Modkiq
BACKER
2010
Dungeon Defenders was one of the first games I purchased on Steam, and wow, what a banger it once was.
The game with almost infinite grinding potential, endless of hours well spent. A tower defense where you're forced to team up with people to succeed if you want to get the best gear. A really smart way to encourage you playing with strangers. Even if these strangers are weaker than you, they still help out by being able to upgrade your gear for you.
Trendy, or Chromatic Games as they're called now really struct lightning in a bottle. We played this game for years, and since it was such a cheap game, it was incredibly easy to make friends join you. Despite the unbalanced mess it was behind the scenes, it was a good time.
If you weren't grinding away for loot, you were probably going through the player shops, hoping to find some good armor or weapons for you to use.
As with most games, this game eventually stopped getting dev support, and the community slowly dwindled away. Though it has seen somewhat of a resurgence in the past few years, we all hope that something similar can be created in the future, with current technology.
Unfortunately Chromatic has turned out to be the scum of the earth. They create multiple DD clones, sell the game based on hype, overpromise and underdeliver every time. Some games like Dungeon Defenders Going Rogue I'd argue is a straight up scam. Others, like Dungeon Defenders Awakened had promise, but they always end up ruining the experience with a patch (such as deleting all your items, or removing things from the game so it'll run better on switch).
If you want to play a DD game, stick with the original.
The game with almost infinite grinding potential, endless of hours well spent. A tower defense where you're forced to team up with people to succeed if you want to get the best gear. A really smart way to encourage you playing with strangers. Even if these strangers are weaker than you, they still help out by being able to upgrade your gear for you.
Trendy, or Chromatic Games as they're called now really struct lightning in a bottle. We played this game for years, and since it was such a cheap game, it was incredibly easy to make friends join you. Despite the unbalanced mess it was behind the scenes, it was a good time.
If you weren't grinding away for loot, you were probably going through the player shops, hoping to find some good armor or weapons for you to use.
As with most games, this game eventually stopped getting dev support, and the community slowly dwindled away. Though it has seen somewhat of a resurgence in the past few years, we all hope that something similar can be created in the future, with current technology.
Unfortunately Chromatic has turned out to be the scum of the earth. They create multiple DD clones, sell the game based on hype, overpromise and underdeliver every time. Some games like Dungeon Defenders Going Rogue I'd argue is a straight up scam. Others, like Dungeon Defenders Awakened had promise, but they always end up ruining the experience with a patch (such as deleting all your items, or removing things from the game so it'll run better on switch).
If you want to play a DD game, stick with the original.
2021
This game oozes style. The art, the music, the animations, all fantastic. I am very surprised this game did not make a bigger splash. I am also surprised as to how I did not hear about this game for so long after it came out.
Everything in this game screams passion. The combat itself is really interesting with a strategic position based turn based RPG system. The game is a roguelite, however quests carry over from run to run, so you can slowly but surely complete quests and unlock new party members and items.
One of the larger drives of this game is how the difficulty increases as you get better at the game. Many players get confused when they hear this game is difficult, only for them to breeze through it. They simply did not get far enough.
I highly recommend this game.
Everything in this game screams passion. The combat itself is really interesting with a strategic position based turn based RPG system. The game is a roguelite, however quests carry over from run to run, so you can slowly but surely complete quests and unlock new party members and items.
One of the larger drives of this game is how the difficulty increases as you get better at the game. Many players get confused when they hear this game is difficult, only for them to breeze through it. They simply did not get far enough.
I highly recommend this game.
2023
I really needed a game like Alan Wake 2. After growing increasingly jaded with AAA titles and its repetition, Alan Wake 2 offers an incredibly creative experience that breaks the mold of what you would expect in a typical high budget game.
I love Remedy's storytelling. They present a lot of questions to you, but rarely answer them explicitly. In some cases, you are left to speculate, or wait for the next game in the series. The story is purposefully convoluted, full of references to a 10 year old game and mentions you need a very keen eye to truly appreciate. The story jumps back and forth in time, from one character to another, and sometimes it's questionable what is and isn't "real". While this can be somewhat annoying for some, it ensures for me that the game and its mysteries stay in my mind for a long time. It is a game that, if you get invested, it stays with you for a long time after you play it. Lore videos, discussion boards, making up my own theories, it's a lot of fun.
Alan's endless monologues, Saga questioning what is happening and what is real, characters seemingly knowing more than they let on, Athi the janitor, I just wanna dive deeper and deeper into the lore and discover as much as possible.
When it comes to the gamplay itself, it's good. Alan offers classic Survival Horror type gameplay, where you have to be careful with your resources, solve puzzles while pushing forward to continue the story. Alan Wake 2 fixes a lot of my issues with typical survival horrors. There are very few "annoying" things to deal with. No big unkillable AI that does nothing to improve the atmosphere, no running to the other side of the map to find what you need to solve a puzzle, and no boss fights where all you do is unload 3 magazines of every gun type into them before they die.
Saga's side of the game is similar, but focuses more on action, exploration, more long winded puzzles, and meeting characters to drive the plot forward.
While all of this is well and good, the game is not without flaws. Here are my main gripes:
1) Sometimes I would know the answer to a puzzle, get really confused as to why it wasn't working, second guess myself and run around the map like a headless chicken before realizing I forgot to put a picture in its place in the Mind Place. Bruh. Seriously? Sometimes I would even solve the puzzle, look in the correct spot, but the item isn't there because I didn't enter my head and "think" the item into existence. This sucks, and the Saga part of the story is especially guilty of this. It happens multiple times.
2) The optimization is god awful. Seriously? 4080, i7-13th gen, 32GB ram and I can't even get 60 fps at 1440p without DLSS? Even with DLSS it sometimes stutters. DLSS makes the game feel much heavier and clunker than it needs to be. What a shame. The anti aliasing is also really bad, you essentially have to choose between a jagged game or a blurry game. If you choose to play with DLSS, it is especially bad when anti aliasing is on.
3) Sometimes I would get lost. The map was not very good, and it was not always clear where the game wanted you to go. Especially in some of the open ended areas like when you explore the open world of the Dark Place, particularly when you look for something that hasn't appeared in the world yet, so you hyper focus on scouting for that one thing that doesn't exist. The map is also inaccurate multiple places in the Dark Place because walking into a room will technically teleport you somewhere else, so you take a left and on the map it looks like you took a right, and you also sprinted 200 meters (because you teleported).
In conclusion, I think this game is amazing, and definitely deserves all the praise it is getting. I am super excited for Remedy's next game, and I can't wait to dive back into this fantastical world of horror. I can only hope we don't have to wait 10 years for the next one.
I love Remedy's storytelling. They present a lot of questions to you, but rarely answer them explicitly. In some cases, you are left to speculate, or wait for the next game in the series. The story is purposefully convoluted, full of references to a 10 year old game and mentions you need a very keen eye to truly appreciate. The story jumps back and forth in time, from one character to another, and sometimes it's questionable what is and isn't "real". While this can be somewhat annoying for some, it ensures for me that the game and its mysteries stay in my mind for a long time. It is a game that, if you get invested, it stays with you for a long time after you play it. Lore videos, discussion boards, making up my own theories, it's a lot of fun.
