Recent reviews by .dot

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Outstanding blend of humor and horror, surprisingly good at building tension and has quite a few great scares! The writing is super fun and dialogue doesn't outstay its welcome, and the levels are all so very unique.

Does a lot with very few and simple mechanics (mostly just picking up stuff and throwing it) by implementing them in very creative ways.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Did you know that 99% of gamblers quit before they make it big?

Jokes aside (don't gamble, kids), Balatro is such a fun spin on the rougelite deckbuilding genre, its systems are easy to learn and not too hard to master, and the game is open to a variety of different viable strategies; the RNG obviously plays a big role even more so than in other roguelites because of the intrinsic nature of Poker, but Balatro strikes a nice balance of unpredictability and strategy, often letting the player making their chances better via Jokers and vouchers (game modifiers), even letting them peek at their deck as a base feature to see which cards remain you can still draw so that they can plan their next hand accordingly.

Sound effects are amazing, the sound of rustling cards, falling chips and the score sound effects really bring it all together, along with the colorful graphics, it's almost hypnotizing.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

This game can turn from hilarious to terrifying in a matter of seconds.

One second you can be cracking jokes with your friends, and one second later you're the only one left speaking without even realizing it.

Its gameplay loop and the situations that arise from it thanks to the proximity voice chat are so fun that the game currently doesn't even have a win condition for your run, but doesn't feel much worse off because of it.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Played this on hard mode so I don't know about standard difficulty.

Endoparasitic is a fun unique take on survival horror and relies on its unique control scheme to work. Since the main character only has one arm, the whole game is played by controlling said arm with the mouse, making it impossible to move and shoot at the same time. The whole thing works greatly for about 2/3 of the game, and the control scheme provides a satisfying tactile feel when you get the hang of it, after that though, the whole experience is held back by a harsh difficulty spike which is mostly caused by some frankly baffling balancing decisions in its encounter design, giving the player way too many things to juggle with this control scheme.

I don't regret playing this at all, quite the opposite actually, and if you are into playing smaller games that try something new, premise then I'd actually suggest you try Endoparasitic yourself, maybe by sticking to the normal difficulty for a first run.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

If you liked the original then you'll find that The Relapse successfully expands on the scope of the original game's themes taking the story outside of the confines of the protagonist's home and giving us a deeper and wider look into her relatable struggles with mental health.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

This is only a negative review of the PC port , not the game. Journey itself is as beautiful as ever and still worth your attention in 2024.

The fact that Journey is so effective in conveying emotions through gameplay is unchanged, and if this is your only way to experience or re-experience the game then by all means, go for it, but you'll have to bear with a very glaring issue: audio.

I have no idea how this ever passed QA, the audio's state in this PC port of the game is unfair both to the artists that put so much work into Journey's beautiful music and sound design and to the customers that purchased it, the issues are all over the place: from audio crackling, to the "chirps" of your character not playing any sound at all, to the dynamic music not working as intended...

At the end of the day I'm still enjoying playing through Journey all these years after my first time with it, but I can't consciously leave a positive review for it because the game deserves much better than what it got with this port.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Webfishing is once again proof that a game doesn't need to be particularly deep or challenging to be fun or entertaining, its personality and satisfying (if very simple) gameplay loop held together by its social nature are enough to **hook** you in (pun intended ;3).

Whether you are planning to have some silly fun with your friends or you're planning to make new ones by joining a public lobby Webfishing has you covered and gives you plenty of ways to express yourself: you can customize your character down to the pitch and speed at which it talks, and the game even has a playable guitar so that you can bother delight everyone in your near vicinity!

Meow!

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Orbo's Odyssey is a bite-sized collectathon and the perfect platformer if you like going fast but don't want to commit to a particularly long game (my playtime was enough to 100% it).

The movement mechanics are simple enough to grasp and allow for a great degree of freedom, Orbo can basically launch himself at ludicrous speeds like a bullet, and even if the story itself doesn't do a lot to challenge your mastery of the movement (more on that later), being able to zoom through the stages, cutting through the obvious paths, is enough of a reward itself.

For those that still haven't had enough of the game by the time they beat the final boss, there are a few secrets to discover and most importantly the time trials' dev times, that require absolute mastery of Orbo's movement to beat (which seemed almost impossible to me at first).

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Great survival game that even people that usually aren't much into the genre (like me) can get into, thanks to its unique setting for a survival game, a strong personality and atmosphere, handcrafted level design and the finely tuned balance of its mechanics.

The game's world on top of being really interesting to navigate and discover, teaches you the various intertwining system without them feeling overwhelming, as they're introduced little by little as they become needed. Abiotic Factor succeeds in giving you the tools to overcome its challenges by teaching you without really holding your hand, which is something games of this genre often struggle with, leaving the player lost without a guide or a wiki.

The usual survival mechanics: the crafting and the various bars to manage (hunger, fatigue etc.) are properly tuned, have weight and need to be managed but are not overly intrusive; i.e. the crafting materials required are distinct enough that learning how they can be obtained is easy, and the player character's bars do not deplete so fast that you can't go exploring without getting immidiately hungry, tired and so on.

So far, this has been a blast in multiplayer, managing our base, planning our explorations, strategizing on how to take down enemies, dividing tasks and sharing knowledge, I feel that Abiotic Factor benefits greatly from having a few friends to play with.

I haven't played singleplayer yet, but it seems like it would be its strengths too, allowing for a more tense experience while simultaneously letting the player take their time too, making them able to take in the lore more easily via the various computer terminals, which is quite difficult when playing with other players in a discord call.

Greatly recommended.

Feel free to visit my curator page for more charming games! c:

Great but comes just short of being amazing!
Rusted Moss is a metroidvania with a very open map, set at the end of the age of man with a melancholic vibe and a focus on shooting and grappling hook platforming.

It doesn't have much in the way of upgrades by design, but instead focuses on doing a lot with what it gives the player and is much more skill oriented than other games of its genre.

The ability gating in Rusted Moss often means that you could get somewhere if you just mastered the grappling hook, sequence breaking is intended and encouraged and despite this, getting actually lost is a rare occasion since whichever direction you choose to go in you are making some progress towards your final goal. Hook platforming is overall really fun! The physics need some getting used to, but it's obvious the team spent a lot of time fine tuning them to behave "realistically" and therefore predictably.

Gunplay is pretty nice once you get really into it (and unlock some guns), the bosses are where it really shines and your abilty to juggle shooting, switching guns and grappling is put to the test.

The setting and lore are really interesting and unique, the story is actually kinda nice too and doesn't get too in the way.

Where it comes just short of being amazing is, in my opinion, in the lack of map markers (except for shops, teleporters and save points), there are no player map markers either, meaning that if you want to mark something for later then you're just out of luck, and it comes to the detriment of 100%ing the game which is some of the most fun that comes with this kind of games.

I really recommend Rusted Moss to people that are looking for a metroidvania that features a map that is actually open, is heavy on platforming, and is more about the player learning to use and master what little they get rather than constantly earning new abilities throughout the way.