Questy
2022
This is a really fun little cozy 3d platformer with a wholesome story. Enjoy an afternoon with little gator as he builds an army of friends at the playground while he tries to figure out why his older sister doesn't want to play with him much anymore.
The overall gameplay loop is a ton of fun as you hop around the islands, talk to friends and do quests for them to convince them to join you at the playground. You'll destroy cardboard monsters and collect paper to craft new hats and weapons to help you on your journey. But you'll also do unique things like starting water pumps, catch a bug, take our ninjas and help friend talk to each other to solve their issues.
The game can be a bit wordy with no voice acting but most of the writing is very fun and silly. But there were times I was just cycling through the dialog to move on and keep playing.
I also wish there was more in the way of navigation help, like a map or waypoints. There are little boards with the island posted around but it's not super helpful. Luckily it's not a huge space to explore and the game isn't very long so it's not a huge issue. If the island was any bigger though, I could see it being a problem.
If you like cute, 3d platformers, then I think you'll find a lot to like about this one. If you don't, you may still like the overall wholesome feel of this game. It's a great palette cleanser from a darker game.
The overall gameplay loop is a ton of fun as you hop around the islands, talk to friends and do quests for them to convince them to join you at the playground. You'll destroy cardboard monsters and collect paper to craft new hats and weapons to help you on your journey. But you'll also do unique things like starting water pumps, catch a bug, take our ninjas and help friend talk to each other to solve their issues.
The game can be a bit wordy with no voice acting but most of the writing is very fun and silly. But there were times I was just cycling through the dialog to move on and keep playing.
I also wish there was more in the way of navigation help, like a map or waypoints. There are little boards with the island posted around but it's not super helpful. Luckily it's not a huge space to explore and the game isn't very long so it's not a huge issue. If the island was any bigger though, I could see it being a problem.
If you like cute, 3d platformers, then I think you'll find a lot to like about this one. If you don't, you may still like the overall wholesome feel of this game. It's a great palette cleanser from a darker game.
2022
Frogun is a decent game with a throwback art style, quirky characters and an interesting twist on 3d platformer gameplay. However, once you dive in deeper, that gameplay twist, the camera and the controls make it an absolute chore to play.
I'm not sure if I have ever turned on a game this quick before. The first half of Frogun is a ton of fun. You use your Frogun to do block pulls, pull yourself around the level and do enemy grabs and throw them out into the abyss and it's a load of good fun! I was going out of my way to collect all of the coins and do all the extras because those early stages are just blissful fun.
Then around the halfway point, the game starts requiring you to use your Frogun to do these really tedious platforming sections that are just not fun in any way. You have a red cursor that only shows up if you can actually latch on to something, but at certain angles, you aren't sure if you're at the right height or facing the right direction and you only have a split second to see if your cursor lines up or not. Then you fall in to the abyss. OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It also doesn't help that you can only jump a couple inches, so you HAVE to rely on the Frogun for any kind of far or high movement. Then you have to start all over or at least all the way back at the checkpoint that is across the level.
I read a few reviews here that have probably put this better than I will, but ultimately the game is just not built to be very fun in the latter part of the game. It felt like the developer was more worried about players being hard on the game for being too easy or something so they ramped it up with these annoying sections.
What made this game fun was going for those coins and collectibles and finding new and fun ways to zip around the levels while doing so because checkpoints were close by and you could always try again. But the echeckpoints started to become harder to come by and the challenge was more on my patience rather than the game.
This made me stop going for all the coins and I currently have no plans to return now that I've finished it. Once I started getting frustrated, I just wanted to get it over with.
Also, all the enemies are bugs and the final boss is called Beelzebub and he is also a giant bug. So why not Beelzebug? Or even Beetzlebub? Some kind of play on him being a bug? Too obvious?
It's really unfortunate because Frogun started so strong. I really wish they would've left these ridiculous, frustrating platformer portions out of the game. Oh well.
I'm not sure if I have ever turned on a game this quick before. The first half of Frogun is a ton of fun. You use your Frogun to do block pulls, pull yourself around the level and do enemy grabs and throw them out into the abyss and it's a load of good fun! I was going out of my way to collect all of the coins and do all the extras because those early stages are just blissful fun.
Then around the halfway point, the game starts requiring you to use your Frogun to do these really tedious platforming sections that are just not fun in any way. You have a red cursor that only shows up if you can actually latch on to something, but at certain angles, you aren't sure if you're at the right height or facing the right direction and you only have a split second to see if your cursor lines up or not. Then you fall in to the abyss. OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. It also doesn't help that you can only jump a couple inches, so you HAVE to rely on the Frogun for any kind of far or high movement. Then you have to start all over or at least all the way back at the checkpoint that is across the level.
I read a few reviews here that have probably put this better than I will, but ultimately the game is just not built to be very fun in the latter part of the game. It felt like the developer was more worried about players being hard on the game for being too easy or something so they ramped it up with these annoying sections.
What made this game fun was going for those coins and collectibles and finding new and fun ways to zip around the levels while doing so because checkpoints were close by and you could always try again. But the echeckpoints started to become harder to come by and the challenge was more on my patience rather than the game.
This made me stop going for all the coins and I currently have no plans to return now that I've finished it. Once I started getting frustrated, I just wanted to get it over with.
Also, all the enemies are bugs and the final boss is called Beelzebub and he is also a giant bug. So why not Beelzebug? Or even Beetzlebub? Some kind of play on him being a bug? Too obvious?
It's really unfortunate because Frogun started so strong. I really wish they would've left these ridiculous, frustrating platformer portions out of the game. Oh well.
The game is currently in early access on Steam and I didn't feel like it was all that fun honestly. I'm going to backlog it for now and return later but for now, I have other games to play.
This is an excellently made puzzle, 3d platformer that has elements of a cozy game where there is no combat or dying. A great "my first 3d platformer" contender but also just a relaxing playthrough, I really enjoyed it and wish there was more of it!
You play as a mouse who, for no reason at all, wants to help humanity. You show up trying to return a woman's' scarf that has blown away and this leads you to meeting up with this weird, annoying little electrical half god guy who bestows upon you some electrical powers. He sends you out to not only help people but to return to him with the positivity (heart thingies) to prove it and send him back into the sky. So off you go to do your good deeds.
As a mouse, this is a lot to ask because you will have to climb all kinds of huge areas in town to reach your goals. The verticality of this game is awesome and controlling the mouse feels really good! Climbing and maneuvering around the outside of a building to reach the roof is a common occurrence in this game.
As mentioned, the game is a 3d puzzle platformer and much of the gameplay depends a lot on environment puzzles. However, believe it or not, you can not jump!
