Neue Rezensionen von Garbage

Labelling this game as a "Vampire Survivor" game is a disservice because it's so much more thanks to the unique minion-based approach. I think explaining the systems of this game is a spoiler as part of the joy is unveiling their modifiers progressively after each run and getting excited about the opportunities they unlock. I will just end this short review with a simple recommendation; BUY IT!

I don't know much about the background development but apparently this is the work of a solo indie developer? If that is true then we have another Eric Barone (developer behind Stardew) on our hands because this is a hidden gem. I can't wait to see what is further down the development pipeline!

I want to know what the other outcomes are but after playing through the game once? I am never touching it again. I played it making the same choices that I would (and did) IRL and it hit way too close to home for me. The characters were realistic, the retro 2008 feel is incredible and the writing is one of the best I have ever seen in a "visual novel" style medium.

What an absolute masterpiece.

TL:DR Amazing rhythm game that I can't recommend enough to people wanting to break into other styles of rhythm games besides the standard "tap/hold" ones like Guitar Hero, Osu! or Stepmania/DDR. Read on for a detailed breakdown.

MUSIC:
The default music in this game is EDM-focused with 38 base tracks and 10 more available in a DLC song pack which by itself will provide enough variety and challenge to keep most occupied chasing full combos. However, there is also a custom song repository called spinsha.re which has many more songs created by the Spin Rhythm XD community using the in-game editor and even has a third-party installer software to simplify the downloading and installation of custom songs into your Spin Rhythm XD directory.

GAMEPLAY:
This is where Spin Rhythm XD absolutely nails it.

Spin Rhythm XD is comprised of three core gameplay mechanics. Spin, tap/hold and kick. You line your "turntable" up with the notes, tap if they're rectangular and hold if they have a tail. You have "spins" and "scratches" which require either flicking your mouse left or right OR shaking it left and right rapidly respectively. Finally, you have "kicks" which require you to tap spacebar by default on a yellow line.

This sounds complicated and while it's more complicated than Osu! which has been my bread and butter for years, it feels incredibly intuitive and the feedback from the "accuracy" text to the special effects feels crisp while not being too distracting. In fact, within only 15 minutes of playtime, I can comfortably play most tracks on Expert which is the second highest difficulty. The accuracy measure however appears to be on the more lenient side of rhythm games with significantly off-beat taps still rewarding an "early" or "late" allowing you to continue your combo.

MULTIPLAYER/COMPETITIVE:
There are four modes available, Arcade, Spin FM, Challenge and Custom.
Arcade and Custom allow you to infinitely replay either the default tracks or custom tracks respectively whilst the Challenge and Spin FM modes are the competitive leaderboard and head-to-head multiplayer modes respectively.

Challenge Mode consists of "Daily Challenge" which offers a single attempt at the daily track to get the highest score possible. The upcoming "Weekly Challenge" will be a weekly chart with unique modifiers affecting gameplay for extra variety and challenge.

Spin FM is a head to head "radio" style gamemode which loops through the default tracks in real-time and you can see the scores of those in the lobby with you and emote however during my attempts with this mode I was the only one in any of the lobbies.

Spin Rhythm XD also has included a wonderful "practice" mode which allows you to identify your weak areas in the chart you're playing and loop them to iron out a particularly difficult piece of the track that may be ruining your score or worse, preventing completion of the track.

OVERALL:
This game deserves the "Overwhelmingly Positive" status because there is such a huge potential for this game that I believe with proper marketing and support by the developers could rival Osu! in the competitive online rhythm-game space. The developers have been working hard listening to community suggestions on Twitter, Discord and Steam and if they continue on this trajectory after 1.0 then I'll be happy to continue supporting them and purchasing the DLC packs.

Well done SSD.

Stardew Valley has everything you could possibly want from a farming simulator and the creator Eric Barone is still aspiring to add even more despite operating alone. I believe they call this a labor of love?

And at this price range? There is absolutely no excuse not to buy it!

Sea of Thieves has just set my bar for how to do a tutorial... Is it short? Yes! Is it sweet? Absolutely! Especially that final segment! Is it effective? ... Kinda! It definitely needed to explain the merchant isle and quest system but modern gamers should be able to look up the keybinds and explore to figure all of this out.

Absolutely looking forward to playing more and trying to get my friends on board because this seems like it would be a blast to play with buddies!

EDIT: Nevermind, i'm just dumb and didn't realize they have a training zone to get used to the game before being tossed into PVP territory...

This "game" if you can even call it that will be incorporated as part of my daily routine with the goal of sending one positive message when the day begins and then sharing one negative thought about my day before the day ends.

Huge kudos to Popcannibal for designing such a wonderful experience, the idea is such a grand yet simple one and the community has been wonderful.

Love you all~

Immersion. That is the best word to describe KC:D and is very clearly the design motto behind the game because everything is so lovingly crafted and placed from the townsfolk going about their daily business of shovelling hay into a wagon to the dialogue options which make every character feel unique.

