Recente recensies door MichaelOmegatron

***Spoiler Free***

Quick Review: Druidstone is a turn-based strategy puzzle game in an RPG skin, which unfortunately missed the mark for me. While the scale and premise seemed promising, the artificial resource scarcity and inconsistent difficulty spikes made for a frustrating gameplay experience through a design that often feels like it’s forcing you to play a certain way.

Gameplay: This is a turn-based strategy game, where you play through a world map filled with individually hand-crafted levels. They are mainly combat-based, though the objective is rarely, if ever, “eliminate all enemies.” Usually it’s obtain or destroy certain objects before exiting the level, or simply trying to escape, or beating a boss. There are also a few actual puzzle levels, where you must move cubes, step on the right switches, etc.

You can try to three-star the levels anytime after you’ve beat them. Perfecting levels will grant you XP gems you can apply to your characters’ equipment and abilities to upgrade them. XP gems are not permanent, so you can re-spec your characters anytime you want.

You have a set party of 3-4 characters. This is not a game where you acquire new team members and choose who to bring into battle. It is strictly story/level dependent whether any of the 3-4 characters are missing.

Your turn consists of movement and one action per character, with some free actions available on some abilities. Some levels are timed via a turn limit (or effectively so via infinite spawning of enemies). The scarcity of turns and actions is where much of the strategy comes in for Druidstone.

But this scarcity is the main reason why I overall did not enjoy my time with the game, and why I feel this is more of a puzzle game rather than a strategy game. I came in expecting an RPG, where I would have some freedom of choice to cater to my play style. So I was disappointed to see that the constraints of the game forced me to play a certain way. I was particularly frustrated by the artificial nature of these constraints. They did not feel like organic limitations from the world, story, or context. They felt like the developers were interfering with my experience:

1. Due to the turn limits of some levels, I was frequently forced to push forward into risky situations. I typically like to play more conservatively, opting for control of the battlefield before systematically accomplishing objectives. But instead, I often felt like I was rushed through scenarios.
   
2. Due to the “one action” limitation, I often felt crippled where I should have felt strong. I might have 9 abilities equipped later in the game, yet I could only use one per turn, which included the basic attacks. So I was often struggling to choose between an attack, a damage ability, a healing ability, a defense ability, or a one-use item I picked up. There are some abilities that are free, but they are mainly movement based. I found this to be too restrictive in combat, and really wished there was either a way to increase your action points permanently, or to at least have 2 to work with. I did not see a reason for this decision other than to artificially increase the difficulty, which didn’t feel good in practice.
   
3. Due to the scarcity of XP gems and Gold you obtain, there are many items, armors, and abilities you won’t be able to use. You’ll get an XP gem or two from beating a level, and maybe another one from three-staring it. Replaying it later will not re-earn gems, so there is a limit to what you can “grind”. And since ability and equipment improvements are based on the gems you assign, there is a limit to how powerful your characters become, even though there is the potential for much stronger characters if you could earn more gems. Also, the Gold you earn is just enough to buy equipment to fill your characters' slots, but that’s about it. You really won’t be able to try different builds, unless you sell what you already have.

The final reason I gave this game a thumbs down is the boss battle. It’s a huge difficulty spike that was super frustrating. I’m glad I found a forum talking about how to beat it because I would have been lost. Apparently, it was important for me to have “barbed armor”, which you only get if you complete a riddle correctly on your first attempt in a level (you can replay it to get it). This was in no way clued at in the game, making it a “secret” item. I was also read to spec my characters in certain ways that were different than what I had naturally chosen. There was more advice, but you get my point. I would have never thought to do this specific type of min/max setup and strategy.

Druidstone had some fun moments where I got into the flow of the game. But I was so frequently pushed up against scarcity and artificial obstacles that they felt like frustrating limitations rather than fun challenges.

For context, I put in about 25 hours into the game over the course of a year or so to beat it. I just didn’t want to play the game, and only had the interest to play 1-2 levels at a time.

Atmosphere: Even though Druidstone has kind of a generic fantasy theme, I liked it. The visuals were colorful, and the music had a nice presence, with songs ranging from a relaxing flute piece to driving combat music with electric guitars. These elements were my favorite parts of the game.

Just be warned that the story here is bare-bones. Characters are basically tropes or stand-ins, and the dialogue had an oddly anachronistic feel. Don’t expect anything from the story.

Conclusion: Overall, I do not recommend Druidstone. If you like a puzzle-strategy game where you always feel pressure to just get by and beat a level, you might find this enjoyable. But if you’re looking for an RPG, or an experience that cultivates choice and different play styles, look elsewhere. This was a swing and a miss for me.

This is a quality early access with polished mechanics and presentation. Will update review later once it leaves early access. For now, know that it is a very fun roguelike that combines deck building and survival elements with cute characters and interesting arenas. The updates are always exciting, bringing new content and balances. I've had this game installed since a couple summers ago, and each update has me coming back to the world of the slorfs. It's just so darn adorable, even after 120 hours clocked. A total hidden gem. Highly recommend this game!

P.S. That's 120 hours of coming back to replay what exists. I am not saying there is 120 hours of content.

**Spoiler Free**

Overview: Slay the Spire is such a beloved indie title there’s probably not much I can offer in a review that hasn’t already been said. But as a gamer who is casual about card games, perhaps I can bring a perspective from someone who is hopelessly clumsy at deck building.

Once you play Slay the Spire, it becomes clear why it’s the genre staple everyone compares roguelike deck builders too. It has solid implementations of all the elements: procedural branching map, unique play styles, deck synergies, deck management, rewards, random events, secrets to unlock, and permadeath that keeps you coming back for more. It’s a game that is fun to play even for a deck-building casual like myself. And if you’re actually into deck building card games, there’s a high skill ceiling to master.

