Recent reviews by miej

All I really wanted was to click on a fidget spinner to make it go spinny a few times. The game didn't even deliver that. I literally fell asleep about five minutes into 'playing' it. The mechanics are not great, even for an idle game. It's more like a pointless grind game. Which....to be fair, most idles are anyways, but still, this one takes it to a new level. *shrug*

What a unique experience.

Signalis is art.

This is one of the most compelling pieces of creative media I've engaged with in a long time, and I'm not sure why I'm crying. I need to talk to someone about this experience.

Promise that you'll join me.

Iconoclasts is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing game, and you should absolutely give it a play. Be prepared for a pretty relaxed 2d platformer with some fiendishly tricky sections, and some of the best writing that you would have never expected from a game like this. And it's created by a single dev? like holy ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ cow, this thing is a work of art, and despite the bright and cheery exterior/style, it's had some of the hardest-hitting bits of narrative that I've experienced in a video game in quite some time.

This game is amazing, and is a fantastic piece of game design. 10/10, would become a planet-killing genocidal maniac, unleashing the wrath of the heavens upon billions of innocents again.

Contrast is great, beautiful, and quite innovative. Short, but worth every dollar.

the only bad thing about this game is that there isnt more of it.

simple, pure, unadulterated fun. these devs really know what they're doing

overall, pretty 'eh'. I was hoping there would be some mildly interesting payoff in the end, but there is not. so many interesting directions this could have been taken. or maybe it will be expanded in the future, who knows. as is, this seems like a game that is trying to be 'art', but also trying to be something that people wont enjoy.

here I am, sitting in my room in the middle of a pandemic, enjoying games with solid entertainment value, creative storytelling, and engaging mechanics, only to end up playing this game, in which the main character and the narrative itself is trapped in a self-enforced helplessness. there's not even a glimmer of positivity provided.

honestly, my initial impression is that this game was made in order to try to make people at least slightly more miserable than they were before. but misery for misery's sake isnt art, that's just sadism.

i love the art design, i love the character design, i love the world design - but man overall i wouldnt even say this is worth playing for free. in retrospect i'd give it a negative dollar value, since i literally was trying to find ways to lose just so i'd have an excuse to stop playing and move on to something more interesting. which, for only 0.6hr in-game, is saying something.

First off, the artistic design is fantastic, truly inspired. But....once you get past that, you soon learn that the game would be more accurately called 'fetch quest simulator 2022' or 'back-tracking simulator 2022'.

here's a general summary of how every 'quest' goes:
> npc needs different amounts of 3 different items in order to find you worthy to talk to
> each item requires crafting 3 different items
> each of those requires collecting 3 different items from 3 different places in the world map
> each of those items requires crafting 3 different items
> each of those requires collecting 3 different items from 3 different places in the world map

and no, you can just craft an item if you have all of the raw materials required for all the items required to craft it.

and also, quests are explicitly gated, so that you are literally forced to be constantly back-tracking. and it's not like there's even anything new or different when you go back. its just the same, and you are just there to collect 3 more of the same item you've already returned to collect 333 times before.

if it were possible to activate every quest at the very beginning of the game, I'm pretty sure the 'optimal' strategy would be:
> pick up 3 pieces of wood
> walk off and back on the map in order to refresh the resource spawn points
> repeat 333 times
> move on to next item, and repeat the above process
> repeat for 333 items

sound like fun? yeah, not so much. only a few hours in, and this game is literally putting me to sleep. Honestly, if you've played the demo, there's really nothing more that this game has to offer.

I really really wanted to like this game a lot more. beautiful art, interesting characters, but man the gameplay is shallower than a valley girl on prom night.