Recent reviews by Clovis

The concept here is ok, but it all depends on whether or not the "oh so random" humor works for you or not. It is certainly a bit funny at first, but quickly gets boring. Because the gag is that McPixel consistently does not do what you think he will, that also means the "solutions" to the puzzles are basically random. The game is essentially WarioWare for adventure games, but for the worst aspect of adventure games: pixel hunting and nonsensical solutions. Not every bad solution in an adventure game is a cat-hair mustache, but here that is the point.

All you are really doing is clicking on everything and combining all objects with all other interactive spots so you can see the "gags". But they feel extremely samey after an hour or so, which is why I gave up on this game and the original at around that point.

A basic digital conversion of a game that isn't particularly good to start with. In the end, the only thing really fun about Munchkin is laughing at your friends' misfortune. With AI, that is gone, and it is just a slow moving game that takes way too long to end. Slow, boring, and there's really not even much to think about on each turn.

Based on the other reviews, and especially the 10/10 review on Adventure Gamers, my experience has me wondering if Adventure Games really are dead. This game is clearly well crafted. it is fully voiced and has a striking art style. But the humor almost always falls flat and constantly references the same handful of bad jokes.

But the biggest problem is just that it so slavishly follows old-school adventure game tropes. Gameplay is just so slow and boring. You pretty much have to carefully click on all items, hear a bad joke, try to pick everything up, mash everything together, etc. If you don't immediately understand a nonsensical solution, you're stuck tediously massaging every object in the game until something happens. Even the 10/10 reviewer claims that he got stuck multiple times because the solution didn't make sense. How is that acceptable?

It just seems like this style of gameplay is just too boring. It isn't challenging, and it constantly gets in the way of telling a story. Not that this game has much of a story to tell. If you want pure story, something like Gone Home or Observation work better. If you want more complex gameplay, there are a million options. These set of "challenges" only existed because it was essentially the best you could do to add some "gameplay" to a story.

I loved many class adventure games, but I'm really not sure anyone can make a modern classic using those old mechanics. I'll take stuff like A Night in the Woods over them any day.

This is a classic Zachtronics game about programming tiny robots to "hack" computer systems. Zachlikes often fall into two categories. Some are fun and more accessible like SpaceChem, Opus Magnum, and especially Infinifactory. Others feel obscure and dense like TS-100, Shenzhen I/O, and Molek-Syntez.

Exapunks is definitely in the latter category. There is very little tutorial here. I think the third puzzle requires reading a .pdf to even know a necessary command exists. However, the effort here is very much worth it.

There is a lot here that is really fantastic. It has one of their most engaging stories, great but minimal worldbuilding, and some interesting characters. But the standout feature, of course, is the puzzles. I'm mainly writing to say that I've played all of their games, but this is the first one where I actually completed all the additional puzzles and still wanted more.

After the first basic puzzles, each one has a clear, understandable goal that is often just out of immediate reach, especially if you want to meet the code length requirement to get on the leaderboards. I think that a key element of this is that the code length requirement is often very short, just 100 to 150 lines. Not only does this provide an optimization challenge, but it also stops these puzzles from getting completely overwhelming. It might be a "challenge" to complete a puzzle that requires at least 500 lines, but it would also be extremely frustrating and confusing with such limited commands. Instead, you can just focus on solving several interlocking problems to get to an answer.

Definitely one of my favorite Zachlikes. 10/10.

This game is worth picking up for the movement mechanics alone. Gameplay largely revolves around navigating a snake through obstacles, often by climbing. Not sure about kb/m, but with a controller it's very intuitive and ... snakey. Getting the hang of climbing well is really interesting and fun.

However, the game seems to falter later on. The locations are very similar, although there are some pallette swaps. The main problem is that almost every level mainly involves climbing on bamboo. The game throws in a few changes: switches moving portions, very minor puzzle solving. But after you've completed 8 or so levels you really aren't going to see anything new and exciting.

