Mission in Snowdriftland humbly began as a flash game on Nintendo’s website many years ago and has been revived through Kickstarter. I heard about it from YouTuber Nick Robinson and became a backer of the project because I loved the story behind this game and believed in the devs. After playing the game in full, I’m glad to have supported the cause! It’s a cute, little advent calendar-themed platformer game. I’ve had a lot of fun with it, with this updated review marking my second playthrough.

While you can just blast through the levels right from the start, I enjoyed using it as an actual advent calendar, playing one level every day. Near the end, I got greedy and figured I might not have enough time to finish the levels amidst everything else so I binged what I had left. It plays well, the game seems to have a gradual difficulty curve with one massive spike at the end, but it’s a fun game. I particularly enjoyed the new inclusion of the mini-bosses this time around, which were fun to defeat.

Speaking of difficulty, as I mentioned, some of the levels are pretty tough but beatable, and this becomes quite apparent in the later stages. Using the game like an advent calendar helped me to not get burnt out from playing because I would focus on one level a day, regardless of how tough it was to beat. Playing daily also helped me get into the spirit of the holidays.

The one level I could not beat is the bonus level. This is also something I couldn’t complete on my first playthrough. Next year I’m going to screen record my play session here and send it to the devs because I’m just at a loss. The bonus level is comprised of several sections, where you must collect all of the snowflakes to continue to the next. If you die at any point, you return to the very beginning. If you read reviews, you see that it can take an hour to beat. I’d like to think I’m not a casual gamer. I have over 20 years of platforming experience. I’ve played this game, now twice over. But even in the first area alone, there are so many instances where you can instantly be killed, and sent back to the start, that I consider it borderline impossible. This, along with some downright unfair gaps to clear, where you need to make PIXEL PERFECT (not an exaggeration) jumps… It just leaves me scratching my head… who is this game for? Why the abrupt difficulty spike? If the bonus level is a celebration of my hard work collecting every snowflake, why is it punishingly difficult to beat, instead of something that rewards me with a fun play session?

The art and the simplicity of the first few worlds tell me that Mission in Snowdriftland is for a younger audience. But I do not believe the younger audience could complete this. I have seen news that the devs are planning to make even more difficult levels to include in the game and I don’t understand why. Some levels are already so difficult that they are frustratingly alienating. I get it, you want players to feel challenged, and rewarded for overcoming the challenge. Of course, there is only so much you can do to increase difficulty when the player character can only move and jump. Call me crazy, but I believe I shouldn’t have to internalize wacky movement tech to be able to cross gaps to beat a platformer game. I think if you’re gonna insta-kill me in a level that takes an hour long, I should have checkpoints. Cut me some slack. Bring some fun back into the game.

My opinions about difficulty aside, the only other thing that would be nice would be a leaderboard to compete with friends for the best clear times of the current day’s level. I’m surprised there isn’t one because the game tracks clear time but does nothing with it. I think this could be a natural extension of including an option to turn the game into an actual advent calendar, by competing for the best times submitted that day by the community and your friends. And, while you can certainly still play it like an advent calendar, you have to restrain yourself with willpower, but having the level locked behind a time gate would be neat as a dedicated feature.

Overall I like Mission in Snowdriftland! The platforming mechanics and gameplay feel great, and I had a great time playing a little bit every day. It does get super difficult in the last few stages, but don’t let that stop you from picking it up and trying it out yourself. I’ll be looking forward to playing through it once again next year!

Geometry Dash + Rocket League = NeoDash, a fun speed runner-type game equal parts challenging and fun. Mastering some of the more difficult tracks results in incredible dopamine highs. NameBrand

It was fascinating to finally find the time to sit down and play this game after watching it slowly come together a little more than a year ago in short clips on TikTok, but here it sits majestically, as a really fun game. Still being tweaked, stages are being added, and user-generated content is filling it to the brim... it's a wonderful sight to behold and it is an incredibly fun game to learn to master.

My opening stinger I stand behind, but I'll provide some more context for it here. It's like Geometry Dash in that you must complete stages in a single go without dying. There are some banger Monster Cat tracks in here, but the stages are not set to any in particular. The more you play a stage and tweak your approach the further you get to the end until almost magically, it seems the muscle memory for the stage has completed its download into your mind... and you win.

It's like Rocket League in that your vehicle is rocket-propelled, but don't go in expecting the rigidity of that system. The car booster is easily understood, but the almost drone-like hovering is where you'll need to refine your skills to become a master. The right analog stick is your best friend in controlling your vehicle's tilt and only after mastering the fine motor skills required to do this, will you be able to complete this game.

Your journey to becoming a master driver is very well paced in the two supplied stages, and then their difficult counterparts. After you've completed those, there are a few event stages. After that, it's on to the community user-generated stages. It's UGC. There are some of the worst-designed stuff, to surprisingly great-designed stages, to ridiculously hard, 7th-level of-hell type stuff. Even if you never get good enough to have the patience to complete some of the more difficult things that the sandbox of NeoDash offers you, there is so much user-generated content that you'll be set with stuff to help you have some fun with it all.

But of course, I recommend you try. Go for the fastest time among your friends. Get stuck on a stage for two hours. Maybe four hours even. Go mad. Forget what time it is. The beauty of NeoDash is you can tune the entire world out while you focus on that one stupid jump that seems impossible... and then you get it. Maybe you finally make it through that last hole in hole in the wall and you're getting smashed by those dumb pistons for literal hours. I've never tried drugs, but I'm imagining the feeling has got to be similar to the moments following your hard-earned victories... After playing for four hours you finally beat the level that takes under a minute to complete and it's like... man... I am the greatest person of all time to ever live and life is worth it. Who knew?

Overall NeoDash scratched an itch that I forgot I had in that weird speedrunning genre, and the "gotta-go-fast" genre. It's incredibly well designed, with great stage progression in the campaign and seemingly endless levels made by the community. If anything I've said in this review has been slightly interesting I highly recommend you pick it up and give it a shot.

To me, Gun Club makes for the perfect post-vr workout game. It's great to do some levels here or there, but I find it difficult to commit more time to it as an actual game. That said, I think it's a great purchase. NameBrand

Gun Club is a great package simply for its value as a game where you can mess with guns on a range. Of course, it's a little more interesting than that with extra scenarios, and some gun customization, but at its core, that's why I picked it up. That fact alone is what keeps it in my collection as something I always keep installed on my headset. But it's only something I can stand to play for about an hour at a time at maximum. Why?

If you're playing Gun Club as a game, you're going to quickly find out that there is unnecessary padding and repetition EVERYWHERE. For example, there are several types of "game modes" on the range that take you through a list of levels or challenges that progressively get more difficult. You'd think that after completing this ladder you'd be done, and could move on to the next activity. This is somewhat true... but it's tied to the weapon type. So you have to run through 40 challenges with the pistol, then swap to the assault rifles and do what is essentially the same 40 challenges with very little variation. They do this with many activities in the game. There are 5 or 6 weapon types, so you can see how attempting to "beat" this game would make you crazy. This not to mention that they pull the same shenanigans in the first DLC that I'm still working through playing.

