Modkiq
BACKER
2023
Mosa Lina does one thing, and while is does that thing well. While the game itself is fun, it does not take long before the game starts feeling repetitive.
The game, as it describes itself is "a hostile interpretation of the immersive sim, where nothing is planned, and everything works". It does this very well, and captures a lot of what makes immersive sims greats, the only issue is that it lacks a lot of the nuance and depth that make immersive sims interesting.
While it is clear that this game is a commentary on the state of immersive sims, whereas the genre used to be about creating systems and tools for the player to use in a sandbox environment tied together with missions, nowadays the missions are designed around a very specific problem. You use the "break the cracked wall" skill to break the wall before they can proceed with the mission, or you use the grappling skill to enter the top of the building and sneak in. The player never had much of a choice, the mission was never designed around letting the player figure it out in their own way. This is not really what immersive sims are about. The player should be given the agency to use their game knowledge, tools and tricks to come up with unique solutions to their problem. Two players should be able to play the mission and come up with completely unique solutions, many of which even the developer had not seen coming.
Meanwhile Mosa Lina flips it all on its head. You are given a set of skills, the dev has no idea what skills you are given, and a random stage is selected. With all of this randomness the dev ensures even they have no idea what challenges you will be given. There is no way for the dev to test every combination, so chances are you are playing something even they have not seen before. You have to figure it out, because the dev certainly can't.
This is fun, and is more in line with what an immersive sim should be. The devs hould not decide what the solution to a problem is, you should figure it out on your own using the tools and systems available to you in the game. This is great stuff. Devs of immersive sims should look to this design philosophy when creating their games.
If you play this game, you will certainly feel creative, and you certainly feel like you are overcoming seemingly impossible challenges. But despite this, the game struggles to keep me interested. Even after just a couple of hours I feel like "I get it". The gimmick of the random lvls with random items has kind of run its course, and I don't feel motivated to keep playing. There is no end to the game, no unlocks, no skins, high scores or stats. Playing the game, while it's fun enough, is kind of like solving today's Sudoku. It's fun for a little while but ultimately not something I see myself spending a lot of time on. I probably would not have done it if I wasn't bored in the first place.
I like what the game stands for, and I like the idea, but ultimately I fail to get into it.
The game, as it describes itself is "a hostile interpretation of the immersive sim, where nothing is planned, and everything works". It does this very well, and captures a lot of what makes immersive sims greats, the only issue is that it lacks a lot of the nuance and depth that make immersive sims interesting.
While it is clear that this game is a commentary on the state of immersive sims, whereas the genre used to be about creating systems and tools for the player to use in a sandbox environment tied together with missions, nowadays the missions are designed around a very specific problem. You use the "break the cracked wall" skill to break the wall before they can proceed with the mission, or you use the grappling skill to enter the top of the building and sneak in. The player never had much of a choice, the mission was never designed around letting the player figure it out in their own way. This is not really what immersive sims are about. The player should be given the agency to use their game knowledge, tools and tricks to come up with unique solutions to their problem. Two players should be able to play the mission and come up with completely unique solutions, many of which even the developer had not seen coming.
Meanwhile Mosa Lina flips it all on its head. You are given a set of skills, the dev has no idea what skills you are given, and a random stage is selected. With all of this randomness the dev ensures even they have no idea what challenges you will be given. There is no way for the dev to test every combination, so chances are you are playing something even they have not seen before. You have to figure it out, because the dev certainly can't.
This is fun, and is more in line with what an immersive sim should be. The devs hould not decide what the solution to a problem is, you should figure it out on your own using the tools and systems available to you in the game. This is great stuff. Devs of immersive sims should look to this design philosophy when creating their games.
If you play this game, you will certainly feel creative, and you certainly feel like you are overcoming seemingly impossible challenges. But despite this, the game struggles to keep me interested. Even after just a couple of hours I feel like "I get it". The gimmick of the random lvls with random items has kind of run its course, and I don't feel motivated to keep playing. There is no end to the game, no unlocks, no skins, high scores or stats. Playing the game, while it's fun enough, is kind of like solving today's Sudoku. It's fun for a little while but ultimately not something I see myself spending a lot of time on. I probably would not have done it if I wasn't bored in the first place.
I like what the game stands for, and I like the idea, but ultimately I fail to get into it.
2022
Backpack hero managed to be a masterpiece and a complete mess of a game at the same time, culminating in what is possibly my most frustrated experience in a long time.
