Recent reviews by O r e z

A mazing parody of The Witness.

💚 Diverse set of weapons allows you to fit your own playstyle.
💚 Interesting spells to collect and use.
💚 Collectable gear upgrades and consumables.
💚 Unlockable weapon combos add depth to combat.
💚 Secret areas sprinkled throughout each region.

❌ Frequent and long cutscenes interrupt pacing and player freedom.
❌ Overly dramatic and cartoonish anime-esque characters and dialogue.
❌ Take damage on any enemy contact, while attacking enemies makes you step forward into them.

Likes
💚 Very fast combat and movement.
💚 Choose your fighting style via weapon type.
💚 Talents and stats allow you to create your own build synergies.
💚 Melee + Ranged gameplay offers interesting choices and combinations to experiment with.
💚 Excellent telegraphing animations give you the opportunity to dodge multiple attacks like an action hero.
💚 Advanced movement techniques available from the beginning (Slide + Jump + Jump).
💚 "Animation cancels" add depth to combat (Shotgun -> Dash -> Melee).
💚 Novel pixelart using mixed 2D and "down-rendered" 3D with dynamic shadows and lighting effects.
💚 Dropped currency automatically moves toward you when close enough. No need to slow down to pick things up!
💚 Forgiving "ledge grab" animation when jumping to the side of a ledge.
💚 Secrets hidden throughout each zone. Some are only unlockable after certain tech is acquired.
💚 Death doesn't feel frustrating; you're able to retrieve your currency from the spot you died at.
💚 Very few cutscenes; most are just short boss introductions.

Dislikes
❌ Weak story doled out via journal entries kills the pacing.
❌ Getting the character to aim at your intended target can be difficult.
❌ Crit Chance and Crit Damage seem to be missing from the stats screen.
❌ Fighting enemies on the end of ledge from below can be really frustrating because you keep grabbing and falling.

Summary
📖 Blazing fast gun & sword combat right out of a fighting game, progressive loot to fit your playstyle, and interesting enemies & bosses. If you like fighting games and/or platformers with more depth to their combat, definitely give Forgone a try.

Likes
💚Meta gameplay concept.
💚Early game deconstructing of menus and buttons.
💚Interesting puzzles with multiple dimensions to think about.

Dislikes
❌Becomes a video game genre tour.
❌So many cutscenes and so much talking while locked behind a red cursor. Let me play the game that doesn't exist.
❌Prevented from solving obvious puzzles while you wait for the "narrator" to speak out hints. No skip option for dialogue.
❌Verbal hints are provided by the "narrator" for the most obvious puzzles, but silence for the unapparent mechanisms.
❌Hint button provides hints with increasing specificity, but makes you wait between hints when you've already figured out and tried the first couple.
❌All items have a direct use, but some have hidden secondary mechanics and you're expected to know that's an option.
❌Some animations look like they are enough to solve certain puzzles, but additional action is needed for no reason.

Summary
⛋ BELOW is a unique, challenging, minimalist, atmospheric survival adventure paced between white-knuckle exploration, intense combat, and adventure through beautiful, yet solemn and foreboding environments. It offers unparalleled atmosphere, though little in the way of answers, and zero dialogue or exposition. You will not be warned of the dangers ahead, but are rewarded for your patience and perseverance with better tools, shortcut "checkpoints", and permanent progression between lives. BELOW is not a crowd-pleaser; it unapologetically but competently stakes out its niche and hammers home the delivery. I have not been this captivated by a gaming experience in quite some time, and I hope to see more of the same from this studio in the future.

Likes
💚Unparalleled atmosphere with fitting pseudo-ambient soundtrack.
💚Minimalist design that boils down genre staples to their fun fundamentals.
💚Exploration rewards uncovered secrets, items, and unlocks.
💚Permanent progression beyond your current life.
💚Dying and retrieving your past equipment is aided by a "one-time" fast-travel option and several unlockable shortcuts.
💚Survival mode adds a "ticking clock" element that squeezes you between a need to move faster to avoid starving and the need to slow down to avoid traps and enemies. I never would have expected to be so excited and relieved to catch and eat elusive dungeon rats.
💚No control-stealing cutscenes outside of the beginning and end.
💚(Limited) procedural generation keeps revisited areas interesting.
💚Optional easier difficulty mode.
💚[Subjective] Well-tuned difficulty. Was challenging enough without being frustrating.

Warnings
⚠️Most mechanics aren't explained; they have to be studied and deduced from experience and are often found by accident.
⚠️You will die to new dangers suddenly and without much introduction. I feel like I would normally be frustrated, but the aforementioned mechanics alleviate this learning process.
⚠️Expects that you speak a certain "language of video games": that you know to press-and-hold buttons for different effects, and experiment with weapons and the lantern on both enemies and environment.
⚠️Crafting resources are spread out to different regions, rewarding route planning, but may feel grindy.
⚠️The slow-burn 5-minute wordless intro communicates the game's atmosphere, tone, and requirement of patience. The cutscene can be skipped, but if you find you don't have the attention span for it, the rest of the game might not be for you.

Dislikes
❌Lack of information about armor and elixir effects. Some of these effects are so subtle and may or may not ever be discovered by the player, but can be extremely useful. Even one sentence descriptions would empower players to make more strategic decisions.
❌Lack of crafting information. Trial and error is core to BELOW's philosophy, but coupled with the fact that you're prevented from combining correct recipe items until you have all 3, it can feel like a grindy waste of time. The alternative of reading a wiki feels a bit like cheating and risks spoilers. One additional menu with discovered and undiscovered recipes would save hours of farming.