But the guns all feel great, shoot smooth, have fun accurate reloads, all that. It's fun to mess around with different scopes and make abominations on the gun rails. The holster slots on your body are a little jank, as are the physics with knives and grenades, but that isn't really why you're here anyway. I will say it is a bit annoying to purchase some of the same stuff from the shop multiple times over (again with that per-gun nonsense), but it is what it is. I usually have the money to get by.

Overall I'd say that I recommend it to people looking for a gun range type experience. It's not H3 by any means, but it certainly is the most compact experience you can get with standalone VR and will keep you mildly interested in short bursts of play sessions.

Fun to master, with challenging difficulty, and fine-tuned gun and roguelite mechanics, makes for a fantastic game where no two play sessions ever feel the same. My 2023 VR Game of the Year. NameBrand

The Light Brigade is awesome. I picked it up on a whim on recommendation from a friend, and from then on it was all I wanted to do anytime I put on my headset. It's the strategic, punishing combat, combined with the sweet randomosity of skills and upgrades that kept me coming back, session after session.

I feel my library of VR games is expansive, but nothing is quite like Light Brigade. I've played a lot of fast and arcadey shooters, but if you try to play like that in Light Brigade, you end up dead. Here, you're rewarded for lining up shots, having pin-point accuracy, and using cover to the best of your advantage. Understanding your weapons, and the different game-altering card modifiers also assists in your journey across the realm. In that sense, it plays like a tactical, first-person, roguelite, shooter all of which I'm on board for.

There is certainly a story with a considerable amount of lore in here, don't get me wrong, but it takes a backseat to everything else in my opinion. I think the creator was going for a FromSoft-inspired approach by keeping much of it in secrets, set dressing, and tiny conversations, but it just didn't stick with me. I can't tell you much about the world or narrative besides the fact that there is an evil King or something. Corruption something something. Light guide me or whatever. I just don't know. Loved the overall vibes of the theme though and thought praying was cool and stuff in regards to the world, but I just wish more of it stuck with me.

Guns all felt pretty unique within their respective classes. I enjoyed swapping them out between each run to keep things feeling nice and fresh. Think my favorite class is the dual pistols fella. Was cool how there was an alternate reload for it. Speaking generally about the weapons they're all pretty usable right from the get-go and it's fun making your way through a run and finding unique attachments and weird magical artifacts to augment how you use your weapons. I always found that to be incredibly rewarding.

Despite being able to become quite overpowered due to the different card-based modifiers (these are just your common roguelike spices, like different damage types or whatever, that proc in certain conditions, I don't feel too compelled to explain all that), after completing a few runs and having the world difficulty increase several times... I did find myself running into some quite difficult situations. Sometimes I would be overrun and simply have no ammo. Had a few unlucky spawns where the enemies noticed me right as I spawned into an area and they killed me instantly. I don't know. It got tough, and I'm glad it did, but I certainly hit my limit of difficulty, though it did take "beating" the game 3 or 4 times over to get to that point which I appreciate.

Overall I love this game. There's something so rewarding about sitting down for an attempt or two through the whole thing, sinking points into the different classes, and experimenting with the different cards and combos you can pull off with their effects. It makes for a compelling package of a VR game that is certain to make a nice home in any VR player's library. I highly recommend it.

A perfectly succinct, narratively brilliant, and incredibly fun experience. Blew far past my expectations in just about every regard, and makes for a game I'd recommend to anyone. NameBrand

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (MGotG) is such a rare oddity that this is an exceptionally fantastic, shorter game. I feel like so many games are undeservedly asking for my time, so when I started playing MGotG, I was almost shocked that the entire game was over after 18 solid, enjoyable hours.

To describe it, I think comparisons to the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie (and its sequels) are inevitable, and as much as I consider those movies, the first especially, as some of the best-written Marvel stuff in recent years, I have to say that this game takes the cake. The voice acting, mo-cap, etc., all mesh with the narrative of the game to bring together what will probably be my favorite iterations of these characters for a long time. The "campy" nature of the team joking around with each other is sooo good and exactly what I hoped for. There's so much they do to help you connect with the Guardians through their backstories, and through the events of the game. Out of the last 10 games I've played, I haven't felt more interested in the story and the characters than I did here. Overwhelmingly successful in that regard.

Gameplay is where many players lodge their complaints with this game, and to each their own, but I enjoyed it all. I'd break it down into a couple of different sections: Combat, traversal, and other.

Combat can be really frantic and fun. Guardians all have their own kit of abilities with various uses, and after one is activated, that Guardian goes on cooldown. Guardians have an ultimate ability on a separate cooldown, and you as StarLord have elemental ammo that deals extra damage when matched with an enemy or shield weak to it. So what you have is a lot of ability management, while dodging, matching elemental damage types, and using StarLord's own kit of abilities. After you've been in combat for a while, you can "Huddle" where you can pump up the team for a damage boost by giving a short speech and playing a song from this game's beautifully phenomenal 80's inspired tracklist. I had so much fun with the combat system that I always looked forward to enemy encounters.

Moment-to-moment traversal isn't too special. There are a couple of puzzles here and there, especially if you're hunting down resources or collectibles, but you won't come across anything too difficult. Often the game uses these moments for extra world-building, character interactions, and even some light "choose your own speech-bubble" moments that accent the craziness of the combat, and help give the world scale, and the narrative good structure.

For the other stuff... well there's just some other stuff! I was shocked to see there are several sections with full controls for the Guardian's ship, the Milano, where you pilot it through even a few space battles, which is wild to me. You have some mini-games here and there, some dialogue trees with unique outcomes sprinkled in... there's a nice variety of "other" stuff that really makes the game unique.

On top of all this, again I have to mention: that the tracklist is so good. Better than the movies in my opinion. Got some great Drax moments. He is certainly one of the guys of all time. And man. Cosmo is the best animated dog in any video game ever? Props to the mo-cap actor dog for a stunning performance.

Overall, I couldn't get enough of Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. I made it into the second chapter and was hooked the rest of the way through to the end. Laughed more than I ever have at jokes in the game that were intended to be jokes. Empathized a ton with the characters. I love the tracklist, the combat, the journey, and the incredible writing. It's not my favorite game of all time but it has made an incredible impact on me. This is one of those games that I would recommend anyone play because it's just so dang fun.

Strictly speaking on the campaign, this is the most lore-dense, emotional, and thrilling campaign of any multiplayer-focused game I have ever played, and dare I say, it's a masterpiece. Trust Me.

I came into Titanfall 2 for one reason: To play the campaign. It's only 5 hours or so, and you can find it on sale for 5 bucks or less, I've always heard good things... I knew from my gaming history that I would have fun with the movement, and enjoy its mechanics for the short runtime before I ran off to play other games. But I was not expecting a masterpiece. Just the campaign of Titanfall 2 is a masterpiece. And now I am terribly sad that Apex Legends exists, instead of more of this...

