Recent reviews by Inquisitor Vawn

You can pet the dog 10/10.

Also a fun game in the vein of PowerWash Simulator and Viscera Cleanup Detail. You're a dad with a sick kid, you need money and get roped into cleaning up crime scenes. You come in after the action, and all you're responsible for is finding the bodies, putting the furniture back and cleaning up the blood and trash.

Oh, and stealing everything that isn't nailed down.

Suprisingly chill, very enjoyable with some background music playing and just enjoying the process of cleaning.

Bought this game nearly 3 weeks ago. 75 hours down, I have to say I'm happy with this free game.

It's still in development, so the story isn't finished and there's only two world areas unlocked. But between the main story, the sidequests to level up NPC relationships, the skill levelling and building your pretty house there's still a lot to do.

You can invest as much time or as little as you'd like. The cash shop is only for cosmetics, nothing that will help you win or progress.

The community is one of the nicest online game communities I've met. Everyone's ready to help others, there's a real sense of community spirit between the house voting, helping others with material requests and shared gathering of things like the flow trees and hunting animals.

If you like cosy small town farming crafting sim games, it's a good'n and for free it's really held its weight up.

It's a sweet little game with a simple control structure - I played on Xbox controller and strongly recommend, as it made it easy to sit back and just chill.

The story is relatively straightforward and the only real replayability comes from wanting to 100% achievements/collectables. But I'd definitely recommend it if you've got small kids, at a little over 4 hours if you take your time wandering around trying to find as much as possible, it's perfect for little attention spans.

[Edited: 30 August 2024]: Repeated nerfs in the name of "balance" have removed almost all enjoyment. I've gone from spending hours each week on this game to barely touching it in the last few weeks. Part of having fun feeling like an expendable meat-sack in a cruel world of hyper capitalism and managed democracy is having weapons that make it feel fun. Nerfing weapons because "too many" people are using them and they've become meta isn't the way to balance a game. People want to feel powerful in the constraints of the fantasy you're offering them. Nobody wants to spend 30+ minutes on an endless slog and grind, especially when the chances of extracting successfully without a crash are incredibly low.

[Edited Review]: I've reverted this review to "Would Recommend" as Sony have reversed course - for now. This remains subject to change if Sony decide to act up again.

I adore playing this game. The game loop is fun, the in game humour is on point, the microtransactions actually are worth getting, and easily achievable with currency earned with a reasonable amount of in game time.

The community is amazing. The game is great if you have a solid group of friends to dive with, but outside that I've never met a community that pulls together so hard and just has a jolly good time playing together.

Despite the patches that have been released in the last year, this is still an unoptimised mess. With a 4070 and the settings at the default the game suggested, I hit a point in an early transition area where a side character was helping Joel up over a barrier and my framerate dropped to sub-1 FPS. I had to alt+F4 out and go back to reduce all of my graphics settings to get it functioning again.

Despite this, the game is still hit with stuttering at frequent intervals and constant "texture pop" during cut scenes.

The game itself is ehh, okay. The main story is around 12 hours long, and that was with plenty of exploring and backtracking, so nothing world-shattering.

The story suffers from the usual post-apocalyptic story issues, where side characters only exist to create moral quandaries for the main character either by dying, betraying you or betraying you and dying. And something about the second half of the game, where there's frequent large time skips and jumps between locations just left me feeling like something was missing. It's not bad, just... eh. That's the best I can say for it.

To be honest, if you've got access to a playstation capable of playing this I'd probably recommend just getting it on there rather than ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ around with the optimisation mess that this game offers.

Exactly what it says on the box. You're Marines, and you're here to kick some bug ass. Would you like to know more?

The community has been surprisingly pleasant, I rarely use voice comms in game for personal reasons, but I decided to take the plunge with ST:E and I haven't had any problems so far. Met some really funny folks, mostly all just here to do our part and stomp out the Arachnid menace.

