This is the definitive Battle Royale game. The devs have managed to innovate the genre with new ideas and also delivered the most polished game out of the box. They do not offer new content in an unhealthy (for the devs) pace as epic games does, no matter the collaterals, but when they release something it is always working out quite well.
The core game, movement, guns, the maps, all of it feels well balanced and just right.
On top of that, this game has the least punishing and frustrating ranking system of them all and so I really stay engaged with the game while grinding. The only thing that is ok’ish, is the cosmetics part and the battle pass. Most of the stuff just doesn’t grab my attention the way that for example fortnite cosmetics do. But that’s one of a kind I guess.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes feels like an anachronism. I don’t just mean this from how the game haphazardly scatters documents from 1847 and 2014 throughout the hotel set in 1962, or how it references multiple past eras of gaming with PS1 survival-horror fixed camera angles or DOS-inspired 1-bit adventure game segments hidden away on floppy disks, though these elements certainly play their part in creating what developer Simogo refers to as “collage of styles, ideas, and disparate inspirations.” No, what instantly caught my attention was how uncompromising yet thoughtful the game felt. In an era where most developers seem content to simply pay lip service to the great mystery/adventure games of old while over-simplifying their gameplay mechanics, Simogo seems to have figured out the formula of creating a final product that feels intricately designed, yet ultimately accessible.

I’ll admit that I’m not too familiar with Simogo’s previous work; the only other game I’ve played by them is Sayonara Wild Hearts. That said, I would not have immediately guessed that Lorelei was by the same developers from my first hour alone. In some ways, Lorelei presents an interesting foil to Sayonara. Sayonara’s persisting strength is its grasp on harmony: the epitome of what is essentially a playable music video, it’s pure and immediate gratification racking up points to the beat in this flashy and lush arcade game. On the other hand, Lorelei feels deliberately constructed to emphasize its dissonance. From the uncomfortably quiet manor clashing with the occasional audible off-screen disruption to the vibrating monochrome textures interspersed with low poly environment, nothing seems right in its place. It’s a much slower burn than Sayonara as well, with most players taking fifteen hours or more (in comparison to Sayonara’s two hour runtime) to navigate the sprawling hotel with no hand-holding provided whatsoever.

As different as these two titles appear however, they do have one thing in common: minimalism. For example, both games require just a d-pad/joystick and a single button to be played. Sayonara gets away with this because the available actions on input feel clearly telegraphed by the visuals and generally boil down to moving and timed dodges with the music. Lorelei similarly gets away with this because it deemphasizes more complex/technical interactions (i.e. the usage suite of adventure game verbs in look, touch, obtain, etc) with sheer puzzle intuition. Simogo describes this as forcing the player to “get a deeper understanding… and connection to [the world]” and just like Sayonara, “wanted the complexity of the game to revolve around this, and not dexterity.”

What makes this particularly impressive is how Simogo was able to strike a fair balance between simplicity and variety. According to the game’s development page, the game became “a very iterative toy box” where many different systems conceptualized over the game’s development cycle could interact and interplay with one another in different ways. Interestingly, I found that most of the solutions to these different puzzles were not that difficult or complex to determine. Even so, despite Lorelei’s simple controls and straightforward objective (figuring out passwords/key phrases to unlock new areas and information), the game is able to successfully obfuscate the means to achieve said objective by drastically changing the means in which information is presented to the player, for instance by using different camera angles and systems that allowed them to “change a lot of rendering parameters on the fly” from the aforementioned iterative toy box. Additionally, Simogo highlights key details from clues to ensure that players don’t get too confused, but leave enough ambiguity by never outright leading the players onto specific logic trains and refusing to provide any specific assistance (no in-game hint system and no specific feedback aside from telling players if they’re right/wrong). The result is a confident final product that understands the persisting strength of a good puzzle adventure game: a game that gives the player all the information they need to succeed while giving them the room to work out the connections themselves, and a game that constantly surprises the player with new opportunities to intuitively understand the world around them without ever feeling too frustrated by unfamiliar mechanics.