Some players might get irritated that you can't jump in the game and since you play as a mouse, it does seem odd. However, I completely understand why they went with no jumping, because it would ruin most of the puzzles in the game where you need to line yourself up to fall in certain areas to collect a thing or speak to someone.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, there are a couple things that I am docking the game for and the first is length.
Depending on how much of a completionist you are, it may only take you a couple hours to finish the game. It only took me 5 hours to 100% the game, so I was a little let down because I was enjoying myself so much that I wanted at least another part of the town to do quests in.
I'm also docking it for the annoying main character, the electrical god guy, because his voice was very annoying and his design didn't mesh with the world at all. The other little underlings of his that you meet throughout the world didn't bother me as much, but they also felt strange in this world. It was like the developers were trying to cram Studio Ghibli characters in where they don't belong.
Lastly, I'm not docking the game for this one, but I felt like the issues you were helping people with were VERY light. Like one character, their main issue was their show was starting soon and the tv won't work. It's all very first world. I don't have a huge issue with that but to me it comes off as saccharin at times. The game however is about positivity and treating each other better, so I get it and its why I said it makes a great "my first 3d platformer" game.
However in most other aspects of the game, you can tell there was so much love put into this game and I loved playing it. Really hoping for a sequel of some kind because I would love more.
You play as a mouse who, for no reason at all, wants to help humanity. You show up trying to return a woman's' scarf that has blown away and this leads you to meeting up with this weird, annoying little electrical half god guy who bestows upon you some electrical powers. He sends you out to not only help people but to return to him with the positivity (heart thingies) to prove it and send him back into the sky. So off you go to do your good deeds.
As a mouse, this is a lot to ask because you will have to climb all kinds of huge areas in town to reach your goals. The verticality of this game is awesome and controlling the mouse feels really good! Climbing and maneuvering around the outside of a building to reach the roof is a common occurrence in this game.
As mentioned, the game is a 3d puzzle platformer and much of the gameplay depends a lot on environment puzzles. However, believe it or not, you can not jump!
Some players might get irritated that you can't jump in the game and since you play as a mouse, it does seem odd. However, I completely understand why they went with no jumping, because it would ruin most of the puzzles in the game where you need to line yourself up to fall in certain areas to collect a thing or speak to someone.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game, there are a couple things that I am docking the game for and the first is length.
Depending on how much of a completionist you are, it may only take you a couple hours to finish the game. It only took me 5 hours to 100% the game, so I was a little let down because I was enjoying myself so much that I wanted at least another part of the town to do quests in.
I'm also docking it for the annoying main character, the electrical god guy, because his voice was very annoying and his design didn't mesh with the world at all. The other little underlings of his that you meet throughout the world didn't bother me as much, but they also felt strange in this world. It was like the developers were trying to cram Studio Ghibli characters in where they don't belong.
Lastly, I'm not docking the game for this one, but I felt like the issues you were helping people with were VERY light. Like one character, their main issue was their show was starting soon and the tv won't work. It's all very first world. I don't have a huge issue with that but to me it comes off as saccharin at times. The game however is about positivity and treating each other better, so I get it and its why I said it makes a great "my first 3d platformer" game.
However in most other aspects of the game, you can tell there was so much love put into this game and I loved playing it. Really hoping for a sequel of some kind because I would love more.
I loved the original version of this on the GBA when it came out 20 years ago and this remake on the Switch not only keeps the spirit alive but shows that this type of game is still a lot of fun, despite a few flaws.
As a puzzle game fan, I'm really glad this exists! I would've never expected Nintendo to bring back this series because it never seemed like anyone cared about it, despite it having a few sequels.
You play as Mario, traversing levels, collecting presents, unlocking doors and freeing mini Mario toys that Donkey Kong has stolen from the toy company.
The physics in the game are much different than they are in a normal 2D Mario game. If you're new to this series, it controls much more like an original Donkey Kong game, where Mario doesn't jump as high and he doesn't move quite as quick. Some will find this off putting but as a guy who played Donkey Kong growing up, I think it's great to have a throw- back like this available, even if it's not precise and takes a little getting used to.
I love trying to find out how to get all the presents within a level and get that gold star. Chances are, if you stumped on one, you'll go to a future level and learn a new technique only to return to the level that stumped you and get that gold star. It's a great feeling.
While I do quite enjoy the game, there are a few fiddly things. One is that the enemy hit box is strangely aligned or something, as there were times when I felt like I died on an enemy for no reason. I felt as though I landed on the enemy's head, not anywhere else. Dying isn't a huge issue because the levels are so quick to play, but it can still be annoying when you're right at the exit and this happens.
Speaking of dying, can we just get rid of the lives system for these games already? What's the point of it these days?
I would've also liked a bit more guidance on what the mini Marios can do. At times, playing with the mini Marios following can feel a bit trial and error and there are a few levels with them that will have you scratching your head a little. In the extra levels that unlock after you complete the main game, they're all mini Mario based. By this point, you'll probably have figured out all the mini Mario tricks but it would've been nice to know they can do certain things up front.
Because of this, I would've liked some kind of "preview mode" where you can look at the level before you start, as there is a timer and it starts ticking as soon as you begin.
I would've also loved a toggle mode to bounce between the GBA graphics and the current, as so many remasters do these days, but unfortunately since it's remake, that isn't an option.
But what is here is an enjoyable puzzle game with a ton of levels and replay-ability with time trials and gold stars to collect. While there is no real reward for 100% in the game (It would've been nice to get a gold Mario to play as or something) solving all of these levels is a lot of fun.
As a puzzle game fan, I'm really glad this exists! I would've never expected Nintendo to bring back this series because it never seemed like anyone cared about it, despite it having a few sequels.
You play as Mario, traversing levels, collecting presents, unlocking doors and freeing mini Mario toys that Donkey Kong has stolen from the toy company.
The physics in the game are much different than they are in a normal 2D Mario game. If you're new to this series, it controls much more like an original Donkey Kong game, where Mario doesn't jump as high and he doesn't move quite as quick. Some will find this off putting but as a guy who played Donkey Kong growing up, I think it's great to have a throw- back like this available, even if it's not precise and takes a little getting used to.
I love trying to find out how to get all the presents within a level and get that gold star. Chances are, if you stumped on one, you'll go to a future level and learn a new technique only to return to the level that stumped you and get that gold star. It's a great feeling.
While I do quite enjoy the game, there are a few fiddly things. One is that the enemy hit box is strangely aligned or something, as there were times when I felt like I died on an enemy for no reason. I felt as though I landed on the enemy's head, not anywhere else. Dying isn't a huge issue because the levels are so quick to play, but it can still be annoying when you're right at the exit and this happens.
