Reviews Rate the game you finished/retired

[Virtual Ruminant]

Finished I Am Dead (Hollow Ponds, Richard Hogg / Annapurna Interactive, 2019)

To be or not to be in Shelmerston.

Pro:

• Lovely music (including one original song), distinct picture-book-like artstyle that reminded me of Mutazione and a story with surprising emotional punch - I Am Dead is no doubt and by far the best hidden object game I've ever played.
• Four difficulty levels that co-exist side by side:
  There's the mandatory things you have to find in order to progress in the story and eventually make it to the end credits, those are the easiest.
  Then there's objects which are only given to you as a cross-section and you have to find and rotate and bisect them just right - but you get help with a hint that such an object is on the current screen and you get an acoustic indicator and controller rumble if you're close - those are a little harder.
  Then there's a bunch of objects you need to find to get a couple of achievements - those get pretty serious.
  And finally there's a list of objects to find which is itself hidden in an object - and once you find it, it turns out the list is given in the form of riddles. These are the trickiest and are unlocked only towards the end of the game.
• There is more to the setting than initially meets the eye - as I progressed through the different locations, I found that Shelmerston - and indeed, the world that Shelmerston exists in - is not quite what I expected and that really kept things interesting for me.

Con:

• More a word of warning than a complaint: Even though the mood of the game is generally uplifting and comfy - death, loss and memories of the departed are strong themes throughout the story - depending just on how strongly these resonate with you, this game might not be something you would want to pull up carelessly during lunch-break at work. It got to me a couple of times.

At the end of the day this is still a hidden object game, even though the promotional materials call it a "puzzle adventure" and I always feel that even the best hidden object games could easily be even better with another mechanic or two, so no top score - but I don't think it can get much better than this in this genre.


4/5

Previously reviewed in this thread [here].

 

[Ge0force]

Finished The Solitaire Conspiracy


Great puzzle game based on solitaire, flavored with a decent story with FMV and cards with special effects. Never had so much fun playing solitaire. very, very recommended!

Score: 8.9/10


Finished Chicken Police: Paint it Red


Decent detective game where you play a chicken named Sonny, who's investigating the threats of charming woman. All characters in the game are animals, which are created by combining pictures of real people and animals. The result is often very funny and looks great, even in black and white. The story is okay and there are lots of funny dialogs between the animals. There are a few minor flaws tho; I got stuck because I talked to my partner inside the hotel instead of outside, and a single puzzle requires to click an object that doesn't highlight. But I had lots of fun with this game and would definitely buy a sequel. recommended!

Score: 7.8/10


Finished Geometry Wars™ 3: Dimensions Evolved


Amazing twin-stick shooter with lovely neon graphics, a pumping soundtrack and plenty of game modes, levels and bosses. Also looks and plays great on the Steam Deck using the latest Proton Experimental. Only thing that pissed me off was the final boss, who kills you with a single hit and has way too many lengthy waves to keep trying to beat him. Very recommended for everything else, but we warned that the servers for multiplayer and leaderboards seem to be offline (at least on the Deck).

Score: 8.4/10

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Great art design and graphics, sorta interesting world. The game fails at the gameplay. The gameplay and movement is janky and feels "stiff" which is a problem as the game is fast-paced with lots of platforming and the gameplay and movement makes the platforming and traversal often frustrating. Combat is repetive despite the upgrades you can do (find money throughout the game and pay for upgrades) and enemies takes far too long to kill especially are the enemies with shield annoying. Level design is mostly the same everywhere with just different environmental skin. Story is pretty mediocre and felt the ending came very abrupt. The gameplay with the 3rd arm is cool and saves the game from becoming completely generic.

Despite of the negatives it's still a decent game (also long, like 8 hours), but it could have been much better.

Score: 7/10

 

[FunnyJay]

fantomena , you (and a few others in this thread) truly are a machine in how many games you finish! Kudos dear sir.

 

[fantomena]

fantomena , you (and a few others in this thread) truly are a machine in how many games you finish! Kudos dear sir.

Well right now it's summer vacation with nothing else to do atm, so why not.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Well right now it's summer vacation with nothing else to do atm, so why not.

Same, I had three weeks off ... but Monday it's back-to-work time

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Big downgrade from the main Sniper Ghost Warrior games which I actually kinda liked. Feels like the game was made by a team of 10-20 people, like a B-team while the A-team is making the actual Ghost Warrior games.

