TheYeti
BACKER
2020
I'm not convinced I'll ever get the Bugsnax theme out of my head...
Bugsnax is an incredibly odd game that ended up being a bit more fun and overall way different than what I was expecting. Yes the game game is about collecting Bugsnax,, but it's way more about the characters, relationships, and stories than I thought it to be. And boy does the story get weird.
The act of running around collecting Bugsnax in the beginning of the game is a little tedious, but it gets more interesting as you get further into the game and unlock more tools. You have to do a bit more problem solving to figure out how you can combine your tools and the environment to catch the Bugsnax.
Most of the reward from actually hunting the Bugsnax is just seeing all the different goofy designs. I also enjoyed customizing all the Grumpuses to make them look wacky.
The story ended up being more fun than I expected. By the end, I was invested in the lives of each Grumpus.
SUMMARY
+ Fun, but quite easy, puzzle-solving
+ Bugsnax designs were cute and made me want to catch them all
+ Great cast of characters that I ended up caring more about than I expected to
- Traps can be a bit finnicky, making catching Bugsnax occasionally frustrating
- Not sure how memorable this game will be beyond the catchy theme song and cute Bugsnax designs.
- Literally looks like a PS2 game.
Bugsnax is an incredibly odd game that ended up being a bit more fun and overall way different than what I was expecting. Yes the game game is about collecting Bugsnax,, but it's way more about the characters, relationships, and stories than I thought it to be. And boy does the story get weird.
The act of running around collecting Bugsnax in the beginning of the game is a little tedious, but it gets more interesting as you get further into the game and unlock more tools. You have to do a bit more problem solving to figure out how you can combine your tools and the environment to catch the Bugsnax.
Most of the reward from actually hunting the Bugsnax is just seeing all the different goofy designs. I also enjoyed customizing all the Grumpuses to make them look wacky.
The story ended up being more fun than I expected. By the end, I was invested in the lives of each Grumpus.
SUMMARY
+ Fun, but quite easy, puzzle-solving
+ Bugsnax designs were cute and made me want to catch them all
+ Great cast of characters that I ended up caring more about than I expected to
- Traps can be a bit finnicky, making catching Bugsnax occasionally frustrating
- Not sure how memorable this game will be beyond the catchy theme song and cute Bugsnax designs.
- Literally looks like a PS2 game.
Normalizes inclusivity and representation in a way I've never seen any video game do before...
Spider-man: Miles Morales is in some ways identical to its predecessor and in other ways miles (forgive the pun) ahead of any video game that's come before with regards to theme.
Mechanically, SM:MM is identical to the original Spider-man game. You may as well be playing DLC, to be honest. Same combat, same map, same collectible format. Throw in some new powers that make combat a bit more fun, and that's it. If you got fatigued on the original game, the short length of this one might be a blessing in disguise.
Where Spider-man: Miles Morales really separates itself from the original is story, character, and theme. This game has a ton of personality and it does a phenomenal job of having a cast of characters that would often be background characters or not even exist in other games.
Miles is African American / Puerto Rican, Miles's mother (Rio) is Puerto Rican, Ganke is Korean, Phin is African American and the entire support cast is diverse. Heck there's a side quest where Miles communicates with a deaf secondary character with ASL. Sure, it's only a minor part, but when have you ever seen that in big triple-A game before?
That's the normalization we need in video games. Not just indie studios doing this, but triple-A devs stepping up in a major way.
SUMMARY:
+ Normalizes inclusivity and diversity in video games
+ Great story, and phenomenal cast of characters
+ The game looks great and the performance is insane. Load times are basically nonexistent
+ The dialogue and added story for each collectible can help them feel a bit less like a chore.
- Mechanically no different from the original game. Leading to it sometimes feeling like more of the same.
- Same criticisms of original game namely that the open world elements and collectibles can feel a bit formulaic.
- Pretty short game overall. Hard to justify the $50 pricetag
Spider-man: Miles Morales is in some ways identical to its predecessor and in other ways miles (forgive the pun) ahead of any video game that's come before with regards to theme.
