Grimfangs 最近的评测

TL;DR:Good, short, rhythm-action game worth the price to pay considering the replay value. Innovative use of sound cues. Easy to play, difficult to master. Fully compatible with controllers; Don't know why the devs never added that.

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While this remake of Karateka is not all too close to the original 8-bit game, it holds up well as a spiritual successor and simultaneously manages to be quite fun and entertaining. The game is pretty simple in itself, but can have a bit of complexity to it, although I would not call it a technical fighting game. It's more of a rhythm game that involves fighting as opposed to a game with Quick Time Events. Make no mistakes about it, the game does require concentration and perfecting it is a difficult task. But it won't really get boring no matter how many times you play it.

The tale is quite straightforward. Princess Mariko had been kidnapped by an evil warlord named Akuma and three people set forth to set her free. The first is her lover, the second is a monk, and the final one is a brute. Whoever manages to rescue Mariko will become her suitor. The rest of it just a sequence of one-on-one battle with enemies and bosses, who are just slightly more difficult enemies. Despite the Japanese names, the entire setting is distinctly Chinese, and they seem to be using various schools of Kung Fu, or Chinese Martial Arts to be more accurate, instead of Karate.

The suitor that you're playing as not only determines how many lives you have left, but also how difficult the game is. The first suitor, the lover is the weakest among the three, begging you to play with utmost precision and care. He does not deal a lot of damage, meaning that you'll have to enter into more exchanges with your enemies. He also has a very small health bar and does not recover any health at all unless using Mariko's flowers. The monk deals more damage and has a larger health bar in addition to recovering health passively. Finally, the brute does not know how to use any pretty moves, but he has the largest health bar, deals a staggerring amount of damage, and recovers health almost faster than he loses it, making him the easy mode and the lover the hard mode. In order to avoid an NTR ending, you'll need to beat the game as the lover and that's a pretty tall order especially by the end. Furthermore, which suitor you're playing as also determines how many enemies you face as some enemies simply either let you pass after a few exchanges as a Monk, or in the case of the Brute, simply don't show up, probably intimidated by his sheer size.

The gameplay itself involves an almost turn-based exchange of blows where you're first expected to block the oncoming attacks and then retaliate with your own. Attacking out of turn won't incur any penalties, but the attacks will simply get blocked and you'll end up spending more time in every fight. Here is where the rhythm part of the game comes in. Every attack combination, as you'll learn through experience, has a specific rhythm to it. This rhythm is made known to you through the use of sound cues right before the enemy throws their strike and you must more or less match the rhythm of the sounds to succesfully block the attacks. This usually works in most cases except for a few, just to shake things up. The bosses, on the other hand, use combinations that you've never seen before and often don't have these sound cues accompanying their attacks, at least until their second phase. Finally, I call the exchanges almost turn-based because in most cases, the flow does indeed force it to be turn based. However, in some cases, some special enemies might block your attacks, jumping in with a blockable counter-attack combination or might pause for an instant to taunt you, opening themselves up to your attack combinations. Attacking is quite as simple as button mashing and it doesn't really matter which attacks you choose anyway since all of them will land all the same and cause the same amount of damage regardless. You also have a special stunning move that lets you deal additional damage that the opponent cannot defend against and you also come across Mariko's flowers every now and then to heal after losing your health in fights.

The level design is pretty linear. After all, the only way you can actually move is forward. However, the combat slowly amps up in complexity or intensity as the game progresses. It does a good job of slowly and smoothly increasing the difficulty without it seeming jarring. But every single time that it starts to get monotonous, it'll introduce these special enemies to you who attack off-rhythm and keep you on your toes. Pretty good level-design when that aspect of the game is considered.

The graphics are definitely stylised, sort of cel-shaded, but they also bear the halo effect that's a trademark of Unreal Engine 3. After all, the game was made back in 2012. The soundtrack, especially combined with the sound cues is particularly what takes the cake. Not only is the ambience is apt for every "stage" of the game, but the background music accompanying every battle does a wonderful job of setting the pace both literally and figuratively.

Aside from all the praise, I couldn't find too many bugs for the game, and perhaps it's a feature and not a bug wherein the block window for the Lover seems to either be a bit too precise or seemingly doesn't alway work, especially towards the end of the game. The same moves made by the same enemy can easily be blocked while playing as the monk or the brute, but somehow, using the same timing and rhythm seems to get the lover beaten up. This is especially prevalent towards the ending of the short game, but if it is a feature, winning as the Lover seems to be either rigged or incredibly difficult, forcing people to keep replaying the game for a certain number of times before the game grants them their coveted achievement.

All in all, Karateka might be a short game, and despite its contextual inaccuracies, the gameplay itself is quite fun in a very addictive way. While it is very easy to pick up and even finish, mastering the game is the real challenge, even though it seems nigh impossible for some reason. The graphics are fine, but the sound, the soundtrack as well as the way that the sound cues integrate into the rhythm aspect of the game, is what is truly revolutionary about it. One could almost play the game with eyes closed. In fact, ignoring the visuals and focusing on the sound is the easier way to play it. Definitely worth picking up.

Full Disclosure: This review is based on a physical copy of the game which I've completed 4 times already. On Steam, I just let the game run in the background so that I could review it.

TL;DR: A pretty good stealth game albeit with a few too many scripted events and linear level design for my taste. Alternates between stealth and shooter sections and has some pretty rigid solutions which I don't particularly like. More refined than Splinter Cell as an experience, but not as tense as the original. Not a bad game to get even today, especially if you haven't played it before.

PS3 HD Remastered Textures make the game look prettier.

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Pandora Tomorrow, now finally available on Steam, is not a bad title both as a standalone game as well as an entry into the Splinter Cell franchise, especailly considering that it is the sequel to the original. In a lot of ways, it is much more refined than the same, but personally I never found it as fun or tense to play. The game is a little too scripted for me to enjoy as much as I enjoy completely despite its similarities to its predecessors. At least they took the time to fix the shadow rendering glitch.

The story follows a terrorist takedown plot featuring an Indonesian guerilla leader named Suhadi Sadono and his militia, the Darah Dan Doa, who attacked the US Embassy in Eastern Timor. Information obtained from various sources point to plans of a terrorist attack on US Soil featuring Biological agents. But before the man can be captured, the NSA must figure out where he's hiding his weapons so that he can't use them from beyond the grave, neccesitating the involvement of Sam Fisher and the 3rd Echelon in the matter. As far as the plot is concerned, it still follows the same flow of SIGINT and collection and interpretation of information that the earlier Splinter Cell franchise was known for. The story is quite grounded and realistic, but also quite tense at the same time, albeit very linear in comparison to the other entires in the franchise with far fewer twists, turns, and revelations.

