Recent reviews by Rozczos

It's a very competent port of a PS2/GC game for modern PCs. In terms of gameplay, it's clear that the game is two decades old. The controls, while modernized for this port, are a bit clunky. Automatic aiming tends to jump between enemies or target civilians in the middle of combat. So I gave up on the Steam Deck after two missions and completed the game on PC with mouse and keyboard.

It's a bit of a shame that Aspyr didn't redesign the bounty system. In the heat of battle, it's hard to scan all the enemies looking for a bounty. Especially if they are grouped together. Another thing is the artificial intelligence of the enemies. They tend to jump from platforms into oblivion, killing themselves in the process. This is especially frustrating if you want to catch all the bounties alive (Death Stick Factory is the pinnacle of this).

Nevertheless it's a great Star Wars story and I actually had a good time getting all of achievements.

A beautiful, charming adventure for an evening or two. Beautiful watercolor graphics and relaxing music made it a great companion to a Gabe Boy session in bed for me.

Snufkin took me back to the days when I watched the Moomins before bed as a child. If you have similar memories, you will have a great time. If not, this is a very linear, simple game. Some say it's not worth the price, but for me it's certainly worth it.

Calling it a mod is an understatement. Portal: Revolution to me IS Portal 3. Maybe without tons of mindblowing new mechanics, flashing new tech behind it but you can see here the respect for the source material and the authors' diligence. New mechanics seems like they've been in Portal 2 from start. Story? Great! VA's for Stirling and Emilia? Top notch. Revolution have same quirky, funny dialogues as the original games. The puzzles can be uneven, unclear at times and certain sections outside the test chambers can be monotonous, but given that this is a game created by fans, for fans it is great. Honestly one of my favourite experiences this year.

It was hard to choose an answer to the question “Would you recommend this game to other players?” because the answer is not simple at all. In the end, it's “Yes,” but it's a perfect example of “Maybe.” Don't get me wrong, it's a good game that just suffers from a few bad design decisions.

First of all, the game has a gorgeous, beautiful graphic style that reminds me of the Ori games. On the OLED Steam Deck, the colors are vibrant and it just looks good. It also has a pleasant soundtrack and surprisingly good voice acting.

However. In terms of gameplay, the Seasons after Fall has a few issues. First of all, due to the level design and graphical style, the maps are quite confusing and it's easy to get lost in them. There aren't many reference points with which to determine exactly where you are. Many levels are corridor-like, with repetitive elements that look exactly the same, and you'll probably, like me, find yourself circling the map looking for an exit or a way to push the plot forward. In my opinion, game desperately needs a map.

Another thing is the way the game communicates with the player. Quite often I didn't know where to go or what the game expected me to do. Unfortunately, I had to open the tutorial a few times to check it out.

Performance-wise, it's not bad, but there are locations that cause the frames to drop by a third (e.g. Foliage). But usually the frame rate is stable.

Ultimately, it's a nice adventure for 2-3 evenings despite all its flaws.

This review is based on playing on PC.

Drova is a 2D action RPG set in a Celtic setting that many people, including myself, refer to it as Gothic in 2D (without the awful controls), and this is, in my opinion, quite an accurate comparison. The developers themselves write on their website that they were inspired by games like Morrowind and Gothic. The climate of the game is equally heavy, the feeling during exploration is very similar, and also some solutions in building the game world are borrowed from those games.


The construction of the world and the placement of enemies is very similar to the Gothic. The developers, placing enemies in specific places on the map, build invisible walls, thus letting us know that we are not strong enough to explore these areas. We will, of course, return to the same places when we level up our character and discover more locations or secrets guarded by enemies. The map itself is not particularly large. For this, Drova makes up for it with the detail of the locations. The wilderness is literally dotted with enemies, and vegetation that we can collect. We can also find quite a lot of caves - from small, abandoned hideouts hiding a few items to huge cave complexes connecting different places on the map. The locations and biomes are very diverse. However, my biggest complaint is that the locations are sometimes very uneven. The caves are sometimes unnecessarily extensive. Many of them are simply empty, with the same monsters and a handful of items. The swamps south-east of Nemeton, despite being quite a large location, are actually visited maybe twice or thrice and there are not many enemies there either. The cities themselves, on the other hand, are very nicely designed. NPCs have their own routines, a bed to which they go at night. Some of them chat with other NPCs. In the Remnants camp, we even have an arena where the best warriors in Drova fight, whose battles we can bet on and later even join the ranks of gladiators.


