Bartholomue
2024
The most addicting game I’ve played in a long while. I love every aspect of this game, except the music and the fact that challenges offer no rewards except showing off joker combinations.
2024
Portal: Revolution is the first Portal mod that felt very well-polished to me. The puzzles work, no weird cheesing, and the achievements are well-incorporated as well.
I wouldn't say this mod was difficult compared to other mods, but it was more atmospheric and a lot less frustrating. A nice, short story with plenty of puzzles. Revolution even features new mechanics, which were fun and refreshing. I wish there was a little less "navigate the facility", but overall a pleasant experience.
The voice-acting was pretty good, too. Although the story was clearly written from fans' viewpoints, it fit well into the Valve universe.
I recommend Portal: Revolution to anyone who is in for a refreshing puzzle experience after having completed the main two games.
I wouldn't say this mod was difficult compared to other mods, but it was more atmospheric and a lot less frustrating. A nice, short story with plenty of puzzles. Revolution even features new mechanics, which were fun and refreshing. I wish there was a little less "navigate the facility", but overall a pleasant experience.
The voice-acting was pretty good, too. Although the story was clearly written from fans' viewpoints, it fit well into the Valve universe.
I recommend Portal: Revolution to anyone who is in for a refreshing puzzle experience after having completed the main two games.
1998
I am genuinely unsure why people love Half-Life so much. Is it nostalgia? Is it its advancements in gaming at the time? Certainly, the gameplay is not quite it, and although the story is pretty interesting, the game has a poor way of showing what it is about exactly.
To me, Half-Life is one of those games that have aged pretty poorly, just like Majora's Mask and the first Portal game. Not that fun to play, but fun to read about online.
To me, Half-Life is one of those games that have aged pretty poorly, just like Majora's Mask and the first Portal game. Not that fun to play, but fun to read about online.
2020
Baldur's Gate 3 is without a doubt the best adventure RPG I have ever played. FINALLY, an RPG in which the choices you make actually matter! From the dialogue choices, lore, and worldbuilding to dice rolls, this is the closest we've ever gotten to a real Dungeons and Dragons campaign.
If I start naming everything I love about BG3, I would be here for a few weeks at least...So, I will reduce it to three things: First, the voice acting. Every character comes alive by their voice actor, impossibly real. How did Larian even get their hands on these people? Second, the choices...everything you do in BG3 has consequences. I did not think we would be able to experience something like this for years and years to come. The amount of times I was stunned at the fact that the game reminded me of earlier choices in this much details...it is truly remarkable. Third, the gameplay and combat. The possibilities are literally endless. You can multiclass into every single class, so there are no restrictions either. And it even felt fair and balanced!
This title truly deserved game of the year 2023, no doubt about it. I am actually going to enjoy multiple replays of this, which is something I rarely do. Applause to Larian studios!!
If I start naming everything I love about BG3, I would be here for a few weeks at least...So, I will reduce it to three things: First, the voice acting. Every character comes alive by their voice actor, impossibly real. How did Larian even get their hands on these people? Second, the choices...everything you do in BG3 has consequences. I did not think we would be able to experience something like this for years and years to come. The amount of times I was stunned at the fact that the game reminded me of earlier choices in this much details...it is truly remarkable. Third, the gameplay and combat. The possibilities are literally endless. You can multiclass into every single class, so there are no restrictions either. And it even felt fair and balanced!
This title truly deserved game of the year 2023, no doubt about it. I am actually going to enjoy multiple replays of this, which is something I rarely do. Applause to Larian studios!!
Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a refreshing experience compared to the 2D Mario games that came before it. In addition to new power-ups, most levels have a unique wonder-effect with new and fun mechanics. The artstyle is incredible, too. This game is a joy to play through, especially in local coop.
Although SMBW does a lot of things right, I do think this game could have been even better. Especially the bosses were severely lacking in this title, except for the final boss. Additionally, it feels like some of the levels were put in as filler content, to fluff up the game and its completion time (for example, little houses where you get a wonder seed for basically doing nothing). This made some of the worlds much bleaker in comparison to others.
