4 Yrs✓#
GreenStarfish
4 Yrs✓#
I completed the 3ds port of Luigi's Mansion 4 years ago and I don't plan on playing it again or playing the other games on this list. I didn't a write a review for the game because I beat it before I even joined HLTB. Because of the occasion I will create an unofficial after the fact GotM forum exclusive review for Luigi's Mansion. (Something I never do)
June 24th 2019 - Luigi's Mansion - 8 h 51 m - (100%) 7/10 - Didn't do the hidden mansion.
Here's my "review":
From what I can remember the positives were that the portrait ghosts were pretty fun to fight, using the different elements to progress was cool and the boos were especially great due to how dynamic they were. They could go to rooms you hadn't unlocked yet.
The negatives I can remember are the controls which were a little annoying due to the 3ds only having the tiny c-stick nub instead of a second stick. I also got stuck for a while during one part of the game due to an obtuse puzzle which inflated the playtime a good amount.
June 24th 2019 - Luigi's Mansion - 8 h 51 m - (100%) 7/10 - Didn't do the hidden mansion.
Here's my "review":
From what I can remember the positives were that the portrait ghosts were pretty fun to fight, using the different elements to progress was cool and the boos were especially great due to how dynamic they were. They could go to rooms you hadn't unlocked yet.
The negatives I can remember are the controls which were a little annoying due to the 3ds only having the tiny c-stick nub instead of a second stick. I also got stuck for a while during one part of the game due to an obtuse puzzle which inflated the playtime a good amount.
5 Yrs✓#
NoOne
5 Yrs✓#
Here's my super long review of F.E.A.R. Extraction Point (It's a bit too long).
Time: 5h 54m
Difficulty: Hard
7.5/10: I came into this expecting more of the same, but damn if I didn't leave impressed.
SPOILER WARNING
__The Good Stuff__
- Time Gate did a phenomenal job with the arena designs. While I do not think the ai changed too much, it feels like they understood it better than the original devs.
Almost every arena in the game feels like it was built to let the ai shine. From the first interval's funeral home to the third's final showdown, and the epilogue, i was always having fun.
- The new weapons and enemies are perfect. The new heavies feel much more fun to fight than the old one courtesy of them having a weapon that doesn't have a fire rate slower than a grandma trying to run.
- Also apparently the particle gun was in the game but it must have been very rare, coz i never saw it, which is good. I hated that shit.
- The machine gun is the most fun I've had in a shooter ever, I think. Just turns the enemies to minced meat and its glorious
- The new mechs, leviathans I think they're called, are used to great effect imo, especially the garage fights. The ceiling collapses, cars fly, and its spectacular.
- Good NPC companions. Holiday never felt like an impedance in the fights, and i had a much better time with him than I expected.
- The environments are more interesting than the base game's. We got a Church, a Subway, a hospital (relatively more boring). Much better than corridors and industrial plants. The variations in levels was nice.
- At certain points, especially a particular segment with Holiday, the game kinda becomes more strategic, with enemies pouring in from 2 or 3 directions, and the best way to survive being planting turrets at particular locations
__The Bad Stuff__
* Combat Complaints
- Though not a big deal overall, it still feels like the game is designed in such a way that you cannot play without slomo, which is fun but feels a bit overused. you cannot survive without it for long.
- Atleast on hard, the enemies convert you into minced meat just as fast as you do them. It just increases the issue of slomo being overused. Go into slomo, run into damage, pop a medkit, and repeat.
- Avoiding damage is absolutely impossible. It will not happen.
- Combat still doesn't lend itself to open spaces, fucking up the middle of the otherwise great interval 3
* The "Story".
- Basically, there is none. Everyone dies, the end.
- Paxton is back after getting his head blown off. Apparently, his forces and Alma aren't working together anymore.
- Alma has seemingly become a friendly force, protecting and guiding the point man.
It's such bullshit and makes no sense, though it's my fault for having expected better after interval 2 ig. That was the narrative high point.
