Recent reviews by nite

Anodyne is a pretty spare 3d platformer and a pretty spare 2d puzzle game packaged into one charming, if underwhelming experience. The writing is in turns goofy fun, touching, melodramatic, and overwrought. The core message of the game would be meaningful if the dustbound weren't living such naive lives - their edenic world is emotionally simple wish fulfillment, despite it's claims to be the more nuanced/difficult way of life within the world of the game. I also found the themes a little thin on the ground, and in particular felt like the interior worlds of the 2d space weren't really contrasted with the 3d world in a way that felt meaningful. I was waiting for a moment that the constriction of the center would be reflected in the constriction of the single screened 2d worlds, and the freedom of the dustbound reflected in the freedom of an open 3d environment. This was hinted at a few times, especially with the end of the confrontation route, but I felt like ultimately the 3d->2d was mostly gameplay gimmick.

I'm still recommending the game because I think it's worth playing if you're interested in this kinda game, I just wish it had more substance.

Really great short puzzle game! Interesting set of mechanics for the puzzles, super great atmosphere, fun gimmick for the story and setting. My only criticism is that some of the non-maze portions of the game were a little empty or half baked, i would've loved to see more back and forth between the web and the maze, or more use of the file browser and 3d model viewer, just more stuff outside of the core game loop that took advantage of the operating system theme. Hard to complain about a lack of content for a 5 dollar game though, and i think the length is really nice for a beat-in-one-sitting experience.

Recommended if you like Inscryption, The Witness, and other "meta" puzzle games but want something a little bit more bite sized

When Obenseuer is at it's best, it's got intrigue, political commentary, and goofy black comedy. When it's at its worst, it's a pretty poorly balanced survival/management game. A lot of the game is slogging through the survival and management portion to unlock bits of interesting writing and gameplay. I think adding a layer of mechanical interest on top of the INFRA formula (which could get monotonous over its long runtime) was a good idea, I just don't think it's that well implemented. Very few of the mechanics as they currently exist are worth your time at all - crafting furniture can easily net you 1000's of coins an hour, while farming for the Kureharas, brewing, or scavenging for supplies out of bins *might* earn you 1% as much.

The game really started to pick up pace for me about 10 hours in, but then i ran hard into an early access wall which the remainder of my active quests were locked behind. I played for a bit longer on the daily loop hoping something else interesting might happen, but nothing did. I'm looking forward to revisiting the game when some updates are made, but it definitely early access right now.

I'm still recommending the game because I love the way this studio designs their games. I just hope someone looks into leveling the playing field a bit for earning money + supplies! Please no more idling waiting for the construction shop to open, buying out his entire stock of planks instantly, and waiting 24 hours to do the same thing again, i'd love to feel like it is worth it to engage with the other systems.

This game is like 3 very interesting games awkwardly squished together - a high skill 3d brawler, a stealthy complex immersive sim, and a blisteringly fast mindless boomer shooter. Sometimes that works to the game's advantage, and the variety of options you have to deal with a situation feels awesome. Often, though, the gameplay steps on its own toes to the detriment of all 3 of those styles.

The seemingly complicated miniboss enemies are dealt with easily by spamming kick and shotgun alt fire. Groups of enemies can't deal with shoulder peeking from the entrance to the area. stealth is very possible (enemies are often shockingly blind to you) but the complicated level layout means its much more convenient to just kill everyone you meet in case you have to backtrack through an area multiple times (or just reload to a previous save at a crossroads once you know where you're going). The sheer volume of options also makes just dealing with the massive number of keybinds difficult too - all of your options are available at the press of a T, or F, or was it G, or V? This is compounded by the very claustrophobic nature of the first level - a space station with narrow corridors, awkward jumps, countless ladders which lock you in place. When you find yourself in a bad situation, there's no getting out of it unscathed, and the multifaceted healing system means you're going to be walking around with a head wound. Again, you'll probably just reload from an older save. The game isn't hard if you allow yourself to abuse the save system, but it's impossibly punishing if you don't, even on medium difficulty.

Despite that, I think the quality of the game's tone, writing, music, and all of the systems on their own is absolutely killer, and I'm really looking forward to future updates. I think my complaints might come down to growing pains - with a game this complicated that also moves really fast, it's difficult to handle so many options right out of the gate. Maybe in a future update, a couple missions that give you a little more breathing room to get used to the game (sorta like the demo did, honestly) and introduced all of the different systems slowly over the course of multiple hours instead of frontloaded into a 15 minute tutorial zone could help with onboarding.

I definitely recommend buying the game if you know what you're getting into.

imo this game is getting better every update, and the pace of updates is really impressive. feels like the last few in particular have improved the systems that didn't quite make sense in their original implementation. that + the improved textures have really helped smooth the rough edges off the game. can't wait for community servers to get more fleshed out, especially ones with unique gamemodes.

i owned this game off-steam before, have played through about half of it. it absolutely rules. the addition of the kick adds a huge amount of dynamism to the movement, its a very clever mechanic. levels are all really sprawling and maze-y, and you have a lot of freedom in how you approach them. the weapons are about what you'd expect to find in a boomer shooter like this, but with a couple of fun twists. the enemy designs are my favorite part of the game though - they reposition really aggressively and refuse to let you shoulder peek your way slowly into a room. absolutely worth $5, should be more!

