Half-Life: A Place in the West
There’s a logic in Hollywood that video games can make good movies, despite the fact that few if any films actually bear this notion out (and believe me, I’m being kind by saying “few”). Similarly, it’s questionable to what degree a video game is liable to translate into the medium of comics.
Theoretically, probably a little BETTER than movies…but I’m still not quite convinced. A good “story” in a video game is a completely different thing to a good story in either film or literature, and a video game’s notion of “character” is more often than not a good-looking and functional avatar designed to move the “plot” forward, and give the player an adequate excuse to kill things or solve puzzles. I’m sorry, but Leon from the Resident Evil franchise ISN’T a “character”, boys and girls. He’s a floppy fringe with a gun, and a libido sufficient to make him willing to rescue cute young girls on the back of his speeding jet-ski. You want character, try Taxi Driver (it’s an “old” movie from the 70s, look it up).
– Real player with 6.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comic Book Indie Games.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 11 seconds
Half-Life: A Place in the West teases the Half-Life fans by delivering a very compelling story based on the Half-Life universe, presented as a fan-made digital comic featuring a total of 13 chapters which are planned to be released over several years. By the time of writing this review, 5 of them are available on the Steam store (the first one being free).
Even if the comic uses the Half-Life setting, its story follows a completely new path, unrelated to the characters featured in the series so that it’s not centered on Gordon Freeman’s adventures. I haven’t played any of the Half-Life titles, yet I greatly enjoyed reading the comic which didn’t require any prior knowledge about the franchise. The few intro pages describe this setting very well and the info provided is enough to get you started: at Black Mesa Research Facility, scientists discover a new alien life form and while attempting to analyze it, they accidentally cause a dimensional rift to open; as a consequence, Earth becomes exposed to an alien invasion. Seven hours later, the extra-terrestrial race known as the “Combine” conquers the planet entirely and kills most of humanity. Gigantic towers, called “Citadels” are sent out by the Combine to the major cities of the Earth, in order to enforce their will on the remaining living people.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
XIII - Classic
Recommended but with some caveats. It’s a fun game, and unique, and certainly cheap, and seems to be a good port (I didn’t encounter any issues aside from the two mentioned below) though there are better games out there for sure. If you’re curious about the comic book style, or if you, like me, have always wanted to play it since it came out but never got around to it, then it’s definitely worth the play. Otherwise, you won’t be missing much.
The main issue with the game on PC is the default low resolution and issue with no sound in cutscenes. So check the discussions for the necessary changes that need to be made to a couple of the config files before playing. The other issue is that if you want to play with controller, you’re going to want to use the Steam controller config to map it for K+M and you’ll probably want to manually adjust the look sensitivity, otherwise it’s near impossible to aim because it’s too sensitive or it takes forever to turn around because it’s not sensitive enough. It’s disappointing they took a game that was initially designed for controller use and made it K+M only so that it requires all that just to make it playable. Now on to the issues with the game itself.
– Real player with 22.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comic Book Gore Games.
In 1984, the Belgian writer named Jean Van Hamme and artist William Vance released the first volume of a spy comic series called XIII. As more and more volumes came out, the popularity of XIII rose and it quickly became one of the best selling Belgian comic series with over 23 volumes released to this date.
In 2002, Ubisoft announced they secured a license for XIII and that they were working on a videogame adaptation. The game was eventually released in November 2003 for PC, PS2, OG Xbox and Gamecube, starring the voice talents of several major A level stars such as the singer Eve, David Duchovny and Adam West.
– Real player with 14.2 hrs in game
Lovecraft Quest - A Comix Game
Summary:
(longer version below)
Despite being somewhat short, the game offers a fair amount of content for the price. My only other complaint is the lack of randomisation in escape sequences.
| Achievements: | Cloud Saving: | Trading Cards: | Workshop: |
| YES | NO | NO | NO |
Click here to see my other Reviews or follow my Curator Page for more recommendations.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Comic Book Indie Games.
So many people are using words like “Lovecraft”, “Cthulhu” and “Dagon” in their games in the hope of appealing to an already existing fan base. Fans of Lovecraft’s writing may purchase this game for a rich narrative experience in the form of a comic with a few interesting narrative based puzzles or decisions. Watch, as your preconceived expectations are strangled to death in front of you by the hands of a smiling developer oblivious (or perhaps not) of their own wrong doing. I didn’t know what to expect for a couple of bucks, but Dev’s, don’t think for a SECOND that two bullets will down Dagon or that having Cthulhu show up in your game makes it a “Lovecraftian experience”. Like a scared anime girl with a short skirt and no knickers I expected to enter into a room filled with hundreds of pulsating flailing tendrils, which I did at first… I then later realised the tendrils were all blushing and turning away from me shyly. I got hot, angry, flustered and could have easily stormed out in hopes of finding larger and more virile monstrosities.
– Real player with 4.7 hrs in game
熊孩子WildKids
3 3 3
– Real player with 9.2 hrs in game
This game will make you lough out loudly and uncontrollably
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
TZOMPANTLI
Tzompantli is an abandoned Early Access arcade beat’emup from Mexico. A range of half-serious, half-comical characters (your first opponent is an unabashed Minions ripoff) let you customise your gameplay experience.
