Recent reviews by MONT.CLAIR.ARE

A garbled and chaotic mockery of a fantasy game that asks: “What if you could swing the camera in isometric perspective?”

Lighthearted and fun and short. The atmosphere and mood are excellent.

So is it QUIMDUNG or QUICKDING? I can't keep track.

It's really nice to see super obscure games re-released on steam, especially with the death of flash.

I should love this, all the pieces are there - gameplay loops within loops within literal loops - it should be the perfect mindtrap but somehow it doesn't work for me. This is a pointless review I guess, have fun.

Short, weird and sort of a joke. Still the best thing a game can be is interesting. I judge value by how well I will remember something in a year or two or ten. Will it be absorbed into the blob of identical experiences? This definitely stands out.

But most importantly put the giant ♥♥♥♥♥ back in the game you coward.

My original review made it sound like a joke game, but it is much more than that. It captures self-defeating cruelty and vicious nihilism better than anything I have seen since Dilbert 3. It is edgy, but it actually cuts, HATRED wishes it could be this dark. The game flashes me through so many emotions that I kind of have a hard time getting them across. This is all helped by its sloppy tossed-together visuals, that mishmash so many styles and leave so many gaps that it forces my mind to fill in the blanks and plug in my own ideas. The gameplay is also ramshackle in ways that feed into the mood, working well enough to be a functional immersive-sim without giving up its chaotic unbalanced nature - there is no saving mid-mission, health is rare, and enemies are quick on the draw. Several of the levels are not as “polished” but it is still early access. The game is already magnificent so I can only look forward to future updates.

tldr: E.Y.E. via MS paint

Something doesn’t work here. I wish there was a neutral score but I'll give positive because I like what they tried and in the end I enjoyed it more than not.

The games seems like it should be mechanically sound, it is a Zachtronics game, but somehow the battles flow strangely. Many units are best suited for ambush - High damage but with short range and long setup times – but the AI sees all and will never take the bait making half of the roster completely useless. On many maps the best strategy is to ignore infantry and just rush in with your tanks. This isn’t great for such a deliberately paced game and relies too much on good damage rolls to work.

The game has good atmosphere. The story is told through short vignettes between missions that often have little to do with the larger story instead focusing on the opinions of several soldiers. These were interesting and showed how we can dehumanize anyone, even if they are literally ourselves. There were several really good moments, but none of them hit hard enough to really make it worth it. A really good build up with only a little to say. What it did say was good and I kind of hope I missed something here.

A trim and focused experience. This came out all the better because of the cut content which is odd.

It’s a common joke that cyberpunk is boiled down to an aesthetic without any point or meaning. This game goes beyond that. The “twist” was so blatantly obvious from the start that I assumed it must be a red herring. They must be going for some sort of double twist, some acrobatic plot thread. The watered-down copy-paste cyberpunk themes must just be a cover for something mind-blowing!

They were not. I was surprised. The twist got me, ironically.

The gameplay is quite good, though.

Except the bosses.

Strong setpeices and visuals and gameplay, It’s definitely Half-Life. I understand Valve’s commitment to making Gordon a blank slate for the player to insert themselves into, but it meant that Alyx was always more interesting. Thinking back on the old games I have to remind myself that it wasn’t “THE ADVENTURES OF ALYX and also mute sidekick.” It’s neat that she finally does get her own game.

Every few years I suddenly get the craving for spore. I wonder “Why have I never completed a run, that game was so cool!” I download, it I boot it up, I get partway through civ or space stage and then I remember: “oh, yeah, I hate spore.”

- Cell stage is the tightest gameplay-wise: an arcadey bumper cars game with directional damage.

- Creature stage is a mechanically strange open world squad based survival with your choice between boring combat and a tacticless Simon says minigame.

- Tribal stage is an RTS with barely any strategy

- Civ stage is a better RTS, with more strategy. This one is almost really good but the balance is all over the place.

- Space stage is an RPG, cant say much because I always quit during the tutorial.

This game is a million great ideas executed mediocrely. It has an unbelievable amount of promise. I wish I had it as a kid, I would have loved it then.