You might be thinking I'm a bit crazy. After all, the analogous action to this is like picking up a Call of Duty game for the campaign. Those have never been the focus. Sure, they're good experiences that acclimate you to mechanics, preparing you for the multiplayer, but I always found them a bit shallow and one note. I heard Titanfall 2 was different. I'm happy to report that it is not just different but in an entirely different league. It's still short, at about 5 hours. But what it manages to accomplish in that short time is so absolutely impactful, so engaging, and so fun, that I can't help but gush about it.

First off, the gameplay is still smooth as butter, and the graphics are absolutely pristine, I feel it can all compete with stuff that's been released this year, 2023. Areas and factions have their own theming, guns are detailed, sound incredible, and feel great to use. The movement mechanics are beyond addicting, running on walls, and killing enemies as fast as you can, it is divine. Everything you would expect from a AAA shooter is dialed in to perfection here, and as a movement shooter, it all comes together in an absolutely perfect little package that I really believe every gamer should have the chance to try. It's all so good.

I found the story to be quite captivating, and the characters (especially BT-7274) to be incredibly charming. BT especially had a huge impact on me as a character, and it was incredible how alone I would feel in the missions without 'em. The range of emotions I felt over the course of my playtime is no doubt influenced directly by the expertly done score that accents your adventure every step of the way, not to mention the bewildering efforts of the voice cast throwing passion behind every line.

The set pieces really help set the game apart and climbing INTO a TITAN mech gives you a real sense of the scale for the areas you'll traverse, and all of it helps contextualize your journey to complete the mission. You're always finding new weapons to fight with, both on foot and in your Titan, and you even get some unique equipment to use, all of which contributes to a nicely paced, consistently fresh experience.

I still cannot believe how powerful this short campaign is. Can't stop thinking about it. Maybe movement shooters aren't your thing. Or maybe you're not up for it for one reason or another or whatever. Maybe you won't feel it in the beginning. Hold on. Let it marinate just a little longer. From my experience, I'm telling you this is something special. This is a masterpiece in its own right. Trust Me. You'll feel it.

Who knows, maybe you'll enjoy it enough to play the multiplayer (which recently got fixed!). This could add another 50 hours as a Pilot in this incredible universe. Maybe enough new players will get Respawn to make a proper third game. I don't know. But I'm fighting for as many who read this to take the first steps into the universe. Spend a few hours as a Pilot. Experience this rich story, and bask in its glory. I absolutely recommend it.

While not Remedy's best work, falling short in some aspects, Quantum Break is uniquely interesting in many ways and has a lot of greatness within. All culminate in what I believe is an excellent game. NameBrand

I'm surprised it took me so long to play this one. I did hear some middling things about Quantum Break and that did deter me, but after my run-through of Control, I knew I had to give Remedy's previous game a go, and I'm really glad that I did. Quantum Break is quite the game.

I think you have to know what you're getting into or you're going to be disappointed. You have to know upfront that there are "TV Show" segments where you will be watching upwards of 30 minutes of REAL TV, with REAL Actors, shot on a REAL camera. This will happen four times per playthrough. What happens in these episodes directly correlates to a choice you make in the game. I LOVED these parts of "the game" for what they were and thought they were excellent at continuing the world-building and expanding the characters.

I think also the gunplay becomes one note pretty quickly. My best guess for why this happens is because you unlock many of your superpowers at the beginning of the game. This is great for letting you live the power fantasy, but because of this, you're left with maybe 6 or so hours of skirmishes that feel vastly the same. The time powers are SUPER cool, and the upgrades to them you earn along the way feel pretty rad. But they aren't quite enough to save it from the small enemy variety, and shallow pool of available weapons. Combat is still fun, but it certainly feels the same throughout. Well, fun until you're playing on hard mode and have to deal with the snipers one-shotting you, but beyond that, great time.

The thing that really holds Quantum Break together is the narrative and the plot. It's interesting almost right from the jump and it just sucks you in. I practically played nothing but this game after it got its hooks in me. It's kind of cringeworthy at times with its lame techno-babble about "time-science" but there's definitely some weird campy enjoyable charm in the midst of it all. Despite this, you certainly don't have to be invested enough to read the countless number of emails and notes scattered across the game, though they do give good insights into the intentions and motivations of the characters. But being just curious enough about the overarching plot will make you want to keep playing.

I do wish your choices mattered a little bit more and that they had greater effects on the story at large instead of being little immediate ripples, but they actually in a strange way, made the plot a bit unpredictable. It wasn't easy to see how it would come together and in that way was fun to experience.

That said though, I don't quite have the motivation to jump back in and experience the other choices that I didn't make. I may return for these after a little time has passed just because I'm really quite curious, but looking at it right after I beat it... I'm just not feeling like it. Which, is a little bit of a shame right? To have whole sections of this game unseen and unplayed. It's those little missteps in the minutia of the gameplay that make me hesitant you know? If it was just a little more polished or different, maybe I'd be right back in playing more...

Overall though, I thought this was a fantastic game. It's got that Remedy charm pulsing throughout. It's a bit raw in places, but I think it's all worth it to experience some of the awesome set pieces, and some of the incredible world-building, in this bizarre TV show, video game combo. If you're like me, waiting for Alan Wake 2 to release on Steam... This is not a bad way to spend your time, especially as a fan of Remedy games. One last aside: Quantum Break walked so that future Remedy games could run. You'll see that in every corner of this game, that DNA that courses throughout Control and (from what I've heard) Alan Wake 2, and it's beautiful and interesting to just experience a studio's history in a way like this. Give it a chance.

Of course, if you see any of the non-bootleg versions of games from this pack at a comparable price, get those instead. Even though this is a meme game, you'll still get a couple hours of fun playing it.

I'm going to reiterate that. If you see Enter the Gungeon, Ape Out, Hotline Miami, Downwell, or ANY of those games on sale for a comparable price to Devolver Bootleg... It's not even a question, you're gonna have a richer, and more enjoyable time playing "The Real Deal" than what 8 knock-off versions of games can amount to. No question.

It would be nice to be able to write, "Yeah! It's like a bunch of demo versions of the games! You'll know if you want to buy the full versions if you grab this." Nahhhh... You won't know, because some of them are such entirely different concepts that comparing them would feel disingenuous. There are SIMILAR gameplay elements, but for the most part, there is almost no direct connection. There are connections some games have to other older games though!

So why recommend it all? That's pretty simple: I bought it for under $3 bucks, and I got about 3 hours of time out of it. I also had fun playing it and unlocking all of the achievements. Blew some air out my nose in amusement. Sure it wasn't the most flushed-out experience, but sitting there on the couch, SteamDeck in hand, I can certainly say I enjoyed the meme for what it was, and in the end, I enjoyed supporting one of my favorite publishers in the process.

It's just one of those games I'm on the fence about. You're bound to find a better use for your money than this, even within the confines of Devolver's own catalog of games. But dang man. It's just funny to own this.