Alan's endless monologues, Saga questioning what is happening and what is real, characters seemingly knowing more than they let on, Athi the janitor, I just wanna dive deeper and deeper into the lore and discover as much as possible.
When it comes to the gamplay itself, it's good. Alan offers classic Survival Horror type gameplay, where you have to be careful with your resources, solve puzzles while pushing forward to continue the story. Alan Wake 2 fixes a lot of my issues with typical survival horrors. There are very few "annoying" things to deal with. No big unkillable AI that does nothing to improve the atmosphere, no running to the other side of the map to find what you need to solve a puzzle, and no boss fights where all you do is unload 3 magazines of every gun type into them before they die.
Saga's side of the game is similar, but focuses more on action, exploration, more long winded puzzles, and meeting characters to drive the plot forward.
While all of this is well and good, the game is not without flaws. Here are my main gripes:
1) Sometimes I would know the answer to a puzzle, get really confused as to why it wasn't working, second guess myself and run around the map like a headless chicken before realizing I forgot to put a picture in its place in the Mind Place. Bruh. Seriously? Sometimes I would even solve the puzzle, look in the correct spot, but the item isn't there because I didn't enter my head and "think" the item into existence. This sucks, and the Saga part of the story is especially guilty of this. It happens multiple times.
2) The optimization is god awful. Seriously? 4080, i7-13th gen, 32GB ram and I can't even get 60 fps at 1440p without DLSS? Even with DLSS it sometimes stutters. DLSS makes the game feel much heavier and clunker than it needs to be. What a shame. The anti aliasing is also really bad, you essentially have to choose between a jagged game or a blurry game. If you choose to play with DLSS, it is especially bad when anti aliasing is on.
3) Sometimes I would get lost. The map was not very good, and it was not always clear where the game wanted you to go. Especially in some of the open ended areas like when you explore the open world of the Dark Place, particularly when you look for something that hasn't appeared in the world yet, so you hyper focus on scouting for that one thing that doesn't exist. The map is also inaccurate multiple places in the Dark Place because walking into a room will technically teleport you somewhere else, so you take a left and on the map it looks like you took a right, and you also sprinted 200 meters (because you teleported).
In conclusion, I think this game is amazing, and definitely deserves all the praise it is getting. I am super excited for Remedy's next game, and I can't wait to dive back into this fantastical world of horror. I can only hope we don't have to wait 10 years for the next one.
Do you remember watching these stick fight animations like 10 years ago? You ever thought "Man, I wish there was a game that would let me do this". Well, here it is.
Stick fight does not only look crazy like these animations we look back so fondly on, it plays like a dream too. "Fighting games are turn based" has long been said in the community, "you just need to know when to take your turn". The developer Ivy Sly took this literally and created one of the most innovative fighting games we've seen in a long time.
Both players doing their turn at the same time, having to guess what the opponent is going to do, confuse them with movement, react to the moves they throw out... it's all so familiar. It really plays just like a fighting game, but your reaction time is instant because of the turn based nature of the game.
If you're a greedy player, you'll throw up stupid moves and get punished, if you're scared, you'll get backed into the corner, and if you're too defensive, you will get grabbed. It's all here, just in a turn based coating.
What really takes this game to the next lvl are the mechanics it borrows from other fighting games. Being able to influence the direction you fly when you get hit, guessing when the opponent is going to push you away with their burst, how different characters have different friction on the ground allowing for sliding moves and creative ways of hitting the opponent, fighting game fans will recognize all of this and be able to pinpoint what games they're being "borrowed" from, but ti just makes so much more sense in this game.
The level of control you have over your character in this game, even when you're being comboed by your opponent is astonishing.
This game manages to skip a lot of the issues traditional fighting games face. Telling your friend that they have to stick with a game for a while before they know if it's for them or not, it's not really a good selling point. "The game is fun, but you have to put in the work". This game skips all of that. Anyone can play this, and they don't have to spend hours in training mode to do awesome combos. Every time you press a button, you can see a preview of what is going to happen, before it happens. This means that you'll be able to see what moves will and will not work, and you can compare your moves to your opponent's, letting you know how big of a risk you're taking.
The main issue with this game is that some of the downsides of fighting games are even worse in this one. Fighting game players will complain having to "watch a cutscene" if your opponent combos you for more than five seconds. This game is even worse. While it is cool that you are also playing while you're being combod, by influencing the direction you get hit, your options are still extremely limited, and you're not exactly doing anything "cool".
Having to wait for your opponent to plan their incredibly cool 10+ hit combos can leave you waiting for upwards of five minutes before you're able to play again. But then again, when you actually get a hit, you'll be the one doing the most awesome sequence of moves you'll ever see for five minutes, so maybe it's worth it ;)
Overall, this game is incredible. It's a fighting game with all the depth and fun characters you'd expect, while also being incredibly accessible to the point where anyone that understands the basic principle of "You want to hit the opponent without getting hit yourself" to play and do awesome moves.
Regardless of if you win or lose, you'll be able to watch the whole match play at lightning speed once the round is over, and it looks just as cool every single time. I'll continue to play this a lot more for sure.
Highly recommend.
Stick fight does not only look crazy like these animations we look back so fondly on, it plays like a dream too. "Fighting games are turn based" has long been said in the community, "you just need to know when to take your turn". The developer Ivy Sly took this literally and created one of the most innovative fighting games we've seen in a long time.
Both players doing their turn at the same time, having to guess what the opponent is going to do, confuse them with movement, react to the moves they throw out... it's all so familiar. It really plays just like a fighting game, but your reaction time is instant because of the turn based nature of the game.
If you're a greedy player, you'll throw up stupid moves and get punished, if you're scared, you'll get backed into the corner, and if you're too defensive, you will get grabbed. It's all here, just in a turn based coating.
What really takes this game to the next lvl are the mechanics it borrows from other fighting games. Being able to influence the direction you fly when you get hit, guessing when the opponent is going to push you away with their burst, how different characters have different friction on the ground allowing for sliding moves and creative ways of hitting the opponent, fighting game fans will recognize all of this and be able to pinpoint what games they're being "borrowed" from, but ti just makes so much more sense in this game.
The level of control you have over your character in this game, even when you're being comboed by your opponent is astonishing.
This game manages to skip a lot of the issues traditional fighting games face. Telling your friend that they have to stick with a game for a while before they know if it's for them or not, it's not really a good selling point. "The game is fun, but you have to put in the work". This game skips all of that. Anyone can play this, and they don't have to spend hours in training mode to do awesome combos. Every time you press a button, you can see a preview of what is going to happen, before it happens. This means that you'll be able to see what moves will and will not work, and you can compare your moves to your opponent's, letting you know how big of a risk you're taking.
The main issue with this game is that some of the downsides of fighting games are even worse in this one. Fighting game players will complain having to "watch a cutscene" if your opponent combos you for more than five seconds. This game is even worse. While it is cool that you are also playing while you're being combod, by influencing the direction you get hit, your options are still extremely limited, and you're not exactly doing anything "cool".
