Recent reviews by aubri

Originally posted by Wikipedia:

May 2023, the developer cut 9% of its workforce. September, the studio's CEO and chief operating officer both stepped down. December, PL laid off 34 staff members across publishing, HR, IT and shared service teams. May 2024, ~150 employees were laid off and multiple projects were cancelled in order to focus on supporting Dauntless and Fae Farm, one of which was weeks away from an Early Access release. Apparently, Pheonix Labs had been acquired by blockchain over a year ago in what was an unannounced transaction. January 2025, they're parting ways with the majority of the studio as part of "unfortunate but necessary changes to our operations."

RIP.

It's gutting for me to write a negative review, I was so excited for Mirthwood!
Unfortunately, the more I played, the more I realized it should've been an Early Access release, and had at least another year in development. None of the content currently available feels fully fleshed out or polished.

It has been UNBELIEVABLY buggy for me. Not talking about little things either, no, quests are broken, storage was broken, animals are broken, placement is broken. There's no point in investing in Livestock. Animals refuse to eat the food. I couldn't get them to eat Hay or Animal Food, and now they refuse to produce anything because they're starving.

Inventory is abysmal. It doesn't matter how many free slots you have, you can only carry a certain # of items per category. Say you start off with 4 max Materials you can carry at once: Wood, Stone, Copper Ore, Leather. You can't carry any more than that at a time without upgrading using 8 Feathers (which you find scattered around the map). Although that might not seem like an issue, it becomes frustrating very quickly, as this is a game where every resource counts, as the grind to get them AND the storage to keep them is ridiculous. I ended up dropping my items in (organized) piles spread throughout my farm. Thankfully, dropped items don't despawn.

Morality makes no sense. You lose Morality when you pick 'Evil' choices or Steal. If you open a chest that doesn't belong to you, you lose 5 points of Morality. Even if you don't actually steal the item, opening it and looking is -5. Often times you'll accidentally steal something nearby when trying to talk to a NPC. -5. I just finished a quest where I freed a woman FROM A CAGE, and it gave me +5, the same # of Morality points when I accidently open a crate with an Onion in it. I couldn't tell you what the point of this is, besides the exact same remark from NPCs about how I'm untrustworthy. Same goes for affiliation equipment, some clothes are Criminal, Nobility, Peasant, etc. But I don't think this serves a purpose either.

NPCs themselves are bland, boring, sooo lifeless. I've come across perhaps two, maybe three NPCs I was interested in befriending, but of course they can't be, for whatever reason, they're not generic like the rest of the citizens. It's a guessing game when I speak to them. Cards are cool, course, reminds me of Fable or The Sims, but none of it means anything. Even if you decide on a specific NPC to befriend, it takes FOREVER to level them up, and the process of doing that is the exact same thing over and over. It's such a bummer, I don't bother with it at all now.

I don't understand the Skill Cards at all, I only have a single active slot unlocked, despite having unlocked 15+ cards to use. Thought maybe it was like Fo76 where you can easily switch them in and out, but no, it locks that card in place when activated, forcing you to wait 1 in-game day before you're able to change it. I can only ever view all of my cards when I browse through the separate Skill categories, as the All section only shows 12, when I know I have more than that to choose from. Skills are forgettable, nothing special there, just small percentage boosts towards more damage, accuracy, chance, gain rate, etc. It's so miniscule, +2.5%, +5%, that's it. No thought put into making any of this interesting, or even fun, which is so sad, because the combat desperately needs it.

Combat is terrible. It's the absolute bare minimum. You have Sword and Bow. You can use both, but you're better off picking one and sticking to it, so it levels up faster. Engaging in fights isn't fun, it's frustrating and tedious. Movement and controls are clunky, but not in the i'm not used to it way, in the this doesn't feel finished way. Attacking with sword is moving left and right. Sometimes when swinging, you'll see it hit, but it doesn't do damage. There's a blocking mechanic, but blocking when the indicator pops up, has input lag resulting in an unsuccessful block. Same with dodge. Switching to Bow was my best decision, as you can use it while on horseback, and it's been a lot easier to tolerate. Sadly, there's still a multitude of issues. Creatures will often phase through objects and unless on horseback, you can't distance yourself enough to break their chase. Unlike NPCs, enemies stand still, not moving around or interacting in any way, only ever attacking you. Why is a pack of wolves chasing me alongside a lone bandit? It doesn't feel believable. You'll do mostly creature killing, but at least their loot is reasonable. A pelt, meat, if you kill a bear, you might loot a fish, makes sense, right? So how come when I kill a man fully decked out, head to toe, in steel armor, all he drops for me is a Red Apple?

