this game - pure stealth, pure combat or a combination of both. The game manages to take player decisions into account and change things in subtle and interesting ways. The powers and skills acquired allow different ways to approach mission objectives.

UI is customizable, and the game works fine on ultra wide resolution (3440x1440). I never experienced any technical issues. It also has quick save, quick load, auto save and manual save. A true PC game.

I highly recommend it.

Doom Eternal (PC) Review

Doom Eternal annoyed me to no end.

Its a very polished game, and it looks great. When the game gets going, its a lot of fun. Its a functional product, and it works as advertised. Soundtrack is excellent, and the action is hectic. Is Doom Eternal a polished game that runs well? Yes. There is nothing technically wrong with the game.

However, I cannot recommend this game, because I did not have fun playing it. For fans of the first game expecting similar gameplay, understand that in certain aspects, Doom Eternal is a VERY different game. My biggest complaint are design decisions that get in the way of me having fun.

Generally, to acquire ammo, you have to kill grunts with the chainsaw, but you have limited amount of ammo you can carry (even with all the upgrades), and because weapons share the same ammo pool, such as double barrel shotgun and combat shotgun, running out of ammo with one weapon means you are out of ammo with the other (this is the same as the first game), but what makes it worse is how you constantly keep running out of ammo, and you have to use the chainsaw to kill a grunt to get some precious ammo, which by the way doesn't always top up the ammo supply AND you have to wait excruciatingly long for chainsaw fuel to auto refill. Its so dumb. Why not let glory kills refill ammo? They had the perfect system all worked out in the last game. Why change it?

To further add to my irritation, there are LONG platforming sections. I don't understand this. Why? Who wanted this? Its so poorly done too, it feels goofy and out of place.

The final levels are an incredible culmination of all the irritating design choices into one perfect package. When I beat the final boss...I stared at the screen for a good 30 seconds, in a state of introspection, thinking to myself, how with some minor tweaks this game could have easily surpassed DOOM (2016) in every respect. Such a pity.

I really wish I enjoyed this game, but I didn't.

Rise of the Tomb Raider (PC) Review

Rise of the Tomb Raider is a very solid sequel, and I really enjoyed this game. The graphics are top-notch — I played it at 3440x1440 resolution on a machine running an i7 12700k and a GeForce RTX 3080Ti with ray tracing enabled and I was getting over 100+ FPS with DLSS set to Quality mode. The attention to detail in the tombs you get to explore is outstanding, even extending to the optional ones. These optional tombs came closest to delivering the experience of the old games for me.

Level design in this game is exceptional, surpassing Tomb Raider (2013). Notably, the Syria level stands out as extremely well done. Combat mechanics are functional, and thankfully, unlike the last game, there aren't too many quick-time events.

However, the crafting system from the previous game makes a comeback, and unfortunately, it's not good. It feels out of place in a game like this. Having to constantly loot for resources becomes quite tedious. RPG mechanics don't make much sense in a fairly linear game such as this. Personally, I play Tomb Raider games to explore interesting levels, solve puzzles, and collect cool artifacts—anything beyond that feels like a distraction.

The voice acting for Lara Croft is very good, but I can't say the same for any of the other characters. The dialogue is often boring, and the overall story feels nonsensical. I don't understand why they felt the need to “humanize” Lara Croft, especially when they struggle to tell an interesting story. The original games kept it simple: Lara Croft is a rich adventurer who likes to raid tombs. Now, they've tried to create this elaborate backstory for her, which, in my opinion, detracts from the experience. The story of Rise of the Tomb Raider is essentially an Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade rip-off, told in a boring and lazy manner.

It took me about 16 hours to finish the main campaign and some of the optional tombs, which can be very challenging.

I got this game for free on the Epic Game Store, which, despite all the Fortnite money, is still not great. Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, the game is not available on GOG. I recommend buying this game on Steam, where it frequently goes on sale.

Assassins's Creed Origins (PC) Review

The best thing about Assassin’s Creed Origins is the game world. Ubisoft did a fantastic job creating Egypt. The map is massive, and strictly playing the story missions covers around 60% of the map—this is without any of the DLC content. Exploring the pyramids, the Sphinx, and other Egyptian landmarks is a lot of fun. The City of Memphis is particularly memorable to me. In the hands of a better studio, this game could have been a masterpiece.

Graphics fidelity is top-notch, and it’s very well optimized. At the absolute highest settings on 3440x1440, I was getting around 120 FPS on my GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. With the HUD elements disabled, it manages to look on par with Red Dead Redemption 2 in some areas.

Gameplay is very mediocre and extremely repetitive. It’s obvious that they are trying to imitate The Witcher 3, but it does not measure up. The mechanics seem very shallow, and they got boring fast. It suffers from the copy-paste design of Ubisoft games—bargain bin gameplay in a AAA open world. In true Ubisoft fashion, the map is full of markers, which robs the player of the joy of exploring and discovering something cool in the open world. Once a viewpoint is activated, everything in the area is highlighted on the map for the most part. There is no reason to go to a remote corner of the map because you know nothing is there other than maybe a trinket or two. But if it is anything remotely important, Ubisoft will make sure there is a question mark on the map. It removes any sense of discovery.

