Recent reviews by Dead Magician

I got a handjob while playing this game and explaining an OP barbarian thrower build

A phenomenal return to the original game, it seamlessly captures the feeling of the original while adding quality-of-life improvements and visual improvements. A cool feature is the option to toggle the original game's settings, like the requirement to kill all enemies before progressing—an homage to its unforgiving original design. Also the introduction of character challenges added a dynamic and innovative layer to the experience, featuring meticulously designed stages with puzzle-like gameplay.

What was especially interesting to me was the participation of Chris Christodoulou, revisiting some of his earlier compositions from Risk of Rain 1. This especially resonates for me, as I've loved those tracks since 2013—making it truly surreal to witness their continued impact on the game's evolution.

Even as a first time Armored Core player, I can say I'm enjoying it. I love the slow but heavy "poderosa lentitud" mech aspect, it makes me feel powerful. The micro management of making sure my shoulder missiles are always shooting off cooldown combined with intense quick combat and the sound from my handheld railgun going "DUN-DUN-DUN-DUN" just tickles my brain in a way I can't describe.

Friends not included

Ultrakill has been the most intoxicating game I've experienced, everything about this game is exciting. The micro-skill of shooting coins out of the air to target weak points, blasting an electric railgun through a line-up of enemies, explosive shotgun-blast-lobotomizing enemies to douse yourself in healing blood, and swapping out guns as the last weapon expires has got to be the most beautiful and fun aspect in a game where you have an entire arsenal of guns at your disposal. You also have to manage what hands you have equipped, and swap them out on the fly to shotgun-punch clusters of enemies, or parry attacks and projectiles. Dashing, dodging and grappling feels fast and clean. Bosses are also fun because they're tricky but intuitive - their attacks have gives and tells that give player a way to learn against them through multiple attempts. This game has been nothing but joy, on top of it all the soundtrack is adaptive breakcore, meaning the music becomes more intense as enemies swarm you. On a tangental note, the game singlehandedly has the best underwater theme, because traditionally water levels makes everything feel slower, but the game actually places hookpoints and allows quick movement, so there is no compromise when it comes to speed, and the song compliments the aspect of haste. I have no complaints for this game. 10/10

I'm not interested in visual novels due to it's linear design in storytelling but even this game surprised me. Everything felt natural and on-point, from the visuals and audio to the dialogue. The game itself wasn't exempt from the common pitfall of linear storytelling yet it felt interesting to read the descriptions accompanied with the visuals and sounds, it somehow felt more enveloping and real than cinematographed story telling, as the latter's audience can easily be pulled away with the idea of fake props or foul acting.

E.T. is in this game

Major downgrade from the first game. 90% of the characters are uninspired and unlikable, and new game mechanics like "Baggage" prove to be more irksome than entertaining.

Valheim has been one hell of an experience so far. Although the game has some survival aspects to it, the game design choice advocates for more of a adventure/combat scoped experience. The ease of repairing armor/weapons without material requirements and how food works diverts from other survival games that punish the player by making material gathering strenuous and circuitous. Combat is fun and rewarding to those who observe the enemy's movesets and capitalize on parry windows. The game also encourages use of different weapons, as some enemies have compromised immunity/resistances to certain weapon types (ex. skeletons shatter when hit with a blunt weapon, a troll's hide can be pierced by spears). Another fun part of this game has been exploration, the feeling of finding a new biome and getting nearly 1-shot by an enemy is exciting, spurring fourth motivation for finding new weapons, armor and equipment that will allow you to explore the new land with ease. On top of it all, the game has a completely destructible terrain, great for creative minds who enjoy base building, terraforming, or making boss arenas more apt for combat. Overall this game has been a blast, I suggest going into this adventure blind. Welcome to a brand new world

A strange and interesting game, although the game has little replay value.