Classic survival horror with a surprisingly touching story underneath.

10/10 games are art

An entertaining small game. I learned about this from the short steam trailers twitter account.
The starting rifle is useless (should up the damage to one-shot zombies), and I always leave the house ASAP, then it's just crowd control. Definitely satisfying.

Conveys the feeling of being cold better than any game I've ever played.

Charming little puzzler, if not exactly my kind of aesthetic (tongue-in-cheek gorefest).

Outstanding.

A single player RTS that rewards you for mastery of its systems and familiarity with the terrain. A good mix of planning and making things up on the fly.

A game of exploration, punctuated by intense moments of survival and thievery. You must be able to enjoy a good walk (Proteus), stop and admire the beautiful scenery (Far Cry 2), and take pride in navigating the world efficiently (again, Far Cry 2). Games are often about repetition and mastery, but unlike Diable where you'll click-click-click and watch numbers get bigger and perfect your execution, your reward in Sir is a new vista and a new set of obstacles.

A thoughtful mood piece. The gameplay is some light platforming and physicsing, nothing too challenging, but serves as a nice backdrop to the narration, art design, and music choices. I think most of those are spot, though there could be a word or two there I'd write differently, it's still a well thought out exploration of our protagonist's psyche. Definitely worth a look if you'd like a quick, introspective, and surreal story from a man taking stock of his life.

This review is based on the core game (no DLC), after the combat fix.

Risen 2 received mixed reviews on release. Reviewers complained that the combat was too difficult or tedious, that the game is exposition heavy, that the game is too linear at the start, and that the game should have a more earnest tone.

Deadly Waters has classic Gothic-style combat. At the beginning, you can attack and dodge. Over the course of the game, as you gain experience and seek training, you learn additional moves (parry, riposte, shoot your gun, kick, throw sand in their eyes, etc.) Each new mechanic you unlock makes you a better fighter, if you are skillful at deploying your new skill. Every one of your character stats has an impact on combat, though swords/guns/toughness have the most obvious effect. The game IS combat heavy. Because raising skills costs increasing amounts of experience, it's obvious that having a base level in all skills is the most efficient way to have a capable character (e.g., raising voodoo from 4 to 5 would cost the same as raising all other skills from 1 to 2). Characters who overspecialize may run into tough times. The combat also rewards smart approaches, like luring dangerous enemies to allies or working with a partner to take down a particularly tough enemy (one of the hardest enemies in the game can be killed in the first island if you work with your partner, Patty).

Lockpicking and pickpocketing are uniquely implemented. If you meet a skill check, you can pickpocket someone you're talking to and you're treated to a little special dialogue. I like that this kept me from pickpocketing the whole world (I'm looking at you, Fallout). There are plenty of locked chests, opened by running a pick along a series of tumblers. It's basically working out the combination of how to travel a line, but I appreciated a different look at lockpicking. You'll either find it tedious or revel in your growing mastery of the minigame.

This is a thing about Gothic and Risen. You have to enjoy the mastery of your skills. It's expensive to level a character and train them to gain a new ability - you have to want to use that ability, to make it pay off, to make it a part of your mastery of the game world.

The dialogue is sparse, sometimes amusing, and most of it can be skipped if you absolutely must. Still, I don't understand how reviewers could complain about the quantity of exposition in this game - it's really very minimal, the bulk of your time is spent exploring and fighting wildlife. It has nowhere near the amount of dialogue as Fallouts 1-3/NV, Oblivion, Arcanum, Bloodlines.

Well, I could go on and on. But like the game, I'll just cut myself off here. When Deadly Waters has shown you its hand, it abruptly wraps up - unlike the dreary extended ending of Risen.