Imagine you play a roguelite like Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac or Risk of Rain. You start a run, you have fun, you unlock things along the way depending on your actions. It's great, it's a fun time. Now imagine, in-between every run, if you want to unlock anything or even see later levels of the game, you have to run across a huge open field, talk to 10 NPCs randomly scattered along the map (the game won't tell you which one you need or in what order), sit through endless repetitive dialogue that goes nowhere about how your dad thinks it's dangerous to go into the cave over and over and over again. Not only that, but it wants you to build endless buildings, sell loot you've found in the dungeon (the game doesn't tell you if you'll need them for anything or not), and it constantly want you to check in on every single NPC to even receive missions or get the pleasure of going to the next floor in future dungeon runs.
Even if you know what you're doing, it takes forever to get anything done in the main hub.
Every item you ever collect in the dungeon (a lot, this is an inventory manage game after all) is collected in your hub inventory. An NPC may be looking for one specific item, you might even have it, but good luck finding it
* The game does nothing to tell you what is important in the NPC town, so you have to spam every dialogue and every option select for every character just to make sure you don't miss anything.
And to top it all off, the game is insultingly easy. If you have ever played a deckbuilder (roguelite or not) or any form of strategy game, it will be almost impossible to lose as long as you read the effects of what you are using. Heck, even when I completely failed to do that and I accidentally burned my only arrow during my an archer-only "challenge", where every other game would kill you for failing to have any synergy or ways to deal consistent damage, I was able to win because an enemy dropped a rose earlier, letting enemies take very small amounts of damage every time I blocked. I was able to win, including beating a boss, dealing 1 damage at the time. Absolutely ridiculous. After 5+ hours of gameplay, every run feels like this. It is so easy it is almost insulting. There is never any risk, never any challenge, nothing that makes you reconsider your choices, and once you get a powerful weapon or two, never any need to think. Click the same inventory slots every turn, and win for free. Never the need to swap anything out of your inventory, which is a shame because it's one of the main mechanics.
All of this, and I still found myself wanting to play. There is a fantastic game deep down somewhere. Inventory management is fun, and having your inventory slots tied to abilities you can freely use is creative and fun. It is such a shame it is held back by you never needing to engage with its systems due to the absolute lack of difficulty, to the point where I have won games by not adding or removing anything from my inventory. Furthermore, when the game forces you to engage with its systems in the hub world, it strips the game of everything that made it fun, including making the graphics look like Backpack Hero from Wish. It is tedious, stays in the way of what could be a fantastic game, and despite hours of gameplay, you are still stuck with the same starter loadout you begun with. It's a shame.
Imagine you play a roguelite like Slay the Spire, Enter the Gungeon, Binding of Isaac or Risk of Rain. You start a run, you have fun, you unlock things along the way depending on your actions. It's great, it's a fun time. Now imagine, in-between every run, if you want to unlock anything or even see later levels of the game, you have to run across a huge open field, talk to 10 NPCs randomly scattered along the map (the game won't tell you which one you need or in what order), sit through endless repetitive dialogue that goes nowhere about how your dad thinks it's dangerous to go into the cave over and over and over again. Not only that, but it wants you to build endless buildings, sell loot you've found in the dungeon (the game doesn't tell you if you'll need them for anything or not), and it constantly want you to check in on every single NPC to even receive missions or get the pleasure of going to the next floor in future dungeon runs.
Even if you know what you're doing, it takes forever to get anything done in the main hub.
Every item you ever collect in the dungeon (a lot, this is an inventory manage game after all) is collected in your hub inventory. An NPC may be looking for one specific item, you might even have it, but good luck finding it
* The game does nothing to tell you what is important in the NPC town, so you have to spam every dialogue and every option select for every character just to make sure you don't miss anything.
And to top it all off, the game is insultingly easy. If you have ever played a deckbuilder (roguelite or not) or any form of strategy game, it will be almost impossible to lose as long as you read the effects of what you are using. Heck, even when I completely failed to do that and I accidentally burned my only arrow during my an archer-only "challenge", where every other game would kill you for failing to have any synergy or ways to deal consistent damage, I was able to win because an enemy dropped a rose earlier, letting enemies take very small amounts of damage every time I blocked. I was able to win, including beating a boss, dealing 1 damage at the time. Absolutely ridiculous. After 5+ hours of gameplay, every run feels like this. It is so easy it is almost insulting. There is never any risk, never any challenge, nothing that makes you reconsider your choices, and once you get a powerful weapon or two, never any need to think. Click the same inventory slots every turn, and win for free. Never the need to swap anything out of your inventory, which is a shame because it's one of the main mechanics.
All of this, and I still found myself wanting to play. There is a fantastic game deep down somewhere. Inventory management is fun, and having your inventory slots tied to abilities you can freely use is creative and fun. It is such a shame it is held back by you never needing to engage with its systems due to the absolute lack of difficulty, to the point where I have won games by not adding or removing anything from my inventory. Furthermore, when the game forces you to engage with its systems in the hub world, it strips the game of everything that made it fun, including making the graphics look like Backpack Hero from Wish. It is tedious, stays in the way of what could be a fantastic game, and despite hours of gameplay, you are still stuck with the same starter loadout you begun with. It's a shame.