Having to wait for your opponent to plan their incredibly cool 10+ hit combos can leave you waiting for upwards of five minutes before you're able to play again. But then again, when you actually get a hit, you'll be the one doing the most awesome sequence of moves you'll ever see for five minutes, so maybe it's worth it ;)
Overall, this game is incredible. It's a fighting game with all the depth and fun characters you'd expect, while also being incredibly accessible to the point where anyone that understands the basic principle of "You want to hit the opponent without getting hit yourself" to play and do awesome moves.
Regardless of if you win or lose, you'll be able to watch the whole match play at lightning speed once the round is over, and it looks just as cool every single time. I'll continue to play this a lot more for sure.
Highly recommend.
Overall I enjoyed my time with Man of Medan. I am glad I played it. What is holding it back is that it's so very much on the nose. There is little to no mystery, because before your mind starts filling in the gaps in the story, everything has already been "hinted" at, or even shown to you.
The game has some cool moments where Player 1 can directly influence Player 2, without knowing that the other person they see is the second player, and you won't know before it is too late and all choices have been made.
Moments like these stick out as memorable, and is easily the game's biggest strength.
However, for every cool part, there is an equally lame moment where the characters in the game act like complete idiots. If the characters in the game actually acted like people, so much of the story would not work. It is driven by a complete cast of dumbasses making dumbass decisions, and you as the player has no way of influencing these choices, because if you did, the story would not move forward.
In the beginning of the game, you get captured by pirates, but one of your crew is able to hide and not get noticed by the pirates. Great. LET US TALK ABOUT THIS PERSON LOUDLY IN FRONT OF THE PIRATES. Oh no they found him :(
Writing like this makes you question the team's capabilities. No one picked up on this before release?
Overall, the game is a story game that has some cool moments, and does co-op in a way other studios haven't really tried before. There are cool visuals for some of the spooky areas, and the voice acting is pretty good. That said, this is a story game that does not tell a particularly good story. If you specifically look for a co-op horror themed action-movie game, I recommend this one, mostly because there aren't other options. If that idea is not appealing to you, there are many better horror games out there.
The game has some cool moments where Player 1 can directly influence Player 2, without knowing that the other person they see is the second player, and you won't know before it is too late and all choices have been made.
Moments like these stick out as memorable, and is easily the game's biggest strength.
However, for every cool part, there is an equally lame moment where the characters in the game act like complete idiots. If the characters in the game actually acted like people, so much of the story would not work. It is driven by a complete cast of dumbasses making dumbass decisions, and you as the player has no way of influencing these choices, because if you did, the story would not move forward.
In the beginning of the game, you get captured by pirates, but one of your crew is able to hide and not get noticed by the pirates. Great. LET US TALK ABOUT THIS PERSON LOUDLY IN FRONT OF THE PIRATES. Oh no they found him :(
Writing like this makes you question the team's capabilities. No one picked up on this before release?
Overall, the game is a story game that has some cool moments, and does co-op in a way other studios haven't really tried before. There are cool visuals for some of the spooky areas, and the voice acting is pretty good. That said, this is a story game that does not tell a particularly good story. If you specifically look for a co-op horror themed action-movie game, I recommend this one, mostly because there aren't other options. If that idea is not appealing to you, there are many better horror games out there.
2023
Deceive is one of those games that just suddenly showed up and hooked me and my friends for a couple of months. Hiding in a world like NPCs while everyone is sneakily trying to steal the same thing is a lot of fun, and there is a lot you can do to surprise or trick your opponents.
The game allows for a lot of silly and unique strategies which create lasting memories and good times. Getting first to an objective, then disguising as props until an unsuspecting player comes in, free for you to kill the second they start the hacking, or quickly killing someone, then disguising as an NPC before their teammates are able to come for back up. It's all a lot of fun.
The game also offers a lot of ways for you to express your skills, whether it is by choosing your battles wisely, using abilities and your aim to win battles where you have the disadvantage, or tricking your opponents into your traps. This creates for some tense games where you're always at the edge of your seat.
That said, the game has a bunch of problems. Doing the smaller objectives is not that important in the grand scheme of things, and defeating opponents can be a lot more powerful. This means that if you have the opportunity, it's more optimal for you to make sure that player you just kill doesn't get to play anymore.
You kill 2 out of the 3 players on a team. If you already have the gear you need, you might as well just camp. This becomes more prevalent the better your opponents are. I am also guilty of this. You sit there, do nothing for 5+ minutes. The last opponent can never win, and you want the game to time out, or you wait for them to do the main objective, at which point you can just kill them and win for free.
Killing NPCs had almost no penalty, meaning you can freely kill them to "check" if they are a player.
If camping isn't your style, you can often just ignore the main aspect of the game, the "deceive" part, and just go full rambo and hunt players down. You are not punished for this, in fact you are often rewarded as you get all the loot the more stealthy player stole.
Having multiple playstyles isn't wrong, but it sometimes can feel like the most efficient way to play is the most lame way to play.
I think the devs quickly learnt that "given the chance, a player will optimize the fun out of a game". They need to find a way to make the most fun way to play (disguising, trapping, being clever) the most efficient way to win.
While the devs have been on top of these issues and addressed a lot, the big elephant in the room is the lack of content updates. Game dev takes A LOT of time, and the patience of a playerbase is fleeting. If a live service game can't drop new maps or change up the game, players will get tired of playing. That's what happened to this game. Players just left, and the player numbers hit the ground.
While new players sometimes join through free weekend, humble choice, or whatever their next plan is, the issue is that these new players will be welcomed by players who already mastered the game. They will be destroyed, and they won't have fun.
I will rate this game 4 stars, because it was truly a lot of fun when it released. A unique concept, with a decent execution, unfortunately suffering the same fate as a lot of indie live service games. I hope this game can bounce back and be what it deserves to be. In a sea of mediocrity this game can truly stand out.
The game allows for a lot of silly and unique strategies which create lasting memories and good times. Getting first to an objective, then disguising as props until an unsuspecting player comes in, free for you to kill the second they start the hacking, or quickly killing someone, then disguising as an NPC before their teammates are able to come for back up. It's all a lot of fun.
The game also offers a lot of ways for you to express your skills, whether it is by choosing your battles wisely, using abilities and your aim to win battles where you have the disadvantage, or tricking your opponents into your traps. This creates for some tense games where you're always at the edge of your seat.
That said, the game has a bunch of problems. Doing the smaller objectives is not that important in the grand scheme of things, and defeating opponents can be a lot more powerful. This means that if you have the opportunity, it's more optimal for you to make sure that player you just kill doesn't get to play anymore.
You kill 2 out of the 3 players on a team. If you already have the gear you need, you might as well just camp. This becomes more prevalent the better your opponents are. I am also guilty of this. You sit there, do nothing for 5+ minutes. The last opponent can never win, and you want the game to time out, or you wait for them to do the main objective, at which point you can just kill them and win for free.
