You VS Drugs
YOU TAKE ON THE ROLE OF REAL-LIFE AGENTS WHO EXIST IN YOUR BRAIN, WHERE YOUR OWN WIT CAN RISE TO REVERT A WORLDWIDE DEVASTATION. THE ENEMY CAN ENSLAVE ANYONE, ANYWHERE. BY EMBARKING ON AN ADVENTURE THAT WILL DEFY YOUR IMAGINATION, YOU WILL DISCOVER HOW DRUG ADDICTION THREATENS HUMANITY. BY WATCHING REAL NEUROLOGICAL EVENTS, YOU WILL BE EMPOWERED TO BETTER PROTECT YOURSELF, AND THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE —IF YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES!
Inspiration & theme: “In 1960, only 4 million Americans had ever tried drugs” (2.2% of people). “By creating the Bureau of Narcotics & Dangerous Drugs in 1968, the U.S. set the basis of an official national/international war on drugs” (Drug Enforcement Administration Museum).
50 years later, the National Survey on Drug Use & Health (2019) showed that 164.8 million Americans aged 12 or older (60.1% of people) were past month substance users. Even worse, “children are already abusing drugs at age 12 or 13 (…), including tobacco, alcohol, inhalants, marijuana, prescription drugs such as sleeping pills & anti-anxiety medicines” (National Institute on Drug Abuse -NIDA-, 2020). And now, the United Nations’ 2021 World Drug Report states that “pandemic effects ramp up drug risk, as youth underestimate cannabis dangers”. So, what now? NIDA (2020) states that “Increased understanding of the basics of addiction will empower people to make informed choices in their own lives”. But if science took +100 years to unravel how drugs change the brain and produce addiction, how can regular kids & adults learn such complex topics to foresee the hidden dangers of trying drugs?
‘You VS Drugs’ is the first brain-based video game saga in the world designed to prevent drug addiction by empowering people with real knowledge, so they can make better choices in their own lives!
Design & gameplay: It’s a chibi cartoon-style 3D graphic design of characters & settings which give players a sense of action and fun at first glance. Friends & foes, level challenges, sounds, structures & objects are designed for players —that can play alone/with a partner— to explore, have fun, get surprised, fight, and make decisions that test the knowledge players acquire while watching how their brain works, and how drugs mess up with people’s lives. All relevant situations are inspired in real events of the working brain.
Game mechanics (and link to the learning experience):
• Incorrect responses to Path questions lead to situations that diminish energy levels.
• Correct responses to Path questions earn players points. Enough points allow the discovery of a special feature in the camp’s hospital.
• Your choices sometimes affect other AI teammates’ energy levels.
• To complete the first half of a level you need to take care of your fellow(s).
• Once a level is completed, the subsequent level is unlocked.
• Before a new level starts, weapon improvements or new skills can be learned at the camp’s gym.
Read More: Best Stealth Lore-Rich Games.
Agent 64: Spies Never Die
A retro FPS inspired by classic 90s console shooters. Explore new locales, accomplish varied objectives and fight against state-of-the-art 1997 enemy AI. A work of love by a dedicated fan.
The Agency is sending you on missions all around the world, in order to save it!
Each story mission is a self contained environment where you have to accomplish varied objectives, such as hacking terminals, steal secret plans, free civilian hostages and much more. All the while fighting armed guards in epic shootouts.
Be Agent number 64, the most elite operative the world has ever seen!
Read More: Best Stealth Heist Games.
Operation: Pinkeye
Operation: Pinkeye is a first-person shooter throwing back to shooters from the 90s by the likes of Rareware and Free Radical Design.
Set in an alternate Universe where the Acts of Union in 1707 never happened, Scotland and England remain independent and tensions between the 2 remain very high.
A journalist has been killed in a hotel in London near a political rally, his room was ransacked, as if their murderers were looking for something. It was believed that he held important documents containing plans by the English to invade Scotland. Fearing that this is the case, The Scottish Secret Service (The SSS) assign their best agent, Ken Maxwell, to obtain the stolen documents, and find out exactly what they’re planning.
Traverse through 15 levels of high-octane spy action, with music from the composer of Planet X3, and FMV cutscenes filmed in Scots!
Features
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Relive memories of ’90s era shooters without the annoying bits
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Faithful old-school graphics
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Multiple language support, including Scots and Gaelic!
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Customisable mechanics and controls!
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Music from the composer of Planet X3 and Half-Life: Dark Matter
Read More: Best Stealth Alternate History Games.
