Последние обзоры MichaelOmegatron

**Spoiler Free**

Quick review: Wildermyth is a great turn-based CRPG that can give you many hours of procedural adventures and unique character development. I was actually quite slow to warm up to the game, but it now holds the top spot in my steam library for “most hours played”. It’s ability to create a unique experience every campaign, from random events, to procedural dungeons and maps, and even to characters, earns it high marks and strong replayability. It might take a while to accept it for what it is, but once you do, you’ll be sinking hours into it as you create your own legacy of heroes.

Gameplay: The gameplay is cut into 3 different parts as you play through a campaign: Story choices, dungeon fights, and the overland map.

The story choices are what makes Wildermyth stand out. Throughout your campaign, you will be prompted with many scenarios that feature your characters, and 2-4 options on how to proceed. These can vary from preset main storyline beats, to random encounters and obstacles. In either scenario, your characters will be featured as the ones participating in the dialogue and decisions. And the roles your characters play are randomized. Plus, the decisions you make during these moments will determine what happens next. These ingredients together effectively create a procedural storyline every time you play.

There are 6 campaigns with preset stories arcs, and then options for “generic” campaigns. Campaigns are either 3 or 5 chapters long. You begin each selecting from randomized heroes, or creating your own custom ones. Later, you have the ability to select previous heroes you’ve used once you save them to your legacy list. So, there is a lot of content and replayability. (However, once I beat every campaign, I continued to play subsequent run-throughs skipping all the dialogue. I found it got old reading everything over and over. And since I started to recognize the story capsules, I just wanted to get moving.)

Dungeon Fights are the main meat of the gameplay, and after getting used to how the game functions, I found it to be very enjoyable and engaging. I still do. Battles are turn-based strategies on a grid. 95% of your objectives are to kill all enemies. Heroes can be one of 3 classes: Warrior, Hunter, or Mystic. Each has their own default power: Warriors have Guardian to counter enemies, Hunters have silkstep to disappear until they attack, and Mystics can use magic by infusing objects.

Your heroes get 2 main actions and 1 swift action. Movement and attacks each take an action, with attacks ending your turn if you use them first. Abilities and upgrades can significantly change this, along with many other aspects of battle. Heroes gain new powers and upgrades by leveling up, from random encounters, or completing hook missions. Powers can be active or passive. Items can also provide helpful effects. And while characters can gain abilities in all sorts of ways, they can also be maimed and permanently hurt in various ways too. When your hero loses all health in a match, you have an option to retain the hero for the campaign with a permanent debuff, or choose for them to permanently die in a blaze of glory. Most debuffs will physically manifest on a character, like an eyepatch or a lost limb.

There are a lot more mechanics in the game. Even though it might seem complicated at first, once you get familiar with them, you’ll learn which mechanics you need to pay attention to and it becomes pretty streamlined.

Finally, there’s the Overland Map. Here you get to choose which locations to explore, fight, and secure. You party moves via the in-game unit of Days. Except for a couple of missions, there is no time limit to worry about. However, Days will eventually countdown 2 different events that negatively impact your goals: Calamities and Incursions. Calamities are enemy buffs that get added to the campaign. Incursions are enemy retaliations that you need to fight to stop.

As you defeat enemies and claim territories, you will collect resources to upgrade your gear as the end of chapters, and you’ll collect Hero Points. Hero Points are used to recruit new heroes, upgrade gear, or prevent Calamities from being added.

Overall, the gameplay permeates each campaign with procedural challenges, meaningful choices, and strategic decisions. I found normal difficulty to be too easy, and played on “Tragic Hero” mostly. Wildermyth is a lot of fun to play through.

UI – Not as clear as it could be…: Unfortunately, it took me a while to warm up to how the gameplay all works. I think this is partly due to the tutorial’s inadequate explanation and the UI. The first campaign is effectively a light tutorial, but there is a lot of learning by trial and error. You need to play through a few games before you start to really understand how it wants you to think, and what information you need to pay attention to. There are a lot of weeds, and there’s a lack of clear boundaries in terms of what’s important and what’s not. At first, I was very insecure about all of the attributes of my characters. How was I supposed to remember all of these traits? They’re not listed anywhere except the character sheet. Eventually I learned not to worry so much about stats, and about all of the traits listed for my characters. I just focused on what abilities they had, both active and passive (ie, how much damage I did, and how much I took).

Overall, the UI does not direct your attention enough to what matters. And since there is a lot to potentially look at, it can feel overwhelming and unsettling. But stick with it and you’ll learn.

One last weird aside, there is no inventory. Items heroes get cannot be switched to other party members. It’s a weird mechanic that is never explained. So, if you’re looking around for an inventory tab in the menu, you won’t find one.

Atmosphere: Even though the paper art style is evident in the trailers and screenshots, the atmosphere is not quite what I had expected, and I think is largely responsible for my slow burn for this game. In general, I thought it would be more serious, just in a stylized expression. But the game doesn’t take itself too seriously. Dialogue can be quirky and the music feels very…light, or floaty. The small string ensemble was not what I expected for a fantasy game. I was expecting something more atmospheric and well rounded, with brass and French horns and drums. The few strings present didn’t really feel like they fit honestly. Plus, the dialogue and text during story moments felt way too fluffy and overdone. It made me feel like I was reading a book. And, all put together, it made me feel like I was reading a picture book to a kid.

And I think that was the key. Once I got on board with that, things started to click. I think once I saw Wildermyth more as an homage to written fantasy books for kids rather than some epic video game is when I started to really enjoy what it was all about. I’m still not a fan of the music and text, but it all felt appropriate and fitting.