Mechanically, SM:MM is identical to the original Spider-man game. You may as well be playing DLC, to be honest. Same combat, same map, same collectible format. Throw in some new powers that make combat a bit more fun, and that's it. If you got fatigued on the original game, the short length of this one might be a blessing in disguise.
Where Spider-man: Miles Morales really separates itself from the original is story, character, and theme. This game has a ton of personality and it does a phenomenal job of having a cast of characters that would often be background characters or not even exist in other games.
Miles is African American / Puerto Rican, Miles's mother (Rio) is Puerto Rican, Ganke is Korean, Phin is African American and the entire support cast is diverse. Heck there's a side quest where Miles communicates with a deaf secondary character with ASL. Sure, it's only a minor part, but when have you ever seen that in big triple-A game before?
That's the normalization we need in video games. Not just indie studios doing this, but triple-A devs stepping up in a major way.
SUMMARY:
+ Normalizes inclusivity and diversity in video games
+ Great story, and phenomenal cast of characters
+ The game looks great and the performance is insane. Load times are basically nonexistent
+ The dialogue and added story for each collectible can help them feel a bit less like a chore.
- Mechanically no different from the original game. Leading to it sometimes feeling like more of the same.
- Same criticisms of original game namely that the open world elements and collectibles can feel a bit formulaic.
- Pretty short game overall. Hard to justify the $50 pricetag
2017
Supergiant Games made a cool fantasy sports game and then slapped it in the middle of a very long book...
I like stories, but I'm not generally a big reader. I do mostly autiobooks while doing other things. I don't typically have the patience for sitting down and reading. And boy howdy does Pyre have just a lot of reading in it. The game is basically 80% reading and then 20% playing fantasy basketball.
It's not that I didn't enjoy the story, it just ended up being way more interactive storybook than I was expecting. The characters and story they're telling are phenomenal. I was sucked into the world and cared deeply for every member of The Nightwings and their relationships with other characters in the world. Despite me growing restless with all the reading, I still made sure to have every single conversation with my crew that I could. I made team choices for matches depending on who I think would fit story-wise and would have good conversations with the opponents.
Despite the fact that gameplay takes a back seat to story, the actual gameplay of performing in the Rites was pretty fun. I was just insanely bad at it. Like so bad. I played on Normal difficulty just fine but tried going for the trophy where you have to play with all 12 modifiers on. Big mistake. Couldn't do it.
It goes without saying that, like all Supergiant Games joints, the art and music in this game is incredible. Gorgeous. I've also never seen a game where the credits song actually changes depending on how you played the game. So cool.
SUMMARY
+ Phenomenal art. Awesome character design.
+ Beautiful music.
+ Great story with interesting characters
+ Fun, challenging gameplay
- Most of your time spent in-game will be spent reading. It's a lot of reading with a splash of gameplay.
- AI challenge felt inconsistent. Sometimes way too hard, sometimes confusingly easy.
- UI feels designed for mouse and keyboard. Not great with a controller.
I like stories, but I'm not generally a big reader. I do mostly autiobooks while doing other things. I don't typically have the patience for sitting down and reading. And boy howdy does Pyre have just a lot of reading in it. The game is basically 80% reading and then 20% playing fantasy basketball.
It's not that I didn't enjoy the story, it just ended up being way more interactive storybook than I was expecting. The characters and story they're telling are phenomenal. I was sucked into the world and cared deeply for every member of The Nightwings and their relationships with other characters in the world. Despite me growing restless with all the reading, I still made sure to have every single conversation with my crew that I could. I made team choices for matches depending on who I think would fit story-wise and would have good conversations with the opponents.
Despite the fact that gameplay takes a back seat to story, the actual gameplay of performing in the Rites was pretty fun. I was just insanely bad at it. Like so bad. I played on Normal difficulty just fine but tried going for the trophy where you have to play with all 12 modifiers on. Big mistake. Couldn't do it.
It goes without saying that, like all Supergiant Games joints, the art and music in this game is incredible. Gorgeous. I've also never seen a game where the credits song actually changes depending on how you played the game. So cool.
