Recent reviews by DatBisa

I will start the review off by saying that I overall feel mixed, but in no way hesitant about the game, as someone whose first ever games were the originals, and that you should absolutely give at least the demo a try to see if the game is for you.

What I got from the demo was a clearly extremely loving recreation, with changes made primarily with continuity to its sequel in mind, that the original couldn't have had, like the school or lighthouse that were only present in the sequel. The Adventure Log, while currently seemingly quite buggy, is a really cool way to let the player look back on their adventure, and stay in the loop. Even the original's slightly weird animation style has been adapted beautifully into something that looks genuinely appealing in a modern artstyle.
My main issues though also come from adhering too closely to the original where changes have been made to modernize the game, making the game feel oddly clumsy at times.

This is going to be quite thorough critique, but don't mistake it as negativity. If you can, you should ABSOLUTELY give this game a shot.

In a few places it almost feels like they misunderstand why certain things were done in the original, and just stuck to them for the sake of faithfulness, rather than adaptating them into a modern game. The removal of the Behavior System, having been changed to instead be more context sensitive, is probably the prime example here.
The Truck Scene when breaking out of the Citadel shows all of this quite well. Making discreet behavior context sensitive, rather than something the player can toggle themselves, changes the gameplay of the scene quite heavily (in my opinion for the worse), and while the zoom-in cutscene on the garbage truck was done to show off the games at the time impressive 3D graphics in the original, it feels out of place in a modern title. If the choice was up to me I would probably use this moment to pull out over the island, so the player can scout out the environment they're about to be thrown into, and do a title drop.

Overall, while the demo is still quite rough around the edges in some places, I AM loving what I'm seeing, and can't wait to see what 2.21 have been cooking for the rest of the game, and what they might be able to do with the sequel.

Absolutely horrendous UI, unplayably illegible even for gacha veterans.
Never bounced off a mobile game this quickly.

I really didn't want this to be a bad review, but Melody's Escape 2 completely fails in its endeavor to revamp the original on pretty much all levels, primarily due to its attempt to move into the third dimension.

Before I tear into this game however, I want to give credit where it's due:
The Good

• New rhythm detection algorithm tends to stick to the song's actual rhythm more.
  
• Stricter Hit Window and scoring raise replayability a bit.
  
• Great looking Outrun-esque visual style.
  
• Less straining on your eyes than the original.
  
• Great rework of the game's Blue Zones.

Sadly, that's where that list ends for me.

The Bad

• New rhythm detection algorithm hates sticking to the song's melody, resulting in long hold Obstacles being weirdly rare now.
  
• Slow-Mo Jumps are annoyingly common now, and their new obstacle is boring compared to the original's leaps of faith.
  
• Slow-Mo Jumps love to chain into extremely short Blue Zones, causing a Hero Landing Pose that completely takes the momentum out of the game when it happens.
  
• No more long strings of Orbs in Pink Zones.
  
• Little perceived speed difference between Green and Yellow Zones.
  
• Removal of background locations also removes the escalating feeling of "Escape" present in the original, and contributes to the lack of percieved speed.
  
• Lacking visual feedback for Orb Hits.
  
• Lacking variety in obstacles.
  
• Essentially complete lack in track verticality.
  
• Character animations are a bit janky, and the 3D artstyle and perspective don't suit themselves to Melody's featureless, 2-Tone design.
  
• 3D OTS perspective essentially removes reaction gameplay since you can now see future track in the distance, making songs predictable and boring, as well as taking any tension out of longer hold Obstacles.
  
• 3D OTS perspective loves covering up the direction indicators for Up and Right inputs on both Orbs and Obstacles, just as they enter vision, ironically making it harder to react to them.
  
• The lack of tension and reaction in gameplay makes it extremely hard to enter a Flow state.
  
• Removal of Overload Difficulty.