2023
What a fantastic experience. A very meta game in a somewhat similar way The Stanley Parable is. There is a narrator, he tells you what to do, and you try every combination of options to change the outcome. I think the best way to describe this game is that it is exactly how you image, while also not being how you imagine it at all. You know things are going to get messy, you know it will be meta, but you can never quite predict how the game does it. It makes for a game that keeps you engaged, keeps you guessing, and holds your curiosity throughout your entire playthrough.
It is well executed, the writing is witty, funny, horrifying, and sometimes thought provoking. The voice acting is great, and the different personalities in your head make for some great dialogue. Despite the somewhat simple looking sketchbook artstyle, the game manages to do a lot with it. Your mind kind of fills in the blanks, and it overall works very well.
This is one of those games where you think you're just gonna play for a short session, and before you know it 3 hours have passed and you cannot fathom how it happened this quickly.
What holds this game back, is that it's somewhat slow on repeat playthroughs. It is kind of annoying to walk through the forest every time and go into the cabin before a real choice begins, and even then you kind of just wanna rush through the first few options to get to the new stuff. It gets somewhat old, especially when you have tried a good amount of choices and need to try different things on day 3. It can sometimes feel like a chore, and some sort of shortcut system would go a long way, instead of relying on the player to make multiple saves.
That aside, I think this is an incredibly unique yet well executed game that is worth playing for everyone. This game deserves to be one of those games everyone picks up for their steam libraries.
It is well executed, the writing is witty, funny, horrifying, and sometimes thought provoking. The voice acting is great, and the different personalities in your head make for some great dialogue. Despite the somewhat simple looking sketchbook artstyle, the game manages to do a lot with it. Your mind kind of fills in the blanks, and it overall works very well.
This is one of those games where you think you're just gonna play for a short session, and before you know it 3 hours have passed and you cannot fathom how it happened this quickly.
What holds this game back, is that it's somewhat slow on repeat playthroughs. It is kind of annoying to walk through the forest every time and go into the cabin before a real choice begins, and even then you kind of just wanna rush through the first few options to get to the new stuff. It gets somewhat old, especially when you have tried a good amount of choices and need to try different things on day 3. It can sometimes feel like a chore, and some sort of shortcut system would go a long way, instead of relying on the player to make multiple saves.
That aside, I think this is an incredibly unique yet well executed game that is worth playing for everyone. This game deserves to be one of those games everyone picks up for their steam libraries.
2021
This review contains spoilers
The medium is a great horror walking sim that mixes up the gameplay with puzzles, stealth, exploration and chase sequences.
While the exploration part is the most enjoyable, especially with the main mechanic allowing you to explore both the physical and spirit world at once, it is great that the game mixes it up a bit sometimes. The visuals are great, and exploring the haunted resort is incredibly tense.
The voice acting, and especially visuals inspired by Beksiński's gorgeous art is absolutely fantastic. The story is interesting throughout, and generally the game gives you just enough information about characters, events and stories to keep you intrigued through the whole game. You always have a sense of "I wonder what will happen next".
While the game does make it to the finishline, it very much stumbles its way there. The further into the game you make it, and the more characters and threads are introduced, the more clear it becomes that the game is not prepared to answer all the questions it brings forward.
- Everything we play through did not need to happen. Seriously. If the demon can only survive if it catches a strong enough medium, why would you invite the strong medium? The creature would just die given enough time, and the story would conclude.
- How come Sadness, the child part of Lili can be outside of her body, when it is established earlier that bodies do not work without their child version? Is it because Sadness didn't "move on"?
- If Lili has to die before the demon can be hurt, why can't she just use the gun herself? "The Demon won't allow it" she says, but the demon never controlled her body, and she is allowed to carry a gun so she can give it to someone else who would presumably shoot her. The monster is also not by her side most of the time, so there would be plenty of chances for Lili to solve the issue herself. If not Lili, then why not Thomas?
- There is one sequence in the game where you find Jack's (the person who died in the beginning of the game) tie and pin in the physical world. The monster also teases you saying that Jack was sent to them. You can also hear Jack speak, and even see his spirit. While clearly a fakeout, this implies someone went to the funeral home, got his belonging, and drove back to the resort with them. They would also have to know his voice, and what he looked like. This frankly makes no sense. You find a picture of Jack and yourself, where Jack fades out as you look at it. Who would do it? Even if Jack's spirit is sent there, how would the demon know to find Jack's tie and clip when the demon cannot see the physical world? Do you not really make the spirits move on? Have you been sending countless spirits there throughout your life? What about the spirits you help move on that are already in the resort? Why would they thank you if you just send them to a different part of the resort? The demon is likely lying, and you are actually helping them move on, but if that is the case, how would the demon know Jack?
