Recent reviews by Zyklon-Basti

This is a weird one. Mechanically it's great with a surprising amount of depth, but there's just not enough content to engage with if you're not interested in MP.

There's a skirmish mode with a staggering amount of three different map types (actually it's more like one since I don't see the point in playing on anything besides Pangaea). Apart from that you can configure map size, game length and some additional mechanics, and that's it. Civ design is good, but they honestly don't add THAT much variety to a playthrough.
There are other SP game modes (Daily Challenge, ...) that mostly seem to offer an imbalanced and limited experience - pass.

Got this for two bucks, played for eleven hours and am both satisfied and disappointed. Satisfied because I got more than what I paid for, disappointed because I could see myself sinking hundreds of hours into this if there was a sufficient SP framework built around the great fundamentals.

Would love if the dev added some sort of SP DLC - maybe something like StS's ascension mode for every civilization.

Haven't finished my second run yet and am already bored... Runs drag on for too long and the gameplay is like a lot more convoluted than FTL. There's just too much to keep track of - not just rooms, but also unit abilities. Combat feels like a chore.
Customization is also a bit too involved, micromanaging unit equipment is a bit too much.

The game itself is well made and polished, I simply don't like the direction they're going for. If you're looking for a mechanically more complex FTL with deeper combat and a lot more boarding action this might be your cup of tea, but it's sadly not for me.

This game has left me so disappointed that I'm writing a serious review on it.

There was so much potential to pose actually tricky ethical questions and humorously follow up by showcasing the consequences in a satirical way as was done in the very first stages, where you're asked whether to do nothing and watch five people die or intervene and sacrifice one person - if you choose the latter option, the game lets you harvest the organs of one healthy person in order to save five people reliant on organ donations in the following level, as the player has shown that he's willing to sacrifice one life to save five. That was cool. Had me left hoping for more. To no avail.

What followed were just dumb referential jokes (haha, Schrödinger's cat, get it? Aren't we smart?), tasteless "edgy" jokes (more on that later) and an avalanche of horribly implemented mini-games.

The mini-games deserve a section of their own, because it feels like you spend most of your time not solving Trolley Problems but instead playing terrible mini-games: A crazy taxi clone that's very badly controlled only by your mouse, a Return to Castle Wolfenstein-esque shooting gallery, a Tamagotchi clone, a game that has you push a trolley up a mountain for minutes while balancing shifting values (click on + or - for ressources like balance) and closing pop-ups... I could go on.
None of these are fun, they all play very awkwardly and overstay their welcome by a long shot.
You could make a case that unfun mini-games are part of the post-modern charme like they're the game equivalent of the famous uncomfortable chair, but eh... Stanley Parable and Papers, Please did it better.
I must stress that they really do overstay their welcome. While babysitting the Tamagotchi for five minutes may have been funny as a novelty thing, more time-wasters of the same caliber (with fail-states that have you do everything over, no less) were really not appreciated. Awful experience.

Then there's the aforementioned bad taste jokes. One problem the game posed was whether I would sacrifice my father or my mother. This honestly left me feeling sick to my stomach. I know this is just a funny game and nothing is to be taken seriously, but in no context should you joke about such topics. Just made me feel bad. Why put the player through this? Not like there was a deeper point being made here, it's just supposed to be another dumb joke.

Next in line is this game's version of "would you kill baby Hitler?" Naturally the author couldn't resist beating this dead horse. Figures. Not gonna go into more detail on this, it's overdone.

I could only describe this as a dumb person's idea of a smart person's game. Avoid this trainwreck.

Great puzzle game should you ever decide to get a lobotomy done

The game is so poorly optimized that playing it makes me feel sick.
I'll revisit this when the devs fix performance, in the meantime I'd just recommend playing Rise or World.

The absolute GOAT. This is the only game I keep installed at all times so I can jump in for a quick session.
I only have 30 hours of playtime but if feels like a couple hundred.

Haven't finished this yet, but ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is it good. Easily one of the best metroidvanias I've ever played.

The gameplay is super original and satisfying - it combines TRIALS-like motocross movement with mouse-directed shooting. Doing a backflip reloads your gun (you start out with two shots, you can upgrade your weapons for more capacity though), doing a frontflip recharges an ability to parry bullets (one charge) and you can block bullets with the body of your motorbike, which you can rotate in the air. One shot instantly kills both you and your enemies, as does falling on your head. You get a bullet time ability to help aim/maneuver.
Incredibly cool! I found myself just driving around killing enemies in the beginning of the game simply because it's so much fun. You're quick to die, but checkpoints are plentiful.

The gameplay alone is more than enough to carry the game, but the whole presentation is absolutely top-notch. Amazing soundtrack, wonderful artstyle, great story, cool setting and snappy writing. How did they do it?

One word of warning: A lot of people found the gameplay too challenging, maybe check out the demo to see if it's for you. I didn't really have any issues with the difficulty of the game (except for the lighthouse boss, that one was kind of a slog...).

Honestly, this game is absurdly good and deserves more attention. Props and respect to the development team, this is obviously a labor of love and you've totally nailed it. It takes guts to put this amount of effort into such an experimental gameplay idea.

If you're wondering whether to play with gamepad or M+KB I highly recommend the latter.

This game has the reputation of being one of the best RTS games, but I don't really see it. It straddles the line between traditional/action RTS (think WC3/SC:BW or AoE2) and 4X (Stellaris, Endless Space 2) and ultimately ends up not being terribly good on either front.
Maybe I haven't delved deep enough, apparently there are people who invest hundreds of hours into this, but I'm just not hooked after a couple of games against the AI. Pass.

Fast-paced dungeoncrawler. I finished this in one sitting using mostly auto-battle, took me roughly 3 hours of total playtime.

There's some class customization (which I completely ignored), a hard difficulty after beating the game on normal and apparently also some post-game content which I haven't looked into yet.
It's a fun romp. I may come back to this in order to finish it on hard and experiment a bit with class options.

Oh, and definitely get a mage and a priest in your party. The mage's Bird Eye spell basically gives you a GPS with built-in auto-walk and the priest has a bunch of QoL spells.

It's alright. I don't regret wasting a Sunday afternoon with this.
The game is a very shallow Hades clone. Permanent upgrades turn it from a decent challenge to a free win within a couple of runs.
Fan-Service is also non-existent. The titular anime nuns are what mainly lead me to buying this, but there aren't even unlockable CGs. Bummer.