I want to make clear here, that I don't intend this review to come across as toxic, and I want to apologize if it does.
As it stands this game is good. Well put together and good fun for a generative rhythm game, with already surprisingly much polish for a fresh Early Access release. I am aware that my criticisms are extremely subjective and go into a lot of the games' nitty-gritty. I can definitely see this game outdo the original at some point down the line, such is the nature of Early Access, and the potential is 100% there, which is also why I havn't refunded the game.
That all said, in its current state, for its current price, I can only give a good faith recommendation for this game to old players, of the (currently) vastly superior original, that want to support Icetesy.

If you're new and want to give this concept a try, maybe try the original first, given it's available at half the price. If you like it and want more, feel free to give this sequel a shot too.
https://steamproxy.net/steamstore/app/270210



EDITS: I'll keep updating this review as new updates are released and any of the issues I've mentioned are potentially addressed. For the sake of giving credit for improving the game in my eyes, here's a list of all issues I've originally listed and have been changed since:

• Complete removal of flying in Pink Zones. (Addressed by the re-introduction of flying)
  
• Next to no perceived speed difference between Green, Yellow, and Pink Zones, since jogging, sprinting and flying faster sprinting all share the same animation. (Partially addressed by the re-introduction of flying, and a separate animation for sprinting)

A revival of a classic city-builder social game that predates the mobile gaming boom might sound like a fantastic idea, even if just for the sake of nostalgia for those that used to play it, but regrettably Galaxy Life is missing effectively any and all improvements or economic adjustments one would come to expect from a fanserver, while being unable to be taken seriously as a proper relaunch of the game, since it's plagued by massive stability issues.

Dislaimer: I received a free copy for having bought Supporter status back when this was a trilogy of flash games.

A triumphant return for one of the most underrated cult-classic flash game series that's gone on to inspire many similar games such as Reassembly.
You also get way more than you might have bargained for with this Trilogy that, at the time of writing, actually consists of 6 games!
The original Captain Forver, Successor and Impostor Trilogy, in all their basic, advanced and action-y glory, as well as a secret fourth unlockable game.
On top of these there's Captain Together, a build of Captain Successor with local multiplayer, as well as the recently added Captain Forever Universe, a new in-development game that tries to turn the forumla into a bonafide space RPG.

All in all, even if Captain Forever Universe might be split off into its own, separate game at some point, this collection is an amazing package of games, and one of the brightest flash-revivals since the technology has retired.

Vastly inferior port of the original Flash version, with controls that are poorly optimized for keyboard play (since this is originally the mobile version) and missing a fair amount of content that was added later to the Flash version either.
Do yourself a favor and play the original instead, available here on Steam through the Ninja Kiwi Archive.

First off a Disclaimer: I only ever played the game with the Horizons expansion, hence I wil be reviewing the experience including Horizons.

As many other reviews already point out, Elite: Dangerous is, to some extent, the definition of "As wide as an ocean but as deep as a puddle". Even moreso than No Man's Sky.
At least that's what the absolutely terrible new player experience makes you think.
Elite is an old franchise and while always getting bigger, better, more beatuiful and more complex with each iteration, some things never change for better or for worse. With Elite: Dangerous this is more of a bad thing as the old experience you will know from the series' previous games is still intact, which in turn is just not modern anymore and doesn't really work in todays market well. You are dropped into the universe with a starter ship and you're entirely on your own.

Wanna do supply runs? Go for it.
Wanna explore the stars? I go for it! If you can jump there that is...
Wanna do combat? Don't even try unless you're experienced and just starting a new profile!

You will need to spend quite some time space truckin' before you get to do anything that most common gamers might find exiting.

If you're already interested in getting Elite: Dangerous you're probably part of the target market for realistic space sims anyways. You probably won't mind many of the issues I listed because they're exactly what you're looking for. You'll do quite some mission runs to get your first new ship fully equipped and at that point you're on you're own!
Go out there and shoot stuff up! Go bounty hunting or become a pirate!
Get trading! If you thought Eve was a spreadsheet simulator, hoh boy you're in for a treat.
Go explore! It won't be rare to stumble across absolutely jarring sights and exploration, if you have the time, is a great way to make money!

would I recommend Elite: Dangerous to a common gamer? No. You'll drop into the game and have no idea what to do.
Veterans of the genre or people who have a direct interest in space sims however are in for an amazing treat.