SUMMARY
+ Phenomenal art. Awesome character design.
+ Beautiful music.
+ Great story with interesting characters
+ Fun, challenging gameplay
- Most of your time spent in-game will be spent reading. It's a lot of reading with a splash of gameplay.
- AI challenge felt inconsistent. Sometimes way too hard, sometimes confusingly easy.
- UI feels designed for mouse and keyboard. Not great with a controller.
2019
Great gameplay with a wild story...
The gameplay was as fun as I expected it to be but I did not imagine the story would be as bonkers as it was.
+ Fun/satisfying gameplay
+ A story that was more intriguing and wild than I expected it to be
+ Stellar soundtrack that I'll be listening to for a while.
+ Great visuals
- Could be user error but sometimes the kills or targeting would be a bit off when multiple enemies would overlap.
- The stealth in the game ain't great. Could've done without it.
The gameplay was as fun as I expected it to be but I did not imagine the story would be as bonkers as it was.
+ Fun/satisfying gameplay
+ A story that was more intriguing and wild than I expected it to be
+ Stellar soundtrack that I'll be listening to for a while.
+ Great visuals
- Could be user error but sometimes the kills or targeting would be a bit off when multiple enemies would overlap.
- The stealth in the game ain't great. Could've done without it.
Single Player Campaign-only review.
"Remember this character and this planet?!" The Game...
I don't mean to be too reductive, but that's often what the campaign feels like. Honestly, as a Star Wars fan, it was pretty fun seeing all the heroes we know and love through the eyes of a new, great character. But it does often feel less like Iden's story and more like an excuse to bring us to familiar locations and play with characters we know and love.
As an added bonus - the whole story is canon. There are references to the new characters and events introduced in the game in others Star Wars media. Great for anyone who's into the Star Wars universe.
The gameplay itself is unfortunately mediocre. A third person shooter with no cover mechanic yet enemies you face pop in and out of cover. The enemy AI will often just bum-rush you making it sometimes hard to survive while your ally AI does literally nothing. It all just feels clumsy. They took the multiplayer system they had already built and applied that over the story. Makes you wonder how much better it would've been if it had been designed from the ground-up as a third person action-adventure shooter similar to Uncharted.
+ Fun, canon story set in the Star Wars universe. Great if you're a fan.
+ Visually quite impressive.
- The lack of a cover mechanic is a glaring omission. Mechanically, the campaign feels like an afterthought.
- The story feels like it exists purely to pander to fans and get you to play as familiar faces in familiar locations.
"Remember this character and this planet?!" The Game...
I don't mean to be too reductive, but that's often what the campaign feels like. Honestly, as a Star Wars fan, it was pretty fun seeing all the heroes we know and love through the eyes of a new, great character. But it does often feel less like Iden's story and more like an excuse to bring us to familiar locations and play with characters we know and love.
As an added bonus - the whole story is canon. There are references to the new characters and events introduced in the game in others Star Wars media. Great for anyone who's into the Star Wars universe.
The gameplay itself is unfortunately mediocre. A third person shooter with no cover mechanic yet enemies you face pop in and out of cover. The enemy AI will often just bum-rush you making it sometimes hard to survive while your ally AI does literally nothing. It all just feels clumsy. They took the multiplayer system they had already built and applied that over the story. Makes you wonder how much better it would've been if it had been designed from the ground-up as a third person action-adventure shooter similar to Uncharted.
+ Fun, canon story set in the Star Wars universe. Great if you're a fan.
+ Visually quite impressive.
- The lack of a cover mechanic is a glaring omission. Mechanically, the campaign feels like an afterthought.
- The story feels like it exists purely to pander to fans and get you to play as familiar faces in familiar locations.
2020
A lighthearted rogue-lite set in a colorful workplace environment with goofy characters and solid gameplay.
I don't play a ton of rogue-likes or rogue-lites, so I may not be the best judge of quality but I truly think Going Under is worth checking out. It's charming as heck and really fun. It's got a bit of challenge as you get deeper into the game, but it never felt unfair. And if you do ever find it to be too difficult, they have great customizable difficulty options built into the game to make it easier!
