An impressive modern take on the classic Build games of yonder; of course, the game advertises itself as being made on the classic engine too. I Was impressed with how far they took the old game code pile. Maybe my only issues were a slightly small weapon arsenal and honestly too many secrets. Like there are actually so many secrets I just had to accept that I'd find what I did and be fine with a low percentage. Otherwise, I got everything I expected out of it, in a good way, an easy classic FPS recommend.

First the major negative for me, character writing is pretty cringe. A little too much "badass-humor" and tropey cliches for me. And the main antagonist AI is basically a much weaker written Shodan.

Thankfully this is a movement shooter so the writing isn't the important part, the movement and shooting is. The game passes these categories with flying colors.
For movement options, you've got double jumping, dashing, grapple hand, wall-running, and the crown jewel; chainsaw slide. The slide easily being the biggest innovation despite how simple the idea of a damaging slide attack is. But if you spec your traits around it, it becomes both one of the strongest weapons in your arsenal and an ammo replenishing/healing maneuver.
For shooting, the entire arsenal of weapons is both satisfying to use and comes with a series of upgrades. From my own personal play experience, I found myself cycling through each of the weapons throughout the entire duration of the game. Many are given specific advantages over some enemies, a great design choice for making everything feel like it has a use. And even though weapons are paired up and share ammo types, I still found the balance between using them both well thought out too.
The story, while I have my gripes with the dialogue, still leads the player into some great set pieces and successfully amps up the scale with each episode.
Overall, game proved to be an enjoyable movement shooter, and an impressive feat for such a small development team.

El Paso, Elsewhere is a third-person dungeon-crawling shooter featuring a vampire hunter that chased his ex-girlfriend (who happens to be a vampire) into a void. The game's style, story, and characters are the absolute highlights and were able to carry me to the end. A gripping story of love, trauma, and the scars left behind. James as a character was especially great. The snippets of him reflecting in the elevator between levels were a great reward pairing nicely with the rather short in-and-out level design. Watching him slowly grow more restless the longer he spends in the void and seeing him forced to face the trauma of his past was fantastic stuff. The surreal aesthetic that the void conjures works well with the experience. Additionally, the gunplay is fun, with the slow-mo ability and head-shot damage doing a lot of heavy lifting in creating a satisfying loop.
My personal biggest issue with this game is the enemy variety and environments. The enemies that were there were solid, but there just wasn't enough variety for the length of the game. Shooting the same werewolves and shambling vampires gets pretty dull by the end. While I generally enjoyed the level design itself, the environments leaned heavily on reusing assets. While the reuse is explained and justified story-wise, it results in a rather large number of levels being visually indistinguishable from one another. That coupled with a lack of verticality in level design made many levels play out very similarly. Either rescue civilians or find the colored keys to progress. I think both of these issues would have had less impact if the game itself was tightened up in length. As much as I loved the story, the levels just didn't always do it for me and I was forcing myself to finish by the end.

Overall, this was a good time and the game's story and style charmed me. Just need some more variety and a tightened experience.

The gunplay in this was great! Everything felt smooth and satisfying. The only issue was the cloak ability felt useless 95% of the time and didn't feel designed for the frenzy of combat. The campaign had its moments, with some levels diving into cool horror adjacent scenarios (and a particular highlight in a backrooms-inspired level). However, it suffers from lackluster writing and some level design slumps. The story mostly just serves as a frame to fit the combat scenarios, which is fine. The price seems a bit steep for the overall experience imo, but this would be a great sale grab. Had more than enough action to satisfy.

Theres heaps of literally feces, a pissing mechanic à la postal, and dildos that can be shoved up egg's rectum. Yet for as crude as this game is, this is in actuality a lovingly crafted, creative and well-play-tested game. Similar to Cruelty Squad, this game purposefully mutilates your eyes with a pungent seemingly "bad" artsyle. Obviously, this is a deliberate choice and one that succeeds at creating a grunge gross-out tone with a childish edge. The gameplay is perhaps even more impressive as it strikes a seesaw balance of janky and visually odd-looking mechanics that feel functional and fun. It was no doubt refined by a solid play-testing effort looking at the credits. The level and set pieces are equal parts creative and fun; each level felt like it had something unique and fun to show me. Wild that a game so obsessed with shit impressed me this much.

The more Cosmo D games I play, the more they enchant me. It's like experiencing an interactive series of vignettes, each with an associated rhythm. Everything is lathered in an overtly cartoony surrealism that helps create a fantastical environment. Yet this is all juxtaposed with the often mundane and rather realistic dialog of the characters. And despite everything being vignette-esque, there's always a core objective and history that wraps the whole experience together. Very cool, very weird, please keep making more experiences Cosmo D!

Automaton Lung is a hidden Gem in the purest form. One of the last games to ever be released on the Nintendo 3DS. Ported to Steam, people will be able to find and play it for years to come, but the original and intended way to play it is ended by a corporate decision. The game directly reflects Ideas of life support keeping an empty and desolate world alive, a theme that crosses over with the actual reality of its existence on the 3DS in such a unique way. For me, this was an absolute treat of a game and one that I won't be forgetting soon.

As far as recommending this goes, it reminded me of yume nikki, Ratboy Genius, and Hylics. So if that tickles your taste and you like the idea of exploring alien landscapes backed by an excellent soundtrack, with some slight jank, highly recommend this.

Despite taking plenty of obvious influence from media that came before, Signalis stands strong as its own accomplished piece of art. The game design, especially the puzzles, is masterclass. I never once rolled my eyes at an obtuse puzzle or zone in the game. Everything was refined down into an amazingly paced and tightly knit experience. The combat was very RE1, careful resource management is a must. The Aesthetics are incredible. The UI, cut scenes, first-person flashbacks, all of it blends into a rich and stylized personality. The story and world are intriguing, mysterious, and surreal. Info is shared, and you can piece together things but abstract storytelling leaves a lot up to interpretation. Legitimately, my only issue is that I wanted more. An absolute must-play survival horror, deserves all the praise it's getting and then some.

This is some of the most intense and focused art direction in any game I've ever experienced. Every texture, model, and particle is presented in a picturesque beauty that persists from start to finish. For some, this may not justify the price tag, but in all reality, the devs have more than earned this amount for the sheer artistry of the visuals alone.

In regards to the story, Scorn chooses the path of experimentation and restraint. Narrative in no way needs to be restricted to clear and explainable story beats. The perverted actions you take in this world, fumbling your way through ancient alien technology help paint a society of collapsed beings. A world in which humanity strayed so far in pursuit of godhood that it became parasitic. Like all great pieces of surreal/experimental art, you get what you put into the story.

The gameplay is more than adequate at delivering the intended experience. Gun-play is slow and requires putting yourself at risk to steady a shot. The puzzles, while at times a lil overtly gamey, often blend in with the environments in a diegetic way. The animations are gross and fleshy and sell the weight of your actions.

Scorn is evidently not for everyone. Many went in expecting a certain kind of game but were instead met with a team's specific vision. Its sad when people are unable to appreciate the intent behind a piece of work, but thankfully many still have. Scorn is a one-of-a-kind experience, with the closest thing being the art behind its influence. It will no doubt be remembered for its unrelenting commitment to somber images of metal and flesh.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to having fun with this game at times, but ultimately something about it always felt flat to me. Maybe it's the moba-style ability system, the rounded feeling edges of the collision boxes, or the nerfing away of certain comps and strategies. Or maybe it's the total sum of all these small design decisions that leave me with this feeling. I think this game represents what happens when a developer decides to corral playstyles. I think it's an ok game that could have been better.