I had hesitations on getting the game due to the simple art style and lack of animations. But the game feels so good to play I forgot all about those reservations! This is the kind of game where I beat level 50 during one of my first game sessions. But I just hit my 100 hour mark, and there are a ton of challenges I could still chase if I wanted to. This is replayability done right.

Gameplay: Choose from three different characters, each with their own play styles, and try to beat level 50 without dying with a deck you construct along the way (no spoilers, but there may be more to unlock than what I’ve just mentioned ;) ).

Your runs will have you adding or subtracting cards from your deck as you try to find the deck that will win you the run. But it’s not always clear cut. You never know what cards you’ll be presented with, or what options you’ll have available to you.

You can also acquire relics, which are items with persistent buffs or effects for the run. Sometimes a good set of relics can turn your mediocre deck into a beastly one.

The branching tree map presents you with different procedural paths you can take. Locations include battles, shops, random events, elites, chests, and bosses.

The magic of this game comes from the sheer amount of decisions and possibilities you face in each run. There are a ton of deck strategies and combinations: big decks, small decks, defense, attack, card draw, status ailments, buffs, card exhaust, etc. There are so many build directions it will keep deck enthusiasts busy for hours. Relics and random events might sway your direction, and are all part of the strategies that unfold before you.

Battles themselves are turn based, typically encouraging you to play as many cards as possible. A standard hand size is a 5 card draw. When you run out of cards in your draw pile, your discard pile reshuffles back in. This is why a small deck can be an asset. If you have the right cards, you’ll keep cycling through them.

Each card has an energy cost. You start the game with 3 energy per turn. You can gain more with relics or other cards.

There’s probably some stuff I’m leaving out, but overall it’s your quintessential roguelike deck builder. But it’s a very solid one that's well designed.

As a deck-builder casual: I’ve put in 100 hours into this game, which should speak to the fun-retention I’ve found from it. I love how my decisions feel really impactful. It’s always fun seeing what options for cards I’m offered, and adding cool new cards to my run. There are certain deck builds that I was able to identify easily enough, which helped give me some direction. Eventually I did look up some guides to better understand what cards are typically rated better than others, which was also helpful.

It seems like there are meta decks that are recommended out there, but it also seems like each run is unique and different. So there’s not necessarily a predefined victory condition to chase. The conditions are too random for that. On one hand, this means you can relax a bit about casual play because your decisions are potentially as good as the next player’s. On the other hand, it takes a really skilled player to adequately analyze and understand what the conditions add up to, and how best to proceed. I find this to be a great balance between casual and skilled players.

I would say that the roguelike elements are strong enough to recommend Slay the Spire to deck building casuals. If you need a little help in deck building direction, like what cards are prized or what combos are good to look out for, a quick glance at some guides will give you a nice helping hand.

Controls/Accessibility: It’s a simple game to control, but I do like the control options. You can just use a mouse to select and drag things. But you can also use the number keys to select cards in your hand (you still need to use the mouse to select enemies however...). There’s an option to add UI numbers on top of each card to make that easier. If you have something like Voice Attack, you could make some macros to select and play cards (as long as the cursor is over the enemy for attacks). I’ve been messing with Talon Voice for eye/head tracking. So it’s nice having shortcut keys to map voice commands for hands free gaming.

Atmosphere: There is a sort of dark yet quirky magical tone within a mysterious theme. Everything feels otherworldly. It’s a strange world, but it’s one you’d like to learn more about.

Even though it has an art style that might look cheap or difficult to get into, it’s not something you actually end up caring about in practice because it feels so good to play! The art style and animation was my biggest hesitation to buying the game. I just didn’t like the “flashplayer” look, or how playing cards had such little animations from the characters. To my surprise, it wasn’t an issue at all! You really don’t notice the minimal animation while you’re playing.

The character and creature designs are strange, but they are certainly unique and memorable. There’s even a bit of subtle humor now and again. It’s a very interesting blend of atmospheric tones.

The music is really good. It’s a nice composition of orchestral scores with some dark themes that helps accompany the gameplay. There’s a flowing nature that helps cloak each run with mystery, intrigue, and contemplative energy. There are also a few tracks that are more epic, and I’ll be getting the soundtrack just for those for sure.

I also found the sound effects helped support the lack of animation a lot. Cards often feel very satisfying to play simply due to the sounds they make. If you play this game on mute, you’re missing out.

Conclusion: Slay the Spire deserves the praise it receives. It’s a solid roguelike deck builder that appeals to casuals like me, and advanced players alike. With a quality gameplay loop, this game is a pillar of replayability. So don’t be surprised when you hit the 100 hour mark yourself. Highly recommend.

**spoiler free**

Quick Review: Blocky Dungeon is a fun twist on Tetris and dungeon crawling by blending the two together. Using Tetris blocks to create the dungeon you play through is a brilliant yet simple concept that is engaging and meditative. Unfortunately, the lack of saving run progress, along with buggy achievements, really hurts the longevity to an otherwise great indie title.

Performance: FYI, the game was running my system harder than it should at first. I tried enabling vsync from the menu, but I’m not sure it really worked. I went to the nvidea settings on my system, set max frames to 60, enabled vsync, and set graphics to low in the game for good measure. Runs pretty quiet now.

Gameplay: Using a Tetris grid, you build a dungeon for your knight to crawl through and slay enemies. Unlike Tetris, the blocks don’t come down on a timer (except for “survival mode”), meaning you can think through your moves. This slower pace really works with the strategy element behind the mechanics. Plus, it makes for a very zen experience.

