Recent reviews by Kaneis

What a cool game!

It's a loop-based narrative sandbox -- pretty similar to games like The Sexy Brutale, where you're learning more and more about the 'mystery' through repeated failure. If you've ever played the Hitman games; it weirdly has a similar vibe to it:

• Memorize NPC pathing
  
• Scrounge up as much garbage in your inventory
  
• Figure out where it all fits into your inevitable failure of a plan

Of course it's more nuanced than that -- and it's so much fun for it. For a game with such small scale, the scope feels so wide with how much there is to discover and unravel. It's like an inverse point-and-click adventure: your journey to the ending blossoms outwards instead of narrowing. Dialogue choices matter a ton too! You're constantly leaving a breadcrumb trail of empty promises and false truths that will definitely bite you back if you're dumb like me.

It is a very short experience, but if you find this game in a bundle or at a nice budgeted price, I think this is very worth the money over that $10 burrito you were thinking about for lunch (if you're into this type of game. If you want that burrito more, of course: treat yourself).

I think this is a wonderful combination of weird ideas cobbled in a very polished package. The voice direction is excellent -- it's obvious that there's so much love put into this game.

The core gameplay just never stuck with me. You're not typing out word bubbles like a traditional typing game -- you're issuing preset skill commands like 'HIT,' 'JAB' to deal damage. Since there's no challenge on the typing side of things, I ended up typing the same order of commands monotonously for each encounter. To give the game credit: there are situations where you're punished/outright banned for typing specific letters. But it felt less like a creative pivot, and more like I'm just patching up my previous gameplan with omissions or substitutions.

If you want an interesting weekend game to bumble through, I think this game is a lovely choice. For me, I think I just wanted more mechanics, gimmicks, and encounters focused on typing, rather than fetch quests, riddles, and traditional dungeon crawling. If the latter sounds like your thing -- you'll have a great time; the writing beams constantly with clever moments, and the word puzzling is very cute.

What looks like a 3-key mania-style game becomes so much more when you play it. Similar to Crypt of the Necrodancer, you are memorizing mob dance patterns in-rhythm. Now that's all good, but unlike Crypt -- the monsters keep coming, and they don't stop until the song's over. Now, suddenly, your brain starts deep frying with a side of slug sauce as you try your hardest to survive a barrage of knowledge checks while keeping the rhythm.

It's incredible.

However, with complexity this dense, Rift ends up frontloading this information fairly inelegantly in a three-step tutorial. This game shines because of how difficult it is, but the onboarding could scare a lot of folks off after seeing how many monster-types there are. And there's so many! It's a minor complaint, but the game could use a compendium of monster attacks in a menu for easier access to this information (there's a bestiary in the main menu under 'extras', but you have to load into a level for each monster pattern; a menu of looping gifs would feel a lot faster to grasp)

But after all that nitpicking -- this game is such a steal at this price. 30 songs with a passable story and VERY CUTE RHYTHM HEAVEN-style mini-games; it's a certified banger if you love rhythm games.

(Alex Moukala you're so handsome and talented; I love every single track you did for this game)

This game isn't the perfect turn-based RPG you were waiting for. The story can be predictable and lacking, the side content is grating and repetitive, and even the main content can lack that bite of juicy, thematic flair that the UI teases, but never ends up delivering in full. While the world-building is incredible, the player participation sometimes feels confined to the passenger seat.

But what's here is special -- it feels like the culmination of all lessons failed and learned through Atlus' history of Shin Megami Tensei games. The game systems are coaxed and designed with such care and attention – it’s nearly a frictionless delivery of blending the social visual novel/turn-based gameplay that we’re used to, but with surprises that come with new ground. It’s a love letter to those who have spent so much of their time sinking their teeth into these extremely long games; a messily paced, monotonous, love letter – but it carries an impossible charm/charisma that I adore and can’t ignore.

Indulging in a pure and enriching fantasy is never a waste of time. I already really miss the characters I spent so much time with, and the genuine best part is the time you spend traveling on this weird fantastical road trip. I can't fit all of my thoughts here (I have pages of written word because I'm bad at expressing myself), but I loved this game past its flaws.

I recommend this game on a sale, or wait for the ‘Golden/Royal/Vengeance’ version to inevitably release. This game suffers from a lot of beige dungeons and rough story pacing, but has a beautiful message to tell and share to its devoted fans. They’ll nail it next time – I’m sure of it.

After probably over ~3000 hours combined from outside of Steam, I'm confident to say that I'm done with Destiny 2.

I've met so many wonderful people over the years through this game, and strengthened a lot of long term pre-existing friendships through raids, brain-numbing grind, and our combined displeasure over how awful the LIghtfall expansion was. I loved this game. The first time I bursted an elemental shield, shot an explosive crit on an enemy, and wiped an entire crowd of enemies surrounding it -- it genuinely feels just as gratifying as the 5000th time. It is understated how important the foundational gameplay is. For smoothbrained subhumans like me: that alone carried my love for this game for years.

I spent a good chunk of my life playing this game week to week, read every Thursday blog post, and spent ~$500 getting expansions for myself and my friends. Again, I loved this game so much. But there's only so many times I want to stand on plates and shoot bad guys, only so many guns I need before I don't care for new ones, and only so many awful story beats to where I simply feel indifferent. 'Repetitive' is too easy of a word to throw around -- because 'repetition' can be fun and engaging if treated with care. 'Monotonous' is what Destiny became for me.

Even so, I still think this is a great game, but it's a game I've clearly outgrown. You can hate Destiny as much as you want, but that doesn't take away from the wonderful times I've had with my best friends and lovely strangers. I don't regret my time with this game at all -- thanks to all past and present devs for the 7 years of gaming, and big thank you to the friends I met and kept because of this game.