__The Horror__
In the last game i felt like the horror was just a bad addition to the game, since I always felt like I just wanted to get through to the next arena, and it wasn't really too scary.
Here, I can't put this completely in good stuff or bad stuff, since there's a mix of both/
Overall, this game was better at horror than the first, though that's a very low bar to cross.
Setpiece wise, the game has one some good horror ones, one good alma vision and some bad ones (Paxton outside the window was kinda funny).
- The Holiday execution was great, they gave me an entire interval to "bond" with the dude and then rip him to shreds, the flashbacks at the end of interval 5 were okay. the rest were boring.
- Then there were the jumpscares ofc, still there, still boring, still mostly useless except for a few good ones.
Where this games horror shines are the demon thingies, and i feel like even those were wasted in the end.
- As setpieces, they're great, whenever they blink in and out of existence, its creepy and well done. again, especially the holiday ordeal
- As enemies, they are simply rehashes of the assassins, and not scary at all due to that. They lose their otherworldly spookiness for shitty swipe attacks.
I can't help but wonder how much scarier the game would be if they worked the same way as enemies as they did as setpieces.
Time: 5h 54m
Difficulty: Hard
7.5/10: I came into this expecting more of the same, but damn if I didn't leave impressed.
SPOILER WARNING
__The Good Stuff__
- Time Gate did a phenomenal job with the arena designs. While I do not think the ai changed too much, it feels like they understood it better than the original devs.
Almost every arena in the game feels like it was built to let the ai shine. From the first interval's funeral home to the third's final showdown, and the epilogue, i was always having fun.
- The new weapons and enemies are perfect. The new heavies feel much more fun to fight than the old one courtesy of them having a weapon that doesn't have a fire rate slower than a grandma trying to run.
- Also apparently the particle gun was in the game but it must have been very rare, coz i never saw it, which is good. I hated that shit.
- The machine gun is the most fun I've had in a shooter ever, I think. Just turns the enemies to minced meat and its glorious
- The new mechs, leviathans I think they're called, are used to great effect imo, especially the garage fights. The ceiling collapses, cars fly, and its spectacular.
- Good NPC companions. Holiday never felt like an impedance in the fights, and i had a much better time with him than I expected.
- The environments are more interesting than the base game's. We got a Church, a Subway, a hospital (relatively more boring). Much better than corridors and industrial plants. The variations in levels was nice.
- At certain points, especially a particular segment with Holiday, the game kinda becomes more strategic, with enemies pouring in from 2 or 3 directions, and the best way to survive being planting turrets at particular locations
__The Bad Stuff__
* Combat Complaints
- Though not a big deal overall, it still feels like the game is designed in such a way that you cannot play without slomo, which is fun but feels a bit overused. you cannot survive without it for long.
- Atleast on hard, the enemies convert you into minced meat just as fast as you do them. It just increases the issue of slomo being overused. Go into slomo, run into damage, pop a medkit, and repeat.
- Avoiding damage is absolutely impossible. It will not happen.
- Combat still doesn't lend itself to open spaces, fucking up the middle of the otherwise great interval 3
* The "Story".
- Basically, there is none. Everyone dies, the end.
- Paxton is back after getting his head blown off. Apparently, his forces and Alma aren't working together anymore.
- Alma has seemingly become a friendly force, protecting and guiding the point man.
It's such bullshit and makes no sense, though it's my fault for having expected better after interval 2 ig. That was the narrative high point.
__The Horror__
In the last game i felt like the horror was just a bad addition to the game, since I always felt like I just wanted to get through to the next arena, and it wasn't really too scary.
Here, I can't put this completely in good stuff or bad stuff, since there's a mix of both/
Overall, this game was better at horror than the first, though that's a very low bar to cross.
Setpiece wise, the game has one some good horror ones, one good alma vision and some bad ones (Paxton outside the window was kinda funny).
- The Holiday execution was great, they gave me an entire interval to "bond" with the dude and then rip him to shreds, the flashbacks at the end of interval 5 were okay. the rest were boring.
- Then there were the jumpscares ofc, still there, still boring, still mostly useless except for a few good ones.
