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First Impression: G String (PC – Steam) ~ Personal Robots Got Too Real

24. Leden 2021 v 17:01

I won’t blame you if you look at the title of this game and wonder what I’m going to talk about today. Don’t worry, I’m not going to talk about that sort of adult game and I hope that the SEO won’t bring in that kind of traffic either. Today we are going to talk about a game named “G String” developed Eyaura. This game started life as a Half Life 2 mod just like another game “The Stanley Parable” I took a look at in the past. Now, the Stanley Parable is an amazing game in terms of story telling in games so I have high expectations for this game. Is this standalone game going to live up to it’s expectations or is this game going to fail and disappear in SEO-hell with it’s name? Let’s take an 100% honest look at this game with the developer provided press code I got for this game and let’s talk about my opinion. Meanwhile, I invite you to leave a comment in the comment section down below with your opinion on the game and/or the content of this article.

Editornal note: The latest patch for this game has been released on December 23th.

Personal Robots Got Too Real

human_waste60040 This game is a passion project of the developer Eyaura who worked on this game for the past 13 years. According to the press kit, this game is 10-ish hours long and is a single player Cyberpunk FPS game that aims to envoke the feel of old science fiction films from the ’70 – ’90.

In this game, you take on the role of a young Korean girl named Myo Hyori. After a sudden earthquake, she is able to escape in her standard issue biosuit into the dystopian world. During your exploration, you learn more and more about your missing parents, what happened to the world and the personal robots and much more.

Due to the nationality of the character, I think this game takes place in Korea. The reason I mention this is because there is voice acting in this game. Dialogue between characters is in English but the suit talks to Myo in another language. I’m not 100% sure but I think it’s in Japanese but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in Korean since the main character is Korean.

The voice acting is decent and adds a lot to the world building, tension and atmosphere of the game. But, on several occasions, the suit and a character were talking at the same time which made it a bit annoying to follow the voice acting. Thankfully, there are subtitles, so I was able to read what was being said.

During this adventure, you go through various locations. You also fight various enemies like soldiers and personal robots. You also meet various other characters that all play a vital part in the story. On the store page for this game, there is a beefy “Quick Reference” guide that contains quite a lot of lore and story details. Don’t read that if you want to go in the game blind. Yet, if you enjoyed this game, I would highly advise you to read through this manual and download it to add it to the collection.

Because I haven’t finished the game, I’m not going to talk too in depth about my opinions on the story. But, so far I have been enjoying the story. While I find it a bit cheesy at certain points, it’s still a good enough story to play through the game.

Let’s survive this world

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So, due to a catastrophic event nicknamed the “Friday Floods”, the world got quite dangerous to life in. So, you need to be careful while exploring in this game that you survive the dangerous surface world.

While playing this game, I didn’t really know under which style to categorize this game. On one hand, I would call this an action packed survival horror and on the other hand, I would call this a story driven FPS. In the end, I would say it’s more an adventure game with heavy influences of the FPS genre. The best game to compare it too is Half Life in a matter of fact. In that game you also have moments of puzzle solving and moments of action.

During my playthrough, it was quite clear to me that a lot of love has been put into this game. But, it pains me to say that there are some things that are a bit rough around the edges. A first example is the controls. The controls are great and responsive and are quite quick to learn. But, sometimes they act quite strangely. I especially had problems getting up when I got out of a vent. Sometimes, I was unable to move and I had to jump to get into the right position. Also, ascending and descending on ladders is too fast in my opinion.

A second example of this game being a bit rough is that there is some cheap enemy placement. Especially those exploding floating balls. Some of them come in the most inconvenient moments when the game is quite tense or you are trying to avoid a sniper shooting at you. Speaking about these snipers, I have seen in a gameplay video that you are able to take them out. I was unaware of that because they barely give any feedback when you hit them. I wonder if I could destroy these turrets, but I highly doubt that since they don’t seem to get damaged when I unload a complete magazine on them.

So, a great advice from me is to quick save often. Especially after an encounter, since you never know when something happens and you need to load a save. Now, this brings me right to the difficulty of this game as a third example of this game being a bit rough. I started two playthroughs in this game. One on the medium difficult and one of the easy difficulty. Maybe it’s just my playstyle but I barely felt any difference between the two difficulties. Those flying orbs still gave me as much trouble on easy compared to normal. I think that if those flying orbs weren’t an instant kill, it would be a lot better.

Let’s talk about combat. You have two types of enemies. The robots and the soldiers. Only the turret and the soldiers don’t use melee attacks. All the other enemies use melee attacks. You can play this game without firing one bullet to an enemy since you have a fireball attack. Now, to be quite honest, I rarely used this attack since I found it a tad bit tricky to use and I always ran into my stray fireballs and got damage.

Most of the enemies are quite beefy and require more than one bullet to take out. Rarely I was able to kill an enemy in one shot. Apart from when I got lucky and found some explosive barrels around and use my telekenis powers to throw it at my enemies. The combat is quite enjoyable and if you are a veteran in the shooter genre, I think you will feel right at home here.