There's like 6 maps and each map has a set of main objectives you have to do to progress and a bunch of secondary objetives. The game is boring, repetive, enemy AI is annoying and the sniping itself is a bit frustrating. I also really hate for each main objective you do, you have to travel to a certian point on the map which can be far away, upload you main objective data in order to continue with the other main objectives, even if they are really close to each other, really made the game much longer than it neeed to be.

You get points for each main objectie and secondary you do which you can use for upgrades and buying new weapons and gadgets which you don't really use cause it's a sniping game, you mainly walk around and sniping your enemy.

Score: 6/10

 

[Paul]

I wonder, do you guys keep record of games you played, you finished, what you rated them?
I do it on a czech version of "gaming imdb", here is my list of finished games incl. average rating by users, and my rating:

Dohrané hry – Uživatel Paul – Databáze-her.cz

Nejnavštěvovanější česká databáze videoher. PC, hry, diskuze, hodnocení, komentáře, videa, zajímavosti...

www.databaze-her.cz

I wonder if you also record it and what tool you use for it if any.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

I wonder, do you guys keep record of games you played, you finished, what you rated them?
I do it on a czech version of "gaming imdb", here is my list of finished games incl. average rating by users, and my rating:

Dohrané hry – Uživatel Paul – Databáze-her.cz

Nejnavštěvovanější česká databáze videoher. PC, hry, diskuze, hodnocení, komentáře, videa, zajímavosti...

www.databaze-her.cz

I wonder if you also record it and what tool you use for it if any.

There's these threads: Addiction 2020 Addiction 2021 Addiction 2022 ... and I personally use my profile on How Long to Beat to track both my backlog and my finished games. I don't really bother with recording a rating other than in the posts here though.

Also:

Finished Minit (JW, Kitty, Jukio, Dom / Devolver Digital, 2018)

Goner in 60 Seconds.

Pro:

• Unusual presentation: 1-bit monochrome retro graphics, fakebit soundtrack - but actually quite nicely done and detailed ambient soundscapes (including localized sound sources - for example water noise of a stream gets louder / quiter if you come closer or run away from it).
• The typical Devolver-style gimmick: Right at the beginning of the game, the player character picks up a cursed sword, which causes death to inevitably occur at the end of a 60 second countdown. So all the exploring and puzzle-solving has to be done within a minute. This sounds like the map would necessarily be very small, but the game works around it by giving the player different unlockable start-points all over the map. Other than that it's a gameboy-style action-adventure.
• Replay value through New Game+ (which shortens the loop to 40 seconds!) and some missable/optional items. The 100% completion award is the ability to freely explore all of the game without a time limit.

Con:

• Quite short: Even though I got stuck a couple of times, my net play time to beat it was just 2 hours and 20 minutes.
• When you're getting stuck, the dying-after-a-minute mechanic gets really, REALLY annoying.

Previously reviewed in this thread [here].


3.5/5

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Great rhythm game in the vein of DJ Max, but with Avicii's songs as focus. Good gameplay, good design, good choice of songs, overall a pretty good rhythm game. If you are into rhythm games in general, I recommend it, if you are also into Avicii songs, the game is fantastic. Othervise, steer away. Some original songs and some remixes. 3 different difficulties you can choose between. There are a bunch of section of songs with different level environment in each section, you only need to complete 75% in each song to unlock the next section and there are 3-6 songs in each section, so unlocking more songs is no problem. I also really liked that if you unlock sections/sons on easy, they will also be unlocked in the other difficulties, so you don't have to play the same song in all 3 difficulties to unlock it all. Very good decision by the devs.

Ohervise, the game could have used some more gameplay variation despite the gameplay itself is good and maybe some other songs (less remixes).

Score: 8.4/10

Finished


After so many years I decided to finish off the game's light world (main world). It's a fun, but sometimes frustrating platformer, but never felt unfair. Was much easier this time around (quit many years ago because I found it very difficulty). My main negative is the floaty gameplay which made certain platform sections more difficulty than they needed to be.

Steam cloud also remembered my save from many years ago, so I didn't have to do the first chapter again. Very good to see Steam cloud working when I really need it to work.

Score: 8/10

 

[Ge0force]

There's these threads: Addiction 2022 ... and I personally use my profile on How Long to Beat to track both my backlog and my finished games. I don't really bother with recording a rating other than in the posts here though.

I'm using these as well. Howlongtobeat is far from perfect tho. I still haven't figured out how to add friends...

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Had a great time with it. Better than Man of Medan, but not as good as Until Dawn. Beautiful graphics, interesting and fascinating story. Sadly there are some unsolved mysteries in the game and the ending was in some ways a bit "meh" to me, but overall, I really enjoyed the game and had a good time with it.