Killing NPCs had almost no penalty, meaning you can freely kill them to "check" if they are a player.
If camping isn't your style, you can often just ignore the main aspect of the game, the "deceive" part, and just go full rambo and hunt players down. You are not punished for this, in fact you are often rewarded as you get all the loot the more stealthy player stole.
Having multiple playstyles isn't wrong, but it sometimes can feel like the most efficient way to play is the most lame way to play.
I think the devs quickly learnt that "given the chance, a player will optimize the fun out of a game". They need to find a way to make the most fun way to play (disguising, trapping, being clever) the most efficient way to win.
While the devs have been on top of these issues and addressed a lot, the big elephant in the room is the lack of content updates. Game dev takes A LOT of time, and the patience of a playerbase is fleeting. If a live service game can't drop new maps or change up the game, players will get tired of playing. That's what happened to this game. Players just left, and the player numbers hit the ground.
While new players sometimes join through free weekend, humble choice, or whatever their next plan is, the issue is that these new players will be welcomed by players who already mastered the game. They will be destroyed, and they won't have fun.
I will rate this game 4 stars, because it was truly a lot of fun when it released. A unique concept, with a decent execution, unfortunately suffering the same fate as a lot of indie live service games. I hope this game can bounce back and be what it deserves to be. In a sea of mediocrity this game can truly stand out.
2023
A short but sweet action adventure full of charm, funny dialogue and a unique combat system where you need to be quick on your feet and use the environment to defeat your enemies.
The games does a great job of having unique enemies where you really have to prioritize your targets correctly to get through encounters. The different enemy combinations used really make for unique feeling encounters, despite there not being that many enemy types. The items and rooms themselves also make a huge difference in terms of how the encounter feels.
That said, this game is being held back by a few things.
Firstly, there isn't much incentive to explore. While there are plenty of secrets to find, they do not really offer anything, not are the ones I found particularly difficult to get to. They do not offer additional platforming challenges, rarely unique encounters, but instead a little reference or funny joke.
While the platforming (and movement in general) is pretty good, the game doesn't do a whole lot with it. Sometimes you will have an opportunity to swing from a rope or grab a pole in the battle arena, but it rarely offers utility mid battle, just running is almost always better as you still have access to your full moveset that way. I wish this aspect was explored more.
While this game has been very enjoyable, I wish they explored the movement system a bit more, and I wish there were more enemy types. That said, everything that is in the game is delightful, and the game had me smiling throughout the entire experience.
The games does a great job of having unique enemies where you really have to prioritize your targets correctly to get through encounters. The different enemy combinations used really make for unique feeling encounters, despite there not being that many enemy types. The items and rooms themselves also make a huge difference in terms of how the encounter feels.
That said, this game is being held back by a few things.
Firstly, there isn't much incentive to explore. While there are plenty of secrets to find, they do not really offer anything, not are the ones I found particularly difficult to get to. They do not offer additional platforming challenges, rarely unique encounters, but instead a little reference or funny joke.
While the platforming (and movement in general) is pretty good, the game doesn't do a whole lot with it. Sometimes you will have an opportunity to swing from a rope or grab a pole in the battle arena, but it rarely offers utility mid battle, just running is almost always better as you still have access to your full moveset that way. I wish this aspect was explored more.
While this game has been very enjoyable, I wish they explored the movement system a bit more, and I wish there were more enemy types. That said, everything that is in the game is delightful, and the game had me smiling throughout the entire experience.
The last good Borderlands, in my opinion. It's full of charm, deep characters with their own personalities, doubts, dreams and nightmares. You really feel like you always get to know everything you need to know about everyone you meet.
They're charming, the soundtrack is catchy, jokes usually land, and you really want to name your first-born child Loader Bot, for some reason.
They're charming, the soundtrack is catchy, jokes usually land, and you really want to name your first-born child Loader Bot, for some reason.
I love Dungeon Defenders. The original is something I enjoyed for hundreds of hours during its peak, and every couple of years, I still come back to enjoy a run or two.
You can imagine my excitement when I saw this game on kickstarter. I backed the $60 dollar version which was supposed to come with extra goodies.
It finally releases to early access, and I am happy. The game plays well, and while it is still lacking, it is clear they have a good idea of what they want to do, and how they want to do it. Some of the maps are remakes from the original game, while some of the maps are new. This is great, and makes this feel like a lot more than "just a remake".
But at some point during development, something shifted. Maybe sales slowed down, maybe they lost their spark, or maybe they simply did not give a fuck anymore. They stopped trying, and they patched the game into a worse version of itself.
In order to release the game on Switch, they made it so enemy spawns would be reduced. Effects were tuned down, and loot drops were nerfed. According to the devs, this was done on the PC version because it would be "impossible to manage two versions of the game".
They also thought that early supporters and players were "too powerful", so they wanted old players to restart. So if you grinded for 100+ hours to get your perfect loot in the early days of the game, this loot would be invalidated. You have to do it again. This was done to make it a more balanced experience for new players. What?
New players would also be able to grind for this loot. Even then, they introduced a higher difficulty mode (which drops even better loot), so there was no point in nerfing the old loot to begin with. Players would just grind this new even harder difficulty to get even better loot.
People got upset about this nerf, so they split the game into two servers. One server where the old loot would persist, and one where it got invalidated. This makes no sense.
They would add things from the original Dungeon Defenders to the game, such as the spiders spawning behind towers, without also implementing the counters to these enemy typed. This means that half the cast's towers immediately become unusable. This means that if you liked to play as one of these characters, you now can't play the game anymore. This persisted for months before they added the same counter from the original game (the summoner class).
It did not take long before people started hacking the game, spawning in loot with endless stats. The devs then decided to implement checks, however this was done in the worst way I have ever seen. They defined a "max stats" for your gear. If you have gear in your inventory that exceed these stats, you get banned. Their "max stats" was worse than the items that were dropping in the game normally, meaning if you played legitimate and picked up loot from high tier stages, you would get banned.
Not only that, but hackers would just spawn loot in other people's lobbies, and if you picked them up, bye bye.
People were understandably getting upset, so what do the devs do? They start working on another, new Dungeon Defenders game. This game barely functions, and they release a Dungeon Defenders Roguelike? This is where people knew for sure they had been scammed. Sidenote, that roguelite they released in early access never got any updates in a year.
It is safe to say that Chromatic Games, previously known as Trendy Entertainment has no idea what they are doing. They have repeatedly scammed their fans, and are quick to abandon their projects the second they feel like it, with no news, not even a shitty corporate "im sorry".
And by the way, it has been over 3 years since the game released and I was supposed to get my Kickstarter rewards, but I never got them. Thank you.
You can imagine my excitement when I saw this game on kickstarter. I backed the $60 dollar version which was supposed to come with extra goodies.
It finally releases to early access, and I am happy. The game plays well, and while it is still lacking, it is clear they have a good idea of what they want to do, and how they want to do it. Some of the maps are remakes from the original game, while some of the maps are new. This is great, and makes this feel like a lot more than "just a remake".
