donproject
2023
I apologize in advance to the devs, but I fell asleep a couple times while playing Diablo IV.
Of all the Diablos, this is definitely one of them. Likely the fourth one of them (if you ignore the mobile one of them). I mean, look, what are you really expecting from this game? Something different? Or just more Diablo? Because you're going to get more Diablo. That's not necessarily bad, it is just pretty uninspiring. It looks better than the previous Diablos, it has many quests and challenges, and it has a massive map. However, combat is pretty tedious and the quests are all just "kill x number of things" or "find a pretty obvious trinket". I FELL ASLEEP. (Full disclosure: probably because I'm old).
I played through the story as a Rogue because I tend to like stealth and shooting things from a distance. I must have messed up my build because there was no stealth and shooting things was supremely tedious. That's on me, since I didn't read anything about how to build a character or any of that because I figured winging it would be more fun. The character building was not particularly exciting but you're not overwhelmed with choices, so I think they found an okay balance there.
As with the rest of the Diablos, my main reason for playing is the story progression, so I was disappointed to be very bored for the first four acts. I very much liked the snake part of Act 5 and Act 6 finally hooked me in a bit, just in time for the big boss fight. Overall, the story wasn't my favorite part of Diablo IV. The combat wasn't either. Finding randomly generated items... not it. I'm struggling to find my favorite part, actually. After being a minor Diablo fan for 20-some-odd years, I'm actually starting to wonder if I like the Diablo games at all? I mean, this should have been the greatest one, right? But... I don't think it is!
Also, Activision Blizzard is on the naughty list for treating workers terribly, gender discrimination, and being owned by microsoft now.
Review from thedonproject.com
Of all the Diablos, this is definitely one of them. Likely the fourth one of them (if you ignore the mobile one of them). I mean, look, what are you really expecting from this game? Something different? Or just more Diablo? Because you're going to get more Diablo. That's not necessarily bad, it is just pretty uninspiring. It looks better than the previous Diablos, it has many quests and challenges, and it has a massive map. However, combat is pretty tedious and the quests are all just "kill x number of things" or "find a pretty obvious trinket". I FELL ASLEEP. (Full disclosure: probably because I'm old).
I played through the story as a Rogue because I tend to like stealth and shooting things from a distance. I must have messed up my build because there was no stealth and shooting things was supremely tedious. That's on me, since I didn't read anything about how to build a character or any of that because I figured winging it would be more fun. The character building was not particularly exciting but you're not overwhelmed with choices, so I think they found an okay balance there.
As with the rest of the Diablos, my main reason for playing is the story progression, so I was disappointed to be very bored for the first four acts. I very much liked the snake part of Act 5 and Act 6 finally hooked me in a bit, just in time for the big boss fight. Overall, the story wasn't my favorite part of Diablo IV. The combat wasn't either. Finding randomly generated items... not it. I'm struggling to find my favorite part, actually. After being a minor Diablo fan for 20-some-odd years, I'm actually starting to wonder if I like the Diablo games at all? I mean, this should have been the greatest one, right? But... I don't think it is!
Also, Activision Blizzard is on the naughty list for treating workers terribly, gender discrimination, and being owned by microsoft now.
Review from thedonproject.com
2022
An excellent balance of... everything!
At its most basic, Cult Of The Lamb is a fantastic thematic successor to a game I loved in my youth: ActRaiser. You're essentially a god building a following and you intersperse the sim aspects with some action. In Cult, the action is roguelike instead of limited to a number of lives and everything is more complex than in a game from 30 years ago, but the spirit is still there. For me, it is a great mix of action and planning that both excites and relaxes the player.
The graphics are impeccable, the gameplay is smooth and fast-paced, the story is decent, and the sim parts are not too tedious. The fake-language voices of the various folks you meet are wonderful. The variation in the weapons and other attacks that you have for each run are enough to keep you coming back for more action, if you're into that. The customization of your cult (base) is enough to keep tinkerers entertained, as well. My only complaints are that the music is pretty repetitive and that it could use more levels instead of repeating the same four worlds twice. Oh, and I came across some bugs a few times (like, why does everything stop for a couple seconds at dawn?).
All in all, it is fun, pretty, and you get to be a cult leader while killing some demons and gods. Excellent.
Review from thedonproject.com
At its most basic, Cult Of The Lamb is a fantastic thematic successor to a game I loved in my youth: ActRaiser. You're essentially a god building a following and you intersperse the sim aspects with some action. In Cult, the action is roguelike instead of limited to a number of lives and everything is more complex than in a game from 30 years ago, but the spirit is still there. For me, it is a great mix of action and planning that both excites and relaxes the player.
The graphics are impeccable, the gameplay is smooth and fast-paced, the story is decent, and the sim parts are not too tedious. The fake-language voices of the various folks you meet are wonderful. The variation in the weapons and other attacks that you have for each run are enough to keep you coming back for more action, if you're into that. The customization of your cult (base) is enough to keep tinkerers entertained, as well. My only complaints are that the music is pretty repetitive and that it could use more levels instead of repeating the same four worlds twice. Oh, and I came across some bugs a few times (like, why does everything stop for a couple seconds at dawn?).