Where this games horror shines are the demon thingies, and i feel like even those were wasted in the end.
- As setpieces, they're great, whenever they blink in and out of existence, its creepy and well done. again, especially the holiday ordeal
- As enemies, they are simply rehashes of the assassins, and not scary at all due to that. They lose their otherworldly spookiness for shitty swipe attacks.
I can't help but wonder how much scarier the game would be if they worked the same way as enemies as they did as setpieces.
4 Yrs$✓
iksdistek
4 Yrs$✓
Currently having a damn good time playing Luigi's Mansion for an hour in bed, on my steam deck (dolphin), right before sleep. Just the right atmopshere of cozy-spooky. After a rough day it's exactly what a fella needs.
Not challenging, but at the same time, that's not a detriment to this game in particular tbh
I did try this before on the 3ds, but it didn't capture me back then.
Not challenging, but at the same time, that's not a detriment to this game in particular tbh
I did try this before on the 3ds, but it didn't capture me back then.
6 Yrs✓#
nibilly
6 Yrs✓#
I really want to join in the GOTM this month, but hooked on Diablo 3 season 29.
Will probably just do Luigi's mansion as I've already played the other two alternatives (absolutely loved fear and it's two expansions)
Will probably just do Luigi's mansion as I've already played the other two alternatives (absolutely loved fear and it's two expansions)
10 Yrs♥✓#
knalb
10 Yrs♥✓#
— 10/16/2023 10:08 PM
So started Extraction point myself Reached 2-1 Flight: Ambush. Just been ambushed by the clones now heading in the warehouse and this a markedly improved version over the base game. The NPCs don't feel as wooden (in fact they interact with the level) and there is no tearing in the game. I still had the framerate slow down but this is easily fixed with the dll I posted earlier. The game also feels more solid in it's graphics overall and already there has been more variety in the base game. It's definetly better then the base already but will see how far better it is
— 10/17/2023 11:21 PM
Reached 3-1: Descent-Terminus Holiday is dead and I'm now making my way through the subway okay NPCs now can do things and the horror moments are more effective
— 10/18/2023 10:04 PM
Reached 3-2: Descent - orange line. I got a minigun. More open areas in the game which I still don't like
10/19/2023 10:03 PM
Reached 4-1: Malice - Leviathan. Lots of big robots in this area. So two things in this play through first I reached the hardest part so far in the game trying to jump out of water and they rarely give you ammo for the more cooler weapons
— 10/21/2023 7:05 PM
And the first dlc done. Yeah better then the base with more fluid combat and cooler weapons available. Same issues as No One too much open space and the story is nonsensical that really boils down too everyone dies. Also not enough ammo for the cooler weapons
I'll start the second tomorrow
So started Extraction point myself Reached 2-1 Flight: Ambush. Just been ambushed by the clones now heading in the warehouse and this a markedly improved version over the base game. The NPCs don't feel as wooden (in fact they interact with the level) and there is no tearing in the game. I still had the framerate slow down but this is easily fixed with the dll I posted earlier. The game also feels more solid in it's graphics overall and already there has been more variety in the base game. It's definetly better then the base already but will see how far better it is
— 10/17/2023 11:21 PM
Reached 3-1: Descent-Terminus Holiday is dead and I'm now making my way through the subway okay NPCs now can do things and the horror moments are more effective
— 10/18/2023 10:04 PM
Reached 3-2: Descent - orange line. I got a minigun. More open areas in the game which I still don't like
10/19/2023 10:03 PM
Reached 4-1: Malice - Leviathan. Lots of big robots in this area. So two things in this play through first I reached the hardest part so far in the game trying to jump out of water and they rarely give you ammo for the more cooler weapons
— 10/21/2023 7:05 PM
And the first dlc done. Yeah better then the base with more fluid combat and cooler weapons available. Same issues as No One too much open space and the story is nonsensical that really boils down too everyone dies. Also not enough ammo for the cooler weapons
I'll start the second tomorrow
10 Yrs♥✓#
knalb10 Yrs♥✓#