However, the bone that I have to pick is with the gameplay. Don't get me wrong, the gameplay is quite the improvement as compared to Splinter Cell. All actions that Sam does are more naturally integrated into the game and feel less like a feat of platforming. However, the game still switches between Stealth sections and firefights. And to make matters worse, the level deisgn is blatantly linear with the player constantly moving forward while sneaking around enemies or putting lead in them. And that's all fine. What's wrong, in my opinion, are the sections which are way too scripted. Some stealth sections have very rigid solutions to them where stepping in the wrong direction will usually cue some or the other environmental change that will immediately alert all enemies to your presence. For example, the phone in the reception of Saulnier Cryogenics suddenly starts ringing if you choose to use the side farther away for your infiltration, making the game feel even more linear than it already is. Then there are sections where certain flags and conditions will behave certain enemy behaviours only to keep you on your toes. While that's alright on its own, it just makes the game too scripted to be enjoyed as a stealth game where exploiting the physical lapse in observation is the entire essence of play. As far as the sections with shootouts are concerned, almost all levels end with one, and when one begins, enemies usually already know your location, or at least where you are expected to be, forcing the firefight onto you and ridding the game of all semblance of stealth. While the stealth, in itself, is refined, the scripted events and the firegfights keep interrupting the flow of the game. It is more of a narrative experience than a stealth game, especially considering how restrictive the solutions to the stealth problem tend to be. There is very little room for experimentation or using our own approach.

The game features various stages and places, all with their own unique vibes and methods of infiltration. Some places have tall vegetation to hide behind while others feature railings to bypass enemies. Others yet, are vast-open spaces with very few shadows to hide behind. Some areas also features dangers and threats, such as leaking liquid nitrogen and laser that must be avoided in a rather platformer-like fashion or a minefield that can only be observed by using your thermal goggles. All of these combined do add a layer of challenge to navigating the game, but the level design still feels very linear and restrictive and moving ahead often boils down to doing nothing, but waiting while all the the scripted obstructions pass away before you can proceed. It is a much more passive approach to stealth as compared to the original. Just wait for a while and the enemies will clear the path for you. There is very little necessity to exploit timing or create distractions to proceed, making the stealth feel far less tense and more pretentious.

The AI in the game is also equally as scripted. Don't get me wrong, they work just fine as far detection and combat goes. But the scripted nature of the game makes them do unexpected things which can lend to frustration in some cases, and an underwhelming sense of victory in others. The enemies in the game simply don't feel alive in the same way that they did in the original.

The graphics of the game are pretty good and still hold up to a degree by modern standards. One good thing that Ubisoft did was fixing the shadow rendring bug that had been plaguing the PC version of game upon rerelease. It can look even prettier with the PS3 HD Remaster texture packs. The soundtrack is mostly ambient with very less music involved, but everything combined, especially with how pretty the interplay of light and shadows can look in the game and the variety of locations and day cycles, it all ties together quite wonderfully. It all makes the game feel more like an adventure game rather than a stealth game.

The only bug that I've ever found in my 4 playthroughs of the title is probably because of a hack that the developers used for better or dramatic lighting in certain sections of the game. While staring at a spotlight with NVGs should look blinding, the devs have added invisible spotlights in a few areas of the game, for what I assume are aforementioned reasons, which will still blind you with your NVGs on. Apart from that, any and all complaints that I have with the game are mostly concerning are the heavy use of scripted events.

While all of this may make it sound like this game is a bad title, that most certainly is not the case. It is a pretty good game which is pretty fun to play. Just don't expect it to play the same as the original, let alone Chaos Theory. The game, in itself, is a pretty good stealth title, albeit heavily restrictive in what it allows. Just not my first choice for a Splinter Cell. Definitely worth picking up if you haven't played it yet.

I don't know why I'm even typing this review considering that the main game that you need to play this expansion itself is no longer available for sale on the Steam Store. But I guess I'll go ahead and club reviews for both in this here space anyway since this is still on the shelves and I played the game anyway. This review is only for the three single-player campaigns.

TL;DR: Decent game. Has a tactical shooter feel to it, but very RNG based and extremely scripted. Lacks open-world aspect, so mostly linear like an action shooter; Not as strategic. Weapons all feel different. Friendly AI is competent while enemy AI is dumb. Limited save slots. Not a bad game all things considered, but nothing like the originals.

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Delta Force: Black Hawk Down is an odd entry into the franchise, albeit not a surprising one considering how this is where the game was headed from the beginning anyway. It has the elements of a tactical shooter, but lacks the emergence of a mil sim and has more scripted events that most modern action shooters. It sort of feels like a game that doesn't know what it wants to be. And the Team Sabre expansion pack only further highlights these issues.

The Black Hawk Down campaign follows the infamous tale of the attempted war against Farah Aideed in Mogadishu where two Black Hawk Helicopters went down and marked the beginning of unending troubles for the Delta Force. Only, the campaign works to outline the entire story from the entry of the Delta Force and how they aided the situation in Mogadishu, to beyond the Black Hawk event where they went back in to extract the price on Aideed's head. In that regard, the campaign can be called complete in that it does weave a narrative. You'll mostly face protection and capture missions as was the nature of operations in this real-world campaign. Team Sabre, on the other hand, features two campaigns: one in Colombia featuring a stand-in for Pablo Escobar and his contras, and the other in Iran featuring a budget Saddam Hussein. These short campaigns weave an escalating narrative well, especially the Iran campaign which details the US propaganda on the War for Oil while making you play through the truth. As far as the story is concerned, the game actually does pretty well.

The gameplay, however, is where things get confusing. Your character has the pacing of a soldier in a tactical shooter and running around recklessly will get you killed sooner that you can even determine the threat. However, the enemies aren't the best shots, and you'll often have lots of time to target and eliminate them. The primary issue comes from the overwhelming number of enemies and the very scripted nature of the game itself. You will usually have enemies appearing so suddenly in an area you just cleared that you'll be forced to proceed cautiously even when you can see an obviosuly clear horizon. And then there are the troops armed with RPGs. You can never see one in time and even if they miss, the blast radius will still get you. There are save slots, but they cannot be overwritten, meaning that there are limited number of saves on every mission. Which is fine, but when you don't know how long the mission is, you need to ration them. A checkpoint system would've been a better idea. Especially considering how all of these factors make the game very RNG-based although a note can be made about that being the nature of modern warfare.

