Recent reviews by Sabrewylf

Stardew Valley is an open-ended agricultural and social sandbox. You're dropped in a village on your grandfather's farm (which is completely in shambles) and you are free to do as you please after that.

The rhubarb does not flame me. The parsnip does not go afk. The carrots aren't shouting about how they've slept with my mom.

This game is zen.

Incomplete story first of all. It's the first part in a series of who knows how many installments.

There seems to be this intricate system in place of tracking how well liked you are, what your stats are, what your equipment is... It doesn't matter one bit. It's just fluff and doesn't do anything. Maybe it does in the sequels but for now it doesn't and that's all that matters.

I guess if you're a fan of these developers, then you'll like this. It was my first experience with these guys and I'm not impressed at all.

To give you an idea: imagine a school kind of like Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Add in a Harry Potter-esque atmosphere, except with some adult themes and fanfic tier plotbuilding. At least the grammar seemed alright. And then at the end of this flaccid ride, it just ends. There's not even a big cliffhanger, it just stops.

This game has a nice atmosphere and amazing graphics, but tedious gameplay. The backgrounds, world, voice-overs and all that are really great but going through it just isn't. A shame, I really wanted to like this. If this had been an animated film I think it would have been the best thing ever.

Every shut-in, basement dwelling weeab's power fantasy come true.

In all honesty, it's not the greatest of stories. The BGM is alright but as a whole unremarkable. The art is passable at best. You'll chuckle only occassionally.

However it's free, never pesters you for microtransactions (there aren't any!), and can be finished in a single sitting. If you like Starcraft 2 or any kind of competitive scene, this is an excellent timekiller for a night where you're home alone and there isn't a thing to do or watch.

USF4 is currently the fighting game on Steam if you're at all interested in multiplayer. In terms of playerbase, the only real contender is MKX, but the online infrastructure on that is terrible and as such, most players playing it are actually playing the single player modes. Skullgirls' multiplayer has roughly 1/3 to 1/4 of Street Fighter's playerbase, and while it has an excellent tutorial mode and great netplay, it has the typical 'anime fighter' problem of having very fast gameplay and (generally) featuring more than two characters per match. This can get it in the way of learning; it's not always easy to identify what you're doing wrong or even what move the opponent did.

USF4 is a game with a steep, STEEP learning curve that is only exacerbated by its tight-knit community and the fact that the game is about seven years old. The majority of the players you'll come across online are hardened veterans and for a new guy like me, it can be maddening. I'm exceptionally proud of my ~15% win rate.

In my opinion it's the best option you have right now for learning fighting games. It's not too fast like Skullgirls can be, there's a community that's very receptive to newbies and will answer questions, and it's perfect preparation for the big fighting game boom pc gamers will get in 2016. Some time next year we'll get both Street Fighter V and Killer Instinct, and USF4 is your metaphorical gym membership to get ripped for those releases.

You have guest access to police files about a woman being interviewed.
By typing in keywords and watching the short video clips they bring up it's up to you to piece the story together.

The plot thickens and engrosses you quickly. The game loses a lot of steam by the end though, when you've already uncovered the basics and are just fishing for the details. Having seen the credits once will give you administrator clearance, which will make it a lot easier to find all the videos.

All in all very enjoyable and excellently priced too.

Mad Max currently has an outrageous reception on Steam (courtesy of all the dank maymays that were spawned by Fury Road) that in my opinion, it does not deserve. It's by no means a bad game, but the reviews suggest we have a classic here. In all honesty Mad Max is nothing but a repetitive and wholly forgettable timesink.

Let's start by what they did well. It's very much an immersive setting and it feels like a Mad Max film. We have the insane folk of the wasteland with all their afflictions, we have the desert, and we have our anti-hero.

And that's about where it stops. The game itself just isn't fun at all.

• Ground combat is 90% mashing a single button, with one extra for parrying and one for dodging.
  
  
• Gathering scrap, fuel, water, and repairing your car can take anywhere from ten to thirty seconds each time. Instead of blazing through the wasteland with the thrill of being pursued, you're bored out of your mind while you watch Max hammer away at some crates or operate a faucet. These little cutscenes are cute at first but quickly grow tiresome.
  
