malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Dec 13, 2022 22:45:19 GMT
Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PC)
It's been so long since I last played, must have been more than ten years ago. It was about time for a replay.
I quite like it still, my second favorite of the series after Blood Omen. I guess it makes sense that my favorite games are the ones that are most standalone (if you consider that SR was originally supposed to be a single game with a different and complete ending), before the series went one with all its time travel and fate and mumbo jumbo.
It shows its age, I guess. The camera is archaic, the combat is more novel than fun, and the official ending is a whimper. Traveling between places can be a chore too, exspecially with the fast travel point sotimes pretty far apart. And in spite of all of this, it's a short game.
But hey, the sound and visual design are top notch, and it goes to show that you don't need zombies or human conflict for a good post-apocalyptic setting. Amazing what kind of graphics they pushed out of the PS1. The real-time world morphing must have been something else back then. The soundtrack is low key some of the best orchestral-style music on the console, makes for great ambience too.
7/10
I don't think we'll ever actually get another LOK, no matter what Squenix says. And even if we do, I'm sure it will have little to do with the old series. But you know what, maybe I could do with another standalone game set in this universe. Even a short spinoff could do.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2022 22:54:51 GMT
Isn’t the IP with Embracer now?
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Dec 13, 2022 23:12:42 GMT
Forgot to add, the PC version has high resolution and a stable 30fps (the PS1 feels more like 20fps), so that's nice. But the soundtrack is much worse, lacking the dynamic shifting and missing a lot of track variations. I suppose this one might be better played on PS1. The opposite of Blood Omen, really. Isn’t the IP with Embracer now? That's true. But I'm not expecting much more from them either.
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Post by dfunked on Dec 13, 2022 23:18:04 GMT
Think they got the studios along with the IP. There was a pretty lengthy questionnaire from crystal dynamics a few months ago about what we'd like from the series. Way too early to properly open myself up to hope, but there's a glimmer of it!
We'll probably just get some dogshit MOBA/battle royale hybrid of course.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 13, 2022 23:25:05 GMT
Forgot to add, the PC version has high resolution and a stable 30fps (the PS1 feels more like 20fps), so that's nice. But the soundtrack is much worse, lacking the dynamic shifting and missing a lot of track variations. I suppose this one might be better played on PS1. The opposite of Blood Omen, really. Isn’t the IP with Embracer now? That's true. But I'm not expecting much more from them either. Dreamcast version was the best.
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wunty
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Pastry Forward
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Post by wunty on Dec 13, 2022 23:32:08 GMT
It was. I’ve got the DC version on my wee retroid jobby. I miss my Dreamcast.
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Post by simple on Dec 14, 2022 1:02:32 GMT
I remember thinking Soul Reaver was one of the most luscious, atmospheric and best looking games I’d seen when I first got it on Playstation. And the impaling animation, it was like something from the next generation.
I wonder what they’d do with a new version. Soulsborne-lite? Arkham style brawler?
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Dec 14, 2022 8:40:00 GMT
I would like to see the original combat polished. Being forced to defeat your enemies by using the enviroments was fun, just the game was a little too fiddly for it to work consistently, so in the end I just used spears as much as possible. But throwing enemies onto a spike or into a fire was good fun. If they made it today, I'm sure they could make it work much better.
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Post by theguy on Dec 14, 2022 9:07:38 GMT
A Plague Tale : InnocenceHaving a hard time pinpointing why I liked this so much, but damn I did. It does a lot of things I typically dislike in games. It's overly linear, you've got AI companions to look after, the gameplay is fairly basic throughout, very straightforward "puzzles" and there are some sections where you're just pushing forward on a stick. If I read back what I've just wrote I'd be put off again. But somehow it all comes together and none of these things ended up bothering me at all while I was playing. Even with its basic gameplay it never felt stale or even repetitive. Heck I'd say it was engaging, though some of that might be due to the fact I actively didn't use some available tools to make it more interesting for myself. I don't know, maybe it was the tight structure and level design, maybe I was just very taken in by the world and story, but I had a great time and didn't want it to end really. Regarding the story, it's pretty good and I liked the way it was conveyed with the chapters, characters and shifting locales. Some weak points, particularly towards the end, as well as some ludonarrative dissonance (sorry), but nothing that ruined it. Arthur and Rodric's deaths for instance, both felt forced and were heavily foreshadowed before they happened, which just made them feel cheap. You also never find out much about how anyone outside the family even knew about Hugo, which I was kind of looking forward to learning. I know there's a sequel out, but I worry the gameplay loop will finally wear on me if I head straight into it, so I might give it a bit of time. Maybe they did improve the sequel in that regard though. Fun stuff and I shouldn't have waited so long to play it.