Speaking of dying, can we just get rid of the lives system for these games already? What's the point of it these days?
I would've also liked a bit more guidance on what the mini Marios can do. At times, playing with the mini Marios following can feel a bit trial and error and there are a few levels with them that will have you scratching your head a little. In the extra levels that unlock after you complete the main game, they're all mini Mario based. By this point, you'll probably have figured out all the mini Mario tricks but it would've been nice to know they can do certain things up front.
Because of this, I would've liked some kind of "preview mode" where you can look at the level before you start, as there is a timer and it starts ticking as soon as you begin.
I would've also loved a toggle mode to bounce between the GBA graphics and the current, as so many remasters do these days, but unfortunately since it's remake, that isn't an option.
But what is here is an enjoyable puzzle game with a ton of levels and replay-ability with time trials and gold stars to collect. While there is no real reward for 100% in the game (It would've been nice to get a gold Mario to play as or something) solving all of these levels is a lot of fun.
This review contains spoilers
Having liked the first two Spider-man games that Insomniac and Sony released, I was really looking forward to this one. While the game started out super strong, I feel that as it went on, the seams started to show and there were some very questionable decisions about the story and progression in the game that I just don’t get. By the end, I felt the game was bloated and the story was all over the place.
I was really into this game for the first few weeks. I would play a little bit of it every other night or so (as I don’t have the time to marathon games like I used to), but as they kept piling villains and story on top of the foundation, it really lost me. I ended up taking a 2 month break from it because I was honestly bored by it. I finally came back to it and spent about a week finishing it up and I have to say, the end left me feeling a bit empty.
The big draw in Spider-man 2 is that you can bounce between both Peter Parker and Mile Morales. Both have stories you play though and the main story moves back and forth between them. It’s great that they included both and they each have their own move sets and personalities, so it can be refreshing to play as one for a while and then move over to the other. They even team up with each other some times.
While I enjoyed this, I really expected more team ups from Peter and Miles. There were so many missions where they were working alone. I couldn’t help but think, why isn’t the other one helping right now? There was always a convenient reason why they weren’t both there at the same time that felt very contrived. It was also fun when the other spider-man would show up during a city mission to help take out some bad guys, but this only happen a couple times for me. I’m not sure why?
I do want to say this game is beautiful! I got to play it 4k at 60+ fps on the PS5 and WOW! I love the environment, the first time swinging and flying through the air in New York, I was wide eyed and loving it. The cutscenes and close ups if the main characters look amazing too! I will say that the city's inhabitants were not always so detailed and part of the city look a little shabby but that is the sacrifice you make to run 60+ fps at 4k.
Controlling this game is amazing… for the most part. Swinging and gliding around New York is a blast! Fighting is a lot of fun at first and the action is top notch. Fast traveling in this game also sets the standard for fast traveling in gaming as it’s an instantaneous experience! You select a place on the map and within seconds you’re there swinging. But as the game goes on, a lot of that core feeling gets lost in the shuffle in favor of constantly bolting on new abilities and repetitive fights.
As you keep playing the game, you keep unlocking new abilities and moves. While this is really fun at first, maybe this is a me thing, but I feel like there are just too many by the end. If you look at the menu where you unlock abilities, the amount of things you can do is staggering. While each spider-man has their own unlocks, the button combinations between all the combined moves is a lot to think about while fighting enemies. The fighting and moves can be deep, but to me it felt overwhelming.
Let’s say you grab an enemy, you have a handful of options for what you can do with them once you unlock all the abilities and the same is applied to all the other options. While this is deep and I’m sure rewarding for other gamers who crave this, but it’s difficult for me to remember all of these options and button combos. Because of this, I end up doing the wrong thing a lot and getting punished for it.
There is also a heavy focus on perfect dodging and countering in this game that I did not enjoy a whole lot. Some dodging and countering is fine, but there are times where I think they overdo it. Mainly because there were a handful of times I felt that the enemies were stun locking me because I did not dodge or counter the way the game wanted me to.
There are some areas that just do not feel great for combat. Until you start becoming more comfortable with the zipping around and staying in the air to fight, you will have trouble with these areas and it can be a little frustrating.
There are also some traversal moves while fighting that just don’t seem to work some times. I remember distinctly a battle where the enemies were on two levels and I could not for the life of me get Spider-man to zip over to the enemies like I had done a million times before. He just wouldn’t lock on to the correct enemy or not see them. Then I would get hit and get frustrated thinking “Why is this not working? It was working fine in the last fight!” It feels glitchy and unresponsive in a game where you expect instant responsiveness and sudden mistakes, whether due to player error or game issues, can be very punishing.
The game itself is more glitchy than I feel most big reviewers lead us to believe. I have seen some objects that stay floating around after, say, a crate is destroyed. You’ll see a barrel that was on top of the crate just floating there. I’ve also seen certain buildings where each window show you the exact same person before it. I honestly saw an apartment area where there were 4-5 or the same person on the same floor and I was not only scared by this but it took me out of the experience. I’ve also dealt with a couple crashes while playing, which I have no idea why but that is annoying when you’re in the middle of something and the game just up and crashes for some reason.
My first experience with a glitch in the game got me while fighting the sandman, which is literally in the first 10-15 minutes of the game. This was a monumental boss fight, and super fun. However, at a certain point, I could not progress because the button prompt to continue into the next phase would not show! I must’ve swung at him 30 times only to find that I needed to die to reload the checkpoint and then the button prompt would appear.
Despite that one issue, I think this boss fight was the highlight of the whole game and set the rest of the boss fights in the game up to look and feel lackluster in comparison.
The boss fights are just plain not fun. There are some highlights in some of them but for the most part, they all play the same way and can be frustrating when your moves or abilities are ignored, which seemed to happen a lot during the Kraven fights for some reason. Also, each boss fight doesn’t give you enough room to swing and dodge it seems. I would get caught up on geometry a lot when I was dodging or swinging. Also, the camera during boss battles isn’t exactly the best, so you can’t see you’re going to run into something until it happens and then when you do, the camera is up in your face and you can’t see the enemies or attacks coming at you.
The game takes the control away from the player constantly too. So a lot of sections of the game are scripted as -- Fight dudes, watch cut scene, swing for a minute, fight dudes, cutscene, fight dudes, maybe there is a unique piece of gameplay like running through a building, cutscene, fight dudes… and it continuously goes on like this. It pushed me to get really tired of the fighting in the game. It seems like every instance where there is a break of some kind, they just throw in a crop of enemies for you to take out. Because of this, the fighting got tedious.
