RpgN
I was testing Netflix games on my iPad, deciding whether to keep them or delete them. This succeeded the bare minimum, I ended up completing it and have a fairly positive opinion about it. I stayed for the art, music, the touch screen gameplay that works well enough and curious to see how the story would end. I found out that it’s a very short game, that was the push to keep going. Later on I noticed the historical setting and how the facts menu is based on things that happened during World War One. Or it looks that way at least. So if you want to learn some general history in small doses while playing casual gameplay, then it’s decent enough.
However, don’t expect any deep gameplay to get into. Often times you go from A to B, you’re asked to find an item and bring it to the NPC that is right next to you. There are some flying and music sections but the gameplay is even simpler and there is little variation. They are there to remind you that you’re still playing a game. The story also focuses on racism against the black community. It’s not merely about war which is what I expected from Valiant Hearts games. I’ve seen a lot of content about racism in my lifetime, so this feels a bit preachy even if it’s well presented. I ended up caring about the characters and ending.
If you go with the right expectations, then you can have a good time. I’m glad to have played it through Netflix for being a decent enough version, and not having to pay money for a game that I don’t care much about. Still it was nice enough to experience without taking too much time (there is no timer but it felt like 2-3 hours with little replay value). Now I know what to expect from Valiant Hearts games generally.
However, don’t expect any deep gameplay to get into. Often times you go from A to B, you’re asked to find an item and bring it to the NPC that is right next to you. There are some flying and music sections but the gameplay is even simpler and there is little variation. They are there to remind you that you’re still playing a game. The story also focuses on racism against the black community. It’s not merely about war which is what I expected from Valiant Hearts games. I’ve seen a lot of content about racism in my lifetime, so this feels a bit preachy even if it’s well presented. I ended up caring about the characters and ending.
If you go with the right expectations, then you can have a good time. I’m glad to have played it through Netflix for being a decent enough version, and not having to pay money for a game that I don’t care much about. Still it was nice enough to experience without taking too much time (there is no timer but it felt like 2-3 hours with little replay value). Now I know what to expect from Valiant Hearts games generally.
It’s been a while since I completed a game that’s not an indie. Catalyst is one of the few games that is easy to get into even though it’s considered a huge one. Catalyst is a re-imagining (or a sequel if you prefer) to a beloved game with an own twist. The original was a linear and short parkour game where it was all about getting to areas with impressive moves and jumps. Catalyst is more of an open world game that doesn’t have a huge world but enough to give you different playgrounds and a sense of freedom to do other things aside from the 15+ story missions. There are delivery, diversion, dash and side missions with minor stories. There are also plenty of collectibles such as secret bags, documents, recordings, mechanical parts and gridleaks (golden collectibles). Some of the collectibles are easy to find but others can really challenge you even if you can see them. You’ll have to think how to get to them. It’s a satisfying feeling when you figure it out. In terms of progression, you earn XP with most actions and collectibles. XP can be used to make yourself stronger and unlock new moves related to moving faster or getting around areas even better.
So what are the positives? The game looks gorgeous for one. Even if it’s a 2016 game, some of the areas make me want to live there for real. Some of the places are well realised in terms of design. The gameplay is addictive and hard to put down thanks to the excellent controls. I totally got into the collectibles and optional missions. But you don’t have to do any of them, you can focus on the story missions. You’re not disadvantaged in any way. The story is quite good even if it’s not original or the best you’ve seen. It’s entertaining with good cutscenes and different characters involved. The whole open world gameplay works really well with the Mirror’s Edge gameplay. You can freely move around in bigger areas compared to the first one with high speed and it feels great. The achievements are mostly doable even if there are a few frustrating ones. You’ll get there with practice or looking things up online. I tried to do most of it blindly but I still searched a few up. The game took me around 58 hours to 100%
So on to the bad stuff. The biggest problem is EA being the publisher. I’m not saying this because I want to hate on the big guys but it’s causing actual problems due to the EA launcher and the way this game was designed with servers in mind. EA closed the game’s servers in December last year. It was the reason I started playing the game in November with the understanding that I had to get the 2 online achievements to be safe. Then I would get the rest of the achievements at my own pace. However, with the servers closed, you can’t even get most of the offline achievements either. There is a trick that is very frustrating to pull off and doesn’t work with all the achievements. So it’s impossible to get all the achievements without outside help at the moment. I installed a program that unlocks achievements for this game specifically, something that I never had to do before. Luckily, the game drops runner kits every time you’re supposed to get an achievement. So that’s when I unlocked them because I knew I earned them. The game also gives you many stuff to customise your character but you can’t use any of it because you’re supposed to do this through the game’s official website or an app. Both options don’t seem to be available or don’t work anymore. I tried using the website so many times with no luck. The game should have never been designed that way with the achievements and needing to use tools outside the game. As for launchers, I’m not a big fan of them but I try to deal with them. The EA launcher became horrible when I wasn’t able to access Steam overlay anymore. It worked for a while and then it stopped working. As for problems with the game itself, I wish the game made it clearer that some of the delivery missions where infinite even after completing them. I wasted a lot of time doing some of them again without noticing for a while. Some of the lore is a bit confusing because they are dropped randomly with the collectibles that you find. And lastly, the game crashed a few times with the last story mission but the rest was butter smooth at 165fps and 1440p.
I actually didn’t like the original Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 much. The camera movement made me sick at the time and I just wasn’t good at it. I was weary before playing Catalyst but now I can confidently say that I loved playing it. I easily prefer it over the original Mirror’s Edge. I enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking of giving the original Mirror’s Edge another try on PC even though I already completed it on the PS3 (not 100% though). There aren’t many games like Mirror’s Edge and it looks like we won’t be getting a third one. I recommend getting Catalyst despite the problems it has thanks to EA, especially when it’s on sale for around €3 often. But you’ll have to accept that you won’t be able to get all the achievements or you’ll need to do something about it.
So what are the positives? The game looks gorgeous for one. Even if it’s a 2016 game, some of the areas make me want to live there for real. Some of the places are well realised in terms of design. The gameplay is addictive and hard to put down thanks to the excellent controls. I totally got into the collectibles and optional missions. But you don’t have to do any of them, you can focus on the story missions. You’re not disadvantaged in any way. The story is quite good even if it’s not original or the best you’ve seen. It’s entertaining with good cutscenes and different characters involved. The whole open world gameplay works really well with the Mirror’s Edge gameplay. You can freely move around in bigger areas compared to the first one with high speed and it feels great. The achievements are mostly doable even if there are a few frustrating ones. You’ll get there with practice or looking things up online. I tried to do most of it blindly but I still searched a few up. The game took me around 58 hours to 100%
So on to the bad stuff. The biggest problem is EA being the publisher. I’m not saying this because I want to hate on the big guys but it’s causing actual problems due to the EA launcher and the way this game was designed with servers in mind. EA closed the game’s servers in December last year. It was the reason I started playing the game in November with the understanding that I had to get the 2 online achievements to be safe. Then I would get the rest of the achievements at my own pace. However, with the servers closed, you can’t even get most of the offline achievements either. There is a trick that is very frustrating to pull off and doesn’t work with all the achievements. So it’s impossible to get all the achievements without outside help at the moment. I installed a program that unlocks achievements for this game specifically, something that I never had to do before. Luckily, the game drops runner kits every time you’re supposed to get an achievement. So that’s when I unlocked them because I knew I earned them. The game also gives you many stuff to customise your character but you can’t use any of it because you’re supposed to do this through the game’s official website or an app. Both options don’t seem to be available or don’t work anymore. I tried using the website so many times with no luck. The game should have never been designed that way with the achievements and needing to use tools outside the game. As for launchers, I’m not a big fan of them but I try to deal with them. The EA launcher became horrible when I wasn’t able to access Steam overlay anymore. It worked for a while and then it stopped working. As for problems with the game itself, I wish the game made it clearer that some of the delivery missions where infinite even after completing them. I wasted a lot of time doing some of them again without noticing for a while. Some of the lore is a bit confusing because they are dropped randomly with the collectibles that you find. And lastly, the game crashed a few times with the last story mission but the rest was butter smooth at 165fps and 1440p.