All in all, it is fun, pretty, and you get to be a cult leader while killing some demons and gods. Excellent.
Review from thedonproject.com
2019
Fallout: Sweden forgot to add some features, I think...
Alright, I read the reviews and decided to try this critically panned game anyways when it came up for free. I started out hating it, then gained understanding as I progressed, then gave up in frustration. I never played multiplayer because that's not my jam, but I did make an effort to get through the game, really!
I think what the developers were going for here is a post-apocalypse-by-robots sim, not necessarily a fun game. There appears to be no aim assist at all, which, if I'm being nice "took some getting used to", but in reality was an infuriating mechanic in the very early minutes of play. Trying to shoot a robot dog with a handgun was nigh impossible and you have to shoot these robots four thousand times for them to die. There are cave paintings on buildings telling you where to shoot them for maximum damage, I think, but again, aiming is impossible. There is not a single one-shot enemy in this thing. I kid you not, multiple clips to kill the first robot dog. And it only gets worse. You need to launch tens of rockets into the big robot boys in order to take them down. When I got to the base in the airfield where there were four of the large robots guarding it, even after trying to lure one away at a time, I got tired of dying. This was even after I hid in a church and used up most of my ammo destroying robots for an hour as "rival" bots discovered me and sent waves of dogs, walkers, and two of those big ones. To top it off, leveling up is soooooooooo sloooooooooooow, armor/clothing gets you massive rewards of 2% bullet resistance or explosion resistance, and some weapons maybe do more damage? It's hard to tell from the menus, which I guess is like real life...
The attempted sim aspect continues throughout the rest of the design choices as well. A big open world with lots of nothing in between some houses. NPC's who sound like real people because they don't sound like voice actors (some people say this is bad voice acting, but I found it kind of endearingly quaint). Lots of time spent on making it obviously Sweden, like including Volvos and Saabs (but rebadged). There was definitely a lot of effort put into this game. There are a good amount of side missions and the base-capturing/building/defending thing exists even though I did not like it one bit. The main story is kind of far-fetched but fine for as far as I got through it. In general, I think it was a good game idea but the combat is just an absolute nightmare for a single player, both mechanically and difficulty-wise.
So, if there's a robot apocalypse, don't escape to Sweden, I guess. The robots are extra tough there.
Review from thedonproject.com
Alright, I read the reviews and decided to try this critically panned game anyways when it came up for free. I started out hating it, then gained understanding as I progressed, then gave up in frustration. I never played multiplayer because that's not my jam, but I did make an effort to get through the game, really!
I think what the developers were going for here is a post-apocalypse-by-robots sim, not necessarily a fun game. There appears to be no aim assist at all, which, if I'm being nice "took some getting used to", but in reality was an infuriating mechanic in the very early minutes of play. Trying to shoot a robot dog with a handgun was nigh impossible and you have to shoot these robots four thousand times for them to die. There are cave paintings on buildings telling you where to shoot them for maximum damage, I think, but again, aiming is impossible. There is not a single one-shot enemy in this thing. I kid you not, multiple clips to kill the first robot dog. And it only gets worse. You need to launch tens of rockets into the big robot boys in order to take them down. When I got to the base in the airfield where there were four of the large robots guarding it, even after trying to lure one away at a time, I got tired of dying. This was even after I hid in a church and used up most of my ammo destroying robots for an hour as "rival" bots discovered me and sent waves of dogs, walkers, and two of those big ones. To top it off, leveling up is soooooooooo sloooooooooooow, armor/clothing gets you massive rewards of 2% bullet resistance or explosion resistance, and some weapons maybe do more damage? It's hard to tell from the menus, which I guess is like real life...
The attempted sim aspect continues throughout the rest of the design choices as well. A big open world with lots of nothing in between some houses. NPC's who sound like real people because they don't sound like voice actors (some people say this is bad voice acting, but I found it kind of endearingly quaint). Lots of time spent on making it obviously Sweden, like including Volvos and Saabs (but rebadged). There was definitely a lot of effort put into this game. There are a good amount of side missions and the base-capturing/building/defending thing exists even though I did not like it one bit. The main story is kind of far-fetched but fine for as far as I got through it. In general, I think it was a good game idea but the combat is just an absolute nightmare for a single player, both mechanically and difficulty-wise.
So, if there's a robot apocalypse, don't escape to Sweden, I guess. The robots are extra tough there.
Review from thedonproject.com
2018
A lovely little couch co-op puzzler.
Teamwork! This clever platform-puzzler requires old-school couch co-op skills. The ones where you have to work on your communication by asking questions like "I wonder what happens when you shine your light over there?" or "What if I launched you out of my face across that gap?" or "Is there a walkthrough on the internet?" It also requires some solid character maneuvering skills from both the star character and the rock character, so bear that in mind if you and your partner come from different levels of commitment to gaming life.
