Recent reviews by SpaceMoose

This game made me so angry that I had to go and fund the kickstarter immediately; one chapter is NOT ENOUGH. This has seriously whet my appetite for more and I don't think I'll be content until the full story is released. If I could donate twice as much to get this released sooner, I would do so.

Abby Howard is amazing at horror and has such a unique storytelling 'voice' that I personally just can't get enough of.

So many games now are "It's a deckbuilder, but with this cool new twist!" and it usually ends up just a worse version of Slay the Spire, where the 'new twist' doesn't actually make the game any more fun.
This is NOT the case with Griftlands.

Here are the things that make Griftlands special among deckbuilders:
Using a card enough can let you upgrade it (from a random set of upgrades), this brings not only extra customization towards a deck strategy, but can sometimes upgrade it to a 'destroy' option, so sometimes you can get rid of a card that doesn't fit your strategy by playing it enough to upgrade it.
There is a plot, and you can raise or lower your relationship with various NPCs for discounts or even passive bonuses for gameplay.
You have two decks, one for combat encounters, one for social encounters. They both play VERY differently mechanically, but both feel fully fleshed out as game styles (helps keep things from getting repetitive).

Honestly it's a fun, fresh take on deckbuilders with enough depth to play over and over.

The one flaw is that the plot gets boring fast, there are currently only 2 characters with 1 plot apiece. And while there is some variability in their plots, based on who you side with and who you kill, it gets repetitive. There is a 'brawl' mode that just jumps from battle to battle, but that loses some of its charm.

The framework is there though; and if they open this up to modding, where people can customize their own plots and characters, this game could go from clever to HUGE.

It's pretty much peggle plus some _very_ light active skills and character abilities. Unfortunately the tiny gameplay bonus this mechanic brings comes at the expense of weakening the core mechanic pretty significantly.
Honestly if you like peggle, you'd probably be better off playing peggle.
If you don't like peggle, you probably won't like this anyways.
If you haven't played peggle, play it instead.

A beautiful game that does an excellent job adapting RPG mechanics to a absurdist-noir detective story.

The core mechanic is exploring, finding clues, and talking with people in order to unravel the case. Along the way you'll have to make decisions as to what you say and do, each of which can help or hurt the situation (or turn it on its head). You're not alone in this though, depending on your skills and ideas your cop-brain can help you with suggestions and insights mid-conversation so that you're not entirely alone in your decision-making process. The end result is making you feel not only like being an actual detective but that the stats and character decisions you made really change the type of detective you are.

Other important notes:
The characters you interact with are well written with personal motivation and stories. Learning about them is not only useful but frequently necessary to get the best out of your interactions with them.
The world itself is _very_ lore-heavy, and while it is a fascinating world you may on occasion find yourself overwhelmed with paragraph after paragraph about nations and history of this fictional world.
The writing is very clever and occasionally hilarious or fourth wall breaking (though still very immersive).
The story flavor may be largely governed by your decisions but expect something beautiful and bleak, a sad and wonderful love letter to existential absurdism.

This game was beautiful in every sense of the word. The controls are crisp, the progression feels fulfilling, the environments feel responsive and fully alive, and the story is quite moving. A little easier than some other similar games but no less significant or enjoyable.

I believe this game may have perfected the arcade-brawler.

The Arkham games (and to a lesser extent, the assassin's creed games) showed us how awesome brawlers could be by combining rythym and perception cues into an attack scheme. This game hones that mechanic down to the point it can be performed using just two buttons but expands upon it to give it a surprising amount of depth as you master timing and cues to an insane degree as pace picks up faster and faster. It's almost a rythym game but with fighting.

And I can't forget that the theme, weapons, and all sorts of other small cosmetic features really make you feel completely badass the whole time; which is honestly the best part about brawlers.

Oh, and the graphics are awful (likely intentionally so), but if it's fun then who cares?

A beautifully crafted story with a lovely environment and a dark lovecraftian theme. The story is linear and the puzzles are simple but interesting. Not quite as deep a story as, say, Dear Esther, but a great game nonetheless.

This game is a commentary / examination on choice, narrative, gaming, and storytelling. Or maybe it's just some incoherent navel-gazing on behalf of game makers. Doesn't matter. It's still hilarious and worth playing through. It may devolve into ending-collecting, which sort of defeats the message a bit; but the humor is consistent throughout and the game would be worth it just for that.

Please, though, don't read guides or any sort of spoilers for this until you've played it a lot.

An amazing piracy game wrapped up in a boring Assassin's Creed game. Seriously any time you start to have fun sailing, marauding, and fighting the game decides it's time to slowly follow someone through town again. Or, worse yet, meander slowly around an office building reading text (seriously, it's the worst). There are a few assassin's gems in there; taking out people one by one and honing in on your target, but the bad outweighs the good.

They did get one thing right though, and that's the sailing. The rolling of the ocean feels natural and ship to ship combat is fun. Fighitng off two ships at once during a storm is one of the more exciting events in any of my recent gaming. ...
... then it was time to wander around an office building some more. Ugh.

I did not expect to like this game. Puzzle games are great and all, even clever ones like this, but I usually find them less games and more vaguely entertaining diversions. A puzzle game with clever mechanics aaaand hilarious writing however? That makes it to the top of my list.

The game is quite short but the puzzles were interesting and rarely frustrating. The dialog choices between levels definitely helped my immersion and at many points had me laughing out loud. It's amazing how a little humor can elevate a game.