Recent reviews by Northern Circuit

it aight

I do not give many reviews. I have played many games, and still so much more to play. I focus myself on anything with a good story, good artistry, or just about anything with soul in it.
I'm not too fussy on the quality of gameplay, so long as I can tolerate it, it could be objectively awful gameplay, so long as the story, or art, or soul is strong enough.

This game was supposed to be just a dumb thing to kill time and have fun with... it is so much more. This game thrives in it's absurdity, in it's goofiness. And yet, provide a style, a factor, an idea, that provides it more than just the goofy foundation. So many games focus on just one thing for it's foundation, and hope that all they add on top doesn't break it. But this game uses untold confidence as it's foundation, a very risky choice as it is always a coin flip as to what may come of it. But they won the coin flip, and created an art piece that mixes the nature of the badass, a chunk of the goofiness of Goat Simulator, and the surprisingly rad music that any action packed boss fight would need.

There has been talk about publishers closing studios to keep a cookie cutter assurance they will always make money, to avoid experimental games that aren't even coin flips, but cower from them anyways. They would never- COULD NEVER .... create such a testament to creation itself. This game is the epitome of being a creator, an artist even ... to make for the sake of making in one's own mental image. Without politics, without greed, and most importantly, without compromise. I paid for this game twice, as a friend must have it, and I may find myself buying it a third time for another.

Also, you do not take fall damage so the game is also squirrel lore accurate. NOW GIVE THAT SQUIRREL A GUN!

die

TLDR, people are just unable to play like they used to or have never touched portal mods.

the handful of negative reviews i've read are stupid. yes, i had issues at the start, had to go from 2 monitors to 1 in order for it to even start, but gameplay wise, it was fine. It's almost the exact same as the original version.

what's that? story makes no sense due to the lore? well maybe its because it was released before anyone even heard of portal 2.

voice acting was better than the original, i think they used robots for the original.

puzzles are too hard? ... play portal reloaded and tell me what's hard.
and complaining about how it was hard to figure out what to do next, sort of the point of a puzzle game. you figure it out.
it's not remotely as bad as a bennet foddy game. this was the most straight forward mod that i've played for portal, though not like there were many. hetzchase nailway was good, along with red tree (i think that was the name)

point is, if you like portal 1, then this game is fine, so long as you forget about portal 2 cause yes the story doesn't match it.
the puzzles aren't hard, people are just stupid. its a bit fast paced and requires fast reactions sometimes. and the biggest thing is, you can save whenever the hell you feel like. people haven't played source games in a while and it shows, i remember spamming that quick-save key cause i didn't want to get sent back.


the only downside was i couldn't seem to find the greatest secret in the game. at least i found the warp pipes.

Is it bad in terms of coop? not really. is coop VERY buggy? absolutely.
is it bad gameplay? .... eh? It's not bad per se, just pretty repetitive.
Not the worst thing to be but since singleplayer works better than coop, it can get lonely and boring. I bought it, might as well keep going. Simply there wasn't the most love with this game it feels like. More like it was an experiment. I feel the next game will be very good but till then, wait for updates and you know ... don't expect too much.

other problems I have with this? leveling feels ... lengthy. there are a lot of nice upgrades for your characters but it takes a while to get the exp. for it. if you did nothing but quests then maybe, but I am very explorative, and I feel I should get more exp. out of searching around and doing a good chunk of the side stuff.

characters? great. I was iffy on devinder (i think that's how the name is spelled) but he actually has some very nice abilities. if you wanna mess with coop, he would be a good pick if you are against a horde of vampires. assuming you have the 3rd ability available.

if you are going solo, be careful. Though the game is kind of easy on even harder difficulties, it doesn't mean anything if you get overwhelmed by over a dozen vampires. If you get a UV light weapon, keep it equiped if you feel something is wrong about an area.

Loot? very easy to get once you understand how it works. [most of this was observed in singleplayer] The highest level weapon you can get will always be your level at the time of getting it. The grade (color) of the weapon can be anything, simply RNG. Gold weapons are always special but you will eventually have to salvage those too, as you level up more and more. There is all kinds of boxes and laid about gear to find what you need. But also check shelves and closets closely, there can be something small but useful like a gold gun on the back of a shelf above your head. There are also random items that is basically money, like in dishonored.

... I forget, was I writing a review or writing a guide ... well regardless these were my thoughts.
I'm off to die another 20 times to a horde of vampires cause im impatient.

I didn't know about this till it was just released. There wasn't a single review on it.
I watched the trailer and when I saw that it was made by Tango Gameworks, I was quite upset at the fact that there is still not any Evil Within news. However, the game was good so far. I got through the first uh ... act? yeah lets call it that, I finished the first act and it is definitely pretty good. Reminds me of NSR (No Straight Roads)

Great rhythm combat, neat combos, a bit of getting used to for being on sync with the beat but you'll get used to it. Especially when you can practice it whenever you feel like it. attack the air like crazy, don't let all that peace and quiet push you around, G.
The world pulses to the beat as well, and even adds to the music if you listen well. Even the enemies are in sync.

The only thing I don't care for THE ONLY THING ... I can't change button prompts to PS instead of Xbox. but that's nothing a patch or mod can't fix.

Hopefully, this game doesn't get TOO popular ... what if they don't make anymore evil within content ... or worse ... THE BEAT WITHIN!?

cat do silly things

great game with the same vibes as Grey. Deppresick has made another good game.

I started this series cause i was curious after markiplier played it, like many others. Then I went to the second game cause i was further curious. and by then I had 2 theories of what this series was about... and to my surprise they were both right.
To those who don't want spoilers, play this series first before continuing, learn about yourselves as you wouldn't expect.
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my first theory was "this has to be a line up for a game about decisions that heavily relate to emotions, something that goes beyond do good or do evil" as it turns out I was right, glad too. should be interesting. but i was more confident in the second theory once i thought of it.

my second theory was exactly what the test series was, a social experiment that was meant to hold a mirror to show you what you are, what you could be. And using the most effective mirror there could be, the mirror the player walks up to themselves willingly. A game that people walk into, expecting what will be at the end, and being shocked that it's a truth. a truth that can't be ignored because they walked into it themselves.

This game made me realize things ... but the chances of me acting on them are still quite low. I have such little strength anymore. Such little strength, I can't even fight my body's instinct to survive. Like I'm just existing to rot, living for others, suffering by living. And I don't really care about that anymore, I don't think I can fight for my happiness but I'll do the little I am able, push myself if I can, to fight for other's happiness.

This game was able to program a questionnaire so shockingly accurate to the responses the player gives, that I can't help that it came from some truth. I feel that there is a real story behind this, and that it could be anything. A cry for help, a cry for understanding, a cry for similarities / differences- call to arms against depression, call to arms against judgement, this whole series was built as a mirror with no editing, no bias. so many games/questionnaires has the writer's interests in mind, their beliefs ... this was entirely made for us, from what must have been experience.
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I don't know if I have it in me to play another one of these games right away, i feel psychologically and emotionally drained... but I am very intrigued in what may come next.

P.S. I also love using lots of "..." when I type things out. more dramatic that way.

oh and before I forget, my word is "Revelation"

interesting so far, going on to the third one.

secret word: talented