But aside from these minor negative aspects, I enjoyed this game thoroughly. I would honestly play through it multiple times, which is not something I can say about any of the past titles. Hopefully, Nintendo will continue this line with more imaginative gameplay.
Although SMBW does a lot of things right, I do think this game could have been even better. Especially the bosses were severely lacking in this title, except for the final boss. Additionally, it feels like some of the levels were put in as filler content, to fluff up the game and its completion time (for example, little houses where you get a wonder seed for basically doing nothing). This made some of the worlds much bleaker in comparison to others.
But aside from these minor negative aspects, I enjoyed this game thoroughly. I would honestly play through it multiple times, which is not something I can say about any of the past titles. Hopefully, Nintendo will continue this line with more imaginative gameplay.
Return of the Obra Dinn and Papers Please both have the personality of their creator, Lucas Pope, written all over them. Yet, they are both so distinct and original, you cannot compare the two at all.
Obra Dinn is such a unique and creative way of storytelling, and the setting for it is probably the most interesting one could imagine. It feels incredibly real, mostly because of design: the ship's crew is diverse and 18th century-like, the languages are spoken by native speakers, the ship's design is true to its inspirations, and the interactions and motivations of the characters are exactly how one might envision them when thrown into a tragic story like this. The voice-acting is full of emotion, allowing you to closely follow what's happening on screen, even though you aren't even seeing the characters move.
The string of clues the player must follow is laid out in a scattered pattern, but I never felt lost in the story. Sure, putting names to characters is difficult sometimes, but I always felt like I knew what was happening in every scene. When I completed the story, I immediately watched a video with all scenes chronologically, and it all made perfect sense.
The one thing I would have changed about this title, is to allow the player to control cutscene length; at certain scenes, I felt short on time to view everything that was happening, while at others I felt like I had to wait ages. It would have been great to be able to choose when you want to open the book to insert the scene, instead of being forced to wait a certain amount of time.
But, this waiting time also adds value to the amazing soundtrack that accompanies every scene. It was fitting and well-composed in my opinion, much like the soundtrack of Papers Please. It would have been a disservice to skip the music on my first playthrough in my opinion.
Overall, I think this is an amazing puzzle-adventure! It's easy to understand, and hard to perfect, meaning that anyone will get a good kick out of it. I sincerely hope that Lucas Pope will develop more games in the future, because they are an absolute joy to play through.
Obra Dinn is such a unique and creative way of storytelling, and the setting for it is probably the most interesting one could imagine. It feels incredibly real, mostly because of design: the ship's crew is diverse and 18th century-like, the languages are spoken by native speakers, the ship's design is true to its inspirations, and the interactions and motivations of the characters are exactly how one might envision them when thrown into a tragic story like this. The voice-acting is full of emotion, allowing you to closely follow what's happening on screen, even though you aren't even seeing the characters move.
The string of clues the player must follow is laid out in a scattered pattern, but I never felt lost in the story. Sure, putting names to characters is difficult sometimes, but I always felt like I knew what was happening in every scene. When I completed the story, I immediately watched a video with all scenes chronologically, and it all made perfect sense.
The one thing I would have changed about this title, is to allow the player to control cutscene length; at certain scenes, I felt short on time to view everything that was happening, while at others I felt like I had to wait ages. It would have been great to be able to choose when you want to open the book to insert the scene, instead of being forced to wait a certain amount of time.
But, this waiting time also adds value to the amazing soundtrack that accompanies every scene. It was fitting and well-composed in my opinion, much like the soundtrack of Papers Please. It would have been a disservice to skip the music on my first playthrough in my opinion.
Overall, I think this is an amazing puzzle-adventure! It's easy to understand, and hard to perfect, meaning that anyone will get a good kick out of it. I sincerely hope that Lucas Pope will develop more games in the future, because they are an absolute joy to play through.
2020
Roboquest does everything it needs to do. Incredibly fast pace, fluidity, a plethora of unique weapons, great economy and progression system, good performance and graphics, and most of all one of the most satisfying and fun shooters I have ever played.
Sometimes, you stumble onto a game that just feels right. Roboquest is one of them. It is never frustrating, never unclear, never boring...it just works. The only thing I didn't like that much was the music because of repetitiveness, but other than that, I have literally zero criticisms.