The level design further adds to the issues. While the older Delta Force titles, no matter how action oriented, gave you the emergence to apporach the mission how you wanted to, BHD does not like to let you go out of bounds. For the BHD campaign, the urban environment provides a very linear path for you to follow anyway, so it isn't as noticable there. But there is still a very linear design to these levels where you have to follow a very specific flow from one point of the map to the other. The Team Sabre expansions is where the lack of open-endedness truly shows itself. Despite the open terrain, any time you try to scale a hill or try to flank the enemy to gain a tactical advantage, the game will warn you to return to the AO, failing which you'll die of a heart attack. As a result, what you end up with a series of ambushes that you need to fend off which moving forward or a joyride in a boat or a humvee or even the bed of a truck while taking enemies out on the rails. All of this removes huge chunks of strategic elements from a title that had, until now, allowed you to approach problems the way you saw fit as long as you met your objective.

Your friends are extrmely competent for a change. You can actually rely on them to eliminate hostiles for you in most cases. There is the odd exception when they can sometimes stand right in front of an enemy and still miss every shot like they're Neymar. In fact, their shots help you figure out where the enemies are especially in areas with dense foliage. The enemy AI, on the other hand, is dumb as rocks. They'll usually just stand and place and attempt to shoot you while missing most of their shots in most cases. Or they'll just walk around oblivious to their own allies being shot down, or even worse, get stuck running behind a pillar trying to reach you. The only time they have the accuracy of Simo Hayha is when obscured by fog or smoke and you can't see them, and the reaction time of Sebastian Vettel when you're infiltrating a CQB environment. At other times, you can comfortably stand in front of them and take your time reloading your weapon before shooting them down. Oh, and the .50 calibre emplacements are probably the most accurate of them all, considering how they can turn mounted machine guns into snipers.

The graphics are pretty good and you now have weapon reload animations as well. In some instances, the graphics are so good that the enemies get camoflagued until they shoot at you or get shot at by your teammates. Using the binocs or the scope of your rifle adds a new level of life and detail to the game. One thing I could do without would be the dense foliage which hides most enemies in a game that is already very chance-based. However, that too, perhaps, is the nature of modern warfare. The soundtrack isn't anything special, but it is generally on point. And hey, at least there is a soundtrack.

Sadly, there are also quite a few bugs in the game. Certain missions, an escort mission in particular, has moments where the NPCs just randomly die without even being shot, causing mission failures. It is also the same mission where you can fall through the floor and the enemies you need to kill to call the next script flag disappear, softlocking you. Apart from the instances where enemies can see you through dense fog, smoke, and foliage, there are times when you can slip and fall through vehicles. And the Iran Campaign for Team Sabre also has a mission which lags like anything when you try to play it. Come to think of it, the bugs are mostly present in the Iran Campaign.

Black Hawk Down isn't a bad game by any means. But its not a particularly good game either. It feels too scripted and RNG based to feel like Delta Force and the moments that make it a tense tactical shooter are often accompanied by either unreasonably difficult AI or very dumb enemies. The lack of emergence, which adds a strategic edge to the game, combined with the scripted nature make it feel like playing a slow-paced action shooter. While the game can be fun to play at certain moments, the bugs and overall lack of quality make for frustrating experience where you're more eager to clear a level rather than have fun playing it. BHD isn't a bad game. But it isn't a particularly good game either. And it certainly doesn't feel like Delta Force. More akin to a prototype for a Call of Duty game where they hadn't worked out the kinks in their formula.

TL;DR: Amazing mod, albeit unconventional. Best way to play is to explore. Great replay value. Mod for Portal 1, so it shares some of the frustrating clunkiness. Mostly puzzle based, but has difficult platforming sections every now and then. Mostly bug free, which is impressive for a game of this scale made by one dude. Positive endings for a change.

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Portal: Lost in Aperture is a uniquely unconventional Portal mod that I have fallen in love with. This work is honestly a labour of love by one developer and it shows in the scale of the game alongside all of its quirks and peculiarities.

The story follows an unnamed Russian test subject volunteering for testing in the Eastern European branch of Aperture Laboratories. You are actually greeted by familiar faces and escorted to your sleeping pod. However, you awake ages later in a storage space at a time when the entire facility has been abandoned and nothing works anymore. Plus, there is no GLaDOS to test and evaluate you, and help you progress further in doing so, forcing you to explore and try different things simply to find a way out. The game has two ways to be played. One of them is to follow the main route and the other involves exploring the alternate routes instead. No matter which route you take, there is always lore built into what actually happened at the facility in the form of voice recordings by the developer providing little bits and pieces of news. There are also two endings to the game and achieving the true ending requires quite a bit of exploration and piecing together various parts of a puzzle. But the end result is quite worth it. The main route even hints at it, but leaves the rest for you to explore at your own pace.

The gameplay is Portal at its core, being a puzzle platformer blending the two where timing and momentum are key to solving puzzles. However, there is an enhanced focus on exploration even in the main route of the game where you're procedurally solving all the Test Chambers to find your way out of the facility. However, too much exploration can get you into any one of the various alternate routes. It's difficult to tell the Main Route apart from the Alternate Routes on the first playthrough and that is honestly a good way to play the game, by blending both routes together instead of addressing them seperately on separate playthroughs. While the puzzles in the main route are simple, the alternate routes are where the game truly shines, showing you sides of Aperture that you've probably never seen before, all accompanied by their own bit of lore. Exploration is at the heart of the game and it should be treated more like a walking simulator with portaling technology instead of a Portal game. Curiosity is key to enjoying the title and this game does not fail to evoke it either. You can easily expecting anywhere between three to five playthroughs to discover all the routes for yourself.

The love of the developer shows mostly in the form of all the various alternate routes that the game has to offer. One second, you could be in the Test Chambers of a run-down Aperture Labs, and the next moment you could be a storage area that is flooded with goo. Or it could also be a wing that has been experimenting on harvesting the energy of a Black Hole which speeds you up. Alternateively, it could also be a castle that is used as a vacation retreat by Aperture executives or a military base comprising of prototype Aperture weaponry and blueprints. Every level has intricately designed environments that fit the theme and if Portal felt like it had good environmental storytelling, this game defeinitely takes it to a whole new level. Some of the alternate routes even include Backrooms, or Green Hill from Sonic. Every alternate route has some odd change to the formula which doesn't let the game go stale. There are also connections made to Half Life here and there in addition to it all. That being said, I personally found some of the Platforming sections to be particularly difficult, but I'm not that good at platformers to begin with. The puzzles, on the other hand, felt a bit basic.

