Recent reviews by James | The Wyrdsmith

This is an amazing game. Much like It Takes Two, the gimmicks in each level are well thought out, clearly indicated to the players, and require good communication to execute properly. The characters are fun, the levels are stunning, and the sheer variety of mechanics are truly impressive.

The only thing to be aware of (not a negative) is that this game does require gaming skills from both partners. There are tricky platforming sections and sequences where you need to rapidly and accurately act under pressure.

The boss fight - really the whole execution of the last level - is one of the best experiences I have had in a while. Every single time the camera shifted, or a new mechanic was introduced, both me and my friend were in awe of the creativity at play.

Just go play it.

Hunt is an amazing shooter. The ability to locate players by sound, the slow but deadly gunplay, and the multitude of outside factors - weather, animals, mobs - affecting the outcome of a fight makes each match not just a test of aim but also of strategy. The map design is good, the event cycles are fun, the different loadouts can bring a significant variety to your games, and at least in the EU the queues are very healthy at both duo and trio.

The developers have consistently made good design decisions throughout the life of the game, and the majority of features have been implemented well or balanced following a patch or two. I have played a few hours by now and encountered only a few cheaters.

It's fun :) Try it!

This game is great. The music is amazing, the enemies are interesting and varied (especially as you progress), the song layering mechanic adds that extra "feel" boost for hitting high Fury, and the challenges are fun to try and perfect each weapon. They continue to add songs of different types, which is cool as well.

It's a little on the short side - I have just secured the last achievement at 10 hours, and I played the 5-hour campaign on Normal in my first sitting. However, the mechanics and maps are tight and I would much rather this experience than a longer one that was less polished.

If you used to love Guitar Hero, and you like metal, this is a solid recommend.

This game was great. The core mechanics are solid and the biome-specific mechanics feel neat as well. It took me 12 hours to complete the story (with all achievements) and there is a new game+ mechanic I may go back to in the future.

I liked the item perk system, which kept hinting at complete alternatives to the solutions I chose (almost exclusively corpse house units). There are also plenty of quality of life features: a button to dismiss wounded units, selling items from anywhere, teleportation from the map screen in conquered regions, and useful item comparisons on equip/purchase screens.

Claim the soul jars and become an ominical maniac today! Necropolis awaits!

Did you enjoy Factorio, but thought the biters were a nuisance and would rather fight against a resource clock and your own foolishness and poor design decisions? This is the game for you! Build complicated oxygen distribution systems, dig for oil, go to space, endlessly restart maps to 'do it right this time', automate the drowning of baby animals for meat, and much more.

This is not an easy game to get into. The first few in-game days are pretty fixed in what you need to do to effectively survive, but the game is not good at telling you how urgent your problems are. Check out some steam guides and videos and you'll be sailing into the midgame in no time!

A truly fantastic game about designing assembly lines and large scale ecological terrorism. Mine iron and copper to make circuits to make more miners - then repeat until you realise half your factory is one belt off and tear it all apart. Drive flamethrower tanks, launch satellites, destroy the land and bring death to the native inhabitants. You will never have enough oil. Devs update with a good frequency and are great at communicating/teasing their plans.

LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE YOU CROSS THE TRACKS.

This is a pretty challenging game, with its own idea of how that difficulty should be presented. It takes 16 square meters, eight logic circuits, and nearly 100 cables to make solar panels point at the sun. Getting plants growing takes 200 pipes to do properly. This isn't 'hardcore space engineers', it's more 'factorio but you can explode your oxygen supply' - and it's amazing fun, especially with friends!

Constant updates keep things reasonably fresh - just recently a portable hydroponics unit was added to reduce the MTTFP (minimum time to first potato) and logic chips programmable in assembly. The graphics are nice, and the combination of it all when you get a steel base with floors in is really quite beautiful. Join the Discord to see what's happening and get access to the developers who work silly hours and fix bugs as you report them!

There are some great planets, example stations and difficulty increasing/decreasing mods available on the Workshop so you can modify some aspects of the game to better suit the way you play. The inventory system is clunky but sort of charming when you get used to it.

In terms of bugs, dedicated servers are a little behind the main game in terms of stability. Sometimes stuff falls through the terrain. Water in the atmosphere can cause consistent (and silent) crashing of the atmospherics thread. The beta branch can be kind of unstable at times.

TL;DR: If you liked Factorio, but want more interesting ways to fail? Try this!