The game is primarily in Spanish, and while there’s an English language option, the game isn’t fully translated so a lot of the language is still Spanish. The default controls are bewilderingly unusable but they can be customised. The artwork is okay (apparently a big deal from the artist, but I wasn’t over impressed), but the colour palette is really poorly chosen and gave me eyestrain. I think they were aiming for a comic-book like appearance but if so, that falls flat. There’s also a whole bunch of pointless flashing/strobing which makes me think B grade indie developers are trying to give me epilepsy. Joking aside, this game should absolutely have an epilepsy warning.
– Real player with 34.9 hrs in game
I love this game!
– Real player with 9.0 hrs in game
BORDERCIDE
The detective drank until he passed out, almost like every day, and fell into the arms of the nightmare. This time it was the ringing of the phone that woke him from his nightmare. They called him for the one thing he enjoyed doing in this life. They called him for the one thing he was good at in this life. They called him to do his job. When he heard the news of the murder, he knew he would catch the murderer at any cost. No one could get into him and the murderer. When he heard the news of the murder, he was relieved. He could finally be able to escape from this emptiness. He could finally be able to escape from his nightmares. Most importantly, he could finally be able to escape from himself. Or could he?
Comic-style cutscenes
80+ comic-style cutscenes inspired by Sin City
Use the abilities of the detective
Dodge roll through the bullets
Become invincible using your “Rage” ability
Surprise your enemies with a flashbang
Different atmospheres
A relentless chase in different atmospheres
Other gameplay features
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Enemy variety consisting of 8+ enemies.
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Recover a certain amount of health when you kill an enemy with the last bullet in your magazine.
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Use your character’s abilities and create your own gameplay style.
Metropolis: Lux Obscura
Match-three games like ‘Candy Crush Saga’ are not my thing, especially so many of them seem to be freemium games nowadays. Somehow during one Steam Sale, ‘Metropolis: Lux Obscura’ was recommended to me. (Perhaps it’s from my playing the ‘Deponia’ games.) Being a fan of noir, and that the game received decent reviews and was on sale, I decided give it a try.
‘Lux Obscura’ is a mix of match-three puzzle game and choose-your-own-adventure visual novel. You play as Jon Lockhart, a former prisoner who tries to get back on his feet in the seedy part of Metropolis. Your decisions will affect how his story develops, leading to one of four outcomes. Along the way, you will get into fights, and that’s where the match-three puzzle comes in. By matching up tiles, you execute attacks or heal yourself. In that regard, it’s a bit like playing ‘Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo’.
– Real player with 6.5 hrs in game
SHORT REVIEW
Metropolis: Lux Obscura is an adult-themed visual novel with match-three combat and multiple endings, in a stereotypical film noir setting.
The visual novel part of the game is presented stylishly in a sort-of animated graphic novel format, mostly using a greyscale colour palette with occasional vivid colours for effect (most often red). The art is of variable quality, but is mostly good. Animations are limited, and mostly look pretty terrible. The match-three part uses large icons that are original, but seem a bit out of place with the rest of the game.
– Real player with 6.2 hrs in game
RICO: London
Rico 2 is a sequel to the first Rico that not a lot of people played, but the ones who did, did mostly enjoy. The game for me was and still is pretty fun for what it is and i do recommend it, despite a few problems that it carries.
In terms of story, it’s just like the first game (which means: SKIP). I like the art style, i think that real XIII style graphics (Cell shaded) are not used enough and i find it charming in this game, which also has a bigger verity of environments and a bigger attention to detail. sound design is nothing special, does what it needs to but nothing memorable.
– Real player with 14.6 hrs in game
RICO 2: London has an amazing art style, a classic rogue cop premise and good voice acting. All of that is weighed down to its death by a boring loop system, the same soundtrack played over and over and over again, a needlessly complicated weapon system and enemies who are laughably bullet spongey for zero reason.
Don’t buy this game.
– Real player with 5.8 hrs in game
Wolfriders A Sniper Adventure
Wolfriders is a short game about the adventures of a sniper. Read the comic book chapters and play the short levels. You’ll feel like you are inside the comic book.
Break your oath, gather Wolfriders and lead the resistance to victory. You are the only one to turn the tide in the war between the free world and the E.M.P.I.R.E.
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Special levels for sniper and assault gameplay
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A gripping story
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Comic book style storytelling
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Lots of guns and armors
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26 playable levels
Resistance needs you! Join them in this immersive story!
FORECLOSED
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Review by Gaming Masterpieces - The greatest games of all time on Steam.
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Is this game a masterpiece? No, certainly not. It is still an interesting cyberpunk adventure with some shooting, stealth and hacking.
In the near future, everyone wears an implant in the head, but your implant is different. It has been modified without your knowledge, and it seems that someone wants to kill you because of that. You have been working as an unimportant employee at Securtech, and you obviously got this experimental chip as a guinea pig. All your colleagues who also got the experimental implant have already been eliminated. What a nice coincidence that the person who designed the experimental chip, the busted CEO of Securtech, also has a little problem atm, and needs your help. Maybe you two can help each other?
– Real player with 11.4 hrs in game
Foreclosed
An atmospheric cyberpunk shooter with interesting comic book aesthetics and a pumping soundtrack. Gameplay feels a little repetitive but the story is short enough to keep your interest.
Foreclosed is a narrative driven cyberpunk shooter set in the style of a graphic novel.
Evan Kapnos awakes to the news that the company who owns his identity have gone bankrupt and his account has been foreclosed. He has lost his job, his implants and access to areas around the city.
– Real player with 7.5 hrs in game