Especially when the symbiotes are introduced. Too much health, too many abilities to use, so much dodging and parrying. The symbiote nests are basically just much more powerful enemies you have to fight in waves while a timer ticks down. They’re much more powerful and annoying to deal with. There are several of these symbiote nests to take care of around the city. I did all but like 2 or 3 of them in the game before moving on. They were challenging and I got a little bored of doing them, so I continued the main story and then you know what the game did? It gave me an upgrade that helps me do more damage to the symbiotes. My jaw just about dropped. This wouldn’t have been useful to the player who just finished all of the nests!
Which leads us to the final boss of Venom, whom I found so annoying to deal with, I put the game all the way down to the easiest mode (where you can’t die) and finished him off that way. I was so disappointed to have to finish the game that way because I played the whole game on the normal mode until then, but I was so irritated by that point of dealing with this annoying boss whom I couldn’t seem to get a grasp on, I had to switch it. I had almost switched it earlier during the bell fight with Kraven but I managed to squeak that one out.
Now a lot of what I mentioned above can be forgiven in certain instances. While a lot of it is annoying, some of it is meant for challenge. However, what can’t be forgiven are some of the story and character choices in the game. There are some things that had me scratching my head or even talking out loud to myself saying “What? Really?”
NOTE: Below are story beats, so don't read any more if you don't want spoilers:
Let’s start with Mary Jane. To change things up, they put in a couple stealth section with Mary Jane where she sneaks into the Hunters hideout to rescue someone. In the first one, the scenario is believable up until she takes an arrow to the shoulder with tranquilizer in it. She’s not a super hero right? How was she able to push through the tranquilizer dart AND the arrow to the shoulder and somehow stay awake and able to take dudes out? I’m not sure most normal people would be able to continue after that.
Furthermore, having her stealth around with a stun gun makes total sense because she’s not a superhero. However, seeing her kick the crap out of a hunter henchman with her lady loafers on is kind of ridiculous, especially after taking a tranquillizer dart.
Characters reactions to things happening within the game some times did not feel real. No one ever reacted like you would in real life to crazy things happening. It’s really odd. For example, I’m a little annoyed that Peter’s friend Harry isn’t more surprised that Peter is spider-man. He finds out and is just kind of like, “oh, you’re him?” And they move on. Really weird. If I found out my best friend was Spider-man, I would flip out!
And once they find out that Harry has powers too, Harry gets involved in this huge scene where he automatically knows how to fight and leap around as good as spider-man can. Which is odd considering spider-man has been doing it for a while, he had to learn all of this stuff, but this guy can just show up and he knows what to do?
There is a scene where Miles as Spider-man is helping a student ask his boyfriend out to a homecoming dance. I did this side quest when some really important stuff was going on in the game. This felt forced into the game and very corny. Doesn’t Spider-man have way more important things to do?
Mr. Negative is suddenly a nice guy again. Why? Because Miles decided not to kill him for killing his father? It’s so sudden, I don’t really get it.
At the Kraven bell fight, Kraven gets out of Spider-man crushing him with the symbiote tentacles by biting one of them? Wtf? What kind of teeth does Kraven have? And then they also just let him run off. Like???
The amount of times Peter Parker says “meet cute” is more than I’ve heard in my life. I didn’t even know what that was until this game. Who says that?
During the scene where Venom is turning Mary Jane into the Scream lady, Venom goes to attack Peter and Mary Jane dives in front of him. WHY!? SHE HAS NO POWERS! What is she thinking? Then Peter is just looking at Venom and says “Don’t…” as Venom pulls her over to him but Peter doesn’t do a thing about it. Like, dude, you’re spider-man get in there and save your girl!
Miles shows up with a new suit towards the end of the game out of nowhere. Was he just suddenly making this suit? Where did it come from? When did he have time to make it? It would’ve made a better side quest for him to do than some of these dumb side things they have in the game, where he is maybe collecting pieces for the suit? I found out later it was a promotion thing to sell some Adidas shoes. The shoes he is wearing in the game are/were available at one point in real life and because he is wearing these new shoes, he wanted a suit to match them I guess. Stupid. When did he have time to buy them?
The last mission of the game they have this plan to have venom chase spiderman through the city -- Sounds EXCITING! And Miles is going to take out all the symbiotes that are at the entrance -- Exciting! Instead, they’re like, hey, here, do another Mary Jane part with the stun gun… what on earth? Luckily this part was just a run and stun section, no stealthing around but whose idea was it to be like, yea let’s do Mary Janes part first. This also would’ve been a great bonding mission for Mary Kane and Miles, where Miles could’ve been in there helping her while you controlled Mary Jane. I guess instead he stayed outside and distracted the Symbiotes... but still. More team ups please!
Then shortly after that, Mary Jane is riding her motorbike and crashing through a window with it. This felt like they were REALLY trying to make her as awesome as spider-man but for me, it doesn’t work. She’s just this small, lady journalist. I know it’s supposed to be action shlock but it takes me out the experience a bit.
At the end of the game, Peter Parker just gets to be himself for a bit, so does that mean the next game will just be Miles? Why is Peter Parker wanting to be himself? Because Mary Jane doesn’t like him being spiderman? It would’ve made more sense to have Peter and Mary Jane allude to the fact they’re going to plan their wedding or something and he needs a break. This portion of the story lead almost nowhere.
But through the whole game, Peter keeps doubting himself saying that the city doesn’t need him anymore (this felt more like he was fishing for compliments than actual self doubt) and Miles can do it. So I assume they’re setting the next game up to be only Miles? But why? What’s the point? They already did a Miles Morales game! I was Spider-man 3 to have 3 heroes this time? Maybe ad Spider Gwen in there?
The characters are constantly second guessing themselves in this one too. “Why didn’t I ask Pete about that thing? I’m such a bad friend!” or “Why haven’t I checked in with MJ, I’m a monster!” It’s like, jeeze, way to be over dramatic about everything.
The story feels all over the place with all the villains too. You fight off Sandman, and Kraven, and Lizard, and Mister Negative, and Mysterio, and Kraven again, then eventually you fight venom, but you also fight a character called Scream (which is just Mary Jane as a symbiote and it only last one mission). I'm not even mentioning all of the side villains that the game is hinting at introducing in a sequel. Typically in comics, a story arc will involve a couple villains but because there are so many villains in this game, it really feels like they’re putting together 3 story arcs in one. It's too much! For some, this might be a bonus, but to me it feels really disjointed and I lost track of everyone’s motivation. This also felt like they bloated experience a bit. I'd rather a good, deep story with a couple villains than introducing a new one every 2 missions.