But at some point during development, something shifted. Maybe sales slowed down, maybe they lost their spark, or maybe they simply did not give a fuck anymore. They stopped trying, and they patched the game into a worse version of itself.
In order to release the game on Switch, they made it so enemy spawns would be reduced. Effects were tuned down, and loot drops were nerfed. According to the devs, this was done on the PC version because it would be "impossible to manage two versions of the game".
They also thought that early supporters and players were "too powerful", so they wanted old players to restart. So if you grinded for 100+ hours to get your perfect loot in the early days of the game, this loot would be invalidated. You have to do it again. This was done to make it a more balanced experience for new players. What?
New players would also be able to grind for this loot. Even then, they introduced a higher difficulty mode (which drops even better loot), so there was no point in nerfing the old loot to begin with. Players would just grind this new even harder difficulty to get even better loot.
People got upset about this nerf, so they split the game into two servers. One server where the old loot would persist, and one where it got invalidated. This makes no sense.
They would add things from the original Dungeon Defenders to the game, such as the spiders spawning behind towers, without also implementing the counters to these enemy typed. This means that half the cast's towers immediately become unusable. This means that if you liked to play as one of these characters, you now can't play the game anymore. This persisted for months before they added the same counter from the original game (the summoner class).
It did not take long before people started hacking the game, spawning in loot with endless stats. The devs then decided to implement checks, however this was done in the worst way I have ever seen. They defined a "max stats" for your gear. If you have gear in your inventory that exceed these stats, you get banned. Their "max stats" was worse than the items that were dropping in the game normally, meaning if you played legitimate and picked up loot from high tier stages, you would get banned.
Not only that, but hackers would just spawn loot in other people's lobbies, and if you picked them up, bye bye.
People were understandably getting upset, so what do the devs do? They start working on another, new Dungeon Defenders game. This game barely functions, and they release a Dungeon Defenders Roguelike? This is where people knew for sure they had been scammed. Sidenote, that roguelite they released in early access never got any updates in a year.
It is safe to say that Chromatic Games, previously known as Trendy Entertainment has no idea what they are doing. They have repeatedly scammed their fans, and are quick to abandon their projects the second they feel like it, with no news, not even a shitty corporate "im sorry".
And by the way, it has been over 3 years since the game released and I was supposed to get my Kickstarter rewards, but I never got them. Thank you.
This review contains spoilers
A Space for the Unbound is a heartfelt story wrapped around gorgeous pixel art, a nice soundtrack, but frustrating gameplay, extremely on the nose hints that ruin surprises, and padding.
Ultimately this is a "story game", it is the main focus, and as such is the most important thing for this game. Overall, the game tells a beautiful story about inner struggles, depression, anxiety, self reflection, abuse, loss, bullying, and more. The main character's struggles are sure to be relatable, especially if you play this while you're still in school.
The main issue I have with the story itself is that every hint is so on the nose, you'll know most twists and turns before they happen, while not really looking out for or thinking about trying to solve the game's story. This section will contain spoilers:
The game opens with the South Star Princess dying, yellow (warm colored) flower petals used for magic, and a dark colored cat. One chapter later you hear of the North Star Princess, but you don't know much about her. You then see Raya's light blue (cold colored) flower petals used for magic, and she has a light colored cat. Complete opposites, totally not the North Star Princess. You know Nirmala wrote these stories, so either you are in her story, or Nirmala has a new identity and taken on the role as the North Star Princess. The game reveales both of these are true. Shocker.
This goes for a lot of the twists in the story. They're always very clearly explained before they even happen, and the only sense of mystery the game has comes from the game realizing they're being too obvious, so they have a cat tell you very ominously that "You don't know what's happening, fool, I am very mysteryous, nothing is as it seems". Then in the end the cat just gives up and starts explaining that it didn't want to be mysterious after all, they're all just here to help. This part of the narrative just felt and still feels out of place even after completing the game.
The hints are so on the nose, that when you launch the game, the first thing you see is a trigger-warning list. "Animal death", I haven't even played the game yet, and my first thought is "The main character's cat will die, ok". This alone ruined any emotional impact this scene would have had otherwise.
Other than that, the story itself is mostly fantastic, and handles the heavy topics with grace. The only thing that really took me out of the immersion was that they made the teenage characters censor themselves during fights. A late teenager would not censor themselves and say "You're such a B-!" when they're in a fight. It's not how people would speak, especially not a high school jock who isn't afraid to beat up people he doesn't like. This happens fairly often, so I thought I should bring it up.
Writing aside, the game's biggest issue is the padding. Everything you do has padding. I think the developers were scared that just writing a good story wouldn't be enough, so they needed to insert a ridiculous amount of steps to do literally antything in the game, and it's simply not fun.
For example, you need to go buy a cake, but you need to run around every part of town to gather each of the ingrediants. Fair enough. Actually, this wasn't enough, the chef is having a mental breakdown, so you need to sabotage her dream-food by pouring oil into it. The steps finding the oil alone is:
Leave dream > Find Oil > Can't buy it, so you find a secret password to get free oil > You need your own container > Find container > Actually the container is dirty, find the one place in town you can clean it lol > Get free oil > Finally sabotage the dish.
This was one of three foods you have to sabotage before the chef will help you. So to get the cake you need to run around town a minimum of 3 times.
Doing this adds nothing to the story, you can barely call it gameplay, and it makes for an incredibly dragged out experience. It's simply not fun to run around the whole town looking for a random button to press, often with no hint. If it was just a few times, sure, but it happens almost every time you need to get anything done.
The worst part is that you can't pick up items before you need them. For example that container you need for the oil, I found that ages before I needed it in a quest, but I wasn't allowed to pick it up.
Adding these extra steps is something the game does any chance it gets. You need to break into the school? Cool, find a hammer to break wall (we'll skip every step it takes to find the hammer) > Run back to the wall > Break it > Actually you can't break it now, run for 3 whole minutes to the same wall in the past, then break it > Run for 3 minutes to get back > Finally, breaking it in the past made it decay, so it's broken for real now. What did this add? Another 6 minutes of holding left on the control stick? It wasn't a puzzle because the game literally told you to do it. It's just frustrating.
I think if you take away this padding, keep the missions and dialogue generally the same, but without all the extra steps that add nothing, you'd probably save 3 or 4 hours of the game, and nothing would be changed otherwise.
Something else that is baffeling to me is when the game introduces combat. You have a quest to beat the "Future Fighter" high score. This is the first time you will fight. Funnily enough, this high score is the absolute most difficult fighting you will do in the entire game. Why make the hardest fight the first? Everything after that is easier by a long shot. It is honestly ridiculous. Sure, you can try it once and skip doing the high score, but the high score isn't difficult to begin with, I did it first try, but it's still weird that they choose to make it the first fight the most difficult.
This review is getting quite long, so I will end it here. In conclusion, the game features a fantastic story, gorgeous pixel art, nice music, but ultimately fails in the gameplay department. They should have toned down the gameplay and settled for a shorter playstime more focused on the story instead of tedious tasks, and they should be a bit more careful with the hints. Not saying a game can't be "figured out" before everything is revealed, but it should not be figured out without trying to pay attention to the finer details and without giving it much thought. I am glad I played it, I overall enjoyed the story a lot, but I can only hope they learn from their mistakes when their next game comes out.