Decorating.. not at all worth the frustration. What you're able to build/buy for your home is like 10% of what's used everywhere else. Homes in villages are decorated beautifully, so it hurts to know your home couldn't never look even a fraction like that. Items I've placed often go invisible or disappear completely. Once you repair the stairs, you get three rooms on a second floor to decorate, except the furniture you place up there will still be visible when you're outside of the house. Also I placed three chests upstairs, and they disappeared completely. So.. maybe keep your chests on the first floor. For now. Number of resources required to change the floor and walls is INSANE. No matter the room, the options don't change, so why do I have to spend the same # of resources for each room? It honestly feels like most of my time was spent grinding for Wood. You can place dirt or stone paths, just make sure they're where you want because once you use the Eraser, you can't place anything else. Paths don't prevent resource respawn, so grass, stones, trunks, logs still spawn on them. Actually, these natural resources spawn everywhere, even in pre-built structures, like the Mill or Chicken Coop.

Night time is unbelievably dark. I can't see anything. A lantern or even a brightness slider would help with this.
Quests are a MESS. Doing things out of the game's (very lacking) direction, breaks things so easily. I'm thankful I thought to keep backups of my saves, as there's no way to restore an old one, so if something is broken, you're SOL until it's patched.
Story is so uninteresting, even quest givers are boring, their lines completely flat. VA of the narrator is excellent, but that's the best you're going to get.

Mirthwood is NOWHERE NEAR a Sandbox, an ImmSimm, or even a Farming Sim. Farming is one of its many unpolished features, but game's completable without ever touching it. I believe it would've been a lot more enjoyable if it didn't try to be a jack of all trades, instead sticking to what makes it great, exploration. I enjoyed traveling around, discovering notes, scenes of environmental storytelling. Soundtrack is magnificent, creature sounds terrifying, and the aesthetic gorgeous, but sadly, that's not enough for me to recommend at its current state.

This doesn't affect my review but, I was given a key to stream this in 2020. I played it to completion and have revisited several times. It is absolutely worth the price.

A puzzle game that relies solely on your ability to discover, analyze and piece together. No handholding. An epic mystery. Several visual options to switch to if you're like me and have sensitive eyes. Somehow manages to have an interesting cast, despite lacking the depth (not a bad thing) that most games insist on, in order for characters to be memorable. Excellent ambiance. Gave me great sense of accomplishment as I slowly, but surely, filled out the book and unraveled what once was.

An extraordinary experience. One that makes me somewhat grateful my memory isn't the best, so I can revisit it for what I know will be a cozy, engaging adventure. And a feeling I have sought after in any other game, since.

Yes, this is a puzzle game, but not your typical type of play. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes snooping around, searching for clues, hidden details, and figuratively putting the pieces of a puzzle together, through your own observations and deductions. I don't give games a perfect score anymore but Obra Dinn sure comes close to being the exception.

Love it. As much as I love Piper, wish she wasn't the only wlw option.

I was given a key by HH-Games for streaming Morrok.
This does not affect my review.


Morrok's experience is vastly different from what is portrayed on the steam store page. Simply put: it's boring, uninteresting, short and incomplete. Most people who play this will get roughly 30 minutes out of it, unless you're like me and encounter a bug that doesn't allow re-examination of a hotspot, resulting in restarting the level. In that 30 minutes, you'll make your way through 9 chapters (rooms), all of which are pretty lackluster. Once the player finishes the final chapter, you're given a screen that says (and I quote) "Well done! You have successfully completed the first episode of the Morrok game! However, the adventure has not ended yet: there are still mysteries to solve and souls to liberate! See you soon in Morrok: The Castle Escape. Thanks for choosing our product!" ...... Uh huh.

It's rich to call this a "3D Puzzle Adventure" as I wouldn't consider the mundane tasks in each room to be puzzles, more like obstacles. Pick up this item, pick up that, combine them, bring them here and use them on this. That's the gameplay loop. Even Hidden Object games have more puzzles in them! If you're playing on Hard difficulty, your cursor won't change when you look at things you can more closely inspect, whereas on Normal difficulty they will change to an eye symbol, that's the only difference. And although minimal, the interface is a bit dodgy when dragging items from your inventory (at the bottom of the screen) to the object you want to use them on. It'll only work when put on a specific spot and there's no indication of where that is! Very frustrating. Hints are USELESS, as all they do is tell you what you already know: "Get to the other side of this room." or "I should find a way to leave." No **** lmao.