So started Perseus mandate got to 3-2: apprehension - bio research saw the mercs leader and know they are sent there by a senator and they are after the source. I Know we need to go to an island later which has a cloning facility started the game with friendly NPC's and thought that it would stay that way but they found a lot of excuses to split up. Tearing is bck but not as bad as the base game. DLC feels the hardest of the three games as the elite mercs are hard to hit with alot of health
10 Yrs♥✓#
knalb10 Yrs♥✓#
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
Completion October 21, 2023
Main+Extras 5h 12m 3s
Notes Moderate difficulty
Review
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point is a massive improvement over the base game. With some cooler weapon, more level variety, no tearing and just overall better experience. It however is not perfect and doesn’t get away from some of the other issues. The story ends being nonsensical at the end and it relies too much on open areas for my liking but still a decent experience
7/10
Completion October 21, 2023
Main+Extras 5h 12m 3s
Notes Moderate difficulty
Review
F.E.A.R. Extraction Point is a massive improvement over the base game. With some cooler weapon, more level variety, no tearing and just overall better experience. It however is not perfect and doesn’t get away from some of the other issues. The story ends being nonsensical at the end and it relies too much on open areas for my liking but still a decent experience
7/10
5 Yrs✓#
NoOne5 Yrs✓#
Grim Fandango Remastered
Platform: Playstation Vita
Time: 9h 40m (replay of first 2 chapters, already knew what to do, fished em within 3.5 hours)
8/10
An extremely well told story in an extremely interesting world dragged down by some extremely obtuse puzzles.
also tank controls are the way to go.
__The Good Stuff__
-Grim Fandango has got to be one of the most unique games I've played. The use of Aztec mythos and the film noir style are both firsts in video game for me anyways, and their combination makes for a deeply engrossing setting combined with a wonderfully told story.
Setting and story aside though, it's the characters and the dialogue that make this game as good as it is. Good, witty dialogue combined with lovable leads (and punchable villains) and fun side characters, brought to life by wonderful voice acting and pretty good audio work.
- Some puzzles are really fun to solve and call back to stuff from earlier in the game. It was really fun to figure out the Glottis Revival Puzzle, remembering that the packing foam from chapter 1 is extremely volatile.
- Glottis Butt Lattice. Need i say more? (from the Director's Commentary)
- I did not expect to find enjoyable poetry here but i did. Also cool quotes. "I just locked an open door...
__The Bad Stuff__
I have only 2 complaints
- Some puzzles are downright dumb.
In order, the worst are, imo: The Fake Betting Stub > The Sailor > The Final Puzzle > The Metal Detector
- The Remaster. Its bad. On the PS Vita atleast
Yes yes, fancy lighting, smoother textures. blah blah, but none of that matters when the remaster actively fucks up the game.
I realized this during the tree farm puzzle, the remastered visuals it make it impossible to see the wings of the pump. I couldn't see what I was doing till 20 mins, looked up guides thinking i was missing something. Accidently switched to the original visuals, realized I couldn't see half the shit, and got the puzzle within a minute. I switched back to remastered on various occasions after that and noticed the same issue at a few more places.
Also, I really just prefer the original visuals, it feels like the remaster just made things darker in the name of fanciful lighting. The only place where it impressed me was at the very beginning of the game, due to the shadows of Manny's office's blinds.
Platform: Playstation Vita
Time: 9h 40m (replay of first 2 chapters, already knew what to do, fished em within 3.5 hours)
8/10
An extremely well told story in an extremely interesting world dragged down by some extremely obtuse puzzles.
also tank controls are the way to go.
__The Good Stuff__
-Grim Fandango has got to be one of the most unique games I've played. The use of Aztec mythos and the film noir style are both firsts in video game for me anyways, and their combination makes for a deeply engrossing setting combined with a wonderfully told story.
Setting and story aside though, it's the characters and the dialogue that make this game as good as it is. Good, witty dialogue combined with lovable leads (and punchable villains) and fun side characters, brought to life by wonderful voice acting and pretty good audio work.