Your knight has health, AP, attack power, experience, and curse meters. Health and AP increase capacity with level ups for your knight. AP determines how many tiles you can move, and how many attacks you can make. AP replenishes by 10 after each turn. A turn ends when you place a Tetris block. Killing enemies raises your experience and lowers the curse meter. Every turn you don’t kill an enemy, your curse grows. When it’s full, you take damage and it resets half way. Curse is always a threat, so keep an eye on it.

Attack power is more involved than at first glance. Killing an enemy with the exact same amount of health as your power level will increase your attack power by one for the turn, but resets after the turn. Ideally, you want to combo multiple enemies in a string of +1 health iterations. This is very hard to do, and typically won’t occur more than 2-3x a turn. There are boosts you can pick up that will give you a permanent +1 to your base boost for the run. So instead of resetting to 1x, you’ll reset to 2x.

There are a lot of different enemies, and it’s fun navigating through all of their effects. Bosses are also really a pleasure to fight. They all integrate well into the Tetris dungeon theme.

There is unfortunately no way to save a run in this game, which is a big problem for endless mode. More on that later. Just know that if you need to quit a session, your progress will not be retained. So it’s better to die to lock in any Coin you collected before quitting the game.

Coin doesn’t get you much. There are some skins you can buy in the endless mode shop. Purely cosmetic. You can also use Coin to buy items/boosts once in a while during runs.

There is a campaign mode with 40 levels. Each level has 1 required objective, and 2 optional ones. Later levels require a certain number of completed objectives to unlock. The campaign is just a series of catered levels. It was a fun mode.

There is also an endless mode, which was probably the original intent of the game. There’s classic, dynamic, and survival modes. I found dynamic the best, because you got to face bosses, and they drop sword boosts, which helps you scale with the enemy levels. However, I have my issues with endless mode (more on that below).

Overall, the gameplay is engaging, fun, and relaxing.

Drawbacks: There are unfortunately a couple of big problems with Blocky Dungeon that really hurt the experience: no saving endless mode runs, and buggy/broken achievements.

Some of these achievements are impossible to get. First of all, they don’t seem to pop even when you do get them. I’ve done two achievements that have never popped. I got to dungeon level 127 (needed 50) on dynamic endless mode, and definitely did way more than 50 damage in a turn many times, and those two achievements never popped ("Carnage" & "Dun dun dun... geon").

Given that there is no save function, some of these achievements are ridiculous. For context, I had a run on dynamic endless mode where I got to dungeon level 127, personal level 17, and a score of 338,000. This was about a 3 hour session. There are achievements to get to personal level 50 and score over 999,999...in one run...with no saving for a session later... ("Big gains" & "Wow, score!").

Doing either of these two achievements is just impossible. First, the achievement might not even pop even if you do manage to do it, due to bugs. And second, even if you are talented enough to accomplish those achievements, are you really going to sit and play this for 8+ hours straight in one run? I wouldn’t. The run I mentioned above, I could have kept going for a long time in terms of skill. But the time requirement is just nuts. If there was a save option, it would be totally doable. But without it, it’s just a waste of time. I had to kill my character just to stop playing.

In addition, this game has bugs that can impact a long run. I had a bug occur with my run where one of the rows remained locked, even when I unlocked it. That meant I couldn’t clear it, which put me at a disadvantage.

Even if you wanted to grind these achievements out in the required one sitting, I wouldn’t trust the game to reward you properly due to the bugs. You could get screwed over hours in, or the achievement might not pop when you accomplished it. So I wouldn’t bother.

And that’s a bummer, because endless mode is kind of...endless, without a goal. I mean you could try to beat your high score. But you’ll probably tire out before you ever would have failed organically. So playing until you burn out and then everything but your score going away is kind of...disheartening.

It’s a fun game. But just know that the achievements are impossible and not worth your sweat. Play it for fun, and when you’re done, move on.

It’s too bad the achievements weren’t more reasonable, because it would be a fun game to beat some post-campaign challenges.

Atmosphere: This is a very relaxing game. The presentation is very simple, so I wouldn’t call it immersive. But you can get lost in it because it is so meditative. And the music helps support that. It’s a zen experience with gameplay that keeps you engaged.

Conclusion: Blocky Dungeon is a creative blend between Tetris and dungeon crawling that works really well at its core. It’s strategic, relaxing, and fun to pick up and play. However, it is really hurt by a combination of no endless mode saving, and buggy/ridiculous achievements. It’s a fun game, but it’s not very rewarding.

Do I recommend it? Mmm...Maybe. Just think of it as a short indie experience, and move on once you stop having fun.

**spoiler free**

Quick Review: “Right and Down” is a turn-based roguelike that takes place in procedural dungeons based on tiles. With a rather lazy title, the core gameplay loop of limiting movement to right and down makes for a very fun and enjoyable experience, full of addictive and consecutive runs. With a fun theme and simple premise, it’s definitely worth your time at its price point. However, the lack of a saving feature may be a turn off to some.

Gameplay: Even though the least interesting thing about this game is the title, to its credit, “Right and Down” does describe the core gameplay loop. Unfortunately, I think the lazy title will turn people off from what is otherwise a very fun and addictive roguelike, full of difficult decisions and difficult dungeons.

The goal of the game is to make it through 5 x 6 grids from the top left to the bottom right. You can only move right and down. This means every movement locks you out of paths and commits you to others. Trying to figure out which path to navigate is the crux of the game, and is a very engaging and addictive gameplay loop. You will need to navigate through monsters, items, and traps. Balancing between improving your character or merely surviving has significant impact on future levels that await you. There are 50 levels per dungeon, and 9 dungeons in total. (There is also a daily dungeon that refreshes every 24 hours.)