The soundtrack to the game is quite unique as well. They're reinterpretations and remixed renditions of classical Eastern European music that do fit the context considering the narrative. But they're not particularly dramatic or tense or anything along those lines. Just background music for the most part that can be enjoyed while playing the game. Then again, that's all that can be expected from a game anyway. Especially one being handled by one single developer.

I found the game to be mostly bug free. In fact, I only found one bug in the entirity of the game and that belong in The Castle level which causes the game to crash when succesfully completing the level. Apart from that, it has the same clunk of the Portal 1 engine which might lead to frustration in some instances, especially considering how difficult the platforming sections are made to be. They all make the platforming a little too precise as per my skill level. Beyond that, some of the puzzles offer no explanations whatsoever, making them feel very obtuse until you look closely and figure out what the developer actually intended. However, a point could be made about how that is a part of the exploration as well. At the time of playing this, there was an entire section in one of the main route that could've been skipped over entirely because of an oversight. It has been reported, but I cannot attest to whether it has been fixed. Another nitpick would be that the English isn't all perfect, but hey, a non-native speaker tried and made it work and that's all that matters.

What I particularly like about the game is that it contains its immersion into the appropriate route. The voice recordings on the main route will mostly tell about an abberant intelligence core running amock. However, the side routes mostly relate a humourous tale of why it exists in the first place or even, at times, cue you into the true ending of the game. The immersion provided by the information combined with the explorative nature of the game provides an experience not short of unforgettable.

In the end, Lost in Aperture does not feel like playing a game, but more like a passion project or a work of art that the artist poured his soul into and ultimately abandoned. Despite its few shortcoming, it has all the makings of a wonderful journey and reminds me more of walking simulators with puzzle and platforming elements than portal. The vast variety of levels always have something new and different to offer and never let the game go stale. This mod is definitely unconventional and if you enjoy Portal because of the core mechanics, it is definitely not for you. But if you're looking for something different; something that evokes a sense of curiosity, or something that delivers the joys of exploration to your doorstep, then this game is definitely one you would want to check out.

TL;DR: Not really a strong recommendation. Massive disappointment coming from Bright Memory. Slower action; Sequences irrelevant to the game; Quite a lot of bugs. Story is at more comprehensive, but wouldn't call it good either. A pretty mediocre shooter, all things considered. An OK to Fair game at best.

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Bright Memory: Infinite was one game that was really hyped up about ever since I played the original Bright Memory. I just wanted to feel the same rush of high-octane action combining unfettered movement with a very unique combination of powers, shooting, and swordplay. However, when I picked up Bright Memory: Infinite, it all turned out be one grand disappointment and I don't know whether its because the Dev tried adding more features to it and streamline the gameplay to capture a broader audience and rival the likes of Battlefield or whether it was because the Publisher pushed him to add more features relevant to mainstream shooters. Whatever happened, the game lost its original vision somewhere in between the previous title and this one.

For a change, there is actually sort of a barebones story to this version of the game. We follow portagonist Shelia Tan who works for the Supernatural Research Organisation, or the SRO in short, as she investigates a random gravitational anomaly somewhere in China. However, her path is hindered by a rivalling organisation called the SIA, perhaps the Supernatural Intelligence Agency if I presume correctly, for reasons unknown. The one interesting bit to the story is how the Singularity causes Time Paradoxes and sends warriors from the past into the present to hinder our protagonist's progress. However, the actual story isn't revealed until the very climax which is unfortunately just as simplistic as the rest of the game. Even with the "grand" revelation and the climax, the story still falls pretty flat all things considered especially considering the lack of narration, especially between levels. Yes, there is a story, but it is not an entertaining one by any means.

The gameplay, on the other hand, has only a bit more to offer in comparison. The game is primarily a first/third person shooter depending on whether you've turned on Perspective Assist. However, there is very little cover to utilise and Shelia moves very slowly for a cover shooter, making for very dull firefight segments. The sections of the game that focus on melee opponents such as the Boss Fights and Ancients are far more interesting to play. But even there, Shelia is far slower than she was in Bright Memory and the game takes on a tone more suited to a shooter than a hybrid. And although there are a multitude of weapons and skills available for your use they feel too similar to one another and fail to distinguish themselves, even with their specialised ammo which feel generic just the same partly because the battles take place in a range where all weapons are equally as effective. Shelia has skills as well, but they do not carry nearly the same impact that they did in BM. Instead, they're just cheap, low-impact replacements for the weapons until you upgrade them to the max, pushing the game more towards a slow-paced action shooter. Already a formula for failiure.

The enemies are far too simple to deal with, especially once you know what kind of ammo to use against a specific kind of enemy. It's not that the game is easy. If you charge in like a fool, you'll turn into swiss-cheese pretty easily. Rather, the enemy AI is pretty simplified and placements are far too generic to be entertaining. There is nothing enthralling about the combat aspect of this game and that carries over to the Boss Fights as well. All you really need to do is keep dodging and shooting until they're down, and even that honestly sounds far interesting than it actually is. The enemies do not surround you and the stages do not box you in, making movement feel rather mundane in addition to the uninteresting shooting aspect making fights lacklustre. The whole game is greatly simplified in comparison to Bright Memory and lacks the tension to make it engaging.

The Level Design is just as disappointing. The puzzle aspect of the game is completely done away with and replaced with parkour which feels extremely generic. There is no platforming apart from that and parkour is just as a means of traversal to the next section and holds no bearing whatsoever on the actual combat itself. While that is one welcome modern shooter trend that could've been added to the game, the dev instead chose to add a stealth section with morons for enemies as well as the slowest car-chase sequence instead. Both of these sections feel completely out of place in the game. And then there's section where you're going Boar Hunting for the same reasons that you're fighting the SIA: unknown.

As far as the graphics are concerned, the game certainly does look pretty and this might just have been why the rest of the game feels flat. However, it is my second game with RTX and even this has that same weird RTX blurriness and artefacting. Apart from that, the game certainly looks really pretty, especially where the landscapes are concerned. The rest of the game could probably showcase RTX much better, but how much will one dev do at the end of the day?