I've worked at a couple different startups now and, honestly, they completely nail the often absurd startup world. Every character is fun and I enjoyed doing their little quests to gain perks I can take back into the dungeons with me.
Speaking of persistence, that's one thing I wish this game did more of. There are only two types of cross-run persistence in the game - relationships and items. You can work on relationships and then choose one set of perks for a run. And then you can buy items that get added to a large pool of items you might see during a run. So, to a degree, it's almost disadvantageous to buy more items because you're diluting the perk pool and lowering the chance that you might see some of your favorite upgrades. Wish there was a system in place to tailor the item pool a bit better.
Other than that, I had a great time with the game and definitely recommend folks check it out!
+ Great all-around style (visuals, music, atmosphere, etc.)
+ Fun characters and goofy story
+ Good gameplay with decent progression
+ Fantastic custom difficulty options to make the game easier if you want to get through it
- Wish there was a bit more persistence other than relationship perks and random items.
I don't play a ton of rogue-likes or rogue-lites, so I may not be the best judge of quality but I truly think Going Under is worth checking out. It's charming as heck and really fun. It's got a bit of challenge as you get deeper into the game, but it never felt unfair. And if you do ever find it to be too difficult, they have great customizable difficulty options built into the game to make it easier!
I've worked at a couple different startups now and, honestly, they completely nail the often absurd startup world. Every character is fun and I enjoyed doing their little quests to gain perks I can take back into the dungeons with me.
Speaking of persistence, that's one thing I wish this game did more of. There are only two types of cross-run persistence in the game - relationships and items. You can work on relationships and then choose one set of perks for a run. And then you can buy items that get added to a large pool of items you might see during a run. So, to a degree, it's almost disadvantageous to buy more items because you're diluting the perk pool and lowering the chance that you might see some of your favorite upgrades. Wish there was a system in place to tailor the item pool a bit better.
Other than that, I had a great time with the game and definitely recommend folks check it out!
+ Great all-around style (visuals, music, atmosphere, etc.)
+ Fun characters and goofy story
+ Good gameplay with decent progression
+ Fantastic custom difficulty options to make the game easier if you want to get through it
- Wish there was a bit more persistence other than relationship perks and random items.
2019
A disappointing, iterative sequel of one of my favorite games.
I sunk dozens and dozens of hours into Borderlands 2 between the base game and all the DLC. I adored that game. It's a game that got my wife and I into co-op gaming more. It's a game we used to keep in touch with friends from out of town.
The story was wacky and fun, the grind was satisfying.
Borderlands 3 is none of those things.
Borderlands 3 tries too hard.
Randy Pitchford walked into the writers room and cranked the "Borderlandz" nob up to 11. The story is boring, the jokes don't land, the villains are awful. Man I hated the story in this game.
One of the big differences between Borderlands 2 and 3 is the Borderlands 2 set the stage for looter shooters. It created a genre.
Games like Destiny came out and then perfected that genre. So for Borderlands 3 to come out and be a minor iteration on BL2 after games like Destiny is a wildly tone-deaf move. The game is boring, the shooting feels fine, the enemies are hard to see, the classes aren't interesting. The only saving grace of this game was how much fun we had playing it with our friends.... when the game worked.
We started playing the game at launch and it barely functioned. So we waited. We waited a year.
A year later, the game was still riddled with bugs and performance issues. They launched a next-gen version of the game that was still wildly buggy and had completely broken trophies.
I can't remember the last time I was this disappointed by a sequel to a beloved piece of media I love.
I sunk dozens and dozens of hours into Borderlands 2 between the base game and all the DLC. I adored that game. It's a game that got my wife and I into co-op gaming more. It's a game we used to keep in touch with friends from out of town.
The story was wacky and fun, the grind was satisfying.
Borderlands 3 is none of those things.
Borderlands 3 tries too hard.
Randy Pitchford walked into the writers room and cranked the "Borderlandz" nob up to 11. The story is boring, the jokes don't land, the villains are awful. Man I hated the story in this game.