In general, the puzzles consist of learning a new movement or manipulation technique via trial/error or cheating by looking it up, then using that new skill in a selection of puzzles while lighting up designs, finding secret crystals/plants to grow with your auras and working together to navigate some fantastical underground world. We haven't finished the game in our house yet, but the gameplay has been enjoyable so far and calm enough to play as a couple. I might like a little more to the story of the characters to tie it all together but, in general, we've had a good time with it.
"Jump up there and do that star thingy to warp me to you!"
Review from thedonproject.com
Teamwork! This clever platform-puzzler requires old-school couch co-op skills. The ones where you have to work on your communication by asking questions like "I wonder what happens when you shine your light over there?" or "What if I launched you out of my face across that gap?" or "Is there a walkthrough on the internet?" It also requires some solid character maneuvering skills from both the star character and the rock character, so bear that in mind if you and your partner come from different levels of commitment to gaming life.
In general, the puzzles consist of learning a new movement or manipulation technique via trial/error or cheating by looking it up, then using that new skill in a selection of puzzles while lighting up designs, finding secret crystals/plants to grow with your auras and working together to navigate some fantastical underground world. We haven't finished the game in our house yet, but the gameplay has been enjoyable so far and calm enough to play as a couple. I might like a little more to the story of the characters to tie it all together but, in general, we've had a good time with it.
"Jump up there and do that star thingy to warp me to you!"
Review from thedonproject.com
2014
Too much of everything!
My god, this game is a mess. Maybe I joined the community too late to understand what is happening, but even starting the game was a confusing assault of tiny-fonted menus directing me to various servers with a billion different stat differences I guess? Then to character creation, where I got to pick from no less than 100 different character classes. By the time I got to the game I was just... tired. We get a cut scene that weirdly has pop-in and blurring issues? And then the game blasts you with side menus and popups and other stuff that doesn't seem to matter or maybe is vitally important? I don't know. I hit pause to see if there was a way to figure it all out and was harassed with a hyperbolic number of menu options. So I ignored everything and started mashing buttons, of course. I guess I got some quests and even completed some quests, but the notification was behind some interaction menu and my name. A black dot talked to me about something mystical but I kept hitting the wrong menu item to get out of chat and repeating the dialogue options... I ran down a mine and touched a cube that I could sort of see between character name popups and visual bugs and apparently was getting items, but the font was too small to see what they did, so I ran outside, shot some wolves and just gave up in exhaustion.
I guess the devs never learned about "less is more"!
Review from thedonproject.com
My god, this game is a mess. Maybe I joined the community too late to understand what is happening, but even starting the game was a confusing assault of tiny-fonted menus directing me to various servers with a billion different stat differences I guess? Then to character creation, where I got to pick from no less than 100 different character classes. By the time I got to the game I was just... tired. We get a cut scene that weirdly has pop-in and blurring issues? And then the game blasts you with side menus and popups and other stuff that doesn't seem to matter or maybe is vitally important? I don't know. I hit pause to see if there was a way to figure it all out and was harassed with a hyperbolic number of menu options. So I ignored everything and started mashing buttons, of course. I guess I got some quests and even completed some quests, but the notification was behind some interaction menu and my name. A black dot talked to me about something mystical but I kept hitting the wrong menu item to get out of chat and repeating the dialogue options... I ran down a mine and touched a cube that I could sort of see between character name popups and visual bugs and apparently was getting items, but the font was too small to see what they did, so I ran outside, shot some wolves and just gave up in exhaustion.
I guess the devs never learned about "less is more"!
Review from thedonproject.com
2022
This game is too many other games and not enough of itself, I think.
Grand Theft Auto but Borderlands and also Far Cry a bit plus Cyberpunk 2077... yet none of the above and not in a particularly good way. Saints Row is yearning to reach the heights of other titles but never quite sticks the landing of that very difficult trick. It is a detailed world that looks good with sufficient activities strewn about its open world. I played a later version, so the bugs weren't completely unmanageable (but still somewhat noticeable) during my playthrough, but it sounds like the early release was bad enough to taint the experience of a number of players.
I've played quite a few open world games like Saints Row at this point and I think Saints Row might have broken me of my love of the genre. Sure, it has a detailed character creator, but I'm getting tired of spending an hour trying to make a digital avatar of myself with some wacky feature, though I always do. Fantastic, you've got lots of fun outfits to collect, but I wish they did more stat-wise than looks-wise. Great, there are a bunch of different interesting weapons, but I'll always stick with a small set during my gameplay once I've found one that works. Yes, it has lots of side quests, but even the attempts at doing something different, like a quest where you just throw yourself in front of cars to commit insurance fraud, fall flat when you have to do them 8 times. Awesome, you can skip all the side quests and focus on the story, but the story is... fine if you've never played one of the over-the-top Borderlands games and can handle the exaggerated, cartoonish actions of the characters. Plus, the villain just kind of came out of nowhere, I felt, and wasn't a super satisfying twist or ending or anything. But maybe a story about building your criminal empire just isn't for me.