So, where do I start? I guess with the pros...
+Great, even if potentially infuriatingly slow survival gameplay
+Stunning visuals (But I'll get back to that in a bit...)
+Interesting progression system with a TON of branches and choices.
(+Hillarious character creator)
Now... Shall we check out what sucks?
-The game... It runs like absolute ♥♥♥♥. If your rig fulfills the minimum requirements, don't expect to get 20 FPS at lowest settings.
-Really wierd hit detection and hitboxes in general.
-I may have praised the progression, but it slows down way too hard at about half way through.
-Pretty heavy bugs that can cause you to lose days worth of progress.
-DLC for an early access game that's already priced at 28€. What. I DEMAND an explainaition. I don't care if you're running out of money to keep development going. If you can't keep your EA-Game funded throughout development, so far that you have to roll out BOTH an F2P Spin-Off AND paid DLC that's almost as much as the game itself, you should plrobably rethink your spendings AND if your game is going somewhere.
-The devs in general just suck as the leaders of one biggest Early Access communities. Like. Literally holding a new mob hostage to win an Award in a category that doesn't even make sense... Why?

As you can tell, my main complaints are the REALLY poor optimization and dickish devs, which you guys may not think is not a big con for a game, but I think the devs, as representatives of their own hard work, should value the support of the community and not squeeze them for every little drop of whatever.

If the devs learn how to at least do good PR, AND optimize the game properly It's getting an 8/10, but like this...


EDIT: I don't know how drunk Steam is, but I can swear I had over 15 hours on this. o.O

Wo soll ich anfangen..?

An sich lässt sich Stardew Valley sehr gut als spirituller, westlicher Nachfolger von Harvest Moon darstellen.
Zu Beginn des Spieles kommt man auf seiner (stark verwilderten) Farm an, bekommt ein Paar Samen und Werkzeuge in die Hand gedrückt und los geht's.

Ja, massig.
Das Spiel hatte vor dem Riesenupdate 1.1 zugegeben recht wenig Content der einen über das zweite Ingamejahr hinweg begleitet hat, was jedoch nach besagten Update behoben wurde. Und im Zweifel gibt es eine ziemlich treue und große Modding-Community, die dauerhaft auf kleine Arten und Weisen das Spielerlebnis versüßen kann.

Fast.
Die Größe der Map ist perfekt. Bis durch das erste Ingamejahr hinweg findet man immer wieder neue Gegenden, aber man fühlt sich schnell wirklich heimisch im "Tal des Sternentaus" (Ja, whoop de doo, ich kann deutsch!)
Der Soundtrack ist wunderschön ruhig und gelassen, passt zur Umgebung und der Jahreszeit. Die Pixelart ist ebenso schön, und obwohl es eher SEHR späte SNES Grafik mit SEHR viel Mode 7 ist, sieht das Spiel unheimlich gut aus.
Und alles was nicht ganz so klar geht, kann man rausmodden, was erstaunlich einfach ist.

Alles in allem ist Stardew Valley ein wunderschönes Spiel, das einen immer mit irgendwas auf den Beinen hält. Besonders wenn man ein Perfektionist ist, der gerne 100% in seinen Spielen erreicht, ist dieses Spiel nur wärmstens zu empfehlen.

Hui, hier begebe ich mich mit einer negativen Bewertung wohl in SEHR gefährliches Territorium, aber hört mich aus.
Das Game an sich ist großartig. Es baut auf das menschliche Verlangen nach Effizienz, es ist sehr ausgeklügelt und in meiner, wenn auch recht kurzen, Spielzeit bin ich auf keine Bugs gestoßen. Die Grafik, wenn auch recht veraltet, passt zu dem Spiel. Warum ich das Spiel trotzdem nicht empfehle?

DER PREIS IST DOPPELT SO HOCH WIE ER SEIN SOLLTE. Wie gesagt, versteht mich nicht falsch, das Spiel IST großartig! Aber es wird dem Preispunkt von 20€ einfach nicht gerecht.