Recent reviews by Tommy Black-Toes

Really enjoyable retro survival horror indie, some nice puzzles and solid story. Charming old school graphics and banger sound track. The end credits song goes HARD. Has 4 endings and was really fun to 100%. Mouse movement feels off though, and game doesn't look smooth even with super high frames something not right there, and lack of enemy variety and weapons bit of a miss, kinda short as well but on sale like it is now def worth it. Some good classic System Shock and Resident Evil/The Thing vibes I had a good time with it. 8/10

What happens in the Astral Plane stays in the Astral Plane. ;)

Glad this is finally on PC as it's my fav Supermassive game. The performance is mostly great minus some stuttering here and there during scene transitions. The graphical upgrade looks amazing but I don't like the new music as much as the original but I get it new copyrights/licenses ect. I don't understand why taking an extra 3 seconds to log into psn one time is such a big deal and it's skippeable. The menu bug was fixed within 24hrs, it's one of the best story driven horror games ever surely this is a W but some people just can't be pleased.

Sun Haven started out really promising, like a Stardew with more RPG elements and fantasy stuff. Which it is but not without some major caveats. The character creation and early game story and gameplay is great, I was really enjoying the game during the early hours and mid game. But the more you play the more the cracks begin to show. It seems like such a huge game with loads to do but you start realising how shallow and grindy it all is after some time. It's still worth it especially on sale, this genre is insanely good value but the greedy prices and abundance of DLC is kinda a red flag, it's all optional but still kinda puts a sour taste in my mouth. I really love the visuals and music it's a super charming game in that regard, and there is a ton of cute characters and multiple towns to get to know, I just really wish these interacts weren't so basic and often boring, there's so much more that could be done with NPCs and relationships ect. The late game is just a slog, there is like no automation, no way to water crops which is insane to me like having no Sprinklers late game is a nightmare. Having multiple farms and regions at first seems great but it's basically just doing the same thing you did with the main town/farm with a different skin over it, becomes grindy. And so little is done with some aspects of these areas they feel half baked and unfinished. But the main town is great I really loved that part of the game and was let down once I started progressing beyond that. I do think the progression and skill trees are really strong and all the magic/spells and stuff is great, but not being able to change the floor inside my house really bothered me haha. It's mixed emotions overall I'm kinda new to this genre and had a lot of fun with this game for awhile but got kinda burnt out by the grind seemed to get more disappointed the further I went. Still was good value and worth playing tho it's just got some issues. 8.1/10

Hollowbody is extremely impressive for such a small dev team, aesthetics, atmosphere, visuals, sound, are all superb. All the important bits are there. Much larger devs with way higher budgets have done far worse. The first 1-2 hours of the game are super immersive, exploring the apartments and streets was really fun and the story is easy to follow, and I dig the characters and moody dialogue. The later areas are more linear so I didn't like them as much, the final boss is also kinda lame. The combat in general is very basic, which I guess is by design since it's trying to capture that ps1/ps2 era survival horror style, just like most of those older titles fighting especially melee is jank and doesn't feel great. Same with the camera fixed camera can be cool and add tension and perspective but often gets in the way of combat and is frustrating/breaks immersion. I liked the puzzles and the enemies design is great, I wish the game was alittle longer, had more buildings in the city you could enter and more/better bosses. In the intro you also kinda get a Blade Runner vibe and I was hopeful for a more sci/fi type of horror game but you don't see much of that after the opener. Overall it's great for fans of classic survival horror games and one of the better indie horror titles this year thus far. 8.2/10

Ad Infernum is really impressive, you don't see many indie devs tackle the immersive sim genre massive respect, and they did a great job. It's like a tiny bite sized ImSim/Survival Horror hybrid which are two of my fav genres, sure the areas are small but they are very detailed and offer plenty of player choice and freedom. Exploration is limited given the small project but it still feels rewarding and I loved how gritty/dark the world felt. They even added some Resident Evil type points shop/unlockables which adds some nice replayability which was unexpected. The movement does feel a little jank and there were some odd frame dips, but I didn't encounter any major bugs or issues. Enemy attacks and hitboxes are wonky at times and the story is lacking imo. The music and soundscape is well executed as well, I really like the ending credits song. IDk the last several indies I've taken a chance on were mostly disappointing but this game surprised me it's awesome, just wish it was longer but for the price it's solid. Absolutely recommend to fans of the genre it's a lot of fun. 8/10