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
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Post by Duffman5 on Dec 15, 2022 6:34:04 GMT
High on Life Series X Gamepass Time: 12h Cheveo's: 22 = 615/1000
Really enjoyed after a slow start. A perfect length for this type of platform/shooter game. There are a good few collectibles still in the wild, I will probably spend a couple more hours in the game world as I like the (Rick and Morty) humour and the interaction between you and the various guns
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Post by Dave_McCoy on Dec 15, 2022 20:22:17 GMT
Sonic Frontiers- Series X
As good as you can hope a 3D Sonic can be. The open zone works really nicely. The Cyberspace levels are quick bitesized challenges that you can quickly restart. Really enjoyed it and rinsed everything I could.
8.5/10
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Post by Samildanach on Dec 16, 2022 12:42:10 GMT
Shmups released Aug/Sept'91:
Crisis Force (Nes) Aug Very impressive game for the rather ancient (even at the time) Famicon. Konami managed to squeeze some very impressive amounts of parallax scrolling out of it and the game remains inventive and original throughout its seven stages. For example at the half way point the city scape in stage 1 rips open to reveal a deep canyon of multiple parallax layers that enemies fly out of. Only flaws are the slowdown, which is never bad and tbh is rather helpful in managing some of the more busy moments, and of course the visuals and the sound, while at their 8bit best, will never look/sound as good as the best games on later hardware. 4/5
Thunder Cross II (Arcade Archives) Aug Very similar to the first game. I don't know why, but neither game grabbed me. There is nothing wrong with them, so I'm stumped as to why I drifted away from each sooner than I would normally with a hori shooter (usually my bag). Perhaps my only irritation with it was the four pods with adjustable position you can acquire. Their variable positioning (which allowed for great tactical play to be fair) would often confuse my brain as to where my actual ship was, causing inadvertent crashes, especially on the boringly easy first boss that I would invariably not give enough careful attention to. Still, good game objectively, so 3/5
Thunder Dragon (Arcade Archives) Aug/Sept Another NMK shooter, this time vertically oriented. You fly a weird rotorblade-less helicopter plane thing and barrell through 8 stages of increasingly relentless mayhem. As usual, NMK are the budget arcade shmup makers of the day, as there are only two stage music tracks which alternate and boss & ending music. There are five different types of background that get repeated, sometimes with different colour schemes and by stage 6 you have seen all the enemy types (although stage 8's final boss had only been seen earlier to 'deliver' some of the bosses). That's the bad, but there is something hypnotically playable about it, despite it's increasingly extreme difficulty and repetition. Gameplay is key when it comes down to shmups, so I quite enjoyed my time with it. 3/5
Hacha Mecha Fighter (Arcade Archives) Sept Yet another shmup from NMK and this time it is a mega-cutsie horizontal blaster. Despite having sweet little animals (that you are merrily blasting out of the sky) and and nicely drawn pleasant environments, the game is evil, and often sits near the top of arcade 1cc difficulty lists. By level 2 the sheer amount of enemies and mega fast projectiles aimed at your MASSIVE hit box is already ridiculous, sending any small children playing running to their mummas in tears at the brutal unfairness of it all. As with previous NMK shooters, there is a hypnotic playability to it despite the insane difficulty, though the music is pretty repetitive bar the odd okay track. Also, stages 5 -7 have repeat bosses from earlier stages and just recoloured backgrounds, also typical of NMK. I enjoyed it slightly less than Thunder Dragon so it gets a 2.5/5
Oh and the brawler Captain Commando (on Capcom Arcade Stadium) was also released Aug '91, so had a playthrough of that. Pretty damn decent despite it not being a genre I spend much time with these days. I gather it is a bit of a classic and I wouldn't argue with that.