- Some puzzles are really fun to solve and call back to stuff from earlier in the game. It was really fun to figure out the Glottis Revival Puzzle, remembering that the packing foam from chapter 1 is extremely volatile.
- Glottis Butt Lattice. Need i say more? (from the Director's Commentary)
- I did not expect to find enjoyable poetry here but i did. Also cool quotes. "I just locked an open door...
__The Bad Stuff__
I have only 2 complaints
- Some puzzles are downright dumb.
In order, the worst are, imo: The Fake Betting Stub > The Sailor > The Final Puzzle > The Metal Detector
- The Remaster. Its bad. On the PS Vita atleast
Yes yes, fancy lighting, smoother textures. blah blah, but none of that matters when the remaster actively fucks up the game.
I realized this during the tree farm puzzle, the remastered visuals it make it impossible to see the wings of the pump. I couldn't see what I was doing till 20 mins, looked up guides thinking i was missing something. Accidently switched to the original visuals, realized I couldn't see half the shit, and got the puzzle within a minute. I switched back to remastered on various occasions after that and noticed the same issue at a few more places.
Also, I really just prefer the original visuals, it feels like the remaster just made things darker in the name of fanciful lighting. The only place where it impressed me was at the very beginning of the game, due to the shadows of Manny's office's blinds.
5 Yrs♥✓#
Illusera
5 Yrs♥✓#
I finished Grim Fandango Remastered yesterday. I was playing this on PS5 and I ran into a few more bugs; sometimes Manny's arm would freeze into a pose as if he was holding something. Another pose looked particularly weird when I was supposed to cover a character with a sheet. I was speeding through the dialogue since it had frozen on me earlier and by the time the dialogue was over, he was holding it up in a very odd angle. A couple of times I got a little lost with the controls; for the most part X was the action button but once or twice it was another button and I hadn't realized that those rare actions were tied to it. Just thinking that maybe I would have fumbled less if I had played it on PC. I still think the wheelbarrow puzzle was the worst one.
It's still a unique point click just for the style and story alone, and it has a lot of charm to it. The voice acting was very nice and the dialogue had depth. While I'm not sure if I would play it again, still a good playthrough.
10 Yrs♥✓#
knalb10 Yrs♥✓#
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
— 10/23/2023 10:10 PM
Up to 4-2: Devastation: The deep Chen has been killed by the nightmares and I'm chasing after the senate character and dealing with the mercs atm. First real horror level the game mainly works like opposing forces to me
— 10/24/2023 10:08 PM
Now at 6-1: Exploration: Labyrinth So caught up to the guy I was chasing and got a name for the merc 'nightcrawlers'. Guy then got killed by alma flipping a truck okay game is hitting a forumula. Slow start to level then fights then hard fights usually with the merc elite. I was lucky 5-1 Two mech suits I had a reapeting cannon, lightning arc and bolt gun. Lucky I had them as it offered no hard weapons just before the fight. Character also feels incidental to the whole incident and it just jumps between standard military shooter then horror game
— 10/25/2023 10:13 PM
Now at 7-2 extermination: clone production. Looks like the facility is where fettel was kept and of course by the name where the clones were produced. Weird bug I reached the end of 6-1 and when I got there it kept saying I was disconnected from the server. Restarted my pc and it started working again
— 10/26/2023 10:07 PM
So finished the main campiagn of persues mandate and yeah better then base but not extraction point. Felt it was trying to make the game harder and just made parts of it frustating. Character overall was also incidental to the whole thing and at point another character says he shouldn't be here and ...yeah he doesn't really add to the story. There are 3 bonus missions not sure if I want to do them or not. I'll consider it tomorrow
— 10/26/2023 10:35 PM
yeah decided not to do the bonus mission. read online there basically arenas
— 10/23/2023 10:10 PM
Up to 4-2: Devastation: The deep Chen has been killed by the nightmares and I'm chasing after the senate character and dealing with the mercs atm. First real horror level the game mainly works like opposing forces to me