2.0 is a huge upgrade over the original mod, which i didn't review because I couldn't quite give it the recommendation. I don't think it's quite up to the standard of original half life levels in terms of layout and level design, but everything looks fantastic, especially the new scenic areas like the lighthouse and old wooden mansion. everything that has been improved from the original release is much appreciated, both visually and in gameplay terms (especially a particularly fiddly jump with the car in the original that has been removed). I think if you're a big fan of half life gameplay but you're looking for a really polished new experience, this definitely fits the bill.

barely recommend this game. the core gameplay of the cardgame is really solid (though it does not hold up in the roguelike update/dlc being developed right now) but i think you need a very specific amount of cardgame experience for it to really shine. the swingy nature of the low health totals means minor misplays can result in instant match losses, so if you arent already familiar with deckbuilders or ccgs, i'd be wary of the difficulty (see: the many people in the reviews discussing the "rng"). on the other end, if you've played a lot of card games, especially ones with a deckbuilding component, you'll probably cruise through the main story with very few match losses and likely no true losses other than the forced ones. i think the card gameplay is designed to be broken in a fun way, but if you break it too fast you probably won't have a great time. if you think you'd have fun with a lane based deckbuilder, then the game is probably worth picking up.

i'm going to get into mild spoilers following this line.

the meta story (the "irl" one) is extremely predictable and drags you out of the experience with a very awkward delivery. if the game wants to pull something like that off, it needs to be really, really good, but the way it's presented soured me a lot on the entire experience. when that meta story intrudes in minor ways on the game, it mostly serves to take me out of enjoying the actual game (by which i mean both the deckbuilder gameplay and the interesting story being developed between the main antagonists).

of the phases of the game, the last major one was my favorite but lasted the shortest time, but i admit this might have just been a consequence of getting some system mastery. i also was pretty disappointed by the teasing of other 2 phases, promising deeper mechanics for the other types of cards that we didn't actually get to play. the end of the game just feels half baked, and i was disappointed by the promises that the game leaves unfulfilled, especially because i feel like both the strategy components and the rivalries between the antagonists have so much more to offer! it seems like with the roguelike mod, daniel is continuing to work on the game. i can only hope that this means one day it will be the fully fleshed-out strategy game it deserves to be.

tl;dr packed with interesting concepts (both strategy and story) that are often explored too briefly, while also containing some amateurish concepts that are delivered badly. a mixed bag, but probably worth a look if you have a fondness for the genre.

some people talk about media that lets you "turn off your brain". rogue company is this in video game form. everything is exactly as you expect it to be, and nothing is surprising. the archetypes are all exactly intact, ripped off from as many sources as hi-rez can get away with. the gameplay is totally mindless even in the most thoughtful gamemodes, which are of course the same gamemodes that have existed in every shooter for the last 20 years. at no point will rogue company even attempt to challenge you. if you know that this is what you're getting and you can appreciate it for the brainless experience that it is, then i think you'll probably have a great time with rogue company.

This review has some spoiler-ish stuff, but you shouldn't buy this game anyway so read ahead.

This game is bad, and even the things people seem to like about it are bad.

Everyone is praising the worldbuilding, but this game has none. All it has done is cribbed elements from every single major science fiction work released in the last 60 years, without understanding a single one of their themes. Blade runner, 2001, Dune, Neuromancer, Ghost in the Shell, and of course, Half-Life - they are all here aesthetically, but not spiritually. The Corporate cops vs. the anarchist street fighters, the robots question of humanity, the sick and depressed population, its all just set dressing for you to wander through sewer after sewer, vent after vent, shooting the same 6 enemies over and over with a story that says nothing at all.

I could forgive this, though, if the game actually *did* take gameplay tips from Half-Life or feel like a spiritual successor. Half-Life is full of interesting challenges, freedom of movement, and generally quite bad gunplay disguised by creative solutions to just about every encounter. None of that is here. Crowded levels mean you are constantly catching on miniscule lips and edges while getting shot at, platforming sections are constant and overwhelmingly finnicky, level layouts are confusing at best and infuriating at worst.

The source engine is showing its age quite badly, and every level being packed to the gills with unoriginal cyberpunk refuse means that load zones are more frequent than ever. The "puzzles" are almost exclusively shooting the right explosive barrel/miscellaneous electric box, or picking up an item in one place and putting it down somewhere else. None of the cyclical half life level design, none of the choice in progression within an area, none of the exciting chase sequences or unique enemies. just shoot city cops and their flying balls, then crawl into the next vent. The unique gameplay elements here are either poor copies of half life or just gimmickry. Why do I you have pyrokinetic abilities? so that once every 3 hours the game can provide you with a "puzzle" wherein they put a prompt on screen reminding you of the ability that you haven't used in 2 chapters, because if they didn't there is no way you'd remember it existed?

I would recommend this game only if you are such a fan of cyberpunk settings that you want to experience the dullness and frustration of what living in one would be like firsthand.