Recent reviews by Laini

This is a tough one as it does a lot of things I don't really like and I found myself finishing it just to knock it off the list ya know?

It's basically Fetch Quest: The Game, the environment is kind of interesting though I feel more could have been done with the underwater base setting. There was the odd creepy moment but the horror elements were mostly laughable, I'm not a fan of literally spawning something in your face that then despawns a second later, it's the epitome of a jumpscare and completely unearned.
The story was all right, voice acting was okay, graphics are fine.
Never quite figured out how the enemy(ies?) in the game worked, you could go large periods of time without seeing or hearing it and then sometimes it'd be clanking up and down a hallway nearby so you just hide until it goes away again.
There were a couple of chase sequences but they didn't really do much for me either.

I dunno, this is one of those where I wish Steam had a Maybe option. I didn't really enjoy my time with it but I can see how others might, it's not a bad game in any way really, beyond the cheap jumpscares.

Short (about 45-60 minutes) but fun wee horror game with a slight twist on the camera mechanic that shows up in a lot of horror games. Not overly scary but a creepy atmosphere, solid sound design and some unexpected turns.
Not much replay value beyond some collectables and alternate endings but I enjoyed my time with it for the price.

It's pretty neat, I loved the atmosphere, great music, solid voice acting and the way the story slowly unfolds was good.
The gameplay is fairly basic, block pushing and some platforming for the most part, it's fine and does its job.
The game is very short, as the store page says, and whilst there are some hidden things to find it still won't take more than a couple of hours if that.
Overall though yeah I'd recommend this for people looking for a short slice of underwater horror.

Gosh what a wonderful wee game this is. Absolutely gorgeous pixel art with some delightful animation, beautiful music, fun gameplay and it's completely free, unbelievable.

Super charming and fun, reminiscent of things like The Case of the Golden Idol, good writing and voice acting and some neat puzzles to solve. It is on the shorter side but I think it's appropriately priced. Would love to see more Eugene McQuacklin in the future.

This game is an absolute treat. Roguelike deckbuilders are one of my favourite genres and when you combine that with gorgeous pixel art, fun characters, witty writing and an absolutely killer soundtrack you end up with something really special.

The way you can move around the battlefield to dodge shots or line up your own with an enemy's weak point is a neat twist and helps make fights feel fast and frenetic at times.
Combat in general feels very reactive as characters will comment on how the fight is going, which cards or artifacts you're using, enemies you're facing etc with some fun back and forth between the various foes you fight.

The story was really interesting and even a touch emotional at times and some of the unlockable characters (and their cards) and ships get real weird later on which is great fun to experiment with.

Interesting wee game and something a little different. The idea of an idle game mixed with horror is certainly unique and whilst it's not particularly scary or anything it has it's moments and let's face it regardless of context it's always fun to see the numbers go up!

Oh look it's every indie horror game you've ever seen all at once! Random loud jumpscares, check, doors disappearing behind you, check, creepy person peering at you from around the corner, check, room layouts changing when you turn around, check, ball bouncing across the hallway, check. It's just one generic boring cliché after another. They do the "Go into a room and the door locks/disappears until you trigger some arbitrary thing to proceed" four times in 40 minutes. It's almost impressive.
Also the game explicitly states it's a VR simulation, which maybe it kind of seems like the protagonist gets stuck in because the AI helper person stops responding but it's still just VR, so even if I didn't hate the way any of it's scares were presented it's still completely non-threatening, you know what I mean?
Oh and the cherry on top, it's another Bad Dad simulator, as if we weren't drowning in clichés already.

Less than an hour feels early to be leaving a review but I already wanted to stop playing after 20 minutes and really pushed myself to continue to see if it'd become more enjoyable and it hasn't. It's such an easy sell, Animal Crossing on your PC!
But it lacks any of that game's charm, the whole thing feels so soulless, the art style is drab and the character models are unappealing, everything just takes way too long (I have a lower APM playing Starcraft than trying to click through the dialogue in this game) and a lot of things are just more fiddly than they need to be. There are also a lot of spelling and grammar errors, which is hardly groundbreaking but it's there.
I lasted a week in Hokko, I want to go home now. No it's okay Moss, let's not swap addresses.

Sunshine Heavy Industries is a puzzle game about building spaceships for a cast of colourful clients.
It starts off very easy but as you go along you unlock more parts and customers have more specific demands, the challenge is trying to meet those requirements (such as enough Thrust, Firepower, Cargo space and so on) whilst also coming in under budget, after all this is a business! (Although a few extra fins and a horn couldn't hurt, right?)

It's a very chill relaxing game with some nice music and a cast of fun characters who are always a delight to talk to, there's some real good witty dialogue at times.
The UI is simple and easy to understand, you can start building your ships in seconds and there's even an export button to turn your coolest designs into shareable gifs which is neat.

Since release the devs have added a bunch of new parts, some more story missions and a wickedly fun daily challenge mode which really tests your optimisation skills.