Risk of Rain 2 made me fall in love with roguelites, a genre I have been trying to get into for a while now. It's so much fun and filled with a slick cast of characters who all play nearly nothing alike. The item system is simple yet surprisingly deep, and the multitude of combinations gives way to near infinite builds and possibilities. This leaves room for you to learn and break the game and its systems as you please. Limitations are few and far between, and you'll ultimately only be limited by your own time and how long your computer can survive. There's so much diversity in different routes and things to do, and it's all wrapped up in one charming package. There is always more to discover around every corner. It's great in multiplayer and excellent alone, and I have had way more fun with this game than I ever thought possible.

The modding scene is excellent on PC once you feel comfortable diving into it, giving way to endless hours of fun. This game has taken over my life for the past month and a half, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I've only just logged this now that I've beaten all 3 endings and got all the characters, and I'm fiending to dive back in for the 100%. I think the devs might've slipped crack between the lines of code.

Short, sweet, and tough as nails. I've tried to beat this for the last two years on and off, and I'm really glad I finally beat it. It's a bit repetitive and linear at times, but when it shows it's true hand, it's phenomenal. The dungeons are great, although some rooms repeat, and the combat system blends pinball and top-down hack-n-slash. It had me pulling out my hair at times, so the difficulty is definitely there. It's really creative and cool, and the ending is beautifully simple. I really really enjoyed it, I just wish there was more.

If it were a bit longer and more diverse, it would easily be rated higher. I feel like there's so much you can do with this concept, and it just scratches the tip of the iceberg. It's a great 6ish hours of gameplay if you collect everything, and I enjoyed every bit of it. If there's ever a Creature in the Well 2, I'd be there day one!

When this game is doing something right, it's absolutely knocking it out of the park. The boss fights are better, the combat system is deeper, the map is larger, and the web swinging is somehow even more fluid. Switching between Peter and Miles is great, and this game makes incredible use of the PS5 with almost zero load times and seamless switches between gameplay and cutscene. The web wings are a godsend for movement, and the game is full of fun easter eggs and collectibles. Make sure you do the side missions! They're almost better than the main story at points. This is one of the best adaptations of the symbiote story, and I love how creative they get with the plot in this. It's the first Spider-Man media to ever convince me that Kraven is actually a cool character.

However, there are some drawbacks. I do feel like Miles is a bit underutilized in the story, and the suits and much more underwhelming than the first game (I only found like 4-5 on each character I actually liked using). The main story also lacks some cohesion compared to how masterfully crafted the first game's was in my opinion, but it's still really solid. I think I just prefer my Spider-Man stories a bit more grounded than this gets at times with world-ending threats and such, but it's truly a fantastic game I had a great time with. The gameplay and balance in this game far exceeds that of the first game, so it all depends what you're looking for. I really hope there's a DLC to continue the story!

This is a really fun tech demo for the Steam Deck. I honestly don't know how you're supposed to play it on PC with controller, since so much of it seems baked into the Deck's exclusive control options. I really liked it, and I had fun discovering things about the Deck I didn't even know were options (it can sense when your thumbs are on the thumbsticks to activate gyro?). It's got that signature Valve humor, and its a good time. Very short, though, it's only like 30 minutes long with little replayability.

While its a fun time, the game definitely shows its age. Its a bit clunky and just lacks an overall layer of polish that a lot of modern games have. Cutscenes cut in hard and rarely bridge the full gap between levels, and a lot of my reaction to the plot was "Okay so we're doing this now?" The story is interesting, but it rushes from beat to beat and doesn't feel very well developed. The combat is fun but a bit repetitive and the levels are cool. The DLC levels also boost this up a lot, so I'm conflicted on how to rate it because the main game feels lacking. The Jedi Temple mission fills an abrupt gap in the main plot, and the two epilogue levels are really cool twists that just embrace the over-the-top aspect of the game (while the main story takes itself too seriously for its premise). I'm glad I played it, though. Its a fun shorter experience if you can stick through the first few levels.

This really is a sequel to Pikmin 2. I really enjoyed this game, but I don't think I loved it the way I loved 1 and 3. It is a bit of an overcorrection for the series, imposing certain limitations and removing difficulty options and true multiplayer for seemingly no reason. The new content is very cool (finally green Pikmin), but the game is shockingly easy 95% of the time, with the other 5% being out of nowhere difficulty spikes or insta-death for your Pikmin. It's best moments are almost all from older games in the series, with the removal of some features that left me confused as to their absence. If nothing else, it is more solid Pikmin goodness to play.

If you're new to the series, this is an excellent and complete experience to start with, but longtime series veterans may struggle to understand why this game seems keeps you on training wheels through most of the game. (It's like Metroid Fusion in that sense)

This is one of the most charming indie games I have ever played. This game was a joy to play through, with lots of cute meta humor and programming references around every bend. The story is cheesy and kinda just there to get the gameplay going, but once this game gets going, it never stops. The gameplay is the main attraction here, and fully delivers on a really interesting premise. The ending is phenomenal and completely unexpected for me. The game is also genuinely difficult towards the end, both in terms of puzzle and technical skill. One of the most unique games I have played in a long time!

Short but sweet. This is a great step in the right direction for 3D Kirby, and it feels like a natural progression of the formula. The level designs are really fun, and the boss battles are even better. Evolving abilities was really cool. However, the whole experience feels like it could be fleshed out a lot more. The copy ability pool feels pretty limited, and the game is definitely very short for a full $60. One or two more abilities could have really helped.

Mouthful mode was neat, but it never proved its worth when so many of those abilities are just rehashes of old copy abilities. I don't need to see Kirby drink so much water or become a car when Water and Wheel could have just returned. Only a few Mouthful transformations felt like they deserved to stand on their own, but overall it wasn't a big deal. This is a great step for the Kirby series, and I'm really excited to see them make more games with this formula.

This game gets a lot right and a lot wrong at the same time. The combat is streamlined in a way that makes it way more fun, the game is a lot harder, the animations are incredible, and the boss battles are drastically improved over the first game. I loved getting to come back to this world and see it expanded in a way that really fleshes out Miles' character before Spider-Man 2 this fall.

However, the game lacks that layer of polish that made the first one so special. The new ideas it brings to the table are cool, but they don't all mesh well and feel a little janky to use at times. The game is also incredibly short and lacks the side content to make it worth it to me at full price. If you get this, get it on sale. Despite this, I am very glad this game exists, and for what it is, it's a genuinely good time.

Also uncle aaron's mixtape is trash.