  
• The car combat is wonky as all hell and starts out super crappy (though I can say there's little improvement after ten hours). The cars don't handle well at all. Early on you're stuck scavenging for scrap to get some early upgrades, or to take on story missions in your shoddy car that falls apart in a matter of three rams, after which you need to pull over and watch the hunchback repair it for a good thirty seconds or so. Somehow the developers felt the need to include all these survival and realism elements, but then they include Ephialtes with a magic wrench. Having more ammo would make car combat more enjoyable, but the developers have gated this resource as well: it needs to be scavenged. There are upgrades to restock for free or increase your ammo capacity... But then you're scavenging with the goal of not having to scavenge. That's just dumb. In the end all you're doing is firing your harpoon, regardless of how impressive your arsenal is.
  
  
• The wasteland is more alive than you'd ever expect, as there are wreckages and enemies absolutely everywhere, as well as sniper posts and enemy encampments. Yet at the same time it's dead. Don't expect to find another soul out there that doesn't look exactly like the 5 enemy models they have, and they're all out to get you and your car. Except when you get out, then they'll just let it chill, even if you leave it there in the middle of the road.

Mad Max is a game that had a lot of potential, but I feel like the developers couldn't decide between an open world action game and a wasteland simulator. Regardless, Mad Max succeeds at neither.

Mediocre.

Dropped it after 20 minutes. Cannot in any honesty recommend this game.

If you're interested in the platforming, move along. Movement is very sluggish and at times downright unresponsive and frustrating. If you're here because you love metal (as I do) then maybe, if you're a patient man, you will like this game. The main problem is that the gameplay isn't streamlined. I was hoping for a rock opera, not ten lines of sung material in between bouts of unentertaining platforming.

If you're really interested in the music of this game, best check out an edited YouTube video. If you're interested in its gameplay you're just a crazy person.

Ori is a game that's easily finished in just a handful of sittings, or even a single one if you're into speedrunning. In terms of graphics and sound, this game is incredible and really immersive. You have this cutesy, almost Disney-like art style coupled with a very melancholic soundtrack. It really fits. Story is really about preference and I'm not going to spoil it, but personally I liked it. To give you an idea, I was getting some pretty intense Studio Ghibli vibes.

In terms of gameplay, it's essentially a platformer. For the most part enemies are pushovers and you have an amazing number of tools to deal with whatever enemies you come across. You can bounce back projectiles, slam enemies dash through them, or even just scale the walls and avoid them alltogether if you happen to be low on health.

All in all I heartily recommend it to anyone who enjoys platformers to some extent. Ori was very refreshing and one of a few platformers I've ever really enjoyed. That being said, Ori will probably last you about 6-7 amazing hours for a single, slow paced playthrough.

Life Is Strange really is something else. It's the first game, at least that I have played, that gets the interactive game-but-really-a-movie right. A big part of this is the rewind mechanic. It fits in perfectly with the surreal, kind of magic realism feel it's going for, but it also allows you to explore any and all choices you make without any (immediate) consequences. That's always been a big turn-off in Telltale Games: sometimes the protagonist will word things differently than you expected and you'd wish you could make a different choice. Well here you can, and it actually makes sense from the story's perspective.

The game feels like the interactive love child of Juno and Veronica Mars, with hints of The Butterfly Effect. The visual style really works for this kind of story and the audio is spot-on. Max is really fleshed out as a character and is not just a carta blanca waiting to be filled in by your imagination, which is great.

Play this game, and watch your sympathy for hipsters grow. I expect the full game to last about 15 (well filled) hours for a single, slow-pace playthrough, so take from that what you will.

Post-finale addendum

It's great. The final few episodes are one heck of a rollercoaster. All in all I can tell you that the story isn't particularly innovative, the graphics aren't the greatest, and sometimes the dialogue gets a bit too Dawson's Creek for my taste.

But beyond that the voice acting is amazing and the music is incredibly atmospheric. The characters are very believable and relatable and even though the story may not be innovative, it's done very well. I won't soon forget this little gem.