No One Lives Forever: Review + Full Series Retrospective (Replay)

Note: I had previously reviewed the full series back in 2016; you can read the original review here. This review is an updated version that's been largely re-written with updated and expanded thoughts, along with a full video version, seen here. 

The Operative: No One Lives Forever and its sequel, No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in HARM's Way, are a series of first-person shooters developed by Monolith Productions in 2000 and 2002, in which players take the role of 1960s secret agent Cate Archer trying to stop a villainous criminal organization from taking over the world. Typical gameplay involves combinations of run-and-gun action as you fight off hordes of enemy henchmen; sneaky stealth action as you try to infiltrate facilities undetected; exploring varied level environments to find hidden intelligence and bonus equipment upgrades; going undercover and mingling with civilians to meet with informants or interview suspects, occasionally even picking dialogue choices; riding vehicles through exotic locations; and watching cutscenes that progressively tell the game's lengthy story as Cate trots the globe to diverse and exotic locations to complete a variety of different objectives en route to saving the day. Both games also feature a strong humorous component with lots of genre-spoofing dialogue and jokes, thus lending them a much more whimsical and lighthearted tone than your typical shooter. Oh, and there's also Contract JACK, a stand-alone spinoff from 2003 that's loosely connected to the series, but uh, there's a reason it's not discussed much when it comes to the NOLF series and is perhaps better forgotten about, but don't worry -- I'll explain why in due time. 

 

Originally PC exclusives before seeing the first game ported to the PlayStation 2, the NOLF series received critical praise at the time but only ever achieved moderate financial success, having been overshadowed by so many other major releases in the surrounding years, and was soon abandoned by Monolith in favor of new series like FEAR and Condemned a few years later. A series of publisher acquisitions and mergers subsequently allowed the copyright to fall into no man's land, with none of the companies who MIGHT own it actually knowing for sure if they do or not, and none of them having any apparent interest in finding out, despite developer Nightdive Studios' best efforts in recent years while attempting to file for the license in order to do a remake. The games have therefore never been re-released beyond their initial run, nor made available for digital download on modern distribution platforms like Steam or GOG, while any attempt at a remake or legacy sequel has been shut down due to all the legal uncertainty, thus cementing the series legacy in the annals of video game history as lost, forgotten gems. 

Slay the Spire - Review 2025 | Why is this game so addicting?

Slay the Spire is a deck-building roguelike card game in the style of a turn-based dungeon-crawler, in which you choose one of four characters and try to ascend through a series of increasingly difficult combat encounters and random events so you can defeat the heart at the end and slay the titular spire. As a roguelike game, you will go through a different path every time, with randomized encounters therein, while also gaining different upgrades along the way, thus making each run feel totally unique, but with permanent progress being gained each time towards unlocking new types of content. As a deck-building game, you will always begin with the same starting deck of basic cards, and then progressively add new cards from a wide selection to hone that deck's advanced specialization for that one run. The challenge stems from seeing a bunch of different variables thrown at you each game, figuring out how best to adapt your current strategy to fit the current situation, and trying to play your cards just right, literally, to survive long enough to stand a chance at defeating the final boss. Win or lose, you will still earn some kind of reward for your efforts, perhaps the most important being lessons learned about strategies, tactics, and mechanics that you can apply to future runs so that you can hope to do better next time. 

To better understand the context for everything else I'm going to say in this review, let's start with an overview of how the game works and what you actually do in it. If you're already familiar with the basic gameplay concepts, then you can skip ahead to just get more of my thoughts on the game as a whole. 

Ranking My Most/Least Favorite Quests in The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos

One of the most truly impressive things about The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos is just how much total content is crammed into the game, with a lot of it being really high quality and entertaining. Despite being "just" a free fan mod for Gothic 2, it feels professionally well-done and actually delivers a more compelling gaming experience than many big-budget AAA RPGs to have come out over the last two decades since the original Gothic 2. The quests are a big contributor in this, generally speaking, with them feeling very well-grounded and believable, thus contributing to a highly immersive atmosphere, and with many of them having interesting stories, fun character interactions, and frequently a good deal of role-playing options with branching outcomes. As with every game, however, not all quests are created equally, since some will naturally get more attention in development given that they're meant to be a major focus while others will receive less attention by virtue of being merely optional side content. Sometimes those seemingly lesser quests can wind up being good, however, and likewise sometimes the more important quests can prove a little disappointing. 

