It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussionEnding Soon: Review of the Month Contest — June/July
Winners Announced for May/June(28 posts)(28 posts)
(28 posts)
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Posted August 01, 2016
Together with our friends at ROCCAT we venture to encourage and reward the best reviews on GOG.com – so welcome to the second edition of our Review of the Month contest: June/July!

For winners from May/June – keep scrolling!

Every month, you'll be able to submit your review for any game (or games!) released within the previous month. This time, the grand prize is a ROCCAT Kiro gaming mouse:
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/qVW05hT.jpg">

Here's what you need to know:
—All eligible reviews must be about games that have joined the GOG.com catalog between June 1 and June 30, 2016.
—Once you have posted your review, submit it for consideration by also quoting it in this thread.
—Winners will be announced at the beginning of August, with the start of that month's contest
—The best review of each month will win a sweet piece of gaming gear, courtesy of the good people at ROCCAT. Any runner-ups will receive honorable mentions and one $9.99 code each, to be redeemed at GOG.com.
—Keep the review guidelines in mind. A good review can be both entertaining and informative, it can be brief or extensive. It doesn't need to be positive in its overall assessment of the game - as long as it's eloquent and fair (or hilarious), it has our attention.


<header class="article__lead"></header>


May/June Winners!

Congratulations — and thanks for helping make GOG.com reviews awesome! Winners were chosen by vote from the pool of eligible entries. We judged the merits of the review itself – the game and rating were not taken under consideration.

Grand Prize – ROCCAT Renga headset
For being informative, interesting to read, and honest – Kengou on The Witness.






[i]Pretentious? Yes. Brilliant? Absolutely.
[...]Prepare to be astounded when you discover the true puzzles the island holds, and the realization that you can't contain the puzzles into the little boxes Jonathan Blow has placed for you to find.

Understand that this game asks a lot of you, and it doesn't seem to thank you much for it. That's because it understands - and encourages you to learn likewise - that sometimes, the very process of learning how the creator thinks is reason enough to persevere; the very act of solving is itself its own reward. [...] See the full review.[/i]






Honorable Mentions – $9.99 GOG.com Game Code
<span class="bold">chibizoid</span> on Skyshine's Bedlam
<span class="bold">freakie1one</span> on Exanima


We'll be contacting the winners soon!
Post edited July 11, 2016 by Konrad
Posted July 20, 2016
My review of Hard Reset Redux (4 stars)

A fast and fun throwback to old FPS'es

Hard Reset is a nice throwback to old-school FPS'es. Run fast, shoot everything that moves, explore to find secret areas, collect orange stuff to earn upgrades! There are of course many modern features included as well, of the good kind! The gameplay and combat is top notch. You also regenerate ammo and shield if those are under a certain value, so you can't become completely doomed. There is some story in the game too. I forgot what it was all about halfway through the game. It seemed cheesy, and I don't play games like this for the story. You get to see some great comicbook-style cutscenes though.

You get three weapons throughout the game, you start with two of them. An assault rifle, a energy weapon, and a katana. The twist is this; when you upgrade your weapons, you unlock more modes for them. Your assault rifle can be a shotgun, a rocket launcher, or launch proximity-mines. Your energy-weapon can for example be a railgun or a "electric mortar". There are modes for every situation. The katana is new in this Redux-edition. It has no upgrades, and you get it a few hours into the game. Sadly, I didn't get much use out of this. Most enemies are robots that explode on death, making it a inconvenient weapon to use. It was good fun at the occasional zombie-encounter though!

The techology is very impressive. The graphics are sharp, with an abundance of details. Objects are affected by physics, and many parts of the enviroment can be destroyed. Enemies can ram through pillars, scaffolding, and other destroyables, spectacularly demolishing it into tiny pieces of rubble. You can also shoot explosive barrels/cars or generators, causing explosive damage or showering the area in lightning and sparks.

Optimization is top notch. My rig ran the game effortlessly at ultra settings and 60 fps on 1680x1050 resolution (AMD A8-5600K, AMD HD 7850 1GB, 8 GB RAM).