Phantom Liberty. Let me start by being brief: If you own Cyberpunk 2077, you owe it to yourself to experience this expansion to the game. Why is that? There's a myriad of reasons, but the one I wish all 2077 owners could experience is Dogtown. Why Dogtown? It is beautifully designed. You'll first see it on the map, spanning just a couple of football fields out next to Pacifica, and you may think to yourself, "Dang. That is not a big area." On paper, it's not. But every INCH feels used for a quest or a hidden item or something. The verticality of places on top of places on top of places goes beyond anything that the base game has ever even tried attempting, and it just makes Dogtown feel so much more DENSE and alive than some of the busiest streets of Night City. It was something that I continued to play around with and explore for over 40 hours, hardly leaving to go into the base game. I hope the team takes the same approach as they expand Night City's innards, in the successor game.

But what of the story, the characters, the new mechanics, gigs, etc.? They're all fantastic. First, the main plotline. I thought this was done excellently. There are 4 endings to just Phantom Liberty, plus you can unlock a new ending to the base game. These are some of the best quests in the game, brought to life by the lovely combination of acting, writing, game design, and original score. Making decisions in Phantom Liberty feel like they matter, investigating characters beyond the required dialogue always feels relevant and rewarding, and the moments that are supposed to pack-a-punch, absolutely hit home.

I've played enough Phantom Liberty to have experienced all four of the expansion's endings, and all four of them are powerful. Their finales rival many of the base games' best moments. They all feel emotionally heavy, with their sense of gravitas. Not to mention the full-on base game ending, which surprisingly exceeded my expectations. Without spoiling much, I'll say that I do not like the new ending--but I respect the developers for being bold enough to take me there, a place I never thought I would be curious about. It is marvelously done. It is an ending the game needs. It is one you should experience.

The new character inclusions of Reed and Songbird are great. They have excellent dialogue. Their motivations are clear and clever. I think "spy-craft" was the perfect genre for this story and these characters, all the elements work well together. I didn't get attached to Reed/SoMi as much as say, Judy, but they both give powerful performances, enough to make me care about their characters and the story at hand. Other characters around Dogtown are excellent as well, and the stories told through gigs, and optional dialogue I thought were some of the better world-building in this entire game. The developers did a fantastic job.

Speaking of gigs, I think all of Dogtown's gigs are pretty fun and memorable. It's amazing how environmentally different the gigs are in such a small area. Dilapidated cyberware museum, overgrown greenhouse, construction site, fancy bar, I mean the variety of the locations is just awe-inspiring, I am so impressed that they were able to cohesively shove all of this in here, and they all make a big impact in helping each gig feel unique.

There are a couple of gigs that don't feel unique... after you've played them a few times. A bunch of airdrops land around Dogtown from time to time and spawn a bunch of difficult henchmen. These have some exceptionally great loot, and getting to it can be a bit of a challenge. While these constantly spawn, there is a noticeable finite amount of locations, so you're bound to experience all of the scenarios eventually. The other activity is this car-jacking gig that'll randomly appear, where you steal a car, and get it to a safehouse. This also has some random elements like, where to drop off, if enemies are chasing you, if there's a time limit, that sort of thing. These, like airdrops, are fun at first, but quickly wear out their welcome. I'm glad they both exist in the game though, for what it's worth.

Beyond all of this, there are some new abilities that you can get in Phantom Liberty that make V insanely overpowered. This, combined with the ripperdoc who sells iconic cyberware allowed me to kick things up a notch. It was really fun unlocking these, and becoming an unkillable cyberpsychotic god-being in Dogtown. No notes!

Overall, again, I can't express how excellent Phantom Liberty is. I've played over 200 hours of the base game, and I'm here to say this expansion is some of the best that it has to offer. That said, I encourage new players to play through the entire base game first, THEN purchase Phantom Liberty. It'll be much easier to appreciate the genius of the expansion after you've played it all through. For returning players... I wish I were you and could experience it all for the first time over again. This is something special. Again, congrats to the devs for making an extraordinarily fun, timeless banger of a video game expansion. Catch me on the streets of NC, and remember chooms: The Game is Fixed.

As I sit here, thinking about my time with Cyberpunk 2077 after having klepped the last achievement needed for that nova 100% completion both for the base game AND the Phantom Liberty expansion… I'm filled with a lot of emotions. How I feel about the game, and how the game makes me feel, are two distinct thoughts that have made me sit down and solemnly reflect on my life and the messages expressed through the game. It's made me do a deep search within myself as I've tried to understand how the game ticks and why it resonates with me. My fear with writing this review is that I am afraid that I won't be able to express everything about it that I like and why it makes me FEEL the way that it makes me feel. But I'll certainly try my best.

But before that for those short on time, Ultimately…

Cyberpunk 2077 is a masterpiece. It's become the best version that it can be, despite its circumstances, only possible through the countless updates over the past few years. That said, because of its divisive history, I think there will be some who will play it and still find a set of faults that is unique to them, manifested through their expectations, their console/computer, or perhaps their play style. But to that, I say if you're even remotely interested in the game… if you can hold your expectations and judgments and just play the game, you'll start to see the masterpiece shine through and have an undeniably fun experience. If you need more convincing, hold on to your shorts, because I've broken down every aspect of this game, and given you my opinion on it in the following gargantuan article. Enjoy.

Intro/Overview
Cyberpunk 2077 is an immersive futuristic narratively driven role-playing first-person shooter. It was released on December 10, 2020, and developed and published by CD Projekt RED. This playthrough marks the third time I have played through the game, this time with a large focus on its expansion DLC, "Phantom Liberty", which I will have a separate review for, published later. These are just my thoughts on the base game.

My Bias (Our Bias?)
I think my bias is incredibly important to understand my perspective on Cyberpunk 2077. I am in love with the Cyberpunk genre itself. Retro / Dystopian / Corpo / Semi-real / Grungey-inspired future scapes. I can't seem to get enough of them. Right from the outset, Cyberpunk 2077, as a game that takes place in the distant future, forked from a retro-future dystopian history… it's already off to a great start as being a game that I would like despite what anyone else says about it and despite any of its flaws from a technical standpoint (or otherwise).

There's something in my brain that loves thinking about these transhumanism concepts and their deep ethical questions… The dangers and advantages of AI. Cyberware and body modification (especially in a retrofuture sense, with hardware that doesn't make sense in modern terms anymore). Corporations running the world. And yet, despite these concepts, the stories surrounding them and the characters that interact in these worlds are still HUMAN, relatable in their struggles, successes, and goals. I find it all extremely fascinating, just about every time.

I love Deus Ex and its Square Enix cousins. Especially Human Revolution. Bladerunner movies are incredible. Low-fi. Cloudpunk. The Ascent. Ruiner. Citizen Sleeper. This sort of stuff entertains me like nothing else, and as a reviewer, I feel disclosing this bias should help you appropriately make an informed purchase decision, ESPECIALLY if you are someone who enjoys the genre like me.

Without my love for the genre itself, it's hard for me to think if I would love the game as much as I do, or give it as much a pass over its flaws as I do. So, keep that in mind as you continue.