There are 5 biomes in total, and every 5 levels you will be required to choose between 2 new biomes to enter. Each biome has their own enemies, traps, and pool of equipment that may spawn for you to buy. Choose carefully, because your character build might be better suited for one biome over another.

You pick one of six characters to play as in a run, five of which need to be unlocked. Each character has two unique powers and three unique items. You choose only one of each for your run, adding some variety to each character on replays. (FYI, as the dungeons get harder, the difficulty is somewhat offset by giving you extra bonuses to choose before your run). These characters vary from each other enough that they will require different playstyles and strategies to focus on. Each character also starts with their own stats, subtly shown at the top left of the selection menu. Character stats include health, shields, coins, and experience. Keys become a factor later on.

Given the procedural nature of the game, there is an element of randomness and luck. You’ll run into “impossible” situations. It’s best to play without taking these losses too personally. It’s the nature of the game. It’s a difficult game. You will lose a lot. But it’s so easy to jump into another run once you lose you’ll get that “one more turn” feeling. I beat dungeon 9 after about 20 hours of gameplay, and those hours went by quickly.

As you upgrade your character, it can become difficult to keep track of all the relevant effects for any given situation due to all the items and powers you accumulate. (As you progress, you unlock more items to your pool of possible equipment to encounter). It would have been nice if these effects were displayed in a more streamlined way, something like if hovering over a tile would light up the relevant effects that would apply. But I do understand not including this as a design decision since it might make the game too simple or easy. Over time, you will become familiar with the different items and powers visually. Plus, hovering over a location will light up which items you have that are relevant to that biome.

(TIP: You can hover over the biome banner in the upper right side of the screen to light up relevant items in the current dungeon.)


No save feature: The big mark against the game is that THERE IS NO SAVE FEATURE FOR ANY RUN. You do a run all at once or you lose it. I was shocked this wasn’t part of the game, but found that it never affected me too much to make it a deal breaker.

Controls: “D” or “right arrow” goes right. “S” or “down arrow” goes down. You can alternatively click the adjacent tile with the mouse. Hovering your cursor over a tile, item, or power will reveal it’s effects. That’s really all there is to it. Super simple controls, which makes it highly accessible.

Atmosphere: The fantasy inspired theming of the game is definitely engaging and helps to make “Right and Down” worth your time. Each biome has a distinct theme, from the tiles that appear in a level, to the particles in the background, to the music. Even though the gameplay is essentially the same every level, I found the change in theming to be very refreshing, and actually impacted the gameplay. Each biome-specific trap will produce a substantial obstacle in your run.

I found the art style fun to look at, and it does a good job relaying relevant information. I did find the particles in the background to be a bit distracting at first, but I got used to it. However, the game runs a little hot for what it is. I’m going to assume it’s due to the particles. I set my framerate to 30fps and found it helped a lot without any noticeable difference in the experience.

The SFX have a nice punch to them, and the music sets a very atmospheric tone for each biome. My favorites are the campsite/main theme and the volcano theme. The game delivers a solid atmosphere for such a simple concept.

Conclusion: “Right and Down” is an addicting roguelike that delivers on it’s simple premise. With a fun gameplay loop, simple controls, solid atmosphere, and challenging dungeons, it’s a game you can easily sink some hours into. Unfortunately, it’s lack of a save feature will be noticeable to players without a reserved time to play. But with everything on offer at this price point, I think it’s still worth your while. I really enjoyed my time. Recommend.

Quick Review: Army of Ruin is a Vampire Survivor-like that improves on graphics and features from its source of inspiration. Although it’s a bit of a slow grind at the beginning, the constant sense of progression eventually leads to that fun power-fantasy and crystal-vacuum experience that makes this auto-shooter genre so addicting.

Gameplay: This is a Vampire Survivor-like at its core, and doesn’t stray from the genre. You start off with a single basic attack, collect crystals from enemies to level up, and acquire new attacks and trinkets each level from a choice of 3-4 options, until eventually you are the bullet hell. There is a spatially infinite/repeating map that you run around in, and enemies spawn outside the screen borders converging on your position. The goal is to defeat the final boss for the map which, depending on the difficulty, can be a 10, 15, or 20 minute match (making it great for quick play sessions). There is also an infinite difficulty, where you just play until you die. You can spend coin you collect on upgrades that persist in all games going forward. So that’s the basic gameplay loop. And just like Vampire Survivors, it’s addicting as hell.

There is a lot to unlock: new characters, new weapons, new trinkets, and even new gameplay features. This means that the beginning is inevitably a slow burn. Before you have purchased upgrades or unlocked items, each run can feel a bit short and lacking. But if you keep with the grind, it becomes a blast!

Each character has a special ability you can activate, which adds a nice touch to the gameplay. Each character also has their unique passive abilities, which can be fun to pair with different builds.

Each weapon can be evolved during a run if you have the right attributes from trinkets. What I really like is that the game keeps track of which attributes you’ve collected, so it’s easy to see what you still need to evolve a weapon. No combo memorization required!

There are a lot of fun things to unlock. There are like 100 different weapons and trinkets or something. Most of them are pretty unique, and most are useful enough to feel impactful. I really like the number of builds and combinations you can create. I also thought the idea of unlocking “Features” was a cool way to expand the sense of rewards, though I could see why some will probably feel it’s annoying. For example, there’s a feature that gives you upgrade options after you’ve fully maxed your equipment for a level. This could seem like something that should be there from the start, but I felt unlocking these Features made the game continue to expand the more you played. It’s not like it’s behind a paywall or something. You’re rewarded for playing. I found it fun.

I also like how it’s easy to tell when your character is receiving damage.

Controls: One of the strongest features of a Vampire Survivor-like is the ratio between the simplicity of the controls and the chaotic madness you create. WASD moves your character, and Spacebar uses your special. Tab brings up a map. These controls are remap-able. This means that this game is a very accessibly way to experience a power fantasy! And it feels great!