Score: 8.2/10

 

[pinson]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

It was a fun ride. Scratched the metroidvania itch that comes from time to time pretty well.

Cons:

• It doesn't look very good. The animations are stiff and it feels like an upscaled 3DS game at times. I wish they would have used sprites instead of 2.5D models but I understand that it must have been cheaper that way.
• Moving around is a bit slow. Makes exploring the castle a pain sometimes.
• The last quarter of the game felt a bit rushed. The Den of Behemoths was especially boring.

Pros:

• It really feels like a classic Igavania. There's so much shit to farm and find and it feels good to do it.
• The castle map is for the most part well made.
• The spells in this game are bananas. It's hilarious when you start upgrading your arsenal and you end up wiping a whole screen of enemies with a single cast.

Overall, I had a good time!
Score: 3/5

 

[Mivey]

I retire Okami.

I know this game has a big fan following, and I kinda struggle to understand quite why. I don't think the game look all that great, and I mean that when comparing the look that it's going for. I'm a big fan of Asian ink painting, which was practised in different forms in many countries, though I think it originated from China. And Okami looks incredibly bad when you compare it against that style. I get that the old PS2 couldn't do better than this, but it's still a baffling choice to me. I often have a hard time understanding what is even happening on screen since the effects are so over the top and hard to parse.

The gameplay is just not very interesting. My biggest gripe and the reason I quit this game is the drawing mechanic. It's imprecise, and on the Deck I often had the problem that the game just "accepts" commands too early, causing you mess up. The very idea of having to hold a button while doing fast and complex moves on the Thumbstick is just complete idiocy. I would love to just use the touchscreen on the Deck for this. As it stands the game feels broken. It doesn't help that pretty much all aspects of the gameplay require drawing of some kind. Aside from the painting, the few levels I played through so far just aren't really fun either. There's no puzzles, just the game introducing a new mechanic and wanting you to perform it again.

And the story is just pretty generic, evil vs. good. Some elements of Shinto lore thrown in for good measure, but it doesn't feel like it's really exploring deep, interesting themes here. It's al very safe and child friendly, with a clear villain, a clear hero and lots of comedy relief.

I think I would have stuck with this, if it wasn't for the dumb drawing mechanic.

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Didn't like it as much as Little Hope due to Little Hope being more "contained" and focused on psychological horror, but still a good and enjoyable game about a group of soldiers that accidentally falls into a whole underground and discovers something horrific. Gameplay is the same, but felt it was less gameplay in this compared to Little Hope. Still, the story was interesting and so was the characters, but again, I got many unanswered questions, the devs could have developed it longer to answer some more questions.

Score: 8/10.

 

[Ge0force]

Finished Northend Tower Defense


This game is a nice variation on tower defense. You're protecting a base with your soldiers, which is being attacked from one or multiple sides. To do so, you have different types of units, with machine guns, sniper rifles, bazooka's etc. The area where you can place your units is limited, so there's some strategy required. Units also can be upgraded, by killing enough enemies you can choose between four suggested upgrades.

The game is still in early access, but I enjoyed what I've played so far. My biggest point of critique is that the game is very easy; I could beat 4 out of 5 maps from the very first time, without even unlocking every unit and their abilities. The price is very low and the devs are working hard to add new content, so it's definitely worth playing already.

Score (for now): 7.8/10

 

[MegaApple]

Finished My First Game of 2022

God of War Chains of Olympus

​

After getting a Vita, I thought of playing PSP games. Used to be obsessed with GoW franchise as kid, always wanted to play PSP ones.
Finished Chains of Olympus in about 3 sitting (3rd one being longer)

REVIEW -

• Great spectacle and technical achievement for its time, but its rough to play today.

• Enemy and encounter become repetitive, and fewer bosses than console games.
• Not-good pacing of story,

• Has one of the best QTE use ever, to tell a narrative. Happens at the climax, when Kratos has to pull his daughter away by mashing the O button

SCORE - 6.5/10

--------------------------

I really hope to play GoW III someday, one game I really want to play. Sad it's PS exclusive for now. Same with GoW2018, but the regional pricing is horrible for it

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

Finished Life is Strange: True Colors & Wavelengths (Deck Nine / Square Enix, 2021)

Almost 100 songs, but no Cyndi Lauper (?!)