I actually didn’t like the original Mirror’s Edge on the PS3 much. The camera movement made me sick at the time and I just wasn’t good at it. I was weary before playing Catalyst but now I can confidently say that I loved playing it. I easily prefer it over the original Mirror’s Edge. I enjoyed it so much that I’m thinking of giving the original Mirror’s Edge another try on PC even though I already completed it on the PS3 (not 100% though). There aren’t many games like Mirror’s Edge and it looks like we won’t be getting a third one. I recommend getting Catalyst despite the problems it has thanks to EA, especially when it’s on sale for around €3 often. But you’ll have to accept that you won’t be able to get all the achievements or you’ll need to do something about it.
2024
GMB is a very special game. It might look like a roguelike/lite but it’s really more of an arcade game with light roguelike elements. Being dropped in levels with random enemies, weapons, abilities and upgrades is all part of the game. But it’s more focused on keeping your combo max (for better currency and passive activation), efficiency, dancing around enemies and being able to do it with all the difficulty levels (there are 5 total). Finishing the game the first time is just the beginning. And doing it with 4 distinct characters along with the way they react to weapons/abilities/upgrades adds to the variety. They might look similar at first but you’ll soon find out otherwise. The game has 4 worlds with 3 levels and one boss each. Each level comes with 3 waves of enemies. The higher difficulties don’t just add more health and damage but more mechanics are also introduced such as the enemies being able to drop mines or heal others.
So let’s get to the positives. Firstly the gameplay is brilliant and something I haven’t seen before. Being a mix of pinball movement with twin stick shooting works incredibly well. It’s a delight and the reason why I remained engaged the entire 25 hours to 100% the game. The graphics are gorgeous and the animations are on point too. The bosses are fun and there are lots of different enemies with their own moves etc. The achievements are reasonable even with the hardest difficulty and clearing the game within 30 minutes. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t have a high difficulty curve. You can get good at it fairly quickly the more time you invest in it.
As for cons, I can mainly think of three. The music doesn’t match the visuals and gameplay. Or there is something weird going on with the mixing that doesn’t make the music shine as much. Other people noted that the levels look too similar and therefore add to the repetitiveness. I can understand this but it didn’t affect me as much because I was so focused on the gameplay. Not all the characters are created equally. Sprout’s speciality is abilities and the first one is unlocked after the first level, assuming it’s a good ability you want. Sprout also has low health. So you start very weak until you get some decent abilities while the other characters are just stronger and better right from the get go. Sprout needs some balancing. There are a few very minor bugs that aren’t really worth mentioning to be honest. And lastly, the next points are more of a feedback to make the game better. Having some sort of control over what weapons, abilities or upgrades you get would be nice. Think of re-roll or banishing stuff. Being able to see the stats that come with upgrades and having an overall stats menu for the character would be cool too. Right now you can only see the stats for your weapons.
GMB is one of those games that are rare. They don’t come very often. The mix of originality that works so well to the point that it feels natural. It’s the kind of game I question why we haven’t had something like it before. Not everyone is going to like it as much or care about what it’s trying to do. It’s not trying to be a roguelike/lite, it’s trying to be its own thing and it’s wonderful for it. I paid over €16 and think it’s worth it. I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to like the game but if you’re one of those who do, you’re going to LOVE IT and want more.
So let’s get to the positives. Firstly the gameplay is brilliant and something I haven’t seen before. Being a mix of pinball movement with twin stick shooting works incredibly well. It’s a delight and the reason why I remained engaged the entire 25 hours to 100% the game. The graphics are gorgeous and the animations are on point too. The bosses are fun and there are lots of different enemies with their own moves etc. The achievements are reasonable even with the hardest difficulty and clearing the game within 30 minutes. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t have a high difficulty curve. You can get good at it fairly quickly the more time you invest in it.
As for cons, I can mainly think of three. The music doesn’t match the visuals and gameplay. Or there is something weird going on with the mixing that doesn’t make the music shine as much. Other people noted that the levels look too similar and therefore add to the repetitiveness. I can understand this but it didn’t affect me as much because I was so focused on the gameplay. Not all the characters are created equally. Sprout’s speciality is abilities and the first one is unlocked after the first level, assuming it’s a good ability you want. Sprout also has low health. So you start very weak until you get some decent abilities while the other characters are just stronger and better right from the get go. Sprout needs some balancing. There are a few very minor bugs that aren’t really worth mentioning to be honest. And lastly, the next points are more of a feedback to make the game better. Having some sort of control over what weapons, abilities or upgrades you get would be nice. Think of re-roll or banishing stuff. Being able to see the stats that come with upgrades and having an overall stats menu for the character would be cool too. Right now you can only see the stats for your weapons.
GMB is one of those games that are rare. They don’t come very often. The mix of originality that works so well to the point that it feels natural. It’s the kind of game I question why we haven’t had something like it before. Not everyone is going to like it as much or care about what it’s trying to do. It’s not trying to be a roguelike/lite, it’s trying to be its own thing and it’s wonderful for it. I paid over €16 and think it’s worth it. I can’t guarantee that everyone is going to like the game but if you’re one of those who do, you’re going to LOVE IT and want more.
PCZ is your typical Picross game in terms of puzzles. If you played any Picross game (on the 3DS in my case), then you’ll feel right at home. The game’s charm and adventure part is what makes it stand out and worth playing for fans of the genre.
The adventure part is lighthearted. Don’t expect deep and fleshed out mechanics. You have a small world divided in a few blocks. Each block has a few puzzles that bring objects, people or animals back to life (220+). Most of them won’t have much of a significance to the story but there will be puzzles that do and you will get some items that are either mandatory or to find some of the secrets in the game. For instance, you’ll need a lamp to go through a dark cave. Even if there is no significance, it’s satisfying seeing things come to life and the numbers of your checklist going up. The puzzles themselves are mostly simple-doable and they won’t reach the challenge you can expect from the Picross E games on the 3DS for instance. There are some NPC you can speak with, an inventory menu, world map and an in game trophy (achievement) tracker. Add the charming pixel graphics, catchy music & funny dialogue and you got yourself a good formula. The dialogues are often self aware and I enjoy them but humour is obviously very subjective. I also love the secrets the developer came up with and even how some of them are personal.
In terms of cons, I can mainly think of 2 minor bugs and one design decision. The game allows you to select different themes when you look at the puzzles. I love this! You can also customise a theme manually but the settings for that are never saved unfortunately. Secondly, there are also some shortcuts to return to previous areas more quickly. One shortcut doesn’t work. You’re supposed to interact with it to cut the tree down but the interact button doesn’t work with the keyboard at least. As for the design decision, you have to do a quiz near the end of the game before being allowed to advance to the last area. This is really silly and unnecessary. The community luckily came through by sharing the answers on Steam. This would have been a big problem if that wasn’t the case.
