icepotato
This review contains spoilers
At the end of the day I was moved, and that's more than I can say most of the time.
But there's some weird tonal stuff here. Some of the deaths are very pulpy, from the buck knocking Sam off a cliff (complete with a camera taking a timed picture of his descent!) to a guy busting out of his bunker only to immediately get run over by a train. But then there was a baby literally drowning in the bathtub????? I actually looked away from the screen for that one. So I experienced a little bit of whiplash there and I'm not sure if that was wholly intentional.
(edit: Actually in retrospect I think this is more about my personal feelings on, say, infant children dying unattended in the tub rather than anything strictly in the text of the game)
So, look. It's an experience. I would recommend this experience with some qualifiers.
But there's some weird tonal stuff here. Some of the deaths are very pulpy, from the buck knocking Sam off a cliff (complete with a camera taking a timed picture of his descent!) to a guy busting out of his bunker only to immediately get run over by a train. But then there was a baby literally drowning in the bathtub????? I actually looked away from the screen for that one. So I experienced a little bit of whiplash there and I'm not sure if that was wholly intentional.
(edit: Actually in retrospect I think this is more about my personal feelings on, say, infant children dying unattended in the tub rather than anything strictly in the text of the game)
So, look. It's an experience. I would recommend this experience with some qualifiers.
2012
i can say i have never really encountered a game exactly like this before or since, and that goes a long way. it's a great idea.
unfortunately... it is a bit janky. it needs a bit of tlc to run on steam. sheparding floating seeds to specific places is frustrating, some rooms need very specific setups to succeed and there's no "reset" button, and bouncing from hazard to hazard kind of ruins the vibes.
that said, the dialogue and characterization is top notch. and again, the ecosystem you maintain is very cool.
unfortunately... it is a bit janky. it needs a bit of tlc to run on steam. sheparding floating seeds to specific places is frustrating, some rooms need very specific setups to succeed and there's no "reset" button, and bouncing from hazard to hazard kind of ruins the vibes.
that said, the dialogue and characterization is top notch. and again, the ecosystem you maintain is very cool.
2016
I finished this game and did something I never do - immediately start a new save. As it turns out you do get a pretty different experience siding with a different faction and making some different choices!
I did like the combat, which is rare. I really liked the Spires system and the factions system. I got super into being Evil which normally I can't handle. The biggest issue I had was with bugs, which reset my favorite character back to level 1 and destroyed all his equipment. I think it's mostly linked to the Bastard's Wound DLC.
This is one of my favorites, by far.
I did like the combat, which is rare. I really liked the Spires system and the factions system. I got super into being Evil which normally I can't handle. The biggest issue I had was with bugs, which reset my favorite character back to level 1 and destroyed all his equipment. I think it's mostly linked to the Bastard's Wound DLC.
This is one of my favorites, by far.
2022
having spells be the keys to unlock the gates seems cool but the spell system giving you random spells from your "deck" so that it could call itself a "deckbuilder" is extremely ????
2018
Essentially a timer game without too much else going on.
It's a nice refinement on The Islander, in that it removes the tedious collecting mechanics from the first game. That said, I really like a little more interdependencies or supply chain-type problems in my city builders, and this is a lot more free-form. Create a building, get the resource, wait for the timer to go so you can have enough money to repeat and unlock the next tier. It's... fine.
2017
oh no!!! i genuinely wish i was able to connect with this gorgeous, original, thoughtful game. but i had a moment of dread when i missed a jump and lost my compass and spent 20 minutes totally lost. then another moment when i saw a hollow log and my character said "what a good place to hide from a big animal". finally i found a tiger lurking around a corner and he chased me and it turns out this chill atmospheric exploration game is actually very difficult to navigate, very slow, and has mandatory chase sequences. i can't do it, i'm sorry.
2021
I had fun vacuuming up sludge and restoring the world to a vibrant state. I thought the story was fairly well told and the voice acting was excellent. I think it earned its cliches, including an elevator level fraught with emotional tension and a monochrome walking level at half speed. I loved the music and thought it looked gorgeous.
That said, it didn't really go above and beyond. I wish there was more stuff to scan or more upgrades to get. Yet it knew not to overstay its welcome, so.... Good! Fine! I'd recommend playing it as a comfort game and not expecting to have your mind blown!