Atmosphere: The most obvious improvement from Vampire Survivors is the 3D stylized presentation. There’s nothing wrong with pixel 2D art, but Army of Ruin is a pleasure to look at. The colors are vibrant and emotive. The lighting of the maps will change as the game goes on, from a sunny optimism to darker clouds. Projectiles and effects flash in brilliant textures. The animation and style are just pleasant on the eyes.

The downside to 3D graphics is it can feel a little harder to read the screen when it’s cluttered with enemies, obstacles, and projectiles. It also takes a heavier toll on your PC. But overall, I think it’s a very enjoyable visual spectacle.

The game sounds good too. Weapons all have a unique feel, and the sound effects reflect that well. Your character also grunts when damaged, which is a helpful alert. Enemies will also grunt on death. And that sweet sound of collecting crystals raises in pitch the longer the string, which is very satisfying.

But the music is definitely the most pronounced sound element. Each map has its own soundtrack that loops in the background, with the orchestral tracks sounding like epic music. I had to turn the music level down to better balance soundscape, but music definitely adds an energy to the game and a character to each map.

Army of Ruin has a very pleasing style through and through. If the low end graphics of Vampire Survivors was a turn off for you, then Army of Ruin is the game to check out.

Conclusion: Army of Ruin is a strong package. Between characters, weapons, trinkets, and maps, there is a ton of variety to experience, and unlocking it all feels great. The visual aesthetic is colorful and vibrant, and adds a layer of pleasure to the addicting replayability. It can feel a little underwhelming at the beginning. But stick with it, and you’ll get an accessible power-fantasy that’s a blast to play. Definitely recommend!

(P.S. For some examples of the madness, check out my screenshots on my profile)

**Spoiler free**


Quick Review: The Banner Saga is a narrative-driven turn-based tactics game that takes place in a fictional snow-trodden world inspired by Norse Mythology. This is Part 1 of a trilogy where your story choices have real consequences on your gameplay and experience (which carries over between titles), and isn’t afraid to perma-death characters you aren’t careful with. It is a slow and atmospheric title, with a unique battle system that is deceptively simple, but can be quite strategic. It’s a heavy world full of struggle that easily grips you into the journey of your caravan. With beautiful art aesthetics and battle animations, gripping narrative choices, and powerful atmosphere and music, The Banner Saga is a must play classic indie title, even if the consequences of your choices can come off as random and unfair at times.

Gameplay: The Banner Saga gameplay is divided into two experiences: Interactive Narrative and Turn-Based tactical combat. The choices you make in the narrative can drastically change your combat experience. Ironically, your characters can die permanently from the interactive narrative but not from actual combat. If an enemy dies in combat, they are merely injured and will require rest to get back to full battle effectiveness (On easy mode, injuries do not require rest to heal).

During the Interactive Narrative, your caravan of heroes will travel across an unforgiving land, where you will come across random story events in between the main scripted beats of the story. The main dialogue moments will force you to make choices, with consequences and ripple effects down the road. These can vary wildly from getting new members, to losing members permanently. You will also come across random story events, which primarily affect your Supplies and Moral.

The Moral system is fairly limited in how it actually affects your gameplay (I heard it was improved in the later installments). Moral can be High, Good, Normal, Weak, or Low. This will determine how many Will points you have in battle. High gives you +2 Will bonus, Low give you -2 Will debuff, etc. Supplies in your caravan determine how much food your people have. When it runs out, people start dying, and this drains moral. Rest increases moral, but every day requires food. You can buy food with Renown.

Renown is like the ultimate currency in Banner Saga. You need it for food, buying equipment, and most importantly, leveling up your characters. With Renown being pulled in so many directions, it really makes you weigh your options. Renown is acquired by some events, but mainly from combat.

Combat is turn-based on a grid, uses a unique battle system, and is where the meat of the gameplay is. Turn order is based on how you set up your party before battle. Each turn you can move and then attack (there is no undo action feature). Movement and attack ranges are highlighted on the grid. Humans only take up one tile, and Varl take up 4. Each character has a passive and active special ability, which is important for team composition. Generally, you want some Tank characters that can hack away armor, and some attack characters for HP damage.


The combat system is interesting. Characters have two primary stats: Blue armor and Red HP. You can choose to either attack Armor or HP. The big twist is that HP also equates to how much attack damage you do. Armor is straight forward, and subtracts from the enemy’s attack when they attack your HP. However, characters also have a “break” stat, which determines how much armor they break if they attack armor (and not HP). So if you have 10 HP, but only 1 Break, you will only do 1 armor damage if attacking armor. If instead you attack HP directly, and the enemy has 15 armor, then your 10 HP will not only do a measly 1 damage (10 – 15 = 1, which is the lowest amount), but will have 10% less chance to hit for every Armor to HP discrepancy. So you might just miss. It looks simple, but it definitely forces you to strategize in a way that isn’t intuitive at first. For example, it’s a good idea hit an enemy down to 1 HP and keep him alive because then he’ll take up the enemy turn order with a weak turn. Usually games encourage you to finish enemies off so there are less around to hurt you. Banner Saga is different.

Overall, the narrative choices are fun and compelling, but sometimes lead to consequences that feel unfair or unexpectedly cheap. The combat is a little hard to understand at first, but becomes a very strategic back-and-forth, and can be quite difficult and addictive. The difficulty setting primarily effects the combat. Easy will have you swinging at HP all the time and killing them in single hits. Hard mode will have you thinking about how to disperse your attacks, and may lead you to fail. (FYI, you can train at camp without receiving injuries to rack up kills for leveling up, but you can’t farm levels because Renown is only acquired from real battles.)