Pro:

• The best presentation of any Life is Strange game yet, particularly on PC with maximum details. The visual richness is accompanied by a humongous soundtrack with dozens upon dozens of songs, pretty much all of them with lyrics. Some are originals commissioned from Angus & Julia Stone, some are licensed indie tracks, and yet others are licensed from music libraries (mainly the country & western fare that plays on the town's local radio station and fills the town bar jukebox).
• The writer of Life is Strange: Before the Storm returns as director in this game and that is felt in the writing in general: Very slice-of-Life, and for the most part believable dialogue, flawlessly delivered by a great voice-acting cast.
• The original Life is Strange formula returns: A lot of exploration and internal monologue that is triggered by interacting with the environment, a plethora of reading material in the shape of a written journal, and a phone filled with text messages from various NPCs as well as a social media app with yet more postings (and a dating app in Wavelenghts), dialogue with a lot of this-or-that choice branches, although, as in previous games, only a minority of those actually meaningfully branches the story. Significant choices for branch-points are once again accounted for and presented as statistics at the end of each of the five chapters, so players can compare themselves with the rest of the world and their respective picks. And, of course, a player character with a supernatural talent.
• The DLC chapter / bonus episode "Wavelenghts" is a nice addition to the main game and well worth playing, just as "Farewell" was in Life is Strange: Before the Storm.

Con:

• The PC release comes in two builds, one for DX11 and one for DX12. The DX11 one performs absolutely horribly even on high-end hardware, but unfortunately is the one Steam picks by default (for example when the game is launched through the systray-icon context menu). If your GPU supports it, stick with the DX12 build.
• The story ultimately didn't work for me - the writing is too conservative and tries - unsuccessfully - to somehow marry high drama with life-or-death stakes with a generally comfy slice-of-life vibe, and ultimately ends up with both sides compromised. The (extensive) flashbacks to the main protagonist's life before her arrival in the game's main location in chapter 5 end up being the strongest scenes of the game. The conclusion of the fourth act, also in chapter 5, is particularly weak, all tell and no show, and very unconvincing.

Pretty much anybody who liked previous Life is Strange titles, particularly the original Life is Strange and Life is Strange: Before the Storm will probably enjoy this, and so did I. However, developer Deck 9 plays it very safe with their first wholly original contribution to the franchise and it really made me appreciate the risks that Dontnod took with Life is Strange 2 a lot more in retrospect. In many ways, True Colors is the smoothest Life is Strange yet - very easy on the eyes and largely free from cringe (and also free of bugs), but probably also the least memorable.


3.5/5


Previously reviewed in this thread here and here.

 

[lashman]

The story ultimately didn't work for me - the writing is too conservative and tries - unsuccessfully - to somehow marry high drama with life-or-death stakes with a generally comfy slice-of-life vibe, and ultimately ends up with both sides compromised. The (extensive) flashbacks to the main protagonist's life before her arrival in the game's main location in chapter 5 end up being the strongest scenes of the game. The conclusion of the fourth act, also in chapter 5, is particularly weak, all tell and no show, and very unconvincing.

agreed, 100%

 

[Yoshi]

Finished Descenders


I've mentioned it in the Steam thread, but this one really scratches the SSX itch.

Descenders is a fast-paced downhill biking game with a roguelike campaign where every level you play feels fresh due to its procedural generation. With each level you complete, a map appears and gives you choices on what type of level you wish to play next. Steep tracks, curvy tracks, stunt tracks, medic tracks to replenish your health, etc. The goal of the campaign is to reach and complete the Boss levels. At the end of each Boss level, there is massive jump you must land in order to proceed to the next destination.

The game has a reputation system where you earn and equip new items for your character like helmets, goggles, shirts, shorts, bikes, and other accessories. You receive rep points by riding at high speeds and performing tricks like backflips, front flips, spins, wheelies, etc.

If you don't like the roguelike campaign, that's fine. The game also has bike parks that you can mess around in and do stunts to pass the time.

Had a blast with this one and will probably return to it in the future.

5/5

 

[pinson]

Yakuza 5: Remastered

Yes, finally, it is done! What to say about Yakuza 5... What a big beautiful mess simultaneously full of awesome ideas and baffling decisions. It is a game that made me curse at its worst and that made me laugh and tear up at its best. So, where to start...

Cons (spoiler heavy!!!)