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Post by deekyfun on Dec 16, 2022 17:24:23 GMT
I finished Pentiment yesterday evening (yay, my first 2022 video game!). Initially, while I liked the idea of the illumination picture book style, I couldn't say the 15th Century HRE Bavaria monks and nuns melodrama appealed to my philistine sensibilities. But I was wrong. It didn't take long to get a firm grip of my attention and never really let go until I was done with it.
It's picture-book pretty, nailing its aesthetic. I was surprised at the level of details present in the animation of all these little folk going about their business. I loved the work around the fonts in the dialogue; the typos which correct themselves and the sound of scraping quill on parchment that accompanied the text. The way they demonstrated shouting and emphasis was neat too. It all fit together extremely consistently to support the style. The writing is good, and the characters are well written and interesting. You spend a lot of time learning about their lives and I was surprised how attached I grew to them, especially as they moved through the years. I loved the fact that the older characters looked visually more scuffed and faded than the others.
It may not appeal to everyone. Its pretty slow - I actually think its better if you let it take the pace right down and resist the temptation to start tap tap textskip. Let yourself soak in it. Certainly there is a lot of reading. If you're the sort of person who finds themselves saying that some games should have just been books - it might not work for you.
I would say it sits nicely alongisde Disco Elyisum (though not as clever either mechanically or narratively) as an interesting tale in an interesting world with a murder mystery to pull you along. I really rather enjoyed it.
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hicksy
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I'm good for some but I'm not for everyone
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Post by hicksy on Dec 16, 2022 17:49:07 GMT
Assassins Creed Valhalla (PS5) - Main Game + all Standard DLCs (I.e. not including Ragnarok)
8.5/10
May have helped that this is in effect my first AC game so not yet worn out by the communal size of earlier and most recent also very large games. 200 hrs sunk into Valhalla so far with all main game quests and exploration cleared and only bulk on additional activities like Longboat raids and Fishing passed over.
The size, quality and sheer beauty of the majority of the game world they created is of great quality. While the key gameplay loops do get repetitive I found the main story and majority of world events very enjoyable. I never got bored of the quality of the game world with so much detail in the wildlife, weather and natural environment that made the world a joy to be in. The dream sections equally great environments.
However while I never lost the will to play I definitely flagged in places by the sheer size and I think a game half the size with a sharper and focused main story and more variations in world events as far as gameplay challenges would lead to a better overall experience.
Value for money though can’t be faulted! (Especially if you can get the complete bundle in a decent sale!)
Overall Highly recommended - just make sure if you take the game on you have the time and intended determination to keep at it!
(Now for a decent rest from it before another likely 40+ hrs for the Ragnarok expansion! In early 2023!)
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Gruf
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Post by Gruf on Dec 17, 2022 9:55:11 GMT
Lake 6/10 Pleasant, if a little lackluster and pointless. Not helped by being pretty janky.
Also, I went full lesbo (obv) and turned the male love interest down at every opportunity. So why did I get clear stalker vibes at the scenario at the end.
Maybe that was the point of the game.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Dec 17, 2022 12:44:10 GMT
Somebody mentioned it as one of their GOTYs in the thread. We need an immediate response and hopefully a flame war.
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Ulythium
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Post by Ulythium on Dec 19, 2022 11:06:05 GMT
The Binding of Isaac.
During a recent family get-together, my brother's girlfriend asked what game I was playing. When I replied, "The Binding of Isaac", she asked what it was about, and I... didn't know what the hell to say.
After all, "You're a naked baby, and you're on the run from your religious nutjob mother, running about your basement, fighting monsters by shooting tears at them, while picking up really strange items that'll either make you much more powerful or screw you over completely" didn't seem like the kind of thing one ought to say out loud in a nice restaurant.