-The agent that tortures Thomas' spirit version also has a demon. This demon escapes into the normal spirit world after the agent dies during the house fire. How come Thomas' spirit is still trapped? Trapped inside the demon? Wouldn't Thomas' spirit be able to banish the demon after the host dies? Also, how come the agent with seemingly no supernatural powers was prepared to trap Thomas in his mind?
The game also brings up some heavy themes. While I think telling stories about heavy themes like children being molested is incredibly important, I question if this is the right way to do it.
We all have our demons, and our demons can make us do horrible things. Victims of abuse are more likely to become abusers in the future, and this is really the story this game is telling.
However, I can't help but be critical of the way the abusers are portrayed. After the child molester is discovered, you go into his mind and live through his traumatic events. You then find a child version of the molester, scared and innocent. You delete this part of them. It is a great contrast to the adult person, ready to molest a child. However, I do not get the purpose of this. You don't delete the evil part of them, the shame and regret, you delete the innocent child version that suffered in the past. Doing this gives the person brain damage and they can no longer move.
The same goes for Lili. She is abused, and her demons break free, killing everyone. The abused becomes the abuser once more, and the only solution to fix this is to shoot her in the head so her demons can't hurt anybody else? This strikes me as odd. The horror setting of the game may not allow for a happy ending, but surely there is a better way to approach this.
In conclusion, The Medium is a good game, filled with great voice acting, gorgeous visuals, a unique split-world mechanic that is a joy to explore, and a story that is great at building intrigue and mystery, but kind of falls flat near the end.
While the exploration part is the most enjoyable, especially with the main mechanic allowing you to explore both the physical and spirit world at once, it is great that the game mixes it up a bit sometimes. The visuals are great, and exploring the haunted resort is incredibly tense.
The voice acting, and especially visuals inspired by Beksiński's gorgeous art is absolutely fantastic. The story is interesting throughout, and generally the game gives you just enough information about characters, events and stories to keep you intrigued through the whole game. You always have a sense of "I wonder what will happen next".
While the game does make it to the finishline, it very much stumbles its way there. The further into the game you make it, and the more characters and threads are introduced, the more clear it becomes that the game is not prepared to answer all the questions it brings forward.
- Everything we play through did not need to happen. Seriously. If the demon can only survive if it catches a strong enough medium, why would you invite the strong medium? The creature would just die given enough time, and the story would conclude.
- How come Sadness, the child part of Lili can be outside of her body, when it is established earlier that bodies do not work without their child version? Is it because Sadness didn't "move on"?
- If Lili has to die before the demon can be hurt, why can't she just use the gun herself? "The Demon won't allow it" she says, but the demon never controlled her body, and she is allowed to carry a gun so she can give it to someone else who would presumably shoot her. The monster is also not by her side most of the time, so there would be plenty of chances for Lili to solve the issue herself. If not Lili, then why not Thomas?
- There is one sequence in the game where you find Jack's (the person who died in the beginning of the game) tie and pin in the physical world. The monster also teases you saying that Jack was sent to them. You can also hear Jack speak, and even see his spirit. While clearly a fakeout, this implies someone went to the funeral home, got his belonging, and drove back to the resort with them. They would also have to know his voice, and what he looked like. This frankly makes no sense. You find a picture of Jack and yourself, where Jack fades out as you look at it. Who would do it? Even if Jack's spirit is sent there, how would the demon know to find Jack's tie and clip when the demon cannot see the physical world? Do you not really make the spirits move on? Have you been sending countless spirits there throughout your life? What about the spirits you help move on that are already in the resort? Why would they thank you if you just send them to a different part of the resort? The demon is likely lying, and you are actually helping them move on, but if that is the case, how would the demon know Jack?
-The agent that tortures Thomas' spirit version also has a demon. This demon escapes into the normal spirit world after the agent dies during the house fire. How come Thomas' spirit is still trapped? Trapped inside the demon? Wouldn't Thomas' spirit be able to banish the demon after the host dies? Also, how come the agent with seemingly no supernatural powers was prepared to trap Thomas in his mind?
The game also brings up some heavy themes. While I think telling stories about heavy themes like children being molested is incredibly important, I question if this is the right way to do it.
We all have our demons, and our demons can make us do horrible things. Victims of abuse are more likely to become abusers in the future, and this is really the story this game is telling.
However, I can't help but be critical of the way the abusers are portrayed. After the child molester is discovered, you go into his mind and live through his traumatic events. You then find a child version of the molester, scared and innocent. You delete this part of them. It is a great contrast to the adult person, ready to molest a child. However, I do not get the purpose of this. You don't delete the evil part of them, the shame and regret, you delete the innocent child version that suffered in the past. Doing this gives the person brain damage and they can no longer move.
