*Note I haven't done ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING yet but I've done most of the secret levels save for House and Trauma Loop and thats just because they require a fuckton of grinding for money and idk when if I'll ever get it done.

Yeah this game is really fuckin good and I wish I wasn't such a jackass about it years ago.

When a game looks like cruelty squad you're essentially fighting an uphill battle with me, and it didn't help this came out next to a lot of other low effort cashgrab "retro indie boomer shooters!!!" that would fill the weaker sections of Realms Deep streams didn't help one bit. From what I saw this game was just a giant ironic shitpost somehow masquerading as some stupid fake deep "we live in a society" bullshit.

Not the case at all.

Cruelty Squad is unconventional. Very unconventional. But it rides the line so thin that almost everything is still readable, and the gameplay behind all that is addicting as shit.

The game is objectively ugly on purpose. But everything on the hud is still readable and you can easily understand what's going on. Yes, I'll admit some of the bright colors did get to me and gave me a headache after a bit at points but again it surprisingly didn't bug me as much over time.

If I were to describe this game, it would be "first person hitman with deus ex powers for schizos". You have targets on your hud, and you're tasked with killing them. How? Doesn't matter, just get it done. With a few exceptions Cruelty Squad's levels are exactly what make imsims so special, and the powers and weapons you obtain are just the cherry on top. It's funny, this game has a lot of stealth elements, but at the same time I wouldn't even totally call it a stealth game with how many points you'll probably just end up gunning people down. But you gotta go a certain way about it. You can't just play this like a doom game, you gotta be precise, take cover when it matters, go for headshots. It's incredibly satisfying and the short completion times for each levels help encourage replayability all the more.

My only real complaints if anything is that noticing enemies can be a bit hard I feel sometimes? At least in crowded areas where so many people look the same so that got annoying sometimes. The last level also felt really obtuse and bad for the sake of it. That was entirely the point I'm sure but it just felt like a slog to get through.

Finally not sure if it's like this for anyone else but this game has some weird performance degradion over time for me, at least on my system (GTX 3060). Like, when I'll boot the game up, everything is a rock solid 60+ like it should be, but usually after like 9 level loads/retries the framerate dips into the 40s and I don't know why. I THINK its because the game is still trying to process stats of NPCs after their death on top of things like the stock markets? But I don't know, maybe this is just a me issue or something.

Other then that this has to be one of the most fun indie fpses I've played this year and I'm really upset at myself I didn't try it sooner. If you're still turned off because of the visuals or fans like I was, at least give it a try with an open mind. In terms of raw gameplay, this is a must-play for imsim fans as far as I'm concerned.

Some nice artwork and music with weak story, repetitive gameplay, and developers seemingly trying to use the cover of the 80s setting to showcase their own racist ideas while doing little to take advantage of the setting, even with opening text about taking inspiration from aspects of 80s TV that doesn't fit the game at all. I saw some Miami Vice, and I wish this was a game about going after Reb Brown's vengeance fueled biker gang.

You play as a former detective demoted to a beat cop after it is believed that he stole a senator's diamonds during a shootout at his house. Every day you are given tickets to write and possibly other tasks to perform as well as a side job you can take for the Italian mob or a black gang faction while also trying to follow the main story plotlines and running into other side events scheduled for that day. The daily tasks structure typically allows you to easily complete everything in each day except for the mafia and gang jobs that you might want to ignore or handle in different ways to balance your reputation with them and the police, cop reputation is easy to increase just by doing your tasks but activities can frequently lower the other factions reputation or might have you losing rep with one to gain with the other. One of your main police tasks a day might have you writing 5, 10, 12, etc tickets and by the days end I've typically written 20-30+ and done every main and side activity I wanted to. There is a lack of variety to everything that you are doing 90% of the time outside of story or sidequest events as all the calls to chase a criminal or tagger are identical, there is almost no variety to conversations when you write people tickets. This becomes stranger when you can take bribed and the undercover agents looking to report you for corruption always say the exact same thing so you can know which bribes it is ok to take. The main loop of writing tickets, chasing a couple criminals a day, and making an awkward mix of running and walking to maintain stamina feels like it would belong well in a more artistic project exploring the drudgery of life and work.