• Like I've mentioned in previous comments, this game pushes the multiple storylines idea way, WAY too far. By the time the finale comes around, you really have a hard time remembering what the fuck the motivations of the characters in the earlier parts were. And part 4, as cool as the story was, had basically nothing to do with the main plot.
• I'll say it again, part 2 was a terrible slog that made me quit the game at some point. It's like they had no idea what to do with the character and just decided to redo his part from Yakuza 4.
• The finale just drags onnnnnnnnnnnnn. I thought I was done when I got to the roof the first time to beat up the Omi but hell oh no, everybody just gets shot and it keeps going because the big bad villain mastermind only bring 5 bullets with him and runs out. And then it's more talking about dreams and making plans and preparing the Japan Dome show and holy shit just get to the point! And then, FOUR BOSSES, each with its own scene and no save point between any of them.
• The buildup was kind of a let down. All this INSANE plan so that random ass bodyguard son dude from part one can become the successor of the Omi. I mean, really? You couldn't find a better way to do this? I usually like the "soap-operaness" of the Yakuza series but this was too much even by its standards.

Pros

• This is an ambitious game and you need to give some credit to the team for it. Having FIVE fully modeled cities is really quite an achievement. And they're fun to explore too!
• The sidestories are actually very interesting, the substories are well written, varied and don't drag on for too long like in the previous games. There is really a LOT to do in this game and most of it is fun, which is very impressive in itself.

- Even though it had little to do with the big picture, I LOVED Tatsuya's chapter with the baseball shit and the two rivals at the end on the field. Same with the Haruka stuff. It was a nice change of pace.
- The final scene in the snow made me cry like a big baby. Man I love these goddamn characters.

In the end, even with its fault, I still think it's one heck of a game, but it's one you need to spread out over several weeks to fully enjoy because of how dense it is. I'm really glad I played it but after I'm done with the substories, I'll need a Yakuza break for a little while.

Score: 3.5/5

 

[fantomena]

Finished


After trying 2 times some years ago, the game finally worked out this time thanks to some walkthrough videos.. So the story is decent and interesting, the gameplay is decent too, but nothing I haven't seen before, the skill upgrades and loot system helps making the gameplay better and more interesting.

The game's big fault lies in it being far too long and repetive. The game is much longer than the other Darksiders due to that the world is bigger, you have to use a lot of time to travel from A to B and the open world itself is very boring too. I often felt that some sections were totally uneccessary and just to make the game longer.

The game has a lot of platform sections, problem is that the gameplay is stiff and janky which makes the platforming annoying and frustrating. The level design also isn't the best for the platforming.

I also finished all 3 story DLCs.

Score: 7/10

 

[MegaApple]

Finished

How do you compare it to DS1?

 

[fantomena]

How do you compare it to DS1?

Liked DS1 more.

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Slow an uninteresting start, but the game grew on me. You are like a transport/taxi driver flying around in a quite nice-looking voxel-based cyberpunk city working for a company called Cloudpunk. The game story is that you are contacted by your boss who will give you missions to do, drive to a and deliver someting from a to b, but the missions are decently variated and you have an android with you with lots of dialogue about life, death and so on. Very interesting to follow the dialogue and stories that are being told in the game, everything is also voice-acted. There are lots of different characters you meet through the game and they tell you a lot of things.

Soem side missions and you can talk to NPCs, get food, drinks and such. I found the story to be quite interesting so Im not gonna write more about it.

The game feels often repetive, but the heavy focus on dialogue and story telling made me continue playing the game and I did find it quite fun.

Score: 8/10

 

[pinson]

Finished


After trying 2 times some years ago, the game finally worked out this time thanks to some walkthrough videos.. So the story is decent and interesting, the gameplay is decent too, but nothing I haven't seen before, the skill upgrades and loot system helps making the gameplay better and more interesting.

The game's big fault lies in it being far too long and repetive. The game is much longer than the other Darksiders due to that the world is bigger, you have to use a lot of time to travel from A to B and the open world itself is very boring too. I often felt that some sections were totally uneccessary and just to make the game longer.

The game has a lot of platform sections, problem is that the gameplay is stiff and janky which makes the platforming annoying and frustrating. The level design also isn't the best for the platforming.

I also finished all 3 story DLCs.

Score: 7/10

Man I remember LOVING how Zelda-y the first DS was, and then being so disappointed in the slog loot fest that was the second one. Never bothered with the series again after that. It's a shame because it had some great ideas.

 

[Line]

Man I remember LOVING how Zelda-y the first DS was, and then being so disappointed in the slog loot fest that was the second one. Never bothered with the series again after that. It's a shame because it had some great ideas.