The same goes for Lili. She is abused, and her demons break free, killing everyone. The abused becomes the abuser once more, and the only solution to fix this is to shoot her in the head so her demons can't hurt anybody else? This strikes me as odd. The horror setting of the game may not allow for a happy ending, but surely there is a better way to approach this.
In conclusion, The Medium is a good game, filled with great voice acting, gorgeous visuals, a unique split-world mechanic that is a joy to explore, and a story that is great at building intrigue and mystery, but kind of falls flat near the end.
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.
I have been sitting on this "Review" page for almost an hour. I do not think anything I can type here gives this game justice, so I'll leave it at this:
This is an incredibly heavy story with a lot of suffering. Despite the 40 minute runtime, it manages to portray a lifetime of pain. With all of this trauma in mind, the game almost feels "boring" or "mundane" in its presentation. Something traumatic happens, and the main character says "nothing changed", or "no dramatic music played". Things are still the same as they were before. This is what the character tells themselves, almost refusing to acknowledge the heavy things that are happening to them.
It is heartbreaking to say the least. Overall, I think this game tells an incredibly important story, about life, circumstances, and a messed up society that forces good people to do things they don't want just to get by.
I recommend this game, but will refrain from giving it a "rating" at this time.
This is an incredibly heavy story with a lot of suffering. Despite the 40 minute runtime, it manages to portray a lifetime of pain. With all of this trauma in mind, the game almost feels "boring" or "mundane" in its presentation. Something traumatic happens, and the main character says "nothing changed", or "no dramatic music played". Things are still the same as they were before. This is what the character tells themselves, almost refusing to acknowledge the heavy things that are happening to them.
It is heartbreaking to say the least. Overall, I think this game tells an incredibly important story, about life, circumstances, and a messed up society that forces good people to do things they don't want just to get by.
I recommend this game, but will refrain from giving it a "rating" at this time.
2020
This review contains spoilers
If only I had more time. We all go through time, not really thinking about it before it's already too late. Eventually, your time will run out, and it will all be lost.
You walk through same-looking offices with a sledgehammer, tasked with exterminating all vermin. These vermin take the shape of office furniture, but "out of place".
As you go on, the office twists, it no longer functions normally. No matter how many vermin you exterminate, their numbers keep increasing. Your job was impossible from the start.
The office is the body of the main character, and you are fighting cancer. A lifetime of cigarettes have finally caught up to you. No matter how well you do, you're too slow. Nothing is good enough, because your time has already run out.
The main character's desperation gets more and more clear as time moves on, and you see his body decaying in front of you. He is holding on for dear life. The "No Smoking" signs scattered around the office halls increase in numbers for every level, despite your ashtray only collecting more and more ash, to the point where it overflows near the end. You keep smoking, despite trying to fight the cancer.
You know what it is doing to you, but you keep going. The host makes jokes about how he knew this would happen, his mother died the same way. It is a gruesome experience seeing the character go from somewhat hopeful, to angry nothing is working, to eventually giving up and accepting the gravity of the situation. By the time you're at the end, you have twisted so much you are no longer human.
This is the type of storytelling that can only be done through a video game. This wouldn't work in any other medium, whether it is a movie or a book. There is something special about letting the player discover things by doing, not necessarily by showing and telling.
In the end, it tells a very human story. We all have habits that are slowly killing us, whether it is cigarettes or something else. We know deep down that if we stop, we can live a healthier life, a better life. But there is something so good about our bad habit, so we keep going. We go through time, not thinking about it. We feel immortal, but suddenly it is too late. You've run out of time. It's over.
You walk through same-looking offices with a sledgehammer, tasked with exterminating all vermin. These vermin take the shape of office furniture, but "out of place".
As you go on, the office twists, it no longer functions normally. No matter how many vermin you exterminate, their numbers keep increasing. Your job was impossible from the start.
The office is the body of the main character, and you are fighting cancer. A lifetime of cigarettes have finally caught up to you. No matter how well you do, you're too slow. Nothing is good enough, because your time has already run out.
The main character's desperation gets more and more clear as time moves on, and you see his body decaying in front of you. He is holding on for dear life. The "No Smoking" signs scattered around the office halls increase in numbers for every level, despite your ashtray only collecting more and more ash, to the point where it overflows near the end. You keep smoking, despite trying to fight the cancer.
You know what it is doing to you, but you keep going. The host makes jokes about how he knew this would happen, his mother died the same way. It is a gruesome experience seeing the character go from somewhat hopeful, to angry nothing is working, to eventually giving up and accepting the gravity of the situation. By the time you're at the end, you have twisted so much you are no longer human.
This is the type of storytelling that can only be done through a video game. This wouldn't work in any other medium, whether it is a movie or a book. There is something special about letting the player discover things by doing, not necessarily by showing and telling.