Ultimately this is a "story game", it is the main focus, and as such is the most important thing for this game. Overall, the game tells a beautiful story about inner struggles, depression, anxiety, self reflection, abuse, loss, bullying, and more. The main character's struggles are sure to be relatable, especially if you play this while you're still in school.
The main issue I have with the story itself is that every hint is so on the nose, you'll know most twists and turns before they happen, while not really looking out for or thinking about trying to solve the game's story. This section will contain spoilers:
The game opens with the South Star Princess dying, yellow (warm colored) flower petals used for magic, and a dark colored cat. One chapter later you hear of the North Star Princess, but you don't know much about her. You then see Raya's light blue (cold colored) flower petals used for magic, and she has a light colored cat. Complete opposites, totally not the North Star Princess. You know Nirmala wrote these stories, so either you are in her story, or Nirmala has a new identity and taken on the role as the North Star Princess. The game reveales both of these are true. Shocker.
This goes for a lot of the twists in the story. They're always very clearly explained before they even happen, and the only sense of mystery the game has comes from the game realizing they're being too obvious, so they have a cat tell you very ominously that "You don't know what's happening, fool, I am very mysteryous, nothing is as it seems". Then in the end the cat just gives up and starts explaining that it didn't want to be mysterious after all, they're all just here to help. This part of the narrative just felt and still feels out of place even after completing the game.
The hints are so on the nose, that when you launch the game, the first thing you see is a trigger-warning list. "Animal death", I haven't even played the game yet, and my first thought is "The main character's cat will die, ok". This alone ruined any emotional impact this scene would have had otherwise.
Other than that, the story itself is mostly fantastic, and handles the heavy topics with grace. The only thing that really took me out of the immersion was that they made the teenage characters censor themselves during fights. A late teenager would not censor themselves and say "You're such a B-!" when they're in a fight. It's not how people would speak, especially not a high school jock who isn't afraid to beat up people he doesn't like. This happens fairly often, so I thought I should bring it up.
Writing aside, the game's biggest issue is the padding. Everything you do has padding. I think the developers were scared that just writing a good story wouldn't be enough, so they needed to insert a ridiculous amount of steps to do literally antything in the game, and it's simply not fun.
For example, you need to go buy a cake, but you need to run around every part of town to gather each of the ingrediants. Fair enough. Actually, this wasn't enough, the chef is having a mental breakdown, so you need to sabotage her dream-food by pouring oil into it. The steps finding the oil alone is:
Leave dream > Find Oil > Can't buy it, so you find a secret password to get free oil > You need your own container > Find container > Actually the container is dirty, find the one place in town you can clean it lol > Get free oil > Finally sabotage the dish.
This was one of three foods you have to sabotage before the chef will help you. So to get the cake you need to run around town a minimum of 3 times.
Doing this adds nothing to the story, you can barely call it gameplay, and it makes for an incredibly dragged out experience. It's simply not fun to run around the whole town looking for a random button to press, often with no hint. If it was just a few times, sure, but it happens almost every time you need to get anything done.
The worst part is that you can't pick up items before you need them. For example that container you need for the oil, I found that ages before I needed it in a quest, but I wasn't allowed to pick it up.
Adding these extra steps is something the game does any chance it gets. You need to break into the school? Cool, find a hammer to break wall (we'll skip every step it takes to find the hammer) > Run back to the wall > Break it > Actually you can't break it now, run for 3 whole minutes to the same wall in the past, then break it > Run for 3 minutes to get back > Finally, breaking it in the past made it decay, so it's broken for real now. What did this add? Another 6 minutes of holding left on the control stick? It wasn't a puzzle because the game literally told you to do it. It's just frustrating.
I think if you take away this padding, keep the missions and dialogue generally the same, but without all the extra steps that add nothing, you'd probably save 3 or 4 hours of the game, and nothing would be changed otherwise.
Something else that is baffeling to me is when the game introduces combat. You have a quest to beat the "Future Fighter" high score. This is the first time you will fight. Funnily enough, this high score is the absolute most difficult fighting you will do in the entire game. Why make the hardest fight the first? Everything after that is easier by a long shot. It is honestly ridiculous. Sure, you can try it once and skip doing the high score, but the high score isn't difficult to begin with, I did it first try, but it's still weird that they choose to make it the first fight the most difficult.
This review is getting quite long, so I will end it here. In conclusion, the game features a fantastic story, gorgeous pixel art, nice music, but ultimately fails in the gameplay department. They should have toned down the gameplay and settled for a shorter playstime more focused on the story instead of tedious tasks, and they should be a bit more careful with the hints. Not saying a game can't be "figured out" before everything is revealed, but it should not be figured out without trying to pay attention to the finer details and without giving it much thought. I am glad I played it, I overall enjoyed the story a lot, but I can only hope they learn from their mistakes when their next game comes out.
2023
This review contains spoilers
Heretic's Fork is a deckbuilder tower defense that ultimately fails in both genres.
The artstyle is great, and the music is even better, but that is essentially where the fun ends.
Let's break down both genres and why they ultimately fail:
Deckbuilding.
When you think about great deckbuilders, games like Slay the Spire, Inscryption, or even online battlers like Hearthstone or Runeterra. Why do we play these games? Probably because you like making decisions on the fly, improving your deck, and trying new strategies.
Heretic's Fork offers none of this.
Before the round even begins, you are told to select your towers. This will define the rest of your run, they are your "class" so to speak. Since the enemy spawns are the same every single round with no variation, you select the towers you always select. There is no need to change it up, especially since experimenting in this game is often disappointing. Half the towers, especially garrison ones will lead to an instant loss.
So you choose your two towers. Great. Now your cards: Your cards will either buff your towers, or they won't. You play the cards that give you buffs, and you discard the rest. When being prompted to select new cards, you choose the ones that buff your towers, while you use the rest to make new cards. This is also not an interesting choice.
In most deckbuilders, you may get a card you usually wouldn't choose, but this time it might have a niche or interesting place in your deck. That doesn't happen here. You do the same thing every single run, and hope that your RNG is good so you get the cards you like but in higher rarity.
Ultimately, no matter what strategy you go for, they all play the same. You play the same 2-3 cards every other turn, sometimes you hope for a random upgrade, and hope that the cards you are spamming gives you enough buffs to win. Your win/loss is decided within the first 2-3 worlds, and after that there is not much you can do to pick yourself up.
Tower defense:
There are many great tower defense games out there. Another genre that usually have so much depth, but usually less randomness than a typical deckbuilder. Due to the less randomness in tower defense games, they often instead offer variety through having different maps or modes. Different enemy types that require you to use a combination of towers are common, and resource management is often something you constantly have to pay attention to.
