Finished in 2024

Absolutely phenomenal game! This game has it all for me: horror/thriller theme, interesting characters, fun gameplay and a conceptually strong story. It vaguely reminds me of my favourite show Hannibal, like somehow the vibes been incapsulated in a game.

I have to be honest: i got the first Alan Wake game in a steam sale once YEARS ago, played it for a bit, shelved it and forgot about it. Ended up seeing the Herald of Darkness gameplay on my fyp and that immediately drew me in. It’s so incredibly camp - decided I’d go back and give this franchise (and other Remedy games) another go. Played Alan Wake 1 and followed up with this one immediately after.

I’m absolutely sold on this universe. I get it now. I’m gonna continue om with Control…

Roboquest does everything it needs to do. Incredibly fast pace, fluidity, a plethora of unique weapons, great economy and progression system, good performance and graphics, and most of all one of the most satisfying and fun shooters I have ever played.

Sometimes, you stumble onto a game that just feels right. Roboquest is one of them. It is never frustrating, never unclear, never boring...it just works. The only thing I didn't like that much was the music because of repetitiveness, but other than that, I have literally zero criticisms.

I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys first person shooters, shoot-em-ups, or roguelites. Even more so if you have a friend to play with!

Return of the Obra Dinn and Papers Please both have the personality of their creator, Lucas Pope, written all over them. Yet, they are both so distinct and original, you cannot compare the two at all.

Obra Dinn is such a unique and creative way of storytelling, and the setting for it is probably the most interesting one could imagine. It feels incredibly real, mostly because of design: the ship's crew is diverse and 18th century-like, the languages are spoken by native speakers, the ship's design is true to its inspirations, and the interactions and motivations of the characters are exactly how one might envision them when thrown into a tragic story like this. The voice-acting is full of emotion, allowing you to closely follow what's happening on screen, even though you aren't even seeing the characters move.

The string of clues the player must follow is laid out in a scattered pattern, but I never felt lost in the story. Sure, putting names to characters is difficult sometimes, but I always felt like I knew what was happening in every scene. When I completed the story, I immediately watched a video with all scenes chronologically, and it all made perfect sense.

The one thing I would have changed about this title, is to allow the player to control cutscene length; at certain scenes, I felt short on time to view everything that was happening, while at others I felt like I had to wait ages. It would have been great to be able to choose when you want to open the book to insert the scene, instead of being forced to wait a certain amount of time.

But, this waiting time also adds value to the amazing soundtrack that accompanies every scene. It was fitting and well-composed in my opinion, much like the soundtrack of Papers Please. It would have been a disservice to skip the music on my first playthrough in my opinion.

Overall, I think this is an amazing puzzle-adventure! It's easy to understand, and hard to perfect, meaning that anyone will get a good kick out of it. I sincerely hope that Lucas Pope will develop more games in the future, because they are an absolute joy to play through.

Het spel had problemen, maar ik heb gewoon genoten.

Wat leuk was:
- Open wereld, was een mooie verandering na de vorige lineaire spellen.
- De pokemon lopen nu rond in de wereld, en vangen is leuk
- Was soms nog best een uitdaging

Wat minder was:
- Technische problemen, waaronder een gebrek aan interieuren en vreemde glitches
- Progressie is een beetje verwarrend. Had beter geweest met dynamische levels (afhankelijk van je aantal badges), gezien ik nu soms dingen deed waarbij de tegenstanders veel lagere levels ineens hadden
- Het spel voelt gerushed

I sure love this game, but have to admit getting 102% isn't the most fun thing to do. Many of the collectables are hidden in a way that it feels impossible to find without a guide. Other than that the game is a great joy and always will forever be my childhood game.

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
++ Gameplay;
Tight controls and great levels. I like all levels aside from toxic tower. idk who came up with that level, but he surely was having a bad day while designing it.

++ Music;
Perfect.

++ Graphics;
Pre-render 3D is still my favourite artstyle.

++ Story/Characters;
Shout out to my by cranky kong. He's so silly.

Recommend?
Yes, play all dkc games!

People seem to hate so much on Gates to Infinity -- and trust me I can see the obvious hurdles -- but it's a good 20-hour-ish game.

The story is great and definitely is on par with everything that Explorers put down. Side characters have semi fleshed-out personalities and backstories. There is an option to make sleep/totter/whatever seed farms which adds to the overall goal of your partner. It's very cute.

It's the extremely slow text speed, limited character roster and unwavering dungeon designs that make this game hard to get through. The first couple of dungeons and the final dungeons have the same layout and are all hallway spaghetti.

It's not as replayable as EoT/D/S but I had fun playing it nonetheless!

Definitely watch a playthrough if you are not as invested in the Mystery Dungeon saga but want to experience the story.

100% and fully played in local co-op.
Finally a Mario bros game that feels new and fresh. A great joy to play and also to 100%. The whole game is fun from start till finish!

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
++ Gameplay;
At first I thought the wonder flowers would only appear every so often, but it turns out you can find one in every level! All of them truely give a spin to the level in a way you will or won't expect at all! It's a fun mix between the traditional gameplay, badges to give it some extra flare and wonder flowers to give something completely different.
The co-op could have been a bit better. Not all levels work fine when only 1 player has the camera focus. I'd say Rayman legends has the best 2d platformer co-op camera.

+ Music;
There are some bangers, but not all of them are memorable. I'm one of the few people who enjoyed the talking flowers.

++ Graphics;
Everything is improved from the previous games since super Mario world. I'm not a fan of the elephant designs, especially for the princesses... Toad one kinda cute ngl.

+- Story/Characters;
Wish not half of them were color skins and easy mode. Would have preferred if you could toggle between the modes or something. Story is simple as always but that's fine.

Recommend?
Must have for the switch! If you like this, you have to play Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze and Rayman legends!