Anyway, I stammered out something to the effect that it doesn't have much of a story, so she asked what kind of game it was; I gave a quick description of the roguelike genre, then hurriedly changed the subject.
None of the above has a great deal to do with anything, except to say that a) this game's bloody weird, and b) its weirdness is one of its best traits. (I still don't know what half the item pickups actually do, but I can safely say that some of them made me laugh out loud regardless.)
Of course, a game can't get by on being zany and kooky alone - it needs gameplay, dammit! Fortunately, Isaac has this in spades. I'm pretty bad at it - and I don't see myself rushing to buy another twin-stick shooter anytime soon - but it's still an amazing experience.
You know how most Ubisoft games are a mile wide and an inch deep? Isaac's the exact opposite of that. The synergies between items can be as bonkers as the concept and aesthetic, with some builds being almost literally game-breaking, and its replayability is off the charts. I've had runs that allowed me to shred bosses in seconds, while being barely able to handle regular trash mobs; I've died within a minute or two during one run, then beaten the game on my very next try; and just about everything in-between.
Not my favourite of the AA roguelikes I've played to date - that honour goes to Slay the Spire - but I'd put it on par with Hades, and that's high praise indeed.
8.5/10.
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MolarAm🔵
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Bad at games
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Post by MolarAm🔵 on Dec 19, 2022 11:19:26 GMT
I feel like the guy who made Isaac has some deep-seated issues to get out through a creative outlet. The thing is just the weirdest mix of toilet humour and intense Catholic guilt.
And, uh, parental issues.
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Ulythium
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Lily-livered
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Post by Ulythium on Dec 19, 2022 11:23:35 GMT
Oh, yeah - I think he's been pretty open about that stuff, unless I'm much mistaken.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 19, 2022 11:25:45 GMT
Resident Evil Village.
3rd playthrough and still awesome fun. Definitely front loaded though,the castle is incredible then it is all downhill from there. A gentle slope though, it drops to just good after being fucking amazing.
9/10
Tomb Raider underworld
Fuck this was a bit shit. After loving anniversary and legend something about this one just felt shit on the series x. Controls unresponsive, camera was a fucking nightmare, half the time you couldn't actually see where you were jumping. Checkpoints every 5 seconds apart from when you need them, then they are 4 minutes before a shitty cutscene and QTE where camera changes angle mid scene so you suddenly run the wrong direction and die.
5/10
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Post by RadicalRex on Dec 19, 2022 12:57:48 GMT
The synergies between items can be as bonkers as the concept and aesthetic, with some builds being almost literally game-breaking, and its replayability is off the charts. I love how it can also go really, really wrong. It's wild. Once, I had the item that replaces your tears with kicking bombs, and the one that makes you shoot in the 4 cardinal directions, and then a boss drops the boomerang item that makes your shots return to you. I'm looking at it, thinking "this is NOT a good idea", but it sits there on the ground grinning at me and daring me to take it. Chickening out is not an option, so... what the heck, let's go! The playthrough didn't last much longer, but it was funny as hell. Good times.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 20, 2022 20:17:53 GMT
Disco Elysium
Fuck me this was good. I have never laughed out loud so much to a game before. Absurd, touching, witty, intelligent, it was just a delight.
Started confusing, became incredible, sagged a little then ended on a truly touching high.
10/10
I AM A SUPERSTAR HOBOCOP HERALDING THE RISE OF THE FEMINIST COMMUNIST STATE!!!!!!
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malek86
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Pomegranate Deseeder
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Post by malek86 on Dec 22, 2022 23:42:52 GMT
Outlaws (PC)
A western-themed gallery shooter built as an FPS. There is that feeling of focus that only Lucasarts could give you. Come in for the Doom clone look, stay for the unusual and semi-true to western form gameplay. The cutscenes are real nice too. John De Lancie plays one of the bad guys and you can very much tell.