Gameplay
The best comparison I can make for Cyberpunk 2077 is saying it plays as if Bethesda made a Deus Ex game with the gameplay style of their Fallout series. It's a light RPG, with a heavy focus on Action. There are a couple of different ways you can approach combat, namely stealth and guns (or swords) blazing. There are a couple of different weapon types, perk-paths, and cyberware implants that support either playstyle. So a stealth-focused player might find themself surrounded by the likes of silenced pistols, stealth takedowns, knives, optical camouflage, and some netrunner hacks.

Players who favor the action of shootouts may find themselves rushing into combat wielding shotguns, gorilla arms, light machine guns, katanas, and more. There are a lot of "combat scenarios" in the form of missions, police scanner hustles, gigs, and more for you to test these play styles to help you master your chosen form, or inform you of perhaps an alternate way to play that you might enjoy more.

As you use certain weapons and perform certain actions, you'll be granted primary and secondary experience points, which can be used to access perk trees, and actual game-changing perks within the trees respectively. The 2.0 update in particular completely reworked the skill trees, and now they synergize in beautiful ways and overall make much more sense for how this game plays.

The perk tree used to be one of the biggest gripes in my other playthroughs, but the team at CD Projekt Red has tweaked it enough to the point where I was satisfied with it through all my 60+ hours this go around.

That aside, this is one of the most compelling and addicting games I have ever played. Combat is snappy, and regardless of how you choose to play, it's always satisfying to take down a bunch of chromed-up gangers patrolling around a gig, or zeroing waves of enemies storming your position inside of a corpo-controlled super structure… Every weapon type is dialed in to be incredibly fun right when you pick it up, especially if you find an iconic weapon, which usually has an additional effect or two you won't find anywhere else (akin to Destiny 2's exotics). I think the best recommendation I can give is this: I've played this game for over 200 hours through three playthroughs. While the story is excellent, and I live for those down-to-earth character moments, I wouldn't dare come back if the combat sucked or the moment-to-moment gameplay didn't captivate me. It's addicting and exciting, and it immerses you in the world of Cyberpunk, as an Edgerunning merc in Night City.

So the skill trees are cool, and weapons are excellent, but what you can also do to augment your experience is install Cyberware, which, thanks to the 2.0 update, has been massively overhauled to feel like such a bigger part of the game. Around Night City you can find Ripper Docs that will install body modifications that grant you specific bonuses. One of the earliest pieces of chrome you can chip is a metallic skeleton that increases your base armor by a hefty sum, making you take less damage, but there are many ways you can modify V's body to enable additional abilities or effects. This can range from things such as a double jump, temporary optical camouflage, upgrades to your Cyberdeck increasing your base RAM and hacking capabilities, enhancing your nervous system with Edgerunner's famous sandevistan for a sweet time slow down, a rocket launcher in your arm, an auto-revive on death, and all sorts of other cool enhancements. It's these that have great potential to help you in your journey and are wholly unique to the world of Cyberpunk 2077.

So let's go through some of my builds:

In my first playthrough, I opted for a stealth build and I molded my character around critical hits with revolvers, which made it so that I could do an insane amount of damage and down just about any enemy with one well-placed shot. I later opted into using tech weapons as my secondary, which allows you to shoot through walls. Combined with a really basic cyber hack to ping enemy networks, I could effectively wall-bang every enemy at a gig, making them scramble to find me like some kind of rat's nest. Combined with some additional cyberware that let me slow time for a few seconds per interval, I was an absolute demon of the shadows.

In my second playthrough, I had to catch myself from attempting the same style of play and pivoted around level 10 or so into a brawler type. I replaced my cyberdeck with a sandevistan, and I ran around with gorilla fists that did "internal bleeding" damage, which acted like an incurable poison. I also had optical camouflage instead of grenades, and I became even more of a demon of the shadows… I'd walk on-site to a gig, go completely invisible, activate my sandevistan, and completely neutralize an area of enemies within seconds of stepping foot on the job. If I didn't care to get into conflict, or the job required no killing or alerts, I could waltz to the objective, steal the data, and leave without a trace. It was incredible. For those times I did get caught, my backup plan was to use the target lock-based weapons, which automatically home in on enemies. The shotguns in that category are brutal - imagine a spread of 12 or more pellets all course correcting their trajectory to your enemy's head. It's incredible and I love it.

The third time through, I decided that I loved the invisibility and time-slowing combo I opted for that again, but this time, used throwing knives exclusively. Throwing knives rip through enemies like nobody's business. Completely silent, and have the potential to kill in one hit. I became a murderous, undetectable machine. SOOO Fun.

Even still after all this time, I still have at least two more playstyles to experience the combat's full magnitude - an always loud, shotgun-toting, heavy machine gun holding, finger always on the trig, SOB. And a Nano-wire slicin', daemon slicing, quick hack dicin' netrunner. One day I'll get to playing these, but it's probably just good to note here that MORE options exist beyond my 200 hours.

There are a couple of enemy types, you have your regular Joe's, and you've got some heavier harder-to-kill fellas, snipers, and robots or mechs of similar variations, but they're all just different kinds of bullet sponges. What you have to watch out for is the net-runners, they can "hack" your character and inflict burn damage, or make it so you're locked out of using your abilities, and generally, they're quite a pain. If you opt to play stealthily, it generally won't matter what enemies you're focusing on. While there is a myriad of different damage types, I found that there are only two that matter, with hacks and electric damage being more effective against machines, and bullets or fire damage being more effective against humans. The (maybe unintentional) simplicity means you can generally use your favorite weapons against everything. I think some people will find this too simple (the modding community certainly did), but I didn't have much of a problem with it.

Outside of combat, you can expect yourself to have a good time listening to the plethora of radio stations while driving the streets of Night City in any number of purchasable vehicles, perhaps using the photo mode to capture some serene vistas or memorable moments, maybe listening to a character express their woes, or perhaps you're just out shopping and walking around Night City. There isn't much to do beyond gigs by way of activities… unless you count Roach Race, an infuriating arcade game (that you can also play on your phone). You could read the shards in the game, which is like in-game lore, but after you've done that for a while it's hard to know which shards will be rewarding to read anymore… there's quite an overabundance of them (and the game doesn't signify ones you have already read, which gets annoying quickly).

Narrative and Worldbuilding
Cyberpunk 2077's narrative is excellent. It follows a mercenary for hire, "V". During a job, something goes wrong and V is put into a situation where they have to put a chip in their head to preserve it. Little did V know, the chip has the consciousness of the rebellious rockerboy Johnny Silverhand, and it turns out, that this chip with Johnny on it is slowly killing V. For the majority of the game, you and Johnny are looking for ways to get the chip out of V's head so that V can return to living life normally.