The oddest thing is Sandman is never heard from again after you defeat him. You have this amazing fight with him at the very start of the game and he has some collectibles that you can get but honestly, it felt so flat. It would’ve been great had he come back to help you fight venom or something at the end. You know, like he was a new, reformed man. Even Mr. Negative didn’t come back to help much and he’s a good guy now? I don’t understand the character arcs in this one. They just wanted to add villains for the sake of it and then were like “What do we do now?” and everyone shrugged.
I could keep going on about story stuff but I think you get the message. I think this game could’ve benefitted and been more focused if it was just a bit longer than the Miles Morales game. Instead of 18 or so hours, maybe 12-14 hours. Leave us wanting more. Cut out a villain or 2. Tighten up those story pieces and characters. Cut out a few unlockable abilities. Tighten the combat up a little. Personally, I want quality not quantity.
Despite the game being gorgeous and doing a lot of things right, this game just didn’t click with me as we got about halfway through it. I feel the first game and Miles Morales are better experiences. I think they just tried to cram too much in here and the game really suffers for it.
I was really into this game for the first few weeks. I would play a little bit of it every other night or so (as I don’t have the time to marathon games like I used to), but as they kept piling villains and story on top of the foundation, it really lost me. I ended up taking a 2 month break from it because I was honestly bored by it. I finally came back to it and spent about a week finishing it up and I have to say, the end left me feeling a bit empty.
The big draw in Spider-man 2 is that you can bounce between both Peter Parker and Mile Morales. Both have stories you play though and the main story moves back and forth between them. It’s great that they included both and they each have their own move sets and personalities, so it can be refreshing to play as one for a while and then move over to the other. They even team up with each other some times.
While I enjoyed this, I really expected more team ups from Peter and Miles. There were so many missions where they were working alone. I couldn’t help but think, why isn’t the other one helping right now? There was always a convenient reason why they weren’t both there at the same time that felt very contrived. It was also fun when the other spider-man would show up during a city mission to help take out some bad guys, but this only happen a couple times for me. I’m not sure why?
I do want to say this game is beautiful! I got to play it 4k at 60+ fps on the PS5 and WOW! I love the environment, the first time swinging and flying through the air in New York, I was wide eyed and loving it. The cutscenes and close ups if the main characters look amazing too! I will say that the city's inhabitants were not always so detailed and part of the city look a little shabby but that is the sacrifice you make to run 60+ fps at 4k.
Controlling this game is amazing… for the most part. Swinging and gliding around New York is a blast! Fighting is a lot of fun at first and the action is top notch. Fast traveling in this game also sets the standard for fast traveling in gaming as it’s an instantaneous experience! You select a place on the map and within seconds you’re there swinging. But as the game goes on, a lot of that core feeling gets lost in the shuffle in favor of constantly bolting on new abilities and repetitive fights.
As you keep playing the game, you keep unlocking new abilities and moves. While this is really fun at first, maybe this is a me thing, but I feel like there are just too many by the end. If you look at the menu where you unlock abilities, the amount of things you can do is staggering. While each spider-man has their own unlocks, the button combinations between all the combined moves is a lot to think about while fighting enemies. The fighting and moves can be deep, but to me it felt overwhelming.
Let’s say you grab an enemy, you have a handful of options for what you can do with them once you unlock all the abilities and the same is applied to all the other options. While this is deep and I’m sure rewarding for other gamers who crave this, but it’s difficult for me to remember all of these options and button combos. Because of this, I end up doing the wrong thing a lot and getting punished for it.
There is also a heavy focus on perfect dodging and countering in this game that I did not enjoy a whole lot. Some dodging and countering is fine, but there are times where I think they overdo it. Mainly because there were a handful of times I felt that the enemies were stun locking me because I did not dodge or counter the way the game wanted me to.
There are some areas that just do not feel great for combat. Until you start becoming more comfortable with the zipping around and staying in the air to fight, you will have trouble with these areas and it can be a little frustrating.
There are also some traversal moves while fighting that just don’t seem to work some times. I remember distinctly a battle where the enemies were on two levels and I could not for the life of me get Spider-man to zip over to the enemies like I had done a million times before. He just wouldn’t lock on to the correct enemy or not see them. Then I would get hit and get frustrated thinking “Why is this not working? It was working fine in the last fight!” It feels glitchy and unresponsive in a game where you expect instant responsiveness and sudden mistakes, whether due to player error or game issues, can be very punishing.
The game itself is more glitchy than I feel most big reviewers lead us to believe. I have seen some objects that stay floating around after, say, a crate is destroyed. You’ll see a barrel that was on top of the crate just floating there. I’ve also seen certain buildings where each window show you the exact same person before it. I honestly saw an apartment area where there were 4-5 or the same person on the same floor and I was not only scared by this but it took me out of the experience. I’ve also dealt with a couple crashes while playing, which I have no idea why but that is annoying when you’re in the middle of something and the game just up and crashes for some reason.
My first experience with a glitch in the game got me while fighting the sandman, which is literally in the first 10-15 minutes of the game. This was a monumental boss fight, and super fun. However, at a certain point, I could not progress because the button prompt to continue into the next phase would not show! I must’ve swung at him 30 times only to find that I needed to die to reload the checkpoint and then the button prompt would appear.
Despite that one issue, I think this boss fight was the highlight of the whole game and set the rest of the boss fights in the game up to look and feel lackluster in comparison.
The boss fights are just plain not fun. There are some highlights in some of them but for the most part, they all play the same way and can be frustrating when your moves or abilities are ignored, which seemed to happen a lot during the Kraven fights for some reason. Also, each boss fight doesn’t give you enough room to swing and dodge it seems. I would get caught up on geometry a lot when I was dodging or swinging. Also, the camera during boss battles isn’t exactly the best, so you can’t see you’re going to run into something until it happens and then when you do, the camera is up in your face and you can’t see the enemies or attacks coming at you.
The game takes the control away from the player constantly too. So a lot of sections of the game are scripted as -- Fight dudes, watch cut scene, swing for a minute, fight dudes, cutscene, fight dudes, maybe there is a unique piece of gameplay like running through a building, cutscene, fight dudes… and it continuously goes on like this. It pushed me to get really tired of the fighting in the game. It seems like every instance where there is a break of some kind, they just throw in a crop of enemies for you to take out. Because of this, the fighting got tedious.
Especially when the symbiotes are introduced. Too much health, too many abilities to use, so much dodging and parrying. The symbiote nests are basically just much more powerful enemies you have to fight in waves while a timer ticks down. They’re much more powerful and annoying to deal with. There are several of these symbiote nests to take care of around the city. I did all but like 2 or 3 of them in the game before moving on. They were challenging and I got a little bored of doing them, so I continued the main story and then you know what the game did? It gave me an upgrade that helps me do more damage to the symbiotes. My jaw just about dropped. This wouldn’t have been useful to the player who just finished all of the nests!