Cool concept, very similar to Iron Lung so if you liked that you'll enjoy Void Crawler. It's claustrophobic and has some intense atmosphere, but feel the sound design is more immersive in the latter. Could really benefit from more directional/spatial sounds both for navigation and tension reasons. Piloting the Mole seems complex at first, they throw a lengthy manual at the player straight out the gate which was kinda overwhelming, but you'll quickly get the hang of it. I found the mystery of the story/world interesting and I appreciate giving some backstory/motivation behind our character, however I wish the creatures were a little more creative and not just more Lovecraftian squid faced humanoids, I've seen far too much of this recently. Unfortunately there's not much content and is more of a demo, more needs to happen imo. More spooks and entities seen out on your travels through the void on the cameras and more hallucinations ect. It's kinda slow and not enough happens, I didn't mind having to refuel and maintain the Mule that was actually fun but I can see some players finding it a slog. Overall it's alright but it's way too short and barely more then a demo and lacks creativity and not much spooks. 6/10

Station to Station is easily one of the best looking games I've ever played it's absolutely gorgeous, I love the Voxel art design. The detail of every building and map/trains is impressive, the more you zoom in and look around the more little surprises you'll find. The lighting and just how colourful the world is made just riding the trains and admiring the beauty of it all one of my favourite things to do. I was however, disappointed the game is mostly a puzzles game and not really about trains or constructing elaborate railways and cities ect. Once I got over it not being what I expected I discovered I enjoyed the mechanics and thought the difficulty was spot on, they do a great job at providing more challenging optional goals for those wanting more demanding tasks, but also allowing the game to be a cozy non stressful game if you just focus on the main objectives which were pretty easy. I wish there were some customization elements tho, maybe if you could use the extra goals as incentive to unlock different locomotives, themes for buildings ect. Would be nice to be able to decorate and makes things nicer, could still be the puzzle game but also providing more of what I feel like people expected from this game. The music is pleasant but quickly becomes repetitive could use a few more tracks or longer loops. It's a more demanding game on your PC than you might expect but it runs well on my 3080ti/12900k at 1440p but there is some issues with lag while placing down long tracks the frames plummet. The campaign is a decent length and took me about 14-15 hours to finish doing a little more than half the optional goals. The custom game mode is awesome with tons of settings which provides huge replayability. Overall especially for the sale price during the spring sale the quality is very high and even for someone that doesn't particularly love strictly puzzle based games I still really had fun with it. 8/10

Minami lane is the epitome of a "cozy" game, the perfect game to relax and wind down with. The gameplay is a mix of management/building and hidden objects, it's the right balance of simple enough to not be stressful but challenging enough to not get boring. The visuals are painfully charming, all the little shops and townsfolk are adorable. Honestly the whole experience is endearing and is the type of game that can change your mood from bad to good. The music is somewhat repetitive but it does slap and the progression of the albeit limited number of missions is a nice gradual incline. There's isn't much content to the campaign but there is a sandbox mode and for the extremely high quality and insanely low price you really can't go wrong. I do wish it was longer I'm sad it's finished so soon it's very enjoyable. Highly recommended to cozy game fans or someone looking for a relaxing low commitment experience. 8/10

Pretty creepy little indie horror I enjoyed it and got a few scares. I love anything set in an isolated location like uncharted space, remote Antarctica, deep underwater, or in this case derelict ghost ship. It really intensifies the suspense and terror. Lazaret has tons of atmosphere and can be unnerving at times, other times it's alittle silly but I'm sure it's intentional. The soundscape is notable especially some of the directional moments with the pursuer. Besides a few decent puzzles it's mostly just exploring the somewhat linear levels searching for keys mostly standard stuff, it doesn't do anything we havn't seen before but it does it confidently. The rooms of the ship/vessel can feel bare, could use some more objects/decorations. I enjoyed the flares section, losing the flashlight and having to rely on a few flares to lift the darkness is always effective and looks really cool. The lighting in the game in general is great, the dark areas work well, but I would have liked to see more flooded areas, being trapped on a ship while it's filling with water is anxiety inducing. It's a good one to just turn off the lights and finish in one session, it's nothing particularly remarkable but it scratched the itch. It's cheap and a good option for isolation horror fans looking for a quick fix on a budget. Is it safe to say games that take places on a boat are all good? 7.3/10