Recent reviews by Ufnal

A fun, deceptively simple but quite rich game with interesting lore, tactical variety, nice aesthetics and low system requirements allowing you to run it even on a very basic laptop.

An absolutely incredible demo of a game that threatens to ruin my life. Interesting mechanics and strategies that do better at recreating the intricacies of professional MOBA than any game I've seen, cool style, great variety and replayability, and it sucks me in for hours and hours at a time (after I've finished this "Origin" I also finished the Steam Next demo which was twice as long and with more content - all in what, 2? 3? days). I can't wait for May!

I like this game very much for its unusual subject, some interesting and innovative gameplay, the way it presents the player with lore/information/facts and leaves them to interpret it and work things out. You aren't presented with the results of your efforts immediately, and you are forced to experience the same uncertainty that the doctor does regarding his methods and work. It's refreshing, challenging, thought-provoking, and also quite pleasant to the eye. I recommend it to anybody who likes this type of experiences.

That being said, I dislike a lot about the gameplay here. Oftentimes, you need to click one precise, small thing to progress and can be left clicking on everything in the vicinity in search of a way forward. The knowledge, observations, notes and instructions are often hidden from the player at the most crucial moments, leaving them hanging. There is very little clarity concenring important elements of the interface and gameplay - a small example that doesn't cout as a spoiler, I should think: why can I only leave the room to buy cigars maybe once in the entire game, if smoking cigars is to be a crucial element of managing Freud's mood? Many indicators and options in the interface are often quite uninformative and force you to take a guess as to what they are supposed to communicate - which I guess is thematic (and the interface sure is pretty), but in a game already full of guesswork and deduction, adding an additional layer of that even with the game-y elements of the display seems unnecesarily obtuse. I am looking forward to what this team releases next, but I hope they will produce something a bit less unwieldy. And longer, too!

A great bullet heaven game with very satisfying (albeit sometimes too hectic) gameplay, where you can really feel the power of your abilities and the danger of the bosses. Fun for meticulous build crafting, but for me even more fun as a podcast companion that helps me relax and soothes the ADHD enough to let my mind focus on what I'm listening to.

I came back to the game after many months (was it a year, even?) and I must say I am very happy with it now. It's a very good bullet heaven with an extremely rich upgrade system, very fun abilities, a nice visual style and a lot of the problems of the past resolved. I still occasionally get frustrated with the hitboxes, which is a pretty big thing for the genre, but other than that - very nice.

SUCH a good game. It has a story that combines fate, destiny and cosmic-level magics with lovable characters and small-scale, moving and relatable interactions. It forces you to make hard choices, lets you do and experience incredible things and allows you interesting choices while maintaining a main character with well-defined personality and relationships. The music is phenomenal, the art enchanting, the ending (at least the one I got) kicks ass.

My only gripe at first was with the main mechanic - making divination cards and conducting divinations. For quite some time, I was unsure of some of the mechanics and specifics behind it and was worrying about playing that part of the game "correctly". Having finished the game, I can only tell you this: that was an unfounded worry. Choose what you want to choose, what you feel is right, and don't be like me, worrying about whether the reading is "right". You'll thank me later.

A beautiful, moving, sad, terrifying, terrific story. The art, with a few exceptions, is great, the voice acting is wonderful, the story manages to go through multiple layers of meaning and multiple moments that turn everything you seem to know on its head. It is a horror story. It is, or at least can and should be, a love story.

If, like me, you normally don't really like fear-inducing media, do give it a try anyway - this is a game of some violence, great atmosphere and existential dread, but it's not about jumpscares, gore or scarring you without an emotional payback and catharsis of sorts.

I spoiled myself a little, but I managed to spare myself almost any reveals after chapter II and I recommend you try to do the same. If, like me, you suffer from obsessive guidechecking, there's a cryptic and extremely helpful flowchart in the guides section.

It is a strange, not-that-little game that can be either a soothing place you retreat into, or a mystery you're obsessively trying to solve. There's good art and music, deeply fascinating lore, some interesting storytelling and a huge potential to just sink into this world and disappear for hours on end. There's also some interface and design decisions that you need some time to adjust to and possibly read guides to learn (although the developers are constantly working to improve that aspect), and the lore and story manages to occasionally be either insufficient (there's so little we actually learn about the stories of our visitors!) or overwhelming (seriously, if you want to connect all the dots and get all the information without wikis, you *need* to keep your own notes!). Nevertheless, as evidenced by my playtime on record, I really enjoy sinking my Hours into this Book.

It's a very fun game with some unorthodox design decisions that make it fresh compared to other Paradox titles. Unfortunately, every time I happen to click something at the precise moment when the game starts autosaving, it crashes to desktop, and sometimes it crashes without a visible reason. This is too frustrating for me to recommend.

The UI and graphics aren't much, but I have yet to find any other game that scratches that particular itch: a sci-fi wargame that heavily focuses on the military aspect, with interesting strategic and operational choices and a real feeling of being a military leader.