The Black Hole
The Black Hole is a TPS with puzzle solving elements. You’ll play as a secret agent in the Black Hole Agency.
Defeat enemies with your gun and solve puzzles.
Collect mysterious items in the levels and survive a conspiracy.
Encounter various traps, enemies, and puzzles.
Let’s enter the world of secret agents!
Assassin’s Creed™: Director’s Cut Edition
This is the first video game that I have ever played. Although there are no subtitles and it sometimes can be really hard to understand the conversations with accent, I persisted through the end, and I’m really glad that I did persist. This game brought me right into the world of the Middle East in the 11th-12th century and the hidden world of assassins by creating such a powerful and detailed construct of background story, character portraying, and environment rebuild etc. The feeling of immersion is hard to compare when so much details and information regarding one culture are well-compressed and distributed in the game. Although one may argue that the gameplay design is not very optimal (I admit that, the quests sometimes can be too repetitive), I personally still consider this game as one of the best since it is such a great introduction to the Assassin’s Creed series (probably the one with purest assassin element?).
– Real player with 76.6 hrs in game
TL;DR: Not without a couple rough corners of course, but the story overall is pretty nice, you can even see how they managed to set it up for a conveyor series from game 1!
Pacing
At times the game seems to tease the player with how much artificial slowdown there is. Occasional tip would say “Take your time”, “Moving slower will attract less suspicion”. An annoyance for some players, understandably so. Viewing the game as a sight seeing simulator with occasional fights, stealth and story it’s not that bad for couple weeks worth of chill evenings about 2-4 hours each. Climbing towers makes sense here, same as walking around a city trying to spot the collectables.
– Real player with 39.9 hrs in game
Cyber Ops
This game is great and I’m kinda sad it got so many bad reviews. It’s challenging but honestly it’s not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. Once you figure out the mechanics it’s challenging but perfectly feasible after a couple of tries. It had some bugs at launch but they have all been fixed already.
Great atmosphere, good voice acting, nice looking interface and very singular gameplay. Being the guardian angel hacker behind a screen while the operators actually do the work might not be for everyone but I personally love it.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Every negative review is sadly 100 % correct. Only 25 % ever made 1st mission. Only 0,3 % players ever finished the game and 1 % just hacked the “game finished " achievement, because more players finished game than finished last mission. You will be fighting the logic breaking UI problems more than “triangle” enemies. All moving enemies are called “turrets” when killed. You don’t know at this moment if cyborg or human enemy type died.
You will NOT be able to win after level 5 without good oldschool health cheats. The game is so buggy that some mechanics needed for victory don’t works sometimes. I won spider-tank level 6 fight legit first, but squad just glitched at the door when leving the cathedral. QTE skillchecks are also broken or start at unwinnable state.
– Real player with 23.1 hrs in game
Midwintar
Midwintär catches you at Khazar’s Pass.
You shelter in a cave as the days and nights grow long and cold,
as the snow seals you in and as the world darkens.
Midwintär is a narrative-driven stealth action game inspired by medieval horror folklore that combines careful tactical planning with fast-paced arcade execution and innovative gossip mechanics. Play and switch between three protagonists - a werewolf, a vampire, and a moon witch - to exact your revenge on a vicious religious cult.
Off-Kilter Sunny Horror On the outside, Midwintär takes place among sunny, medieval villages populated by friendly, hard-working, and devoted inhabitants. Stay overnight, though, and you might be horrified to reveal the true nature of their sacred rituals. The world of Midwintär is gruesome and dark but also funny.
Sun / Moon Gameplay Cycle Midwintär features a 3-minute day-night cycle that changes your abilities. You must use your daytime skills such as lock-picking or spreading rumours among villagers to best prepare the terrain for the night-time havoc when you transform into a bloodthirsty, overpowered monster.
Gossip Mechanics Each villager in Midwintär has their own suspicion-meter you can influence by gossiping and spreading rumors about other villagers, and there is also a panic-meter that changes the AI behaviour of all villagers on the map. You can use this against villagers - hide the firewood to lure the lumberjack into the night, kill him near the chapel to incriminate the priest, and later spread rumours on seeing him covered in blood. He’ll be hanged in no time!
Three Playable Characters You will be able to choose, play and switch between three playable characters - a werewolf, a vampire, and a moon witch - each of whom possesses a distinctive skillset and boasts a different playstyle.
Non-linear Skilltree You will be able to customize the skillset and playstyle of each character by opting to complete alternate missions in levels, which will reward you with a special bonus skill of your choice. Will your werewolf hone his terrifying howl, or will he become one with the wolf-packs of the forest?
