Recent reviews by upthorn

I wish the gameplay were even 1/10th as interesting as the plotline, because I was kinda interested in the story, but it's just not worth the tedious gameplay necessary to progress.

If you like the mood, but want better gameplay (and don't mind less realistic character backstory) try Omori.

I'd heard this game's author was controversial, but it was on free so I decided to check it out.

What I hadn't heard was that the gameplay itself is completely unenjoyable. Comparing this to Candy Crush does a grave disservice to Candy Crush.

Of course, the main draw of a dating sim is the strength of its character writing, and I'll admit, I didn't get to know any of the girls well enough to judge that. But extrapolating from their dialogue during your initial meetings, I sincerely doubt that I'm missing out on anything.

The best movie I've ever played

I'd highly recommend the original trilogy over this. They're cheaper, they have better economy and much more interesting combat. They run much lighter, and they have an actual story to follow to give you motivation.

X + X-Tension
X2: The Threat
X3: Reunion

Or, if you just want a sandbox, get X3: Terran Conflict. Again, it has much better core mechanics.

I really, really wanted to like X4, but they streamlined away everything that made the X games enjoyable.

I have to provide a somewhat lukewarm recommendation for this game.

The primary form of gameplay puzzle (deciphering foreign languages) seems tailored directly to my interest.
However,

• Confirming the meanings of glyphs is a bit too strict. Some symbols have multiple ways to learn them, but the confirmation screen will only pop up after one specific place where you should.
  
• some of the supporting puzzles needed additional polish or re-thinking. (I'm looking at you, garden monkeys!)
  
• The top floor of the tower feels underbaked, giving only rosetta stone puzzles instead of letting you learn the language via natively spoken sentences.
  
• The final sequence feels like a missed opportunity for a climactic sequence serving as interpreter between groups, instead of a chase sequence plus some stealth sections

That said, when this game plays to its strong suits, those suits are truly strong. This game could have been truly great if the developers had trusted their concept more. Instead, I am pained to say that it is just pretty good.

What if Slay the Spire let you sideboard cards, but also had very little challenge and only about 8 hours worth of content?

Although I very much like the concept behind this game, the game itself is both overly complicated, and very simplistic.

First, the complexity:
There are lots and lots of different numbers, and the game is very bad at teaching you what they mean. The tutorial is in the form of a voice over that explains a few things about each screen the first time you open it. Everything else, it expects you to go to the in-game university to learn about. I have never done this, as it appears that it can only be used in-between games, when there are no longer any good cues about what's important to learn about right now. The result is, after playing several games, doing well in a couple and doing terribly in a few, I still have very little idea what's going on at any given time. Nor can I really tell what actions will make things better and what actions will make things worse.

As for the game's simplistic nature: at the start of each game, you are granted control over a territory with various problems. The cure to each problem is the same: research a specific technology, and then go to the affected area and build "cure: [problem name]." All there is to the game is "wait for money to come in" "build a building" and occasionally "build or move a fleet to put down some rebels." Over time your money will increase or decrease, your population will grow or shrink, and the rebels will gain or lose influence based on the current conditions. There are some sliders you can adjust which change the rates at which you gain money, or are allowed to build new ships in your fleet, but they also do other things, the consequences of which are obscure until after you've done it.

The result is a game where you have very little ability to determine what actions are good or bad at any given juncture, and taking any action feels exactly the same as taking any other action.

The story is good. Which is the only thing that matters in this genre of game.

Maybe my expectations were too high, but they have nobody but their marketing department to blame for that.
The game is perfectly fine, it has no major issues.
Combat could be smoother, but my main issue is that I enjoyed the writing in the trailers more than the writing of the actual game.