In the end, I would give this game high marks on its style. The atmosphere is much stronger if you take the time to read through all of the text. Eventually, I started skipping it so I could get to the gameplay. It certainly sped up my playthroughs, but it also lost a lot of the charm.

Conclusion: Wildermyth is a very unique game that I recommend for CRPG fans that don’t mind reading book-like language. The gameplay is strong, and the procedural characters and adventures engage you from beginning to end. There is a lot to discover in this game, and a lot to enjoy. If you’re not quite clicking with the presentation or the art style, definitely give it more time. It might end up being one of your most played games in your Steam Library.

**Spoilers are censored**

Quick Review: Red Ronin is a turn-based puzzle game with a Kill Bill aesthetic, and manages to bring a visceral and action pace to a typically slow medium. And while cutting through enemies feels like solid fun, the game seriously suffers from real-time elements that do not fit the gameplay and bogs down the experience with frustrating and lagging reaction times. Although it’s a game I overall recommend, the real time mechanics in this package is a reason for me to advise caution.

Gameplay: You play as Red, who’s out for revenge, and slaughters her fair share of pixelated goons along the way. You move on a turn-based grid, zooming all the way to the end of a row or column until you hit an obstacle, at which point all enemies take their collective turn. Dashing through an enemy will slice them in half, and bolting around a puzzle cutting enemies up is a blast.

In addition to your basic move-slash actions, you will also get access to two different powers which are essential to solving each puzzle. One power slows time and gives you a quick action — an action where no other enemies or traps move or react. The second power is accessed through a tactical mode, where the game pauses, and allows you to place an arrow booster that changes your direction mid-dash. These powers are collected in levels with a max capacity of 4 for each power. Each puzzle provides you with the minimum collectible powers necessary in each map to make each level possible. Unused powers can be carried over to the next puzzles to give you an advantage.

Some puzzles seem to have only solution, but because of the powers you collect, and their rollover to subsequent puzzles, there ends up being multiple ways to get through many of the puzzles.

There are a few types of enemies, and you will have to plan and execute your moves in a way that avoids ending your turn in enemy range, or boxing yourself into inevitable death. The variety of enemies isn’t very diverse. You also have to learn their behaviors through trail and error because there is no tutorial on enemies.

This is not a roguelike, so you can die as many times as you want, all it does it restart the puzzle, and count against your total score for that chapter.

The game is divided up into chapters, and each chapter has multiple puzzles to solve. (I didn’t keep track, but probably like 10-15 puzzles per chapter or so). Each chapter also introduces some kind of new obstacle. The main story chapters end with boss fights.

Most of the game isn’t as hard as other puzzle games I’ve played. It’s not a mind-bending type of puzzler. But the real difficulty, unfortunately, comes from a frustrating implementation of real-time mechanics.

The bad: There are about 2 chapters and 2 bosses that use real-time mechanics, and they do a disservice to the experience. They vary in their negative impact, which I’ll list further below. Obviously one problem is the inconsistency of gameplay and style. Most of the game is turn-based, with enemies moving only when you move. Even certain laser bullets only move through the air when you move. So to suddenly have this contrasted by real-time obstacles coming for you seriously clashes with the game’s vocabulary and doesn’t feel good to deal with.

But the main issue I have is how the timing of the real-time mechanics frustratingly clashes with the timing of the turn-based mechanics at your disposal. When you move, you do move quickly, but there is some kind of delay or lag before you are able to move again. This is sometimes exacerbated during kill animations, where the animation slows down for a slow-motion effect, but doesn’t seem to slow down the Real-Time obstacle coming for you. The game doesn’t queue up your movement commands, so in order to make your next move quick enough you have to wait and hit the button at the right time. This leads to button smashing, and a generally slow reaction time from your character. It’s super frustrating when you feel like a fast dashing samurai, and yet you feel lethargic and slow when these real-time threats are moving for you uninterrupted. It’s almost like one of those bad dreams where you’re trying to run away but your body won’t listen to you. I found these moments to be very frustrating. You can try pausing the game with your tactical mode ability, but it’s still sluggish toggling in and out of that too.

There are 2 chapters and 2 bosses that use these real time mechanics:
1) Chapter where a sniper laser moves horizontally across the screen. You need to hide behind certain pillars and time your moves to get from pillar to pillar. This one wasn’t so bad.
2) Chapter where your Yellow character needs to complete a puzzle in time before a laser swipes across the screen killing you on impact. This was very frustrating.
3) Boss that blows up bombs on grid spaces. This wasn’t too bad.
4) Boss that uses a rifle to shoot you, by sweeping over the whole puzzle and firing a round while he continues to drag the crosshairs around. This was definitely the most frustrating. The real-time mechanics felt very unfair and inconsistent with the style of the game. You would expect him to lock into a space before he shoots. Instead he follows you around constantly while shooting. This means if you dash across his line of fire and he happens to shoot, you’ll die. I also felt like sometimes the hit detection was unfairly skewed in the bosses favor.

The basic takeaway is that it’s a fun turn-based game, but the experience is really hurt by the real-time mechanics contrasting the sluggish navigation.

Controls: Controls are simple. WASD to move, Q/E to rotate arrow booster power, X for tactical mode, Spacebar to place arrow booster, Z for quick turn. There’s also a way to play with the mouse, but I ignored that.

Atmosphere: Red Ronin is engaging until it’s frustrating with the real-time mechanics. I’ve already said my piece about that above, so I’ll move on from that complaint.

