Recent reviews by 💗 𝓲𝓵𝓵𝔂 🖤

Loving it so far. Honestly this was a hell of a surprise but she fits this game so perfectly and I really like that she ended up becoming a fully fledged character rather than just a skin.

All the songs I've heard so far slap too. I'm sure there'll be people who'll be bothered by this not being a free update but for 2 bucks in a game that doesn't have much DLC to begin with I think it's well worth it.

OH NO THE STEAM SALE IS OVER THIS IS TERRIBLE NOW YOU HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR GAMES AGAIN

Ok but what if I told you that there was a- you can totally justify buying stuff full price btw, if it's not by some big company I fully endorse it- a game that was a lot like its paid alternative and almost as good.

Well BATTD is essentially that. There's usually no reason to review a free game because I wanna talk about it for a bit and specifically why it was something that was very easy to sink so many hours into. In Sections!

So normally this wouldn't be a plus and honestly out of the free games that I play regularly, I don't think I'd ever recommend one on the basis that it's a gacha. Except this one.

My view on gacha mechanics is that more often than not they're either the dopamine drivers that glue together a pretty boring but overall addictive experience (aka if they didn't have gacha they wouldn't be worth your time (or aren't anyways), you know the ones) or they're a negative design model holding back a game that genuinely is worse off for it (Hoyoverse games epitomize this). But occasionally you'll come across a game that works so well both on its own and with the gacha mechanic that it drives you to keep playing and doesn't just thrive on making you feel awful. This game is one of the better examples of that.

...that's also probably why it's been abandoned but uh

Let's talk about how for a second.

So naturally if you approach this title you might be wondering why you would play this game instead of Bloons TD6, which is actively updated and pretty cheap on the regular. There's really two answers to this: the first is obviously that this is free, but the second is that you wouldn't. They're not the same game.

The large majority of your early hours in this game will be focused on progressing, something I really enjoyed about it. It has a story (not a heavy one), lots of unlockables that are area dependent, and difficulties for each area. But when I say progressing, this also applies to the characters themselves, and this is where the dopamine kicks in (or depression I guess but again, it's not as bad as other gachas). Each character has a skill tree, a weapon they can equip, and various accessories, but the fun thing about this is that there's no just...up, with BATTD.

Like naturally you can look up online what the "best items" are or what the "best builds" are but what I really like about this game is that there even are builds. In something like Honkai Star Rail (a game I actively enjoy) if you wanted to try a build on a character that wasn't particularly meta and then it didn't work out you'd be screwed because the amount of investment you have to put into a single character is insane. Here rarer items get easier to get as you progress and outside of weapons (which have some crossover), all accessories can be given to other characters. You're pretty free to try things out. And the way it works as a gacha, you're really encouraged to because RNG plays a big part in what items will be available to you.

Also if it wasn't clear, this game is very character focused. It's kinda like TD6 if you could place multiple heroes down but they leveled like regular units (which also works a bit differently. It's neat.

Um...this one's just kinda hard to miss, and where I personally come to a bit of a loss on how to talk about it because.

I'm an Adventure Time fan. And this game has a lot of fanservice. The characters talk a lot in the stories, they have lines in the game, ALL of the weapons and accessories (outside of Bloons-specific items, because there are some monkey characters), and I love it. I think most people love it. Hearing a combination Adventure Time-Bloons theme when I open up the world map makes me happy every single time (before being sad that the game's totally abandoned).

Like, I'm convinced that out of all the attempts to make an Adventure Time game over the years, this one does it while retaining the spirit the franchise the best and also just is the most fun. But I don't know if it wouldn't just grate on or confuse someone into a point of disinterest. Personally I think that regardless of whether you're into the series or not you should be able to enjoy this game, especially if you already like Bloons or tower defenses, and hey who knows, maybe it'll end up getting you to watch the show. But if you are already an Adventure Time fan, I'd absolutely recommend playing this game because it's literally made for you and also

This is literally the thing I think of the most when I think of this game, largely because most of the themes are just game-ified versions of existing tracks from Adventure Time, but by the composer of Bloons who has a very specific sound that you recognize immediately when you hear their work. There's not a lot of tracks but the ones that are there are super memorable and really easy to listen to, with some examples being:

I'm Just Your Problem
All Gummed Up Inside
My Best Friends in the World

I'm intentionally avoiding some faves but I think my favorite thing about all of these is that they're all longer as tracks in this game as they are in the show proper. But yeah, the music's great. If you like AT or Bloons you'll like it here.

Yeah it's. It's all free. You can get everything in the game for uh. Free *****.

