Alec Meer

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Oct 21, 2015

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It's absolutely true to say that you get out of Sword Coast Legends what you put in, but right now there just aren't enough reasons to put much in.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Oct 8, 2015

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It still comes up short on character compared to the best Civs and, of course, Alpha Centauri, but it's without doubt less anodyne than before. Diplomacy, however, seems to me like a significant misfire even without the bugs – the question of your place in this new world, and in relation to your rivals, remains unresolved. I suspect Beyond Earth's road to recovery has only just begun.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Oct 7, 2015

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As well as being the most unabashed Transformers fan-service games have given us yet, it's also a slick, exciting, hyper-fast punchy-shooty game in its own right. It's dumb as a box of Dinobots of course, but it's not even trying to be otherwise – and that's why its simple, colourful enthusiasm for robot-bashing is so infectious.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Sep 24, 2015

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After Dark is, I think, the best possible outcome for Skylines: successfully sticking its hand out for more cash but doing nothing to puncture goodwill in the process. Cue more swearing at EA HQ, perhaps.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Sep 1, 2015

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Despite some characterisation wobbles and a somewhat perfunctory final mile, STASIS is the best adventure game I've played in years. It's also one of the most impressive horror games I've played lately. The tiny team behind it have done remarkable things, far in excess of what many, much larger studios seem capable of. Those studios should be afraid – be very afraid.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Aug 20, 2015

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If you've been round the neon block a few times already, then Hong Kong's going to feel pretty familiar, despite being perfectly solid and having a few new toys plus a wider, more ostentatious stage than ever before.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Aug 18, 2015

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In many of the later [missions], bigger and more multi-path, I was reacting instinctively, taking risks and having them pay off, finding a groove. There was flow and joyfulness. The good game at the heart of all the frequently irritating bluster and padding shines through.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Aug 11, 2015

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Rite Of the Shrouded Moon is a quiet, careful joy, spinning an impressive tapestry out of relatively few threads.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Jul 30, 2015

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I have no interest in finding out where the plot goes, because so far it's Arbitrary Events In The Lives Of Wooden Characters, but I do want to find out which dramatic places it will show me next.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Jul 10, 2015

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The Magic Circle [Steam page] is a game about an unfinished game. A first person puzzle/exploration/action game about a…

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Jun 4, 2015

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There are many good things within Massive Chalice, but they're frustratingly kept at arm's length from me.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Jun 4, 2015

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It's extremely rare to come across a game in which all of the details of that design intertwine so effectively. And then you realise it lets you redefine a lot of the parameters individually instead of having monolithic difficulty levels and, wow.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·May 22, 2015

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NEON STRUCT is a game about hide'n'seek as paranoid fear, not superthief glamour. It gives you large, heavily-guarded maze-like spaces and asks you to find your own way around them, whether it's by roof or street, by stolen keycard or opened vent, by planned strikes or pure evasion, by gadget or by wits alone. Welcome back to Liberty Island. You're not safe here.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·May 7, 2015

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[F]ifteen quid, lots of bullets, lots of steampunk Nazis and some monsters too. If that's (still) your poison, you can't go far wrong with this.

Rock Paper Shotgun

Alec Meer·Apr 30, 2015

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It's a shame the same anything-goes mindset doesn't apply to the mission structure and the story, because the dryness, repetition and general rudimentary air is what will ultimately keep me from coming back for more, but if you want a few hours of XCOM-lite with cyberpunk trimmings and the option for co-op, you could do a lot worse than Shadowrun Chronicles.