One of the big differences between Borderlands 2 and 3 is the Borderlands 2 set the stage for looter shooters. It created a genre.
Games like Destiny came out and then perfected that genre. So for Borderlands 3 to come out and be a minor iteration on BL2 after games like Destiny is a wildly tone-deaf move. The game is boring, the shooting feels fine, the enemies are hard to see, the classes aren't interesting. The only saving grace of this game was how much fun we had playing it with our friends.... when the game worked.
We started playing the game at launch and it barely functioned. So we waited. We waited a year.
A year later, the game was still riddled with bugs and performance issues. They launched a next-gen version of the game that was still wildly buggy and had completely broken trophies.
I can't remember the last time I was this disappointed by a sequel to a beloved piece of media I love.
2019
As an engineer, my favorite kinds of puzzle games are the ones where you're presented with a set of tools or rules to follow and you then use those tools to figure out increasingly intricate puzzles. Games like The Witness or Portal 2.
Baba is You is literally the very opposite of that. In Baba is You, you quite literally have to break the game to beat the game. And that whole "how can I break this to beat it" was something I just couldn't get my mind around. Which is annoying, because this game is cool as heck. I wish it meshed with how my brain works a bit better, but the further I got into the game, the less I understood what I could or could not do.
Baba is You is literally the very opposite of that. In Baba is You, you quite literally have to break the game to beat the game. And that whole "how can I break this to beat it" was something I just couldn't get my mind around. Which is annoying, because this game is cool as heck. I wish it meshed with how my brain works a bit better, but the further I got into the game, the less I understood what I could or could not do.
2021
Dungeon crawler lite meets dating sim lite.
As a combination of both genres, it doesn't really go that in depth into either of them. It's a very basic dungeon crawler as well as a very basic dating sim, but honestly I really dug that.
I think if the dating sim elements were more in depth, I would've gotten burned out. And if the dungeon crawling were more intense I think it would've taken away from the dating sim. I really thought they did a good job balancing it.
One thing I really enjoyed is you could set boundaries and quickly make it clear that you're just friends with someone but still progress their relationship, go on all the "dates", and still see their ending. No need for multiple playthroughs to see everything.
The LGBTQIA+ representation in this game is awesome and I really wish more folks played this. It's a shame the "controversy" overshadowed the game's launch.
The villain in the game absolutely made my skin crawl which I guess is good? Mission accomplished?
My wife is playing this too and she thought it was funny to see me faced with things that she, as a woman, has to deal with regularly with respect to the antagonist.
My only real complaint is that with the characters being your weapons, sometimes your favorite weapon might not be your favorite person. The person I ended up dating was definitely not my favorite weapon. But the plus side of this is it forces you to rotate through and try every weapon and not just stick with one the whole time.
+ Great concept
+ Fun light dungeon crawling
+ Fun light dating sim with mostly cute characters
- Not a very deep game. both in terms of the characters and the writing.
- Only 2 dungeon types
- Your favorite weapon might not be your favorite romantic partner
As a combination of both genres, it doesn't really go that in depth into either of them. It's a very basic dungeon crawler as well as a very basic dating sim, but honestly I really dug that.
I think if the dating sim elements were more in depth, I would've gotten burned out. And if the dungeon crawling were more intense I think it would've taken away from the dating sim. I really thought they did a good job balancing it.
One thing I really enjoyed is you could set boundaries and quickly make it clear that you're just friends with someone but still progress their relationship, go on all the "dates", and still see their ending. No need for multiple playthroughs to see everything.
The LGBTQIA+ representation in this game is awesome and I really wish more folks played this. It's a shame the "controversy" overshadowed the game's launch.
The villain in the game absolutely made my skin crawl which I guess is good? Mission accomplished?
My wife is playing this too and she thought it was funny to see me faced with things that she, as a woman, has to deal with regularly with respect to the antagonist.