MMOs are designed to waste your time, but I couldn't be happier with how that wasted time was spent with my dear friends.

It's weird. Definitely worse than the first game, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

It's like the sophomore album that's following a great first record -- it's trying new things, and it succeeds at creating some of the best moments between the two games...and the absolute worst levels imaginable. Credit where credit's due, they definitely weren't resting on the success of the first game -- and I can't help but respect that. Though, if they make a third game: they need to cut the open-ended sections out. Pacing is the biggest issue with this game (and the first game); there is simply too much filler between the killer.

If you liked the masochistic death counter + parkour of the first game, you'll find some fun in this one too, alongside some surprises both great and awful. Soft recommend if you're craving more from the first, but don't expect an improvement in all the right places.

I loved this game during the beta, but Season 1 quickly revealed how much work this game still needed. The Heavy class was stupidly oppressive with their dome/mesh shields, fights would last forever because of Medium healing/defibrillator potency, Lights would either dominate the lobby, or die instantly and be useless teammates.

Now, that last part hasn't really changed too much (it's a weighted dice roll on whether your Light has a single brain cell or a billion) , but the rest of the game is heading towards a direction where it always wanted/needed to be. Season 4 is so good -- stacked with a suite of changes like increased weapon/sandbox viability, and core changes to the main Cashout game mode.

If you liked the game's premise, but dipped because of equipment/ability bloat; give this game another try. It's the most creatively rewarding shooter currently on the market, and deserves the spotlight again.

It’s another Arkham game.

Another dev team whips up Origins to continue on with Rocksteady’s successful recipe, but it lacks the gameplay layers and spice that I’ve come to expect from previous entries. Design-wise: it’s more Arkham City without that buttery progressive nuance and complexity that tests my thumbs as the stakes get higher. And I know I said it's 'more Arkham City,' but it also feels like 'less Arkham City' due to a bland map with Ubisoft towers and icons that abandoned any care I had left to explore.

But something that is worth caring about were all the main characters this time around. I love getting more of the detective side of Batman here — and I think they totally nailed Bruce’s mental afflictions compared to previous Arkham games. And the cutscenes are just so good: genuinely some of the hardest hitting edits in the series to date. It's enough to make me appreciate Origins for diving deeper into these characters that have been reestablished for decades, but somehow finding another fresh take on them. Alfred and Bruce are just too cute in this game.

More Arkham isn't bad, but I'm definitely feeling formula fatigue after playing City and Origins back-to-back. Not enough new ideas, but a solid Arkham experience for folks that wanted more. Still, I'm excited to see what Knight has in store as a finale to the Arkham series.

*I used this HD Texture Pack + Advanced Launcher [www.nexusmods.com] from GPUnity! The game looks gorgeous with the new textures, and fixed a lot of issues I had with the vanilla installation.*

It's so much fun playing these Arkham games back-to-back for the first time -- there's just something about booting up Arkham City and instantly feeling that fresh familiarity to the thumbsticks. This is an incredible, direct sequel to the events of Arkham Asylum, and another notch on your backlog if these games have ever interested you. As someone that didn't care for Batman before -- I promise they're more than just comic book games.

If Asylum's level design was a puzzlebox warped into a carnival funhouse, Arkham City feels like a cinematic amusement park: trading the metroidvania style of world progression in exchange for an open world with a handful of sublevels. Although I prefer Asylum's approach, it is undeniable how smooth of a transition it is between the two games. Grappling and gliding just felt destined to be taken to the open world -- and wow, Rocksteady's environment design team really flexed their Batbulge with how incredible the city looks. The visual landmarking laced with neon lights made it so easy to forget the world map menu and just go.

But once you do hit go: I think it falls under the unfortunate open world trappings of unnecessary side questing, but it's there for people that love the world and want excuses to stay in Arkham City; and I don't blame them for it -- it's such a cool playspace. There's 282 Riddler collectibles, for example, which is sounds crazy, but it's only moderately insane compared to how deranged the writing team went with the story.

It's easily the biggest sell of the game. The amount of wear on Batman's psyche and tear on his costume is pushed much further in City, and I think this game might have sold me on Bruce as a character -- more than any movie or Wiki dive has ever done before. Mark Hamill is also just the best: literally the sickest Joker; amazing performance.

I'm having a really good time with these games and I've already started Arkham Origins at this point. I think I'm Batman.

I'm not big on Batman -- something about the pointy ears and tights don't do it for me.

But damn, this game's great. As someone with zero nostalgia coming into these games -- Arkham Asylum stands as one of the easiest recommendations if you're craving a tidy experience that clocks in under 15-ish hours.

It's a smooth-ish mix between metroidvania, character action, and stealth -- all bundled in as tight of a package as Batman's batbulge. I love games with relentless level-to-level momentum; there is no wasted time as you're constantly being presented with new villains, gadgets, and encounter gimmicks.

And yeah, the brawling sections have aged quite a bit (especially the boss encounters, like yikes they're not great), but BUDDY -- Arkham Asylum is still representing some of the best stealth systems in games. Enemy AI progressively gets smarter and slightly sporadic as you dismantle the stealth puzzlebox, so they'll start moving in pairs, dart their vision backwards, and even start checking grates/vents. There's just so much to love in this game -- and UGH I almost forgot to mention the backtracking dopamine just hits the right metroidvania cog in my ape brain.

I loved my time in Asylum, and I can't wait to play Arkham City next! I've always heard great things and I'm very excited.