hermanbloom
2022
This game bowled me over. The story is great, very touching in places, funny in others. Voice acting also very good, soundtrack works well and I loved the Choose Your Own Adventure style with the charm system. Was completely engrossed from start to finish. Brilliant.
It's not you it's me. Loads of people love this game. Given it five hours and, whilst the soundtrack is undoubtedly amazing and the game world seems intriguing, I find myself in floaty combat, or wandering huge seemingly empty areas, with a bunch of orange/red dots that I can't seem to get to on the confusing map. I hope to go back to it another time, maybe it clicks then.
Got this for the two kids to play with us, but it's a bit too soon for my Daughter, my bad on that one. Will come back to it for sure, as it seems neat.
2019
This is based on the fact the Boy has played this on and off for six months now, just bombing down the tracks and mostly ignoring the races/rogue-like main game. He is having a blast.
2022
Gave it five hours, battle system seemed designed to make even the simplest enemy a chore by having you swap weapons to match their weakness. And the AI for team members so dumb I had to solo slog through the four boss battles I got to, as team-mates died within 30 seconds. Guess maybe it's designed more for multiplayer? Art was nice, story seemed fine, but got to a point where I realised the system wasn't changing and it just wasn't fun. At all.
2021
If it wasn't for the technical issues (game completely broke after the tutorial forcing a new game, performance issues throughout) this game would be outstanding. Loved the game world, the movement, the voice acting is excellent and it was a genuinely emotional ending for me. So damn good on multiple fronts.
2024
Really wanted to like this, premise seems really cool. But movement is super slow, combat seems hit and miss and just kept "dying", and unlocked what I thought were audience traits but half the time it didn't seem to trigger and actually worked against me. Gave up in the end.
2022
Simple, effective, delightful. Pretty much every second of this game was fun. Controlled really well, levels were different enough to keep things interesting and a bit of a challenge there if you want to find all the pollen etc. And if you don't, it's just a breeze bombing around the levels and unlocking stuff.
With credit to Troytle "slot machine go brrrr". Baffled by the vast majority of the game, but the battles were fun even though I never had any real confidence in what I was doing
2023
Another charming Steamworld game. Works surprisingly well on the Switch. General flow of the game is very good but several times I had to look stuff up as some buildings are in separate levels of menus, some not, so it's easy to lose track at times of what you have built. Very light on story as well. But, as usual for Steamworld it's a well made and simple to grasp game.
Much like the first game, great fun. Refined in some aspects (the battle system was slicker, characters look better etc) and it was cool to see all the characters several in-game years later, with the introduction of some new guys it meant quite a large cast. Didn't think some of them got enough time as a result. The "banter" between the main characters didn't seem as sharp either, but maybe that's supposed to be a sign they had grown-up. Just a bit less amusing as a result. Loving this series though.
2019
Review from my seven year old, trying to play it with his younger sister " the map is stupid and it's all confusing". So there we go.
2021
Another co-op with my Son. This seemed to appeal much more to him than Gang Beasts, the feel of the controls worked a bit better and he liked the idea of heists. Fun weapons as well.
2013
Played through with my Son. First "proper" game we have ever completed. As a two-player co-op game with him it was surprisingly good fun (and longer than I expected). Likely a different story as a solo player, but we really enjoyed it and the controls were easy for him to grasp.
2017
I think maybe the kids were too young for this. Collectively we didn't get on with the controls or feel of the game overall. Definitely some funny moments though.