The revenge plot is pretty basic, and never really makes you feel that bad for the “plight” of the protagonist. Her motivation felt a little weak and, honestly, made me feel a little bad for her targets. It almost felt like some of them didn’t deserve it.

However, the visceral dashing and slashing through enemies definitely gives you a satisfying power trip, and does well to sell the “Kill Bill revenge” vibe.

The art style is very pixelated, and can make it hard to read the room. Sometimes you’re unaware that there’s actually a wall/obstacle in your way. But generally it’s fine. And on the plus side, the pixel art style really helps to sell the exaggerated gory kills with a simplistic punctuation.

Overall, the locations are all fairly similar, usually in a building of some kind. I don't know if I can say I ever felt immersed in the world itself, but I was immersed enough in the gameplay.

The music usually has a techno beat that drives your engagement. It helps give the game a faster pace than a typical puzzle game.

And that’s the big takeaway: this turn-based puzzle game feels like a fast-paced action slashing game. The ironic part is that it feels the most action-solid during the turn-based portions, but then feels the most action-weak during the real-time portions.

Conclusion: Red Ronin is a mixed bag. The base game is done very well, especially by a single developer. It feels fast for a slow genre, and feels viscerally satisfying to dash and slash. But the real-time elements are implemented in a way that is frustrating to play through, especially with the sluggish response time of your character. If you want to play out a "Kill Bill fantasy" in puzzle format, this is your game. Just beware of its frustrating moments. I give it a tentative recommend.

**Spoiler Free**

Quick Review: Lara Croft Go is a cute game. Cute as in: simple mechanics, simple gameplay, simple puzzles, and simple polygonal art style. It’s a simple and small packaged version of a Tomb Raider adventure. Despite its simplicity, it is a fun little experience. Is it worth the $10? With the last two challenge locations, I’d say yes.

Gameplay: The game consists of moving around tile-based puzzles as you try to navigate through obstacles, traps, and enemies. A level may consist of multiple small sections, each of which acts like a checkpoint. So death is not a big deal and is not penalizing. There is basically no tutorial or hud to explain new mechanics or enemies, so you will inevitably die, but you’ll just respawn. It’s part of the learning process.

Time is turn-based and moves when you move. This mainly applies to enemy movement. There are three types of enemies. You kill them by moving into their tile from the side or behind (or throwing a spear). But you don’t always want to kill them, because you might need to use them to solve a puzzle.

There are collectibles you can find hidden around in the level scenery or background. Most of them are pretty easy to find. A few are a bit trickier. Collecting them will earn you different skins. Finding collectibles is really the only additional mechanic to the game. Everything else is pretty straight forward. Finding them rewards your gamer brain, but otherwise doesn’t add much. I was thankful that they included them though, because it’s such a simple experience otherwise.

It’s also a short game. The main “story” can be completed in a day easily. But the last two challenge locations definitely adds a bit more heft. I 100% completed it in around 7 hours.

Controls: I was very disappointed to see the limited options for the controls. I guess it’s a port from a mobile version, and it shows. Keyboard inputs DO NOT WORK. No WASD or Arrows. You either drag the mouse to move (imitating swiping on a phone) or you can use the analog sticks on a gamepad. I definitely recommend using a gamepad for this. (I know it's a simply game, but I really expected basic keyboard input).

Atmosphere: The atmosphere feels like a short simple excursion. Obviously the low poly art style adds to the simplicity, and may be a constant reminder that you're playing a game, rather than feeling like you’re in the world. But I wouldn’t say it’s ugly. The color palette is pleasant and the animations are solid. For me, the low poly style didn’t make it feel cheap, just simple.

The animations are all solid. Snakes will slither and twirl with an elegance, for example. None of the character animations look cheap or wonky. This is different than Hitman Go, where the characters were board game pieces, and didn’t really have animations. It’s cool to see that an animated game works in this Go series.

The sound is good. The Music is minimal and SFX support the environments and enemies. They do the job.

The overall experience is like taking a walk: it feels good to get out and take a break from what you were doing, and you appreciate being out and about and looking around at your surroundings. But it’s not particularly exciting and doesn’t last long.

I will admit, the last two locations add a couple new mechanics that make the puzzles more difficult, and really round out the experience with some difficulty that I felt was lacking for much of the game.

Hitman Go Comparison: I think Hitman Go is a better version of this Go formula. The puzzle-like navigation fits the franchise better, and the “challenges” in those levels added for some mastery through replay. In Lara Croft Go, on the other hand, you only get to collect hidden items in the background of each level. It’s not really worth your time if you’re not into 100% achievements. Challenges in hitman Go added value to the game, whereas finding collectibles in Lara Croft Go did not.

This isn’t to say Lara Croft Go isn’t fun or doesn’t work in this style. The last two locations definitely help to sell the genre for this franchise. I would just rate Hitman Go above this one.

Conclusion: Lara Croft Go is a cute puzzle game with generally simple puzzles. While the “main campaign” is fairly easy to get through, the last two locations add enough difficulty to help round out the experience. The minimalist scope in gameplay and art might seem like an odd choice for the Tomb Raider franchise, but by the end enough elements are integrated into the genre-style to make it work. If you want a small cute puzzle experience you can complete in around 7 hours, you could do worse than Lara Croft Go. So sure, I’d recommend it.

**Spoiler Free**

Quick Review: Far: Lone Sail is a side-scrolling atmospheric adventure with puzzle elements that will fully draw you into its dystopian world for its 3 hour run time. Simple controls, melancholic art style, and guiding level design makes this a great example of show-don’t-tell gameplay. This is an experience I recommend you play through.

