Recent reviews by VinLAURiA

Quaint but enjoyable. It's only a couple of hours and super easy if you've played any other detective VN like Phoenix Wright, but the writing and character interactions make up for it and there are a handful of genuinely laugh-out-loud funny moments. It's definitely more clever than it first lets on in the opening scenes. The art looks great, music is actually pretty good (as is expected for a Sonic game), and the story even takes a couple of twists I didn't see coming. [MINOR SPOILERS] Yes, Sonic is alive after all and Eggman's involved, but there are some legitimately sweet moments during the endgame.

TL;DR
For a bite-sized freebie offered as an April Fool's joke, I was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. It's not gonna blow your mind or anything, but it's pleasant the whole way through.


A note on the "THINK!" minigame
You get a little isometric Special Stage every time you present a piece of evidence, sort of in the spirit of Danganronpa. Some of the other reviews were complaining about it (while - go figure - other reviews were complaining it wasn't JUST the minigame and found the reading bits boring, which... dude, it's a visual novel), but I actually found it pretty fun. Most of the complaints about the "THINK!" segments were that they were too difficult, so if you run into that same issue, you should know there are accessibility settings in the options menu you can use to make them essentially run on autopilot. For my part, I actually thought they were almost boringly easy at first before ramping up to enjoyably engaging by the end, even if I only failed three times in the whole game.

Been following this one since the author first started posting development updates on the Facepunch forum and its successor Knockout. Proud to see it go from humble beginnings to so widely beloved.

As for the game itself, it's not without a few minor nitpicks but for a largely one-man project, its gameplay feels incredibly refined, on par with some of the best AAA FPSes out there. I once heard it described as Doom Eternal on a budget, but honestly, I think I may prefer ULTRAKILL's gameplay to Eternal's. I'm not one for fast-paced shooters with lots of movement, but the flow here is just so well-tuned and you have so many abilities at any one moment that it's an absolute joy to play. This is the kind of game you play for that sheer power fantasy and how much it can make you feel like a badass (something that Doom 4 was very good at but Eternal struggled with), and it seems a rarity these days for a game to skip the self-indulgence, trim the fat, and get right to the good stuff. But that's what ULTRAKILL gives you, and from beginning to end it's nothing but that pure gameplay, and it does not let up. This is that old-style arcadey FPS experience from gaming's early days come roaring back with a vengeance, with the looks to match. What a return to form.

Eager to see how the full game turns out. Give 'em hell, Hakita!

Ugh.

The best way I can put it: it's Super Mario RPG without the Mario, but with some Zelda-style gameplay elements and a weapon system along the lines of Bioshock or Deus Ex. If that description appeals to you in any way, get this game.