So the asterisks are important because there is what I assume was originally paid-only content in the game. 3 characters (at least one of them is insanely good) and the price tag was honestly crazy, and while it's a bit of a stretch goal they are collectible in-game now. For free. I don't have them despite my hours but to be fair I kinda went through the game pretty slow and wasn't too focused on them until near the end of my time with the game so your mileage may vary, but I do at least like that they gave the option instead of just keeping this game here that they won't update while reaping the passive cash from sales of them (well they still are but). Any way this is the most minus plus.

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So yeah, cool game. As for the cons, gonna do this in bullet points bcs long-winded doesn't even begin to describe me rn:

• This game doesn't have the audio features that TD6 has and they should come back and fix at least this. You can turn off music and you can turn off sound effects and that's it, whereas in TD6 you can independently change voice line volume, SFX volume, and music volume, with the important thing being that you could change them individually, not just mute them. Seems minor but it really isn't especially because
  
• This game has some bugs and I'm not gonna go into them because honestly some of them are just straight up good for the player base. They make some builds viable that otherwise wouldn't be, among other things, but the bugs I do want to focus on is that there is an audio bug where occasionally certain attacks WILL NOT SHUT UP. They won't stop playing, even if you're paused, until you either mute or restart and while it doesn't always happen it can get grating. Pretty sure it's a lategame issue though.
  
• No multiplayer. Missed opportunity, really. There is a little challenge that's on a rotation that's sort of competitive but being able to play with friends in this would've honestly put it a lot higher for me. I imagine it just dropped support to early for that or they (Cartoon Network likely) saw a competitive mode as more important as that drives people to pull more.
  
• This game's last update was just a month or two before I started playing.
  
  Anyway review too long wtf goodbye play the game it's fun

it's like runescape for sims fans

This game is so weird. There's really no point in reviewing it since everyone basically already has but I kind of want to weigh in from the perspective of someone who started from Tri, played 4, then Rise, and then this.

I've kinda described this game in the past as "Monster Hunter if it was given a Western-oriented release back on the Xbox 360 and PS3", y'know how they'd try and re-imagine games and they'd look really realistic and some mainstays would be gone while others would be transformed etc etc. Bomberman did it, Castlevania did it, Sonic did it, and this didn't for a while until, well, World.

It was actually a lot of why I wasn't too interested in the game back when it came out and why I ultimately skipped it until after I played Rise. It just didn't feel enough like Monster Hunter to me, but thankfully unlike those games I mentioned this game actually didn't fall into that trap. This game almost uncannily feels like Monster Hunter through and through, and it definitely punches you in the face with a lot of. Nuances, let's say. But it still feels like the same series and a unique entry in it at that. It's a lot less of a departure than I was expecting.

Do I think you should play it? Absolutely, if you're interested in MH this game is a very easy gateway to it. Literally, this game's really easy. Did I personally like it? This isn't about me.

That said.

So World's fun, I really liked that the subtitle really accurately described the focus of the game and how this game differs from the others. I didn't know it was as focused on the like, lives of these creatures as they made it out to be. The locales feel a lot more tangible because of not only how the monsters interact with it, but also how the monsters impress themselves upon it. I liked catching bugs and tracking monsters by where they'd been and what they'd done, that's the sort of life that I honestly want more out of the games going forward, and all of that is easily what I liked most about the game. The character customization is right behind that, absolutely loved it here.

Conversely, I called the game weird for a reason. The live service stuff is 100% a turn-off, no idea why they did it. It gives this like, wannabe-MMO or free-to-play feeling and you feel that a lot more in the way that the mutliplayer lobbies are so drop-in/drop-out. As a new player it's really confusing too because even having played other MH games, the multiplayer's always been separate so logging in getting bombarded by "X has joined the lobby" "X has posted a quest", among other things just felt weird, especially because as a result the multiplayer area serves less of a purpose than it did in previous games (same with Rise to an extent).

The areas are big and they're pretty too. PRETTY PAINFUL TO TRAVERSE, if you've played Rise (or maybe in general) you've going to be in agony because apart from the fact that running from place to place can be painfully slow (especially early on before you have alternate camps unlocked). And it's really funny because in Rise they added both a mount and the wirebugs which almost feel like they were made for this game, especially considering how vertical it can be sometimes. One of my first memories in this game was early on trying to hunt a Rathian and spending 20 minutes getting to its nest, attacking it, watching it fly off, land somewhere difficult to get down to. By the time I got down there it'd just flown back, and after a while I just waited at the nest because sometimes it wouldn't even land and would just fly around for a while, and this went on until it eventually left despite almost being dead.

I do like the areas in this but I everytime I think about coming back to it that's the thing that keeps me from it the most. Apart from that there's the story which is. Look, I'm not the type to say "You don't come to X for the story" because I think if a game wants to tell a story that's compelling or whatever, by all means. It's happened from series I didn't expect it from before and I always welcome it. Here it felt really weird though, for two reasons. The first is the whole thing with the co-op restriction, and how you have to get a certain way into a mission before you can activate SOS to summon your friends which is really odd. The second reason though is that it's just very kneejerk from this series because, if you've played the others (ofc bar Rise), the characters don't even really talk in a real language there. You pretty much get a few cutscenes over the course of the whole game, dialogue in between, etc etc. It's not that the game never cared about its narrative or anything, it was just never that important and you could just skip it.

