Recent reviews by Wonky

Terrific game, horrific performance. Crashes so much I hit the 24 hour Denuvo activation limit.

I played a bunch of Destiny 2 before it went free-to-play and I liked it a lot but I'm not a long-term MMO player so once I'd finished all the content that was out at the time I took a break. My friend wanted me to come back and play and I had no clue what was going on story wise because the story content between me taking a break and coming back had been deleted, as had most (if not all) of the content I'd previously paid for. There's no way I'm spending money on a game if they're just gonna revoke my ability to play the content I'm paying money for.

Pretty White (For a Fly Guy)

This is a very special game. I fell absolutely in love with these characters and this world. The story isn't super heavy but it also doesn't pull its punches when it needs to throw them which leads to some moments of genuine emotion.

The game is very systemic, with things like fire propagation, simulated temperatures and a lot of physics enabled objects. Using telekinesis to accidentally smack myself in the back of the head with a tree while trying to fight off enemies while also trying to escape the rapidly spreading bushfire I started (also by accident) was a 10/10 moment and was just one of countless slapstick scenarios I managed to get myself into with the magical powers.

Everything surrounding the core gameplay is so refreshingly streamlined. Crafting wastes no materials, there is no fiat currency to worry about and collectibles reward you with excellently written codex entries that provide not just lore but character information and hints at how to rip the magic out of bosses to use for yourself. The exclusion of money was deeply refreshing and really reinforced the deep and authentic bonds between the characters. Money does exist in this world but it simply isn’t relevant to you and your team because the help and support provided isn’t transactional.


I adored exploring all of the large open levels in the game with the ability to free climb on any surface. The game really opens up when you gain access to kinetic movement tech with the Kinetic Two-Hander and the second and third kinetic weaves. I really hope they build some of that into the base movement kit in future, such as a double jump, charged jump or an air dash. The movement tech adds so much to the experience of both exploration and combat it’s almost criminal you don’t get access to it until the third map.

It’s an early contender for my personal 2025 GOTY. Even if it ends up gets beaten out by a massive release like Monster Hunter: Wilds, the fact a debut game from an independent AA studio is even punching in that weight class at all is an astounding achievement.

This is a much expanded and improved version of Orcs Must Die! 3's Scramble Mode with a lot of meta progression. The first few runs are pretty tough with no upgrades and the default traps but you can pretty quickly unlock a unique loadout. Online co-op works great.

It starts to feel a little content light in the endgame but most players will easily get 40+ hours of playtime out of the existing content, much more for completionists.

I've never really been a big fan of the 'helpless horror' subgenre that Frictional popularised because I'm stupid and impatient so the artifice of the experience is laid bare as I try to sprint past something when I should be taking slow. This game isn't drastically different in the moment to moment gameplay but the less scripted nature of the spooky fella and the knowledge that It's my own fault I'm out of ammo and in the dark makes it harder to see the hand of the developer telling me how this encounter is supposed to go so I enjoyed this one quite a lot.

There's a lot I really liked about this and as a demo it's a lot of fun, but if the main game is just this with a bit more content I'm not sure it'll have much staying power.

They really nailed the feeling of the character and the graphics and sound design are great, but the weapons of the same type seem to have the same moveset (e.g. the club and the sword share a moveset including a stab with the club). The level art is great but it's just a bunch of square rooms with barrels you have to break for money. There might be two-handed weapons I didn't see but I only encountered 1h weapons and dual wielded 1h weapons.

The enemies are a bit meh. There was only about 2-3 enemies per tileset, with one enemy type showing up on both the first and second maps. They don't stagger or get interrupted outside of parrying so you can't play aggressively unless you're absolutely nailing the parrying.

The parry system is interesting but there's no alternative for players that don't like parrying or can't pull it off. I'd love to be able to two-hand a weapon and get a stance break or something as an alternative. I also had an issue where sometimes the animation for readying the shield was significantly slower than usual which threw off the parry timings which made things harder to learn and rely on. The special deathblow mechanic should also restore health to make it more useful, in it's current state it's not much more useful than just wailing on a parry-stunned enemy.

This is the closest a soulslike has gotten to DS1's interconnected world since DS1 (though The Surge 2 has it's high points too). The only things holding this game back are the meh combat (it's functional but not great) and a lack of sequence break potential.

It's not quite as good as the older games and it has some weird issues with traffic and pedestrian density but the map is thoughtfully designed and I honestly thought the writing was overall on par with the rest of the series.

Fantastic gunplay and level design. Loved learning the maps and enemies, they nailed the feeling of memorising a Demon's Souls level combined with somewhat randomised enemy placement to create a gameplay loop of both learning to deal with a level while also keeping you on your toes with small changes every run.

I didn't rush and got the 'You've completed most of the current content' message (and 100% achievements) at about 26 hours, but I intend to keep playing to max out the weapons, spells and equipment. Based on the map select it seems that about half of the intended content is currently in the game.