In the end, it tells a very human story. We all have habits that are slowly killing us, whether it is cigarettes or something else. We know deep down that if we stop, we can live a healthier life, a better life. But there is something so good about our bad habit, so we keep going. We go through time, not thinking about it. We feel immortal, but suddenly it is too late. You've run out of time. It's over.
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.
I am... the X slayer.
I purchased this game when it first released in June. The game features incredibly cursed (in the best way) cutscenes, a hilarious yet catching soundtrack, and constant one liners. All of this makes for a funny story great cutscenes and amazing characters, like Zane's mom.
That said, despite its short length, it was difficult for me to finish this game. I just kept losing interest. The game doesn't really mix up anything during the time you play. I played it in June, but just finished it now in October after feeling the need to force myself to go back.
While I overall enjoyed the game, I would only recommend it to people who specifically want something like this. If the trailer appeals to you, you'll probably find it funny. If not, I'd skip.
I purchased this game when it first released in June. The game features incredibly cursed (in the best way) cutscenes, a hilarious yet catching soundtrack, and constant one liners. All of this makes for a funny story great cutscenes and amazing characters, like Zane's mom.
That said, despite its short length, it was difficult for me to finish this game. I just kept losing interest. The game doesn't really mix up anything during the time you play. I played it in June, but just finished it now in October after feeling the need to force myself to go back.
While I overall enjoyed the game, I would only recommend it to people who specifically want something like this. If the trailer appeals to you, you'll probably find it funny. If not, I'd skip.
2023
Certainly an interesting game, as would be expected from David Szymanski. That said, I am not sure this is going to be a game for everyone. It is a mix of comedy and horror. Despite the happy looking visuals, it managed to be legitimately creepy. The small but unsettling changes make you feel on edge, and you always have a sense of "wtf is going on". The segment before God comes is genuinely paranoia inducing.
The notes you find are horror stories often so bad that you can't help but laugh at them. Finding a secret building only for you to be greeted by a low rez picture of a squirrel while it says "committing sins". It's hilarious.
That said, I kind of wish the game went further. Why is all of this happening? Why squirrels? What even is this place you live in? Poison grass? The person you are stapling squirrels to? How are they moving around? What's the deal with God?
This will be enjoyable or a certain type of player, and you probably already know before you delve into the game. I enjoyed it, but I wish it did more. I am sure there is more to uncover, and I am sure a youtuber will make a 90 minute video explaining this game's excellence. I will probably watch the video and agree, but based on the player experience, I can't give it more than an "ok".
The notes you find are horror stories often so bad that you can't help but laugh at them. Finding a secret building only for you to be greeted by a low rez picture of a squirrel while it says "committing sins". It's hilarious.
That said, I kind of wish the game went further. Why is all of this happening? Why squirrels? What even is this place you live in? Poison grass? The person you are stapling squirrels to? How are they moving around? What's the deal with God?
This will be enjoyable or a certain type of player, and you probably already know before you delve into the game. I enjoyed it, but I wish it did more. I am sure there is more to uncover, and I am sure a youtuber will make a 90 minute video explaining this game's excellence. I will probably watch the video and agree, but based on the player experience, I can't give it more than an "ok".
2023
77p egg: Eggwife is a "haha funny" boomer shooter. There are constant jokes, like cows saying sexual things when they get milked, or the cameras that sound like GLaDOS being hitting on you when you interact with them, or NPCs spouting random lines. There are endless references to literally everything from World of Warcraft to Animal Crossing, memes and porn.
Some jokes land, others don't, but generally it is an enjoyable experience. The gameplay itself is fine, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. You have your guns, some of them shoot poop, others shoot tampons, but in the end they handle how you'd expect.
If you're looking for something very silly in the best worst way possible, this is basically it. If you're looking for deep gameplay with creative mechanics, satisfying gunplay and good lvl design, stay clear.
For me personally, it was enjoyable enough. It did not overstay its welcome, I'll probably play part 2, but overall it's not anything I'll be gushing to my friends about. If this looks like something you'd want to play, it probably is.
Some jokes land, others don't, but generally it is an enjoyable experience. The gameplay itself is fine, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. You have your guns, some of them shoot poop, others shoot tampons, but in the end they handle how you'd expect.
If you're looking for something very silly in the best worst way possible, this is basically it. If you're looking for deep gameplay with creative mechanics, satisfying gunplay and good lvl design, stay clear.
For me personally, it was enjoyable enough. It did not overstay its welcome, I'll probably play part 2, but overall it's not anything I'll be gushing to my friends about. If this looks like something you'd want to play, it probably is.
2023
What an incredible journey this game is. Your Ex is the Lord of the Vampires, and she is about to destroy the world. You go on a pill infused journey to stop her.
