Recent reviews by fst

I bought this game expecting something similar in spirit to Stardew Valley. And for the first few hours I thought that it was all there is - you go diving during the day, you make money in the restaurant in the evenings, you buy better gear to dive deeper and longer and expand your restaurant to make money more efficiently. But then, this game started to surprise me.

I haven't played Stardew Valley for too long, because eventually I got bored with the repetitive gameplay loop - after seeing how seasons change and how it impacts the world it really ceased to interest me as I felt I've seen almost all this game has to offer and there was nothing to look forward to. But here is where Dave The Diver shines and why I invested many more hours into it and finished it having fun all the way. It constantly keeps introducing new things and new ideas that build on this core gameplay loop. Every major mission has its own twist. As a great, but spoilery example, let's consider 3 rooms that you need to clear to access the divine tree control room near the end of the game. Every room is different - first one you need to infiltrate alone, in the second one you ride a beluga whale and in the third one you switch characters to finally control them both at once, similarly to Brothers: a Tale of Two Sons. Everywhere they could, designers added some little twist or mini-game to keep things interesting and fresh. All the while preserving the casual tone, making it a great game to pickup for quick 15-20 minutes stress-free sessions.

I don't usually like casual games because I get bored with them pretty quickly. Dave The Diver is a real gem amongst this type of games and one I clearly recommend the most if you want something stress-free, but still interesting.

One of the best and most influential games of all time - despite some dated design still really fun and definite must-play, even 20 years after release.

One of my main complaints with the base game was that the puzzles were too easy and distance between them too large - so you were running between puzzles as much as you were solving them. This DLC is the complete opposite as it focuses almost solely on the puzzles and they are much harder than in the main campaign. So - if you are here to exercise your brain, then this DLC will be a great fit for you. I, personally, really enjoyed it - solving puzzles was much more rewarding than in the base game where most puzzles were quite obvious after few seconds. The only minor issue I have with Road to Elysium is diversity of the puzzles, or lack thereof - most of them focus on laser mechanics and it can become repetitive - even though every puzzle requires different solution and using different gimmick. I played in short sessions in the span of 3 months so it wasn't an issue, but I imagine that it can become tedious for someone who wants to play this DLC daily.
It took me less than 13 hours to finish all the puzzles in all parts of the DLC, while doing some side content and exploring, so it is definitely worth its full price and it was a pleasure to support Croteam for the amazing job they have once again done.

Cute art-style with great animation, but the game is lacking as a puzzle game - I wish the puzzles were much harder (they are really easy, on the verge of not requiring thinking at all), especially as not all of them are required to progress - if the game is catered to more casual audiences it would be nice to have at least some challenging levels for more puzzle-focused players. There is also a lot of walking and backtracking between the puzzles, so I really would describe this game as a "casual adventure game" rather than a "puzzle game" since puzzles are so easy and are only a minor part of the time you spend in a game. Even entirely optional (not even needed for achievements) journal entries are easy to find and are locked behind trivial "gates" to get them.

So, do I recommend this game? I'd give it a mixed rating if I could - if you are looking for a puzzle game - it's a really simple, casual and unsatisfying one. But as an adventure to sink few hours into and relax, it gets the job done. That's why I decided to give it a "thumbs up", but you must be aware what you are looking for. I was a little disappointed, but I still enjoyed my time with it.

Runs great on Steam Deck too (my playtime is higher than 1.8h, but I played it entirely on SD and some of it did not register).

I'd give a mixed rating if I could - overall it's a nice little metroidvania, quite simple and forgiving and I had a mostly decent time with it, although the farther I went, the worse it got (or maybe just too repetitive, thus boring). It feels uninspired and there is nothing special that really sells it - it's "ok" and if you're looking for something undemanding to put few hours to - go for it - but if you're looking for something special and really worth your time - I'd steer away from it.

Interesting concept, but too little strategic depth and variety between runs to keep me engaged.

Extremely buggy for such a simple game - the game started in 3440x1440 resolution and my native language (despite Steam, OS and all settings set to English) and subtitles didn't work despite being turned on in the settings. After changing the language and screen resolution to try to fight the subtitles issue, the original settings just disappeared and I could only select resolution up to 1920x1080 and only few languages (thankfully English was one of them). I started the game and played it for 1.5 hour, but I've encountered some more bugs (like characters being stuck and their inability to find a way after clicking the destination with a mouse) and that really ruined the immersion and annoyed me.

To top it off, the game has some non bug-related problems like no separate volume/music setting and sometimes music is just too loud. They patched the game recently and did not include that, despite it being number one issue when you read negative reviews.

Another issue is with dialogues - while the idea of dynamic dialogues is quite interesting, they disappear quickly and are often in the middle of someone's sentence - so you either listen to someone or interrupt them, without them even acknowledging that they've been interrupted - they just cut off and you say what you've selected. It's chaotic and comes unnaturally in a system that tries to mimic real conversations.

There were too many annoyances for the experience to be fun for me, so I finally gave up on this title without finishing it.

Great atmosphere, innovative setting and puzzle design. Created by the lead gameplay designer of Limbo and Inside so if you liked these titles, you will love Cocoon.

This game is just pure fun and joy. The characters are great, dialogues are well written and funny, gameplay is engaging, music is awesome too. Haven't had so much fun playing a video game for quite some time. Absolutely recommended.

Really good puzzle/adventure game with some caveats like mediocre stealth sections and few missing quality of life improvements that I would welcome (like some sort of dialogue log so you don't have to backtrack so often). Puzzles are quite easy, languages aren't also too hard to decipher so I'd say it's more casual puzzle game that should appeal to broader masses.

Overall a great puzzle game that you'll probably like if a concept sounds interesting to you at all.

Works great on Steam Deck too.