I had a great time overall. I’ve spent 28.8 hours according to Steam and I’ve done this slowly over a long period of time, without making use of the hint system. Definitely give the game a try if you like the combination of Picross with light adventure. I’ve got this on a sale for €2 and 100% think it’s worth that price or even more.
The adventure part is lighthearted. Don’t expect deep and fleshed out mechanics. You have a small world divided in a few blocks. Each block has a few puzzles that bring objects, people or animals back to life (220+). Most of them won’t have much of a significance to the story but there will be puzzles that do and you will get some items that are either mandatory or to find some of the secrets in the game. For instance, you’ll need a lamp to go through a dark cave. Even if there is no significance, it’s satisfying seeing things come to life and the numbers of your checklist going up. The puzzles themselves are mostly simple-doable and they won’t reach the challenge you can expect from the Picross E games on the 3DS for instance. There are some NPC you can speak with, an inventory menu, world map and an in game trophy (achievement) tracker. Add the charming pixel graphics, catchy music & funny dialogue and you got yourself a good formula. The dialogues are often self aware and I enjoy them but humour is obviously very subjective. I also love the secrets the developer came up with and even how some of them are personal.
In terms of cons, I can mainly think of 2 minor bugs and one design decision. The game allows you to select different themes when you look at the puzzles. I love this! You can also customise a theme manually but the settings for that are never saved unfortunately. Secondly, there are also some shortcuts to return to previous areas more quickly. One shortcut doesn’t work. You’re supposed to interact with it to cut the tree down but the interact button doesn’t work with the keyboard at least. As for the design decision, you have to do a quiz near the end of the game before being allowed to advance to the last area. This is really silly and unnecessary. The community luckily came through by sharing the answers on Steam. This would have been a big problem if that wasn’t the case.
I had a great time overall. I’ve spent 28.8 hours according to Steam and I’ve done this slowly over a long period of time, without making use of the hint system. Definitely give the game a try if you like the combination of Picross with light adventure. I’ve got this on a sale for €2 and 100% think it’s worth that price or even more.
2024
It was a bit of a gamble to get this as I didn’t fully enjoy the demo. I was still following the game’s reception. Someone shared a gameplay video of the full game on Steam and I noticed some changes compared to the demo. You could keep the notes with you, there was a simple inventory menu, UI got improved, text got added when encountering puzzles and some polish got added to the graphics. This made me get the game after all and I’m glad for it.
So what is Lazaret? It kind of starts like a walking sim horror game. You mostly walk through areas, pick key items without much effort and the puzzles were very light. Then it slowly involves more thinking where it becomes a bit of a maze trying to remember how to get back to a room to use an item you just picked up along with jump-scares getting gradually increased. And lastly, it turns into classic Resident Evil with more puzzles the further you get, especially the last section. It’s clear that Resident Evil was an inspiration and I even noticed the Silent Hill reference. However, there is no fighting even though there are still enemies that get in the way. Most of them don’t kill you. When they touch you, they scare the living sh*t out of you and move along. This turned into a game for me. Like, are they going to do something or not? When you expect them to not strike, they do it anyway and I get so scared! There is one (probably more) section where you do die when getting hit, you’re supposed to run away until that part is over but there is auto save before this section even when I didn’t save manually with a casette player. There are also some chase sections from a big baddie (think of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3) where you’re supposed to hide in lockers until the threat is over.
I normally hate these chases or having enemies that kill you with trial and error. Luckily, they’re not bad at all here. I’m really glad that you don’t repeat sections because of enemies and the Nemesis dude is slow. He is easy to get away from. They’re there for the atmosphere and jump-scares and that’s the way I like it. Other positives are the game’s graphics, lighting and sound effects. The game is very atmospheric and many objects are detailed. I was especially impressed with the last section. The sound effects are very on point and incredibly well done. The gameplay is very enjoyable and relaxing. I loved the pacing with the notes and I loved that more emphasis was put on the puzzles later without them being taxing. The controls are perfectly fine and simple. I need to give a special mention to the bugs and load times. I didn’t encounter a single bug and the moment you start the game on Steam, you get the main menu straight away. The load times are generally instant. As for the achievements, they’re good. Almost all are progress related and 2 are for the collectibles. Nothing silly or game ruining.
No game is perfect and sacrifices had to be made. That is clear to see here. I do think they made the right decisions for the most part. You can see the cut in budget with one human NPC model used a lot for every human NPC and the lack of music. The sound effects do carry the game in the sound department enough though and it could be an artistic decision. One negative that I do hope will get fixed or avoided for a future game is not being able to get back to previous areas for the collectibles. The 2 collectibles are 41 documents and 7 obols (coins). I got all the documents the first time but missed the first and last obol. There is at least one point where you can’t go back to a previous area. Making this possible or having chapter select with your collectibles saved would have been great. Right now you either play the game from the beginning, have different save files or use a guide right away to avoid wasting time. But the last one defeats the purpose for these kind of games and different saves can only help you so much. The story might also be a bit hastily concluded or incomplete near the end. Some things were explained properly but I didn’t feel like I got all the answers unless I need to go back and read some notes again.
What we have here is a game that turned out better than I expected. If you enjoy slower pace, old school Resident Evil puzzles, reading notes and appreciate the atmosphere in games, then I recommend Lazaret. It took me over 5 hours to complete but that’s with extensive searching for the collectibles. I’m going back to get all the obols for the achievement (with a guide this time lol). What you get is fine for €11. In my case it costed €10 with the launch discount. I’m happy with what I got and very impressed with certain things. This will ensure that I will follow future projects by this developer and look into the previous game they released. That looks appealing too.
So what is Lazaret? It kind of starts like a walking sim horror game. You mostly walk through areas, pick key items without much effort and the puzzles were very light. Then it slowly involves more thinking where it becomes a bit of a maze trying to remember how to get back to a room to use an item you just picked up along with jump-scares getting gradually increased. And lastly, it turns into classic Resident Evil with more puzzles the further you get, especially the last section. It’s clear that Resident Evil was an inspiration and I even noticed the Silent Hill reference. However, there is no fighting even though there are still enemies that get in the way. Most of them don’t kill you. When they touch you, they scare the living sh*t out of you and move along. This turned into a game for me. Like, are they going to do something or not? When you expect them to not strike, they do it anyway and I get so scared! There is one (probably more) section where you do die when getting hit, you’re supposed to run away until that part is over but there is auto save before this section even when I didn’t save manually with a casette player. There are also some chase sections from a big baddie (think of Nemesis from Resident Evil 3) where you’re supposed to hide in lockers until the threat is over.
I normally hate these chases or having enemies that kill you with trial and error. Luckily, they’re not bad at all here. I’m really glad that you don’t repeat sections because of enemies and the Nemesis dude is slow. He is easy to get away from. They’re there for the atmosphere and jump-scares and that’s the way I like it. Other positives are the game’s graphics, lighting and sound effects. The game is very atmospheric and many objects are detailed. I was especially impressed with the last section. The sound effects are very on point and incredibly well done. The gameplay is very enjoyable and relaxing. I loved the pacing with the notes and I loved that more emphasis was put on the puzzles later without them being taxing. The controls are perfectly fine and simple. I need to give a special mention to the bugs and load times. I didn’t encounter a single bug and the moment you start the game on Steam, you get the main menu straight away. The load times are generally instant. As for the achievements, they’re good. Almost all are progress related and 2 are for the collectibles. Nothing silly or game ruining.
