Recent reviews by Parakeet

Pros

• +Solid battle system
  
• +Decent amount of temtems to catch and battle with
  
• +Able to see other players running around

Cons

• -Can feel grindy at times
  
• -Many of the temtems have uninspiring designs
  
• -Story is not interesting
  
• -The game in general feels like it doesn’t have any charm

Comments
Temtem is a monster catching game and is heavily inspired by the Pokemon games. It’s an MMO, but when playing through the story, you’ll be mostly playing on your own or with a friend. You do see other players running around though. At first, I enjoyed the game. However, after a while, I started getting bored since the story, the world and almost all of the temtem designs were boring. I tried to push through, but I lost interest in the game.

Overall, unless you really want a game like Pokemon and have tried the others, I don’t recommend this game. The battle system was fun, but the game doesn’t really have any charm, making it feel flat.

If you like playing Metal: Hellsinger, this dlc is absolutely worth getting. It adds two more songs, a weapon and three outfits. Both of the songs are great (especially Dream of the Beast) and the weapon is fun to use.

Pros

• +Solid, rhythm based gameplay
  
• +Phenomenal soundtrack, definitely one of my favorites
  
• +Good amount of replayability with trying to get a higher score and multiple difficulties

Cons

• -Short, took me about 4-5 hours to beat, including the challenges
  
• -Bosses have invulnerable phases where nothing happens. These moments occurred a bit too often.
  
• -Enemies can be tough to find at times

Comments
Metal: Hellsinger is a great rhythm-based shooter. If you listen to metal music, this game has an amazing soundtrack. All of the songs (at least, the originals that came with the game when it first came out) are original. The game is on the shorter side, but if you want to beat the highest difficulty (which is quite hard) or want to try getting higher scores, there is a decent amount of replayability. Overall, if you like metal music and enjoy rhythm-based games, I highly recommend checking this game out, especially when it’s on sale.

Pros

• +Interesting story and world
  
• +Great turn-based combat system where the environment and surfaces play an important part
  
• +Lots of different skills to utilize
  
• +High replayability
  
• +Plenty of content to experience, even if you only play through the game once
  
• +Solid soundtrack

Cons

• -The beginning is hard. You have little gear and can come across difficult enemies.
  
• -When choosing gear from a quest rewards screen, you cannot compare the gear to another character until after you accept the reward
  
• -Managing your inventory can get messy if you loot a lot of stuff
  
• -It feels like you have to cheese some fights, or else the fight will be very difficult

Comments
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a great game with a lot of content. Not only is it a long game, but it is also highly replayable. There are six origin characters, but you can have one main character and three companions. Each origin character has their own story and it is presented differently if they are the main character rather than a companion. The main story is good, but many of the side stories are also interesting.

The combat system is really fun. There are a variety of skill types, and each type can have a variety of skills to utilize. You can manipulate the surface with various effects and crowd control enemies. You can approach most battles in several ways, letting you affect how the battle flows. There are some fights that are really difficult. For these, I had to cheese the fight in order to beat it by using tactics I would normally not use. These fights were in the minority, but it still felt a little strange.

Overall, if you are into CRPGs or are thinking of trying out a CRPG, I highly recommend this game. Even if you only play through the game once, it is well worth the price, especially when it’s on sale.

Pros

• +Very interesting premise. The vast majority of the game takes place underwater.
  
• +Nicely designed environments
  
• +Able to build multiples bases and customize them
  
• +Lots of logs to read and listen to
  
• +A variety of technology to discover and utilize

Cons

• -No world map. Not having a 3D map that you slowly fill out yourself feels like a missed opportunity.
  
• -It can be confusing what you should do next at times
  
• -Finding fragments of a blueprint that you want to make can be cumbersome since you may not know where it is exactly
  
• -The knife hitbox seems wonky
  
• -Resource gathering can get repetitive at times

Comments
Subnautica is a very interesting game. The vast majority of the game takes place underwater. This is the first game I've played that takes place mainly underwater. There are plenty of environments to explore and resources to collect. You also can also find fragments to unlock recipes and collect logs that give you more information about the world and what happened to the other survivors.

While I mostly enjoyed my time with Subnautica, there are two main issues I have with the game. First, there is no overall world map. You can have a small map of a surrounding area, but there isn't one for the entire world. I feel like this is a missed opportunity, especially with all of the advanced technology in the game. The player could have slowly filled out the world map on their own and maybe customize the map as well. There are beacons you can build and place to help you guide the way, but a world map would have been a nice addition.

My second and bigger issue with the game is the fragment system. The fragments to unlock a certain recipe is RNG dependent, meaning that a certain area may have all of the fragments you need in one playthrough, but not in another. Fragments of a certain recipe may also only appear in a specific region. This means that you can potentially spend a lot of time looking for fragments to unlock a recipe. There are some recipes that I have never discovered because I never found the necessary fragments.

Overall, I still enjoyed the game. Resource gathering was troublesome at times, but using a scanner room greatly eased the difficulty in finding them. It was interesting exploring the different biomes and seeing all of the different creatures. If you enjoy survival games, especially ones with a story and end goal, I recommend taking a look at Subnautica, especially when it's on sale.