Gameplay: The game is centered around maintaining your vehicle as you slowly traverse through this dystopian landscape. You will need to platform your character to all of the different switches inside the vehicle as you monitor its speed, fuel, and health. Traversing through your mobile home as you click switches to activate and deactivate different functions really entices you to build an emotional attachment to this hobbling RV. It’s actually a really impressive feat. There’s something about maintaining equipment that gives it life, some unique character that you put into it. This maintenance is not like a game where your items slowly deteriorate and you need to use repair kits from your inventory or something. Taking care of your vehicle really feels meaningful here.

The controls are simple. Left/Right movement. Up/spacebar to jump. Pick up items with V/E. C/X zooms the camera in/out. There are no enemies to fight. There's some light platforming moving around your vehicle. There are also some puzzles to solve outside your vehicle. And honestly, learning how to use your vehicle is a bit of a puzzle itself.

And perhaps that’s the strongest gameplay element to Far: Lone Sail. The level design guides you to solve problems without ever outright telling you what to do. This "minimal guidance" philosophy really helps ground the gameplay into the theme of surviving this frontier, all the while making it a relaxing experience.

And I would call this game an experience. It’s not particularly challenging. But it is a great 3 hour experience. It is short, but good.

User Interface: I swear, you could play this whole game and never see any UI menus or prompts. The game just starts. You have to click Escape to even be prompted by any menu. This keeps the game looking clean, which helps emphasize the barrenness of the world.

Atmosphere: Sad, reflective, and meditative, there is a beauty to this stark and dead landscape. It is full of greys, from the often cloudy skies to the muddy earth. Metal artifacts and old machinery lay strewn across your path. The parallax is really eye-catching in this solemn world. Yet, there is something beautiful seeing your little character and your rusty vehicle successfully travel through this still world, or come across the pink hues of a new dawn after evading danger. It takes a self-assured hand to paint beauty with greys. Far: Lone Sails manages to do just that.

The Environment art also does a great job telling a story. There is no dialogue, verbal or text. No cinematics. No close-up of faces or expressions. The “lore” is purely visual. It’s just another thing that draws you into this sad little world. What happened to this place? Why are these areas deserted? Where am I trying to go? All of these pieces are given to you little by little as you discover the scenery passing by. It gets you thinking about what’s going on.

Sound plays a huge role in this experience. Your vehicle makes all of its particular noises as you pump the gas or use the breaks. As you interact with the outside world, you’ll hear metal clanging and mechanisms whirring. Yet nothing sounds scary, like it might if it were a horror game. It just feels abandoned.

The music is also very prominent. Yet, as I write this review, I can’t remember a single tune from the game. What I remember is the feeling, the emotions it left me with. The music is subtle but effective. In fact, most of what I’ve written so far, I feel, is further amplified by the score. It works very well in the game.

Conclusion: Far: Lone Sail is a really clean and polished 3 hour experience. The minimalist gameplay, UI, and atmosphere all serve the greater dystopian themes. It’s a beautiful little game, and has some strong game design behind it. Once you make it to the end, you’ll be glad you had this little journey. Recommend.

Early Access Review - Ver: 0.2.13

Overview: As a $3 game, Vampire Survivors far outshines its asking price and punches way above its weight. Don’t be fooled by the 2D low graphical aesthetic. This game hits 55,000 peak daily users for a reason. It’s solid, addicting, and accessible. Its gameplay loop will suck you into a classic arcade trance for every minute of its half hour roguelike runs.

I will also say this was a surprise hit for me. When I first saw it on the Steam page I selected “ignore” and moved on. I saw the art style and immediately made a judgement. Boy, was I wrong. I happened to hear some good things about it word of mouth, which led me to this hidden gem.

Gameplay: Vampire Survivors is a 2D action arcade roguelike that challenges you to survive against endless waves of enemies for 30 minutes. The unique feature is that your character auto attacks in durations, so you only have to move your character to play the game. What starts out as a slow run will end in a massive power fantasy where you plow through thousands of enemies as they populate more pixels on the screen than the ground itself.

First you choose your character. There are a variety of characters to unlock. Each one starts with a weapon and has a unique ability. Otherwise most stats are about the same.

The gameplay loop is: kill enemies, collect experience gems they drop, choose an item or upgrade when you level up, then repeat. These elements come together to form very addicting and satisfying play-sessions. Mowing down enemies into dust and vacuuming the blue gems they leave behind fuels that victory-and-reward loop constantly.

The enemies get stronger and more numerous as time progresses. And although there are a variety of enemies, they are all melee attackers. None of them fire projectiles at you. By the end of a run, the screen will be so crowded with enemies it’s hard to see the level beneath them.

Leveling up fast enough to keep up with the hordes is paramount to surviving to the end. It’s also super addicting. Every time you kill an enemy they drop a gem. Collecting these gems gives you experience, and they don’t disappear until you get them. It’s super satisfying to collect a whole bunch in a pile as you watch your experience bar shoot up.

Leveling up will give you a choice between 3 different items and/or weapons. Your character can hold up to 6 weapons and 6 items. Some items go especially well with certain weapons, and learning about these combinations will eventually have you thinking about builds you want to shoot for in a run.

During a run you will collect gold, which can be spent to buy permanent upgrades for your character. The more you buy, the more expensive future upgrades become. But you can always undo these decisions and redistribute your gold, allowing for different combinations before you can afford all of them at once.