The one good thing about this game is its soundtrack which is a pretty good fusion of Traditional Chinese instruments and rhythms with Western Symphonic elements. It sets a good tone and mood to the game and can even make it feel exciting in certain places. Unfortunately, the gameplay can't really keep up and still ends up falling flat. The rest of the audio, requires some work as there are almost zero directional cues and all you really have is your vision. The enemies rarely make sounds and when they do, it's usually the same line over and over again. Footsteps do not make noise and you can't tell where gunshots are coming from. The only audio cues you really have are the soundtrack and the ocassional Pokemon noises that the enemies chant.

QA was one thing that was certainly overlooked in this iteration. While I can count the amount of times I've died because I got stuck in a random part of the environment, the fact of the matter is that these kinds of oversights are simply not acceptable in today's gaming world, especially from a developer that has already shipped a far better-handled title. Then there are the sections where you don't see the option of Grappling to the next platform until you go away and come back to it. There's also the visual bug where Relics sometimes keep floating at a specific point on your screen, essentially becoming a decorative element of your UI. The melee collission detection could use a whole bunch of work and the driving section is a whole mess in and of itself. Let's just call the stealth section a complete failiure. On the plus side, you've got Workshop support to make your guns look prettier and satisfy your horny by putting Shelia in a variety of revealing outfits. It's like FYQD Studios slapped the game together at the last minute and banked on the success of the original game and this one's promotion to carry it through. It requires far more work all in all for it to be anything remotely close to anything worth getting exciting about.

All in all, Bright Memory: Infinite is a waste of potential in an effort to become more accessible and trendy. It has quite a lot of bugs and completely irrelevant sections and the story is just as underwhelming as the gameplay, which is generic, repetitive, and too simplistic to be engaging. BM:I is an example of a title that either lost its vision somewhere in the making, or was slapped together as the deadlines drew closer. At least it looks good, has a banger soundtrack, and support for your lewd mods though.

TL;DR:Amazing blend of puzzle and platforming even at this day and age. This is my first RTX game so maybe this is just how RTX is, but the game looks very blurry. All issues from Portal resolved for a smoother experience.

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Portal is an amazing game and the only thing that I regret is not having played it all these days. A perfect blend of puzzle and platformer that slowly picks up the pace, but doesn't really require you to be extremely skilled in either aspect to be successful at the game. The story, although mostly revealed towards the end, has hints thrown in here and there and the whole game has a masterful sense of environmental sotrytelling. Let me elaborate more on exactly what makes it such a wonderful game.

The game follows our protagonist, Chell, who awakens in a detention cell inside Aperture Science with no clue about how she got there or what she has to do next. All she knows is that she is a lab rat of sorts and that she must survive the experiments that they throw her way in order to earn her freedom and some cake on top of it. However, all she has in the name of a companion, apart from a certain cube, who walks her through the various test chambers is an AI named GLaDOS. As time goes by, the Test Chambers become more and more hazardous to life and limb and GLaDOS turns out to be more and more unrealiable. There are various other hints scattered throughout the levels including writings on the walls and other environmental factors that hint at the fact that not everything is as it seems and that some promises aren't made with the intention of ever keeping them. Chell has no other option but to use her Portal Gun and her wits to prevail. GLaDOS is perhaps one of the better written characters in gaming, even though all you have is her voice until the very end. My favourites, however, are the sentry turrets.

The gameplay itself switches between puzzles and platforming and often blends the two together in a wonderful fashion wherein platforming is an elegant solution to the puzzles and you need to use the Portal Gun to be able to platform better. That being said, as someone who enjoys the puzzle aspect of video games more than the platforming aspect, the game was a wonderful blend of both where even the platforming aspects didn't require a great amount of precision or timing to execute correctly and the puzzles were quite logical to solve despite their reliance on physics and platforming. The levels start out pretty simple and you don't even have a Portal Gun. There is little to no platforming in the beginning and once you obtain the Portal Gun, platfomring is introduced to you in a safe manner. As the game progresses, however, you'll find the puzzles getting more and more complex and the platforming requiring more and more precision as well as timing with some elements of the platforming relying on the pieces of the puzzles being in the right place at the right time. Portal provides a perfect example of how to integrate an entertaining tutorial into a game without outright holding your player's hand and how to escelate the difficulty with time. Simply masterful.

The graphics in this game are my only quip. This is honestly my first RTX game and my rig is pretty poor, equipped with only an RTX 3060, but having played both the original as well as this version, I would much rather choose the original. Perhaps the world is not yet ready for Ray Traced graphics, or perhaps Valve just couldn't implement RTX well enough for their remaster, but the game looks horrible in this version. Everything is blurry and seems like it's being rendered at a lower resolution than what I'm currently playing on. Holding one scene still for minutes at a time makes it crystal clear, but its a game, not a Ray Traced slideshow. The lighting certainly makes the game look prettier and even adds ambience, but the overall blur and jaggedness takes away so much from the ambience of the game that it negates the addition of lighting for the most part. Despite that, some parts of the game are far too bright to enjoy the details and some just feel devoid of any detail. Personally, I would much rather prefer the less well-lit original over this version.

Even the soundtrack to the game is well made. Apart from the cute, but sadistic, ending credits song, the rest of the game has a soundtrack that is perfectly on point as well. It perfectly captures the ominous feeling of impending doom as you navigate dangers and even provides you with a sense of focused relaxation during the particularly challenging test chambers and even excitement when things finally begin getting serious. The soundtrack fits the atmosphere of the game so well that it might as well be a part of the entire package.

As far Quality Control goes, Valve had already done a wonderful job with the original version. However, with the RTX remaster, they have rectified even the limited flaws that the original game had and turned this into what I can only call amazing. And from what I can tell, most of the bigger mods have already been remastered for this version as well, so I doubt you're missing out on much even without the original.

Portal is one beautiful games despite its flaws and features some of the most excellent storytelling that an ambience can provide, some of the most fleshed out characters that robotic voices can offer, and a sountrack so apt that it effortlessly ties it all together. Despite the graphics being one of the very negative points, Portal with RTX is one journey that I wish I had undertaken sooner. I personally like it so much that I decided to take this journey once more in the original version and loved it even more where the flaws are more tolerable.

TL;DR:Amazing blend of puzzle and platforming even at this day and age. Can't really pick out any one thing about this game that's inherently bad about it. Still looks charming by today's standards.

