Recent reviews by Anvil

Perfection

My Video Review:
https://youtu.be/8FKnAjoWlNM

IMO, This might be the best Souls-Like.
I did a video Review talking about what I liked and disliked about the game.

My Video Review: https://youtu.be/-HhhEnEpqNs

My Video Review: https://youtu.be/8EfcagYoDww

I absolutely recommend this game If you're competitive and are into Time Attack games. You need to have some serious precision and accuracy in order to be in the top 10 of the leaderboards.
The game runs off Unreal Engine and it runs extremely well at 1440p 120fps. The movement in this game is extremely smooth. Definitely worth trying out!

A great game so far. It usually runs quite well but after an hour or so of playing, the game starts stuttering hard, especially during cutscenes.
My system:
Ryzen 3700x
16gb ram
2070 super
M.2 nvme drive.

I have the latest Nvidia and windows 10 drivers/updates as well. Gpu and memory usage is around 99 to 100% while cpu is around 30%. Using Digital Foundry’s optimised settings. I have tried changing settings but the stuttering still persists.

Usually a restart of the game fixes it but something to keep track of.

I made a Video Review for this game:
https://youtu.be/i_omsaAWUMU

In short, This game was and STILL IS the peak of Lightsaber and Force combat even to this day, roughly ~18 years later... Let that sink in.
This game was made with software and hardware that are a fraction of the knowledge and hardware we have today yet they were able to make such a MASTERPIECE.

There was/is
- No In-game store.
- No "optional" paid cosmetics.
- No BS battlepass system designed to be grindy instead of fun.

This game was (and still is) one of the BEST games in ALL of gaming. Period.

I made a video review about why this game (among a couple of other Star Wars game) is a Masterpiece!
https://youtu.be/QfMWJBgKFoM

Overall, I definitely recommend this game. It was the beginning of the greatest Lightsaber and Force combat ever conceived (a mechanic that would be improved in Jedi Academy). It is very much playable in this day and age.

If you're a REAL Star Wars fan, you MUST play this game.

I made a video review/analysis that explains why this game is amazing: https://youtu.be/deV94Vbf-UI
Overall, I absolutely recommend this game. You will need to apply a widescreen fix but that's very easy.

The OG Doom 3. If i could describe this game in one word, it would be "Immersion". It is very rare for a game to masterfully blend Visual and Audio design to create possibly one of the most immersive games to ever exist. Still to this day.

One of the best games of all times. A game that STILL, to this day, holds up in terms of graphics, gameplay and ESPECIALLY audio.

Doom 3 DESERVES and DEMANDS respect. The modern Doom games would not be as good if it wasn't for this game daring to do something different. Daring to innovate. Daring to be unique. The things that the current generation of cowardly game developers are legitimately too SCARED to do.

It is also one of the best Doom games ever made. Yes, i 100% consider this a Doom game. This game is literally the reason why Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal look the way they do. This game revolutionised Doom's art style into what it is today.

Doom 2016 and Eternal (ESPECIALLY Doom 2016) took direct inspiration from this game and look how successful they are.

I played Doom 3 and RoE back in 2005-2006 before i had a steam account. Took about ~10 year break and picked up this game again and it is as good as i remember.

This game will always have a special place in my heart. This was the first game in my life that got me into Modding in general. Learning all about Diffuse, Bump and Specular maps to create my own weapon texture mods.
I will never hate on this game. I will always respect it for all the memories i have (most of my memories were of me being very scared and taking week long breaks because i was too afraid).

Doom 3 STILL has the best visualisation of Hell out of any other game, let alone any other Doom game. The Hell levels STILL hold up to this day. In terms of both visual and audio design.

I played Lost Mission DLC for the first time (had to install a mod that allows the OG Doom 3 to be able to play it). Wow...what an incredible and FUN DLC. Action packed with incredible level design.

My goal is to one day play this game on VR with the best texture mods available (I'm hoping that the PSVR version comes to PC).

An easy 10/10 game for me.

Ghostrunner might be the best platformer in the current generation of games (I'd go far enough to say that it's one of the best of all time). It is also quite literally the most perfect Genji (from Overwatch) simulator out there.

Story: Good and has alot of potential. A bit basic and barebones. Plot is quite straightforward but that's a GOOD thing. The two main characters make a great combo. The plot changes/twists are easy to figure out.

Graphics: Pretty damn incredible. Level design is absolutely phenominal. Which is to be expected because this game is VERY HEAVY on platforming at break-neck speeds (seriously, once you get in the rhythum, you'll be moving around at insane speeds assuming your reaction times are average or higher). The 'indoor' locations are quite box-y and basic. But the exterior areas are VERY good.

Music: Wow. Some of the best tracks out there. Great ambience and great action music. The tracks REALLY fit into a Cyberpunk/futuristic dystopian type environment. Fantastic work. 100% going in my everyday music playlist.

Gameplay: Easily the best part of this game (tied very closely to the music). The gameplay is incredible smooth and INSANELY responsive. Moving the mouse has instantaneous effects in the game. I could not feel a single bit of lag with button inputs or looking around with the mouse. Absolute raw mouse input. Acquiring skills is great fun and add depths to your gameplay. You get to choose which upgrades you wish to use through a "Tetris" style system. (Once you play this game, it will make sense). There are some difficult puzzles in the game and some areas that can easily confuse your perception (they're part of the puzzles). Fantastic work.

Combat: Without a doubt the most polarizing part of the game. I both like and hate it. I like the concept of deflecting projectiles through sheer reaction time but at the same time, having a one-hit life system to be quite annoying. One mistake or misclick and you have to restart from the checkpoint (which is instant mind you. No need to wait for load screens like in Mirror's Edge Catalyst). I would've liked seeing a proper health bar where the standard mobs can damage you a few times, but the stronger mobs can one-shot you.

The deflect system itself is great, although a bit finnicky. Even with the Deflect upgrade (which explicitly says that deflecting projectiles is now "significantly" easier) it would still fail to work against certain enemies (namely the Ninja enemies). Even when i have clearly pressed the button to deflect, a fair few times it doesn't register. It happens often enough to be a problem. I wish the deflect system was as lenient as the description on the upgrade, or have a dedicated button to deflect which remains active for ~1s or something like that. Again, similar to Genji in Overwatch.

The 'good' part of combat is the enemies also have one-hit lives as well. You hit them then move on. No need to keep slashing at them like you're playing Genji in Overwatch. But at the same time, this game does have the potential of having a great Hack-and-Slash system in it.

I don't usually give a number rating, but in this case, it is easily a 8/10.

It has achievements and some further time-attack content that you can do to unlock more customizations. Therefore it has a good amount of replayability.

I paid full price and it's honestly worth every dollar.

The main story took ~5 hours to complete.
The Kill Runs took about ~1.5 hours to complete.

Your mileage will vary depending on your skill and reaction times.