Recent reviews by TheHornfreak

I just got to the credits. This game is fine. It's exactly what you think it will be; no more and no less. If you're looking for a way to mindlessly waste some time, and this is at a steep discount, it's worth a grab.

Tails of Iron is a hack-and-slash action game that put an emphasis on dodging, parrying, and counter-attacking. The player gets overt signals, in the form of red or yellow indicators, that explicitly instruct one on how to engage the enemy. This turns the game into Dance Dance Revolution, except you're using a controller and the only music that you hear is incredibly annoying. Every battle feels exactly the same and plays out the same.

This game lacks soul. Someone had too many derivative ideas and this led to a mess of weird inventory systems, three in-game currencies that are almost entirely useless, a generic story, and a world that is shockingly tiny and uninteresting. The game does actually look quite nice, but that's the only real positive that I find myself leaving with.

There are so many better versions of what this is trying to do. This game would have been so much better with some obvious changes: Get rid of at least one of the three pointless currencies, simplify the equipment menus and offer an explanation of what weight does, rework bosses so that they don't all attack on a predicable loop, speed up everything (especially the "dialogue"), increase jump height if you're going to have any kind of platforming, and maybe ease up on the bad puns.

This game was like getting excited for lunch, but someone got your order wrong.

I went into this game blind and I am very glad for it. I typically play metroidvanias, challenging platformers, retro, or puzzle games; Dark Souls took what I love about all of those genres and made what was one of my favorite gaming experiences. Exploring the world and braving the unknown was such a thrill, but there's more reward to be found in replaying the game with different strategies and mastering the many boss fights.

The world is interconnected in a very satisfying way and often gives that feeling one has in a metroidvania when opening up a useful shortcut between areas. Whenever the player feels like they have everything down, the game ramps up and throws something new and wild at you. Dark Souls is punishing and hard by design, so that a player has to really learn the game if they want to succeed. The boss fights are well-choreographed puzzles that flow so well.

So many memories will stick with me from my first run of this game and I've beaten it five more times, as of writing this review. The elevator from the Undead Parish back to Firelink made me say "whoa" out loud when I first took it down. Blighttown. Getting through Sen's Fortress. Seeing Anor Londo. Ornstein & Smough. Knight Artorias was so fun the first time!

There's also a ton of awful memories, but that's what makes the game great. Sometimes you just have to die in a funny or wildly unfair way. It keeps you on your toes. There's also Bed of Chaos and there's really not much to do about that.

I cannot recommend this enough. You will know if it's for you, or not, within the first half hour. If not, you can still return it with time to spare. If, however, you enjoyed the introduction of the game, then you are in for a treat.

P.S. I am still terrible at parrying.

This game feels like a big DLC for the first game. As far as mechanics and gameplay go, not much has changed. The music is still rad and the story is just as incomprehensible, if not significantly more; because there are three different timelines and what felt like six or seven different protagonists. There's also a level editor built in-game.

The difficulty is cranked up a bit, but it's still fair. I believe that there are around 22-24 levels and it wouldn't be too hard to finish them all in a couple days. I managed to get all but four achievements in about thirteen hours of gameplay (closer to ten).

There are many different characters to play as and some of them offer some very interesting experiences. Getting to use the flamethrower with one of them is a treat. Most characters offer three or four customization options, but it's not like having the full access to masks in the original game.

Overall, this was a fun way to pass time, but the story really held the game down, for me. It reads like an edgy, drunk teen from the eighties had his revenge journal made into a game. There are multiple timelines and multiple Points-of-view, most tenuously connected to anything. It seems like it's trying to make a statement about something, but the message I got was to just give up and realize that you can't change things; just like this honest review.

I do not consider this to be a video game; it is more of a choose-your-own-adventure book taken to a fun extreme.

It is very good at that, and even very entertaining at times, but people should know that this is more of a guided, solo DnD session than a video game.

This game is quite spectacular to look at and the controls are very forgiving in this fun platformer. You'll never feel lost and while the game is quite linear, you will be rewarded for straying from the main path from time to time. If you like platforming, then you will love this. Some of the escape sections provide a fun challenge and it can be tricky to find a few out-of-the-way items.

The game is quite short and I'd wished the combat aspects felt like more than a second-thought. I went in thinking this would be like Hollow Knight or Guacamelee, but this is more platformer than metroidvania. Also, some of the achievements seem to be bugged and, as an achievement hunter, I fond that annoying.

I don't know if it's possible for me to say enough good things about this game. From the way the story is told, to the unique environments, immersive music, tight game play, and the very, very satisfying boss fights: this game is a dream.

It handles so well and fast. You'll find yourself lost in exploration and loving every second of it. You'll get stuck on a hard boss and feel accomplished once you best them. You'll immediately want to jump back in and see what you've missed once you beat it.

This game is a treat; a pure delight. I will make a point to keep an eye out for whatever else this team makes. They seem to understand the Metroidvania and action genres better than most. Again, this was a pure delight. Do not hesitate to jump in and don't forget to downslash on spikes!

This game just isn't fun. It looks very promising, but the game play loop is very stale and I don't think I ever had a good time while playing this. It would have made for a great flash game on Newgrounds ten years ago and that's the nicest thing that I can say about it.

The controls are too clunky, the visuals are repetitive and not engaging, it feels way too small and short, and it feels more tedious to play than anything else.

There was a lot that could have gone right here and none of it did. Just making the store mechanics less trivial and making the dungeons longer could fix a lot, but the way the player character moves and fights just makes this feel boring. Every enemy feels uninspired. This is not a good video game.

I'd give this game a 6.5/10. Its's very fun to play, but I found it way too short for the $20 price tag. One could beat the entire game in about two hours if they knew what they were doing. I managed to get every achievement after three play throughs. Also, the difficulty takes a nosedive about halfway in, even on the nightmare difficulty.

The music and art are fantastic and the game nails the feel of Symphony of the Night, but this isn't even a quarter of the length of that. The actual gameplay, again though, is great. It's just not worth buying at full price. Wait for a sale. I'd get something like Hollow Knight instead, if you haven't played that.

This game isn't terrible, but it is incredibly short, has a very low difficulty, is very repetitive, does a poor job explaining many mechanics, and it feels like there's some sort of story that never really feels important to the game. You can get all of the achievements fairly easily and it's not necessarily boring, I just feel like there's a lot more that could have been in here.

This game is incredibly more substantial than you'd think from just looking at it. It's a great farming simulator, but there's a lot more going on than that.

There's lots of compelling stories, tons of fun jokes, hours of things to keep one occupied, a few decent challenges, and a real sense of satisfaction when you get various achievenments. I can't really think of anything bad to say about this game.