— 10/24/2023 10:08 PM
Now at 6-1: Exploration: Labyrinth So caught up to the guy I was chasing and got a name for the merc 'nightcrawlers'. Guy then got killed by alma flipping a truck okay game is hitting a forumula. Slow start to level then fights then hard fights usually with the merc elite. I was lucky 5-1 Two mech suits I had a reapeting cannon, lightning arc and bolt gun. Lucky I had them as it offered no hard weapons just before the fight. Character also feels incidental to the whole incident and it just jumps between standard military shooter then horror game
— 10/25/2023 10:13 PM
Now at 7-2 extermination: clone production. Looks like the facility is where fettel was kept and of course by the name where the clones were produced. Weird bug I reached the end of 6-1 and when I got there it kept saying I was disconnected from the server. Restarted my pc and it started working again
— 10/26/2023 10:07 PM
So finished the main campiagn of persues mandate and yeah better then base but not extraction point. Felt it was trying to make the game harder and just made parts of it frustating. Character overall was also incidental to the whole thing and at point another character says he shouldn't be here and ...yeah he doesn't really add to the story. There are 3 bonus missions not sure if I want to do them or not. I'll consider it tomorrow
— 10/26/2023 10:35 PM
yeah decided not to do the bonus mission. read online there basically arenas
10 Yrs♥✓#
knalb10 Yrs♥✓#
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate
Completion October 26, 2023
Main+Extras 6h 6m 30s
Notes Moderate. No Bonus mission
Review
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate while still having the improvements of Extraction point is unfortunately a downgrade from the previous DLC. The game pushes in more difficulty by increasing the amount of enemies that you have to face but this leads more to frustration then earned difficulty. It is not helped by the fact that the main character and in fact whole story does feel like it should fit into the main F.E.A.R. campaign and the story feels inconsequential for the whole F.E.A.R. series
5/10
Completion October 26, 2023
Main+Extras 6h 6m 30s
Notes Moderate. No Bonus mission
Review
F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate while still having the improvements of Extraction point is unfortunately a downgrade from the previous DLC. The game pushes in more difficulty by increasing the amount of enemies that you have to face but this leads more to frustration then earned difficulty. It is not helped by the fact that the main character and in fact whole story does feel like it should fit into the main F.E.A.R. campaign and the story feels inconsequential for the whole F.E.A.R. series
5/10
12 Yrs♥F$✓#
Double Fine put together a cool anniversary post for the 25th anniversary of Grim Fandango here:
https://www.doublefine.com/news/a-very-grim-anniversary
https://www.doublefine.com/news/a-very-grim-anniversary
4 Yrs✓#
gardenappl
4 Yrs✓#
Just completed Grim Fandango, a bit too late within my time zone, but hey in some parts of the world it's still October, right? I don't have much to say about this right now other than: 1) this game was great, 8/10 but 2) boy howdy how the hell did anyone do this without hints? I don't have the brains or the willpower.
(oh and the Linux port from GOG is broken)
(oh and the Linux port from GOG is broken)
4 Yrs♥$✓#
Cock
4 Yrs♥$✓#
I sat down today to finally finish the slog that is the {i]F.E.A.R.[/i] novelization.
I wrote a thorough review on Storygraph if anyone cares. But the bottom line is that it's just pretty dull soft fanfiction, riddled with grammatical errors.
The worst thing about it though is that it doesn't mention the shotgun or nailgun a single time and that just boggles my mind.
Also, since we're on How Long To Beat, here is my How Long To Read stats. Ironically, my read time is just 20 minutes shy of my actual playthrough time. The book was harder to get through though. lol
- Matt
I wrote a thorough review on Storygraph if anyone cares. But the bottom line is that it's just pretty dull soft fanfiction, riddled with grammatical errors.
The worst thing about it though is that it doesn't mention the shotgun or nailgun a single time and that just boggles my mind.
Also, since we're on How Long To Beat, here is my How Long To Read stats. Ironically, my read time is just 20 minutes shy of my actual playthrough time. The book was harder to get through though. lol
- Matt