After playing a few hours of Get to the Orange Door and completing a run (at least with the 2/3 of a run currently available) I thought to myself "this feels great already and I'm excited to see what they'll add through the rest of Early Access and in the full release".

Only GTTOD has been in Early Access for almost five years now, and the next update will be the full release version of the game.

It's such a shame because at its core, there's a great experience in GTTOD. It's got that fast-paced fluid movement that I absolutely adore in shooters, its weapons feel great and accurately impactful, its striking neon visuals are pleasing to the eye, and its music (especially in the latter part of the experience) is great. It's everything that surrounds that that's half-baked.

GTTOD's runs suffer from a lack of variety that quickly causes its enjoyment to dry up. It has a simple formula of visiting two expansive locations, following that up with a boss, rinse and repeat. Side objectives are the same small handful though, and once you've visited them on your first and second run, you may as well have visited them all. This isn't helped by a small selection of perks and curses, with many of these having niche applications. The only other side path leads to a "build a bang" machine, which is only worth visiting once in a while. Thankfully the weapon selection doesn't suffer from the same fate, though how you get these weapons certainly can.

The game also suffers from not understanding when the player needs to be reigned in and have their power level tested. My final run before writing this review saw me complete two loops consecutively while only rarely taking a scratch. It was only once I got a curse that essentially made me a one-hit kill that the run was finally ended. It's fun at first since it's like you're on a power trip but quickly dulls when any sense of challenge is removed.

The icing on the cake is how much of the hub is locked behind roguelite progression that makes it almost useless to explore for the first little while. Once you get enough Jade Vines to level some of your stats (furthering that power trip, may I add) it does have a little more use, but not much.

It's a weird dichotomy since on one hand, GTTOD feels like the type of game that fits the fast-paced roguelike first-person shooter genre like a glove, yet feels like much of the roguelike aspects are tacked on. As a result, it's comfortably in that pile of roguelikes that you have fun with for a couple of hours, but ultimately drop once the initial enjoyment fades. I might spend a bit more time with it, especially once it heads into the full release, but I'm less than optimistic one update is going to fix many of the game's glaring flaws.

P.S. I would normally withhold a score till I play the full release, but given how close we are, I'm attaching the 3/5 stars for now. If in a shocking twist the game is drastically different in one update, I'll modify my score accordingly.

I was genuinely surprised by just how much I enjoyed Treasure Trove, having never touched the Shovel Knight franchise before. I'm not super big on 2D platformers yet I found myself consistently returning to beat a couple more levels.

The biggest reason for my enjoyment easily comes with how unique the whole package is. Each of the four games included is quite unique in how their main character performs, with Plague Knight in Plague of Shadows being a particular highlight. You have to retool how you approach each experience, and it's ironically better for it.

Even beyond the broader freshness, each level in each of the four games feels distinct, with unique soundtracks, varied enemies, and tons of different environmental hazards to navigate. It makes each game quite memorable, even when the fourth game, King of Cards, splits single locations into multiple levels.

It's all wrapped in this labor of love that shows just how much Yacht Club cared about their brainchild. The humor is spot-on, the music is full of bangers, and the visuals all feel distinct and pleasing. It oozes passion, making it almost hard to put down.

However, there is one thing holding the package back, being the inconsistencies across each experience. Shovel of Hope is great on its own, but pales in uniqueness to the rest of the package. Plague of Shadows reuses levels and makes them a touch tiring (something remedied by the final two games). Specter of Torment feels piss easy thanks to overloading you with powerful abilities and moves, and King of Cards often feels like a challenge mode that I wasn't asking for. I also didn't love Joustous, but I attribute that more to me not adoring card games online than any issue with the card game itself.

However, each inversely came with strengths over the others. Shovel of Hope makes for a great introduction for its simplicity. Plague of Shadows has the most diverse equipment loadout in the entire collection, Specter of Torment has the most fluid movement, and King of Cards has the best humor.

If you're a fan of 2D platformers or can at least tolerate it, there's a ton to love in Treasure Trove. Its got over 20 hours of content for main story completers like me to explore, and hundreds more hours for completionists. It's a package brimming with content and passion, and one I don't regret playing through fully. I'm almost surprised only 5% of people finished up to the last game, at least on Steam.

Like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the first 10 hours of XCOM 2 were brutal. I had barely anything to work with, a constant barrage of problems to solve, and soldiers that died left and right. It was a real power struggle, and one that made me frustrated quite consistently. Unlike EU though, once I was over that hurdle, it wasn't entirely a walk in the park from then on out. Still easier, sure, but it maintained a stable level of challenge that didn't extinguish even going into the finale.

XCOM 2 continues the series tradition of balancing that fine line between accessibility and complexity, while adding plenty more mechanics in to further deepen strategy. New tools have been brought in to alleviate some of Enemy Unknown's problems. One big example of this is through methods of scanning ahead for targets, which fixes the major issue of feeling like you've screwed yourself because you moved one of your units slightly too early. There's also more depth to each character, with various attachments to lightly buff their weapons, installable upgrades, and more.

Speaking on characters, the personality that made Enemy Unknown as good as it is has received far more attention with tons more ways to customize your character. You can even write backstories for them if you're really into it. Combined with what I hear is more interactivity between units in War of the Chosen, and it's a storyteller's dream. I made many of my friends in the game and it was fun seeing some survive, while others saw their stories brought to a sad end (including one on the final mission).

All of this is combined with some heavily increased variety which was sorely needed. Missions are much more diverse (I can count the amount of repeated missions I ran on one hand), enemies are more numerous and unique both in design and in challenges they present, and surprises are far more plentiful.

These aren't even touching on some of the minor improvements. You can load a past save while the enemy is still taking their turn (thank god), more diverse equipment can be researched, the base building mechanics have been tightened up, the geoscape is far more interesting. The list goes on.

The only issue I can genuinely hold against this game is the time some turns and actions can take. It isn't obnoxious, but I've had moments where enemy turns can feel like they take way longer than they need to, even with some unnecessary pauses. I can forgive it given everything the game does right, and a mod can easily fix it, but it's still an issue.

Even with that, I don't see any reason to give this game any lower than a 10, and I didn't even play the beloved WotC expansion yet. This is a masterpiece that builds upon the first game's foundations while adding its own flavor on previous mechanics, helping it feel refreshing even after recently playing XCOM EU. It's easy to see why the game has received such endless praise, and it's one I very much plan to revisit down the line with WotC enabled this time. If you're on the fence about turn-based games or simply want one of the best experiences in the genre, this is it.