Heretic's Fork once again offers none of this. There are essentially two enemies in the game. "Slow, heavy guy with lots of health" and "Fast dude with almost no health". There are some in-between, but they really do not matter for gameplay changes. This means that if your tower can deal good damage and quickly, you can't lose. You don't really have to think about utility, how to deal with specialty enemies, or even synergy. Essentially, as long as you can spam damage, speed and range upgrades, you're golden.
Things unique about Heretic's Fork:
In most games, whether it is Slay the Spire or a game like Bloons, you come to a point during your run where the gameplay shifts. You have the cards or towers you need, so now you need to focus on securing the win. This might be done through gathering relics in StS, or upgrading specific skilltrees in Bloons. What do you do when you have your setup in Heretic's Fork? Nothing. You have everything you need, so you keep playing the same 3 cards every single turn until the end of time. It's not fun, doesn't require much thought, and generally is a waste of time.
You finally won; now what?
In most roguelites, after you win, you can go back into the game knowing you will likely get a different experience. You can try a different build, a new map, or perhaps a different character. Heretic's Fork offers none of this. You have beat the game, now do it again, probably with the same strategy you just used. Even if you do try a new set of towers, it really doesn't play that different. You still see the same cards, and more than likely, the same cards you used to win your previous game will keep this new run going as well.
Meta Progression
Usually, unlocking new cards and classes is quite exciting in a game. Even this feels bad in Heretic's Fork. For example, if I unlock a card that says "+30% projectile size", why would I then also want to unlock the worse "+20% projectile size" card? This makes your card pool worse, and gives you a lower chance of giving you the cards you actually want.
The unlocks are also quite specific, and while it seems like they want to offer more strategies, they fail to do so in a way that is interesting or worth doing for the player. If I can have an entire deck with consistently good cards, vs a deck with a bunch of random (some good, some bad) cards, you would always choose the consistent deck. You get weaker the more you unlock, and not in a fun way where there's more challenge, you just get worse RNG and less control the more you play.
Other annoyances that made this game painful to play:
-The constant use and references to old and irrelevant memes is cringe at best.
-Every animation is so long and drawn out. When you unlock a card, they play this long animation where the back of the card "charges up", then flips to you to reveal it. This takes forever, and if you have money to unlock like 10 new cards, it's just painful.
-The whole computer system thing they're going for. It really adds nothing imo. Yeah yeah, funny hackerman is teasing you, and the computer program is actually real and you're punishing sinners for real (crazy), but it's all stuff we have seen before. It is like they played Pony Island and Hypnospace Outlaw and thought "I want this", without going deeper into WHY this works in other games.
-Every character except for one plays the exact same, and the one that is different does not make the game more fun. No matter who you play, you still go for the same strategy.
-The shop is frankly stupid. For half of your run, you cannot gain coins. You can only gain coins after the Greed realm. There are no choices you can take to earn more or less coins. The shop can only be opened when the game decides twice per run that it is shop time. What is in the shop is completely random. You have no control.
-The "shop" character loses the ability to combine cards. In return you can sell your cards for shits and giggles. It takes selling 6 green rarity cards to buy one blue card. Every other class can combine 2 greens for 1 blue. If you do not like the blue you got, you can combine two blues for a purple rarity card. This is great, but for the shop character you get stuck with nothing. You can spend 60 coins on a blue card only to sell it for 15. Are you kidding me? This is assuming you don't spend 50 gold re-rolling the incredibly small shop. This feature was not thought through at all. It is never worth using the shop character.
-No "speed up" feature. It allows you to do x2 speed. You cannot take any action during a wave. Not even look at the cards in your hand or in the locked position. Why not allow for faster waves? I don't see why x16 speed wouldn't be fine. Heck, even x100, why not.
Overall a very disappointing game with little to no gameplay variety, awful meta progression, extremelyt surface lvl tower defense gameplay, and little to no thinking required for a strategic roguelite deckbuilder.
The artstyle is great, and the music is even better, but that is essentially where the fun ends.
Let's break down both genres and why they ultimately fail:
Deckbuilding.
When you think about great deckbuilders, games like Slay the Spire, Inscryption, or even online battlers like Hearthstone or Runeterra. Why do we play these games? Probably because you like making decisions on the fly, improving your deck, and trying new strategies.
Heretic's Fork offers none of this.
Before the round even begins, you are told to select your towers. This will define the rest of your run, they are your "class" so to speak. Since the enemy spawns are the same every single round with no variation, you select the towers you always select. There is no need to change it up, especially since experimenting in this game is often disappointing. Half the towers, especially garrison ones will lead to an instant loss.
So you choose your two towers. Great. Now your cards: Your cards will either buff your towers, or they won't. You play the cards that give you buffs, and you discard the rest. When being prompted to select new cards, you choose the ones that buff your towers, while you use the rest to make new cards. This is also not an interesting choice.
In most deckbuilders, you may get a card you usually wouldn't choose, but this time it might have a niche or interesting place in your deck. That doesn't happen here. You do the same thing every single run, and hope that your RNG is good so you get the cards you like but in higher rarity.
Ultimately, no matter what strategy you go for, they all play the same. You play the same 2-3 cards every other turn, sometimes you hope for a random upgrade, and hope that the cards you are spamming gives you enough buffs to win. Your win/loss is decided within the first 2-3 worlds, and after that there is not much you can do to pick yourself up.
Tower defense:
There are many great tower defense games out there. Another genre that usually have so much depth, but usually less randomness than a typical deckbuilder. Due to the less randomness in tower defense games, they often instead offer variety through having different maps or modes. Different enemy types that require you to use a combination of towers are common, and resource management is often something you constantly have to pay attention to.
Heretic's Fork once again offers none of this. There are essentially two enemies in the game. "Slow, heavy guy with lots of health" and "Fast dude with almost no health". There are some in-between, but they really do not matter for gameplay changes. This means that if your tower can deal good damage and quickly, you can't lose. You don't really have to think about utility, how to deal with specialty enemies, or even synergy. Essentially, as long as you can spam damage, speed and range upgrades, you're golden.
Things unique about Heretic's Fork:
In most games, whether it is Slay the Spire or a game like Bloons, you come to a point during your run where the gameplay shifts. You have the cards or towers you need, so now you need to focus on securing the win. This might be done through gathering relics in StS, or upgrading specific skilltrees in Bloons. What do you do when you have your setup in Heretic's Fork? Nothing. You have everything you need, so you keep playing the same 3 cards every single turn until the end of time. It's not fun, doesn't require much thought, and generally is a waste of time.
You finally won; now what?
In most roguelites, after you win, you can go back into the game knowing you will likely get a different experience. You can try a different build, a new map, or perhaps a different character. Heretic's Fork offers none of this. You have beat the game, now do it again, probably with the same strategy you just used. Even if you do try a new set of towers, it really doesn't play that different. You still see the same cards, and more than likely, the same cards you used to win your previous game will keep this new run going as well.
Meta Progression
Usually, unlocking new cards and classes is quite exciting in a game. Even this feels bad in Heretic's Fork. For example, if I unlock a card that says "+30% projectile size", why would I then also want to unlock the worse "+20% projectile size" card? This makes your card pool worse, and gives you a lower chance of giving you the cards you actually want.