I'm so disappointed by this one. By how it's described on the store page.. it sounds really intriguing! And there's a SLIVER of plot at the beginning, told by the game's intro, that has the potential to lead somewhere but that's literally it! Even the tiniest bit of hope that's granted you, quickly fizzles out into nothing once you realize the whole game, or episode or whatever the heck this thing is, is a slog to get through and then abruptly ends with no resolution.

False advertising + incomplete + intro plot goes nowhere + boring gameplay + buggy + not enjoyable at all AND short?
Avoid it. I wouldn't recommend this even if it were free.

despite facility 47 feeling more casual than most point and clicks (similar to the style of hidden objects), don't get it twisted! this game is atmospheric and does a great job of making you feel you're on your own. the interface didn't bother me too much, surprisingly, despite being a very obvious mobile port - it still gets the job done. i do have to say though: there is no distinction in what can be clicked on, interacted or combined with, and transitioned to. this was very frustrating and resulted in me getting stuck often, never sure if i ever explored anything in its entirety. fortunately, there is a ? button for when you're stuck, to give what i THOUGHT was a hint.. turns out it tells you explicitly how to solve the puzzle. i'm not a fan of that and would've preferred hints so i suggest having a text walkthrough nearby, for tips in the right direction, and only use the game's ? (cheat) button as a last resort.

with that said, i can't say i enjoyed the puzzles in this one. they weren't terrible in their premise.. but i didn't find any of them to be fun. there's no roster of characters to get to know or talk to, only little glimpses of what they were like, read from journal entries scattered throughout the facility. our protagonist is a man of few words, commenting a little here and there about things in the environment, but never showing any emotion, or much of a reaction, even when it would be very human to do so. like i get it dude, these people aren't your crew, but damn.. your stoic nature.. it's making me uneasy.

it's no secret i have some gripes with this game, but i definitely do still recommend it. if not for the setting and story (which work so well together), then because it's a short, cheap and decent point & click that you'll most likely be glad you gave a chance :)

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I was given a key by Caligari Games for streaming Whateverland.
This does not affect my review.
I also played the Prologue back in August 2020, nice to see some improvements since then!

Whateverland is brilliant. A joy to explore different locations, in the order you please. Really makes me want more non-linear point and clicks! Exciting to meet the cast of quirky characters, whose dialogue is great and voice acting AWESOME! I especially love Vincent's voice (he's the protagonist), it's very soothing, which helps the narration when examining objects in the environment. Soundtrack is wonderful, artstyle just as beautiful. I adore the character art! The subtle movement to mimic breathing and the idle animations are a really nice touch that brings them to life. I also love when devs are able to incorporate their credits into the game, in an immersive way that doesn't distract from the players' experience. <3

Whateverland has several minigames. Some that work as puzzles to progress (these can't be skipped), and one that's.. well, a completely different game called "Bell and Bones" or "B&B." It's got a hex-grid and it's strategy-based. Can't say more than that because I don't know, I never could figure it out. But thankfully, you can skip that minigame altogether if you've collected yarn, which the game puts throughout the different areas you'll explore. As for the puzzle-based minigames, they fit a lot better with the game's pacing.

There were a few bugs here and there, like an extra line of dialogue being re-voiced, or the subtitle not matching up with what was being said, but nothing game-breaking. I did have an issue with my saves being inconsistent with my instance, especially when in the same room as someone I've already spoken to, but as long as you're saving often, you should be fine. And honestly, that's just a lil nitpick from me, as I doubt most players will be bothered by that, if they even encounter it at all.

How you have Vincent tackle his objectives.. be nice and help, or ignore and steal is up to you. I played nice (I always do :p) and enjoyed the outcome of my decisions and the ending I earned as a result. I loved helping all the residents and wish I could've spent more time with them. <3

9/10 An amazing point-and-click adventure. Thank you Caligari Games.
P.S. Please give whoever wrote Francois and Hilda a hug ;~;

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i can't stop making mods for this aging game

god i'm so mentally ill
thumbs up

The Occupation has a lot going for it, with some charming visuals and a dope soundtrack to match. Unfortunately, there are a few things about it that I can't get past.

My main gripe is that there is no option to skip or advance dialogue, in neither conversation or cutscenes. On the first playthrough, this won't be much of a problem. However, the further you get into the game, the more you'll realize the devs meant for it to be played more than once to fully explore the levels, what they may offer the player, and the different outcomes that result from your exploration. As mentioned here and here.

Originally posted by destroyermaker Mar 9, 2019 @ 12:27pm:

Encourages multiple playthroughs. Don't restart, just continue on. When you replay the game, you'll have more knowledge.