I do have to admit however, that there are a few instances where Lorelei’s minimalism and uncompromising nature can backfire. For instance, the lack of detailed player feedback aside from a right/wrong sound effect usually isn’t a significant deterrent, given that players can fine-tune most of the game’s one-variable solutions and are encouraged to tackle the hotel’s many branching paths and puzzles at their own pace, since they may not even have the pertinent information required and might have to work out other puzzles to obtain said information. However, certain late-game puzzles require multiple sets of answers (ex: a computer that requires three different types of phrases in a password), and it can be frustrating getting barricaded by such puzzles and not knowing which part of the answer requires more investigation. I’ll also echo some of the previous complaints regarding the controls, because while I appreciate that Simogo has crafted a base system where more complex controls aren’t required, I also don’t think that it’s a huge ask to add a “cancel/back” input for a second button. As a result, it takes significantly more scrolling to get out of menus or spamming random inputs to erroneously enter passwords if I want to back out of a puzzle, and the amount of wasted time per menu/puzzle really builds up over a playthrough.

While I did find the somewhat telegraphed ending slightly underwhelming given how elaborately the game wove its lore into its many clues, I nevertheless really savored my time with Lorelei. I might not have laser eyes, but I can certainly see this game’s approach upon system cohesion influencing many puzzle adventure games to come. As it stands, it’s another solid entry for Simogo’s innovative yet familiar library, and I’ll be thinking about its many secrets for quite some time. Perhaps it's finally time to delve into Device 6.

While I understand the notion that P-06 is "the best Sonic game", I can't agree with it. This is an amazing fan project, and it fixes so many issues with 06, and I'm eager to see what else is in store - the full game isn't ready -, what's here is incredible.

But in my opinion, there are still just some things about 06 that I'm not fully on board with. Namely, I hate the boarding sections of Sonic's levels and the messy mach speed sections.

Let's start with the boarding sections. Plain and simply, these are just unfun to control. It felt like I was either always overshooting where I was trying to go, or it was a fight to turn at all. Jumping is incredibly clunky, and you'd think successfully doing a jump would reap you the rewards, but collecting the ring/life boxes or landing on rails after jump was so inconsistent. Mercifully, there are only two boarding segments of the game; the one in White Acropolis is pretty easy and I feel like doesn't ultimately affect the total score of the level all that much. Crisis City's really sucked though, and was incredibly poor to control.

As for the mach speed sections, I just think these are pretty fundamentally below average. I imagine this fan remake (I haven't played the original) makes these parts much more bearable, but I still can't tell you how many times I was sent careening into an obstacle and lost all my rings, or how many times I would jump a bit too early or too late and, because of how long these jumps are without being able to land early, drop right in front of something I couldn't avoid. You can get a pretty great sense of speed during these, but it's not really worth the trouble. Every mach speed section is the ending to the level its in which is incredibly frustrating. You might be doing pretty good and have a lot of rings, but something unforeseeable makes you lose your rings and suddenly you don't have an S rank anymore.

Those two things only affect Sonic, however, and besides those portions, Sonic's levels are a good time. And Shadow plays pretty much the same except slightly more fun combat, and vehicular combat which was a decent shakeup. Silver had a learning curve, but once I got the hang of him... well, I still preferred the other hedgehogs, but he was fun.

Then there are the friends, most levels have you hop between multiple characters. Tails, Knuckles, Rouge, Omega, Blaze, and Amy. To be honest, I consider all of these characters to be less fun than playing the main three, with the exception of Blaze and Amy. Maybe it's just because they played like Sonic and broke up Silver's levels, but I found those two to be a lot of fun. Hell, Silver's Dusty Desert actually ended up being one of my favorite levels of the game because of Amy's part (which is kind of funny cause that level is pretty infamous in the official game).

Highly recommend trying this one out, whether you hate 06, never tried it, or like it. It's still missing the final story, hub worlds, boss fights, and other ins and outs, but it has the most important parts of the game and the most fun parts.

A masterpiece of a game that greatly builds upon the previous one in both gameplay and plot, featuring smoother controls as well as a fine-tuned First Person View allowing for more accurate aiming and less wasted shots. The story, and the game itself in general if you really think about it, is a massive fucking trip where Raiden is basically trolled by everyone AND everything, allowing for the story to make a poignant statement about the threat of misinformation in the modern world, a statement that still holds true even more so today, in our current Trump-era political landscape.

Look, we deserve better from our modern AAA releases. I did not suffer from any technical issues but its clear to see this game could of used a lot more time in the oven. But all that being said, I'm not gonna lie. I had a pretty fun time playing through this.

