Honestly, this is one of the best FPS games I've played in a long while. Responsive, intense, immersive, I can't praise the combat enough aided as well by the largely praised AI. Even today, the enemy AI for this game should still be praised, they have environmental interactions, ally interactions, and will respond to what the player is doing. Truly impressive for the time.

The horror elements were an excellent choice to provide drive and reason to what the player is doing, though admittedly none of it was truly scary... more disturbing and uneasy. The sound design and framing for these elements however were spot on. 99% of the time the game ensures you see something it wants you to see naturally via lighting, narrow viewpoints, etc. all without ripping control away from the player. Even the gunfire was sublime and satisfying as you hear the casings drop to the ground.

Easy and definite recommend, and usually on deep discount at your favorite store.

TLDR: Recommended

A simplified 2D souls like experience, combat is responsive and the art is notable. My main issues revolve around equipment topping out, where the only real reason to change it depends on what boss you are fighting at the time. This doesn't apply to the weapons are there are absolute best weapons to find, and you can acquire early if you know where to look.

The most unsatisfying portion to me was creating story threads but not developing them more. Without creating spoilers, the history of your father was interesting but not fulfilling, the squirrel DLC brings up a bunch of questions that get "answered" but only so far as kill boss.

Otherwise, the motivation for the king to go out and rebuild/reclaim his kingdom is enough.

People are being a bit hard on it for not a full price game, but def wouldn't recommend for more than 20-30$ USD.

Without a doubt the weakest aspect of it is the writing and dialogue, the first hour can be extremely bumpy due to a poorly paced intro and just bizarre delivery of poor lines. Once you enter the open world aspect however, the game shines more. The world is wonderfully designed and interesting however questionable in scale, though admittedly it won't make you fondly think back on it months from now. It's not massively open world like alotr of triple A's which is great for exploration and lends well to the traversal of the game, which shines through.

Overall the combat is fine, hack n slash that won't blow you away but the gauntlet mechanics of perks based on adrenaline is a fun system with plenty of variety to customize. This includes the armor which has customization and straight up glamor options if you prefer the look of one armor set with the stats of another.

Overall I would recommend on sale, especially with a friend due to the co op. If you are wondering why I didn't finish it I accidentally deleted my save so will come back to it in the future :P

Not notable tower defense game. None of the towers or weapons really feel impactful, nor do any of the levels feel unique or different. Plus, why does money disappear if you don't pick it up 10 seconds after round end?

The story is told entirely through massive text dumps in between levels, which I found to be not interesting.

There are better tower defense games out there.

While it is comparable to Portal, I think that it's a disservice to compare it as so. While portal is the manipulation of space, this manipulates time, specifically the time of specific objects as small as a pen to as large as the Earth.

The puzzles are wonderfully difficult, if admittedly a bit convoluted. Sometimes forgetting a single step means resetting the whole set-up for your solution. But this is all aided with how easy to use and smooth the entropy device is, even if the physics of objects don't play along.

Characters are average with Aria being particularly bland, but ARIA our plucky AI is light-hearted and entertaining, but mostly it plays a back seat to the overall "mystery" and story to the game.

TLDR: Worth the cost

As someone who is not typically a fan of souls-likes, I found this game quite fun. It's a simplified version of the genre which probably helped me, but that simplicity does have its flaws, especially for those who do enjoy the genre.

The combat is nice though repetitive over time, yet it feels tight and responsive. I found the sub quests being different routes through the same map to be entertaining and a good use of the budget, finding doors that were sealed before opening to a new area and having that, "Oh, this is where I am" moments.

Bosses, save maybe 2, are quite easy and uninteresting themselves. Wihtout voice acting, it was hard to read whatever they were saying during their fights. Story is pretty much entirely text through documents because of this.

The world itself is... I'm not sure, empty yet stylish. I was looking forward to seeing the next maps aesthetic and environment.

Overall, I can recommend this for the 20$ price tag, especially since you don't have to replay through the whole game for different endings, assuming you've fought every boss.