For this video, I just want to talk about some of my favorite quests and what makes them enjoyable to me, with some attempt at ranking them, and also talk a little about some quests that I didn't like as much that I wish could have been better. Please note that this is not meant to be an objective list of the best or worst quests in the game, it is merely my personal opinion based on what I liked or disliked about some of them. And of course, I'm going to be spoiling the plot-lines and outcomes for some of these entries, as well as many details surrounding the main story, so bear that in mind and just treat the entire article as spoilers. And so without further ado, here are my favorite quests from the Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos, in some loose attempt at a ranked order. 

Gothic Remake "Nyras Prologue" - Feedback + Review

Alkimia Interactive and THQ Nordic, the companies behind the Gothic Remake, have finally released a new playable demo to the general public as part of Steam's Next Fest 2025. The "Nyras Prologue" as they're calling it, is a version of a similar demo that's been floating around for a while now, last seen at Gamescom in August 2024, and perhaps even before that for more limited press coverage. In this demo, you play as Nyras -- whom you may remember from the original game -- just after he's thrown into the colony for the first time, tasked with exploring a small area around the exchange zone and completing a few quests with basic character interactions and combat opportunities. As such, it does not represent what the actual start of the actual game will be like, since they claim that "the full game [will] follow the story, structure, and spirit of the original Gothic, with the Nameless Hero as the protagonist." This demo is basically a mod scenario simply meant to preview what certain mechanics or production designs might look like, in addition to the game's modding capabilities, and of course the creators are quick to point out that everything is a work-in-progress which is subject to change, and that there WILL be bugs and glitches involved. Knowing that, it's hard to judge this demo since it's unclear what exactly is intended JUST for the sake of this one limited scenario, versus what might be intended for the full game experience. 

Elden Ring - Review | How good is the open world, really?

Elden Ring is the latest "Soulsborne" style of action-role-playing-game by developer FromSoftware, who launched this sub-genre back in 2009 with Demon's Souls on the PS3. The emphasis of this series, which includes the Dark Souls trilogy and the PS4-exclusive Bloodborne, has always been about traversing assorted levels while trying to survive against difficult hazards and enemy encounters so you can defeat the level's boss, with a combat system that relies on learning to read enemy behaviors so you can know when to safely attack, dodge, or heal, and managing a limited stamina gauge while performing various types of attacks and defensive maneuvers. The series also incorporates RPG elements with a leveling system that has you increasing different stats of your choosing as you gain experience from defeated enemies, as well as choosing specific weaponry, spells, jewelry, and items that contribute to your own desired build and playstyle, which you find by exploring levels for optional side paths and hidden secrets, in some cases even completing NPC quest lines. All-the-while, the action-based gameplay is wrapped up with a wealth of deep lore and indirect storytelling, with item descriptions and dialogue that hint only vaguely at narrative concepts you're meant to piece together through your own interpretive reasoning and deduction. 

While some people may get a lot out of this style of storytelling and world-building, I would guess that for the vast majority of people out there, the real appeal of the Souls formula, and by extension Elden Ring, is simply the fun combat system and all the satisfying challenge it presents each time you're able to clear a level and defeat the boss waiting for you at the end. Elden Ring follows these Souls-like elements to a T, so much so that you could almost call it Dark Souls 4, or Demon's Souls 6, if you will, despite it technically being its own unique property. It's basically the exact same game, just with some of the names of things being changed -- for example, "souls" are now "runes," "bonfires" are now "sites of grace," "Firelink Shrine" is now the "Roundtable Hold" and so on, while other series staples like Patches the Hyena and the Moonlight Greatsword and leaving messages and bloodstains on the floor for other players to see, are all back again, as usual. 

As the latest installment in this long-running series, Elden Ring naturally represents the highest level of refinement and evolution to all of the core mechanics, with several new features like jumping, crouching, spell charging, spirit summons, guard counters, and more -- but the big change that it brings to the equation is shifting the world design from a more "Metroidvania-style" of linearly-structured levels with a beginning, middle, and end that progressively branch out from the starting hub and connect back to each other in different areas, into a true open-world format with massive landscapes that you can explore in all 360-degrees, in virtually any order you want. The open-world IS the defining characteristic of Elden Ring -- it's the thing that sets it apart from other Soulsborne games, and Elden Ring's execution of the open world format is commonly heralded as being among the best ever created. So if you're going to play Elden Ring at all, it's either because you're interested in the Souls formula and want to play the latest rendition of that experience, or it's because you're specifically looking for a good open-world gameplay experience.

Star Trek: Resurgence - Review | Some of the best Trek in DECADES...