As someone who does not really like open worlds or deserts, I thought the setting for this was pretty good. Sure graphically the game isnt great and the world itself does feel pretty lifeless but as a location/vibe I enjoyed it well. I see a lot of people talking about how cringe all the characters and dialogue are but I didnt really feel like they were? Maybe (considering what the internet thinks about some of my favorite series) i just have a really high tolerance but I don't recall any moments that really bothered me and I thought the main cast was all pretty likeable. Although at least half of the reason for that is Greg Chun being such a lovely VA. For my "Boss" the voice I chose was Erica Lindbeck's who I also adore. It was always really funny to hear her swear with a similar voice to one of her other characters. The story mode was a bit shorter than expected but for the most part I had fun with it. None of the missions really stand out and the few setpiece ones definitely lack the oomph they really needed. The story itself is very silly and definitely suffers a bit from its lack of length but idk, it's another thing that i thought was pretty enjoyable and I was satisfied with the ending.

The gameplay is kinda oof. The driving controls for normal vehicles is pretty goddamn awful but you unlock stuff like a hoverbike or tank pretty easily and those were a lot more fun to use. The shooting is fine but quite stiff. I found that most of the guns kinda sucked but the fully upgraded magnum was pretty busted and fun to use. You also get a finisher that replenishes where you can insta kill weaker/weakened enemies and those are pretty silly (in the fun way). Another big mechanic of the game is pretty standard open world stuff. There is an emphasis on expanding businesses and doing a bunch of side missions to upgrade them. These are as repetitive as they sound but they do have their own personality and flair to them. I'm on a bit of a crunch to beat stuff before the year ends so I didnt play much but from what I did they were enjoyable enough. The last thing I wanna touch on is the customization. I always love when games have this and Saints Row's system is pretty good. Especially because this game lets you be (half) naked. Running around and gunning people down with my tits out like god intended is lovely. Unfortunately you can only be topless OR bottomless which is clearly sexist anti-lesbian agenda. Just another thing about the game that's half assed....

I feel like a lot of my review is saying something about the game that isn't really good and then me saying I like it anyways. It's not that I am just coping and trying to justify to myself why I bought it. I love trying new games so thats never really a factor for me. I see all the problems this game has and I can definitely understand why there isnt really anyone who loves this. It's mid by modern standards for sure but the hate does feel a bit overblown. It's still constantly brought up as the worst game of the year and I legit unsubscribed from a youtuber I used to watch because he fuckin talked about it so goddamn much. Im still not really sure why i like this game either but the more I think about it the more I wonder if I really need a reason. In the end I just do, and its a fun game to sit back with while you have youtube on.

In the end i feel incredibly conflicted about Saints Row 2022. The only thing I can say definitively is that the main theme is pretty bopping and its been stuck in my head all day.

Thanks for reading this "review" <3
Next up is whatever game comes next, but a Balan Wonderworld one is in the works :p

Nancymeter - 65/100
Time Played - 17 hours 52 minutes
Game Completion #145 of 2022
Game Completion #11 of November

I would not advise anyone to try this game - YET. Because there are so many issues. Gameplay bugs, animation issues, non-existent optimization, bad movement, trashy UI design and some more. Also, the fact that the game start VERY slow is a turn down for me, especially for a gameplay oriented game like this one. I am here for the gameplay, and yes, I am also listening to the story but the game revolves around the gameplay and not the story, so stop that 10 minutes of constant yapping and GIVE ME THE TOOLS TO EXPAND MY FACTORY.
Another thing is that there are research cubes and in order to research something in your technology tree you spend those research cubes BUT those cubes are, in fact, a material that you place in the world. A HUGE ASS CUBE THAT JUST SITS THERE SO YOU CAN RESEARCH SOME SHIT. They don't even disappear after you spend them. An example how frustrating they are is this: I decided to make a ladder out of those cubes as it was mandatory to place them somewhere and towards the 3rd hour, I had a colossal ladder reaching for the stars...
Just wait for it to be released, or at least a year.

It's a shame that it is abandoned because it had the potential to be a great game. Nice concept and gameplay and fun with friends for a short time. It's one of those games that you download once in every one or two years with your friends and then that one friend stops playing it because he's bored and then the other friends stop playing because it's not fun anymore without the whole gang and eventually you have to stop playing too because you are clinging onto the memories of the fun times you had with your friends while you all were playing together.