Recent reviews by Slippy

For context: I have beaten Elden Ring (with summons) but not played the DLC.

I had tried a few times to get into Dark Souls and coming from Elden Ring it plays much slower. You move slower, you dodge slower and enemies are slower. The first few times I tried the game I hated it. Didnt even get to the Taurus Demon, it was that bad.

Then - after seeing a streamer throwing playing a Dark Souls randomizer run I was inspired to go back and give the game another go. And boy am I glad I did.

Dark Souls is truly an excellent game. The world layout is incredible, at first you feel like its impossible to get around without dying but over time you unlock more and more shortcuts and ways to get around. The atmosphere is great with so many great touches, and the remaster makes the game look pretty good and runs beautifully.

And once the combat clicks, it feels good. Yes, its different from Elden Ring and thats not a bad thing! So many of the bosses in this game FEEL fair to fight. There was only 1 or 2 bosses which I felt were unfair (you will know them when you come across them). Parrying is so much easier in Dark Souls, bosses and monsters have much less dumb wind up delay attacks.

Unlike Elden Ring - Dark Souls doesnt carry on forever. Exploring every nook in Elden Ring can take you 100's of hours. You can see most of what Dark Souls has to offer in around 20 - 30 hours. Coming from Elden Ring that is so refreshing.

If you are on the fence about Dark Souls, please pick it up. Even if its your first souls game its pretty approachable and a damn sight easier than Elden Ring.

This is a review based on the 1.0 version and on single player only. I have not played multiplayer.

Its really quite good as a single player game, much better than I expected actually. There are 18 missions of varying length (some are quick 10 minute affairs, others are longer and a successful run through might run north of 30 minutes), each with detailed maps filled with environmental story telling. Replayablity is pretty good as suspects and civilians can spawn and move about the map meaning each time should feel a little different. The campaign ran me about 20 hours I reckon (I struggled on some of the maps), although if you are a pro gamer its going to run shorter.

In single player the 'commander' mode is the campaign mode in which you have to beat each mission in turn to progress. You command yourself and 2 squad mates and can pick out your equipment and your squads. Equipment is very detailed, right down to the ammo types and armour types and you need to make sure you bring the right tools for the job. There is a large assortment of guns to pick from, although ill be honest a lot of them feel the same but its nice to have them in.

Your squad mates are also persistent and can unlock a special passive skill to help in the field. They can die and suffer from stress (basically locking them out of X number of missions) if you let it get too rough out there. Its a nice touch but it doesnt really add too much, your squad mates are largely faceless gunmen rather than people you care about.

Missions essentially boil down to arresting/neutralising suspects, rescuing civilians and the occasional side objective of find a certain thing. In most missions you can take it as slow as you like, although there are a few on a timer. The maps are VERY detailed and feel very 'lived in'. Some maps are better than others but largely the quality of the maps are high. Out of the 18 there were only 3 I wouldn't rate as 'good'. On some of the larger maps you might end up missing a suspect/civilian and spend 5-10 minutes wandering around looking for them. This isn't great and ruins the flow of the game and is a bit of a problem on larger maps where its harder to lock down parts of the map permanently.

Sqaud AI is pretty good. You can order them clear rooms, deploy grenades and they are generally accurate and wont cause too much frustration (although they will often block you as you try and come back out of a small room for example). Occasionally they will bug out and refuse to do an order but those moments are relatively small and not in high pressure circumstances.

Suspect AI... is a bit of a problem. There aren't any difficulty options in the game and suspect AI are deadly accurate and dont often give up unless you LIBERALLY apply non lethal weapons and grenades. For the most part even the most lowely criminal will fight to the death. This is quite a departure from SWAT 4 when suspects wouldn't always fight to the death and you could force surrender by shooting near them. I would STRONGLY suggest looking at AI mods that tone down the AI ability and makes them feel more realistic and less like murder bots. I used 'SWAT and Suspects AI Overhaul' from Nexus Mods and it makes the game feel much more realistic and closer to SWAT 4. Some suspects will still be very strong (those with military training) but it stops random crack heads from taking you down like SAS operatives.

Fortunately the ROE (rules of engagement) seem to be fairly lax compared to SWAT 4. As long as you dont shoot someone who has actually surrendered you can choose to gun down anyone holding a weapon with (almost) impunity.

In terms of theme there a lot of dark elements in the game and some of the levels are spooky or have elements to disturb you. For the most part they land very well - although the more you replay them those elements wear off. Some of the story lines are really strong and tie together well, some less so but for the most part its a very immersive experience.