However, it is a ridiculously short game (took me around 4 hours to finish the main story), enemy variety is very low, as they are all... well... humans with guns, and some of the map design gets very confusing at times. And I couldn't get that sweet Clint Bajakian's music to work. Not cool.
7/10
Felt a bit more like a 6, but I gave it a higher score because nothing beats the feeling of opening a train cabin door and emptying the cylinder onto every enemy before they even have a chance to react.
I might try the extra historical missions later on, but right now I want to start Marathon.
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Post by brainbird on Dec 24, 2022 8:11:55 GMT
PentimentWhat deekyfun said a couple of posts above: The story is great and you'll get hooked unless you've been put off by the rather slow speed it moves along. I admit there were a couple of moments when I thought people could be a bit less chatty. Also a lot of conversation choices don't seem to have any substancial effect. But I could be wrong. I finished it after 22 hours if the Xbox tracker is to be believed. I usually take my time though. You could finish it after 15 hours I reckon. 7/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 24, 2022 14:47:48 GMT
High on life
Meh. Looks shit which is weird as it is high res etc, but has that glossy looking everything is static. The sort of game from 15 years ago where it was decent fraphics in exchange for invisible walls and leaves that never more etc which makes everything feel fake.
Some interesting weapons ala Duke 3d or Ratchet and Clank... which I never once used. I used starting weapon and the one that creates little guys, but that was it.
Fucking terrible writing and "jokes". I love Rick and Morty buy this was the most childish and lazy game I remember. It is very much what a 13 year old thinks adults think is funny. Haha let's carry around cum, haha let's stick am arm up am alien arsehole, haha let's say fuck for no reason. It was so lazy and uninspired.
Solid 6/10. Without the childishness it would just be another mediocre shooter that does nothing new. I finished it because it was short.
Actually make it 5/10. I just remembered the bullshit boss fights.
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Post by dangerousdave on Dec 24, 2022 21:13:43 GMT
5/10 seems about right. It does become a lot less funny pretty quickly and nothing else about it is particularly well done or done well enough.
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Post by dfunked on Dec 24, 2022 23:10:13 GMT
6/10 for me for High on Life
It's serviceable with humour that's enjoyable at first (if you're a R&M fan at least), but really starts to grate after a while. Hidden chests seem like a bit of a puzzle to find ways to get to them at first, but one of the traversal options just removes most of the challenge. It really doesn't feel like much of a Metroidvania despite reviews chucking the phrase around. There are a few bits you come back to and use new abilities to get past, but it's not really integral to the core game.
Graphics are nice and colourful, but everything is blurry as fuck on SX.
This is all sounding more like a 5/10 now that I write it out...
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Post by retro74 on Dec 24, 2022 23:30:54 GMT
PREY (PS4)
At times it was close to being “the worst game ever” but I got through it. Found myself enjoying elements towards the middle but was glad to see the back of it overall. A game of a thousand bugs would be the best description. At least 6 side missions didn’t complete due to unknown reasons and I resorted to the internet after many hours of frustration only to find they were glitched
Glad I played it blind as the sense of discovery was amazing, as was the sound. The glitchiness, woeful combat, awful navigation were the weak points though. Overall it was memorable so worth playing but also feel that I’ve wasted 30 hours of my life
6 out of 10
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Dec 25, 2022 9:57:22 GMT
Interesting. I don't think I've heard anything about how the ports turned out for some reason. I don't remember any significant bugs on PC.
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Post by retro74 on Dec 25, 2022 10:51:44 GMT
Could have been something to do with playing a PS4 game on a PS5 controller as one of them I couldn’t put some special fertiliser into a sprinkler system, ended up carrying it around the whole time. Others where someone just wasn’t where they were supposed to be, spent ages looking for them before resorting to the internet to find out I’d done everything correct, they just weren’t there
Aside from the bugs there were things like playing audio for the colleague who’s father was killed, should have been an impactful moment but a bunch of those military operators came into the room, killed Igwe, and chased the colleague away too. Very annoying as I had to revert to a previous save - which I did a LOT when things went wrong
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