Of course, immersion is fine when it's not being broken by black screens before dialogue, glitches and other issues but these aren't enough to blind me to the fact that this game is incredible and breaking boundaries for the medieval-RPG genre.

Early Access opting to ignore performance and hackers in favor of new maps and systems. This is a classic example of a misallocation of Early Access funds where the developers start aiming for the stars way too early.

No but seriously, who has an Early Access title and immediately looks towards Esports?

Maybe there will be a HUGE performance improvement and work done on an effective anti-cheat system in the future but i'm worried that it may be too late when you have substitutes like Fortnite BR.

Disappointed.

Magicka is a tough act to follow and while Magicka had those unforgettable multiplayer shenanigans where you accidentally cross beams and kill your entire team, I believe that HELLDIVERS offers the superior multiplayer experience.

Now before I start, let me address the fact that this game HAS to be played multiplayer since that's the only way for you to truly experience the craziness and create memorable moments that you'll be sharing with friends (both old and new) for weeks to come.

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay itself is nothing special, a classic twin-stick shooter which although it was one of those classic arcade genres has been flooded recently with indie games lacking polish and originality (Zombie-themed high score crunching mindless wave-shooter). It is however, still very fun and tries to incorporate unique elements such as the magicka-style quicktime event "special items" known as Stratagems which are very powerful and quite often, deadly to both friend and foe alike. This creates some very dramatic moments where your friend is surrounded by enemies with no hope and all you can do is toss a grenade or fire a rocket launcher, sacrificing your friend in the process so you can hopefully revive them at a later time where they will often have to do the same as soon as they spawn in.

In fact, these dramatic moments ARE the gameplay... Those tense moments where you are a mere 100 kills away from clearing an elimination style mission before realizing your party is out of weapons, out of Stratagems and 3 out of 4 of your revives are still on a 1 minute cooldown. The shuttle arrives just in time and you manage to scurry your way to the safe confines of the ship, your friends however... Not so lucky, you tossed out a revive just before boarding in hopes that they can somehow fight their way through the hordes but to no avail, the ship leaves as you can do nothing but watch helplessly as their corpses are devoured by the bugs below as you scream out to them in chat, tears streaming down your face from a strange mix of laughter and genuine sadness.

COMMUNITY: The community in this game is fantastic as most of the players I have encountered have embraced the ability to troll other players without abusing this power. HELLDIVERS also does a fantastic job of connecting players with an absolutely genius in-game multiplayer UI allowing you to connect to other players without having to open Steam, navigate server lists, port forward etc. It also has an option to send out an SOS signal in the middle of a map allowing people to spawn in and lend a helping hand if a mission is too difficult (again creating dramatic moments where you get wiped out but a player or two spawn in to save the mission).

BALANCE: There are some insanely powerful Stratagems which can seem a bit overpowered at times but with great power, comes great responsibility. You can spawn in a tank which your party of four can commandeer around the map offering a great deal of firepower however there is a massive amount of risk associated with this, namely the fact that if your tank explodes with everyone on board... Well, you know how that goes. There's also airstrikes which can wipe out entire hoardes but often kills your own teammates as collateral. Most Stratagems also have cooldowns which emphasizes tactical usage and have to be picked up to be used which is always complicated since fighting your way through the hordes to get access to your upgrade can be difficult.

The guns all have their place and are standard shooter fare, shotguns, pistols, assault rifles, SMGs and sniper rifles. Each has their own little upgrade tree which offers very minor customizations such as a bayonet for more melee damage/range or armor penetrating rounds for those pesky armored enemies. But I always feel like there aren't many options for my weapons and I feel like weaponry could have been a really exciting area to create interesting combinations tuned to your playstyle.

The enemies each have their own strengths and weaknesses and are brutally difficult but you rarely feel as though they are unfair, there have been a few times where enemies spawn around me in a circle, effectively creating a wall around me as they swiftly strike me down but that's a fairly rare occurence. The difficulty system is also fantastic with missions that will challenge even max-leveled players so it should never feel as though you "faceroll" the content.

GRAPHICS & SOUND: The graphics are top-notch for a twin-stick shooter style game with flawless animations, vivid environments and a nice color palette as opposed to most twin-stick shooters which always seem to be quite boring with their color choices, often sticking to dark tones resulting in a "muddy" look. The character designs are very aesthetically pleasing, in fact a few look very inspired by Star Wars armor designs while the enemy designs are all very distinctive from each other and the enemy designs are all very distinctive which helps with determining enemy weaknesses quickly amidst the chaos.

CONCLUSION: HELLDIVERS is a fantastic game and i'm so thankful that it was part of the Humble Bundle as it alone is worth the $10. The incredible moments from the online multiplayer make the HELLDIVERS experience a memorable one that i won't soon forget.