Recent reviews by DefiantShade

Another game that sat dormant in my backlog now complete. What a great atmosphere they created here to blend into a very dark and disturbing story. The scientific methods described within are truly chilling as they are parallel to current research and the moral / ethical implications they represent.

As the story of what led you to be aboard this derelict ship unfold, you get a glimpse into the darkest parts of human psyche. Pair it with great ambient noise of a dying ship and the often muffled overhead automatic alert messages and you have a memorable point and click adventure that will linger in your thoughts. Most of the item use was straight forward, though there were a few spots where things were not so obvious to move the game forward. With two more games in this universe waiting in my library, I'm eager to run back down this twisted rabbit hole and see where it leads.

I had this one in my backlog for quite a bit, overall I'm glad I finally got around to playing it. The over arcing stories are not bad, they suffice to keep the game moving though the way it is presented often lead me to not feeling vested in the main characters equally. Combat was fun and I especially liked the ricochet skill and some of the unique weapons that could be found.
-Pros Spaghetti Western type story melded with supernatural, poker card system for unique skills, good turn based combat maps.
-Cons Sometimes missions would bug out requiring restarting the mission.(I managed to fix this for most of the time played by turning vsync on), large parts of the over world map were random choice story mode which limits some of what you can find equipment wise and you can miss some of these events if you follow the main quest line too quick effectively locking you out of them for the remainder. In the dlc Scars of freedom the poker system for skills gets replaced and while unique skills still exist obtaining them for big combo boosts is tedious.

This title falls under the "wish there was a neutral button". I played only via Steam Deck, so feed back here for the review is based on my experience playing it this way. First off, the game is labeled as being a verified deck game. This is more or less true, the prologue worked fine with no settings changes. However, getting the actual game to run required forcing it to Proton 5.13-6 compatibility. Some video did not display properly and navigating back to main menu from ends of chapters hung the game requiring forced shut down.

The Music score was stellar and fit the themes of the game well as was certainly intended. The game play for me was less than stellar. QTE events run the show here and are quite confusing in some places or out right impossible to get right as you are on a time elapse to complete objectives and use QTE. There isn't much room for exploring an area because of this and you will often fail to accomplish a lot of things. Although failing to do things doesn't lead to any game over or repeat of the chapter to continue, it left me feeling like I missed a large part of the narrative going on. I'm aware that there are multiple endings which I assume I could reach by completing QTE better or managing to beat the clock in some scenes to alter the outcome in the ending. I don't think I'll be doing another play through to be honest as the pressure of beating the clock to find things in overly large areas coupled with QTE system that had a lot of moving parts puts me off from giving it another try.

I found the story was adequate for my time spent with it and it is certainly a different type of interactive game that is worth a try. In closing I would say cautiously recommended with the expectation that there will be much trial and error to see all thats on offer here.

Stunning visuals with a short story. I didn't immediately realize this was part of the Eastshade universe, now I'm looking forward to trying that title out as well.

Short visual novel with a good story. Would be nice to see this developer release more like this, perhaps even with some player interactions to move the story forward.

A great visual novel that pays homage to your favorite stories from "Tales from the crypt" and "Creep show". Nothing to do here except fire up the game, sit back and enjoy the show. The artwork is great and although the story is violent with some dark and disturbing themes, it is well written.

Wonderful story with beautiful atmosphere and soundtrack. I especially liked that the platform elements were very forgiving and allowed you to enjoy the scenes and the story without having to sweat out getting from point a to point b. A nice title that won't disappoint.

Outstanding visuals, good game play and a surprisingly good story. Some of the platforming gave me issues, mostly because I'm not great at timing stuff haha. Would highly recommend, felt like I was part of a Star Wars movie.

Pros: Story, general game play and beautiful locations.

Cons: Skill tree could have been a little more fleshed out but it works here, some platforming situations take multiple tries to complete until you figure out what can be used in the environment to move forward.

Alright, after 39 hours in game I think it's safe to say this is a solid yes recommendation. The game runs with little performance issues on my set up. Most lags hit around larger population with more than 300 people and several buildings. Crates other game Grim Dawn ran through a great EA process and upon release became my favorite game with ~1400 hours played. I have no doubt they will improve upon and update this game to the same caliber of quality game play as it proceeds through EA and into it's 1.0 version.

Are there some mechanics that can use improvement? Yes, there are. The more pressing issues are invisible global inventory and some small corrections to the traders management system, plus some tweaks to the raider system. I would assume that the tiers for unlocking buildings and resources will under go some changes as well as the game moves closer to it's official release but that said there is plenty to do here right now to bring you hours of fun . There are several maps of varying difficulty and you can customize the play through as well in advanced settings. There is some learning curve to farming and trading for things you don't have readily available, though I feel this just adds to the challenge of your play through.

H.P. Lovecraft with a comedic twist. Multiple endings to be found, some straight forward some not as easy to find. All in all an enjoyable text based adventure.