No game is perfect and sacrifices had to be made. That is clear to see here. I do think they made the right decisions for the most part. You can see the cut in budget with one human NPC model used a lot for every human NPC and the lack of music. The sound effects do carry the game in the sound department enough though and it could be an artistic decision. One negative that I do hope will get fixed or avoided for a future game is not being able to get back to previous areas for the collectibles. The 2 collectibles are 41 documents and 7 obols (coins). I got all the documents the first time but missed the first and last obol. There is at least one point where you can’t go back to a previous area. Making this possible or having chapter select with your collectibles saved would have been great. Right now you either play the game from the beginning, have different save files or use a guide right away to avoid wasting time. But the last one defeats the purpose for these kind of games and different saves can only help you so much. The story might also be a bit hastily concluded or incomplete near the end. Some things were explained properly but I didn’t feel like I got all the answers unless I need to go back and read some notes again.
What we have here is a game that turned out better than I expected. If you enjoy slower pace, old school Resident Evil puzzles, reading notes and appreciate the atmosphere in games, then I recommend Lazaret. It took me over 5 hours to complete but that’s with extensive searching for the collectibles. I’m going back to get all the obols for the achievement (with a guide this time lol). What you get is fine for €11. In my case it costed €10 with the launch discount. I’m happy with what I got and very impressed with certain things. This will ensure that I will follow future projects by this developer and look into the previous game they released. That looks appealing too.
2024
It’s clear where Lords of Exile got its inspiration from. Still, the game has some little touches of its own and its challenge is very interestingly balanced. You get 8 stages with bosses at the end and often mini-bosses in between. You also unlock speed run, boss rush and a second playable character after completing the game. You mostly try to beat enemies and stay alive because there are death pits and if you get hit by enemies, you can easily fall to your death. You have some traps, jumping, climbing, gambling, 2 shadow skills and 1 upgrade after every boss. Now most of it sounds basic and perhaps boring but the way they’re done can be a bit different sometimes. Jumping is unique in that you only execute a double jump when you’re about to fall instead of instant the moment you make your first jump. There are some horizontal and vertical climbing sections where you also need to be careful not falling to your death. The 2 shadow skills are mostly used for platforming. One breaks blocks to get through a level and the other is kind of a hook that brings you to the other side. Upgrades are stat increases mostly like stronger attacks, more ammo with the throw weapons but also how you get double jump. Gambling is pretty much a slot machine where you pay money to win prizes like more money etc. There are shops in the stages where you get three random items you can buy like more health, throw weapons and shield.
So let’s start with the good stuff. The graphics look charming with the retro style. The stages are pretty varied, there are a decent variety of enemies, all the bosses are unique (& awesome) and there is even a lot of effort put into some of the mini-bosses. With some of them I thought they were bosses at first because they look so cool and intimidating. The game has some Asian style setting and you can see this with some of the Japanese kanji used correctly in certain spots. It’s a nice touch. The music sounds wonderful and always keeps me energised. Playing with the second character, Lyria, is fantastic. She’s so nimble and has long ranged attacks by default. It was a great reward unlocking her after completing the game. Remember me bringing up death pits and the game’s unique challenge? The game is pretty challenging and you will die BUT, the game has frequent checkpoints. So you don’t have to retry big sections often. Same before every boss. This is a great decision since you get some challenge but you’re also given the opportunity to learn and not repeat sections too often. You’re still incentivised with playing good in order to not die but the fun is not taken out of the game by punishing you too much. The achievements are also excellent. They’re fun and there is a decent challenge with no damage boss rush, but they’re all doable with a bit of practice. It took me over 10 hours to get them all.
Now on to the not so good stuff. Gambling honestly feels pointless aside from the 2 achievements attached to it. You have enough money, drops and shops that you can easily ignore it. And that’s fine to be honest. I prefer having them all instead of being forced to gamble. The 2 shadow skills also feel basic, they don’t really add much to the platforming. There is one bug with boss rush but you can get around it until a patch is released. Double jump is okay for the most part but it can be clumsy with boss fights. It might appear that it doesn’t register sometimes, it’s just very strict. But hey, I guess this was also part of the challenge.
I had lots of fun playing LoE. It might not be super original but it was entertaining and scratched that itch. I appreciate how your time is respected with checkpoints and fair achievements. I paid €11 and think it’s worth it.
So let’s start with the good stuff. The graphics look charming with the retro style. The stages are pretty varied, there are a decent variety of enemies, all the bosses are unique (& awesome) and there is even a lot of effort put into some of the mini-bosses. With some of them I thought they were bosses at first because they look so cool and intimidating. The game has some Asian style setting and you can see this with some of the Japanese kanji used correctly in certain spots. It’s a nice touch. The music sounds wonderful and always keeps me energised. Playing with the second character, Lyria, is fantastic. She’s so nimble and has long ranged attacks by default. It was a great reward unlocking her after completing the game. Remember me bringing up death pits and the game’s unique challenge? The game is pretty challenging and you will die BUT, the game has frequent checkpoints. So you don’t have to retry big sections often. Same before every boss. This is a great decision since you get some challenge but you’re also given the opportunity to learn and not repeat sections too often. You’re still incentivised with playing good in order to not die but the fun is not taken out of the game by punishing you too much. The achievements are also excellent. They’re fun and there is a decent challenge with no damage boss rush, but they’re all doable with a bit of practice. It took me over 10 hours to get them all.
Now on to the not so good stuff. Gambling honestly feels pointless aside from the 2 achievements attached to it. You have enough money, drops and shops that you can easily ignore it. And that’s fine to be honest. I prefer having them all instead of being forced to gamble. The 2 shadow skills also feel basic, they don’t really add much to the platforming. There is one bug with boss rush but you can get around it until a patch is released. Double jump is okay for the most part but it can be clumsy with boss fights. It might appear that it doesn’t register sometimes, it’s just very strict. But hey, I guess this was also part of the challenge.
I had lots of fun playing LoE. It might not be super original but it was entertaining and scratched that itch. I appreciate how your time is respected with checkpoints and fair achievements. I paid €11 and think it’s worth it.
2021
I had the opportunity to play Koa and the 5 pirates before Mail Mole. It’s made by the same developer and the games are very similar in terms of controls, gameplay and structure. The differences are Mail Mole is less polished for being the first game and it’s a bit more challenging. Its style is also more reminiscent of old school platformers for being about animals instead of humans.
The controls are very unique. This isn’t your typical platformer. It can be a positive or a negative depending on what you’re looking for. The game is about creating the perfect momentum for speed and overcoming obstacles to finish a level. You can collect 3 strawberries or try to get a gold medal if you’re fast enough. The game has a lot of content if you include the gold medals and play the 2 free DLC. There are no achievements for the DLC which is a good thing. It looks charming and it sounds right.
So what makes Mail Mole less polished and more challenging? You lose a bit of control when you commit to a boost in speed. Koa accounts for this by making the levels less punishing, allowing you to jump separately from boost, and giving you more time to get the gold medals. Mail Mole expects more perfection by having more traps and death pits. There will be more awkward situations where your boost is not enough to get to certain spots, halting pacing and only accepting specific ways of getting there. The game can also look a bit rough graphically in certain spots although it’s not needed for a game like this. Then there is one bad design decision and minor bugs. You’re not allowed to retry a level without losing your progress the first time you do it. You have to return to the hub world, select the level again and then you can restart without fears of losing the strawberries you collected. The bugs are few but a bit annoying even if they’re not game breaking. Every time you boot up the game, you’re forced to see the last patch notes. You will also see notes for every DLC you’ve downloaded. I haven’t found a way to turn these notes off. The Lost Presents DLC doesn’t work if you load from your main save file but will work if you use a new save file.