Portrays itself as representing a more culturally offensive 80s police film/show period but it clearly portrays black characters with much more frequent racism, as caricatures eating watermelon outside their apartment's, and as the violent criminals that you are typically running down to arrest and the only ones you are shooting as well as being much more likely to refer to every race by the most offensive terms while the white Italian mobsters are called greaseballs and meatball suckers. The cops you work with are all portrayed as on the take, racists, misogynists, as constantly harassing other cops or people, with no other characteristics making a fairly dull story worse as no one is remotely likable or interesting and it typically feels like it was written by the kind of people in their 20-30s idolizing made up versions of shows like All In the Family where they would want a modern version where Archie Bunker is the hero.

Two of the possible endings has you raising your reputation enough to join the mob or gang. though I don't really know how a fairly high profile cop and non Italian white guy just joins the mob or an all black gang typically committing low level street crimes and radio thefts.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1752188487854698635

F&H2 Termina makes me question how the indie horror scene has managed to completely eclipse whatever the AAA scene has put out in the past decade. With a distinct art style and innovative gameplay it impresses even further by being a mish mash of genres that have no business working this well together. A turn based RPG survival horror with team building mechanics is such an avant garde idea. Combat that is usually replaced with insta-kills in the RPG maker horror subgenre is what gives Termina its identity. Even notable exceptions like Peret em Heru heavily dumb down the combat and give the player items to circumvent the tedium of combat. Termina however doesn't shy away from item starvation and RNG, It is a survival horror game through and through and one that is executed to perfection.

Its relationship with its prequel F&H is also one that I've rarely ever seen before, the prequel is used like a loose historical event that twists and turns depending on what source you get your information from, which is a fascinating depiction of how time corrodes and perverts stories and people that once were very real have now been reduced to mere retellings of idealized characters.

What Is Going On In Finland.

Simply put, an unforgettable experience. Another one of those games that just blows you away once you sit through the credits contemplating everything you just played through and witnessed. I am so in love with this series and I am a little funked up individual to say the least!

After playing through the first one twice I was so pumped to dive in as my brother watched me complete my first playthrough by me screensharing through a discord call so we both got to witness all the bizarre insanity and horrific situations that ensued. After getting my ass beat time and time again in the first game I managed to have an incredible first run with this one! Albeit, mistakes were definitely made and I had to learn, but I felt more seasoned going through the ringer a few times up to this point. Decided to go with Marcoh for my character and damn was it a good choice (the good ol' 2 piece and biscuit combo for the win!).

Nearly improving from the first in everyway especially when it comes to each character's own exposition and backstory you can choose to hear from the beginning and how they get to this point. Love how many references/inspirations to other games and horror culture they have in this too! There is so much interesting lore and things happening around this crazy town of Prehevil with so many characters it is impossible to take this whole game in with one playthrough with many paths to take and people to meet and recruit. All characters have a unique playstyle and the edition of using firearms before a fight is such a game changer.

Ended up getting a full party all the way to the end and felt so damn powerful with some good gear pickups even though I lost most of my coin tosses (shittiest luck, story of my life lol). First run I managed to get Ending A and the last boss music gave me chills especially at that one part in the song that gave me PTSD flashbacks, if you know...you know...

I know they are working on another one and apparently adding even more content to this one and that just makes me so happy. I love the OST in this game and the way they bring about horror is so different then how some other games do it with jump scares, never knowing what you will run into or what they will throw at you next always makes you feel on edge and gives you that spine tingling feeling. Definitely wanna do some more runs in the near future and get the other endings, I am so damn addicted! Everyone should play this game if you are a fan of horror games and want an unforgettable experience. How did they come up with this stuff?! I love it!

This game hates me and *i* Love it.

Lets address the elephant in the room so nobody gets it twisted going forward looking at this review on this website, this game's content warnings are absolutely not joking around. Your character can be sexually assaulted, come across sexual assault and a lot of othter means of fucked up shit going forward. All of which is possible by random chance of one of the most common enemy types in the whole game... I initially thought to myself when I first heard about this game that I'd skip out on it.. surely I dont need to play EVERY rpgmaker game under the sun, ive been a massive fan of games using the engine to think around and excel its finite structuring to make experiences not just in the means of replicating a spritebased rpg youd find on an older console, but to go above and beyond doing something that Only a mind with a vision outside of the restraints could piece together and I went for it. curiosity definitely urged me toward it .
And I was unhappy to see those content warnings were right, I absolutely hated how little thought and how much thought at the same time was put into some of the more gruesome featured fates for the characters regardless of dark fantasy as a whole.. and shut the game off immediately after i saw the dark priest guy bleed from his asshole and slowly die...