The storytelling and soundtrack especially are world class. There were so many times I couldn't put the game down, as I felt a strong need to see what happened next. You learn about how you were with Draculae, how you'd speak to each other, past dramas, your inner struggles as you are faced with a decaying body, and wanting to go back to a simpler time, while still feeling the need to keep going to stop the world from ending. It's enthralling. The cutscenes are shot perfectly, the voice acting feels very real, and the soundtrack lifts the entire experience to the next lvl. Despite the game's indie budget, it feels incredibly AAA (in a good way) in these departments.
The gameplay itself has you running around, shooting monsters. You have a full arsenal of guns, a dodge-roll, and a slow motion mechanic (that I forgot to use throughout the entire game, oops). You can also dive, which I also forgot to use. Oops.
Despite the simple premise, the game is quite satisfying to play. The enemies are placed in ways that make you really have to think about who you want to prioritize. Shooting werewolves in front isn't going to be of much use when you re being sniped by energy-balls from the back.
That said, what is holding this game back from being a full 5/5 stars, is its pacing in the gameplay lvls. While the story pacing is great, you can often feel like the game drags on. The game spends a very long time between introducing new enemies, so you are stuck fighting just a basic enemy that runs towards you for a good hour or so. Then they'll introduce one more enemy, and it once again takes forever before you see anything new. After everything has been introduced, the same issue persists, it takes too long before something special happens. That's not to say the gameplay isn't fun, I think more the issue is that the devs did not have enough resources to make everything they wanted to.
A side-complaint I also wanted to mention is that for most of the game it is simply too easy. Out of all the levels, I think I only died on 3 of them, one of which being the first boss, and one of my deaths was because I got stuck in the geometry and was unable to move. While not a huge issue, I would have loved to see a difficulty mode where they don't necessarily boost any numbers, but make resources and ammo a bit more scarce, forcing you to use your whole arsenal while not having instant access to healing, and without the slow-motion bar. While I played the entire game without using the slow-motion, if I were to use it it would completely invalidate any challenge in this game if I were to use it.
Usually when a game offers a slow-motion mechanic, the enemies and world design is balanced around it. For example, the enemies that charge energy-balls are very easy to locate and take out, even with full-speed gameplay, before they ever get to shoot. They could have made it a lot more interesting if the player was forced to use the slow-motion to deal with situations like these.
It feels like there should have been more enemy types, it feels like there should have been at least one more environment to explore, and it feels like there should have been more secrets. Because of what I can only assume is budget constraints, they had to do the best with what they had. They wanted the story to have this length, and they wanted you to have this amount of time between the hard hitting story beats, so instead of making something new, they remixed what they had. While not a big issue, it can sometimes feel like the game drags on a little too long before new things are introduced. It does get repetitive.
Personally, with this many levels in the game, there should have been more enemy variety. Once you overcome the challenge of one enemy, and how they are combined with other enemies, throwing more of the same at the player is ultimately pointless. They should either have added more variety, or cut down on the repetitiveness.
That said, the game is full of awesome moments, unique setpieces during the lvls, and the main character's monologues never get old. In the end, "I wanted more game" is probably not the worst critique a dev can get.
I really hope this game does well so they can make a sequel. I need to know what happens next.
The storytelling and soundtrack especially are world class. There were so many times I couldn't put the game down, as I felt a strong need to see what happened next. You learn about how you were with Draculae, how you'd speak to each other, past dramas, your inner struggles as you are faced with a decaying body, and wanting to go back to a simpler time, while still feeling the need to keep going to stop the world from ending. It's enthralling. The cutscenes are shot perfectly, the voice acting feels very real, and the soundtrack lifts the entire experience to the next lvl. Despite the game's indie budget, it feels incredibly AAA (in a good way) in these departments.
The gameplay itself has you running around, shooting monsters. You have a full arsenal of guns, a dodge-roll, and a slow motion mechanic (that I forgot to use throughout the entire game, oops). You can also dive, which I also forgot to use. Oops.
Despite the simple premise, the game is quite satisfying to play. The enemies are placed in ways that make you really have to think about who you want to prioritize. Shooting werewolves in front isn't going to be of much use when you re being sniped by energy-balls from the back.
That said, what is holding this game back from being a full 5/5 stars, is its pacing in the gameplay lvls. While the story pacing is great, you can often feel like the game drags on. The game spends a very long time between introducing new enemies, so you are stuck fighting just a basic enemy that runs towards you for a good hour or so. Then they'll introduce one more enemy, and it once again takes forever before you see anything new. After everything has been introduced, the same issue persists, it takes too long before something special happens. That's not to say the gameplay isn't fun, I think more the issue is that the devs did not have enough resources to make everything they wanted to.