Mail Mole might be a bit rough around the edges but I find its style a bit more appealing. If you want a more difficult Koa, want more of that gameplay style or want to see how it started, then this is worth looking into. The game is for a specific audience and a bit more difficult to get into compared to Koa. It took me 14 hours for the main game plus a couple of hours playing the DLC. I’m impressed how both DLC are offered for free. They’re pretty substantial and worth playing. So don’t forget to grab them after completing the main game.
The controls are very unique. This isn’t your typical platformer. It can be a positive or a negative depending on what you’re looking for. The game is about creating the perfect momentum for speed and overcoming obstacles to finish a level. You can collect 3 strawberries or try to get a gold medal if you’re fast enough. The game has a lot of content if you include the gold medals and play the 2 free DLC. There are no achievements for the DLC which is a good thing. It looks charming and it sounds right.
So what makes Mail Mole less polished and more challenging? You lose a bit of control when you commit to a boost in speed. Koa accounts for this by making the levels less punishing, allowing you to jump separately from boost, and giving you more time to get the gold medals. Mail Mole expects more perfection by having more traps and death pits. There will be more awkward situations where your boost is not enough to get to certain spots, halting pacing and only accepting specific ways of getting there. The game can also look a bit rough graphically in certain spots although it’s not needed for a game like this. Then there is one bad design decision and minor bugs. You’re not allowed to retry a level without losing your progress the first time you do it. You have to return to the hub world, select the level again and then you can restart without fears of losing the strawberries you collected. The bugs are few but a bit annoying even if they’re not game breaking. Every time you boot up the game, you’re forced to see the last patch notes. You will also see notes for every DLC you’ve downloaded. I haven’t found a way to turn these notes off. The Lost Presents DLC doesn’t work if you load from your main save file but will work if you use a new save file.
Mail Mole might be a bit rough around the edges but I find its style a bit more appealing. If you want a more difficult Koa, want more of that gameplay style or want to see how it started, then this is worth looking into. The game is for a specific audience and a bit more difficult to get into compared to Koa. It took me 14 hours for the main game plus a couple of hours playing the DLC. I’m impressed how both DLC are offered for free. They’re pretty substantial and worth playing. So don’t forget to grab them after completing the main game.
2022
Meow Express is one of those games where the controls are so simple yet hard to master. And what appears to be a basic game, it shows its true depth and strategy the more you play it. It’s crazy that I often tend to play these indie games over big budget ones that are part of my backlog.
You’re a cat taxi driver tasked with taking cats to their destination with your mini space ship. Expect many playful location names turned into cat form cleverly XD You advance to the next stage once you have 6 cats. Getting to them is not as easy as it sounds because controlling the ship is by pressing or holding a button to make you float while it’s an auto runner and you also have dash to quickly get out of nasty situations. You collect balloon hearts (4) to get one shield and you can have 2 shields at a time. The rest turns into money. You also get money paid every time you pick up a cat and deliver all 6 of them at the end of the stage. Money is spent on upgrades (such as less hearts needed etc) or outfits. The strategy is assessing if the risk is worth the effort. Do you pick a heart balloon with the chance that you might get hit? Is it better to pick a balloon now for money or wait until one of your shields are used to protect yourself? You can also pick cats sooner (scattered randomly) than waiting until you reach the bus station. This allows you to finish a stage quicker, potentially avoiding traps or you might get hit when picking up a cat. There are more such examples that I haven’t even brought up. This is what makes the game fun. I also like the fact the achievements are fair and designed in a way to let you enjoy the game for a couple of hours (in my case more than 4 hours) without boring you and making you grind for no reason.
The graphics are functional yet charming and the music actually sounds pretty good. The only real problem are the control options. Controllers are not supported, so you either use your keyboard or customise one through Steam. I made use of the latter as I can’t imagine playing a game like this on a keyboard. It’s a good thing you have the option to solve this problem but it really should have been supported natively.
It appears the game is offered for free on Steam at the moment. I got it through a Humble bundle and am glad it got included. I definitely think it’s worth playing if you enjoy these type of games.
You’re a cat taxi driver tasked with taking cats to their destination with your mini space ship. Expect many playful location names turned into cat form cleverly XD You advance to the next stage once you have 6 cats. Getting to them is not as easy as it sounds because controlling the ship is by pressing or holding a button to make you float while it’s an auto runner and you also have dash to quickly get out of nasty situations. You collect balloon hearts (4) to get one shield and you can have 2 shields at a time. The rest turns into money. You also get money paid every time you pick up a cat and deliver all 6 of them at the end of the stage. Money is spent on upgrades (such as less hearts needed etc) or outfits. The strategy is assessing if the risk is worth the effort. Do you pick a heart balloon with the chance that you might get hit? Is it better to pick a balloon now for money or wait until one of your shields are used to protect yourself? You can also pick cats sooner (scattered randomly) than waiting until you reach the bus station. This allows you to finish a stage quicker, potentially avoiding traps or you might get hit when picking up a cat. There are more such examples that I haven’t even brought up. This is what makes the game fun. I also like the fact the achievements are fair and designed in a way to let you enjoy the game for a couple of hours (in my case more than 4 hours) without boring you and making you grind for no reason.
The graphics are functional yet charming and the music actually sounds pretty good. The only real problem are the control options. Controllers are not supported, so you either use your keyboard or customise one through Steam. I made use of the latter as I can’t imagine playing a game like this on a keyboard. It’s a good thing you have the option to solve this problem but it really should have been supported natively.
It appears the game is offered for free on Steam at the moment. I got it through a Humble bundle and am glad it got included. I definitely think it’s worth playing if you enjoy these type of games.
WT2: Deluxe+ is basically an open world collectathon platformer lacking in some polish (minor bugs). I say this because you go through the entire map without load times and there are teleport spots whenever you activate them. You mainly try to collect tears in 8 worlds in order to complete the game. You can also collect red berries (currency to buy cosmetic and upgrades), over 380 blue berries (for new moves), 27 decorations for your house and more.
What sets this game apart is the freedom to be superman if you want. Not only will you be able to jump 3 times, you can also glide, wall jump to almost any wall/object AND combine these moves. It’s a great feeling that you can get almost anywhere, ignore certain sections and break things should you desire it. The game also has some very minor puzzling with water drops that is pretty cool but a little basic/under utilised. The graphics look cute and some of the music sounds pretty nice. I like that the game respects your time in different ways. The game auto saves often aside from manual save whenever you want. There are many checkpoint spots. You will receive a blue berries radar after collecting over 50% to find the remaining blue berries when you’re done exploring. I really find this to be a great way of handling collectibles that are great in number. Let me have the fun of exploring as much as I want and once I feel I’ve had my fun, I can turn the radar on. It can still be fun to find the remaining blue berries even with it on (can be turned off). You even unlock the ability to get double red berries near the end. So you don’t have to grind heavily for the remaining items you can buy. It took me more than 15 hours to 100% the game and that’s with using the radar for the remaining few and looking up the last collectibles left.