Star Trek: Resurgence is a story-driven adventure game by Dramatic Labs, a studio created recently by former Telltale developers who wanted to carry on the tradition of games they were previously known for like The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and countless others. If you're familiar with any of those games then you should already know basically what to expect with Star Trek: Resurgence -- a lot of cutscenes where you pick dialogue options and react to timed prompts, alternating with moments of limited exploration, light puzzle-solving, and scripted action sequences, where the decisions you make along the way influence the way the story shapes up. The story, of course, is the main draw, here, with it basically being like a good multi-episode arc from the 90's era of Star Trek TV shows, expanded into a 10-12 hour runtime that allows you to really immerse yourself in the setting and feel like you're actually taking part in a series of Star Trek, in more elaborate and involved ways than what would typically be shown in the actual shows.

Now, you don't necessarily have to be a fan of Star Trek to enjoy Resurgence -- at a minimum, you just have to enjoy "choose your own adventure" style video games and be open to an optimistic sci-fi space adventure story, which requires no prior knowledge of Star Trek since it revolves around an entirely new cast of characters trying to resolve a conflict between two entirely made-up, new-to-this-game species. The game is sure to explain any relevant lore details from the shows or movies that a new player might not know, or that an established fan might have even forgotten about, while other things can be easily deduced as you go along; for example you don't need to know what the Kobayashi Maru is to infer from the surrounding context clues that it's a notoriously difficult test, which is all you really need to know to understand the point of that conversation. So it should be fairly easy to follow along with everything even if you don't know anything about Star Trek.

Stardew Valley - 2024 Review | Why is this game so good?

Note: This review contains very mild spoilers for seasonal events, end-game content, and unlocked gameplay systems, but does not spoil any major character arcs or story events. I don't consider anything in this review to be a major spoiler, but if you're someone who wants to discover everything yourself then you should exercise caution with this review. (And probably shouldn't be reading/watching 45-minute deep-dive reviews in the first place, if so.) It is based on vanilla version 1.6.

 

Stardew Valley is an "open-ended country-life RPG" in which you create your own character and inherit your departed grandfather's dilapidated old farm on the outskirts of Pelican Town, a small rural town in the greater region of Stardew Valley. The core gameplay systems revolve around typical farming activities (which includes planting, watering, and harvesting crops, and tending to various livestock to process their produce, among other things); foraging for natural resources that will be used in various cooking and crafting recipes; fishing the local ocean, river, and lakes to catch assorted fish and treasures with rods or traps; mining for minerals and ore necessary to upgrade your tools and farming equipment while fighting the various monsters that inhabit the mines in an effort to survive its deeper and more dangerous depths; building your relationship with the local townsfolk by talking to them, giving them gifts, completing their requests, and making choices in their various cutscenes; and just in general exploring the town and its surrounding areas as you unlock new areas by advancing through the game, which in turn unlock new gameplay options, with lots of hidden secrets to discover.

There's no clear-cut "goal" you're striving to accomplish in the game, except for a few general suggestions, like restoring the Community Center as a cumulative symbol of your positive influence on the town, or earning your grandfather's blessing by achieving enough success in different aspects of your farm, or the various goals you set for yourself, like setting up your perfect farm layout that maximizes every square space on the map or achieving Perfection by having done literally everything possible in the game. None of these are exactly end-game goals, however, as each one unlocks some new avenue of gameplay possibilities, with the idea being that you can continue playing indefinitely, for as long as you desire to continue playing that save file.
 
As the introductory cutscenes establish, the point of your character moving to Stardew Valley and beginning a new life as a farmer (and perhaps, by extension, why you as a player choose to play Stardew Valley), is simply a means to escape from the pressing burdens of modern life while seeking out a more peaceful, fulfilling, "down-to-earth" sort of lifestyle. That, I feel, is where Stardew Valley really shines. Although it has many compelling aspects working in its favor (like lots of engaging gameplay mechanics with tons of depth and variety to experience and a really satisfying progression system), the real reason I suspect it has such strong appeal with so many people is likely just its charming, immersive premise, and its relaxing vibes and atmosphere. After all, it's a wonderfully idealized version of a wholesome life/setting that I think many of us yearn for, where you're able to live self-sufficiently with no bosses to report to, where hard work and dedication are guaranteed to pay off, with a tight-knit small-town community who come together for all kinds of special events and contribute to society in different ways, with just a hint of magical elements to make it feel fantastical and thus a little more exciting than real life.