AntiSol 最近的评测

It's a puzzler with Zach Barth's name on it, so of course I recommend it! Kaizen is his first post-Zachtronics puzzler. I'm glad the team are back at it, I was sad when Zachtronics shut down.

If you:
a) Have never played a Zachtronics game, or
b) Already own all the Zachtronics games,
Then yes, you should totally buy Kaizen - It's a good game.

Kaizen is a bit more "Accessible" than any of the earlier Zachtronics games. You should probably decide for yourself whether that's a good thing or not.

I can see both sides of the coin: If you found the Zachtronics games too complex, or inaccessible, or lacking in story, or you've never heard of a zach-like before, then Kaizen will probably please you: It's got much more story (and voice acting) than any of the other games, and I think the puzzler aspect is simpler/easier than most - it's closer to e.g molek-syntez or spacechem than any of the more heavy programming games: you're buildling a factory to move pieces around and joining them together in the right way, as opposed to explicitly writing code.

Personally, it's not my favourite of Zach's games (I think Infinifactory is my #1, then it's a close call betwen Shenzhen I/O and TIS-100). Being a coder, the Zachtronics programming games were like catnip for me, and this feels "more like a conventional game" (you could also say "less pure"), exactly because it has all the voice acting and the longer story segments that are separate from the puzzles. I think I prefer the way Infinifactory's storytelling is integrated into the world and puzzles, or the more obtuse, piece-it-together-yourself storytelling in TIS-100.

Don't misunderstand - none of this it to say Kaizen is bad - it absolutely isn't, and it's absolutely worth buying if you're in either of the camps above. It looks pretty, plays well, and runs great on Linux, But If you've completed one or two zachtronics games and want more of that, I'd suggest checking out the others and coming back to this when you've completed those. My personal opinion is that "more conventional" is the opposite to the direction I want to see Zach's games going, and to fans of the genre he pioneered (invented?), this might feel like a step backwards.

Hugely impressive and ambitious, but not finished. ARK has the potential to be a really excellent game, if all the bugs are ever ironed out (hint: they never will be). At first the bugs will just be annoyances, but once you’ve put some real time into this game they’ll come to rule your experience and you’ll find yourself increasingly frustrated.

Two particularly big ones are dinosaur AI and building structures. You’ll find your tame dinosaurs getting constantly stuck while they’re trying to follow you, to the point that you’ll have to turn around every minute or so to count how many dinosaurs are following you and go back and rescue stragglers. This isn’t such a big deal when you have 3 dinos following you a small distance, but it becomes incredibly tedious when you have 15 and you’re on an epic 20km journey. As for building structures, I hope you like grinding to collect resources, because you’ll spend 20 minutes collecting stuff to craft a piece of a structure, and then the game will refuse to place it where you want it, so you have to demolish something and go out to collect the necessary resources to rebuild in the esoteric order the game wants. Or the game will place it in the wrong place, or in the wrong direction, and you’ll be left with no choice but to demolish the structure and go out and collect more resources to rebuild.

If you search around a bit, you’ll find that both of these issues have been problems for many years, and that no fix is likely to ever be forthcoming. It seems that the devs are too busy building DLC and remaking the game in UE5 (available for "only" another $70, with no Linux build, and more DLC coming soon!) rather than finishing the game. See also the fiasco where the scorched earth DLC was released while the game was still in early access, to the ire of many. Apparently the solution to that problem was to just remove the ‘early access’ tag, to hell with the bugs. I'll give them this: At least their behaviour is consistent with all the other big game studios out there. If anything, they're a modicum more honest: most other game companies would give you a marketing-speech statement saying that it was "unavoidable and regrettable" that they had to screw you over. The ark devs are much more transparent and naked in their greed.

I’d really like to recommend ARK, there really is a fantastic game buried under all those bugs, and perhaps one day these issues will be addressed and I’ll re-visit this review, but as it stands this game is regrettably not worth the AAA price tag attached to it. If you can get it for less than $20 with all the DLC then I’d say it’s probably worth it.

I *adore* carrion, it is simply magnificent in every respect. I think probably the only thing I could fault it on is that it is too short, i.e it has an ending and has less than infinity levels. Though to be fair it does have first-class mod support, a level editor, and several great expansions so in a way if kind of does have infinity levels.