The game's combat system itself is nothing new or revolutionary, but Drova does it very well. We have a fairly simple, yet varied arsenal of long and short-range weapons to choose from. Two-handed axes, swords, shields, daggers, spears, slingshots, bows. Each weapon has its own combos, as well as active and passive skills, which we can learn after gaining the appropriate level of mastery in wielding a given weapon. In addition, in combat we can assist ourselves with various traps, nets that we can throw at enemies or bombs. To acquire a particular skill we need to find a teacher. Combat is quite satisfying, but also has its problems. While fighting more than two monsters is still feasible, fighting more than two humans is already a challenge. Since NPCs also have the same skills and combos at their disposal as we do, fighting more than two human opponents at once is a struggle. If we don't use traps or immobilize one of the opponents, they all rush at us, giving little opportunity to launch attacks without risking damage. During the fight we generate Focus which allows us to use the active skills of our weapons and magic. Because yes there is magic here too. We can throw a magic projectile at our opponents, summon a horde of insects, or summon a fiery tornado that deals massive damage around our character. The more powerful the skill is, the more focus we will spend on using it. Both we and our adversaries have stance indicators that, after taking enough damage, will stun us or the opponent for a short while. You can then use this time to heal yourself or effortlessly land a few more attacks on your opponent.


Drova also has plentiful of minor mechanics. Fishing, mining, and opening locks are served in the form of mini-games that are very nicely designed. A great tidbit is the uprooting of mandragoras. Yes, those noisy roots that can kill with a scream. In the game we can find earplugs that will allow us to easily snatch a screaming mandragora and slap it on the head so that it can go into our inventory as a crafting item. Interestingly, wearing these earplugs also changes the tone of the background music to a slightly muted one. A very cool flavor that immediately caught my ear. The aforementioned crafting is quite extensive. We can smelt ores in furnaces, create our own items, brew potions and cook. Cooking is very nicely designed and is not just here to fill our character's hunger bar. Some of the more advanced recipes add some passive bonuses to our character. For example +10% to maximum health, or +3% to the chance of dealing critical damage. In addition, maintaining a certain level of satiety heals our character slowly after receiving damage.

As for the main storyline, the game definitely suffers from the same condition as the first Gothic. I spent most of the game's time in the First Chapter, and this is where the majority of side quests is found, which are definitely more interesting than the initial part of the main plot, which focuses on convincing more NPCs to get us to join their faction. Of course, when you move on to the next chapter, more side quests appear however there are not too many of them. In short, I completed the game in 37 hours, while the First Chapter alone took me about 20 hours. The side quests themselves range from the cliché “hand out food to the villagers on the farm” to elaborate quests stretching over several chapters, during which we discover various secrets and acquire powerful artifacts. The game also does not hold the player by the hand. As in Gothic or Morrowind, the best we get from the NPCs we meet is a verbal description of the direction or location - zero markers. Just like in Gothic we need to stock up on a map. But, which is a very nice addition, on this map after buying ink we can mark interesting places ourselves (we have a choice of several different markers).

Indie game budget also means a rather modest soundtrack. Although here it's more ambient than ambitious, orchestral pieces. Each location or biome in Drova has its own theme and it builds the atmosphere of the game quite nicely. The cities resound with decidedly warmer tunes, while in the wilderness we'll hear a track that intensifies the feeling of anxiety from enemies lurking everywhere. As for the graphic style, I don't have too many complaints. The graphics are very nice and quite clear, but they definitely require learning which objects on the map we can interact with and which ones we can't. There were a few moments, even after many hours of play, when I discovered that I could interact with a particular item on the map. The variety of opponents is not particularly mind-blowing. Most have maybe two or three subtypes. However, the developers continue to develop their game and in recent update 1.2 they added additional subtypes for one of the monsters as well as additional attacks for existing ones on higher difficulty levels.

Is it worth it? Now that I've completed it, I can say with certainty that Drova is my Personal GOTY 2024. It is by no means a flawsless game. But it definitely works in favor of the title that the Developers continue to add new content and develop their creation based on the feedback they receive. Shocking considering that this is not Early Access and the game itself currently costs 20€ on Steam's Winter Sale. 1/3 or even 1/4 the price of a modern AAA game for a very competent action RPG is a great deal. In my opinion, it's definitely worth playing and I'll surely do another playthrough to learn the story from the Remnants' perspective and get the missing achievements :)

Timeless classic

This was my first game in 2024 where I happily completed 100% of the achievements. I'm sucker for pixel graphics and Pixel Remaster was a great journey. It's a very simple jRPG, but considering the original platform it was released for, it aged very well.

Beautifully rearranged soundtrack and graphics, yet still faithful to the original. Plus a revamped user interface, automatic combat and other quality of life improvements. All I can say is that it was my best retro gaming experience this year.

This review is based on playing on Steam Deck.

If the classic Mega Man and Super Mario games had an offspring, it would certainly be called Fallen Leaf - a retro style platformer which takes inspiration from classic games of the genre and elevate it with a little bit more modern controls and features to serve us a competent retro platformer experience. But how does it play in 2024? Let's dig right in.