Technical
💚No FPS lock
⚠️Very few accessibility options. No zoom or high contrast mode.
❌Can't change controller keybinds natively (but can via Steam or other tools).
❌Doesn't update audio device to new default. Switching to headphones requires reload.
🐞Invisible walls bug. Fixed by quitting to menu and reloading the room.

Tips
💡Take notes. Write down discovered crafting recipes, and areas where you found certain items.
💡Sketch a map of how each floor is connected and where campfires are placed so you can plan your routes beforehand.

Games with Similar Themes
🎮The Legend of Zelda
🎮Titan Souls
🎮Rain World
🎮Shadow of the Colossus

Summary
Fast combat with different weapons and spells, but feels more like a 2000-era flash game than a full standalone title. If the combat looks fun and you don't mind mandatory auto aim, buy it on sale.

Likes
💚Top-down Shooter action.
💚Dark Western theme.
💚Offers unlockable weapons and spells to fit your playstyle.

Dislikes
❌Story is delivered primarily through tedious text-based conversations.
❌Underwhelming meta-progression via purchasable gear.
❌Auto-aim is permanently enabled.
❌Level loading pops in and out in a jarring, unfinished way.

TL;DR: Recommended as a decent addition to the criminally underrepresented space horror genre, but beware the numerous technical issues and bugs listed below that greatly hinder enjoyment. Non-QWERTY users may need to switch layouts because keybinding options are incomplete and somewhat ignored.

Likes
💚Space horror / thriller theme
💚HAL simulator: control the cameras and systems of a space station!
💚Zero-G environment and maneuvering.
💚Unfolding mystery cryptically revealed in plain sight.
💚B̢͖̠̮̜R̖͚̜͓͖I̮̯Ņ̗̦̩̭G ̩͈̖̹̠H̛̗̜͕̦̟̜E͎͇̭̠̖͝R̫̀

Dislikes
❌Nauseating Sphere controls with intended input lag.
❌Can't ascend/descend while moving.
❌The means to achieve some objectives can be very unclear.

Technical
❌Changing graphics options can toggle inaccessible 60 fps cap.
❌Disallowed from changing important keybinds.
❌Move keybinds can be changed, but WASD are still used in actions.
❌Numpad doesn't work for inputting numbers.
❌Constantly hits my firewall presumably trying to send analytics.

Bugs
🐞Occasional infinite loading screen on startup; have to Alt+F4.
🐞Occasional crash on startup.
🐞Cursor breaks when scrolling in options menu.
🐞Laptop connection sound plays infinitely after quickly disconnecting.
🐞Culling bug: missing hatch with invisible wall appears open to space.

TL;DR: Begins with great atmosphere and mechanics, but quickly abandons its advertised gameplay.

💚 Uniquely atmospheric horror-themed card game.
💚 Well-designed puzzle & Escape Room elements.
💚 Creepy & interesting Roguelite storytelling.
💚 Meta-progression; explore and find cards to grow your starter deck.
💚 Unfolding mystery with additional found footage narrative.
💚 Relatively bug-free, except for some edge-case annoyances.

❌ Abandons the format and atmosphere advertised in the trailer and game description.
❌ Inverted difficulty curve; the game gets trivially easy by the end.
❌ Threatens to delete files on your hard drive.
❌ Made a card out of a photo of my friend who passed away and made me kill it.
❌ Allows save-scumming for different random outcomes.

TL;DR: Fun concept and unlocks, but clunky, chaotic execution with annoying bugs. Try before you buy.

💚 Fast-paced explosive action!
💚 Interesting classes with unique abilities.
💚 Tons of unlocks and meta-progression.
💚 In-mission upgrades, weapon & item purchases, & risk/reward offerings.
💚 Choose your difficulty & reward via optional modifiers.
💚 Online co-op & shared co-op skills.

❌ Always-on friendly fire.
❌ Two-hotkey reload system feels clunky.
❌ Often die without knowing why. Not enough telegraphing or visual clarity from certain attacks.
❌ Consistently run out of primary ammo in early levels.
❌ Can't rebind controller hotkeys.
❌ "Pitfall" tiles look like walls that enable cover, but enemies shoot through them.
❌ Some gaps in cover look traversable, but block and corner you.

🐞 Crash on mission ending, before rewards.
🐞 Music volume setting doesn't change anything until the current track finishes.
🐞 Alt+Tab resets game window size.
🐞 Punctuation keys aren't displayed correctly on ability hotkeys.
🐞 Controller vibration always running.

✔️ Wonderful atmosphere of mystery and discovery with appropriately paced storytelling.
✔️ Beautiful & intricate mechanical wood and metal puzzles.
✔️ Countless buttons, switches, dials, gears, doors, hatches, etc. to interact with.
✔️ Thoughtful forgiving design that many puzzle games lack.
✔️ Optional internal hint system is useful to prevent getting stuck and frustrated.

⚠️ Not the most challenging game. Some puzzles are little more than moving each part into its target.

❌ The inability to click around or move during camera animation can be frustrating. Sometimes you have to click an object several times because the camera seems to have stopped moving but the animation hasn't fully completed.

🖥️ Advanced graphics options available in menus.