Currently there are 3 levels to play through, but this is an early access game so new content is still being worked on. Levels are predetermined and not procedural. Eventually a campaign is supposed to come out.

In short, it’s simple, fun, and challenging.

Replayability: There are lots of things to unlock from characters to items to upgrades. But even aside from that, it’s just a fun game to play that’s easy to boot up and has a convenient 30 minute limit per run. So it’s an easy game to keep playing, whether it’s for a few runs in a row or just one you fit into your day. Plus it’s just fun. Good replayability.

Controls/Accessibility: This game can be played with keyboard, game pad, or even a mouse. So there is no shortage of options. But the best thing about it is how simple it is to play.

You move up, down, left, right. That’s it! (You need to press a button like Spacebar to select items in the menus). You character auto attacks, so there’s no need for an attack button, or for combos, or anything. This is probably the simplest action game I know of. So if complicated controls, or even basic gamer dexterity is a problem for you, this is something you should be able to play. Simple and fun.

Atmosphere: There’s not much to say here. The theming is really light. It feels like a classic retro arcade game you’d find in an arcade somewhere. So the aesthetic is effective, but I wouldn’t call it atmosphere. It’s a game that knows it's a game.

The music is different for each level, which I appreciated, because otherwise it’s pretty repetitive. The music and the SFX all have an 8-bit sound.

Honestly, it’s more fitting to say this game gets you “in the zone” more than saying it has atmosphere. And it does get you in the zone very effectively.

Conclusion: This game may not look like much from the outside, but it’s a super fun once you get into it. Hopefully you got a glimpse of what’s fun about it from this review. To take a step back, this is a $3 game. So it’s scope is smaller than some kind of open world story adventure or something. But given its scope, it soundly succeeds in its purpose, delivering an experience that will have you coming back for more. Easy recommend!

**Spoiler free**

Overview: Into The Breach is a roguelike turn-based game that plays as a strategy puzzler on a grid. Though a single run only takes a sitting, the gameplay loop and the easy accessibility has kept me playing for over 60 hours. The game relies heavily on the roguelike formula, with little in the way of progress carrying over each run. If you like roguelikes, then this is a solid game that I recommend, though your mileage may vary.

Gameplay: The goal is to progress through different islands with procedurally generated levels to get to the final island and destroy the Vek hive. Each level will have a randomly generated map with certain objectives drawn from a pool. The objectives and terrain are preview-able before selecting the level. Each completed level will unlock adjacent levels. You won’t be able to play all levels on an island, requiring you to decide which rewards are worth trying to get. The idea of choosing playthrough order is present throughout, from the levels to the islands themselves. You also have the option of doing 2, 3, or 4 island playthroughs per run, which will obviously change your playtime.

You choose a mech squad before your run, and the more in-game achievements you accomplish, the more points you get to unlock other squads. Each squad has a unique set of starting load outs, and will drastically change your play style from squad to squad. This helps give the game more content, because even though a run (and so technically the game) can be completed in a couple of hours, playing through with each squad brings its own challenges, and therefore feels like individual chapters in the “campaign”. There are about 10 squads you can unlock, so that’s a lot more content than just the initial 2 hours or so.

Upgrading your mechs and pilots, and managing your health, play as the main focus between levels. Your health and upgrades do not reset between islands. This is actually a fairly significant side of the game that you will constantly have on your mind as you determine which level to play and which actions to prioritize, weighing between short term and long term gains.

Each level is turn-based, and will have you reacting to enemy movements and actions, since your turn is last. Each one is therefore set up like a randomly-generated puzzle. You may be able to “put out every fire”, or you might have to make some tough decisions about what needs to be sacrificed for other priorities. I found this to be adequately influenced by the difficulty setting.

Difficulty will play a big role in how successful you are at eliminating threats, avoiding disaster, and completing goals for rewards. There’s Easy, Normal, and Hard, and each gives a relatively appropriate challenge. Once you learn the game, Easy will ultimately let you wipe the board clean. But even Normal will start making you work for an optimal victory.

Each run is essentially separate from previous runs. The only “upgrade” you keep is a pilot you had on the previous run. So very little transfers from run to run. You will upgrade your mech and pilots, but only one pilot has the option to remain for the next run. It took me a while to get used to this since I don’t play a lot of roguelikes. But in the end, it makes sense for the replayability of this game. If your mechs stayed upgraded, for example, I think it would remove the core fun-factor.

Replayability: The combination of different squads, procedurally generated levels, and turns that feel like unique puzzles helps give this game replayability, if you enjoy the gameplay loop. And while you’re still unlocking squads you have even more incentive. Terrain can play a very important role in your turn strategy, which means the procedurally generated levels contribute that much more to replayability. I also found trying to get 100% steam achievements in this game complimented the gameplay loop very well.

However, even though I’ve been talking about replayability, your replay value will vary depending on how much you like the gameplay loop. If you don’t enjoy it enough, this game might only last you a run or two. The game’s replay value comes from enjoying the core experience, and therefore enjoying the repetitive playthroughs for slightly altered challenges. Though the game randomizes the experience, it still FEELS like the same thing. This could be good or bad.

User Interface: The user interface feels in sync with the pixelated graphical style. Information boxes are blocky and off on the sides of the screen, leaving the playing field clean and uncluttered with information.

Though there are hotkeys, I found it way simpler to just use the mouse and click the interface. It’s very intuitive to play this way.

I would have preferred if there was a permanent way to keep turn order visible. However, the only way to see turn order is to hold the ALT key. This would have been better as a toggle.