The unlocks are also quite specific, and while it seems like they want to offer more strategies, they fail to do so in a way that is interesting or worth doing for the player. If I can have an entire deck with consistently good cards, vs a deck with a bunch of random (some good, some bad) cards, you would always choose the consistent deck. You get weaker the more you unlock, and not in a fun way where there's more challenge, you just get worse RNG and less control the more you play.
Other annoyances that made this game painful to play:
-The constant use and references to old and irrelevant memes is cringe at best.
-Every animation is so long and drawn out. When you unlock a card, they play this long animation where the back of the card "charges up", then flips to you to reveal it. This takes forever, and if you have money to unlock like 10 new cards, it's just painful.
-The whole computer system thing they're going for. It really adds nothing imo. Yeah yeah, funny hackerman is teasing you, and the computer program is actually real and you're punishing sinners for real (crazy), but it's all stuff we have seen before. It is like they played Pony Island and Hypnospace Outlaw and thought "I want this", without going deeper into WHY this works in other games.
-Every character except for one plays the exact same, and the one that is different does not make the game more fun. No matter who you play, you still go for the same strategy.
-The shop is frankly stupid. For half of your run, you cannot gain coins. You can only gain coins after the Greed realm. There are no choices you can take to earn more or less coins. The shop can only be opened when the game decides twice per run that it is shop time. What is in the shop is completely random. You have no control.
-The "shop" character loses the ability to combine cards. In return you can sell your cards for shits and giggles. It takes selling 6 green rarity cards to buy one blue card. Every other class can combine 2 greens for 1 blue. If you do not like the blue you got, you can combine two blues for a purple rarity card. This is great, but for the shop character you get stuck with nothing. You can spend 60 coins on a blue card only to sell it for 15. Are you kidding me? This is assuming you don't spend 50 gold re-rolling the incredibly small shop. This feature was not thought through at all. It is never worth using the shop character.
-No "speed up" feature. It allows you to do x2 speed. You cannot take any action during a wave. Not even look at the cards in your hand or in the locked position. Why not allow for faster waves? I don't see why x16 speed wouldn't be fine. Heck, even x100, why not.
Overall a very disappointing game with little to no gameplay variety, awful meta progression, extremelyt surface lvl tower defense gameplay, and little to no thinking required for a strategic roguelite deckbuilder.
2011
This is a game you should take very seriously.
Jokes aside, there really isn't much to say in a review for this game. It's a short game where you date birds. Amazing. Crazy that these guys went on to create Fall Guys, eh?
Jokes aside, there really isn't much to say in a review for this game. It's a short game where you date birds. Amazing. Crazy that these guys went on to create Fall Guys, eh?
2021
I personally did not really enjoy this game. While the art and music is competently made, the controls feel very sluggish and you stop caring about the game before the halfway mark in what is already a very short game.
Even though this is a point and click game, getting anything done is painfully slow to the point where my hand was getting tired. You will hold and drag for most of this 2-hour experience, often doing the same puzzle multiple times in a row. You may figure out that you need to feed someone a carrot. Slowly pull it out of the ground, give it to your character, drag your character to where he needs to stand, then drag your carrot to the bunny. Great, now do that 2 more times, then walk for a while, and feed some new ones.
This is how most puzzles work, do the thing, many times in a row. In one part, you have to do the thing you need to do over 10 times in a row after you already figured it out. It is not fun.
Dragging items in this game is also so painful to do. You drag and drag and drag only for minimal changes to happen. Some puzzles had me drag an item for so long I thought it was bugged. I kept dragging the mouse, but the thing I needed to move only moved a centimeter at the time. You should not have to drag your mouse multiple times your screen length to open something up, especially when you have to do it many times in a row.
The reason anyone would want to play this game, has to be for the art. The disturbing art is well made, and is very interesting. While it was fairly obvious from the start this would be an edgy game, I think it lost its flavor about halfway through. Yes, everything will flash red, and you will lose your toy or whatever. It's cool the first 10 times, but after that it gets kinda boring. It rarely changed things up, just going for edgy after edgy. When everything is edgy, nothing is. You may think the game has some fun edgy tricks at first, but you're only going to get impressed so many times before it gets old.
The game should have changed up the pace more, like it does during the football segment.
Idk man, overall the gameplay is lame, the art is cool, but the execution is not the best. It tried to make itself seem more disturbing by spam-flashing red every time you do anything. I don't struggle with epilepsy or anything like that, but it got annoying.
I rate this game
Chewing gum you've already been chewing for a while / 10
That said, I did finish this game. I can see that the devs have put in effort. There is talent here, hoping for something more genuinely disturbing next time.
Even though this is a point and click game, getting anything done is painfully slow to the point where my hand was getting tired. You will hold and drag for most of this 2-hour experience, often doing the same puzzle multiple times in a row. You may figure out that you need to feed someone a carrot. Slowly pull it out of the ground, give it to your character, drag your character to where he needs to stand, then drag your carrot to the bunny. Great, now do that 2 more times, then walk for a while, and feed some new ones.
This is how most puzzles work, do the thing, many times in a row. In one part, you have to do the thing you need to do over 10 times in a row after you already figured it out. It is not fun.
Dragging items in this game is also so painful to do. You drag and drag and drag only for minimal changes to happen. Some puzzles had me drag an item for so long I thought it was bugged. I kept dragging the mouse, but the thing I needed to move only moved a centimeter at the time. You should not have to drag your mouse multiple times your screen length to open something up, especially when you have to do it many times in a row.
The reason anyone would want to play this game, has to be for the art. The disturbing art is well made, and is very interesting. While it was fairly obvious from the start this would be an edgy game, I think it lost its flavor about halfway through. Yes, everything will flash red, and you will lose your toy or whatever. It's cool the first 10 times, but after that it gets kinda boring. It rarely changed things up, just going for edgy after edgy. When everything is edgy, nothing is. You may think the game has some fun edgy tricks at first, but you're only going to get impressed so many times before it gets old.
The game should have changed up the pace more, like it does during the football segment.
Idk man, overall the gameplay is lame, the art is cool, but the execution is not the best. It tried to make itself seem more disturbing by spam-flashing red every time you do anything. I don't struggle with epilepsy or anything like that, but it got annoying.
I rate this game
Chewing gum you've already been chewing for a while / 10
That said, I did finish this game. I can see that the devs have put in effort. There is talent here, hoping for something more genuinely disturbing next time.
2021
This incredibly emotional game takes you through the main character's life. You control the game by literally blinking with your actual, real life eyes. By blinking, you move forward in time.
I can only recommend you play this game without reading more about it. Try not to blink too much while you cry.
I can only recommend you play this game without reading more about it. Try not to blink too much while you cry.
2021
My first Guilty Gear game, and what an incredible ride it has been. Even over two years later, I still frequently listen to the beautiful soundtrack, I keep up with developments, and I stay up to date on the absolute crazy lore.
Daisuke, you are a madman and deserve nothing but respect.
Daisuke, you are a madman and deserve nothing but respect.