Because it's still in EA there's some balancing and gameplay tweaks that are constantly happening, they're still trying to find the right fit of weapons and abilities for the classes, but each one is unique enough to offer a different play experience and to lead me to having a definite favourite.

The mutators have been a bit rough, but those are being smoothed out too and offer some interest to the currently relatively limited rotation of maps. I'm looking forward to seeing what will come in subsequent updates.

It was definitely worth the £20 I paid for full price, 11/10 would recommend at the current Summer Sale price of £17.

A delightful little game. I got it on sale in the Lunar New Year sale, but even at full price I'd be happy to recommend it. I completed (not 100%) the main story in a little over 4 hours, but that was in a single sitting. It was incredibly compelling, and the ambience and sounds were delightful and relaxing. Best cat purring simulator ever.

The puzzles aren't terribly complex, one baffled me for a little while but beyond that they were just enough to give that dopamine rush of successful completion - Yes, I *am* a smart one, aren't I? Pet the cat, get more purrs.

The story is interesting, and there are a couple of different endings. Your choices in the game do impact your endings, but from what I can tell they don't change the story too greatly. A bit more complex than "choose red, blue or green" but not exactly divergent either.

I would love to see the game expanded with new stories/mysteries. The plant location and identification gameplay loop was really quite enjoyable and I'd like to do more of it with a different plot if possible.

I'd definitely recommend this game if you enjoy sneaking, gathering, crafting. The gameplay loop is pretty simplistic, and the NPC dialogue is clunky as all hell, but the story is intriguing and it is trying to do something different which I've got to give them props for.

Also giving props for the demo - it's straight up just the first chunk of the game and progression carries over to your actual save, so if you're considering it and you're not sure then I definitely recommend getting the demo, giving it a try and then buying the game if it fits your tastes.

Is it world-breaking? No. Have things in it been done before? Yes. But it's still fun and it's been worth the money I paid for it so far. The graphics are pleasant to look at, there's been a few jump scares that have managed to catch me, and the story is definitely interesting enough to hook me.

Also mushrooms. Mushrooms are VERY important. If you see a mushroom, take a mushroom.

Definitely play the game with Russian dialogue and English subtitles.

I really enjoyed this game. I loved it. It was the first FPS in a long time that got me excited for twitchy, high-paced gaming. I felt like a badass when I finished it, and it was amazing.

[Edit]: Denuvo has since been patched out in a recent update and I'm currently reinstalling the game as we speak. I'm also updating this review accordingly, as the post-release anti-cheat forced install was the only reason I felt compelled to leave a negative review.

(But I'm not willing to accept being forced to install a rootkit into my system to continue playing, especially because I have little to no interest in playing online multiplayer, I'm purely enjoying singleplayer. I have uninstalled DOOM Eternal, and will not be reinstalling until Denuvo AC is removed from the whole game. There are much better AC options for multiplayer out there. Good job, Bethesda.)

At anywhere between three to five hours, you could be forgiven for thinking this is a shallow game. But that could not be further from the truth. The story of a man trying to find Truth in his exploration of the remnants of a world long gone, The Old City: Leviathan is a hell of an experience.

If you don't like to read, I would have to suggest this game is not for you. I would recommend turning subtitles on and then just exploring the world. Read the pages scattered around the world, pick up Solomon's journals and follow his progression (digression?) across the course of his words and just feel the story.

The visuals, sound and all around atmosphere are completely absorbing. Though there's no enemies, no other living entities you encounter apart from some mythical beasts that form more set than interactive partner, at moments there was real tension, a terror of the unknown and what you may find next.

This story does not hold your hand. You have to piece it together as you progress, between your character's musings, the journals and scattered books and pages you find. It won't explain what The Fall is, it won't go into the reasons why the world is how it is... It just Is.

But if you are willing to let go, to engage in the story... it will take you all the way down and engulf you in its depths. I don't know if I feel elated that I finished, or heartbroken.