Which leads us to the final boss of Venom, whom I found so annoying to deal with, I put the game all the way down to the easiest mode (where you can’t die) and finished him off that way. I was so disappointed to have to finish the game that way because I played the whole game on the normal mode until then, but I was so irritated by that point of dealing with this annoying boss whom I couldn’t seem to get a grasp on, I had to switch it. I had almost switched it earlier during the bell fight with Kraven but I managed to squeak that one out.
Now a lot of what I mentioned above can be forgiven in certain instances. While a lot of it is annoying, some of it is meant for challenge. However, what can’t be forgiven are some of the story and character choices in the game. There are some things that had me scratching my head or even talking out loud to myself saying “What? Really?”
NOTE: Below are story beats, so don't read any more if you don't want spoilers:
Let’s start with Mary Jane. To change things up, they put in a couple stealth section with Mary Jane where she sneaks into the Hunters hideout to rescue someone. In the first one, the scenario is believable up until she takes an arrow to the shoulder with tranquilizer in it. She’s not a super hero right? How was she able to push through the tranquilizer dart AND the arrow to the shoulder and somehow stay awake and able to take dudes out? I’m not sure most normal people would be able to continue after that.
Furthermore, having her stealth around with a stun gun makes total sense because she’s not a superhero. However, seeing her kick the crap out of a hunter henchman with her lady loafers on is kind of ridiculous, especially after taking a tranquillizer dart.
Characters reactions to things happening within the game some times did not feel real. No one ever reacted like you would in real life to crazy things happening. It’s really odd. For example, I’m a little annoyed that Peter’s friend Harry isn’t more surprised that Peter is spider-man. He finds out and is just kind of like, “oh, you’re him?” And they move on. Really weird. If I found out my best friend was Spider-man, I would flip out!
And once they find out that Harry has powers too, Harry gets involved in this huge scene where he automatically knows how to fight and leap around as good as spider-man can. Which is odd considering spider-man has been doing it for a while, he had to learn all of this stuff, but this guy can just show up and he knows what to do?
There is a scene where Miles as Spider-man is helping a student ask his boyfriend out to a homecoming dance. I did this side quest when some really important stuff was going on in the game. This felt forced into the game and very corny. Doesn’t Spider-man have way more important things to do?
Mr. Negative is suddenly a nice guy again. Why? Because Miles decided not to kill him for killing his father? It’s so sudden, I don’t really get it.
At the Kraven bell fight, Kraven gets out of Spider-man crushing him with the symbiote tentacles by biting one of them? Wtf? What kind of teeth does Kraven have? And then they also just let him run off. Like???
The amount of times Peter Parker says “meet cute” is more than I’ve heard in my life. I didn’t even know what that was until this game. Who says that?
During the scene where Venom is turning Mary Jane into the Scream lady, Venom goes to attack Peter and Mary Jane dives in front of him. WHY!? SHE HAS NO POWERS! What is she thinking? Then Peter is just looking at Venom and says “Don’t…” as Venom pulls her over to him but Peter doesn’t do a thing about it. Like, dude, you’re spider-man get in there and save your girl!
Miles shows up with a new suit towards the end of the game out of nowhere. Was he just suddenly making this suit? Where did it come from? When did he have time to make it? It would’ve made a better side quest for him to do than some of these dumb side things they have in the game, where he is maybe collecting pieces for the suit? I found out later it was a promotion thing to sell some Adidas shoes. The shoes he is wearing in the game are/were available at one point in real life and because he is wearing these new shoes, he wanted a suit to match them I guess. Stupid. When did he have time to buy them?
The last mission of the game they have this plan to have venom chase spiderman through the city -- Sounds EXCITING! And Miles is going to take out all the symbiotes that are at the entrance -- Exciting! Instead, they’re like, hey, here, do another Mary Jane part with the stun gun… what on earth? Luckily this part was just a run and stun section, no stealthing around but whose idea was it to be like, yea let’s do Mary Janes part first. This also would’ve been a great bonding mission for Mary Kane and Miles, where Miles could’ve been in there helping her while you controlled Mary Jane. I guess instead he stayed outside and distracted the Symbiotes... but still. More team ups please!
Then shortly after that, Mary Jane is riding her motorbike and crashing through a window with it. This felt like they were REALLY trying to make her as awesome as spider-man but for me, it doesn’t work. She’s just this small, lady journalist. I know it’s supposed to be action shlock but it takes me out the experience a bit.
At the end of the game, Peter Parker just gets to be himself for a bit, so does that mean the next game will just be Miles? Why is Peter Parker wanting to be himself? Because Mary Jane doesn’t like him being spiderman? It would’ve made more sense to have Peter and Mary Jane allude to the fact they’re going to plan their wedding or something and he needs a break. This portion of the story lead almost nowhere.
But through the whole game, Peter keeps doubting himself saying that the city doesn’t need him anymore (this felt more like he was fishing for compliments than actual self doubt) and Miles can do it. So I assume they’re setting the next game up to be only Miles? But why? What’s the point? They already did a Miles Morales game! I was Spider-man 3 to have 3 heroes this time? Maybe ad Spider Gwen in there?
The characters are constantly second guessing themselves in this one too. “Why didn’t I ask Pete about that thing? I’m such a bad friend!” or “Why haven’t I checked in with MJ, I’m a monster!” It’s like, jeeze, way to be over dramatic about everything.
The story feels all over the place with all the villains too. You fight off Sandman, and Kraven, and Lizard, and Mister Negative, and Mysterio, and Kraven again, then eventually you fight venom, but you also fight a character called Scream (which is just Mary Jane as a symbiote and it only last one mission). I'm not even mentioning all of the side villains that the game is hinting at introducing in a sequel. Typically in comics, a story arc will involve a couple villains but because there are so many villains in this game, it really feels like they’re putting together 3 story arcs in one. It's too much! For some, this might be a bonus, but to me it feels really disjointed and I lost track of everyone’s motivation. This also felt like they bloated experience a bit. I'd rather a good, deep story with a couple villains than introducing a new one every 2 missions.
The oddest thing is Sandman is never heard from again after you defeat him. You have this amazing fight with him at the very start of the game and he has some collectibles that you can get but honestly, it felt so flat. It would’ve been great had he come back to help you fight venom or something at the end. You know, like he was a new, reformed man. Even Mr. Negative didn’t come back to help much and he’s a good guy now? I don’t understand the character arcs in this one. They just wanted to add villains for the sake of it and then were like “What do we do now?” and everyone shrugged.