The game does work well as an exploration game. You are mainly finding 3 different kinds of collectibles at increasing difficulty. Some are right on your path, but others can be hidden quite well. So, if you really like investigating every nook and cranny of a 3d area, this part doesn't disappoint.

One of the best Metroidvanias I've played in quite awhile, especially since it combines that genre with Dark-Souls-style storytelling. Outside some of the more fringe areas, the difficulty is tuned perfectly. Several of the bosses have that this-seems-impossible feeling to them. But it really doesn't take long to learn their movesets and get the upper hand. Generally, there's a savepoint near each boss, so you aren't wasting a lot of time jumping back in.

The graphics are wonderful. Even though the story is dark and the setting is dark, it's not an overly super-serious, grim-dark setting. Everything about the design has a fun lightness to it, while still staying unsettling and affecting. It manages to pull off having a complex, mysterious story told with only short dialogues.

Gameplay is top-notch. The game controls very well. The upgrade mechanics are interesting and you can basically respec your character on the fly.

The DLC policy so far has maybe been too generous. A ton of stuff has been added to the game for free, including several of the best boss fights. Honestly, I really wouldn't mind paying a few dollars for the next DLC.

The main negatives are pretty minor. Tying the map's compass to an accessory slot seems pointless. Similarly, having to buy pins for the map with the game's currency is also annoying. Early on you'll be hoarding every penny to buy important upgrades, so you'll have to keep notes yourself until you're willing to buy the pins. This is especially frustrating because the pins are really so useful.

One of the best games of all time. While maybe not an original materpiece like the original Dark Souls, the third installment of the series features a lot of the same great gameplay elements and lore: fair difficulty, a fantastic world to explore, cryptic but interesting story, a huge range of viable weapons and builds, and high replayability.

This is, not surprisingly, the best looking of the Dark Souls games. The layout of the world makes sense, and almost every area twists and turns on itself with shortcuts. It features some great boss battles often with multiple stages. Although certainly a challenge, I was never stuck more than 30 minutes or so.

Performance wise, the game was great. It seems like it's a great PC version.

A really moving game about World War I featuring French-style animation. Reviewers loved the story and artwork, but some felt that the game's extreme tonal shifts didn't work. It doesn't flinch from showing the horrors of WWI: infantry charges against machine guns, trench and tunnel warfare, and gas attacks on soldiers and civilians. The game incorporates interesting facts about the war too.

But then the main characters go on a wacky chase or you fight a cartoon German villain. The main gameplay is lite-adventure-game usually involving throwing items and flipping switches.

I thought this somehow just worked though. Video games almost never depict "real life", but instead become metaphors of the very thing they are depicting. I would compare the "gameplay" aspects of many games to the singing and dancing in musicals. Why are people suddenly singing a song during a Paris uprising? Because you're watching a musical. Gameplay works the same way: your brain can easily switch from real scenes to surreal scenes.

Not all games get this right, but I think Valiant Hearts did.

The game and music are absolutely beautiful, but I think this is the rare game that would benefit by being a more traditional hidden object game. Looking for the items is nice, and there's a hint system. But then you hit the "puzzles" which are a who's who of the most boring Adventure game tropes: a game of Memory, Simon Says, a couple of simple jigsaw puzzles, a "turn the things to make various paths line up", draughts (the peg game from Cracker Barrel), and one of those "turn the dials to match everything up, but as you try to match them it messes the others up". At best, these kinds of puzzles add very little to a game, but at worst, like here, they add a completely unnecesary level of boredome and frustration.

I'm all for "difficult" games like Dark Souls, but this game should have stuck the relaxing formula of other hidden object games.

Certainly drawing your own character and items is a novel idea. However, the game does nothing interesting with it all. It doesn't matter what you draw. It ends up being a simple action game with questionable hit detection.

The actual gameplay here is lacking. You can easily be killed by clipping through dangerous areas or enemies. But it's never clear how close you can get. Although the artwork is 3D, it has you bouncing through 3D levels.

And, yeah, you bounce. Actually having your custom stickman somehow come to life with real animations would be a pretty amazing feat that this game doesn't come close to handling.