The bird is another goofy mechanic in the game. It’s basically a high-tech drone in the form of a hawk, and the game really wants you to use it. It could have been so much better, but Ubisoft can’t help themselves.

There are also those ridiculous modern-day sections, but thankfully, they are very short.

I am happy they removed looting animations from the previous games.

The story can be interesting in certain parts, but by and large, it’s nonsensical. The dialogue is very bad, and the characters are poorly written. It felt like they were trying to create a character like Geralt from the Witcher games but failed. Black Flag still remains the best in terms of story and characters. The final missions are extremely annoying because you don’t even get to play as the main character.

I paid $8.99 for this game, and I think I got my money’s worth. I recommend getting it on sale.

Call of Juarez (PC) Review

Released in 2006, Call of Juarez is an FPS set in the Wild West. I should have loved this game, but I didn't.

Considering the game was released 17 years ago, the visuals still hold up. Compared to most of the gray and brown shooters released around this time, this game stands out with colorful visuals. They successfully portrayed Mexico in a way that avoids the visual style of a Breaking Bad episode.

The story follows two characters, Billy Candle and Rev. Ray McCall, one seeking treasure and the other redemption. Techland explored the idea of finding redemption in the Wild West long before Rockstar. However, the story is not quite as interesting, and the voice acting can be amateurish at times.

Shooting is clunky and the weapon degradation does not help at all. McCall is more fun to play because you get to use guns, but the downside is that between episodes, you don't get to preserve weapons. There is no ADS when using pistols, and at times, you have to engage enemies at a distance. There are a lot of post-processing effects that obscure visibility, and fighting enemies with pistols at a distance is a frustrating experience.

But by far the most annoying mechanics are the melee combat and duels. I can forgive the awkward melee combat but detest the duels. I remember playing the demo way back in the day and hating it. That hasn't changed 17 years later.

There is very little player agency during duels. The mouse has a mind of its own. The game runs at over 200FPS on my machine, and I get the feeling that made things worse. I restricted the frame rate to 60 using RTSS, and I think it made the experience marginally better. In my opinion, it's incredibly bad game design to lock a player into a specific situation and impose very narrow criteria for success.

Billy leans more towards stealth, and using a bow is fun. However, the worst part about playing as Billy is the platform sections. First-person games around this time were not smooth enough to attempt first-person platforming. To say these sections are awkward and boring would be an understatement.

The game's default control scheme is a little weird. Horse sprint is mapped to Caps Lock on default. Why not use Shift? Who thought this was a good idea?

The disappointing part is that this could have been a timeless classic, but needlessly poor design choices prevent this game from reaching its potential.

Darkness II (PC) Review

I have not played The Darkness I because it was never released on the PC. Not having played the first game should not stop someone from playing this game. Just watch a YouTube video about the story of the first game, and you will be all caught up on the story. I should also mention that I knew nothing about the comics before playing this game.

A direct sequel to the first game, in The Darkness II, you resume the role of Jackie who is possessed by Darkness, which gives the player control of the demon and its underling.

From a technical perspective, I played this game in 2023 on i7-6700k, Nvidia 1080Ti at 2560x1440. Since this is a console port, it doesn't work well when the game is running at a very high framerate. Enabling VSync, should take care of these issues. This means that the game is going to run at a steady 60FPS, and while this is not ideal, I didn't mind it too much considering how old the game is.

The story doesn't pull any punches. From dialogue to gameplay, this is a game meant for mature audiences.

Combat is the real highlight here. In the right situations, when everything works, it is a lot of fun. Darkness abilities are a lot of fun to use, and using objects in the level to attack enemies is very well done. The one big complaint I had was the visual overload at times. The gameplay involves sticking to shadows, which gives you access to dark powers. Oftentimes in combat enemies will use light beams and these are blinding. They should have toned down the effects. I am willing to bet its not as bad when viewing this on a TV, but on a monitor it becomes really annoying and induces headaches.

In addition to this, the weapon system is clunky as well. You use Q and E to interact with objects. Pressing E allows you to eat hearts, which replenish your health. E is also used to swap weapons on the ground. When there are a lot of enemies and objects on the ground, you have to be careful about pressing E, or else you end up switching weapons without meaning to. It is aggravating in the heat of the battle and can get you killed. This could have been easily solved by automatically getting health from enemies, and without needing to go through the animation.

I got this game in a Humble Bundle for $1 (along with some other games). I got my money's worth. It takes about 6 hours to finish it, and its fun. I would not recommend paying the absurd non sale price of $29.99. If you can find it for around ~$3, and if you enjoy action games, go for it.

Verdict - Buy on deep discount.