Atmosphere: The world building is pretty minimal, but once you’re playing you get the idea pretty quickly. Some insect-like invaders have been destroying civilization, and it’s up to mercenaries with mechs (you) to stop them. The story and characters are clearly not the focus, and are just there to contextualize the gameplay. So you won’t be getting emotionally attached to anyone or anything.

The art style is clearly pixelated, and each unit has 4 frames of animation. So it’s simple, but it feels polished. It does a good job reducing ideas into little sprites and effects.

The SFX are fairly minimal, and reserved for text and movement/actions. I don’t recall any noticeable ambient tracks on any island.

The music is also fitting. It’s kind of repetitive, but it didn’t get annoying for me. There’s nothing more off-putting to a game’s replayability than a bad soundtrack. Here the score is driven by (I think) plucking electric guitars, with some string, piano, and some kind of spatial synth or something. It has kind of a dystopian sound without being too depressing. So it gets the job done. It probably would have been nice to have more variety though.

One specific element that I liked was the idea of rescuing civilians. Even though civilian lives are merely of secondary consequence, when I first beat a level, I felt good that I saved these people. They only show up as little text boxes over the apartment buildings, but even just that little bit gave it a more personal vibe. It made me aware of how little "saving civilians" is used as a goal or mechanic in games in general...So it’s a refreshing idea, even if it’s only tacked on.

Overall I had a feeling of fighting off aliens and trying to save humanity the first few playthroughs. But after a while, much of the atmosphere became background noise as I focused on solving puzzles and challenges. It certainly creates a mood, and I think the dystopian theme works well to support the gameplay. But it’s also not the most impactful or transportive.

Conclusion: Into The Breach has a lot going for it if you enjoy roguelikes. The runs are short enough where if you die, you don’t end up losing too much progress or time. It’s a fun solid strategy game with a good amount of content for replayability. But it does have a specific core fun-factor and core “feeling”, and if you don’t connect with it, it’s going to be a much shorter game. Overall, definitely recommend.

**Spoiler Free**

Quick Overview: A Monster‘s Expedition is an abstract puzzle game with a relaxing minimal theme placed on top. If you’re looking for a laid back vibe with some challenging puzzles at times, then this game will satisfy that itch with its simplicity. But if you’re looking to 100% this game, then you’re in for a hard-core difficulty that seems impossible without using a guide.

Gameplay: The basic gameplay revolves around pushing and rolling tree trunks on little islands to make paths to other islands. You move on a grid with WASD (or the arrow keys) and restart/refresh islands with the R key.

Like a lot of puzzle games, it looks simple and easy until you get into it. The puzzles progressively get harder, iterating on little techniques and combinations that you're forced to figure out as you make your way through the islands. I always enjoyed discovering a new island. Seeing the clouds roll back to find more challenges was fun and rewarding. You’ll inevitably get stuck on some puzzles and wonder what you're missing, until you finally figure it out and feel clever for looking at it in a different way. And if you get stuck, there’s usually some other puzzle elsewhere on the world map to try and figure out in the meantime.

You can technically “beat” the game by getting to a certain location, but due to the minimalist nature, accomplishing the main goal doesn’t really FEEL like you’ve beaten the game, since there will be tons of puzzles left. If you decide to quit the game at this point, you’ll have had a relaxing and sometimes challenging experience. It’s also a longer game than I was expecting. I probably played over 12 hours before I got to the finish line...? I can’t remember. I thought it would be over in a sitting or two, but it kept delivering more puzzles.

Now, should you choose to stay and attempt to 100% complete the remaining puzzles...that’s when the difficulty spikes. It’s brutal. After spending more hours trying to do it on my own, I decided it wasn’t worth the time and energy to go at it alone and decided to follow a guide...and I still found it challenging! Having the answers to the remaining puzzles was great, but you still had to work out how to even find/get to them. I would scroll through the guide, putting the path together piece by piece. I actually felt like I accomplished something by the end. I’m glad I used a guide because there were solutions I know I would have never figured out. So if you’re going for 100%, there’s no shame using a guide on this one. Seriously. However, the fun factor of the game seriously dies down if you go this route. I personally felt it was worth the alternative of being frustrated.

Atmosphere: The game conveys a pretty relaxing vibe throughout its duration. The puzzles don’t require platforming or any timed-reactions. The vibrant color palette is inviting and calming. And the ebb and flow of the water evokes a relaxing day on the beach. The ironic thing is that since your brain will be grappling with challenges you won’t feel as relaxed as you might with some kind of walking simulator.

There are also quirky descriptions to find throughout, which were humorous satirical observations about everyday life. It’s implied that this world is a post-human world, and monsters have made archaeological discoveries of the things we take for granted. It’s a unique theme and a charming way to add some humor.

I will say that the “End Game” can feel like a grind. I don’t know if it’s a lack of patience on my part, but the tranquil world eventually started to get old and boring.

I’m really disappointed there wasn’t more of a soundtrack. The music is sparse. Guitar chords play to match certain actions you take, like discovering a new island. A calm piano track will play if you sit by the water. But otherwise there’s really no music. Most of the soundscape comes from the ocean waves. It definitely creates a tranquil vibe, but it can get boring after a while because it’s so minimal. In the end, it is an abstract puzzler, so it’s not really focused on world building or immersion.

Conclusion: My recommendation for A Monsters Journey depends on how far you want to take the game, and what you’re looking for. If you want a chill relaxing puzzle game and are satisfied with just completing the basic islands to the "end location", then I think it could be worth your time, especially on a sale. If you want to 100% the game, you’re gonna need to use a guide because it is extremely difficult. It’s a fine little abstract puzzler that has more content than I was expecting. But by the time I was grinding out the last parts with the guide, it had grown kind of stale.

