Jeff Goldenberg > Games > Beaten

"Good game, but unbelievably buggy. Weapons aren't as powerful as the same ones in Fallout 3. NPCs are more interesting and better voiced."

"There isn't much wrong with this game. It is fun, original, funny, well-acted, and fair. Chapters 2 and 3 can be somewhat tedious after a while, but the payoff is eventually delivered and it is worth the wait."

"This is a really well produced game. Good story, good cinematics, great soundtrack, good voice acting. The action sequences aren't all that varied, but still entertaining enough."

"This game is not very challenging, but it is a beautiful work of art. The story is mostly well-written, compelling, well-acted and definitely plays proper homage to the film noir genre. The effort that went into (re)creating a very sizable chunk of 1940s LA is astonishing. The soundtrack is superb. Strangely, the detailed facial models for which the game is known are very impressive with some characters, but downright terrible with others."

"Rockstar's version of Max Payne has a lot more glitz and cut scenes and a lot less solid gameplay than the two first games made by Remedy. Gone is the gritty Noir style and grimy New York setting, replaced with the sunny locales of Sao Paulo, Brazil, Panama, and the not-so-sunny New Jersey. Fortunately, the story is quite solid and the animation and voice acting is mostly top-notch. Rockstar has added in many new features to make the game more modern (cover, Shoot Dodge, Arcade Mode, Multiplayer, and item collection), but none of these really improve the game in any way. In fact, Cover and Shoot Dodge, combined with the still present Bullet Time make Max a bit too powerful. Shipped on two discs for Xbox, the Story Mode isn't all that long. Skilled gamers will probably complete it in about 10 hours. While completing the story was not difficult, getting Achievements and the more difficult Grinds (a second in-game only type of achievement) is very difficult. I finished this game with less Achievements than any other similar length game."

"Overall, a very fun, surprisingly large old-school action game with modern production value. The game is basically two-dimensional with some isometric 3d scenes. The game is a combination of platforming, shooting bad guys and searching for collectibles. It is easy to try to forge ahead quickly through the story by following the prompts. TIP: Take the time to search out all of the collectibles, especially the health and armor power ups early on. It will make the boss fights much easier later on."

"I simply cannot convey how great this game is in a short review (and I can't be bothered to write a long one - hah!). If you like epic, story driven games, you must play this game. The game makes extensive use of very long cut scenes to tell the story, which are broken up with bouts of action which includes exploration, puzzle solving, and many different forms of killing, and not just zombies. Every action you take branches the story differently, so there is supposedly lots of replay value here. The game is supposed to play differently for everybody (who doesn't make exactly all the same choices!). Mechanically, it leaves a lot to be desired, but that is all overcome and forgotten with a seriously good story, a great visual presentation and superb voice acting. The game is not difficult and can easily be finished in a week or less (all of "Season 1" - 5 episodes). I typically can't stand zombie games, movies, tv shows, etc., but I really loved this game."

"Really fun simple RPG from the crazy minds of Parker and Stone. Plays like a good South Park episode. Very immersive. Equally likely to keep you laughing and grossed out for hours. Only downside is it is pretty short."

"3 cheap and great indie games packaged together. Trials is a motocross obstacle course game with fantastic physics. A modern 3D version of Kickstart or Excitebike. Limbo is an eerie action-adventure with a unique and creepy black and white art style. 'Splosion Man is an interesting take on 80's style platformer games where the character propels himself up, over and through obstacles by exploding multiple times and using the recoil. Pretty bizarre game with an interesting type of humor spread throughout, which all-in-all works well."

"If you liked the early LucasArts games, especially Maniac Mansion, you'll love this game. Otherwise, probably not. It is basically a puzzle-platformer where you have to take 7 characters through a cave consisting of multiple puzzles that require the special skills of each character to complete. There is a lot of replay value since you can make many different groups of 3 and solve the puzzles in different ways."

"Very bizarre game with a nice minimalist aesthetic and a true WTF ending."

"Another masterpiece from Remedy. I truly loved this game. Amazing sci-fi action RPG."

"Piece of crap "game" where you don't do much of anything to complete the game."

"Pretty cool adventure game with decent puzzles, decent story, good voice acting. The first four episodes/chapters were great but the final one was less so."

"Only played the co-op campaign. Was pretty fun. Game is well put together (no bugs, good graphics, decent story and voice acting) but was somewhat repetitive."

"Pretty cool sci-fi adventure game with an original take on a common sci-fi trope."

"Really well done mashup of the Borderlands world and humor with the Telltale game system and graphic style. Game was fun."

"Pretty good beat 'em up game with many different game modes. The campaign was pretty fun."

"I wanted to like this game much more than I actually did. The graphics were great but the overall story, puzzles and gameplay could have been much better."

"This game surprised me. There isn't much to it, it is basically an interactive movie that you watch and make decisions along the way that determine which scenes you will see next until you get to the end. You always finish the game, but how the story plays out changes each time. There are 7 different endings and 14 possible chapters to view. After 5 playthroughs, I've only seen 3 endings and 13 chapters. So there is replay value. The game/movie is surprisingly well written, well acted and well filmed. Huge difference from similar early 90s games of this genre which were horrible on all fronts."

"This is a war/shooter/rpg game. You control two players at once: a sniper and a heavy gunner. The game isn't particularly better or worse than others in the genre, yet for some reason I enjoyed this game much more than any other. I typically find these games quite boring but this one kept me engaged almost to the very end. I liked the banter between the two characters and other NPCS."

"Very disappointing."

"It's really only worth 3.5 stars, but since GR doesn't allow half stars, I'll be generous. I was a big fan of the last Area 51 on original Xbox. This game is nowhere near as good in terms of story or voice acting, but it is still a fun, not too difficult squad-shooter."

"This game is much more puzzle solving than action/platforming. The puzzles get very difficult."