Long time ago an ancient evil known as Lord Xankulos has been trapped in magic chest by a powerful wizard Willow. In the present day the titular Leaf, a young treasure hunter, during one of his journeys release Xankulos from his prison. With him he also freed Willow, whose legend overshadowed his rather peculiar character. He receives from him magical gauntlets that from now on are going to help him with his voyages and is entrusted by Willow with the task of finding the Stone of Power that will help them seal Xankulos away once and for all.

During the course of the game, we will travel through six diverse worlds (seven counting epilogue level). During exploration of these new lands, we'll meet new NPCs, unlock other playable characters, hidden areas, encounter new enemies, and avoid all the deadly traps just to get closer of defeating Xankulos for good.

The story is full of dialogues that usually plays at the end of the level and Fallen Leaf have almost overwhelming amount of NPCs and the dialogues we can carry out with them. In each map there are a few hubs in which we can meet NPCs that are selling upgrades, new weapons, or are relevant to many hidden quests.


The developers were clearly inspired by old Mega Man in terms of gamplay. During course of the game we'll unlock lots of other playable characters. Each with different set of skills and attacks. For example Leaf can slide and have more powerful attack than his sister Petal. She joins us shortly after we start our game. Petal can't slide like her brother but she jumps higher and have her flying friend Pollen shoot weaker projectiles at the enemies when she attacks.

I personally feel like feature of additional characters is heavily underused. I beat the game by playing Petal 95% of the time because of how much the Pollen ability makes combat easier. In the whole game you're supposed to use all your characters in an epilogue that to start requires you to collect all ten available characters. And that's pretty much the only instance when level is clearly designed to make use of all characters. I would prefer earlier levels design to suggest the use of certain characters that we unlock during the course of the story or to hide some secrets so that they are available only after using the skills of a particular character. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort is happening.

In addition to new characters we can unlock twelve different special weapons than consumes mana when used. These powerful weapons would become handy when facing difficult enemies or bosses. The more powerful weapon the more mana it use upon activation. Also in most levels we can find items that will upgrade our character attack power and alter slightly their attacks. Works exactly like collecting Magic Mushroom and Fire Flower in Super Mario Bros and we'll loose this upgrade when receiving damage.

Controls are pretty standard for this type of game. They are precise, characters are responsive, without visible delay between button press and action. If I had to complain about something it's that back button is by default bind to X instead of B on the XBox controller which can be easily changed in the options.

In terms of hidden stuff it's very much like Metroid or Castlevania. Each level contains a secret to be found in addition to item in Gold Chest at the end. In most cases it's going to be a Peamen to be found in more or less hidden place on the level. If we collect sufficient amount of Peamen and return them to The Mother Stalk we'll unlock new upgrade to all our characters. Levels can also contain hidden maps to be found that unlock secret levels with useful NPCs or other secrets left by developers. Fortunately, developers came up with the idea to add characters in later stages who, for a small fee, will show us the places and NPCs we still have to visit to discover a secret or unlock a feature. We also have access to an in-game encyclopedia that contains information about NPCs we have met.


As for the graphics, the game certainly refers to the style of retro platformers that were released for third-generation consoles. As Fallen Leaf is not hardware-limited as games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, the developers created a lot of unique assets for both our characters, NPCs and maps. The result is wonderfully stylized graphics with lots of detail.

The retro graphics are complemented by equally retro music. Fallen Leaf has as many as 112 tracks in its soundtrack, which is no small amount considering that this is an indie game. The music matches levels wonderfully, the sound effects also fits great performed actions. The music played at the end of a level completion is still running through my head to this day.


I started to play Fallen Leaf a week after its release and I must admit that the game was very well polished. During my more than fifteen-hour playthrough, I once experienced a bug that forced me to restart a level. And that's really it. I wish more launches like this in the gaming world.


Fallen Leaf is, for me, a great companion for Steam Deck. The short levels make you have the urge to grab Gabe Boy on the bus and play a level or two while traveling. In terms of performance and battery life, because of its low requirements I didn't manage to run the battery level down to zero during any of the sittings and the console itself doesn't actually heat up at all.


Is Fallen Leaf worth it? I'm happy to say that it is. If you're a fan od 2D platformers and enjoyed classic Mario, Mega Man, Castlevania or Metroid this is definitely game for you. It's very much a labor of love and it shows by how much work has been put into gameplay and it's features. It is by no means a perfect game, but a really competent retro experience.

This review is based on playing on Steam Deck.