That said, I had a fine time doing some quests and contemplating whether I like open world games anymore or not.
Review from thedonproject.com
Grand Theft Auto but Borderlands and also Far Cry a bit plus Cyberpunk 2077... yet none of the above and not in a particularly good way. Saints Row is yearning to reach the heights of other titles but never quite sticks the landing of that very difficult trick. It is a detailed world that looks good with sufficient activities strewn about its open world. I played a later version, so the bugs weren't completely unmanageable (but still somewhat noticeable) during my playthrough, but it sounds like the early release was bad enough to taint the experience of a number of players.
I've played quite a few open world games like Saints Row at this point and I think Saints Row might have broken me of my love of the genre. Sure, it has a detailed character creator, but I'm getting tired of spending an hour trying to make a digital avatar of myself with some wacky feature, though I always do. Fantastic, you've got lots of fun outfits to collect, but I wish they did more stat-wise than looks-wise. Great, there are a bunch of different interesting weapons, but I'll always stick with a small set during my gameplay once I've found one that works. Yes, it has lots of side quests, but even the attempts at doing something different, like a quest where you just throw yourself in front of cars to commit insurance fraud, fall flat when you have to do them 8 times. Awesome, you can skip all the side quests and focus on the story, but the story is... fine if you've never played one of the over-the-top Borderlands games and can handle the exaggerated, cartoonish actions of the characters. Plus, the villain just kind of came out of nowhere, I felt, and wasn't a super satisfying twist or ending or anything. But maybe a story about building your criminal empire just isn't for me.
That said, I had a fine time doing some quests and contemplating whether I like open world games anymore or not.
Review from thedonproject.com
2022
Hey bro, basketball.
Picked this up as part of PS+ and gave it a shot, since I don't think I've played a basketball game for probably 20 years. Apparently basketball games are now Monster Hunter level of detail MMO's? At least the career mode is. I started with that mode and quickly drowned in trying to decipher stats for the gangly, balding baller with the too-long arms that I created (and named Butts McGiggity at the prompting of my very adult partner). There were a thousand cut scenes that I started skipping almost immediately and then I was dropped in my home base. Do newly-drafted NBA stars get an entourage of assistants and a flashy condo downtown as part of the deal? Interesting.
Looking at the names of my crew, I noticed that my girlfriend was my manager and thought that was strange. So, I tried to go back and make a female player to start a WNBA career... not an option. Weird for 2023, guys. Anyhow, went back into my long-armed dude career and apparently there's a story of some beef between another guy and me? And my fans don't like me or something? What is happening with this basketball game? Why does it take an hour to get to the first game? And when you do get to the first game, there's no tutorial on what all the buttons do? I guess you've gotta be a long-time player to just jump into career mode. Anyways, I helped my team win the summer whatever, walked across town to the VP of plot advancement to do some thing about the artificial drama with who cares and then played my first NBA game. Felt good about scoring a point or two and earning a solid C and then hit up that main Playstation menu to pick a different game and never return to this one.
I guess I'll try again in another couple decades.
Review from thedonproject.com
Picked this up as part of PS+ and gave it a shot, since I don't think I've played a basketball game for probably 20 years. Apparently basketball games are now Monster Hunter level of detail MMO's? At least the career mode is. I started with that mode and quickly drowned in trying to decipher stats for the gangly, balding baller with the too-long arms that I created (and named Butts McGiggity at the prompting of my very adult partner). There were a thousand cut scenes that I started skipping almost immediately and then I was dropped in my home base. Do newly-drafted NBA stars get an entourage of assistants and a flashy condo downtown as part of the deal? Interesting.
Looking at the names of my crew, I noticed that my girlfriend was my manager and thought that was strange. So, I tried to go back and make a female player to start a WNBA career... not an option. Weird for 2023, guys. Anyhow, went back into my long-armed dude career and apparently there's a story of some beef between another guy and me? And my fans don't like me or something? What is happening with this basketball game? Why does it take an hour to get to the first game? And when you do get to the first game, there's no tutorial on what all the buttons do? I guess you've gotta be a long-time player to just jump into career mode. Anyways, I helped my team win the summer whatever, walked across town to the VP of plot advancement to do some thing about the artificial drama with who cares and then played my first NBA game. Felt good about scoring a point or two and earning a solid C and then hit up that main Playstation menu to pick a different game and never return to this one.
I guess I'll try again in another couple decades.
Review from thedonproject.com
2021
Was this remastered from a PS1 game? Oh, it's a 2010 XBOX game. That's why it sucks, I guess.
