Recent reviews by Medelsnygg

All we are is what we leave behind.

That's you. Left behind. Earth's done. Humanity moved on. You're left. Alone. Or are you? A radio signal suggests there's hope. If you can get there. In your way is the flora, fauna, elements and the raging currents of the flood. Good luck, Scout.

(extra + for the soundtrack)

Apocalipsis: Harry at the end of the world is a fine, but short point-and-clickventure. It starts off easy enough but gets progressively harder. I like the game's art style - there are a few rough edges in animation where the joints clip but nothing major. Behemoth frontman Nergal narrates what narration there is.

The only thing against it is that the game doesn't always do a good job of explaining what it expects from you in the latter puzzles. Some achievements demand you complete a puzzle on the first try... which is kind of rough considering the game doesn't tell you what the problem is, nor the solution.

Would spend a relaxing weekend with Yuri again.

This is a game for trying to figure out how to Do It while your mom is away, featuring dolls. I played it, and now I think I know how to Do It. The music is good, the writing is good, the graphics are cute. The game is pretty short, which is great! Figuring out how to Do It shouldn't take too long. If you have to leave the game running, the windowed mode is small so no one will catch you figuring out how to Do It.

Enjoyed my time, would Do It again.

Donut County is the story of an unrepentant, terrible raccoon who destroys his town and his friends' lives for material gain.

The raccoons of Donut County have designed an app that can open holes to steal trash from their neighbors. The more trash the raccoons steal, the faster they level up in the app. Your avatar, BJ the raccoon has a liberal definition of "trash".

The actual gameplay is puzzle-ish, where you have to pilot your hole to swallow things in the right order until you have swallowed everything in a scene. Then you get treated to a cutscene before the next scene. The game is fairly short, but the writing is the main draw, in my opinion. Even though you could probably finish the game in a few hours, I recommend it at full price.

Transistor is the sophomore effort from Supergiant Games of Bastion fame. While similar to Bastion in both gameplay and tone, Transistor truly has it's own voice. You are Red, traversing a cyberpunk future city where something has gone horribly wrong, accompanied by the eponymous broadsword Transistor.

As you progress through the game, you unlock a variety of different skills which can all be used in three different ways. E.g., a skill might have the active effect of a ranged attack, or a boost effect to make another active skill faster, or a passive effect to make Red walk faster. This lets the player tailor the abilities they want to use, and offers a bigger variety in gameplay. Additionally, Transistor features "limiters" like the idols in Bastion that both increase experience gain and game difficulty in a variety of ways.

Be aware that Transistor is rather short, which was fine by me. It's not longer than it needs to be and never feels padded

All in all, Transistor builds and improves on what Supergiant started with Bastion.

Risen 3 is a Piranha Bytes - makers of the Gothic series - joint. It's a third person low fantasy Action RPG in a Pirate era world. Risen 3 paints you as the Nameless Hero, no not the one from either Gothic or Risen 1&2, this is another Nameless Hero altogether - you're the hitherto unknown, never mentioned son of legendary pirate captain Gregorius Steelbeard of Risen 2 fame. A regular treasure hunt with your sister Patty Steelbeard (also of Risen 2 fame) gets you more than you bargained for and a demon steals your soul. A shaman familiar to fans of the Risen series resurrects you and sets you on the path to get your soul back, during which you'll uncover a plot to throw the whole of the south seas into chaos. The lost soul part comes into play as a Soul mechanic - do good deeds and your soul will go up, do bad deeds and you'll grow more demonic. This affects the game in a small way, as enemies will come looking for you if your rating goes low enough, and ravage parts of the map. Think of it as reputation from Baldurs Gate or karma from Fallout.

Risen and Gothic alumni will recognize a lot of the trappings - there are stats to increase with xp ("glory") which let you buy and upgrade skills with gold, there are factions to join, companions to recruit and so on. However, Risen 3 plays far better than Risen 2 which had a number of bugs ranging from irritating, to locking you out of large parts of the game, to potentially gamebreaking. None of those bugs are in Risen 3!

THE GOOD

-Stand-alone from Risen 1 & 2. If you played those there's some content and familiar faces there for you but it's not necessary by any means.
-The graphics are average-to-good for a 2014 game, and all the cutscenes are in-engine. This makes the whole game package a small download, runs well on a mid-to-high range 2014 desktop computer. Bonus, all the dialogue and cutscenes are skippable for replay!
-It's a fantasy pirate arpg, a setting and a genre you don't often see together. Think Pirates of the Caribbean.
-Alternatives to melee combat. In an arpg, you want combat to be fun and not a chore. Based on achievement tracking I probably killed some 1300 creatures in one playthrough and almost every single one was a variation of hit hit hit roll, roll hit hit roll. Parrying enemies make this worse. Fortunately you can go down muskets or magic and hurl lightning bolts.
-I can't remember encountering any serious bugs.
-Almost everyone in this game is unlikeable including you, which I found hilarious.
***

THE BAD
-There's not a ton of replay value. Joining a different factions doesn't change the game all that much, maybe you could do a second playthrough focusing on a different skillset. Or try a low soul playthrough. You'll still do the same quests no matter what though.
-Melee combat is still bad. Not as bad as in Risen 2 because you get several essential skills from the beginning, but bad.
-The camera has issues with what I assume is the Z-axis shifting. When you drop down from a height or climb a ledge, the camera flies from behind your back to looking down on your head. This is mildly disorienting.
-Was it really neccessary to give Patty H-cups and a lace bra?
***

THE BIZARRE
-When I first downloaded the game, language settings were set to German by default and there was no in-game way to fix this, requiring a redownload of the audio files from the Steam Client. Other users I've talked to have not had this problem.
-The ending is just... nothing. True to form of a Piranha Bytes game, but still, what the hey?
***

It checks all the boxes of a Piranha Bytes game and does it well so if you're a fan of either Risen or Gothic, try this game.