While the game does tout itself as being one with a "moldable because of your choices" world, there aren't many decisions that greatly affect the world at large, like on a Mass Effect scale. There are usually choices that immediately affect gameplay, say, how you're going to complete a gig, or what you'll tell another character, but more often than not, the consequences of your actions aren't seen in the long term. There are side quests that on completion open up an option to end the game differently, but those are the exceptions, and even then, those are still quite linear. You can especially sense this outside of the main quest line. This isn't as noticeable in the first act, and in some of the early missions, but later on, you can start feeling that your choices don't have much weight to them outside of the mission or side story they're restricted to.

But, for those choices that do come up, having Johnny around gives an interesting perspective to your decision-making. He will often appear and tell V to do something his way, trying to persuade you as the player to make his choices. I often found myself thinking about what I might do, only to be interrupted by Johnny and then backtracking in my mind thinking about them again with Johnny's added two cents. Would things be better if I listened to the voice in my head? What if he's wrong? What if I'm wrong? While the weight of V's choices does not sway the world at large as aforementioned above, that dynamic was still enough to make me think about the implications of my actions regardless of how the game decided to carry them out, and I thought it was an excellent use of the main stories "two consciousness in one mind" conundrum, something that can't necessarily be explored as effectively in other fictions quite like this.

Something I have to applaud CD Projekt Red for is the quality of their side quests. I think in a lot of other RPGs, I'm very used to the idea that side quests are simple, surface-level fetch quests that typically don't weigh very much on the game world or my character (well, outside of the XP or loot they may offer). In Cyberpunk 2077 however, I found many of the side-quests to be rich with story, some so much so that I think they rival even the main questline's narrative with how impactful they can be in regards to their emotional payoff and the overall quality of their stories. They continue to build out the world of Cyberpunk and as side quests, they opted to make them completely missable and optional. It's bonkers for me to think some players will miss out on some of Cyberpunk's best content, as these captivating stories are some of the best that the game (and games as a whole) have to offer, as they continue to build the world up and make it feel like an actual location in some parallel world.

The questions that arise in your mind as you play many of the side quests (and even some main quest stories) will make you question technology, humanity, fate, and more, all through the lens of the Cyberpunk universe. Some quests will have a comedic tone to them, as you find yourself hunting down rogue taxi AIs, only for the questline to culminate in a head-scratching finale, where your choices in the final decision are nothing but serious, morally grey answers filled with even more questions. In some other quests, the nature of the missions, and the horrific events that transpire are so dark, that even behind the monitor of my computer screen I couldn't help but feel a foreboding sense of terror, to the point where I was expecting a jumpscare that would never come. Other times I would sit with a character at a point in their quest line and talk with them, while we look on at the city in quiet contemplation, promoting thoughts and feelings of a serene hope for the future, yet still while feeling a twinge of dread knowing that everyone is at the mercy of the city that always wins. CD Projekt RED's ability to immerse you as V, and take you across a broad emotional spectrum, within the same universe, in the same game, across several different genres of captivating stories, is absolutely a masterclass stroke, and I argue is second to no other game I have played within recent memory. I can't possibly express that enough.

Supporting all of this is the incredible voice talent they were able to recruit for the game and the excellent writing that's behind every line of dialogue. Something I discussed in my podcast discussing Cyberpunk is how it's incredible that they were able to create lingo for Night City that doesn't make your skin crawl with cringe when you hear it. It feels completely natural in this universe, and it almost feels natural enough for you to use even now. Of course, there are some scenes and quests and voice lines that do make you cringe a bit. But overall, the quality of the voicework and the writing is impressive across the board and all add to the immersion that you feel as V in Night City, during the year 2077.

The last note I want to make about the world-building is while it is incredibly impressive and immersive, almost more than any other game I have played, I do have one critique. You'll find text message conversations at every police scanner hustle that explain the events leading up to the crime in that particular location. While I think, "Hey that's pretty cool", and "Hey, that builds out the world with NPC's that feel alive", I also think from a player's perspective… If I'm going around and knocking 3 to 5 of these out in the space of 5 minutes, the last thing I want to do is read why some dude got flatlined during an illegal exchange of aftermarket cyberware. As a reader of this article, you might think it's not too bad, but there are at least a hundred of these hustles. This is not to mention that similar non-consequential time-waster text logs are littered throughout gigs and missions and even within the city. I like being able to read lore in the game, and it's great that it's written from the perspective of characters who live in this world, but for something like this, I prefer quality over quantity. So, considering myself to have experienced everything the game has to offer, I can confidently say to you, that a lot of these hustle logs are worth skipping after you get the general idea from reading about a dozen of them. The game will notify you if they're important enough to read for additional side quests, so there is not much point in reading them if you're not feeling inclined to, but by the same token, I wish what existed to read was more worthy of my time and attention.

V attends Arasaka's parade in JapantownVisuals and Performance
For this playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077, I played on my PC, with an RTX 3070 and a Ryzen 7 CPU. Performance out of the box was good, I opted into playing with low Ray-Tracing, which made the game look excellent and overall gave me a smooth experience. I also played for a bit on SteamDeck, though this was only to play Roach Race on the couch (which worked wonderfully, and yes I did get the cowboy outfit from getting the highest score, thank you).

The game is breathtakingly beautiful, even without the ultra-impossibly realistic ray-tracing overdrive. I haven't taken this many in-game photos before. The design of Night City is crisp and clean, The vehicles and their interiors are sleek not to mention cohesive with their in-game manufacturer. Same with weapons, beautifully crafted, incredibly fun to use of course, and the animations are solid. I have never had an issue with the graphics. It's overall a really pretty game.

The UI I think at times can leave a bit to be desired. I think a lot of it could be cleaner, and I'm sure some mods do this, but in vanilla, it feels a bit lacking. Better since launch, but there are still some optimizations that could be made there. Serviceable enough for most players though, I imagine.

Audio Design
I have to rave about the soundtrack for a moment. It is GOD-TIER. The emotional weight that the ambient tracks can convey as they're played in the context of the game - I'm talking The Sacred and the Profane, Been Good to Know Ya, Outsider No More, The Voice in My Head, Rite of Passage, Real Window, the Bells of Laguna Bay… Absolute masterpieces. I cannot properly convey how incredible of a job P.T. Adamczyk & team did. I would pay top dollar to see it live. I don't even know what I need to say to make people believe this is one of the best game soundtracks of all time. And that's just me praising the somber ambient stuff, I could go on for days talking about Rebel Path, V, Pat(idiots), Cyberninja, and more. It is DIALED in to perfection.
The radio music is also GOD-TIER quality. The band they created for this game SAMURAI, incredible, inclusions of real-life artists, like, GRIMES. Shivers down the spine. Every track included in the radio and those used even beyond the radio are top-tier, placed with surgeon-level precision in the game's narrative beats to create one of the truly most GOD-TIER video game soundtracks of all time. There was about a month straight where I would show up to work, shuffle the entire game and radio soundtrack (which is about 8 hours), listen to the entire thing, go home, then wake up, and shuffle it again. For like a month straight. Not to mention, I did this last year and the year before that. My past TWO YEARS of Spotify-wrapped include many songs from Cyberpunk 2077, and with Phantom Liberty's inclusions, we're on track for the third year in a row probably. Yes. The soundtrack is THAT GOOD.