Destruction Of The World

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I don’t really recommend that you play this game with the default visual settings. I highly advise you to play around with the visual settings since otherwise you will have some issues like textures looking a bit rough or the lighting being too harsh.

It would be a shame since the visual presentation in this game is well done. Of course, you will see some area’s where it gets a bit rough or where it feels like you are playing a game from 2010 instead of 2021, but in my opinion, as long as the presentation of the game sets the right mood without having too much visual glitches or clashing art styles, I think it shouldn’t matter if the game looks like you need the latest graphics card or your old laptop from when you were younger.

Occasionally I had some moments where I felt that the visuals felt a bit more rushed or unpolished like the rest of the game. But, I didn’t focus on these moments since the charm of the world kept pulling me in and I didn’t stop enjoying this game at all.

In terms of animations, I was quite impressed. It’s a shame that sometimes small objects like planks do glitch out a bit but that’s more a problem with the engine then the animations. The only thing I feel that would improve in terms of the animations is a bit more visual flair when you are using your telekenic powers.

At first, I felt that the soundtrack of this game was totally disconnected from the game. I felt that it didn’t match at all. But, when I gave it some thought, I started to understand what the developer was going for. The soundtrack really fits the world before it was destroyed. Now, there are a lot of silent moments in this game that helps with the tense atmosphere but when the music kicks in, you get the feeling that you are destroying the world which gives an even more creepy vibe.

Let’s go from talking about the soundtrack to talking about the sound effects. The guns feel great to fire and they sound amazing as well. The only thing I would add to the game is a bit more grunts to the enemies since it was a bit jarring sometimes when I entered a room with a lot of enemies that after their first shot started with their grunts.

In terms of visuals and audio, this game does a lot right but it needs some polishing in some area’s to get the game to the next level. It would improve the game so much if there was a bit more visual polish and if the sound effects gave a bit more hints to the player on how to solve a puzzle or when there are enemies nearby.

Now, in terms of the visuals, I would like to mention one thing. I think the option & FX UI is somewhat broken. Sometimes I didn’t display the background, sometimes it didn’t even pop-up and sometimes it was a combination of the two. But, I think this something that can be fixed in an update.

In conclusion, I think that this game is a prefect example of a diamond in the rough. All the elements for this game being amazing are there. But, the rough area’s hold the game back. Thankfully, most of the issues have to do with the lack of polish in some area’s. The issues aren’t game breaking and shouldn’t hinder the enjoyment of the game. Well, unless you feel that jank in games is something you don’t want of course.

Would I recommend this game? Oh yes, I would recommend this game to everybody who enjoys more story based FPS games like Half Life or Alan Wake. This game is quite enjoyable and for the low price of 14€, I think you get more than your money’s worth out of this game. While the game is a bit rough in some area’s at the moment of writing but the future patches will improve the game quite a lot.

With that said, I have said everything I wanted to say about this game for now. I hope you enjoyed reading this article as much as I enjoyed writing it. I hope to be able to welcome you in a future article but until then, have a great rest of your day and take care.

Hotel Barcelona Is Video Game Counterculture

SUPERJUMP

Od:Jahanzeb Khan

29. Říjen 2025 v 15:00

Hotel Barcelona Is Video Game Counterculture

Hotel Barcelona is one of those games that everyone really needs to experience for themselves. I'm not suggesting that this is one of those absolute must-have AAA releases; it's no Ocarina of Time or Halo (although mind you, there are perfectly valid reasons for not liking either of those games!) Instead, this is one of those innately polarising games where reviews are all over the place, and so each player needs to make up their own mind about it. This is no surprise, given that the game is the product of a dream collaboration between two of the most controversial game creators today. These equally enigmatic creators each impart their unorthodox game development styles and philosophies upon the game. To step into Hotel Barcelona is to step into a truly one-of-a-kind meeting of the minds.

In an age of big budgets and high production values, the expectations heaped upon video games have never been higher. Everything from a glitch-free experience to the professionalism of the voice acting comes under microscopic scrutiny. Game developers have also become less daring and adventurous (unless your name is Hideo Kojima, that is). There was a time when big game publishers were not afraid to take risks, to sell game design choices that were quirky yet innovative, and they appreciated the value of catering to niche audiences to build a cult following.

This unhindered approach to game development and design really peaked during the sixth console generation, with SEGA's Dreamcast setting the example and Nintendo's GameCube and Sony's PlayStation continuing to be a haven of cool ideas. Not every game needed to score a 90% average on Metacritic to be deemed a success, as it was simply enough to create a compelling title for its intended audience.

Nowadays, you'd be hard-pressed to find such experiences from big publishers, but there's certainly no shortage of these flawed but creative efforts from up-and-coming developers in the indie scene. There's still a void when it comes to new ideas from true industry veterans, but thankfully, there are two names who continue to march to the beat of their own drum: Goichi Suda (a.k.a Suda51) and Hidetaka Suehiro (a.k.a Swery65).