Here...oh boy. This is the closest thing to what I meant about the game being like a re-imagining for the Xbox 360. The Handler, your assistant, will probably drive you up the wall. There are a number of sequences where you just wanna go and you have to undergo the "talking while walking slowly" torture sequence that only a few games even need. There are missions where you'll wanna do your own thing for a bit (because this is MH, of course you will) and then the people will prompt at you over. and over. and over. And this is a lot more grating now that they speak actual words. Some of the stuff they'll say is crazy self-explanatory, I don't think there are many people that need you to tell them what the effects of being stunned are. Not being able to go somewhere because you have to talk to someone, the quest padding, on and on and on. If you can get invested in the story it probably shouldn't bother you as much but the constant roadblocks are really annoying, especially for a MH game. I'm totally fine with Wilds being story heavy but they really have to facilitate things better.

Also whoever decided to add that flying ♥♥♥♥ to the game. Why.

Oh right on that note, the suits that you can wear that have different effects are neat. I don't remember if I used them much but as an idea they were pretty cool. Similarly the proto-wirebugs were a nice touch, I just wish they'd used them more but considering the sequel exists I guess they eventually did.

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And while this all might make it seem like I didn't like the game, I did like it. I had a lot of fun actually, and a lot of it simply came from the fact that it was such a new experience. It tried something new and even if the open-world-esque design tended to be annoying to traverse, it was beautiful and really lent itself to the series and the genre well instead of just being some AAA money-printing tactic. This is the game that ended up making MH a niche title to something everyone knows and displayed an interest in the industry for more methodical group gameplay in action scenarios which we really don't have a lot of. If you're even the slightest bit interested, I recommend it, and if you're deciding between this and Rise, don't decide, get both, they both rock. This game is 10 bucks on sale (currently) and 30 bucks off sale so just get this, then that. Like, it's such an easy recommend.

Whoever proposed bringing back mounts in Wilds, though, you're an actual hero and I hope you get crunched as little as possible by the unfortunate capcom overlords.

I'm a big fan of Gaziter and Rogue Deckbuilders so I've pretty much had my eye on this one since before it hit Nextfest. I love the music, I really love the presentation (just the way things recoil and physically react to attacks 'n stuff), the game has a lot of personality. I will say that this game's flow is pretty different than a lot of other deckbuilders and I think that catches a lot of people (myself included) off-guard.

However I think in return it does a lot to pave its own identity, both in the archetypes you're able to play and how you play them, and I think that also makes the game a lot harder from jump street than most others. At the same time, though, I think the most recent large update did a lot to alleviate this, particularly with the change that you can choose an archetype (called Tribes) and then, in doing so, be presented with 3 Leaders as opposed to before where you were presented with three leaders from 3 different tribes and just had to roll with which one had the best ability or gamble on whether the leader from the tribe you wanted to pick could survive very long. They usually wouldn't.

I'm honestly not going into a whole lot of detail here because I feel like the gameplay vids and the much larger reviews do that well enough, but my entire point is simply that this feels similar but it's not Slay the Spire. It's not Monster Train or whatever else your mind might first think of when you see it. A really lucky, well constructed run in this will feel way different in this than its peers and the agency of the player to focus on positioning and priority from moment to moment (aside from just building the deck itself) plays a huge part in that.

And it's crazy satisfying when you win, this game's so addictive.

P.S. To the devs, PLEASE add a function to lock nicknames. Nicknaming cards is one of my favorite features but having to do it every single run makes it kinda lose its novelty, at least if you decided to do it for every single run. Would be great if at least for some cards we could lock them so they persist between runs, or at least get cataloged somehow.

OK so I think the review bombing is pretty stupid but legitimately who doesn’t have this game by this point

this is like telling someone not to go play counterstrike in 2023 as if most of your friends list hasn’t already played it

like if someone doesn’t have it by now they just don’t want it, if anything I would see more people who would actually try the game because of the negative controversy.

which really just makes the whole thing funnier

I'm writing this off the back of playing the Diablo 4 beta, and I guess having played that made me realize the things this game has in its pocket that make it fun for me personally.

OK so this one might seem a bit weird since I know a lot of Diablo and PoE players tend to prefer the end/lategame over the actual leveling process, but honestly one thing that I realized that this game really has in its favor over, say, Diablo 4, is that the leveling process was like, really satisfying. On every class. Because the build variety is so interesting and the uniques do a lot to lean into that. Like for instance there's this pair of gloves you can get for the Sentinel (well, Paladin, but) that allows you to play the class unarmed and use this AoE at a potency much higher than normal. This allows you to build into that ability that it's for and, despite that it might not be gimmicky or optimal, it's a lot of fun to actually play and doesn't feel like much else in the game.

