stevenz
2021
Been playing off and on since release. Kind of a restrained attempt to reform civ. I like the respect for independent people, the fame system, the UI, and the cultural mixing.
Ultimately changing your identity completely every era kind of sucks, and you have to go from story-making to treating it like a board game to get over it. It's liberal and not even close to absolving 4X as a genre. Very fun though, with great AI.
Ultimately changing your identity completely every era kind of sucks, and you have to go from story-making to treating it like a board game to get over it. It's liberal and not even close to absolving 4X as a genre. Very fun though, with great AI.
2023
Very expressive game, someone made it for themselves and it shows. I hate the walljump and the music doesn't work for me.
2006
PS360-ass game, very cool. Playing as a merc for evil corpos is great storytelling.
Eye-rollingly dumb, nothing dramatic happens and the "slow burn" is 100% padding. I hate the story. The world is very pretty and worth walking around in.
2023
Wish I could play this consistently but I'm not quite built for it. Cammy rules. Always fun.
2023
Pixel 3D is a great idea but it's too shiny, a great example of mindlessly utilizing PBR techniques. Ends up being very ugly, and very clunky. It's fun but I've played all the better imsims and it's not doing much for me.
I wanted to like this game but I couldn't figure out why I didn't until the next one. I think the systems are very intelligently designed and I love the color work, but ultimately the story is terrible and the world is artificial and boring.
Gets worse the more I reflect on it, a total waste of time. Some even more brilliant system designs are thought up for this sequel and completely overcrowd the already topologically boring world. Feels like chores within chores. Nintendo is great at making toys and horrible at making natural environments.
The developer had lots of horrible work allegations and laid most of the studio off after release.
Palettes and shapes come out strong without any PBR mucking it up. Lots of interesting foliage and architecture and topology to take photos of.
The writing is dense and sentimental, with very resonant ponderings on the good and the bad of inevitably fading memories.
It's a game thatj takes a lot of energy to play. I would like to finish it, but I probably won't. The area I'm in is very large and overwhelming, and the total story isn't very urgent. Some things have stuck with me since playing it and that's pretty good in my book.
Palettes and shapes come out strong without any PBR mucking it up. Lots of interesting foliage and architecture and topology to take photos of.
The writing is dense and sentimental, with very resonant ponderings on the good and the bad of inevitably fading memories.
It's a game thatj takes a lot of energy to play. I would like to finish it, but I probably won't. The area I'm in is very large and overwhelming, and the total story isn't very urgent. Some things have stuck with me since playing it and that's pretty good in my book.
2023
One of the prettiest games I've ever played with the most nakedly amateur gameplay to it.
Colors and tech art are robust and sharp. Illustrations, UI, and unique 3D gel very well together.
Feels extremely underdeveloped; the game loops only feed into themselves and not any narrative or parallel mechanical variety. The story is non-existent after the tutorial area. The "eldrich" stuff is a basic spin on the same overplayed ideas in every other game.
Nauseatingly overhyped. Sold gangbusters. That terrifies me existentially.
Colors and tech art are robust and sharp. Illustrations, UI, and unique 3D gel very well together.
Feels extremely underdeveloped; the game loops only feed into themselves and not any narrative or parallel mechanical variety. The story is non-existent after the tutorial area. The "eldrich" stuff is a basic spin on the same overplayed ideas in every other game.
Nauseatingly overhyped. Sold gangbusters. That terrifies me existentially.
2021
Maligned as quirky, but actually a very personal and expressive game, steeped in ecological and cultural nuance that flat-out no other games have. Circle-strafing spiders and crawling through bogs is a goddamn lot of fun.
2021
Stopped playing after the stressful maze finished and there was another even more stressful maze.
2019
Sokpop bends colors into a beuatifully dreary forest. Pointlessly difficult and uninterestingly shallow.
2021
Good-ass narrative conceit gives way to pretty dumb and punishing roguelike dungeon crawler with no good level design. Played one very long run and I was relieved when I died and uninstalled.
2021
"I am a collection of thoughts that trickles in with the dawn and falls away at dusk..."
This LOOKS like a pretentious or saccharine game, but please, I beg you, play it. It's a narrated walking simulator with a psychedelic and existential story that speaks to anxiety about being conscious. No wry humor, surprisingly intimate. Deeply good.
This LOOKS like a pretentious or saccharine game, but please, I beg you, play it. It's a narrated walking simulator with a psychedelic and existential story that speaks to anxiety about being conscious. No wry humor, surprisingly intimate. Deeply good.