The flaws are mainly bugs as far as I’m concerned. There are 2 major ones: sound and falling through the map. The music mixing (2 music from 2 areas at the same time), cracking and the sudden lack of music can be pretty bad sometimes. There are around 3-4 sections where you fall from the map and die (I don’t know the correct term to describe this). Although the latter sounds very bad, the spots are small, empty and unimportant with nothing in them. And because you auto save, you don’t lose progress aside from very minor backtracking. Attacking enemies is awkward at first but this is greatly enhanced every time you upgrade your leaf up to 3-4 times. This is also my advice, use your red berries to upgrade your leaf before buying anything else.
I enjoyed my time playing this. It’s a relaxing game to take a break with from other things. The bugs don’t detract from the experience but it would have been amazing if the game was more polished. I highly recommend this for fans of collectathon platformers with an itch to play one without expecting much. The €1,80+ spent during Steam sale is 100% worth it.
What sets this game apart is the freedom to be superman if you want. Not only will you be able to jump 3 times, you can also glide, wall jump to almost any wall/object AND combine these moves. It’s a great feeling that you can get almost anywhere, ignore certain sections and break things should you desire it. The game also has some very minor puzzling with water drops that is pretty cool but a little basic/under utilised. The graphics look cute and some of the music sounds pretty nice. I like that the game respects your time in different ways. The game auto saves often aside from manual save whenever you want. There are many checkpoint spots. You will receive a blue berries radar after collecting over 50% to find the remaining blue berries when you’re done exploring. I really find this to be a great way of handling collectibles that are great in number. Let me have the fun of exploring as much as I want and once I feel I’ve had my fun, I can turn the radar on. It can still be fun to find the remaining blue berries even with it on (can be turned off). You even unlock the ability to get double red berries near the end. So you don’t have to grind heavily for the remaining items you can buy. It took me more than 15 hours to 100% the game and that’s with using the radar for the remaining few and looking up the last collectibles left.
The flaws are mainly bugs as far as I’m concerned. There are 2 major ones: sound and falling through the map. The music mixing (2 music from 2 areas at the same time), cracking and the sudden lack of music can be pretty bad sometimes. There are around 3-4 sections where you fall from the map and die (I don’t know the correct term to describe this). Although the latter sounds very bad, the spots are small, empty and unimportant with nothing in them. And because you auto save, you don’t lose progress aside from very minor backtracking. Attacking enemies is awkward at first but this is greatly enhanced every time you upgrade your leaf up to 3-4 times. This is also my advice, use your red berries to upgrade your leaf before buying anything else.
I enjoyed my time playing this. It’s a relaxing game to take a break with from other things. The bugs don’t detract from the experience but it would have been amazing if the game was more polished. I highly recommend this for fans of collectathon platformers with an itch to play one without expecting much. The €1,80+ spent during Steam sale is 100% worth it.
2016
The gameplay of Akin is so simple that you only need a short gameplay video to get it right away. Filling an entire map of squares with the same colour is calming and oddly satisfying. My interest is kept with all the 96 puzzles including time trials. There are some flaws that if taken care of, could have made the experience more pleasant. I would have liked a retry option after completing a puzzle. You normally only get that option whilst you’re doing a puzzle. After completing it you either select next puzzle or go to the main menu. The timer starts the moment you select a puzzle. It would have been better to start with the timer as soon as you make your first move. This is especially handy for time trials. Lastly, a redo move button might sound nice but I’m not sure it’s possible with the way the gameplay works. You use the mouse to quickly draw lines. I’m not sure how one move can be determined through one long straight line.
The graphics are functional. There is one music in the entire game that is fine but gets old after a while. It took around 10 hours to get the achievements. They’re all about completing the puzzles in both modes plus completing time trials within 15 minutes. The 15 minutes one was fun, especially since there is an in-game timer to know how far you are.
The game is not going to rock your world. It’s not the best at anything but what’s there is enjoyable enough in short bursts. It only costs €1 and it’s worth that price if you’re looking to kill some time with a simple puzzle game.
The graphics are functional. There is one music in the entire game that is fine but gets old after a while. It took around 10 hours to get the achievements. They’re all about completing the puzzles in both modes plus completing time trials within 15 minutes. The 15 minutes one was fun, especially since there is an in-game timer to know how far you are.
The game is not going to rock your world. It’s not the best at anything but what’s there is enjoyable enough in short bursts. It only costs €1 and it’s worth that price if you’re looking to kill some time with a simple puzzle game.
2023
I finally had the time to complete act 1 and get all the achievements (except for one) after about 20 hours. The other 2 acts will get released later as the game is still in Early Access. There is enough to talk about despite the game still being far from finished.
Act 1 contains 7 stages of varying sizes, most of them being huge and worth multiple maps. Wizordum is an old school easy pick up and play FPS with a big emphasis on secrets, loot and beating all enemies. You can also finish stages without trying to get everything. The graphics are vibrant and crisp, the music has strong moments and the controls with the mouse & keyboard feel great. There are multiple weapons and consumables. They’re fine but the system around them is still being worked on and it will change with a future update. The other big emphasis of the game is a level editor and playing user created levels. I’m not the creator type but it looked solid based on the little I spent making my own level. Browsing user created levels is easy, seamless and I can see the game having endless content with it.
Now on to the flaws. The flaws can mostly be divided in 3 categories: bugs, map and collecting loot. With map, I mean how the map can look confusing to determine the connection between certain areas or which floors. The developer did confirm they’re going to improve this. What we have does the job. It’s not horrible but it could have been better. Loot is a bit of a big deal if you care about finding everything. Loot can be found in chests, dropped from corpses, hidden etc. The issue is the fact the stages are HUGE, there is tons of loot and there is no way of finding the rest you’re missing whether it’s with tools in-game or finding help online. I don’t think we’re ever going to get guides for loot due to the way they’re designed in this game. It’s a horrible feeling when you’ve done your best to find everything, yet by the end you’re missing 1% and you have no idea where to begin your search. If you continue with the next stage and you’re missing loot, then you have to find everything again if you want 100% (unless you keep a manual save perhaps). The loot you found is not saved, only your accomplishments on the stage’s description. What happens often is you reach the end of the stage but you go back to search everything thoroughly again before using the exit. This can tremendously affect pacing. The developer mentioned they will take the time to think of a solution for the loot problem. So I’m hopeful things will get better. I kept bugs as last because they too can be divided in 3 categories: save, achievements and other minor bugs. Keep in mind that the first 2 have been my personal experience during EA. They’re fixed and should not be an issue for others now. There have been issues with saves after certain updates. Luckily the developer always looked into my saves and offered quick patches for them. With achievements, there were plenty that simply didn’t work. It took a while but I can now confirm that all of them work. The other bugs are minor but they don’t exactly give a polished impression.
Even though I talked about the flaws more, I don’t want to give the wrong idea. I actually deeply enjoyed Wizordum. I also highly recommend it whether in the current state or when 1.0 releases. The content released is already worth the price and polished enough with the basic fundamentals. While the 1.0 release is going to contain 2 more acts, new systems introduced or current ones fleshed out and a new playable character. I’m confident the developer will get it all done based on my discord interactions, the speed at which the players are supported and the love shown for the modding community.
