Nazo_KG
From now on, I'm gonna be calling every QTE ever a Jackanism
2017
This sequel improves upon the original in leaps and bounds; the controls feel less stiff, the main digging mechanic is more fleshed out + more mobility options and fun gameplay additions. The moment to moment gameplay is super addicting, and the map is huge.
My one big gripe in the last game with it having linear progression has been fixed here with a well-realised menu where the options do really affect your actual gameplay and allow you to play the game in more ways than one.
I think it does such a great job of accommodating players who are both new to this genre as well as veterans.
The presentation is simply gorgeous, too. The last game was by no means ugly, but the art style here bounds off the screen and brings the environment characters to life with vibrant colours and meticulous polygonal cel-shading.
The soundtrack by El Huervo completes the picture with atmospheric, meandering melodies, reminiscent of the sprawling labyrinths you create underground.
The story is nothing amazing imo, but it does continue where the first game left off and has a satisfactory ending.
The only part where I think Steamworld Dig 2 really undermines (ha) itself is with the final boss, and that is something that the former game also had trouble with. It's mostly underwhelming, that's all.
Anyways, apart from that, Steamworld Dig 2 is an amazing game, and great example of the metroidvania genre.
Like one of the other reviewers here said, I'm genuinely impressed by just how much the developers were able to improve upon their game's formula and make something genuinely fun and exciting.
Really hope they make a Steamworld Dig 3 someday.
My one big gripe in the last game with it having linear progression has been fixed here with a well-realised menu where the options do really affect your actual gameplay and allow you to play the game in more ways than one.
I think it does such a great job of accommodating players who are both new to this genre as well as veterans.
The presentation is simply gorgeous, too. The last game was by no means ugly, but the art style here bounds off the screen and brings the environment characters to life with vibrant colours and meticulous polygonal cel-shading.
The soundtrack by El Huervo completes the picture with atmospheric, meandering melodies, reminiscent of the sprawling labyrinths you create underground.
The story is nothing amazing imo, but it does continue where the first game left off and has a satisfactory ending.
The only part where I think Steamworld Dig 2 really undermines (ha) itself is with the final boss, and that is something that the former game also had trouble with. It's mostly underwhelming, that's all.
Anyways, apart from that, Steamworld Dig 2 is an amazing game, and great example of the metroidvania genre.
Like one of the other reviewers here said, I'm genuinely impressed by just how much the developers were able to improve upon their game's formula and make something genuinely fun and exciting.
Really hope they make a Steamworld Dig 3 someday.
Somehow has more bullshit and rubberbanding than Mariokart 8, also feels like they copy pasted the previous game and slapped a new coat of paint on it.
Skyrim is so far from perfect...
It's so damn flawed, and I'd be the first person to step up and admit to all its faults.
The main quest is outshined by several smaller side quests in the game in terms of intrigue and writing, some of them being ones that the game doesn't even bother pointing you towards (Frostflow Lighthouse, for example).
Not to mention, for every quest that is genuinely interesting or subversive, there is at least 3 fetch quests or something of similar calibre.
The game is stripped bare of interesting RPG mechanics that were present in the previous Elder Scrolls. So in turn, you have a very streamlined game that is relatively headache-free to play, but at times is also braindead.
The combat suffers immensely due to this, even with the cool skill tree concept.
The devs ultimately took away a lot of depth that was in Oblivion and Morrowind.
There is a lot of dungeons/caves/etc, but a lot of them are same-y, except when they're intended for a quest.
The loot gathering seems neat at first, but at some point you start to question it. Second guess yourself, why you're collecting all this junk. What is the point of it? It's just stats, higher number = good. Even with enchantments. Eventually, the reason ended up being to sell off all this stuff to make more money. Money that ends up feeling superfluous.
But damn it....I would be lying if I said Skyrim doesn't have a special place in my heart.
Why, you ask?
Well, as conflicted as I may be about its problems, I can't help but feel like it nails exploration, atmosphere and personality in such a way, that I haven't been able to find a game that even comes close to replicating this feeling.
Skyrim feels like a second home to me.
I used to play this so much in my teen years, that you could take a screenshot of a random patch of grass and I'd be able to point to the map and give you an estimate where that is based solely on the colour of the grass.
The environments in Skyrim can be honestly breath-taking. it inspired the artist in me in so many ways, and fed me with the hunger to pursue honing my skills as a landscape artist.
Being lost in the frigid, harsh tundra or the serene verdant forests and just wandering around, taking in the sights while Jeremy Soule's magnificent soundtrack accompanies you, is an almost meditative experience.