The premise: you are a simple, innocent, multi-mouthed and betentacled polymorphic biomass, similar to but legally distinct from the creature in The Thing, intent only on sharing your special brand of love with the rest of the universe's creatures by becoming one with them. You travel about a kajillion light-years to a small blue-green planet somewhere in the uncharted backwaters of a nondescript galaxy, only to be immediately captured and cruelly experimented on by their scienticians! Luckily, these "hunams" who have captured you are silly creatures and have critically underestimated just how flexible you are, so you manage to escape your confinement. Now all you need to do is make it out of the sprawling gubmint facility where you were being held. Along the way you will encounter hordes of enemies ranging from defenseless to terrifying, and puzzles ranging from simple to devious. You will also find several other captives similar to yourself, and take the opportunity to merge with their biomass, gaining new abilities from them and growing in size as you make your way to the surface.

Carrion is spectacular. It is resplendent. Where to begin?

The Graphics. Carrion uses a pixel-art style which might look simple at first glance, but is subtle in its complexity, and oozes atmosphere. In addition to the pixel-art style, you'll also see some really great use of smoke/particle and lighting effects which fit right in and really look awesome, taking the graphics to the next level.

The Soundtrack is really fantastic. Think of every horror movie soundtrack you've ever heard, put them all in a blender, then add action cues and reactivity when battles break out. It's really really great. If you listen, you'll hear cues quite reminiscent of several classic horror movies, and the music always adds to the atmosphere of the environment you're in. And then you'll stumble into a room and find yourself forced to battle it out with a mech similar to, but legally distinct from, the one in aliens and you'll hear the classic "bwah" hit, similar to, but legally distinct from, the one in every Christopher Nolan movie.

The level design is something special. Each level has its own feel and despite using a somewhat simple tiled pixel-art aesthetic, the design is distinct enough that you're not going to get lost or confused, instead you'll find yourself saying "oh I'm back here" as you explore the facility looking for your way out. This is helpful as the levels are inventive and tend to branch out from central hubs and get more complex as you open up more areas. You'll also find yourself up against a series of environmental puzzles which will get more difficult as the game progresses, but which are never so challenging as to be frustrating - you will spend your time exploring more often than you'll be scratching your head wondering what to do next. The level design also combines realy well with the special abilities you'll gain throughout your playthrough, with previously inaccessible areas becoming accessible as you gain new abilities, and you'll be rewarded for going back and exploring previous areas once you've gained a new ability.

The gameplay is really fantastic, with an innovative control scheme unlike anything I've played before. It has similarities to a twin-stick shooter, but it's really not that. And the gameplay and level design has really excellent progression, introducing new abilities, teaching you their mechanics, and then introducing puzzles to solve with them, gradually getting more challenging and introducing new elements as the game progresses.

The violence, and the gore. Oh, the glorious, gratuitous, hilarious, pixel-art gore, and the hilariously over-the-top ultra-violence. It's a sight to behold. Viscera will fly and paint the walls red as you rip the puny hunams in half, throwing them across the room into each other, or picking up desks, doors, grates, or whatever else is lying around and throwing them at the hunams fast enough to break them in two, and then you'll devour them whole to recover your biomass. Laugh and enjoy as the defenseless scientician cowers in the corner whimpering while you force him to watch as you consume all his friends alive before finally consuming him, too. The best way to deal with a room full of hunams with weapons is often to launch into a paroxysm of ultra-violence. These never cease to be a delight as you create interesting works of art in shades of red on the ceiling, walls, and floor, turning an orderly laboratory into a scene of utter chaos in the span of ten seconds or so.

The story. Carrion has a minmalistic story, but it does have a story told through several "cutscenes" where you control one of the hunams. There is a story there, but I found it a little big ambiguous and thought it could perhaps use some more text dialogue or even some voice acting in these parts. Fortunately though this story isn't hugely important, I don't think, in much the same way that you don't need to know The Thing's backstory for it to be a great sci-fi horror movie.