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Portal is an amazing game and the only thing that I regret is not having played it all these days. A perfect blend of puzzle and platformer that slowly picks up the pace, but doesn't really require you to be extremely skilled in either aspect to be successful at the game. The story, although mostly revealed towards the end, has hints thrown in here and there and the whole game has a masterful sense of environmental sotrytelling. Let me elaborate more on exactly what makes it such a masterpiece.

The game follows our protagonist, Chell, who awakens in a detention cell inside Aperture Science with no clue about how she got there or what she has to do next. All she knows is that she is a lab rat of sorts and that she must survive the experiments that they throw her way in order to earn her freedom and some cake on top of it. However, all she has in the name of a companion, apart from a certain cube, who walks her through the various test chambers is an AI named GLaDOS. As time goes by, the Test Chambers become more and more hazardous to life and limb and GLaDOS turns out to be more and more unrealiable. There are various other hints scattered throughout the levels including writings on the walls and other environmental factors that hint at the fact that not everything is as it seems and that some promises aren't made with the intention of ever keeping them. Chell has no other option but to use her Portal Gun and her wits to prevail. GLaDOS is perhaps one of the better written characters in gaming, even though all you have is her voice until the very end. My favourites, however, are the sentry turrets.

The gameplay itself switches between puzzles and platforming and often blends the two together in a wonderful fashion wherein platforming is an elegant solution to the puzzles and you need to use the Portal Gun to be able to platform better. That being said, as someone who enjoys the puzzle aspect of video games more than the platforming aspect, the game was a wonderful blend of both where even the platforming aspects didn't require a great amount of precision or timing to execute correctly and the puzzles were quite logical to solve despite their reliance on physics and platforming. The levels start out pretty simple and you don't even have a Portal Gun. There is little to no platforming in the beginning and once you obtain the Portal Gun, platfomring is introduced to you in a safe manner. As the game progresses, however, you'll find the puzzles getting more and more complex and the platforming requiring more and more precision as well as timing with some elements of the platforming relying on the pieces of the puzzles being in the right place at the right time. Portal provides a perfect example of how to integrate an entertaining tutorial into a game without outright holding your player's hand and how to escelate the difficulty with time. Simply masterful.

The graphics in this game are most certainly dated. But the simpler overall structures of the levels and the overall shape geometry doesn't make it feel as though it belongs to a bygone era. In fact, having played both the RTX version and the original, albeit perhaps it is the fault of my 3060 potato, I far prefer the original over the RTX remaster. Every aspect of this game appears desolate and bleak in a beautiful way and the overall environment perfectly captures the ambience of mixed danger and adventure that it should. You are risking life and limb in these test chambers and beyond, and the game leaves you with no doubt about it because of the wonderful graphical fidelity.

Even the soundtrack to the game is well made. Apart from the cute, but sadistic, ending credits song, the rest of the game has a soundtrack that is perfectly on point as well. It perfectly captures the ominous feeling of impending doom as you navigate dangers and even provides you with a sense of focused relaxation during the particularly challenging test chambers and even excitement when things finally begin getting serious. The soundtrack fits the atmosphere of the game so well that it might as well be a part of the entire package.

As far Quality Control goes, one does not realise how much effort the team at Valve has put into it until they play the other mods that use Portal as a platform. For the most part, Portal plays so smoothly that you won't even realise that it might even require any QA and that in itself, is a feat of wondering debugging and QC. However, the physics might turn out to be just a bit clunky and my biggest issues are with the way the portals work in this game. When you create two portals on the same surface while facing the same way, they'll turn you around. And the portals in this version of the game are a little too precise for my taste, requiring you to aim more towards their centre, lending to a bit of frustration during particularly challenging platforming sections. Thankfully, this game doesn't have many such platforming sections and this is a quip primarily for the mods of this game.


Portal is one beautiful masterpiece despite its flaws and features some of the most excellent storytelling that an ambience can provide, some of the most fleshed out characters that robotic voices can offer, some of the most striking visuals that dilapidated laboratories lacking maintainenance can deliver, and a sountrack so apt that it effortlessly ties it all together. Portal is one journey that I wish I had undertaken sooner and the mods made for this game are ones that keep on giving even after the game is long finished.

TL;DR: Fun gameplay, but is a Roguelite with all the grindiness and repetition that comes along with it which gets boring after a few hours, especially with the lack of variety. Focuses more on combat than racing and has a few platforming sections, but level design could use a lot of work. Graphics are decent for the release date and soundtrack is good. Just way too grindy for my taste. Still pretty fun while it doesn't get boring. Might boot up every once in a while.

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I had been looking for something to scratch that Road Rash itch for a long time now and having already played and replayed 'Jacked,' Road Redemption immediately caught my attention. Hoping to find the next step in the evolution of melee combat on vehicles, I was eager to play this game, until I actually got around to playing it and realised that this game was actually a Roguelite. While I do not enjoy the very repetitive and grindy nature of Roguelites and Roguelikes and tend to avoid games with those tags, I will try to keep my review unbiased in the same regard as much as possible. All that aside, Road Redemption is actually a pretty fun title that only finds itself wanting variety. I still would have appreciated this game being tagged properly though, primarily because the developers actually have a loading screen proclaiming this game to be a Roguelite.

The game actually has a story wherein a wanted assassin is fleeing across the country and you're a part of a faction known as The Jackals. Whoever catches the assassin first gets the bounty. Pretty simple and straightforward premise with some bits and pieces of lore here and there pertaining to all the different factions as well as the bosses, but none of that has really been elaborated in the game as much as left as themes.

The gameplay primarily focuses on vehicular melee combat where you need to ride next to riders and hit them with different weapons. However, there is an added layer of complexity to it all. There are different weapon classes, some of which have greater reach while some of which take longer to swing. Some of them are weak against helmets, but provide instant decapitations while others are more effective against helmets. The game also introduces explosives and ranged weapons to add a bigger twist to the formula, adding something innovative to a spiritual successor to Road Rash. You can also grapple enemies should the opportunity present itself and the combat involves parrying as well as attacking in addition to kicking. There is a certain tactical element to the combat where position is often more important than skill. There's also equipment that helps you manoeuvre around levels such as Jump Jets and Grappling Hooks.

Furthermore, there are primarily four kinds of events, namely, the standard Race, the self-explanatory Time Trial, Takedown events where you need to engage and eliminate a certain number of targets before they cross the finish line, and finally an Escape Mode where you need reach the finish line with as much health as possible before your adversaries can do you in. Being a Roguelite, Permadeath is a thing and you carry your health, weapons, ammo, and nitro over from one level to the next until you die, at which point you can purchase progression options to make the game easier for your next run. But even that can be quite grindy, making it feel more like padding than progression. Since this is my second Roguelite, the first being an Eroge, I'll refrain from passing further judgement on it.