Everyone complains about the fast travel, but what they don't tell you is that if you don't use the fast travel, the map is built in such a way that when you're travelling from your own point A to point B, you are most likely gonna find a new quest or something interesting on your way there. I think this is one thing that might be done better in this game; the points of interest and well-decorated environments are more densely packed in Skyrim compared to when I played Oblivion, at least.
Skyrim, for better or for worse, was my first Elder Scrolls game. And through the books in the game, as well as other pieces of information, dialogue and characters, I was introduced to the fantastic world-building that TES encompasses. It genuinely captivated me, and made me want to play the other entries in the series, see what they had to offer.
On many of my dark days, I saw this game as an escape into another world, and temporary relief from the stress and sadness of real life. I grew up in a violently dysfunctional home, and having something like this to run away from all of that, I'm really thankful for it years later.
It's easy to get immersed and whittle away hours while exploring even today.
After all this time, I didn't even have the heart to restart with a new character when I moved to playing on PS4 after my save on my PS3 started to corrupt (my play time was in the hundreds and a bug occured with the saves pretty much).
My barbarian Nord fella Frederick will probably stay with me forever.
I find it hard to defend the game in technical aspects; Yes, it's buggy. Yes, it's shallow in plot and combat. Yes, I wish there were more voice actors and distinct character animations and models.
But, there's nothing wrong with enjoying something even if it's flawed, as long as you recognise the flaws.
For me, there's something magical about this game that a lot of people would definitely disagree with me on.
In my heart, it's a 4+ star game. In objective terms, I should probably give it 3 and a half at best.
But you know...Maybe sometimes, it's about what you can see in it what others can't.
It's so damn flawed, and I'd be the first person to step up and admit to all its faults.
The main quest is outshined by several smaller side quests in the game in terms of intrigue and writing, some of them being ones that the game doesn't even bother pointing you towards (Frostflow Lighthouse, for example).
Not to mention, for every quest that is genuinely interesting or subversive, there is at least 3 fetch quests or something of similar calibre.
The game is stripped bare of interesting RPG mechanics that were present in the previous Elder Scrolls. So in turn, you have a very streamlined game that is relatively headache-free to play, but at times is also braindead.
The combat suffers immensely due to this, even with the cool skill tree concept.
The devs ultimately took away a lot of depth that was in Oblivion and Morrowind.
There is a lot of dungeons/caves/etc, but a lot of them are same-y, except when they're intended for a quest.
The loot gathering seems neat at first, but at some point you start to question it. Second guess yourself, why you're collecting all this junk. What is the point of it? It's just stats, higher number = good. Even with enchantments. Eventually, the reason ended up being to sell off all this stuff to make more money. Money that ends up feeling superfluous.
But damn it....I would be lying if I said Skyrim doesn't have a special place in my heart.
Why, you ask?
Well, as conflicted as I may be about its problems, I can't help but feel like it nails exploration, atmosphere and personality in such a way, that I haven't been able to find a game that even comes close to replicating this feeling.
Skyrim feels like a second home to me.
I used to play this so much in my teen years, that you could take a screenshot of a random patch of grass and I'd be able to point to the map and give you an estimate where that is based solely on the colour of the grass.
The environments in Skyrim can be honestly breath-taking. it inspired the artist in me in so many ways, and fed me with the hunger to pursue honing my skills as a landscape artist.
Being lost in the frigid, harsh tundra or the serene verdant forests and just wandering around, taking in the sights while Jeremy Soule's magnificent soundtrack accompanies you, is an almost meditative experience.
Everyone complains about the fast travel, but what they don't tell you is that if you don't use the fast travel, the map is built in such a way that when you're travelling from your own point A to point B, you are most likely gonna find a new quest or something interesting on your way there. I think this is one thing that might be done better in this game; the points of interest and well-decorated environments are more densely packed in Skyrim compared to when I played Oblivion, at least.
Skyrim, for better or for worse, was my first Elder Scrolls game. And through the books in the game, as well as other pieces of information, dialogue and characters, I was introduced to the fantastic world-building that TES encompasses. It genuinely captivated me, and made me want to play the other entries in the series, see what they had to offer.
On many of my dark days, I saw this game as an escape into another world, and temporary relief from the stress and sadness of real life. I grew up in a violently dysfunctional home, and having something like this to run away from all of that, I'm really thankful for it years later.
It's easy to get immersed and whittle away hours while exploring even today.