The tropes. So. Many. Tropes. This is a love-letter to horror and sci-fi movies, particularly The Thing. But it also blends in elements from several other horror and/or sci-fi films, but does so in a way that they're just generic enough to not be a wink or a nod to any specific movie most of the time. The game is not saying "hey look at me! Remember Aliens?", it tends instead to use the devices and tropes from that genre of film to enhance the story and atmosphere of the game with very minimal visual cues. It's glorious.

There are not many games which I have the patience to 100%, but with Carrion it was easy for me to do so - I wanted more game. This kind of comes back to my one criticisim - which is sort of a real criticism - the story mode was too short for my liking. i probably completed it in about 10 hours and 100%'d the game in 15 hours or so. But this is a slight criticism because as mentioned it has a level editor and great mod support. Not only did I 100% it, I then went and played the christmas DLC and a bunch of user level packs.

Carrion is one of the best games I've played this decade. I can't recommend it highly enough. The premise and gameplay work together to create a really unique and supremely enjoyable experience. The graphics, music, and sound are pitch-perfect for what the game is trying to do. I didn't encounter a single bug or crash or weird behaviour in the course of 100%ing it, or in any of the addons I played. I would buy a sequel in a heartbeat and will likely be watching for other titles from this developer. Highly, highly recommended.

To be honest, I was never a huge fan of the top-down scrolling shooter genre. I always thought it peaked decades ago with galaga.

But retaliate has a spin on the genre that I did like: limited ammo, and using a shield to absorb bullets fired at you. This adds a resource-management angle that I've not seen in the genre before. I did enjoy it. It's got everything you'd expect from a top-down shooter, plus the interesting new mechanic.

The controls are tight and responsive and it plays well. It is very pretty and has cool music. It runs really well on Linux (I'm told it was built on Linux, too).

I don't think I'd personally pay AU$14.50 for it - there's a ton of games available for that sort of money that I personally find more compelling. BUT: if you like a top-down shooter you'll probably enjoy this a lot and think it's worth more than I do.

My recommendation is hesitant because I feel like it's a little overpriced, but otoh I couldn't bring myself to not recommend it, either. If you think you'll like it and you don't mind the price, recommended.

Simply Magnificent.

Infinifactory is a wonderful blend of a "typical" Zachtronics programming game and a 3D physics sandbox. The goal is to construct a factory to build a certain object using given components and machines such as conveyors, welders, and a simple sensor/wiring/actuator system. And of course it also has other tools including "lasers".

Starting out simple and holding your hand nicely through the tutorials, slowly introducing new concepts and components, the game ramps up the difficulty massively over the course of its four episodes, but it's never too much of a leap if you have the patience and persistence to keep at it.

The combination of pieces available is excellent, and they combine in unexpected ways to produce almost arbitrarily complex machines. For example, it's possible to build all the standard logic gates: and/or/xor/not/etc using the parts available. It's also possible to construct very complex moving machinery. The game includes test zones where you can build free-form machines in addition to the main campaign.

I am a big fan of all of the Zachtronics games, but Infinifactory holds a special place in my heart because it's not just a programming game - the physics sandbox aspect of it makes it unique. I suppose it's possible to build similar things in something like minecraft, but that's not a puzzler.

I was surprised by the length of the main story. I thought I was about to complete the game at the end of episode 3, but instead I unlocked another episode! This was a pleasant surprise, and the puzzles in the final episode were particularly fun and challenging.

The story is great. Just enough to give you a narrative and some characters that you care about, but not enough that you feel like the puzzling is interrupted by cutscenes. The end credit sequence was creative and funny.

The music is excellent. I put well over 100 hours into my story playthrough and at no point did the music become grating. Rather, I found myself thinking about it and humming it when I wasn't playing.

I think I'm going to call this "my favourite Zachtronics" game: I adore the 3D sandbox aspect, and that is unique amongst zach games. I also love that it's a programming game but without any programming language as such, rather physical placement of objects.

I'll go further and say that Infinifactory is one of the best games I've played in a long time. I can't remember liking anything this much since Kerbal Space Program.

I think that programmers will enjoy this, and I would hope that a non-programmer might be able to go through the tutorials and pick up some programming concepts. I would recommend this game particularly highly for a kid who might be interested in computers and programming.