The Racing aspect, however, is mostly neglected with the tracks being very simple to navigate, closer to Need for Speed than any other bike racing game out there. All you need to do to succeed in that respect is mostly know when to hit the brakes every now and then. Even the vehicles aren't as numerous. And the biggest culprit in making this game feel repetitive is the level deisgn. The only other thing you'll find are the Boss fights which are essentially Takedown events with one tanky target.

Apart form one level that stands out, id est the rooftops level where you're literally doing Parkour and jumping across roofs with your spiderbike, effectively turning the game into a platformer, the rest of the levels feel like the same stretch of road just painted with a different theme pack. Between how negotiable the curves usually are and the overall rubberbanding that makes choosing a bike practically pointless, the tracks lose all their technicality and more or less simply pose as a placeholder backdrop for the next level of the game that will be choosing a mode at random. If the tracks had more variety to them and provided more of a technical challenge as far as the racing aspect of the game was concerned, it would've gone a long way in making the game feel less repetitive.

Similarly, the physics aren't the most impressive either. The game is far more arcadey and fun as opposed to something serious. It can be especially fun with a whole bunch of friends, but they're hard to come by when you're a balding middle-aged man. The graphics are also alright. Nothing special for the time when the game was released although it might have been considered next gen back in 2010. The soundtrack, on the other hand, goes pretty hard. They should probably release an OST album of some sort and make some extra cash from that. Perhaps even include in the deluxe edition of the game.

There really isn't much else to this game. Just get into a race or get into the campaign mode and grind until you can purchase enough accessibility for yourself to be able to finish the game. Personally, I fell off the whole Grind wagon ages ago and don't particularly like doing that any more. But for Roguelite/Roguelike fans, you guys might be onto something here. If you're looking to scrap it out with other riders the way you did in Road Rash, but in a much more intricate fashion, you're in for a treat. If you're looking for a racing game, you're in for a disappointment. You're also in for a disappointment if you don't like Roguelites like me. Apart from that, it can be pretty fun to pick up and play every once in a while, but for the most part, its just the same thing over and over again reprocessed in a different packaging without any attempts to even make it look or feel different apart from the combat itself.

This review is only for the single-player "campaign" of this game. I haven't touched the multiplayer.

TL;DR: A pretty big disappointment for an entry into the Delta Force franchise. Missions have no depth to them and the gameplay feels almost non-existent despite being made on the same engine as Land Warrior. Combined with QA issues and the lack of overall effort into the level design, it feels like cut-content for Land Warrior bundled together into a cheap cash-grab.

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As a player who prefers the older strategic/tactical vibe of the original Delta Force and Delta Force 2, I didn't particularly like the accessibility and switch to action-oriented gameplay in Land Warrior. So given the fact that Task Force Dagger is made on the same engine, it's natural to expect a similar level of accessibility to the title and I honestly wasn't looking forward to playing the game. Despite my low expectations of the title, it still managed to disappoint me heavily.

To start off, this game has no campaign. The "campaign" is literally a whole bunch of disjoint Quick Missions that don't start anywhere or lead anywhere. All the missions feel like generic one-shot scenarios that have little to no link to each other. The enemy in this case isn't even fleshed out and is just referred to as the enemy. The names of the Operations are as lazy as they get, being the literal names of the places where they take you. Likewise, there is no action plan involved in the briefing, which is no longer read out to you, and there is no map to help you plan your approach either. It's just an explanation of your objective, and even there, the actual objectives in-game differ greatly from what you're told in the briefings. While this can be construed as something closer to what actual Spec-Ops are told as they enter their missions, it only serves to make things less immersive for the players. At any rate, if this game has any trace of a story apart from accounts of random military operations around Afghanistan, I could not find any.

The game uses the same engine as Land Warrior and the overall gameplay is pretty similar to that title with the less cautiously tactical and more accessible action-oriented approach. However, the action sucks primarily because of the enemy AI which simply isn't programmed well. There are many levels with indoor segments but you won't know which ones they are until you begin the mission and given the disparity between the briefings and the actual levels themselves, you don't really know what you're in for until you actually play the missions. I have found myself confused to what it is that I'm actually doing in a few levels. Plainly put, the game is too simple and lacks the tension to be enjoyed as a tactical shooter and too short and slow to be enjoyed as an action shooter. The level design also plays a huge role in how unflattering the gameplay is.

The levels are typically short and end almost as soon as they begin. They don't go up in a blaze of glory as much as they start out weak and then fizzle out. There are very few enemies to deal with per level until the final few missions, making them very easy to begin with and the ones that are long are only long because they're padded out with pointless time spent travelling from one checkpoint to the other without anything else to do apart from negotiating the terrain if necessary. Even the Urban Warfare/CQB sections are pretty linear and open, lacking the tactical depth provided by Land Warrior. The level design is quite simply, lazy.

The AI is also a horrible mess in this game. A lot of them get stuck in random walls and fences while running and they take forever to react. In most cases, their shots are guaranteed to miss you and you can take your time taking them out. And they don't even aggressively flank or swarm you. They just stand in place and shoot or run about panicking, even when you're right in front of them. The only new thing introduced to the enemy AI is their ability to surrender where they drop their weapons and kneel, occasionally acting scared and begging for mercy. The friendly AI in this game, on the other hand, is a little too friendly, fancying the role of Switzerland and not taking part in the battle at all. They literally just stand where they were deployed, smiling at the enemies as they get gunned down. Perhaps they're all followers of Gandhi.

There have been new guns introduced to the game including balance-breaking weapon prototypes, but the game is just so simple that there's no point in using them most of the time and any weapon you pick gets the job done just as well. The variety of weapons in the game are so pointless that it doesn't even matter which class or faction you pick: of which, there are ten, but two of the same class, adding further to the pointlessness of the whole variety of choice scenario. A lot of other gear has also been removed and they now have a nice little animation of a plane flying overhead for laser-designated targets, but apart from that, its mostly pointless to bother with any of it.