Performance was surprisingly good once I messed around with the settings in game. I was able to achieve a stable 80-100fps depending on the level without any dips on an 8 year old rig and the game still looked great.

All in all - if you mod the AI its a good solid game to play single player and I would recommend it if you just want to play alone.

Its a weird balance between puzzle and wargame and it does not really do either very well.

Most missions feel like a puzzle. You have so many turns to complete the mission (puzzle) in which you have bonus objectives to do. Each turn you can only make so many moves (and you will spend most of them cycling through your units looking which one might actually be able to attack without getting destroyed) so making the wrong move has a devastating knock on effect which might not be recoverable for 2 reasons:
1. You need that unit to do something later in the mission.
2. You need that unit in a later mission.
Yes thats right - you can screw your whole campaign with a bad mission and not know until further down the line. A good example of this is the Sicily Husky mission. You have 2 paratrooper units you must drop on turn 1. Going into the mission you might have an idea of where is a good place to drop them but if you get them killed... well next time you get them in a campaign they will be a shadow of themselves. So your only option is to save scum by restarting the scenario.

Most of this could be excused if the RNG had been removed from the game. Sadly the game has plenty of RNG which you cannot control. Lets look at combat odds, a 0:1 means you should kill 1 attacker at 0 losses. However there is a decent random element at play so you could end up losing that very important set of engineers. That, again, has a serious knock on effect in the mission and the campaign.

Husky is another good example of this. On turn 1 you need to storm the beaches. You are reliant on your navel bombardment to clear out one of the towns you need. If that RNG bombardment roll doesn't do enough for you... well you immediately miss the turn 1 objective. Or you burn through more limited resources and screw yourself at the end of the mission. Even the most minor setback feels insurmountable because you know you might need those units you just lost down the line. Yes - thats how war works, but this is a game. I dont want to screw myself out of a 20 hour campaign due to a mistake I made on hour 4.

Its a solid game, although I would probably place it at 'souls-lite' instead of 'souls-like'. Still - its very good and fun. Just don't go in expecting dark souls. And dont let the soul-like tag put you off if thats not your thing, its closer to an action RPG.

In Tails of Iron you play a small rat who must hack their way through a good assortment of foes and bosses to restore his ratty kingdom. There is a lot to like here so lets cover that off:

• The art style is incredible. The world really pops and the world is filled with cool details. The way you get covered in the blood of your foes, the little scenes in the background, it really all works.
  
• Linked to this, enemies feel really cool to fight. The frogs are my favourite by far but the mossi queen/king fights are really funny with the amount of yellow snot that gets fired around.
  
• Combat is solid. Its a simple affair to get to grips with for anyone who has played a souls game. You have light and heavy attacks and a dodge roll, although the dodge roll does not have any 'invincibility frames' its more a tool to quickly move away from monsters attacks.
  
• There is a good level of challenge here at the base difficulty but if you are a souls veteran you probably wont get stuck on any of the bosses/fights for long. I liked this - progression was constant and I felt challenged but not frustrated.
  
• Plenty of weapons and amour to discover although its mostly a linear progression on the weapon side of things, but you have 9 categories to chose from (3 single handed, 3 double handed and 3 ranged) and you always have 1 of each category equipped. Amour is really interesting as you have base defence and 'resistances' towards certain enemy types.
  
• While the game does have some platform elements its is FAR from egregious, thankfully.
  
• I dont remember any bosses being a real unfun pain to fight. Each boss is the right level of challenge and even completely new people to these types of games will be able to memorise the bosses move sets.
  
• Game plays well on mouse&keyboard which is more than be said for a lot of other games in this genre.

Ill list a few of the things I didnt enjoy so much but if from the above it sounds like a game you would enjoy I would buy it. My complaints are minor issues on an otherwise great game.

• The game comes with side quests but they are essentially mandatory to complete (they reward you with coins which you need to progress). The quests in the 2nd half of the game are far better (and have you fighting bosses) but the early ones are pretty much walking to a place for a few fights before walking back. If you happen to die during them you start the whole thing.
  
• There is not a huge variety of character builds. Your weight of equipment determines your dodge (I think - its not very well documented or noticeable between light and medium) and the weapon types are pretty similar. Spear is a little quicker than sword/axe but for the most part its rule of cool rather than actually thinking about your build.
  