Originally posted by Pete_Bottomley (developer) Mar 11, 2019 @ 8:03am:

In line with what destroyermaker mentioned above, that was our thinking in design. We didn't design it with the intention that everyone needs to get 100% before continuing.

When I realized you couldn't skip dialogue during my first playthrough, I knew immediately it would become a problem but I was hoping, hey, maybe it being my first playthrough was why I couldn't do that. It wasn't, it isn't. Even on the second playthrough, I can't skip anything. This game consists of walking (very slowly, might I add), sneaking, listening, and talking. And when the former half of the game is already so slow.. it does nothing but contribute to how frustrating and tedious it all becomes when it cannot be skipped.

I think it's important to mention:
Regardless of what progress you make and the ending you earn, at the completion of your first playthrough, you unlock 'Chapter Selection' on the main menu, which allows you to replay specific Chapters, instead of having to start from the beginning again. I read in the patch notes that this was added in v1.4.0, which was the 5th update, 7 months after the games' release, so good on the devs for adding that in, as it is very useful. Sadly, it seems that the game's last update was well over a year ago, in October of 2019. Weirdly enough, Ether One, a game White Paper released 7 years ago, received an update March 2020 that even included some fixes to their save system, which I find interesting. It does seem like The Occupation has been abandoned, or if it hasn't, the devs haven't kept communication on Steam but because they've added Chapter Select, I'm led to believe that if they had any plans to patch-in skippable dialogue/cutscenes, they would have done it by now.

And to think I haven't mentioned the game's saving system. It works like this: you play through various levels of different time constraints, that go by real-time minutes, and the game only ever saves once at the end of each chapter. Smaller levels are 15-30 minutes, that branch in-between the larger levels that are 60 minutes each. It's awful. And even worse, it's intentional. In response to players complaining about lack of manual saves, a dev stated and I quote:

Originally posted by Pete_Bottomley (developer) Mar 7, 2019 @ 4:36am:

We designed the world to get immersed and hopefully lose yourself in. We appreciate sometimes people only have 20 minutes or so to pick up and play a game in a day, but with the systems and the way you investigate leads, we didn't think it would make too much sense if you were picking it up and putting it down in short bursts and instead felt that most people would be OK seeing a fully chapter through before saving and exiting (much like when reading a book I guess!).

Man, sometimes I just don't know. Is it me? Is it a me problem? I've never felt rushed or forced to finish the chapter of a book. Do people normally feel that way? It's so odd to me as a player to see devs acknowledging (prior to implementation) how detrimental lacking a basic mechanic accessibility option would be for a lot of people, and still.. following through with it regardless because 'it wouldn't make sense' to their vision. Like I get where they're coming from, I do, but their excuse that being able to save when you want, or having autosaves at different intervals throughout a level would break the world's atmosphere or the player's immersion.. doesn't make sense. Thief 2 (2000) has similar level structure (even the cinematic story breaks), great atmosphere and manual saving that never once subtracts from the experience so I think that's a lame excuse. It makes even less sense with the Chapter Select addition because now you can boot the game up and start playing a chapter that's 3/4s the way through the story. And I am not knocking that feature but where's the ~flow~ of world-building in that?

Besides the lack of accessibility options, the game suffers from ludonarrative dissonance. At the end of three chapters are meetings where you conduct an interview. Depending on what leads you pursued and evidence you gathered throughout the level, you'll unlock different questions to ask. After answering, characters will often ask for your opinion and you'll be given the opportunity to pick a response. It seems what's available to you is directly tied to the leads you've completed in your notebook. This is to say that even if you (playing the game) read a note that says XYZ, your character will act like they haven't read the note. Even if after reading it, your character acknowledges in the notebook a new clue based on XYZ, you won't be able to bring it up in the conversation unless the associated lead has been followed through.

For example: I read a note saying X received something from Y. As the player playing the game, I know this to be true. When asked if I know anything, I'm forced to say 'I have no reason to think otherwise.' In the same scenario, I read a note saying X received something from Y. My character (in the game) updates the notebook with the clue: investigate, therefore acknowledging they too, know this to be true. Again, when asked if I know anything, I have one option available that claims I know nothing. There's a serious disconnect between the knowledge the player learns (in the same game session) and what you're allowed to do with what you have learnt.

For the most part, I enjoyed my first playthrough but ultimately felt disappointed with how quickly the game became tedious and was too frustrated with how my exploration felt meaningless. Thanks for reading!

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As much as I love this game, I do not recommend anyone purchase or bother investing anything into it until they patch a game-breaking bug.