As far as in-game sounds go, they're perfect. Guns are weighty, punchy, and satisfying, the cyberware activations sound futuristic and awesome, swords and knives sound slice-y and dicey… No complaints. Stole the phone noises for my phone IRL lol.

Conclusion
If you've read even a small portion of this review, you understand that I think very highly of this game, and it should come as no surprise that I do place it within my best-of-all-time list, perhaps even within my top 10 of all time. It has a flawed history, and may even have parts that are still flawed because of that. But it is a masterpiece nonetheless that has resonated with me in a wholly unique way that no other video game has been able to do. It's games like this that make me want to keep playing games and experiencing their stories, characters, soundtracks, and messages. It's games like this that make me want to be creative and write about them, or even write stories of my own.

The gameplay is, as my friend Jorddagreatest puts it, "undeniably fun", the world-building and narrative are top-notch, and the soundtrack is GOD-TIER both on the ambient side and the artist inclusion side. It is impossible to not see brilliance around every character, building, weapon, and narrative beat.

It's a shame that players will potentially find their own set of faults with the game and for one reason or another won't play it, or will stop playing it before they can see the brilliance within. But I genuinely hope dear reader, that if you're even slightly interested in playing Cyberpunk 2077, you'll push through any hesitancies you may have or will have, to give the masterpiece contained within a chance to shine through and show you what it's made of.

The part of the game that is undeniably a masterpiece to me is those quiet moments outside of the killing, usually somewhere tucked within the story, where you could sit in quiet contemplation on the outskirts of the city… the music resonating just right… with thoughts and emotions given context through the path you've blazed. A thing of beauty, I know. Never fades away.

There's something so simple and satisfying about Walkabout Mini-golf. There's no extra fluff. It is MINI-GOLF. All the best parts about it too. Courses are expertly themed and generate memorable experiences through each. The more difficult night-time versions of each course are quite difficult. It's all good fun from top to bottom, and they nailed the mini-golf vibe.

On top of this, I love the collect-a-thon elements of finding unique golf balls throughout each course, and I enjoyed the "treasure hunt" for unique putters in the night courses. There's a lot you can customize to make it feel personalized.

It can't be overstated how well the multiplayer works. I originally purchased it to connect with my younger brother and we had a blast every time we played. No lag, no disconnects, no hiccups. Was a flawless experience. It was a great way to talk and get to know my brother a bit better. Occasionally we would just see how crazy we could hit the ball and still get it close to the goal. We got a few hole-in-one's and loved the replay feature to relive those crazy moments. It was a great time.

I think the amount of courses in the base game is certainly enough, but if it isn't they do have a couple of DLC courses, but I can't comment on those because I haven't tried them.

Overall, I think Walkabout Mini-golf is an excellent addition to your VR library, especially if you're just looking for something a little more relaxed to play with your friends. Recommended!

I've grappled with how I feel about SoT for a long time and ultimately I recommend it. My hesitation comes from one thing: the single-player experience. I'm typically a solo player. I used to game with friends multiple times a week. Then it became just once a week. Now I'm lucky if I game with anyone else once a month. So naturally, many of my general game sessions are in games I can play alone. Of course, many games allow you to be paired with Rando's, Sea of Thieves included, but I'm just not that kind of guy.

Sea of Thieves is very much a multiplayer game. I know you can play alone, I've seen my friend captain a 6-man ship on his lonesome and he enjoys the thrill of it. Best pirate I've ever seen. But man, I'm not compelled to hop on by myself in a little 2-man sloop. I don't feel the pull. I don't think it's a stretch to say the game wasn't designed for solo players anyway.

So I've always played Sea of Thieves with friends, and I've always had a great time. Didn't think it would get that way starting. The combat is simple, the menus and UI somewhat unintuitive, all of it tied together with a bit of jank and simplicity. The basic player functions are certainly not where Sea of Thieves shines, and had the experience not improved beyond the tutorial island I may not have booted it up ever again after all.

Sea of Thieves shines because it is an exceptionally great ADVENTURE simulator. Rare has programmed so many different scenarios, aspects about pirates, and myths of the seas, that it is impossible not to have some wildly fun adventure every time you play. No session is ever entirely predictable. You enter the game with your friend(s) and the adventures you weave are possible because the game is full of little systems and mechanics that beautifully overlap each other to help create memorable micro-stories at every turn, all fueled by you and your friend's booty-fueled pirate ambition.

And the more you play the more you're rewarded. I don't particularly agree with the additional monetization on top of the purchase price, but you don't have to interact with that stuff if you don't want to, and in fact, you can earn quite a lot of "premium" currency just by playing the game without paying. It's all used for cosmetics anyway, so you don't have to necessarily even worry about it. Throughout your adventures, it'll add up. One day you'll have enough to get a dog, or a parrot, or some cool ship theme with loads of trinkets. It takes time, but what better way to show your seniority in a game about treasure and loot?

This is not to mention that the devs regularly introduce new narratives, quality of life changes, and more through their seasonal model, which can for the most part be interacted with completely for free. It is wild to me (with my Destiny 2 brain rot) that they let all players PLAY the seasonal stuff, regardless of whether or not they purchase the season pass. Buying the game upfront has its benefits!

In thinking about those whom I've spoken with who aren't interested in Sea of Thieves. I think most people (including those who have expressed their disinterest) could play this game with their friends and enjoy their time with it. The gameplay loop might be a bit slow depending on what job you set out to do throughout your play session. But you bring the right friends together and it really can be an absolute blast. If you're skeptical, wait for a sale. Know that you've got potentially hundreds of hours of adventures to go on, and that really, what you'll get out of Sea of Thieves is what you AND your friends put into it.

So, overall I recommend it. It might not be the most polished game, or the most interesting right from the outset. But it has the potential to give you and your friends tales of adventure to last a lifetime.

SuperHot is excellent but is also superseded in just about every way through its successor, Mind Control Delete (MCD). I might even go as far as to say that Superhot is the demo version of MCD. SuperHot's campaign takes a few hours, and the rest is arcadey blitzes... through the same campaign levels. MCD has a set of levels, sure, but they're augmented by extraordinarily different gameplay elements that make each pass through them wholly unique. If you're interested in SuperHot at all, I would 500% recommend that you just spend the extra money for MCD. It's leaps and bounds ahead of SuperHot by so many metrics it practically renders SuperHot just a relic of its time as a game that held one of the craziest sweeps of public interest for an indie PC game. For that reason I do NOT recommend it, however, that does not mean SuperHot is a bad game.

All that said, and removing MCD out of the picture so we can get some thoughts in:

SuperHot is still excellent all these years later. Plays smooth as butter and feels exceptionally cool to control. The game believes it's one of the most innovative shooters in years and I believe it. Being in complete control of your actions regardless of how long you take to make them is an absolute power trip. In a sense, it creates the feeling that you're not necessarily playing a shooter, but a turn-based FPS. You are as flashy as you dare to be. You are as lethal as you can imagine. It's an experience unlike any other game, and just when you feel the thrill of it, it's over.