Apparently, people like this game? It's not for me. I'm not into horror games, which is where this is supposed to land, so that might bias me against it. I played all the way through episode 1, waiting for a hook, but just couldn't get there. Perhaps it was the absolutely terrible delivery of the dialogue? Everything sounds like it is being read for the first time by someone who just wants to get through the day so they can get back to their real passions. Internal dialogue hints like "I wonder how to get up there" or whatever are delivered before you even have a chance to look around and then given to you three different ways nearly immediately. This dude is running for his life in a dark forest full of magically appearing ghost-zombies and just sounds absolutely unperturbed. I don't like it.
I'm also not into games that feel terrible to play. The camera is too far from the shoulder of our boy Alan. I think the flashlight is supposed to also be the visual cue for your aim, but I can never tell if I'm actually hitting anything. And why does Mr. Wake have the power to overcharge his flashlight to stun shadow-zombies? Oh wait, maybe he's the zombie. Is that the twist? Don't tell me, I don't care. I'm trying to cross a log over this river with this godforsaken terrible movement system and am too furious at wasting two hours of my life on this game to hear you tell me that "The story is good, actually." I'll never know because the gameplay is not good.
+1 star because it is set in my home state, though.
Review from thedonproject.com
Apparently, people like this game? It's not for me. I'm not into horror games, which is where this is supposed to land, so that might bias me against it. I played all the way through episode 1, waiting for a hook, but just couldn't get there. Perhaps it was the absolutely terrible delivery of the dialogue? Everything sounds like it is being read for the first time by someone who just wants to get through the day so they can get back to their real passions. Internal dialogue hints like "I wonder how to get up there" or whatever are delivered before you even have a chance to look around and then given to you three different ways nearly immediately. This dude is running for his life in a dark forest full of magically appearing ghost-zombies and just sounds absolutely unperturbed. I don't like it.
I'm also not into games that feel terrible to play. The camera is too far from the shoulder of our boy Alan. I think the flashlight is supposed to also be the visual cue for your aim, but I can never tell if I'm actually hitting anything. And why does Mr. Wake have the power to overcharge his flashlight to stun shadow-zombies? Oh wait, maybe he's the zombie. Is that the twist? Don't tell me, I don't care. I'm trying to cross a log over this river with this godforsaken terrible movement system and am too furious at wasting two hours of my life on this game to hear you tell me that "The story is good, actually." I'll never know because the gameplay is not good.
+1 star because it is set in my home state, though.
Review from thedonproject.com
2021
DEATH
Crows are too intelligent to be birds. They recognize people, they understand gifts, and they have funerals for their friends. The crow in this game is charged with gathering the souls of the dead while using various weapons and magic to murder various semi-sentient objects and beasts. It also gathers a collection of shiny things it shares with its work colleagues. Basically, completely plausible crow stuff.
A charming isometric 3D land of magic doors and hidden secrets awaits you in this excellent indie title. The combat, a mix of hack-n-slash and projectile magic, is old school Zelda simple enough to be accessible but challenging enough to need to take a break from time to time. I may or may not have spent several of the hours of gameplay retrying boss battles... and that is the drawback. The story and charm kept me coming back to fight grandmas and yetis and faceless knights over and over, but others may not have the patience to learn the patterns. The difficulty is a bit uneven, with a bunch of time spent wandering through one- and two-hit foes until you stumble upon a group battle or mini-boss that sometimes sends you back to the start of the level to seek them out again. Not an unfamiliar game mechanic, of course, but one that does get annoying (kind of like the repetitive music) if you lack skill, like me, or if the story doesn't motivate you.
Death's Door is a pretty great game with lots of humor and joy amongst the death and destruction, pretty graphics to animate your challenges in game play, and an interesting world to explore and puzzle through. A good time and maybe even worth a replay to try to get that last trophy... maybe.
Review from thedonproject.com
Crows are too intelligent to be birds. They recognize people, they understand gifts, and they have funerals for their friends. The crow in this game is charged with gathering the souls of the dead while using various weapons and magic to murder various semi-sentient objects and beasts. It also gathers a collection of shiny things it shares with its work colleagues. Basically, completely plausible crow stuff.
A charming isometric 3D land of magic doors and hidden secrets awaits you in this excellent indie title. The combat, a mix of hack-n-slash and projectile magic, is old school Zelda simple enough to be accessible but challenging enough to need to take a break from time to time. I may or may not have spent several of the hours of gameplay retrying boss battles... and that is the drawback. The story and charm kept me coming back to fight grandmas and yetis and faceless knights over and over, but others may not have the patience to learn the patterns. The difficulty is a bit uneven, with a bunch of time spent wandering through one- and two-hit foes until you stumble upon a group battle or mini-boss that sometimes sends you back to the start of the level to seek them out again. Not an unfamiliar game mechanic, of course, but one that does get annoying (kind of like the repetitive music) if you lack skill, like me, or if the story doesn't motivate you.
Death's Door is a pretty great game with lots of humor and joy amongst the death and destruction, pretty graphics to animate your challenges in game play, and an interesting world to explore and puzzle through. A good time and maybe even worth a replay to try to get that last trophy... maybe.