• There is possibly a little too much fighting grubs in the middle part of the campaign. I found them to be the least interesting enemy type to fight and found myself wanting to get past it so I could fight more frogs which have more varied units

All in all - a solid game and well worth your time. A few tips:

• Putting away your weapons help you move a lot faster - great for platforming or moving between areas
  
• Rolling through attacks isnt always the best as you arent immune to damage while rolling. Roll away instead.
  
• Dont be afraid to use your ranged weapons and poison equip. You can refill them pretty easily and if you die during a boss fight they will refill to what they were before hand.

It is really very good, simple to understand yet with a good amount of depth.

DotAGE is a worker placement game where you build your village from the ground up, collecting resources to expand and fend off various terrible events. There are a good number of production chains for you to explore and a variety of difficulty levels making the game accessible to everyone. The game comes with an in game encyclopedia (with an amusing name) to help you get by, as well as hints (basically mini tutorial screens) to remind you how things work.

A lot of thought needs to go into building your village, buildings need other building types nearby and can gain production bonuses from placement as well, both from buildings and even the type of terrain nearby/built on. Maps are randomised so no 2 villages will look the same. The graphics are really well done as well, your pips are full of character and the change of seasons are very well done. Pips speak in a sort of 'simlish' style which I love. Music is similarly strong and fits the games theme well.

Of course growing your village isnt your only goal. You have terrible events to fight! For those who do not like RNG do not fear - all major events are clearly marked out in advance so you can prepare for them. You fight events by resource collection. On harder difficulties you will need to make tough decisions about what your pips produce if you do not have enough workers to meet demand.

The game has a lot of content, a sizeable tech tree and plenty of unlocks to get more content. You will get your worth out of dotAGE.

There is not a lot wrong with dotAGE and the single dev has been hard at work from launch to fix any major bugs, although I will confess I have not run into any issues. What I will say is that although the game describes itself as a 'rougelike' it leans heavily on the 'like' part. That isnt a criticism at all - but do not expect 'quick' runs, runs will last a long time if want to complete them. I am 5 hours deep into a run and only halfway through. Fortunately new stuff you unlock is immediately available within your current run so you wont miss out on stuff.

A quick word advice on difficulty - the game currently warns you that 'normal' difficulty is pretty tough. If you have played worker placement style games before I would recommend trying the next difficulty up. Its less time consuming to fail and scale down rather breeze through and realise you have another 5 hours to go before you win.

All in all dotAGE is well worth your time and a credit to the solo dev who made this happen. I truly hope that you sold more than you expected from this wonderful game.

A fantastic turn based strategy game with a great theme and tight mechanics.

If you have enjoyed XCOM you will be right at home here and it is thoroughly worth picking up and playing through. A full campaign will probably take you about 10 hours to complete and you can always return to play through again with new characters you have unlocked. There are a decent variety of enemy types and locations, with maps being somewhat randomised with what looks like a similar 'chunk' system to XCOM2.

Fully recommend picking up if you are a fan of the genre. Its also at a very fair price making it a great pick up if you want to just try getting into the genre.

A very over hyped fighting game, and a major disappointment. While it has a nice aesthetic and level design it has poor mechanics, M&K implementation and downright terrible boss design.

- Poor Mechanics: The game revolves around fights sometimes vs groups and sometimes in 1v1s or 1v2s. Despite having a lot of wide open rooms to fight in, fights are best fought stood still, endlessly avoiding each combo string before putting in your own attacks. Your attacks feel like you have noodle arms while your opponents have cast iron fists for attacks. This is less of a problem in group fights (and the game is at its best in group fights) where opponents have low health and a quick combo can dispatch an enemy. Vs tougher opponents you will literally be waiting for the opponents string to end so you can maybe do 1 or 2 measly attacks and waiting again.

- M&K implementation: The above wouldnt be so much of a problem if you could actually pull of combos reliably. On M&K key presses are often not registered. This is very common in situations where you need to press multiple keys (such as do an avoid WITHOUT holding down space) or when trying to set up combos. A lot of M&k players will have trouble getting past the 2nd tutorial (and the in game tutorials) because your key presses wont be registered very well. In addition, block, parry and avoid are all on the same key which further exasperates this. You will often block (or just take the hit) instead of avoid because either your block or extra avoid key press didnt register.

- Boss Design: All this could have been excusable if it wasn't for the boss design. Boss design in Sifu encapsulates the worst parts of the game. Boss battles (excluding mini boss's) are long drawn out affairs which follow the following formula. Boss does combo -> player avoids until its over -> player does 1 or 2 hits -> boss does combo. Again this wouldnt be a problem if bosses battles didnt last SO LONG. They are by far the worst parts of each level, not because they are challenging but because they go on forever doing the same thing over and over again.

