another "risk-free" gambling addiction simulator. i finished one story mode playthrough within 2h of owning it but considering that it's just 3bucks and having (infinite) replay value i think thats more then ok or even somewhat intentional.

the game looks and feels like on one hand like a 2000s edgy, simplicstic flash game but pushed to the max 2 decades ahead!!! and on the other hand it reminds me of something like vst plugins by the likes of darkware. with it's monochromatic colortheme, imagery/design of displays, buttons & items and it's lofi, optimized for a daw, pixelations.

sound design and music are in the same vein. hearing the techno music the first time really sets the mood perfectly for me, it made me feel incredibly cool and made the world feel somewhat believable.

the death screen is one of the most iconic and radiant death screen experiences in recent years. dying in a game felling a bit "triumphant" should become more common place.

sadly i can't give the game 4.5/5 stars cause of a common audio bug which hasnt been fixed yet and really messes with the supsense of disbelieve since it kinda ruins the hypnotic feeling of the game. but once multiplayer is up and working i'm sure i'll bump it up easily, maybe even without the audio being fixed yet...

2nd day of playing: wanted to just play a tiny bit before bed, around 11:30pm...now its 3am...

honestly that this deckbuilder isn't fantasy/sci-fi based but rather plays on that "forbidden fruit" coolness of casinos, poker and slot machines is an immense alleinstehenungsmerkmal (i'm german and that word is way to perfect in this instance not to use it) and the reason why my extremely greedy -ss just said: f-ck it, i buy into the hype...and i don't regret it.

balatro sort of encaptures, atleast for me, slot machines and, in the players of balatro themselves, the mystical gaze of people playing with these machines in, for example, smoked in kneipen or even some kepab places of berlin (or any other place in the world). the sort of elegant but never tiring music, the brightness and shaking of the screen, the satisfying coin and card pop/draw sounds, the simple however extremely flashy art direction.

what i'm proposing here is sort of dark but:
knowing that games help with empathy, maybe this game isn't just a jolly good time killer. maybe it's a "risk-free" view into the mind of gambling addicts. those lost souls, staring into the grossly incadescent abyss of these obelisk-like machines, ad infinitum...

talking about the vita version, probably the closest soulsborne (not just soulslike) but on-the-go experience u can get and i always wanted that since my recent obession into these sort of games.

also the art style started growing on me with it's late 2000s-ish edgy flash game aesthetic which sort of has a comeback with that whole "opium" trend in culture which u can also see in games like gunz the duel. i'm very glad the beauty of the flashgame era has a comeback this way albeit "flash being dead".

the weapon modification/tranmuting seems so deep and impressive that i didn't dare to even scratch it yet and which is something i have only seen in soulslikes/-bornes in elden ring's aow system and what i've seen and applauded from/in lies of p

this is weirdly psychedelic in a way how it sucks you in with it's fast paced-ness, simple yet complex level design and almost "end of history"-archetypical art direction.

dusk plays well with good things about past gaming but adds new qualities to it. it's not just quantative nostalgia for the sake off. it's interesting how in recent years (arguebly already since demon/dark souls) some "niche" games try to slowly get back into, maintain and/or rather build upon on what made games great in the first place: player agency (which doesn't translate always to power fantasy).

realism can only be so much fun and at a certain point, it's actually depressingly uninspiring. games potential of abstraction and surealism, which is impossible to convey in other time based media the way games do it, is what imprints on our mind the most, our inner curious child.

albeit this game also kicked off a flood of probably indie shovel ware in the boomer shooter craze, it did inspire or paved the way for titles like shrine II. and i'm thankful for that (albeit i'm late to the party).

my review on steam from 17oct23:
_
a bit too good for a free game!!

aesthetics are superb: 90s/00s edgy "its-not-just a-phase-mom"/anthony soprano jr wearing that marilyn manson tee - groove blended with those intoxicating splashes of lovecraft, cronenberg (weapons feel like they are straight from existenz) and hr giger.
in short: smells like musky teen outcast spirit!!

gameplay is straightforward but hella fun, the gameplay loop started making sense in the 2nd level for me, has depth/strategy and rewards backtracking for ammo/health/etc.. remember to (abuse) saves (no auto save or checkpoints).

just try it, it's free after all!!

this is my stand in review for all (conversion) mods for stalker games i played. probably played anomaly or something based on it.

anyways they all are free and, as far as i saw, never required any of the original games but are so good i ended up buying the other 2 stalker games besides shadow of chernobyl which was my first stalker game, just so i give back to the original developers/asset creators somehow after playing those mods what feels like several hundred of hours combined...probably i should give the modders also some money speaking off...

if u want a sandbox freeform rpg, as hardcore/tactially/survivally as u'd like single player experience and enjoyed the core mechanics of the stalker games (not everyones cup of tea), u should definitely try some of the stalker based mods

after having my first successful run after 3 days of playing and one credit roll i'd say i "finished" the game to a level where i can write a review

albeit i didn't care for the art style first i've grown to like it (reminds me of playing flash web games in 2000 but being an actually good game)

the gameplay itself on surface level doesn't seem deep for a card game (coming from long running tcg/digital ccg) but goes for the quantity over quality approach and manages to be deep enough, giving everychar an unique playstyle with variants of builds. look i won my first run with a build which stack block values to then strike foes with it and be at times unkillable. it's awesome.

can highly recommend it (albeit i got it "for free" on ps plus but i'll probably buy it on pc)

i finished the main game without any side-questing (its really not that important) and started ng+ with hardmode. once i arrive at the main city/hubarea of the game, i will do the bitter black isle part of the game, which was a dlc for the original release but which is for many veterans of the game the main appeal of dragons dogma. before bbi it was the endgames everfall dungeons.

this is a decent game however it has detrimental flaws. like not being sure if its a skill based game or rather a classic progression farm rpg which it seems to excel in. the open world is small (this is because of budget cuts/having to rush the game but still) while in the same time u sluggishly traverse it cause running consumes stamina which regenerates very slowly. they could have fixed by making it only run out of stamina when an enemy encounter happens, as an idea. this game has no mounts either to mitigate this and only limited fast traveling but which u can setup urself and was made easier/better to use in the dark arisen edition. but it still feels like pointless running around in an empty bland world often (the castles are great though) since for example enemy variety is almost none existent. even for a game from its time but those few enemies are fun to fight if looked at isolated from their constant reuse.

the combat however is extremely fun and the invocation system is very unque albeit minmaxing probably won't be very easy if one doesn't research prior. the climbing on enemies feels grand adventury while the spells and skills are extremely stylish and a real spectacle. the pawn system is genius, haven't seen anything like this yet but it is a great way for people who prefer single player to make it feel its not and being able still to interact with other players via their pawns. finishing the game i had an attachment to my pawn which is something i never had with any ingame companion in this regard.

the story is interesting (funny enough not that far off to dark souls in a way which came out the same year) but also feels underdeveloped sadly. i do like how it starts out quite normal rpgy and then has a few twists which make the story feel like something which could have been deep.

this is a game of potentials. i mostly enjoyed playing it so far but i'm not sure if i can recommend wholeheartedly especially considering that dragons dogma 2 will be released hopefully in next the next few months which i'm very excited about. cause i can see a grand game in dd but it's hindered by its flaws which will be hopefully fixed in dd2 which is why i'd say wait for that one. but if u a hardened rpg fan and need something else after beating elden ring (and all over fromsoft titles) u might end up liking this game just as i did in that situation. this game was actually recommended to me on the elden ring discord. and i'm glad it was. but i highly recommend looking up things for this one.