Review from thedonproject.com
Woof. I knew it was going to be sad, but... dang.
A game about a fox with a name that includes "Extinction Is Forever" is going to be rough on the ol' feelings, for sure. The game drops you right in to the sadness for the fox family, adds in some frantic hopelessness, then you slowly realize the game is sad for basically every character in it, and then you remember that the skies outside are full of wildfire smoke and we're all witnessing the start of the end times for the planet as we know it... and then you get to the final ending you knew was coming... bummer, man, bummer.
The low-texture polygon graphics are nice and the sound design and music are pretty great. I did feel a little lost on a couple of the days and definitely said out loud, "Where am I supposed to go?" Otherwise, the gameplay was fine, but not particularly interesting. Apparently folks are finishing this game in an hour or two, but I took my time exploring and moping around so it took a bit longer than that. I also died a few times as some of the visual cues for danger were a little subtle for me, which seemed unfair, but that does fit with the brutal world that the game has designed for us to be sad in. The game over screen is a downer, as well, of course.
Well, if you need a game to help you lean in to your sadness about how we've treated nature, pick this up. If you are out there rollin' coal in your truck and/or don't care about the impending end of life on Earth, just stick with Call of Duty or whatever.
Review from thedonproject.com
A game about a fox with a name that includes "Extinction Is Forever" is going to be rough on the ol' feelings, for sure. The game drops you right in to the sadness for the fox family, adds in some frantic hopelessness, then you slowly realize the game is sad for basically every character in it, and then you remember that the skies outside are full of wildfire smoke and we're all witnessing the start of the end times for the planet as we know it... and then you get to the final ending you knew was coming... bummer, man, bummer.
The low-texture polygon graphics are nice and the sound design and music are pretty great. I did feel a little lost on a couple of the days and definitely said out loud, "Where am I supposed to go?" Otherwise, the gameplay was fine, but not particularly interesting. Apparently folks are finishing this game in an hour or two, but I took my time exploring and moping around so it took a bit longer than that. I also died a few times as some of the visual cues for danger were a little subtle for me, which seemed unfair, but that does fit with the brutal world that the game has designed for us to be sad in. The game over screen is a downer, as well, of course.
Well, if you need a game to help you lean in to your sadness about how we've treated nature, pick this up. If you are out there rollin' coal in your truck and/or don't care about the impending end of life on Earth, just stick with Call of Duty or whatever.
Review from thedonproject.com
2017
These kids are alright.
Night In The Woods is a bit of 2-D platforming, some mini games, and a whole lot of interactive YA graphic novel. I mean, there is an intense amount of reading in this game amongst the beautiful backgrounds and jumping around. The story is poignant, sad, and well-crafted. The characters are as lovable and personable as their cute animal representations and as complicated as the history of the small, dying town they populate. It is a grand story of friendship, exploration (both physical and metaphysical), and insight into the lives of young folk today. It's sad and heartfelt and pretty great, but I still fell asleep twice while playing this game.
I'm a big fan of exploring and finding secrets, but Night In The Woods requires visiting the same scenes multiple times and got a bit monotonous at parts. Part 1 was good, getting to know the town and the people. Part 2 was a bit of a slog, with some of the slower parts really highlighting some maybe too-chill sections of town. Part 3 picked it back up and I devoured Part 4 and the epilogue in a single session. Throughout the game, your gameplay mostly consists of jumping and hitting a button to advance dialogue. There are mini-games -- like a Guitar Hero clone, and a pretty solid roguelike called Demontower -- but they are a very minor part of the overall game and after an hour of advancing dialogue seem like very difficult tasks for some reason.
Youths will love this game as they will see themselves deeply in it, but olds will probably be in two camps: thinking it is too "woke" (they can all die mad) or appreciating a nice story. For this old, it was a nice story and looks and sounds wonderful. It was slightly nostalgic but not life changing, it was good but slow, and it was enjoyable but varied. Overall, I'm glad I finally played it but it won't top any lists for me, I'm afraid.
Review from thedonproject.com
Night In The Woods is a bit of 2-D platforming, some mini games, and a whole lot of interactive YA graphic novel. I mean, there is an intense amount of reading in this game amongst the beautiful backgrounds and jumping around. The story is poignant, sad, and well-crafted. The characters are as lovable and personable as their cute animal representations and as complicated as the history of the small, dying town they populate. It is a grand story of friendship, exploration (both physical and metaphysical), and insight into the lives of young folk today. It's sad and heartfelt and pretty great, but I still fell asleep twice while playing this game.
