Recent reviews by Lock Down Leo

This is a truly amazing puzzle game!

Lots of guns!

This is probably the best puzzle game ever made. You first start with these simple puzzle grids but they quickly evolve. Soon you understand that the island itself is the puzzle and the moments of realization during puzzle solving are tremendous. The difficulty can spike very quickly but there are always other parts of the island to explore. The game takes patience like any other puzzle game, and it rewards you incredibly for your patience. If you are even thinking of getting The Witness then do it and immerse yourself in the experience that is this game.

Snake Pass is a very unique take on platformers, there's no jump button. At first the controls are somewhat confusing but they become quite intuitive quickly after the first level. You won't find much in the way of theme or story here; it is more about the concept and gameplay of snake platforming. That being said it does it well and is very polished. So if you are looking for an interesting twist on the genre then pick it up.

I really wish I could recommend Yooka Laylee to everyone, but I can't. The only people who I think would get enjoyement from it are die hards for the genre. That is why I'm giving it a negative review here. In short there are so many trappings and pitfalls that the genre is infamous for that are not only present here but put to the forefront. In length...

Level Continuity-
This is, in my opinion, the most important part of any platformer. Being able to visualize and see where everything is not only in the level but in mental space is big. Yooka Laylee does an ok job with the first world for this but the second world is awful! It is segmented into little rooms that are separated by load screens and gives not even a facade of continuity. On top of that each world can be expanded and this just make them feel incomplete or unfinished if they are not. Theme also plays a big role in continuity and 4 of the 5 worlds are pretty generic and not very memorable. That being said world 4, the casino world, does everything right. It is definitely a bright spot in the game and kept me playing.

Movement-
A platformer having good movement is key to everything and Yooka Laylee does great with this. Of course there are times where control is frustrating but that is par for the course. The small frustrations at times can easily be overlooked.

Collectables-
Of course collectables are to be expected in a "Rare" game, and they are here in full force. Unfortunately they are not organically introduced into the game, but instead are thrown at your face for the first hour. It just makes the beginning ever more excruciatingly slow and bad. It doesn't help that each level has a transformation for your main characters and the first is probably the worst. The collectables reach a point of equilibrium after a couple of hours and it no longer seems so bad, but the upfront exposure to them is not reassuring. I am also the type to 100% complete platformers but Yooka Laylee only had me searching for the bare minimum to finish the game.

Camera-
It's bad. As soon as you load into the first world you realize how restrictive it is. I learned to live with it as again it's a pitfall of many platformers, but whenever there were tight spots I was reminded of it.

Boss Fights-
Ugh. Boss fights in 3d platformers are notorious for being bad. The bosses throughout the 5 worlds in Yooka Laylee range from feasable to bad. They are really nothing to write about, but the final boss... IS TERRIBLE. I don't understand why this genre has to be riddled with bad boss fights, and it continues even now. For reference I think Banjo Kazooie also has a terrible last boss, but at least that was 20 years ago. It just punctuates how I feel about this game. I only collected the amount of neccesary items to get to the final boss and the experience with the boss makes me not want to go back.

In the end Yooka Laylee was good enough for me to finish the game so I guess there's that, but all in all it was a mediocre experience. Except the Casino world which again is the only redeeming factor I found in the game.

If you enjoy deck building mixed with randomness that you can somewhat control then this game is a no brainer, It's still in early access but what is here now is worth the price of the game. The continued updates and adds to the game are just a bonus. In it's current state you can get a pattern and some repetetiveness, but in this genre you should be used to that. The important part is that the gameplay loop is fun and enjoyable.

I love seeing the Rogue-lite genre expand and this is a very welcomed addition.

The Binding of Isaac is one of my favorite games of all time. I didn't really give Rebirth the time of day when it first came out, but with Afterbirth+ it is so much better. That's not to say Rebirth is bad, because it's not; it's just so much better with expansions.

This retains the difficulty of the original and adds to it in a lot of areas. This is not a game that is neccesarily easy to beat, but the more you play the better you get. The learning curve has obvious gains and you feel like a much better player as you go on.

Isaac is synonymous with the roguelite genre and for damn good reason.

Everyone needs a friend like Gregg!

I've played a few text adventure games and this is one of the best. Stories Untold is a series of 4 text adventure episodes that also incorporate another form of gameplay other than text. The beginning was amazing with a lull in the middle but the ending makes it all worth it. I never thought I could experience a text adventure that was horror but Stories Untold delivers that.

As other people have said Thirty Flights of Loving is more of an experience. That being said it is an experience which I love. It is quite short but I still come back to it.