97/100

A truly worthy successor to Absolute Drift (a game that's also worth picking up)

Take the physics-based driving of absolute drift and change the mechanic so that it's now a racing game - racing against the clock, the world leader board, and/or AI times, with a ghost car in time attack mode.

Difficult to master, but super addictive and fun. Career mode means hours of gaming that isn't repetitive.

Career mode gives an excellent progression through the history of rally, unlocking faster and better cars as you go. With limited restarts and bonuses for remaining restarts at the end of the season, there can be an element of strategy.

Time Attack mode is great for mastering one track / car and playing against the world leaderboard. Great for a quick run or for hours of fun.

Free-roam mode gives you a bunch of areas where you can drive around at your leisure and find collectables.

Big. Has TONS of cars and lots of tracks.

Nit-picks:
- High System Requirements
- framerate issues on the Linux version. But hopefully we'll see this fixed. The support community is helpful.
- I don't think the music is quite as good as absolute drift, but that's a minor thing. The music is still good.

Recommendation:

I think that the AU$40 price tag is steep, but given the size of the game it's worth it if you can afford it. If not, it's well worth $20 on sale. Highly recommended.

An eminently playable version of the classic. Runs really well and has some cool features. needs frame limiting and a volume control.

They've dropped Linux support, in the process choosing to disable most of the game's functionality on Linux. I'll be getting a refund.

If you liked Wipeout 2097, then I can't recommend the PCSX emulator enough. It runs the game brilliantly on pretty much any platform. I even have it on my OpenPandora.

If you want a modern reimagining of wipeout 2097 to run on modern hardware, then I'd suggest Redout if you're on Windows.

It's not that this game is terrible, per se, it's just that the community is. One of them, going by the username Magnus, is so devoid of useful things to do with their life that they came and harassed me for leaving a negative review. Pretty pathetic.

This game is much *MUCH* more difficult than wipeout. The difficulty curve is totally broken - it's more of a square wave, with peaks somewhere around infinity. In particular some of the time trials require a pretty much perfect run to even get a bronze, and if you can't manage the bronze you'll be locked out from progressing further through the game, essentially making most of the game unplayable. When you complain about the impossible level of difficulty on the forums, you'll be told to "git gud" by a furiously-gatekeeping community and ignored by the developers. There are people who suspect that the game's timers are buggy, but they're just shouted down by the fanbois. Unfortunately what we have here is a game that could be OK but which has been ruined by its community.

Don't bother.

This game is fun, but underwhelming and hugely overpriced. I bought it at 50% off and I still don't feel like I got my money's worth.

First, this is an obstacle course done in a car, not the Linux-supporting arcadey racer with cool stunts I was expecting. Car handling physics are pretty much nonexistent - there's no challenge in getting around corners, the challenge is in jumping, flipping, and flying your car the correct way so as to stay on the track.

Not that that makes the game suck. It's fun if that's what you're looking for. It's just that that's not what I was looking for.

There IS a lot to like. I love the setting, the visuals, and the music. The car sound effects are very reminiscent of Centauri's awesome car from The Last Starfighter, so much so that I'm pretty sure this is on purpose. The game got some free mileage out of me for that. The main campaign is fun and not overly frustrating. the difficulty curve is done nicely and the addition of new tricks and tactics to get through the obstacle course is handled nicely. I thought the credits sequence (which you drive through) was clever. But for $30 I'd expect the main campaign to be at least 3 times as long as it is.

Yes, there are other modes you can play and a way to procedurally generate courses to get more out of it, and I checked all of that out, but I found myself just not caring very much once I had completed the main campaign.

I also found the campaign story to be very ambiguous and under-told. There's clearly supposed to be some kind of story going on in the main campaign, but I still have no clue what it was. There are a series of intercom messages which come up, but they're locational and the voice fades out to unlistenable volumes before it's even half way through reading out the message. The messages are in the subtitles, but if you can read the subtitles while doing an obstacle course you're doing better than I could. Even if you can, I still don't think you're going to know what the story is just from playing the main campaign.

I'm marking this as "not recommended", but only just, and my main consideration is the price tag. If this game was $10 I would have recommended it. It is a fun game if you're looking for an obstacle course, not a racer. If you know that going in it might be worth a little bit more than $10. I'd say that If you like the sound of it, buy it on sale.