The graphics are an admittedly strong point about this game as enemies are now visible without a scope and the terrain looks really beautiful, especially for a game from its time. The levels aren't nearly as greatly modelled and detailed as they were in Land Warrior and seem ramshackle and run-down in comparison, but it gets the job done nonetheless. However, as far as the audio is concerned, there is literally next to none, and even the sounds of the weapons feel off. There are some bare-bones dialogues every now and then, and they often repeat the briefing to you at the start of each mission. But that's about it. To further make a mess of things, they've added the sounds of gunfire and motor vehicles into the ambient noises for levels, confusing you every now and then.

But the worst offender of them all are the QA issues. Apart from the aforementioned disparity in the briefing and actual mission objectives, the briefing still has some very basic errors such as referring to HUMINT as HUMIT and recieving intel from Predator SIGINT instead of imagery. And that's the least of it. Without reiterating the aforementioned issues, some of the levels are just plain bugged. Operation Rhino Obj Nickel is a great example where you need to land right inside the enemy base for the compound has no gate through which you can enter the place. Then there are the worst offenders in Operation Harakat where you can often randomly fall out of your Helicopter in Part 1 and are practically on a timer in Part 2 where the assisting Helicopter invariably crashes into a building after a certain amount of time because it's floating too low in the sky. Operation Hadda Farm might just take the cake with its stealth infiltration requirements out of Assassin's Creed where you're supposed to tail a target into a buidling in broad daylight in a game not made for stealth. A few of the missions require foreknowledge and the others are simply too boring.

All in all, given the lack of a story, the dysfunctional AI, the level-design that feels like it was slapped together in a rush, the pointless diversity of choice, the overall lack of fun gameplay, and the whole plethora of Bugs and Quality Assurance Issues, I cannot find it in me recommend this game to anyone. Perhaps the only one it might suit is a hardcore, die-hard Delta Force fan, and that too, as something of an entry to complete their collection. For the rest, it feels too much like a bunch of Cut Content for Land Warrior slapped together in a new packaging and rebranded without so much as a secondary cursory glace into whether the title meets standards and everything is up to order for a cheap cash-grab attempt about fifteen years before it became the industry standard. Huh, Novalogic seems ahead of the curve in that aspect, it would seem.

Disclaimer: This review is only for the Main Story. I haven't touched the extra game modes.

It is highly recommended to look up the ModDB page for this game and make the proper modifications to make this game more compatible with modern systems.

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I'd always heard praise about Mafia and I finally decided to play it for the first time. Overall, it is a pretty decent game which feels padded out with long segments of driving that end up taking up most of your time. But the primary appeal of the game comes by way of the story itself. And the story is why you should really play Mafia.

The tale follows a taxi driver in the city of Lost Heaven who is forced to help mobsters from the Salieri crime family escape their pursuers one unfortunate day and can no longer seek employment as a taxi driver when the enemies of the mobsters that he had helped track him down and start harassing him. At this point, his only option being to turn to the mafia for employment, he joins the Salieri mafia. The tale is narrated through the perspective of Tommy recounting his days to a detective with whom he seeks a plea deal and includes everything from his rise through the rank of the Salieri Mafia to how it came to pass that he had to seek the help of the law to remain safe from his own Don. The story takes a while to pick up and the gameplay more or less supports the tone of the story as well, getting darker as the pages turn and you're asked to do increasingly more nefarious deeds in the name of your Don. The levels are, in fact, a part of the entire narrative process of the game. But once the story picks up, it tends to get quite captivating as the pace gradually escalates until everything fizzles out.

The gameplay comprises of mostly driving to various locations in the open-world environment that is the city of Lost Heaven. There isn't really a sandbox aspect to this game and you can't really play around with the city the way you want to. It's just there for you to drive around and obey traffic laws in. Some missions might involve firefights and shootouts while some others may involve melee combat, which is pretty dicey as far as this game is concerned. Some levels are structured like puzzles where you need to figure out the best approach to accomplishing your mission. And there is one level where you have to race the literal best car in the game. Given how much you drive around in the game, they have put a lot of attention to detail in the game's vehicle physics and although the cars aren't particularly thrilling to drive, they do get better with time and this game can be considered an entry level driving simulator of sorts with the way its driving physics have been crafted. While this game has a variety of levels with a variety of challenges meant for the player, the one thing that remains constant is the driving aspect where you're either idly driving around or are getting involved in an actual chase where you're either escaping or chasing. There are also a few Time Attack segments to the game as well.

However, what makes the game particularly frustrating in some areas is the AI, usually the friendly AI. If you have a buddy tagging along with you in a mission and you need to keep them alive, expect retrying the same section over and over again until you get lucky because they're literal fools who'll charge into the line of fire to die for you and award you with a game over. Apart from that, the police seem to only be out for your blood. Its totally fine for Morello's men to speed or shoot at you, but as soon as you pull out a gun, the cops will help your rivals gun you down. A citizen of Lost Heaven bumped into your car in front of a cop? Pay a fine for reckless driving. And then there's the driving physics which can sometimes get out of hand. The physics can be a little too precise at times and this is most prevalent during races where your car will spin out without warning for going too fast around a corner. On the flip side, enemy vehicles are built like tanks and will always catch up to you and make your vehicle move while you can't do anything to them. The odds are tipped in the game's favour for the most part. The civilians might be inclined to jump into your car's path if you get too close and ignore you at other times. Plus, given the lack of Unit Slotting during melee sections, you're likely to get pummelled to death by a group of enemies. Realistic, but not exactly fun.

Attention to detail is what Mafia is all about, be it the driving or the shooting, or the fact that you can actually board trains and ships in the game, or might even have to wait for them at crossings. But where it really shines through are the graphics. I have seen no other game from 2002 which looks as beautiful as this game does even unmodded. The graphics breathe life into the idle city and make it shine, which seems especially immersive as you're driving around in a heap of a car from the 30s that can barely manage 40 mph. The audio has directionality and by today's standards, could definitely use some work but every engine revs differently and the driving physics combined, make it a pretty immersive act to just aimlessly drive around the city obeying traffic laws, or even cautiously letting loose every once in a while to push a sports car to its limits.

Apart from the issues described above about the AI, I haven't really encountered any bugs in the game apart from the rare instance in which you have to wait around for a bit for the cutscene to load even though you might be at the correct location.

All in all, Mafia is a pretty immersive driving sim with a story built around it, which has a little bit of everything, and even though it is not always fair and can be downright frustrating at times as is the nature of games from its era, it is still a very enjoyable game to play, especially for the way the story unravels, more so if you can read between the lines and empathise with the protagonist as well as the other characters surrounding him. It's a pretty good game to play overall.