TitaniaLowe
119 reviews liked by TitaniaLowe
Hades
2018
This review contains spoilers
supergiant keeps making these stylish, gorgeous, slick games with lively characters and then the plot completely fucks the landing in the final act every single time.
hades's ending is so cheap and so opposed to everything it seems to be saying up until it's over that i genuinely have no clue what they were thinking. so family is the main theme, right? and it's this whole thing about how persephone genuinely prefers the underworld to the nightmare that is olympus? and everything we learn absolutely vindicates her? but then the conclusion to everything is "but you can't just walk away, they're family". there is also a secondary, very poorly thought out metaphor of family-as-blood, an idea that would have been found outdated and aggravating by many in the 19th century, never mind 21st.
it's fine if they wanna do greek mythology as funny sexy marvel guys with all the filth and discomfort and menace and casual cruelty swept to the side and only hinted at. it's not my preference, but i can accept it. but they can't even make up their minds if demeter is meant to be a genuinely terrifying entity who's gonna end all life on earth if she can't retain ownership of her daughter, or a funny asshole grandma you have to put up with at olympian christmas and ignore otherwise. (i guess everyone involved is a god, so ultimately they can just not give a shit about existing life on earth, but i'm also supposed to treat them as my funny quirky relatable buddies. can't have it both ways!)
super fun game otherwise but it's just a real pattern with supergiant writing: their themes overpromise and underdeliver. take it as a fun action roguelite and nothing more, and you won't be too disappointed.
hades's ending is so cheap and so opposed to everything it seems to be saying up until it's over that i genuinely have no clue what they were thinking. so family is the main theme, right? and it's this whole thing about how persephone genuinely prefers the underworld to the nightmare that is olympus? and everything we learn absolutely vindicates her? but then the conclusion to everything is "but you can't just walk away, they're family". there is also a secondary, very poorly thought out metaphor of family-as-blood, an idea that would have been found outdated and aggravating by many in the 19th century, never mind 21st.
it's fine if they wanna do greek mythology as funny sexy marvel guys with all the filth and discomfort and menace and casual cruelty swept to the side and only hinted at. it's not my preference, but i can accept it. but they can't even make up their minds if demeter is meant to be a genuinely terrifying entity who's gonna end all life on earth if she can't retain ownership of her daughter, or a funny asshole grandma you have to put up with at olympian christmas and ignore otherwise. (i guess everyone involved is a god, so ultimately they can just not give a shit about existing life on earth, but i'm also supposed to treat them as my funny quirky relatable buddies. can't have it both ways!)
super fun game otherwise but it's just a real pattern with supergiant writing: their themes overpromise and underdeliver. take it as a fun action roguelite and nothing more, and you won't be too disappointed.
jaws was never my thing and i don't like star wars
Balatro
2024
https://i.ibb.co/6vLDK1S/Screenshot-2024-02-26-at-12-44-02.png
not morally egregious per se but rather a depressing culmination of two centuries worth of design trickery and (d)evolving cultural/social tastes and otherwise exists as insipid casinocore autoplaying bullshit that leaves you feeling the same way as you did moments after blasting rope to that fucked up mmm ice cream so tasty thing you found in the middle of a reddit doomscroll. this game should come with a contractual agreement binding its devotees to never speak prejudicially about mobile games or musou or vampire survivors or people whose lives have been ruined by industrialised gambling practices. you seen that casinos have RFID wristbands now that let you re-ante by just waving your hand across the slots? goes great with the simulated day/night lighting and complementary alcoholic energy drinks. endless hours of fun! fuck the review man let's talk the end of the world in the comments below
not morally egregious per se but rather a depressing culmination of two centuries worth of design trickery and (d)evolving cultural/social tastes and otherwise exists as insipid casinocore autoplaying bullshit that leaves you feeling the same way as you did moments after blasting rope to that fucked up mmm ice cream so tasty thing you found in the middle of a reddit doomscroll. this game should come with a contractual agreement binding its devotees to never speak prejudicially about mobile games or musou or vampire survivors or people whose lives have been ruined by industrialised gambling practices. you seen that casinos have RFID wristbands now that let you re-ante by just waving your hand across the slots? goes great with the simulated day/night lighting and complementary alcoholic energy drinks. endless hours of fun! fuck the review man let's talk the end of the world in the comments below
I played this cause I grew up watching Alex Rochon and other countdown community people on youtube. It's mid but kinda charming because it's a time capsule of specific time in the internet. I wish there was a guide for this game cause some of the side quests are so vague and confusing i gave up on them like the gravestone quest.
The only reason you should play this is if you were someone who knew what the countdown community was or if you were a user of the Chaos Theater forums and you are nostalgic for those times.
The only reason you should play this is if you were someone who knew what the countdown community was or if you were a user of the Chaos Theater forums and you are nostalgic for those times.
Strawberry Cubes
2015
One Chance
2010
6 year old me when i found out the sun will explode in 5 billion years core
Finally, games will get the respect they deserve
Tunic
2022
STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR GAMES AS GIMMICK FIRST! GAMES ARE SYSTEMS, NOT PARTY TRICKS. THEY HAVE TO WORK WITH CONCERTED FORCE.
I'm so utterly exhausted with these indie teams thinking they've skirted the curve by coming up with a non-direct approach to game design because of their one tiny inversion to their genre's formula. Like, yes, it is better to put thought into your game's intellectual play, committing its expression to something expressively unique and utterable only within games - but if you design from an academic's abstract perspective first, as though your mechanics are the rosetta stone for dissecting why people gravitate towards any individual game, then you're sacrificing your art to the altar of skinner box games just the same as all the devs who sell out to work on live service trash. Games are play forward; the interaction is what translates the design to us, not the other way around. It is in transforming the play through nuance that the nuance sings - in Tunic, the combat being poorly implemented and simplistic does not shockingly transform when it becomes poorly implemented and complicated. The same with economy, the same with traversal, the same with puzzle design.
If you wouldn't want to to do it without the gimmick, then it isn't worth doing.
I'm so utterly exhausted with these indie teams thinking they've skirted the curve by coming up with a non-direct approach to game design because of their one tiny inversion to their genre's formula. Like, yes, it is better to put thought into your game's intellectual play, committing its expression to something expressively unique and utterable only within games - but if you design from an academic's abstract perspective first, as though your mechanics are the rosetta stone for dissecting why people gravitate towards any individual game, then you're sacrificing your art to the altar of skinner box games just the same as all the devs who sell out to work on live service trash. Games are play forward; the interaction is what translates the design to us, not the other way around. It is in transforming the play through nuance that the nuance sings - in Tunic, the combat being poorly implemented and simplistic does not shockingly transform when it becomes poorly implemented and complicated. The same with economy, the same with traversal, the same with puzzle design.
If you wouldn't want to to do it without the gimmick, then it isn't worth doing.
Trilby's Notes
2006
the final puzzle fully redeems the gimmicky text parser control scheme
Half-Life 2
2004
People will tell you this game is revolutionary but will never elaborate on it, and if they do they'll mention stuff Half Life 1 already did or some vague statements like "you had to be there".
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