I enjoyed some aspects of DS2, but lost interest due to the poor itemization and backtracking in a boring world (despite some great sequences and cool characters).
DS3 is much, much closer to DS1 in level design, increasingly heavy on puzzles/platforming too, it ends up being quite a bit above it. It's very Souls-like in its combat though.

 

[pinson]

I enjoyed some aspects of DS2, but lost interest due to the poor itemization and backtracking in a boring world (despite some great sequences and cool characters).
DS3 is much, much closer to DS1 in level design, increasingly heavy on puzzles/platforming too, it ends up being quite a bit above it. It's very Souls-like in its combat though.

That's good to know! I'll check it out then, thanks for the info!

 

[Ge0force]

Finished Iron Harvest


We haven't seen many RTS games with a decent story campaign lately, so I'm very happy to see KING Art creating a new franchise in this genre. While the game is far from perfect, I really enjoyed playing it. The map design is good (and sometimes even excellent), there are many different units and the mechs are really cool to play with. For me, this was more than enough to bare the mediocre story and enemy AI. It's also great to see the devs doing their best to improve the game and expand it with both free and paid DLC. Definitely worth playing until Company of Heroes 3 arrives!

Score: 7.5/10

 

[Joe Spangle]

Finished Iron Harvest


We haven't seen many RTS games with a decent story campaign lately, so I'm very happy to see KING Art creating a new franchise in this genre. While the game is far from perfect, I really enjoyed playing it. The map design is good (and sometimes even excellent), there are many different units and the mechs are really cool to play with. For me, this was more than enough to bare the mediocre story and enemy AI. It's also great to see the devs doing their best to improve the game and expand it with both free and paid DLC. Definitely worth playing until Company of Heroes 3 arrives!

Score: 7.5/10

Cool! im hoping to give this a go on the Deck.

 

[pinson]

Halo 5: Guardians

Continuing my first full playthrough of the Halo series, I was expecting the worst when I started this because everyone online seem to hate the game, but honestly I had a great time!

Cons

• The story takes a while to pick up and suffers from being split between the two different teams.
• As mentioned in the Steam thread, don't hide lore behind collectibles in a FPS. That just sucks.
• The chapters where you do nothing but walk around were a bit of a pace breaker. I get what they were going for, but I don't feel like it works very well in this game.

Pros

• The second half of the story is pretty good and I absolutely loved the final few chapters. I really like the whole "AI gone berserk" thing and the ending made me really excited to play Infinite.
• The gunplay is MUCH better than in Halo 4. Fighting the Prometheans was a chore in 4 but they're fun enemies in this one.
• There are some amazing missions in the second half. The big open maps are well designed and moving around running and dashing is fuck as heck.

Score: 3.5/5

 

[Paul]

ending made me really excited to play Infinite.

yeah, about that..

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Decent horror-ish walking simulator with some interactivity. The positive is tha the story is quite interesting and the design for the most part is pretty great, some of the level design and monster design is really good. However, there's not a lot of interactivity in the game and it get's a bit too repetive and a bit boring at times because you have to crawl through so many vents and hdie from enemies in very dark places, I often went the wrong way because I couldn't see anything. Your main ability is your robot-ish hand that can open up different doors (like hacking) and at the end of the game to destroy some enemies.

There are some collectables you can find and you can go back to replay the chapters (there are 6 chapters) in the main menu.

Score: 7.8/10

 

[Joe Spangle]

Cowabunga!

Lovely nod to the old button bash beat em up. Played once through on my own with Leonardo. Short but sweet campaign. Nice graphics, Nice presentation.

/ 10

 

[spiel]

Dicey Dungeons

Technically finished a while back, but might as well drop a review after the latest update.

This game sparks joy. It's utterly charming, with cute art, mild humour and banging soundtrack. Gameplay is Slay the Spire except with dice and lots of mechanical twists to keep things interesting with each character. People keep complaining about the Witch and admittedly she's a huge difficulty spike. Recommend save-scumming in her later episodes. But honestly it was all worth it for the amazing finale, one of the best things I've ever experienced.

Once you're done with the main campaign, you can check out the free bonus episodes with even more gimmicks.

Baby squid <3

10/10

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

yeah, about that..

Hey, if they liked Halo 5 ...

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Fun fast-paced arcade racer. Managed to do the world tour 100% completed. It's fun, but get's repetive as the races are mostly the same with different environmental skin. Most annoying part is colliding with other vehicles, just keeps bumping you back and the other vehicles, including the ones you didn't hit, forward. Also did the free Rookie campaign DLC.

Not much else to say, fun, but repetive and annoying sometimes.