I could keep going on about story stuff but I think you get the message. I think this game could’ve benefitted and been more focused if it was just a bit longer than the Miles Morales game. Instead of 18 or so hours, maybe 12-14 hours. Leave us wanting more. Cut out a villain or 2. Tighten up those story pieces and characters. Cut out a few unlockable abilities. Tighten the combat up a little. Personally, I want quality not quantity.
Despite the game being gorgeous and doing a lot of things right, this game just didn’t click with me as we got about halfway through it. I feel the first game and Miles Morales are better experiences. I think they just tried to cram too much in here and the game really suffers for it.
2023
Return to Grace is short and unchallenging yet it's a unique and entertaining walking simulator. What puts this one ahead of the others in the genre for me is that there is a decent sci-fi story that is easy to follow along with and the fun cast of characters and dialog.
Walking sims can be a bit boring and some times tedious with how slow the main character can move and interact with their surroundings. This game has those moments of slow, tedious movement but it's countered with entertaining characters that are introduced in a unique way.
As an explorer, you find your way to an old spire and while there, you have a coms wrist computer that helps you to talk with the AI there. As the story goes, The AI characters will start combining with the others and offer new personalities to help you along the way. So while you're walking around slowly, exploring, you have all of these AI characters jabbering away and it's very fun.
A lot of the walking sims I have played in the past, I feel like they tend to leave it up to the player as to what happened and I'm a bit tired of that. This one is definitely one of those unique sci-fi stories but they at least include a few different endings that explain what is going on and what happened.
For all the great dialog and story bits, there are still moments where I wish you could skip scenes or move a little faster. The game is already pretty short (about 2 hours or so) but there are areas that I feel are padded only because of how slow the character moves. This becomes tedious when you want to see the other endings and find out there is no chapter select, so you HAVE to start the game over to do so. And as fun as the characters are, they get old after hearing it all over again a couple times to see the other endings.
One of the big take aways I have with this one though is that this feels like a game I would recommend to someone who is a big movie buff that wants to try out a game. They could finish this in one sitting, like a movie, and actually get a pretty decent experience out of it within that time frame.
Walking sims can be a bit boring and some times tedious with how slow the main character can move and interact with their surroundings. This game has those moments of slow, tedious movement but it's countered with entertaining characters that are introduced in a unique way.
As an explorer, you find your way to an old spire and while there, you have a coms wrist computer that helps you to talk with the AI there. As the story goes, The AI characters will start combining with the others and offer new personalities to help you along the way. So while you're walking around slowly, exploring, you have all of these AI characters jabbering away and it's very fun.
A lot of the walking sims I have played in the past, I feel like they tend to leave it up to the player as to what happened and I'm a bit tired of that. This one is definitely one of those unique sci-fi stories but they at least include a few different endings that explain what is going on and what happened.
For all the great dialog and story bits, there are still moments where I wish you could skip scenes or move a little faster. The game is already pretty short (about 2 hours or so) but there are areas that I feel are padded only because of how slow the character moves. This becomes tedious when you want to see the other endings and find out there is no chapter select, so you HAVE to start the game over to do so. And as fun as the characters are, they get old after hearing it all over again a couple times to see the other endings.
One of the big take aways I have with this one though is that this feels like a game I would recommend to someone who is a big movie buff that wants to try out a game. They could finish this in one sitting, like a movie, and actually get a pretty decent experience out of it within that time frame.
2022
A really fun little gem of a puzzle game with a ton of levels. My biggest pet peeve is that there are some puzzles feel so arbitrary that even after finding the solution (using a hint or looking it up) that I still don't understand how someone would solve that on their own. However, those are VERY few and far between. a fun time for puzzle fans!
2021
This is a game I was hot and cold on. The art style is vibrant and interesting and traversing the world is a lot of fun. However, where it loses me is with the speed mechanics involving the bosses and some of the puzzles. Some of you speed runners out there might love this one!
Every boss battle is basically made up of 3 phases and each one features an increasingly difficult time trial race where you're trying to move as fast as you can while also hitting posts along the way. On paper, this is a lot of fun, but in practice, some times it just feels disconnected.
While you may get into a groove on some of these phases other times it feels like the floor or plates that you're skating on (the bosses usually have a bunch of broken skin, or bone all over them) isn't where it needs to be to accomplish the task at hand.
Let's say you hit a post, turn around to get to the next one and see a huge gap in front of you and as you move and jump, you may not get up enough speed and fall in and have to start the phase over. OR you get too much speed and you sail over the post you need to hit. OR you were short on speed and it looks like you won't make it, but for some reason you do? Judging the jumps and what speed you needed to go on these broken plates/floors is really what ruins the flow and the fun, especially when you end up having to do the same phase over and over.
The game is not awful or anything, it's manageable and I overalled enjoyed myself with this game but I could've done without some of the more frustrating parts. I would love to see a sequel with these issues ironed out because, honestly, the mechanic is like 90% there, it just needs a bit more attention to make it have that amazing feel that it really should have.
Every boss battle is basically made up of 3 phases and each one features an increasingly difficult time trial race where you're trying to move as fast as you can while also hitting posts along the way. On paper, this is a lot of fun, but in practice, some times it just feels disconnected.
While you may get into a groove on some of these phases other times it feels like the floor or plates that you're skating on (the bosses usually have a bunch of broken skin, or bone all over them) isn't where it needs to be to accomplish the task at hand.
Let's say you hit a post, turn around to get to the next one and see a huge gap in front of you and as you move and jump, you may not get up enough speed and fall in and have to start the phase over. OR you get too much speed and you sail over the post you need to hit. OR you were short on speed and it looks like you won't make it, but for some reason you do? Judging the jumps and what speed you needed to go on these broken plates/floors is really what ruins the flow and the fun, especially when you end up having to do the same phase over and over.
The game is not awful or anything, it's manageable and I overalled enjoyed myself with this game but I could've done without some of the more frustrating parts. I would love to see a sequel with these issues ironed out because, honestly, the mechanic is like 90% there, it just needs a bit more attention to make it have that amazing feel that it really should have.
I gave this one a quick chance because it's leaving Game Pass but it's not for me. It's a visual novel, mixed with a 2.5D walking simulator and has VERY light puzzle solving. I found this super boring, but I won't be rating it because I am just not a visual novel gamer in general.
2019
A great, but short, first person puzzler that introduces some amazing mechanics that I haven't seen used in a game before! If it only had a good story to go along with them.