But then something shifted.
Because the game does not start like that, youre thrust into this sort of grab-quick and go area thatll run you through all your paces and ready you for everything going forward to expect in gameplay Feel
this isnt to say that all the mechanics and systems peak in the first hour or the first level, its just the game is good at not even necessarily spelling anything out to you.
The atmosphere is so defined in each floor having so much different shit going on and equipment is rng, if there's anything keeping this from clocking in at the 5/5 that isnt relating to my thoughts on the darker content the game has going on IT ISSSSSSSS... THE DOUBLE EDGED SWORD OF THERE BEING A LOT OF RNG THAT MAKES OR BREAKS YOUR RUNS LMAO
Like even on the easiest difficulty.. the BASE difficulty.. you can get pretty screwed by just 50/50 odds alone being bad
Now Me Personally
I LOVE random chance in games, I love toughing shit out by the skin of my teeth, i absolutely adore it it makes my brain twitch
There's a unique dread to feel from having gone through two coin tosses and not being able to even fucking save your game because youre that unlucky and then having the sweet release of your bad luck shying away at the perfect moment in the last bad youve tried since your adrenaline stopped being so high from a random teeth gnashing little shitswisher goblin tht doesnt even actually hurt that much when it attacks but for Fucks sake they can trip you up on a tile and waste your god damn time
And TIME
Is NOT always on your side....
Given how there's so much RNG to take into account with collecting items, scurrying around(there are damage tiles... that can give you Infections), and even the fucking layout of the map and some enemy spawns can be very different too!

Witholding spoilers because this game is a treasure trove of different shit to see and interact with, but an example of this is how there's an enemy type i saw about four times in the same specific area of the game i was running through on the fifth floor.. BUT. on my 2nd most recent attemptttt.. that fatherfucker was on the 2nd floor just Out Of N O W H E R E and i think there's something insanely hilarious about that and interesting.
It's like even when you think youre going through the motions and taking the same steps forward with a different character... i mean you are but.. it can still play out VERY different
especially with your loadout and things youll grab more than anything else i mean i remember i was fiending for some opium or tobacco ingame(restores sanity with no drawbacks pft) and i found jack, shit and a lot of dick instead
but in another save i found a lot of it and was moreso pining for things like healing items more and more

And through all this is also the combat which you would obviously want to avoid given that there's no experience and often times there's scarce rewards even leftover on an enemy's body unless you memorize what type has the certain key or whatever you may need to make progression that much swifter. Limb hacking and shit in this game is also something that can help, never thought a game would encourage me hackin off some dude's nads to get the drop on them and try to even the odds
At some point with your party members
And knowhow from battles you accumulate
you get that EUPHORIA of realizing you dont suck at the game as much as you thought in an organic fashion
And then you get in the rhythm of things, the gears are tumbling!!! YOURE WINNING!!!!!! YOURE! WINNINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAH...AHAHAHAHAHA...AHAH...AH...ahah..aha....a...hm.......a-....

And then you realize youve only been in the first quarter of the game this whole time

And then you realize that to save somebody you went down in the dungeons for in the first place... dies in 30 ingame minutes if you cant get to them fast enough.

And then after doing the easiest ending in the game to pull off....

It sets in, there's no getting out until you uproot every last nasty weed down there
Or it plagues you, it EATS at you
even when youre out of the dungeons it lingers in your head and it doesnt stop, like the beck and call of something MORE in there.. something MORE to overcome, some different sect or being you havent worked the puzzle around or outwitted yet if at all, that ITCHING sensation..
i dont even know if ill be able to see more than just one or two endings myself
but i dont wANT to look up these endings, i dont WANT to look up interactions, i dont WANT someone specifically to tell me all the things i missed because as fucked up as this thing is
It feels special To me
In a highly specific way it's constricted around my frontal lobe and the only way to stop the swelling is to feverishly check every corner of it until im Almost sick of even looking at it. It's so beautifully fucked up. It's like im playing with a dark fantasy bubblewrap simulator in the most bare and base way of putting how i feel on it.

I greatly look forward to gettin my hands on that second game because even after ive had my fill of this one, watched every video essay and discussion video i have set on my watch later youtube playlist, and thunked my head around about it enough and soaked in all the lore....
ill pretty much insatiably be going forward hungry for more

final thoughts: yea play it if you fuck with rpgmaker horror, but also turn based rpgs but also games with a fuckton of choices and immersive sim/rogue traits(there's a lot to unpack)
just please dont think im bullshititng abt the sexual content, if it makes your stomach turn there's a readily available patch for it online and also this is a Hard game
But if you made it to the end of this giant ass thing then go for it babe
have fun suffering!!!!