Score: 8/10

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Very fun bullet-hell shooter, although cool have used more level design variation, but still a lot of fun. Really recommended. Campaign feels a bit short, but there are other modes to play too. Reminds me off Nex Machina a bit, which is also fantastic.

Score: 8/10

Finished


Decent beat'em up up with some frusrating combat movements at times, doesn't reach Streets of Rage 4 or Scott Pilgrim goodness, but it isn't far. The game however does a good job with level desisn variation. Takes around 2-3 hours to finish with one character.

Score: 7.5/10

 

[Yoshi]

Finished PowerWash Simulator


It only took me 40 hours but I finally cleaned everything!

At first glance, PowerWash Simulator looks like a meme game, but it's really not. There's a feeling of zen when you're playing it. A feeling of calmness and relaxation. I almost find it to be therapeutic. It's one of those games where you just turn off your brain and play.

The goal of the game is simple - aim & shoot your power washer at every speck of dirt you can find. The game has a career mode. With every level you complete, you'll earn money that can be used to purchase stronger power washers, nozzles, cleaning liquids, outfits and more.

This game is a 5/5 if they added Steam Workshop. The replayability would be through the roof if users could create and upload their own levels.

4.5/5

 

[spiel]

A Short Hike is so lovely??? I wondered about the hype and now I know. I was worried I wasn't in the right mood for it but it immediately drew me in with the chill vibes and exploration. Faffed around for only a little while before heading to the main goal, taking less than 2 hours to get to the end credits. There are so many side quests and secrets that I'll dive in again.

Really charming game (I've been using this word a lot nowadays). I'm grateful to have experienced it.

A tentative 10/10

 

[FunnyJay]

Finished PowerWash Simulator

Seems to scratch the same itch as Viscera Cleanup Detail, except that game always led to irritating moments where progress was undone, or you couldn't find a miniscule shell casing or hole in a wall.

 

[MegaApple]

Finished My First Game of 2022

God of War Chains of Olympus

Finished My Second Game of 2022

God of War Ghost of Sparta

Part two of my PSP GoW games. This is bigger and better in every way, though not without its faults.
We need more single-player scripted action games that gives new thirls every hour or so. Miss such games.

REVIEW -

• Possibly the best looking on PSP period. Playing this on my Vita, almost forgot I was playing a PSP game.
• Story with stacks and decent pacing. I actually like how ruthless Kratos gets sometimes. But also how human he gets too.
• Fun combat
• Great pace with the locations, you are in atlantis then death's domain, then sparta. Loved that.
• The way QTE's are shown is way better

• Enemy and encounter are less repetitive than CoS, but still got tiresome. Sometimes enemies would get tad unfair in Normal difficulty.
• The second weapon inclusion is weird, there is a whole mechanic tied to first weapon, plus the second weapon doesn't have that many moves. It's a weird inclusion.
• Gets a bit gimmick (like the heat mechanic)

SCORE - 7.5 (or 8)/10

--------------------------

I really hope GoW III Remastered gets ported to PC, hell the entire collection. It's the only game I've not played (don't wanna play Ascension)
Pre-2018 GoW games are really special IMO, these are made with certain craftsmanship that I've not seen in other western action games.

 

[Virtual Ruminant]

First game: Chains of Olympus

Second game: Chains of Olympus

I'm guessing that is a typo and this post is about Ghost of Sparta?

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Third's time the charm I guess (like with Darksiders 2). Tried it 2 times long time ago, but didn't understand the gameplay until this time. The game has the same amazing art style and music as other Supergiant Games game's, so those are superb here. The main issues are the gameplay and the story, which both are major parts of the game. The gameplay is sorta like a football type of game, difficulty to explain, but at least I didn't find it interesting and since I felt every match in the game was the same, the game became repetive and boring because of it. I also didn't care much about the story for the most part, the dialogue was also something I didn't care much about.

So overall a very pretty game with fantastic music let down by uninteresting gameplay and uninteresting story and dialogues. My least favorite game from Supergiant Games.

Score: 7/10

Finished


A quite basic physics-based platformer where you control a skull. There are muds in the game you use as checkpoints and throughout the game you will get 3 different rock-monster builds that helps you solve plattforming puzzles as they have different abilities, one let's you jump high and move platforms up, one let's you break walls and throw Skully and a last one that let's you run fast and move platforms forward and backwards. There are also leafs you can collect in each level and when you have enough leafs, concept art unlocks in the main menu.