Technical Warning: For whatever reason, the Heroes upgrade screen overly stressed my PC. It’s some kind of bug. My GPU is fine (GTX 1070). My CPU runs the game usually at 7% load, 30 degrees. But in the individual hero menus, the CPU goes to 44-50% load and heats up to 55 degrees. It’s ok for me, but I’ve read some other people having serious problems with this. My recommendation is play the game when you buy it and go to the hero’s upgrade page within your first 2 hours to test your system. That way if you want a refund you can get one from Steam.

Atmosphere: This game oozes with atmosphere and immersion. For a 2D Indie game, they really embraced their limitations and focused the style on where it needed it most. The artwork is really beautiful. Trekking through vast landscapes is slow but immersive. I’ve played through the game many times to get 100% and the landscapes are always a pleasure. There’s a fair amount of reading, with very little voiceover. There’s a lot of lore in this universe, and you can learn a lot if you read everything on the map. The combat animations are also really fun to look at. They’re some kind of pseudo-rotoscoped technique, which is pretty cool.

A special mention needs to go to the music. It really carries a lot of the character. The music sounds ancient and kind of “off” in a folklore way. It sounds like a lot of history and culture is imbued with the tracks, which supports the game very well. I think there are some tracks that will be a pleasure to listen to on their own (I got the soundtrack), though I think a fair number of them would be really annoying outside of the context. But in context, I thought the music was very unique and inviting.
Overall, The Banner Saga is a highly atmospheric game that can be heavy and slow, but also feels like a classic epic.

Conclusion: The Banner Saga is a really solid game, and feels like one of those classic experiences you should have under your belt. The narrative story is engaging and interactive, the combat is unique and strategic, and the atmosphere is very immersive with an epic scale. Sometimes the consequences of your actions feel unfair, and the hero upgrade screen can be a technical obstacle for your system. But overall, The Banner Saga is a worthy experience for your gaming history. Recommend.

**Spoilers Blocked Out**

Quick Review: Sproggiwood is a Turn-Based Grid-Movement roguelike with a world based on Finnish folklore. The artstyle is cute, the music is catchy, the mood is light-hearted, but the gameplay can be difficult. It’s overall a fun combination of ideas, and feels like one of those little gems hidden away in the Steam Store. Except for the “colony builder” that lacks any gameplay value, it’s a worthwhile time crawling through mushroom dungeons.

Gameplay: Sproggiwood is a turn-based roguelike with some meta progression. There are 10 dungeons to beat, 6 characters to play, and 3 difficulties. Like many roguelikes, the amount of gameplay you get out of this title will depend on how much you want to master it. If you just want to beat it once through, you could do that using only one character. If you want to 100% the game, that’s 6 characters to beat each level with on Hard mode. So your mileage may vary.

You play as blockheads, who are cute little creatures that perpetually smile and destroy the creatures in the dungeon. Each character has a weapon slot, armor slot, and 4 abilities they can learn/level-up during a dungeon run. Each dungeon has about 4-5 levels with a boss. The game is turn-based on a grid, so enemies move and attack only when you move or attack. I really enjoyed this mechanic because it balanced well between thinking your moves out, while also having a snappy action feel. Tip: You’re character can move tile-to-tile while holding down that move direction if running is turned on in the options.


And you will need to plan your moves out, at least a little bit. The enemy variety is fairly strong, but the game doesn’t tell you what each enemy does. You have to figure that out yourself with trial and error. It makes every new encounter intriguing and dangerous. Some enemies have straight-forward attacks, or even telegraph their moves. Other enemies are a little harder to predict or understand. Some of them you will learn to loathe. Some enemies die and are gone, and some have a death effect that can harm you if you’re still in the way. This leads to some unique strategizing, as you’ll learn optimal places to kill certain enemies to minimize damage taken. I never played a game where the location of killing an enemy was strategically important. (Enemies get harder in Hard mode).

Each blockhead you play as also have very different play styles. Some have ranged attacks, and some are purely melee. But each have unique abilities, and will force you to approach each enemy differently. For such a small looking game, there’s a surprising amount of strategy to consider.

There are also a variety of weapons and armors to find and purchase after each dungeon. However, these are basically the same for each class of character you play. Also, once I figured out the optimal loadout, I ended up just using that one for all my characters and playthroughs. The loadout I used was: Weapons of biting frost, Armors of Master Pottery, and the double sip trinket with potions for two uses of extra health. The Biting frost weapons do a 3x3 aoe, which is helpful in clearing out those flying goldfish, and it freezes enemies, giving you an extra turn to destroy a group before they respawn.


The one lacking part of this game is the colony builder. It looks like it was a feature of the game that got scrapped but was left in anyway. I’m assuming it was meant to support the kinds of abilities and weapons you unlock, but in it’s current state it is purely aesthetic. There is no gameplay associated with it whatsoever. It looks like an incomplete feature.

Overall, the gameplay is a lot of fun and can be challenging. Each character has a different playstyle which adds to replayability. But if you use the loadout I found out about on the forums, the variety becomes much smaller. Fun gameplay.


User Interface: Sproggiwood is a mobile port, and it shows. The user interface is clunky with a mouse and keyboard. But honestly, once you’re actually p[laying the game, it’s not that bad. There is some keyboard mapping available. I mapped WASD to move, E to wait, TAB to level up, and SPACEBAR to select. That’s about all you really need. You could play entirely with the mouse by clicking the mobile UI, but I wouldn’t recommend that.

The most annoying thing about the mobile port is that hovering your mouse over things does not prompt you with information. If you want to read the description of something, you must first click the magnifying glass icon, and then click on whatever you want to learn about. It’s annoying, but once you learn how to play the game, you can just ignore this.