Disclaimer: I have not played the original Hard Reset, so I don't know how it compares to Redux.
Posted July 21, 2016
:o

Oh, wow. Hadn't expected to win this one. Very glad y'all find it effective! :)

Best of luck to this next round's participants!
Posted July 22, 2016
Here is my review for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

Codefendant’s English van

A good hack & slash game should have a replay value. The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut, after combining three parts of the game into one, has it. The main campaign is finally long enough to be truly enjoyable. You can choose six different classes and each of them has a complex skill tree so you can specialize in various battle techniques. For a modest price you can reset skill points within the game so you may experiment which build suits you best. You can also choose how to develop your companion - Lady Katarina. She has less complex skill tree but you can adjust her behavior so that gives you a lot of possibilities as well.

Fighting and looting system is solid. Nothing special but just good enough. Sometimes fighting can be a bit messy, especially if your enemies come from below as it’s hard to see them from a distance. Story and quests are also rather typical for the genre with tons of popular culture references. There are, however, a lot of side activities that keep things fresh: you can tinker with your items, enhance them, craft new artifacts etc., in some parts of the game you can position your troops to aid you, send your generals on difficult missions (choose wisely who is the most capable man for the task) or even send your pet chimera on a hunt. On top of that there are daily challenges and special missions that you can perform outside the campaign so there are a lot of things to do.

The game doesn’t contain anything revolutionary but all these little things I mentioned earlier combined with solid mechanics give you a very enjoyable game without too frustrating moments. One thing is excellent: SECRETS! There are tons of them everywhere. Sometimes it’s just a special item that you can find in obscure area, sometimes you have to solve a simple puzzle but there are very complex secrets that take a few acts to solve. I love them with my whole heart and if you like secrets as well read the title of my review again. It’s an anagram :)
Posted July 22, 2016
avatar
Ghorpm: Here is my review for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

Codefendant’s English van
... if you like secrets as well read the title of my review again. It’s an anagram :)
Descendants of Van Helsing?

I was hoping for a Witcher 3 gift code.
(just kidding)
Posted July 22, 2016
avatar
Ghorpm: Here is my review for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut

Codefendant’s English van
... if you like secrets as well read the title of my review again. It’s an anagram :)
avatar
GabiMoro: Descendants of Van Helsing?

I was hoping for a Witcher 3 gift code.
(just kidding)
Pretty close, but singular form (descendant not descendants) but hey, good job!
Posted July 22, 2016
Here's mine for...

Dex!


Stylish Cyberpunk, Constant Fun (4 Stars)


This is one of those rare gems that, upon finishing I immediately wanted to fire it up and go through it all over again.

At its heart, the game is a side scrolling RPG beat 'em up with just enough wrinkles to elevate it to something special.

The first is the general atmosphere and visuals. I admit, I'm not a "pixel person" - but Dex executes it exceptionally well. The final product is smooth, crisp and gives the game a fantastic aesthetic different from most RPGs. The voice acting lends a ton to the game as well. Okay sure, it's cheesy and a bit overdone at times. But it gives every character a unique personality you'll remember. It was good enough that I actively avoided a quest because the voice actor perfectly captured someone I was happy to toss to her own devices (screw you Lydia, find your own ride ;) ).

The core gameplay mechanics are solid as well. I played a predominantly melee character and this style of combat provided a satisfyingly tactical experience. Fighting each of the handful of enemies felt different, and the combat had a pace perfectly suited to respond to each fight with a bevy of rolls, blocks, combos and gunplay. I'm not a beat 'em up player, but this game encouraged me to approach combat in a tactical manner and use the tools at my disposal.

Speaking of tools the game offers quite a few upgrade paths. There's a fantastic hacking minigame that transforms Dex into an old school Shoot 'Em Up complete with upgradeable software attacks. The game has several skills which unlock everything from different combos, to the standard HP increases and even some light thieving and charisma options. Combined with augmentations and gear, these provide you with the tools and skills you'll level over your playthrough.

In the end it all serves to allow you to craft the Dex you want to play and provides enough fun encounters in varied locales that you'll be wanting more. The length is decent, quests are plenty and the story engaging. A+
Posted August 02, 2016
avatar
GOG.com: snip...
Here's what you need to know:
—All eligible reviews must be about games that have joined the GOG.com catalog between June 1 and June 30, 2016.
I remember when reviews came from people that PLAYed the game but that's no longer the case so I don't read them anymore.

Best of luck with your promo
Posted August 02, 2016
Nice try to improve the review section. Though I honestly fail to understand why bad reviews (reviews that aren't reviews because they're comments/remarks about DRM E.G.) can't simply be removed.