Let's talk about that for a second. The main narrative in SuperHot takes about 2.5 hours to get to the credits. After that, they essentially challenge you to beat the game four or five more times, just using one weapon type at a time. I think it's great that there are essentially more ways (and thus reasons) to play the game, but for all intents and purposes, credits roll for most at hour 2.5 and that's where they lose a lot of players. You can tell by the rarity of the achievements in Steam, marking where players would complete these challenges. These days, the value proposition for SuperHot is redeemable when the game is marked on sale for about $5-7 bucks, then it's just like the price of going to a movie. I can't say that I would be satisfied with this at full price. Even with the "more" that exists post-credits, you're left feeling like the game's ideas haven't been explored enough... (cough play MCD cough)

But maybe you're just looking for a little palate-cleanser-type game to play in between two other, larger gaming commitments... this could be an excellent way to spend that kind of time.

My last note here is the game has an exceptionally great atmosphere. For me, it felt like a horror game at times. The game hardly has a soundtrack, and the sounds that are used, convey a sense that you as the player are in a void, and not quite alone. I was jump-scared several times during my playthrough because enemies don't create noise as they hunt you down. Unsettling, is the best word for it all, and this is especially emphasized as you follow the small narrative that gives a modicum of meaning to your quest through the stages in the game. In skimming a few reviews before posting this, some did not like the narrative at all, but I thought it was excellent.

Overall, SuperHot is a great game, but again, to circle back to my very first paragraph, if you're interested at all in SuperHot, there is so much more value in Mind Control Delete, that it makes almost no sense to purchase SuperHot, and therefore makes it so I can't in good faith recommend it. There's more game, mechanics, and so much more replayability in MCD. It's just a better overall bang for your buck. But hey, maybe you're not about that, maybe you're a "play the first before the sequel" kind of person, or maybe you're just interested... well... Wait for a bit of a deeper sale and grab it for cheap. You'll still have a blast.

I haven't quite collected everything like I would like to, but I don't think that'll change my opinion. I love Yoku's Island Express! It's such a fun little game brimming with charm. I'm glad I crossed paths with this one and hope more people can do so as well.

I think it's important to know my background: I'm not great at pinball. I grew up around grimy arcades and have played tons of pinball, but never got it down. That said, I thought the pinball stages that are included in here are great. Really bite-sized and comprehensive. Every once in a while I'd feel a bit braindead, slamming the ball in the exact same spot 12 times in a row. But that's my problem! And despite that, I had a wonderful time.

There's something really magical about the combination of genres that Yoku's Island Express (YIE) is able to pull off as well. Using fruit to unlock new areas, new areas unlocking new abilities, and having an objective across a big open map all works SOOO well. Every little loop of gameplay is perfectly refined and harmonious with one another. It's really made me want to check out more "casual" metroid-vanias.

I think some people might look at how little it takes (by way of playtime) to reach end credits, but I thought it was perfect. I estimate that I probably have another 3 hours to get all the collectibles for the "true-ending", and on top of that the game ships with a randomizer! So there's a lot of potential for replayability.

Overall I don't have any complaints with Yoku's Island Express. It's such an excellently casual and cozy game, I believe that just about anyone who picks it up will have a really fun and relaxing time playing it.

I've always been a fan of card games but their digital counterparts never gripped me. Magic the Gathering, Hearthstone, and even Legends of Runeterra, they're all great, don't get me wrong, but I have never felt the pull to play them more than a handful of times, especially on my phone. That's changed with Marvel Snap. I think it's the best digital card game on the market.

However, it comes bundled with one of the most horrendously overpriced and BS microtransaction stores I have ever seen. You have the option to buy card packs for upwards of $80 USD. That's nuts. Seasons cost $10 USD, and last only a month, and there's no way to use in-game currency to renew them, so to play every season in a year, you're paying over 120$ yearly. It is absolutely atrocious, and I condemn it with every fiber of my being.

Despite that, I keep coming back. I keep playing. I mostly play on my phone, where I greatly appreciate the game being created for portrait mode (which, thank heavens, people besides me finally realized it's THE best aspect ratio for card games on mobile). I've played 3 or 4 seasons, and have been playing since Android beta, up through the launch of the native PC app, and I'm still going. Been around a while. Still, keep coming back.

What makes it great is that battles are quite quick, just a few short minutes. Can easily shove a few games into your spare minutes throughout the day to try and complete tasks that give you currency and upgrades. Because of the smaller deck size, it's also really simple and fun to craft different decks of cards, something I have not bothered to do in any other digital card game. It's all so approachable, yet the strategy you can employ has the capacity to run quite deep.

Despite their greedy and pure evil microtransaction prices, you can collect every card in the game without paying a dime. Microtransactions can speed up that process for sure, but it's not difficult to collect cards and bolster your collection with fun combos of cards and abilities. The card drops are slightly random, in that you blindly pull from "pools" of cards, and as you collect more cards from the lower pools, your chances of higher-tier pool cards become greater. So the longer you play, the more rare cards you will collect, adequately rewarding your time.

Collecting new cards comes from increasing your "Collection" level, which is done by making cards in your collection look cooler (making the art pop out of the frame, giving it a 3D parallax effect, among other things). These actions require character boosters and credits, which you can earn from winning (or losing) matches, and weekly challenge markers. Each "upgrade" on your cards adds to your collection level, and every couple of levels will net you rewards, or the chance at a new card from one of your card pools mentioned earlier.

In play, cards interact with each other with about 5 variating keywords that determine their effects, and cards also have a cost and a power number. In any given match, the goal is to try and take two of the 3 locations on the board by having the most power at them after the final turn. Locations have their own set of effects, and on top of that, there is a TON of them. Some locations will do nothing. Others practically determine the winner the moment they're revealed. How cards interact with each other, on top of how they interact with locations, is what makes every match feel fresh and unique. It's the variance that'll let you play hundreds of matches in a day and not feel any fatigue. It's crazy fun.

So if you think you're a hot shot at any given point during a match you can "Snap" to double the rewards of winning from 2 to 4 "cubes"(?). Your opponent can choose to keep playing or forfeit half of the winning amount of cubes. Or they can double down and make the winnings double from 4 to 8 cubes. On win, your cubes are added to a meter, which increases your competitive level (reset every season). You can earn various unique rewards for reaching various level thresholds. I think it's a good system and gives me good motivation to win, or retreat and lose less than a full defeat.

On top of this, you have friendly matches you can play with your friends, conquest mode, and a few other things that will certainly keep you occupied anytime you boot it up. Plus it's in active development, so even if you're not playing the season, you can still experience the new locations or some of the new cards (vicariously through your opponent). So things are always changing and evolving and I hope it just keeps on going.

Overall, like I mentioned before, I've never been so hooked on a digital card game. Matches as fast, cards and their effects are cool and have excellent combos, and it always feels fresh to play. I highly recommend it to anyone.