Bio
Video game enthusiast. I love games that give me new experiences and push the medium, narrative experiences that make me think and leave lasting impressions, and games that let me explore and relax.

My stars correlate more to the fun I personally had with something, and are not any kind of objective measure of how good I think something actually is.
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

Badges


Best Friends

Become mutual friends with at least 3 others

Roadtrip

Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap

2 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years

GOTY '21

Participated in the 2021 Game of the Year Event

Gamer

Played 250+ games

Liked

Gained 10+ total review likes

Noticed

Gained 3+ followers

N00b

Played 100+ games

Favorite Games

Outer Wilds
Outer Wilds
Return of the Obra Dinn
Return of the Obra Dinn
Portal 2
Portal 2
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R
System Shock: Enhanced Edition
System Shock: Enhanced Edition

331

Total Games Played

001

Played in 2024

029

Games Backloggd


Recently Played See More

The Talos Principle II
The Talos Principle II

Jan 26

Jusant
Jusant

Nov 05

Hi-Fi Rush
Hi-Fi Rush

Jan 28

The Case of the Golden Idol
The Case of the Golden Idol

Oct 30

Taiji
Taiji

Sep 18

Recently Reviewed See More

I bought this game just before the turn of the new year, only to sit on it for a month in backlog, but damn, I'm glad I got around it. The Talos Principle was pretty good, had some fun armchair philosophy, good puzzles, generally smooth solving; Talos Principle 2 really elevates the core themes of the first game to something that doesn't just feel like armchair philosophy, while delivering puzzles that have buttery smooth solving paths with some great twists, and upgraded to some immaculate graphical fidelity and art design.

The puzzle design is engaging. Most puzzles have a great time curve, the longest probably took me around 30 minutes (one of the golden door puzzles), I'd say otherwise my average solve time runs somewhere in the 5-10 minute range. A good mix of puzzle solving and ambulatory gameplay, interspersed with interacting with the main cast, reading notes, listening to the logs. It took me just over 30 hours total to finish the game to 100% completion (I only cheated on finding 3 stars, but frankly, I feel justified). This game isn't particularly designed to be too daunting, and while sometimes I found some area's puzzles to be, well, a bit underwhelming in challenge, there is a very solid mix here. Its actually quite impressive how many mechanics they force you to use, and then rethink how each device works. Overall the pacing is fantastic, and I think fits a great middle ground for stubborn puzzle blasters like me and casual solvers alike, there's even a (quite limited) in game puzzle skip system! It's no Stephen's Sausage Roll, but it's really for the best. Its very rare IMO to find a puzzle game this well balanced, and it pushes you to think without overloading your frustration. As an aside, the thought of even trying to playing more Void Stranger is making me ill.

The environments are really well crafted. Some areas are a bit understated, but its a beautiful game, and the design of the buildings, and puzzle rooms, and architecture were a joy to experience. The music is superb too. I was watching my partner play through some of TP1 recently and the switch from Serious Engine to UE really raised the bar on what Croteam could achieve with their art.

All that said, what shines brightest to me is the writing and the voice acting. The characters are so fresh, and real, and engaging, and the choices you make and the things you say to them have weight. The game does lots of little things to show you that the characters actually remember what you say to them in later dialogues, and the castings were so great. I especially love Yaqut. Best boy(?). I really loved the Straton and Lifthrasir audio logs. I mean this game was unironically making me think in new ways about philosophical topics I've tread many times in new and actually nuanced ways. I think so much of it really resonated with me, but I think that it could resonate with anyone that engages with it seriously.

This is a gold standard of what I'd want to see in a well budgeted puzzle game. Here's hoping we get a challenge DLC. Some of the new mechanics deserve some harder puzzles.

I wasn't going to write a review for this one, but I guess what I'd have to say is that its cool, but fucking boring. Next time design a puzzle mechanic where most of the time spent playing is actually solving puzzles and not moving balls around.

Kinda boring, but I love rock climbing and it was pretty, the music was good too. I would describe this as something like a voiceless Ghibli film but its a video game and around 3-4 hours. Take that for what you will, but you'd probably get the same experience playing this game if you just watched Howl's Moving Castle or Ponyo with an Xbox controller in hand, and alternated holding the left and right triggers for the duration of the movie. Truthfully, I'm just jealous that the main character climbs V18 and on sights 5.16a without breaking a sweat.