Act 1 contains 7 stages of varying sizes, most of them being huge and worth multiple maps. Wizordum is an old school easy pick up and play FPS with a big emphasis on secrets, loot and beating all enemies. You can also finish stages without trying to get everything. The graphics are vibrant and crisp, the music has strong moments and the controls with the mouse & keyboard feel great. There are multiple weapons and consumables. They’re fine but the system around them is still being worked on and it will change with a future update. The other big emphasis of the game is a level editor and playing user created levels. I’m not the creator type but it looked solid based on the little I spent making my own level. Browsing user created levels is easy, seamless and I can see the game having endless content with it.
Now on to the flaws. The flaws can mostly be divided in 3 categories: bugs, map and collecting loot. With map, I mean how the map can look confusing to determine the connection between certain areas or which floors. The developer did confirm they’re going to improve this. What we have does the job. It’s not horrible but it could have been better. Loot is a bit of a big deal if you care about finding everything. Loot can be found in chests, dropped from corpses, hidden etc. The issue is the fact the stages are HUGE, there is tons of loot and there is no way of finding the rest you’re missing whether it’s with tools in-game or finding help online. I don’t think we’re ever going to get guides for loot due to the way they’re designed in this game. It’s a horrible feeling when you’ve done your best to find everything, yet by the end you’re missing 1% and you have no idea where to begin your search. If you continue with the next stage and you’re missing loot, then you have to find everything again if you want 100% (unless you keep a manual save perhaps). The loot you found is not saved, only your accomplishments on the stage’s description. What happens often is you reach the end of the stage but you go back to search everything thoroughly again before using the exit. This can tremendously affect pacing. The developer mentioned they will take the time to think of a solution for the loot problem. So I’m hopeful things will get better. I kept bugs as last because they too can be divided in 3 categories: save, achievements and other minor bugs. Keep in mind that the first 2 have been my personal experience during EA. They’re fixed and should not be an issue for others now. There have been issues with saves after certain updates. Luckily the developer always looked into my saves and offered quick patches for them. With achievements, there were plenty that simply didn’t work. It took a while but I can now confirm that all of them work. The other bugs are minor but they don’t exactly give a polished impression.
Even though I talked about the flaws more, I don’t want to give the wrong idea. I actually deeply enjoyed Wizordum. I also highly recommend it whether in the current state or when 1.0 releases. The content released is already worth the price and polished enough with the basic fundamentals. While the 1.0 release is going to contain 2 more acts, new systems introduced or current ones fleshed out and a new playable character. I’m confident the developer will get it all done based on my discord interactions, the speed at which the players are supported and the love shown for the modding community.
2024
It has been a pure coincidence to play another game about witches and being alone in the house. But CLeM is far darker compared to The Cauldron Kids. I honestly didn’t know what I got myself into. I tried the prologue demo and thought it was fun but you don’t see a lot of story with it and the game has a unique style of being cute but also creepy at the same time.
CLeM is mostly a puzzle adventure game with some notes scattered and one short cutscene every time you carry out your task. See the tasks as chapters and there are about 5 you can expect. You don’t know who you are and who the girl is. She keeps asking you to bring her something. You slowly piece everything together to a satisfying conclusion. The game is described as ‘Puzzlevania’ and it’s understandable why it’s described as such. There will be rooms where you see things that can be done but this will only be possible once you’ve acquired some magical objects. These magical objects are fun to use and it’s worthwhile to re-visit rooms to solve puzzles with them. The puzzles themselves have been great. They have the right amount of challenge for the most part but they’re also approachable. There is help online for the instances you do get stuck (it happened twice in my case). The game is also good at being personal through environmental details and notes. While you slowly get to learn the situation through notes, you also see where and how people lived while exploring. And then we have the achievements. Most of them are related to progress but there are ones where you need to find everything (2), do certain actions perfectly (2) and 2 fun little secrets. I managed to get all of them on my own and that’s a good thing. They’re reasonable.
There are a few flaws that might be minor or major depending on your preferences. The game has a bit of backtracking due to the way it’s designed. It’s mostly solved when you unlock teleportation but you still need to check every room with every chapter to see if something has changed. Luckily the house is small, so it’s not as bad as it sounds but it’s still a thing. The game felt a bit short. But it feels like stretching this longer would not have been beneficial for the game because everything feels just right in terms of story and pacing. What I’m trying to say is, the price might be a bit on the high side for what you’re getting. In my case it was over €14 for about 4.8 hours according to Steam. The good news is, it’s better to end on a high note and wanting more instead of having filler content for the sake of making the game longer. Pure point and click adventure fans might not like CLeM because it’s not really a traditional P&C game. It’s advised to play with a controller, there are no object hotspots and you can’t save manually. The game auto saves every time you enter a room or when you finish a chapter. So there won’t be instances where you’re forced to play longer than you want.
CLeM is highly recommended for gamers who enjoy these type of unique games that remain strong and don’t overstay their welcome. It’s a bit difficult to judge if the price is worth it because I expected more content but I still felt positive about playing the game. Just make sure you get it at some point whether that’s now or when it’s on sale. This experience was so positive that I’m looking into playing more games from this developer.
CLeM is mostly a puzzle adventure game with some notes scattered and one short cutscene every time you carry out your task. See the tasks as chapters and there are about 5 you can expect. You don’t know who you are and who the girl is. She keeps asking you to bring her something. You slowly piece everything together to a satisfying conclusion. The game is described as ‘Puzzlevania’ and it’s understandable why it’s described as such. There will be rooms where you see things that can be done but this will only be possible once you’ve acquired some magical objects. These magical objects are fun to use and it’s worthwhile to re-visit rooms to solve puzzles with them. The puzzles themselves have been great. They have the right amount of challenge for the most part but they’re also approachable. There is help online for the instances you do get stuck (it happened twice in my case). The game is also good at being personal through environmental details and notes. While you slowly get to learn the situation through notes, you also see where and how people lived while exploring. And then we have the achievements. Most of them are related to progress but there are ones where you need to find everything (2), do certain actions perfectly (2) and 2 fun little secrets. I managed to get all of them on my own and that’s a good thing. They’re reasonable.
There are a few flaws that might be minor or major depending on your preferences. The game has a bit of backtracking due to the way it’s designed. It’s mostly solved when you unlock teleportation but you still need to check every room with every chapter to see if something has changed. Luckily the house is small, so it’s not as bad as it sounds but it’s still a thing. The game felt a bit short. But it feels like stretching this longer would not have been beneficial for the game because everything feels just right in terms of story and pacing. What I’m trying to say is, the price might be a bit on the high side for what you’re getting. In my case it was over €14 for about 4.8 hours according to Steam. The good news is, it’s better to end on a high note and wanting more instead of having filler content for the sake of making the game longer. Pure point and click adventure fans might not like CLeM because it’s not really a traditional P&C game. It’s advised to play with a controller, there are no object hotspots and you can’t save manually. The game auto saves every time you enter a room or when you finish a chapter. So there won’t be instances where you’re forced to play longer than you want.
CLeM is highly recommended for gamers who enjoy these type of unique games that remain strong and don’t overstay their welcome. It’s a bit difficult to judge if the price is worth it because I expected more content but I still felt positive about playing the game. Just make sure you get it at some point whether that’s now or when it’s on sale. This experience was so positive that I’m looking into playing more games from this developer.