And this is like a consistent thing. Because the leveling process isn't instant you'll start looking at skills and realizing "oh, I can do this" and make a build that plays so wildly different than what someone in the same class, potentially with the same weapons is doing, that you have this huge incentive to make more characters. I LOVE THAT, and while I do think the game could benefit from more side/branching content to make having more characters and playing through the game again more interesting, I generally think the process of thinking of a build and getting it to work and seeing your ideas come to fruition, no matter how wacky or crackpot they are, is what makes this game what it is.

Also the creators are big nerds and it shows. My Chrono Trigger senses were being attacked constantly and I loved it.

This game has some stellar loot filters. I'm not generally the type that likes playing around with stuff like that because it's just too much of a hassle for me, but being able to fine tune what can be picked up, the colors of specific types of item names, whether they're capitalized, and being able to set up rules for them that makes it organized so you can really find what you're looking for for your character, like...how does Diablo not have this?

Honestly I feel like this should be the baseline of what's expected for any looter game, but that's more in the way of crediting this game for providing something great rather than doing the bare minimum.

OK I don't like that you can manifest skellies out of nowhere but I do like that this class is really cool and versatile. Technically Acolyte is the class and Necromancer is the subclass but I do just feel it's important to bring up because I've had very mixed opinions about how these types of games approach necromancer over the years (hell Diablo 3 didn't even have it for a good while) and basically the only game I've really enjoyed it in prior to this point, in this genre, was Diablo 2.

But the trees are cool and it does well to feel distinct from the other minion class in this game (which is also a joy).

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I do obviously have some criticisms, though some are more personal misgivings than they are general critiques. I'll just list them out since there isn't too much to say.

1. No Character Creation - This is something that's very back and forth in these types of games and I'd say has only recently started to become the norm. This won't be a con for a lot of people but for me it was kind of a big let down that there was only really one body type per character. I don't even necessarily want CC but even some light customization would be nice, I could see them adding it in the future. Here's to hoping.
   
2. Rough around the edges - This is kind of to be expected for an EA title, and I think a lot of issues ended up coming in with their multiplayer update which, for the record, has been pretty nice. Druid in particular can tend to be the subject of a few bugs such as one ability which T poses the character if you're using the wrong weapon and a skill not properly applying the stat bonuses (at the time of speaking). The game's still a lot of fun but I wouldn't really blame anyone for waiting for the 1.0, especially considering they have pretty big plans for the future anyway. Looking forward to seasons a lot.
   
3. Side Quests - This one varies, but I think it's worth talking about. Some quests give you passive points, others give you idol spaces, these are nice and, in the latter case I would say they're somewhat mandatory, but there are other side quests that don't give you anything but experience and money. That's normal right, games do that, but it's like...If you've ever played Final Fantasy XIV's yellow quests you'll relate to this: most of the quests don't give enough of a reward to be worth it and aren't really out of the way so you have no reason to pursue them, even on a first playthrough. I think this is important to bring up because apart from the fact that this game would mostly be played by people that would be more endgame focused, the way experience and loot drops work in this it's just generally better to progress faster for better drops rather than dawdling in lower level areas. While some of the quests are neat, I just think the reward should justify the time put into each quest.

But yeah, solid game. The price might be a bit steep and I do think maybe it could use a little more time in the oven so if you want to wait for the full release or a sale I wouldn't blame you, but overall I think if you like Diablo or PoE then you'll be able to put a lot of time into this and will probably end up coming back to it down the line.

OK so, I've never played Guacamelee, the entire reason that I even have this game is because me and a close friend bought it on a whim after it came out with not much pretense for it.

This game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ rad. It's almost easy for me to say that this is the best co-op game to have come out last year, and the only reason I can't is because last year was just a really good year for cooperative games. Love that.

What makes the game so fun is honestly that because there are so many forms to unlock this allows for a lot of different playstyles, and since you can customize the forms' abilities (and use some abilities from other forms), it's a lot of fun to see how different players play the same form or approach a certain situation with the same form. Like making builds is so fun in this, Diablo/PoE fans can feast here even if it's not to quite that extent. It's big chaotic energy but that's where a lot of the fun comes from and I can't really think of many other games like this as a result.

Personally I played this with only one other person but it can be played with up to four which sounds like a hilarious nightmare and I'm all for it. Full price it's worth it, on sale it's a steal. If you have some friends and you're looking for a longer form multiplayer experience which, really, there aren't as many of as there should be, you should totally pick this up and bring dragons crown to pc you cowards

Rat gang

more expensive than elden ring and half as good

This deserved Labor of Love for 2022