Example of a failing review: https://www.gog.com/game/parkan_iron_strategy

edit: typo/second thought/link
Post edited August 02, 2016 by petitmal
Posted August 02, 2016
again:

"released in the last month" only puts a spotlight on "new releases."

that doesn't help.

older entries, please.
Posted August 02, 2016
let me guess, already existing reviews written before gog release are not eligible? and you will google contenders for originality? but you forgot to mention that in the rules
same goes for owning the game on gog store

also isn't it too early to promote review system, when it's absolutely not ready? i can't find list of my reviews, i can't find where to edit my reviews

for example i copied my broforce review from my blog to gog store page:

Platformer-shooter with destructible environment and references to action movies in the form of 35 totally different characters. Game marketed as chaos incarnate, but as usual in actuality it's paced much slower and is more tactical, since player have to compensate for different characters' abilities and play-styles.

The satire is nice and choice of focus on heroes instead of actors let the game to have several different roles of the same actor from different IPs. Also game uses some recent and some obscure characters, due to which it stands above nostalgia monetization like expendables (and expendabros). Though it would be nice to have some characters of Rothrock (Nikita would be nice too) and more asian actors like Li or Chan. Since they already using british Bond and french Leon and Lambert, they don't seem to be tied to 'murica narrative outside of diegesis.

It starts very solid due to good level design, but in the middle interactive narrative is so non-generic the alien, that it turns into comics-level crossover "rocketeer and Raiden versus aliens". Thankfully final chapters go back to generic aesthetics so it returns to normal state. Though last mission is so long that you tied to a chair for couple of hours since there are no saves inside levels.

It works totally fine on UWS UHD surround, but letterbox stylization is not wide enough for this aspect ratio (as usual). Game looks nice, but shaking screen and a lot of chaos on suicide run is somewhat irritating, due to contradiction to optimal play-style.

Overall the game is quite fresh and original and not full of memeseses and dumb nostalgia, all references are just for a flavour. Works fine plays fine and offers some new game-play mechanics.
Post edited August 02, 2016 by agof
Posted August 08, 2016
I posted my little review for The Solus Project. It's not on the storepage though, so does it have to be approved by the staff first?

Anyway I'll post it here just in case

The Solus Project
The only survival game out there

"There's tons of so called "survival" games available so how is The Solus Project the only survival game? The thing is that most of the "survival" games really consist only of running around and eating while monsters/animals chase you and that's it. Pretty much like pacman. The Solus Project is different. It goes back to the early survival games like Deus and Robinson's requiem and provides you with proper survival experience as it gives you a reason to be in the dangerous environment and it also gives you a goal you need to accomplish there, so your existence in the game is something more than being a pacman.

And what you're trying to do there is to call home and tell them what happened, simple enough. Except for the fact that your stuff is broken and the planet is not really uninhabited which provides you firstly with incredibly detailed and beautifully crafted gameworld with lots of secrets, places to explore and various thrilling mysterious events, and secondly with many genuinly creepy and spooky moments and imaginative story events. All that is further enhanced by brilliant graphics and audio design.

And the best thing is that this game very friendly to all kinds of players with its modifiable difficulty so you can go with difficult survival mechanics or very mild survival mechanics for people who'd rather be playing an exploration adventure game than worrying about nourishments and various other life threatening situations.

Overall The Solus Project might in fact even be the very best game of 2016 as it's an entertainingly thrilling experience with lovely visuals and audios that really has no competition among the other "survival" games since, as I mentioned before, this is the only one that understands the concept of survival games right."
Posted August 11, 2016
Hey folks! Thanks for your entries, this round is now closed – stay tuned for the next episode... with a small twist!
Post edited August 11, 2016 by Konrad
Posted September 03, 2016
avatar
GOG.com: Honorable Mentions – $9.99 GOG.com Game Code
<span class="bold">chibizoid</span> on Skyshine's Bedlam
<span class="bold">freakie1one</span> on Exanima

We'll be contacting the winners soon!
Hmm, I was not contacted by GoG about winning this event and never received any store credit.
Pages:
1
2
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussionEnding Soon: Review of the Month Contest — June/July
Winners Announced for May/June(28 posts)(28 posts)
(28 posts)