Recent reviews by Mothball Prophecies

This is the Castlevania game I've been dreaming about for years. The learning curve isn't too steep, there's a lot to explore, and the crafting/customization adds a lot of depth to the game.

Perhaps on of the best "just one more turn" strategy games I've played. The depth, aesthetics, music, and intrigue of the unknown have kept me up until dawn on more than one occasion.

So far, Dead Cells has been the first Metroidvania/Roguelike that I've enjoyed. That the developers keep refining game mechanics and visuals makes it even better.

It took me a while to start playing Elite Dangerous, and I went in with the wrong mindset. If you are in this as a race against yourself to get the biggest ship, you are not going to have fun, at all. If, however, you enjoy the sights our galaxy has to offer, along with planetary landings, discovering unexplored territory, and the occasional alien artifact, you are going to have a lot of fun.

I got into this just as Horizons was released (and yes, I'd played the older iterations of this series going back to the 80s), and I'm very pleased. It actually offers quite a bit for those who like to chill out and fly solo missions, work with some great organizations in open play, or take part in community events. It's perfect for me to play when I have 15 minutes to do a quick mission on my lunch break, or when I want to go into "the unknown" for hours, late at night.

If you want fast action, this may not be the game for you. But if you like a more casual pace, a solid foundation to which things are being thoughfully added regularly by the developers, then I highly recommend you check out Elite: Dangerous.

It is one of the best space games that's actually been released in the past 4 years, and probably will be for some time.

I liked the music, and I really liked the look. Some of the maps suffered from things like enemies being able to shoot from outside of the field of vision, which made finishing levels in a single run nearly impossible, and resulted in a LOT of trial by memorization.

I had fun with this game - in short sessions. There was a point where I was wondering if there was going to be an "end," and the actual finale came WAY after that point - so I wouldn't recommend playing this in marathon sessions. If you like pixelated gore and occasional (i.e. you get lucky) runs that have a faux 8/16-bit John Woo meets Sam Peckinpah guns n' blood fest, then this game is for you. The story itself is very loosely implied (it ranks somewhere just above the plot to the original Centipede arcade game), so just use those intermissions to un-cramp your thumbs and wipe the sweat off your palms.

Fun? Yes.
Would I play it more than once? No.

I'm late to this game (having restarted it like three times after putting it down for extended periods of time), but here goes the review.

Maybe I was spoiled by having played Black Flag before completing this one, but for all the hype I was seeing when this was released, the game was just...bland. The main character was not the brightest, a flaw I could handle, given he was sort of thrust into the larger storyline - but it made for so many stilted conversations, and pauses in the game for exposition in order to make up for the way the arc sort of jumps around.

Visually, I really enjoyed the game. Gameplay-wise, anything's better than the first one. The story was just...bad. I don't expect James Joyce or anything from writers, but if the conceit of this game is that every major conspiracy you'd find on abovetopsecret.com is really an eternal struggle between Templars and Assassins over alien technology, then the founding of the United States is like a veritable toy chest of rumors and plotlines for everyone from the casual reader of history to the tinfoil hat crowd. Yet the best we get is Oak Island - and that's only if you are willing to explore those sidequests.

But between boring gameplay and a story that was too wrapped up in telling and not showing - making me feel like the game couldn't decide whether it wanted me to play it, or sit through a narrative interrupted with short missions to make sure I was paying attention - is a very unsatisfying experience, overall. Maybe the developers wanted me to feel no real investment in the other characters, so I could better identify with Connor, who was also a fish out of water thrust into doing things for others that he didn't particularly care for. Or perhaps I'm just projecting too much.

Was it worth the $10 I paid? Yes. I got $10 worth of entertainment out of it, and many hours on top of that which I will never be able to reclaim. Then again, I'm easily entertained. Would I recommend it? No. I've played through the story, and I'm feeling zero replay value in this.

Go play AC: Black Flag, instead.

A really fun top-down, twin-stick shooter wrapped in the guide of a road trip riddled with monsters and demons. The game is filled with weapon upgrades, boss monsters, and a visual style that brings me back to the 16-bit era. The game plays great with either keyboard/mouse or a controller, and the tone of the game (you are driving through hell - like in a car, capable of firing missiles, because a demon blew up your favorite bar) is really fun and doesn't take itself too seriously, which is refreshing.

I guess one could read into it a bit too much and glean a point about who is really the monster: the demon, or the couple willing to hunt him down because they couldn't get a drink, but I'm too busy blowing stuff up to care about morality in games. I have demons to kill, so pour me another!

A really fun game, and definitely worth the asking price!