As game directors, both have incredible resumes, but if one title were to define their respective game development philosophies, then for Suda51, it would be No More Heroes, and for Swery65, it would be Deadly Premonition. These signature titles have garnered a loyal fan following over the decades, and the impact these games have had on the gaming zeitgeist can't be understated.

They are unique in their directorial styles and yet so alike. One thing is clear: their games are all about the profound intangibles, as these games often have subtext within the narrative and game design that tap into a gamer's psyche like no other. As experiences, these are games that challenge the very notion of 'play' in video games, and not only that, they challenge the idea of what it means to be a 'gamer'.

They've always gotten along as comrades in the same industry, but fans have often wondered what would happen if they collaborated on a project. In fact, some wondered if such a thing were even possible, simply because Suda51 and Swery65 are just too alike. Could two uniquely creative volcanoes find compromise and balance when bringing highly volatile ideas together as one?

Turns out, it was possible after all, and the end result of bringing two mad geniuses together to create a video game is Hotel Barcelona.

A fundamental commonality between the pair is also evident here: their games are unapologetically 'janky'. This 'jankiness' is evident in the gameplay systems that are often simple and effective, but lack fluidity and polish, especially in combat and shooting. The graphics aren't AAA quality either, instead emphasising artistic expression over texture mapping polish. Not only that, but the performance rarely hit a stable 60 frames per second. Some wonder if these passionate game directors deliberately make 'bad' games, and, well, of course they're not; it's just their intentions and emphasis are different from typical game directors.

This can be contrasted with other media like film and music, but let's go with music to illustrate a point. You can pick up the latest mainstream pop record, and chances are you will be treated to a polished musical experience where the vocals are always on key and the instruments are mixed to sound as clean and pleasant as possible. And yet, there is an audience for the unrefined and unpolished, where instruments are allowed to make raw noise and unconventional singers are allowed to express unhinged ideas; that right there is punk. It's a counterculture for the sake of alternative expression, to challenge conventions and the status quo.

That's what games by Suda51 and Swery65 are: the punk rock equivalent of gaming. And so, Hotel Barcelona is the ultimate punk rock album by two industry legends. It's a dream team to be sure, and the result is a game that will be truly appreciated by its intended audience, perhaps even more so over time.

Hotel Barcelona is a roguelite, and while there are numerous roguelikes and roguelites in the indie scene, they don't compare to the vibe and style that Suda51 and Swery65 have created here. Think of it as a punk rock video game by two industry legends who don't need millions to express their wild creativity.

It's an effective 2.5D action game oozing with style. The core gameplay loop is enough to keep players coming back for more, and each return trip opens up more of the creativity. There are homages to gaming's past here, and plenty of powerful and provoking meta-commentary tucked away in both the game design and narrative flow. It's a violent game, but one for the thinking gamer. In the signature style of these developers, video game violence thrills are presented with a contemplative subtext.

No one writes a protagonist quite like Suda51 and Swery65, and here we have Justine, a complex and reluctant anti-hero who expresses deep monologues as she wrestles with her demonic alter ego. The premise is gruesome and unkind, and yet there is a wicked sense of humour to it all, especially in the playful dialogue flow.

It's all about style, with a range of visual styles delivering a story that only Suda51 and Swery65 could dream up together. Speaking of the former, Suda51 has always been about boss battle presentation, and Hotel Barcelona delivers its cast of eccentrics in a style most game directors could only dream about. Aside from Kojima, nobody writes boss characters quite like Suda51. The first boss theme song samples 'For Whom The Bell Tolls' by Metallica, and the rest of the presentation isn't shy in referencing all kinds of media from heavy metal to horror cinema. The bosses are cool, and their presentation showcases true pop culture passion, but it's just too bad that the core gameplay makes the actual battles feel tedious.

I described the game as effective, and it is, but that's about the most glowing praise the core gameplay earns. Take away the layers of style and personality, and you're left with an action game that features cumbersome combat and dull level design, one where the set pieces and platforming rarely gel well with the clunky mechanics. It's all competent and serviceable enough, but oh so very dull. It also speaks volumes about how attractive the presentation and vibe of Hotel Barcelona can be; it's exciting enough to make the majority of the sluggish gameplay worth enduring.

Maybe persevering through rusty gameplay is the point of it all. Even when parts of the gameplay don't feel great, the sum of the many parts that make up the experience, whether it's the music or character designs, creates a whole that feels special. Put it this way: Black Sabbath didn't have an opera singer on vocals. The point isn't to have a good singer; the point is Ozzy Osbourne was the only voice to bring together the many imperfect yet unique parts of the Black Sabbath sound.

Hotel Barcelona is a flawed and imperfect game; it's not a low-budget indie game created by green developers, nor is it a AAA title backed by reputable industry veterans. Instead, this is a perfect in-between: it has modest production values and yet perfectly expresses lofty and ambitious ideas. It's a bit like when a punk rock band goes from playing small clubs to selling out stadium shows, without losing their artistic edge.

Forget the reviews and forget the accepted norms of AAA gaming; Hotel Barcelona is a title that will be savoured and studied for decades, long after games like Battlefield 6 have shut down their servers.

Review key provided by Neonhive and CULT Games