After all this time, I didn't even have the heart to restart with a new character when I moved to playing on PS4 after my save on my PS3 started to corrupt (my play time was in the hundreds and a bug occured with the saves pretty much).
My barbarian Nord fella Frederick will probably stay with me forever.
I find it hard to defend the game in technical aspects; Yes, it's buggy. Yes, it's shallow in plot and combat. Yes, I wish there were more voice actors and distinct character animations and models.
But, there's nothing wrong with enjoying something even if it's flawed, as long as you recognise the flaws.
For me, there's something magical about this game that a lot of people would definitely disagree with me on.
In my heart, it's a 4+ star game. In objective terms, I should probably give it 3 and a half at best.
But you know...Maybe sometimes, it's about what you can see in it what others can't.
2022
When your homie doesn't have Age of Empires so you pull this up.
On a serious note, it's decent and I like that military can do more than just fight.
It needs more QoL improvements and polish but since the game is in early access, I can't rag on it too much.
The devs are also planning a campaign mode which is cool.
Could turn out to be a really neat little game in the future!
On a serious note, it's decent and I like that military can do more than just fight.
It needs more QoL improvements and polish but since the game is in early access, I can't rag on it too much.
The devs are also planning a campaign mode which is cool.
Could turn out to be a really neat little game in the future!
2020
It's funny, melancholic, ironic and trashy at the same time.
And for some reason, I can't bring myself to hate it even though it's a low-quality rage platformer with funny quips and not much more.
And for some reason, I can't bring myself to hate it even though it's a low-quality rage platformer with funny quips and not much more.
2006
I ended a guy typing the word "meth" in a children's video game
It's fine, but like many said, it gets repetitive quickly, although it does have Steam Workshop and stage editor, so there's that. Fun 30 or so minutes with friends or siblings otherwise.
2024
Now that they "released" the game (again), I can certifiably say that reading the imploding Steam forums for MVS is far more fun than actually playing it.
This game is a cute little entertaining attempt at showing what anxiety is like, and how dealing with it can be difficult, as well as how trying to fight it with the wrong ways can lead you down the wrong paths.
Someone else here said in the reviews that the way the anxiety monster is portrayed, you can tell the creator behind this game has been dealing with anxiety for a long time; I felt that, too.
It's a long, arduous trek of going back and forth with your issues in your head, trying to reason with it and work it out. The anxiety wolf and the human felt connected, synonymous. You, as the player, getting to play as the anxiety instead of the person affected by anxiety was a cool idea too.
But Adventures with Anxiety, as charming as it is, doesn't properly show just how frustrating, agonising and scary living with something like this can be.
And at times, it feels almost patronising in its dialogue, which kind of pains me to say given how you can tell the creator tried their best with this game to make something small but full of personality.
But despite all this, I can forgive it.
If it sets out be a small experimental project about anxiety, then that's all it can be, and maybe doesn't have to be anything more.
Someone else here said in the reviews that the way the anxiety monster is portrayed, you can tell the creator behind this game has been dealing with anxiety for a long time; I felt that, too.
It's a long, arduous trek of going back and forth with your issues in your head, trying to reason with it and work it out. The anxiety wolf and the human felt connected, synonymous. You, as the player, getting to play as the anxiety instead of the person affected by anxiety was a cool idea too.
But Adventures with Anxiety, as charming as it is, doesn't properly show just how frustrating, agonising and scary living with something like this can be.
And at times, it feels almost patronising in its dialogue, which kind of pains me to say given how you can tell the creator tried their best with this game to make something small but full of personality.
But despite all this, I can forgive it.
If it sets out be a small experimental project about anxiety, then that's all it can be, and maybe doesn't have to be anything more.
It's fine I guess, but it doesn't add that much to the game in terms of substance imo.
The atomic shark body parts are cool, but I feel like the marketing made it seem like there was potential to play as different species of sharks, and that sounds more interesting than what we got.
The constant "kill 10 ____" quests got really tiring and by the time I got to the final boss, I was already past wanting to finish this game, more like get it over with.
Which is a shame, because I had a lot of fun with Maneater's base game and the concept, it felt novel and goofy.
The atomic shark body parts are cool, but I feel like the marketing made it seem like there was potential to play as different species of sharks, and that sounds more interesting than what we got.
The constant "kill 10 ____" quests got really tiring and by the time I got to the final boss, I was already past wanting to finish this game, more like get it over with.
Which is a shame, because I had a lot of fun with Maneater's base game and the concept, it felt novel and goofy.