Kao the Kangaroo is the reboot of the adventures of iconic marsupial intended for the youngest generation of gamers. Like its predecessors, is a 3D action platformer with charming cartoon graphics, diverse levels and environments. But how has 17 years since the release of the previous installment affected our Kangaroo?



The titular Kao wakes up from a bizarre dream in which his recently missing sister Kaia appears. As it turns out, his father also disappeared. Unable to sit still, our young hero puts on his father's magic boxing gloves and goes on an adventure with his trainer, Walt, to find his sister and dad.

During the course of the game, we will travel through four diverse levels: Hopalloo Island, Hungry Jungle, Frozen Mountains and Isle of Eternity. By exploring these new lands, we'll unlock new abilities, encounter new enemies, and avoid all the deadly traps just to get closer to discovering the truth behind the disappearance of our loved ones.

The latest Kao is a story aimed more at the youngest players. Slightly infantile dialogue mixed with teenage slang bits will definitely not appeal to older players. Voice acting isn't also a masterpiece, but given how rare the cutscenes are in this game, it didn't bother me all that much. Basically, VA is on the level of a children's cartoon. Could be worse. You can also see where the cut in production costs was due to the fact that DLC Bend the Rooles doesn't even have voiced dialogues.


Kao is a pretty straightforward action platformer. We jump, we avoid traps, and we fight. In the core game, we'll traverse four vastly different biomes, each with unique traps, mechanics and enemies. On each level there are diamonds to collect, scrolls containing lore knowledge, treasure chests, heart pieces expanding our max health, runes unlocking next maps and KAO letters unlocking new wardrobe pieces which we can buy with collected coins.

The core of our abilities are Kao's father's magic boxing gloves. As we play we will expand range of skills of our Kangaroo with new moves like throwing a hook to swing on a crystals, infusing gloves with elements of fire, ice and wind which we will use to solve simple puzzles and to defeat our enemies. Each level have a map that serves as a HUB from which we can other 3-4 maps including boss area. In order to progress story and unlock new levels we have to beat end boss of given level.

Neither the puzzles, the fights nor the bosses themselves are particularly difficult. Nevertheless game have moments of difficulty spike mainly due to technical aspects. Chase fragments can be frustrating due to camera positioning. Throwing a hook and swinging on crystals is in my opinion very clunky and doesn't feel very good to use.

Combat is there and that's about it. It isn't very much different from Kao: Round 2. Our set of attack is very simple. Boxing, rolling, tail attack, leg attack and finisher blast you can use once you fill bar with attacks on enemies and dodging their attacks. Due to how short game is you won't see some enemies very often. But the variety is there and enemies are only recycled in the last level and in DLC.

Speaking of DLC... It's a bit of a shame that Bend the Rooles isn't expansion of core game but it plays as a separate save. All your extra lives you get in base game won't have any use in a DLC maps. But Bend the Rooles shows what base Kao was missing. It raises a difficulty level a bit but to a pleasant level. Also it adds new mechanics that I'd love to see in a base game.


As I mentioned above, the graphics are reminiscent of a animated cartoons. In my opinion, they are not inferior in quality to more expensive productions despite its small budget. Locations are vibrant, models are beautifully stilized, animations are nice. This graphics style change dictated by how modern 3D platformers generally looks like fits Kao really well.

Sound design and music fits game really well. It may not be the most diverse soundtrack but each level have it's own theme, SFX are okay too. I'm really happy authors kept original coin collect sound effect. This iconic sound is to me what makes this The Kao game.


Kao definitely needs some polishing. In the very first cutscene with Polish voice acting the subtitles did not match the dialogue. Some graphical bugs are also there. Fallen enemies suddenly disappear, Kao being stuck in geometry forcing to restart level, hanging off of a ledge at a bad angle. Some people especially in console versions are complaining about achievements not working correctly which didn't occur to me.


Game plays nicely on Deck but not perfectly. First of all it drops frames from 60 to 30 often in the first level. It's quite surprising giving the fact that usually first levels are the most polished ones. I think the problem is that Hopalloo Island have a lot of grass which quite often may affect performance. Had also problem with performance in DLC when there were a lot of rotating blade logs on screen.

Battery longevity and game optimization could be better. Fully charged Steam Deck could last maybe 2 hours of gameplay on High graphic settings.


Is Kao the Kangaroo reboot we've been waiting for? Despite all its issues, lack of polish and overall low budget I can for sure say: yes. Yes it was. It's the same clunky Kao we had as kids. And by no means it was a bad experience. I had a lot of fun maxing out the game and getting all the achievements. It's been a great 17 hours (time I spent on the base game, DLC and earning all the achievements) and if you spot game on Steam Sale like I did it's a great choice. And I’m so happy that this iconic Kangaroo from my childhood can now be brought to a younger generation.

This is the most fun consumer electronics manual I've ever had.