Overall, the UI is clunky, but doesn’t get in the way too much,


Atmosphere: Just look at the trailer, and you’ll get a pretty good idea about how this game feels to play in. It’s a cute looking game. The “story” is short and not very serious, and full of humor and shenanigans. The premise is that you’ve been summoned from another dimension to stop the mushrooms from harnessing a deadly magic or something. It’s not too important, because it’s really about your little blockhead dudes dungeon crawling and killing all of these annoying little creatures.

There are a lot of strange creatures in this game. I am not familiar with Finnish folklore, but I imagine most of the enemies are directly inspired by it (though I don’t know if the flying goldfish are…?)

I also don’t know how accurate the art reflects the source material, but it all looks cute and charming. The colors are nice and easy to read. The dungeons are in different biomes, and the maps reflect that well.

The music is the other noticeable element. The main theme song at the world map is super catchy. The dungeon songs are fine. I don’t think they hold up on their own, but they support the game well.

Overall, the atmosphere is really pleasant and fun to dungeon crawl in.


Conclusion: Sproggiwood is a game I would consider a little hidden gem. It’s a cute game to look at that can pack a challenge on harder difficulties. The different characters and procedural levels give it a nice amount of replayability, and the world is light and happy. Outside of the clunky UI, I’d say this is a fun recommend.

Quick Review: Sky Force Reloaded is a true sequel to Sky Force Anniversary adding more to the package in every aspect: vehicles, enemies, difficulty, particle effects, and more. If you liked the first game, you’re getting more of the same in a slightly bigger package. Unfortunately, you can’t quite do everything if you don’t have friends that play this specific game. But other than that, it’s a solid retro vertical scroller with a lot of action and cool visual design.


Gameplay: In each level you navigate your ship through a “hallway” of planes, tanks, turrets, and lasers. There’s technically a story, but it’s more like window dressing for your bullet hell rampage.

Your ship fires its basic attack automatically (with a manual shooting option in settings) while special powers are triggered manually.

There are a variety of things to collect in each level. Collecting stars can be spent to upgrade your ship. In the first game, each weapon was leveled up one tier. Now your ship has multiple tiers. You can also collect ship parts to unlock new ships with different bonuses and fire patterns. All upgrades apply to every ship you collect. You can collect a variety of cards that will give you permanent or temporary bonuses. There are also technicians you can unlock, by completing objectives, and each gives you a special bonus. There’s way more stuff to do in this game than the previous.

Expect all the same enemies from the first game, plus some more variety. Most levels have a boss at the end with some cool design and crazy weapons. Enemies definitely get harder on harder difficulties. Plus the levels speed up, and enemies spawn faster with higher health.

Your special abilities are limited to the same three from the previous game: shield, laser, and mega bomb. But a certain collectible card actually gives you an additional chargeable ability.

Outside of just more of everything, it plays the same way as the previous game. (This game also has local co-op). There are 4 objectives each level to master before the next difficulty is unlocked. Learning how to beat each level at every difficulty is the main gameplay loop, so it’s a lot of replaying levels to master them. But even if you just want to play through the game once, I think you have to complete multiple difficulties in order to even unlock future levels. Replaying high action levels to learn and master them is the main draw to this game.

In short, it’s the same as the first game, just with more features and challenges. But while I like this game more than the original, I would recommend playing the previous title first. It will extend your experience with this franchise, because after playing Reloaded, the original might feel under-baked.

The one complaint I have with this game is that some features are locked behind a social wall. If you don’t have friends that play this game, you can’t participate in the tournament. I don’t, so I couldn’t. That means there’s an achievement I can’t get. It also means there are two technicians I can’t unlock because they require tournament accomplishments. While that’s a bummer, it doesn’t really take away from anything you can experience solo.


User Interface: There are more setting in this title than the previous one. Now there’s an option to assign key bindings, which is fantastic. The first one didn’t have that and I had to use a third party solution. (However menu navigation must use arrow keys, not WASD). You can also set the auto-fire to manual. I’m not sure why you would, but the option is there.

Otherwise, the in-game HUD is the same, with easy to read info at the top of the screen.


Atmosphere: Sky Force Reloaded feels like a well made arcade title. There isn’t really a story to it. You’re just having fun blowing things up. I believe you’re fighting against the daughter of the previous bad guy, but that’s it.

The visuals of the Sky Force games are really impressive. They have some great textures and interesting vehicle designs. With the static camera in a top-down view, you end up with great visuals that don’t tax your PC at all. And with all the action and detail, you’re ship is still easily distinguishable from the background. The visuals are definitely strong.

The sound has a fun sci-fi aesthetic. Bullets, lasers, and explosions all feel really nice to hear, and can help alert you to incoming attacks. This is definitely higher quality than 8-bit sounds you might hear in some other arcade title. The music is also catchy in its synthesized soundtrack. There are some fun beats that play well with the action on screen. It’s just a solid sound package all around.

The atmosphere is not meant to immerse you into a world, like some open world RPG. But it does immerse you in your real-time reflexes. And the overall style encourages you to play just one more level. This game served me over 40 hours of action gameplay. And it was a pretty looking game the whole time. Solid arcade atmosphere.


Conclusion: Sky Force Reloaded is a bigger and better version of its previous title Sky Force Anniversary. Outside of the social gaming obstacle, it’s a solid package. The visual execution and sound design are a pleasure, and the levels are tough and exciting. I still recommend playing the first game before this one. But whether you do or not, this one will scratch your arcade shooting itch. Recommend.

**Spoiler Free**

Quick Summary: Wintermoore Tactics Club is a story driven turn-based tactics game which plays out more like a point-and-click high school adventure with tactical combat on the side. There is a lot of reading, with simple tactics combat that focuses on team composition. While this can make the game feel a bit slow, and made it a slow burn for me, by the end I was enjoying this lighthearted story about inclusivity.