Finally a quick mention on the stability of the game. This game freezes every few hours for me, your mileage may vary. Menues are difficult to navigate with your mouse (specifically the skill tree).

Elephant in the Room: This DLC does not currently contain the ability to build your own Naval Units or conduct your own Naval explorations. If you are desperate for that you might want to give this a pass, at least until Vic (the dev) adds them in. Review will be updated if this changes.

TDLR: Its the Navy Jim but not as we knew it. Its a fun addition to the game and hopefully it gets added to overtime. I personally like the abstract nature and would like to see further additions to this which continues in that abstract nature.

What the DLC does give you is some more planet generation options for maps with large bodies of waters, which look great. The seas are ruled by trade houses (MTHs) which you must pay a lot of credits to open up logistic networks across the seas, as well as transport contracts to get their in the first place. Note you dont actually see any navel units (apart from some sea born aliens) but its all there doing stuff in the background.

Talking of sea born aliens, they can turn up on your coast lines (previously hexes boarding water hexes were essentially safe) and become a nuisance. MTHs may also dump raiders on your coast line as well. This will change how you play the game, I personally like this although it would be nice to have more tools to track when this is going to happen. Perhaps radar systems (thinking about it, they would work great on land borders as well)? if you like the idea of your coastal areas being 'hard borders' you probably wont like this.

Having true island empires opens up a lot of new challenges. You cant shift as much logistic points, without spending a lot of credits with an MTH, over seas meaning its more important that your island zones are more independent. This might mean you require multiple SHQs, something that was fairly rare in 'normal' Shadow Empire.

In short the DLC will pose you with more challenges to overcome and I have enjoyed my time with it. Personally I would like to see more done on building our own navy, either with specific units (like the air module that was added), or even at a more abstract level. Some humble ideas (if Vic reads this) could be:
Being able to set up your own port logistical network
Putting ships into sea zones (so abstracted) to help combat pirates, sea creatures or even fight the MTHs for supremacy of the sea zone.
Navy Officers as leaders, or a new council dedicated to Naval Operations
Resources out in the sea -> Deep Sea Oil/Mine Drilling

Its really good! If you enjoyed the XCOM games you will enjoy Xenonauts. If you enjoy turn based squad games you will enjoy Xenonauts as well.
Xenonauts is a spiritual successor to the original X-COM games and is a closer remake than XCOM EU/EW was. Both games are good on their own merits but XCOM is perhaps closer to movie blockbuster where you quickly go from ballistic weapons to super human soldiers, while Xenonauts is more gritty and certainly gives more of a feeling of 'hanging on for survival'.

Make no mistakes, Xenonauts is a hard game and perhaps harder than XCOM EU/EW, especially is it can be a bit obtuse in how things work. Cover, reaction/overwatch fire and soldier progression all work differently to XCOM so take the time to read the materials given and out there.

I would heavily recommend you play with the 'community' edition from the get go as this includes a number of fixes and improvements, which the devs have fully endorsed and comes packaged with the game (you can turn this on via the beta menu via steam).

Finally, a few things I really enjoyed. The writing is really solid and much better than XCOM. The art style is really quite nice and the 1970's setting is also a great setting for this game. The game also feels more tactical than XCOM and thanks to your soldiers improving based on WHAT they do you can quickly retool soliders depending on the situation. Want to go close quarters? Change your loadouts to include lots of shotguns, shields and flashbangs. Want to go long range and douse ET in bullets? Go for HMGs, rifles and rocket launchers!

Edit: Ironic that a game called 'Good Company' was abandoned by its devs. Game has never been patched or fixed since release.

The game was clearly not ready to come out of Early Access. There are plenty of bugs and stuff that just hasnt been updated as it went through Early Access (campaign is the major offender here)

The logistics arent as bad as others are making out and 9 times out of 10 I can figure out why its not working. However there are times in which it IS buggy and either can be fixed by deleting and rebuilding the offending items or just wont work at all.

The game could do with a usability update. Updating courier lines is a real pain to do and also involves far too much clicking. Example: if I want to have a pallet take 6 different parts I have to open menu, select a part, menu closes and repeat for each part. Why cant I select multiple parts in one go? Menus really need an option to right click to filter on that specific thing as well.

As it stands its certainly a fun game but until the bugs are fixed id give it a pass. I also want to add that the bug fixed post release (only a week but still) were mostly around balance changes to levels rather than bug/hot fixes