I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys first person shooters, shoot-em-ups, or roguelites. Even more so if you have a friend to play with!
Sometimes, you stumble onto a game that just feels right. Roboquest is one of them. It is never frustrating, never unclear, never boring...it just works. The only thing I didn't like that much was the music because of repetitiveness, but other than that, I have literally zero criticisms.
I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys first person shooters, shoot-em-ups, or roguelites. Even more so if you have a friend to play with!
Much like the Spider of Lanka, The Case of the Golden Idol: The Lemurian Vampire has some frustrating naming problems. Although I like this DLC more than the first, the availability of synonyms for filling in the scrolls made it quite annoying to fill them in. Some clues seemed to only accept one type of input, even though others basically described the same scenario. Nevertheless, I had a great time with the entirety of the series.
Although The Case of the Golden Idol: Spider of Lanka provides a lovely shift in setting and shows some fun backstory for the origins of the characters of the main game, matching names to faces/places in this DLC is too confusing in my opinion (especially in the second chapter). However, in conjunction to the second DLC, it is a must-play.
The Case of the Golden Idol is quite a treat for fans of puzzle/detective stories. You follow a story about a device that gives people strange powers, but as a "3rd person helicopter" observer. Being given clues about 12 different cases, you are tasked to chronologically put the story together.
The story in itself is quite interesting, and solving the cases can be quite challenging due the introduction of constant new characters and places. On the one hand, this makes the game that much more nuanced, but on the other, it also becomes quite convoluted when you approach the ending.
And that is my main gripe with this game: after a while, you are given so many clues that it becomes frustrating to keep an overview of all the clues you have collected so far. To be honest, I recommend people to keep a system (such as only collecting clues about people first, etc.) instead of collecting all the clues right away. It doesn't help that dragging and dropping clues is a bit wonky, either.
Next to the main story of The Case of the Golden Idol, I also played both DLC's and reviewed them separately. I do think the main story is much better than the DLC's. However, playing both DLC's does give a lot of context to the events of the main game, so they are defitinely worth checking out.
The story in itself is quite interesting, and solving the cases can be quite challenging due the introduction of constant new characters and places. On the one hand, this makes the game that much more nuanced, but on the other, it also becomes quite convoluted when you approach the ending.
And that is my main gripe with this game: after a while, you are given so many clues that it becomes frustrating to keep an overview of all the clues you have collected so far. To be honest, I recommend people to keep a system (such as only collecting clues about people first, etc.) instead of collecting all the clues right away. It doesn't help that dragging and dropping clues is a bit wonky, either.
Next to the main story of The Case of the Golden Idol, I also played both DLC's and reviewed them separately. I do think the main story is much better than the DLC's. However, playing both DLC's does give a lot of context to the events of the main game, so they are defitinely worth checking out.
2018
Charming game with humorous dialogue! Gameplay is a little stale, but satisfying nonetheless. It's not a game I can rate very highly, because of its simplicity and length. Recommend it on sale.
2023
Although I think Shogun Showdown is definitely satisfying to play, I cannot recommend it due to it being entirely one-dimensional. It is advertised as being similar to Into the Breach, but it's too simple to match that type of gameplay. I got bored of it within the first hour of playing, and refunded it after seeing the low depth of item/power variety in action. I am going to have to let this one cook for a while, to see if the gameplay is extended in the future.
2020
Normally I write pretty big reviews. I don't want to for Omori...I have never cried as hard after any videogame as I have this one :(
2023
I must own up to the fact that I misjudged Risk of Rain Returns a bit in my first review. Some points I made still hold true for me (like right/left aiming and the rope mechanics), but other than that I think it is very addicting and fun. I wanted to let it rest for a while, but I couldn't, so here we are.
RoRR is just as addicting as RoR2 is, and does actually improve a bunch upon RoR1. After finishing the initial 2 stages, speed ramps up and the game feels very satisfying. I must say, the only real tactic for this is kiting, dodging, shooting etc. etc., but it's impossible to design it in a different way in a 2D environment.