An absolute pleasure to listen to! Charming, whimsical, moving, and a little quirky. Fantastic!

**Spoiler Free**

Quick Overview: The Pedestrian is a fantastic game full of visual charm and musical atmosphere that propels it’s 2D gameplay forward with its 3D world. The puzzles are never too difficult, but they provide enough of a challenge to keep you playing and discovering this quirky and satisfying experience. It was unfortunately (but understandably) a bit too short relative to the joy it brought me, which means it left me wanting more! 100% Recommend.

Gameplay: The gameplay is based around connecting “Cut-outs” on a 2D plane to create a path from beginning to end to solve each puzzle. This is done by dragging the “Cut-outs” around and dragging lines to connect them. At first some of these mechanics feel a bit quirky, since they seem unnecessary to solve the straight forward puzzles. But as you progress, you realize that the game does in fact utilize its mechanics for intended purposes. There is very light platforming involved, but it’s not meant to create a challenge as far as the gameplay is concerned. It’s just a means for getting from Point A to Point B. Also, despite the world being in 3D, the gameplay is based in a 2D context. So you’re not moving a character through these cityscapes or anything (aka the camera is on rails). The game is fun, clever, and addicting. There is no narration, exposition, text, or descriptions. The language is entirely visual, much like The Witness, allowing you to just enjoy the experience at a consistent pace, without interruption.

My only issue with the game is its length. I beat the game in just under 4 hours, and I just want more! Not because it’s lacking, or because I feel like they skimped out on content. But because I was enjoying it so much it was sad to see it end. The small development team spent 6 years putting this together, so I don’t blame them for the length. But sometimes, you just want more of a good thing…

Atmosphere: This game radiates with so much atmosphere I don’t even know where to begin! It excels at creating this fun, inviting, and joyful experience, despite it basically being 2D puzzles about a stick figure. The 3D environments, music, and camera movements create this magical and strong foundation of a world that reminds me of a Pixar movie!

The 3D environments are gorgeous. They’re full of color and life, and add this subconscious charm that just punctuates the entire game through and through. The art style is stylized enough to invoke that kind of joy you find from watching animated movies. I also think it’s cool how at times the 2D puzzles interact with the 3D world. It really adds to the charm and makes the world feel interconnected. Even though it would be weird to find these “Cut-outs” just hanging around in everyday life, the puzzles manage to nestle themselves in the 3D environments that just blends really nicely. Basically this game is a joy to look at.

The music is top notch! Just like the visuals, the music helps the tie the world together. It somehow contains the perfect compositions for this experience. The soundscape is nice too, but the music is the strong muscle. The trailers showcase its more whimsical tunes, which are great. The 3/4 tempo in the "main theme" is catchy, which sets and captures the tone of the game really well. Most of the game actually utilizes a more chill and relaxing soundtrack though. I guess it would have been fun to get more of that “Pixar animation” type music, but the chill vibes complement the puzzle solving gameplay very well. Top notch music. And yes, I already have the soundtrack!

The camera movement is yet another addition that serves this game very well. The game takes place entirely in one “Take” of the camera, meaning there are no cuts or cutscenes or anything like that. Now many games easily apply this kind of thing – just think of any 1st person game that keeps you in character. But it feels appropriate to think of The Pedestrian’s camera animation as a “Take” from a film set. It’s on rails, transporting you from puzzle to puzzle as you progress. But it’s acceleration and deceleration, whizzing you through location after location, allowing your eyes to drink in the visual spectacles…it comes across as very smooth and refined. It also adds a very helpful amount of kinetic energy to an otherwise “static” genre (it is a puzzle game, after all). I found the sense of smooth flight to fit the whimsical score and stylized landscapes very well.

The atmosphere in The Pedestrian is of a high caliber. Yet, these elements don’t distract from each other, but rather work together to create a cohesive experience that helps to elevate the entire experience. That refinement in the presentation is fantastic, and I had a blast getting to experience it!

Technical Glitches: This is an indie game, and so I was surprised to see how few technical problems I ran into. At one point, a certain button wasn’t working, so I had to quit the game and reload it. No big deal.

Also, for some reason, the achievements didn’t start unlocking until the end of the game, meaning I’ll have to replay it to unlock them. I don’t really know why this happened; it could be because I had the steam overlay disabled or something. But it’s kind of a blessing in disguise because now I have a reason to play through it again!

Conclusion: The Pedestrian is a fun puzzle game, but also a fantastic experience in world building. All of the elements come together in a strong and solid foundation, and most importantly, it’s just a pleasure to play! It’s a short game, clocking in at about 4 hours for me, so you can decide how much that’s worth to you when it comes to price. I got it on sale with the soundtrack for just over $11. I found that to be steal, especially since I’ll be listening to the music for a long time yet. Bottom line: Play it. Highly Recommend!

**Spoiler Free**

KNOWN GPU HEAT ISSUE: There is a know issue with some GPUs that sends them up to max temperatures. I solved this by playing in windowed mode and turning on VSync. I set shadows to low for good measure.

Quick Overview: At first, I wasn’t a very big fan of Hard West. As it turns out, I wasn’t a fan of how dark the theme was. The environments also felt lifeless and ignorable, and the combat felt awkward. But by the end, after finding the parts of the gameplay worth paying attention to, Hard West grew on me as a simple turn-based strategy game.