The game is quite fun if you like basic physics-based platformers, but the game is too long. Like 4-5 hours, 18 levels, where you do mostly the same stuff. The game would be so much better if some levels were cut in half or half the levels were simply removed. As there is too little gameplay variation to fill those 4-5 hours with the same basic platform and puzzle-solving.

Still, I actually had a lot of fun with it.

Score: 7.5/10

 

[Amzin]

Haiku The Robot played start to finish on the Deck without issues. The game itself is very solid as a metroidvania. I can understand why people instantly think "mini Hollow Knight" but honestly if you've played a lot of metroidvanias it isn't THAT close a resemblance. It does suffer from some of the few flaws HK had - save points and fast travel are isolated systems, which means a lot of extra walking around that just eats time for no reason. Save points in general feel far between early on as you explore. The map is OK but it highlights the entirety of any room you step into, even if 95% of that room is blocked off, making it impossible to tell what you've missed. Also, one of the achievements requires playing a specific way (no self repair) for the entire game which is kind of a shitty thing to make people do since it's literally the only achievement you'd miss in an otherwise 100% run.

All that aside, the exploration is fun (the backtracking is for a while but again, they make you do too much of it without reasonable fast travel spots), the enemies are a bit HP spongey towards the end, and the boss balance is all over the place, but the game overall is worth the 6-8 hours for a playthrough. I think if it had been longer it really would have started to suffer from those poor choices.

 

[Ge0force]

Finished Yakuza Kiwami 2


Another great game in the Yakuza series. The combat is rather repetitive because there are no different combat styles, and the heat actions to counter enemy attacks make most fights a breeze. But the story is really good, and I enjoyed most of the mini games and subquests as well. And last but not least: the game looks stunning on the Steam Deck. Recommended!

Score: 8.6/10

 

[Mivey]

I finished Tangle Tower.

This one is a sequel to Detective Grimoire, though funny enough, for the longest time I assumed it was more of a spin-off. Simply because the art style is so completely different and none of the returning two characters (Grimoire himself, plus his sidekick Sally) look anywhere like they did in the last game.

Aside from the new art style, it plays very similarly to the first one. You pick up clues from the various locales, each of which is a gorgeous, hand-drawn illustration. There's really great music, sounds like it's orchestrated and with a choir too. And you interrogate the murder suspects. Oh, yeah, it's a murder mystery again this time. Talking with the suspects was great, each of them is really well written and unique. Each suspects talks a little about themselves, but most of the info you get is from asking them about the clues you picked up and asking them about the other suspects. I especially liked the responses from Poppy, who responds to each person with a poem describing them. You can tell the developer spend a lot of time on these.

Overall a short, but really enjoyable game. Lots of fun puzzles and you get to properly formulate speculations via having to form sentences.
A really great idea for a detective game like this.

I just kinda wish this was used more "systematically". As is, the game just wants you to produce exactly one sentence. But it would be neat if it allowed you to form multiple different ones, and even let you choose which one you want to go with.


I liked the great banter between Grimoire and Sally this time around. I loved this game and I really hope we get another game in this series at some point.

 

[fantomena]

Finished


Amazing DLC. Simply more Cuphead. Nothing more to write. Perhaps a bit tiny short?

Score: 8.9/10

 

[MegaApple]

I'm guessing that is a typo and this post is about Ghost of Sparta?

Fixed
am stupid
thank you

 

[Paul]

Finished Necromunda: Hired Gun


Despite the unpleasantly high FoV (110, cannot be lowered), I finished Necromunda in 14 hours and was pleasantly surprised - I enjoyed it more than, for example, Halo Infinite or Doom Eternal. Granted, the story is horrible incoherent shite, the interface is moronic, and the fifteen guys who made it couldn't get rid of the Eurojank, but the monumentally grandiose, dirty and fantastically atmospheric location design combined with frantic, properly crunchy gunplay won me over pretty quickly. Running up walls, sliding across floors, doublejumps, glory kills, grappling hook, weapon upgrades, a proper metal soundtrack...it's all here. Plus, I was able to buy augmentations not only for myself, but for my mutt as well, which counts. Just a solid humblebundle game, and I'm interested in more similar games from the world of Warhammer, which I was basically unfamiliar with until this game.

7/10

Few shots

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https://abload.de/img/1222370_202207170903027j69.png
https://abload.de/img/1222370_2022071709311p1jg7.png
https://abload.de/img/1222370_202207171556270jgr.png
https://abload.de/img/1222370_2022071622511z9krt.png
https://abload.de/img/1222370_20220717160517ykve.png