The challenges in the form of Providence Trials were (controversily) refreshing and fun, despite people hating on it. I think it shows off new abilities and items very well, and puts you into a new perspective like manoeuvring through spaces and tactically using skills. That being said...
The Final Judgement trial needs some tweaking for sure. The only thing that messed me up in that challenge were the first two stages due to overly-present elite enemies. However, I also think that it is difficult in a fun way, because you actually have to tactically use skills instead of avoiding-spamming enemies all the time.
The thing I am definitely most excited for is the music and hidden art pieces, which are out of this world. I never really read item or enemy descriptions in Roguelites/Roguelikes, but these are very interesting and add to the overall world building.
If you like RoR2, I would still recommend for you to wait for a new update with improved aiming mechanics, unless you want to learn them really badly (just makes it more difficult). After that, you will definitely like it a lot.
RoRR is just as addicting as RoR2 is, and does actually improve a bunch upon RoR1. After finishing the initial 2 stages, speed ramps up and the game feels very satisfying. I must say, the only real tactic for this is kiting, dodging, shooting etc. etc., but it's impossible to design it in a different way in a 2D environment.
The challenges in the form of Providence Trials were (controversily) refreshing and fun, despite people hating on it. I think it shows off new abilities and items very well, and puts you into a new perspective like manoeuvring through spaces and tactically using skills. That being said...
The Final Judgement trial needs some tweaking for sure. The only thing that messed me up in that challenge were the first two stages due to overly-present elite enemies. However, I also think that it is difficult in a fun way, because you actually have to tactically use skills instead of avoiding-spamming enemies all the time.
The thing I am definitely most excited for is the music and hidden art pieces, which are out of this world. I never really read item or enemy descriptions in Roguelites/Roguelikes, but these are very interesting and add to the overall world building.
If you like RoR2, I would still recommend for you to wait for a new update with improved aiming mechanics, unless you want to learn them really badly (just makes it more difficult). After that, you will definitely like it a lot.
2022
Signalis felt like a mind-bending experience that I was unable to completely wrap my head around on my first playthrough. It is exceptionally atmospheric in all of its senses; the music and sound design are both beautiful and haunting, and the visuals stylistic and creepy. Not to mention the use of language! English, German and Japanese mixed together fit the world of Signalis very well in my opinion.
Comparatively, the puzzle elements of Signalis are much stronger than the combat aspect. I concede that the game would feel a bit empty without combat, but it was quite annoying to wade through hordes of enemies in tight spaces while emptying clips that did seemingly no damage. The puzzles are so incredibly original and fun, though. Signalis creatively combines all kinds of stimuli into its puzzles, so that the player feels rewarded by completing them. I personally loved the radio mechanic, which is something I have never seen so cleverly used in any other game to date.
Aside from missing a key from time to time, the puzzles were never unclear due to convenient "lore letters" revealing information about core concepts, such as how to operate certain puzzle mechanics. In other words, players that are interested in reading background information are rewarded with hints. All this information is stored and easily accessible later, so getting stuck is never frustrating either.
In the next couple of days, I will be looking into the lore of Signalis a little more to hopefully increase my understanding of the story. This game is very interesting, to say the least. Fans of Resident Evil will surely get a kick out of this, seeing as Signalis greatly resembles that playstyle.
Comparatively, the puzzle elements of Signalis are much stronger than the combat aspect. I concede that the game would feel a bit empty without combat, but it was quite annoying to wade through hordes of enemies in tight spaces while emptying clips that did seemingly no damage. The puzzles are so incredibly original and fun, though. Signalis creatively combines all kinds of stimuli into its puzzles, so that the player feels rewarded by completing them. I personally loved the radio mechanic, which is something I have never seen so cleverly used in any other game to date.
Aside from missing a key from time to time, the puzzles were never unclear due to convenient "lore letters" revealing information about core concepts, such as how to operate certain puzzle mechanics. In other words, players that are interested in reading background information are rewarded with hints. All this information is stored and easily accessible later, so getting stuck is never frustrating either.
In the next couple of days, I will be looking into the lore of Signalis a little more to hopefully increase my understanding of the story. This game is very interesting, to say the least. Fans of Resident Evil will surely get a kick out of this, seeing as Signalis greatly resembles that playstyle.