Co-Op Multiplayer Midwintär will feature a split-screen and a local multiplayer for up to three players, enabling all three characters to fight together.
The corrupt and self-righteous religious institution Oblique Order is attempting to destroy the peaceful cohabitation of people and magical creatures in the pagan world of Midwintär, and enforce their order by uniting people against the powers of the wild. You must stop them before they exterminate your kind…
Midwintär starts off as a revenge story that slowly shifts into an exploration about our relationship to the unknown, and about the limits of what we can hope to control or understand.
WEREWOLF
The main protagonist is the werewolf, a former disciple of the Oblique Order, disillusioned and out for vengeance. During the game, he is guided by the voice of Midwintär, an ancient force of nature. His skills revolve around spreading panic and using brute force.
VAMPIRE
The vampire, once a powerful force of the night, his might now reduced by the spells of men. He cannot cross running water nor enter houses uninvited, but his power is in his allure - he can enthrall people to do his bidding, or forge blood links to ensure undying loyalty.
MOON WITCH
Then, there is the moon witch. Saved just before she was burned at the stake, she had felt on her skin the terror of order, and wishes to rid the world of their influence. Her skills revolve around misdirecting suspicion at others and using concoctions to alter their behaviour.
“Attending the Masked Meeting, you overhear their plans - they have already set all things in motion.”
XIII
★☆☆☆☆ Terrible!
Action
The 2020 remake of XIII is a cheap, lazy, broken cash-in on a once fascinating name.
It really makes me feel bad to have to say that because I had high hopes for this. But it’s true! In the same year that 2K gave us an amazing remake for the original Mafia, XIII stands in its own class of awfulness. That anyone could release a game in this state and try to charge 40 Euro for it, let alone goat people into pre-ordering it, is appalling.
At first, I thought the ‘very negative’ review status on Steam was a little overboard. I had followed the discussion boards before release and boy, some people did not like the style change. Having played this for an hour and then gone back to the original, I can say with a certainty that I should have listened to those people more. Not only have the developers ripped all of the charm from the original game, but they have also failed to replace it with anything of substantial worth. I think this is the most apparent in the half-a$$ed attempts to tie some of this remake’s style into the original’s. In the original, was frequent and eventually blended into the background. Here it’s reserved for very few things. It’s noticeable that its inclusion feels inconsistent at best.
– Real player with 18.6 hrs in game
Graphics aside, what the remake was INTENDED to be was the original game’s campaign and levels more or less faithfully recreated (with the original cel-shading replaced by more of a Fortnite-like cartoony art-style), but with new, more “modern” Call of Duty-inspired gameplay, including aim-down-sights, a limited inventory, a simplified health/armor system, and partial regenerating health. Rather similar to what happened with F.E.A.R. 2/F,E,A,R, 3, Bioshock Infinite, Aliens Colonial Marines, etc.
– Real player with 16.9 hrs in game
Assassin’s Creed® Liberation HD
Short Version: A solid 6/10. Not the best the AC franchise has to offer, but I’ve seen worse games.
The Not So Short Version:
Positives:
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the Bayou area - I could almost smell the swamp.
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The fabric of New Orleans: this city has character!
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The three different personas of Aveline. I loved that you get 3 different lives within one game and one character.
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The story/plot of the game.
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Sugar cane machete as a weapon. Need I say more?
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Connor re-appears. It’s always nice to see a familiar face.
– Real player with 34.8 hrs in game
I am kind of biased because I love the AC franchise, and how it mixes historical and science fiction with conspiracy theories, and I have been a fan of stealth games since the original Splinter Cell way back when as well as the Prince of Persia franchise, which I’ve played to the point where each new playthrough would be essentially a speed run with some story interruption. It should be taken into account that this is a port of a PS Vita game, so it doesn’t have the depth and breadth of a typical AC entry, but it is still worth the time. So, let’s get down to it:
– Real player with 24.0 hrs in game
Assassin’s Creed 2
Going through all the Assassin’s Creed games & have been loving this one!
– Real player with 63.8 hrs in game
A bloody trip to 14th century Renaissance Italy.
A hugely improved sequel compared to the series first entry. Fantastic character introduction paired with interesting story development and a charismatic protagonist makes this game an instant classic.
If you’re looking for an interesting action-adventure game and don’t mind it’s age and clunky controls, this is the game for you.
– Real player with 53.4 hrs in game