The Subject 2923 DLC adds a new world to the game, a new campaign and new equipment. This DLC has a decent amount of content, especially when compared to the Swamps of Corsus DLC. If you were interested in the story in the main game, the campaign in this DLC takes place after the events of the main game. The new world is also available in adventure mode. If you enjoyed the main game, I recommend taking a look at this DLC, especially when it's on sale.

The Swamps of Corsus DLC adds the survival mode, cosmetic armor skins, equipment and more dungeons and bosses in the Corsus area in adventure mode. Unfortunately, these new locations don't appear in the campaign version of Corsus. The survival mode is interesting since it is sort of like a rogue-like mode. This DLC doesn't add any story, but if you interested in Survival Mode and having more variety when replaying the game in Adventure Mode, it may be worth taking a look at. However, I don't recommend this DLC at full price. I only recommend considering it if it's on sale for at least half off.

Pros

• +Solid gameplay with a variety of weapons to choose from
  
• +Many weapons mods to choose from
  
• +A good amount of armor sets to equip, each with their own bonuses
  
• +Quite a bit of replayability with adventure mode and procedural map generation, along with a variety of dungeons that can appear
  
• +Able to play with up to two other players

Cons

• -Almost every boss fight has adds, which can get tiresome if you are playing solo
  
• -If you look for a specific item, you may have to reroll the world in adventure mode multiple times before you get the dungeon that has it
  
• -Only four unique worlds in the base game

Comments
Remnant: From the Ashes is a solid game that takes inspiration from the Souls games and from looter shooters. The game feels fun to play and there are a lot of weapons to choose from. In addition, each weapon can have a weapon mod, which is basically an ability. Some weapons have a set weapon mod that cannot be taken off, but others can have any weapons mods in your inventory. Along with armor sets, amulets and rings, there is a good amount of build variety in this game. Finding some of these pieces of equipment can be tricky though since they may be in a specific dungeon. The dungeon may not appear in your campaign and you may have to play adventure mode, rerolling several times until you get the dungeon. However, there's a good amount of replayability since the map is procedurally generated and you can get different dungeons.

If you are going to be playing solo, be aware that many of the bosses summon extra enemies. I played solo during my playthrough and some of the fights were annoying since I had to focus on the minions at times. The waves of minions that attacked me brought the experience down for me during these boss fights. However, if you play with other people, this issue may not be as bad.

Overall, if you are into the Souls games and are also in shooters, I highly recommend checking this game out. I recommend getting the Complete Edition over the Standard Edition if they’re both on sale. It may get frustrating at times as a solo player, but you can host and join a public lobby in order to play with others.

Pros

• +Decent combat system that takes inspiration from the Souls games, though it can feel floaty
  
• +Able to bring another NPC with you as a companion
  
• +A variety of blood codes, each with their own stats and abilities
  
• +Interesting storyline with multiple endings
  
• +Nice graphics
  
• +In-depth character creator

Cons

• -Weapon variety could be better
  
• -Some enemies feel too tough to stagger without using a heavy weapon
  
• -A certain area is feels drawn out since it is very maze-like
  
• -You cannot move quickly or skip through dialogue when restoring and viewing vestiges
  
• -Elevators sometimes gets stuck until you alt-tab out of the game (sometimes it takes a few alt-tabs to get it going)

Comments
Code Vein is an anime style souls-like game that lets you befriend some other NPCs and use abilities from certain characters. The abilities depend on the blood code you equip, which is sort of like a class. The combat is decent, though it feels like it lacks impact, making it feel a bit floaty. I used a greatsword, but it still felt like it lacked impact at times. However, playing with an NPC companion was fun. You have multiple NPCs to choose from and they can be a great aid in combat.

The storyline is interesting and there are multiple endings. You can also collect vestiges, which are basically memories from other characters. Viewing the memories from vestiges was interesting, but it felt slow at times since your character can only walk around and you cannot skip through the dialogue.

Overall, if you enjoy souls-like games and also like anime or anime style games, Code Vein is worth taking a look at when it’s on sale.

Pros

• +Amazing graphics
  
• +Three Spyro game remakes are included, meaning there’s a good amount of content to play through
  
• +Good gameplay
  
• +The gem finder ability (available in all three games) makes finding gems in levels much easier

Cons

• -The third game did not seem as good as the first two, but it was still decent
  
• -There were times when I could not control the camera even though I should have been able to
  
• -Physics is tied to fps. If your fps is very high, such as 144 fps, certain physics are affected, such as your max jump height. This can be a problem in certain areas, meaning you have to temporarily cap your fps to something low, such as 30 fps, in order to complete what you want to do.

Comments
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy consist of remakes of three Spyro games, which are Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. I have never played these games before, so the Reignited Trilogy was my first time experiencing these games. I enjoyed playing through all three games, though I did not like the third game as much as the first two. The only major complaint I have about the Trilogy is that having a high fps can affect certain physics. For example, there is one area in Spyro the Dragon where if your fps is too high, you won’t be able to make a jump since your max jump height is affected by the high fps. I had to cap my fps to 30 in order to get past this area. Thankfully, there were only a handful of times where I had to do this.

Overall, if you are into platformers and have never played the original Spyro trilogy, I recommend taking a look at this game, especially if it’s on sale. If you have played the original Spyro Trilogy, it may still be worth taking a look at this game.