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!

Never has a game felt so retro and modern at the same time. A short but unique experience with something happening at any moment. It's a game you won't quickly forget but does not really have any replay value. It's a bit on the easy side, so in a way a good game to start with to get into rpg's.

My thoughts:
(+ = (mostly) positive; - = (mostly) negative)
+ Gameplay;
Fun inside and outside battles. Very tight controls and the timing attacks are pretty satisfying to land. Battle mechanics are super simple, so there is barely any planning needed to progress through the game.

++ Music;
All songs are jams and memorable. Love that you can switch between retro and modern versions. Both sound very good so sometimes I couldn't even choose between them.

++ Graphics;
Pre rendered old 3D graphics have been my favorite from back in the day. This game succeeded in giving this a HD treatment without losing that old graphic magic. It exactly looks like you imagined it looked like back then. Gave me a very surreal feeling when I started the game.

+- Story/Characters;
It's simple but I think it's fine because the game is rather short. For RPG standards it doesn't deliver, but for Mario standards it's perfectly fine.

Recommend?
If you want to get into rpg's or just a simple and fun adventure, this might be the game for you.

Signalis felt like a mind-bending experience that I was unable to completely wrap my head around on my first playthrough. It is exceptionally atmospheric in all of its senses; the music and sound design are both beautiful and haunting, and the visuals stylistic and creepy. Not to mention the use of language! English, German and Japanese mixed together fit the world of Signalis very well in my opinion.

Comparatively, the puzzle elements of Signalis are much stronger than the combat aspect. I concede that the game would feel a bit empty without combat, but it was quite annoying to wade through hordes of enemies in tight spaces while emptying clips that did seemingly no damage. The puzzles are so incredibly original and fun, though. Signalis creatively combines all kinds of stimuli into its puzzles, so that the player feels rewarded by completing them. I personally loved the radio mechanic, which is something I have never seen so cleverly used in any other game to date.

Aside from missing a key from time to time, the puzzles were never unclear due to convenient "lore letters" revealing information about core concepts, such as how to operate certain puzzle mechanics. In other words, players that are interested in reading background information are rewarded with hints. All this information is stored and easily accessible later, so getting stuck is never frustrating either.

In the next couple of days, I will be looking into the lore of Signalis a little more to hopefully increase my understanding of the story. This game is very interesting, to say the least. Fans of Resident Evil will surely get a kick out of this, seeing as Signalis greatly resembles that playstyle.

The first Talos Principle is still one of my favourite games of all time, which is why I was very excited for the announcement of a sequel. The puzzle elements of the first installment were difficult, and therefore so satisfying to solve. The philosophical elements were also well-presented, but they were not my main reason for loving the game.

The Talos Principle II is a great sequel to the first, in that it introduces an insane amount of new puzzle mechanics. I was incredibly excited to see how they would all combine, to create puzzles just as mind-melting as TP1 and its DLC.

Every region introduces at least 1 new main mechanic, and every one of the 8 puzzles in the region shows off the unique applications for that mechanic. Gradually, the game builds up your arsenal, and does so quite well if you follow along with the story and numbering of the puzzles. However, the scale of the main puzzles remained quite small for some reason, making them easy to solve (at least to me).

The gold puzzles were more of a challenge for sure, which are only unlocked after completing every normal puzzle available. But there are only 12 of them, and even in these puzzles it felt like the mechanics were never really combined very well. Why not create some puzzles that use all mechanics? Or throw some curveballs into the mix by showing off some hidden qualities of items, like the DLC of the first game did? Frankly, I was left a bit dissatisfied, since there was really only 1 puzzle I had to think about for more than 15 minutes. Hopefully the developers will bring out some new content in the future that utilises much more of the awesome item capabilities than the base game does.

Now to move on to the story: I think the developers missed the mark a bit on the story of TP2. What made the first game so magical, was the mystical and tranquil wonderment of its world, coupled with atmospheric visuals and music. The visuals are definitely still there in TP2, but it feels like the developers wanted to shove some epic in there, even though this is not why most of the audience became a fan of the first game. In TP, you were allowed to explore and read philosophy however much you wanted. If you were just there for the puzzles, nothing would hold you back. However, in TP2, you're constantly bombarded with cutscenes, forced conversations and a lot of background babbling that I frankly wasn't really that interested in. Had I been given the choice to approach the story in my own way, I would have found it a lot more interesting. In addition, a lot of the calm magic of the first game felt lost to the grandeur of TP2, both visually and auditorily. Megastructures, datastreams, never before seen physics...I would have preferred a more introspective approach than the science fiction of TP2.

Next to this, Damjan Mravunac did a fantastic job on the OST once again, as it was very well fit to the atmosphere and story of the game. I will still listen to the OST of TP more than TP2, because it feels less bombastic and heroic, but I liked it nonetheless.

Lastly, I thought the ending I got was just exceptional. It tied the knot of the story, and had some of the best visuals I have ever seen in a videogame.

Overall, my enjoyment of TP2 was never really hampered by the developmental approach. Having said so, I highly recommend people to check out TP first. Especially its DLC, called Road to Gehenna, is an awesome treat for puzzle fans! If you liked the first game, I am sure you will like the second as well, even if you don't care much for the conversations the game has to offer. After all, you are still able to skip anything that doesn't interest you.

Star of Providence (formerly known as 'Monolith', but changed due to possible Copyright issues) is a phenomenal game. It has everything you could want in a shoot-m'-up Roguelite title: long-term progression, a plethora of weapons and weapon variations, clear visual and audio cues of enemy attacks, plenty of enemies and bosses with varying difficulty and attack styles, and I could go on and on.

The difficulty of Star of Providence is through the roof, but is kept fair by giving the player precise movement, mobility and only a teeny tiny hitbox. More importantly, I was able to learn my way through the difficulty curve without looking up any information on how to reach secrets or secret bosses, which is something I greatly appreciate of this title.

In addition, the game lets you customise builds and runs however you like, by giving the option to toggle settings and unlockables on/off whenever you want. You can change the difficulty of the game, how punishing the run will be, what weapons and bombs will appear in the spawn pool, and the game even allows you to input seeded runs.

The art and music of SoP are both incredible as well. Normally I dislike chiptune OST due to its shrill nature, but SoP's OST is devoid of this, making it a pleasure to listen to. Granted, some of the enemy sounds can be a tad loud, but this is needed for you to notice when an attack is coming.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the lore that goes behind this game. At first glance, it may seem like a regular shmup, but the story is actually quite interesting once you figure out why the world is as broken as it is. Many NPC's within the hub of the game reveal information on their experiences, allowing you to puzzle together a great deal of lore yourself.

The only aspect of Star of Providence that I did not enjoy was the looping system. Looping, unlike changing the difficulty, changes certain aspects of the game whenever enabled. Mainly, bullet and minion output of regular enemies are greatly increased through this setting. You can loop as much as you want, increasing the difficulty only slightly every time you do so. At a certain point (from loop 25 and on), this mechanic forces you to completely overhaul your playstyle to an aggressive one, because you will need to kill enemies before they start attacking to avoid their hellish - and frankly unavoidable - bullet output. In other words: the game is not so much about dodging anymore, but more so denying enemies to attack you in the first place, which I find a bit excessive considering you need to withstand this for a minimum of 50 loops to get the final achievement. Like this achievement's name, it really feels like an eternal nightmare.

Despite this, I highly recommend SoP to any fan of the shmup and Roguelite genre. It is truly one of the best games I have played in the genre, and I have played a lot of them. If you play without 100%-ing, it has about 50 hours of content, so it is definitely worth its price as well!