Admittedly, I'm a sucker for these first person puzzle games. Portal, QUBE and others are just games that I love jumping into and solving. While Superliminal is one of these games, it's also one of the more difficult one.
If you're not into puzzle games, this one will not change your mind and in fact, it will probably make you dislike them even more because some of these puzzles are very challenging. There were maybe 3 of them that I actually had to look up.
The main gimmick is the ability to change the size and perspective of the things you grab. Is there a button on the other side of a tall wall? Pick up a block, move backwards and drop it over on to the button. Have a door you can't reach? Can't reach a platform? Grab a cheese wedge to make a ramp up to it. Have a doorway that is too small? Resize it bigger. There are a lot of other interesting things they do with it too, but you'll have to play to see them. And this gimmick kept me glued to see what I would do next.
The game is very short though, it only took me a few hours to finish and that was mostly because I was stuck on certain puzzles. The game contains an achievement to finish it in 35 minutes, so that tells you everything you really need to know.
Also, there isn't much story here. You're in a testing facility listening to audio logs from some doctor talking about the research they're doing. I found these really uninteresting from the get go though because they feel very tacked in. The game feels like it was built first and they added in the logs later so there was some substance. Honestly, they probably could've just let it be ambiguous and it might've been more effective? I'm not sure.
On a separate note, the extra collectibles you can get through the journey will have you scratching your head even more than the puzzles themselves, as some of them are so well hidden, I wonder how even the guide writers found them in the first place! This adds a bit of replay value to the game, which is nice, but ultimately this is just padding for achievements as the collectibles don't really offer much else.
A fun but short game with interesting gimmicks and cool perspective tricks! I really enjoyed it, despite the lack of any kind of real story.
Admittedly, I'm a sucker for these first person puzzle games. Portal, QUBE and others are just games that I love jumping into and solving. While Superliminal is one of these games, it's also one of the more difficult one.
If you're not into puzzle games, this one will not change your mind and in fact, it will probably make you dislike them even more because some of these puzzles are very challenging. There were maybe 3 of them that I actually had to look up.
The main gimmick is the ability to change the size and perspective of the things you grab. Is there a button on the other side of a tall wall? Pick up a block, move backwards and drop it over on to the button. Have a door you can't reach? Can't reach a platform? Grab a cheese wedge to make a ramp up to it. Have a doorway that is too small? Resize it bigger. There are a lot of other interesting things they do with it too, but you'll have to play to see them. And this gimmick kept me glued to see what I would do next.
The game is very short though, it only took me a few hours to finish and that was mostly because I was stuck on certain puzzles. The game contains an achievement to finish it in 35 minutes, so that tells you everything you really need to know.
Also, there isn't much story here. You're in a testing facility listening to audio logs from some doctor talking about the research they're doing. I found these really uninteresting from the get go though because they feel very tacked in. The game feels like it was built first and they added in the logs later so there was some substance. Honestly, they probably could've just let it be ambiguous and it might've been more effective? I'm not sure.
On a separate note, the extra collectibles you can get through the journey will have you scratching your head even more than the puzzles themselves, as some of them are so well hidden, I wonder how even the guide writers found them in the first place! This adds a bit of replay value to the game, which is nice, but ultimately this is just padding for achievements as the collectibles don't really offer much else.
A fun but short game with interesting gimmicks and cool perspective tricks! I really enjoyed it, despite the lack of any kind of real story.
2018
Gris has an amazing art style with some truly stunning visuals fun platforming gameplay for the most part, but the ambiguous story left me wondering where I am and why I'm doing what I'm doing.
Gris is beautiful. If you want a gorgeous game, you'll want to play this one.
The game is built to be more of a journey than a challenging adventure. The platforming is a bit floaty and fun to traverse around as you gain new abilities. However, the navigation can be tough at times as you're platforming around large areas trying to find little white glowing balls without any kind of map and you may find yourself wondering where to go next or how to get up to to the glowy collectibles.
That's part of the challenge of the game obviously, trying to figure out how to reach your destination, but a few times I did found myself trying to figure out a certain area for much longer than it felt I should really be there.
However, the true issue for me is the story. While I've read that others were moved by it, even some to tears, I really didn't feel anything in this game. I have cried playing other games but this one just didn't hit me. I got to the end, said "Wow, that was an awesome cutscene, what amazing art!" and then finished it and that was all. I think it's just too abstract for me to understand or care maybe? I'm not sure.
Decent game for sure, just expect to lost or confused a bit and maybe don't expect much of a story in this one.
Gris is beautiful. If you want a gorgeous game, you'll want to play this one.
The game is built to be more of a journey than a challenging adventure. The platforming is a bit floaty and fun to traverse around as you gain new abilities. However, the navigation can be tough at times as you're platforming around large areas trying to find little white glowing balls without any kind of map and you may find yourself wondering where to go next or how to get up to to the glowy collectibles.
That's part of the challenge of the game obviously, trying to figure out how to reach your destination, but a few times I did found myself trying to figure out a certain area for much longer than it felt I should really be there.
However, the true issue for me is the story. While I've read that others were moved by it, even some to tears, I really didn't feel anything in this game. I have cried playing other games but this one just didn't hit me. I got to the end, said "Wow, that was an awesome cutscene, what amazing art!" and then finished it and that was all. I think it's just too abstract for me to understand or care maybe? I'm not sure.
Decent game for sure, just expect to lost or confused a bit and maybe don't expect much of a story in this one.
2021
I started this game back when it was first put on game pass and restarted it again recently because it's leaving game pass but it really didn't click with me. It seems cute but it starts really slow and the combat was not enjoyable, so I'm shelving this one.
2023
I started this one but it didn't do much for me. It's a 2d platformer with combat, resource gathering and crafting. Shelved it because the gameplay just wasn't clicking with me and I found it a bit boring.
2023
This game ran hot and cold for me. While the art style is really cool, certain gameplay elements are fun and some of the story beats are relatable, the overall the game has some janky pieces and the story is confusing and I'm not quite sure what the game was trying to say at the end.
I guess, as an indie game, you can interpret it however you'd like, but I would've liked it to be a bit more clear about what exactly it was getting at or trying to leave you with. Also, for every fun or inventive little gameplay piece in the game, there is another that feels strange and janky.
However, if you're just trying to find a little experience for an afternoon, a kind of palette cleanser, you could do much worse than this.
I guess, as an indie game, you can interpret it however you'd like, but I would've liked it to be a bit more clear about what exactly it was getting at or trying to leave you with. Also, for every fun or inventive little gameplay piece in the game, there is another that feels strange and janky.
However, if you're just trying to find a little experience for an afternoon, a kind of palette cleanser, you could do much worse than this.