My only real complaint is that with the characters being your weapons, sometimes your favorite weapon might not be your favorite person. The person I ended up dating was definitely not my favorite weapon. But the plus side of this is it forces you to rotate through and try every weapon and not just stick with one the whole time.
+ Great concept
+ Fun light dungeon crawling
+ Fun light dating sim with mostly cute characters
- Not a very deep game. both in terms of the characters and the writing.
- Only 2 dungeon types
- Your favorite weapon might not be your favorite romantic partner
2020
I played this game back when it was in Beta in 2020.
All the comparisons to Valorant are a bit unfortunate as RoCo entered beta just a couple months after Valorant came out. So inevitably it lived in the game's shadow.
This was a really fun game for a bit until the player base dwindled to just the sweats and it got a bit too competitive to be fun. But before that, I had a real good time playing this with a fairly normal crew.
It's not perfect but it's still a pretty fun class-based shooter that they've been doing a decent job of supporting.
All the comparisons to Valorant are a bit unfortunate as RoCo entered beta just a couple months after Valorant came out. So inevitably it lived in the game's shadow.
This was a really fun game for a bit until the player base dwindled to just the sweats and it got a bit too competitive to be fun. But before that, I had a real good time playing this with a fairly normal crew.
It's not perfect but it's still a pretty fun class-based shooter that they've been doing a decent job of supporting.
2022
If someone put this game in front of me with no context, I'd assume it was a mobile port of some really bad obscure 1998 Dreamcast game that only released in Japan.
You know how Cats (2019) came out and everyone was like "Oh man. It's so bad you gotta go see it. It's terrible"
Air Twister is like that but for video games. The visuals, the menus with Papyrus font, the generally hideous UI, the weird Queen knock-off music. This game is absolutely bonkers. I cannot believe this is a new video game that came out in the year 2022.
+ The actual gameplay's not terrible
+ So bad it's funny so it's got at least a little entertainment value
- Hideous UI feat. Papyrus
- Run based gameplay gets repetitive quickly
- Bad art direction that doesn't suit the mobile graphics
You know how Cats (2019) came out and everyone was like "Oh man. It's so bad you gotta go see it. It's terrible"
Air Twister is like that but for video games. The visuals, the menus with Papyrus font, the generally hideous UI, the weird Queen knock-off music. This game is absolutely bonkers. I cannot believe this is a new video game that came out in the year 2022.
+ The actual gameplay's not terrible
+ So bad it's funny so it's got at least a little entertainment value
- Hideous UI feat. Papyrus
- Run based gameplay gets repetitive quickly
- Bad art direction that doesn't suit the mobile graphics
Whoever said this was a reinvention of the LEGO games was lying. This is identical to the old games but just... more. Much more. Way too much more.
Sure the combat is slightly improved as you can use a couple buttons to do combos instead of just one attack button, but you don't need to. You can still just mash attack and it'll have the same effect. Sure the shooting has been slightly improved but it is still by no means comparable to any actual shooter. Structurally and gameplay wise, this is the same LEGO video game they've been making for the last 15+ years.
Really it seems like they approached this game with one goal in mind - more. Just more. Levels? More. Boring boss fights? More. Playable characters? More. Collectibles? WAY MORE. There are a combined total of almost 2000 collectibles in this game - 1200 Kyber bricks, 380 unlockable characters, 119 unlockable ships, 225 minikits (across 45 levels), and 19 datacards. insane. Too much.
The only thing that really kept me going through all this was seeing all my favorite Star Wars moments again in LEGO from. It was cute and silly. I liked taking a little time between levels to explore a new recognizable Star Wars area made out of LEGO.
I'd recommend this game to kids and families playing together, or Star Wars fans looking for something cute, but don't expect anything much more than that.
+ Star Wars good
+ Fun to explore new areas
- Too long
- Too many collectibles
- Repetitive
Sure the combat is slightly improved as you can use a couple buttons to do combos instead of just one attack button, but you don't need to. You can still just mash attack and it'll have the same effect. Sure the shooting has been slightly improved but it is still by no means comparable to any actual shooter. Structurally and gameplay wise, this is the same LEGO video game they've been making for the last 15+ years.