The Cauldron Kids is a one hour narrative game wrapped up in minor exploration and about 5 mini-games if you want to break things down. BUT, the game is more than that. The dialogue is so funny and full of charm, it’s all about humor and cute things. The graphics are made with love and they have so many details. Even the sound effects when clicking on the menu is so sweet. The story is about witch kids doing naughty things while their mother is away and it’s like an adventure that brings me back to my childhood. The mini-games are fun and a nice change of pace at the right time. There is more content than the one hour I initially mentioned. You select one of the 2 characters with their own dialogues, there are achievements that encourage at least 2 runs depending on whether you look things up or not and the achievements for the 2 races (especially the shaker race) will require more time to get. Personally I recommend at least one blind first run and then look things up when needed for the second run or more. I’d say you’d get at least 2.5-3 hours if you’re a completionist.
The reason I took 5 hours is because I was trying to get the true fan achievement and I failed at it. The developers are luckily aware that this achievement is unreasonable in a cosy game like this and they’re currently changing this achievement into something more reasonable that should release soon. This would have been my only negative but the developers are already taking care of it. They’re lovely on discord btw. Extremely kind and helpful.
If you’re here purely for the gameplay and not caring about cute stories, then perhaps the game is not for you. You can’t really separate the whole package that is offered here. But if you find those kind of games appealing, then you can safely get it knowing it’s time well spent. €4 during the first week of release feels right. I hope we will get a sequel and see more of the gang. We need more of Mr. Vermicelli!
The reason I took 5 hours is because I was trying to get the true fan achievement and I failed at it. The developers are luckily aware that this achievement is unreasonable in a cosy game like this and they’re currently changing this achievement into something more reasonable that should release soon. This would have been my only negative but the developers are already taking care of it. They’re lovely on discord btw. Extremely kind and helpful.
If you’re here purely for the gameplay and not caring about cute stories, then perhaps the game is not for you. You can’t really separate the whole package that is offered here. But if you find those kind of games appealing, then you can safely get it knowing it’s time well spent. €4 during the first week of release feels right. I hope we will get a sequel and see more of the gang. We need more of Mr. Vermicelli!
So far I had 3 failed runs with the third being the best result (10 minutes left and about 10k out of 50k collected). But I’m having so much fun that it doesn’t really matter. This game is kind of a spiritual successor to It Comes In Waves. It’s in the same universe, follows the same formula of limited time and permadeath if you don’t reach your objective or get killed. This had me worried as I didn’t like that one as much as other Merlino Games. This one does it much better though. I feel it delivered and then some, especially with the price of €2,39 including launch discount.
What makes it better? The simple answer would be everything! Firstly, the game combines elements of ICIW AND No Sun to Worship. The latter when it comes to controls and stealth elements. But not only that, there are more actions and more weapon variety for instance. I love this part as NSTW is my favourite Merlino game. The ICIW part is done better because you have less long stretches of running through empty spaces. There are more interesting things to do. And it feels like there is more variety dealing with situations in different ways. So a run feels fresh, there is something new to learn every time, at least so far. Lastly there is more polish as a whole. The graphics look more appealing than ICIW. I just love this mix of PS1 combined with modern technology. There is actual music and I like what I’m hearing.
I’m not a fan of timers and UASLC won’t change my mind. I would lie if I didn’t say that I prefer playing the game without a timer. But I can see myself playing at least once a day for a while to come. I hope to finish at least one run successfully but it’s okay if that doesn’t happen as there are no achievements to make my OCD go crazy. The fact that I’m enjoying this while I’m not a fan of the structure, is a good accomplishment. The game is worth getting and it’s worth supporting the developer. Keep expectations in check though, as this is still a €3 game.
What makes it better? The simple answer would be everything! Firstly, the game combines elements of ICIW AND No Sun to Worship. The latter when it comes to controls and stealth elements. But not only that, there are more actions and more weapon variety for instance. I love this part as NSTW is my favourite Merlino game. The ICIW part is done better because you have less long stretches of running through empty spaces. There are more interesting things to do. And it feels like there is more variety dealing with situations in different ways. So a run feels fresh, there is something new to learn every time, at least so far. Lastly there is more polish as a whole. The graphics look more appealing than ICIW. I just love this mix of PS1 combined with modern technology. There is actual music and I like what I’m hearing.
I’m not a fan of timers and UASLC won’t change my mind. I would lie if I didn’t say that I prefer playing the game without a timer. But I can see myself playing at least once a day for a while to come. I hope to finish at least one run successfully but it’s okay if that doesn’t happen as there are no achievements to make my OCD go crazy. The fact that I’m enjoying this while I’m not a fan of the structure, is a good accomplishment. The game is worth getting and it’s worth supporting the developer. Keep expectations in check though, as this is still a €3 game.
2023
NSTW is a mix of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, only the scope is smaller in every way. What we have is very enjoyable and fun to play in small sessions. The controls are perfect with mouse and keyboard and perhaps it works so well becomes the moves, weapons and gadgets are limited. To be specific, the game has only 2 guns and there are no gadgets. You have 6 areas/missions and there are 2 guard types. I’ve completed normal mode in 2.6 hours and it becomes 8.3 hours if you include hard mode. Hard mode is a bit more substantial as you’re not shown where your targets are and all the enemies have become the more difficult versions of the 2 types. It was worth doing hard mode despite getting frustrated with all the deaths and the lack of checkpoints within missions/areas.
I’m putting all the numbers here not because I’m complaining. It’s to give an idea for the scope you should expect. I loved the fact the game is kept pure and that there wasn’t really much of a story either. The graphics are a mix of ps1 style but very sharp and with modern technology. It’s very appealing. The levels are well designed despite the simplicity. I’m also impressed by most of the animations such as killing guards when sneaking behind them. The sound effects are also good but there is no music aside from the main menu and level selection screen. The 6 areas have more ambiance sounds and quiet moments.
Out of all Merlino Games, this is my favourite. It’s the most polished one and its scope is enough to leave me satisfied. It makes me miss the popular stealth games I mentioned and I also hope that we will get NSTW2. I don’t mind if the scope is kept the same or slightly bigger. The normal price is less than €8 and it can be had for less than €6 often. It’s worth it for fans of the genre when expectations are kept in check. The developer is also worth supporting as he tries different things often, is focused and keeps getting better. Apparently he wants the next game to be bigger with the help of a team instead of a solo project. And I’m not talking about ‘Under a Star Long Cold’ which is coming in February. we know the unknown game is also going to be a stealth game. It’s very exciting following whatever this developer is up to.
I’m putting all the numbers here not because I’m complaining. It’s to give an idea for the scope you should expect. I loved the fact the game is kept pure and that there wasn’t really much of a story either. The graphics are a mix of ps1 style but very sharp and with modern technology. It’s very appealing. The levels are well designed despite the simplicity. I’m also impressed by most of the animations such as killing guards when sneaking behind them. The sound effects are also good but there is no music aside from the main menu and level selection screen. The 6 areas have more ambiance sounds and quiet moments.
Out of all Merlino Games, this is my favourite. It’s the most polished one and its scope is enough to leave me satisfied. It makes me miss the popular stealth games I mentioned and I also hope that we will get NSTW2. I don’t mind if the scope is kept the same or slightly bigger. The normal price is less than €8 and it can be had for less than €6 often. It’s worth it for fans of the genre when expectations are kept in check. The developer is also worth supporting as he tries different things often, is focused and keeps getting better. Apparently he wants the next game to be bigger with the help of a team instead of a solo project. And I’m not talking about ‘Under a Star Long Cold’ which is coming in February. we know the unknown game is also going to be a stealth game. It’s very exciting following whatever this developer is up to.