A side-complaint I also wanted to mention is that for most of the game it is simply too easy. Out of all the levels, I think I only died on 3 of them, one of which being the first boss, and one of my deaths was because I got stuck in the geometry and was unable to move. While not a huge issue, I would have loved to see a difficulty mode where they don't necessarily boost any numbers, but make resources and ammo a bit more scarce, forcing you to use your whole arsenal while not having instant access to healing, and without the slow-motion bar. While I played the entire game without using the slow-motion, if I were to use it it would completely invalidate any challenge in this game if I were to use it.
Usually when a game offers a slow-motion mechanic, the enemies and world design is balanced around it. For example, the enemies that charge energy-balls are very easy to locate and take out, even with full-speed gameplay, before they ever get to shoot. They could have made it a lot more interesting if the player was forced to use the slow-motion to deal with situations like these.
It feels like there should have been more enemy types, it feels like there should have been at least one more environment to explore, and it feels like there should have been more secrets. Because of what I can only assume is budget constraints, they had to do the best with what they had. They wanted the story to have this length, and they wanted you to have this amount of time between the hard hitting story beats, so instead of making something new, they remixed what they had. While not a big issue, it can sometimes feel like the game drags on a little too long before new things are introduced. It does get repetitive.
Personally, with this many levels in the game, there should have been more enemy variety. Once you overcome the challenge of one enemy, and how they are combined with other enemies, throwing more of the same at the player is ultimately pointless. They should either have added more variety, or cut down on the repetitiveness.
That said, the game is full of awesome moments, unique setpieces during the lvls, and the main character's monologues never get old. In the end, "I wanted more game" is probably not the worst critique a dev can get.
I really hope this game does well so they can make a sequel. I need to know what happens next.
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.
This game received a lot of negative attention when it first came out. I had just finished Borderlands 2 for the first time when this came out, and I was excited.
I played through the entire game, enjoyed it a lot, only to see how this game was getting slammed online.
While I do agree Borderlands 2 was better, this is by no means a big downgrade or a bad product.
It takes what Borderlands 2 does, and improves on a lot of aspects, while introducing new guns, ideas, bosses and environments. The story is good, and characters are fun, but Borderlands 2 did this better. There aren't many characters that stick with you for a long time after you complete this, unlike BL2.
That said, the guns are generally more fun, classes are crazier, and this game features my favorite weapon type in any Borderlands game, the Glithced guns from the Claptastic Voyage. The soundtrack is memorable, and it's great to learn more about the backstory of Handsome Jack.
Overall a great addition to the game, and the final good mainline borderlands game.
I played through the entire game, enjoyed it a lot, only to see how this game was getting slammed online.
While I do agree Borderlands 2 was better, this is by no means a big downgrade or a bad product.
It takes what Borderlands 2 does, and improves on a lot of aspects, while introducing new guns, ideas, bosses and environments. The story is good, and characters are fun, but Borderlands 2 did this better. There aren't many characters that stick with you for a long time after you complete this, unlike BL2.
That said, the guns are generally more fun, classes are crazier, and this game features my favorite weapon type in any Borderlands game, the Glithced guns from the Claptastic Voyage. The soundtrack is memorable, and it's great to learn more about the backstory of Handsome Jack.
Overall a great addition to the game, and the final good mainline borderlands game.
A game you can always come back to. Don't Starve allows for near endless replayability, with content added so often there's almost no way to keep track of it all.
I remember purchasing this in 2014, there was a deal where Don't Starve owners would get this game for like 3 euros. Not only that, but every purchase granted 2 copies. I actually checked my steam history, and I purchased this bundle 7 times, meaning I got a total of 14 copies, which I handed out to friends and family. Wow.
The world is cruel, but can be mastered. In the beginning you will probably die the first day to darkness, then to spiders, then hounds, and this continues until you have finally mastered the basic survival. After doing that, boom, they throw a giant boss at you. This cycle continues until you finally learn to "git gud".
After that, all big threats are optional. Kill the large bosses, get stronger gear, repeat. It's good fun!
Everything happening outside of the game is great too. The Klei forums, the crossovers, and of course the incredible animations they make.
I remember purchasing this in 2014, there was a deal where Don't Starve owners would get this game for like 3 euros. Not only that, but every purchase granted 2 copies. I actually checked my steam history, and I purchased this bundle 7 times, meaning I got a total of 14 copies, which I handed out to friends and family. Wow.
The world is cruel, but can be mastered. In the beginning you will probably die the first day to darkness, then to spiders, then hounds, and this continues until you have finally mastered the basic survival. After doing that, boom, they throw a giant boss at you. This cycle continues until you finally learn to "git gud".
After that, all big threats are optional. Kill the large bosses, get stronger gear, repeat. It's good fun!
Everything happening outside of the game is great too. The Klei forums, the crossovers, and of course the incredible animations they make.