Really it seems like they approached this game with one goal in mind - more. Just more. Levels? More. Boring boss fights? More. Playable characters? More. Collectibles? WAY MORE. There are a combined total of almost 2000 collectibles in this game - 1200 Kyber bricks, 380 unlockable characters, 119 unlockable ships, 225 minikits (across 45 levels), and 19 datacards. insane. Too much.
The only thing that really kept me going through all this was seeing all my favorite Star Wars moments again in LEGO from. It was cute and silly. I liked taking a little time between levels to explore a new recognizable Star Wars area made out of LEGO.
I'd recommend this game to kids and families playing together, or Star Wars fans looking for something cute, but don't expect anything much more than that.
+ Star Wars good
+ Fun to explore new areas
- Too long
- Too many collectibles
- Repetitive
2019
A cute game full to the brim with cat and dog puns.
My wife and I started playing this co-op on normal difficulty and let me tell you, the difficulty of this game on normal mode does not match the general tone of the game. It doesn't take much to kill you in this game which is surprising because the visuals and writing really makes it feel like a family game. The absolute biggest issue with the difficulty is deaths are pretty unforgiving. When you die you go back to the very beginning of the quest. Not great.
Annoyingly, you can't lower the difficulty after starting the game. Eventually I just reverted to playing it solo which was much easier as the AI-controlled companion has infinite health.
The gameplay itself is OK. World is big with lots to explore but the hacking and slashing got stale pretty quickly.
+ Cute
+ Silly puns (this could also be a con)
+ Good for families
- Difficulty in co-op doesn't match the cute tone
- Terrible checkpoints
- Shallow and repetitive
My wife and I started playing this co-op on normal difficulty and let me tell you, the difficulty of this game on normal mode does not match the general tone of the game. It doesn't take much to kill you in this game which is surprising because the visuals and writing really makes it feel like a family game. The absolute biggest issue with the difficulty is deaths are pretty unforgiving. When you die you go back to the very beginning of the quest. Not great.
Annoyingly, you can't lower the difficulty after starting the game. Eventually I just reverted to playing it solo which was much easier as the AI-controlled companion has infinite health.
The gameplay itself is OK. World is big with lots to explore but the hacking and slashing got stale pretty quickly.
+ Cute
+ Silly puns (this could also be a con)
+ Good for families
- Difficulty in co-op doesn't match the cute tone
- Terrible checkpoints
- Shallow and repetitive
2021
An interesting idea with poor execution and terrible progression.
How's this for a game pitch - the survival and crafting elements of Don't Starve, with the building of Fortnite, and the combat/loot of Diablo. Sounds like a rad game, huh?
Yeah too bad Tribes of Midgard botches literally every single one of those components. The "survival" aspect is dry, the building is barely functional, and the combat is clumsy at best.
The survival aspects of the game basically equate to having to keep a tree well-fed with energy while you survive nightly attacks from enemies that end up being more tedious than fun. And then every few nights a spongey giant will show up and absolutely wreck everything. The jump in difficulty from "you're killing these little guys" to "now this giant is walking through your base and oops it's game over" is wild.
But even if you can get past all that and you can somehow still enjoy the gameplay, the game itself gives you absolutely nothing to work toward beyond a single currency that lets you buy some frankly horrible cosmetics for your character.
Nothing to make your character play different, nothing to vary the runs, nothing to really change any aspect of the gameplay loop. What's more is if the giant kills you before you can race to the Bifrost to escape the realm, you don't get any of that cosmetic. You get nothing.
The game also has a Survival mode which thankfully lets your customize the run a bit by scaling the difficulties of various aspects of the game down to enemy spawns, tree health, etc. It's great. The problem is that Survival mode has zero objectives. You can't even get the cosmetic currency.
Not only that, but you strangely can't even fight any of the special bosses. So why even play this mode?
+ Interesting idea
- No meaningful progression
- Clumsy combat
- Terrible building
- Poor balance resulting in wild difficulty spikes
- Boring
How's this for a game pitch - the survival and crafting elements of Don't Starve, with the building of Fortnite, and the combat/loot of Diablo. Sounds like a rad game, huh?