Gameplay: The game is played through different chapters, which are small independent stories that more or less interconnect into a larger anthology. These chapters are pre-defined, meaning you start each chapter at square one, without carrying over weapons or upgrade on your characters. About half the time you play as different characters, but there is a main storyline that has you using the same characters across chapters. Having these characters “restart” can feel a little jarring at first. I figured I wouldn’t mind going into this game because it seemed like treating each chapter as a rogue-like run would solve the annoyance. But I did find that, given the “linear” storyline, not keeping your progress felt…weird, and took me out of the immersion. The small exception to this rule is, as you unlock items, they become permanently available in stores (like the Fate Trader), so you can buy your weapons back.

The gameplay is split into two different parts: the world map and the combat.

The world map plays out differently in each chapter because each chapter introduces mechanics based on the story. This was kind of cool, because it allowed you to sample different challenges. For example, in some chapters, time/movement plays an important role (hunger, fatigue, etc.) where in others time is irrelevant, but might require gathering resources. There are also side quests that you might stumble on or miss entirely. This could add some replay value if you’re interested in finding out these little events.

The world map is where you’ll purchase gear and gain cards to equip your characters. I spent a lot of time working on my characters before battle. The card system is cool because each card will give you a power, but also different hands (pairs, full house, etc.) will provide different bonuses. It makes prepping your squad kind of fun. I’m not sure how necessary prep time really was in Normal difficulty. It might be more important on harder ones. The annoying thing is, due to the story throwing you curveballs from time to time, you might spend a bunch of time decking out your character only to have them leave your posse a few minutes later, making you rethink your loadout distribution (thankfully, you retain any items/cards these characters had.)

Also, all world map events play out via text and choices.

Combat takes place on old abandoned and decrepit western maps. Cover is vital, as it reduces damage taken and chance to be hit. There is full cover and half cover, the later being less effective. There is no range limit on weapons, though there is an optimal range for each. The unlimited range concept was weird to get used to, and I think it would have been better if they incorporated one. It’s easier to shoot an enemy standing in the open on the other side of the map than to hit one behind cover a few spaces away. The only limitation is line of sight (characters do have a sight range, though it isn’t obvious). Some objects can be turned over to use as cover, which looks like a clever idea, until you realize it’s just a fancy animation for cover that’s already there -- It doesn’t fundamentally change the landscape or tactical layout.

Luck is also important. It acts as a defense to dodge bullets, and as “Mana” for your powers. Luck goes down when you dodge a bullet. Luck goes up when you get hit. Same for enemies.

Each character gets two action points per turn. Movement can fall into either one or two action point territory. Shooting takes up all remaining Action Points unless stated otherwise.

Also, the time of day on the map can be important (some powers only work away from sunlight.) And you’ll have to reload your weapons, which takes up an action point.

Despite all of these different mechanics going on, I found the gameplay to be incredibly simple. It really boils down to this: take cover and shoot. Flank if you can. There are no classes that have advantages or disadvantages when fighting each other. There’s no height advantages, no weapon range limitations, no terrain effects, etc. Just “hit-chance,” cover, and flanking.

However, and perhaps ironically, once I understood how simple the game was, I started to accept it and enjoy it more. Once I was able to remove a lot of the fluff and focus on what mattered, the game started to feel more fulfilling because I could see the scope it was actually filling in its execution.

My personal strategy: the only stat (beside health and luck) that really matters from equipment is “Aim”. Aim is the key to victory. If you have high Aim, you’ll hit your targets and continue to progress. Health & Luck upgrades are great. With my two consumable slots per character, I always had at least one heal item, and maybe a luck generation item. I always tried to have one sniper character who could guarantee a hit on their turn. I’d say only about half of the cards were actually useful. Also, the ricochet power is tons of fun. Once you’re in combat, you can ignore most of the art and décor. Just look for walls, shoot, and flank. I think this is why my first impression was that the maps kind of felt bare and lacking, even though there are lots of details if you look for them. There’s nothing to collet or interact with. It’s just simple.

Atmosphere: This is where I have to separate my own preference from the actual execution, because I found I was not a fan of Hard West’s theme. I found the tone and themes to be too depressing. It made most of the game feel like a slog. When everyone is down on their luck, and everywhere seems to have some kind of murderous trauma around it…it gets kind of old. Most of the tone felt very monotonous in that way. But this might just be my preference for something a little less dark.

If this is your kind of theme, then there is lots of it. The narration is very good. The music feels a bit repetitive, but definitely gives off an eerie and dark tone, especially the demonic organ tracks. The buildings are all made of old wood, the dead hang from trees, and burning piles of mutilated bodies are sometimes strewn around. Many of the powers embrace a demonic aura, and most of the characters look like beaten down and shady individuals. The color pallet is also muted, both in combat and on the world map. If the idea of heavy burdens in the hopeless West with a demonic presence feels intriguing to you, then you’ll enjoy what Hard West has to offer. For me, it wasn’t inviting. But even though I wasn’t really a fan of the theme, I think it would have been more palatable if it had a little more variation and wasn’t so monotonous in tone.

Conclusion: When I first started playing Hard West, I wasn’t sure I was going to finish it. The tone was just too depressing, the maps felt lacking, and the gameplay seemed awkwardly complex or simple or…something. But I stuck with it. And by the end, once I pushed away all the fluff and found its core, it became much more enjoyable. If a simple combat system with a dark, demonic, and unique theme is your thing, then I say go for it. If this kind of theme is too dark for you, I’d advise you to pass.