A fairly short game with simple, but satisfying mechanics. Unfortunately the story is pretty lackluster, and despite its name, you'll spend more time running around inside abandoned military bases than the beautiful Valley itself which, in my opinion, is a real shame. You're also heavily incentivised to come to a full stop in order to pick up collectibles and read the little notes left scattered about which ruins the flow of the movement.

Oh and a small nitpick: picking between male and female seems all-together pointless, as the playable character doesn't talk and we only ever see their silhouette.

On its own the music is great, the Valley looks beautiful and the movement feels good. However, the story fails to bring all of these things together. If you can get it on sale, it's entertaining enough to spend an afternoon or two on. I personally didn't mind spending a bit of extra time on it in order to 100% it since the game itself is so short.

I would give this a neutral rating if I could, but unfortunately Steam only let's you choose between good or bad. So even though I enjoyed the game well enough, I can't say that I'd recommend it to others.

I've been itching to find a new shooter since Dirty Bomb, but sadly this doesn't seem to be it for me. I like the look and feel of the game, but these two things absolutely ruined it for me:

- Insanely low TTK (time to kill), and this is not even counting oneshot mechanics. Some people might like this, but I personally don't.

- Horribly placed spawn points. In objective mode you all spawn in a set location very close by, meaning the enemy team can literally just stand and hold right click as you spawn, giving you no time to move or seek cover. In conquest, spawn points are randomized, meaning sometimes you spawn completely alone surrounded by 3 or 4 enemies. This basically means that if you die once, you'll have a very hard time recovering.

Unless they do something about these things, I won't be returning.

This is hands down one of the most beautiful games I have had the pleasure of playing. The visuals are stunning, the soundtrack is good, the characters are diverse and everyone talk in rhymes which gives the game a quaint feel. The controls feel smooth, especially when using a controller (though I find Igniculus easier to control with the mouse). Co-op is possible with one person playing as Aurora and the other as Igniculus.

That being said, the combat is turn-based where you control two characters at a time along with Igniculus who can use his energy to either heal Aurora and her comrades or slow down the enemies. It's a very neat system, though it can take time to master so that you are able to successfully interrupt (or avoid interrupting) your enemies. The crafting system is neat and fairly simple which is nice, since this isn't a huge game. It'll give you the edge you need when the fights get tough.

I don't want to get into the story itself, because it is the kind that is best left to be discovered along the way. The ending was not a typical, straightforward fairytale ending, and it even managed to make my eyes water a little (it depends on who you are, of course). I'd recommend this to anyone who loves a good story and enjoys eye-candy visuals. The only downside I can think of is the fact that it requires Uplay (you can still play with Steam overlay, but Uplay has to be installed and running while you play).

I feel like Bioshock 2 deserves more love. I won’t go as far as saying that the plot rivals the first game, but it is a good continuation of Rapture's story, so if you found the setting of the first Bioshock interesting, you’ll probably want to “dive” into this one too ;)

This game is so much fun, not just because of the story and its characters, but also because of the puzzles. It gets even more hilarious if you play it with friends!