Recent reviews by kctsang

Despite silly setting and "yet another voxel game" vibe, each stage is really a playground and giving you all the tools you need for the heist, creatively making any kind of shortcut (blowing hole, bridging gap, removing and moving items) before finally committing the grand "gone in 60 seconds" smash(for gods know how long)-and-go robbery.

TLDR: Gone in 60 seconds grand heist, after you arrive and doing all kinds of destruction for however long you like

I give this game a negative review because of the ending alone. Without it, this review will be easily a positive review:

+ interesting but not too hard puzzle
+ no online requirement, you just need two computer and some kind of communication
+ intriguing story telling method, even reading the story is kind of co-op activity

But that ending.

Maybe the writer wanted to have a plot twist, or wanted to be smart and have a "haha I got you" moment, but what my friend and me felt was a slap in the face, rubbing salt into our wound, mocking us for spending our time playing this game, and yelled "you mad bro?" as us.

Try to imagine watching a movie, only at the end it mock you "Congratulation! You wasted 2 hours of your life!"

This is not the way to mock your players. Don't treat your audiences like an idiot.

Simple control, stylish artwork, good music, and most importantly it's FREE

Read no more and play it now!

After a long day of work, you're tired and just want to relax a bit. You are browsing your game library.

Action game? Nah you want to relax, not to stress yourself out anymore.
RPG / Adventure game? Too tired to read wall of text.
Mining / building game? No thanks, you already worked for whole day, you don't need to work at night too.

Finally you fired up Vector.


Enjoy the moment of relax(YMMV). Just your favourite music, your (neon glowing) car and the (neon glowing) road. Right toward the (neon glowing) sunset.


After a few run you Alt-F4 for that rage quit achievement. Maybe you didn't get good score, but it's not about the score.

It's about the journey.

TL;DR: 7/10
A fun but shallow game, much simplified X series game, with arcadey space flight-sim and very light 4x element.

Pro:
- A sense of scale and power between different ships classes, where dreadnought or carrier can crush any number of small ship in no time
- Can conquer areas for your faction (i.e. 4x element)
- Can assemble fleets and fight with you; swarming enemy with dozen of cruisers and a few dreadnought is always fun to do and glorious to watch

Con:
- As superior firepower and shield usually means victory, there's no point in piloting smaller ship
- Combat is too simple, just fly in and start blasting, while spamming skills and items
- Small ship have no way to counter bigger ship other then en masse (which require tons of resources, and if you have such resources you should already build a bigger ship), in early game there are not much choice beside get a dreadnought and fight enemy fleet yourselves (where battleship or even carrier is quite common)
- Trading is very shallow, to the point of broken; price and quantity of goods is static in whole game, and everything refresh to original status when you land
- Friendly fleet always doing terrible job when player is not on site, when you send four destroyers to hunt two enemy corvettes, they may drag one or two of your destroyers with them before blow up

(The lack of play time is due to I mainly play in friend's home)
This game is basically testing players' humanity (or lack of).
After a few rounds with my friends, they now think I am some kind of diabolic entity, and I think I find the new inner peace.
Get some friends, play together, all of you will find your true self.

15/10 will screw each other over again (and again)

This is not yet another "some moe/cute girls in high school live" game. But this game is best played when you know nothing about it, so it's hard not to spoil anything when reviewing this game.

Let's just say: I was moved by the ending.
The game is free and quite short (for a VN), so why not have a try?


Oh and one more thing, check the fan pack DLC if you finished the game and like it.

Just finished the game, bought the fan pack to support developer.
Find the lyric of that song during credit, I listen that song again.

And I almost cried. So that's her feeling...and her choice.

Do yourself a favor, play the great game now, buy this DLC if you are moved by it, then listen her song again.

Please pardon me for my grammer as English is not my mother tongue.

TLDR Summary: Engaging VN with interesting characters, funny(sometimes naughty) dialogue. Jump to end to see a list of pros and cons.

Like many other VN, VA-11 Hall-A (or simply Vanhalla) is a game that you spend most time reading text and dialogue between characters. But as simple as it is, developes were able to change the fomula a bit and actually deliver a very interesting game.

First of all, if you interested in this game because of the nickname "waifu bartending", forget it. Yes there's some waifus, and yes they are well drawn and have interesting personality, but there's no dating with your waifu or event CG things.

The game's name actually telling the digest of the game: in a cyberpunk setting, the life and story about peoples around the bartender, and some action(bartending). Your customers, your partners, and even you(the bartender) all have their stories, but they won't just tell you the whole story, and it's up to you to listen and sort out the whole picture. While this game don't have explict choices like most VN, what drink you serve them actually is the choice system in this game, as the may change how people treat you or even tell you a whole different story.

The writing of dialogue is what really make this game shines. Characters have wide range of personalities (not just cliche like tsundere or girl next door), and they are all interesting to get known of; listen what they talk will make you smile, sad, and forgot how long you played.

There are also some smart references here and there, like Stand Alone Complex, Red Comet that 3 times faster, NikuNikuDance(NND), etc., while it's perfectly fine if you don't know what they mean, you will smile if you do. It takes me around 11 hours for first playthrough, and there's quite a number of ending, so the replay value is not a problem.

But if you find guy/lesbian and/or sexual jokes offensive, you may reconsider before playing, although I find them perfectlly fine. Guy/lesbian only serve as settings, and I actually find those sexual jokes comes natually and funny. (God I actually laughed at that filming in jacuzzi part)

Summary:
-Pro
Interesting characters
Very good writing
Comfort pacing
Good music (YMMV)

-Mixed (Things may be offensive but I am fine with)
High ratio of guy/lesbian characters
Many sexual jokes(this may actually a pro)

-Con
Keyword and background sometimes hard to follow, until explained in mid game

9/10 will serve my waifu again