Stephen Tordoff

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stordoff
stordoff

Favorite Games:

22 games reviewed
68.2 average score
70 median score
59.1% of games recommended

Stephen Tordoff's Reviews

Founder and Reviewer at http://giant.moe

Overall, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir is an easy game to recommend, and is a well-crafted experience. Despite some minor flaws and repetition of content, the game as a whole is an excellent package, both for new players and fans of the original PS2 release.

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- Hue
Sep 3, 2016

Hue is an excellent puzzle platformer, and I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the genre. The vibrant look and smooth difficulty curve make it a pleasure to play; coupling that with an intriguing, albeit light, narrative and an excellent soundtrack makes for an experience that is difficult to criticise. Indeed, I had no qualms about immediately starting a second playthrough to search for collectables that I has missed or overlooked, something that can be said about very few other games of this genre. This is a highly impressive game.

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Aug 16, 2016

Inversus is an exceptionally well-crafted game, and the thoughtful touches and well-balanced mechanics elevate it far beyond its simple core. Pretty much every element of the game feels like someone spent hours thinking about how to make it just right. This is an excellent game, and I had a huge amount of fun playing it.

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Jul 11, 2016

Anarcute is a fun, charming game, and I enjoyed the six or so hours I spent with the game. Though not flawless, and occasionally frustrating, it is easy to recommend.

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May 7, 2016

Until Dawn is a game that knows exactly what it is - a gleeful mash-up of horror genre tropes that succeeds by wearing its influences on its sleeve, excellent casting, and using well-chosen gameplay elements that give the player choice but fit with the movie-like aesthetic of the game. Despite its flaws, Until Dawn is an easy game to recommend, both to fans of and newcomers to the horror genre.

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Jun 10, 2016

The technical shortcomings do not overshadow the fact that the game is gorgeous, a fact that should be obvious even in screenshots. Though the landing is somewhat fumbled, the story wraps up in a meaningful way and achieves its intended effect. Coupled with excellent characterisation, it is a beautiful and painful look at how people try to hide from their problems, and the way people isolate themselves to hide their guilt and personal failings. Despite its issues, it is certainly an excellent game.

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The Magic Circle is a largely successful commentary on big-budget game development and the factors that conspire against making a good game: unattainable perfection, unrealistic fan expectations, business realities to name a few. Though it is not a perfect game by any means, arguable the take-home message of The Magic Circle is that it never could be. The mid-game spilt of free-form creativity versus a more linear guided narrative perhaps means that it'll be disappointing to players looking for either one, but The Magic Circle balances the two nicely, reflecting the game's message of how difficult it can be to build a balanced game.

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Sep 28, 2016

Overall though, The Bunker is an excellent game, and one that I'd glad to have played. The cast performances are terrific, the writing is sharp, and the mechanics are sufficient for the story it sets out to tell. It is a great example that FMV games don't have to be over the top and campy (as fun as that can be) to be compelling, and is a great example of this style of game.

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Aug 16, 2016

With such a low cost of entry compared to many other games on the platform, enjoyable gameplay, and a competent execution makes this an easy recommendation. There were a few minor annoyances along the way - mostly learning how to use the couplers and power-ups effectively - and the lack of online multiplayer is a shame, but overall I greatly enjoyed my time with Anode.

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Jul 26, 2016

Overall, Adventure Lamp is an excellent puzzle platformer. It is a charming experience, and its short length does not detract from the fact that the game is well-crafted. Each level feels unique, and there is a good variety in the 150 or so in the game. Though I would have liked to see some more challenging levels, and there are occasional technical hiccups, it is easy to recommend Adventure Lamp as the core ideas are strong and well implemented.

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Oct 19, 2016

Rocket Riot is a joy. In a way, it feels like a game I could have been playing on my Amiga 500 in the early 90s -- the big interface coupled with the bright, blocky design reminds me of games like Worms and Lemmings -- yet feels fresh and enjoyable in 2016. The premise of the game is simple: it's a 2D shooter in a series of destructible worlds, where the aim is to destroy or kill everything. Whether wiping out the clouds of enemies, or tearing the terrain into plumes of bright 3D pixels, it is a enjoyable experience.

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May 15, 2016

To summarise, the structure of Her Story can very easily lead to a disappointing experience, and by its nature a second playthrough does not solve that. Scoring this game was not easy - based solely on my playthrough, I would have to give it either two or three stars, as it was unsatisfying and I walked away feeling "Was that it....?". On the other hand, had I not stumbled onto the key information so early on, I could easily see myself loving this game and giving it an easy four stars. For that reason, I still recommend checking out Her Story, despite my grievances, but be warded that the experience may be somewhat inconsistent.

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Jul 25, 2016

The Park is an interesting experience, and one I feel glad to have had. Somewhere within it, there is an extremely good horror experience, and with some narrative changes it could be a truly excellent game. However, The Park fails to reach these expectations, which is a shame given how good some aspects of it are.

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Jul 20, 2016

Overall, Ninja Pizza Girl is a mechanically solid platformer that tackles difficult themes reasonably well. I want to applaud the developers for addressing these issues, but must also point out that gameplay occasionally suffers as a result. I am still happy to recommend the game, though the problems mentioned above mean it is a far from flawless experience.

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May 30, 2016

Cibele is a flawed game with a well-told story and certainly worth a playthrough. It didn't have any lasting impact on me, as the basis premise is well-worn territory, but that doesn't detract from the fact that this is both well-written and performed. I don't hesitate to recommend the game on a narrative level, but have some issues regarding the gameplay and presentation. Tightening up the controls, or tweaking how the game is presented, wouldn't have gone amiss.

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Aug 24, 2016

I'm glad that the developer of Lovely Planet Arcade chose to make significant changes for the sequel, but I'm not convinced that these changes were successful. Arcade doesn't scratch the same itches that the first game did, nor does the new gameplay come together in a satisfying way. It's certainly not a bad game, but it lacks the joyous free-form nature of the original game. I'd strongly recommend that newcomers to the series start with Lovely Planet, and only move onto Arcade if searching for a different type of challenge in the same style.

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Aug 28, 2016

Overall, I can only really recommend 3Souls in its current state if looking for a challenge and some degree of repetition. With some patches or changes in the second episode, it could evolve into a much stronger game, but it isn't quite there yet.

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Sep 13, 2016

I wish I wasn't so down on Seasons After Fall. It's a great looking game, and I really enjoyed being in that world. However, after about twenty minutes, that novelty starts to wear off and I found myself asking "What more is there to this?", to which the answer seems to be "not much". There are definitely worse platformers out there, and I certainly didn't hate my time playing it, but Seasons After Fall could, and should, have been so much more than what it is.

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Aug 3, 2016

Coffin Dodgers is an interesting concept, but the game as a whole falls flat. The lack of content and the general unfinished feeling makes it an overall unsatisfying game to play. With some fairly major patches, Coffin Dodger could be molded into a reasonable cart racer, but the state it was released in is not that. As it stands, there is little reason to play this game.

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Jul 9, 2016

Fragments of Him is a rare example of a game that is made worse by being interactive, and features a narrative likely better told as a short film. A strong core concept is stretched too thin; clunky mechanics and terrible pacing make the game's two-hour length feel far too long, and ultimately removes any emotional impact the game may otherwise have. It's a shame, as the game is tackling difficult concepts - the death and mourning of a loved one - that are not frequently addressed in video games.

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