huntervallot
2023
The climbing system is great, but it feels wasted in a game where you follow a linear path and can’t really fall.
2022
I loved this take on snowboarding controls. Once you get over the initial learning curve it feels way better than Steep and Riders Republic.
The rest gets kind of repetitive and there some jankyness (I repeatedly reset missions at the wrong time and had to reset the whole game).
The rest gets kind of repetitive and there some jankyness (I repeatedly reset missions at the wrong time and had to reset the whole game).
2022
This game looks amazing and delivers exactly what it promises. It's surprisingly difficult to just roll credits since it requires getting a lot of the level objectives to progress. Much longer and I think it would overstay its welcome, by the end it's just the same elements slightly re-arranged.
2022
The first couple of hours of this game are amazing. When you're first expanding the clips it feels like an investigation. "Who is this? Let me click on him, oh cool, another clip with him." The effect of jumping between the old and newer-feeling clips is also neat. It eventually starts to fall apart though, you keep looping through clips you've seen and the most effective strategy is selecting the boards at the start and end of each scene. It also isn't clear how much you should be engaging in the content of the three movies and those scenes can become tedious to watch.
I started playing on PC and jumped to Xbox which was the right call, this game is far better with a TV and controller.
Very slight spoilers that wouldn't have bothered me below.
After 7+ hours I felt like I was done and googled around to figure out if credits roll. Apparently they do, but nobody knows what causes it. There are a finite number of secret scenes to find and I had already found and bookmarked all of them. Apparently some people get credits 2 hours in and are confused. I think that system is just broken.
I started playing on PC and jumped to Xbox which was the right call, this game is far better with a TV and controller.
Very slight spoilers that wouldn't have bothered me below.
After 7+ hours I felt like I was done and googled around to figure out if credits roll. Apparently they do, but nobody knows what causes it. There are a finite number of secret scenes to find and I had already found and bookmarked all of them. Apparently some people get credits 2 hours in and are confused. I think that system is just broken.
2022
It's lots of fun at the start when you're sneaking away from the laundry stuff to play brief sessions of games and you're quickly unlocking new things. It becomes a slog when you've completed most of the game achievements and the remaining ones just require you to put hours into the games.
I reached what feels like the natural end of the game, but credits didn't roll. I guess it wants you to stick around and unlock the last few arcade games, but I don't feel compelled to do that.
I reached what feels like the natural end of the game, but credits didn't roll. I guess it wants you to stick around and unlock the last few arcade games, but I don't feel compelled to do that.
2022
I initially bounced off this game after ~2 hours because what I expected to be the core roguelike piece didn't grab me. After seeing more reviews I came back to it and ended up really enjoying it. Neither element of the game could stand on its own, but together they're pretty fun.
A very leisurely playthrough took me 13 hours which felt about right for what the game is.
A very leisurely playthrough took me 13 hours which felt about right for what the game is.
2021
Some of the movement feels great once you get the hang of it. Some of the levels really drag though.
2018
Loved basically all of this. My only real complaint was having to replay some levels over and over and some really cheap deaths toward the end of a few levels. Then I was stuck on the penultimate level, googled around, and learned that you can save mid-level. Use that feature on your first play through for sure.
The howlongtobeat for this says 7.5 hours or 16 hours for a completionist run. It took me 15 for a straightforward one. I'm bad at games generally, but I think a lot of it was my accidental "no saves challenge run."
The howlongtobeat for this says 7.5 hours or 16 hours for a completionist run. It took me 15 for a straightforward one. I'm bad at games generally, but I think a lot of it was my accidental "no saves challenge run."
2016
Had fun overall, but dropped after too many attempts on the last boss
2013
5 stars not because it's perfect, but because it offers such a novel take on what a game can be. I think it does have some pacing issues in places and it's not something I'll recommend to anyone I know, but I loved it.
It functions like an adventure game without puzzles, but the experience is much closer to reading a novel. So much so that at times it feels unclear why it's an interactive experience at all, but that's also called out in places and thematically tied to the story. The gist of it and its primary thematic content is pretty easy to grasp (I think many reviewers oversell how inscrutable it is), but it absolutely points you towards some deeper thinking with details like the character names.
If you have any interest in the future of games as an art form it's a must play. I think most people should try the first act and only proceed if that grabs them.
It functions like an adventure game without puzzles, but the experience is much closer to reading a novel. So much so that at times it feels unclear why it's an interactive experience at all, but that's also called out in places and thematically tied to the story. The gist of it and its primary thematic content is pretty easy to grasp (I think many reviewers oversell how inscrutable it is), but it absolutely points you towards some deeper thinking with details like the character names.
If you have any interest in the future of games as an art form it's a must play. I think most people should try the first act and only proceed if that grabs them.
2019
This game perfectly executes on what it sets out to do. It's hard to imagine someone not enjoying it.
2021
I feel like after the IGN 10/10 there was a lot of negative stuff about this game as a sort of backlash. It's certainly not a perfect game, but it's well worth playing if you have a PS5.
All the choices at the beginning seem overwhelming, but in a lot of cases I think a few objectively "correct" choices narrow things down (like how do you play without equipping double jump?). By the end I landed on a single setup that felt good for every mission.
It took me 13 hours which seems about right. I got to the end game run right when things started to feel repetitive.
All the choices at the beginning seem overwhelming, but in a lot of cases I think a few objectively "correct" choices narrow things down (like how do you play without equipping double jump?). By the end I landed on a single setup that felt good for every mission.
It took me 13 hours which seems about right. I got to the end game run right when things started to feel repetitive.
2021
This review contains spoilers
I'm a bit baffled by how well-reviewed this game is. The first act is great, everything about it works. The atmosphere is cool, creating the cards after you die is a great way to keep stay engaged when it's clear you won't win a run, and the puzzle room stuff works to break things up. When I got to the end of that act and it was clear everything would change I was excited to see what came next.
Then after that it's just... not very good at all. I would say act 2 is straight up bad. The mechanical changes are complicated without being very exciting and the puzzles just seem designed to pad the length. Act 3 is better, but it's still just a worse version of act 1.
During all this it feels like it's trying to say something about game design or the act of making games. I kept expecting some reveal that would make some thesis clear, but that just never comes. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really think that's the case. It just feels like the work of someone who thinks making something "meta" makes it interesting.
All of this is disappointing after such a strong start. I'm seeing a playtime of 11.5 hours and I think at least half of that was spent just waiting for it to get good again. It feels like there's probably a short 1-2 sitting length game in here that's really fun.
Then after that it's just... not very good at all. I would say act 2 is straight up bad. The mechanical changes are complicated without being very exciting and the puzzles just seem designed to pad the length. Act 3 is better, but it's still just a worse version of act 1.
During all this it feels like it's trying to say something about game design or the act of making games. I kept expecting some reveal that would make some thesis clear, but that just never comes. Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't really think that's the case. It just feels like the work of someone who thinks making something "meta" makes it interesting.
All of this is disappointing after such a strong start. I'm seeing a playtime of 11.5 hours and I think at least half of that was spent just waiting for it to get good again. It feels like there's probably a short 1-2 sitting length game in here that's really fun.
2019
I tend to be bad at puzzle games so it's no surprise that towards the end I got a bit stuck. Otherwise it was basically a perfect experience.