Notrium review by Kiwi

Greetings from the alien hell hole called Notrium! Notrium is a freeware game created by Ville Monkkonen. You view things from a top down perspective and the best description is a survival adventure game. You try to maintain your body temperature, such as not running around the desert in the middle of the day, keeping yourself fed, and, of course, fighting off the various things trying to kill you. You do this by picking up whatever you can find and combining it with other random things and using whatever comes out of it to assist you in your fight to survive and eventually get off the planet.

You can play as 4 different races: Human, Android, Alien, or Psionic. Each one is played differently; well the Human and Android have play similar in some ways but different enough. The Human and Android rely the most on finding random bits and combination. The Alien hunts and evolves by being well-fed and killing. The Psionic can carry nothing but the psionic tokens he has but can combine them to create various abilities. Towards the end of the game the Human and Android come out with big guns and armor and such, the Alien is leading an army of aliens, that it gave birth to, and the Psionic is creating duplicates of itself and other fun things. A good amount of fun comes from experimentation with the random things you find. Make no mistake though, this game will not be that easy your first play though, unless you play on easy which eliminates body temperature. The game is very replayable, with the areas and items being randomly placed.

One of the things that Kiwi loves about this game is how easy it is to mod this game. The data files are quite easy to understand, at least compared to other games. It comes with an easy to use map editor as well. With a few minutes in the data files you can create a brand new item or weapon. There are also a couple good mods floating around for this game if you enjoyed it. Though you should try to complete the game at least once before you go into that.

Story is not a huge focus of the game. The basic story is that you are on an explorer ship (your role depends on what your race is), and you come across a planet that appears to have a lost civilization! However, soon after your ship is ripped apart by missiles and your escape pod heads and crashes on the planet, Notrium. You can find out more about the character your playing by reading journal entries as they come up. Journal entries will also give you details about items you pick up and will give you some possible combination and other useful hints. The game doesn't really have anything in the way of the an instruction manual so journal entries and experimentation are your best bet. The game has multiple endings so you'll have to play through a few times to see all of them, or at least, load a saved game a couple times.

The graphics are not really amazing, but it's a freeware game, what do you want? Next-gen graphics? The sounds are decent, background sounds in particular are noteworthy, but the music is lacking.

Overall, Kiwi would definitely recommend this game to anyone, unless you have something against the setting or type of game it is. Kiwi first picked this game up 4 or 5 years ago, and he still comes back to it.

Here's the link to the game's web page:
Notrium Site

Pros:
-Great game play
-multiple characters
-Easily modified
-Legally free
-The game's files are small and it has low system requirements (the install file is 10 MB if Kiwi remembers right)

Cons:
-It does have some bugs
-Poor music
-Can be a bit unfriendly to new players
-Some important items can be nearly impossible to find

NOTE: These screenshots are from a modified version of the game, as Kiwi has nothing else on hand.



Crash survivors are very popular among the robot crowds.



Anybody interested in some fried alien? Kiwi's got plenty.


You're always welcome at Kiwi's house. Unless you're a bad guy or a commie.

Persona 3 Review(by The Liztress)

Persona 3 Review
by The Liztress

Quick Review-

Sound- A-
Graphics- B
Enjoyment Factor- A
Replay Factor- B
Battle System- B+
Overall- B+


Full Review-

Sound- Sure the music isn't as grand as you find in most RPGs like the Final Fantasy series or Zelda series but the music doesn't take away from this game. In fact, I feel like it adds to it. When something good is happening in the game, the music is upbeat. When you have a gloomy experience, the music has a soft sound and you can hear the sadness in it. Not many people are a fan of the JPOP genre, and this game has a few songs that are classified as such. But I think the songs fit it nicely.

Graphics- It's not very high end graphics and Altus doesn't try to make the people or anything look real. Instead, they try to stay faithful with the anime cutscenes that are in the game. And while I am fine with this choice, the anime isn't the best I have seen and the characters and enemies aren't as detailed as I might like. But I give credit to the Persona Compendium as it has the most detailed images. I'm not complaining about the lack of detail as I'm more for storylines and a decent battle system but I do feel that on some cases the anime cutscenes could have been done better.

Enjoyment Factor- As a fan of the Persona series and RPGs in general, I really enjoyed playing this game. There were times when I didn't want to put the controller down and turn the game off just so I could sleep. I think for anyone who enjoys a good RPG that isn't done like most out there, this one is worth trying. I've had my moments where I wanted to throw the controller down, mainly trying to get all the heart items from Messiah, but more often than not it continued to hold my interest. The characters weren't so outlandish and I admit a few I neglected using due to my inability to like them. But I did really get into the storyline and key moments made me sad. The social links add to mix with a sort of "dating sim" minigame. Your reward for choosing the right responses and spending time with your friends is a special item. One that allows you to create the highest level Persona of the Arcana.

Replay Factor- The only reasons, outside of just playing it for the fun of it, to replay this game would be to complete the Compendium, max out all of the social links, and of course... The Optional boss only available for the second playthrough. But, besides the optional boss, the rest can be done in the first playthrough. Granted if you do decide to complete all available requests and max out the social links your first time through, you might still want to pick this game back up and play it again. On your second cycle, you do keep your levels, max social link items, Yen, all the Personas you have registered in the Compendium, and equipment. But you lose all consumable items and your teammates start back on level one. But that don't mean you should fret. With the level you beat the game at, you'll have no problems with the shadows.

Battle System- Ok, this part, for me, makes or breaks if I truly want to play a game. Controls are simple and if you know the enemies weakness, you can exploit it so they never get the chance to attack. When you "knock down" an enemy, It means you either found the weakness or you did a critical hit. Also, if you knock down the whole enemy party, you can perform an "All Out Attack". Basically, you and your party members all gang up on the downed enemies and do a good deal of damage. But knocking down an enemy also grants you the ability to use another turn. Mind you, the "1 more turn" applies to the enemies as well. And if you meet special conditions during a fight, you are rewarded with the option to choose a card. You only know what kind of card you can get if you pay good attention to how they are shuffled. You get anyting from weapons to Persona, with bonus experience and getting healed as well. As for controlling your party, you are limited in that. You can command them to heal or go all out. Or you can have them conserve SP depending on your style.

Overall- Alright, here's my final opinion on Persona 3. I do feel like it was deserving of being in the running for 2007's Game of the Year. But since Atlus released Persona 3: FES at a cheaper price, I do advise buying it over this as you are getting the same gaming experience with a few bonuses. I do think some things could have been tweaked. And the different blocks were designed nicely, but one was too dark for to really noticed the monsters to do a surprise attack. But yeah, I think it was worth the 90+ hours I spent on the game.