That said, it didn't really go above and beyond. I wish there was more stuff to scan or more upgrades to get. Yet it knew not to overstay its welcome, so.... Good! Fine! I'd recommend playing it as a comfort game and not expecting to have your mind blown!
2020
I love vaporwave and I love the world building. I did not love the total lack of a map which had me looking up how to enter several key locations or the fact that the soundtrack - which I started off loving - wore a hole in my brain. I mostly liked the investigations but upon reading some stuff after finishing discovered I missed a whole ass plot thread because I missed a pile of dirt, and that about sums up my problem with the genre as a whole. Basically a super cool and stylish game marred by minor-to-moderate mechanical mishaps.
2020
i really appreciated the visual aesthetic and the soundtrack, i really appreciated the slow burn of the story that gets told. i really appreciated that this is first and foremost a game about photography, about lining up a great photo.
i did not appreciate the controls, i did not appreciate the opaque objectives, i did not appreciate the time pressure, and let's be honest even though i'm the biggest doomer of them all, i'm gonna go ahead and say it: i don't think the game spoke to me along those lines (except for the very last line of the game) nearly as strongly as it did some other people. i spent more time hunting down "the word boomer" or "a kiwi" than i did coming to terms with being "the last generation" (who, let's be real, seemed to be having plenty of dance parties)
i did not appreciate the controls, i did not appreciate the opaque objectives, i did not appreciate the time pressure, and let's be honest even though i'm the biggest doomer of them all, i'm gonna go ahead and say it: i don't think the game spoke to me along those lines (except for the very last line of the game) nearly as strongly as it did some other people. i spent more time hunting down "the word boomer" or "a kiwi" than i did coming to terms with being "the last generation" (who, let's be real, seemed to be having plenty of dance parties)
2021
the game i wanted crosscode to be
2022
spent a bunch of time fighting the interface, and then spent a bunch more time looking at ambiguous drawings and trying to guess which characteristic matched. i can totally understand this being someone's thing, it is not mine.
2024
i actually liked hunting animals with a bow to make them work at my base, i thought it was very pretty, and the discourse was wildly disconnected from the actual experience of playing the game. it's a survival base building game. it's got some nice ways of getting you started and some smart decisions and it's got some wonky stuff. ok!
2018
i have GOT to stop setting myself up with high expectations for arcade shooters.
like, yes, it's good, it's fun, the way you unlock additional continues by getting high scores is neat, the fact that replaying levels to get more weapons on level select is neat, and it does that "vague worldbuilding in interstitials" stuff pretty ok, and also i'm just not good enough or dedicated enough to see the endgame, so.
like, yes, it's good, it's fun, the way you unlock additional continues by getting high scores is neat, the fact that replaying levels to get more weapons on level select is neat, and it does that "vague worldbuilding in interstitials" stuff pretty ok, and also i'm just not good enough or dedicated enough to see the endgame, so.
2015
i had this wishlisted for literally years because the pitch - turn based city builder + RPG + crafting + card game - just sounded so weird and genre-bendy that I couldn't justify ignoring it.
well, i should have ignored it. it's like King's Cross or Might and Magic (4x rpg). The combat is unique but that doesn't mean it's interesting - my hand was so limited that my choices felt constrained and I felt better running autoresolve than trying my luck. The crafting is.... opaque, and for that matter so is the rest of the interface.
yeah it has a weird draw to it. i went back to it for another 2 hours before getting re-stuck again. i wish i liked it more, but the interface is janky (no queuing movement, equipping is a pain, encumberance warnings are incredibly easy to miss, there's no "you forgot to move this unit" warning) . I kind of liked the writing despite myself but really I was thinking of just booting up Endless Legengs again. whoops.
well, i should have ignored it. it's like King's Cross or Might and Magic (4x rpg). The combat is unique but that doesn't mean it's interesting - my hand was so limited that my choices felt constrained and I felt better running autoresolve than trying my luck. The crafting is.... opaque, and for that matter so is the rest of the interface.
yeah it has a weird draw to it. i went back to it for another 2 hours before getting re-stuck again. i wish i liked it more, but the interface is janky (no queuing movement, equipping is a pain, encumberance warnings are incredibly easy to miss, there's no "you forgot to move this unit" warning) . I kind of liked the writing despite myself but really I was thinking of just booting up Endless Legengs again. whoops.