I'm a big fan of exploring and finding secrets, but Night In The Woods requires visiting the same scenes multiple times and got a bit monotonous at parts. Part 1 was good, getting to know the town and the people. Part 2 was a bit of a slog, with some of the slower parts really highlighting some maybe too-chill sections of town. Part 3 picked it back up and I devoured Part 4 and the epilogue in a single session. Throughout the game, your gameplay mostly consists of jumping and hitting a button to advance dialogue. There are mini-games -- like a Guitar Hero clone, and a pretty solid roguelike called Demontower -- but they are a very minor part of the overall game and after an hour of advancing dialogue seem like very difficult tasks for some reason.
Youths will love this game as they will see themselves deeply in it, but olds will probably be in two camps: thinking it is too "woke" (they can all die mad) or appreciating a nice story. For this old, it was a nice story and looks and sounds wonderful. It was slightly nostalgic but not life changing, it was good but slow, and it was enjoyable but varied. Overall, I'm glad I finally played it but it won't top any lists for me, I'm afraid.
Review from thedonproject.com
2019
Anime Dark Souls forgot one thing: a reason to keep playing.
Code Vein looks cool. You've got a pretty great character creation menu, gigantic weapons that Cloud Strife would be jealous of, and a kind of shimmery world with interesting enemies and friends.
Code Vein is relatively easy to play for a soulslike. There aren't a million different combinations of buttons to learn, the armor and weapons have a bunch of stats but not an unmanageable number, and the addition of a teammate (NPC or multiplayer) makes most monsters not impossible. I would say the game does feel slow, however, but that might be because I was using a giant axe for most of my play time.
However, Code Vein doesn't seem to have a compelling story line for me. Sure, you're cyberpunk vampire-like beings fighting in some post apocalyptic world for survival, but that seems kind of like the whole story. Perhaps I didn't play long enough to get to the good parts, but as far as I could gather from the typically cryptic anime-style dialogue, the whole goal was to get food for the emo vamp crew you gather, and that's about it. There is some flashback items you can find to learn the story of Kevin (and others), but if you watch the plodding flashbacks out of order (like I did), it never really gives you a chance to care about Kevin, or the steampunk vampy boy who remembered him. You just get your skill, go back out into the wild and die or kill some monsters.
I gave up after a few hours and found myself not really wanting to open the game back up no matter how cool my character looked.
Review from thedonproject.com
Code Vein looks cool. You've got a pretty great character creation menu, gigantic weapons that Cloud Strife would be jealous of, and a kind of shimmery world with interesting enemies and friends.
Code Vein is relatively easy to play for a soulslike. There aren't a million different combinations of buttons to learn, the armor and weapons have a bunch of stats but not an unmanageable number, and the addition of a teammate (NPC or multiplayer) makes most monsters not impossible. I would say the game does feel slow, however, but that might be because I was using a giant axe for most of my play time.
However, Code Vein doesn't seem to have a compelling story line for me. Sure, you're cyberpunk vampire-like beings fighting in some post apocalyptic world for survival, but that seems kind of like the whole story. Perhaps I didn't play long enough to get to the good parts, but as far as I could gather from the typically cryptic anime-style dialogue, the whole goal was to get food for the emo vamp crew you gather, and that's about it. There is some flashback items you can find to learn the story of Kevin (and others), but if you watch the plodding flashbacks out of order (like I did), it never really gives you a chance to care about Kevin, or the steampunk vampy boy who remembered him. You just get your skill, go back out into the wild and die or kill some monsters.
I gave up after a few hours and found myself not really wanting to open the game back up no matter how cool my character looked.
Review from thedonproject.com
2017
There are better games like this out there.
Honestly, if you want a Minecraft game with RPG flavor, why not just play Minecraft Dungeons? I'm not sure who this game is for. The graphics make me think it is for kids, with comically oversized pixel-style worlds (I mean, the stairs come up to the chest of the characters! ONE STAIR!) and cute characters and enemies. However, the complex building system and sometimes difficult-to-navigate, randomly generated levels make this seem like it is aimed at older folks. The graphics are fine for this type of game, the sounds are what you'd expect, the story is fine, and all the general RPG things that RPGs should have are there. It works, but...
I cannot stand the combat mechanics of this game. I didn't try the barbarian character yet, but the ranged attacks of the ranger and mage drive me bananas. You have to switch to first-person in order to see where you are aiming because of your cartoonish head being in the way of the aiming reticle. Fine, no problem, but when you first hit your target, the game forces you back into third person when the camera locks on your enemy. So, you're stuck hoping you're actually hitting the target you can't see, because you can't switch back to first person when the camera is locked on. Third person is nearly unplayable in this thing. Apart from the bad combat, it seems to want to do too many things, never quite perfecting one, making the whole experience pretty lackluster.
I made a cute little guy with a mohawk, though!
Review from thedonproject.com
Honestly, if you want a Minecraft game with RPG flavor, why not just play Minecraft Dungeons? I'm not sure who this game is for. The graphics make me think it is for kids, with comically oversized pixel-style worlds (I mean, the stairs come up to the chest of the characters! ONE STAIR!) and cute characters and enemies. However, the complex building system and sometimes difficult-to-navigate, randomly generated levels make this seem like it is aimed at older folks. The graphics are fine for this type of game, the sounds are what you'd expect, the story is fine, and all the general RPG things that RPGs should have are there. It works, but...