Gameplay: The game really plays out in two different parts: Real world narrative “drama” and in-character fantasy combat. I’d say the split is 1/2 narrative, 1/4 team composition, and 1/4 tactical combat. You’ll spend most of your time in-game walking around the campus and talking to students to advance the story and complete little quests. There is a lot of optional side dialogue, but all of the purposeful side quests reward you with upgrades for your characters. The campus is fairly small, with 6 areas to visit on the world map. There’s no exploring, or secret chests to find. It’s all character and dialogue driven.

I found the combat to focus heavily on “choosing team composition” on my first play-through. The battle maps are fairly small, and can be treated more like puzzles instead of tactical reactions to enemy AI. If you want to get S rank, you’ll need to think your moves ahead of time, and this really translates into choosing your team. On my second play-through, I was able to cruise through the prep process.

If you're just trying to beat the level, there’s still reason to choose which units you’ll bring into combat. You have space for 3 members per battle. Each member can have 1-2 powers equipped to them, which can vary from damage based abilities, to passive status effects. The limitation of units and powers among all the choices really makes you think about what composition will work best for the situation.

Combat is turn based: your characters act, then the enemy’s. Each party member is quite unique. Attacks are either physical or magical, and can cause lingering status ailments or buffs. There are a few tile-based persistent effects they can leave behind. There is also physical and magical defense to consider.

Before a level begins, you will be presented with the map and enemies, and you will have to choose who to use, what to equip, and where to place them. Taking all of this into consideration, you can spend time planning out your moves and preparing accordingly. Most levels should only take 3-4 turns to resolve. If you don’t plan properly, it could take longer. Overall the combat is pretty simple and straight forward. There aren’t any terrain or height advantages, no cover systems, and no chance-to-miss. I feel this limited scope is appropriate for the game.

While the gameplay is fun enough, and is more of an accompaniment to the story, I found I couldn’t play for more than a few levels at a time. Personally, I’m just not very interested in such a heavy focus on team composition. For example, I’m not a fan of card based games where you craft a deck and then play with it. I’d rather have a team either given to me, or pick a few characters I like to stick with. But this game really encourages you to think about who to use every time. I’m not that interested in that specific type of strategy. If you like building decks, or enjoy planning out synergies, I think you'll enjoy the otherwise simple combat.

By the end, once I got familiar with everyone and had my go-to abilities, I warmed up to the combat.


User Interface: I found the user interface in combat to be very helpful. Movement tiles or shown in green, and attack range is shown in red. Selecting an attack and hovering it over the enemy will show who is in range and how much damage they will take. It made it very easy and intuitive to plan out a strategy.

(FYI, in case you don’t notice this tool tip, you can hold shift over a green movement tile to turn it into an attack tile. I foolishly didn’t pick up on this right away, and thought I was forced to move before I could attack a space within my movement range.)

One thing I didn’t like about the combat UI is that the menus that show all the info when you hover over a person can overlap the map, causing certain titles to be blocked from visibility. So sometimes you can’t see the full extent enemies can move or attack. There’s no way to pan the camera, so whatever ends up blocked is just blocked.

The menus and character sheets all look like they’re written out in a book, which blends nicely with the overall aesthetic.

Under options you can set player and enemy health handicaps, as well as a “no fail” mode.

Controls wise, everything is done with the mouse, point and click style. Spacebar is used to speed up time, tab is used to open the character sheet, and enter is used to end turn. But overall, this is a point and click control scheme.


Atmosphere: Wintermoor Tactics Club is a lighthearted story about friendship that doesn’t take itself too seriously. For example, you and your friends are obsessed with C&C (Curses and Catacombs), which is the kind of on-the-nose charm that's used throughout. The premise is kind of ridiculous, but in a good and fun way. Clubs at this school must compete in a snowball fight tournament, and losers have their clubs disbanded. The different characters and cliques are all unique and can be rather outlandish. But overall it’s about kids saving the day by banding together. So it has a nice message, and it doesn’t mind being a little cheesy.

There’s no spoken dialogue or narration, but there are text prompted grunts and gasps from the characters that add a bit to their personality. In general, everyone at the school has their own personality, even if is a simplistic or silly one. Wintermoor doesn’t really feel like a school because no one seems to take any classes. It’s more like a summer camp in the winter for kids to geek out over their niches. Like I said, it’s not too serious, but it’s pleasant and a little silly.

The art style and animation is 2D and largely stiff, focusing on poses to portray character. Tactical combat is played with pieces on a board, which sort of wobble from tile to tile. The animation is minimal, and the budget shows, but the game is visually nice to look at.

The SFX are pretty one-to-one with what you’re seeing happen on the screen. I did enjoy the pen-on-paper SFX for the text dialogue boxes. It was much more enjoyable to listen to instead of the digital booping and beeping that’s common. There are really no ambient soundscapes, leaving it all to the music instead, which is largely music tracks designated for certain emotions, with some catchy but repetitive battle tracks. Overall, the sound feels kind of simple, but appropriate.

With a lighthearted atmosphere throughout all of its facets, I certainly felt like there was a world with characters fighting a problem and learning along the way. I think the portrayal works well, and benefits significantly by not taking itself too seriously. Simple of effective atmosphere.


Conclusion: Wintermoor Tactics Club is a nice lighthearted adventure that celebrates nerdy RPG culture. Though it’s largely a reading-heavy experience, its cast of characters and choice of abilities makes its combat moments engaging in the larger narrative. Just be ready for some pre-planning before any action actually happens. Overall, I give it a lighthearted recommend.