Yeah too bad Tribes of Midgard botches literally every single one of those components. The "survival" aspect is dry, the building is barely functional, and the combat is clumsy at best.
The survival aspects of the game basically equate to having to keep a tree well-fed with energy while you survive nightly attacks from enemies that end up being more tedious than fun. And then every few nights a spongey giant will show up and absolutely wreck everything. The jump in difficulty from "you're killing these little guys" to "now this giant is walking through your base and oops it's game over" is wild.
But even if you can get past all that and you can somehow still enjoy the gameplay, the game itself gives you absolutely nothing to work toward beyond a single currency that lets you buy some frankly horrible cosmetics for your character.
Nothing to make your character play different, nothing to vary the runs, nothing to really change any aspect of the gameplay loop. What's more is if the giant kills you before you can race to the Bifrost to escape the realm, you don't get any of that cosmetic. You get nothing.
The game also has a Survival mode which thankfully lets your customize the run a bit by scaling the difficulties of various aspects of the game down to enemy spawns, tree health, etc. It's great. The problem is that Survival mode has zero objectives. You can't even get the cosmetic currency.
Not only that, but you strangely can't even fight any of the special bosses. So why even play this mode?
+ Interesting idea
- No meaningful progression
- Clumsy combat
- Terrible building
- Poor balance resulting in wild difficulty spikes
- Boring
One of the few games that perfectly splits the difference between classic and modern beat-em-up.
The combat, the movement, the multiplayer synergy. Everything in this game just feels so damn good. Beyond gameplay feel, the presentation of this game is perfect from the visuals to the soundtrack. This game is firing on all cylinders.
Personally, I find classic beat-em-ups to be too slow. Characters casually walk around the screen, no dodge roll, no aerial combat. So to me, games like Streets of Rage 4 that try to replicate classic feel without modernizing anything beyond the visuals don't work. But that's where games like Shredder's Revenge shine. Give me that classic vibe but with an actual modern update.
The only thing I really wish Shredder's Revenge did better was a more meaningful progression system. The leveling up in this game is kid of meaningless. You slowly progress through 10 levels, getting a couple more lives, health bars, and super charges along the way. In contrast, games like Scott Pilgrim and Castle Crashers do a good job of making you want to level up to increase speed, damage, etc.
Or look at something like River City Girls which starts you with a pretty basic moveset but lets you buy more moves throughout the game instead of just dumping 22 moves on you at once in a pretty bad tutorial you're forced to watch every time you boot the game up.
+ Crisp visuals with fantastic design
+ Killer soundtrack
+ Incredible gameplay
+ Great multiplayer
- Mediocre character progression
- Bad tutorial you're forced to watch every time you play the game
The combat, the movement, the multiplayer synergy. Everything in this game just feels so damn good. Beyond gameplay feel, the presentation of this game is perfect from the visuals to the soundtrack. This game is firing on all cylinders.
Personally, I find classic beat-em-ups to be too slow. Characters casually walk around the screen, no dodge roll, no aerial combat. So to me, games like Streets of Rage 4 that try to replicate classic feel without modernizing anything beyond the visuals don't work. But that's where games like Shredder's Revenge shine. Give me that classic vibe but with an actual modern update.
The only thing I really wish Shredder's Revenge did better was a more meaningful progression system. The leveling up in this game is kid of meaningless. You slowly progress through 10 levels, getting a couple more lives, health bars, and super charges along the way. In contrast, games like Scott Pilgrim and Castle Crashers do a good job of making you want to level up to increase speed, damage, etc.
Or look at something like River City Girls which starts you with a pretty basic moveset but lets you buy more moves throughout the game instead of just dumping 22 moves on you at once in a pretty bad tutorial you're forced to watch every time you boot the game up.
+ Crisp visuals with fantastic design
+ Killer soundtrack
+ Incredible gameplay
+ Great multiplayer
- Mediocre character progression
- Bad tutorial you're forced to watch every time you play the game