I cannot stand the combat mechanics of this game. I didn't try the barbarian character yet, but the ranged attacks of the ranger and mage drive me bananas. You have to switch to first-person in order to see where you are aiming because of your cartoonish head being in the way of the aiming reticle. Fine, no problem, but when you first hit your target, the game forces you back into third person when the camera locks on your enemy. So, you're stuck hoping you're actually hitting the target you can't see, because you can't switch back to first person when the camera is locked on. Third person is nearly unplayable in this thing. Apart from the bad combat, it seems to want to do too many things, never quite perfecting one, making the whole experience pretty lackluster.
I made a cute little guy with a mohawk, though!
Review from thedonproject.com
2017
A solid puzzle game that annoys you just about enough.
I played this game solo over a couple days after I forgot that I downloaded it as a batch of couch co-op options to try out. Basically, I tried the first puzzle and just kept going. I found the puzzles just annoying enough to provide a modicum of elation when I finally tried enough things to figure out a level. My partner wasn't a fan of the MST3K-like story line with the Paul Scheer/Nick Kroll sound-alike voice actor, but I thought it was fine. The music did get a bit repetitive, as did some of the levels, but not enough to send my puzzle-failing frustrations over the edge.
The mechanics and game play were nothing spectacular, but just varied enough to last the 100 levels, particularly during the four-block party levels. I only cheated on those last couple party levels after trying for a bit... Maybe if I knew three other people, couch co-op would be a blast with this game, but I do worry about my casual gaming friends, as sometimes I died just because I didn't quite keep the block on the path. Or, when I forgot which stick was which block. Or, just when I was discovering how lasers work. Or, when I misjudged an angle or distance and blew up another "AI" block... Look, I died 700+ times by the end of the game, okay?
Still, it was a fine few days of puzzles and explosions.
Review from thedonproject.com
I played this game solo over a couple days after I forgot that I downloaded it as a batch of couch co-op options to try out. Basically, I tried the first puzzle and just kept going. I found the puzzles just annoying enough to provide a modicum of elation when I finally tried enough things to figure out a level. My partner wasn't a fan of the MST3K-like story line with the Paul Scheer/Nick Kroll sound-alike voice actor, but I thought it was fine. The music did get a bit repetitive, as did some of the levels, but not enough to send my puzzle-failing frustrations over the edge.
The mechanics and game play were nothing spectacular, but just varied enough to last the 100 levels, particularly during the four-block party levels. I only cheated on those last couple party levels after trying for a bit... Maybe if I knew three other people, couch co-op would be a blast with this game, but I do worry about my casual gaming friends, as sometimes I died just because I didn't quite keep the block on the path. Or, when I forgot which stick was which block. Or, just when I was discovering how lasers work. Or, when I misjudged an angle or distance and blew up another "AI" block... Look, I died 700+ times by the end of the game, okay?
Still, it was a fine few days of puzzles and explosions.
Review from thedonproject.com
Well, I guess Souls-like games are not for me.
Maybe I'm just an old-ass dude with terrible reflexes and no patience for learning a complex battle system, but after an hour or so of creating a character, doing the tutorial, and getting to the first big monster, I am tired of dying.
This game looks interesting with wonderful graphics, pretty music, and a mystical and mythical story to enjoy. (Shout out to the sword from the NES game Demon Sword [or probably Japanese mythology, I assume...]). However, the gameplay takes all the parts I hate about fighting games, like having to press two buttons at once to do a thing, and combines it with unforgiving enemies right off the bat. Or, at least unforgiving enemies for me. I guess "git gud" right? But is that fun? I don' t have anything to prove about being good a pressing buttons at the right time, so without access to something compelling, I'm gonna give up on this one, friends.
Oh, the internet is telling me I'm supposed to just avoid the first big monster. Somehow, that makes me even more mad at this game. You kids have fun.
Review from thedonproject.com
Maybe I'm just an old-ass dude with terrible reflexes and no patience for learning a complex battle system, but after an hour or so of creating a character, doing the tutorial, and getting to the first big monster, I am tired of dying.
This game looks interesting with wonderful graphics, pretty music, and a mystical and mythical story to enjoy. (Shout out to the sword from the NES game Demon Sword [or probably Japanese mythology, I assume...]). However, the gameplay takes all the parts I hate about fighting games, like having to press two buttons at once to do a thing, and combines it with unforgiving enemies right off the bat. Or, at least unforgiving enemies for me. I guess "git gud" right? But is that fun? I don' t have anything to prove about being good a pressing buttons at the right time, so without access to something compelling, I'm gonna give up on this one, friends.
Oh, the internet is telling me I'm supposed to just avoid the first big monster. Somehow, that makes me even more mad at this game. You kids have fun.
Review from thedonproject.com